Stories

Campus History

6 Classes

If you had been a female student at the UW in the late 1860s, your first year would have included the not-so-challenging courses listed below. For a brief period in its early days, the University of Wisconsin had a special college known as the Female College. Although the…

Sports & Recreation

5 Winter Olympians to Watch

When the Winter Olympics open February 9 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, these Badger alumni will represent the United States as members of the U.S. women’s hockey team. The squad won silver in the last two winter games, but is coming off of its fourth consecutive world title.…

Tradition

13 Custom Confections

Danielle Lawry

The Babcock Hall Dairy Plant makes special ice cream flavors to honor notable Badger people and events, and we think their creativity is pretty sweet. Here is a partial list of some of the dairy’s commemorative concoctions.

Alumni Park After Dark: Chocolate ice cream…

Campus History

4 UW Pranks

Photo Illustration By N. B. Rinehart; Istock Huad262; Jeff Miller; Bryce Richter

UW–Madison can lay claim to something no other college can: an entire era of campus pranks.

Neil Steinberg, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and something of an expert on college pranks, devoted a…

Tradition

12 Alumni Twitter All-Stars

Anders Holm returned to campus to speak at commencement in spring 2013. Bryce Richter

Anders Holm ’03 @ders8

Actor, cocreator, writer, and executive producer of Workaholics

Dan Katz ’07 @BarstoolBigCat

Cohost, Pardon My Take podcast

Jacquelyn Gill MS’08, PhD’12 @JacquelynGill

Cohost, Warm Regards podcast; ice age…

Student Life

4 Classes You Wish You Had Taken

Jeff Miller

Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 323:
Science of Climate Change

Communication Arts 540:
Superhero TV and Cultural Power

Computer Sciences 540:
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Food Science 535:
Confectionary Science and Technology…

Destinations

12 Campus Statues

The collection spans a full century of work from multiple sculptors, and is just a small portion of the more than 100 pieces of public art that bring color to campus.

Teaching & Learning

2 Who Got Away

The UW very nearly hired two professors who were destined to win Nobels. Both of them slipped through the university’s fingers in a two-year period.

The Arts

11 Legendary Concerts

Music is tied up in the fabric of campus life. Some concerts — including these — are highlights from the university’s history.

Teaching & Learning

A-maze-ing

Photo by Angie Treinen

Angie Treinen ’88, DVM’93 received a novel idea this year from the UW’s Geology Museum for her family farm’s award-winning corn maze: a giant trilobite. The now-extinct marine creature — and the state’s official fossil — once cruised the planet’s seas, including those…

Campus History

7 Unusual Gifts

Jeff Miller

To thank the university that launched you into the real world, sometimes writing a check doesn’t feel like enough.

That was certainly the case for Tom Koehler MS’96, who gave his 40-acre yak farm to UW–Madison in 2012. The aptly named “Green Bay Yakkers”…

Social Science

Give What You Get

Gaffera/Istock

If it’s the thought that makes a gift count, here’s a thought that can make your gesture count extra: get a little something for yourself.

Research by Evan Polman of the Wisconsin School of Business shows that recipients are happier with presents when…

Service & Advocacy

Witness to History

Sarah Morton

Military history professor John Hall spent 15 years on active duty as an infantry officer and strategic planner for the U.S. Army before joining the UW–Madison faculty in 2009. Now he is recording history as it happens.

In a new Pentagon appointment as a…

Tradition

Photo Gallery: Hoofers Winter Carnival

Even Wisconsin’s harshest winters haven’t stopped students at its flagship university from outdoor antics. A tradition since the early 20th century, the UW’s Winter Carnival grew into a popular place for students who like to ski, skate or sculpt — ice sculptures, that is. (For more, read “Winter…

Student Life

Chilled Out

A floppy-eared smiley face greets the sunrise on Picnic Point on a December morning in 2016. UW students need to keep a sense of fun in the cold: since 2000, Lake Mendota has been iced over for an average of 85 days out of the year.…

Campus History

6 Classes

If you had been a female student at the UW in the late 1860s, your first year would have included the not-so-challenging courses listed below. For a brief period in its early days, the University of Wisconsin had a special college known as the Female College. Although the…

Tradition

Winter Carnival

Bryce Richter

When frigid temperatures have settled in and sunny skies are rare, what could bring UW students out of their homework-induced hibernation for some frozen fun?

That’s the puzzle that the Wisconsin Hoofers solved when the student group took over the university’s Winter Carnival…

Destinations

Alumni Park Opens

At the Alumni Park grand opening in October, visitors admired the new statue of Bucky Badger. Andy Manis

Alumni Park welcomed more than 2,600 visitors at a grand opening on the weekend of October 6–8, despite intermittent rain on Friday and Saturday.

The park is…

TV & Film

Jenni Radosevich ’05

Jon Mattrisch

DIY Career

Jenni Radosevich ’05 (above, center) was crafting long before it was cool — before Pinterest and the do-it-yourself (DIY) deluge in pop culture.

She has many fond memories of visiting the craft store with her mom, dipping her hands in tie-dye,…

Science & Technology

Mike Splinter ’72, MS’74

Courtesy of Mike Splinter

Taking Stock of Success

When Mike Splinter ’72, MS’74 (above at Rheinfall, Switzerland) joined the board of Nasdaq, Inc., known for its U.S. stock exchange, he predicted the company’s high-tech edge could be a game-changer for financial-market services. That was in…

Book

Our Capitol at 100

No matter their political leanings, surely visitors to our capitol agree on its remarkable beauty. In The Wisconsin Capitol: Stories of a Monument and Its People, Madisonian Michael Edmonds tells how this spectacular icon came to be.

Starting with territorial governor Henry Dodge, Edmonds tells inspiring and…