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University of Wisconsin-Madison
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County Board members raise concerns about UW primate labs By Robert Taylor The Daily Cardinal
Members of the Dane County Board of Supervisors voiced their concern about UW-Madison experimentation on nonhuman primates in a letter sent to Chancellor Biddy Martin Feb. 5. In the letter, the supervisors challenged whether the All-Campus Animal Care and Use Committee could rule objectively. Supervisor John Hendrick, District 6, one of 20 board members who signed the letter, said the salaried selfinterests of AC-ACUC members call into question their ability to impartially tackle the difficult ethical questions posed by nonhuman primate research. “The question is, can people funded to do research make a disinterested decision about whether or not it is really right to do it?” Hendrick said. Although UW-Madison operates the primate labs, the county supervisors said they believe they have a role to
play in overseeing the research. “The county has a historical relationship to this issue because the county owns the [Vilas] Zoo. We are concerned about animal welfare in general,” Hendrick said. Much of the UW-Madison primate populations can be traced directly back to Vilas Zoo, according to Hendrick. Monkeys were transferred back and forth between Vilas Zoo and UW-Madison research labs at one time, he said. “That was the original basis of the county being involved in the primate issues,” Hendrick said. The Chancellor’s Office has yet to issue a formal response to the board’s letter, though Martin and UW-Madison have confronted similar criticism in the past. Last November, Martin defended both the ethics and motives behind primate research primates page 3
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dailycardinal.com
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Take me to your majority leader
nelson cho/the daily cardinal
State Assembly Majority Leader Tom Nelson, D-Kaukauna, spoke at the Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group kickoff meeting Tuesday to promote student activism. Nelson spoke to more than 100 UW-Madison students who attended the event.
ASM picks new ALRC student advisor Associated Students of Madison Chair Tyler Junger announced the appointment of Austin Buerosse as the nonvoting student technical advisor to the Alcohol License Review Committee Tuesday. The position, formerly held by Mark Woulf, has been vacant since Woulf ’s appointment as a community voting member on the ALRC last fall. Mayor Dave Cieslewicz appointed Woulf to the newly created citizen seat as a compromise from a proposal by Ald. Bryon Eagon, District 8, to add a permanent student voting seat to the ALRC. According to an ASM statement, Buerosse received the unanimous support of the Legislative Affairs Committee, which conducted the screening process for the appointment.
Woulf also participated in the interview process. “What I was looking for was somebody that was able to step in [and] understand their role as a representative ... and have their own ideas as to what the future of alcohol policy in the city of Madison should be,” he said. Buerosse said he was inspired to apply for the position after writing for the city news desk at The Badger Herald. “I had been staying abreast of the entire saga with the tavern league and just the entire fight involved to get this position,” he said. “I guess I was sort of inspired by that to apply to see what I could do about that.” Buerosse said he wants to focus on getting clear student representation on the committee. “[That means] really being part
of a substantive dialogue between city council leaders and students about what’s really the best way to move forward with all these liquor licensing issues that really affect a lot of students,” he said. “What I was looking for was somebody that was able to step in [and] understand their role as a representative.” Mark Woulf citizen voting member Alcohol License Review Committee
Cieslewicz must approve Buerosse’s appointment before Buerosse can begin his duties on the ALRC. —Grace Urban
State health officials say H1N1 still a threat
eddy cevilla/the daily cardinal
Dancers participate in Madtown Ballroom’s weekly ballroom dancing classes at Memorial Union Tuesday night.
State health officials are preparing for another possible H1N1 virus outbreak, according to the state epidemiologist. “We don’t know for sure if there will be one … but our preparations will continue as if there will be,” state epidemiologist Tom Haupt said. Cases of H1N1 spiked in Wisconsin in early September and again in mid-October of last year. Since then, numbers of reported cases have steadily declined, according to a report released by the Wisconsin
Department of Public Health. “We really don’t know what to expect, but we’re going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Haupt said. The report listed activity of influenza in Wisconsin as “sporadic.” Flu-like illnesses in Dane County have hovered around 2.5 percent since late November. University Health Services Executive Director Sarah Van Orman said the UW-Madison campus has seen very little H1N1 activity this semester. “We actually enhanced our
surveillance [of H1N1] in the first couple weeks of the semester, and we have had no positive cultures so far,” Van Orman said. According to Van Orman, UHS has vaccinated 9,000 people for H1N1, which likely limited virus activity. Many students also received the vaccine while they were home over winter break. Van Orman said vaccines are still available by appointment at UHS. “We still encourage people to get vaccinated. We may not be out of the woods,” she said. —Steven Rosenbaum
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”