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Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Central Library design revealed, includes more space for public use
Alum’s estate donates large sum to UW Tenacious, Jewish WWII survivor awards UW for acceptance
By Anna Bukowski The Daily Cardinal
By Kayla Johnson The Daily Cardinal
She spent years in hiding, forging papers and fleeing imprisonment in Nazi Germany. Expelled from high school for her Jewish heritage, she fled Germany and ultimately landed in Madison. Now after her death, Vera Croner is giving almost $500,000 to UW-Madison. Croner was born in 1920 in Germany. Before the Nazi era, Croner described her childhood as one of a “pampered, only child,” according to her friend and executor of estate Bob Davis. However, under Nazi rule, she was prohibited from attending German schools and her parents had her tutored privately. She was unable to attend German universities, so she studied under a Jewish attorney. She moved to Norway as a refugee, then to Copenhagen. Most of her relatives were killed during the war and she was temporarily separated from her father, who was interned in Shanghai, but she was reunited with her parents in Madison in 1951. Soon after her arrival in America, possibly on the boat, Croner wrote a memoir titled “The Odyssey of the German Jew.” She typed the memoir on both sides on the paper, because paper was scarce. At the age of 38, Croner enrolled at UW-Madison and graduated in 1958 with a degree in accounting. After graduation, she soon became administrator and counselor of the office at the Credit Union National Association. Croner spoke four languages fluently, but when she experienced a stroke during her 40’s, she was never expected to speak again. With much dedication, Croner regained her speech. “The notable feature of Vera’s life was sheer tenacity,” Davis said. “She was not to be defeated and would not let a cruel fate destroy her.” Remembered by friends as a talented piano player, good entertainer and traveler, Vera died on January 18, 2010. She dedicated $641,400— 75 percent of her estate—to the UW Foundation for use for scholarships for the Business School, Scandinavian Studies and the Music School.
ARTS
Ben Pierson/the daily cardinal
Supporters and critics attended the high-speed rail information meeting at the Crowne Plaza Tuesday.
Debate erupts at high-speed rail meeting By Ariel Shapiro The Daily Cardinal
Local politicians and hundreds of concerned Wisconsin citizens gathered at the Crowne Plaza Tuesday evening to discuss the embattled high-speed rail line in an event sponsored by the Wisconsin and Minnesota transportation departments. Although the meeting was held to address the plan of a rail line between the Twin Cities and Milwaukee, not necessarily including a stop in Madison, the focus of the event ultimately turned to the link between Madison and Milwaukee that Governor-elect Scott Walker has vowed to stop. “Scott Walker has said he is all about jobs and economic development, and he should be,” Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said. “But it’s curious way to start by turning down 5,000 jobs, just so they can be created for a similar product in New York, or Illinois or Florida.” Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk addressed criticisms that the rail will be a financial burden for the state by noting the projected yearly costs to run the line have gone down significantly, from over $7 million to just over half that.
Falk also said the federal government is likely to pick up 90 percent of the yearly cost, putting the burden on Wisconsin at about $750,000, which she called a “steal.” The plan presented at the meeting examined the goals of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, which, when it was devised in 1995, and aimed to connect cities all over the Midwest, including Madison, Cleveland, Chicago and St. Louis. However, the audience was less interested in the projected ridership of the lines and other findings of the study and more interested in the political future of the Madison-Milwaukee line. During the lengthy Q-and-A session, most stood up to show their support for the rail, but there were dissenters. One attendee placed a sign at the podium that read, “high speed rail will never even come close to sustaining itself.” However, the overall crowd sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of the project. One elderly woman addressed how important the alternate transportation system would be for all Wisconsinites. “I am 72 years old,” she said. “How much longer do you want me on the road?”
Architects working on the Madison Central Library Project presented their final designs at a public hearing Tuesday night. The plans include adding a third floor and renovating the entire building. More additions include floor-to-ceiling glass windows in parts of the building and a potential green roof, according to Jeff Scherer, lead architect on the project. Both Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle (MS&R) and Madison’s Potter Lawson architecture firms are working together on the project. Scherer said construction would begin in Fall 2011 and be completed by Fall 2013. The remodeling of the library is a mix between old and new, “the DNA of this new building is springing from the past, but it’s not cloning the past,” Scherer said. “It’s evolving.” Adding on to the existing library makes this building, “the greenest of green,” Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said. “The guts of it are recycled.” According to Scherer, the
presentation was not meant to feature a detailed design. They instead wanted people to see the spatial vision for the building. The budget for the project is $29.5 million. The cost per square foot is about $50 dollars less than the national median for library construction, Scherer said. The new library would increase the space available to the public. Currently, around 42 percent of the space is publicly accessible, and the renovated library would increase that space by just over 20 percent. Some Madison residents said they were concerned with adaptability of the space in the future. “[The building will] provide enough flexibility for the future as possible so that it can be responsive to changes,” Traci Engel Lesneski, MS&R architect, said. The firms expect to come back with more refined plans that will include details like furnishings, lighting and specific interior designs. Scherer expects they will reconvene mid-February to present their latest designs.
Photo Courtesy Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Potter Lawson
Madison Central Library renovation designs were released Tuesday and include floor-to-ceiling windows and a green roof.
Study links high school GPA to health Attention all former high school over-achievers: Your past honor roll status has effects past college admission, according to a UW-Madison study. According to the study, good grades in high school lead to better health throughout life. Pamela Herd, an associate professor of public affairs and sociology at UW-Madison, collected data from a Wisconsin Longitudinal Study of 10,00 about 10,000 Wisconsin 1957 high school graduates’ lives after graduation.
The report found links between high school academic performance, personality and psychological characteristics, and late-life health. According to the study, graduates with higher ranks in high school were found to be less likely to suffer worsening health as he or she entered retirement age. According to Herd, the correlation may be attributed to the graduate’s overall personality. If the graduate was diligent about their grades, they would more likely watch their health.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”