Gov. Tony Evers signed two bills, now 2023 Wisconsin Act 92 and 2023 Wisconsin Act 93, on Friday that will release long-awaited pay raises to employees of the University of Wisconsin System.
At first glance, it looked like Richard Brunson had outrun his past.
The former professor resigned from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Marshfield in 2022 after an investigation found he had sexually harassed students. He landed a new teaching job at a school district less than an hour away and had moved on.
The bill also has backing from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where around 365 students are currently enrolled in video game development programs. While 60% of that university’s graduates stay in Wisconsin, less than 20% of the video game program graduates stay, according to testimony from professor Andrew Williams, who has taught game design classes at UW-Stout and worked as an art director in the video game industry.
One of the legislative vetoes blocked conservation projects selected by the Department of Natural Resources. Evers also challenged a veto that blocked already approved pay raises for 35,000 University of Wisconsin system employees, but after he filed the lawsuit, Republicans and the university system reached an agreement approving raises if the school cuts back on diversity initiatives.
Wisconsin state agencies — including the Universities of Wisconsin — would be barred from doing business with certain government-run companies under a GOP bill circulating in the Capitol.
Firing a chancellor can be executed swiftly. In the case of former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow, it took just eight days from the time the UW System said it learned of his appearance in porn videos to the closed-door meeting when the UW Board of Regents ousted him as chancellor.
Firing a professor is much more laborious. Even so, the UW System is investigating whether to revoke Gow’s tenured faculty status as a communications professor, a position he announced in August he planned to return to next school year.
An overview of diversity, equity and inclusion related disputes after the UW System’s approval of a controversial deal which capped DEI positions for pay raises and building funds.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education announced yet another delay in the already-turbulent FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) timeline: The department says it won’t be sending students’ FAFSA data to schools until the first half of March. Previously, it had said it would start sending that data in late January.
Rep. David Murphy, one of the resolution’s authors, wrote in a statement submitted for a public hearing on Tuesday that the amendment would restore “merit, fairness, and equality not only to hiring by the University of Wisconsin system, but to hiring by all governmental entities statewide.”
The first bill would provide funding for a fellowship program to place 25 journalists in participating local newsrooms across the state. The fellows would be selected by a committee of University of Wisconsin journalism professors and news industry experts, the bill sponsors said. The bill would provide funding for each fellow to receive a $40,000 salary for one year.
The Republican-authored legislation passed the Assembly along party lines in November and the Senate held a committee hearing on its version of the bill Wednesday.
A proposed constitutional amendment limiting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts throughout Wisconsin received a public hearing on Tuesday.
The amendment — AJR 109 — would prohibit governmental entities, including the UW System, technical colleges and governmental offices and agencies, from discriminating against or granting “preferential treatment” to people and groups on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, public education, public contracting or public administration.
We examine a new study about the effectiveness of having police officers in schools. Then, two members of UW-Superior’s newest research center explain their efforts to advance community-based projects. Then, a Madison-based attorney offers advice for end-of-life planning. Includes interview with Ben Fisher, associate professor of civil society & community studies at UW-Madison.
We talk about where the most government funding for higher education goes — and why the recipients may not be the most needy. Then we look at what’s happening with a compromise bill that former President Trump could be holding up to energize his 2024 campaign. And we reflect on the demise of a major taste-making music enterprise.
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Anthropology Museum Director and Campus NAGPRA Coordinator Liz Leith: “The university is already in compliance with the recently announced NAGPRA revisions. UW–Madison does not have human remains or cultural items on exhibit, and access to and research on human remains and cultural items is already restricted, pending approval through consultation. My colleagues and I in the Department of Anthropology have been consulting with the Wisconsin Intertribal Repatriation Committee since the mid-2000s. UW-Madison deeply values and prioritizes consultation as a standard practice in relation to human remains and cultural items present on campus. Through these consultations, we have successfully repatriated most of the remains and cultural items that had once been on campus, and we will continue our work to maintain a strong shared future with Wisconsin tribes.”
This estimate from the bureau included spending that has passed since June, as well as bills currently working their way through the legislature. That includes $423 million for building projects on University of Wisconsin system campuses and other items.
Republican leaders said the new estimates show there is still enough of a surplus to deliver more tax cuts.
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse officials really don’t want to talk about the scandal that engulfed the campus a month ago. But in their actions, they are being loud and clear.
Rep. Scott Johnson (R-Jefferson) and Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-Appleton) proposed a bill that would give the Universities of Wisconsin $500,000 a year in funding for the Wisconsin Institute of Citizenship and Civil Dialogue. Conservative lawmakers said WICCD was not given sufficient funding when it was created. The WICCD does not currently have enough money for a full-time director, according to the co-sponsorship memorandum.
Millions in revenue and state aid dollars could bolster the Universities of Wisconsin’s budget as soon as February, if lawmakers take up two provisions of the deal struck between UW system officials and Republican legislative leadership that gave UW system about $800 million in exchange for changes to diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
A pair of Wisconsin Republicans want to give the Universities of Wisconsin $500,000 a year to ensure conservative voices on public campuses are heard.
More than a dozen state legislatures have introduced or passed bills reining in DEI programs in colleges and universities, claiming the offices eat up valuable financial resources with little impact. Last month, the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents voted to cut back diversity initiatives in exchange for state funding in a deal with GOP lawmakers.
Rep. Scott Johnson, R-Jefferson, and Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, are circulating a bill that would provide the UW system with $500,000 annually to run its free speech office, the Wisconsin Institute of Citizenship and Civil Dialogue.
Though the UW system is struggling with millions of dollars in structural deficits, Rothman said the decision was not a cost-cutting measure but instead driven by dwindling enrollment.
Beginning in summer 2024, an associate degree from four technical schools in eastern Wisconsin will guarantee a student’s admission to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is suspending in-person classes at its Marinette campus starting in the fall of 2024.
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will suspend in-person classes at its Marinette County campus when the spring semester ends.
Chancellor Mike Alexander said the Marinette Campus will not close, but will move fully online in fall.
UW-Whitewater’s chancellor is condemning an incident Sunday night during which a small group of people projected Nazi and antisemitic imagery on the side of a residence hall and chanted white supremacist slogans.
A swastika was projected on the outside of University of Wisconsin-Whitewater dorm Sunday night by a group of people chanting racist remarks, according to Chancellor Corey King.
A group of people, not affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, displayed a swastika and chanted racist words outside of a campus dorm Sunday night, chancellor Corey King said.
King asked everyone to reaffirm their commitment to UW-Whitewater’s core values and not let “the actions of an outside group that seeks to incite hate, division and fear take us off course.”
Video of the event emerged on social media late Sunday, and UW-Whitewater Chancellor Corey King acknowledged it in a letter to the campus community Monday.
Over 160,000 University of Wisconsin System records, some containing personal information, were stolen during a May cyberattack against the National Student Clearinghouse by a Russia-based cybercriminal organization.
University of Wisconsin-River Falls students are returning from winter break while the school grapples with how to address a mental health crisis on campus that’s mirrored across the country.
Firing a chancellor can be executed swiftly.
In the case of former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow, it took just eight days from the time the UW System said it learned of his appearance in porn videos to the closed-door meeting when the UW Board of Regents ousted him as chancellor.
Tuition at Marquette University now tops $50,000 per year.
Marquette announced the new rates for the 2024-25 school year this week. An online statement pointed to inflation, increasing energy and health care costs, and other economic pressures for the 5% increase, bringing undergraduate tuition to $50,070.
A third University of Wisconsin System campus will join two others already slated to end in-person instruction at the end of this school year.
UW-Green Bay will suspend face-to-face classes at its Marinette campus after the spring semester concludes, moving to an entirely online campus come fall. Chancellor Mike Alexander insists, however, this isn’t the end.
The announcement, made by UW-Green Bay Chancellor Michael Alexander in a letter to faculty and staff Friday, makes UW-Green Bay at Marinette the fourth UW System branch campus to effectively close in the past year and a half, and the fifth overall since the branch campuses were established in the 1960s and 1970s.
On Wednesday, Jan. 17 Interim Chancellor Betsy Morgan addressed a room of 600 University of Wisconsin-La Crosse staff and faculty in her opening remarks for the upcoming spring semester.
The “Joy Fest”, titled by Morgan, was held in the Bluffs Ballroom in the Student Union and offered standing room only as the event commenced with a performance from members of the UWL arts program.
By comparison, the University of Wisconsin Madison’s undergraduate in-state tuition rate as of the fall of 2023 was $11,216 per year; at the University of Iowa, in-state undergraduates pay $10,964 a year; Indiana University in-state undergraduates pay $11,790 for tuition and fees at the Bloomington campus; and in-state freshmen and sophomores at the University of Michigan pay $17,228 per year in tuition and fees, while juniors and seniors pay $19,390.
“Some of these programs are focused on racially minoritized students,” said Taylor Odle, an assistant professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The hallmark is the Minority Undergraduate Retention Grant and it gives students $2,500 per year. What is not mentioned, I think, in a lot of dialogue, is that they not only have to qualify as a racially minoritized student, but they also have to qualify on the basis of financial need.”
College completion rates for low-income students and students of color remain dismal. About half of them earn a degree from the University of Wisconsin System within six years. Universities face tight budgets, Republican state lawmakers aim to eliminate diversity programs supporting first-generation students and students of color, and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year scrambled the college admissions landscape.
All-In Milwaukee partners with Alverno College, Carroll University, Marquette University, Milwaukee School of Engineering, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Whitewater and Wisconsin Lutheran College.
The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance held a public hearing Thursday on legislation to provide funding for the UW System capital projects that were used as bargaining chips in the system’s debate with legislative Republicans late last year over diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
The bill would provide more than $400 million from the state’s general fund to pay for new campus buildings, renovations, additions and the demolition of aging infrastructure. The marquee project included in the bill is funding for a new engineering building at UW-Madison.
About 5,000 students at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls will return to start the spring semester in a little over a week.
But junior Juliana Graff knows the campus is still hurting, especially after the death of Mason Crum. He was a junior studying finance. “I can’t really shake that feeling that this is going to continue, that there’s still going to be issues in this regard going forward, unless something changes,” said Graff.
States and the federal government have made efforts to increase the number of health care providers. Wisconsin has a rural residency program and a loan assistance program to draw medical students to rural and other shortage areas. The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health developed an urban program and a rural program, called the Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine, to increase enrollment to address shortages. And there’s the effort of the Medical College of Wisconsin to open up two satellite campuses with 50 enrollment spots.
Wisconsin lawmakers are considering ending “gain-of-function” research at all higher education institutions in the state.
The rare practice of modifying risky pathogens to make them more harmful to people during research has become political and controversial since the COVID-19 outbreak.
Cohen, who studied foreign policy and mass media’s role in shaping it, spent three decades at UW-Madison, first joining the faculty in 1959 and later serving as chair of the political science department. Cohen later transitioned into administrative roles, including associate dean of the Graduate School in the 1970s and vice chancellor of academic affairs in the 1980s.
Are you house-hunting on Milwaukee’s east side?
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is hoping to sell the chancellor’s residence at 3435 N. Lake Drive. UWM will first seek permission to sell from the UW Board of Regents, then put it on the market.
The university announced Thursday that officials will seek permission from Universities of Wisconsin regents to sell the residence along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Real estate website Zillow estimates the six-bedroom home is worth about $1.4 million. The university’s real estate foundation purchased the home in 2012 for $955,000.
The closures of three Universities of Wisconsin branch campuses have left empty buildings and hundreds of acres of unused land in Richland, Washington and Fond du Lac counties.
A proposed GOP bill could give those communities $2 million to redevelop the former two-year campus sites.
This fall, UW-River Falls took over UW-Madison’s Farm and Industry Short Course. We learn why the agricultural program shifted to another university as well as what the program means for the future of dairy farming.
Gracz declined to criticize the mayor or the Common Council. But he emphasized that he has a business degree from Marquette University, was a union leader for 20 years, spent seven years on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, did labor negotiations for the county and was head of employee relations for the state.
The goal is not to replace any Wisconsin students but to help make up for the fact there are 20,000 fewer students at UW campuses than there were 10 years ago, thanks to a declining pool of in-state high school students and some attrition in interest in earning a four-year degree. International students make up about 4% of UW enrollment — much of it concentrated at UW-Madison — while neighboring states Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and Iowa report higher shares, in most cases double or more.
Lawmakers will bring forward a bill to fund the construction of UW-Madison’s new engineering building, among other projects, that was one of the most significant aspects of the deal struck last month between the Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman and Assembly Speaker Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester.
And you can expect the sagas of long-standing issues with the UW system — anticipated budget shortfalls, enrollment and the future of the branch campuses — to continue as well. Here are five things to keep an eye on in 2024.
The beta testing-like process has complicated financial aid advisors’ communication with students, said Helen Faith, director of the Office of Financial Aid at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A bill from Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature would require University of Wisconsin schools to provide out-of-state students with information on how to vote absentee in their home states.
The Arizona College of Nursing, a for-profit institution, is on track to open two Wisconsin campuses: the first in Milwaukee by spring 2024 and a second in Madison by spring 2025.
Gov. Tony Evers said threats from Republican legislators are “not going to scare me out of” employing diversity, equity and inclusion programs in state government.
The use of programs to foster inclusion and support for marginalized communities at the Universities of Wisconsin and other state agencies have come under fire from conservatives in recent months.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said he has no plans to change state government’s use of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, positions, despite increased criticism of the practice from Republican lawmakers.
After a closed Board of Regents meeting Dec. 27, Rothman messaged Gow saying he was out as UWL Chancellor. The decision to fire Gow came after Gow confirmed a report to Human Resources that he was appearing in and producing online pornography with his wife, as well as writing several books about their experiences in the pornography industry under pseudonyms.
