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October 20, 2025

Higher Education/System

Here’s which UW system branch campuses have closed, and which are still open

Wisconsin State Journal

More than half of the Universities of Wisconsin’s two-year branch campuses in recent years have faced closures or significant structural changes to adapt to shrinking enrollment.

Since 2023, with the closure of UW-Platteville Richland, six branch campuses shuttered or plan to. One campus moved classes online and another is relocating instruction to a nearby technical college.

Lifelong Learner: Bridge programs offer adults support for return to college

Wisconsin State Journal

At 18 years old, Donovan Brendler found himself struggling to find his path in college and grappling with poor academic performance. Eight years later, in 2024, and with a greater sense of direction, he felt prepared to return to college.

That’s when Brendler learned about Badger Ready, a UW-Madison bridge program that provides a pathway to degree completion for adult students with academic barriers to traditional transfer admission. This discovery gave him a sense of empowerment and a renewed belief in his academic potential.

Campus life

Crime and safety

Firefighters credit sprinkler head for saving UW-Madison Discovery Building

NBC 15

Madison Fire Department credited a fire sprinkler head for putting out most of a fire at the UW-Madison Discovery Building Thursday night.

At 11:15 p.m. firefighters arrived at the building on the 300 block of N. Orchard Street for a fire alarm going off.

MFD said an automatic fire sprinkler head detected the fire and turned on. The sprinkler head also triggered the building’s fire alarm.

Firefighters put out the rest of the fire with a two-and-a-half-gallon water can extinguisher.

Minimal damage from hamper fire in UW-Madison Discovery Building

Wisconsin State Journal

A hamper full of kitchen rags and towels caught fire in the UW-Madison’s Discovery Building Thursday night, according to the Madison Fire Department

Firefighters were dispatched to the research center on campus around 11 p.m. Thursday after the building’s fire sprinkler system detected the burning laundry bin triggering the alarms.

The sprinkler system limited damage to a few items in and around the hamper and a nearby wall, before firefighters extinguished the remaining flames.

 

Community

Nurse turned doctor developed home so people don’t have to die on the street

Wisconsin State Journal

Solace Home’s residents have a life expectancy of six months or less. Residents arrive there after living on the street, in shelters or in unstable housing situations.

Catlett, 67, had been a nurse for 16 years before she went to medical school. Much of her nursing career was part time so she could also be somewhat of a stay-at-home mom. Then she did her four years of medical school at UW-Madison over six years and did her residency at UW, too. She got her undergraduate degree at Duke University.

Obituaries

Obituary: Edris Makward

Wisconsin State Journal

Professor Emeritus Edris Makward passed away peacefully on October 9, 2025 at his home in Seattle at the age of 92, after several years of declining health. He served as the Department Chair of African Languages and Literature from 1971-1975, followed by serving as Chair of the University African Studies Program from 1977-78.