Skip to main content

March 13, 2026

Research

UW seminar focuses on burning events, population dynamics of midwestern prairies

Posted on
The Badger Herald

The Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin held a seminar March 11. It focused on the relationship between the effects of fires and habitat fragmentation on population dynamics of narrow-leaved purple coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia, on the ever fragmenting prairies of western Minnesota. The seminar was hosted by research ecologist at the UW Arboretum Jared Beck.

Higher Education/System

How Wisconsin squares suing Miami while joining Big Ten’s call for changes to tampering rules

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

One of the groups experiencing the “Wild West” of current college athletics wants even less oversight.

Big Ten Conference leaders want the NCAA to pause investigations and possible punishments against teams for tampering with athletes around transfer portal windows, according to a letter sent by the Big Ten to the NCAA that was obtained Wednesday by ESPN. The conference, which includes the University of Wisconsin, believes the rules regarding contact with transfers can’t keep up with the rest of the changes made to the landscape of college sports.

State posts, then takes down request for new UW-Madison dorm

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

In response to questions from the State Journal, DOA spokesperson Tatyana Warrick wrote in an email that the RFP “was posted in error.”

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the request was simply posted prematurely or the state has reconsidered the idea. A spokesperson for Gov. Tony Evers’ administration did not respond to requests for comment from the State Journal.

Campus life

State news

Waunakee man charged with AI-generated child sexual abuse materials

Posted on
Channel 3000

John Gross, a clinical associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, said Briggs is charged because of a newer law in Wisconsin that bans making or having virtual child sexual abuse materials. The statute passed in 2024.

“We’ve added a statute like this to make sure that the law actually captures not just images that were made of actual children, but also images of children that were generated by artificial intelligence,” Gross said.

Wisconsin election officials pushing back against US DOJ lawsuit seeking voter list

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Derek Clinger, a senior attorney with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s State Democracy Research Initiative, told WPR the federal government’s use of the Civil Rights Act is an interesting approach.

“You’ve got this tricky interpretive question about whether or not this law written in 1960 was meant to apply to the concept of a statewide voter registration list, which did not exist for another four decades,” Clinger said.

Barnes’ utility rate freeze ‘by law could not be put into practice’

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The pledge “may sound good as rhetoric, but by law could not be put into practice,” said UW business professor emeritus Rodney Stevenson, founder of the Wisconsin Public Utility Institute.

“That’s a terrible idea,” said University of Wisconsin professor of public affairs Manny Teodoro, who specializes in environmental policy and utility management.

UW-Madison Related