According to the UW System, the decision to reduce the size of its incoming class at UW-Madison came after they realized last year’s total number of freshmen was actually higher than expected. In fact, even with the year-over-year decline, total enrollment in Madison was higher than last fall, crossing the 50,000-mark.
The System expects to have 540 more students this fall over last, a 0.3% increase over last year’s final enrollment of 160,782, according to data the System released Thursday. UW-Platteville, UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point all anticipated gains of about 3.4% — a few hundred more students on their campuses this fall.
The artwork created by Truman Lowe, a University of Wisconsin-Madison alum and former art professor, has now found its permanent home on campus. Located just north of Van Hise Hall and atop Observatory Hill — once home to Native American effigy mounds — the aluminum sculpture reflects Lowe’s Ho-Chunk roots and the loss of Indigenous burial mounds throughout the Midwest.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Thursday afternoon the University of Wisconsin System “will never get another nickel out of the Legislature” unless they cut diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming, a day after a UW-Madison official said the university will not cut DEI positions.
The positive numbers come at a time when UW continues to fight with the Republican-controlled Legislature over funding and GOP opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Legislative leaders have also yet to implement a pay raise for UW and state employees that was approved as part of the state budget.
Enrollment largely held steady at most of Wisconsin’s public universities this fall, bucking a downward trendline that has plagued institutions across the demographically challenged Midwest.
Harris will also visit North Carolina A&T, Morehouse College, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the College of Southern Nevada and Northern Arizona University.
UW-Madison officials said there is no evidence that a cyber attack caused an outage that left the campus without wi-fi for long stretches of time over the past three days.
Vice chancellor Lori Reesor, deputy vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion LaVar Charleston and dean of students Christina Olstad attended the Wednesday evening meeting. “We think it’s really important for the things that are happening in the world, whether it’s a SCOTUS decision about affirmative action, whether it’s some of the legislation that happened in the state of Wisconsin university system with budget cuts as a result, we’re not cutting DEI positions, there’s no backing off the importance of this value, it is primary for the institution,” Reesor said.
He said the system needs about 170 drivers each day when buses are running and UW-Madison and Madison schools are in session. Currently it has 288 on staff and as of last week had 21 vacancies. There also were 16 drivers in training — three of whom are expected to be on the road on Oct. 1, another three on Oct. 15 and another 10 on Nov. 12.
Ayear after UW Health and its nurses reached an agreement to avert a strike, while continuing to ask the courts if UW Health can recognize a revived nurses’ union, nurses said Thursday that UW Health has not lived up to the spirit of the agreement.
Robert Yablon is an associate professor of law and co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at UW-Madison. Derek Clinger is a senior staff attorney for the initiative at UW-Madison.
Members of Gen Z still face difficulties in home buying born out of the housing crisis, but they also benefited from entering the workforce at a time of record-low interest rates, said Max Besbris, an associate sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Rosh Hashanah is often treated as a time to reflect on the previous year and focus on hopes for the coming year, Jordan Rosenblum, the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism and Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA TODAY last year.
The uncertainty of not having a nonpartisan elections leader in a paramount state is worrying, experts said. “The elections commission is training clerks around the state and issuing guidance, so to have uncertainty about who the top administrator is going into this crucial election season, I think is a real problem,” said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and director of its Elections Research Center.
