UW-Platteville plans to lay off 60 employees this week and will lose dozens of others to retirements, vacancies and administrative restructuring, as it seeks to fully close its $9.7 million budget shortfall by the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
October 26, 2023
Top Stories
Research
New UW project aims to create sustainable plant-based plastics · The Badger Herald
Project hopes to better local economies, environment using national grant funding.
Higher Education/System
UW-Platteville cutting workforce by 12% amid budget issues
Dozens of employees at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville will be laid off and more positions will go unfilled as the university continues to deal with financial pressures, according to an email sent to campus employees Wednesday.
UW-Platteville announces over 100 job cuts
Evetovich explained that the 111 cuts make up just over 12% of the school’s workforce. More than a third of the positions cut were academic staff members. There were 31 positions open that have been permanently cut.
UW-Platteville chancellor announces layoffs
In a letter to employees, Chancellor Tammy Evetovich said the school is eliminating 111 positions, which is about 12% of the university’s workforce.
UW-Madison program will boost special education teaching pipeline in Milwaukee Public Schools
Over the next three years, Milwaukee Public Schools will have help securing candidates for some of its toughest-to-fill teaching jobs.
A new partnership between MPS and the University of Wisconsin-Madison provides on-the-job training through a 10-month teaching residency, paired with a special education teacher preparation master’s degree program.
UW-Platteville will slash 111 jobs, cut other spending, to balance budget
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is eliminating 111 positions, or 12% of its workforce, the second school in the state public university system to significantly downsize in an effort to reduce budget deficits.
Campus life
SSFC rejects budget proposals from The Black Voice, Effective Altruism
Committee rejects proposals over misspending, lack of core programming.
What a manicure means to Chicago baker, activist Maya-Camille Broussard
Maya-Camille Broussard, a James Beard Award finalist last year, shared her story and her definition of success at a speaking engagement on Tuesday.
UW students walk out to protest university response to Gaza conflict
Shafiq, and many others, were not comfortable sharing their full names until the university would guarantee the protection of protestors.
Halloween Culture Wars: Trump Clown, Decapitated Jesus, Nixed Celebrations
For several years now, colleges around the nation have been warning students against costumes that amount to “cultural appropriation.” Last year the University of Wisconsin-Madison unveiled its “Halloween Cultural Awareness” webpage that states it is offensive “when cultural elements are copied from a marginalized culture by members of the dominant culture.” One student complained to Fox News that the standard is applied in a “funny way,” since there’s no objection to appropriating Catholic culture by dressing as Jesus, a nun or a priest.
UW Memorial Union scraps Tudor Dinners in favor of ‘Frosty Bites’
After 90 years of carols and wassail, the Tudor Holiday Dinners at the Memorial Union have flamed their final figgy pudding.
‘Immediate energy’: Night games like Wisconsin has ahead are special for NBC crew
The University of Wisconsin’s debut in the hosting spotlight in the first year of NBC’s Saturday night coverage is against No. 3 Ohio State. Camp Randall has been a regular site for night games since its first in 1986; this week’s game is the 11th there after dark in the last 10 seasons.
State news
Dairy workers on Wisconsin’s small farms are dying. Many of those deaths are never investigated.
Lola Loustaunau, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School for Workers, said that “it would really open the door for a lot of protections for workers” if OSHA consistently inspected small dairy farms that provide housing to immigrant workers.
“If they are politically interested in doing something,” she added, “it looks like they have all the basis to do it.”
Arts & Humanities
Midwest Poetry Fest includes UW alumni, other local artists
The third year of the festival brought filmmakers and poets together to showcase artwork.
NY natural history museum changing how it looks after thousands of human remains in collection
Susan Lederer, professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin’s medical school, said that as the number of medical schools increased in the 19th century and dissection became an essential part of training, schools needed to find more cadavers.
States passed laws making unclaimed bodies, mostly of very poor people, available to medical schools.
“It reflects longstanding assumptions about the differences between middle-class and either working-class or underclass people” that it was deemed acceptable to turn certain bodies over but not others, she said.
Health
China is ignoring this painful Achilles’ heel threatening its economic growth
Written by Yi Fuxian, a senior scientist in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “Big Country with an Empty Nest” (China Development Press, 2013).
A spider was found inside a woman’s ear. Such cases are rare, doctors say, but not unheard of.
Dr. Stacey Ishman, an otolaryngology instructor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, estimated that she has treated about eight patients with insects in their ears over her 23-year career — often people who did outdoor activities like camping.
“Most of the time the ear is completely fine,” said Ishman, who also wasn’t involved in the new report. “If there’s some injury to the ear canal, quite honestly it’s more often from people trying to get it out than it is from the bug itself.”
Athletics
UW-Madison relies on labor rights orgs, questionnaires to weed out bad licensees
More than two decades after student protests over inhumane working conditions in factories prompted UW-Madison administration to reconsider how its apparel is made, it’s become more selective with who gets to reprint Bucky Badger or the Motion “W.”
Broken threads: College clothing made in factories rife with labor violations, poverty wages
Top schools like Ohio State University and the University of Alabama pulled in nearly $14 million and $12 million, respectively, last year alone from royalties. Other Division I schools like the University of Nebraska and the University of Wisconsin-Madison made more than $3.5 million each.
Opinion
Guest column: UW-Madison has a selectivity problem. In-state students pay the price.
UW-Madison has become increasingly more selective with the student body they admit. The university’s acceptance rate has fallen from 67% to 49% in the past decade. This number takes an even steeper drop when you take into account the out-of-state acceptance rate falling to roughly 18%.
Guest column: Freakfest’s death is an effort to stop drinking culture. It will backfire.
If there’s one thing Madison can thank COVID-19 for, it’s canceling Freakfest.
Business/Technology
Wisconsin business leaders see AI’s potential. Are companies ready?
In an August presentation, Somesh Jha, a computer science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the technology could be a threat to cybersecurity and could be misused to spread misinformation.
For example, there’s already a “fine-tuned” AI that can write spam emails, he said. AI can also be used to create fake images and videos that look real, known as “deepfakes.” Jha said deepfakes could be used, unethically, during elections to sway public opinion.
“This is coming,” he said. “I can tell you that there are people (who) are really scared.”