For 7,868 newly minted UW-Madison graduates, Saturday’s commencement ceremony was a last hoorah, a time to take in the view from the peak of their academic careers thus far.
The spring 2024 commencement ceremony marks just over four years since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down many activities across the nation, including high school graduations. For many bachelor’s degree graduates, this commencement offered resolution.
A handful of students quietly protested the war in Gaza at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s commencement Saturday, but the annual graduation ceremony inside Camp Randall Stadium otherwise proceeded without disruption.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison received diplomas Saturday. For many of these graduates, the ceremony was a first.
“In high school, we didn’t really have a graduation because of COVID,” said Park Falls native Noah Peterson. “So it kind of feels like that whole area is kind of missing.”
There’s nothing like the threat of a disrupted commencement ceremony to get a deal done.
With tens of thousands of visitors descending on Madison for graduation weekend and protester numbers uncertain for the summer, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the campus’ Students for Justice in Palestine chapter cut a dealFriday.
The encampment is ending at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. UWM and pro-Palestinian protesters reached an agreement Sunday afternoon, two weeks after tents went up on the lawn outside Mitchell Hall, in defiance of a state rule banning camping on campus property.
Graduates sing “Sweet Caroline” during commencement Saturday, May 11, 2024 at Camp Randall Stadium at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. The song is a popular tradition at Wisconsin football games. The school also held a commencement ceremony at the Kohl Center Friday. In total, the university anticipates that nearly 8,600 students will be earning degrees — 6,236 bachelor’s degrees, 1,394 master’s degrees and 968 PhDs.
Pro-Palestinian student protesters at UW-Madison agreed Friday to dismantle their illegal encampment on Library Mall and refrain from disrupting this weekend’s commencement after campus officials agreed to several of their demands, including helping students present their concerns to decision-makers about how the university’s endowment is invested.
Trish O’Kane calls herself an “accidental birder.” After surviving Hurricane Katrina in 2005, O’Kane moved to Wisconsin with her husband to start a new chapter. She had spent years as a human rights journalist in Central America and was now setting her sights on a Ph.D. in environmental natural resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Over the past two weeks, students within the University of Wisconsin System joined a national wave of student demonstrations in support of Palestine. At UW–Madison and UW–Milwaukee, encampments were built April 29, and students at UW–Eau Claire held a pro-Palestine protest May 3.
Outside the chancellor’s office at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, more than 100 protesters laid down side by side. Many had their palms up, painted red. Some wore graduation robes. Two of them, perched on a statue of Abraham Lincoln, held a banner listing Palestinian children who have died during the Israel-Hamas war.
A small group of protesters were back out on Library Mall Sunday, just days after the encampment was torn down after lasting nearly two weeks.
As protesters dismantled their tent encampment at UW-Madison after reaching an accord with university administration, journalism professor Douglas McCleod discussed the impact of campus protests.
At UW’s commencement ceremony on Saturday, a group of students silently protested by standing up and turning their back during Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin’s speech. They then walked out of the ceremony while holding a Palestine flag.
Meghan Duggan took the call earlier this year and couldn’t believe her ears. The University of Wisconsin was inviting the former Badgers hockey star back to campus to deliver the keynote address at the spring graduation.
“I thought to myself, ‘Really? Me?’” she said.
Meghan Duggan is the Commencement Speaker for Wisconsin’s 2024 Graduation Ceremony, an opportunity the Gold Medalist couldn’t have fathomed when she graduated from UW-Madison in 2011.
After over a week of protests, the encampment on Library Mall is set to come down after UW-Madison leaders and students reached an agreement Friday.
The tents are coming down at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The university said Friday afternoon it had reached an agreement with pro-Palestinian protesters who first pitched tents April 29. The compromise came hours before commencement weekend began, and the potential for a disrupted ceremony loomed large.
Some of the memories that Meghan Duggan carries from her University of Wisconsin commencement ceremony are vivid more than 12 years later.
Duggan, a three-time national champion with the Wisconsin women’s hockey team, remembers sitting in the rows of chairs on the Kohl Center floor in the December 2011 ceremony next to her teammate and one of her best friends, Kelly Nash.
After two weeks, and just ahead of commencement, protesters agreed to remove an encampment on Library Mall in exchange for commitments from the administration. Here’s a recap of events.
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin released a statement shortly after the resolution was reached. She said, “one of the most fundamental missions of a university is and must be to foster engagement and dialogue across intractable differences.”
Nearly 50,000 people packed Camp Randall stadium to witness the confirmation of 8,586 degrees at UW-Madison 171th commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 11, 2024.
The local Madison economy is reaping the benefits from UW-Madison’s 2024 graduations. Restaurants and bars in the vicinity are experiencing a significant surge in customers and sales, and they were well-prepared for the influx of guests.
This graduation ceremony is a first for many 2024 graduates. The COVID-19 pandemic cancelled high school graduations around the country in 2020, when most of this year’s college graduates were seniors in high school.
The UW-Madison Class of 2024 includes thousands of students who graduated high school in 2020 and have not experienced a normal ceremony due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, until Saturday’s commencement.
On Saturday, Benjamin Torine graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology. But before he could toss his cap at Camp Randall, there was another milestone he had to pass.
Wisconsin hockey legend and three-time Olympic medalist Meghan Duggan returns to the big stage in Madison as the upcoming keynote speaker for the 2024 Spring Commencement. The 2011 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award Winner joked how “surreal” it is being invited to address over 6,200 undergrads and their families at Camp Randall.
Two thousand miles away, a handful of students held a largely silent protest at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Camp Randall Stadium. No arrests were made, the Associated Press reported.
After nearly two weeks of rallies and negotiations, protest organizers reached an agreement Friday with leaders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to end a pro-Palestinian encampment on Library Mall.
That approach differed from one at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where administrators in early May called in the police to break down the tents after negotiations failed. After the initial crackdown failed to end the encampment, Wisconsin-Madison later came to an agreement with protesters to break down the camp voluntarily before commencement ceremonies over the weekend.
A small group of UW-Madison students in their caps and gowns stood up, walked out of the ceremony and were escorted by UW Police from Saturday’s commencement.
Menzie Chinn, a macroeconomist at UW-Madison, said much of the United States’ strong recovery can be attributed to federal stimulus programs.
“We were much more aggressive, so it’s no wonder that we’ve recovered in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic much more rapidly,” he said.
A Madison man was arrested Friday night after allegedly threatening to kill a student earlier in the week, UW-Madison police said Saturday.
At about 7:30 p.m. Friday, UWPD contacted a 38-year-old man for an alleged death threat he made on May 7. A student had claimed a man came up to him and threatened to kill him if he did not put his phone away.
A Madison nurse who was diagnosed with cancer while 16 weeks pregnant is sharing her story in hopes of reaching other women. Nurse with UW Health Andrea Moskal was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021. She was 16 weeks pregnant.
The University of Wisconsin softball team had its impressive run at the Big Ten Conference Tournament cut just short of a championship-game berth.
University of Wisconsin runner Adam Spencer came up just short of winning the Big Ten title in the 800 meters last season, finishing second in the event as a sophomore, but he wouldn’t be denied the top spot Sunday at the conference’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Students believe it is actually patriotic and ethical to be concerned about our taxes being used to support governments that oppress people and ethnically cleanse an indigenous population.
Experts at UW-Madison explain the mental load that moms or mother figures tend to take on in the household and how taxing it can be on their mental health. Assistant Professor of Sociology at UW-Madison Allison Daminger studies cognitive labor in households and how couples divide up the work.
“Even if only 85% of Black voters instead of 90% vote for Biden, additional turnout helps Democrats,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Concern No. 1 is just whether he will get a smaller share of the Black vote than he did last time around.”
As young Chinese-Americans raised (and, in Stephen’s case, born) in the United States, Helen and Stephen were in a rare position to guide Americans through this once-forbidden land. “We saw China through their eyes as Americans that could broker more easily into Chinese culture,” says Cindy I-Fen Cheng, author of Citizens of Asian America and professor of American history and Asian-American studies at University of Wisconsin, Madison. “We saw it with fresh eyes. We’re like, ‘Look at the wonders!’”
Scientific discovery doesn’t always require a high-tech laboratory or a hefty budget. Many people have a first-rate lab right in their own homes – their kitchen.
He was subsequently hired as Professor in the Department of Scandinavian Studies, where he taught Finnish and Scandinavian Linguistics. During his time at the University of Wisconsin, he chaired several faculty committees and on two occasions he was the Chair of Scandinavian Studies.
In 1963, she moved to Madison, WI, to work as a Clinical Instructor teaching in the area of fluency disorders in the Speech and Hearing Clinics at UW-Madison in addition to maintaining her own private practice. Her work at UW also included chairing or serving on a number of university committees as well as elected to serve on the department’s review committee from 1987-1991.
In addition to the zoo’s veterinarian several other specialists contributed to this procedure. Datu’s echocardiogram was conducted in collaboration with a GAHP Ultrasound Advisor and the UW School of Veterinary Medicine Cardiology Service. His endoscopy was performed by UW Health Internal Medicine physicians and UW SVM Anesthesiologists were on hand to assist with his anesthesia.
