Gov. Tony Evers is recommending the state take a wrecking ball to numerous aging state facilities, including the Green Bay Correctional Institution and UW-Madison’s Mosse Humanities building, as part of his $4.1 billion capital spending plan.
March 11, 2025
Top Stories
Feds warn UW of “potential enforcement actions” over alleged antisemitism at campus protest
The federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating the University of Wisconsin-Madison for antisemitism, according to a press release issued Monday.
UW is one of 60 institutions that received letters “warning them of potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities,” according to the release.
UW-Madison researcher loses Fulbright award for climate change project
Four days before Rick Lindroth planned to leave Madison and fly to Argentina, he received an email saying his Fulbright award had been rescinded.
“That was a head spinner,” said Lindroth, a professor emeritus in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s entomology department.
Trump pulled $400 million from Columbia. UW-Madison is on list of schools that could be next
The University of Wisconsin-Madison was among a list of 60 schools the U.S. Department of Education warned Monday about a potential loss of federal funding if they fail to protect Jewish students.
Research
Here & Now’ Highlights: Mariel Barnes
UW-Madison professor Mariel Barnes conducted research into how and why the “manosphere” took political hold, and described her findings and its impacts on politics.
Cuts to Medicaid would affect wide range of Wisconsin residents, researcher says
Donna Friedsam is a researcher emerita who has been studying health care policy and reform for decades at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Friedsam told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that changes at the federal level could have significant ripple effects at home.
“Many people who are on Medicare, who are low-income, also duly rely on Medicaid to cover things that Medicare does not cover,” Friedsam said. “So, Medicaid is actually quite a wide-ranging program and reaches over a million Wisconsin residents who rely on it.”
COVID-19’s fifth anniversary: 5 areas where life changed in U.S.
As the Journal Sentinel reported, quoting Sedona Chinn, an assistant professor and researcher in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at University of Wisconsin-Madison, folks who were frustrated started doing their own research, but it also “led to more misinformation and more anti-expert bias, making it all the much harder for solid science to break through.”
Higher Education/System
UW Madison among 60 institutions under investigation for discrimination
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights sent out letters on Monday to 60 universities, including UW Madison, saying they are under investigation for Anti-Semitic Discrimination and Harassment.
UW-Madison at risk of losing federal funding over discrimination investigations
Wisconsin’s largest public university is at risk of losing a portion of their federal funding if they fail to protect Jewish students.
UW-Madison has been warned of potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus, according to a letter sent from the U.S. Department of Education Monday.
The UW System is required to support tenured faculty they laid off. Faculty say they haven’t done enough
Many faculty members spend their academic careers in pursuit of academic tenure, a lifelong guarantee of job security and a shield for academic freedom. But recently, the promise of tenure has proved tenuous for University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s College of General Studies (CGS) professors, 35 of whom were laid off in August.
Gov. Evers seeks $4 billion for state building projects, including UW science facilities and new juvenile prison
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wants to spend about $4 billion on state building upgrades across Wisconsin under a plan released Monday.
If approved, about $1.6 billion would go to the University of Wisconsin System for brick-and-mortar building projects. Other big-ticket items include $634 million for the Department of Corrections, $137 million for upgrades to veteran homes and $40 million to restore the state Capitol building.
Evers’ capital budget calls for $4.1B in building projects
Gov. Tony Evers unveiled a capital budget Monday that calls for $4.1 billion in new building projects around the state, with the largest chunk going toward Universities of Wisconsin campuses.
Campus life
Who is Bucky Badger?
Each April, the University of Wisconsin–Madison holds tryouts to test which hopefuls are up to the task, both physically and creatively. In a role-playing station, candidates don Bucky’s 35-pound head and respond to various scenarios. In a second station, they improvise a minute-long performance using props.
State news
Zoe Engberg on impacts of attack ads in elections for judges
University of Wisconsin Law School professor Zoe Engberg explains why campaigns for state Supreme Court release attack ads that focus primarily on crime and sentencing decisions of their opponents.
Arts & Humanities
New book reveals the true history of The Onion
The satirical newspaper The Onion was started by UW-Madison students in 1988 and became a comedy institution. We talk to Chad Nackers, editor-in-chief of The Onion, and Christine Wenc, author of of the new book “Funny Because It’s True: How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire.”
Madison writer Patrycja Humienik embraces ‘the absurdity of writing poems’
After school and work took her from Illinois to Colorado and Washington, Humienik returned to the Midwest for a two-year poetry MFA program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She graduates this May.
Business/Technology
Tariffs are ‘lose-lose’ for U.S. jobs and industry, economist says: ‘There are no winners here’
While tariffs’ protection may “relieve” struggling U.S. industries, it comes with a cost, Lydia Cox, an assistant economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and international trade expert, wrote in a 2022 paper.
Tariffs create higher input costs for other industries, making them “vulnerable” to foreign competition, Cox wrote.