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June 24, 2025

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From injured pups to promising careers, UW Veterinary School gives aspiring techs a real shot

Spectrum News

UW’s newly expanded $174 million facility offers plenty of high-tech tools and advanced care options—but it’s the heart behind the work that stands out.

“Across the nation, there’s a shortage of veterinary technicians and staff in the veterinary profession,” said Dr. Chris Snyder, hospital director. “Giving an opportunity to welcome them in and to see what cutting-edge veterinary care can look like—and what a career working in a teaching hospital can be—and how rewarding that is to be able to train others.”

First images from world’s largest digital camera reveal galaxies and cosmic collisions

NBC News

Keith Bechtol, an associate professor in the physics department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has been involved with the Rubin Observatory for nearly a decade, is the project’s system verification and validation scientist, making sure the observatory’s various components are functioning properly.

He said teams were floored when the images streamed in from the camera.

“There were moments in the control room where it was just silence, and all the engineers and all the scientists were just seeing these images, and you could just see more and more details in the stars and the galaxies,” Bechtol told NBC News. “It was one thing to understand at an intellectual level, but then on this emotional level, we realized basically in real time that we were doing something that was really spectacular.”

Top Stories

UW-Madison announces cuts amid state budget and tariff uncertainties

WTMJ

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin noted in a Monday message to UW–Madison faculty and staff that both the above issues factored into the base budget reductions of 5% that schools and colleges will be required to implement for next school year. Administrative and all other units that receive 101 funds will reduce their fund 101 base budgets by 7%.

UW–Madison faces 5% budget cuts amid federal funding uncertainty

WKOW - Channel 27

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is cutting its budget due to ongoing financial uncertainties stemming from changes to federal funding.

Schools and colleges will face a 5% base budget cut for fiscal year 2026, while administrative units will see a 7% reduction. These cuts are part of efforts to protect the university’s financial viability amid risks like potential federal funding changes and grant terminations.

Research

New wildfire detection tool faces delays in federal funding

Wisconsin Public Radio

The experimental Next Generation Fire System was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, and its Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at UW-Madison. The tool detects and tracks wildfires in almost real-time using artificial intelligence to scan satellite images, helping firefighters nationwide to prioritize and quickly respond to blazes.

But delays with the institute’s five-year renewal and its fiscal year 2025 funding mean that work to develop, maintain and improve the system will pause, according to the institute’s director Tristan L’Ecuyer.

Higher Education/System

Gov. Tony Evers says he won’t sign a state budget that doesn’t extend Child Care Counts payments

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

While the program was set to end in January 2024, Evers kept it afloat with emergency funding through June 2025.Evers has never vetoed the state budget in full, but he has threatened to do so in previous years over issues like funding cuts for the University of Wisconsin System.Evers said negotiations over  UW System funding levels this year are going in the “right direction” but didn’t reveal specifics, other than, “it’s a positive number.” Last week, Vos confirmed his caucus would support an $87 million cut.

Meet the ‘crunchy’ college students crusading against ultra-processed foods and forever chemicals on TikTok

New York Post

Sophie Pokela just graduated from the University of Wisconsin with an English degree — and a rigorous education in nutrition.

Pokela grew up thinking she was a healthy eater because she mostly chose foods packed with protein and fiber. It dawned on her a year into college that she didn’t actually know much about what she was consuming.

Crime and safety

5 major red flags that you’re about to be the victim of a senior scam

HuffPost

There’s got to be a convincing reason you’re going to give money to a total stranger, so the “police” text or call you to say that your college kid is in jail, and if you want them out, pay up bail money (which happened earlier this year to parents of University of Wisconsin-Madison students). Or a fake lawyer will contact an immigrant and say they can help them become citizens for very real fees.

Community

Wisconsin’s 20 Most Influential Asian American Leaders for 2025, Part 2

Madison 365

Ali Khan is a multimedia producer and digital strategist at PBS Wisconsin, where he creates stories for Wisconsin Life and Why Race Matters. As a student at University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he earned degrees in political science and digital cinema production, he passed divestment legislation within student government, organized with the Multicultural Student Center, and launched Home is Where WI Aren’t, a viral video campaign uplifting students of color at UW-Madison that gained national attention.

Ryan Estrella is a social worker with Joining Forces for Families and co-president of the board of directors at Just Dane. He was the chair of Fitchburg’s Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative from its founding in 2018 until 2022, and spent two more years as vice chair. He has participated on a number of City of Fitchburg hiring committees and outreach efforts. Mayor Julia Arata-Fratta honored him with the Resident Award in 2024. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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