Advocates for higher education say it’s the wrong time for lawmakers to be considering a funding cut for Wisconsin’s university system.
Republicans in the state Assembly are floating the idea of slashing $87 million from the Universities of Wisconsin as part of the biennial budget. Last week, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told reporters that he supports the cut, citing concerns about “too much political correctness” within the university system.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Milwaukee are cutting costs over the next school year amid financial uncertainty at the federal and state level.
UW-Madison told schools and colleges to shave 5% of their 2026 budget. The administration and other units must trim 7%. Some exceptions may apply depending on a division’s financial circumstances.
“A lot of Wisconsin businesses have been struggling with finding employees, and they have been for a number of years, going back to before COVID,” said Steven Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison and one of the report’s authors.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration had delayed grant review meetings at the National Institutes of Health and was calling for sweeping cuts to university research dollars. This left faculty scientists with limited funds to offer students.
Even though many of the review meetings are proceeding again, Wisconsin researchers said those delays have lingering effects. One of these is that fewer graduate trainees will be arriving on campus this fall.
“The whole idea for the (Rubin) observatory was so visionary when it was conceived (in the 1990s) that many of the technologies didn’t exist at that time” said Keith Bechtol, a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Evers said discussions about the funding for the University of Wisconsin had included “a positive number” though he wouldn’t go into details. Last week, Vos said his caucus intended to cut $87 million from the UW system.
Wisconsin’s claim is that the University of Miami broke the law by tampering with a player, Xavier Lucas, who was under a financial contract with UW.
The University of Wisconsin System has seen an increase of staff and salaries over the past 10 years while student enrollment has dropped by 16,000, according to an audit released by the chairs of the state audit committee.
Academic staff grew 33.4% with a 97.4% increase in salary costs over that time while limited appointees rose 39% with a 78.3% increase in salary costs.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison enrolled almost 8,000 international students during its fall semester last year. As of January, about 925 international students were enrolled in Edgewood College’s graduate programs, primarily online, and around 20 were studying on campus as undergraduates. Around 200 international students are enrolled at Madison College, too.
One of the greatest privileges of serving as Alice was working with the Dairy Innovation Hub, a collaboration between UW–Madison, UW–Platteville, and UW–River Falls. This partnership allowed me to highlight the incredible research being done in dairy science, from improving sustainability and animal health to advancing food safety and agricultural technology. These researchers and students are writing the next chapter of our state’s agricultural legacy, one data set at a time.
“I think a lot of people like me carry a lot of guilt.”
UW-Madison PhD candidate and teaching assistant Tehereh Rahimi came to the United States from Iran in 2018, but much of her family still lives in Iran’s capital and most populous city: Tehran.
Popular country singer Morgan Wallen is coming to Camp Randall Stadium this weekend, bringing thousands of people to Madison. This summer, the stadium is opening its gates for concerts for the first time since 1997.
“With county fairs, there’s always a lot of movement of cattle whether it’s within the county or if there are open shows,” Jerry Clark, a crops and soils educator with UW-Madison’s Division of Extension, said. “These cattle are moving across county lines and so it’s just another way that fairs are doing their part.”
State Representative Renuka Mayadev is a daughter of immigrants, a maternal child health advocate, and a mother. In January 2025, she made history as the first South Asian to serve in the Wisconsin State Legislature. Before taking office, she worked at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, focusing on maternal and child health.
Emily Auerbach has co-hosted “University of the Air” for 30 years. She’s a UW-Madison English professor who directs the UW Odyssey Project, so she described her work on the show as “a labor of love.” Along with Norman Gilliland, she interviewed university faculty and other guests on a range of topics, such as the Salem witch trials, the Harlem Renaissance and dyslexia.
“It’s a way to take the brilliant minds that are at the university … and share that learning with a broader audience,” she said.
Lawmakers’ attention was drawn to fusion by three startup companies that have made Wisconsin their home, as well as research by the University of Wisconsin. One of the companies, Realta Fusion, worked with lawmakers as they drafted the legislation.
When Dan began exploring his identity, he shared with his mother and the pair began seeking care at UW Health’s Gender Clinic.
April is part of a support group for parents of transgender children. The family attends group therapy. Miley receives gender-affirming care at UW Health’s PATH Clinic for Pediatric Gender Identity and the family recently switched churches so that their spiritual community was more welcoming of Miley.
The golf outing pairs current and former Badger players and coaches with four golfers and raises money for the UW Carbone Cancer Center and the Balance and Believe Foundation.
Corey Pompey, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Marching Band, guest-conducted the La Crosse Concert Band during a rehearsal Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
The American School Band Directors Association is hosting their Regional Conference in La Crosse, and in partnership with the band, the association invited Pompey to serve as both guest conductor and keynote speaker.
Abloh was born in Rockford, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, to parents who immigrated from Ghana. A quiet but charming kid who was obsessed with skateboarding and music, he attended Catholic high school, then the University of Wisconsin, where he graduated with a degree in civil engineering. Abloh also received a masters in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and it was in this period when he started to become interested in the intersection of fashion, culture, and music.
John Hawks, however—a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who also did not participate in the research—sticks with just “Denisovans,” per the publication. Like Neanderthals, Denisovans interbred with our own species, so Hawks argues both are subcategories of humans. “I’m pretty confident saying these are all Homo sapiens,” he explains to the New York Times. But the skull, he says, is definitively a Denisovan based on this work.
