Even though it won?t save taxpayers any cash, several thousand workers at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics could lose their right to collectively bargain under Gov. Scott Walker?s budget repair bill. On Friday, UWHC President and CEO Donna Katen-Bahensky sent a letter to Walker expressing concern about this issue, as 5,000 of the hospital?s 7,500 workers bargain collectively.
The University of Wisconsin medical school says it?s investigating reports that doctors from the school handed out medical excuse notes to protesters at the state Capitol this weekend.
Some top Wisconsin university officials fear that if UW-Madison splits from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System it will result in unnecessary duplications, competition for limited resources and skyrocketing tuition. Those were some of the circumstances that led state university campuses to merge 40 years ago, creating the UW System. Now, with a proposal to separate the flagship university from the rest of the fleet, some leaders are concerned Wisconsin will return to what they see as the bad old days.
It?s sad, but what puzzles me most is how in the world three of the four physicians I can identify from these videos and other media reports are faculty members of UW?s Family Medicine department, and one is a senior resident in that same department. It?s a good training program, committed to providing sorely-needed primary care doctors to the state of Wisconsin. It teaches professionalism, and its faculty are supposed to model integrity. What were they thinking?
Doctors who wrote medical notes over the weekend excusing protesters at the Wisconsin Capitol from work are getting slammed with angry phone calls and profane e-mails from people telling them they deserve to be thrown in jail, one doctor said Sunday.
The physicians wore lab coats Saturday as they stood on a street corner and offered medical notes to the tens of thousands of protesters who paraded past them. The protesters were rallying against a Republican-backed state bill that would eliminate collective bargaining rights for most state workers.
One of the doctors was Lou Sanner, 59, who practices family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Sanner said he gave out hundreds of notes and that many protesters with whom he spoke seemed to be suffering from stress.
As the protests over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker?s labor proposals continue, the newly elected Republican is finding some support from the politicians who want to replace President Obama.
After witnessing the lynching of his two friends, James Cameron heard a mob of at least 5,000 people cry for his blood to be shed next.
A rope was put around his neck, and he was hung from the same tree as his two friends, but a voice from the crowd cried out to let him go, making him the only documented lynching survivor in history.
Patrick Sims, an associate professor of drama and theater at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, wrote and performed a one-man play, ?10 Perfect: A Lynching Survivor?s Story,? that incorporated fiction to tell Cameron?s story Friday night in the Lory Student Center. Black Definition put on the event in honor of Black History Month.
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of public affairs and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Students in my class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison voted unanimously not to have class this week. They did so to support and participate in the protests that are happening a few blocks down the street at the state Capitol.
The protests come in reaction to Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to fix the state budget by increasing the amount of money that public employees contribute toward their pension and health-care premiums. The bill would also strip those employees – including nurses, bus drivers and teachers – of their collective bargaining rights. The bill is an outright attack on unions and the public sector. [A column by UW-Madison English and American Studies professor Russ Castronovo].
Perhaps it?s the most trivial issue to consider in the matter of separating the University of Wisconsin-Madison from all the rest of the University of Wisconsin system, but, just curious, who gets to keep the UW name?
Gov. Scott Walker?s apparently going to propose the split-up, but it?s clear he?s simply granting what UW-Madison has been asking for. Madison feels its constrained by state rules and appears not to want to be tied to the rest of the system.
Governor Scott Walker?s two-year budget proposal has not even come out yet, but some are already voicing concerns about a plan concerning the state?s universities. Specifically, one that could spin off the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Howard Schweber, an associate professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.
Quoted: Menzie Chinn, professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
One by one, the groups marched their way to the state Capitol on Friday. Here were the teachers from the Milwaukee Public Schools, setting out from the Madison Children?s Museum. There were the students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, dressed in red, walking shoulder to shoulder along State St.
The faculty and an alumni group of the University of Wisconsin-Madison have different takes on discussions that would split UW-Madison from the rest of the UW System.
Elected leaders of the UW-Madison faculty Friday questioned their support for the plan that would free their campus from following some rules covering other state workers because of a separate plan by Gov. Scott Walker that reduces the power of state workers? unions.
The Madison campus apparently wants to secede from the University of Wisconsin System, becoming a more privatized hybrid – still sucking up tax dollars, just fewer.
Let?s be clear what we?re talking about here: UW-Madison essentially as an independent, elite school, even if this would be done under “public authority status.” Everyone else – continuing with the Civil War analogy – becoming, well, Alabama (apologies to Alabamans).
Now is the time for the University of Wisconsin-Madison to forge a new partnership with the state to strengthen its position as an educator, job-creator and a pre-eminent research institution. To ensure its vitality in the 21st century, the university needs more flexibility to be effective so that it will remain an economic engine that can help lead our state out of its economic dilemma. [A column by Milwaukee business executives and UW-Madison graduates Jon Hammes and Sheldon Lubar].
Virginia is often cited as the example to examine a state?s top universities seeking more autonomy from lawmakers, but a move in 2005 that gave those schools more freedom gets different grades from those who have studied it.
A recent Wisconsin Policy Research Institute report says Virginians praise the changes and argues they are a model that could help the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A former University of Virginia president says Wisconsin?s system works better. And Virginia lawmakers voted to tweak the state?s relationship with the universities because of a sharp jump in tuition since the last revision six years ago.
Danny Spitzberg sits back in his chair, gazing straight ahead through his large, round, professorial glasses. Sitting in the conference room commandeered by theTeachers Assistants Association (TAA), it appears he has not shaved for exactly four days?which makes sense, since he has been holed up in the state capitol here for exactly four days.
A bill aimed at busting public workers unions in the US state of Wisconsin prompted mass protests and a statewide police hunt for Democratic lawmakers who fled to block the measure?s passage Thursday.
In the past two weeks, we have gotten used to hearing the phrase “Day of Rage” applied to cities across the Arab Middle East. Today, it was hard not to draw an analogy between those cities and Madison, WI. Not that anyone resisted the metaphor particularly: Congressman Ryan said, “it?s like Cairo has moved to Madison” while protesters carried sign reading “Walker like an Egyptian.” 30,000 protesters, that is, who filled all the floors of the Capitol building and the entire city square that surrounds it. Glenn Beck says the Madison protests are part of the same “spread of evil” that has gripped the Middle East. Uh huh.
Yesterday, University of Wisconsin-Madison students walked out of classes at the urging of student government and campus newspapers and marched to the Capitol, about a mile away. There, they joined protesters who filled the rotunda to chant, bang drums and sing, and spilled outside.
For senior artist Kandis Elliot, postermaking is one of the best tasks of the job. Her series of educational posters started 4 years ago, when greenhouse and garden director Mo Fayyaz of the University of Wisconsin (UW), Madison, asked for a fruit poster. Introduction to Fungi is just the latest?and one of the hardest, because the botany department lacks a mycologist. And Elliot didn?t want to settle for a simple mushroom poster. ?There?s a gazillion of those things,? Elliot says. ?We wanted something that shows fungi as mushrooms but something more than mushrooms. Your beer, your wine, and your bread. The stuff on the back of your fridge.?
Wisconsin is looking to Virginia as a model for restructuring its university system, and UW officials have approached Gov. Scott Walker about becoming a more entrepreneurial and independent university with more authority to raise tuition. But ironically, Virginia itself is effectively putting its own restructuring plan on a two-year hiatus to reevaluate it. A commission appointed by Virginia?s Republican governor is recommending reversing some of the plan?s most significant changes.
Last year, the UW-Madison beat back a Dane County Board resolution calling for an advisory panel to explore the ethics of primate research, much to the disappointment of local monkey defenders (see Rick Marolt?s opinion column, 10/14/10). Instead, the university agreed to host a series of forums, which many predicted would be a bust.
Madison – University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said Thursday that “the status quo is not an option” and pressed for the school to gain greater administrative flexibility to deal with looming budget cuts.
Area teachers are setting a bad example for our children by skipping class. So many Madison teachers called in ?sick? for work that school officials canceled classes for a third straight day Friday…Those teachers who have ditched on their classes for one, two or in the case of the Madison district, three days should learn from another educator: UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin. Martin has kept UW-Madison open for educating young people despite this week?s dramatic demonstrations and politicking just blocks from her campus. Martin wrote on her Twitter account Wednesday night: The ?political process is very important, but this should not come at the cost of instruction.
The UW-Madison Teaching Assistants? Association is calling for a teach-out today ? for all action on campus to cease for a second day. “We are doing it as an act of solidarity with our Democratic senators who have left the state of Wisconsin in order to protect public workers in the state,” said TAA member Magda Konieczna.
The fourth day of protests against Walker?s budget repair bill attracted more people from outside of the Madison area than those earlier in the week. As word spread mid-morning that Democratic senators had fled the state to prevent quorum and delay a vote on Walker?s bill, protesters continued to pile in via school buses, with student groups parading around Capitol Square. Students got creative, with one UW-Madison teaching assistant holding a “Teaching Assistants are Sexier With Benefits” sign. A group of high-school cross-country runners from Madison held a “Runners Against Walker” sign.
UW-Madison could be forced to raise tuition by 20 percent over the next two years if the state cuts $50 million from the university?s budget ? one scenario laid out in a memo from UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin to Gov. Scott Walker?s administration. The memo outlines how UW-Madison could separate from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System, giving the state?s flagship university more freedom from state oversight to set tuition, make personnel decisions, purchase goods and construct buildings. Martin and other System leaders have long sought such flexibility in exchange for something that has become a grim reality for them ? declining state aid.
Dozens of protesters who camped out in the Wisconsin Capitol overnight said Friday they?re prepared to stay as long as necessary while an anti-union bill remains under consideration. As many as 25,000 protesters descended on the Capitol on Thursday for a full day of raucous chanting and peaceful demonstration. Several hundred, including UW-Madison students, spent the night, some bundling up in pajamas under blankets and in sleeping bags while others simply used their jackets as pillows and slept in street clothes.
Chancellors at state universities around Wisconsin say they want the same autonomy under consideration for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin?s effort to cut public workers? benefits and bargaining rights has quickly turned into a high-stakes national issue involving President Obama, congressional Republicans and other states.
An estimated 25,000 teachers and others flooded the Wisconsin Capitol on Thursday as Democratic lawmakers left the state to stymie a vote on the governor?s proposal to reduce collective bargaining rights and benefits for public workers
In a year when governors across the country are competing to show who?s toughest, no matter what the consequences, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin stands out as the first to bring his State Capitol to a halt.
Greg Jackson, who recently completed his first season on the Wisconsin coaching staff, has taken a job with the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League.
Giving the University of Wisconsin-Madison autonomy from the UW System could come at a high cost – a $50 million budget cut from the state and a 10% tuition increase each of the next two years for Madison students, according to a memo the UW-Madison chancellor sent to Gov. Scott Walker?s administration. The tuition boost would offset the budget cut by the state and help pay for the Madison Initiative, a program for improving undergraduate education at UW-Madison that has been endorsed by the UW System Board of Regents.
Amid the third straight day of chaotic but largely peaceful protests at the Capitol, Democratic senators Thursday boycotted a Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker?s budget-repair plan, forcing Republicans to put off further action in that house until Friday at the earliest.
With Democrats hiding out just over the Illinois border and drawing national media attention, Republicans had too few lawmakers to take a vote Thursday and had to adjourn. With thousands of demonstrators swarming the Capitol Square, GOP lawmakers vowed to come back Friday morning to try to take up the proposal, which would help solve a state budget shortfall by cutting public employee benefits and would also take away most public union bargaining rights.
Wisconsin?s Republican governor said he?s confident Democrats who left the state to avoid voting on a bill removing union rights will return within a day or two, calling the boycott a “stunt.”
Nine people have been arrested in the third day of widespread protests at the state Capitol.
University of Wisconsin System leaders fear that Gov. Scott Walker will spin off the flagship UW-Madison campus from the rest of the UW System.
University of Wisconsin officials have told students to expect classes on Thursday even though teacher assistants are calling for a “teach out” on campus.
UW-Madison chancellor Biddy Martin is speaking out about what she calls misleading headlines about the UW?s hope for a new partnership with the state.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said today she?s hopeful that the campus will be split into a new public authority in Gov. Scott Walker?s budget bill, arguing that questions of administrative structure aren?t as important as the strength of the state?s research university.
A January memo containing explicit details on the University of Wisconsin?s plan for increased flexibility was a hypothetical response to hypothetical questions, Chancellor Biddy Martin said Thursday.
With continued uncertainty over the fate of the budget repair bill reigning over the Capitol, University of Wisconsin students organized a mass walkout from classes Thursday morning, and teaching assistants called for all activity on campus to halt.
After being accused of misleading students regarding the proposed split from the UW System, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin held a press conference Thursday in hopes of dispelling what she deems inaccurate rumors.
Democrats in the Wisconsin state Senate did not show up for work Thursday, and law enforcement is looking for them
Senate Democrats left Wisconsin on Thursday morning, preventing a vote on the budget repair bill. Governor Walker says those lawmakers are ignoring their duty.
The leader of state Senate Democrats explains why they skipped town on Thursday. They haven?t talked yet, but Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller said Democrats will be in contact with majority Republicans and the governor?s office over the weekend. T
If UW-Madison is granted the authority to set its own tuition rates, a key Republican legislator won?t be backing Gov. Scott Walker?s apparent plans to break Wisconsin?s flagship institution away from the UW System.
So, I was initially going to wait and blog this after the Senate voted on the Budget Repair Bill, but seeing as how events today are stacking up, that won?t happen soon.
?New Badger Partnership is 100% necessary to ensure the survival of UW-Madison as we know it. The question becomes this: do you want Biddy Martin in control of UW or people like Scott Walker? I?ll take the one with at least a B.A.
More than a half-century after Wisconsin became the first state to grant government workers collective-bargaining rights, this city has emerged as a key battleground in a movement to dismantle faculty and other public unions.
Wisconsin lawmakers are prepared to pass a momentous bill that would strip government workers of nearly all collective bargaining rights over the loud objections of thousands of teachers, students and prison guards who packed the Capitol for two days of protests.
In an interview Wednesday with WTMJ-TV of Milwaukee, Obama said Walker?s efforts to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state employees “seems like more of an assault on unions.”
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is calling on the Joint Committee on Finance to delay its vote on Gov. Scott Walker?s budget repair bill, asking for more opportunity for negotiation. Referencing Abraham Lincoln, she asked that lawmakers take time to review the proposed changes.
Quoted: Deborah Mitchell, executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management at the UW-Madison School of Business.
The future of a major UW-Madison science center — the Synchrotron Radiation Center — is in jeopardy after it was targeted to lose its annual federal funding under President Barack Obama?s proposed budget. The facility — a baseball diamond-sized electron accelerator in Stoughton — attracts researchers from all over the world and has contributed to the science of computer chips, Alzheimer?s disease and fuel sources, according to Synchrotron scientists.
