Among the more than 2,200 volunteers working behind the scenes is De Pere native Mia Fairbairn, now a college student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Though she’s not a golfer herself, Fairbairn said she jumped at the opportunity to be part of a major sporting event in her home state.
Author: knutson4
UW-Madison responds after Trump announces plans to revoke Chinese international students’ visas
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is responding after the Trump administration announced plans on Wednesday to revoke visas from some Chinese international students.
Rising housing costs could be pricing people out of college in Wisconsin
We also found something we did not expect: a gender gap in how students respond to rising housing prices. University enrollment among male students drops sharply as housing costs rise. For female students, the pattern is different. In some cases, female enrollment actually increases, perhaps because women see education as a long-term investment worth making, even in tough times. But when tuition and housing costs rise together, even that resilience begins to falter.
Cracking down on fake emotional support, service animals among notable bills from May
This bill would require the University of Wisconsin System to contract with a vendor to provide virtual mental health services for students, beyond traditional business hours. Campuses have already utilized telehealth, lawmakers note.
“Telehealth services have proven to be effective in shortening waiting times to see a provider, and allow patients to receive care at their convenience,” bill authors wrote.
Trump cuts lead to layoffs at College Possible Wisconsin. It’s turning to AI to help fill gap
The College Possible coaches working in Wisconsin were among more than 34,000 people affected by billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, which made sweeping cuts to AmeriCorps in late April. AmeriCorps is a federal agency with bipartisan support for deploying young people across the U.S. to work on community service projects.
Legislature’s budget committee takes first set of votes as talks between Evers, GOP leaders unfold
The University of Wisconsin System alone is seeking $855 million from the state Legislature in an effort to make branch campuses more viable and avoid tuition increases for in-state undergraduate students for the next two school years.
The US academic partnership with China, under strain for years, faces its biggest threat
“I do not feel welcome anymore,” said Cao, a student of cognitive psychology at the University of Wisconsin, who was waiting at Seattle’s airport Thursday to board a flight home to China.
Cao spent eight years in the U.S. and once dreamed of staying as a professor. “Now it seems like that dream is falling apart,” he said. “It’s a good time to jump ship and think about what I can give back to my own country.”
The Texas Rangers offense has been awful in 2025. What options are left for them?
Carter will likely begin a rehab assignment Friday for his quadriceps injury. During his most recent IL stint, Seager, who was activated Wednesday, spent a day at the University of Wisconsin, which is a leader in hamstring injury research, consulting on changes he could make to his training.
‘Hippies have never gotten their due’: What to see at S.F.’s new Counterculture Museum
Czeslawski is on a gap year after graduating from the University of Wisconsin. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life so I came to San Francisco for the first time, for inspiration,” she said. “Anyone who comes here needs to set aside at least an hour or two,” added Czeslawki. “I’m really excited to look through the book collection. I’m looking for some Joan Didion.”
Pause in visa interviews for international students could hurt Madison small businesses
Ilstrup says more than 8,000 international students attend UW Madison, and their presence extends well beyond campus boundaries.
Annette Zimmerman on AI data centers, jobs and the economy
UW-Madison political philosophy professor Annette Zimmerman considers economic motivations for locating AI data centers in Wisconsin and political conflict over how this industry can impact jobs.
Cap Times to host summer camp for young journalists
The Cap Times is opening its newsroom this summer to middle and high school students for the Youth Press Corps, a five-day journalism camp organized by the Greater Madison Writing Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Trump administration pause on new student visa interviews could affect Wisconsin colleges
The Trump administration’s pause in new student visa interviews could impact enrollment at Wisconsin universities, which had thousands of international students this school year.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will soon make final ruling on abortion. How did we get here?
The 1849 law has been on hold since a lower court’s ruling in December 2023. The state then returned to its pre-Dobbs abortion laws, under which abortion is banned 20 weeks after “probable fertilization.”
“We’re just waiting for a final answer on that,” said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “The current state of the law has been that abortions are legal, subject to other laws we have in the state.”
Will you be able to get a COVID-19 shot? Here’s what we know so far
Together, the moves have left health experts, vaccine makers and insurers uncertain about what to advise and what comes next.
“It’s going to add a lot of confusion overall,” said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the US will begin revoking the visas of Chinese students
University of Wisconsin student Vladyslav Plyaka was planning to visit Poland to see his mother and renew his visa, but he doesn’t know when that will be possible now that visa appointments are suspended. He also doesn’t feel safe leaving the U.S. even when appointments resume.
“I don’t think I have enough trust in the system at this point,” said Plyaka, who came to the U.S. from Ukraine as an exchange student in high school and stayed for college. “I understand it probably is done for security measures, but I would probably just finish my education for the next two or three years and then come back to Ukraine.”
‘Good days are over’: Chinese students despair as US cracks down on visas
“The iron fist has come down,” wrote an anonymous Chinese PhD student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison on RedNote on Thursday.
“The good days are over and a new round of hard times will begin for international students.”
Uranus changed structure and brightened significantly, study finds
The study, performed by researchers from the University of Arizona and the University of Wisconsin, observed Uranus four times (2002, 2012, 2015, 2022) in the 20 years using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
This judge’s journey from film school to the federal bench
Peterson wound up in graduate school at UW–Madison after deciding to pursue film studies.
“It’s what really interested me,” he says, and Peterson found a mentor and dissertation advisor in David Bordwell, the legendary UW film professor whom American film critic Roger Ebert called “our best writer on the cinema.”
It was an anxious moment when Peterson told his revered friend and mentor Bordwell that he was leaving film for the UW Law School.
Wisconsin Supreme Court suspends Dane County judge over ‘intemperate’ behavior
Although the process for handling judicial misconduct varies by state, it is “somewhat rare” for judges to be suspended in Wisconsin and across the nation, said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney at the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
“[Nationwide] the overall judicial disciplinary process is sometimes critiqued from both sides as being overly lenient on judges or as being too harsh on judges,” Godar said. “It’s really difficult to strike this balance between accountability for judicial officers while wanting to preserve the independence of state courts and state judges.”
Dog park etiquette, Being a veterinarian
With more American households now having pets than children, demand for veterinarians is on the rise. Citing an increase for veterinarian job listings of 124 percent over the last three years, the employment website Indeed this year named being a vet their top job of 2025. We talk with veterinarian and clinical instructor Dr. Calico Schmidt of the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine about the joys and challenges of making a living caring for animals.
UW-Madison center sees promise in using psychedelics for addiction, PTSD, depression
The UW–Madison Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substances supports research and education into psychedelic drugs and related compounds. The idea is to learn how these psychedelic substances may help mood or behavior in ways other forms of therapy can sometimes fall short.
For the last 10 years, the center at UW-Madison has been part of a psychedelic renaissance in the science community, one that comes after decades of negative media attention stymied research and public perceptions.
Trump and Harvard draw headlines, but UW is also imperiled by DOGE cuts
Written by Kevin P. Reilly, president emeritus of the University of Wisconsin system. He served as president of the system from 2004 to 2013.
We’re getting close to recreating the first step in evolution of life
“RNA nucleotide triplets serve very specific informatic functions in translation in all cells,” says Zachary Adam at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, meaning they are used to convey information. “This paper is interesting because it might point to a purely chemical role – a non-informatic function – for RNA nucleotide triplets that they could have served prior to the emergence of a living cell.”
Can bacteria serve as ‘microscopic miners’ of the metals we need?
“We’re creating a new industrial paradigm at the intersection of biology and mining,” said Dennett, who earned a Ph.D in geosciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and went on to work at NASA’s astrobiology program and run data architecture for Amazon Web Services before founding Endolith. “Our goal is simple: reshape supply chains for the most important technology transitions of our lifetime.”
Trump administration moves to cancel all remaining federal contracts with Harvard
The White House is directing federal agencies to cancel all remaining contracts with Harvard University – about $100 million in all, two senior Trump administration officials told CNN – the latest barb against the school as it refuses to bend to the White House’s barrage of policy demands amid a broader politically charged assault on US colleges.
UW-Madison researcher discovers valuable chemical compound in engineered poplar trees
A UW-Madison researcher has made a surprising discovery that could transform how we source important chemical compounds used in everyday products, moving from fossil fuels to trees.
Brian Fox, a biochemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has identified parahydroxybenzoate—a chemical compound used in medicine, cosmetics, and food products that’s normally taken from oil—in biochemically engineered poplar trees.
Evers appoints DPI attorney, UW alum to Dane County Circuit Court
Jones, a Monona resident and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin Law School, most recently served as chief legal counsel for theWisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
Report highlights increased concern for water quality, contaminants in Madison lakes
The report also included more detailed metrics and information on weather and climate drivers, phosphorus data, clarity and conservation practices. It used data collected by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Limnology, the Dane County public health, land and water agencies and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, among other sources, as well as their own citizen science network called the LakeForecast monitoring network.
After becoming fixture of Monroe Street, beloved ‘Madison Mural’ to come down
Local artist Liubov Szwako, better known as “Triangulador,” and University of Wisconsin-Madison graphic design lecturer Henrique Nardi were commissioned by the owner of Lauer Realty to transform the blank wall.
How Trump cuts are driving 4 major challenges at UW-Madison this year
Wisconsin’s flagship state university is under pressure on a variety of fronts this spring, making it difficult to keep up with developments in the news.
As the Trump administration reshapes the federal government and its relationship with higher education, authorities in courtrooms, the state Capitol and university administration are also tackling big decisions that could affect campus life for years to come.
What to know about Ian Vance-Curzan, lead prosecutor in Maxwell Anderson trial
Originally from Milwaukee, Vance-Curzan attended Rufus King High School, where he played baseball. University of Wisconsin Law School, class of 2015.
Country music is dominating Wisconsin’s summer concert season like never before in 2025
28: Years it’s been since Camp Randall Stadium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has hosted a concert tour. Country superstar Morgan Wallen will end the drought June 28, then become the first artist ever to headline the stadium for two consecutive nights, with a second show on June 29.
Board needs to work with community to keep MPS Italian Immersion Program open
When I was a student at Rufus King, I took Spanish and Italian courses. Four years later, my younger brother Michael did the same. After high school, I went on to study Italian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and studied abroad in Italy. After graduation, I used my Italian language skills and taught 4-year-old kindergarten at the Italian Immersion School during the 2008-2009 school year.
The internet is littered with advice. What’s it doing to your brain?
“Research has overwhelmingly found that advice is really beneficial, and that people tend to under-utilize advice, usually causing them to make lower quality decisions,” says Lyn van Swol, a professor of communication science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies advice and information-sharing in groups. The catch, she notes, is that most of that research looks at advice from one, two, or three other people, not dozens, hundreds, or thousands of strangers on TikTok: “It’s overwhelming — it’s like a fire hose of advice.”
Five years after George Floyd’s death, why misinformation still persists
“The core through-line that emerges is the kind of longstanding, deep racist narratives around Black criminality and also the ways people try to justify who is or isn’t an ‘innocent victim’,” Rachel Kuo, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who studies race, social movements and technology, said of the falsehoods.
Scientists have lost their jobs or grants in US cuts. Foreign universities want to hire them
Brandon Coventry never thought he would consider a scientific career outside the United States. But federal funding cuts and questions over whether new grants will materialize have left him unsure. While reluctant to leave his family and friends, he’s applied to faculty positions in Canada and France.
“I’ve never wanted to necessarily leave the United States, but this is a serious contender for me,” said Coventry, who is a postdoctoral fellow studying neural implants at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Everything you need to know about the ‘age-reversal’ supplement NAD+
According to Guarente, pellagra is characterized by what are known as the four Ds; dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia, and death. “Pellagra turned out to be a disease of NAD+ deficiency and the molecules that could prevent and/or cure it were termed vitamin B3s,” he says, which Conrad Elvehjem, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, proved in 1937.
‘It does kind of make me the breadwinner’: stay-at-home mom charges husband $2,700 a week for household labor — sparking a debate on TikTok
Of course, not every household follows the traditional gender roles. But data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds that women still spend twice as many hours doing physical housework as their male partners.
It doesn’t stop there. Allison Daminger, an assistant professor of sociology, found in her research that in 80% of opposite-sex couples, women shoulder most of the cognitive labor — things like managing family calendars, planning meals and checking on homework.
National Spelling Bee champions say it set them up for success: ‘You attain a level of mastery’
Joanne Lagatta arrived at the University of Wisconsin in 1995 with a flawless academic record and an achievement on her resumé that she didn’t like to talk about — but that no other undergrad on the sprawling Madison campus could claim: Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.
The bee winner in 1991 at age 13, Lagatta nonetheless struggled adjusting to life outside her rural hometown of Clintonville, Wisconsin — until she got a push from a professor who was a devoted spelling-bee fan.
Harvard revokes tenure of embattled dishonesty researcher
Harvard University has revoked the tenure of Francesca Gino, a dishonesty researcher in the business school who was accused of fabricating data, WGBH reported.
The move follows an internal investigation into allegations raised two years ago by the blog Data Colada that Gino had co-authored four academic papers that revealed “evidence of fraud.” Investigators determined that Gino had “engaged in multiple instances of research misconduct” in those papers, manipulating data to support her hypotheses, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Democratic troubles revive debate over left-wing buzzwords
Honestly, Democrats trip over themselves in an attempt to say exactly the right thing,” said Allison Prasch, who teaches rhetoric, politics and culture at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “Republicans maybe aren’t so concerned about saying exactly the right thing, so it may appear more authentic to some voters.”
She added: “Republicans have a willingness to paint with very broad brushstrokes, where Democrats are more concerned with articulating multiple perspectives. And, because of that, they can be hampered by the words and phrases they utilize.”
The curse of Toumaï: an ancient skull, a disputed femur and a bitter feud over humanity’s origins
Macchiarelli now brokered the publication of two of them on the widely read blog of John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and longtime Sahelanthropus sceptic. In principle, to print images of someone else’s unpublished fossil was a clear breach of ethics. But then, Macchiarelli, Bergeret and Hawks reasoned, after Beauvilain’s article, the femur was no longer unpublished.
A big Trump administration cutback went nearly unnoticed
Aaron Perry, a former University of Wisconsin police officer and founder of the Perry Family Free Clinic, said he saw firsthand how Black men were being left behind by the health-care system.
“I would always ask them … what could be different?” Perry said. “And that’s when they would tell me, ‘I’m homeless. I haven’t eaten. I have a heart condition. I don’t have medication.’”
5 myths about food expiration dates and best-by labels
Kathy Glass, who recently retired as associate director at the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said she respects “use-by” dates and other storage guidance (like an ideal fridge temperature) on refrigerated products, particularly those designed to be eaten cold.
“Many manufacturers have researched spoilage versus safety to determine those dates,” she said. On those keep-cold products, she said the phrase “use by” signals “they’ve done their studies to demonstrate that if you would use it by that particular date, and you kept it at a good refrigeration temperature, it should be safe.” Food should be refrigerated between 35 and 40 degrees, she said.
An ominous green sky is often associated with severe weather, but not every storm causes the sky to change colors.
Scientists aren’t completely sure why some intense thunderstorms turn the sky green, but research meteorologist Scott Bachmeier at University of Wisconsin-Madison says it could be linked to two factors: the color of the sky late in the day and the amount of rain in the storm.
‘It’s finally over:’ Brittany Zimmermann’s mom reflects on the death of her daughter’s killer
The man charged with the death of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student died in prison Tuesday.
Wisconsin’s Northland College is set to hold its final commencement address Saturday
Saturday marks the final commencement ceremony for students at Northland College — a private, liberal arts institution on the shore of Lake Superior that’s set to close after 133 years.
Split Supreme Court blocks Oklahoma’s Catholic charter school − but future cases could hinge on whether charters are, at their core, public or private
Co-authored by Susan S. Engeleiter Professor of Education Law, Policy and Practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin higher education leaders speak out after House advances cuts to federal student aid
Leaders of Wisconsin colleges and universities are speaking out against pending cuts to federal financial aid after they cleared a major legislative hurdle.
Universities of Wisconsin campuses would have to provide virtual mental health services under new proposal
The Universities of Wisconsin system would have to provide students with around-the-clock access to virtual mental health providers under a new Republican proposal.
Innovative Artists Entertainment ups four to agent
Also recently serving as a coordinator, Jankovich began his career as an assistant to Brian Davidson and later Gary Gersh. He’s a graduate of the University of Wisconsin—Madison.
Special contact lenses let you see infrared light – even in the dark
“It’s an audacious paper but, using just the contact lens, you wouldn’t be able to read a book in the infrared, or navigate down a dark road,” says Mikhail Kats at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in the research.
Michael Ledeen, Reagan adviser in early Iran-contra outreach, dies at 83
He received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1962 from Pomona College in Claremont, California. He earned a doctorate in history and philosophy from the University of Wisconsin in 1969 while he was an assistant professor of history at Washington University in St. Louis.
This simple diet change can add decades to life expectancy, study finds
“Different components of your diet have value and impact beyond their function as a calorie,” said Dudley Lamming, a metabolism expert from the University of Wisconsin who is involved in both studies. “We’ve been digging in on one component that many people may be eating too much of.”
These world leaders went to Harvard before Trump’s foreign student ban
Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who won his mandate to lead the city-state with the ruling People’s Action Party earlier this month, received a master’s in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2004. He also earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan, respectively.
Environment 4 hours ago The Paris Agreement Target for Warming Still Won’t Protect Polar Ice Sheets
“Coastal communities that are adapting to and preparing for future sea-level rise are largely adapting to the amount of sea-level rise that has already occurred,” said co-author Andrea Dutton, a geoscientist and sea level expert at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In a best-case scenario, she added, they are preparing for sea level rise at the current rate of a few millimeters per year, while the research suggests that rate will double within decades.
Wisconsin college leaders warn potential cuts to federal financial aid would hurt students
Wisconsin college leaders say potential changes to federal financial aid would put higher education out of reach to more students and make college more expensive.
UW-Platteville shooting puts gun policies back in the spotlight
The May 19 shootings that killed two University of Wisconsin-Platteville students put campus gun policies back in the spotlight about a decade after lawmakers considered a bill loosening restrictions.
Midges, ticks and other bugs; the value of wetlands
We get an insect update from UW-Madison entomologist PJ Liesch. Then we talk about the benefits of wetlands and efforts to protect them.