An 11-member committee has been appointed to help identify the next chancellor of UW-Stevens Point.
11 member committee chosen to help find next UW-Stevens Point chancellor
WKOW - Channel 27
Author: knutson4
Linda Gentes
Wisconsin State Journal
Linda Gentes died September 6, 2025, unexpectedly, at home, as a result of a rapid infection.
In Richland Center, Linda was an outspoken advocate for the University of Wisconsin Richland Campus – acting as Director of Continuing Education from 1986 to 2004. During this time she earned her Master’s degree in Continuing and Vocational Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1999.
UW-Madison climbs again in national Best Colleges rankings
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison continued its rise in the latest U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings for 2026, moving up one spot this year to 12th among public colleges.
In the national rankings released Tuesday, UW-Madison also swung up by three places as 36th overall out of 438 universities across the country. UW-Madison previously has ranked higher and also lower — in the 2025 rankings the university was 39th overall and it was 35th overall for 2024.
UW Badgers football players don’t deserve to be booed
Wisconsin State Journal
It’s a cycle. Embrace it.
I became a fan when the University of Wisconsin Badgers football team went 0-9-1 in 1967. The losses make the wins more special. UW can rise again, but we need to set realistic expectations and enjoy the bumpy journey.
Republican lawmakers introduce bill to protect free speech on UW campuses
WKOW - Channel 27
Four Republican legislators are reintroducing a bill that would protect free speech on Universities of Wisconsin campuses and penalize the schools if they prohibit it.
The bill allows students to sue the UW schools if their freedom is violated in any way.
Anti-war group calls for end to Israeli war funding during Willy St. Parade
The Daily Cardinal
Janet Parker, who leads World Beyond War’s Madison chapter, said the group’s main goal was to “abolish war” and push the University of Wisconsin System to “divest from all weapons manufacturing.”
The group’s march was part of a global movement created by World Beyond War, an international organization with chapters campaigning against issues like war profiteering, police militarization and starvation.
UW Health shares advice for parents during Child Passenger Safety Week
WMTV - Channel 15
UW Health is sharing advice for parents as this week marks Child Passenger Safety Week.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, car crashes are still a leading cause of death among kids. In 2023, UW Health reported more than a 1,000 kids were killed in crashes.
Police clear scene near UW-Madison after man with knife reported
Channel 3000
The UW-Madison Police Department on Wednesday cleared the scene after asking the public to avoid the area of Johnson Street and Wisconsin Avenue due to reports of a man with a knife in the vicinity.
Police clear scene near UW-Madison after man with knife reported
Channel 3000
The UW-Madison Police Department on Wednesday cleared the scene after asking the public to avoid the area of Johnson Street and Wisconsin Avenue due to reports of a man with a knife in the vicinity.
UW-Madison Police: All clear after report of man with knife downtown
WMTV - Channel 15
UW-Madison Police Department gave an all clear after sending an alert out for the report of a man with a knife Wednesday morning off campus.
Free speech isn’t free
The Voice of America
In October 1990, the Chicago Sun-Times came to the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus to see how students there felt about the new speech code, which could lead to suspension of students for “creating a hostile environment” by making remarks about another person’s sex, race, class, religion, or sexual orientation. Years later, the UW’s then-Chancellor Donna Shalala would tell The New Yorker that she pushed for the speech codes because the students wanted it.
But the Sun-Times headline told the truth: “Students cool to hostile-speech ban.” As board chair and former editor of The Badger Herald student newspaper, I was interviewed for the article and tried to make the point that the speech bans were self-defeating. I told the Sun-Times, “To shut off racial speech you’re actually feeding it. The whole point of a university is to educate the person to be a better person, and here’s the university saying, ‘Here’s a problem, we can’t handle it, send them [offending students] back to the farm.”
Blk Pwr Coalition hosts Library Mall vigil for Mississippi men found hanging
The Daily Cardinal
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Blk Pwr Coalition (BPC) honored Demartravion “Trey” Reed and Cory Zukatis, the two Mississippi men found dead hanging from trees in different parts of the state on Sept. 15, at a vigil on Library Mall Thursday.
UW Madison performs necropsy on Milwaukee County Zoo elephant, hopes to advance research
CBS 58
Ruth, a beloved elephant at the Milwaukee County Zoo, died over the weekend. After her second fall this month, zookeepers made the difficult decision to euthanize her. Now, The University of Madison School of Veterinary Medicine is performing a necropsy.
UW-Madison opens new Morgridge Hall for computer and data sciences
The Daily Cardinal
The University of Wisconsin-Madison opened the new Computer, Data and Information Sciences (CDIS) building at the start of the fall semester, bringing together three of the campus’s fastest-growing majors under one roof and establishing a hub for research, education and outreach in technology.
Trump’s Tylenol warning cited a Harvard dean’s research. But a judge called his shifting conclusions ‘unreliable’
STAT
“If they could have been blinded to the study results and rate the quality, I would feel it was more compelling. I feel like these are just their opinions,” said Maureen Durkin, a population health sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
How one university is reimagining a humanities Ph.D. program
Inside Higher Ed
“We’re thinking about how we can distribute historical thinking skills as widely as possible across as many sectors of industry as possible,” said Matt Villeneuve, an assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and member of the Doctoral Futures postdegree pathways subcommittee. “Because we believe that historical thinking skills are good for individuals and society. So why would we not want to deploy them as far and wide as possible?”
Historic UW-Madison frat searches for new house after plans get pricey
The Cap Times
A chemistry fraternity is again looking for a new home at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Alpha Chi Sigma is a professional co-ed fraternity founded at UW-Madison in 1902. With about 80 active members, the chapter supports Badger students entering STEM fields — in science, technology, engineering and math.
Members of the Alpha Chapter lived and met in two houses at 619 and 621 N. Lake St. for decades, near Lake Mendota and UW-Madison’s Memorial Union.
UW-Madison’s first African American research lab conducts survey on Black affirming spaces
WMTV - Channel 15
University of Wisconsin-Madison’s first research lab in the African American Studies department is collecting data on spaces where Black people thrive throughout the city.
The UW-Madison research lab, Soulfolk Collective, partnered with the Center of Black Excellence and Culture to determine how to amplify Black voices, stories and lived experiences.
Q&A: UW-Madison bear expert weighs in on Fat Bear Week
The Daily Cardinal
Adrian Treves, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of environmental studies and director of the Carnivore Coexistence Lab, founded in 2007, studies many types of carnivores, including bears. In honor of Fat Bear Week, Treves answered The Daily Cardinal’s most pressing ursidae-related questions, from Alaska to Wisconsin.
Badgers partner with MMSD to get students excited about reading and develop better literacy habits
WKOW - Channel 27
Badgers were spotted at Sandburg Elementary on Monday helping students get excited about reading.
The partnership between the Wisconsin Badger football program and Madison Metropolitan School District helps UW athletes give back to the community through the support of the district’s reading literacy initiative.
Federal cuts to foreign language grants leave UW-Madison programs, students in limbo
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison graduate student Olivia Kusuma received a competitive federal grant allowing her to study advanced Indonesian this fall for her research on Southeast Asian American communities.
Kusuma is one of more than 50 UW-Madison students who, after weeks of waiting in limbo, got notice this month that the Trump administration canceled the university’s federal Foreign Language and Area Studies.
Barry Alvarez says Wisconsin fans are ‘spoiled rotten’ after ‘Fire Fickell’ chants
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Barry Alvarez is not a fan of the “Fire Fickell” chants that occurred during Wisconsin’s Week 4 loss to Maryland. The revered former Wisconsin football coach and athletic director made that abundantly clear during the Sept. 23 episode of ESPN Madison’s Barry Alvarez Show.
“I think it’s embarrassing,” Alvarez said. “I think it’s terrible, despicable. They’re spoiled rotten.”
Wisconsin chancellor weighs in on AD after Chris McIntosh gives support to Luke Fickell
Wisconsin State Journal
Chris McIntosh expressed his confidence in University of Wisconsin football coach Luke Fickell after a second straight blowout loss Saturday.
UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin now has given McIntosh, the Badgers athletic director, a public vote of confidence. Mnookin declined an interview request by BadgerExtra through a spokesperson Monday but issued a brief statement.
How Kirk’s campus work will go on
Politico
“What happened to Charlie Kirk was a tragedy, it was wrong,” Jennifer Mnookin, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said last week.
“The fact that it happened on a college campus is even a step worse,” Mnookin said during a panel discussion at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education. “Because college campuses should be part of the places within society where ideas are explored and bump up against each other, and the ways that we should be disagreeing with each other should never include what happened there.”
Major naming gifts received
Forbes
Three of the nation’s prominent universities reported receiving multi-million-dollar private gifts Monday. Dartmouth College, the University of Arizona, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will honor each of their respective donors with naming recognitions.
International enrollment down at regional publics, small private colleges
Inside Higher Ed
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is seeing international student applications stall for the first time in over a decade, administrators told The Cap Times. UW Madison hosted 9,500-plus international students in 2023–24, per OpenDoors data; exact numbers for this fall have yet to be shared.
UW campuses awarded $4.2M in grants for freshwater research
Wisconsin Public Radio
The Freshwater Collaborative has awarded Universities of Wisconsin schools $4.2 million to support water education and research programs across the state.
The funding will target already successful programs at universities including undergraduate student freshwater research. It addresses some of Wisconsin’s most pressing water issues — freshwater contamination, data centers and lead pipe replacement.
The only alternative to political violence is civil dialogue, Wisconsin experts say
Wisconsin Public Radio
Michael Ford is Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Citizenship and Civil Dialogue at UW. As his organization works to encourage healthy political dialogue on Wisconsin’s college campuses, he worries that people are beginning to see civil discourse as a sign of weakness.
“My real fear is that the next generation of leaders are going to think politics is all about threats of violence and what-about-ism,” Ford said. “And when we get to that point, we’re ceding the space to the most extreme elements of our society.”
Annual Badger Challenge raises millions for UW Health Carbone Cancer Center
WMTV - Channel 15
People walked, ran and biked for the tenth annual Badger Challenge fundraiser at UW Health Eastpark Medical Center on Sunday.
The challenge raises money to support cancer research and treatments at the UW Health Carbone Cancer Center.
UW Madison construction robot dog supporting hands-on student learning
WMTV - Channel 15
A construction robot is getting its footing, using the Kellner Family Athletic Center’s construction site, next to Camp Randall on the UW-Madison campus.
Free speech expert weighs in on ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel
WKOW - Channel 27
“The First Amendment only prohibits actions by the government,” said Anuj Desai, a Volkman-Bascom Professor of Law and First Amendment expert at UW-Madison’s Law School. “So, generally speaking, if you are employed by a private employer, as Jimmy Kimmel was — or is — it does not regulate the relations between your employer and you.”
30 ejected, 18 arrested at Badgers-Maryland game Saturday, UW police say
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison police reported that 30 people were ejected from Camp Randall Stadium and 18 were arrested during Saturday’s game between the Badgers and Maryland.
Of those arrested, 10 were UW students. Of the ejections, 18 were UW students.
Can University of Tennessee fire professor over Charlie Kirk comment? Free speech experts weigh in
Knoxville News Sentinel
Donald Downs, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led the charge to successfully fend off speech codes in the 1990s that would have disproportionately targeted conservative ideas at the historically liberal Madison campus. Downs thinks UT is overreaching if it tries to fire Shirinian.
“Who is threatened by what this professor said?” Downs said. “I think what she said was deplorable, and I think there are too many academics that are running around with those kind of ideas that are detrimental. But she’s got due process protections, she has certain academic freedom protections and extramural speech, and those have to be respected, too, especially because of the consequences of not doing that.”
Suspect now in custody in ‘violent, unprovoked attack’ near Camp Randall Stadium
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
University of Wisconsin-Madison police have taken a suspect in custody in connection with an alleged aggravated assault that took place on campus in the early hours of Sept. 20.
‘A full-blown mosquito invasion’: Milwaukee area residents report relentless mosquitoes after floods
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Inland floodwater mosquitoes are poised the thrive in the wake of heavy rainfall or flooding, according to P.J. Liesch, director of the UW-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab.
“Then the larvae have to feed and grow and develop, which takes a bit of time,” Liesch said, “so that’s why when we have a heavy rainfall event, it’s often 10 to 14-ish days later, and boom, the mosquitoes are out in full force.”
Ruth, a Milwaukee zoo elephant, lived to 43. What to know about her lifespan, personality
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine will perform a necropsy to learn more information.
UW-Madison police investigating e-bike and e-scooter thefts
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison police said this week that they are investigating a string of e-bike and e-scooter thefts.
From Aug. 28 through Sept. 13, UW police received five reports of stolen bikes and scooters, with the sites including Union South, Lowell Center, Nicholas Recreation Center, and Ogg Residence Hall.
Regents OK more money to expand UW-Madison’s cyclotron lab project
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison is getting an extra $13.5 million to add two floors to the lab it’s constructing for a new cyclotron particle accelerator, which can be used to help detect cancer.
The UW Board of Regents approved the revision to the project Thursday, which will create more space to treat patients for cancer and other diseases at the facility, amid a booming biotech industry.
Insurance provider will stop offering Affordable Care Act coverage in 11 Wisconsin counties
Wisconsin Public Radio
Dan Sacks, an associate professor of risk and insurance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, said the expected end of enhanced tax credits likely factored into Common Ground’s decision. That’s because subsidies help people who wouldn’t get insurance due to the cost gain coverage, he said.
“Generally, when they take away the subsidies, it’s less profitable to offer insurance,” Sacks said. “It makes sense that an insurer would want to drop out.”
The great student swap
The New Yorker
The University of Wisconsin-Madison gradually raised its out-of-state enrollment cap and then totally eliminated it in 2015. Within six years, nearly half the first-year students on the Madison campus came from other states.
The politics of remote work and Wisconsin state employees
PBS Wisconsin
In all, there are about 70,000 employees working for various state agencies and the Universities of Wisconsin system. The Legislative Audit Bureau estimates that from 19% to 75% of those employees work remotely or have hybrid work schedules, depending on the agency.
Aaron Perry strives to keep health care free and growing in Madison
The Cap Times
Perry didn’t set out for a career in health care. But while working as an officer with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department, he found himself repeatedly looking in the rearview mirror when transporting men — especially Black men like himself — and wondering, “What could be different to keep you from being in the back seat of this cruiser in the future?”
Leader says faculty, staff union supporters are making inroads as they seek UW regents’ support
Wisconsin Examiner
Universities of Wisconsin faculty and staff employees seeking a voice in UW operations have gained the ears of a number of UW regents, a union leader said Thursday, and want their request for recognition put on the Board of Regents agenda in October.
UW-Madison seeks additional $13.5M for planned cancer research, treatment facility
Wisconsin Public Radio
A University of Wisconsin Board of Regents committee has signed off on a $13.5 million expansion of a planned cyclotron particle accelerator research facility that will create radioactive isotopes used in cancer research, detection and treatment.
Charlie Kirk’s death increases interest in GOP student groups
WKOW - Channel 27
Charlie Kirk’s death is resonating across college campuses. In Madison, College Republicans are thinking about where their own movement goes next.
“I didn’t even believe it when I first saw the news that he got shot. It really took me hours for it to even register that he was really gone,” said Courtney Graves, president of the UW-Madison chapter of College Republicans.
Kirk visited UW-Madison last fall as a part of his ‘You’re Being Brainwashed Tour,’ leaving an impression on young conservatives there.
After roadside violence in Islamabad, Taha Siddiqui fled to France—and built a watering hole for all
Vanity Fair
Exile was once a common punishment in ancient times. Now, more and more journalists and other dissidents are going into self-imposed exile in order to avoid being imprisoned or otherwise targeted in their home countries, says Tomás Dodds, a University of Wisconsin–Madison assistant professor who has researched exiled journalists. “You live in a constant state of dissonance.”
Middle Earth in Madison? UW exhibit honors the legacy of fantasy map maker Karen Fonstad
The Daily Cardinal
Hundreds of community members poured into the sun-soaked cartography library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Science Hall in the last 10 days of July, gingerly perusing through decades of fantasy maps, all created by one woman.
The exhibit, curated by UW-Madison alum and University of Oregon professor Mark Fonstad, showcased the maps, annotated books and meticulous research notes behind Karen Wynn Fonstad’s, his mother, atlases of worlds including “The Lord of the Rings” and “Dungeons & Dragons.”
UW-Madison art history department celebrates 100 years
The Daily Cardinal
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Art History Department is celebrating its 100th anniversary this month, with an official centennial celebration Sept. 24-26 and further events planned throughout the semester, including lectures and panels with art history professionals.
UW System total enrollment holds steady while international numbers drop
The Daily Cardinal
Preliminary enrollment estimates across the University of Wisconsin System remained steady this fall, amid the restart of Wisconsin Tuition Promise, the expansion of Direct Admit Wisconsin, declining international student numbers and continued visa uncertainties.
Insects not spreading disease, despite fear
Wisconsin Public Radio
Potentially fatal, Chagas disease is spread by kissing bugs, a subspecies of assassin bug. But entomologist PJ Liesch returns to explain that Wisconsin’s assassin bugs are not vectors for disease. He also says the recent mosquito outbreak in Milwaukee did not result in the spread of West Nile Virus.
North Koreans speak about defecting at UW-Madison East Asian Studies event
The Daily Cardinal
Two North Korean defectors spoke to students about preconceptions about North Korea, their experiences escaping and how they accustomed to life in South Korea as university students at a Tuesday event sponsored by Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for East Asian Studies.
Madison schools reduced teacher vacancies by 72% over two years
The Cap Times
Following that high, Bradley Carl, the co-director of the Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Education Research, said the Madison Metropolitan School District’s reduced staffing vacancies are “obviously good news.”
“There’s some pretty good evidence that COVID led to a spike,” Carl said. “It might turn out to be a short-term spike, but COVID was very challenging for a teaching profession in lots of ways.”
UW system adds security screenings at Board of Regents meeting
Wisconsin State Journal
People attending the UW Board of Regents’ meeting last week will go through a security screening to enter the venue.
Under the new measures, attendees will be required to walk through metal detectors, and anyone who refuses a screening or has a prohibited item will be denied entry to the venue, according to Regents meeting materials released ahead of the meeting.
UW-Madison proposes $13.5 million expansion of cancer research, treatment hub
Wisconsin State Journal
Patients with cancer could be diagnosed and treated in one building if UW-Madison gets approval for its expanded multimillion-dollar cyclotron lab.
Construction for a $48.5 million cyclotron lab between two research buildings next to UW Hospital was expected to start this year, but the university now is seeking the green light from the UW Board of Regents to add more space for patient treatment and research.
Who is Francesca Hong, the latest Democrat jumping into Wisconsin governor’s race?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Hong attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying Spanish and journalism before leaving when she knew she wanted to be a chef, according to the Wisconsin Women Making History project.
Monarch butterflies thrived in Wisconsin this year, researcher says
Wisconsin Public Radio
Karen Oberhauser is the former director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Arboretum and cofounder of the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. She has four decades of experience researching monarch butterflies.
Oberhauser said that at this point in the monarch season, the butterflies are still living and breeding in northern ranges as far north as Canada, but she added that the earliest generation of migrators to Mexico are now about halfway to their destination.
“I just looked at those maps and I see some monarchs are showing up now in roosting sites way down in Kansas and even a little bit further south right now,” she said.
Wisconsin lawmakers weigh adopting controversial definition of antisemitism
Wisconsin Public Radio
While officially adopted by the IHRA in 2016, the definition has been in use for about 20 years, according to Chad Alan Goldberg, a sociologist and professor of Jewish studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said it’s a response to rising antisemitism in recent decades, with an additional increase since the war between Israel and Hamas after Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
“It’s coming in a context of heightened concerns about antisemitism,” he said. “Proponents … think it would be a good idea because they think it would make it easier to identify and combat anti-Jewish hate speech and hate crimes, anti-Jewish harassment, vandalism and assault.”
UW-Whitewater at Rock County partners with Mercyhealth to enhance healthcare education
Channel 3000
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County is partnering with Mercyhealth to expand access to healthcare education for professionals and students in the field.
Wisconsin researcher’s project cut short in NIH diversity purge
Wisconsin Examiner
Lauren Fields was less than four months into a research project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) when she got an email message from her program officer at the federal agency.
A doctoral candidate in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Fields has been studying the biochemistry involved in the feeding process of a common crab species. She and her faculty supervisor believe the project can shed new light on problems such as diabetes and obesity in human beings.
From ‘ideal’ to ‘terrible,’ apple harvest quality varies wildly for growers across Wisconsin
Wisconsin State Farmer
Amaya Atucha, a professor and chair of the department of plant and agroecosystem sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says many apple growers in northeast Wisconsin are reporting less-than-ideal crops.
“After a cold winter caused potential damage to apple trees, cool spring temperatures led to delayed and slower pollination, resulting in smaller crops in some orchards in Northeast Wisconsin,” Atucha said in her scouting report.