A measles outbreak is making its way through southwestern Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Infected counties include Grant, Iowa, and Lafayette, according to DHS. Lafayette County directly borders Dane County, the home of the University of Wisconsin.
The Universities of Wisconsin may permanently eliminate the requirement that college applicants submit an ACT or SAT score as part of the admissions process.
In May 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the UW Board of Regents to make college admissions test scores optional at all UW system schools, except UW-Madison, because prospective students were struggling to take in-person exams and to submit scores.
The Universities of Wisconsin may permanently eliminate the requirement that college applicants submit an ACT or SAT score as part of the admissions process.
Learning the new starters on college football teams is a longer process for fans now more than ever in the transfer portal era.
The University of Wisconsin football team is no exception this season. The Badgers (1-1) started nine transfers in the opener against Notre Dame and 10 last week against Western Illinois. Acquiring those transfers, and the money raised and spent to do so, were major storylines of the Badgers’ offseason. Getting these players to campus in the flurry of the transfer portal was another major expenditure.
UW-Madison researchers will study thousands of brains to determine whether exposures to environmental toxins increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
Cell biologist Buzz Baum at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, says the protrusions fit with a model of eukaryogenesis that he and his cousin, evolutionary biologist David Baum at University of Wisconsin–Madison, proposed in 2014.
The Universities of Wisconsin system may soon close the chapter on standardized testing for good, as administrators evaluate a proposal to permanently eliminate ACT and SAT requirements for all undergraduate applicants.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department (UWPD) arrested nine and ejected 14 UW-Madison students during Saturday’s game against Western Illinois, far lower numbers than previous years.
Marc Lovicott, UWPD’s Executive Director of Communications, told The Daily Cardinal the game had “no issues” and “all went according to plan and our expectations.”
The UW-Madison Hazing Prevention Coalition released a new report detailing hazing incidents that led to the suspension of one fraternity.
The report shows the University began investigating Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. on February 26, 2025, the same day the incidents were reported. The incidents occurred on or around Feb. 17–20. The university concluded the investigation and alerted the organization on April 14, 2025. The organization was then suspended until July 31, 2025.
Dear Editor: As a UW-Madison alum and Dane County resident, I am disgusted by the university’s involvement in research and development for industries that profit from and contribute to excessive animal suffering and environmental damage.
A landmark gift of a new humanities building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus has inspired a sweet new addition to the Babcock Dairy lineup.
To honor the extraordinary generosity of UW alumni Marv and Jeff Levy, Babcock Dairy will unveil a limited-edition ice cream flavor created by the brothers: Levylicious Salted Turtle. The flavor features a salted caramel ice cream swirled with a rich chocolate fudge ribbon and roasted, salted pecans.
U.S. lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are debating whether and how to regulate artificial intelligence.
Some AI experts are sounding the alarm about how quickly the technology is advancing, calling for more guardrails.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) announced Sept. 10 a total investment of $160.7 million disbursed over the past year to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in efforts to support the university’s research and innovation endeavors.
The largest portion of $115.9 million was directed to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research to fund university researchers and research projects and initiatives.
Jaidyn Glaus was sitting in her English class at Durand-Arkansaw Middle & High School last fall when she was called to the principal’s office. She had no idea why.
The Pepin County school’s principal and guidance counselor had news: Thanks to her high grades, Glaus qualified for a new program called the Wisconsin Guarantee, automatically granting her a spot at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after graduation.
A massive donation for a new humanities building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has inspired a limited-edition ice cream flavor at Babcock Dairy.
The $115 million humanities building project was made possible by a $20 million lead gift from Marv and Jeff Levy, who named the building after their late parents, Irving and Dorothy.
The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved operating and capital budget requests for the 2027-29 biennium. The Regents also approved a six-year capital plan through 2033, while the 2027–29 operating and capital requests will now move through Wisconsin’s state budget process, according to the Universities of Wisconsin.
There are almost as many students at the University of Wisconsin this fall as there were last fall after the university released its day one student enrollment figures.
“Enrollment decreased approximately 1% across the 13 UWs, which included significant international student decreases. Estimates show fall 2026 enrollment at 163,260 students, a decline of 1,732 students overall, with 1,100 of those being international students,” the university said in a statement.
UW-Madison’s new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence just launched this summer but already faces a big challenge — keeping pace with the technology it was created to teach.
Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau, the college’s inaugural dean, said it largely depends on fundamentals and flexibility.
UW-Madison has released findings from its hazing investigation that led to a three-month suspension of fraternity Phi Beta Sigma in 2025, in response to a Wisconsin State Journal public records request.
Over four days in February 2025, the fraternity’s new recruits were forced to do strenuous workouts and stand next to a hot stove for extended periods, according to recently released investigation records.
When state lawmakers reconvene next year to set another two-year budget, the University of Wisconsin-Madison will revive its years-long push for constructing a new residence hall.
More than 163,000 students chose a Universities of Wisconsin university this fall, a strong sign that demand remains steady,” interim system president Renée Wachter said. “These students and their families are making an investment in their future and Wisconsin’s future.”
Enrollment at UW-Madison remained above 50,000, with an estimated 50,500 Badgers counted on Day One. UW-Milwaukee’s enrollment rose to 23,000, boosted by the campus’ largest first-year class in 17 years.
“Constipation is one of the most common GI [gastrointestinal] symptoms people complain about, and it’s not uncommon for it to be related to a medication someone is taking,” says Mark Benson, MD, an associate professor of medicine and gastroenterologist at UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin.
About 3 million people in the United States live with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF. Unlike better-known forms of heart failure, HFpEF does not necessarily prevent the heart from squeezing normally. Instead, the heart becomes too stiff to fill properly and supply the body with enough blood during activity.
University of Wisconsin-Madison police are investigating after a recent UW-Madison graduate released video he says he secretly recorded inside the university’s meat science facility.
The video involves the facility’s use of carbon dioxide to stun pigs before slaughter.
Ryan Blum said he spent months planning how to get inside to record the process. He said he captured about 83 seconds of video, with less than 30 seconds showing pigs inside what he says is the CO2 chamber.
A recent UW-Madison graduate and animal rights activist has released video he says he secretly recorded inside a campus facility while pigs were undergoing carbon dioxide stunning, a process used to render pigs unconscious before slaughter.
Ryan Blum, who graduated in May, told WMTV he spent months planning how to secretly enter UW–Madison’s Meat Science & Animal Biologics Discovery Building specifically to record the process.
Dr. Nathaniel Chin was in residency when his father, Dr. Moe Chin, a family physician in Watertown, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2012. The elder Chin retired the next day, ending a 40-year career as a doctor. He died in 2018.
“He saw everyone in his clinic, from young kids to the elderly,” Dr. Nathaniel Chin said recently of his father on WPR’s “The Lee Rayburn Show.” “He was my introduction to health, wellness and providing care for people.”
The University of Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Directorate Wellness Committee hosted a new event titled The Amazing Wellness Race Sept. 24 outside at Union South. The event was a collaborative effort from University Recreation & Wellbeing, Mental Health Services and Badger Recovery.
The Amazing Wellness Race is a participatory, educational mental health and wellbeing fair, with stations focusing on movement and positivity, according to WUD Wellness Committee Program Advisor Morgan Michaels. The event featured various stands with different activities and challenges for interactive mental health education, with different prizes and free food for participants.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation announced Thursday that it provided $160.7 million in total support to research and innovation at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research in the fiscal year ending in June 2026.
The funding includes annual grants for both institutions, supplemental grants for special initiatives and in-kind support for operations, investments and inventors.
The Universities of Wisconsin says its enrollment levels are holding steady after three years of consecutive growth.
According to preliminary estimates based on Day One student counts, enrollment decreased approximately 1% across the 13 UW campuses, which included significant international student decreases.
As Ted Kellner stood in front of the athletic center that bears his family’s name, he recalled the conversation with Barry Alvarez that started the whole thing.
“We were going to a football game,” Kellner said. “He said, ‘Tedro’, that’s my nickname. He said, ‘Tedro, I’ve got an idea’. When Barry says ‘Tedro, I got an idea’, I get my wallet out.”
Enrollment appeared to decline across the Universities of Wisconsin for the first time since 2021, preliminary enrollment estimates show, with that decline driven largely by a drop in the number of international students. Overall enrollment remains relatively steady.
About 163,260 students enrolled in one of the 13 state universities, down 1,732 from 2025, according to university estimates. Of those, 1,100 were international students.
A UW Health doctor is reflecting on how the events of 9/11 shaped her life’s purpose.
Dr. Lisa Arkin was working in television in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.
In the days following the attacks, she volunteered overnight at a nearby trauma center, helping families search for loved ones.
That experience inspired her to leave her career and go to medical school.
Enrollment across the Universities of Wisconsin is holding relatively steady this fall after three consecutive years of growth, according to preliminary numbers released Friday.
The Universities of Wisconsin estimate 163,260 students are enrolled across its 13 universities for fall 2026. That is about 1% lower than last fall’s final enrollment of 164,992 students.
The price of diesel is hitting record highs just when many U.S. farmers need it to power combines, tractors and other equipment to harvest two of the nation’s largest commodities, soybeans and corn.
The spike adds to an already tough year for these farmers, who also faced higher costs for fertilizer, seeds and equipment.
Diesel hit a record price in the U.S. on Sept. 4, soaring to an average of $5.85 a gallon for the first time as the six-month war with Iran disrupted the world’s flow of fuel. It has gone even higher since then, going for an average price of $6.05 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA.
A Dane County judge ruled that a criminal case will continue against two men who pleaded not guilty for an attack and attempted sexual assault of a transgender woman at Goodspeed Family Pier on Aug. 29.
At approximately 4:10 a.m. on Aug. 29, University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department (UWPD) responded to a call from a bystander reporting a disturbance on the pier. Officers were dispatched at 4:12 a.m., and when they arrived on the scene, they discovered a sexual assault had occured and arrested two men.
As more students enter classrooms with no firsthand memory of the Sept. 11 attacks, educators are changing how they teach the events and their impact to a new generation.
The 9/11 attacks took place seven or eight years before most high school seniors were born.
Rosh Hashanah is often treated as a time to reflect on the previous year and focus on hopes for the coming year, according to Jordan Rosenblum, the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism and Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The new study, published in JAMA Health Forum last week by Zack Cooper of the Yale School of Public Health and National Bureau of Economic Research, and Stuart Craig of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin School of Business, analyzed state-level premium increases in the large-group, small-group and health exchange markets.
Terry Fritter kicked off a discussion Thursday about what community members want in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s next chancellor by commenting on how familiar the process felt.
“Seems like you just did this not very long ago,” Fritter, who’s part of university staff, told members of a search and screen committee during an event at Union South.
Hundreds of athletes from around the world are coming to Madison this weekend to compete in Ironman Wisconsin. Among them is Jaxon VandenBrook, a UW-Madison student whose path to the starting line began with a near-fatal crash.
VandenBrook was a freshman at UW-Madison training for the Ironman when his life changed in an instant.
“I love running by the water,” VandenBrook said. “It was late October, but it was a beautiful night out. I reached the light before it turned green, and then the light switched and I started to cross.”
VandenBrook does not remember much after that. A vehicle ran the red light and hit him head on.
Regular service along Route C, which runs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison to the city’s far east side, would start in December around 5 a.m. on weekdays and 6 a.m. on weekends. Service along Route D from the Dane County Regional Airport to Verona, would begin just before 6 a.m. on weekends. Weekend start times on Route G, which runs along Stoughton Road, and Route H, which connects south and west Madison, would be pushed back by 30 minutes or fewer.
The UW-Madison Police Department is thanking the public for their help in finding a student’s missing service dog.
According to UWPD, Madonna the dog got out of her house on Tuesday morning.
Wisconsin’s “brain drain” may have less to do with college-educated residents leaving and more to do with the state’s struggle to attract new talent, according to a new study by researchers at UW-Madison.
For ten years, my first day of school outfit was always the same: an annoying navy blue cross tie, a white polo, cardigan and khaki skirt. Having been forced to wear a uniform, the most I could do to explore my style was wear colorful headbands and beaded bracelets.
But when I got to high school, everything changed. On the first day of school, I could swap that bland uniform for baggy jeans, a baby pink tank top and a cable knit cardigan —I was thrilled.
The financial data and software company PitchBook released its annual rankings of the top undergraduate founders for entrepreneurship Sept. 1, with University of Wisconsin ranked as the sixth best U.S. public university.
UW jumped a total of nine spots since last year’s rankings were released, according to UW News.
A criminal case will continue against two men accused in the beating and attempted sexual assault of a transgender woman on the UW-Madison campus last month, a judge ruled Tuesday.
A new report is raising concerns that many students may not be getting taught the history of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, with researchers finding that only a small number of states have laws that encourage or require schools to include 9/11 in instruction or commemorations.
A University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health research study on Alzheimer’s has been awarded a second round of funding from the National Institutes of Health, the UW Social Health Sciences and Programs announced Wednesday.
The study, called The Neighborhoods Study, was selected for a $30.9 million funding award. That is the third-largest NIH grant currently held by UW-Madison, UW said.
Two years later, officials say the incentive has added 212 lower-cost beds for University of Wisconsin-Madison students, and by fall next year, a new complex at Broom and West Johnson streets will add another 165 beds. Three more projects in the pipeline could then bring Madison’s total of lower-cost student beds to 645 by fall 2029.
The Promega Art Showcase will celebrate its 30th anniversary by showcasing the work of Midwestern artists during the 14th PhotoMidwest biennial juried exhibition.
The exhibition opens on Sept. 17 at the Promega Biopharmaceutical Technology Center, 5445 E. Cheryl Parkway in Fitchburg.
It is part of the 2026 PhotoMidwest Festival, which will take place at multiple Madison venues including the Pyle Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
After the passing of an Iowa Hawkeye marching band member, the University of Wisconsin marching band released a statement Tuesday.
“The Wisconsin Band is holding the family and friends of Derek Phillips, along with the entire Hawkeye Marching Band community, in our thoughts during this incredibly difficult time,” the band said. “Those of us who have been a part of a marching band know how quickly it becomes more than an ensemble. Through long days, travel, celebrations and shared experiences, relationships grow into a family.”
A University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering team has developed a hybrid fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite “blanket” designed to reduce lightning strike damage and improve protective coverage on aircraft and other high-flying vehicles. The research was published in the June 2026 issue of Composites, Part B: Engineering.
NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe speaks with professor Jeremy Stoddard of the University of Wisconsin about how to teach the September 11th attacks to middle and high school students.
Questions: One of our readers awoke recently to some beautiful clouds in the summer sky and two excellent questions popped into her mind. First, what holds the clouds up in the air. And then what makes some clouds appear to be fluffy on top but flat on the bottom?
“There are so many things that happened after 9/11 that are still sort of affecting us today, but young people wouldn’t know what those are,” Stoddard said.
No high school students today were alive on 9/11. Increasingly, many teachers weren’t either. That’s changing how the attacks are taught, Stoddard said, with states taking different approaches to the required curriculum on the topic.
The lake is Peter Lake, a long-serving subject of one of ecology’s most patient experiments, and the person tipping pigment over the gunwale was Danny Szydlowski, a PhD candidate and CASC graduate fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Center for Limnology, working with a colleague, Dat Ha. Their account of the season, published on the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center blog on 22 January 2025, reads less like a triumph than a puzzle: the dye went in, the fertiliser followed, and the water still bloomed.
Research carried out by Alice Wu, now assistant professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which found that posts about women
The excitement for another season of Badgers Football kicked off Saturday afternoon in downtown Green Bay with the “Badger Bash.
Crowds of Bucky fans lined Broadway Street as the 350 member UW-Madison Marching Band and cheer squad were featured in a parade.
“PBMCs can be isolated clinically really easily, and they’re already used in the clinical workflow,” says Melissa Skala of the Morgridge Institute for Research and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, senior author of the study. “So, the question is, what can we get from them that we aren’t already getting?”
