“We love a good trend, but this one’s got your parents calling us in panic mode,” UW-Madison Police said in the post. “Yep, it’s super funny and harmless — but don’t let your parents sit and stew on it. Quickly tell them it’s a prank so they don’t call the police.”
‘Fill the Hill’ at UW-Madison kicked off at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 9. The event is the university’s largest fundraising day, allowing donors to gift money to student groups for 24 hours.
To celebrate the event, a flock of flamingo rubber duckies will be dumped into the fountain at Library Mall at 9 a.m. on Friday Oct. 10. Participants can rescue them with a net and keep the ones they catch.
Thousands of pink plastic flamingos will once again cover Bascom Hill as the University of Wisconsin–Madison celebrates its 13th annual Fill the Hill fundraiser.
The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association hosts the event each fall as part of the University’s day-of-giving campaign. Each donation of $5 or more adds another flamingo to the growing flock on the hill.
Two UW-Madison professors have been named MacArthur Foundation fellows, called “genius awards,” for their work in studying weather patterns in the tropics and investigating the effects of nuclear weapons.
UW-Madison professors Ángel F. Adames Corraliza, who is an atmospheric scientist, and Sébastien Philippe, a nuclear security specialist, were selected Wednesday for the prestigious fellowships. Fellows receive $800,000 paid out over five years for any use.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named atmospheric scientist Ángel Adames Corraliza, 37, and nuclear security specialist Sébastien Philippe, 38, as recipients of the prestigious MacArthur fellowship. Also known as the “genius grant,” the national award is given annually to a small group of people across a range of disciplines who show exceptional creativity in their work and future ambitions.
Madison Students for a Democratic Society organized a candlelight vigil at Library Mall Oct. 7 to remember the lives of Palestinians killed in Gaza.
The United Nations declared that Israel has been committing four genocidal actions in Gaza since the Hamas attacks that occurred Oct. 7, 2023.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison collective is working to establish a long-term data set of little brown bat populations on campus with national implications for conservation.
The UW-Madison Bat Brigade is a collaboration between students, professionals and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to monitor and study bats on campus. The Brigade is part of Biocore, an honors biology program.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison Faculty Senate meeting Monday centered on two hot-button issues on campus: a proposal for a new college of computing and data sciences and systemwide reforms on the university’s general education requirements, including rumored threats to the ethnic studies requirement.
Some University of Wisconsin-Madison research will be affected due to the federal government shutdown, according to a message from both the Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration and of Research.
UW-Madison ranked sixth nationally for research expenditure in 2024 and is at risk for delayed research project funding after the shutdown.
University of Wisconsin-Madison officials said the university’s ethnic studies requirement will remain in place Wednesday, as a plan to standardize required courses across the University of Wisconsin System left the requirement in ambiguity.
For Ángel F. Adames Corraliza, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the award is also a recognition of the talent and grit coming from Puerto Rico, where he is from, despite the hardships his community has endured. His research has uncovered many new findings about what drives weather patterns in the tropics, which may eventually help improve forecasting in those regions.
Adames said usually one of his classes would be ending right when the foundation would publish the new class of fellows, so he was planning to end the lecture early to come back to his office. He said he’s having trouble fathoming what it will be like.
“I am low-key expecting that a few people are just going to show up in my office, like right at 11:02 a.m. or something like that,” he said.
Since the fellowship launched in 1981, fellows have included writers, scientists, artists, social scientists, humanists, teachers and entrepreneurs. While no institutional affiliation is required, the award went to the following 2025 fellows with ties to a college or university:
Multiple streets near campus will be close on Friday for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Homecoming Parade.
The University of Wisconsin athletic department has a new site planned for its hall of fame.
Initial plans show the plaques honoring former Badgers athletes, coaches and administrators moving from near Camp Randall Stadium to near the main entry to the Kohl Center.
As Wisconsin Football takes on Iowa this weekend for the Badgers’ homecoming game, fans can enjoy pregame festivities at Badger Bash. Badger Bash begins 2-and-a-half hours before every home football game at Union South.
With the game starting off at 6 p.m. Saturday, this week’s Badger Bash will start at 3:30 p.m.
The Universities of Wisconsin released its new proposed core general education requirements to comply with Wisconsin Act 15 — and some students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are concerned about the future of the school’s undergraduate ethnic studies requirement as the plan stands.
Anyone and everyone is being called to roll up a sleeve to support the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s annual homecoming blood drive. The blood drive is part of a nationwide effort and competition through Abbott and the Big Ten.
While the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Athletic Hall of Fame is set to move next year, commemorative bricks purchased by Badgers fans will stay near Camp Randall Stadium, an administrator said Tuesday.
The athletics department plans to relocate the Hall of Fame outside of the Kohl Center, where the school’s basketball teams play. About a mile east of UW-Madison’s football stadium, the Kohl Center is a “prime location” on campus that attracts thousands each year, said Jason King, UW-Madison’s senior associate athletic director for capital projects and operations.
he man charged with violently attacking his former coworker near Camp Randall allegedly used a hammer and kicked the 62-year-old victim numerous times to death, a criminal complaint alleges.
Keith Jones, 58, is accused of murdering 62-year-old Mark A. Tiggelaar of Fitchburg at the UW Athletics Operations parking lot.
Part of the shipment of food to be prepared for the next week’s University of Wisconsin football game arrived, as usual, at Camp Randall Stadium on a Thursday. The collection was short in one product that in Wisconsin almost certainly would get noticed if concession stands ran out early: There weren’t enough brats.
In the short term, a search gathered enough supply of the brats to get Wisconsin through the football season before pivoting. Over the following months, chefs went through a taste-testing process that informed how they were planning to move forward.
While the proposed caps might not immediately affect most colleges, some of the “elite” private colleges and large state schools would be impacted. Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Southern California, along with the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, all surpass the proposed limit. The high concentration of international students at these institutions is more related to brand recognition and recruitment efforts than to student success. Families should keep this in mind.
Morgridge Hall, the new home of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Computer, Data and Information Sciences (CDIS) programs, which may soon separate from Letters & Sciences, is officially open for business.
After a two-and-a-half-year construction project which cost $260 million, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin and a host of other speakers cut the ribbon on Morgridge Hall Friday, ushering in a “new AI revolution” that will sweep the campus.
On this day, October 5, 1928, Memorial Union opened on UW-Madison’s campus.
The Memorial Union was the first union to serve beer at a public university, according to the Memorial Union.
“I am not going to be that professor who posts on social media and is promptly pilloried for expressing an opinion.
“Like many academics these days, I have been wanting to weigh in on recent crises and tragedies that are at the top of the news cycle. But such a course hardly seems wise.”
Written by Russ Castronovo, a professor of English and the director of the Center for the Humanities at UW-Madison.
The Department of Equity, Inclusion and Employee Wellbeing (EIEW) within UW-Madison’s Office of Human Resources (OHR) has ceased operations, a UW spokesperson confirmed Thursday.
UW-Madison has shuttered the equity and well-being department in its human resources office, which worked to retain LGBTQ+ and employees of color.
The university established the Office of Equity, Inclusion and Employee Well-Being in spring 2021 to offer consultation and promote inclusive policies and environments, with a focus on support for traditionally marginalized communities.
New research going on at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is focused on how Black residents find and build community in the City of Madison, which is predominantly white.
About a dozen students are part of the first research lab within UW-Madison’s Department of African American Studies. It’s called the Soulfolk Collective.
Overall enrollment held steady. The number of graduate and international students declined, as anticipated. And the University of Wisconsin-Madison welcomed roughly 1,000 of the state’s top students through a new program this fall.
Those were among the key takeaways after Wisconsin’s flagship university released its latest enrollment numbers, based on a student census conducted on the 10th day of classes.
Madison police responded to reports of a fight with a shot fired on Friday in the 200 block of Langdon Street outside Pi Kappa Alpha on UW-Madison’s fraternity row. Authorities took an 18-year-old into custody nearby and recovered physical evidence at the scene.
“We live right over here, and like, past three, four years, we spend so much time on this street. And just to like, the fact that it happened is super scary,” said Jimmy Lynch, a UW-Madison student.
Universities of Wisconsin proposal to redesign general education curriculum would eliminate requirements that students take an ethnic or cultural studies class.
UW system administrators are trying to standardize general education requirements to comply with reforms approved during the biennial budget negotiations aimed at making it easier for students to transfer credits between the 13 universities.
Thirteen winners have been announced in the UW-Madison 2025 Cool Science Image Contest.
Winning snapshots include photos from professors, students, and specialists.
A flock of pink lawn flamingos will again dot the front lawn of UW-Madison’s Bascom Hill next week.
Support from the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association fundraiser, called Fill the Hill, which has happened at UW-Madison for over a decade, is more significant this year than ever amid cuts to federal funding, its organizers say.
City and UW-Madison officials want to make it easier for low-income students to find cheaper housing options.
Under a city zoning change enacted in 2024, downtown developers may exceed maximum story limits as long as they stay under the maximum height permitted under city ordinances and state law. In exchange, developers building student housing are expected to commit a negotiated amount of affordable beds for low-income applicants.
The University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research on Poverty hosted a webinar Sept. 30 to examine the impact of housing quality on families and communities — focusing on health, stability and the lasting effects of discriminatory policies such as redlining.
The event featured presentations from senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Erik Hembre, Emory University assistant professor of epidemiology Christine Ekenga and Boston University assistant professor of sociology Steven Schmidt.
It’s Bucky Badger’s birthday.
The design for the mascot was copyrighted on Oct. 2, 1940, after an illustrator sketched the likeness of an upright badger wearing a cardinal and white sweater. The Library of Congress deemed this Bucky’s birthday.
University of Wisconsin-Madison students will no longer have access to local abortion services, as Madison’s East Planned Parenthood clinic will pause performing abortions in October, forcing students seeking care to travel to the closest clinic located in Rockford, Ill. or independent practices in Milwaukee.
On this day October 2, 1940 “Buckingham Badger,” better known as “Bucky,” was born at UW-Madison.
A Badger mascot has been used by the university since 1889 when intercollegiate football was established.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, for the 2026 academic year went live Wednesday as scheduled, despite the government shutdown.
Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman is urging high school students and their families to fill out FAFSA paperwork if students plan to attend one of the state’s 13 public schools or other private colleges.
Barret Elward is an engineer at UW-Madison, and co-president of United Faculty and Academic Staff (UFAS) Local 223, the union that represents faculty and staff at UW-Madison.
Elward and his team study fusion energy. Their work is mainly funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, which is directly affected by the government shutdown.
“We’ve already been operating under don’t buy the expensive things, or be really cautious about your expenses,” Elward said.
While not the typical cat-owners, University of Wisconsin-Madison students are increasingly adopting cats, touting the benefits of cat ownership.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison placed in the top 40 institutions nationwide for undergraduate education for the fourth year in a row, according to recent rankings by U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison international student enrollment fell to its lowest point in at least a decade, reflecting a national trend caused by shifting visa policies in the United States.
More than 67,000 students applied to UW-Madison this admission cycle, making it the most competitive applicant pool the university has ever seen. But the number of enrolled international students dropped by 30%, reaching its lowest point since at least 2013.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin highlighted the arrival of a record 8,500 freshman, even as she warned of looming challenges tied to federal and state funding and free speech scrutiny in a student media roundtable Tuesday.
According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, much of the university’s research will continue for the time being, even projects that receive federal funding. But international students and staff may be affected as agencies that oversee passports and visas operate with reduced staffs. Similarly, small business loans and federal research grants will be paused or delayed during a shutdown.
Students applying to the University of Wisconsin-Madison will soon need to complete a second, longer financial aid application if they want a share of the millions of dollars in financial aid the university gives out each year.
Starting this fall, UW-Madison will require applicants to fill out the CSS Profile, an online application used by around 270 colleges, universities and scholarship programs to award institutional aid, separate from a different form used to apply for federal financial aid. Students can start working on their CSS Profile Oct. 1.
A panel of media professionals discussed the implications of modern-day censorship at the annual University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Journalism Ethics conference Friday.
“Journalism is a public good,” said Timothy Karr, senior director of strategy and communications at The Free Press. “The government needs to step in to figure out how it can help support that.”
PBS Wisconsin Education, in partnership with the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education, recently launched Whoopensocker, a new educational resource collection for upper elementary learners that provides an on-ramp to writing through group games and scaffolded lessons.
Whoopensocker was first developed as a six-week teaching artist residency by Erica Halverson, a professor in the department of curriculum and instruction at the UW-Madison School of Education. Halverson teamed up with PBS Wisconsin Education to make a multimedia version of the program that’s accessible to more educators around the state and in spaces where an artist residency may not be available.
UW-Madison’s School of Computer, Data, and Information Sciences celebrated its new home Friday.
Morgridge Hall is a privately funded $267 million investment, with Tashia and John Morgridge as the building’s principal donors.
As the fall semester begins, UW–Madison remains committed to maintaining a safe, inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of the campus community, according to UWPD Chief of Police Brent Plisch.
At their first meeting of the semester Sept. 19, the Associated Students of Madison (ASM) Sustainability Committee celebrated the GOLD Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) rating the University of Wisconsin-Madison was recently awarded, while calling for increased student and faculty involvement in combating the climate crisis.
Outside the University of Wisconsin’s Educational Sciences building on West Johnson Street, a new food cart, Aha Momo, opened this past August and is already drawing a crowd. Inside the cart, chef and owner Yeshe Gyatso brings decades of culinary experience to each handmade dumpling.
All core general education courses, or gen-eds, may soon be transferable between the 13 Universities of Wisconsin.
The proposed UW Board of Regents policy is now being shared for comment at the universities. The gen-ed credits, which are classes students must take for graduation outside their majors and minors, would range from 30 to 36 credit hours in 10 to 12 courses in six curricular categories at all the UWs, according to a statement.
Fewer graduate and international students are attending UW-Madison this fall, according to data the university released Thursday — a glimpse into how the deep cuts to federal research and visa crackdowns over the last year are rippling through the university.
The data show a 7% decline in total international student enrollment this fall, a decrease of 490 students, and 9% fewer new graduate and professional students.
UW-Madison was at a “critical juncture,” former Chancellor Donna Shalala told the group, amid budget constraints, critiques of higher education and a host of other issues.
“I look around, and I see a faculty and staff here that is too often trying to do 80 hours of work in a 40-hour week, too often fatigued, too often unheralded for their accomplishments, too often fearful of the future, and cynical about getting the resources they need to do their jobs,” said former Chancellor Donna Shalala.
A new Universities of Wisconsin policy is looking to ensure all core general education credits can transfer between each of the state’s 13 UW universities.
The Board of Regents policy would guarantee the credits earned at one UW university will apply toward graduation requirements at another UW university.
Former Chancellor Donna Shalala and University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin discussed the fragility of research institutions, the importance of undergraduate education and Shalala’s experience as the first female chancellor in the Big Ten at a fireside chat in Union South Monday.
When the University of Wisconsin-Madison launched a Women’s Physical Education Department in 1912, Wisconsin women did not have the right to vote. Women, only reluctantly admitted to UW-Madison in the first place, faced scientific misconceptions, double standards and restrictions from administration. But the department itself was always years ahead of its time, alumni said, from its early days to its eventual merger with the men’s program in 1976.
One of the University Wisconsin-Madison’s largest student organizations packed a lecture hall in Ingraham with over 200 students in attendance last week. The Badger Cheese Club’s goal is to bring Wisconsin’s cheese culture to their 500 official members.
The club of cheese connoisseurs — established in 2006 — offers its members a smorgasbord of cheese each meeting, educates its members on the differences between all the unique types of cheese made in Wisconsin and builds a strong community among its members with a variety of special events.
A proclamation President Donald Trump signed last week slapping a lofty price tag on new H-1B visa applications is shaking up a system Wisconsin’s universities and hundreds of companies use each year to hire thousands of highly skilled workers, researchers and educators from abroad.
