Faculty members from at least two universities have held no-confidence votes in recent weeks against their top leaders, in part over reopening decisions. Government leaders want the University of Wisconsin-Madison to send its students home. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, alarmed by what he sees as draconian rules on college campuses, said he is drawing up a “bill of rights” for college students.
In Wednesday’s newsletter, we mentioned a spat between the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin and the executive of the surrounding Dane County. Over the past week, there have been an average of 2,018 cases per day in Wisconsin, an increase of 112 percent from the average two weeks earlier, according to a Times tracker.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison lifted quarantine orders for two of its largest dorms on Wednesday, on a day when the state added 56 hospitalizations from COVID-19 complications to its record total.
Just two weeks after going remote because of a COVID-19 spike, the University of Wisconsin Madison is resuming in-person activities, despite what Gov. Tony Evers described as a “near-exponential” increase in coronavirus cases in the state.
The Nicholas Recreation Center is scheduled to open Monday with limited capacity on the site of the former Southeast Recreational Facility near the Kohl Center and LaBahn Arena. The University Recreation and Wellbeing building includes the Soderholm Family Aquatic Center that will be home to the Badgers swimming and diving teams.
The positivity rate for students has decreased to a level the University feels safe for in-person classes to resume.
When the news came down, drum major Josh Richlen said his first reaction was disappointment. “There are a lot of good memories from being in Camp Randall, so it’s just really unfortunate to not be able to do that this year,” he said.
A small group of UW-Madison students is feeding hundreds of others for free. They’re making quarantine grocery shopping healthy and affordable.
Young people account for a large share of new cases in many states. Cases in Wisconsin among 18- to 24-year-olds spiked 220% between the week of Aug. 23 and Sept. 6 while ticking up 30% among those age 65 and older. The University of Wisconsin has reported 1,945 cases since students returned to campus last month.
Three University of Wisconsin students collaborated to create an app that aims to help students meet others from their campus on a virtual platform amid social distancing.
In the past, Governor Tony Evers has supported UW students returning to campus, but he’s wary about what having football games back could mean for the state’s already high COVID-19 numbers.
The UW Marching Band announced Thursday that the Big Ten Conference decided bands will not participate in this football season. The conference may revisit the decision later.
Although COVID-19 cases have continued to spike in Madison and Dane County, public health officials say a rising number of cases are not connected to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank says the campus will begin to reopen Saturday following a two-week lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 among undergraduate students.
Shannon Abolins and her roommate rushed to the closest Walgreens the night of September 9. They had heard rumors that their dorm building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison would be going into a two-week quarantine in just a few hours.
But young people have historically had the lowest turnout among any age group. And now with a growing list of temporary shutdowns at University of Wisconsin System campuses and general uncertainty caused by COVID-19 outbreaks, some college students are facing a new set of challenges in the final stretch of the 2020 campaign.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said the campus will begin to reopen Saturday following a two-week lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 among undergraduate students.
UW-Madison lifted the quarantine on two of its residence halls following the rapid spread of COVID-19 among students.
According to an email sent to students Wednesday morning, some courses will resume in-person or hybrid learning Saturday. The email said students enrolled in those courses will be contacted by their instructors no later than Friday.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is slowly phasing back to in-person classes and activities after two weeks of online learning and quarantines in two residence halls.
UW-Madison lifted quarantine orders for two of its largest dorms on Wednesday and will soon phase in some face-to-face classes, the first easing of restrictions since COVID-19 cases spiked on campus about two weeks ago.
“It’s kind of disempowering knowing that such crimes against humanity can go unpunished, especially as a Black woman,” Juliana Bennett said. Bennett is one of the co-founders of UW-Madison BIPOC Coalition. BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous and People of Color. The group seeks to elevate the voices of students from these populations.
UW-Madison posted its official enrollment numbers for the fall of 2020 on Tuesday, revealing that the student body has grown to an unprecedented size with its second largest class of first-year students in university history despite complications posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison published its official enrollment numbers Tuesday, touting record-breaking total enrollment and its second-largest freshman class in history despite the challenges of opening a campus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Madison, Wis., Dane County Executive Joe Parisi has repeatedly criticized University of Wisconsin officials who decided to bring students back to campus despite the high risk of new infections.
Tuesday, University of Wisconsin’s Distinguished Lecture Series hosted political strategist LaTosha Brown for a virtual event on voter suppression.
University spokeswoman Meredith McGlone responded in an email that segregated fees fund “critical services,” including UHS and tutoring, which are ongoing. “All of these services continue to be provided to the fullest extent possible, both in person where appropriate and virtually,” McGlone said. “It is simply not correct to say there is ‘extremely limited or no access’ to these services. We are continuing to collect these fees to support these services.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank issued a statement Monday regarding COVID-19 at the university and in off-campus areas throughout Madison.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank issued yet another statement on Monday in response to one from Dane County officials asking that the university take responsibility for rising positive cases.
Exam proctoring software Honorlock’s use at the University of Wisconsin recently came into question as professors and students alike attempt to navigate the online learning environment.
The Student Services Finance Committee heard a diversity training presentation and appointed a representative for the Student Transportation Board at their meeting Monday.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank and Dane County Executive Joe Parisi recently released statements on UW’s decision to hold in-person classes this semester.
We all have our music tastes, and for many of us, they come from the great musicians of our time. There are the Drakes, the Elton Johns and the Taylor Swifts whose lyrics run through our minds and playlists. The music world seems to be dominated by them.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s chancellor on Monday pushed back against repeated calls from Dane County’s top leaders to close the campus to slow COVID-19, saying he needs to stop wishing students were gone and crack down on off-campus gatherings.
Dane County is again asking the University of Wisconsin-Madison to move classes online for the rest of the semester and send students living in residence halls home to curtail a spike in new coronavirus infections.
As we look for clues, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is one to watch. Desperate to contain the virus, the school this month mandated that residents of two dormitories and 22 Greek houses quarantine for two weeks. “I literally felt like I was being arrested,” one student told a TV reporter.
Within weeks of opening, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University reverted to online instruction and sent students home because of outbreaks of Covid-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Arizona have urged students to hunker down and shifted classes online, for at least a few weeks, to try to stem the virus’s spread.
Tensions between UW-Madison and the community at large escalated on Monday when Chancellor Rebecca Blank called on Dane County’s top leader to stop criticizing the university’s reopening plan and instead address the county’s increased COVID-19 caseload together.
While the sharp increase in cases can partially be attributed to students testing positive at college campuses, it’s unlikely the only factor. As of Friday, the University of Wisconsin Madison – the state’s flagship public university – reported 2,511 new cases on campus, just since the fall semester started last week.
Two downtown restaurants told NBC15 they still feel safe serving the community and are continuing to enforce several safety protocols.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison said it is investigating hundreds of students and a handful of student organizations on suspicion of public health violations, according to an email sent to students Friday afternoon.
Blackhawk Church Pastor of College-Age & Young Adult Ministry Michael Knapstad said the Middleton church has created an adopt-a-dorm program.
Big Ten Conference leaders are hoping that their third crack at a league football schedule will stick.
Eight Wisconsin cities that are home to University of Wisconsin System schools made the New York Times’ list of metro areas with the fastest growing COVID-19 cases this week.
UW-Madison students living in 22 quarantined Greek houses say uncertainty about the future has made them consider taking drastic measures.
The UW-Madison College of Engineering received a $32 million donation pledge from The Grainger Foundation of Lake Forest, Illinois — the largest donation in the College’s history.
A UW-Madison graduate student resigned from their co-presidency of the Teachers Assistant Association after coming under fire for misrepresenting their racial identity.
Eight Wisconsin metro areas have landed on the New York Times’ list of places across the country where new cases of COVID-19 are rising the fastest.
La Crosse is number one on the New York Times’ list, which was updated Thursday afternoon. In third is Whitewater, and the Oshkosh-Neenah area is in eighth. Stevens Point, Appleton, Platteville, Madison and Green Bay take up the 15th through 19th spots of the list, respectively.
With the exception of Appleton, all the Wisconsin cities on the list are home to a University of Wisconsin System campus.
Dane County confirmed 210 new coronavirus cases this morning, as yesterday’s Data Snapshot from Public Health Madison Dane County (PHMDC) reported 72 percent of all new cases the September 1-14 were from UW students and staff. Today’s new cases bring the total for the county to 8,461 as of this morning. There are 6,548 recovered cases while 1,872 are currently active. This brings the percentage of active cases to 22 percent.
Noted: Just over three-quarters of those recent cases were found in University of Wisconsin-Madison students and staff, with students making up the vast majority, 1,808 to 10 for the UW staff, PHMDC data notes indicate. Nearly 1,400 of the total cases were linked to college-age housing clusters, such as forms, apartment complexes with 10 or more cases, and fraternities and sororities.
As the state set a new daily COVID-19 case record that health officials say is driven by infections on college campuses, Madison City Council members raised concerns Thursday about how to manage crowds and parties during Badger football games.
Even though not every University of Wisconsin-Madison student has been tested for COVID-19, at least seven percent of the entire student body has already tested positive for the virus, new Dane Co. numbers show.
Do not gather to watch Badger games this fall. That’s the simple message coming from Dane Co. health officials, just hours after the Big Ten reversed course and announced an abbreviated football season would kick off late next month.
Public Health Madison & Dane County (PHMDC) says that contact tracing found more than 88 percent of University of Wisconsin Madison students that test positive for COVID-19 are showing symptoms associated with the virus.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison student has been hospitalized with COVID-19 complications, the university announced Wednesday.
Robyn George, a first year student and the new Legislative Affairs Chair of ASM at UW-Madison, is hoping to create change in suburban communities through the non-profit organization Suburbs for Equality, where she currently serves as founder and president.
Missing the companionship of her dog at home, UW-Madison senior Becca Bell decided to bring the comforts of a furry friend to her college apartment.
The Associated Students of Madison’s Equity and Inclusion Committee gathered on Zoom for their first meeting of the year Wednesday to discuss confronting equity injustices at the University of Wisconsin.
But like many students at UW, coming to the state’s flagship university from her rural town meant leaving the farm she loves and coming to the city. And in the city, as the rural rumors seem to go, there isn’t much whim or knowledge about the farms the state relies on.
Noted: The new cases come as colleges and universities across the state continue to grapple with outbreaks of the virus on and around their campuses.
Nearly 90% of University of Wisconsin-Madison students who have tested positive for COVID-19 have exhibited symptoms, public health officials said Wednesday.
