The university announced Thursday that its traditional stadium ceremony will be held for only graduating students in two ceremonies, one for undergraduates and another for graduate students, both of which will be May 8.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank apologized after it was reported that she suggested to other Big Ten leaders that their emails related to the COVID-19 pandemic be moved to a private portal.
Blank issued the apology in a statement Monday, saying, in part, “I regret the language I used in my email exchange with other Big Ten chancellors, which appears as though I intended to use the Big Ten board portal to skirt my public records responsibilities. This was surely not my intention and I apologize for that appearance.
’I think she was right to apologize, and I welcome the fact that it came swiftly and clearly,’ UW ethics and media law professor says.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank apologized for her email correspondence with Big Ten leaders last summer that suggested moving communications to the network’s private platform amid COVID-19 discussions for the fall semester. The University of Wisconsin System is reviewing the matter after learning about it last week, according to a spokesperson.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank apologized on Monday for emails she sent last summer suggesting COVID-19 communications between Big Ten leaders be moved to the network’s private portal, an approach one expert on Wisconsin’s public records law called “clearly illegal.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank was among various Big Ten Conference leaders who aimed to keep conversations about plans for the college football season hidden from public view, opting to use an internal Big Ten portal in lieu of email correspondence, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
When the presidents and chancellors of the 14 Big Ten universities began discussing the prospects of students returning to their campuses last fall amid the coronavirus pandemic and with football season looming, they weighed many considerations, from public health to financial impact.
In other pandemic-related developments Wednesday: UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in taped remarks for the Wisconsin Counties Association’s annual Legislative Exchange meeting that a normal fall semester hinges on the pace of vaccinations for faculty, staff and students. She said the university is an authorized vaccinator and hopes to vaccinate all faculty and staff by the end of the spring semester.
Interim University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank teamed up Wednesday to address the Wisconsin Counties Association at its annual legislative exchange, responding to the governor’s budget announcement and sharing financial updates.
The University of Wisconsin System leadership praised Gov. Tony Evers 2021-2023 budget proposed last week, as it nearly doubled the already-ambitious initial request to help UW pull out of its financial deficit.
COVID-19 has caused the “biggest financial disaster” the university has ever seen, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said. Through federal stimulus money, furloughs, pay cuts for leadership, travel restrictions and targeted budget cuts to different units, Blank said she’s optimistic the financial gap can be resolved over the next two years. But she also renewed her case for giving the university borrowing authority.
In her yearly address Friday to the UW Athletic Board that also touched on budget issues and pending NCAA legislation, Blank said the Badgers have been “more hesitant to jump in if we think there are any risks than some other teams.”
In one of the first campus-wide emails of the new year, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank shared some new, slightly odd wisdom for the semester ahead: “Pool your drool.”
Rebecca Blank, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that Madison’s thriving industries, such as biotechnology, software and gaming, are “areas that are basically all very much rooted in both the students who graduate from here and the faculty and the research work that we do here”.
As we prepare to resume classes, we’re going to continue doing our part to curb the spread of the virus. We learned from experience that a high degree of testing, followed by quickly isolating and quarantining those who test positive or were exposed, is key to limiting that spread.
When COVID-19 cases skyrocketed in early September, Chancellor Rebecca Blank knew she had to try something. So on Sept. 9, the fifth day of classes, when the university reported 404 infections of the nearly 5,300 it would accumulate by the end of the semester, she announced a two-week lockdown for two large dorms and a campus-wide pause on face-to-face instruction. “A lot of people thought that we would never recover from that,” she said in an interview on Friday, the final day of the semester. “More than one person has come up to me and said, ‘I thought we’d never get back to in-person classes. I thought you’d have to send everyone home.’ And, you know, we did recover from that.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank says students enrolling for the spring semester should expect continued restrictions on social gatherings and a mix of in-person and online classes due to COVID-19.
Following an interview with Chancellor Rebecca Blank last month, Black student journalists published a piece expressing dissatisfaction with her response to the concerns of Black students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In another sign that the pandemic is causing major constraints on college budgets, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank has announced that the campus would continue with employee furloughs.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison hired a record number of faculty and graduated a record number of students in the last academic year, Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced Monday.
Blank said economic losses from COVID-19 pandemic have put UW in ’the worst situation that anyone has seen.’
Despite working longer hours than she ever has as the University of Wisconsin-Madison reduced its COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks, Chancellor Rebecca Blank said her to-do list for the fall semester is far from finished.
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.
UW-Madison lifted the quarantine on two of its residence halls following the rapid spread of COVID-19 among students.
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.
Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank each think the other should do more to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Madison.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chancellor Blank and Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow: If you are leading a college or university right now — or if you are making the academic year possible as a member of the faculty or staff at any one of our nation’s institutions of higher education — asking something more of your students in the midst of a global pandemic may seem impractical. But one assignment cannot wait. We urge you to encourage your students to register to vote, to become informed of the issues and the candidates, and to cast a ballot
As expected, Big Ten officials are determined to play football this fall.
The league announced Wednesday morning the 2020 season is scheduled to begin the weekend of Oct. 23-24.
As late as Tuesday morning, University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank said that uncertainty over cardiac complications had driven the August decision to nix fall football, and could still lead the Big Ten to sit out.
“Until we have answers to that, we’re going to keep our season postponed,” she testified before the U.S. Senate’s health committee.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank and Utah State athletic director John Hartwell were among those who testified along with Ramogi Huma, a former UCLA football player and advocate for college athlete rights, and Ohio State director of track and field Karen Dennis.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank asked legislators Tuesday to provide the framework for athletes to earn money for their name, image and likeness.
Sports Illustrated obtained the 1,700-word testimony that Blank submitted ahead of a hearing Tuesday on name, image and likeness before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. While she agrees that NIL reform is needed, Blank plans to tell senators that an unchecked athlete-compensation model could adversely impact Olympic sports and that athletes are already given a “generous package” of benefits that includes thousands of dollars in education, unlimited meals, state-of-the-art medical care and other on-campus resources—many of which normal students do not receive, she notes in the testimony. According to her written testimony, a full scholarship package at Wisconsin is nearly $87,000 for out-of-state students and more than $59,000 for those in state.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank and other university administrators addressed their COVID-19 campus response concerns in a virtual meeting — Blank said the University of Wisconsin stands by their decision to reopen campus despite rising cases and community push back.
The Big Ten chancellors and presidents chatted Sunday about the status of the football season. University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank said some variables have changed since the initial 11-3 vote to postpone the season in August.
University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank gave an update on the school’s response to COVID-19 concerns during a news conference Monday afternoon and defended the decision to bring students back to campus for the fall semester amid the pandemic.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Faculty Senate voted Monday to lengthen winter break and remove spring break next semester, in attempts to discourage travel that might facilitate the spread of COVID-19.
On Monday, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank answered questions about the spike on the campus of the state’s flagship university. Blank defended the decision to bring back students amid criticism that such outbreaks at colleges across the U.S. were inevitable.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank on Monday defended reopening the university this fall, even as criticism mounted, the Faculty Senate scrapped spring break and the number of reported COVID-19 cases on campus exceeded 2,000 infections.
In an interview with PBS Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank defended on Friday the decision to offer a mixture of in-person and online classes, saying the university is taking steps to address the campus’ record-breaking COVID-19 test numbers.
Alarmed by a rise in coronavirus cases on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, Chancellor Rebecca Blank on Monday ordered all undergraduates to restrict their movements for the next two weeks.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, in a blog statement published Wednesday, detailed the steps being taken on campus to allow a “hybrid” reopening — some live classes, some online — and defended the plan as best for students. “Having students on campus and providing in-person instruction, where feasible, provides a better set of educational opportunities for students lacking suitable technology or spaces to effectively study at home,” Blank wrote.
“Nothing is certain about this fall,” Blank said. “We’ll have a testing regime in place that allows us to monitor the rate of infection among different groups on campus. If the infections appear to be growing rather than stable, we will shut down activities on some or all parts of campus.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank delivered a sobering message Wednesday about the state’s flagship campus as the fall semester looms, saying “we’re in a real financial crisis” due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Quoted: No plan for opening a university can be fool-proof, which leads to UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank being both confident in her campus plan and concerned about the things she – and any university’s chief executive – cannot control no matter how comprehensive a plan’s framework is.
“I admit I am both optimisitc and worried. I think we’ve done everything we need to do. We’ve got a lot of moving parts,” Blank told WTMJ’s John Mercure during Tuesday’s WTMJ Cares Special Roundtable.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank has unveiled a series of changes aimed at improving the racial climate on campus, including a mandatory cultural competency workshop for new undergraduate students and a $10 million fundraising campaign to recruit and hire more students and employees of color.
“Today’s announcement is encouraging news for all college students and for American universities,” UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in a statement. “Universities need flexibility to educate students in the most effective manner possible during the pandemic and international students deserve stability and support as they pursue their degrees here.”
UW-Madison remains committed to preserving elements of in-person teaching, with physical distancing requirements and widespread testing. However, as families and faculty continue to ask more specific questions about what school will look like, the university has about five weeks to hash out the details. “This is a big lift,” Blank said at a University Committee meeting Monday. “We’re going to be running the university in virtually every area differently than it’s ever been run before.”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will reopen Sept. 2 for the fall semester with free access to COVID-19 testing, required face coverings and a balance between online and in-person teaching.
Come on back to campus this fall, UW-Madison told its 45,000 students Wednesday.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced plans Monday to begin a careful, phased reopening of the University of Wisconsin-Madison over the summer.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced a slow re-open for employees and students Monday.
From Rebecca M. Blank is chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and chair of the Council of Presidents of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, a research, policy, and advocacy organization. Peter McPherson is president of APLU and former president of Michigan State University.
