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.
She acknowledged, the university is having serious financial issues. “We’re currently estimating that in an optimistic scenario, where we have the majority of our students back on campus in the fall and fully paying tuition, we’re going to lose about $120 million dollars,” said Blank .”That doesn’t count any future cuts from the state government.”
In response to concerns that this may hurt potential UW-Madison applicants, Chancellor Rebecca Blank said the university is working one-on-one with “a very small number of people” who may not have had the opportunity to take the exams. She said the vast majority of applicants were able to do so before submitting applications, which were due Feb. 1.
State campuses in Milwaukee and Madison unveiled more information on their plans to furlough employees this week, with the aim of mitigating the mounting financial fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.
University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty and staff will be taking three to six unpaid furlough days over the next six months, which Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Wednesday will save the university up to $30 million.
UW-Madison is ordering most of its employees to take varying amounts of unpaid time off over the next six months and university leaders will take a 15% pay cut over that same time as COVID-19 costs grow and the campus remains mostly closed.
“There may be some things we simply cannot do in the fall,” UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Monday to the University Committee, a small group of professors representing faculty members on campus. “It is quite possible that 80,000 people cannot gather in Camp Randall.”
In the earlier stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chancellor Rebecca Blank’s biggest priority was making sure UW-Madison finished its spring semester. As the university works to make that happen, Blank said it is taking the opportunity to tackle immediate concerns — including $100 million in losses — but also prioritize campus safety and prevention moving forward.
Multiple Wisconsin universities on Wednesday took dramatic steps to ward off or curb the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, everything from moving courses online to canceling university-sponsored travel and events to extending spring break.
UW-Madison will suspend in-person classes for at least three weeks, an unprecedented action by Wisconsin’s largest university taken to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank “strongly advised” students and employees Monday to reconsider non-essential personal and business travel away from Dane County. The guidance comes a week before the start of the university’s spring break.
Officials are dusting off a “campus pandemic plan” put together 10 years ago when the H1N1 virus became a worldwide concern, she said. The plan is being reviewed and updated to prepare for the possibility of coronavirus spreading to campus.
Billionaire Badgers John and Tashia Morgridge announced another gift to their alma mater Thursday that will support up to $70 million in matching donations for faculty recruitment and retention at UW-Madison.
Though the Badger football team may not be headed to the acclaimed Cheez-It Bowl, there will still be a hint of cheese in their bowl plans.
MADISON (WLUK) — University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor Becky Blank announced she wagered cheese that the Badgers will beat the Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl.
Chancellors across the University of Wisconsin System will each get 2% raises next year, totaling just over $73,800 across the 13 campus leaders.
Faculty at all 13 University of Wisconsin System campuses have called on the UW Board of Regents to expand its presidential search committee and include representation from the faculty, staff and students whom the next president will oversee.
Quoted: “The increase in our minimum wage is a key part of our strategy for helping the university recruit and retain high-quality workers,” UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in a statement. “Employees who will benefit from this increase make important contributions to our teaching, research and outreach missions.”
On this week’s “Center Stage” political podcast Milfred and Hands play audio from and comment on the recent debate between President Donald Trump booster Stephen Moore and never-Trumper Max Boot on the UW-Madison campus.
In response to the story in Wednesday’s State Journal “Wisconsin students make up smallest share of UW-Madison freshman class in at least 25 years,” we want to challenge the focus of the article and reiterate that our commitment to Wisconsin students and families has never been stronger. Moreover, we believe the coverage should have reflected that this class is actually a winner for the university, the state and its economy.
Wisconsinites understand the issues associated with the case of Quintez Cephus, and the dilemma facing UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank. She’ll be damned if she decides to reinstate the former Badger wide receiver and to allow him to attend the university this fall, and she’ll be damned if she doesn’t.
No matter what UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank decides, she will be criticized.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank, surrounded by about three dozen members of the Ho-Chunk Nation, dedicated a new heritage marker on Bascom Hill last week that recognizes the campus as the ancestral home of the Ho-Chunk tribe.
An internal review of UW-Madison’s admissions policies found no exposure in the “Varsity Blues” admissions scandal that rocked several elite institutions earlier this year.
With the end of the 2018-19 school year approaching, The Badger Herald interviewed University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank on a range of issues, including higher education funding, the campus climate and UW mental health services.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank released a statement that highlighted the merit of the University of Wisconsin System as a whole, but also focused on UW-Madison’s position as a land grant university Wednesday in response to the nationwide college admissions scandal.
University of Wisconsin-Madison freshman Mackenzie Straub told the UW System Board of Regents on Friday, Feb. 8, that the new Bucky’s Tuition Promise program has made a big difference for her.
Last summer, UW Cooperative Extension moved into the UW-Madison as part of the UW System reorganization. This move creates new opportunities for each organization to be a better resource for the state and its communities.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank testified for the NCAA in an antitrust lawsuit in September, arguing in favor of compensation limits for college athletes.
The Board of Regents approved lucrative raises for 10 of the 13 chancellors during a closed meeting Thursday at UW-La Crosse, saying the chancellors’ salaries must remain competitive to ensure quality leaders stay in their jobs.
The University of Wisconsin System’s governing board behind closed doors denied its longest-serving chancellor a performance raise, an action UW System President Ray Cross already warned of last month following UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow’s decision to invite a porn star to speak on campus.
Column by Chancellor Blank and Brad Schwartz, CEO of the Morgridge Institute for Research, for the “Stem Cells @20: Celebrating Historic Discovery series.
NEW ORLEANS—Universities can turn challenges into opportunities through resilience. That was the central focus of the annual Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) meeting that brought senior-level college administrators together to strategize on how best to serve their students.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank has co-penned a letter to U.S. Education Department Secretary Betsy DeVos urging her to oppose a potential policy change that would narrowly define gender as male or female based on biology.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank says she is “really, deeply worried” about funding for the university’s building projects.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank’s involvement in an NCAA antitrust trial may not have ended with her testimony last week.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank sounded a warning this week about the future of intercollegiate athletics at the school if it is forced to pay student-athletes. But in a statement Tuesday, a UW spokesperson said the school had no plans to stop offering athletics after Blank testified a day earlier at an NCAA antitrust trial that the university may not sponsor a sports program if it’s not an amateur endeavor.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said this project, however, is a unique one in that it has been six years in the making and includes one of the largest private/public partnerships in the university’s history. In eight months, almost 200 partners came together to donate $16 million toward the project.
Quoted: “The facility is going to be one of the premiere dairy education and research centers in the nation,” Blank said. “And most importantly, it’s going to be a hub for discovery and innovation for Wisconsin’s dairy industry, working closely with our faculty and our students.”
In 1983, UW-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty tried to recruit a young female professor to be their next postdoctoral fellow, according to then-director Sheldon Danziger.
Foxconn Technology Group intends to invest $100 million in engineering and innovation research at UW-Madison that will help fund an interdisciplinary research facility for students and faculty to collaborate closely with the company’s Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park near Racine.
This Sunday, Rebecca Blank will mark the fifth anniversary of her starting date as Madison chancellor. That matches Shalala’s tenure, but maybe we should look at Blank’s as a de facto 10 years, because for all of her time here, Blank has essentially held two jobs.
