A number of University of Wisconsin schools are being recognized for their community engagement.
UW-Madison, UW-Whitewater, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Parkside and UW-Superior are designated as Carnegie Community Engagement Classified campuses.
Avtar Roopra’s research has effectively stalled since President Donald Trump started his second term and upended the federal research funding landscape. Agencies have cut projects, delayed grant reviews, fired thousands of federal employees who offer guidance to researchers and reduced the number of new projects getting funding.
“This is like the Holy Grail of epilepsy, what we’ve been looking for for hundreds of years,” Roopra said. “All of it is on hold. It’s extremely frustrating.”
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a civil rights complaint against the University of Wisconsin-Madison on behalf of conservative students on campus.
The firm alleges the school is offering about two dozen race-based scholarships. WILL is asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate “race-based practices” on behalf of its client, the Young America’s Foundation.
The organization is set to provide $206.9 million in total support to UW-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research this school year, including $50 million toward research projects and nearly $36 million for faculty, graduate students and staff.
Now in its second century, the nonprofit faces challenges, though. The Trump administration’s widespread cuts to federal research funding could limit the number of discoveries coming to WARF.
If your impression is that there are more female students than male students at UW-Madison, you’re not wrong.
In 2025, the university enrolled almost 1,000 fewer men (3,800) than women (4,744) as first-year students. Also, according to data from the university’s office of the registrar, male students are less likely to stay at the university and less likely to graduate on time than women.
One of the proposed constitutional amendments, SJR 94, takes aim at DEI programs throughout state and local government in Wisconsin. Republicans have been targeting DEI programs for years and have at times found success, including when they elicited concessions from the University of Wisconsin system in 2023.
UW-Madison should centralize its human resources operations and consolidate its capital projects into one plan in order to improve oversight, a third-party report commissioned by the university recommends.
The report, which was completed by consulting firm Deloitte, highlighted issues with the school’s HR structure that led to inconsistencies in recruiting, payment and salary adjustment. The university was also found to have limited coordination on capital projects leading to inefficient planning.
In 2025, the Universities of Wisconsin had another packed year.
The fallout from the Trump administration canceling students’ visas, federal funding uncertainty for research, the closure of a branch campus and downsizing of another, the rollout of new policies faculty called controversial and campuswide budget cuts at UW-Madison are just a few of the moments the State Journal covered.
There were many hot topics in higher education in 2025. Here are five of them.
The consulting firm Deloitte is recommending changes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison following the demotion of the school’s diversity leader over financial concerns.
UW-Madison paid Deloitte $395,000 to evaluate its financial and budgetary controls between March and July 2025, according to Mark Pitsch, a spokesperson for the broader UW system, which signed the contract with the firm.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has reclaimed its status among the top five institutions nationally for research spending – the highest ranking the state flagship has earned since 2014.
UW-Madison’s national research ranking has been a sore spot on campus for a decade after the university fell out of the top five for the first time in nearly 45 years. It dropped to No. 8 in 2018. UW-Madison officials at the time attributed the slide in rankings to state budget cuts and the loss of senior faculty members.
UW-Madison is among the top five universities in the country for research spending — the highest ranking the institution has earned since 2014.
A National Science Foundation survey released Tuesday ranked UW-Madison No. 5 out of 925 universities for the $1.93 billion it spent for research in fiscal year 2024, which ran from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024.
Established in 1960, the center says it provides “state-of-the-art resources, including supercomputers, research aircraft, sophisticated computer models and extensive data sets” to the atmospheric and related Earth system science community. It’s funded through the National Science Foundation.
Among other things, the center has helped improve early warnings in weather forecasts and air safety, the American Meteorological Society said in a statement.
Aaron Seligman, a Madison native who previously worked for the Universities of Wisconsin, joined the cohort in February when taking on the new title of director of community relations at Madison Hillel.
The 13 professionals “take on the work of being that adult in the room that models and leads in relationship building with administrators, faculty and other Jewish communal professionals,” Simon said.
Seligman is focusing on areas the University of Wisconsin-Madison found specific needs for in the more than two years since Oct. 7. So far, Seligman has been “collaborating with the university administration on campus policies” and “engaging in media around campus climate and antisemitism,” Seligman said.
Two-thirds of Wisconsin residents hold a favorable opinion of the state’s 16 technical colleges, and a majority believe the state benefits from the education the schools provide.
Those are two findings from a statewide public perception study the Wisconsin Technical College System conducted online this spring, with over 2,300 adults completing the blind survey.
University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are sounding the alarm over a Trump administration plan to dismantle a prominent weather and climate research center, saying it could jeopardize the future of weather forecasting.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research is based in Boulder, Colorado, but is overseen by a consortium of universities, including UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee. The center allows researchers to work together on large projects that no one scientist or university could do alone.
In the Midwest, Indiana, Purdue, and Illinois show similar bottlenecks. In the Northeast, Northeastern’s combined engineering-CS programs have become harder to crack than many Ivy divisions. Even the University of Wisconsin, once known for broad access, now reports sharply lower admit rates in engineering and data science.
For parents and students, the message is sobering: the real competition may not be “between” colleges, but “within” them.
The number of alcohol unit sales at Badgers games at Camp Randall Stadium in 2025 fell 21% compared to the first year of availability at general concession stands in 2024.
That decrease was slightly more than the 20% falloff in the number of fans in the venue between the two seasons. Records obtained through public records requests showed there were slightly fewer alcoholic beverage units sold per ticket scanned in 2025 than in 2024.
Wisconsin lawmakers are considering a bill aimed at closing the state’s racial achievement gaps in schools.
The legislation would allow the University of Wisconsin system to designate one high-performing charter school as a “demonstration public school.”
Starting in the fall 2026 semester, the University of Wisconsin’s Filipino language program will no longer be offered, according to Filipinx American Student Organization Communications Chair Ethan Ham.
The program’s elimination follows federal funding cuts by the Trump administration and the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education’s International and Foreign Language Education program that administers Title VI funding.
Title VI funding was established as part of the Higher Education Act and is used to support foreign language programs.
Which performers headlined concerts at Camp Randall Stadium in 2025, marking the venue’s first concerts in decades?
Under the terms of her employment contract, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin received a bonus this year for staying in her job and for “satisfactory” performance. How much did she receive from the bonus?
Mnookin’s base pay surpassed $892,000 by 2024 after pay raises for UW system employees and “catch-up base salary increases” for multiple chancellors. Her annual bonus for staying is set to increase each year, from $150,000 this year up to $350,000 in 2029.
Chuck Neinas, a longtime administrator in college athletics who was also a Wisconsin native and University of Wisconsin graduate, died Tuesday at 93.
Oscar Rennebohm — who would go on to a magisterial career that included serving as Wisconsin governor and president of the UW-Madison Board of Regents — opened his first Madison pharmacy in 1925. There were eventually more than two dozen Rennebohm’s that were purchased by Walgreens in 1980.
Across the years, major beneficiaries have included the UW School of Nursing, Edgewood University, Access Community Health Centers, the Henry Vilas Zoo — the list is long.
Dr. Earlise Ward is faculty director for the Cancer Health Disparities Initiative (CHDI) and co-director of the T32 Primary Care Research Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She conducts community-engaged clinical intervention research focused on African American adults’ mental health and culturally competent mental health services. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Baruch College, master’s degree in counseling and Brooklyn College and PhD in counseling psychology at UW-Madison.
Donald Dantzler is an alder for the City of Fitchburg, candidate for Dane County Board, and a Survey and Research Specialist for the Madison Metropolitan School District. He was previously faculty and adjunct faculty for UW-Whitewater, and has also worked as a research associate at Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory and a project assistant for the UW System Administration Office of Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Success. He earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UW-Whitewater and is a doctoral candidate in the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis program at UW-Madison.
On one of the coldest days of the year, 2,151 graduates packed into the Kohl Center Sunday to walk the stage and celebrate their UW-Madison graduation. The ceremony featured speeches from UW Regent and former American Family Insurance CEO Jack Salzwedel, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, keynote speaker Grace Vanderhei and student speaker Jeeva Premkumar.
More than a thousand students walked across the stage at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the 2025 Winter Commencement.
UW-Madison student Nai’Taija Williams McMorris is eyeing what’s next. Set to graduate from her nursing program next year, Williams McMorris aspires to enter the master’s program she needs to complete to become a nurse practitioner.
But new federal loan caps going into effect in July may reduce her and other Wisconsin students’ options to enter careers that require a graduate-level degree. The new law lowers the amount of money students seeking some advanced degrees, including nursing, can borrow in federal loans.
Maurice Thomas is chief operating officer at Greater Holy Temple Christian Academy, a 4k-8th grade Christian school in Milwaukee. He is an alum of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and expects to earn a master’s degree in education leadership from Harvard in 2027.
Jerry Jordan is a nationally-known painter working in the style of contemporary realism. He counts the unsung artists of the Harlem Renaissance as his artistic role models. By day, Jordan is an academic and multicultural advisor with the UW-Madison School of Education. He holds a degree in art from UW-Whitewater.
Dr. Bashir Easter is founder of Melanin Minded, a company that aims to empower Black and Latino communities by culturally appropriate resources and support for individuals affected by Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. He began his career in elder care nearly 15 years ago with Milwaukee County as an elder abuse investigator, human services worker, and dementia care program specialist, and later served as associate director of the All of Us Research Program at UW-Madison.
The Legislature is releasing $54 million for the Universities of Wisconsin now that the Board of Regents has fulfilled mandated changes to faculty workloads and students’ general education.
A Republican-led state legislative committee approved new teaching requirements for Universities of Wisconsin faculty Thursday, a condition of the bipartisan state budget passed this summer.
Starting next fall, full-time faculty and instructional academic staff at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee will need to teach at least one course per semester and a minimum of 12 credit hours each school year. Employees at the other 11 state universities face higher requirements.
All credits for general education courses must also be transferable and satisfy general education requirements across the universities by September.
A panel of University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty called for higher institutions to rebuild public trust during a panel Dec. 3, sharing both hopeful and pessimistic sentiments about the Trump administration’s threat to higher education.
History professor Giuliana Chamedes said the ability of students, faculty and staff to speak up has been “central” to restoring democracy and academic freedom. She referenced similarities between the Trump administration’s policies and historical attacks on higher education from fascist regimes, highlighting higher education’s historical ability to overcome persecution.
As final exam season starts, many University of Wisconsin-Madison students are increasingly turning to a new kind of study partner — one that never sleeps, charges hourly rates or judges a panicked 2 a.m. homework question.
Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT have become embedded in student life with 86% of students using AI in their studies, according to a study by the Digital Education Council, marking a rapid cultural shift in how students prepare for exams and complete coursework.
Flagship universities are typically the oldest, largest, and best-funded public research institution in a state, and an examination of those schools across the country find a wide variation in the nonpayment rate on federal student loans. The highest rate is at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, at 19%. The lowest rate — 4% — is found at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. On average, across the 50 states, the nonpayment rate is around 8.5%, or 1 in 12 attendees of flagship public institutions, according to government data. Among the Ivy League schools, some of the most elite universities in the country, the rate ranges from 3% to 5%.
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, who leads the University of Wisconsin-Madison, sees opening a new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence as the right move to support in-demand majors and says funding the school won’t come at the expense of other areas of the university.
At a time when American politics are increasingly polarized and partisan, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is launching a new undergraduate major focused on working across those divides to create evidence-based public policy.
Researchers with a few more years of experience are more protected, but still facing setbacks. Fátima Sancheznieto is an associate researcher at the University of Wisconsin who studied biomedical sciences for her Ph.D., but now focuses on education and social science research. Before the Trump administration began cutting federal research funding, she was looking for faculty positions as an assistant professor — now she’s put that search on hold.
“You always have the — I don’t want to call it imposter syndrome, but — imposter phenomenon of, ‘Do I really belong here?’” Sancheznieto said. “When you start to notice maybe that you’re not getting as many job offers or career advancement opportunities and things like that — is it because I’m out and transgender?”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison won the Big Ten “We Give Blood Drive” competition, earning $1 million that will go toward student or community health initiatives.
The competition, sponsored by Abbott, challenged all Big Ten schools to collect the most blood donations to help address the nationwide blood shortage.
For the first time in more than 40 years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is launching a new college.
Approved by the UW Board of Regents on Thursday, the “College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence” is set to open in July.
“We see the new college as kind of the next step,” UW-Madison Interim Provost John Zumbrunnen said. “We envision it as a hub around computing, data and AI on our campus, but really beyond our campus too.”
The addition of general managers for football and men’s basketball teams contributed to a 15% increase in the total salary for University of Wisconsin athletics administrators this season compared to the year before.
The Badgers are paying 17 people with a title of athletic director, deputy athletic director or associate athletic director a total of nearly $5.1 million in the 2025-26 school year, according to salary information provided by the university through a public records request and the contract for AD Chris McIntosh.
Surrounded by tools and wires in his lab at UW-Madison, Luis Izet Escaño holds up a tiny object, 3D-printed with metal powder in a device he created. It’s a little product that could lead to something much bigger, and he’s crafted it through his startup company.
That effort is getting some help from a new program at UW-Madison, through which he gets some seed money from the university and one year of training, with the help of campus experts, to get his company out of the door and pitch it to real-world investors.
The University of Wisconsin won in the second season of Abbott and the Big Ten’s We Give Blood Drive, overcoming Nebraska in a close contest.
Running from Aug. 27 through Dec. 5, the “We Give Blood” competition, was announced at the 2025 Discover Big Ten Football Championship Game in Indianapolis.
More academic programs at Wisconsin’s public universities could be on the chopping block under a new metric campuses must use to monitor enrollment trends.
The Universities of Wisconsin, also known as the UW system, formed a taskforce last year to explore program cuts in response to declining enrollment and persistent financial pressures.
UW-Madison has the go-ahead to start a new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence.
The UW Board of Regents on Thursday gave UW-Madison permission to move the School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences (CDIS) out of the College of Letters and Science and transform it into the new college.
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved the reorganization of the School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences to create a new, standalone College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence during its December meeting on Thursday.
UW Board of Regents approved UW-Madison’s proposal to create a College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence (CAI), school officials announced on Thursday
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences (CDIS) will be reorganized into the College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence under a proposal approved by the UW Board of Regents Thursday.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison received approval to separate the school’s largest and fastest-growing majors into a new college focused on Artificial Intelligence and computing ahead of next fall.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents voted unanimously Thursday to authorize creation of a new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence (CAI) at UW-Madison, the first new academic division since 1983, when UW-Madison created the School of Veterinary Medicine.
A series of federal and campus funding cuts have plunged the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s foreign language programs into financial uncertainty.
Last spring, UW-Madison regularly offered 31 different foreign languages through the fourth semester level, but now, the future of many lesser-taught languages are in limbo after the Trump administration withheld federal funding and university-ordered campus-wide budget cuts.
For the first time in 42 years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison will launch a new college.
In 1983, the college opened the School of Veterinary Medicine so students could learn how animals and humans relate.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is set to create a new college for the first time in more than 40 years.
The Board of Regents — which oversees UW-Madison and Wisconsin’s 12 other public universities — approved a proposal Thursday to establish the College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence.
This is one of those moments where I can really say I did walk a mile and trudge uphill in the snow to find out about a grade. I was an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and when professors posted grades, it was on a sheet outside their office door, and since we didn’t have email, we just relied on when they said they might be posting the grades. It was common to arrive at the door and find that nothing was posted yet. We did not bang on the door, asking why it had taken a little longer. We didn’t march to the provost’s or president’s office and demand to talk to someone about our complaints. Instead, we walked back downhill, picked up a coffee, and headed home. A day or two later, we would try again. And if we had questions about those grades, we checked the syllabus for when the office hours were and planned to see the professor then.
John Miller, who previously served on the UW Board of Regents and several national boards and commissions, has been appointed secretary and CEO of the state’s top economic development agency, Gov. Tony Evers announced Wednesday.
Following the Trump Administration’s crackdown on higher education, University of Wisconsin-Madison administrators, student and faculty groups alike have stepped up lobbying efforts.
Lobbying reports from OpenSecrets show UW-Madison has spent $831,000 on lobbying since the beginning of the year, but information from the last quarter of the year has not been reported yet. During all of 2024, UW-Madison spent $807,000.
The leader of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Graduate School is anticipating another “cautious” admissions cycle for students seeking a spot on campus next school year.
Dean William Karpus’ remark at a campus meeting followed guidance he recently sent to the university’s graduate programs to help them prepare for fall 2026 enrollment.
A series of federal and campus funding cuts have plunged the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s foreign language programs into financial uncertainty.
Last spring, UW-Madison regularly offered 31 different foreign languages through the fourth semester level, but now, the future of many lesser-taught languages are in limbo after the Trump administration withheld federal funding and university-ordered campus-wide budget cuts.
Ono is an outlier whose career has been untraditional since the very beginning. As a child, pressure from his parents made him so miserable that he didn’t finish high school. Without a diploma, he still went to college, developed his passion for math and taught for decades at the University of Wisconsin and Emory before moving to UVA in 2019. He also led the nation’s top research program for elite undergraduates and mentored 10 winners of the Morgan Prize, including his new boss.
This State Journal editorial ran on Dec. 11, 1925:
It is probable that no street the length of Langdon Street in the state has dwelt so many significant people of the earlier period.
The sons and daughters of Langdon Street are known in the world’s affairs, and today are carrying on in many places. The ancestral homes have no special right to complain that, in the march of progress, they have been intruded upon.
The Badger Herald requested text messages and emails from university officials involved in the visa terminations issue in order to look at the inner workings of the university and, in particular, the communications department.
