You’re one of the smartest people in the country. You’ve had success throughout your career, academically and professionally. You serve on several boards of international businesses and joined public policy debates. You’ve answered questions on national issues posed by conservative and liberal talk show and podcast hosts.
But you might write the following note turning down a suggestion that you apply to be the next president of the Universities of Wisconsin.
Purdue and the University of Wisconsin-Madison each plan to add 50 new faculty positions in AI before 2030.
UW Board of Regents leaders on Thursday defended their decision to oust the Universities of Wisconsin president, describing a man who had successes, but who also had a top-down management style and clashed with the Regents on several occasions.
The Regents on Tuesday night unanimously voted to fire Jay Rothman, without any public discussion, drawing criticism from legislative Republicans that the board wasn’t being transparent.
Republican lawmakers are threatening to remove members of the UW Board of Regents after the Board asserted its own authority to fire the Universities of Wisconsin president.
The Regents unanimously voted without discussion Tuesday to fire President Jay Rothman, who has led the about 165,000-student and 13-university system since 2022.
Kristin Eschenfelder, a professor and associate dean, will serve as the interim dean of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s largest academic unit, the College of Letters & Science.
The appointment is effective on May 17, concurrent with the beginning of Dean Eric M. Wilcots’s term as interim chancellor.
Eschenfelder, who has been on campus since she joined the Information School faculty in 2000, has served as the L&S academic associate dean and associate director for the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences since it launched in 2019.
Fired Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman told The Associated Press on Wednesday in his first interview since the ouster that he was “blindsided” by the move but has no hard feelings and is unlikely to sue.
Rothman was fired on Tuesday night in a unanimous vote by the board of regents following a roughly 30-minute closed-door discussion. Regents have not given a reason for firing Rothman, who was in the job for just under four years.
The board of Wisconsin’s public university system voted on Tuesday to fire President Jay O. Rothman, who angered Democrats and faculty members for bargaining with the Republican-led State Legislature and recently defied regents pressing for his resignation.
The decision was unanimous, with 17 members of the board — which is controlled by appointees of Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat — voting to remove Mr. Rothman. One member was not present for the vote.
The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents scheduled a Tuesday vote to consider firing the system’s president, who refused their offer to quietly resign because he said no reason had been given for the surprise ouster.
Jay Rothman said in two letters sent to regents that he would not resign from leading the 165,000-student system without an explanation of what he had done wrong.
University of Wisconsin–Madison graduate programs are once again highly ranked among the nation’s best in the 2026 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools.”
Highlights include high marks in several specific rankings — with nearly 20 ranking in their respective top 10 lists — shining a light on the breadth and depth of the university’s overall graduate offerings.
The UW Board of Regents appears poised to fire the Universities of Wisconsin president, after a dayslong standoff between the top leader and the board.
The Regents will convene virtually at 5 p.m. Tuesday, enter a closed session to discuss President Jay Rothman’s termination, and then may reconvene in public session, according to the meeting notice published Monday afternoon.
University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman has refused to resign at the Board of Regents’ request, the Associated Press first reported Thursday.
Rothman, who has led the System for nearly four years, said that he will not step aside and has been given no reason from the Regents for why they are requesting his removal in a letter to the Regents, obtained by The Daily Cardinal. In a second letter, he claimed the Regents planned to fire him over the weekend which would make him the first UW System president to be fired.
The president of the University of Wisconsin system said in letters obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday that he has been told to either resign or be fired, but has been given no reason and won’t step aside.
Jay Rothman, president of the multicampus 165,000-student university system since 2022, said in a letter addressed to the head of the Board of Regents dated March 26 that he has been given no reason why regents want him to leave.
Jay Rothman’s tenure as Universities of Wisconsin president hasn’t been without controversy, but it’s not clear yet why the UW Board of Regents has asked him to resign or be fired.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that Rothman wrote in a letter to the Regents that he is resisting the board’s request for him to step aside as leader of the 13-university system because they didn’t give him a reason.
Jordan Siegler has been named Executive Director of Wisconsin Public Media (WPM), a division at the University of Wisconsin–Madison that delivers the services of PBS Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) to statewide audiences.
The appointment was announced today by UW-Madison Provost John Zumbrunnen.
“There is no prize for second place,” said Greg Keenan of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. “It is critical that the U.S. win the race for quantum technologies. Fortunately for us, UW-Madison is home to some of the world’s most significant breakthroughs in quantum science.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison students, alumni and professors who came to Washington to lobby for more research funding got schooled on just how important that funding is.
University researchers explained how federally funded work in quantum physics and mechanics led to the invention of GPS, lasers and MRI technology.
AI technology is developing so fast, experts say advances are becoming hard to measure.
Recognizing this, the Universities of Wisconsin has launched a free series of videos for people who need a starting point.
The AI Skills Access Passport (ASAP) was developed in partnership with UW Credit Union. The series is designed for the general public.
An education foundation has sued Washington County over its plans to sell the former University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Washington County campus to a private Christian school.
Students at UW-Madison’s student radio station WSUM are celebrating a recent winning streak of awards, including a top honor of best college station in the nation from the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS).
After nearly four hours of contentious debate, the Associated Students of Madison reached their meeting’s time limit Wednesday and failed to vote on a resolution which would call on the University of Wisconsin System to divest from Israel.
In a rare moment of drama in the Senate Tuesday, a bill that would give the UW-Madison athletics department millions to pay down debt and free up other money for revenue-sharing with players passed by a single vote that changed just as the legislation appeared doomed.
The Wisconsin Badgers are one step closer to receiving taxpayer support as they adapt to the changing college sports landscape.
With a one-vote margin, the state Senate on March 17 approved a bill to provide taxpayer funding for athletic facility debt service and formalize rules around name, image and likeness. Eleven Republicans and six Democrats voted in favor of the bill, while seven Republicans and nine Democrats voted against it.
Following the sports and money theme, the Senate will also consider a bill that would give more than $14 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for athletic facility costs in order to offset the money the school pays student athletes in NIL deals.
Richard Leffler never heard of The University League before meeting his wife, Joan, and for years, he attended events only as her guest. When she became president, he watched her lead the nonprofit through the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home to keep programs afloat.
“She worked all day on that computer. She got her own Zoom subscription. Anything she did, she did 100%,” Leffler said.
Since its founding in 1901, the organization has grown from a small social group of faculty wives into a nonprofit that awards scholarships to University of Wisconsin-Madison students and sustains a vibrant community of members. It awarded over $166,000 in scholarships last year.
John Zumbrunnen doesn’t pretend to have all the answers as the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s new provost. He doesn’t actually think he should.
A provost’s job, he said, is to “make sure that campus is asking the right, big strategic questions” and bring together teams in “search for the answers.”
That’s the pitch Zumbrunnen recently made as he sought to become UW-Madison’s next chief academic officer and the second-highest ranking leader on campus.
Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh remains optimistic about the outlook of proposed legislation that would provide taxpayer support for athletic facility debt service and codify rules around name, image and likeness.
“I think there’s a tremendous amount of receptivity to the bill and what’s in the bill,” McIntosh said.
One of the groups experiencing the “Wild West” of current college athletics wants even less oversight.
Big Ten Conference leaders want the NCAA to pause investigations and possible punishments against teams for tampering with athletes around transfer portal windows, according to a letter sent by the Big Ten to the NCAA that was obtained Wednesday by ESPN. The conference, which includes the University of Wisconsin, believes the rules regarding contact with transfers can’t keep up with the rest of the changes made to the landscape of college sports.
In response to questions from the State Journal, DOA spokesperson Tatyana Warrick wrote in an email that the RFP “was posted in error.”
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the request was simply posted prematurely or the state has reconsidered the idea. A spokesperson for Gov. Tony Evers’ administration did not respond to requests for comment from the State Journal.
The University League is celebrating 125 years of providing student scholarships to UW-Madison students, while also promoting volunteer, educational and social activities for its members.
The league has 31 endowed scholarships, along with a general scholarship fund.
Angelina Vang said she knew she wanted to go to college since her freshman year.
She has choices – she’s been accepted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Loyola University and DePaul University. She’s looking to study medicine and become an emergency physician.
The office has also supported Yang, who plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“A lot of the students here are first generation,” Yang said. “Having that support really builds our self-esteem and making sure that we know what we want to do in the future and how we can go to college or enter the workforce.”
Wisconsin lawmakers moved closer to providing millions in taxpayer funding to help the University of Wisconsin-Madison athletics department compete in the evolving landscape of college sports name, image and likeness programs.
The Joint Finance Committee approved Bill 1034 on Wednesday afternoon in an 8-5 bipartisan vote, advancing legislation that would allocate $14.6 million to UW athletics. The bill could reach the Senate floor as soon as next week.
A statue of Vel Phillips stands at the corner of Main and Carroll streets in Madison — the only statue of a Black woman on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Capitol.
Phillips, who became the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s law school in 1951, built a career defined by historic firsts in Wisconsin politics and civil rights.
Wisconsin lawmakers are advancing a bill through the Senate that would place policies in statute and provide funding to help the University of Wisconsin navigate changes in college sports allowing student athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness (NIL).
The Legislature’s budget committee voted Wednesday to give more than $14 million a year to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for athletic facilities costs as the sports powerhouse pays student athletes for “name, image, likeness” deals, known as NIL.
But the vote on the GOP-led Joint Finance Committee suggests the legislation will require Democratic votes to get over the finish line in the Senate.
As recent changes to immigration policy under the Trump administration lead to a decline in foreign student enrollment across the country, some current and prospective international students feel uncertain about their future in the U.S.
The U.S. saw its largest decline in foreign enrollment in a decade, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic, as international enrollment for the 2025-26 academic year fell by 17%.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, freshman international enrollment declined by 30%, with only 325 students joining this academic year compared to 506 students the year before.
Fewer than 10 percent of faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison identify as conservative, while 70 percent identify as liberal, according to a new poll from the school’s Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.
The study surveyed 2,388 tenured and tenure-track faculty across all of UW–Madison’s schools and colleges on ideological composition, campus climate, academic freedom, free expression and hiring.
The Trump administration disrupted university research last year by canceling grants, delaying new awards and seeking other policy changes that put millions of dollars in jeopardy both in and beyond Wisconsin.
“There continues to be great volatility and uncertainty around federal funding, which is our largest single source of external revenue,” Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said at a campus meeting last month.
W-Madison has named John Zumbrunnen provost after he’s served in the interim role since June, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced Monday.
On Feb. 21, the station took home one of the highest awards in college journalism: the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System named WSUM the best college station in the nation.
Kelsey Brannan, the director of student radio at WSUM — one of the station’s two full-time employees — said WSUM’s students provide listeners with authentic shows and music that aren’t replicated on other stations or streaming services.
“You’re hearing students bring in music that you’re not hearing anywhere else,” Brannan said. “They’re telling news stories from their perspective that you’re not getting from the national news or even local outlets — it’s a really unique perspective. You’re hearing sportscasters who are students who are calling the games that their peers are participating in. There’s something really special about that.”
Interim Provost John Zumbrunnen has been selected to hold the role of provost permanently, beating out finalists Anna Stenport (the University of Georgia) and Charles Martinez Jr. (the University of Texas-Austin), the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced Monday.
John Zumbrunnen has been appointed as the provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin announced. The position is the second to the chancellor UW, managing all academic program and budget planning.
John Zumbrunnen, who has served as interim provost for UW-Madison since June 2025, saw that interim tag removed Monday. He was also named the school’s executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced.
John Zumbrunnen has been named the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced Monday.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is tapping a longtime professor to fill one of its most important positions on campus.
John Zumbrunnen, 55, was named the provost on March 9, two months before UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin departs to become the next president of Columbia University.
This year, Mount Mary University became the first college in Wisconsin to offer a reduced-credit bachelor’s degree.
The Universities of Wisconsin could soon follow.
Last week, the Board of Regents Education Committee unanimously approved revising a policy that would allow campuses to offer 90-credit degrees.
The approval on March 5 did not yet establish three-year degrees.
Outgoing Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin praised the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s artificial intelligence initiatives in her address to the Board of Regents last month, including one new tool researchers have been using to partner with industry partners and collaborators.
A new report by Alex Tahk, director of the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, reveals the results of an important survey of UW Madison faculty. But there are serious problems with the survey questions, and we need to be careful not to adopt Tahk’s claims about “ideological imbalance and its consequences” uncritically.
“As I argue in a new essay for Inquisitive magazine, institutional neutrality as originally formulated by the University of Wisconsin in 1894 is a concept that protects academic freedom by prohibiting colleges from punishing or condemning faculty for their political views. The issue of affirmative institutional statements is a much later, and more minor, concern. But when a university condemns certain political stands, it inevitably creates the danger of suppressing those ideas.”
“Universities ought to return to the 1894 University of Wisconsin approach to the opinionated university, where academic freedom is so important that even denouncing a professor violates standards of neutrality. But when the concept of institutional neutrality is abused by politicians and administrators to silence faculty, then it becomes a cure worse than the disease. Soucek’s book recognizes these dangers and provides a thoughtful approach to trying to address the problems inherent in the inevitable opinions of a university.”
Wisconsin’s public universities are now allowed to offer reduced-credit, three-year degrees — joining dozens of schools across the country finding alternatives to traditional four-year bachelor’s programs.
The UW Board of Regents on Thursday approved policy changes allowing the Universities of Wisconsin’s schools to develop the degrees, which typically require students to take 90 credits to earn a bachelor’s degree, rather than a minimum of 120.
The University of Wisconsin announced Mar. 4 that it created a web page with expanded information and guidance should students or employees encounter someone representing a federal agency in campus facilities or workspaces, according to UW News.
Shorter and ultimately cheaper college degrees could be coming to some University of Wisconsin campuses.
The UW Board of Regents approved revising a policy that previously mandated bachelor’s degree programs be a minimum of 120 credits. The changes, unanimously endorsed without discussion during a March 5 meeting, now allow campuses to offer 90-credit degrees.
Wisconsin’s 13 public universities can now develop three-year bachelor’s degree programs — but it could be a while before any appear at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“I know there are some other UW institutions that are exploring that as a possibility. We have not had discussions here at Madison about that,” Allison La Tarte, UW-Madison’s vice provost and chief data and analytics officer, said at a recent campus meeting.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is addressing the impact of the ongoing conflict in Iran and the broader Middle East. Students who are studying abroad in the region are being moved to new locations, where the university says they will continue their programs. Their plan aims to ensure the safety and well-being of students and staff.
“The situation is evolving rapidly, and we are closely following developments,” said Fran Vavrus, vice provost and dean of the International Division. Vavrus emphasized the university’s commitment to connecting with both international students in Madison and those studying abroad.
Eric Wilcots, dean of the University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters & Science, has been named interim chancellor of the university, effective May 17.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison and other employers across the United States face new federal guidelines for highly-specialized H-1B international visa sponsorship that prioritize higher-paying positions and, in some cases, require a $100,000 fee, following changes made by the Trump Administration last fall.
Three candidates vying to become the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s next provost recently outlined their visions for how to address the university’s most pressing challenges and opportunities.
University of Wisconsin-Madison President Edward Birge did not want the university to be known as a dancing school.
But after physical education instructor Margaret H’Doubler began teaching dance classes in 1918, that’s the direction things were headed. Hundreds of students signed up each semester, and H’Doubler and her students were being invited to colleges and universities across the country to share their methods.
Birge took away H’Doubler’s travel privileges, to no avail.
“It was too late. Other institutions were inviting H’Doubler all the time, and if she couldn’t come to them, they would come to her,” said Andrea Harris, professor of dance history and Buff Brennan faculty fellow in dance at UW-Madison. “The interest outweighed any pushback that there was at that time.”
harles Martinez, a dean at the University of Texas at Austin, says he’s the right person to guide UW-Madison through the upcoming search for the university’s next chancellor.
The three finalists for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s second-highest academic position — the provost — presented their visions for the role and the future of campus to an audience of faculty, staff and students alike last week.
The Milwaukee School of Engineering came out on top, which apparently did not sit well with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Two UW-Madison economists dove into earnings data by program. Their recent report, “Degrees of Deception,” found their university came out on top for the most majors of any Wisconsin school. But this point of pride was obscured in the overall rankings because the university offers some lower salary-producing programs that MSOE doesn’t offer, such as music and social work.
Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, a board member and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s vice chancellor for research, expressed concern that fewer solicitations will lessen junior faculty’s ability to receive awards that jump-start their careers. She also said the agency’s practice of frontloading the funding of previously multiyear grants further reduces how many researchers receive grants in a year.
