Following Tuesday’s deadly explosions in Brussels, major American universities with study abroad programs scrambled to locate students who are currently in Europe.
The terrorist attacks at an airport and metro stop in Brussels on Tuesday that killed more than 31 people and wounded at least 150 has prompted heightened terror alerts across Europe, in the U.S. and around the world, USA TODAY reports.
UW–Madison spent $9 million to keep top faculty from being poached, but the damage has been done.
First things first: Hoverboards don’t actually hover. They are two-wheeled, battery-powered, skateboard-like scooters that can reach speeds of up to 13 miles per hour.
A state budget stalemate in Illinois, which has dragged on since last July, is offering a masterclass on the destruction political gridlock can cause.
The fight over the University of Wisconsin system’s tenure and layoff policies is not over yet. Faculty leaders there hope to regain at the campus level what they just lost at the state level: a guaranteed say in any decisions to jettison academic programs and their tenured professors.
The Senate approved bills that would increase grants for technical college students; create grants to help two-year students deal with financial emergencies; require the state Department of Workforce Development to coordinate internships between colleges and employers; create coordinators within the UW System to help students find internships; and require colleges to keep students apprised of debt levels.
After regents approved a controversial overhaul of the University of Wisconsin’s tenure rules last week, UW System President Ray Cross is looking to reassure faculty members that they are deeply appreciated and will play a key role in improving Wisconsin’s economy.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville canceled classes Monday afternoon after a report of a gun in the building where the chancellor’s office is located.
Gary Bennett, chief of staff for Republican Sen. Alberta Darling, has been tapped to lead the University of Wisconsin System’s school chartering agency, which lawmakers created last year to authorize new independent schools in Milwaukee and Madison.
Perhaps the most scrutinized cluster-hiring program has been that at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Starting in 1998, the university has hired about 140 faculty members to fill nearly 50 clusters. Michael Bernard-Donals, vice provost for faculty and staff programs, says that early challenges, such as determining service loads or the best way to evaluate publication records, have largely been worked out. It helped, he says, that the campus rolled the program out over a five-year period, enabling leaders to iron out kinks along the way. (Subscription required.)
Noted: In July, the GOP governor and Republican legislative leaders spearheaded an effort to gut the open records law, but they backed off within days after facing a public backlash. Walker has defended a decision to withhold some records about a budget provision — a proposal later disavowed by the governor — that would have rewritten the University of Wisconsin System’s mission statement, removing from it the Wisconsin Idea that says its purpose is to improve people’s lives beyond the classroom.
Whether the separation is voluntary or not, losing a tenure-line or otherwise full-time faculty member is always a costly to an institution. The departing professor will take any external research grants with him or her, not to mention the sunk costs of hiring and training. Then there are additional costs that are harder to quantify, such as those to morale, mentorship, service and leadership in a department.
University of Wisconsin System regents gaveled a recess again this week when students began protesting against the climate for racial minorities on campus, but officials say they will meet next month with students to talk about diversity and inclusion.
Educational Policy Professor Sara Goldrick-Rab will start at Temple University in July. She cited the UW System’s new tenure policy changes as a motivation for leaving UW. The Board of Regents approved a policy Thursday that now allows faculty members to be laid off after their academic program is discontinued, rather than for just cause or financial reasons only.
UW System President Ray Cross said the changes make UW tenure policies compatible with those at other universities across the country. He said faculty members’ concern that they will be laid off due to programs being discontinued for political or financial reasons is “very unlikely.” He said tenure is supposed to protect faculty with different views, but it does not guarantee a “job for life.”
Despite visible discontent from faculty members in the room, the UW System Board of Regents passed three resolutions regarding tenure policy at its meeting Thursday.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents has adopted policy changes that will weaken tenure protections. The Republican-authored state budget stripped tenure protections from state law. The regents adopted the statutory language as policy but created a task force to recommend changes.
University of Wisconsin System officials signed off on new, weaker tenure protections Thursday despite warnings from faculty that the move will chill academic freedom in classrooms and lead to mass layoffs.
UW System President Ray Cross dismissed concerns from faculty that tenure is now weaker in Wisconsin.
Rejecting a set of amendments that faculty members argued would have preserved tenure as they know it, the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved Thursday new tenure policies to fill a hole left by recent changes in state law.
Rejecting a set of amendments that faculty members argued would have preserved tenure as they know it, the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved Thursday new tenure policies to fill a hole left by recent changes in state law.
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents has approved controversial changes to system tenure and layoff policies, even though faculty members have warned that it could make it harder to recruit or attract top talent to institutions statewide.
The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh is looking to compensate for state budget cuts by increasing grant money for research.
A group of about two dozen students has interrupted a University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents meeting to demand the panel improve how minority students are treated.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents sent a clear message Thursday that cost cannot be separated from educational merit when deciding whether to shut down an academic program and potentially lay off faculty members.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved new policies for faculty tenure and performance reviews on Thursday over the objections of professors who said the new rules will make it easier for administrators to deal with budget cuts by laying them off.
Jose Vasquez did not mince words as his fellow members of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved a controversial package of tenure policies Thursday. He said he would not tamper with a system that isn’t broken.
The chief of staff for state Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, has been hired by the University of Wisconsin System to oversee the creation of independent charter schools in Madison and Milwaukee.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents is expected to vote Thursday on new policies for faculty tenure and performance reviews, potentially bringing to a close a major piece of the lengthy and controversial process of rewriting tenure protections that started last summer.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents votes today on new tenure, posttenure review and faculty layoff policies to close gaps in tenure protections created by a new state law.
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents is set to vote Thursday on a new tenure policy for the system, but professors and others are still lobbying for last-minute changes to the plan.
University of Wisconsin System faculty declared tenure all but dead this summer when GOP lawmakers removed it from state statutes. Months later, some say that’s still the case, even under a new policy the Board of Regents will vote on this week. Unless the policy sees some changes, critics say, it will continue to drive the UW System’s top researchers and professors away from its 27 institutions.
An open records request by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that the University of Wisconsin-Madison spent $8.72 million in retention packages to keep faculty members from accepting outside job offers. The majority of that money took the form of research support, such as funding for research assistants or new lab equipment. Less than a million went to pay raises.
Gov. Scott Walker signed new legislation today that will let districts hire vocational education teachers who do not hold traditional teachers licenses.
The University of Wisconsin-Extension isn’t in danger of ceasing to exist, but it won’t function in the same way as it has operated for the last century.
Sara Goldrick-Rab, the University of Wisconsin scholar-activist and sharp critic of Gov. Scott Walker’s repeal of state laws protecting tenure and shared governance, announced on her blog Monday night that she would move to Temple University as a professor of higher-education policy and sociology.
Noted: In 1974, the consortium included Indiana University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Rochester, the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, and Washington University in St. Louis. That year, those six schools graduated 63 black MBA students—more than had graduated from all U.S. business schools combined eight years earlier. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the consortium, which now includes 18 universities that have graduated more than 8,000 MBA students from minority populations.
Wisconsin lawmakers are debating a mixed bag of bills aimed at curbing how much debt college students shoulder once they graduate, a worthy bipartisan cause as the Legislature wraps up its work for this session.
Noted: Charlie Hoffmann is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mark Mone and his team at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee keep crunching numbers. Over and over, they keep trying to find millions of dollars to cut, while preserving the integrity of their school.
On Feb. 1, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee became a Tier 1 research institution, joining 114 other universities that the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching saw fit to classify as the most active research universities in the country.
Four bills in Gov. Scott Walker’s college affordability plan got Senate committee approval on Thursday.
A host of bills pushed by Gov. Scott Walker that are aimed at making college more affordable passed a Senate committee on party-line votes Thursday.
Incurring the wrath of the professoriate, Wisconsin legislators stuck to their guns last summer and removed tenure guarantees from state statute.
In 1904, University of Wisconsin President Charles Van Hise declared, “I shall never be content until the beneficent influence of the university reaches every home in the state.”
University of Wisconsin regents should review whether faculty tenure is appropriate or necessary on all UW campuses and within the UW Extension, a new report says.
“The Trouble with Tenure” was released by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute just as members of the Board of Regents prepare to vote March 10 on a package of new tenure policies for UW campuses. The report endorses many of the provisions of draft policies developed with input from a Tenure Policy Task Force and endorsed last month by the board’s education committee.
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse could be cutting up to 10 teaching positions before the fall. University officials will decide which positions to eliminate in the next month. UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow said this is the first time the university will be eliminating teaching positions since last summer’s state budget cuts.
Students lined a hallway outside president Scott Flanagan’s office, holding signs reading “We Stand with the Victim,” “Correct the Incorrect Judicial System,” and “If You Love Something, Hold It Accountable.”
Next fall’s class of high school seniors will have a new way to apply to UW-Madison, now that the campus has joined more than 600 other colleges and universities on the nationwide Common Application. Students will still be able to apply to UW-Madison through the University of Wisconsin System’s application process, as they have in years past, said Steve Hahn, vice provost for the Division of Enrollment Management.
Raymond W. Cross has faced some serious tests in his two years as president of the University of Wisconsin system. Last year he had to defend his system against a proposed budget cut of $300 million. More recently he has dealt with faculty unrest as the system has struggled to come up with new tenure policies to replace faculty job protections that were stripped from state law.
Here’s how six people at UW-Madison’s Library Mall answered this week’s question posed by Capital Times freelancer Kevin Murphy.
Noted: More than 160 colleges and universities are under investigation by OCR for alleged violations of Title IX, including UW-Madison and UW-Whitewater.
Flanagan said Monday that Edgewood College was under no such scrutiny.
When the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute began surveying professors within the University of Wisconsin System last year about their views on tenure, many said they worried the institute might later use the findings to promote further changes to tenure policies in the state. That’s because tenure protections in Wisconsin were already weakened by a new state law, and because the institute had previously supported some conservative positions on state work and education issues.
There are 115 universities in the United States that can lay claim to an “R1” rating from the national organization that ranks research institutions, and Wisconsin is now home to two of them: UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, which joined the elite Research Level 1 list in February.
Republicans in Wisconsin have frozen tuition at University of Wisconsin System schools and pushed legislation to increase financial aid and give a tax break to some borrowers paying back their student loans.
Current members of the UW System Board of Regents have given more than $245,000 to political candidates over the past 25 years, according to campaign finance documents.
PLATTEVILLE, Wis. — Hard times will continue at University of Wisconsin-Platteville for at least the next few months as the institution makes significant cuts, but Chancellor Dennis Shields said Wednesday that he is hopeful brighter days are ahead.
Noted: Kathy Cramer, director of the UW–Madison’s Morgridge Center for Public Service, says the university’s historic role helping policy makers solve state problems has shrunk due to suspicion on both ends of State Street. However, she says, some initiatives continue, including student internships and leadership programs, and embedding graduate students from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research in state legislators’ offices.
