UW system Capital Planning Vice President Alex Roe told the UW Board of Regents that two projects are a particular concern: UW-Stout’s $138.9 million Heritage Hall project and the $96.3 million Cofrin Library at UW-Green Bay.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison recommended “reasonable caution” on federally funded hiring and expenditures which are “elective” Feb. 3 in the wake of uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s executive orders pausing financial assistance for federal grants and loans.
University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman and UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin emphasized the significant risks of President Donald Trump’s freeze on federal grants and loans at a UW Board of Regents meeting Thursday.
To provide rural students improved access to higher education, the College for Rural Wisconsin launched a program through UW-Madison about a year ago.
Public and private leaders in Milwaukee say increasing funding for the Universities of Wisconsin system will lead to more people living and working in the state.
Ian Robertson is excited construction will soon begin on a new engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He wonders, though, what could have been possible if the facility had been built faster.
Leaders of the Wisconsin Technical College system present their budget requests for the next fiscal biennium, requesting for a roughly $60 million increase.
“We’ll never have a great state without a great university. We got to fund it, we got to support it,” said Thompson, who served as interim UW System President from 2020 to 2022. “I think what is currently being asked for is completely out of sync with what is available.”
During a Faculty Senate meeting that was streamed online on Monday, Jennifer L. Mnookin, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, urged professors to “hold off” on optional expenses so the university could help ensure that “you’re making smart choices.”
“The transition has created for us an enormous amount of uncertainty, combined with fast-moving and changing information,” she said. “It’s generated some potentially quite significant threats to important aspects of our mission, as is true for our peer institutions nationally.”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the most selective university in Wisconsin, according to a recent analysis from The Business Journals.
The Jan. 17 report used data from the U.S. Department of Education to determine the most selective higher education institutions in the country. Analysts used a weighted formula — based on acceptance and matriculation rates — to determine each ranking.
There’s a significant problem with the federal government’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion in research, UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said Monday: the federal government has not defined what exactly it means.
Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, plans to reintroduce legislation from last session that will allow Universities of Wisconsin to begin classes on Sept. 1.
Nicholas Hillman, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and co-author of the report, believes it’s critical to understand students’ geographical contexts.
He said conversations about higher ed access often revolve around “informational problems”—whether students know about different college options and understand the college admissions process. But his previous research shows most students, even if well-informed, choose to stay close to home for college. That’s why he wanted to take a deeper look at where residents do or don’t have broad-access institutions within reach.
Provost Charles Isbell, who oversees all academic operations, and Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Rob Cramer offered guidance in a letter to UW-Madison vice chancellors and college deans.
A state senator and a lobbyist for faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison want to change when classes start each fall at Wisconsin’s state universities to make them consistent with K-12 schools.
A decline in births is reshaping Wisconsin’s higher education landscape, with many UW System schools facing enrollment challenges and financial strain.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of Student Financial aid announced Tuesday that the temporary pause of federal grants and loans will not apply to federal student financial aid.
The pause in federal funding is “significant and concerning” for UW-Madison, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin and other leaders said in a statement.
UW-Madison is encouraging most federally funded research to continue, outside of a “small number” of unspecified stop-work orders aimed at a handful of researchers, the statement said.
UW-Madison’s Office of University Relations created a working group to track and respond to the latest executive orders and congressional activity that affects higher education.
The group includes representatives from across campus, including strategic communication, the provost’s office, legal affairs, research, student affairs, human resources, the international division, enrollment management, campus police and others.
Former UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow, who was fired in December 2023 after university officials discovered he had been making pornographic videos with his wife, has sued the Universities of Wisconsin to get his faculty job back.
UW-Madison, along with hundreds of other universities, has research contracts with the federal government, especially in the areas of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense. UW-Madison health researchers get awards from its agencies, including the medical research powerhouse National Institutes of Health.
Former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow launched a lawsuit against the UW System seeking the reinstatement of his faculty position and compensatory damages.
Matthew Fencl, a professor of health and human performance at the campus and the Sport Administration Graduate Program Coordinator for UW-Platteville, took over as campus director at the beginning of the year. Former director Stephen Swallen returned to his full-time role as an associate chemistry professor at the Baraboo Sauk County campus.
The UW System’s corporate plan is clear: pay consulting firms millions while laying off educators, and closing programs and campuses.
Dr. Kevin Lawrence Henry, Jr., a recently tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Leadership and Policy Analysis, exemplifies how personal experience can shape academic pursuits and social justice advocacy.
While many Wisconsin schools — including Madison College and the Madison Metropolitan School District — have already announced Tuesday closures due to the extreme cold, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is planning to “operate normally.”
Edgewood College’s plan to transition to a new name could cost as much as $250,000 and take a few years to fully implement, but changes are expected to start this summer.
Anyone can show their love for the Wisconsin Badgers with this plate — it’s not just available to alumni. While the UW-Madison plate is the most popular, you can choose a plate logo for any of the other UW System campuses.
The annual donation associated with the plate is $20, less than the typical $25. Proceeds support scholarship programs at the selected campus.
“In 2027, we will celebrate 100 years of advancing our mission since our founding by the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa,” President Andrew Manion, said. “As we position the institution to flourish in our second century, the time is right to celebrate by making this change to honor our past, and to embrace the future.”
Offering classes under the broad umbrella of “independent living skills” are people like Amanda Kostman, a family living educator with the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s Human Development and Relationships Institute.
Chancellors at Universities of Wisconsin campuses that have lost a high percentage of freshmen will have bigger retention targets to meet in order to earn the 15% bonuses newly available to all chancellors, according to information provided to the Wisconsin State Journal.
Work can begin on a new engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after the State Building Commission reversed course Friday and approved the long-awaited project.
The State Building Commission on Friday approved a new proposal to use unspent funds for a new engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other projects in the university system.
Construction proposed to begin in 2026, end in 2029.
The embattled University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering building is back on track.
The State Building Commission unanimously approved the project’s new $420 million budget during a Friday meeting, a few weeks after Republican lawmakers stalled the project last month over transparency concerns related to increasing the project’s budget.
The Wisconsin State Building Commission approved funding for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s new engineering hall in a unanimous vote Friday.
Plans to build UW-Madison’s new $419 million engineering building got back on track Friday after the state’s Building Commission — which initially denied UW system’s request to reallocate millions in state funds for the Madison project and others — signed off on the transfers.
Universities of Wisconsin campuses are seeing an increase in students utilizing food pantries. “Just providing a safe and welcoming spot where people aren’t afraid to come in,” UW-Whitewater’s Warhawk Pantry manager Tonia Kapitan said.
The plan will offer direct admission to UW-Madison for students placing in the top 5% of their Wisconsin high schools.
Following a rare 45-minute discussion Tuesday, the UW Board of Regents tabled a vote to change UW system policy to allow Rothman and future UW system presidents to appoint senior leadership roles without guidance from a committee.
Milwaukee Area Technical College’s former chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer filed a federal lawsuit against the college alleging she was fired after speaking out against race and disability discrimination at the school.
Dr. Nick Hillman, school of education professor and director of the Student Success Through Applied Research Lab (SSTAR) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek: “Leaving college with debt but no degree is one of the biggest factors that makes it hard to repay loans. Say a student borrows $10,000 for college but then has to leave before earning a credential. They don’t have the degree to show for it, but they have the debt. This can make it really hard to get established in the labor market and, as a result, to stay on top of monthly loan payments.”
The new language also would eliminate the limit of three years for which a person can serve in an interim capacity for UW system senior leadership. The changes essentially would formalize what already has been happening in practice.
A new (odd-numbered) year brings a new state budget.
There appears to be new eligibility requirements for transferring now listed on UW-Madison’s transfer agreement page
Schuyler, who is an enrolled Oneida Nation citizen, earned a scholarship to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1990s. He dropped out when he was 21 credits short of earning his bachelor’s degree.
The radio broadcast described a new UW-Madison program launching in fall 2024.It would cover not only tuition but room and board, books and other expenses, to enrolled members of Wisconsin Native American tribes.
“That was my sign,” Schuyler said.
Universities of Wisconsin campuses have approved dozens of new programs in the past year, with expanded science or more-advanced degrees taking precedence.
With a law guaranteeing top-ranked students admission to state universities set to take effect next school year, 15 of Dane County’s 16 school districts have opted for class-ranking systems that don’t take into account the difficulty of the classes students take.
A new program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is aimed at supporting Indigenous graduate students through the hoops and hurdles of academia.
Despite losing 14 seats in the fall election, GOP legislators still feel empowered to hold the state’s largest economic engine hostage to the whims of its most petty members. Republicans on the state Building Commission ganged up on UW-Madison last week and threw another obstacle in the path of the long-awaited and already-approved new engineering building.
Colleges are deferring more students than ever before, partly due to record application numbers and changing admissions policies. Schools like Clemson University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have deferred tens of thousands of early applicants in past years, reflecting a competitive and ever-evolving admissions landscape. A deferral doesn’t mean your student wasn’t good enough—it means they’re still in the running. And with the right approach, they can turn that “maybe” into a “yes.”
When UW leaders asked for $845 million, a fraction of the total amount cut from the UW budget under his watch, Assembly Speaker Vos said, “I just know that some of these numbers, where they ask for the moon, are unrealistic.”
When Vos graduated from UW-Whitewater in 1991, Wisconsin’s higher education appropriations per student were $11,028. In 2023 it was $9,277. So the “moon” was realistic when he personally benefited from taxpayer support, but is unrealistic when it is your turn to benefit?
Jay Rothman, the president of the Universities of Wisconsin, was thrust into the spotlight this year, from pro-Palestinian protests breaking out on his campuses across the state to his controversial ask for an increase of $855 million in funding.
Thomas Pyle wants to build on the momentum College Republicans drummed up at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this semester.
Just more than half of the Universities of Wisconsin freshman students who benefitted from a system-funded tuition-waiver scholarship program for low-income families in 2023 were the first in their families to attend college. That’s about twice the percentage of first-generation students in the freshman class last year.
Wisconsin universities and college students could also be impacted by a shutdown. University of Wisconsin-Madison spokesperson Kelly Tyrrell told WPR in a statement that college officials are monitoring the situation.
“We would expect the largest impacts to be on research, since agencies can’t start new programs, issue new grants, or review existing applications during a shutdown,” Tyrrell said. “There may also be some impact to students, staff or faculty applying for changes in visa status during the shutdown period.”
I would be correctly described as a member of that committee with a partisan background. I did not, however, vote in “lockstep” with other members who might also be so categorized. Furthermore I would suggest many of the questions were more nuanced than the authors claimed. Additionally there were members of this committee (including some UW employees and past Regents ) who did not show, nor do I believe they have, strong partisan leanings. Instead their clearly expressed concern was for the future of the system. That was also my concern.
The State Building Commission denied a motion to allow $70 million in underspent funds to be used for a series of planned Universities of Wisconsin projects including the new engineering building at UW-Madison.
The future of UW-Madison’s new engineering building, as well as other Universities of Wisconsin building priorities, is again in limbo after Republicans on the state’s Building Commission refused to reallocate nearly $70 million in state funds.
Q: Would you support a change in the university’s governance structure or spinning off the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the rest of the Universities of Wisconsin?
A: I supported those ideas in the past, so I’m certainly open to having discussions, but our caucus has had no discussion about any of those kinds of things.
