Category: Higher Education/System

There?s no question that alcohol is a factor in the majority of sexual assaults on campus. And alcohol is abundant and very present at most colleges today.

In the eyes of Michael Falbo, his time as part of the University of Wisconsin System?s Board of Regents has never been about personal achievement, but rather about the students he serves.

Vassar has taken steps to hold down spending on faculty and staff. Amherst and the University of Florida have raised new money specifically to spend on financial aid for low-income students. American University reallocated scholarships from well-off students to needy ones. Grinnell set a floor on the share of every freshman class ? 15 percent ? whose parents didn?t go to college.

Dean of Students Troy Seppelt tells Stevens Point Journal Media (http://spjour.nl/1u3pR9u ) that he wants each of the 9,457 students who started classes this week to know what will happen if they violate the university?s policies on drinking and drug use.

Care to shoot some questions to University of Wisconsin System president Ray Cross? You?ll get your chance when he appears on a live call-in show on C-SPAN in two weeks.

Last month — just in time for a new season of college football — Kraft Foods released a new line of Jell-O molds in the shapes of various university logos. Four of the “jiggler mold kits” were unveiled last year, but products for 16 more teams have now been added, including the University of Alabama, Ohio State University, and the University of California at Los Angeles.

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has plastered the consequences for violating drug and alcohol policies throughout every residence hall on campus.

With $241 million in major, long-term building projects underway, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus stands to look very different in a matter of years.

At the beginning of every academic year, college freshmen are quickly introduced to two hallmarks of campus social life, drinking and hooking up.

The University of Wisconsin System can soon begin awarding federal financial aid to nontraditional students pursuing an associate of arts and science degree through the new online competency-based UW Flexible Option program, UW System President Ray Cross announced Tuesday.

After initially being denied, the University of Wisconsin has gotten approval for federal financial aid to some students in its new ?show what you know? flexible option degree program.

The U.S. Department of Education last week granted approval to a self-paced, competency-based program from two institutions in the University of Wisconsin System, the system announced Tuesday. The associate of arts and science degree track is a form of competency-based education called direct assessment, which does not rely on the credit-hour standard. The University of Wisconsin Colleges and Extension programs are offering the degree. It?s part of the system?s broader competency-based offerings, which are dubbed the UW Flexible Option.

The University of Miami has an unusual system in which all faculty members get a vote?albeit a nonbinding one?on whether to retain their dean. That?s given Miami an even more unusual problem, now that three leading deans have been rejected.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Police Chief Michael Marzion has been demoted to captain and will remain on administrative leave while the university considers additional actions in connection with “inappropriate and unprofessional” conduct the chief displayed when he traded Internet messages of a sexual nature with a female student last spring.

New University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross announced last week that state universities will seek to reduce the number of students requiring remedial education over the next five years.

The University of Wisconsin-Extension has hired an official from North Dakota to lead the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center, an agency that provides assistance to entrepreneurs and business owners around the state.

As the shaded quadrangles of the nation?s elite campuses stir to life for the start of the academic year, they remain bastions of privilege. Amid promises to admit more poor students, top colleges educate roughly the same percentage of them as they did a generation ago. This is despite the fact that there are many high school seniors from low-income homes with top grades and scores: twice the percentage in the general population as at elite colleges.

The University of Wisconsin System set a five-year goal Friday to cut by one-third the number of incoming students needing remedial math, and to boost the first-year completion rate so students who do need it are more likely to succeed in college and graduate.

There?s a lot of progress in the recovery effort after two tornadoes hit the UW-Platteville campus on the night of June 16th, causing at least $10 million worth of damage. ?The campus, I?m pleased to say, is ready for the students. We?re not done. It?s an important distinction. The goal is to be ready,? says Rob Cramer, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services at the university.

The University of Wisconsin System can no longer just be organized as a system of campuses; it must actively improve the well-being of state residents and bridge the talent gap that?s holding back Wisconsin?s economy, UW System President Ray Cross said Thursday.

The University of Wisconsin Systems Board of Regents is preparing to vote on whether to ask Gov. Scott Walker for $95 million in additional tax dollars in the next state budget.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will consider whether to work with the state to fund a proposed performing arts center in Eau Claire on Thursday.

The UW Stevens Point campus goes tobacco-free beginning next week. The Stevens Point campus joins some 700 colleges and universities with tobacco bans, and is the first UW System campus to implement the policy.

Wisconsin is taking on a role as a national leader dealing with sexual violence on college campuses with the announcement of a new Sexual Assault Response Team. The Dept. of Justice is developing standardized consent forms and procedures so a victim?s medical evidence is stored while the victim decides whether to pursue criminal charges.

Aug. 19, 2014 ? Institutions are protected under Wisconsin?s harassment injunction statute, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled, denying Jeffrey Decker?s claim that only natural persons can seek injunctions to stop harassment by an individual.

UW-Madison is accepting applications for a new online masters degree in environmental engineering, set to go live next fall. Plus … The UW System Board of Regents will meet Thursday and Friday in Oshkosh. At the top of the agenda will be the System?s initial budget request for the next two-year cycle, from 2015 to 2017. It?s due to the Department of Administration by Sept. 15.

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point plans to go tobacco-free this month.

Greg Lampe, provost and vice chancellor for academic and student affairs at the University of Wisconsin Colleges, today named Joe J. Foy as associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at UW Colleges.

Syracuse University has claimed the title of nation?s top party school. UW was eighth.

Out-of-pocket contributions to cover the price of college grew in 2014 after three years of decreases, while borrowing declined, according to the seventh annual “How America Pays for College” study released Thursday by lender Sallie Mae.

A bipartisan group of eight U.S. Senators on Wednesday unveiled legislation aimed at holding colleges more accountable for preventing and dealing with the sexual assaults that occur on campuses.

A consensus has clearly emerged that higher education affordability needs to be addressed by colleges and universities, states, and the federal government. Less clear is how to address the problem, and perhaps more fundamentally, how to decide what affordability means.

Colleges would have to expand resources for victims of sexual assault and training for employees in handling students? reports of assault under a bill introduced by eight U.S. senators on Wednesday. The proposed legislation seeks to apply pressure through public information and harsher penalties: Annual surveys of students? experiences would be published online, by institution, and colleges found to be out of compliance with federal requirements would face fines of up to 1 percent of their operating budgets.

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, will wade further into the escalating student loan debt crisis by introducing his second bill to lessen the financial burden on borrowers Tuesday.

Are college marching bands hotbeds of hazing? No more so than any other student group that enjoys prestige on campus, demands copious amounts of time and draws on a set of ?traditions? to define itself, anti-hazing advocates and student affairs experts say. Yet in recent years marching bands have been the focus of conversations about college hazing.

Once again American colleges with study abroad programs in Israel have had to make the call: evacuate or stay the course.