MADISON (WKOW) — Governor Scott Walker will make an announcement Tuesday on a University of Wisconsin economic initiative. According to the Office of Governor Scott Walker, it?s an online degree model that Walker says will improve higher education in Wisconsin.
(CNN) – The former Rutgers University student convicted of spying on and intimidating his gay roommate was released from jail Tuesday after serving a 30-day sentence, a jail official said. Dharun Ravi, 20, was found guilty in May of invasion of privacy, witness tampering, hindering apprehension and bias intimidation.
We know an industry is in crisis when its top institutions cannot establish stable leadership. That is the case with some of our nation?s best public universities today.
The University of Iowa and Anheuser-Busch have renewed their relationship, a move some say conflicts with the university?s high-profile responsible-drinking campaign.
It?s a small yet significant step toward boosting Wisconsin?s brain power. High school students across the state will have more access to college coursework by 2013, the state Department of Public Instruction and University of Wisconsin Colleges announced this week. Some of the UW courses will be offered online at high schools. Others will be taught by high school teachers with oversight from college professors. And here?s the cool part: The new classes will count toward high school and college diplomas at the same time. It?s called “dual enrollment,” and it?s something Wisconsin needs more of ? individualized instruction using technology to help control cost.
I can?t open the paper lately without reading about how the American economy is doomed unless we get more kids into the so-called STEM fields ? science, technology, engineering and math. On Tuesday, it was news touting five University of Wisconsin System campuses who are taking part in a nationwide science and engineering initiative led by a group of university and private sector bigwigs who want to boost the United States? competitiveness.
….”Skills and methods associated with the humanities aren’t soft, despite the convention of referring to them as such,” said Sara Guyer, director of the UW-Madison Center for the Humanities. “The importance of the humanities … is not just about empathy or imagining others, but it is about deepening our real understanding and fostering rigorous, critical analysis.”
FARGO, N.D. (WKOW) — North Dakota residents will vote on the fate of the University of North Dakota?s Fighting Sioux nickname. The group in charge for the ballot say it?s only the first of two phases.
UW-Madison may have a reputation as a party school, but its students are some of the most studious in the country, according to a story in the Washington Post. Freshman at UW-Madison study on average 20 hours a week, while seniors study 18 hours a week. That compares to a weekly average of 15 hours nationally, according to the story. The author, Daniel de Vise, notes that?s more than any other public university in the country that he found.
How much is too much when it comes to compensating the head of a public university? The Chronicle of Higher Education released an analysis of what public college presidents ?- or in the case of a UW-Madison, chancellors -? made during the 2011 fiscal year.
Just down the hall from the reference desk at Emory University?s law library in a room housing antique legal texts is Stanley the golden retriever puppy, barking his head off.
Eliminating loans isn?t an option at most public universities. Substantial state funding cuts are forcing public schools to depend more heavily on tuition payments to cover operating costs. “We just don?t have the fiscal means to eliminate debt,” says Susan Fischer, financial aid director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where students graduated with an average debt of $24,140 in 2011.
Kelsey Griffith graduates on Sunday from Ohio Northern University. To start paying off her $120,000 in student debt, she is already working two restaurant jobs and will soon give up her apartment here to live with her parents. Her mother, who co-signed on the loans, is taking out a life insurance policy on her daughter.
During the past year, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly has led the UW System in the face of $300 million in funding and budgetary lapses. The Badger Herald sat down with Reilly to discuss the impact of these trends and possible solutions being offered. Here are the highlights in part one of a two part series.
A University of Wisconsin administrator has pledged a portion of his salary to poverty-fighting organizations after signing on with university faculty from around the country as part of a nation-wide administrator initiative.
In many ways, Serra Crawford is like thousands of other graduating college seniors. She says, “I have worked very, very hard for the last four years.” But there is something that certainly separates Serra from the rest of the UW-Madison class of 2012. In May, she?s not only graduating from U.W., she?s also turning 16. Classmates think it?s pretty amazing she?s graduating from college at just 16. Serra says, “A lot of people are really shocked. I have had a couple of jaws literally drop.” Then, she tells them she started college course work at age 10.
Madison police are reaching out to college students across the upper Midwest with a heads-up about the tighter guidelines for Saturday?s Mifflin Street Block Party. Spokesman Joel DeSpain told Madison.com a dozen emails were sent on Monday to college campus newspapers.”We want our out-of-town visitors to know the protocol we are expecting this year,” DeSpain said. “We need to do things differently this year to make sure everybody stays safe.” A quick check Tuesday morning of campus newspapers receiving the email showed none had posted the information online.
Kaleem Caire, president of the Urban League of Greater Madison, is justifiably proud of the league?s new ?ACT Prep Academies? to give local students a better shot at doing well on their all-important ACT exams and, hence, a leg up on getting into college. Some 75 students began the four-week (30-hour) classes this week, after which they will take their tests in June. A new group will begin more classes in June.
The White House has threatened to veto a Republican bill keeping federal student loan rates from rising this summer. A White House statement blamed the way the legislation would pay its $5.9 billion costs: by cutting a preventive health fund created under President Barack Obama?s health care overhaul law of 2010.
In an escalating election-year clash, the House will vote Friday on a $5.9 billion Republican bill preventing interest rates on federal student loans from doubling this summer, paid for by cutting money from President Barack Obama?s health care overhaul law.
An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press shows highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor?s degrees.
Student loan debt would be completely forgiven after 10 years of public service under a proposed plan by a top federal education official, which would also strive to make the United States the number one producer of college graduates within the decade.
Somewhat surprisingly, the University of Wisconsin ranked last in the full professor category among Big Ten schools. Kangas said the rankings shift from year to year ? if a school loses a large group of highly paid faculty to retirement, for example.
Here, though, is the strange, almost inexplicable, thing — and it stands out for those of us who attended, and really liked, Big Ten schools: No graduate of a Big Ten university has ever been elected president.
Dear Editor: The most significant part of Richard Vedder?s argument (in Todd Finkelmeyer?s “Campus Connection”) is that he wants more of your money for himself. After retiring from a career as a professor at a state-supported university, he now wants to shift public money from universities to services to retirees.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, for example, is also moving toward more sustainable housing.The school is currently constructing two residence halls with green features similar to the new University building.The two dorms will cost $64 million total and house 582 students, said Paul Evans, University of Wisconsin-Madison?s director of housing.
Hey big spender! UW-Madison spent the third largest amount on research among U.S. universities, spending $1.03 billion in 2010, according to new figures from the National Science Foundation.
If you?re looking to inject some spice into a higher education conference, adding Richard Vedder to the lineup of invited speakers is never a bad idea. Vedder ? the director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, and a retired professor of economics at Ohio University ? doesn?t fit the stereotype of the liberal college professor. Not even close.
Running an Ivy League university isn?t all it?s cracked up to be, at least not for Meredith Ruth Neukirchen, known as M.R., the protagonist of Joyce Carol Oates? new novel, ?Mudwoman.? She?s the first woman to be president of an unnamed school in New Jersey, an obvious stand-in for Princeton, where Oates, who received her master?s from UW-Madison in 1961, is a professor.
UW-Madison?s School of Business is ranked 24th in Bloomberg Businessweek?s annual listing of the top undergraduate business schools. That?s a jump of three spots since last year and the highest UW-Madison has been ranked since the list first started coming out in 2006.
UW-Madison has been named the 27th-best university in the world by Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, which annually recognizes the world?s top learning intuitions.
The emergency room costs of treating college students with injuries associated with alcohol-induced blackouts can be more than half a million dollars a year at a university with 40,000 or more students, a new study found.
For the way Virginia Tech handled the mass shootings on its campus five years ago, the university has faced investigations by state and federal agencies and an enduring trial in the court of public opinion. On Wednesday, the first jury to examine the events of April 16, 2007, ruled correspondingly: It found the university negligent for not issuing timelier warnings of an active threat and awarded large sums to two families whose daughters were killed.
(CNN) — Virginia Tech plans to consider all its options after it reviews a jury verdict that found it was negligent in a 2007 shooting rampage that left 33 people dead, including the gunman, a university spokesman said. The move follows Wednesday?s verdict by a seven-member jury in Christiansburg, Va. that awarded $4 million each to two victims? families who sued the state for wrongful death in the shooting massacre.
It?s NCAA Tournament time once again and the hoopla surrounding March Madness has been used in recent years by higher education policymakers to help draw attention to the unimpressive graduation rates of college men?s basketball players and the gulf between the academic successes of black and white student-athletes. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES), housed at the University of Central Florida, continued its annual drumbeat on this issue Monday by releasing ?Keeping Score When it Counts: Graduation Success and Academic Progress Rates for the 2012 NCAA Division I Men?s Basketball Tournament Teams.?
….?Having a researcher follow these trends over time has had a positive effect on the academic success of student-athletes,? says Dawn Crim, a former women?s basketball player at Virginia and a former assistant coach at UW-Madison who today serves as the School of Education?s associate dean for external relations.
CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) – A jury found Virginia Tech negligent on Wednesday for delaying a campus warning of the first shootings in a 2007 campus massacre that left 33 dead. Jurors returned the verdict in a wrongful death civil suit brought by the parents of two students who were killed on April 16, 2007, in the most deadly mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Google has been quietly slowing down its book-scanning work with partner libraries, according to librarians involved with the vast Google Books digitization project. But what that means for the company?s long-term investment in the work remains unclear.
HANOVER, N.H. — Twenty-seven members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity face charges in the campus judicial system Wednesday after Dartmouth College officials said disturbing details of hazing incidents surfaced last January. Dartmouth officials said a former fraternity member made public — through the school newspaper — hazing incidents that happened last fall. The charges from the school aren?t criminal, but officials said if the students are found guilty, they could be suspended or expelled.
Madison Area Technical College wants to spend $97,000 to convert its domain name from matcmadison.edu to madisoncollege.edu. That may sound like a good chunk of change — especially during these tough times — but the college?s senior vice president of administration says that?s the going rate for such a changeover.
A higher education report released Monday ranked the University of Wisconsin ?best? for areas including a graduation rate of 49.7 percent and ?worst? for items including a low number of Pell Grant recipients.
Additional scholarships will be made available to University of Wisconsin students for the next school year after the campus received a major grant from the National Science Foundation.
Can Rick Santorum?s slam of higher education be easily dismissed? Or does it warrant serious debate? Blogging in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Peter Wood writes: ?None (or at least very few) appear to see Santorum?s various criticisms of the university as adding up to a view that needs to be reckoned with as intellectually serious.? But, adds Wood, ?that?s a mistake.? Wood is president of the National Association of Scholars, which Wikipedia refers to as a nonprofit organization that ?opposes multiculturalism and affirmative action, and seeks to counter what it considers a ?liberal bias? in academia.?
Former UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin will be back in town this weekend for a speech at Monona Terrace, sponsored by the Madison Civics Club. Martin, now president of Amherst College, is scheduled to speak about the challenges of innovation in academia.
Accessibility and affordability of higher education are under threat as college costs have risen in recent years, hitting middle class and lower-income families the hardest.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison was the only Big Ten Conference institution to oppose a new policy that allows major-college sports programs to offer multi-year scholarships to athletes, according to an NCAA document obtained by the Chronicle of Higher Education.The provision to allow athletic departments to offer multi-year scholarships was approved by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors in October. The change, which was strongly backed by NCAA President Mark Emmert, is intended to give student-athletes more security. Previously, these scholarships could only be awarded on a year-by-year basis.
The one-word bit of career advice, “plastics,” made to Benjamin Braddock in the 1967 movie “The Graduate,” has been followed for years at UW-Madison, and will soon be the credo of students at a new university in India. The Polymer Engineering Center at UW-Madison is joining with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell to develop the curriculum at the new PlastIndia International University in Vapi, India. Plastics expert Tim Osswald, a professor in mechanical engineering at UW-Madison, said the agreement with the PlastIndia Foundation includes an exchange program for faculty and students.
“A really important aspect of our education here is to create graduates who can think globally,” Osswald said in the release. “That’s going to be beneficial to our industry and our economy.”
A Supreme Court decision in October could forbid or significantly alter race as a consideration in college admissions when the court hears an appeal from a white student in Texas who hopes to end “racial preferences” in admissions.
WASHINGTON (WKOW) — The Obama administration wants to slightly reduce federal aid for institutions that don?t control tuition costs. A driving force in federal higher education policy for decades has been access to college. But the Obama administration?s push for a shift in the agenda brings up a new topic of debate: Are students getting the most out of their money?
About 800 Wisconsin students will receive more money for college through the Wisconsin Covenant program thanks to a funding boost from a private source. The announcement pours some new life to the Covenant program, which is no longer accepting new enrollees. The Wisconsin Covenant, one of former Gov. Jim Doyle?s signature programs, promises high school students they will get a spot at a Wisconsin college or university and some financial help if they earn at least a ?B? average in high school and stay out of trouble.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced three finalists to become the next director of its Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and none of them currently work on campus.
When Gov. Scott Walker attacked collective bargaining rights a year ago, many unions and union members were in shock. The oldest graduate student union in the world (now an American Federation of Teachers affiliate) “got it” immediately. Within hours of the governor?s announcement, the TAA declared: “What we do in the next five days will determine whether we keep our union, and our professional lives as educators, researchers, and public servants.”TAA members were front and center at the first rallies on campus, and the led the first great march into the state Capitol on Feb. 14.
President Barack Obama released his 2013 fiscal budget proposal Monday, including a $8 billion education intiative he introduced in a speech at Northern Virginia Community College.
As UW-Madison students mobilize to protest the Chinese government?s alleged human right?s violations in Tibet, university officials plan to open an office in the communist nation that is widely considered one of the world?s most emerging countries.
Paul Peercy, longtime dean of the UW-Madison College of Engineering, announced on Wednesday plans to retire. He will stay on until the international search for a new dean is complete, according to a UW-Madison news release. Peercy, 71, became dean in 1999. As dean, he oversees 14 undergraduate degrees and 22 at the graduate level.
In the midst of a year when student groups have protested the high tuition costs of higher education, UW-Madison is the fifth-highest-valued public university in the country, according to a list released Monday by The Princeton Review.
In the midst of a year when student groups have protested the high tuition costs of higher education, UW-Madison is the fifth-highest-valued public university in the country, according to a list released Monday by The Princeton Review….Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Paul DeLuca said he was excited to see the university receive a top-10 ranking for the first time. “We strive to provide an absolutely world class education in as cost-effective way as we can,” DeLuca said. “And when you get a ranking like this, its recognition that maybe we are achieving that.”
The chair of the Economics Department John Karl Scholz reflected DeLuca, saying that a university of UW-Madison’s caliber cannot maintain a high academic level and lower tuition rates. “It takes resources to be outstanding,” Scholz said. “The money needed for that has to come from somewhere.”
President Obama?s plan to make college more affordable is noble in intent but misses the mark in design. If the president and Congress were to focus on the real culprit of high college costs ? poor college completion numbers ? they could find rare common ground and make substantial headway on a problem that threatens to sink U.S. economic competitiveness.
….College presidents point to what seem like reasonable arguments for rising tuition: shrinking state budgets, for one, and the increasing costs of energy, pensions and health care. But if these circular arguments simply go round and round, an important opportunity will be missed. Data show that time, not tuition, is the enemy of college completion. Today?s college students are dramatically different from the archetype of the U.S. undergraduate.
University of Florida President Bernie Machen is calling for his university to be treated differently than other state institutions and given more freedom, but Machen is open to those universities getting the same opportunity based on their performance.
The University of Wisconsin Foundation?s endowment grew by 20.7 percent between fiscal year 2010 and 2011. The endowment housed in the UW Foundation — the private, nonprofit fundraising arm of UW-Madison — jumped from $1.55 billion to $1.87 billion, according to an annual survey of endowment returns by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Commonfund Institute.
President Obama released his blueprint for higher education reform Friday which hopes to address the rising costs of tuition across the nation.
Wisconsin ranks among the top states in defunding public higher education, a new report shows.
