The University of Wisconsin System is expected to release details of its proposed tuition increase for next school year on Monday. The increase at its 13 four-year universities is expected to be somewhere in the range of the 5.5 percent hike approved each of the past three years.
Tuition increases for undergraduates attending public colleges and universities in their home states appear to be all over the map this fall. The range so far â?? from no change at Maineâ??s community colleges to double digits at some Virginia and Arizona universities â?? reflect the variety of strategies schools and states are trying to balance their economic challenges with those of students and parents.
In a full-page ad in Mondayâ??s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, dozens of faculty members at both Marquette University and Seattle University condemned Marquetteâ??s decision to rescind the offer made to Jodi Oâ??Brien to serve as dean of the schoolâ??s College of Arts and Sciences, and called on administrators to offer her the job again with an apology.
An inventive singer-songwriter named Peter Case who likes to play with words wrote a great line: â??We were too young not to know better.â?
That came to mind recently as many of the supposedly responsible grown-ups at Marquette University were making fools of themselves while their students demonstrated against discrimination and hypocrisy.
At issue was the action by Marquette President Father Robert Wild rescinding a job offer to Seattle University professor Jodi Oâ??Brien, who was recruited by Marquette to become dean of its College of Arts and Sciences.
Joel Michaelsen has no trouble identifying money-wasting practices at the University of California at Santa Barbara. For instance, he says, some of the universityâ??s core student- and business-information systems are run on decades-old computers.
About 2.4 million students will graduate with bachelorâ??s and associates degrees as part of the Class of 2010, says the National Center for Education Statistics. Those job-seekers will go head-to-head not only with fellow classmates but also with laid-off workers, financially strapped retirees and still-unemployed 2009 and 2008 grads. There are more than five job seekers for every opening, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.
** Faculty at UW-Parkside voted Friday to take the unusual step of dissolving the institutionâ??s Teacher Education Department and suspending further admission to the schoolâ??s teacher preparation program. For those who donâ??t follow the world of academia, thatâ??s a drastic move.
** Faculty members at UW-Superior voted overwhelmingly to unionize and will now be represented by a campus chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. Gov. Jim Doyle gave members of the University of Wisconsin System the right to unionize last year when he signed the state budget. The vote at UW-Superior was the first on unionization within the UW System, but AFT has organizing drives under way at other institutions, with a vote upcoming at UW-Eau Claire.
** Is higher education a benefit an individual should pay for? Or is it a public good that should be supported by your tax dollars?
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez understands the public would like some answers about Big Ten expansion. Just donâ??t ask him. Alvarez said the decision rests with school presidents, not with the leagueâ??s athletic directors. Still, expansion was the hot-button topic Monday as conference coaches and administrators gathered in Chicago for three days of meetings. “People want to know whatâ??s going on, but nobody has any answers for them,” Alvarez said. “None of us do, anyway.”
No one was going overboard in putting a happy face on things when the University of Connecticutâ??s president, Michael J. Hogan, abruptly packed his bags for the University of Illinois last week less than three years into his tenure.
Though still playing coy on the question of a referendum, Madison Area Technical College administrators appear to be laying the groundwork for asking taxpayers to help fund some of its $350 million facilities master plan.
Find your passion, then follow it â?? thatâ??s what Arne Duncan, U.S. secretary of Education, told UW-Madison graduates at commencement ceremonies at the Kohl Center on Saturday morning.
A press release sent to my in-box Wednesday afternoon noted Gov. Jim Doyle signed Senate Bill 431 into law during a ceremony on the UW-Eau Claire campus.
The legislation, which prohibits the establishment of bogus degree mills or the use of false academic credentials in Wisconsin, was authored by Sen. Fred Risser D-Madison and Rep. Kim Hixson D-Whitewater.
“This legislation is designed to protect employers, consumers and the quality of higher education in the State of Wisconsin,” Hixson, a UW-Whitewater professor who serves as the Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities, trumpeted in the release.
Seattle University professor Jodi Oâ??Brien signed and mailed a contract, accepting a deanship at Marquette University and learned nearly two weeks later that the university was withdrawing the offer, according to an interview Oâ??Brien gave to the Seattle University student paper.
Frustrated with the ever-increasing costs of a college education?
The folks at the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities passed along an interesting tidbit: The “net tuition” tuition minus financial aid to attend a WAICU institution actually went down for 2008-09, the most recent year for which federal figures are available.
Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki and the judicial vicar for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee separately raised red flags over Marquetteâ??s hiring of a Seattle University professor as Arts and Sciences dean. Listecki called Marquette President Father Robert A. Wild about the universityâ??s offer to Jodi Oâ??Brien after receiving calls from clergy and lay leaders, the archbishopâ??s spokeswoman said.
Nationwide, about a third of first-year students in 2007-08 had taken at least one remedial course, according to the U.S. Department of Education. At public two-year colleges, that number rises to about 42%. Education observers worry that the vast numbers of students coming to college unprepared will pose a major roadblock to President Barack Obamaâ??s goal for the United States to once again lead the world in college degrees.
When Marquette University announced last week that it was rescinding the offer of a deanâ??s job it had made to Jodi Oâ??Brien, a sociologist at Seattle University, the move thrust the Wisconsin institution and Ms. Oâ??Brien into the national spotlight.
The University of Illinois board is expected to name the schoolâ??s next president by next week, Trustee Pamela Strobel said Monday. U of I expects to recommend an increase of 9.5 percent for new freshmen, bringing the cost to $10,385 a year. The price remains fixed for four years for that class.
UW-Madison has chosen a new director of undergraduate admissions, the university announced Friday. Adele C. Brumfield, currently the associate admissions director at the University of Chicago, will lead the office that holds in its hands the fates of thousands of hopeful UW-Madison students.
Armed with a new political science degree from UW-Madison, an ability to speak Czech and Polish, and an abundance of confidence, Jerrie Ceplina felt like she could take on almost any job. The one she found paid $8.50 per hour at a Madison tanning salon.”I applied everywhere,” said Ceplina, who graduated a year ago. “I was sending out like nine resumes a day. … I just took the first thing because I was like, â??I have to do something for my own sanity.â??â??” Like Ceplina, those graduating this month may need to reconcile lofty career goals with the realities of the job market. Although hiring of recent grads is expected to pick up by about 5 percent this spring, unemployment is still high. In Wisconsin, it was nearly 9 percent in March when seasonally adjusted.
A court may have to decide if itâ??s discrimination, but what is certain is that Marquette University mishandled a job search.
A new survey says Atlanta, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas and Boston — in that order — are now the top five cities for new college graduates to live and find a job. The third annual survey from Apartments.com and CareerRookie.com based its findings on three criteria:
* Census data for cities with the highest concentration of young adults age 20 to 24.
* An inventory of jobs requiring less than one year of experience.
* And the average monthly cost of rent for a one-bedroom apartment.
Marquette University has pulled an offer to hire a new dean for the College of Arts and Sciences from a lesbian who has written scholarly works on gender and sexual orientation, a move that is sparking criticism from faculty and a protest by students.
A university spokeswoman said the decision to withdraw an offer to hire Seattle University professor Jodi Oâ??Brien wasnâ??t about her sexual orientation or the quality of her scholarship. It did have to do with some of Oâ??Brienâ??s published writings “relating to Catholic mission and identity,” Marquette spokeswoman Mary Pat Pfeil said.
Marquette University on Thursday abruptly rescinded an offer to a sociologist to serve as dean of one of its colleges, angering some students and faculty members who said the university did so after learning she was a lesbian who wrote about sexuality.
Paula Bonner, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Alumni Association, has been chosen to receive the 2010 TEMPO International Leadership Award. TEMPO International is a Wisconsin-based organization that supports and mentors women in leadership positions, and past recipients of its annual Leadership Award include legendary White House correspondent Helen Thomas; former U.S. Sen. and Red Cross president Elizabeth Dole; Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson; and management expert Frances Hesselbein.
University of Wisconsin System officials have plans to graduate far more students, and now theyâ??ll start talking about how to pay for them. The Board of Regents on Thursday will discuss how to strategically finance the systemâ??s plan to graduate 80,000 more students over the next 15 years.
UW-Platteville today is unveiling a new tool to teach prospective crime fighters: a house dedicated to forensic investigations.
The house was specially built by university building and construction management students to stage gruesome crimes, which can be studied, solved – the erased. The walls are coated with special epoxy paint so blood spatters can be analyzed, then easily wiped off, according to the Platteville student newspaper, The Exponent. Other walls are specially made for ballistics training. Cameras and two-way mirrors will allow professors to observe students at work as they collect evidence and take photographs.
Private lenders, faced with the loss of billions in subsidies from the federal student loan program, are beefing up their offerings of non-federal student loans, which could lead to lower interest rates and fees for qualified borrowers. Sallie Mae, the USAâ??s largest private student lender, will announce today that starting May 10, rates on its Smart Option Student Loan will be 2.88% to 10.25%, based on the current London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), the benchmark for the variable-rate loan. Thatâ??s down from a range of 4.38% to 12.88%.
Yo, check this out. A workshop at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this summer instructs teachers and others how to use hip hop in the classroom. The Hip-Hop Educator and Community Leader Training Institute planned for July 7 through July 11 is in its fifth year.
With universities across the country facing financial difficulties due to the ailing economy, some are getting multi-million dollar boosts in federal earmarks, according to a report released Thursday.
The UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine is considering ending its exotic animal program because of a budget cut of more than $800,000, according to school officials. Some students say they are concerned that if the program is eliminated, they wonâ??t get clinical training on so-called “special species” like birds, reptiles or rodents. It would also mean that local pet owners could no longer bring such animals to the UW-Madison Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.
Public university leaders from around the Midwest are meeting at UW-Madison today to discuss how to strengthen their research capacity with federal funds in the face of dwindling state support. The meeting is one of five this month hosted across the country by APLU, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. Among the speakers at the Fluno Center will be John Morgridge, chairman emeritus of Cisco Systems, E. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University, and Biddy Martin, UW-Madisonâ??s chancellor.
Even if you think the role of college sports in higher education is out of whack, it says something about how much the landscape has changed that when the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced its new leader Tuesday night, it would have been a Butler-almost-winning-the-NCAA-tournament sort of shock if a college president had not been selected.
A new bill introduced in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate would make it easier for students to erase private student loan debt when they declare bankruptcy, if the bill is signed into law.
When only 11.8 percent of certified teachers and professional support staff in the U.S. are minorities, attracting high-quality applicants “is a challenge nationwide,” said Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, associate dean at the UW-Madison School of Education, which has struggled to recruit minority students.
The recent suicides of college students at Yale and Cornell Universities are rightfully cause for shock and sadness, but also a call to action. No doubt, we wonder how young people with so much talent and promise could end their own lives. In struggling to make sense of these tragic events, it is all too appealing â?? and unhelpful â?? to resort to simple explanations and casting of blame
As this yearâ??s high school seniors choose colleges, parents might be surprised to learn that Harvard, Yale, and other elite schools have far more permissive attitudes toward underage drinking than many othersâ??and alcohol-related hospitalization rates are rising. Is it smart policy or reckless negligence?
There wasnâ??t a lot of suspense over what Emily Auerbach would do with the $5,000 that comes with winning UW-Madisonâ??s Van Hise Outreach Teaching Award. Auerbach, who will accept the award today in a ceremony at the Pyle Center, is donating the entire amount to the Odyssey Project – a free, university-level humanities course for low-income adults that Auerbach launched in 2003.
** Pieces of the meteorite that fell in southwestern Wisconsin last week will be on public display Tuesday through Sunday at the UW-Madison Geology Museum. At least five pieces, each approximately the size of an “unshelled peanut,” can be looked at.
** A number of UW-Madison programs were recognized in U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings of the “Best Graduate Schools.”
Two UW programs ranked among the top 10 nationally, with the chemistry department tied for seventh overall and the School of Education ninth.
Buried deep within the massive health care overhaul passed by Congress are tough new laws that will soon shine a much-needed light on physiciansâ?? lucrative financial ties to industry. Known as the Physician Payments Sunshine provisions, these are some of the most significant, yet unheralded, reforms contained in the historic health care legislation signed by President Obama last month.
UW-Madison will establish a one-of-its-kind institute for Yiddish culture with a $1 million endowment and a donation of 6,000 “78-rpm” records of Jewish music.
For low-income applicants to U.S. colleges, April remains the cruelest month. By early April, almost all admission decisions are known. Colleges shift from screening applications to wooing admitted students. Affluent students can attend â??pre-froshâ? events and enjoy being courted.
Most low-income applicants, however, spend April trying to figure out whether they can afford to pursue their dreams.
(Nina W. Marks is president of Collegiate Directions Inc., a nonprofit that works with low-income, first-generation-to-college students from public schools. This column first appeared in the Washington Post.)
University of Wisconsin President Kevin Reilly wants to boost the stateâ??s college graduation rate by 30 percent over the next 15 years, and although his goal is laudable his plan is not necessarily the path to it.
Public university presidents from across the nation are meeting this month to talk about replacing dwindling state support for their campuses with more dollars from the federal government.
Some Apollo astronauts fretted aloud on Thursday as President Obama outlined his plans for realigning the nationâ??s space program. For the nationâ??s research universities, however, the mood was considerably more optimistic.
Ashley Koski, ranked third in the senior class at Thomas Dale High School in Chester, Va., has wanted to attend Duke University since she was 12.Late last month, she learned that Duke had neither accepted nor rejected her. It had offered her a spot on the waiting list â?? along with 3,382 other applicants. That is almost twice the size of the incoming freshman class.
The chancellor at UW-Superior says the future of publicly-funded higher education is in deep trouble. In announcing his retirement this week, Chancellor Julius Erlenbach says state budget cuts to ease massive deficits means the UWâ??s focus is changing.
The Faculty Senate voted to approve a proposal Monday to ensure that faculty members can freely criticize the actions of UW-Madison administrators and policies.
Professorsâ?? right to speak freely without fear of penalization by the University of Wisconsin is now protected by university policy after the Faculty Senate approved an amendment to Faculty Policy and Procedures Monday.
UW System President Kevin Reillyâ??s plan to combat the stateâ??s brain drain by increasing the number of UW graduates is admirable, but strikes me as a bit ironic. For many years, UW-Madison has made a concerted effort to pander to affluent, out-of-state students while turning its back on in-state students who are much more likely to stay in Wisconsin following graduation.
Dear Editor: This time of year, high school seniors across Wisconsin are making their decision about where to attend college. In the midst of all of this excitement, the story that is so often not discussed is that of the students whose options are limited due to a lack of time spent discussing their post-secondary opportunities.
Far too many students are unaware of their opportunities for financial aid and scholarships. Furthermore, the structure designed to give these students the information they need often leaves them with more questions than answers. Much of this is due to inadequate college counseling.
The natural beauty of Wisconsin hides an ugly truth: This state is facing an aging population of non-working retirees while its best and brightest young people are leaving for greener pastures.
This scenario is played out in a new report from Wisconsin Way, a coalition of business, government and educational groups working on solutions to the stateâ??s biggest challenges.
NPRâ??s investigative team has been working with reporters at the Center for Public Integrity on a sensitive topic: sexual assaults on college campuses. The investigation shows that campus discipline systems rarely expel men who are found responsible for a sexual assault. Today, Tell Me More focuses on an exception to that norm: the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., which expelled a young student for sexual assault.
Reaching a new goal to graduate 80,000 more students in the next 15 years will require more paths to degrees, improved retention rates and higher enrollments, the University of Wisconsin Systemâ??s top academic official said Thursday. The strategies will include adding three-year degree programs on several campuses, increasing the use of online courses, and luring back adults with some college credits to finish, UW System senior vice president Rebecca Martin told the Board of Regents. “This is aspirational — but also, we believe itâ??s possible,” she said of the goal as the regents kicked off a two-day meeting at UW-Fond du Lac.
My personal spring break is over, so itâ??s time to catch up on a couple higher education-related items:
University of Wisconsin schools want to bump the number of graduates. By the year 2025, the UW-schools want to confer nearly 33,700 undergraduate degrees per year, up from the current 26,000 per year.
An independent review of the UW Athletic Board found that it is not a “rubber stamp” for the will of the UW Athletic Department, despite charges to the contrary by a former member. History Professor Jeremi Suri resigned from the board in protest in 2008, in part prompting the review. He alleged that the board wasnâ??t offering proper oversight over the athletic department. The reportâ??s authors, seven faculty members from across campus, found that “the board fulfills its responsibilities in active, constructive ways, and that it is not a passive â??rubber stamp.â??”
View the latest admissions data on colleges, including the University of Chicago, Princeton, Yale, Pomona, Wesleyan, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa. With many of the nationâ??s most selective colleges and universities scheduled to inform applicants of their decisions on Thursday, The Choice has been reaching out to those institutions in pursuit of some statistical context. Though the figures I have in hand so far are the equivalent of early returns on election night, one trend already appears to be emerging: applications to elite private colleges rose again this academic year, despite the economic constraints on many families, and admission rates often fell to record lows. Harvard University, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Cornell, Stanford, M.I.T. and Duke are each reporting sharp increases in applications this year in comparison to last year.
For several years, a cadre of some of the savviest executives in higher education have been practically begging university administrators and trustees for the chance to advise them on a “strategic finance” approach to restructuring and planning. Until recently, they had a tough time getting college leaders even to set aside the time for a presentation on the topicâ??a free one at that. When youâ??re preoccupied with the immediate demands for budget slashing, or perhaps still hoping that the state cutbacks and declines in donations are just another cyclical bump in the road, it is certainly understandable that you might duck a major reconsideration of the universityâ??s very financing model and mission. Large public institutions in Indiana, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as many private institutions, have already taken the plunge.
UW-Madison won a $1 million grant to become a Russian Language Flagship Center, part of a U.S. Department of Defense program to prepare students in languages that are considered critical for national security.
