State Rep. Scott Suder says the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents should be elected, not appointed.
Having regents who are answerable to voters could have prevented the large administrator pay range increases last week, Suder said Tuesday. He is drafting legislation and is seeking co-sponsors.
The demand for new MBAs is expected to be at the highest level since the Internet bubble burst a half-decade ago, according to college career counselors and recruiters.
A lawmaker has proposed limiting pay increases for University of Wisconsin administrators to 5 percent. Rep. Steve Nass said the bill, which he is drafting, is indicative of a backlash against the Board of Regents’ action on Friday to raise executive pay ranges.
Nass, R-Whitewater, also proposed outlawing discounts for out-of-state students, which the regents also approved last week.
In approving the pay range increases, regents said UW executives were falling behind the pay of their peers and that could lead them to leave for other institutions. They acknowledged the raises may not be popular with lawmakers or members of the public who are making little money.
Every college admissions cycle has its own set of dynamics, and this year is no exception. Many selective private colleges are reporting a boom in applications and, as a result, expect to admit a lower proportion of high school seniors than last year.
Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington.
Tucked deep in the deficit-reduction bill President Bush signed last week is a Valentine for parents who use ââ?¬Å?prepaid tuitionââ?¬Â plans to save for college.
The change will make it easier for families who use these plans to qualify for financial aid. But that doesn’t mean these plans are a sweet deal for everyone.
A North Carolina physician has been tapped as the new medical school dean at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Chancellor John Wiley announced today that he has selected Robert N. Golden, the vice dean of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, to take over the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
Change has come to Indiana University, and many administrators, faculty members, and others on the flagship campus here are expressing relief.
Two decades before flower power bloomed at American colleges, student leaders seeded higher education with big ideas. One of them was that students should have a louder voice in campus, national, and global affairs.
So, in 1947, a group of young activists founded the National Student Association, which would quickly help transform campus culture, from Cambridge, Mass., to Berkeley, Calif. Their story appears in a new book, American Students Organize: Founding the National Student Association After World War II (American Council on Education/Praeger, 2006).
The governing board of California’s $3-billion fund for stem-cell research approved ethical and management policies on Friday to guide the studies.
The University of Minnesota system will expand an existing scholarship program that covers tuition and fees for undergraduates eligible to receive federal Pell Grants, it announced on Friday.
Organizers of the upcoming Palestine Solidarity Movement conference on campus announced a preliminary schedule for the program this week, as university officials declined to disclose information about the security measures they will take during the conference.
Among the speakers: Muhammed Abed, a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Even as the price of college rises, more low-income students who would likely get federal financial aid aren’t even bothering to apply.
A new report by the American Council on Education estimates 1.5 million students who would probably have been awarded Pell Grants in 2003-2004 did not apply for them. That’s up from ACE’s estimate in a previous survey of 850,000 who missed out on aid in 1999-2000.
The president’s ââ?¬Å?broad-gauged initiativeââ?¬Â to teach Americans through language training to be more culturally aware of exotic countries ââ?¬â? in order to spread democracy there ââ?¬â? would distort the market for specialty linguists and be a waste of tax dollars.
(Ivan Eland is director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at The Independent Institute, a think tank based in Washington.)
Students are flocking to newly formed Arabic classes on high school and college campuses. But in the best programs, only 25% of first-year students reach the third-year level. In a majority of college programs, students have no choice but to stop after the first year because their university doesn’t offer a second year.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposal to guarantee college financial aid to low-income eighth-graders would cost $63 million over the next decade, a University of Wisconsin System official estimated Thursday.
The Wisconsin Covenant would require $7 million in new funding every year between 2007 and 2015, according to an estimate by Freda Harris, UW System’s associate vice president for budget and planning. The state and private sources are expected to pick up the tab, she said.
If college leaders thought the spending plan for 2007 that President Bush released on Monday was bad for them, future budget blueprints from the administration could be a lot worse for higher education.
College students have long been able to download course information from Web sites such Desire2Learn and blackboard.com, but Apple has decided to take that service one step further.
Apple’s new iTunes U program is the company’s latest development from pilot programs that started about a year ago. It has taken hold at seven universities across the nation, allows professors to post course information online in MP3 files, the same type of file that iTunes songs come in. Students are then able to take these files and download them directly onto their iPods. There is no fee for the program.
Has law school lost its appeal?
Last year, for the first time since the 1997-98 admission cycle, the number of applicants to law school declined, by 4.6 percent, and so far this year, the number has declined by 9.5 percent.
Bikinis, flip-flops and wet T-shirts remain the attire of choice for tens of thousands of college spring breakers, whose annual migrations to such hot spots as Panama City, Fla., South Padre Island, Texas, and Acapulco, Mexico, kick off later this month and run through early April. But many of this year’s rites of spring will feature another wardrobe component: hard hats.
A chorus of scientists, politicians and business leaders has long sounded this lament: The USA is about to be deposed as the world’s leader in science and technology. And last week President Bush joined the choir, calling in his State of the Union address for a $136 billion boost in science education and research over the next 10 years.
Six publishers filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court against the owner of a copy shop near the University of Florida in Gainesville who they say is photocopying and selling copyrighted material without paying royalties or getting permission. It’s the latest in a series of lawsuits in which publishers are cracking down on copyright infringements involving student ââ?¬Å?coursepacks,ââ?¬Â a multimillion-dollar industry in which journal articles, case studies or other readings for a college course are compiled and photocopied for use in class.
It seems like too often the curricula and teaching methods of today�s university professors are selectively critiqued by supervisors who have little insight into what constitutes the appropriate content and atmosphere of a college classroom. The raging debate over academic freedom has spawned an influx in public pressure to manipulate teachers� coursework for means of centrism. Cries of political bias in the classroom have caused many lecturers to become virtually paranoid in what they say and how they say it.
The University of Wisconsin administration is expected to cancel the e-Projects in Community Service program, a service-learning course offered at UW, after the end of this semester.
The program has seen its numbers steadily rise since its inception in fall of 2000, as 116 out of 120 spots have been filled for this semester.
Erica Buytaert said she’s attending the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater because of its reputation as a good education school – even though it’s costing her $10,000 more per year than schools in her home state of Illinois.
University of Wisconsin System regents could give out-of-state students like Buytaert some welcome news this week.
The regents will consider a plan at their meeting Thursday and Friday in Madison to reduce nonresident tuition by $2,000 or more per year at all four-year UW campuses except UW-Madison in an effort to bring their rates in line with similar schools in other states.
New York, with nearly 23%, leads the nation in percentage of 2005 high school seniors passing an AP exam. Maryland, North Carolina, Washington, Connecticut, Delaware and Florida showed the most improvement since 2000.
The percentage of students who took and passed Advanced Placement courses, which are widely regarded as a gold standard for high school rigor, has increased in every state and the District of Columbia since 2000, a report says. Even so, racial gaps remained.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Psychology students and fans of Apple’s popular iPod can now listen and learn at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Calvin Garbin is one of the first instructors at the university to harness iPod’s versatility and use it as an educational tool.
“For 30 years, I’ve said if I could just touch my forehead to theirs and pass on the information …” Garbin said. “This technology, to me, is an approximation of that.”
The budget request for the 2007 fiscal year that President Bush unveiled on Monday had little good news for financially needy students, particularly those who are not high academic achievers.
Under the spending plan, the maximum Pell Grant would remain at $4,050 for the fifth year in a row. And for the second consecutive year, the president is calling on Congress to eliminate the Perkins Loan Program and require colleges to return the federal share of the money they use to make new Perkins Loans to students from low- and middle-income families.
President Bush’s budget for academic science in 2007 may inspire researchers in the physical sciences to pop Champagne corks, but many biomedical researchers will be looking for their aspirin bottles.
Stung by five years of tuition increases, including four double-digit hikes, University of Minnesota students have become all too familiar with the letters IOU.
Rapidly rising tuition helped trigger an unprecedented jump in student borrowing the past few years. Student loans more than doubled, from $160 million in 2000 to $330 million last year across the U’s four campuses.
College students are likely to pack on 15 pounds during their freshman year, right? Not quite, say Rutgers University researchers who find that the ââ?¬Å?Freshman Fifteenââ?¬Â phenomenon is exaggerated. In their sample of 67 students who were weighed in the fall and again in the spring of their freshman years, the average weight gain was only 7 pounds, the result of consuming about 112 excess calories a day. Researchers note, however, that three-quarters of the students in the study did gain weight, which could spell trouble if weight gain continues through graduation. The results of the study will be published in the Journal of American College Health this spring.
Some college students or would-be students who were denied federal financial aid for past drug convictions will regain eligibility under a measure passed last week by Congress and expected to be signed soon by President Bush. But students convicted of a drug felony or misdemeanor in college will still be disqualified from receiving federal aid for at least one year.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ââ?¬â? Everything seemed to be going Tiffany Clay’s way. She was 18, bright, attractive and heading off to the University of Tennessee with a scholarship as a highly recruited swimmer.
We have long known that federal officials can be indifferent to the impact of government regulation on institutions of higher education. But even so, the implications of a recent decision by the Federal Communications Commission are breathtaking.
The problem stems from a relatively obscure federal statute called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or Calea, and a decision by the FCC to expand the coverage of this law to the Internet and to “private networks” like those run on campus.
Eighteen months after the University of Colorado created a department to prepare undergraduates for a broad range of careers in health care, from medicine to physical therapy to physician assistant, that department already has 1,200 students, making it the second most popular on campus.
A similar program at Stony Brook University, on Long Island, has grown to 370 graduating students last year from 35 four years ago. And at Marquette University, which in 1997 became among the first to offer a basic science degree in human health, the course of study has become more popular than any other.
Signing day, while not quite a national holiday, is still the most important day of the year for prep football players.
But while the focus is often on NCAA Division I schools, there are many Division I-AA, II, III and NAIA programs that could also be a perfect fit for an eager student-athlete.
Clay Russell, a former collegiate basketball player who works as a financial advisor, recently posed the question: “Why do many successful prep student-athletes end their competitive careers before college when their dreams of competing in Division I are dashed?”
If current trends continue, by 2010 more than 90% of the world’s scientists and engineers will live in Asia, warns the Business Roundtable, which represents the nation’s leading companies. Failing to reverse that trend will result in a ââ?¬Å?slow witheringââ?¬Â of U.S. economic might, the group warns. Strong stuff. And that’s just the beginning of the complaints from the business community.
For the 20th year in a row, the University of Wisconsin at Madison produced the most Peace Corps volunteers in 2005, according to a list issued this week by the international-service agency.
Under the ruse of the “ownership society” middle class Americans are being increasingly asked to fend for themselves when it comes to getting old, getting sick or other major life events.
…the ownership society is all about taking government off the hook in terms of providing any kind of safety net. That is, presumably, to free up more tax dollars to keep in the hands of the rich, who are then supposed to create more jobs. Call it trickle down, with an employment kicker.
And you can now add college tuition aid to the growing list of middle class benefits headed for the scrap heap in George Bush’s America.
The London-based Financial Times has ranked UW-Madison’s MBA program the 51st best in the U.S., after it was unranked last year.
The Financial Times’ ranking methodology includes data provided by the school and a survey of students enrolled in the program from 2000-2002 and is based on alumni career development and salary purchasing power, diversity and research capabilities
The UW MBA program has been changed considerably in the three plus years since the class surveyed for this ranking graduated. The new specialized MBA program prepares students to launch careers in highly focused areas.
Dear Editor: A recent article in The Capital Times (Jan. 16) highlights important links between Mexico and the dairy farmers of Wisconsin and other states. Your readers may like to know what their university is doing to maximize the benefits of these links….
Kenneth H. Shapiro
Associate dean and professor
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
UW-Madison
Francesca P. Rothenbacher hesitates to even discuss the hot-button issue of affirmative action. She says she was not out to prove a point when she sought admission, as a white woman, to an on-campus summer enrichment program previously advertised as reserved for black, Hispanic, or American Indian students.
A biology major, Ms. Rothenbacher says she applied to the research in science and engineering program, jointly operated here each summer by Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, because “I just wanted to further my career. That is the most important thing to me.”
I recently dropped off my son at a college four states away, and I thought about my own early drinking experiences (ââ?¬Å?First year in college is the riskiest,ââ?¬Â Special report, Cover story, News, Wednesday).
Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor is encouraging the public to demand a greater investment in higher education.
Barbara Lawton, a Democrat, is in Washington, D.C., today to give the keynote address to about 1,200 people at the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ annual meeting.
She plans to announce that Wisconsin will be a pilot project state for the Liberal Education and America’s Promise campaign. It is a drive for public awareness about the value of a higher education at a time when states are spending less on their colleges and universities.
Malee Lee stressed out last fall about which colleges to consider, and how to weigh their pluses and minuses.
Now, the Menasha High School senior is in a panic, thinking maybe that was the easy part of her college search.
“What if I can’t afford the one I want? What if I have to get a college loan? I haven’t thought that far ahead,” she said.
This year’s entering college freshmen show ââ?¬Å?a distinctive and widespread riseââ?¬Â in commitment to social and civic responsibility, a new survey finds.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley acted lawfully when he forced a former top aide to step down and use sick leave during an absence in which he looked for other jobs, a federal judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge John Shabaz dismissed a lawsuit claiming Wiley violated the due process rights of Paul Barrows when he made him use his own assets to cover a nearly eight-month absence.
The ruling is the latest development in a messy personnel case that has embarrassed UW-Madison, the state’s 40,000-student flagship university. The case already has led to a series of personnel reforms, a reprimand against Wiley and a torrent of criticism from state lawmakers and Gov. Jim Doyle.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 – One in four college students have been touched or grabbed against their will, or someone intentionally brushed up against them, in a sexual way on campus, according to a national survey released here on Tuesday.
The survey by the American Association of University Women, “Drawing the Line: Sexual Harassment on Campus,” found that one in six had received suggestive pictures, Web pages or messages, while 7 percent had had their clothes pulled down, and 5 percent were asked for sexual favors in exchange for a better grade, class notes, a recommendation or other perks.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) — Nearly two-thirds of U.S. college students are affected by sexual harassment — ranging from offensive jokes and gestures to touching and grabbing, according to a study released on Tuesday.
Men are more likely to harass than women, but women and men are equally likely to be harassed on U.S. campuses, according to a report by the American Association of University Women.
WASHINGTON ââ?¬â? President Bush, caught off guard Monday by a question about cuts in higher-education student-loan programs, said the reduction in costs would come at the expense of lending institutions, not students.
Representatives of higher-education associations disagreed moderately. Leaders of student groups took vehement exception.
Nearly two-thirds of undergraduates, male and female, say they have been sexually harassed either verbally or physically while in college, and another student or group of students usually is the perpetrator, a new report says. And though more than 70% of women and 40% of men said they ââ?¬Å?would be somewhat or very upsetââ?¬Â to be on the receiving end of sexual comments, jokes, gestures or looks, 51% of men and 31% of women had harassed someone. Most (59%) said they did so because they thought it was funny.
Medical school faculty must set an example for their profession by distancing themselves from drug companies’ marketing efforts, a group of academic medicine leaders urges in a paper today.
The USA TODAY analysis of student deaths finds that a disproportionate number of freshmen die. They represent 35% of undergraduate deaths in the study ââ?¬â? but only 24% of the undergraduate population ââ?¬â? from such causes as illness, suicides and accidents. Parents should be ââ?¬Å?aware of the potential risks to college students and take reasonable measures,ââ?¬Â says Ann Franke of Wise Results, a Washington-based education law and risk management firm.
A USA TODAY study of deaths of four-year college students found that fires were a leading cause, especially for seniors. Seniors account for 36% of the fire fatalities in the study, which also found that when students die in fires, it usually happens just off campus. Near-campus housing often lacks smoke alarms, sprinkler systems and easy escape routes. Ed Comeau, director of the Center for Campus Fire Safety in Amherst, Mass., says such houses are often older buildings, packed with electronics and young adults hosting parties and cooking for the first time in their own kitchens.
Weeks before they show up for their first class at the University of Missouri-Columbia, the 7,500 or so incoming freshmen, along with their parents, are called to campus for an early July flurry known as ââ?¬Å?Summer Welcome.ââ?¬Â Though it’s mostly a friendly affair, the two-day welcome also features frank talk from upperclassmen, campus police and counselors about binge drinking, partying and bad behavior in general. ââ?¬Å?We hit them with that in the summer before they even get on campus,ââ?¬Â says Kim Dude of the university’s Wellness Resource Center.
Students away from home for the first time are more likely to die of accidents or illness. For Danny Reardon, a fraternity ritual was fatal. Daniel Reardon’s nightmare began at 5:30 a.m. with a call from the University of Maryland police. His 19-year-old son, Danny, had taken part in a fraternity drinking ritual and was unconscious.
University of Wisconsin-Madison interim Provost Virginia Sapiro is a finalist for the position of provost and executive vice chancellor at the University of Kansas.
She was passed over for the permanent provost’s job at UW-Madison when the finalists were announced late last month.
The University of Kansas has posted the news of her finalist status on its Web site. The other four finalists have not been named. Sapiro is on the Kansas campus in Lawrence interviewing for the job today.
All students of African-American literature and history owe a debt to Nellie McKay, said Henry Louis Gates Jr., a noted scholar and author.
McKay, a former chairwoman of the department of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, died on Sunday after a lengthy battle with liver cancer.
Gates, chairman of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, was co-editor with McKay on the Norton Anthology of African American Literature, released in 1997. It is widely regarded as the definitive collection of works by American black authors.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 23 – A 24-year-old conservative alumnus who announced earlier this month that he planned to pay students at the University of California, Los Angeles, to tape-record the lectures of left-leaning professors backed down after U.C.L.A. officials informed him on Monday that he would be violating school policy.
