The University of Wisconsin-Madison gradually raised its out-of-state enrollment cap and then totally eliminated it in 2015. Within six years, nearly half the first-year students on the Madison campus came from other states.
In all, there are about 70,000 employees working for various state agencies and the Universities of Wisconsin system. The Legislative Audit Bureau estimates that from 19% to 75% of those employees work remotely or have hybrid work schedules, depending on the agency.
Universities of Wisconsin faculty and staff employees seeking a voice in UW operations have gained the ears of a number of UW regents, a union leader said Thursday, and want their request for recognition put on the Board of Regents agenda in October.
A University of Wisconsin Board of Regents committee has signed off on a $13.5 million expansion of a planned cyclotron particle accelerator research facility that will create radioactive isotopes used in cancer research, detection and treatment.
Preliminary enrollment estimates across the University of Wisconsin System remained steady this fall, amid the restart of Wisconsin Tuition Promise, the expansion of Direct Admit Wisconsin, declining international student numbers and continued visa uncertainties.
People attending the UW Board of Regents’ meeting last week will go through a security screening to enter the venue.
Under the new measures, attendees will be required to walk through metal detectors, and anyone who refuses a screening or has a prohibited item will be denied entry to the venue, according to Regents meeting materials released ahead of the meeting.
Patients with cancer could be diagnosed and treated in one building if UW-Madison gets approval for its expanded multimillion-dollar cyclotron lab.
Construction for a $48.5 million cyclotron lab between two research buildings next to UW Hospital was expected to start this year, but the university now is seeking the green light from the UW Board of Regents to add more space for patient treatment and research.
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County is partnering with Mercyhealth to expand access to healthcare education for professionals and students in the field.
Lauren Fields was less than four months into a research project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) when she got an email message from her program officer at the federal agency.
A doctoral candidate in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Fields has been studying the biochemistry involved in the feeding process of a common crab species. She and her faculty supervisor believe the project can shed new light on problems such as diabetes and obesity in human beings.
A new bill introduced by four of Wisconsin’s republican legislators focuses on free speech at University of Wisconsin System institutions and technical colleges. The proposed legislation aims to uphold First Amendment protections and ensure due process in disciplinary proceedings
Security for college officials is being scrutinized in the wake of Kirk’s murder, too. University of Wisconsin Board of Regents is beefing up security protocols ahead of its meeting on the UW-Madison campus this week. Walkthrough metal detectors and bag searches are required for all meeting attendees. It was unclear if the measures were temporary or permanent, and how much it would cost. Universities of Wisconsin spokesperson Mark Pitsch would not answer questions seeking details.”The safety and security of the meeting is paramount, and as a result we are implementing enhanced security measures,” Pitsch said in a statement instead.
Wisconsin colleges and universities with significant Hispanic and Latino populations could lose millions after the U.S. Department of Education announced last week that it plans to end several long-standing grant programs it says violate the Constitution.
In Wisconsin, the change would affect Alverno College, Herzing University, Gateway Technical College and Mount Mary University.
Written by Frances Vavrus, the vice provost and dean of the International Division at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
In an episode of “The Dan O’Donnell Show” on Saturday, Milwaukee podcaster Dan O’Donnell criticized University of Wisconsin journalism professor Lindsay Palmer’s assignment which asked students to examine their “socio-cultural identities.”
Walsh visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in 2022, where attendees at the indoor event outnumbered students protesting his visit. Police got involved to draw counter-protestors away after scuffles with protestors. YAF paid $8,000 for the event, and the student government provided the remaining $2,000 under its “viewpoint neutral” policy.
More than two weeks after the Madison School District announced that it would not weight grades for the purposes of a new college-entrance program, the results of a survey on the issue show large majorities of district students and parents polled were in favor of weighting grades.
Student enrollment at the Universities of Wisconsin’s branch campuses dropped at four and increased at three this fall, according to preliminary student count projections obtained Wednesday.
In a joint announcement, the university and technical college said the move will strengthen both institutions and support the regional economy.
Faculty on the university committee discussed challenges to student wellbeing this academic year amidst executive orders and changing student involvement in a meeting at Bascom Hall Monday.
The camps, run through the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Climatic Research, have drawn middle and high school students from more than 35 communities across Wisconsin and Illinois since 2022. With sensory-friendly, nature-based activities ranging from NASA citizen science projects to outdoor exploration, the programs aim to foster neurodiversity and encourage students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
UW-Stevens Point at Wausau is relocating to Northcentral Technical College beginning next fall, the latest Universities of Wisconsin branch campus to face significant changes or closure since 2022.
Eight of the 13 schools in the Universities of Wisconsin system saw an enrollment increase compared to the fall of 2024, according to preliminary estimates. However, total enrollment decreased slightly across the whole system.
UW-Whitewater said a projected 12,075 students enrolled at the school for the fall semester including 2,459 new freshman, marking the largest freshman class in a decade.
At the University of Wisconsin, along with numerous other schools across the country, students studying journalism are faced with the consequences of the recent funding cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding for news outlets like Public Broadcasting Services and National Public Radio.
New freshman enrollment across the Universities of Wisconsin campuses is up an average of 3 percent this fall, but “significant declines” in international students have kept overall enrollment flat.
UW-Madison’s enrollment is projected to slip by 0.5%, according to the system’s preliminary enrollment counts.
The university is projected to have 241 fewer students this fall, a drop from the UW system’s official 2024 UW-Madison student count of 51,791.
Enrollment at Wisconsin’s public universities this fall largely held steady from last year, despite increasing concerns about affordability, growing public doubt about the value of a college degree and a projected drop in international students.
Since the Universities of Wisconsin started shuttering two-year branch campuses in 2023 amid steep enrollment declines, counties that own the buildings and land have been left to regroup and decide what’s next for the properties.
The Associated Students of Madison (ASM)’s Justice, Equity & Belonging committee (JEB) released a statement Tuesday calling for students to support diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in response to university-wide budget cuts.
When President Donald Trump started cutting billions in federal research dollars, American universities saw it as a threat to the country’s research enterprise.
Universities outside the U.S. saw it as something else entirely: an opportunity.
UW-Madison is among the Big Ten campuses featured in a new ad that defends their research amid looming federal funding cuts and uncertainty.
The ad, “We Are Here,” aims to send a collective message to viewers about the impact of research happening on their campuses.
Morgridge Hall, the new home of the School of Computer, Data and Information Science, at UW-Madison seen from University Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin, on the first morning of classes, Sept. 3, 2025.
Exploding interest in computer and data sciences over the last decade at the University of Wisconsin-Madison led to hundreds of students on course waitlists and a lack of lecture halls large enough to accommodate demand.
The growing pains will begin to ease with the opening of Morgridge Hall this semester. The gleaming seven-story building is the home of the School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences. It houses the two most popular majors on this 50,000-student campus.
UW-Madison Housing & Dining hosted a “resident appreciation” dinner across campus on May 1, offering thousands of lobsters to students on meal plans. Staff even set up lobster-cracking stations to help students navigate the shells. At Liz Waters dining hall, salmon and steak were served instead.
Records obtained by The Cardinal show the university purchased about 2,354 pounds of lobster at $15.69 per pound, totaling more than $36,000 — excluding shipping and travel costs. The expense came from UW Dining’s $46 million annual operating budget, funded through housing contracts, meal plans and dining sales.
Switching from months of relaxation over the summer straight into heavy course loads and overwhelming numbers of due dates is stressful for anyone. Keeping track of a new schedule and planning for the weeks ahead can make adjusting to the new school year seem nearly impossible, and University of Wisconsin-Madison’s current first week setup might be to blame for this syllabus shock.
New Jersey father Anthony Verdura received a homesick call from his daughter last fall when she was five weeks into her first semester at UW-Madison.
That’s when Mary Morgan came in.
Verdura hired Morgan through her concierge business, Miss Mary Delivery, which caters to the university’s students and families, to surprise his daughter with a care package.
UW-Madison welcomed freshmen and transfer students to campus on Tuesday at a new student convocation.
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, campus leadership, faculty and staff all helped with the kickoff event at the Kohl Center.
Lexi Westley comes from a family of coaches and athletes. But it took what she calls a “terrifying” experience with a coach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to motivate her to pursue coaching herself.
A little more than three years after coach Mackenzie Wartenberger resigned from her position as head coach of the UW-Madison women’s cross country team, Westley and four of her teammates are coming forward about what they call abusive behavior by Wartenberger.
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health professor and dean Jon Audhya considers how deep cuts to federal research funding are affecting scientific work and training of students.
Fired UW-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow will appear on a TMZ documentary special about OnlyFans and its content creators airing on the Fox Network tonight, the first day of classes for the fall term.
Badgers fans love to win. But more important than any championship are the lives and wellbeing of the student athletes in red and white. They face enormous pressure to succeed in their sports, often with scholarships and additional compensation at stake.
That’s what makes the State Journal’s recent investigation into the women’s cross country and basketball teams so troubling. Winning, or trying to, trumped the best interests of students.
More Madison School District students could be eligible for automatic admission to the Universities of Wisconsin under a district policy that avoids having to break ties among top-ranked students.
The district says its approach the new Wisconsin Guarantee program complies with the law that created it, while the primary author of the law said neither her bill nor the law addresses Madison’s approach and it would take a court challenge to determine whether it is legal.
Gloria Ladson-Billings, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has studied how best to teach African American students. She told us an encouraging teacher can change a life.
“Many of our young people have their ceilings lowered, that somewhere around fourth or fifth grade, their thoughts are, ‘I’m not going to be anything special.’ What I think is probably happening at St. Mary’s is young women come in as, perhaps, ninth graders and are told, ‘Here’s what we expect to happen. And here’s how we’re going to help you get there.'”
Other voters, such as Will Brown, 20, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, urged the administration to pursue even more ambitious deportation goals.
Brown, who said he “couldn’t be more of a fan of Stephen Miller,” the White House aide credited with designing Trump’s immigration policy, noted that the deportation rate of Trump’s second term so far lagged that of the last two Democratic administrations.“Honestly, I don’t think they’re doing enough,” he said.
This ideological rot is not at all unique to Harvard. It’s the norm in teacher prep programs nationwide. The University of Wisconsin system has discussion circles reading “Anti-Racist Baby” and making Black Lives Matter friendship bracelets. The University of Florida fills its syllabi with such critical race theory icons as Kimberlé Crenshaw and Gloria Ladson-Billings. Columbia has a course on “Exploring Gender and Sexuality in Everyday Curriculum Practices.” Some of the most assigned authors, like Paulo Freire and Gloria Watkins, are outright Marxists.
The sale of UW-Milwaukee’s former Washington County branch campus to a private Christian school is moving forward, despite public outcry.
The Washington County Board Wednesday told the county executive to proceed with the sale of the campus to the Ozaukee Christian School for $3 million — which is $2 million less than the property’s appraised value.
The former University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Washington County campus will be sold to a Christian school and land conservation group.
The Washington County Board voted to move forward with the sale after a closed session meeting on Wednesday, despite objections from several community members who have raised questions about the sale price and why the county would sell to buyers who won’t pay taxes.
Democrats announced legislation to amend Wisconsin law to prohibit the concealed carry of firearms on college and university campuses in Wisconsin.
The legislation, which has been introduced in previous sessions and failed to advance, would make it a misdemeanor to possess a gun on campus, making the penalty up to nine months in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. The new stipulations would not apply to law enforcement or military personnel, nor anyone who possesses a gun on campus with permission.
Wisconsin Democrats introduced new gun safety reforms on Wednesday, focusing on colleges and universities. Lawmakers proposed extending gun-free zones, currently in place for K-12 schools, to all college campuses to protect students and staff.
Democratic lawmakers want to align gun laws for Wisconsin colleges and universities with those in place for K-12 schools by prohibiting concealed carry on campuses.
Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and Rep. Brienne Brown (D-Whitewater) said during a press conference Wednesday that the bill would help protect students at a time when schools continue to be targets of gun violence.
As students are returning to campus, authorities are investigating false reports of active shooters at more than a dozen universities across the country, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Inside Higher Ed counted 19 confirmed swatting calls since Aug. 19, including at Mercer University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Utah and the University of New Hampshire.
Badger Bash begins 2-and-a-half hours before every home football game at Union South.
With the game against Miami of Ohio kicking off at 8 p.m. Thursday, this week’s Badger Bash will start at 5:30 p.m.
In a statement, a spokesperson for UW-Madison said the university “does not yet have clarity on the full impacts of” the ruling, but that it “puts at risk” more than $14 million for biomedical research.
“This figure represents the remaining money on 22 grants that were already approved and underway, which also means the time and money already spent on these projects will potentially go to waste, in addition to the money that will not be recovered,” said UW-Madison spokesperson Victoria Comella.
The fall semester for the Universities of Wisconsin campuses starts next week. But at least 50 students at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee still don’t know if they’ll be able to attend class.
University of Wisconsin football player Nyzier Fourqurean scored a small win in court Aug. 25.
Wisconsin district judge William Conley denied part of the NCAA’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit Fourqurean filed against it in July that seeks declaratory, injunctive and monetary relief against the NCAA for its rules related to how many years a student-athlete is eligible to play NCAA Division I football.
Early in the morning of Aug. 24, 1970, four anti-Vietnam War radicals — Karleton Armstrong, his brother Dwight Armstrong, David Fine and Leo Burt — used a van filled with almost a ton of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil to bomb UW-Madison’s Sterling Hall, killing researcher Robert Fassnacht and injuring three others.
The district announced Friday evening that it would not use weighted grading as part of its response to the Wisconsin Guarantee program. Approved by the state Legislature, the program guarantees admission to UW-Madison for students who rank in the top 5% of their class and guarantees admission to the 12 other four-year Universities of Wisconsin campuses for students who rank in the top 10%.
Gibson, 51, emerged as the top pick among 73 applicants to lead Milwaukee’s largest university. He succeeds Mark Mone, who led UWM for 11 years and is now on a yearlong sabbatical before returning to teach.
Gibson faces an array of challenges, including declining student enrollment, budget pressures and a presidential administration that’s put colleges in its crosshairs.
Professor Kevin Renken was in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s mechanical engineering department for nearly 40 years. But he may be remembered most for what UWM claimed he didn’t do: his job.
A UWM investigation last year alleged Renken wasn’t pulling his weight as professor in the last half of his career despite what the school admits was a “commendable” record of classroom teaching
