The garment industry has long been criticized for low wages and harsh working conditions. As recently as 2010, the University of Wisconsin-Madison ended a licensing agreement with Nike over a wage dispute in Honduras. Pressure from UW-Madison and other universities resulted in Nike making changes that included a $1.54 million contribution to a workers’ relief fund.
Last week, Gov. Tony Evers announced he’s seeking an $800 million budget increase for the Universities of Wisconsin in the state’s next two-year budget. He described it as the largest increase in state funding in the UW system’s history.
Marquette University President Michael Lovell died on Sunday following a three-year battle with cancer and a decade of service to the university, the university announced over the weekend.
The last time University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone saw Marquette University President Michael Lovell in person was about a month ago. Over beers at Cafe Hollander on Downer Avenue, they caught up on their high-pressure jobs, their families and their futures.
Both leaders were diagnosed with cancer in recent years: Mone announced he had lymphoma in 2020 and Lovell revealed he had a rare cancer known as a sarcoma in 2021. The experience bonded the leaders of Milwaukee’s two largest universities even closer together.
Regent Amy Bogost will serve a one-year term as the board’s president, and Regent Kyle Weatherly will serve as the vice president. Both joined the board in May 2020.
Five campuses have already been targeted for closure or a transition from in-person learning — UW-Platteville Richland will be completely vacated by July 1, while UW-Oshkosh Fond du Lac, UW-Milwaukee Washington County, UW-Green Bay Marinette and UW-Milwaukee Waukesha are all slated for closure or a transition to online-only classes.
Monica Smith, who started with the UW system in June 2023, submitted her resignation May 20 to take a job at private liberal arts college University of Richmond in Virginia, UW system President Jay Rothman announced to the UW Board of Regents at its meeting Thursday.
Smith’s resignation comes after a tumultuous year where diversity, equity and inclusion were repeatedly assailed by Republican lawmakers and the subject of a six-month budget standoff. During the standoff, instigated by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, about 35,000 UW System employees saw their pay raises put on pause.
One university has completely depleted its unrestricted reserves — a first in UW System history — that will require the UW System to step in and loan some of its own reserves. And some of the universities projecting to close their deficits in the coming year still need to make “substantial” cuts to achieve that goal, UW officials told the UW Board of Regents at a Thursday meeting on the UW-Milwaukee campus.
The University of Wisconsin System’s chief diversity officer has resigned after a year on the job and amid Republicans’ targeting of campus diversity efforts.
Officers arrested and cited seven people with disorderly conduct, according to UW-Milwaukee spokesperson Angelica Duria. Non-students were banned from the student union through the end of this month.
A year of deep cuts has significantly lowered the Universities of Wisconsin’s total debt, but it’s still projected to be $17.4 million in the red through 2025, according to information shared during the UW Board of Regents meeting Thursday.
Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman is warning that while it’s not precisely clear how delays in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and reduced completions this year will impact student enrollment this fall, one thing is certain: It won’t be good.
UW-Milwaukee said during a Business and Finance Committee meeting with the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents at the UWM Student Union, a handful of protesters “interrupted” the meeting and were exhibiting “disruptive behavior.”
Fall enrollment at the Universities of Wisconsin will likely be negatively impacted by the delayed rollout of a federal financial aid form, according to Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman.
In Wisconsin, average earnings for a student entering the workforce directly after high school is $40,104, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; for graduates of the Universities of Wisconsin, the average starting salary is $61,221.
Recruiters are turning to college roadshows and prep classes to convince more rural students to go to college.
In the last 18 months, the Universities of Wisconsin has effectively closed five of the system’s branch campuses, most of which predominantly served rural students. The UW system cites declining enrollment, not finances, as the reason, even as the system projects that 13 campuses would be a cumulative $60 million over budget by the end of fiscal 2024.
Several high school administrators told the Wisconsin State Journal that they are seeing increased interest in technical colleges from their students, both in dual enrollment classes, which allow students to earn college credit in high school, and overall interest in those colleges for their post-secondary plans.
Robert “Bob” Atwell, one of the last two of former Gov. Scott Walker’s appointees on the UW Board of Regents, has submitted his resignation to Universities of Wisconsin leadership after Gov. Tony Evers announced a successor and two other new board members last week.
After initially refusing to give up his seat when his term expired, Regent Bob Atwell reversed course this week and resigned from the board, effective immediately.
A conservative University of Wisconsin regent who originally refused to step down even though his term was over has resigned, clearing the way for his successor named by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to take his spot.
At least five universities–Brown, University of California at Riverside, Rutgers, Northwestern, and University of Minnesota struck agreements with student groups to end encampments during Apr 29-May 3. And in the weeks after May 3, Harvard, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins, and Chapman also reached agreements with protesting students. Those agreements got another 11 headlines until May 22.
In other states, a lack of trust between those parties has led to chaotic results. In Wisconsin, the Republican-led state house held up millions of dollars in funding for the state university system over disagreements on DEI spending, kicking off a war of attrition that lasted over six months and nearly derailed the University of Wisconsin system budget.
A conservative University of Wisconsin regent who planned to remain on the board despite his term ending has resigned, clearing the way for his successor to join the board.
This year, around 2,000 students were arrested on college campuses at the behest of their own institutions’ leaders. And it was not one or two leaders. Presidents and chancellors approved arrests of student protesters at UCLA, Columbia University, Indiana University Bloomington, University of Texas at Austin, Pomona College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Emory University, City University of New York, Yale University, and Washington University in St. Louis, among dozens of other campuses. At the University of Southern California, there were two police sweeps to remove students’ Gaza solidarity encampments from campus.
The NCAA and its Power Five conferences recently agreed to an antitrust settlement that would allow colleges to pay student athletes directly. But it’s still unclear how schools in those conferences, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will implement the new framework.
In April, the Peace Corps announced that UW-Madison was its No. 1 volunteer-producing university for 2023. Since President John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps in 1961, more than 2,700 volunteers have come from UW-Madison.
Three of those volunteers joined WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” from across the world to talk about their experiences and lessons from the organization.
Bob Atwell, one of two remaining members appointed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, told UW system leaders he planned to continue serving after his term expired on May 1. Atwell said his decision was based on advice he received from top legislative Republicans, which was confirmed by UW President Jay Rothman.
Evers on Friday named Tim Nixon, Jack Salzwedel and Desmond Adongo to fill vacancies created by the May expiration of three former appointees’ terms.
Gov. Tony Evers announced three new appointments Friday to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. Tim Nixon, Jack Salzwedel and Desmond Adongo are filling the spots of three members whose terms expired this month.
UW could benefit from independent governing system, new budget model, expert says
Evers appointed Tim Nixon, Jack Salzwedel and Desmond Adongo to fill the vacancies, which expired May 1st.
Based in Madison and Milwaukee, Venture Investors Health Fund is investing $12 million on commercializing early-stage healthcare innovations developed at universities like the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Wednesday is the last day high school juniors in the Madison School District can opt in to the Universities of Wisconsin direct admissions program, which proactively offers admission to qualifying high schoolers and allows them to sidestep the traditional college application process.
A conservative University of Wisconsin regent is refusing to step down even though his term expired this month, continuing a recent trend of holdover appointees.
In fact, there is data showing a lack of overt bias. A study of the University of North Carolina system, for example, found that direct discussion of politics comes up in only 8 percent of classes. In the University of Wisconsin system, “students reported substantially more frequent encouragement than discouragement of exploring a variety of viewpoints.”
Robert “Bob” Atwell, one of the last two of former Gov. Scott Walker’s appointees on the UW Board of Regents, has told Universities of Wisconsin leadership he won’t step down when his term ends this month.
A conservative University of Wisconsin regent says he won’t step down when his term ends this month, saying in an email that he hoped that his “temporary continuation” as a regent will support communication between legislators and the regents.
UW–Madison’s Kevin Lawrence Henry Jr., an assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, has been working to improve educational outcomes for underserved students and shares his experiences and recommendations.
“Studies have shown that students who were engaged in longer periods of distance learning or virtual learning fared far worse than some of their counterparts,” he explains. “And that particularly hurt Black and brown students in the state of Wisconsin.”
The college’s enrollment is around 500 undergraduate students, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education, but the college has said its enrollment goal for this upcoming fall is 385 students.
The cuts are part of a trend across Wisconsin’s smaller higher education institutions, with the University of Wisconsin system recently closing a number of its satellite campuses.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is requesting that the state budget committee release $20 million meant to create a grant program that would support communities where a University of Wisconsin branch campus has closed.
Wisconsin’s capital city consistently ranks highly, whether it’s among the country’s happiest cities or its physically fittest. The University of Wisconsin-Madison was even recently included on Forbes’ list of new public “Ivy League” schools.
The UW Board of Regents approved the extension at a meeting in April, with plans to reevaluate in 2026-2027. Regent Bob Atwell voted against the extension, saying it was a COVID-era policy and the rationale to keep it going “has passed.”
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday called on Republicans who control the state’s budget committee to release previously approved state funds set aside to aid communities facing the closure of several Universities of Wisconsin branch campuses.
The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Mark A. Mone, released a statement Tuesday condemning antisemitism, after being criticized for a deal made with pro-Palestinian student protesters.
A few weeks ago, on a University of Wisconsin-Madison campus sidewalk, a message in chalk read “DIVEST from Militarism.” It was final exams week, students and older adults alike lounged, studied and conversed alongside tents pitched illegally in protest, while a dainty melody on solo clarinet could be heard playing.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone has apologized amid backlash from the Jewish community over a deal he brokered with pro-Palestinian protesters to take down an encampment.
Leading the failed effort were state Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, and Kim Litwack, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Nursing. Litwack told the other UW nursing school deans last June that Cabral-Guevara had the votes in the Senate to give the six UW nursing schools $1 million each, as well as $3 million to private institutions with nursing schools.
Giles-Klinkner was one of three finalists for the position and will step into the new role immediately. She has served as Madison College Interim Provost during the 2023-24 academic year after the retirement of Dr. Turina Bakken.
Ian Robertson, the outgoing dean of the UW-Madison School of Engineering, offered his thoughts on the future of the program with its new building on track after political wrangling over DEI programs at the university.
I feel the need to express my extreme disappointment with UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone’s decisions relating to his “negotiations” with the pro-Palestinian demonstrators whose protests so disrupted UWM campus life and the safety of its Jewish students. Their actions went far beyond “free speech” and their demands are simply outrageous.
Through a bill signed by the governor in February, top students at high schools across Wisconsin will be guaranteed to get into a Wisconsin university. Through Senate Bill 367, now Wisconsin Act 95, Universities of Wisconsin is offering certain high schoolers in the state some assurance.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison said it would “facilitate access to relevant decision makers” by July. The University of Washington said on Friday that the president and other officials “will meet in person with no more than five student representatives on the divestment request.”
The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh is discontinuing in-person classes at its Fond du Lac campus on Friday.
As a result, some schools, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have delayed their commitment deadlines. But many colleges are expecting fewer freshmen to enroll next school year, according to the Forum. Enrollment declines could be particularly sharp at community colleges, where many students from historically disadvantaged communities opt to attend due to their lower cost.
UW Madison Assistant Director of Federal Rewards Katy Weisenburger said her office is working to extend deadlines for students who, to know fault of their own, couldn’t make the FAFSA process work.
”I have seen a lot of students be very discouraged, yes, for sure…. I have had parents crying about not being able to get this done,” she said. “It’s a really awful situation. I would not be surprised if some students choose to not apply for financial aid or choose to not go to school because of this situation, which is really sad.”
Organizers of the pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Wisconsin at Madison posted a thorough set of guidelines to their Instagram account, affirming that there would be “NO DESECRATION OF THE LAND … NO DRUG USE/ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION,” among other directives. Also: “DO NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN SPECIFICALLY MEDIA-TRAINED FOR THIS ACTION.”
University of Wisconsin—Madison ranks 8th on the list in lowest average net price.
