Category: Higher Education/System

09/29/05

The Paul Barrows case is a terribly complicated and unfortunate personnel matter. And it may not be over. Barrows has every right in the world to explore all his legal options and he’s doing just that. But we nevertheless find some measure of satisfaction in the report issue by Attorney Susan Steingass and in the responses to that report by UW System President Kevin Reilly, UW Madison Chancellor John Wiley and Provost Peter Spear.

The investigation and report were thorough. And the responses were genuine. Additionally the University is right to review its employment policies and how those policies are understood by lawmakers and citizens alike. But we have said from the beginning that this was a personnel matter first and foremost. It is not an indictment of the credibility or accountability of the entire system as some legislators have made it out to be. The UW is a critical player in this state’s present and future. We can continue to support its moving forward.

Almost 70 percent of all divorce litigants in Dane County are self-represented. This is typical in family law courts across the country, says Marsha Mansfield, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

….To help remedy the situation, Mansfield started a law school project last year that’s designed to assist people who are seeking a divorce in Dane County and cannot afford an attorney.

It’s called the Family Law Assistance Project, and UW law students also provide free help to people with other issues related to family law, such as paternity, child support and custody litigation.

Princeton University students have graduated with too many ââ?¬Å?Aââ?¬Â grades over the past 20 years, faculty and administrators say.

Demoted University of Wisconsin-Madison administrator Paul Barrows has sued Chancellor John Wiley, claiming Wiley unfairly made him use his sick and vacation time and disciplined him without due process.

Barrows, who had been vice chancellor for student affairs, also sued the former dean of students, Luoluo Hong, claiming she interfered with his employment by providing “unverified,” false information that he sexually harassed a woman.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Dane County Circuit Court, also notes that Barrows turned down a $150,000-a-year job at Hunter College in April on a promise that Wiley would have him back as a special assistant.

The Defense Department is backing away from a controversial plan to require foreign researchers to wear badges when working with sensitive technology.

Parents of students at three New Orleans universities say they are losing patience with the administrators of their children’s institutions.

MILWAUKEE — With the new school semester just under way, college students are settling into their routines. Marquette University, however, is hoping that illegal Internet downloading is not one of those routines.

J. Edgar Hoover never trusted academics � and many felt likewise.

On Friday, however, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the creation of a panel of university presidents that will advise the bureau on how to improve relations with higher education.

John Wiley, University of Wisconsin at Madison, will participate.

Last fall, officials at the UW- Madison Morgridge Center for Public Service recruited huge numbers of students for the paid tutoring posts, which paid $10.64 an hour. And their paperwork began flowing after they were hired – but before UW-Madison financial aid officials realized the scope of the increase.

Senator Robert C. Byrd, the Democrat from West Virginia who keeps a copy of the Constitution in his pocket, finds the nation’s historical amnesia frustrating. In December he inserted into a giant spending bill a passage requiring every American school receiving federal money to teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17, the date it was signed in 1787.

The U.S. Defense Department is taking another run at law schools that have refused to let military recruiters visit their campuses because of the Pentagon�s stance on gay servicemen and women.

Katharine Lyall returned to the UW-Madison campus Tuesday as a guest rather than president, but her message about higher education financing cut to the core of the university system she ran for 13 years.

As state tax support for public higher education declines, Lyall said, educators and elected officials must talk about new ways to fund and govern public universities, including options such as making them partially private.

The house shook a little bit, but Judith Schafer, who teaches history at Tulane University waited it out. She said the storm wasn�t too bad. But then came the news that the electricity could be out for weeks.

The UW Board of Regents said Friday it will waive fall tuition for students affected by Hurricane Katrina as long as legislative leaders approve.

Board President David Walsh said the waiver could be made official as early as next week for students who transferred to University of Wisconsin System institutions after the storm closed their Gulf Coast schools.

BERKELEY, Calif. – This fall’s incoming class of 4,000 students at the University of California, Berkeley is expected to include just 129 black freshmen, a disturbing trend to leaders of the socially progressive and academically elite school.

The president of Tulane University said on Tuesday that he had little choice but to get his campus up and running by the spring if it is to survive as a national research institution, and he urged other colleges that are enrolling Tulane students in the wake of Hurricane Katrina not to encourage them to stay permanently.

Nearly 10 million Americans claimed a federal higher-education tax break in 2002, more than double the number who did in 1998. But hundreds of thousands of families who may be eligible for such breaks aren’t taking advantage of them, a federal report says.

As federal and state officials continued to recover bodies and clean up the wreckage from Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans announced that they would close for the fall and reopen for the spring semester. Several other colleges on or near the Gulf Coast announced they would reopen within the week.

Scott S. Cowen, president of Tulane, said in a statement released on Saturday that the university had suffered water and roof damage, broken windows, and downed trees. He said the campus could be repaired in a matter of weeks, but that his decision to close the school for the semester was based on the crisis in New Orleans.

An ominous tally of flooded buildings, ripped roofs, and shattered lives emerged on college and university campuses throughout the Gulf Coast region last week as officials began to assess the extent of the damage from Hurricane Katrina.

In New Orleans, where authorities say thousands of people may have died, no one could guess when colleges would be able to reopen. Along the coast of Mississippi, where entire communities have disappeared, the outlook was also grim.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Nicole Hernandez arrived at Syracuse University recently for freshman orientation, but she already knew the place well. She spent two summers here during high school in a program that gave her college credit, and a program in her New Jersey school district has close ties to the university.

More than a week ago, thousands of college students were busy buying books, setting up their rooms and meeting new friends in the streets of New Orleans. For many, the biggest problem was waiting for the elevator or standing in line to change a class schedule.

Now they’re scrambling to gain admittance to other schools or to find jobs. Tulane University has canceled its fall semester.

Tulane University announced Friday and Loyola University on Sunday that they would not open for the fall semester in the wake of the damage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The universities� announcements came as leaders of key higher education groups issued guidelines for colleges to use in helping students unable to attend college in New Orleans.

The U.S. Education Department announced on Thursday that it would waive several regulations governing federal student-aid programs for students and colleges affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Colleges and universities nationwide, many of them swamped by calls from anxious parents, are opening doors � at least temporarily � to students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The storm disrupted the start of school for an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 students enrolled at more than 30 colleges in the New Orleans area.

Dear Editor: While watching the “O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News, I was appalled to learn that there is currently a UW-Madison professor still on the payroll even though he has been convicted of multiple child molestations.

In light of this, we have decided to remove the UW-Madison from our daughter’s potential list of colleges to attend. I find it ironic that an institution of “higher learning” can be so idiotic.

Former UW-Madison Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Paul Barrows says he’s waiting to get a copy of the report that addresses his behavior that led to his demotion last year.

“I’m outraged that they refused to share this report with me immediately,” said Barrows, who added he was concerned the university was taking the time to develop a strategy to further discredit him. “Are they in a cooperative mode to let me look at a report that has more to do with me than anyone else? No.”

Barrows said in an e-mail that the university told him he would have a chance to review the report next week. The report is expected to be publicly released in mid-September.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is prepared to educate and help find housing for Wisconsin residents whose colleges and universities were shuttered by Hurricane Katrina.

Chancellor John Wiley announced that Wisconsin residents who were previously admitted to UW-Madison and are freshmen at a closed institution can be enrolled as a UW-Madison undergraduate. Those students will be encouraged to return to their original institution at the semester’s end or when the original school reopens.

Others at closed institutions, including upperclassmen from Wisconsin and freshmen from Wisconsin who were not previously admitted to UW-Madison, can take classes through the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies, he said.