We visit with UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin to ask about some of the top issues in higher education, including DEI initiatives, student enrollment, the money brought in by research and more.
In an email to chancellors of UW campuses, which was attained via records request by The Daily Cardinal, UW System President Jay Rothman writes: “Consider shifting away from liberal arts programs to programs that are more career specific, particularly if the institution serves a large number of low-income students.” The suggestion was an item on a list of “lessons” he took away from a Chronicle of Higher Education report.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said Monday that he opposes withholding the money.
The proposed legislation would allow DACA recipients in Wisconsin to obtain state-issued professional licenses and qualify to pay in-state tuition to attend University of Wisconsin System schools. It would also create a $250 nonrefundable tax credit issued every two years to help offset the $495 biennial fee DACA recipients are required to pay to renew their status.
The set of bills proposed Monday would allow DACA recipients to obtain professional licenses issued by the state, qualify for in-state tuition at campuses across the Universities of Wisconsin system and create a biennial tax credit of $250 to offset a portion of the $495 fee that recipients must pay every two years as part of their deferred action renewal grant.
Mike Wagner, Helen Firstbrook Franklin Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, received a letter from Jordan, the House Judiciary chair, in August requesting documents—followed by a subpoena in September demanding them. The August letter, which Wagner provided to Inside Higher Ed, noted that Course Correct, a project the University of Wisconsin at Madison is involved in, was funded by the National Science Foundation. The letter said the grant program was very similar “to efforts by other federal agencies to use grants to outsource censorship to third parties.”
Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman sought to clarify this week that he is not proposing to solve the system’s financial woes by eliminating liberal arts programs after sharing a report with chancellors that examined steps an Arkansas university took to head off its own fiscal crisis.
A story in a UW-Madison student newspaper set off a firestorm within the Universities of Wisconsin after it reported the system president suggested to chancellors they might consider “shifting away from liberal arts.”
Further emptying out the Mosse Humanities building by building a new music academic building and adding nearly 2,000 beds to University Housing could rank high on UW-Madison’s list of priorities for the next state budget.
University of Wisconsin-Madison $1.524 billion
“Let me be crystal clear: I have not asked our universities to move away from liberal arts programs,” Rothman wrote on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. “I have repeatedly stated that the liberal arts develops critical thinking and problem solving skills vital to a knowledge economy and to winning the war for talent.”
I much prefer the succinct response by the then provost of the University of Wisconsin at Madison to demands by students that the university speak out against the impending invasion of Iraq. He said, “The University of Wisconsin does not have a foreign policy.” That is beyond perfect.
Student journalists from UW–Oshkosh and UW–River Falls join us for a roundtable about how budget cuts and layoffs throughout the university system are affecting students on their campuses.
UW System President Jay Rothman suggested in an email to campus chancellors that they should consider cutting liberal arts programs at schools that serve a large number of low income students, the UW-Madison student newspaper the Daily Cardinal reported this week.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is opposing an economist’s application to trademark phrases that include the word “bucky.”
Ed Hirs, an expert on Texas’ power grid and a lecturer at the University of Houston, applied late last year to trademark “buckynomics” and “buckymarkets” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The court is weighing several high-profile cases that were filed after Protasiewicz’s win in April gave liberals a majority. In addition to the redistricting challenge, the court is considering whether to hear cases seeking to overturn Wisconsin’s private school voucher program and to weaken powers the Republican-controlled Legislature have used to block pay raises for University of Wisconsin employees.
A bombshell story by a college newspaper reported the University of Wisconsin system president suggested chancellors consider shifting away from liberal arts. The story has campuses buzzing, and the president criticizing as “egregiously false.”
In emails obtained by The Daily Cardinal, Rothman, a former law firm chairman and CEO with no higher education background before leading the UW System, told campus chancellors UW schools should seek a long-term path “to return to financial stability.”
When Jeff Roznowski and Bill Monfre first joined a coalition in 2020 to advocate for a new engineering facility on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, they figured they’d work with the group only a year or two.
Karla Weber Wandel, communications manager for the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s financial aid office, started working with Ivy.ai’s chat bot in 2018. The technology scrolls the UW Madison financial aid page daily to provide up-to-date information to chat-bot users.
“It wasn’t to address one financial aid issue arising; more so it’s just helping folks get access to information on the site when the hot topics were popping up,” Weber Wandel said. The chat bot is especially helpful, she added, with the FAFSA change on “the forefront of everyone’s minds.”
Out-of-state enrollment at the University of Wisconsin at Madison increased by 29 percent in the three years after the state government removed a cap on nonresidents in 2015, according to a new working paper from researchers published by Brown University’s school of education.
As students face college application deadlines, we explore a new approach to admissions being adopted by the Universities of Wisconsin. Next year, most campuses plan to start proactively informing Wisconsin high schoolers who are eligible to enroll based on their academic performance. Interview with Taylor Odle, an assistant professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A new report from the American Federation of Teachers shows millions of adjunct educators are underpaid, with more than 25 percent of respondents earning less than $26,500 per year. The head of the union explains what issues these millions of educators are facing.
How sad that over a half century and more of history has been jettisoned by a “rebranding exercise.” (“UW System rolls out new name for itself: Universities of Wisconsin,” Oct. 12).
An increasing number of first-year UW-Madison students are qualifying for two of UW-Madison’s tuition promise programs, with Pell Pathway intended to tackle the ever-growing cost of attending the state’s largest university.
The bipartisan legislation would direct the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents to establish a pilot program to research psilocybin, the primary psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, as a treatment for PTSD in veterans aged 21 and over. The bill would also require researchers to report to the governor and the state legislature on the program’s progress and findings.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s beloved mascot is tangled in a trademark fight.
The state flagship and its licensed retail manager, Fanatics, are badgering a Texas economist who applied to trademark the phrases “buckynomics” and “buckymarkets.”
And, it’s not just a problem at Columbia. On Nov. 18, around noon, roughly 20 members of a neo-Nazi group began a march near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and moved toward the State Capitol, according to an email UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin wrote to the campus community denouncing the march. Men dressed in red, covering their faces, marched carrying large black swastika flags, according to videos posted online. “There will be blood,” the members of the neo-Nazi group chanted.
In a poorly ventilated room in a dairy lab on ninth floor of UW-Madison’s Animal and Dairy Sciences building, more than $1 million of research equipment sits on decades-old desks. An average-looking air purifier on the floor nearby keeps the machines running.
On Aug. 21, 2021, Najib Azad, his wife and their four children fled Afghanistan as American military forces withdrew from the country and the Taliban regained power.
Today, the family is living in Stevens Point as part of a refugee resettlement program, and Azad, a former press secretary in the Afghan government, is teaching global affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Late fall is crunch time for John Achter and his team of counselors across the state public university system.
The novelty of the new school year has worn off, the realities of classes have set in and finals are looming. An increasing number of students have been seeking counseling in recent years, often during this stressful period of the semester.
The University of Wisconsin-Platteville community is mourning the loss of athletic director Kristina Navarro-Krupka, who died suddenly on Saturday from natural causes. She was 39 and pregnant with her first child.
Katherine Zimmerman had a very good problem on her hands. So many students showed up for the September kickoff meeting of an organization she leads that she had to move attendees to a larger room on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
That’s not surprising for a school bursting at the seams. But the turnout was unexpected, given the group’s focus on a topic long treated as taboo: mental health.
In the fall of 1963, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was just seven-years old. During that fall semester, eight upper class students were enrolled in a Political Science seminar focused on the Civil Rights Movement. The memorable March on Washington had taken place just weeks before the start of class. The professor, Wilder Crane, had been a Republican member of the Wisconsin Assembly before joining the faculty.
According to the Pensions & Investments U.S. Endowment Returns Tracker, the biggest was 10.5 percent for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by a 9.8 percent return for the University of Nebraska Foundation; 9 percent for the University of Illinois Foundation; 8.6 percent for Syracuse University; 8.2 percent for the University of Arkansas Foundation; 7.8 percent for the University of Colorado Foundation; 7.5 percent for Leigh University; 7 percent for the University of Minnesota Foundation; and 7 percent for Case Western Reserve University.
The cost of college. Workforce shortages. Educational inequality. We’ve all heard those phrases. How do they fit together?
I don’t have all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together, but I am searching for answers as part of a new reporting beat at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel focusing on the intersection of education and Wisconsin’s workforce.
But instead of embracing Evers’ plan to put $365 million toward a pandemic-era program to support child care providers, create a state paid family and medical leave program and provide more funding for a new engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Republicans opted to go in a different direction.
Evers’ proposal would have allocated $365 million in new child care funding, increased spending for the Universities of Wisconsin by $65 million, devoted $200 million to paying for a new engineering building on the UW-Madison campus, established a 12-week family medical leave program costing $243 million, and created workforce education and grant programs.
Wisconsin Badgers Director of Athletics Chris McIntosh expressed his condolences for the family, friends and coworkers of Navarro-Krupka. “All of us in the Badger Athletic Department are greatly saddened to hear of the passing of UW-Platteville Director of Athletics Dr. Kristina Navarro-Krupka,” McIntosh said. “Kristina was a friend to a number of us at UW-Madison and a great partner to our department.”
It’s pretty hard to explain, isn’t it? While Wisconsin is sitting on a multibillion-dollar budget surplus, its highly regarded state university campuses are being forced to lay off faculty, cut back classes, even close some two-year campuses to balance their own budgets.
The Legislature should quickly take up and approve funding for a new engineering building on the UW-Madison campus. If the Republican-run Legislature thought AmFam Field was a good proposal for Wisconsin — and it definitely was — then get a load of this offer: a $350 million engineering building that costs the public less and delivers the state economy far more.
The system is also dealing with headlines about layoffs, campus closures, declining enrollment, increasing tuition, and a funding stalemate with the legislature.
Legislative committees controlled by Republicans have blocked the UW system pay increases even though Evers and the full Legislature have already authorized them. The inaction came after Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said the UW system had to either eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion programs or hand over its power to create university roles to the Legislature.
Evers has since sued the Legislature over the matter, alleging in a lawsuit filed directly with the liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court that Republicans are violating the Constitution’s separation of powers by allowing legislative committees to “impede, usurp, or obstruct basic executive branch functions.”
Despite pressure from business leaders from across the state, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos this week held firm on the Legislature’s decision to withhold state funding for a new engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
As part of its workforce development proposal, the UW System has proposed programs in AI across the state.
UW-Green Bay is considering program changes in low-enrollment areas such as theater and dance, economics and environmental science as it seeks to equalize its student-to-faculty ratio among departments.
The Republican war on diversity, equity and inclusion could cost Wisconsin hundreds of engineers.
The GOP-controlled Legislature declined to fund a new engineering building for the University of Wisconsin-Madison as part of the state budget. The project would expand enrollment in the engineering college.
Isabelle Bogan is a junior studying marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also a sexual assault survivor.
“I wasn’t treated very well by friends when I told them about it or by people who knew the [assaulter],” said Bogan.
Bogan said she never wanted to be labeled as a sexual assault survivor. She said she just wanted to continue on with her life the best way that she could. That’s why she became a peer facilitator at Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment, or PAVE.
In June, the Wisconsin Legislature approved pay increases for the 34,000 employees of the Universities of Wisconsin. Months later, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said legislators wouldn’t give final approval for the pay raises until the university system eliminates 188 positions — all the university system’s jobs Vos claims are dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion. Last month, a GOP-controlled committee affirmed the decision: The approved raises would go to all state employees except those who work within the university system.
In response, Gov. Tony Evers sued the Legislature, calling the move an unconstitutional “legislative veto.”
Change will impact shared governance principle, ASM chair says.
Students and faculty of the University of Wisconsin River Falls are mourning the loss of four members of the campus community.
In September, a professor of journalism died unexpectedly of natural causes. The obituaries of the three students say they all lost their battles with depression. Two of these students were from Minnesota. Last year, 43 percent of the student body came from Minnesota.
UW-Parkside is looking to eliminate about 50 jobs in the coming months, either through layoffs or voluntary retirements, the latest Universities of Wisconsin school to slash staffing to make up for projected budget shortfalls.
Just like in Richland Center a year ago, the latest communities to lose a UW system branch campus are uncertain what their campus will become and whether they’ll be stuck footing the bill for unused county buildings. There seems to be no established protocol for how counties can and should proceed when the UW system decides to cut its losses.
The institute plans to develop an internship and will collaborate with the University of Wisconsin and Auburn University in Alabama, which are developing similar institutes.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents unanimously voted to end a policy requiring universities to consult with students before setting university and program-specific tuition adjustments during a Thursday meeting at UW-Madison.
Layoffs and budget cuts have taken a decidedly serious toll for some students, staff and professors at the University of Wisconsin System campuses. “My fellow student was telling us about how sometimes her professor would tear up” in front of the class, said Chris Parish, a UW-Oshkosh junior. They’d say “‘I just need a minute because it can just be so overwhelming.’”
For the first time since 2014, enrollment at the Universities of Wisconsin grew over the previous year, climbing by more than 1,700 students, according to the official 10-day enrollment figures announced this week.
The University of Wisconsin system is ending a policy requiring schools to consult with students when seeking to raise tuition for specific programs.
The Regents unanimously approved the policy change at a board meeting Thursday.
The University of Wisconsin-Parkside projects cutting about 9.5% of its workforce positions over the next year, joining the ranks of two other public universities making significant cuts to balance their budgets.
This fall, the Universities of Wisconsin saw its first growth in enrollment since 2014.
According to official 10-day enrollment figures, enrollment increased by more than 1,700 students. This brought the Universities of Wisconsin total enrollment to 162,528, which is a 1.1% increase from last year’s enrollment.
