Category: Higher Education/System

Weeks out from opening day of an Indigenous art exhibit at the Chicago Field Museum last year, Doug Kiel raised an alarm with other curators.

One of the featured artists, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor and poet Margaret Noodin, had posted a statement online meant to address long-running questions about whether she was really Native.

Here’s what guests on the October 27, 2023 episode said about ongoing staff shortages in Wisconsin’s prison system and budget woes prompting closures of two-year state college campuses.

Carthage College’s faculty members believe a new policy increasing the number of classes they must teach without upping their pay is the administration’s first step toward laying off staff.

The proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 86, would put an end to scholarship displacement in Wisconsin for students who receive scholarships of $5,000 or less from external sources. Currently, any college or university in the state can decrease a student’s financial aid when they receive funding from outside scholarships even if the student still has a balance for tuition.

“The idea is to kind of focus more on a colorblind society, and that’s a long time coming. I think there was maybe a reason in the past to do it the way it was done,” said Republican Senator Eric Wimberger, co-author of the bill. “If you keep it at the idea of simply being a disadvantaged status, then if there’s a systemic issue going on, then there’s gonna be a disproportionate number of people benefiting, who happened to be kind of having that negative effect.”

“UW-Madison educates the state’s future workforce and drives its economy forward,” said UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin. “I have been clear that funding cuts, the lack of approval for a widely supported Engineering building and a hold on much needed pay increases for our employees, defy both reason and longstanding legislative tradition.”

The U.S. Department of Education explained the new measures in a meeting with members of the press on Monday.

Dozens of employees at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville will be laid off and more positions will go unfilled as the university continues to deal with financial pressures, according to an email sent to campus employees Wednesday.

Evetovich explained that the 111 cuts make up just over 12% of the school’s workforce. More than a third of the positions cut were academic staff members. There were 31 positions open that have been permanently cut.

In a letter to employees, Chancellor Tammy Evetovich said the school is eliminating 111 positions, which is about 12% of the university’s workforce.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is eliminating 111 positions, or 12% of its workforce, the second school in the state public university system to significantly downsize in an effort to reduce budget deficits.

Black bear research conducted in Wisconsin by UW-Stevens Point faculty and students will stretch into perpetuity thanks to a $1 million endowment.

During a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Washington County orientation at the start of the semester, an administrator fielded questions from panicked parents who had read headlines about the small campus’ uncertain future and a potential merger with the local technical college.

UW-Oshkosh laid off 140 staff, 76 more chose to take voluntary retirement, and others on contract found that the university would not renew their employment agreements. In total, the losses account for over 20 percent of UW-Oshkosh’s workforce.

The ASM Sustainability chair and co-coordinators represented UW-Madison at the UW System Sustainability Annual Meeting Oct. 12 and 13.

UW–Milwaukee at Washington County enrollment fell by 55% in past five years according to spokesperson.

Non-graduating students at two University of Wisconsin System two-year campuses will transfer or shift to virtual learning after UW-Oshkosh, Fond du Lac and UW-Milwaukee at Washington County end in-person learning in June 2024.

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Chancellor Michael Alexander is trying to alleviate concerns among UWGB staff after Republican lawmakers in Madison excluded the University of Wisconsin System employees from a two-year pay raise.

Jon Shelton, a political science professor at UW-Green Bay, says he always knew it would be a possibility that UW employees across the state would feel the side effects of the tension between the legislature and the Universities of Wisconsin.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Richland campus is being closed, Universities of Wisconsin president Jay Rothman announced Tuesday.

The University of Wisconsin system is shutting down in-person instruction at two campuses and closing one campus at the end of the school year, officials announced Tuesday.

Two more University of Wisconsin system campuses will end in-person instruction by the end of this school year, potentially spelling the end of existence for UW-Milwaukee at Washington County and UW-Oshkosh Fond du Lac.

UW-Platteville Richland is closing, Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman announced Tuesday. Meanwhile, UW-Milwaukee at Washington County and UW-Oshkosh, Fond du Lac campus will be stopping in-person instruction by June 2024.

The UW-Platteville Richland campus will close next year, Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman announced Tuesday amid continued financial pressures.

When cuts started coming at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Richland, its sister campus in Baraboo absorbed some of the impact. But Tuesday’s announcement from Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman has some on and around the campus concerned about whether they could be next.Rothman announced Tuesday that the UW-Platteville Richland campus will close next year amid continued financial pressures.

The decisions to shut down Richland and spur the other changes announced Tuesday are not meant to save money, Rothman said. Instead, he attributed them to the students. He pointed to students wanting to go straight to four-year schools, where enrollment has been rising, rather than the two-year schools. He added that online instruction has also been climbing.