Category: Higher Education/System

A staffing shortage on the UW-Milwaukee campus led the university to make an unusual ask of its professors: Come help in our dining halls.

Faculty and staff received an email asking for volunteers to clean tables, serve food and replenish buffet bars, all in an effort to keep the thousands of students who moved into dorms last week fed.

Schools like the University of Wisconsin – Madison, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, University of California – Berkley, University of Michigan and other major American universities pay the heads of their diversity, equity and inclusion programs over $300,000, according to a review of publicly available salary data.

While the Ivy League universities move down Forbes’ list, several large public universities are rising in our ranks. Public colleges filled five of our top 25 spots this year, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan State University, the University of Kansas, and Texas Tech University each rose at least ten spots on our list. Mississippi State University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology made remarkable leaps on our list, moving up 132 and 114 spots, respectively.

Noted: Meghan Savaglia is a spokesperson for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s student government group, the Associated Students of Madison. She told Wisconsin Public Radio students have shared a wide range of reactions about the president’s announcement with one wondering if potential students might have thought more about college knowing some of their debts would be forgiven in the future. She said others indicated that loan forgiveness will help them provide better futures for their families.

“I know that there is definitely a push for more, at least from what I’ve seen,” Savaglia said. “While this is a relief in many ways, there’s a long way to go in terms of solving this problem.”

On Aug. 18, the UW System Board of Regents approved a two-year budget request that includes a tuition waiver program for students from low-income families. If approved by the state Legislature, the Wisconsin Tuition Promise would waive tuition costs left over after federal and state financial aid for those from families making less than $62,000 per year in fall of 2023 and beyond.

The program is modeled after UW-Madison’s Bucky’s Tuition Promise program, which has used private donations since 2018 to offer four years of free tuition and fees for students from families with adjusted gross incomes of $56,000 or less.

Former UW System President Tommy Thompson was the first to pitch the statewide tuition waiver as part of his 2020 UW System budget request, but it was rejected by Republican members of the state Legislature’s powerful Joint Finance Committee.

Though high school Advanced Placement courses are touted as a way to give teens a leg up in college, a new analysis of AP exams shows students of color and low-income students in Wisconsin score lower on the tests on average or decide not to take them at all.

Some experts say that’s because the tests aren’t designed to help all students succeed.

While mass shootings, specifically on school grounds, have compelled lawmakers to enforce regional gun restrictions and bans, five states welcome concealed weapons on campus. The University of Colorado, the Oregon University System, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Mississippi, and Utah public colleges or universities allow students to have a gun on the grounds.

The University of Wisconsin System announced the Wisconsin Tuition Promise Wednesday, a program that will allow first-generation and low-income Wisconsin students to attend the UW System’s 12 universities for free.

Noted: One of the beneficiaries will be Travis Higgins, who was drawn to the Madison campus in 2009 because ITT staff secured a loan for him within 30 minutes of him visiting the school.

Higgins said he studied criminal justice with plans to transfer to a technical college or University of Wisconsin System campus. Then he learned his credits wouldn’t transfer. With $24,000 in debt already accumulated, he dropped out.

The UW System will fund the first year of the program in 2023-24 with $13.8 million. At a Thursday meeting on the UW-Green Bay campus, the Board of Regents also voted in favor of requesting $24.5 million from the state Legislature in its upcoming 2023-25 budget to help cover the tuition waiver in its second year.

Laurie Carter is the 17th president of Lawrence University and the first person of color to hold the position. We chat with Carter about the importance of liberal arts education, how the pandemic has changed higher education, and the efforts to address equity.

University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman on Monday announced the creation of the Wisconsin Tuition Promise, a new initiative starting in fall 2023 to ensure underserved Wisconsin students can attend any UW System university without paying tuition or fees, according to a press release from UW System.

The UW System will give tuition assistance to students in an attempt to give thousands of students better access to affordable education.

The University of Wisconsin System is launching a new tuition waiver at its 12 regional campuses.

The program, dubbed the Wisconsin Tuition Promise, is modeled after the Bucky’s Tuition Promise program at UW-Madison. Beginning in fall 2023, Wisconsin residents who come from families making less than $62,000 a year will have any tuition and fees remaining after receiving financial aid waived.

Preliminary budget numbers show the University of Wisconsin System’s unrestricted fund balances topped $1 billion at the end of June. It’s the first time those funds have hit the billion dollar mark since state lawmakers railed against tuition reserves in 2013.

A bomb threat prompted students and staff to be evacuated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s (UWM) campus in Waukesha on Thursday.

A bomb scare Thursday at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Waukesha proved false quickly enough, but not before disrupting the small number of students and staff still on the campus in the late afternoon.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging the University of Wisconsin System reinstated former Badgers receiver Quintez Cephus without seeking input from a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2018

Noted: The University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) is not raising tuition for resident undergraduate students this upcoming school year, but it will raise tuition for nonresident undergraduate students 2%.

In-state tuition and fees at UW-Madison is $10,766, while out-of-state tuition and fees was $38,654 and will now be $39,354, according to the UW-Madison website.

UW-Madison’s average student debt for 2021-22 was $26,513, according to the University’s 2021-22 budget report. John Lucas, UW-Madison media spokesperson, said despite this number, almost 60% of students did not take out any loans.

“Only 40.3% of undergraduate students borrowed while attending UW-Madison, continuing a six-year trend where well over half of graduating seniors did not borrow loans while earning their degree at UW-Madison,” Lucas said.

A judge’s ruling this month lets the University of Wisconsin System resume its demolition of a former Columbia St Mary’s hospital building, but the city of Milwaukee could continue fighting to save the structure through an appeal. Find out the details on the high-profile project.