Noted: University of Wisconsin Administration: Up to $5.7 million to create a “workforce-ready curriculum” for students who are incarcerated “to teach employable skills to students while incarcerated and continue supporting them post-release through program completion and career placement.” The program will pilot at UW-Oshkosh, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Parkside, UW-Green Bay, and UW-Madison.
UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee joined dozens of colleges that are halting COVID-19 vaccine mandates after a federal judge last week blocked the Biden administration’s order requiring shots for federal contractors.
As the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents works to fill two top leadership positions, market data suggest current salary ranges for UW executives are well below those at peer institutions.
Ahead of hiring a new University of Wisconsin System president and UW-Madison chancellor, the UW Board of Regents is weighing whether to increase salary ranges for those positions by between 6% and 10% and whether other perks should be added to compensation packages.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved tuition increases Friday for out-of-state undergraduates and graduate students at seven campuses.
Freshman applicants to University of Wisconsin System schools can skip sending standardized test scores for another two years under a policy extension approved Friday by the UW Board of Regents.
High school students applying to University of Wisconsin System colleges won’t have to take ACT or SAT college preparatory tests through the 2024-25 school year. A UW Board of Regents committee unanimously approved extending the “test optional” policy, which has been in place since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The full board is expected to approve the measure during its Friday meeting.
President Thompson announced new private, public funding for projects throughout System, new developments in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion.
Noted: The union represents trade workers at University of Wisconsin campuses, prisons and other state facilities. In many cases, they make about $41 an hour, according to state records.
As with trade workers around the country, they are paid a lower wage as apprentices. They all make the same wage once they complete their apprenticeships and become journeymen.
Kathy Thompson worked for 20 years as a steamfitter for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She recently started working for the private sector because the pay was much better, she said.
University of Wisconsin System leaders moved a step closer Thursday to allowing student applicants to forego sending in ACT and SAT test scores for another two years.
University of Wisconsin System leaders signed off Thursday on tuition increases for out-of-state undergraduates and graduate students at seven campuses.
Ahead of hiring a new University of Wisconsin System president and UW-Madison chancellor, the UW Board of Regents is weighing whether to increase salary ranges for those positions by between 6% and 10% and whether other perks should be added to compensation packages.
Quoted: Jeff Buhrandt, UW System vice president for the Office of University Relations, pointed out to the committee that state universities have always strived to promote free speech and diversity of thought on campus.
“Our current policy recognizes that each institution has a solemn responsibility not only to promote lively and fearless exploration, deliberation and debate of ideas, but also to protect those freedoms when others attempt to restrict them,” said Buhrandt.
The Board of Regents finance committee is set to consider a plan Thursday that calls for increases at UW-Madison; UW-Eau Claire; UW-Oshkosh; UW-Platteville; UW-River Falls; UW-Stout; and UW-Whitewater.
In years past all freshman applicants had to supply their scores to the campus they hoped to attend. The system suspended that requirement for regional campuses in May 2020 and UW-Madison in July 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened.
Written by Meredith Whye, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a former early childhood teacher.
System officials are asking the UW Board of Regents this week to extend the current test-optional policy through the 2024-25 school year. The policy was implemented just a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic when many students were unable to take the test because of extremely limited testing site availability.
Renee Pfeifer-Luckett, director of learning technology development for the University of Wisconsin system’s Office of Learning and Information Technology Services, points out that googling is an important workplace soft skill, particularly because of the need to confirm the accuracy of information. Pfeifer-Luckett, who has presented on learning tech tools used to ensure academic honesty, adds, “That’s a skill I use thousands of times a week.”
The University of Wisconsin System is moving forward with plans to give people in state prisons a chance to earn a UW Bachelors degree while incarcerated, after receiving funding to develop a pilot program.
Interim University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and UW Board of Regents President Ed Manydeeds on Thursday identified 21 people across the UW-Madison campus and broader Madison community to serve on a committee searching for Rebecca Blank’s successor. Blank departs next summer to become president of Northwestern University.
UW representatives feel confident about firm’s abilities.
hy are so many academic workers in the UAW to begin with? Tracing this history leads us back to the 1970s, the dawn of academic-worker organizing. Back then, the first successful attempts at forming academic-worker unions, at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, found homes in the American Federation of Teachers — a logical choice for workers in the education sector.
Noted: “College campuses are just ideal habitat,” said David Drake, a professor and extension wildlife specialist at the University of Wisconsin, where a sizable flock likes to hang out near apartments for graduate students. “You’ve got that intermixing of forested patches with open grassy areas and things like that. Nobody’s hunting.”
Coexisting with collegiate poultry is not always easy. At California Polytechnic State University, the campus Police Department is occasionally called about turkeys chasing people. At the University of Michigan, a state wildlife officer killed a well-known turkey two years ago that was said to be harassing bikers and joggers. And at Wisconsin, Dr. Drake said at least a couple of aggressive toms were culled after repeatedly frightening students.
Even for fans of the turkeys, getting chased can be fearsome.
“There’s an element of humor, because, oh, it’s a turkey,” said Audrey Evans, a doctoral student at Wisconsin who runs @turkeys_of_uw_madison on Instagram. “But your fight-or-flight instinct kicks in.”
This month, most University of Wisconsin campuses celebrated hitting a threshold of having 70% of students fully-vaccinated against COVID-19 with full pomp and circumstance.
They doled out nearly $500,000 in scholarships through a UW System lottery, with 70 lucky students taking home $7,000 each. Other students won t-shirts, iPads, campus swag and scholarships through campus-sponsored programs aimed at encouraging vaccinations.
But one campus in southwestern Wisconsin — UW-Platteville — fell far short of the 70% goal, illustrating the challenges officials face trying to encourage vaccination in some rural areas.
After a search for the next University of Wisconsin System president collapsed last year because of complaints over how it was conducted, a UW official said the firm involved in the failed search would not be hired to assist in the System’s second attempt to hire a new leader. The System is instead working with a different executive search firm that has been involved in at least two problematic searches of its own.
Interest in academic integrity as a topic of concern within higher ed over the past decade has ebbed and flowed, at least in the experience of Renee Pfeifer-Luckett, director of learning technology development in the University of Wisconsin system’s Office of Learning and Information Technology Services. “I see it as kind of a wave. Over the last 11 years, I’ve seen this topic come up, crescendo and come back down, come up, crescendo and come back down,” says Pfeifer-Luckett, who has presented on learning tech tools used to ensure academic honesty. “The students’ response has been stirred up due to COVID,” she adds. “Students who never had to be proctored remotely because they never took an online class—those are the students you’re hearing from now.”
The scholarship recipients span 11 campuses in the UW System where the vaccination rate reached above 70% by the end of October. Only one campus, UW-Platteville, did not meet Thompson’s goal set this summer.
University of Wisconsin System campuses are taking different approaches as COVID-19 vaccine mandate deadlines near for federal contractors.
Tommy Thompson has achieved many milestones in his long public service journey, and he’s about to hit another one. Wisconsin’s longest serving governor is about to turn 80-years-old.
From the office space overseeing his Alma mater in Madison, UW System’s interim President Tommy Thompson is ready to take on the day and another decade!
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has joined current gubernatorial candidate and former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch in attacking the University of Wisconsin-Madison for including references to critical race theory in a training course for graduate students.
70 students are awarded a $7,000 scholarship after the UW System completed its “Vax Up! 70 for 70″ campaign.
Interim System President Tommy Thompson set a goal this summer for campuses to reach a 70% student vaccination rate. Universities that met the threshold by Oct. 31 unlocked a number of $7,000 scholarships for students based on their enrollment.
’Updating job titles and pay ranges is a good business practice that is long overdue at the UW System,’ UW System President says.
The University of Wisconsin System early this year came out against a mandate, a stance that frustrates some students and staff who believe a requirement would not only provide a much safer environment for working and learning but also increase overall vaccination rates. The System instead requires unvaccinated students to test regularly. It has also incentivized students to get the shot by offering $7,000 scholarships to 70 vaccinated students enrolled at a campus that reached a 70% vaccination goal by Oct. 31. At UW-Madison, which did not participate in the incentive campaign and does not have a mandate, 95% of the student body is vaccinated, far and away the best outcome statewide among responding campuses that followed neither route.
UW-Madison told its employees on Thursday that they must be vaccinated by early 2022 to comply with a vaccine mandate for federal contractors. The university said the order applies to all workers, including student employees, those working remotely from home and part-time workers. About 95% of employees are already fully vaccinated.
Noted: Next week, Meg will be installed into the Wisconsin News Association Hall of Fame. An exhibit this month at the War Memorial Center, “I Am Not Invisible,” features two dozen biographies of area female veterans written by Meg. This week, current and former Journal Sentinel staffers are launching a scholarship fund for UW-Madison students in her honor.
Eleven of 12 UW System schools participating in the “Vax Up! 70 for 70” COVID-19 vaccination campaign reached the target of having 70% of their student body vaccinated.
The University of Wisconsin System’s small branch campuses continue to hemorrhage students with enrollment declining 42% since a restructuring four years ago that was designed to keep them afloat by merging with nearby four-year schools.
Enrollment at several two-year University of Wisconsin System campuses fell by more than 20 percent this fall compared to numbers from 2020. UW-Platteville Richland saw the steepest decline, with just 75 students counted this September.
By all accounts, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank brought much-needed administrative skills to an organization that had taken its share of hits.
But now that she’s headed to the top job at Northwestern University the future of the state’s flagship university — and in some sense, of the state itself — hangs on one key question:
Will the Board of Regents bring in another administrative guru or will it seek out a leader who can finally unlock the potential we all know is there? Someone who can oversee the translation of UW-Madison’s world-class technology into world-class applications for the global marketplace.
Board of Regents President Edmund Manydeeds III, who will be the chair of the Special Regent Committee, announced seven regents of the 18-regent board will participate in the committee.
ASM passed the legislation through the Wisconsin State Statute with the goal of providing legal grounds for academic staff, faculty and students’ involvement in the decision-making process throughout the University of Wisconsin System, creating a new statewide body intended to pass legislation and organize systemwide campaigns and efforts.
Wegenke, 73, became president of the Wisconsin Association of Private Colleges and Universities, also known as WAICU, in 1992. The Madison-based organization represents 23 private nonprofit schools and their nearly 54,000 students. WAICU members include Edgewood College and Marquette University.
Running up to this week’s deadline, other colleges came around to Biden’s order, including the University of Wisconsin system, whose leader had said it was unclear whether the mandate would apply to universities. On Wednesday the Wisconsin system’s interim president, Tommy Thompson, said it could not afford to potentially lose federal-contract funding, and so would comply with the executive order.
Ayearslong project studying the pay levels and job titles across the University of Wisconsin System is wrapping up and thousands of employees will next week learn the new salary range of the position they hold.
About 1,000 miles away in Dane County, the capitol of Wisconsin and home of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the electorate is anchored by young liberals who are thinking big about climate change, gun control and racial justice.
In a statement from former Republican Wisconsin governor and current UW System President Tommy Thompson, he said the university has to follow Biden’s executive order to receive federal funds. “We cannot afford to jeopardize millions of dollars in federal contracts, which are integral to our academic and research missions,” said Thompson. “Therefore, we intend to be in compliance with the federal executive order on vaccine mandates.”
The University of Wisconsin System says it will comply with the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal workers and contractors.
Founded in 1848, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a top research school that spends $1.2 billion annually on new projects. An enormous number, the research expenditure is a small portion of the university’s overall budget, a significant chunk of which is sunk into funding the school’s 9,000 individual courses, 232 undergraduate majors, and both need- and merit-based financial aid, which 59% of students receive.
UW System President Tommy Thompson visited UW-Whitewater Wednesday to promote his new 70-for-70 vaccine initiative.
The University of Wisconsin System announced Wednesday that it will comply with President Joe Biden’s vaccine order mandating that all federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The University of Wisconsin System announced Wednesday that it will comply with an executive order issued by President Joe Biden more than six weeks ago requiring federal contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Likewise, highly selective public institutions saw a freshman enrollment increase of 1.2 percent this fall, compared with a 5.6 percent decline last fall. Some public institutions are seeing record enrollments despite the pandemic. The University of Utah, for example, announced Monday that its fall enrollment of 34,424 shattered previous records. The University of Wisconsin at Madison also welcomed its largest-ever freshman class this fall, enrolling 8,465 first-year students.
Noted: Gateway officials announced plans to introduce the pair of university-friendly programs at the beginning of the year, and multiple steps had to take place, including approvals from the local District Board, as well as state-level approvals from officials within the Wisconsin Technical College System and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.
Students taking either of the associate’s degree programs will be able to seamlessly transfer their 60-credit degrees to four-year schools within the University of Wisconsin System and apply them to bachelor’s degrees.
Noted: Critics of tenure have long argued that it enables subpar teaching, makes it difficult to fire predatory professors and hinders efforts to diversify faculty. Efforts to reform tenure policies have followed. In 2016, the University of Wisconsin system changed tenure policies to allow faculty to be fired due to poor performance or cuts to academic programs. Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers in Iowa proposed legislation that would have banned tenure at public universities in the state, though it did not progress through the legislature.
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire announced Thursday that it received a record-setting $10 million gift to invest in developing a reputation for its work in supporting and advancing health and human well-being.
Last week, the University of Wisconsin-Madison community was informed of the departure of Chancellor Rebecca Blank to Northwestern University this summer after nine years serving as their leader. Blank will be the first female to serve as Northwestern University’s president.
Performer, educator and author Erica Halverson has a lot to say about how the arts can be used in schools to transform education in a meaningful way in her book “How The Arts Can Save Education.” Halverson, who also is a professor of curriculum and instruction at UW-Madison, will discuss her book during an in-person event at the Wisconsin Book Festival later this month.
The top two jobs in the University of Wisconsin System are turning over within months of each other next year, a major leadership shake-up that comes on the heels of new chancellors installed during the pandemic at nearly half of the regional campuses and amid a variety of other challenges.
