UW System interim President Tommy Thompson won’t be deterred by Republican lawmakers who say he needs their approval to enact COVID-19 regulations on campuses, he said Tuesday.
The University of Wisconsin System will not cooperate with legislative efforts to control campuses’ COVID-19 policies, interim System President Tommy Thompson said Tuesday in his strongest rebuke of Republicans to date.
Column by interim UW System president Thomnpson: The University of Wisconsin System owns a critical responsibility to open our classrooms this September to deliver the in-person education students deserve and parents expect. And we are planning to do just that. Unfortunately, some want us to ignore our unambiguous authority and duty under Wisconsin law to protect the “health, safety, and welfare of the university.”
As the fall semester approaches, more Wisconsin universities and colleges are looking at ways to reduce debt that could keep students from continuing their education.
Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee announced Friday they had forgiven more than $5 million in outstanding balances owed by students from the 2020-21 school year.
University of Wisconsin System interim President Tommy Thompson says he will not comply with an order from Republican state lawmakers to submit COVID-19 safety restrictions and requirements for their approval. Thompson said he doesn’t think the state Legislature will sue over the matter but said if it goes to court he’s confident the UW will win.
Republican leaders have said they’ll be filing a lawsuit in an attempt to force UW and the former Republican governor to comply.
A defiant Thompson said repeatedly during a call with statewide media he believed the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR), which sets policy for state agencies, does not have the legal authority to dictate how the university system enacts rules that address campus safety.
The war of words between the University of Wisconsin System and a Republican lawmaker heated up Tuesday after System President Tommy Thompson told lawmakers to “get out of my way.”
University of Wisconsin, MadisonTuition cost for Gen X (adjusted to 2021 dollars): $3,094Tuition cost for Gen Z: $10,766Percent increase in cost: 248%
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee became the latest college to wipe out millions of dollars in student bills Friday, leveraging federal COVID-19 stimulus funds to pay off outstanding student debt incurred during the pandemic.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced a weekly COVID-19 testing requirement Wednesday for all students and employees who do not show proof of vaccination against COVID-19.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents last month fired a UW-Stout engineering professor for failing to wear a mask while on campus last year, according to documents obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal.
When I had an opportunity to become vaccinated against COVID-19 last spring, I didn’t hesitate. The vaccine clearly was the best way for me to protect myself and the people I care about from death or hospitalization due to COVID. I was also eager to do my part to help our society beat back this insidious disease.
Zashary Torres, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, tried to study abroad in Barcelona in January.
COVID-19 pushed it back to this fall.
Now, he’s set to arrives in Spain on Sept. 1, despite Spain’s “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory.
Every University of Wisconsin System campus in the state has instituted mask requirements or expectations for individuals regardless of their vaccination status as the number of new coronavirus cases rises. The measures come amid an effort by Republican lawmakers to block COVID-19 restrictions at universities.
The Wisconsin state budget is an excruciatingly complicated document that takes your state and federal tax dollars and spends them on programs like food assistance for poor residents, projects like county highway repairs and public employees like school teachers.
Quoted: “Teachers do not deliberately set out to make students feel bad about themselves. The problem this bill seems to identify, that Wisconsin’s teachers intentionally or otherwise want to make students feel bad, is simply not real,” said Jeremy Stoddard, a University of Wisconsin-Madison curriculum and instruction professor.
“What I fear is that if it becomes law, it will have a chilling effect inhibiting teachers from teaching a full account of history.”
This August, faculty, staff, and more than 160,000 students at the 13 University of Wisconsin campuses are hard at work, getting ready for a new academic year. Wisconsinites are justifiably proud of the UW System, and with good reason. Our public university system, built on the foundation of the Wisconsin Idea, truly serves every corner of the state.
But the System has so far resisted those calls, taking the same position that the majority of other colleges have in strongly encouraging but stopping short of requiring that students get the shots. Many UW campuses are instead offering incentives such as laptops, gift cards and tickets to sporting events.
Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, is insisting that universities seek approval from him and a handful of his skeptical colleagues for masking, vaccine and testing requirements on state campuses. Never mind that University of Wisconsin System schools have adopted and adjusted similar rules for more than a year now, which helped control COVID-19 among students, staff and surrounding communities.
Peanut butter sandwiches and canned foods.
That’s what made up most of the diet of one student in the first year of professional school at UW-Madison.
Fresh fruit and vegetables were too expensive; time to prepare much of anything nutritious was impossible.
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, UW-Stout and UW-La Crosse have announced they “expect” employees, students and guests to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status, stopping short of reinstating a requirement as two other UW schools have.
Both colleges said the face covering requirement will remain in place until further notice and cited increased community transmission rates as their reason to return to the mask requirement.
Despite a state legislative committee’s determination that it could overrule COVID-19 restrictions issued by the UW System, the chancellor of its Milwaukee campus told faculty and staff Thursday that the UW System has affirmed the schools’ authority to enact these precautions. UW Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone stated Thursday that his university will keep its mask and testing mandates in place to keep its students safe against the coronavirus.
A top university official in Wisconsin is butting heads with state Republican legislators over who has the authority to impose COVID-19 restrictions on campus.
Just hours after a Wisconsin state legislature committee on Tuesday required all University of Wisconsin schools to receive permission before issuing new coronavirus guidance, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank reinstated her campus’s indoor mask mandate.
State employees will have to wear face masks starting Thursday because of a surge in coronavirus cases, Wisconsin officials announced Wednesday.
The move came shortly after the two largest University of Wisconsin schools, in Madison and Milwaukee, put in place their own mask requirements. The policies are being enacted as the delta variant of COVID springs up around the world, including among those who have been fully vaccinated.
Branches of the University of Wisconsin and school districts in Arizona and Florida are ordering students and staff to wear masks indoors in spite of statewide regulations and laws that prohibit them from doing so, as the Delta variant’s rapid spread sparks new showdowns over mask orders between state and local governments nationwide.
The University of Wisconsin System will need to seek approval from the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) for any COVID-19 pandemic related regulation.
UW System spokesperson: “Today’s action feels like a political statement.”
The director of Wisconsin Public Media, Gene Purcell, has died following a traffic crash in Madison. Friends and colleagues say they’re heartbroken by the sudden loss of a man who lived a commitment to public broadcasting with humility and authenticity.
Noted: In Wisconsin, a Republican-controlled legislative committee passed a resolution Tuesday requiring University of Wisconsin campuses to get the committee’s approval for mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, masking or testing policies, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. Under the measure, the UW system will have to submit COVID-19 policies to the committee within 30 days. The committee will then have the ability to vote to suspend all or parts of the policies. Tony Evers, the state’s Democratic governor, does not have the ability to veto the committee’s actions.
Colleges across the state are working to reevaluate on-campus masking policies in the weeks leading up to the start of the fall semester, as new national data on the delta variant’s spread among vaccinated people,updated masking recommendations and political pressure further complicate a quickly evolving situation.
With four weeks left before the start of the fall semester, Marquette University officials announced that more than 85% of students have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
University of Wisconsin officials who want to ward off a rising COVID-19 caseload now must get permission from the Legislature to implement masking, testing or vaccination requirements, according to a plan Republicans adopted Tuesday.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced it would require students, employees and visitors wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status starting Thursday, as COVID-19 cases surge and political pressure mounts.
ARepublican-controlled legislative committee will require University of Wisconsin System campuses to first get the committee’s approval before imposing mandatory masking, COVID-19 testing and vaccination policies.
Many other schools are offering similar incentives, such as the University of Wisconsin’s regional campuses giving away 70 $7,000 scholarships to vaccinated students at sites with at least 70% vaccination rates. Missouri State has a $150,000 program with prizes that include free tuition, meal plans and computers.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will require all students, employees and visitors to wear masks when gathering indoors beginning next week, in line with new masking guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from the Milwaukee Health Department.
The university will also require weekly COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated faculty, staff and students who are not 100% online.
Noted: At University of Wisconsin System schools, institutions have not put in place a mask or vaccine mandate, but are encouraging students to get vaccinated. This fall, UW-Madison will allow students who are vaccinated to not follow weekly COVID-19 testing requirements.
Private institutions like Marquette University and Beloit College will require vaccines.
A part of the recently passed Wisconsin 2021-23 budget, Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin legislators decided to return power to the University of Wisconsin System’s Board of Regents to end the tuition freeze. For the past eight years, the tuition freeze prevented UW schools from increasing the price of tuition for in-state students.
Noted: At the University of Wisconsin, administrators are acknowledging the mental health difficulties of the pandemic year by urging first- and second-year students to establish healthy coping mechanisms and participate in a 30-day meditation challenge through the Healthy Minds Innovations app (which does not connect students with therapists).
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will require all students, employees and visitors to wear masks when gathering indoors beginning next week, in line with new masking guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from the Milwaukee Health Department.
The university will also require weekly COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated faculty, staff and students who are not 100% online.
University of Wisconsin System interim President Tommy Thompson warned lawmakers Thursday against tying the university’s hands on efforts to prevent COVID-19 transmission on campuses, following a statement from a Republican lawmaker.
State Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said Wednesday he will move to require UW get approval from the Legislature’s GOP-controlled rules committee before enacting any virus-related requirements. Nass co-chairs the committee, which he said plans to vote Tuesday to block the UW virus protocols without a public hearing.
Written by Susan Yackee, director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs and a Collins-Bascom Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science at UW-Madison.
With just more than six weeks before the fall semester begins on UW campuses, the system’s administrators unveiled a program designed to give students an added incentive to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Quoted: “If you look at the language of some of these bills, they’re really pretty broad,” says Diana Hess, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s school of education. “There’s a lot of things that are in the language that would make it really hard to teach civic education.”
Carr said the corrections department doesn’t have any other four-year programs up and running right now, but is working on partnerships with the University of Wisconsin System, Marquette University, the Milwaukee School of Engineering and other universities to develop more, including some that would provide degrees beyond biblical studies.
COVID-19 was the major driver of the increase, said Tonya Schmidt, UW-Madison’s assistant dean and director of the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards. “I absolutely attribute this to the stress and pressure that was put on our students to pivot to a remote environment and try and learn,” said Schmidt. “It was very difficult for students this semester.”
Noted: The governor said the session would be an opportunity to make investments in education he believes should have been included in the budget. GOP lawmakers approved an education spending plan that was roughly $750 million less than the governor originally requested for K-12 schools. For the University of Wisconsin System, the GOP-backed budget included an increase of just $8 million over two years, a fraction of the $191 million proposed by the governor.
Noted: On Sunday, University of Wisconsin (UW) System President Tommy Thompson announced a new program that provides an opportunity for UW students who are vaccinated against Covid-19 to win a $7,000 scholarship.
Under the “70 for 70” campaign, vaccinated students who attend UW campuses that achieve at least a 70% vaccination rate will be eligible to win one of 70 scholarships valued at $7,000 each. Students at all UW System universities except UW-Madison are eligible for the drawing. UW-Madison is reportedly developing its own vaccination incentive program.
Reports of cheating and other forms of academic misconduct increased substantially at six of the University of Wisconsin System’s 13 universities when classes were moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Administrators say increased student stress was a major contributor, and they expect misconduct reports to decrease once more classes are taught in person.
In his special session call, Evers urged lawmakers to take up a proposal that would allocate an additional $440 million for K-12 schools ($240 million in per-pupil aid and $200 million in special education aid) and an additional $110 million for the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Technical Colleges System.
Madison Area Technical College used federal COVID-19 relief money to erase $4 million in debt owed to the school, clearing the accounts of nearly 4,500 students who struggled financially during the pandemic.
The University of Wisconsin System plans to offer about $500,000 in financial incentives aimed at encouraging students to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The campaign features a lottery in which a total of 70 students will each receive a $7,000 scholarship if 70 percent of a campus’ student body reports being vaccinated.
UW-Madison is not participating.
Noted: While some higher education institutions like the University of Wisconsin-Madison and The Johns Hopkins University feature sophisticated and user-friendly websites, and their leaders have instituted efficient, unencumbered application processes, college applicants may encounter inept websites and application processes when applying at many other institutions.
In what is likely the broadest vaccination incentive program for Wisconsin to date, the System announced Sunday that it will award $7,000 scholarships to 70 students who get the shot and attend a campus that reaches a 70% vaccination rate.
As an incentive for students across the UW System to get vaccinated, interim President Tommy Thompson on Sunday announced a lottery giving out nearly a half-million dollars in scholarships.
Under the plan, vaccinated students at all University of Wisconsin campuses except UW-Madison will be entered into a lottery for one of 70 one-time, $7,000 scholarships.
Abbie Esterline, a fifth-year student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, found herself missing fewer classes during the pandemic.
She has several chronic illnesses, such as gastroparesis and fibromyalgia, that can make it difficult to go in person to a classroom.
