Category: Higher Education/System

Sex historian and journalist Hallie Lieberman, who received her doctorate from UW-Madison, has been following the story closely. She worries if Gow is dismissed for sexual activities he pursued in his free time, it will set a dangerous precedent to fire professors for saying and doing things the public doesn’t like.

“When they go after porn and sex, it’s low-hanging fruit. What comes next?” she said. “Freedom of speech is for the speech we hate, it’s for the thought we hate.”

Here’s what guests on the June 21, 2024 episode said about the closing of two-year Universities of Wisconsin campuses, the financial scandal at Milwaukee Public Schools and the past and present of Donald Trump campaigns in Wisconsin.

Former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow pushed back on claims that he used university computers to visit pornography websites during a hearing on whether the university has grounds to dismiss him from faculty.

After two days of fiery exchanges at the Omni Center, former Chancellor Joe Gow and UW-La Crosse officials concluded their arguments Thursday about whether Gow should be allowed to keep his tenured faculty position.

For UW-La Crosse, the hearing is the first step in a two-part process to finally purge Gow from its payroll and move on from what many see as an embarrassing chapter that damaged the university’s reputation.

Joe Gow was removed as University of Wisconsin-La Crosse chancellor for creating sex videos posted on porn websites. Should he also be fired from his faculty position?

That’s the question facing a group of Gow’s colleagues this week. They will hear Gow and the university administration make their case in a two-day public hearing that will closely resemble a trial with witnesses, cross-examinations and closing statements.

Amid a statewide wave of branch campus shut downs, the Menasha-based campus will close June 2025 due to low enrollment rates.

Regent Amy Bogost will serve a one-year term as the board’s president, and Regent Kyle Weatherly will serve as the vice president. Both joined the board in May 2020.

Five campuses have already been targeted for closure or a transition from in-person learning — UW-Platteville Richland will be completely vacated by July 1, while UW-Oshkosh Fond du Lac, UW-Milwaukee Washington County, UW-Green Bay Marinette and UW-Milwaukee Waukesha are all slated for closure or a transition to online-only classes.

Monica Smith, who started with the UW system in June 2023, submitted her resignation May 20 to take a job at private liberal arts college University of Richmond in Virginia, UW system President Jay Rothman announced to the UW Board of Regents at its meeting Thursday.

Smith’s resignation comes after a tumultuous year where diversity, equity and inclusion were repeatedly assailed by Republican lawmakers and the subject of a six-month budget standoff. During the standoff, instigated by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, about 35,000 UW System employees saw their pay raises put on pause.

Officers arrested and cited seven people with disorderly conduct, according to UW-Milwaukee spokesperson Angelica Duria. Non-students were banned from the student union through the end of this month.

UW-Milwaukee said during a Business and Finance Committee meeting with the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents at the UWM Student Union, a handful of protesters “interrupted” the meeting and were exhibiting “disruptive behavior.”

Fall enrollment at the Universities of Wisconsin will likely be negatively impacted by the delayed rollout of a federal financial aid form, according to Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman.

After initially refusing to give up his seat when his term expired, Regent Bob Atwell reversed course this week and resigned from the board, effective immediately.

At least five universities–Brown, University of California at Riverside, Rutgers, Northwestern, and University of Minnesota struck agreements with student groups to end encampments during Apr 29-May 3. And in the weeks after May 3, Harvard, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins, and Chapman also reached agreements with protesting students. Those agreements got another 11 headlines until May 22.

A conservative University of Wisconsin regent who planned to remain on the board despite his term ending has resigned, clearing the way for his successor to join the board.

This year, around 2,000 students were arrested on college campuses at the behest of their own institutions’ leaders. And it was not one or two leaders. Presidents and chancellors approved arrests of student protesters at UCLA, Columbia University, Indiana University Bloomington, University of Texas at Austin, Pomona College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Emory University, City University of New York, Yale University, and Washington University in St. Louis, among dozens of other campuses. At the University of Southern California, there were two police sweeps to remove students’ Gaza solidarity encampments from campus.

Gov. Tony Evers announced three new appointments Friday to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. Tim Nixon, Jack Salzwedel and Desmond Adongo are filling the spots of three members whose terms expired this month.

UW could benefit from independent governing system, new budget model, expert says

Evers appointed Tim Nixon, Jack Salzwedel and Desmond Adongo to fill the vacancies, which expired May 1st.

Based in Madison and Milwaukee, Venture Investors Health Fund is investing $12 million on commercializing early-stage healthcare innovations developed at universities like the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Medical College of Wisconsin.