Category: Higher Education/System

Pictures of Vanessa Guillen hung by a table with candles and flowers.

Dozens yelled chants that echoed against the walls of Spaights Plaza at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus Wednesday night.

Protesters demanded the termination of Betsy Schoeller, a senior lecturer and former colonel in the Wisconsin Air National Guard, after she made a controversial comment on Facebook in response to an article about the killing of Guillen, the Mexican-American soldier whose remains were found near the Fort Hood, Texas, base last week.

In an emailed statement, University of Wisconsin System spokesman Mark Pitsch said the state’s universities are internationally recognized. According to UW data, there were 9,482 international students across all institutions. That works out to nearly 6 percent of the entire student body. The percentage of international students in the UW System has been growing since 2006.

New federal guidelines that would force international students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to leave the U.S. or transfer to another college if classes go entirely online this fall has injected another layer of uncertainty for thousands of students and threatens to add to the university’s budget stress.

His team created a Listening Post for people who live in Wisconsin and the UW community to ask questions and offer ideas.

It would ask students to wear masks and maintain distancing both inside and outside of the classroom.

Tommy Thompson has tapped two figures from his past to lead a transition team as he prepares to take over as the University of Wisconsin System’s interim president next week.

Thompson has asked the team to develop background on the UW System’s budget and organizational structure before he takes over as president next week.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Meredith McGlone, a spokesperson for the university, said they are following CDC guidelines, and restroom sinks and toilets are flushed “at least weekly.” As people return to buildings, they are recommending that people let taps run for a few minutes to clear them.

His resignation comes a week after the faculty union demanded he quit. Johnsen earlier this month also withdrew his name for consideration as the University of Wisconsin president even though he was the sole finalist.

That’s the message from a report called Restoring Regional Public Universities for Recovery in the Great Lakes, released this month by the Brookings Institution. The report suggests that public, regional universities — which include all the University of Wisconsin System four-year schools other than Madison and Milwaukee — are neither fully appreciated nor properly funded.

Current UW System President Ray Cross announced plans to retire back in October, which led to a months-long search for a successor.

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson has agreed to serve as UW System Interim President effective July 1, the UW Board of Regents announced Friday.

In its announcement, the Board described Thompson as a champion of public universities.

The University of Alaska faculty union has called for the immediate resignation of the system’s president, who withdrew last week as the lone finalist to succeed University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross.

The University of Wisconsin System said in a statement that it expects to receive approximately $19 million of the money earmarked for higher education.

Public colleges in the University of Wisconsin system will welcome students back to campus for the fall 2020 semester after the spring 2020 semester was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic in the state.

University of Maryland, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Penn State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern University, University of Michigan and Rutgers University have yet to announce a concrete date of reopening or plan at all as of Sunday. Most are set to release updates in the coming weeks.

Cross said campuses are “preparing an environment that reduces risk” for a safe return amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The University of Wisconsin System officially announced Sunday that students will head back to campus for the fall 2020 semester for in-person and online instruction, according to UW System President Ray Cross and Regent President Andrew S. Petersen.

In what University of Wisconsin System Regent President Andrew Petersen called “a dark day for the UW System,” the only remaining candidate for the University of Wisconsin System president has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position.

They call for putting classes of more than 50 students online, having a plan if coronavirus cases spike, re-evaluating dorm and dining hall operations, use of masks and placing students who share classes together in dorms.

UW-Madison spokesperson Meredith McGlone said in an email to The Badger Herald that the administration is working to finalize their plans, and they expect to make an announcement in the next week.

“We are preparing an environment that reduces risk so that students, faculty, and staff can return to campus in person this fall,” UW System President Ray Cross said in a statement.

Schalk, now an assistant professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, tweeted a version of this story with the hashtag #BlackintheIvory. Last weekend, students and professors started tweeting painful stories about fighting an uphill battle in the academy, initially under the hashtag #BlackIntheIvory, begun by two scholars who urged other black people in academia to share their experiences.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for example, most employees face furloughs and layoffs, though graduate students are exempt. Some states, including Florida, are awarding “performance-based funding,” which includes $47.7 million going to the University of Florida.

’[ASM] rejects the flawed search process and will not support Johnsen’s candidacy’ ASM Chair said.

The lone finalist for the University of Wisconsin System president job pledged to promote diversity and listen to faculty and staff’s concerns during an interview with campus stakeholders Tuesday, but he offered no detailed plans for dealing with the system’s financial woes or re-opening universities as the coronavirus pandemic stretches on.

The sole finalist in the running to become the next University of Wisconsin System president made his pitch for the position Tuesday while nearly 2,000 UW students, staff and alumni called for a new search.

Faculty and some campus administrators in the University of Wisconsin System are pushing back against a plan outlined by system president Ray Cross for addressing budget cuts and revenue losses — pushback that has caused Cross to backtrack from his initial timeline for the proposal.

The University of Wisconsin System wants the Legislature to allow it to begin classes sooner than Sept. 1 and borrow money, moves that UW President Ray Cross said Wednesday would help it deal with “unprecedented financial and planning challenges” due to the coronavirus pandemic.