Category: Higher Education/System

Progress moves slowly and requires patience. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, a group of strategic learning technology consultants descend on the institution’s schools and colleges to cultivate long-term relationships with faculty members and students. Over time, some of them have transformed traditional classrooms into active learning spaces, simply by demonstrating sustained interest in the course material and a good-faith willingness to collaborate with subject matter experts.

We can’t tackle rural social and economic issues without first understanding them and perhaps reflecting on our own rural biases. This reminder wasn’t always necessary. The traditional land-grant missions of many flagship state universities — the University of Wisconsin, Texas A&M University, the University of Missouri, Washington State University, and the University of Georgia, among many others — included embracing the goals of public engagement, service, and information outreach. Professors were rightly viewed as public servants of both taxpayers and students.

Thousands of state workers, including University of Wisconsin System employees, will receive raises over the next two years under a new compensation plan a legislative committee approved Wednesday.

Barry Gerhart, acting dean and senior associate dean for faculty and research at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, was named interim dean of the school. A search for a new permanent dean is expected to begin in September.

Last October, protesters at the University of Wisconsin at Madison marched outside a building where an invited lecturer (TownHall.com editor Katie Pavlich) was speaking.

Lawrence S. Bacow, a longtime academic leader with expertise in environmental policy and higher education, will be the next president of Harvard University.

Noted: These 10 programs have the best salary-to-debt ratio in the US:

1. University of Wisconsin-Madison: Avg. salary = $122,532; avg. debt = $52,568

State lawmakers are considering a proposal to offer financial incentives to out-of-state students who graduate from University of Wisconsin System schools and stay in Wisconsin after graduation.

Jessica Tormey, vice president for university relations and chief of staff at the University of Wisconsin system, resigned in January after pleading guilty to drunken driving.

In 2016, the regents of the University of Wisconsin system revised its post-tenure review policy to include tenured professors receiving an independent review by an administrator every five years. The faculty saw that as clearing the way for administrators to overturn performance reviews done by professors’ peers.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents has approved a policy change to allow board members to accept gifts from UW System campuses and foundations, including tickets to sporting events or concerts.

For UW-Eau Claire’s Chancellor, James Schmidt, restructuring and the conversations around it isn’t new, having experienced it multiple times in higher education in Minnesota.

The University of Wisconsin System must do more to combat sexual harassment and misconduct on its campuses, President Ray Cross told the Board of Regents on Friday.

The University of Wisconsin system plans to review its sexual assault and harassment policy.

“It’s a big step in the right direction,” says Erika Marín-Spiotta, a biogeochemist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who is co-leading a US$1.1-million initiative funded by the NSF to combat sexual and other harassment in the sciences. But Marín-Spiotta says that agencies must do more to develop truly protective policies. Among other things, the NSF policy does not address what happens if an institution never completes an investigation.

UW Regents will meet Thursday and Friday at UW-Madison. Their agenda includes an update on the merger, which is making the two-year UW Colleges into branch campuses of nearby four-year universities, starting in the 2018 school year.

UW-Eau Claire officials are trying to figure out why fewer students got the flu shot this year.

The Perkins Loan Program, which provided $25.4 million in low-interest loans to UW System students, has expired, with seemingly little hope of congressional renewal in sight.

That’s the date, if things go as planned, when UW-Rock County and UW-Whitewater would officially merge, according to UW-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper.

The audit says the UW System finds it failed to develop a “comprehensive IT security program” as recommended in prior audits — and as required by the policy of its Board of Regents.

University of Wisconsin System regents are considering raising tuition for nonresident and graduate students at three institutions next year.

An email exchange obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio revealed Thursday that University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross did not include shared governance committees of students and faculty in his decision to restructure the UW System.

University of Wisconsin System regents are considering raising tuition for nonresident and graduate students at three institutions next year.

The University of Wisconsin System has received a $2.3 million grant from a Madison-based student loan servicer to help students who struggle with math and to boost their chances of earning a college degree.

Graduate teaching assistants at private universities had high hopes 18 months ago when a federal labor board ruled that they had a right to collective bargaining, but after the election of President Donald Trump, some schools are taking another shot at halting the burgeoning unionization movement.

University of Wisconsin System faculty voiced dismay last fall over not being consulted about a plan for a sweeping reorganization.

After some faculty and students said they felt “blindsided” by the restructuring of the UW System, the only student on the system’s restructuring committee slammed System President Ray Cross for emails he sent about the plan.

The biggest reorganization of the University of Wisconsin System’s colleges and universities in 40 years was described as an “open secret” at the state Capitol.Before faculty, staff and students learned about the plan to eliminate the two-year UW Colleges and UW-Extension, UW System President Ray Cross had discussed it with a lawmaker who called for similar action in 2015.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is emblematic of the complex mixture of admiration and resentment a flagship public university engenders. In the early 20th century, the University of Wisconsin became associated with the state’s progressive leaders, who declared that the purpose of an education was not to do well but to do good. In 1905, University of Wisconsin President Charles Van Hise articulated what would come to be known as the Wisconsin Idea: “I shall never be content until the beneficent influence of the University reaches every family of the state.”