The volleyball players’ competitive passion, their joy in supporting one another, their resilience and their emotional vulnerability are unlike what I see in other sports. Oh, and the absence of trash-talking. I like that, too.
Rich Kremer reports for Wisconsin Public Radio, which is staffed by employees of the University of Wisconsin-Madison: The Universities of Wisconsin will have the opportunity to give pay raises to its 34,000 employees and build a new $347 million engineering building in Madison under a deal approved Wednesday by the Board of Regents. But the universities will also freeze DEI staffing through 2026 and eliminate or refocus about 40 positions focused on diversity.
The best deals over time are often the deals that left no one happy at first.
The breaking news hit my inbox at precisely 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Barry Alvarez often praised his players who dealt with adversity during a game, but never flinched. Universities of Wisconsin system President Jay Rothman could learn a valuable lesson from the former Wisconsin football coach.
The offense can even be 100 years in the past. In 2021 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, some Black students were upset when walking past a boulder on campus.
Letter to the editor: What is it about the diversity, equity and inclusion employees that strikes fear in the hearts of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg?
Editor’s Note: David Mott is the William S. Apple Distinguished Professor in Social and Administrative Sciences at the University of Wisconsin. CNN — Pharmacists swear an oath upon entering the profession to “assure optimal outcomes for all patients.” But current working conditions are making it nearly impossible to live up to this oath.
Column by Tiffany Green, an associate professor of population health sciences and obstetrics and gynecology at UW-Madison, and Jenny Higgins, the Bissell professor of reproductive health, rights and justice in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at UW-Madison.
UW-Milwaukee’s “Milwaukee Tuition Promise” and University of Wisconsin-Madison’s “Teacher Pledge Program” are blueprints that other colleges can consider replicating. The longevity of the programs are reliant on private fundraising, however, and represent a fraction of the twenty-one four-year colleges in the state. A systems-level, state approach could offer funding sustainability to colleges seeking to attract students into education, an issue impacting all of Wisconsin.
Letter to the editor: Our public universities can become more diverse, equitable and inclusive in any number of ways.
Letter to the editor: What Speaker Vos is actually threatening to do is gain acceptance of one view (conservatism) by dismantling and eliminating an alternative view. This tactic seems dangerously close to tactics employed by dictators. But apparently Vos is comfortable with this.
Every year the American Association of University Professors awards the Alexander Meiklejohn Award for Academic Freedom to an American college, university administrator, trustee or a board of trustees as a group, in recognition of an outstanding contribution to academic freedom.
Letter to the editor: In the Dec. 2 State Journal article “Rothman: Liberal arts safe,” Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman walks back parts of an email he had sent to chancellors that suggested “shifting away from liberal arts programs.”
Letter to the editor: Here is a little reminder to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, who is holding Universities of Wisconsin employees hostage.
Co-authored by State Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, represents the 7th Senate District. State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, represents the 26th Senate District.
The bills would allow DACA recipients to qualify for in-state tuition at schools within the University of Wisconsin System. DACA individuals would be able to train and obtain professional licenses issued by the state. Additionally a biennial tax credit of $250 would be offered to offset the $495 fee that recipients must pay every two years to document their DACA status.
Proposal that does not consider marginalized identities in financial aid decisions reinforces inequitable systems in higher education.
Column by Larry Gallup, audience growth editor for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.
Written by Jason Fletcher, a professor of public affairs at UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs with appointments in Applied Economics and Population Health Sciences.
Guest column by state Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison.
For decades, Wisconsin prioritized funding the UW System, knowing that it was the most important thing we could do to develop our workforce and innovate for our future. Our public universities attract people from the Great Lakes region and beyond because our institutions offer quality educational opportunities and affordable tuition.
According to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau, Senate Bill 571 would “afford certain rights and protections to student journalists who are public school pupils or students enrolled in a University of Wisconsin System institution or technical college.”
Given the ‘success’ of this project, the Biden administration expanded the government-higher education alliance in June 2021 through the National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism. Since then, a plethora of new partnerships between the government and higher education have emerged to shape our perceptions and opinions. For example, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded $5 million taxpayer dollars to the University of Wisconsin to develop a system that can detect and “strategically correct” what the government perceives as misinformation. This is in addition to $7.5 million awarded to ten other universities to work on similar censorship-type programs, and $40 million awarded to 15 higher education institutions under the “Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant.”
How sad that over a half century and more of history has been jettisoned by a “rebranding exercise.” (“UW System rolls out new name for itself: Universities of Wisconsin,” Oct. 12).
The truth is that Ms. Tai is taking the pen away from Facebook, Google and Amazon, who helped shape the previous policy, according to a research paper published earlier this year by Wendy Li, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who used to answer the phone and interact with lobbyists at the U.S. trade representative’s office.
Letter to the editor: Why did the Big Ten and the NFL suddenly move to streaming so many games this year? It is maddening and insensitive to fans.
There is no room for this hate in Madison or any community, and I’m heartened to see how many of you weighed in on our coverage of these hate groups. Community leaders from the mayor to the UW-Madison chancellor are quick to call out haters for who they are.
Letter to the editor from Maya Kamin, a student at UW-Madison’s School of Nursing.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said: “The presence of this hateful group in Madison is utterly repugnant. I am horrified to see these symbols here in Madison. Hatred and antisemitism are completely counter to the university’s values, and the safety and well-being of our community must be our highest priorities.”
“Killers of the Flower Moon” highlights the U.S. government’s role in a historical injustice. But those concerned with modern poverty should not lose sight of the elephant in today’s room. Oppressive regulatory oversight means paper rights for American Indians, paper rights mean dead capital, and dead capital means poverty. We can’t change the past, but the federal government should cut today’s white tape.
-Dominic Parker is an economist at the University of Wisconsin and the Ilene and Morton Harris Visiting Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Adam Crepelle is a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
Dear Editor: I completely agree that Madison Metro should not close the bus stop in front of the Hamel Music Center. Nor should Metro close the bus stop in front of the Witte Residence Hall. These two stops, Numbers 0670 and 0435, are heavily used and strategically located.
People who earn degrees from UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, Marquette University, UW-Platteville and the Milwaukee School of Engineering, to cite prominent in-state examples, are engaged in disciplines that also include chemical, civil, biomedical, mechanical, environmental, nuclear, aeronautical and materials engineering, to name a few.
It’s pretty hard to explain, isn’t it? While Wisconsin is sitting on a multibillion-dollar budget surplus, its highly regarded state university campuses are being forced to lay off faculty, cut back classes, even close some two-year campuses to balance their own budgets.
The Legislature should quickly take up and approve funding for a new engineering building on the UW-Madison campus. If the Republican-run Legislature thought AmFam Field was a good proposal for Wisconsin — and it definitely was — then get a load of this offer: a $350 million engineering building that costs the public less and delivers the state economy far more.
UW-Madison students are frustrated with classes held until the day before Thanksgiving.
Our hope would be that Vos and GOP leaders would accept this olive branch from the state’s universities, create new jobs by expanding university-backed workforce development and mothball their misguided effort to dismantle DEI programs.
Oh, yes, and give state university workers their 6.6% pay raises as promised in the state budget — just like they did for other state workers.
Dear Editor: The boo-birds have been released. Flocking from UW football game day fans and letters to the editor writers. Already demanding coaching changes.
In the 2011 decision Snyder v. Phelps, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that hateful speech, on its own, is protected under the First Amendment. The Snyder ruling, however, does not extend to speech that involves illegal action. For example, hateful speech that incites violence, communicates true threats or rises to the level of a hate crime is unprotected.
When he turned 18, he traveled to Wisconsin, enrolling at the University of Wisconsin-Madison because east coast universities had strict quotas on enrolling Jewish students. In Madison, he became acquainted with several students who volunteered to fight for democracy in Spain. So, it was no surprise that he would enlist in the war against the white supremist Nazi regime.
Letter to the editor: Speaker Vos and every American elected official should be actively supporting the diversity, equity and inclusion of every American citizen in all public and political activities. The self-governing democracy we have developed over the centuries demands this.
That’s not a debatable point. That’s a fact, as Wisconsin business leaders are explaining in a new campaign that expresses deep disappointment with the decision of the Republican-controlled legislative Joint Finance Committee to refuse to fund the state’s portion of the $347 million College of Engineering expansion project as part of the 2023-25 capital budget.
Amid budget battles over faculty pay raises, UW should also champion fair pay for student employees.
Letter to the editor: Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is insisting that the University of Wisconsin System end their diversity, equity and inclusion programs that serve “students of color, student veterans, women seeking degrees in male-dominated disciplines and students with disabilities” (“UW System pay hikes may be at risk,” Sept. 20).
Editor’s note: This is the final chapter of a 5-part series in which former University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and Vice President Jim Langdon reflect on their experience guiding the system though the COVID-19 pandemic.
Budget cuts threaten comprehensive institutional support for underrepresented students.
It may be too harsh to call it a death spiral. But the University of Wisconsin System is in trouble and it’s not clear when or how it can turn things around. Consider what’s happening.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos nixed a 6% pay raise for UW System employees while allowing it to go through for other state employees. He’s trying to put pressure on the UW to discontinue its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Bill to end scholarship displacement could benefit students with financial need, but unrealistic without sufficient funding for the Universities of Wisconsin.
State universities may have specific mandates to educate local students over those from abroad, which was the case when the University of California system capped out-of-state enrollments in 2017. But even large state systems like the University of Wisconsin take in significant numbers of international students. Why should the more than 3,000 international undergraduates in Madison be tossed out?
This is the fourth chapter of a 5-part series in which former University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and Vice President Jim Langdon reflect on their experience guiding the system though the COVID-19 pandemic. As the health care crisis raged, facilities on the front lines began to have severe staffing issues. Drawing inspiration from the foundations of the UW System, they found ways to help students jump from the classroom to the community to assist.
UW-Madison has become increasingly more selective with the student body they admit. The university’s acceptance rate has fallen from 67% to 49% in the past decade. This number takes an even steeper drop when you take into account the out-of-state acceptance rate falling to roughly 18%.
If there’s one thing Madison can thank COVID-19 for, it’s canceling Freakfest.
Written by Yi Fuxian, a senior scientist in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “Big Country with an Empty Nest” (China Development Press, 2013).
Letter to the editor: Vos and his Republican friends constantly say they represent the hardworking taxpayers of Wisconsin. How does keeping money from middle-class working people meet that slogan. Vos keeps claiming that diversity at the Universities of Wisconsin is a bad thing. When I attended a UW school in the 1950s, we saw almost no diversity.
Written by Ken Brosky, an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin alluded to this concern in a statement about the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath. She raised the concern that “these devastating developments will fan the global flames of both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, making peace and justice in the region even more elusive.”
Mnookin concluded her statement by noting: “Difficult times can fray our connections and exacerbate our differences. Let us focus on the values that we share. I call on our campus community to care for and support one another, to express your views peacefully and respectfully, and to value our common humanity as we navigate this extremely difficult time, together.”
While many Wisconsin state employees received pay increases from the state government Tuesday, employees within the Universities of Wisconsin were left out. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos claims he will continue to withhold pay increases from these employees until the UW-System gets rid of all programming related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Letter to the editor: Tom Still’s column last Sunday, “Remove barriers to UW projects,” neatly summarized the baffling behavior of the Legislature toward UW-Madison and UW-La Crosse.
Graduate students begin programs because we want to learn. We have a passion for a subject area and we want to contribute to a solution. I am constantly in awe of my friends and lab mates, the dedication and creativity they pour into their degrees. But we are more than just students.
In Madison, 322 corporations and other major employers attended a three-day “career fair” in September to compete for upcoming graduates of the College of Engineering. More than 235 of those mostly large employers have operations in Wisconsin. Why were they there? To find and recruit talented workers from today’s limited engineering pool. A new building would accommodate about 1,000 additional graduates per year.
