Category: State news

MADISON, Wis. AP — The University of Wisconsin-Madison is celebrating conservationist Aldo Leopold this weekend.

At first glance, Gov. Scott Walker?s budget provision to do away with residency requirements for city and school employees makes for some strange bedfellows ? aligning the governor made famous for slashing the power of public worker unions with police officers, firefighters and other city workers who have long sought an end to residency requirements through collective bargaining.

University of Wisconsin System officials explained their progress on the flexible option degree to a Senate committee Tuesday, allowing legislators to clear  concerns they had over the new program.

The upcoming release of Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed state budget draws our attention to the future and, in particular, to Wisconsin?s children.

A University of Wisconsin professor and the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin filed a federal lawsuit against Capitol Police over their permitting process Monday.

Marshfield Clinic and University of Wisconsin Health have won approval to participate in a Medicare program designed to test new ways of paying hospitals and doctors.

Starting next fall, the University of Wisconsin system is offering the first competency-based online degree program in the nation. This program, called the ?UW Flexible Option,? will allow adult students to earn a bachelor?s by passing a series of assessments that determine competency in a field of study.

By now, you may well have read Wall Street Journal report Caroline Porter?s article on the University of Wisconsin?s new Flexible Option, a competency-based credentialing initiative that will allow students to gain credit for what they know rather than how long they?ve sat in a classroom.

One of the findings of Gannett Wisconsin Media?s ?What We Pay? series on public employee compensation is that pay for Universityof Wisconsin System professors averages about $86,000 a year, trailing the $90,000 average of technical college instructors.

Legislators scolded University of Wisconsin System leaders Tuesday during a hearing in Madison over what they called a troubling pattern of mismanagement and lack of oversight for employee payroll and benefits processing.

Tuesday?s public hearing at the State Capitol about mismanagement of $33 million in University of Wisconsin System health and pension funds is actually a twin bill. Also on the agenda: so-called “double dipping” by public employees including thousands in the UW System.

A legislative committee is scheduled to hold a hearing today (Tuesday) to discuss mismanagement at the University of Wisconsin payroll and benefit processing. The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) is being asked to conduct a comprehensive review after an audit released earlier this month found the UW had made over-payments in the last two years for health insurance premiums and retirement benefits totaling $33 million.

A new controversy regarding the future of a nonprofit cooperative that provides high-speed Internet services to most public schools and libraries in Wisconsin stems from an old debate about the public and private sectors competing with each other.

MADISON, WI (WSAU) –  A state legislator believes a University of Wisconsin senior vice president needs to be fired. Wisconsin Rep. Steve Nass says a recent audit leaves him with no faith in senior vice president for administration and fiscal affairs Michael Morgan.

MADISON ? Sometimes sorry isn?t enough. Ask the legions of Lance Armstrong fans, the same Lance Armstrong who only takes his doping mea culpa to Oprah Winfrey.

A legislative committee will hold a hearing Tuesday as part of a probe of the University of Wisconsin System?s human resources practices after learning of the universities? overpayments of nearly $33 million for health insurance premiums and retirement benefits.

The co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee are calling for an independent audit of the University of Wisconsin payroll and benefit processing systems after overpayments totaling almost $33 million were found.

MADISON ? Don?t hold your breath, Wisconsinites, on recovering all of the $15.4 million the University of Wisconsin System overpaid on health insurance premiums in 2011 and 2012.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The president of the University of Wisconsin System says he?s embarrassed by a recent audit finding the system overpaid for health insurance premiums and pension contributions by nearly $33 million over the last two years.

The University of Wisconsin System made $15.4 million in overpayments for health insurance premiums – including $8 million for 924 employees who had been terminated – and miscalculated retirement contributions that resulted in overpayments of another $17.5 million to the state retirement system, according to a financial audit for fiscal 2011-?12 released Thursday by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau.

The University of Wisconsin System overpaid for health insurance premiums and pension contributions by nearly $33 million over the last two years, including $8 million for more than 900 employees who had already left their jobs, according to a report released Thursday.

Terry Fleischman earns a base salary of $87,649 as an instructor at Fox Valley Technical College, but last year he pushed his compensation to $163,581 by accumulating overage pay for additional teaching.

This op-ed was written by Barry C. Burden, David T. Canon, Kenneth R. Mayer and Donald P. Moynihan. They are professors of political science or public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their research on Wisconsin elections can be found at electionadmin.wisc.edu