Category: State news

In the midst of increased political activity around the state, UW-Madison posted guidelines Wednesday reminding faculty, students and staff of appropriate political activity on campus. The rules discourage students, faculty and staff from engaging in political activity in university buildings and housing. They also prohibit employees from using university resources for political advocacy or participating in political actions when they should be working.

A legislative committee asked state election officials to turn their motions on electoral issues into formalized rules to be approved by the governor Tuesday, a move critics say takes away the group?s independence from the Legislature.

MADISON ? Republican lawmakers ordered state election officials Tuesday to make their policy allowing technical college students to use their school IDs at the polls into a formal rule.

….College students at University of Wisconsin schools, who have long benefited from a world-class education, keenly feel the effects of a state administration which refuses to put education among its priorities. The Walker administration has cut over $300 million from the system – and at least $125 million will come out of UW-Madison. UW System spokesman David Giroux responded with the reality of the situation: “We do not know how we can take these cuts without negatively affecting the education of our students and the expectations of their families for a quality experience.” Students will be forced to bear the brunt of these costs in higher tuition bills, less financial aid, more student debt, and fewer course offerings with larger class sizes.

Wisconsin Democrats will begin circulating recall petitions for Gov. Scott Walker across the state and on the UW-Madison campus starting Nov. 15. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin and United Wisconsin, a political action committee organized around recalling Walker, will have until Jan. 13, 60 days, to collect the 540,208 signatures necessary to prompt a recall election. College Democrats Chair Jordan Weibel said the student group plans to raise awareness about the Walker recall effort on campus.

UW-Madison opted against using stickers on identification cards, which means students will likely receive updated forms of identification to accommodate stipulations in the law that require voters to show valid forms of IDs at polling places.

The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board took a second look Wednesday at some of the rules for voter ID, voting to reverse one decision and not to reverse another.

UW-Madison opted against using stickers on identification cards, which means students will likely receive updated forms of identification to accommodate stipulations in the law that require voters to show valid forms of IDs at polling places. After months of going back and forth on whether to allow stickers on student IDs, the Government Accountability Board concluded Wednesday that stickers would be allowed. As a result on the decision, individual schools can decide what to do.

– State elections officials won?t reconsider a policy allowing colleges to place stickers on student identification cards to meet voter ID requirements.

State election officials have reversed themselves and will allow technical college students to use their school IDs to vote.

“The only saving grace [Act 35] had was the fact that there were these requirements,” UW-Madison Young Progressives Vice President Sam Gehler said. “The elimination of those requirements does not bode very well for the safety of the people of Wisconsin.”

Gehler compared hurdles to receiving a driver?s license to the “less stringent requirements” now in place for permits to carry concealed weapons, “which are designed to kill people.”

Democrats in the state Assembly managed to temporarily stall a vote on a controversial surprise amendment on affirmative action brought into Tuesday night?s floor meeting, which flowed into the early hours of Wednesday morning.

A nonpartisan bill concerning a college grant program divided state Assembly members late Tuesday evening after an amendment introduced would eliminate minority status as a criteria for receiving the grant.

The state Assembly has given preliminary approval to a surprise proposal introduced by a Democrat, and backed by Republicans, to eliminate race as a factor in college grant applications. The proposal, made around 11 p.m. Tuesday, elicited a furious response from Democratic opponents who prolonged debate until about 8 a.m. on Wednesday. Democrats used a procedural move to block final approval until Thursday.

The Wisconsin state Assembly has given preliminary approval to a surprise proposal introduced by a Democrat, and backed by Republicans, to eliminate race as a factor in college grant applications.

As agencies around the state prepare for the concealed carry law, effective today, the University of Wisconsin System updated police training and reiterated that weapons are prohibited in university buildings on campuses across the state.