Record numbers of government employees rushed to retire last year as Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican Legislature rolled back public employee union rights, reduced take home pay and increased medical co-pays.
Wisconsin is looking for a new firm to run its EdVest and Tomorrow?s Scholar college savings programs. Wells Fargo Funds Management, which inherited the duties after it purchased Strong Capital Management Inc. of Menomonee Falls in 2004, has told state officials it won?t rebid for the program.
A state lawmaker is taking issue with the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s investigation into an allegation of misconduct against the school?s former associate athletic director.
A new company will run the state of Wisconsin?s two college savings programs, starting late this year. The state will put out a request for bids in the next few weeks for a firm to handle the EdVest and Tomorrow?s Scholar programs.
Interim UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward is defending the university?s silence about an investigation involving a former top athletic official accused of misconduct. In a statement Wednesday, Ward said he understands the public has questions about what led to the investigation of John Chadima, who resigned as senior associate athletic director Friday, but he asked for patience as an independent panel reviews the matter. But not disclosing the nature of the allegations against Chadima allows for speculation, observers said.
In exchange for the $250 million the state Legislature cut from the University of Wisconsin System?s biennial budget last summer, lawmakers gave campuses authority to make decisions previously reserved for the Madison-based UW System.
In Madison, the biggest polluters are, unsurprisingly, power plants. The biggest polluter in the city is UW-Madison?s Charter Street plant, which releases more than 250,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases — which includes carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — into the air each year.
University of Wisconsin-Parkside students should see an institution more responsive to their needs as the UW System reacts to a $250 million cut in state funding during the next two years, Chancellor Deborah Ford told a legislative task force Wednesday.
MADISON, Wis. — A state lawmaker is taking issue with the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s investigation into allegations of misconduct against the school?s former associate athletic director. The office of State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, released a statement on Wednesday that called on interim UW Chancellor David Ward “to make immediate changes to the inquiry” of senior associate athletic director John Chadima, who resigned last Friday after the allegations surfaced.
A lifelong con man imprisoned in Wisconsin is accused of starting a fake university from prison. The state Department of Justice charged 45-year-old Kenneth Shong with felony fraudulent writings in Winnebago County. According to the complaint, Shong was at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution in 2006 when he encouraged another inmate to enroll in “Carlingford University,” saying it granted degrees.
Gov. Scott Walker announced Monday he is creating a new council to help better prepare students for college and careers. The move comes after Walker and the Legislature last year cut $71 million over two years from funding for Wisconsin?s technical colleges, whose primary mission is to train students for available jobs. Democrats and others criticized that cut and a $250 million reduction in funding for the University of Wisconsin System as harmful to worker training efforts.
This story appeared first in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal. UW System President Kevin Reilly said the state?s universities may need to cap enrollment if budget cuts continue, possibly jeopardizing a long-term plan to increase the number of UW graduates 30 percent by 2025.
“We don?t want to send a signal we?re going to do that and push students away from considering the university,” Reilly said. “On the other hand, if we feel we have to do that at some point to maintain the quality in the System, then I think we have to consider it.”
Gov. Scott Walker announced Monday he is creating a new council to help better prepare students for college and careers. The move comes after Walker and the Legislature last year cut $71 million over two years from funding for Wisconsin?s technical colleges, whose primary mission is to train students for available jobs. Democrats and others criticized that cut and a $250 million reduction in funding for the University of Wisconsin System as harmful to worker training efforts.
MADISON (WKOW) — The Wisconsin Department of Tourism was looking for a fun way to promote the state. So, the state hired David Zucker to direct a new tourism commercial that will start airing Wednesday in Milwaukee, Green Bay, Chicago and the Twin Cities.
Who paid for Gov. Scott Walker?s trip to southern California last weekend, where he mixed campaign fundraising with official Rose Bowl duties? UW-Madison listed Walker as part of its “official delegation” — which typically means the university pays for airfare and hotel stays. But in this case, his campaign paid for all his airfare and one night?s hotel stay, said Ciara Matthews, Walker?s campaign spokeswoman. Walker flew to California Thursday to attend political events. The campaign paid for his hotel stay Thursday night, Matthews said, and all costs up until 6:30 p.m. Friday when his official duties kicked in.
Jerry O?Brien, executive director of the Kohl?s Center for Retailing Excellence at UW-Madison, believes the move to focus on smaller communities could be a boon for the Shopko brand and its customers.”To find new places right now with the growth that Target and Walmart have had is very challenging,” O?Brien said. “I think it?s really good for these towns. Some of these more outlying towns are not very well served. This will be fun to watch.”
The Madison City Council unanimously approved a resolution urging the state to once again allow children of undocumented workers in Wisconsin to qualify for in-state tuition to public colleges. It is highly doubtful the Council?s action Tuesday, one of its first decisions of 2012, will lead GOP state legislators to rethink their recent repeal of a short-lived law that had made Wisconsin one of 12 states to provide such reduced tuition to these students.
Each year, the Wisconsin State Journal selects five newsmakers from the worlds of sports, business, politics and the arts who will be confronted with momentous decisions ? or asked to deliver on past promises ? in the coming year. Among those selected for 2012 are UW System President Kevin Reilly and Badger women’s basketball coach Bobbie Kelsey.
Mentions former Chancellor Biddy Martin’s push for public authority status for UW-Madison, as well as several UW-Madison research advances.
Each season in 2011 had a memorable weather event, some with negative impacts. There were two good snow storms in February. The Groundhog Day blizzard had wind gusts of up to 60 mph and snowfall depths ranging from 1 to 2 feet. That resulted in snow drifts of 6 to 10 feet. The second storm occurred on February 20-21 with snow accumulations between 8 and 15 inches. Freezing rain and sleet also fell across southern Wisconsin.
….During the year, 10 people were directly killed by weather events: one person from a blizzard, one from lightning, one from a tornado, one from non-tornadic thunderstorm winds, one from flooding and five during the July heat wave.
MADISON, Wis.– Wisconsin residents won?t get a respite from recall mania at the Rose Bowl. Organizers of the drive to oust Republican Gov. Scott Walker from office plan to travel to Pasadena for Monday?s big game, which pits Wisconsin against Oregon. They plan to hold a rally before the game and solicit signatures from Wisconsin residents and students attending the game.
It was generally not a good year for public higher education in Wisconsin. In particular, 2011 was an especially frustrating period for many associated with UW-Madison. Wisconsin?s flagship institution of higher education lost its once-popular chancellor, Biddy Martin, to a highly regarded but small liberal arts college in Massachusetts following a political defeat at the state Capitol. The university, like all UW System institutions, is absorbing record-setting budget cuts as state leaders try to dig out of a budget hole without raising taxes. And UW-Madison?s highly regarded faculty and staff — again, like their counterparts across the state — not only learned they?d go another biennium without raises, but were forced to take a cut in take-home pay. Although few seem overly optimistic entering 2012, it can?t get any worse than this past year. Right?
….At UW-Madison, it was bye, bye Biddy after Biddy Martin, the popular chancellor, abruptly announced in June she was bailing for the president?s job at Amherst College in Massachusetts. The move came after her push to split UW-Madison from the other 25 campuses in the system, rejected by lawmakers after an outcry from UW System leaders. For her temporary replacement, the university turned to David Ward, a familiar face on campus who previously served as UW-Madison chancellor from 1993 to 2000. Students showed they could still get their drunk on, gathering in April for the annual Mifflin Street block party and turning it into a crime scene: two stabbings, three sexual assaults, three substantial batteries, four strong-armed robberies and numerous reports of property damage, according to Madison police, who have joined Soglin in calls to end the annual event.
I have to admit, I?m a little disappointed in our new budget-conscious secretary of the state Department of Health Services. So, Dennis Smith is cool with cutting government health insurance coverage for the poor to save the state money, but when it comes to saving $23.5 million aimed at getting people to do what they already know they should do ? stop smoking, eat right and generally live more healthful lives ? he caves? A few months ago, Smith declined to write a letter supporting UW-Madison?s bid for the $23.5 million, five-year federal grant.
Veterans groups are rounding up 50 service members who recently returned from Iraq or Afghanistan for a trip to the Rose Bowl. The Badger Trips travel agency is donating airfare, three nights lodging, transportation in California, and game tickets, the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs announced Wednesday. Participants will be chosen by Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, the Military Honor of the Purple Heart, AmVets, the Wisconsin National Guard and Vets for Vets. College Travel Experts is helping coordinate the trip.
Secondary student identification cards and downloadable proof-of-enrollment papers will be made available for University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh students to comply with the state?s new voter ID law.
The Walker administration delivered a lump of coal to the University of Wisconsin System just in time for the Christmas holiday, ordering the university system last Friday to shoulder more than a third of $123 million in budget cuts outlined in the state budget for next year.
Governor Walker?s budget-reduction plan means the University of La Crosse will need to cut about $1.9 million over the next six months. But Chancellor Joe Gow says tuition won?t increase because of these cuts, and jobs are safe, for now.
Across the nation, a historic collapse in state funding for higher education threatens to diminish the stature of premier public universities and erode their mission as engines of upward social mobility.
It was the Monday afternoon of finals week on the UW-Madison campus, and Noah Phillips still had two reports to write and two exams to take before wrapping up his second semester as a Badger. After spending three weeks immersed in the Occupy Madison movement shortly after it organized on Oct. 7, the freshman from Washington, D.C., admitted he needed to “finish the year strong” after missing some quizzes and falling behind on his schoolwork. And yet, Phillips wasn?t hunkered down in his campus dorm room banging out the reports or trekking to a campus library for a marathon study session. He was in the state Capitol on Dec. 19 with a few hundred others to take part in the Solidarity Singalong, a vocal vigil that?s been held every weekday since March 11 to rail on Gov. Scott Walker and his anti-union legislation.
Efforts by the University of Wisconsin System to have its disproportionate hit in state aid reconsidered have failed. On Friday, Gov. Scott Walker?s administration released its plan for cutting $123 million across state government by July, the Associated Press reports. This lapse — or one-time budget cut — was called for under the 2011-13 biennial budget passed earlier this year. And the UW System is absorbing the biggest hit, a whopping $46.1 million.
The first phase of a $52 million renovation project at UW-Madison?s Memorial Union won approval from the State Building Commission, part of the Lakefront Gateway project that is expected to transform the campus waterfront on Lake Mendota. The commission OK?d about $82 million in projects last Wednesday for projects at campuses in the University of Wisconsin system, with the lion?s share of the projects planned at the Madison campus.
Communities around Wisconsin can apply next month for a share of a $23.5 million federal grant that state officials initially opposed but that was eventually awarded to UW-Madison to prevent chronic diseases. The five-year grant, awarded in September, targets three efforts: smoke-free apartment complexes, access to exercise and fresh foods, and heart disease screening in underserved areas.
The grant will boost disease prevention programs around the state, said Tom Sieger, prevention coordinator for UW-Madison’s University Health Services.
The University of Wisconsin System will have to cut another $46.1 million over six months, on top of a previously approved $250 million two-year reduction, under a detailed budget-balancing plan Gov. Scott Walker?s administration released Friday. The new cut to UW was part of $213.2 million in additional reductions ordered to be made across state government. The amount in cuts was approved under the budget passed in June but not specified until Friday. Walker?s Department of Administration ordered agencies to make the cuts without layoffs, if possible.
Gov. Scott Walker?s administration has released its plan for cutting $123 million across state government by July as called for under the budget passed earlier this year. The University of Wisconsin System would see the largest cut at $46.1 million.
Quoted: Steven Deller, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of agriculture and applied economics.
Gov. Scott Walker?s administration is expected Friday to say where the state will slice to make $174 million in added budget cuts.
There are more mixed signals on the Wisconsin jobs scene. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday released a report showing Wisconsin with the second-highest number of unemployment claims from mass layoff events in the nation last month. A “mass layoff” is any event affecting at least 50 workers, according to the BLS. Its mass layoff report for November estimated Wisconsin with 90 such events in the month, impacting 9,359 individuals.
“The tilt against manufacturing over the last few months is hitting Wisconsin pretty hard,” says Laura Dresser, a labor economist with the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a UW-Madison think tank.
The state Building Commission approved several projects on Wednesday.
MADISON (WKOW) — The State Building Commission approved several projects on Wednesday. They include renovation of Dairy Science facilities at UW-Madison….”The projects approved today represent important investments in our state,” Governor Walker said Wednesday. “I am pleased that the Building Commission was able come together to work in a bipartisan fashion.”
The state Medical Examining Board is looking into investigating at least 10 doctors not previously disciplined for writing sick notes the Madison School District considered fraudulent. The review, which started Monday, was triggered by a State Journal article Saturday, said Greg Gasper, spokesman for the state Department of Safety and Professional Services.
….The UW School of Medicine and Public Health reviewed 22 doctors said to have been involved in writing questionable sick notes and disciplined at least a dozen of them. The university hasn’t released the specific actions, saying the process isn’t complete.
The UW athletic department is self-funded. The athletic department operating budget does not receive state aid. During the 2010-2011 academic year, the athletic department revenues were $81.7 million. The largest chunk, $27.3 million, was ticket sales, and its share of Big Ten Conference revenue was $23.3 million. Other revenue is derived from private and corporate gifts, $13.8 million, and concessions, $6.8 million. The athletic department?s revenue covers salaries, operating expenses, and athlete scholarships.During recent years, returns on investments have been twofold. UW teams have been very successful on the field. On-field success leads to more merchandise sales, more paid attendance, and more television and postseason revenue. Businesses throughout the state, including bars, restaurants and clothing stores, benefit from UW athletics.
According to an April 2011 study by NorthStar Economics Inc., the UW athletic department has a total economic impact of nearly $1 billion on the state of Wisconsin. The NorthStar study revealed 8,853 jobs were created and supported, and nearly $53 million of tax revenue was generated by the athletic department.The last line of a popular song played at UW sports games is, ?When you say Wisconsin, you?ve said it all.? The self-funded athletic department might not literally do it all; however, it has a significant impact on the state?s economy, without costing taxpayers a dime.
A new Wisconsin law expanding the hours alcohol can be sold by retailers won?t apply in the city of Madison, according to the Madison Police Department. That?s because municipal ordinances can be more restrictive than the state law, according to the language in 2011 Wisconsin Act 97, which amends the state statutes regarding how many hours in a day a business can sell alcohol.
A liberal-leaning Milwaukee think tank is out with a new report blaming state budget program cuts and public worker paycheck reductions for exacerbating Wisconsin?s job struggles. The report from the Institute for Wisconsin?s Future says the reduction in take-home pay for tens of thousands of public employees is now hurting the private sector, as are the drastic state budget cuts for K-12 education. Steve Deller, an economics professor at UW-Madison, says that reducing spending during a deep recession can often make things worse, as this blog chart suggests.
“Economic modeling shows that the extreme cuts to state and local programs cost thousands of jobs and put Wisconsin in a weak position to create jobs,” says Deller, who appeared at the Capitol on Tuesday with Norman and Rep. Brett Hulsey, D-Madison, to introduce the IWF report.
Gov. Scott Walker signed an executive order Monday that will require more state and university employees to report suspected child abuse and neglect.
University of Wisconsin System employees can be penalized if they don?t report child abuse or neglect, an executive order Gov. Scott Walker signed Monday states.
Gov. Scott Walker signed an executive order Monday requiring all University of Wisconsin System employees to report instances of child abuse or neglect to the police or a local child protective services agency. Many in the state — including healthcare workers, K-12 teachers and child-care providers — already have mandatory reporting requirements, and Monday?s action extends those mandates to those who work within the UW System.
University of Wisconsin System campuses may have fewer instructors and course offerings under a proposed one-time state budget cut of $65.8 million over two years, according to UW System President Kevin Reilly. Reilly wrote a letter last week to Brian Hayes, state budget director, outlining how the University of Wisconsin System would manage the cuts that Gov. Scott Walker?s administration unveiled in October.
Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker has signed an executive order in which the aim is to protect children in the state from child abuse and neglect.
Gov. Scott Walker will be joined by leaders from the University of Wisconsin System Monday morning as he signs an executive order that will require more state and university employees to report suspected child abuse and neglect.
I am a retired UW-Madison academic department manager, having worked for 36 years with the state and managed budgets for over 20 years. This is not an opinion regarding Gov. Scott Walker, but information on how the state budget works. People who say Walker has balanced the budget are stating an untruth.
Gov. Scott Walker is expected to sign an executive order that will require more state and university employees to report suspected child abuse and neglect.
Kevin Conroy, president and CEO of Exact Sciences, a Madison-based cancer research company, said Wisconsin has one of the best research institutions, UW-Madison, and does some of the best scientific research, but despite that opportunity, lags in funding and opportunities for venture capital. UW “is consistently ranked No. 2 in total federal research dollars, second only to Johns Hopkins University, and Wisconsin inventors are awarded patents at a higher rate than the national average,” Conroy said. “But we rank very low in terms of venture capital dollars invested and new company formation.”
“If you look broadly across the state, it?s still really rare for a retail establishment to take a stand,” said Dan Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at UW-Madison. The standard business maxim is that there?s little upside to mixing politics and commerce, although there are notable exceptions, Olszewski said.
Gov. Scott Walker is expected to sign an executive order that will require more state and university employees to report suspected child abuse and neglect.
There is, arguably, no school in America as connected to an underlying philosophical statement of mission as the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Idea. There are likely very few of the hundreds of thousands of living UW alumni who would not be able to recite the most common definition of the Wisconsin Idea as ?the boundaries of the campus [being] the boundaries of the state.
All University of Wisconsin System schools will issue IDs before next year?s spring elections after Wisconsin?s Government Accountability Board approved voter identification cards designed for UW Colleges Monday.
The University of Wisconsin Colleges — the UW System?s 13 freshman-sophomore campuses — will start issuing ID cards that can be used for voting purposes to students who need them starting Jan. 23.Rich Barnhouse, associate vice chancellor for student services and enrollment management, said in this news release that the state?s Government Accountability Board has signed off on the documentation and card process.
Wisconsin?s twin two-year postsecondary school systems aren?t an efficient use of resources or particularly helpful for students. One two-year system that combines the state?s technical colleges and the University of Wisconsin?s two-year campuses probably makes more sense for students, businesses and Wisconsin?s workforce.
Gov. Scott Walker announced Monday he is appointing Sun Prairie Mayor John Murray as executive director of the Office of Justice Assistance.
