A conservative University of Wisconsin regent says he won’t step down when his term ends this month, saying in an email that he hoped that his “temporary continuation” as a regent will support communication between legislators and the regents.
Access to police employment data could also help groups like the Wisconsin Innocence Project, said Christopher Lau, a co-director of the project and law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Being able to use data to get background on officers in support of the cases of their clients, which often involve allegations of police misconduct, “would make our litigation much stronger,” he said.
The college’s enrollment is around 500 undergraduate students, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education, but the college has said its enrollment goal for this upcoming fall is 385 students.
The cuts are part of a trend across Wisconsin’s smaller higher education institutions, with the University of Wisconsin system recently closing a number of its satellite campuses.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is requesting that the state budget committee release $20 million meant to create a grant program that would support communities where a University of Wisconsin branch campus has closed.
Wisconsin’s capital city consistently ranks highly, whether it’s among the country’s happiest cities or its physically fittest. The University of Wisconsin-Madison was even recently included on Forbes’ list of new public “Ivy League” schools.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday called on Republicans who control the state’s budget committee to release previously approved state funds set aside to aid communities facing the closure of several Universities of Wisconsin branch campuses.
PJ Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Insect Diagnostic Lab, said it could take cicadas up to a week after emerging to begin making their distinctive, ear-piercing call to attract mates.
“So we’re still that calm before the storm, and (it) hasn’t gotten noisy yet,” Liesch said.
Once every 17 years, the species emerges as adults to breed. However, the species’ adult life only lasts about four to six weeks. This means their stint as an annoyance to humans and ample food source for wildlife will be over by the beginning of July, said PJ Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Insect Diagnostics Lab.
“When folks look at the cicadas and wonder, ‘Are they good or bad?,’ in my mind, the good far outweighs any bad because these insects are really going to serve as a huge benefit for our local wildlife population,” he said.
Sources include email conversation with Timothy Van Deelen, a professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and chair of the Environmental Conservation profession Masters Degree, May 10, 2024
Erin Barbato, who directs the Immigrant Justice Law Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School, says it takes time for asylum seekers to get a work permit needed for a driver’s license. After entering the country, asylum seekers generally have one year to fill out an application proving they should be granted asylum status to remain in the U.S. because they fear persecution in their home countries.
“Even if someone comes here and is seeking asylum, they won’t be eligible for a work permit for about six months,” she said. “And in order to get that work permit, it’s going to take six months to a year.”
“A climate haven is the idea of a place that’s a refuge or a safe spot from the impacts of climate change,” said Steve Vavrus, the state climatologist and co-director of the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts.
Conventions as we know them today — major events held in large cities attended by party insiders — began in the early- to mid-1800s. State parties needed to coordinate their activities and nominate someone who would appear on the ballot across the country, explained University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden.
“All that changed 50 years ago, when the parties changed their nomination systems to emphasize primaries and caucuses as the ways that delegates would be selected,” Burden said.
Through a bill signed by the governor in February, top students at high schools across Wisconsin will be guaranteed to get into a Wisconsin university. Through Senate Bill 367, now Wisconsin Act 95, Universities of Wisconsin is offering certain high schoolers in the state some assurance.
Organizers of the pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Wisconsin at Madison posted a thorough set of guidelines to their Instagram account, affirming that there would be “NO DESECRATION OF THE LAND … NO DRUG USE/ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION,” among other directives. Also: “DO NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN SPECIFICALLY MEDIA-TRAINED FOR THIS ACTION.”
As many high school seniors prep for their first year of college, a new Wisconsin law will give the state’s highest-performing high schoolers a guaranteed spot at any of the Universities of Wisconsin campuses.
Robert Yablon, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and an expert on state courts, said the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s declining case count is on par with a national trend of state supreme courts and the U.S. Supreme Court deciding fewer cases.
“They are conceiving of themselves as courts that are resolving the big ticket issues, rather than doing run of the mill error correction,” Yablon said of high courts around the country.
Jackie McCarville is a regional dairy educator for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension in southwestern Wisconsin. She also feels like concern around avian flu has died down, especially as many farms begin work in their fields this spring.
“But I think it’s still in the back of a lot of minds: what happens if it does get into Wisconsin?” McCarville said. “What considerations should we be looking at? It’s a great time to look at your biosecurity plan to see what you can do to protect your farm.”
Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, said much of the national dairy industry has been opposed to doing more testing for the virus on farms. He said the number of avian flu tests in cattle across the country has actually declined since the federal order requiring them went into place.
Menzie Chinn, a macroeconomist at UW-Madison, said much of the United States’ strong recovery can be attributed to federal stimulus programs.
“We were much more aggressive, so it’s no wonder that we’ve recovered in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic much more rapidly,” he said.
Outside the chancellor’s office at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, more than 100 protesters laid down side by side. Many had their palms up, painted red. Some wore graduation robes. Two of them, perched on a statue of Abraham Lincoln, held a banner listing Palestinian children who have died during the Israel-Hamas war.
Two thousand miles away, a handful of students held a largely silent protest at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Camp Randall Stadium. No arrests were made, the Associated Press reported.
That approach differed from one at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where administrators in early May called in the police to break down the tents after negotiations failed. After the initial crackdown failed to end the encampment, Wisconsin-Madison later came to an agreement with protesters to break down the camp voluntarily before commencement ceremonies over the weekend.
Tensions persist between students and administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison over an encampment at Library Mall, now in its tenth day of protest. Demonstrators are calling for the university to sever all ties with Israeli institutions.
UW-Madison officials and pro-Palestinian protesters said they’re willing to meet again Thursday, a day after protest leaders walked out of discussions.
Members of the Legislature’s Joint Audit Committee voted Tuesday on party lines to approve an audit of all diversity, equity and inclusion activities within the state’s executive agencies — a move that runs counter to policies and priorities laid out by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Republican lawmakers are ordering a review into initiatives that aim to promote diversity, equity and inclusion within state government.
Legislative Republicans plan to put the use of diversity, equity and inclusion positions within state government and the Universities of Wisconsin under a microscope with a new audit approved Tuesday.
In December he forced Universities of Wisconsin regents to freeze diversity hires, re-label about 40 diversity positions as “student success” positions, drop an affirmative action hiring program at UW-Madison in exchange for funding to cover staff raises and construction projects. Vos said after the deal was complete that he wanted an in-depth review of diversity initiatives across state government.
The review of how state agencies are using DEI was promised by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, after a protracted battle between top GOP legislators and the Universities of Wisconsin over programs to support people of color and other historically disadvantaged groups.
Wikler said the campaign is to “hold Republican politicians to account for refusing to do what most Wisconsinites want on critical issues like hospital closures, the closures of University of Wisconsin campuses and funding from settlements about opioid addiction. Critical issues where most Wisconsinites want the same thing but these Republican politicians are playing political games that affect people’s lives.”
Young voters in Wisconsin are a crucial voting block for both parties, and with protest activity on college campuses against the war in Gaza ramping up, some fear it could hurt Democrats this fall.
An innovative program at UW-Madison is connecting communities throughout Wisconsin to education, outreach, technical assistance and research to help local governments solve challenges and improve livability and wellbeing.
PJ Liesch, an entomologist with the Division of Extension at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said defoliation could slow the growth of trees that may be logged for lumber. From a forest health perspective, it could also leave them vulnerable to secondary pests like the two lined chestnut borer. The insect, a native relative of the invasive emerald ash borer, typically targets weaker oak trees and starts killing branches in the upper canopy.
With spongy moth increasing for several years now, Liesch said there’s a lot of stressed oak trees. “So the secondary insects and problems can start popping up, and then it’s a very slippery slope leading to tree death in some situations,” Liesch said.
She has the distinction of being the first to do a lot of things. In 1951, she became the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
On the Friday 8 O’Clock Buzz with Andy Moore, Dean Diana Hess from UW-Madison’s School of Education discusses the critical need for teachers in Wisconsin and the innovative Wisconsin Teacher Pledge program.
Across the country, state lawmakers are cutting funding to their most prominent public universities.
That dwindling support for higher education was the subject of a panel at UW-Madison earlier this evening – and the School of Education’s Dr. Taylor Odlewas one of the panelists.
The Universities of Wisconsin will vacate a former two-year college in Richland County this summer, despite months of discussions with local officials who once hoped to save the former two-year college. County leaders say they’re now facing a potential “economic crisis.”
Museums at the University of Michigan, Rutgers University, U.C.L.A. and University of Wisconsin-Madison, all part of the coalition, are involved in voter registeration or will serve as polling places for the 2024 presidential election.
University of Wisconsin regents agreed in December to shift at least 43 diversity positions to focus on “student success” and eliminate statements supporting diversity on student applications. The actions were part of a deal with lawmakers to release funding for pay raises and campus construction projects.
Outside reports released earlier this month showed warning signs for the financial viability of the University of Wisconsin System’s universities and signaled future cuts to the state’s public campuses.
Column by Menzie Chinn, professor of Public Affairs and Economics in the UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs and Department of Economics.
A similar bill barring mandatory DEI statements in higher education passed Wisconsin’s Republican-led legislature but got vetoed by the Democratic governor.
The governor told cabinet members and state employees gathered at Governor Nelson State Park on Monday that he was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 — a result of Wisconsin’s former governor and senator Gaylord Nelson’s advocacy.
The program supports students going into teaching by paying the equivalent of in-state tuition and fees, testing and licensing if the student, once graduated, spends four years teaching in a Wisconsin school district. The extension was made possible by $8 million in donations, according to a statement from the school.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s education school is extending its Wisconsin Teacher Pledge for a third time in an aim to address teacher shortages across the state.
Evers sued GOP lawmakers in October over decisions to withhold pay raises for University of Wisconsin System employees and to block conservation projects, arguing such actions made by legislative committees rather than the full Legislature violate the state Constitution’s separation of powers requirements.
“I’m going to be voting for Joe Biden because Donald Trump has proven time and again that he’s not interested in continuing democracy,” said Dylan Goldman, a 19-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who is from Florida. “While I think Joe Biden is too old to be president, I’ve been left with no other choice.”
PJ Liesch, an extension entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, compared it to the recent solar eclipse because “you only have so many opportunities in your life to witness something like it.”
“This year we are talking billions, if not, trillions of cicadas,” Liesch said.
University of Wisconsin schools are facing challenging financial futures without major changes, according to recent campus financial reports.
Several factors have led to campuses’ financial difficulties including declining state support on an inflation-adjusted basis over the last decade, the impacts of the decade-long tuition freeze that ended in 2022, declining enrollment and inflation.
“Available housing is incredibly low,” said Grace Kobe, who co-directs the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Eviction Defense Clinic, which is part of the partnership. “And so much of that housing that is being built is not affordable, and so when folks are facing eviction, or not facing eviction and just trying to find somewhere to go, their options are so incredibly limited here.”
Gov. Tony Evers announced a push Friday calling on the Legislature to approve more funding for the Universities of Wisconsin.
Evers called it the largest increase in state support for the university system in more than two decades.
In 1951, Velvalea Phillips became the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School and in 1956, she became the first woman and first Black member of the Milwaukee Common Council.
Gov. Tony Evers is calling on the GOP-led Legislature to increase funding for the Universities of Wisconsin after the system’s leaders released a slate of third-party financial audits that showed half of its schools are in financial trouble.
Last Friday, the Wisconsin Bar and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty reached a partial settlement. Under the terms, beginning this September, the program will be open to all first-year law students attending either Marquette University Law School or the University of Wisconsin Law School who are in good standing. Specifically, the bar is prevented from stating, suggesting or insinuating “in its materials that only law students from diverse backgrounds, with backgrounds that have been historically excluded from the legal field, or who have been socially disadvantaged are eligible”.
New programs are working to fill the gaps. A new University of Wisconsin-Madison Special Education Teacher Residency Program covers the cost of an in-state resident’s master’s degree in special education and provides a stipend for students who agree to work at Milwaukee Public Schools. And the new Wisconsin Special Educators Induction Program provides coaching and training for new special education teachers.
Biden will make the announcement on Monday in Madison, the state’s liberal capital and home of the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus. The president is scheduled to speak at a nearby technical college.
It’s no coincidence Biden chose Madison to deliver his remarks on student loan debt relief. Not only is it the county seat of Dane County, one of the bluest enclaves of the state, it is also the state capital and home of the University of Wisconsin with its student body population of 50,600 students.
“This is a big, f**king deal,” declared US Representative Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, after his state voted Tuesday. Pocan was responding to the news that more than 30 percent of voters in precincts where University of Wisconsin–Madison students reside had answered the call of the “Listen to Wisconsin” coalition of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian activists to “[take] urgent action—with our ‘uninstructed’ votes this April—to shift American policy toward an agenda of justice in Gaza.”
On its website, the bar association says the program is for University of Wisconsin and Marquette University law school students “with backgrounds that have been historically excluded from the legal field.” But the lawsuit alleged that is a new focus and that the program has historically been touted as a way to increase racial diversity among attorneys at law firms, private companies and in government.
Biden was making the announcement Monday in Madison, the state’s liberal capital and home of the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus.
