Alobbyist organization for Madison-area landlords and property owners hoped to stall UW-Madison’s push to build a new residence hall, according to a letter to the UW Board of Regents shown to the Wisconsin State Journal last week.
The middle class is an amorphous concept that neither candidate has really defined. But one thing is clear, said Katherine Cramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison — the days when “middle class” meant “stability” are long gone.
“Now, there’s just so much precarity in terms of people not being sure of whether the jobs that they’re currently in are going to be there in the future,” Cramer said. “They’re not sure of their ability to maintain their standard of living, whether it’s meeting their mortgage payments or rental payments.”
Dr. James Conway, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and medical director of UW Health’s immunization program, said the personal convictions exemption tends to be applied loosely.
“It’s been allowed to be interpreted as, basically, if you don’t want it, you don’t have to get it,” he said.
“This issue, it’s economical, it’s social, it’s animal welfare, it’s emotional,” said David Drake, an urban wildlife expert and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “There’s all sorts of different perspectives on this, and that’s what makes it so difficult.”
The design phase is nearly done. Then, the college will take the plans for the new facility to the UW system Board of Regents and State Building Commission, said UW-Madison College of Engineering Dean Ian Robertson.
The economic relationship between Wisconsin family farms and the rural communities that surround them is changing.
UW-Madison agricultural and applied economics professor Steve Deller said that smaller farms are struggling to generate enough income to support themselves, so families are more often turning to off-farm employment to help pay the bills.
Trade associations for corn, soybean, potato and vegetable growers in Wisconsin were either unavailable or didn’t respond to requests for comment. Russ Groves, chair of the Department of Entomology at UW-Madison, said detections of pesticides are unfortunately a logical outcome in areas where agriculture is more intense on the landscape.
“Those are the tools that we have relied upon so that we don’t have real significant economic losses for a producer or an industry,” Groves said.
Menzie Chinn, a macroeconomist at UW-Madison, said some of the government support to consumers during the pandemic — by both the Trump and Biden administrations — coupled with jammed up supply chains when the American economy reopened helped contribute to inflation.
Earlier this year, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency tightened air quality regulations across the United States.
University of Wisconsin-Madison environmental studies professor Tracey Holloway told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that these regulations are the tightest they’ve ever been. And that means our air is the cleanest it’s ever been.
There’s a lot of public discussion about how much state taxpayer money the University of Wisconsin System should receive.
There’s next to none about how that money is divvied up between the universities.
One of the Dairyland’s key industries has a shortage of people — and UW-Madison is stepping in to help.
The Princeton Gerrymandering Project described the Wisconsin district lines as “some of the most extreme partisan gerrymanders in the United States.”
How extreme? In 2012, while 48.6% of voters backed Republican candidates for the Wisconsin Assembly, Republicans “won” 60 of 99 seats. There was “no question — none — that the recent redistricting effort distorted the vote,” explained University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Kenneth Mayer.
At the Coachman’s Inn just north of Edgerton, Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman stood in a private dining room to make his case for why public financial support for the UW system must rise beyond its current ranking of 43rd among the 50 states.
Chuck Nicholson, ag economist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the strong survey response could signal a change for the industry, even if the state is likely to continue seeing farms exit the dairy industry.
The University of Wisconsin (UW) system has instituted two new admissions programs meant to make this process easier and encourage more Wisconsin students to attend their institutions: The Wisconsin Guarantee and Direct Admit Wisconsin.
College students can play a pivotal role in a swing state like Wisconsin, where elections are often won by razor-thin margins.
Voting rules can be confusing to navigate — and even more so for college students, most of whom live at a new address each school year. Here’s a guide on what to know, where to register and how to vote:
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos promoted contraceptive access and highlighted Republican Party goals in Wisconsin during a College Republicans of University of Wisconsin-Madison event.
During an interview with WPR, UW-Madison Professor of Sociology Emerita Myra Marx Ferree said when Roe fell, “it was like this bucket of cold water poured on the public consciousness” and Americans began seeing the abortion issue as far deeper than simply having a choice.
“It’s fundamental, it’s freedom, it’s rights. It’s respect for you as a human being. It’s justice,” said Marx Ferree. “Freedom is not about buying coats or shoes or taking a vacation or not taking a vacation. Freedom is about determining the course of your life.”
“If you declared an intent to become a citizen, that was sufficient for you to vote,” explained Bree Grossi Wilde, executive director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which has researched referendum questions this year.
The percentage of Black, Latino and Indigenous students in UW-Madison’s Class of 2028 has dropped, despite a record number of applications, following last year’s Supreme Court ruling that barred consideration of race in college applications.
Gov. Tony Evers spoke with UW-Madison students and responded to a new neutral-viewpoint policy for leadership across all Universities of Wisconsin schools after the spring 2024 campus protests.
Four University of Wisconsin System branch campuses increased enrollment since last fall, while five saw student headcount decline, according to preliminary estimates released after an outcry from media organizations and a government transparency advocate.
6. University of Wisconsin-Madison
The Universities of Wisconsin employed about 6,000 more employees during the 2022-23 academic year than in the 1992-93 school year, despite serving a similar number of students, according to a recent analysis by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, a nonpartisan arm of the Legislature.
Gov. Tony Evers is making the rounds to pitch his funding proposal that could help keep some schools afloat amid budget struggles as he announced his 2025-27 budget will propose a more than $800 million increase for the Universities of Wisconsin.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday defended his promise to ask for at least an $855 million increase in funding for the Universities of Wisconsin during the next budget cycle.
Gov. Evers toured one of the campus dining halls before hosting a roundtable discussion with students to learn more about their concerns and how they thought that extra funding could be spent.
Hilary Shager, author of the report and associate director of the University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty, said not having enough staff was a primary reason for not expanding capacity, mostly among group providers. She said providers pointed to low compensation as one of their top issues.
Preliminary enrollment figures released Monday show eight colleges in the Universities of Wisconsin system have more students this year than last fall.
The town hall meeting featured a panel discussion with two faculty members from the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison who focus on climate change and health care policy, Morgan Edwards and Yang Wang, and Laura Olson, chief business development officer at Eneration, a subsidiary of Gundersen Health System that helps health care companies reduce their energy costs.
Universities of Wisconsin systemwide enrollment is projected to increase by just more than 1,000 this fall overall, an encouraging sign as enrollment has increased for a second year in a row after a decade of declines.
Melissa Kono trains other municipal clerks around the stateas an associate professor with UW-Madison Extension Trempealeau County.
“There are outright threats, right? But there are also comments and things that are said that feel threatening,” she said.
University of Wisconsin leaders must limit their public statements to matters that affect school operations and maintain neutral viewpoints under a new policy that system administrators released Friday.
Universities of Wisconsin leaders must remain neutral in public statements on political and social issues, and they should only make public statements on matters affecting school operations, under a new policy the university system released Friday.
University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni donors are giving $75 million for construction of a long-awaited new engineering building.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison unveiled a $75 million gift Wednesday for a new engineering building that just last year seemed doomed to be delayed.
The Levy surname will grace a second UW-Madison building, as prolific Madison-area philanthropists Marv and Jeff Levy have pledged $75 million in support of the College of Engineering’s new building.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor hosted a media roundtable with student journalists Tuesday. Updates on campus initiatives, financial and housing needs and free expression were prominent in the discussion.
A lot has been on University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin’s plate since the spring.
Between a 12-day pro-Palestine encampment and juggling the university budget process, she’s had to carefully tread an upcoming election with a student body that has divided perspectives. Mnookin and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor sat down with campus media Tuesday to discuss free speech efforts, the affordable housing shortage and protest culture.
Wenzlaff said the Wisconsin Farm Bureau is working with experts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to plan a series of informational meetings in the coming months so farmers better understand their options ahead of a likely vote in December.
Wisconsinites have lower concentrations of “forever chemicals” in their blood than residents of other states, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In 2020, UW-Madison and the Madison Metropolitan School District created a task force to study effective ways to teach literacy. Around that time, test scores showed about 80% of the school district’s students were failing to read proficiently.
Beverly Trezek, a UW-Madison professor who specializes in reading, said university administrators used the research to adjust courses. They added more instruction on topics like spelling and writing, and added opportunities for prospective special education teachers to teach reading in schools, she said.
A scientific survey of nearly 4,000 Wisconsin residents by the UW Survey Center helped identify the top issues heading into the fall election. Throughout the year, we’ve been publishing opinion pieces from faculty at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison, our partner in the Main Street Agenda, exploring the public policy behind those issues.
While Rep. Lisa Subeck, D-Madison, told the Cardinal she acknowledges protest is a tool for change, law and regulations remain an important principle for protesters to follow. “You can certainly exercise your right to free speech and right to assemble without tents in a camp… there is protest and then there’s civil disobedience,” Subeck said. “Actions have consequences, so whatever it is the protest is about when they choose to set up an encampment such as these students did, there are consequences that can come with that.”
Newly released reports for five of Wisconsin’s public universities paint a much better financial picture than the other universities, some of whom have had their financial viability called into question.
The 30-second video premiered during the Badger football team’s season opener Aug. 30 at Camp Randall Stadium. University officials said the UW Marching Band-themed ad will play during sporting events throughout the year.
Wages for the lowest-paid workers in Wisconsin have risen faster than pay for higher earners in recent years, but workers still face challenges.
That’s according to the new “State of Working Wisconsin” report from the High Road Strategy Center, an economic think tank at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The report is released annually around Labor Day to provide insights into how workers are doing in the economy.
For years, national surveys of students and families have shown the cost to attend college heavily influences where high school students choose to enroll. Educators in Wisconsin have taken that seriously.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison launched Bucky’s Tuition Promise in 2018. The program covers a student’s tuition for four years if the family has a household income of $65,000 or less.
Extended periods of supervision after release from prison do little to improve public safety, according to Cecelia Klingele, a University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School professor of criminal law. The long terms “may interfere with the ability of those on supervision to sustain work, family life and other pro-social connections to their communities,” she wrote in a 2019 study examining 200 revocation cases.
“Fewer, more safety-focused conditions will lead to fewer unnecessary revocations and more consistency in revocation for people whose behavior poses a serious threat to public safety,” she added.
The Main Street Agenda is here to help you navigate these times. It is an election-year project designed to provide information and civil conversations about the issues Wisconsin voters care most about. The topics come from a UW Survey Center survey, WisconSays, that asked residents about the top issues they face.
“It’s a small factor compared to not liking the candidates or not caring about the outcome,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Elections Research Center. His university colleagues published a 2017 study on the effect of the law.
UW-Madison labor economist and High Road Strategy Center associate director Laura Dresser discusses the group’s State of Working Wisconsin 2024 report on job numbers, wage growth and gender pay gaps.
Barry C. Burden, a professor of political science and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains what the process of targeted races means.
La Crosse County voted blue in 2020, with about 56% of the vote going to Biden and 42% to Trump. Eau Claire County is the only other county in that part of the state that voted blue in the last election. Both are home to University of Wisconsin campuses.
Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman is defending a leadership decision to lay off tenured faculty as a necessary response to declining enrollment and lagging state aid.
The Universities of Wisconsin last week listed the demolition and replacement of the Humanities Building as one of its top priorities for the next state budget. The UW Board of Regents approved the request. Now Gov. Tony Evers should include it in his budget request to the Legislature next year.
Tuition and student fees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the system’s flagship campus, now total $11,606 a year for in-state undergraduates. The total cost to attend the university for a year is about $30,000 when factoring in room and board, educational supplies and other costs.
With only one dissent, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved a plan Thursday from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that will include the layoff of 35 tenured faculty members.
The board overseeing Wisconsin public universities voted to lay off 32 tenured University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professors, marking the first large-scale application of a Republican policy put in place nearly a decade ago.
WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” checked in with Christy Remucal, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about whether Madisonians should be concerned, and if so, to what degree.
