After not initially recommending it for approval, Gov. Scott Walker today announced that he wants to allow UW-Madison to build a new $53 million School of Nursing Building. Under his proposal, UW-Madison would get $17 million in state-supported borrowing, rather than the $34.8 million the university requested from the state.
The Bradley Center Sports & Entertainment Corp. wanted to borrow $10 million to help maintain and renovate the aging facility.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison wanted to borrow $49.2 million for a new $76.8 million Athletic Department building that would also house parts of the College of Engineering and a sports medicine clinic run by the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.
In his capital budget, Gov. Scott Walker said no to the Bradley Center and yes to the University of Wisconsin. Both are state facilities.
Dear Editor: For many of us the last month has been a surreal roller coaster ride. We?ve seen the highs of being part of historic protests surrounded by so many of Wisconsin?s hard-working citizens, followed by the lows of watching the governor and his followers strip the rights of those same citizens. We are so proud of the public employees of the state of Wisconsin. Many of them have had a significant portion of their income and dignity stripped from them in the past week and yet they responded by turning out in record numbers for a peaceful protest this weekend. We were proud to join them.
WASHINGTON ? Two months ago, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker invited businesses in Illinois to ?escape to Wisconsin? as a result of the recently enacted tax increases in Illinois. Admittedly, I don?t know whether Walker?s offer has been effective. My own experience, though, as a business executive and as a governor, tells me that businesses are interested in a lot more than a low tax rate when they decide where to locate.
University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Ken Ono, a highly regarded mathematician who is on a year?s leave at Emory University in Atlanta, says it is unlikely he will return to Madison because he is ?very worried about Wisconsin?s ability to maintain a national-level university.?
Steve Greve is concerned about the proposal to split the state?s flagship campus from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System.
Across Wisconsin, government and school district employees are weighing whether to continue working or get out of public sector employment in light of a new law limiting collective bargaining and employee benefits.
Limnologist Dick Lathrop might know more about Devil?s Lake than anybody else in the world.For nearly 20 years, Lathrop has headed efforts to improve water quality in Wisconsin?s best-known state park.
One unique project, which involves using a nearly mile-long pipeline to suck weed-boosting phosphorus from the lake bottom, has been followed by water researchers nationwide.
Senate Majority Scott Fitzgerald has told Senate Republicans that any votes taken by Senate Democrats in standing committee public hearings and executive sessions will not be counted or recorded.
“Please note that all 14 Democrat senators are still in contempt of the Senate,” Fitzgerald wrote in an email Monday afternoon that was posted on wispolitics.com. “Therefore, when taking roll call votes on amendments and bills during executive sessions, Senate Democrats? votes will not be reflected in the Records of Committee Proceedings or the Senate Journal.”
The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study has tracked members of the Wisconsin class of 1957 since their graduation to inform researchers and policy makers of the effects of physical and emotional health, as well as life experience, over time.
To date, UW-Milwaukee has been a relatively quiet player in the debate over the future of the UW System. The three loudest voices have been the UW System itself, Gov. Scott Walker and UW-Madison, which the governor?s budget would reestablish as a public authority separate from the system. But Walker also appears to be considering peeling off UWM, and Interim Chancellor Michael Lovell has clearly joined the call to give UWM more autonomy.
Gov. Scott Walker recommended approval of about $300 million in building projects for the University of Wisconsin System, but did not include a highly sought-after School of Nursing building for UW-Madison. He recommended that project, valued at $52.2 million ($34.8 in general fund supported borrowing and $17.4 million in gifts and grants) be deferred to the next biennium.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist.
Gov. Scott Walker is proposing spending $1.1 billion on building projects in Wisconsin over the next two years, nearly 30 percent less than what was spent in the current two-year budget. Projects included for funding include $76 million for the new Badger Performance Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to house a variety of programs.The Badger Performance Center includes a new 132,000-square foot facility to house sports medicine, academic services and strength and conditioning while sharing space with the College of Engineering. It includes remodeling space in the McClain Center, construction of a new tunnel connecting the center to Camp Randall as well as renovations at improvements at the stadium.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said unions and Democrats ?feel as if they are fighting for their lives.?
The UW Board of Regents is offering a new proposal designed to build on Governor Walker?s budget.
Gov. Walker?s two-year budget proposal was the subject of another big protest Monday. Student organizations ? along with pro-labor and faith groups ? gathered at UWM to oppose the governor?s plan to separate the Madison campus from the rest of the UW System.
Gov. Scott Walker is proposing spending $1.1 billion on building projects in Wisconsin over the next two years, nearly 30 percent less than what was spent in the current two-year budget.
Until mid-February, Wisconsin?s brand appeared headed in the right direction. The university football team made it to the Rose Bowl while the pro team, the iconic Green Bay Packers, won the Super Bowl. In January, the University of Wisconsin topped an internet brand equity study.But then the battle began over Governor Scott Walker?s budget bill, which aimed to destroy unions? collective bargaining rights. Democratic state Senators fled the state to prevent a vote on the bill and hundreds of thousands protested at the capitol in Madison over the following three weeks.
Quoted: J. Michael Collins, the faculty director for the UW-Madison Center for Financial Security.
Quoted: Barry Burden, a UW-Madison professor of political science.
The percent of state aid coming to UW-Madison has dropped over the years, but the university is still doing a little better than the average of its peers when it comes to the state dollars spent directly on students, according to data from the Chronicle of Higher Education. In the 2008 fiscal year, UW-Madison got about $8,600 per student, compared with an average of $8,400 at the nation?s major public research universities, the Chronicle reported. The amount of aid per student given to UW-Madison declined by 7 percent in five years.
They thought they were made for each other.
Hearing today?s higher-education leaders opine about the heady days of the 1800s, when the Morrill Land-Grant Acts created many of the nation?s flagship public universities, is a bit like listening to some tired soul recall a once vibrant romance that has slowly soured. While major public research universities and state governments have always had their differences, observers say they?ve never seen the relationship between the two as strained as it is now.
The percent of state aid coming to UW-Madison has dropped over the years, but the university is still doing a little better than the average of its peers when it comes to the state dollars spent directly on students, according to data from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
WASHINGTON ? “We?re broke.” You can practically break a search engine if you start looking around the Internet for those words. They?re used repeatedly with reference to our local, state and federal governments, almost always to make a case for slashing programs ? and lately to go after public employee unions. The phrase is designed to create a sense of crisis that justifies rapid and radical actions before citizens have a chance to debate the consequences. Just one problem: We?re not broke.
Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the Capitol Square on Saturday, vowing to take the fight over collective bargaining powers from the streets of Madison to the voting districts of Wisconsin.
Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Saturday’s rally was planned before the state Senate’s surprise Wednesday vote on the public worker measures.
“So you transform (the rally), you transform it into the kickoff for the electoral battles to come,” he said. “This bill will be law for years and years until there’s a Democratic Assembly, Senate and governor. Until then, Republican control of one of those three things will prevent it from being repealed.
“I think we are in for a long, marathon battle of elections just to see what party has the upper hand in Wisconsin and whether this law represents a permanent change in the balance of power in favor of the Republicans, or whether, as some Democrats fantasize, the start of their recovery.”
Defiant upon their return to the Capitol on Saturday, state Senate Democrats defended their self-imposed exile to Illinois and predicted that political fortunes would soon turn their way.
Opponents of Republican Gov. Scott Walker were back at work Sunday on recall efforts targeting Republican state senators who supported the new governor?s overhaul of public employee union rights.
The protests that rocked Madison over the last month drew union members and students ? but some key figures in the mobilizations were both. Members of the Teaching Assistants? Assn. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison spearheaded the two-week occupation of the Capitol that began Feb. 15 ? two days before Democratic senators fled the state to stall legislation limiting public employees? union rights. The students helped organize food and other supplies for the makeshift overnight campground in the rotunda.
The numbers have mattered. The tens. The hundreds. The thousands. The hundreds of thousands.
Wisconsinites from every background, every religion, every political persuasion and every job have filled the Capitol Square for the past month. Their message has been clear and unequivocal. They oppose Scott Walker?s assault on working families. They oppose the lawless actions of legislative leaders who are more determined to advance the governor?s political agenda than to respect their colleagues or to serve the interests of the whole state.
Twenty rural Wisconsin counties lost population during the last decade ? experiencing more deaths than births ? part of a larger pattern of rural population loss across the Midwest, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison demographer.
….it took about 40 years for Wisconsin college teachers to win the right to try collective bargaining, which they may well lose after two years. Meanwhile, I took my math talent and training to another state and to private industry, where in eight years I managed to more than triple my last, best college salary. What message is Gov. Walker sending to Wisconsin students who aspire to be teachers? Will a career as a perpetual political football appeal to them?
Dear Editor: The otherwise well-informed and thoughtful Ed Garvey was off his game in a recent column when he implied that fearless sifting and winnowing still guides the UW-Madison. I wish he was correct. (“Don?t put UW under rightwing thumb.”)
Ed must not know about the carefully cataloged collection of 628 videotapes comprising nearly two decades of its experiments on monkeys that the university destroyed a few years ago to prevent the public from seeing just one of them. He must not be aware that unlike Scott Walker?s much criticized weeks of delay in responding to public records requests, that the university routinely takes many months to respond when the records have anything to do with its animal experimentation ? and then routinely censors key data.
Interim Chancellor Mike Lovell was called upon to take a stance against Gov. Scott Walker?s budget proposals Wednesday afternoon at the all-campus budget forum where campus officials fielded questions and concerns from upset faculty, students, graduate assistants, and community members.
The Department of Regulation and Licensing is investigating 11 doctors who witnesses say gave out medical excuse notes to protesters at the Capitol, according to a statement by Secretary Dave Ross.
The Governor is rescinding layoff notices for state workers. The order was sent to the Department of Administration and Office of State Employment Relations, following Thursday?s passage of the budget repair bill by the Legislature.
Frayed tempers. Strained relationships. And the end of an era in Wisconsin public policy.
That?s a fair description of the struggle between Gov. Scott Walker and Wisconsin?s public employee unions, but it also describes what?s happening these days in the emerging fight over whether the University of Wisconsin-Madison should be granted the freedom to run its own affairs.
The Wisconsin chapter of the American Federation of Teachers will proceed with planned union elections on four University of Wisconsin campuses, despite the state?s adoption of a law this week denying collective-bargaining rights to the university system?s faculty and academic staff members and curtailing the bargaining rights and benefits of many other public employees.
In response to the governor?s proposal to break the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus from the rest of the System campuses, the Board of Regents unveiled a plan to seek similar flexibilities for all UW institutions at a meeting Thursday.
In a move that shocked opponents and threw the Capitol into chaos, Senate Republicans pushed through a stripped-down version of the governor?s contentious budget repair bill Wednesday in an 18-1 vote.
“The rich have gotten much richer,” bellowed Jesse Jackson Jr. amid the rumble of cheering voices, horns and maracas. “Yeah!” roared back the crowd of at least 10,000 protesters who had gathered in Madison, Wis., Thursday morning.
St. Paul, Minn. ? Jason Lund worked for years at breakfast joint in Dinkytown before finally finding a career he loved: teaching.
For public workers in Wisconsin, there?s more bad news. Having lost the battle on collective bargaining, they may soon be asked to make more financial sacrifices.
Gov. Scott Walker signed his controversial budget repair bill into law early Friday, bringing to an end the month-long battle over collective bargaining that captured the nation?s attention and brought state government to a grinding halt. Walker signed the bill privately at about 9:30 a.m. His office has announced a 3 p.m. ceremonial bill signing, which will be open to the news media.
Reason has taken a holiday in Wisconsin politics. Civility along with it.In their place is a nastiness rarely seen in a state that long has believed in good government as a guiding principle.Republicans got what they wanted Thursday: a flawed and divisive bill that strips public employees of most of their ability to bargain collectively. Gov. Scott Walker?s party may now reap the whirlwind.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin defended the governor?s proposal to split the state?s flagship campus from the rest of the UW System during a tense Board of Regents meeting Thursday.
But ultimately, the regents voted, 16-1, to seek an amendment to Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed 2011-?13 budget to give all UW institutions the same management flexibilities proposed for UW-Madison, and to do it within the current regents governance structure, so they can better deal with budget cuts.
Gov. Scott Walker signed the bill Friday that repeals most collective bargaining by public employee unions. He signed the bill in the morning and will hold a ceremony and press conference later in the day to tout the signing.
Dear Editor: As a registered nurse working at UW Hospital and Clinics, I have a question for Gov. Scott Walker: Why are my job and union targeted in the budget repair bill since zero taxpayer dollars go toward my wages? As you were told in a letter from the CEO of UWHC, ?Eliminating collective bargaining for UWHCA has no fiscal effect to the state since we receive no General Purpose Revenue.?
Tears flowed freely from the eyes of several protesters while others had a look of stony resolve when it became clear that the state Assembly had, as expected, voted Thursday to approve a bill that sharply curtails collective bargaining rights for most public employees.
….Katie Hoverson, a nurse from Evansville who works at UW Hospital, arrived in her scrubs Thursday afternoon just after the bill passed. She says she was “angry” but committed to staying engaged and fighting against similar attempts to strip working people of their rights.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin political science professor Charles Franklin.
March 16 is the 260th anniversary of James Madison?s birth, and to mark it the American Society of News Editors and other groups, including the Society of Professional Journalists, celebrate Sunshine Week. Sunshine Week promotes the importance of freedom of information and open government at all levels. A proposed proclamation submitted to the governor reads in part, ?an open and accessible government is vital to establishing and maintaining the people?s trust and confidence in their government and in the government?s ability to effectively serve its citizens.? The proclamation further calls for all state deliberative bodies and their committees to be open to the public. This is especially important now as the governor is creating the new public-private Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to replace the Department of Commerce, splitting UW-Madison from the University of Wisconsin System and backing a statewide board to grant school charters.
Layoff notices to 1,500 state employees have been rescinded by Gov. Scott Walker because of the passage of his budget bill on Thursday. Walker also announced on Friday morning that he will sign the budget bill sometime on Friday, with the signing open to the media.
“The time and details of the bill signing are still to be announced,” said Wisconsin State Journal reporter Mary Spicuzza, after talking with Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie.
The University of Wisconsin System is floating a proposed amendment to Gov. Scott Walker?s budget that would keep UW-Madison in the System and give all 26 campuses flexibility on tuition, purchasing and human resources. Calling it the Wisconsin Idea Partnership, it?s a counter-proposal to the language in Walker?s budget that makes UW-Madison a public authority and splits it from the System. At a UW Board of Regents meeting Thursday, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin urged the Regents to not stand in UW-Madison?s way, saying there?s been “a certain amount of smug snottiness about Madison.”
Richelle Winkler, the associate director of the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican allies may have imagined that the insufficient debates, inappropriate votes, flagrant violations of open meeting laws, threats and general legislative lawlessness used to pass his plan to strip public workers and teachers of their collective bargaining rights would finally silence the opposition. But when the state Assembly finally voted Thursday to approve a version of Walker?s draconian proposal, following Wednesday night?s surprise state Senate vote, the people who have for four weeks campaigned to ?kill the bill? kept on coming — hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of Wisconsinites, rallying, marching, banging on the doors of the state Capitol in Madison and chanting: ?Let us in! Let us in!?
The Wisconsin Capitol was eerily quiet Thursday night following three weeks of protests against anti-union legislation that drew tens of thousands of demonstrators to Madison. While people had been sleeping in the building for weeks, all eventually left after the Assembly voted to approve a bill eliminating public employee?s collective bargaining rights. Danny Spitzberg, 26, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said officers gave protesters vague explanations for why they had to leave.
The University of Wisconsin System is floating a proposed amendment to Gov. Scott Walker?s budget that would keep UW-Madison in the System and give all 26 campuses flexibility on tuition, purchasing and human resources.
MADISON (WKOW) — After hours of debate, the state Assembly has passed a bill ending most collective bargaining rights for most public employees.
Quoted: “Once you fundamentally threaten the existence of unions, key support for the Democratic Party, there’s no way to settle this except in future elections,” said University of Wisconsin political science professor Charles Franklin.
Quoted: That could be a tough needle for Walker to continue to thread. As Dennis Dresang, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison put it to The Lookout: “They?re contradicting themselves on that one, that?s for sure.”
