The Universities of Wisconsin will receive around $32 million in funding withheld for months by Republican lawmakers amid ongoing efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs on campuses.
The State Building Commission signed off on plans to build a new football practice facility on the site of the Camp Randall Sports Center and McClain Center, and that project also includes money for the Kohl Center rink project that was estimated to cost about $2.5 million.
’If we don’t get trained now, Wisconsin will be left with generations of doctors who do not know how to provide adequate abortion care,’ UW medical student says.
Leopold, born in Iowa in 1887, received a forestry degree from Yale and began his professional career in 1909 with the U.S. Forest Service. In 1924 he became associate director of the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison and in 1933 the University of Wisconsin created a chair of game management for him. Leopold died in 1948 fighting a grass fire on a neighbor’s farm. The property is now part of the Aldo Leopold Foundation near Baraboo.
Epic attracts thousands of new employees to the company and area each year, regularly pulling in top tech talent, including the likes of Amazon and Google. The company also has a symbiotic relationship with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with Epic consistently being a “top employer” of UW grads.
Assembly Republicans also made good on the final part of a deal struck in December with the Universities of Wisconsin that released pre-approved funding for employee pay raises and building projects in exchange for new limits on campus diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, known as DEI.
Until this week, Imani Lewis, a junior at J.I. Case High School in Racine, hadn’t put a ton of thought into which college she’ll attend.
Lewis wants to go into biomedicine. She was thinking about attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, but planned to look at other schools.
Then she learned about the law Gov. Tony Evers signed into legislation on Tuesday, allowing high schoolers to gain direct admission into UW-Madison if they are in the top 5 percent of their graduating class.
Now, she said, Madison has jumped to the top of her list.
Miriam Seifter, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Law, said similar cases have been brought before state supreme courts across the country since the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections in their 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“At least a dozen state high courts have expressly held that these types of provisions protect abortion, at least to some extent,” Seifter said. “There are a number of others that have reached those types of rulings at the lower court level, but haven’t fully resolved them in the high courts yet.”
As political battles churn over funding for diversity, equity and inclusion at the Universities of Wisconsin, changing demographics influence how K-12 educators prepare new generations of college students.
A study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty found the most commonly reported use of Program A funding among providers participating in the study is for physical operating expenses, such as rent and utilities. This was followed by materials and supplies for enhancing the program and then payroll and benefits.
Lawmakers approved spending millions of dollars for a new engineering building at UW-Madison, part of a funding package sent to Gov. Tony Evers that project advocates cheered as a “long time coming.”
The Legislature on Thursday approved about $740 million in capital investments across the Universities of Wisconsin, including a new engineering building at UW-Madison that rallied massive industry support.
With a pro-boating industry bill apparently dead in the Legislature and after a more lake-protective proposal failed to muster support among the Republican caucus, the prospect is dim for any new, statewide wake surfing law to take effect this year in Wisconsin.
But a measure to bolster the science of the impacts of wake-enhanced boating could garner more favor. A proposal announced Tuesday by Republicans would task the University of Wisconsin System with conducting a study on the effects of wake boating.
If you’re a Wisconsin high school student ranked in the top 5% of your class, you’re now guaranteed a seat at the University of Wisconsin-Madison if you want it.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed the Republican-authored bill into law Tuesday. It was part of a broader deal the UW System struck with the GOP-controlled Legislature about diversity programming, pay raises and building projects.
Earlier in the day, Republican senators voted down three of Evers’ appointments to the board overseeing UW Health operations over questions from conservative lawmakers over the hospital’s abortion policy.
Senate Republicans rejected four of Gov. Tony Evers’ appointments to the UW Hospital Board and state natural resources board Tuesday, leading the Democratic governor to promptly appoint four replacements.
The Senate also rejected the appointment of former Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton and former state Rep. Sondy Pope, both Democrats, and Candice Owley to the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics Authority Board. Democrats assailed the votes as unwarranted partisan attacks.
The new law is one of several required under a deal brokered between legislative Republicans and UW system President Jay Rothman that authorizes about $800 million for the UW system in exchange for the reclassification of several diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, positions.
Under the bill, seniors who place in the top 10% of their high school’s graduating class could gain admission to the UW system school of their choice, except for UW-Madison, where those in the top 5% would be guaranteed admission.
Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday signed into law a bipartisan measure that requires the University of Wisconsin-Madison to admit all high school students who finish in the top 5% of their class.
The UniverCity Alliance program announced new partnerships with six different local governments across Wisconsin Feb. 19, according to a press release.
The law is part of a deal negotiated in December between the Republican-controlled Legislature and UW System leaders to provide funding for university employee pay raises and building projects in exchange for a hiring cap and restructuring of university diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
A pair of notable anniversaries in environmental circles are occurring this year, both owing to Aldo Leopold, hailed as the father of modern conservation and wildlife ecology who carried out much of his groundbreaking work while living in Wisconsin, where his legacy endures.
“There has not been a line in terms of what modifications are okay,” said Dietram Scheufele, who studies misinformation and social media at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Public opinion about what’s acceptable in altering content has changed, such as editing photos of ourselves on Instagram or LinkedIn, he said.
“If some deepfake comes out of Biden falling down repeatedly right before the election in key states, and it all turns out to be fake five days later, that’s completely irrelevant,” Scheufele said. “We don’t have video-assisted review like we have in in football, which means the game will have ended and the result will stand.”
Michigan and Minnesota — two Midwestern states where Democrats took control in 2022 for the first time in many years — could serve as examples of what Wisconsin Democrats would do with a legislative majority, said Barry Burden, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center.
Democrats in those states have “eagerly legislated in new directions on issues such as criminal justice and environmental protection,” Burden said. Given the chance, Wisconsin Democrats would likely pursue a variety of policy changes unavailable to them under GOP control, he said.
Dr. Samantha Pabich, a UW Health endocrinologist who treats many patients with obesity, said the newer drugs can help obese people lose a higher percentage of their body weight than older drugs. That can help control diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, pain and other conditions, and prevent the need for treatments such as home oxygen therapy and liver transplants, she said.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, would include the University of Wisconsin System in another strike at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in state offices.
Lawmakers are pushing Wisconsin agencies to consider how they use artificial intelligence tools to make their work more efficient, an effort state workers and their allies fear could be used to ultimately slim the number of human workers employed by the state.
A constitutional amendment supported by Republicans that attempts to limit diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in Wisconsin won approval Thursday in the state Assembly.
The chamber also advanced a Republican-authored constitutional amendment that would bar local governments and state agencies from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to anybody on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.
The proposed constitutional amendment before the Assembly on Thursday is the latest step in Wisconsin Republicans’ fight against government-run diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Republican lawmakers last year struck a deal requiring the Universities of Wisconsin to restructure their DEI programs, and GOP legislative leaders have said they plan to scrutinize similar programs in state agencies.
The proposal up for a vote Thursday would prohibit state and local governments, including the Universities of Wisconsin and local school districts, from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to anybody on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. It requires hiring decisions to be based on “merit, fairness and equality,” a term conservatives have used as a counter to DEI.
University of Wisconsin-Madison staff and graduate workers delivered to the chancellor’s office Wednesday a petition that garnered support from about 700 signees, all of whom demand administrators implement a paid family leave policy for its employees.
Steve Vavrus, a senior scientist at UW-Madison and the state’s climatologist, said the weather is already causing economic impact, especially on the tourism industry in northern Wisconsin.
“They depend on snow and ice for skiing and skating and ice fishing and so forth,” Vavrus said. “There’s been closed snowmobile trails. There’s been winter festivals that have been canceled, unsafe ice conditions for fishing and so on.”
Wisconsin’s medical malpractice laws include: $250,000 cap in malpractice lawsuits involving doctors employed by the state, a category that includes the more than 1,670 faculty physicians employed by UW–Madison. The cap applies even if a doctor’s negligence results in a lifetime injury that will require millions of dollars of future treatment.
In Madison highly-regarded ice records have been kept on the city’s local lakes since the middle 19th century. The work is now conducted by the Wisconsin State Climatology Office at the University of Wisconsin’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
Slightly more Wisconsin farmers reported taking steps to protect soil and water quality in 2022. They planted nearly 754,000 acres of cover crops — plants that protect the soil and keep it in place during the offseason — about a 23% increase from 2017. The number of acres that were not tilled also increased, from about 2.2 million in 2017 to about 2.4 million in 2022. No-till practices reduce soil disturbance.
Those acres are still just a small portion of Wisconsin’s total farmed acres. “I would have hoped to see that pick up a bit faster,” said Erin Silva, a professor of organic and sustainable agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The University of Wisconsin at Madison will likely be required to admit all in-state students who graduate in the top 5 percent of their high school class under a bill approved by the state Legislature Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.
Other members of Wisconsin’s tech hub consortium include businesses (GE HealthCare, Accuray, Exact Sciences, Plexus and Rockwell Automation), colleges and universities (Madison Area Technical College, Milwaukee Area Technical College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and the Universities of Wisconsin), economic development agencies (Milwaukee7, Madison Region Economic Partnership and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation) and workforce training organizations (Employ Milwaukee and WRTP | BIG STEP).
Exact details on which universities will have housing accommodations and the available rooms are still in the works. A UW-Madison spokesperson declined to identify to The Daily Cardinal which dorm or dorms may house law enforcement.
State universities would be required to admit the top academic performers from Wisconsin high schools under a Republican measure passed by state lawmakers Tuesday.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison would be required to admit all high school students who finish in the top 5% of their class, and other campuses would have to admit those in the top 10%, under a bill passed Tuesday by the state Senate that’s part of a deal reached between the Legislature and university
Written by Sarah Halpern-Meekin, a Professor of Public Affairs with the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the Vaughn Bascom Professor of Women, Family, and Community in the School of Human Ecology.
In fact, my great-grandfather’s tenacity for Wisconsin’s youth inspired his daughter, my grandmother, to help set up a research center and scholarship program at UW-Madison to focus on neuroscientific research regarding child development and well-being. The center, named after my great-grandfather Willis Jones, recognizes that “adolescence is a period when the brain is more sensitive” and prepares young people in leadership, including in conflict resolution.
State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, and state Rep. Deb Andraca, D-Whitefish Bay, were approached by a group of University of Wisconsin-Madison professors and asked to strengthen campus firearm laws.
Jack O’Meara represents the Public Representation Organization of the Faculty Senate, or PROFS, a nonprofit advocacy organization of UW-Madison faculty. He said there was increased concern after the Feb. 13, 2023, mass shooting at Michigan State University. In that incident, three students were killed and five others were injured when a gunman entered a building on the East Lansing campus.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talked to Marquette University research fellow John Johnson and University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden about what common redistricting concepts mean and how they apply to the case.
“Wards are usually viewed as the building blocks of districts, so that gets done first,” Burden said. Because there are only 72 counties, “some of them are going to have to be sliced in order to make districts. Especially the more populous ones, like Dane, Milwaukee and Brown are going to have multiple districts in them.”
The Universities of Wisconsin hopes a new one-stop shop for online degree programs across its 13 universities will boost enrollment and graduation rates, especially for adult learners and traditional-age students looking for virtual options.
“I do not think this is about fairness – premiums are set based on accident rates and risks associated with different demographic groups and would be higher if the groups are involved in higher rates of accidents or other damages,” said Nancy Wong, Kohl’s Chair in Retail Innovation, Professor of Consumer Science, Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Explore how Wisconsin’s Ho-Chunk people fought back against devastating attacks on their land and culture. Interview with Stephen Kantrowitz, professor of history at UW-Madison.
The UW Board of Regents is planning to eliminate application fees at most Universities of Wisconsin schools, a proposal that is set to go before the board later this week.
The journalism fellowship program would be administered by the University of Wisconsin System. Under the program, a panel of UW journalism professors and industry experts would choose 25 fellows to match to participating newsrooms for a one-year fellowship.
Participants, who would be required to hold a two- or four-year degree in journalism, media, communications or a similar program, would receive a $40,000 salary.
Wisconsin colleges and universities will play a key part of the housing puzzle this summer when the city hosts thousands of visitors for the Republican National Convention.
Vos said in October the raises would not be approved until the UW System made concessions on it’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to The Badger Herald. The Board of Regents voted to accept a deal in December exchanging pay raises and other funding for the “reimagining” of certain DEI positions, according to The Badger Herald’s previous coverage of the deal.
A lawsuit filed by Gov. Tony Evers against Republican lawmakers who blocked pay raises for university employees and funding for conservation projects has been accepted by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Gov. Tony Evers signed two bills, now 2023 Wisconsin Act 92 and 2023 Wisconsin Act 93, on Friday that will release long-awaited pay raises to employees of the University of Wisconsin System.
Low-wage workers have found it especially hard to afford higher housing costs, even before a spike in prices in 2022, explained Laura Dresser, associate director of the High Road Strategy Center (formerly COWS, a left-leaning think tank) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dresser’s research has found that increasing the minimum wage to $15 over the next five years would increase wages for one in seven workers in Wisconsin. That includes one of every four Black and Hispanic workers.
The bill also has backing from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where around 365 students are currently enrolled in video game development programs. While 60% of that university’s graduates stay in Wisconsin, less than 20% of the video game program graduates stay, according to testimony from professor Andrew Williams, who has taught game design classes at UW-Stout and worked as an art director in the video game industry.
One of the legislative vetoes blocked conservation projects selected by the Department of Natural Resources. Evers also challenged a veto that blocked already approved pay raises for 35,000 University of Wisconsin system employees, but after he filed the lawsuit, Republicans and the university system reached an agreement approving raises if the school cuts back on diversity initiatives.
Wisconsin state agencies — including the Universities of Wisconsin — would be barred from doing business with certain government-run companies under a GOP bill circulating in the Capitol.
Rep. David Murphy, one of the resolution’s authors, wrote in a statement submitted for a public hearing on Tuesday that the amendment would restore “merit, fairness, and equality not only to hiring by the University of Wisconsin system, but to hiring by all governmental entities statewide.”
