Local governments and state agencies would be prohibited from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to anybody on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin under a proposed constitutional amendment Republicans began circulating last week.
Lawmakers will bring forward a bill to fund the construction of UW-Madison’s new engineering building, among other projects, that was one of the most significant aspects of the deal struck last month between the Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman and Assembly Speaker Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester.
Gov. Tony Evers criticized Republican-led attempts to weaken DEI programs and applauded a recent court ruling ordering new legislative maps in Wisconsin.
A bill from Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature would require University of Wisconsin schools to provide out-of-state students with information on how to vote absentee in their home states.
We assess several bills working through the Wisconsin legislature that would seek to reform predatory — yet legal — payday loan operations, including one that could cap interest rates, and another that would expand the definition of a “payday loan.” Interview with Sarah Orr, clinical professor and director of the Consumer Law Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Covering Wisconsin, a program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, helps people sign up for and understand their health insurance.
The program’s GetCovered Connector Tool can connect you with a local health insurance expert via Zoom, phone, or in person. The experts can provide advice on applications, appeals, coverage issues and more.
The lawsuit, brought by Julie Underwood, former University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education dean, and other Wisconsin residents is funded by the liberal Minocqua Brewing Super PAC. Underwood has donated thousands to Evers’ campaigns for governor and campaigns for state superintendent.
Gov. Tony Evers said threats from Republican legislators are “not going to scare me out of” employing diversity, equity and inclusion programs in state government.
The use of programs to foster inclusion and support for marginalized communities at the Universities of Wisconsin and other state agencies have come under fire from conservatives in recent months.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said he has no plans to change state government’s use of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, positions, despite increased criticism of the practice from Republican lawmakers.
The Wisconsin GOP forced the state to slash DEI programs in order to receive critical funding for the University of Wisconsin system, and the GOP-led state Assembly passed a bill that bans financial aid based on race and other forms of diversity. The right’s racist crusade against campus inclusivity is showing no sign of slowing down.
The Universities of Wisconsin would be required to provide all first-year students with information on how to vote absentee in their home states under a bill introduced by GOP lawmakers.
In an opinion column in the Wisconsin State Journal, two University of Wisconsin-Madison professors wrote that the additional births caused harm to Wisconsin communities.
“Dobbs is just the latest abortion restriction to harm Wisconsinites, especially low-income Wisconsinites,” wrote Tiffany Green, associate professor of population health sciences and obstetrics, and gynecology, and Jenny Higgins, director of the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity. “In our role as scientists and public health professionals, we conclude that the evidence is clear: Restrictions and policies in our state that make abortion inaccessible and unaffordable harm the health and well-being of Wisconsin families
Quoted: “There can be some ability to trace that, because each company would be producing, potentially, different types of PFAS that could be linked back to them,” said Steph Tai, a law professor and associate dean of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an expert on environmental law.
A long-running standoff over diversity, equity and inclusion in state government, notably on Universities of Wisconsin campuses, boiled over in 2023, as Republican legislators aimed to cut UW budgets before a deal was ultimately reached.
Herb Kohl, the former U.S. senator, Milwaukee Bucks owner and retail shopping magnate, died Wednesday afternoon at the age of 88 after a brief illness.
Kohl’s death was announced by the Herb Kohl Foundation.
Republican lawmakers and UW System President Jay Rothman reached an agreement earlier this month to restructure diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) positions in exchange for pay raises and building projects.
“In some sense we’re seeing a continuation of this tendency that we see at the national level, that whatever slow down there is coming, it keeps on getting pushed further and further into the future,” University of Wisconsin-Madison economics professor Menzie Chinn said.
In the same interview, Vos also said he would continue challenging programs aimed at increasing diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, in the state.
That comes after he secured a victory on that issue by exchanging pay raises for UW employees and funding for certain university projects — notably, a new engineering building at UW-Madison — for a reduction in DEI-related staff positions in the UW system.
About 35,000 UW employees will receive 4% wage increase, back pay from July by Jan. 11.
Each side of the agreement still has to take steps to fulfill various promises they made to each other, a process that is expected to take years and that could face new barriers.
Wisconsin State Superintendent Jill Underly said Wednesday she would have voted against the deal the Universites of Wisconsin struck with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Wednesday he wants a comprehensive audit of diversity programs in Wisconsin state government, the latest signal from Republicans that debates about equity and inclusion initiatives will extend into the state’s next budget cycle.
The Republican lawmaker who forced the Universities of Wisconsin to commit to reducing diversity positions called Tuesday for an in-depth review of diversity initiatives across state government and repeated his claim that he has only begun to dismantle equity and inclusion efforts in the state.
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 alleges 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.
Kenneth Streit, a clinical professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin Law School who has been involved with Wisconsin’s corrections programs for more than 40 years, said it would be extremely unlikely for the state to close one of its prisons without first addressing violent crimes.
“Closing prisons without first reducing gun-related homicide and injury will never happen in Wisconsin,” Streit said, noting that New York was able to release thousands of older incarcerated men when it eliminated its 1970s-era drug sentencing laws.
ARepublican-controlled legislative committee approved 6% pay raises for about 35,000 Universities of Wisconsin workers Tuesday after the UW system agreed last week to repurpose some diversity positions as part of a broader deal with lawmakers to unlock nearly $800 million in state aid.
State lawmakers officially approved raises Tuesday for 35,000 employees of the Universities of Wisconsin after a deal brokered and approved last week with a top Republican legislator.
The Republican lawmaker who forced the Universities of Wisconsin to commit to reducing diversity positions called Tuesday for an in-depth review of diversity initiatives across state government and repeated his claim that he has only begun to dismantle equity and inclusion efforts in the state.
The school is also launching a five-year pilot program to cover in-state tuition and fees for students pursuing a law or medical degree who are from tribes in the state, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced Monday.
Dubbed the Wisconsin Tribal Educational Promise, the program launches next fall. Unlike the university’s other tuition promise program, this one isn’t based on financial need. All enrolled members of Wisconsin tribes qualify.
Starting next fall, UW-Madison will meet the full financial need — including tuition and fees, as well as housing, meals and books — for in-state undergraduates who are enrolled members of one of 11 federally recognized Wisconsin tribes.
UW-Madison will launch tuition assistance programs next fall for in-state students who are members of one of Wisconsin’s federally recognized tribes, part of the university’s efforts to acknowledge the Indigenous history of the land on which the university was built.
“Frankly, it just felt like the right thing to do,” said Mnookin. “As we look at ways to honor the history of this state and what happened before the state of Wisconsin was the state of Wisconsin, and as we think about trying to help the flourishing of Native students here, it just seems like the right approach.”
“It felt, as we look at ways to honor the history of this state and what happened before the state of Wisconsin was the state of Wisconsin, and as we think about trying to help the flourishing of Native students here, it just seemed like the right approach,” she said at a news conference in Madison.
Any enrolled member of one of the tribes will be eligible for the program and eligibility will not depend on a student’s financial need.
Indigenous students will be able to attend the University of Wisconsin – Madison for free next year.
Indigenous students from any of Wisconsin’s 11 tribes will be able to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison for free beginning next fall, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced Monday.
Beginning in the fall of 2024, the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW-M) will cover the full cost of an undergraduate degree for Wisconsin residents who are members of federally recognized Wisconsin Indian tribes, the University announced on Monday.
Chancellor Mnookin announces undergraduate student program, professional degree pilot-program.
The new program aims to ensure “full access to all that UW-Madison offers,” UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said in a press release. “As a university, we are deeply committed to a future of mutual respect and cooperation with the American Indian tribes in Wisconsin,” Mnookin said.
UW officials unveiled the plan on Monday, explaining it would include tuition and fees, plus housing, meals, books, and other educational expenses, starting next fall. A second initiative, which is being introduced as a five-year pilot program, would pay for tuition and fees for those who go on to seek a J.D. or M.D. degree.
“We’re providing native students a pathway to completing a degree, we hope without taking on debt to cover their educational expenses,” said Mnookin, “thereby bringing a world class education fully within reach for Wisconsin’s native students.”
“Oh it’s a really big deal, we’re all really excited to hear about this,” Senior Cayden Kirkpatrick, President of the American Indian Science Engineering Society (AISES) chapter at UW-Madison, said.
Beginning in the fall of 2024, the University of Wisconsin–Madison will offer financial support to cover the full cost of pursuing an undergraduate degree for Wisconsin residents who are enrolled members of federally recognized Wisconsin Indian tribes, Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin announced Monday.
Starting fall 2024, Wisconsin residents from federally recognized Wisconsin Indian tribes will receive full financial support while they pursue their undergraduate degrees — including tuition, housing, meals and other expenses. This program is accompanied by a five-year pilot program that will cover in-state tuition for law and medical students who are Wisconsin tribe members.
“There’s really nothing like the efforts of the fake electors in 2020,” said UW-Madison Political Science Professor Barry Burden. “That was an orchestrated effort across multiple swing states, including Wisconsin, to present false electors on behalf of the party that had lost in every one of those states.”
A program in Milwaukee County is growing and strengthening the life skills of inmates at the Community Reintegration Center in Milwaukee County.
The Building a Path to Success workshop is hosted by My Way Out, a re-entry organization in Milwaukee. The six-week workshop is a collaboration between My Way Out, University of Wisconsin-Extension and Milky Way Tech Hub.
“If oil prices are going to stay at the levels that they are, then we can continue to see at least not an upward movement in gasoline prices, and that’s gonna allow us to have inflation continue to fall,” said Menzie Chinn, a professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is pledging to cover the full cost of a college degree for students from Wisconsin Indian tribes under a new program announced Monday.
The Legislative Audit Bureau reported that on average less than a third of work stations were in use at the University of Wisconsin system and the offices of 15 state agencies that they visited repeatedly in July and August.
Rich Kremer reports for Wisconsin Public Radio, which is staffed by employees of the University of Wisconsin-Madison: The Universities of Wisconsin will have the opportunity to give pay raises to its 34,000 employees and build a new $347 million engineering building in Madison under a deal approved Wednesday by the Board of Regents. But the universities will also freeze DEI staffing through 2026 and eliminate or refocus about 40 positions focused on diversity.
UW-Madison’s chief diversity officer on Thursday tried to allay concerns that the Universities of Wisconsin is stepping back its support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, despite UW system President Jay Rothman and legislative Republicans brokering a deal that authorizes about $800 million for the UW system in exchange for DEI changes.
Backed into a corner on a deal seen as selling out students of color in exchange for state money, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents talked around the problem this week.
The UW System’s Board of Regents approved the controversial deal yesterday, in what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports was the board’s fifth meeting in seven days.
Fitzgerald’s remarks misconstrue that process, according to former University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor David Canon, whose research focused in part on election administration.
“He has it exactly backwards,” Canon said. “They don’t vote individually to certify the results in all 50 states.”
After a months-long standoff between the University of Wisconsin system and the Republican-controlled Legislature, the two parties brokered a deal to release $800 million in state funds — for long-delayed UW pay raises and key campus building projects — if the system agreed to realign dozens of diversity, equity, and inclusion positions and support several other Republican-backed priorities.
A Republican-controlled legislative committee is slated to approve 6% pay raises for Universities of Wisconsin workers Tuesday after the UW system agreed this week to repurpose some diversity positions as part of a broader deal with lawmakers to unlock nearly $800 million in state aid.
At a press conference Wednesday, representatives pointed to a memo by legislative attorneys.
In a surprising about-face, the Universities of Wisconsin regents approved a deal Wednesday evening with Republican legislators to limit diversity positions at the system’s two dozen campuses in exchange for money to cover staff raises and construction projects.
The Universities of Wisconsin will have the opportunity to give pay raises to its 34,000 employees and build a new $347 million engineering building in Madison under a deal approved Wednesday by the Board of Regents. But the universities will also freeze DEI staffing through 2026 and eliminate or refocus about 40 positions focused on diversity.
