It will cost up to $81.4 million to upgrade UW System’s aging payroll and benefits software system under a new estimate by System officials, an effort that has been marred in the past by cost overruns and failure.
UW System President Kevin Reilly will ask the Board of Regents next week to approve a multi-year plan to implement the project, which he said would allow the System to update a computer program that was first installed in 1975 and is at risk of breaking down.
Wisconsin job seekers are used to seeing the statement that employers cannot discriminate on the basis of age, race, sex, creed, disability, marital status, ancestry, sexual orientation, arrest record or military service, among other things, but under a bill authored by state Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, credit history would be added to the list.
The Badger Connection
….Employers looking to fill mid-career, executive-level and specialized positions have a new tool that can help connect them to University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni who meet their qualifications.
The Badger Career Network Job Alerts is a service for employers to advertise jobs via e-mail alerts to UW alumni who have signed up for the recently revamped Badger Career Network program through the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
To product designer Michael Hartzell, one of the most difficult things is telling people heâ??s jobless. Itâ??s especially true in Madison, a city long viewed as recession-proof.
“Being laid off has a real stigma attached to it,” he says. “I havenâ??t even posted it on my Facebook page yet.”
Hartzell, 40, and a father of one, lost his position recently at Pacific Cycle during a companywide reorganization. Although he knew the end was coming, it didnâ??t make it any easier. Heâ??s since found a bit of consulting work, but few firms are hiring, and competition for any full-time openings is intense.
….As the nation readies to mark Labor Day 2009, Hartzell can take some comfort knowing heâ??s not alone. Some 273,000 Wisconsin residents, or 8.7 percent, are unemployed, according to the latest figures from the Department of Workforce Development.
Quoted: Laura Dresser, associate director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS)
The University of Wisconsin-Madison was one of 23 Wisconsin colleges named to the first-ever list of military-friendly schools created by G.I. Jobs, a veterans magazine.
The 2010 list recognizes the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools that provide recruitment, retention and other services for veterans.
“This list is especially important now because the recently enacted post-9/11 GI Bill has given veterans virtually unlimited financial means to go to school,” G.I. Jobs publisher Rich McCormack said in a statement.
State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen should defend the stateâ??s new domestic partner law. The law confers to gay couples who register some 40 of the more than 150 benefits available to married couples.
The attorney general argues that he is not bound to defend an unconstitutional law. He sees the law at odds with a Wisconsin constitutional amendment in 2006 that banned gay marriage or a “legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals.” This is also the basis of a lawsuit against the domestic registry law, which was approved by the Legislature as part of the recent state budget. The state Supreme Court is deciding whether to hear the case.
In other words, Van Hollen is taking a side.
Want to ride out the recession? Think long-term.
That was Michael Kaiserâ??s advice to Wisconsin arts companies big and small Monday in the Capitol Theater in the Overture Center. Kaiser, head of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., is 21 cities into his cross-country “Arts in Crisis” tour. Heâ??ll eventually visit at least 65 cities.
(Also participating in the conversation: Andrew Taylor, head of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at UW-Madison)
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.
Wisconsin’s attorney general said Friday he will not defend a new law that grants same-sex couples spousal benefits such as hospital visitation and inheritance, saying lawmakers went against voters’ decision not to extend such privileges.
“When the people have spoken by amending our Constitution, I will abide by their command,” said Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who believes the law is unconstitutional. “When policy makers have ignored their words, I will not.”
Weeks after Gov. Jim Doyle won re-election, two top state air regulators discussed how to give “payback” to environmentalists who supported him during the 2006 campaign, according to notes of the conversation.
Department of Natural Resources Air and Waste Division Administrator Al Shea told a colleague the governor “has got to deliver” by reducing pollution at four coal-fired power plants that were a priority of the Sierra Club, according to the notes, which were obtained through an open records request.
In Room 411 South of the state Capitol, a gathering of college students could well be the future of K Street, the lobbyistsâ?? boulevard in Washington, D.C.
The men have swapped typical campus attire of T-shirts for ties; the women, sneakers for skirts. Theyâ??re all there to learn the slick art of influence and persuasion. In other words, theyâ??re being trained as lobbyists.
Supporters of Wisconsinâ??s Domestic Partnership Registry hope the Attorney Generalâ??s decision not to defend it could actually help their case.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen last week said he would not represent the state in a challenge to the registry, since he believes it violates a 2006 Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
State senators heard from doctors yesterday who favor a plan that would limit the practice of letting kids drink at Wisconsin bars with their parents consent.
Right now, kids of any age can get a drink in Wisconsin bars as long as they’re accompanied by a parent or guardian who’s at least 21 and the bartender agrees to serve them.
Paul Grossberg, a pediatrician at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health told a state senate panel that even if a parent is supervising, kids are not equipped to drink because the part of their brain that controls judgment is still “under construction” and those thrill-seeking parts of the brain are going pretty actively.
Dr. Paul Grossberg of the UW School of Medicine says the younger teens are exposed to alcohol, the greater the risk theyâ??ll develop lifelong problems. Grossberg says thatâ??s because theyâ??re brains are not developed enough to process the intoxicating effects.
An historic plant disease that wiped out the Irish potato crop generations ago has been found in two commercial potato fields in Wisconsin.
The disease, phytophthora infestans, or late blight, has been confined to tomato plants here, so the discovery of the disease in two potato fields in two separate Wisconsin counties is raising concerns from state agriculture officials who are recommending homeowners destroy any tomato plants in their garden that show signs of late blight.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison plant pathologist Amanda Gevens
Wisconsin maintained its third-place ranking on the ACT college admissions test, with this yearâ??s graduating high school seniors posting an average composite score of 22.3 for the third year in a row, according to data scheduled to be released Wednesday.
A bill in the state Legislature would require UW-Madison to establish a program called â??career conversationsâ? that would introduce middle and high school students to high-tech jobs.
The bill doesnâ??t set aside any money for the project, but the universityâ??s Center on Education and Work has much of the infrastructure in place to conduct a pilot program, said Sen. Julie Lassa, D-Stevens Point.
â??For us itâ??s a way to potentially reverse the brain drain that the state experiences,â? she said.
The news that Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle would not seek a third term as governor touched off a political scramble Sunday, with his decision promising to rattle not only the race for governor but shake up the rest of the ticket as well. Also quotes UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin.
Wisconsin should learn two lessons from the courtroom combat pitting the state’s new domestic partner registry against its constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
At stake is a lawsuit filed by opponents of the domestic partner registry, which allows same-sex couples who qualify as domestic partners to be eligible for about 40 of the 200 or so benefits normally available to male-female married couples.
University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin said that should Gov. Jim Doyle elect not to seek a third term, his decision could actually benefit Wisconsin voters in the upcoming gubernatorial race.
“Because if Doyle were running for re-election, it would inevitably be a referendum on him,” said Franklin. “With him out of the race, it can be a competition between Republican philosophies and Democratic philosophies.”
Technical colleges throughout the state are bracing for a fall enrollment boom, spurred by unemployed workers who need retraining and students looking for affordable alternatives to four-year universities.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The longtime University of Wisconsin-Stout chancellor is supporting a bill that would require regional representation on the Board of Regents.
Charles Sorensen says the Chippewa Valley region has never had a non-student member on the board “for as long as anyone can remember” leaving Stout and UW-Eau Claire without representation.
MADISON, Wis. — The president of the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents says his top priority is expanding access to state universities.
Milwaukee businessman Chuck Pruitt told a Senate committee on Tuesday a key part of that goal is providing more financial aid for low-income students. He says the state has made some progress, but needs to do better.
As the father of a young girl with type 1 diabetes, Charles Plueddeman clings to the hope that the disease will be cured.
Until then, Plueddeman will continue to closely monitor research and keep tabs on medical breakthroughs that can improve the quality of life of those who are afflicted with diabetes. That includes his 10-year-old daughter, Mabel, a fifth-grader from Oshkosh who has been living with the disease since age 2.
Plueddeman was encouraged to hear about a study that is under way at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. A UW student became the first patient in Wisconsin to enroll in a research study aimed at learning if an infusion of experimental stem cells â?? known as mesenchymal cells â?? will limit the intensity and scope of his newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes.
A recent analysis of the food purchased by the University of Wisconsin-Stout’s dining services found that 37 percent of its $1.58 million annual food budget goes to Wisconsin companies, according to a university news release.
The list of companies patronized by UW-Stout includes food producers and processors that have facilities in the state.
State agencies have suffered a string of costly computer blunders in recent years. Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan needs to get serious about the problem by quickly appointing Assembly representatives to a legislative panel that’s supposed to oversee the state’s big information technology projects.
Sheridan, D-Janesville, shouldn’t need much convincing of the need for a bipartisan committee of state senators and representatives to monitor large computer upgrades and initiatives on behalf of taxpayers. Sheridan sat on a task force that recommended more legislative oversight early last year.
So what’s the holdup?
The whole point of a free press is to have reporters and editors who are willing to challenge those who hold political and economic power, to push them to serve the public interest, and to defend liberty and equality against the overwhelming thrust of the special interests. If these missions are pursued with the energy and boldness that is required to sustain democracy and civil society, mistakes will be made.
Wherever honest journalists do not make honest errors, you can bet that caution is ruling the day — and that power is prevailing. But errors on the Web, on television and radio, and in print are serious matters. They have to be corrected, and they usually are.
Unfortunately, there are instances where the error so overshadows the correction that a false impression lingers.
Such has been the case with the investigation by the not-for-profit Center for Investigative Journalism and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of the travel records of state officials.
After a disappointing performance in 2008, the stateâ??s retirement accounts are tilting back up.
Retirement funds managed by the state Investment Board totaled $63.3 billion as of June 30, a 2 percent increase over the Dec. 31 close of $61.8 billion, according to preliminary results.
But they are 13 percent higher than the March 31 total of $56 billion, shortly after the U.S. stock market hit its low point.
Some Wisconsin high school students will be able to send their official transcripts to college electronically this year under a new statewide e-transcript initiative.
The initiative is an attempt to get state high schools to offer online transcripts of courses and grades, one of the last pieces of the college application that canâ??t be sent electronically for many students.
“It really removes the hassle factor,” said Mari McCarty, vice president of WAICU, the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and part of a statewide task force that implemented the initiative. “The application itself is already online. The one piece that remains stubbornly on paper is the transcript.”
Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s chief legal counsel resigned yesterday after the Republican Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint with state regulators alleging that she was practicing law without a license.
â??Chandra Miller Fienen has voluntarily tendered her resignation. She realizes that she has placed this office in a difficult position,â? Doyle spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner said in a statement.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor of law and political science Howard Schweber
Dear Editor: As environmentally friendly biodiesel becomes more easily available and regularly used, biodiesel education programs are popping up at schools all across Wisconsin.
….Students and faculty at UW-Green Bay’s Environmental Management and Business Institute are studying the use of land that’s unsuitable for farming for growing native grasses to make into biofuels.
Scientists who want to turn their research into biotechnology companies or who want to grow their young businesses may be able to tap into a new round of grant money.
The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development DWD is providing a $100,000 grant, to be matched by $100,350 from BioForward, formerly the Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Device Association.
The funds are aimed at training up to 50 researchers and scientists to start a business and to compete in the global economy.
The year 1969 is in the news these days. Retrospectives 40 years later have focused on everything from Woodstock to anti-war demonstrations and the moon landing.
That year also marked one of the most important moments of modern-day environmentalism, and Madison was at the epicenter. The Wisconsin Legislature in 1969 voted to effectively ban the persistent pesticide DDT from use in the state. The action was a first in the nation.
The same year also marked the end of remarkable hearings in Madison that put DDT on trial in front of the nation. A small group of concerned state conservationists and an old-school professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison asked the Department of Natural Resources to rule on whether DDT was a water pollutant under state statutes.
UW System officials are accusing some union leaders of trying to deny faculty and staff the right to vote on whether or not they want to join a union.
The latest biennial budget signed by Governor Doyle grants thousands of faculty and staff the right to form unions, to help them bargain for wages, benefits and working conditions.
But last week the UW System chastised the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), for trying to do an end run around the conventional union organizing process. AFT wants to re-classify some academic staff through what’s known as unit clarification. The result would be that many people would simply be absorbed into a union without a vote. (Third item.)
Mentions that Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget also provided insurance and other benefits for same-sex couples who work for the state, which the University of Wisconsin-Madison has said will help attract and retain top faculty and researchers.
A University of Wisconsin System vice president has demanded union organizers stop contacting academic staff at work to discuss job conditions and descriptions.
Kennedy said Monday that the workers can decide whom they want to talk with, and when, and that the system is trying to intimidate employees at an institution where discussions about unions have been “going on in the hallways for decades.” The visits, he said, will “likely continue.”
Crist, however, said the system wonâ??t allow it.
Gay couples across Wisconsin were able to begin registering this morning for government-recognized domestic partnerships. Governor Jim Doyle says the provision included in the state budget grants those residents some basic protections, which he views as a major step forward for basic rights.
The registry grants about 43 protections to same sex couples, such as hospital visitation rights. Doyle says it’s far from the over 200 protections given to same-sex couples that get married.
The National Republican Congressional Committee is harassing Wisconsinites with computerized “robo-calls” that refer to the emergency stimulus plan as a “failed” initiative.
We’ve had our criticisms of the stimulus, which we think was weighted far too heavily in favor of tax cuts for upper-income Americans.
But before a bunch of Washington insiders tell Wisconsinites the initiative is a failure, they might want to consult with researchers on the state’s university campuses — whose work keeps this state on the cutting edge of health and behavioral research and positions it to reap the economic benefits that go with being a scientific leader.
Citing the prosecution’s violation of a court order on evidence and its obligation to disclose a confession, a judge Friday dismissed a rape and murder case against Ralph Armstrong in the 1980 killing of UW-Madison student Charise Kamps, and set the stage for Armstrong’s possible release from prison after nearly three decades behind bars.
A judge has thrown out the murder charges against a man who’s been serving a life sentence since 1981 but has always maintained his innocence.
A man accused of killing a University of Wisconsin-Madison student in 1980 had his conviction vacated by a Dane County judge on Friday.
Susan Crowley has been appointed administrator of the Division of the Long Term Care by Department of Health Services secretary Karen Timberlake.
Crowley, who is currently director of Campus Health Initiatives and Prevention Services for University Health Services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, begins her new role Aug. 24.
Same-sex couples in Dane County that register as domestic partners with the state beginning Monday wonâ??t get all of the same rights as their married peers, but theyâ??ll be equal in at least one way â?? signing up will cost $115, the same as for a marriage license.
RICHLAND CENTER (WKOW) — Groups of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders took over parts of the UW-Richland Center campus for the 2009 College for Kids program.
The program, held July 20-24, is an educational enrichment program that offers morning classes and hands-on learning for students from across southwest Wisconsin.
MILWAUKEE — Researchers at Marquette University have a $1.4 million grant to study treatment for cocaine addiction.
The Milwaukee scientists are trying to develop chemicals that can be used to break a cocaine addiction.
Notes that the state budget allows about 19,700 faculty and academic staff members of the University of Wisconsin System to petition for union representation and to bargain collectively. The budget also extends the same rights to UW System research assistants. There are 2,300 research assistants on the UW-Madison campus alone.
Wisconsin’s law school graduates can practice here without taking a bar exam. Graduates of an out-of-state law school contend this discriminates against them, an argument that will get further hearing because of a 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision recently on their class-action lawsuit.
But as a matter of progressive public policy, the courts should uphold Wisconsin’s one-of-a-kind diploma privilege.
Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday is being celebrated all over these days, including an appearance on Saturday at Camp Randall Memorial Park.
MADISON â?? Members of a social conservative group are asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to invalidate the state’s new domestic partnership law.
….Cameras are the portal to that openness for many citizens, a valuable tool to building trust and respect. A lot of people you know were instrumental in creating Wisconsin?s system of access to the courts, Dave Zweifel of the Capital Times, former UW professor Jim Hoyt, former WMTV station manager Don Schmitt, former Milwaukee editorial director Ed Hinshaw and former Supreme Court justice Nate Heffernan to name a few. We owe them all gratitude for keeping Wisconsin a leader in open government and justice for 30 years.
Civil War buffs will honor the bicentennial of Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s birth in music, costume and march on Saturday, at a place that started out as a training camp for Union soldiers.
The celebration is part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s events held this year to honor the nation’s 16th president, born Feb. 12, 1809.
Fair Wisconsin is offering advice for same sex couples who plan to register for domestic partnerships next month.
Starting August third, same sex couples living in the state will be able to register with county clerks. Fair Wisconsin Executive Director Katie Bellinger says they’ve been answering a lot of questions about the process. She says many people want to know what’s expected of them when registering and exactly what benefits the arrangement will provide.
University of Wisconsin System professors and instructors are growing frustrated as they struggle to peel away layers of confusion over how they’ll cut 16 days of work in the next two years without disrupting instruction and research.
Lawmakers approved Gov. Jim Doyle’s plan requiring all state employees to take 16 unpaid furlough days, the equivalent of a 3 percent pay cut, between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2011, to help fill the state’s budget hole.
Four employees of a consulting firm billed more than $200,000 apiece in five months for work on a University of Wisconsin System information technology project, according to a review by The Associated Press.
An additional 10 employees of Chicago-based Huron Consulting Group charged at least $100,000 during that time for services on the project to install a new payroll system, which is behind schedule and over its planning budget.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court says state agencies cannot withhold the names of union workers under the open records law.
The court ruled 6-1 that union contracts prohibiting agencies from releasing information that identifies workers don’t trump the state’s open records law.
A state lawmaker said she would not attend a private tour of the Beaver Dam Wal-Mart distribution center on Tuesday to avoid possibly breaking the open meetings law.
The state Assembly committee on personal privacy scheduled the Wal-Mart tour and one of a University of Wisconsin research lab to gather information about radio frequency identification tags. A notice released Friday said the general public was not invited.
UW-Madisonâ??s student government has found a larger-than-expected amount of reserve funds available to cover the majority of the $256,580 asked for by the state, officials said Friday.
ASM Chair Tyler Junger said he was informed by Vice Chancellor Darrell Bazzell within the past 48 hours that a general reserve fund that contains money from student groups would be close to covering the entire cost. Junger said university officials were not yet sure what the amount would be, but that it was large enough to cover most of the amount requested by the state.
Tuition will rise 5.5 percent on most University of Wisconsin System campuses, but low-income students should be shielded from the impact under a budget approved Thursday.
Under a $2.2 billion annual operating budget approved by the Board of Regents, tuition will go up by $617 at the stateâ??s flagship school UW-Madison, $359 at UW-Milwaukee and about $280 at 11 other universities.
The University of Wisconsin System’s Board of Regents on Thursday approved a 5.5 percent tuition hike for resident students attending one of the system’s four-year institutions during the 2009-10 academic year.
That’s the same increase approved by the board in each of the past two years, after hikes of 6.8 percent in 2007 and 6.9 percent in 2006.
Due to a new state program, students from families who make less than $60,000 are expected to get enough additional state and federal financial aid to cover the tuition hike. System officials estimate about a quarter of the students would be helped by this “hold harmless” provision.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved a 5.5 percent tuition increase for undergraduates Thursday.
That comes out to $617 at the UW-Madison.
College costs are rising faster than inflation. That’s tough news for families with students in college, but it’s turning out to be a good thing for some technical colleges in the state.
