Category: State news

WASHINGTON – The overnight bus ride from Madison to the nation’s capital didn’t faze the 162 Wisconsin students and activists traveling to Saturday’s “March on Washington” peace rally on the National Mall.

“They climbed out like they had just gotten out of the shower. They were so refreshed, so excited,” said Ben Ratliffe, a University of Wisconsin graduate and intern at the Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice, which is part of a nationwide coalition formed in 2002 in opposition to the Iraq war.

The three busloads of Wisconsin students joined with groups of grandmothers for peace, veterans for peace and even nerds for peace in an anti-war demonstration under a sunny sky in front of the nation’s Capitol.

The UW System could receive extra money if the state Legislature supports a plan Gov. Jim Doyle is expected to introduce at his 2007 State of the State address.

The governor said he would ask for an additional $225 million for the University of Wisconsin College System, in an interview with The Associated Press.

Race might be a factor in being admitted to U-W schools, but will a proposal at the State Capitol increase diversity? Will it sift out smart students? That’s the topic, after seven, for Joy Cardin and her guests on this week’s State Capitol Report. (Archived audio.)

Gov. Jim Doyle said he plans to aid the University of Wisconsin System by including a $225 million investment in state universities and colleges in his forthcoming biennial budget, according to an exclusive interview with the Associated Press.

Wisconsin students attending UW-Madison would pay the same amount of tuition if they chose to attend the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Minnesota students, however, would pay more than Wisconsin students even if they attended their home state�s flagship university.

The University of Minnesota is threatening to pull out of a tuition reciprocity agreement between Minnesota and Wisconsin unless its students from Wisconsin start paying between $1,200 and $2,700 more a year.

Wisconsin has rejected the proposal, but the University of Minnesota is pushing back.

“We would like to reach agreement within the existing agreement,” said Craig Swan, vice provost for undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota. “That’s the preferable outcome. But I don’t want to rule other things out.”

The Board of Regents seems poised to extend UW-Madisonââ?¬â?¢s ââ?¬Å?holisticââ?¬Â approach to admission, which considers race, to all UW System schools. While I believe in the goals of affirmative action, the board should consider this advice before changing system policy: There are politically expedient solutions to UWââ?¬â?¢s diversity problem.

A legislative critic of a new UW admissions policy says he’s not backing off. Representative Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) says admissions criteria like community service, motivation, special talents and student experiences can’t disguise the real intentions of UW administrators. “They are hiding behind a lot of other verbiage in their policy, to get at race-based admissions,” says Nass.

When Shawn Cassiman got divorced, she knew it was time to go to college to be better able to support herself and her children.

A high school dropout with an equivalency diploma, she enrolled at UW-Superior at age 40. Commuting from Ashland, she worked at a pizza joint as well as work-study jobs between classes, before gaining her bachelor’s degree in 2002.

Now Cassiman has a master’s degree and is working toward a Ph.D. in social welfare at the UW-Madison. She says she was “lucky” to get scholarships and to find the mentors she needed to gain her degrees. But the University of Wisconsin System is launching a new Adult Student Initiative aimed at taking much of the luck out of the equation for older “nontraditional” students such as Cassiman.

The possibility of free tuition for University of Wisconsin students who promise to stay in state after graduation has raised many questions about the proposal’s potential implications.

The UW System and legislators have already started sparring over the proposed change in admissions policy. Now the UW wants to hear from you.
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According to the UW System’s Dave Jiroux, grade points and class rankings aren’t the only things you’ll need to get into a UW school. Admissions counselors will look at the applicant’s entire life experience.

D’s and F’s could become even more costly for some University of Wisconsin students.

A bill that would penalize UW students receiving state financial aid for getting any grade lower than a C could come before the state Legislature in the near future.

Wisconsin college students get a sweet deal in Minnesota: If they go to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, they pay $1,200 a year less in tuition than Minnesotans.

It’s a benefit they don’t plan to give up any time soon. After two years of talks, Minnesota officials asked Wisconsin to renegotiate a tuition pact that now makes the University of Minnesota cheaper for Wisconsinites.

Wisconsin recently responded politely: No, thanks.

MADISON – No applicant to the University of Wisconsin-Madison has ever lost a slot to another because of race, Chancellor John Wiley says.

If two equally qualified candidates apply, both get in, Wiley told the Legislative Council�s Special Committee on Affirmative Action at a hearing Thursday.

ââ?¬Å?There has never, ever been a student admitted because of the color of their skin,ââ?¬Â Wiley said. ââ?¬Å?Itââ?¬â?¢s not the case where some student lost a seat to a lesser qualified applicant of any race.ââ?¬Â

A fall 2007 pilot admissions initiative for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences is working to retain Wisconsin students who are both highly qualified and deeply committed to long-term careers in Wisconsin agriculture. The pilot applies to applicants who are currently involved in state agriculture with demonstrated commitment to one of seven production agriculture degree programs.

The University of Wisconsin System has announced a system-wide initiative, to take effect by fall, to ensure that each of its campuses engages in a comprehensive as opposed to a numbers-based admissions review process, in part to enhance diversity.

LA CROSSE, Wis. — Public intoxication has become a high-profile problem in the city of La Crosse because of the string of young men who’ve drowned in the Mississippi and other waterways. Yet, the city doesn’t have a local ordinance that prohibits the behavior — at least not yet.

Mayor Mark Johnsrud wants the City Council to adopt such an ordinance, hoping it will help dissuade the culture of binge drinking, often associated with the university.

Three incidents this past weekend again brought the issue to light.

A massive turnout in support of affirmative action at a Dec. 19 hearing surprised the Wisconsin state senator, Glenn Grothman, who had called the meeting to attack the progressive policy. Grothman is chairman of the Wisconsin Legislative Council�s Special Committee on Affirmative Action Policies.

Giving Wisconsin strong scores for both home life and school life, the authors of a report released Wednesday said children raised in the Badger State have the eighth best chance in the United States of succeeding in life.