Category: State news

In response to state audit revealing 40 felons employed in the University of Wisconsin System, some legislators are calling for more stringent background check policies.

A survey revealed recently that Wisconsinites hold their state university system in exceedingly low regard. Large majorities said University of Wisconsin campuses are top heavy, are spending public money the way Congress does and are too pricey for ordinary folks to send their kids to.

It’s clear that UW schools and the UW System have a serious image problem that must be dealt with aggressively. UW should do this not for touchy-feely PR benefit but because erosion of public trust will certainly result in further erosion of state legislative and public support. And this would function much like self-fulfilling prophecy, making the schools and system – beyond perception – truly inadequate for the public’s needs.

The best thing the university can do here is to provide the context missing from such surveys. And the key element missing from these perceptions is the reality that, though any institution can get more efficient, a top-rate university system and good K-12 schools are still the state’s best bets for bolstering its economy.

A survey revealed recently that Wisconsinites hold their state university system in exceedingly low regard. Large majorities said University of Wisconsin campuses are top heavy, are spending public money the way Congress does and are too pricey for ordinary folks to send their kids to.

An audit of the University of Wisconsin System released Tuesday revealed 40 felons were employed within the system as of late last year.

Dear Editor: What was The Capital Times thinking when it ran an article on Feb. 24 regarding public attitudes toward the UW?

The survey was conducted and paid for by the Woods Communication Group. The results were seized on by Republicans who used them to support their position that the university is out of touch with state residents.

MADISON – The University of Wisconsin System was unaware it employed 40 felons this fall, including two who committed homicides in the 1970s and four child sex offenders, according to an audit released Tuesday.

UW System President Kevin Reilly promised a review of all 40 cases cited by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau to determine whether the crimes were related to their employment and the system should dismiss the employees.

There were 40 felons working in the University of Wisconsin System last fall, and most of them – including two convicted murderers – were employed by UW-Madison, according to a legislative audit released Tuesday.

Wisconsin lawmakers, including Senator Carol Roessler, wanted to know how many UW System employees were felons. Now they know… 40. The Legislative Audit Bureau released its report Tuesday.

Looking at September 2005 pay records, the audit bureau found 40 UW system employees felons. Four remained behind bars on felony convictions. Thirty-five were on probation or parole.

A former legislative aide to then Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, testified today that she was paid by state taxpayers out of Assembly Republican Caucus funds in the summer and fall of 2000 when her entire workday was spent on Jensen’s re-election campaign.

Leigh Himebauch Searl testified that she worked in Jensen’s office in full- or part-time roles while also attending classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

When she graduated in May of 2000, she said, she took a full-time job in Jensen’s office and was soon told by another Jensen staff member, Jodie Tierney, that her office would be relocated to the Republican Party of Wisconsin headquarters a few blocks from the State Capitol.

The University of Wisconsin System employed 40 felons as of late last year, including 25 who were convicted before they were hired, according to a state audit released today.

The Legislative Audit Bureau found the vast majority of the felons were employed by the UW-Madison campus.

A state lawmaker said she found the audit “extremely distressing” and called for a public hearing. UW President Kevin Reilly said the Board of Regents is already working on the problem.

MADISON, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin System, under fire for its employment practices, employed 40 felons as of this fall, four of them on the academic staff, according to an audit released Tuesday.

Letter-writer says: Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker and Mark Green need to take Economics 101 before continuing to blast the University of Wisconsin System’s policies on pay and out-of-state tuition (“Walker wants to shake up UW System,” Feb. 23).

MADISON – Business leaders are forming a nonprofit group meant to change the public’s perception of the University of Wisconsin System, which is viewed as expensive and inefficient according to a new poll.

The group, Wisconsin Higher Education Business Roundtable, will consist of senior executives of Wisconsin businesses, according to planning documents obtained by the Associated Press.

Hundreds of state residents are blasting the UW system. According to a new survey, many residents say the system has become unaffordable, is overstaffed and wastes money.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of the best universities in the land, with top scholars in their fields. But professors there make less money than instructors at Milwaukee Area Technical College.

The average salary for a full-time MATC professor, according to a public records request I made to the college, is a jaw-dropping $91,000.

State and local government employees covered under the Wisconsin Retirement System will receive “modest” credits to their retirement account balances this year, Eric Stanchfield, secretary of the Department of Employee Trust Funds, announced today.

The rate for the larger core Fixed Fund is 6.5 percent, while the rate for the smaller all-stock Variable Fund is 9 percent. The increases last year were 8.5 percent and 12.0 percent, respectively.

After years of budget cuts and dysfunctional relationships with the state legislature, and after a terrible year of public relations ? some self-inflicted, some not ? and amid growing citizen worries about rising tuition and declining access, the UW System appears poised to fight back in 2006. It’s the second item on our editorial agenda for the year.

A person doesn’t have to have a position on the Taxpayer Protection Amendment bill to see the folly behind it.

The way to happiness in Wisconsin is to vote in November. Vote in a way so that the politicians who say the spending is out-of-control have no more control over our spending.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker said Wednesday that the state should consider breaking up the University of Wisconsin System.

Walker’s suggestion – in response to news of managerial missteps, administrators’ raises and out-of-state tuition cuts – was the closest thing to a new policy idea offered up at a candidates’ forum marked by sharp clashes between the four attorney general hopefuls and somewhat milder sparring between the two Republican gubernatorial candidates, Walker and U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.).

Members of the UW System Board of Regents addressed the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities Tuesday regarding a proposal to change the current composition of the 14-member board.

Inner-city high school students in Milwaukee are having a harder time doing as well as their peers across the state, a new study reports.

Like a laundry detergent that’s advertised as “new and improved!” the failed Taxpayer Bill of Rights has been repackaged and given another name in the state Legislature.

But when you open the Taxpayer Protection Act and take a close look at it, you’ll see that it has the same basic flaws as its earlier version.

New? Yeah. Improved? Some. But at its core, the proposed amendment to the state constitution remains an example of wrong-thinking government.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student was found dead in her apartment, according to a medical examiner’s report.

The cause of the 21-year-old Stratford student’s death appeared to be natural or accidental, according to the report issued Sunday. The medical examiner’s office probably will not determine a cause until more tests are done.

According to the report, Cheryl J. Kaiser was found Saturday night kneeling in front of an overflowing bathtub, with her head and hands in the tub. Kaiser was drinking Friday night and vomiting in the bathroom Saturday, according to the report.

Recently, an idea was floated that would recommend a popular election to select members of the University of Wisconsin System�s Board of Regents. Although such a concept could add much-needed public accountability to a university system seemingly lacking in such, it is simply not a realistic option.

Dear Editor: I found the anger in your Feb. 16 editorial “Put state students first” heartening, if entirely misplaced. If you’re truly concerned about middle-class taxpayers being priced out of a University of Wisconsin education, rather than asking the Board of Regents why it’s trying to rip off out-of-state students less, you should ask legislators like Mike Ellis why the university’s portion of the state budget is a half-billion current dollars short of what it was 20 years ago….

The magic cure-all offered by those who favor minimalist government is a constitutionally mandated tax freeze. And Republican state legislators were back at work last week on their latest version — now called the Taxpayers Protection Amendment, or TPA.

This time, though, they’re running into inconvenient facts that reveal the real ingredients of this odious unguent.

As GOP leaders opened invitation-only hearings on their proposal last week, Professor Andrew Reschovsky of the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison published a disturbing analysis of the TPA’s likely consequences.

“Let the people decide” is the slogan being used by those pushing for the latest version of a taxpayer bill of rights in Wisconsin. Fair enough. But make sure they have all the facts at their disposal when they decide. And be sure to conduct a full debate of all the issues involved in the 2,500-word proposed constitutional amendment so that everyone gets a fair hearing.

More important, let’s make sure that whatever is submitted to the people for a vote is a proposal that Wisconsin can live with. Mentions a study by UW-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky.