The leader of a task force studying a possible Milwaukee-Waukesha college campus merger says the group likely will work past its January deadline for making recommendations.
Donald Mash, executive senior vice president of the University of Wisconsin System, said his task force has gathered valuable input from both proponents and opponents of combining the UW-Waukesha campus with UW-Milwaukee.
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire suspended a practice Wednesday banning resident assistants from leading Bible studies in their dorm rooms after it was slammed by politicians and conservative groups as infringing on religious freedom.
A policy banning University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire resident assistants from holding Bible study sessions in their dorms has been lifted until campus and UW System reviews of the policy are completed, Interim Chancellor Vicki Lord Larson said Wednesday.
A bill that would take away collective bargaining rights for UW teaching assistants stalled in the state Senate yesterday.
The Board of Regents committee in charge of investigating the University of Wisconsin System�s disciplinary process met for the third time Tuesday, as they continue the process of reforming dismissal procedures.
A legislative task force designed to review the state�s preparedness for a potential avian flu outbreak met Tuesday to hear testimony from state influenza experts.
Upholding a lower court�s decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court announced Tuesday it needs more information to rule on the contested termination of a tenured University of Wisconsin-Superior professor four years ago.
In an unprecedented move in Wisconsin higher education, the student government at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has voted to charge students a fee that would fund pay raises for professors and instructors.
Spaceport, spacecraft and other aerospace facilities in Wisconsin?
Yes, say legislators sponsoring a bill that would create a Wisconsin Aerospace Authority and authorize it to develop those facilities and related services. The bill also would give the authority the power of condemnation and authorize municipalities to develop and operate spaceports.
The authority would promote and provide public-private coordination for the aerospace industry in Wisconsin, according to the state Legislative Reference Bureau. Supporters envision a future for Wisconsin in space commerce and tourism.
The proposed authority would be a public body created by state law that is not a state agency, similar to the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. It would be able to receive federal funds.
The days are numbered for a Board of Regents that is almost entirely made up of the governor’s appointees, says former University of Wisconsin System President Katharine Lyall.
Speaking to the Dane County Democratic Party at a lunchtime event on Monday, Lyall told the group of about 30 that with state support for higher education declining, those who are picking up the slack may reasonably expect a greater voice.
“What sense does it make for the governor to appoint 100 percent of the governing board when the state is paying less than 20 percent of the bill?” said Lyall, who retired last year. “The governance process here is going to change for public higher education to come more into alignment with the funding structure.”
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents correctly followed state law when it dismissed a tenured UW-Superior faculty member, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled today. In a decision written by Justice Pat Roggensack, the court upheld a decision of a Court of Appeals, which said the board generally acted properly.
….At the urging of UW-Superior Chancellor Julius Erlenbach, the Board of Regents fired (John) Marder, a tenured associate professor of journalism, in 2001 after colleagues and students said he acted improperly.
The statement of charges against Marder included “alleged sexual misconduct with students, alleged inappropriate conduct as an instructor and troubled relationships with fellow faculty members,” the court wrote.
MADISON, Wis. ââ?¬â? The state asked a judge on Monday to make public an audit of a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater dean’s spending, saying there is no reason to suppress the recor
The state�s attorney general�s office declined to offer a legal opinion regarding the controversial University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Bible-study ban last week. The office received requests from both the UW System and the delegation of 25 Republican legislators and both parties are disappointed with the recent declination.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political scientist.
Congress has approved a $500,000 start-up grant for the recently announced Wisconsin Security Research Consortium, a non-profit group for classified, defense-related projects.
The consortium, led by the Wisconsin Technology Council, will also initially include the UW System, the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, and the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Overall, legislators cut the UW budget by $250 million during the 2003-05 biennium. During the past several years, tuition has gone up sharply. Among the victims of the budget cuts are students of modest means ââ?¬â? who now face the prospect of reduction of student aid at the federal level.
At some point, the extreme level of budget cuts needs to stop, along with the sniping between legislators and the university.
Wisconsin needs a healthy university system ââ?¬â? and Wisconsin students need a quality university system they can afford to attend.
With heating costs expected to soar by 60 percent this winter, the highest levels of state government are hunting for a solution.
Citing ââ?¬Å?record highââ?¬Â energy prices, Gov. Jim Doyle signed an executive order at the Capitol Monday, ordering all state agencies under his jurisdiction to take steps to reduce energy costs. Following this trend, UW-Madison officials said the school is working toward similar goals.
The University of Wisconsin System will have to look elsewhere for legal advice regarding UW-Eau Claire�s controversial Bible-study ban.
The long tale of the Teaching Assistants� Association�s battle for a wage increase without health care premiums is coming to a close. But the moral of this story is not a happy one for teaching assistants or their union. The product of this two-year battle and strike is a meager 8 percent wage increase and a total capitulation on health care payment.
The Teaching Assistants� Association could end the nearly two-year process of contract negotiations by ratifying its contract with the state on Dec. 2. While the contract offers minor wage increases, it also dictates TAs will pay for health care, according to the TAA contract offer obtained by The Daily Cardinal. The health care payment was the main point of contention in the past two years, resulting in a strike and two-day walkout in April 2004.
At long last, a deal has been struck.
Last Wednesday, the Teaching Assistants Association and the Office of State Employee Relations tentatively agreed on contracts for the 2003-05 and 2005-07 biennia. The contracts, which must still be ratified by the TAA membership, approved by the state Legislature and signed by the governor, represent the latest chapter in the soap opera that began almost as soon as the last contract was signed.
After nearly three years of on-and-off deliberations, the University of Wisconsin Teaching Assistants Association and the state reached an agreement last week to bring the two groups into compliance through 2007.
Nearly three years of stalemate over a new state contract for UW-Madison’s teaching assistants ended this week with a settlement for members to vote on through Dec. 2.
UW-Madison’s Teaching Assistants Association and the state have come to a tentative agreement after nearly three years of on-again, off-again negotiations.
The association is sending ratification ballots to its members. That process is expected to be finished on Dec. 2.
If one could mount a cannon on the lawn of Wisconsin’s capitol and aim it straight down Madison’s shop-and-bar-lined State Street, one could easily shell the University of Wisconsin System’s flagship campus, about half a mile away. To hear some lawmakers talk about the system, it’s a wonder they haven’t tried.
Quoted: Botanist Don Waller of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Significant research and development activity and a fair number of start-ups have failed to spark any critical mass of emerging technology industries in the Midwest, according to a report by an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Also quotes Allen J. Dines, assistant director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of Corporate Relations, and Andrew Cohn, spokesman for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
WHITEWATER, Wis. – State employees could get better deals by shopping around for some supplies than they can under a mandatory purchasing plan the state has paid $4.2 million to develop, an Associated Press review found.
MADISON – Christopher Ochoa and Steven Avery lived the same nightmare.
Both spent years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit, and both walked out free men after DNA tests exonerated them, thanks to work by the Wisconsin Innocence Project. But while Ochoa is now a semester away from finishing law school, Avery is back behind bars, this time on a murder charge in the death of 25-year-old freelance photographer Teresa Halbach.
With tuition costs constantly on the rise, many students worry that there�s no end in sight. Various solutions to the ever-increasing cost of higher education have been proposed, but none seem viable.
An award-winning documentary featuring those wrongfully imprisoned premiered Thursday night in Madison.
The Wisconsin Innocence Project hosted the premiere and had several local people who have been exonerated as guest speakers.
Twenty-five Wisconsin legislators sent a letter to Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager Wednesday, asking her legal opinion on a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire policy, which they feel may be unconstitutional.
A $500,000 federal grant is aimed at helping Wisconsin gain more funding for classified and sensitive research. The grant is to the non-profit Wisconsin Security Research Consortium, which was launched this fall by the Wisconsin Technology Council and 11 public and private academic research partners.
The grant is earmarked for the consortium’s start-up, administrative and research work, not for individual companies.
The initial members of the Wisconsin Security Research Consortium are the UW System, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Superior, UW-La Crosse, UW-Stout, UW-Extension, the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, the Milwaukee School of Engineering and the Tech Council. The consortium will eventually include associate members from private industry.
If you think the good folks at the Wisconsin Innocence Project feel they have egg on their faces, think again.
If you think the University of Wisconsin Law School-affiliated project has lost any passion for the mission to free wrongly convicted inmates from unfair prison terms, you’re wrong.
MADISON ââ?¬â? University of Wisconsin Childrenââ?¬â?¢s Hospital critical care pediatrician Timothy Corden doesnââ?¬â?¢t need a lot of statistics to convince him that using child booster seats in vehicles is a good idea.
Diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, juvenile diabetes and spinal cord injuries affect millions of American families – including my own. Stem cell research, which is being pioneered in Wisconsin, may one day offer a cure to some of these diseases. But these cures will continue to elude us if we allow partisan political ideology to get in the way of the vital work of scientists.
A bill that would make it easier for University of Wisconsin professors to cash in on their research is part of a package of “Invest Wisconsin” legislation announced by Republican legislators today.
Other laws – some already introduced and others to come – would create wide-ranging tax credits and exemptions aimed at promoting investments in high-technology projects and businesses.
MatriLab, a biotech start-up company with one foot in Madison and the other in Milwaukee, is part of the new “tech corridor” taking shape between the two cities.
Basic scientific research is being done at UW-Madison, while clinical work is taking place in Milwaukee.
The company, which makes an innovative drug delivery product for wounds, stems from a partnership that includes scientists, clinicians and management consultants.
Madison and eight rural districts will share in a new program aimed at expanding advance placement courses in high schools.
The program, funded by a $500,000 grant from the National Governors’ Association, was announced Tuesday by first lady Jessica Doyle. There will be a particular emphasis on disadvantaged and underserved students, she said.
Once again, state legislators and the national media have turned their attention to the UW System. This time, their fiery gaze has zeroed in on UW-Eau Claire.
It must have been a long time since state Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, last stepped foot on a UW campus because his ââ?¬Å?student bill of rightsââ?¬Â is completely out of touch with the students and lacks all practicality. Its chief accomplishment is to be an absolute waste of time and money for students, professors, university administrators, legislators and taxpayers.
In a situation that may strain the relationship between church and state in Wisconsin, UW System officials appealed to the state attorney general Monday for her input on a UW policy that forbids resident assistants from holding religious functions in dormitories.
Recent legislative action named for Steven Avery, who was wrongly convicted for and later exonerated of a crime he did not commit, will be renamed following Avery�s implication as the prime suspect in the murder of a young Hilbert, Wis., woman, a state representative said Monday.
MADISON – University of Wisconsin System officials asked the attorney general Monday for her opinion on whether a practice at the Eau Claire campus of banning resident assistants from leading Bible studies in their dorm rooms is constitutional.
University professors could be punished if their conduct violates a “student bill of rights” proposed by a central Wisconsin legislator.
State Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Grand Rapids, proposed a bill that would take away tenure or six months pay from faculty members if their advice was shown to keep students from graduating on tim
In the cold November rain, the reign of Barry Alvarez at Camp Randall Stadium ended with the roar of a capacity crowd, despite a whimper of an effort over the last three quarters of a humbling 20-10 loss to Iowa.
That, if nothing else, is testament to the power of personality that Alvarez has held in this state for the past 16 years. Well, the last 13, anyway, once he delivered the first of three Rose Bowl titles and proved what he had told people since the day he was hired – that there was no reason the University of Wisconsin couldn’t be as successful in football as it was in cross country, or in genetic research, for that matter.
A bill proposed in the state Assembly would set specific standards for school policy and professor conduct to ensure the rights of students in the UW System, according to its author, Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids.
The UW Board of Regents voted unanimously to cut the practice of assigning backup positions to UW employees from the university�s employment policies.
Steven Avery, freed by UW Law School�s Wisconsin Innocence Project in 1998 after serving 18 years for a rape he did not commit, is now being charged with the murder of a young woman.
Pending a signature from Governor Doyle upon his return from abroad, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents will add a second student representative.
The committee appointed to investigate the University of Wisconsin�s employee dismissal policy held its second meeting Friday to continue discussing ways to improve the disciplinary process.
Students in the University of Wisconsin System do not have enough control over their education, State Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Grand Rapids, says. And that is why Schneider has proposed a ââ?¬Å?student bill of rights,ââ?¬Â which was introduced into the Wisconsin Legislature and is awaiting committee consideration.
Amidst the attention of the Teresa Hallbach case….and the arrest of Steven Avery….a UW group that helps free wrongfully convicted prisoners….won a court decision in a different case.
Although the phrase ââ?¬Å?backup positionââ?¬Â never technically existed at the University of Wisconsin, the Board of Regents passed a resolution Friday permanently banning future use of the highly scrutinized form of job security.
After months of being stalled for retooling, a proposed constitutional amendment to limit state and local tax revenue in Wisconsin is back on the fast track and will go before the Legislature early next year.
Stay in school, kids – it’s good for your health.
That’s the premise of a study being released today that ranks Waukesha County as Wisconsin’s healthiest county, partly because of its low high-school dropout rate.
The theory behind the University of Wisconsin-Madison study is that educated people are more likely to make smart choices about cigarette smoking and other unhealthy lifestyles.
It is not true that officials at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire will be conducting room checks to make sure that students aren’t reading their Bibles or the Qur’an on state property; nor will those officials be conducting bed checks to make sure the kids aren’t praying before they close their eyes to sleep. But officials are doing something almost as silly by enforcing a non-written policy barring resident assistants from holding religious or political activities in the dorms where they work, even when those activities take place on the students’ own time.
The Medical College of Wisconsin has come of age.
The school that in 1996 was luring genetics expert Howard J. Jacob from Harvard University is now working to keep its best researchers from going to other institutions.
Steven Avery already had a tough challenge in trying to prove his civil rights were violated when he was wrongly prosecuted for and convicted of a Manitowoc County rape in 1985.
And that case just got a whole lot harder, now that prosecutors say they will charge Avery with homicide, two legal experts said Friday. Also quotes Gordon Baldwin, emeritus law professor at UW-Madison.
Steven Avery was freed last year after volunteers from the Innocence Project at the UW-Madison Law School found evidence that another man – not Avery – committed the rape for which Avery was convicted.
“It’s a tragic turn of events,” Keith Findley, co-director of the Innocence Project, said Thursday. “We’re very saddened to hear that they found human remains” on Avery family property.
Project co-director John Pray added, “It’s a very sad day for everyone involved, and our hearts and prayers go out to the (Teresa Halbach) family.”
