Category: State news

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater hired a dean months after he resigned from Florida State University, where auditors contended he spent thousands of dollars of school money for personal benefit, the Associated Press has learned.

MADISON, Wis. – A second black dean at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is raising questions about whether his race played a role in a campus audit of his spending.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 � 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 � and Wisconsin students need a quality university system they can afford to attend.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.