Category: State news

One of the more humiliating memories of my youth involved the night I offered a pretty Verona High School classmate a ride home in my 1951 Packard. She accepted, I dropped her at her house, she thanked me and I drove off.

The Legislature and several local governments cannot join the fight against a lawsuit seeking taxpayer funded benefits for partners of gay public employees, a judge ruled on Friday.

Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan ruled that state law gives the Department of Justice the authority to defend the state’s interests, and the department is already doing so in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed by six lesbian state employees and the American Civil Liberties Union in April, claims the state’s refusal to provide health insurance to their partners violates the equal protection clause of the Wisconsin constitution. The lawsuit names several state agencies as defendants, but not the Legislature.

Legislators and others said Friday that John Wiley’s attempts to keep secret allegations against a top administrator raised questions about the chancellor’s management of University of Wisconsin-Madison and the climate on campus.

MADISON, Wis. ââ?¬â? Criticism of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s chancellor escalated on Friday, with two lawmakers considering hearings to further delve into his role in a scandal involving sexual harassment and sick leave.

To get a taste of how bad the relationship is between the Legislature and the University of Wisconsin System, listen to Dale Schultz, Jim Doyle and John Wiley:

“There is a lot of tension,” acknowledged Schultz (R-Richland Center), majority leader of the Senate.

“The relationship is very poor,” conceded Doyle, the state’s Democratic governor.

“I’ve been on the faculty for 30 years and in administration for 20 of those, and I don’t remember a time when it was worse than it is now,” said Wiley, chancellor of UW-Madison.

Today Former Assistant to the Chancellor Paul Barrows will return to his academic staff back-up position at UW-Madison as the Senior Administrative Programming Specialist in the Provost’s office.

Barrows will work out of an office on Bascom Hill and, according to Provost Peter Spear, he will be reporting to the Associate Vice Chancellors in the Office of the Provost.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill Thursday which will give more than $100 billion in federal funding to agricultural research, management and conservation projects throughout the nation.

Paul Barrows, the former University of Wisconsin vice chancellor for student affairs, will return to work this morning, the attorney for the embattled administrator confirmed Sunday.

Gov. Jim Doyle and state lawmakers expressed doubt in university officials following the release of a report alleging that former UW-Madison Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows sexually harassed several women.

UW-Madison released an investigative report conducted by private attorney Susan Steingass Thursday that claims UW-Madison Administrator Paul Barrows sexually harassed five women, one of whom is former UW-Madison Dean of Students Luoluo Hong, and wrongly used his sick and vacation time.

Publicly announcing a course of action after spending weeks reviewing attorney Susan Steingass� investigation into the Paul Barrows controversy, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly handed down a reprimand to UW-Madison�s top official Thursday, along with calls for change in the school�s employment policies.

Capping a summer of controversy unparalleled in recent memory, the University of Wisconsin released the much-awaited report by attorney Susan Steingass Thursday detailing the circumstances surrounding former UW administrator Paul Barrows� paid leave of absence from the university.

November 2004: Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Paul Barrows goes on leave.

Former UW-Madison Dean of Students Luoluo Hong held little back when she unloaded on her boss, Paul Barrows, in a secret memo to Chancellor John Wiley in November 2004.
She told Wiley she wanted to convey her “extreme level of dismay, disgust and disappointment” regarding Barrows, who supervised her as vice chancellor of student affairs.

A report on the Paul Barrows case drew mixed reaction from the campus community Thursday.
UW-Madison Faculty Senate leader Patricia Brennan said she was “very, very pleased” that what she considered appropriate due process took place.

A university-commissioned investigation released Thursday finds fault on both sides in the case of UW-Madison administrator Paul Barrows’ seven- month personal leave, blaming Barrows and UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley.
The report faults Barrows, the former vice chancellor of student affairs, for inappropriate conduct toward two campus women, including a student who worked for him. Barrows denies those charges but agrees he had an unrelated consensual relationship with a 40-year-old graduate student that led to his demotion by Wiley and subsequent leave in November 2004.

Former UW-Madison Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Paul Barrows filed a lawsuit against Chancellor John Wiley and former Dean of Students Luoluo Hong Tuesday, claiming Wiley forced him to use his sick and vacation time and violated his due process rights.

Former University of Wisconsin Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Paul Barrows filed suit against UW Chancellor John Wiley Tuesday for allegedly asking Barrows to use accrued sick leave and vacation time without due process.

I’m working on an opera about the university and I’ve already got a great title – I’m calling it “Luoluo’s Revenge.”
Luoluo (pronounced low-low) Hong, the recently departed dean of students at UW-Madison, would perform her swan song aria at the beginning of the opera.

Employees of the University of Wisconsin System who want to trade their academic robes for the orange jammies of jail life shouldn�t continue to enjoy the perks they had while working for the state.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle announced a plan Monday that will save state taxpayers more than $80 million through a new strategy that consolidates bidding contracts. Another goal of the plan is strengthening local businesses owned by minorities and women by encouraging their involvement in the bidding process.

In the wake of the convictions of three University of Wisconsin-Madison professors this summer, UW Provost Peter Spear confirmed Thursday the university does not perform criminal background checks when hiring prospective faculty.

Gov. Jim Doyle touted on Monday a new system of purchasing goods and services that he said will save the state of Wisconsin as much as $200 million over the next four years.

The savings will result from bidding contracts as an entire state, instead of by having individual agencies buy their own goods and services. Other improvements, according to Doyle, are consolidating human resources and procurement staffing levels in the Department of Administration, improving facility management and strengthening the state’s information technology infrastructure.

After heavy criticism, University of Wisconsin Provost Peter Spear decided Thursday to recommend the UW System Board of Regents terminate the employment of two professors convicted of felonies. One of them, Lewis Keith Cohen, was released Sunday from the correctional facility where he served his 30-day sentence.

Biotech is big here and growing bigger. There are 248 life- sciences companies in Wisconsin that employ 20,000 people and generate more than $6 billion in annual revenue, according to the Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Device Association.

UW-Madison on Thursday moved to fire two professors recently convicted of felonies but said one of them – registered sex offender Lewis Keith Cohen – will continue receiving his $73,000 salary until any appeals he might make of the university decision are resolved.
The other professor, Steven Clark, was convicted of felony stalking and began serving a one-year jail sentence on June 23. Clark will be on unpaid leave until all of his internal appeals are finished.

A UW-Madison professor is now barred from campus, after 27 News uncovered the convicted felon was on campus as part of a work release program.

UW-Madison officials said they had objected to literature professor Lewis Keith Cohen’s placement on campus all along.

UW-Madison officials released a statement, that Cohen will be barred from campus, effective September 16.

A professor who used his university computer to send naked pictures to a boy he tried to meet for sex has been allowed to work at a University of Wisconsin-Madison library while on work release.

MADISON, Wis. – A professor who used his university computer to send naked pictures to a boy he tried to meet for sex has been allowed to work at a University of Wisconsin-Madison library while on work release.

Although the University of Wisconsin says the term ââ?¬Å?back-up appointmentââ?¬Â does not exist, the expression has been a sore point for both the state and UW System for the last three months.

Three institutes of higher-education research released a report Monday asserting that states must improve how well their public-school systems prepare students for college. The report calls for greater coordination between high schools and colleges, attempting to ensure that what is expected of students in high school correlates with what is needed to be successful in college.