Supporters of a plan to merge a two-year University of Wisconsin System campus and nearby technical college in Washington County say they’ll go it alone after Gov. Tony Evers struck the proposal from the state budget this week.
Chuck Nicholson, agricultural economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it’s not unusual to see some milk dumping in late spring and early summer.
“We tend to see a peak in the production of milk per cow around this time of year,” he said. “That’s based on biology of the cow and the timing of what the climate looks like to make that milk.”
The board overseeing Wisconsin’s public universities on Friday approved spending nearly $60 million to finish several University of Wisconsin-Madison building projects that are over budget.
“It’s probably more common than we think,” said Dr. Bruce Klein of the University of Wisconsin Medical School.
We learn about a potential new bill that would aim to prevent losing top academic talent in Wisconsin to other states.
July is a key month for corn pollination, making the next few weeks all the more critical for the crop. That’s according to Jason Otkin, an associate research professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in drought.
“We’re entering a really important time of the year now for the corn crop — pollination in July is so critical. So if we stay dry, and if we get really unlucky and have a big heat wave, that’s going to do quite the number on the corn crop,” he told “The Morning Show.”
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says Republicans will withhold $32 million in funding for the University of Wisconsin System unless it ends diversity, equity and inclusion programming. The statement comes one day after a veto from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers reinstated 188 DEI positions at state campuses with a budget veto.
At least one member of the board overseeing the University of Wisconsin System is pushing for more transparency about the dire financial situation facing some campuses.
The governor protected the 188 positions within the University of Wisconsin System focused on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, a point of emphasis for Vos. Evers eliminated a tax break for people in the top two income brackets, prompting a rebuke from the Assembly leader.
Evers, who used his partial veto powers to rewrite portions of the Republican-authored 2023-25 budget, eliminated the earmarked funding that would have helped Washington County create a community college concept that merged the resources of UW-Milwaukee at Washington County and Moraine Park Technical College, both of which have campuses in West Bend.
Evers was unable to undo the $32 million cut to the University of Wisconsin, which was funding that Republicans said would have gone toward diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — programming and staff. The budget Evers signed does allow for the university to get the funding later if it can show it would go toward workforce development and not DEI.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Thursday the University of Wisconsin System won’t be able to get $32 million the Legislature set aside for its workforce programs unless it eliminates programs addressing diversity and equity.
Another area that Evers vetoed was the elimination of 188 jobs in the University of Wisconsin system that were focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, a Republican priority. He did not roll back a $32 million University of Wisconsin budget cut aimed at curbing funds for DEI programs, however. Under the Republicans’ proposal, the University of Wisconsin is still able to access those funds, but it must get approval from GOP legislators regarding its use first.
The UW System: A total of $1.7 billion will go to projects across the UW System statewide. Some of the big ticket items in there include $285 million for replacing Camp Randall Sports Center and turning it into an indoor football facility, $347 million for replacing the Engineering Building and demolishing the Computer Aided Engineering Facility at UW-Madison, and $231 million for demolition of Phillips Hall and the completion of a new Science/Health Science Building at UW-Eau Claire.
Aproposed community college pilot in Washington County is in jeopardy after Gov. Tony Evers vetoed $3.35 million in state funding for the project Wednesday.
Evers was unable to undo the $32 million cut to the University of Wisconsin, which was funding that Republicans said would have gone toward diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — programming and staff. The budget Evers signed does allow for the university to get the funding later if it can show it would go toward workforce development and not DEI.
Gov. Tony Evers has signed a Republican-drafted state budget that includes income tax cuts for most residents and a major increase in funding for K-12 education, more state aid to local governments and workforce housing. With his powerful veto pen, Evers spared 188 UW System diversity, equity and inclusion staff positions from elimination and eliminated tax cuts for the state’s two highest income brackets.
Evers also vetoed a plan from Republican lawmakers to eliminate 188 positions within the University of Wisconsin System focused on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, but maintained the $32 million cut in funding that was paired with the staffing reduction. Republicans put $32 million into a fund UW officials may request money from as long as the GOP-controlled committee approves the officials’ plans for its use.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a Republican plan Wednesday that would have merged the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Washington County with Moraine Park Technical College.
In signing the state’s two-year spending plan Wednesday, Gov. Tony Evers used his partial veto authority to ensure rising public school funding for four centuries, remove proposed tax cuts for top earners, and retain University of Wisconsin System diversity positions.
In addition, the budget also gives the University of Wisconsin System the ability to retain 188 positions that “had been targeted by the Legislature for work remotely related to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” per a press release from the governor’s office.
Evers was unable to undo the $32 million cut to the University of Wisconsin, which was funding that Republicans said would have gone toward diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — programming and staff. The budget Evers signed does allow for the university to get the funding later if it can show it would go toward workforce development and not DEI.
Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a Republican attempt to eliminate 188 UW System jobs related to diversity, equity and inclusion Wednesday, cuts that were intended by GOP lawmakers to curb DEI efforts on campuses across the state.
He said he would give the UW System the ability to retain 188 employees working in diversity, equity and inclusion offices that Republicans sought to eliminate.
Tommy Thompson, a former governor and former president of the UW System, said the time is now to address the fiscal future of the statewide public university system and overlaps with technical colleges across Wisconsin.
David Drake, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and Extension wildlife specialist, teaches a class on wildlife damage management. He said that the beaver population is not at risk of being endangered or threatened. Rather, he said, beavers, which are a rodent species like mice or rats, breed regularly.
“The beaver population is healthy in the state of Wisconsin, as it is throughout the United States. And I think the management is justified and I think it’s responsible and I think it’s ethical and professional,” Drake said.
UW-Madison senior Ciboney Reglos interacts with DEI programming “basically every single day” she’s on campus. She is the senior class diversity, equity and inclusion director and a board member for the Filipinx American Student Organization, one of at least 65 multicultural student groups competing for limited funding and campus programming space.
The median home price in Wisconsin has more than doubled over the last decade, as supply has failed to keep up with demand after homebuilding slowed during the Great Recession. That’s according to new data from the Wisconsin Realtors Association, or WRA, and a new report from the University of Wisconsin-Extension.
Steven Deller, professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison, authored the report. He said many were hoping to see downward pressure on prices in response to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, but that hasn’t happened yet. Deller said high mortgage rates have had a modest effect on demand for homes, but a greater influence on those who currently own a home to postpone older couples from downsizing or young families upsizing, keeping some homes off the market.
“The normal churn in the housing market, the new supply of housing or the increase of existing homes going on the market is actually dropping a little bit more than the decline in demand,” he said.
“When we think of both climate and air quality, we often think of it as something that happens to other people,” said Tracey Holloway, a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. “As climate changes, it’s changing everything for everyone.”
The Higher Educational Aids Board, which administers the program, did not respond to a request for comment. A similar grant program is available for students of color attending University of Wisconsin System schools.
“It is remarkable how hard-nosed tactics have become in Wisconsin politics,” said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Burden said, under state law, “It seems to me that the commission took no action on Wolfe as administrator.”
Evers previously said he would not sign a state budget that includes tax cuts for wealthy residents or maintains a $32 million cut to defund diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the UW System.
Both measures were included in the budget passed Thursday, but Evers has since softened his position and signaled he could support the UW provision because Republicans on the budget-writing committee included a companion provision that allows UW officials to request for the funding to be restored if the committee approves their plans for it.
The budget does not include state funds for a new engineering building on UW-Madison’s campus, a top priority for the university. A new building would replace the College of Engineering’s 83-year-old facility, adding over 1,000 engineering students per year.
Evers previously threatened to veto the entire budget over the University of Wisconsin’s $32 million cut, funding that Republicans identified as going toward diversity, equity, or DEI, programming and staff. But the budget would allow for the university to get the funding later if it could show it would go toward workforce development and not DEI.
Despite Evers’ recent call for the Legislature to make significant changes to the budget to ensure that he signs it into law, neither chamber this week made substantive changes to the document before passing it. He opposed the significant tax cut for the wealthiest Wisconsinites as well as the proposed cuts to the UW System’s diversity programs. Both remain in the proposal.
Under a Republican-led bill, Wisconsin high schoolers who graduate in the top 5% of their class would receive automatic admission to University of Wisconsin System schools, including UW-Madison.
The Wisconsin Senate voted to pass a two-year budget plan Wednesday that drastically cuts the state’s income taxes, decreases funding for the University of Wisconsin System and excludes many priorities that were originally included in Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal including paid family and medical leave and state funding for the Child Care Counts program.
Wisconsin students ranked in the top five percent of their class would receive a guaranteed spot at University of Wisconsin-Madison and at other state universities and technical colleges under a GOP bill.
The Republican-controlled state Senate on Wednesday passed a nearly $99 billion two-year spending plan for the state that again cuts taxes by more than $3 billion, using a windfall of unexpected revenue Wisconsin has amassed navigating the coronavirus pandemic.
“If the (North Carolina legislators’) position in this case had prevailed, it would have meant that the Legislature in Wisconsin could have done congressional redistricting any way it wanted, without the Wisconsin Supreme Court being able to engage in any review of that based on the state constitution,” said Rob Yablon, a professor and co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “Now the door remains open, as it has been, to the state court making sure that whatever the state Legislature does is state constitutionally compliant.”
Republican lawmakers drafting a bill that would require Wisconsin’s most competitive university to accept every top-ranking high school graduate in the state initially wanted the bill to apply to every high school in the country, lawmakers’ aides told reporters on Wednesday.
Another contentious spending provision in the budget the Senate approved Wednesday is Republicans’ plan to cut the University of Wisconsin System’s budget by $32 million in an attempt to force the school officials to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programming.
The final budget bill included some divisive language over cuts to the University of Wisconsin System. Republicans on the budget writing committee removed $32 million from the UW System budget to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs — a move which Democrats decried.
As approved by the budget committee, the spending plan would cut income taxes by $3.5 billion, boost funding for all K-12 schools by $1 billion, increase wages for state workers, increase transit funding by 2%, boost pay for prosecutors and public defenders and cut $32 million in DEI programming funds from the University of Wisconsin System.
Taxes would be cut across all income levels, with the wealthiest benefiting the most, and the University of Wisconsin would get nearly half a billion dollars less than it asked for under a two-year spending plan up for approval Wednesday in the state Senate.
Republicans plan to make no substantive changes to the state budget, meaning that a cut in funding to the University of Wisconsin System that puts the entire spending plan in jeopardy of being vetoed will remain, legislative leaders said Tuesday.
Wisconsin high school graduates ranking in the top 5% of their class would be guaranteed admission to the University of Wisconsin-Madison under a Republican bill expected to be introduced Tuesday.
Republican lawmakers have earmarked more than $3 million to help Washington County jumpstart a merged community college pilot program. The county is trying to preserve access to college in West Bend amid steep enrollment declines at UW-Milwaukee’s Washington County campus.
Another contentious spending provision is Republicans’ plan to cut the University of Wisconsin System’s budget by $32 million in an attempt to force the school officials to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programming.
The 2023-24 Wisconsin legislative session is underway, with debates brewing on issues ranging from public safety, abortion access, tax cuts and the state’s projected $7 billion budget surplus, funding for schools and more.
Republicans approved a plan Thursday to cut the University of Wisconsin System’s budget by $32 million in an attempt to force the school officials to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programming.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: The University of Wisconsin System’s budget would be cut by $32 million, leaving UW nearly half a billion dollars short of funding it requested. Republicans cut the amount they say would be spent on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, over objections from UW leaders who say they may have to raise tuition and cut programs in response. The budget also does not include funding for UW’s top priority building project, $197 million to demolish and build a new College of Engineering building on the Madison campus. Republican leaders say there are ongoing discussions about funding that project.
Republicans on the Legislature’s budget committee passed their version of the state’s two-year spending plan Thursday night, one that would cut income taxes by $3.5 billion across all brackets, including for the state’s wealthiest residents.
But Democrats objected, saying the tax plan would make the state less competitive when combined with GOP budget decisions to end funding for child care programs and cut spending for the University of Wisconsin.
Republican lawmakers who control the Legislature’s budget-writing committee on Thursday voted to cut funding to the University of Wisconsin System by $32 million and nearly 200 positions in an effort to eliminate diversity offices and programming on campuses.
Republican members of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee were poised Thursday to fulfill an earlier promise to slash funding for the University of Wisconsin System in an effort to curb diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programming on campuses across the state.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, ignited debate after indicating on June 13 that he wanted the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee (JFC) to completely cut diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) funding across the University of Wisconsin System.
The University of Wisconsin System, which does not have local property tax authority under state law, received around $15,079 per full-time-equivalent student. That funding ranked Wisconsin eighth worst in the nation.
University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman defended campus diversity programming this week as Republican state lawmakers consider cutting university funding by around $32 million because of opposition to those efforts.
Campus closures, tuition hikes and the end of some educational programs are all possibilities if the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee goes through with proposed cuts over diversity, equity and inclusion offices on campus, UW System President Jay Rothman said Monday.
