Illegal immigrant students in college will not burden the state budget greatly. Like immigrant students of the past, they repay this country in dividends of creativity, economic vitality and hard work.
A Wisconsin lawmaker isn’t winning any friends in the Legislature with his proposal to save money by cutting the body nearly in half. “This is the only time I’ve asked for co-sponsors on a bill and didn’t get any,” veteran state Rep. Spencer Black, a Madison Democrat, said as his proposal went before a committee Thursday.
It would reduce the state Assembly from 99 seats to 57 and the state Senate from 33 seats to 19. Black estimates it would save about $10 million a year that could be used to boost student aids at the University of Wisconsin System or save other programs threatened by the current state budget crisis.
A state lawmaker said Thursday the Legislature needs to send a message of disapproval to the University of Wisconsin System after a school clinic urged students to get advance prescriptions for emergency contraception before leaving on spring break. (Associated Press)
Nine states have passed similar legislation allowing illegal immigrants to avoid paying costly out-of-state rates.
A state lawmaker said Thursday the Legislature needs to send a message of disapproval to the University of Wisconsin System after a school clinic urged students to get advance prescriptions for emergency contraception before leaving on spring break. (Fourth item)
Michael J. Spector of Shorewood and Judith VanderMeulen Crain of Green Bay have been named University of Wisconsin System regents, the governor’s office announced Thursday.
Quoted: Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A fledgling organization that wants to provide early-stage capital to high-tech start-ups and eventually spur development of a new research park could get $2.5 million in the next state budget. The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee has recommended funneling the money to the Biomedical Technology Alliance, which is seeking to forge various high-tech research efforts in the area into a stronger, more collaborative undertaking. Joining in the effort are the Medical College of Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Marquette University, the Milwaukee School of Engineering and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
Turnout among young Wisconsin voters in last fall’s presidential election was second highest in the nation, with nearly two-thirds casting ballots, a census report released Thursday says. Quotes Jennifer Knox, a UW-Maadison junior who led Vote 2004.
Now that Assembly Speaker John Gard and his pals have killed health insurance for domestic partners of University of Wisconsin System employees, can we please stop pretending?
It’s not about the money.
If it was about the money, legislators would have accepted language from Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, to allow the System to compete for employees by offering the benefits, providing they did so with existing money.
BY NOW, MOST PEOPLE know these two facts: (1) the cost of health care and insurance premiums is rising at break-the-bank rates, and (2) government employees receive better benefits, usually at little or no cost to workers, than those in private-sector jobs.
Assessing their weeklong trip around Wisconsin last week, new faculty and staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison kept choosing the same word: passion.
Here are some highlights of the 2005 Wisconsin Idea Seminar.
The battle over immigration issues is heating up in Wisconsin as lawmakers consider a proposal to let illegal immigrants who graduate from state high schools pay in-state tuition to attend public colleges.
Assessing their weeklong trip around Wisconsin last week, new faculty and staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison kept choosing the same word: passion.
They found it in the farmers and businesspeople and teachers they met across the state. But they also felt it in the history of Wisconsin and in their fellow faculty members – the phenomenal Bill Cronon, a font of knowledge about the state’s history and geology, and the incomparable Ada Deer, a lifelong fighter for American Indian rights – who revealed that history to them while they rode on the bus from stop to stop.
…Tagging along on the trip, I witnessed why the UW-Madison has earned its reputation as a top university. The handful of faculty and staff I met from the sprawling campus astounded me with their devotion to research, their deep curiosity and their dedication, ultimately, to making this world a better place.
An animal rights activist pleaded not guilty Tuesday to domestic terrorism charges that he freed mink from Midwestern farms in 1997, causing thousands of dollars in damage and spreading fear among the nation’s fur farmers.
Fifty Republicans joined a heavy majority of Democrats in passing a House bill Tuesday that would allow federal funding to support research using new lines of embryonic stem cells.
Four UW-Madison students were detained briefly by Capitol police Tuesday after they disrupted the Legislature’s budget committee, demanding that lawmakers protect state funding for higher education.
The chancellor at UW-Stout says the military, which does not accept openly gay recruits, is not acceptable on his campus.
The University of Wisconsin System on Monday began a review of Chancellor Charles Sorensen’s decision to reject an Army ROTC program as a means of protesting the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays, instituted by President Bill Clinton in 1993.
MADISON, Wis. – Four University of Wisconsin-Madison students were detained briefly by Capitol police Tuesday after they disrupted the Legislature’s budget committee, demanding that lawmakers protect state funding for higher education.
MADISON ââ?¬â?? As the Legislatureââ?¬â?¢s budget-writing committee wrestles with balancing the stateââ?¬â?¢s biennial budget, calls for additional cuts in spending by the University of Wisconsin System will likely move front and center. In some ways, thatââ?¬â?¢s logical: The UW System budget is one of the stateââ?¬â?¢s five biggest spending programs.
Four UW-Madison students interrupted yesterday meeting of the legislature’s budget committee…demanding lawmakers act to protect state funding for higher education. The students were detained briefly by Capitol police after they stepped in front of the podium and unfurled a banner reading…”cut tuition…not the budget.” Several members of the committee responded to the protesters with their microphones off.
(MADISON) The Legislature�s budget committee voted 13 to 3 yesterday (5/23) to reject the Governor�s plan to spend one million dollars to provide domestic partner benefits for University of Wisconsin System employees. (Second item.)
State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Palmyra, has made it his mission to be the Legislature’s attack dog against higher education.
The bombastic Republican never misses a chance to pick on the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other campuses in the UW System. For the most part, everyone recognizes that Nass is just chasing headlines, and his outbursts are treated accordingly. But every once in a while, he gets out of line.
That’s what happened last week when Nass denounced UW President Kevin Reilly for urging the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee to avoid further cuts in the system’s 2005-2007 budget.
Rob Carpick says he thought he might persuade state lawmakers to allow the University of Wisconsin to begin offering domestic partner benefits on the basis of simple economics.
So Carpick, who is gay, wrote the co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee earlier this month to explain that he’s brought in more than $2.5 million in research grants during the five years he’s been an assistant professor of engineering at the UW-Madison.
(Carpick) says the finance committee’s action – a 13-3 vote Monday against the proposal – came as a slap in the face.
Gov. Jim Doyle has proposed to boost state funds for the University of Wisconsin System by $49 million over the next two years – a proposal a key legislative committee is weighing today. Steep cuts at UW the last two years helped enable the state to close a huge budget deficit.
Madison – Legislative leaders voted Monday to not provide health insurance coverage to domestic partners, despite being told that the University of Wisconsin System has lost talented faculty members because of the current policy.
If I had my way, students wouldn’t pay any tuition to attend a public university.
That’s what I told a small, but vocal, group of University of Wisconsin students who attended a speech I gave earlier this month as they pressed me for remedies to the escalating cost of college tuition. And I meant what I said.
Saying the state can’t afford it, the Legislature’s budget committee nixed a provision of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget to offer family health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of University of Wisconsin System employees.
Backers of the proposal weren’t buying that explanation, however, after the GOP- led committee rejected a Democratic proposal authorizing such partners to obtain coverage but deleting the $500,000 a year in state money to cover projected costs.
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay chancellor Bruce Shepard issued a statement Monday saying any additional cuts to the UW System budget would severely impact his school.
MADISON, Wis. – The chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout says the military, which does not accept openly gay recruits, is not acceptable on his campus. (First item.)
MADISON – The Legislature’s budget committee voted Monday against providing domestic partner benefits to University of Wisconsin System employees, rejecting arguments from school officials that they are a needed recruitment and retention tool.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â?? Recent developments in Washington and Korea could have a lasting impact on Wisconsin’s stem cell community, putting more roadblocks in scientists’ search for funding.
MEDFORD – Gena Lynn Cooper, 22, of Mukwonago, was selected Friday night as Wisconsin’s 58th Alice in Dairyland over five other finalists.
Cooper graduated this month from UW-Madison with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry.
BROOKFIELD – As the state Legislature considers a merger of the University of Wisconsin campuses in Waukesha and Milwaukee, Waukesha County Executive Daniel Finley said Friday he sees the local campus possibly rivaling the medical center complex in Milwaukee in the future.
University of Wisconsin President Kevin Reilly has asked the Board of Regents to re-examine a decision made by UW-Stout Chancellor Charles Sorensen to reject bringing ROTC to campus.
Anti-tax activists will descend on the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Va., next month, for a two-day “TABOR Summit.”
FBI director Robert Mueller mentions that Wisconsin’s vibrancy and universities could make the state a terrorist target.
WHITEWATER, Wis. – Security for controversial Colorado professor Ward Churchill cost more than the price of bringing him to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus, according to new UW figures.
The president of the University of Wisconsin System on Thursday resurrected a proposed Army ROTC program at UW-Stout that had been rejected by the Menomonie school’s chancellor.
The decision by President Kevin P. Reilly to resume discussion of the program was welcomed by three Republican lawmakers from western Wisconsin who had complained about the decision not to offer ROTC.
WAUKESHA – A study to merge the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus with the UW-Waukesha campus is scheduled to be proposed today by state Rep. Scott Jensen, R-town of Brookfield.
The Precollege Scholarship Program will be expanded to serve more students from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as Iris, but race will no longer be a criterion. The decision to change the program came last year as the result of a reverse-discrimination complaint that will affect students coming into the program as of July 1. The program’s shift has met differing views. Some believe the change will reduce the number of minority students who get a chance at a college education, while others say the fight for equal rights is no longer based on race, but class.
A conservative lawmaker (Rep. Steve Nass) is denouncing University of Wisconsin President Kevin Reilly for urging the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee to avoid further cuts in the university’s 2005-2007 budget.
In a letter Wednesday to the committee, Reilly said there are elements in the proposed state budget that would help the university, but added “there are also several aspects that are already challenging us, such as having to cut at least 200 jobs and the lack of funding for a competitive pay plan, which is seriously affecting our ability to recruit.”
Legislative leaders voted Wednesday to accept pro bono legal services from a group linked to evangelical Christians to represent the Legislature in opposition to a lawsuit that aims to force the state to provide employment benefits to domestic partners of state workers.
The job outlook for college graduates is much better now than it was a few years ago. But Wisconsin businesses still face challenges in getting those graduates to work in our state.
Even though many Wisconsin students in UW schools will stay in state for their first jobs…many others will leave the state to begin their careers.
Many Wisconsin cities hope college graduates will stay in the state to start their careers, but that’s not always a guarantee, as many will hit the road, and it’s causing cities, businesses, and colleges to take a closer look at this phenomenon known as the “brain drain”.
“Being a business major is so broad, you can pretty much do a ton of different things,” says UWSP senior David Savides. That’s also how his job search has been over the last few months: broad.
For the second budget in a row, lawmakers have rejected Gov. Jim Doyle’s bid to balance the state’s books by diverting money from a fund that pays medical malpractice claims.
But members of the Joint Finance Committee warned Wisconsin’s doctors that they might not be able to parry another “raid” on the Patients Compensation Fund in the future, and urged physicians to consider privatizing the program.
Madison – With a diploma in hand and a career as a pharmacist set to begin, Matt Thill wants to be sure he won’t be held back because of his religious beliefs.
Last week, Thill, 24, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison pharmacy school. On Tuesday, he told a legislative committee Tuesday that he supports a bill that he says would protect his right to object on moral grounds to dispensing certain medications, including birth control pills and other hormonal medications that might interfere with pregnancy.
WAUWATOSA ââ?¬â?? Individually, each of the four major building projects underway on the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center campus and the neighboring Milwaukee County Research Park is impressive.
Regents President Toby Marcovich said in an interview that he would ask University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly to review the most cost-effective way to provide chancellors with cars after questions about a $700 monthly stipend the 15 chancellors and Reilly now receive.
The vehicle allowance for chancellors, set in August, was disclosed this month in an audit that legislators reviewed Tuesday during a public hearing.
In Greek mythology, the Golden Age was a time without war, property or labor. Gentle breezes rendered clothes unnecessary. Death came as painless as a catnap. At Marquette University, the Gold Age lasted about a week, and it was not quite as serene.
Matthew Thill, a fresh-faced 24-year-old from Marshfield, says he’s probably the only one in his 2005 University of Wisconsin Pharmacy School graduating class who would refuse to dispense birth control pills for moral reasons.
A lifelong Catholic, Thill said he didn’t learn how birth control pills worked until he was a sophomore in college – from a Web site, actually. That shaped his belief that the hormones in the pills can destroy fertilized eggs before they implant in the uterine wall.
The state should get another $126.4 million in revenue over the next two years, thanks to an unexpected increase in tax collections that lawmakers can use to whittle away at a $1.6 billion deficit.
New revenue estimates from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau and economic forecasts by Global Insight Inc. show the state will collect $349 million in taxes it didn’t foresee. But shortfalls in several state agencies and programs will draw that down to a net gain of $126.4 million, the fiscal bureau said.
BEN SCHUMAKER was helping out in an orphanage in Guatemala when he had the conversation that changed his life.
This was 18 months or so ago, and Schumaker, 23, had just graduated from UW-Madison with a psychology degree. He found out that a month in a Central American orphanage can affect your psyche every bit as much as four years on a college campus.
With experience on both campuses, the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha’s interim dean is setting out to negotiate a compromise with those aiming for a UW-Milwaukee takeover of its suburban neighbor.
As legislators begin to decide how much they can spend on schools and health care, a report Monday said the state’s rebounding economy will net an additional $349 million in taxes by mid-2007.
A fight between centrist and conservative Republicans over a bill to expand federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research has intensified in the past week as the House moves closer to a promised vote.
With 199 co-sponsors, supporters of the bill are confident that they have enough votes to pass it when leadership brings it to the floor this month, furthering the possibility that this legislation will become the first veto of President Bush�s tenure in the White House.
The battle over same-sex unions in Wisconsin is attracting new soldiers.
Assembly Speaker John Gard on Monday asked legislative leaders to accept a Christian public-interest law firm’s offer to help in defending the state’s refusal to pay health insurance for gay and lesbian partners of its employees.
27 News has uncovered state records showing that providing cars for UW Chancellors is costing Wisconsin almost twice as much as it costs to put other state workers behind the wheel.
Providing chancellors with cars is done through a unique arrangement that’s drawn criticism from some state lawmakers.
Early this morning, 40 professors, administrators and staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison boarded a bus on campus and embarked on a weeklong discovery of what makes Wisconsin special.
The Wisconsin Idea Seminar bus tour rolled off for its 21st year of providing new faculty and staff (and a few longtime faculty who come along) with a heightened appreciation of the unique and ongoing experiment known as the Wisconsin Idea.
