Gov. Tony Evers took the unusual step Friday of ordering workers to remove all concrete slabs hanging over the entrances and exists of the University of Wisconsin System headquarters building, days after two slabs fell off the facade and crashed to the sidewalk outside the building’s main doors.
The Associated Students of Madison Equity and Inclusion Committee encouraged students to reach out to Wisconsin government leaders on Thursday, as part of their efforts to support transgender athletes.
Quoted: “I think it’s safe to say Wisconsin elections are now going to be mixed-mode operations for the foreseeable future,” said political scientist Barry Burden of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“A good chunk will vote on election day, as they always have, but there will also be a good chunk voting earlier,” either in person or with a mail ballot, Burden said.
Noted: University of Wisconsin students who get their vaccines will be exempt from weekly testing requirements under new system guidance.
UW System interim President Tommy Thompson asked campus chancellors Wednesday to allow students who have gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 to be exempt from the weekly COVID-19 testing regimen.
“One of the inducements, encouragements to not to have to go through testing is to get vaccinated,” Thompson said.
Quoted: It’s a step in the right direction, according to Barry Orton, a retired University of Wisconsin-Madison telecommunications professor who has helped local governments with telecom issues.
“The words are good,” Orton said, but the proof will come in the details.
Noted:
Also included in the budget: $100 million in borrowing for clean energy conservation projects at state agencies and the University of Wisconsin System, helping to meet goals of energy reduction and reduced utility costs. The savings on utility prices would be used to pay off the bonds.
A masked pedestrian walks near Camp Randall Stadium on the campus of UW-Madison on Thursday. The university is one of multiple Wisconsin universities that took dramatic steps to ward off or curb the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Yesterday, President Joe Biden unveiled a massive, two trillion dollar plan to improve the nation’s infrastructure. For more on what the plan entails, and what it means for Wisconsinites, WORT Producer Jonah Chester spoke with Greg Nemet, a Professor of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.
Specifically, the language would prevent any mandates that individuals seeking state or governmental services, looking to gain access to a building, or aiming to participate in any government function show that they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. It appears the language would apply to schools, the University of Wisconsin System and government-run nursing homes, to name a few.
The University of Wisconsin System will continue offering $500 tuition credits for nursing and pharmacy students who work at COVID-19 vaccination sites through May.
The State Building Commission deadlocked on Gov. Tony Evers’ capital budget Wednesday, which includes over $1 billion in UW System projects.
An example is a $600,000 item buried in Gov. Tony Evers’ $91-billion proposed two-year state budget. The money would expand a six-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison program designed to tap the expertise and energy of students on the flagship Madison campus to solve problems and improve lives in communities throughout Wisconsin.
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday rejected Gov. Tony Evers’ $2.4 billion spending plan to upgrade buildings across Wisconsin — nearly half of which would be spent on University of Wisconsin System campuses.
Quoted: Wisconsin’s slightly later move to Phase 1C doesn’t mean the state’s rollout is sluggish, though. It’s likely an indicator that demand has been high in Wisconsin among currently eligible groups, said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Some of the states have been opening up eligibility criteria earlier because I think in some ways they’ve hit a little bit of a wall,” Sethi said.
The State Building Commission on Wednesday failed to make any recommendation on Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ $2.4 billion capital budget, potentially jeopardizing the cost and construction timeline for dozens of state building projects.
Evers’ plan is funded by nearly $2 billion in new borrowing and includes $1 billion for the University of Wisconsin System. Among the projects Republicans rejected were a new state office building in Milwaukee, a host of projects at UW-Madison including the removal of two residence halls, an expansion of the Mendota Mental Health Institute’s Juvenile Treatment Center and more.
Quoted: “At some point, we are going hit a wall on vaccine rollout where we will not have as much acceptance,” said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Public hearings are planned for April 9 at UW-Whitewater, April 21 at Rhinelander’s Hodag Dome and April 22 at UW-Stout in Menomonie. The budget committee also will host an online session on April 28. The in-person public hearings will take place from 10 a.m. through 5 p.m. and will provide time for attendees to testify.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison hopes to remove two residence halls, relocate 10 departments and programs and ultimately tear down the obsolete Mosse Humanities Building by 2030.
Quoted: “Indoor settings with prolonged exposure present the greatest risk for transmission, hence why universal masking is particularly important — even if the individuals are immunized,” said Jim Conway, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute.
Vos also rejected Evers’ 2021-23 capital budget, which proposes spending about $2.4 billion over the next two years on state building projects, with about $1 billion of that going to the University of Wisconsin System.
Interim University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank teamed up Wednesday to address the Wisconsin Counties Association at its annual legislative exchange, responding to the governor’s budget announcement and sharing financial updates.
The Wisconsin bills would allow students to join teams only that correspond to their biological sex as assigned by a doctor at birth, unless the sport is classified as “coed.” It would apply to public and private schools, as well as the University of Wisconsin and technical colleges.
The Wisconsin Sea Grant recently released it’s biennial report addressing the organization’s progress on its four pillars: healthy coastal ecosystems; sustainable fisheries and aquaculture; resilient communities and economies; and environmental literacy and workforce development.
Part of the national Sea Grant, the Wisconsin Sea Grant has studied the Great Lakes for more than 50 years.
Jim Hurley, director of the Wisconsin Sea Grant, said it makes sense for the Great Lakes to be part of the Sea Grant because many of the issues that occur in the oceans and coasts also occur in the Great Lakes.
“Issues like sea level rise,” he said. “We’ve seen tremendous fluctuations in Great Lakes water levels. Where they may be looking on the ocean coast at small increments of sea level rise, we’ve seen changes in Lake Michigan of 4 feet over the course of maybe five or six years.”
The University of Wisconsin System leadership praised Gov. Tony Evers 2021-2023 budget proposed last week, as it nearly doubled the already-ambitious initial request to help UW pull out of its financial deficit.
Wisconsin lawmakers must implement permanent rule changes by May to meet federal guidance on university cases of sexual assault and misconduct, though the provisions are not likely to last long under President Joe Biden’s administration.
UW Health on Thursday moved back 4,000 COVID-19 vaccine appointments set for next week because of inadequate supply, as the state prepared to make educators and other groups eligible for shots Monday — adding some 700,000 residents to about 1.6 million eligible now.
Quoted: “Indoor settings with prolonged exposure present the greatest risk for transmission, hence why universal masking is particularly important – even if the individuals are immunized,” said Jim Conway, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute.
Patrick Remington, former epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s preventive medicine residency program, said if lawmakers who choose to go maskless are vaccinated against COVID-19, then the risk is lower.
“One obvious question for people not wearing masks is whether they have been vaccinated. If they have, then it seems to be a reasonable thing to do,” Remington said. “That is, the vaccine provides sufficient protection to significantly reduce the risk of becoming sick or getting others sick.”
Gov. Tony Evers delivered his $91 billion budget proposal last week, including $191 million in new investments in the University of Wisconsin System over the 2021-2023 biennium.
Quoted: David Canon is a political scientist at UW-Madison, and he echoes many of Gardner’s concerns.
“In my view, it’s clearly voter suppression…Our elections are very secure. The number of cases of voter fraud are so infinitesimally small that it’s just not something that changes the outcome of elections,” Canon says.
Noted: According to the announcement, the clinics will collaborate with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, the University of Wisconsin System, local public health departments and other local partners.
An initiative to erect a statue in honor of Vel Phillips — a prominent civil rights activist and the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School — at the Wisconsin State Capitol is more than halfway past its fundraising goal.
Gov. Tony Evers wants to spend $2.4 billion on building upgrades across Wisconsin — nearly half of which would be spent on University of Wisconsin System campuses.
Gov. Tony Evers proposed an increase of $190 million in investments in the University of Wisconsin System over the 2021-2023 biennium as part of a budget proposal delivered this week that prioritized funding for technical colleges and college access and affordability.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wants to spend about $2.4 billion over the next two years on state building projects, with about $1 billion of the proposed money going to the University of Wisconsin System.
At the UW-Madison campus, building projects would include Music Hall restoration, a new engineering facility, utilities renovation on Engineering Drive and a new College of Letters and Science building that relates to the university’s goal of demolishing the Mosse Humanities Building.
But three of the governor’s major spending priorities deserve broad bipartisan support:
At least three-fourths of all University of Wisconsin System classes will be in-person this fall according to system interim President Tommy Thompson.
University of Wisconsin System interim President Tommy Thompson told campus chancellors to aim to have at least 75% of their courses in person next fall, with the hope that COVID-19 vaccines will allow a return to some normalcy.
The legacy of Vel Phillips is one filled with firsts.
In 1951, she was the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. In 1956, she was the first woman and first Black member of Milwaukee’s City Council. In 1971, she was the first woman and first Black judge in Milwaukee County.
In the 2021-23 budget package Gov. Evers presented Tuesday, an additional $191 million is allocated towards the UW System — doubling the number UW officials asked for and marking the largest state funding increase in nearly two decades.
Phillips, who died in 2018, experienced many “firsts” in her lifetime. She was the first Black woman to graduate from the UW-Madison Law School, the first female judge in Milwaukee County and the first Black judge in Wisconsin.
Gov. Tony Evers is calling for a major spending boost in public higher education, doubling the University of Wisconsin System’s own request in a proposal that would be the System’s largest state funding increase in at least two decades.
In higher education, Evers is looking to direct $191 million more in general purpose revenue toward the University of Wisconsin System over the next two years, including funding to backfill the continued tuition freeze implemented by former Gov. Scott Walker.
Evers’ $91 billion budget includes $1.6 billion in new tax revenue along with about $600 million in tax cuts, a major boost in University of Wisconsin funding and extension of the tuition freeze, and 2% annual raises for state employees.
Evers’ budget would increase state spending on the University of Wisconsin System by about $192 million over the next two years. The governor would continue the UW System tuition freeze and backfill it with more than $50 million in state funding to offset the lost tuition revenue.
It’s a challenging time for colleges and universities, and for the students who want to attend those institutions to prepare for life in a rapidly changing world.
“Especially now, with COVID, we are seeing that (high school) seniors especially are having a difficult time getting prepared for college,” UW-System President Tommy Thompson said at a Feb. 3 press conference announcing plans for a new precollege pipeline initiative.
Quoted: When studying the impact of mask mandates, it’s important to consider whether people follow them and if they’re enforced, said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said it can be difficult to assess mandates individually when they’re issued with other public health guidelines, but he believes the Kansas study offered compelling data on the matter.
“You could argue that with or without a mandate, people might wear a mask because that’s what they do and the mandate is just confirming what they do,” he said. “At the end of the day, an entire county had fewer cases.”
Quoted: The rate has stayed consistent in the state with the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Workers earning minimum wage who work 2,000 hours a year — 40 hours for 50 weeks — make about $14,500 before taxes and work expenses.
“That’s just about enough to keep one single person out of poverty,” said economist Tim Smeeding, a professor of public affairs and economics at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Erica Turner, a University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor who specializes in equity issues, said the incoming superintendent will face steeper-than-usual challenges. Education funding in Wisconsin, as in many states, hadn’t fully recovered from the recession more than a decade ago by the time the pandemic began. With some state revenue sources having taken a hit, and the unexpected costs of managing a pandemic, Turner said the new superintendent will likely have to contend with more limited funding.
“This is an equity issue because it has been the case, and it’s likely to continue to be, that a lot of the cuts will come from equalization aid — efforts to make school funding more equitable,” she said. “For educational equity, you need someone who can be an effective advocate around the budget, and then also will have to prioritize that what cuts happen, and how they happen, happen in an equitable way.”
Quoted: Barry Burden, director of UW-Madison’s Elections Research Center, said the fall spending levels appears to be a case of politics in Wisconsin “moving in line with some surprising national trends.”
He said both the presidential campaigns and congressional campaigns around the country more than doubled their spending from 2016, and the jump may be the biggest step increase ever between two consecutive presidential election cycles.
Quoted: “Overall, when I read the study, I think I’m looking at clear documentation of racial disparities in sentencing in the in/out decision,” said Pamela Oliver, an emerita sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Oliver said disparities in sentencing usually show up with a judge’s ruling on whether to lock someone up — which she called the “in/out decision” — not in the length of the sentence. She said that was the finding of the 2007 Wisconsin Sentencing Commission report, which was removed from the state website several years ago.
Included is $12.2 million in minor facilities renewal projects at UW-Madison. The university plans to replace outdated fire alarm and smoke detection systems and steam distribution pits, according to the Board of Regents’ capital planning and budget committee meeting materials.
UW-Madison and its affiliated entities are an economic engine contributing $30.8 billion a year to the Wisconsin economy, according to a new report commissioned by the university and funded by UW Foundation.
Evers’ office announced Monday he has appointed John W. Miller to the UW Board of Regents, an 18-member board that passes policies and rules for the University of Wisconsin System campuses.
First, education is king. Don’t ever allow UW-Madison to be anything but a premier, world-class institution. State and private dollars invested now will be leveraged considerably by virtue of the fact that most of the federal investment will go to expanded research at universities such as UW.
After years of wage freezes, a union representing 225 UW System trade employees negotiated a 1.81% raise for this year, which ended up being less than the 2% raise their non-union colleagues received … “There’s been a range of responses to Act 10,” David Nack, a professor in the UW-Madison Department of Labor Education said. “Workers often want to or need to find a way to effectively represent their interests with their employer. Act 10 doesn’t change any of that.”
New figures show the University of Wisconsin System saw $317.7 million in lost revenue and additional expenses between March and December as universities continue to weather the widespread budgetary impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 has caused the “biggest financial disaster” the university has ever seen, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said. Through federal stimulus money, furloughs, pay cuts for leadership, travel restrictions and targeted budget cuts to different units, Blank said she’s optimistic the financial gap can be resolved over the next two years. But she also renewed her case for giving the university borrowing authority.
Over 200 University of Wisconsin nursing and pharmacy students have volunteered to help administer COVID-19 vaccines at statewide mobile clinics in local high-need areas.
