The few hundred unionized trades employees tending to University of Wisconsin System campuses are still waiting for a legislative committee to consider raises the UW System Board of Regents approved six months ago.
Attendees report being required to sign nondisclosure agreements, even at an on-campus event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Other items: Members of the committee also voted unanimously to release $1 million this year and nearly $8 million next year provided in the state budget for a UW System Dairy Innovation Hub housed at UW-Madison, UW-Platteville and UW-River Falls. Committee members also voted to release $22.5 million annually in performance-based funding to the UW System.
Noted: If Wisconsin were to legalize cannabis for medical uses, there would be a net $1.1 billion positive effect, bringing in additional fees and health benefits while potentially reducing opioid overdoses, addiction and traffic fatalities over five years, according to a cost-benefit analysis by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs. If the state were to decriminalize cannabis, it would save an additional $30 million in decreased criminal justice costs.
Proposed bills in the report include: Require state educational entities, including public and private schools and the University of Wisconsin System, to include suicide prevention information on student identification cards.
The School of Education serves as Wisconsin’s epicenter for educational research and teacher education, as well as hosting regarded programs in health and arts-related fields.
Noted: The report was described as an enhancement of the nationwide County Health Rankings & Roadmaps compiled through a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Noted: A legislative proposal pending in the Wisconsin Legislature is far from a light touch. It requires University of Wisconsin system colleges to adopt certain rules on free speech, including suspending for at least a semester students who have twice been found responsible for “interfering with the expressive rights of others.” Students who violate free speech policies three times must be expelled.
A legislative proposal pending in the Wisconsin Legislature is far from a light touch. It requires University of Wisconsin system colleges to adopt certain rules on free speech, including suspending for at least a semester students who have twice been found responsible for “interfering with the expressive rights of others.” Students who violate free speech policies three times must be expelled.
The bill would provide new funds to the UW Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project, to assist with the recovery, identification and repatriation of Wisconsin MIA service members.
The University of Wisconsin says it has received just $700,000 of the $100 million that Foxconn Technology Group pledged to fund engineering and innovation research on the school’s flagship campus.
Foxconn Technology Group may be falling behind on a huge monetary commitment it made to a university in Wisconsin – where it is expected to operate a multi-billion manufacturing facility.
Noted: If approved by lawmakers, the state would pay $180,000 annually to the University of Wisconsin MIA Recovery and Identification Project, which has helped find and identify the remains of three service members killed in Europe during World War II. While those military members were from other states, the dedicated group of UW volunteers and researchers will begin concentrating on bringing Wisconsin MIAs back home.
State Sen. Andre Jacque and Rep. Janel Brandtjen on Wednesday began circulating the latest bill, versions of which have failed in recent years given opposition from the University of Wisconsin, medical and research communities.
Noted: Under one bill, $224,000 would pay for two new employees within the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Profitability in Madison to help farmers with financial decisions related to the transfer of their operations to a new generation or new owners.
The bill, authored by Sen. André Jacque of De Pere and Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls, began circulating for cosponsors Wednesday and would prohibit the use of fetal tissue obtained from abortions for research or any other purpose.
Noted: Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at UW-Madison, said while Duffy’s district heavily leans Republican, it’s not impossible for Democrats to win it in a special election.
He said before the 2011 map making that redrew the district in Republicans’ favor, former President Barack Obama won the district by 13 points in 2008 when he won Wisconsin by 14 points. In 2012 — after the new maps were drawn — Obama lost the district by 3 points, Burden said.
Quoted: Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the district tends to favor Republicans.
“It really is a combination of the drawing of the district lines in a way that was intentional to favor Duffy and Republicans who were in charge of that process, but also just really migration of that district in the Republican direction,” he said.
Noted: Other elements of the campaign include specific outreach to University of Wisconsin System schools alumni and military veterans. Those initiatives, which include print advertising in alumni magazines and face-to-face outreach at military bases, are also expected to continue.
Noted: Friday’s announcement included the creation of a “PFAS Coordinating Council” that officials say will allow the DNR to target high-priority problem areas and better collaborate with other agencies such as the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and the University of Wisconsin System.
Foxconn announced a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison last year, pledging to provide a matching gift of up to a $100 million to help fund a new building for the College of Engineering. It’s unclear if any progress has been made on that deal.
UW-Madison spokesman John Lucas said Liu participated in an “introductory meeting” with university officials about “future partnership opportunities” Wednesday. Lucas declined to elaborate.
Republican legislators are re-introducing a bill that would punish students who interfere with campus speeches and presentations with suspension and expulsion.
“As the Governor of Wisconsin, he defunded Planned Parenthood, ended state-funded abortion coverage in state employee health insurance programs, and fought to stop the University of Wisconsin-Madison from training abortionists.”
The bill has yet to be proposed in the Legislature. Murphy’s office said the bill has gathered bipartisan support since it started circulating the Legislature for sponsorship, with Reps. Samantha Kerkman, R-Salem; Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma; Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport; and Shannon Zimmerman, R-River Falls; and Sens. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee; and Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville signing on.
Democratic lawmakers on Friday released a package of University of Wisconsin System bills that reflect many of the same priorities of campus leaders.
Since 2013 freezing tuition at the University of Wisconsin has been in place, but two Republican lawmakers said instead they want the UW Board of Regents to increase tuition and cap it each year no greater than the rate of inflation.
Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, and Sen. André Jacque, R-De Pere, are working on a bill that would ban student fee-funded building projects from moving forward without a majority of all enrolled students on campus approving the project in two consecutive referendums.
Quoted: Morgan Robertson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison geography professor who studies market-based environmental policy, is less certain. In the past, lawmakers and industry groups across the country have been too optimistic about farmer participation in water quality trading programs, he said.
“To the extent that that’s an attractive strategy at the state level — the 30,000-foot level — for somebody planning a statewide political response, it’s not necessarily an attractive strategy for Joe and Jane Farmer in Kewaunee County who have other kitchen-table concerns,” he said.
Noted: In some cases, Foxconn has not met timelines it laid down in its own announcements — announcements that may have been tied as much to political considerations as to actual business needs. And a University of Wisconsin-Madison spokesman said that because of changes at Foxconn there has been “no significant progress” in discussions related to Foxconn’s announcement last August that it would invest $100 million in the university.
Increases in how much students pay to attend University of Wisconsin campuses would be tied to the rate of inflation under a new bill that seeks to lay the groundwork for ending a near decade-long tuition freeze.
Noted: Preliminary data show there were 299 car crash injuries related to speed in Milwaukee County through Monday, compared with 224 through roughly the same period in 2010, according to the Community Maps database, an online tool developed by the state Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Safety and the Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That’s a 33% increase.
Meanwhile, Evers reiterated his support for some state-level issues, including allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses and making undocumented students eligible for in-state tuition to attend University of Wisconsin System schools. Both initiatives were in his budget proposal, though Republican lawmakers removed them.
Republican lawmakers are introducing a proposal that would put a cap on how much the University of Wisconsin System can raise tuition for students if the tuition freeze were lifted.
One Republican state representative is championing legislation that would set up a contingency plan if Wisconsin’s freeze on in-state undergraduate tuition goes away — a move he says could alter the discussion about lifting the freeze going forward.
Two Republican lawmakers aim to restrict how much the University of Wisconsin System can increase tuition if and when the undergraduate resident tuition freeze set to enter its seventh year is lifted.
From sauerkraut to schottisches, there’s no doubt hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites take pride in their German heritage. That influence will be explored in a new traveling exhibit called “Neighbors Past and Present: The Wisconsin German Experience” that you can check out right now at the Marathon County Historical Society in Wausau.
Quoted: Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, called the silence from most Republicans “surprising and puzzling.”
“I would expect members of Congress, in particular, to stand up for their colleagues in the Legislature who are being belittled by President Trump,” he said.
An expert on poverty says the state should raise its minimum wage and provide more help for families who are struggling despite record-low unemployment. University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Timothy Smeeding co-wrote a report that found Wisconsin’s poverty rate has remained stagnant for nearly a decade, fluctuating between 10% and 11% from 2008 to 2017.
The budget provides less than half of what the UW asked for and what they asked for wasn’t enough to sustain the System’s capacity to educate students.
UW System President Ray Cross also issued this statement: “The budget passed by the legislature makes a significant long-term investment in our campus infrastructure that will benefit students, our faculty, and the state for years to come … I also thank Governor Evers for his steadfast commitment to the University of Wisconsin System during the budget process, and everyone who continues to advocate for a strong UW System budget.”
The $81 billion state budget the Republican-run Legislature is approving this week includes $8.8 million for research on dairy farming at UW-Madison, UW-Platteville and UW-River Falls. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is expected to — and should — issue partial vetoes to improve the Republican-proposed budget. But he should leave the Dairy Innovation Hub intact.
Noted: Their budget would give an additional $58 million to University of Wisconsin schools, about half of what Evers wanted.
The GOP budget also falls short of Evers’ proposal for the UW System. UW System campuses over the next two years would gain about $45 million under the GOP plan, about half of what Evers and System officials wanted.
Education funding: The budget includes an almost $500 million increase in K-12 investments — $900 million less than what Evers sought — and around $58 million in funding for the University of Wisconsin System, some $70 million less than what the governor wanted.
A second Republican state senator said Thursday that he would vote against Wisconsin’s state budget, giving Republicans a razor-thin margin to pass the plan without help from Democrats.
A new group is forming to push for ending a University of Wisconsin System tuition freeze and more state funding for UW-Madison.
The new president of the board overseeing Wisconsin’s public universities will likely not move to undo any major changes spearheaded by his predecessors.
The Wisconsin State Bar Association along with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Marquette University law schools are preparing to honor long-time state Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson.
Noted: Graham, an associate at the firm, graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2008. Before joining Quarles & Brady, Graham served as a law clerk to state Supreme Court Justice Anne Walsh Bradley.
Wisconsin lawmakers are set to take up an $81.5 billion two-year spending plan this month that was written by Republicans but shaped by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Need more convincing? On just one Friday in September, there were more than 25 different events happening at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. And those are just college events — that doesn’t even include all the things happening in the city of Madison itself.
Wisconsin Republicans have rewritten Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ state budget in the past few weeks, pushing it through the Joint Finance Committee they control last week to set up floor votes in the full Legislature.
The UW-Madison, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Marshfield Clinic are spearheading a statewide effort to help the NIH build a national biomedical database of unprecedented depth and scope.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos views himself as one of the best landlords in Whitewater.
“If you are going to talk about the fact that I’m a landlord, it would be fair to say that, based on earlier news reporting, I am one of the better landlords and I have satisfied tenants,” said Vos,R-Rochester.
Quoted: Kenneth Streit, a University of Wisconsin Law School professor who specializes in juvenile justice policies and has represented juvenile offenders, said the bill passed in 2018 “budgeted an unrealistically low number — but one that both parties could live with.”
“Closing a correctional facility needs bi-partisanship. The crisis at Irma provided the critical moment that otherwise would never have come,” Streit said. “I think (Walker) didn’t want anything to do with it and wanted it to be ‘done’ so as to take it away as an election issue.”
In the battle over the 2019-’21 state budget, faculty salaries for the University of Wisconsin System have made for their own skirmish.
The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature is rejecting the voters’ message. They are cutting the budget requests to fund our public schools and the UW.
The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee on Tuesday voted to approve about $1.9 billion for state building projects, with about half earmarked for upgrades and renovations at University of Wisconsin System buildings, many of which have gone without repairs for years.
Republican lawmakers Tuesday approved $1.9 billion in construction projects and building improvements across the state — with more than half being spent on University of Wisconsin System campuses, approving the vast majority of what Gov. Tony Evers wanted for colleges and universities.
