The issue of violence and mass shootings in this country is one that needs to be addressed. However, would allowing students to carry guns on campus actually decrease the chances of further gun violence, or would it lead to further tragedy?
Category: State news
Zebra mussels are in Lake Mendota — but what took them so long?
Quoted: “I’m surprised (at finding them), but I’m mostly surprised that it’s only showing up now,” said Center for Limnology professor Jake Vander Zanden, whose students discovered the mussels about two weeks ago along the Lakeshore Path, not far from the limnology lab.
Know Your Madisonian: UW-Madison’s Nick Smith boosts state’s wine and cider industry
Nick Smith is enologist for the UW-Madison College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, an expert on fermented beverages who leads the university’s efforts to support Wisconsin producers of wine and cider.
UW-Milwaukee officials say crime stats don’t mesh with gun proposal
Concerned that a Republican lawmaker cited an uptick in violent crimes in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee neighborhood while proposing students and faculty be allowed to carry concealed firearms at campuses across the state, UWM officials have produced crime statistics they say contradict the lawmaker’s statement.
Researcher says Wisconsin’s ‘campus carry’ authors are misinterpreting his work
The author of a study being invoked in the push to pass a “campus carry” bill in Wisconsin isn’t thrilled about the way his work is being interpreted, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported this weekend.
Wisconsin campuses don’t need more guns
We, the undersigned collection of instructors from colleges and universities in the city of Milwaukee, feel compelled to speak out against the bill recently proposed by Rep. Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum) and Sen. Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg).
Wary of conflicts, universities taking less money from drug companies
Facing state budget cuts to the University of Wisconsin system and dwindling federal funding, Robert Golden would love to find a pile of money somewhere.
Report: State outperforms nation in 36 of 54 health indicators
A new report shows that Wisconsin outperforms the national average on 36 of 54 health measures, but is still behind in the other categories, according to a release.
The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute “Opportunities to Make Wisconsin the Healthiest State” report shows Wisconsin lags behind the national average on 18 measures.
Assembly leader supports carrying in campus buildings
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he doesn’t have a problem with concealed weapons in university buildings.
Editorial: Allow ban on guns inside campus buildings to stand
The National Rifle Association and its supplicants in legislatures around the country and the U.S. Congress have a ready and facile answer for the problem of gun violence in the United States:
UW-Madison professor says campus carry bill causing ‘tremendous anxiety’
A state legislative proposal to end UW-Madison’s ban on guns in campus buildings is causing “tremendous anxiety” among faculty, said agronomy professor Bill Tracy.
How Guns on Campus Became a Live Issue in Wisconsin
Wisconsin was one of the last states to allow citizens to carry concealed weapons. Now it is in the vanguard of the debate about whether allowing guns on college campuses will protect students or put them more at risk of violence. How did the state get there?
Vos Says He’s OK With Allowing Concealed Weapons In UW Buildings
The Republican speaker of the state Assembly says he’s fine with people carrying concealed guns in university buildings, and likened it to carrying smartphones.
Legislators try to persuade panel to approve blaze pink bill
Noted: Majid Sarmadi, a University of Wisconsin-Madison textile expert who studied the visibility of blaze pink for Milroy and Kleefisch, told the committee that blaze pink is more visible against the orange fall landscape than blaze orange.
“The pink is more visible when everything is turning yellow and orange,” Sarmadi said. “The orange will get lost between those oranges that are there in nature. Therefore, it will be less safe.”
3 Democrats counter with bill banning weapons on Wisconsin campuses
A bill that would prohibit carrying a dangerous weapon on a university or college campus in Wisconsin bubbled up from state Democrats one day after a pair of Republicans introduced a bill that would allow guns inside campus buildings.
Student Leaders Blast Bill Allowing Guns In UW Buildings
University of Wisconsin student leaders from around the state are speaking out against a bill to allow concealed firearms on their campuses.
Campus Concealed Carry Proposal sparking controversy at UW Madison
Quoted: UW Political Science Professor Mike Wagner is voicing opposition on Twitter.
“Am I worried, about it? Yeah, I would be worried about going into a classroom knowing 120 students are not enjoying a lecture…or worrying themselves, yeah I worry.”
And UW Madison Police Spokesman Marc Lovicott says his department opposes the bill.
“We don’t feel putting more weapons in the hands of our students, even though they legally have a permit to do so elsewhere will make our campus safer.
Senate committee approves fetal tissue research ban
(Video) The state Senate’s health committee has approved a bill that would outlaw research using tissue obtained from aborted fetuses.
Fight Over Gun Rights At Universities Is About More Than Public Safety, Says Professor
Efforts to legalize concealed weapons in public university buildings across the country — including in Wisconsin — may be more about recruiting youth in a culture war on gun laws than actual public safety, says one law professor.
UW, technical college officials oppose bill allowing concealed carry in campus buildings
The leaders of Wisconsin’s public universities and technical colleges Tuesday lined up against a bill that would allow anyone with a concealed carry license to bring guns into campus buildings, classrooms, dormitories and stadiums.
Guns Would Be Allowed In UW Buildings Under GOP Plan
Two Republican lawmakers have proposed a bill that would allow guns inside buildings on University of Wisconsin campuses.
Lawmakers look to lift concealed carry restrictions on Wisconsin campuses
Concealed carry permit holders would be able to have their weapons with them on public college and university campuses in Wisconsin, under a bill being proposed by Republican lawmakers.
UW police urge lawmakers not to allow weapons in buildings
Noted: Police who protect the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus in Madison are urging state lawmakers not to allow concealed weapons to be carried into campus buildings.
UW-Madison Police spokesman Marc Lovicott issued a statement Tuesday coming out against the bill circulated Monday by Republican lawmakers.
GOP bill would allow concealed guns in Wisconsin college buildings
Two Republican state legislators have introduced a bill that would allow concealed carry gun owners to bring weapons into public university and college buildings in Wisconsin.
Senate committee to take up fetal tissue research ban
The Republican-controlled committee is slated to consider the bill Tuesday in the state Capitol. Passage looks all but certain and would clear the way for a vote in the full Senate.
Campus Carry: GOP lawmakers want to allow concealed weapons in public college buildings
People with concealed weapon licenses would be allowed to carry guns inside the buildings and classrooms of Wisconsin’s public universities and colleges under a bill introduced Monday by two state legislators.
On Wisconsin: Green Lake trying to set an example
GREEN LAKE – The surface of the state’s deepest natural lake was flat last week as Capt. Marty Valasek slowly piloted the 60-foot Escapade dinner boat 150 yards off Green Lake’s shoreline.
Regents okay lifting UW Madison out-of-state enrollment cap
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System has approved a plan to lift UW-Madison’s cap on out-of-state students. UW System President Ray Cross told the Regents on Friday that the state’s flagship university faces a demographic reality – a declining pool of Wisconsin high school graduates to choose from.
Bill would revamp state’s merit scholarship program
A state scholarship program for top students would undergo big changes under a bill at the Capitol.
The changes are meant to retain top students in districts across the state by offering a $2,250-a-year scholarship to one or more students, depending on the size of the district. The program allows students to use the scholarship money at any in-state school, public or private.
Committee approves lifting out-of-state cap for UW-Madison students
Noted: UW Chancellor Rebecca Blank told the committee Thursday the waiver would push the institution to recruit harder within and outside of Wisconsin. She added her institution is “uniquely situated” to make sure Wisconsin’s best and brightest don’t leave for colleges in other states, and to bring students from other states into Wisconsin and get them to stay for work.
“I’m looking at all sorts of ways to partner with industry in the state, with professional organizations in the state, to put industry and Wisconsin businesses in front of my students in a way when they get to their senior year, they’ve heard of these companies, they know something about them, they are more likely to go work for them,” Blank said.
Wisconsin Senate panel hears testimony on student loan debt refinancing bill
A Democratic proposal that would allow student loan borrowers in Wisconsin to refinance their loans at lower interest rates was given a public hearing on Wednesday, but its future in the Legislature is unclear. The “Higher Ed, Lower Debt” bill would create a Wisconsin Student Loan Refinancing Authority, modeled after the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.
Regents committee OKs lifting UW-Madison’s out-of-state student cap, sends proposal to board
MADISON, Wisconsin — A University of Wisconsin System committee approved a plan to lift UW-Madison’s cap on out-of-state students Thursday after the campus’ chancellor and system president insisted they need more freedom to attract fresh talent for Wisconsin employers.
UW students blast plan to lift out-of-state student limit
University of Wisconsin-Madison students are blasting a plan to eliminate the school’s limit on out-of-state undergraduates.
UW System rules currently cap the number of out-of-state students to 27.5 percent of the undergraduate population at each campus. UW-Madison officials plan to ask the Board of Regents this week to lift that school’s cap, saying in-state enrollment is dropping and they need new young talent that can bolster Wisconsin’s workforce. They would still enroll and maintain at least 3,500 Wisconsin residents in each new freshman class.
Wisconsin students criticize plan to lift out-of-state cap
University of Wisconsin-Madison students ripped a plan to lift the school’s cap on out-of-state undergraduates Tuesday, saying the move will lead to larger classes and justifying the change as a way to pump new talent into state’s workforce makes no sense.
Lakeshore marine shipwreck sanctuary designation closer to reality
MANITOWOC — There are stories hidden below the water of Lake Michigan. That includes shipwrecks – hundreds of them.
UW System Working To Reduce Reserve Funds
An annual update on the University of Wisconsin System reserves indicates overall, there’s less money on hand this year compared to last.
Green Lake boat tour
GREEN LAKE — Keeping water healthy in and around Green Lake, was the goal of an environmental field trip Monday.
Report: UW tuition balances shrank in 2014-15
The University of Wisconsin System’s tuition balance shrank last fiscal year and will drop dramatically over the next year as the system contends with a Republican-imposed tuition freeze and budget cuts, according to system financial reports and projections released Monday.
Wisconsin ‘Higher Ed, Lower Debt’ student loan refinancing bill set for Wednesday hearing
A bill that would make Wisconsin the first state to allow student loans to be refinanced at lower interest rates will be given its second public hearing in as many legislative sessions on Wednesday.
Report: UW-Milwaukee dipped deeper into reserve funds than UW-Madison
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee spent down more than twice as much money in fund balances as UW-Madison in the last fiscal year, and no longer has money set aside as a rainy day reserve, according to a report that the UW System Board of Regents will discuss at a meeting Thursday in Madison.
Lawmakers seek large increase in compensation for those wrongfully imprisoned
Quoted: “It’s in all of our interests to ensure that those who are wrongfully convicted are given the assistance they need,” said Keith Findley, director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project [at the UW Law School], who joined lawmakers for a news conference on the bill at the State Capitol Thursday morning.
Fetal tissue bills like Wisconsin’s are targeting research in at least five states
UW-Madison isn’t the only university to find the fetal tissue research battle on its doorstep as legislators seek to prohibit the use of tissue from aborted fetuses for research in light of the fallout from the Planned Parenthood sting videos. Since the release of the videos this summer, five states – including Wisconsin – have introduced legislation around fetal tissue donation and research, Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health advocacy group, told ThinkProgress. Arizona is looking at an administrative rules approach.
Planned Parenthood critics have new target — universities
Officials of the nation’s leading universities have watched with dread as the fallout from the Planned Parenthood sting videos has threatened to engulf labs that depend on fetal tissue for research.
Listening session held on tenure changes at UW-Madison
The first of three listening sessions on the faculty layoff protection proposals was held on Tuesday at the Health Sciences Learning Center near UW Hospital. The Faculty Senate approved on the new report earlier this month.
UW-Madison Chancellor debuts first issue of ‘Wisconsin Ideas’
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank launched the first issue of a new e-newsletter Tuesday that focuses on the university’s research projects that have a positive impact on Wisconsin communities, according to Blank’s blog, Blank’s Slate.
Railing against college debt, Warren fires up Feingold rally
Russ Feingold may be the Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin in 2016, but it was U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who dominated the stage Saturday when she laid out a liberal vision for the country in a rousing speech before hundreds of students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UW: Fetal cell line research key to biomedicine advances
Research using fetal cell lines has been going on since the 1940s. The cell lines — samples of cells from fetal tissues that can reproduce themselves in labs, making them essentially immortal — are essential to research toward medical treatments, said Dr. Bob Golden, UW-Madison’s vice chancellor of medical affairs.
UPDATE: Vos ‘optimistic’ Assembly will take up fetal research ban
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he’s optimistic the chamber will vote on a bill outlawing research on tissue taken from aborted fetuses.
Senate committee to hold hearing on fetal research ban
Wisconsin legislators are set to hold another public hearing on a bill that would outlaw research on tissue taken from aborted fetuses.
The Senate’s health committee was scheduled to hold a hearing on the Republican-authored measure Tuesday morning in the state Capitol. The Assembly’s criminal justice already has held a hearing and approved the bill, clearing the way for a full vote that chamber but it’s unclear how much support the proposal has among Senate Republicans, who are concerned the measure’s effect on research.
Fetal research ban authors try to persuade Senate committee
The authors of a bill that would outlaw research on tissue from fetuses aborted are trying to persuade the state Senate’s health committee to approve the proposal.
Sen. Duey Stroebel and Rep. Andre Jacque, both Republicans, told the committee during a public hearing Tuesday that the bill will stop atrocities and aborted children should be treated like humans, not specimens.
WARF opposes fetal tissue ban as Senate committee hears testimony on bill
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation added its voice Tuesday to those opposing legislation that would criminalize the use of fetal tissue in biomedical research.
Speaker Vos says fetal tissue ban short votes in Assembly
The top Republican in the state Assembly says a controversial proposal that would ban researchers from using most tissue from aborted fetuses likely does not have the votes needed to pass out of his chamber right now.
Rep. Dale Kooyenga says the UW System is larger than any business in Wisconsin
As students return to campuses across the state, the impact of the GOP-led $250 million two-year budget cut to the University of Wisconsin System — combined with the extension of a tuition freeze — is drawing new attention.
On the Capitol: Investigators suspected Jim Villa, now top UW official, of misconduct
No charges were filed against Jim Villa, the UW System’s vice president of university relations. But sworn statements released this week show investigators sought a search warrant for Villa’s home and office. At the time, he was president of the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin, and he was previously Walker’s chief of staff.
Questions and criticism surround survey on tenure at U of Wisconsin
Tenure is a touchy subject right now within the University of Wisconsin System, given the new limitations placed on the concept this summer by the state’s conservative-dominated Legislature. So a survey that arrived in faculty members’ inboxes earlier this week, asking for their opinions on tenure, drew immediate interest and participation. Sure, the survey asked some provocative questions, such as how much of a pay raise faculty members would need to give up tenure in exchange for multiyear contracts. But the survey had the imprimatur of a prestigious research institution, the University of Chicago, and a well-known political scientist was running the project. Plus, some faculty members welcomed the opportunity to vent about the ongoing challenges to tenure.
Wisconsin Senate leader hopes to pass fetal tissue ban
Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that despite that opposition, his goal remains to pass a fetal tissue ban bill this year. “I don’t know what form it will take,” Fitzgerald said. “The tricky thing is probably the research piece.”
On the road: UW System leaders travel around Wisconsin, connect UW to communities
University of Wisconsin System leaders are continuing to travel throughout Wisconsin to build stronger connections between businesses, citizens and higher education.
Wisconsin Senate leader hopes to pass fetal tissue ban
The Republican leader of the Wisconsin Senate said Tuesday that he wants to pass a bill banning the sale of tissue obtained from aborted fetuses, but he doesn’t know yet how it would apply to research.
Wisconsin Senate leader hopes to pass fetal tissue ban
The Republican leader of the Wisconsin Senate said Tuesday that he wants to pass a bill banning the sale of tissue obtained from aborted fetuses, but he doesn’t know yet how it would apply to research.
Hundreds enroll in UW flex option plan
Nearly 700 people enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s flex option program in the past year.