No one is ever going to accuse the Republicans who run Wisconsin’s legislative Joint Finance Committee of being the sharpest tacks in the box. And their failure to approve funding for a new College of Engineering facility for the University of Wisconsin-Madison is another example of their profound cluelessness.
Around $100 million in private donations for a planned engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are at risk after Republican lawmakers pulled the project from the state’s capital budget.
After a stinging defeat by the Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee, which last week rejected a new engineering building at UW-Madison, campus and University of Wisconsin System leaders vowed to bring the project to fruition.
Republicans on the Legislature’s budget committee voted for a $2.4 billion capital budget Thursday, the largest of any state building program in years but considerably smaller than the one proposed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
The capital budget would also leave out funding for several key projects, including a new school of engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the UW System’s top priority.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s new engineering building is in jeopardy after the state Legislature’s powerful state budget-writing committee voted to leave the project out of its $2.4 billion spending plan for state building projects.
Republican lawmakers have rejected funding for the University of Wisconsin’s top priority, the proposed replacement of an engineering building on the Madison campus.
The Legislature’s powerful budget writing committee on Thursday signed off on state building projects for the next two years that total more than $3 billion.Not on that list, however, was a new engineering building for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which university officials have said is a “top priority.”
GOP lawmakers rejected funding Thursday for the University of Wisconsin’s top priority, the replacement of an engineering building on its flagship Madison campus, approving allocations for about 60% of the state government and UW projects sought by Gov. Tony Evers.
The GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee on Thursday also rejected Evers’ request to spend nearly $350 million to fund a new engineering building on UW-Madison’s campus, a top priority for the school.
“Today is certainly a sad day for UW-Madison, but the real tragedy is for the state of Wisconsin,” Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said. “This building would promote the state’s economic development. It would create significant workforce opportunities. It would propel innovation.”
Republicans’ proposed capital budget does not include the $347 million that Evers proposed to build 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, which is currently in “poor and unsatisfactory condition,” adding over 1,000 engineering students per year.
The president of the University of Wisconsin System warned Thursday that all but three of the four-year UW campuses will run at a deficit by the end of the 2023-2024 school year.
University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman is calling on lawmakers to provide more funding to the system.
Without increased state funding, the University of Wisconsin System is projected to reach a $60.1 million structural deficit by the end of 2023-24, according to figures released Thursday by UW System President Jay Rothman.
Most University of Wisconsin System schools will fall millions of dollars short of the money needed to maintain operations by the end of 2023-24 without additional state support, System President Jay Rothman warned Thursday.
As lawmakers consider the next round of spending on higher education in Wisconsin, new data shows per-pupil taxpayer funding for state technical colleges is more than twice as high as it is for state universities. At the same time, the University of Wisconsin System says 10 of its 13 universities have structural deficits ranging from millions to tens of millions of dollars.
As Republican state lawmakers consider limiting future University of Wisconsin System tuition increases for residents, UW officials say most campuses cannot meet ongoing expenses with current revenues.
The state’s Legislative Black Caucus pushed back against Republicans who are targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programming on University of Wisconsin System campuses.
Wisconsin’s budget forecast dipped slightly Monday, but the latest projection still calls for the state to collect about $6.9 billion more than anticipated by the end of June.
The new forecast also comes ahead of votes in coming weeks over tax cuts, funding for K-12 schools and the University of Wisconsin System and a host of other priorities and programs as lawmakers piece together the next two-year state budget.
Coumbe Gitter, who got her degree in biochemistry with an environmental science minor, graduated in good company outside of her own family tree — Saturday’s ceremony was the largest commencement in UW-Madison history, with 7,826 degrees conferred, according to UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin.
In an Assembly committee hearing focused on concerns about free speech on campuses, Rothman said diversity statements could be perceived as political or ask an applicant to agree with a particular viewpoint. He told chancellors in a Wednesday letter to eliminate the requirement of such statements by June 30.
These changes would cut back on delays and roadblocks that drive up prices, said Kurt Paulsen, professor of urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Housing dies a death of a thousand cuts because every change, every delay, just adds costs,” Paulsen said.
The University of Wisconsin System will still launch its Wisconsin Tuition Promise this fall, using $13.8 million it has on hand to fund the program for low-income students.
Unfortunately, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, decided last week to declare war on these programs. Vos’s timing could not have been worse, and his thinking could not have been more wrongheaded.
Noted: Pocan’s $24 million also covered 15 projects, including $3 million for a Dane County water filtration upgrade, $2 million to expand a Green County YMCA, and $3 million to build a new food pantry in Madison. It also includes a $2 million request for the University of Wisconsin-Madison to aid in PFAS contamination research.
Vos, R-Rochester, told conservative WISN-AM radio host Jay Weber that he’s open to cutting more funding, saying the nearly $14 million only reflected positions explicitly mentioning diversity, equity and inclusion, “not the funding that actually implements much of their left-wing agenda.”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison campus erupted in protests this week over a student’s racist video. Meanwhile, the UW System is getting even more serious pressure from the state Legislature for perceived liberal bias.
The panel, organized by two University of Wisconsin-Madison staff and faculty lobbying organizations, took place just hours after committee Republicans voted Tuesday in one sweeping motion to strip more than 500 items from Evers’ budget. Among those provisions were 14 UW System initiatives, including funding for programs that would make college more affordable for students.
As Wisconsin lawmakers weigh their funding goals for higher education, two campuses are winding down due to declining enrollment and financial woes. We hear from Washington County officials aiming to save a struggling two-year college. Then, an education reporter brings us the latest news in Wisconsin higher education.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos encouraged the UW System to remove campus diversity offices days after a video of a UW-Madison student expressing harmful rhetoric against the Black community circulated on social media.
The state’s top Republican wants to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion offices at public universities and hinted at potential budget cuts if the University of Wisconsin System fails to make a good-faith effort on his request.
Vice Chancellor for University Relations Charles Hoslet said that the university has positively impacted every part of the state since it was founded in 1848. “From the beginning, UW–Madison has been a vital contributor to the state’s industry and economy, and has helped raise people’s standard of living,” Hoslet said.
A “ground blessing ceremony” — which couldn’t accurately be called a groundbreaking ceremony, as a pit already exists where two former maintenance buildings stood — was held Tuesday, with university officials celebrating the growth of the school and emphasizing the importance of data analytics to UW-Madison and society going forward.
“That is what I’m most excited about this building and what we’re doing here,” Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said Tuesday. “To solve real, important problems in the world, so often we must engage across. We can’t do that if we’re siloed. We can’t do that if we’re wearing blinders.”
If state lawmakers want to survey University of Wisconsin System faculty and administrators on free speech, they need to do something they didn’t do for a similar survey of students last fall, the student survey’s producer said Thursday.
While public funding for the state’s technical colleges is one of the highest in the nation, the University of Wisconsin System is among the lowest funded, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum.
The report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum showed Wisconsin lagged behind the national average, and well behind its Midwest neighbors in tax funding and net tuition revenue per full-time equivalent student in 2021.
Public funding for the University of Wisconsin System ranks as one of the lowest in the nation, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
In-state undergraduate students in the University of Wisconsin System will see the first tuition hike since Republican state lawmakers instituted a tuition freeze a decade ago.
The UW System Board of Regents on Thursday approved the tuition hike with 16 members voting in favor and one voting against. Regents Héctor Colón and Jennifer Staton were not present. The average increase of 5 percent comes as a GOP bill aims to limit the board’s tuition setting authority once again.
The Board of Regents voted to approve the tuition increase Thursday in a meeting at UW-Stout. Resident undergraduate tuition and fees will be an extra $323 to $468 — a 5% average of $414 among the 13 universities — according to the UW System. Housing and meal plan rates will also go up by an average of $294, or 3.5%.
University of Wisconsin System students will have to pay hundreds of dollars more to attend classes next year under a plan system officials overwhelmingly approved Thursday.
The UW Board of Regents on Thursday approved a 4.5% in-state tuition base increase. Proposed by System President Jay Rothman to lawmakers earlier this month, tuition for in-state undergraduates will increase by $372 at UW-Madison, $364 at UW-Milwaukee, $283 at other System four-year schools and about $214 at most branch campuses.
Republicans on Wisconsin’s State Building Commission have rejected every recommendation in Gov. Tony Ever’s $3.8 billion capital budget request, which includes nearly $2 billion for University of Wisconsin System projects.
Noted: Nearly half of the money in Evers’ plan would be spent on University of Wisconsin System campuses. The $1.8 billion would help fund a new engineering building at UW-Madison, expansion and renovation of two dorms at UW-Oshkosh and completion of a science center at UW-La Crosse.
Republican lawmakers on the State Building Commission have rejected Gov. Tony Evers’ capital budget proposal for 2023-25 — including a new engineering building at UW-Madison — again ceding power over approving state construction projects to the Legislature’s budget committee.
Aloan forgiveness program for UW-Madison graduates who teach in Wisconsin classrooms for at least three years has been extended by another year as districts across the state continue to grapple with staffing shortages.
With a $5 million gift from bestselling author James Patterson and his wife Susan Patterson, a children’s book author and UW-Madison alum, the program will now go on through the 2027-28 academic year. Launched in 2020, the over $26 million initiative funded by donors was initially planned to last five years but was extended last March through the 2025-26 academic year.
The UW System is funding the first year of the Wisconsin Tuition Promise program, which launches next fall and provides full tuition coverage for new, in-state freshmen and transfer students whose families earn $62,000 or less. The program is open to students attending any UW campus except UW-Madison, which already offers its own tuition promise program that isn’t funded with taxpayer money.
Evers wants to provide the University of Wisconsin System with a funding increase of $305 million. Republicans are unlikely to go along with an increase as large as what Evers is seeking.
“It is the very essence of the Wisconsin Idea, which holds that the university — and its people — are committed to helping the state find solutions to its most pressing challenges, whether they’re big or small,” said UW System President Jay Rothman in remarks at Research in the Rotunda.
The University of Wisconsin System wants to increase tuition for in-state undergraduates by about 5% next school year, UW System President Jay Rothman said Thursday.
University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman will propose a 5% tuition increase for the next academic year, he told the state Assembly’s higher education committee Thursday.
University of Wisconsin System students would face a 5% tuition increase next year under a plan the system’s president, Jay Rothman, unveiled Thursday.
University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman is proposing a 5% in-state tuition increase for the 2023-24 academic year, the first for the System in a decade.
Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, and Sen. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, introduced the bill earlier this week to protect Wisconsin students from the possibility of soaring tuition rates when the current freeze ends. Their research found that tuition increased 27% after a single-year freeze in 1967 and 8% after a 1999 freeze.
About $1.8 billion would go to the UW System for brick-and-mortar building projects. Other big-ticket items include $41 million for fiberoptic upgrades to the state Capitol to improve cellular service, an additional $60 million for the new Wisconsin History Museum to offset rising construction costs and $190 million for juvenile corrections facilities that would eventually lead to closing the state’s long-troubled Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth prisons.
Under Evers’ proposal, released Tuesday, nearly $1.8 billion would go to the UW System — about three-quarters of the System’s requested $2.4 billion. In his previous budget two years ago, Evers proposed $1.1 billion for the UW System, with Republicans ultimately approving $629 million.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday proposed spending $3.8 billion on building projects in 28 counties around the state, with nearly half directed toward work across the University of Wisconsin System.
“We thank Governor Evers for prioritizing this critical project,” UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing to work with lawmakers to share the tremendous value of an engineering facility, both to grow our number of engineering graduates and for our world-changing research in areas ranging from clean energy to semiconductors to transportation, areas that are critical to the economic development of the state.”
Gov. Tony Evers announced a significant funding increase for higher education in his much anticipated 2023-25 biennial budget address last Wednesday.
The University of Wisconsin listed a new building for the College of Engineering as a priority in a recent report — citing that the new building would help produce new graduates in fields Wisconsin employers desperately need.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers unveiled his proposed biennial budget proposal for the 2023-2025 fiscal period Feb. 15. Included in his proposal was a $305 million increase in funding for the University of Wisconsin System, according to the Office of the Governor.
