‘Fill the Hill’ at UW-Madison kicked off at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 9. The event is the university’s largest fundraising day, allowing donors to gift money to student groups for 24 hours.
To celebrate the event, a flock of flamingo rubber duckies will be dumped into the fountain at Library Mall at 9 a.m. on Friday Oct. 10. Participants can rescue them with a net and keep the ones they catch.
Thousands of pink plastic flamingos will once again cover Bascom Hill as the University of Wisconsin–Madison celebrates its 13th annual Fill the Hill fundraiser.
The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association hosts the event each fall as part of the University’s day-of-giving campaign. Each donation of $5 or more adds another flamingo to the growing flock on the hill.
wo more MacArthur fellows were added Wednesday to UW-Madison’s growing list of faculty who have received the prestigious award.
Since 1985, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has granted eight UW-Madison professors the fellowship, which often is referred to as a “genius award.”
Two UW-Madison professors have been named MacArthur Foundation fellows, called “genius awards,” for their work in studying weather patterns in the tropics and investigating the effects of nuclear weapons.
UW-Madison professors Ángel F. Adames Corraliza, who is an atmospheric scientist, and Sébastien Philippe, a nuclear security specialist, were selected Wednesday for the prestigious fellowships. Fellows receive $800,000 paid out over five years for any use.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named atmospheric scientist Ángel Adames Corraliza, 37, and nuclear security specialist Sébastien Philippe, 38, as recipients of the prestigious MacArthur fellowship. Also known as the “genius grant,” the national award is given annually to a small group of people across a range of disciplines who show exceptional creativity in their work and future ambitions.
Some University of Wisconsin-Madison research will be affected due to the federal government shutdown, according to a message from both the Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration and of Research.
UW-Madison ranked sixth nationally for research expenditure in 2024 and is at risk for delayed research project funding after the shutdown.
University of Wisconsin-Madison officials said the university’s ethnic studies requirement will remain in place Wednesday, as a plan to standardize required courses across the University of Wisconsin System left the requirement in ambiguity.
For Ángel F. Adames Corraliza, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the award is also a recognition of the talent and grit coming from Puerto Rico, where he is from, despite the hardships his community has endured. His research has uncovered many new findings about what drives weather patterns in the tropics, which may eventually help improve forecasting in those regions.
Adames said usually one of his classes would be ending right when the foundation would publish the new class of fellows, so he was planning to end the lecture early to come back to his office. He said he’s having trouble fathoming what it will be like.
“I am low-key expecting that a few people are just going to show up in my office, like right at 11:02 a.m. or something like that,” he said.
Since the fellowship launched in 1981, fellows have included writers, scientists, artists, social scientists, humanists, teachers and entrepreneurs. While no institutional affiliation is required, the award went to the following 2025 fellows with ties to a college or university:
Overall enrollment held steady. The number of graduate and international students declined, as anticipated. And the University of Wisconsin-Madison welcomed roughly 1,000 of the state’s top students through a new program this fall.
Those were among the key takeaways after Wisconsin’s flagship university released its latest enrollment numbers, based on a student census conducted on the 10th day of classes.
Universities of Wisconsin proposal to redesign general education curriculum would eliminate requirements that students take an ethnic or cultural studies class.
UW system administrators are trying to standardize general education requirements to comply with reforms approved during the biennial budget negotiations aimed at making it easier for students to transfer credits between the 13 universities.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, for the 2026 academic year went live Wednesday as scheduled, despite the government shutdown.
Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman is urging high school students and their families to fill out FAFSA paperwork if students plan to attend one of the state’s 13 public schools or other private colleges.
UW officials say a government shutdown could affect research operations on campus, depending on the length of the shutdown and the guidance provided by federal agencies.
UW-Madison’s School of Computer, Data, and Information Sciences celebrated its new home Friday.
Morgridge Hall is a privately funded $267 million investment, with Tashia and John Morgridge as the building’s principal donors.
As the fall semester begins, UW–Madison remains committed to maintaining a safe, inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of the campus community, according to UWPD Chief of Police Brent Plisch.
International freshman enrollment at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has dropped to its lowest level in at least a decade, according to recently released admissions data for the fall semester.
“What we study is thinking about new technology that would be a way to start up future fusion devices. And it’s really looking at, how do you reduce the cost and complexity,” said Steffi Diem, an assistant professor at UW-Madison and principal investigator of the Pegasus Three experiment. “And our technology looks at building. It looks kind of like a small lightsaber that injects, you know, the fuel in it, and then we capture it by a magnetic field.”
UW-Madison continued its rise in the latest U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings for 2026, moving up one spot this year to 12th among public colleges.
In the national rankings released Tuesday, UW-Madison also swung up by three places as 36th overall out of 438 universities across the country. UW-Madison previously has ranked higher and also lower — in the 2025 rankings the university was 39th overall and it was 35th overall for 2024.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison opened the new Computer, Data and Information Sciences (CDIS) building at the start of the fall semester, bringing together three of the campus’s fastest-growing majors under one roof and establishing a hub for research, education and outreach in technology.
UW-Madison is getting an extra $13.5 million to add two floors to the lab it’s constructing for a new cyclotron particle accelerator, which can be used to help detect cancer.
The UW Board of Regents approved the revision to the project Thursday, which will create more space to treat patients for cancer and other diseases at the facility, amid a booming biotech industry.
A University of Wisconsin Board of Regents committee has signed off on a $13.5 million expansion of a planned cyclotron particle accelerator research facility that will create radioactive isotopes used in cancer research, detection and treatment.
People attending the UW Board of Regents’ meeting last week will go through a security screening to enter the venue.
Under the new measures, attendees will be required to walk through metal detectors, and anyone who refuses a screening or has a prohibited item will be denied entry to the venue, according to Regents meeting materials released ahead of the meeting.
Patients with cancer could be diagnosed and treated in one building if UW-Madison gets approval for its expanded multimillion-dollar cyclotron lab.
Construction for a $48.5 million cyclotron lab between two research buildings next to UW Hospital was expected to start this year, but the university now is seeking the green light from the UW Board of Regents to add more space for patient treatment and research.
A new bill introduced by four of Wisconsin’s republican legislators focuses on free speech at University of Wisconsin System institutions and technical colleges. The proposed legislation aims to uphold First Amendment protections and ensure due process in disciplinary proceedings
The University of Wisconsin-Madison achieved a Gold rating from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), marking a major step forward in the university’s environmental initiatives after receiving Silver rating in 2021.
New freshman enrollment across the Universities of Wisconsin campuses is up an average of 3 percent this fall, but “significant declines” in international students have kept overall enrollment flat.
UW-Madison’s enrollment is projected to slip by 0.5%, according to the system’s preliminary enrollment counts.
The university is projected to have 241 fewer students this fall, a drop from the UW system’s official 2024 UW-Madison student count of 51,791.
Enrollment at Wisconsin’s public universities this fall largely held steady from last year, despite increasing concerns about affordability, growing public doubt about the value of a college degree and a projected drop in international students.
When President Donald Trump started cutting billions in federal research dollars, American universities saw it as a threat to the country’s research enterprise.
Universities outside the U.S. saw it as something else entirely: an opportunity.
Parents struggle to help teens deal with online racism. Online racism is different from in-person racism because the people behaving that way usually hide behind fake names, making it hard to stop them. Studies found that teens of color see more untargeted racism – memes, jokes, comments – and racism targeting others online than racism targeted directly at them. But vicarious racism hurts, too.
Morgridge Hall, the new home of the School of Computer, Data and Information Science, at UW-Madison seen from University Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin, on the first morning of classes, Sept. 3, 2025.
Exploding interest in computer and data sciences over the last decade at the University of Wisconsin-Madison led to hundreds of students on course waitlists and a lack of lecture halls large enough to accommodate demand.
The growing pains will begin to ease with the opening of Morgridge Hall this semester. The gleaming seven-story building is the home of the School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences. It houses the two most popular majors on this 50,000-student campus.
University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologist Markus Brauer studies how social groups interact, and he told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that the state’s political divisiveness helps explain some of the trust issues.
“If there are people who belong to other political parties, then there is the possibility that they may not share the same common values, which then undermines trust,” Brauer said. “So generally, partisan strength and perceived political polarization actually undermine social trust in others.”
Allison Daminger was in graduate school when she learned that men and women use their time differently: On average, men spend more time on paid work, and women spend more time on unpaid work.
“I remember wondering whether the time-use numbers were telling the full story,” says Daminger, who is now an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “What about differences in how men and women use their mind on their family’s behalf?”
The new building for the School of Computer, Data, and Information Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has opened its doors.
This facility, called Morgridge Hall, brings various departments together under one roof for the first time. It inspires collaboration, as students and colleagues can simply bump into each other in the hall and get ideas for projects they are working on.
UW-Madison students Wednesday morning shuffled into their first day of classes in the university’s newest building — funded entirely by private donations — to house its growing School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences.
Morgridge Hall, a $267 million, 343,000-square-foot facility, is UW-Madison’s largest privately funded building and puts all the disciplines seeing the most growth at the university under one roof.
UW-Madison welcomed freshmen and transfer students to campus on Tuesday at a new student convocation.
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, campus leadership, faculty and staff all helped with the kickoff event at the Kohl Center.
While the fall semester of classes at UW-Madison officially commences on Sept. 3, this week offers the chance for nearly 9,000 students to transition into the campus’ 21 residence halls, explore their new surroundings and begin to enjoy university life.
In a statement, a spokesperson for UW-Madison said the university “does not yet have clarity on the full impacts of” the ruling, but that it “puts at risk” more than $14 million for biomedical research.
“This figure represents the remaining money on 22 grants that were already approved and underway, which also means the time and money already spent on these projects will potentially go to waste, in addition to the money that will not be recovered,” said UW-Madison spokesperson Victoria Comella.
Move-in day at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is underway Monday and will continue through Wednesday.
Each student has a designated move-in date and time, which can be found in their “My UW Housing” account.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has been named the best college in Wisconsin for 2025, according to a recent report from Niche.
The school rankings website analyzed more than 1,000 colleges and universities across the U.S. for its 2025 Best Colleges in America report and related state reports.
University of Wisconsin-Madison students will soon move into their dorms and apartments. Classes will begin early next month. And as a new school year gets underway, a variety of pressing challenges on campus will linger.
Fifteen years ago, the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison launched the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. The resource provides a “treasure trove” of public data and offers a snapshot on the health of nearly every county in the nation, said Sheri Johnson, the institute’s director.
While more than 700,000 people use the resource each year, Johnson said, County Health Rankings and Roadmaps will soon lose its primary funder. The New Jersey-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is set to end its support after 2026.
University of Wisconsin-Madison alum and journalist Alec Luhn, who went missing while hiking in a Norwegian national park, has been found alive, Luhn’s wife, Veronika Silchenko, told CBS News.
The cost of tuition will go up by hundreds of dollars at Universities of Wisconsin schools under a plan passed by UW leaders on Thursday.
The Board of Regents for the Universities of Wisconsin unanimously approved a tuition increase of up to 5 percent for the 2025-26 academic year.
In-state students will pay a higher tuition rate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a third consecutive year.
On Thursday, the UW system’s Board of Regents voted unanimously to increase tuition across Wisconsin’s 13 public universities next school year. Each school will increase resident undergraduate rates by 4%. All of the universities, except UW-Green Bay, also opted in to an additional 1%.
Overall, tuition hikes are expected to generate about $49 million in additional revenue, said Julie Gordon, interim vice president of finance and administration, during a meeting of the regents’ Business and Finance Committee on July 10.
Increases in tuition are needed despite an increase in state funding for the UW System in the 2025-27 state budget, regents and UW staff said during July 10 discussions.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced July 9 that the university’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Education Achievement will close.
Faculty members at most campuses across the University of Wisconsin system will soon have to teach at least eight courses per academic year.
The president of the Universities of Wisconsin is proposing a tuition increase for the upcoming school year.
President Jay Rothman’s proposal would increase tuition for in-state undergraduates by 4 percent.
In-state undergraduate students at the Universities of Wisconsin would pay hundreds more in tuition in the 2025-26 academic year under a proposal President Jay Rothman announced Tuesday.
Tuition at Wisconsin’s public universities could increase up to 5 percent under a new plan released Tuesday.
Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman will ask the Board of Regents on July 10 to increase tuition for undergraduate residents by 4 percent, with individual campuses able to add an optional additional 1 percent increase.
Pending an upcoming vote, tuition for University of Wisconsin System students is set to rise in the upcoming school year.
The Board of Regents is expected to vote July 10 on a proposed 5% increase to resident undergraduate tuition for most UW campuses. At UW-Madison, that 5% tuition increase would add an additional $500, bringing the 2025-26 annual resident undergraduate tuition to $10,506.
Gov. Tony Evers signed the $111 billion two-year state budget bill into law overnight following a marathon day of overlapping Senate and Assembly floor sessions where the bill received bipartisan support from lawmakers. The budget cuts taxes by $1.3 billion, makes investments in the University of Wisconsin system, boosts public schools’ special education reimbursement rate to 45% and allocates about $330 for child care.
Wisconsin lawmakers voted to approve a state budget late Wednesday night that spends more than $111 billion over the next two years, cuts more than 300 state jobs and increases funding for the child care industry and the Universities of Wisconsin system. It also cuts taxes by about $1.4 billion.
Tax cuts for retirees and middle-income residents, raises for UW system employees and an increase in special education funding are among highlights of the $111 billion state budget, signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers early Thursday morning.
The overall package cuts taxes by $1.3 billion, spends hundreds of millions on building projects on University of Wisconsin System campuses, expands Medicaid funding, increases funding for special education and funds new childcare programs, among other measures. In all, it spends $111 billion, a 12% increase over current spending levels.
UW System President Jay Rothman is celebrating the funding increase the system will get in the next state budget as part of a bipartisan agreement announced Tuesday morning.
Gov. Tony Evers and Republican legislative leaders reached an agreement Tuesday to a $256 million increase for the University of Wisconsin System — the largest funding increase in about two decades.
This would be a major turnaround for the UW System in the budget after Republican lawmakers threatened an $87 million cut just two weeks ago. The UW Board of Regents and Evers originally proposed a record-high $856 million increase for the system, a total that would bring the state’s public higher education funding in line with the national median.
