“Choosing a chancellor for Wisconsin’s flagship public university is one of the most important decisions anyone can make,” Manydeeds said. “Chancellor Blank has done a tremendous job, and I anticipate her successor will build on her many accomplishments.”
Interim University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and UW Board of Regents President Ed Manydeeds on Thursday identified 21 people across the UW-Madison campus and broader Madison community to serve on a committee searching for Rebecca Blank’s successor. Blank departs next summer to become president of Northwestern University.
UW-Madison has extended its mask mandate to Jan. 15, citing holiday travel and increasing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in other parts of the state, the university said.
For the chemistry department’s professors, researchers and graduate students, the past three years have not only been a frustrating inconvenience but an experience that has forestalled months of work and delayed career trajectories.
The University of Wisconsin System early this year came out against a mandate, a stance that frustrates some students and staff who believe a requirement would not only provide a much safer environment for working and learning but also increase overall vaccination rates. The System instead requires unvaccinated students to test regularly. It has also incentivized students to get the shot by offering $7,000 scholarships to 70 vaccinated students enrolled at a campus that reached a 70% vaccination goal by Oct. 31. At UW-Madison, which did not participate in the incentive campaign and does not have a mandate, 95% of the student body is vaccinated, far and away the best outcome statewide among responding campuses that followed neither route.
UW-Madison told its employees on Thursday that they must be vaccinated by early 2022 to comply with a vaccine mandate for federal contractors. The university said the order applies to all workers, including student employees, those working remotely from home and part-time workers. About 95% of employees are already fully vaccinated.
In his opening remarks, the Director of Tribal Relations at UW-Madison Aaron Bird Bear explained that flag raising ceremonies are a common and an important part of contemporary Ho-Chunk culture. This flag raising marked the first time a different nation’s flag flew on Bascom — in the university’s history, representing strides forward from “ignorance to awareness” on campus, a phrase that was repeated in today’s program.
“Thousands of years before Europeans arrived here, the place we now call Bascom Hill was a sacred place for the Ho-Chunk people. They made this their home,” Chancellor Rebecca Blank said. “For many years, UW–Madison was not mindful of this history, and we paid little attention to our relationship with the descendants of those who were here long before us. But we are working to change that.”
This is also the first time the university is showing respect to another nation by flying their flag for a day alongside the United States and Wisconsin state flags.
Karena Thundercloud, Vice President of the Ho-Chunk Nation, said “This occasion you are witnessing today is not only an acknowledgement of all that is history, but a testimony that our community is intertwined.”
Chancellor Rebecca Blank, UW Director of Tribal Relations Aaron Bird Bear, Traditional Chief of the Ho-Chunk Nation Clayton Winneshiek and Vice President of the Ho-Chunk Nation Karena Thundercloud shared their remarks about the raising of the flag. The ceremony also featured traditional flag songs sung by the Wisconsin Dells Singers and members of Sanford WhiteEagle Legion Post 556.
CNN chief political correspondent Manu Raju will deliver the keynote speech at UW-Madison’s winter commencement, the university announced Wednesday.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic complicating the voting process for students, many of whom were newly eligible to cast ballots, voter turnout on campus increased from 65% in the 2016 election to 73% in 2020. In total, 24,572 UW–Madison students voted out of 33,749 who were eligible in the 2020 election.
“If deer can transmit the virus to humans, it’s a game changer,” said Tony Goldberg, a veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the evolution of infectious diseases as they jump between animals and people. “To have a wildlife species become a reservoir after transmission from humans is very rare and unlucky, as if we needed more bad luck.”
Ayearslong project studying the pay levels and job titles across the University of Wisconsin System is wrapping up and thousands of employees will next week learn the new salary range of the position they hold.
The University of Wisconsin System announced Wednesday that it will comply with an executive order issued by President Joe Biden more than six weeks ago requiring federal contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
“I will say that it’s encouraging to see a group of scientists like this say we have talked about this standard of behavior and we’re willing to agree to it,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved with the paper. “It’s a step forward for them to say at least we’re going to follow the law.”
The top two jobs in the University of Wisconsin System are turning over within months of each other next year, a major leadership shake-up that comes on the heels of new chancellors installed during the pandemic at nearly half of the regional campuses and amid a variety of other challenges.
Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are graduating sooner according to school data. The campus’s four- and six-year graduation rates have hit record highs.
The university’s Office of Academic Planning and Institutional Research says its six-year graduation rate has risen to 89.2%, up from 88.5% last year. That’s more than 8% higher than the average 81.1% graduation rate of the university’s peers and puts it in the top 10 of public research universities.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison unveiled a $20 million gift Wednesday that will allow the it to move forward with plans to build a new home for its College of Letters and Science.
The next large-scale construction project on the UW-Madison campus will now become a reality thanks to a large donation by a pair of alumni.
UW-Madison announced on Wednesday a $20 million donation for a new academic building that will help clear the way for the demolition of the Humanities Building.
The university said it has most of the funding needed for the College of Letters and Science building. On Wednesday, university leaders announced they received a $20 million donation from the family of Irving and Dorothy Levy Hall, who the building will be named after.
“It’s an honor for us to have this building named for our parents—Irving and Dorothy Levy,” said Marv Levy. “It’s definitely exciting to think about how transformational this building will affect the lives of students, faculty, staff and the community for decades to come.”
’I’m looking forward to hiring people to teach for L&S and not having to apologize about the building,’ Chancellor Blank says.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced the name of the new Letters and Science building as the Irving and Dorothy Levy Hall in a press conference at Bascom Hill on Wednesday, highlighting that it was made possible by a $20 million gift from Marv and Jeff Levy, both of whom are alumni of the university.
Getting vaccinated on campus at the University of Wisconsin in Madison is relatively normal.
“I think is in the best interest of everyone, not just here on campus but in the larger Dane County community for students to be vaccinated,” said Sam Kuchta, a senior at the university.
Blank highlighted UW-Madison’s designation as a “Green Ribbon School,” the first of the Big Ten to earn such an award. Reducing environmental impacts and costs, improving the health and wellness of faculty and staff and providing effective environmental and sustainability education are components considered in the selection of Green Ribbon schools.
The second-longest serving chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will step down in May next year to become the first female president of Illinois’ Northwestern University.
The university announced Monday morning that Blank will become the next president of Northwestern University starting in summer 2022, where she will make history as the institution’s first woman president. She will replace long-time president Morton Schapiro, who assumed leadership in 2009 and announced his departure from Northwestern in March.
Northwestern University announced today that Rebecca M. Blank will become its next president, beginning in the summer of 2022. Blank is currently the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a post she has held for eight years.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank is leaving the University of Wisconsin-Madison to become the first female president of Northwestern University, the suburban Chicago school announced Monday.
Rebecca Blank, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, will step down this summer to take up the presidency at Northwestern University, the private research institution announced Monday.
Rebecca M. Blank, the chancellor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is set to become Northwestern’s 17th president, the university announced Monday.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank will leave the university at the end of the school year to become the first female president of Northwestern University.
Blank became chancellor of UW-Madison in 2013. She has deep ties to Northwestern and the Chicago area, serving as a faculty member from 1989 to 1999 and directing the Joint Center for Poverty Research. She was married in Chicago and her daughter attended Northwestern as a student.
At the same time, the class includes the most in-state students of any freshman class since 2001. And while the balance has shifted, UW-Madison officials say that’s not necessarily a bad thing. With their higher tuition, out-of-state students help fund many of the university’s priorities.
After months of grim financial forecasts, University of Wisconsin System leaders presented a much rosier financial outlook this week as campuses settle into another school year shadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
’We want to foster a community where students use computing technology and data to improve their communities and make positive changes in the world,’ associate dean says
Blank reiterated her commitment to Posse’s mission. “I am always proud to be the Chancellor of this university by giving [Posse scholars] these series of experiences, interactions with people, the leadership experiences, the ability to be involved in communities that are different than the one that they grew up in,” said Blank. “All of that helps us shape people who, in turn, are going to shape the world.”
The University of Wisconsin is naming its football field at Camp Randall Stadium after former football coach and athletic director Barry Alvarez.
The university held a ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday, even though construction actually started in the spring. The facility is named after Jim and Sue Bakke. They gave $20 million for the $113 million project.
UW-Madison students on the west side of campus wanting a workout can head to the Bakke Center in a few years. The new fitness facility on the site of the former natatorium, 2000 Observatory Drive, will bear the name of the Bakke family, who are contributing $20 million to the $113.2 million project expected to open in 2023.
Freshman enrollment at UW-Madison is up nearly 16% this year compared with last fall, according to numbers released Tuesday. A record 8,465 freshman began studying at the university this fall, compared with 7,306 last fall.
Enrollment at University of Wisconsin campuses dropped 1% overall this fall, according to preliminary data released Wednesday.
All but one University of Wisconsin System campus met a goal set earlier this year to offer at least 75% of classes in person this fall, UW System officials announced Tuesday.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced plans to build a new, $225 million academic building for its new School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences, one it plans to fund entirely through donor and private support.
The recently launched School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences will have a new home at the corner of Orchard Street and University Avenue, officials announced Friday. UW-Madison will demolish two service buildings currently located there to make way for the 300,000-square-foot, seven-story building. The estimated price tag is $225 million, all of which will be privately funded.
Student vaccination rates at Wisconsin’s public universities range widely from 91% at UW-Madison to 38% at UW-Parkside, according to figures released Friday.
Around 2,700 graduates attended the ceremony, about a third of the 8,000 students who actually graduated last year. Many wore street clothes with their black graduation caps, but the regalia of commencement was still all around. A high-profile speaker was also brought in to give the keynote: Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard Pat Connaughton. While he psyched up the crowd by bringing out the Bucks’ NBA Finals trophy, Connaughton’s speech touched on the classic graduation theme of overcoming hardship and striving to achieve one’s dreams.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank and other university leaders announced Friday a $175 million investment paired with an effort to raise $50 million more to put toward a brand new facility for the university’s School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences.
“It feels like a very big closure moment that I’m here,” CJ Zabat, the Class of 2020 alumni speaker, said.
A celebration at Camp Randall for virtual graduates.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison finally celebrated the Class of 2020 on Saturday in an in-person celebration at Camp Randall.
Tuesday marked the fifth day of classes at UW-Madison, a major turning point at the time last school year when university leaders moved all classes online and quarantined its two largest dorms in response to more than a thousand COVID-19 cases.
In mathematical terms, as in common parlance, a signal is something that conveys information. Jordan Ellenberg, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who first met Daubechies in 1998 when they were colleagues at Princeton, points out that signal processing “makes up a huge proportion of applied math now, since so much of applied math is about the geometry of information as opposed to the geometry of motion and force” — that is, it’s more about the warp and weft of information than physical problems in, say, fluid dynamics or celestial mechanics.
Although Olivia Guo is starting her second year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she had never set foot on campus until two weeks ago. Following her first in-person class on Wednesday, she admired the view of Lake Mendota from her seat at the Terrace, hoping for a better, more interactive school year. Or, at least one that wouldn’t leave her so tired.
UW exceeds vaccination rates of some Big Ten institutions with vaccination mandates.
