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Category: Top Stories

UW leaders visit campus vaccine clinic, plan to scale up operations

NBC-15

UW Chancellor Blank and other UW System leaders took a tour of a campus vaccine clinic Tuesday, as the university plans to scale up operations as more COVID-19 vaccines become available. The Nicholas Recreation Center, or ‘Nick,’ became a vaccine clinic for UHS in February. According to UW, the university has administered nearly 10,500 COVID-19 vaccine doses to its community.

Pandemic, lack of spring break strains UW-Madison students’ mental health

Wisconsin State Journal

While UW-Madison students are hopeful about vaccination efforts ramping up and spring weather arriving, many are still struggling to make online classes work while also worrying about their finances and health. This month marks the halfway point in a 14-week semester taking place almost entirely online and without a spring break, a schedule that students say is leading to burnout and in some cases damaging their mental health.

Paul Fanlund: These UW-Madison students solve problems across the state

The Capital Times

An example is a $600,000 item buried in Gov. Tony Evers’ $91-billion proposed two-year state budget. The money would expand a six-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison program designed to tap the expertise and energy of students on the flagship Madison campus to solve problems and improve lives in communities throughout Wisconsin.

Facing ‘financial disaster’ from COVID-19, UW System pushes for borrowing ability

Wisconsin State Journal

COVID-19 has caused the “biggest financial disaster” the university has ever seen, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said. Through federal stimulus money, furloughs, pay cuts for leadership, travel restrictions and targeted budget cuts to different units, Blank said she’s optimistic the financial gap can be resolved over the next two years. But she also renewed her case for giving the university borrowing authority.

First UW-Madison employees, students receive COVID-19 vaccine

WISC-TV 3

The University of Wisconsin-Madison administered its first round of COVID-19 vaccines to eligible employees and students on Tuesday. The vaccine was given to employees and students, such as Eden Charles, who work directly with COVID-19 patients and directly with the virus and virus samples.

UW-Madison’s fall reopening: A story of success, failure or simply survival?

Wisconsin State Journal

When COVID-19 cases skyrocketed in early September, Chancellor Rebecca Blank knew she had to try something. So on Sept. 9, the fifth day of classes, when the university reported 404 infections of the nearly 5,300 it would accumulate by the end of the semester, she announced a two-week lockdown for two large dorms and a campus-wide pause on face-to-face instruction. “A lot of people thought that we would never recover from that,” she said in an interview on Friday, the final day of the semester. “More than one person has come up to me and said, ‘I thought we’d never get back to in-person classes. I thought you’d have to send everyone home.’ And, you know, we did recover from that.”

COVID-19 vaccination ramps up in Wisconsin but will take months

Wisconsin State Journal

UW Health expected to vaccinate 250 employees against COVID-19 by Wednesday and SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital anticipated immunizing about 500, as a weeks-long effort to inoculate Wisconsin’s 450,000 health care workers and nursing home residents against the coronavirus before others can get the injections started to ramp up.

Report: Wisconsin’s public colleges are falling behind as state funds lag and enrollment drops

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A new report on the financial health of Wisconsin’s state universities and technical colleges found lagging state investment, enrollment challenges and — for University of Wisconsin schools — an ongoing tuition freeze as some of several factors threatening their competitiveness.

Wisconsin expects first batch of COVID-19 vaccines soon, general public may not see it until mid-2021

Wisconsin State Journal

St. Mary’s Hospital and UW Health, both in Madison, will operate as regional distribution hubs for the Pfizer vaccine. “These vaccines will be going to frontline healthcare workers first, and there are still uncertainties around the quantities we’ll get and the timing of their arrival,” Matt Anderson, senior medical director of ambulatory operations with UW Health, said in a statement. “The public must remain diligent as it will not be widely available anytime soon.”