The law is part of a deal negotiated in December between the Republican-controlled Legislature and UW System leaders to provide funding for university employee pay raises and building projects in exchange for a hiring cap and restructuring of university diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
A number of programs, many of them student-led, redirect food waste from UW-Madison’s two largest food producers — University Housing, which runs multiple dining hall and food market locations across campus, and the Wisconsin Union, which oversees the Memorial Union and Union South — to student organizations or food pickup locations to give away free meals.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is launching an environmental sustainability initiative that will include carbon-reduction goals and a new research hub on campus.
UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin made the announcement during a recent UW Board of Regents meeting in Madison.
The center is being supported by a $14 million donation from Jerry Frautschi, the namesake of the center. The goal of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve Frautschi Center will be to educate on sustainability, with experiences teaching from UW programs.
Picnic Point is one of Madison’s most treasured oases; 300 acres of pristinely preserved natural space just a few miles from the heart of downtown. Now, thanks to a $14.3 million dollar gift from UW alumnus Jerry Frautschi, the iconic UW-Madison landmark is getting a brand new visitor and education center.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to recruit up to 150 new faculty members over the next three to five years for a research initiative focused on artificial intelligence.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is significantly staffing up.
Under a new hiring initiative, UW-Madison expects to recruit between 120 and 150 new faculty members over the next three to five years, in addition to regular hiring. The university hires an average of 130 new faculty annually.
It’s a level of faculty growth that would have progressed naturally over the next decade, UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said, but an increase in university enrollment, which topped 50,000 students last fall, makes it necessary to be more aggressive in hiring.
UW-Madison aims to receive all of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030 and have net-zero emissions by 2048 — the university’s 200th anniversary — as part of a new sustainability plan to combat climate change.
The Universities of Wisconsin hopes a new one-stop shop for online degree programs across its 13 universities will boost enrollment and graduation rates, especially for adult learners and traditional-age students looking for virtual options.
The UW Board of Regents is planning to eliminate application fees at most Universities of Wisconsin schools, a proposal that is set to go before the board later this week.
Founders’ Day celebrates the first day of classes at UW-Madison. On Feb. 5, 1849 twenty students gathered at UW’s temporary quarters near the Wisconsin State Capitol for the university’s first classes.
Now, Wisconsin Alumni Association chapters around the world host special Founders’ Day celebrations every year to commemorate this milestone.
Growing from 20 to 50,000 students, a lot has changed at UW Madison since their first day of class on February 5, 1849.
Though the UW system is struggling with millions of dollars in structural deficits, Rothman said the decision was not a cost-cutting measure but instead driven by dwindling enrollment.
UW-Madison is heading up a $150 million study at Alzheimer’s disease centers around the country that seeks to shed more light on mixed dementia, or having more than one kind of the neurological disease.
Lawmakers will bring forward a bill to fund the construction of UW-Madison’s new engineering building, among other projects, that was one of the most significant aspects of the deal struck last month between the Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman and Assembly Speaker Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester.
And you can expect the sagas of long-standing issues with the UW system — anticipated budget shortfalls, enrollment and the future of the branch campuses — to continue as well. Here are five things to keep an eye on in 2024.
Herb Kohl, the former U.S. senator, Milwaukee Bucks owner and retail shopping magnate, died Wednesday afternoon at the age of 88 after a brief illness.
Kohl’s death was announced by the Herb Kohl Foundation.
Kohl’s giving also touched his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he roomed with future Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. Kohl’s name graces the school’s basketball and ice hockey arena after a $25 million gift to the project and he gave extensively to the university’s LaFollette School of Public Affairs.
“One of the things that the research is suggesting right now is that young people, in particular, have a tendency to move towards emotions like anxiety and anger, which are activating – you know, they compel you to do something,” said UW–Madison’s Dekila Chungyalpa, director of The Loka Initiative.
“It’s an exciting time for hibernation biology,” said Hannah Carey, UW–Madison professor emerit of Comparative Biosciences. “People from outside of traditional hibernation world are wanting to come in and collaborate.”
State lawmakers officially approved raises Tuesday for 35,000 employees of the Universities of Wisconsin after a deal brokered and approved last week with a top Republican legislator.
Indigenous students from any of Wisconsin’s 11 tribes will be able to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison for free beginning next fall, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced Monday.
Beginning in the fall of 2024, the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW-M) will cover the full cost of an undergraduate degree for Wisconsin residents who are members of federally recognized Wisconsin Indian tribes, the University announced on Monday.
“Oh it’s a really big deal, we’re all really excited to hear about this,” Senior Cayden Kirkpatrick, President of the American Indian Science Engineering Society (AISES) chapter at UW-Madison, said.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is pledging to cover the full cost of a college degree for students from Wisconsin Indian tribes under a new program announced Monday.
“Wisconsin did a lot for me,” Finley said. “The 4 years I spent here was very monumental in where I am today as a man, so to share my experiences with them, (the graduates) celebrating this great day, is just a great honor.”
UW-Madison’s chief diversity officer on Thursday tried to allay concerns that the Universities of Wisconsin is stepping back its support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, despite UW system President Jay Rothman and legislative Republicans brokering a deal that authorizes about $800 million for the UW system in exchange for DEI changes.
A Republican-controlled legislative committee is slated to approve 6% pay raises for Universities of Wisconsin workers Tuesday after the UW system agreed this week to repurpose some diversity positions as part of a broader deal with lawmakers to unlock nearly $800 million in state aid.
The Universities of Wisconsin will have the opportunity to give pay raises to its 34,000 employees and build a new $347 million engineering building in Madison under a deal approved Wednesday by the Board of Regents. But the universities will also freeze DEI staffing through 2026 and eliminate or refocus about 40 positions focused on diversity.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents flip-flopped Wednesday, voting 11-6 to approve a deal on diversity positions and pay raises it had rejected just four days earlier.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents is calling for a do-over.
The board is scheduled to vote 5 p.m. Wednesday on the same deal it rejected Saturday. It will be the board’s fifth meeting in a chaotic seven days.
The UW Board of Regents will meet again on Wednesday to reconsider a deal brokered between Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman and legislative Republicans to secure pay raises for UW system employees and funding for UW-Madison’s long-awaited engineering building in exchange for restructuring system diversity efforts.
Members of the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents will consult with attorneys Tuesday about a lawsuit challenging the power of the Legislature, a move that comes just days after the board rejected a deal with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos involving pay raises and limits on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman knew the vote on a deal over campus diversity efforts was critical.
In fact, in the days leading up to it, he floated resigning if the vote failed, according to UW student Regent Evan Brenkus.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Monday that Republicans “are not changing one thing” in the compromise plan the Universities of Wisconsin Regents rejected Saturday to roll back diversity efforts in exchange for staff raises and a new engineering building and other infrastructure improvements.
In an unexpected move Saturday, the board overseeing state public universities narrowly rejected a deal University of Wisconsin System leaders brokered with the state’s top Republican over campus diversity efforts.
A narrowly divided UW Board of Regents on Saturday rejected an agreement between Universities of Wisconsin system President Jay Rothman and legislative Republican leaders authorizing UW system funding and pay raises in exchange for changes to universities’ diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
In a deal months in the making, the University of Wisconsin system will “reimagine” its diversity efforts, restructure dozens of staff into positions serving all students and freeze the total number of diversity and administrative positions for the next three years.
In exchange, the universities would receive $800 million to give pay raises for 35,000 employees and move forward on some building projects, including a new engineering building for UW-Madison.
The leader of the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate said Wednesday that lawmakers are nearing a deal that would allow for long-blocked pay raises for Universities of Wisconsin employees to take effect and for funding to be released to pay for construction of a new engineering building.
Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman sought to clarify this week that he is not proposing to solve the system’s financial woes by eliminating liberal arts programs after sharing a report with chancellors that examined steps an Arkansas university took to head off its own fiscal crisis.
When Jeff Roznowski and Bill Monfre first joined a coalition in 2020 to advocate for a new engineering facility on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, they figured they’d work with the group only a year or two.
An increasing number of first-year UW-Madison students are qualifying for two of UW-Madison’s tuition promise programs, with Pell Pathway intended to tackle the ever-growing cost of attending the state’s largest university.
“We’re trying to understand how this rich data that we collected when they were younger and in middle age is influencing their memory and cognitive function now,” said Michal Engelman, a UW-Madison sociology professor who directs the study.
“There’s biological and physiological processes, but there’s also the social and economic environment,” Engelman said. “All of these things work together to shape people’s well-being through their life course.”
In a poorly ventilated room in a dairy lab on ninth floor of UW-Madison’s Animal and Dairy Sciences building, more than $1 million of research equipment sits on decades-old desks. An average-looking air purifier on the floor nearby keeps the machines running.
“It was such a relief. I cried,” Freshman Mattie Place said. “Honestly, I did, it was a relief to me, my mom, my dad, everybody. It was amazing.”
The Madison Fire Department said in a statement about 8:45 a.m. that fire crews were sent to the scene at 7:33 a.m. to investigate an alarm and arrived at 7:36 a.m. as UW-Madison police officers confirmed a fire on the fifth floor of the building. Additional fire crews then were sent to the scene.
The Republican war on diversity, equity and inclusion could cost Wisconsin hundreds of engineers.
The GOP-controlled Legislature declined to fund a new engineering building for the University of Wisconsin-Madison as part of the state budget. The project would expand enrollment in the engineering college.
From Pearl Harbor all the way to today, there are 1,500 Wisconsinites who served and paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country now missing in action across the globe. And there’s a team of Wisconsin archaeologists, historians, and college students working to find those fallen heroes.
With 1,700 more students that last year, UW system enrollment grew by 1.1% to about 162,500 students. These are the official numbers, based on the system’s 10-day enrollment count, that are reported to the federal Department of Education.
Bascom Hall, one of UW-Madison’s earliest buildings, sits on land the Ho-Chunk Nation called “Teejop.” Once home to more than 900 effigy mounds made generations ago, the Ho-Chunk Nation considered dejope to be sacred immemorial. When Bascom Hall was built in 1859, UW-Madison destroyed the effigy mound where it currently sits.
The Universities of Wisconsin on Monday proposed using $32 million the Legislature withheld earlier this year over the UW system’s refusal to eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion programs to expand training in several high-demand fields at 13 schools in the UW system.
A campaign launched this week by the Wisconsin Alumni Association, a nonprofit arm of UW-Madison that facilitates much of its fundraising efforts, is encouraging business leaders and others around the state to contact their legislators and push them to take up legislation to construct a new engineering building.
The applicant pool for UW-Madison’s School of Pharmacy has declined 15% in the past five years. Nationally, 30% fewer applicants are trying to get into pharmacy schools.
So UW-Madison officials have expanded their recruitment team, using the new manpower to give students a more comprehensive understanding of the opportunities at the university’s School of Pharmacy early on.
UW-Madison is leveraging swathes of experience across departments — and across the University of Wisconsin system — to meet student demand for an architecture program.
In a lawsuit that could upend how the state Legislature operates, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is suing Republican lawmakers over decisions to withhold pay raises for University of Wisconsin System employees and to block conservation projects, arguing such actions made by legislative committees rather than the full Legislature violate the state Constitution’s separation of powers requirements.
UW-Madison announced the selection Monday nearly a month and a half ahead of commencement, which is set to take place Sunday, Dec. 17. Each semester, the senior class leadership picks the commencement speaker in consultation with university administration.
UW-Madison will officially be celebrating its 175th anniversary by hoping for that many “s’more” years with its new Babcock Dairy ice cream flavor.
The number of graduating students and conferred degrees narrowly beat previous years to set new all-time highs.
UW-Platteville plans to lay off 60 employees this week and will lose dozens of others to retirements, vacancies and administrative restructuring, as it seeks to fully close its $9.7 million budget shortfall by the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
