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Category: Top Stories

Looking To The Future By Reckoning With The Past With UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin

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Black Like Me Podcast with Dr. Alex Gee

Dr. Gee has an in-depth conversation with University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin on what the university is doing to improve the sense of belonging for students of color. Their discussion covers Dr. Gee’s participation in a committee working to recognize the universities history with students of color and what can be done moving forward. The committee will be releasing a report soon with their findings and recommendations. Chancellor Mnookin shares about her plans and initiatives in this role at the university and how she sees that they are developing so far.Jennifer L. Mnookin is the 30th leader in the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s 175-year history, and one of the nation’s top legal scholars.

Affirmative action ruling, FAFSA mess add tension to UW student count

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The Capital Times

UW-Madison will conduct its official student census on the tenth day of classes. Roughly 8,400 first-year students and another 1,400 transfer students are expected to enroll this fall, the university estimated in late August. Over 70,000 applicants sought a spot in the incoming class.

“This is the largest applicant pool in the university’s history and a 3.6% increase over last year’s record number of applicants,” according to Kelly Tyrrell, a campus spokesperson.

Students return to UW-Madison for start of fall semester

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WKOW – Channel 27

Thousands of students are flooding the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Wednesday for the first day of the fall semester, marking the beginning of a new academic year. University officials say they are welcoming 10,000 new and transfer students this year, continuing a trend of growing enrollment.

UW-Madison releases updated protest policies ahead of fall semester

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Daily Cardinal

Revisions to the protest policy include restrictions on “expressive activity” within 25 feet of university facility entrances, size limitations for signs in buildings, specific sound amplification restrictions and restrictions on protest activity during select times on campus areas typically used for photos like the Abraham Lincoln statue at the top of Bascom Hill.

Study: Less than one-third of UW-Madison off-campus housing considered affordable

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Wisconsin State Journal

The study confirmed what is largely already known through reams of anecdotal evidence: Nearly 70% of rentals are too expensive, costing individual students $1,000 or more in rent each month per student, often hundreds of dollars above what the students consider affordable; the cheapest apartments are often furthest from campus and more run down; and UW-Madison is one of the most expensive off-campus housing markets in the Big 10 conference.

Wisconsin project digs through records and dirt to find MIA soldiers

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The Capital Times

Eighty years later, Stevens was finally buried in Florida National Cemetery. His daughter attended the service in March, along with Ryan Wubben and other members of a University of Wisconsin-Madison group who helped find Stevens’ remains.

“It’s an interesting feeling that the success of your project results in a funeral,” said Wubben, the field physician for the University of Wisconsin Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project.

New bonuses approved for UW leaders, pushing UW-Madison chancellor pay past $1 million

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor will earn more than $1 million by the end of this coming school year.

The UW Board of Regents created a retention bonus system for its chancellors in a closed-door meeting Monday with no public discussion or vote. The board also approved pay boosts for eight of the 13 chancellors to bring their compensation closer to peer universities.

Wisconsin biohealth industry named one of nation’s elite tech hubs

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Wisconsin State Journal

The Wisconsin hub focuses on personalized medicine, or tailoring treatments to a patient’s genetic makeup or other individual characteristics. Along with UW-Madison and Madison Area Technical College, partners include Madison companies Accuray and Exact Sciences, GE Healthcare and Rockwell Automation in the Milwaukee area and Neenah-based manufacturer Plexus.

Wisconsin lands $49 million in funding for medical sciences

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Wisconsin Biohealth Tech Hub Consortium members include the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), the University of Wisconsin System Administration, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, GE HealthCare, Rockwell Automation, Exact Sciences Corporation, BioForward Wisconsin, Employ Milwaukee, Accuray, Plexus, WRTP Big Step, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Madison Area Technical College, the Madison Regional Economic Partnership (MadREP), and Milwaukee7.

UW-Madison researcher develops ice cream that doesn’t melt

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Wisconsin State Journal

In the UW-Madison basement-level lab, the answer was largely predestined. One scoop was regular ice cream, not unlike what visitors could buy upstairs at the Babcock Dairy store. The other was a concoction of UW-Madison Ph.D. researcher Cameron Wicks, in which an addition of polyphenols — compounds naturally occurring in plants such as blueberries and green tea leaves — helps ice cream keep its shape by counteracting melting ice crystals.

In Wisconsin, college dreams grow dimmer for rural students

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Wisconsin State Journal

In the last 18 months, the Universities of Wisconsin has effectively closed five of the system’s branch campuses, most of which predominantly served rural students. The UW system cites declining enrollment, not finances, as the reason, even as the system projects that 13 campuses would be a cumulative $60 million over budget by the end of fiscal 2024.

After 12 day-encampment, UW-Madison protesters reached deal. Why? And what’s next?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

There’s nothing like the threat of a disrupted commencement ceremony to get a deal done.

With tens of thousands of visitors descending on Madison for graduation weekend and protester numbers uncertain for the summer, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the campus’ Students for Justice in Palestine chapter cut a dealFriday.

University of Wisconsin-Madison holds its spring commencment ceremonies

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Graduates sing “Sweet Caroline” during commencement Saturday, May 11, 2024 at Camp Randall Stadium at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. The song is a popular tradition at Wisconsin football games. The school also held a commencement ceremony at the Kohl Center Friday. In total, the university anticipates that nearly 8,600 students will be earning degrees — 6,236 bachelor’s degrees, 1,394 master’s degrees and 968 PhDs.

UW-Madison protesters agree to end encampment

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Wisconsin State Journal

Pro-Palestinian student protesters at UW-Madison agreed Friday to dismantle their illegal encampment on Library Mall and refrain from disrupting this weekend’s commencement after campus officials agreed to several of their demands, including helping students present their concerns to decision-makers about how the university’s endowment is invested.

Wisconsin cultures and their folk music get major honor from Library of Congress

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Wisconsin State Journal

“It is the most diverse, equitable, and inclusive folksong field collection ever made for the Library of Congress,” said James P. Leary, professor emeritus of Folklore and Scandinavian Studies at UW-Madison. It reminds “us that we cannot fully grasp the richness of American roots music without recognizing the many peoples, tongues, and sounds that – whether past or present, from mainstream or margins, deservedly acknowledged or unjustly ignored – have always made America great.”

Does Wisconsin have any Ivy League schools? It does now, according to Forbes

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

America’s Ivy League institutions have faced complaints in recent years over admissions policies and, in response, Forbes recently introduced its list of the “New Ivies”— the 10 public and 10 private universities it says are producing successful and driven graduates.

On the list is the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which also ranks among the top national universities in the state, and across the country.