Category: Top Stories

MADISON, Wis. — Atop a steep hill on the University of Wisconsin campus is a granite boulder affixed with a bronze plaque commemorating the university system’s lofty mission: to benefit the entire state by promoting public service and a search for truth.

Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker, hasn’t announced a presidential run. But it’s a safe bet that higher education will come up often if he seeks the Republican nomination, as many presume.

The Republican governor raised the prospect Thursday of limiting tuition increases at the state campuses to inflation, after his four-year freeze expires. Gov. Scott Walker raised the prospect Thursday of limiting tuition increases at University of Wisconsin schools to inflation after his proposed freeze expires in two years.

The suggestion might win over lawmakers concerned that more autonomy for the University of Wisconsin System would lead to runaway tuition increases, but it calls into question how much independence university officials would have under Walker’s 2015-17 budget proposal.

Vos told reporters he’s met with Blank and new UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone and is “sympathetic to the plight that they are expressing.” … Vos said if lawmakers do impose significant cuts, they need to ensure the universities are given the “maximum amount of flexibility” to absorb them. He also acknowledged that it would be difficult to implement such large reductions at the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1, because new students will have been accepted and classes will have been scheduled at that point.

MADISON — Gov. Scott Walker said Thursday that he would be open to extending a tuition freeze at the University of Wisconsin System beyond the next two years he’s currently proposing, offering the idea as yet another option to help sell his reorganization plan to a reluctant Legislature.

There is bipartisan concern, over the governor’s proposals for the University of Wisconsin System – especially for the impact it could have on smaller campuses. Assembly minority leader Peter Barca D-Kenosha said Thursday that he’s been meeting with chancellors of UW campuses, and has come away with serious concerns about potentially deep impacts, from Governor Scott Walker’s proposed $300 million dollars in cuts to the UW System over the next two years.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank told members of the campus community Thursday afternoon, “There are almost surely going to be layoffs in many units across the university. I don’t see how we avoid that. I am very sorry about that.”

UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank urged Cross to include Darrell Bazzell, UW-Madison’s chief financial officer who’s experienced and respected at the state Capitol, on the System’s negotiating team. Cross said Tuesday that he heeded Blank’s suggestion, agreeing that Bazzell “has a good financial mind.”

After seeing tuition skyrocket after the public university system was given more autonomy, leaders are looking for a different strategy.

While Gov. Scott Walker is on a trade mission in London, his administration threw a curveball at University of Wisconsin System leaders upset by $300 million in proposed state budget cuts over the next two years.

It’s not a done deal that the University of Wisconsin System will have to find $300 million in cuts over the next two years if Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget stands in the Legislature.

Huebsch told reporters Tuesday the error is something that would have been found and corrected in the errata document that is compiled after the publication of every two-year budget.

A top official in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration defended the Republican governor’s budget proposal to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System on Tuesday, saying that the System would soon have autonomy to deal with the funding reductions.

I am writing to thank you for your commitment to preserving the excellence and integrity of the University of Wisconsin System. As a native Wisconsinite, I have always felt tremendous pride that our humble, decent state has created and sustained one of the world’s premier institutions of higher learning and a state system that is the envy of the rest of the nation.

In a TV interview on “UpFront with Mike Gousha,” Cross said that the cuts proposed in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget could “seriously damage the whole system,” and that he doesn’t think they are inevitable.

MADISON — Gov. Scott Walker is fond of comparing his proposed $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin System to Act 10, his signature legislation that restricted collective bargaining for public workers and sparked massive protests.

Statement from Gov. Scott Walker:“We encourage a vigorous debate over the idea of an authority to govern the University of Wisconsin system or the status quo, as well as a debate about what is the real amount of savings that can be generated by an authority, which we believe is worth $150 million a year.  However, there is no debate over the principles contained within the Wisconsin Idea.  We are, and have been, in agreement.

Gov. Scott Walker acknowledged Thursday his administration botched the rewrite of the University of Wisconsin System’s mission statement in state law, blaming it on a miscommunication between his top aides and the state budget director’s office — which pushed the changes through even as top university officials objected.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Thursday that the news of the past week involving Gov. Scott Walker’s budget will prompt other universities to “raid” her best faculty.

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin was able to kill collective-bargaining rightsfor state workers, but he can’t kill the Wisconsin Idea, the mission statement of the University of Wisconsin. Not yet, at least.

The chancellor of the state’s flagship university warned Thursday that top faculty and best students will go elsewhere if proposed state budget cuts go through because they will harm the quality of education and lead to program cuts.

Gov. Scott Walker and aides scrambled Thursday to respond to revelations that his administration had insisted to University of Wisconsin officials on fundamental changes to the Wisconsin Idea, which has been the guiding principle for the states universities for more than a century.

Governor Scott Walker backed away Wednesday from an effort to end the University of Wisconsin’s mission to search for truth and improve the human condition — at least on paper.

In quickly restoring the Wisconsin Idea on Wednesday to its central place in the states public university system, Gov. Scott Walker said its mission statement of searching for truth had only been proposed for removal from state law because of an oversight or drafting error in his budget bill.

Stunned educators accused Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday of trying to kill the Wisconsin Idea, which has guided the mission of the states public higher education system for more than a century.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said Wednesday that more borrowing for road projects, historic cuts to the University of Wisconsin System and flat funding for K-12 schools are the top concerns so far among caucus members.

The term “drafting error” may be enshrined as a legendary Wisconsin phrase after Wednesday’s events.

Wisconsinites swooped in to defend the Wisconsin Idea Wednesday from Gov. Scott Walker’s budget bill rewrite of the University of Wisconsin’s mission.

Facing a massive backlash, Gov. Scott Walker retreated Wednesday from a proposal to wipe out language at the foundation of the Wisconsin Idea — the long-cherished principle that the state’s public universities exist to seek truth and serve the people of the entire state.

Gov. Scott Walker abruptly backed off Wednesday from a contentious plan to eliminate the University of Wisconsin System’s public service mission statement known as the “Wisconsin Idea” and replace it with the charge of meeting the state’s workforce needs.

Governor Scott Walker backed away Wednesday from an effort to end the University of Wisconsin’s mission to search for truth and improve the human condition — at least on paper.

UW–Platteville is facing millions of dollars in budget cuts for its 2015–16 academic year at the time it could face part of a proposed $300 million UW System budget cut.

In addition to unprecedented budget cuts to the University of Wisconsin UW system, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker struck “the search for truth” and the Wisconsin Idea from the university’s mission in his executive budget bill unveiled last night.