Around 20 people gathered on Library Mall Friday afternoon to demand that University of Wisconsin-Madison leadership reject the Trump administration’s plan to give institutions preferential federal funding who agree to policy changes aligned with addressing their critique of higher education.
The Associated Students of Madison (ASM) passed a resolution at a meeting Wednesday night calling on the University of Wisconsin-Madison to provide financial support for Open Seat Food Pantry.
ASM created Open Seat in 2016 as a pilot initiative to address food insecurity on campus. This year, the food pantry faces record-level demand for food amid a significant increase in visits. Over 2,500 visits occurred in September 2025 compared to 550 visits in September 2023, an increase of about 355%.
The Associated Students of Madison in an Instagram post Nov. 11 shared a message from The Open Seat, stating that they saw an exponential increase in shoppers among FoodShare uncertainty.
“The Open Seat is under-resourced and cannot handle the increasing level of need on campus,” the message said. “Even with increased financial support and the resumption of FoodShare benefits, our team will continue to struggle balancing our own education with the needs of our shoppers.”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Speech and Debate Society (WSDS) is set to lose university funding and their advisor after this year due to budget cuts.
Leaders of the club said funding cuts could hinder the club’s goal to provide access and eliminate fees for all students interested. Immediate consequences include the removal of the team’s official coaching position, reduced competitive travel opportunities and added fees for the roughly 40 student members.
Educator and entrepreneur Roxie Hentz held “Bridging Continents: Empowering Youth and Reawakening Heritage,” at Ingraham Hall.
Hentz recently retired as the founding director of CEOs of Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help young people unlock their entrepreneurial potential, Hentz said.
“I just want to take you through a story of my life as I entered into the world of Africa, and how it actually changed my life,” Hentz said.
Hentz said she spent 19 years as an educator and integrated entrepreneurship education into teaching when she partnered with the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation will give nearly $207 million to UW-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research to boost research and future facility costs, the university announced Thursday.
UW-Madison School of Nursing Dean Linda Scott is stepping down effective immediately because of health reasons, the campus announced Wednesday.
Scott had announced Aug. 19 that she would leave the position in June and remain a member of the faculty. This year is Scott’s 10th in the role at the School of Nursing.
For artist and educator Emily Nott, who has had chronic migraines since she was 7 years old, learning about disability justice concepts was “life-affirming.”
“Having ideas at my fingertips like spoon theory and bed activism were ways to not fold those experiences in on myself and hide them and feel shame about them,” she told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
Now, Nott is sharing these ideas more widely with “Crip Wisdoms: A Feminist Disability Studies Coloring Book,” a handmade art booklet, or zine, that pairs quotes, poems and reflections on disability justice with interactive pages for writing, coloring and other activities. She created it with Miso Kwak, a fellow graduate student in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
About half as many students in the Universities of Wisconsin system are getting bachelor’s degrees in ethnic and gender studies as did at their peak in 2013.
Bachelor’s degrees focusing on gender and ethnic groups have been on a steady decline, from 157 in the 2012-13 school year to 67 in 2023-24, according to Universities of Wisconsin data reviewed by the Badger Institute. In the most recent school year, 2024-25, the total number rebounded slightly to 82.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin sat down with The Madison Federalist for a wide-ranging sit-down interview on Thursday, November 5th. She discussed topics including the Wisconsin Exchange, intellectual diversity on campus, and the performance of the Badgers football team.
A Veterans Day Program took place at Memorial Union on Tuesday celebrating veterans and marking a century since Memorial Union’s dedication to service members.
The Memorial Union is dedicated to fallen UW Madison service members.
Travel through the stacks and carrels of University of Wisconsin-Madison libraries in search of Bucky Badger archival images and materials with UW-Madison’s Head of Archives Katie Nash.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School laid off professor and director of the Public Defender Project John Gross due to administrative budget cuts. This will be his last year teaching, and without him, some law students fear for the public defense program’s future.
The La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison will launch a new undergraduate major in public policy in fall 2026.
Students can earn either a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science in public policy. The program is designed to prepare students for careers in government, nonprofits, consulting, advocacy, and business. Many graduates are expected to pursue further education in public affairs or law.
UW system administrators went too far this fall with proposed changes to how general education course credits transfer, according to faculty and staff across the Universities of Wisconsin.
“It’s a clear overreach,” said Amy Lewis, an assistant professor of music at UW-Madison who co-leads the United Faculty & Academic Staff union on campus.
Founded in 1997, the MadHatters are the oldest a cappella group at UW-Madison. Next weekend, the group will be hosting their annual fall showcase. The performance will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday, November 15, at the Overture Center.
The friendship between the three bandmates in Disney’s new show “Electric Bloom” shares similarities to one creator’s real life friends at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“When I was at Madison it took me a minute, but then I started finding theater, and I had a girl group to do shows with,” said co-creator Rachel Lewis, who graduated from UW-Madison in 2003 with a degree in theater. “Finding your friends, finding your place, that really translates to the themes of our show.”
Dorota Grejner-Brzezińska a year ago stepped into a top role at UW-Madison with big plans to expand its billion-dollar research operation.
Then the executive orders poured in. Her plans had to change.
As the pot of federal funding for research at universities and colleges continues to shrink, UW-Madison’s campus leaders are positioning the university to grow its work with the Department of Defense.
That doesn’t mean UW-Madison researchers will be at the forefront of developing new bombs, said Vice Chancellor for Research Dorota Grejner-Brzezińska.
As artificial intelligence infiltrates nearly all facets of society, an education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is no exception. While professors use AI to provide accessible materials, they want their students to understand how to use AI tools without circumventing learning.
Artificial intelligence is powering breakthroughs in everything from health care to climate science, but each new discovery comes with a cost: significant energy. Now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are asking a new question — how can this powerful technology be more sustainable?
The University of Wisconsin is implementing a national pluralism grant this year to support staff and faculty in addressing antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus, according to an emailed statement from UW Student Affairs.
The grant will provide support for a project titled “Pluralism Cohort Initiative for Senior Leadership in Student Affairs” over the course of the 2025-2026 school year, using the work of a cohort of 20 senior administrators at UW, according to SA’s statement.
There are two types of artificial intelligence, Sendhil Mullainathan argued to a sold-out crowd Thursday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
One kind can do everything that the smartest people can do. That sounds ambitious, he said, until you realize “we already have things that can do what people can do — people.”
The other kind of AI, Mullainathan said, can do what even the smartest people cannot.
Fresh off the heels of summer break, some students were startled by three words they thought had been lost to time: “blue book exam.”
Indeed, for many students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this year, gone are the days of the take-home paper or at-home Canvas final. Faced with rising instances of students using generative artificial intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini, to cheat, professors have instead returned to the ol’ reliable: a handwritten, in-class exam.
As artificial intelligence rapidly advances, University of Wisconsin System universities are launching new majors and certificates to prepare students for an increasingly AI-driven workforce.
The programs aim to teach students how to use the technology ethically, practically and responsibly as the technology becomes more integrated into everyday life.
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire started offering majors, certificates and minors in Artificial Intelligence this fall, while the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has offered an AI-related certificate since as early as spring of 2022. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, engineering students have been able to add a capstone certificate in AI since April.
Last spring, UW-Madison awarded the largest number of degrees in the university’s history, the campus reported Wednesday.
The university awarded 13,733 degrees to 13,663 recipients. The total is 1,200 more degrees students earned the year prior.
After he graduates from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Drew Wesson hopes to begin a career in strategic communication, a field with higher-than-average job growth and earnings.
Dick Cheney, one of the most powerful and controversial vice presidents in history, died Nov. 3 at age 84.
Cheney died from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, according to a statement from his family.
The Cheney family had numerous connections to Wisconsin. Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1960s. His daughter, Liz, was born in Madison. Cheney returned to Wisconsin as recently as 2019.
It may be November, but some lilacs in the UW Arboretum are behaving like it’s spring.
That these normally spring-blooming bushes are blossoming here in the fall is starting to become an annual event, said David Stevens, curator of the UW Arboretum’s Longenecker Horticultural Gardens.
Dick Cheney’s political career started in Wisconsin before he headed to Washington. Cheney, one of the most influential and polarizing vice presidents in U.S. history, died at age 84 Monday.
Three companies behind planned and ongoing data center developments on Thursday separately announced efforts aimed at supporting Wisconsin researchers and communities.
The announcements come as new polling shows most Wisconsin voters believe the costs associated with data center projects outweigh the benefits of those developments.
Legendary heavy metal rock and roll band AC/DC announced Monday that it will play at Camp Randall Stadium on Sunday, July 19.
The Madison show will be part of the Australian band’s “Power Up” tour named for its latest studio album, which reached No. 1 in 21 countries.
UW Health encourages lung cancer screenings, as it is the leading cause of cancer death and the second most common cancer in the U.S. excluding skin cancer.
Dr. Cheryl Czerlanis, a medical oncologist and UW Health and a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, says screening is a critical tool for early cancer detection.
UW-Madison’s food pantry, in one sense, looked a lot like business as usual Friday: Student workers continued to dump bags of carrots and onions into bins. They wrote produce labels. They trained volunteers.
The bevy of activity, however, was set against a backdrop of uncertainty, as millions of Americans were set to lose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding, known as SNAP payments, due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.
The University of Wisconsin African Studies Program hosted a discussion Wednesday afternoon featuring UW Vice Provost and Dean of the International Division Frances Vavrus and other program directors. The discussion provided insights into the importance and future of international education amidst federal funding cuts.
As darkness fell over the state capital Oct. 25, Makeela Magomolla, Tayah Dean and George Whitney led a group of more than 40 people on the winding paths of UW-Madison’s Lakeshore Nature Preserve.
Avian flu—otherwise known as bird flu, or H5N1—has spread to dairy cattle in several states across the country. The first confirmed case of the virus in dairy cattle was recorded in March 2024. Luckily, there have been no cases among cattle in Wisconsin.
As a prime dairy state, Wisconsin has implemented mandatory testing of milk entering the supply chain, and researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are actively helping to keep tabs on bird flu in dairy milk by testing samples.
Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in both Jamaica and Cuba in the last two days, followed what has unfortunately become a familiar pattern for major storms in a warming world.
Microsoft, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Princeton University, and the New Jersey AI Hub, announced a unique partnership with TitletownTech to accelerate scientific discovery.
This new model will combine the agility of a startup, the technology of a global company, and a university’s expertise.
The Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison appointed Ricardo Carrion Jr. as its next director on Oct. 23. Carrion will begin the role Nov. 3, 2025.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved a request from University of Wisconsin-Madison on Sept. 18 seeking an additional $13.5 million to make space for a cancer research project.
Originally budgeted at $48.5 million, researchers at the Wisconsin Institute for Medical Research found the new structure requires significantly more complex infrastructure, adding $13.5 million to construction costs. The building will support a cyclotron particle accelerator, [brief definition], and will be ready in 2027 according to UW-Madison’s request.
Professor, author and orator Brittney Cooper discussed the need to reframe narratives surrounding attacks on justice and recognize individual power in reforming systems rooted in oppression at her keynote speech at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center Saturday for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Gender and Women’s Studies 50th Anniversary Celebration.
The University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty hosted a webinar Oct. 29. The webinar examined the effects of student loans and how they specifically target Black students and families, welcoming three experts to discuss a variety of effects impacting students.
UW-Madison has announced a swath of new programming intended to improve civil discourse across campus among students and faculty with differing viewpoints.
Starting in the spring, the “Wisconsin Exchange: Pluralism in Practice” initiative will bring in prominent speakers to talk about free speech and the value of having a diversity of opinions in a community, UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said last week.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice says funding in the state would impact a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction grant program that includes training new providers, increasing teleservices, and a UW-Madison program which trains 24 psychology graduate students to work in high-need high schools.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is in the process of laying off 31 employees and leaving an additional 156 positions vacant. Schools and colleges have cut back on supplies, travel and other expenses. Some libraries plan to shorten hours. And some deans are relying on other funding sources to maintain services and staffing.
Local pharmacies across the state are playing a bigger role in preventing people from dying from opioid overdoses, largely because of the work of a Madison-based program that started one year ago. The Wisconsin Opioid Overdose Response Center estimates it has brought more than 185,000 residents into contact with a variety of expanded services since launching last year.
Thinking about joining the growing number of people zipping around Madison on electric scooters? Know this: They are generally allowed anywhere you can ride a bicycle, though there are exceptions. Madison and UW-Madison police say there’s been a noticeable uptick in e-scooter use over the last one to two years, even as no business renting out commuter scooters has yet opened in the city.
A conservative student group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison hosted a panel discussion on campus Oct. 15 highlighting growing tensions on college campuses over free speech, representation and political balance in the classroom.
Wisconsin Young Americans for Freedom’s panel, featuring current and former UW-Madison professors and state Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, examined how universities can preserve open debate while addressing concerns about a shrinking range of political views, especially in the aftermath of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s assasination at a college in Utah.
UW-Madison has shuttered the equity and well-being department in its human resources office, which worked to retain LGBTQ+ and employees of color.
The university established the Office of Equity, Inclusion and Employee Well-Being in spring 2021 to offer consultation and promote inclusive policies and environments, with a focus on support for traditionally marginalized communities.
UW-Madison leaders want to hear a variety of viewpoints on campus.
Originally published in the January 2024 print issue of Madison Magazine, Oloizia’s “All the Lonely People” is noted in “The Best American Essays 2025” among works selected by guest editor Jia Tolentino of The New Yorker. The reported essay explores potential solutions to the loneliness epidemic declared by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in May 2023. Oloizia experiments with tempering his own moderate loneliness through cuddle therapy, behavioral economics and a University of Wisconsin–Madison course on human flourishing.
UW-Madison presented a new initiative titled “Wisconsin Exchange: Pluralism in Practice,” aiming to encourage civil dialogue and connect students, staff and faculty in a polarized world, according to UW News.
Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin said in a statement that learning happens best when those from different backgrounds come together and the Wisconsin Exchange will recognize that by building off existing programs and offering opportunities for open conversations, according to the Wisconsin Exchange website.
The UW-Madison main campus includes over two dozen properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison launched “The Wisconsin Exchange: Pluralism in Practice,” a campus-wide initiative aimed at promoting open dialogue and creating a campus atmosphere where “different points of view are both expected and respected.”
The initiative will streamline the university’s preexisting programs with new opportunities, emphasizing the value of diverse viewpoints and civil dialogue.
The Universities of Wisconsin this fall saw record in-state freshman enrollment growth but reported 8% fewer international students on campus amid federal pressures, including visa crackdowns, according to data released Wednesday.
UW systemwide enrollment is 164,626 students this fall, a slight increase of 190 students, or 0.12%, from last fall. The modest increase is higher compared to student count projections reported last month. That report suggested a loss of nearly 100 students, 0.05% decrease, credited to plummeting international student enrollment.
At the University of Wisconsin, the humanities department is stepping into the AI world with a new initiative. Backed by a $500,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the College of Letters and Science is launching the Center for Humanistic Inquiry into AI and Uncertainty, according to the CL&S website.
Part of the shipment of food to be prepared for the next week’s University of Wisconsin football game arrived as usual at Camp Randall Stadium on a Thursday last year.
The collection was short in one product that in Wisconsin almost certainly would get noticed if concession stands ran out early: There weren’t enough brats.
It’s 7:30 a.m. on a Thursday, and class for the Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums program at UW-Madison is just getting started.
Program director Cassy Leeport, a descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe, pulls up to a university parking lot and greets her student Cheyenne Woerman as she hops into the UW-Madison-issued minivan scented with cut sweetgrass ready for braiding.
Leslie Falcon, Citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and Ho-Chunk Educational Materials Director, speaks on the impact that UW-Madison students from the Tribal Libraries, Archives and Museums program have had on building the first Ho-Chunk library.
