As the Journal Sentinel reported, one UW-Madison study found 40 percent of species changes in northern Wisconsin and Michigan forests were tied to over-eating of plant life by deer, from stunting native tree regeneration to wiping out some plants altogether.
Category: UW-Madison Related
New Dane County population projections see growth accelerating
A group of local planning and demography specialists known as the Regional Data Group estimate the county will have 887,000 residents by 2050, an increase of roughly 58% from the 2020 census count of 561,504.
The Regional Data Group includes staff from the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission and the Greater Madison Metropolitan Planning Organization, along with the city, county and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Its projections take into account local development patterns and expects much more room for population influx.
Wisconsin’s 32 Most Influential Black Leaders for 2025, Part 4
Deana Wright is the director of older adult programs for MTZ Charitable Organization, Inc., where she oversees programming and services for nearly 300 Black older adults in Madison, and is the founder and president of The Wright Place, a nonprofit focused on culturally responsive, participant-centered programming for aging adults. She previously served as diversity and inclusion manager at NewBridge Madison, where she expanded access to culturally responsive programming, and later worked in outreach with the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, supporting recruitment of Black older adults into brain health research studies. Wright is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and serves as an appointed commissioner on the City of Madison Equal Opportunities Commission.
Who is Akmal Nasrullah Nasir? A brief primer on the low-key leader now heading one of the toughest ministries
With top grades, he was offered a scholarship to study in the United States.
After completing a preliminary course at the International Education College in Shah Alam, Akmal spent four years at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science and economics.
This means Akmal is essentially equipped with the skills of a financial risk manager, trained to study the financial impacts of uncertain future events.
Roberta Fallon, artist, writer, and Artblog cofounder, has died at 76
Roberta Ellen Fallon was born Feb. 8, 1949, in Milwaukee. She went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study sociology after high school and dropped out to explore Europe and take art classes in Paris. She returned to college, changed her major to English, and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1974.
Dane County school safety group grew after Abundant Life shooting
Chuck Moore is executive director of Impact Christian Schools, a nonprofit supporting more than a dozen Christian schools in Wisconsin, including Abundant Life. Since the shooting at Abundant Life last December, Moore said most of the training received by the nonprofit’s members was initiated by Dane County Emergency Management.
“There have been so many strategies across the country, and every (shooting) seems to have a unique component,” said Moore, who holds a Ph.D. in education leadership and policy analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Every one has a new thing, and we’re trying to have best practices.”
PNC Championship closes out golf in America. Final official event of the year in Mauritius
Steve Stricker is playing with daughter Izzi, who plays at the University of Wisconsin.
Who are the key legal players on both sides of the Judge Hannah Dugan federal trial?
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling oversees the federal team. He has spent most of his career as a prosecutor. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin Law School and working as a law clerk and in private practice, Frohling joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Milwaukee in 2000. He was Acting U.S. Attorney when the case was filed. He returned to his position as First Assistant U.S. Attorney when former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel was named interim U.S. Attorney in November.
Wisconsin’s 32 Most Influential Black Leaders for 2025, Part 1
Maurice Thomas is chief operating officer at Greater Holy Temple Christian Academy, a 4k-8th grade Christian school in Milwaukee. He is an alum of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and expects to earn a master’s degree in education leadership from Harvard in 2027.
Jerry Jordan is a nationally-known painter working in the style of contemporary realism. He counts the unsung artists of the Harlem Renaissance as his artistic role models. By day, Jordan is an academic and multicultural advisor with the UW-Madison School of Education. He holds a degree in art from UW-Whitewater.
Dr. Bashir Easter is founder of Melanin Minded, a company that aims to empower Black and Latino communities by culturally appropriate resources and support for individuals affected by Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. He began his career in elder care nearly 15 years ago with Milwaukee County as an elder abuse investigator, human services worker, and dementia care program specialist, and later served as associate director of the All of Us Research Program at UW-Madison.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s forgotten chair designs on display at Museum of Wisconsin Art
Wright, who was born in Richland Center in 1867 and briefly studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is famous for his pioneering work as an architect.
George Meyer, former head of Wisconsin DNR, dies
Born in 1947 on a dairy farm in New Holstein, Meyer’s asthma kept him from following the family path into farming. He earned a degree in economics at St. Norbert College in De Pere and a law degree in 1972 from UW-Madison.
A view of Madison like none other from John Steuart Curry
Curry, then an artist in residence at UW-Madison’s School of Agriculture, took some liberties when he created “Madison Landscape,” a 7-foot-wide, 8-foot-high tempera and oil canvas mural that for more than three decades was a fixture behind the tellers at First National Bank on Capitol Square.
Cap Times’ Evjue Foundation announces over $700K in community grants
Today’s grants are in addition to the $1.3 million awarded to local nonprofits and the University of Wisconsin in June. All told, some 136 local nonprofits received Evjue help during the year.
Trump promotes economy amid signs of a job market slowdown
Flagship universities are typically the oldest, largest, and best-funded public research institution in a state, and an examination of those schools across the country find a wide variation in the nonpayment rate on federal student loans. The highest rate is at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, at 19%. The lowest rate — 4% — is found at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. On average, across the 50 states, the nonpayment rate is around 8.5%, or 1 in 12 attendees of flagship public institutions, according to government data. Among the Ivy League schools, some of the most elite universities in the country, the rate ranges from 3% to 5%.
Cora Weiss, lifelong champion of social justice, dies at 91
After graduating from the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York, she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There, she met a newspaper editor leading an effort to recall Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, the crusading anti-Communist who was attacking the loyalty of political opponents. She helped set up the Madison headquarters for a campaign called “Joe Must Go” and began going door to door to gather signatures for a petition.
Kate Hudson nominated for Golden Globe for Milwaukee-based ‘Song Sung Blue’
Jackman, who was in town last week for the hometown premiere of “Blue,” gave kudos to his “friend and costar” via Instagram.
He posted a photo of the two of them from a promo for the movie, sporting Wisconsin Badgers crewnecks.
Bridge Work artists explore nature, human subjects and techno-fascism
Maile Lloyd studied art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she graduated in May 2025 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Originally from Madison, Lloyd is a graduate of West High School and also studied at Madison College
America is awash in conspiracy theories. A Missouri researcher says ‘radical empathy’ can help
Conner and researchers Saverio Roscigno, of the University of California, Irvine, and Matthew Hannah, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, write in the forthcoming “QAnon: Capitalism and the Crisis of Meaning” that participating in QAnon means interacting with what they call gamified systems that are “strategically engineered to increase the likelihood that users will engage with them.”
This means the internet offers spaces to share ideas and encourage participation, but also “capitalizes on psychological mechanisms to hook and hold its followers,” they write.
The new college version of “The dog ate my homework”
This is one of those moments where I can really say I did walk a mile and trudge uphill in the snow to find out about a grade. I was an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and when professors posted grades, it was on a sheet outside their office door, and since we didn’t have email, we just relied on when they said they might be posting the grades. It was common to arrive at the door and find that nothing was posted yet. We did not bang on the door, asking why it had taken a little longer. We didn’t march to the provost’s or president’s office and demand to talk to someone about our complaints. Instead, we walked back downhill, picked up a coffee, and headed home. A day or two later, we would try again. And if we had questions about those grades, we checked the syllabus for when the office hours were and planned to see the professor then.
TikTok trends show we still don’t know what we want from men
If the bear trend reflects fear, the performative male trend reflects distrust. It started as a parody of a certain kind of man: someone who performs “wokeness” for social approval. What stands out, though, is what these videos don’t show. They rarely show the turn, i.e. the moment where the performance is revealed as manipulation. Instead, they stop at the aesthetic: tote bags, curated sensitivity, painted nails—like the real-life performative male contest held at my alma mater, UW–Madison, earlier this fall.
DHS tells citizens to report illegal neighbors to get affordable housing
A research paper from the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin finds that immigration does increase housing demand and can raise shelter prices, but its overall contribution to U.S. price growth is small, around 2 percent.
Warner Bros., David Heyman team to adapt new novel from ‘The Immortalists’ author Chloe Benjamin
Benjamin, who graduated from Vassar College and holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin, made her novel debut in 2014 with The Anatomy of Dreams, which received the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award and was long-listed for the 2014 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
The math legend who just left academia—for an AI startup run by a 24-year-old
Ono is an outlier whose career has been untraditional since the very beginning. As a child, pressure from his parents made him so miserable that he didn’t finish high school. Without a diploma, he still went to college, developed his passion for math and taught for decades at the University of Wisconsin and Emory before moving to UVA in 2019. He also led the nation’s top research program for elite undergraduates and mentored 10 winners of the Morgan Prize, including his new boss.
Longtime Wisconsin radio host Larry Meiller announces retirement
In addition to his radio career, Meiller was a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 106 semesters, before retiring in 2022. He taught in the university’s Department of Life Sciences Communication.
With his sculptures full of natural splendor, artist Truman Lowe could make wood look like water
Lowe earned an undergraduate degree in art education from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 1969 and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1973. During his graduate program, Lowe studied sculpture, glassblowing, ceramics and other art forms that would go on to influence his work: a catalog of earthy, curved sculptures built from organic materials.
Medical Sciences Orchestra keeps music alive on campus
Musicians in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health perform classical music with surgical precision as part of the Medical Sciences Orchestra. Founded in 2018 by fourth-year medical student Joohee Son, the orchestra provides a chance for new operations for students, faculty and alumni in the medical field.
Director of La Follette School of Public Affairs talks new public policy major
The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced a new Public Policy Bachelor’s degree in the La Follette School of Public Affairs next fall — the first program of its kind in Wisconsin — at what school leaders call a pivotal time for “civil dialogue.”
UW-Madison group helps students find fun in recovery from addiction
Ash Engel and Dante Lucchesi work together as collegiate recovery specialists in UW-Madison’s Badger Recovery program. They provide one-on-one coaching, weekly meetings and social events for students in recovery from substance use, disordered eating and addictive behaviors.
UW-Madison seeks approval to break school of AI, computing into separate college
UW-Madison is seeking to break its computer school out into a separate college that will focus on computing and artificial intelligence — a move the university says will position the institution as a leader in AI. The UW Board of Regents will vote Thursday on whether to move the UW-Madison School of Computer, Data, and Information Sciences (CDIS) out of the College of Letters and Science into a new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence.
Milwaukee childhood home of ‘The Joker’ rocker Steve Miller sold
Miller was born in Milwaukee in 1943 spent the first eight years of his life in the Ogden Avenue house, according to Shorewest Realtors agent Nell Benton, who brokered the sale. His family then moved to Dallas, Texas before Miller enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1961.
To help their kids ‘climb the ivy,’ Chinese mothers uproot their families for Silicon Valley schools
Her older son, 20, is now studying computer science at Santa Clara University. Her younger one, 18, is a computer engineering student at the University of Wisconsin. In school, they played in a jazz band and cultivated their love for music. These are things, she believes, they couldn’t have had in China. Gao couldn’t spend the last year of her father’s life with him due to the pandemic, but, “I have no regrets,” she said. “Because I see my kids.”
A first look at The Center for Black Excellence and Culture
Leaders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are excited about the Center, Gee said. The chancellor and provost recently toured the building.
He said the Center is developing partnerships with six university departments and that UW leaders “believe we can help sell the university as a place for students, researchers and faculty.” “I love that, but the other piece is if we connect (with) Milwaukee, Beloit, Racine, and we unite those Black communities so that we set agendas together, we dream together, we celebrate together.”
Give 4,000 Thanksgiving meals? No sweat for these Madison volunteers
Student athletes from the University of Wisconsin-Madison join Sunday to help the largest push of the weekend. Elected officials, including Gov. Tony Evers, have participated as well.
Dick Cheney’s power, controversies and legacy
Dick Cheney was a Westerner. He grew up in Wyoming. He was a college dropout at one point, seemed a little at loose ends. Then he married Lynne Cheney, his wife, who set him straight. She was a very disciplined person from then, at that point and forever. He went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin seeking a Ph.D. never got the Ph.D. He got an internship in Washington, and there he found his path working first as a congressional aide and then as the youngest White House chief of staff ever working for President Ford.
It’s time to break up the programmatic accrediting agency monopolies
As John D. Wiley, former provost at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, correctly noted almost 20 years ago, “We are already seeing this very phenomenon of degree inflation, and it is being caused by the professions themselves! This is particularly problematic in the health professions, where, it seems, everyone wants to be called ‘doctor.’ I have no problem whatsoever with the professional societies and their accreditors telling us what a graduate must know to practice safely and professionally. I have a big problem, though, when they hand us what amounts to a master’s-level curriculum and tell us the resulting degree must be called a ‘doctor of X.’ This is a transparently self-interested ploy by the profession, and I see no conceivable argument that it is in the public interest. All it does is further confuse an already confusing array of degree names and titles, to no useful purpose.”
Honda invests in soil carbon removal credit scheme to offset emissions
University of Wisconsin Madison Division of Extension’s Crops and Soils program defines a carbon credit as, “a certified, tradable carbon offset that is exchanged under a cap and trade system of emissions regulation.” Under that system, companies are allotted a certain number of credits to offset their emissions impact. Farmers who have generated their own credits may sell them to companies who, in turn, may release more harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
Dean Emerit of Nursing Linda D. Scott passes away at 69
Dean Emerit of the School of Nursing Linda D. Scott died Monday at the age of 69, the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced Tuesday.
Scott stepped down as Dean just six days ago due to health reasons, moving her retirement up from June 2026. She was the first Black dean of the College of Nursing — and the eighth dean ever — and spent almost ten years in the role, being appointed in July 2016. She led expansions to the program as well as the school’s centennial celebration.
Palestinian student protests: From then to now
In an online presentation Nov. 17, associate professor at the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona Maha Nassar presented a history of Palestinian student activism and how students have used peaceful protest for change.
Governor candidates Tom Tiffany, Josh Schoemann call for changes to UW, including tuition freeze
In the Republican race for governor, Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann has some big ideas for the state’s public universities.
He said he is open to eliminating tenure protections for professors, would consider closing a four-year public university and sees merit in spinning off the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the Universities of Wisconsin, also known as the UW system.
Rodriguez talks UW System funding, bid for governor
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez discussed her support for increased funding for the University of Wisconsin System, saying tuition hikes are a “burden” for families in an interview with The Daily Cardinal Monday.
‘Everything is about reading’: Go Big Read author dreams of a well-read society
Author of ‘James’ — University of Wisconsin-Madison’s 2025-2026 Go Big Read book — Percival Everett discussed race and reading with UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin for the Go Big Read keynote address on Nov. 4.
Nobel Prize winner James D. Watson ‘complex’ mentor for UW-Madison researcher
It’s been said the best teachers can be judged by the success of those they mentor. In the case of Nobel Prize winner James D. Watson, who died this month at 97, a prime example is UW-Madison molecular biologist and biochemist Richard Burgess.
UW-Madison conference weighs if fusion voting can make politics healthier
Dozens of political scientists, election experts and members of the public gathered in a UW-Madison conference room Friday to debate whether returning to a 19th century election process could empower voters and help turn back the United States’ slide toward authoritarianism.
Bucky Badger is ready for his close-up
A new historical documentary, “Bucky!”, follows Wisconsin’s beloved mascot from his debut in 1949 to his current status as a state icon.
‘Resist, resist, resist!’: Holocaust survivor and civil rights attorney talks activism at UW Hillel event
Tom Jacobson, a Holocaust survivor and former civil rights attorney, discussed his experiences in Nazi Germany and his extensive achievements as an ardent civil rights activist on campus and in his career at UW Hillel Tuesday evening.
Students rally against Trump administration’s higher education compact
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.
Student government calls on university to fund campus food pantry amid record demand
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 Open Seat sees exponential shopper increase, ‘unable to handle’ amidst FoodShare benefit uncertainty
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.”
UW-Madison speech and debate team perseveres in face of budget cuts
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.
Entrepreneur educator discusses importance of heritage, cultural immersion
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.
WARF gives $206.9 million to UW-Madison, Morgridge Institute to boost research
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 nursing dean steps down early for health reasons
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.
Wisconsin friends team up to create disability justice zine
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.
UW students turning away from gender and ethnic studies degrees
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.
Chancellor Mnookin Discusses Pluralism, Wisconsin Exchange in Exclusive Interview
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.
UW-Madison marks Veterans Day with special ceremony at Memorial Union
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.
Q&A: Curating vintage Bucky Badger with UW-Madison Head of Archives Katie Nash
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.
UW Public Defender program’s future unclear after layoff of ‘beloved’ law professor
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.
New major at UW-Madison: Public Policy
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-Madison faculty blast ‘overreach’ by UW system on transfer credits
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.