The Wisconsin Idea Award was given to the Shawano County Rural Health Initiative last Thursday for the program’s commitment to keeping Shawano County area farmers healthy.The award is given every year by the University of Wisconsin Colleges and UW-Extension Chancellor David Wilson to a person or program that exemplifies a… Read more »

A bill passed by the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee Wednesday could require regional representation on the UW System Board of Regents.Previous attempts have been made to require that board members be from different areas of the state, but they used the congressional districts as a guideline rather than creating… Read more »

Two University of Wisconsin System school newspapers are under fire for rejecting an advertisement offer from Pro-Life Wisconsin on the basis of avoiding controversy. Both the Advance-Titan of UW-Oshkosh and The Pointer of UW-Stevens Point decided not to run a 12-page insert created by the Human Life Alliance because both… Read more »

The Senate Committee on Agriculture and Higher Education recommended a bill Tuesday that would require University of Wisconsin System Board of Regent members to come from seven distinct regions of Wisconsin, changing a composition that has historically been dominated by Madison and Milwaukee. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Julie… Read more »

The University of Wisconsin System announced Thursday 18 different growth agenda projects that received funding, totaling $1 million in support over the next year. Twelve different system schools received funding for projects aimed to increase higher education enrollment and retention, including UW-Madison. Within the entire growth agenda there are three… Read more »

With the claim of saving taxpayers $87 billion, the House of Representatives passed a bill that has been referred by multiple legislators as “the single largest government investment” in making higher education more affordable. The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which was sponsored by George Miller, D-Calif., passed with… Read more »

The University of Wisconsin-Stout has recently made the decision to purchase graduation gowns made entirely from post-consumer plastic bottles. The order for 900 gowns will come from the company Herff Jones, which also supplies gowns to the UW-Madison and will cost each student $2.50 more, according to Valerie Espejo, the… Read more »

Students across various campus groups fought, unsuccessfully for the moment, for ASM funding to attend the National Equality March for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equal rights. A considerable number of students came to the ASM meeting to show their support for the National Equality March and to request somewhere… Read more »

Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee organized Monday to rally students to fight the tuition increase and budget cuts passed this summer by the UW System Board of Regents. The group aimed to increase student awareness, telling students and faculty passing by the rally they can… Read more »

For the first time ever, Badger Student Travel pled its case to the Student Services Finance Committee along with Badger Catholic, which has previously received money from the General Student Services Fund. According to its mission statement, Badger Student Travel is an independent student organization run by and for students… Read more »

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved the disputed $81.4 million Human Resources System Project Friday and also received news for the first time regarding the Research to Jobs Task Force. The HRS project was approved after a brief discussion by a 15-2-0 vote, opposed only by Regent… Read more »

The University of Wisconsin-Stout received approval for their newly-revised mission statement from the Board of Regents Friday, continuing the trend of UW System schools doing away with old mission statements. In March 2007 the Board of Regents acted on a proposal from UW-Stout to designate the university as Wisconsin’s… Read more »

A group that was hired by the University of Wisconsin System to perform a multimillion dollar overhaul to the Human Resource payroll computer system, and which is currently under review by the Securities and Exchange Commission, presented its case at the UW System Board of Regents meeting Thursday. According to… Read more »

Philanthropist Michael Cudahy, who had discussed donating a large amount of money to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Engineering Research Park to be named after him, recently pulled out of the gift. Cudahy, the founder of Marquette Electronics, is a well-known phil-anthropist throughout the Milwaukee area, and according to the University… Read more »

Two groups, Sex Out Loud and Greater University Tutoring Service, made their pleas to the Student Services Finance Committee Thurs-day in the first eligibility hearing of the year to garner funding for the next two years. Currently, GUTS receives $143,243 in funding, and Sex Out Loud receives $90,710. “GUTS and… Read more »

Due to increasing concerns surrounding the H1N1 flu, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents will vote at its meetings this week whether to suspend a rule proclaiming staff must provide a doctor’s note if they are sick for more than five days. “There are really two reasons why we… Read more »

Students at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee voted to end their membership with United Council, with 53 percent of 2,500 total choosing to cut ties. According to their website, United Council is “a non-partisan, non-profit, student-directed organization committed to enhancing the quality of student life and protecting access to higher education in… Read more »

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is one of the last UW System schools to remove landline telephones from residence halls, saving students more than $400,000 every year. “A number of years ago, telephone usage started dropping off,” Assistant Director for Residential Living Susan Malnory said. “We could kind of see it… Read more »

PennState University Schreyer Honor College and its students’ parents have raised $228,000 over the past year by asking merit scholarship recipients to donate unneeded portions of their $3,500 to go toward students who qualify for need-based scholarships. In fall 2008, the college began receiving letters from various merit students who,… Read more »

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Carroll University will be combining forces to create a new opportunity in engineering. The private university in Waukesha has never before offered a degree in engineering until now, which aims towards students in the applied physics program. After students at Carroll receive their bachelor’s degree,… Read more »

A recent survey found that more than half of professors who teach online courses said they would recommend them to all students, but they feel they lack support from their universities. According to Jeff Seaman, author of the study conducted by Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, 10,700 faculty and… Read more »

An $80 million update to the University of Wisconsin System payroll computer software, which dates back to the 1970’s, will be proposed by the UW System President Kevin Reilly next week. In the regents’ meeting Sept. 10, the project titled “The Human Resource System Project,” which will combine and restructure… Read more »

Two student groups were found to have violated rules of the Student Services Finance Committee at its meeting Thursday night. There were three violations found, two of which violated the end-of-the-year report deadline, which was due by noon, Aug. 21, 2009. The group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan, which, according… Read more »

After another round of debate, the Associated Students of Madison approved a change to freshmen Student Council elections to correct what they believed was originally just an oversight. The vote to change the bylaw, which excluded 694 freshmen in last year’s election because of previously earned credits that qualified them… Read more »

Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow, a conservative campus group, is suing the Associated Students of Madison and various other University of Wisconsin parties on the basis of being denied funding unjustifiably. On Sept. 22, 2008, the Student Services Finance Committee denied funding to CFACT, which promotes progress through a free… Read more »

For the first time, the University of Wisconsin’s Associated Students of Madison provided shelter and storage for all interested students during move-out night on Aug. 14, the traditional day all leases end for Madison area apartment renters. “It was a huge campus collaboration and lots of people on campus were… Read more »

This summer the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved a 5.5 percent tuition increase for all four-year campuses to help alleviate the $250 million budget cut. The percentage increase in tuition remains the same as the previous two years, according to Regent Jeffrey Bartell, chair of the Capital… Read more »

Associated Students of Madison elections are right around the corner and this year, and more students might be given the chance to run in freshman elections. Currently, ASM bylaws define a freshman student as someone who is new to the University of Wisconsin and has fewer than 24 credits. This… Read more »

As social networking websites become more and more popular in the business world as tools for publicity and outreach, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh has found a need for a new major that revolves around training on the use of sites such as Twitter and Facebook. With money set aside by… Read more »

The University of Wisconsin is back in Princeton Review’s “Best 371 Colleges” rankings for the after being named the No. 8 party school in the nation. Four years have passed since UW was ranked the No. 1 party school by Princeton Review. The next year they fell to fourth place… Read more »

Downtown and campus bikers will be increasingly targeted and ticketed for violating bike laws, from now until October. The Madison Police Department received a state grant for the initiative and will be heavily issuing tickets on specific days to increase bike safety in the Madison Isthmus area, according to Sgt.… Read more »

The Associated Students of Madison and Academic Affairs Committee will be holding their semi-annual book swap Friday, Aug. 28 through Sunday, Aug. 30. According to Jonah Zenith, chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, students will buy books for 35 percent less than what the University Bookstore sells the same book… Read more »

Fifty-three patients at the University of Wisconsin Hospital were informed last week that there is an “extremely low risk” they may have been infected by a fatal brain disease know as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. After a woman in her 50s, who recently died of CJD, had brain surgery at UW Hospital… Read more »

After a long debate at the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents meeting over balancing a quality education with affordability, the regents came to an almost unanimous consensus to increase tuition by 5.5 percent for all four-year campuses. “At a time like this with so many of us… Read more »

The University of Wisconsin now has the authority to discipline students for off-campus criminal offenses after the Board of Regents changed the system’s misconduct codes last month.� Chapters 17 and 18 of the University of Wisconsin Administrative Code outline a set of disciplinary procedures for the UW System. Chapter… Read more »

After University of Wisconsin’s Associated Students of Madison panicked over a debt of $180,000 owed to the state following the passage of the state budget, Vice Chancellor Darrell Bazzell stumbled upon a solution just prior to last week’s Board of Regents meeting. In total, UW-Madison must pay back a… Read more »

After Gov. Jim Doyle approved the right for University of Wisconsin employees to unionize in the state budget earlier this month, some UW employees are saying they are angry about the decision. Originally the state budget gave power to the Wisconsin Employee Relations Commission to assign staff into unions.… Read more »

While the amount of federal aid Wisconsin and other states will receive from President-elect Barack Obama’s stimulus package remains unknown, a Washington group estimates the state could receive $1.64 billion. The Federal Funds Information for States released a report Tuesday that aims to give states a general idea of… Read more »

The National Economic Bureau of Research announced Monday that December 2007 marked the start of the current recession, which the bureau forecasted to last well into 2009. NEBR spokesperson Donna Zerwitz said the recession could not have been prevented if the information was previously available. “(It) really only matters… Read more »

A new website where candidates must report the source and value of donations they receive will make campaign finance information even more accessible to the public, according to the Government Accountability Board. The website created by the GAB allows candidates to directly enter their reports instead of having to send… Read more »

With the state projected to spend $500 million over budget in 2009 and no federal assistance coming from President George W. Bush’s administration, Wisconsin officials are counting on President-elect Barack Obama for federal aid. Since the previous summer, the financial situation has gotten worse throughout the nation and Wisconsin… Read more »

Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Randy Koschnick announced Monday he will run against incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson. Koschnick, who said he would run a clean and fair campaign for Supreme Court, is also the deputy chief judge of Wisconsin’s Third Judicial District and has previously served… Read more »

The Government Accountability Board announced its intentions Tuesday to regulate issue advertisements, which some special interest groups say encroach on their First Amendment rights. With this rule, all groups that air ads near elections would be required to disclose who is funding the ad, as well as meet additional… Read more »

After voters waited for hours to vote absentee in person and clerks stayed up for hours to count those votes on Election Day, Wisconsin is now considering moving to early voting to reduce time, error and costs. This year there was an abundance of in-person absentee voters, which caused… Read more »

University of Wisconsin political science professors and community members discussed the challenges President-elect Barack Obama will face, from social environment to campaign finances. Political science professor Byron Shafer discussed the importance of the economy, which was the No. 1 issue among voters. “If the credit crisis can make Obama… Read more »

County Executive Kathleen Falk hosted an event for “Women’s Wednesday” yesterday, a weekly gathering to get women to support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. This is the fourth “Women’s Wednesdays” hosted at the Monroe Street Obama office encouraging women to come volunteer their time and reach out to other women… Read more »

With only a week left until Election Day, visits from either presidential candidate seem unlikely as Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama retains a significant lead in the polls over Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Although the last two presidential elections in Wisconsin have been won by only a couple thousand… Read more »

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano came to Madison Wednesday in support of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to encourage volunteers at Wisconsin-based campaign offices to continue to phone bank, canvass and encourage voters to show up at the polls.”Wisconsin is a battleground state, and we have got to get the… Read more »

Democrats and some Republicans are criticizing Republican presidential nominee John McCain and the Republican National Committee for what some say are misleading calls made throughout Wisconsin. After a week of receiving automatic phone calls from the McCain campaign linking Democratic nominee Barack Obama to William Ayers, a professor at the… Read more »

General Motors’ Janesville plant is scheduled to shut down on Dec. 23, leaving many jobless and raising questions about the future role of GM in the area. Earlier this summer, GM announced that the plant, which currently manufactures trucks and sport utility vehicles, would close by 2010. The earlier-than-expected closing… Read more »

The two leading presidential candidates spent $28 million on nationwide television advertising last week, nearly doubling the amount they spent the previous week.Nearly 100 percent of television advertisements Republican presidential candidate John McCain ran were negative, compared to one-third of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s, according to the Wisconsin… Read more »

A bill that would enable police officers to pull over drivers solely on the basis of not wearing their seat belt is up for debate in Wisconsin. If legislation is passed, Wisconsin could receive $15 million in federal money to go toward the state budget to implement the program. Previously,… Read more »

“The O.C.” star Adam Brody and actress Joy Bryant used their celebrity power Wednesday to rally students in Madison in support of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. With celebrities like Oprah, Chris Rock and Scarlett Johansson already voicing their support for the Illinois senator, Brody and Bryant jumped on board… Read more »

The presidential debates could influence one-fourth of Wisconsin voters and ultimately decide the state’s outcome of the election, according to a survey released Wednesday. The poll, conducted in conjunction with The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, asked voters in the swing states of Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin… Read more »

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain outspent rival Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama by $35,000 in television ads airing in Wisconsin in the week following the Republican National Convention, according to a Wednesday report. The Wisconsin Advertising Project shows Wisconsin as an increasingly important battleground state as the candidates… Read more »