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UW System officials are trying to find ways to make textbooks more affordable for students...UW System spokesman David Giroux says this is pretty new territory for the Regents...
At first glance, a key premise of Chancellor Biddy Martin's undergraduate initiative seems absurd. In an effort to make the University of Wisconsin-Madison "affordable to all," she is proposing a tuition increase. Yet Martin's Madison Initiative for Undergraduates -- the first major proposal of her eight-month-old tenure -- has met with little organized resistance from students, who, in the past, have howled at any attempt to raise the cost of a college education...
When University of Wisconsin-Madison alum Rebecca Thorman went after a job leading Magnet, a nonprofit organization that seeks to attract and retain young professionals, her blog was key to snagging the position because it showed interviewers she was an expert on Generation Y. Two years later, Thorman, 25, had developed a following and community for her blog, "Modite," with the help of tools such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. She leveraged those skills to land her new job in January as a social media marketer for the start-up Alice.com - a position she heard about after a high-profile blogger recommended her. It's the kind of social networking that college career centers are urging seniors to embrace to set themselves apart and net that first job, particularly at a time when fewer companies are hiring...
University of Wisconsin student leaders and campus administrators met informally Sunday night at Chancellor Biddy Martin's house to reflect on the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates and to look forward to the vote on the proposal by the Board of Regents Thursday. Martin said in the few days left before the initiative goes before the board, the university will be working on the most effective way to present the proposal. If the initiative is passed, work will begin immediately on implementing its different facets...
The University of Wisconsin-Madison's plan to increase tuition would allow the school to hire 235 faculty and staff.UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin has proposed increasing in-state undergraduate tuition by $250 per year for the next four years, on top of hikes approved by the Board of Regents...
Another great example of UW-Madison helping ordinary people and the economy in Wisconsin came Friday with the announcement of a $6.9 million federal grant for Alzheimer's research. UW-Madison is now home to a major national center focused on Alzheimer's...
Nine golden shovels broke ground east of the Chazen Museum of Art Friday afternoon, marking the beginning of the construction of a building expansion that will nearly double the museum’s gallery space. Local and state officials celebrated the occasion, which marked the culmination of a project dating back more than 10 years, according to Director Russell Panczenko...
At his flu institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka is already studying the swine flu virus, prodding its genes for signs of weakness...UW-Madison built the $12.5 million facility, which has high-level biosafety lab space, to retain Kawaoka after the University of Pittsburgh offered him an attractive recruitment package...
...This week, Cheryl Skjolaas, interim director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, discusses the program and trends in agricultural safety...
Finances are at the heart of a review by University of Wisconsin Athletic Department officials of their performance bonus plan...Since 1994, UW Athletics has used booster donations to reward all coaches in the 23 sports for "exceptional" achievements like bowl games, NCAA tournament appearances and personal accolades such coach-of-the-year awards. The rewards, based on a predetermined percentage of base salary, are predicated on the availability of funds...
Under fire from the National Rifle Association, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse might go in a much different direction to name its mascot. The UW-L campus in January voted to christen its eagle “Eddie.” But the NRA recently notified UW-L it has a trademarked gun safety mascot with the same name. Pick another name, the NRA advised...
...Students who graduate from Winona State University, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Saint Mary’s University and other area schools have lower debt loads than graduates from the University of Minnesota or top-dollar private schools, they said. Students continue to apply to the area’s colleges, often times in record numbers -- proof, official said, that parents and high school seniors don’t see local institutions as out of their price range. But a growing number of students, especially when they graduate and hit the job market, have begun to question the return on that education investment...
Affordability. It's a word advertised in college brochures, catalogs and financial aid packages. While every college and university's marketing department seems smitten with the word, affordability doesn't have a concise or even similar meaning depending on who's doing the talking...UW-L's tuition increased through its Growth, Quality and Access plan, but "because we are so affordable, it doesn't dissuade a student from coming to UW-L," said Hetzel. While enrollment is one way to measure affordability, colleges also do a lot of comparing to peer schools locally, statewide and across the country...
After three decades of steady growth in the number of teams and student-athletes, colleges and universities large and small, private and public, east and west, are slashing millions of dollars from their sports budgets...
...But nationwide, 17 states, including Nevada, Texas and Washington, have allowed community colleges to award associate's and bachelor's degrees, and in some, the community colleges have become four-year institutions. Others states are considering community college baccalaureates. In most cases, the expanding community colleges argue that they are fulfilling a need, providing four-year degrees to working people who often lack the money or the time to travel to a university. But some of those universities are fighting back, saying the community colleges are involved in "mission creep" that may distract them from their traditional mission and lead to watered-down bachelor's degrees...
...At around $20 billion, the private student loan market is less than one-third the size of various federal lending programs. But students may have to rely more heavily than usual on banks and other private lenders this year because two alternative sources of tuition funding -- the 529 plans and home equity balances -- have been slammed by declining stock market and property values. According to the Project on Student Debt, the average graduate leaves college shouldering $21,900 in student loans. These loans cannot be discharged by filing for personal bankruptcy...
President Obama's health-care goals may be garnering attention, but his higher-education proposals are no less ambitious. If adopted, they could transform the financial aid landscape for millions of students while expanding federal authority to a degree that even Democrats concede is controversial. At stake is a plan to expand the Pell Grant program, making it an entitlement akin to Medicare and Social Security. Key to the effort is a consolidation of student lending that would give the U.S. Department of Education a near monopoly over the practice -- a proposal that has mobilized the private loan industry, which lent $55.3 billion to 6.4 million students in the 2007-2008 school year...
Members of Congress are gearing up for a battle over educational benefits for undocumented students. At issue is the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, or Dream, Act, which would allow states to charge illegal immigrants in-state tuition and would provide a multistep path to citizenship for some residents who were brought to the United States illegally as children... (paid subscription required)
...Now, however, with the financial crisis disrupting virtually all corners of the economy, academic innovation too is threatened. The nation's ability to innovate should be a potential antidote to the economic slump, not its victim...University research provides vital inputs to the innovations that keep American firms on the cutting edge of fiercely competitive fields, and these contributions should not be allowed to atrophy during the current downturn. While the public investment in research seems assured, at least in the short run, it is imperative to maintain our investments in the multiple channels that have made it possible to translate university inventions into products that enhance economic competitiveness and human well-being. (Author: Roger L. Geiger, distinguished professor of higher education at Pennsylvania State University)...