UW System Clipsheet

May 5, 2009

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UW System

"7,700 UW students could see aid packages reduced," Associated Press, May 4.

Nearly 8,000 University of Wisconsin System students could see their financial aid packages for next school year reduced by an average $310 after action by the Legislature's budget committee. The Joint Finance Committee cut Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal to increase funding for Wisconsin Higher Education Grants by $21.2 million over two years. About 27,000 UW System students receive the grants, which are the largest source of state financial aid...

"JFC decision may reduce student aid," Daily Cardinal, May 5.

Close to 8,000 UW System students who received financial aid package projections in March will be given an average of $310 less than expected in grants for the 2009-'10 school year. The state Legislature's Joint Finance Committee made cuts Wednesday to a proposal in Gov. Jim Doyle's budget to spend more on Wisconsin Higher Education Grants, an increase in financial aid meant to protect students with family incomes of $60,000 or less from tuition increases...

"Proposed rule would allow University of Wisconsin System to punish students for off-campus behavior," Wisconsin State Journal, May 5.

Some University of Wisconsin System students who misbehave off university grounds could face punishment on campus under new rules that attempt to clarify the university’s jurisdiction. If approved by the Board of Regents on Thursday, the board will ask the state Legislature to consider putting the changes into state law...

"Regents to vote on disciplining students for off-campus actions," La Crosse Tribune, May 5.

University of Wisconsin System students could be disciplined for off-campus bad behavior if their violations are both "serious and repeated," according to new rules that will come before the Board of Regents for approval Friday. The revised administrative rules are an attempt to provide clarity on statutes that govern the university’s reach when it comes to punishing off-campus misdeeds. The changes are overdue, said Paula Knudson, UW-La Crosse dean of students...

On Campus

"Hike tuition to restore UW-Madison's rep," Op/ed, Wisconsin State Journal, May 3.

"I support UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin in her efforts to re-establish UW-Madison as an excellent school, which it isn't now"...(Multiple letters to editor)...

"UWM students install art projects around town," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 5.

Students from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture are building projects around the community as part of a design class. The object is to see how to build in the city, learning to build to scale and do hands-on projects...

"Panel to review UW Athletic Board," Wisconsin State Journal, May 4.

A committee of seven to nine University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty members will be created to review the operations of the Athletic Board, following a vote by the faculty senate Monday. The committee, proposed last month by former Athletic Board Chairman Bruce Jones, was in response to a self-study conducted by the board, which is tasked with overseeing the UW Athletic Department...

"External athletics review to come," Badger Herald, May 5.

Faculty Senate members voted Monday to create an ad hoc external review committee of the Athletic Board to investigate allegations including harassment, mistreatment and intimidation of faculty members, as well as concerns of transparency and miscommunication...

"Teacher education program probed," Kenosha News, May 5.

Joa Young Chung hasn’t had much of an appetite since receiving an unexpected letter last week from her school, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. The letter, from the teacher education department, said she would need to take three more classes and test out of a fourth class before she could do student teaching, the last course needed for licensing by the Department of Public Instruction. She and many other students are awaiting the conclusion of an ongoing investigation by the Department of Public Instruction about alleged improper credentialing leading to teacher licensing...

"Kathy Walsh Nufer column: Students learning to teach Net Generation," Column, Post-Crescent, May 5.

Like most adults, many teachers can barely keep up, much less stay ahead of today's tech-savvy Net Generation facing them across the classroom. But Eric Brunsell, assistant professor in the department of curriculum and instruction and EXCEL Center at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, is doing his part to show would-be teachers the future face of education and how tools from the digital world like blogs, social networks, webinars, movie making, digital storytelling and "wiki" reports can expand their instruction beyond traditional classroom walls...

"On Campus: Selig will be commencement speaker at four UW-Madison undergraduate ceremonies," Wisconsin State Journal, May 4.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan H. "Bud" Selig will deliver the commencement address at four UW-Madison undergraduate ceremonies on Saturday, May 16, and Sunday, May 17, at the Kohl Center...

"Dogs will be on Library Mall for finals therapy," Capital Times, May 5.

Library Mall is going to the dogs, and stressed-out students will be glad for it. The Pet Therapy study break on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus will be on Wednesday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Library Mall at the western end of State Street, with staff from University Health Services bringing their dogs to the mall so students can pet and play with the puppies...

"Light, space and room to breathe," Wisconsin State Journal, May 3.

...Martin, a second year Master of Fine Arts student at the UW-Madison, works in acrylics, spending hours applying meticulous layers of paint. More than a dozen other graduate students and faculty also have new studios just down the hall. The Art Lofts, formerly a university warehouse adjacent to the Kohl Center, have housed the glass blowing lab and metal sculpture foundry since 2004. Now, ceramics and paper making have joined them in a nearly completed space that feels at once fresh, open and distinctly industrial...

"Sponsors key to a better Mifflin Street Block Party," Editorial, Wisconsin State Journal, May 4.

Congratulations to city officials and private sponsors for reducing problems and protecting participants as well as taxpayers at the Mifflin Street Block Party on Saturday...The success has a lot to do with sponsors taking ownership of the event and giving the young, student-heavy crowd, estimated at 15,000, more to do than simply swill beer...

"Students get peek at veterinarian medicine," Janesville Gazette, May 3.

...Twenty-eight students from Rock and Dane county high schools - including Janesville Parker, Milton, Edgerton and Evansville - spent two recent Saturdays in college. This is the fourth year the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine has hosted the workshop intended to give high school students a feel for what it's like to be a veterinarian...

"UW's Project Health receives $5.3 million in new funding," Business Journal of Milwaukee, May 4.

Project HealthDesign, a national program based at the University of Wisconsin, has been awarded a $5.3 million addition to its grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation...

"Japanese foreign exchange students recalled," The Spectator, May 4.

A UW-Eau Claire exchange student has returned to Japan after his home university asked students abroad to return in an effort to contain H1N1 (swine) flu. Freshman Hiroyuki Yoneda, an exchange student from Kumamoto Gakuen University in Japan, flew back to Japan Friday due to an order received from Tadashi Sakamoto, president of Kumamoto Gakuen, who asked all foreign exchange students in the United States to return home...

National

"Competing completion initiatives," Inside Higher Ed, May 5.

Educators who gathered on Capitol Hill Monday lauded President Obama's plan to fund state-based initiatives to improve college completion rates, and urged Congress to incorporate it in the forthcoming federal budget. Among the new programs the administration has proposed in its 2009-10 budget is the "College Access and Completion Fund." This program would spend $2.5 billion, over the course of five years, on supporting state efforts to boost the college completion rates of low-income students...

"Stimulus law revs up research on energy," Chronicle of Higher Education, May 5.

...Federal spending on such ideas could mean a renaissance for college scientists in the areas of solar, wind, biomass, and nuclear energy, as they compete with one another to show which technologies can actually meet national and global demand...College-based research has pointed to alternative energy in the past, yet projects have stalled in the face of societal preferences and policies... (paid subscription required)

"Departments without chairs," Inside Higher Ed, May 5.

Department chairs are a fixture of campus life and academic governance. A plan being floated at Kean University of New Jersey would merge many existing departments into larger units and replace chairs with "managers" -- who would be appointed by administrators and would not hold faculty rank or tenure...

"Regents cancel campus visit, cite swine-flu outbreak," The Guardian, May 4.

The UC Board of Regents will vote on a $662-per-quarter increase in student fees over the phone this week...The teleconference format will derail plans by students to stage a series of demonstrations against the fee increase during the regents' discussion..."We were exposing this myth that the regents are trying to push where they're saying, 'Oh, don't worry, you'll be covered by the federal stimulus plan or you'll be covered by the new Blue and Gold plan,'" (A.S. Vice President of External Affairs Lisa) Chen said. "It's sort of this high-aid, high-fee model, and we're trying to expose that as far as the fact that it's not sustainable, and it's actually pushing a lot of middle-class students that aren't on financial aid into lower-income status because of the fee increases"...