UW System Clipsheet

"Editorial: University of Wisconsin System union proposal isn't budget issue," Editorial, Post-Crescent, May 22.

It's curious that, in a time of belt-tightening, the state Legislature is considering allowing the University of Wisconsin System to unionize its faculty and academic staff, which could cost the System $2.2 million per year.What's even more curious is that this proposal is included in the state budget. The Joint Finance Committee voted to allow professors, researchers, instructors and other university employees in the UW System's 13 four-year universities and 13 two-year colleges the same right to collectively bargain that other state workers have. But the UW System has said it would need to hire up to 38 employees to conduct negotiations, administer contracts, resolve grievances and train managers, at a projected cost of between $1.5 and $2.2 million per year...

"County Board OKs sale for UWM engineering campus," Associated Press, May 22.

The Milwaukee County Board gave its OK Thursday to selling mostly open land at the old County Grounds in Wauwatosa for a new University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee engineering campus. The board rejected arguments it should be nearer UW-Milwaukee's main campus on the East Side, or at least downtown. Others contend the plan wastes rare open acreage in the urban area...

"County Board approves land sale to UWM," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 21.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's goal of becoming a major research university that fuels job growth got a big boost Thursday when the County Board approved selling a Wauwatosa parcel for a new engineering campus, a university official said...

"UW-P ready to attack 'deficiencies,'" Kenosha News, May 22.

A day after the Department of Public Instruction reported serious deficiencies and non-compliance issues potentially affecting hundreds of teacher education students at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, campus leaders hunkered down to begin working out how to correct the problems by the mandated Aug. 11 deadline...

"Speaker: 'Create the world you would like,'" River Falls Journal, May 20.

In a commencement speech sprinkled with puckish humor and full of authentic advice, the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus Mark Lacek told almost 700 undergraduate and graduate students at UW-River Falls Saturday to live a life of few regrets...

"Menasha's University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley graduates catch breath before entering job market," Post-Crescent, May 22.

...Commencement exercises at UW-Fox Valley were held Thursday. Nearly 180 students received associate's degrees and 18 received bachelor's degrees in collaboration with UW-Oshkosh and UW-Platteville this year. Now the class of 2009 faces one of the worst job markets in decades...

"UW-Stout students save lives by design," Dunn County News, May 19.

Students at the University of Wisconsin-Stout are helping design a life-saving device for infants and young children with lung disorders. Eight junior-level students majoring in art with a concentration in industrial design are participating in a collaborative project with the nonprofit organization DesignWise Medical, in Minneapolis, and the School of Engineering at the University of St. Thomas, also in Minneapolis...

"Budget deal would cut money to schools, lay off up to 1,400 state workers," Wisconsin State Journal, May 21.

The state will spare universities but slice money to schools and cities and lay off up to 1,400 workers -- 300 more than announced earlier this month -- under a budget agreement unveiled by Gov. Jim Doyle and legislative leaders. The plan cuts spending, squeezes more out of a state hospital tax and refinances state debt to solve a $1.6 billion budget hole opened by falling state tax revenues. Doyle said it holds up his promise to solve the deficit without raising taxes more than the $2.9 billion he has already proposed or signed into law since February. Republicans disagreed...

"State budget would cut school aid 2.5%, lay off state workers," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 21.

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and legislative leaders said Thursday that state aid for local governments and public schools will be cut 2.5%, and more than 1,400 state workers might have to be laid off to offset a recent $1.6 billion drop in tax collections...

"Doyle proposal includes more state layoffs, funding cuts," WISC-TV, May 21.

Gov. Jim Doyle said up to 1,400 state employees could be laid off under his new budget-balancing plan that cuts funding for state agencies, schools and local governments...Doyle said he plans to cut funding for state agencies over the next two years by 5 percent and to save the University of Wisconsin and programs that need to be funded at a level to get matching federal dollars...

Watch: http://www.c3ktogo.com/news-video/?mgid=22602

"Furloughs will apply to all state workers," Wisconsin Public Radio, May 21.

Employees at state prisons and hospitals will be furloughed along with all other state workers under a cost-saving plan being drafted by Governor Jim Doyle's office. The inclusion of those employees is a step back from what Doyle originally announced, and will likely drive up overtime costs for state government...The Governor had said he wanted to exempt workers who have to staff state institutions like hospitals or prisons around the clock. But now, Office of State Employee Relations Director Jennifer Donnely says these furloughs will apply to everyone...

"More cuts help fix the growing budget hole," Wisconsin Radio Network, May 21.

State agencies, local governments and even education will make sacrifices. The struggle to fill the ever-expanding state budget hole, calls for even deeper cuts...Governor Jim Doyle says the previously announced cuts plus the new ones total 2.7 billion dollars through the biennium. Doyle says the services Wisconsinites rely on will be effected. "We will impose at least 5% across the board agency cuts which is significantly higher than the 1% cuts I proposed in my budget"...

"The passionate curmudgeon: Obey seizes his moment," Congressional Quarterly Politics, May 22.

...The president dropped by the ballroom of the Washington Court Hotel, a few blocks from the Capitol, for one reason, to pay homage to a lawmaker he absolutely has to have on his side: David R. Obey...As he begins his third consecutive year as chairman, the 70-year-old Obey is at both the top of his game and the height of his power...Obey says he has but two major goals: to make the appropriations process run smoothly and to put more money in the pockets of the less fortunate, reversing what he considers to be decades of inequity...

"California couple gives $5 million to MU engineering school," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 21.

A California couple has pledged $5million to endow a chair at Marquette University's engineering school. The Thomas H. and Suzanne M. Werner Chair in Secure and Renewable Energy Systems will lead a multidisciplinary research cluster of four to six faculty members and develop an advanced curriculum, said Stan Jaskolski, Marquette's dean of engineering. Marquette is working with the Milwaukee School of Engineering and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to create a major research cluster for sustainable energy, Jaskolski said...

"Brandeis halts retirement payments," New York Times, May 21.

Buffeted earlier this year by the outcry over its plans to raise money by closing its art museum and selling the collection, Brandeis University said this week that it would suspend payments to the retirement accounts of faculty and staff members starting in July. While universities across the country have taken a wide range of actions to confront their financial problems, including layoffs and the suspension of capital projects, freezing contributions to retirement accounts is rare. Financially troubled corporations have been taking such action, but faculty and staff members at colleges and universities have traditionally enjoyed stable, and generous, benefits -- and expect no less...

"It's not exactly the college experience of yesteryear," Associated Press, May 22.

Stress over grades. Financial worries. Trouble sleeping. Feeling hopeless. So much for those carefree college days. The vast majority of college students are feeling stressed these days, and significant numbers are at risk of depression, according to an Associated Press-mtv-U poll...

"Poor would be hard hit by proposed California budget cuts," Los Angeles Times, May 22.

With deficit forecasts growing darker by the day, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering a plan to slash California's safety net for the poor by eliminating the state's main welfare program, health insurance for low-income families and cash grants to college students...Also potentially on the chopping block is CalGrants, a financial assistance program that offers cash grants to lower- and middle-income college students each year. The governor's proposal would eliminate the 77,000 new grants awarded each year at a cost of $180 million, but that saving would eventually grow to more than $900 million as students graduated and the program was phased out...