On Campus
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater will host a two-day meeting of the UW System Board of Regents next week for the first time since 2002. Regents will gather in the James R. Connor University Center on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 10 and 11. A campus tour highlighting Timothy J. Hyland Hall, the new home of the College of Business and Economics, begins the Regents' day on Thursday. It will be their first glimpse of the $41.5-million building they approved...
A partnership announced in June will allow a new nanotechnology company in the area to use UW-Eau Claire facilities, including the Materials Science Center, for research and provide internships to science majors. Resonant Microsystems Inc., 2322 Alpine Road, which specializes in micro electrical mechanical systems, will do quality control research for its Eau Claire products, while production will occur at Chippewa Valley Technical College...
School is back in session, and so is a whole new set rules at all 26 University of Wisconsin campuses. For the first time - campuses have power to discipline students for off-campus misconduct. Since the new rule went into effect September 1st, a university can hand over a penalty as severe as expulsion to a student who misbehaved off-campus. In the past, campuses could not regulate off-campus behavior... Watch
Wisconsin's public universities now have the power to discipline students for the trouble they get into off-campus. The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved those powers in June. And the state Legislature recently reviewed the new rules without making any changes...Now, all 26 UW campuses statewide can discipline students who commit repeated or serious law violations. It's the first major change in 13 years in the university's code for misconduct...
UW-Madison officials sent an e-mail to students this weekend warning them to "be diligent" in regard to their personal safety. "You should be aware that there have been several recent violent robberies around campus and downtown," said an e-mail from Lori Berquam, dean of students...
You might be surprised to know that 8 percent of the University of Wisconsin–Superior's total undergraduate population is made up of international students. In fact, for the past two years, UWS has set school records for the number of incoming students from foreign countries. Something is bringing international students to UWS... and it's not the warm winters... Watch
UW-Madison plans to expand its primate research labs into the space that animal rights activists once hoped would house a museum to protest experimentation on monkeys. After trying to secure the land for at least four years, University Research Park, which is a research partner with UW-Madison, purchased the lot for $1 million in July from Budget Bicycle Center owner Roger Charly. That put an end to a lengthy legal battle in which Charly tried to untangle himself from a deal with the animal rights activists so that he could instead sell the land to the university for the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center...
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will expand its primate research labs, in the same location where animal rights activists made preliminary plans to build a museum...
For several months, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee officials made the case that the former Pieces of Eight restaurant site on the lakefront provided the best location for their new School of Freshwater Sciences. But after encountering strong opposition, university officials made a surprise announcement Friday: They are withdrawing the plan and beginning the search anew...
...The recession has shattered the dreams of millions of veteran workers who now find themselves unemployed. But it has also delayed the dreams of others who have emerged from college campuses, degrees in hand, ready to take on the world. Nationally, the jobless rate hit 9.7%. The unemployment rate for those ages 20 to 24 was 15.1%. Buried in the overall numbers, though, was a glimmer of hope. Unemployment for college graduates remained low at a seasonally adjusted 4.7%. Dantoin is now stuck between two worlds, the one he had in college and the one he wants as a graduate...
The Office of the Bursar has begun instituting an electronic initiative that will make tuition statements and bill payments available online, while allowing students to authorize those paying their tuition to do so immediately over the Internet. Under the new system, students can authorize a parent or another person paying their tuition to see their tuition bill electronically and make a direct payment against their charges, according to University of Wisconsin Bursar Cathie Easter...
A federal judge said the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater can't collect damages from a former dean accused of misusing school money. U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller said the university waited until after a two-year statute of limitations expired to sue former College of Letters and Sciences Dean Howard Ross over the alleged breach...
The new Jarvis Hall Science Wing really will give students and the community a window into science...Many of the general education and chemistry classrooms have large display windows so students walking through the halls will see the classes and labs taking place. "We want to take away the fear of science," said Kitrina Carlson, associate professor of biology...
On the job less than a month and a half, Carol Sue Butts clearly enjoys herself. "I'm just delighted to do this," said Butts, the interim University of Wisconsin-Platte-ville chancellor for the current academic year. "I have been in charge, if you will, of the campus for 11 years, so for me, it's a real opportunity to shift gears"...
...At UW-Marshfield/Wood County we take pride in teaching critical thinking skills, even when students are not terribly motivated to gain them. Our campus/community reading this fall is "Why People Believe Weird Things" by Michael Shermer. We are hosting a lecture series on campus and at the Marshfield Public Library to encourage everyone's engagement with this question...(Julie Tharp, associate dean and English professor at UW-Marshfield/Wood County)...
Individuals in the legal profession seeking advancement or those wanting to begin a new career in the legal field can participate in a 12-month paralegal certificate of completion provided by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh's Office of Continuing Education and Extension and Midwest Paralegal Studies...
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Foundation will present its third Collaboration in Action Leadership Award during the fourth-annual Foundation Report to the Community Sept. 15. The award will be presented to the Door County Government Department of Water and Soil Conservation and Department of Public Health for the county's commitment to collaboration among higher education, business and community in northeastern Wisconsin...
The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and the city of Stevens Point are joined at the hip, but in some ways they are miles apart...Certainly, it's unfair to peg every college student as a troublemaker, and not every get together of young adults is going to end up with the police department knocking on the door, but it is a concern. The fact that the Stevens Point Police Department has increased its presence in the area Thursday through Saturday until Halloween tells you as much. That's why we support the work of the Old Main Neighborhood Association, a group that promotes campus and neighborhood pride with respect and communication...
When students moved into residence halls at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point last week, there was one fewer piece of technology waiting for them than in years past. UWSP staff removed about 1,800 land line telephones from residence halls during the summer...
National
In a contest that pits human against virus, the U.S. government is evaluating the safety and effectiveness of swine flu vaccine in hopes of having millions of doses ready for use before the next wave of the pandemic H1N1 sweeps across the nation. This week the virus struck first, infecting a handful of students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; an additional 25 to 30 are awaiting results of a swine flu test...
...But with major outbreaks of H1N1 flu occurring at campuses across the United States, and one death recently reported at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, universities are putting detailed prevention and containment plans in place...The American College Health Association has instituted a surveillance system to monitor influenza-like illness at 165 U.S. universities with a total of 2 million students. That system logged 1,640 cases in the last week of August. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, with 42,000 students and 18,000 faculty and staff, is one of the institutions participating in the project...
Everybody complains about the high cost of college. In his latest Your Money column, my colleague, Ron Lieber, decided to find out why it is so expensive...Responding to Mr. Lieber's article, and to the more than 200 comments received by The Choice, President Weiss offered more detailed comments Sunday evening. Here is a brief excerpt..
High school students beginning the college search have yet another resource at hand as they narrow their choices: a college destinations index that aims to quantify the whole off-campus experience..."Your college years are shaped by the classes, the professors and the campus, but they're also shaped by the location of the school," says Kerry Lynch, senior economist for the American Institute for Economic Research, an independent research organization in Great Barrington, Mass. Students and families may "have a vague sense" of their surroundings but ought to consider factors such as opportunities for internships, access to cultural activities and what kind of people their neighbors will be...
...But next year, a familiar site on many campuses will disappear: the tables strategically placed in high-traffic areas, offering free iPods, T-shirts and other goodies to students who sign up for a credit card. Legislation signed into law in May will prohibit credit card companies from offering gifts to college students who agree to fill out a credit card application. The legislation also prohibits lenders from issuing credit cards to individuals younger than 21 unless they can prove they can afford payments or get a parent or other older individual to co-sign. Consumer advocates say these reforms are long overdue. However, the provisions don't take effect until February. In the meantime, credit card companies can continue to market their cards, and some advocates worry that this year's campaigns will be more aggressive than ever...
The hunt for top professors is a high-stakes game. Like major-league baseball teams courting free agents, colleges engage in cutthroat competition to woo and retain highly sought talent. And when standard compensation and perks are not enough, some colleges -- especially those in high-priced urban areas -- quietly offer low-interest mortgages to lure star professors...
...Still, Obama cannot succeed in strengthening public service without the help of colleges. They act as gatekeepers into the world of public service and play a crucial role in shaping student attitudes about public service of all kinds. Too often, however, higher-education institutions see volunteering as something students should do in their downtime, AmeriCorps as little more than a ticket to graduate school, and a public-service career as an inferior destination compared with the exhilarating, high-prestige jobs that once existed in the private sector. Colleges should reconsider seven commonly held myths about public service..
Community colleges are poised to take on a more central role in federal job-training programs as policy makers lay the groundwork for a long-overdue renewal of the multibillion-dollar Workforce Investment Act. The two-year colleges have not, for the most part, served as primary providers of the education and training that is financed by the federal program...
Students who are accepted into Penn State University's prestigious honors college get more than academic feathers in their caps. They get $3,500 annual merit scholarships. But given the tough economic times, the school is making an unusual request: Would parents consider donating that money back? The fundraising appeal for Schreyer Honors College leans on parents who have not applied for financial aid for their children, encouraging them to share their good fortune with needier students. It appears to be working. The first appeal to 75 families last year raised about $228,000...
...CUNY has been a model for the rest of the country, opening up access to college for thousands of students at an affordable cost for decades. However, the spiraling cost of textbooks is threatening to rob CUNY of its affordability - and push the dream of a college education further away for many New Yorkers...Several schools across the country have begun book rental programs, and even some bookstores and publishers have started programs. Schools in the University of Wisconsin system have book rental programs, and just last week, Cal State Sacramento and SUNY Buffalo announced they would begin rental programs. Cengage Learning, which is one of the nation's biggest textbook publishers, also announced last week that it would begin renting books...
