For the first time in eight years, the UW System Board of Regents is visiting UW-Eau Claire, and the host campus has a couple of large projects to talk about. University representatives will present updates on the Blugold Commitment proposal and student center plans, but both still have details that need to be worked out before seeking final approval from the Regents, said UW-Eau Claire spokesman Mike Rindo. At Thursday afternoon's Business, Finance and Audit Committee meeting, Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich will introduce a proposal to increase tuition to speed up graduation times, offer additional financial aid and provide more learning opportunities outside the classroom...

...That customer service orientation served [Cynthia] Gilberts well in her 32 1/2-year career at UW-Stout. She retired recently as executive director of enrollment services and director of admissions. "Admissions is much more than simply marketing and recruiting students," Gilberts said. "It's about customer service and relationship-building with all of our stakeholders. It's about providing a quality product and student services that make a family feel good about their decision."...

Like most project managers rushing to complete their homes at the inception of Solar Decathlon 2009, Eric Harmann hasn't had much sleep. But he and his groggy student volunteers from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee made time to show off their Decathlon entry to PM last week, starting with its wavy, sinuous rain screen siding....But peer more closely, and the distorted shapes reveal carefully contoured waves, which Harrmann says are meant to evoke the natural landscape of Wisconsin's Menomonee Valley...

The dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences has been granted a one-year leave of absence from her job after being nominated to serve in a senior position at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Molly Jahn was appointed as deputy undersecretary of research, education and economics--a position responsible for leading three units within the USDA that provide research and service on issues related to food and agriculture...

Very few parents would be pleased to hear that their college son or daughter was on the 50-year plan. Richard A. Smith, 66, is on just such a track. He started his undergraduate education at UW-Madison in 1960 and is planning to finally graduate in May 2010 with a joint major in history and history of science...

The number of students with flu-like symptoms continued to decline last week on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, according to the weekly report from University Health Services. In the sixth week of the fall semester (Oct. 4-10), 43 students were determined to have an influenza-like illness, down from 58 students in the fifth week of the semester...

The Associated Students of Madison and MultiCultural Student Coalition teamed up Monday night at Memorial Union to engage students in discussing the importance of diversity on the University of Wisconsin campus. Following last week’s campuswide diversity forum with administration and faculty, Monday’s Student Diversity Forum targeted student ideas and opinions as they relate to the diversity and excellence of the education provided by the university...

UW-Madison provost Paul DeLuca is looking to restructure UW-Madison’s graduate school, but some faculty and staff are concerned about the proposal’s budget, specifics and transparency. The proposal would decouple the current structure—in which Martin Cadwallader acts as dean of the graduate school and vice chancellor of research—into two positions to help the graduate program comply with increasingly complex federal financial and safety regulations and increase federal advocacy...

Homecoming may be over with at Baraboo High School after tonight’s dance, but it will be just beginning Monday for the estimated 15,000 former students of the University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/Sauk County, who are invited to attend the 40-year-old campus’ first-ever alumni event. Tom Pleger, the campus dean, said the gathering Monday night would be the kickoff for the development of an alumni association for UW-Baraboo, in the hopes of allowing former students a point of access for returning to see how the campus has changed — and stay involved in its future...

...Can community colleges deliver the additional graduates to meet the ambitious goal? In 2007, the latest year for which data are available, community colleges awarded about 855,000 associate degrees and occupational certificates. To meet the president’s target, we estimate that community colleges will have to increase the number of associate degree and certificate graduates by at least 280,000 per year on average over the next 10 years, an annual increase of 33 percent over the current rate. One thing is clear: enrollment increases alone will not be enough to reach the goal...