A plan to break Wisconsin into seven districts with a University of Wisconsin regent in each part of the state is awaiting the governor's signature to become law. But a state senator sees this as a raw deal for smaller campuses. State Senator Bob Jauch says UW-Superior and its 3,000 students would get the short end of the regent's stick if this becomes law...

Whether UW-Eau Claire students and the UW System Board of Regents approve a requested increase in "differential tuition" of as much as $1,500 annually phased in over four years will depend on how clearly campus officials working with students can identify how the money will be used...That makes it even more important that Blugold Commitment funds be justified and targeted, and achieve goals that can be measured and closely evaluated to ensure the money is doing what it's meant to. If that can happen, the additional funding should make a good university even better, which would provide a boost for the entire community...

The headquarters for University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's new School of Freshwater Sciences would cost an estimated $50 million to develop at the university's Great Lakes WATER Institute, according to a newly drafted proposal. That estimate is part of a preliminary construction spending proposal that UWM officials will soon submit to the UW System Board of Regents...

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire plans to increase its tuition by $1,500 annually over a phase-in period of the next four years to enhance the quality of the school’s education. The proposed plan, known as the Blugold Commitment, aims to improve UW-Eau Claire’s educational system with contributions from students, families, alumni and friends, according UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich...

A Milwaukee Army reservist's military identification earned him some street cred Tuesday, when he says four men who mugged him at gunpoint returned his belongings and thanked him for his service after finding the ID. The 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student said he was walking home from work about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday when he was pulled into an alley and told to lay face down and with a gun to his neck...But the hostile tone quickly changed when one of the robbers, whom the reservist presumed was the leader, saw an Army ID in the wallet...

With the first round of proposals for the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates approved last week, students are beginning to see where the substantial increase in their tuition dollars is going...

After evaluating the effectiveness of Plan 2008, UW-Madison’s 10-year plan to increase diversity on campus, officials are focusing on the creation of a more comprehensive plan to improve campus diversity...Using the results of Plan 2008 as a stepping stone, UW-Madison officials announced the university’s new “Inclusive Excellence for Diversity” plan this fall...

Robert Augustine was announced one of four finalists for the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs search at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Augustine, dean of the graduate school, research, international students and scholars and study abroad, will interview on UW-Whitewater's campus today...

A student labor rights group wants University of Wisconsin administrators to pressure Nike on workers’ issues, or cancel its contract with the sports apparel company altogether. The Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC) says when Nike closed two of its plants in Honduras earlier this year it broke UW’s code of conduct by not paying workers' more than $2.1 million in severance and benefits. Nike has previously said it is not responsible for compensating those workers...

...A model for this involvement can be found about 900 miles away at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Like this university, Wisconsin faced massive budget cuts. As a result, in-state students from families making at least $80,000 a year are facing an increase of $1,000 in tuition during four years and out of state students face an increase of $3,000. The funds raised by increasing tuition will be used to hire new faculty, expand course offerings and improve student services. But there’s a catch: In exchange for student support, administrators gave students a legitimate say in exactly how the money is spent...

Flu cases on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus jumped last week to the fourth-highest weekly total seen so far this fall semester. University Health Services (UHS) evaluated 115 students for influenza-like illness in the 10th week of the semester from Nov. 1 through Nov. 7, up 43 cases from the previous week...

...About one-tenth of students at UW-Eau Claire are nontraditional students, meaning they are either 24 or older, have military experience, are married or have families, according to Issacson and the Nontraditional Student Services Web site. In celebration of Nontraditional Student Week, UW-Eau Claire hosted events throughout the week, including guest speakers and a reception to honor faculty who have worked with nontraditional students...

A former UW-Whitewater student who was killed Thursday during the shooting in Fort Hood, Texas, is being remembered as having a bright smile and an even brighter personality. Amy Krueger, 29, was a sergeant with the Army Reserve's Madison-based 467th Medical Detachment and died in the shooting that left 12 other people dead and 31 injured...

..."On Veterans Day … it's more memories than a symbol," said senior Henze, 27, who spent eight years in the military and a year and a half in Iraq. "People talk about going out to the bars for their 21st birthday celebration. Mine was in a bomb shelter. It's just different perspectives"...Nate Hahn, a business major, is one of 183 veterans on the UW-Whitewater campus, a number that has been increasing the past several years, according to Jan Nordin of the registrar's office...

Case IH and Ritchie Implement teamed up with University of Wisconsin-Platteville (UWP) to benefit agricultural students and their studies of precision agriculture...

Two state legislators are asking the attorney general's office, Government Accountability Board and University of Wisconsin Board of Regents to look into whether a campaign event by gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker violated state law by asking for contributions on University of Wisconsin property...

Two Democratic lawmakers asked regulators Tuesday to review whether Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker's campaign violated a law that bans fundraising in state buildings. Reps. Marlin Schneider of Wisconsin Rapids and Amy Sue Vruwink of Milladore asked the Government Accountability Board for the investigation. The lawmakers pointed to a Nov. 2 event by Walker supporters at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student center that was described in a local news report as "a fundraising rally"...Schneider and Vruwink noted that Wisconsin law bans the use of state-owned buildings for requesting and collecting political donations...

Amazon's Kindle can read books aloud, but if you're blind it can be difficult to turn that function on without help. Now two universities say they will shun the device until Amazon changes the setup. The National Federation of the Blind planned to announce Wednesday that the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Syracuse University won't consider big rollouts of the electronic reading device unless Amazon makes it more accessible to visually impaired students...

A yearlong push by Congress to end the bank-based system of student lending has hit rough water in the Senate, as a result of delays due to the health-care debate, persistent pushback by loan companies, and lingering concerns among some college groups...

At the Council of Independent Colleges' annual meeting of chief academic officers, which concluded here on Tuesday, there was abundant hallway chatter about three-year bachelor's degrees—a concept that has been on many people's minds this month. The 450 provosts who met here are generally skeptical. "There's a huge amount of interest now in these three-year programs," said John W. Hawthorne, provost of Point Loma Nazarene University, in an interview. "It's one of those ideas that seems very appealing at first glance. But when you look more closely, you see that there are a lot of complications. Some of these programs might work only for a certain slice of students"...