As others settle in seats, a fellow student shuffles into the classroom, reaches into his backpack and comes up shooting. Fast forward through the video shown recently by University of Wisconsin-Parkside police officer Kurt Bergendahl: Same scene, same student, same handgun. This time another student flings a wastebasket, striking the gunman before he can take aim and fire...The difference: panic and mass casualties versus potential catastrophe averted as mentally prepared individuals take out the potential attacker — literally the difference between death and life, as Bergendahl recently told a small but rapt audience of Parkside faculty, staff and students...

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse students will decide Wednesday if they are willing to pay more to retain certain student programs and 11 employees. Students now pay a $60-a-year “academic initiatives” fee to support such campus services as disability resources, academic advising, graduate research and violence prevention. The fee will have to increase by $45 a year to continue these services in full, campus officials said. If students vote no in Wednesday’s online referendum, the services and jobs involved will be eliminated or significantly reduced, UW-L Chancellor Joe Gow said...

Students at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point have in-person and online options when seeking assistance with alcohol education or when determining whether a fellow student has an alcohol-related problem. The topic is discussed during freshman orientation and the university offers a wellness course that includes alcohol education.Stevens Point Police officers say alcohol was a factor in an incident Friday when UWSP student Kayla L. Wilke, 20, fell off a roof of a downtown building. Wilke of Sturgeon Bay was in critical condition Monday at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield...

A University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student remains in the hospital Tuesday after falling 35 feet from the roof of a building during a party. Police say alcohol was involved in the accident, which happened early Friday morning...

The University of Wisconsin’s Madison Initiative Oversight Board hosted an open forum Monday evening to hear the second round of proposals to be potentially funded by the money gained from tuition increases and private donors...

The Associated Students of Madison Academic Affairs Committee presented its Affordable Textbook Campaign to the University Committee Monday in hopes of gaining its endorsement before the campaign’s appearance before the Faculty Senate...Zinn presented seven resolutions as part of the Faculty Imperative to Reduce Textbook Costs. Some of the resolutions included professors and faculty getting book lists out to students four weeks in advance and having them researching both traditional and alternative options for books, such as electronic, open source, print and course readers “in order to ensure the highest educational standards are being kept and to ensure that educational materials are being used to their fullest utility”...

Another private college is coming to the Wausau area with plans to create close to 30 jobs and offer students the chance to earn certifications as well as two- and four-year degrees. Globe University, based in Woodbury, Minn., plans to start offering classes for students in April, said Adam Smrcka, campus director of the Wausau branch...The Wausau area already has the University of Wisconsin Marathon County, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point's Wausau institute, Northcentral Technical College, and the new private college, Rasmussen College...

...Today, the couple own one campus bookstore, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, but through their company, Campus Leasing Solutinos, they manage bookstores at Concordia University in Mequon, the University of Wisconsin-Baraboo, UW-Fox Valley, UW-Fond du Lac, UW-Waukesha and UW-Washington County, paying the schools a commission for every book sold. Rich Lampe, director of procurement for the University of Wisconsin System, said his dealings with the Keenans have always been very professional and he has never heard any complaints from any of the UW campuses...

Universities, with their global reach and increasingly international missions, can use their overseas connections and expertise to improve their state and local economies. That was the argument made by speakers at a panel discussion Sunday on global partnerships and economic development, one of the sessions held on the first day of the annual meeting here of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, formerly the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. In Wisconsin, the president of the state-university system, Kevin P. Reilly, recently appointed a group of educators, business leaders, and economic-development officials to explore how academic know-how could be used to help attract overseas investment to Wisconsin and expand the state's presence in global markets...

The recession may be over, but state-financed colleges and universities will feel its ill effects for the next two or three years, an economist told a group of university administrators here Monday...But income-tax revenue, on a year-over-year basis, will probably decline for most of 2010 and possibly into 2011, forcing many state and local governments to continue to cut budgets. Colleges and universities, some of which have already faced deep reductions in state appropriations, will have to continue finding other sources of revenue, Mr. Strauss told administrators...