University of Wisconsin-La Crosse administrators and students will make a case for raising student fees when the UW System Board of Regents meet Thursday and Friday in Madison. A board committee Thursday will review fees students pay above the cost of tuition at four UW System schools, including UW-L...About 78 percent of UW-L students who responded in a November online referendum indicated they would be willing to double the $60 academic initiatives fee they now pay to expand or maintain campus services such as disability resources, academic advising, student research and violence prevention...

...Between 2000 and 2009, Wausau and north central Wisconsin saw a growth and development on virtually all sides. In today’s “People of the Decade” special section, the Wausau Daily Herald profiles about 50 of the people who made a difference...Mark Bradley, Position: Past president, University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. Wausau attorney Mark Bradley has served on the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents since 2003, and for two years ending in 2009 was board president. He oversaw a continuing expansion of participation in the UW System, something that improves residents' lives and strengthens our state's economy. One of the key initiatives Bradley oversaw was a program that aligned higher education offerings with regional employment needs, assessing and responding to the ways that Wausau's needs are different from Milwaukee's. There remain few state institutions that affect life here as much as the UW System, and this decade Bradley was a key contributor to that system's work...

A campus memorial service has been scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday for Neha Suri, the popular University of Wisconsin-Madison student who died Tuesday of bacterial meningitis. Suri, a journalism and political science major from Singapore, was a senior. She had been at UW Hospital since Jan. 25...

A 22-year-old UW-Madison student diagnosed with bacterial meningitis died Tuesday at UW Hospital surrounded by friends and family. The death of Neha Suri, a senior from Singapore majoring in journalism and political science, saddened students and staff across campus Tuesday. Hundreds had followed her condition on Web sites like CaringBridge and Facebook since she fell ill more than a week ago...

The University of Wisconsin-Superior held a topping-off ceremony for its new Swenson Hall today. The ceremony for the $32 million building was held because most of the 600 tons of steel that form the frame have been erected. The roof trusses will span the building’s main entrance and are the largest part of the building...

The Student Construction Association team at the University of Wisconsin-Stout has advanced to the final round of a national competition sponsored by the Mechanical Contractors Association of America.The team recently learned that it finished in the top four out of 26 universities that entered proposals for an actual construction project...

Local elected officials and the general public have an opportunity to hear from dairy producers involved in on-farm research affecting waters in their communities later this month in Stevens Point. The Agriculture Community Engagement educational seminar is being held February 25, where attendees will learn about the latest research from University of Wisconsin Discovery Farm Program, as well as dairy producers who participated in the multi-year studies...

Judith Waller and Tammy J. Ladwig watched as their art exhibit featuring women in life's second half took on a three-dimensional scope despite its mediums of portraits and words on paper. Through a collaborative project Waller, 52, an art professor at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley, and Ladwig, 46, a UW-Fox Valley assistant professor of education, are introducing the community to the rich and varied experiences of women at least 40 years old...

A second revised report documenting employee occupational safety and health concerns has been issued to UW-Stout. The Wisconsin Department of Commerce last week issued a second, scaled-down report highlighting violations detected during an inspection of the campus by a DOC official last summer. The newly-revised version of the report — originally released last year after DOC Inspector Susen Trail visited the campus in June and July 2009 — contains 19 violations, which are in addition to seven other asbestos-related infractions highlighted by the DOC...

A union leader is calling for a statewide audit on workplace safety following a report linked to UW-Stout. In an inspection this summer, UW-Stout was cited with 51 violations, including problems with asbestos-removal. But after reviewing the complaint, the Department of Commerce retracted all but seven of those violations. "I'm concerned that there might be some political pressuring and some muscle involved in how commerce is enforcing these rules and I think the legislature needs to look at that," says Martin Beil, the executive director of the Wisconsin State Employee Union...

One day after refusing to open a Madison Initiative for Undergraduates Oversight Board meeting to the public, university officials reversed their position regarding media access Tuesday. The Oversight Committee is one of two committees responsible for selecting from the 114 proposals submitted by departments and groups across campus, each vying for a piece of the $6.2 million left of the original $10 million Madison Initiative for Undergraduates budget...

The University of Wisconsin-Madison appears twice in a national report that highlights colleges and universities that have improved graduation rates, and tightened achievement gaps for minorities. The UW-Madison is the only Wisconsin school to appear on the Education Trust’s latest “Top Gainers” and “Top Closers” lists. The report says since 2002, the UW saw its graduation rate gap between minorities and whites shrink by nearly nine points. And in that same time, it improved its graduation rate for minorities to its current level of 60.4 percent...

...Jim Veninga, Position: Former dean, University of Wisconsin Marathon County. A professor of religion before and since, Jim Veninga served as the dean of the University of Wisconsin Marathon County from 2000 through April 2007. Veninga accomplished a lot in his time at UWMC. He laid the groundwork that allowed the school to make it possible for students to earn four-year degrees in engineering and other disciplines from Wausau. But perhaps most important, Veninga served as a community voice for the university in a time of its expansion. He helped to strengthen the community's connections with the school, opening to the public lectures, forum discussions and other opportunities for learning. He helped UWMC develop into a true community resource...

Wisconsin International University could be forced to change its name. So might Heed University. And a job applicant who recently tried to claim a phony degree from Madison Business College could be criminally prosecuted. State lawmakers are considering a bill that would crack down on the manufacture and use of phony academic credentials in Wisconsin by criminalizing both practices. It would also prohibit unauthorized schools from using the words "college," "university," "state" or "Wisconsin" in their names...

Gifts to colleges and universities declined almost 12 percent in the 2009 fiscal year, to $27.85 billion, according to the Council for Aid to Education’s annual survey of voluntary support of education. It was the steepest decline in the survey’s 53-year history...

With the economy in decline, charitable contributions to colleges and universities fell 11.9 percent in 2009, the steepest decline since the Council for Aid to Education started collecting national data on fund raising in 1969...

With a battered economy and volatile financial markets taking their tolls on donors' pocketbooks, private giving to American colleges dropped sharply in 2009, according to findings of the annual Voluntary Support of Education survey, which were released on Wednesday. Donations were down $3.75-billion from the previous year—a decline of 11.9 percent, the steepest in the survey's 50-year history...

California’s three systems of public higher education need to coordinate better, eliminate duplicate programs and make it easier for students to transfer from community colleges to Cal State or University of California campuses, according to a report released today by the state Legislative Analyst's Office. The study suggested more statewide oversight to ensure that UC, Cal State and community colleges don’t take steps that harm the other systems...

A new wave of research on campus diversity holds the promise of improving how colleges serve students of different hues. On the fundamental question of whether racial and ethnic diversity produces educational benefits, the latest studies' bottom line is: Sometimes. With the right mix of students. If handled delicately...