Category Archives: UW Politics
Moratorium needed on UW campus closures

It is important to remember that Gov. Evers vetoed only the “pilot” for consolidating the two-year colleges in Washington County. He suggested it was too small a solution because it only dealt with one county. That left open the broader … Read the rest
Give UW-Madison its Freedom

A number of years ago, I wrote a column entitled “Tale of Two Universities.” It contended that the University of Wisconsin – Madison operated in a completely different sphere than the other campuses in the University of Wisconsin System (UWS). … Read the rest
Mone Work Group comes up short

If you were looking for solutions to the challenges facing the 12 two-year UW colleges across the state, the “Work Group” created by UWM Chancellor Mark Mone to save the UW campus in Washington County is not the place to … Read the rest
Governor: your two-year colleges veto changed nothing

One of Governor Ever’s line-item vetoes in the new state budget eroded six months of hard work by a Washington County Task Force to come up with a pragmatic solution to the troubles facing its two-year colleges. Note: his veto … Read the rest
UWM stiffed (again) in governor’s budget

How can it be that Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM) are chopped liver in Gov. Ever’s massive building budget for 2023-25? In late February Democratic Gov. Tony Evers rolled out his ambitious budget proposal for $3.8 billion … Read the rest
Will Rothman clean up UW conglomerate?

Jay Rothman may be just the right choice to deal with UW Madison that has become a conglomerate. The newly selected UW System president spent his career at Foley and Lardner, the state’s largest law firm, where he dealt with … Read the rest
What happened to the Blue Cross money?

One astute Wisconsin politician asked this question when the subject of the UW $450 million Blue Cross endowment for public health came up: “What happened to all the money?” When Blue Cross went public 20 years ago, the Blue Cross … Read the rest
Thompson Right on Need for UW Commission

The Grand Old Man of the Wisconsin Grand Old Party in Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson, never lacks for ideas to move the state forward. But maybe because he is a short-timer as interim UW System president, his good ideas don’t automatically … Read the rest
Whither go the 13 UW Colleges across the state?

A recent commentary in the Daily News reported that I implied in a recent column “that, perhaps the two-year colleges were no longer a necessary part of the University System.” I must have been unclear in what I wrote because … Read the rest
R&D spending, startup funding surge in Wisconsin

I made a mistake in a recent column on our university system, and I’m glad I was wrong. In one bullet point, I reported that research and development dollars had fallen off at our state’s research powerhouse, the University of … Read the rest