Gov. Scott Walker started his reshaping of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents Thursday, naming three appointees to the board. The new members will be...The state Senate has to confirm the appointments. Regents serve seven-year terms, so many of the current regents are appointees of former Gov. Jim Doyle.

Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday announced the appointments of three people to the University of Wisconsin System's Board of Regents. According to a press release from the governor's office, Walker named Tim Higgins, Gary Roberts and Gerald Whitburn to the 18-member board which governs the UW System...

A Wausau business leader and Merrill native named to the University of Wisconsin's governing board on Thursday described his appointment as a "high honor." Gerald Whitburn, 67, retired as the CEO of Merrill's Church Mutual Insurance Company last year and still acts as the company's chairman. He also serves as a board member for the Northcentral Technical College Foundation...

A prominent member of the La Crosse area business community will join the top decision-making board for the state's network of universities. Gov. Scott Walker appointed Gary Roberts, former owner of Piggy's Restaurant, to serve on the University of Wisconsin System's Board of Regents because of his small business expertise and his commitment to the region, according to the governor's office. He joins La Crosse attorney Brent Smith to become the second Coulee Region resident on the 18-person board...

Governor Walker has appointed the former chief executive officer of Church Mutual Insurance and two other business leaders to the UW Board of Regents...

Gov. Scott Walker has appointed three executives to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. The three announced Thursday are Tim Higgins of Appleton, Gary Roberts of Onalaska and Gerald Whitburn of Wausau. Their appointments are subject to confirmation by the state Senate...

Gov. Scott Walker announced the appointment today of an Onalaska man to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. Gary Roberts has served as president and chief executive officer of the Morrison Creek Cranberry Corporation since 1986, according to information provided by the governor's office. "It is important for the Board of Regents to have Western Wisconsin representation," Walker said in a prepared statement...

Gov. Scott Walker announced three new appointees to the UW Board of Regents, the board that oversees the 26 campuses in the University of Wisconsin System. Notably, they were chosen from across the state: Appleton, Wausau and near La Crosse...

After being hit with a $250 million cut in funding in Gov. Scott Walker's 2011-2013 biennium budget, the UW System may have another potential funding cut. This cut, which would total $65.7 million, is set to take place over the next two years...Harden noted that at UWGB, multiple approaches are being taken to offset the potential loss. These approaches include savings on salaries, not filling open faculty positions, putting off campus upgrades and not making purchases the campus would like to make...

Money was the hot topic of discussion Thursday when Ray Cross visiting the University of Wisconsin-Washington County campus. Cross is chancellor of the UW Colleges and UW-Extension...

The University of Wisocnsin-Stout is requiring students to complete an online alcohol and drug assessment in order to register for Spring semester classes. In the past three years, six students at UW-Stout have died in what are termed alcohol related incidents. Now, the campus is attempting to fight back against student binge drinking. One of its tools is a web-based program called E-Chug...

The University of Wisconsin-Stout is requiring freshmen to complete an online alcohol assessment before they can register for next semester's classes...

The fourth annual Entrepreneur's Connection set for Tuesday, Nov. 15, at the University of Wisconsin-Fond du Lac will focus on the entrepreneurial experience. A panel of experts will share their experiences of writing a business plan, working in the trenches and reaching their goals...

UW-Madison is known for having a more rigid acceptance policy than other Wisconsin universities. The common notion is acceptance is based on academic standards, but recently the president of a conservative group said UW-Madison's standards are more race-based than academic. For some, it may come as a surprise that these claims of discrimination are directed toward white and Asian students and not toward ethnic minorities...

Milwaukee's police chief said the newspaper photographer taken into custody Wednesday afternoon during an Occupy march at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was not singled out by police...

A website created by three University of Wisconsin students was launched last month as a resource for artists, libraries and the general population. The endeavor, Library as Incubator Project, serves as a research tool not only for users but also for the founders who created the site...

Foremost, I want to update you about the budget lapse situation. My most recent information comes from a meeting I had Tuesday morning as part of President Reilly's cabinet and in a phone call involving all chancellors Tuesday afternoon...

A statewide environmental learning center at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is celebrating its 20th anniversary Saturday. For two decades, the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education has helped school districts around the state integrate environmental aspects into their curriculum and train teachers. WCEE's work has helped turn Wisconsin into a leader in environmental education, so much so, that other states model their own efforts after the WCEE...

College seniors who graduated from UW-Madison with debt in 2010 now owe an average $22,872 in student loans, a new study reports. The study, released Thursday by the Project on Student Debt, ranks Wisconsin 15th in the nation for highest debt. The $22,872 price tag puts UW-Madison slightly below the national average...

Freshmen at U-W Stout must fill out an assessment of their drinking habits before they can register for next spring's classes. An on-line assessment form has been voluntary for about five years. But now, officials at Stout decided to make it mandatory for first-year students this winter...

And the winner of the People's Choice Award at the University of Wisconsin-Washington County's first-ever Fish Fry Frenzy Thursday is -- drum roll, please -- Riverside Brewery of West Bend...

The University of Wisconsin-Superior plans a spring 2012 launch for a new Health and Wellness Management degree through its online Distance Learning program. Through the program, students will learn how to recognize, implement and facilitate health and wellness programs that promote well-being for employees...

Democrats read from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, accused Republicans of racism and held the state Assembly at bay for a night this week in an effort to block a proposal that would remove race as a qualifying factor in the awarding of higher educational grants. As it turns out, a letter circulated Thursday by Rep. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, showed race hasn't been used as a factor for receiving the grants for more than a year, and the switch was made by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's administration...

Never mind. That's the upshot of a bitter all-night debate that tied the Assembly in knots for nine hours from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Assembly lawmakers - who pull more all-nighters than some college students - ground through that painful process yet again this week to decide whether minorities should get preferential treatment for a college grant program. There was just one catch for the bleary-eyed lawmakers - the state Higher Educational Aids Board had stopped doing that more than a year ago...

The state Assembly has approved a bill that would prohibit the use of race in determining who gets college grants...

It appears a late-night debate earlier this week in the Assembly about a proposal to remove race as a qualifying factor in the awarding of a state higher education grant wasn't really necessary. According to the Associated Press, a letter circulated Thursday indicates race hasn't been used as a factor in awarding Talent Incentive Program grant money for more than a year -- with the switch being made by former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's administration...

As technical education equipment becomes increasingly outdated and school budgets increasingly tight, closing the gap between Wisconsin's high school students and employers requires some outside-the-box thinking. The solution, it seems, is outside the classroom as well. Lakeshore Technical College is among several  organizations rolling out a mobile solution to the training gap, offering schools throughout Northeastern Wisconsin a chance to become a weekly stop for a 44-foot trailer equipped with two computer numerical control machines and space for 12 students...

In the end, the state Assembly got it right early Wednesday after a bruising fight that included charges of racism. The Assembly eliminated race as a factor for a scholarship program that serves disadvantaged college students. But lawmakers were a little late to this debate. As the Journal Sentinel's Jason Stein reports, the agency that administers the Talent Incentive Program hasn't been using race as a factor in its decisions since August 2010...

There's a dramatic increase in the number of families that can't help their kids pay for college in Wisconsin. That includes students who have applied for financial aid at both public and private institutions. More than 23,000 people who applied at UW campuses, technical and private colleges in Wisconsin in 2009-2010 couldn't contribute their own money to their tuition. That's a 25% increase from the year before...

A bitter controversy on Tuesday night in the Wisconsin State Assembly over the use of race in a state student-aid program turns out to have been moot...But according to the Associated Press, the state agency that awards the grants no longer considers race as a criterion. Apparently no member of the Assembly was aware of the agency's shift...

In a sign that blockbuster charitable donations are trickling back to higher education, Stanford University announced Friday it had received a $150 million gift. The donation comes from Stanford Graduate School of Business alum Robert King, and his wife, Dorothy. It's the second largest publicly disclosed gift Stanford has ever received -- behind $400 million from the Hewlett Foundation in 2001...

If you're a college student thinking about transferring to the University of Minnesota, pay attention: it's about to get tougher to make the cut. Aiming to improve the experience and performance of transfer students, the university plans to allow fewer in the door. That means more competition for students hoping to make the jump to the university...