Tim Higgins, one of three new appointees to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, will have his hands full when he's installed next month...He was interviewed on post crescent.com's Newsmakers program on Thursday. Here is an edited transcript of the interview...

Wisconsin's election board on Tuesday authorized a state university to issue identification cards that students can use to comply with the new law requiring voters to present photo ID at polling places. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point joined six other schools authorized by the Government Accountability Board to issue secondary ID cards that comply with the law in Wisconsin, one of several states to pass such legislation this year. In addition to Stevens Point, the system's flagship university in Madison along with schools in Milwaukee, Whitewater, La Crosse, Eau Claire and Green Bay will issue the secondary ID cards. The eighth school -- the University of Wisconsin-Superior -- has received approval to re-issue primary identification cards to all students that meet the voter ID requirements...

The UW-Madison chancellor's office plans to issue free voter ID cards to students in time for the February primary election...

Eight of the 13 four-year campuses in the University of Wisconsin System have finalized plans to issue photo IDs so that students can use student identification cards to vote...

A new law about voting has universities coming up with a cheaper solution. State law now requires a photo ID to be shown when voting. However student IDs at UW-Eau Claire and UW-Stout don't meet the requirements. The IDs need to have a photo, signature and must expire two years after being issued. To help, both schools will offer students the opportunity to get a special ID with those items included in order to vote... (Video clip)

Brains of Wisconsin prisoners diagnosed as psychopaths are different in structure and function from the brains of prisoners who committed similar crimes but were not diagnosed with the mental disorder, a new study led by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers indicates...

...Centered on the mind and nervous system, neuroscience is exploding, and there's practically no topic it won't take on, be it Shakespeare, meditation or consciousness itself. Or psychopathy. In a paper published in the most recent Journal of Neuroscience, Koenigs, along with veteran UW psychopathy researcher Joseph Newman, unveiled new evidence of a physical basis for the disorder...

Mediaman talked to college students at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse as they collect petitions in attempts to recall Gov. Scott Walker, despite temperatures in the low 20s. "Students are very upset on a number of fronts. One, the continued cuts to the university and technical college systems in Wisconsin, and how much more difficult it has been made by GOP legislators for them to vote. In addition, the rules for obtaining voter ID in Wisconsin keeps changing, almost on a monthly basis. They feel their right to vote is being severely limited," he said...

The National Survey of Student Engagement completed by University of Wisconsin-Superior students indicates that many of those surveyed believe the university is doing a good job of emphasizing academic challenge and active learning...

Just after 8 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, power was cut off at most buildings on the UW-River Falls campus. The culprit was an unlucky squirrel that chewed through some electrical power lines. A transformer blew...

Room 112 wasn't big enough to accommodate the crowd that turned out for the sand mine discussion panel on Thursday evening. And even though the event in UW-Stout's Jarvis Hall was moved next door to a bigger venue, there was standing room only when the meeting convened with about 160 concerned citizens in attendance. Sustainable Dunn and UW-Stout Greensense  sponsored the panel...

Training and educational sites in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Michigan, and California have all taken delivery of machinery, equipment and training resources supplied by Wittmann Battenfeld in 2011, as part of that company's efforts to help train tomorrow's plastics workers...The University of Wisconsin-Stout took delivery of a brand new Wittmann Battenfeld EcoPower 55-ton all-electric injection molding machine, along with a Tempro Plus C Series temperature control unit and a Drymax E30 material dryer, at its Jarvis Hall Technical Center in August. The machine and auxiliary equipment will be used to support the university's B.S. in Plastics Engineering program...

Some Republicans -- such as state Sen. Leah Vukmir and Rep. Jim Ott -- are OK with allowing University of Wisconsin System students to use their school identification cards to vote but not with allowing technical college students to use their school IDs for the same purpose. On this question, those Republicans are flat-out wrong...

...The board ruled then that technical college IDs not be allowed at voting polls. But two weeks ago, the GAB reversed itself and that has Republicans crying foul. They have good reason to be upset. The GAB is supposed to be nonpartisan; its website declares that "both the Board and its staff must be nonpartisan." But five of the six members were appointed by former Gov. Jim Doyle, and many decisions coming from this agency lately have been anything but nonpartisan...

We continue to hear the mantra from Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican leadership in the Legislature: It's all about creating jobs and boosting our economy. So, here's a question: Why are legislative leaders spending so much time figuring out how to treat Wisconsin's 400,000 technical college students like second-class citizens?...

As health care continues to evolve, Mid-State Technical College might discontinue three degree programs offered at the Marshfield campus, to follow industry trends. In December, the board will consider suspending the Medical Transcription, Health Unit Coordinator and Medication Assistant programs...

Many colleges and universities, including many selective institutions, may choose to drop out of the military's tuition assistance program for active-duty service members if changes are not made to Defense Department guidelines, several higher education groups warned Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in a letter Monday...

The Board of Trustees considered canceling Penn State's final three football games, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Chronicle of Higher Education...

After a group of peaceful protesters were pepper-sprayed at close range at the University of California at Davis last Friday, one person in the crowd could be heard chanting, "Who do you serve? Who do you protect?" Administrators and faculty members across higher education are asking the same questions just days after a campus police officer was captured on an amateur video spraying an orange mist onto a row of about 20 seated students...

The revelation last week that the National Collegiate Athletic Association would examine whether possible rules violations occurred somewhere in the mess that is Pennsylvania State University's sex-abuse scandal probably surprised few people...But the association's decision to get involved in the Penn State situation is without precedent in its history, say several experts on NCAA enforcement...

Canada is looking to capitalize on its growing appeal as a destination for international students, as officials discuss ways to help academic visitors study, work, and possibly become permanent residents...