PROFS

University of Iowa seeks to cut 7 degrees The proposed eliminations follow a mandated review that flagged undergraduate majors and master’s degrees deemed to have low enrollment.

The University of Iowa has identified 7 degree programs for elimination and will seek approval from the Regents to do so next month. Programs slated to be cut: bachelor's and master's degrees in African American studies and bachelor's degrees in women's studies, three languages and applied physics.

@robertkelchen.com

Most Conservative Students Don’t Feel Persecuted on Campus A new survey of college students contradicts Republican rhetoric that campus culture is hostile to right-wing views.

Counter to partisan talking points, a Gallup/Lumina survey finds a majority of college students feel comfortable expressing themselves on campus and that faculty create a classroom environment that supports both students with unpopular opinions and those students who might be upset by such views.

UW-Madison's La Follette School moving to new home after $57M upgrades Built in 1880 on Bascom Hill, historic Music Hall is set to become Herb Kohl Hall. The university received a $30 million gift for the construction project.

UW-Madison's La Follette School of Public Affairs announced a $30 million gift from Herb Kohl Philanthropies: $20 million for renovations to Music Hall, the School's new home, and $10 million for programming. Music Hall will be renamed Herb Kohl Hall following renovations.

UW-Madison faculty concerned new teaching requirements will limit research capacity, reduce staff autonomy Wisconsin Act 15 mandates University of Wisconsin-Madison professors teach a minimum of 12 credit hours each year beginning in September.

UW-Madison Education Professor Taylor Odle tells the Daily Cardinal that UW System's new mandatory teaching load policy for faculty and staff was a condition of rushed budget negotiations and that "good public policy is not made with last minute concessions behind closed doors."

Professors Are Being Watched: ‘We’ve Never Seen This Much Surveillance’

New laws and university policies in several states has left some professors feeling the chill of censorship or self-censorship. Ohio, Florida and Indiana require faculty to post syllabi in searchable databases, and North Carolina will do the same in the fall.

UW-Madison saw 17 percent cut to federal research funds in Trump's first year The University of Wisconsin-Madison saw a 17 percent decrease in federal research funding since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to outgoing Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin.

ICYMI: UW-Madison sees a 17 percent cut in federal research funds in 2025. Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin to members of the Board of Regents: "This decline also has a double whammy aspect: (375) fewer newly funded grants, plus a number of existing grants (145 grants) that were terminated midstream."

UW-Madison lost $27 million to federal research cuts, Jennifer Mnookin says UW-Madison saw an overall 17% decline in federal research funding last year, and new awards were down 30%, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin told the UW Board of Regents.

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin tells the Board of Regents that UW-Madison lost $27 million due to federal research cancellations or stop work orders in 2025. Overall research funding fell 17 percent, and there was a 30 percent drop in new research awards.

Vote on UW Missing-In-Action project funding bill delayed; GOP cites partial veto concerns • Wisconsin Examiner An Assembly committee put off a vote Wednesday due to concerns by GOP lawmakers that Evers would use his partial veto on the bill.

An Assembly committee put off a scheduled vote on a PROFS-supported bill that would fund UW's MIA Recovery & Identification Project. The Republican chair said the bill was removed due to concerns about Gov. Evers using his veto power in the "extreme" on bills with funding attached.

TIME ranks UW-Madison among top 20 universities in the world The rankings are based on the resources a university devotes to teaching and research, academic performance, innovation and economic impact, and global engagement.

TIME ranks UW-Madison second-best public university in the United States and 20th best among public and private institutions worldwide. The University of Michigan ranked number one among US public universities.

UW-Madison Chancellor says her role prepared her for Columbia University job Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said her experience leading UW-Madison during a "complex time," which included encampments, DEI and federal funding cuts, prepared her to head the Ivy League university.

PROFS President Michael Bernard-Donals says the hiring of a new chancellor may cause some faculty to feel uneasy: "Sometimes there’s continuity with the prior leaders’ initiatives, but sometimes there isn’t. And so, we start up again with a different set of priorities, and that causes some unease."

Is Columbia’s New President Up to the Task? Jennifer Mnookin, chancellor of UW-Madison, will be the Ivy League institution’s fourth leader in less than four years.

The Chronicle asks if UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin is up to the task of leading Columbia following campus protests in 2023 and and federal investigations in 2025. Faculty members from UW-Madison and UCLA and former Columbia president Lee Bollinger say she is the right person for the job.

UW-Madison students, state leaders react to Mnookin's departure Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin will leave campus after spring commencement to begin as the new president of Columbia University in July.

Columbia University announced that UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin would become its new president in July, the fourth leader in less than four years. @beckyjacobs.bsky.social spoke to campus, community and legislative leaders for their reaction to the unexpected news.

Interim UW system policy on teaching workload published Over the next several weeks, UW–Madison will develop its own interim policy based on the System-wide policy.

UW-Madison is developing an interim teaching workload policy following the release of UW System's interim policy last week. An ad hoc committee will work stakeholders to ensure the policy meets the unique needs of UW-Madison. UW System is accepting comments on the interim policy here: bit.ly/4qI6Muh

O'Meara on PROFS' position on the bills: "We … historically have been supportive of efforts to promote diversity on campuses. Faculty feel strongly about that."

Evers plans to veto Republicans’ college sports, free speech bills Here’s a look at higher education proposals seeing movement in Wisconsin’s state Capitol this legislative session.

PROFS lobbyist Jack O'Meara spoke to @beckyjacobs.bsky.social about legislation under consideration that would impact UW-Madison. PROFS is opposed to bills that would curb free speech, limit participation of transgender women on sports teams and ban race-ased financial aid programs.

Columbia Selects University of Wisconsin Chancellor as Its President

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/n...

Columbia Selects University of Wisconsin Chancellor as Its President

The New York Times is reporting that UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin will be named president of Columbia University. A formal announcement is expected later this evening. Mnookin became chancellor at UW-Madison in 2022 after serving as dean of UCLA’s law school for seven years.

ED Drops Appeal of Order Blocking Anti-DEI Guidance First Amendment advocates and higher ed leaders are declaring victory, and some say it’s the “final defeat” of Trump’s attempt to rid colleges of race-based student supports.

After almost a year, the Education Department dropped its appeal of a federal court ruling that kept the department from enforcing its anti-DEI measures at colleges & universities. The ED first announced the move to make such programs and policies illegal in a "Dear Colleague" letter last February.

2026 Distinguished Teaching Award recipients announced Thirteen UW–Madison faculty members have been chosen to receive this year’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

Congratulations to the 13 faculty members chosen to receive the 2026 Distinguished Teaching Award: Brandon Bloch, Christy Clark-Pujara, Colleen Conroy, C. Shawn Green, Tiffany Green, Raquel Kennon, LB Klein, Melissa Kono, Jonathan Martin, Kevin Mullen, Sam Pazicni, Sean Schoville & Lukasz Wodzynski

How Trump Made Life Difficult for International Students and Wisconsin

The number of new UW-Madison international students fell significantly last fall--undergrads by 25% and grad students by 27%. New graduate student Sidi Liu told the New York Times that she turned down an offer at a Swiss university because UW was a better fit, but described her decision as a gamble.

In-depth story on @uwmadison.bsky.social that illustrates how the Trump admin is kneecapping America's most globally competitive export industry: higher education. A depressing but true quote 👇 from my Ph.D. student. The number of foreign students in my classes has dropped precipitously this year.

Portrait of Lewis Sheats.

Lewis Sheats has been named the inaugural associate vice chancellor and executive director of the new Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub — a campuswide initiative designed to elevate how UW–Madison supports founders and launches new ventures.

Learn more: news.wisc.edu/lewis-sheats...

Map of state higher ed restrictions

The scale and speed of state censorship of campus really is amazing.
More than half of America's college students attend institutions in states that have passed laws censoring higher education since 2021.
From @penamerica.bsky.social
pen.org/report/ameri...

The effects of the Trump administration cuts to federal research funding have been felt across UW-Madison. Five faculty members share their stories with reporter Kelly Meyerhofer. Jobs have been lost, important research curtailed and possible cures postponed.

Congress Is Rejecting Trump’s Steep Budget Cuts to Science

Congress is expected to reverse the large cuts to research funding that Pres. Trump proposed last year. Trump's plan cut overall research funding by 22%, basic research by 33%, and NSF by 56%. The Senate plan includes small cuts to NSF and overall funding and a small increase to basic research.

UW–Madison top 5 in national research ranking for first time since 2014, surpasses $1.93B in research expenditures The annual rankings, which cover fiscal year 2024, "highlight the importance of the decades-long partnership between universities and the federal government," says UW–Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnook...

UW-Madison 5th in federal research in FY 2024, the highest ranking since 2014. Chancellor Mnookin noted the importance of the partnership with the federal government: "to tackle society’s greatest challenges, to generate discoveries..., to fuel the economy and to prepare students for the workforce."

Trump upended the US education system in 2025. It’s only the beginning. Trump bombarded schools with a flurry of investigations and demands that they adopt policies aligned with his political agenda. His second year will focus on making them last.

Trump upended the US education system in 2025. It’s only the beginning.

New UW teaching workloads, credit transfer rules pass final hurdle UW-Madison and other Universities of Wisconsin campuses are adopting the plans after a budget deal included roughly $256 million in additional funding.

A legislative committee voted along party lines to approve a minimum teaching load policy and a core general education requirements policy for UW institutions. The implementation of the policies were required as part of the 2025-27 state budget. Dems on the committee said the move was micromanaging.

UW-Madison creating a new college for artificial intelligence The College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence was approved on Thursday by the Board of Regents.

Last week, Regents approved the creation of a new UW-Madison College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence, the university's first new college in more than 40 years. Chancellor Mnookin: "We will be shaping a future where UW–Madison leads in innovation while advancing knowledge for the common good."