Reading Time: 8 minutes

Editor’s note: A UW-Madison police officer is under investigation after a student journalist presented allegations the officer engaged in unsolicited text communications with students and offered to help students avoid underage drinking tickets.

Wisconsin Watch is not naming the officer because he hasn’t been formally disciplined or accused of a crime. The allegations in the following story are based on interviews with 11 students who all spoke on the condition of anonymity, partly for fear of retaliation, but also in order to discuss activities, such as underage drinking and possessing fake IDs, that could result in legal or disciplinary consequences.

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At last October’s bustling homecoming football game at Camp Randall, a University of Wisconsin-Madison police officer approached a sophomore who recognized him from a recent safety presentation he had given at her sorority.

The officer struck up a conversation with the sophomore and her friends, eventually asking Kate — whose name is a pseudonym — for her phone number. 

“I don’t know why he needed my number in the first place,” Kate said. “Every time he would walk by us, he’d stop and talk to us — you know how they patrol the bleachers? — he was just always hanging out around us there.”

Minutes later the officer began texting Kate to ask if she and her friends wanted food from the concession stands. The group agreed.

“Free food!” Kate recalled thinking.

He texted again: “Hot chocolate next game (eyes emoji). If you’re nice,” according to text messages Kate shared from the officer.

After supplying the stadium snacks, the officer asked Kate to get coffee with him later that week.

Kate dodged the question, hoping to laugh it off and watch the game. But after the game ended, another text popped up at 11:47 p.m. that night asking if she had chosen her coffee spot yet. 

Kate texted her sorority chapter president and asked, “What should I do if (the officer) asked me to get coffee?”

The sorority president texted back, “Just don’t respond.” 

“I literally just never responded to that,” Kate said. “It got to the point where he was trying to go on dates … because I was nice to him, he took it too far and wanted to make it more.”  

Kate was not the only student to experience unprofessional interactions with the same officer. 

Accounts from 11 students, all of whom are affiliated with UW-Madison Greek organizations, describe how the same officer instigated texting relationships, asked female sources on coffee dates, relayed confidential police information to assist students in underage drinking and took students for rides in his squad car without first having them sign a liability waiver. Two male students interviewed for this story described their interactions with the officer positively, but female students viewed the contacts as inappropriate.

The officer’s behavior has persisted for at least four years, but was never the subject of a formal complaint, according to the UW-Madison Police Department. None of the students alleged the officer made any physical advances, and none agreed to go on a date with him.

“The UW-Madison Police Department became aware of the officer misconduct allegations when asked by the author for a comment for this article,” Assistant Chief Kari Sasso said in a statement. “We will review and investigate these claims as appropriate. There have been no formal complaints from community members, students or others regarding this officer. We hold our officers to the highest standards and take all allegations of officer misconduct seriously. We are committed to transparency and accountability within legal and policy boundaries.”

A spokesperson for UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin confirmed that an internal investigation is underway at UWPD.

The officer didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Gaining trust at safety presentations

The UW-Madison police officer serves as a downtown liaison community officer for an area that includes Langdon Street, where many of the university’s sorority and fraternity houses are located. 

Preliminary communication between the officer and students often began within the bounds of his job description. Student leaders reached out to set up semiannual safety presentations at their organizations, largely for students under the legal drinking age. 

The presentations cover campus safety, medical amnesty and behavior-based policing and are discussions intended to help students feel informed and educated from a reputable police source. 

While intended to detail the potential consequences of underage alcohol consumption — not encourage it — the officer’s presentations were peppered with advice for students on how to continue illegally drinking without getting caught, according to an audio recording of one presentation. 

In one presentation the officer told students he would alert underage students ahead of time regarding pre-planned bar checks to help them avoid potential citations — a breach of confidential police information.

Bar checks, often called “raids” by students, serve to ensure bars aren’t serving students under the legal drinking age of 21. Police officers enter the premises while others block exits, requesting IDs from all patrons. Underage patrons in the bar face a fine of up to $1,250 for using a fake ID.

The student sources said over the last four years the officer shared confidential police information regarding bar checks with them over the phone, warning them in advance of the bars Madison police would be checking and the general timeline of the check. 

One student in a leadership position also said he encouraged them to share the information with their personal contacts.

“It’s helpful to us, obviously — also kind of crazy that he goes behind the police station’s back,” Kate said. 

In audio recorded as part of this investigation during one of the officer’s standard safety presentations this past school year, he told freshmen and sophomores, “I promise you I will always help you. If I’m ever involved in a bar check, it’s because I want to make sure that the city cops are actually treating you all with respect.”

“And every now and then I might hold whatever door I’m manning open for the three or four of you to leave without any real consequences — but don’t tell my boss that. I say that because I’ve actually done it,” he continued. “I don’t like bar checks. I hate the fact that you all are in the safest place to be consuming alcohol, rather than a basement or a house party or an apartment, and we’re jamming you all up by giving you tickets.”

The officer also examined the students’ fake IDs, checking if they are realistic enough to allow access at local bars. Kate was one of the students who offered her ID for inspection. 

“That’s how it started,” Kate said. “He was basically like, ‘I owe you a coffee for volunteering.’”

Seth Stoughton, a University of South Carolina law professor and a nationally recognized policing expert, reviewed portions of the audio and said the UW-Madison officer’s presentation is not a standard police presentation on underage drinking.

“What those talks usually look like are how students can avoid breaking the law, how students can avoid trouble — not how students can break the law and not get in trouble for it,” Stoughton said.

Texting relationships with students

The officer only contacted students about bar check alerts over a phone call, multiple sources said. 

“This would be the type of evidence that we use to establish knowledge of guilt; when he’s telling folks, ‘Oh no, I don’t want to put any of that in writing, I don’t want there to be a record of it,’” Stoughton said. “Well, that’s because you are aware that the record could be used against you in some way. So that seems problematic.” 

After obtaining students’ cellphone numbers, the officer began reaching out to them outside of professional protocols: regularly checking in, calling and asking them to meet up. 

For the nine female students interviewed for this story, his frequent check-ins quickly caused discomfort.

“When you’re in it, you think all these things are to help you, and then the further down in the year it got, when I was working with him specifically, I felt like I was putting myself in danger more than being protected,” said a former sorority executive member. “I didn’t want to work with him ever, and I also warned other people, like do not involve yourself. He’s not doing anything for us.”

Caroline, a pseudonym for a recently graduated senior at UW-Madison, felt similarly.

“I remember us being like, ‘Oh my god, he’s texting you now?’ He went through people, he was always texting different people,” Caroline said.

While females in leadership positions said he straddled the line between a professional and personal relationship, others who didn’t serve on executive boards or in organizational leadership, including Kate, are less certain about why he was texting them in the first place — saying there was no professional justification for his outreach.

“All of our texts are very playful and joke-y in what he was saying — it wasn’t like he was professional,” Kate said. 

Offering rides without waivers

Some students and former students claimed that the officer offered them rides in his squad car. 

One source took him up on that offer. 

Allen, a recently graduated UW-Madison student also identified with a pseudonym, claimed he went for a drive with the officer in January 2023 when he was a sophomore. 

“He picked me up in his car and we drove around for like 20 minutes. He asked me about myself. He really made an effort to establish a friendship and a relationship with me, which I really appreciated,” Allen said. “He was just a real beacon of guidance.” 

Records of ride-along waivers signed between Jan. 1, 2022, and Jan. 1, 2025, show only two people signed liability waivers for UW-Madison police ride-alongs over the past three years.

Allen’s name did not appear in any of the signed waivers. He also doesn’t recall signing a waiver.

“I feel like I would remember if I had to sign something,” he said.

Stoughton said it’s a liability issue, should a police officer choose to disregard mandatory waivers. Typically officers will alert dispatchers of a pickup and drop-off to ensure nothing inappropriate happens.

“There are procedures that are in place to help protect everyone’s interest: the police agencies, the individual officers and the community members,” Stoughton continued. “(It) sounds like he is just completely ignoring those standard protocols.”

Male students appreciative, female students uncomfortable

Three UW students, two males and one female, expressed gratitude for the officer’s help in keeping them out of police trouble, especially those who are under 21. 

“I do think there is a very deep appreciation for him making himself as available as possible to everyone, in a plethora of different events and situations,” one fraternity leader said. 

Allen felt similarly. “I was very blown away by his willingness to not just be an administrator, but to be a friend. Not a parental figure — an adviser, but more than that, much more friendly than that,” he said. “We developed a personal friendship.”

But the female students mostly interpreted the officer’s behavior differently.

“His actions blurred the line between authority and familiarity, leaving students unsure of his true intentions,” the sorority leader said. “What I would’ve changed was his approach. Instead of trying to be our ‘friend’ and making us feel like we had an inside connection with campus law enforcement, he should have taken a more traditional and professional role.”

University policy W-5048 covers relationships between those in unequal levels of power, stating that a relationship between an employee and student is “not appropriate when they occur between an employee of the university and a student over whom the employee has or potentially will have supervisory, advisory, evaluative, or other authority or influence.” 

Stoughton said there’s a line in policing, with making yourself available on one side, but affirmatively seeking out individuals in a nonorganizational capacity on the other. 

“It doesn’t surprise me that the female students have a slightly different perspective than male students because male students may be — for several complicated reasons — just less cognizant of that power dynamic,” Stoughton said. “Female students may be much more aware of that power dynamic. It’s the officer’s job, though, to also be aware of it.”

If you have a complaint about the conduct of a UW-Madison Police Department officer, you can file a complaint online or call the department and speak with a supervisor, according to UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas. The department typically requires a person’s name and doesn’t accept anonymous complaints.

This is an ongoing story. If you or someone you know has had similar encounters with a UWPD officer, please let us know at tips@wisconsinwatch.org.

Crossing the line: UW-Madison investigating police officer who students say acted inappropriately is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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A Wisconsin Watch reader asks: How much funding do the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Madison College receive from the U.S. military?

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has 198 active Department of Defense awards, totaling $221.3 million in funding, according to UW-Madison’s declaration from the Association of American Universities lawsuit against the Department of Defense. 

Defense-funded research aims to expand “warfighter capabilities” and the U.S. “strategic and tactical advantage.” President Donald Trump’s Department of Defense tried to cap indirect costs at 15%.

Defense awards support research in fields directly related to the military, such as “cybersecurity, maritime navigation, materials science, injury prevention and recovery and military flight technology,” said UW-Madison Vice Chancellor for Research Dorota A. Grejner-Brzezinska in the lawsuit challenging the Defense Department’s attempt to limit indirect costs. 

The Department of Defense awarded $67.4 million in grants to UW-Madison in 2023-24, making up 8% of total agency funding, the fourth-highest source after the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. UW-Madison ranked sixth in national research expenditures with over $1.7 billion in the latest annual review.

UW-Madison also has 81 pending Defense grant proposals, as of June 13, 2025, with a requested total budget of $70.5 million, according to Grejner-Brzezinska’s declaration.

Indirect costs are costs that support research but are not directed to a specific award and include “costs for building maintenance, utilities, procurement of shared equipment, administrative services, information technology, libraries and compliance with federal regulations,” said Grejner-Brzezinska in the declaration.

On June 17, 2025, a federal judge in Boston temporarily granted universities a temporary restraining order, meaning they will temporarily operate with the previously negotiated indirect cost reimbursement rates of 55.5%. This follows an NIH cap of 15% on indirect costs, also blocked by a federal judge. 

“The 15% rate cap will make most, if not all, of UW-Madison’s proposed and ongoing research projects infeasible,” Grejner-Brzezinska said.

Defense-funded studies at UW-Madison include a group of 30 scientists who study traumatic brain injuries, satellite data systems and artificial intelligence infrastructure and research.

Madison College currently has no active Defense awards or grants, according to a website detailing federal grants.

How much funding do the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Madison College receive from the US military? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

National Institutes of Health Director Jayanta Bhattacharya speaks at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Capitol Hill on March 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya testified Tuesday that he will work with Congress to potentially reverse a steep cut to the agency’s funding the White House proposed earlier this year in its budget request.

Bhattacharya told highly critical Republicans and Democrats on the Senate panel that writes the NIH’s annual spending bill that he’s “happy” to work with lawmakers to find a funding level that everyone can support in the months ahead.

“This is my first time through this budget fight and so I’m still learning. But I’ll tell you, what I understand is that the budget is a collaborative effort between Congress and the administration,” Bhattacharya said. “I look forward to working with you all to advance the real health needs — not just the folks here in the room who represent Alzheimer’s patients, but also the health needs of all Americans.”

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said it was “disturbing” that the president’s budget request suggested lawmakers cut NIH funding by about $18 billion, or 40%, in the upcoming spending bill.

“It would undo years of congressional investment in NIH,” Collins said. “And it would delay or stop effective treatments and cures from being developed for diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer, type one diabetes. I could go on and on.

“We also risk falling behind China and other countries that are increasing their investment in biomedical research.”

Collins said the committee planned to work with Bhattacharya “to remedy these problems and the deficiencies” in the budget request in the months ahead as the committee writes the annual government funding bills.

Collins also rebuked Bhattacharya for seeking to reduce how much the NIH pays grantees for facilities and administrative costs, which go toward paying bills that aren’t directly associated with just one research project.

NIH efforts to cap those indirect costs at 15% are on hold as lawsuits from Democratic attorneys general, the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Association of American Universities work through the federal court system.

“This proposed cap is so poorly conceived,” Collins said. “And I have seen firsthand how harmful it is. It is leading to scientists leaving the United States for opportunities in other countries. It’s causing clinical trials to be halted and promising medical research to be abandoned. It’s also against federal law. Since 2018, we in Congress have specifically included language to prevent NIH from arbitrarily imposing such a cap.”

Collins told Bhattacharya to talk with Kelvin K. Droegemeier, who worked as President Donald Trump’s science adviser during his first term. Droegemeier is chairman of a group put together by the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities to propose changes to the indirect costs model.

‘Frankly, catastrophic’

Washington state Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, pressed Bhattacharya to defend the actions he’s taken so far and those proposed in the budget request.

“What the Trump administration is doing to NIH right now is, frankly, catastrophic,” Murray said. “Over the past few months, this administration has fired and pushed out nearly 5,000 critical employees across NIH, prevented nearly $3 billion in grant funding from being awarded and terminated nearly 2,500 grants totaling almost $5 billion for life-saving research that is ongoing that includes clinical trials for HIV and Alzheimer’s disease.”

Murray added that no one in America wants less research into treatments and cures for cancer, or Alzheimer’s disease.

West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, chairwoman of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations subcommittee that held the hearing, expressed concern about NIH’s proposed budget cuts, saying they have raised alarms at numerous research universities.

“These institutions are the reason America has kept the edge in biomedical research and innovation,” Capito said. “As with many changes in leadership, there seems to be a heightened set of concern and confusion that diverting resources from research will result in a less healthy America.”

Capito emphasized she expects NIH to continue to focus research efforts on Alzheimer’s, a disease that affects more than 7 million Americans.

“For almost a decade, this committee has supported research towards the goals of finding treatments and a cure for Alzheimer’s disease,” Capito said. “This goal is very personal to me, as you know, since both of my parents lived with and eventually succumbed to this disease. And I could look out behind you and see in the audience that many folks here are extremely interested in that area of research.”

Delayed funding in the states

Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, ranking member on the subcommittee, also reprimanded Bhattacharya for cutting off funding for projects looking into Alzheimer’s and several other illnesses.

“NIH has delayed $65 million in funding for 14 Alzheimer’s disease research centers in nine states, including at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,” Baldwin said. “It has delayed $47 million in cancer center support grants at nine cancer centers in eight states, it has delayed $55 million for 11 rare disease clinical research network grants in eight states.

“Let that sink in: This administration is making a conscious choice not to fund research into Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and rare diseases. And NIH has terminated grants for maternal morbidity and mortality centers, a grant developing new digital imaging techniques for cervical cancer screening and a clinical trial studying a potential cure for infants born with HIV, just to name a few.”

Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt called on Bhattacharya to ensure NIH refocuses on maternal health research and ways to decrease the country’s high maternal mortality rate.

“Look, far too many women in this country are dying from pregnancy-related causes,” Britt said. “You look at Alabama, we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation. It disproportionately affects Black women, Native American women, those women in rural areas.”

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Anjan Roy was studying with friends at Missouri State University when he got an email that turned his world upside down. His legal status as an international student had been terminated, and he was suddenly at risk for deportation.

“I was in literal shock, like, what the hell is this?” said Roy, a graduate student in computer science from Bangladesh.

At first, he avoided going out in public, skipping classes and mostly keeping his phone turned off. A court ruling in his favor led to his status being restored this week, and he has returned to his apartment, but he is still asking his roommates to screen visitors.

More than a thousand international students have faced similar disruptions in recent weeks, with their academic careers — and their lives in the U.S. — thrown into doubt in a widespread crackdown by the Trump administration. Some have found a measure of success in court, with federal judges around the country issuing orders to restore students’ legal status at least temporarily.

In addition to the case filed in Atlanta, where Roy is among 133 plaintiffs, judges have issued temporary restraining orders in states including New Hampshire, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. Judges have denied similar requests in some other cases, saying it was not clear the loss of status would cause irreparable harm.

International students challenge grounds for their status revocation

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza and those who face criminal charges. But many affected students said they have been involved only in minor infractions, or it’s unclear altogether why they were targeted.

The attorney for Roy and his fellow plaintiffs, Charles Kuck, argued the government did not have legal grounds to terminate the students’ status.

He speculated in court last week the government is trying to encourage these students to self-deport, saying “the pressure on these students is overwhelming.” He said some asked him if it was safe to leave their homes to get food, and others worried they wouldn’t receive a degree after years of work or feared their chances of a career in the U.S. were shot.

“I think the hope is they’ll just leave,” Kuck said. “The reality is these kids are invested.”

An attorney for the government, R. David Powell, argued the students did not suffer significant harm because they could transfer their academic credits or find jobs in another country.

At least 1,190 students at 183 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records. The AP is working to confirm reports of hundreds more students who are caught up in the crackdown.

In a lawsuit filed Monday by four people on student visas at the University of Iowa, attorneys detail the “mental and financial suffering” they’ve experienced. One graduate student, from India, “cannot sleep and is having difficulty breathing and eating,” the lawsuit reads. He has stopped going to school, doing research or working as a teaching assistant. Another student, a Chinese undergraduate who expected to graduate this December, said his revoked status has caused his depression to worsen to the point that his doctor increased his medication dosage. The student, the lawsuit says, has not left his apartment out of fear of detention.

Tiny infractions made students targets for the crackdown

Roy, 23, began his academic career at Missouri State in August 2024 as an undergraduate computer science student. He was active in the chess club and a fraternity and has a broad circle of friends. After graduating in December, he began work on a master’s degree in January and expects to finish in May 2026.

When Roy received the university’s April 10 email on his status termination, one of his friends offered to skip class to go with him to the school’s international services office, even though they had a quiz in 45 minutes. The staff there said a database check showed his student status had been terminated, but they didn’t know why.

Roy said his only brush with the law came in 2021, when he was questioned by campus security after someone called in a dispute at a university housing building. But he said an officer determined there was no evidence of any crime and no charges were filed.

Roy also got an email from the U.S. embassy in Bangladesh telling him his visa had been revoked and that he could be detained at any time. It warned that if he was deported, he could be sent to a country other than his own. Roy thought about leaving the U.S. but decided to stay after talking to a lawyer.

Anxious about being in his own apartment, Roy went to stay with his second cousin and her husband nearby.

“They were scared someone was going to pick me up from the street and take me somewhere that they wouldn’t even know,” Roy said.

He mostly stayed inside, turned off his phone unless he needed to use it, and avoided internet browsers that track user data through cookies. His professors were understanding when he told them he wouldn’t be able to come to classes for a while, he said.

New doubts about students’ future in the US

After the judge’s order Friday, he moved back to his apartment. He learned Tuesday his status had been restored, and he plans to return to class. But he’s still nervous. He asked his two roommates, both international students, to let him know before they open the door if someone they don’t know knocks.

The judge’s restoration of his legal status is temporary. Another hearing scheduled for Thursday will determine whether he keeps that status while the litigation continues.

Roy chose the U.S. over other options in Canada and Australia because of the research opportunities and potential for professional connections, and he ultimately wanted to teach at an American university. But now those plans are up in the air.

His parents, back in Dhaka, have been watching the news and are “freaked out,” he said. His father mentioned to him that they have family in Melbourne, Australia, including a cousin who’s an assistant professor at a university there.

AP reporters Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this story.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.

International students stripped of legal status in the US are piling up wins in court is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

At an April 1 hearing, in a sign of what the most contentious issues will be in this year’s state budget, the Republican-controlled budget committee only heard from two state agencies: Corrections and the Universities of Wisconsin system.

UW system President Jay Rothman told lawmakers he agreed with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ assessment that the 2025-27 biennial state budget is a “make it or break it” budget year for the public university system.

Evers’ budget request for the Universities of Wisconsin matched the agency’s ask of $856 million in additional funding over two years, which would be one of the largest increases in the university system’s history. Evers told reporters this funding, in addition to $1.6 billion proposed for capital projects, is essential even without the Trump administration’s threats to cut university funding.

Republican lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee asked Rothman to justify “administrative bloat” across the system’s 13 universities, as well as the sizable budget ask. Rothman said while the request is large, Wisconsin currently ranks 43rd out of 50 in state spending on public universities. Evers’ budget would add 214 state-funded positions to UW campuses. Rothman said that excluding UW-Madison, the universities have lost over 1,000 positions since 2019.

The share of the UW system budget that comes from state funds has decreased by about 15 percentage points in the last two decades, from 33% to 18%.

“If we get the budget funded, we will not have to raise tuition,” Rothman told the JFC. “If we don’t get funded at an adequate level, that’s one of the levers we have. We keep our branch campuses open, that’s another lever we have that I don’t want to have to use.”

But amid declining birth rates and enrollment in public schools across the state, Republican lawmakers questioned whether the $856 million ask is reasonable considering university enrollments may soon drop significantly. Five of the 13 campuses had enrollments shrink last year.

“You cannot cut your way to success,” Rothman told the committee. “You need to invest.”

State funding for UW-Madison — the state’s flagship university — in inflation-adjusted dollars was $644 million in 1974. Since then, it has declined by $93 million in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the university’s 2023-24 budget report. Figures aren’t available system-wide.

Republican Rep. Mark Born, co-chair of the committee, asked Rothman why the request called for 13 new staff positions — one on each campus — to support students who have aged out of the foster care system. He cited a UW system report that found there were 420 students in that program across nine of the campuses. He questioned why a position would need to be created at a school like UW-Platteville, which served nine of those students last year. The report also shows that the program didn’t serve all 570 students who qualify, including 23 on that campus.

“I think this is a shining example of the governor’s desire to grow government and your desire to grow your system, and it’s not focused on the reality of how you invest in this stuff,” Born told Rothman.

Rothman said the intent behind the positions is to expand the number of foster care students who could be served.

GOP lawmakers critique admissions process

Republican lawmakers have criticized enrollment and admissions at the state’s flagship university in recent years, citing constituents who say their high-achieving children have been rejected from attending UW-Madison. They have also raised concerns that the university is denying admission to in-state students in favor of out-of-state or international students.

Unlike some of the smaller Wisconsin campuses, UW-Madison has maintained high enrollment numbers likely due to its ability to attract out-of-state and international students.

If the university significantly increased its enrollment of in-state students from an already declining pool of applicants, enrollment at other UW system schools could be negatively affected, UW-Madison Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Derek Kindle told WPR.

During the April 1 hearing, Sen. Rob Stafsholt, R-New Richmond, said he adamantly believes in retaining Wisconsin-based students in the university system. He asked Rothman why one of his young constituents — who has a 4.3 GPA, 32 ACT score and a father who is a military veteran — was rejected from UW-Madison.

“How are we not serving our own kids, as they graduate, by admitting them to our universities before we spend taxpayer dollars and increase taxpayer dollars to attract people from other parts of the world?” Stafsholt asked.

Rothman said he didn’t have the specifics of that student’s case, but pointed to a bill signed into law last year that allows graduating high school students who rank in the top 10% of their high school’s graduating class to gain admission to any UW system school and guarantees admission to UW-Madison for those in the top 5% of their class. The bill takes effect for college admissions starting next fall.

In fall 2024, UW-Madison admitted around 59.3% of in-state applicants, down from an average of 66.8% over the previous nine years. The out-of-state U.S. student admission rate was 46.5%, and the international student admission rate was 33.3%, compared to a previous nine-year average of 52.7% and 38.6% respectively.

The questioning was similar to a national talking point about high-achieving students being rejected from universities, which some Republicans have attributed to diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Right-wing activists like Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, have questioned whether the government should be funding higher education.

On the same day as the hearing, Kirk took to social media to share an example of a high-achieving student similar to the one Stafsholt spoke of.

“Why are we giving hundreds of billions of dollars to universities so stupid they won’t offer this kid an admission because of his skin color (and let’s be honest, that’s why he was rejected everywhere)?” Kirk wrote on X. “Defund the college scam.”

Slashes to federal funding loom over UW-Madison

Last month, the federal Department of Education notified UW-Madison that it was one of 60 universities across the country under investigation by the Office for Civil Rights. The letter warned that the university could lose federal funding if it failed to protect its Jewish students.

The move was part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on antisemitism on college campuses, which has involved detaining, deporting and terminating the visas of students with ties to the national pro-Palestinian protests last spring.

UW-Madison is also one of 45 universities being investigated for alleged racial discrimination related to its diversity, equity and inclusion practices. The Trump administration has made sweeping threats to pull federal funding from colleges that continue to consider race and diversity in their policies and programs.

But how much funding is at stake here?

According to the Associated Press, out of 50 public universities under OCR investigation, UW-Madison is among the top five that received the most federal revenue in 2022-23. The university collected more than $827 million in federal funds that year, which was just over 20% of its total revenue.

Republicans take skeptical view of UW system’s ‘make-or-break’ funding request is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Republican-ordered audits released Friday found that Wisconsin state agencies and the Universities of Wisconsin system have failed to track the millions of dollars they spent on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, making it difficult to fully assess the initiatives.

The highly anticipated reports come amid a push by President Donald Trump to end federal government support for DEI programs. There have been similar efforts in Wisconsin by Republicans who control the Legislature. The reports’ findings are likely to further increase pressure from Republicans to do away with anything related to DEI.

DEI practices at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in particular have come under close scrutiny.

The system’s flagship campus fired its chief diversity officer, LaVar Charleston, in January for what university officials said were poor financial decisions he had made, including approving substantial raises and authorizing what they deemed to be excessive spending on travel.

The school is one of 50 universities across the country that Trump said are under investigation for alleged racial discrimination related to DEI programs. UW-Madison also is one of 60 schools that federal education officials are investigating because of accusations that they failed to protect Jewish students during campus protests last year over the war in Gaza. UW-Madison officials said Friday that they are cooperating with both probes and that they condemn antisemitism in all of its forms.

Audits estimate that millions of dollars went toward DEI activities

The audits found that neither UW nor the 15 state agencies that were reviewed specifically tracked how much money they spent on DEI efforts during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which ended June 30.

Auditors noted that neither the UW system’s Board of Regents nor its administration required schools to define DEI, which resulted in them launching individualized initiatives. Auditors were able to estimate that the system spent about $40 million on offices with duties connected to DEI. The system spent about $12.5 million on salaries for positions with job duties related to DEI and another $8 million working on DEI-related activities. A dozen state agencies spent about $2.2 million on salaries for jobs related to DEI.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration didn’t consistently require agencies to ensure DEI plans were developed and implemented correctly, the audit found. Also, agencies didn’t consistently document when they corrected noncompliance, the report said.

The administration cautioned about drawing conclusions about the actual costs related to DEI as outlined in the audit.

Many of the costs were related to implementing programs required by law, were human resources best practices or were tied to worker retention and recruitment efforts, said Kathy Blumenfeld, who heads the state’s Department of Administration.

GOP pushes to eliminate DEI programs

Legislative Republicans have been pushing for years to end DEI programs and last year ordered the review by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has pledged to end diversity efforts in state government, saying that such initiatives are “cancerous” and that he wants a society that is “truly colorblind.”

State Sen. Eric Wimberger and state Rep. Robert Wittke, Republican co-chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Audit Committee, said in a statement Friday that the audits show taxpayers spent millions on DEI with very little to show for it.

Vos said in a statement Friday that Assembly Republicans would keep pushing to eliminate DEI as they deliberate on the 2025-27 state budget.

“Student achievement should be based on merit,” Vos said.

DEI positions shrink at UW

Under a deal reached with Republicans in 2023, the UW system froze diversity hires, re-labeled about 40 diversity positions as “student success” positions and dropped an affirmative action hiring program at UW-Madison. In exchange, the Legislature paid for staff raises and construction projects.

Auditors found that when the deal took effect, the system had at least 123 full-time positions that provided DEI services, had job titles that included the terms “diversity, equity and inclusion” or were senior leadership positions focused on DEI. The number of positions had dropped to 110 by May 2024.

There are now 64 positions, UW system President Jay Rothman wrote in response to the auditors. Rothman said the auditors’ work was challenging because there is no universal definition of DEI, each school developed its own initiatives and the offices that perform DEI work also might have duties unrelated to DEI projects, blurring spending lines and funding sources.

“In that context, it is important to emphasize both the UW’s philosophical shift aimed more broadly at student success as well as the variance in which universities structure their offices and positions that may pertain to — though not exclusively focus on — ‘DEI’ activities when one is interpreting the data offered in the report,” Rothman wrote in his letter.

Governor required agencies to create DEI plans

Evers signed an executive order in 2019 requiring each state agency to create and monitor equity and inclusion plans to address employment barriers, assess workplaces to ensure they’re equitable and promote inclusion and expand professional development to encourage a more inclusive culture.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.

Wisconsin audits find lack of tracking of DEI spending at UW system and state agencies is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.