Most of the snow has been shoveled or melted.
Most of the power has been restored for those who were without electricity.
The concession and victory speeches have been given, and even some of the yard signs have been picked up.
You’ve made it to Friday. Now let’s help you get through your Friday.
Here are your Key Reads.
The cost of attending public universities in Wisconsin is rising. Again.
Tuition increase approved for University of Wisconsin-Madison, other campuses | AP News
In-state tuition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other campuses in the system will increase 3.75% next school year under a plan approved unanimously by the Board of Regents on Thursday.
Combined with an increase in fees, the total tuition and fee increase will be 4.4% on average, the university said. The tuition increase alone equates a $262 spike at UW-Madison, $317 at UW-Milwaukee and between $255 and $396 at the 11 other branch universities.
Wisconsin fishermen and women, especially those who fly fish, wake up to some potentially terrible news.
Parasite known to cause disease found for the first time in wild Wisconsin trout – WPR
For the first time, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has discovered a parasite in wild trout that’s known to cause disease, raising questions about its potential effects on fish populations.
The DNR said Wednesday that tests showed the microscopic parasite Myxobolus cerebralis turned up in brook trout within Elton Creek, a Class 1 trout stream in Langlade County.
The parasite affects fish like trout and salmon. It requires two hosts as part of its life cycle, fish and a small bottom-dwelling worm in streams and ponds. The parasite can infect young fish, attacking their cartilage and nerve tissue. It can also lead to whirling disease. Symptoms of the disease include fish swimming in circles, fish deformities and a black tail.
David Giehtbrock, fish culture section leader with the DNR, said discovery of the parasite in wild trout is a serious issue.
“It has had significant effects in the western states on trout populations,” Giehtbrock said. “We note that we didn’t find any clinical signs of disease in the Elton Creek fish that we examined.”
Fish infected with the parasite don’t pose a risk to human health, but anglers are urged not to eat fish showing signs of sickness or disease. Giehtbrock said it’s unclear what effect the parasite may have on fish populations, but rainbow and brook trout are most susceptible to the disease.
The state routinely tests for the parasite as part of inspections at about 2,500 registered fish farms. The DNR tested wild fish for the parasite after the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection, or DATCP, notified the agency that it had been found within rainbow trout during a routine inspection at a private fish farm.
The Audacity continues at the state’s largest public school district.
MPS officials: Referendum spending plan coming, waiting on lawmakers | The Center Square
Milwaukee Public School leaders are laying part of the responsibility for how they spend their new quarter-billion-dollar-per-year tax increase at the feet of the state legislature.
MPS Superintendent Keith Posley and others accused Republicans lawmakers of underfunding the city’s schools for years.
“Milwaukeeans stepped up to save our schools from a broken system that must be repaired,” Posley said. “For 16 years the state of Wisconsin has failed to adequately fund public schools.”
Posley continues to say MPS families and Milwaukee taxpayers will need to wait to see just how the city’s schools will spend the money. He said both a new budget, and a new facilities master plan will go to the school board “soon.”
In the meantime, he repeated the line from before Tuesday’s vote about the areas where he wants to spend the money.
“Just like the referendum question stated art, music, physical education, library media specialists, smaller class size that retain highly qualified staff, counselors, social workers, and the list goes on,” Posley said.
But that’s not the only unknown.
Posley didn’t rule out another referendum in the future that would raise taxes higher. He again blamed the state legislature.
“If funding does not change at the state level, districts will be in the same situation over and over,” Posley explained.
In the Isthmus, Steve Walters, the dean of Wisconsin Capitol Reporters, chronicles the changes happening at institutions of higher education in Wisconsin. He said it is an evolution that had to happen, but the list of recent announcements is mounting.
Downsizing of Wisconsin’s higher education institutions will continue | Isthmus
“According to the Northland College Board of Trustees, Northland College in Ashland needs to raise $12 million…to save the nation’s first environmentally-focused liberal arts institution,” Northern News Now reported.
“St. Norbert College announced 12 faculty layoffs as the institution shores up a $5 million deficit projected for fiscal year 2025,” the Green Bay Press-Gazette reported on March 8. A spokesman for the DePere college said those layoffs were in addition to 35 jobs eliminated last fall.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said its Waukesha campus will close after the spring 2025 semester, WISN-TV reported on March 11. The station said about 670 students now attend that campus — 70% fewer students than in 2015, when it was a two-year college.
Marquette University, the state’s largest private university, must cut its spending by $31 million by 2031, the Marquette Wire reported on March 26. The story quoted the university’s provost as saying Marquette has a current budget shortfall of between $9 million and $9.5 million.
Those recent developments follow the closing last May of Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, which lost one-third of its students between 2009 and 2014; the closing of what had been a two-year UW campus in Richland Center, and the June end of in-person instruction at UW-Milwaukee’s Washington County campus and UW-Oshkosh’s Fond du Lac campus.
Well, that’s a wrap for this week. Be sure to check out the rest of the site, where we continue to post news and features about Wisconsin’s history, culture and current events.
Have a wonderful weekend.
