Gov. Evers Visits to UW Campuses Across the State as Part of Annual Back-to-School Tour
MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers last week visited six University of Wisconsin (UW) System campuses across the state to celebrate and welcome educators, students, staff, and administrators back to school for the 2025-26 school year. During the visits, the governor highlighted his work to secure over $250 million for the UW System over the next two years, the largest increase for the UW System in nearly 20 years. Gov. Evers also fought for and secured over $1.2 billion in the 2025-27 Capital Budget for critical infrastructure projects on UW campuses statewide, including projects at UW-Madison, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Stout, Milwaukee, Platteville, and Stevens Point. These visits come as earlier this month, Gov. Evers wrapped up his back-to-school tour of K-12 schools across the state, and he will continue to visit additional higher education institutions in the coming weeks.
“It’s no secret that Wisconsin’s higher education institutions are essential to the success of our kids, families, workforce, and communities, and each and every day, the UW System is helping improve our daily lives here in Wisconsin and the world over,” said Gov. Evers. “I’m incredibly proud of our work to ensure these institutions can continue to offer the world-class education, research, and services they’re known for, and our work together building the future we want for our kids and our grandkids, for higher education, and for our state continues in the days and months ahead.”
Gov. Evers has spent the last several years advocating for increased investments in the UW System to help prevent further campus closures, staff and faculty layoffs, and program cuts and consolidations. When Republican lawmakers indicated they planned to cut the UW System by tens of millions of dollars—nearly $90 million—in this state budget, Gov. Evers threatened to veto the budget in its entirety. As a result, Gov. Evers negotiated and secured the largest increase for the UW System in nearly 20 years, including:
- An increase of over $250 million for the UW System over the next two years, including:
- Over $100 million to support UW System campuses statewide to help stabilize the system after recent campus closures, layoffs, and program cuts and consolidations and ensure UW institutions remain economic and workforce hubs in communities across our state;
- $7 million to provide 24/7 virtual telehealth mental health services to nearly all students across UW System campuses;
- $54 million to help retain and recruit faculty and staff in high-demand fields of study to ensure UW System institutions remain competitive, world-class institutions;
- Nearly $90 million to increase wages for UW System workers, including faculty and staff; and
- $1 million for UW-Green Bay’s Rising Phoenix Early College High School Program that enables high school students to earn college credits.
- Efforts designed to promote more flexibility and affordability for students at campuses across Wisconsin, ensuring that any general credit hours students earn are able to be transferred and accepted across all UW System campuses by the fall 2026 semester.
- Over $1.2 billion to support capital building projects on UW campuses across the state, including projects at UW-Madison, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Stout, Milwaukee, Platteville, and Stevens Point. A full list of projects enumerated can be found in the governor’s veto message here.
On Tues., Sept. 23, Gov. Evers kicked off his tour of UW campuses with a visit to UW-La Crosse, where he was joined by Chancellor Dr. James Beeby. During the visit, the governor toured the Prairie Springs Science Center, met with students and educators at Cowley Hall during a class, and learned how to operate a drone that the campus uses for their environmental science courses. The Prairie Springs Science Center recently completed its first phase of reconstruction. For the second phase of the reconstruction, UW-La Crosse received over $194 million from Gov. Evers’ 2025-27 Capital Budget to complete the construction center and to demolish Cowley Hall, which lacks fire suppression, has failing mechanical systems, and no longer meets modern science and research needs. Photos of the visit are available here and here.
Then, Gov. Evers, joined by Chancellor Michael Alexander, visited UW-Green Bay, where he stopped by the University Union and met with students and administrators from UW-Green Bay’s Rising Phoenix Program, which provides high school students the opportunity to earn both a high school diploma and college credits simultaneously, providing a head start on their college education. Gov. Evers secured $1 million in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget to support the highly successful Rising Phoenix Program. Photos of the visit are available here and here.
To close out the day, Gov. Evers visited UW-Parkside, where he, alongside UW-Parkside leadership, toured the campus’ newest lab spaces, the Greenquist Lab, and had an opportunity to interact with students using their latest lab equipment, the Anatomage tables, a cutting-edge 3D anatomy and medical education platform. To conclude the visit, the governor watched and listened to a student-led jazz demo in the Callahan Family Student Success and Learning Commons. Photos of the visit are here and here.
On Thurs., Sept. 25, Gov. Evers visited UW-River Falls, where he, alongside Chancellor John Chenoweth and other faculty, spoke with students and educators at Centennial Science Hall while visiting several STEM courses throughout the building. During his visit, the governor met with two psychology students and their professor to learn about their study on the effects of nicotine on the adolescent brain. Photos of the visit are available here and here.
To wrap up his week of UW campus visits, on Fri. Sept. 26, Gov. Evers participated in the ribbon-cutting event for the new Morgridge Hall at UW-Madison, which will host UW-Madison’s School of Computer, Data, and Information Sciences and serve as an essential collaborative space for students, faculty, staff, and researchers alike. During the event, Gov. Evers highlighted his efforts to fund critical infrastructure projects on campuses across the state, including at UW-Madison, in the 2025-27 Capital Budget. Several multi-million-dollar investments were secured for building projects at UW-Madison in the latest capital budget, including renovating their Science Hall, Humanities Building, Chadbourne Residence Dining Hall, and Dejope Residence Hall.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
Mentioned in This Press Release
Recent Press Releases by Gov. Tony Evers
