Universities of Wisconsin schools will soon be offering admission to tens of thousands of Wisconsin high school seniors without receiving applications.
It’s the first class of students to benefit from the Direct Admit Wisconsin program, an effort launched in December to boost enrollment at UW campuses.
Participating school districts shared students’ grade point average and course credits directly with UW System administration after their junior year of high school. The new program, which launched in December, identifies whether a student qualifies for direct admission to any of the 10 participating campuses.
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System President Jay Rothman said Wednesday that acceptance emails will be sent to students starting next week and will continue into September.
“These students have already demonstrated through their junior year of high school that they have the ability to succeed at one of our universities, and to put themselves on a path to a better life and to a better career,” Rothman said.
He said around 50,000 students across 330 high schools were eligible for direct admissions program, adding that “tens of thousands” will receive an offer in coming weeks. Rothman noted that each university has its own admissions requirements, but a number of students can expect to be directly admitted to multiple schools.
UW system enrollment has steadily declined over the past decade. Historically, 32 percent of the state’s high school grads have enrolled at UW schools immediately after graduation. That fell to about 27 percent in 2020.
Looking to the future, Rothman said direct admissions could change the way UW schools approach recruiting students. He said university leaders view direct admissions as “a new pathway, but not the only pathway” for admittance.
“There will be the traditional application process,” he said. “But our hope is that this will allow us to connect with more students and have the opportunity to discuss with them why college may be a good fit for them, how they can be helped through a financial aid package, and really try to reach those students who would not have otherwise reached out to us.”
More than half of the state’s public high schools participated in the first year of the direct admissions program, according to Rothman. He said many of the districts that declined did not use one of the three student information systems accepted by the program. He said the UW administration is already working to add another system to the program to allow more districts to participate.
UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse and UW-Madison will not be accepting students through the Direct Admit program. Rothman said participation is up to each campus, but the schools will have the opportunity to sign on to the program in the future.
“Each of our universities is unique,” Rothman said. “They have different approaches to enrollment and so forth, and we wanted them to have the flexibility that they need to best serve the students that they enroll.”
Students that receive direct admission to one or more UW schools will be asked to provide basic demographic information, which campuses they’re interested in attending and their high school transcript.
Rothman said university staff will then help students identify which university and degree program may be the best fit and what financial aid may be available to them.
Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2024, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.
Storms Friday night but a dry weekend ahead in SE Wisconsin
More storms are likely Friday night before our weather quiets down for Easter weekend in SE Wisconsin
RIGHT AFTER WORLD NEWS WITH DAVID MUIR AT 530. THANK YOU DIANA. SHOWERS AND STORMS ARE MOVING IN, BUT IT WILL NOT BE A REPEAT OF LAST NIGHT. THAT’S GOOD NEWS, MARK. THE CHANCE OF SEVERE WEATHER IS VERY LOW. IT IS VERY GOOD BECAUSE NO, I WOULDN’T WANT TO HAVE A REPEAT OF LAST NIGHT. THANKFULLY, WE’RE NOT GOING TO DO THAT. WE DO HAVE SOME SHOWERS ROLLING IN. IT’S A ROUND OF EVENING SHOWERS, BUT A LOT OF THIS IS FALLING APART. I THINK IT’S MAINLY GOING TO BE A COUPLE OF SPRINKLES BY THE TIME IT GETS TO MILWAUKEE. RAIN AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE LIKELY OVERNIGHT. A COUPLE OF STRONG STORMS POSSIBLE. YES. RAIN MOVES OUT BY EARLY SATURDAY. MOST OF SATURDAY IS DRY. IT GETS BREEZY. TEMPERATURES. NOT BAD THOUGH. WE’LL MAKE IT INTO THE MID 50S. ALL RIGHT. FOR THE REST OF TONIGHT YOUR SEVERE THREAT LEVEL ONE AGAIN. LAST NIGHT WE ARE LEVEL THREE ON THE SEVERE THREAT INDEX. WE’RE NOT THERE. ANY KIND OF THREAT WOULD BE HAIL. THAT’S THAT’S OUR ONLY WORRY. I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT TORNADOES. ANYTHING LIKE THAT. SO A LOW CHANCE OF SOME HAIL. ANY OF THE THREATS ARE VERY LOW. VERY LOW THREAT OF DAMAGING WINDS THAT SHOULD STAY WAY SOUTH. VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY LOW THREAT OF TORNADOES. I’M ALWAYS SCARED TO PUT ZERO THREAT OF TORNADOES, BUT IT’S CLOSE TO ZERO FLOODING. WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT? WE ARE WATERLOGGED. AND SO IT’S NOT GOING TO TAKE THAT MUCH RAIN. WE COULD GET UP TO AN INCH OF RAIN AND THAT WOULD CAUSE SOME ISSUES. NOTICE HOW THIS CONTINUES TO FALL APART. IT’S A STEADY RAIN THOUGH IN WESTERN WAUKESHA COUNTY. IT’S STARTING TO MOVE INTO THE CITY OF WAUKESHA AND INTO PEWAUKEE AS WELL. THUNDERSTORMS BACK OUT TO THE WEST OF US. THE SEVERE THREAT REALLY, I THINK IS WELL, SOUTH. THAT’S WHERE THE WARMER AIR IS LOCATED. IT’S NOT HERE. SO AS WE HEAD THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT, THAT MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, WE BRING IN SHOWERS AND SOME THUNDERSTORMS, MAYBE A LITTLE SMALL HAIL IN THERE AS WELL. THE COLDER AIR STARTS WRAPPING BACK IN AS WE HEAD INTO SATURDAY NIGHT. MAYBE EVEN ENOUGH TO GET A PASSING FLURRY JUST IN TIME FOR EASTER MORNING. BUT THAT’S NOT GOING TO LAST LONG. EASTER IS OKAY. I WOULDN’T SAY IT’S GREAT, BUT IT’S ALL RIGHT. IT’S 49 DEGREES, A FEW SPRINKLES EARLY, EARLY, EARLY ON SATURDAY. IT’S GONE BY 8:00 AT THE LATEST. THE REST OF THE DAY IS FINE. HOW ABOUT EASTER? WELL, WE START OUT PRETTY CHILLY, 33 AT 7 A.M. IF YOU’RE GOING TO DO EASTER EGG HUNTS. ONE. IF IT’S OUTSIDE, YOU BETTER DRESS FOR IT AND ALSO BE READY FOR THE MUDDY BECAUSE IT IS GOING TO BE WET. WE’RE WET ALL OVER, BUT WE’RE GREENING THINGS UP PRETTY QUICKLY HERE, THANKS TO THE FACT THAT WE’VE HAD ALL THAT RAIN YESTERDAY. 1.8IN OF RAIN IN MILWAUKEE 39 RIGHT NOW IN ELKHART LAKE, 46 DEGREES IN DELAVAN, WHERE YOU’VE HAD A PASSING SHOWER, BUT THAT HAS MOVED ON. NOT EXACTLY SEEING ANYTHING WARM UNLESS YOU GO HERE 81 DEGREES DOWN IN SAINT LOUIS. YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE WHERE THE FRONT IS LOCATED. ALL RIGHT, EARLY SPRINKLES. A BREEZY DAY FOR TOMORROW. MOST OF THE DAY IS DRY, AND I DO THINK WE’LL SEE SOME SUNSHINE OFF. AND ON EASTER SUNDAY DRY, WHICH IS NICE. 49 IT’S KIND OF NICE BECAUSE MOST OF THE STRETCH AFTER WE GET THROUGH TONIGHT IS QUIET. MONDAY AND TUESDAY ARE QUIET. TUESDAY, OF COURSE, IS ELECTION DAY HIGH OF ONLY 38. SO DRESS WARMLY HEADING TO THE POLLS AND THEN WE WARM RIGHT BACK UP IN THE 50S. CHANCES FOR SHOWERS AS WE HEAD INTO THURSDAY AND FRIDAY. IT’S OKAY.
Storms Friday night but a dry weekend ahead in SE Wisconsin
More storms are likely Friday night before our weather quiets down for Easter weekend in SE Wisconsin
Updated: 6:30 PM CDT Apr 3, 2026
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More storms are likely Friday night before our weather quiets down for Easter weekend in SE Wisconsin
More storms are likely Friday night before our weather quiets down for Easter weekend in SE Wisconsin
We found no evidence that liberal Wisconsin Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor has supported allowing noncitizens to vote.
Taylor and conservative state Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar are running in the April 7 Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
A Lazar ad claimed Taylor is “pushing for noncitizen voting.”
Lazar’s campaign cited:
Taylor’s opposition, while a Democratic state lawmaker, to the Republican-backed 2011 state law requiring identification to vote.
Her introduction of a 2017 bill, which did not become law. It would have provided driver’s licenses to unauthorized residents, but the licenses would have been labeled: “Not valid for voting purposes.”
Taylor’s opinion, in a 2024 appeals court ruling, which said absentee ballots count even if voters’ witnesses fail to give election clerks their full address. Citizenship is required to vote in Wisconsin, but Wisconsin election officials generally do not verify citizenship when a person registers.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://wisconsinwatch.org/2026/04/wisconsin-supreme-court-candidate-taylor-lazar-noncitizen-voting-election-campaign-ad/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://wisconsinwatch.org”>Wisconsin Watch</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/wisconsinwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/cropped-WCIJ_IconOnly_FullColor_RGB-1.png?fit=150%2C150&quality=100&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
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The president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque was detained by federal immigration agents, drawing accusations from local officials and religious leaders that the arrest was motivated by his statements against Israel.
Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian-born legal permanent resident of the United States, was taken into custody by nearly a dozen US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Monday in Milwaukee after he left his home, according to the Islamic Society of Milwaukee.
Supporters called for his immediate release on Thursday and his attorneys said he was detained on the grounds that he is a foreign policy threat. His attorneys say the claims have no merit.
Instead, they believe Sarsour, 53, was targeted for speaking out against Israel and for a conviction as a minor by Israeli military courts, which have faced scrutiny over allegations of limited due process and high conviction rates of Palestinians. Israel rejects those claims. The offenses included allegedly throwing rocks at Israeli officers, according to attorney Munjed Ahmad.
“Our government should not be doing the bidding of a foreign government,” Ahmad said of Israel. “There’s no question in my mind is that this is to stifle the discourse on the Palestinian narrative.”
Attorneys said Sarsour, born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has no criminal record in the US.
Sarsour’s attorneys have likened the case to that of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University activist who faces deportation because the federal government said he was a foreign policy threat.
An email message left on Thursday for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.
Sarsour has been the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the largest Islamic organization in the state, for five years. His attorneys say he’s held a green card for years and lived in the Milwaukee area. His wife and four adult children are US citizens.
His arrest prompted outcry from top elected officials, including Milwaukee’s mayor, Cavalier Johnson, who called it “an outrage”.
“He is a legal permanent resident. There is no substantive evidence he has done anything wrong,” Johnson said in a post on X. “This is another example of overreach and harm from the U.S. Immigration authorities.”
Sarsour is being held at county jail outside Indianapolis. His attorneys have filed a petition seeking his release.
“He is ready to fight tooth and nail to make sure that he’s not drug through the mud,” Ahmad said. “He wants to stay in this country.”
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