Thursday, June 5, 2025
spot_imgspot_img
Thursday, June 5, 2025

Milwaukee Press Club 'Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism' 2020 & 2021 Award Winners

UW Employs 495 Foreign Nationals at Almost $43 Million a Year, But Won’t Release Their Names

spot_img

With salaries ranging as high as $320,000 a year, are the foreign nationals getting taxpayer-funded jobs at UW instead of qualified U.S. citizens? The Universities of Wisconsin has made it impossible for the public to find out.

The Universities of Wisconsin is paying 495 foreign national H-1B visa holders almost $43 million a year in salaries but is refusing to release their names and even some of their titles, according to data obtained by Wisconsin Right Now through an open records request.

The names of the foreign national workers weren’t released because the Universities of Wisconsin, which receives taxpayer funding, is claiming the privacy rights of the non-citizen staff members outweigh the rights of the public to know which staff members are visa holders.

Those visa holders work as professors, lecturers, researchers, scientists, and in a number of roles that the Universities of Wisconsin has redacted.

Here’s a sample:

Uw

What are H1-B visas? “The H-1B program allows companies and other employers in the United States to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in a directly related specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States,” according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The visas are supposed to be for “specialty occupations.”

“H-1B specialty occupations may include fields such as architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, medicine and health, education, business specialties, accounting, law, theology, and the arts,” the government explains. According to the Pew Research Center, there have been bipartisan calls for more oversight of the visa program. In 2024, 400,000 of the visas were approved, double the number in 2020; rejection rates dropped under the administration of former President Joe Biden, Pew reported.

It’s possible that there were no American citizen applicants or people qualified to perform the jobs the Universities of Wisconsin visa holders occupy. It’s also possible that American citizens who could do the jobs are being denied them during the application process. However, it’s impossible to know either way for sure because the Universities of Wisconsin is refusing to release their names. It’s also not possible to review what they’ve done in the U.S., such as the research contributed – or lack thereof. Thus, there is no transparency over those hiring decisions at all, even though they are being made with tax dollars.

Furthermore, the salaries are approximate because the Universities of Wisconsin rounded off exact amounts to further hide the staff members’ (including many professors’) identities from the taxpaying public.

DOWNLOAD THE SHEET HERE:

H1-B Visa Holders Request

It also comes at a time when the UW’s overall budget request and the percentage of Wisconsin students admitted to UW-Madison are under increasing scrutiny. In other words, Wisconsin taxpayers are paying non-citizen professors to educate, in some cases, non-citizen students from foreign countries. The percentage of Wisconsin high school students enrolling in a UW school has dropped more than 6% since 2007.

Sixty-nine percent of the Universities of Wisconsin students were from Wisconsin in Fall 2024, a percentage that is dragged down by UW-Madison. Only 45% of UW-Madison’s student body came from the state in 2024, even though Wisconsin taxpayers pay the institution the most per enrolled student, Wisconsin Right Now documented via an open records request.

We asked Universities of Wisconsin spokesman Mark Pitsch whether he wanted to make a comment on the necessity of these H-1B hires.

“We are like employers all across the country competing for talent, with a small percentage of our workforce – about 1 percent — employed using these temporary work visas. Critically, these workers help us develop additional talent in Wisconsin at our universities,” he said.

It took the Universities of Wisconsin more than five months to respond to our December 2024 open records request. We asked for a list of all the H-1B visa holders in the University of Wisconsin, at any university, including “name, title, salary.”

Katie Patten, Records Officer and Records Custodian, responded to our request on June 3, 2025, by sending us an Excel sheet. It lists the title (in some cases) and salary, but no names.

“The only system that the Universities of Wisconsin Administration maintains that has immigration status, name, title, and salary is HRS,” she wrote.

“However, the immigration status in HRS is only updated as individuals submit their information into another system. Since this is the record that is responsive to your request, this data is the source of our response,” she added. “The query was done on a single day and the salaries were accurate for the individuals identified on that day.”

She then explained why the names and some titles were treated, and why some salaries were rounded off.

“Pursuant to the Wis. Stat. § 19.35(1)(a) balancing test, the Universities of Wisconsin has determined that the privacy interests of individuals in their visa status outweighs the public’s right to know that status,” Patten wrote. “Therefore, to avoid identifying any individuals and consistent with similar records responses, we redacted all the names of the individuals, any titles when less than 10 H-1B holders had that title, and the salaries were redacted by rounding to two significant figures. The number in the ‘Count (*)’ column indicates the number of individuals with the same unredacted title and salary.”

According to the US government, to qualify, an occupation requires:

  • Theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge; and
  • Attainment of a bachelor’s or higher degree in a directly related* specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States.

According to the Associated Press, “The H-1B was created as part of the 1990 Immigration Act. It is a type of nonimmigrant visa, meaning it allows for a temporary stay in the U.S. and is not intended for people who want to immigrate permanently.”

The Trump administration “implemented stricter immigration rules, including tightening the definition of ‘specialty occupations’ and limiting third-party placements of H-1B workers,” Pew Research Center reported.

In 2023, 73% of the H-1B visa holders in the U.S. as a whole came from India, Pew reported. China was second with 12%. According to Pew, in 2023, computer-related positions accounted for 64.9% of the visas, with architecture, engineering and surveying second at 9.4%, and 6.2% in education.

AP reported, “The number of new visas issued annually has been capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for people with a master’s degree or higher. Some employers, such as universities and nonprofits, are exempt from the limits.”

The visas have divided even some Republicans due to their use in the tech industry in particular.

In 2014, The Universities of Wisconsin employed 5,407 faculty, 5,575 instructional academic staff, and 14,906 non-instructional academic staff. There are 43,151 employees overall.

Governor’s Veto Powers Wisconsin Republicans Parental Bill of Rights Outlaw Child Sex Dolls Embrace Them Both Unemployment Reforms Wisconsin’s Professional Licensing Bail Reform Amendment wisconsin covid-19

Wisconsin Budget Negotiations Reach Impasse Between Evers, Legislature

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin budget negotiations have reached an impasse with both sides pointing fingers at the other in Wednesday afternoon statements.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said Republican Legislative leaders backed out of negotiations after he agreed to “an income tax cut targeting Wisconsin’s middle-class and working families and eliminating income taxes for certain retirees.” He said Republican leaders would not agree to “meaningful increased investments in child care, K-12 schools, and the University of Wisconsin System.”

Republican Assembly leaders said the two sides were "far apart. Senate leaders say Evers’ desires “extend beyond what taxpayers can afford.”

“The Joint Committee on Finance will continue using our long-established practices of crafting a state budget that contains meaningful tax relief and responsible spending levels with the goal of finishing on time,” said a statement from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Assembly Finance Co-Chairman Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam.

Evers said that there were meetings between the sides every day this week before the impasse.

“I told Republicans I’d support their half of the deal and their top tax priorities – even though they’re very similar to bills I previously vetoed – because I believe that’s how compromise is supposed to work, and I was ready to make that concession in order to get important things done for Wisconsin’s kids,” Evers said.

Senate Republican leadership said that good faith negotiations have occurred since April on a budget compromise.

“Both sides of these negotiations worked to find compromise and do what is best for the state of Wisconsin,” said a statement from Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, and Senate Joint Finance Co-Chairman Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green.

In early May, the Joint Committee on Finance took 612 items out of Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal, including Medicaid expansion in the state, department creations and tax exemptions.

Born previously estimated that Evers’ budget proposal would lead to $3 billion in tax increases over the two-year span.

Wisconsin Policy Forum estimated that the proposal would spend down more than $4 billion of the state’s expected $4.3 billion surplus if it is enacted.

hannah dugan

Milwaukee Police Refuse to Release NEW Hannah Dugan Body Cam Video, Citing Crime ‘Prevention,’ in Part

The Milwaukee Police Department has refused to release a new Hannah Dugan police body cam video, citing, in part, crime "prevention" and "detection" and...

DHS Puts 4 Wisconsin Cities & Counties on Formal Notice, Says They ‘Defy Federal Law’

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security placed two Wisconsin counties and two cities on notice on May 29, saying they are defying federal law...

DOJ Begins California Title IX Investigation Over ‘Trans’ Boys Dominating Girls’ Sports

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced it is investigating California for violating Title IX by allowing males to participate in female student sports.

“Title IX exists to protect women and girls in education,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for Civil Rights. “It is perverse to allow males to compete against girls, invade their private spaces, and take their trophies.”

In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning males from participating in female student sports, and he has threatened to block California's federal funding for continuing to defy his order. With California facing deficits in the tens of billions of dollars each year, it's unclear how the state would offset any losses or pauses in federal funding.

Notably, California Gov. Gavin Newsom hosted conservative pundit Charlie Kirk on his podcast and told Kirk that he thinks it’s “deeply unfair” that boys are participating in girls’ sports.

When asked later at a press conference what this means for state policy, Newsom demurred, painting the matter as a marginal, non-issue not worth his time.

“You're talking about a very small number of people, a very small number of athletes, and my responsibility is to address the pressing issues of our time,” said Newsom.

The California Interscholastic Federation, which governs student sports in California, has since responded to Trump’s threat by announcing a new pilot program to allow girls who otherwise would have qualified for sports finals had the finalist spots in girls’ sports not been taken by transgender-identifying boys to participate in said finals.

Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1972 to ensure that schools could not discriminate against female students. It requires they be provided with equal opportunities to engage in athletics, extracurriculars and education.

DOJ’s letter of interest says it is investigating whether California’s Assembly Bill 1266, which requires transgender-identifying students to be allowed to participate in sports consistent with their gender identities, violates Title IX.

“As a result of CIF’s policy, California’s top-ranked girls’ triple jumper, and second-ranked girls’ long-jumper, is a boy,” wrote the DOJ. “As recently as May 17, this male athlete was allowed to take winning titles that rightfully belong to female athletes in both events.”

“This male athlete will now be allowed to compete against those female athletes again for a state title in long, triple, and high jump,” continued the DOJ. “Other high school female athletes have alleged that they were likewise robbed of podium positions and spots on their teams after they were forced to compete against males.”

Should the DOJ find California is in violation of Title IX, it says it will “take appropriate action to eliminate that discrimination, including seeking injunctive relief.”

Untold: The Fall of Favre

REVIEW: The Despicable Netflix Hit Job on Brett Favre

In case you forgot, Michael Vick is a disgraced quarterback who spent time in prison for helping run a dogfighting ring where animals were...

Things My Father Taught Me [Up Against the Wall]

So guys, here’s a few things my father taught me that apparently a lot of younger guys didn’t have the opportunity to learn. Yes,...
UW Reforms

Revoke Visa Authority [Up Against the Wall]

Disney in Abu Dhabi - I get it, they want to open in a new market, and admittedly, since I’ve been to nearby Dubai,...

‘Trojan Horse’? Turning Point, Supporters Won’t Respond to Questions on Finances

If you're going to take over a party, you've got to make the case that you can deliver something better. Has Turning Point delivered?...
Turning Point

Thoughts on Turning Point From a County Party Chair

By: Stephanie Soucek - Door County Chair What role should third-party organizations play in the Republican Party? It used to be more a matter of...

Ahhh, Inflation [Up Against the Wall]

The April inflation number is out - and it’s 2.4% for the year but also, for the month it registered at 0.2% (which if...
hannah dugan

Hannah Dugan & Other Things [Up Against the Wall]

Wisconsin Judge Indicted - For those of you unaware of the crazy stuff that occurs here in purple Wisconsin every week, the liberal lefty...
Fed Hikes Interest Rates

The Fed [Up Against the Wall]

So the Fed decided not to reduce interest rates last week. No surprise; they do everything too late. Nothing new there. It’s sad really,...
Turning Point

Turning Point vs. Wisconsin GOP: Time for a Reality Check

By Kirt Johnson Chairman Kewaunee County Republican Party There are a few so-called Republicans in Wisconsin who immediately blame the Republican Party of Wisconsin when we lose...
riot

Rebel Searching for a Cause: An In-Depth Review of ‘Riot Diet’ by Richie McGinniss

By Chris Mann “Richie McGinniss threads a visceral tapestry in his firsthand account of the 2020-21 riots, guiding readers through the pepper-spray haze to reveal...
pigeon press

Q&A with Richie McGinniss, Author of Riot Diet

By Chris Mann Read Chris Mann's review of Richie McGinniss's book, Riot Diet, here. The Amazon blurb for the book says: "This is an account of...
kentucky derby

What It’s Really Like at the Kentucky Derby [Up Against the Wall]

The Kentucky Derby is called the Run for the Roses because some unnamed sports writer called it that decades ago and it stuck. My...

Should Feds Require ‘Intellectual Diversity’ Among University Faculties?

Through more than 140 executive orders, President Donald Trump in his first 100-plus days in office has used his signing pen like a battering ram to undo sometimes decades-old policies and practices that have shaped the federal government, including in public and higher education.

On day one, the administration banned diversity, equity and inclusion programs from federal agencies and institutions receiving federal funding, targeting schools like Harvard University that refuse to comply with his policies. But Trump also is attempting to move schools away from such practices by requiring them to hire for “viewpoint” or “intellectual” diversity – a move that has been met with varying degrees of skepticism and support.

The administration included such terms in both its list of demands to Harvard and in an executive order on reforming accreditation in higher education.

Among the 10 demands outlined in a letter from the administration to Harvard in April, it directed the university to facilitate an audit of the “student body, faculty, staff and leadership” for “viewpoint diversity” and to submit that audit to the federal government.

“Each department, field, or teaching unit must be individually viewpoint diverse,” the letter reads.

The university is to hire or admit for viewpoint diversity until a “critical mass” is reached in each arena.

Within a handful of recent executive orders on education was one meant to hold accreditors accountable for “unlawful discrimination in accreditation-related activity under the guise of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ initiatives.”

“A group of higher education accreditors are the gatekeepers that decide which colleges and universities American students can spend the more than $100 billion in Federal student loans and Pell Grants dispersed each year,” the order reads.

The order accuses accreditors of prioritizing “discriminatory ideology” in accreditation standards over strong graduation rates, return on investment and other important criteria. As an antidote, the order commissions the secretary of education with devising new accreditation standards, including one that requires institutions to “prioritize intellectual diversity among faculty in order to advance academic freedom, intellectual inquiry, and student learning.”

Heather Mac Donald, a scholar at The Manhattan Institute who’s written on a number of topics over the years, including higher education, is supportive of the goal but thinks the means are “problematic.” Mac Donald authored "The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture" in 2018.

“I agree with the substantive critique entirely. I think universities are the enemy of Western civilization,” Mac Donald told The Center Square. “They are perpetuating an ideology of hatred and of ignorance. They are betraying their fundamental obligation, which is the pursuit of truth, by embracing a one-sided, ignorant understanding of the West’s contributions and its relative position regarding other civilizations.”

In addition, Mac Donald believes universities have discriminated against certain racial groups for years.

“The universities have been blatantly discriminating against whites, white males, Asians, Asian males. They’ve introduced grotesque double standards for admissions and hiring,” she said.

Despite her numerous and serious critiques of contemporary American universities, she thinks a mandate from the federal government for intellectual diversity represents bureaucratic overreach. The administration’s demands to Harvard were provided mostly on the basis that the university has violated discrimination laws through expressions of and responses to anti-semitism on campus, she said.

“We are a government of limited powers. It’s true that the government does oversee civil rights violations under Title VI, but it’s a stretch to say that what’s going on with the left-wing bias in academia constitutes a civil rights violation that the Trump administration has the authority to correct by withholding funds,” she said.

“As necessary as it is to make a course correction, I don’t think that we should be doing so in a way that will justify further left-wing incursions,” she added.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has also been critical of how the administration has gone after Harvard, saying it has flouted the lawful procedure for resolving such issues, despite also being critical of Harvard at times. But Tyler Coward, the foundation’s lead counsel on government affairs, isn’t as quick to oppose the administration’s mandate in the executive order on accreditation.

“We’re still thinking of what it looks like in practice for accreditors to have some sort of mandate for institutions to show ideological diversity. We at FIRE think that ideological diversity is a good thing. In its best form, it helps foster a true learning environment, a true marketplace of ideas that we expect our universities to be,” Coward told The Center Square.

While the executive order may appear heavy-handed, Coward said the government’s relationship with accrediting institutions has already occupied a kind of gray space for a long time.

“The government is the one empowering these accreditors in the first place. The reason these accreditors exist is because the government licenses them to exist. So it’s this weird thing where the government is involved sort of but not really, and so what is the appropriate response from the government if things aren’t going well. These are age-old tensions,” Coward said.

Scott Yenor, a scholar with California-based think tank The Claremont Institute, thinks, like Mac Donald, that American universities have strayed far from their original purpose and need correcting.

“This is a classical liberal solution with kind of non-classical liberal means,” Yenor told The Center Square.

Yenor agrees that universities need to be a marketplace of ideas but believes most no longer are, and he thinks the administration’s attempt at requiring it might be a step in the right direction.

“I don’t know that there’s any other way of actually achieving intellectual diversity besides a demand that you achieve it,” Yenor said. “The government has been doing that when it comes to racial diversity, and always with the justification that increasing racial diversity will actually increase the intellectual diversity on campus.”

“What the Trump administration is doing is what has been done for a long time already, which is making explicit demands for ideological diversity but more direct than the indirect way it’s been done on racial stuff.”

Jack Smith Enticing Illegal Immigration Overturns Gov Evers Legislative Maps Arizona Elections Cases

SCOTUS Decision on Religious Charter Schools Will Carry Widespread Ramifications

In a case that could have major implications for the American public school system, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether religious charter schools, which are taxpayer-funded, are constitutional.

The St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond case involves a 2023 decision by the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to allow St. Isidore to join the dozens of charter schools in the state.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond sued the charter school board, arguing that allowing St. Isidore to join the public charter school program amounts to state-sponsoring of religion.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in Drummond’s favor, but St. Isidore is arguing before the Supreme Court that contracting with the state to provide free and public education options as a privately run entity does not mean its religious activities constitute “state actions.”

Lori Windham from Becket law firm, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of St. Isidore, told The Center Square that a major question in the case is whether charter schools are closer to traditional public schools or instead function as private schools that are eligible for public funds like scholarships.

“There are already a lot of programs that taxpayers fund for things like federal student loans or federal scholarships that go to religious schools and non-religious schools alike,” Windham said. “Funds to help disabled students, funds to help schools have better security measures to prevent school shootings and hate crime – those go to religious schools and non-religious schools alike.”

“So in that way, this charter school isn't so different from lots of other programs that are out there where many different people can come in and ask to be part of that program, regardless of whether they're religious or not,” she added.

Though identifying as a Catholic school, St. Isidore accepts nonreligious students and does not require a statement of faith. Accordingly, the school also argues that an exclusion of St. Isidore from the state’s charter school program, simply because it is religious, violates the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.

“When you have a generally available program, you can't kick out religious people or religious groups just for being religious. You have to allow them to compete on the same basis as everybody else,” Windham told The Center Square. “And that's the main argument that the charter school is making here, that they're just trying to compete for that charter on the same basis as any other private group who wants to start running a school as part of that program.”

If precedent is any indication, St. Isidore has a high chance of winning the case. In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the state of Maine’s ban on state tuition assistance to students attending religious schools.

But if SCOTUS does rule in Drummond’s favor, other areas where religious students and schools are currently receiving state funds – such as assistance for students with disabilities – could be jeopardized.

josh schoemann

See Josh Schoemann’s Moving Announcement Video for Wisconsin Governor

We've been given the first look at Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann's moving announcement video for Wisconsin governor. Schoemann, 43, who is running as a...

The Economy & American-Made Ford [Up Against the Wall]

Let’s talk the economy. As a business owner, now is a great time to trade in the Ford F150 pick up trucks our maintenance...