LaBahn Arena opened in 2012 as the second-ever facility built specifically for a college women’s hockey team, following Ridder Arena in Minnesota. It’s hard to argue with the results. As occupants of the arena, the UW women’s hockey team has doubled its number of national championships from four to eight — the most of any program in the country.

Connected to the Kohl Center by a tunnel, LaBahn is the much-smaller hockey venue, with seating for 2,273 fans compared to its neighbor’s 15,000-plus. But what it lacks in capacity, it more than makes up for in viewing experience. There’s no bad seat in the routinely sold-out house, with clear sight lines and the immersive feeling of being right on top of the action. Whether the crowd is roaring for a score or chanting “We want more!” the noise is as loud as you’ll hear in any indoor arena.

In a sports era optimized for TV viewing, LaBahn reminds fans of the electricity of live action. And it’s wise to arrive early, given the general admission seating.

LaBahn Arena, named for lead benefactors Charles ’49 and Mary Ann LaBahn, also hosts practices for the men’s hockey team and locker rooms for swimming and diving. It’s proved a reliable and convenient facility for regular use by both hockey programs, which previously had to shuffle between the Kohl Center, the Shell, and private rinks for practices. (During the 2020–21 season with COVID-19 attendance restrictions, the men’s team also played its games at LaBahn to save on the expenses associated with transitioning the Kohl Center from a basketball court to a hockey rink.)

And how’s this for home-ice advantage? Upon winning the 2025 NCAA title, the women’s hockey team led by legendary coach Mark Johnson ’94 boasted an all-time home record of 193–21–12 at LaBahn Arena.

As former UW goaltender and national champion Kristen Campbell ’20 once said: “I don’t think there’s a better place to play when you have fans like you do here.”

Buescher’s character is a high school student who befriends a pop music trio. Disney/Lara Solanki

UW–Madison’s freshman class can count a rising Hollywood star among its ranks. You might catch Nathaniel Buescher x’29 climbing up Bascom Hill to get to his biology classes — or appearing on your screen in Disney’s musical comedy series Electric Bloom.

In the show, which premiered last July, Buescher plays Lucas Jasper, a high school student who befriends a pop music trio that becomes the biggest band in the world.

“He’s the class crush, whether he knows it or not,” Buescher says. “[The bandmates] Posey, Jade, and Tulip definitely notice when he walks by. He’s a mix of poetic and clueless, someone who can trip over his own backpack two seconds after saying something unexpectedly wise.”

Buescher, who grew up in Chicago, previously starred in the anthology series Circuit Breakers and appeared in several other TV shows. He decided to attend the UW because of its balance of competitive academics and social opportunities.

“I wanted a school that was competitive to get into and would actually push me once I got there,” he says. “The UW had that. But I also wanted the full college setup: Big Ten sports, a solid social scene. And the town mattered. Madison has a great vibe. It’s smart, social, and easy to get around. It felt like a place I could actually live, not just go to school.”

Filming for Electric Bloom wrapped up last summer, so Buescher has been able to focus on school during his freshman year (with the occasional audition sprinkled in). He plans to major in biology, with an eye toward medical school and dermatology.

On the Electric Bloom set, Buescher represented his school spirit with a flag in his dressing room and met fellow Badger Rachel Lewis ’03, one of the show’s creators.

At the UW, his classmates occasionally recognize him from their screens.

“One time I was walking across campus,” he says, “and someone pointed and said, ‘Wait, are you the guy from that electric show? Bloom something?’ I said yeah, and they fist-bumped me and kept moving. No selfie. No follow-up. Just a drive-by moment. It was kind of perfect.”

Santiago Ortiz and Meléndez-Badillo hope to put UW–Madison at the forefront of discussions of Puerto Rican history and politics. Althea Dotzour

The new Puerto Rican Studies Hub at UW–Madison launched in October. In addition to public programming, it will fund a pair of postdoctoral fellowships and support a cohort of six students for a new mentorship program. To strengthen partnerships beyond the university, it also plans to award grants to community, cultural, scholarly, and artistic initiatives connected to Puerto Rico and its diasporas.

The hub’s founding is timely, says Aurora Santiago Ortiz, assistant professor of gender and women’s studies and Chicanx/e and Latinx/e studies, who has spearheaded it along with associate history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo.

“We see changes in migration patterns, in that there are many Puerto Rican communities outside the major metropolitan centers and throughout the Midwest,” Santiago Ortiz says.

The first of its kind in the Midwest, the Puerto Rican Studies Hub was made possible by a $3 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. At a time when ethnic studies programs are under threat around the country, Meléndez-Badillo says, he hopes it puts UW–Madison at the forefront of discussions of Puerto Rican history and politics.

“We want it to be a place for connecting folks, not only in the Midwest, but nationally and internationally.”

The Wisconsin Exchange encourages civil dialogue on campus and beyond. Bryce Richter

We need to talk.

And not just small talk. I’m referring to the possibility of real communication, no matter our differences. That’s the goal of the Wisconsin Exchange, a new UW initiative that encourages civil dialogue on campus and beyond. Read “The Case for Constructive Conversation” to see why the university considers this goal a top priority.

At a time when higher education faces significant challenges, our Spring issue also explores UW–Madison’s contributions to the world. UW researchers are laser-focused on practical innovations: boosting national security, protecting against severe weather, and improving health outcomes. Alumni such as wildlife ecologist Matthew Becker ’96 and physician Sarah Spelsberg ’95 are making a difference around the globe.

Of course, there’s more to the UW–Madison experience than labs and classrooms. Take a stroll up State Street to remember good times on one of the country’s most vibrant campus corridors. Learn about UW traditions that have faded away, including an etiquette guidebook, mascot kidnappings, and Venetian Night. Meet UW basketball phenom John Blackwell x’27 and tour LaBahn Arena, home of the indomitable women’s hockey team.

We’re hopeful that the Wisconsin Exchange will get all of us talking in a productive way. We also hope On Wisconsin’s Spring issue plays a part by giving our UW community a range of interesting things to talk about.

The college would be the UW’s first new separate academic unit since 1983. The operating start is expected to be July 1.

“We will be shaping a future where UW–Madison leads in innovation while advancing knowledge for the common good,” says Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin. “We want to prepare UW–Madison students for a world where computing and technology intersect with every profession and discipline, from patient care to teaching, biomedical research to the humanities. Our expectation is that this college will engage with AI as a transformative and disruptive force, considering it as a technological tool with vast problem-solving potential while also confronting its significant moral and ethical implications.”

The reorganization will involve CDIS’s three units: computer sciences, the Information School, and statistics.

In recent years, enrollment in CDIS programs has significantly increased. In 2015, 1,043 students were enrolled as computer sciences majors. In fall 2025, that number climbed to more than 3,000.

The college will take a lean start-up approach, limiting the need for new positions and following best practices for financial responsibility.

“Artificial intelligence and computing are transforming every discipline, from veterinary medicine to political science, and we see the formation of a college as an important step toward serving as a campuswide resource while also meeting the needs of our students and the state of Wisconsin,” says CDIS director Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau. “The future workforce will be defined by those who can integrate computing and AI fluently into every discipline.”

Althea Dotzour

Military careers carry an outsize risk for traumatic brain injuries, and that’s why the U.S. Department of Defense has invested millions of dollars into university-based research aimed at preventing, detecting, and treating them. Much of that work is performed by a group of engineers and scientists involved in PANTHER (Physics-bAsed Neutralization of Threats to Human tissuEs and oRgans). The multi-institutional collaboration, led out of the UW College of Engineering, is developing better methods for diagnosing brain injuries, as well as advanced materials that promise to improve military helmets. These materials are also improving helmets used by others, from law enforcement officers to athletes.

UW–Madison leaders are hoping to attract more of this “dual use” research, which benefits both the Department of Defense and civilians. The push is part of a broader strategic effort led by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research to increase Department of Defense research funding and expand the university’s national security–oriented research and education opportunities.

The defense department’s research interests are broad, from cybersecurity and quantum computing to food security and disease detection. Vice Chancellor for Research Dorota Brzezińska is confident that the UW’s similarly broad research portfolio is well positioned to attract new investment from the agency.

Defense-oriented research has long been an important source of federal funding at the UW. What’s new is a campuswide effort to build on existing relationships and develop closer ties between UW researchers and decision-makers at the Department of Defense and other national security partners.

A recent example was the 2024 visit by a delegation from U.S. Cyber Command (above). The delegation toured labs and met with researchers in the Department of Physics, College of Engineering, and School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences. They heard directly from faculty and students about work in important cybersecurity areas like quantum computing and cryptography, and the visit resulted in an expansion of university partnerships on cybersecurity.

“The strategic growth of UW–Madison’s Department of Defense portfolio will strengthen our standing as a world-class university that trains tomorrow’s leaders and solves today’s problems,” says Vice Chancellor for University Relations Craig Thompson ’91.

“We’re applying the basic questions that the humanities are so good at asking to come up with creative and important new ways of thinking about these technologies and shaping their development.” Jaime Espinoza

What are the ethics of artificial intelligence? How will historians look back at the development phase of this new technology? What will be the long-term effect on our society as governments embrace these tools?

These are the types of questions that will be investigated by the UW’s new Center for Humanistic Inquiry into AI and Uncertainty.

“We’re going through this seismic shift that will have massive impacts on the way we work, on the way we live, and on all aspects of human life and society,” says Grant Nelsestuen, associate dean for arts and humanities in the UW College of Letters & Science and a professor of classics. “We’re applying the basic questions that the humanities are so good at asking to come up with creative and important new ways of thinking about these technologies and shaping their development.”

Nelsestuen and his coleader, philosophy professor Steven Nadler, have brought together a team of 12 researchers from the Information School, UW Libraries, and the Departments of History, Philosophy, Communication Arts, and English. They will look at the rise of AI from every humanistic angle, aided by a three-year National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

Artificial intelligence has been a focus of the Wisconsin Research, Innovation, and Scholarly Excellence (RISE) Initiative, which the UW launched in 2024 to facilitate transformative discoveries and translate them into real-world impact. RISE-AI seeks to boost the university’s network of AI innovators by adding faculty positions across campus.

Nelsestuen got the idea for the Center for Humanistic Inquiry into AI and Uncertainty when he realized just how many researchers from the College of Letters & Science were investigating AI. He had a vision of getting them talking.

“This is the sort of creative, dynamic, and wide-ranging thinking that is characteristic of UW–Madison’s faculty, students, and alumni,” he says.

Located in the northwest corner of the Discovery Building, the gallery opened this past September to a “really positive response,” according to Andrew Hanus of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID).

Hanus says that the space, which pays homage to the ground-breaking research happening in the surrounding building, includes collected works from professional artists, faculty, and students. WID director Jo Handelsman PhD’84, who was the driving force behind the gallery, wanted it to honor someone who helped create the Discovery Building, who helped support the arts on campus, and “who really breathes the essence of art and science fusion.” That person is John Wiley MS’65, PhD’68. Wiley, a member of the engineering faculty before moving into administration, was pivotal in the creation of the Discovery Building and became its first director. When he was UW–Madison chancellor from 2001 to 2008, he advocated for the East Campus Arts Gateway and helped raise funding to create the Hamel Music Center, the Chazen Museum of Art addition, and other arts initiatives.

Wiley, himself a metalworks enthusiast, created several metal Möbius strips for the gallery. “It was a way to demonstrate how art can be intrinsic to math and science,” says Hanus.

Other works in the light-filled, airy space include two huge, metal DNA double helixes, a delicate glass sculpture representing a bacteriophage T4 (a type of virus), and a piece that pays tribute to the Fibonacci sequence.

The Wiley Gallery is open during building hours, Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Yackee: “Students increasingly view data, dialogue, and diverse perspectives as key to building better solutions.” Brava/Hillary Schave

Next fall, the UW’s La Follette School of Public Affairs will launch an undergraduate major in public policy — the first of its kind in Wisconsin.

Students will be able to earn bachelor’s degrees in public policy, opening pathways to careers in government, nonprofits, consulting, advocacy, and business. Many will go on to graduate programs in public affairs or international public affairs, law school, or leadership roles in public service. The program will be distinct from other public policy undergraduate programs around the country in that its curriculum will focus on civil dialogue, working across differences, and finding common ground.

For more than 40 years, UW–Madison students have earned master’s degrees from La Follette, and beginning in 2019, it began offering undergraduate certificates. The new undergraduate curriculum will include interdisciplinary coursework and hands-on learning to help students develop skills in policy analysis, strategic communication, civil discourse, and evidence-based decision-making.

A foundational course for the new degree, Advancing Public Policy in a Divided America, debuted last spring. The course aims to help students think about public policy as part of everyday life, understand public policy challenges, build critical thinking skills, and value civic engagement and civil dialogue.

“Interest in public policy is skyrocketing,” says La Follette Director Susan Webb Yackee. “Students increasingly view data, dialogue, and diverse perspectives as key to building better solutions.”

Mnookin: “I am proud of what we have accomplished together, even in a challenging period for higher education.” Althea Dotzour

At the end of the academic year, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin will depart UW–Madison to serve as president of Columbia University in New York City.

Since Mnookin arrived in 2022, the university has risen in national rankings, improved student outcomes, achieved record fundraising success, and helped make a UW education affordable and accessible for more Wisconsin students.

The Universities of Wisconsin plans to name an interim leader, and a search for a permanent replacement will begin later this year.

“It has been a true honor to be a part of the Wisconsin family. I am proud of what we have accomplished together, even in a challenging period for higher education,” says Mnookin.

The chancellor has overseen several new initiatives. Bucky’s Pell Pathway guarantees full financial support for Pell Grant-eligible in-state students. The Wisconsin Tribal Educational Promise program guarantees scholarships and grants to cover the full in-state cost of attendance for undergraduates who are members of federally recognized Wisconsin American Indian tribes and pursuing their first degree. The Research, Innovation, and Scholarly Excellence Initiative harnesses UW–Madison’s research strengths to address artificial intelligence, environmental sustainability, and improvements to human health and well-being.

Last year, Mnookin launched the Wisconsin Exchange, which encourages students, staff, and faculty to debate ideas in ways that are respectful and constructive.