About half as many students in the Universities of Wisconsin system are getting bachelor’s degrees in ethnic and gender studies as did at their peak in 2013.

Bachelor’s degrees focusing on gender and ethnic groups have been on a steady decline, from 157 in the 2012-13 school year to 67 in 2023-24, according to Universities of Wisconsin data reviewed by the Badger Institute. In the most recent school year, 2024-25, the total number rebounded slightly to 82.

At the same time, interest in those classes remains high. Students obtaining certificates in what the system terms “area, ethnic, cultural, gender and group studies” have increased by more than 127 percent, from 346 in 2018-19 to 784 in 2024-25, according to the data.

Certificates are earned through focused study of 12 to 24 credits that can be applied to a major or can stand alone.

Went over to Devil’s Lake last weekend to look at leaves, did you? Good choice. Lovely place.

Did you get the lake’s permission?

No, I’m not kidding. Neither are the Assembly Democrats who last month announced they’ll introduce a bill to grant Devil’s Lake State Park legal rights, as if it weren’t a set of inanimate rocks, water, trees and lichens. They’d treat it as if it were instead a sort of person with interests all its own apart from those of the people of Wisconsin, who own it.

Utterly straight-faced, Rep. Vincent Miresse (D-Stevens Point) and colleagues — including two Milwaukeeans in the Assembly’s Socialist Caucus, Ryan Clancy and Darrin Madison — would grant the park “the right to naturally exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve.” They say the lake has a right to “abundant, pure, clean, unpolluted water,” to “natural biodiversity,” to “full restoration,” among other things.

Last Friday, Gov. Evers took action on a number of bills passed by the state Legislature. Among the bills vetoed by Evers was a measure to reestablish in-office work as the norm for state employees.

Numbers collected by the Badger Institute earlier this year suggest that as many as half of Wisconsin’s 29,000 state employees do not work at all in a state office and that more than 24,000 work either full- or part-time from home.

Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) and Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp) introduced legislation Monday that would specifically define and penalize grooming a child for sexual activity under Wisconsin law.

The initiative is spurred by allegations of sexual misconduct within Wisconsin schools and scrutiny over how such incidents are handled by the Department of Public Instruction.

Nearly three-quarters of Wisconsin’s teacher workforce is female, data from the Department of Public Instruction show — a proportion that has increased over time.

In 1994-95, the earliest school year for which data are available, the public teacher workforce was about 67.6 percent female. In 2025, 74.8 percent of teachers were women.

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