News and College Life

A graduating senior's family erupts in a huge cheer as the student's name is called during commencement.

A graduating senior receives a helping hand in putting on his tie ahead of the commencement ceremony. 

A group of excited students erupts in cheers, clapping, and shouting in celebration. With one flag proudly waving high above the crowd, the energy is electric — smiles, laughter, and spirit filling the scene against a backdrop of green trees.

From left to right, Ciara Hamilton, Esperanza Bowen, Trevor Ngugi, Raquel Rubio, and Tori Adams walk through campus on Monday, August 25, 2025 

Arthur Neumann, the son of a UW alum, puts his hand against the glass and smiles in wonder when looking at a fish during the Limnology Open House at the Hasler Laboratory of Limnology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on June 20, 2025. Attendees got the opportunity to learn about the waters of Wisconsin and the world, meet some of the plants and animals living in our lakes, hunt for aquatic “bugs”, get an up-close look at specimens under microscopes, take a ride on our research boat, make aquatic-themed crafts, and enjoy free Babcock Dairy ice cream.

Student volunteers sign waivers during move-in before the heavy lifting begins. 

Students play a game of pickup basketball outside the wellness center during the first week of class. 

Christian Ulloa, a second year graduate student in the sculpture program, smiles while crafting his neon sculpture during Art Department 454 (Neon: Light as a Sculpture), a summer term class, in the Art Lofts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on July 10, 2025. Christian says that he took the class to learn a niche skill that isn’t available most places and says that he feels privileged to work with a medium that most artists never get to touch. (UW–Madison is one of only a handful of schools in the U.S. that has a full service facility for creating neon art.) Students learn how to make neon sculptures from start to finish designing their sculpture through sketching and bringing it to life through physical creation. Students start with clear tubing, learn to heat and melt the glass, bend it into shape, reinflate the glass with the hose into desired shape, attach electrodes to energize the gas particles inside the tube, bombard their creations to remove impurities like moisture, and fill it with Neon and Argon gas to make plasma that emits the characteristic neon glow.

Two potential new members react as they open their bids during the Panhellenic Council's Bid Day festivities at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center on Sunday, August 24, 2025.

Parents have an emotional goodbye with their son at the end of Move-In Day.