The UW System Board of Regents approved the appointment of Donald Betz as the new chancellor of UW-River Falls, according to a System press release.
Betz, who is currently provost and vice-president for academic affairs at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Okla., is expected to begin his term July 1 and will likely receive a salary of $175,000.
While at Central Oklahoma, Betz was responsible for founding the University of Central Oklahoma Center for Undergraduate Research and the establishment of the annual statewide Undergraduate Research Day, among other academic feats.
Betz earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in international relations at the University of Denver and was a political science professor at the University of Central Oklahoma and Northeastern State University, where he received awards for excellence in teaching.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz met with mayors of progressive communities across the country over the weekend to analyze policies of their respective cities.
Cieslewicz hosted the event, which began Thursday and ended Saturday, in Racine.
George Twigg, Cieslewicz's spokesperson, said the mayors discussed a wide variety of topics, but specifically spoke about housing, transportation, urban sprawl and health-care issues.
Acknowledging the current Republican dominance in politics, Twigg added the mayors called for this conference because they are trying to promote the progressive agenda.
\[The mayor] felt the session was very worthwhile,"" Twigg said. ""They are trying to plan a similar gathering later in the year.""
Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk announced the creation of the ""Reverse 911"" system, allowing the County to use the 911 center to notify people in a specific geographic region of emergencies in their area, according to wispolitics.com.
The program, fully funded through a $136,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security, will allow a 911 operator to identify a region facing an emergency and record a message describing the situation that will be dispersed to area residents at a rate of 80 calls per minute.
The system will be used in case of public health alerts, hazardous materials release or community policing, among other emergencies.
""Using this system, we will be able to get important information out to people in a quick, efficient manner, regardless of the time of day or night,"" Falk told wispolitics.com.
