WisconsinWatch.org

Key findings: Mental health services at UW System campuses

WisconsinWatch — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:05:43 +0000

About this story

Jenny Peek and Kate Prengaman reported this story with other journalism students in a UW-Madison class taught by Professor Deborah Blum, in collaboration with the nonprofit, nonpartisan Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and the Investigative Journalism Education Consortium, which includes Midwestern university journalism professors and students working on news projects in the public interest. The Consortium is supported by a grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. Read the IJEC consortium stories
Main story: Gaps persist in campus mental health services

Interactive map

Explore data on mental health services across the UW System

In collaboration with a reporting class taught by UW-Madison Professor Deborah Blum, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism examined mental health services at the University of Wisconsin System’s 13 four-year campuses. The project included extensive public records requests, interviews with students and officials, and data analyses.

Key findings include:

More UW students are seeking mental health care, reflecting nationwide trends.
In response, campus counseling centers are identifying and treating urgent cases first, emphasizing group therapy, limiting counseling sessions and referring students to off-campus providers when they need longer-term care.
In 2011, just eight campuses met recommendations made by a 2008 University of Wisconsin System subcommittee audit calling for one mental health provider for every 2,000 students. The average was about one mental health provider for every 2,027 students across the 13 campuses.
Only two schools — UW-Stevens Point and UW-Superior — met the stricter international standard of one provider for every 1,000 to 1,500 students.
Campuses are trying to follow up more closely with high-risk students referred off campus, another of the subcommittee’s recommendations. UW-Madison, for example, hired a full-time case manager in 2010 who works only on student referrals.
To improve access, some campuses have introduced programs like “Let’s Talk,” in which counselors try to reach students who may not be comfortable seeking therapy.
Students are forming campus mental health groups to support peers and fight stigma.

— Amy Karon

The Center also collaborates with Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin Public Radio and other news media. Works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or its affiliates.

Stressed: Demands, counselor shortages strain Midwest campus mental health systems

WisconsinWatch — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:01:54 +0000

About this story

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Explore data on mental health services across the UW System

By Pam Dempsey and Brant Houston
For the Investigative Journalism Education Consortium

Counseling and psychiatric services at Midwest universities are buckling under the increased demand from students — many of whom are entering schools with more serious illnesses than ever seen before.

Indeed, many counseling programs are failing to meet the nationally accepted standards for counselor-to-student ratios, leading to longer waits for assistance and a limited number of sessions, an investigation by a consortium of Midwest journalism faculty and students has found.

The consortium also found that many campuses have not implemented key recommendations made to improve campus safety and mental health services in the wake of the fatal shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and at Northern Illinois University in 2008.

In addition, the consortium discovered that counseling centers are juggling limited staff and cutting programs because of shrinking budgets.

All this comes at a time when counselors are seeing more students entering college with histories of mental illness.

In the past, “if someone had a mental illness, college was not a feasible option,” said Christy Hutton, programming and communications coordinator for the University of Missouri’s counseling center. “They either received long-term treatment for their illness or they were placed in a closet and hidden from the rest of society.”

Now, she said, it is possible for most students to balance outpatient care and college coursework because of the treatment and medication they received before they entered college.

The five-month examination of programs was conducted by the Investigative Journalism Education Consortium, a network of journalism faculty and students at Midwest universities and colleges. The project is funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation based in Chicago.

The consortium reviewed services at more than two dozen campuses in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. In its ongoing review, the consortium found that centers often fell far short of the number of mental health providers recommended by the International Association of Counseling Services.

The association’s recommendation for staffing levels calls for college counseling centers requires a minimum of one mental health provider for every 1,500 students. Yet most campuses have ratios of one provider for more than 2,000 students, with some having ratios as high as one mental health provider for every 16,000 students.

As a result, students in need wait weeks for appointments and get only a few sessions. In some cases, outreach programs and preventative services have been cut, reduced or turned over to trained students to run.

“It means making tough choices,” said Carla McCowan, director of the counseling center at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “It’s a nick here and a nick there because I can’t cut people, really. I can’t cut clinicians.”

The situation is frustrating and worrisome for many students.

For example, when University of Wisconsin-Madison senior Rachel Steidl sought counseling services this year, she was assessed the same day under a new process at her Madison campus. But because her immediate needs weren’t deemed urgent, she was asked to wait three weeks for her next appointment.

“If my depression gets worse, it could escalate,” Steidl said. “I want to avoid getting to the point where I have to call the crisis hot line.”

As part of its review, the consortium culled through data and documents and conducted numerous interviews with mental health providers, experts, university administrators and students.

Among the consortium’s findings:

Four years ago, a University of Wisconsin System subcommittee recommended that, in the short term, its four-year institutions try to meet 75 percent of the association’s staffing standard or one mental health provider for every 2,000 students. The average is now is about one mental health provider for every 2,027 students across its 13 campuses. But when students at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism used the subcommittee’s methods to re-calculate ratios for 2010-2011, it found that five campuses failed to meet that standard.
In Missouri, the University of Missourice-Kansas City has seen a 175 percent increase in the number of students seeking services over the past decade, while the University of Missouri-Columbia saw 80 percent more students seeking services over the past five years. At the Columbia campus, there were 602 students seen for individual, couple or group therapy in the 2006-2007 school year. For the 2010-2011 school year, there were 1,091 students seen.

At the Kansas City campus, there were about 830 students seen for therapy in the 2010-2011, up from 300 students during the 2000-2001 school year.

On average, University of Missouri says it has one mental health provider for every 1,900 students.
In Indiana’s public universities, counseling centers have been consistently understaffed. As a result, trainees are heavily used to provide clinical services. Ratios range from one mental health provider for every 2,208 student to one mental health provider for more than 16,000 students.
Southern Illinois University Carbondale has one mental health provider for every 3,000 students, while the ratio at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one counselor for every 2,100 students.

“We start to get a wait list and what that means is that a student comes in this week but we won’t have any ongoing openings for three more weeks,” said Rosemary Simmons, director of counseling at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Simmons added, “For the past 10 years, we have had a built-in triage system and so we really make an effort to meet every student when they come in to make an initial assessment.”

The consortium also looked into other issues related to mental health on campus, including psychiatric treatment and the creation of behavioral or threat assessment teams.

In some instances, it was difficult to assess problems because campuses did not provide information despite repeated requests.

National experts say the challenges at Midwest universities reflect national trends.

A 2011 National Survey of Counseling Center Directors found an influx of students with serious psychological problems including large increases in crisis issues that require an immediate response and an increase in students arriving on campus already on psychiatric medication.

“Sometimes counseling centers have to decide which is the least worse because there’s no money,” said Dan Jones, president of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors. “There are some things you just can’t address because of the budgets.”

Gaps persist in campus mental health services

WisconsinWatch — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:01:52 +0000

Matt Vohl (left) meets with Rachel Steidl in the Student Activity Center on East Campus Mall in Madison, Wis., Jan. 27, 2012. Vohl and Steidl help lead the UW-Madison campus chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Lukas Keapproth/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

SIDEBARS

About this story

Other UW-Madison journalism students contributing to this report were Anna Bukowski, Gayle Cottrill, Monica Hickey, Thomas Mitchell, Daniel Rose and Sam Zastrow.

By Amy Karon, Kate Prengaman and Jenny Peek
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

A decade ago, Thomas Murphy was a college dropout who used alcohol and drugs to deal with undiagnosed depression. Now he’s back at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he co-leads a chapter of Active Minds, a national, student-run group promoting open conversations about mental illness.

Therapy made the difference for Murphy. But he can’t receive it at school. When he re-enrolled at UW-Madison and went to the counseling center, he walked out with no appointment and a list of referrals.

“They couldn’t help me because of my extensive history,” Murphy said. “So I go out and pay on my own for the services I need.”

Murphy’s story underscores a national dilemma: a surge in students seeking intensive counseling and psychiatric care, which college mental health centers often lack resources to provide. The problem has become even more urgent in the wake of mass shootings by troubled students at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois universities.

In Wisconsin, understaffed counseling centers are prioritizing services for those with urgent needs, expanding group therapy options to reach more students, and referring patients off campus for long-term treatment. And students like Murphy are forming campus organizations to support peers and fight the stigma of mental illness.

A growing need

Step onto a U.S. college campus today and you’ll still find students rushing between classes or holding hands with first loves.

But 80 percent of college counseling center directors reported seeing more students in crisis during the past five years, according to a national survey in 2011. The same study found that students with severe psychological problems now account for nearly 40 percent of counseling center visits — more than double the proportion in 2000.

Last spring, 19 percent of college students surveyed by the American College Health Association said they’d been diagnosed with depression sometime in their lives, up from 12 percent a decade ago. Almost one in five students had seriously considered suicide.

These statistics aren’t all bad news, said psychologist Danielle Oakley, director of mental health services at UW-Madison, where counseling visits increased 10 percent last year alone. More people know about mental illness and are seeking help, and better psychiatric medications enable some to attend college who couldn’t have a generation ago.

But Oakley said the faltering economy is fueling worries about paying for school. Many students are stressed, overworked and sleep-deprived, which can cause mental health problems.

Though studies show people with serious mental illness usually aren’t violent, there have been tragic exceptions: In 2007 and 2008, troubled students shot themselves after killing 37 people and wounding dozens more at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois universities.

Campuses across the country responded by revamping policies for handling disturbed students and staff. At UW campuses, threat assessment teams — whose members hail from deans’ offices, academic departments, campus police, and counseling centers — try to identify and help such people before they hurt themselves or others.

“If there is a silver lining in something like that happening, it’s put the spotlight on some needs on our campus,” said John Achter, counseling director at UW-Stout.

Still, most people with mental illness fly under the teams’ radar. And despite attempts to meet demand, Wisconsin students are being turned away — or told to wait weeks for care.

UW-Madison senior Rachel Steidl, Jan. 27, 2012. Lukas Keapproth/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Long waits, but some improvements

UW-Madison senior Rachel Steidl was one such student. “I grew up really focused on helping other people,” she said. “When I had my own problems with depression, I didn’t feel like I had anyone to turn to. I was pretty lonely my freshman year.”

Steidl later saw a psychology intern at the campus counseling center. She learned to open up more and made friends. When she returned to the center this year, an intake provider saw her the same day to assess her needs.

That’s because at Oakley’s urging, UW-Madison began offering same-day assessments in early 2011.

“We don’t want any barriers to get to us,” Oakley said. “The day you decide that you want support, all you have to do is walk in.”

But what happened next frustrated Steidl. Because her immediate needs weren’t deemed urgent, she said, she was asked to wait three weeks for her next appointment.

At UW-Madison, crisis line staffers keep up with demand

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s crisis line received 14 percent more calls last academic year than ever before, but data suggest staffers have kept up with demand. Last fall, the average time to answer was 19 seconds, 86 percent of calls were answered within 30 seconds, and the longest hold times were a few minutes, said Dr. Sarah Van Orman, University Health Services director.
— Amy Karon

“If my depression gets worse, it could escalate,” she said. “I want to avoid getting to the point where I have to call the crisis hot line.”

Most UW campuses use such triage systems to help students in crisis first. UW-Eau Claire student Anneliese Vaini, for example, was prescribed Paxil when she sought help for panic attacks in 2009. After she stopped eating and sleeping and went on a “financially disastrous” shopping spree, her campus counselor and psychiatrist correctly identified and treated her bipolar disorder — ending eight years of bouncing between clinicians who’d misdiagnosed her.

“They saved my life. Literally,” said Vaini, who now works as a pet groomer. “I wasn’t able to complete a degree, but they gave me a brighter future than education.”

But Steidl’s wait time is more typical. Last fall, UW-Madison students went an average of 14 days between their intake appointment and first regular counseling session, said Dr. Sarah Van Orman, health services director. Other UW campuses report similar waits.

Such delays stem partly from inadequate staffing. A UW System audit found that five years ago, only UW-Madison met the international standard of one mental health professional for every 1,000 to 1,500 students. The auditors recommended that over the short term, UW institutions aim to employ one mental health staffer for every 2,000 students.

But as of 2011, just eight of 13 campuses had achieved that ratio, an analysis by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism showed. Of those, only two schools — UW-Stevens Point and UW-Superior— met the international standard.

The average was about one mental health provider for every 2,027 students across the 13 campuses.

To improve counselors’ availability, UW-Madison wait-lists students for earlier sessions, offers daily drop-in groups and confidential consultations in several campus locations, and has more than 25 process and support groups to help students deal with issues ranging from low self-esteem, grief and social anxiety to graduating or coming out as a sexual minority.

None of these options was right for Steidl, though. She found a therapist in private practice.

Thomas Murphy’s face still bears scars from a violent mugging three years ago in the Dominican Republic. During his treatment for a resulting brain injury, he also got the counseling he needed for depression. Photo taken Jan. 23, 2012. Lukas Keapproth/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Referred off campus, some never find help

It took a violent mugging in the Dominican Republic in 2008 for Thomas Murphy to finally face his depression. During rehabilitation for a brain injury, he also got the counseling he’d needed.

Milwaukee native Mary Martinco sought help sooner, seeing a therapist for depression for two years in high school. But transitioning to UW-Madison was painful.

“Freshman year I felt so alone, crying all the time,” recalled Martinco, now a junior.

Like Murphy, Martinco sought help at UW-Madison’s counseling services and left with a list of off-campus referrals. But in her case, they either weren’t a good match or didn’t take her insurance. In the end, it was her mother, not her school, who helped her find a therapist.

Most UW counseling centers limit students’ counseling sessions. UW-Madison students like Martinco, who need more than the 10 permitted each academic year, are often asked to go elsewhere from the beginning.

Oakley said that’s because making students change therapists disrupts their treatment. But a 2006 University of California-Davis study found that 42 percent of students referred off campus never connected with providers — usually because of financial concerns.

To address that problem and help prevent tragedies like those at Northern Illinois and Virginia Tech, UW System officials recommended in 2008 that campus providers follow up with high-risk students to help ensure they’re successfully referred.

A half-time case manager now fills this role at UW-Oshkosh. And in 2010, after Martinco’s failed referral experience, UW-Madison hired a full-time case manager who saw 300 students her first year— five times more than expected.

Still, lack of health insurance “poses great barriers” for students referred off campus, Van Orman said. She cited campus surveys that show 6 to 8 percent of students at UW-Madison are uninsured and another 30 to 40 percent have no coverage in the Madison area.

The case manager connects these students to agencies that charge a fraction of the going rate or to the student health insurance plan. She also helps students navigate deductibles and co-pays.

Some students struggle to pay for psychiatric prescriptions. Martinco saw peers risk going off medication when short on cash. She and Murphy said they knew students who self-medicated with alcohol or illegal drugs because they couldn’t afford mental health care.

“The self-medication issue is complex,” Oakley said. “For example, students who use substances such as alcohol to treat anxiety can end up with substance abuse problems in addition to their anxiety.”

Alcohol withdrawal symptoms can mimic anxiety, Oakley added, leading students to drink more or use stronger drugs. In the end, she said, money spent on drugs and alcohol, lost time at work, medical treatment for accidents and legal consequences can far outstrip medication costs.

UW-Madison senior Matt Vohl, Jan. 27, 2012. Lukas Keapproth/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Student groups expand

Frustrated by her experiences on campus, Steidl joined fellow student Matt Vohl two years ago in reviving the campus chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

“We saw a lack of resources available for students with mental illness or even just mental health problems,” Vohl said. “We wanted to offer an alternative.”

Students responded en masse: More than 70 signed up at the campus organizational fair last September, Vohl said. A month later, they peppered Bascom Hill with signs.

“The best way to reduce the stigma is by educating people,” Vohl said. “We want to let people know that (mental illness) is not this inherent condition that makes people freaks, it’s not demonizing, it shouldn’t be taboo. It’s something that can affect anyone.”

Steidl and Vohl are working with the counseling center to train students to provide confidential, face-to-face support for peers who want to talk about everyday problems.

“You can go there and know that people kind of understand you at least,” said a member with obsessive-compulsive disorder who asked not to be named for privacy reasons. “You get to know their struggles every day, whatever they are, and to be there to be support for them and other people as well.”

Murphy and Martinco now run UW-Madison’s branch of Active Minds, which promotes mental health awareness. Five other Wisconsin campuses also have chapters. At UW-Parkside last semester, members practiced yoga, colored and made squeezable stress balls.

“Finally I feel able to talk about it, and I want to help others talk about it too,” Martinco said.

“I had this deeper, darker side that I never talked about,” Murphy agreed. “For me, communicating my emotions, my struggles, and my successes has been vital.”

Amy Karon is a reporter for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. Kate Prengaman, Jenny Peek and Sam Zastrow contributed as students in a UW-Madison journalism class taught by Professor Deborah Blum, in collaboration with the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center (www.WisconsinWatch.org).

Campus mental health: Connect, learn, find help

WisconsinWatch — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:01:47 +0000

About this story

Interactive map

Explore data on mental health services across the UW System

If you’re in crisis, call:
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
1-800-273-TALK (8255)
TTY: 1-800-799-4TTY (4889)
Español: 1-888-628-9454

Veterans crisis line
1-800-273-TALK (8255): Press 1
Or text to 838255
Or chat confidentially on the crisis line website

UW-Madison’s 24-hour mental health crisis line: 608-265-5600

Campus resources

Interactive map with links and summaries of University of Wisconsin counseling centers.

UW-Madison chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
uw.nami@gmail.com
608-268-6000

Active Minds
Chapters exist at Marquette University, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, the Milwaukee School of Engineering, UW-Parkside and Carthage College.

Supporting Peers in Laidback Listening (SPILL)
Chapters exist at UW-La Crosse, UW-Madison and UW-Whitewater.

Off-campus organizations and links

National Institute of Mental Health

NAMI Wisconsin
608-68-6000
800-236-2988

Mental Health America of Wisconsin
Milwaukee office:
414-276-3122 or toll-free 866-948-6483
info@mhawisconsin.org
Madison office:
608-250-4368
shelgross@tds.net

Helping Others Prevent and Educate about Suicide (HOPES)
608-274-9686

Wisconsin Department of Health Services: mental health and substance abuse programs

Prior mental health coverage from the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Minor offenders, major consequences
Wisconsin mental health system braces for major cuts under Walker
A tribal tragedy: High Native American suicide rates persist
Wisconsin suicide toll rises, exceeds that of neighboring states

UW-Milwaukee strives to improve mental health care

WisconsinWatch — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:01:19 +0000

About this story

Interactive map

Explore data on mental health services across the UW System

Five years ago, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had the worst mental health care of any four-year UW institution, by some measures.

Students waited the longest for counseling appointments — up to four weeks, according to a UW System audit. UWM had just one counselor for every 4,289 students, the highest ratio of any four-year UW campus and nearly three times worse than the international standard.

But the university has worked to shift those figures. In 2008, it formed a task force to identify students’ needs and find ways to improve. Some outcomes:

The university hired two more counselors and quadrupled its number of counseling groups, said counseling center director Paul Dupont.
Like most other UW campuses, UWM now uses a triage system to identify and help at-risk students first.
Staffers now follow up with students referred off campus for treatment. They also track high-risk students throughout their care, Dupont said, and notify authorities if students who leave counseling are considered imminently likely to hurt themselves or others.
The campus has stepped up suicide prevention efforts, having trained about 675 students, faculty and staff how to recognize when someone could be suicidal and assist.
To encourage students to seek help when they might not be comfortable coming to therapy, plans are under way for counselors to offer all students first-come, first-serve consultations at designated times and locations outside the counseling center.

Those changes have brought results. While UWM’s counselor-to-student ratio remains the worst among four-year UW institutions, it has improved by 20 percent. Wait times have dropped to three weeks during busy times of the semester, said Dupont, even though there’s been a 32 percent increase in the number of new counseling appointments in the last two years.

— Daniel Rose and Amy Karon

At UW-Stout, ‘obsessive’ data crunching to save — and improve — lives

WisconsinWatch — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:01:06 +0000

About this story

Interactive map

Explore data on mental health services across the UW System

By Sam Zastrow and Amy Karon
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

The University of Wisconsin-Stout had a problem, counseling director John Achter told the student association last year. Twenty-two percent more students were seeking counseling services than ever before, forcing patients to wait up to 26 days to be seen.

Presented with those numbers, the association designated enough money for Achter to hire a new counselor.

That’s the power of data, Achter says, and why his counseling center’s number crunching borders on “obsessive.” Creating detailed analyses of who uses campus mental health services and why enables Achter to better direct resources to help students in need.

But some UW counseling centers don’t track even basic information on patients. UW-Milwaukee doesn’t count the number of students seen, for example, only the number of appointments. And though UW-Green Bay collects data on patients’ races and ethnicities, it does so on paper forms that it doesn’t analyze — despite the fact that it has the second-highest percentage of Native American students of any UW campus, and Native Americans have the highest suicide rate of any racial or ethnic group in the state.

“We have been trying to reach out to all students, including Native American students,” said Amy Henniges, UW-Green Bay health services director.

Henniges said that although a campus counselor focuses on suicide prevention, the counseling center could do more to reach Native American students through UW-Green Bay’s intercultural center. She added that she is seeking funds to convert to an electronic medical record to improve data reporting.

Achter, for his part, now chairs a UW System subcommittee — created on the heels of a 2008 audit that reported inconsistent data tracking by UW campus mental health centers — which aims to standardize the information collected. The effort, he says, will enable providers to compare “apples to apples,” improving mental health care throughout UW System.

UW-Madison journalism student Monica Hickey contributed reporting.

Recall cash spigot now wide open

Bill Lueders — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:05:04 +0000

Money & Politics column
By Bill Lueders
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Bill Lueders, Money and Politics Project Director.

It’s difficult to write about the levels of money now being pumped into Wisconsin’s electoral process without using terms like “jaw-dropping” and “eye-popping.” It’s a wonder we can still recognize ourselves in the mirror, with all these contortions.

Take the recent filings from state campaigns preparing for recalls. They show that Gov. Scott Walker raised nearly $4.6 million in campaign cash in just the five-week period between Dec. 11 and Jan. 17, the date recall petitions against him were turned in.

This is on top of the $7.6 million Walker previously reported raising between Jan. 3, 2011, the day he took office, and his last filing, through Dec. 10. That’s a total of $12.2 million for barely more than a year — compared to $8.1 million in 2010, when he ran a successful gubernatorial campaign, including a primary.

During this same period, between Jan. 1, 2011, and Jan. 17, 2012, the Republican Party of Wisconsin raised $3.1 million. And the four GOP senators facing possible recall elections — Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau, Pam Galloway of Wausau, Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls, and Van Wanggaard of Racine — collectively raised $811,725 more.

As of Jan. 17, Walker reported having nearly $2.7 million available cash on hand; the state GOP had $205,858, and the four targeted senators had $736,000. Altogether, the Republican side has raised $16.1 million and had $3.6 million cash on hand.

Meanwhile, the pro-recall side raised about $4.1 million — $3.5 million by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, $413,544 by United Wisconsin, and $118,700 by the four committees targeting GOP senators. The Dems report having about $267,000 cash on hand.

One factor driving up the GOP’s totals is a quirk in state law that suspends the usual limits on individual contributions during a recall. An analysis of state Government Accountability Board data shows that Walker has gotten 57 individual contributions above the usual $10,000 limit.

These 57 donations totaled more than $3 million. That’s 46 percent of the $6.7 million Walker has gotten in individual contributions since Nov. 16, when this extra-generous giving began.

Walker’s campaign, in a press release entitled “Grassroots donors fuel Walker fundraising,” crowed that about three-quarters of the governor’s more than 21,000 contributions since Dec. 11 came in amounts of $50 or less.

The release did not mention that this grassroots support — including about $415,000 in itemized donations and $61,000 in lump sums from donors who gave $20 or less — accounted for only about 10 percent of the governor’s total receipts. Meanwhile, 65 percent of Walker’s nearly $4.6 million total came from individual donors who gave $1,000 or more.

Most of Walker’s largest contributions — indeed, 56 percent of his total receipts since Dec. 11 — came from people who live in other states and cannot vote for him.

Altogether, Walker, the state GOP, and the four targeted Republican senators have gotten $6.7 million of their $16.1 million total from out of state, or 41 percent. The pro-recall side has gotten $1.4 million of its $3.9 million total, or 35 percent, from out of state.

Where does all this money go?

Walker has reported spending nearly $10 million in campaign funds since taking office. The largest share of this, $5.4 million, has gone to a single company, Nonbox of Hales Corners, to buy radio and TV ads. SCM Associates of Dublin, N.H., has also done well, snaring nearly $1.4 million for mailings.

And FLS Connect of St. Paul, Minn., has gotten $1.1 million for solicitation expenses, to help keep the money flowing.

Bill Lueders is the Money and Politics Project director at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. The project, a partnership of the Center and MapLight, is supported by the Open Society Institute.

The nonprofit and nonpartisan Center (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin Public Radio, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

Money & Politics columns

WisconsinWatch — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:01:25 +0000

Weekly commentary from Bill Lueders, Money & Politics Project director.

Sidebar: How a sand mine dealt with its Karner blues

Kate Golden — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:07:09 +0000

Main story

Are frac sand miners failing to check for rare butterfly? Jan. 31, 2012

Interactive Map

View locations of sand deposits, frac sand mining operations and the Karner blue butterfly range. Click the image below to open a larger version.

Permits

Which ones do frac sand mines need?

Permits: What a frac sand mine needs

Kate Golden — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:06:57 +0000

Main story

Are frac sand miners failing to check for rare butterfly? Jan. 31, 2012

Interactive Map

View locations of sand deposits, frac sand mining operations and the Karner blue butterfly range. Click the image below to open a larger version.

Sidebar

How Unimin dealt with its Karner blues

WisconsinWatch.org

Key findings: Mental health services at UW System campuses

About this story

Interactive map

Stressed: Demands, counselor shortages strain Midwest campus mental health systems

About this story

Interactive map

Gaps persist in campus mental health services

SIDEBARS

Read more about campus mental health

INTERACTIVE MAP

About this story

A growing need

Long waits, but some improvements

At UW-Madison, crisis line staffers keep up with demand

Referred off campus, some never find help

Student groups expand

Campus mental health: Connect, learn, find help

About this story

Interactive map

Campus resources

Off-campus organizations and links

Prior mental health coverage from the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

UW-Milwaukee strives to improve mental health care

About this story

Interactive map

At UW-Stout, ‘obsessive’ data crunching to save — and improve — lives

About this story

Interactive map

Recall cash spigot now wide open

Money & Politics columns

Sidebar: How a sand mine dealt with its Karner blues

Main story

Interactive Map

Permits

Further reading

Permits: What a frac sand mine needs

Main story

Interactive Map

Sidebar

Further reading