Republicans on the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities announced on Tuesday they’d be holding a series of hearings about free speech and “intellectual diversity” on Wisconsin’s public university campuses.
March 29, 2023
Top Stories
Republican lawmakers to hold hearings on what they call lack of ‘intellectual diversity’ at UW campuses
A Republican legislator who has accused colleges of “indoctrinating students” will hold hearings next month on whether a lack of what he calls “intellectual diversity” at UW System campuses is hurting the quality of education. The push follows a campus free speech survey that found some conservative students reported self-censoring views in class.
Research
Wisconsin’s healthiest, least healthy counties; UW reveals new data
Ozaukee County ranks the healthiest in Wisconsin and Menominee is the least healthy county in the state, according to new data from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute released on Wednesday, March 29.
Helping People Pay Their Sky-High Water Bills Is a SNAP
Written by Manuel P. Teodoro, an associate professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Teodoro studies water sector management, regulation, and finance.
How the Gun Became Integral to the Self-Identity of Millions of Americans
University of Wisconsin–Madison researcher and assistant professor Nick Buttrick studies the psychological relationship that millions of Americans have with their guns. Buttrick’s research builds on the historical record to show that in the U.S.—the only country with more civilian firearms than people—white Southerners started cultivating the tradition of the home arsenal immediately after the Civil War because of insecurities and racial fears. During the rest of the 19th century, those anxieties metamorphosized into a fetishization of the firearm to the point that, in the present day, gun owners view their weapons as adding meaning and a sense of purpose to their lives.
Scientific American spoke with Buttrick about the psychological roots of the gun culture that has contributed to the more than 100 mass shootings that have occurred in the U.S. so far this year.
Higher Education/System
College Admissions Trends For 2023
Noted: Students should also be prepared for the possibility of deferment, especially at early action colleges, as some schools are experiencing record application volume and are deferring a larger number of students than usual. For example, University of Wisconsin-Madison deferred 17,000 of its 45,000 early action applicants, while Clemson University delivered deferment messages to 15,000 of its 26,000 early applicants.
Republican lawmakers to probe ‘intellectual diversity’ on University of Wisconsin campuses
Republican lawmakers said Tuesday they plan to hold a pair of hearings related to a recent free speech survey on University of Wisconsin System campuses as well as protests of a conservative speaker at UW-Madison last year.
Campus life
On Day of the Badger UW-Madison alumni come together to support school
The fundraising event helps raise money for important university functions, including funding research and supporting students in need. University officials said over 100 areas of campus are participating this year, and alumni and others are encouraged to donate to causes they support.
Nick Recreation Center gathers student opinion on changes in equipment
Since the Nick is nearing its three year mark, RecWell has begun looking at the equipment they’ve had since pre-COVID.
Jones Leadership Center hosts nonprofit Rooted
The Willis L. Jones Leadership Center hosted Rooted Tuesday night. Rooted is an organization that is dedicated to promoting healthy food access and secure land tenure in Madison’s access improvement areas.
UW-Madison offering students, staff mental health services after student death
UW-Madison is encouraging students and staff affected by the suicide of a student Monday to seek out campus mental health services.
State news
A High-Stakes Election in the Midwest’s “Democracy Desert”
Noted: Donohue, who is seventy-three years old and has curly chestnut hair, grew up in Sheboygan. She has been a community-minded activist since high school, when she won the Young American Medal for Service, which L.B.J. put around her neck in a ceremony in Washington, D.C. After college, she and a friend took a ten-month trip across the country in a 1960 Volkswagen bus that they called the “flying tomato,” and then she applied to an auto-mechanics program at a technical college and to the University of Wisconsin Law School. She was rejected by the technical college but got accepted to law school. She eventually returned to Sheboygan to work on cases involving domestic-violence victims, tenant disputes, and disability benefits, among other things.
In Wisconsin Supreme Court race, ad spending for Kelly ekes past Protasiewicz after she led in ads 23-to-1
Quoted: “There seems to be an intense interest on the ideological left, especially among various pro-choice groups, to focus on this race,” said Michael Wagner, who studies elections and media at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Crime and safety
DNA from half-eaten burrito ties ex-Wisconsin doctoral student to pro-life center firebombing attack
DNA found in a half-eaten burrito helped exposed a former Wisconsin university research assistant now accused of firebombing a pro-life center last Mother’s Day.
UW Experts in the News
This Wisconsin Supreme Court race is 174 years in the making
Robert Yablon and Ryan Owens, a University of Wisconsin-Madison law professors, and UW-Madison professor and Elections Research Center director Barry Burden are quoted.
Obituaries
Helen Schubert, longtime Chicago PR executive, dies
Noted: Born Helen Celia Schubert in Wisconsin, Schubert grew up outside Cedarburg, just north of Milwaukee. She received a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and journalism in 1952 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also wrote for the student newspaper.