J. Michael Collins is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs and School of Human Ecology director. He also serves as the director for the Center for Financial Security.
“It’s Just Coffee” was the brainchild of a UW-Madison student who recognized that amid the political polarization in our country and on our campuses, students of differing backgrounds could discuss difficult topics — politics, religion, economics — in a respectful, civil way if they have a low-key, non-threatening environment for doing so. The program showed that students aren’t just willing but are eager to have meaningful, one-on-one conversations with people with whom they might disagree.
Potential misuse of results, source of funding poses risk of political influence on universities.
Column by Nick Buttrick, an assistant professor of psychology at UW-Madison, originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
Similar to many school years, the start of the 2022-23 fall semester left many UW-Madison students stuck with expensive drinking tickets for simply following the masses. In early September, the ever-popular City Bar, informally known to have a large underage presence, unveiled a goldmine of underage drinkers — leaving 137 out of 143 patrons with a drinking ticket.
Noted: Nick Buttrick is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
If things continue to go well — or maybe even if they don’t — the job may be his in another month. That’s for Chris McIntosh to decide, and the UW athletic director so far has been tight-lipped on his thought process surrounding this crucial hire.
It is ironic that a biomedical powerhouse such as UW is doing this. Contracts often provide overly targeted responses that are too little, too late, and miss many people, allowing the virus to mutate and spread. Let’s not repeat the mistake of responding to the pandemic with the bare minimum, or even less. This contract is a missed opportunity to keep capacity in-house at UW, and to innovate, helping the rest of the state: the Wisconsin Idea.
Dear Editor: The article “UW-Madison event featuring conservative speaker Matt Walsh leads to graffiti, protest,” Oct. 24) makes me wonder what has happened to the proud tradition of “fearless sifting and winnowing” at the university.
When there are more than two candidates, it is not just about counting votes accurately. How you determine a winner from the tallied votes matters too. Given our current polarized political environment, Alaska and the other states that have adopted ranked-choice voting are doing it wrong.
-Nathan Atkinson is an assistant professor at University of Wisconsin Law School. Scott C. Ganz is an associate teaching professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and a research fellow in economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
It’s 8 a.m. and you’re waiting for the 80 outside Dejope to take you to class. Boom. It’s there on time. You’re in class by 8:25 a.m., and all is as it should be. But come 10 a.m., 11 a.m., the bustling University of Wisconsin-Madison student body and our haphazard walking has disrupted our beloved buses entirely off their scheduled rhythm.
But the committee gains nothing by highlighting the advisors’ decision to plead the Fifth, and it risks further eroding one of the most important rights in the American criminal justice system.
-Steven Wright teaches criminal constitutional law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. He is also the former co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project.
Column by Neil Kraus, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls
“Sea Grant celebrates a 50-year anniversary this fall. Through the decades, our staff and funded researchers have strived to enhance those Great Lakes’ uses and address conservation challenges, fulfilling a research, education and outreach mission,” writes James Hurley, director of the UW Aquatic Sciences Center.
Letter to the editor: My question for the chancellor is what bridge could she possibly build to connect the group of determined students against Israel’s illegal and brutal occupation of Palestinian land and its horrible treatment of the Palestinian people with others at UW who called the activists who scrawled those simple chalk messages against Zionism — the ideology used to justify those crimes — “antisemitic”?
Friendswood, Texas, is the type of community that one might think of as a “best case scenario” when it comes to recovering from a disaster.
–Max Besbris, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The best defense against natural disasters is accurate, reliable and tailored weather predictions and observations that enable Americans to take actions to save the lives and protect the property of their families, neighbors, and themselves. The NWS is achieving this mission for Americans, and its shining success — based on the cumulative efforts of its many meteorologists to convey weather forecasts and impacts with trust and hope — is something that we should recognize amidst the dark days following the next disaster.
-Jordan Gerth is a meteorologist and honorary fellow at the Space Science and Engineering Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
National housing shortage hitting college campuses hard, students fear for future.
Some were with Republicans who reacted coolly in May to her selection as the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s 30th chancellor. The former UCLA law school dean drew the kind of initial GOP skepticism that met predecessor Rebecca Blank when she arrived as a former President Barack Obama cabinet member in 2013.
While change is undoubtedly necessary, disagreement persists over nature of transition to sustainability.
The creators of these hateful messages need to understand that being a Jew does not equate to being a Zionist. This is a common misconception of Jewish people, where many Jews disagree with the Zionistic idea. Although, many Zionists are undoubtedly a vocal part of the ethno-religion.
Evers got the two sides talking and they reached an agreement that will allow the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission to determine if UW Health and the nurses who work there are covered under the Wisconsin Employment Peace Act, which establishes protocols for workers to organize unions and to engage in collective bargaining.
This is a step in the right direction, which we hope will lead in short order to recognition of the nurses union.
Dear Editor: The UW campus was defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti on the first day of classes. The UW news release stated that anti-Semitic sidewalk chalkings appeared around campus labeling Jewish student groups as “racist,” “genocidal” and “having blood on their hands.”
This year, as fall sports seasons are underway, we are marking the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which became law in 1972. It was a law of great consequence. As the U.S. Department of Education says, “Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.” Specifically, the law says: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Dear Editor: Having read this article, (“UW-Madison welcomes record-breaking freshman class at convocation,” Sept 7) I am stunned by the remarks made by the new chancellor and others offering reassurance to students of a “safe” and “welcoming place” at UW.
Raskin will be in Madison Friday, Sept. 16, for a Capital Times Idea Fest discussion of the fight for accountability. The session is at 7 p.m. in Shannon Hall on the UW-Madison campus. It will be a rare chance to go deep with one of the greatest constitutional scholars ever to serve in Congress.
UW-Madison wants to reimagine and energize Library Mall in the heart of campus with stylish walkways, native plants, shade trees and splashing water.
The university’s $6 million plan looks good so far, with a fundraising campaign on the way.
While I’m sure Paul Chryst would love to have us students a little oiled up before entering the stadium to make sure we bring the noise, it doesn’t do him any good when we are too drunk to care about showing up.
Self-reflection on our own intents and our own capacity for harm is the gateway to change. Listening to those around us who have lived experiences rather than centering ourselves in conversations is the key to creating a more empathetic campus. Remembering not everyone has the option of silence is allyship in its rawest form.
Simply put, Midwestern residents looking to attend neighboring states’ universities are suffering at the expense of out-of-state tuition — even if they live only a few hours away from the school.
This history professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and president of the American Historical Association tried to say something sensible, and partially succeeded. It is, however, perilous to deviate even microscopically from progressive orthodoxy, as enforced by today’s censorious professoriate, so he experienced Twitter crucifixion. His “crap” was “white-centric” and advocating “white supremacist Aryan eugenicist” history, etc. Sweet’s critics reduced him to quivering contrition because he had written this:
UW Health nurses are asking for two simple things from their employer: safe, quality patient care and recognition of their union. This has been the rallying cry of nurses there for nearly three years. Like so many other workers, they’ve organized, marched in rallies, met with administrators and voiced their concerns over and over.
Column by Erik Iverson, chief executive officer of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).
The authoritative measure of Wisconsin’s economic circumstance — as least from the standpoint of the working-class families that make up the vast majority of the state’s population — suggests that we actually have something to celebrate this Labor Day. Indeed, according to the State of Working Wisconsin report from the UW-Madison’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy, “2022 provides better news about work and for workers than any year in this century.”
UW Health nurses saw Madison, Dane County and Wisconsin through the worst of the coronavirus pandemic and — with nurses at other local hospitals and clinics — they continue to be in the forefront of efforts to respond to the lingering threat posed by COVID-19. They are the ultimate essential workers.
As of 2022, an estimated 6.5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, an illness that robs people of their memories, independence and personality, causing suffering to both patients and their families. That number may double by 2060. The U.S. has made considerable investments in Alzheimer’s research, having allocated US$3.5 billion in federal funding this year. -Allyson Bennett, Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison
In his August column for the American Historical Association’s journal, Perspectives on History, James H. Sweet warned that academic history has become so “presentist” that it is losing touch with its subject, the world before yesterday. Mr. Sweet, who is the association’s president and teaches at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, observed that the “allure of political relevance” is drawing students away from pre-1800 history and toward “contemporary social justice issues” such as “race, gender, sexuality, nationalism, capitalism.”
Written by Debbie Ford, Chancellor, University of Wisconsin–Parkside.
I studied for a master’s degree in education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2015. My program was batty. We made Black Lives Matter friendship bracelets. We passed around a popsicle stick to designate whose turn it was to talk while professors compelled us to discuss our life’s traumas. We read poems through the “lenses” of Marxism and critical race theory in preparation for our students doing the same. Our final projects were acrostic poems or ironic rap videos.
Wisconsin can take one other important step: increasing our state’s commitment to the Wisconsin Grant program.
Written by Kenneth R. Mayer, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and author of “With the Stroke of a Pen: Executive Orders and Presidential Power” (Princeton, 2002).
University of Wisconsin law professor emerita Ann Althouse writing on her blog, Aug. 10:“We have full access to everything. We can go everywhere.”
Simply put, Midwestern residents looking to attend neighboring states’ universities are suffering at the expense of out-of-state tuition — even if they live only a few hours away from the school.
On the surface, university executives could use the guidelines of the Big Ten athletic conference to give in-state tuition reciprocity. Given that all current members of the Big Ten conference are “state-schools,” or public universities, this idea would allow all residents of these states to attend other Big Ten member schools at an in-state tuition rate.
In the 1840s, when it passed its abortion law, its lawmakers took the radical step of considering giving women the right to vote in the state Constitution, before deciding against it, according to the Office of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin.
Letter to the editor: I recently experienced the fortunate happenstance to cross paths with several college students on the path to Picnic Point on the UW-Madison campus. As an older active woman walking the path with my husband, I fell. Not only was there a physicians assistant who had been traveling through Madison with his family immediately checking on me, but several other young male students jogging through the trail also stopped to offer aid and support.
Written by Andrea Dutton, an international expert on climate change and sea level rise who is a MacArthur Fellow and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
The University of Wisconsin System places a high priority on improving baccalaureate completion rates, closing the opportunity gap for minoritized students and minimizing the financial and other barriers to degree attainment for all students regardless of where they begin their college career. In a collaborative attempt to remove transfer barriers for Wisconsin students, the UW System engaged in statewide initiatives and created strategic partnerships with the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) to improve credit transfer between or among institutions of higher education across the state. The system-to-system partnership is key to student success, reducing time and credits to degree, lessening student debt, and providing the workforce the employees needed to support the vitality of the state.
Teaching classes from able-bodied perspectives reinforces ableism in campus community.
Chris McIntosh’s one-year anniversary as University of Wisconsin athletic director passed in relatively quiet fashion earlier this month, his opening day of July spent enjoying time with family in northern Wisconsin.
Letter to the editor: I want to commend UW-Madison on its innovative “50 for 50” program to celebrate 50 years of Title IX and successful women student-athletes at UW.
Written by Susan Webb Yackee, a professor of public affairs and director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.
Letter to the editor: UW gave women in my family an education before they could vote, and each daughter has benefited from more freedoms and opportunities. A post-Roe Wisconsin might end that UW legacy. All I can say is shame on the legislators and voters of Wisconsin. It’s a sad day.
What happened last week in Madison is a perfect demonstration of the invisibility this society casts upon our Asian communities.
Column by Claire Wendland, a medical anthropologist and OB-GYN at UW-Madison.
Letter to the editor: Current COVID policy is bad for her mental health because she is restricted to two parents per day supporting her in the hospital. These unnecessary restrictions are putting undue stress and burden on families.
How should you as University of Wisconsin fans feel about this seismic shift in college athletics? I’m not really sure, to be honest, because there’s a lot to process here and I’m not even sure how I feel quite yet.
Letter written by Steven Shi, a junior triple majoring in economics, international studies and political science.
f such a vile incident does not meet the bar for an alert, the criteria needs to be rethought.
Responsible competition with China will require clear-eyed realism, astute statecraft, and an acceptance that Asia has supplanted Europe in terms of geopolitical importance. Whether US leaders like it or not, the United States and China will need to learn how to live with one another. With both countries maintaining sizable nuclear arsenals, the stakes are too high for anything less.
-Sascha Glaeser
