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
Whatever the future holds, let’s be clear: What the Supreme Court may be about to do is not “Christian sharia.” It is medieval state church thinking. And we need to stop it before it turns into a crusade.
-Asifa Quraishi-Landes is an interim co-executive director of the civil rights organization Muslim Advocates. She is also a professor of U.S. constitutional law and modern Islamic constitutional theory at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Written by Ryan Owens, the George C. and Carmella P. Edwards professor of American politics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Co-authored by Tova Walsh, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the Scholars Strategy Network and Alvin Thomas, an assistant professor of human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the Scholars Strategy Network.
Revenue college sports are a cutthroat world.
As students, peers and humans there is no mental health issue that someone else does not share. Conquering the stigma and supporting those who are open about their struggles is absolutely imperative to the direction of this conversation.
To our view, it is only a matter of time until the nurses gain the representation that they have been seeking. As such, it makes sense for UW Health Board members and the administration to dial down tensions, embrace a spirit of cooperation and recognize the union.
Vos’ aim, along with that of UW-bashing state Sen. Steve Nass, was to set the stage for the Republican state Senate to fail to confirm those Evers-appointed Regents so that if Republicans can unseat Evers this fall, they can again gain control of the UW’s governing body by immediately replacing them. Mnookin’s appointment as chancellor was the choice of liberals, they imply, even though the five Scott Walker appointments on the board voted for her, too. In their view, “liberals” have no business picking qualified candidates.
Letter to the editor: Why would Vos make negative comments without even meeting and having a discussion with Mnookin? I heard her respond with grace and politeness — that she is excited about coming to Madison and “looks forward” to meeting all of the state legislators.
Of course, none of this is inevitable. History shows that it is the victor who gets to organize postwar tribunals. For Ukraine to bring Putin and his circle to justice, it will first have to win the war. There is also a dark alternative: a Nuremberg-type tribunal of Ukrainian leaders held by Russia. This would inevitably be a Soviet-style show trial—a kangaroo court that would degrade international law and could taint the meaning of Nuremberg forever.
-Francine Hirsch, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the author of Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II(Oxford, 2020).
Welcome to Wisconsin: Legislative leaders immediately slammed the newly named chancellor for the university’s flagship campus for being too liberal.
It was one in a series of heartfelt goodbyes. Rebecca Blank stood at the entrance in a roped-off lobby area of the Discovery Building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus at what was billed as a “community leadership reception” earlier this month. The chancellor, in the final days of her nine years in Madison, greeted each of the few dozen arriving attendees to wish her, per the invitation, a “fond farewell” as she leaves to become president of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Editorial: The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, a diverse body made up appointees from current Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and defeated former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, united across lines of partisanship and ideology to unanimously select Dr. Jennifer L. Mnookin to serve as the 30th chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Letter to the editor: It’s kind of ironic that the Republicans decrying Jennifer Mnookin being named chancellor of UW-Madison are all claiming to want a chancellor who believes in free speech, given that it is Mnookin’s speech, and her free expression of her beliefs, that are the stated basis for their opposition.
Welcome to Wisconsin, Jennifer Mnookin. There was a time when we actually gave someone hired to take an important job like leading the campus of our world-class university a chance to prove herself. But the state with the historic motto “Forward” hasn’t been like that for the past decade or so.
Hyperbolic comparisons to the titanic struggle of World War II increase the risk of escalating a conflict currently localized to Ukraine. Given the risk of nuclear escalation should the United States find itself in a war with Russia, the leaders of our time may in fact be pushing us closer to World War III. Instead of making emotional appeals to the glory of victory in World War II, Western and Russian leaders would be wise to reflect on what came after—a Cold War with the ever-present threat of mutually assured destruction.
–Sascha Glaeser is a research associate at Defense Priorities. He focuses on U.S. grand strategy, international security and transatlantic relations. He holds a master’s of international public affairs and a bachelor’s in international studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Vos, beholden to an egotistical, illiterate bully, continues to embarrass us Wisconsinites while perpetuating Fox false statements.
Clearly, both men view a supremely intelligent, articulate woman with a proven record of increasing campus diversity and surpassing fundraising goals as a threat. What a pity.
Letter to the editor: It appears they are afraid they will not be able to manipulate her and continue to destroy the university, which has been their goal.
Vos this week urged the UW Board of Regents to reconsider its unanimous decision to hire Jennifer Mnookin as UW-Madison chancellor. Vos wants her gone before she even starts Aug. 4. Why is Vos rashly prejudging Mnookin, the dean of UCLA’s law school whom he’s never met?
Column from former Regent Higgins.
Co-authored by Barry C. Burden, a professor of political science and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Column by David Vanness, a professor of health policy and administration at Penn State University and UW-Madison faculty member from 2003 to 2018.
UW’s successful composting program was abruptly halted in 2021 but relaunching program remains possible.
UW-Whitewater interim president Jim Henderson resigns over proposed free speech survey, but UW System must consider implications of delaying survey.
The fees are difficult for international students to afford and prevent top academic talent from attending UW.
As UW prepares to welcome a new chancellor, The Badger Herald Editorial Board outlines key concerns UW’s next leader must address to succeed in the job.
Co-authored by Jenny Higgins, PhD, MPH, a professor of gender and women’s studies and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
Letter to the editor: After reading the proposed questions, I am convinced that UW System is more concerned with student attitudes than with educated opinions. The faculty should be able to generate a clear policy of tolerance that includes the concepts embodied in the First Amendment. There should be consequences if it is not followed.
Star athletes at UW-Madison are finally getting a piece of the enormous revenue surrounding Badgers sports, especially men’s basketball and football. That’s only fair. Other players with lower profiles deserve greater financial incentives, too. We love the idea, floated by the chancellor earlier this month, of offering student athletes cash awards for good grades. That will help continue Wisconsin’s strong reputation for graduating most of its players in all of its sports.
My teachers asking me what Ramadan means is institutionalized Islamophobia. My classmates not knowing what Ramadan is institutionalized Islamophobia. My research lab not accommodating me is institutionalized Islamophobia.
Co-authored by Adeline Lo, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She researches factors that motivate or mitigate conflict between groups and designs statistical tools for prediction and measurement.
Professor Tim Shiell’s free speech survey appears straight-forward and worthy. It shouldn’t trigger outrage, much less an interim chancellor’s resignation.
Noted: Tana Johnson is a faculty member in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He will speak at the Monona Terrace Convention Center on May 4 as part of a program by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs.
