“Ernie,” as we reporters used to call him back then, was one of several GOP legislators convinced that the University of Wisconsin was being overrun by hoodlums and communists, and they demanded that UW administrators purge the school of these subversives who were railing against the Vietnam War and the direction of the country.
As we discuss questions of tax burden in Wisconsin, the Biden administration’s so-called billionaire income tax plan, or IRS reforms and funding levels, we need to view our tax system as a statement of our community’s values.
Sarah Halpern-Meekin is an associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies in the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a member of the Scholars Strategy Network.
But more importantly, as a law student in l969, I was taught some of the fundamental principles of statutory construction by one of the preeminent, national law professors of the 20th century, Professor J. Willard Hurst, then teaching at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents finds itself at a standstill as a dozen of Governor Evers’ appointees to Wisconsin’s higher education management systems remains unconfirmed in the state Senate. This includes five picks for the state technical college system board and seven for the UW Board of Regents.
The international community must affirm that there are universal values. It must support Ukraine and call out Putin’s lies. It must act to prevent the destruction of the Ukrainian nation.
Francine Hirsch is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg.”
Letter to the editor: The proposed University of Wisconsin System free speech survey, which has already caused a UW-Whitewater administrator to resign, will likely be asking the wrong questions. Do we really want absolute free speech in the classroom?
$5.5 million grant will support integrative holistic medicine, paving way for more dynamic patient experience.
UW, while representing many minorities, is not representing them enough. The Badger undergraduate population is almost 68% white, followed by 9.4% international, 7.8% Asian, and minuscule numbers of Hispanic, Black and African-American students.
Column by Mark Copelovitch, a professor in the UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs and Department of Political Science.
Josh Garoon, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Recent increases in Consumer Price Index make already low student wages impractical.
Diplomats and lawyers have been talking in recent days about convening an international tribunal on the Nuremberg model or something akin to it to try Russian President Vladimir Putin and those in his inner circle for waging a war of aggression against Ukraine. And rightly so.
Francine Hirsch s Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author, most recently, of Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II (Oxford, 2020).
The Russian newspaper Kommersant quietly engaged in an act of resistance on Wednesday. The newspaper ran an interview with the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, spouting all the usual propaganda. But on Twitter, alongside a link to the article, it ran a photo of Naryshkin with the word “Nuremberg” in the background.
New humanities building will replace women’s housing option designed for inclusion, affordability.
When I left my parents’ farm in Elroy to attend UW-Madison, we were so poor that I carried my belongings in a paper bag instead of a suitcase. I went on to earn a law degree, serve in the Legislature, get elected to four terms as governor, lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as its secretary, and become president of the University of Wisconsin System.
In the past two weeks, it has become increasingly dangerous for Russian citizens to participate in anti-war demonstrations, to express opposition to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, or to share true information about the military campaign. The Russian State Duma has introduced legislation that threatens fines, forced military conscription and prison sentences for speaking the truth.
Francine Hirsch is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal After World War II (Oxford University Press, 2020).
Letter to the editor: Students at the university, armed with either wealthy out-of-state parents or endless supplies of student loans, have driven housing prices in Madison to the breaking point.
Letter to the editor: As a second-year undergraduate, I have never experienced college without masks. I am just as excited as anyone that the mask mandate is coming to a close. But I can’t be the only one who feels the timing of it all makes no sense.
Diplomats and lawyers have been talking in recent days about convening an international tribunal on the Nuremberg model or something akin to it to try Russian President Vladimir Putin and those in his inner circle for waging a war of aggression against Ukraine. And rightly so.
-By Francine Hirsch
Letter to the editor: More than just safety (which is still important), college students have had a tumultuous two years amid the pandemic and could use the relief of a snow day when conditions are snowy and icy. Snow days provide momentary freedom from responsibilities and allow for some well-deserved free time. We have rarely had days off (and got no spring break last year).
Six months into the pandemic, Christine Whelan sensed something was different. “I was noticing this odd thing, that more and more cars had taken their mufflers off, and there were more and more people gunning their engines really loudly, making a bunch of racket on the road,” said Whelan, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and expert in human behavior and cultural trends. “I couldn’t understand why I was only now hearing this, and I had this sense in the back of my mind that this had something to do with the pandemic, and with a sense of anger at the political world around us and a sense of disenfranchisement.”
Republican legislation package politicizes free speech in UW System by pushing conservative agenda in education.
How do we remember death when it constitutes our landscape? In an age of ubiquitous mortality—not only pandemic deaths, but also deaths from meteorological disasters, deaths of migrants seeking refuge from their war-torn homes, and the more banal declines in life expectancy in broad swaths of the United States—what kinds of death do we memorialize, and what kinds do we disappear, either actively or through habituation or an atrophy of memory?
The new book “Battleground” is a deeply academic dive into how Wisconsin became such an unwelcoming place for civil discourse during the past dozen years … “The decay of the traditional political communication ecology in our state has accelerated over the past decade,” said Lewis Friedland, an emeritus journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of six co-authors, all professors. Besides Friedland, the authors are Dhavan Shah and Michael Wagner, who teach journalism at UW, Katherine Cramer and Jon Pevehouse, both UW political science professors, and Chris Wells, a former UW journalism professor now at Boston University.
Noted: Brian Levy is an assistant professor of sociology at George Mason University. Karl Vachuska is a research assistant in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their study looked at data in Wisconsin, San Francisco and Seattle.
It’s long overdue for the university to make adequate investments in survivor and mental health services.
Written by Andrew H. Kydd, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Co-authored by Theodore Gerber, Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The 97-page Roth Report on the future of the UW System is extremely detailed and lays out several specific policy priorities for the UW System, minus UW-Madison, which “stands apart.” Because voters are busy, I thought it would be helpful to inform them of some of the more consequential elements of the Republican plan for the UW System.
We have experienced four school semesters tainted by COVID-19 and the policies the federal government, Wisconsin, Madison and the University of Wisconsin have put on us. If these policies are ever going to stop, they should stop now. Enough is enough.
John P. Gross is director of the Public Defender Project at the University of Wisconsin School of Law. Lanny Glinberg is director of the Prosecution Project at the law school.
“While the increase in inflation during the pandemic has been problematic for many reasons, it is perhaps a necessary side effect of economic aid that has helped keep Americans out of poverty and businesses solvent during an extraordinary crisis,” wrote Menzie Chinn, a professor of public affairs and economics.
As UW-Madison professor Mark Copelovitch says in the New York Times podcast “The Argument: Is the University of Austin Just a PR Stunt?”: “We’re trying to make a commitment to sifting and winnowing … we’re scholars trying to figure out what is the, quote unquote, ‘truth’ about how the world works.”
Two years into the pandemic, COVID-19 is here to stay and no longer the risk seen in 2020.
Evan Gerstmann, professor of Political Science and International Relations at Loyola Marymount University, is a UW-alum who has written numerous articles on the role of cancel culture on college campuses. He believes that the phenomenon is a threat to free speech, calling it “problematic,” “unaccountable” and “anti-democratic.”
Widespread infections mean UW’s fall testing approach will no longer protect faculty, immunosuppressed groups.
Lack of available resources, active counseling leaves students vulnerable.
Encouraging, putting money towards outdoor activities in cold weather could improve student health, performance.
Reading the Roth Report, released by the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges last May, one would be led to believe that the state is on the verge of collapse. There’s a “looming demographic crisis,” according to the report, which will lead to catastrophic decline.
I began to define myself as a pre-business student, embedding the major into part of my personality. I was envious of every peer I met who was a direct admit to the business school and I relentlessly picked their brains in order to understand how they got in — and how I could too.
Let’s rip the band-aid off right now. I was sexually assaulted this past October. I’d like to share my experience in order to spread awareness for survivors of sexual assault — specifically male survivors.
The Board of Regents has selected a new president to lead the University of Wisconsin System Schools — and the decision was made behind closed doors.
Dear Editor: I find it disappointing that the a Foley and Lardner lawyer was chosen as president of UW.
The qualified candidate may be excellent, but I wish he had more of a record of supporting liberal education, which has been and should continue to be the unifying mission (along with the Wisconsin Idea) of the System.
UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Jim Schmidt has a solid history in higher education, both in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Schmidt also has experience with the Minnesota Technical College System, which has many similarities with the Wisconsin Technical College System.
As a former academic who is married to a lawyer, I want to comment on the possibility of hiring a private practice lawyer to lead the University of Wisconsin System.
Letter to the editor: The well-heeled Hannah-Jones and her “1619 Project” (which rarely mentions King) are not “left wing” but entirely part of the big business aim of splintering the working class on racial grounds. UW-Madison should be ashamed of promoting a work that has been so thoroughly discredited by world-class historians including James McPherson, Gordon Wood and Victoria Bynum.
Historically the public response to community health danger was ruled by the need to care about others. This tradition has served the country well over the last 300 years. But it is no longer standard in America. The freedom to not wear a face mask has become more important to many people than any obligation to others. Choosing narrow personal liberties over community cooperation and protection does not bode well for our ability to withstand future crises.Judith Walzer Leavitt is professor emerita in the history of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Written by Susan Webb Yackee is director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs and a Collins-Bascom professor of public affairs and political science at UW-Madison.
Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, MPH, MSLIS, MD, FAAP, is an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and also holds master’s degrees in public health and children’s librarianship.
Thankfully, we’re starting to see positive changes in higher education. In some cases, individual professors are stepping up, establishing on-campus centers for the study of American political ideas and institutions. At the Jack Miller Center, where I work, we partner with public-minded scholars who have created such centers at the University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, American University and dozens of others. Many of them, in turn, have launched programs for K-12 teachers.
The best tribute to this program will be to remake the upper tier of the Field House in Madison safer with more capacity and comfortable seating. Anyone who has climbed around pillars and ducked under eaves in the upper deck can tell you that it’s not for the faint of heart or physically challenged, especially many older fans.
As academics engage with and learn from communities, the benefits of community engagement—more valid, compelling and informative scientific discovery—will continue to become apparent. Ultimately, the motivations driving community-engaged scholarship coalesce around a desire to improve the quality of one’s research, which should be a career-long goal for all of us in academia.
-Kristen Slack is a professor of social work and affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She is also the founder of Prof2Prof, an interdisciplinary platform for sharing research scholarship as well as instructional tools, resources and strategies for higher education. Visit their FAQ page for more details on how to use Prof2Prof to heighten the discoverability of your academic scholarship, broadly defined, and to learn from peers within and across disciplines, continents and academic roles.
Noted: Written by Robert Yablon, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and faculty co-director of the Law School’s State Democracy Research Initiative.
The emerging partisan politics and the polarisation it creates is a new threat. It does not provide space for democratic contestation, as opposition parties are restricted from political activities. If unaddressed, the polarisation and increasing grievances could destabilise the country. The future of politics in Tanzania depends on the ability of the policy makers and politicians to take advantage of a more enlightened 2021 citizenry as compared to 1961.
Aikande Clement Kwayu is an Independent researcher & Honorary Research Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Column by Ion Meyn, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Letter to the editor: But some fans use a large bag of popcorn or a large drink that is very slowly consumed as an excuse to not wear the mask at all during the entire contest. I feel this is not in the spirit of the mask requirement.
“I think there is still a lot to be done in terms of representation and embodying diversity in UW-Madison’s overtly heteronormative environment.” – QTPOC’s founder on the university’s needed effort in creating more spaces for queer and trans students of color.
ASM Student Council passed legislation this fall in hopes of re-establishing new system-wide student governance body.
