Category: Opinion

These measures make public investments in children’s economic well-being, adding to those made for them in health care and education. The nation and our state are sure to be better off.

Tim Smeeding is the Lee Rainwater Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the La Follette School of Public Affairs and former director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The skulls of living cats are drilled with holes to screw metal strainer posts into their heads, then steel coils are implanted into their eyes and finally, the cats are deafened in “sound localization” animal experiments. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals describes the horrific details of this inhumane experiment conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and adds that the lead experimenter did not expect to produce a clinical treatment or cure from their tests on animals.

Letter to the editor: Thompson is no “place holder.” He is a dynamic leader who is proving his value to UW System during these challenging times. Also, with Regent membership and leadership change underway, it seems advisable to retain Thompson’s steady hand and not dive into another national search now.

Without this student newspaper, I probably would be on my way to finishing out a god-awful stats degree (sorry stats majors).

Is the Madison Police Department finally taking a step that all police departments should also take? The short answer is yes. The long answer is not so simple.

Mifflin party events shows double standard policing, failure of UW to protect students, enforce regulations.

Entering the school year, students and faculty alike were anxious for how the semester would look.

“Really interesting how a Black man gets a chance and y’all are rushing to take it away,” UW BIPOC Coalition says.

UW-Madison and Madison need a return of fans in stands this year to make money. May I humbly suggest the university immediately announce that only fully vaccinated fans will be allowed at its venues such as Camp Randall, the Kohl Center, the Field House and the LaBahn Arena.

New ISS director should represent international students, hear and voice their concerns.

Fighting for the rights of African American voters is a task that is both daunting and never-ending. Discriminatory redistricting creates a cyclical process that weakens political power for Black voters and political officials. This tactic is as discriminatory and as noxious as any other suppression legislation used during Jim Crow.

–Steven Wright served in the Voting Rights Section of the US Department of Justice for five years. He’s a clinical associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.

As a history student at UW-Madison, I have seen many of these issues first-hand. Because of fears that the recent economic crisis would cause a new round of sweeping cuts to history departments, almost every major history PhD program in the country accepted almost no new graduate students, or far fewer than usual. Declining opportunities for history teachers have caused many bright and wonderful students to seek other career paths.

As we approach the end of this semester, many students are left burned out, exhausted and overwhelmed with the seemingly endless demands of college. Coupled with the increasingly demanding academics, the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated students’ existing feelings of continuous stress. In fact, 71% of college students have indicated increased anxiety due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, it is essential for students to find ways of dealing with these demanding stressors. This is where meditation comes into play!

Here’s something the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA) won’t tell you when you donate to your alma mater — UW is strategically profiting off the destruction of our planet and its people. As of 2018, UW invested $124,785,961 in the fossil fuel industry through the WFAA.

Having graduated from UW a while back, I now have the perspective to look back and reflect on how my own career has progressed. The students I once worked with and gave my best as a leader to are now some of my current colleagues — and one is even my current boss.

Hub II proposal will inflate already high rental costs in Madison, which majority of students cannot afford.

Diversifying demographics of teachers will help build deeper relationships with students, create more equitable society for future generations.

We believe that it is important to have a candidate that will stand with all members of the Madison and campus community.

UW must step up and support Asian international students, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Outside of loan options, students typically turn to financial aid and scholarships to finance their education. UW-Madison has multiple “Wisconsin Promises” in place for in-state students that qualify for financial aid, like Bucky’s Tuition Promise Plus, Badger Promise and the Financial Aid Security Track.

Students have long told UW-Madison that “it is not enough for the University of Wisconsin System to demonstrate optical allyship … by means of posting on social media, tokenizing students of color and providing resources for students and alumni to combat racism on an individual level.” Instead, they have called for the UW to make good on their promises and deconstruct the systems that “uphold racial inequalities.”

This current version of the Suez syndrome is, nonetheless, anything but the usual. Thanks to longterm imperial development based on fossil fuels, planet Earth itself is now changing in ways dangerous to any power, no matter how imperial or ascendant. So, sooner or later, both Washington and Beijing will have to recognize that we are now in a distinctly dangerous new world where, in the decades to come, without some kind of coordination and global cooperation to curtail climate change, old imperial truths of any sort are likely to be left in the attic of history in a house coming down around all our ears.

–Alfred McCoyAlfred McCoy is the J.R.W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A TomDispatch regular, he is the author of In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power and Policing America’s Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State.

The intent of this statement is there, but the diluted semantics don’t provide much comfort. First and foremost, it’s clear they’re avoiding the word racism. When have you heard the term ‘bias crime’ before? It sounds like someone typed ‘hate crime’ but was told to substitute ‘hate’ for a more watered-down word. In this situation, who would that be serving?

With no spring break and burnout rampant among students, mental health support must come as policy-based, structural changes.

On March 1, the University of Wisconsin Faculty Senate passed a resolution urging the UW Foundation to divest from fossil fuel companies. But, before we take a victory lap, let’s flash back and remember that a similar effort failed in 2014 because it was too ‘divisive.’

Letter to the editor: As a former technical college instructor and wife of a 30-plus-year University of Wisconsin System branch campus instructor, I’ve had a long affiliation with both systems. Our three children attended the two-year UW System campus in our county.

UW System, Foundations must make financially, ethically smart decision to divest from fossil fuels.

Letter to the editor: “The WNPRC does not provide room for their monkeys to exercise, nor access to the outdoors, and they never see the sunlight.”

Gov. Evers nearly $1 billion proposal for UW system upgrades essential for outdated, deteriorating campus buildings.

UW should expand hours beyond pre-pandemic levels to support student productivity and mental health.

If we focus on continuing what we are doing to stay safe, it is possible sometime in the coming months we could safely and effectively reduce the limitations currently in place, but we need to reach that point first, not jump ahead to progress that has not yet been made.

Considering UW’s ineptitude last semester which resulted in the quarantine of two dorms and a halt to on-campus student activity for two weeks, it’s unsurprising there’s already a rise in cases when half of this campus operates under unproven measures to mitigate viral spread — such as excessively wiping down classroom and library desks — while the other half exists as though there is no pandemic at all.

Professors can see data ranging from which students opened assigned readings to those that switched internet browser tabs during quizzes.

Though Biden has imposed sanctions on Burma and UW SEARG has called on international community to denounce coup, the Burmese military remains undeterred.

I have directed our universities to ensure that students attending a UW campus in the fall will have as classic a UW campus experience as possible — including a goal of at least 75% of all classes being in person.

Many of the excused absences offered by these professors, however, only account for physical illnesses and require a doctor’s note. Many of the policies say nothing relating to mental health.

Even after ASM proposed the solution and amendment that students become “Mask Ambassadors” — designed as a workaround to the policy which would allow the university to make payments to students — Heller stated that it could not go any further once again.

While ASM seems intent on misleading the public regarding the legality of their COVID-19 student relief fund and disgracefully shaming University Officials, the University is trying to move forward and provide students with expansive and immediate assistance.