Category: Opinion

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 Evers nearly $1 billion proposal for UW system upgrades essential for outdated, deteriorating campus buildings.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

National mental health crisis compounded with COVID-19 pandemic calls for increased mental health support options on campus, collaborative effort among UHS and UW divisions shows promise.

Column by Matthew T. Hora and Mindi Thompson, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Unpaid internships are often seen as an important rite of passage for college students. And with good reason. Studies have found that students acquire new skills and networks that enhance their job prospects.

-Matthew T. Hora, Assistant Professor of Adult and Higher Education, Director of the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Mindi Thompson, Professor of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

From a rapid reversal on the Big Ten’s decision to play to going against Dane County orders, UW athletics distinguishes itself as the exception to the strict COVID-19 regulations students face.

As quarantine wears on, stay connected and motivated through virtual learning, challenging times.

The solution to police brutality is better policing; not less policing. We should be training our officers more. By paying more and training more, we can improve the performance of our local police officers.

While it may be an unpopular minority opinion within the law school, I agree with Dean Daniel Tokaji and the law school administration’s position and handling of the matter. The law school only needs to ensure that no discrimination exists in employer hiring practices. It would be inappropriate for the law school to censor the political activities of prospective employers.

Professor Mayer faced hate comments because his syllabus contained negative comments towards Trump, but professors who are honest about their views and values prepare students to step into the real society.

While First Amendment education could prove beneficial per Thompson Center free speech survey, undergraduates are more sympathetic to free speech protections than results show.

The Editorial Board serves to represent the voice of The Badger Herald editorial department, distinct from the newsroom, and does not necessarily reflect the views of each staff member.

With many students complaining about the use of saliva testing compared to the nasal swab testing used last semester, it will be interesting to see how COVID-19 on the UW campus plays out this semester.

Letter to the editor: Every citizen should be alarmed to learn from a recent survey that more than half of UW-Madison undergraduates believe the government should punish or restrict some speech.

Column by Mark Copelovitch, a professor of political science and public affairs. Jon C.W. Pevehouse, a Vilas Distinguished Achievement professor of political science and public affairs, and Jessica L.P. Weeks, a professor of political science and the H. Douglas Weaver chair of diplomacy and international relations. All three are professors at UW-Madison.

In their paper “Trends in Educational Assortative Marriage From 1940 to 2003,” Christine R. Schwartz and Robert D. Mare, professors of sociology at the University of Wisconsin and the University of California-Los Angeles, wrote that the “most striking” data in their research, “is the decline in odds that those with very low levels of education marry up.”

An ongoing reckoning with race in American history has drawn attention to racism in the environmental movement. Critiques have focused on themes such as forced removal of Indigenous peoples from ancestral lands, early conservationists’ support for eugenics and the chronic lack of diversity in environmental organizations.

–Curt D. Meine Adjunct Associate Professor of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

By controlling COVID-19 cases in correctional facilities, we have a chance to reduce illness and death for everyone and signal to these particular communities that they, too, have a share in the modern-day miracle of COVID-19 vaccines.

–Brent Orrell is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works on job training, workforce development, and criminal justice reform. He has worked for the United States government for 20 years, including senior roles at the Department of Labor and at the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Rashawn Ray is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow at The Brookings Institution and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland. He is on Twitter @SociologistRay. Dr. Howard Henderson is a non-resident Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution, a Professor of Justice Administration at Texas Southern University, and director of the Center for Justice Research. John M. Eason is the Director of the UW Justice Lab and an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

An earlier comment by Chancellor Blank, however, is worth noting. The chancellor stated that if it became necessary to start paying athletes, this would greatly hinder the university’s ability to field teams. This may be so.

Ibarra is an associate professor at the School for Workers at UW-Madison.

A six-month undercover investigation by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals found widespread suffering and neglect of monkeys held at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in Madison.

UW’s messaging may support BIPOC, but actions embrace white-centric status quo.

Letter to the editor: So if I go on campus and call Bascom Hall an offensive name, and if someone overhears that and posts it on Facebook and it goes viral — will Bascom Hall be raised to the ground then? It’s completely obscene and unjustified for the university to dishonor the memory of Chamberlin by removing the rock.

Letter to the editor: Once again, I am writing to laud the monumental discovery of reverse transcriptase by the late Nobel Prize winner, professor Howard Temin of the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at UW-Madison.

As of right now, dozens of international student workers are providing labor to this institution that they are not being compensated for, constituting wage fraud.

Letter to the editor: I predict the next phase of their agenda will be the removal of “offensive” names (namely white and male) from all university buildings, which will be the warmup act to the main event: the removal of the Abraham Lincoln statue from Bascom Hill.

Letter to the editor: Most students are not even aware of the boulder that sits atop Observatory Hill. Virtually no one knows the racially derogatory name it was apparently known by in the 1920s.