After Chancellor Rebecca Blank issued mandatory two-week quarantine, UW must follow suit for rest of the semester, remain fully online.
Column: UW must take COVID-19 more seriously, abandon plan for hybrid education
Badger Herald
Category: Opinion
Column: With less energy from ‘Zoom Exhaustion,’ UW needs to invest in their students
Badger Herald
As students struggle to maintain academic performance through online learning, UW faculty must create additional means of support.
Ion Meyn: The playbook to avoid accountability for state acts of violence
The Capital Times
Meyn teaches civil procedure, civil rights, wrongful convictions, race and the law, and trial advocacy at the University of Wisconsin Law School. His scholarship examines race and class-based disparities that inform
Tommy Thompson and Andrew S. Petersen: UW System is keeping COVID-19 in check
Wisconsin State Journal
With the UW Board of Regents, we imposed a mask-wearing mandate on campus, and our students are taking it seriously. We’ve seen them — they’re even wearing masks walking down the street or riding their bikes. Our university leadership, faculty and staff also are modeling this important behavior.
Column: Among other measures, UW must include additional training dedicated to racial inclusivity
Badger Herald
Following conclusion to Breonna Taylor investigation, UW should mandate additional racial sensitivity training to faculty, students.
Andrew Bent: Don’t leave forests out of land management in southern Wisconsin
The Capital Times
Column by Andrew Bent, a professor of plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a prairie and forest landowner, and a frequent volunteer with the Ice Age Trail Alliance.
Column: With social life looking different, students should consider joining Greek life
Badger Herald
As many UW students seek new connections while maintaining COVID-19 guidelines, joining sororities, fraternities may be their answer.
Dane County and UW need a united front against the coronavirus
Wisconsin State Journal
Easy, guys. Instead of pointing fingers, let’s acknowledge that the novel coronavirus has been hard to control, and no one is really sure where the pandemic is heading. We hope a reliable vaccine will emerge soon.
Honorlock at UW-Madison presents privacy concerns, perpetuates harmful learning environment
The Daily Cardinal
As schooling has been largely moved online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, students across the nation are voicing their concerns about the use of digital surveillance programs to foster academic integrity. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, students are specifically calling for the ban of Honorlock, an online proctoring service “that supports integrity, makes test-taking less stressful and saves everyone time and hassle,” according to their website.
Bungled quarantine in Witte and Sellery
The Daily Cardinal
Purge sirens roared from Sellery Residence Hall as UW chancellor Rebecca Blank implemented a mandatory quarantine for both the Sellery and Witte residence halls beginning Wednesday night due to the recent high rates of positive COVID-19 test results on campus.
Op-Ed: Clerking for Justice Ginsburg, we learned about the law — but also about love
LA Times
With marriage, as with everything else, the justice set a high bar. She tirelessly championed righteous causes and lofty ideals, and also devoted herself to the family she adored. She inspired millions of people she never met and also enriched the lives of those of us who were lucky enough to know her. It is difficult to lose her, especially now. But we know the best way to honor her is to try to live as fully as she did, embracing the values she held dear.
Miriam Seifter and Robert Yablon are associate professors of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School. They clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2008-2009.
Two leaders urge colleges to encourage student voting
Inside Higher Ed
Chancellor Blank and Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow: If you are leading a college or university right now — or if you are making the academic year possible as a member of the faculty or staff at any one of our nation’s institutions of higher education — asking something more of your students in the midst of a global pandemic may seem impractical. But one assignment cannot wait. We urge you to encourage your students to register to vote, to become informed of the issues and the candidates, and to cast a ballot
Big Ten football is welcome distraction
Wisconsin State Journal
Big-time college football is on its way back to Wisconsin, and not a moment too soon. The Big Ten’s decision Wednesday to play a fall season starting in October is exciting and welcome.
Kaleem Caire: It’s long past time for UW-Madison to hire a Black athletic director
The Capital Times
Barry Alvarez turned UW-Madison into a consistent winner and contender in Division I sports as a coach and athletic director. He put fans in seats, recruited successfully and dramatically raised the revenues of the athletic department, and the visibility of the university in general. He will go down in history as one of the greatest athletic directors of all time. This is not about him.
Tom Oates: Big Ten finally gets football right after earlier wrong
Wisconsin State Journal
In the end, the Big Ten Conference got to the right place.
UW-Madison put region in danger — Margo Redmond
Wisconsin State Journal
What was the UW-Madison administration thinking when they invited students from all over the country (and world) to come to Madison for a mix of in-class and online courses?
UW, Madison safety regulations demonstrate severe unpreparedness as new cases skyrocket
Badger Herald
To reopen or not to reopen — this was the question plaguing university administrators nationwide ahead of this fall semester amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cardinal View: What did you expect?
The Daily Cardinal
As we have all experienced over these six months, the COVID-19 crisis has upended normalcy. From remote working to virtual learning, the loss of healthcare to the loss of loved ones, the coronavirus has forced us all to operate under a new, frightening reality. At the same time, it has brought into crisp focus our society’s greatest inequities and our leaders’ misplaced priorities.
UW-Madison should respect need to socialize — Tim Melin
Wisconsin State Journal
Letter to the editor: UW-Madison has restricted student movement and activities for 14 days due to an increase in COVID-19 cases. This increase is to be expected. More students and more testing will do this.
Column: Debate surrounding Lincoln statue will have generational effect
Badger Herald
As Black Lives Matter movement gains traction in media, so does complicated history involving Lincoln statue.
Free Speech, Wrong Speech and Ivory Towers
WSJ
Today’s increasingly politicized higher education too often compounds the problem by dishonoring both freedom and standards of truthfulness.
Em. Prof. Donald A. Downs
Sarah Anne Carter: Let’s apply the home science approach when the pandemic ends
The Capital Times
Column by Sarah Anne Carter, visiting executive director of the Center for Design and Material Culture in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
Column: For everyone’s safety, UW must revert to fully online courses for fall semester
Badger Herald
UW’s response to the ongoing pandemic is insufficient, university must consider revising Smart Restart plan for upcoming semester.
UW reopening isn’t responsible — Joan Downs
Wisconsin State Journal
Letter to the editor: There are vast numbers of such cautionary tales across the country. Why not heed these warnings, rather than put the campus and the community at risk of a potentially fatal disease?
Tom Still: Economy is tied to education
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, in a blog statement published Wednesday, detailed the steps being taken on campus to allow a “hybrid” reopening — some live classes, some online — and defended the plan as best for students. “Having students on campus and providing in-person instruction, where feasible, provides a better set of educational opportunities for students lacking suitable technology or spaces to effectively study at home,” Blank wrote.
The Problem with Implicit Bias Training
Scientific American
While the nation roils with ongoing protests against police violence and persistent societal racism, many organizations have released statements promising to do better. These promises often include improvements to hiring practices; a priority on retaining and promoting people of color; and pledges to better serve those people as customers and clients.
Tiffany L. Green
Tommy Thompson: Investing in UW System will renew the Wisconsin Idea
The Capital Times
Column from interim System President Tommy Thompson: If our great state is going to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic poised for growth, we will need to renew the Wisconsin Idea for the 21st century with a real investment in the University of Wisconsin System.
Many Tulsa Massacres: How the Myth of a Liberal North Erases a Long History of White Violence
National Museum of American History
However, African Americans have long known that they have deep roots in all regions of the United States. As the African American Bishop Richard Allen wrote in 1829, affirming that Black people belonged:See the thousands of foreigners emigrating to America every year: and if there be ground sufficient for them to cultivate, and bread for them to eat, why would they wish to send the first tillers of the land away? . . . This land which we have watered with our tears and our blood, is now our mother country.
Christy Clark-Pujara is Associate Professor of History in the Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is the author of Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island. Her current book project, Black on the Midwestern Frontier: From Slavery to Suffrage in the Wisconsin Territory, 1725 to 1868, examines how the practice of race-based slavery, black settlement, and debates over abolition and Black rights shaped White-Black race relations in the Midwest.
My college reopened. Now I’ve got COVID-19, along with nearly 500 other students.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
It’s been five months since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered college campuses across the country. Like thousands of other college students, I finished the spring semester on Zoom, attending classes and taking exams in my childhood bedroom in Madison.
Jake Baggott and Steve Cramer: UW-Madison is reopening in smart, safe way
Wisconsin State Journal
We recognize the uncertainty about reopening UW-Madison to in-person instruction this fall, as expressed in Timothy Yu’s guest column last Sunday, “UW needs a safe plan for faculty and students.” But we’re taking steps through our Smart Restart plan to minimize the risks.
Paul Fanlund: At mid-pandemic, why is anyone obsessing about college football?
The Capital Times
Granted, the loss of a University of Wisconsin football season is a massive disappointment for players and coaches and everyone involved with the program, and it constitutes a major financial hit to the UW Athletic Department. And there is the impact on bars and hotels and restaurants that do big business on home football weekends. But for the fans, it was always a pipe dream that they could return to Camp Randall this fall in what is often, ahem, a cheek-to-cheek experience because of the cramped seating in the historic old stadium.
A safe, healthy path forward from the ravages of the coronavirus
Journal Sentinel
We need consistent tactics to battle this virus. We support national standards for face coverings. Our nation needs uniform criteria for stay-at-home orders, reopening businesses and in-person instruction at K-12 schools. We support the AAMC’s guidance for face coverings. While there are horrible disparities among certain populations, and some location-specific challenges, the biology of the virus does not vary from city to city or state to state. National standards will allow all communities to make informed decisions.
Robert N. Golden, MD, is dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Joseph E. Kerschner, MD is dean of the Medical College of Wisconsin School of Medicine.See
Editorial: Making UW System ‘more relevant and relatable’
WISC-TV 3
It is certainly not a surprise to this editorial board that former Governor Tommy Thompson is seizing the opportunity of serving as President of the UW System to encourage greater investment in the UW to leverage the system in meeting the immediate and future needs of Wisconsin.
Opinion: There is a safe, healthy path forward from the ravages of the coronavirus
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Written by Robert N. Golden, MD, is dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Joseph E. Kerschner, MD is dean of the Medical College of Wisconsin School of Medicine.
Column: While DACA recipients are protected following court ruling, their fight is not over
Badger Herald
As DACA recipients breathe sighs of relief following Supreme Court ruling, Wisconsin, UW must ensure they are sufficiently represented.
Column: Wisconsin voter ID laws unfairly target out-of-state students, requirements must change
Badger Herald
Common Cause lawsuit goes after unabashedly partisan voter laws that benefit Republicans.
Paul Fanlund: On race, a reminder that Madison is two cities
The Capital Times
Let’s be honest. Madison has always struggled to expand or even maintain its ranks of professionals of color. I’ve witnessed firsthand the turmoil felt by Blacks about the price their families pay to live in a city where their numbers are so few and their sense of being scrutinized so constant. Which makes the perspective of Patrick Sims so relevant. Sims came through Chicago’s troubled public schools to graduate from Yale University and earn a master’s degree in the professional theater program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Timothy Yu: UW-Madison needs a safer plan for faculty and students
Wisconsin State Journal
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage unchecked across the country, many schools have begun to rethink their fall reopening plans.
Trump’s Wrong Logic About Learning To Speak Chinese
Forbes
Noted: I grew up in New England with no family ties to China, and started learning Mandarin in grad school at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the 1980s out of a curiosity about an Asia that was on the rise. I benefited from scholarship money, and spirited teachers like Arthur Chen and Clara Sun. The Chinese language is a wide window into one of the world’s most influential civilizations, richest economies, largest military forces, and biggest populaces; it’s also a country whose ambitions aren’t about to go away.
Science doesn’t support claims about grizzly hunting
Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Co-authored by Dr. Adrian Treves, a Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of the Carnivore Coexistence Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Plain Talk: Times are tough, but college sports’ pleas for cash fall flat
The Capital Times
The letter that UW-Madison Athletic Director Barry Alvarez sent to Badger fans earlier this week warning that the department could be facing a $100 million hit to its budget did sound like it was setting the stage for a plea to donors to come to the rescue if money-making football isn’t played this fall.
UW-Madison can’t open safely this fall — Terry Ross
Wisconsin State Journal
Letter to the editor: The entire University of Wisconsin System should stay virtual until it can open safely for real.
What It Will Take to Reopen Schools Safely
American Scientist
It will take coordinated effort from national, state, and local leadership, individual behavior change, and funding to bring the outbreak under control and to return to in-person schooling safely. Measuring exactly 6 feet in between desks will not be enough to achieve these aims; we need to think about the big picture and consider how each reopening plan stacks up against these goals.
BY SANDRA ALBRECHT, MALIA JONES, APARNA KUMAR, LINDSEY LEININGER
China is perpetrating genocide. We’ve seen this before.
Forward
Chad Gibbs is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a George L. Mosse Graduate Exchange Fellow to the Hebrew University. His research focuses on Jewish resistance at the extermination camp Treblinka.
A lesson from the coronavirus that could save us all – the community can save the community
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: William R. Hartman, MD, PhD, Department of Anesthesiology, is principal investigator for the UW COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.
Editorial: Meeting the immediate needs of UW’s Odyssey Project
WISC-TV 3
We’ve got some good news and some less good news regarding one of our favorite inclusive and equitable education programs.
Add ‘Nails’ Tales’ to Capitol Square — Doris Montague
Wisconsin State Journal
Perhaps one of the empty pedestals at the state Capitol in Madison would be just the place for “Nails’ Tales,” which lost its spot by Camp Randall Stadium.
Tom Still: Putting more ‘market sense’ into immigration
Wisconsin State Journal
The result was a dramatic reversal of a rule that would have kept hundreds of thousands of foreign students off U.S. campuses, including about 5,800 students at UW-Madison, and further complicated a fall semester that was already hard to manage from fiscal as well as educational perspectives.
Make sure international students can stay at UW
Wisconsin State Journal
Editorial: Wisconsin can’t afford to lose thousands of foreign students from its campuses, especially those attending UW-Madison.
David Blaska: UW-Madison professor sells plywood to students
Wisconsin State Journal
The frightening thing about UW-Madison professor Walter C. Stern’s column last Sunday, “To move ’Forward,’ we must confront troubled past,” is not how he tortures history to fit his ideology. It’s that he teaches his identity politics to your children’s teachers and — one suspects — many of the late-night visitors to State Street and Capitol Square this long hot summer.
Letter: Will UW-Madison students target a Barack Obama statue, too
Wisconsin State Journal
No one is born with a fully developed social conscience, and no one could pass the selective purity tests being advanced by this UW-Madison group.
Letter: Lincoln monument must stay on Bascom Hill
Wisconsin State Journal
It took a lot of courage to take the stand Lincoln did that caused the Civil War and the division of the North and South in one nation. Taking down his statue would be a total insult to his actions and those who fought and died for the result of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Dalila Fernandes de Negreiros: Black studies needed now more than ever
Capital Times
Universities that often devalue, make invisible or disregard financial and human resources for their Black studies departments must affirm a verbal commitment to racial justice.
Laura Albert: Coronavirus reopening risks – Here’s a plan to make us safer
Fox News
“Opening the economy is not the problem,” writes Laura Albert, Industrial and Systems Engineering professor. “Opening the economy without a plan to control the risk is the problem.”
Tom Still: Thompson’s research record makes him good fit for UW
Wisconsin State Journal
He may be in the seat for only a year or so, but former Gov. Tommy Thompson brings a solid record of supporting academic research to the job of interim president of the University of Wisconsin System.
Judd Kinzley: New federal proposals would lead to sharp declines in Chinese students coming to Wisconsin
Cap Times
Judd Kinzley is an associate professor of modern Chinese history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Editorial: Tommy Thompson can renew and improve a struggling UW System
The Capital Times
Thompson has the experience, the maturity and the stature to renew the system’s historic commitment to the Wisconsin Idea and to the communities from Superior to Kenosha that will only flourish if Wisconsin expands its commitment to higher education.
Tommy Thompson is wrong pick for UW System — Catie DeMets
Wisconsin State Journal
Letter to the editor: It’s yet another wasted opportunity to set our broken course straight, to charge boldly into a future that includes and respects everyone.
Tommy Thompson is just what UW System needs — John Powell
Wisconsin State Journal
Letter to the editor: I remember a press conference to announce UW-Madison had recruited (poached?) an up-and-coming science researcher who arrived with two truckloads of high-tech equipment. Thompson and almost everyone else realized the university is a major driver of the state economy, and that increasing its profile is good for everyone.
Editorial: UW Regents get it right
WISC-TV 3
The choice of Former Governor Tommy Thompson to serve as interim president of the University of Wisconsin System is nothing short of inspired.