Let’s talk about the lack of inclusivity in a space that is supposed to be diverse and serve as a resource to those who need it: The (outdated and non-inclusive in naming, although that is a whole other issue) LGBT Campus Center.
Category: Opinion
Will Kramer: After Charlottesville, Wisconsin lawyers must pick a side
Noted: Will Kramer is in his second year at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Jonathan Patz: Taxing hybrid and electric vehicles doesn’t make financial sense
Noted: Patz is director of the Global Health Institute at UW-Madison
Trust science for more than hurricanes — Linn Roth
Noted: These actions were initiated based on mathematical models utilizing data generated by techniques and technologies substantially developed at UW-Madison.
Patz: Tax on hybrids and electric vehicles is poor economic policy
Noted: Jonathan Patz, M.D., MPH, is John P Holton Chair of Health and the Environment and director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Letter to the Editor: DACA’s demise a win for real American values
Nation’s core principles mean respect for the Constitution and rule of law, and should not be compromised.
Nadler: How to Fix American Stupidity
When so many obviously intelligent and well-educated Americans claim that global warming is a “hoax”; when we seem obsessed with vilifying an entire, fourteen centuries-old religious tradition simply because of recent heinous actions of terrorists who profess to act in its name; when, nearly a century after the Scopes Trial, there is still significant public resistance to the theory of evolution, with one recent poll revealing that 34% of the population rejects evolution — over one third of the country! — and when voters elect a man so obviously unprepared and unfit to be president, I begin seriously to worry that we Americans are exhibiting greater and greater stupidity.
Issues of diversity, inclusion must be addressed with same level of commitment as Alcohol Edu, Tonight
As freshmen, we often experience some culture shock in our first two weeks of class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For some of us, the school is bigger than anything we’ve ever seen. For others, classes are harder than we expected. But, for a lot of students, especially minority students and members of historically disadvantaged communities, the obvious lack of diversity comes as a big hit.
The bashing of academics must stop
The bashing of academics because they are believed to be underachieving and lazy must stop.
Alfred McCoy, how the Pentagon snatched innovation from the jaws of defeat
Not quite a century ago, on January 7, 1929, newspaper readers across America were captivated by a brand-new comic strip, “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.” It offered the country its first images of space-age death rays, atomic explosions, and inter-planetary travel.
From the desk of the editor: Continuing The Badger Herald ‘experiment’ through Snapchat
The Badger Herald will be launching its own Discover Channel this fall.
Schwartz: Guatemala’s president tried to shut down a U.N. commission that announced it was investigating him
On Aug. 27, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales ordered the immediate expulsion of the head of the U.N. Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, Iván Velásquez. Within hours, the country’s Constitutional Court had blocked the move. (Rachel A. Schwartz is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.)
Journal Times editorial: UW-Madison must document harassment complaints | Editorial | journaltimes.com
If you’ve held a supervisory position in the 21st century, chances are good you’ve been given this instruction by your supervisor: Document everything. Any kind of serious conflict or incident involving someone you supervise, write it down and date it, including actions taken by the company.
David Wandel: Congrats to professor Shakhashiri
Every so often there is an action that has a perfect reaction. And so it is for an old friend, professor Bassam Shakhashiri. He is the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Grady-Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public.
Donald Downs and Steve Underwood: Rethink campus speech bill
Letter to the editor from Downs, a UW-Madison professor emeritus of political science and First Amendment scholar, and Underwood, a retired Madison attorney.
WARF’s commitment to startups shows robust, sustainable economic strategy
Last week, Erik Iverson, the managing director of UW-Madison’s patent, licensing and research support engine, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, said WARF plans to spend $60 million over the next roughly half-dozen years or so on seed and venture funding to grow young companies.
Charlottesville May Put The Brakes On Campus Free Speech Laws
The sight of white supremacists marching through the heart of the University of Virginia, carrying flaming Tiki torches and shouting “Jews will not replace us!” — followed by the killing of a counterprotester at a rally in downtown Charlottesville the next day — may put the brakes on state efforts to strengthen campus free speech protections.
Tom Oates: UW’s neutral-site football games against Notre Dame come with a big price
The series does come with concerns, however. As much as I like the idea of UW and Notre Dame meeting for the first time since 1964, there is something disquieting about the Badgers playing yet another big-time non-conference opponent somewhere other than Camp Randall Stadium.
Dr. Dipesh Navsaria: U.S. needs to catch up on paid family leave
Noted: Author 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.
Hicks: Memo to the Google memo writer: Women were foundational to the field of computing
The rampant sexism in the tech world was put on full display this week after an internal memo from a Google software engineer went viral on the Internet. If we are to believe the memo’s author — who was fired from the company Monday — women are more prone to “neuroticism” and less likely to pursue leadership roles in the tech industry because of “biological differences.” (Marie Hicks is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing.”)
Lee: Asian America needs affirmative action in higher education
Affirmative action is back in the news, as The New York Times reported that the Trump administration is taking a look at the pending case against Harvard University’s affirmative action admissions policies.
Tom Still: Key leaders offer support for Foxconn deal
MADISON — After lawmakers finished grilling members of the Walker administration over the details of a proposed incentive package to bring Foxconn Technology Group to Wisconsin, the mood in Thursday’s public hearing audibly changed.
Tom Still: Key leaders offer support for Foxconn deal
UW-Madison Engineering Dean Ian Robertson talked about the need for engineering graduates to fill Foxconn-related jobs, either directly or indirectly, and noted the college must add faculty to meet those demands over time.
What rural Wisconsin voters think of Donald Trump.
The divide between urban and rural communities, which has existed essentially everywhere for centuries, took on a singular importance to many of us when Donald Trump was elected last November. In her new book, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker, political scientist Katherine J. Cramer looks at what happened in 2016 through the lens of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s rural popularity, despite policies that would endanger his rural and working-class constituents.
Chelsea Blackburn Cohen: More than UW-Madison accreditation at stake for proposed anti-abortion-training bill
Dear Editor: Introduced in April, a bill written by Rep. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, would prohibit faculty from training resident physicians in performing abortions. Critics of the proposed measure fear for the loss of UW-Madison’s national accreditation in training OBGYNs. Others fear for a future further down the line that results in decreasing access to OBGYN professionals throughout the state.
Tom Still: Foxconn decided to make Wisconsin its American home for more than incentives
There are 75,000 graduates produced each year by the University of Wisconsin System, the Wisconsin Technical College System and the state’s private colleges and universities. That’s a likely source for some of the workers who will eventually fill Foxconn’s Wisconsin labor force. Wisconsin colleges and universities are also home to a research and development structure that rivals what can be found in most states – although it’s time to reinvest in that asset before quality wanes.
State Journal editorial: Taxpayers need convincing that $3B for Foxconn is worth it
Foxconn, which makes liquid display panels for computers, televisions and other devices, also has expressed an interest in UW-Madison research, which could further expand the company’s positive economic impact across the state. This week’s announcement is exciting and welcome, given that several other states had hoped to land the technology manufacturer and its 20 million-square-foot campus on at least 1,000 acres. But Wisconsin taxpayers still need convincing that the governor’s incentive package is worth its steep price.
When the federal budget funds scientific research, it’s the economy that benefits
Emergency: You need more disposable diapers, right away. You hop into your car and trust your ride will be a safe one. Thanks to your phone’s GPS and the microchips that run it, you map out how to get to the store fast. Once there, the barcode on the package lets you accurately check out your purchase and run. Each step in this process owes a debt to the universities, researchers, students and the federal funding support that got these products and technologies rolling in the first place.
Proposed legislation is short-sighted — Douglas W. Laube
Letter to the editor: The bill proposed by Rep. Andre Jacque to prohibit UW physicians from performing abortions and training others to do so is short-sighted and punitive.
UW’s purpose is an educated citizenry — William Scott
Letter to the editor: As state lawmakers push to recruit university leaders from outside academia, we should consider what it means to employ the “business model” to higher education.
Chris Rickert: ‘Charter czar’ prepares launch as charter popularity plateaus
More than two years after his office was created within the University of Wisconsin System and more than a year after he was hired, the czar has yet to authorize a single charter school. His office doesn’t even have a website. Education reformers can have some confidence he hasn’t just been loafing around these last 16 months, even as state education data suggest the popularity of charters could be waning.
Commentary: How should Singapore teachers manage issues of race in the classroom?
Jul 21 each year marks Racial Harmony Day. Ho Li-Ching explores whether students should be encouraged to discuss controversial issues related to race in the classroom and what’s stopping teachers from doing so. Ho Li-Ching is president of the Singapore Association for Social Studies Education and associate professor of social studies education at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin’s war on women: Republicans threaten gynecology program at UW-Madison
GOP state representative Andre Jacque has introduced a bill that would bar medical residents at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from learning how to perform abortions. It’s a move that would do a lot more than hurt abortion access — though that alone is a reason to oppose it. It would also chip away at women’s access to all forms of gynecological and obstetric care, particularly in the state of Wisconsin.
Michel: Public radio rooted in the Wisconsin Idea
Celebrating 100 years of public radio.
You can’t protect free speech by limiting it
It is good that Wisconsin lawmakers are concerned about free speech. But it makes no sense to protect free speech by limiting free speech. But that is exactly what the Wisconsin Assembly has done in approving legislation that threatens those who dare speak their mind on college campuses.
Lindsay Lemmer: Speak out at Tuesday hearing on women’s health bill
Letter to the editor: This Tuesday, July 18, there is a public hearing on a uniquely dangerous bill. This legislation if passed will do irreparable damage to the University of Wisconsin System and the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority, while attacking health care access for Wisconsin women.
Column: The manufactured free speech crisis
The Michigan Legislature, like the U.S. Senate, is a safe space for right-wing groupthink. That’s the conclusion I’ve drawn from a recent flurry of activity on the manufactured crisis of “campus free speech” in Lansing and Washington, D.C.
Do legislators think some types of speech should be more free than others?
It is clear that lawmakers in Wisconsin and elsewhere are attempting to achieve politically neutral college campuses in the name of “protecting” free speech — campuses where all speech is considered equally valuable, no matter how morally repugnant, intellectually empty and psychologically dangerous.
Owens: What is the ‘blue slip,’ and should it be reformed?
President Trump and Senate Democrats are steadfastly opposed to one another over judicial nominees. Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., are now threatening to “blue-slip” Trump’s nomination of Joan Larsen to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Other senators are making similar threats. With Republicans poised to reform the blue slip, now seems an appropriate time to discuss what it is and how it works in practice.
Susan Fiore: UW has long history of nonpartisan integrity
Letter to the editor: Any claims that UW is partisan are just reactions to something the critics don’t want to hear.
Universities need educators, not CEOs — Andrea Thalasinos
Letter to the editor: Given the high status and high salaries of many of these positions, the new preferred hiring pool would likely be heads of major corporations, who would expect CEO-type salaries when they become provosts and chancellors. This is a dangerous path.
Oscar Mayer helped advance UW research — Robert G. Kauffman
Letter to the editor: Oscar Mayer allowed UW departments to collect tissue samples that led to innovation. An example was the use of pig heart valves to pioneer “bird cage” heart valves for humans. The company’s unpublished discoveries and inventions have been applied throughout the meat industry.
Savion Castro: The missing voices in the free speech debate
Column: Right now there there are 664 African-Americans out of 31,407 undergraduates at UW-Madison. In the entire UW System, there are 4,640 African-Americans out of 151,895 undergraduate students. Yet rather than asking why the percentage of African-American students is so alarmingly low, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, is fast-tracking a bill to create safe spaces on Wisconsin campuses for right-wing purveyors of racism, misogyny and xenophobia.
John Nichols: Petty partisanship does not honor Tommy Thompson
Of course, Tommy Thompson deserves to be honored with a University of Wisconsin center that is named for him — and that explores his fascination with politics and the innovative policymaking that can and should extend from the electoral process. But the center must not get bogged down in the petty politics of the moment.
The Missing Voices in the UW Free Speech Debate
As a person of color studying at the overwhelmingly white University of Wisconsin-Madison, I believe policymakers also ought to hear my story and consider my experience, and the stories and experience of other students of color, before telling us whose voices are and aren’t being heard.
America’s ‘Miracle Machine’ is in desperate need of, well, a miracle
For more than a half century, the United States has operated what might be called a “Miracle Machine.” Powered by federal investment in science and technology, the machine regularly churns out breathtaking advances.
Two Minutes with Mitch Henck: Protecting free speech may go too far
Video: In “Two Minutes with Mitch” local radio personality Mitch Henck gives his two cents on the debate over free speech on University of Wisconsin campuses.
Gloria Ladson-Billings: “Calling Me Outta My Name”
Being called out of one’s names is not only about calling out racist, sexist, or homophobic slurs. It is about the power and control to chart one’s own destiny.
University of Wisconsin free speech debate seeks to silence people of color
Free speech on Wisconsin’s college campuses has been getting a lot of attention at the State Capitol recently.
UW works with community members in interest of public good
Among the many examples of the Wisconsin Idea in action in our state today, one we find especially valuable is the University of Wisconsin-Madison partnership with Literacy Network to help immigrants achieve U.S. citizenship.
Assembly deserves praise for free speech — Sandy Wedel
Letter to the editor: I am extremely proud of the Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly, which passed the Campus Free Speech Act last week. I earned my master’s degree from UW-Madison in 1973 and lived through many violent protests during my time there.
Many ideas, where’s the action?
A crowd of 200 dairy-involved attendees participated in the “Dairy Summit” hosted by the University of Wisconsin held at the Alliant Energy Center June 19, 2017. A host of speakers described everything from research to milk production, and dairy marketing to the future of dairying in Wisconsin.
John Nichols: Speech police seek to gag UW campuses
The Capital Times has defended campus free speech since the days when U.S. Sen. Robert M. La Follette and Capital Times founder William T. Evjue were burned in effigy by pro-World War I militarists at UW-Madison.
Chad Alan Goldberg: UW employees need a raise — and more
The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee should be commended for approving a much-needed raise for state employees — and for including University of Wisconsin System employees.
Americanize the University of Wisconsin
State Journal editorial from a century ago: The University of Wisconsin’s own catalog lists 27 teachers in the department of German. And it was only a short time ago when every student at the university, regardless of what course be pursued, was compelled to study German. …That compulsory regulation has been eliminated. But German is still the language urged on our students. The German department has 27 instructors compared to 25 in all other modern languages combined.
Matt Kussow: Don’t use general obligation bonds for transportation projects
Letter to the editor from Matt Kussow, executive director of Badger Advocates.
UWM upgrade would boost state’s economy
Wisconsin’s economy is providing an interesting combination of positive and negative news.
Plain Talk: Paula Bonner, ultimate UW fan, will be missed around campus
This happens to be her last month at the helm of the Wisconsin Alumni Association, the super-active organization that serves the more than 400,000 UW-Madison alumni around the world.
Kunovic: Five things you need to know about Trump’s Cuba policy — and who it will hurt
Martina Kunovic is a PhD candidate in the department of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a visiting researcher at the Instituto Cubano de Investigación Cultural Juan Marinello in Havana in 2015-16.
Sandeen: Looking back at predictions about MOOCs
After thinking that interest in and excitement about massive open online courses had faded to the background of the higher education landscape, I was surprised to see a recent flurry of news media coverage of MOOCs.