Noted: This article is by Robin J. Tanner, associate professor of marketing at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Category: Opinion
Mills: UW’s ham-handed effort to regulate speech
What kinds of free speech should be protected? Do some people, or some ideas, get more protection than others? How inviolable is our right to protest speech that we find offensive, or potentially an incitement to violence?
Tony Evers: One is the loneliest number
They always say that one is the loneliest number. As state superintendent for Wisconsin’s public schools and one of only two non-Scott Walker appointments on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, I know it all too well. 16-1.
Our Views: A merger for U-Rock’s 50th birthday
UW-Rock County turned 50 years old this year, though news of a proposed merger with UW-Whitewater dampened the celebration Wednesday.
Scott McDonell and Sharon Corrigan: Dane County study shows voter ID law should be temporarily suspended
Dane County has recently been criticized for funding a study with UW-Madison that looked at the specific effects of the new photo ID law on voting patterns in Dane and Milwaukee counties. Apparently, some believe it is inappropriate to study this issue at the local level.
Chris Rickert: Alleged racist student leaves UW-Madison with few good options
If you’ve thought about expending brain power to untangle the case of the UW-Madison grad student who may or may not be a racist and the UW-Madison grad student who exposed him, beware that it’s quite the rabbit hole.
Sterling Hall bombing ended war protests — Richard Shropshire
After the Sterling Hall bombing, the war protests on the UW campus came to halt.
Free speech: More listening, less shouting
The hope is the policy change will curb the shout-downs and disruption of speakers — typically conservative or otherwise controversial speakers — whose messages are opposed by other student groups on state campuses.
Editorial: UW regents’ assault on free speech is indefensible
Unfortunately, the current UW Board of Regents — with the notable exception of state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers — no longer recognizes this essential premise of the University of Wisconsin. They have made clear their abandonment of a commitment to sifting and winnowing, and the Wisconsin Idea that extends from it, by voting to restrict First Amendment rights on UW campuses.
Mary Carbine: Come check out Alumni Park
While the Wisconsin Alumni Association built the park, it’s those who visit who make the park come alive.
Chris Rickert: 50 years after Dow, UW-Madison activists look inward
When the 1960s are caricatured as a sex-, drugs- and rock-n-roll-fueled free-for-all, the 50th anniversary of the Dow Chemical protests at UW-Madison serve as a reminder that college students are capable of caring about international injustices and believing they can influence what their government does about them.
Joseph Ohler, Jr.: College ‘wage penalty’ extends beyond student loans
The Cap Times recently carried a well-written feature about student loan debt’s deleterious hold on the lives of not-so-recent college graduates.
Fill the seats in the student section — Fred Klancnik
Where were the students who didn’t show up for the “sold out” UW football game against Northwestern at Camp Randall last Saturday?
Find a solution to help the Dreamers — Ismael Coello
As a new student at UW-Milwaukee, I know college is an exciting time. I graduated as valedictorian from Delavan-Darien High School in May looking forward to this fall.
Guest column: To ensure safety of UW campus, it is crucial that students be allowed to carry firearms
Restrictive gun laws not proven to decrease gun violence, disproving liberal cries for stricter regulations
Chancellor: UW-Stevens Point evolves to meet needs of students
UW-Stevens Point has a 123-year history of change. Evolution has been a constant since we opened our doors in 1894 as a State Normal School.
Ellenberg: How Computers Turned Gerrymandering Into a Science
MADISON, Wis. — About as many Democrats live in Wisconsin as Republicans do. But you wouldn’t know it from the Wisconsin State Assembly, where Republicans hold 65 percent of the seats, a bigger majority than Republican legislators enjoy in conservative states like Texas and Kentucky.
How Computers Turned Gerrymandering Into a Science
MADISON, Wis. — About as many Democrats live in Wisconsin as Republicans do. But you wouldn’t know it from the Wisconsin State Assembly, where Republicans hold 65 percent of the seats, a bigger majority than Republican legislators enjoy in conservative states like Texas and Kentucky.
Trans lab should be lauded for work
The work of Dr. Budge has made a significant impact on the field of transgender psychology. Her work is often lauded as being cutting edge and addressing the day-to-day challenges faced by gender diverse people.
Richard Monette: Redistricting case misses chance to test state’s own constitution
As a longtime professor of Wisconsin constitutional law and government, I have been lamenting that Wisconsin’s constitution and institutions have been largely absent from the Wisconsin redistricting case just argued in the U.S. Supreme Court. Simply put, the case should have gone through the state court system using state constitutional arguments.
Sharon Corrigan: ‘UniverCITY’ partnership will put UW brainpower to work for Dane County
UniverCITY is designed to tap the expertise on campus to help local units of government address specific issues affecting the community.
Richard Monette: Redistricting case misses chance to test state’s own constitution
As a longtime professor of Wisconsin constitutional law and government, I have been lamenting that Wisconsin’s constitution and institutions have been largely absent from the Wisconsin redistricting case just argued in the U.S. Supreme Court. Simply put, the case should have gone through the state court system using state constitutional arguments.
Louise Lyall and Laurel Noack: Rolling back Title IX protections makes UW less safe for women
One in four women at UW-Madison who responded to a 2015 national survey reported having been the victim of sexual assault and misconduct. One in 10 experienced penetrative sex to which they did not consent.
Trans lab does valuable research — Jenell Johnson
Trans people live in Wisconsin, and they are valuable members of our communities. If the Wisconsin Idea drives our fine university to benefit the people of this great state, then the work at the Trans Research Lab is the Wisconsin Idea in practice.
Wisconsin Voter-ID Study: Flawed and Unreliable
arlier this week, professors at the University of Wisconsin–Madison made national news, including a story in the New York Times, with the claim that that nearly 17,000 potential Wisconsin voters had been “deterred” by the state’s voter-ID law. All the usual suspects responded on cue, repeating all the expected talking points, with the clerk of Milwaukee County suggesting that the survey shows that “Jim Crow laws are alive and well.”
Everything you need to know about the Supreme Court’s big gerrymandering case
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a major new case about partisan gerrymandering. The case began just days after the Nov. 8 election, when a federal court struck down a Republican-drawn legislative map in Wisconsin for being too partisan. Because of special rules for some voting rights cases, the Supreme Court is required to hear the case.
Hyde: Prize and prejudice?
Are the Nobel prizes sexist? If they are, then perhaps some are more sexist than others. The prize for literature has been awarded to 14 women and 95 men. The peace prize has gone to 16 women and 81 men. Of the others, female laureates number 12 in medicine/physiology, four in chemistry, two in physics, and just one in economics.
Taken as a whole, just 5 per cent of the 911 winners have been female, and in our opinion pages this week, Janet Shibley Hyde, director of the Center for Research on Gender and Women at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, considers why this might be.
UW–Madison’s new welcome mat
The University of Wisconsin–Madison has never really had a front door, an obvious entry spot with a “Welcome” mat and a bowl of hard candy on a little table when you walk in. I suspect a great many folks start their visit to the ever-more-sprawling campus at the Memorial Union. But that’s really more like a rec room leading out to the patio and the backyard. Bascom Hall is a kind of elegant grand entry, but the building is primarily offices.
Judge James Troupis: Free speech: a challenge for civil discourse
Column: How is it that it remains virtually unimaginable that the governor of this state, a governor confirmed three times by Wisconsin voters, cannot appear at the state’s flagship institution to address the most consequential legislation in the state’s history without a potential riot?
Matthew T. Hora: Opposiing UW cultural diversity courses hurts state’s workforce development
Column: [B}ased on my research about the skills employers seek in today’s job applicants, it is clear that Republican hostility to these courses is detrimental to Wisconsin’s ability to educate and train a competitive workforce. In fact, opposition to multicultural education in the state’s public colleges and universities will negatively impact one company in particular: Foxconn.
Chris Rickert: UW-Madison lab’s mission blurs line between science and activism
Republicans can and will quibble with the mostly left-leaning UW-Madison over what its professors teach, what kinds of activism its students engage in, and which speakers are welcomed to campus and which draw protests.
Patz: Quitting coal: a health benefit equivalent to quitting tobacco, alcohol and fast-food
Imagine, for a moment, that climate change was not synonymous with doomsday scenarios, but rather presented an opportunity to radically transform society for the better. This is not an attempt to downplay the seriousness of the risks facing our climate. Rather, it is about reframing the choice we face, away from the prospect of bleak minimalism often associated with a low-carbon future.
Journal Times editorial: Get your deer tested for chronic wasting disease
“There still have been no known instances of humans contracting CWD, but hunters should know the new study demonstrates the risk isn’t nonexistent,” Keith Poulsen, of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, told the Wisconsin State Journal last week. CWD is related to incurable illnesses, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease found in humans, which can cause dementia and death.
Editorial: Workforce challenge is job No. 1
Universities including UW-Madison are stressing entrepreneurial skills across campus, which will help young people move promising ideas into the marketplace. Technical colleges are partnering with employers on internships and incentives for targeted fields, and trying to eliminate waiting lists for popular programs. The University of Wisconsin System must redouble its efforts to connect graduates with businesses here. And the Legislature should consider financial incentives for students who stay.
Chris Rickert: Piqued GOP blind to differences among UW faculty
In their latest attack on the eggheads, Wisconsin Republicans have revived Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to force the University of Wisconsin System to keep track of the time professors spend teaching and to reward those “who teach more than a standard academic load.”
Editorial: Republicans backtrack on commitment to clean state budget
Among the non-fiscal items the finance committee added to the budget are: Looser qualifications for UW System leaders; A mandate for UW to report and reward the time professors spend teaching.
Letter: LGBT center on campus lacks inclusivity, does not support LGBT community
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.
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.