Category: Opinion

Noted: Separate research published in 2015 by Johnson, C. Kirabo Jackson, an economist at Northwestern, and Claudia Persico, an economist at the University of Wisconsin, found that

Noted: And whom else might this ban keep out? Remember Steve Jobs? His biological father was Abdulfattah “John” Jandali. He came to America as a student in the 1950s and studied at the University of Wisconsin. He was from … Homs, Syria.

On the night of Thursday, Jan. 26, I was in Flagstaff, Ariz., with my training group, sifting through my Twitter feed.

As the meltdown on the Berkeley campus reminds us, free speech seems to have a fragile beachhead on university campuses. While “safe spaces” have multiplied across academia, the idea that campuses should be zones that respect free speech seems to have withered.

Dear Editor, I am writing in response to the controversy surrounding Daniel Dropik. In subsequent moves to prevent further such incidents, admission’s staff should note that there are on campuses throughout the country many students who have criminal records. For many former offenders, higher education offers a clear path from a dark past toward a brighter future. An educated ex-con can do a lot of good in the world.

Column by eight members of White Anti-racist Graduate Students (WAGS): Kathryn Boonstra, James Gleckner, Tyler Hook, Julie Kallio, Lauren Lauter, Amato Nocera, Erica Ramberg, Rob Timberlake and Glen Water.

Earlier today, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced plans for UW-Madison to make several changes to existing policies regarding incoming students.

You can look at the mishandling of funds at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh (UWO) as a blot on the accounting controls of the University of Wisconsin System (UWS), or you can applaud the efforts of former UWO Chancellor Rick Wells to integrate his campus and its related foundation with the economic development of its region.

Did you know there’s a list of the 40 worst colleges for Jewish students? Algemeiner.com, a Jewish news site, has published it. I bring this up to question the contents. Algemeiner, if you’re going to publish such a list, could you please actually put the worst colleges for Jewish students on it, not the best? Ridiculously, University of Madison – Wisconsin, one of the best schools for Jewish students in the nation, is number 39 on the list.

As you might imagine, there’s a lot to unpack when a UW-Madison student who’s been convicted of setting fire to black churches starts passing out invitations around campus to join a “pro-white student club.”

I was disturbed reading the news yesterday. Well, that seems a bit general. For the last week and a half, I’ve been disturbed by the news every time I go on Facebook or Twitter.

Column by College Republicans: Freedom, liberty, opportunity, justice. These are just a few words used to describe our country. If any of these terms deeply resonate with your image of this country, you are probably a Republican.

Republicans like to claim “freedom” as a banner ideology of their party, but the GOP in Wisconsin has shown an aversion to freedom lately. In particular, state Sen. Stephen Nass, R-Whitewater, seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding of freedom, namely academic freedom.

Recently revealed allegations of the misuse of public funds by the former chancellor and vice chancellor at UW-Oshkosh should have taxpayers and legislators outraged – and demanding a long-overdue independent audit of the entire UW System.

Among the issues Michelle Obama targeted during her tenure as first lady, improving access to higher education was at the top of the docket. Her Reach Higher initiative was meant to inspire every American to pursue some sort education beyond a high school diploma.

“The Problem with Whiteness” is not that every single white person is racist. “The Problem with Whiteness” is that in 2017, there are still people who are afraid their white privilege will be taken away by a professor teaching a class on what it means to be white.

I applaud my colleague Donald P. Moynihan’s critiques of the legislative interventions with university courses that have emerged in recent times. A critical aspect of academic freedom is the freedom of faculty and departments to choose what and how to teach. But he is wrong to play down the suffocating effects of identity politics activists and the forces of so-called political correctness.

Letter to the editor: I have been a practicing psychiatrist in this community for over 30 years, and this proposal by our legislators to allow guns in UW campus buildings has caused me great concern.

In Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, political scientist Robert Putnam cites research that points to the billions of dollars lost to American society, over a generation, when a large portion of our young adults are under-educated and under- or unemployed. These costs include literal costs to social welfare structures, as well as lost tax revenue.

I feel safer now that Rep. David Murphy will personally decide if UW-Madison courses are “legit.”

Editorial cartoon: Republican lawmakers, led by Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, have threatened to cut funding to the University of Wisconsin as punishment for allowing controversial classes such as “The Problem of Whiteness.”

Column by Ph.D. student in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Eric Luckey.

It’s bad for Republican lawmakers to push for more ideologically diverse educators and courses at UW-Madison as a way to inject more conservatism into the left-leaning campus.

When Republican legislators threaten to withhold funding from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, fire professors who teach material they deem controversial, or comb through the list of course offerings to make sure classes meet some conservative definition of what is legitimate to teach, it has a chilling effect on academic and intellectual freedom and threatens our democracy. These attacks on free speech will continue to poison the atmosphere on our campus and do significant damage to Madison’s national and international reputation.

Sixty years ago, Chief Justice Earl Warren warned our nation that we had a choice. Either “teachers and students must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate,” or “our civilization will stagnate and die.” There was no third option.

Letter to the editor: Thanks to former Gov. Tommy Thompson for his article that reminds us of the vitality that is brought to the state and its citizens, on so many levels, by a healthy partnership between the UW and state, local and federal government. I fear that for the most part, his pearls of wisdom will fall on deaf ears of the GOP legislators and Gov. Walker.

Recap of New York Times column penned by Professor Don Moynihan, director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs.

In late December, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources altered and removed information on its website concerning climate change, its impacts, and ways to mitigate and adapt to those impacts.