Category: Opinion

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.

Letter to the editor: Election season is over, so what useful things are our Wisconsin legislators doing now? Well, Rep. Dave Murphy (Greenville) is getting himself all worked up about a course offered at UW-Madison. It’s a course about race and culture called “The Problem of Whiteness.” Murphy seems to think this course is a personal insult to him, as a white person.

UW-Madison officials are hoping to tamp down concerns among students that under incoming President Donald Trump, their peers living in the country without legal permission could be snatched from campus lecture halls and deported.

State Rep. David Murphy, R-Greenville, is the latest in a line of state legislators to get his tighty whities in a bundle over a class going on over at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

UW-Madison’s spring course guide has been available for more than two months, but some legislators recently raised concerns about next semester’s offerings, particularly about an African languages and literature class called “The Problem of Whiteness.”

UW-Madison’s spring course guide has been available for more than two months, but some legislators recently raised concerns about next semester’s offerings, particularly about an African languages and literature class called “The Problem of Whiteness.”

State Rep. David Murphy, R-Greenville, is the latest in a line of state legislators to get his tighty whities in a bundle over a class going on over at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The hand-wringing time for higher education is over. The economic realities that shaped the 2016 election also apply to students on our campuses.

Republican state legislators, led by Rep. Dave Murphy, Greenville, and Sen. Steve Nass, Whitewater, are threatening to withhold funding from the University of Wisconsin-Madison if it doesn’t kill the course “The Problem of Whiteness” and dismiss the professor who teaches it (Dec. 21 Tribune). I’m not surprised by this news, but I am, sadly, reminded again how little these lawmakers seem to understand about what makes a university work.

Community columnist Tom Clementi: If you’re a football fan, 2016 has been a wonderful year. … These accomplishments help us get through a cold winter. What is baffling, however, is that when it comes to the academic funding side of these, and other state, universities, they somehow become our favorite whipping boys.

If the day of the week ends in “y,” odds are that someone in academia is being silly. A recent example is a course in “The Problem of Whiteness” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison taught by a professor named Damon Sajnani. Two GOP legislators have called for the course to be cancelled or Sajnani to be fired. I think that they are wrong to do so, but let’s first consider why they are upset.

Guest column by Larry Shapiro, a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has been on the faculty since 1993.

Letter to the editor: There are some excellent, high-quality, lower-cost college options that will allow students to reduce or eliminate college debt. While tuition at Lawrence University in Appleton is $44,544 and Marquette University is $38,000 per year, Wisconsin resident tuition is significantly lower. Tuition and fees at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County are $5,162 annually. Tuition at the four-year campuses is also significantly less, for example it is $7,672 at UW-Stevens Point and just more than $10,000 annually at UW-Madison.

Seems to me that the clowns who wore a Barack Obama costume with a noose attached to it to a Badgers game this fall could use a course that explores the issue of racism. But GOP legislators, with Rep. Dave Murphy of Greenville leading the charge, think that a University of Wisconsin-Madison course dealing with racism and titled “The Problem of Whiteness” should be canceled and the professor teaching it fired.

If I were Santa Claus, my Christmas gifts to Republican state Rep. Dave Murphy and Republican state Sen. Steve Nass would be vouchers to enroll in the UW-Madison class “The Problem of Whiteness.”

The University of Wisconsin in Madison has always been a bit strange. I ought to know. I was there during the wave of radicalism that crested in the Sixties; I watched as demonstrators carrying North Vietnamese flags stormed the school’s administration buildings, burned this country’s flag and finally closed the place down to protest the Vietnam War and just about everything else Americans value.

Letter to the editor: Some things never change: taxes, gravity and the annual attack by Republican legislators on university course content.

Letter to the editor: Once again, UW-Madison has drawn the ire of a state legislator over the content of one of its courses, this one entitled “The Problem of Whiteness.” Judging by its description and reading list, this course sounds more like ideological brainwashing (based on the shaky premise that every institution and white citizen in America is permeated by racism) than an exercise in critical inquiry.

Sen. Steve Nass is developing a reputation for acting more like the Thought Police than a legislator in his dealings with UW-Madison.

Column by Caroline Levine, former chair of the English department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.