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Category: Opinion

Jason Gay: The Michigan Wolverines Are Back. Ugh.

Wall Street Journal

There are a lot of reasons I want—no, I need—my Wisconsin Badgers to defeat the No. 4 Michigan Wolverines in football Saturday. The most obvious reason is that I graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, unequivocally regarded as the planet’s finest institution of higher learning and bratwurst (sorry, you Harvard/Stanford losers). A victory in Ann Arbor would make Wisconsin a perfect 5-0, and two weeks later, in Madison, when they crush Ohio State and its tetchy coach, Urban Meyer, the Badgers will have a clear track to a spot in college football’s daffy new playoff system.

Amazon dishonors Red Gym’s history — Sam Breidenbach

Wisconsin State Journal

Letter to the editor: The Madison Trust for Historic Preservation believes the contract negotiated with Amazon by the UW Board of Regents to allow a package pick-up center in the Historic Red Gym is an inappropriate use within this prized national historic landmark.

Gary L. Kriewald: UW unconcerned about affordable student housing

Capital Times

Letter to the editor: The article on the proliferation of luxury high-rises aimed at UW students was in depth, informative, and thoroughly dispiriting. Setting aside the soul-crushing banality of their architecture, these buildings symbolize perfectly the elitist agenda of UW administrators.

Our Views: Academic freedom under fire

Janesville Gazette

With UW-Madison at its epicenter, the UW System appears to be sinking deeper into the intellectual morass known as political correctness. UW-Madison has unveiled a pilot program targeting 1,000 students devoted to improving race relations, largely in response to racial incidents on campus last year. If deemed successful, this program is likely to grow and probably move to other campuses.

Aneesh: Innovation requires free speech

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The United States has one big advantage where it still towers over the rest: its world-beating universities. The days of U.S. supremacy in manufacturing are gone, although we still are competitive in certain areas connected to our research universities. Yet when the world is “free to choose,” to paraphrase the late iconic conservative University of Chicago economist, they “choose” the U.S. for education and research.

Hora: State must invest in experiential learning

As Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature consider the request for $42.5 million in new state funds for the University of Wisconsin System in the 2017-19 biennial budget, they should not only accept this proposal but also embrace the teaching and learning functions of Wisconsin’s colleges and universities as the centerpiece of the state’s workforce development strategy.

Satellites are the backbone of weather forecasts. Congress must vote to support them.

Washington Post

Satellites observe our planet’s weather from space — observations that are the backbone of weather forecasts. Without them, forecasters would not be able to monitor hurricanes, thunderstorms or blizzards. If we are to improve our weather forecasts, we must support our nation’s satellite programs. And there are two bills in Congress that intend to do just that.

Don’t forget to seek balance in everyday college life

Daily Cardinal

There are 43,193 students enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These 43,193 students are trying to complete homework assignments on time. These 43,193 students are attempting to attend all the club kick-off meetings they signed up for at the Student Organization Fair. And these 43,193 students enrolled at UW-Madison are trying to find the perfect balance between school and their social lives.

Kent Hamele: Press needs to step up in right-wing attempt to control UW

Capital Times

The article “Republicans voice contempt for UW ‘political correctness’ as budget process begins” consists of a long spiel of quotes wherein Rep. Robin Vos and Sen. Steve Nass are allowed to state their case repeatedly and at length. “Balance” is provided in five paragraphs at the end of the story which talk about the UW’s proposed diversity initiative, and provide no substantive response at all to the accusations voiced by Vos and Nass earlier in the piece.

Cramer: To Overcome Deep Mistrust, Listen to Rural Families’ Needs

New York Times

In order to invest effectively in rural areas, the most important step is to listen. I am a public opinion scholar, and since 2007 I have been studying political attitudes by inviting myself into conversations among groups of regulars in gas stations, diners, etc. in communities across Wisconsin.

Liz Scheer: Humanities offer vital business tools

Capital Times

Letter to the editor: At the Sept. 14 UW budget meeting Regina Millner vowed to protect the humanities at the University of Wisconsin, citing the necessity of fields like English and philosophy in terms of their capacity to enrich students on a human level.

Hey administration, have a beer: We may be the top party school, but we’re healthy as ever

Badger Herald

When Princeton Review released their annual rankings of American colleges and universities, one ranking stuck out to me, and probably you too: the University of Wisconsin-Madison found itself in the number one slot for top party schools in the nation. Suddenly I heard Lil Yachty reverberating inside my head: “We did it, we did it, we did it.”

Time to show support amid the political chaos

WISC-TV 3

I think there’s a theme here, a common thread that ties some of this stuff together. Each provokes a modicum of frustration for me. We should be doing better in measures of new economy performance, in part by virtue of the presence of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the excellence of our public schools. So it would follow that we should be doing a better job of supporting UW–Madison and those public schools.

Drinking culture should not define our university

Daily Cardinal

I know the University of Wisconsin-Madison was recently ranked the top party school in the nation by the Princeton Review’s 2017 edition of “The Best 381 Colleges.” And that is definitely something to celebrate. But do we really need to fill every week, weekday and weekend with experiences centered on consuming endless amounts of alcohol?

Editorial: UW tuition freeze should continue for two years

Capital Times

We do not frequently agree with Gov. Scott Walker on issues relating to the University of Wisconsin System. But, in the absence of real reforms that address the excessive cost of higher education, Walker’s proposal to extend the state’s tuition freeze on UW campuses into the 2017-2019 state budget is necessary.

Rep. Vos correct, UW System should include more conservative speakers

Badger Herald

The UW System has a great mission statement, part of which says the university should develop students’ “intellectual, cultural and humane sensitivities.” But this cannot be accomplished when conservatives are largely not speaking on campus, as Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, argued in a column for Right Wisconsin.

Trump Can’t Fix the Problems of the Working Class

U.S. News and World Report

Quoted: Counties and municipalities should be experimental governments, embracing new urbanism and supporting apprenticeships to open doors to the middle-class, co-ops and work-councils to give employees an ownership stake, investments in high speed broadband, timebanks to increase neighborhood interaction, community land trusts, credit unions and private development organizations to support startups through microloans and subsidized rent. “Get as much money circulating as possible and grow local business so you have people who care about the town,” says Joel Rogers a professor of law, political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the proponent of productive democracy.

Levine: The Cost of Keeping Companies in the United States

New York Times

How should we stop corporations from leaving the United States, as both presidential candidates have vowed to do? After Pfizer announced this year that it wanted to merge with the Ireland-based Allergan in a maneuver known as a corporate inversion, the Obama administration put in new tax rules that effectively scuttled the deal.

Paul Fanlund: On race, UW journalism professors reassess media ‘objectivity’

Capital Times

The professors, Sue Robinson and Kathleen Bartzen Culver, focused their research on Madison, using in-depth interviews (including with me), focus groups and analysis of actual coverage. They track the Madison media landscape from 2011, when a contentious bid by an African-American leader to create a charter school aimed at African-American boys failed.

UW’s accolades grounded in Wisconsin Idea

Green Bay Press-Gazette

Over the past year, efforts by political leaders have been introduced to replace the “Wisconsin Idea” with an updated and, what some would believe to be, a more current University of Wisconsin mission statement.

Politics is cutting the heart out of Public Ivies

Washington Post

Former UW System Regent Chuck Pruitt column: For generations, public universities have been seen as great equalizers in the United States, especially for the middle class. In many states, a high-achieving student could go to a “Public Ivy,” a land-grant, flagship university in Michigan, Wisconsin or California, among others, and receive a Harvard- or Yale-caliber education at an affordable price.

State employees give a lot during annual fundraiser

WISC-TV 3

The campaign chairs for this year’s Partners in Giving fundraising campaign for state employees, including UW-Madison and UW Health employees, held their orientation meeting Tuesday to get ready for their work encouraging their co-workers to support some 520 charities and it was an impressive event.

‘Cultural fluency’ is waste of money

Wisconsin State Journal

Letter to the editor: The University of Wisconsin System has proposed that all students, professors and staff participate in mandatory programs designed to instill “cultural fluency.” (Am I the only one who cringes at the Orwellian undertones of that phrase?)

Berquam: UW program benefits all students

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Christian Schneider’s Aug. 12 column dismissing the value of programs promoting cultural understanding at universities read like it was inspired by the sort of touchy-feely “diversity training” lampooned on TV shows like “The Office.”What we’re actually doing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this year is quite different. The issues we’re addressing are real and the new Our Wisconsin program is a rational, evidence-driven response to them.

My Wisconsin Idea: an accessible and affordable future

Daily Cardinal

As a student at UW-Madison, a world-class research institution, I have the ability to receive a quality degree with hard work and support. However, that support is threatened by polarized views and a misunderstanding that investing in public education is a partisan issue, rather than a value. I understand the value of my education because I know that in order to create jobs, improve the Wisconsin economy and maintain a quality education, my state must invest in education.

Fontes: The Demise of a Prison Lord

New York Times

On July 18, Guatemala’s most infamous — and powerful — prisoner, Byron Lima Oliva, was shot to death in the Pavón prison outside Guatemala City. While it was a fellow prisoner who, the authorities said, put two bullets in Mr. Lima’s head, in all likelihood the intellectual authors of the killing hail from the highest echelons of the state and the moneyed elite. In Guatemala, it is often impossible to tell where the state ends and the underworld begins.