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Category: Opinion

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.

Schneider: Diversity requirement a waste of time

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Column: For years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has regaled state residents with its tales of woe.  Since the last budget froze tuition and cut state support for the UW System, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank has outlined staff layoffs, reductions in student employment hours, and even cutbacks in technology support.

Cut administrators to fund the freeze

Wisconsin State Journal

Letter to the editor: The phrase “tuition freeze” makes for good politics, but not good policy. The University of Wisconsin System campuses have been economically pinched for years. As a result, many of the best and brightest faculty have simply left for other states.

UW System leaders must stand up to governor, legislature

Capital Times

Letter to the editor: I agree with UW System President Ray Cross that the people of Wisconsin support the UW System and want it to continue. What he wrote in his column “Now is the time to stand with your UW” is ivory tower puffery that fails to address the reality of what is happening in Wisconsin politically.

Tuition freeze helps politicians, not students

Capital Times

Letter to the editor: Gov. Scott Walker’s column “Tuition freeze key to college affordability” shows a total lack of understanding of the role of higher education. Universities are not trade schools and were never intended to produce students with so-called “job skillss” Especially UW-Madison, which is a research institution

Hail to the retiring chief, Sue Riseling

WISC-TV 3

Sunday was Sue Riseling’s last day as chief of the UW Madison Police Department after 25 years of service to the UW community, and she leaves as one of the most respected campus police chiefs in the nation.

Heberlein: Sweden may have the answer to America’s gun problem

Vox

Twenty years ago, I headed to Sweden for a sabbatical year to study the country’s attitudes toward hunting. As a responsible hunter, I brought my own guns — an old 12-gauge shotgun and a Remington .30-06 — because I didn’t want to miss a shot or wound an animal using unfamiliar, borrowed firearms.

Hawks: Humans Never Stopped Evolving

The Scientist

Natural selection is tricky to catch in action. As Darwin put it, “A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die.” The grain in the balance—the slightly increased chance that organisms carrying one gene variant will fail in the struggle for existence—is the cost of selection. It is almost invisible, only becoming statistically evident when viewed across thousands of individuals, who may display only subtle differences in the affected character.