Category: Opinion

Columnist ruminates on the UW-Madison’s Multicultural Student Center’s meetings to discuss fatal shootings of police and black men.

Thanks to Marc Eisen for his July 10 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel commentary, “Empowering UWM will empower the state,” advocating investment in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as the pathway to a prosperous future for Wisconsin.

Letter to the editor from Jeff Carroll: Six years ago, my daughter spent a semester in Cape Town, South Africa, through the UW-Madison Study Abroad program. She arrived to a shared house with one lock in the whole residence and a 2-foot-high wall surrounding the property, not the 10-foot security wall that was promised.

Members of Congress are leaving Washington for seven weeks without passing a bill to pay for the fight against Zika. Their failure to do so will delay the public health response to the mosquito-borne virus that causes birth defects, unnecessarily putting thousands of people at risk.

The Republican state senator from Whitewater, Steve Nass, could use a refresher course on the Wisconsin Idea.

Noted: UW-Madison professor and constitutional expert Howard Schweber didn’t think Steffen’s proposal was likely to run into constitutional problems, though.

The Republican state senator from Whitewater, Steve Nass, could use a refresher course on the Wisconsin Idea.

Letter to the editor from Emily Auerbach, UW-Madison English professor and director of the UW Odyssey Project.

State Sen. Steve Nass is pointing to an essay on gay sexual preferences assigned in a UW-Madison sociology course as evidence of what’s wrong with the state’s premier system of higher education and why it might need to be supplied with even fewer taxpayer dollars during the next round of budget-making.

Nass has written a letter to the UW Chancellor, the President of the UW System and each member of the Board of Regents demanding they justify this course offering, and threatening the legislature could withhold funding for higher education throughout the state if he doesn’t like their answers. Who made this guy the chief of the morality police?

Letter to the editor from Joe Robinson, who accepted but ultimately turned down a job at UW-Madison’s Odyssey Project due to concerns about the racial climate in Madison.

Letter to the editor from Eric A. Johnson, Madison, professor, Department of Bacteriology, UW-Madison

State Sen. Steve Nass would like you to know he is very offended.

I was annoyed and incredulous when I read in The Northwestern that “Wisconsin football fans, clamoring for more night games, will be giddy in 2016,” because ESPN announced that the Ohio State and Nebraska home games will be at night. This ruffled my feathers. I do not believe that fans want more UW–Madison football games at night.

Those of us who have been around Madison for a while can be forgiven for not getting too excited about a recent front-page Wisconsin State Journal story with a headline noting the Mosse Humanities Building “could be demolished.”

Letter to the editor from emeritus professor Lee Hansen: After 50 years of minority student programs at UW-Madison, why has it suddenly become necessary to institute “cultural competency training” for entering students and initiate a “big brother is watching you” system for reporting to campus administrators “hate” or “bias” incidents?

Walking into Mrs. M—–’s Cabinet at the Milwaukee Art Museum is more like walking into a home than an traditional museum space. Located in the Constance and Dudley Godfrey American Wing, Mrs. M—-’s Cabinet is an interactive exhibit which invites viewers to create a narrative through objects collected by Mrs. M—-, a character who “exists somewhere between fact and fiction.”

Letter to the editor from David W. Cole, professor emeritus, University of Wisconsin Colleges.

How did a political novice with no governing experience and a faint grasp of policy become the Republican presidential nominee? The rise of Donald Trump becomes less of a mystery once you’ve done what I’ve been doing these last few years: Talk to the voters. What I’ve found is a burbling disdain that has now been given voice by the Trump campaign.

Girl meets boy. Opposites attract. These are common themes in romantic movies, which usually end happily, with love conquering all. The movie “Me Before You,” which opened June 3 to better-than-predicted crowds, adds an interesting twist: able-bodied girl falls in love with quadriplegic man.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos laments that only six tenured University of Wisconsin professors have been fired in the last 20 years. Vos says that, at the national level, an estimated 2 percent of tenured faculty are dismissed each year.

Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for president in large part because of voters who have not graduated from college. In the Indiana primary, for example, Trump won 47 percent of the vote among college grads — but 60 percent among those who had not earned a bachelor’s degree.

Letter to the editor: Some of our UW faculty have moved to the University of Minnesota. Minnesota of all places! Good luck with the climate. It’s worse than ours.

Column by Republican state senator from Saukville: When fourth grade groups visit the Capitol, I explain to them my job is to listen to all of my constituents: students, teachers, and parents. In the end, I make the best decision for all of Wisconsinites in mind. UW System President Ray Cross has a similar dilemma. He must work with the legislature, the governor, the Board of Regents, the Chancellors, the faculty, and the students.

Letter to the editor: It’s funny how UW-Madison, which claims to be reeling from budget cuts by those nasty old Republicans in the state Legislature, has no trouble forking out $47 million to “upgrade” (gentrify) Witte Hall. This is merely one step (along with the $100 million upgrade of Memorial Union) in the process of transforming the campus into a four-star hotel and spa.

Letter to the editor: Regarding Gov. Scott Walker’s May 29 column, “We didn’t eliminate UW tenure,” there seems to be two main issues.

Letter to the editor: Chancellor Rebecca Blank’s sentiments in “Rebecca Blank: Dueling op-eds with Scott Walker dangerous for UW’s future is both understandable and wrong. Understandable because it is true that the chancellor is the one “under the hot lights” facing the bullies in the Republican Legislature and Gov. Walker, but wrong because bullies need to be confronted.

Letter to the editor: The Republican attack on UW has led to professors leaving the university in droves. UW-Madison professors bring in around $1 billion in research grants each year. That’s more than twice as much money as the university gets from the state.

Letter to the editor: In writing about professor Dietram Scheufele and his take on conflict surrounding the UW, editor Paul Fanlund sides with Scheufele’s belief that rhetorical framing is more important than the hard work of activism. Did Fanlund feel the same when the governor and Legislature tried to rewrite open records laws?

You can always find a surprising tidbit while reading a newspaper, but the May 26 edition of The Post-Crescent takes the cake. That day’s column by state Rep. Jim Steineke should be given an award for brazen misrepresentation. Mr. Steineke writes how much he appreciates those who work in education, yet for the past five years, Mr. Steineke has been at the forefront of those legislators who have led the attack against public education in Wisconsin.

Letter to the editor: With all due respect to UW English chair Caroline Levine, her comparison makes zero sense.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is pointing to data from the University of Wisconsin System showing only six tenured professors have gotten the boot over the last 20 years.

On May 20, the UW Colleges faculty council voted no confidence in our president, Ray Cross, and the Board of Regents. This followed no-confidence votes by numerous other UW campuses.