Waaaaaa. I’m sick of seeing UW-Madison professors with tenure, $200,000 salaries and thousands of hours of sick leave they get to turn into cash payments for health care payments when they retire.
Noted: We will encourage our bedrock civic institutions; the UW, United Way, the Madison Community Foundation, Urban League of Greater Madison, Centro Hispano, 100state, Young, Gifted and Black, and more to collaborate and be held accountable for real, innovative, measurable problem solving.
Letter to the editor from Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, and Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee.
Editorial: A key Assembly committee just endorsed a package of modest yet worthy bills to make college more affordable. The full Legislature should approve them, understanding much more must be done so students aren’t saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
Column: The (Epic founder Judith) Faulkner story is one of a kind, to be sure. But there are hundreds like it involving smaller companies that have been formed by men and women who came here because of what the UW had to offer. That’s why it’s so troubling when the university becomes a whipping boy for politicians who profess they want to make it easier for businesses to create jobs when, in fact, one of the largest job creators is the university itself.
A recent article, “UW-Madison sex assault discipline process leaves both sides crying foul,” raised questions about how the university responds to allegations of sexual violence.
Unless you’ve eaten at Carson’s Market on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus or watched local cooking shows on television in the 1950s, you’re probably unfamiliar with the name Carson Gulley. Born the son of Arkansas sharecroppers in 1897, Gulley moved to Madison in 1926 and eventually became head chef of the UW residence halls. Among his many achievements was being the first African American to star in his own local TV program.
The column by Charley Swayne, a former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse part-time instructor, questioned the work ethic of UW-L faculty, the quality of the education at UW-L and the role of tenure in higher education (Sunday’s Tribune).
Wisconsin State Journal Editorial: Wisconsin is well-positioned to help find better treatments — and receive even more federal research dollars — because of UW-Madison scientists. Wisconsin also boasts strong health care systems. It has medical experts at hospitals and technology companies across the state
Wisconsin is home to some of the greatest professors and research programs in the world. What are students expected to do when the institution they’re relying on is no longer a quality source of education, which it cannot be if it is running on limited funding?
Letter to the editor from McFarland H.S. Senior: I am very aware of the high fees that come with attending a four-year university … This problem should be at the top of Wisconsin’s to-do list. Without proper financial assistance, the students at Wisconsin universities will either be up to their necks in debt after graduation or drop out of school before finishing due to the financial burdens currently being presented.
Letter to the editor from William L. Holahan, emeritus professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Charles O. Kroncke, retired dean of the College of Business at UWM.
If, as the Supreme Court has consistently declared, the presumption of innocence is among the most fundamental principles in our criminal justice system, it is also among the most fragile.
As colleges across the country debate diversity on campus, students and leaders at UW grapple with the definition of free speech
A look back at a Wisconsin State Journal editorial from a century ago
Noted: Wendy DeMartini is a professor and chief of breast imaging in the Department of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
Guilty or innocent?Viewers addicted to the Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer” are fiercely debating the case of Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey.
It’s been said often that we’re all fighting our own battles, and for middle-class families and their college-age offspring, a major battle is paying for higher education without incurring staggering long-term debt.
Atop a hill that overlooks the core of Milwaukee’s largest health care hub sits a gleaming symbol of investment by the UW-Milwaukee and its partners in a different kind of university.
Noted: “The Hunting Ground” takes a withering look at how the finest universities in our land, staffed by pedigreed academics espousing the purest of values, callously marginalize female students who dare report rape or sexual assault on their campuses. The film illustrates how too often image protection trumps justice. The film stars a handful of brave young victims who smartly bring legal action against more than seventy colleges and universities for Title IX violations. Schools under federal investigation include Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Notre Dame and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Column from Chris Rickert: “With Wisconsin college students the third most likely in the nation to be weighed down by student loan debt, legislative Democrats have been pushing a proposal to let them refinance their loans with the state, while Republicans on Monday responded with a handful of more modest proposals.”
In Sunday’s paper, I read about the UW student section at Saturday’s basketball game twice chanting, “You can’t read,” directing the chant at Maryland player and Wisconsin native Diamond Stone. … Why wasn’t the student section cleared after the first episode? This embarrassment of our flagship university, and of this young man and his family, actually happened twice.
Christian Schneider opinion column: “[I]t isn’t tuition that is driving the recent explosion in student loan issuance. In fact, it is exactly the other way around — the availability of easy money flooding the market in the form of loans has allowed college administrators to hike tuition to soak up this excess cash.”
Tom Oates’ column on Friday, “Don’t fret, UW playing it right,” was interesting but highly subjective. His basic contention was that UW athletics cannot compete because of cultural differences at other schools.
The University of Wisconsin system recently took a landmark step toward weakening the institution of tenure for academic faculty. The new policy, if adopted by the board overseeing the state’s universities, would allow tenured professors to be laid off for economic reasons, or if the university decides to restructure its programs. It also would permit professors to be fired based on negative post- tenure reviews, which are conducted every five years.
Noted: Issues of tuition, room and board, grants and loans, public support and more require fundamental fixes. The whole system has become the focus of a growing body of research, some of the best being done at UW-Madison.
Letter to the editor from professor emeritus.
Letter to the editor fromBruce Thomadsen, president of the Wisconsin University Union. “Business is a bad model for a university because the goal of business is to make a profit for shareholders. The goal of a university is to educate students and produce research.”
Thoughts from Chancellor Blank: ‘Best upside risk: Greater consumer spending. Biggest downside risk: Even slower growth in the rest of the world.’
Cindy Foss retired this month after 24 years of steering, editing and nurturing On Wisconsin, the UW Alumni Association publication. The magazine’s always been a good read whether you’re a UW alum or not. But it has become an even more important chronicle of The Wisconsin Idea recently and Foss was awfully good at leading that effort. Thanks to her we continue to need publications like On Wisconsin.
Noted: And while some secrecy provisions were pulled from the budget, one sailed through, creating different rules for the University of Wisconsin System than for all other state agencies regarding the naming of finalists. Henceforth, the UW can pick athletic coaches and fill key academic positions without revealing which applicants were passed up.
The op-ed piece, “Tenure reforms needed,” by John Behling, vice president of the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents was unconvincing.
On a campus famed for its breakthroughs in biotechnology, engineering and agriculture, a much smaller department is exerting an outsized effect on the Wisconsin economy – and beyond.
The University of Wisconsin System is a world-class educational organization that plays a critical role in our state’s economy and society. As the needs of the workforce change, our campuses must have the flexibility to reallocate resources and staff when necessary.
Twenty years ago, a friend approached me about a problem. Many of the youths in the small community were in a cycle of trouble: incarceration, release and repeat. Concerned parents, clergy and others came together to seek solutions. They felt as if they were spinning their wheels and getting nowhere.
Noted: I am heartened by the veterinary profession’s increasing involvement in this tricky situation, notably WisCARES, supported by the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, which I hope other veterinary schools will quickly follow.
Op-ed from John Behling, vice president of the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents and chair of its Tenure Policy Task Force.
I find it inconceivable that the freshman members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison marching band will not be attending the Holiday Bowl Dec. 30 in San Diego due to “financial constraints.”
From Jeffrey Russell, Dean of Continuing Studies: A democracy requires government to function effectively, and public employees are the ones who make that happen.It’s easy to take government services for granted. Most of us don’t think twice about the clean water that comes from our faucets, the trash that’s picked up on schedule or the effort that goes into caring for our most vulnerable citizens.One key to doing these jobs well is lifelong learning. In a rapidly changing world, public employees must commit themselves to mastering the latest developments in their fields so that government runs as efficiently as possible.
2015 is surely one of the most momentous years in a long time regarding debates about the tenure, academic freedom, the Wisconsin Idea, budget cuts, etc. Yesterday’s balanced article (‘Tenure or Bust‘) by Colleen Flaherty, in Inside Higher Ed, is but the latest of a series of nuanced pieces Ms. Flaherty has produced this year about the unfolding of higher education debates in this Midwest U.S. state of 5.75 million people.
Those profiled with UW ties include Aaron Olver, managing director of the University Research Park, and Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, director of community partnerships at UW Health.
Not believe in research funding! You might as well not believe in coconut shrimp! You might get your friends to watch their mailboxes for invitations to Lily’s Luau on Jan. 23 at Union South, but even if they did not see an invitation, what would that prove? We can’t send printed invites to everyone, but that is no sign that there is no luau and no groundswell of support for epilepsy research right here at UW-Madison. The most real things in the world are those that are explained on our website at http://lilysfund.org/luau.
Bo Ryan is a winner. He came to UW a winner, and he leaves a winner. The guy just wins. But it’s not just that he wins, it’s always been how he wins as well.
Columnist delves into race and free speech issues.
Letter to the editor: The real culprits are the legislators who made the requirements for student voting so onerous. The student ID used for voting cannot be valid for longer than a two-year period. UW-Madison issues IDs for a five-year period.
Noted: City and county governments, the nonprofit community, the public school system, the media, philanthropic entities, the University of Wisconsin, faith-based organizations, the private sector and the arts community have all demonstrated a deepened commitment to helping.
During the 1940s, at least three public universities expelled students and fired faculty who were presumed to be homosexual. The cases at Texas, Wisconsin, and Missouri open a window onto a little known aspect of the history of higher education in the United States. Although we know in a general way that homosexuals were discriminated against during the 1940s, there is scant documentation about the treatment of homosexuality on college campuses.
This evening I’ll be celebrating the achievement of William C Campbell when he receives his Nobel Prize in Stockholm. Short of being awarded oneself, it doesn’t get much better for a university president than seeing a graduate receive the greatest honour in his or her field. Campbell’s story has touched, and resonated with, people around the world, because the work for which he has been awarded – eradicating river blindness – is particularly inspirational and altruistic, and because so many places and institutions can claim him.
Join the Journal Sentinel’s David D. Haynes and Jonathan Martin, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for a live Journal Sentinel program on Wednesday.
“Straight Talk on Climate Change” will begin at noon at JS Online. We’re taking your questions now on Twitter: #MJSclimate
This exclusive show follows a Haynes column last week.
Noted: Author John Williams is the director of the Nelson Insitute’s Center for Climatic Research and Professor of Geography at UW-Madison. Paul Wilson is the interim chair of the Nelson Institute’s Energy Analysis Policy Certificate and professor of nuclear engineering in the Engineering Physics Department at UW-Madison.
Letter to the editor: It is an encouraging statement from academia. Generally, pronouncements from that arena feature political correctness and demands to quash any speech which disagrees with them.
With public demonstrations banned at the COP21 conference on climate change in Paris, climate activists are taking to social media to get out their message on climate justice.
The fundamental tenets of the Every Student Succeeds Act – the successor to No Child Left Behind – are now well known. It lessens the latter’s focus on standardized test scores and shifts much policy-making power from the U.S. Education Department back to the states. But many educators may be surprised to learn what it includes about teacher preparation. There are provisions in the bill for the establishment of teacher preparation academies – and they are written to primarily support non-traditional, non-university programs.
Column from Sara Goldrick-Rab and Katharine M. Broton, Wisconsin HOPE Lab: Three months after starting college, Brooke Evans found herself without a place to live. She was 19. She slept in libraries, bathrooms and her car. She sold plasma and skipped meals. It was hard to focus or participate in class, and when her grades fell, her financial aid did, too. Eventually, she left college and began sleeping on the street, in debt, without a degree.
Noted: What a presidential candidate says on the road must square with voters back home, but some saw inconsistencies in Walker’s narrative and his political persona. While the news media in Wisconsin covered budget reductions stemming from the new state budget — including $250 million in cuts to the University of Wisconsin System — network and cable television showed Walker telling people in other states what he would do for them if he were elected president. His stump speeches on how his policies have made life better for residents in his home state seemed unfamiliar to those having to deal with diminished state funding under Walker’s leadership.
No. 5: When Bo Ryan reneged on a retirement announcement that seemed to put a time stamp of one more year as head coach of the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team, he might as well have shaken Madison out of a bad dream where there was no Bo in Badgers basketball.
No. 2: There was a time not so very long ago when every serious discussion of the economic future of this state included the unassailable assertion of the University of Wisconsin–Madison as one of the most, if not the most, important economic engines in the state. Two thousand fifteen, however, was the year that notion became assailable. And Governor Scott Walker assailed away.
For more than a century, the term “in loco parentis” (“in place of a parent”) was used to describe a university’s responsibility to care for and guide its students. In recent years, however, the Latin term “loco” (“place”) could be more adequately represented by the Spanish meaning of the word.
Letter to the editor: Short of putting up a dome over the stadium, what was the UW Athletic Department supposed to do? With respect to snowballs — even a moron should know it’s dangerous and just stupid to throw a snowball or ice ball when so many people are in the area. W
Column from Caroline Levine, a professor and chair of the department of English at UW-Madison and co-chair of a UW committee on post-tenure review. “Tenure protects the independence of research. Rigorously peer-reviewed research helps us to make informed decisions about our world. It creates jobs and grows the economy. And one day it just might save your life.”
