Category: Opinion

The Badger Herald Editorial Board joins over 50 student newspapers in publishing student-written op-ed calling for action on gun violence.

With recent polls giving Donald Trump a reasonable chance of defeating President Biden in the November elections, commentators have begun predicting what his second presidency might mean for domestic politics.

-Alfred McCoy is the J.R.W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Letter to the editor: Just days after the UW Board of Regents caved and reversed its vote on the significant reduction to efforts of diversity, equity and inclusion, the UW system brazenly announced it is looking to double its numbers of international students in the next five years. How impressive, right?

Tenure is a rigorous process by which one’s academic publications are reviewed by the country’s (and often even world’s) top experts in one’s field of research. The tenure process is undertaken after completing 6 years of work and can take up to a year to assemble and review materials.

Letter to the editor: The deal requires UW system to implement a freeze on some positions that do not work directly with students or patients. This will have devastating impacts on our universities’ ability to grow and fulfill their missions.

The diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy on campus has proliferated in recent years, but there are signs it’s finally meeting resistance. The latest good news is from Wisconsin, where public universities will pare back some DEI programs and freeze them going forward.

Guest column: Fairness is at the heart of justice, and even a small child understands and asks for fair treatment. Justice’ most recent political name is diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Diversity, equity and inclusion are fast becoming a polarizing concept in our state, like previous opponents changed the meaning of affirmative action from positive to negative.

Letter to the editor: Despite the setback for diversity by Republicans the momentum for justice and righteousness will continue for all Americans. We hold these truths to be self evident since the creation. The righteous in the UW and the state of Wisconsin will find a way to continue making progress in diversity.

Column by Neil Kraus, the president of United Falcons of UW River Falls, and Jon Shelton,  president of UWGB-United, and vice president of Higher Education for American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin.

Letter to the editor: The capitulation of regents who voted to accept the Republicans’ offer of funding in exchange for revising the Universities of Wisconsin system’s practices has far greater implications than have yet been recognized.

Letter to the editor: As a UW-Madison employee, I help faculty teach, mentor and advise in more inclusive and equitable ways. We support all students — regardless of race, ethnicity, gender orientation or physical ability.

Column by Joshua Wallace, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the Scholars Strategy Network. His research critically examines issues of race and gender in higher education.

The breaking news hit my inbox at precisely 6 p.m. Wednesday.

The offense can even be 100 years in the past. In 2021 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, some Black students were upset when walking past a boulder on campus.

Letter to the editor: What is it about the diversity, equity and inclusion employees that strikes fear in the hearts of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg?

Column by Tiffany Green, an associate professor of population health sciences and obstetrics and gynecology at UW-Madison, and Jenny Higgins, the Bissell professor of reproductive health, rights and justice in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at UW-Madison.

Every year the American Association of University Professors awards the Alexander Meiklejohn Award for Academic Freedom to an American college, university administrator, trustee or a board of trustees as a group, in recognition of an outstanding contribution to academic freedom.

Letter to the editor: In the Dec. 2 State Journal article “Rothman: Liberal arts safe,” Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman walks back parts of an email he had sent to chancellors that suggested “shifting away from liberal arts programs.”

The bills would allow DACA recipients to qualify for in-state tuition at schools within the University of Wisconsin System. DACA individuals would be able to train and obtain professional licenses issued by the state. Additionally a biennial tax credit of $250 would be offered to offset the $495 fee that recipients must pay every two years to document their DACA status.

Proposal that does not consider marginalized identities in financial aid decisions reinforces inequitable systems in higher education.

Column by Larry Gallup, audience growth editor for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

Guest column by state Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison.

For decades, Wisconsin prioritized funding the UW System, knowing that it was the most important thing we could do to develop our workforce and innovate for our future. Our public universities attract people from the Great Lakes region and beyond because our institutions offer quality educational opportunities and affordable tuition.

According to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau, Senate Bill 571 would “afford certain rights and protections to student journalists who are public school pupils or students enrolled in a University of Wisconsin System institution or technical college.”