From major student organizations to individual community members, UW-Madison administrators should pay attention to the needs of those on all ends of political conversations.
UW renaming policy falls short on incorporating community desires.
Written by Benny Witkovsky, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. His dissertation examines nonpartisan politics and polarization in small cities in Wisconsin.
From the UW Board of Regents to the Legislature and governor, those chargedg with the care and preservation of the public’s investment in higher education watch idly by while UW system President Jay Rothman wields his ax to make the system’s budgetary ends meet.
Written by Benny Witkovsky, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. His dissertation examines nonpartisan politics and polarization in small cities in Wisconsin.
Embracing opportunities and finding success at a large university.
Though mandatory DEI training has been attacked by conservative groups, it must not be removed.
After the minimum qualification benchmark is met, we can move down the list to consider similarities in everything from policy to favorite baseball teams. As far as shared emotion, the fact that a candidate’s level of anger appears to match one’s own reveals little about whether they are fit for office, possess sound judgment or will improve our lives or the state of the country. All it means is that two people are angry.
-Paula Niedenthal is a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she directs the Niedenthal Emotions Lab. She is the past president of the Society for Affective Science and is the author of the textbook “Psychology of Emotion” (2nd edition).
Column co-authored by Jared E. Boyce, an M.D.-Ph.D. candidate in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Harvard knows that a lesson needs to be learned from Gay’s troubled tenure. The problem? They can’t seem to agree on what that lesson is.
Column by Joshua Mezrich, a professor of surgery, transplant surgeon and holds the Mark A. Fischer Chair in Transplantation at UW Health and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
How do students afford housing as new luxury apartment complexes are being built around the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus?
The Legislature can take commonsense steps to protect our students in Wisconsin. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, in states where elected officials have taken action to pass gun safety laws, fewer people die by gun violence. Gun safety laws save lives. And when it comes to the strength of our gun laws, Wisconsin is falling behind. We must do better, and we must act now.
By Katherine J. Cramer and Jonathan D. Cohen. Ms. Cramer is co-chair of the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Mr. Cohen is a senior program officer at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Letter to the editor: An education center on Picnic Point in Madison is not environmental stewardship, it is a form of development. While Madison builds gigantic buildings and races to “Manhattanize” the city, nature preserves and parks provide a refuge from culture and concrete.
Letter to the editor: For years we were stuck watching losing hockey on TV. Finally we have a product worthy of being televised each and every week. Even the local station used to show a few games every year. Evidently nobody seems to care.
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.
The biggest downfall of early decision for many students is financial. Depending on the school, tuition can add up to painful numbers, and an unwritten rule is that early decision often means less financial aid because colleges have less incentive to award merit scholarships. At the very least, students are unable to compare aid packages when bound by an acceptance. This is important when applying early decision as tuition can be a factor that students don’t know to consider.
The time is now for Wisconsin to reinstate their baseball team.
Allocation of funds to UW System has potential to help students, but only in tandem with DEI programming.
Campuses that offered two-year programs set to shut down amidst funding, enrollment issues.
Valentine’s Day reminds us to show our love to the important people in our lives. We usually declare our romantic love, but sometimes all the hearts and flowers remind us to express our love to others who are important in our lives as well. For a lot of us, this could mean our dogs. About half of U.S. households keep dogs as pets. Not only in word, but also in deed, many people express their love for their dogs not merely as pets, but as family.
Written by David L. Weimer is the Edwin E. Witte Professor of Political Economy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is coauthor with Aidan R. Vining of “Dog Economics: Perspectives on Our Canine Relationships” (Cambridge University Press 2024).
In fact, my great-grandfather’s tenacity for Wisconsin’s youth inspired his daughter, my grandmother, to help set up a research center and scholarship program at UW-Madison to focus on neuroscientific research regarding child development and well-being. The center, named after my great-grandfather Willis Jones, recognizes that “adolescence is a period when the brain is more sensitive” and prepares young people in leadership, including in conflict resolution.
Positive mentorship experiences are central to fostering self-efficacy, success, well-being and inclusion of students, particularly women and racial and ethnic minorities. Nationwide initiatives such as the National Academies’ the Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM and the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experience in Research, among others, enable scalable mentorship training of researchers.
This program is the university finally backing their word and supposed dedication to aiding the Indigenous peoples of Wisconsin.
Lake Mendota’s condition due to recent weather may require postponement, or even relocation of a longstanding UW-Madison tradition.
Recent NIH grant is opportunity for UW to establish itself as research institution, increase number of STEM graduates.
Column by Dr. Patrick Remington, professor emeritus at the School of Medicine and Public Health at UW-Madison.
Column by Reilly, president emeritus of the University of Wisconsin System and a member of the civic education nonprofit Keep Our Republic.
Column co-written by Laura Albert, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at UW-Madison.
Dear Editor: The recent article by Capital Times reporter Kayla Huynh (“UW campus closures leave ‘bitter’ feelings about lost opportunities”) highlights the mess related to higher education in this state.
When you give in to the spectacle, you give her a platform.
The recent death of Herb Kohl concluded our association of 70 years as mutual friends and ideological colleagues. We began to interact as University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduate fraternity brothers living together at our frat house. We frequently discussed maximizing opportunities to achieve what our democracy provided for us to attain professional prominence as minorities.
Katherine Cramer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist, said that lower- and middle-wage workers have “pretty basic” expectations for the future of their work. “One man in Kentucky said, ‘I’m not looking for a mansion on a hill.’” What he and others want, Cramer said, is jobs that don’t destroy their humanity, that are meaningful and that give them time with their families. Many don’t feel they have that now. .
Why are some four-year universities ending their relationships with two-year campuses? Some say it is because of low enrollment. But the Marinette campus hasn’t declined much in recent years. Others say it is the cost. But a Republican state senator recently told me the cost of operating two-year campuses is a drop in the bucket. If it isn’t enrollment and it isn’t cost, why are two-year campuses being closed?
The Badger Herald Editorial Board joins over 50 student newspapers in publishing student-written op-ed calling for action on gun violence.
With the new year, millions of people resolve to diet, exercise more or make changes in other aspects of their lives, including personal finances. For most of us, personal finance-related resolutions are a combination of spending less, saving more and maybe paying off some debts. Some of the newfound attention to our financial outlook may even stem from an expensive holiday season that just wrapped up. But the new year offers new opportunities to get on track.
Written by J. Michael Collins, the Fetzer Family Chair in Consumer and Personal Finance at UW-Madison and a professor in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the School of Human Ecology.
We need to bring back concerts to Camp Randall Stadium on the UW-Madison campus in Madison. I was born too early and missed out on an amazing era in the 1980s and 1990s when Camp Randall hosted Pink Floyd (twice), U2 (twice), Rolling Stones (twice) and Genesis.
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.
Column by Erik Iverson, chief executive officer of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).
My hope for 2024 is that we start asking better questions about these systems, so that we can find better answers.
-Simon Balto is assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power
Written by Dr. Jonathan Patz, the Vilas Distinguished Professor & John P. Holton Chair of Health and the Environment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute & Department of Population Health Sciences.
Letter to the editor: As a proud UW-Madison alum and emerita professor, I’m deeply dismayed by the GOP’s efforts to strong-arm the Board of Regents into diminishing diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
One of his big fights, which he eventually lost, but really won, was against the UW-Madison’s decision to take a piece of Bascom Hill’s John Muir Woods to build a new social sciences building just north of the hill’s celebrated Carillon Tower.
Kohl gave a lot of money away. Like… a lot. He put Kohl in the Kohl Center at his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, by donating $25 million to get it built. Twenty years later, he put up $100 million to build a new stadium for the Bucks, now known as the Fiserv Forum. And he gave over $50 million in grants and scholarships to teachers, schools and programs throughout Wisconsin.
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.
Letter to the editor: I am writing to celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of women student athletes at UW-Madison.
Common sense prevailed recently when the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents flip-flopped and voted 11-6 to agree to a compromise deal with Republican legislators. The agreement limits diversity positions on system campuses in exchange for money to cover staff raises and construction projects.
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.
Letter to the editor: Now put the other outstanding six-time national champion Wisconsin Badger women’s hockey on the front page each and every day. They deserve more front-page news than Badger football, because what has their record been in the last five or six years compared to Women’s hockey?
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.
New research by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor suggests police in schools don’t reduce violence, diminish crime, or have any impact on the presence of weapons or drugs in a school.
If anything, having police in schools has an impact on young people’s mental health, according to Ben Fisher, a UW-Madison associate professor who reviewed 32 evaluations of school-based police programs, said he found that police in schools weren’t shown to diminish school violence, crime, or the presence of weapons or drugs.
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.
Imagine lower State Street in Madison as a Christmas market every December. Colorful lights adorn the trees and illuminate the street from above. Festive huts sell ornaments, crafts and holiday treats to streams of passersby. A student quartet plays holiday songs.
