Category: Opinion

Menzie Chinn, a professor of Public Affairs and Economics at UW-Madison, recently looked into whether Governor Walker?s pro-business policies spurred employment growth. As we all remember, Walker claimed that his tax cuts and his dismantling of public sector unions would lead to an employment boom for Wisconsin. But as Chinn?s data shows, Walker?s policies have done nothing to improve job growth. The rate of growth when Walker took office in 2011 was 1.3%, and now after three years of his policies being in effect, the rate is still at 1.3% and weaker than the country?s growth as a whole.

Heralded as ?the mother of all pandemics,? in 1918, the Spanish flu killed some 50 million people. This was the deadliest event in recorded history, which started when an influenza virus that was prominent in birds (known as ?avian flu?) was passed to humans. And now, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created an even deadlier influenza virus that is similar to the 1918 strain.

Federal officials have started paying close attention to sexual assault on college campuses. A White House task force last month issued recommendations on how to combat the problem, and this month the Department of Education published draft rules clarifying how universities can meet federal requirements on campus safety.

Noted: Other supposedly secure laboratories are conducting research on even more frightening pathogens that, unlike anthrax, might spread easily and quickly through the air from human to human. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for example, recently reported that they had produced a new avian influenza virus with some characteristics of the 1918 influenza virus that killed tens of millions of people around the world. They did this work in a laboratory with the same safety rating as the bioterror lab at the C.D.C. A small careless error in these experiments could be devastating.

“Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it.” The idea that anyone could affect the weather seemed ludicrous 20 years ago. It seems less comical now that we know that each of us does affect our weather, locally and globally, every day. We here in the Midwest produce some 5% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. So we should think twice about what we do to the weather and, increasingly, what the weather is doing to us.

In Sunday?s Business section, Tom Still?s column, ?Higher education still pays for itself,? cites studies that conclude ?going to college … still makes economic sense for many.” Still recommends college leaders remain publicly accountable and transparent. These leaders have been anything but accountable and transparent on one issue that causes many students to gain a degree yet fail to gain a good education. That issue involves the ability to write, speak and think.

Noted: Donald Moynihan is a professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the National Academy of Public Administration. He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.

The acting inspector general?s investigation into delays at Veterans Health Administration facilities points to problems so systemic that they cannot be attributed to a few bad apples. But the report does not tell us why these problems occurred.

Is economic inequality growing in American higher education? A report just issued by the Institute for Policy Studies ? The One Percent at State U ? indicates that it is.

In February of 1927, the historian Joseph Klausner stood before an audience at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and delivered a lecture on the ?Jewish character? of Baruch Spinoza?s philosophy.

Thailand?s Senate, the country?s only functioning legislative chamber, convened an informal meeting last week to deliberate on ways to end that country?s six-month-old political stalemate.

For America?s worst racial achievement gap to exist within the very shadow of UW should be seen as appalling. Imagine how the American Family Children?s Hospital would feel if Madison had the highest rate of childhood leukemia deaths? You can be sure there would be hell to pay.

Writer attacks idea of “trigger warnings.”

The author congratulates UW-Madison graduates and enjoyed coverage of commencement, but “as a faculty member at Madison College, it was frustrating to see the approximately 1,900 Madison College graduates ignored by the media.”

From my vantage point (higher level seat), it seemed that there were no students of color among the band members. I would like to be wrong on that and would welcome a correction, if I am. I assume that the Varsity Band reflects the diversity of the student body. If that is truly the case, the UW has significant issues to address.

Democrats in Wisconsin want to lower the interest rate on student loans to help make college more affordable.

Wisconsin needs to think big so young people here can get the training and education they need to compete globally ? without being buried in debt.

Am I alone in noticing that the UW Badger football schedule this year, for home games, is the worst I have seen since having season tickets for over 30 years?

Isn?t anyone else disappointed with UW-Madison?s commencement ceremony plans?

Noted: Happily, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, that bastion of liberal thinking, has bucked the trend a bit this year by having as its commencement speaker, Jon Huntsman, a generally conservative Republican candidate for president in 2012, as well as former ambassador to China and governor of Utah. To my knowledge, his invitation has not stirred any unrest.  Well done, Madison.

Noted: There may be a recovery going on, but Wisconsin still isn?t out of the hole: The poverty level continued to drop in Wisconsin in 2012, thanks to increases in jobs and earnings, according to a new study released by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, the Journal Sentinel reported last week.

You are correct that there needs to be a rational balance between the risks of technology and the ultimate benefit, which in the case of nuclear power is supplying electricity while reducing the effect of climate change. The case for nuclear, as you say, lies in the drawbacks of the competition.

WASHINGTON ? ?TO waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.?

The Red Gym is one of the hubs of diversity on campus; should the new Diversity Plan pass, the very definition of diversity at UW will change.

The Forward Together plan is confusing because it uses two radically different definitions of diversity. One is the traditional definition that focuses on racial and ethnic diversity in students, faculty and staff.

Editors? note: we?re pleased to post a ?long read,? but a good and worthwhile read, consisting of a series of informed reflections about the future of the university from an historical perspective. Universities 2030: Learning from the Past to Anticipate the Future, was coordinated and co-edited by our colleague Adam Nelson (Professor, Educational Policy Studies and History, University of Wisconsin-Madison). I asked Adam to explain more about how this material came together, so let?s pass it over to him! Kris Olds & Susan L. Robertson

As a conscious student at the University of Wisconsin, I can confidently say UW isn?t at the top of any diversity lists. Whether we choose to ignore it or not, Wisconsin is far from being as diverse as we like to believe it is.

When Wisconsin set up its new state-backed venture capital fund last year to spur economic development, one of the few industries left out in the cold was biotechnology.

Lisa T. Alexander is a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She is the author of “Hip Hop and Housing: Revisiting Culture, Urban Space, Power and Law” and the forthcoming “Occupy the Right to Housing.”

Writer David Maraniss and former Regent Tom Lyons will receive honorary degrees during UW-Madison’s Friday commencement ceremonies on May 16.