Category: Opinion

The annual State of the State address delivered by Gov. Scott Walker was given amid news that the Wisconsin state budget, like those in many other states, is projected to run a surplus. But for too many hardworking Wisconsin family budgets, there?s not the same good news ? and the $1.2 trillion student loan debt crisis is the reason for hundreds of thousands of us.

Everyone knows the University of Wisconsin-Madison doesn?t do much to work with companies and institutions in Milwaukee, and its relationship with UW-Milwaukee is practically nonexistent. Right?Wrong.

Nearly every medical advance from the last century is a product of responsible animal research, and animal models will continue to be important to medical progress.

Long live UW-Madison professor Harold Scheub and his African stories. He was featured in Monday?s story about his retirement.

Dear Editor: I commend my friend and former colleague at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Rev. Alex Gee, for his powerful and accurate analysis in the Cap Times about how we, many Madison residents, are failing the members of our African-American community. Yes, he is not politically correct; he is simply correct. I have two points to make:

Noted: According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison-based Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a nonpartisan national think tank that promotes “high road” solutions to social problems, about 8,000 workers in Milwaukee County would get higher wages as a result of the living wage. For the vast majority of those workers, their standard of living would rise. This would lift them out of a vicious cycle of being part of the working poor who work hard to make a living but still rely on public assistance to keep ahead of the bills.

Column is by John Milton Cooper Jr. is the E. Gordon Fox professor of American institutions emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of “Woodrow Wilson: A Biography.”

Regarding several letters in Thursday?s paper, I understand and accept that some people object to animal research. But I?d bet that no neurologists or oncologists belong to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Madison Metro Transit shouldn?t apologize for running a new PETA bus ad showing us all what terrible things happen to animals inside the UW-Madison?s labs.

There are alternatives to using live animals for medical testing. Science has advanced so that tissues can be cultured and used. Computer modeling is also being used successfully.

Noted: Kathryn Jeffers is author of “The Long Trip To Arlington,” a personal memoir of her father’s service in World War II. She teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business in Executive Education.

My father woke at dawn a contented man on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, at Wheeler Field, 15 miles from Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

I write regarding coverage of the efforts of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to demonize research at UW-Madison, using disconcerting images of a cat given a cochlear implant.

The University of Wisconsin football team will still go bowling in Florida, it?s just that the game will probably be a few hundred miles north of the desired destination.

Dear Editor: In Pat Schneiders recent story “Unwelcome: UW-Madison has work to do in building a comfortable workplace for minority faculty,” it states that faculty can bring allegations of discriminatory activity to the Office for Equity and Diversity.

If you are paying attention to legislative debates or media reports, you may get the impression that our schools are failing and that many people have turned their backs on this uniquely American public institution.

Two weeks ago, we published an opinion piece in Crossroads on the perils of the national debt, purportedly written by a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.I?m writing today because there was a serious problem with the article: The student didn?t write it. As a result, we have removed it from our website.

We recently returned to Ohio to attend the Ohio State vs. Wisconsin football game. When we arrived at the motel, we discovered our room was surrounded by UW-Madison students, who may have been shocked to see grey-haired OSU fans in their midst.

When it comes to the unimaginative four-word, two-profanity chant common to the student section during UW-Madison football games, I can?t help but think: So what else is new?

In my wildest dreams I cannot imagine being offended by harmless, boisterous, crude-but-entertaining chants at football games.

I have to be honest ? before his death became news last week, I had never heard of Charlie Trotter.

The comments by UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank and Athletic Director Barry Alvarez in Thursday?s guest column, “We?re concerned about profane chant, too,” were spot on.

We can fix the UW student chant dilemma, but it will take everyone?s help.

Young Americans of the rising millennial generation are well aware of the economic challenges facing our generation. Rising college tuition is leading to record high student loan debt, about $27,000 on average per person. Unemployment for young people remains in the double digits, about 12%, due to the lasting impact of the Great Recession. But the most threatening number to our American Dream is likely one you have not heard before: $200 trillion. That?s the true size of our national debt and the full tab our generation is set to inherit if nothing changes.

I was pleased to see the UW-Madison graduation ceremony will be back at Camp Randall.

Noted: It?s not as if the liberal city of Madison is new to domestic bombers. For decades, the city has been home to Karl Armstrong, one of the conspirators in the 1970 Sterling Hall bombing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The bombing, an anti-Vietnam War protest, killed researcher Robert Fassnacht and injured three others. After serving seven years in prison, Armstrong owned a number of restaurants in the Madison area.

A big-time school deserves a big-time graduation ceremony. And nothing says big time like Camp Randall Stadium.

Noted: In Wisconsin, we cut budgets and learned about the University of Wisconsin System?s so-called slush fund. Nationally, rapidly rising tuition prices have been a concern.

The latest campus-by-campus survey of student debt across the UW System found that 2011-12 graduates of UW-Milwaukee owed the most.

While I generally enjoy his columns, I found absurd sports writer Andy Baggot?s suggestion in his Tuesday column that the “Jump Around” tradition be used as leverage to change student section behavior regarding “the chant.”

?Eat chips!? ?Fondue!? OK, that?s not exactly the back-and-forth chant that takes place at University of Wisconsin home football games. But we wish it were so.