Category: Opinion

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.

If Congress allows the government to shut down on Tuesday, the nations investments in scientific research and technological innovation will suffer irreparable harm, resulting in a loss of crucial projects, new technologies and jobs for Americans.

In a recent Huffpo column entitled “Hidden Truths About American Colleges Abroad,” Jim Sleeper makes some alarming accusations. He draws an analogy between American universities that are creating overseas programs and Stalin-era apologists for the Soviet regime of the 1930s.

This Labor Day, we urge Wisconsinites from all walks of life to remember that the history of our great state has always been one of progress.

With barely 15% of the school?s funding now coming from taxpayers, it?s no wonder that the new chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is planning a fund-raising campaign.

A soft pink, a glowing red, even a cyanotic purple ? millions of women and girls apply lipstick every day. And not just once: some style-conscious users touch up their color more than 20 times a day, according to a recent study. But are they also exposing themselves to toxic metals?

Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) recently stood up with and for low-wage workers, supporting an increase in the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. No one should be surprised that she got scolded for it on these pages by the leader of the MacIver Institute, “free market voice for Wisconsin.” But we can hope that Moore continues to pay attention to reality, not the scolds.

The expected gutting of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder has captured many headlines of late, and with good reason.

Last Sunday?s editorial minimized the impact of interest rates on students by suggesting the loan ?deal? approved by Congress is ?reasonable.? (Muñoz is a student at UW?Madison Law School.)

Remember the University of Wisconsin?s old fieldhouse? It was steeped in tradition. The players and the fans enjoyed the ambiance, but the university raised money to build the Kohl Center. Now basketball is played in facilities that look the same in Madison, Champaign or Louisville, except Chihuly glass makes UW?s arena unique.

On July 30, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on newly released emails between Scott Walker?s campaign staff and county aides in 2010, back when the future governor was Milwaukee County executive.

Co-author Daniel Bier of the Waisman Center: Finding workers who improve the bottom line is the goal of any successful business. However, too often workers with disabilities get overlooked. In Wisconsin, the employment rate is 70% for working-age persons without disabilities, while only 37% of people with disabilities are on the job. In other related employment measures for these workers, Wisconsin is in the bottom half of states.