?Once you have more than 20, you can have interference,? said Donald Downs, a UW-Madison political science, law and journalism professor and expert on free speech. ?You?ve got to pick some number.?
Back in 1988, the University of Wisconsin-Madison was at the forefront in the national battle over political correctness. That year, the campus governing bodies passed speech codes for both students and faculty that prohibited anyone from making gestures or statements that “demean” students on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, culture and handicapped condition.
For more than 150 years, Wisconsin taxpayers have invested in our public colleges and universities, producing an enduring resource that benefits every Wisconsin family and the whole state economy. Today, that cherished resource faces critical challenges and change.
Departments within Wisconsin?s taxpayer-funded public universities and technical colleges organized a conference that brought together radical, left-leaning groups to promote labor activism and call for the end of capitalism.
Question: How do you get something done in Washington when the Congress seems bound and determined to do nothing? (Black is a adjunct professor of urban and regional planning at UW-Madison.)
Here?s yet another example of why we?d all be a lot safer if state legislators stayed home, which if we didn?t pay them so much they would have to do. (Commentary on WiscNet issue.)
In their meeting last month, some members of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents lamented that the state Legislature was micromanaging the board.
Noted: This is the last stop on my annual win-a-trip journey, in which I take a student on a reporting trip to the developing world. The winner, Erin Luhmann of the University of Wisconsin, and I hope to shine a bit more light on the continuing slaughter in Darfur ? and on the courage and resilience of the survivors.
Noted: When I first traveled through West Africa, as a student backpacker more than 30 years ago, I was haunted by the beggars disabled by blindness, leprosy and polio. Now I?m on my annual win-a-trip journey with a university student, Erin Luhmann of the University of Wisconsin, and she is encountering a fundamentally improved landscape than the one I saw when I was her age.
The University of Wisconsin System?s decision to drop its Internet service provider could lead ot increased Internet costs for school districts, libraries and other government entities across the state.
Next time you?re watching a college graduation, as you look out over the sea of caps and gowns, make sure you notice the ball and chain most graduates are wearing as they march onstage to receive their diplomas. That?s student loan debt, which at over $1 trillion tops credit card debt in the U.S. today. The average burden is $28,000, but add in their credit cards and they?re graduating with an average of $35,000 in debt. It?s no wonder that people who?ve paid off their student loan debt are 36 percent more likely to own homes than those who haven?t, according to new research by the One Wisconsin Now Institute and Progress Now.
Research by UW-Madison’s Dominique Brossard, Dietram A. Scheufele and Sara Yeo shows that scientists who interact more frequently with journalists on Twitter have higher academic impact (using h-index) than peers, as do scientists whose work was mentioned on Twitter.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has requested that the state Legislature grant it an exemption from Wisconsin?s Open Records Law.
Gov. Walker says he will veto a budget amendment crafted by ham-handed GOP members of the Joint Finance Committee that would have kicked the non-profit Center for Investigative Journalism out of its UW-Madison campus office space and obstructed its relationships with Journalism school faculty.
On May 14th and 15th, the UW-Madison Global Health Institute and the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds engaged with the Dalai Lama and an interdisciplinary group of global thought leaders to explore the potential contributions of mindfulness meditation to sustainable global health.
Once upon a time, we were told that Wisconsin was all about job creation.?Wisconsin is open for business,? said the bumper stickers, the signs on the Wisconsin-Illinois border, the press releases, the elected officials and the actions of state government since January 2011.
Most, if not all, of us have been to conferences, workshops and seminars where the topic of ?millennials? (those born between 1983 and 2010) has been addressed at great length, generally by way of a lecture of some sort, with PowerPoint slides citing data indicating that today?s generation of college students is the laziest, least motivated, least socialized and most self-involved generation the Earth has ever seen.
Early this week, I awoke to learn that University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism student Mario Koran had won a prestigious scholarship named for a brave and talented young journalist who died last year while reporting in Mexico City.
THUMBS DOWN: Among the budget-cutting items approved in Wednesday?s pre-dawn voting by the Republican-dominated Joint Finance Committee was a motion that costs the state?s taxpayers almost nothing: The eviction of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism from UW-Madison facilities and a ban on UW employees working for or with the organization.
Republicans? bid to cut the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism off from the state?s flagship university made me sad ? and not because the award-winning center puts out a quality product at a time when traditional news organizations face increasing difficulties.
There are, however, accelerator programs that are trying to change that. One program that I?m intimately familiar with, given my ties to UW-Madison, is called gener8tor and it is launching its third class of startup companies. The program is based in Madison, Wisconsin and is drawing companies from Austin, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, and the Twin cities.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has requested that the state Legislature grant it an exemption to Wisconsin?s long-standing open records law. The proposed legislation, if passed, would directly limit public access to university records and sources of information and diminish independent scrutiny at a time of increasing privatization and corporate influence over the state?s flagship university.
Our editorial agenda for the year consists of individual issues we named Our Climate, Our Schools, Our Government and Our Region, to emphasize the importance of some semblance of shared goals. It seems to us we can disagree on a lot of things but still have some sense of a common good. We?re having a hard time finding that in the proposed state budget currently being discussed by the state legislature?s Joint Finance Committee.
Why is it that the only thing state Republicans and Democrats can agree on is a bad idea?
Is it to naive to think that we as human beings can change the world and make it a better place to live? Have we as modern people lost hope and given up faith in the ability to change?
These days, you can?t go online or watch the news without hearing about a new product that removes touch from the user experience. The recently released Samsung Galaxy S4 is generating buzz with touchless features including text scrolling that responds to users? eye movements and video that automatically pauses if you look away from the screen while watching. Google Glass ? the most talked-about device of the year?removes touch from the smartphone experience entirely, using eye movements and voice commands to make calls, send email and surf the web.
Having an abortion is a momentous decision. And a growing number of states are expressing concern for women who are contemplating that choice.
Your business has been hemorrhaging customers for years, so how do you stop the bleeding and begin healing?
May 2013 will probably not go down as Mark Jeffries? favorite month as CEO of youth fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. Since he is not running for political office, Jeffries likely didn?t expect he was about to confront a PR firestorm over an interview he gave several years ago. (The story is by Rob Tanner, assistant professor of marketing for the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.)
For over 18 long months the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile have been under siege by the Government of Sudan. This government carries out daily bombing sorties against the people of the area and continues to deny humanitarian organizations from providing desperately needed food and medical supplies.
On Monday, as a dozen protesters staged a sit-in at Interim Chancellor David Ward?s office, the dispute over labor violations by Palermo?s Pizza was thrust into the campus spotlight.
After four years at the University of Wisconsin and 18 years before that as a child of two American parents, I?ve heard the word ?privilege? with a steady degree of regularity. Its use starts as a warning like, ?Having your toy is a privilege, not a right,? and in an academic setting evolves something much more indicting; for example: ?You are the embodiment of white privilege.? The mere use of the word makes most people chafe and immediately begin to defend themselves from a perceived assault on their character or their own group identity.
As the outrage about the cancellation of the Mifflin Street Block Party escalates, there may be some value in considering where Mifflin began and where it is now.
In 1860, Wisconsin legislators were already beginning to question whether they were getting enough out of their investment in the University of Wisconsin. State government had spent over $100,000 to build the university, and critics believed the UW “was not rendering that large and practical service to education which the state expected.” In 1864, when all but one of the senior class joined the Army to fight in the Civil War – no commencement was held – it appeared the university might be headed for extinction.
Last year around this time, The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board penned ?UW needs to pay commencement speakers.? The column was primarily in response to the announcement University of Wisconsin -Madison Alumnus Carol Bartz was to be the spring 2012 commencement speaker. The editorial board was not optimistic that the former Yahoo and Autodesk?s CEO would deliver a rousing address. Somewhat paradoxically, this year?s announced commencement speaker, Anders Holm, did not have his credentials so stringently examined by this board.
Trying to wake up, I peacefully sip coffee as I read the April 6 La Crosse Tribune. On page B6, I read that the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents confirmed Rebecca Blank as the next chancellor of UW-Madison. She will be paid $495,000 a year.
Superstorm Sandy did more than rock the eastern coast of the United States last year. It also damaged Mitt Romney?s chances in the presidential election. Quotes from Republican primaries, where Romney called for responsibility for disaster response to shift from the federal government to state and local authorities, suddenly looked foolish as those local authorities were quickly overwhelmed. Yet, even as the aftermath of Sandy demonstrates the need for federal help, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in New York is losing US$1.3 billion ? roughly 5% of its budget ? in government cutbacks.
For hundreds of years, the experience of higher education has essentially been the same: Students have gathered at places of higher learning, been instructed by faculty and received their degrees after completing a designated course of study.
Allow us, for a moment, to indulge our journalistic predisposition for cliché: The University of Wisconsin finds itself at a crossroads.
For 16 years, I had the honor of representing western Wisconsin in Congress. But in so many ways, that experience was a prelude to current times.
We have discovered over the years that major college football coaches aren?t always the most warm and fuzzy, honest and ethical people.
Chances are that French air power combined with superior numbers and equipment on the ground in Mali will prevail and force the jihadis to retreat in some fashion to the Sahel. That, however, will hardly be the end.
ESPN had not yet signed off its telecast from Bloomington, Ind., when my iPhone pinged, pinged again, then again. Bo Ryan?s Badgers had just stunned the national college basketball world by closing out the heavily favored Indiana Hoosiers, a team ranked second in the nation, before 17,472 raucous fans at Assembly Hall.
Barry Alvarez wants you to think the wound is healed all while peeling back a blood-stained bandage.
I was disappointed to read that female students at two University of Wisconsin campuses are exploring the “Sugar Daddy” lifestyle in record numbers. Sugar daddies are older men that “Take care” of younger women financially in exchange for sex or companionship. The co-eds then use the cash to pay for tuition or college expenses.
What?s your salary? How much do you make? For most Americans, it?s impolite to ask. Many would tell you it?s nobody?s business but their own ? a number known only to the individual, his or her employer, tax and loan professionals, and maybe a few others.
All too many people have a tendency to roll their eyes whenever University of Wisconsin-Madison students and faculty members raise questions about the exclusive contracts apparel manufacturers like Adidas have with the university.
An essay by Torben Lütjen, a German political scientist and visiting scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is researching a book on the reasons behind political polarization.
Assembly Speaker-elect Robin Vos recently warned the University of Wisconsin-Madison budget might be affected after some classes on Bascom Hill were cancelled the day of President Obama?s pre-election rally on campus.
Noted: Since 2005, I have served as a dean and provost at two regional campuses in the University of Wisconsin System, a time of extraordinary change, disruption, even upheaval, where political leadership has been a significant driver of change, not just in how we fund public colleges and universities but in how we deliver college degrees. These have been tumultuous years for higher education in the state of Wisconsin, with 2011 our annus horribilis, beginning with UW Madison?s move for independence and ending with the UW system intact but redesigned to allow more independence for, and increased competition among, campuses within the system.
During these austere times in the UW System, with diminishing state resources and grants and scholarships, it is judicious to question the fellowships and rewards received by athletes in high-profile sports such as football. The football program is currently flush with money and resources (it has not always been), due largely to Pat Richter and Barry Alvarez turning the program around. The lucrative funds from donors are retained within the athletic program and do not help support academic programs.
Twenty-four UW-Madison engineering seniors and graduate students who had enrolled in a mechanical engineering course in fluid power recently received an email that read, in part: “Unfortunately, due to budget reductions, the mechanical engineering department will not be able to hire an instructor for ME 545 for spring 2013.”
Barry Alvarez will get an extra $118,500 for one month?s work. That?s on top of his annual salary of $1 million.
The Institute for One Wisconsin is out to shame us into doing something to fix the nation?s student debt problem. And that it?s a problem is unmistakable. We?re drowning young college graduates in years and years of unconscionable loan payments, and there?s growing evidence that it?s having a profoundly negative impact on the nation?s economy. The institute, which is the research arm of the liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now, has embarked on a statewide campaign to show the people of Wisconsin just how serious and onerous student debt has become.
I wrote a column posted online that pretty much deifies Barry Alvarez for a terrific, feel-good week of leadership in the wake of Bret Bielema?s departure as Badger football coach. That was before I saw that he is taking $225,000 in added pay for a month?s work.
Barry Alvarez bringing back Barry Alvarez to coach the University of Wisconsin football team in the Rose Bowl was a slam dunk. It will make everyone ? UW players and fans, Rose Bowl directors and ESPN executives ? extremely happy. But of all the nuggets from Alvarez?s first public appearance since coach Bret Bielema bolted unexpectedly for Arkansas, the most important was this: Although he is relishing this moment, Alvarez will coach only one game before he resumes his duties as UW?s athletic director full-time. And while Big Game Barry?s decision to coach made the Rose Bowl infinitely more interesting, his ability to find a replacement who can perpetuate or even improve upon what Bielema did will have a far greater impact on the program.
Sports reporters and columnists who regularly interact with Wisconsin?s football program will have lots to say about Bret Bielema?s startling departure for the coaching job at Arkansas. I lack an insider?s perspective into the offices at 1440 Monroe St., but as a 30-year season ticket holder, I probably have company in the view that Bielema should be thanked for his performance, yet consider news of his exit to be welcome.
Bret Bielema always had the look of an upwardly mobile coach, a go-getter who would never stay in one place for long. Still, it was a stunner when Bielema left the University of Wisconsin football program to take the coaching job at Arkansas, if only because it looks like a lateral move at best. The Bielema-to-Arkansas bombshell exploded Tuesday, just three days after his Badgers won the Big Ten Conference title and a trip to the Rose Bowl for the third consecutive year. Despite that run of success, Bielema was a polarizing figure in Wisconsin, where his approval rating never matched his win total.
There were no flood warnings issued Tuesday because of an excess of tears. The news that Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema was leaving for Arkansas came from left of left field, but once the surprise subsided, there were more folks running toward the Don?t Let The Door Hit You In The Backside On Your Way Out bandwagon than any other.
I have been to hell. I have faced down the forces of evil. I have descended into the darkest reaches of existence and I have seen the blackness which resides in the hidden corners of men?s souls. What I mean to say is that I?ve gone to the comments section on an online article related to religion. I will never find a more wretched hive of belligerence and stupidity. Or at least I hope I won?t. Honestly, I don?t really want to talk about it, but I will.
