The Legislature should quickly take up and approve funding for a new engineering building on the UW-Madison campus. If the Republican-run Legislature thought AmFam Field was a good proposal for Wisconsin — and it definitely was — then get a load of this offer: a $350 million engineering building that costs the public less and delivers the state economy far more.
UW-Madison students are frustrated with classes held until the day before Thanksgiving.
Our hope would be that Vos and GOP leaders would accept this olive branch from the state’s universities, create new jobs by expanding university-backed workforce development and mothball their misguided effort to dismantle DEI programs.
Oh, yes, and give state university workers their 6.6% pay raises as promised in the state budget — just like they did for other state workers.
Dear Editor: The boo-birds have been released. Flocking from UW football game day fans and letters to the editor writers. Already demanding coaching changes.
In the 2011 decision Snyder v. Phelps, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that hateful speech, on its own, is protected under the First Amendment. The Snyder ruling, however, does not extend to speech that involves illegal action. For example, hateful speech that incites violence, communicates true threats or rises to the level of a hate crime is unprotected.
When he turned 18, he traveled to Wisconsin, enrolling at the University of Wisconsin-Madison because east coast universities had strict quotas on enrolling Jewish students. In Madison, he became acquainted with several students who volunteered to fight for democracy in Spain. So, it was no surprise that he would enlist in the war against the white supremist Nazi regime.
Letter to the editor: Speaker Vos and every American elected official should be actively supporting the diversity, equity and inclusion of every American citizen in all public and political activities. The self-governing democracy we have developed over the centuries demands this.
That’s not a debatable point. That’s a fact, as Wisconsin business leaders are explaining in a new campaign that expresses deep disappointment with the decision of the Republican-controlled legislative Joint Finance Committee to refuse to fund the state’s portion of the $347 million College of Engineering expansion project as part of the 2023-25 capital budget.
Amid budget battles over faculty pay raises, UW should also champion fair pay for student employees.
Letter to the editor: Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is insisting that the University of Wisconsin System end their diversity, equity and inclusion programs that serve “students of color, student veterans, women seeking degrees in male-dominated disciplines and students with disabilities” (“UW System pay hikes may be at risk,” Sept. 20).
Editor’s note: This is the final chapter of a 5-part series in which former University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and Vice President Jim Langdon reflect on their experience guiding the system though the COVID-19 pandemic.
Budget cuts threaten comprehensive institutional support for underrepresented students.
It may be too harsh to call it a death spiral. But the University of Wisconsin System is in trouble and it’s not clear when or how it can turn things around. Consider what’s happening.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos nixed a 6% pay raise for UW System employees while allowing it to go through for other state employees. He’s trying to put pressure on the UW to discontinue its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Bill to end scholarship displacement could benefit students with financial need, but unrealistic without sufficient funding for the Universities of Wisconsin.
State universities may have specific mandates to educate local students over those from abroad, which was the case when the University of California system capped out-of-state enrollments in 2017. But even large state systems like the University of Wisconsin take in significant numbers of international students. Why should the more than 3,000 international undergraduates in Madison be tossed out?
This is the fourth chapter of a 5-part series in which former University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and Vice President Jim Langdon reflect on their experience guiding the system though the COVID-19 pandemic. As the health care crisis raged, facilities on the front lines began to have severe staffing issues. Drawing inspiration from the foundations of the UW System, they found ways to help students jump from the classroom to the community to assist.
UW-Madison has become increasingly more selective with the student body they admit. The university’s acceptance rate has fallen from 67% to 49% in the past decade. This number takes an even steeper drop when you take into account the out-of-state acceptance rate falling to roughly 18%.
If there’s one thing Madison can thank COVID-19 for, it’s canceling Freakfest.
Written by Yi Fuxian, a senior scientist in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “Big Country with an Empty Nest” (China Development Press, 2013).
Letter to the editor: Vos and his Republican friends constantly say they represent the hardworking taxpayers of Wisconsin. How does keeping money from middle-class working people meet that slogan. Vos keeps claiming that diversity at the Universities of Wisconsin is a bad thing. When I attended a UW school in the 1950s, we saw almost no diversity.
Written by Ken Brosky, an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin alluded to this concern in a statement about the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath. She raised the concern that “these devastating developments will fan the global flames of both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, making peace and justice in the region even more elusive.”
Mnookin concluded her statement by noting: “Difficult times can fray our connections and exacerbate our differences. Let us focus on the values that we share. I call on our campus community to care for and support one another, to express your views peacefully and respectfully, and to value our common humanity as we navigate this extremely difficult time, together.”
While many Wisconsin state employees received pay increases from the state government Tuesday, employees within the Universities of Wisconsin were left out. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos claims he will continue to withhold pay increases from these employees until the UW-System gets rid of all programming related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Letter to the editor: Tom Still’s column last Sunday, “Remove barriers to UW projects,” neatly summarized the baffling behavior of the Legislature toward UW-Madison and UW-La Crosse.
Graduate students begin programs because we want to learn. We have a passion for a subject area and we want to contribute to a solution. I am constantly in awe of my friends and lab mates, the dedication and creativity they pour into their degrees. But we are more than just students.
In Madison, 322 corporations and other major employers attended a three-day “career fair” in September to compete for upcoming graduates of the College of Engineering. More than 235 of those mostly large employers have operations in Wisconsin. Why were they there? To find and recruit talented workers from today’s limited engineering pool. A new building would accommodate about 1,000 additional graduates per year.
Looking beyond published records to private discourses provides a fuller portrait of the U.S. at midcentury and the resentments that linger. Handwringing about the low trust in journalism that social media and online comments make visible today is justified as long as we acknowledge it has deep roots, ones that will not disappear when Trump rallies stop.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)Kathryn J. McGarr is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She earned her Ph.D. in history from Princeton University and is the author of City of Newsmen: Public Lies and Professional Secrets in Cold War Washington (University of Chicago Press, 2022).
Not a moment too soon, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has chosen a paradigm-shifting book on truth, persuasion and social change for its 2023-2024 Go Big Read common reading program.
“How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion” by David McRaney (Penguin Random House 2022) tackles the psychology that drives our bitterly divided, tribal politics, and sheds light on the path to a more civil, democratic and constructive future.
This is the third chapter of a 5-part series in which former University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and Vice President Jim Langdon reflect on their experience guiding the system though the COVID-19 pandemic.
Letter to the editor: The same university that opens its mouth to speak on countless social issues and found it necessary to remove a “racist” rock suddenly finds itself unable to comment on students supporting terrorists who murder children.
Written by Allison M. Prasch, associate professor of rhetoric, politics and culture, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Letter to the editor: Thank you to UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin for her courage in speaking out about the scale and utter brutality of the Hamas attack on Israeli men, women, children and infants.
Rebranding of University of Wisconsin System is unnecessary change that will likely not have intended impact.
Despite Wisconsin having a record budget surplus, state Republicans voted to cut $32 million from the University of Wisconsin System ostensibly because of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. But to make matters far worse, the UW System has prioritized the elimination of what are being called “structural deficits” on our campuses. They sound dreadful, don’t they?
Letter to the editor: With similar practical reasoning, can the System please rescind the unwieldy renaming of the state’s two-year campuses? Does anyone really aspire to attend the “University of Wisconsin-Whitewater — Rock County”?
Letter to the editor: I am totally frustrated that the Wisconsin Badgers homecoming football game could only be watched by streaming on NBC Peacock. Who is deciding this? When will the true longtime Badgers fans get a vote on this change?
I didn’t lose those ideals after returning to the States. I joined an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I made friends among Arab, Jewish and Israeli students. We had no political impact, but it gave me hope just to talk about a future, peaceful Palestinian state over a potluck dinner with those smart, funny, impassioned folks.
Letter to the editor: So if the University of Wisconsin System is now called the “Universities of Wisconsin,” does that mean Viterbo University, Marquette University, Lawrence University, Marian University, Mount Mary University, Carroll University and Lakeland University are all part of it, too?
Column by Universities of Wisconsin president Jay Rothman. “The goal is to shift the emphasis from our System to our universities, which create opportunities for students and improve communities all across the state. It’s an exciting change that I’m confident the people of Wisconsin will embrace with pride.”
Editor’s note: This is the second chapter of a 5-part series in which former University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and Vice President Jim Langdon reflect on their experience guiding the system though the COVID-19 pandemic. After making a controversial decision to return to in-person classes in the fall of 2020, they discuss the innovative testing program that helped limit the spread of COVID at colleges and the communities they serve.
Conservatives have been claiming for decades that the University of Wisconsin-Madison is brainwashing young people to make them liberals. The problem with that claim is that some of the most right-wing figures in American politics are UW grads.
Letter to the editor: As a UW-Madison alum, I read with embarrassment the article “Profanities, lewd behavior mar conference livestream.”
Kasey Keeler is an author and assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin. She is an enrolled citizen of the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians and descendant of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
An engineering professor in Platteville. A student counselor in Whitewater. A crops and soils expert in Dodge County.
These are just a few of the 41,000 University of Wisconsin System employees waiting for top Republican lawmakers to release their 4% raise.
Column by president of the Badger Institute, a free-market think tank based in Milwaukee.
This is the first installment of a 5-part series in which former University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and Vice President Jim Langdon reflect on their experience guiding the system though the COVID-19 pandemic.
Letter to the editor: Power politics has become the norm in Madison and has pushed good governing aside. Rather than employing the power of his office by denying pay increases to UW’s employees Vos should take his case to the UW Board of Regents as they are the governing body for the UW System.
This program certainly has the potential to be helpful to incoming first-generation students, but it is long overdue and needs much more development to truly support first-generation Badgers.
Letter to the editor: In spite of many corporations and business embracing employee diversity and inclusion programs Vos sees the UW programs as ineffective and creating racial divisions by focusing support on these specific groups of students.
Column by Barry Burden, professor of political science and the director of the Elections Research Center at UW-Madison.
Republican-proposed bill aims to guarantee admission to UW-Madison for in-state students, ironically represents chance to expand access to underrepresented students.
When the forefront response to a student being beaten into a coma is to state that her situation is some sort of anomaly to campus living, it becomes crucial for us as students to look back and understand these statistics of abuse to be a result of Madison-specific institutional enabling.
Letter to the editor: I don’t know why Vos has a problem with diversity and equity, except that maybe he just wants our UW System schools to follow Florida’s lead and remove all positions which may ensure equal treatment under the law. What’s next? Removal of all courses that teach theoretical subject matter?
The standoff between the Wisconsin Legislature and Wisconsin’s public universities threatens to harm the state’s economy the longer it persists. There needs to be a negotiated end.
Scheufele is a professor of life sciences communication, Brossard is a professor and chair of life sciences communication, and Newman is an assistant professor of life sciences communication — all at UW-Madison.
Letter to the editor: But a University of Wisconsin-Madison game is and should be a special experience — one that is different than the ordinary world. It’s not ordinary, it’s not an everyday experience, it’s not close to boredom. It’s amazing, incredible, almost unique. My point: Tradition in this case should be upheld 100%.
Letter to the editor: The University of Wisconsin System needs to make this effort. Otherwise, we are robbing our work force of its full complement of job candidates, and robbing a substantial slice of the population a chance to build wealth and pay taxes.
Despite leading hateful sermons on college campuses, Christian preacher garners broad support online.
The struggle to find affordable housing in Madison is at an all time high.
While not doing much about climate change, the Biden administration has managed to increase the cost of living and weaken national security. Canceling oil leases signals to markets that making new investments won’t be profitable. This restricts domestic supply, increases prices and weakens Western economies. It also bankrolls our adversaries. Russia depends on higher oil prices to finance its war. Mr. Biden has also drawn down the strategic petroleum reserve and, more recently, allowed huge Iranian oil sales to China. The climate-change war on domestic fossil-fuel production is truly an all-around disaster.—Anika Horowitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison, economics
