Category: Opinion

….We?re already seeing some of our most dedicated and experienced teachers leaving their jobs, fearful that their employers either can?t or won?t hold up their end of the bargain on pensions. Further, their governor has decided that in addition to giving up benefits, they shouldn?t even have the right to bargain on their working conditions or fair treatment on the job.

Not only are they going to have to give up what amounts to about 8 percent of their take-home pay, they?ve been vilified by state leaders, small-minded politicians and a host of petty complainers as being shiftless, selfish and pampered.

I decided to use the wedding as a sort of topical prop to help me draw a cartoon on a topic that I do care about, UW-Madison?s attempt to split off from the rest of the UW-System.

Since I graduated from the UW-Madison last May, my sense of attachment to the university has actually increased. Still, I couldn?t help but feel like a poseur as I filled out a Wisconsin Alumni Association membership form online.

If the current proposed legislation designating UW-Madison as a public authority is adopted, I would anticipate the following changes over the next decade and beyond:

In poker, there are gasps when players go “all in,” pushing all their chips forward to bet on the next card. By the end of that hand, they either bust and leave the table broke or sit there much richer. This season, at least three Wisconsin leaders are “all in”: Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican Gov. Scott Walker and UW-Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin.

According to a memo released by UW Vice Chancellor for Administration Darrell Bazzell, UW-Madison believes that the new public authority model proposed for the university by Gov. Scott Walker should not come at the expense of collective bargaining rights for UW faculty and staff.

Gov. Scott Walker knew he was going to the mat with unions when he announced his budget-repair bill, but he probably didn?t know he was picking a fight with ministers, rabbis and priests when he released his two-year budget. [A column by UW-Madison history professor Nan Enstad].

Gov. Scott Walker appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and claimed that his assault on public employees and public school teachers, public services and public education was a ?progressive? policy.

The budget plan I introduced last month makes the hard choices and in doing so makes a commitment to the future. We are finally carrying our fair share, so we don?t leave a larger problem for our children and grandchildren. [A column by Gov. Scott Walker].

Gov. Scott Walker?s biennial budget proposal seeks to remove the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the rest of the UW System, establishing a separate governing board and allowing it greater flexibility in areas such as budgeting and tuition. The proposal, backed by Madison chancellor Biddy Martin, is part of Walker?s plan to cut that school?s funding by $125 million ? in addition to $125 million in cuts that would be absorbed throughout the rest of the system. [Columns by UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, UW-Green Bay Chancellor Thomas Hardin and a historical perspective on the UW System].

When The Capital Times reported recently that Wisconsin public employee retirements jumped 31 percent through Feb. 25 compared to the same period last year, the data did not begin to hint at the breakneck pace of a new phenomenon in the state?s public workplace.

Wisconsin faces a historic opportunity to evolve its support for higher education and renew the Wisconsin Idea. After more than a decade of significant cuts in state support and shifting costs to student tuition, it is apparent that the old business model for the University of Wisconsin System and its institutions is broken.

Lost in the debate is that at its core, the UW System needs to be a system that includes Madison and functions as one since it represents all of the citizens of this state. Evidently, Martin doesn?t get it or just doesn?t care. In any event, her actions demonstrate one stark reality as the mess she has created is cleaned up: It?s time for her to go. [A column by former Regent David Hirsch].

The financial stress on the flagship research universities in the Midwest were encapsulated in the two-hour visit to the Riverside Brewery in West Bend, Wisconsin this month by Biddy Martin, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

More than a million people teach at colleges and universities in the United States, but only one faces a Republican demand for his e-mails: William Cronon, who teaches history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As a retired UW System vice president, I?ve watched the debate over the proposal to give UW-Madison?s varied constituencies a greater role in guiding and supporting the institution through the next phase in its history. The reforms, advanced by UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin and endorsed in the governor?s budget, should be adopted.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin isn?t happy when uppity university professors criticize our governor.

Recently William Cronon, a historian who teaches at the University of Wisconsin, decided to weigh in on his state?s political turmoil. He started a blog, ?Scholar as Citizen,? devoting his first post to the role of the shadowy American Legislative Exchange Council in pushing hard-line conservative legislation at the state level. Then he published an opinion piece in The Times, suggesting that Wisconsin?s Republican governor has turned his back on the state?s long tradition of ?neighborliness, decency and mutual respect.?