Skip to main content

Category: Opinion

Rob Nixon: Slow Violence

Posted on
Chronicle of Higher Education

Environmentalists face a fundamental challenge: How can we devise arresting stories, images, and symbols that capture the pervasive but elusive effects of what I call “slow violence”? Climate change, the thawing cryosphere, toxic drift, deforestation, the radioactive aftermaths of wars, oil spills, acidifying oceans, and a host of other slowly unfolding environmental crises confront us with formidable representational obstacles that hinder efforts to mobilize for change.

Wineke: Shameful Budget Hurts Wisconsin Children – Madison News Story – WISC Madison

Posted on
WISC-TV 3

And so, after six contentious months, the state of Wisconsin has a budget, a $66 billion spending plan balanced on the backs of the state?s children….We are already paying a price for this. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is gone. She may have been the university?s best hope for adapting to the future but she got caught up in Gov. Walker?s schemes and her position became untenable. I expect we?re going to see many of our best faculty members leave, too. It?s one thing to work here for less money than you can earn elsewhere; it?s another to work in an environment where the Legislature takes pride in cutting schools.

Colin Goddard and Patrick Korellis: Concealed carry no answer to campus violence like we experienced

Posted on
Capital Times

We are two extremely lucky people. We lived through the horrific experience of being the targets of a pair of students who, in separate crimes, carried guns into college classrooms at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, and at Northern Illinois University on Feb, 14, 2008. All around us, the lives of our classmates were senselessly ended. It was the most intense, stressful and frightening experience of our lives.

Wisconsin state politicians believe the way to deal with such campus violence is to allow college students to bring loaded, hidden guns onto campuses. This provision is part of the concealed carry legislation that passed the Wisconsin Senate and is set for a vote in the state Assembly on Tuesday.

Jena McGregor: For the Class of 2011, a lesson on earning

Posted on
Capital Times

It?s commencement time and, for newly minted grads facing a long and potentially futile job search this summer, there?s at least one bit of good news. According to its recent Spring Salary survey, the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that starting salaries are up 5.9 percent for 2011 college grads.

The news is not so good, however, for young women starting new jobs. In a separate study, the same organization found that the average Class of 2010 female with a new bachelor?s degree received a $36,451 starting salary ? 17 percent less than the $44,159 her average male peer received.

(This column appeared first in the Washington Post)

Madison360: Suri says Biddy Martin’s departure is a sad result of ?attack politics’

Posted on
Capital Times

Jeremi Suri, the prominent history professor who is leaving the University of Wisconsin-Madison in frustration to join the faculty at the University of Texas, emailed me today about his analysis of university Chancellor Biddy Martin?s resignation posted today on his blog at Global Brief. It is passionate and blunt, a great read.

Chris Rickert: Worry less about mice, more about humans

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

I watched the video of fighting mice posted on the Madison-based Alliance for Animals website as part of the complaint it and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed against UW-Madison, which apparently has been pitting mice against one another in laboratory studies of aggression..It?s hard for me to see much blood lust in a pair of mice that are fighting, which in the short video looked more like a kind of bloodless wrestling. So it?s hard for me to see why it should be illegal.

Rhonda Puntney: Crippling WiscNet would hurt libraries and schools

Posted on
Capital Times

On June 3, the state Legislature?s Joint Committee on Finance slipped several policy items into the state biennial budget that would change the way the Internet service provider WiscNet operates and require the University of Wisconsin to return more than $32 million in federal grant money awarded in August 2010 for a broadband expansion project.

The proposed changes to WiscNet could result in schools, libraries and institutions of higher education paying two to three times more for Internet access from for-profit providers. Actually, it?s more accurate to say that taxpayers would foot the increased bill, or library patrons and students would no longer have the access they need and want. The policy changes would also disrupt the ability of the UW to pursue its research and education mission.

Jessica Valenti: SlutWalks and the future of feminism

Posted on
Capital Times

….When I speak on college campuses, students will often say they don?t believe that a woman?s attire makes it justifiable for someone to rape her, but ? and there almost always is a ?but? ? shouldn?t women know better than to dress in a suggestive way? What I try to explain to those students is part of what the SlutWalk protests are aiming to relay on a grander scale. That yes, some women dress in short, tight, ?suggestive? clothing ? maybe because it?s hot outside, maybe because it?s the style du jour or maybe just because they think they look sexy. And there?s nothing wrong with that. Women deserve to be safe from violent assault, no matter what they wear. And the sad fact is, a miniskirt is no more likely to provoke a rapist than a potato sack is to deter one.

As one Toronto SlutWalk sign put it: ?Don?t tell us how to dress. Tell men not to rape.? It?s this ? the proactive, fed-upness of SlutWalks ? that makes me so hopeful for the future.

(This column appeared first in The Washington Post.)

UW discussion needs to be thoughtful, deliberative

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

As the Wisconsin Idea has long been a model for public higher education in this country, it is a propitious time to at once reaffirm and replenish our public commitment. Just over a half-century ago, Helen C. White reaffirmed Wisconsin?s motto of public higher education, calling again for a “continual and fearless sifting and winnowing in the pursuit of truth.”

Now is the time to reaffirm that creed, seize the moment and re-imagine public higher education both in Wisconsin and across our nation. [A column by Geoffrey Mamerow, a doctoral student in higher education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Clifton Conrad is professor of higher education at UW-Madison.]

Tom Oates: Tressel latest to lose grip

Posted on
Madison.com

….With new allegations surfacing that Buckeyes players have been selling memorabilia and getting sweetheart deals on cars since 2002, the message being sent is even more loud and clear: This isn?t a Jim Tressel problem or an Ohio State problem, it?s a college football problem. At its highest levels, the sport is out of control.

Michael W. Apple: Why I stay at the UW

Posted on
Capital Times

As I watch many valued colleagues leave the University of Wisconsin-Madison for other institutions, I react with dismay. Not at them, but at the lack of any substantive educational vision that now seems to pervade the governor?s officer and the Legislature.

We do a disservice to any serious understanding of the importance of education if we simply see it as a vocational path to more money and jobs. When the governor said that he didn?t need to finish college because he already had a job, he demonstrated how limited was his view of education as a self-making process.

Beer at Camp Randall: Nope

Posted on
Isthmus

It ain?t gonna happen. Much to the chagrin of The Sconz circa 2009, UW students will never be able to drink at Badgers games. The idea of selling beer at Camp Randall popped onto the radar screen recently when West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck proposed such a plan for Mountaineers football games. In addition to tapping into a lucrative revenue stream, Luck told his Board of Governors that allowing and controlling beer sales would help cut down on the problem of fan intoxication.

It is ironic that West Virginia, which surveys show has one of the lowest rates of alcohol consumption in the country, is considering a more liberal drinking policy than Wisconsin, the heaviest drinking state in the country, and home to Memorial Union, perhaps the proudest university-sponsored drinking venue in American history.

UW-Madison has unique mission, needs

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

I joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a faculty member in 1973, two years after the merger of UW-Madison with the UW System. The merger was met with much apprehension.

“The University of Wisconsin: A History, 1945-1971” notes that the 1971 merger was “imposed by state political leaders over the deep misgivings of most UW regents, administrators and Madison faculty members, alumni and students.”

These misgivings were well-founded. In the 40 years following the merger, UW-Madison has been less than it can be. The reason is straightforward. [A column by Ronald Kalil, a professor of neuroscience in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in the School of Medicine and Public Health at UW-Madison.]

Margaret Krome: State workers too discouraged to stay

Posted on
Capital Times

I?ve become much too good recently at writing accolades about retiring public workers. I?m glad to praise the praiseworthy, of course. It?s just that there are too many inspiring public servants departing state government right now. I?m losing words to express my sense of loss and outrage.

….State workers who have worked for decades under multiple administrations suddenly are leaving in droves.

A different perspective on Madison split

Posted on
Green Bay Press-Gazette

In a recent guest column (Opinion, May 10), a University of Wisconsin System regent and member of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Advisory Council stated her case against the New Badger Partnership. As an alumnus of UW-Madison, I would like to offer a different perspective.

Round 2 on tap at state Capitol

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Numbers from the state Department of Administration and the University of Wisconsin-Madison show how important the dues of public-employee union members are to those unions – dues Walker?s changes would dramatically cut, if not eliminate.

In one year, UW-Madison unionized workers and workers in agencies of state government controlled by the governor, paid $13.9 million in union dues, And, of that total, $8.2 million – or 59% – went to the Wisconsin State Employees Union.

Madison360: Barrett steps up, but for another shot at Walker?

Posted on

“What I saw early this year (in Madison) was not our Wisconsin. You clearly had ideological forces trying to divide rather than bring us together.”

Another example of dividing people is Walker?s effort to try to split the “flagship university” from the rest of the system, a reference to the plan Walker developed with UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin to separate the UW-Madison campus from the rest of the UW System. Walker is acting more as a king than a governor, according to a Barrett speech line.

Harry Peterson: Proposed UW System split is bad for UW-Madison

Posted on
Capital Times

….the chancellor is pushing a new argument, insisting that the only way to save UW-Madison from certain peril is to split from the UW System, creating an independent governing structure for the flagship campus. This is a major departure from the earlier argument, and many people think it is a bad idea ? both for UW-Madison and the other UW campuses.

I write as a longtime administrator at the UW-Madison and former chief of staff to Chancellor Donna Shalala. For eight of those years, I spent a great deal of time lobbying in the state Capitol for the university. I strongly agree that the restrictions on construction, hiring and budgeting should be changed. A separate governing board for the UW-Madison, however, would be harmful to my university.

Brec Cooke: Washington Post, New York Times Fail on FOIA

Posted on
Huffington Post

A somewhat ugly and unfortunate debate has occurred in the national press in recent weeks over the use of freedom of information laws. The controversy began when the Wisconsin Republican Party asked the University of Wisconsin for e-mails of William Cronon, a history professor at Madison, whose records, as a state employee, are subject to Wisconsin?s open records law.

Madison360: Biddy Martin has right diagnosis but the wrong remedy

Posted on
Capital Times

First, let?s pause to celebrate. Over the past two decades, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has come to deserve the descriptor ?world-class research institution,? one that attracts more than $1 billion per year in grants.

And let?s stipulate to this: Really smart people agree that to protect and extend UW?s top-tier stature, its chancellor and other campus leaders need to have operational flexibility to compete in the global arena. And, further, let?s agree that other UW System schools would benefit from freedoms scaled to their situations.

….Martin clearly believes in her cause, that only through her version of change can UW-Madison succeed as an international player, but it appears to be time to punt.

UW?s players should let bygones be bygones and hope that the university?s brain trust ? which aptly describes the intellect and energy on campus ? can reunite to effectively confront the grave threat posed by dwindling state financial support and Capitol meddling.

So let?s applaud Martin for placing the issue in the brightest of lights and then turn quickly to achieving greater flexibility not only for UW-Madison but for the entire system, keenly mindful that Madison is vastly different from other schools.

Quoted: Former UW-Madison chancellor John Wiley.

Plain Talk: Walker needs national economy to soar

Posted on
Capital Times

Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs during his four years as governor providing he makes it that far and so he?s got his staff trumpeting every small sign that he may be on his way to that goal. Trouble is, in his zealousness to pat himself on the back at every uptick in the economy, he?s making himself look foolish ? even more so than he?s already done in just four months in office.

Mentioned: Professor emeritus of economics Don Nichols

Stephanie Lee Swartz: Splitting off UW would benefit the entire state

Posted on

Together, Wisconsin?s public universities, two-year colleges, technical schools and private institutions produce a highly educated workforce. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is proud to be a part of this collaboration and shared legacy of excellence. [A commentary by Stephanie Lee Swartz, a member of the UW-Madison School of Nursing Board of Visitors and the Wisconsin Alumni Association Board of Directors.]

Mills: Understanding (or not) the New Badger Partnership

Posted on
Isthmus

On Tuesday I finally had a chance to take in some of the new Union South in person and it is, as I?ve been reading for weeks now, quite lovely. The design is sleek and modern without feeling sterile. There are multiple food options encompassing a decent range of health and diet options. Students were seated everywhere, working on laptops or noses buried in books.

Plain Talk: Even loyal workers reach a tipping point

Posted on
Capital Times

….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.

The Badger Herald: Without alternative focus, Mifflin may well be an indefensible event

Posted on
Badger Herald

Like most Madisonians and veterans of Mifflins past, I read with dismay the news that two partygoers were stabbed ? leading to ?multiple life-threatening injuries? requiring emergency surgery in one case ? at this year?s celebration. Equally disturbing is that three police officers were injured ? including a female officer who was punched in the face when she tried to stop a reveler ? and that four times as many partygoers ended up in detox as compared to last year.Not surprisingly, Mayor Paul Soglin and other city leaders want to see Mifflin come to an end.

Chancellor online: PR guru or genuine Twitter extraordinaire?

Posted on
Badger Herald

This Monday, in a not-at-all out of character message, Biddy Martin tweeted ?@alison1690,? ?I like the opportunity to learn about and communicate with students in a medium you find appealing.? The next day, our chancellor held an impromptu discussion with student protesters occupying Bascom Hall. Coincidence? Political savvy? Biddy being Biddy?

J.B. Van Hollen: Alcohol is most prevalent date rape drug

Posted on
Capital Times

The month of April has been designated Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a month focused on raising public awareness about sexual violence and educating communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual assaults. Sexual assault is a pervasive problem in our society. It is estimated that one in six American women has been the victim of sexual assault or attempted assault. However, sexual assault can affect people of any gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation or ability.

Bob Lehrman: How unions make professors better

Posted on
Capital Times

We?d never met. But when I walked into my class at American University a few weeks ago, I knew instantly who she was. She came up quickly, like someone who didn?t have much time. She was a grad student working at American University for the Service Employees International Union to organize adjunct professors like me. She hoped I would sign up. What surprised me was my reaction. I wished she hadn?t come.

(Bob Lehrman, a novelist, former White House aide and author of ?The Political Speechwriter?s Companion,? was American University?s adjunct of the year in 2010. This column first appeared in the Washington Post.)

Alfred McCoy: Washington in a bind as local despots fall (Salon.com)

Posted on

In one of history?s lucky accidents, the juxtaposition of two extraordinary events has stripped the architecture of American global power bare for all to see. Last November, WikiLeaks splashed snippets from U.S. embassy cables, loaded with scurrilous comments about national leaders from Argentina to Zimbabwe, on the front pages of newspapers worldwide. Then just a few weeks later, the Middle East erupted in pro-democracy protests against the region?s autocratic leaders, many of whom were close U.S. allies whose foibles had been so conveniently detailed in those same diplomatic cables.

Administrative Excellence initiative Biddy?s back-up plan

Posted on
Badger Herald

Last week was bad for the New Badger Partnership?s prospects in the state Legislature. Reps. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, and Robin Vos, R-Burlington, each said they had doubts that the University of Wisconsin-Madison will garner the votes to split from the UW System, casting a pall over Chancellor Biddy Martin?s hard-won successes thus far.

Barry Alvarez: Give UW-Madison tools to compete

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Right now the UW-Madison is operating on an uneven field that, if not corrected, will slowly erode our great university?s ability to compete – for students, faculty and research dollars, just to name a few – not only nationally, but around the world as well. We all know how economically challenging these past few years have been for our country. Those challenges exist on college campuses as well, including UW-Madison. I always taught my players to meet challenges head-on and that?s what is necessary now. Chancellor Biddy Martin has a plan that would give UW-Madison some of the decision-making flexibility necessary for our university to continue to compete on a national and international level.

Madison360: UW-Madison’s sad and confusing family feud

Posted on
Capital Times

Chancellor Biddy Martin had finished her by-now-familiar sales pitch that the University of Wisconsin-Madison can only succeed by splitting from the UW System. On this day, her audience was Downtown Rotary, the city?s high court of business movers and shakers.

….How, if things proceed as they seem likely to, does she emerge unscarred? At Rotary, it became obvious she is acutely aware of what critics are saying. Her persona has morphed from careful to carefully combative.

I often write about progressive interests in and around Madison responding to right-wing attacks. What we have here feels like an enormous family feud, albeit nuanced, arcane and hugely important. It feels oddly timed, on the heels of everything and, well, kind of sad.

Three who are politically ‘all in’

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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.

Administrative Excellence initiative Biddy?s back-up plan

Posted on
Badger Herald

Last week was bad for the New Badger Partnership?s prospects in the state Legislature. Reps. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, and Robin Vos, R-Burlington, each said they had doubts that the University of Wisconsin-Madison will garner the votes to split from the UW System, casting a pall over Chancellor Biddy Martin?s hard-won successes thus far.

Mitman: Jobs grow in a healthy environment

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Yet as we celebrate the 41st anniversary of Earth Day – founded by Wisconsin?s own Gaylord Nelson – the jobs-vs.-environment argument has surfaced again. It is a more dubious claim than ever.

Case in point: recycling, mandated by the state in 1990 after a long, contentious political battle. Just 20 years later, Wisconsin municipalities recycle more than 700,000 tons of material each year – waste that otherwise would go to landfills. The environmental benefits of keeping plastic, metals and other materials out of the ground are many and obvious, including protecting the quality of our groundwater and conserving valuable resources. [A column by Gregg Mitman, interim director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison].

State budget rouses faith leaders

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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].

Bruce Barrett and Monica Vohmann: Nuclear power too dangerous, too costly

Posted on
Capital Times

The Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster is stimulating debate about nuclear power in Wisconsin, the U.S. and the world. To elevate the quality of that discussion, we offer a short primer on radiation and its impact on health, and our informed opinion on the implications for energy policy.

(Bruce Barrett is an associate professor in the School of Medicine and Public Health and Vohmann is a clinical assistant professor in family medicine.)

Joseph G. Lehman and Thomas Shull: Our right to ask about professors? political activism

Posted on
Capital Times

A national debate is under way over the use of open records laws to seek documents from professors at public institutions of higher education. A Washington Post editorial last week criticized our organization, the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy, suggesting that we meant to chill academic freedom through a state Freedom of Information Act request that we filed with three public universities. The evidence shows that the Post has erred, but the general rush to judgment about the use of open records laws with public universities illustrates why defending the laws remains as challenging and important as ever.

Scott Straus: Gbagbo’s Blame Game

Posted on
Huffington Post

Today Laurent Gbagbo was captured, and at long last the Ivorian political crisis looks ready to subside. “The nightmare is over,” declared Guillaume Soro, Côte d?Ivoire?s incoming Prime Minister. But if the past is any prelude, we are likely to see a new war of words in the coming days and weeks.

UW System needs to compromise

Posted on

The future of UW-Madison?s authority model grows hazier as Chancellor Biddy Martin finds her brainchild gridlocked between UW System officials and the Wisconsin state Legislature. As evidenced by her e-mail sent to UW-Madison students last Thursday, Martin?s attempts to implement the New Badger Partnership?a plan to increase UW-Madison?s flexibility through the establishment of a public authority model that would break the university from the UW System?are growing increasingly desperate. Although Martin earned the support of Gov. Scott Walker in his proposed biennial budget, the idea of Wisconsin?s most prestigious and economically viable research institution stripping away from the UW System has sister universities and the Board of Regents disconcerted.