Category: Opinion

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.?

Budget cuts are flying around mercilessly these days. Madison is facing a 13-percent budget cut in Scott Walker?s proposed budget bill and needs to find ways to absorb those costs without just passing them on to students. Public authority status, included in the budget, is one proposal aiming to do just that, but Chancellor Biddy Martin is looking for other cost-reductions as well. This week, the administration announced a contract with Huron Consulting Group to look for ways to improve efficiency on campus and save the university money.

The Wisconsin Idea Partnership is a win-win for all UW campuses and all UW students. It maintains public ownership and accountability and promotes a synergistic approach in which all campuses work together to revitalize the state?s economy.

We hope that legislators will recognize that the whole is sometimes greater than the sum of its parts – a truism that certainly applies to one of the nation?s great public university systems. [A column by regents Charles Pruitt and Michael Spector].

There have been a number of recent opinion articles in support of giving the University of Wisconsin-Madison more freedom to run its own affairs and allowing it to become more independent of the state.

Now that a Wisconsin judge has temporarily blocked a state law that would strip public employee unions of most collective bargaining rights, it?s worth stepping back to place these events in larger historical context.

So now, Gov. Scott Walker is Tailgunner Joe McCarthy come back to life. Truly, the shamelessness of today?s Left knows no limits — or history! Yet, this is how a tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison stretches logic and ignores facts to further his political agenda, by slandering Scott Walker and his supporters as McCarthyites.

WASHINGTON ? “We?re broke.” You can practically break a search engine if you start looking around the Internet for those words. They?re used repeatedly with reference to our local, state and federal governments, almost always to make a case for slashing programs ? and lately to go after public employee unions. The phrase is designed to create a sense of crisis that justifies rapid and radical actions before citizens have a chance to debate the consequences. Just one problem: We?re not broke.

March 16 is the 260th anniversary of James Madison?s birth, and to mark it the American Society of News Editors and other groups, including the Society of Professional Journalists, celebrate Sunshine Week. Sunshine Week promotes the importance of freedom of information and open government at all levels. A proposed proclamation submitted to the governor reads in part, ?an open and accessible government is vital to establishing and maintaining the people?s trust and confidence in their government and in the government?s ability to effectively serve its citizens.? The proclamation further calls for all state deliberative bodies and their committees to be open to the public. This is especially important now as the governor is creating the new public-private Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to replace the Department of Commerce, splitting UW-Madison from the University of Wisconsin System and backing a statewide board to grant school charters.

What a difference 100 years make. While 2011 finds Wisconsin government embroiled in what seems to be eternal chaos, with our governor pitting the rich against the poor, it also marks the 100th anniversary of what is still known as the most productive and progressive legislative session in the history of Wisconsin, if not the nation.

….Our state was seen as championing honest government while expanding democracy and promoting what became known as the ?Wisconsin Idea,? a partnership between our great university and the citizens of Wisconsin.

When it comes to improving public understanding of tax policy, nothing has been more troubling than the deeply flawed coverage of the Wisconsin state employees? fight over collective bargaining.

The long-range question now becomes: Will this eventually break the historical ties that the people of Wisconsin have with UW-Madison? One of our System chancellors said that spinning off Madison meant the “flagship was sailing away.” More likely it will be a drift away over the years. It will still be a great school. But will it still be the state?s school?

If you have any doubt that now is the time for the New Badger Partnership, turn to the Wisconsin Idea.

At UW-Whitewater, every student, faculty and staff member is part of a community. Likewise, UW-Whitewater is a member of a greater family: the UW System.

The recent buzz about UW-Madison?s possible separation from the UW System has generated significant negative reactions. In a move that has been seen by some as an attempt by Gov. Scott Walker to politicize public education, it is not surprising that students and staff are outraged.

An e-mail arrived the other day from a longtime friend and Wisconsin native who lives in Washington state.

Its contents:”What the hell is going on back there? I am so embarrassed by the actions of the governor. Any sense of how it will get resolved?”

What began as an effort to seek more flexibility and autonomy for public higher education in Wisconsin is quickly turning into an ugly spat between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the other campuses in the UW System.

The University of Wisconsin System is a source of pride, a pathway to opportunity and an engine of economic growth for all of Wisconsin. We must work together to preserve those strengths, so that every campus can help our state thrive in challenging times.