I wrote this in a fit of passion and the language is strong. I?ve had time to rationally think everything through and I think my feelings are more aligned with Erik Paulson?s. Read his comment down below (it?s long) for that. I was just trying to express my professional disappointment in the entire process; I feel that I have been slighted by administrators whom I trusted. So if some of this reads as a little bitter, it probably is.
Category: Opinion
TAA seeks stronger response from UW
Badger Herald
The Teaching Assistant Association (TAA) calls on Chancellor Biddy Martin to take a strong stance in opposition to Gov. Scott Walker?s budget repair bill. Her response to the bill to this point has been anything but.
David Vines: Wisconsin Republicans Really Don’t Want Me to Vote
Huffington Post
Noted: The Republicans have also named Representative Stephen Nass chair of the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater alumni has made it a priority to cut funds from the UW system and defund the Havens Center at UW-Madison because, as he says, it is “too far to the left.”
In Defense of Our Actions (The Campus First)
Many of you have likely read the guest article in the Badger Herald today. If not, take a moment and do so.
Thomas A. Kochan: Use evidence-based approach to public sector challenges
Capital Times
As a Wisconsin native and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin who studied public-sector employment relations for many years, I am concerned about the rhetoric over how to address your public service pension, health care and other challenges. Wisconsin is not alone: Most states, those with and without public sector unions and collective bargaining, are experiencing a similar and in many cases worse fiscal crisis. So it is critical to take an evidence-based approach to these problems and not look for easy scapegoats.
(Thomas A. Kochan is the George M. Bunker professor of management at MIT?s Sloan School of Management, co-director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research, and a co-founder of the Employment Policy Research Network.)
John Nichols: Vets group is right: National Guard should not be used to bully political foes and bust unions
Capital Times
When Gov. Walker announced his plan to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights — as well as, in effect, to cut their pay — he let slip that he had alerted the National Guard to help him implement the scheme.
….The absurdity of alerting the National Guard before a proposal — even an unpopular and potentially illegal one — has even been debated highlights the extent to which Walker has gone off the deep end.
Public employees: A day in the life of a ‘lazy’ state worker
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
It?s Sunday morning. I?ve just finished breakfast and called my parents to tell them I am not coming to brunch. The rest of my family, all private-industry employees, are there, enjoying Dad?s specialty: menudo.
Are Wisconsin Republicans fit to govern?
Capital Times
The next several days will determine whether Wisconsin Republicans are fit to govern. Gov. Scott Walker has created a make-or-break moment for members of his party who serve in the Legislature.
Walker seeks to return Wisconsin to the days of patronage politics — where party bosses filled state positions with their flunkies and services were delivered not on the basis of need but on the basis of who had the right political connections.
Walker breaks promise to thousands of state workers
Badger Herald
The warning shots came late last November.Weeks after being elected governor, Scott Walker sent a letter to the as yet Democrat-controlled Legislature urging them to halt work on public employee union contracts so that he may ?fully evaluate their effect on our next state budget.?
Budget fix would cause regress, thwart progress
Badger Herald
Gov. Scott Walker?s announcement last Friday was perhaps the greatest push yet toward the feudalistic dystopia the new administration envisions for Wisconsin. In the midst of a paranoid mobilization of the National Guard and a dramatically vamped up security detail, Walker fired his latest salvo in a full-frontal assault on public workers that, if successful, will debilitate a sector of the economy significantly represented by people of color and women.
Bill Berry: UW Extension budget is money well spent
Capital Times
STEVENS POINT ? A recently completed gig called Voices of Rural Wisconsin sent me to all corners of the state and points between for conversations with rural folks. The project, sponsored by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, was simple in scope: We asked participants to talk about their life experiences and to envision what is needed to ensure a healthy future for rural Wisconsin.
….As state and local elected officials deal with tough budget challenges in the coming days, one can only hope they?ll recognize the value of this outreach arm of the UW System.
Mike Nichols: Warm it up: Wisconsin’s in for a heat ‘wave’ (Herald Times Reporter)
Noted: I asked Dan Vimont, a UW-Madison professor involved in the study, why they think warming trends are going to accelerate so much quicker than they have in the past. He mentioned expectations regarding accumulated levels of greenhouse gases and what scientists believe the impact will be.
Sconz: What’s Walker going to do about UW?
Isthmus
The other day I was accosted at Memorial Union and asked to sign a Valentine?s day card
Preserve funding for UW System
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
This Valentine?s Day, Gov. Scott Walker should show some love for the University of Wisconsin System. When Walker releases his 2011-?13 biennial budget proposal later this month, he must preserve funding for the UW System?s 26 campuses.
Blaska’s Blog: R.I.P. Wisconsin government employee unions
Isthmus
Marty Beil, time to update your resume. John Matthews, get a hold of the Help Wanted section of your local newspaper. Soon you will be out of work.Friday is when Gov. Scott Walker lowers the boom on government employees unions. As he has promised.
Biddy, don?t sign on sketchy Huron
Badger Herald
Biddy Martin?s actions to hire a firm for what is estimated to be $3 million dollars is not the wise way of figuring out how to save money.
John Kaufman: Perverting the progressive Wisconsin Idea
Capital Times
As the University of Wisconsin invokes the Wisconsin Idea to justify its growing scientific collaboration with corporate America, and the once famously publicly oriented government of Wisconsin declares itself ?open for business,? it may help to revisit the true spirit of Wisconsin?s progressive idea.
In 1912 Charles McCarthy, head of the state?s Legislative Reference Bureau, wrote a short book explaining ?The Wisconsin Idea,? the state?s innovative effort to counteract a growing corporate tyranny.
Why Does the University Establishment Despise Religious Speech? (National Review Online)
For the last five years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been waging a fierce rear-guard action against equal treatment of religious speech on campus. While the university uses its mandatory student fee to fund a wide variety of student groups on campus, it has systematically shut religious groups out of funding ? preferring instead to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars into favored, liberal student organizations.
Berquam: A word of encouragement to engage in New Badger Partership
Badger Herald
As we battle the cold weather and accumulating snow, spring semester is upon us. We are adjusting to new classes, new experiences and new opportunities. Through all of this, I can sense a buzz around campus regarding the New Badger Partnership and what it entails. I?d like to take a moment to throw my support behind this initiative.
Forgive diversity blunders, think forward
Badger Herald
There is an infamous image that is inescapably tied to diversity efforts at the University of Wisconsin. You probably know the one ? two white women dressed in their Badger best raise their fists as they cheer on the football team. ?Wisconsin? and ?2001-2002 Undergraduate Application? float above their heads. And, at their left, out peeks the photoshopped face of a black man.
Plain Talk: Voter ID bill all about suppressing Democratic vote
Capital Times
…there?s no longer a question about the motives behind the bill. The sponsors of this throwback to the days of the Southern poll tax can try to spin their motives all they want. It?s all very simple. The GOP wants to make it tougher for college students, in particular, and anyone else who tends to vote for Democrats, to exercise their right to vote.
Plain Talk: Seems Walker won?t look beyond his nose
Capital Times
Perhaps he?s hung around too long with those high-rolling supporters of his who have a habit of living only for the next quarter?s financial results while demonstrating little concern for the long term. Because, if Scott Walker hasn?t already demonstrated he?s shortsighted, he hasn?t done anything at all.
Herbert Grover: Emphasis on sports over academics hurting U.S.
Capital Times
America, with its emphasis on sports, is becoming a nation of physical giants and intellectual pygmies.
….Over half of the instructors teaching in the graduate programs in engineering in the U.S. are foreign born. The proclamation that the U.S. is the most innovative, creative society in the world, with the most skilled work force and greatest universities, needs candid introspection.
Bill Berry: Voter ID bill just not fair to little folks
Capital Times
STEVENS POINT — Proponents of the Wisconsin voter ID bill deserve credit for piquing college students? interest in current events. Of course, this is accomplished by proposing to make students jump through hoops to exercise their right to vote. Granted, students stayed away from the last election in droves, but deny them something and they?re likely to suddenly desire it more.
….Up this way, the UW-Stevens Point Student Government Association, representing the voting rights of about 9,500 students, issued a statement calling ?ongoing attempts of legislators in Madison to disenfranchise student voters unacceptable.? Going further, the student group specifically objects to the repeal of same-day voter registration, calling it ?a direct assault against the voting rights of citizens statewide.? They got that one right.
David Canon and Donald Moynihan: Voter ID is coming, so let’s get it right
Wisconsin State Journal
Column by political science professor David T. Canon and public affairs professor Donald P. Moynihan.
Blaska’s Blog isolates the UW-Madison’s socialist toxin
Isthmus
Another toxic substance, responsible for as many deaths (and here, by country), is being kept alive on the UW-Madison campus: socialism. The Havens Center has a big-box pharmacy full of the stuff. The difference is that Havens is not studying a dead culture but actively promoting its spread to the larger populace.
Out-of-state tuition: unjust and illogical
Daily Cardinal
I love the University of Wisconsin.
David Canon and Donald Moynihan: Voter ID is coming, so let’s get it right
Wisconsin State Journal
The new governor and Legislature have fast-tracked a bill requiring a photo ID to vote in Wisconsin. Opponents say the law would do little to prevent alleged fraud at the polls, while supporters say it is necessary to protect the integrity of the system. Some version of this bill is almost certainly going to be signed into law. If photo ID is going to be implemented, it needs to be done right.
(By UW-Madison professor of political science David Canon and associate professor of public affairs Donald Moynihan. Also mentioned are political science professors Barry Burden and Ken Mayer.)
Plain Talk: Videoconferencing gives students leg up on careers
Capital Times
Early last month I sat in on a discussion UW-Madison School of Pharmacy Dean Jeanette Roberts was having with about 35 high school students who are considering becoming pharmacists. She told the students what it?s like being a pharmacist and what it takes to become one — the classes they?ll need to take, the grades they will need to achieve — and then she answered their individual questions, the first being, of course, how much do pharmacists make?
What was interesting is that Roberts and the students were miles apart from each other. She was in a small sound and video studio operated by Access Wisconsin on International Lane near the Dane County Regional Airport and the kids were comfortably seated in their school libraries. Some were at desks in Mellen, some in Green Bay and Arcadia. Several were in the Adams Friendship High School library, a couple were listening and talking from Grantsburg High.
Gehlbach: Bigger bureaucracy can be better (Moscow Times)
With great fanfare, President Dmitry Medvedev has announced his intention to slash bureaucracy by 20 percent. It is a bold attempt to deal with an unmanageable government apparatus, perhaps the chief cause of the country?s persistent economic problems. It is also profoundly mistaken.
Baggot: UW football has taken this thing nationwide
Madison.com
The item was tucked below the fold on an inside page of USA Today late last month, right before the Rose Bowl, so followers of the University of Wisconsin football program may have missed it.
Biomass might not be UW’s savior
Isthmus
In an up-and-coming podcast, I will be discussing the controversy surrounding the Charter Street Heating Plant with a guy who knows a little more about energy policy than I do. But until then, I will point you to one interesting fact: Biomass may be less environmentally beneficial than natural gas, which is the other option that the plant is pursuing.
Our nation’s fear of political complexity
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Were the Tucson shootings simply an outcome of a single person?s struggle with mental illness or was the shooter driven – at least in part – by the hostile political climate in the U.S.?
Most likely it was a combination of both those factors and many others. That doesn?t let anyone in the political arena off the hook. But it does highlight the need for a much more nuanced debate than we?ve had so far about this tragedy. Unfortunately, even commentators who tried to reintroduce some reason to the post-shooting debates by pointing to the problem of mental illness did so by offering just another monocausal explanation and relying on the same rhetorical tools that got us to into this mess in the first place. [A column by Dietram A. Scheufele, professor of life sciences communication at UW-Madison]
Stop the Silence Op-Ed: Response to Bullying and Teen Suicide (SheWired.com)
Wired.com
I walked into a conversation this afternoon about the latest LGBT bullying related suicide. I quickly found out that it was a Minnesota teen who died on Saturday morning. With these basic facts, my mind immediately went on high alert. I grew up in Minnesota — I know plenty of young people who live there. (Kasandra Brown is a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a student employee at the LGBT Campus Center)
Bill Berry: Don?t let our kids become lost generation
Capital Times
….A sober but determined focus on improving, strengthening and assuring the relevance of our educational system, from kindergarten through university or technical college, is crucial. If that means streamlining while strengthening and improving, then so be it.
Honor King by defending public workers
Capital Times
….The defense of public employees ? so essential to a functional society, and yet so frequently abused by the powerful players who would diminish the role of government in order to enhance their own wealth and authority ? is as vital a struggle today as it was in 1968.
As Gov. Scott Walker and his legislative allies target public employees for abuse, it is as necessary for the right-minded and right-hearted people of Wisconsin to defend those workers as it was for the right-minded and right-hearted people of Memphis.
Bow: The assault on ethnic studies is unwise and undemocratic (The Progressive)
As a professor of ethnic studies, I feel under assault.
Recognize the state’s strengths
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A successful strategy must build on strengths. We need economic and regulatory policies tailored to our diverse regions. A successful strategy must address our deficit in technology-intensive industries and college-educated workers. We will only catch up economically if we can employ more of those college graduates we already produce. Because the competition is stiff, we must focus on developing that sector where it has the best chance of success – in close proximity to major research institutions and population centers.
That’s according to a column by Michael Knetter, president and CEO of the UW Foundation and former dean of the Wisconsin School of Business.
Madison360: Our new GOP government ? aiming backward
Capital Times
Two days into the regime change that has ushered in the most right-wing state government of our lifetimes, a question begs to be answered: How should minority Democrats try to mitigate the potential damage to ideals that progressives and moderates hold dear?
….(Senator Fred) Risser says many constituents who work for the state or the University of Wisconsin-Madison are deeply discouraged.
?There is a lot of apprehension and a reduction in morale,? he says. ?State employees have been made a whipping boy by the incoming governor. They are not to blame for this recession.?
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden
Charles Clotfelter: End taxpayer subsidy for major college sports
Capital Times
For big-time college sports, late December is more than the season of holiday basketball tournaments and myriad football bowl games. It?s also the time for making tax-deductible gifts to the booster club of your favorite college team.
These gifts don?t get mentioned much when we hear talk of the excess costs of college sports, but they play a surprisingly large role in the college athletics business, and at considerable cost to the taxpayer.
(Charles Clotfelter, a professor of public policy at Duke University, is the author of the forthcoming book ?Big-Time Sports in American Universities.? This column first appeared in the Washington Post.)
Leonard Shapiro: From Len Shapiro: Many thanks and countless memories
Washington Post
Noted: I always tell young journalists that nothing should ever surprise them, and there is no such thing as a dumb question, especially if you don?t know the answer. I?ll be saying it again in a few weeks when I head out to the University of Wisconsin to teach a course in sports journalism. That will truly be another labor of love, and so too has been the one and only full-time job I?ve ever held in my adult life. For that, many thanks to Washington Post Chairman Donald Graham, once a brilliant sports editor himself.
Madison360: Looking back at Rose Bowl clockwork
Capital Times
There?s no debate that University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema had a brilliant season and his team?s Rose Bowl loss was a high-quality game played with few on-field mistakes. But I suspect others besides me came away baffled at Bielema?s clock management in both halves.
While some had their doubts, Bielema has grown into role as leader of Badgers
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
John Moffitt is something of a free spirit and a free thinker.
Don Schuster: Character counts at UW
Wisconsin State Journal
With all the success the UW Badger football team has had this year, supported by the expertise of the coaches and the unquestioned skill and motivation of the players, there is one quality not to be overlooked ? the character of the members of the team.
Mike Konopacki and Kathy Wilkes: Busting unions brings stagnant wages for all
Capital Times
Wisconsin Gov.-elect Scott Walker and the new Republican Legislature have declared war on working people. They want to abolish public employee unions and turn Wisconsin into a so-called right-to-work state, meaning no more union shops and no more dues from anyone who objects. This also means no more pressure from anywhere to keep wages at a livable level for anyone, union or not.
It?s all under the guise of cutting the state?s $3 billion budget deficit and creating 250,000 jobs.
Still: Holiday perks list includes naughty and nice in politics, business (wisbusiness.com)
Noted: UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin: What do you give a Big Ten Conference chancellor whose football team is playing in the Rose Bowl? How about a new research building to rival anything on the East or West coasts? Nope, she?s already got that: It?s called the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. What Martin really needs is management flexibility for a campus unlikely to see a state budget increase. A gift certificate for yoga lessons will help her limber up.
Golden: Continue stem cell research
Wausau Daily Herald
Today, in labs across the country, potentially lifesaving work with human embryonic stem cells is being put on hold as a result of the stunning recent court ruling blocking further federal support of this revolutionary research.
Guest column: Surveys generate powerful research
Green Bay Press-Gazette
During the last 50 years, participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study have helped researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison explore the experience of careers, family life, family and education in America.Now, the groundbreaking sociological study ? which has involved more than 10,000 graduates of Wisconsin?s high school class of 1957, along with their siblings and spouses ? will serve as the seminal study on aging and the effect of those life experiences. A column by UW-Madison researchers Pamela Herd and Carol Roan.
Herd: Surveys generate powerful research
Green Bay Press-Gazette
During the last 50 years, participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study have helped researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison explore the experience of careers, family life, family and education in America.
Plain Talk: Walker aims to make state workers pay
Capital Times
If you?re a state employee, just how bad are these next few years going to be? It appears they might be not only bad, but certifiably terrible.
Gov.-elect Scott Walker and the horde of Republicans who will shortly take over the state Legislature have made it crystal clear that they?re expecting government workers to pay a major price for the mess that governors, legislators and the captains of the financial industry have created over the past several years. And if that means dismantling the public employee unions, so be it.
Pay penny pinching poor policy
Badger Herald
On Friday, the Board of Regents voted to request a 2 percent pay increase for faculty and academic staff at all UW System institutions, at the behest of UW President Kevin Reilly. This will be a part of UW?s budget request to the Legislature.
Campus Connection: 2 percent UW pay increase warranted?
Capital Times
Stop me if you?ve heard this one before. The University of Wisconsin System argues its faculty and staff are in desperate need of pay raises in each of the next two years just so these in-demand folks can keep from falling further behind those at peer institutions.
Fiscal conservatives reflexively howl that those within the UW System simply don?t understand the magnitude of the budgetary crisis facing Wisconsin and are out of touch for wanting more when everyone else is trying to make do with less.
….Maybe it’s not an either/or proposition, but right now the million-dollar question appears to be: What’s a greater threat to the future of Wisconsin …
Ballooning budget deficits or a less competitive University of Wisconsin System?
Biddy?s Badger Partnership may not be good for every-bucky
Badger Herald
Like so many other issues, Chancellor Martin?s new Badger Partnership proposal all boils down to one thing: Money. Or, rather, a lack thereof. Over the past 10 years, the amount of UW Madison?s budget coming from the state has declined at least 10 percentage points.
John Nichols: Walker?s demands show need to fix transition
Capital Times
Gov.-elect Scott Walker has tried at every turn to get the administration of outgoing Gov. Jim Doyle to put government on hold until January.
….Walker and his fellow Republicans are even arguing that the negotiation of contracts with state workers — which the governor and his aides are required by law to engage in with good faith — should halt until they take charge in January.
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin and UW-La Crosse political science professor Joe Heim
The Rose Bowl and capitalism
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Wisconsin Badgers are returning to the Rose Bowl after an 11-year absence to face undefeated Texas Christian University. Everyone should be happy, due to the amount of money that is going to be spent in preparation for the big game. Souvenirs will be bought, and tickets for the game and flights will be purchased – not to mention food and hotel rooms. Everyone should be happy with the boost to both the local and the national economy.
Food fight!
Badger Herald
To say the grand opening of the new Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery did not go exactly as expected is an understatement.
Baggot: Celebrating the legacy of Barry Alvarez
Madison.com
His induction tonight into the College Football Hall of Fame couldn?t come at a better time.
Alfred McCoy: The Decline and Fall of the American Empire (Middle East Online)
These are the four scenarios for the end of the American Century by 2025, says Alfred W. McCoy.
Baggot: A sports columnist decides it’s time to believe in Bielema
Madison.com
After initial doubts, this local scribe is coming around on the fifth-year UW football coach. The moment took place weeks ago, long before anyone knew for certain that a special season was truly at hand for the University of Wisconsin football team.
Plain Talk: Bucks for Badgers, not BadgerCare
Capital Times
There have been a lot of ?no new taxes? bumper stickers on cars parked around Camp Randall on football Saturdays this year. Many of the high rollers who shell out the big bucks for Badger season tickets, seat license fees and good parking spots are apparently big supporters of Scott Walker and the Republican takeover of the Legislature. If there?s anything they?re hoping for, it?s to pay fewer taxes to the government.
That hang-onto-your-cash passion, however, probably won?t carry over to the big increases that the University of Wisconsin athletic department will be asking of its season ticket holders next year to watch Bret Bielema?s football team.