An online reader raised a good question after reading our editorial Sunday calling on the state to give the University of Wisconsin System more flexibility. The reader wanted to know how the UW System compared with other states on a per capita basis.
Sometimes things arent as black and white as they seem to be in a generic, boiler-plate news release. In an Oct. 28 news release from the UW-Madison provosts office, it was announced that Molly Jahn would be “stepping down” Jan. 1 as dean of the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. (Password required. Email Michael Penn, mpenn@wisc.edu for full text.)
Earlier this month I was quoted saying voters “are pretty damn stupid.” There is only one stupid voter here and that?s me. I made an exaggerated wisecrack in response to a reporter?s question. There was a serious point to it — that voters often want contradictory things like “free lunches” and don?t know all the details about candidates and policies.
Joint Statement Regarding CivilityNovember 23, 2010This fall, a number of our University of Wisconsin System campuses and surrounding communities have experienced incidents of violence and intolerance.
Well, the awful 2010 election is behind us. Given the results, I recall Gen. George Custer?s last words: “We?ve got ?em where we want ?em. We can shoot in any direction!” Put another way, the Republicans are in total control and they will not play beanbag. But we will hold them accountable for the people of Wisconsin.
….Take a look at the agenda that Walker and his think tank cohort — MacIver Institute, talk show host Charlie Sykes, Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, Bradley Foundation — are drawing up. They will try to rid us of the La Follette legacy — they want to abolish the Public Service Commission, kill public radio and TV, dump civil service, bust the public employee unions, and privatize the UW-Madison.
Super-genius political science professor Charles H. Franklin of the University of Wisconsin, Madison recently gave loud voice to a widely held liberal belief: Ordinary Americans, especially conservative ones, are stupid.
There is a warm spot reserved in my heart for Buckingham U. “Bucky” Badger.Always has been; always will be.
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in early October, yet the Promenade Room at Madison?s Overture Center had a couple hundred people gathered inside to hear a discussion on religion and science as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival.
That?s just one indication of how lively this subject is these days. One of the presenters that day was Steve Paulson, the Wisconsin Public Radio producer whose new book sheds lots of light on this topic, which often stirs overheated debate.
The Refocus Wisconsin project did not want to hear from just the experts. It wanted to hear from ordinary citizens as well. So the project executed two of the most thorough and exhaustive polls of state residents in recent memory to understand where average citizens fall on the important issues.
On Wisconsin! Those words greeted me during my ascent of the Great Wall last summer while studying abroad in Tianjin, China. After I was mobbed by Chinese tourists eager to take a picture with me and get an autograph from a “real” American, those two words were as welcome as an Ian?s pizza on Friday night. What made me more ecstatic was this person, one of the few foreigners I saw outside of Beijing, was an alumnus of UW-Madison.
Two days after college football fans watched in amazement as Wisconsin defeated Indiana by an astonishing 63 points, the Hoosiers were still dealing with the fallout.
In 1952, Wisconsin Gov. Walter J. Kohler Jr. expressed frustration over rivalries among the state?s public universities, saying: “These institutions are competing here for money, just as they are competing for students, and this tugging and hauling must be stopped.”
Now that we?ve all calmed down from last week?s election, it?s time to look at what a Republican-led House of Representatives will mean for the country. They?ve talked about repealing the health care bill, extending the Bush tax cuts and, of course, making sure Obama is only in office for one term. We?ll have to wait and see whether they actually do any of these things, but the most concerning promise they?ve made isn?t one of these. It?s the promise to cut funding to science research.
With the election behind us, I hope to turn more attention to some of the original focuses of The Sconz, including my beloved alma matter, the University of Wisconsin.
Professors like me, with established research credentials at animal-research-intensive universities who are also members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, are rare. But a dual identity as a research faculty member and an animal advocate affords a unique perspective on both camps.
Noted: “Another myopic fortress: the UW-Madison, which is busily raising $38 million to build a new School of Music performance center just blocks away from seriously underused Overture stages. Go figure.”
I?m traveling today and therefore likely unable to post, but last night I spoke at the University of Wisconsin on “Civil Liberties and Terrorism in the Age of Obama.”
For 17 years now, Bob Herbert?s columns in The New York Times have been exposing and challenging the injustices that so many among us endure in their lives. He has long been a favorite of mine, so when he was named to deliver the annual Robert W. Kastenmeier lecture sponsored recently by the UW-Madison?s Law School, I was first in line to get a ticket.
Herbert is, after all, one of the few national political columnists who regularly writes about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the terrible toll they are taking on the small slice of American society that has been sent to fight them. Unfortunately, the wars are flying under most Americans? radars. He used his lecture to encourage the overflow crowd at the Law School to wake up to what?s happening to our nation because of the wars.
….Herbert agrees with what I?ve said in this column over the years — if we returned to a military draft, we could solve many problems. First, if war becomes necessary, everyone would share the burden, not sweep it under a rug while others do the dirty work. But more importantly, if most of America stands to be affected, there would be more restraint on our leaders in starting a war in the first place. And ending it would become a much higher priority.
I wonder if we should stop encouraging our young people to go to college.
It has become fashionable, after all, in today?s American political environment to disparage the educated. For reasons I can?t really explain, folks with college educations are deemed too hoity-toity, I guess, to represent the great mass of Americans. At least, that?s the message being sent by the many angry-at-everybody people in the tea party movement.
As the final seconds ticked off before the Badgers? poured onto the field in celebration Saturday of a one-point football victory at Iowa, I couldn?t help thinking of Wayne Cook.
Badger fans of a certain age will recall it like yesterday: Jan. 1, 1994, the first Barry Alvarez-authored Rose Bowl game.
Election Day is nearly upon us, but for many voters it has already come and gone. States have aggressively expanded the use of early voting, allowing people to submit their ballots before Election Day in person, by mail and in voting centers set up in shopping malls and other public places.
During my brief stint as a tour guide for this university, I was told, often to the point of saturation, that it was my responsibility to present the best conceivable face of Madison. I don?t know if I came remotely close to fitting that rather daunting bill, but I do recall the expectation went well beyond a pleasant disposition. It was essential to present the many pitfalls of the state?s flagship ? and there are many ? in such a fashion that our visitors did not go home intent on taking their business elsewhere.
So what do you think of Bret Bielema now?
Granted, it?s not the most important question here at a fairly critical juncture of the season, the midpoint between Wisconsin?s victory against No.?1 Ohio State and another big game Saturday at Iowa, but I?m asking anyway because it?s the one issue that never seems to leave the room, no matter the state of the Badgers.
….You?ve seen the news stories of late of gay teens and college students committing suicide after facing bullying. You?d think that even folks who have issues with the morality of homosexuality would find in their religious values a call to work with schools and parents to make sure students are not singled out for harassment and bullying because of their perceived or expressed sexual orientation.
Instead, religiously oriented groups like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council are trying to make sure that anti-bullying programs do not mention the reasons for bullying, that they only target the act of bullying.
As students here at UW-Madison, we recognize and appreciate the value of an education. Some of us may plan to use our degree to start a career, others to continue our studies. Yet what we gain from our experience at UW isn?t just measured in midterms and homework. One of the best opportunities we have as students-one that will add countless value to our education-is the opportunity to study abroad.
David Newby, whose recent retirement as Wisconsin AFL-CIO president was recognized this weekend by hundreds of his friends and fans who attended events honoring him, was a throwback to the labor leaders of the early 20th century. He recognized that for working people to get a fair shake, they had to make the labor movement a genuine movement. To a greater extent than all but a handful of contemporary labor leaders, Newby put an emphasis — as a leader of the UW-Madison Teaching Assistants Association, the president of the old Madison Labor Council, and since 1994 the head of the state?s labor federation — not just on economic and political fights but on social and cultural initiatives.
Why don?t more of our smartest, most accomplished college graduates want to become teachers?
People trying to improve education in this country have been talking a lot lately about boosting ?teacher effectiveness.? But nearly all such efforts focus on the teachers who are already in the classroom, instead of seeking to change the caliber of the people who enter teaching.
Three of the top-performing school systems in the world — those in Finland, Singapore and South Korea — take a different approach, recruiting 100 percent of their teachers from the top third of their high school and college students. Simply put, they don?t take middling students and make them teachers. They tap their best people for the job.
Working with others, I spent much of the last year trying to get the Dane County Board of Supervisors to sponsor a study of experimenting on monkeys here in Madison, the “Monkey Experimentation Capital of the World.” I learned a few lessons along the way
As a scientist, I shouldn?t have a stake in the upcoming midterm elections, but unfortunately, it seems that I — and indeed all my fellow climate scientists — do.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has threatened that, if he becomes chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, he will launch what would be a hostile investigation of climate science.
….about 300 guests gave Andrew ?Sandy? Wilcox a big send-off during a reception and dinner at the Memorial Union last Thursday night.
Wilcox has served as president of the UW Foundation, the university?s fundraising arm, for the past 21 years. During that time the foundation has experienced phenomenal growth with its assets growing from $190 million to $2.5 billion. Additionally, the foundation pumped roughly $2 billion into the university. That?s been a great help for a campus that has seen its state-supported funding drop from 35 percent of its budget to less than 19 percent, as former Chancellor John Wiley pointed out during a brief program honoring Wilcox in the union?s Great Hall.
On Dec. 2 the University of Wisconsin will celebrate the opening of the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery. I wish David Iverson, a former news reporter for Wisconsin?s public television, would be invited to speak on this auspicious occasion.
While many will see this event as a huge investment in innovation technology and higher paying jobs for Wisconsin?s shrinking economy, many of us who suffer daily from disabling chronic diseases see it as a day of hope — hope that this new science facility?s foremost mission is to shorten the period before we are once again whole and free of pain.
A state website operating since 2007 is supposed to be informing citizens how state government spends some of their taxpayer dollars by disclosing information on state contracts worth $10,000 or more. But that is not happening. And for a state that strives to be a leader in government transparency, this is not a pretty story.
Noted: Obama “drew a large crowd to a rally at the University of Wisconsin, traditionally the home of boys and girls in unwashed black turtleneck sweaters, pretending to be Marxists on their daddies? capitalist dimes (and many dollars).”
Almost 50 years ago, the young director of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Leslie Fishel, and three other leading Madisonians asked the United Givers Fund — the predecessor to the United Way of Dane County — to fund a study of discrimination in Madison and the needs of the city?s growing African-American population. The request was initially rejected on the grounds that ?discrimination as it exists in other communities does not exist in Madison.?
Fishel, already one of the nation?s pre-eminent historians of Northern segregation and discrimination, begged to differ.
(Fishel died of complications from colon cancer at his Seattle home on Sept. 8. He was 88.)
WASHINGTON ? A couple of hours before President Obama offered a boffo revival of his 2008 campaign persona during a boisterous rally at the University of Wisconsin, Sen. Bernie Sanders was analyzing why the president was in a political pickle in the first place.
If you did not feel great urgency about the Wisconsin economy three years ago, the impact of the Great Recession has probably changed your mind. It has changed ours. That is why we both agreed to serve on the steering committee consisting of representatives from business, government and education that commissioned the Wisconsin Competitiveness Study. We strongly support the recommendations of the completed study, entitled ?Be Bold Wisconsin? — especially the two recommendations that would radically alter the economic development infrastructure in the state.
(Wisconsin School of Business Dean Mike Knetter and Marquette University School of Business Dean Linda Salchenberger)
The great Massachusetts comic Eugene Mirman has a routine about people who quote half-remembered statistics. He says he likes to tell those people that he read somewhere that 100 percent of Americans are Asian.
As I write, the leaves are turning color, and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers are actually ahead in the early stages of the first half against Southern Cal in Twin City Federal Stadium, also known as the House That Bob Built (for Bob Bruininks, the U of M?s president).
The fate of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research in the United States will be decided in the coming weeks, beginning with an oral hearing in court next Monday. For years, federal funding has supported all hESC research that does not involve the destruction of new human embryos. In other words, the government funds research for stem cell lines obtained from human embryos destroyed in the past, but not research that involves destroying new ones.
From a Sept. 14 editorial (“A key job in the region”) and an Across the Board blog posting the same day (“Aren?t the faculty just picking their own boss at UWM?”), it is clear that the Journal Sentinel Editorial Board has an incomplete understanding of the authority and responsibilities of faculty within the University of Wisconsin System as well as the role they play in selecting chancellors.
In a recent address to the Associated Students of Madison, Chancellor Biddy Martin summarized a lengthy PowerPoint presentation she plans on selling around the state. While glossing over the substantive changes she ultimately sought, Martin spent most of her 30 minutes in front of ASM lauding UW?s substantial impact on Wisconsin?s culture and economy. However, flipping through the slide packet that was temporarily distributed to council members, one could see the eerie outlines of Martin?s master plan. The overall objective was to sever UW?s ties with the rest of the UW System to become independent while still benefiting from an umbilical tether to state coffers.
Wisconsinites are concerned about the direction of the state, its economy and their family?s own economic well-being. Furthermore, Wisconsinites do not think that their state government is doing a particularly good job and are frustrated with a state government that they do not believe is particularly innovative. Still, Wisconsinites report being relatively happy and rate life and schools in the Badger State better than in other states. [A column by Ken Goldstein, a UW-Madison professor of political science.]
In March, 16 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students were taken into custody during a protest over rising tuition costs. As silly as college student protests can be, this one actually made some sense. Tuition costs across the entire country are sky-high.
I write in support of Resolution 35, by which Dane County would set up a citizens? panel to discuss the ethics of experimentation on monkeys. As lead sponsor, I believe it addresses justifiable citizen concerns about what a public institution in our community is doing in our name with our tax dollars.
It is appropriate for the county to deal with this issue. Many citizens have expressed concern about the monkeys held in captivity on the University of Wisconsin campus. It is natural that citizens should contact their local government officials, who are closest to them and most approachable.
If my parents thought it was hard to keep track of my major, they should try keeping tabs on the availability of embryonic stem-cell research funding.
Last Thursday, the Obama administration formally challenged a court order by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to suspend the federal funding of stem-cell research. Lamberth?s injunction, issued on Aug. 23, blocked President Obama?s push for public endowment on the basis that such funding violates the Dickey-Wicker Amendment. The amendment was a ?rider? to a 1995 bill, meaning that it would never have passed as its own legislation, and thus was added onto a distantly related proposal. Dickey-Wicker specifically bars public funding for the creation and endangerment of embryonic cells for research purposes.
On May 15, 1985, trainers at Hawaii Sea Life Park were stunned when a 400- pound gray female bottlenose dolphin named Punahele gave birth to a dark-skinned calf that partly resembled the 2,000-pound male false killer whale with whom she shared a pool.
More than half of the monkeys shipped by UW-Madison from the Vilas Zoo to the Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio back in 1998 appear to be dead, Rick Bogle writes in his Primate Freedom blog. Bogle, the co-director of the Madison-based Alliance for Animals, wrote last week that the “United States Department of Agriculture is scrambling to find homes for approximately 204 primates and an additional 114 other large animals after years of serious violations of the US Animal Welfare Act including inadequate and improper food. Twenty-two of those monkeys are the survivors of the large colony sent there by the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1998.”
A constant complaint among Wisconsin state budget planners for the past several decades is how little the state gets back from the taxes its residents send to Washington.
Because it has only a couple of small military bases and a relatively small federal work force, the state has historically been locked into receiving about 80 to 85 cents back for every $1 that the taxpayers pay in federal taxes.
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, a UW-Madison economist
STEVENS POINT ? Dave Obey was on hand here a few days ago as University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point officials, faculty, students and community leaders celebrated the launching of the Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Technology in ceremonies on campus.
Obey?s presence was fitting. He directed about $1.4 million of federal funds to support the institute at the university, which will take an interdisciplinary approach as it creates and commercializes sustainable technologies and connects the campus to the business community.
What will the next Wisconsin Legislature be like? Will it be any braver, wiser, and/or more productive than the Democratic-controlled 2009-2010 Legislature, the divided 2007-2008 Legislature or the Republican-run 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 legislatures?
Let?s face it. Madison is more often than not deemed a fabulous university on account of its outstanding academic reputation and its plethora of beer. Yet, there is more to the University of Wisconsin than high GPAs and a nice, cold brew. The unique, passionate, and truly creative minds and personas of the students that bring this campus to life are something to observe with awe. It seems to me that Chancellor Biddy Martin agrees, as this past week she has deemed this fresh school year ?The Year of the Arts?.
One hundred years ago, following a whirlwind visit to 155 medical schools, Abraham Flexner issued a report that reshaped American medicine. His observations and recommendations led to major changes in U.S. medical education. Our nation?s medical schools subsequently provided innovations that have dramatically transformed the practice of medicine, thereby greatly improving public health.
Nevertheless, according to a recent Commonwealth Fund report, the U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world and consistently underperforms other countries on most measures of performance. Thus, our medical schools, which currently lead the world in biomedical research and health professions education, are faced with a challenging mission if they are to continue their leadership in improving health.
Noted: Co-author Charles Cohen is a professor of history and religious studies and director of the Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at UW-Madison.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen was right recently when he declared, “Murderers should fear forensic science.” Forensic science evidence can be a powerful tool against the guilty. It has also proven to be a powerful tool for exonerating the wrongly accused and convicted. [A column by Keith Findley, co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. He is also president of the Innocence Network, an affiliation of more than 60 innocence projects around the world which filed a brief in the court of appeals challenging the ballistics expert’s claims in the case discussed.]
Wisconsinites, it turns out, have been paying attention to schools, except in one interesting way.
That we have been paying attention is heartening news out of that big survey this summer by University of Wisconsin-Madison political science guru Ken Goldstein. The headline from the survey was that a solid majority – 62% statewide, 68% in Milwaukee – believe the state?s “best and brightest” leave to find work. Presumably soured on who is left, a supermajority are either frustrated or angry at state government.
STEVENS POINT ? The good sisters at St. Mary of the Angels in Green Bay didn?t teach science well. They were better at drills for diagramming sentences. But on Friday afternoons, when we put down the pencils and had open discussions about topics of the day, we learned to discern and distinguish, to sift through information and get to the core of an issue.
Boldness is a word often used in discussions about Wisconsin?s economic future. Of course, boldness means different things to different people.
If I were doing research for the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, would it be bold to compare key statistics of neighboring states with those of Wisconsin? Or would it be bold to research former agrarian countries like Taiwan and South Korea to find out how they transformed into technical powerhouses and created the jobs and corporate brands we desperately seek here in Wisconsin. [A column by Walt Ferguson, former Silcon Valley executive, in response to a column by the business school deans at UW-Madison and Marquette.]
During The Daily Cardinal?s recent interview with Chancellor Biddy Martin, there was one answer that stood out above the others in both its frankness and its unexpectedness: ?No.?
That was Martin?s answer to the question of whether the University of Wisconsin can continue its low tuition model while still providing adequate financial aid for underprivileged students.
The Church of College Football is about to open for services. It is perhaps the most passionate religion we have in this country, a seductive blend of our most popular sport and the romantic notion that the young athletes are playing for their schools, not for money.
Two BCS championship coaches recently launched attacks on sports agents for allegedly defiling this house of worship by giving college players what the NCAA calls ?impermissible benefits? — benefits that make those players pros and not amateurs.
?The agents that do this, and I hate to say this, but how are they any better than a pimp?? Alabama?s Nick Saban so memorably put it last month. And Florida?s Urban Meyer said that the problem is ?epidemic right now? and that agents and their associates should be ?severely punished.?
