The controversy over a University of Wisconsin Law School professor’s remarks has played out painfully for many concerned. Yet, in a very real sense, it has provided an example of much of what is right with the academy.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the body that controls UW-Madisonâ??s lucrative stem cell technology patents, has decided to play nice. Criticized for its high licensing fees even to other universities, the nationâ??s leading stem cell technology producer will now offer lower fees for universities and other non-profit research organizations.
Much has been said about the new University of Wisconsin holistic admissions policy. Is there even anything left to say? Well, yes. While these pages have been used to simultaneously praise and denounce the new policy, the arguments against it have only hinted at the policyâ??s fundamental flaw: Itâ??s racist.
For the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team, escaping the Big Ten Conference will be like getting out of prison.
After 19 straight games against Big Ten opponents who know UW’s offense almost as well as the Badgers do, the NCAA tournament represents a jail break. Freedom is right around the corner.
Alando Tucker was being his usual courteous self to the coaching staff Tuesday when the headman spoke up. “I don’t see why he has to say nice things about the coaches,” Bo Ryan said. “He gets 35 minutes a game.”
Why doesn’t that seem like enough anymore?
STOP THE MADNESS. Wait, what madness, stop March Madness? No, â??STOP THE MADNESSâ? is the slogan of a new advertising campaign that reprimands universities for allowing major alcohol corporations to advertise during collegiate athletics. The advocacy ads state the commercials derail attempts to curb high-risk drinking among American youth.
Unless the National Security Agency records college lecturesâ??as it does many digital communicationsâ??we may never know what really happened in professor Leonard Kaplanâ??s controversial Legal Process class Feb. 15.
Until now, I have refrained from commenting on the law school controversy involving what happened in UW Law School professor Leonard Kaplan’s classroom, because I believe discussion — while sometimes uncomfortable — is part of what a strong university should offer and tolerate.
Until now, I have refrained from commenting on the law school controversy involving what happened in UW Law School professor Leonard Kaplan’s classroom, because I believe discussion — while sometimes uncomfortable — is part of what a strong university should offer and tolerate.
Free expression is a cornerstone of UW-Madison.
CHICAGO – Maybe, just maybe, Ohio State is that good.
Maybe the Buckeyes, with their fabulous freshmen now fully acclimated to the rigors of college basketball, are an NCAA championship waiting to happen.
That would be one plausible explanation for the 66-49 hurt the Buckeyes put on the University of Wisconsin in the Big Ten Conference tournament final Sunday at the United Center.
In a recent column for the Wisconsin Technology Network, Gov. Jim Doyle wrote about the role of the University of Wisconsin System fueling our state’s economy. The governor missed the mark.
There is no doubt that the UW System is one of the best in the country. In order to remain on top, however, the system must be willing to innovate and evolve, something it has done little of since it was created in 1971. The UW System and the Board of Regents have shown they are not open to new ideas and should not be rewarded by the governor for their staunch resistance to change. What the System
The large endeavor taken on by The Daily Cardinal to explore campus crime and safety had many goals in mind. We wanted to acknowledge the crime problem on campus, highlight current efforts to keep students safe and, perhaps most importantly, suggest what students and campus officials can do in the future to ensure studentsâ?? safety.
The racial diversity at the University of Wisconsin can only be characterized as shamefully lacking. Itâ??s no secret. According to university statistics, African-Americans and Hispanics make up a mere 6 percent of the student body.
On Monday, University of Wisconsin law professor Leonard Kaplan finally broke his public silence.
On Sunday afternoon, students trudged up and down Spring Street, weighed down by laundry, groceries and backpacks full of books.
I stood in their path, like the scary nagging mom they thought they left at home.
I asked, “Have you heard?”
I told them, “A student said she was attacked here early Saturday morning.”
I demanded, “What are you doing to be safe on campus?”
To a one, all of the dozen or so college girls I talked to said yes, they were aware, and yes they were being more careful about their safety.
Many economists believe that entrepreneurs and small business owners are the major drivers of job growth in the United States. The Small Business Administration says companies with fewer than 500 employees have accounted for nearly 80 percent of the new jobs created in the United States over the past decade, and this trend is likely to continue.
….Read Kaplan’s work. Talk to him and look at who he is. You will find a person who not only knows and understands the Hmong experience in the United States, but one who deeply wishes that things be better for the Hmong. Here. Now. He is teaching his students to make that real.
Professor Kaplan said those things to his class for one reason only: to shock, disturb and outrage his students so that they would awaken and realize that real and ugly prejudice exists here in Wisconsin against the Hmong community, and that it is shocking, disturbing, and outrageous, and that something must be done.
Something is now being done thanks to Professor Leonard V. Kaplan, a professor who is not afraid to teach.
The controversy swirling around a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and his Hmong students makes me think of the new TV show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” If someone had managed to record the professor’s class, the producers could play the video on their program and a contestant could respond to the following:
For the first time in the team’s history, the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team recently was ranked first in the nation, giving Wisconsin fans just one more reason to be proud. March Madness is just around the corner, and I know the team will enjoy tremendous support from everyone in our state.
A veritable Pandoraâ??s Box of ethnic strife has been opened in the wake of law professor Leonard Kaplanâ??s comments.
UW-Madison law professor Ann Althouse authors a column on blogging.
Idon’t believe for a minute that UW-Madison Law Professor Leonard Kaplan actually told his class that “Hmong men have no other skills than to kill.”
On the other hand, I don’t doubt that those sentiments are what at least some members of his class heard him say.
A column by Ned Blackhawk says today is a sad day in American-Indian — and American — history.
On that day 130 years ago, the federal government broke its own laws and eventually used military force to seize illegally the once vast reservation homelands of Lakota communities known as the Black Hills. Blackhawk is associate professor of history and American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A column by Timothy Tyson says:
My first job after getting my Duke Ph.D. was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I taught for 10 years. Wisconsin is the un-Duke: a public school in the Midwest with 40,000 students. But this matter of women getting sexually assaulted by classmates did not change. It was not just a Duke thing.
One of my students at Madison was raped by a highly touted running back and one of his friends. She had dated him before. She let the two men into her apartment. The violence that followed seared her soul. I walked her to classes for two weeks afterward because she was afraid to leave home. The district attorney thought it was “too confusing” to prosecute. I watched her recover, graduate, complete her doctorate and land job offers at major universities across the country. But her pain is still there, eight years later. Not that it matters, but so is mine.
UW-Madison is a nationally renowned institution of higher education, well known for its research, outstanding faculty and beautiful campus.
However, one thing that usually slips through the cracks in UW-Madison recruiting measures is the severe problem the university has with the retention of students of color. In trying to increase the level of diversity on campus, UW-Madisonâ??like many state schoolsâ??falls short in graduating minority students.
Research has shown that students of color leave the university due to campus climate. Thus, research serves as evidence of racial problems on a predominantly white campus.
From the stories coming out about a University of Wisconsin law professor, it seems that UW-Madison has its very own tenured Michael Richards. Unlike Richards, however, UW law professor Leonard Kaplanâ??s remarks targeted Wisconsinâ??s Hmong minority. Also unlike Richards, Kaplanâ??s remarks, however insensitive they may seem in the lack of context in which we are seeing them, were not racist.
Hard to believe, but here in Big Ten country we tend to get a little provincial and maybe a little too close to our own for the sake of critical analysis. Just as there was a lesson somewhere in that whole Ohio State-Michigan football debate a couple of months ago, the Ohio State-Wisconsin basketball question should also present a vigorous discussion here at the approach of the madness of March.
I would like to respond to Emily Friedmanâ??s Thursday column, â??Incident puts UWâ??s dedication to safety in question.â? Emily and I agree on more than we disagree, but there are several points I would like to call attention to.
Newsflash: The University is not proposing a new alcohol policy because you were too hung-over to make that 8:50 class last Friday morning. Rather it is because we have a definite alcohol problem on this campus.
Keeping secrets is a bad idea. First, facts are hardly ever worse than rumors. Second, secrets usually donâ??t stay secrets forever.
Put down that beer and trade it for an ice cold sodaâ??the new alcohol policy brought forth by the Office of the Dean of Students and the Student Organization Office looks to severely limit alcohol consumption among student groups. At least that is what the controversy makes it seem like so far.
Earlier this week, students learned of a new proposal by the University of Wisconsin administrators that would set limitations on the amount of drinking done by student groups.
As much as I’d like to see a computer geek match the ’57 Braves against the ’82 Brewers in this, the year of our consecrated gold/silver anniversaries, someone ought to program in the vitals of the 1999-2000 Wisconsin Badgers against their contemporary.
Now that would be a basketball game for the ages, the current No. 1 team in the country against the last UW team to make the Final Four. Although in the case of the latter, you might have to define the age: Stone, Bronze or Iron.
Spring break is coming up, and if youâ??re anything like me, itâ??s been on your mind since Jan. 22.
It’s been just over 50 years since I first laid eyes on – and fell in love with – Wisconsin.
After the dull ride through bleak Illinois, my college buddy, Marty, and I entered the green, rolling, exuberant countryside of Wisconsin in its late spring glory and thought we had suddenly entered paradise. The prosperous-looking farms with their gleaming white houses, bulging Holsteins, just-emerging corn and carpets of new alfalfa quickly erased the gloom of Illinois.
Even the University of Wisconsin was a sort of bucolic haven.
At my suggestion last Sunday, readers went to www. vetomatic.com. vetomatic.com to see just how crazy the “Frankenstein” veto power is.
The Web site, created by UW- Madison mechanical engineering student Dale Emmons, let’s anyone pretend to be governor with the most powerful veto pen in the nation. All of the laws proposed above could have been accomplished with elaborate vetoes, according to the Veto-Matic — “Wisconsin’s premier supplier of partial-veto automation software.”
Quoted: Jackie Hitchon, CALS Communications.
Can a researcher who uses the scientific method to prove fossils can be billions of years old nevertheless believe that science is wrong and the Earth is only a few thousand years old?
And, if such a person could be found, should a reputable university award that person a graduate degree or hire him to teach science?
With 30-mph wind gusts and temperatures plunging below minus 35 degrees, the past few weeks of Madison weather have certainly been no picnic for UW-Madison students.
Kevin Barrett is a lucky, lucky guy.
Against all odds â?? from skeptical University of Wisconsin administrators to scathing criticisms by newspapers across the nation â?? Mr. Barrett survived the fall semester and the controversy surrounding his course, â??Islam: Religion and Culture.â? In fact, he did far more than simply survive the term: He emerged from the entire episode with bragging rights, thanks to glowing reviews from his students.
…public education must be our highest priority, and somehow we must find the money to fund schools properly; the UW and civil servants could develop a computer system to overhaul Workforce Development, create voter rolls and figure out who is eligible to vote.
We need strong civil service and confidence in our university. Not more outsourcing or privatization.
This is just the kind of news I didn’t want to hear. A UW-Madison microbiologist warns that tomorrow’s cause of global warming might be dirt.
Yes, dirt.
At least, that’s the hypothesis of Teri Balser, an assistant professor of soil science.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s request for lawmakers to include health insurance coverage for the domestic partners of state employees, including the UW system, should be made a priority as part of Wisconsin’s 2007-2009 budget.
Touting tax cuts and increased funding for education, Gov. Jim Doyle claimed Tuesday night that his two-year opportunity budget would take the squeeze off middle-class families and college-bound Wisconsinites. Doyle did not, however, mention where he intended to plant the money trees that will fund the tax cuts and university aid.
Global warming coverage has been building to a crescendo these last weeks and reached a peak and turning point on Feb. 2 with the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientific assessment group’s Summary for Policymakers.
Starting next fall, the UW System will finally use the â??holisticâ? admissions approach that UW-Madison initiated years ago. We could not be more pleased.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents unanimously voted Friday to extend the â??holisticâ? admissions policy already in place at the UW-Madison to other system schools.
Yesterday, Gov. Jim Doyle announced a breakthrough collaborative effort between the University of Wisconsinâ??s WiCell stem-cell bank and the United Kingdomâ??s stem-cell bank. For most present, the press conference was another strong push in the direction of improved stem-cell research.
Crime everywhere! In the dorms, in the streets, in our own backyard! Scared yet? Didnâ??t think so. There is a good reason why â?? weâ??re all living in a bubble. Yet, now might be the time to step outside.
It took Alando Tucker only one shot to score the 2,000th point of his University of Wisconsin men’s basketball career Saturday at the Kohl Center.
Fortunately for the Badgers, their senior forward didn’t stop there.
Aside from the irony of watching college football’s most notorious hold-up artist, Barry Alvarez, playing the part of the guy with his hands in the air for a change, there was nothing unusual about the five-year, $7.5 million contract the University of Wisconsin gave to coach Bret Bielema last week. In terms of compensation, the deal was fair for both sides.
“The current governor shall be king of Wisconsin for life.”
Believe it or not, Gov. Jim Doyle could have used his vast veto powers to sign this sentence into law as part of the state budget.
I made up and punched the sentence into the “Veto-Matic” and voila! — a Wisconsin monarchy. All Doyle would need is a moat and castle in Maple Bluff. But, alas, the Veto-Matic couldn’t find “moat” or “castle” among the 217,000 words in the state’s 2005-2007 spending plan.
You too can play God . . . I mean, governor, at www.vetomatic.com. The Web site is the brainchild of UW-Madison mechanical engineering student Dale Emmons.
Three years ago, the three Kipnes daughters were in a New Jersey salon getting pedicures. The sisters, all UW-Madison grads who now work for their father, an intellectual property attorney in New Jersey, are Erika Whitman (class of ’93), Pamela Karp (’97) and Deanna Kipnes (’04). They were lamenting the weather as their toenail polish was applied.
To score 2,000 points in the Big Ten is scarcely a backhanded compliment, but it does imply the kind of longevity not always associated with greatness. The really special ones – the Magic Johnsons, the Isiah Thomases, the Glenn Robinsons – didn’t hang around long enough to qualify for the semi-exclusive club.
Alando Tucker became the 24th member Saturday when his Wisconsin Badgers continued their Panzer-like swath across the college basketball landscape with a 74-62 victory against Iowa. Tucker is a senior, a rarity for a player who projects as a first-round NBA pick, yet it was a series of injuries that helps account for his full undergraduate experience.
â??If you guys are going to drink alcohol in a fun, responsible manner… I say go for it.â? A recent UW-Madison graduate made this statement to thousands of freshmen last fall at the Class of 2009 welcome rally.
Earlier this week, the University of Wisconsin wrapped up the last of three visits from candidates hoping to be the next dean of students. Because the position has such a direct effect on students, UW officials wisely chose to include a forum in which students could meet and evaluate each candidate.
Campus administrators and students regularly lament the lack of racial and ethnic diversity at UW-Madison. They typically complain about the oppressiveness of the ââ?¬Å?sea of white facesââ?¬Â they see on Bascom Hill.
What kind of minority student representation would be required so everyone could agree that race/ethnic diversity has been achieved? Nobody has answered that question satisfactorily nor is it clear if much serious thought has been given to the question.
Regent President David Walsh spilled the beans about diversity and the proposed ââ?¬Å?holisticââ?¬Â approach to admissions policy at last weekââ?¬â?¢s Regent hearing. He did so by characterizing the new Freshman Admissions Policy as a ââ?¬Å?race-consciousââ?¬Â policy.
Depending on which way you cross the Minnesota-Wisconsin border to attend a state college, you could stand to gain or lose anywhere from $1000 to $3000 in yearly tuition payments, thanks to a widening tuition gap between the states.
In March, the UW System Board of Regents will consider a proposal by the UW-Madison School of Business to raise tuition $500 per semester for business majors and $150 for business certificate students. This plan would align the business school with most of the Big Tenââ?¬â?only Minnesota doesnââ?¬â?¢t have differential tuition for B-school majorsââ?¬â?as well as UW-Milwaukee, which for years has charged business students a premium.
