Category: UW-Madison Related

Woke up this morning to another story about some poor mope getting the living hell beat out of him downtown. A pack of gangstas rolls up � jumps out � beats the guy senseless, cops his wallet and then rolls off, laughing in the dark.

It was just two weeks ago when Aviad Shapira watched his wife prepare to return to the couple’s home in Israel after their brief reunion in Madison. For both, duty was calling.

Reuma Shapira craved to return to Haifa, where she practiced medicine in a hospital. He needed to continue his research in engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

They sensed the violence in Israel would escalate, but neither said a word about postponing her trip. The couple met while serving in the Israeli armed forces more than 30 years ago, had weathered worse times, but Aviad Shapira still worried.

Dear Editor: I agree with Michael Meeropol that the UW should not fire Kevin Barrett for his classroom content (July 11).

Part of being a college instructor is being able to have academic freedom to state what you believe.

Part of being a college student is learning that not every instructor is right and discerning who to believe based upon the facts that they present.

University of Wisconsin professor Kevin Barrett will present evidence from both sides and promote discussion, not simply teach that 9/11 was an inside job.

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has a lot of loose ends to tie up in his effort to ensure a safer and less costly Halloween bash Downtown.
Nonetheless, the plan he outlined last week deserves support.

Why on God’s green earth would UW-Madison Provost Farrell agree to spend our tax dollars to hire the “controversial instructor” who posits that 9/11 is a big lie, who wants to overthrow U.S. imperialism, is a rabid peddler of a conspiracy theory and teaches hatred for the government of the United States?

MADISON, Wis. — Construction near the UW Arboretum is building animosity from neighbors.

The controversy stems from a project, which would subdivide a lot in the area to construct new homes.

….The controversy surrounding UW-Madison instructor Kevin Barrett and his 9/11 views is making waves far beyond Wisconsin.

Dear Editor: U.S. Rep. Mark Green says he went to school at the University of Wisconsin. Then why hasn’t he heard of “sifting and winnowing”? One method of teaching is to throw out a very controversial statement and let the students try to defend/refute it based on their own backgrounds and assumptions.

Dear Editor: I am also an alumnus of UW Madison (not, as Rep. Mark Green calls it, an “alum”), and I wish to point out to Green that about 80 percent of the Muslim world outside the U.S. thinks 9/11 was an American setup to provide a pretext for military adventurism. Why do you think that is? Maybe Kevin Barrett will help his students address this notion in light of the facts.

Dear Editor: U.S. Rep. Mark Green appears to be making erroneous statements, with poor reasoning regarding Kevin Barrett and the instructor’s views on 9/11.

Green appears to be projecting his own refusal to look at the evidence and draw logical conclusions, preferring instead to parrot the official explanation.

Barrett is acting scholarly. Green could learn much from him.

The city plans to charge $5 admission and turn State Street into a gated community on the Saturday before Halloween to try to hold down the mass drunkenness and property damage that have marred past celebrations.
“This is a community event,” said Susan Schmitz, president of Downtown Madison Inc. “It’s time that we take it back.”

Dear Editor: I would like to address Reggie Moody’s sophomoric attack on UW instructor Kevin Barrett (“Barrett crosses line separating teaching from proselytizing,” published in The Capital Times on July 12).

Moody ignores the fact that trying to show “both” sides of an issue, while a noble effort, does not address the inherent bias in his own position.

Dear Editor: Kevin Barrett should be familiar to people who read the Madison papers last February as he made the claim to be an expert on Osama bin Laden and said that bin Laden’s videotape taking credit for 9/11 was a forgery produced by the CIA.

I would like to raise some serious questions about the opinions of Kevin Barrett, who calls himself an Islamologist and Arabist and contends that the recent tape of Osama bin Laden is a fake produced by the CIA and that bin Laden has been dead since 2001 or 2002.

Dear Editor: UW Provost Patrick Farrell deserves much praise for defending the integrity of the University of Wisconsin against political grandstanding. But it should be understood that allowing Kevin Barrett to speak of his 9/11 “conspiracy theories” in class is more than an issue of allowing the free exchange of ideas.

The end purpose of schooling is for students to be able to reason through complex “theories,” weigh evidence according to traditional objective methods, and only then evaluate ideas. By standing up to power Farrell is implicitly insisting that basic standards of knowledge and civility in discourse be maintainedÃ? against the smearing and appeals to emotion that so far has dominated discussions of today’s wars….

Readers react to the decision to allow part-time lecturer Kevin Barrettt to teach.

Wide range of feedback on the Barrett decision.

I represent a group called Truth 12/7 that believes that the U.S. attacked itself at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and also later in the war, at Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal.

As a guardian of the First Amendment, this newspaper supports the right to free speech and the expression of thoughts.

Milwaukee, Wis. – The resignation of University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee vice chancellor of research Abbas Ourmazd was made official today in a statement released by the university.

Dear Editor: When I was a UW-Madison student, Joe McCarthy was demagogically intimidating much of the academic community and U.S. society by unjustifiably labeling political dissenters as unpatriotic subversives.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is dead wrong to allow 9/11 conspiracy believer Kevin Barrett to continue to teach there.

Many people in Madison will welcome the news that Kevin Barrett has been allowed to teach a course on Islam at the UW. Most will see it as a triumph of academic freedom. Others will rejoice because they believe what Barrett alleges: that the terrorist attack of Sept. 11 was “an inside job” and a “gargantuan, Satanic lie” concocted by the U.S. government to wage an endless war.

I, however, will not be one of those celebrating.

Nearly 8,200 state employees will receive pay raises under contracts approved Wednesday by the Legislature.

The union-represented workers will see pay increases of at least 2 percent a year under the four contracts passed without debate in both the Assembly and Senate.

The Why Files site, based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explores the science and technology behind the news. For example, one scientist recently made headlines with claims that red rain that fell in India might have contained alien cells. A Why Files investigation found a much more likely source for the odd red cells, algae, and previously published findings to back up that explanation.

MADISON, Wis. — A Madison man pleaded guilty Wednesday to possessing an unregistered sawed-off shotgun on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in March.

Jason Hall, 21, appeared in U.S. District Court in Madison on Wednesday.

….Kevin Barrett, who will be teaching a course on Islam in the fall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, claims that “overwhelming evidence proves that 9/11 was an inside job.” He will be trying to convince, as he’s done before, his students that Bush was responsible for 9/11. He will be preaching to a captive audience of somewhat naive and usually poorly informed young people, proselytizing and trying to convert them to his position.

This has nothing to do with academic freedom. This is an instructor taking advantage of his students, attempting to teach them what to think rather than how to think….

We certainly hope that Kevin Barrett’s 15 minutes of fame have expired.
The UW-Madison part-time lecturer who believes in the ridiculous theory that the U.S. attacked itself on Sept. 11, 2001, gets to keep his job, UW officials announced this week.

That’s the right decision for the wrong guy.

But it’s still the right decision.

(MADISON) Ethnic cleansing in Darfur Province has prompted some state governments and universities to pull their money out of corporations with operations there. The University of Wisconsin may follow the lead of Illinois, which is leading the charge to put financial pressure on the Sudanese government, which is accused of committing atrocities. (Second item.)

Dear Editor: I do not agree with UW instructor Kevin Barrett’s assertions about the 9/11 atrocity. However, I think it is crazy and counter-productive to attempt to have him fired. In fact, what I believe ought to happen is that his views should be subjected to very detailed serious examination.

Well-known community volunteer Martha Vukelich-Austin has been named the new president of the Foundation for Madison’s Public Schools, Susan Bakke, chair of the foundation’s board, announced today.

Today I’m announcing that veteran newspaperman Paul Fanlund, the current vice president for operations at Capital Newspapers, will become the executive editor of The Capital Times.

Later this month, Paul will assume responsibilities for the newspaper’s news content and its many initiatives on our Web edition while I, as editor, will devote more of my time directing The Capital Times’ editorial stands, writing my editorial page columns and working with Paul on the overall direction of the paper.

An overdue and wise change in state law makes it easier to prosecute sexual assaults involving alcohol.
It also serves as a powerful reminder to men and women to act responsibly when drinking.

Two letters regarding Barrett: “UW students too bright to be taken in by Barrett;”
“Barrett’s remarks were a form of hate speech”

Dear Editor: I would just like to say thanks for reporting on Ben Masel’s treatment by police at the Union Terrace. I was sitting within earshot of this embarrassing fiasco involving two UW-Madison police officers and Masel at the Union Terrace last week.

I should think the Wisconsin Muslim community would be embarrassed.

I should think the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and its administration would be embarrassed.

For the second time in three years, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is offering selected U.S. colleges and universities millions of dollars to encourage entrepreneurial education.

Learning lessons is unavoidable. It’s a universal process in life. Some people must learn more lessons than others, and some people have to learn the same lesson more than once, but it’s part of growing as a person or institution.

A 31-year-old UW-Madison graduate student was roughed up and robbed by a pipe- wielding man and a possible accomplice early Thursday on campus.

UW-Madison Police responded to a 911 call about 12:45 a.m. from the victim, whose name was withheld. He told police he was walking in the 1400 block of Observatory Drive when he was hit in the back of the head and knocked to the ground. After a short struggle, the attacker fled with the student’s wallet.

For as long as anyone can remember, candidates for public office have circulated their nominating petitions on the Memorial Union Terrace.

Our reference is to the comments made last Wednesday on a Milwaukee radio talk show by a lecturer, Kevin Barrett, at the University of Wisconsin.

Dear Editor: As an attorney and UW-Madison graduate during the McCarthy era, I am deeply disturbed about the provost’s politically instigated “investigation” of Kevin Barrett. When teachers are intimidated against seeking and speaking truth on a campus known for its liberal and progressive traditions, we are in trouble.

I should think the Wisconsin Muslim community would be embarrassed. I should think the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and its administration would be embarrassed.

Seven high school seniors representing five schools in Fond du Lac County are recipients of $1,000 UW Alumni scholarships to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall.

MADISON, Wis. — Two men are in police custody in connection with one of four violent incidents that occurred in downtown Madison during the holiday weekend, police said.

Several letter writers express their feelings on the controversy involving a lecturer in a fall class on Islam.

President Bush has nominated a Wisconsin native to head the U.S. Mint. Edmund Moy grew up in Waukesha, went to Waukesha North High School and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.

The Muslim community of Wisconsin should be embarrassed because someone is teaching an introduction to Islam course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is willing to inform his students that the Bush administration was directly responsible for the attack on 9-11-01 that brought the Twin Towers down and resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 human beings.

Gov. Jim Doyle says comments of two Republicans on the State Building Commission show his former top aide was not the one who nixed a company’s bid to do a $68.7 million redevelopment project involving the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Hundreds of limited-term jobs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison would be converted to permanent work under a plan unveiled by the university.

Limited-term employment on the UW-Madison campus has long been controversial because the workers perform work similar to permanent employees without the same pay, benefits and job security. Many of the employees work for the athletic department and Wisconsin Union.

The parking pinch for University of Wisconsin football games has become so pronounced that everyone, including the disabled, will feel it in the coming years.
The UW Athletic Department will lose access to 120 prime spaces in 2006 and at least 55 other slots in 2007 because two properties – the UW Credit Union across Monroe Street from Camp Randall Stadium and Randall School two blocks away from the facility – are reducing the number of parking spots made available to UW Athletics.

Bragging about the employees and students of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is common practice for Chancellor Doug Hastad.

MADISON, Wis. – The annual Halloween bash on State Street may no longer be a free.
George Twigg, spokesman for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, says a plan to gate the street and charge admission to Halloween revelers has been seriously discussed as an option.

IT APPEARS the city of Madison is close to settling on a State Street/Halloween strategy that will gate the street and charge admission to Halloween revelers.

On Thursday, George Twigg, spokesman for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said the plan is “not soup yet” but added it has been seriously discussed as an option, with an eye toward reducing the hundreds of thousands of dollars the city pays for police, fire and sanitation each year to keep the Halloween party more or less under control.

After reading about tuition increases in the UW System, I was especially disgusted to see the recent report of UW officials receiving raises, regardless of their already shocking salaries.
Students planning to attend any of the two- or four-year UW System schools will face a 6.9 percent increase in yearly tuition, which, on average, will add nearly $300 dollars to each student’s tuition bill. However, at the same time, the System president and numerous other top executives will receive more than a 2 percent pay increase twice within the next year.

Seventeen years ago, Christopher Ochoa told a Texas jury exactly how he and a friend repeatedly raped 20-year-old Nancy DePriest and then shot her dead at the Pizza Hut where she worked.

The details were so gruesome that DePriest’s mother, Jeanette Popp, fled the courtroom and threw up in a bathroom. Ochoa and his co-defendant, Richard Danziger, who steadfastly maintained his innocence, both received life sentences.

Although his complaints in 2004 helped nix a plan to include a dorm at the University Square redevelopment near campus, Steve Brown is now a partner in the mixed-used project and will oversee its 350 apartments.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison team has won its fourth straight title in the National Concrete Canoe Competition. Wisconsin’s 21-foot-long, 162-pound natural gray canoe, named ââ?¬Å?Forward,ââ?¬Â bested 22 other entries from engineering schools in the USA and Canada.

The search for a Japanese student missing since a rainy January morning ended Monday when he was found dead, floating in the white-capped waves of Lake Mendota by a wind surfer.

MADISON, Wis. — Another mugging occurred in downtown Madison during the weekend, according to Madison police.