Holding elections in the coming years will not be simple but it is within our grasp to have a safe and uneventful elections. Using proven scientific methods is the path to improvement.
Dr. Laura A. Albert is a professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Barry C. Burden is a professor of Political Science and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
As a professor for 49 years, at one of the UW System’s two-year campuses, I would like to answer President Thompson’s question with a resounding NO! Please, leave the two-year colleges alone! Give our new relationship with the four-year campuses time to grow.
Considering UW’s ineptitude last semester which resulted in the quarantine of two dorms and a halt to on-campus student activity for two weeks, it’s unsurprising there’s already a rise in cases when half of this campus operates under unproven measures to mitigate viral spread — such as excessively wiping down classroom and library desks — while the other half exists as though there is no pandemic at all.
Professors can see data ranging from which students opened assigned readings to those that switched internet browser tabs during quizzes.
Letter to the editor: University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson has an idea for Wisconsin’s outstanding two-year universities. He’s wondering if they should be combined with the state’s technical school system. As a professor at one of UW System’s two-year campus for 49 years, I would like to answer President Thompson’s question with a resounding “no.”
Letter to the editor: The campuses have been severely underutilized for the past several years, ever since the concept of regionalization was implemented. Many thought returning to our roots (Richland started as a branch of Platteville) would be the saving grace for the campus, but that hasn’t proven to be the case.
But three of the governor’s major spending priorities deserve broad bipartisan support:
Noted: Brenda Gayle Plummer is a historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in African American history, the history of U.S. foreign relations, race in international affairs and Caribbean history. She is the author of several books, most recently of In Search of Power: African Americans in the Era of Decolonization, 1956-1974.
As we approach a full year of this pandemic and attempt to survive sub-zero Wisconsin winter, many of us are tired; physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I teach at UW-Madison and the beginning of the semester is always an intense energetic marathon for me so I find myself having to be extra mindful about resting. So this month’s piece isn’t about food, but about rest as a political practice of resistance.
Though Biden has imposed sanctions on Burma and UW SEARG has called on international community to denounce coup, the Burmese military remains undeterred.
I have directed our universities to ensure that students attending a UW campus in the fall will have as classic a UW campus experience as possible — including a goal of at least 75% of all classes being in person.
Many of the excused absences offered by these professors, however, only account for physical illnesses and require a doctor’s note. Many of the policies say nothing relating to mental health.
Even after ASM proposed the solution and amendment that students become “Mask Ambassadors” — designed as a workaround to the policy which would allow the university to make payments to students — Heller stated that it could not go any further once again.
While ASM seems intent on misleading the public regarding the legality of their COVID-19 student relief fund and disgracefully shaming University Officials, the University is trying to move forward and provide students with expansive and immediate assistance.
Someday, maybe soon, this will all be over. Things will start to get back to a kind of “normal,” whatever that may look like, and lives will begin to pick up where they might have left off. At least, that’s what many are hoping for.
Chad S.A. Gibbs served in the US Army from 2002-2009, including deployment to Iraq. He is currently a PhD candidate in the history of the Holocaust at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He tweets at @Chad_G101.
Essay by Professor Beth Nguyen
Lunar New Year might bring to mind festivals and fireworks, but I’ve always associated it with a kind of isolation. Long before the pandemic, long before the rest of America learned about sriracha and pho, I grew up in a Vietnamese refugee family in a mostly white town in Michigan.
National mental health crisis compounded with COVID-19 pandemic calls for increased mental health support options on campus, collaborative effort among UHS and UW divisions shows promise.
Column by Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Column by Matthew T. Hora and Mindi Thompson, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
First, education is king. Don’t ever allow UW-Madison to be anything but a premier, world-class institution. State and private dollars invested now will be leveraged considerably by virtue of the fact that most of the federal investment will go to expanded research at universities such as UW.
Unpaid internships are often seen as an important rite of passage for college students. And with good reason. Studies have found that students acquire new skills and networks that enhance their job prospects.
-Matthew T. Hora, Assistant Professor of Adult and Higher Education, Director of the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Mindi Thompson, Professor of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
It will take years until all air travelers are immunized, but we do not have to wait years until it is safe to fly.
-Dr. Laura A. Albert is a professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the College of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is a prominent member of INFORMS. Her research applies optimization and analytical methods to public sector applications including aviation security.
From a rapid reversal on the Big Ten’s decision to play to going against Dane County orders, UW athletics distinguishes itself as the exception to the strict COVID-19 regulations students face.
As quarantine wears on, stay connected and motivated through virtual learning, challenging times.
The solution to police brutality is better policing; not less policing. We should be training our officers more. By paying more and training more, we can improve the performance of our local police officers.
While it may be an unpopular minority opinion within the law school, I agree with Dean Daniel Tokaji and the law school administration’s position and handling of the matter. The law school only needs to ensure that no discrimination exists in employer hiring practices. It would be inappropriate for the law school to censor the political activities of prospective employers.
Professor Mayer faced hate comments because his syllabus contained negative comments towards Trump, but professors who are honest about their views and values prepare students to step into the real society.
Today, in the era of a 78-year-old president, a veritable Rip Van Biden, Americans and the rest of the world are, it seems, waking up in a new age. It could well be a daunting one.Invest your way with Schwab.From automated investing to financial consultants, get tools and resources that match your needs.
-Alfred McCoy is the J.R.W. Smail Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A TomDispatch regular, he is the author of In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power and Policing America’s Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State.
While First Amendment education could prove beneficial per Thompson Center free speech survey, undergraduates are more sympathetic to free speech protections than results show.
Madison should finally take city buses off of State Street and turn the entire length of the street into a pedestrian mall. This would allow shops and restaurants to take over more public space outside, where the risk of contracting the novel coronavirus is much lower than inside.
The Editorial Board serves to represent the voice of The Badger Herald editorial department, distinct from the newsroom, and does not necessarily reflect the views of each staff member.
With many students complaining about the use of saliva testing compared to the nasal swab testing used last semester, it will be interesting to see how COVID-19 on the UW campus plays out this semester.
As we prepare to resume classes, we’re going to continue doing our part to curb the spread of the virus. We learned from experience that a high degree of testing, followed by quickly isolating and quarantining those who test positive or were exposed, is key to limiting that spread.
Letter to the editor: Every citizen should be alarmed to learn from a recent survey that more than half of UW-Madison undergraduates believe the government should punish or restrict some speech.
Column by Mark Copelovitch, a professor of political science and public affairs. Jon C.W. Pevehouse, a Vilas Distinguished Achievement professor of political science and public affairs, and Jessica L.P. Weeks, a professor of political science and the H. Douglas Weaver chair of diplomacy and international relations. All three are professors at UW-Madison.
In their paper “Trends in Educational Assortative Marriage From 1940 to 2003,” Christine R. Schwartz and Robert D. Mare, professors of sociology at the University of Wisconsin and the University of California-Los Angeles, wrote that the “most striking” data in their research, “is the decline in odds that those with very low levels of education marry up.”
An ongoing reckoning with race in American history has drawn attention to racism in the environmental movement. Critiques have focused on themes such as forced removal of Indigenous peoples from ancestral lands, early conservationists’ support for eugenics and the chronic lack of diversity in environmental organizations.
–Adjunct Associate Professor of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Op-ed by UW System President Tommy Thompson about the importance of improving prison education.
By controlling COVID-19 cases in correctional facilities, we have a chance to reduce illness and death for everyone and signal to these particular communities that they, too, have a share in the modern-day miracle of COVID-19 vaccines.
–Brent Orrell is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works on job training, workforce development, and criminal justice reform. He has worked for the United States government for 20 years, including senior roles at the Department of Labor and at the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Rashawn Ray is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow at The Brookings Institution and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland. He is on Twitter @SociologistRay. Dr. Howard Henderson is a non-resident Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution, a Professor of Justice Administration at Texas Southern University, and director of the Center for Justice Research. John M. Eason is the Director of the UW Justice Lab and an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
It’s time for federal and state legislators to work together to make targeted public investments, close resource gaps, and address structural barriers to opportunity that have plagued the higher education system for decades and that have been made only more urgent by the COVID-19 pandemic and our national reckoning on racial justice. It’s time for a real conversation about equity-based funding in U.S. higher education.
Nick Hillman is associate professor of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Follow him on Twitter: @n_hillman
An earlier comment by Chancellor Blank, however, is worth noting. The chancellor stated that if it became necessary to start paying athletes, this would greatly hinder the university’s ability to field teams. This may be so.
Ibarra is an associate professor at the School for Workers at UW-Madison.
A six-month undercover investigation by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals found widespread suffering and neglect of monkeys held at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in Madison.
Column by Jeff Russell, Dean of the Division of Continuing Studies, UW-Madison. :The economic fallout from the pandemic has touched all of us, but very disproportionately. Witness recent market highs that will benefit a fortunate slice of society while many struggle mightily.”
UW’s messaging may support BIPOC, but actions embrace white-centric status quo.
Letter to the editor: So if I go on campus and call Bascom Hall an offensive name, and if someone overhears that and posts it on Facebook and it goes viral — will Bascom Hall be raised to the ground then? It’s completely obscene and unjustified for the university to dishonor the memory of Chamberlin by removing the rock.
Letter to the editor: Once again, I am writing to laud the monumental discovery of reverse transcriptase by the late Nobel Prize winner, professor Howard Temin of the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at UW-Madison.
As of right now, dozens of international student workers are providing labor to this institution that they are not being compensated for, constituting wage fraud.
Letter to the editor: I predict the next phase of their agenda will be the removal of “offensive” names (namely white and male) from all university buildings, which will be the warmup act to the main event: the removal of the Abraham Lincoln statue from Bascom Hill.
Letter to the editor: I’m especially saddened that this usage came in an article where the State Journal’s problematic use of the term in the past was recognized. The article stated that the president of the Wisconsin Black Student Union Nalah McWhorter “also faulted the Wisconsin State Journal for printing the vulgarity in a 1925 news article.”
Letter to the editor: Most students are not even aware of the boulder that sits atop Observatory Hill. Virtually no one knows the racially derogatory name it was apparently known by in the 1920s.
Ryan J. Owens is an attorney, the George C. and Carmella P. Edwards professor of American Politics, and the director of the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He writes this in his personal capacity.
Column by Jessica Lipaz, a senior at UW-Madison double majoring in education studies and philosophy.
Letter to the editor: With the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, their open letter really said it all about the current COVID-19 emergency situation in Wisconsin. It said so clearly what people need to do to help and make a difference. Immediately.
Letter to the editor: It appears UW-Madison is planning to spend lots of money to remove a historical rock planted on the side of Observatory Hill many years ago during glacial times. This action is another example of bowing down to the vocal minority.
Early lease renewals, rental search process should be pushed back given pandemic precautions, uncertainty
As two vaccine trials make news this week, Wisconsin, UW need to create comprehensive plan to distribute vaccines effectively.
UW should make efforts to track recoveries, long-term symptoms of infected students.
As students look forward to remainder of fall semester, student unions, residence facilities should remain open, barring health concerns.
Letter to the editor: The state, like Wisconsin football, is setting records we don’t like: Rising COVID-19 cases, record hospitalizations, more deaths.
