Category: Opinion

Conservation must include more diverse voices from people of color to truly enact change.

Despite Evers’ partial-veto targeting DEI funding, Republicans continue to threaten UW System

Listen again to the title track of Van Morrison’s groundbreaking 1968 album “Astral Weeks” and you will instantly be reminded of Richard Davis’s genius.

Virtually every policy that governs our higher education system is based on a
dangerous myth — that students do, and should, meticulously shop around for
colleges nationwide and pick the best fit.

When will UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin explain to the public, alumni, faculty, staff and students how the latest expansion of what was formerly known as the Big Ten Conference will further the educational mission of the UW-Madison campus?

Then there are the culture wars against public universities, especially UW-Madison. Even as the state’s financial contribution has dwindled, Republicans this summer pick picked a fight over meager budgets for diversity, equity and inclusion programs and blocked construction of a UW-Madison engineering building. Inventing and then enflaming such issues is most of what Republicans offer their base.

The report suggests three factors that are driving the increase: exploding administrative staffs, a building boom and subsidies to athletic programs. Especially noteworthy was the finding that even as state governments slashed their support for their flagship universities, the schools continued to increase spending. They more than made up for the cuts with increases in tuition. For every one dollar in state support that was lost, these schools, on average, increased tuition and fees by $2.40.

But that apparently did not happen at UW-Madison, where tuition was frozen for about a decade. The UW was not one of the six schools that the Journal highlighted in its story, but it probably was part of the database of 50 schools that fed into the report’s median numbers.

We each have a voice, and it’s our responsibility to use our voices to enact meaningful change. Gen Z could be the generation that champions nuclear energy and fights back against climate change. In fact, we have to. It’s time to seize this valuable opportunity to hold politicians accountable and take action to create reliable and zero-carbon energy.

-Grace Stanke is 2023’s Miss America and is studying nuclear engineering at the University of Wisconsin. Karly Matthews is the communications director for the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), a nonprofit organization that advocates for climate solutions such as nuclear energy.

Letter to the editor: The state of Wisconsin could profit abundantly if the Legislature and the University of Wisconsin worked together instead of having State Street be paved with disrespectful and biased rhetoric.

DEI programs prepare UW students for the workforce. Cutting the UW System’s budget cripples Wisconsin’s economic engine.

The myriad crises we collectively face demand innovative and collaborative solutions. It is time for the expertise of teens and young adults to take center stage. Our future depends on it.

About the writer: Linnea Hjelm is a PhD Candidate at the University of Wisconsin School of Human Ecology. She has worked in violence prevention in high schools, colleges and nonprofit organizations with youth and adult leaders. This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.

Letter to the editor: The quality of education and the standards for grading differ drastically from state to state and school to school forcing college admission offices to rely heavily on standardized tests like the ACT and the SAT. What most people fail to understand is that those popular measures are biased in favor of the majority American culture.

Letter to the editor: The football program understandably garners a large amount of attention and has had significant past success, of which UW fans can be proud, similar to men’s hockey. But when transitioning men’s teams overshadow equal or greater success by women’s team, as well as the individuals and coaches on those women’s teams, it seems like a missed opportunity.

The closure of Cardinal Stritch University and the headlines about UW-Platteville at Richland Center and UW-Milwaukee at Washington County are, unfortunately, just leading indicators of what’s to come for both public and private institutions.

We are delighted by these endorsements. And we look forward to the day when the Dads Caucus announces the Black Paternal Health Act and fellow members of Congress offer their endorsements for this much needed bill.

-Tova Walsh is an associate professor of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Alvin Thomas is an assistant professor of human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the host of the Black Fatherhood Podcast.  They are both members of the Scholars Strategy Network.

Letter to the editor: UW-Madison produces $27 for every dollar invested, according to research. By cutting funding for UW, Republicans are not making a fiscal decision (or they are really bad at fiscal decisions). Rather, they are seeking to limit the number of thoughtful, educated, contributing members of society who come from our institutions of higher education.

At the end of every school year, the dumpsters outside the dorms are filled with many reusable items that end up in landfills. This waste harms the environment and represents a missed opportunity to help others in the community.

According to a University of Wisconsin analysis, the Madison Legislature’s plan would have boosted capital investment by 1.5% and economic output by 1.25%. This would certainly help the Badger State amid a manufacturing slowdown. The Institute for Supply Management reported this week that its manufacturing index dropped to the lowest level since May 2020.

Vos has also been a vocal opponent of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, referring to such programs within the University of Wisconsin System as “indoctrination” despite a racist incident at the Madison campus making headlines in the spring. Although Wisconsin is operating with a projected $7 billion budget surplus, Vos and Republicans in the state Legislature voted to cut $32 million from the UW System’s budget unless it agrees to use the funds for workforce development rather than DEI efforts. The GOP plan also seeks to cut nearly 200 DEI jobs on UW campuses.

Supporters of race-based admissions, rather than admit these errors, will contrive to preserve them in a variety of barely concealed forms.—Anika Horowitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison, economics

Column by Jonathan Patz, the John P. Holton chair of Health and the Environment and professor in the Nelson Institute and Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Letter to the editor: Over the years, I worked with farm students who needed classes that started after the morning milking, bilingual Latino students who were the linguistic bridge for their families, returning adult students who supported aging parents, students with disabilities who needed accommodations, refugee students and veterans who had seen too much, LGBTQ students who struggled with families that disowned them, African American students who wanted to see themselves reflected in the curriculum, students who struggled with depression after family trauma, liberal and conservative students, well-to-do and homeless students, and students with many other unique backgrounds. DEI initiatives helped me understand who our students were, and that is a good thing.

Guest column: But perhaps the worst part of the proposal is the Republican plan to cut UW System funding using the pretext that campuses must eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives.

Letter to the editor: One who has already been indoctrinated wouldn’t see the indoctrination for what it is.

Letter to the editor: Since 1988, I have mentored many hundreds of students, had a great scientific and professional career and gotten to know many other Latino Ph.D. graduates in STEM. We know Albert(a) Einstein can be anywhere, if welcomed and given a chance, and diversity at UW is how valuable careers begin.

Letter to the editor: Now comes a decision by the Legislature to dismantle efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion on UW campuses. It seems strange, when they are concerned with greater freedom of expression and exposure to a wider range of views, that legislators have targeted DEI initiatives for cuts.

Letter to the editor: In this current budget cycle, Wisconsin has a very large surplus. But instead of using the surplus to support one of our great economic engines, the University of Wisconsin System, the Wisconsin GOP wants to cut millions of dollars from its budget.

Letter to the editor: The decision of the Republicans on the state Joint Finance Committee to withhold $32 million from the University of Wisconsin System for diversity, equity and inclusion could be a very good decision — if the funds are properly reallocated.

Letter to the editor: I’m sure many readers reacted with disbelief to the decision of UW-Madison’s Music School to axe the Choral Union, the 130-year-old partnership of students, alumni and community members, ostensibly to maximize “opportunities for UW students.”

No, Robin, I think it’s the other way around. I suspect that thousands of my fellow UW grads are embarrassed that our alma mater saw fit to grant you a degree. After four years of college, you’d think a little bit of human compassion would have rubbed off on even the most narrow-minded student at UW-Whitewater.