ASM constitution will alter process but not results
There’s a suspicious discrepancy between the messages that should be landing in my inbox and those that actually have been. State statute 36.09(5) states, “Students shall have the primary responsibility for the formulation and review of policies concerning student life, services, and interests.” University of Wisconsin students have chosen to give this responsibility to the Associated Students of Madison. Yet… View story »
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Herald Editorials
December 5, 2008
A year saved, a year earned
In reaction to a $5.4 billion state budget shortfall and impending cuts to all state agencies, the University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly has proposed the creation of a three-year degree program in UW System schools. The program, Reilly argued, would save students and the university money at a time when both are strapped for cash. We believe this… View story »
December 3, 2008
Get the Falk out
Search warrants released this week surrounding the homicide of University of Wisconsin junior Brittany Zimmermann provided chilling details about the event on April 2. The documents reveal a 911 call from Zimmermann’s phone contained “the sound of a woman screaming and … background sounds of a struggle for a short period of time.” This follows Madison Police Chief Noble… View story »
December 3, 2008
Judge-ment day
On Monday, Ald. Eli Judge, District 8, announced he would not be running for reelection. While we understand his decision to move on to law school and pursue broader career moves, his presence on the City Council and dedication to the students of his district will certainly be missed. In the run up to his election, this paper endorsed his… View story »
Editorial Cartoons
Why college debt hurts generation
A recent study found the cost of attending college — with inflation factored in — has risen 439 percent between 1982 and 2007. Sounds like some promising news in a newly confirmed recession, right? While our nation’s universities keep cranking out graduates and raking in tuition dollars, its graduates are forced into a limited-job economy with a mountain of debt… View story »
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Diversity goals miss the point
Apparently, Plan 2008 — the University of Wisconsin System’s much heralded diversity initiative intended to eradicate educational disparities in the state — came up short. Enrollment of black students as a percentage of the total student body is up only 1 percent from 1998. Enrollment of Asian American students has increased by only 1.6 percent. Hispanic students: 1.1 percent…. View story »
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Strong executive necessary in ASM
Next week, the Associated Students of Madison will have a chance to make good on their promise to rebuild the cracked foundation of our student government by putting a new ASM constitution to a vote of the student body. While the very idea of an overhaul might be enough to at least keep the disbandment proponents — like me… View story »
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Van Hollen, state must compromise
Since the middle of September, a battle has been brewing in Wisconsin politics. Judicial decisions and elections have come and gone, but controversy still lingers over the lawsuit filed by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen against the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board to force them to comply with a federal law regarding the creation of a voter database. The attorney… View story »
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Morality, not barbarism, key to fighting terror
As of this writing, an estimated 188 people have been killed as a result of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. Mumbai is an international city, as the victims’ various nationalities attest. A dozen Americans, several Israelis and Britons were among those killed. The attacks struck at the heart of a nation whose political, ethnic, cultural and linguistic pluralism… View story »
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NSA pick reflects return to reason
It is tempting to view Barack Obama’s announcements of new cabinet appointments as a kind of cast list for the next four years of political drama in our lives. Fun though it may be to hyper-analyze the social tensions between the president-elect and his new secretary of state, that theme may have been exhausted at some point in the… View story »
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Judging Judge
For the past two years Ald. Eli Judge has represented the 8th district of Madison’s City Council. He has shown what a student with passion for open and effective government can do for the University of Wisconsin campus and Madison community. I thank him for his service and will be sad to see him go. Immediately upon entering office,… View story »
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Hope for change rests with band
The University of Wisconsin football team’s next scheduled game at the University of Michigan’s Big House is set for Nov. 20, 2010. Given their luck there the past two years, the UW Marching Band might want to think about sitting that one out. But then again, that’s a long way off. And if indications from UW Band Director Mike Leckrone… View story »
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Prisons reveal Legislature’s betrayal
As the figure for the Wisconsin budget deficit climbs by the day, everybody is suddenly a fiscal conservative. At least those few who have read the state Constitution, which, perhaps inconveniently at this point in time, requires the budget to be balanced. This is very inconvenient for a variety of worthy programs that will likely be pushed to the side… View story »
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Fraternities not entirely to blame for UW’s drinking debacle
I have a confession to make. Two, actually. First, I read Harry Potter, and I liked it a lot. So much, in fact, that during the summer of 2007 four fellow Badgers and I(not associated with Hufflepuff, the weakest of all houses) piled into a big, crappy van on an epic road trip to the East Towne Barnes and Noble…. View story »
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Affirmative action a manifestation of racist society
Racism is the practice of judging individual character or social standing according to one’s race. Like all forms of collectivism, it judges individuals by their membership in some group rather than by their own ideas and actions. Racism is evil because it disregards the actual source of an individual’s character — his or her mind — and replaces it with… View story »
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Taking a rational look at Mahoney
On Nov. 17, Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney’s controversial policy of reporting illegal immigrants whom he takes into custody to Immigration and Customs Enforcement inspired a protest by the student chapter of Progressive Dane, Campus Antiwar Network and the Multicultural Student Coalition. Protesters marched to the City-County building in support of an amendment under consideration by the Dane County Board… View story »
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Big three in need of big wake-up call
Hello, my name is Laura, and I drive a Ford. It’s served me pretty well over the past five years or so, breaking down roadside only four or five times. The alignment is permanently off-kilter, defying repeated trips to the mechanic. The alternator died, but I didn’t have to worry because the car was still under warranty — less than… View story »
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