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I received the following letter this morning from a colleague, and with her permission I am reprinting it because  the message it contains is a critical one for our community to hear and discuss.   Dear Sara, First, thank you sincerely for your courage to stand up for your convictions, and to air them at the Faculty Senate and in your blog. Please allow me briefly to share my personal experience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison concerning attitudes toward undergraduate education and inequity in faculty salaries, and how, from my perspective, these affect the budget of the university, the future of our children, and the economics of our State/country. I have been on the UW-Madison faculty of the School of Medicine and Public Health (Medical School) for twenty years.  The Medical School employs scientists with expertise found nowhere else on the campus (or even the world) and pays salaries that are considerably higher than those of faculty in many other school...

The following letter from Chad Alan Goldberg, Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was delivered at today's Faculty Senate. Chancellor Ward declined to respond, other than to say "Thank you for the letter. Yes, I agree."                                                   ****** In regard to the nonacademic misconduct charges facing ten students who participated in a non-violent sit-in in the your office on April 29 to protest the university's refusal to terminate its contract with Palermo Pizza— Wouldn’t you agree that political protest differs from ordinary cases of misconduct because protest plays a positive and constructive role in educating the campus community and drawing attention to campus problems that need resolution? Furthermore, in light of the positive and constructive role that political protest plays on campus, wouldn’t you ...

I have said it before and will say it again:   Please do not conflate the beliefs and actions of University faculty, students, or staff with the beliefs and actions of the Administrators. Today I am flat-out embarrassed by the possibility that anyone might think that the educators, staff, or students of UW-Madison uniformly support the latest shenanigans perpetrated by our administration.  Three such action are especially revolting. 1. Administrators sent threatening letters to our students who are working diligently to ensure that those "in charge" uphold the ethical code of conduct governing UW-Madison's business relationships, rather than kowtow to the business owners of Milwaukee.   More on that in the coming days. 2. The Interim Chancellor played "holier than thou" in a reprehensible letter  published Friday about the words of a faculty member, Lydia Zepeda, chair of the shared governance committee on Labor Codes Licensing Compliance. He used the race card ...

This letter went to Ward this morning.  Yesterday's Capital Time s noted that a key issue here is a failure on the Administration's part to listen  and communicate  with campus the same way it does with business. I couldn't agree more. May 3, 2013 Dear Chancellor Ward, We are deeply troubled by your latest statement on Palermo’s Pizza, in which you conveyed a continued refusal to acknowledge the findings of the National Labor Relations Board and Worker Rights Consortium. UW-Madison has a history of upholding our Code of Conduct, which the university adopted for a reason. You have repeatedly claimed to not have enough information to take action toward Palermo’s. This is despite the fact that last November, the National Labor Relations Board found Palermo’s in violation of numerous counts of violating federal labor law, including worker intimidation, physically blocking workers from going on strike, and illegally terminating 11 workers. Though the NLRB may have absolve...

UW-Madison has a rich history of activism among its students, and that history evolves today as students stand in solidarity with the workers of Palermo's pizza and the good folks of Voces de la Frontera.  What will outgoing Interim Chancellor David Ward do? Why not act, given widespread public support and his short remaining tenure?   Here's what you need to know: (1) UW-Madison's students have always been ahead of the curve when it comes to standing up for the rights of underdogs throughout the world.  It's no surprise they're ahead of the NLRB on this one. (2) UW-Madison's code of ethics is independent from the rulings of the NLRB or any other entity and is supposed to reflect our values, not those of others. (3) It is abundantly clear that moral leadership is lacking on both the so-called Left and the Right in Wisconsin, especially when it comes to standing up to corporate interests seeking to keep wages low and profits high.  It is far harder to battle t...

I had the privilege of serving alongside a representative from U.S. PIRG during Senate testimony yesterday, and so today, in support of the hard work they are doing on behalf of students everywhere, I want to weigh in on the situation here in Wisconsin. UW-Madison Interim Chancellor David Ward recently released his decision on the Associated Students of Madison (ASM)'s approved segregated university fee budget following months of student decision-making. One focus of his decision was removing a majority of the budget for WISPIRG, a statewide, student-directed and funded public interest group and registered student organization, despite student approval.   The issue of WISPIRG’s funding has received much attention lately, from students, the Associated Students of Madison, the Chancellor, and the media. And now in light of Chancellor Ward’s decision, ASM is preparing an appeal to the Regents.  WISPIRG was founded by Madison students in 1989 in order to tackle public inte...

For decades, the price of higher education has been rising at colleges and universities nationwide, and relatively few students and families have done so much as sniff.  While occasional concerns about affordability have been expressed, that message has been quite soft when compared to the loud statement uttered by the millions who walk onto college campuses every year, despite rising tuition and fees.  In other words, actions speak louder than words.  Colleges and universities are able to say: if we are truly charging more than you want to pay, why do you keep buying it? Times are changing, as some students are informing themselves about why college costs so much-- and where the money is actually spent.  Some are aware that part of the costs are offloaded onto students in the form of student fees, fees which in many places students have no choice but to pay, and have no control over. UW-Madison is a bit unusual-- it has segregated fees, but it also has a renowned sh...