After last week's Center for Equal Opportunity controversy, a war of words broke out between one UW-Madison professor and a student earlier this week.
In a letter to the Capital Times, UW-Madison physics professor Marshall Onellion criticized the university's admissions policy and its response to the CEO studies, calling out student protestor Mia McKinney as one of several ""student thugs"" Tuesday.
McKinney wrote back to ""wholeheartedly refute"" the professor's letter.
""[Mr. Onellian] clearly has misconstrued the facts and, indeed, does not know what is going on,"" wrote McKinney.
In his letter, Onellion referenced a quote from McKinney previously printed in the Wisconsin State Journal.
McKinney told the State Journal she ""took [the CEO release] as a slap in the face and an insult, almost presuming that none of us worked hard and just got here because of the color of our skin.""
In his letter, Onellion contended, ""I neither know nor care how hard you, or any other student worked to get here. The point at issue … is whether UW Madison as a publicly funded institution is or is not officially discriminating against Wisconsin children and their parents.""
Onellion told the Daily Cardinal he felt mentioning a specific student by name was justified to get his point across.
""She was quoted in the article,"" Onellion said. ""If she did not wish to be cited, she only needed to either not talk to the reporter or specifically get the reporter to guarantee her anonymity.""
For her part, McKinney wrote Onellion ""was unable to form any sort of moral conscience or understanding about how making inferences about a person, especially one he does not know or has ever talked with, is fundamentally wrong.""
McKinney could not be contacted for comment before this article went to press.
