Raindrops slowly streak down the beautiful stained glass windows of a century-old Wisconsin church like tears down the cheek of a grieving widow. A funeral procession begins its slow measured march out of the church and into the nearby cemetery. A coffin is slowly lowered into a dark grave. The simple granite headstone reads: ATLAS 1848-2009.
Diversity is a recurring theme at UW-Madison and, as always, the discussion turns to race. Administrators who focus on the color of students' skin continue to find a lack of diversity, which is a nice way of saying we are too white. Responding to this crisis of superficial uniformity has been a favorite task of chancellors, committees, and columnists for decades. While the overwhelming sea of good intentions is aimed at increasing diversity, I would argue that there are almost no students who pay any attention to race.
Following The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board's recent meeting with Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, budgetary issues tended to push other topics to the back burner. One subject that we made sure to address however was the recent compromise Cieslewicz brokered with the Common Council regarding a student serving on the Alcohol License Review Committee. After convincing Ald. Bryon Eagon, Dist. 8, to remove language making the student voting member a permanent position, Cieslewicz vowed to nominate a student to the seat once two new voting members were added to the ALRC.
Oh, the Humanities Building. You are a massive block of concrete that houses the studies for which you are appropriately named. Since your completed construction in 1969, you have been a cold, lonely home to the studies of music, art, English, and history; all of which seem strangely out of place beneath your sunken temple walls (perhaps with the exclusion of history). Ever since the announcement of your imminent destruction, I have been absolutely enthralled. The Humanities Building at one time may have been a ground-breaking, conversational piece, but in today's current architectural climate it is a blotch upon our beautiful campus.
Can students access their student government's full records? You would say ""sure"" without the blink of an eye. But when reporters at UW-Milwaukee's student newspaper, The UWM Post, wanted the same information, they were only given heavily redacted materials from the university. Last week, the Post brought the matter to court after 10 months of fruitless negotiation. By resorting to legal action, its student journalists have taken a courageous step to defend their peers' rights.
The United States used to be one of the world standards for good education, but we are currently ranked 17 out of 30 for the world's richest countries in science and 24 out of 30 in mathematics by the Program for International Student Assessment. Wisconsin has the largest achievement gap in the nation in terms of disparity in the educational performances of minority and low-income students in comparison to their white, middle-class peers. This may not be the cause of widespread concern among students on this campus, yet this continued decline in educational performance will seriously hinder the United States' ability to stay on the cutting edge of technological advancement.
With the recent vote on the capital budget, numerous city projects weighed heavily on the mind of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. In light of the flurry of civic activity, The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board sat down with Cieslewicz and discussed some of the more pressing issues facing Madison.
Late Saturday night, by a narrow vote of 220-215, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the most significant health insurance legislation since the creation of Medicare. The bill still requires Senate approval—less likely to occur—and President Obama's signature to become law.
Sex Out Loud's mission is to promote healthy sexuality through sex-positive education and activism. To effectively do this across a broad range of communities, we must be cognizant of the profound ways in which various identity markers can impact sexuality, including, but certainly not limited to, sex, gender, gender identity, race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, relationship status and religion. Working to make our events and programming more inclusive is an ever-present goal of ours, and we value the opportunity to reach out to often-marginalized groups.
Last week two facilitators and a supervisor from Sex Out Loud came to my residence hall to lead a program called ""Safer Sex."" At first, my Christian values made me a little apprehensive. However, despite my concerns I was pleased to find that the program concentrated on asking for consent, sexually transmitted diseases and preventing the dangers of sex. While I disagree with the idea that the university should be promoting promiscuous sexual behavior, I understand the importance of giving students the information they need to make their own decisions. People have the right to know how to use a condom or how likely they are to contract HIV before they make their own sexual choices.
Last Thursday, the Dane County Board voted in favor of creating a regional transit authority to preside over the planning of the public transportation system around Madison. With big projects like the new Central Library and Edgewater redevelopment looming, the RTA makes sense. It is a wonder that there was no governing body to guide the growth of the transportation system before, which probably accounts for the lack of progress in high-speed rail and bus route updates.
In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson observed the first Armistice Day, which would later become Veterans Day, by reflecting ""with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory."" Ninety years later, Americans everywhere continue to honor the service and sacrifice of our nation's veterans on Nov. 11, the anniversary of the end of World War I.
In 1999, Wisconsin finally made the fifth offense for driving while intoxicated a felony. Even with this stipulation, our state still had some of the most lax drinking laws in the country at the time. Even though the state Legislature recently tightened drunken driving laws, the latest legislation passed will do little to reduce Wisconsin's reputation as an overly alcohol-friendly state.
1st Lt. Dan Choi was notified in April of this year that the Army would begin discharge proceedings against him. Choi, an Arabic-speaking linguist, Iraq war veteran, West Point graduate and infantry officer, served in the nation's armed forces for 10 years. Now he faces an other than honorable discharge from the military because he is gay and doesn't want to lie about it.
Last week the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided not to hear the case of Appling v. Doyle, involving the constitutionality of domestic partner benefits.
My name is Bryon Eagon—and no, my first name isn't misspelled. In addition to being a student at UW-Madison, I have the privilege of representing the 8th District as an alder on the City Council here in Madison. Technically, we call it the Common Council, but that's just semantics. Students are the economic, social and cultural engine of Madison, so our opinions and ideas are vital to shaping the future of this great city. But my voice is just one among tens of thousands of young people here in Madison; that's where you come in. I want to know your thoughts, complaints, suggestions and ideas to help inform my priorities and decisions. Why should students care about the micro of micro levels of government when there are more attractive and flashy issues at the state or national level? Let me try to explain.
The discussions of advising services here on campus have not yet cooled off. But for years, most suggestions have been limited to increasing the number of advisors, and not changing how the program is run itself. While the student-to-advisor ratio is certainly a factor in quality advising, mere statistical improvements would not guarantee better services for students. Last week, a novel advising plan got funding from the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates. After wandering aimlessly for so long, we may be approaching a solution to this advising problem.
In recent months the nation has become deeply involved in the subject of health-care reform. According to a recent CNN poll, 83 percent of Americans favor health-care reform. The way to do it, however, has been a hot topic for months now and the top domestic policy item on President Obama's agenda. The battle to reform health care is now coming to an apex in Washington. After passing in the House, all eyes turn to the Senate to see if this $1.2 trillion bill will pass. If you turn on CNN, Fox or MSNBC these days you can hardly avoid it. Yet even with so much news coverage, many people still know little about it. The Senate is getting ready to vote on a bill that will affect one fifth of our nation's economy, and, in typical Washington fashion, they have managed to convince Americans that if this is not done right away, the world will end at 2 p.m. on Friday.
Last week, the Wisconsin legislature's Joint Finance Committee passed legislation setting up a new public financing structure for Supreme Court candidates. This public financing would provide campaign funding for viable Supreme Court candidates who agree to forgo private financing, totaling $100,000 for primary elections and $300,000 for general elections. Clearly lawmakers were reacting to last year's campaign between Justice Michael Gableman and former Justice Louis Butler Jr., which was widely considered to be one of the nastiest statewide campaigns in recent memory.
I am writing in response to the article ""Student involvement and interest in politics on the decline,"" published November 1, 2009.
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