I was upset to read a recent Cardinal editorial depicting WISPIRG's staffing infrastructure as a misuse of segregated fees. The editorial overlooked several important points, including WISPIRG's history and methods of success and the nature of the segregated fee process in this university.
Let's admit something that has been fairly obvious for the past few months: this semester was pretty slow for news. Compare this to last fall, and there's no presidential election, no new chancellor. There were no big local electoral races or campus decisions like last spring's ASM constitution vote either. Overall, it was an incredibly boring time to be a politically involved Badger.
If you're familiar with the term ""environmental justice,"" you've likely heard it used in a technological context. Do phrases such as ""e-waste,"" ""toxic components of electronics"" or ""developing nations"" ring a bell?
As the semester comes to an end, many of us start to focus solely on our grades and GPAs. How will we get into grad school, or who will hire us with a low GPA? These concerns are legitimate, but for many this is our only concern. Students often view education as a stepping stone to getting a job when they often have no consideration for the subject matter of their classes. Has school become part of an equation that hopefully ends with a good job and a lot of money? Sadly enough, for many this is a reality and changes need to be made in order to maintain and strengthen the success of our nation.
We would like to address the Daily Cardinal Editorial Board article titled ""Students should staff WISPIRG"" published in the Thursday, December 10, 2009 issue. Many of the statements made in this article are misleading and appear to have been taken out of context.
The debate over climate change has recently been thrust back on to the world stage at the global climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. The summit and its 15,000 delegates and 98 world leaders will attempt to cut global carbon emissions in half. Most conservatives do not dispute climate change is in fact happening, they simply disagree on the solutions that need to come about from the climate change debate.
As the generation of Web 2.0, we're all too familiar with its keywords: social networking, podcasting and blogging. Most of us are content with our participation as mere users. At the receiving end, we have been savoring the creations of others for years. An interdisciplinary course at UW, Techshop, is suggesting something novel: link your passion about Web 2.0 to community service. Most students would think that such a worthwhile program could easily get funding from the university. But the truth is Techshop will be discontinued after next semester due to funding shortages. If UW is truly dedicated to its students and the future of Wisconsin, it should reconsider its decision.
Climate change discussion began this week in Copenhagen, and as most expected, our global climate outlook is becoming exponentially worse. Environmental statistics get tossed around regularly when a dialogue begins on climate change, and they have a tendency to approach hyperbolic proportions. I have this sense of foreboding because of the things I'm hearing about cycles of droughts due to substantially less rainfall, which will lead to irreparable agrarian damage, cause untold extinctions and hinder our global food supply in the near future.
As a card-carrying Liberal, I needed to get my hands on a copy of former Alaska governor, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's new book ""Going Rogue"" to decipher how it could sell 700,000 copies within one week. For comparison, actual President Bill Clinton, who legitimately accomplished things, sold 900,000 copies of his biography in its first week.
Last month, Chancellor Biddy Martin approved contract status for the Wisconsin Students Public Interest Research Group, a UW student advocacy organization, allowing the group to receive student segregated fees to pay four non-student, full-time, professional staff members. WISPIRG is now the only UW-Madison student organization to receive contract status, which also allows the group to use segregated fees to pay dues to the national PIRG organization.
Today's Student Organization Neighborhood guest editorial comes courtesy of the Wisconsin Union Directorate Society and Politics Committee. The Student Organization Neighborhood is a biweekly column dedicated to giving a voice to student groups across campus.
The sad reality is that all to often, racial profiling occurs, with little recourse for the victim. It is time to look into this problem so that it may be deal with according to our highest values of equality before the law.
Most students here are familiar with Gordon Commons. Regardless of your love-hate relationship with University Housing, you have to admit it's a homey place to relax during free time. Well, fun at Pop's Club and Ed's Express will soon come to an end, as UW plans to tear down the building this upcoming summer. Even if you look at the upcoming project glazed with rosy assumptions, the $34 million project is probably unnecessary.
To improve campus climate and truly benefit from the wide range of cultures and ethnicities that are represented in our student body, we must create cross-cultural connections.
At my language table, we discussed ""what is a Coastie?"" Recently, thanks to the MySpace musical sensation ""What's a Coastie?,"" this question has once again become the heated topic of a campus-wide conversation. Participating in this debate, a soon-to-be PhD student at the table offered up his definition of a Coastie. He proceeded to describe the BlackBerry toting, Ugg boot donning, North Face fleece sporting, Starbucks drinking girl we have all come to love to make fun of. Oh, and he was sure to include that she had to be a Jewish woman from New York. As a Jewish woman from New York City, I felt that this last inclusion was a bit unfair, but I generally agreed with his description of the Coastie on campus, so I ignored this last comment. Plus, even I enjoy poking fun at the Coastie type. Uninterrupted, the student delivered his punch line—he had created a scheme in which he would create yellow stars of David with the word COASTIE inscribed inside it. He would pass them out (free of charge!) to every Coastie he saw so that they could wear it on their chest...just like in Europe during World War II. I was—I am—in total shock and remain completely appalled.
Around the nation universities are taking antismoking policies to the next level by banning smoking everywhere on campus. While no Wisconsin schools have extended smoking bans beyond 25 feet from public buildings, yet UW- Plattville has begun talks to institute a schoolwide smoking ban. With its traditionally harsh stance on smoking it seems inevitable that Madison will follow suit. For students and residents, now is the time to take a stance against these bans. If we wait to voice our support for freedom of choice, our school will soon be faced with the same initiatives currently being considered at Purdue University and being enacted in 2011 at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Debates over UW-Madison's holistic admissions policy often boil down to one issue: Are efforts to increase diversity a means to some altruistic end—such as offsetting socioeconomic disadvantages—or a desirable end in themselves by exposing students to as many ideas and cultures as possible?
Recently, Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker has expressed an interest in having former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorse him. As a viable candidate with a record of solid results in fiscal policy (the area Wisconsin needs the most help with by far) in particular, this is a major step in the wrong direction for him.
The United Nations Development Program estimated it would cost $20 to $30 billion to provide clean water and sanitation universally to the entire world. Contrast that with this number: On average, Americans spend $450 billion every year on Christmas. With 5,000 children dying every day because of water-related diseases, spending $450 billion on Christmas almost seems like a crime.
Diversity issues extend beyond race and nationality. I would argue we are a product of our experiences, and though skin color and nationality play a significant role in influencing our experiences, encouraging a diversity of experiences on campus cannot be measured by admittance data alone. UW-Madison cannot hope to achieve true diversity simply through programs aimed at aiding minority students. A truly diverse campus would embrace students from all walks of life, whose experiences are as vast as they are different and who are united by a common goal: to educate and better themselves.
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