Opinion - The Daily Cardinal

OPINION

Vote 'yes' on Rec Sports referendum

By The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board and Tom Walsh | Feb. 26, 2014

Any one of the 83 percent of students who stepped foot into any of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s recreational sports facilities last year can tell you they leave much to be desired. Students have to trek up five flights of stairs to get from the weight room to the cardio room at the Serf. Pipes are constantly leaking, and students can frequently be seen huddled at the back of the room waiting for a machine to become available. Forty percent of outdoor recreational sports activities, which students pay a fee to participate in, are lost annually due to the condition of the fields.

OPINION

Letter to the editor: Madison’s Diversity Plan since Plan 2008 ended

By W. Lee Hansen | Feb. 26, 2014

Your news report (Ad Hoc Diversity Planning Committee releases UW-Madison Diversity Draft plan, Feb. 20, 2014) is wrong in repeating the assertion that UW-Madison has gone without a diversity plan since Plan 2008 ended more than five years ago. That incorrect assertion was first made by the co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Diversity Planning Committee during their Diversity Forum presentations last fall.

OPINION

Letter to the Editor: UW Madison's College Republicans support the referendum to improve Recreational Sports facilities

By Ryan Karow | Feb. 26, 2014

?Working as a Fitness Consultant and supervising the exercise spaces for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Recreational Sports, I get a firsthand look at the deteriorating facilities that are available for students and faculty here at the university. But it does not take an employee to see that these facilities are not meeting the demands of a university as prestigious as the University of Wisconsin.

OPINION

Drone strikes on foreign soil are difficult to justify

By Andrew Park and Scott Allen | Feb. 26, 2014

On Feb. 10, mass media were embroiled with an intense debate. The debate was about the United States government’s possible drone strike on a U.S. citizen who lives abroad. The target is not just an ordinary U.S. citizen, but a terrorist affiliated with al-Qaeda who happens to hold a U.S. citizenship due to his original place of birth.

OPINION

Letter to the editor: Catholic social teaching opinion

By Peter Geppert and JoEllen Amato | Feb. 25, 2014

Last Monday the Cardinal opinion staff’s own Michael Podgers wrote an article criticizing a program put on by Badger Catholic during Valentine’s Day. The program, run outside of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, featured men giving away roses to women that had notes in them. In his piece, Mr. Podgers criticized Badger Catholic for reinforcing outdated gender stereotypes, and demeaning women by self-determining for them their inherent dignity.

OPINION

Madison should rename Pinckney Street

By Spencer Lindsay | Feb. 25, 2014

This week I have chosen to address an issue of 'softball' politics in order to get at something much larger. I take issue with the name of a street in Madison. On the surface this may seem like useless complaining, but I assure you I have a point. We have many streets named after the founders. The city itself is named after James Madison. However, there is one particular founder who we should not be naming streets after: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.

OPINION

Letter to the editor: Modern-day religious climate on campus is detrimental

By Caroline Klinker | Feb. 25, 2014

As I was reading Theresa Cooley’s opinion piece “Come one, come all—It’s just casual sex” in The Badger Herald last week, a particular comment caught my eye. “A student from the 19th century came back,” it said, a reference, I suppose, to Ms. Cooley’s Biblical references and religious perspective on sex.

OPINION

Letter to the editor: The truth shall set you free

By Andrew Kidd | Feb. 25, 2014

Mr. Podgers, the Rose Campaign last Thursday (Feb. 13) was trying to accomplish a good, to challenge a mindset that limits sex to pleasure or an action that is not completely giving of one’s self. You incorrectly identified the goals of the campaign by Badger Catholic and claimed the idea that the men involved were imposing views on women through the passing out of roses with short notes attached.

CAMPUS NEWS

Action Project: White privilege continues to plague American progress

By Tony Pastagnoli | Feb. 24, 2014

We should be pissed that black men in America today stand a one-in-three chance of going to jail. We should be pissed that the unemployment rate for blacks in Dane County is at 25.2 percent, compared to 4.8 percent for whites. We should be pissed that the achievement gap between white students and black students in Wisconsin is the widest in the nation. In fact, we should be pissed that the widespread ignorance of these facts is the key explanation as to why we’ve never reached full racial equality in this country. The first step to solving a problem is admitting that there is one, and sadly, too many white people reject the idea that they have a privilege based on the color of their skin and that it is fueling the fires of racial injustice.

CAMPUS NEWS

Action Project: Open dialogue rids diversity of uncertainty

By Michael Penn | Feb. 24, 2014

Allow me to begin with another healthy dose of honesty: Madison and race relations have not been going too hand-in-hand lately. In fact, this is an inherent understatement: A precedent has been set for the underrepresentation of people of color in the university and the city itself, while Black and brown people continue to systematically overpopulate the prison system in the county as well as the low-class/impoverished living conditions so subtly buried beneath the transfer points. (There have been several recent articles detailing these issues in full, notably from Rev. Alex Gee in The Cap Times last December.)

OPINION

Action Project: Diversity Plan drafts need to be available, accessible to campus

By The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board | Feb. 24, 2014

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Ad Hoc Diversity Planning Committee, charged with drafting a new diversity plan, released preliminary suggestions Feb. 18 for improving aspects of diversity and inclusivity at the university. While we are glad these plans are in motion, we believe the success of the plan depends on campus input and making sure this draft—no matter how rough it may be—is available to the campus community.

OPINION

Action Project: a note from the management desk

By Abby Becker and Mara Jezior and Dimitri Syrkin-Nikolau | Feb. 24, 2014

When we say Wisconsin, do we really say it all? Or in other words, as a community, are we really doing everything we can to foster inclusivity for all groups and ideas, and additionally, what else needs to be said about this issue?

CAMPUS NEWS

Action Project: Respect sexuality by moving past stigmas and shaming

By Michael Podgers | Feb. 24, 2014

We all have individual desires, concerns (fears even) and spectrum of sexuality goes beyond the gay/straight/bi triptych. Each of us arguably has an unique sexuality. Religion, class, gender identity, cultural and racial identities and life experiences all play unique roles in shaping sexuality and how it blossoms. There are two things that many students may struggle with while on campus within the context of sexuality: stigma and shame.

OPINION

Action Project: Letters from the community

By UW-Madison community members | Feb. 23, 2014

The Daily Cardinal asked for the campus' input on the current social climate at UW-Madison. These are the responses we received. If you want to contribute to the discussion, email actionproject@dailycardinal.com, and we will publish your input.

CAMPUS NEWS

A call to action for the campus social climate

By Abby Becker and Mara Jezior | Feb. 19, 2014

The Daily Cardinal is pleased to announce the first of three special issues this semester dedicated to exploring topics challenging to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the surrounding community. The publications will form a series we call The Daily Cardinal Action Project, an effort to inform the campus community about pertinent issues and spark action.

OPINION

Letter to the editor: Vote for Chris Hoffman for Dane County Board District 5

By Chris Hoffman | Feb. 18, 2014

My name is Chris Hoffman and I’m running to be the District 5 County Board Supervisor because I want to represent your voice. County government offers opportunities for professional development and networking that are hugely underutilized by students. This is one of the primary reasons I am running: when elected, I will act as a liaison for students who want to further their involvement in local government. Increasing student involvement would be accomplished through student appointments to county committees and internships. Giving students these skill-building experiences is important for ensuring a long-lasting, strong connection between students and their county government. I understand the importance of utilizing the County committee system via my own appointment to the County Environmental Council. However, there is one pressing issue that I will address further: campus safety.

OPINION

Democrats must embrace, support and defend the Affordable Care Act

By Sean Hoey | Feb. 18, 2014

Putting together a piece for your enjoyment and consumption this week, I found myself oddly strapped for ideas. My liberal, opinionated self somehow was totally transformed into a normal human being. Last week, I wrote about #SochiProblems, and the week before, it was the minimum wage—what else is there to opine to my vast readership?

OPINION

Cardinal View: Mary Burke's outlook against Scott Walker seems bleak

By Molly Reppen and The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board | Feb. 18, 2014

Nearly four years ago, a deft, bold stroke of a pen enacted a law that turned newly elected Gov. Scott Walker into perhaps the most divisive man in Wisconsin history. Today, he is one of the most highly revered politicians in the country and on the short list for a 2016 Republican Party presidential nomination.

OPINION

Sochi Olympics plagued by corruption, greed and financial ignorance

By Christian Blatner | Feb. 18, 2014

Have you ever wondered what $1 million could buy? Yeah, of course you have. According to the Barenaked Ladies’ hit song “If I Had $1,000,000,” you could buy an exotic pet (yep, like a llama or an emu) furniture for your house (maybe a nice Chesterfield or an ottoman) or a fur coat (but not a real fur coat, that’s cruel).

OPINION

Gun control advocates continue to lack validity

By Daily Cardinal Staff and Jeff Birnkrant | Feb. 18, 2014

Many people love to oppose guns, as they are our society’s weapon of choice. However, this opposition is rooted in pure fallacy. More than half of the households in the United States own a gun and many people without a weapon feel as if this endangers them or provides an unnecessary threat. On the other side of the argument, one can envision someone in the south in a rocking chair chewing tobacco while holding a 12-guage simply waiting for the first sight of his land being trespassed. This is not exactly a great ideal for what people should think about when looking into gun control. But, as it turns out, you are safer living next to the crazy man in the south than in certain parts of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and other big cities.