Feb 4, 2015

Scott Walker Wants to Strike out Wisconsin Idea and Public Service

Finding resistance weak, Scott Walker proposes removing Wisconsin Idea and public service language from UW System mission

Update II: Scott Walker said the language removing the Wisconsin Idea is a "drafting error." (Herzog, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Updated - "The Wisconsin Idea is embedded in our DNA," University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross said in a statement. "It is so much more than words on a page. It is the reason the UW System exists. It defines us and forever will distinguish us as a great, public university. We will work to preserve the Wisconsin Idea in every form."

Will Wisconsin Idea Fellowships be abolished?

Endowments and projects mark the Wisconsin Idea vision. Will these endowments now cease?

How about the "The Wisconsin Idea Seminar[,] a five-day traveling study tour that immerses forty UW–Madison faculty, academic staff, and administrators in the educational, industrial, social, and political realities of Wisconsin. Begun in 1985, the seminar introduces and promotes the Wisconsin Idea and our commitment to use university expertise and resources to address the problems of the state."

This was begun by Chancellor Donna Shalala, who is stepping down as Chancellor at the U. of Miami this year.

The story was first reported by Jonas Persson and Mary Bottari at PRWatch.

What can Scott Walker possibly be thinking?

Is this man so isolated in his anti-intellectual bubble that Walker cannot fathom the value of and identity to Wisconsin that the Wisconsin Idea embodies?

"Search for truth" and "Improve the human condition" must be stricken from the Wisconsin state statute according to Scott Walker's "Freedom and Prosperity" budget.

Walker is amassing $ Millions as he literally proposes to change the books on searching for truth and improving the human condition.

How about the Wisconsin Idea scholarship?

Karen Herzog of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has the story epitomizing Scott Walker's assault on the University of Wisconsin System:

"Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget calls for essentially removing the public service language from the University of Wisconsin System's mission to focus more on workforce development, according to language released Wednesday morning."

The Wisconsin Idea has long been the core philosophy of the UW System, driving campuses to extend their reach into communities and 'every family in the state.'"

Not even Joe McCarthy at the depths of McCarthyism dared take on UW-Madison.

UW officials are stunned.

Throughout the now UW System, the Wisconsin Idea is cherished.

The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) message from Director, Charles Brokopp, states "Our laboratory embodies the Wisconsin Idea that brings valuable services, research and education to improve people’s lives 'beyond the classroom' and throughout the world."

Striking the Wisconsin Idea is evidently the big and bold idea of Scott Walker.

Thanks to the work of UW-Madison, the world is more prepared for the outbreak of emerging influenza and disease than at any point in human history, (mal contends) but I guess the concept of public health is frightening to Walker and his crazy ideology.

The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene is the premier influenza virus surveillance public health program anywhere in the country, partnered with the University.

Walker never ran on this proposed radical removal of the Wisconsin Idea from the UW System.

Jonas Persson and Mary Bottari at PRWatch:

Walker's executive budget (see below) amends Sec. 1111 of the statutes to remove language specifying that the UW system has a public service mission to “extend knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of its campus" and to "serve and stimulate society." He strikes language ensuring that the mission of the UW is to extend "training and public service designed to educate people and improve the human condition," as well as the language specifying that "the search for truth" is "basic to every purpose of the system."

Unless Scott Walker's descent into idiocy is met with a united front for one of the world's greatest research and teaching universities, Wisconsin will be dead-set on a trajectory towards the GOP-dominated states of the south.

Reaction cannot be muted. Names must be named; facts must be stated.

No comments:

Post a Comment