UW-Madison Ups Public Words on Proposed Cell Tissue-Stem Cell Research Ban

UW-Madison Chancellor Addresses UW Board of Regents with Words Aimed at Faculty, Researchers, Students and other UW System Advocates, as GOP Disinformation Campaign Amps Up

Updated - In words intended to assuage allies and use assets to pressure Republican legislators and Scott Walker, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank advised UW System regents Friday proposed legislation criminalizing fetal tissue research imperils the University.

"This is a direct hit," Blank said. "This is a threat to one of our strongest areas in terms of our reputation in the sciences." (Herzog, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

The vast majority of the UW System Board of Regents has been ideologically vetted and appointed by the Evangelical Scott Walker. (Mal Contends)

Blank's escalation—following her halting public advocacy—is part of a massive, behind-the-scenes effort involving advocates for the entire UW System is every key Wisconsin legislative district.

Republicans are countering with their own disinformation campaign, pretending to an expertise in fetal cell-stem cell research—telling policymakers and opinion-makers on background that the bill by the religious right on "body parts," to borrow from Rep. Jacque and Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc), and inserted into their proposed amendment to the Wisconsin criminal code—does not apply to a wide line of research and investigation at UW-Madison, which is of course a lie.

Other levers to derail the research-killing legislation are being utilized, even if the subtle-to-silent PR strategy of the UW System administration baffles and frustrates many. The American corporate left has acted, and reportedly stands ready.

Many still ask, why hasn't the UW been aggressively pointing out that Republicans are standing for cancer, not fighting against it? Have you ever known or are you now a family traumatized by cancer and other ailments that stem cells could be used to treat and cure in the future? Most every family has.

Risky Strategy

This is a risky strategy for the UW System during a year when Scott Walker began his run for the presidency extolling his 'taking on' public employees, public education, community control and workers' wages.

Moreover, students facing massive student loan debt since Ronald Reagan began his attack on higher education some 24 years ago, can not be counted on to sing the University System's praises, much less employ pressure across the state on behalf of UW centers. (Salon) (Dissent Magazine)

The cat is out of the bag one of nation's premier public research institutions is under attack in a state where rural and white-district Wisconsin Republicans and Scott Walker function as surrogates for rightwing groups such the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Evangelical, anti-science groups across the country now at their apex in the Republican Party.

Since the months and even days directly preceding Walker's formal July 13 announcement for the presidency, Walker has made attacking the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Idea a centerpiece of his campaign to destroy public education in Wisconsin, which includes a years-long attack on K-12 public education. (Marshall, TPM) (ThinkProgress)

Former Wisconsin State Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) [(State Assembly (1983-1991), State Senate (1991 to 2015)]—hailed by some for blowing the whistle on his Republican Party as corrupt and beholden to special interests in 2013-14 as Republicans clung to a 17-16 majority in the senate (Craver, The Capital Times)—decided the most effective strategy for challenging the corruption of Wisconsin Republicans is to quit and take his pension, rather than fight.

"When some think tank comes up with the legislation and tells you not to fool with it, why are you even a legislator anymore? You just sit there and take votes and you’re kind of a feudal serf for folks with a lot of money," said Schultz in an important piece in the Madison Capital Times in 2103 (Craver, "The Last Moderate ..."). That Schultz could have said, 'no,' apparently did not occur to the former legislator.

Prospects

This weekend Scott Walker is in Iowa campaigning, the Badgers football team hosts its first home game and Packers play the Bears on Sunday. One must have priorities.

It is unlikely public attention will be focused on Walker's hollowing out of Wisconsin's public education system and representative democracy this weekend.

Walker now eyes again Wisconsin's public pension system in an effort to bankrupt Wisconsin communities, which remain largely opposed to Walker demanding the end of local municipal control, in another ALEC bill Walker wants to impose onto the state.

In the following weeks, hope for the preservation of the UW System, public education and the effective structure of representative democracy in Wisconsin lies with the 33-member Wisconsin State Senate—more difficult to gerrymander than the 99-member lower house, the State Assembly.

Wisconsin Republicans hold a relatively slim 19-14 majority in the state senate, and an overwhelming 63-36 majority in the state assembly.

Walker, stinging from national criticism questioning his intellect, policy knowledge and ethics, can be counted on take his frustrations out on Wisconsin where his favorable rating has now dipped into the 30s, and sign any legislation which hurts people, impedes science, and degrades the University of Wisconsin-Madison in particular.

"Asked whether the phrase 'cares about people like you' describes Walker, 37 percent say it does, while 59 percent say it does not" in a poll lat month, (Marquette University Law School poll.

On a hopeful note, if ordered by David Koch—who is a champion of efforts to research and cure cancer—and other patrons to back off, Walker's administration will see to it the fetal research-stem cell bill not reach the governor's desk. The "double-high authoritarian" Walker takes orders and often backs down. (Mal Contends) (CounterPunch)

Whether the popular University of Wisconsin System will publicly and fully mobilize is an open question.

Scott Walker Blasted by Conservative UW Profs for Attacks on University

Sifting and Winnowing Plaque on Bascom Hill
Photo by UW-Madison, University Communications

Scott Walker and the long, sinister shadow on the University

Writing in a national political journal, two conservative and long-tenured UW-Madison professors blasted Scott Walker's continued assault on the University of Wisconsin System, singling out Walker's move to eliminate tenure protections from Wisconsin state statutes and the consequences of imperiling academic freedom.

"[W]e’re increasingly worried that in trying to take up another conservative crusade, our governor, Scott Walker, is going to silence the very voices he claims to support," write Donald Downs, professor of political science at UW-Madison and John Sharpless, professor of history UW-Madison write in The Politico.

Downs and Sharpless say, "We harbor strong concerns about Walker’s proposed tenure revisions. Without tenure protections, professors like us who fight for free speech and liberty—values Walker himself espouses—could be even more at risk of being targeted on college campuses for our beliefs ...  As leaders of a free speech and liberty movement at UW-Madison that has enjoyed considerable success over the course of the past 20 years, we can attest to the positive effects of tenure for those with conservative and libertarian beliefs."

Conclude Downs and Sharpless: "Standing in front of [the "sifting and winnowing"] Plaque [on Bascom Hill], one can see the state capitol dome less than a mile to the east. But today that very dome casts a long, sinister shadow on the university."

Scott Walker's Assault on Tenure Draws National Criticism

What's the matter with Wisconsin?

The question is not asked often any more as the answer is apparent: Scott Walker's anti-intellectualism, corruption, and a weak state Democratic Party precisely when Wisconsin needed an innovative, strong opposition to this fundamentalist governor's destructive agenda taken from the ALEC GOP bill mill and the Koch brothers.

Bear in mind Walker is so controlling and ideologically extreme that Walker rescinded his appointment of UW-Platteville student Joshua Inglet to the Board in August 2013 after finding out Inglet signed the Recall Scott Walker petition to show support for his mother who is a teacher.

From an editorial from this weekend's New York Times, Scott Walker's latest attack, sites the foundation of the Badger state: the University of Wisconsin System; aiming at the tenure system in this volley.

This follows Walker's attacks on funding and University's core mission: The Wisconsin Idea. (Mal Contends) (Persson and Bottari, Center for Wisconsin Media and Democracy) [Note: Persson and Bottari broke this story in February 2015]

Walker now has in place a University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents composed of a large majority of politically vetted members dedicated to destroying the very institution they are appointed to safeguard. In May 2017, Walker will have appointed 16 of 18 serving members of the UW System Board of Regents. (Mal Contends)

Used to be the University of Wisconsin-Madison drew 1,000s of applicants from the world-over to study at one of the nation's premier educational institutions and a verdant, cultural oasis in the Midwest.

Scott Walker never liked this state of affairs and is out to destroy an institution that took generations to build.

From the New York Times:

Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal for weakening tenure at Wisconsin’s highly respected state university system and undermining the faculty’s role in campus governance will appeal to conservative voters whose support he needs to win the Republican presidential nomination.

But if this proposal becomes law, it will damage the university, perhaps irreparably. It will make it harder to recruit top-tier faculty members, who have the pick of other institutions that respect academic independence and where they do not have to fear dismissal for taking controversial views or for doing research that might be frowned upon by politicians.

It has become fashionable to portray academia as a haven for people who enjoy job security while others are subject to layoffs and downsizing. But most college instructors are not protected by tenure. According to federal data, only 20.35 percent of instructional faculty at American colleges are full-time, tenure-track workers (down from 45 percent in 1975). Colleges rely heavily on miserably paid part-timers who flee the campus when class is finished so they can get to the next job.

Tenure protections were devised in the mid-20th century to protect academics from political reprisals. Current Wisconsin state law respects this tradition, allowing tenured faculty to be fired for just cause or in financial emergencies.

A committee of state lawmakers last week approved a new proposal that would remove tenure from state law, leaving the matter to the university system’s 18-member Board of Regents, 16 of whom are appointed by the governor with the confirmation of the State Senate. Under the proposal, the board would be able set new, vaguer standards for firing tenured faculty: “when such an action is deemed necessary due to a budget or program decision requiring program discontinuance, curtailment, modification or redirection.” Another provision would weaken the faculty’s voice in policy and personnel decisions.

Faculty members have ample reason to suspect Mr. Walker’s motives. Earlier this year, he issued a budget containing devastating spending cuts that also sought to amend the university’s mission statement to make it sound more like a trade school than a prominent research institution. He backed away from the new language after the state erupted in protest.

The Legislature, which will take up the new proposals later this month, can still reject them. Rubber-stamping them would set the state university on a course that Wisconsinites could regret for decades to come. #

UW System Board of Regents

John Robert Behling - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2012 (Regent Vice President)
Mark J. Bradley - Term expires May 2017
José Delgado - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2014
Tony Evers - Elected as Superintendent of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction


Margaret Farrow - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2013
Michael Grebe, Jr. - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2015
Eve Hall - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2014
Nicolas Harsy - Term expires May 2016

Tim Higgins - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2011
Edmund Manydeeds - Term expires May 2017
Regina Millner - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2012 (Regent President)
Janice Mueller - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2013

Drew Petersen - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2013
Charles Pruitt - Term expires May 2016
Anicka Purath - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2015
José F. Vásquez - Term expires May 2016


Gerald Whitburn - Appointed by Scott Walker in 2011

Andrew Peterson - Reappointed by Scott Walker in 2015.
Peterson is president of the Wisconsin Technical College System Board similarly dominated by Walker appointees.