Thursday, June 4, 2015

The Rise of American Idiocy

By Jeff Simpson

I am not talking about the possible election of Nation Consulting to head the Democratic Party, as that would just be the end of the Democratic Party.   This is truly the end!

Jessica McBride wrote an article on what the Republicans are doing to the UW System.  

If all of this stuff passes and is not reinstituted as policy by the Regents, I am willing to say you will see the immediate erosion of the UW system's reputation in academia. It will be very hard to recruit high-caliber talent. That's just a fact. Feeling demonized, and without job security, our best faculty and researchers may also go elsewhere. Why wouldn't they? This, to them, is a BIG deal. Students suffer from staff turnover and budget cuts.
Tenure protects academic freedom and the ability of professors to perform controversial research and express controversial ideas (theoretically; just look at John McAdams at Marquette. But he wouldn't have even had a fighting chance in expressing conservative views on campus and criticizing administration if he was a fixed term employee. He probably would just shut up). So these changes will stifle freedom of expression. People won't want to risk it. I actually thought twice before writing this column.
This of course led to your typical, professors are overpaid and they are all communists claptrap but amongst the dumb, one comment really shone stupid:

Terri Christofalos Burl Excuse me if I don't buy into the hyperbole. And I also don't buy into the statement you made about the UW system being iconic. I don't know if I'm in the minority but BFD!! There are excellent universities throughout the United States....certainly those better than the UW's. Wisconsin is not the 'best and brightest'. That comment makes me laugh. I understand you were probably born and raised here but coming from IL, I don't agree. You think UW has a national rep? I never heard of the UW system until I moved here 10 years ago & honestly, I think people here are kinda' nutty about the UW system. Everyone else (except WI) thinks that the UW is much ado about NOTHING. 

This state gives them more power than they deserve, especially with all of the UW extensions. I have heard Joy Cardeen from WPR, say umpteen times that although she works at WPR, she is a part of the UW Extension, too. It's like some kind of unholy alliance. I'm beginning to think that you and those like you have a cultist idea that the UW is too big to fail and you'll do everything in your power to make sure that they don't....even if they deserve to! UNREAL.

This state gives them more power than they deserve, especially with all of the UW extensions. I have heard Joy Cardeen from WPR, say umpteen times that although she works at WPR, she is a part of the UW Extension, too. It's like some kind of unholy alliance. I'm beginning to think that you and those like you have a cultist idea that the UW is too big to fail and you'll do everything in your power to make sure that they don't....even if they deserve to! UNREAL.Like · Reply · 2 · 12 hrsTerri Christofalos Burl Jessica, yes.... some of the campuses deserves to fail. Cut this monster down to size and deal with the campuses that do what you describe wrt excellence. You can't lump them all into one pile of equality. Surely you know which campuses/facilities we can do without? Do it.

The anti intellectual wave that has taken over our state and our country will NOT come without consequences.  The UW system puts $24 back into the economy for every $1 that we put in,  It is very unfortunate for all involved that the current group of Republicans have even less of a clue about business and economics as they do education.  

I think it is time to retire the term American Exceptionalism.




 

9 comments:

  1. They want the U W system to operate like a business. But a business that had a $15 billion economic impact on the state wouldn't be dealt with as Walker and company are presently doing. Walker and his Republican lap dog legislators would be falling over each other in a rush to throw gobs of money at any business in this state that generated $24 for every tax dollar. These clowns are indeed economic idiots and they continue to destroy this state educationally, economically and environmentally.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, the GOP wants the UW to operate like a business, and what an unusual kind of business it is. A business where a party contributing 17% of support gets to make ALL the rules and decisions. A business which cannot raise its prices for four years (longer if Nass has his way). A business which is told that it must turn away customers who will pay more for its product in order to serve those who pay less. (and to think that the Univ. of Alabama has admitted an incoming freshman class where the majority of students are from out-of-state)

    In short, the GOP wants the UW to operate like a business which cannot exist in the private sector without going out of business--but don't you think that isn't precisely what they want? I can see ALEC developing the Charter University concept where UW campuses are taken over and run by private, for-profit education companies. It will all be good because the new for-profit chancellors will be making about $2-million a year some of which will be donated to GOP PACs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. that's exactly it. The plan is to create a disaster and then swoop in to pick up the pieces for pennies on the dollar, and then make he cash....right ought of the old Milton Freedman playbook. On the bright side, they probably won't resort to shooting students on the campus like friedman's BFF Pinochet did....probably

      Delete
  3. At a graduation last month in Colorado, the closing remarks at the ceremony called upon the graduates to be "Intellectually fearless". Won't hear that in Wisconsin anytime soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was having a conversation about this topic with a conservative colleague the other day, mainly centering on changes to tenure. While he pointed out some anecdotal examples of how he's seen tenure abused (and I would agree that there could be issues with the current system), even he conceded at the end of our conversation that removing it could drive away talent and make it much more difficult for the UW to attract new talent as well. Some of the diehards are even starting to see the writing on the wall with these "plans".

    ReplyDelete
  5. The founding fathers of this country were apparently...pointy headed liberal intellectuals.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I notice that Terri Burl's last two paragraphs are identical, letter for letter. What am I to think, that she typed the second one not remembering that she had typed all the same text before? Or that she just copied-and-pasted the text from some other source, and accidentally hit the "paste" button twice? Which is more plausible?

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This isn't blind ignorance or incompentence. Its not as simple as "oh the budget needs to be cut." Its malfeasance and malicious intent to get control over the UW system to make it a mouthpiece and working tool (anti climate change/pro big oil, fracking, etc) for Koch/Alec agendas. Why do you think Walker redrafted the UW's mission statement 'in error'?!! Look at who Walker wants as the next Regent appointment.

    ReplyDelete