Monday Catch Up: Regents Destroy the UW

A very busy week last week. At the top of the list were two stories out of academia.

Didn’t see that coming. On Friday UW System President Jay Rothman and Speaker Robin Vos announced a deal that would free up UW System employee pay increases, release $32 million that Vos had held back from the University budget and build the much needed new engineering building on the Madison campus. What’s not to like? Turns out the very next morning the Regents rejected the deal because some positions dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion were retitled as “student success” positions. That move not only trashes the UW for the foreseeable future, but it speaks volumes about what’s wrong with the left and the Democratic Party right now. I had a lot more to write about that in my other blog over in Isthmus today.

Did see that one coming. Penn’s President Liz Magill was forced to resign on Friday after she appeared at a Congressional hearing and equivocated about whether or not calls for Jewish genocide constituted violations of her university’s code of conduct, Similar pressures to resign are now mounting on the other two presidents who were grilled at last week’s hearing, Harvard’s Claudine Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth. We’ll have a lot more to say about this tomorrow in a take that’s a little different from others you may have read.

Fire the damn interns. Speaking of free speech, it has its limits. My first job in politics was with a conservative Milwaukee Democratic legislator named John Plewa. John was a good guy. He gave me all kinds of responsibility and he treated his staff well. He knew when he hired me that I was pro-choice while he was an observant Catholic and pro-life. But he was the boss. I did my job without letting my personal views interfere with it. Among the things we accomplished was the nation’s first family and medical leave law. But when Supreme Court decisions handed more leeway to the states to restrict abortions I had to leave. It was one thing to work on anti-choice legislation that wasn’t going anywhere, but quite another to have to be part of efforts that would result in real restrictions. So, I was appalled to read a letter from 40 White House interns whining about Pres. Joe Biden’s position on Hamas and Israel. If they don’t like it the honorable thing to do is to resign. You’re an intern. You can have your opinion on your own time, but your job is to serve your boss. Let senior White House officials fetch their own coffee. Fire the damn interns.

How not to handle a $75 million deficit. The city of Madison is looking at a projected $75 million deficit in a few years. So, how do some members of the City Council want to prepare for that? By giving themselves a 60% pay increase. I kid you not. I wrote about it in a column for the State Journal yesterday.

School board needs challengers. Incumbent Madison School Board members Savion Castro and Maia Pearson have announced that they’re running for reelection in April. I have deep concerns about the direction of this Board. So, I hope candidates will step forward to challenge them with a fresh and practical vision. You need only 100 signatures to get on the ballot and nomination papers can be circulated now through January 3rd.