As of this morning, here was the Governor’s proposed change in language for the University of Wisconsin system in the budget, from this document (page 546):
As it turns out, this proposal was all a big typo; from the AP this afternoon:
Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said in an email late Wednesday afternoon that the change was a drafting error and the Wisconsin Idea will remain in the state budget.
Update, 2/11, 1:45PM Pacific: And we don’t need no stinkin’ theory of evolution either!
LOL 🙂
Yeah, that was a typo.
If Scott Walker could find some way for his friends to make money off the deal I’m sure he’d sell the whole UW system for pennies on the dollar to the University of Phoenix
Actually I am surprised that Walker backed away from this proposal. I expect Conservative Talk radio (particularly Belling and Sykes) in the state will let him know that backing down to a bunch of lazy hippie professors and college students does not show the “back bone” of a true Conservative who would continue to smite these heathen. Also, that the University of Wisconsin would be better if sold off to University of Phoenix, because “Free Market.”
Still the best piece on Scott Walker in current journalism: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118145/scott-walkers-toxic-racial-politics
I think the essence of Walker’s politics is this quote from the article: “Walker told me: “‘God has told me I’m chosen to cut taxes and stop killing babies,’ even in casual conversation…”” By the way, the “cutting taxes” thing is really important. Moderate white working class and white collar workers, when they vote Republican, usually vote Republican for this reason, ignoring the last part of Walker’s politics if they find it uncomfortable. http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-emerging-republican-advantage-20150130. And credit to the devil, Walker did cut their taxes ( a small amount for them, a huge amount for Johnsons, et. al who make up Wisconsin’s .1%). Hence, he says he kept his promise and successfully scapegoats non-police public employees and minorities by saying that he is able to cut taxes by cutting, salaries and benefits going to the poor and unemployed. Also, Wisconsin media, principally main newspapers, the AP, and TV stations have done a terrible job of connecting the causative factors of declining public services, the rent seeking sell offs of public assets, environmental degradation, and the poor job recovery in Wisconsin to Walker’s policies.
One can hate Walker, but one should not underestimate him.
What’s wrong with including reference to preparing students for productive careers? Do you want students to stay on campus their entire lives? Do you think we should expect people to go deeply into debt for students to attend college and then leave with no marketable skills whatsoever?
Where do you see anyone asserting that there is a problem with preparing students for productive careers? You are assuming thoughts not in evidence (otherwise known as “making stuff up”).
It looks as if the person doing the initial editing was attempting to focus the mission and eliminate fluffy platitudes. The real mission of every university is to 1) educate students, 2) do basic research and expand human knowledge, 3) establish, to the extent possible, facilities that serve the interests of the community, and 4) have winning football and basketball teams. The first three are optional, of course.
Tom, I don’t think it was so much the additions as the deletions that people were finding objectionable.
Obviously some people need to Google “The Wisconsin Idea” – otherwise you will remain clueless as to why this is such a LOL
Of course we have to deal with the standard IOKIYAR apologists. But not everyone is buying Walker’s shinola. And for good reason:
“… records from the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau’s drafting office, which show that there was a long chain of correspondence during which the Walker administration actually proposed deleting the Wisconsin Idea. The records also reveal that numerous officials within the administration proofed and approved of deleting the Wisconsin Idea.
Second, this wasn’t “somehow overlooked” by University of Wisconsin officials. They objected on several occasions to it, but the Walker administration refused to back down.
It was only after the huge shitstorm that happened yesterday that Walker realized that he had seriously miscalculated this one and tried to do what he always does: Lie his way out of it. “
The Governor’s Budget proposal is a radical departure from the Wisconsin Idea in many ways. It contains deep and savage cuts to care for seniors and the disabled, sets up Wisconsin’s public education system for privatization and cronyism, and knocks down safeguards for the environment so business interests can steal profits. It is a Profit/Loss idea of life: make money, turn a profit, leave a mess behind for others to deal with. This is not the Wisconsin I know or knew.
Those outside the public sector loop like me always underestimate the need for pious drool in public sector pronuncimentos.
We tend to think that Lux et Veritas might cover the needs of a great university or Semper Fidelis the requirements of a powerful group.