For eight years, there has been a state-imposed price freeze for in-state UW System tuition. (This restriction applied to UW-Whitewater as a System school.) The WISGOP wanted this freeze, and it has lingered since Walker’s defeat in 2018. During its imposition, administrators complained about the freeze, and rightly so: price freezes, even short-term ones, are a…
University
City, University, UW System
UW-Whitewater Chancellor Watson Resigns Following Cancer Diagnosis
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that UW-Whitewater Chancellor Dr. Dwight Watson has resigned following a cancer diagnosis: UW-Whitewater Chancellor Dwight Watson has resigned following a diagnosis of stomach and intestinal cancer, officials announced Thursday. “After much deliberation, I must resign from my position as Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater,” Watson wrote in his resignation letter. “I…
City, Culture, Education, Local Government, Politics, School District, University, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Limits of Local Politics
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This is the final post in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Earlier posts at FREE WHITEWATER have addressed the limits of local politics in the community: local public (or powerful private) institutions have a limited power of action (with harmful actions likely to be more immediate than helpful ones). It’s certain that a…
City, Culture, Democrats, Local Government, Politics, School District, University, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Subcultural City
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
This is the sixth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. There’s no politically predominant group in Whitewater. Strictly speaking, a subculture implies a dominant culture, but it’s less dramatic to describe Whitewater as several subcultures than as balkanized. One might call the city multicultural, but that term often implies an acceptance of…
City, Local Government, Politics, School District, University, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Campus
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
This is the fifth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Whitewater, Wisconsin is a small town where about half the residents are university students. Town-Gown conflicts here aren’t the most in all North America, but they’re not the least, either. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is beset with challenges apart from politics: long-term structural…
Boosterism, CDA, City, Culture, Economics, Economy, Local Government, Politics, School District, That Which Paved the Way, University
Local Politics Hasn’t Been Merely ‘Local’ for Years
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over at the Wisconsin Examiner, Henry Redman writes (with concern) that All politics is national (‘Candidates for local office are ignoring community issues, instead highlighting national culture wars’). First, Redman’s case, then a few remarks. Woodman [Kyle Woodman, a Republican running for Eau Claire’s city council] is part of a mostly conservative group of candidates…
City, Crime, Misconduct, Negligence, Public Relations, University
WGTD.com: UW-Whitewater Student Faces Allegations of Assault After Viral TikTok Post Overnight
by JOHN ADAMS •
WGTD.com reports that UW-Whitewater Student Faces Allegations of Assault After Viral TikTok Post Overnight: Nearly 3,000 signatures have been gathered in less than 24 hours on Change.org, a digital petition website, after an alleged overnight assault by a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater men’s basketball player left at least one woman bloodied. The petition calls for the removal of…
City, Economy, University, UW System
The Bad Economy Isn’t Causing Good Enrollment Numbers
by JOHN ADAMS • • 5 Comments
Catherine Rampell observes Tough economies usually push people into more education. It’s not happening this time. She writes that Usually, postsecondary enrollment increases during tough economies, as workers seek shelter from the lousy job market and invest in upgrading their skills. This can be a (small) silver lining of downturns: If displaced workers choose wisely…
Bad Ideas, Boosterism, Budget, Education, University, UW System
Tommy Thompson @ UW-Whitewater: Day Late, Dollar Short
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Former governor and current UW System president Tommy Thompson spoke at a UW-Whitewater Faculty Senate meeting on Tuesday. Thompson addressed a campus that confronts statewide funding reductions, a tuition freeze, repeated administrative scandals and failures over the last decade, a decline in the conventional student-age demographic, and competitive pressures from other universities. For all these…
Babbittry, Boosterism, Conflicts of Interest, Culture, Disinformation, Local Government, Mendacity, Negligence, Politics, Public Relations, Reasoning, School District, Self-Dealing, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, Trumpism, University
Consequences, Accountability, Repentance, Redemption
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
David Frum, writing of Trump & Trumpism in The Conservative Cult of Victimhood, observes that There is no redemption without repentance. There is no repentance without accountability. There is no accountability without consequences. He rightly concludes that for the Trumpists, the absence of a moral order of accountability and repentance has meant that Even as Trump commits…
Budget, City, Demographics, Government Spending, University, UW System, Wisconsin
UW-Whitewater’s Budgetary Challenges Require a Studied Approach
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Whitewater is a college town. If a college town, then a college: the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. I’ve written about the university now and again. A simple summary of my views would be that Whitewater benefits from having a university, but that the school’s leaders (notably Telfer and Kopper) have failed both individuals and the community.…
University, UW System
UW-Whitewater’s Chancellor, Dr. Dwight Watson, Resumes University Role
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Kelly Meyerhofer of the Wisconsin State Journal reports UW-Whitewater chancellor returns after complaint found to be ‘without merit’: UW-Whitewater Chancellor Dwight Watson returns to his leadership post on Monday after sexual misconduct allegations made against him at a previous job were found to be without merit, according to the University of Wisconsin System. The System…
City, Coronavirus, Local Government, Public Health, School District, University
September Arrives: Consequences Will Settle Claims
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Posted originally on 9.1.20 — A reminder that, for a thousand discussions, predictions, warnings, or assurances — “what has been predicted about the pandemic & economy will prove true or false as against daily events and their consequences.” Original post follows — September arrives. Small-town Whitewater, like all America, wrestles with a pandemic and a…
Education, University
David Leonhardt on the ‘College Money Crisis’ — Bret Devereaux on ‘The Corner That State Universities Have Backed Themselves Into’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Well worth reading in full — In his Thursday morning newsletter, David Leonhardt of the New York Times writes of The College Money Crisis: The coronavirus has caused severe budget problems for American higher education. But many colleges’ financial troubles are much larger than the virus. They have been building for years and stem, above all,…