Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 85. Sunrise is 5:28 and sunset 8:32 for 15h 03m 51s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 37.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1543, King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.
Baylor Spears reports Study committee meets for first time to consider future of the University of Wisconsin System:
A study committee made up of lawmakers and members of the public will spend the next few months discussing the future of the University of Wisconsin system and solutions for ongoing concerns, which appeared to be wide ranging during the panel’s first meeting on Thursday.
The group will provide legislative recommendations when it wraps up its work late this year. It comes after a legislative session that was marked by a showdown over diversity, equity and inclusion, controversy over free speech on campuses as well as the financial future of the UW system.
Committee chair Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) noted during the meeting that the UW system faces challenges that include declining enrollment on many campuses along with fiscal constraints at individual institutions and at the system level. She said the committee would be a place to openly, honestly and respectfully discuss the issues in a public setting, even though conversations may be “intense” and “uncomfortable” at times.
“We all are here because we share the goal of taking action that will support the function of the UW system as an effective economic driver in our state going forward,” Nedeweski said.
The committee is made up of four state lawmakers — including Nedweski, Sen. Cory Tomczyck (R-Mosinee), Rep. Alex Joers (D-Middleton) and Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) — as well as 14 members of the public, who have an array of stakes in and ties to the UW system. It is planning to meet four other times between now and November.
A few remarks:
- There is no certainty about what the study committee might propose, let alone what action might be taken on any proposals it makes.
- Over the years, I’ve been critical — with justification — of several administrators at UW-Whitewater. (There’s no reason to be critical of the current chancellor; he’s managing well during difficult times.)
- The success of our local campus is vital to the socio-economic health of Whitewater. That success does not depend on, and will not come from, a narrow focus on a particular economic advantage that the university offers to a few business people, such as student rentals.
- Whitewater needs to abandon the notion, so to speak, that someone who supplies hospital beds is qualified to practice medicine.
- After the last three years, it should be evident to residents that offering apartments for rent does not provide any unique insight into K-12 education, university education, municipal finance, Wisconsin’s Public Records Law (Wis. Stat. §§ 19.31–19.39), Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law (Wis. Stat. §§ 19.81–19.98), or coherent (let alone persuasive) speaking during public meetings.
Italian artist creates Eiffel Tower in farm field ahead of Paris Olympics:
That is understating the situation. WW has 15,000 residents, 10,000 of which are students, and another 1200 are staff (not all of whom live in town). Without the UW-W, Whitewater would be an obscure farm town with no jobs to speak of. If UW-W gets croaked, all that will be left of WW is a smoking crater with a few saloons and lots of housing for WW’s growing hispanic community.
It’s not an unrealistic situation to consider. The UW system, with lots of help from the Lege, has priced itself out of the range of many, if not most, of the students that once made up UW-W’s core clientele. The system is closing campuses all over the state. UW-W has dodged the ax so far, but how long will that last?
This is the worry on campus many of us have. It’s not clear that the closings will stop with two year schools. Yes, it would completely sink the town. We are making progress closing gaps but it’s hard.