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Monday, February 8, 2016
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UW System faculty, BlackOut protest Friday’s Board of Regents meeting Tenure policies pass despite dissent By Kelsey O’Hara and Madeline Heim the daily cardinal
Faculty and academic staff from around the UW System rallied together to submit the American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin joint statement, voicing concerns against proposed tenure policies before the Board of Regents meeting Friday morning. Roughly 60 members of academic staff and faculty joined in solidarity at Union South to protest the proposed policies. Speakers reiterated their concerns about diminishing university standards for staff and quality of education for students. The three policy resolutions aim to incorporate specific tenure language into regent policy after Gov. Scott Walker removed that language
from state legislature last year, said Regent Vice President and Tenure Task Force Chair John Behling. Behling explained at the meeting that the task force both reviewed existing tenure policies at UW System institutions and looked at similar policies from universities in different states. Bruce Thomadsen, Wisconsin University Union representative and UW-Madison medical physics professor, said the Board of Regents is following other peer institutions instead of being a leader in education and tenure policies. “The legislators have said that Wisconsin doesn’t need a worldclass university,” Thomadsen said. “What they really mean is that they don’t need a world-class faculty.” The AFT-Wisconsin statement
expressed a list of recommendations in the statement ensuring that the standards “guarantee the ability of faculty and academic staff to engage in excellent, cutting-edge research and to provide instruction to students, citizens and entrepreneurs in every corner of the state.” Chad Alan Goldberg, UW-Madison sociology professor and president of the United Faculty, delivered the statement, endorsed by seven UW System institutions and over 750 individuals, to a representative of the Board of Regents just before the meeting began. Goldberg said the statement voiced the faculty’s concerns clearly and, hopefully, will convince the Tenure Policy Task
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Robert Darlington/the daily cardinal
BlackOut protested the Feb. 5 Board of Regents meeting and issued a demand to remove mandatory standardized testing.
BlackOut demands new testing standards By Peter Coutu the daily cardinal
robert darlington/the daily cardinal
Despite protests from faculty and academic staff around the UW System, the Board of Regents Education Committee passed three resolutions concerning tenure policy during a meeting Friday.
BlackOut protested the Board of Regents meeting in Madison Friday morning, restating their previous five demands and calling for a change to the weight of standardized testing in the application process at UW System schools. Roughly 40 protesters dressed entirely in black filed quietly into Varsity Hall II at Union South about an hour into the meeting, and silently raised signs. The leaders of the BlackOut movement handed their initial five demands to the Board of Regents during the Dec. 11 meeting, but were not given an opportunity to
speak then. UWPD officers did not allow members of BlackOut to hand in a list of demands to the Board of Regents at the Friday meeting, so the protesters stood and shouted their demands. “This is the second meeting in a row that the Regents have denied us a space just to talk for five or 10 minutes,” said UW-Fond Du Lac student and Shared Governance Chair of the United Council Lamonte Moore. “I think it shows a lack of cooperation and a lack of a willingness to get on board with multicultural issues on cam-
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Gov. Walker signs bill into law allowing concealed carry of switchblades By Jake Skubish The daily cardinal
Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill into law Saturday repealing the prohibition on switchblades and protecting switchblades under concealed carry law, according to a press release by the governor’s office. Walker signed the legislation, Assembly Bill 142, while attending the annual National Rifle Association and Wisconsin Firearm Owners, Ranges, Clubs & Educators, Inc. Convention in Weston.
Concealed carry, which Walker first signed into law in 2011, allows owners of small guns, knives and now switchblades to obtain a license to carry them undisclosed. AB 142, however, precludes the concealed carry of switchblades if a person is prohibited from owning a firearm under state law. The bill was authored by Rep. Kathleen Bernier, R-Chippewa Falls, and Sen. Terry Moulton, R-Chippewa Falls. The legislation was first circu-
lated last March. At the time, Chad Zuleger, legislative staff for Bernier, said the exclusion of switchblades in concealed carry confused constituents, prompting a concealed carry instructor in Bernier’s district to request the bill. “Through the course of his instruction, the question often comes up about switchblade knives,” Zuleger said. Bernier released a statement Saturday voicing her approval of Walker signing the bill.
“As the law stands today many retailers and everyday citizens are unknowingly violating state law by selling, or even possessing, what Wisconsin Statutes define as a switchblade knife,” Bernier said. “This bill will clarify and simplify Wisconsin’s knife law so that police, and citizens understand what is legal.” Democrats, however, have condemned the legislation as harmful and unnecessary. “This is totally, totally misguid-
ed. What is next? Nunchucks?” said Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, according to the Associated Press. “I cannot understand this bill. I think this is a horrible bill.” The bill contains other switchblade regulations as well. It lifts the prohibition on manufacturing, selling, transporting or purchasing switchblades. The bill also prohibits political subdivisions from adopting resolutions that regulate knives more stringently than state law.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”