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‘Watchlist’ site targets liberal instructors By Madeline Heim THE DAILY CARDINAL
CAMERON LANE-FLEHINGER/THE DAILY CARDINAL
The website Professor Watchlist catalogues instructors across the nation who have allegedly voiced liberal agendas in the classroom.
Two years ago, UW-Milwaukee doctoral student and lecturer Stephanie Baran attended a conference where she spoke about the effects racism, sexism and classism have on capitalist practices. She was not yet teaching at UW-Milwaukee, and the ideas were not ones she came up with on her own—they came from other, senior scholars even more wellversed in the field. But about two weeks ago, Baran found herself chronicled along with nearly 150 other faculty and staff from universities across the country on a website titled Professor Watchlist, a catalogue of professors and instructors with “radical agendas.” Initiated by the conservative group Turning Point USA, the site’s mission is to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative
students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” Each listing includes a short summary of the actions the instructor has allegedly performed, as well as an occasional photo. Turning Point USA’s UW-Madison chapter president Justin Lemke did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Baran’s summary notes her 2014 reference to racism as an enabler of the capitalist system. “It appears that the people who are on the list aren’t exactly opposing free speech,” Baran said. “But the people who are placed on this list are having opinions, backed up usually by fact, that are in opposition to the thinking or values held by the folks that think this website is a good idea.” Criticism of professors is not new, especially given the perception of colleges and universities as liberal bastions. Wisconsinites have seen attempts
to dictate what a professor should and should not teach, including most recently in July when state Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, threatened to alter UW System funding over an assignment of an article on gay sex to a summer class. No UW-Madison professors have appeared on the website yet, but Chad Goldberg, a sociology professor who was an outspoken critic of the Republican legislature’s decision to pull tenure from state statute, said the list has the potential to “chill the exercise of academic freedom on university campuses.” “Without academic freedom, teachers and researchers can’t fulfill their professional responsibility to sift and winnow fearlessly in search of the truth,” Goldberg said. Besides Baran, the only other UW System instructor appearing on the list is Beth Lueck, a professor
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Students request free tampons, pads be provided in university bathrooms By Noah Habenstreit THE DAILY CARDINAL
Four students met with UW-Madison Provost Sarah Mangelsdorf Wednesday to request the school offer free feminine hygiene products in Bascom Hall restrooms. Jordan Madden, the President of UW’s Accessible Reproductive Healthcare Initiative, along with Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Mariam Coker, ASM Coordinating Council member Mara Matovich and freshman ASM representative Evan Pelke, used the meeting to stress the benefits of providing free and accessible menstrual products in campus bathrooms. “I’ve encountered so many people on this campus … that think that tampons and menstrual products should be just as accessible, if not more so, than condoms, toilet-
ries and many of the other items that people have available at their disposal,” Madden told the The Daily Cardinal.
“We need to push for these rights that women deserve.” Mariam Coker vice chair Associated Students of Madison
Earlier this year, Brown University became one of the first schools in the country to provide free tampons and pads in their bathrooms. Madden and Coker said they are confident that the success at Brown can be replicated at UW-Madison. “I’m very, very hopeful,” Coker said. “This is something that people are definitely talking about and
definitely interested in. It’s just a matter of time.” Madden said his long-term goal is for feminine hygiene products to be free and accessible in all campus bathrooms by 2018. The main challenge, he said, is working alongside administration to determine the details for funding the project. “A lot of the research I’ve been doing is to calculate the net cost of this initiative,” Madden said. “[The provost] said she is on board and willing to provide us with the resources and data to make these calculations.” Coker said this sort of initiative is especially important now, “at a time when women’s health is being compromised.” “This is the time to take a stand, and this is the stand we’re taking,” Coker said. “We need to push for these rights that women deserve.”
Water well near campus reaches contamination threshold A well that pumps more than 750 million gallons of water near the UW-Madison campus has reached a “critical contamination threshold” of sodium and chloride due to road salt, with chloride levels doubling since 2000. The Madison Water Utility is launching a multi-year study in response, in order to explore ways to mitigate road salt contamination in the 56-year-old well. That study
will start by analyzing the hole of the well to determine which areas below ground are contributing the most sodium chloride, according to a city press release. The chemicals themselves are not considered dangerous to most people, however the current sodium level is at 45 mg/L. That level is more than double the EPArecommended level for people with high blood pressure. If the current
trend continues, the water from the well may be so salty in 17 years that it will be undrinkable. “Well 14 really is a warning to the Water Utility and to the community that road salt application does have impacts on groundwater and on surface water. We see it in the lakes as well,” Madison Water Utility Water Quality Manager Joe Grande said. —Miller Jozwiak
CAMERON LANE-FLEHINGER/THE DAILY CARDINAL
A Hijabi volunteer helps a non-Muslim participant of “Hijabi for a Day” put on a hijab, which they wore all day Wednesday.
‘Hijabi for a Day’ works to end stigma, educate students By Sammy Gibbons THE DAILY CARDINAL
For many Muslims on campus, wearing a hijab comes with a number of daily challenges. On Wednesday, 45 non-Muslim participants wore hijabs to try and get a sense of the Hijabi experience. Wisconsin Union Directorate Global Connections Director Swetha Saseedhar, along with Muslim Student Association members Noor Hammad and Iffa Bhuiyan, said the goal of the event was to normalize the hijab on UW-Madison’s predominantly white campus. WUD Global Connections and the MSA partnered to bring “Hijabi for a Day” to campus after
they saw the project conducted nationwide by organizations such as BuzzFeed. “People who might not be used to seeing someone they know wearing a hijab might be more inclined to see the beauty of it and not just see it as something that people are oppressed by, but something that people, when they wear it, feel that they have agency,” Saseedhar said. According to a presentation given by Hammad, hijabs are worn by individuals who wish to be modest, showcase their internal beauty and also for spiritual purposes. Another goal the group
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“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”