Fall Action Project: Why we chose The Democracy Issue
By Francesca Pica & Ava Menkes EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & MANAGING EDITOR
Democracy is often associated with American politics, elections and voting. The 2024 election, less than two weeks away, looms large over America’s consciousness.
But democracy encompasses much more than casting a ballot every few years.
It’s the right to protest and hold your government accountable, the freedom of the press to report truthfully, the liberty to access art or the assurance that your government will provide essentials like clean water and health care.
Democracy is everywhere — in Sunday mass, your public libraries, at the booth on the
walk to class and within your ignored student government.
But what’s at stake when these fundamental pillars of a democratic society are at risk?
From abortion to ballot access, Wisconsin residents have seen their rights rolled back or placed under tighter constraints. On the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, a rich history of protest and civic engagement clashes with restrictive administrative policies on demonstrations and a new institutional neutrality position that dulls intellectual dialogue on global events.
When our rights diminish and our ability to trust institutions falters, we must remember democracy is the foundation of our system,
by the people and for the people. Democracy is agency and empowerment. The Daily Cardinal asked students from both ends of the political spectrum their thoughts on civic engagement, investigated declining involvement in student government and surveyed our university’s expanding student media landscape amid a state decline in journalism. And we reflected on our own history as a student newspaper that, through previous campus wide leadership elections, found its fate intertwined with the desires and fears of the UW-Madison student body. What’s more, when rural communities in Wisconsin lack access to accurate, reliable local
journalists, echo chambers form, civic engagement declines and polarization awakens. And it’s crucial to recognize how this erosion of democracy disproportionately impacts marginalized groups, from Latino voters in Milwaukee to the LGBTQ+ community facing bans of books about people like them.
These are stories that make The Democracy Issue. Our project acknowledges the division around us, but it also celebrates the myriad of ways in which students at UW-Madison can make their voices heard.
Heading to the polls can bring a great deal of anxiety. But we must embrace this moment and not ever take for granted what we have, and very well could lose: democracy.
Uninstructed voters split on supporting Harris as violence in Gaza continues
Some who sent a protest vote against Biden’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza will reluctantly back Harris, but others are sitting this election out.
By Mary Bosch PHOTO EDITOR
Six months ago, one in every three campus voters sent a protest vote opposing the Biden administration’s aid to Israel. Since then, the Middle East has only turned more violent, and Vice President Kamala Harris is now the Democratic nominee for president.
Pro-Palestine activists from Listen to Wisconsin, the group who coordinated the “uninstructed” movement, sent nearly 50,000 voters — twice Biden’s 2020 margin of victory — to vote “uninstructed” in Wisconsin’s April primary.
Now, those voters are divided on how to move forward. Some said they will reluctantly vote for Harris, while others said they will not vote until Harris commits to an arms embargo or negotiates a ceasefire.
Since April, campus organizers around the country, including University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student and Students for Justice in Palestine organizer Dahlia Saba, have coordinated campus protests and encampments calling for a ceasefire, university financial divestment from Israel and a national arms embargo.
“I don’t consider myself a singleissue voter generally,” Saba said. “But my single issue is genocide.”
Pro-Palestine protesters are frequent guests at Harris rallies, including roughly 25 protesters at Harris’ Madison rally. At the Democratic National Convention, a smaller than expected crowd protested the Biden administration’s decision to send weapons and aid to Israel, and uncommitted delegates attempted to get a speaking slot but were denied by the Harris campaign.
Despite protests ramping up around the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, the movement has made no significant strides on Israel’s war in Gaza, with the U.S. sending $17.9 billion in aid in the past year.
Listen To Wisconsin has now launched a new campaign, “Ceasefire First, Votes Next,” demanding “action from VP Harris and Democratic Leadership to end the genocide before we promise our votes.”
Listen to Wisconsin organized phone banking and in-person campaigning to promote the pledge.
The organization will soon switch to “get out the vote” tactics, according to volunteer Amanda Hoffman.
Listen to Wisconsin lead organizer Halah Ahmad said the campaign will not “tell people how to vote,” but she thinks people “have the prerogative to demand better from their leaders” and are “opposed to right-wing extremism in the U.S. and abroad.”
The uncommitted national movement came out firmly against former President Donald Trump but didn’t explicitly endorse Harris, encouraging voters to “orient less toward who is the better candidate and more toward what is the better antiwar approach” in a video
posted in early October.
Harris has used stronger language than Biden to describe the atrocities of Israel’s war in Gaza, though she hasn’t distanced herself from the Biden administration’s policies Madison’s U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan told the Cardinal earlier this month Harris will take a “different approach” toward Middle East policy than Biden.
Some uninstructed voters said a Harris presidency offers a significant benefit over Trump.
“I feel Donald Trump will also support Israel’s destruction of Palestinian lives,” uninstructed student voter Jenna Emperley told the Cardinal. “I see a chance for more respect and diplomacy under Harris’ administration.”
Saba said her demand is “practical,” “not idealistic.” She wants the government to enforce the “Leahy law” which prevents the government from sending foreign aid to entities implicated in gross human rights violations.
“In the face of all of these horrors that my government is supporting, I don’t know how I could stand to actively vote for either of these candidates,” Saba said. “That means I simply cannot vote for either major party candidate this November; I cannot vote for any candidate who supports a genocide.”
Listen to Wisconsin hosted a “swing states against genocide day of action” on Oct. 23 in Milwaukee along with Pennsylvania and Georgia — swing states with similar “uncommitted movements” and voter pledges. The goal is to “rally folks up until that point and assess where we’re at,” Ahmad said.
“We’re leaning into what little hope there may be to put pressure through the mechanisms available to us,” Ahmad said. “We don’t think that how you vote on Election Day is the number one way to [pressure the government], because the bombs are falling right now, but it definitely will weigh on people’s decision at the ballot box.”
Latinos could decide Wisconsin in 2024. Will they stick with Democrats?
As Election Day nears, Democrats and Republicans in Wisconsin have employed unique strategies to mobilize a key constituency: Latino voters.
By Nick Bumgardner SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, D-Milwaukee, has been canvassing neighborhoods on Milwaukee’s south side since April. While her focus then was winning her primary, it’s now about turning out one constituency that might make all the difference: Latinos.
Ortiz-Velez is a recognizable face in her community. She’s represented the Milwaukee area for the last six years, first on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors and now as state representative for the 8th Assembly District.
Latinos make up the largest marginalized population in Wisconsin and one that has grown 7.6% in the last decade. They’ve also been reliable Democratic voters for decades.
Still, Latinos have a long and sometimes complicated relationship with the Democratic Party, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Ben Marquez.
“It becomes a race of who can mobilize your base more. Who’s better at mobilizing your Democratic Latino voter or your Republican Latino voter,” Marquez told The Daily Cardinal.
It’s why Ortiz-Velez has worked hard to meet voters where they’re at on issues that are important to them including affordable housing, health care and better wages, she told the Cardinal.
Democrats are hopeful their message will land in a handful of newly-minted swing seats in the Milwaukee area. Having advocates like Ortiz-Velez, who can deliver it in a bilingual way, is a key part of doing that. But a pair of national polls suggest Democrats may be losing their edge among Latinos in the final month of the race.
An NBC/Telemundo/CNBC poll from late September showed Harris at 54% support among Latinos, with Trump at 40%. A New York Times/Siena College poll from the first week of October showed Harris winning 56% of Latinos to Trump’s 37%.
towards Republicans.”
In Wisconsin, Republicans also see an opportunity to make inroads. One of the keys to doing that is Milwaukee.
Milwaukee is a Democratic stronghold, delivering Biden more than 300,000 votes in 2020. It’s also home to the largest population of Latinos in the state. Those voters could be the difference, according to Hilario Deleon, the chair of the Milwaukee County Republican Party.
“The road to the White House literally runs through Milwaukee County,” Deleon noted.
Deleon is the first Latino to hold the position and, for the last year and half, said he’s made Latino outreach one of the “major focuses” of his party.
“I was born on the south side. I’m very familiar with a lot of these neighborhoods,” Deleon said. “People feel like they’re being left behind.”
Milwaukee’s south side has the highest concentration of Hispanic and Latino families in all of Wisconsin. Roughly 69.9% of the south side population identifies as Hispanic or Latino.
If those numbers hold true come election day, it would be the first time a Democratic presidential candidate won less than 60% of Latino voters since John Kerry in 2004.
“I see the dilapidated houses, the broken streets, the homelessness, the drug epidemic that’s going on, the fact that Milwaukee is a hub for human trafficking,” Deleon said. “[Hispanics] feel like the Democrat[ic] Party is starting to take their vote and voice for granted, and that’s why they’re starting to look
Deleon said the Republican Party is not looking to win Milwaukee outright. No Republican presidential candidate has done that in nearly 70 years. He just hopes Republicans can “lose by less” to help the GOP margins statewide.
Part of that is building what Deleon calls a “coalition of common sense” around economics, school choice, religious issues and abortion. He said if people “take a step back” from Democrats in power who are “not serving them,” they will “look at a new option.”
In 2021, the national Republican Party opened a Hispanic Outreach Center on Milwaukee’s south side. The center closed shortly after the 2022 midterm election, but the state party opened a new location this August.
In the months since, Republicans have used the new center as a staging ground for community outreach, from roundtable events to door knocking. Most recently, it hosted a block party, drawing over 100 community members.
Latinos remain dedicated to their safer option: Harris, advocates say
Other advocates say the voters they’ve talked to aren’t as easily swayed by the Republican Party and former President Donald Trump.
Luis Velasquez is a DACA recipient and has been part of Voces de la Frontera Action,
the political arm of Voces de la Frontera, since 2019. He oversees VDLFA’s “Voceros por el Voto,” a relational voter program where members, called “Voceros,” build a network of voters they know, like family and friends, and encourage them to vote for progressive candidates.
Approximately 23,000 voters make up this network. Velasquez hopes to activate at least 70% of them this November and add 4,000 new ones in the process.
“We don’t see [Trump] as someone who wants to offer solutions, but just sort of blame others,” Velasquez told the Cardinal. “His comments about cats and dogs being eaten by immigrants hasn’t landed right. For a lot of immigrants, that has sort of just burst out into frustration. Like, how can you even say that? It’s just so racist and so wrong.”
But Velasquez admits that some Latinos have grown frustrated with Democrats’ failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform and question if the party has their interests in mind.
“There is this disenchantment that immigration reform, that has been promised every four years from Democrats, hasn’t passed, and so that really is the heart of why Trump has been getting a lot of Hispanic and Latino voters,” Velasquez said.
At the same time, Harris’ lastminute entrance into the presidential race in July has energized some in the Latino community, according to Velasquez.
“We’ve been very successful, especially after Biden bowed out…There’s more energy, more encouragement. People are really excited about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Velasquez said.
But Velasquez and his team aren’t just looking for excitement, they’re looking for votes, and that fight has taken them to Green Bay.
One in five Green Bay residents identify as Hispanic, including 40% of the city’s east side, according to the 2020 census. As a mid-sized working class city, Green Bay has been fertile ground for VDLF, whose Green Bay chapter opened a new office in 2022 to accommodate growing membership.
Velasquez said there are at least 8,000 voters and 200 Voceros in their Green Bay network.
One of the key rallying points so far has been organizing around Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE), the Biden administration policy protecting immigrant workers involved in unfair labor investigations from immigrationbased retaliation.
When two Green Bay employers were investigated, VDLF was part of the organizing effort to get “statement of interest” letters, granting around 200 workers access to temporary immigration protection, work permits and other benefits.
We’ve been very successful, especially after Biden bowed out ... There’s more energy, more encouragement. People are really excited about Kamala Harris.
“Workers are aware that if Trump wins, DALE is at risk. Those families are at risk,” Velasquez said.
Velasquez noted that some of these workers have been in the community for over 20 years, and although they may not be able to vote themselves, they’re asking eligible voters they know to vote for candidates who will fight for “family unity.”
“As Nov. 5 has gotten closer, there is this reminder of who Trump is, the stuff that he has said — JD Vance as well — just echoing these racist remarks. There’s been this fresh reminder that he’s not going to change his course. On the contrary, he’s doubling down. There’s nothing tangible that he can offer,” Velasquez said. “We know what we get with a Democratic ticket. We get some small wins. And with the other option, we get nothing.”
Republicans target Milwaukee for Latino outreach
COURTESY OF THE MILWAUKEE COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY
- Ben Marquez, UW-Madison political science professor
- Luis Velasquez, Voces de la Frontera Action organizer
Pastors call upon Catholic principles at the voting booth
By Ella Hanley ASSOCIATES EDITOR
In the chapel of St. Paul’s Catholic Student Center, light organ music plays as members shuffle in quietly, kneeling and crossing themselves before sitting down. The lights are dimmed as the procession enters the chapel, and the priest, Father Enan Zelinski, enters in long, green robes.
Incense pours out of a gold thurible suspended from gold chains and gently swung by a member of the procession. The smoke wafts up through the church while the choir sings praises and the congregation joins, their voices echoing. Zelinski leads the group in song before beginning his message.
As pastors of St. Paul’s, Zelinski and Father Eric Sternberg believe their responsibility in the upcoming election is to be sources of information for Catholic students struggling with making a decision this election season. This particular service, the first of two before the election, was used to educate students on core principles from which to guide their ballot decisions.
“We don’t preach particular people or particular parties,” Zelinski said during this Sunday’s evening service. “We preach eternal principles, principles of the church that we as members asked to put into practice when we go to vote for our elected officials.”
Sternberg told The Daily Cardinal in an interview he considers himself to be “separate” from the secular world, but that’s not
to say he isn’t living in it. He finds “great freedom” in remaining nonpartisan, and yet Sternberg underscored the importance of participating in the upcoming election.
“I’d argue there are a number of Catholics saying to themselves, ‘maybe I sit this one out,’” Sternberg said. “We’re here to remind you of the principles of which you are to guide yourself with. And then, remind you that you have a duty to vote.”
Sternberg believes it is unrealistic to expect to find a political candidate who fully aligns with Catholic principles, and discernment becomes essential when a candidate agrees with ideology on one issue but differs on another.
While Catholics may feel backed into a corner this election season, their duty to vote is one rooted in an understanding of the Catholic “common good,” according to Zelinski.
Sternberg told the Cardinal that Catholics understand participating in elections to be one of the ways people can seek the common good in society. He also said that Catholics find “no political home” in current politicians or politics.
Sternberg advises evaluating candidates based on a hierarchy of core principles, at the root of which is the right of a human person, which he says is “distinctly different” from individual rights.
“If we don’t understand, as a society, respect for the person and for their inalienable rights, first among them being the right to life, everything else will fail. The first fundamental element of
Cities, schools weigh effectiveness of local referendums
By Vanessa Gavilan STAFF WRITER
Dane County has six referendums appearing on the Nov. 5 ballot, and voters must make the decision that is meant to give them a voice in funding and approving local policy.
Of these six referendums, four ask voters to approve property tax increases in Madison, Monona, Fitchburg and the village of McFarland beyond what is otherwise allowed under the state’s levy limit. The other two would provide funding to the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) for facility upgrades and staff wages.
The program distributes a portion of the state’s revenue to local governments using a loose formula that provides each county a valuation based on aidable revenue and per capita balances.
the common good is the respect of the person,” Zelinksi said during the service.
Catholics find themselves at a crossroads when evaluating candidates. For example, Sternberg noted the debate around border control to be particularly split. The church states clearly that lawfully organized states have the right to control who enters and leaves — meaning the state also has the right to return people who entered undocumented.
Still, another Catholic virtue is hospitality to strangers, which can lead to tension between upholding laws and responding compassionately to those seeking refuge.
“How can I maintain a just approach to immigrants within my society without maintaining integrity of the border?”
Sternberg said. The question has been an ongoing debate for years.
He asserts that Catholics have a duty to be “reasonable in the choices they make.” Both sides could provide a reasonable justification for supporting their respective positions, he argued.
However, Sternberg said some methods used to maintain border integrity, such as camps and mass deportations, are unacceptable.
And while Sternberg encourages civil discourse among members of St. Paul’s, he places significant importance on respectful dialogue and encourages his congregation to engage in “vigorous debates” grounded in reason and civility.
“The attitude around St. Paul’s, as close as it is to the election, has actually been very peaceful. I’ve heard lots of students having conversations about ideas, and some of those conversations get very fired up,” Sternberg said. “But we’ve set the tone — If you want to have a screaming, shouting match, go to the bar.”
Indeed, the energy inside the church was quiet and respectful as members prayed “that those who govern will defend true justice.”
Members of the congregation sat silently after the sermon in a moment of reflection and prayer before resuming worship through song as the organ’s chords blended with the voices of the choir.
Madison depends heavily on property taxes to fund city operations — drawing over 70% of its annual revenue from the property tax levy — but state law caps the amount each municipality can increase taxes at around 2%. The additional 5% of property tax raises to cover city operations would need to come from a referendum in order to bypass the current limit.
FairVote, a nationwide nonpartisan organization focused on voting reforms, told The Daily Cardinal referendums like the ones proposed in Madison and other municipalities are very important to local communities.
“[Referendums] empower voters, who can directly adopt reforms that improve their government and their lives,” said Deb Otis, the director of research and policy at FairVote. “When a dysfunctional government has stood in the way of policy desired by the majority of voters, ballot measures gave that majority a voice.”
District 17 Ald. Sabrina Madison echoed Otis’s statement and said in a blog post “supporting the referendum is an investment in the future of our district.”
But other voters believe referendums are an imperfect last resort to meet community needs, and though officials look to alleviate immediate budget gaps, the rising costs of services means municipalities and school districts may need to put referendums on the ballot again in the future.
Referendums ‘only vehicles’ to fund programs
Whitman Bottari, University of Wisconsin-Madison College Democrats communications director, told the Cardinal local referendums “are the only vehicles we have at this point to fund vital programs.”
Bottari cited the state’s Shared Revenue Program, now called the County and Municipal Aid Program, as one of the devices that caused Dane County to need a referendum to raise additional funds.
The amount of shared revenue distributed to local governments steadily decreased from 2004 until the state boosted funding last year, and Madison has consistently received less per capita than the rest of the state. The state’s second-largest city collects just $29 per person in shared revenues compared to the statewide average of $195, according to a 2024 report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum, a nonpartisan policy research organization.
District 10 Ald. Yannette Figueroa Cole said in a blog post a property tax referendum “would not be necessary if Madison simply received the average rate of shared revenue.”
Figueroa Cole added Madison’s referendum to raise property taxes would not need to be imposed on voters if the city could raise taxes elsewhere. The city is not authorized to raise a local sales tax.
MMSD blames state shortcomings
These structural issues extend to the MMSD referendums.
Edell Fiedel, senior director of communications for MMSD, told the Cardinal revenue gaps only occur because state legislation does not adequately support the district.
Fiedel said MMSD has a revenue gap of $30.2 million for 2023-2025 due to the fact that “support from the state — which is holding billions of taxpayer dollars in reserve — did not keep pace with inflation.”
These problems of support extend beyond the city of Madison. More than 120 Wisconsin school districts have placed referendums on the Nov. 5 ballot to receive help with operating expenses and facilities improvements, according to Fiedel.
The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) federal fund, which provided funds to school districts across the nation during the pandemic, expired last month, putting more financial pressure on districts.
While lawmakers have added almost $1 billion in funding for education to the state budget, districts still fall short of the adequate funding, Fiedel said.
“If our legislators were more committed to investing in the outcomes of Wisconsin students, districts like ours wouldn’t continually need to rely so heavily on taxpayer dollars to operate and modernize,” Fiedel said.
ELLA HANLEY/THE DAILY CARDINAL
HAILEY JOHNSON/THE DAILY CARDINAL
MARY BOSCH/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Father Eric Sternberg speaks with The Daily Cardinal on Oct. 15.
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UW-Madison’s student government faces record low turnout
By Finnegan Ricco PHOTO EDITOR
In the past decade, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s student government, the Associated Students of Madison (ASM), has secured the creation of 24-hour libraries, caps on tuition increases, distribution of bus passes and maintenance of recreational sports facilities – though you would be hard-pressed to find a student on campus who knew it.
ASM, which represents over 48,000 students and is responsible for the allocation of $50 million in segregated university fees, plays a key role in campus as the shared-governance apparatus, yet many students are still uninformed as to what ASM is.
“I’m sure they do things that impact the community, but I wouldn’t know what specifically,” Solana Quezada, a UW-Madison junior, told The Daily Cardinal.
While other Big 10 schools such as the University of California-Los Angeles and University of Michigan
continually report voter turnout rates well above 15% of the student body for their student government elections, UW-Madison’s ASM struggles to engage with students as turnout rates in the 2024 spring election fall to a record low 2% of the entire student population.
“I have no idea what I’d be voting for,” Ryder Zvorak, a sophomore at UW-Madison told the Cardinal when asked if he planned to vote during the 2025 spring ASM election.
In six other student interviews with the Cardinal, the answers stayed the same: most were uninformed about the ASM spring election, who their representatives are or how they can vote.
ASM Chair Dominic Zappia told the Cardinal the organization’s issue wasn’t necessarily low voter turnout, but rather a lack of awareness of shared governance.
“It is just generally hard to get engaged with students on campus because there is so much noise, so much information, so many
RSOs,” said Zappia.
Another explanation may be the passage of Act 55 in 2015.
Signed into law by the former Gov. Scott Walker and Republican-controlled state Legislature, Act 55 revised the role of students from “active participants” with a voice in policy development, to a counseling body that could only advise the chancellor.
“Since 2014, ASM has been an advisory body and not a governing body,” ASM Legislative Chair Ethan Jackowski told the Cardinal. “That means what ASM does, and the memory of it and the student population has changed over time…I feel like a lot of students just aren’t aware of what we’re doing.”
Now, nearly 10 years later, ASM’s diminished responsibilities may be a contributing factor in the organization’s rapidly declining voter turnout rate.
But despite these challenges, ASM and members of
UW-Madison administration have proposed plans to bring students back to the polls.
“We’ve talked to campus stakeholders, administrators who are down to increase the visibility in elections and continuing partnership with the unions and rec well spaces and having advertising and promotion there,” said Zappia. “We’re exploring more proactive stuff.
Last year, we did a lot of tabling at Memorial Union.”
During a roundtable discussion last spring, university admin-
istrators told reporters “we are excited about working with the ASM student leaders going forward, not just about voter turnout, but about students valuing the work that ASM does.”
Although the ASM spring election isn’t until March, efforts towards connecting with students may have already begun to manifest.
“I know not a lot of people vote in ASM elections, so I know if I vote, my vote might actually do a lot more than I think,” said freshman Ishan Sridastava.
In Oconto, these local newspapers keep democracy alive
By Jenasea Hameister & Tomer Ronen STAFF WRITER & FEATURES EDITOR
While political polarization worsens throughout the nation, so do the sources that inform communities on local, state and national news.
As many local news publications disappear, residents across the state are forced to fill in news gaps on their own. In Oconto County, many residents consume their news via social media — a slippery slope considering many platforms do not regulate political messaging and often portray biased algorithms depending on the individual.
The Oconto County Times Herald, Shawano Herald and Wittenberg Enterprise & Birnamwood News — all part of the NEW Media Inc. umbrella — are the main source of written news for many Wisconsinites in Oconto and Shawano County. Despite the coverage, the counties are still two of many across the state that experts would consider news deserts.
News deserts are communities, either rural or urban, with “limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level,” according to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
Over half of U.S. counties have “limited access” to reliable local news and information, and 7% are at “substantial risk” to lose local news, a study at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University found.
But although the papers don’t have the staffing they once did, Kevin Passon, editor-in-chief of the three NEW Media Inc. newspapers, does not think all of Oconto County is a news desert.
“I think it’s probably fair to say there are different parts of the county that are more of a news desert than others,” Passon said.
With an editorial staff of three people, the papers, which each release a weekly 24-page issue, are able to cover a pletho-
ra of local news including the city council, school and county boards, feature stories and more, Passon said.
The spread of misinformation
The danger of news deserts mainly lie in their ability to facilitate the spread of misinformation. When local newspapers close, pink-slime news sources — usually right-leaning news sites that publish “one-sided content” — fill in the news gap and mislead voters, according to a KPBS report.
“They may buy a newspaper and use that trust very maliciously to start to pretend to report, but actually have a vested interest in the kind of news that you are and aren’t giving a community,” Sophie Culpepper, a local news journalist at Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, told The Daily Cardinal.
When people start receiving most of their news from social media, including Facebook and Nextdoor, they become much more vulnerable to misinformation and political polarization, a Brennan Center for Justice study found. In Oconto, social media is a main source of news for many.
“I think that’s how it is for most people here,” an Oconto Falls business owner — the second largest city in Oconto — told the Cardinal. “Not many people read the Oconto County Times Herald.”
In Oconto and Shawano County, where the combined digital and print circulation of the three papers is over 15,000, Passon thinks people look forward to reading the paper.
“Anytime that [we have a problem] we’ll hear about it,,” Passon said. “So people are reading the paper.”
But with 45% of Americans having “very little”confidence in newspapers, according to a recent Gallup poll, accuracy and trust from locals is more important than ever. Lack of trust in news is not new, with a constant decrease since the turn of the century. Passon thinks distrust stems from a lack of trust in the media as a whole and is not directed at
the local paper.
“That’s a general, ‘don’t trust the media,’ not, ‘don’t trust the Shawano leader,’” Passon said. “Otherwise, I think most people do [trust us].”
Local news facilitates civic engagement and voter turnout
As newspapers disappear and get bought out and cut down by larger companies like Gannett at an average of 2.5 a week, according to Medill, local communities are forced to get their news from outsiders.
“It’s hard to cover a community if you’re not in the community,” Passon said. “It’s hard to get a real feel for what the community is open to in any particular instance.”
A decrease in local news circulation are correlated with decreased voter turnout and overall civic engagement, research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln found. This insight rings true with Oconto County where there are [insert number of newspapers] in total, compared to Dane County which has a media ecosystem of about 22 newspapers.
In the 2020 federal election, only 76% of eligible voters in Oconto County cast ballots, and in the 2022 midterms, only 63% cast their vote, compared to 89.3% and 80.4% respectively in Dane County. A similar pattern emerged in the recent August primary, where 32% of eligible voters in Oconto participated versus 45.3% in Dane.
“People who read more local news tend to feel more connected to their communities,” Culpepper said. “There’s strong evidence that local news is a form of community fabric.”
Those with more education tend to be more interested in politics, think their vote will make more of a difference and know how to access voting, Dr. Michael Wagner, director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told the Cardinal. People with a higher economic status also have an easier time
navigating the process to register, and political leaders focus more attention on those with a higher socioeconomic status, he said.
In Oconto and Shawano, covering local elections is highly dependent on if the race is contested, Passon said. If the race is uncontested, the papers will only name the candidate that is running rather than conduct an interview.
“There’s just not a reason for us to expend our resources for those uncontested races,” Passon said.
For larger local elections, the Times Herald will reach out to candidates for a one-on-one interview, only if the candidate represents a larger constituency in the area, Passon said. The paper does not put out voter guides for state or federal elections.
“It’s really just those local races that we put information out in,” Passon said. And politics in Oconto and Shawano County are contentious, with the potential to harm relationships, Passon said.
“Everything is fine until politics comes into the picture, and then it becomes a very distinct ‘us against them’ attitude for things,” Passon said.
News creates community connection
But local news is still what “binds” people together, Culpepper told the Cardinal.
“There is a strong correlation between how connected people feel to their communities and how engaged they are with local news,” Culpepper said. “Not having the information you need to be an informed citizen is a kind of disenfranchisement.”
Until people are adequately informed about a topic, there’s no way to solve it, a problem which boils down to both philanthropic and political issues, Culpepper said.
“When people lose access to local news and replace those sources with more ideological news,” Dr. Michael Wagner, the Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal said “They miss out on important information from both sides.”
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Art is central to protest in Madison.
Here’s how it’s changed campus
By Annika Bereny SPECIAL PAGES EDITOR EMERITUS
In June of 1991, two members of LGBTQ+ rights organization Act Up! Madison put on diapers, bibs and frilly bonnets. They were protesting the denial of day care services to an HIV-positive mother in Madison, and though their method was uncommon, it garnered attention through art.
Madison is known for its extensive history of protest. But art and different forms of self-expression have been central to both social life and protest at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Many look back on protests during the Civil Rights and anti-war movement in the 1960s and 1970s and characterize them as just chants, marches or the occasional sit-in. But there was also creation — from graffiti, music, paintings, performances, poems and more, artivism has become central to UW-Madison.
As the Elvehjem building was constructed in 1966, soon to become the Chazen Museum of Art, a plywood fence around it became filled with political graffiti and street art.
Messages such as “Where is Lee Harvey Oswald now that we really need him?” were commonplace on the fence, alongside “Lock up McNamara, throw away Ky,” a reference to the secretary of defense and South Vietnamese prime minister. At its inception, the Chazen had already hosted UW-Madison’s protest art.
“Art has been used as a political device, protest or otherwise, for propaganda or for conveying an agenda of some sort,” Katherine Alcauskas, the chief curator of the Chazen, told The Daily Cardinal. “In fine art and
in poster production, there’s a lot of ways that images can tell very meaningful stories.”
Artwork, whether intended to be political or not, is often adopted by a political cause, she continued. Amid the anti-war movement of the 1960s, UW-Madison students and faculty channeled anger toward police brutality through art.
Warrington Colescott, professor emeritus of printmaking and painting at UW-Madison, created a piece in 1969 called “Out of a Garden Window” while teaching. Colescott depicts a protester being beaten and arrested by police, with other protesters being corralled away and an audience forming in front of their suburban houses. It is thought to be directly inspired by the anti-Vietnam war protests on campus.
This piece appeared as part of a 2018 exhibit “Print in Protest” at
the Chazen, highlighting the role of UW-Madison’s printmaking department in the school’s history of protest.
Decades later, during the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, murals in Madison and nationwide commemorated victims of police brutality and called for change. Both officially commissioned murals from the city of Madison and solo graffiti were found on walls and boarded up windows all across town.
Colescott’s piece reflects both the attitudes of yesterday as well as today. His art is timeless, demonstrating the longevity of anti-police brutality action and activism
Aside from visual art, protest can also be created for the other senses, such as music and spoken word.
In Madison, the Forward! Marching Band, founded during the Act 10 protests, spent weeks playing
around the Capitol in protest. Since then, the group has “dedicated itself to maintaining that unique fighting spirit of the Wisconsin protest movement.”
During the #TheRealUW movement in 2016, UW students, alumni and faculty of color rebuked the racism they had been subjected to while students at UW-Madison, a one-day-only exhibit was held at the Chazen called “Unhood Yourself: The Real UW.”
“It will be impossible to ignore the energy and passion that each of the artists bring to the Chazen,” the exhibit’s press release read. “Here, they will live in expression and present the truth. Without veils, without anonymity, unhooded.”
In addition to spoken word performances, this exhibit included photography and collages from students who led the movement online, meant
to “engulf” students in the day-to-day experience of their classmates of color.
Recently, specific iconography and phrases, often in support of the proPalestine movement, on protest banners have become subject to confiscation by law enforcement officials.
And, with the recent implementation of UW-Madison’s “expressive activity” policy, protest art may be in danger, at least while 25 feet from a campus building.
Yet, some fight to keep this tradition alive. The Division of Arts administers an artivism grant for students who demonstrate an interest in activism through art. In the 2022-2023 school year, the grant funded 12 projects using a total of $12,400 and plans to reopen applications for the current school year later in the semester.
Student publication the Madison Journal of Literary Criticism has been a recipient of this grant multiple times. Editor-in-Chief Landis Varughese told The Daily Cardinal the effects of artivism, including the experiences and art of Palestinians during Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, is crucial to social change.
“[Art] makes entry points to activism much more accessible because people may not be really inclined to read dense theory about political activism,” Varughese said. “For people who are halfway around the world, who may not be able to fully comprehend [the Palestinians’] strife firsthand, the way that they can be able to have a glimpse into their world for even just for a second through art is really powerful. And it’s able to show us that we aren’t so distant, after all.”
Librarian speaks out against book banning’s effects in Wisconsin
By Joseph Panzer SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Oshkosh Public Library director Darryl Eschete has dealt with calls for censorship of public libraries for years as a librarian in Louisiana, Iowa and now in Wisconsin. He is wary of the rising challenges to literature and its effect on individual liberty and the right to information.
A quarter of Wisconsin school districts have received challenges to a combined total of 1,617 books since 2020, with 667 books being removed or age restricted.
“‘Banning’ — forbidding the public from being able to find information or works of expression — is the easy question for me: it’s unacceptable,” Eschete told The Daily Cardinal. “It’s the worst kind of social control and shows a great lack of faith in people being able to discern what kinds of information is worthy of consider-
ation or that they need in their lives.”
Calls to ban books have found a foothold in the Wisconsin Legislature through bills such as AB 309, which would have banned the use of school funds for the purchase of “obscene” material, according to a report from PEN America. Book bans violate the First Amendment and make children less likely to become informed voters as adults, according to the ACLU of Wisconsin.
Although libraries in Oshkosh have relatively low pressure to remove books, Eschete is on guard about what these bans mean for the accessibility of knowledge in public libraries.
“I think the outright banning or removal of any information by governmental forces, however powerless otherwise, (like a library board), is an affront to individual conscience and curiosity,” he said.
Eschete also believes challenging books
“breeds both paranoia and contempt” of others in a way that is not conducive to good political discourse.
“The only contact I’ve had from anyone who wanted to see anything removed or restricted came early last spring from a local policy maker who met with me to express that she thought some of the material we had in the children’s area was inappropriate,” Eschete said. “We met and discussed it openly, and the matter blew over.”
The National Women’s Law Center posits that challenges to books with LGBTQ+, feminist or racial themes silences the voices of marginalized communities in literature and sends a message that these identities are not wanted.
Books act as tools for children to reflect on their lives, peer into the lives of others and develop empathy, according to the Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors metaphor by children’s literature expert Rudine Sims Bishop. Exposure to unfamiliar viewpoints can help develop children into more informed future voters by making them aware of the struggles of others, the ACLU of Wisconsin argued.
The American Library Association found that the majority of the most frequently challenged books in 2022 were targeted for LGBTQ+ content and alleged sexually explicit material (“Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe) with other issues including race relations (Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye) and drug use (Ellen Hopkins’ “Crank”). Eschete views this as censorship that opposes liberty and intellectual progress.
Over half of American adults, regardless of party affiliation, oppose book banning in schools in spite of vocal efforts by prominent right-wing
politicians and advocacy groups to pull books from shelves, according to a poll conducted by NPR. Book challengers often use information from larger national groups when deciding what books to target, according to Wisconsin Watch.
One leading organization is Moms for Liberty, which the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as an extremist group. In their 111-page document on what books they challenge, the group singles out allegedly “vulgar” quotes from books found in high schools written predominantly by LGBTQ+ people, people of color and women to argue why they should be pulled from shelves.
Despite the current nature of book challenges, Eschete’s ultimate warning to prospective censors is that this can eventually become a double-edged sword.
“One tactic I’ve used in my career is explaining — truthfully — to someone upset about a book that no matter what ideological or sociopolitical or religious viewpoint a would-be ‘book banner’ represents, there is a whole other group of ‘banners’ out there who would purge and hide information that that person holds dear and that, if there aren’t people arguing against censorship, it truly is a predictable slippery slope and a downward spiral of challenge and counter-challenge by opposing factions in a divided society,” Eschete said.
The ALA recommends those who want to fight censorship in their local community use their voice to speak out against book bans at local library board meetings and on social media and to vote in the upcoming elections at all levels of government for candidates who defend the right to free speech.
THE DAILY CARDINAL
NICHOLAS DUDA/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Expert stresses importance of abortion access in Wisconsin Towns demand action on PFAS in water
By John Ernst SENIOR STAFF WRITER
When Jeff Lamont attended high school in Marinette, Wisconsin 60 years ago, a local company that produced militarygrade firefighting foam would invite science classes to practice extinguishing fires, including his.
The company would set off accelerants, Lamont and his classmates would extinguish the fires with the foam, and fire hoses would wash away the residue. But it wasn’t just science classes that were practicing these techniques. Companies would test their foam on open ground without containment, leaving leftover foam to seep into the ground, flooding nearby rivers and streams with contaminants. This process continued for decades.
The main contaminants in this foam were per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs), which have been detected in wells all over the state. Known as “forever chemicals,” PFAS are manufactured chemicals that break down very slowly over extended periods of time, commonly found in firefighting foam, other chemical manufacturing and even household items such as nonstick cookware or shampoo, according to the EPA.
In 2017, Tyco, which has since been bought by Johnson Controls, first reported to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that they had found PFAS in their private wells. Lamont told The Daily Cardinal the company asked to test him and his neighbors wells in Peshtigo and found unsafe levels of PFAS.
The findings led Lamont and a few other community members to form S.O.H2O or Save Our Water, an organization that worked to inform the public about the toxicity of PFAS and pressure the state for groundwater, drinking water and surface water standards.
Lamont, who is a retired hydrologist and has investigated water systems throughout his career, dug deeper. While looking at the Tyco reports and DNR investigations, most of which centered around the safety of the accelerants used to start fires, he discovered that Tyco first found PFAS in their wells in
2014 but didn’t alert the DNR for another three years.
“They allowed the citizens in this community to drink that contaminated water for three years before they notified the DNR of it,” Lamont said.
Save Our Water took the fight to the Wisconsin Capitol, where there are signs of slow progress, Peter Burress, the government affairs manager for Wisconsin Conservation Voters, told the Cardinal. He and his organization have worked closely with Lamont and Save Our Water.
After Marinette found PFAS in their wells, more voluntary testing and community pressure led to cases of PFAs springing up all over the state.
In August 2022, the DNR proposed new PFAS standards for drinking water, groundwater and surface water, including a 20 parts per trillion restriction on drinking water and groundwater as well as an eight parts per trillion cap on surface water. Only the latter passed with some restrictions, and the voting Natural Resources Board, primarily appointed by former Gov. Scott Walker, agreed on a 70 parts per trillion cap on drinking water.
The Board shot down a groundwater restriction entirely. The state has never had standards on PFAS in groundwater, the source of drinking water for two-thirds of Wisconsin residents, according to Burress.
“Many of those communities who are first impacted and have been dealing with this issue the longest are still fighting for a groundwater standard,” Burress told the Cardinal.
A second attempt to pass groundwater standards late last year was halted by the REINS Act, a piece of Walker-era legislation that requires state legislative authorization of administrative rules that carry compliance and implementation costs of $10 million or more over a two-year period.
In May 2023, GOP lawmakers in the Legislature’s budget-writing committee set aside $125 million for a fund to sponsor the removal of PFAS. But the money has sat in the fund as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have been unable to agree on the proper way
By Lily Spanbauer STAFF WRITER
An Avengers-like team of University of Wisconsin-Madison experts are uniting to research and promote civic engagement on the issue of abortion.
“Good policy begins with good evidence,” said Amy Williamson, associate director and co-creator of the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity (CORE).
CORE is a research initiative at UW-Madison School Of Medicine and Public Health focused on reproductive health, equity and autonomy. Their experts specialize in gender and women’s studies, sociology, medicine, OB-GYN and public health, giving Wisconsinites the tools to make informed decisions.
Williamson and other UW-Madison leaders established the initiative in 2018 following a decade of large shifts in reproductive health policy and access in Wisconsin.
to release the funds to the DNR.
With the funding frozen, citizens continue to suffer. From Burress’s perspective, previously gerrymandered districts that have since been revised by Gov. Tony Evers will be the key to progress. Citizens will be more responsive to their legislators with fairer districts, he said.
“We know that safe drinking water is popular. If you talk to any legislator, they’ll say, ‘I support a clean environment,’” Burress said. “A near supermajority in this Legislature has been able to completely ignore what folks across the state from both sides of the aisle are demanding.”
The federal government is unable to assist with any of the groundwater standards that many organizations hope will be passed, but Burress said the Biden-Harris administration has also been instrumental in the effort.
In April, the EPA announced the first-ever national drinking water standard for six types of PFAS, capping the two most common, PFOA and PFOS, at four parts per trillion
The standard will give communities three years to test their water and inform the public, with systems needing to implement solutions to decrease PFAs in their drinking water in the next five years — a “huge step,” Burress said.
“These are the first new drinking water standards established by the EPA in 27 years, which is wild, and they got it done,” he said.
But back in small communities like Marinette, the wait for funding has dragged on for so long, residents are simply tired of fighting, according to Lamont.
“[Residents] just want it to be over,” Lamont said.
”It’s unfortunate, but that’s kind of the blue collar mentality we have in this community. [We]’ve been fighting for six or seven years and look, it’s gotten us nothing.”
Still, Lamont, Buress and other advocates persist, hopeful to bring change with the upcoming November elections. Groundwater standards and a counter to the REINS Act to release funding will be on the agenda.
data through surveys and analysis of health care utilization datasets needed to answer their questions.
The post-Roe landscape has resulted in a host of negative effects on women and other people capable of pregnancy, according to a CORE brief. These include increases in pregnancy-related mortality, immediate and longlasting effects on mental health, increases in chronic health problems, increases in intimate partner violence and a restricted ability to achieve educational, career and other life aspirations.
During the 15 months where no clinics in Wisconsin offered abortion services, CORE conducted a study with individuals who were pregnant to examine the financial, health and family related decisions that they made in the absence of access to care.
“We’re researchers. We’re at a university, so we saw our role, our power and our lane as research,” Williamson told The Daily Cardinal. “How can we use that to help people who don’t sit in the university build awareness of issues of policies and impact that they may use for civic engagement, policy, programs and law?”
In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion.
Following the decision, an 1849 law banning abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest went in to effect in Wisconsin. Clinics stopped offering abortion services in the state until last September, when a Dane County Circuit Court judge ruled the 1849 law applied only to feticide, not consensual abortions.
Wisconsin Planned Parenthood (PPWI) has since resumed abortion services in three clinics in Madison, Milwaukee and Sheboygan, and Affiliated Medical Services performs abortion services at its Milwaukee clinic.
People working in the field of women’s health care had seen signals the Supreme Court would overturn Roe according to Williamson, so when it eventually happened, CORE felt the obligation and immediacy of conducting research that would illuminate its negative effects.
“We went into overdrive,” Williamson said. “We went into high gear to evaluate and understand the impact of the changes on people who need care, on families, on health care providers, on people who care for people who can be pregnant or who are pregnant.”
CORE gathered qualitative evidence through patient interviews and focus groups and quantitative
CORE is still analyzing the data from this study, so it hasn’t been published yet, but Williamson said the study’s interviews provided a profound insight into the complexity of accessing health care under the abortion ban.
“I feel the importance of sharing that truth can’t be underestimated,” Williamson said.
“It’s no question the most profound insight comes from the experiences of real people.”
CORE also translates and disseminates research.
Translation is all about making research accessible to different audiences to “meet people where they are,” Williamson said.
“We’re talking about both using plain language and explaining what is done in accessible terms, but also utilizing different forms, whether it’s a short brief, a fact sheet or infographics on social media,” Williamson said.
Once the research is accessible in terms of understanding, they shift to dissemination — making it physically accessible for the people who need it most.
CORE disseminates through direct outreach to individuals, sharing information to organizations and making it available to legislators. Although CORE’s research topics connect with issues on the ballot, Williamson said CORE stays out of politics to keep their focus squarely on research. But Williamson does encourage people to vote and believes that CORE can be one of many sources of information that voters consult before hitting the polls.
“We want to be a trusted source of evidence,” Williamson said. “Our reason for being is that our work helps decision-makers, policymakers and just regular people like you and me make informed decisions, and informed decisions includes people’s assessment of the issues that matter.”
HAILEY JOHNSON/THE DAILY CARDINAL
MAILE LLANOS/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Print journalism might be dying. But it’s thriving on UW-Madison’s campus
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is already the only campus in the nation with two daily student newspapers. Student media is only growing despite layoffs in the professional journalism industry.
By Noe Goldhaber COLLEGE NEWS EDITOR
Can UW sustain two student papers?
Kathleen Bartzen Culver, professor and director of the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, told the Cardinal she attributed the success of both newspapers to UW-Madison’s “engaged student body.”
“People want to consume as much media as they can. think that that’s why Wisconsin had these two competing papers, and no other campus in the country did,” Culver said.
Culver said the
a path to a solid fiscal future,” Culver said. Katzenberger said people have a “fantasy” idea that the Cardinal and Herald should “sing Kumbaya and join into one paper.” And although Katzenberger said it would be a solid paper, “those people miss the whole point of having two daily student newspapers.”
“The Daily Cardinal and Badger Herald are not one-for-one in their coverage — they don’t all cover the same exact stories,” Katzenberger said. Katzenberger said the Cardinal “does an excellent job of doing campus daily coverage of holding elected officials and campus officials accountable” while the Herald specializes in longer feature reporting. Merging the two could mean losing the either newspaper’s strength. Former Badger Herald Managing Editor and Chair of the Badger Herald Board of Directors Cat Carroll echoed Katzenberger, telling the Cardinal both newspapers are now “ideologically equal.”
“UW-Madison students receive so many more opportunities to cover things just by having two newspapers,” Carroll said. “I also think it’s a really awesome opportunity to have direct
module content. Rothove attributed the formation of the Federalist in an interview with the Cardinal to the student media landscape with “two left-of-center publications and a giant vacuum on the right.”
“The university’s major student publications do good journalism, but they have occasionally failed to hold the school accountable for its left-wing excesses,” the Federalist’s founding statement said. Katzenberger said he disagreed with the assertion that the Cardinal and Herald are left-leaning news sources.
“I understand why people would say that considering a student newspaper at the UW-Madison, you know, Berkeley of the Midwest, but I think that really undermines the amount of work that students put into making sure their journalism is ethical and is fair,’ Katzenberger said.
But Katzenberger said as long as the Federalist’s coverage is “fair and ethical” it would be a “good addition to a news ecosystem to have another paper that brings a different perspective.”
Allison Sansone, author of “It Doesn’t End With Us,” a history of The Daily Cardinal, and editor-in-chief of the Cardinal in 1994, said she was apprehensive newer student newspapers including the Federalist or The Messenger, another student newspaper attempting to launch since April, would continue after the original founders graduated.
“It doesn’t matter how much money there is. They have to have people who are willing to continue, start and restart this thing and keep it going,” Sansone said. “It’s really super fun to start something up. It is really hard to keep it going, and people don’t like to do it because it sucks.”
What makes student journalism unique
Katzenberger said the continued large size of campus newsrooms has made student journalism special while the professional news industry has lost 77 percent of their jobs in the last 20 years.
He said covering UW-Madison is like reporting on a mid-sized town. With over 50,000 students enrolled and approximately 20,000 staff members, UWMadison staff and students alone are approximately
“Yes, the
“You got to hear from everyone, because student journalism was on the ground, and they didn’t leave when everybody else did,” Katzenberger said. From 1971 to 1973, Black students on UW-Madison’s campus published the Black Voice, a newspaper devoted to the experience of Black students on UWMadison’s campus. In 2015, the newspaper reemerged.
Now, James Whitelow and Kamyia Denson, co-editors of the Black Voice, are looking to grow the newspaper’s staff.
“The one thing that we always implement in the Black Voice is to make sure that student voices, but particularly Black student voices are heard on campus,” Whitelow told the Cardinal. “We want to not only be able to uplift our community, but also have our community express any concerns, anything that revolves around trying to raise awareness and advocacy when it comes down to Blackness on campus.”
Whitelow said because Black students only make up 3% of students at UWMadison, the Black Voice showcases the contributions of the Black community
faced university-sanctioned repression or arrest while covering pro-Palestine encampments at their respective universities. At the same time, Indiana UniversityBloomington Media School announced the
OThese
Cardinal itself.
Founded in 1892, the Cardinal owes its start to a vote of the student body.
William Wesley Young, the Cardinal’s founder and first editor, convened a campus vote to decide if UW-Madison should have a daily student publication, and students elected the first staff before the paper was published.
As Young originally conceived it, UW-Madison students would control the paper, which would be financially and editorially independent from the university, through direct participation, and later, campus elections.
‘Part
of a national phenomenon’
In the early 20th century, the Cardinal covered a campus under transformation. The overall campus population, roughly 1,000 students in 1892, had grown to about 11,000 in 1938, in part due to increasing numbers of out-of-state students.
Many Wisconsinites felt “their” university was under threat, an anxiety manifested in “vicious” campus elections for that year.
“Splits had developed between candidates who belonged to fraternities and sororities, traditional bastions of Midwestern conservatism, and those who did not,” wrote former Cardinal Editor-in-Chief Allison Sansone in “It Doesn’t End
With Us,” a history of The Daily Cardinal. “All-frat slates bested long standing liberal leaders in student government, literary societies and the Cardinal.”
At the time, a Board of Control — five students elected by the student body — approved major financial decisions and approved staff appointments. In the spring of 1938, the three open board seats were won by well-connected “fratmen,” who promptly fired Richard Davis, the editor-in-chief, on his second day on the job. Justifying the dismissal, a new board member said Davis, a Jewish student from New York, had “the wrong parents.” Another board member said “Langdon Street doesn’t want another Jewish editor.”
“[It] was a very clear-cut case of blatant antisemitism and a bunch of people who felt like they were not being covered in the manner they deserved, and so they were going to do something about it by firing this editor because he was Jewish,” Sansone told the Cardinal.
The day after his removal, 52 Cardinal staff members went on strike protesting Davis’ “dismissal without cause,” and over the next 28 days, control for the Cardinal was fought in the open. The striking Cardinal staff members and Davis published The Staff Daily — the “true” Cardinal, as they viewed it, while the official Cardinal attacked Davis’ Jewish identity and political beliefs in its pages, appealing to university leaders to shut the Daily down, according to Sansone.
National reporters descended on Madison to cover the conflict, which The Cap Times opined was “part of a national phenomenon” of antisemitism on college campuses and a “manifestation” of the “race prejudice [that] has been slinking undercover at the university” for many years.
The student government set an election date to resolve the dispute, and on May 26, 1938, more than 5,000 students — the largest turnout in campus election history — voted to keep the current Board. Davis lost by 81 votes.
“The election had become a referendum on who had charge of the University of Wisconsin campus,” Sansone wrote.
In the aftermath of the election, the Cardinal made changes to its bylaws to prevent such situations from arising again. Three faculty members, appointed by the chancellor, had sat on the Cardinal Board alongside elected students in a non-voting advisory capacity; now, they were granted veto power over any financial decisions made by the staff or student Board members, a that set the stage for future conflict.
Bombings, strikes and
coups
The decades that followed would bring divisive national issues to the forefront of campus life and the pages of the Cardinal. During the
Vietnam War, the paper embraced its critics’ labels of “radical,” and editorialized in favor of campus protests.
Shortly before the beginning of the 1970 fall semester, four students bombed
Sterling Hall to destroy the Army Mathematics Research Center housed within.
The bomb killed one researcher, and after a massive manhunt three of the four students were caught, including David Fine, a Cardinal editor.
After staff elected Bill Swizlow as editor-in-chief in January 1976 he faced the question of a monetary donation for Fine’s defense, whose trial was later that year.
The Cardinal had received considerable backlash after defending Fine in 1970 and the announcement on Jan. 27 the Cardinal would donate $5000 to his defense reopened a wound on campus. Letters poured in from students and faculty condemning the decision.
The donation, decided by a vote of the Cardinal staff, had to be approved by the Cardinal Board, but since the Davis strike, the Board had rarely overruled staff decisions. But the Board, cognizant of the campus climate, rejected the donation. All but one student member of the board voted to approve the donation, but the faculty veto was unanimous.
To avert a strike from the furious staff, Swislow and the Board agreed to put a proposal eliminating the faculty veto and returning hiring and firing decisions to the student members of the board exclusively on the Spring 1976 election ballots, where board seats were also available.
The Cardinal’s continued support of Fine put the campus at odds with a campus community looking to put the Vietnam War era behind it and certain students saw the election as a chance to rein in what they saw as the Cardinal’s activism. In the largest turnout for an election in over half a
“You don’t allow people to continue to come in and manipulate you through this mechanism,” Sansone said, though she doesn’t think the Cardinal is any less democratic than it used to be. “This paper has always
Elections for The Daily Cardinal during the 20th century
By Gavin Escott CAMPUS NEWS EDITOR
GRAPHIC BY ZOE KUKLA AND HAILEY JOHNSON
GRAPHIC BY HAILEY JOHNSON
COURTESY OF ALLISON SANSONE
KAROLINA GRABOWSKA/THE DAILY CARDINAL
GRAPHIC BY ZOE KUKLA
UW-Madison protesters need to revive 1960s grit to challenge policy
By Owen Puckett
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Images of students marching in the streets, holding signs and chanting for justice are familiar to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus community, evoking memories of the civil rights movement, Vietnam War protests and antiapartheid demonstrations.
The power in these protests came not only from the sheer volume of student participation, but because they represented a genuine expression of grassroots political activism. Today, while students still make headlines, they don’t seem to hold the same political clout they once did.
The question is: why?
This phenomenon wasn’t born out of cynicism, but rather from a sense of historical awareness. UW-Madison has been a hotbed for student activism, its campus the site of numerous movements that have shaped the university and the
world beyond.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Madison was a flashpoint for anti-war protests, with students organizing sit-ins, marches and demonstrations that often brought the university to a standstill. The stakes were high then — lives were on the line. And while the issues today are no less important, there’s a sense that student protests don’t shake the system anymore.
The pro-Palestine encampment and surrounding protests were the most recent in a long line of demonstrations at UW-Madison. They were impassioned, they were necessary, but they lacked the political impact anti-war protests had decades ago.
In the aftermath, the UW-Madison quickly updated its protest policies, tightening restrictions on how and where students could gather in response to complaints from
both faculty and administrators. What had once been a campus that embraced fierce student activism now curbs it, signaling a broader trend of the university diminishing the political power of student protests.
To understand why this shift feels so profound, it’s worth revisiting Madison’s history of protest. The university earned its reputation as a center for activism during the height of the Vietnam War. In 1967, an anti-draft protest turned violent when police used tear gas and batons to break up a student sit-in. The demonstration, which became known as the “Dow Chemical Protest” (named for the company recruiting on campus), is still remembered as a turning point in the national anti-war movement. Students were no longer just protesting — they were becoming a political force capable of influencing national policy.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, protests weren’t a one-day event or a peaceful demonstration that tapered off after a few weeks. They were often grueling, all-in efforts. Students would occupy buildings for days, engage in confrontations with police and disrupt the daily flow of campus life until their demands were heard. They weren’t just there to raise awareness — they were there to force a confrontation, to shake the institution until it had no choice but to engage. These tactics were messy and often met with violence, but they had teeth. Students were directly impacted by the decisions made in Washington during the Vietnam War, and their protests were a form of self-preservation as much as political expression due to the draft.
Today’s protests, in contrast, often unfold in a more structured, contained way. You’ll see months-long awareness campaigns, scheduled sit-ins and peaceful marches that follow university guidelines. This structure and predictability of modern protests works against their effectiveness. Rather than building up to something unmanageable, protests are now events to
be accommodated, their edges softened by the very institutions they aim to challenge.
This makes the landscape of protest at UW-Madison nearly unrecognizable. The spring proPalestine protests were spirited but lacked the sense of tangible impact. The reason is that UW-Madison protests are now easily managed and contained by the administration.
The university’s response in spring focused on optics and minimized disruption rather than addressing the core concerns of the student body on an emotional and morally urgent issue.
In the months following the protest, campus administration announced new guidelines that restricted where and how protests could take place and said the university would maintain “institutional neutrality” on controversial matters — a clear
its urgency — attention quickly shifts, and the pressure that once built up over a matter of months is diffused in a matter of days.
As student protests at UW-Madison and across the country face these challenges, it’s worth asking: what role do they play now?
While they may no longer have the political power they once did, they still serve an important purpose as a reminder that students still care deeply about global issues. The willingness of students to show up, to march, to chant and to risk arrest speaks volumes. It tells us that students are still watching, still caring and still fighting, even if their efforts feel ignored by an increasingly indifferent world.
Yet, it’s not enough to just show up anymore. These issues students are protesting — cli-
indication the institution is more interested in controlling activism than intellectually engaging with the students as the Wisconsin Idea might suggest.
The cause of this change comes from the professionalization of activism. Today, activism has become institutionalized, with nonprofits and advocacy organizations taking the lead on many issues. This professionalization has its benefits — organizations like the ACLU or Sunrise Movement have the resources and connections to push for policy changes at a national level —– but it also means that student protests are often seen as symbolic gestures rather than serious political actions.
Moreover, the rise of social media has fundamentally changed the way protests are organized and perceived. In the 1960s, students faced great personal risk to mobilize in person, while today, organizing a protest can be as simple as creating an Instagram account or sharing a hashtag. Though this has undoubtedly democratized activism, it has also diminished
mate change, racial injustice, interna tional human rights abuses — are no less critical, but they are also less concentrated. These are battles that require sustained, strategic action, not just one-off displays of passion.
UW-Madison protests must do more than revisit the tactics of the past. They must adapt, becoming not just moments of disruption but moments of endurance. The tools of protest have changed, but the spirit behind them must remain.
Students need to recognize their historical role as the conscience of society, and rather than bow to the limitations placed on them, they should push even harder, innovate and challenge in ways that the establishment isn’t ready for. These are problems that require long-term solutions and protest, and it’s hard for any short protest to feel like it’s making a dent. It’s time for UW-Madison protests to revamp the lessons of the past, recognizing that every continual step forward brings us closer to the change we demand.
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the beet
I am taking a vow of silence to honor UW’s free speech policy
By Peter Pricket STAFF WRITER
All articles featured in The Beet are creative, satirical and/or entirely fictional pieces. They are fully intended as such and should not be taken seriously as news.
Two months ago, the University of Wisconsin-Madison unveiled its latest Wisconsin Idea-esque innovation for academic free speech: an updated protest policy.
Under this policy — reminiscent of John Locke’s political theory — students are restricted from chalking, distributing literature, protesting and most importantly picketing within 25 feet of university facility entrances.
Now I used to picket a lot. Big picketer right here. Climate change, sexism, war, you name it, my friends would call me “Peter the Picketer.”
But out of a newfound respect for my John Locke, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, I am now choosing to take an indefinite vow of silence in honor of her free speech policy.
I thought I had been doing the right thing. I thought I was living the Wisconsin Idea. Constantly sifting and winnowing, constantly engaging with the marketplace of ideas. I was exhausted.
But alas, our fearless queen Mnookin delivered a speech so enlightening before she dropped her new policy that, coupled together, I knew what had to be done.
“Civil disobedience,” she said during her speech, “is a time-honored tradition, but it must be done in a way that respects the laws we’ve thoughtfully put in place to make sure no one ever actually gets around to disobeying them.”
She continued, “Protest is fine, as long as it’s orderly, and doesn’t inconvenience anyone, or actually protest anything. In fact, if your civil disobedience is actually civil, I promise war will end.”
It really makes you wonder: how much does Mnookin admire Martin Luther King, Jr. (like she says she does), who famously promoted that if students at a university obey all codes and restrictions, change will happen. Of course, we all know Mnookin enjoys a casual soiree with UWPD, but I really think she’s onto something here.
Her new free speech advocacy really shook me to core, sending chills down my spine. I’ve decided to embrace my new “chilled” state of existence by taking this vow of silence
to avoid breaking the Wisconsin Idea and dishonoring Mnookin’s presence. It’s gone, okay.
My friends don’t understand, though. I bring my measuring tape everywhere I go to make sure they honor my queen’s rules and stay 25 feet away from buildings. “Stay back!” I shout at surrounding students. They should be thankful. Truly, at the root, I just can’t be around them anymore, always causing chaos and disrupting my quiet contemplation of bureaucracy.
One time, my classmate Libby Demi picketed outside Library Mall to protest sexism, and a UWPD officer picked Libby up by the shoulders like a stray cat and dragged her to Shannon Hall. Libby, an old soul, cared deeply about tampons. “Goodbye, Libby,” I thought. Gone too soon. If she followed my vow of silence she could’ve avoided this, but she didn’t bring a measuring tape, so I don’t feel remorse.
I have loved my vow of silence. I highly consider you to take this vow with me so we can overcome Libby’s sexism and all the other grave tragedies on this planet. Pour one out for Libster. On Wisconsin, my ally!
Move over, Eric Adams: New York City is for the rats
By Morgan McCormack BEET EDITOR
After famed rat enemy Mayor Eric Adams found himself indicted for bribery last month, we have to begin to wonder: what is New York City’s real problem? Rats have been facing some pretty bad publicity since the bubonic plague, which was actually spread by fleas, and have not really recovered since. They are seen as an issue needed to be solved, but is this hatred due to us forgetting what New York is really about?
Isn’t New York supposed to be a symbol of opportunity, a melting pot where any hard working person can forge a new path, find a new life? Bushwick transplants, secret trust fund kids and actors whose only credits are as “Law and Order: SVU” extras — this is not who New York is. Perhaps it’s time to
‘Pokémon go to the polls’
stop electing rat haters and put a real New Yorker in office: a rat! Did you know rats are considered extremely intelligent and expert problem solvers? They also have a long history of employment, being on the ground floor of multiple scientific discoveries. They are adaptable, scrappy, highly social and think similarly to humans. They have the perfect qualities for political office. One may argue that they are even overqualified. Though their shorter life spans may cause serving the current four-year mayoral term difficult, perhaps the higher turnover can help bring new ideas to the table. There are around 3 million rats in New York City, and I say it is time they see some representation. The war on rats needs to come to an end. We should all embrace our furry neighbors hand in paw as we scamper toward a new future.
By Isabella Barajas COPY CHIEF
CELADON CITY, Kanto — As the November election in Kanto grows closer, presidential candidates Ash Ketchum and Misty Williams are focusing their campaign strategies on one important demographic: Pokémon.
After a rousing speech from thenpresidential nominee Hillary Clinton, declaring Pokémon have the right to vote, the creatures have been coming out to vote in record numbers and are expected to play the most important role in determining the outcome of the upcoming presidential election in the Kanto region this November.
Region-wide polls show the race is still tight in this demographic. As of Oct. 23, Misty is leading by a tight margin, with 49.3% of Pokémon pledging their support, while 45.9% support Ketchum, according to the Kanto Research Center.
The Daily Cardinal, ever-dedicated to finding the best news for
their seven loyal readers, interviewed several Pokémon students on the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus yesterday to hear their opinions on the upcoming election.
Bulbasaur, a sophomore majoring in botany, shared his support for Misty, explaining that her experience as a Gym Leader better prepared her for the position. While Ketchum was briefly a Pokémon Champion, Bulbasaur claimed this made him nothing more than an “over-hyped celebrity.”
Unlike Bulbasaur, Charizard, a senior studying pyrotechnics, is planning on voting for Ketchum, mentioning the controversy surrounding Misty’s race to the Cardinal, something Ketchum has focused on heavily in his campaign.
“One day, I hear she’s from Johto or something, the next she’s from Kanto,” Charizard said. “She’s also a ginger, so I really don’t know what to believe at this point.”
Nidoqueen, a senior majoring in
gender and women’s studies, rejected these claims as “ridiculous” and cited the Jan. 6 incident as “proof” that Ketchum should never be elected.
This is, of course, in reference to the attack on the Celadon City Pokémon Center by over 2,000 Team Rocket members that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021. Ketchum is currently facing several charges for his possible involvement with this attack.
The day before the attacks, Ketchum released a public statement on “P,” formerly known as Pidgey, which many believe was inciting the attack. His statement read, “Team Rocket, let’s fight like hell!”
Ketchum denies any malicious intent.
Another Ketchum supporter, Gengar, a junior studying toxicology, shared his concerns for a Misty presidency in terms of immigration policy.
“When she was a Gym Leader, she was letting all these Alolan Pokémon into the region, now look at what’s happening,” Gengar said. “There’s all
these Alolan Pokémon in the cities, and they’re eating the poor Meowths and Growlithes in Celadon City!”
There are currently no verified reports of Alolan Pokémon eating Meowths and Growlithes, according to Officer Jenny of the Celadon City Police Department. Gengar was referencing a false claim popularized by Ketchum’s running mate, Pikachu.
In response to the Cardinal’s request for comment, a spokesperson for Pikachu said, “Pika pika, Pikachu!”
With high tensions and even higher stakes, it is more important than ever for Pokémon voters to remember the words of their famous civil rights leader, Hillary Clinton. “Pokémon, go to the polls!”
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ISABELLA BARAJAS/THE DAILY CARDINAL
& style
Can we maintain our connections when political opinions clash?
By Alexandra Malatesta LIFE & STYLE EDITOR
Thanksgiving often brings a sense of dread. Not because of a burnt turkey, but due to the uncomfortable political discussions that split the table down the middle.
It makes it really awkward to ask, “can you pass the gravy? ” after a heated conversation over whether abortion should be determined by the federal government or the states. This dynamic mirrors larger political divides in our society, which are undeniable.
Political disagreements can strain relationships, whether you’re arguing with your uncle about the significance of electing the first woman president or your cousin lecturing you on why “illegal aliens” should stay out of the country — we’ve all had our fair share of tension-filled conversations.
As we navigate these charged conversations, it’s worth examining the underlying currents that fuel our beliefs. Understanding the emotional and social factors at play might help us not just survive Thanksgiving dinner, but perhaps even find a common ground amid the clamor of clashing ideologies.
A consistent +question that runs through my head is: what drives us to believe what we believe, and how can we engage with one another without losing sight of the bonds that unite us?
I vividly remember the moment I discovered my voice amid the political tumult of my upbringing. Growing up in a households steeped in politics — my father a former Secret Service officer, my stepmother an original staffer for former President Barack Obama and my “yaya” a fierce and confident woman always teaching me to stand up for my beliefs — meant I was politically motivated from an early age.
I am surrounded by both sides of the political spectrum, which has not only tested my patience, but helped me develop a sense of what I believe in and learn how to approach heated political conversations more thoughtfully.
From what I found most helpful navigating these situations, is that it
requires setting healthy boundaries, knowing when to engage in discussions and when to step back, especially when emotions are high. It’s crucial to choose the right time and context for these conversations, creat-
perspective on this dynamic, highlighting the power of finding common ground in discussions even when there are stark differences.
Czeponis told The Daily Cardinal he has always stood
...Democrats and Republicans are beholden to corporate interests in some way,” he said.
By recognizing that many people have common concerns, Czeponis emphasized the possibil-
logical gaps. Instead of trying to persuade, their viewpoint.
It’s easy to get caught up in the symbols and ideologies that separate us, but it’s essential to remember that behind every belief is a person, behind every vote, there are realworld consequences.
At the University of WisconsinMadison, Larry Czeponis, an intelligent and witty teaching assistant in an elections and voting behavior political science course, shared an insightful
my friends, when we get back together…we just never talk about politics,” Czeponis said.
In 2020, navigating political discussions in group settings posed challenges. Czeponis recalled feeling isolated in a group of 12 friends facing jokes and ridicule for his political views.
“We both will agree that lowerincome or middle-class people don’t get a fair stake in government
ships during Thanksgiving. Maeghan Chase, a confident and outspoken senior at UW-Madison, told the Cardinal that setting boundaries in relationships where political opinions clash is important.
“I honestly think if people listened to each other and really tried to understand where the other was coming from, we’d realize we aren’t all as divided as we believe we are,” Chase said.
Chase also said individuals should try to not interrupt one another during political discussions because it fosters a sense of being heard and understood, rather than the conversation becoming a battle of opinions.
“It’s so important to let the other person say their perspective without being interrupted…this goes for friends, family, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc. And it’s way harder than it sounds,” she said.
She recalled a piece of advice from a former boss: “God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listen more than you talk.”
This simple yet profound approach, Chase explained, not only applies to political conversations but is a valuable tool for maintaining healthy relationships in all areas of life.
Over the years, I have observed that people find pride in their political stance, and when you disagree with their opinion, it’s almost doing a disservice to their identity in a way. During election season, we see it everywhere — neighbors proudly displaying “Harris for President” yard signs, “Blue Lives Matter” flags on cars or wearing MAGA hats at the grocery store. Behind these symbols are people who take pride in their beliefs, or perhaps find a sense of belonging in something bigger than themselves.
However, just like rooting for a favorite sports team, people rally behind their political causes. But sometimes, we lose sight of the fact that a presidential election isn’t a sporting match. It’s important to remember that, beneath the signs and slogans, these political decisions affect everyday people, we can’t lose sight of the humanity at heart of these conversations, because that’s what truly matters.
Be proud of your voice, but don’t waste any more time — nurture your family and friends, relationships are far more important than any debate.
Campus group steps up to help students vote
By Madison Moris STAFF WRITER
Around campus, you may have noticed workers engaging with students and motivating them to vote in the upcoming election. As the upcoming presidential election sits on the horizon, Wisconsin remains a crucial swing state with organizations getting involved to turn out the student vote.
One of these organizations is Rise at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While not officially affiliated with Rise Free Organization, the nonpartisan student group empowers student voices by helping them create a plan to vote and providing the resources needed to register.
Hannah Cacciapaglia, a third-year political science and gender and women’s studies major, began working with Rise as a paid organizer in February. One of her goals is to get more people to vote by reducing obstacles with registration.
“We try to build excitement around voting and make it feel less like a ‘civic duty’ and more of something you are excited to do, as it will affect your day-to-day campus life after Election Day,” Cacciapaglia told The Daily Cardinal.
Cacciapaglia said the organization doesn’t directly register students to vote, but they have other tools to get more students involved in the
election process.
“Right now we’re focused on collecting pledges to vote from students and community members, but primarily students,” she said.
Each team member gets several pledges on any given day depending on the amount of students who engage with them and the location of their set-up, Cacciapaglia said. Team members fan out to busy locations across campus, including Library Mall, East Campus Mall and Gordon Dining and Event Center. A typical day sees them netting around 20 to 25 pledges.
As an out-of-state student from New England, Cacciapaglia said she faced barriers to voting in Wisconsin even with her personal interest in social justice and the political process.
Rise member AJ Dehnke, a third-year journalism major student, told the Cardinal voter barriers include voter ID laws that make it more difficult for students, particularly out-of-state students, to vote in Wisconsin.
Cacciapaglia said it is even more important for an organization like Rise—which emphasizes the student vote in Wisconsin—to make voting information accessible for those who may not necessarily be as interested in politics as her.
As part of their campaign, Rise also strives to break-down concerns on where and how to vote.
Cacciapaglia hopes hearing this information from another student makes it less intimidating.
In fact, Dehnke joined the organization in September after learning about it from Cacciapaglia in order to motivate students to engage with the election.
“Especially since early summer, I sensed a lot of apathy around the election, and I wanted to help alleviate that among the student body and get as many people to show up and vote as possible,” Dehnke said.
To help these students vote, Rise has created the UW-Madison Voter Guide. The graphic walks people through how to vote in Wisconsin, which can also be found on their Instagram page.
In addition to Wisconsin’s status as a key swing state, students’ votes on local issues such
as housing and transportation are also important, Dehnke said.
Dehnke said this work is impactful as he feels the group is reaching a lot of students.
“I’ve done a couple of class talks where I go in front of lecture halls and present information about voting, and there have been a couple people that came up to me afterwards and thanked me for doing this,” he said.
As a nonpartisan organization, Rise doesn’t push a particular candidate. He also said through Rise’s research, they have determined if people make a plan to vote, they are three times more likely to actually cast a ballot.
“We just want to give people all the information they need in order to make an informed decision that reflects their values,” Dehnke said.
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How the women’s rowing team merges sports and politics
Title IX opened opportunities for female student athletesinthe1970s.Now,thefightforequalitycontinues.
By Shane Colpoys SPORTS EDITOR
The thrill of victory and the heartbreak of defeat.
Sports in the U.S. bleed into politics more often than we think they do, and studentathletes are often at the center of this ongoing debate. While many athletes and programs seek to keep their sport separate from politics, the two are inherently intertwined, and they have been for some time.
The passage of Title IX in 1972 opened the door for universities to add female athletes in an effort to balance the equal number of female and male athletic scholarships, a requirement stated in the law. For women rowers at the University of WisconsinMadison, it’s an opportunity for athletes to learn, compete and wear Badger red with pride, even if they’ve never touched an oar before. With over 100 athletes in the program, head coach Vicky Opitz emphasized the importance of older generations inspiring younger ones.
While Title IX did not mention sports, the requirement to provide equal funding and scholarships has resulted in a huge growth for women’s rowing. At Wisconsin, the program offers a unique opportunity for walk-ons that allow athletes to join the team without needing previous rowing experience.
“Title IX really created an open door for a lot of women, certainly, maybe who didn’t grow up playing sports back in the 60s and 70s,” Opitz told The Daily Cardinal. “I hope that pride will continue for as long as there are sports at Wisconsin, which should be forever.”
Some athletes have never heard of rowing before they step onto campus, but Opitz is committed to introducing them to the special program at Wisconsin.
“We take those young people that maybe weren’t quite good enough to play their predominant sport in high school,” Opitz
said. “Through a lot of hard work, sweat and enjoyment of the sport, they become very good at rowing.”
Wisconsin women’s rowing competes in a competitive and ever-expanding Big Ten Conference, and the Badgers’ program has sent 21 rowers to compete for the U.S. in the Olympics. Some of them were walk-ons. Most recently, Lauren O’Conner, Grace Joyce, Madeleine Wanamaker and Sophia Vitas competed for the U.S. in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“I’m really proud to say that Wisconsin values equality across the board,” Opitz said. “The men’s and women’s resources are exactly the same and they have helped the sport grow tremendously.”
But there’s still work to be done
While women in sports have the opportunity to compete for their respective teams at the Division I level, their media coverage is a small sum compared to men. Women’s college sports media coverage rarely exceeds 10% of total sports coverage, according to Purdue University.
“I hope women’s sports continue to grow and to be put on television networks, and I think there’s going to be a platform that people always want to watch to support women’s sports,” Opitz said.
The 2024 presidential election has brought women’s representation and equality to the forefront, Presidential nominee Kamala Harris looks to become the first female president of the U.S. Harris broke gender barriers by becoming the first female attorney general of San Francisco and later California.
This also rings true for female rowers at Wisconsin, where Title IX has allowed female athletes to compete at the Division I level and then go on to compete
for their respective countries at the Olympics.
Women’s rowing has grown tremendously in resources and competition over generations.
“There’s a lot more resources and opportunities for today’s student athletes to be better in all aspects of not only being a student, but also an athlete and also being a healthy person,” Opitz said.
Now, female college athletes will have the chance to make their voices heard and to vote on issues that directly affect their lives. Harris’ campaign has leaned into this fact and have looked to mobilize not only female student athletes, but a younger generation of voters with different priorities. They’ve found the perfect place to find a range of potential voters: college football stadiums.
Harris’ campaign also launched initiatives to pursue and capitalize on a growing audience of young male voters, reaching Americans both at home and those in attendance with an advertisement that aired during the game’s primetime slot on Oct.5.
“Winners never back down from a challenge. Champions know it’s anytime, anyplace. But losers, they whine and waffle and take their ball home,” the 30-second ad stated, mocking Trump’s decision to refuse a second debate with Harris on CNN earlier this month.
The Harris campaign played similar ads during Big Ten football games for audiences in the swing-states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Students’ votes will play a crucial role in the outcome of this election, and there’s no denying that athletes’ issues are political issues too. While Title IX opened the door for many female student athletes to compete in the sport they love, there’s much more work to be done on the basis of equal coverage and representation for women’s sports.
Recent case brings student-athletes closer to direct payment
By Jacob Szczap SENIOR STAFF WRITER
In the latest breakthrough in one of the most important cases in college sports history, a federal judge granted preliminary approval on a settlement that proposes a system in which schools can pay athletes directly through revenue sharing.
The House vs. NCAA case involves settlements culminating in $2.78 billion from three separate antitrust cases facing the NCAA. The results of the case could change the face of college sports forever.
When finalized, the motion will deliver drastic effects in multiple ways
First, universities will be able to directly pay players for Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) purposes beginning in 2025. Second, it paves the way for the $2.78 billion, paid out in annual chunks of $280 million, to be split up and dispersed in the form of retroactive payments for former college athletes dating back to 2016.
The starting funds for direct player compensation are bound to begin in the 2025-26 school year at more than $20 million for each Division I school, with goals to raise that number gradually. The funds allocated for athletes come from 22% of revenue created in the average Power Four school’s — such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison — media deals, ticket sales and sponsorships, according to Sports Business Journal.
Meanwhile, the $2.78 billion used for compensating former athletes comes from a variety of enterprises, with the NCAA owing $1.1 billion. Around 40% of the remaining money would come from the Power Four conference and the Pac-12, while the other 27 Division I conferences would be responsible for the remaining 60%, according to Sports Business Journal.
What does this mean for
student-athletes at Wisconsin?
Student-athletes at Wisconsin will now be able to be paid directly from the university. $20 million of the money Wisconsin creates as a Power Four school from TV deals, ticket sales and sponsorships will now be dispersed between athletes.
For student-athletes at UW-Madison, these changes are seismic. In less than five years, athletes have gone from receiving no compensation to now being directly paid. No longer bound by only a collective, these athletes will receive much more, especially those in the university’s most revenue-generating sports: football and men’s basketball.
And as a school known for its major athletics, these decisions will create new opportunities and challenges for Wisconsin. These measures mark an obvious step in the right direction in terms of compensation for student-athletes, but the overall vagueness of the decisions leaves plenty of questions unanswered.
It remains unclear which athletes will be paid and in which proportions. How much of the money is allocated toward athletes in the sports that create the most revenue?
Also unanswered are the effects of these proposals on Olympic sports, which aren’t major revenue creators.
At most major universities, including Wisconsin, football creates around 75% of the athletic revenue, according to Sports Business Journal. But would it be fair to give much of the allotment to such a small percentage of the overall student-athlete body? After all, Wisconsin fields 23 varsity teams.
And challenges will surely arise based on how Title IX, which creates gender equity in college athletics, plays into the spending.
In the case of college basketball, will men’s players be paid disproportionately more than women’s players? These are the types of questions that will need to be answered as the settlement finalizes in April.
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Some things never change: Protest
From the 20th century to today, protest is a staple of UW-Madison campus culture.
MARY BOSCH/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Pro-Palestine protesters conduct a die-in on May 9, 2024.
NICHOLAS SINN/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Police raid the pro-Palestine encampment on Library Mall on May 1, 2024.
Police use a baton against protesters on Oct. 18, 1968.
DRAKE WHITE-BERGEY/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Blk Pwr Coalition protests a racist video by a UW-Madison student on May 4, 2023.
PETER BARRERAS/THE DAILY CARDINAL Abortion rights protest, July 10, 1989.
HENRY MOORE/THE DAILY CARDINAL Abortion rights march, June 22, 2024.
MICHAEL MALLY/THE DAILY CARDINAL TAA Strike, March 1970.
MARY BOSCH/THE DAILY CARDINAL AFT-TAA protest, Aug. 27, 2024.
THE DAILY CARDINAL Crosses memorialize UW-Madison Vietnam War veterans on Dec. 12, 1968.
THE DAILY CARDINAL
