A Time when Pure Ideology Becomes Bad Public Policy

The state of Wisconsin is facing a financial crisis. Former Governor Doyle left the state with a $3.6 billion dollar budget deficit. The people of Wisconsin voted into office Scott Walker, who ran on a platform of reducing state spending, ending the raids of segregated funds, and balancing the state budget. These principles can be found on his campaign website. Regarding these principles, Governor Walker stated:

“Wisconsin deserves a government that puts the needs of citizens first. The following set of reforms will help put state government back on the side of the people.”

While his actions so far have held true to the reforms he set forward, they are by NO means actions that the majority of Wisconsin residents would agree with once all implications of the policies are known. This week, Governor Walker proposed removing almost all collective bargaining rights of public employees, affecting roughly 175,000 workers. It also requires employees to contribute more to their pensions and healthcare.

Though no-one expected Walker would be friendly towards unions, this goes well beyond what most believed would happen. Even State Senator Luther Olson, a Republican said to the Associated Press, “It’s not what I thought he was going to do.” While I agree with some of the reforms, such as greater contributions to pensions, the proposal as a whole will have a terrible effect on middle class and working class people around the state. In this post, I’m going to focus on how higher education will be affected if this proposal passes.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there are currently 9,116 graduate students. Of these, over 2,800 serve as Teaching Assistants who directly educate undergraduates in the classroom and allow such a large university to have smaller discussion sections. Another 2,500 are Research Assistants, and are responsible for making our university one of the most well-respected research institutions in the world.

The TAs are represented by the TAA, and through that representation have gained tuition remission and more healthcare options for working as TAs, helping to attract the best and brightest graduate students to Wisconsin, and greatly improving the undergraduate experience by giving us better teachers. The RAs were in the process of unionizing to bargain for better working hours and conditions, which would help bring UW up in the research rankings through the recruitment of top-tier researchers. Under Governor Walker’s proposal, our graduate students will lose these extra benefits and our faculty and staff will not be able to form unions to collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions.

I am asking all students to become better informed on this issue, and become involved in order to protect the quality of our education and the reputation of our university. Articles to read can be found here, here, or in almost any local newspaper in the state.

Those of you who know me know I am not one to rally or protest as the first point of action, but this issue is incredibly important. The TAA will be organizing in their office (254 W. Gilman Street) all weekend, and will have free pizza and beer for volunteers at 5pm tonight. Additionally, there will be a rally at the capitol at 11am on Tuesday to protect state workers and our education. Watch your e-mails for more ways to be involved. As for me, I will be working on this all day today in the ASM office. Stop by to help out or get more information. I can’t stress how important this is, and I hope all of you can help out in some way.

*Edit* If you are not from Madison, but would like to take part in the “Hands Off Our Teachers” Rally, we have places for you to stay. Also, check out this page to see where you can catch a bus to the Capitol.

A Strategic Plan for Diversity Committee

If you asked every person in a room of 20 or so people what their definition of diversity is, you would get 20 different responses.  Issues of diversity are of the utmost importance, yet handling them is no simple task. We need to view diversity in regards of mutual respect for everyone else. Only then can we begin to make our campus welcoming and safe for all students.  The Diversity Committee is the place where this needs to begin, and tonight, I will be seeking Student Council’s approval to lead the committee. My plan involves three steps towards making this a reality: 1) redefining the purpose of the committee, 2) outreach to student organizations, the campus, and the Madison community, and 3) advocacy on behalf of students.

Purpose

Many groups at UW-Madison are already doing great work for diversity for their campus and community. These include MCSC, Wunk Sheek, MEChA, and the Black Student Union among many others.  These organizations have been doing great work for students and deserve their recognition, however, there are many other organizations that do the same work but often aren’t recognized for it.  We need to expand our base and engage these other organizations that are often not thought of as being a part of campus diversity but in fact are, such as Working Class Student Union,  Muslim Student Association, India Students Association, Vets for Vets, Badger Catholic, Campus Crusade for Christ, Hillel, One Voice, and many others.  I want to bring these organizations into the discussions of diversity on campus and I want the Diversity Committee to recognize the multitudes of different beliefs, backgrounds, heritages etc that make up diversity in our society and more importantly on our campus!

Outreach

The Diversity Committee needs to start acting as a liaison to the student organizations on campus and help them to hold successful events by co-sponsoring, advertising, and volunteering at the events to help build better communication and collaboration.  By building a dialog with these organizations we can better inform them of what ASM can do for them, and in turn it my help them to get involved in ASM.  The Chair of the Diversity Committee should be tasked with beginning the outreach process to meet with organizational leadership.  The overall goal is to get more people involved with ASM through the Diversity Committee

Other groups we must outreach to are everyday students at UW, and the greater Madison community. We can do this most effectively by setting up events. One event that Diversity Committee can begin with is the Shadow Day that University Affairs committee intern Joanna Romero is working on. Shadow Day gives high school students from underrepresented communities the chance to come to campus and shadow a college student for the day. The Diversity Committee needs to make sure that the ASM Shadow Day is successfully implemented and is institutionalized from year to year in ASM.  Also, the Real Talk program needs to continue on campus because it provides a great forum to keep communication and conversation about diversity active and engages students not generally involved in diversity discussions.  This is a program I would like to see better advertised through the Diversity Committee.

The second goal that I would finish by the end of this semester is a week of religious identity recognition.  A major aspect of diverse culture that is often overlooked and left out on this campus is faith and spirituality.  We will work and coordinate with religious organizations on campus such as Badger Catholic, Campus Crusade for Christ, Hillel, One Voice, Chabad, Muslim Student Association as well as the atheist, agnostic organizations and all other groups that deal with issues regarding religion and spirituality.  A proper name can be formulated in the planning process of this event, and the goal of the event will be to bring together a coalition of these students to have guest speakers, workshops and other beneficial things concerning the issue of faith identity.  Aspects of faith and non faith are different throughout many cultures, classes, and ethnicities and I want to bring that to the forefront of the campus.

Advocacy

Advocacy is the most important part about what the Diversity Committee needs to do.  The most obvious issue of diversity is the current campus climate. Issues regarding respect, safety, racism, homophobia and classism do come up on this campus.  The Diversity Committee needs to be a place where students can come together and work on these issues asap.  When these issues arise, as the chair I will make sure the committee will react quickly and effectively to empower students to handle these issues that affect them and their communities. Working with the Campus Diversity and Climate Committee is a key goal to advocate for students, and we need to make sure that students are working with the CDCC to represent the Diversity Committee.  Our goal should be to shape policy with the administration, consult with the Center for First Year Experience, the Division of Student Life, the Office of Admissions SOAR, and other committees to make sure that diversity discussion is present in all administration decisions.  The end goal is to eventually build respect over the years by working through controversial campus climate issues.

With Respect,

DP

A Desire for Diversity

We are privileged to live in the most diverse culture and country of our time; The United States of America. Our country’s origins were based on the concept of diversity.  When the colonists came it was to find the freedom to practice their own religions without persecution. This paved the way for others to come here to practice their own religions.  They were Lutherans, Catholics, Quakers, Jews, etc.  Our country began as diverse collection of religious faiths.

Today, when people hear the word “diverse” they immediately think you are referring to someone who has a higher level of pigment in their epidermis.  Others will say being “diverse” relates to your heritage and background, or that it is both referring to ones pigment and heritage.  The truth is that diversity is SOOO much more than that.  Every single person has their own unique experiences and adds to a diverse society in their own way.  The problem is that society places too much of an emphasis on our skin color and our heritage.  This has begun to dominate how we treat each other, and things have gotten out of hand.  Many people today have begun to use their heritage or skin color as a reason for entitlement and to take advantage of others. This can be found in people of all races, and has lead to the use of “diversity” as an intimidation tactic when arguing about many different topics such as immigration, war, social services, and especially education.  America has come far in its 230 + years of existence, but we still have a long way to go.

We need to take a stand, here and now and tell America what diversity really means.  Diversity is so much more than just your heritage, skin color, and religious beliefs.  Diversity also incorporates our political beliefs, sexual identity, sexual preferences, hair style, hair color, height, weight, class, etc. We should all be proud of our background and heritage but shouldn’t let that dictate how we treat one another.  If we all agree that we were “Created Equal,” then one person can’t be “MORE” diverse than someone else. Does Section 1 of the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution not emphasize the equality of all American citizens? Does is not establish that no one citizen of this country is higher than another?

When one person looks at another person, they should not be worried that they might offend them because of the person’s skin color, height, or sex.  This shouldn’t be the first thing that enters the persons mind.  They should simply view the person standing before them as another human being who is just as unique and diverse as you are. We need to all stop and check ourselves right now for any hate, resentment or reservations we have for someone else because they seem different, because guess what, we’re ALL very different from one another.  There is no class, workshop or focus group that can truly help us to reach the mindset of accepting true diversity unless we ourselves choose to.

Promoting and celebrating our cultures and choices is a good thing and should be encouraged, but not to the point where we are doing this at the expense of another persons’ beliefs. We need to be of the mindset that no one heritage is greater or more important than another, and everyone should feel welcome in these conversations.

In closing, I leave you with this. Diversity is composed of everything that makes us who we are. Instead of looking to be acknowledged for it, we should simply wish for respect.  “Treat others, as you yourself wish to be treated.”  If our society can begin to gravitate towards this mindset, we would begin to tear down so many barriers that have been set up to prevent us from achieving this goal. We must not forget the goals and dreams that such great leaders and pioneers of diversity such as Martin Luther King Jr. did for his country. As he said in his most famous speech,

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

With Respect,

-DP

A Second Beginning

Greetings, I apologize for taking so long to post to the blog that my friend CF and I have created.  Now that I finally have access and am finally getting around to it you should see a few post from me in the near future.  I will be keeping pace with the same style that CF has already established and I want to emphasize some of the points that were made about “The Silent Majority” in his first blog post http://asilentmajority.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/a-beginning/. By no means does this blog represent a majority of people but of my own personal opinions and views as a twenty-four year old Italian Polish American.  I’ve spent the majority of my last four years in service to the UW-System students.  I’ve worked with countless students, student organizations and UW campuses on a variety of issues, ranging from lobbying on the state budget on the behalf of students, to working with the African American Union of UW-Waukesha to host events.

I’ve always been a huge believer in the first amendment of the constitution which guarantees us freedom of religion, speech, and press; rights of assembly and petition.  All of these will be incorporated into my blog in some way or another in my posts, but right now I want to emphasize the importance and the miss conceptions on freedom of speech.  This is the one freedom that is abused the most.  Just because you can say whatever is in your head, doesn’t necessarily mean it should actually come out of your mouth.  Speech can be a powerful tool for the good of man kind, but also a weapon used to hurt others.  Just because we have a right to use something doesn’t mean we should abuse it. The freedoms and rights that our founding fathers fought for and that countless young Americans fought so hard to give us should not be taken lightly.  Those of us who use freedom of speech on a regular basis and to a larger audience have an obligation and responsibility to be to hold ourselves to a higher standard.  Now, what do you do when someone doesn’t show respect for our freedoms, and abuses it? The answer is very simple actually, “In free countries, every man is entitled to express his opinions and every other man is entitled not to listen.” –G. Norman Collie

Having said that I now make this promise to my readers. I will speak from the heart but will be mindful of my words. I will be honest but will never speak to hurt.  My goal is to share with you all, like CF, our perspective on governance, State Government, Student Issues, and related topics in general, but with an end to the goal.  This blog will not be a place to vent or to complain, but to try and address an issue, and hopefully to come up with a solution or to at least spark a discussion for a solution.

I’m not a history major, but I do reflect very often about our country’s past, and will often times give a quick background in my posts about what has happened in the past and how knowing the past can help us to avoid the same fallacies we have gotten ourselves into in the future.  In my next post I will be touching on a key issue that has been in the main stream for the past 200 years or so, but has never been satisfactorily discussed, due to fear and misinterpretations of the topic.  I hope you will find the time to read my upcoming post, as it will be essential to the work I will be doing these coming months and there is a strong need for healthy discussion.

In closing I will follow suit with Mr. CF and reiterate his house keeping remarks.  We encourage discussion and thoughtful comments and we look forward to opposing views to help all of us get a better understanding of where we all come from.  Please avoid personal attacks, I think I made it very clear earlier the importance of speech and its use, and I hope all of you will take those words to heart in your responses.

With Regards,

DP

A Good Idea for the State: Voter ID

After 3 vetoes from former Governor Jim Doyle, the Wisconsin state legislature is again going to bring up the need for voter identification at the polls. Wisconsin currently has one of the nations’ least restrictive set of voting requirements, which leads to the potential of voter fraud affecting the results of state and local elections. Those against the legislation say that since there are no known instances of widespread voter fraud in the state (which is true) then this legislation can only lead to voter suppression among minorities, the elderly, and students and will, in the words of one of my very good Democratic Party-koolaid drinking friends, “take away the right to vote from many students.” This statement is patently false.

The right for all people to vote in the municipality they are legally entitled to vote in is affirmed, and in fact, strengthened by this legislation. Voters must show an ID with their current address at the polls in order to register same-day. For out of state students, and for those who have recently moved, this does make same-day registration more difficult. However, the bill allows for any qualified voter to receive (for free) a Wisconsin ID card at a local DMV center with proof of address, which does not truly present too heavy of a burden on voters. This opinion is shared by liberal hero and Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote in the majority opinion in Crawford vs. Marion County Election Board concerning Indiana voter ID law,

“The relevant burdens here are those imposed on eligible voters who lack photo identification cards that comply with SEA 483[2]. Because Indiana’s cards are free, the inconvenience of going to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, gathering required documents, and posing for a photograph does not qualify as a substantial burden on most voters’ right to vote, or represent a significant increase over the usual burdens of voting. The severity of the somewhat heavier burden that may be placed on a limited number of persons—e.g., elderly persons born out-of-state, who may have difficulty obtaining a birth certificate—is mitigated by the fact that eligible voters without photo identification may cast provisional ballots that will be counted if they execute the required affidavit at the circuit court clerk’s office. Even assuming that the burden may not be justified as to a few voters, that conclusion is by no means sufficient to establish petitioners’ right to the relief they seek.”

All of these mitigating circumstances are present in the Wisconsin law being proposed, and in fact, added to that are provisions not requiring ID if you live in a nursing home, if your ID has been taken away by a law enforcement officer, or if a person is voting absentee from a location they have already shown ID for. Voter ID will not lead to voter suppression of people who truly wish to vote, especially compared to suppression tactics used by the son of US Rep. Gwen Moore in 2004 http://www.wisn.com/news/4113353/detail.html or purported voter caging efforts of the Wisconsin GOP: http://peoplesworld.org/wisconsin-gop-plots-vote-suppression/. Those who wish to vote, can, and will go through the correct process of obtaining a free and updated Wisconsin ID, and in the case of UW Madison students, will be able to use their included bus pass to ride to a DMV center to do so.

When a national student organization such as USSA is giving workshops attended by UW System students where they are teaching illegal immigrants how to commit voter fraud, and when we have students at Marquette University bragging about voting multiple times, we as a state need to make sure that voter fraud will not occur, especially when even small amount of fraud have the potential to change such elections as local races won by 7 votes (Katrina Flores primary loss in Madison’s 8th district in 2009) and state-wide elections won by only .2% of voters (Gore’s Wisconsin win over Bush in 2000).

A “United” Council of UW Students?

Last month I had the pleasure of attending the United Council of UW Students’ Convention at UW Marshfield/Wood County (a big thank you to Nicole G and UW Marshfield for hosting). For those of you who don’t know, UC is our statewide student association, charged with advocating for students from all 26 UW System schools. For the past year, I have served on UC’s Board of Directors representing the Research Caucus (UW-Madison and Milwaukee); however, I resigned the week before the convention to focus on other commitments, so this was the first weekend where I could fully participate as a general member. This was also the most productive and empowering convention in the past two years.

For the past year, I’ve had my reservations about the future of UC as an effective organization. Coming off of a major constitutional restructuring 4 groups emerged, each trying to find its role and responsibilities. The first and most constant group is the staff, mostly recent graduates, who are the real workhorses of UC. On paper their role is to ensure that the organization runs. The next is the Board of Directors, 11 students representing different UW schools, and the Coalition Action Council, which I’ll talk about later. In the Constitution, the Board is charged with setting the priorities and policies for the organization. The third group is the student executives, (President, Vice President, and Secretary) charged with carrying out policies, and representing UC. The fourth group is the Coalition Action Council, consisting of Task Forces which general members can join to start their own side projects under UC.

While this structure seems to work fine on paper, in effect policy is created and implemented by the staff, with the Board relegated to making buttons, helping plan logistics for conferences and conventions, and contacting System schools to make sure they stay/become members. (We also gave a ceremonial stamp of approval to the budget, despite my very vocal objections, and without reviewing memberships costing over $75,000 as required by our own rules). The student executives have spent their time mostly trying to purge the organization of members they don’t like, pretending to be Brett Favre, and failing at running meetings, but that’s neither here nor there. All of this has caused tension and a power struggle between people who see the possibility of making the new constitutional model work, and those who would rather go back to the old identity group-based system. (Keep in mind that the former model caused schools to leave and not waste money because of the feeling that UC did not represent the opinions of their students, whereas the new model has the greatest potential to allow UC to represent the interest of all students by focusing on shared gov, tuition, financial aid, and other issues).

When I first started in UC, I was most concerned about the Task Forces, which seemed to be the way for any small interest group to use student money and resources to push whatever agenda they wanted. While the rest of the organization was struggling to simply find enough resources to function, the idea of task forces forming to further limit the resources by working on issues that had put the organization in the position it was in the first place scared me as a Board member. This past convention though, has put to rest my fears that UC will be ineffective in the next few years.

To my surprise, the task forces are the places where ASM’s “Get Shit Done” mentality has really taken hold. Through working on Shared Governance issues at the system and campus levels, students might actually have a true voice when things like changes in the transfer student policy which are being discussed (instead of as an afterthought which happened this year). Speaking of transfer students, of which many UW-Colleges students will be, there is a task force focusing on their issues, led by TJ Radey and Trisha France from UW-Green Bay, with other schools coordinating. The Sustainability Task force is working to bring students together to make UW greener and cost efficient, and the UW Colleges online task force will be ensuring that students have full shared gov rights within the online system.

In the financial aid task force, my own brainchild, we have a large number of students from all over the state who are geared up and ready to hit the state budget cycle running. We’re looking into establishing a state-wide work study program, increasing childcare tuition assistance, and trying to simplify financial aid application processes. I’m extremely proud of Dan for stepping up to lead this, and I’m excited to work more closely with Kim B. from Marinette and Nik R. from Waukesha, my fellow vice-chairs to enact these projects. We have already met with Governor Walker’s staff to open conversations about work study programs and will go into this weekend’s convention with policy papers already drawn up.

The Board of Directors may continue to flounder on aimlessly, and the executives may continue to do whatever the hell it is that they do, but UC’s effectiveness at the statewide level will continue to increase as long as the energy felt in the task forces continues into the next convention and beyond.

A Purpose for ASM Part II- Consent of the governed.

I want to start this post with the disclaimer that I’m not a poli sci major, I’m a molecular biologist. Many of you will have far more knowledge around the theory part of this, so feel free to correct me if I start to lead people astray. My last post was about the purpose of ASM, both delegated by the state and chosen by the student body through our Constitution. I want to focus on the basis behind the second part today.

John Locke wrote of the ability of a community of “free and equal” citizens to form a government by the consent of the people. This means that the legitimacy of the government, as well as its right to exercise its delegated powers, only lasts as long as the people it governs allows it to. In any given year, the students at this university can choose to disband the student government, and either replace it, or choose to have no elected student leadership. At Wisconsin, we have seen exactly this, with the Wisconsin Student Association being disbanded by vote of the students in 1992, and ASM’s Constitution being ratified by students in 1994. We’ve even seen rival Student Governments attempt to usurp ASM as the official SGA (Student Government Association) on campus.

So how does ASM have the “consent of the governed?” What does that really mean? Does this require unanimous consent? Clearly, it cannot. The majority of this campus does not participate in ASM, and would probably hold negative views, especially due to the high seg fee rate, even if they know enough to realize ASM sets that rate. “Unanimous consent” would also require that individual students be allowed by themselves to “secede” from ASM, or stop paying seg fees, something they cannot do unless they leave UW altogether. Instead, I believe ASM’s “consent” is more along the line of “tacit consent,” which means consent exists as long as there is no current state of widespread “rebellion.” Since the majority of students are not even aware of what ASM is doing, the student government is not harming them in any considerable way, and therefore they are, tacitly, consenting to be affected by its decisions, as they are not actively opposing them.

As I have said before, the current ASM Constitution has been ratified by the student body, and multiple attempts to change the constitution or usurp ASM have failed. Students on this campus, for whatever reason, have voted as recently as 2009 to say that the current ASM Constitution, including all its rights and responsibilities pointed out in my last post, are better than alternative approaches. The majority of students like the idea of having bus passes available. They believe funding for student organizations should be a power held by the student government, and as demonstrated by the recent NatUP referendum, they believe the student government is at least legitimate enough to be used as a vehicle for expressing their views about the future of this campus.

In the Preamble of the ASM Constitution, the student government sets out to create a body that will, “selflessly pursue the ideals of all without denying the ideals of one, that will be responsive without being repressive or restrictive, and that will insure that we, the students of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are fairly recognized and represented.” While this sounds like a terrific set of ideals, one has to wonder, though we are, at least by tacit consent, legitimate in the eyes of students, how on such a diverse campus can we truly, “pursue the ideals of all without denying the ideals of one?”

A Purpose for ASM- Where we are right now

ASM Student Government members face a fundamental question each year: What is the role and purpose of a student government? In Wisconsin, we thankfully have some mandated roles. First, found in State Statute 36.09(5), students “shall be active participants in the immediate governance of and policy development for such institutions.” This gives us the right to help determine University policy, a right which we practice at Madison by appointing students to faculty committees. Also according to 36.09(5) we “have the primary responsibility for the formulation and review of policies concerning student life, services, and interests”, and “ have the responsibility for the disposition of those student fees which constitute substantial support for campus student activities”. So, we get to participate in policy discussions, and, subject to final approval by the Board of Regents, get to give out student fees (segregated fees). Awesome! But wait, is that enough? What keeps us effective? What keeps us relevant?

Found in the last line of 36.09(5) is the right for students to organize as we see fit, which we have done under the ASM Constitution for the last 17 years. In addition to the two state-given rights mentioned above, the ASM Constitution gives us these points to serve as our purpose for existing:

Article III..(c) to organize events for students;
(d) to receive complaints from students, investigate the problems of students, and participate in academic decisions concerning students;
(e) to take action on behalf of the student body in general, and to specifically work for:
i. The expansion of student power in all aspects of student governance;
ii. The recognition of access to education as a basic human right;
iii. The enforcement of civil rights guarantees in all aspects of university life and policy;
iv. The guarantee of the ability of students, staff, and faculty to function without undue financial stress;
v. The protection of public education;
vi. The defense of the right of students and campus workers to organize in their own interests;
vii. The protection of full student autonomy over student life, services, and interests.
(f) to provide an official voice through which the opinions of the student body may be expressed;
(g) to develop ASM policies in a fair and open manner; and
(h) to inform all students of ASM activities and encourage participation in them.

These points allow ASM to act as the voice of students, and charge us with taking action on multiple issues. In the previous couple of years, the overall purpose of the organization has been summed up as Advocacy, Services, and Membership, or the “three pillars” prominently displayed on the newest ASM logo created under the tenure of Chair Brittany Wiegand. We advocate on the points listed in Article III, section (e), we provide services through allocation of segregated fees and campus events, and we are active members in the governance of our university.

In order to remain relevant to the student body, and to address issues regarding their needs, ASM has set up certain programs through the use of segregated fees. These most notably include subsidized bus passes, the SAFE programs, semesterly textbook swaps, and most recently, a student housing fair.

I write this to lay out clearly what our role is, and what the student body has organized itself to do. In the course of my posts over this long weekend, I’m going to try to expand on ideas surrounding the purpose of ASM, and student governments in general. Hopefully we can have a solid discussion on any need to expand or limit our purpose, or guarantee that we are doing exactly what we as student leaders are charged to do.

-CF

A Beginning

Hello readers. This will be my first attempt at blogging so please, bear with me as I navigate through WordPress. For a while now, my friend and I have wanted to start a blog, and have taken a few months trying to decide on a theme. We wanted it to reflect current events, mostly based on our work around student advocacy, but also able to cover broader themes we see happening in the state and federal governments. This post will serve as an introduction to myself, as well as the general theme of our blog. My partner will introduce himself in a future post.

As a reaction to things going on at UW-Madison, the State of Wisconsin, and national student organizations, we have decided to base our blog on what has been termed, for better or for worse, ”The Silent Majority.” Let me take a moment to define what I mean when I say this. When most people hear the word “majority,” they will immediately jump to thinking along lines of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, religion, etc, and the societal power dynamics that come along with these identities. This blog is simply NOT about that. I myself am  gay, biracial, working class, etc, and the views I will put forward in this blog have nothing to do with any one of these small parts of what makes me who I am. Not only is it wrong to immediately connect either perceived or true identities with the reason for a person’s thought process, policies, or political actions, it would be just as wrong for me, or anyone for that matter, to say that they represent the entire population who shares that certain identifying characteristic.

Instead, the “majority” we will talk about throughout this blog is one who, frankly, doesn’t at the moment give a damn about student advocacy, politics, or what goes on in and around the halls of power. This majority, to take students on this campus for example, is one that wants to be able to have fun, go to events they care about, get a degree, and find a job after graduation. The majority has come to expect that certain things be provided for them on campus, such as “free” bus transportation, available places to study, and the ability to form student organizations, among many other services that are seen as essential. This majority doesn’t necessarily know or care how these services came about or how they are funded, but they are cognizant of their own tuition bills.

In these posts, we will talk about responsible governance; Governance that doesn’t push aside the thoughts of the silent majority in favor of those of the vocal few, but considers the needs and opinions of all. Governance that is practical, reasonable, and transparent. These ideas are not new, and I will give credit to this Badger Herald article for prompting the theme: http://badgerherald.com/oped/2001/10/07/silent_majority_exis.php

Though the main point isn’t new, I hope you all find a fresh voice in this blog. We will strive to keep the topics covered current and relevant, and hopefully this blog can be a conduit for a few important conversations. I will close with a few housekeeping items.  First, please comment on what we write, the format, or anything else you believe will add to the discussion or better this work. We encourage thoughtful discussion and are open to criticism. Second, though we reserve the right to criticize positions taken by individuals, and ideas in general, we will do so on the merits of the proposal(s) at hand, and not on the basis of personality. We ask that you do the same in commenting. Comments that use personal attacks will be deleted. Third, if you have any topic you want us to talk about, let us know.

 -CF