Free Republic

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit on behalf of two University of Wisconsin-Madison employees who were denied insurance coverage for gender reassignment surgery. The Wisconsin Group Insurance Board had allowed for the coverage back in July based on a provision in the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare), but (reluctantly) agreed to eliminate it at the behest of the state Department of Justice beginning on February 1.

When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker unveiled his higher education reforms for the state university system, the reaction from that quarter was predictably negative. Yet and still, Governor Walker’s proposals are remarkably similar to several that are bandied about in the higher education establishment. What drew the most ire from the Ivory Tower in Wisconsin was the governor’s suggestion that universities abandon the “shared governance” they have been operating under, whereby faculty members effectively have a veto over administrative decisions. It is worth noting that a former president of Princeton has endorsed such a concept and the University of Maryland Board...

If the University of Wisconsin's diversity challenges were a pass-fail course, then "we failed," said Vicki Washington, UW System assistant vice president for multicultural affairs. "We have not yet achieved the goals of Plan 2008," she said in a presentation this morning, pointing to small successes over the last decade, but showing vast lingering gaps between the graduation rates of minorities and white students.UW System President Kevin Reilly said pre-college programs appear to be successful, but require more money that UW doesn't currently have. The Board of Regents this morning discussed the UW System's 10-year plan put into effect in...

The summer of 2005 has been an embarrassing one at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. First, the university came under fire when it was revealed that Paul W. Barrows, the vice chancellor for student affairs who quit last year, did so because he had had an affair with a graduate student. That Barrows stayed on the university’s payroll infuriated legislators, and focused attention on how the university treats employees who get into trouble. Now some lawmakers have shifted their attention to professors — three of whom remain employees even though they are either in jail or headed there. On...

As you probably know, all-purpose fraud Ward Churchill brought his touring one-man carnival to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Tuesday, to the delight of his hebephrenic admirers. Hired by the university to bleat about the plight of allegedly oppressed Indians, he yapped instead about himself and his depraved opinion that the mass-murdering terrorists of 9/11 were the good guys. Drunk on the attention his outrageous views have attracted, Churchill continued to regurgitate venom on the country he so undeservingly calls his home, not backing an inch away from his characterization of the murder of 3000 American civilians as a justified act.Nor...

2005 ASSEMBLY JOINT RESOLUTION 15 Relating to: condemning the anti-American hate speech promoted by Professor Ward L. Churchill. Whereas, the United States of America was attacked on September 11, 2001, a day that will be remembered as one of the darkest in American history; and Whereas, the terrorists that attacked America that day murdered more than 3,000 innocent people who were doing nothing more than enjoying the inalienable rights of a free people; and Whereas, the families of those who were lost on September 11, 2001, are still in the agonizing process of grieving and recovery, enduring immeasurable pain from...