Jay Weber Show transcript 10-18-23
It’s sad to see the UW-System close the campuses in Washington County and in Fond Du Lac-but this is precisely the type of ‘downsizing’ and ‘right sizing’ that many of us on the conservative side of the aisle have been calling for-
Not only within the UW system, but within MPS and any other k-12 district that have seen their student enrollment figures drop over the last decade or two.
Fewer people are having children. Many school districts have smaller student bodies than they did years ago. Right size.
MPS refuses to. Their leaders insist on clinging to old buildings that should be sold off to be repurposed...etc.
The UW system has far fewer schools or campuses-but this, too, has been a long time coming.
And as for the campus up in my area: in Washington County, the County Exec, Josh Schumann, engaged in a valiant effort to repurpose it as an educational center that was linked to tech learning.
But the UW leaders shot that down. And so, now it will close.
Well, it will close to ‘in person instruction’, whatever that means.
And by the way-if that means that faculty can keep offices there-and that’s the reason it isn’t being shuttered all-together-
Well then, those campuses should be shuttered all-together. Those profs can work out of their homes more easily than just about anyone else on the planet. And should.
There’s no reason to keep those campus buildings open and maintained just for staff.
But the announcement from the system president, Jay Rothman, was:
“The market is telling us that increasingly students are pursuing a degree at our four-year campuses or online,” “While, we are beyond disappointed in the actions, we are not going to give up being advocates for the work that our faculty and staff do because it is simply not right to leave those families behind.”
It-is-too bad to see these branch campuses struggle, but with on-line learning taking over as it has- there’s simply no need to have most of these satellite buildings open and available moving forward—and I credit Jay Rothman for being the first system president to have the stones and the integrity to admit it.
The world is changing. Populations are changing. Student and faculty needs are changing. Where is it written that the UW System doesn’t need to ‘adapt’?
And yes- these ten other branch campuses must be in question-moving forward. Will they be closed? Or retooled?
Jay Rothman is- moving forward- with a plan, and I’ll at least give him credit for that.
Meanwhile- I’m glad to see that assembly speaker Robin Vos is sticking to his guns and not allowing for any UW System raises- so long as Rothman and the chancellors refuse to end all of this forced ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ nonsense.
But I give him credit for sticking to his guns on this-and any serious, freedom loving conservative should. He has admitted-on this show-that Wisconsin republicans and conservatives were asleep at the switch-and have waited way too long to address this growing division and racism that today’s woke left is pushing-under the guise of DEI-
But Vos said-at the same time-I am committed to dealing with it. And in the months that have passed since we did that interview-he has kept that promise.
Yesterday, if you missed it, Vos and a legislative committee agreed to give every other state employee a six percent raise over the next two years-but Vos excluded UW System employees from any raise.
That’s 40-thousand state workers and nearly half of the state workforce.
And why?
Because Rothman and UW leaders won’t budge on DEI. They won’t agree to expunge the left’s new brand of racism and bullying from our public university system.
The opposite is true. The net effect of the DEI rules and pledges-is to exclude, categorize and separate students and faculty-and most importantly-either force them all to pledge fealty to the left wing viewpoints and agenda- or be blocked from getting the job.
That’s what DEI on campuses really does: it bans all conservatives, libertarians, and free thinkers from the ranks of the students or faculty- or at the very least-forces them underground- so that they have to shut up and be silent about their world view and their political viewpoints- and be subjected to a steady diet of leftist dogma and indoctrination.
That’s what so-called ‘DEI programs’ do on our campuses. And while lawmakers can’t do anything about it at private universities like Marquette-they do have the ability to do something about at on our public campuses.
And this is what Robin Vos and his supporters are trying to do. They are insisting that ‘diversity and inclusion’ mean- true diversity and inclusion. They mean- allowing conservative and libertarian thinkers to speak and lecture on your campuses-and gee-even be among the faculty members.
And since our u-w schools have been reluctant to allow a true and genuine exchange of ideas on their campuses and among their faculties- the republicans are right to withhold more funding.
Absolutely.
And I’m glad that Vos is sticking to his guns.
Vos also said:
If you agree with that-it’s worth sending Vos’s office an email expressing your support and telling him to stick to his guns-
And if you pop up at the same events Vos does, it’s worth thanking him for taking on this virtuous poison that is ‘DEI’ and applauding him for trying to eliminate-or at least minimize it- in our public university system.
photo credit: MacIver News Service twitter account