The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a story this week (reg. required) about Steve Nass's crusade against wholistic admissions. The article claims that UW has picked a fight with "Republican" lawmakers, but could only find Nass to talk to.
Does anyone know why Nass continues his assault on the UWs? Did he fail out and has held it against us ever since? Does he want a school in his district? Is he going to run for governor on an anti-UW platform?
The voters dumped Krebeich, with his UW-hating ways, this fall, but Nass seems to think that all this UW bashing is good politics.
How much power does he have as head of the legislative committee on higher ed?
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9 comments:
>>Does he want a school in his district?<<
Um, Winnie, if I'm not mistaken, he HAS a school in his disctrict. It's called "University of Wisconsin Whitewater;" maybe you've heard of it?
After I posted my comments, I looked him up. It turns out his district surrounds Whitewater, but does not seem to include the town or the university.
He graduated from Whitewater, however, several times, with a B.A. and and Masters of some sort. He also served on the board of the U for a few years in the 1980s.
It makes his hostility even more difficult to understand.
I don't think it's the university he doesn't like per se, it's women, minorities, ethnic people, social and environmental issues, and things like that.
He's a mini Horowitz except for the Israel/Judaism thing Horowitz has.
I guess these people see education as an important source of evil (non-conservatives).
He has a military background allegedly:
"Born Whitewater, October 7, 1952; single. Graduate Whitewater H.S.; B.S. UW-Whitewater 1978; M.S. Ed. in school business management, UW-Whitewater 1990. Former payroll benefits analyst and information analyst/negotiator. Member of Wis. Air National Guard (retired, 33 years of service), served in Middle East in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Member: American Legion; Veterans of Foreign Wars; Madison Assn. of Parliamentarians; Kiwanis. Whitewater City Council 1977-81; UW-Whitewater Bd. of Visitors 1979-89.
Elected to Assembly since 1990."
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/leginfo/contact/legislatorpages.aspx?house=Assembly&district=31
I'm willing to bet that's a more impressive resume than the one that belongs to Winneblogo. Of course we'll probably never find out because he's afraid to poke his head out of the sand and admit who he is.
Nass as would most conservatives wants students to be admitted on merit not race and other irrelevent factors.
>>Of course we'll probably never find out because he's afraid to poke his head out of the sand and admit who he is.<<
Says Anonymous ...
Seriously, could some of you Anonymouses at least adopt pen-names by which to keep you straight? "Straight-shooter" or "Nemesis" is anonymous, but with the advantage of being able to refer to him or her clearly.
>>Nass as would most conservatives wants students to be admitted on merit not race and other irrelevent factors.<<
I think everyone agrees on merit-based admission. The controversy is on what constitutes merit. To someone who sees diversity as an extremely important characteristic for a university, belonging to a minority group is very meritorious. To those who prefer a laissez faire approach to diversity, it is not.
anonywitz speaking
The really crappy thing about this, besides having to listen to all this endless jawboning over admitting a very small number of students, is what it means to minority students.
Whether a minority student checked the minority box on the application form or not, the problem is every person who ever looks at that person, or views their resume or transcript, probably for the rest of their life, is going to be biased against them. "They were only admitted because they were a minority". I know how this works by virtue of having been a female in a male-dominated field. There were NEVER any programs giving preference to women in this field, nor was there EVER preference in hiring for women. But I was accused at the University of having been admitted to the major because I was a woman. (When the major was popular. Now it isn't and they probably dropped the excessive prerequisites and grade point averages they required then.) And yet I had it happen hundreds of times that I was accused by male coworkers of having been hired "because of affirmative action". It was completely imaginary in this case. There was NO preference for women in hiring. And yet everyone believed such a thing existed in order to justify their bias against women in the field. I can only imagine how much hostility can be generated against the minority students/alumni. Problem is, whether the UW got rid of the affirmative action plan or not, it makes no difference. People will still believe it exists. For that reason, affirmative action might as well exist since the damage of imaginary affirmative action will be there anyway.
Thomas Paine says
If Wisconsin wants to be competative in the 21st century it needs a state university that is diverse and teaches students to work with diverse groups and appreciate other cultures. I don't see that as a left right issue, merely common sense
It seems to me that *if* our public schools do a good job of preparing students for college and do a good job of impressing on them the value of a college education, and *if* there is sufficient funding available from diverse sources that financial concerns are not an impediment to attendance, then the diversity of university campuses will become moot. The composition of the student body will parallel that of society as a whole. Granted, these are big Ifs. But I do think that thise view acknowledges the *causes* of unequal representation. Attacking causes is usually more difficult than attacking symptoms, but apt to leader to better solutions.
http://badgerherald.com/news/2007/02/22/legislators_ask_is_u.php
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