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The '''University of Wisconsin-Madison''' is widely considered to be one of the most [[liberal]] public research universities in the nation.<ref>Bill O'Reilly, for example, stated in an interview with a Wisconsin state representative that "This University of Wisconsin at Madison [is] one of the most liberal colleges in the country's history, not just in the country."  The state representative did not dispute that about his own state's school.[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,166979,00.html]</ref>   

The '''University of Wisconsin-Madison''' is widely considered to be one of the most [[liberal]] public research universities in the nation.<ref>Bill O'Reilly, for example, stated in an interview with a Wisconsin state representative that "This University of Wisconsin at Madison [is] one of the most liberal colleges in the country's history, not just in the country."  The state representative did not dispute that about his own state's school.[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,166979,00.html]</ref>   

Lavishly funded, it has an enrollment of over forty thousand students and a budget of over two billion dollars. It is located in the state capital, [[Madison, Wisconsin]], on a sprawling lakeside campus.  It is academically ranked among the top fifty U. S. universities, and among the ten best public universities by U. S. News and World Report.<ref>Academically ranked among the top fifty U. S. universities, and among the ten best public universities by [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php U. S. News and World Report]</ref>

Lavishly funded, it has an enrollment of over forty thousand students and a budget of over two billion dollars. It is located in the state capital, [[Madison, Wisconsin]], on a sprawling lakeside campus.  It is academically ranked among the top fifty U. S. universities, and among the ten best public universities by U.S. News & World Report.<ref>Academically ranked among the top fifty U. S. universities, and among the ten best public universities by [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php U. S. News and World Report]</ref>

Campus ethnic diversity at UW-Madison is among the lowest in the Big Ten,<ref>In the Big Ten schools, the U. S. News' [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/natudoc_campdiv_brief.php Campus Ethnic Diversity Index] ranges from 0.47 (Northwestern) down to 0.17 (Iowa), with UW-Madison third from the bottom at 0.22</ref> with the student composition comprising only 3% Hispanics, 2.7% African Americans and 0.6% Native Americans. A ten-year plan to increase diversity, begun in 1998,<ref>[http://www.uwsa.edu/oadd/plan/ Plan 2008: Educational Quality Through Racial and Ethnic Diversity]</ref> was judged in 2006 to have failed.<ref name=plan>[http://www.dailycardinal.com/news/campus-diversity-efforts-failing,-plan-2008-panelists-say.html  Campus diversity efforts failing, Plan 2008 panelists say], Daily Cardinal, May 1, 2006</ref> The university caps out-of-state enrollment at 25% and draws most of its students from mostly-white Wisconsin and Minnesota, but the university's chancellor said that the cause of the problem was that minority students graduate at rates far lower than other students and claimed that “[t]hose differences are not attributable to ability or preparation or background or anything other than the difficulty of being a student of color on our campus."<ref name=plan/>  But UW-Madison's history is not any better:  in 1940, [[Milton Friedman]] left his teaching job there "[a]fter an ugly display of ... anti-Semitism."<ref>David Warsh, ''Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations'' p. 133 (2007)</ref>

Campus ethnic diversity at UW-Madison is among the lowest in the Big Ten,<ref>In the Big Ten schools, the U. S. News' [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/natudoc_campdiv_brief.php Campus Ethnic Diversity Index] ranges from 0.47 (Northwestern) down to 0.17 (Iowa), with UW-Madison third from the bottom at 0.22</ref> with the student composition comprising only 3% Hispanics, 2.7% African Americans and 0.6% Native Americans. A ten-year plan to increase diversity, begun in 1998,<ref>[http://www.uwsa.edu/oadd/plan/ Plan 2008: Educational Quality Through Racial and Ethnic Diversity]</ref> was judged in 2006 to have failed.<ref name=plan>[http://www.dailycardinal.com/news/campus-diversity-efforts-failing,-plan-2008-panelists-say.html  Campus diversity efforts failing, Plan 2008 panelists say], Daily Cardinal, May 1, 2006</ref> The university caps out-of-state enrollment at 25% and draws most of its students from mostly-white Wisconsin and Minnesota, but the university's chancellor said that the cause of the problem was that minority students graduate at rates far lower than other students and claimed that “[t]hose differences are not attributable to ability or preparation or background or anything other than the difficulty of being a student of color on our campus."<ref name=plan/>  But UW-Madison's history is not any better:  in 1940, [[Milton Friedman]] left his teaching job there "[a]fter an ugly display of ... anti-Semitism."<ref>David Warsh, ''Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations'' p. 133 (2007)</ref>

During the late 1960s, students at the University of Wisconsin became radicalized by the Vietnam war, and the university was a center of campus unrest. One protest focussed on the presence of Dow Chemical Company job recruiters&mdash;Dow being singled out as a manufacturer of napalm, a weapon thought to be particularly cruel. Others centered on the military-funded Army Mathematics Research Center (AMRC) which performed a mixture of published and secret research; the university stressed AMRC's theoretical studies, while campus radicals pointed to evidence that some of its work had direct military applications. In 1970, Karleton Armstrong and three other students constructed what would now be called a "car bomb," filling a stolen van with a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (a home-made explosive familiar to farmers). They exploded it outside the Sterling Hall building which housed the AMRC.<ref>[http://www.madison.com/library/LEE/sterlinghall.html Sterling Hall Bombing], Madison library website</ref> The explosion killed a graduate student. The ensuing shock and revulsion, and the winding down of the Vietnam war, led to the decline and fall the period of Wisconsin campus radicalism.<ref>[http://www2.jsonline.com:80/news/state/aug00/sterling20081900a.asp 30 years ago, bomb shattered UW campus], Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Online, Aug 19, 2000: "The statement made by the Sterling Hall bombing was one that many anti-war activists opposed. They feared the attack discredited the peace movement and gave credence to people who viewed war protesters as dangerous.... Activists posted fliers and held meetings, but could no longer rally support.... Across the country, anti-war demonstrations declined dramatically. 'I've never seen anything change so quickly,' said Michael Zaleski, the prosecutor who eventually brought criminal charges against Karl Armstrong. 'Before the bombing, there used to be 10,000 to 15,000 kids rioting in this city every week. Everything stopped. I remember there being just one event after that, with a couple of hundred people - and half of them were FBI agents and undercover cops.' Activist professors at UW-Madison silenced themselves. Students who asked them to lecture were refused."</ref>

During the late 1960s, students at the University of Wisconsin became radicalized by the Vietnam war, and the university was a center of campus unrest. One protest focussed on the presence of Dow Chemical Company job recruiters&mdash;Dow being singled out as a manufacturer of napalm, a weapon thought to be particularly cruel. Others centered on the military-funded Army Mathematics Research Center (AMRC) which performed a mixture of published and secret research; the university stressed AMRC's theoretical studies, while campus radicals pointed to evidence that some of its work had direct military applications. In 1970, Karleton Armstrong and three other students constructed what would now be called a "car bomb," filling a stolen van with a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (a home-made explosive familiar to farmers). They exploded it outside the Sterling Hall building which housed the AMRC.<ref>[http://www.madison.com/library/LEE/sterlinghall.html Sterling Hall Bombing], Madison library website</ref> The explosion killed a graduate student. The ensuing shock and revulsion, and the winding down of the Vietnam war, led to the decline and fall the period of Wisconsin campus radicalism.<ref>[http://www2.jsonline.com:80/news/state/aug00/sterling20081900a.asp 30 years ago, bomb shattered UW campus], Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Online, Aug 19, 2000: "The statement made by the Sterling Hall bombing was one that many anti-war activists opposed. They feared the attack discredited the peace movement and gave credence to people who viewed war protesters as dangerous.... Activists posted fliers and held meetings, but could no longer rally support.... Across the country, anti-war demonstrations declined dramatically. 'I've never seen anything change so quickly,' said Michael Zaleski, the prosecutor who eventually brought criminal charges against Karl Armstrong. 'Before the bombing, there used to be 10,000 to 15,000 kids rioting in this city every week. Everything stopped. I remember there being just one event after that, with a couple of hundred people - and half of them were FBI agents and undercover cops.' Activist professors at UW-Madison silenced themselves. Students who asked them to lecture were refused."</ref>

It is the birthplace of the the [[Critical legal studies]]<ref>http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Critical_legal_theory</ref> movement.  

It is the birthplace of the [[Critical legal studies]]<ref>http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Critical_legal_theory</ref> movement.  

It is one of only 15 U.S. Universities found to require a course in Shakespeare in order to receive a degree in English.<ref>http://www.goacta.org/press/Press%20Releases/4-19-07PR.htm</ref>

It is one of only 15 U.S. Universities found to require a course in Shakespeare in order to receive a degree in English.<ref>http://www.goacta.org/press/Press%20Releases/4-19-07PR.htm</ref>