Talk:University of Wisconsin-Madison

Racial composition

It has one of the smallest minority enrollments among major schools, with only 11.5% of its student population being African American (2.7%), Asian American (5.2%), Native American (0.6%) or Hispanic (3%).

UW draws its students primarily from the State of Wisconsin. Those numbers don't seem wildly discordant with the racial makeup of Wisconsin, which is only about 12.7% minorities:[1]

87.3% White

5.7% Black

3.6% Hispanic

1.7% Asian

1.2% Mixed race

0.9% Native American

Dpbsmith 21:27, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

Of note, the tuition rates are capped at rather low values for instate residents. I would be curious to see what state schools have a significantly different racial makeup than the state they are in. Currently, for 12 credits for a semester it is $3365.12. For an instate resident to pay so little for a semester of college at a world class university makes for a large percentage of the college bound students head there. I would also be curious to see if that enrollment is the undergrad or the graduate population. --Mtur 21:35, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

Found something--reference is on Aschlafly's talk page--that says out-of-state enrollment is capped at 25% and "hovers" at that level... but that that doesn't count students from Minnesota, who are treated as instate (and pay instate tuition) under a reciprocal agreement between the states. Dpbsmith 10:40, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

Wisconsin has "a conservative population?"

Wisconsin defies that sort of casual stereotyping. Even though it is the state of Joseph McCarthy, it is also the birthplace of the Progressive Movement, and it elected numerous Socialist mayors in Milwaukee. Dpbsmith 21:30, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

Purple America shows the county by county break down of elections for 1960-2004. In 2004, Wisconsin was fairly purple with some bright blue spots. I wouldn't classify it as a red state. --Mtur 21:37, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

One of the bright blue counties is, of course, the one that includes Madison... What's that other? Menominee County? What's there? Ah, native Americans and a casino... So, "a conservative population" seems wrong to me, but "more conservative than Madison" would seem reasonable. Not that its exactly remarkable for an urban area or a college town to be more liberal than the rest of a state. Dpbsmith 10:49, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

And Milwaukee county, and then Douglass, Bayfield, and Ashland are also much more on the blue side than the purple. Only Waukesha and Washington counties are clearly on the red side of purple. --Mtur 14:06, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

Gossip? What's the relevance?

The article mentions that Tammy Baldwin, the state representative of the district in which the Madison campus is located,

lists her female partner on her official biography, and she is the first-ever openly lesbian member of Congress.

This seems like the sort of gossip Conservapedia accuses Wikipedia of dealing in. I don't think it belongs in the article unless it's clear how this impacts the University. Has she pressed for funding of a Gay Studies program or anything like that? Dpbsmith 21:38, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

1970 bombing

Don't have time now, but UW was one of the major centers of campus unrest during the Vietnam War, culminating in the bombing of a university building with what would now be called a "car bomb," resulting in the death of a grad student in physics... Dpbsmith 21:45, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

Aug. 24, 1970. Sterling Hall. http://www.madison.com/library/LEE/sterlinghall.html -- Same setup (in terms of chemistry) that was used in Oklahoma City. --Mtur 21:59, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

And I believe that some/all of the bombers were never caught. Murray 10:35, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

A quick look at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Hall_bombing , just one:

• Karl Armstrong - After the bombing he went into hiding and wasn't caught until February 16, 1972. He was sentenced to 23 years in Waupun State Prison, but served only 7 years. Armstrong returned to Madison and operated a popular deli called Radical Rye on State Street near the UW-Madison campus until it was displaced by the development of the Overture Center.
• Dwight Armstrong - After being released from prison, he returned to Madison and as of 2000 works for Union Cab
• David Fine - In 1987, after passing the Oregon Bar exam, Fine was denied admission to the Oregon Bar by the Oregon State Supreme Court based upon his participation in, and lack of remorse for, the bombing of Sterling Hall and the murder of Robert Fassnacht.
• Leo Burt - After the bombing he completely disappeared, and to this day remains at large.

--Mtur 14:01, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

Shakespeare

Interestingly enough, after reading Conservapedia's note about colleges not requiring Shakespeare, I noticed that the University of Wisconsin's main page, http://www.wisc.edu seemed to feature a picture captioned "An English class delves into Shakespeare." I couldn't find it later, and discovered they apparently do the old picture-rotation trick. If you go to http://www.wisc.edu and click "refresh" a dozen times or so, eventually you should get it... or you can view it at

http://www.wisc.edu/images/main/ClassEnglish.jpg

I suspect this really is a sly reference to the no-Shakespeare flap... but I have to say this looks like a stock picture and apart from the caption you certainly couldn't prove by me they aren't actually delving into Plato or T. S. Eliot. Anybody recognize the thin black paperback with the orange title on the spine? Dpbsmith 10:37, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

Political Correctness

This article says that the University of Wisconsin was the birthplace of political correctness, because Donna Shalala used to work there, and she is credited with starting the movement. I have several objections to this. First, the claim doesn't say that Shalala created political correctness while employed with the University, so it cannot be definitively stated that Wisconsin had anything to do with the movement. Additionally, the citation is garbage - the article just says that she enjoyed her time at the campus. This needs serious work. --JeffersonDarcy 14:25, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

It is the reason that Wisconsin, which has a conservative population, has a pro-gun control governor...

Tommy Thompson on Gun Control[2][3] - I will point out that it was a conservative governor who killed/stalled it in 1995. Doyle vetoed it recently. The point being, pro-gun control has been in Wisconsin since 1872 and the current liberal pro-gun control governor has the same stance as the previous conservative governor. --Mtur 14:25, 26 April 2007 (EDT)