Like many, I recently devoured Netflix’s Stranger Things and loved every kooky moment. As a pubescent monster of the eighties, I felt at home in a world hairy with bicycles, RPGs, Corey Hart, and people smoking cigarettes like it was their civic duty. Those pure passions aside, I’ve still become increasingly interested in the lure of narratives set in the recent past […]
For the past few years I’ve used this space to be a reporter of sorts. I have reported on events, while also indulging my Carver-esque appetite for exploring how we talk about things. The results have been mixed in that each revelation immediately shoulders the great Ecclesiastical weight of “there is nothing new under the […]
I swear, if you introduced the editors of the Wisconsin State Journal to Richard Woody Johnson, they still wouldn’t know dick. Have you ever wondered why there’s a constant campaign to “inform the public about the UW”? Well, because doing your job is hard I guess! And thus we have another easy-listening editorial that smooths the […]
Look, I don’t want to gloat, but if you look at my last post and compare the GB data with that for UW-Milwaukee, even PolitFudge is labeling Governor Walker’s claims about the UW as “Kohl’s Cash Don’t Play Here Homie!” But this is to be expected when the truth is dead. So to my nine […]
Oh my god. So many ragamuffin rapscallions, so little time. Reminder of this blog’s two golden rules: 1) Faculty are always to blame 2) You won’t believe what’s happened since the last thing that happened. So, in the last few days, UW-Milwaukee (in dramatic fashion) and UW-Green Bay joined the wave of No Confidence motions as […]
I’m going to keep this relatively short, which is rare. Why? I only have one point to make, and regardless of how this whole UW kerfuffle turns out, it’s important that Wisconsinites know one thing: faculty were right, all along, without fail, about the intentions and purpose for the striking of tenure from state statute. This is […]
I woke up today wanting to be positive, to feel like fresh-picked flowers and magnolia blooms. I’m reading UW-Madison professor Caroline Levine’s book on form, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about her contention that seemingly restrictive forms can, when intersecting with other forms, afford positive change—in short, this is why I’m […]
I don’t know, Wisconsin is really freaking weird these days, as in completely losing its mind while having hallucinations of competence. If you don’t want to read any of this, here is a short video on the state of productive dialogue in the Badger State as it relates to higher education. Hint: the new state […]
What if I told you that someone with responsibility literally brought a red button to a meeting? What if I told you that this person, while his subordinates were making test-run presentations, would push the button and the words ‘no whining!’ would be ejaculated as a sound effect? Again: this is not a metaphor. This is […]
Sometimes those who exist to do nothing but tear other people down can do you a tremendous favor—they can remind everyone of exactly what it is we don’t want to be. And that’s the case with the Wisconsin Policy “Research” Institute and their recently released op-ed paper (dubbed a “report”) on faculty tenure in Wisconsin. The paper […]
