UW-Madison Bascom Hall
It’s true that Gov. Scott Walker may do plenty of worse things that cause real damage to people’s lives than his attempt to destroy the lofty ideals of the University of Wisconsin that have been written into state law for more than 100 years.
Yet it’s a glaring exposure of Walker’s true character that he went out of his way to intentionally trash the high-minded principles enshrined in the so-called Wisconsin Idea that has built the state’s public university system into one of the best in the country.
What kind of governor—or potential president of the United States—would be so gratuitously petty as to cross out the noblest goals of higher education in his state budget and then, when public outrage erupts, lie about it?
It takes your breath away to think about any governor striking out language committing his public university “to extend knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of its campus” or “to extend training and public service designed to educate people and improve the human condition.”
It would be amusing if it weren’t so outrageous that Walker even crossed out of the university’s educational mission: “Basic to every purpose of the system is the search for truth.”
When out-of-town reporters ask what kind of man Walker really is, it sounds like a cartoonish exaggeration to suggest he’d be so shallow as to try to chip “lux” and “veritas” off buildings in Madison to remove enlightenment and truth from the mission of the university.
Walker initially tried to pass off his radical rewriting of UW’s educational mission as “a drafting error” that university officials let slip through.
That public explanation was proven false within hours. University officials immediately strongly objected to defiling the university mission in early budget drafts and were told flatly by the governor’s representatives it was non-negotiable.
That’s when Walker pulled out the handy cover story he’s used to dodge responsibility in two John Doe criminal investigations—that any wrongdoing was committed by underlings without him knowing anything about it.
Walker’s Contempt for Education on Display
That also defies belief since internal communications made public in those investigations revealed Walker as an obsessive, hands-on politician tightly controlling every aspect of campaign and government operations affecting his public image.
Besides, the wholesale dismantling of the century-old Wisconsin Idea UW reverently celebrates as its founding doctrine was so extreme that no minor official would ever dare create such wreckage without permission from the man at the top.
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And, boy, does destroying the university’s guiding principles about extending knowledge beyond the campus to build communities, serve the public and improve the human condition reveal volumes about just how totally unprincipled the man at the top really is.
But then Walker, a college dropout himself, has presided over the most brazenly anti-education government in Wisconsin history. Having already whacked $1.1 billion from education at every level, including $250 million from the university in his first budget, Walker’s new budget slashes another $300 million from UW over the next two years while also freezing tuition.
As for improving the human condition, Walker strongly supports improving the condition of wealthy humans who are his political contributors with huge tax cuts and corporate giveaways, but really couldn’t care less about the condition of less fortunate humans in need of health care, food stamps or jobless benefits.
And it’s certainly no secret Walker opposes the search for truth, especially when prosecutors are investigating whether government officials have committed crimes.
Walker’s final explanation for radically rewriting the university’s mission was that it was “no big deal” and “confusion” caused him to submit a budget killing UW’s most hallowed principles.
“It was a mistake that someone made,” Walker said. Golly, I wonder who that was?
Maybe it was the same governor who showed similar contempt for university education and experts with advanced degrees by gutting a third of the budgeted positions in the science bureau of the Department of Natural Resources.
Those whose jobs would be wiped out are the scientists providing factual research on how to protect our state’s air, water, vital wetlands, pristine forests and all forms of wildlife and human life.
That further confirms Walker’s disdain for extending the mission of the university beyond the boundaries of the campus to serve the public and improve the human condition.
But knowledge and research are especially important when a state is threatened by destructive industries like, oh, let’s say, open pit lead mining. Or that global warming university-educated scientists are so worked up about for slowly destroying all life as we know it.
If Walker had actually finished college with a well-rounded liberal arts education, he might have learned about a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus, who said: “Character is fate.”
Better educated, more enlightened Wisconsinites, appalled that someone of Walker’s disturbing character is being taken seriously as a presidential candidate, all hope that turns out to be true.
