A meeting of past and present protesters gathered Wednesday to confer on UW-Madison's activist past and the reasons behind it.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Paul Barrows said the objectives of the panel discussion were to draw on the experiences and remembrances of the faculty, staff and former students and to learn from the past so the university, collectively, was not condemned to repeat it.
\When it comes to the whole issue of student activism and student politics, I think this campus is really second to none,"" he said.
The panel, moderated by UW-Madison Political Science Professor Donald Downs, included former Madison mayor Paul Soglin and former Dean of Students Paul Ginsberg, among others. Each participant took the podium to give his or her impression of the Vietnam era and its impact on the campus.
Downs said he came to Wisconsin because of its standing as a research school and its ""intellectual and political energy."" He said he was impressed by the Wisconsin Idea, the concept that the university's boundaries are the state's boundaries, and UW-Madison's pioneering role in academic freedom.
""Generally student protest and activism have gone hand in hand with the Wisconsin Idea and the sifting and winnowing of ideas, but at times there have been tensions,"" Downs said.
Ginsberg said an appropriate metaphor of the tension of the era was a line of National Guards with fixed bayonets outside of the Education building.
""Finding normalcy on campus during those days was very hard,"" he said.
Ginsberg and Soglin addressed the animosity that some students felt toward others from out-of-state and both decried that animosity. Soglin said UW-Madison's mixed student body has been a major factor in its activist heritage.
""The effort to create a heterogeneous institution was really critical in terms of forming not just the political fabric of this institution, but also the high academic standards,"" he said.
John Peck questioned the progress of activism on campus, saying that UW-Madison has not done enough. Panel member and former student activist Charles Holley said the university is still here to maintain the status quo.
""The idea of changing it overnight isn't going to happen,"" he said.
