I've been hanging around Madison for more than four years now and writing for The Daily Cardinal for several of them. In my last column for the Cardinal and I just wanted to make an observation and talk about a few of the issues I am passionate about.
Plan 2008: Most UW students will never have the experience of being the only white student in a lecture hall or on a dorm floor. White students have the luxury of choosing when to think about their background. Most students of color continually find themselves isolated in a sea of homogeneity.
Plan 2008 is the system wide plan to begin to change this dynamic. The plan has funded several important projects but it has yet to show any substantive results. With the dissolution of the Office of Student Affairs it is in danger of getting further off course. The UW seems to think it is enough to hold forums about diversity, but all this talk hasn't done much to change the composition of the lecture halls. There needs to be drastic pressure to get this plan and this university to take concrete action in recruiting and create real numerical goals.
We also have to look at the complete invisibility of many groups in the curriculum. In how many of your classes have you mainly discussed white men? In looking at traditional history, philosophy, psychology, economics, political science-I could go on-it appears women and people of color haven't written or done much at all. This is a clear indicator of whose work continues to be valued.
Tuition hikes: Tuition has risen exponentially over the last 10 years and it is a drain on all students and an exclusionary barrier for lower income individuals. Students who are forced to work 30 hours per week have less of an opportunity to do well in school or participate in other activities. The budget is tight but it shouldn't be balanced on the backs of students and workers.
Sexual assault and women's rights: Imagine that every month a male was attacked and sodomized in the campus area, or that sodomy was so common that everyone knew some man it had happened to. The community would be in an uproar, there would be national coverage and specialists would come in to study what was wrong in Madison.
Now change the gender. There was another sexual assault in the campus area just this weekend. There are sexual assaults every weekend on the UW campus, but most do not make the papers. We accept this violence against women because it is so common. This community has to make it a priority to eliminate violence against women. Women will not be able to achieve equality in society until we deal with this problem. No one deserves to have their lives derailed by violence.
Privatization: For the last 30 years universities throughout the state have grown more and more reliant on private and corporate funding. This \selling off"" of university resources is compromising the intellectual integrity of the UW more each year. With private funding comes restrictions. Private monies ensure that research is profitable, that results they don't like cannot be published and that research may not be useful to the general public. This is a public university and should serve the community. It cannot do so when corporate donors have the most say over university direction and priorities.
There is a lot to work on, but there are a lot of people out there who are driven to improve this campus and this society. Student activism has been declared dead by some media outlet at least once a semester since I've been here. It is a popular theme. Occasionally it's declared to be catching on again but much of the time the forecasters claim the outlook is not good. Yet in spite of all these dire proclamations student and community advocates have continued to do what they do-get up in the morning and fight for change. So if you're an activist-waiting-to-happen but you're feeling isolated and dejected-no worries-we may not be taking over the Mifflin neighborhood anymore, but there are groups eagerly awaiting new ideas and energy.
Kate McCormack is a senior majoring in international studies and psychology.
