The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board knows there are important issues to cover as a newspaper... These aren’t those issues.
ASM’s narrow focus on MCSC grievances
We can only bet the Student Services Finance Committee didn’t anticipate the year-long cluster-cuss of red-hot, council-splitting, slur-induced debate that ensued when the group made the decision to defund the Multicultural Student Coalition for the 2012-2013 academic year.
After first requesting nearly one-fourth of all funds set aside for registered student organizations, MCSC failed to properly fill out and turn in their application by deadline, resulting in a complete funding cut by ASM. Soon, complaints were filed, challenges were made, administration was contacted, multiculturally incompetent insults were thrown, MCSC members magically appeared on council, multiculturally incompetent insults were apologized for and the story made headline after headline. And just when we thought the torture was over with council’s final decision, SSFC challenged the winning goal—calling it corrupt and potentially pushing the devil’s match into overtime.
So, what has this editorial board and the rest of campus learned from all this?
Nothing.
Except maybe that the MCSC doesn’t, like literally will not, give up without a full-fledged attack. From weaseling their own members onto the Associated Student’s of Madison’s student council to illegally contacting university officials for backup to even slandering and swearing at representatives at the start of council meetings, the debacle has left MCSC’s funding decision in a months-long stalemate—a stalemate that has made so many headlines that this board just might vomit.
It’s not that we don’t care about a multicultural student group’s presence on a campus that severely lacks diversity, it’s that, with one single group in a 40,000 student university, ASM has effectively shown through broken-record headlines that it is an ineffective institution incapable of agreeing on one issue, moving past that issue and focusing on the rest of the student body as a whole.
Seeing a new gridlock headline about the MCSC’s funding status four out of seven days of the week doesn’t inspire much hope for ASM among the student body. This should-be-meager piece of news has plagued front pages for months. It’s high time ASM take a good look at the purpose of their spotlight and start reevaluating their use of time.
MCSC isn’t UW-Madison. ASM has a duty to represent UW-Madison. We’ve seen through news story after news story that this hasn't happened. While we would like to say the next headline MCSC and ASM make is a progressive one, it would be more accurate to say we really just don’t give a shit anymore.
Kathleen Falk: the super leftist
To put it bluntly, Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk’s prominence in the recall campaign was a fluke, and one that should never have gone as far as it did. She was the first to enter the race following her resignation from county government and gained momentum by playing to the unions. While Wisconsin waited for a major political player like Russ Feingold or Dave Obey to step up and challenge Gov. Scott Walker, Falk embarked on an aggressive campaign that won her support among the Democratic base.
Her platform was straightforward and simple: return to Wisconsin what Walker took away. That meant promising not only to restore collective bargaining rights, but signing a pledge ensuring she would veto any budget that did not include collective bargaining rights. It was a step that showed she possesses the same flaws as Walker. She is focused on the base and she is stubborn. Walker is not the wrong fit for Wisconsin because he is a Republican; it is because he is unwilling to see the other side and determined to do whatever it takes to carry through his agenda. Falk, for all of her merits as Dane County Executive, would have been the bizzaro Walker.
Mifflin: Don’t go? Yeah right
If we could count on our dean of students for anything this year, it was that she was always there to tell us not to do something. From the controversy surrounding “ES, FU” to her recent “don’t go” to Mifflin fiasco, Lori Berquam has proven herself quite the wet blanket.
We understand it is her job to keep us safe, to make sure we represent the Badger student body well, but when you go from a warning leader to a total buzzkill as she did, you have crossed a line.
The problem with advocating against “ES, FU” or Mifflin is not that it makes Berquam uncool, but that it alienates her from students. She has an important job, but by focusing on ending what many consider to be staples of campus culture, her perceived authority is lost, and that is not OK. When Berquam tweeted, “My video debut was a disaster, but I’m all about your safety at #mifflin2012. Sorry if my tone wasn't right. I liked the remix! #dontgo,” we saw a glimpse of what her leadership could and should be: thoughtful and approachable. Hopefully that is the tone she takes come fall and this editorial board will not have to write any party-pooper columns about her.
Occupy Madison doesn’t occupy my mind
This might be a different story if Madison's branch of the larger Occupy Wall Street movement was actually still a protest movement. Instead, with Occupy Madison now serving a role more equivalent to an emergency shelter for the city's homeless rather than an actual protest, we say it's time the Occupiers packed up and started focusing on real issues.
Anyone with even a hint of knowledge about homelessness realizes you don't solve a problem like homelessness by putting people in tents. You solve it with comprehensive supportive housing. With job training. With substance abuse counseling. With mental health services. It’s not just the more effective way to fight homelessness, it’s also (by far) the most efficient one.
But months after most national Occupy encampments have shut down, Madison’s is devoting much of its work toward finding a new home for itself, instead of homes for some of its residents.
Occupy Madison needs to drop its search for a new location and spend that time and energy advocating for the kind of supportive housing services our city's homeless need.
Block 100, make a decision already
Common Council has become a broken record over the last few years. Projects like the Edgewater Hotel renovation have been mired in committee after committee with no end in sight, agonizing officials and observers alike.
The Block 100 Foundation's plan to redevelop and tear down a handful of unoccupied, dilapidated buildings on State Street has met the same fate.
Wealthy philanthropists Jerome Frautschi and Pleasant Rowland purchased a block of buildings on State, West Mifflin and Fairchild Streets. They plan to tear down some and renovate others to make way for a new development of retail stores and office space. The proceeds from managing the property will go toward funding the Overture Center across the street, which has had budget problems.
There is no doubt the city would love to have help funding the Overture Center, but the center of the issue is whether it would be right to demolish some of those buildings that have been given landmark status.
The proposal has bounced from committee to committee with no real action taken, leaving the developers, construction workers and downtown visitors alike in Madison purgatory.
Whether you think the vacant, rundown buildings should be torn down to make way for a new project or you believe the landmark buildings should be protected, we can all get behind this: "Do something!"
