The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board covers a lot of stories in its infinite wisdom. These are the stories that didn’t make the cut, but are still important.
Occupy Madison refocuses purpose
Flying under the radar this year has been the Occupy Madison movement.
It has been over a year since the Occupy movement began. When thousands of anti-Wall Street protesters poured into New York City’s Zuccotti Park, it captured the attention of everyone. It inspired those who wanted to fight against injustice, but it also angered those who saw the movement as a socialistic waste of time. Nevertheless, the movement spread everywhere, including our humble city.
The Occupy movement has noble goals of ending wealth inequality, fighting corruption and, at least in their view, making America a better place. But it is hard to get behind a movement that seems so aimless.
Fortunately for Occupy Madison, those things cannot now be said about the group. Mired in awkward controversy last year, the group has had a resurgence. Like a student who finally picks up his or her grades, focus seems to be the factor that brought Occupy Madison to the status of a legitimate group.
Instead of focusing on abstract concepts, the group is highly focused on homelessness. It is an issue that is hard to tackle. It involves societal failures as well as personal issues like drug abuse and mental illness. Instead of just picketing and chanting, Occupy Madison has lobbied city Council and worked with authorities. It seems if Council, Occupy Madison and other homeless activists keep the good work up, Madison may be able to make positive strides in this issue.
The city needs to continue addressing issues that are at the root of homelessness, and mediating structures like Occupy Madison are in a good place to help by providing temporary housing, positive influence in government and surprisingly good publicity.
For many, Occupy has been good fodder for jokes (watch sitcoms and you’ll see) but Occupy Madison is anything but a joke. It is helping the city, but more importantly it is helping those who need it the most.
Crime culture grows
Although there was a significant amount of coverage about various crimes happening throughout Madison this semester, the sheer rate of increasing crime—and the severity of what that means for our community—seems to have gone under the radar.
According to our interview with Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, the majority of threats to student security on campus come from the gentrification of student areas into nearby neighborhoods, a general increase in gun culture, and the continued threat of sexual assault that is present on most college campuses. Recognizing the threat to safety, there have been several city initiatives this year which attempt to increase lighting in poorly lit areas, as well as push for better building design in new developments to prevent break-ins.
However, it is clear that what the city has been able to provide is not enough to ensure safety on our campus. Stories of robberies at gunpoint, sexual assaults and break-ins are increasingly frequent, staring back at students from the front pages of the city’s newspapers and magazines. Fear is becoming more and more prevalent in the campus atmosphere, and it needs to change.
Not only do we need better lock-change policies and regulations on new buildings being built, it is imperative that landlords agree to change locks on old buildings much more frequently as well. We need more police on the streets later at night, maintaining high visibility and patrolling campus areas past bar time—when many students are at their most vulnerable.
Of course, we do not hope to push the crime that is occurring in the campus and downtown area to other areas of Madison—with well-thought-out preventative measures, it is possible to decrease the rate of crime throughout the city. Guardian Angels, a volunteer-based organization that works to keep the city safe by providing self-defense and safety seminars as well as organize street patrols, is an excellent example of how citizens and the city government can reclaim the community and make it safer. Putting more money, time and effort into preventative measures will hopefully quell the rising tide of crime in the city, and make it a welcoming place for students and community members alike.
Student group tests SSFC funding rules
Nearly every year, an occasion arises that calls into question the legitimacy of the means through which student groups receive funding through segregated fees. This year, many individuals across campus are criticizing the leaders of the newly formed Medieval Warriorcraft League for allegedly manipulating the funding streams to highlight the flaws in the system.
While group leaders say they are seeking funding because the group provides legitimate services to students, such as warrior trainings, individuals involved in creating the group, like former Student Services Finance Committee Chair Matt Manes, are knowledgeable in GSSF funding and have expressed concern over the current system in recent years.
Some students across campus argue that group leaders are trying to demonstrate that any student group can manipulate its funding eligibility information in its favor to receive segregated fee funding, while groups that provide genuine services to students, such as the Multicultural Student Coalition, are denied simply because of subpar eligibility presentations.
While we believe the point allegedly being made is a valid one, it is being done at the expense of students. The group is slated to receive over $95,000 in funding through student fees. Around half of this money will go towards purchasing medieval weaponry and safety equipment.
We believe that however valid the argument is, every cent of a student’s tuition is valuable and should not be spent on purchasing expensive equipment for the sake of making a point.
Walker’s health care decision petty
Over the summer, the Supreme Court upheld the majority of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act. Emotions were high, as should be expected, since it was one of the biggest decisions of the year. But the court decision was just the beginning. Now work needs to be done.
Part of the law requires so-called health care exchanges to be implemented in every state. These are a set of health insurance plans the federal government approves of and may subsidize. Gov. Scott Walker decided not to implement the exchange; he instead will allow (or force) the federal government to do it for his own state.
This board disapproves of that decision.
In an age where people are obsessed with the partisanship that permeates through the State Capitol and Washington, D.C., refusing to work with the federal government shows a new level of pettiness. The exchange needs to be set up; it is the law. Instead of doing the work for his own citizens, Walker is passing the buck to the feds. He even had the option to work with the federal government, but did not take that opportunity.
Beyond being bad politics, passing up the opportunity is not the best policy. Wisconsin has a history of improving health care access in the state, and the state knows best what its citizens need. If Walker would have worked to set up viable exchanges, it would give Wisconsin citizens visibility to health care plans they need, and the state would be less subordinate to the federal government than it will be now.
Walker’s decision to pass the buck on the health care exchange is another example of the partisanship in government today. We understand that Walker is against the Affordable Care Act, but his disapproval is not an excuse to work in bad faith.
SSFC right to give funding to AHA
Of all of the decisions the Student Services Finance Committee has made throughout its existence, the committee’s ruling this year to fund the student group Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics has elicited some of the most national attention the committee has ever received.
AHA is set to receive funds through student segregated fees totaling almost $70,000, the highest any non-theistic student organization has ever received nationally.
Perhaps it is the high amount of funding the group is receiving that led reputable news sources such as The Washington Post to report on the committee’s decision, but in our minds SSFC ruled properly in granting the group eligibility for funding.
No matter how controversial a group’s stances on issues may be, SSFC is prohibited from considering the viewpoints of organizations applying for funding when determining if they are eligible or not. The committee held to their vow to remain neutral in making funding decisions when ruling in favor of AHA.
While the decision seemed to be controversial on a national level, funding AHA through segregated fees is no different in principle than funding groups such as Badger Catholic, which historically has had a hefty budget on the UW-Madison campus.
In maintaining viewpoint neutrality, SSFC does not fund Catholicism or Atheism when allocating student fees to these organizations, but rather the services that the groups provide to the student body, such as counseling.
In our minds, SSFC had no option but to fund AHA. The group met all requirements for funding eligibility, leaving little room for debate about whether the committee made the correct decision.
