Scott Walker wants to be president. But that’s still a couple years away. Meanwhile, Walker wants to revamp the University of Wisconsin’s function by changing the statute defining its mission from
“36.01(2) The mission of the system is to develop human resources, to discover and disseminate knowledge, to extend knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of its campuses and to serve and stimulate society by developing in students heightened intellectual, cultural, and humane sensitivities, scientific, professional and technological expertise, and a sense of purpose. Inherent in this broad mission are methods of instruction, research, extended training and public service designed to educate people and improve the human condition. Basic to every purpose of the system is the search for truth.”
to
“36.01(2) The mission of the system is to develop human resources to meet the state’s workforce needs, to discover and disseminate knowledge, to develop in students heightened intellectual, cultural, and humane sensitivities, scientific, professional, and technological expertise, and a sense of purpose.”
Walker also proposed cutting state funding for the university by $300 million.
As I pointed out in another article yesterday, conservatives think of colleges as trade schools to train students for jobs, and don’t look past that function to see larger purposes (such as educating citizens for their role in society).
But there’s probably something darker and deeper going on here. Republicans are disdainful of intellectualism, and tend to view colleges and universities as bastions of liberalism. The right, consistent with its persecution complex, complains that professors discriminate against conservative students. Summing up, conservatives just don’t like colleges or academic types. So it’s likely that some political payback is going on here.
Is this the kind of leadership we want for our country?
Photo: This plaque has graced the University of Wisconsin campus for over a century, but a different political wind is blowing through that state now.
Update: Facing a firestorm, Walker appears to be backing away from tampering with the “Wisconsin Idea” embodied in the university’s statutory mission statement and memorialized on the campus plaque, but not without trying to blame it on a “drafting error” by university administrators. He didn’t get away with that, either.
Walker also is coming under fire for slashing the university’s research funding. If Wisconsin residents are alarmed by this, all I can say is, they had their chance to get rid of this lying jerk last fall, and blew it. You get what you vote for.