Open attack on academic freedom and free speech

Look at this clip of an interview with Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. The host, Mike Gousha, asks specifically about tenure, "why do changes need to be made?" Starting around 2:00, Fitzgerald responds with this:

The idea that anybody should be protected from any kind of criticism when they make public comments or even the way they handle themselves on campus is just not sitting well with many of us. 

He shortly thereafter comes back around to talk about professors being "completely protected", in case you found "anybody" ambiguous.

Now, tenure is not about criticism that I can see and faculty are hardly protected from criticism (see below or, my god, read a newspaper). What we are protected from is being fired for doing legitimate research or speaking our minds. That's surely what he means.

And you do know that there's already political consequences for people doing normal research, including firing and public calls for firing: (1) firing a bunch of scientists from the Department of Natural Resources who had worked on politically charged issues and (2) a sitting state senator making scathing attacks on a professor because of his research.

The house is on fire, folks.


Image in recognition of Donald Trump announcement that he's running for president. In case the news wasn't insane enough for you yet.

The real misperception about the politics surrounding the University of Wisconsin

This blog has been silent about recent developments aimed at destroying the University of Wisconsin by more rapid defunding, by dismantling tenure and by forbidding shared governance.

We've seen the Board of Regents decline to step up and urge the state not to do these things. We've seen the System president and Madison chancellor reassure us repeatedly that there's really no problem here and then that it's not as bad as it seems and now that they're doing all they can to lessen the damage.

The latest message from our chancellor (here) is intended, among other things, to "help clarify some misperceptions".

The only real misperception here is any failure to understand and to say clearly and directly that the state government — the governor and the assembly and the senate — intends to defund UW, dismantle tenure and destroy shared governance and this is a huge step toward accomplishing those goals. They have been very open about this (e.g. here) and to pretend like things aren't heading that way is maddening.

What do we do? Well, you can run or you can stand and fight. If you choose the latter or have no choice but to stay, there's only one way to go: Organized action. A member of Team Verb posted this list on fb last week; consider it a suggestion to join and be active in the relevant groups:

• TAA
• AAUP
• PROFS 
• WUU
• UFAS

The TAA has fought more effectively than anybody for UW in a broad sense, and even if you can't join, you should support them. AAUP is our big national ally and word on the street is that the long moribund local chapter is getting going again. PROFS is the key group working with state government (to the extent that is possible at present) and their website is a good source of information about what's happening. There are two small unions on campus for faculty and academic staff, the Wisconsin University Union and United Faculty and Academic Staff. My real hope is that these groups will now all work together ... the stakes could not be higher. 

Big announcement from Mr. Verb -- Career change

Dear readers,
You should be the first to know. After literally decades of studying how language works and changes and what it tells us about the mind, I'm moving on. From this day forward, I'll be studying ancient mating habits.

Yes, linguistics has allowed me tremendous opportunities to help understand our state's and nation's past and present and to serve communities around the state. And our students often go on to work for businesses outside of the academy that help grow the economy.

But from this day forward, it's ancient mating habits. Mating habits of what, you ask? Whatever, I say.

Yours verbally,

Mr. V

PS: Read this.

Academic freedom isn't in Kansas anymore

This story started floating here overnight about the Kansas Board of Regents new policy about social media. The link is from the WaPo blog The Monkey Cage and it's worth reading.

Here's the key passage (emphasis added):

The chief executive officer of a state university has the authority to suspend, dismiss or terminate from employment any faculty or staff member who makes improper use of social media. “Social media” means any facility for online publication and commentary, including but not limited to blogs, wikis, and social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube. “Improper use of social media” means making a communication through social media that:

i. directly incites violence or other immediate breach of the peace;

ii. when made pursuant to (i.e. in furtherance of) the employee’s official duties, is contrary to the best interests of the University;

iii. discloses without authority any confidential student information, protected health care information, personnel records, personal financial information, or confidential research data; or

iv. subject to the balancing analysis required by the following paragraph, impairs discipline by superiors or harmony among co-workers, has a detrimental impact on close working relationships for which personal loyalty and confidence are necessary, impedes the performance of the speaker’s official duties, interferes with the regular operation of the university, or otherwise adversely affects the university’s ability to efficiently provide services.

 In determining whether the employee’s communication constitutes an improper use of social media under paragraph (iv), the chief executive officer shall balance the interest of the university in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees against the employee’s right as a citizen to speak on matters of public concern, and may consider the employee’s position within the university and whether the employee used or publicized the university name, brands, website, official title or school / department / college or otherwise created the appearance of the communication being endorsed, approved or connected to the university in a manner that discredits the university. The chief executive officer may also consider whether the communication was made during the employee’s working hours or the communication was transmitted utilizing university systems or equipment. This policy on improper use of social media shall apply prospectively from its date of adoption by the Kansas Board of Regents. 

A lot of faculty I know see their proper role as specifically trying to push their institutions in ways that many administrators instantly interpret as 'contrary to the best interests' of those institutions. And it seems like interfering with the institution's 'ability to effectively provide services' surely includes working for higher wages and better conditions for workers, for instance.

Now, if they actually try to enforce this, there'll surely be long legal battles over it. But this is not a good moment.

MOOCs and Thomas Friedman's "Revolution hits the universities"

If you care about higher ed in the United States, you've probably already read and even discussed Thomas Friedman's recent op-ed in the NYT, Revolution hits the universities.  If so, you need to read this piece in Inside Higher Ed by Kris Olds, a member of the UW–Madison faculty.

In my world at least, a lot of us are talking about MOOCs and see some potential plusses and some serious minuses. This is the clearest single statement of things I've seen and look forward to his coming pieces on this.

(Image ultimately from Moody's, but posted in Olds' piece.)

Election Day 2012

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the blog's been quiet. Just a few posts here and there, mostly by other members of Team Verb. You try working in the political vortex that's been Wisconsin this fall. I cry myself to sleep while images of Tommy Thompson and Paul Ryan flicker across the TV screen and then wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat dreaming that President Romney has banned scholarly research with particularly heavy penalties for linguists.

But today's the day, and good wishes have been pouring in literally from around the world. Our little precinct was the busiest I've ever seen it and the poll workers said turnout was ahead of four years ago. Other reports around Madison suggest similar patterns, despite cruddy weather (snow/drizzle).

Fingers crossed.

Anglo-Saxon heritage

The latest political dust-up is over the claim (since denied) that an adviser to Mitt Romney said to the Daily Telegraph:

“We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and [Romney] feels that the special relationship is special,” the unnamed adviser told the paper. “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.”

People are hitting Romney now on 'racial insensitivity' and other grounds.

But honestly, don't you get a little nervous about embracing the 'Anglo-Saxons'? And surely Romney does.

Look, governor, I knew the Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons were friends of mine. And you are no Anglo-Saxon. I think I fully appreciate the history here, and this isn't a glamorous heritage.

Leave aside the stereotypes like in the image at the top (from here), and consider the picture at the right. It is the image from wikipedia of the "Reconstruction of the Anglo-Saxon royal palace at Cheddar around 1000 AD". Royal palace, we're talking, a mere thousand years ago. No car elevators in there.

Not your goals or lifestyle, I'd say, governor.

Democrabeep!

Everybody in Wisconsin knows that the recalls are coming fast and hard. The primary is Tuesday to select the D who'll run against the R (Walker) with that election to be decided on June 5, 2012.

At noon that day, the twitter master known as Astrodex proposes that everybody should call -- by twitter, fb, email, semaphore -- for all Wisconsinites to get out and vote. It's a bipartisan (omnipartisan?) celebration of voter rights.

Wait, you ask, is there a language angle here? Hey, I tell you, just imagine democrabeep as a candidate for Word of the Year!

Let's make it happen.

Killing education in Wisconsin

If you live in the rapidly deteriorating state of Wisconsin, you know the latest news, namely:

Wisconsin is the only state in the nation that had "statistically significant" job losses over the past 12 months, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But now check out this story about the effects of Walker's Act 10 ... slashing teacher pay. Do you really want the pay of any teachers maxing out at 38K?

It's amazing just how wrong Walker's direction is on every count. John Nichols gives a quick summary here.

Walker turned down federal funding for transportation and expansion of broadband communications, effectively opting out of 21st century infrastructure development. He picked fights with public employees and teachers, rather than making them partners in a development push. Then he crafted a low-road budget that made deep cuts in education funding and services — effectively telling businesses that while they would have plenty of support in other states, they would be on their own in Wisconsin.

 Nationally it may be a weak recovery, but I'd prefer that to what we have in Wisconsin.

Walker's weak but brazen spin

I've been following Governor Scott Walker on Twitter for a good while now and there are two clear trends. First, most stuff is unspeakably trivial (as discussed here). Second, when there is a tweet of any substance, it's often a sign that there's bad news on exactly the same topic that's just broken.

This has been his game on jobs. As Wisconsin has been to losing more jobs than any other state, every report is met by a 'look over there, not over here' tweet, like 'Our unemployment rate is lower than Illinois's rate'. In fact, now, when I see a tweet from the twit on economic news, I instantly check to see what bad news has come out about Wisconsin's continuing slide. Today, the tweet you see here came through and I went to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to see the headline pasted in below (screenshot from a later update, but text unchanged, I think).

15,600 jobs added in 2012 is not exactly impressive, but in fact, we've lost 23,900 jobs over the past year, so he had to pick a little uptick in the overall downward trend.

Are there Walker supporters who feel good about this approach to things?

No, he didn't really...

Santorum, um, bottomed out yesterday in Puerto Rico.  Not only did he say they had to embrace English as their official language, he also said (according to the Daily Kos):

"Like any other state, there has to be compliance with this and any other federal law," Santorum said. "And that is that English has to be the principal language. There are other states with more than one language such as Hawaii but to be a state of the United States, English has to be the principal language."

Do you ever feel like it's hopeless?  (Tangent:  I think all of his female relatives do!  Not looking too cheery, there, girls!  Well, that's how I'd feel if I was related to him, too.)

Rally for UW, Feb. 14

The anniversary of the event that started it all …

See you there.

Walkergate update

Sorry that we've been on a bit of a hiatus here ... beginning of the semester, etc. People especially from out of state are asking about where things stand with the burgeoning corruption scandal surrounding Governor Scott Walker, now mostly known as Walkergate. Blue Cheddar is generally a good source for grassroots and progressive news from our state and they posted a nice overview earlier today, here. I have no idea what will ultimately come from the investigation, but it certainly seems to be going strong.

Quick update, Jan. 29:  Jason Stein from the MJS has this additional historical context.

Old school paleo-

The American Dialect Society list (ads-l) has had a little traffic lately about the names that Ron Paul's followers have given themselves or that they've been given by others, including these:

Paulbots, Paulinists, Paulites, Paultards, Ron-Paulians, Paul[l]ination, Paulunteers

I've been wondering for a while about another terms associated with him, curiosity that was spurred by this morning's front page NYT piece about his unwillingness to distance himself from support from the extreme right. The article, by Jim Rutenberg and Serge Kovaleski, talks a fair bit about paleoconservatives and paleolibertarians. The contrast to neo-conservatives or neo-cons (and neo-liberals too, I guess) is clear and we have paleo- in lots of neutral, scientific contexts. Beyond that, it's pretty negative, it seems like. Looking around on Urban Dictionary, the uses of paleo- look mostly negative, like references to tech/IT, such as paleoadmin, defined there as:

An IT professional who has been running the same outdated systems for longer than you've been alive and who refuses to adopt more functional equipment and methods out of fear of having to do new things. Typically prefers equipment & software with the maximum amount of overhead so he can always look busy.

People probably aren't running out to label themselves that way. And I won't even try to talk about the paleo-diet thing.

The Wikipedia entry for paleoconservative describes the term as "somewhat tongue-in-cheek", but it sounds far worse than that to my ear. Sounds a little close to calling yourself a Neanderthal, but given their political views, Neanderthals should be gravely offended.

#What10kbuys at UW–Madison

You have heard, I imagine, about Romney offering to bet Perry $10,000 last night during the Republican debates, as TPM describes it:

without skipping a beat at the Saturday night debate here, Mitt Romney held out his hand and offered to bet Rick Perry $10,000 that he didn’t change the health care text in his book.

It's getting quick political play (again, for TPM, see here). The hashtag in the subject line of this post has taken off ... a guy who's worth an estimated $200,000,000* (here) can throw away 10k without blinking but for us real people, it's more than a casual bet.

In our world, the answer to #What10kbuys is quick and easy: it would pay the salary of an experienced Teaching Assistant or Project Assistant, working over 15 hours a week for the full academic year.

I'll bet you $10,000 this haunts Mittens for a while.**


* At a 5% return on investment that would be an annual income of 10 million a year without touching the principal.


** No, I won't actually bet you that. A dollar, maybe.

WOTY

Yes, the rusty old WOTY machine has been dragged (drug?) out of the barn, cleaned off and oiled up. Oxford University Press has fired its opening salvo, squeezed middle, described here and defined as:

the section of society regarded as particularly affected by inflation, wage freezes, and cuts in public spending during a time of economic difficulty, consisting principally of those people on low or middle incomes.

The reaction from the American Dialect Society list and other Americans has been surprise, I guess. (Whatevs, my preferred current post on the OUP blog is about giving thanks for beer, here.)

I've heard and seen various suggestions already, aside from the discussions on the Log (like this). In the past, we here at Team Verb have tended to tilt at windmills on this topic (hey, peevologist is a cool word, dammit), but this year, let me play Captain Obvious:

The 2012 Word of the Year should be …

occupy.

Yes, I realize that the Global Language Monitor has made it their WOTY, which no doubt will cost it many votes at the ADS meeting. Still.

By the way, just before the WOTY festivities in Portland in early January, there will be a session about the Dictionary of American Regional English, our beloved DARE. Be there.

Image from everywhere, basically, but taken from here.

Recall Walker!

United Wisconsin is organizing the recall effort against the Koch Brothers' pawn in Wisconsin, "Governor" Scott Walker. Some of us are eager to take United's class on how to collect sigs for the recall effort, and have been visiting their website trying to get the schedule, etc. Apparently, a lot of us: Their website has been down all afternoon. Here's a screen shot of what they have up now:

If you're in-state, let's get to work. If you're out of state, please lend a hand if you can, say, financially. And if you don't think he should be recalled, wait, what?

Update, 8:30 pm. Looks like this was actually a distributed denial of service attack, see here. Wonder whose money is behind this?

University of Wisconsin – Madison pay: -25% in 10 years

There's been a ton of talk about how badly state employees, including UW-Madison workers, have fared in recent years. Here's a graphic from the Wisconsin University Union (WUU) showing the basic effects of the pay plan over the last decade. We've lost a quarter of our real income over the last decade. As always, click to embiggen.

This is the current state of affairs, before the huge cuts and lapses kick in.

Grad student workers, classified staff and increasingly academic staff are reaching crisis mode now, and I've heard faculty talk about struggling to cover basic expenses.

Time to stand up and work for the recall. While there's still a University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Dismantling education in Wisconsin, very quickly

Wisconsin readers of this blog probably almost all know about the new budget cuts the University of Wisconsin System is suddenly facing. After a $250,000,000 cut to the System over the biennium, it was announced last week that this would be upped by over $65,000,000 more. Now, that number has risen to more like $111,000,000. The numbers aren't final and official yet, but we're probably looking at cuts of over $360,000,000 to the System over two years. Here's a clear version of what we know at this point, and as usual Sifting & Winnowing is an excellent place to go for info.

At the same time, yesterday on Wisconsin Public Radio, we heard that the governor of this state is backing a proposal that would eliminate English and math requirements for high school graduation, allowing them to be replaced with vocational training. (Here's a good summary of that.) Many of us have long suspected that Walker's promises of job growth were based on the Texas model — minimum wage jobs without benefits, etc., rather than jobs that would truly move Wisconsin forward as an economic power — and this looks thoroughly consistent with that.

Image from here.

Not mutually intelligible dialects of American English in the news

... or at least a classic failure to communicate. No discourse analysis needed, I suppose. Visit here for the real item (and the usual tons of cool stuff that Tom Tomorrow has). And as always, click to embiggen.

Gotta go, late for my bongo session downtown.