Chancellor Biddy Martin Please Remember Your Students’ Voices

Chancellor Biddy Martin should have asked her students about whether or not they support embryonic stem cell research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Although the generally liberal student body would have probably agreed with her to sue the federal government, she still should have asked her students about how they felt before pursuing this lawsuit. Of course, people will say that she did not have to ask the students before she did this. Of course, she did not. I don’t want to hear her say again that she always consults with her students about all matters before making a decision that could have an impact on them, however. Instead of checking with her students about whether or not they support embryonic stem cell research, she went ahead and made a decision to represent the student body like we all agree with it—never seeking our positions.

Instead of focusing on a lawsuit against the federal government about embryonic stem cell research, Chancellor Biddy Martin could be directing her attention to more pressing and important issues. She needs to work on improving the diversity of the student body.  Less than 2% of the total student body at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is composed of African-American students. What is even more horrible about this reality is African-American students are the largest minority group on the campus of UW-Madison. She also could be working on increasing the number of minority faculty members found on campus as well, especially African-American faculty members. It would be nice to see her devoting more funding to minority student scholarships and fellowships. Chancellor Martin, how about providing more funding for minority programs at UW-Madison. Please dedicate your time to working on more serious and pressing issues.

To the Associated Students of Madison (ASM), this is an issue that you should be concerned about. How about protesting and fighting about the fact that students were shut out on this issue? How about protesting and fighting for a more diverse student body and more funding for minority programs on campus? Damon Williams, Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate at UW-Madison, where are you at brother?

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison