University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Thursday, November 3, 2022
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Fear-mongering and the Obama tests out American political campaign new stand-up routine in Milwaukee +OPINION, page 7 +The Beet, page 8
How students in Wisconsin’s premier swing county debate politics with dignity By Tyler Katzenberger STATE NEWS EDITOR
Mock legislature is a rite of passage for Ryan Mussack’s Advanced Placement (AP) Government and Politics students at Sauk Prairie High School. His class writes bills, prepares speeches and debates their ideas during committee hearings — just like a real legislature. “We all have different groups that we work with,” said Sauk Prairie junior Taylor Brown. “This is the biggest project we’ve done so far.” Sauk Prairie High School hosts students from the twin villages of Sauk City and Prairie Du Sac, located 30 minutes northwest of Madison in Sauk County. But the county has more to brag about than the first-ever Culver’s restaurant. Its unique combination of liberal Madison commuters and small-town farmers voted for the winning candidate in 10 of the last 11 presidential elections, according to POLITICO. “We’re a unique microcosm of people here in this area,” Mussack said. “It’s pretty down the middle.” Even Mussack’s AP Government class, which he coteaches with colleague Adam Brager, has a track record of voting for winning candidates. The class voted for Donald
Trump in 2016 and flipped to President Joe Biden in 2020, just like Sauk County. “Every year, it has lined up almost exactly right,” Mussack said. “It’s within the margin of error, in most cases.” Journalists from across the nation place Sauk County under a microscope each election cycle in a bid to discover why the county votes the way it does, especially in a polarized state like Wisconsin. News outlets often focus on that polarization. NBC News called Wisconsin “ground zero” for polarization, and POLITICO said the state was “where median voter theory goes to die.” Candidates have also prioritized base turnout more than crossing party lines to win recent elections. Democrats and Republicans called on political heavyweights like former President Barack Obama and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to energize their voters with just days to go before the Nov. 8 elections. However, Mussack believes much of his class — and Sauk County — doesn’t live on the political fringes. “Our loudest voices are typically a lot more polarized toward the edges of the political spectrum, but a lot of our people are more towards that middle,” Mussack said.
Mussack attributed rising polarization to social media, which he said plays into extremism and prevents respectful debate. “We’re not necessarily getting all the sides of our story anymore,” Mussack said. “We’re less willing to listen to other sides than we would have been before.” To counter that, Mussack begins each year with a unit on civil discourse, where he teaches students how to navigate touchy topics while empathizing with diverse perspectives. He also teaches students how to sort through misinformation and fact-check news coming from social media, the primary news source for nearly seven-inten young Americans, according to the Pew Research Center. “We stay on topic and also make sure things aren’t personal,” Mussack said. “When we debate, we try not to call each other by name.” And he’s not afraid to moderate the discussion. “If somebody’s getting off topic, he’ll hit the gavel for decorum and get everybody back in order before they continue,” said junior Nick Stakahovskyy. Stakahovskyy hopes to follow Mussack’s lead during the upcoming mock legislative session, where he’ll be moderating debates as the speaker of
the house. “You’re just trying to solve the problem together by looking at both sides, not trying to throw the other side under the bus and make them look bad,” Stakahovskyy said. Politicians, including Gov. Tony Evers and Sen. Ron Johnson, commented on the students’ respectful conversations in past visits to Sauk Prairie, according to Mussack. However, Mussack’s students think politicians could learn something from their class. Junior Vivian Rosch watched the 2020 presidential debates and thought the candidates’ manners were “terrible” compared to her classroom discussions. “Seeing that 16 and 17-yearolds have better decorum than them could be a good wake-up call that [politicians] really need to listen to each other more,” Rosch said. She understands real politicians deal with serious issues but thinks their heated discussions prevent creative solutions. “Everyone’s opinion matters,” Rosch said. “Everyone’s voice is important, and their opinion can actually really help with certain stuff. It gives you different perspectives.” Mussack believes his students’ commitment to respectful deliberation — even in one of the most evenly-divided
counties in one of the most divided states — proves common ground and civility are still possible in politics. “I think having good examples and politicians trying to show better discourse [would] be a huge way of helping us not have those issues going forward,” Mussack said.space generously offered by Grace Episcopal Church, with help from St. John’s Lutheran Church and First United Methodist Church,” Rhodes-Conway said. “We owe those congregations and their leadership a huge debt of gratitude, but it is long past time that we develop purposebuilt shelter.” O’Keefe said city officials met Wednesday morning to examine other options. “There are other properties we will be looking at,” O’Keefe said. “There’s a strong commitment on the part of policymakers to get this done. I’m pretty optimistic we’ll move on and find an alternative.” Despite Rhodes-Conway’s resolution, the initial phase of the renovation and conversion of the day care center to an interim homeless shelter would not have been completed until 2022. Since the city cannot use Warner Park as a permanent shelter location, city officials said they will explore short-term options for 2021.
UW System free speech survey to be released on Nov. 14 By Ellie Bourdo ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
The Student Views on Freedom of Speech survey will be released to undergraduate students at all 13 University of Wisconsin System campuses on Nov. 14. The survey was set to be released in April but was postponed until the fall semester. Tensions over the survey led to the resignation of Jim Henderson, the former interim chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. “I acknowledge that some chancellors were disappointed in that decision, and it regrettably led to a resignation,” UW System Interim President Michael Falbo wrote in an April statement, referring to
the universities’ Institutional Review Boards (IRB) approving the survey . According to the Associated Students of Madison (ASM), the survey released in spring was met with a large amount of backlash from student governments across the UW System. It was then moved back to be released in fall with a promise of more transparency. On Sept. 28, a draft of the survey was released to UW-Madison Student Shared Governance representatives through Google Forms, where they could provide feedback. “While it’s fine to assess student’s perceptions of how others will receive their views, this study has a limited ability [to] accurately and reliably capture
how the university, as an institution, limits free speech,” an anonymous student commented on the draft version. Upon revisions, UW-Stout and UW-Madison’s IRB approved the survey. With this approval, the survey will be distributed to undergraduate students at UW-Madison and UW-Stout with a goal of receiving 500 student responses at each campus. The IRB approval of the remaining campuses is currently unknown. On Nov. 14, 2,500 randomly selected students will receive the survey through an email invitation at each UW campus. If 500 responses are not received, another 2,500 students will receive the survey on Nov. 21. This will continue
until either 500 responses are received, or until Dec. 14. Only up to 7,500 students on each campus will receive the survey. According to ASM, the survey will ask students questions regarding the First Amendment, attitudes on viewpoint diversity, experiences with free expression, self-censorship on campus and more. According to the study description, the goal of the survey is “to survey degree seeking undergraduate students 18 or older at the 13 UW System campuses about campus free expression, viewpoint diversity, and self-censorship. The research aims to provide a systematic and objective description of UW
System student respondents’ perceptions and views.” The researchers of the survey are Timothy Shiell from the UW-Stout Menard Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation, Eric Giordano from the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service, April Bleske-Rechek from the UW-Eau Claire Psychology Department, Eric Kasper from the UW-Eau Claire Political Science Department and UW-Eau Claire Assistant Vice Chancellor Geoff Peterson. The data analysis will take place from December 2022 to January 2023. Preliminary results will be available at the end of January and the final report will be accessible through the UW system.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”