Action Project - Education - Thursday, February 27, 2020 - The Daily Cardinal

University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Action Project Issue, February 2020

EDUCATION Illustration by Erin Jordan and Max Homstad Photos by Kalli Anderson

“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”

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Action Project Issue, February 2020

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Madison: An educated city for whom?

By Alejandra Canales SENIOR STAFF WRITER

As home of the UW System’s flagship university, UW-Madison has a lot to boast — it consistently ranks as a top research institution, spending more than $1 billion on academic research and issuing thousands of degrees every year.

Unsurprisingly then, Madison also ranks as one of the country’s most educated cities. However, a recent study showed that the city’s rank drops from 5th to 70th once race is a factor in the evaluation of educational opportunity.

While the ever increasing cost of college is a common concern when it comes to gaps in educational achievement, students face barriers much earlier on in their education.

“I would probably argue that it is somewhat disingenuous to isolate academic disparity in the face of all the other disparity that exists — particularly in Wisconsin,” said Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, president of the National Academy of Education, the first Black woman to receive tenure in UW-Madison’s School of Education and professor emeritus in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

Ladson-Billings, among many others, has argued that the country has not lived up to the promises of Brown v. Board of Education.

“We have never fully desegregated our schools,” she said.

Inequalities exist before entering the classroom With no overarching federal education policy, each state is left to determine its own guidelines.

Schools are frequently unequally funded. And since school district funding is still tied to property taxes, taxes for education cannot be uniformly increased.

“When we do that what we essentially tell people is your housing choice determines your school choice,” Ladson-Billings said.

“Housing policy is school policy.”

Websites like Great Schools, whose rankings can influence parents’ decisions of where they should send their kids to school, can reinforce the impact of housing on education when they give low-income schools and schools with more Black and Latinx students lower scores.

Wealthier parents often have more flexibility in where they enroll their children, and these decisions can impact school district funding.

For example, most well-meaning parents argue when they opt to send their children to private school, they are doing so in the best interest of their children.

However, these decisions do not only impact their own children but other kids attending nearby public schools. Which students attend which schools impacts funding, according to Ladson-Billings.

At the same time, when private schools do not offer certain classes as part of their curriculum, students are still able to attend local public schools solely for that one class. In other words, they can still benefit from the public system they have chosen to not participate in — a phenomenon education policy researchers call “opportunity hoarding.”

“I argue that opportunity hoarding is baked into the system,” Ladson-Billings said.

As a result, rather than discussing the intersections between class,

race and inequality in terms of the “achievement gap,” some education policy researchers prefer the framing of an “opportunity gap.”

Early disparities Wisconsin’s state Legislature has acknowledged these gaps in opportunity start early, explained Dr. Jed Richardson, a researcher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

For example, Wisconsin’s Achievement Gap Reduction Program targets K-3 education.

But, amid academic debate about when exactly these gaps start and how best to treat them, Richardson emphasized that research shows it is never “too late” to intervene.

“These gaps need to be treated at all levels,” Richardson said. “There are a lot of programs that have had success with kids who are later in their academic careers.”

And with Madison’s population changing demographically, even more programs need to be created to address all students’ needs.

For example, as Madison’s immigrant population grows, English Language Learner and duallanguage programs have become increasingly important. Both federal and Wisconsin law require bilingual education to be available in public schools, but resources can still be limited, Ladson-Billing said.

Dual-language programs offer the best outcomes for bilingual students, but experts say over-emphasizing the benefits of these programs could make for whiter, wealthier students, in turn paradoxically barring the students who need the programs most.

And with school curriculums becoming more demanding — in course workloads and project assignments — both curricula and teachers are failing to evaluate what students really know and, instead, are indir e c t l y measuring the support from their families.

“What you have happening is we’re evaluating middle class kids based on what they have: if they have a collegeeducated parent or if they have resources,” Ladson-Billings said.

According to the Race for Results report, 80 percent of Black children, as well 66 percent of Latinx and Indigenous children in Dane County are living below 200 percent of the federal poverty level — compared to 30 percent of white children.

The wealth gap sets up a situation in which some children start off with less of a chance to thrive, but wealth alone cannot explain racial disparities in educational outcomes.

“The other part that’s been most frustrating in a place like Madison, where you actually do have some middle-class Black families, is that their kids are still experiencing this notion that, ‘Oh, you can’t possibly be capable.’” Ladson-Billings said.

Ladson-Billings recounted her own daughter’s experience in school, where she was confronted about whether she had completed her own

assignments independently and questioned about whether the family had really been to Paris.

Studies also have shown discrepancies in the teachers’ use of disciplinary action and special education as means to deal with Black, Latinx and Indigenous students.

“You can measure all kinds of things, but if you don’t value what it is the students do bring [to the table] then they’re always going to come out on the short end,” Ladson-Billings said.

Assumptions in admissions As students progress through middle and high school, barriers persist as they look towards higher education. Getting accepted can prove to be a barrier in itself, with many highly-regarded universities — including UW-Madison — remaining very selective institutions.

“Affordability doesn’t exist if you’re not accessible,” said Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab, who studies how higher education costs affect students of color and low-income students.

And the first step in accessibility is admissions.

While recent events — like last year’s college cheating scandal — have encouraged colleges across the country to question the role of college admissions tests, like the SAT and ACT, these standardized exams have had other long-standing issues.

“We’re looking at things like numbers to assume we know everything about a person, say, intellectually or academically,”

not due to academics in any way, but it’s due to support systems.”

By partnering with the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County, the AVID/ TOPS program follows students through the complicated process of getting into and finishing college. It offers help with everything from figuring out the application procedures and financial aid to registering for classes and picking a major.

“The evidence we do get [is] very promising: students who participate in the AVID/TOPS program attend and persist in college much more than similar peers,” Richardson said, but admitted that long-term outcomes like trends in college graduation can take a long time to see.

Beyond tuition: The cost of higher education Even with programs like AVID/ TOPS available, financing college remains a struggle for many students no matter their background, and tuition rates continue to rise amid the national conversation about student debt.

“One big assumption in the University of Wisconsin System is that if there is tuition to be paid and financial aid is available, then things are affordable,” Goldrick-Rab said.

Accurately identifying need can be difficult

from, like SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“Under the best case scenario, what this should lead to is a realization among a much bigger group of people than ever before that our system of financing higher ed does not live up to what we need higher ed to be in this country,” Goldrick-Rab said.

Challenges for the future Even if students do end up completing their degrees, they remain stuck with the debt for years, and this could lower their perception of the value of higher education.

“This is why I tend to say that debt is the symptom of a bigger problem,” Goldrick-Rab said.

The administrative and emotional work that goes into assisting students in maintaining financial aid throughout their time in college — from helping them keep their grades and credits at the level required by the aid they receive to supporting them through the process of refiling and verifying their paperwork every year — often goes unnoticed.

The invisibility of this labor and the complexity of the process itself can serve to undermine financial aid, as well as other student sup-

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Ladson-Billings said.

Part of the process of determining which questions should be included on a standardized test requires some people to score worse than others.

This leaves room for pre-existing biases about who those students should be to manifest, LadsonBillings added.

“You have to be intentional [in recruiting],” she said. “We’re sitting in the middle of Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago … and can’t find any Black students? ” In response to known educational gaps, a program known as AVID/TOPS helps low-income students overcome some of the barriers to attending college and operates at various Madison high and middle schools.

“Traditionally, we think students who have more money or who have parents who went to college tend to go to college more often [and] tend to be successful in college more often,” Richardson, who also works as an AVID/TOPS evaluator, said. “That’s

if universities are assuming all students are receiving financial support from their parents, which the Free Application for Federal Student Aid tends to consider. Some students may have parents still paying off their own debt or may be from a community where sending money back to their families is a normal expectation.

These assumptions about a student’s financial status make it so the amount of need-based aid awarded may not be enough to cover their living expenses — an often-overlooked part of the cost of attending college.

And with work-study jobs often not paying high enough wages, some students must take on debt to cover their expenses, according to Goldrick-Rab. Still, often these loans can only go towards tuition.

Goldrick-Rab’s research showed that students on campus were struggling with housing and food insecurity, and, at the time — in Spring 2018 — there was no university programming or support to connect them to resources they could benefit

port service programs, Goldrick-Rab added, citing the work of public policy researchers Donald Moynihan and Pamela Herd.

“Doing the FAFSA is just one part of it,” Goldrick-Rab said.

Ensuring that sister UW institutions have enough financial aid to deliver more support to their students’ high-quality education would go a long way to making college more affordable, Goldrick-Rab added. Especially to the people directly in those institutions’ communities.

Ladson-Billings agreed, saying as long as inequality in school access and funding at all levels remains, there will be a growing “educational debt” — to students of color, immigrant students and low-income students.

“I think [equal access and equal funding] are two fundamental things that we have to do if we are serious about providing a more equitable education for all,” Ladson-Billings said.

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Rural schools strive for more college prep classes to participate through online telepresence: where an inhouse teacher acted as an overseer, advocate and technical support system, which has helped give some rural students a similar head start.

“We’re seeing a lot more of our rural students … going

already,” Kaukl said. “And we’re seeing a number of those students now graduate in three, three and a half, instead of four or five years.”

However, Riley Hazelberg and Alyssa Oechsner, graduates of Horicon High School, had a different experience with the telepresence class format.

They both signed up for an AP Calculus class taught remotely. A neighboring school had a camera set up facing the whiteboard, and then Skype with Hazelberg and Oechsner’s class — if the WiFi connectivity permitted.

It took them two weeks before they realized network connectivity issues made it A SS practically impossible Y AL to actually connect with OF Y S their professor.

E RT “The person that was our COU teacher and was in charge of i n t o us while we had class was technical college basically just an over-glorified or the university level with anywhere between a semester and almost two semesters of rural page 4 course work under their belt

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a student’s higher education trajectory. Still, she acknowledges there are obstacles rural schools must overcome to provide students with one of the country’s most popular college preparatory programs.

Kaukl cites dwindling student numbers and AP teacher

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Advanced Placement classes give students the ability to get a head start to earning their degrees, saving both time and money — however, students in rural environments don’t always have access to the same opportunities.

Research from the College Board concludes AP students are consistently more likely to “enroll in college, stay in college, do well in their classes and graduate in four years.”

While AP course participation remains highest in schools that serve more privileged districts, participation is growing in underserved communities, according to the Student Research Foundation.

Approximately 72,000 AP exams were completed by 22,980 Wisconsin high school graduates in 2019, earning an estimated 159,117 college credits as reported by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Combined, those AP exams saved more than $48 million in college costs.

Still, for many in Wisconsin — especially students in rural high schools — the AP Program is harder to access and leads to fewer opportuni-

ties to get the same head start shared by other students from more affluent areas.

Some students now attending UW-Madison experienced the gap in resources for college preparation first-hand.

Hunter Weber graduated from Darlington High School with a class size of 48. She said with the smaller number of AP classes available there weren’t many options to build a college resumé.

“In small schools, there’s so few kids and there’s not very many upperlevel classes,” Weber said. “If you want to do something that’s at a[n] upper level, there’s not very many opportunities.”

Annie Haas, graduate of a class of 42 from Hillsboro High School, shared similar sentiments.

“I think [the decision to pursue higher education] was encouraged but never really supported,” Haas said.

Kim Kaukl, former principal of River Valley High School and current executive director of the Wisconsin Rural School Alliance, stated the importance of AP classes in

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SENIOR STAFF WRITER

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By Kylie Ver Kuilen

q u a l i f i c ations as main causes for concern when it comes to rural schools.

He explained one solution to overcome those issues was for

UW-Odyssey lifts socioeconomic barriers to college education

By Morgan Lock CAMPUS NEWS EDITOR

“I was born into cycles of violence, alcoholism and drugs, and it wasn’t until I came to prison that I learned how to read and write,” a student in the Odyssey Project testified. “I fell in love with the worlds that words built.”

Founded in 2003, the UW Odyssey Project offers UW-Madison humanities classes for adult students facing economic barriers to college, such as single parenthood, homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction, incarcera-

tion, depression and domestic abuse, according to their website.

In fall 2019 the program launched Odyssey Beyond Bars — the first initiative in the state to facilitate credit courses face-toface with people who are incarcerated.

The program builds on the noncredit enrichment courses that Odyssey and the Oakhill Prison Humanities Project have offered for several years at the Oakhill Correctional Institution.

Every Thursday evening, 15 men gather in a classroom to read

and write essays for an English 100 class taught by Assistant Professor Kevin Mullen.

“I taught for a long time and what really struck me with these students is just how dedicated they were to really get the most out of the class that they possibly could,” Mullen said. “They put in so much time and effort into the assignments that I was just really impressed by how dedicated they were to it and how inspired and enthusiastic they were to do the work itself.”

All 15 men in the program grad-

COURTESY OF THE STATE OF WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

UW-Odyssey’s Behind Bars Program initiates face-to-face college education in Oakhill prison.

uated with three UW-Madison credits in English. Given this success, Odyssey has plans to increase the number of courses offered to students in prison, adding a multicultural American literature class this summer and a philosophy class next fall.

“I’m offering you what the Rockefellers’ get — and that’s because you deserve it just as much,” said UW-Odyssey Project co-Founder Jean Feraca.

The late Earl Shorris established the framework for UW Odyssey in New York City, where he introduced impoverished adults to philosophical theories such as Plato, inspiring co-Founders Jean Feraca and Emily Auerbach to bring a similar program to the university.

The Odyssey program built on Shorris’ work, adding crucial components to the adult education program. Odyssey Junior, one such component, is not just daycare — it’s an intentional space where children can begin their educational journey right alongside their parents. “‘We train poor people, we do not educate them,’ Earl used to say,” Feraca said. “The assumption is they are not worthy of education. That sense of worth is built systematically throughout the year, so that by the end of the year it is more likely than not that an Odyssey graduate will have been transformed. It impacts them in extraordinary ways.”

The Odyssey Course is a sixcredit English literature class where UW-Madison professors introduce adults to great works of literature, philosophy, history and art while helping them improve

writing and critical thinking skills.

Feraca credited Auerbach for the dedication required to keep a program like this alive, noting her extreme commitment to the continuing success of the students.

“When somebody fell through the cracks and ended up in prison, she actually brought his homework to him,” Feraca said.

“If people ended up in the hospital, she would go visit them. She was very dedicated. That’s why UW-Odyssey has sustained itself and is growing.”

Friends of Odyssey is an additional program dedicated to the continuing success of students who have graduated from the Odyssey Course.

“It’s for anyone that has made it through the program and wants to continue,” Feraca said. “We help them find the means to do that so it doesn’t stop. This is a college prep course really that were teaching.”

Mullen noted it’s a powerful thing for the men taking a class at UW-Madison, as it gives them a sense of confidence and purpose while they are incarcerated.

“There was a really strong sense of community that formed in the classroom itself, where I think they were able to really create a strong group dynamic because they’re all in this college class together and they seem to really have bonded well, which I think is a great outcome,” Mullen said.

The program is so successful UW-Odyssey hopes to expand the curriculum and eventually have a full degree-granting program at multiple prisons across the state.

“For the guys in prison, what it means to them to see themselves

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Action Project Issue, February 2020

An independent student newspaper, serving the University of Wisconsin-Madison community since 1892 Volume 129, Issue 19

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Schools struggle with staff ‘exodus’

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Madison public schools suffer from staff shortages as state legislators struggle to find a solution.

By Abby Schinderle SENIOR STAFF WRITER

“We don’t have a teacher shortage. We have a teacher exodus,” said Nicki Vander Meulen, school board member and clerk for the Madison Metropolitan School District, with a clear air of frustration.

Madison is suffering from a shortage of teachers entering the workforce and an inability to retain teachers in their positions.

The problem is especially pertinent in special education and bilingual departments, said President of Madison Teachers Inc. Andy Waity.

“Wisconsin public schools, like [many] schools across the country, are facing historic teacher short-

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babysitter because they just sat there and tried to set up the Skype that never worked,” said Hazelberg.

The neighboring school through which they were taking the class had a different hourly schedule resulting in an awkward 25 minutes of “nothing” before the start. Following that, the class would intrude 25 minutes into their next period.

Both ended up dropping the class — along with every other student besides two, according to Oechsner. Aside from accessibility concerns, Hazelberg added she worried the class would “tank her GPA.” With many students already dealing with the stress of applying to college, rural students must also deal with the burden of unequal access to courses that will potentially better prepare them and improve their success in college.

“The AP program causes some students excessive academic pressure. They feel that AP participation gives them an edge when they apply to colleges,” the Student Research Foundation stated in a post. “But at the same time, some feel that they need tutoring and extra help to achieve high scores on AP exams. The result? Another source of pressure for alreadystressed students.”

David Coleman, CEO of the

ages,” the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction reported in 2016.

“Significantly fewer students are pursuing education as a career, and Wisconsin districts are reporting increasingly shallow applicant pools for a variety of positions.”

In Madison, Leopold Elementary School and La Follette High School especially struggle with teacher retention because they are high poverty schools, according to Vander Meulen.

Teacher shortages are not specific to Madison; however, they are a problem on a national scale.

At the root of the problem, according to Waity, is a lack of respect felt among those in the profession — they College Board, also recognized the shortcomings of the AP course system.

“Even as we celebrate the success of AP, we are alert to the inequities that can undermine student success,” Coleman said. “We see thousands of students who count themselves out when it’s time to take the exam. That’s why we are making the largest investment in Advanced Placement to date by creating new, free resources that will reach students and teachers wherever they are.”

The new investment will grant teachers access to sample AP exam questions to customize practice tests and guides that describe the skills and topics in each unit needed to take the different exams, as well as detailed informational guides on student performance for their parents and educators.

But even with the stress, some Wisconsin students have brought AP credits into UW-Madison, allowing them to save time and money, skip remedial classes and illustrate that rural districts are currently helping some students prepare for the university system.

“We continue to work very hard. I think we’ve got great teachers in our rural districts, great administrators,” Kaukl stated.

“Sometimes we become our own worst enemy, but we find ways to make things work and better prepare our students to make sure they can compete when they leave our buildings.”

don’t feel like their voices are heard.

Low pay also draws people away from the profession, and Vander Meulen explained some teachers have to take second or third jobs to make ends meet.

“Teachers have been treated with little respect, and even less pay,” Vander Meulen said. “Teachers are showing their displeasure to this by leaving the profession completely.”

Teaching is a “labor-intensive field,” Waity said, and public schools are lacking the resources to support this. Students need emotional support and nurturing, which is hard to accomplish when schools don’t have the available funding or staff to do so.

Many of the issues teachers face

can be traced back to Act 10, a 2011 budget bill that had major impacts on collective bargaining, retirement and health insurance. This bill has been one of the biggest causes of teacher shortages across the state. “[Act 10] limited [teachers’] ability to set wages and get insurance that was cost-effective,” Vander Meulen said. “Basically, it crippled labor and it crippled education — and our state, 10 years later, still pays the price for that.”

As a result of staffing shortages in schools, teachers have to fill in for other teachers,often in a subject area different than their own — like a math teacher subbing for a history teacher — and students’ quality of education is suffering because of it.

Waity feels that there is a general “lack of awareness of what’s going on” among legislators. And until teachers feel heard, he said, this problem won’t go away.

Still, increasing support for education has been on the agenda for many state legislators.

Gov. Tony Evers recently called for a special session to invest in public schools after the Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported an expected $450 million surplus by the end of this biennium. Evers hopes to reinvest the surplus in special education, mental health services at schools and sparsity aid for rural schools.

In order to fix the larger problem of teacher shortages across Madison, Vander Meulen believes the city must treat teachers with respect, reduce class sizes and partake in legislative lobbying to get rid of Act 10.

“The profession is under attack,” Vander Meulen said. “Every school is being affected in a negative manner.”

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Are screen bans beneficial to education?

By Allison Garfield NEWS MANAGER

While the days of taking notes by hand may seem long forgotten, the practice is making a reappearance at UW-Madison, with lecture halls across campus implementing “screen bans.”

Today, the prevalence of technology is undeniable. In 2013, 99 percent of UW-Madison students used a laptop computer for personal use or schoolwork. In 2020, it’s nearly impossible to walk into a coffee shop without seeing dozens of personal devices — phones, tablets and, of course, laptops.

It’s easy to find research for and against technology in the classroom. A Harvard study examined both viewpoints: one side claims students are easily distracted and retain more information with mere pen and paper.

The other maintains technology is a tool, not a hindrance.

It’s true humans are not wired to multitask well — we’re not even as good at it as we think we are, according to NPR. Technology during class is no exception.

But when you break down screen-ban arguments, what you find is mistrust of students and a sense of insecurity on the part of professors. At the forefront of concern is the ableist assumption that comes with expelling screens from learning environments, the Huffington Post reported.

Even on the UW-Madison campus, it’s a “hot button issue,” according to Mari Magler, Assistant Dean and Director of the McBurney Disability Resource Center.

“While we understand a lot about the reasons faculty are challenged by technology in some situations … there are legitimate reasons students use laptops or other technology in the classroom — and bans can negatively impact students with disabilities in particular,” Magler said.

“There’s a lot of different opportunities for people to stay engaged in more than one way, to take in information in more than one way. It’s not just listening to a lecture anymore.”

Thomas Tobin

Area Director for UW-Madison’s Distance Teaching & Learning program There are various reasons a student might need technology to assist their learning, Magler explained. Some use it to address barriers to classroom content, to access material being shared visually, to take notes or to view real-time captioning of the instruction. Others use it as a form of participation.

No matter the purpose, when such a student is suddenly faced with a screen ban, they must make arrangements with their professor — sometimes even when the student already has formal accommodations from the university.

Magler acknowledged the

TAYLOR WOLFRAM/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Students argue that there is no room for constructive conversation when teachers insitute a screen ban in the classroom. legitimate concerns of faculty about students’ inattention. But she noted when an instructor with a laptop ban allows students with disabilities to use laptops, those individuals are then easily identifiable.

They may even opt to forgo accommodation that would allow them equal access to the classroom environment.

How language can enable accessibility The biggest concern Magler hears from students typically involves the communication of the screen ban — happening in a way that leaves no room for conversation.

“If faculty has rigid language in the syllabi that says ‘No laptops, period. Here’s the research that says they’re bad. End of story,” students feel less comfortable approaching faculty to say “I have an accommodation letter, I actually need my laptop,’” Magler said. “Sometimes they’ll just let it go because they won’t feel like there’s a door open for that conversation.”

Professor Ken Mayer has been teaching everything from big intro class lectures of 300 plus people to small seminars at UW-Madison since 1989 — and he’s a proponent of the screen ban.

“The evidence had become undeniable that laptops were a distraction, and few people could resist the temptation to go online,” Mayer said in an email.

“If it were just a matter of a student doing the electronic equivalent of doodling, that would be fine. But it distracts everyone.”

He recalled a time ten years ago when a guest lecturer came to talk to one of his classes and from the back of the room, he could see every student with a laptop was online. Sometimes they’re just playing a video game, but he’s also seen students watching movies in class, earbuds in and all.

Even so, Mayer worked with

McBurney staff to come up with language in his course syllabus that accommodated students who need technology in class.

It reads: “I understand that some of you may have a legitimate educational reason to use a laptop to take notes. There are a variety of circumstances that can justify this, but rather than specify what those are I will leave it to your judgment. You get the final say on whether or not you have a legitimate reason.”

Mayer stated he likes to leave it up to students to decide what they need.

“The only requirement is that I ask them to meet with me to tell me their decision, though not the specific reasons,” he added.

A symptom of a larger problem?

Thomas Tobin, Area Director for the Distance Teaching & Learning program, falls on the opposite side of the polarized debate, in part because technology is his job.

Tobin works remotely for UW-Madison out of Pennsylvania. And it makes sense why — he’s an expert on technology-enhanced education and universal design for learning. He “teaches teachers how to teach,” which is constantly changing because of technology.

Universal design — creating products or environments accessible to all people, regardless of age, disability or other factors — is on the rise in education. UW-Madison holds frequent Active Teaching Labs dedicated to the concept. And technology is key in considering how students best succeed, according to Tobin.

Digital learning doesn’t just mean taking notes with a laptop.

It can also be writing notes on a piece of paper with a pen or quietly talking into a phone.

“There’s a lot of different opportunities for people to stay

engaged in more than one way, to take in information in more than one way. It’s not just listening to a lecture anymore,” Tobin said.

“It feels weird that we would set aside classroom space that works differently than how you’re going to be expected to work in your professional life.”

Because of this, thinking about screen bans in terms of “Should I do it?” or “Should I not do it?” is maybe the wrong question to ask, Tobin explained. Maglin echoed a similar sentiment.

Blanket policies presented as “always” or “never” can be problematic, as the McBurney Center has a legal responsibility to consider each accommodation request individually.

Both imply all or nothing are the only choices.

Tobin and Maglin were explicit in that, in some settings — like a lecture hall — taking notes by hand is, in fact, the best way to retain information because it forces summarization and distillation of audio.

There’s a caveat, though.

“Good professors are not just lecturing for 50 minutes,” Tobin said. “They’re asking people to get engaged. Teaching is a process that happens from one person to another one.”

Technology does have the ability to distract, not just the individual with a screen in front of them, but the people surrounding that individual. Tobin said that’s not necessarily a sign of irresponsible people in the classroom — it’s a sign the content and interactions happening are not engaging for everyone.

“Most instructors who are guarding the ivory tower are doing so because of a sense of loss of control, so they make everyone go through the same process, the same way at the same time,” Tobin said. “That’s the most ableist assumption

there is, that the only people who can take part in this interaction are the ones who can do the thing the way I told you to.”

Evolution versus equity The trend of screen bans has trickled down from higher education into some K-12 classrooms.

Several schools across the state have 100 percent banned cellphones specifically for behavioral and academic reasons, according to Janice Mertes, Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Digital Learning Team.

“They’re saying there’s an increase in academic performance — I don’t know if we can say it’s just that,” Mertes said. “It’s a local control decision, but the world is not going to change and schools do have a role to help educate students for life beyond high school.”

Local control decision means the choice to implement policies, like prohibiting devices, is determined district by district. In that sense, the DPI can’t do much to promote or halt technology bans.

While screen bans unite classroom or schools in a uniform policy, Mertes has focused her work on making sure technology itself is uniting populations through digital equity.

With increased technology, she stressed the importance of making sure it’s not creating a larger achievement gap from students not having equal access to devices, content, internet or digital literacy skills.

“The role of technology is to make sure it is used effectively.

But also, in this information age, we have a great responsibility to make students citizens of this world as well,” Mertes said. “I think we’re always going to continue to push what is evolving — we need to push what is equitable and what is quality to the personalized needs of each student.”

cardinal view

6 • Action Project Issue, February 2020

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Decolonizing curriculum, striving towards inclusive education view

Cardinal View editorials represent The Daily Cardinal’s organizational opinion. Each editorial is crafted independent of news coverage.

To read the full stories go to dailycardinal.com/projects/evolving-education

The educational pipeline is a period of exploration of one’s identity, place in society and their academic interests. It is a phase where opinions are like clay in its initial stages — if well-shaped it can make a beautiful pot, but mishandling can result in long-lasting effects. The curriculum taught to children in school defines the opinions formed at this “early clay” phase but also sets them up for future academic exploration.

There are many topics and histories children aren’t exposed to until college because it was not implemented at an early age. How many people can remember receiving an adequate sex education or being exposed to LGBTQIA+ or cross-cultural histories?

While there may be diversity when it comes to student populations within some school systems, the curriculums are very eurocentric, whitewashed, sexist and heteronormative. An inclusive curriculum goes beyond binary narratives and allows for adaptations to represent marginalized and minority groups.

Cross-culture learning: A multiculturalism future Cultural diversity has been increasingly emphasized within the school system but it has yet to be fully integrated into all curriculum.

The awareness and diversity we are asking for are part of a larger agenda that recognizes identity politics and equity.

Being “American” has a connotation you must assimilate and conform to in order to fit into a patriotic mold. There has been a history of erasing or silencing narratives of marginalized and minority communities, despite the relevance and significant impact they have.

One aspect that is crucial to integrating a multicultural education is decolonizing the current curriculum and teaching programs. When an education system lacks a multicultural education policy, it becomes even more difficult to think about equity and inclusion.

Latinx communities, APIDA communities and Indigenous nations have significant roles and presence in the U.S., but we are not taught about them when we learn “U.S. History.” The post-colonialism era is still in full effect, revealing the long term damage and trauma perpetually inflicted on various cultures and identities.

Under Wisconsin Act 31, Wisconsin is one of 12 states required to teach Indigenous history and culture within public school districts.

There are 11 federally recognized tribes and nations in Wisconsin.

Within Wisconsin, there is no consistency between schools for the quality of teaching being done, nor any apparent enforcement of Indigenous education. Most students lack Indigenous history coursework until college, if they seek this information at all. Additionally,

the teachers do not feel adequately equipped to instruct on this curriculum when they themselves have not been exposed to it.

The cycle of ignorance needs to end somewhere.

Current legislation is inadequate and only 12 states implement this history — resulting in limited exposure to the curriculum. There needs to be reform in the way it’s integrated into education. Within each state, there can be an honoring specific tribes and nations, however, there should be a multiculturalist approach to give an accurate depiction of U.S. history.

A decolonizing process is needed to transform the curriculum into an inclusive one, including the history, language, culture and contribution of the Indigenous people.

It’s about telling the true story.

Education sets up students for the real world, teaching them skills and information that will not only help them within the workforce but in society. If we want to properly equip people with the necessary tools to be socially just and inclusive, there needs to be a representation of all identities in our curriculum and a wide berth of programs provided to accommodate and be accessible to everyone.

In a society increasingly polarized politically, curriculums on race, ethnicity and cultures are crucial to educating people on the deep roots of these issues that continue to exist. An intersectional, inclusive education will help address these notions of racism and will develop cultural sensitivity and consciousness.

Discovering freedom of gender expression and control of personal sexual health While representing a broader range of racial histories is one of the ways to diversify the curriculum, there are other identities to con-

sider. In postsecondary education, Gender and Women Studies offer an intersectional perspective along the lines of race, class, ability, gender expression and sexual orientation.

However, GWS is not a requirement in college and the topics discussed must be taught at an earlier age. It’s important to understand the

In a similar vein, accurate and relevant sex education needs to be LGBTQIA+ inclusive when it comes to the learning environment and not focusing on an abstinence-only approach.

This is an opportunity to break down stereotypes and prejudices by bringing awareness and inclusivity.

GRAPHIC BY MAX HOMSTAD

Our education system needs to be restructured to include a more inclusive curriculum. physiological and social processes relating to health among various gender identities — especially moving away from the binary.

This kind of curriculum is necessary for our education system and creates inclusivity of all genders. Additionally, there must be accurate

DACA keeps freedom of choice in education E I very student — regardless of their race, ethnicity, citizenship, gender, sexual orientation and the like — should have access to an adequate education. Unfortunately, Trump’s administration doesn’t seem to agree.

DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, allows undocumented students access to certain financial aid, builds a sense of belonging and, most importantly, a legal pathway for pursuing higher education — something that has become increasingly important for folx entering the labor force.

Introduced by President Barack Obama back in 2012, DACA is a two-year, renewable program to curb the deportation of people brought to the United States as children. DACA doesn’t provide a direct pathway to citizenship, but allows these folx to obtain work visas — which can then lead to insurance coverage, health care access, eligibility for grants, among other resources.

In 2016, there were around one million undocumented youth eligible for DACA, and nearly 800,000 have been protected by DACA since its inception. Young people were given the opportunity to pursue a career or schooling that wouldn’t have been possible due to financial, legal and other barriers to education.

Yet, over the past year, DACA has been under attack by the Trump Administration, and its effects are rippling on our own campus. While Chancellor Rebecca Blank has voiced support for DACA and the students who fall under this umbrella, this doesn’t mean that undocumented students can become Badgers easily.

While measures such as Bucky’s Tuition Promise and other scholarships are offered to UW students and may be able to make a dent in college costs, in-state residency or the possession of a Social Security Number are typically required to be eligible. However, Wisconsin does not currently offer in-state tuition for DACA recipients.

Studies on Latino-born non-citizens show that folx are more likely to enroll in college if they are living in a state eligible for in-state tuition.

Wisconsin must join the 16 other state legislatures offering in-state tuition benefits to undocumented

students as a necessary step in closing statewide achievement gaps. While these states typically require graduation from an in-state high school, these policies are a start in fostering an environment conducive to the education of all students, regardless of finances and documentation.

To make matters worse, the Trump Administration has recently proposed raising the biennial DACA renewal fee by 55 percent.

While the jump of nearly $300 may not seem burdensome to all, this could mean the difference of obtaining a degree — and the associated wages that accompany a college degree.

This is a life behind barriers — being in the center of American society in a cage isolated from their peers who attend schools and work jobs and have the ability to pursue their dreams without fear of deportation. DACA allows for folx to go past these borders and make these chances possible. It’s not an end-all, be-all fix, but it is a step forward in expanding access and questioning the integrity of our current social and economic systems.

The voices of the current citizens should be heard as we look at future citizens — there is nothing alien about seeking opportunity and freedom, isn’t that the point of being an American?

We as voters and constituents must step in and elect officials who genuinely support our undocumented population — not bigots who generalize Mexicans as violent rapists, Muslims as terrorists with “no sense of reason or respect for human life” and refer to an entire continent as a “shithole.”

According to the Institute of Research on Poverty here at UW-Madison, 30 percent of children in low-income households are expected to enroll in university, whereas those born into topincome households sit at 80 percent.

These high-income students are also six times more likely to complete a bachelor’s degree by 25.

Existing financial barriers to education are harming us tremendously as a country and state, and we must do better to level the playing field for all students — not just the rich, white and powerful.

Being born on one side of an arbitrary border versus another shouldn’t limit opportunity to those who qualify — regardless of what aimless politicians may tell us. A 1982 Supreme Court decision deemed K-12 education a right for all children, regardless of immigration status, and due to the growing economic necessity for a college education, it must be extended to technical/collegiate programs as well.

And whether folx decide to utilize their college degrees for the careers they go on to pursue or move on to work in something completely different, it is vital that a choice be given to make those changes — a choice their citizen-counterparts often have. A key consequence of losing DACA is taking away a human’s right to choose a path in America, often called “the land of the free.”

What this all reverts back to — every political decision, every ICE raid, every statement by university leadership — is the ability to choose.

If choice can be so easily revoked, what is the point of our learning in classrooms every day?

What is the value of our freedom if not everyone is able to have the same access? If education is so important, why is it treated like it’s a privilege?

A degree doesn’t equate success — however, the “American Dream” is a capitalistic promise that jobs will give citizens a home and family and lifestyle only found in our fantasies. Despite living in a culture that is beginning to move past what made the “American Dream” a dream, the laws we follow are propagated by this system.

DACA provides an opportunity for access to that dream, but it shouldn’t be treated as a pipeline of success to create the melting pot that shows how diverse America is. Yet, that is how the law appears, and that is what the Trump administration is seeking to revoke.

The “American Dream” is dependent on each person, and to believe it’s a one-size-fits-all guide

to being a citizen is exactly why revoking DACA will fail to provide for the folx it is made for. It’s failing the folx that are seeking opportunity and access, by revoking their ability to earn their degree, have a job and live a full life.

The voices of the current citizens should be heard as we look at future citizens — there is If choice can be so easily revoked, what is the point of our learning in classrooms every day?

What is the value of our freedom if not everyone is able to have the same access? If education is so important, why is it treated like it’s a privilege?

nothing alien about seeking opportunity and freedom, isn’t that the point of being an American?

We as a group of young folx pursuing our own degrees — and eventually our careers — understand to the best of our ability what is at stake, and who is being neglected by racist and outdated policies. We ask the university to consider its own role in holding back an entire population from the ability to choose strictly because of the longitude and latitude of their birth location, and to just be better in their treatment of education as a means of collaboration and intersectional lifelong learning, not a pipeline for career readiness or a 401k.

We ask our legislators to consider the existing positive impact the DACA program has on improving the futures of young folx — and frankly, our country — and to be better in caring for human life beyond the subjective boundaries of this nation.

And primarily, we ask our peers to consider this issue when making future decisions as voters, constituents and empathetic humans — and to fight harder, as well as be louder and more adamant than those who came before us.

Education is a right, and we must make it fully accessible to everyone.

depictions of women’s roles in history, as well as the history of LGBTQIA+ figures and movements in the U.S. Through a representative, diverse curriculum, it will challenge students to rethink history and how certain injustices and inequalities existing in our past still impact us today. The classroom setting needs to move beyond the gender binary and show awareness surrounding the complexities of gender identity and expression. There should be intentionality with using proper pronouns and respecting everyone’s identity and experience.

Rather than shying away from these topics, it must be tackled and explored to teach students no matter how they identify, they are seen and play an important role in society.

Cultivating your future Providing students a balanced and accurate view of historical figures and gender identities is not only beneficial for them in learning more about finding their place in the world, but also having a chance to explore different career paths — without being held to it.

An intersectional and inclusive curriculum at a school level can provide students from marginalized social and ethnic groups the impetus required to pursue academic and career goals.

Such a positive step would likely be the result of marginalized folx finally being on the right side of both the past and the present, which would make them feel more confident and comfortable to dictate their own terms and not settle for specializations that they might have previously been forced into.

Every era in history has had an era-defining advancement, some form of innovation previously inconceivable. Polymaths or Renaissance people — as there are multiple terms to describe

such people — have wide-ranging interests that simply cannot fit into a pre-established mold.

The first step in the right direction is the introduction of general education courses like the ones listed prior, which will help marginalized folx break the glass ceiling, like those in privileged positions will understand the marginalized, and the marginalized will know their own worth. But it is not a question of simply having people with wide-ranging interests and the drive and skill to succeed.

Much like plants growing into sturdy trees in the right environment, we need to provide individuals with such potential a breeding ground — irrespective of race or identity — where they can reach their true potential and contribute to human history in unprecedented ways. Today’s educational and economic environment celebrates specialization regardless of identity. This can be seen in how students are slowly pigeon-holed into a profession, and while this system benefits specialists, it cripples the polymath.

Students are required to land on a major before they have even reached adulthood and then are required to stay on the same track for essentially the rest of their lives. It almost always becomes a matter of choice for students with polymath tendencies, as society makes them feel out of place and “wrong” for having a multitude of unrelated interests.

An astounding 72 percent of Generation Z students believe colleges should allow them to develop their own majors. Such a radical change would be perfect for the development of the next crop of renaissance people, as they could freely pursue interests as far apart from each other as possible, without any restrictions.

Some universities seem to responding to

the shift in student mentality, with institutions like the University of Washington-Seattle and Swarthmore College allowing students to develop comprehensive plans for their own majors. This allows students to do away with required courses and develop a major of their own, often involving intersections of interests.

The availability of such an option should be the norm and not an exception.

The rise of industrialization resulted in the shift to specialization, serving as further blows to multipotentiality.

But this is a wrong that can be righted, simply by providing freedom and opportunity.

It does not have to replace the existing system but should definitely be an option to foster an inclusive academic environment that fulfills potential.

Intersectional Freedom True education is about more than just developing purpose-built humans for specific industries. It is a tool that helps maximize potential and empower those who have historically always received the short end of the stick.

The coalescence of an intersectional school education and opportunity for collegiate academic freedom might not undo the damage of the past but can set up several generations for a life that they’ve always deserved.

An understanding of real history and gender dynamics will also serve the historically privileged classes well, as they can contribute to a world that could one day be far removed from the toxic status quo. The populace is dangerously divided and these ideas might not be revolutionary, but providing tools to the gifted shall guarantee the repairs needed to piece it all back together.

Safe spaces: Acknowledging privilege

n today’s classrooms, most students are probably familiar with signs saying, “This is a safe space,” or hear a professor utter the same words as they read through the course syllabus.

But what does this mean, exactly?

The Oxford Dictionary defines a safe space as “a place or environment in which a person or category of people can feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment or any other emotional or physical harm.”

Usually, this has the implication of especially trying to be for those with marginalized identities to ensure they feel welcomed. At the most idealized it’s an attempt to foster the concept of being kind, considerate and respectful of others, regardless of whether one can empathize with their background.

Creating the concept of a safe space is especially important in education, since the best learning happens when students are able to apply themselves fully.

Considering most students’ lives are heavily based around school, it can apply to all spaces, such as clubs, online discussion areas and social media. In fact, learning about safe spaces can be beneficial to students — as they may be able to apply the core ideas and values to broader aspects of their life.

In establishing a learning environment as a safe space, students may feel more comfortable and respected, and therefore more able to learn.

Additionally, there’s an opportunity for students to learn the importance of being inclusive of all students’ identities and backgrounds.

Without a safe space, students — especially those with marginalized identities — can suffer.

A Time article noted “a lack of safe spaces can also compound the mental toll of racism, even subtle racism,” and teachers may not recognize racial bullying because of how they perceive students’ interethnic relationships.

At UW-Madison, one in 10 students reported there was at least one incident in which they were the target of hostile, harassing or intimidating behavior, according to a 2016 campus climate

survey. Of those students, women, trans/nonbinary, LGBT, students of color and students with a disability were more likely to have experienced at least one incident in which they were the target.

Additionally, trans/non-binary, LGBT, students of color and students with a disability reported feeling safe, welcome and respected less often — and they were more likely to report feeling excluded.

Hence, there is a need for safe spaces here at UW-Madison, though ultimately it’s up to the marginalized individuals to determine whether or not it’s safe for them.

Perhaps what’s most troubling is the fact the campus climate survey revealed there were students who believed we should remove safe spaces.

This belief is rooted in privilege and is completely ignorant of the experiences of marginal-

ized students on campus. Safe spaces should continue to be encouraged, if not expanded, throughout UW-Madison — and in no way should be “removed.”

In a famous example from 2016, the University of Chicago Dean of Students sent a letter to incoming first years stating they would have no “safe spaces” or trigger warnings in honor of their “commitment to freedom of inquiry and expression.” The main issue with this argument is that it fails to take into account one of the biggest players in the presence of safe spaces: privilege.

Making spaces safer for these students at a minimum requires others to acknowledge and confront their proximity to privileges and consider larger aspects of oppression at play.

As a result, making spaces safer for marginalized students is perceived as somehow mak-

GRAPHIC BY MAX HOMSTAD

Without safe spaces, students with marginalized identities especially can suffer.

ing spaces then unsafe for those with privilege, or limiting their free speech, by way of making them engage in difficult conversations. But arguing against “safe spaces” doesn’t get rid of them, it just keeps them safe for the people they were already safe for.

Without making spaces safer for marginalized students, their “free speech” will always be compromised. They are already accustomed to their viewpoints, experiences and identities being challenged in everyday life, even if the same cannot be said for more privileged students. A safe space can work to reduce this challenge, ensuring there is a place actively made for those with marginalized identities.

Measures need to be in place to ensure everyone also understands their words might directly affect someone. It also requires that the instructor be knowledgeable enough to step in and stand up for marginalized students who may not be comfortable speaking up.

Cultivating safe spaces allows marginalized students to bring all of themselves in pursuing an education. It allows them to worry less about their identities being disrespected, or them being the only ones advocating for themselves. They are able to feel supported in their lived experiences, however much or little they choose to share.

Safe spaces can also help facilitate difficult but important conversations in a way that’s both comfortable and educational for everyone, instead of limiting the identities and experiences of marginalized students. At the same time, these spaces do not aim to trivialize these students for their experiences.

In the end, claiming a space is “safe” only goes so far as the work that is put into it, and it is up to individuals on whether that space is truly safe for them — and not hold it against them if they change their mind.

In basic principle, calling for safe spaces isn’t asking to not engage in any difficult discussions whatsoever. It’s really just asking for more awareness of how privilege plays a role in academic settings, and for those with privilege to be conscious of how their actions and beliefs affect others.

science

dailycardinal.com/projects/evolving-education

Action Project Issue, February 2020

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8

Ideas become reality in UW-Makerspace Where hands-on technologies and interdisciplinary collaboration are enriching student-staff endeavors

TAYLOR WOLFRAM / THE DAILY CARDINAL

The Makerspace offers a machine shop, 3D printing, laser cutters, virtual and augmented reality, as well as a variety of learning spaces for students and staff.

By Alberto Kanost and Gavin Schopf THE DAILY CARDINAL

Engineering can become bogged down by calculations, drawings and theories behind complicated methods and technology. Students pursuing a degree in Engineering are taught how to solve problems and predict things like how much strain certain materials can endure, but some say there is not enough of actually “doing” in real-time — not enough of applying the theory into something that is actionable.

The UW-Makerspace is giving students and staff the opportunity and space to put the theory into practice with state of the art technology — allowing engineers, artists, designers and entrepreneurs to actualize their ideas and projects.

Lennon Rodgers, the director of the Makerspace — formally known as Grainger Engineering Design Innovation Lab — came to UW-Madison three years ago to develop the space. After receiving a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, Rodgers set up similar spaces at MIT, Singapore and Russia, before coming to UW to work on the Makerspace.

Rodgers takes pride in helping to cultivate a space that fits in a larger context of giving engineers a place to do handson learning and practice to not only their schoolwork but their own ideas as well.

A trend dating back to World War II has pulled engineers from hands-on tinkerers to more theory-based practices and calculations. “I had relatives that were engineers and physicists back [during the war], and at

that time physicists were kind of what you consider an engineer now; so they were building the nuclear bomb and other things,” Rodgers said.

“If you think about the word ‘engineer’, with “engine” in it, it was the gas engine that had just come online and stuff like that.

They were like mechanics essentially; they were wrenching on these new locomotives and building buildings, but they didn’t do a lot of theoretical work,” Rodgers said.

With the surge of support for defense funding and research, engineers were swept into theoretical work, which didn’t change for a long time. While this is how it’s been, in the last 10 years there has been an attempt to swing back to more hands-on methods, explained Rodgers.

That’s where spaces like the Makerspace come in to play.

The facilities include 25,000 square feet of shop and malleable space with a wide range of rapid prototyping equipment. It gives students and staff access to 3-D printers, laser cutters, a machine shop, virtual reality, among others.

All of these services and equipment are offered to Engineering students with the right certifications, but are also available to others not in engineering if they apply and obtain an “M-pass”, which gives access to the equipment for approved research or non-research projects.

Makerspace staff hold workshops to teach anyone at UW-Madison how to operate

and do different things with their equipment. For example, they offer a workshop on how to make an electric skateboard.

All the workshops are taught by student staff, who are mostly engineers but

give them experience in the other aspects of a job, by going beyond strictly engineering work and offering interdisciplinary programs.

The combination of an interdisciplinary and hands-on approach is captured in the work of veterinary orthopedic surgeon and UW-Madison faculty member Jason Bleedorn, Rodgers said.

Bleedorn — who stows freshly printed fixtures in his backpack before heading to surgery — uses the space because “he likes working with Engineering students.”

By fostering such interdisciplinary and hands-on work, the Makerspace hopes to assist students in discovering their potential as citizens and professionals, Rodgers said, who surveyed 250 companies at a career fair.

97 percent of companies GRAPHIC COURTESY OF LYRA EVANS reported interdisciplinary education as the most salient expes o m e rience a job candidate can have. art, design, and School of Human They are making something Ecology students have done this useful by applying practical work as well. It’s a space where stu- skills in a hands-on environment, dents can learn in a social context, Rodgers said, adding that entreyet not necessarily know they are preneurship plays an important learning. role in the Makerspace.

The Makerspace also strives “It is not just engineers that to make students more attrac- are able to do it. We’re creating tive to employers. While students interdisciplinary programs that have spent the majority of their bring people from business and college studies learning theory, the humanities,” he said.

Makerspace is seeking ways to Rodgers and his team are already

beginning to craft degree plans based on this thinking.

“We have a new master’s degree that is with 5 schools and colleges; it’s with the business school, college of engineering, art, Information school, school of human ecology. And it’s all about bringing those disciplines together to create products or services,” Rodgers said.

Education in the Makerspace is focused on student immersion, Rodgers said, referencing “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” — a film where two students use a time machine to complete their history presentation.

Visualization tools such as virtual and augmented reality have the ability to make complex subjects more tangible for students.

“I bet if you surveyed people about computers when they emerged, they wouldn’t have understood the effect it would have on their business and on their lives. It’s definitely early.

Education is kind of getting into it. Some companies are starting to explore but it’s just very early on,” Rodgers said.

The allure of the UW Makerspace is captured by a simple phrase on their website — “where limits don’t exist.”

For Lennon Rodgers and other users of the Makerspace, this phrase rings especially true. The facilities’ technologies — including 3-D printing, laser cutting, a machine shop, virtual reality, among others — center students’ work on creating. More environments where students and staff can develop ideas into useful products or services must be developed as education continues evolving.

sports

dailycardinal.com/projects/evolving-education

Action Project Issue, February 2020 • 9

When the Kohl Center lights faded away, Zak Showalter had to adapt to life outside basketball

By Raul Vazquez STAFF WRITER

Zak Showalter has Cardinal red running in his blood.

The Germantown, Wisconsin, native grew up watching the Badgers and had dreams of donning the Cardinal and White for the university someday.

“I just grew up watching Wisconsin hoops,” Showalter said. “If you’re in Wisconsin it’s either you’re in Milwaukee and you watch Marquette or the rest of the state watches Wisconsin.”

“I was deciding between an $80,000 scholarship and taking a gamble on myself, that’s a tough thing to do.”

Zak Showalter Former Badger Basketball star

Showalter said he grew up a Marquette fan during Dwyane Wade’s stardom and the Golden Eagles’ Final Four run in 2003, but his ties with the Badgers were “too strong.”

Bo Ryan, a Wisconsin Basketball legend, accepted the job as head coach at UW-Madison in 2001 after stints at UW-Milwaukee and, more famously, at UW-Platteville where he led the Pioneers to four national championships.

At UW-Platteville, Showalter’s father, Steve, actually played under Ryan from 1985-’89 and was the leading scorer on the squad during his junior and senior seasons.

The dream to play for the Badgers had always been there

for Showalter, but there was one problem — Wisconsin hadn’t recruited him much coming out of high school. The summer before his senior year, he garnered attention from schools across the country, but only at mid-majors.

Bo Ryan and the Badgers had called with interest Showalter, but only as a preferred walk-on.

“I was like, ‘I can either take a gamble on myself and possibly earn some playing time at some point in my career at Wisconsin, or go to a mid major and probably play right away,’” Showalter said.

“I was deciding between an $80,000 scholarship and taking a gamble on myself, that’s a tough thing to do.”

However, the offer to play for his hometown Wisconsin team was too enticing, and Showalter decided to bet on himself.

“I was supposed to come in without a scholarship but luckily, Jared Uthoff transferred during my senior year,” Showalter said.

“So Bo called me around May of my senior year of high school and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a scholarship that opened up so when you come in next year, you will have a scholarship,’ so it worked out well.”

Showalter achieved his dream of making it onto Wisconsin’s basketball squad, and didn’t have much else on his mind other than basketball.

“When I got to school, I wasn’t thinking about anything other than basketball. I was just thinking about playing hoops. At that point I just wanted to play basketball forever,” he said.

But, while Showalter was a talented and a critical part of the Badger teams he played on, he didn’t have the talent necessary to make it at the

next level.

He realized early on in his career he may not have that talent, and knew he would have to at least consider getting a job after school.

“Ninety-nine percent of college basketball players don’t play professionally, so you have to think about what else is out there after sports and after your basketball career is over,” Showalter said. “Early on I had good voices in my ear, saying ‘Hey, you’ve got to look at the big picture.’”

S h ow a l t e r praised Wisconsin’s academic advisors and the entire academic student services department in the athletic department — specifically Assistant Athletic Director for Career and Leadership Bridget Woodruff and his academic advisor Mary Weaver-Klees.

From there, he decided to go look into a career in business. “[I] always thought that if I declared business as my degree, I could do anything,” he shared.

“I think my dream was to play at Wisconsin.”

Zak Showalter Former Badger Basketball star

In Showalter’s sophomore year he was still undeclared in terms of his major.

However, that year, professor Jim Johannes played a major role in Showalter’s decision to pursue commercial banking as a career.

He didn’t usually look forward to going to class with

KALLI ANDERSON/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Student athletes praise the academic resources provided to them by the athletic department.

CAMERON LANE-FLEHINGER/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Showalter was a key part of the Badgers’ Final Four runs in 2014 and 2015, but was never good enough to make it in the NBA. everything else he had going on with basketball, but it was different with Johannes’ class.

“He just did a great job of discussing commercial banking and the benefits of it and I was just like, ‘Hey, this sounds like a pretty cool career’ and it’s been great ever since,” Showalter said.

Showalter applied for a position at First Business Bank just a few months out of college and has been with the company ever since, but the path wasn’t that direct or clear.

Following an illustrious career at Wisconsin, where he was a part of two Final Four teams, playing in 129 games and starting in 67 games, the Wisconsin native still hoped to be able to pursue a career playing basketball professionally.

During his senior season, Showalter nursed nagging groin injuries throughout the season.

After a heartbreaking end to his career — on a leaning three pointer from Chris Chiozza to give Florida the win and Elite Eight berth — Showalter needed to look into what the pain actually was and get it cleared up before he could begin workouts for NBA teams.

Little did Showalter know just how serious the injury had been, as he had been playing through four sports hernias throughout the season.

In May 2017, he had to go through a procedure to fix the hernias, and was out of action for two to three months of key time his peers had to work out and get in top notch shape.

Showalter had the chance to workout for both the Bucks and Bulls but, without being 100 percent, or even in shape, he couldn’t stick and would have to look overseas.

He went through the process of hiring an agent and vetting offers from all over the globe, but without much luck. Showalter only received offers from teams in Ukraine and Uruguay.

The financial instability that comes with playing overseas and the lack of choice left him with a major decision looming. “[My fiancé is] putting her career on hold, so I can chase this dream,” Showalter said.

“I don’t really dream of being in Ukraine. There was a dream of playing basketball, but I also felt like I reached that dream.”

Showalter had to reflect on what his goals were playing basketball, and if he had already achieved them.

“I think my dream was to play at Wisconsin. I don’t think I really dreamed of going into some other country across the world and doing that for ten months out of the year so I just reflected on, ‘is this what I want to do, or do I want to use my career and start a family?’”

“I just reflected on, ‘is this what I want to do, or do I want to use my career and start a family?’”

Zak Showalter Former Badger Basketball star

The Wisconsin native ended up choosing the latter.

He joined First Business Bank back in late 2017 as a credit analyst and has been with them ever since.

With neither of his parents or younger brother more than a few hours away in Wisconsin, and the foundation of a family with his wife, Showalter continues to call Madison home.

“We’ve got two dogs and that’s what I can call a family. Just start different things in Madison. I love Madison,” Showalter said.

arts Noteworthiness of learning music 10 • Action Project Issue, February 2020

dailycardinal.com/projects/evolving-education

By Emily Knepple Arts Editor

When I was a freshman, I never expected to like a class so quickly. I had dread, of course, that college was going to be how everyone said it was: challenging, stressful and occasionally boring. When I took Afro-American 154, the History of Hip-Hop, my faith in my four years had been restored. Maybe all of college could be so awesome.

Whether it was the music videos displayed on the projector before class or the whole lecture dedicated to Beyoncé and Jay-Z, the relevance of music in the classroom today shone through.

As times change, so does curriculum. Twenty-first century educators are constantly met with the challenge of adapting to new norms while preserving history.

At UW-Madison, this challenge is hardly new.

Current lecturer and UW alumni Alexander Shashko has been teaching in the AfroAmerican American Department for nearly 15 years. In that time, Shashko has also scored a seat on the voting board for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Currently, Shashko teaches three courses at UW: AfroAmerican 272: Race and American Politics from the New Deal to the New Right, Afro-American 154: Hip-Hop And Contemporary American Society as well as AfroAmerican 156: Black Music and American Cultural History.

With a background in political history, Shashko focuses on creating a connection between what happened one hundred years ago to what people hear on the radio today.

“When you’re trained as a historian, part of your goal is to get people to connect the past to the present,” Shashko said.

But, it’s not always that easy. When discussing the current, diverse music landscape and the inevitability of changing popularities, he admits it

KALLI ANDERSON / THE DAILY CARDINAL

Professor Alexander Shashko teaches his Afro-Am 154., Hip-Hop And Contemporary American Society, in Birge Hall. on Tuesday and Thursday.. can be hard to figure out what he wants to teach.

“I have the same amount of time every semester,” Shashko said. “Every few years I have to try and rethink how the class is going to be restructured.”

As important as DJ Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa are to the foundations of hip-hop, getting to teach about current artists like Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar proves to be a rewarding experience for students.

Music is one of the ways you potentially define your identity.

Who you are, what kind of music you like, the people around you, what the music says.

Alexander Shashko UW Professor “The payoff, as students, is to be able to hear what you hear now and understand its

resonance and its connections to the music of previous generations,” he explained.

As an Afro-Am 154 alum, I can admit that being able to listen to Drake’s “Nice For What,” intro and picking up on the fact that he’s actually sampling Ms. Lauryn Hill’s “Ex Factor,” was sort of a surreal experience and one I owe to my time in the class.

On top of the generational gap that Shashko’s classes might bridge, there’s something to be said about learning where our current music comes from.

“Music is one of the ways you potentially define your identity.

Who you are, what kind of music you like, the people around you, what the music says. It’s a way of navigating the world when you’re young and trying to figure it out,” Shashko said.

The role music has played in history is one that has contributed to its great significance.

“Learning about the world through music and through songs and through lyrics is something we have had in human society longer than the

written word,” he mentioned.

Shashko also talks about how the history of hip-hop is one that cannot ignore its political surroundings.

Shashko said the class gives him an opportunity to “recontextualize the story of race relations in a way that is political but not strictly speaking about politics.”

When asked about how today’s political climate plays a role in his classroom, Shashko admitted he tries to let history speak for itself.

Shashko said having students understand the ways music has allowed African Americans “to be engaged in the public sphere and to have a public voice” allows them to see “the role culture plays in our political dialogue in the present.”

Students should be able to realize a lot of what they’re learning about is not new, Shashko mentioned. He hopes to provide the context needed to better understand the bigger picture of the present.

While our climate today

can be described as divisive, Shashko tries to have every student with every sort of political belief feel welcomed.

He describes his classroom as a place where he wants students “to feel like they can learn something about themselves and how they perceive the world through the material they are learning.”

Teaching college kids about the ins-and-outs of hip-hop can lead to great rewards.

Whether students take the class because they like music or have to fulfill a requirement, most leave at the end of the semester with a lot more musical knowledge than they had before.

One of the best parts of the teaching gig, Shashko admits, is when students “go back and talk with their parents or talk with their friends about music, and they come back and want to pursue stuff they haven’t heard before.”

As someone who expanded her music taste tremendously after that fall in 2018, I can gladly say … guilty as charged.

You’re tuning in to Comm Arts 449: Sound Cultures - Podcasting and Music

By Philip Klinker Staff Writer

Whether you’re commuting, on a road trip or listening while you work, podcasts have become a mainstay of American pastime.

Having skyrocketed in popularity in the past few years, they have developed from an obscue media hobby to a vast, marketable industry.

When I offered the class, I didn’t even know that podcasting was a big enough thing.

Jeremy Morris UW Professor In becoming such a staple media fixture, UW-Madison now offers a full course focused on the study and pro-

duction of podcasts.

Communication Arts 449: “Sound Cultures: Podcasting and Music” was originally a class centered around sound culture theory and analysis.

That is, until Professor Jeremy Morris came onto the scene.

When Professor Morris started the course in 2014, it focused on sound studies, a subset of media studies, and said that he was unsure the draw a podcasting course would have at the time.

“When I offered the class I didn’t even know that podcasting was a big enough thing that I could put ‘podcasting’ in the course title and it would attract students,” Morris said.

Little did he know 449 would grow in size from 24 students to its current size of around 45. The current problem is that the class is in too much demand.

Morris said that the interest is great and he wants to accommodate as many students as the class’s resources and its “modular discussion group” format allows.

The class covers theoretical topics about sound as well as the technical process of recording and editing a podcast with professional equipment and editing programs for students to use.

The final project of the course is, naturally, a podcast episode.

For the project, students must group up and record, produce and edit a launch episode of their own original podcast.

Final projects have varied from sports to nightlife to dream journals.

Cheyenne Klitzke, a junior andCommunication Arts major, is currently enrolled in 449 and loves it. She was drawn to the class through a prior interest in podcasting.

KALLI ANDERSON / THE DAILY CARDINAL

Students can record podcasts at WSUM’ 91.7 FM student radio.

arts

Action Project Issue, February 2020 • 11

dailycardinal.com/projects/evolving-education thing that is built over time,” Morris said.

It is these fundamental skills that make 449 a more modern course.

Many

A college course about podcasting shows how and when media and culture are changing rapidly — higher education must evolve to keep up.

these things play into how we hear something.”

For Morris, sound is not just one of our senses but a factor that shapes our perspectives of life.

“The sound of a police siren for example means something different if you grew up in one neighborhood v e r -sus if you grew up in another neighborhood,” Morris pointed out. “So teaching students that sound means some-

KA

“My friend and I, we’ve hope as well. He wants to develstarted our own podcast and we op students’ technical skill as were like ‘It would be cool if we much as actually knew how to do this’, so we enrolled in it together,” Klitzke said.

A college course about podcasting shows how, when media and culture are changing rapidly, higher educat i o n m u s t evolve to keep up. The concept of adapt or die applies to almost e v e r ything and education is not any differND ent.

ER U W- M a d i s o n SO N/ gives students the TH ED chance to trade in the AIL classroom for the sound Y CA RDINA booth. At WSUM 91.7 FM, the L campuses student radio, students can now join their podcasting p o s s i b l e , clu2b and record their own shows. but he also thinks about the Klitzke hopes the class will course inmore human terms. teach her the skills necessary “Hopefully [the course] gets to produce a podcast and help people to listen differently, toward her ambitions of radio gets them to listen criticalbroadcasting and production. ly and it gets them to think This is Professor Morris’ about listening as some-

LL

IA

believe the next level of education teaches you not just practical skills, but the skills to be a good person with compassion and empathy.

“The way we hear sounds depends on who we are and where we come from, our own identities shaped by our age, race, gender, class,” Morris said. “All

thing different to each person and that they are also dependent on who you are and what you’ve heard throughout your life.”

Integrating podcasting into cirriculum is just one example of how the modern landscape of education is changing.

Today, young adults come with a variety of techniques to share their stories. As podcasting grows, UW is moving in the right direction to accomodate these various changes.

KALLI ANDERSON / THE DAILY CARDINAL

Located in the Student Activity Center,, podcasts can be done at WSUM. .

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life & style

12 • Action Project Issue, February 2020

dailycardinal.com

Social media takes over student education

By Emily Kroseberg STAFF WRITER

Your alarm goes off and you instantly roll over to catch up on what you’ve missed the last eight hours. Before brushing your teeth you’ve already spent 20 minutes on Instagram scrolling and double-tapping.

Have you thought of the ways that your morning scroll influences the way you learn online?

What about the other one hundred times you pick up your phone that same day?

I interviewed multiple college students to understand how social media both positively and negatively influences their everyday life.

Our generation is beginning to learn from social media. I wanted to know how and what they learn from having social media at the tip of their fingers.

Students’ responses were varied as some referenced they use YouTube for further clarification on course work or to communicate with others. Others mention how social sites have increased their vocabulary especially when under-

standing their emotions.

The overarching idea was it allowed access to people, communities and news they otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to.

“I am able to access people and communities that I wouldn’t normally get to, and do so in a way that uplifts their voices and doesn’t invade their spaces,” Sage Willems, a UW-Madison senior.

We are learning how to socialize and better understand others.

This is a type of learning you may not realize is even happening in the moment, but imagine the culture associated with Twitter versus Instagram. We perform differently on each platform because they specialize in different things.

Instagram is more prone to teach us new approaches to cooking and health whereas Twitter may be a forum for political debate.

Another interesting aspect of how we learn about news is how we get to formulate our ideas not only based on the news articles written and published for the general public.

Before technology and social media, the only way to be informed about

what was happening in the world was from the news. Now, our generation is able to access thousands of other opinions and resources on the internet and social media that contribute to the story that was reported to the public.

Everyone has the ability to share stories and promote education on different sides. However, just because this is available to us doesn’t mean that we will use it. Many people only interact with people in the same community as them that appeal to their personal beliefs. Therefore, even though we can reach out and learn different sides of the story, it doesn’t mean we will.

Along with our exposure to education, social media also creates networks of individuals. This can positively impact relationships with people you may not necessarily be able to see on a regular basis.

You get a backstage pass, whether you want it or not. That being said, sometimes social media promotes a certain “fakeness” that affects our wellbeing. It teaches us what and when we should post.

Facebook is for your “junior

GRAPHIC BY ZOE BENDOFF

Social Media is teaching students about how society operates. year” photo albums and Twitter is for that funny thing that happened to you on your walk to class. These are all learned behaviors that depend on the audience. We were taught we need to post picture evidence we are having fun so others know we are fun people.

Social media continues to

morph and change the way we interact in everyday life. It brings us awareness of current events while also making us feel guilty about our mundane lives. Valuable information still lives on your next scroll, so just make sure that your feed represents what you want to educate yourself on.

Technology provides students online resources in classrooms

By Megan Girod SENIOR STAFF WRITER

KALLI ANDERSON / THE DAILY CARDINAL

Sexual Education is vital kinformation you should have as you enter the real world.

The importance of sexual education

By Vanessa Buckmelter STAFF WRITER

Let’s talk about sex!

This may have been one of your least favorite sentences throughout middle school and high school. In reality, all the talk about sex that is happening outside the classroom, in the lives of adolescent Americans, is what promotes many of the widely-believed misconceptions about sexual health.

Quality sexual education is imperative to a society of young adults making smart sexual health decisions and valuing consent in college where hookup culture can be prevalent. Adolescents making safe and smart decisions in their sex lives comes from having reliable information on protecting themselves and their partners.

In both middle and high schools across the United States, the goal of formal sexual education courses is to provide clear and accurate information to help young people make these good choices.

Most students in America receive sexual education courses through their school between grades six and twelve; however, there is no set curriculum for sexual education and there is no standardized testing for proficiency.

The Center for Disease Control published a set of sixteen goals for

sexual education. As of 2014, the majority of schools were not teaching the full set of goals. The study showed that in high school classrooms, there was a significantly higher median number of schools meeting each goal than in middle school sexual education.

One of the most notable trends is that sexual education seems to be covering broad topics such as abstinence, awareness of sexually transmitted infections, the importance of respectful relationships and the need for protection from pregnancy and infection.

The upside is any accurate sexual education for adolescents is a good thing — especially on a crucial topic like sexual health! However, the downside is there’s still a shortage of information in the classroom and this shortcoming is compensated for by learning sexual expectations from the media and word of mouth — which begins many sexual myths.

The myths we learn about sex are vast. They range from the idea that two condoms are better than one (not true) or ideas from the media about what is expected based on age and gender in relation to sex.

The many myths of sexual health commonly linger into late adolescence and adulthood, never being addressed in a classroom by a qualified teacher. Instead, they are

debunked in a BuzzFeed article or after extensive Google searches.

Regardless of the lessons you were taught by your sixth grade PE teacher or what you may have read online, you are bound to expand your sexual health knowledge when you enter into the real world.

College is one of the first places many people really experience the things you may have learned about sex and a time when many questions you never knew to ask arise.

It can be a harsh reality check when you really actually experience the gravity of making decisions about your sexual health. This experience leaves many college students overwhelmed and confused as they enter adulthood.

Everyone is somewhat sheltered growing up. Therefore, seeking all the information available and becoming educated on something as important as sexual health is vital.

You are not alone if you feel as though you have not received all the information you need about sexual health by just sitting in that sixth grade classroom. However, if you feel undereducated and overwhelmed by unanswered questions about sexual health as you are roaming the streets of your college campus, do not be afraid to reach out to someone educated on these topics and ask the awkward, questions.

As technology advances, the use of laptops, smartphones, tablets and online presentations has drastically changed the way many people learn. While there are some educators who do not encourage the use of technology within a classroom, the prevalence of technology is too great to be ignored.

Phones and laptops in classrooms are still a heavily-contested topic among students and teachers. Many students do not see their cell phone or laptop as a distraction. Other students heavily disagree and say that even seeing someone else use a phone or laptop is distracting to them. Despite the constant debate over technology in the classroom, technology use creates incredible benefits.

Canvas and BlackBoard are sites that can be reached from any smart phone or laptop by a student who may need to access class materials. It helps keep both students and teachers organized because of their user-friendly interfaces.

Gone are the days of thousands of sheets of paper assignments and readings. All of these can be found online through whatever educational program a school may elect to use. An idea similar to this is Google Drive or OneNote

by Microsoft. These allow students to collaborate, whether it be on lecture notes or group projects, these websites allow students the ability to work together without having to be in the same room.

Teachers have noticed an “... increased frequency of students helping each other when they’re using technology in the classroom,” according to

Walden University.

With students’ busy schedules, it can often be difficult to coordinate a time to work on a group project together.

Since group projects are an important part of learning to work with others, it is incredible that these websites allow students to still get the experience of working in groups without having to finagle their schedules around one another — something that rarely happens seamlessly.

Lectures and review sessions have also become significantly easier for students to attend as well because they are not always in person. Kahoot is an online, interactive game teachers can use to create review questions for their students.

Because it’s in the format of a game, students are more likely to be engaged in the activity compared to a traditional review session.

In the case of lectures, missing class due to illness or other personal reasons is less of a burden than before because of technology.

Using an online format like Canvas or BlackBoard, teachers can share lecture notes with students that may have missed class.However, this is not meant to replace attending lectures. It is up to the teacher to determine whether to share lecture notes with all students or just those who miss them.

Technology has made classrooms more accessible to the world of students. Whether it be the need for recorded lectures, written lecture notes from professors or peers or any other form of accommodation, technology has put education at the tips of students’ fingers at all times.