Action Project - Identity - Thursday, March 31, 2022 - The Daily Cardinal

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Identity Issue

GRAPHIC BY DRAKE WHITE-BERGEY AND ADDISON LATHERS / PHOTOS BY WILL CIOCI, MORGAN WINSTON, MARK KAUZLARICH, BRYCE RICHTER, TAYLOR WOLFRAM AND BOB CHIANG

“…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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Identity Issue

dailycardinal.com

A Letter from the Editor:

An independent student newspaper, serving the University of Wisconsin-Madison community since 1892

Celebrating Ourselves

Volume 131, Issue 22

2142 Vilas Communication Hall 821 University Avenue Madison, Wis., 53706-1497 (608) 262-8000

News and Editorial editor@dailycardinal.com Editor-in-Chief Addison Lathers

Managing Editor Grace Hodgman

News Team Campus Editor Ali Stecker College Editor Sophia Vento City Editor Charlie Hildebrand State Editor Annabella Rosciglione Associate News Editor Jackson Mozena Features Editor Gina Musso

Opinion Editors Em-J Krigsman • Ethan Wollins Arts Editors Rebecca Perla • Seamus Rohrer Sports Editors Christian Voskuil • Justin Alpert Almanac Editor Mackenzie Moore Photo Editor Drake White-Bergey Graphics Editors Jennifer Schaler • Madi Sherman Science Editors Joyce Riphagen • Emily Rohloff Life & Style Editor Samantha Benish Copy Chief Olivia Everett Copy Editor Ella Gorodetzky • Kodie Engst Social Media Manager Clare McManamon Podcast Director Hope Karnopp

Business and Advertising business@dailycardinal.com Business Manager Brandon Sanger Advertising Managers Noal Basil • Sydney Hawk Marketing Manager Muriel Goldfarb

The Daily Cardinal is a nonprofit organization run by its staff members and elected editors. It receives no funds from the university. Operating revenue is generated from advertising and subscription sales.

The Daily Cardinal is published weekdays and distributed at the University of WisconsinMadison and its surrounding community with a circulation of 10,000.

Capital Newspapers, Inc. is the Cardinal’s printer. The Daily Cardinal is printed on recycled paper. The Cardinal is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.

All copy, photographs and graphics appearing in The Daily Cardinal are the sole property of the Cardinal and may not be reproduced without written permission of the editor in chief.

The Daily Cardinal accepts advertising representing a wide range of views. This acceptance does not imply agreement with the views expressed. The Cardinal reserves the right to reject advertisements judged offensive based on imagery, wording or both.

Complaints: News and editorial complaints should be presented to the editor in chief.

Business and advertising complaints should be presented to the business manager.

Letters Policy: Letters must be word processed and must include contact information. No anonymous letters will be printed. All letters to the editor will be printed at the discretion of The Daily Cardinal. Letters may be sent to opinion@ dailycardinal.com.

Editorial Board Grace Hodgman • Em-J Krigsman • Addison Lathers • Anupras Mohapatra • Riley Sumner • Ethan Wollins

Board of Directors Scott Girard, President • Ishita Chakraborty • Herman Baumann • Don Miner • Nancy Sandy • Phil Hands • Josh Klemons • Barbara Arnold • Jennifer Sereno

© 2022, The Daily Cardinal Media Corporation ISSN 0011-5398

For the record Corrections or clarifications?

Call The Daily Cardinal office at 608-262-8000 or send an email to editor@dailycardinal.com.

By Addison Lathers EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

In 2000, a Daily Cardinal reporter discovered that the University of WisconsinMadison had photoshopped a Black student onto the cover photo for the 2001 to 2002 undergraduate application in an attempt to catch the “spirit” of the school.

The attempt to add diversity in the post-production process was quickly caught for a number of reasons. The student added to the photo, senior Diallo Shabazz, still attended the university, and the photoshop job was pretty rough. Not to mention, UW-Madison keeps a lot of its public relations photos online, which left a trail that any super sleuth, or “Spot the Difference” fans, could easily follow. Yeah, it was embarrassing.

It’s been 22 years since that happened. Twenty-two

years! And yet, to this day, we hear from students of color that they feel that university photographers go out of their way to take pictures of them and their friends. On the flip side, the opposite is true. Who could forget the homecoming video in 2020, which proudly touted a student body representing “127 countries and all 50 states”... but featured no students of color.

The images we are shown to promote the university, the photos that come with admissions booklets, press releases, calendars… we get the feeling that they’re not accurate — and let’s face it.

Our trust has been tested.

UW-Madison’s facade, for its glossy exterior and grand mission, doesn’t feel reflective of its student body. Half of its poster childs are hiding behind $80 oversized Badgeralls and the rest may as well be lifted straight from

Getty. Between a year and a half of Zoom lectures and the bustle of campus life, we so rarely get to look around and see all of “us” — our peers, classmates, neighbors and casual acquaintances — until we’re at Camp Randall about to receive our diploma.

Our rich experiences and lives are thus boiled down to what’s visible to the naked eye, forever robbing us of our identities in favor of what can be articulated on a pie chart, or worse, a scholarship essay.

And so, our March edition became the Identity Issue.

We at The Daily Cardinal are taking a step back to try to represent the student body openly and honestly, and interact with our surrounding city by highlighting the voices we might forget about.

We’re going to talk about the relationship between food and identity, the struggles that Indigenous students

face, the history of race and racism in UW Athletics, the open mic night scene on campus and how to “find yourself ” in college. One reporter dug into the details of how our next chancellor will be chosen and another reported on the return of Pride Prom to UW-Madison.

You’re not going to find articles about the state legislature or Madison city council here. This one’s about us.

I hope you see your roommates, friends, and, most importantly, yourself on these pages. In the most cheesy, cliche way possible: If you want to be a badger, come along with us.

If you want to be a Badger, just come along with me, By the light, by the light, by the light of the moon.

If you want to be a Badger, just come along with me, By the bright shining light

news Pride Prom returns after two year hiatus dailycardinal.com

By Madeleine Afonso STAFF WRITER

Picture this — you’re counting down the days till March 13, 2020 as you and your fellow students make plans to attend the “Once Upon A Queer” Pride Prom. The Great Hall in Memorial Union is booked for the event, and fairy tale decorations and photo booths have already been purchased and are ready to be set up. But two days before the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s biggest queer event of the year, the university announces its transition to online instruction.

All campus events of more than 50 people were canceled, including Pride Prom.

Now, after a two year hiatus, Pride Prom is finally returning to campus. The event is an annual dance hosted by The Pride Society (TPS) where members of the LGBTQIA+ community and their allies come together to celebrate their identities and express themselves. “[Pride Prom] allows us to reclaim that idea of going to a dance with people that you love, and just have fun dressing up for a night,” TPS President Diane Camarda said in an interview with The Daily Cardinal.

This year’s Pride Prom will take place on May 7 in Varsity Hall at Union South. The theme

“[Pride Prom] allows us to reclaim that idea of going to a dance with people that you love, and just ahve fun dressing up for a night.”

Diane Camarda The Pride Society President

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remains the same as 2020’s “Once Upon A Queer,” with hopes that the dance will be put on exactly as it was meant to be before the pandemic forced it to a halt.

“It’s nice to know that us juniors, sophomores and freshmen will all finally get to experience this for the first time, that all our hard work will come together,” Yasmin Trammell, an executive board member of The Pride Society, told the Cardinal.

Trammell was involved with Pride Prom planning her freshman year.

Unfortunately, she did not get to experience the dance due to its cancellation.

“I’ve heard (Pride Proms) were very big and brought a lot of people together who normally wouldn’t be there for TPS meetings,” she said.

“That made me excited that I would meet new people.”

Fundamentally, Pride Prom hopes to provide a prom for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Most people only receive exposure to high school proms, where the dance is a very gendered, heteronormative and binary event that places a large emphasis on male-female relationships.

“The main thing we really try to focus on is that it’s your prom experience,” Camarda told the Cardinal.

“And reclaiming that experience that was taken from us in high school.”

Pride Prom means just as much to TPS as it does to those who attend because putting the event together and being the force behind its message is an empowering act, according to Camarda.

“It’s a really powerful experience to watch.

Everyone comes in dressed how they want to dress with the people they want to be

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PRIDE SOCIETY

Drag queens attend the event also, students and professionals alike perform on stage together during the prom. with,” they said. “Hearing their feedback afterward, it’s why we do it, because of how powerful that response is from the community.”

“Everyone comes dressed in how they want to dressed how they want with the people they want to be with.”

Diane Camarda The Pride Society President

At the end of the dance, everyone looks forward to the student drag performances.

Since 2020, student drag has

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PRIDE SOCIETY

Dancing is the usual pastime at prom events like this, but Pride Prom takes it to another level with performances.

not been able to exist to the extent that it used to, and few organizations on campus were able to offer events for drag performers to participate in.

In this year’s Pride Prom, professional drag queens are joining student performers for a combined show. Before the performance, a “Drag 101” talk will be given to encourage audience involvement with the show through tipping, applauding or engaging with other dramatic reactions.

“I think it’s going to be really good for the drag community here in Madison, and for the people who want to be in a drag community but who just can’t because there isn’t one,” Camarda said.

As the oldest LGBTQ+ organization on campus, Pride Society serves as a place for individuals looking for community, support or ways to show allyship and activism. TPS’s overall values and intentions are best displayed and practiced at Pride Prom, which also ties the organization closer to the university at large.

TPS was established immediately after the state of Wisconsin passed legislation that made it illegal for state or private businesses to discriminate based on sexual orientation, and in doing so, Wisconsin became the first state in the nation to pass legislation supporting gay rights.

TPS, which held the name “Ten Percent Society” until 2019, was essentially founded in 1983, as soon as it was legally able to exist.

At its core, TPS values activism and inclusivity — and wants to be recognized as a judgment-free community without discrimination or societal bias. These values align similarly with those held by the UW-Madison, as named in the Wisconsin Idea and Wisconsin Experience: empathy, purposeful action,

humility, relentless curiosity and intellectual confidence.

“For the humility piece, no one is the ultimate expert on anything. Just because I am the leader of the club doesn’t mean that I know everything about the Black queer community, for example,” Camarda said. “We try really hard if we’re going to have discussions about identities that we don’t hold to bring in someone who does.”

These principles all tie TPS to the heart of the university. Holding meetings to unite LQBTQIA+ community members and their allies is an act of purposeful action and activism within itself, according to Camarda.

“It’s important to us that we come together in a nonjudgmental manner,” they said. “And I think that’s a form of practicing empathy because you have to understand that others are going through things or believe things that you might not, and

“There’s going to be the usual dancing, food, beautiful decorations and fantastic drag performers. We are very excited!”

Diane Camarda The Pride Society President

that can be difficult.”

Additionally, Pride Prom hopes to serve as a space where all are welcome and anyone can be included, have fun and celebrate together in a way that people have not been able to in over two years.

“We’re really excited to be able to put Pride Prom on again. There’s going to be the usual dancing, food, beautiful decorations and fantastic drag performers,” Camarda said.

“We are very excited!”

news Wunk Sheek garden for UW Indigenous

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Identity Issue

dailycardinal.com

By Kodie Engst STAFF WRITER

While the Wunk Sheek community garden is not the first student garden in the University of WisconsinMadison’s history, or even the first in the Wunk Sheek’s history, it is certainly one of the newest — planted for the first time just this past summer.

Even coated with a new layer of snow, the beauty of the garden is not lost. It stands as a testament to the enduring legacy of the student organization.

Formed in 1968 to serve the Indigenous population at UW-Madison, Wunk Sheek is dedicated to cultivating and celebrating interest in Indigenous issues, culture and history.

The name is derived from a Ho-Chunk word meaning “Native people.”

The way Wunk Sheek serves its members can be different for everyone, Wunk Sheek President Paige Skenandore explained, and the question of the organization’s personal impact is best left to every individual within it. It’s hard, she says, to boil down an organization to a small soundbite, but the best way to describe it is “a home away from home,” because it is “the foundation of your Native network of your family and friends on campus.”

Environmental chair Daniel Hayden builded upon this, explaining that the family the organization strives to create is built with people who are communally based and community minded, and can be an integral part of success for students who struggle to be away from home.

[For] people who are communally inclined and based in their worldview perspective, having that community can obviously be important,” Hayden said about Wunk Sheek. “ It can really be significant in their success at university, so it’s really like that important home and family.”

Wunk Sheek has four programs. The garden program is the newest, called Growing

PHOTO COURTESY OF WUNK SHEEK

The Wunk Sheek garden provides a sense of community for Indigenous UW-Madison students on the campus.

Together, and while all leadership within the organization works on all the programs as a collective, it is closely tied in with Hayden’s position. “[The program is] focused on the garden, getting seeds in and having a good growing season, but it’s also got room for other events,” Skenandore said. She described cooking classes and other community get-togethers that work towards the required number of events that Wunk Sheek needs for each program.

Skenandore noted Wunk Sheek’s focus on environmental and sustainability, and the importance of Indigenous students connecting as a community to the environment.

In the case of the garden, it serves as an augmentation of this sentiment.

This is the second Wunk Sheek student garden. The first garden, also at Eagle Heights, sort of “fizzled out” after a shuffle of leadership and a reformatting of the programming within the organization, Skenandore revealed.

The student group is now making arrangements to ensure that this garden becomes a more permanent fixture in the community gardens. Central to this is supporting the food sovereignty movement that has deep roots in Madison, according to Hayden.

The food sovereignty movement is a ground-up approach

that focuses on placing control of policies regarding food production and distribution in the hands of the people who do the producing and distributing, according to the U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance.

Almost every tribe in the state of Wisconsin has been involved in protecting food systems at every level, Hayden explained.

“Every student sort of has that connection [to food sovereignty], but then there wasn’t really a place here, obviously, where we were able to grow foods or do anything like that,” Hayden said.

The garden is a way to serve Indigenous students on campus by connecting them to this part of Indigenous identity, Hayden added.

Skenandore and Hayden had other ideas for ways to involve UW-Madison students in the community, and Eagle Heights Community Gardens had been looking for ways to diversify their garden and serve groups that had been underrepresented in the plots there. Wunk Sheek was offered a garden space, and the organization was able to use plans for an Indigenous garden that had already been their goal to start planting in June of 2021.

“They were trying to diversify the crops as well as the people out there,” said Hayden, underscoring that the addition of the Wunk Sheek garden would help the community

gardens move away from being mostly research-based and more towards being centered on the community.

Wunk Sheek’s goal is to make sure that this garden becomes a permanent part of the community gardens, and they’ve already begun talks to figure out how to make that vision a reality. Because they began planting so late in the season last year, they didn’t get the chance to have volunteers come out to help decide what to grow and where on their plot to grow it.

They are now setting up a sign-up and volunteer rotation sheet so that students that want to get involved this year are able to.

Similar to the first garden planted by Wunk Sheek, tobacco was the first crop planted in the new garden as part of the Growing Together program.

Ho-Chunk corn seeds were also donated to the organization from other gardens in the area to plant.

Hayden described the assortment of seeds available to him through his research with the plant pathology department that were planted in the plot, and other students in the organization had seeds given to them from their homes and families to plant in the garden.

The diversity of crops and their origins served as a way to bring a bit of home to the

Indigenous students who might be far from where they grew up, though the garden ended up being mostly corn. Historically, the main crop in this area was corn, Hayden said, so it would make sense for the garden to look that way.

“The seeds and the stuff that we’ve planted in the garden have definitely shaped my identity,” Skenandore revealed. “My grandparents have always had white sage, just all around their yard, so that’s always been a big thing for my family.”

Hayden continued, saying that having the ability to bring these little bits of history to campus can help Native students feel a little more grounded, where they may have struggled with being far away from home, or even just students who wanted to bring their lives into the community on campus.

He described how giving students who would like to connect with their identities through gardening a welcoming place to do that is an important step.

Allowing students more than one way to express themselves culturally is a massive part of feeling more connected and being more at home.

“I’m Native; I’m not from Wisconsin so this is my outside, sort of, perspective on this, but ... the idea of food sovereignty, it relates to everything,” Hayden said, “I think we’re finding that out more, like these workshops, and everything like that with Wunk Sheek; it’s all connected.”

The garden as a work in progress also has an effect on students’ identities, Skenandore continued, going off the idea of personal understanding as a fluid idea, rather than something that is formed and then solidified.

“It’s still a work in progress,” Skenandore said. “I think the garden can impact our members’ identities, and has. I know it has really inspired a lot of careers, and really brought people into the environmental major all together.”

County supervisor proposes removal of pledge of allegiance

By Ellie Bourdo STAFF WRITER

Dane County supervisor Heidi Wegleitner of District 2 presented a proposal to remove the pledge of allegiance and prayer from future county board meetings this past Tuesday. Currently, Dane County Board meetings begin with supervisors reciting the pledge of allegiance and reciting an optional non-denominational prayer.

Wegleitner explained that she believes removing the pledge and prayer from meetings will make the County Board more accessible to members of the public and encourage additional engagement from the Dane County community.

“My proposals to remove the Pledge of Allegiance and reference to prayer from the county board agenda is part of a package of proposals I drafted to

make the county board more welcoming, inclusive and intentional with public engagement,” Wegleitner stated.

Wegleitner also expressed that she feels it is “un-American” to pressure people to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and is contrary to American ideals.

“Under current procedure, at each meeting, a supervisor is asked to lead the board and meeting attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance. Pressuring people to recite the pledge is contrary to fundamental American ideals of freedom and democracy. Frankly, it’s un-American,” she said.

In an interview with the Cardinal, District 5 Supervisor Elena Haasl, whose district encompasses the UW-Madison campus, expressed her support for Weglteitner’s proposal.

“To me, it’s a separation of

church and state issue. I think right now, there’s a lot to be considered in terms of, what does the pledge stand for. Is it really liberty and justice for all?” Haasl asked.

“I don’t think so.”

Haasl went on to explain that she feels that the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance and prayer alienates members of the community and is inappropriate for a local body of government.

“I think that it’s not really appropriate to have it in a county board meeting when we’re serving so many different kinds of people who come from different backgrounds.” Haasl explained.

Wegleitner’s proposal has drawn criticism from District Supervisor Jeff Weigand, Dis. 20, who feels that the pledge and prayer serve to reaffirm the County Board’s dedication to serving the Dane County Community.

Weigand stated, “As county board supervisors, we have taken an oath to support the United States and Wisconsin constitutions. Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of each meeting is a reminder of the oath we have taken and an out-

ward expression of support for the country we love.”

Wegleitner’s proposal will be considered by the board’s executive committee on March 24.

Newly elected supervisors will make the final decision at the April 5 election.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIANA TOLKSDORF

Heidi Wegleitner of District 2 proposed to remove the pledge and prayer.

dailycardinal.com

STAFF WRITER

Students and faculty were shocked and surprised when Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced on Oct. 11 she will be leaving University of Wisconsin-Madison at the end of the 2021-22 academic year to become the first female president of Northwestern University. Blank’s departure opens the door for a new chancellor to govern UW-Madison, offering a potential new philosophy and perspective for the campus community.

“Going through my head at the time was, who in their right mind would actually want this job with all of the challenges,” said William Tracy, professor of Agronomy and faculty member on the 2012 Search and Screen Committee. “I’m a Becky Blank fan. I think she’s given all of what she’s had to work with. I think she’s done a great job and was definitely the top candidate for me.”

Currently, Blank has the second-longest tenure of any current leader of a public Big Ten university. During her eight years with the UW-Madison, she created many beneficial programs like Bucky’s Tuition Promise, guaranteeing free tuition to in-state students with income less than $60,000.

The university’s graduation rates are at record highs.

Undergraduate applications have doubled with a 4.9% increase in minority enrollment since Blank started as chancellor. Her time at the UW-Madison has had many positive impacts but was also concentrated with controversy.

ASM voted ‘no-confidence’ in the university’s police force after their presence during protests and lack of communication with student organizations.

The student government leader was particularly oppositional and difficult to work with, according to Blank.

Multiple individuals expressed on Twitter their negative social justice experiences with the chancellor following the announcement that Blank would be the first female president of Northwestern University; “My deepest condolences to all students of color at Northwestern,” user @literally_dirt tweeted.

“She was often silent when it came to issues surrounding racism in the institution,” user @ maura_mcdonagh wrote.

Whether or not the current chancellor will be missed by students, the issue remains — Blank needs to be replaced.

After a chancellor announces that they are leaving a university, the University of Wisconsin System forms the Search and Screen Committee to narrow down potential candidates into a few finalists. The current committee is chaired by Regent Vice President Karen Walsh.

Susan Hagness, professor and department chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will serve as Vice Chair.

This committee is essential to find a qualified candidate. There are not a lot of people in the US that have the leadership, scholarly values, academic or professional accomplishments and commitment to students, faculty and staff to become chancellor, which makes it one of the most important university jobs in the world, according to Tracy.

Once the candidates are selected, the Special Regent Committee chaired by Regent President Edmund Manydeeds III along with Regents Amy Blumenfeld Bogost, Mike Jones, Tracey L. Klein, John W. Miller and Karen Walsh will choose a new chancellor.

According to Aerin Leight Lammers, a student on the Search and Screen Committee and Student Services Finance Committee representative for the Associated Students of Madison, she and other members signed a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) as standard procedure to keep confidentiality throughout the l

By Anthony Trombi

Identity Issue

search.

In 2012, committee members did not sign an NDA and were more open with the process through other actions like a meeting with local businesses.

All requests for information about the search process are now directed to the chancellor search website.

Three students total serve on the committee: Lammers, Ndemazea Fonkem, ASM Diversity Engagement coordinator and Luis GonzalezQuizhpe, a graduate student in the Master’s of Arts program in Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian studies.

The current Search and Screen Committee also differs from the previous committee in that it now includes three board of regent members and the regent president on the committee. The regents have more

control over the current search compared to 2012.

“There’s always a nomination system with this kind of search where people can submit names that they think would be good candidates,” said Heather Daniels, secretary of the Faculty and Academic Staff on the 2012 search and screen committee.

“The search firm and the chair of the search will reach out to those candidates and talk with them about the position and try to get them to apply.”

To assist the Search and Screen Committee in the chancellor search process, outside recruiting firms are often hired to find qualified candidates. AGB Search is currently assisting in recruiting potential candidates.

“They [recruiting firm] worked with us in a process,” said Tracy. “There was some protection or protectiveness of the faculty and staff represen-

tatives of the role of the search firm. They did not want their role usurped by the professional committee.”

The 2012 committee consisted of 25 members with 13 faculty, two academic staff, two classified staff, two students, four community representatives and two administrators. Nineteen members are on this year’s committee with four faculty members.

With a large number of members on the committee and the various experiences of each member, coming to an agreement can be challenging. Making sure that everyone’s voices are heard is crucial.

“We made it very clear that to everyone that was on that committee — undergraduate,

alumni representation, union representative and faculty — all had exactly the same vote,” said Tracy. “We all got one vote.

Everyone’s vote was counted absolutely equally.”

The previous investigation for chancellor sought out similar qualifications in their candidates as the current search.

UW-Madison is seeking a chancellor with commitment to scholarly values, academic excellence, academic freedom and a comprehensive understanding of diverse research.

Personal integrity, intellectual curiosity, a personal commitment to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion are among some of the outstanding leadership qualities the Search and Screen Committee is looking for in a new chancellor. Other qualifications include a collaborative leadership style, commitment to UW’s tradition of shared governance between faculty, staff, students and alumni and decision-making tactics to advance the university’s mis-

sion and the overall UW community.

A strong emphasis on establishing deep relations with industry and government agencies is required for the next chancellor. Ability to communicate effectively and build transparency for budgets, processes, principles and decisions is desired.

Potential candidates must have prior academic or equivalent professional accomplishments in academic scholarship and teaching and/or research with a successful record of leadership experience in higher education or equivalent professional administration, according to the chancellor search’s desired qualifications.

“We thought it was important to have a scholar; UW-Madison is an institution of scholarship, academic learning, teaching, striving and all that stuff,”

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Tracy said. “We felt it was really important. It was a non-starter not to have somebody who wasn’t eminent in their field.”

The role of chancellor at UW-Madison also involves having an active voice in state politics. In the fiscal year of 2020, the university received $1.4 billion from federal and state government and private sources for research and development.

There are strong ties between government, politics and the university, especially when it comes to the positive economic impact the UW has on Wisconsin.

“I remember personally being concerned and making sure that we had a chancellor who was politically savvy, because even back nine years ago, the legislature was causing issues for the university,” Daniels said. “Having someone who could navigate those waters successfully was super, super important.”

To properly assess if candidates met the committee’s qualifications, multiple meetings a week were scheduled to interview the potential candidates. These interviews were primarily done in a conference room at O’Hare airport, said Daniels. Individuals would fly in for just one day and meet with the committee for an hour and then fly home.

In-person interviews provided the committee with further information and insight into applicants besides their resumes and past experiences.

Conducting interviews and narrowing down candidates proved challenging for the committee in 2012.

“In an interview, you never know whether a person is just giving lip service to something like working with people, but you can kind of try to get some sense of that,” said Tracy. “In terms of interviewing and in terms of looking at past records, that’s a hard one.

If you put them on that list with political savviness then you’ve got somebody who could really work here.”

Once interviews are done and the finalists are chosen, the Search and Screen Committee takes a step back. In 2012, the Board of Regents took over and the committee members helped give the finalists tours of the university.

The entire search process is very diligent, and it is a hard job to sift through to make decisions. UW-Madison always attracts a very strong pool in prior searches, and this time is no different, said Underwood.

While the current chancellor search is still ongoing, there is not a lot of information available. Applications closed on March 11. In April, the committee will conduct semi-finalist interviews and then the finalists will be publicly announced. A new Chancellor will be chosen in May. “It was really a communitybuilding process actually,” said Tracy. “It’s pretty rare these days.”

news Native Americans only .2% of UW l

Identity Issue

By Claire LaLiberte STAFF WRITER

Despite the fact that the University of WisconsinMadison acknowledges its place on Ho-Chunk (Hooçak) land, UW enrolls relatively few Indigenous students each year.

As of this semester, UW-Madison enrolled 46,059 students in total. This year’s freshman class — the largest in the university’s history — was reported to be the most racially and ethnically diverse class yet, with 7% more African American students, 22% more Asian students and 34% more Hispanic students than 2020.

The university’s Indigenous enrollment numbers were not a part of its press release on the freshman class’ demographics.

Grace Licausi is a first-year student at UW-Madison and a citizen of the Menominee Nation. She emphasized the complex history of oppression and genocide that pervades Native history, and how that can influence students’ choice to pursue higher education.

“The tragedies felt throughout generations have had an impact on all Native American lives — past, present and future,” Licausi stated.

Licausi cited systems of oppression such as relocation, residential schools and a lack of access to resources on reservations as factors in the university’s struggle to enroll Indigenous students.

This is not a phenomenon unique to the student body, though. Of the university’s 2,319 faculty members, only nine identified as Native. Furthermore, over the last 10 years, the turnover rate among faculty members of color has been almost double that of white faculty.

Those of Native origin often struggle to access higher education due to a convergence of historical and modern factors, including colonialism, poverty, the breakage of treaties and soci-

dailycardinal.com

etal discrimination. These factors have pervaded Native history since the arrival of European colonists on the continent.

As of 2020, the United States Census estimates that approximately 50,000 residents of Wisconsin are Indigenous, comprising around 1.2% of the state’s population. Nationwide, the median age of Native Americans is over six years lower than the general population’s average, suggesting that a larger proportion of Indigenous people are of college age.

But at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, only twotenths of a percent of students are Indigenous. The university lists its “grand total” of Native students as 112; this figure can be broken down into 72 undergraduate students, 36 graduate students and four who are nondegree seeking.

Ezra Manzer, another firstyear student, is an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Ojibwe. They are of Ojibwe and Celtic origin, and identify as Métis. Of these statistics, they expressed concern about what this meant for Native visibility on campus.

“How are [our] people to be seen as anything other than ‘other’ when we are so few in number?” Manzer asked.

Manzer also stated that Native faculty should find homes in all departments, not just American Indian Studies.

They referenced the pressure Indigenous people often feel to fit into a certain “Native” role and associate with certain groups in order to maintain their culture and community.

Not to mention, due to their family’s financial situation, Manzer works to pay for college. Between work and school, they struggle to find time for community events. “[It is] an unfair extra stress to be expected to maintain these cultural connections outside of our daily lives,” Manzer emphasized. “Where in all of my troul

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bled youth am I supposed to find the time to attend the occasional Native-based event?”

One factor in the low enrollment levels among Natives is likely financial. According to the 2017 Census, the poverty rate among white Wisconsinites is 9.2% and 26.3% among Natives.

The UW-Madison, even with financial aid, can be prohibitively expensive to those who fall below the poverty line.

There are numerous programs offered by the university that provide an avenue to education for Indigenous and lowincome students. For instance, Badger Promise allows first-generation Wisconsin residents to transfer from various two-year institutions in the state, including two tribal colleges; once at UW-Madison, they are provided with grants for two to four semesters of in-state tuition.

UW’s partnership with the Native nations of Wisconsin also provides valuable resources and information to prospective Indigenous students.

According to Manzer, there is a common misconception that Native Americans attend college for free. In reality, regardless of a student’s academic merit, they will not always receive the aid necessary to afford higher education; furthermore, they added, “the amount of [financial aid] applications and hoops you have to jump through is confusing and exhausting.”

The process of applying to college and for financial aid is especially difficult if the applicant’s parents did not attend college. A Native individual being a first-generation college student is statistically likely. Per a 2019 study by the Postsecondary National Policy Institute, only 17% of Native students continue their education after high school, in contrast to 60% of the overall United States population.

Manzer also indicated that Natives may be reluctant to leave their reservations to

attend the university due to the strong familial and cultural ties they would be leaving behind.

However, the lack of economic opportunities present on reservations create a self-perpetuating cycle.

This often forces Native individuals into a choice between material stability and their communities and traditions. Manzer described reservations as “colonial constructs engineered to destroy culture, expertly so,” and noted that it is by design that they “perpetuate poverty and lack of education in Native communities.”

But once an Indigenous person has made their way to Madison, they face a new set of challenges. If an individual was raised on a reservation, they grew up in community with their culture and people; at a large and predominantly white institution like the University of Wisconsin, they find themselves isolated.

“The majority can’t understand the isolation of losing sight of your people, your culture,” Manzer said.

Manzer recalled the strong community and family bonds present on a reservation, and the comfort of being surrounded by one’s culture and tradition.

“At home there was always traditional foods, sage and sweetgrass was burned and stories were told,” said Manzer.

“A powwow was done on open ground, so as to feel the great spirit on our skin and the earth on our feet, not stuffed into a gym, becoming some exhibit.”

Both Licausi and Manzer highlighted that Native students have to seek out specific events in order to find others like them.

Manzer stated that although the university’s Indigenous student group, Wunk Sheek, is “more than welcoming and active,” they would like to see a campus where Indigenous students can find community both inside and outside of specifically-Indige-

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF MADI SHERMAN

Concerning how little Native Americans attend universities outside of reservations, especially at UW which is on the grounds of the Ho-Chunk nation.

nous spaces.

“I am not immediately akin to another person simply because they share my culture,” said Manzer. “I wish to see people like me in every aspect of campus I want to pursue … to have bonds with Native students for reasons other than being Native.”

Licausi stated that she is often the first Native person that someone meets, and has even had people say that they “didn’t think [Native Americans] were real anymore.”

She said that this is representative of an education system that fails to teach history through a multicultural, multifaceted lens.

Not providing a Native perspective on American history “creates barriers and misunderstanding that leads to prejudice and lack of knowledge,” said Licausi. She stated that this issue runs too deep to be rectified by just hiring Native faculty — it is a “systemic injustice” that pervades all facets of education.

The confluence of systemic issues that make UW-Madison somewhat inaccessible to Native students, and those that render it an uncomfortable environment at times, do not have a simple solution; they are also not problems unique to any specific university or institution. Even so, both Licausi and Manzer believe there are steps that can be taken by administration, faculty and students alike to address these things.

Licausi detailed an experience she had with an American Indian Studies professor who made harmful comments and shared misinformation about Native people. She stated that this was not representative of the department as a whole, as evidenced by the support she received when she spoke up about it. But despite her efforts to address this with administrators, and past complaints from other Indigenous students, no action was taken.

Incidents like this demonstrate an area in which the university can make concrete improvements. When a student of Native origin raises concerns about bias in instruction, Licausi emphasized the responsibility the university has to take them seriously; she also gave this incident as evidence that it is crucial to “incorporate Native educators and [Indigenousbased curriculum] throughout all levels of education, especially [at a] higher level.”

Manzer thinks that these pervasive issues cannot and will not be easily solved, and that countless small steps must be taken before the larger systemic problems can be addressed. In sharing their experiences, they hope simply that their words will open minds, broaden perspectives and encourage individuals to come together in solidarity and take action.

“My experience is one of many voices that platforms such as [The Daily Cardinal] must work to make heard, and to build with them a platform to higher education based on systems of equity,” Manzer concluded.

snapper’s row dailycardinal.com

Identity Issue

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The UW-Madison student identity As UW-Madison students, we are united in our experiences “We imagine ourselves hardened but are quite delicate.

We grow sweeter with time but spoil if negligent.

We are the faces we draw and the hats we wear.

Our identities are a treat when laid bare.”

Photos and poem by Jeffrey Brown

Lake Mendota is a central part of the campus identity, great for relaxation and recreation.

The Memorial Union Terrace is a popular spot to study, drink or hang out with friends

Studying in a library for long periods often feels like a staple of student.

The pursuit of knowledge for one reason or another binds us together as students.

Statues of Bucky Badger are a popular photo spot for families and prospective students.

Library Mall is bustling with students eating, studying, playing and chatting.

sports 8 • Identity Issue

dailycardinal.com

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‘A band-aid isn’t gonna heal a broken arm’: The role of race in UW athletics Incidents of racism at Wisconsin sporting events are nothing new, and may be consequences of deeper, systemic issues.

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TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains graphic depictions of racism and violence against people of color

By Donnie Slusher SPORTS WRITER

On Jan. 18, 2022, a Badger fan made an anti-Asian gesture toward the Northwestern student section during a basketball game. Two days later, Chancellor Rebecca Blank and Athletic Director Chris McIntosh released a statement condemning the actions, including banning the fan from all future Wisconsin sporting events.

Chancellor Rebecca Blank even spoke beyond this incident, adding, “We also want to acknowledge that hateful behavior like this still happens far too often, on and off campus — towards members of our Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi American community as well as other marginalized communities. It inflicts pain and fear and causes students, staff and faculty to feel unwelcome and unsafe.”

This incident was far from isolated.

Throughout the history of Wisconsin athletics, the university has both observed and partaken in plenty of racially insensitive demonstrations.

One of the more notorious incidents to ever occur at a Wisconsin sporting event took place at a home football game in October 2016. Two fans arrived at the game, one wearing a Donald Trump mask and holding a noose that was being worn by the other fan, who was also switching between wearing Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama masks. The pair were holding up a sign objecting to Clinton’s “What difference, at this point, does it make?” comment during congressional hearings on Benghazi in 2013.

It didn’t take long for this behavior to be noticed and reported. Yet when confronted by the University of Wisconsin Police Department, the pair were only asked to take the noose off. They weren’t

removed from the event, and none of their props were taken. Officials from the Wisconsin football program as well as the university police immediately cited “free speech” as cause for not taking any real action against the controversial fans.

Outrage over this event was widespread; fans, politicians, and even Wisconsin’s own athletes took little time to voice their rage. Nigel Hayes, a member of the basketball team from 2013 to 2017, released a Twitter statement condemning the fans’ actions upon reflecting on personal racist experiences throughout his time in Madison and implored the university to take real action and not just sweep the event under the proverbial rug.

Hayes’s perspective shed light on some consequential factors to this disturbing trend. He first acknowledges that the issues of racism he’s experienced “are in no way localized to UW…”, but still believes that the university deserves to be held accountable. He continued, “... many universities across the nation need to start addressing how students of color are treated, and here at Wisconsin it starts at Bascom.

Wisconsin can not only rely on statements, cultural competency emails and a few surveys to try and mediate this problem.”

I wondered the extent to which Hayes’s sentiment was shared among other students of color. So I spoke to Nile Lansana, a UW-Madison alumni and former sportswriter and editor-in-chief of The Black Voice, the university’s Black student newspaper. Lansana vehemently agreed with Hayes’ criticism, adding, “What normally happens is that something will go down — a racist incident, a hate crime — and UW’s response is a diversity statement. Maybe some sort of proctored statement, a little something else, and then it’s ‘just keep it moving’.”

Lansana stressed, “A band-aid is not gonna heal a broken arm.”

Hayes and Lansana echoed a general suspicion shared by some students of color: Wisconsin’s efforts to combat racism are largely performative. Indications of these thoughts are peppered throughout the school’s history.

An example of such suspicion coincides with one of the athletic program’s first significant “progressive” moments.

In 1956, the Wisconsin football team canceled two of their scheduled games

“What normally happens is that something will go down — a racist incident, a hate crime — and UW’s response is a diversity statement.

Maybe some sort of proctored statement, a little something else, and then it’s ‘just keep it moving’.”

Nile Lansana UW-Madison Alum Former Black Voice Editor-in-Cheif

against Louisiana State University, set for 1957 and 1958, after the state of Louisiana formally outlawed social events and athletic contests that mixed white and Black people. This created an obvious conflict with the presence of numerous Black players on Wisconsin’s team at the time.

The swift decision to publicly cancel both games bolstered UW-Madison’s reputation as a progressive university, although there were flaws in that image. Wisconsin replaced the 1958 LSU cancellation for a game in Miami. The crowd in that Orange Bowl stadium was racially segregated. Even worse, a letter from a University of Miami student sent to The Daily Cardinal described the game’s racist environment: “The popular chant in my section of the game was ‘Get that n——,’ or ‘Kill that n——,’” the student wrote.

That article also included commentary on the game’s outcome, which finished 20-0 in favor of Wisconsin, stating, “The university in that game served to humiliate the southern bigots — and we’re proud of it for that. After all, that is all part of the University of Wisconsin Idea.”

This quote was symbolic of a pattern in which Wisconsinites were more concerned with establishing superiority over the South than creating actual change for their Black players. It was as if Wisconsin’s efforts regarding equity were mostly performative — the same sentiment echoed by Nigel Hayes nearly 60 years later.

I could point to instances of racism at sporting events from universities all over the country. What makes Wisconsin any different? One factor could be that Wisconsin’s reputation and image as an institution are especially associated with white people, reflected in its ranking as 10th in diversity out of the 14 Big Ten schools. Thus, it is human nature for white racists to feel more comfortable expressing racism in an environment they perceive as white.

Wisconsin’s student body includes a staggering 65.1% white population. Of the

14 universities in the Big Ten, only four had a greater proportion of white students than Wisconsin: Indiana (65.6%), Michigan State (66%), Iowa (71.5%) and Nebraska (73%) [all as of 2019].

The university has actually done a successful job in increasing diversity, as the percentage of undergraduates who are racial or ethnic minorities has doubled within the past twenty years.

UW-Madison proudly reported this past fall that it had admitted its largest — and most ethnically and racially diverse — class in the university’s history.

Approximately 25.2% of the class of 2025 are students of color.

Yet, somehow, the Black student demographic has actually shrunk from 2.18% in 2002 to 2.03% in 2021.

The white image follows the university elsewhere, including in sports. When the men’s basketball team reached the Final Four in 2000 for the first time since 1941, there was only one Black starter, the rest white. Wisconsin’s 2014 team that reached the Final Four and their squad in 2015 that made it to the National Championship only sported one Black player in the starting lineup.

Furthermore, when you reminisce over the history of Wisconsin football, you may think of iconic Black players like Ron Dayne, Russell Wilson and Jonathan Taylor. Yet, when you look closer at Wisconsin’s NFL output, white players dominate. Within the previous ten NFL Drafts, Wisconsin has had 37 Badgers drafted. Of that group, 25 players were white — close to 70%. This is in a league with only 25% white players.

It can be argued that Wisconsin’s white image is partially self-perpetrated.

During the 2019-20 academic year, just days before Homecoming Week, the stu-

dent homecoming committee was tasked with producing a short video. The result showed a sunny campus, students cheering at a football game, and aimed to sim-

“The university in that game served to humiliate the southern bigots — and we’re proud of it for that.

After all, that is all part of the University of Wisconsin Idea.”

Letter from a University of Miami student to The Daily Cardinal

ply showcase student life. “Home is where we grow together,” a voice narrated.

The problem: virtually every student in the video was white. Whether consciously or subconsciously, the (soon-deleted) video completely dismissed a considerable portion of the school’s population.

Payton Wade, a former UW student and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, commented on the video shortly after it was released, “We were tagged on Facebook when they said a ‘thank you’ to all of the organizations who participated in the video. And I watched the video and I real-

ized that we weren’t in it.”

Students of color were simply ignored.

This sort of dismissive attitude bleeds through to the rest of the university, saturating athletics.

The university’s efforts within the past few years to combat racism culminated in a July 2020 blog post from Chancellor Rebecca Blank titled “Addressing racial inequalities on campus.” This post laid out the university’s plans to deal with Wisconsin’s past and continuing racism and racial injustice issues. Examples of her propositions included creating a new Office of Inclusive Education, devoting millions of dollars to implementing a more diverse student body, faculty and staff and requiring that search committees take specific classes in race and implicit bias.

Did the blog post adequately address the needs of students of color? Referring back to the Nigel Hayes statement, Hayes expressed his desires for Chancellor Blank and the rest of the administration to “... create real programs, initiate meaningful change and understand that students of color deserve to thrive in this institution just like our peers.”

When asked about the perceived nature of the blog post, Lansana expressed doubt, “It felt like it was more trying to protect an image. In the same way there are students filling a diversity quota for the university. In the same way that when these incidents happen, a statement is put out, then we just keep it moving. It felt like that.”

We see what the university does in the aftermath of a racist incident, but what are they doing to ensure that fewer of those incidents happen at all? A phrase Lansana used more than once when describing the university’s responses to

racism and injustice was “reactive and not proactive.”

Yet, sometimes the university can’t even get the “reactive” part right. Months after the blog post, in October 2020, Chancellor Blank hosted a Zoom meeting with editors from The Black Voice newspaper, including Lansana. The goal of the meeting was to address communication between Black students and the university administration.

Ultimately, the students walked away unimpressed. Lansana recalled, “We were talking to her abowwwut the responsibility that she has to make sure that she’s communicating with students about issues, and she basically said that’s not her job, that’s not her responsibility, she has people for that.”

The students were justifiably upset.

“You are supposed to be representing us. If we cannot communicate with you and we can not express how our experiences are here, directly to you, how do we know you’re here for us? How do we know that you are genuinely prioritizing our needs and not checking a box?”

Lansana questioned.

The university must understand what is in its control. Isolated racist incidents that occur anywhere on campus may be out of their power at that moment. But those perpetuated in our stadiums, arenas and gyms — where university and athletics officials have the most oversight — shouldn’t befall the same fate.

The UW-Madison administration cannot approach each of these issues as if they are singular; they must recognize their own responsibilities, in addition to their predecessors.

At the very least, Chancellor Blank and the rest of Bascom Hall owe it to the student athletes of color to care.

science HRT, puberty blocker Assembly Bill 977

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Identity Issue

dailycardinal.com

By Julia Wiessing STAFF WRITER

On Feb. 15, 2022, Assembly Bill 977 was introduced to the Wisconsin State Legislature by nine state representatives, and cosponsored by three state senators. Assembly Bill 977 proposed in the cold legal logic of political change that trangender and nonbinary kids under the age of 18 should be prohibited from any gender transition procedures and gender affirming medical care.

Thankfully, this bill was left dead on the legislature floor March 15, but similar bills are on the rise across the country, including Missouri’s SB843, Tennessee’s HB2835, and Arizona’s HB2608. Gender affirming care, however, is critical for the health and liveliehood of transgender youth.

Thankfully, this bill was left dead on the legislature floor Assembly Bill 977, and similar bills across the country, defines gender transition procedures as “any medical or surgical service provided or performed with the purpose of assisting an individual with a physical gender transition.”

This is an incredible broad set of procedures, ranging from cosmetic surgery to puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy.

One of the most well known types of gender affirming care is hormone replacement therapy (HRT). HRT is a medical treatment that helps people match their physical appear-

JENNIFER SCHALLER / STAFF ARTIST

Refusal of access to affirming care impacts the health and livelihoods of many Americans.

ance to their gender identity. A man who was assigned female at birth (AFAB) may pursue masculinizing HRT, while a woman assigned male at birth (AMAB) may pursue feminizing HRT. Nonbinary individuals — those whose gender identity is not inside the traditional gender binary — may choose to pursue feminizing or masculinzing HRT depending on their transition goals.

The methods and results of HRT vary greatly between individuals. For individuals seeking feminizing HRT, the process generally starts with taking medications such as Aldactone, which blocks the production of testosterone.

Soon after, patients will be able to take estrogen to promote feminization, including redistribution of fat, decrease growth in facial and body hair, breast growth and decreased hair loss. Individuals seeking masculinization HRT go

through a similar process, but generally do not have to take additional medication to block estrogen production. Patients will begin by taking testosterone, which can promote changes such as voice deepening, changing body fat distribution, and facial hair growth.

This type of therapy is generally not prescribed to people under the age of 16. Instead, trans and nonbinary kids may opt to use pubertal blockers.

Puberty is triggered by gonadotropin releasing hormones (GnRH), which originate from the hypothalamus. GnRH travels through tiny blood vessels in the brain to the pituitary gland, which produces either testosterone or estradiol and progesterone. During puberty, an individual’s GnRH levels are high as the body develops secondary sexual characteristics. Pubertal blockers act by inhibiting the production of GnRH, effectively stopping

puberty from occurring.

Puberty blockers can be an important factor in an individual’s transition. It allows for greater ease of social transition, such as changing one’s name or pronouns, relieves gender dysphoria caused by puberty, and gives familys time to plan for future transition goals and needs. Additionally, pubertal blockers do not permanently halt puberty. If an individual decides not to pursue hormonal transition or medical transition, GnRH production and puberty will continue when they stop taking pubertal blockers. If individuals do decide to pursue hormones or medical transition, the effects of HRT will allow for a pubertal experience similar to their cisgender peers. Pubertal blockers, while approved by the FDA and supported in the medical community, are not free of side effects. Short term side effects may include headaches, fatigue, and changes in mood and weight. Long term side effects may include lower bone density, which can be mitigated through diet and nutrition, and delayed growth plate closure, leading to a slightly taller adult height. Overall, pubertal blockers are an impermanent gender affirming treatment to relieve dysphoria and increase quality of life.

The Trevor Projects National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that in 2021, over half the trans and non-binary respondents had

seriously considered attempting suicide last year. In 2015, an observational study published in the National Library of Medicine found that 30% of transgender youth age 12-24 had attempted suicide atleast once. Access to puberty blockers and other gender affirming care, however, greatly decreases suicidal thoughts and attempts in trans youth. After one year of puberty blockers or HRT, trans and nonbinary youths where 60% less likely to suffer from depression and 73% less likely to have suicidal thoughts. Additionally, this same study found that delaying treatment of puberty blockers and HRT after prescription could cause a three time increase in suicidal thought and ideation in trans youth.

Assembly Bill 977 is actively putting the lives of trans youth at risk by prohibiting gender affirming treatments.

With swaths of anti-trans legislation being proposed and signed across the country, it’s important now more than ever to support trans and nonbinary kids. Even something as simple as using someone’s correct pronouns can have a monumental impact. On a broader level, we as individuals can donated to LGBTQ+ charities, call our representatives and voice our dissent, and do what we can to make the lives of trans and nonbinary kids easier by listening to them, respecting them, and giving them space to grow.

Are humans an invasive species?

By Joyce Riphagen SCIENCE EDITOR

It seems not a single undergraduate discussion of invasive species can pass without some philosophicallyinclined baby biologist pondering aloud, “You know…maybe humans are the invasive species.”

It’s worth noting that invasive is a negatively connotated description, which has the effect of anthropomorphizing plants and animals that are not good or evil — they just are.

There are beneficial invasive species; Wisconsin has not had native earthworms since its glaciation. The familiar friends wriggling in your yard were introduced by settlers. So were honeybees.

Our burgeoning biologist’s grave pronouncement can quickly sweep a somber shadow over the group, as many intone their agreement.

Humans are destructive. Humans are a plague upon the earth, which would — with the way things are going — thrive without us. Humans are the problem.

Humans aren’t not the problem. But really, it’s just a handful of humans causing the problem while billions of other, poorer humans suffer the consequences – a 2021 report from Oxfam International found that the richest 1% of people use approximately 30 times more carbon than the poorest 50%. The average citizen of a poor, undeveloped country’s carbon footprint is nearly negligible, and that of an average American is just a very small

fraction when compared to the billionaires and fossil fuel executives who actively profit from watching the world burn.

The impacts of climate change are far-reaching – even if your experience with biology extends no further than 10th grade frog dissections, you’re probably familiar with the idea of invasive species — introduced organisms that, by means of novel weapons or defenses, wreak havoc on native ecosystems.

As our mobility has increased, going from legs to wheels, horses to cars and boats and trains to planes, so have the opportunities for exotic species to be introduced to new niches. Many of Wisconsin’s most prolific invasives, such as garlic mustard, were introduced by white settlers as they colonized previously indigenous land. Humans often directly facilitate the introduction of invasive species. But decrying humankind as an invasive species ignores thousands of years of coevolution between mankind and nature, not to mention indigenous cultures that have a deep, mutual relationship with the land.

In Wisconsin, we face a large variety of invasive species, many of which you have probably seen. The aforementioned garlic mustard abounds in our forests, poisoning the soil and choking out native vegetation. Invasive carp swim our streams, muddying the water and increasing the incidence of harmful algae. Buckthorn, honeysuckle,

rusty crayfish… the list goes on and on.

These invasives arrived with settlers, and like settlers, they haven’t and won’t go home. The lack of widespread invasives before colonization demonstrates that humans are not the problem.

But if not humans, what is the problem? At risk of sounding too much like a hippy-dippy ecologist (which I honestly am), it is the unchecked federal and private disregard for the environment in favor of profit. It is imperialism and greed.

The emergence of the emerald ash borer in North America absolutely epitomizes this dismissal; the borer made its way to North America in untreated, unregulated wood imported from Asia, and it proliferated under a lack of decisive action against invasion.

Humans are not an invasive species. Colonizers are, and this can be a difficult truth to parse, especially for those who may not be Native, but have grown up in Wisconsin – if you are, in some way, the problem, what’s next? What keeps you from being an invasive species?

The answer lies in responsibility and mutual respect; caring for the land and people in your ecosystem allows you to make an actively positive impact that works to counteract the negative effects of colonization.

There is another popular witticism among undergraduates flexing their remarkable acumen: “Ecosystems are constantly in flux,

perhaps we should let nature take its course. Survival of the fittest.”

That’s definitely an option. We could completely give up attempts at restoration, abandon our ecosystems and wait for a new regime of species to take over.

It’s true that attempts to define exactly what constitutes an invasive species must conquer complicated questions — ecosystems are shifting poleward as global warming makes their prior habitats unsuitable. Are these ecosystems invasive in their new high-latitude homes?? Should beneficial invasives, like our dear worms, be sent packing with little worm suitcases, back to Europe?

The solution many biologists have reached is a case-by-case approach that fully considers the ecological effects of invasive species, positive and negative.

Is an introduced species of bird perhaps decimating a local toad population, while also dispersing the seeds of a plant whose original disperser is now functionally extinct? Then perhaps the solution is to find ways to mediate predation on the toads, rather than fully excommunicating the birds. We can let nature take its course in an intentional, guided way – just like we’ve been doing for millennia!

The problem with the just-let-ithappen ideology is the apathy and lack of responsibility it instills. If we just let supposed-nature take its course, we remove any obligation

to make personal efforts to protect native ecosystems, and we save ourselves the grief of a struggle that often feels pointless. We separate ourselves from nature, severing the millennia-long connection between humans and land.

It’s understandable. But we need our native ecosystems. Humans are part of these ecosystems, like it or not, and the loss of our ecological communities would have catastrophic consequences on all our lives and livelihoods. Gone would be the joys of days spent fishing, or hunting, or smelling Wisconsin’s beautiful wildflowers – and beyond simple pleasures, gone would be the pollinators who help in crop production, the frogs who keep us from being even more surrounded by bugs than we already are, the wetlands that keep our cities from flooding. We rely on our ecosystems to protect us just as much as they rely on us to protect them.

It’s understandable for our little baby biologists to feel rather putupon, or guilty – human activities have done an almost unimaginable amount of ecological damage, and the road ahead will be difficult to navigate, but it won’t be impossible.

Humans are not an invasive species, and yes, nature does turn on change; but we are not without responsibility – we too are nature, and have power to change our situation. We have the knowledge needed to save our ecosystems. We just need to put it into practice.

arts Open mic night features an eclectic cast of characters and performances dailycardinal.com

Identity Issue

By Seamus Rohrer ARTS DESK EDITOR

It’s a lively, warm night at Der Rathskeller. Friends gather in groups as the last assignments of midterm season are vanquished. The line for food winds around the corner and the dining room begins to fill with people eating, studying and relaxing.

And in the back of the room, behind a modest sound system, Gunnar Schmitz is preparing for another open mic night.

Schmitz started hosting this particular open mic night in the fall.

“Open mic night is something I always wanted to do, but I never really found the motivation to put my foot in,” Schmitz said.

When the possibility of bringing open mic night back to the public arose, Schmitz did just that. “I thought it would be a good kick-inthe-pants kind of deal, for me to really commit to it.”

The immediate feel of open mic night is laid-back. The stage initially consists of four mics and two speakers. People sign up with a chart on a clipboard, which is bare a few minutes out from 7.

Schmitz told me he usually goes on first to get the night started, and tonight is no different. He takes an acoustic guitar on stage and opens with a song by the bluegrass band The Dillards. Playing with great dynamics and confidence, he’s the perfect act to get an open mic night started.

Maria and Otto came on next, toting a guitar and laptop. They make up a great vocal duo, playing original songs and hitting nice harmonies. As Will and Evan took the stage next,

ISABELLA KELLERMEIER/THE DAILY CARDINAL

A trio of UW-Madison students attend open mic night at Der Rathskeller at Memorial Union. Many took to the stage to perform, from singing to rapping to slam poetry, it was a fun and free-spirited. playing a soulful rendition of the country song “That’s How I Got to Memphis” by Tom T. Hall, a theme began to develop. The setup of the open mic night, a few microphones and an acoustic guitar certainly contributes to a folky, country feel.

If you’re playing music, your voice is going to be featured prominently.

Up on that stage, it’s just you and whatever you bring with you.

Evan, a regular, looks completely in his element on stage. The crowd cheers as he forgets the words to a song he wrote last Saturday. He’s performing, but his demeanor suggests he could be playing alone in his bedroom.

So what gets people to go up on that stage? “A lot of people are looking for an outlet,” Schmitz said. “A lot of people aren’t trying to get themselves out there as an

artist, but just to do something, to present themselves.”

Indeed, open mic night serves as an important outlet. Musicians can practice and practice, but performing is ingrained into their DNA. It’s also vital for building camaraderie within the local music scene. “A lot of people are coming out for the community aspect of it, to interact with other artists,” Schmitz explained.

Delilah and Ben continue the trend of well-coordinated vocals.

The two can really sing, and Delilah’s background vocals remind me of a lot of 90s indie rock. Playing from a book of Beatles songs, they performed a haunting version of “Eleanor Rigby”. They then took it across the English Channel to play the French song “Je Ne Veux Pas Travailler,” which Delilah prefaced perfectly: “The gist is I don’t want to

go to work, I don’t want to eat lunch, I just want to smoke and forget.”

The audience later thins out as the Rathskeller dinner crowd subsides, but now they’re much more attentive to the performance.

Wyatt comes on stage empty handed and gives the crowd a few disclaimers, like how his performance is mostly improvised. No one seems to have any idea what he is going to do, but his indifferent demeanor paired perfectly with his performance — a few lines of slam poetry that quickly morphed into some of the best live beatboxing I’ve ever seen. The audience is captivated by the short, brilliant performance.

Wyatt didn’t just go up there and shred by accident. He was part of an a cappella group and has years of beatboxing under his belt. Open mic night simply gives him a chance to

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perform his craft. “I’m an extrovert to a fault, that’s really what it is,” he said.

The list of people on the clipboard ended about an hour in. Schmitz called it a slower night.

Just as it looked like no one else wanted to perform, a shy but talented woman connects her phone to an auxiliary cord so she can sing along with an audio file.

“There’s always someone new,” Schmitz said.

Another potential performer, Jonathan, walks into the Rathskeller, and immediately finds Schmitz to ask when he can perform. He waits his turn, and then fearlessly begins to sing a-ha’s “Take On Me” over the instrumental track. As the chorus approaches, so does the moment of truth — will he hit the insanely high notes? Headstrong, he sings the high seventh interval perfectly and the crowd showers him with cheers.

“I’ve always loved singing, but there’s no time now,” Jonathan said.

“I’ve always been a bit of a performer.”

The open mic night has been going strong. Now almost two hours in, Casey takes the stage to play acoustic guitar and sing just as Schmitz is about to shut it down for the night.

“It’s definitely the people,” Schmitz responds when asked what his favorite part of open mic night is. It’s about getting to know people, especially other local artists, and “putting names to personalities.”

On stage, it’s just you and whatever you bring, be that a beautiful voice, songwriting prowess or an inexplicable ability to make techno sounds with your mouth. But whatever it is, it’s perfect for this open mic night.

Madison’s annual zinefest ‘is a labor of love’

By Joyce Riphagen STAFF WRITER

Print and Resist Zinefest will take place on April 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Madison Public Library—Central. The event is free and open to all, though masks are required and some viewer discretion is advised.

We’ve all become familiar with the power of media — maybe you’ve got a QAnon uncle, or a tweenage cousin who gets all their opinions off of Twitter.

Either way, print, whether digital or analog, remains a keystone of society and culture.

Printing feels inaccessible, but it doesn’t have to be. If you want, start an independent paper, but there’s an easier option — zines.

Zines are independently made and published printings on practically every topic. With origins in fan culture, zines have long been a means of disseminating counterculture rhetoric and art.

Zines, when done traditionally, are about as DIY as it gets.

Madison is home to a vibrant zine culture centered around the annual Print and Resist Zinefest.

At Print and Resist, artists, activists and advocates gather for a day of printmaking and sharing.

Jennifer Bastian, Print and Resist organizer, has tried her hand at printing and experienced

the joy of independent publishing. She’s an artist and photographer whose recent work, “Worried Triangle,” focuses on print drawings requested by her daughter during the height of the pandemic and isolation period.

“I came of age during Riot Grrl culture,” Jennie laughed.

“I’ve done some collage screenprinting in my time.”

Zines cover a vast spectrum of mediums and can be both digital or physical. There are lots of opportunities, which Print and Resist seeks to connect locals to.

For Jennie, zines are about cyberpunk-style resistance.

“I don’t want everything I think to be in a cloud. I want tangible things I can touch, handle, look at. I want those in my life forever.”

Jennie also feels it’s important for artists to have multiple ways of disseminating their work, especially in this Metaverse age.

“I also don’t trust the internet...I want my work to exist outside of these businesses that only take from us; they’re not giving, they just take our content.”

“Especially the person who’s never made anything or shared it, we want you,” Jennie exclaimed.

This year, Print and Resist is returning to its ancestral home,

ZOE BENDOFF/THE DAILY CARDINAL

A drawing of a red cardinal perched on a branch explains step-by-step how to make a zine out of a piece of 8.5 x 11 paper. According to the bird, the process involves 11 key steps. the Madison Public Library, albeit with COVID precautions in place — masks will be required.

The team couldn’t be more excited — “[Madison Public Library] has been a champion of the arts and independent publishing and DIY,” Jennie said.

The relationship between zines and public libraries is rich.

Libraries have long been bastions of resistance, against igno-

rance, apathy and hate, and the Madison Public Library is helping to continue that legacy.

It’s also a matter of accessibility. The Madison Public Library is free, large and ADA accessible, and it offers a home to those people who society often shuns.

“I know that’s one of the places I feel safe,” Jennie said.

If you’re interested in independent publishing, Jennie

offered some of her favorite zines as suggestions for inspiration: “Against Competition” by Half Letter Press, Abolish Time by Estelle Ellison, and basically anything by Ashley Hartman Annis (especially their sex ed zines). Even if you’re not into any of these, the possibilities for a zine are endless — the frog you saw three months ago, the latest gossip at Plaza…it’s all art fodder!

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Identity Issue!

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dailycardinal.com

Being alone can help you find yourself

By Sophie Walk STAFF WRITER

As my first year of college comes to a close, I often find myself reflecting on the experiences and the lessons that I learned. College is a place where you not only learn about science and math but also a place where you learn a lot about yourself.

As many college freshmen do, I lived in the dorms for my first year. Although it comes with many challenges — communal bathrooms definitely included — it is still something that I believe everybody should experience.

The dorms are a residence like no other. However, forget about having any privacy or space: it simply does not exist in a dorm.

My first semester as a freshman was filled with new people and new places. Every little scrap of free time I had was spent in a friend’s room with a bunch of people, socializing every second of every day. At first, I loved this.

There is nothing quite like living with your best friends, and I know that I would not be as close with my friends as I am now if it wasn’t for this constant togetherness.

But as time went on, I started to find myself getting burnt out — mentally and socially. I started to struggle a lot more with my anxiety, and depression started to sink in. I just did not feel like myself anymore.

I felt like somewhere along the way, I had gotten lost.

And I had absolutely no clue how to find myself again.

It felt like spending all my time with other people had somehow stolen my identity as an individual. I couldn’t understand why I felt so wrong all the time, and I felt crazy for feeling it. It took me some time to figure out that sometimes being alone can help you find yourself.

Knowing who you are and loving who that is is a big part of being happy in life.

JENNIFER SCHALLER/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Learning to love being alone isn't something you jump into headfirst. As Sophie explains, you have to take baby steps. Otherwise, you might end up isolating yourself. ” After all, if you don’t enjoy spending time with yourself, how do you expect other people to?

Nobody said that you need to just cut every person in your life off and become some lone wolf who never socializes with anybody anymore — that would just be sad. But sometimes being alone can be a good thing. Thanks to an article by author Amy Morin called “ 5 Ways Solitude Can Make You More Successful,” here are a few examples: It makes your interests a priority Being alone is an important part of self-development. It allows you to get to know yourself. When you are surrounded by other people, you might start to set aside your own ideas or passions to please your friends and family. Taking time on your own allows you to make choic-

es and focus your attention without worrying about what other people may think.

It improves your relationships This one may seem like it is counterintuitive since it doesn’t make sense that not being with people could strengthen your relationships with them. However, relationships are often strongest when each person takes time to take care of themselves. Even when it comes to friendships, the adage may be true — a little absence might really make the heart grow fonder. It is really important to have healthy friendships and a strong support system for your mental health, but sometimes taking a break can be equally as beneficial.

It helps you regulate your emotions

In a culture where we often confuse being alone for loneliness, the ability to appreciate time by ourselves prevents us from processing the experience as a negative thing.

This alone time is also helpful for us to understand what we are feeling, since we often suppress our feelings around others because we don’t want to “bring down the mood.”

One big mistake that a lot of people make is confusing much-needed “me-time” with isolation. When depression starts to sink in we often want to be alone, when that is actually the worst thing that you can do.

Isolating yourself at this time can cause you to fall deeper into depression and prevent you from still being a functioning human. Knowing the difference between these two types of alone is critical in this whole idea.

Although solitude may be uncomfortable, it is incredibly beneficial to self-improvement.

You need this time to free up your mind and focus on the bigger picture and future goals. It is actually okay for you to forget about the needs of others. It is not selfish to put yourself first.

Learning to love being alone isn’t something you jump into headfirst. You have to take baby steps.

Otherwise, you might end up isolating yourself instead of enjoying some much-needed solitude. Some small ways that I started was simply just going on a walk by myself.

This really helped me get away for a short amount of time just to be with myself and kind of unpack how I was feeling that day, all while getting some exercise — and those muchneeded endorphins.

Another practice that I relied on heavily was simply just not going on social media for the first 30 to 45 minutes after I woke up.

This really helped me focus on myself in the mornings. I wasn’t bombarded by images of girls living lives I will never live and looking how I will never look. It was nice to not hold myself up to the impossible standards I have in my head for a little while.

As I come to a close, I realize that there is no reason for you to follow my advice. I am not a professional; I’m simply just a college freshman.

However, I can use my own experiences as a student and a person to help others. If you follow this advice and it helps you as much as it has helped me, that is fantastic. But even if you just read this and realize that you are not alone in what you are feeling, that still is a win for me.

It may seem embarrassing or selfish to focus on yourself so much, as it is not what society teaches us to do. But, if practiced effectively, selfreflection and being alone can result in a happier, more efficient YOU.

Identity upkeep: The importance of maintaining an organic identity

By Lauren Ingrassia STAFF WRITER

College is a time when many students either discover or enhance their true identities. In doing so, it can be daunting for some students to discover that their identities heavily revolve around their academics, or even more jarring: around academics they were pressured to study.

University of WisconsinMadison student Ryan Lough, a sophomore studying biology on the pre-med track, thinks he has found a middle ground.

“When I realized that everything

“I forced myself to do activites that I actually wanted to do or try, like taking tennis lessons.”

Ryan Lough UW-Madison Student

I was doing was related to being premed, I forced myself to do activities that I actually wanted to do or try, like taking tennis lessons when I’ve never touched a tennis racket in my

life,” Lough said.

Just like a majority of busy students, Lough struggles to find time on campus for his separate hobbies.

But, he tries not to lose sight of them.

“I have a whole list of activities I would love to do, but unfortunately my schedule just doesn’t allow for it,” he said.

Fortunately, Piyush Mekla, a freshman computer science major here at UW, has found a balanced schedule that helps his identity stay true and could potentially do the same for others. While on campus, he makes time for his interests by planning ahead.

“I try to schedule my hobbies at times when they complement my academic schedule,” Mekla said.

“For example, I try to workout in the mornings to get my blood flowing for my classes later in the day.”

The way that Mekla is able to prioritize his various activities just may be the balancing act that many students ought to learn. While Lough and Mekla differ in academic majors, they also differ in how their studies affect their identities. Lough admits to occasionally losing himself in his studies and neglecting his other interests.

Conversely, Mekla sees his academics as a companion to his identity, as he has always been interested in technology and business. Despite these differences, both students see the importance of keeping up with

“I try to schedule my hobbies at times when they complement my academic schedule.”

Piyush Mekla UW-Madison Student

other interests — or at least keeping them in mind — in order to stay true to their internal selves.

Identity can clearly be impacted in many different ways, which makes maintaining it a unique process for every individual. Simply being aware of how your studies and identity are intertwined is a great way to pinpoint any unattended interests you may have.

In tending to these gray areas of your identity, you just may find a stronger sense of self that leaves you excited for the next step in enhancing who you truly are.

PHOTO BY DRAKE WHITE-BERGEY/THE DAILY CARDINAL

In tending to these gray areas of your identity, you just may find a stronger sense of self.

almanac Study finds that 67% of transphobes identify as part of the Confederacy dailycardinal.com

By Mackenzie Moore ALMANAC EDITOR

The jokes are made roughly 1,256,928 times per day — “You identify as a man/woman? Then I identify as an Apache Attack Helicopter.” Better yet, “I identify as a cat — treat me accordingly.” Well, Jeff, considering that you were excited to drop a deuce in a public playground’s sandbox after leaving the bar last weekend, I guess that’s only fair.

On their faces, these jokes are easy to brush off as uneducated; after all, they’re typically posted on Facebook by people who think being gay was invented in 1968 in order to create new bars with shorter lines. However, a new

Identity Issue

study by Columbia University indicates that there’s more to the story.

The study, which included participants from all over the United States, found that 67% of transphobic people self-identify as members of the Confederacy. The Confederacy existed from 1861 to 1865, when the unrecognized sovereign nation was defeated by a bunch of, in today’s vernacular, “libtards.”

Compounding the confusion is that nearly 49% of those who identify as sons and daughters of the Confederacy are not from a state that fought against the Union during the Civil War. Instead, nearly half of these subjects were born in places like Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Alaska,

which wasn’t even a state until 1959. Further, most of the participants did not have ancestors in the United States until the 20th century, meaning that they had zero familial ties to the Civil War era.

Many people are concerned about transgender people receiving gender reassignment surgery.

After all, it’s a permanent change to one’s body based on a feeling that could potentially change down the line — it’s like Confederate flag tattoos that way.

Even so, while trans people wear clothes to cover their Kibbles ‘n Bits, it’s gonna take more than a “Female Body Inspector” baseball cap to make people forget that uncle Jim has a bright red and

blue Confederate flag inked onto his shiny noggin.

The irony of identifying as part of the Confederacy while invalidating the scientifically-backed transgender community was pointed out to the participants. Yet, many didn’t see the similarities. To be fair, transgender people want to feel comfortable in their own bodies, whereas the Confederacy wanted to own and brutalize other people’s bodies using a whip with glass and nails tied to the end — that’s not at all the same thing.

Many modern-day Confederacy supporters say that the war was fought over states’ rights. Namely, the right to steal Black people from across the ocean and pack

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them like sardines into a standing-room only ship before being sold to some mutton chop-clad guy named Frederic whose sister is also his mom. But hell, at least the Confederates didn’t each individually change their first names and ask people to refer to them as such.

Unfortunately, transphobia will exist for years, if not decades longer — just like racism or people who make loving bacon their thing to the point that they own bacon decor and hygiene products. As consolation, unlike the South, the transgender community won’t have to rise again, as they will tear a bitch down before they descend in the first place.

Where is home, actually? World’s grown-up tomboys tired of clarifying that that they’re straight

By Anupras Mohapatra CONTRIBUTOR

They say an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree I wonder what they would say about me Born in a town in the east of India I barely ever spent any time there Is it really home if every visit makes me feel like a tourist?

Cautious at every twist and turn, beaten in enthusiasm by the yoga-peddling white cultural colonialist?

It was only a matter of months and I was headed to Dubai Most commemorate flying, while I can’t even remember my first flight Opportunity beckoned in the golden sands I soon found myself crawling with knees and hands Crawl turned to walk and I started to talk Not in Hindi, not even in my mother tongue Rather in English, as I had been conditioned I grew older and spent time around the elders They disapproved of my illiteracy in my mother tongue. Don’t they always know better?

Cartoons from the US and sports from the UK. What about my roots?

I wasn’t born American. I wasn’t born British.

Is it really home if I never lived there?

So I was immersed in conversations with elders, my patchy Odia today a result of these efforts My schooling took shape as well English was the primary language, but Hindi and Arabic wanted a piece of the pie While Hindi took grip and brought Urdu along, my Arabic was nowhere near as strong It didn’t matter as I belted out both songs Jana Gana Mana and Ishi Biladi Singing praises for my motherland and also the place I could most reasonably call home But is it really home when you’re an expat forever?

I lived for 18 continuous years, but it could’ve been 58 and it wouldn’t matter I now find myself, twenty years into life, in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin In the United States, the land that gave me cartoons and songs But even before setting foot, I knew I wouldn’t belong The stamp in my passport made that very clear There do exist paths, the roads often taken The roads that have shaped Asians in the United States But for all intents and purposes, once I’m done, I must be gone For I’m an “alien” Madison may very well feel like home But is it really home when those in power don’t really want you here?

And those who do are left largely powerless?

In a journey to find myself, I could be called many things Perhaps most disparagingly a coconut Darker-skinned on the outside and white on the inside But all I seek is greater insight I don’t feel fully Indian, I don’t feel Emirati I’m certainly no Brit and certainly not a Yankee I guess this leaves me with one single question Where is home, actually?

We're always looking for more funny and insightful writers with fresh takes on topics ranging from the UW campus to international news. We accept and encourage creative submissions as well! Any and all submissions are more than welcome.

You can send your submissions and any comments or questions to almanac@ dailycardinal.com. All articles featured in Almanac are creative, satirical and/or entirely fictional pieces. They are fully intended as such and should not be taken seriously as news.

By Mackenzie Moore ALMANAC EDITOR

Millions of girls around the world have been referred to as “tomboys” from the time they were a child. In my case, as well as many others, this is known as “having an older brother” or “liking sports.” Whereas in younger years tomboys are treated as rough-andtumble little ladies going through a phase, people seem to forget that it’s not always temporary.

For example, through high school, being in softball is just considered the standard for girls who actually want to be playing baseball. Once in college, playing softball is considered the standard for girls who actually want to be hooking up with other girls.

I don’t know what that’s supposed to say about me — I’ve never been on a softball team, but I have spent hours upon hours over the course of my life throwing a ball up in the air for myself to catch with an old MacGregor Big Mac baseball glove that was left in the garage when my dad left for a “fresh start” (it’s okay — I love that glove).

While some tomboys do end up more stereotypically feminine (which is also cool), others are left to ask themselves questions like “How do I get guys I’m interested in to understand that I’m not just pretending to be into football?” and “Will people think I’m gay if I wear flannel when it’s cold outside?” I, for one, am still searching for the answers.

Like the tree-climbing, stick sword fighting little rascals we have been since our youth, tomboys have learned to make use of our resources. Look — I don’t want to show up to a formal event wearing a dress. What if I have a joke to make that requires high kicks or general acrobatics? I’m not gonna wear a suit because, frankly, that’s gay. But a nice romper?

Hell yeah.

Tomboys are not as likely to be found wearing a short dress and heels when it’s 10 degrees outside, but there’s a time and a place for everything.

Wearing a scuba suit may be more efficient at the beach, but while sand may end up places it doesn’t belong, I’m gonna wear a bikini because it looks better and my stomach could really use a post Wisconsin winter tan.

Straight women who are tomboys have a delicate line to walk.

They fulfill certain lesbian stereotypes, so here and there, forcing a sentence into a conversation that begins with something like “I went on a date with this guy…” is warranted for clarity. However, if this is done too much, people may think they’re in denial.

Further, there is the concern that actual lesbians (or bisexuals/ pansexuals/whatever floats your boat) will be offended by the clarification as though it’s homophobic. In reality, nobody likes incor-

rect assumptions being made about them.

Someone could be like “I heard Mackenzie doesn’t like hot dogs” and I would emphatically defend myself to make it clear that I actually love hot dogs despite their reputation as miscellaneous meat scrap tubes — which they are. In fact, last Sunday (the Lord’s day), I waited in the drivethru line at Portillo’s for nearly half an hour at approximately 3:15 p.m. for a single Chicago style hot dog and a diet coke served in a styrofoam cup.

In conclusion, straight tomboys, we need to start having meetings. Preferably with a snack schedule, but don’t bring clementines — eating fruits and vegetables is important, but I envision this as more of a Gushers and Pizza Rolls situation.

COURTESY OF CHRIS HUNKELER VIA CREATIVE COMMONS

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14 • Identity Issue

dailycardinal.com

Being a Badger: identity at UW !"#$ Cardinal View editorials represent The Daily Cardinal’s organizational opinion. Each editorial is crafted independent of news coverage.

As part of this action project, the Daily Cardinal Editorial Board mulled over what identity really means. We agreed on the basic tenets of identity, but realized that each of us weighed parts of our identity differently. Identity is a complex and essential part of our being. It is not something that can be catered to through placating actions or by hitting benchmark numbers. A sense of belonging is much deeper than that. This led us to think about what it means to be a Badger. What does the University of Wisconsin-Madison do to truly embrace diverse identities? Is it enough? Or is it all for show?

To many, being a Badger revolves around notions of school pride and the adoption of the “work hard, play hard” balance. Yet, many would not think about the religious diversity UW-Madison holds. The university ranks sixth in top public universities by Jewish population.

The school currently maintains a population of around 5,000 Jewish students, accounting for 13% of the student body. This is a far greater percentage than the meager 2.4% of the U.S. population that the community of Jewish-American citizens accounts for.

Why UW-Madison attracts such a wide portion of students from this religious minority remains unclear. It likely has to do with the bountiful number of resources offered to this population. UW-Madison is home to five Jewish greek houses: Sigma

Alpha Mu, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Zeta Beta Tau, Alpha Epsilon Phi and Sigma Delta Tau. The school also offers both an on-campus Chabad and Hillel, two extracurricular organizations allowing students to commemorate Jewish holidays and connect with Jewish life. Even within on-campus dining halls, kosher food is available for practicing students. Each of these additions to the campus provide outlets for this religious minority, likely keeping UW-Madison as a top school choice for Jewish students.

Yet, does hosting a large number of this ethnic and religious minority of Jewish students mean the university is reflective of diversity?

Clearly, the answer to this question is no. Even with the large number of Jewish students on campus, the university has shown blatant disrespect for their culture. The 2021-22 academic year was pivotal in marking the return of in-person classes, likely bringing feelings of anxiety to many across campus.

Despite such significance, university officials made the decision to start the academic year on Sept. 8, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, a holiday among the most important for those of Jewish faith. University faculty offered their condolences for Jewish students in this position, yet despite the many outcries, refused to change the start date.

All things considered, the large population of this religious minority is likely out of practice and not a result of UW-Madison officials’

inclusivity efforts. The aforementioned Jewish life extracurriculars were not founded because the university sought to give Jewish students a community, but rather because there were many Jewish students on campus.

UW-Madison has attempted to take action increasing the representation of different student identities. In 2021, the university hosted a two-day Diversity Forum discussing the prominence of antiAsian prejudice and how to alter perceptions of what it means to be Asian American today. The university has also scheduled an upcoming event called the “Day of the Badger” on April 5 and 6. The Day of the Badger is set to focus on the “University’s Greatest Needs,” including the Chancellor’s Fund, Emergency Student Support, Tuition Assistance, and Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion.

U W- M a d i s o n created the RaimeyNoland Campaign, named for UW’s first known male and female Black graduates.

The campaign’s goals are to use scholarships to increase diversity, develop a more diverse faculty, raise academic success and graduation rates in STEM fields, create an inclusive campus and increase research studying issues related to social and racial justice.

As good as it is that more student identities are being represented, the university still fails to solve a number of issues regarding representation.

Some may remember the infamous “homecoming video” from 2019 that was meant to promote inclusion.

In this video, nearly every student featured was white.

Ultimately, this speaks to the university’s continued pattern of disregarding the needs of all of its students. The university instead performatively touts its diversity numbers in order to paint a narrative that doesn’t exist.

In the year following this video, U W- M a d i s o n ’ s BIPOC Coalition made repeated calls to meet with university officials — including Chancellor Blank — which were dismissed repeatedly.

The coalition made efforts to work with the administration in order to make the university safe and equi-

table for everyone.

Sam Jones and Kavitha Babu wrote an article for The Daily Cardinal showcasing a number of other shortcomings the university has committed over the years.

These discrepancies include: • In 2000, a Daily Cardinal reporter discovered that UW had photoshopped the face of a black student into the cover photo for the 2001-02 application booklet.

• In 2016, a Sellery resident posted photos of Adolf Hitler and swastikas on his dorm room door.

• In 2017, the sacred fire circle at Dejope Residence Hall was vandalized with the words

“The freshman class is the most racially and ethnically diverse in the university’s history,” a university press release announced.

When faced with these statistics, it’s easy to wonder why it took UW-Madison so long to get to this point of seemingly “acceptable” levels of diversity. In 2019, the university ranked 10th out of the 14 Big Ten Schools in diversity, ahead of only Indiana University, the University of Iowa and the University of Nebraska and trailing far behind sixth-place University of Minnesota and Northwestern University at second. 1 It gets worse. Between 2002 and 2021, the percentage of undergraduate Black students at UW-Madison

GRAPHIC BY MAX HOMSTAD

“Columbus Rules 1492.”

In 2018, a student filed a hate-bias complaint due to the inclusion of two UW alumni’s names in various spaces in Memorial Union — despite the fact that they were members of a student society that took on the name Ku Klux Klan.

• Also in 2018, student Ali Khan expressed frustration over a political science class titled “Terrorism,” which Khan found “neocolonialist” and greatly simplified the concept of Jihad in a “onedimensional, single-faceted and inherently violent” way.

• In spring 2018, a “Make America White Again” and “Mass immigration is white genocide” stickers were plastered on campus light posts.

These discrepancies lead us to question if the efforts made to represent identities are enough. Is all the talk of championing diversity a facade if such shortcomings can be seen? Most of these incidents are part of our recent history. Surely, we cannot dismiss it all as “the past.” Even if these incidents were dated, sweeping them under the rug does not constitute a solution.

UW-Madison’s fevered announcement that its 2021 freshman class would not only be its biggest, but most diverse class of all time stirred excitement.

Compared to fall 2020, this new freshman class includes 7% more African American students, 22% more Asian students, 34% more Hispanic students and 34% more students who identify with two or more races. Total, there were 1,251 underrepresented students of color, up from 989 last year.

•

remained virtually unchanged, despite increased efforts over time to become more inclusive.

It’s easy to think of diversity as a simple yes or no proposition. Faced with low numbers of diverse students, shouldn’t admissions just… admit more students of color? The truth is that diversity is more complex than that, and a student’s status is not always as visible as skin color. UW’s struggle can be best represented by administrators’ failure to look beyond just one axis of identity and instead embrace diversity in a way that includes all elements of a student’s experiences.

As evidenced, UW-Madison is home to a thriving Jewish student population, yet refuses to make time for students to observe Rosh Hashanah. UW has no issue honoring Native populations with dedicated plaques and land acknowledgements, but it falls short of retaining Indigenous students.

No one is more puzzled by the university’s failure to embrace inclusion than students and faculty. The benefits of a diverse student population are many and varied.

In regards to practicality, students who have experience interacting with a broad range of people are known to have an advantage in the professional world, and employees who believe their different identities enhance each other are more productive than others.

The Wisconsin Idea suggests that “education should influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of the classroom.” A more diverse student body is in spirit with the Idea and should be a priority for the administration. Failure to embrace identity as it should be is a scourge on the Wisconsin Idea.

opinion dailycardinal.com

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Unmasking religion amidst the pandemic

By Em-J Krigsman OPINION EDITOR

Manal Hasan sat in her University of Wisconsin-Madison dorm room — feeling friendless, roommateless and absolutely alone. Coming from a town where all of her friends were white and Christian, college would be the first time Hasan would find people who shared her Muslim identity.

But since Hasan entered college during the pandemic, she said she felt utterly isolated.

Hasan reports she was later able to find her community after attending an intimate COVIDsafe brunch at the Muslim Student Association religious organization. “I saw these people and realized that we all believe in the same things,” Hasan said.

“The ability to practice who I am and be who I am … I wanted to come back every time.”

On a campus as large as UW-Madison, religious organizations provide safe havens to connect with those of similar identity, making a big campus feel more intimate. As reflected on by campus religious leaders, keeping students engaged during the pandemic was complicated. To preserve the essential communities formed within, UW-Madison’s religious organizations relentlessly worked to adjust as the pandemic evolved.

It becomes apparent that students grew a greater appreciation for religious outlets they priorly took for granted. Religious orga-

nizations are vital for connecting students with their culture and aligning students in communities of common identity. More so, during such uncertain and ever-changing times, it is clear that students need faith to cope with crises.

Muslim Student Association (MSA): Muslim Religious Life As a current sophomore, Hasan serves as the Sisters Coordinator for the MSA, planning social events specifically for women.

The MSA offers spiritual, cultural and social interactions on campus, connecting Muslims, and creating a space for the free practice of Islam.

Most events at the start of the pandemic and during the 2020 to 2021 academic year were virtual, leading to a decrease in attendance. According to MSA leaders, it was difficult to organize virtual events that members were excited to attend. To maintain community, MSA leaders organized in-person, small group meals and praying sessions whenever possible.

The introduction of vaccines allowed Hasan and other MSA leaders to stage a more-typical kickoff event at the beginning of the fall 2021 semester, yielding a record 150 Muslim students.

In reflection of her first year at UW-Madison, Hasan realized the MSA helped her find community in a year of virtual interaction, to the point where she now leads the group.

Badger Cru: UW-Madison’s Christian Religious Life

In similar regard, Dylan Henrickson — a UW-Madison junior serving as Master of Ceremonies of Badger Cru — feels drawn to the Christian community each week.

Cru is a nondenominational Christian group that offers spiritual guidance and connects students through prayer and on-campus programs, such as

“In-person is just so much easier to be connected. You can actually see people face to face and be like ‘they are kind of on the same wavelength as me,’” said Henrickson.

“Whereas when you are online you feel alone, and being alone in your faith can be a challenge.”

In the spring of 2021, the offcampus High Point Church offered their space to the Cru

PHOTO COURTESY OF BR0WSER

keynote speakers and a studentled gospel. Each Thursday, Cru draws approximately 250 to 300 students to gather on-campus at Upper House.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, Cru switched to Zoom gatherings, a pattern that continued into the fall of 2020.

Campus regulations prevented Cru from access to Upper House or any other campus building.

According to Henrickson, it was difficult for him and other members to maintain the Cru community virtually.

students, so Cru leaders coordinated carpooling as many students as possible to High Point each Thursday. Henrickson notes there were fewer attendees than at Upper House, but in his perspective, connections with peers were improved. The present 2021 to 22 school year has allowed for Cru’s return to Upper House, restoring attendance to its prepandemic range.

For Cru leaders like Henrickson, it has always been about maintaining the Christian community. Henrickson said,

“growing in your faith stems a lot from your time, but also from learning from others… having the community around you is something you can really treasure and learn from.”

UW-Chabad: UW-Madison’s Jewish Religious Life Rabbi Mendel Matusof — leader of the UW Chabad House — similarly longed for in-person religious life, solidifying his decision that he was not going to be any stricter than the law required during the pandemic.

Chabad is a Jewish center, designed to fulfill the needs of the Jewish community from education to prayer and mental health.

In a normal year, Chabad holds inperson gatherings for the Jewish holidays and weekly Friday night Shabbat dinners, offering a form of community to hundreds of Jewish students each week.

According to Matusof, he found value in seeing everyone enjoying themselves and smiling at the dinner table. During the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Chabad offered meals-to-go for the Jewish holidays and weekly Shabbat dinners, but Matusof found celebrating separately to be unfulfilling.

Returning for the fall 2020 semester, Matusof installed a text message system. Interested students could register for Shabbat dinners in socially distanced groups of 25, in compliance with the Dane County limit.

Read more at dailycardinal.com

How cannabis-related policy has alienated its users

By Owen Puckett STAFF WRITER

When discussing marijuana users, many would use descriptive words like lazy, lethargic or even apathetic. This stigmatization easily causes a strong polarization between those who use, and those who think using is wrong.

These stereotypes are blatantly incorrect.

The continuous perpetration that people who use marijuana are “worse members of society” than people who don’t is unfair.

Realistically, smoking a joint is no different than drinking a beer at dinner or a cocktail at a bar, yet the stigmatization around marijuana in the United States is far worse than that of alcohol. This is in spite of the fact that alcohol is far worse for our bodies and our communities than marijuana.

The truth is, marijuana has few adverse effects on the body. A study published in Scientific Reports found that the mortality risk of marijuana was approximately 114 times less than that of alcohol.

It is also a common misconception that marijuana impacts brain activity. A 2009 Neurotoxicology and Teratology study found that marijuana has neuroprotective properties, meaning it protects brain cells from harm. The study compared the white matter in teens’ brains who solely drink alcohol to those who drink alcohol and smoke marijuana, finding “teens who used weed, as well as alcohol, suffered significantly less damage to the white matter

in their brains.”

In addition to the miniscule effects marijuana has on one’s health, the legalization of weed has not been found to increase the amount of DUI’s and DWI’s that occur in this country. In 2018, 12 million people, or 4.7% of the population, reported driving under the influence of marijuana. Meanwhile, every 50 minutes someone dies in an alcohol-related car accident.

While some opponents point to recent studies indicating that the percentage of deaths related to car crashes involving cannabis have risen from 9% to 21.5% from 2000 to 2018, it should be noted that researchers also stated that “fatalities from crashes involving cannabis are more likely to have involved alcohol.” Hence, alcohol again appears as the bigger influence in crashes.

With all of these factors pointing to marijuana being substantially less impactful on ourselves and communities — why should cannabis users continue to be stigmatized, stereotyped and bad-mouthed for partaking in an activity that is statistically safer than consuming alcohol?

If this alienation can be dismissed, marijuana legalization could have immense beneficial effects on local economies. As proof, cities like Oakland, Calif. and Denver, Colo. were able to collect tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue after legalizing marijuana. This allowed the city governments to increase

the quality of life of their constituents and fund additional social programs.

For every year marijuana is not legalized in Wisconsin, hundreds of millions of dollars pour out of the state and into neighboring cities, such as South Beloit, Ill. In fact, Mayor of South Beloit, Ted Rehl, said that “his town’s budget relies on the failure of Wisconsin to legalize marijuana.” Wisconsinites have continuously crossed the border into Illinois, spending $241 million in the first half of 2021 alone.

More monumental, in many places we have seen the positive effects of a society rid of stereotypes against cannabis users. The city of Madison has already made steps towards the legalization of marijuana by recently allowing those 18 and over to possess up to 28 grams of cannabis.

The effort to legalize marijuana in Madison is being fronted

by Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4.

According to Verveer, the age to use substances such as alcohol, marijuana or tobacco should be 18, saying, “if you can be drafted to defend our country and entrusted with the vote, you should be seen as an adult in all situations.” By making these steps towards legalization, the city of Madison would be forcibly removing any negative portrayal of cannabis from the local community, effectively ending the alienation of cannabis users.

However, Madison’s city council on the whole is not

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEREMY PAWLOWSKI

doing enough to support civilian desires. A Marquette University poll showed 76% of voters in Dane County voted in support of the legalization of recreational marijuana, while 85% voted in favor of the legalization of medicinal marijuana. It is evident that the people of Madison want to be able to enjoy marijuana recreationally, so why have local and state politicians not pushed for legalization on a national stage?

By continuing to impose these anti-marijuana laws, Wisconsin is effectively outlawing a group of people from belonging to the state’s community. These citizens are being alienated solely because of outdated social norms.

Cannabis use is no different than drinking alcohol while being better for one’s body.

By outlawing smoking preferences, especially when research outlines numerous merits to marijuana, policy-makers are effectively shunning a group of people based on false pretense

and antiquated stereotypes.

Owen Puckett is a freshman studying Political Science. Do you think cannabis users are alienated in our communities as a result of the policy surrounding the drug? Send all comments to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

comics comics 16 • Identity Issue

dailycardinal.com

BY HANNAH KENNEDY

IF WE ALL ARE, THEN NO ONE IS

DO YOU LIKE TO DRAW? JOIN US!!

send your emails to: graphics@dailycardinal.com

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