Dr. Duke Pesta, Executive Director of FreedomProject Academy, host of the Dr. Duke Show, and a tenured professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh interviews Benjamin Whitcomb, Wisconsin Association of Scholars president and professor of music of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Listen to their discussion on the Dr. Duke Show!

Since January 20, the Trump Administration has taken a series of bold steps in a raft of anti-DEI executive orders. One important strategy it is using is to harness civil rights law to combat “illegal discrimination and preferences,” a term used repeatedly in the orders. In a recent essay for the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, WAS member Thomas Powers summarizes several different legal developments that follow a similar logic.

The story of how University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee leaders embraced the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to destroy Israel and offered full-throated endorsement of radical protestors and their rhetoric and methods provides an instructive lens through which to see how universities today are corrupted to support far-left and allied ideologies and agendas. There are important lessons both for the defense of the classical-liberal mission of universities and for the future of American Jews.

For decades American conservatives have been struggling to name a set of powerful anxieties, “wokeness” and “cultural Marxism” being the labels of the moment. But earlier terms revolved around related worries: cancel culture, identity politics, political correctness, critical race theory, intersectionality, multiculturalism, the politics of diversity, of difference. All capture aspects of a kind of “successor ideology” reshaping our world.

The Robin Root case is important for a number of reasons. It has survived a motion to dismiss and seems likely to go trial (the plaintiff is seeking a jury trial). It is a case in state court, and in a blue state at that. (Other similar cases are working their way through the federal courts as well.) While it does not deal directly with “diversity training,” the Root case does involve something similar that was backed officially by the school (the chair of the Anthropology and Sociology Department, and the dean of the college in which the department is housed). The case also involves retaliation (a demand by the chair that Root retract her discrimination claim).

The Wisconsin Association of Scholars, made up primarily of serving and retired academics in higher education, applauds the efforts of leaders of University of Wisconsin System to permit broad exercise of freedom of speech while encouraging civility in discourse. We defend the right to free speech even when many or most find the ideas expressed to be repugnant. But protest must not be allowed to violate university rules and descend into lawlessness. Tolerating unlawful protest undermines the university’s mission and amounts to endorsement of the lawlessness.

Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars, will speak at the Medical College of Wisconsin on February 26, 2024. Dr. Wood’s presentation is part of a new Presidential Speaker Series, founded by MCW President John Raymond in the aftermath of his May 2023 cancellation of the WAS symposium featuring NAS researcher John Sailer, US Sen. Ron Johnson, and WI Rep Dave Murphy.

Harvard, America’s oldest university, has sacrificed its cherished reputation as an elite institution of higher education by defending serial plagiarism at the alter of intersectional politics and DEI.

Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars, will speak at the Medical College of Wisconsin on February 26, 2024. His presentation is part of a new Presidential Speaker Series, founded by MCW President John Raymond in the aftermath of his May 2023 cancellation of an event featuring NAS researcher John Sailer, US Sen. Ron Johnson, and WI Rep Dave Murphy.

Legislative updates from Wisconsin Association of Scholars

Watch presentations from Duke Pesta and others from the WAS Fall Symposium, held on Oct 20 at Lake Geneva, WI.

Watch presentations from Duke Pesta and others from the WAS Fall Symposium, held on Oct 20 at Lake Geneva, WI.

Zoom recording now available! Our 2023 Spring Symposium was held as a hybrid online/in person event, despite being canceled the the Medical College of Wisconsin only one week prior.