Sunday, November 23, 2008

Write to us!

Our presentation was about the modifications to chapter 17 of the Wisconsin System Policy. We are going to inform students about the pros and cons of the revisions. Let us know what you think!

2 comments:

dleathers said...

It did not look like anyone had commented on your presentation/project yet so I figured I would go ahead and do so. I did enjoy your presentation on how the modifications to chapter 17 might affect us as students of the UW community. The presentation was funny and accurate. It was good to know that you will not be expelled for something as simple as a parking ticket, because if you did I would have been expelled a good 5 or 6 times by now! But the point was well taken that the modifications could affect people in other ways. I like your project because you are focusing on a relevant local issue, but likely one that people know very little about. I know I had never heard of the chapter 17 modifications, and had not even heard of it before. I wish you good luck, it looks like your project is off to a good start.

annie said...

I think this project is a really great idea. This is a topic that hits very close to home for a lot of college students in Wisconsin. Although I understand why some students who commit serious crimes should be reconsidered for enrollment, I don't think the authorities are considering a lot of other factors. From my experience growing up in Milwaukee near the UW-Milwaukee campus, and having many of my best friends still in Milwaukee going to the university, the housing students are finding outside of the east side is much more unsafe. The east side of Milwaukee is an area where many upper-middle class families live. The neighborhoods surrounding campus are nice and much safer than housing found in Riverwest, or the west side of the Milwaukee river. If students are deterred from living on the east side because of a higher risk of negative academic consequences, many of them will end up in a much more dangerous part of town and quite far from campus. I know very few people who have lived in Riverwest and have not had to deal with crime such as violent muggings, break-ins, or even murder.
In my opinion, UW authorities need to reconsider the indirect effects of this chapter in addition to the immediately obvious effects. There are implications that are not immediately obvious but are also extremely important and, at times, irreversible.
I think it is important for your group to address some of these implications and include them in your project. It is these kinds of examples that can make authorities who know nothing of real campus life reconsider this chapter. I think it is also important for your project to avoid a defensive tone and giving examples of negative side effects is a productive way of doing so. I don't think anyone will really be expelled for a parking ticket so focusing on something like that as a reason not to pass the chapter will not deter authorities from implementing the chapter. They will just think, "Well, no one in charge will take it to that extreme because they'll know better" and move on. I think you guys should talk to friends in other UW schools and see how this chapter would directly effect their off campus lives and gather examples from different campuses.
Good luck!