from the Chronicle of Higher Education
Democrats fared well in many state elections last week, with the party gaining full control of state governments (winning majorities in both chambers of state legislatures where Democrats hold the governor’s office) in three places where Republicans had led at least one part of those branches. The three states are Delaware, New York, and Wisconsin, according to stateline.org.
That brings to 17 the number of states where the governor is a Democrat and both houses of the legislature have Democratic majorities. Republicans control all three branches in eight states, says stateline.org.
The change in control of the Wisconsin Assembly and the New York Senate from Republican to Democrat means that two prominent leaders of higher-education committees will no longer hold their posts as chairmen.
In Wisconsin, Rep. Stephen L. Nass will no longer lead the Assembly’s Committee on Colleges and Universities. The Republican has been an outspoken critic of the University of Wisconsin, criticizing its decision to adopt a freshman-admissions policy directing campuses to consider the race and ethnicity of applicants. He also called for the system to fire an instructor who had argued that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were orchestrated by the U.S. government.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Nov 11, 2008 at 12:42 am
No offense, but I’d call that pretty obvious.
2 Elliott Rezny // Nov 11, 2008 at 1:49 am
Stephen Nass, yuck. Thank goodness. I haven’t seen that anywhere, and it’d kind of a big deal.
3 Why don’t you cry about it a little more, Steve Nass? Not like you’re going to have much influence now. « // Nov 11, 2008 at 3:14 am
[...] What’s that, Nass? Good luck with your agenda! The change in control of the Wisconsin Assembly and the New York Senate from Republican to Democrat means that two prominent leaders of higher-education committees will no longer hold their posts as chairmen. [...]
4 Fearless Sifting // Nov 11, 2008 at 3:01 pm
By “not so obvious” I merely meant that you had to read between the lines of the election results a little bit to realize that a Democrat controlled Assembly meant that despite being re-elected Steve Nass wouldn’t be the chair of the Committee on Colleges and Universities.
5 Bucky Joe // Nov 12, 2008 at 12:29 am
I’m not a democratic partisan, but this is good news for the UW and the State of Wisconsin as a whole. I always felt that Nass was doing a lot of damage to the University to satisfy his ego and political ambitions.
But I wonder: will it even matter now? Doyle is now saying that the state’s budget deficit is approaching a projected $5 billion for the next 2-year budget cycle. And that’s assuming that things get better in 2010!
This is going to be absolutely devastating to the UW. Forget fixing the University, the best we can hope for now is avoiding an absolute collapse. Seriously. This is the worst budget the state has *ever* seen, and it comes on the heels of ~10 years of budget neglect.
What is Biddy going to do about this? Frankly, I doubt she can do very much at all…it’s way beyond her control.
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