Stephen Macedo, a professor of politics at Princeton University, spoke about his newest co-authored book, “In COVID’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us,” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on May 4 in a lecture hosted by the Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy. Macedo discussed the policies surrounding COVID-19 and how they reflected institutional dysfunction in the United States during the pandemic.

Macedo began by recalling early events of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 and the fears felt by many. He explained the need for an “honest and critical” assessment of the policy decisions that were made. He referenced uncertainties and fears that contributed to the urgency early in the pandemic, many stemming from overwhelmed hospitals and climbing mortality rates.

According to Macedo, there were decades of pre-COVID pandemic planning studies conducted on the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as border closures, mask mandates and school closures. Macedo cited one particular study from the World Health Organization (WHO) from November 2019 that emphasized the low quality of evidence and effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions.

“Some measures were not recommended in any circumstances, including the most severe pandemic, and those measures included contact tracing, quarantine of exposed individuals, entry and exit screening, and border closures, things we all did with short order under COVID,” Macedo said.

Macedo also referenced additional pre-pandemic research from institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and the United Kingdom, which also warned about the limited evidence surrounding non-pharmaceutical interventions.

“It almost certainly will not be possible to contain or eradicate a new virus in its country of origin or on arrival to the UK. The expectation must be that the virus will inevitably spread, and that any local measures taken to disrupt or produce the spread are likely to have very limited or partial success at a national level, and cannot be relied upon even as a way to buy time,” Macedo said, citing a UK study from 2011.

Policymakers failed to acknowledge the lack of scientific evidence available, according to Macedo. He noted that billions of people were subjected to lockdowns within a matter of weeks, a response he argued was unprecedented given the lack of evidence backing these measures.

“By early April 2020, half the world’s population, 3.9 billion people, were living under some form of lockdown,” Macedo said.

Macedo also pointed out the role of political polarization in shaping the pandemic policies in the United States. He explained that Democratic states implemented stricter and longer restrictions during the pandemic, while Republican states were more likely to lift restrictions earlier. He suggested that these differences weren’t linked to measurable public health outcomes, but rather reflected broader political divides that influenced decision-making.

Macedo also argued that “truth-seeking” institutions, including science, journalism and universities, did not appropriately consider dissenting perspectives during the pandemic. He described this as a failure within these institutions, as differing viewpoints were often discredited or dismissed.

“Under the influence of polarization and politicization, we argued that disagreement was prematurely moralized and dissent was treated intolerantly,” Macedo said. He believed these institutions need to prioritize viewpoint diversity moving forward.

Macedo also highlighted the negative effects of pandemic policies in early education, noting “unprecedented drops in student learning in both reading and math, reversing roughly two decades of progress.” He also argued that prolonged school closures during the pandemic contributed to a loss of trust in educational institutions, pointing to the increase in school choice programs in Republican states.

“Chronic absenteeism rates doubled, now at one third of K-12 students nationwide, and losses greater in high-poverty districts, and for black and Hispanic students,” Macedo said.

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Beyond early education, there have been depressed rates of church attendance and volunteering, depopulation in business districts and large drops in mass transportation use, according to Macedo. He also noted negative effects on our social fabric, including increased mental health consequences and loneliness, especially in places with stricter lockdowns. Macedo said these outcomes make up a set of social costs that weren’t considered in early pandemic decisions.

Macedo concluded his lecture by emphasizing the importance of reflection moving forward, asserting the need for more openness, humility and tolerance of differing viewpoints in policy and public discourse.

Rev. Patrick Gilger, an assistant professor of sociology at Loyola University Chicago, gave a lecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School on April 6 about the “Birth of the Modern Catholic Self” and the role the Jesuit order played in bridging the divide between secular and spiritual concerns.

Gilger began his talk by discussing his first encounter with Jesuits when he was 17 years old at Creighton University, and at the time, he was not Catholic. “These people on campus, my fellow students, weren’t faking it or being posers,” Gilger said. “They were real people … with a combination of integrity and authenticity.” He describes the Jesuits he met as having a holy sense of competition. They were “integrated people living in a disintegrated world” through “spiritual direction and spiritual exercises.”

When Gilger first arrived at Creighton, he did not know how to pray, but he got the chance to learn. “At first I felt silly sitting there trying to talk to what felt like nothing,” he said. While in novitiate - the training to enter the religious order - Gilger and his fellow brothers learned Ignatian spiritual exercises that were written by St. Ignatius of Loyola, and he gave specific instructions for talking directly with God. These exercises taught them to live and see the events of the gospel through imagination and prayer. Over time, Gilger came to appreciate prayer, and under the influence of the Jesuits, he became a novice after four years.

“What is spirituality?” Gilger asked. He explained that it is “a style of life in the world built upon organizing thoughts, behaviors, producing experience based on the trinity resurrection, orienting us to achieving certain goods.”

Gilger built on this definition by discussing the great spiritualities, especially to the five main orders: Benedictines, Franciscans, Jesuits (Ignatians), Carmelites, and Dominicans. The spiritualities are “the infinite coming into relation with the finite” because humans cannot fully grasp God’s message.

All of the big five spiritualities would emerge at different times. The Benedictines emerged during the adoption of Christianity in Rome, the Franciscans during the growth of European markets, and the Jesuits and Carmelites during the democratization of information. This was near the beginning of the Protestant Reformation and the general religious revolution.

Gilger explains that the Ignatian spirituality came to be “God’s gift and answer to the question of modernity.” It gave a way to build a modern self while still being Catholic, which was the central dilemma during that time.

There were four main revolutions that Gilger discussed. The first was the religious revolution, which led to the privatization of religion. The second is the scientific revolution, which introduced new various ways of thinking and the democratization of knowledge. The third is the Industrial Revolution, which led to capitalism and made people even more restless and anxious about the world around them. Lastly, the political revolution split the Church and state, leading to the rise of democracy and the changing experience of the modern world.

All of these revolutions made people more individualistic and led them to dream of building and controlling the world, according to Gilger. These movements fundamentally transitioned people from a “porous self” to a “buffered self,” which are philosophical states coined by philosopher Charles Taylor.

A porous self is “open to spirits, superstitions, enchanted forests, and fairy tales,” and it seeks spiritual protection through the Church or other religious methods. The buffered self is in control of their own life and shielded from the spiritual world. Gilger explains that we are now buffered selves because the world is now, as Gilger said, “disenchanted”.

Both Ignatius and Gilger believed that there can be an “individual and traditional” Catholic. The modern Catholic self shares similarities, but it does not consider itself autonomous. It is aware of a lack of action and of the collaboration required with the spirits moving through it. Ignatius was crucial in forming a faithful modern Catholic self, and he refined the spiritual directions and exercises to be suitable for a modern world so humans could be “imitating the conduct of the master.”

During the time Ignatius was writing, many spiritual directors were spreading new ideas beyond the monasteries to people in the cities. Ignatius worked to systemize what was already established by taking classes and reading books under the guidance of a spiritual director, while also tailoring it to the person undergoing the exercise.

Gilger explained how Ignatius helped make the exercises accessible outside of hierarchy, but he also had to deal with many new problems in the modern world. He said Ignatius “made the process of the spiritual exercises, now a triadic relationship between God, the director, and the directed, thereby strengthening the exercise and the effect. The director is not just controlling experiences, but they are to be adapted to the person and the moment.”

Gilger explained that around the time of Vatican II, the Spiritual Exercises in the modern Catholic Church were done in groups rather than individually. After that, the exercises began to address people’s specific desires and became more of a self-help manual, not the radical change it had been before.

Now, people are seeking stable ground, avoiding conflict, and offering critiques of order and agency. Gilger says this was resolved by Ignatius long before these modern problems emerged, and now the problem is the divides in the internal structure of Roman Catholicism. He believed both worlds are needed to be a modern Catholic self.

Gilger concluded by saying that directors should act like a pointer on the balance when the directee communes with the Holy Spirit. He told the audience to “act against temptations, to break the balance” and “be unafraid of what we will find.”

Parishes across the country are experiencing a large increase in young adults converting to both Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. This trend has been seen in Madison, as Saint Paul’s Catholic Student Center and nearby Orthodox parishes have reported recent surges in conversions.

While some profess that this is a sign of a “religious comeback” in America, others are skeptical about how strong this religious wave really is. To get a better sense of the increasing number of converts to Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity in Wisconsin’s second-largest city, perspectives and data from both religious communities must be taken into account.

The Madison Federalist interviewed the staff involved in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) program at Saint Paul’s, located near the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus. Saint Paul’s serves both students at UW-Madison and other young professionals in the area, so the staff said the number of people in their OCIA program has greatly grown over the last few years.

In the past, Saint Paul’s confirmed around 10 to 29 people into the Catholic Church every year. This year, they reported over 100 confirmations. The OCIA program has been breaking new records in confirmations every year since 2023. In 2025, they recorded more than 80 confirmations, and in 2024, more than 70.

Saint Paul’s staff explained that a large reason behind the increased confirmation numbers is that “it really comes down to travel sports.” Due to the increase in travel sports participation, they reported that around half of those confirmed each year were raised Catholic, but delayed their confirmation. The other half of the people in the OCIA confirmation program are converts to Catholicism. Around half of these converts are typically coming from a Protestant background, with the exception of a few converting from Orthodox Christianity. The other half of converts are those coming from non-Christian backgrounds, which have included individuals raised atheist, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim.

Many young adults in their program express a yearning for community and structure in their lives. The staff described this as a sign of the “loneliness epidemic” often experienced by Gen Z. While the staff said they have been noticing more young men becoming interested in Catholicism, conversions have generally been evenly split between the sexes. A staff member also pointed out that most female converts come from another faith. Another common theme among all of their converts is that they are “looking for something beautiful and true.”

While they are seeing an increase in people interested in the Catholic faith and the Church’s history, they are skeptical that increased confirmation numbers are a sign of a comeback of traditional Christianity, because many data points do not take into account the number of people disengaging with the faith each year.

The staff said they believe the “Catholic comeback in America” is “overstated,” especially due to the high number of people who left the faith during the COVID-19 era. Despite people leaving Catholicism, they hope to finally see more people coming into the church, which used to be scarce. From their experiences, converts are less likely to leave the Church in the future than those raised in the faith.

The staff members also believe that many people are being drawn to Catholicism from popular conservatives in public and media discourse, most notably Vice President JD Vance. In addition, they consider social media content — ranging from apologetics to Catholic influencers — to be a large factor that is drawing young people into the Church.

There are three Orthodox churches currently located in Madison. Fr. Gregory Jensen at Ss Cyril & Methodius Orthodox Church, located south of UW-Madison’s campus, reached out with an article he had previously written about young adult conversions, particularly concerning young men.

Jensen’s article, “Men Flocking to Orthodoxy: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” was published last year, and he said that there is not “enough data to support the idea that this is a mass movement.” The Orthodox Church in America largely serves immigrant communities and their children and will likely remain as a small fraction of the population.

Despite his claim, he wrote that there is increasing interest in liturgical tradition among young people, particularly young men, who have primarily not been raised Orthodox Christian. For those drawn to the Orthodox Church, he rejects the idea that it is the “masculine church,” as many women during the Soviet Union remained steadfast in their faith during a time of persecution.

Fr. John Chagnon at St. Ignatius of Antioch Orthodox Christian Church paints a slightly different picture. “We too have experienced the surge of young people, but also others coming in,” Chagnon said.

Significant portions of his congregation consist of former evangelical protestants and former atheists. He said that he used to be an Anglican pastor before converting to Orthodox Christianity. While most of their converts come from a protestant background, there have been a few converts from Catholicism over the years.

The number of converts flocking to St. Ignatius has been interesting to him since the church does not partake in “sheep stealing.” They only provide an option to those who seek them out. Additionally, teens as young as 15 and 16 years old have shown interest in conversion, whereas most converts are between the ages of 18 and 35.

Chagnon said that he prefers to take a more individualized approach for each convert, so chrismation and baptism dates can vary. This month, they will have around 15 to 20 people entering the Orthodox Christian faith.

The church has seen some young women converting to the faith, but the majority of their converts have been young men, especially those who are single. “Some of the young guys coming in have been so into their video and digital world – that it is hard for them to have actual relationships [with others],” Chagnon said.

He believes many of their converts come to them due to experiences with the Orthodox faith online, which can be both good and bad. Their young adult converts have reported a feeling of “emptiness” without a faith that adheres to tradition, instead of trying to appeal to current culture.

“Tradition is not the worshipping of ashes, but the passing on of fire,” and people are drawn to the “steadiness of the Orthodox Church,” Chagnon said. While Orthodox Christians are currently still a sliver of Wisconsin’s population, there is growing optimism about the future of the Orthodox Church in the state.

While it may be too early for some to describe this as a true religious revival, there are certainly shifts happening among young people in our society. Despite those raised in the Catholic or Orthodox faith slowly disengaging with traditional Christianity each year, Chagnon believes that the COVID-19 pandemic was a strong reminder of our own mortality, and it likely led more people to search for a deeper meaning in their lives.

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Conservative journalist and activist Christopher Rufo believes higher education may be changing for the better. “I know for a fact that we are in a better place than we were five years ago,” he told The Madison Federalist. “But the question is really: Are they sufficient structural changes long-term? The answer to that is obviously no, so we will have to do much more moving forward.”

Rufo gained national prominence for his reporting on critical race theory and DEI in governmental institutions, especially universities and public schools. Rufo has been instrumental in reshaping how the right approaches higher education reform, including advising Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He is currently a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Rufo sat down with The Federalist for an exclusive interview before speaking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on April 22. He was hosted by the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership and the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy in an event titled “Making Universities Great Again.”

According to Rufo, higher education is facing a crisis of its own making, and conservatives in government should not shy away from using their power to fix it. “A lot of these institutions that have been fattening themselves in ideology and in politics are going to be put on a crash diet. They won’t be able to do what they’ve been doing moving forward,” he said. “And I think ultimately that’s what it’s going to take for these institutions to actually have a moment of seriousness.”

“Universities have essentially been printing taxpayer dollars for a half century, with no limitations. That can’t go on forever,” Rufo said. He believes federal and state governments are in a unique position to make change because “student demographics [will] start tipping and declining” in the coming years. As the percentage of the U.S. population aged 18-22 decreases, colleges will need to compete for students like never before. “I think you’re going to see a lot of people get much smarter in a much faster fashion than we’ve seen so far.”

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

While the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Educational Achievement was closed in 2025, most of its employees were retained, and many departments continued to list DEI as a priority on their websites. An art exhibit sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives – which still claims to be part of the defunct central DEI office on its website – took down a flier advertising Rufo’s event and claimed it marked “the active presence of reactionary discourse on campus.”

According to Rufo, the continued presence of DEI on college campuses is widespread. He pointed to the New College of Florida, where he was a trustee, as the model for change. “We just fired everyone and said the DEI office is gone and all the employees are gone. That’s what you ultimately have to do.” Rufo said reform takes “decisive leadership.”

He believes conservatives “decisively won the debate in the realm of public opinion,” and even many within the university system recognize that DEI went too far. “When people are running away from their own ideas, when they’re trying to hide their own actions, and when they are denying their own previously stated beliefs, that shows you that public opinion has shifted dramatically against them.”

“The question is for legislators and administrators to translate public opinion into an administrative reality.” However, he wondered whether “toughness even exists in academia.” He believes that the university “chancellors, presidents, provosts” have largely been unable to drive meaningful change, so “political leaders” must fill the leadership void.

STATE-LEVEL SOLUTIONS

The Thompson Center conducted a recent survey about faculty political ideology, which found that the overwhelming majority of UW-Madison professors identify as progressive. According to the survey, nearly one-third of faculty said they would be less likely to support hiring a candidate with conservative views on abortion or immigration.

In states such as Texas, North Carolina and Ohio, state legislatures have addressed the viewpoint discrimination problem by creating civics education schools. At the Arizona State University and Florida State University, their respective civics school directors are former members of the UW-Madison political science faculty. Rufo believes the civic school model is “great,” but “there’s limitations of it.”

“One thing I’ve learned is that some of these centers are run better than others, without naming names,” he said. “Leadership is hard because you’re entering a larger institution that is generally hostile, and then you are also trying to manage and protect yourself and protect your scholars and create something under challenging conditions.”

“The key benefit for the civic schools is that you have a clear administrative unit that can do hiring, that can do course offering, and that can, in some cases, [offer] majors, and in fewer, but increasing number, of cases, train graduate students.”

To Rufo, their most important aspect is the creation of “a faculty pipeline” for right-leaning academics. “For many years, even Ivy League, conservative faculty members were telling their graduate students or their potential graduate students, ‘Don’t do this, because on the other side of your PhD, no matter how good your scholarship is, it’s a very brutal hiring environment.’”

Now, the faculty at civics institutes say they have a new problem: “We have a huge supply of positions open, and we’re struggling to hire.” Rufo believes the “pipeline problem” can be partially addressed by civics schools themselves as they begin to produce more graduates.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Rufo believes the Trump administration’s efforts to reform higher education “have stalled” since Elon Musk “left the administration.” Since that point, “I wouldn’t say that they’ve taken a heavy hand ... I would say the opposite.”

“I realized, having worked with the various agencies, on education, on civil rights law, on federal grant making, on DEI, those were issues that were kind of de facto delegated to Elon,” he told The Federalist. “The problem is that after Elon left the administration, a lot of the progress on the basket of issues that might be associated with anti-woke politics just kind of stopped.”

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t good people. There are many good people at the Department of Education, at the Department of Justice, at the White House Domestic Policy Council, at HHS, all these various agencies, they’re good people,” Rufo said. However, “Having Elon on the team, driving managerial disruption is much better than not having Elon on the team and having salaried functionaries trying to kick the machine into gear. They just can’t do it.”

STUDENT JOURNALISM

Rufo believes that student journalists can play a major role in exposing discriminatory practices in higher education. “The immediate cause is shedding light on what is happening around you for the people that live, work, and play around you,” he said. Because of this, journalists provide an important “service to the public, at least within your domain.”

He also views college newspapers as an important talent pipeline, as “the talent and instinct and craft” developed on campus “might be put to service on a larger playing field in the future.”

“All of these conservative-leaning student papers around the country seem to be magnets for not only talent, but a particular kind of talent,” Rufo said. “That demands a higher level of courage than your peers and competitors. And that’s something that holds true on the big stage.”

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An art exhibit hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) includes pieces that depict Bucky Badger wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit, former Chancellor Rebecca Blank carrying a noose, and a man holding Donald Trump’s severed head with the White House burning in the background.

Alongside Da Hoodzeum, the OMAI presented a pop-up called In Direct Action: A Decade of Activist Art at UW-Madison, which is hosted at the School of Education Gallery. It began on April 5 and ends on April 24.

The “In Direct Action” exhibit features art created from activism and political movements over the past 10 years at UW-Madison. The exhibition contains walls of political t-shirts, sweatshirts and student artwork, such as posters and signs that were used in various protests. In addition to the student work, there are displays of historical relics - newspapers, flyers and everyday objects - from the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army.

The gallery also includes a flier for an upcoming campus event featuring conservative activist Christopher Rufo. The event will be hosted by the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership and the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE), where Rufo will discuss higher education reform on April 22. However, the exhibit says the flier is included because it marks “the active presence of reactionary discourse on campus.”

CROWE director Ananth Seshadri gave a statement to The Madison Federalist via email. “I strongly support the university’s role in hosting student-created art and historical artifacts, even when the content is provocative or controversial,” he said. “Free expression is foundational to a university.”

However, he felt that “true dialogue requires openness to counterarguments,” and “exhibits like these feel more like ideological reinforcement than an invitation to debate.”

The exhibit features a large cardboard caricature of former Chancellor Blank holding a noose with the caption “MAKE UW GREAT AGAIN.” Seshadri believes this is “profoundly distasteful, especially following her recent passing.” The use of this imagery “as protest art is a striking illustration of selective outrage.”

Even though Seshadri found the caricature “misguided,” it is protected by free speech, which Chancellor Blank heavily defended. “True commitment to free expression requires consistently defending even speech we find deeply objectionable,” he said.

Seshadri believes this exhibit “risks deeper division.” One of the pieces of clothing that was displayed read “All white people are racist.” This message “promotes a sweeping racial generalization that is not supported by evidence and substitutes collective racial guilt for individual accountability.”

He also believes the controversial exhibit is a sign that, “We need to get back to basics – excellence grounded by sifting and winnowing.”

Rufo tweeted in response to the Federalist’s reporting, “This is insane, left-wing activists at the University of Wisconsin are calling for assassinations.” He called for a strong security presence at his speech.

The OMAI “integrates traditional academics and cutting edge arts activism” and “empowers transnational leaders with new tools for inclusive community building.” It was a unit of the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Educational Achievement until the DDEEA was dissolved last year. Many former DDEEA staffers were retained by the university and kept their job titles, including in the OMAI.

The gallery description recognized the controversial nature of some of the pieces. It said, “You may question what belongs in a museum, what counts as history, what feels ‘appropriate.’ But ask yourself: Why does this disturb you– while monuments to slavery, colonialism, and state violence remain normalized? Why does this feel out of place—but Abraham Lincoln standing atop Bascom Hill does not?”

The Lincoln statue has faced criticism and calls for removal from left-wing activists in the past. A 2023 editorial from The Badger Herald suggested the statue was “racist memorabilia” and that “unfettered admiration of Lincoln is disappointing.” Before that, in 2020, calls for the statue’s removal grew so loud that then-Chancellor Blank released a statement defending its continued presence.

According to a video by The Badger Herald, Da Hoodzeum is a pop-up museum based in Wisconsin that centers on Black history and cultural movements. The pop-up was founded by activist Mike Davis, and it is “a home for over 4,000 artifacts” dating back to the 1800s to the present.

University spokesman John Lucas, said the Da Hoodzeum exhibit does not represent the views of UW-Madison or the School of Education, but they “support free expression, including conversations about difficult, complex, and sometimes polarizing issues.”

“While some of the imagery may portray violent themes, UW-Madison condemns acts of violence of any kind,” Lucas said.

The exhibit has not received any university funding, and Lucas is not aware of any complaints or reactions to the exhibit.

The OAMI did not return a request for comment from The Federalist.

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Professor Nicholas Eastman, a lay Dominican, gave a lecture on March 23 about the life of Father Vincent McNabb and the Catholic Land Movement as part of the Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy’s Order and Influence series.

Eastman began his talk by discussing the end of McNabb’s life, explaining that on the day he died, he summoned a friar to make arrangements for his funeral. He emphasized that he did not want a brass coffin but rather an ordinary wooden box like he slept on every day. McNabb spent 25 years preaching at Hyde Park Marble Arch, and is sometimes called “the Gandhi of Kentish Town.”

Nearly all of London was familiar with him, and every lecture began with him wearing the same uniform with his strong and eccentric personality. McNabb also gave intricate instructions for after his funeral to ensure he will be preaching even after death.

He was born in 1868 in County Down, Ireland, and his family moved to Newcastle when he was 14. McNabb then joined the Dominican order during a time of renewal for the church in England.

There were many historic events, such as Bede Jarrett’s opening of the Blackfriars Dominican priory in Oxford in 1921, and Pope Leo XIII’s release of Aeterni Patris in 1879 and Rerum Novarum in 1891. Eastman continued by explaining that McNabb entered the order in 1885, earned his lector in sacred theology at the University of Louvain in 1894, and completed his STM in Rome in 1916.

Eastman discussed the significance of Rerum Novarum, explaining that it marked the launch of modern Catholic Social teaching. It rejected socialism and communism, enshrined the natural right to property, and advocated for a return to family and land. Sometimes called the workers’ charter by those of the time, it was profoundly influential on McNabb. He would frequently cite it in his speeches to the people of London.

For McNabb, industrialization, urbanization, and capitalism were contrary to the Gospel. He believed family was above the state, and the right to private property was rooted in providing for the family, which included growing or raising food.

“All men have the right to some property,” McNabb said. The earthly life of Jesus is important for understanding how we should act or strive for in our lives. The small town of Nazareth was his home, where Jesus began his ministry, not an important city like Rome or Alexandria. This shows that there is some virtue in living and existing in a small rural community.

The message of God is best understood by those who live in such environments. For McNabb, only a small community offers the possibility of real family life, saying, “The desire for home and family is written on the human heart.”

Eastman explained how McNabb stressed the distinction between things and tokens. Things are made of the land, and they do not lead to infinite desires. In contrast, tokens are more abstract and lead to infinite desire. Eastman used the example of Jesus multiplying the fish and loaves. The people had their fill of food, and there were even leftovers, explaining how the story would not have been the same if Jesus had begun to multiply money, in which case the people would have been greedy and never satisfied.

Eastman explained the distinction between things and tokens that McNabb emphasized. McNabb called for the economics of poverty, effectively to consume as little real wealth as possible and to produce as much as possible of real worth; both of these, he argued, are cultivated by family living and working on the land.

He also argued that the gospel was against big farming and herding, as shown in the parable of the rich man and the possessed swine herd. Eastman then continued explaining how Luke 12:21 is a great example of this. The core of McNabb’s argument was “to save civilization, by urban exodus and return to agrarianism, and back to the land.”

McNabb believed the best way to preserve a moral civilization was by turning away from the modern urbanized world and returning to the more agrarian and rural lifestyle of their ancestors. Eastman explained that an example of this was in Ditchling, Sussex, which was like Nazareth to McNabb. In this place, many third-order Dominicans set up a little village and tried their best to live off the land in an ever-changing world.

McNabb would even serve as a spiritual advisor of sorts to their small group for a time. McNabb saw the movement’s failure before passing away in 1943. The world was in the midst of war, and the tides of urbanization and industrialization had become established as the future. Eastman continued, explaining that McNabb “was not stupid” and “he understood practically that the tide had not turned.”

He saw that he had not changed minds, but he still fought for the ideals of the Catholic Land Movement until the end of his days. Despite having papal and ecclesiastical support, the movement lacked sufficient material support and was too opposed to the societal trends of the time, and it ultimately failed.

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Eastman concluded his talk by discussing the Catholic Land Movement in America today. He explained that, in some ways, there is now a resurgent interest in the movement in the U.S., with approval from Pope Leo XIV and Archbishop Grob. He explained that now more than ever, the relevance of choosing Nazareth or social chaos is more frank than ever.

He argued, however, that despite efforts and some support, “there are still many barriers, including a lack of material support from the hierarchy and laity.” This is alongside other barriers, such as insurance and legal barriers, and the cost of land. Eastman concluded by saying that the movement today faces “new challenges and old problems, however, now it may yet find success.”

Congressman Tony Wied was hosted by the College Republicans of the University of Wisconsin-Madison on March 6 to discuss current events and campus issues.

Wied emphasized how brave it is for college students to be outwardly conservative at UW-Madison. “I think we’re obviously in the minority here in the school,” he said. “It’s really important at your age, of course, that you are interested.”

Wied is fairly new to politics and has represented Wisconsin’s 8th district since November 2024. He discussed his experience campaigning and getting used to the political climate of Wisconsin. He was not originally a politician, but he has long been interested in politics. He said his primary election was “very difficult,” noting he was not used to the negative ads running against him on TV. Despite this, Wied won both the primary and general election.

Wied is originally from Green Bay, Wisconsin and is a graduate of St. Norbert College. He owned a chain of gas stations in northeastern Wisconsin, but he sold them and pursued politics.

As a member of Congress, “Every day is kind of different, but it’s actually a lot of fun,” Wied said. “I’m basically touring the district.” He said one day he would be in Appleton, and the next day he is at hospitals, schools or businesses to meet with many different types of people.

After Wied spoke on his background and personal experience, he took questions from UW-Madison students on various topics.

The War in Iran

Wied was supportive of the Trump administration’s approach to Iran, and he believed this “very decisive action” was needed and the best way to keep our country safe. “There is no question that Iran has been a problem for a long time,” he said. “It’s been around 47 years since the Mullahs took over, and they’ve been a state sponsor of terror for a long time.”

“There’s been a lot of war, and I think people are fatigued with it,” he said. “The president is not interested in forever wars, either.”

Wied said his “hope is that it’s over sooner than later.”

Social Issues

Wied ran his first race against OB-GYN Kristin Lyerly, who specializes in abortion. He said that Lyerly tried very hard to portray him as anti-abortion in an attempt to win the election, but it didn’t help her beat Wied. “I’m very much pro life,” Wied said. “I think having children is the greatest joy in my life.” However, he said that he is “not going to make that decision” because abortion “is a state issue.”

The other major social issue he discussed was LGBT rights. “I don’t believe that a man should go into a girl’s bathroom, and I don’t think that boys should play in girl sports,” Wied said. “I have friends that are gay … I think there’s absolutely no problem with that. People are people, and you should love everybody.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re male, female, what God you believe in, what your ethnicity is,” he said. “I think it’s character, and so I think that’s important that we talk about that too.”

Immigration

The open border was a “clear problem during the Biden administration” according to Wied. He said that millions of people came across the border in four years, but within a year of Trump’s administration, the problem is nearly solved.

“I think the border was the biggest issue in the election in ’24,” Wied said. “That got more people to vote.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement are now apprehending illegal immigrants and focusing on those that were committing crimes. Wied said that the Obama administration also used ICE and deported millions of people without incidents or protests.

“What happened in Minnesota, obviously, was a big deal,” he said. Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have both criticized ICE, which added to the polarization. “We had all of the protests and people all around as they were doing their missions, where normally local police kind of helps with that,” Wied said. “They provide crowd control, but there normally isn’t an incident.”

“It was definitely, I think, caused a lot by the politicians, and it is a very political issue,” he said.

Affordability and Cost of Living

Wied said affordability is currently the number one issue for the upcoming midterm elections. “Ultimately, the reason we have rising prices and the reason that we have inflation at all, like what we’ve had, is because we spend more than we bring in,” he said.

“I think we should have a balanced budget amendment,” he said. However, “it’s going to be very difficult.”

The U.S. hasn’t had a balanced budget since the Clinton administration, and around 70 percent of government spending is on welfare programs, like Medicaid. “That’s very scary, so that’s unsustainable,” Wied said.

Republicans had a “great tax policy this year,” which “puts more money back into people’s pockets.” People are receiving tax returns now because of No Tax on Tips, No Tax on Overtime and the child taxpayer credit. Because of this, people are getting “thousands of dollars more of refunds, and you’re not withholding as much on your payroll this year.”

“It’s really difficult to drive costs down” and “bring deflation.” Wied said this difficulty is due to the “disastrous policies for the last four years under the Biden administration.”

Polarization

Lastly, Wied discussed polarization and how he handles differing political opinions. He believes that “Trump derangement syndrome is real” and “it’s never really the policy.” Democrats “just don’t like him, and just don’t like his approach.”

“I think people want more bipartisanship. They want us working together more, but no matter what we bring up right now, on the Democrat side, they’re just against it.”

Despite political differences, Wied said he has a lot of friends on the Democrat side in Congress. “I think it’s better to have really good relationships with people, but if you’re arguing, it should just be on the policy.”

Wied worked with Tammy Baldwin on a community funding project for the Green Bay Fire Station. “Neither of us agree on anything, but we agree on this,” he said. He emphasized the importance of “continuing to reach across the aisle on issues that matter to the public.”

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The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents unanimously voted to fire Jay Rothman from his position as UW president on Tuesday, April 7.

This decision followed a closed-door meeting with the Board earlier in the day. Rothman was asked last week to either resign or be fired, which he believed was not in the best interest of the UW System. He said the regents never gave a clear reason why he should leave.

Rothman began his tenure as the ninth president of the UW System in 2022. In that position, he oversaw 13 public universities across Wisconsin. The UW System serves 164,600 students and awards nearly 37,000 degrees each year.

“He worked hard to bring the best to the campuses, students, faculty, and staff,” the Board of Regents said in a statement following the firing. “Despite these accomplishments, based on the annual performance review and subsequent discussions, the Board has lost confidence in President Rothman’s ability to lead the UWs moving forward.”

A separate statement challenged Rothman’s claims that the removal was sudden and without clear cause. “President Rothman was not without notice, nor was this process sudden. The Board has engaged with President Rothman in good-faith discussions over the past several months,” the statement said. “At a time of profound change in higher education, this decision is about the future. The Universities of Wisconsin must be led with a clear vision that both protects and strengthens our flagship.”

Rothman’s firing has left Republican lawmakers furious. State Rep. Dave Murphy responded before the Board’s decision and said the “lack of transparency is unacceptable.”

“The Board owes Wisconsin taxpayers, students, and families a full explanation,” Murphy said.

Republican State Sen. Patrick Testin released a statement on X. “Make no mistake about it, the firing of UW President Rothman is a blatant partisan hatchet job,” he said. Rothman’s firing was him being “punished for not being liberal enough.”

Republican State Sen. Rob Hutton also responded in a statement, saying the Board of Regents were “distracted by politics and unable to concentrate on addressing the big picture challenges.”

“Instead of focusing on major structural and curriculum reforms throughout the entire system, the Regents seem determined to stray into backroom maneuvering that further diminishes the reputation of the UW brand,” Hutton said.

Governor Tony Evers, who previously served on the board, did not take a position. “It’s their call,” he said.

Chris Patton, the vice president for university relations, will temporarily serve as acting executive-in-charge. The Board of Regents said it has “immediately moved forward in its work to identify the successor.”

Rothman’s exit comes just months after University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin was announced as the next president of Columbia University.

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Last month, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the La Follette School of Public Affairs hosted Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), as part of the recently-launched Wisconsin Exchange. In a conversation titled “For Me, but Not for Thee: Free Expression in Higher Education,” Lukianoff joined Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin to examine the changing role of universities amid a challenging campus climate.

FIRE has become a leading watchdog for free speech on college campuses, tracking policies and incidents nationwide to ensure students and faculty can express controversial ideas without fear of censorship.

Partisan politics have increasingly infiltrated higher education. Both students and faculty often struggle to engage meaningfully and constructively with those holding differing political or ideological viewpoints. The Wisconsin Exchange program aims to counteract this trend by fostering dialogue among students of diverse identities and political backgrounds, promoting civil debate as a shared and necessary value.

Lukianoff’s commitment to free speech comes from familial experience. His father grew up under authoritarian rule in Yugoslavia and witnessed censorship firsthand.

Joining FIRE allowed Lukianoff to protect free speech more broadly, producing nonpartisan evaluations of institutional policies and actions.

Lukianoff opened with what he called his “elevator pitch” and declared that free speech is essential on campus. He argued that limiting civil discourse is not only a constitutional violation, but a practice that chills intellectual exchange.

He took an epistemic approach and explained that knowledge grows not only by discovering what is true, but also by being proven wrong. Exposure to differing opinions is essential for intellectual growth. “You have ideas in your head, you have inclinations, you have opinions, you have aversions; this is some of the most important data, some of the most important information in the world,” he said, emphasizing that growth and development can only emerge in the practice of dissent. On college campuses, this means engaging with uncomfortable ideas - not avoiding them - is essential to intellectual and personal growth.

He warned against seeing free speech as a one-way street. “It seems really tempting to want to punish the bad opinions or ignorant opinions of your enemy. But that’s a tool that works like poison gas. You think you’re destroying your enemy with it, but then the wind changes direction and it blows back on you.” He stressed that defending free expression requires defending the speech of all - even those with whom one disagrees.

Lukianoff acknowledged that FIRE has faced pushback from both sides of the political aisle. “It’s harder to find the people who just get it in their bones, who get it as a principle, and that just takes a lot more work,” he said. “It used to be that we would see more threats to free speech coming from the left, although plenty from the right. But it’s really been completely lopsided in the past year. The situation fundamentally changed.”

He also critiqued attempts to re-institutionalize campuses, noting that coercive faculty and excessive political homogeneity stifle intellectual diversity. Coupled with rising social media use and algorithm-driven platforms, society has become increasingly consumer-driven, a phenomenon that trickles down into individual expression. “We should be experimenting with different models of social media that create better environments for dissent,” Lukianoff said. “Social media for truth seeking… it may sound unrealistic, but it can be done.”

Echo chambers and algorithmic platforms create short-term social pressures, increasing self censorship among students fearful of social consequences. This dynamic, combined with institutional pressures and lingering campus restrictions, helps explain why UW-Madison, despite a 126-spot improvement in FIRE’s College Free Speech Ranking, still received an “F” for overall free speech. Surveys, policy analysis and documented interactions revealed that students continue to feel discomfort expressing their views. Mnookin expressed concern over the evaluation, but Lukianoff remained firm: “You still have 40 percent of your students saying that violence can be okay in some circumstances in response to speech. And you can do better. ”

Looking forward, Lukianoff emphasized that fostering free expression on campus requires more than policy changes or rankings - it requires cultivating a culture of intellectual curiosity, courage, and engagement. UW-Madison has begun taking steps to build this kind of community, striving to encourage robust debate rather than suppress it. As Lukianoff reminded listeners, the protection of free speech is not just a legal or institutional responsibility - it is a commitment to the core principles of democracy itself. Only by defending the right to dissent, welcoming differing viewpoints and fostering an environment where ideas can clash without fear can universities truly live up to the Wisconsin Idea of “fearless sifting and winnowing.”

For students and faculty alike, the challenge is clear: embrace debate, defend dissent and ensure the campus remains a place where ideas can collide without fear.

The Right Honourable Boris Johnson, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022, spoke to The Madison Federalist in an exclusive interview before his March 23 speech at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Johnson said he viewed “division” as the greatest threat the West faces. “I think it’s obvious to me that there’s a group of countries that include Russia, Iran, China, North Korea, that are hungry to displace the United States as the hegemonic power in the world,” he said. “Everybody in the West needs to understand that and prevent it from happening.”

He was skeptical of the United States and Israel’s recent military actions in Iran but said “it’s too early to say” how the situation will resolve.

He said they are “not necessarily what I would have advocated from what I see at the moment, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that good can’t come out of it.”

“Clearly, there’s a lot of people who are very worried about the effect it’s having on the world economy, and they include me,” he said. “Inflation is up, interest rates are up, millions of ordinary people face being impoverished because of a war whose objectives are unclear and whose exit strategy is unknown. That’s the problem.”

“I think that it was always predictable and indeed predicted that Iran would respond to being bombed by closing the Strait of Hormuz. So I didn’t quite understand why President Trump said that nobody talked about what was going to happen.”

However, he emphasized that the Iranian regime is run by “very bad guys” who “do terrible things.”

“If this leads to change in Iran, which it might well do, then that would be a good thing,” Johnson said.

He is concerned about the students and young people who “get out and demonstrate in favor of Hamas” or “the Ayatollahs.” Johnson said Western nations cannot survive “if we don’t know ourselves.”

“I think young people should look at how young people behave in the autocracies. What do they want? They want to come here. They want to come to the University of Wisconsin, Madison. They’re looking at us on the internet with real envy.”

Johnson also discussed artificial intelligence, which is one of his favorite topics. “I love it. I think it’s great. It’s a great tool. I think it’s a brilliant adventure,” Johnson said. “There are lots of functions where we just don’t have enough pairs of hands,” so AI can be used to solve many problems.

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Johnson was surprised, and disappointed, to learn that students often use AI to cheat on assignments. “Do they? The rotters!,” he said. “Academics will have to find alternative means of discriminating between candidates and other ways of assessing intellectual progress, because, clearly, you can just produce a computerized essay that’s indistinguishable from what was previously thought to be a standard essay.” He believes professors will “have to find a new way of determining the originality of thought and memory and learning.”

Johnson viewed concerns about workers being replaced by AI as overstated. He said Europe and the United States have an “aging population” so artificial intelligence could help boost a shrinking workforce.

Johnson was hosted at UW-Madison by Young Americans for Freedom and the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.

The Associated Students of Madison passed a controversial resolution prohibiting the organization from “doing business in any way with companies complicit in apartheid and genocide, including Israel’s genocide of Gaza” and calling for the UW System to do the same. It has sparked condemnation from Jewish students, UW Hillel, and UW-Madison itself.

On Wednesday, March 25, the ASM voted 15-5-3 on a resolution that calls for divestment from companies that engage in “discriminatory practices such as apartheid, genocide, and militarized violence.” It accuses Israel of “genocide” and “maintaining a system of apartheid,” but does not reference any violence by Hamas or the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Other states or organizations called out in the resolution include the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan and the United Arab Emirates. Israel was referenced 15 times in the resolution, which is more than any other states. Iran and Venezuela are mentioned in the resolution, but only to criticize the United States’ “unprovoked” military action that removed their respective dictators from power.

Speaking at Wednesday’s meeting, Jewish UW student Ariav Hayempour said “The bill proposed will hurt Jews and Israelis of all identities on this campus.” He said, “A lot of antisemitism is excused because it’s shrouded in language related to Israel. When the Jewish community tells you what you’re doing will hurt me and is hurting me, we’re met with a shrug in silence.”

Hayempour asked, “How can one claim to believe in inclusion and equality, but selectively pick which groups deserve that?”

After Hayempour concluded, a large group of Jewish students applauded his speech and walked out of the room together. Reuven Weinstein, a UW-Madison student, told The Federalist, “We reconvened at the Hillel on campus for dinner and enjoyed the beautiful weather rather than sitting in a stuffy room for hours listening to accusations and attacks from strangers and so-called friends alike,” he said. “As Jews, we are not strangers to hatred, but we rise above it and fight back by speaking up for ourselves, not putting up with hate, and living our lives freely and without fear.”

During open debate between ASM representatives, Michael Harry noted that China and its treatment of the Uyghurs was not mentioned once in the resolution. Elizabeth Anderson felt that the resolution contained unnecessarily controversial language. Jianda Ni said the university should adopt more morally responsible investment practices, but that the resolution’s focus on Israel could increase the risk of harm for Jewish students.

At the previous week’s ASM meeting, a message from ASM representative Gabo Ochoa-Samoff that read “”the proportion of zios rises as the speakers list goes on” was leaked from a group chat. Multiple speakers condemned Samoff for using the term, and he apologized during open debate, noting that he is Jewish.

ASM representative Amitabha Shatdal proposed an amendment that would have struck references to specific countries in the resolution. ASM chair Landis Varughese did not allow the amendment to go to a vote because he felt it was too substantial. Shatdal said, “This kind of action on the behalf of our chair does not seem becoming of an impartial representative.” Varughese pushed back, saying, “You guys can overrule what I do via two thirds [vote.]”

The resolution, which cites links from Qatari media organization Al Jazeera and multiple left-wing interest groups, was endorsed by organizations including BLK Power Coalition, Students for a Democratic Society, and Mecha de Teejop. Sex Out Loud endorsed the resolution and said, “As a sex-positive student organization, we know that we cannot truly celebrate autonomy, empowerment, and equity until the liberation of all people is achieved.”

The resolution also criticized UW System index funds for including corporations that “contract with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to develop data systems, surveillance, and policing tools used in immigration enforcement and deportation operations.”

After the resolution passed via a roll call vote, the room erupted with cheers. UW-Madison released a statement shortly after and said it was disappointed that ASM “passed a resolution on Wednesday that issued a number of flawed, unrelated and illegal demands.”

READ MORE FROM THE MADISON FEDERALIST:

UW-Madison Professor Defends Iranian Bombings of American Service Members, Congratulates Khamenei on “Martyrdom”

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As Antisemitism Rises, New Campaign Confronts Hate On Campus

“Wisconsin state law prohibits state and local government agencies from adopting their own rules or policies that would involve them in a boycott of Israel,” the statement said. “Despite the fact that ASM leadership was counseled by university attorneys on the clear illegality of that specific part of the resolution, ASM Student Council nonetheless voted to pass it.”

At the previous ASM meeting, UW-Madison Dean of Students Christina Olstad informed the ASM that the university viewed the resolution as in violation of Wisconsin state statute 20.931, which prevents state agencies from boycotting Israel.

ASM representative Roman Fritz contended that the resolution was not illegal. He read a statement from attorney Oren Jakobson that said, “Refusing to deal with or terminating business relations with any nations, organization, business, or person practicing or condoning through its actions discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, creed or sex is at times lawfully mandated – see Wisconsin Statute 36.29(1) – and at all times lawful.”

In an emailed statement to The Madison Federalist, UW Hillel director of community relations Aaron Seligman said the organization is “deeply disappointed that ASM voted to pass the antisemitic BDS resolution.” He continued, “BDS campaigns are not constructive policy discussions. They are efforts to normalize antisemitism and target Jewish students. We will continue to support a thriving Jewish community at UW-Madison.”

Professor Chad Goldberg told The Federalist that he was grateful for the university’s “unequivocal statement condemning antisemitism.” He is proud “of the Jewish student leaders who organized, showed up to the ASM meeting, and spoke out with clarity and courage.” Goldberg, who serves on the board of directors at UW Hillel, said he fully endorsed the organization’s statement.

“I do not believe this resolution reflects the views of the majority of students at University of Wisconsin–Madison,” said Sophie Genshaft, the president of Hillel’s student organization on campus. She told The Federalist, “Student government is meant to address issues that directly impact student life, and this resolution instead takes a stance on a complex international issue that many students neither feel represented by nor asked about. It’s a misalignment of priorities and does not accurately capture the full range of student perspectives on this campus.”

While some of those who spoke at the ASM meeting in favor of the resolution identified themselves as Jewish, Genshaft said the response “has been one of deep frustration and concern” across the Jewish community. “This resolution has made many Jewish students feel singled out and uncomfortable on their own campus. While individuals may hold a range of views on Israel, what is unifying right now is a clear need to stand together for freedom, democracy and also against the growing normalization of antisemitism.”

Jewish students also started a petition that has gathered nearly 400 signatures to condemn the resolution.

Ian Braun, a Jewish freshman, told The Federalist that some who support the resolution “genuinely believe in the things that this bill says and will do,” but “antisemitism is a factor.” Erika Klein, another Jewish student, believed the ASM is “compromising the safety” of Jewish students on campus and argued that BDS resolutions are correlated with spikes in antisemitism.

The university said “resolutions that call for actions that would violate the law do not warrant further engagement.” It noted that ASM resolutions do not set policy for UW-Madison, the Board of Regents, or the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s faculty lobbying organization presents itself as a voice for all UW-Madison professors, but it has overwhelmingly taken progressive policy stances on issues including male participation in women’s sports and race-based practices in higher education.

The Public Representation Organization of the Faculty Senate (PROFS) was founded in 1976 by the UW-Madison faculty senate. Its goal is to advocate “on behalf of UW-Madison faculty before state legislators, the governor, the Board of Regents, members of Congress and the public.”

The executive committee of the faculty senate serves as the PROFS Board of Directors, while the Steering Committee directly oversees PROFS activities and determines the organization’s positions.

In the 2023 to 2024 and 2025 to 2026 legislative sessions, PROFS lobbied for or against 78 bills. It lobbied against 30 bills, 28 of which were Republican. Of the 48 bills it lobbied in favor of, 24 were bipartisan, 6 were Republican and 18 were Democratic. In 2025, PROFS total lobbying expenditures exceeded $60,000.

Senate bills and assembly bills are distinct, even if they cover the same topics. The Federalist counted them separately because Wisconsin’s official lobbying system does so. However, the overwhelming majority of bills PROFS registered support for or against in the assembly had a similar bill counted in the senate.

The lobbying group opposed AB 446 and SB 445, which would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. These were the only bipartisan bills opposed by PROFS in the last two legislative sessions. PROFS opposed no Democratic bills in the same timeframe.

PROFS lobbyist Jack O’Meara, who has a background in Democratic politics, said he was surprised by the disparity in a phone interview with The Madison Federalist. “I didn’t know that until you just told me,” he said.

PROFS’s listed priorities include “competitive compensation,” “faculty governance,” “protection of tenure,” “state support for the university’s operating and capital budget,” “federal support for research,” and “retirement and other employee benefits.”

However, it has taken stances on a wide array of public policy positions. It lobbied against AB 102, which would have prohibited male students from playing on women’s sports teams. O’Meara told The Madison Federalist that the organization’s steering committee “didn’t like the way it was drafted.”

PROFS also lobbied against SB 652, which would have changed “race-based programs or requirements in higher education” to serve “disadvantaged students rather than minority students.” It lobbied against AB 377, which would have established English as the official language of Wisconsin.

PROFS registered against a bill that would give UW academic staff greater say in institutional governance. It opposed a bill that would have prevented undergraduate tuition at UW institutions from increasing more than the consumer price index. Furthermore, it opposed a bill that would establish free speech and academic freedom standards across the UW System.

O’Meara noted that PROFS works with Republican and Democratic legislators. He pointed to the 2019 Mark Cook Bill and their recent work with Senator Rachel Cabral-Guevara on a bill to change the fall start dates of University of Wisconsin institutions.

“Some groups make a big deal about claiming to be non-partisan and yet register against every single Republican initiative. PROFS seems to keep their focus on higher education and they have registered in favor of bills that I have authored,” Cabral-Guevara told The Madison Federalist via email. “It is helpful for legislators to hear from more than just the university administrators in Bascom and Van Hise. I’ve worked with PROFS in the past to develop and tweak legislation. It’s natural for us to have disagreements about the direction UW should be going in. While PROFS job is to bring the concerns of only UW professors to the Capitol, as an elected leader, my job is to hear from people on all sides of an issue.”

However, state representative Amanda Nedweski told The Federalist, “In my experience, PROFS has far more often supported Democrat-authored proposals while opposing reforms introduced by Republicans.”

PROFS recently worked with Democratic lawmakers to introduce a bill that would make it illegal for anyone to possess a firearm on a public university campus, even if they have a concealed carry license.

On campus, feelings about PROFS are mixed.

Political science professor emeritus Donald Downs told The Federalist via email that he was never a member of PROFS, but he did work with the organization. “They were earnest and honorable, and cared about academic freedom, especially when attacks came from outside the institution,” he said. However, “They were less on board about some internal threats, but were not hostile to those who were concerned about restrictions based on political correction. I always saw them as necessary but not always sufficient to defend academic freedom from all attacks, and was glad they were present and to work with them.”

A conservative professor who spoke to The Federalist under the condition of anonymity to avoid professional repercussions was more critical. “While PROFS presents itself as the voice of the faculty, UW–Madison’s faculty hold a much wider range of views than the organization’s lobbying suggests. Many of us simply want to focus on teaching, research, and maintaining high scholarly standards without ideological litmus tests. PROFS does not represent that broader faculty perspective, nor does it represent mine.”

O’Meara said, “We consider ourselves representing all faculty. Some faculty choose to contribute as members.” He said that fewer than half of the UW-Madison faculty are members of PROFS.

The professor said PROFS functions as “a strongly left-leaning advocacy group” that frequently supports policies against his understanding of “academic excellence and intellectual freedom.” Nedweski also felt that “the line between being a faculty advocacy group and acting as a progressive political organization has become increasingly blurred.”

PROFS Board of Directors chair Annie Jones and Steering Committee President Michael Bernard-Donals did not respond to questions sent via email from The Madison Federalist about how PROFS determines which bills it will support. O’Meara said he is not involved with those internal deliberations.

Both O’Meara and Nedweski believed that PROFS’s overall lobbying efforts were less influential than the university’s. “In terms of their influence on higher education policy, I would say it’s very limited compared to the UW System’s government relations office,” Nedweski said.

University spokesman John Lucas told The Federalist via email, “UW-Madison meets with PROFS to discuss issues of common interest but the group is an independent non-profit, with its own views and perspectives. No UW-Madison funding goes to support PROFS.” Notably, PROFS does have an office in Bascom Hall and a wisc.edu website.

“A faculty advocacy organization should prioritize academic merit and excellence, genuine viewpoint diversity, color-blind hiring policies, and the protection of scholars who hold dissenting views,” the anonymous professor said. “It should also advocate for performance-based funding that fairly recognizes UW–Madison’s outsized contributions rather than subsidizing weaker institutions, while working to build constructive goodwill across the political aisle instead of consistently framing one party as an adversary.”

Editor’s note: Nedweski is a former neighbor of the article’s author.

UW-Madison announced on Monday, March 9 the appointment of John Zumbrunnen as provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin praised Zumbrunnen’s principled leadership and strong commitments to the Wisconsin Idea, shared governance, student success and excellence in research and teaching.

“Both in his service as interim provost and in several preceding leadership roles here at UW–Madison, John has earned the broad trust of our students, faculty, and through his thoughtful engagement on a wide range of complex issues,” Mnookin said in a campus-wide message.

Zumbrunnen, a political science professor since 2008 and former department chair, stepped into the interim provost role last summer. He co-founded the Division for Teaching and Learning, helped lead the Wisconsin RISE initiative to address grand challenges through interdisciplinary research and oversaw the creation of the university’s new AI-focused college.

As interim provost, he managed budget pressures, new faculty workload policies and the sunset of the Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement. Support programs were redistributed, but many student cultural centers, scholarships and key services remain in place.

The two other finalists in the provost search were Anna Stenport from the University of Georgia and Charles Martinez Jr. from the University of Texas-Austin. All three finalists - Zumbrunnen, Stenport and Martinez - have previously expressed their support for DEI programs on college campuses.

“We should never rest on that continuous and fearless process of sifting and winnowing we talk so much about,” Zumbrunnen said in an emailed statement to The Federalist.

The university maintains diversity as a core value, including viewpoints, identities and backgrounds. Zumbrunnen helped implement recommendations from the Student Experience Group report, which focuses on tailored support, continuous assessment and resource stewardship to expand pathways for all students.

He has publicly affirmed the commitment to free speech while addressing concerns about bias, and he participated in a campus forum on antisemitism, resilience and inclusive higher education environments in 2024.

In late February, the three provost finalists pitched their plans for the role. Zumbrunnen tied his vision to former Chancellor Charles Van Hise’s declaration to never be content. He stressed preparing students for a dynamic world through rigorous education that prioritizes quality and impact over raw numbers. “It’s not about ‘will we attract 8,500 students here?’ It’s about what students do we want to attract here, and what experience do we want them to have?”

Zumbrunnen also advanced the Wisconsin Exchange program, which builds civil dialogue, viewpoint diversity and respectful debate across political divides. “The Wisconsin Idea is not just a principle. It’s not just pride. It is a challenge to us,” he said.

Zumbrunnen’s knowledge of campus operations and shared governance set him apart in the national search. During public presentations, he addressed political pressures on higher education values and the need to build trust amid disagreements.

Stenport, dean at the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia, previously held an appointment in the Gender and Women’s Studies department at the University of Illinois. She emphasized multidisciplinary collaboration to foster inclusion and strengthen college identity, linking it to the Wisconsin Idea through public service and a “one health” approach.

Martinez, Dean of the College of Education at UT-Austin, drew on his family’s immigrant experience to describe universities as “door-openers, not gate-keepers.” He focused on affordability, social mobility and tying research directly to the Wisconsin Idea. His departure from UT-Austin sparked controversy amid state debates over higher education priorities.

As provost, Zumbrunnen provides continuity as the campus begins its chancellor search following Mnookin’s departure to Columbia University. With Eric Wilcots serving as interim chancellor, the new provost will help guide academic priorities at a pivotal time.

Zumbrunnen told The Federalist that his focus remains on advancing the mission with deans and partners. “Priorities for me are to look to the future, think about how we can advance research that impacts lives and improves the world.”

He said he wants to “build on what is already an amazing educational experience for our students.”

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This article by University of Wisconsin-Madison senior Rebecca Draeger was originally published in The College Fix.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has yet to hire a “conservative political thought” professor despite agreeing to do so several years ago in exchange for funding from the state legislature.

Asked about the status of the position, a campus official gave the exact same answer he provided last year to The College Fix.

“UW–Madison continues to actively work on the creation of an endowed chair in conservative political thought,” spokesman John Lucas told The Fix via email.

He said university officials “don’t have other updates to share at this time,” repeating what he told The Fix in February 2025.

However, Lucas did say “the university has hired multiple scholars with a broad range of perspectives, including those who self-identify as conservative.”

Lucas did not clarify the timeline for the university’s hiring process, define which steps the school has taken since the agreement was made, or list which organizations they reached out to identify candidates or secure funding.

As previously reported by The Fix, UW-Madison agreed to the deal as part of a broader $800 million funding agreement between the regents for the University of Wisconsin system and state legislative leaders that also included cuts to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programming.

In exchange, the university system received money for pay raises, and UW-Madison specifically received $347 million for a new engineering building.

The deal, first passed in December 2023, requires the university to create an “endowed chair to focus on conservative political thought, classical economic theory, or classical liberalism.”

The 2023 agreement was, in part, a reaction to a survey that found most UW–Madison students were afraid to express their views on controversial topics in class. Students identifying as “conservative” and “very conservative” were especially likely to self-censor.

About 40 percent of survey respondents said they were worried their grades would suffer if they spoke up.

Later, a 2024 analysis by political science professor Alexander Tahk found that “over 99% of political dollars contributed by UW faculty went to Democrats and left-wing groups over the past decade.”

They found that the odds of a UW–Madison humanities or social science professor making a political donation to a Republican were 1 in 530.

Higher ed experts weigh in on potential bias at UW-Madison

Several higher education experts recently spoke on campus about “scholar-activist faculty hiring,” and gave comments afterward to The Fix about potential bias in the university’s hiring system.

The Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy, the Tommy G. Thompson Center, and the Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy sponsored the March 4 event.

A former University of Wisconsin regent said hiring processes must be fixed to weed out bias.

University hiring practices “have to become less biased and homogeneous,” Free Speech for Campus President Tim Higgins told The Fix in person after the UW-Madison event hosted by several centers on campus. The former University of Wisconsin regent said the Madison campus tends to “hire woke people.”

In response to a question on how the Wisconsin Legislature should respond, Higgins said: “Our next governor really needs to look at holding the state agency to producing the kinds of changes that need to be done.”

“The university system has gone so far off track,” he said.

Higgins referenced a famous UW–Madison plaque that commits the university to the “fearless sifting and winnowing” of information and academic freedom in pursuit of the truth and said, “We need to get back to that.”

John Sailer, an investigative journalist and fellow with the Manhattan Institute, spoke at the event.

When asked by The Fix about how the university could increase viewpoint diversity in the Q&A portion of his talk, Sailer responded, “I’m not advocating for Make America Great Again statements as a replacement for diversity statements.”

He expressed that the issue is the personnel pipeline, beginning at the undergraduate level. Sailer commented that there aren’t many conservatives who enter into higher education in the first place.

“One thing that needs to happen is a lot of universities need to say ‘Hey, we are interested in and enthusiastic about hiring conservatives. That doesn’t mean we’re going to give you some leg up if you’re a lousy scholar, but also conservative … but we desire to be a place that welcomes conservatives, and we mean it.’”

Sailer further recommended the creation of scholarship opportunities that would interest conservatives, such as American history, constitutional studies, and the classics.

Sailer suggested that increasing viewpoint diversity will require long-term efforts to encourage more conservatives to pursue academic careers.

UW-Madison sociology professor Samer Alatout said that Iranian bombings of U.S. military bases are “highly logical” and praised Iranian dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a recent series of social media posts.

As first reported by Campus Reform, Alatout made heated claims on X in the aftermath of U.S.-Israeli airstrikes that killed Khamenei.

On March 6, Alatout wrote, “I hope you’d be willing to condemn your own country if and when it displays arrogant imperial power like mine is doing.”

Four days earlier, he made a post responding to the U.S.’s report of the deaths of American soldiers in Operation Epic Fury, saying, “Sacrificing American youths, mostly poor and people of color, only to assist Israel’s dark powers and genocidal government to establish demonic rule, is a disgrace, let alone traitorous.”.

On March 2, a post written in Arabic claimed that the bombings of American bases by Iranian forces were either “highly” or “completely” logical, depending on the translation. In the same message, he voiced his belief that Arab states should prevent other nations from using their territories to strike Iran, calling this not a mere political demand, but a “moral and spiritual one.”

After Khamenei was confirmed to be dead, Alatout praised him for leading “resistance against colonialism and the Zionists” and congratulated him on his “martyrdom.”

Gillian Drummond, UW-Madison’s Director of Public Affairs, told The Madison Federalist that Atalout’s comments do not reflect the view of the university and that “UW-Madison does not monitor the social media of students and staff.” She added that when a faculty member decides to voice their opinion, “they speak for themselves, not the university” and that “as an institution, UW-Madison supports freedom of expression and the civil exchange of all ideas and views.”

Alatout did not respond to The Madison Federalist’s request for comment via email.

Alatout’s RateMyProfessor profile has a 2.6-star rating out of 5 stars. Students left anonymous reviews with one saying that his “personal opinions on tense situations made the classroom uncomfortable for those in class” and that “he let real life events dwell in the classroom.” Another reviewer called his teaching “erratic,” and another added that “he fails to provide insight into the textbook material, instead he goes off on tangents.”

In May 2024, Alatout was arrested for obstructing a police officer in connection with the anti-Israel encampment at UW-Madison. In an interview with WMTJ-TV Milwaukee, Alatout said his objective was to “protect students’ right to protest and to protect their safety.” He added that he locked hands with others around the encampment to “protect the students from any violence by the police.” He accused the university administration of “racist shit” and claimed he was specifically targeted.

On the one-year anniversary of the October 7th terrorist attacks, Alatout decried “Jewish supremacy” when he addressed a Students for Justice in Palestine protest. Pro-Israel students mocked Alatout throughout that speech. Alatout is a former faculty advisor for UW-Madison’s SJP chapter.

Other recent posts by Alatout include one saying Tucker Carlson is “ideologically consistent, smart, sincere, and direct” and an endorsement of democratic-socialist gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong.

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This article first appeared in the Winter 2026 print edition of The Madison Federalist.

Former Governor Scott Walker joined The Madison Federalist for an interview via Zoom on Thursday, Jan. 29, to discuss topics including the upcoming gubernatorial election, campus issues, and immigration.

Gubernatorial Election

Republicans have a chance to take back the governor’s seat in the upcoming gubernatorial election. Walker believes the top priority for this election is to reduce the cost of living. “There’s still many voters, particularly young voters, who are still very concerned about cost of living and about wages keeping up with things like housing,” Walker said. “Interest rates, for example, are so much higher than they were, four or five years ago.”

“We saw what happened under Joe Biden. That had an impact on Wisconsin, so the next governor really needs to not only talk about costs of living but reduce the size of government to help drive down costs,” he said. “High taxes take away from the ability of voters and hardworking people in Wisconsin to cover the bills that they have.”

Currently, Congressman Tom Tiffany is the presumptive nominee for governor in the Republican primary. Walker noted that Tiffany is a strong candidate as “he was in the state legislature, he went through the battles, and he’s been tested in that regard.”

Walker reiterated the importance of reducing the cost of living, including taxes, fees, and student loan debt. He believes it’s important to “get the cost down in the first place so students aren’t taking on an even greater burden.”

Public safety is another key component, such as border security, in “keeping us safe from people who’ve come into this country illegally, particularly those who’ve committed additional crimes.”

Walker believes that Tiffany was in a good place to win this election. He said, “Tiffany showed a more than $2 million raise which is really good” and said “the fact that Evers is not running again” bodes well for Republicans. This leaves the Democrats with a wide open primary. Walker told The Federalist, “I think it is hopeful for us, but there’s still the swing voters in Wisconsin– kind of like undecided students on campus– who aren’t necessarily conservative or liberal.”

He continued, “It’s a difficult task to win as a Republican overall, but particularly when Republicans are in the White House. Every election– but one for governor– has gone the opposite of who was in the White House. For example, I won three elections for governor, all three were when Barack Obama was president of the United States. Typically, it goes back and forth.”

For “Tiffany to win, he’s going to have to break through that and stay focused on cost of living issues,” Walker added.

Walker recalled campaigning in Wisconsin on behalf of President Trump. “I talked about going to the grocery store and how the cost of filling up one grocery cart was about the same as what I could get four years earlier for two carts,” he said. “People can relate to that. Those are the things they want people to talk about.”

Walker was elected governor of the state twice– 2010 and 2014– and he survived a recall election in 2012. With his election experience, Walker’s “advice to whomever the nominee is, as well as people running for state senate, state assembly, Congress, on the conservative side, is don’t take the bait” and “focus on the things that really matter to everyday voters.”

In the Democratic primary, candidates such as Sarah Rodriguez, Mandela Barnes, David Crowley, Francesca Hong, and others are hoping to become the nominee for governor. Walker believes the nominee will be Barnes, but he “is the most radical.”

He added that “as we saw in New York City, it can be appealing if people don’t know anything about history” or if they don’t know what “happens when those policies fail elsewhere in the world.”

UW-Madison Campus issues

According to the 2026 FIRE Free Speech Ranking, UW-Madison placed 101st out of 267 colleges and universities nationwide, receiving a free speech grade of “F” overall. Additionally, FIRE conducted a free speech survey, which found that 35 percent of students at UW-Madison believe that violence is acceptable to stop someone from speaking on campus, at least in rare cases.

Walker said free speech “is a constitutionally protected right” and “our founders felt so passionately about it that they put it right at the beginning of the Constitution.” College campuses are “the very place that it should be revered” but “the place it’s most at risk.”

Walker believes there should not only be “a consistent free speech policy at all of the University of Wisconsin System schools, but it should be enforceable.”

“That’s the whole Socratic principle of gathering together for higher education,” Walker said. “Expanded learning should be the free debate and discussion of big ideas” and “to be exposed to things that you may fundamentally disagree with but to expand horizons. That has not happened at the University of Wisconsin. That is not happening in schools across the country.”

Walker discussed the heckler’s veto, and he believes students who try to shut down speakers should be issued “a warning, but subsequent to that, things like expelling students who violate free speech standards” repeatedly.

“That’s not saying that someone can’t protest,” Walker continued. “I can’t violate the constitutional rights of other students to be able to hear a speaker, regardless of whether I agree with him or her.”

“The students deserve the right to hear from a wide variety of different ideological, political, and other beliefs.”

Walker hopes UW-Madison “embraces and promotes” the constitutional right of freedom of speech because “one diversity most lacking on most college campuses is diversity of thought.”

He also hopes that intellectual diversity will be applied when hiring for jobs. “It’s tragic to me, particularly in the arts and sciences, the social sciences, how many campuses are almost devoid of any conservative or even slightly right-of-center faculty members.”

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin was recently named the next president of Columbia University, and Walker said he was surprised by the announcement. For the next chancellor, Walker emphasized that “it’s going to be incredibly important to find someone who’s committed to having a safe place for all voices.” He reiterated “that conservatives overwhelmingly are concerned about speaking out about their views.”

“College should be a place where you’re free to talk about your ideas,” Walker said. That “doesn’t mean you’re protected from any challenges, but you shouldn’t feel that just because of your point of view, your grade is going to be damaged or that other students are going to take action against you.”

He believes there are many models of leadership in higher education, pointing to former president of the University of Florida and U.S. Senator Ben Sasse. Walker said that Sasse “really transformed that school and was adamant about free speech.” He also “very strongly encouraged the kind of intellectual diversity we talked about.”

“There are a handful of folks that do a really nice job, even at public institutions across the country, and we should expect that at UW-Madison.”

Walker also discussed the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk. Walker said, “I’d known Charlie for years. He actually came up from Illinois to help our recall election.”

“I was with him and his parents a month before the assassination, so personally, I was very troubled by it,” he said. “I know just how devastating it was.”

Charlie Kirk “was such a bigger than life personality” and he “was not only talking on a college campus, he was actually listening to people.”

“One of the key things that I think is lost, particularly in the world of social media, is listening to people, not just waiting until they’re done so that we can own them with whatever their counter attack is, but actually listening to what they say.” Walker stated this is important because “most students are not ideologically tied to the left or the right. They’re just trying to figure it out.”

Immigration

Walker has experience in dealing with civil unrest from his time as governor of Wisconsin, and he gave his opinion on how he would deal with the immigration situation in Minneapolis. He said, “Governor Tim Walz has totally screwed that up.”

“He [Walz] has every right, just like any citizen does to speak out, if he disagrees with the policies” but it is another thing “to encourage people to get in the middle of federal law enforcement agents carrying out the law.”

Walker points out that it was the same laws that ICE agents were enforcing “when Barack Obama was president and when Bill Clinton was president.”

In response to the fatal shooting of ICE protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Walker said, “What happened with the two individuals whose lives were lost is tragic.” He believes Minnesota’s leadership “should be telling people to go find a place to peacefully protest.”

Walker told The Federalist the best thing a leader can do is to advise people to “not engage in creating any more chaos, and unfortunately, they’re doing the opposite.”

On March 9, Brother Isaiah of the Holy Face gave a talk on contemplative and monastic life and its significance to the world. Today, fewer people are entering monastic life than ever before. Each year, fewer people become monks or nuns, and these communities struggle to uphold their traditions. In his talk, Brother Isiah presented an argument based on the works of Saint John of the Cross about whether the tradition of monastic contemplation contributes to the good of the broader social community.

Brother Isaiah began by giving a brief history of attitudes towards contemplative orders, such as the Carmelites, and discussing how several leaders throughout history, including Napoleon, had them disbanded or even persecuted for seemingly providing no benefit to society.

He then asked a simple question: Who does more good, someone who interacts with the world through their daily life, or someone who sits in a monastery praying to God? For many people, these contemplative orders that don’t do charity, education or any material works do little to no good for the common society. However, Brother Isaiah argued that what the people in contemplative orders do is of supreme value to the common good.

He argued that the common good is something that helps society thrive, such as education and truth-telling. He then pointed out that if there is a common good, not only do people “have a right to common good” but they also have a “duty to defend and uphold the common good.”

Brother Isaiah then offered a simple thought experiment to explain why it is those very people in the contemplative orders who do the most to uphold the common good. He gave an example of four women. One woman upholds the good by working at a law firm to help defend the innocent, a second woman stays at home to raise good children, a third who is a teacher helping to educate children but is also dishonest, and a nun who is a good person and spends her days cloistered with her fellow sisters. Brother Isaiah asked which of these women does the most for the common good.

The first two women uphold the good in their lives. The third woman does too, but she is imperfect in her path. Many people may find it difficult to see what the nun does to help those around her, but Brother Isaiah argues that the good she does is “loving God,” devoting her entire life to love and most importantly, “meriting grace for souls.”

Brother Isaiah then uses examples of near-death experiences to illustrate the idea of a good and loving light at the end. He discusses how many people who experience these events describe it as the best thing there is. That loving light is God who is the creator and source of all goodness. The nun, in a broad sense of the common good, is “helping people get to the point where they are inundated with loving life for all eternity.”

He then uses the example of the life review, which many experience during near-death experiences, where people see their life flash before their eyes. He explained how the life review is a measure of all our actions, and this might occur at the end of our lives.

He continued by saying that “love is the measure of all of our actions.” The nun puts herself under constant review of all her actions, not just in near-death situations. She puts herself in front of that loving light and believes she has faith. She engages in contemplation, lifting her mind and heart to God.

Brother Isiah used the analogy of a wheel with the loving light — God — at its center and the heart of all things good. He describes the wheel with spokes leading out to all different peoples and actions. The three other women engage in relative works or things that will temporarily help others and lead them closer to goodness, but that will ultimately come to an end.

The good work the nun does is from the heart and genuine. This is seen through prayer and contemplation, and the nun becomes a heart of goodness and love by “pumping grace into the whole body of humanity.” The act the nun performs of loving God continues eternally, and this is the most supreme act of good someone can do in their life.

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The verse Mark 12:30-31 in the Bible says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” The nun who spends her life loving God enacts the greatest good and can love her community and neighbors. Therefore, prayer and contemplation are the most important things we can do.

Brother Isaiah concluded his talk by discussing the story of Jesus visiting Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42 of the Bible, which serves as the basis for these thoughts by Saint John of the Cross. In the Bible story, Jesus visits a village and is invited to the home of sisters Martha and Mary. While Martha was busy preparing material goods for her guests, Mary stayed by Jesus and listened to him teach. Martha became upset and asked Jesus to send Mary to help her. Jesus simply responded that Mary had chosen the better path to listen to the Lord’s teachings. As followers of Jesus, everyone is called to do supreme good and carry out the greatest act of love for God.

This article first appeared in the Winter 2026 print edition of The Madison Federalist.

On February 4th, American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Christopher Scalia spoke to students and faculty about the intersection between faith, culture, and politics. Hosted by The Madison Federalist, the Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy, and Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), the talk centered on Scalia’s belief that in order to meaningfully engage with contemporary culture, conservatives must embrace the beauty of the present.

Scalia, who earned a Ph.D. in English from UW-Madison before spending time in academia and joining the American Enterprise Institute, was recently named Poetry Editor for the New Criterion and is author of 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read). He regularly writes about literature, culture, and higher education. As this issue has become increasingly pressing, Scalia emphasized that although it may feel unorthodox for conservatives to reside in the fluid and ever-changing aspects of modern culture, doing so may be far more beneficial than commonly assumed.

Scalia opened by first addressing culture itself, noting that it can refer to both intellectual and artistic activity. Conservatism, he argued, doesn’t always value both equally; instead, it tends to prioritize the intellectual activity over the artistic, a tendency he described as a serious flaw. Scalia warned of culture “drowning out conservative and political advances.” He portrayed culture and politics as two streams running alongside and interacting with one another — streams conservatives must learn to navigate in order to gain political ground in an ever-changing environment.

Using the Trump Administration as the primary example, Scalia credited President Donald Trump with understanding the importance of cultural engagement. Though describing Trump as a “right-wing populist with conservative inclinations,” Scalia remarked that “more than any Republican I’ve seen […] Trump understands how important the arts and entertainment are.” While acknowledging that Trump often leans into political stereotypes, Scalia described his attention to the arts, such as the planned Kennedy Center renovation, as a “commendable and positive impulse.” He added, however, that Trump could have demonstrated more consistent cultural support through greater investment in the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.

Continuing on the importance of cultural engagement, Scalia cautioned against relying on celebrity endorsements as a substitute for meaningful participation in modern culture. “There’s no doubt that having cultural voices on your team can give you a kind of sugar high and excite the base,” he said. “But rarely are they going to bring people over to your side.” Instead, Scalia emphasized appearances at popular cultural events as a more effective way to establish genuine connections with contemporary interests.

Shifting away from electoral politics, Scalia addressed “what conservatives who aren’t in the political arena can do about culture.” While acknowledging the natural conservative instinct to prefer the past — and, in extreme cases, to withdraw entirely from contemporary culture — he argued that such an attitude must change in order to achieve long-term political success. “If you don’t know anything about culture, if you close it off from yourself, you will not be able to shape it,” he said. “You can’t shape a society you’re entirely ignorant of.”

For conservatives to meaningfully institute change, Scalia believes they must first understand why people engage with modern culture in the first place. From there, appreciation may follow. “It’s a conservative instinct to think what is new is necessarily inferior, and sometimes, maybe even often it is,” he noted. “But that doesn’t mean it’s without value.” ​​If conservatives wish to become more attuned to the country they seek to influence, they must first understand its culture by engaging with it.

Scalia also emphasized the importance of storytelling in shaping culture. Many of the most enduring ideas of the past, he argued, came from great works of literature that helped shape habits, manners, and beliefs. The moral imagination, he said, is essential. “It’s how we learn right from wrong, the proper ordering of our souls, and what it means to be human. We understand America in part by the stories we tell about America.”

Turning to the arts more broadly, Scalia stressed that the most important thing a conservative can do is learn his craft. In order to influence culture, he argued, it is better to be a better artist than a stronger ideologue. “Practice it, refine it, become excellent,” he said. “The art you create must be stronger than the messenger conveying it.”

Those who seek to shape culture, Scalia explained, should not be primarily concerned with how instructive their work is, but instead with creating work rooted in what they genuinely care about. “There is something unthreatening about the beautiful,” he said. “It works a sort of alchemy in the soul, and beautiful things awaken a desire to participate, to imitate, and finally to share.” Scalia maintained that humans are naturally drawn to beauty, and that conservatives, in particular, should pursue it because beauty has the power to persuade in ways arguments cannot.

Scalia concluded by encouraging conservatives to engage deeply with literature. Through interaction with the written word, individuals gain a stronger understanding of culture, and, in turn, a deeper understanding of themselves. To understand the culture of which we are a product of, Scalia suggested, is ultimately to better understand humanity itself.

On Monday, March 9th, Wisconsin Supreme Court Candidate Maria Lazar spoke to students at an event hosted by the College Republicans of UW-Madison. She currently serves as a judge for the Wisconsin Court of Appeals for District II, and is running for a spot on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in this April’s election.

She describes herself as an honest candidate for the people, and someone who upholds impartiality and respect in the courts, unlike many of today’s judges around the country. She also holds the belief that diversity of thought is integral to the court and criticized courts that are either uniformly conservative or liberal. She said last year’s historically expensive election was too partisan and harmed the public perception of the judiciary.

Lazar emphasized that she was born and raised in Wisconsin. She is a graduate of Milwaukee’s Mount Mary University, and immediately returned to serve her home state after she graduated from Georgetown University Law Center. She also stated that she is not accepting any out-of-state endorsements.

Her opponent, Chris Taylor, was previously a Democratic member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, and was the former public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. Lazar, who said she is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, said that judges must uphold the law and not be a part of divisive partisan politics. She argued that she is the only candidate for this election who is dedicated to bringing impartiality to the Supreme Court.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court election is the most significant election on the ballot this spring. Lazar noted that it has been difficult to get people excited about the race, but she is optimistic about her chances of winning.

She hopes her commitment to refraining from partisan politics has made her an appealing candidate to both Democratic and Republican voters across the state. Lazar rejected the claim that she is the ‘anti-abortion’ candidate, as she said it is her duty as a judge to uphold Wisconsin State Law, which currently allows abortion until twenty weeks after conception.

Lazar told The Madison Federalist that she hopes young people turn out to vote in April. “I wish we had a huge turnout in April, and I wish everyone came out and voted. That would be amazing,” she said.

Throughout her career, she has taught classes in Wisconsin, from high school students to law students, to cultivate their interests in law and local judicial systems. She believes that college students and recent graduates would be receptive to her campaign messaging.

What if the concentration of progressive ideology at the top of educational institutions was not a natural result of competition in the market of ideas, but rather, a precisely crafted political machine that was used to eliminate differences of viewpoint?

That is exactly what John Sailer uncovered through his work at the Manhattan Institute.

On Wednesday, March 4, the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy and Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy hosted Sailer for a lecture on “Scholar-Activist Faculty Hiring in America.” Sailer’s research involves investigations into DEI hiring practices at colleges, uncovering criteria that favor candidates with left-leaning views.

Sailer’s last event in the state was abruptly canceled by the Medical College of Wisconsin, so he viewed this lecture as a triumphant return.

“Despite other controversial figures on the panel, it was me [that was removed] for my fact-based reporting on what universities and medical institutions are doing in order to advance a politically charged idea of equity,” Sailer said about that event.

In his presentation, Sailer claimed that “scholar-activists” were considered to be at the top of the hiring totem pole because of DEI initiatives.

“University systems, private foundations, public agencies, have worked in tandem to create career pathways for scholars who share an activist vision for higher education,” he said. Calling this the “scholar-activist pipeline,” Sailer argues that these practices are theoretically used to increase diversity, but they instead created viewpoint homogeneity.

Through his research, Sailer found three distinct ways in which hiring methods are used to vet candidates who are not left-leaning. These methods include diversity statements, cluster hiring and career investment.

Diversity statements, which are one to two page essays in job applications that required the applicant to “describe their commitment to, and plans for advancing, diversity, equity, and inclusion,” originated in the early 2010s. By 2022, 46 percent of large institutions had adopted DEI criteria for promotion and tenure standards according to the American Association of University Professors. He found that these statements had become heavily weighted by a number of hiring committees.

One example he cited was from Texas Tech, noting hiring records for an application within the Department of Biological Sciences. An applicant stated in his interview that “DEI is not an issue because he respects his students and treats them equally.” This was listed in the report as a “weakness” because the candidate had a “poor understanding of the difference between equality and equity.”

The rubric created for measuring DEI characteristics offered the lowest score to an applicant who “explicitly states the intention to ignore the varying backgrounds of their students and ‘treat everyone equally.’”

Another report from The Ohio State University exemplified how these requirements were used to favor far-left-leaning candidates. One white male was not “outwardly present as a diversity candidate,” but his research on Critical Race Theory was highlighted as a reason he scored high within the DEI criteria.

This shows that the vetting committee used ideological theories as a way to bypass the diversity requirements, effectively allowing the process to be one in which candidates are hired based on political leanings.

“On one hand, this is clearly a way to filter out, either intentionally or not, people who view a whole cluster of social issues differently than the sort of majority opinion on campus,” Sailer said. “This is a perfect way to compound the effects of a viewpoint conformity.”

Another statement Sailer found from another employer stated that “they don’t want to hire white men” when doing a cluster hire. Cluster hiring is essentially hiring multiple faculty members at once across many disciplines, which allows administrators to expand their involvement through conditional funding for faculty alliances.

A final example given by Sailer was career investments, particularly focusing on how one group, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, systematically increased activist hires among universities. According to Sailer, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the “premier funder of the humanities in the United States.”

This foundation is “akin to its own federal agency in giving power” and provides career enhancing grants for candidates that share the foundation’s activist vision for higher education.

One situation Sailer discussed was about Dr. LaVelle Ridley, a professor hired at The Ohio State University after receiving multiple grants from the Mellon Foundation. The professor’s research focused on “cultural politics of black transgender women in the U.S., specifically in advances in anti-capitalism, prison, and abolitionist agendas.”

When professors are funded for a clear political agenda and hired by schools because of DEI requirements, a knowledge vacuum is created where institutions think homogeneously about certain political issues, leading to a decrease of public trust.

In the 21st century view of higher education, the use of scholarship funds must continue the “passionate pursuit of truth, even if it takes you to conclusions that are inconvenient, or even defy the dominant perception of what social justice is or ought to be,” Sailer said.

Sailer concluded by mentioning how this concentration of progressive views at the top of institutions may deter right-leaning thinkers from entering academia, which continues the current institutional culture, even after DEI requirements are removed.

“A lot of people who might have considered an academic career in the first place will look at what they have to do to apply to graduate school, what they have to do to apply to faculty jobs, and what kind of backing for these jobs are available and say, this is clearly not for me,” Sailer said. “I think that’s exactly what has happened because of diversity statements.”