Nass ignores serious issues on UW System campuses
Not even a month into 2017, and we have seen yet another outburst from Republican state Sen. Steve Nass, whose career is notable not for any significant policy accomplishment but for making news with his personal crusade of attacking the University of Wisconsin at any and every opportunity. His target this time? A voluntary, no-credit opportunity for discussion, intended to help the men participating to work proactively to prevent violence and discuss perceptions of gender, gender roles and how they impact campus life.
This offends Nass, who apparently believes that his manhood is being undermined by college students gathering to have frank discussions about issues of gender roles and stereotypes, the impact they have on their education and development and the role they play in the disturbing rates of violence against women on college campuses.
It is unsurprising that the party whose presidentelect talked about women the way Donald Trump did also has a problem with a course that does not match its outdated views of gender roles. And Nass’ faux outrage over a perceived threat to his masculinity ought to be dismissed as the sideshow that it is.
But lost in his histrionics is a crisis of violence on college campuses that needs to be addressed. Take, for example, that on the campus of UW-Madison, where this seminar is being offered, more than one in four female undergraduates reports an experience of sexual assault. And UW-Madison and UW-Whitewater, whose campus is adjacent to Sen. Nass’ district, were among 159 colleges under Title IX investigation in connection with sexual violence cases.
Engaging men in changing the attitudes and behavior that have resulted in women being assaulted on college campuses at alarming rates is not optional. Women have a right to be safe on campus. Men have a role to play in not only ensuring safety by not engaging in behaviors that threaten women but in proactively promoting women’s equality and holding other men accountable for doing the same. And it is the job of every individual campus, the UW System and our state’s elected officials to make sure that women’s safety and sexual assault prevention is not just a policy, but the reality for each and every woman.
Of course, let us not forget that Nass is perhaps the Legislature’s leading cheerleader for reducing public funding for our state’s public universities. Viewed charitably, Nass’ attack on efforts to reduce campus violence against women is just another cynical political ploy to excuse his policy agenda that seeks to add to the historic cuts in state funding for the University of Wisconsin System.
On the merits, reducing funding for higher education is bad public policy. Suggesting efforts to reduce sexual assaults undermines masculinity is not just wrong-headed, it is also dangerous. And using efforts to address the serious issue of safety on college campuses as the excuse to cut funding is despicable.