U. of Wisconsin Professor’s Tweets Draw Criticism From Her Own Colleagues

[Updated (7/16/2015, 6:54 p.m.) with a statement from the executive committee of Madison’s Faculty Senate.]

A professor’s tweets to incoming students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison have drawn the ire of the campus’s College Republicans as well as a prominent faculty group, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of educational policy and sociology who is also one of the most prominent voices in the academic Twittersphere, sent the tweets more than a month ago. To several students who had tweeted their excitement about enrolling at Madison under the hashtag #FutureBadgers, Ms. Goldrick-Rab sent a link to an op-ed essay from the Journal Sentinel criticizing the removal of tenure protection from state statutes. Here are some of the responses she got:

@saragoldrickrab @nstanley8 @mike_mleczko34 @rpcastle66 @amy_walkowski @grace_ziegler no one cares sara

— Pool Boy (@kryptin8) June 7, 2015

@kryptin8 @saragoldrickrab @nstanley8 @rpcastle66 @amy_walkowski @grace_ziegler who are you lol

— Michael Mleczko (@mike_mleczko34) June 7, 2015

Apparently, one of the incoming students alerted the campus chapter of the College Republicans, which released a statement on Wednesday denouncing the professor and calling her tweets “disgusting and repulsive.”

Ms. Goldrick-Rab explained to the newspaper why she had set out to contact incoming students: “I was very frustrated with the university not being forthcoming. Nobody’s communicating with them. So I looked for prospective students on Twitter and sent them information.” She added: “I’m not trying to say to them, ‘Don’t come here.’”

But it’s not just her tweets to students that are drawing controversy. Various conservative news outlets have in recent days criticized the professor for her tweet comparing Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who is vying for the Republican presidential nomination, to Adolf Hitler:

My grandfather, a psychologist, just walked me through similarities between Walker and Hitler. There are so many- it’s terrifying.

— Sara Goldrick-Rab (@saragoldrickrab) July 1, 2015

“I didn’t say the two people were one in the same,” Ms. Goldrick-Rab told the Journal Sentinel. “I comment on what people say to me.”

The flagship campus’s chancellor, Rebecca M. Blank, released her own statement on Wednesday. “Any institution has its critics, and especially in social media, it’s important to remember that the loudest voice usually isn’t the most accurate,” she said in part, adding that she disagrees with “those who may question whether the University of Wisconsin-Madison is still a great place to learn and to teach.”

The executive committee of Madison’s Faculty Senate weighed in on Thursday, criticizing Ms. Goldrick-Rab in a statement. “As faculty members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we support free speech and diversity of opinion, as has been our tradition,” the statement reads. “Such freedom requires responsible behavior and in this respect we are deeply dismayed with the actions Professor Sara Goldrick-Rab has taken toward students and faculty on Twitter in recent weeks to discourage them from coming here. While claiming to stand for academic freedom, she has in fact damaged that principle and our institution with inaccurate statements and misrepresentations.”