OPINION & EDITORIAL
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Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:
- A security fee-for-all (December 11, 2007)
- Farewell, Chancellor (December 10, 2007)
- $$FC (December 6, 2007)
- In a bind (December 5, 2007)
- Entitlement Town (December 4, 2007)
Related Stories:
- Media actually lean right (September 10, 2001)
- Election proves ASM beyond help (March 29, 2006)
- Trimming the fat (January 30, 2006)
- Anti-war campaign yearning for action (October 25, 2006)
- Berquam: Stand up for student rights (September 27, 2007)
by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Monday, December 5, 2005
Despite its reputation as a liberal campus, the University of Wisconsin has finally found one individual so infatuated with the dated theories of Socialism that he cannot be taken seriously. His political track record is one of treating students like children, encouraging wasteful segregated fee spending and countless bizarre media tactics. When unable to defend his own regressive, counter-productive positions, he resorts to word-games, and when on the offensive, he has been known to liken authority figures to excrement. In short, he represents the sort of gaucherie that is the very nadir of UW student leadership. And he wants your vote.
This board was deeply disturbed to learn that Ashok Kumar is now seeking public office, having declared himself a candidate for the Dane County Board of Supervisors. Frankly, we can think of few people who would be worse representatives of the student body.
Last February, Mr. Kumar and a few of his colleagues made their way into the office of Chancellor John Wiley, where they requested that the university send letters home to the parents of students, encouraging them to contact their legislators and lobby against a potential tuition hike. The message was clear: UW students do not have the capacity themselves to lobby, so, for the serious stuff, mommy and daddy need to get involved. Never mind the legions of students who pay their own tuition or the entire concept of college as the first step away from home and into the real world.
The irony is astounding. The very students he once deemed incapable of political participation are the ones whose votes he will now be courting.
Fast forward to April, when the Student Services Finance Committee considered a resolution to curb the salaries of student leaders being paid by segregated fees to a maximum of $1,000. The idea of curbing the student tax’s habit of serving as a mechanism for redistribution of wealth was one that SSFC should have passed — if an organization is reliant on segregated fees, students should not be getting rich off of it. But Mr. Kumar spoke out against this proposal. He apparently didn’t think that saving students a hefty chunk of change was such a good idea after all.
Earlier this semester, Mr. Kumar worked with his Student Labor Action Coalition peers to place a referendum on the campus ballot that would prohibit groups not paying employees a "livable" wage from having their budgets considered by SSFC. The proposal, he insisted, would help all UW employees earn more than the minimum wage. But some poor research on the part of Mr. Kumar and his associates meant that the resolution, when passed, had a slightly different effect: it cut student oversight of certain finances altogether. When confronted with this disastrous mistake, they cut and ran, doing everything they could to shift the blame to ASM.
Most recently, Mr. Kumar and his SLAC buddies created the infamous John D. Wiley Facebook profile, as a means of protesting UW labor rights stances. Ignoring all hints of civil debate, the site proved a veritable hoax that only soiled the group’s already-shoddy reputation. And when it came time to write on the site’s wall, Mr. Kumar was the first to turn childish, electing to scribe "U smell like poo."
Ahh, yes, discourse at its finest.
In short, Mr. Kumar has become an embarrassment to the entire student body. And yet, apparently naíve to this reality, he now has the nerve to ask the campus community to tap him as its elected representative. This cannot be allowed to happen. There is simply no room on the Dane County Board of Supervisors for someone like Mr. Kumar. And so we encourage everyone on this campus to take a few moments, look around, and put some thought into which of your friends might do the best in public office. Ambition, sensibility and a dab of political experience are really the only criteria, though we’d be willing to settle for two of the three given the alternative of Mr. Kumar. And please, do all that you can to draft this person into the election.
Voters need a choice in this election. Electing Mr. Kumar simply isn’t an option.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 1:40am):
And the BH stoops to a new low... a board of conservative hacks personally attacks a student...
the whole article is derived from previous items which the board completely made up: the living wage referendum only took away student control because the BH board said so, there was no shred of evidence that this was to be the case. the letters were to be sent home to parents because many parents are alumni, and many do in fact pay tuition bills; it was not meant to be a replacement for student lobbying, but a supplement, as students have been lobbying for several years now. (see http://badgerherald.com/oped/2005/03/07/editorial_board_has_.php) and are you still talking about the facebook... it was clearly a joke, and the only people who can't get over that sit on this board, as for the "shoddy reputation," says who? SLAC has only grown in size and popularity since that action. and cutting stipends to $1000? you're going to lose some great leaders, as the time commitment for asm work is upwards of 15 hours a week, and working to improve the university for students forces students to miss out on getting a better paying job. not to mention ASM tries to stay competitive with CFACT's stipends (Pete McCabe, can you say $8000/year? that's more than twice any ASM stipend)
Calling Kumar a Leninist is at it's base a personal attack detached from any hint of truth, as he can tell you himself that he doesn't idolize dictators. And to discredit him because he might agree with Marx? That reveals the true political motives behind this piece, and should expose the board's political hackery and disingenuity to the student body's best interests.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 1:43am):
When a conservative writer labels someone as a marxist and therefore being intrinsically bad = clear sign of the rightist, quasi-Batistan politics to follow.
This is an embarrassment to the field of journalism... I'm sure that even William Randolph Hurst is turning in his grave right now.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 1:56am):
What a lowly attack piece. Not entirely surprising, but still disappointing.
I don't know Kumar well enough to defend him, but I do know really crappy journalism when I see it. You attack him for policy positions that mainstream Democrats hold dear, yet call him a "socialist". What lame, horrific red-baiting. I would suggest you all get to see the movie out in theaters about Edward R. Murrow and Sen. McCarthy.
Never in my four years on campus have I seen such a horrific piece from the Badger Herald, and that's saying something.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 1:59am):
I agree it would be good if someone else ran, for democracy's sake. But this editorial is absurd. Frankly, it treats us students like children, the same aspersion being cast on Ashok Kumar. What hyper-right-wing Fox News bull this is.
The Herald needs to check itself before it wrecks itself. This over the top stuff only leads to a massive loss of credibility.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 2:14am):
You could have (and probably did) write this same editorial about the incumbent, Echnaton Vedder, when he ran eight years ago. Long hair, hippie liberal socialist, blah blah blah. It must be frustrating for your editorial board to so consistently be on the losing side of campus opinion. Oh, no, the progressives are taking over, the sky is falling, socialists are eating our children and aborting white babies!!
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 2:26am):
An endorsement from Austin King is enough to know the candidate should never take office.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 6:28am):
Finally, the Badger Herald writes a quality article.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 12:39pm):
Kumar is a juvenile law-breaking loser.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 12:39pm):
An endorsement from Austin King is a pretty good sign that he will be a qualified, capable, progressive representative that stands up for students at every turn. Seriously, I know there are some hacks that lurk on this board, but he is the most popular campus politician in a long time. Except for that smoking ban, which I'm still mad at him for.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 1:01pm):
I do not know nearly enough about Mr. Kumar to defend him, but your attack is pretty hollow when the first point made against him is purely inflamatory. What about asking parents to lobby for lower tuition keeps students from doing it too? First, there are three times as many people involved if the student and parents contact representatives. Second, we can be sure that our campus-area representatives are against higher tuition, but that cannot be said for our parent's reps. For instance, I can be sure that my state senator, Fred Risser, is on my side of the tuition debate. My parent's senator, Alan Lasee, is in favor of raising tuition. It's not childish to have parents lobby for the best interest of themselves and/or their offspring. If the editorial board is in favor of higher tuition, I ask that they pick up part of my bill.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 1:24pm):
As someone who does know Kumar, all I can say is that he is a two-faced, self-serving, compulsive liar. Socialism and Wiley are not his strong-suits, he just likes to jump on the bandwagon whenever he can.
He is not a good person, and can hardly be called a liberal or a hippy. What kind of socialist lives at Statesider his first year at UW?
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 2:05pm):
I do not think the fact of Mr. Kumar being a socialist, Marxist, green -- or what have you -- is the issue here. Political affiliations have little to do with his cockamamie media schemes and lack of connections to the underrepresented groups that he claims to advocate for. These faults alone are what make him a bad candidate. His affiliations with SLAC, ASM, and other organizations should be pardoned, due to the fact that he often has acted on these organizations' behalf without full knowledge and consent of the full constituency and representatives.
And this is his main problem. Mr. Kumar's ease to act without the approval or knowledge of his constituency is problematic, but not so much because his issues are without merit. Mostly, Mr. Kumar has a lot of trouble following through on his issues and promises. The living wage issue has been dead since the referenda. As a voting constituency of students, what has happened since? The media blitz to vote in favor of the referenda was like a monsoon. And figuratively speaking, we are in a drought, lacking information on this important issue. What are we to think? What do we know? As a collective, not much; I do not blame it on the media itself. I blame this lack of information on Mr. Kumar and the other lead organizers of that referenda campaign.
What about students being recruited for the Armed Forces? Surely, we all remember Mr. Kumar's beautiful front page spread and the cuffs heard snapped around the campus. But what has been done, since then, concerning students being recruited into the military on campus? Not much.
As an activist, Mr. Kumar still has some learning to do. As a elected official, he is just not prepared when it comes to looking at his track record.
Although Mr. Kumar has a vivid experience, is he ready to represent our district as a Dane County supervisor. And the answer is NO. It's so obvious for a number of reasons. However, I hope the editorial board will remember that low blows -- no matter how valid -- will not help in the endeavor to make sure Mr. Kumar is not elected to office. Let's be proactive in keeping this district free from ineffective representation.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 2:06pm):
"the living wage referendum only took away student control because the BH board said so, there was no shred of evidence that this was to be the case."
The evidence is in the wording of the referendum, which would have prevented SSFC from seeing any auxiliary budgets that didn't comply with the SLAC wage policy. Students wouldn't have been able to look at the budgets. Yeah, looks like that qualifies as taking away student control.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 2:07pm):
Mike Staude was more popular than King by far.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 2:43pm):
Ashok is the shit... fuck the herald
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 2:50pm):
I am a centrist, who may not agree with many of Kumar's views, however, I don't think the herald board realizes how ridiculous is sounds when it criticizes a student for asking the parents from AROUND THE STATE ask THEIR legislators, instead of only representatives from Madison (because that is where the students are), will have more of an impact. This is such a stupid article!
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 3:15pm):
"I don't know what qualifies him as a uniter or to make ASM look better," Kumar said. "The only people that really hate ASM are the right-wing hacks like Eric Varney."--Badger Herald 5/5/05
Calling ASM Chair Eric Varney a "right-wing hack" is a little out of order. Kumar only spews rhetoric and it is very hard to take him seriously, even if being a liberal.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 4:29pm):
"An endorsement from Austin King is enough to know the candidate should never take office."
PROPS.
As taken from Kumar's facebook:
" 'Man...Ashok you are the shit...and the coolest person in the world, Possibly the universe'
- Everybody"
What an arrogant, sophomoric jackass.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 5:04pm):
ashok is a decent guy but his endorsement by austin king, a thinly veiled careerist who runs under the auspices of being a progressive, annoys me. i think that if ashok wants to give it a go, more power to him. let's let the voters decide.
anyone have ideas for other contenders for the seat? i'd like to see a contested election. are there any other students out there who would be good candidates? rise to the occasion, badger herald, and tell us your thoughts.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 5:16pm):
The Herald gets it right. Although the ultra-liberal Kumar smear machine will try to place blame on ASM and apparently student papers, his record and personal failings will be made obvious to voters in the upcoming election. Kumar is a terrible choice.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 5:17pm):
It is funny that Ashok Kumar is so anti-sweatshop, yet so pro-Abercrombie and Fitch. Ironic, no? Maybe some of his freshman year Statesider fees could have helped the homeless that lived below him and slept in the cold every night.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 7:30pm):
I am personally offended by the comments made about the attempt to keep tuition affordable. As someone who works and attends school, I would never have the time to write for a student paper or even be as active as I would wish for the fight to lower tuition. I know that most students are not even aware of the 56% tuition hike in the last four years and I doubt most parents noticed either, since the average household income for a UW student is $90,000. I for one am grateful to any attempt made to keep the university accessible. Furthermore, I would hope the editorial board would spend less time bitching and more time actually reporting. I saw virtually nothing during last year's state budget which only slashed more from the University. You could encourage students to lobby if you actually did reporting on issues that affected them.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 8:20pm):
I am so glad that there is finally a respectable candidate who actually works on the issues he cares about. I know for a fact that thanks to the restrictions placed on out-of-state students, sometimes they are confined to the high-priced housing of private dorms. Not only do out-of-state students nearly double what in-state students pay for tuition, but they're inability to get into public housing forces them into double the price private housing as well. Kumar has recognized the issues that student tenants face in Madison.
Furthermore, Kumar is the only student i've seen in the papers actually working on issues that pertain to students and is now taking those issues to the next level, to the county.
Hold up Kumar.
Anonymous (December 5, 2005 @ 9:47pm):
First off, what the hell is a "nadir"? Using language that barely caters to those of us students that are in fact vocab-inclined might alienate some of your readers.
To refer to Ashok Kumar as "one individual so infatuated with the dated theories of Socialism that he cannot be taken seriously" is, among a bunch of other adjectives, narrow-minded.
I could launch an entire critique of why calling socialism outdated might not be the correct angle to take but I'm going to just pursue this one mode...
Shame on you. Shame on you for diminishing the importance of what Ashok and fellow student activists have been doing. SLAC is one of the ONLY truly effective and aware groups on campus. They've been highly successful in creating positive social change in Madison for years and Ashok is at the forefront of this involvement.
Instead of using Ashok as a way to spread your problems with SLAC and other dynamic, liberal organizations on campus, why don't you actually consider some of the ideas this candidate is putting forth on his platform. You didn't mention a damn thing about Ashok's intended agenda...and I think a candidate's plans for office are more important than a facebook message and your own personal issues with SLAC.
LUCKILY, most folks who know Ashok understand that he indeed has "ambition, sensibility," AND "political experience" at his core and will regard your op-ed with the same disgust and confusion as me...
-Melissa Motel
UW Senior
Anonymous (December 8, 2005 @ 9:58pm):
While the article may have been a little unprofessional at times, it speaks the truth.
The kid has been screwing things up ever since he got to Madison and doing it loudly. He better not be elected is all I have to say.
