The Governor is right… your complaints are frivolous. I’m pretty sure the University understands student privacy laws - the have, you know, had to deal with them for quite some time. Thus, they wouldn’t have sent anything out if it in any way violated someone’s privacy. You’re whining because you got outmaneuvered and it makes you look bad.

You’re also angry because the Assembly Republicans are increasingly revealing themselves to be radical, ignorant, and out of touch with Wisconsin values. The people of Wisconsin deserve a budget that reflects our priorities, and you people are standing in the way. Move.

I wish that you’d take a page out of the Democratic Party playbook, and stop hating students and financial aid.

Have you ever noticed how much Sara Mikolajczak is like the Rev. Jesse Jackson? They’re both always willing to get offended at the drop of a hat, they’re always making a titanic issue out of nothing, they’re always crying about how they’re being oppressed when no actual oppression is occuring. Just because one is freaky liberal and the other is crazy conservative doesn’t mean that on a deeper level they have nothing in common.

“…receiving this aid should not require them to enlist themselves as one of the governor's political pawns.”

The e-mail asked for people who were “interested in participating.” I fail to see how this translates to “requir[ing] them to enlist.”

“Had an e-mail been sent to the entire student body regarding the press conference, this fiasco could have potentially been avoided.”

No, had an e-mail been sent to the entire student body, you would have been the first to cry foul at a campuswide political solicitation. You would have written a very similar column, making

“The Wisconsin College Republicans, as well as other prominent members of the state, refuse to allow the hypocrites on the left to get away with these or any such similar actions again.”

Are the CRs so full of themselves that they consider themselves amongst the “prominent members of the state?” I mean, I know you guys are pretty proud of who you are and all, but that’s just unchecked hubris. Business leaders, politicians, Brett Favre, those are the prominent members of the state. You’re just a campus organization.

I personally think that the e-mails were probably legally okay, but not ethically. Since all that matters is the letter of the law (thanks to hyperliteral conservatism which allows no room for interpretation or nuance), I think all we can do is move on.

Sara, do you know what evidence is?

Until you have evidence of wrongdoing, there’s no reason for anyone to take your complaints seriously.

Let’s look at the facts, Sara, since you so eloquently pointed out in the article in the Daily Cardinal that many liberals do not seem to know how to back up their claims. The fact is that it extends to both sides of the proverbial spectrum.

Governor Doyle and people from the Office of the Dean of Students did these things: 1. They searched the database of students for people who are receiving financial aid. FERPA, I believe, does not prohibit universities from accessing this knowledge - we are paying tuition to them - but prohibits parents from accessing their adult student’s information without their permission. 2. The ODOS and the governor indicated that they want students to participate in the press conference. Nowhere does it indicate that they are pressed to take our Governor’s side or the side of the opposition. This information was transmitted within the academic institution for the legitimate educational interests of students who may be affected by the budget impasse. In addition, he was making a request, not an order. Any student can willingly acquiesce or not.

You seem to be reading political motivation into this a little too heavily.

This reactionary behavior is disgusting.

what i like is the yet-again reposting in today’s daily card of ms. Mikolajczak’s story about getting spit on by an ISO member on state 3 years ago. Yes, 3 years ago. I’ve heard this exact sob story reprinted in those 3 years at least 6 times…but sara, don’t you realize UW students have more in common with “smelly ISO members” than they do with GOP values?

You either are ignorant of technology or willfully misrepresenting it in your article. I would go with the former, since in your article you mention the facts: that the email was sent out by the UW system and not by the Governor, but by the UW system.

I can’t believe the Herald continues to print your trite garbage.