In case you don’t keep up on the ramblings of Max Love over at his blog, he recently has been tossing allegations around that a number of students and former students, including the authors of this blog, are part of Biddy Martin’s propaganda machine and that we have all been bought off through various means including football game tickets, letters of recommendation and free trips to LA in exchange for our support. When he initially made that post I chose not to respond to the absurd and unfounded allegations against myself, but now that he’s back at it I think it’s time for a response. Let’s make a list of all of the students that Max is alleging have been “bought out” by Chancellor Martin:
- Myself
- Kurt
- ASM leadership (namely Brandon, Adam and Tom)
- Several other current members of ASM including Sam Seering, Carl Fergus and Dan Posca (especially eggregious considering that at the time Carl had never stated he supported any part of the NBP. See his comment in the first post I linked to from Max)
- the authors of University and State
- Lindsay Bembenek, Wisconsin Student Lobby President
- Steve Olikara, former ASM Diversity Committee Chair
- Tyler Junger, form ASM Chair
But since the only “evidence” Max can point to is that these people are student leaders and alumni, support the New Badger Partnership (or know some people who support the NBP) and that the Chancellor may have done some nice things for student leaders in the past, he is expecting the reader to make the logical leap that the support of these people for the NBP comes as a result of favors from the Chancellor. Max’s hypothesis that support for the NBP from students or alumni comes as the result of favors from the Chancellor necessarily implies that any other students who support the NPB must have received favors too. Let’s start making that list of people who must have been “bought off” by Biddy:
- Erik Paulson has tweeted many supportive things and wrote this supportive blog post for the Badger Herald.
- The 8 members of the Badger Herald Editorial Board have endorsed it and endorsed it again and then endorsed it yet again. Oh and Ed Board chair Sam Clegg endorsed it in his column too.
- Random student who decided to make a YouTube video endorsed it.
- The Daily Cardinal Ed Board endorsed it.
- A list of student leaders including some previously mentioned names but also Seamus Fitzgerald, Matt Manes, Michael Romanesko, Ali Ahan, Nichole Powell, Adam Ernst and David Sandvig endorsed it.
- Three students who I don’t know that are featured in this video (in addition to the 4 that have been mentioned previously)
That’s just the list I could think of off the top of my head of students who have gone on the record someplace online. Then there are all of the non-students who have endorsed it publicly as well. I wonder if Max thinks that Biddy is writing them recommendation letters too.
- Former Chancellor Donna Shalala endorsed it.
- A group of 5 professors endorsed it.
- The Faculty Senate endorsed its principles with “nearly no opposition”
- A group that includes former UW-Madison athletic director Pat Richter supports it enough to hire someone to lobby for it.
Max’s theory of Biddy Martin’s propaganda machine completely falls apart if you fail to accept his basic premise that there are no good reasons to be in favor of the New Badger Partnership. Maybe all of these people have been “bought” by Biddy Martin, but as the list of people she would have had to buy off grows, his wild allegations just get more and more ridiculous.
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