I became outraged this week when reading a news item in the Wisconsin State Journal that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos decreed that UW System universities can use funds to either give faculty raises or continue Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. What a cruel and divisive dictate.

It’s ironic because Vos graduated from UW-Whitewater. I wonder what his relationships with African American and other students of color were like back then that formed his views on higher education today. Did he use his time to get to know students from diverse backgrounds or did he use the overwhelming white student presence to isolate himself while he attained his degree?

Wisconsin’s higher education future and policies are no longer in the hands of the UW Board of Regents or the hands of the chancellors of the various UW campuses. It is now in the hands of a dictator, Robin Vos, who boasts on his website that he is the longest serving Assembly speaker in Wisconsin’s history.