PANNING FOR GOLD

A LITTLE "SIFTING AND WINNOWING"

Monday,  8:30 AM.  37 degrees F, wind WNW, light with gusts.  The sky is partly cloudy, with haze in the east.  The barometer is down, at 30.25 in. but that is still quite high.  The humidity is 78%.  There is a winter storm warning for Bayfield, predicting 7-11 inches of snow, starting at 7:00 PM today.  I gave in yesterday and had the remaining half of the driveway snow blown yesterday and will call for help again if the predicted storm hits.  The big tractor has a snowblower, as well as a drag on the rear, and does a quick, clean job.
   The University of Wisconsin system has been recognized as one of the great educational enterprises of the nation, if not the world.  Since 1949, one of its  stated basic tenets, actually a motto, has been the "sifting and winnowing" of human knowledge to find the truth; a fine goal.
   The University of Wisconsin, we have recently been told, has a current budget surplus of one billion dollars.  This at a time when tuition costs have been rising relentlessly, to the point where many deserving Wisconsin residents cannot afford to attend the institution.  Of course some of this money is held in trust for specific programs.  Nonetheless, this magnitude of surplus, which in plain language should be called a slush fund, is unwarranted, and is bound to lead to great abuse.  When the cookie jar is filled to the brim, it is easy to overlook a few missing cookies, as any child, and most embezzlers,  can attest to.
   And all this comes to light as a new President is being hired at an annual salary of

a half-million dollars, plus the perquisites of a prince. And how has this university and most others accumulated this treasure trove?  Mostly from students and their parents, who have been enticed into borrowing unconsciable  amounts of money through the federal student loan program to pay outrageous tuitions.  All the while, highly paid tenured professors indoctrinate impressionable young people with ultraliberal, big government philosophies so that the scam can be perpetuated.
   It is way beyond time to bring this juggernaut under control, as it looks like it has been "sifting and winnowing" a lot more than knowledge.  More like panning for gold.