“It’s your Idea”: An Ode to the Wisconsin Idea
[vc_row][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text]It started with an idea, but do you know what that idea is? Where that idea came from? Who had the idea? What the idea means today? What it means for you?You heard about the Wisconsin Idea and your Wisconsin Experience at SOAR, or maybe even before that from a friend, parent, or alumnus. People on stage with a Prezi presentation, PowerPoint slides, or maybe even a slide projector, preached about creating and applying learning inside and outside of the classroom, and the importance of becoming an adaptable, engaging world citizen to spread everything great about the University of Wisconsin beyond the University of Wisconsin.Despite the Wisconsin Idea’s status as a keystone of the UW System’s philosophy and as a guiding principle of the Wisconsin Government, I don’t think about it, how it affects me, or how I affect it. The Wisconsin Idea may be talked about when selling the point of the UW system, and even cause controversy and outrage when the facing erasure from state statutes, but considering the Wisconsin Idea in such contexts risks the tokenization and needless politicization of the Wisconsin Idea.The way we engage with the Wisconsin Idea, as students who are benefitting from and propagating the University of Wisconsin, is like a constantly ignored footnote. Or, perhaps, a hegemonic afterthought. Not out of malice, but a deficient definition. The way we understand and engage with the Wisconsin Idea must become something different.Every day, all around me—and you!—the Wisconsin Idea happens. I don’t notice it, though, and I don’t really take any time to think about it. Honestly, even though I may be the Editor of a section titled “The Wisconsin Idea Section,” I could not tell anyone what the Wisconsin Idea means. Yes, I can say UW President Charles Van Hise first articulated the idea in 1904, declaring he “shall never be content until the beneficent influence of the University reaches every home in the state,” to push forward his belief that learning should influence lives outside the classroom, and that Wisconsin Legend Robert La Follette used the Wisconsin Idea as a foundation for forging closer ties between the government and UW system, while pushing forward his innovative progressive legislation. I could also say that the Wisconsin Idea first got called “The Wisconsin Idea” in 1912, but got its start in the late 19th century when UW President John Bascom began expanding the scope of UW classes and research to be shared with farmers around the state, and somewhere along the line wound up in the state’s statutes.None of that tells me what the Wisconsin Idea means. Those truisms about the Wisconsin Idea tell how some people with access to the “Wisconsin Idea” wisc.edu page tell others how to view the Wisconsin Idea, and how the idea has been codified over the past hundred years. Descriptions like that might be okay to introduce someone to the Wisconsin Idea, but it misses the most crucial, essential element: You. You, the one who—knowingly or not— lives the Wisconsin Idea. The one who takes everything learned in class, and all the influences from UW on your person, and then carries that with you as you interact and engage with the world beyond the borders of our geographically miniscule campus.The Wisconsin Idea is a paradoxical idea because it is a guiding principle that can’t be defined. The Wisconsin Idea isn’t one definition, but the total sum of actions put forward by UW students—once, current, and future badgers, always badgers—whom express the Wisconsin Idea daily as it lives, changes, and grows as we live, change and grow. With this space provided by Illumination: The Undergraduate Journal of the Humanities, I want to gather, memorialize, and share an aggregation of as many of these actions from as many people as possible. It happens every day, everywhere, all around us, and that deserves recognition. The Wisconsin Idea isn’t for the history books, or a web page you’ve probably never looked at, or a selling point of our globally-minded University. It is a responsibility, and it is how you affect the world, whether you mean to or not.It’s your Idea. So, tell me, what is it?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/3" css=".vc_custom_1440542235294{margin-top: -100px !important;}" offset="vc_hidden-xs"][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image="79215" img_size="medium" alignment="center" style="vc_box_circle_2"][vc_text_separator title="Charles Van Hise" color="custom" border_width="2" el_width="70" accent_color="#dd0d0d"][vc_column_text]
I shall never be content until the beneficent influence of the University reaches every home in the state
1904
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