UW-Madison Director of Tribal Relations Aaron Bird Bear makes an offering of tobacco leaves at the planting of a graft from the President's Oak. Bird Bear is retiring at the end of this week after two decades at UW-Madison, where he started a campus tour highlighting Ho-Chunk history and formed the Indigenous Student Center.
Fave 5: Reporter Kimberly Wethal shares her favorite stories of 2022
In the weeks before I joined the Wisconsin State Journal in September, I was told this: Remember that a higher education institution is like their own city. It has its own character and struggles, defined by the students who learn there and the faculty who teach them.
I have seen this over and over again, and it was particularly clear when I visited UW-Platteville at Richland a week after the University of Wisconsin System ordered degree-fulfilling classes to cease because of low enrollment. During my visit, I found many of the devastated students to be emotionally invested in their campus community — and committed to saving it.
UW-Madison Director of Tribal Relations Aaron Bird Bear makes an offering of tobacco leaves at the planting of a graft from the President's Oak. Bird Bear is retiring at the end of this week after two decades at UW-Madison, where he started a campus tour highlighting Ho-Chunk history and formed the Indigenous Student Center.
