Madison, WI—Former UW-Madison student, State Rep. and carpenter Brett Hulsey made the following statement on Chancellor Mnookin’s departure to Columbia University:
“I want to thank Chancellor Mnookin for her service to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the state, and students. During her leadership tenure, the university improved important national rankings, improved student outcomes, and made UW–Madison education more affordable. I wish her the best and I know that Columbia University will be happy to have her. I will especially miss the Babcock Hall Mnookie Dough ice cream which I like in my hot fudge Sunday with pecans.
We need a world class Chancellor like Donna Shalala, who I worked with in the 1992 Clinton/Gore Campaign War Room as the Deputy Political Director for Agriculture and the Environment.
Chancellor Shalala’s UW Leadership was legendary working with Gov. Tommy Thompson to support the UW system, public schools and workers benefits and rights, expand the Wisconsin Idea to spread UW research to all Wisconsin citizens, Making Wisconsin Athletics Great Again setting the stage for a Rose Bowl victory in 1994, get us a new football coach and athletic director, and reverse the 2022 Tiffany/Walker Unfair Despair Act 10 of $396.2 billion ($273.8 million in 2011) cuts to the University of Wisconsin System.
At the Sierra Club, I took a UW-Madison toxicology class about PCB risks and chemistry that were invaluable to the $1 billion cleanup plans for the Fox River when I worked at the Sierra Club.
The UW conservation information helped me advise President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and EPA after Crypto killed 80 and sickened 400,000 in Milwaukee in 1993. I advised the EPA to enact Cryptosporidium safety standards to keep it from happening again. There were no standards before the Milwaukee outbreak, the largest waterborne disease outbreaks in American history.
In 1993, I also worked with President Clinton, VP Gore and FEMA to move more than 12,000 flooded victims and home out harm’s way and floodplains when floods hit western Wisconsin. The 1993 floods killed 80 and cost $18 billion in property and agricultural damage. Go Badgers!”
For this, Hulsey was awarded the FEMA Distinguished Public Service Award and named a Clean Water Champion by Men’s Fitness Magazine.
