Unlike almost every governor, U.S. Senator, House Member, and state legislator, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker did not graduate from college.
According to his wiki entry about his time at Marquette he presumably wrote:
He enrolled at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1986. He attended college for four years but never graduated, working part-time for IBM selling warranties. His IBM job led to a full-time position in marketing and fundraising at the American Red Cross from 1990 to 1994.
snip
Walker made his first try for government office in 1990 at age 22, winning the Republican nomination for Milwaukee's 7th District seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly, but losing in the general election to incumbent Democrat Gwen Moore. He moved to the predominantly Republican edge city of Wauwatosa, when its Assembly seat opened up in 1993, winning the special election.
So, according to the semi-official bio, Walker left college in his senior year to run for State Assembly, and
after losing went to work for the Red Cross.
Sure, Walker was ambitious, but most ambitious pols earn at least a bachelor's before running for office, or find a way to complete the degree after the campaign.
Perhaps Walker had no choice about leaving Marquette after four years, but still about a year short of getting a degree.
That's what Glen Barry, a Marquette contemporary of Walker, thinks.
Details, below.
Charlie Pierce, a Marquette alumnus who has memorably named Walker "the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin," linked to Barry's remembrance of Walker at Marquette this way in a post well worth reading "The Wisconsin Recall Is About One Thing: No More Him":
A former Marquette classmate has written about Walker's time on the Avenue, and intimates quite clearly what has been a persistent rumor in alumni circles -- that Walker was asked to leave Marquette due to some academic shenanigans. Thus far, Walker has declined to release his college transcripts, so the question remains open. Noonan's Law applies — is it irresponsible to speculate? It would be irresponsible not to.
Barry, who graduated and went on to earn a Ph.D. from UW Madison, recounts Walker's dirty campaigning for two campus-wide offices, both of which he lost.
There are many delicious details at the link, including the college newspaper concluding that Walker was "unfit for office" due to his being "sanctioned for illegal campaigning on numerous occasions, and brutal personal attacks upon his opponent’s character." Plus, "Walker’s campaign was secretly and systematically (stealing and) throwing out copies of the newspaper that endorsed his opponent" (prior to the "unfit for office" editorial), and newspapers never like that kind of theft.
But the key bit is this:
I wish I could say definitely why he never graduated – it is a closely guarded secret. I believe the general line of thinking – that Scott Walker was caught cheating.
Well, that makes sense.
Walker was not a good student -- he has refused to release his transcripts, but his 2010 campaign said that his GPA was 2.59.
And then there's the timing issue -- Walker enrolled at Marquette in the fall of 1986 and left sometime in 1990, which is four, or three and a half at least, years.
Yet he was substantially short of the credit hours required for graduation:
Walker released a letter from Marquette that showed he attended the school for four years, from 1986 to 1990, and would have needed to stay there for at least another year to get a degree. He had 94 credits and would have needed at least 36 more. The exact number of credits he needed isn't clear because students must take classes in certain areas of study to get degrees.
Somewhere along the way, Walker lost a year's worth of college credit.
Maybe, in the two years he was running for college offices, he took some incompletes that he did not make up.
Maybe his parents decided they did not want to fund a five-year plan.
Maybe Walker got caught cheating, and was told to get out of Marquette and not return.
So he didn't.
Walker's ancient history is, IMHO, far more relevant than Romney's prep-school bullying or Obama's teen-age drug use -- Walker was a far-right pol in training at Marquette, his college campaigns were wingnut, dirty and fact-free, and he moved as quickly as possible into political office.
In the words of Babu Bhatt, Walker is a very, very bad man.
And has been since Marquette.
Tom Barrett needs lots of help to retire Walker, those of you with credit cards can help here.
