Author: jnweaver

(This story first appeared in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal)

Just a few hours after comedian Mike Vecchione finished his set on a recent Saturday night at The Comedy Club on State, the space was turned over to a rental customer. Bibles replaced beer. The jokes largely disappeared. This is where Madison Alliance Church holds Sunday services. The new church is one of several religious startups ? called “church plants” ? trying to gain a following in the area. They pop up in storefronts and rental buildings, their leaders sometimes working second jobs until their religious ventures establish themselves.

….The church has done no paid advertising. Stewart and Rhodes handed out about 1,000 flyers at the freshman convocation at UW-Madison. Stewart said he loves the people the church is attracting, but to be successful the church will need to broaden its appeal.

“That’s our biggest challenge,” he said. “Financially, we cannot exist as a church with only college students and the homeless. We will need to be very intentional about reaching out to all demographics.”

College seniors who graduated from UW-Madison with debt in 2010 now owe an average $22,872 in student loans, a new study reports. The study, released Thursday by the Project on Student Debt, ranks Wisconsin 15th in the nation for highest debt. The $22,872 price tag puts UW-Madison slightly below the national average.

Representatives from student organizations across campus attended a rally Thursday planned by the Multicultural Student Coalition to protest the Student Services Finance Committee decision to deny the group?s funding. As MCSC played music from loudspeakers in East Campus Mall, the group?s Executive Staff Member Nneka Akubeze said she was pleased with the variety of student representatives supporting them.

The Multicultural Student Coalition appealed the student government finance committee?s decision to deny them funding eligibility Thursday. The Student Services Finance Committee denied MCSC eligibility for funding because the committee said a majority of the group?s time was not spent directly serving students, failing to meet eligibility requirements. The group appealed SSFC?s ruling, saying the committee violated procedures in reaching the

When an apartment fire broke out on the 2600 block of Pheasant Ridge Trail Sunday night, second-year law student Rocco DeFilippis came to the rescue, UW news reported Wednesday. Fire officials said the apartment?s resident was asleep while the stove was on just before 6 p.m. Hearing there were children in the apartment, DeFilippis acted to ensure no one was hurt.

After being selected by the Nominations Board, two chairs of student council who had been removed from their seats resumed their positions Wednesday. Nominations Board Chair Niko Magallon and Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Beth Huang were removed from their positions in September after the Student Judiciary ruled they failed to complete required service hours on time.

The Memorial Union Reinvestment Project Design Committee met Tuesday to discuss changes to the proposed renovations in wake of the recent Associated Students of Madison referendum and budget cuts facing the university. The proposed addition to the Play Circle lobby, one of the project?s major components and the source of recent controversy, was recently rejected by student voters, with 50.24 percent of voters saying they did not support the addition?s design.