Author: jnweaver

Much as he tries, Mustafa Gokcek can’t conceal the disappointment that’s etched in his features.

It was just a week ago today, while welcoming participants to the International Conference on Islam in Madison – a conference he helped organize – that the affable 28-year-old Turkish native and UW-Madison grad student realized he’d made an awful mistake.

Community leaders LaMarr Billups and Stephen Braunginn will receive the Urban League’s Whitney M. Young Jr. Award at the organization’s annual fundraiser, Spring Into Jazz, May 20 at Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center.

….Braunginn was the first director of multicultural affairs for the Wisconsin Alumni Association, a teacher in the Madison schools, a member of the South Madison Advisory Committee and a Dane County supervisor. Billups is a special assistant to the UW chancellor, and previously was a legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold. He has been an active local volunteer, civic planner and political activist.

Madison native Joy Amundson was one of four University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communications graduates to receive a distinguished service award during last weekend’s centennial festivities on campus.

Dear Editor: As I finished assisting with the management of my 31st and final Mifflin Street block party, I could only smile as I realized how safe it was.

During my career, I spent 18 years responding to the event as a paramedic and have spent the last dozen years assisting law enforcement with preparing for and managing the event. …this year the Madison Fire Department experienced the least number of emergency responses on record for the party.

The reason for the safe conclusion to the party rests with the members of our law enforcement agencies…..members of the Madison Police Department, University Police and Dane County Sheriff’s Office now have crowd control well in hand, which explains why the event was run so well.

Dear Editor: Thanks to The Evjue Foundation, the charitable arm of The Capital Times, for its generous support this year of the University of Wisconsin Press. Evjue support helped us publish five books that address timely subjects important to Madison, our state and our nation.

The Teaching Assistants’ Association at the University of Wisconsin-Madison worked very hard in shaping a resolution about military contractors to make it broader than just an attack on Israel, TAA officials said Friday.

They were reacting to a story in Friday’s Capital Times that said the intent of the resolution adopted on April 12, even though any mention of Israel had been removed, still obviously included Israel. The headline of the story characterized the resolution as “anti-Israel.”

….The TAA’s divestment resolution comes in the context of a nationwide campaign to push companies to stop selling Israel material that can be used against Palestinians.

The university’s “Campus Master Plan” released Tuesday focuses on 4 areas over a 20 year period: transportation on campus, development, utility systems and open green space. “As we develop new buildings we know that in some areas it’s going to be much more urban,” says Gary Brown, UW director of planning and landscape architecture. “Which means we need to have urban court yards and urban green spaces potentially quadrangles of space where people can gather outside in the warm months.”

Sometimes a conference is just a conference. But this weekend’s International Conference on Islam, to be held in Madison, is an important marker on the road to global peace, organizers say.

“We need more intercultural, interfaith understanding. In our society we do lack knowledge about Islam and different aspects of it,” said Mustafa Gokcek, a UW-Madison graduate student and one of the conference’s organizers.