Author: jplucas

A proposal to tame the annual Mifflin Street Block Party will go before a city of Madison committee today.

The Street Use Staff Team will discuss giving a block party permit for May 2 to DCNY PRO, a local music and event production company.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Committee on Student Organizations has suspended the Sigma Chi Fraternity chapter on campus for an alleged alcohol-related violation.

Officials said that an investigation is continuing into an incident that occurred on April 2. They said that sanctions are possible for members or the fraternity as a whole.

According to a UW news release, a suspension “prevents a student organization from holding events, reserving space or enjoying the other privileges of student organization status.”

University of Wisconsin-Madison police said that they’re seen a significant spike in laptop computer thefts on campus in recent months, prompting new calls for vigilance.

Madison Area Technical College has seen more than 30 laptops stolen since January, but the trend is also hitting those on the UW campus.

UW police said that laptop thefts are up more than 500 percent this year as compared to 2008. In most cases, the crime is completely preventable, they said.

Equipped with personal video cameras, eight University of Wisconsin–Madison students began filming themselves last fall, as part of MTV’s new reality series “College Life.”

They said they were extremely excited for Monday’s premier, and packed couches in front of every TV on or near campus.

“College Life” is billed as a real and uncensored look at the lives of college students — everything from academic stress to relationship adventures.

A U-W Madison fraternity is suspended after allegations of alcohol violations.

University Communications confirms that the Offices of the Dean of Students is investigating the Sigma Chi fraternity for an alleged alcohol violation that occurred on April 2nd, into April 3rd.

Details of the violation are not available, but the fraternity will not be able to hold events or hold club activities until the investigation is complete.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness month, and students at the University of Wisconsin are shedding light on how alcohol adds to the problem.

The student group called, Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment, or PAVE, is focusing on the dangers of alcohol.

Members say not enough attention is paid to alcohol as a date rape drug.

Starting college can be an intimidating experience. New people, new home and no parents to set a curfew or make sure you do your homework. Now imagine placing a camera in the hands of these college freshmen and sending them off to record their lives – the good, the bad and the unexpected.

Remember your freshman year of college? Yeah, there are parts of it we’d like to forget, too. Now imagine you’ve filmed all the ups â?? new found freedom, more responsibility â?? and downs â?? too much drinking, too little studying â?? for the whole world to see. That’s exactly what St. Paul’s Kevin Tracy did when he (along with seven other students) were chosen to document their lives at the University of Wisconsin Madison for the new MTV show “College Life” (9:30 p.m. today). For half a year, the 19-year-old Cretin-Derham Hall grad used a camcorder to captured all his freshman year’s highs and lows. We phoned Tracy, a communications major, in Madison to chat about his experience.

â??Quiet Please! Filming in Session,â? warns a sign on the second floor of UW-Madisonâ??s Memorial Union.

Thatâ??s because in a nearby lounge, five students are chattering at 100 miles-per-minute for UW-Madisonâ??s own version of â??The View,â? a talk show about student life.

The show, called â??IMHO,â? or â??In My Humble Opinion,â? is one of a number of shows UW-Madison staff members have created for the Big Ten Network. It aired for the first time last month.

A month-long education effort is underway across the nation in hopes of eradicating sexual violence.

One organization heavily involved in April’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month is the Dane County Rape Crisis Center. Officials there say the impact of sexual violence affects millions of men, women, and children from all walks of life, many of whom keep their stories to themselves out of fear or embarrassment or both.

Cable media monster MTV is hours away from shining the national spotlight on Madison and the University of Wisconsin.

It’s a reality show with a twist, with students taping their own stories, both good and bad.

The show’s preview paints a wild picture. Everything that is freshman year at the University of Wisconsin they claim, filmed and documented by the students themselves.

“They’re really getting things that you probably wouldn’t get in any other show,” Kevin Tracy said.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison campus is buzzing in anticipation of a new reality show set in the city that aims to give a candid look at college life, but some are concerned about how the show will portray the university.

The show “College Life” is premiering on MTV next week. It’s all shot by students with handheld cameras instead of by camera crews and aims to show what the collegiate experience is like.

Amid a blur of images of parties, dorm rooms, kissing and close-ups, University of Wisconsin-Madison student Kevin Tracy makes a confession: â??I drank too much. I made a mistake, Iâ??m sorry.â?

This is the trailer for the new MTV reality series, â??College Life,â? premiering Monday night. The show follows the lives of four freshman at UW-Madison, including Tracy, who documented their first year of college with handheld cameras.

MTV has tapped eight underclassmen from the University of Wisconsin-Madison for an experiment in reality TV. Rather than trailing the kids with a camera crew, the network gave them their own cameras. They spent several months documenting their lives, and MTV has assembled the footage in a show called College Life. It premieres at 9:30 p.m. on Monday, April 13.

“Technology has democratized the filmmaking process for our viewers,â? says Tony DiSanto, head of MTV programming. â??That fact combined with this generation’s real-time publishing online of every aspect of their lives brings us into a new era of honesty and openness, and College Life exemplifies this.”

MTV’s new “reality” show about four University of Wisconsin-Madison freshmen has a far more real feeling than most such programs.

Part of that comes from the fact that the four subjects of “College Life” – premiering at 9:30 p.m. Monday – are shooting their own stories with hand-held cameras. That means plenty of blurry images that stir college memories for some of us.

The first installment features plenty of drinking, lots of boy-girl stuff and even a bit of time devoted to studying in the half-hour weekly show.

Every spring, U.S. colleges and universities shut down for a week or two, allowing students to relax at home or take a vacation from their studies. Some head to the beaches in Florida or other warm spots. But more students are trading their vacation opportunities for volunteer work projects in Miami and other cities.

At Everglades National Park outside Miami, Louie Toth is leading a group of students from the University of Wisconsin into remote areas of the forest.

Louie Toth teaches student volunteers to identify and remove invasive plant species in the Florida Everglades.

“This is a Brazilian pepper tree, and if you scan the area around it, you will see there is no other vegetation growing around it,” he explains.

The Brazilian pepper and other foreign plants were introduced by accident to the Everglades and now crowd out native species. Student volunteers are ripping out these invaders and trying to collect the seeds to prevent new plants from growing.