Author: jplucas

MADISON, Wis. — A popular University of Wisconsin-Madison dorm has dropped its women-only rule and gone co-ed for the first time in its 66-year history.

Many students seemed to be dreading the new essay, but some SAT takers this year say it wasn’t so bad.

Are today’s kids getting dumber? The short answer: no. But a seven-point drop in SAT scores this year, the biggest in 31 years, has raised that and other questions about what, if anything, the scores say about the latest batch of high school graduates.

After fire killed Georgetown University senior Daniel Rigby in a basement furnace room that he rented as a bedroom, Washington, D.C., inspectors found 10 safety code violations in the row house.Their citations ranged from too much junk to blocked exits. Such safety problems are common in fires that kill college students.

College and government officials are turning their attention to fire safety.

University of Dayton senior and football player Austin Cohen had been drinking. But he stopped and went to bed early one December night six years ago. The next day was important: His older brother Dustin, then a linebacker for the St. Louis Rams, was to play in a televised NFL game. One of his housemates, a close friend, was trying to impress some girls by setting paper towels on fire on the stairs leading to the upper floors.What was meant as a prank quickly became a full-blown fire.

It is two weeks before classes begin at UW-Madison and I’m nowhere near campus. I’m sitting in the living room of my parents’ new house in Pensacola, Fla., decompressing from a summer spent working in “the real world.” In the meantime, I’ve been given a story assignment that involves imparting wisdom to a group of college freshmen who are only two or three years my junior.

Madison, Wis. – Three years ago, entrepreneurs Nathan Lustig and John Tucker were still in high school, blissfully unconcerned with the oft-criticized textbook exchange at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

MADISON, Wis. — A trio of University of Wisconsin-Madison students said they will try to enlist in the military and not hide the fact they are openly gay.

Derek House and two others said they want to serve their country but want to challenge the 13-year-old Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

Bartenders and pizza makers aren’t the only ones eager to separate students from their money as Madison colleges and universities resume classes for the fall semester.

(MADISON) Madison Police say campus safety measures will be even more crucial this year. Public information officer Mike Hanson says the string of assaults in the downtown Madison area does raise safety concerns with thousands of UW-Madison freshmen moving in next week. He says Madison Police will be involved with educating these freshmen, as well as students in general, about how to keep themselves safe.

The man who followed a UW student , through a propped open door, into her Langdon Street apartment building early Wednesday morning did not rob her. Madison Police say they believe his intent was sexual assault. The victim screamed, fought and got away, but not before he punched her 8-10 times in the face.

Mike Zakarian is president of the student government at Emmanuel College and co-captain of the baseball team. He hopes to go to graduate school in education. But he’s also a whiz at online poker. He’s so good that, at age 21, he won $12,000 and a seat at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, where last month he took home $15,500 more.

With the controversy that led up to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of over-the-counter sales of Plan B to adult women, it’s no surprise that Thursday’s decision prompted a mixed reaction from those in Wisconsin.

After a series of violent attacks and robberies on Madison streets over the summer, students starting a new semester at U-W Madison are being urged to take the issue of personal safety more seriously than ever.

27 News has learned Madison police officials are expected to release a composite sketch of a suspect in the vicious beating of a UW-Madison student in her Langdon Street apartment building.

Authorities have described the suspect as Caucasian, about 30, 6’2”, thinly built with shoulder length hair.