Category: Campus life

Current and former UW-Madison students say they’re sad to see a pedestrian bridge on campus torn down.

There is no subway system where these kids are going. And it’ll be white: Snowstorm white. Dairy farm white. White white. But Kenneth Jackson, a new high school graduate from the Washington area, isn’t too worried about trading in his urban life for a dorm at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in a few short weeks. He knows he can handle it. After all, his posse is coming along.

The bridge over University Avenue between the George L. Mosse Humanities Building and Vilas Hall is scheduled to be demolished next week. The demolition will start Monday and continue throughout the week, according to a news release.

A university engineering study in 2013 revealed numerous structural problems with the four-decade-old bridge. In some places, concrete had fallen off, exposing steel reinforcing bars. Officials concluded it was time to either replace the bridge, which would cost about $1.5 million, or demolish it, which would cost about $180,000, director of campus Gary Brown said.

A Tuesday news release from UW News stressed the installation a few years ago of a traffic signal at East Campus Mall a block away has reduced bridge use.But Gary Brown, director of campus planning, added that deterioration of the bridge built in 1971 has led to repeated repairs in the past few years and an engineering report last year recommended its removal or replacement, Brown said.

A new report has the University of Wisconsin-Madison ranked as the third biggest party school in the country.

Noted: Rounding out the top five party schools are, in order: The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and last years No. 1, Syracuse University in New York.

University of Illinois, University of Iowa and the University of Wisconsin-Madison were ranked 1-2-3, followed by Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and last year’s No. 1, Syracuse University in New York.

A look back at protests on campus in the 1960s.

The Catholic student center at UW-Madison has slightly downsized its proposed new building, dropping the number of stories from six to five. The revision is a further cut from the initial 14-story proposal.

Babcock Hall is well-known as a mecca for ice cream and cheese making, but it’s also where candy makers from across the nation and even the world come for two weeks each summer for an intensive, hands-on education in the science of commercial candy making. The course that started last week include students who traveled from Germany, Chile, Mexico and Canada.

This week Adele C. Brumfield celebrated her 5th year anniversary as Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Recruitment at UW-Madison.

Nearly 600 bikes, or at least their frames, that were seized in March as having possibly been stolen remain in the hands of UW-Madison police after they were able to identify only a few as having been stolen.

The executive committee for the UW-Madison Faculty Senate Monday tried to put to rest rumors that it was going to seek to have a professor fired over controversial tweets about Gov. Scott Walker and the worth of a UW degree after legislative Republican laws weakened faculty influence.

The UW-Madison faculty governing group has admonished a controversial UW professor who has taken to Twitter, vociferously speaking out against the effects Gov. Scott Walker’s administration is having on the university.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, and affordable college advocate, is now taking heat after a series of tweets she sent to incoming freshmen about changes to the System under the new state budget.

It started off like a fairly typical campus political spat: liberal professor criticizes conservative politician; conservative campus group criticizes liberal professor, who in turn criticizes the conservative group. Much of the criticism on both sides is through social media. And, as has been the case in several recent campus controversies, the professor is a sociologist and one who has never been accused of holding back on her views.

An outspoken University of Wisconsin-Madison professor is under fire for finding future Badgers on Twitter and allegedly harassing them — as well as for comparing Scott Walker to Adolf Hitler.

Matthew Court was killed while biking to daily swim team practice. His father, Ricardo Court, is director of undergraduate studies for the political science department at UW-Madison. His wife and Matthew’s mother, Kristin Phillips-Court, is an associate professor of French and Italian at the university.

Madison Police are investigating an attempted sexual assault on a bike path near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, according to a crime warning posted on the campus police department’s Facebook page.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Haley Denise Laundrie did not capture the Miss USA title Sunday evening, but she was proud to announce Lake Mills as her beloved hometown during the traditional parade of states while appearing on national television.

Jefferson County’s only Miss Wisconsin-USA winner, Haley Denise Laundrie did not capture the Miss USA title Sunday evening, but she was proud to announce Lake Mills as her beloved hometown during the traditional parade of states and appear on national television.

BATON ROUGE, La. — The eyes of Lake Mills — and the rest of Jefferson County for that matter — will be on Haley Denise Laundrie this Sunday evening as she competes for the 2015 Miss USA crown — and the chance to compete in the Miss Universe pageant.

The reigning Miss Wisconsin-USA 2015, Haley Denise Laundrie will compete in the 2015 Miss USA pageant Sunday.

The UW-Madison Police Department is investigating a theft incident involving stolen chairs from the Memorial Union Terrace.

This week, the UWPD was notified that 16 chairs disappeared sometime between June 11 and June 13, according to a release from the UWPD. Each chair is worth approximately $250, making the total loss $4,000.

University of Wisconsin police said someone took 16 of the iconic chairs from Memorial Union Terrace. UW police said the chairs were taken between June 11 and June 13. Each chair is worth $250, making for total loss of $4,000.

Sixteen of the yellow, orange and green metal chairs were stolen over a three-day period last month. Thefts of Terrace chairs are nothing new, but police called attention Wednesday to the chairs that were taken between June 11 and 13, saying the total value of the stolen seats was about $4,000.

UW-Madison police are still searching for the man they say made a fake emergency call on the 4th of July and reported an armed man inside the Helen C. White Library on campus.

They say it may be part of a national problem, “swatting.” The FBI defines “swatting” as, “making a hoax call to 911 to draw a response from law enforcement, usually a SWAT team.”

UW-Madison police are treating as a hoax a threat called in to the Dane County 911 center Saturday night that caused the evacuation of a campus library and the cancellation of a July 4 UW Band concert on the Memorial Union Terrace.

University of Wisconsin-Madison police gave the all clear around Memorial Union and the Helen C. White building Saturday night after investigators say they could not find an armed suspect in the area.

Parts of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus were evacuated Saturday night after reports of a possible gunman at the Helen C. White library. But after a 3 1/2-hour search, no one with a weapon was located and activities resumed as normal.

Campus Police Lt. Aaron Chapin said buildings in the area were emptied including a popular Memorial Union terrace where students and others were sitting outside waiting for a University of Wisconsin band concert, which was cancelled as a result. After a methodical search throughout the building, no one was found and police let activity continue in the area at 10:30 p.m.

Madison Police were looking for a man who allegedly entered a UW-Madison student’s apartment early Sunday morning and attempted to sexually assault her.

Sweeney spent the bulk of his UW career — nearly 18 years — in the athletic department, developing communications, branding and fundraising programs, university spokesman John Lucas said.

Sweeney, 64, said his new consulting firm, Sweeney & Associates LLC, will provide strategic communications counsel and other public relations services to executives and others in leadership positions.

Madison attorney and recently retired U.W. Law School Professor Ralph Cagle marched into office as the State Bar of Wisconsin’s 60th president last night in the presence of friends, family, colleagues, and former State Bar presidents.

Noted: For Madison, though, the flamingo became an iconic symbol of the city in 1978, when UW-Madison students planted 1,008 of the birds on Bascom Hill to greet students on the first day of classes. The prank was the handiwork of the Pail & Shovel Party, which had won re-election to head the Wisconsin Students Association. The pranksters included Jim Mallon, who later went on to be one of the creators of the cult television hit “Mystery Science Theater 3000.”

Ab and Nancy Nicholas pledged $50 million to the foundation for undergraduate and athletic scholarships and graduate fellowships for University of Wisconsin at Madison students. The university will have to match the donation from other donors to receive the money.

Interview with Lattis,manager and outreach specialist for the Washburn Observatory, as well as co-founder of the UW Space Place, about the Washburn Observatory closure and the public’s interest in astronomy. Te observatory closed unexpectedly in May 2014, when the National Register of Historic Places site encountered some unforeseen structural problems.

The designation has various benefits, including qualifying for grants and for rehabilitation income tax credits.

Story detailing some of the ideas submitted to the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration’s site suggesting cost savings and efficiencies.

Grant County’s district attorney may be asked to lodge criminal charges in a UW Police bike theft ring case, after Dane County’s district attorney declined to take action.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison recently announced a $50 million gift from alumni couple Albert and Nancy Nicholas to support scholarships and fellowships at the school. The gift is actually a challenge gift, and will be used to “match, on a one-to-one basis, gifts that support undergraduate and athletic scholarships and graduate fellowships”

For nearly 50 years, Mary Rouse has been employed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, first in the admissions office, then in the Dean of Students, which she led from 1987-2000, and then as director of the Morgridge Center for Public Service. She has worked for the past 10 years as a community liaison with the center.