Category: Campus life

The University of Wisconsin Law School launched a new free legal clinic for veterans Thursday.

Life after war leads many veterans to college. The number of student-veterans served by the University of Wisconsin System has increased over 200% since the Wisconsin GI Bill was enacted in 2005. But the more than 5,000 veterans now on UW campuses still account for less than 3% of the total student population, according to UW officials.

The  Board of Regents heard from experts on various important issues including the skills gap and student veterans in a meeting Thursday afternoon.

Starting Monday, Madison Metro will begin to enforce an existing policy in effort to address the growing issue of bus pass fraud within the city.

When UW-Madison students arrive on campus, they are greeted with a wide array of resources to make their time at the university as productive and comfortable as possible. Arguably, some of the most helpful yet underutilized of these resources are the Madison city alders. When this editorial board met with alder Scott Resnick recently, we were welcomed with a wealth of knowledge about the inner workings of the city. Resnick exemplifies many characteristics that foster a productive relationship between the city and its constituents. Students and the city alike would benefit from more involvement from individuals with Resnick?s dedication and initiative in city politics.

Turns out there is a limit to unlimited free bus rides.

Metro Transit bus drivers will begin next week checking identification of riders using unlimited ride passes. Without the ID that connects the user with the pass, the pass will be confiscated and deactivated.

Beginning Monday, students using their unlimited-rides bus pass will have to show their WisCards to bus drivers when boarding Metro Transit vehicles that require the swipe of a pass to board. Madison Metro Transit announced in a press release Wednesday an initiative to enforce the rule already codified on the back of the Associated Students of Madison bus pass students receive, saying fraudulent use of the passes could threaten future pass programs.

Despite concerns young voters would not turn out in big numbers to re-elect Barack Obama as president Tuesday, early statistics suggest the youth voter turnout nationally mirrors the huge numbers from 2008. However, the numbers this time around suggest Obama received a significantly lower proportion of these votes. Forty-nine percent of voters in the 18-29 age group showed up to vote in Tuesday?s presidential election, compared to 51 percent in 2008, according to statistics released Wednesday from Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, a nonpartisan, independent, academic research center that studies young people in politics.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will meet to discuss how to provide better services to student veterans.

Dodging the first snowflakes of the season, many first-time voters turned out at Gordon Commons on the UW-Madison campus Tuesday to cast their ballots. The question of how they came to such an important decision for the first time yielded a variety of answers and, surprisingly, not one of them included campaign ads as a means of persuasion.

Registration measures and few reported problems helped move voting along smoothly on an Election Day that drew crowds of students whose votes largely reflected the end results of the election.

The State-Langdon Neighborhood Association gathered in a meeting Monday night to provide input on a controversial apartment proposal.

Thousands of Wisconsinites from Madison and surrounding areas packed Martin Luther King Blvd. Monday morning as early as 5:30 a.m. when doors opened to the Obama and Springsteen rally. But the large crowd is made up of mostly families, both young and old, with children ranging from infancy to high school seniors. There is a low turnout of University of Wisconsin-Madison students. UW-Madison Pharmacy student Renee Liebe said she skipped class to come to the rally, because she missed Obama?s Oct. 4 rally on Bascom Hil.

The Madison Police Department arrested a suspect in connection to an apartment burglary Friday morning.

Children as young as 9 are learning how to program in a computer class at the Madison Children?s Museum. The class, which was designed for students ages nine to 13, uses the Scratch software developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. Through the software program, children can create their own interactive stories, games, music and animation. Three UW-Madison students have been working with the dozen younger students in the class as part of a service-learning course.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School will launch a new Veterans Law Center Thursday to provide legal assistance to veterans in the Madison area. The law center is funded by a $5,000 Pro Bono Initiative Grant from the State Bar Legal Assistance committee. The center was created by a partnership between the UW-Madison Law School?s Pro Bono Program, the Dane County Bar Association, Porchlight, Inc. and William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital representatives.

A University of Wisconsin student suffered several facial fractures after being attacked on Langdon Street early Thursday morning.

A neighborhood meeting Thursday welcomed student resident participation and introduced proposals for two development projects.

At about 2 a.m. Thursday, a 20-year-old man was knocked unconscious after yelling at a passing car alleged to be driving recklessly.

One man was beaten to unconsciousness and another man suffered cuts to his face and hands after others broke windows at a campus-area house party near Camp Randall Stadium, Madison police said.

The University of Wisconsin Police Department worked in association with Safe Communities last night to stop bicyclists without bicycle lights in an effort to promote campus safety.

With tuition costs rising at the University of Wisconsin for the sixth consecutive year in 2012, the Associated Students of Madison Legislative Affairs Committee reviewed the impact the state and federal budgets will have on students, urging the campus community to get involved in the budget process at a meeting Monday.

Noted: The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a similar system to move students out early. David Swiderski, spokesman for the university?s housing department, said the school always moves students out of expanded housing by November. The university has an agreement to lease spaces from Madison?s agriculture department until classes start that month, he said.

University of Wisconsin Dean of Students Lori Berquam has confirmed the death of a UW student in Smith Hall Monday.

Over the next two weeks, Julia Boms has to take two midterms and the Graduate Record Examination. But what distracts the University of Wisconsin-Madison senior from studying is not the average internet browsing or chatting, but Hurricane Sandy, a tropical storm headed toward her family at home on Long Island, New York. Students at UW-Madison, many of whom come from the East Coast, are worried about Sandy, which hit land along the coast of southern New Jersey around 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison student died from cardiac arrest in Smith Residence Hall early Monday evening, according to Dean of Students Lori Berquam. UW-Madison Police Department Lt. Mark Silbernagel said the death is considered ?an open investigation? and more details, including the student?s name, will be released after further investigation.

Tammy Baldwin and two cast members from the television show ?Glee? spoke yesterday evening at the Red Gym to promote early voting.

A group of University of Wisconsin students launched a new search engine to simplify the search for off-campus housing earlier this month.

More than 30,000 people celebrated Madison?s twelfth Freakfest Saturday night with the amount of police citations and arrests dipping to a record low.