Category: Campus life

For the past six months, the Associated Students of Madison?s 18th session has received a constant barrage of criticism from all sides pertaining to the organization?s general internal ineffectiveness. Any member of ASM knows and understands that the concerns for the organization put out by the media and general campus avenues are valid, at least to some extent. General student body members who are versed in the history of ASM also know that these concerns are not unique to this session. So how do we mitigate these issues, and stop them from reoccurring in future sessions?

UW-Madison will test its emergency notification system between 12 p.m and 2 p.m. Wednesday (today) as part of a National Emergency Alert System Test. The trial will test many of WiscAlert?s newer systems, including text messaging, e-mail and voice lines, along with social media sites. Students and staff do not need to respond to the message, which will read, “WiscAlert: This is a test of the WiscAlert system. In a real emergency, more info would be posted at wisc.edu.”

UW-Madison?s largest food drive, The Red and White Hunger Fight, is underway. More than 70 campus organizations will help collect food. Students began placing grocery bags and flyers on porches in campus neighborhoods this week and will return on Nov. 13 to collect bags of food.

Many attendees at a Memorial Union open forum Monday were happy to see compromise and clarity as members of the Memorial Union Design Committee introduced updated renovation plans. Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities, planning and management, introduced an alternative proposal for the union theater addition after a slight majority of students recently voted against the original proposal in an Associated Students of Madison referendum.

The Student Service Finance Committee decided Monday to delay the ruling on the Multicultural Student Coalition?s appeal for funding eligibility until next week. After SSFC ruled MCSC did not spend more than 50 percent of its time directly serving students and was thus ineligible for funding, MCSC appealed the ruling last Thursday. MCSC members said SSFC did not have a standardized process for determining what constitutes a ?direct service.?

(This story first appeared in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal)

Just a few hours after comedian Mike Vecchione finished his set on a recent Saturday night at The Comedy Club on State, the space was turned over to a rental customer. Bibles replaced beer. The jokes largely disappeared. This is where Madison Alliance Church holds Sunday services. The new church is one of several religious startups ? called “church plants” ? trying to gain a following in the area. They pop up in storefronts and rental buildings, their leaders sometimes working second jobs until their religious ventures establish themselves.

….The church has done no paid advertising. Stewart and Rhodes handed out about 1,000 flyers at the freshman convocation at UW-Madison. Stewart said he loves the people the church is attracting, but to be successful the church will need to broaden its appeal.

“That’s our biggest challenge,” he said. “Financially, we cannot exist as a church with only college students and the homeless. We will need to be very intentional about reaching out to all demographics.”

Like many US universities, it has long been a goal of the University of Wisconsin-Madison to engage our alumni in a culture of philanthropy to support their alma mater. And we have another goal ? of increasing private gifts raised to support need-based scholarships to help make Wisconsin?s flagship university accessible to academically qualified students, regardless of their family income.

College seniors who graduated from UW-Madison with debt in 2010 now owe an average $22,872 in student loans, a new study reports. The study, released Thursday by the Project on Student Debt, ranks Wisconsin 15th in the nation for highest debt. The $22,872 price tag puts UW-Madison slightly below the national average.

Representatives from student organizations across campus attended a rally Thursday planned by the Multicultural Student Coalition to protest the Student Services Finance Committee decision to deny the group?s funding. As MCSC played music from loudspeakers in East Campus Mall, the group?s Executive Staff Member Nneka Akubeze said she was pleased with the variety of student representatives supporting them.

The Multicultural Student Coalition appealed the student government finance committee?s decision to deny them funding eligibility Thursday. The Student Services Finance Committee denied MCSC eligibility for funding because the committee said a majority of the group?s time was not spent directly serving students, failing to meet eligibility requirements. The group appealed SSFC?s ruling, saying the committee violated procedures in reaching the

When an apartment fire broke out on the 2600 block of Pheasant Ridge Trail Sunday night, second-year law student Rocco DeFilippis came to the rescue, UW news reported Wednesday. Fire officials said the apartment?s resident was asleep while the stove was on just before 6 p.m. Hearing there were children in the apartment, DeFilippis acted to ensure no one was hurt.

After being selected by the Nominations Board, two chairs of student council who had been removed from their seats resumed their positions Wednesday. Nominations Board Chair Niko Magallon and Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Beth Huang were removed from their positions in September after the Student Judiciary ruled they failed to complete required service hours on time.

MILWAUKEE – Wisconsin college students, tuition money, and sex? The I-Team goes undercover and takes a close look at a controversial website designed to hook men and women up with “sugar babies”, all for a price. The website?s CEO says – the University of Wisconsin ranks 3rd with the most “sugar babies” signed up on the site! But the question remains – is it just a clever way to promote prostitution?

The Memorial Union Reinvestment Project Design Committee met Tuesday to discuss changes to the proposed renovations in wake of the recent Associated Students of Madison referendum and budget cuts facing the university.

Following a recent student vote against a proposed redesign project of the student theater lounge addition to the Memorial Union, members of the Memorial Union Reinvestment Design Committee considered their next steps in moving the project forward at a meeting Tuesday night.

The Memorial Union Reinvestment Project Design Committee met Tuesday to discuss changes to the proposed renovations in wake of the recent Associated Students of Madison referendum and budget cuts facing the university. The proposed addition to the Play Circle lobby, one of the project?s major components and the source of recent controversy, was recently rejected by student voters, with 50.24 percent of voters saying they did not support the addition?s design.

The Student Service Finance Committee approved a budget of nearly $150,000 for the Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group (WISPIRG) Monday.

Members of a student government committee voted almost unanimously to pass the budget of an advocacy-based student organization, though with several caveats, at a meeting Monday.

City of Madison officials are redoubling their efforts to recruit Madison residents to fill numerous vacancies on a diverse pool of city committees, including targeting students to lend their perspective to city politics.

Saturday?s Freakfest was a success from a safety and security standpoint, but this year?s paid attendance was one of the lowest in recent years.

Freakfest, the city-sanctioned Halloween celebration in downtown Madison, came and went on Saturday night with fewer arrests than in years past.

The notoriously rowdy Halloween weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be the biggest test so far of the campus? new alcohol sanctions.