A library, an education room and a resident scholar in a fraternity house? Welcome to the 21st century, Sigma Phi Epsilon. The fraternity?s new $2.2 million house at 237 Langdon Street will be dedicated on Friday from 6-8 p.m. for UW-Madison and city officials, as well as fraternity members and alumni. A tailgate party is also planned at the house for alumni on Saturday from 1-6 p.m.
The president of the Wisconsin Technical College System sent a letter Wednesday to the Government Accountability Board formally requesting that the body which oversees elections in the state reconsider its Sept. 12 decision to not allow technical college student ID cards to be used for voting purposes. Dan Clancy writes that the “plain language of the statute clearly includes technical college student IDs as an acceptable form of identification for voting purposes.”
Police in Dane County will be able to drop off drunken people at a county-funded detox center next year, but fewer beds will be available for those who only want to dry out for 24 hours and then go back on the street without entering a treatment program. The county is shifting resources toward effective long-term treatment for those who want and need it, County Executive Joe Parisi said Wednesday. The county is negotiating with Tellurian for more beds without intensive medical care on weekends, when partying UW-Madison students swell the numbers of incapacitated people picked up by police.
Eventually, as minority groups increase in numbers and race becomes harder to define, affirmative action should go away. But not yet. In the global economy, every student at UW-Madison benefits from a more diverse population on campus. Including race as one small factor among many is still justified.
Experts are comparing Saturday?s football game against the Nebraska Huskers to last year?s Ohio State game, causing ticket prices to skyrocket well past their base values and forcing University of Wisconsin Police Department officials to put students on high guard for scalping violations and fraudulent tickets.
CRANMOOR — Gong Ruina, a graduate student at Beijing Sport University and world-champion badminton player, said harvesting cranberries is more difficult than it looks.
“It?s fun to do once, but it?s hard to imagine people doing it all the time,” said Gong, who spoke with a Daily Tribune reporter with the help of an interpreter. Gong was one of about a dozen participants of the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Chinese Champions Program who visited Elm Lake Cranberry Co., 5865 Elm Lake Lane, on Tuesday to learn about the cranberry industry and its growing importance in a global market.
Dear Editor: UW-Madison?s position on admissions is disingenuous. Preference given to any ethnic group is racism; indeed, it is the very definition of racism. The university divides students up along racial lines, and then has the audacity to portray as racist the attempt by an outside body to call attention to the plain truth of the university?s own biased stance.
ESPN?s College Gameday announced Monday it will broadcast from Bascom Hill when it visits UW-Madison for the Badgers? Big Ten opener against Nebraska Saturday.
With the finalized lineup for the city?s Freakfest 2011 now public, students and Madison residents alike will likely find reason to kick their brainstorming of costume ideas into high gear.
Enrollment at University of Wisconsin Colleges increased for the seventh straight year this September, according to a statement from UW Colleges.
University of Wisconsin student government members heard presentations Monday night on a number of controversial changes occurring in Madison, including the new state Voter ID bill, the Mifflin Street Block Party and a state Senate bill removing municipal limits on landlord conduct.
The Chronicle of Higher Education released its annual Diversity in Academe special section over the weekend. I point this out to readers because the issue of diversity and “holistic admissions” practices are hot-button topics on the UW-Madison campus these days. Although much of what is posted online by The Chronicle in this special section is available only to those who subscribe, there are some interesting free articles/commentaries anyone can take a look at.
Some are raising questions about a ruling earlier this month on the use of student IDs to vote as the state prepares to implement a new law that will require photo identification at the polls. The Government Accountability Board, which oversees elections in Wisconsin, clarified at a meeting that University of Wisconsin System IDs could be used for voting – if they include all the required information – but technical college IDs could not. Technical college officials are formally requesting that the board reconsider its decision at its Nov. 9 meeting. Also noted: A UW-Madison emeritus professor who wrote about a new species of sunflower in the journal Brittonia earlier this month, a bike valet for fans who bike to the Badgers game on Saturday, and a $2 million in U.S. Department of Energy funding for UW-Madison to pay for new projects and upgrade its facilities.
In the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, Feb. 20, 2000, campus police entered Chancellor David Ward?s office at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, ordered a group of students within to get on their knees and put them in handcuffs. These students were part of a group of over 150 who had been occupying Bascom Hall for the previous four days. During that time, the students had put up banners, issued press releases and held rallies, all the while braving not only academic consequences, but also physical assault and pepper spray. Their demand was simple: They wanted a meeting with the president of their university.
When Tumal M. Karunaratne was trying to decide which college in the United States or Britain to attend, the University of Cincinnati stood out. The 20-year-old undergraduate from Colombo, Sri Lanka, was excited about its engineering and cooperative-education programs. And Cincinnati offered him $12,000 a year in scholarship money designated for international undergraduates.
Covering cultural trends has long been among the jobs of news sources. So it is my duty to report on a startling finding. Several professorial-type sources tell me that many of today?s students in higher education cannot read cursive writing. This one is likely to get the ?three R?s? crowd?s undies in a bundle, but it is apparently true. I can just hear some of the current presidential candidates screeching about the end of civilization.
The true test of a viable admissions plan for UW-Madison is how many of the admitted students graduate.
When Allie Gardner was considering where to go to college, about the only thing the Sun Prairie native knew for certain was she wanted to leave the area.
“I really had no intention of coming to UW-Madison,” says Gardner. In the end, however, the 2009 graduate of Edgewood High School realized she couldn?t afford to pay out-of-state or private college tuition, and Madison was the only UW System campus she had applied to.
A new business designed to help college students track and share social events on and around campus has launched at seven campuses in Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin this year and plans are to expand to as many as 300 schools. Fampus, the creation of Brittany Brody, a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior, combines campus and community calendars with social networking tools. The name comes from the company?s motto: find fun fast on campus. The website service is operational for students there and at a half dozen other campuses including Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
A new business designed to help college students track and share social events on and around campus has launched at seven campuses in Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin this year and plans are to expand to as many as 300 schools.
As students scan the classroom for an empty seat, one person tends to stick out. Usually quietly seated in the back row, this person, who could pass as many of the students? grandparent, eagerly awaits to learn from UW-Madison professors free of charge.
UW-Madison students will have a chance to express their opinions this fall on a controversial project to expand the Union Theater in an advisory referendum. The vote will not necessarily affect the project. Associated Students of Madison, UW-Madison?s student government, voted Wednesday night to put a question on the ballot for an election that will be held Oct. 17 through Oct. 19.
Roger Clegg, president of the right-wing Center for Equal Opportunity, stood up at a downtown hotel last week to give a press conference on Affirmative Action in admissions policies at the UW-Madison. He jabbed a finger into a debate that has been festering not just on campus, but nationwide.
Bucky, it seems, has found himself in the middle of an old controversy made anew. Last week, the Virginia-based Center for Equal Opportunity released two studies showing that in 2007 and 2008 the University of Wisconsin-Madison engaged in “severe discrimination” based on race and ethnicity. African American and Latino students, the report alleges, received preferential treatment over whites and Asians in undergraduate and law school admissions processes.
On Tuesday, September 13, a mob of University of Wisconsin students overpowered the staff and swarmed into a room at the Madison Doubletree Hotel where Roger Clegg, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, was giving a press conference on the release of two new reports from his organization.
Despite concerns that it could hurt the long-term viability of a neighboring church, a student apartment building has been approved for the site of UW-Madison?s Episcopal student center. On a 15-4 vote, the City Council early Wednesday approved the project at St. Francis House Episcopal Student Center, 1001 University Ave.
Bradley Residence Hall was evacuated Wednesday morning because of a damaged underground gas line at a nearby construction site.
City officials refocused Wednesday an ordinance meant to curb large house parties to more specifically address the problem of underage drinking in downtown Madison.
Dear Editor: The recent Capital Times editorial ?UW doesn?t need diversity advice from cradle of the Confederacy,? is a wonderful piece of ?Na-na-na-na-boo-boo? finger-wagging, but it does little to address the real weaknesses of the Center for Equal Opportunity?s reports of racism in UW-Madison?s admissions policy. The most obvious flaw in the CEO?s report is that the percentage of the pool of black students who apply to UW-Madison who are then accepted is significantly higher than the percentage from the pool of white students. Presumably, a great many more white students apply to UW-Madison than black students, making the CEO?s statistic not particularly helpful.
Dear Editor: After all of the controversy in the past week generated by the Center for Equal Opportunity study claiming bias in admissions to UW, I had hoped that there would be a move toward thoughtful discussion, heralded by Chancellor David Ward?s statement last week. But apparently professor Marshall Onellion wants to fan the flames. In his email to the Cap Times, he refers to the student protesters as ?thugs,? a charged term these days in Madison.
On Tuesday I posted a strongly worded letter from UW-Madison physics professor Marshall Onellion. He is no fan of the university?s “holistic” admissions policy or UW-Madison?s response to a report by a conservative think tank which purports to show whites and Asians aren?t getting a fair crack at being admitted to Wisconsin?s flagship institution of higher education.
In that letter, Onellion is not only highly critical of UW-Madison interim Chancellor David Ward, but he also singles out a student — referring to her as a “thug” and ripping comments she made to the Wisconsin State Journal about the Center for Equal Opportunity?s (CEO) findings. That student, Mia McKinney, a senior from Racine, emailed me a letter of her own Tuesday night.
A dormitory at UW-Madison was evacuated Wednesday morning after a gas line was damaged at the construction site adjacent to the UW Natatorium. Students living in Bradley Residence Hall were evacuated from the building shortly after 11 a.m. while crews from Madison Gas and Electric repaired the leak. The portion of Elm Drive between Observatory Drive and the lakeshore path was also shut down.
Last week, the University of Wisconsin paid almost $500,000 to the Alliance Defense Fund for violating the First Amendment rights of Badger Catholic, the Catholic student organization on campus. ADF has litigated a number of cases against the University of Wisconsin over the years challenging the unconstitutional abuses inflicted on students and student groups by its mandatory student fee system.
In her fifth year in the University of Wisconsin Marching Band, it?s fair to say Sun Prairie native and newly named drum major Sarah Edlund?s passion for music has only gotten stronger.
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In her fifth year in the University of Wisconsin Marching Band, it?s fair to say Sun Prairie native and newly named drum major Sarah Edlund?s passion for music has only gotten stronger.
“My two older brothers went through the band program in Sun Prairie and the oldest one is eight years older than me, so since I was 6 or 7, I?ve been going to band concerts and then when I was old enough I got to do it myself. It?s been a big part of my life since I was very young,” Edlund said. Edlund beat out four other band members for the title of drum major. The competition took place in mid-August.
In response to the recent controversy surrounding the Memorial Union Reinvestment project, members of the project committee announced changes to the facility will increase efficiency and functionality while retaining the building?s historical charm.
After hours of public testimony and deliberation, Madison?s Common Council approved the construction of a new apartment complex on the corner of Brooks Street and University Avenue early Wednesday morning.
After a lengthy debate that stretched into the early morning hours today, the Madison City Council approved the construction of a high-rise apartment building at University Avenue and Brooks Street.
Another year. Another enrollment increase at the University of Wisconsin Colleges.
A different picture of last week?s student protest over UW admissions discrimination emerged from my vantage point inside the Doubletree Hotel press conference room compared to that of the author of Monday?s letter “Student protesters wrongly called a ?mob?.”
After nearly five years of lawsuits, UW-Madison will pay approximately $500,000 in taxpayers? money to Badger Catholic, after denying the group funding for religious practices including prayer and worship practices in 2007.
The University of Wisconsin Law School?s Innocence Project is expanding its resources in examining cases for individuals who may have been wrongly convicted after receiving grants from the United States Department of Justice totaling more than $1 million.
A highly contested proposal for a student high-rise on University Avenue got approval from a city commission Monday night, after nearly two hours of public forum from two rivaling campus ministry communities.
Madison police are investigating a reported sexual assault on State Street early in the morning of Sept. 11. The incident is the fourth reported sexual assault on women in the UW-Madison/downtown area since July 1, although police have made no statements tying the incidents together.
(This story first appeared in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper.)
“Come on Madison, we can do better than this!” That?s Kaleem Caire. He said it not recently, but in 1998 in an op-ed questioning why his hometown wasn?t paying more attention to the poor educational outcomes and high incarceration rates of black males. “I?m asking Madison to be your best self and get this done!”
That’s also Caire, in an interview this week about his proposal for a publicly funded charter school designed to improve educational outcomes of low-income minority students.
The rate of student alcohol abuse has remained unchanged for 30 years: Nearly 40 percent of 2010 U.S. college students engage in high-risk alcohol consumption. That means, unfortunately, that binge drinking is as widespread among today?s freshmen as it was for their parents? generation and potentially just as lethal. Each year, almost 2,000 U.S. college students die from alcohol-related causes. An estimated 600,000 others are injured while under the influence.
(Jim Yong Kim is president of Dartmouth College.)
Not everyone on the UW-Madison campus is a fan of the university?s “holistic” admissions policy. That?s the gist of a strongly worded email I received over the weekend from UW-Madison physics professor Marshall Onellion.
UW-Madison will pay nearly $500,000 in legal fees to Badger Catholic after the university lost a court battle with the student group. In September 2010, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the university violated the First Amendment by refusing to fund activities of Badger Catholic involving prayer, worship and proselytizing. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the university?s appeal this spring, ending UW-Madison?s appeal process.
Political cartoonists often exaggerate in their cartoons to make a point. I didn?t in this cartoon and that really reinforces the point. There are 35 figures in this cartoon and one of them, or about three percent, is African American. That is the exact percentage of African American students at UW-Madison.
In honor of slain UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann, parents Kevin and Jean Zimmermann helped host a second annual 5k run and walk Saturday morning to memorialize their daughter and show hope for the ongoing investigation of her murder.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano introduced a new website to a packed UW-Madison auditorium Friday, designed to ease the process some foreign students experience when trying to study in the United States.
The University of Wisconsin?s Morgridge Center for Public Service, the campus? landmark for civic discourse and community work, is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a series of special events and discussions.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano unveiled a new website and initiative aiming to help international students study in the U.S. Friday afternoon during a campus appearance at Union South.
On a bright September morning, Kevin and Jean Zimmermann stood at the finish line of the race named in honor of their daughter, high-fiving the runners and walkers who filtered through the final stretch in front of the Memorial Union.
Every so often, a group calls out the University of Wisconsin-Madison for having an admissions policy that takes into account factors other than academics ? such as race.
Is there discrimination in the land of cheese? Yes, said an advocacy group based in Falls Church, Va., that seeks to promote a ?colorblind society.?
Conversation and coffee at Union South is an opportunity for international students to take a break from their sometimes rigorous course work.
The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security made a stop in Madison Friday to unveil a new program aimed at making it easier for international students to come to America. Speaking on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano says the nation has a strong interest in attracting academics from around the world because of the economic, educational, and cultural benefits they have to offer.
The campus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison erupted this week after the release of two studies documenting the heavy use of race in deciding which students to admit to the undergraduate and law schools.
MADISON, Wis. ? Black and Hispanic applicants were more likely to be accepted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison even though they had lower average test scores than White and Asian applicants, according to an analysis by a conservative group.
