Category: Campus life

Two reports released today allege the University of Wisconsin discriminates against whites and Asian applicants and have electrified both UW administration and some student leaders.

After Madison Mayor Paul Soglin expressed a desire to end the Mifflin Street Block Party for 2012,  members of the University of Wisconsin student government are looking to work with the mayor?s office in an attempt to compromise on the polarizing issue.

UW-Madison officials organized what they called an urgent meeting Monday night with students to discuss “a threat to the school?s diversity efforts.”

The Center for Equal Opportunity, a group that opposes the consideration of race in college admissions decisions, released reports today showing what it says are large and likely illegal boosts that the University of Wisconsin at Madison gives to black and Latino applicants.

A project is underway to create a new green space, similar to the lawn of Bascom Hill, in the heart of the UW campus near the Memorial Union, by the shore of Lake Mendota.

When al-Qaida attacked the United States on Sept. 11 Stephen Lee felt numb, like the rest of America. But for him, it was not until his boots hit the dry Afghan dirt that reality set in.

Sunday commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, quietly bringing the Madison community together to remember the lives that were lost and reflect on the repercussions of that fateful day.

When Paul Soglin was busted in 1969 at the wild Mifflin Street block party, the arrest was something of a badge of honor. The city had refused to grant a permit for the gathering, which was intoxicated with left-wing politics, among other things. Mr. Soglin was happy to defy the ban.

University of Wisconsin-Madison administrators have a new initiative to keep students out of alcohol-related trouble.

University of Wisconsin-Madison officials are now requiring most students who get an alcohol-related citation to take a course on the risks of alcohol abuse.

Is it time for Neighborhood House, Madison?s oldest neighborhood center, to cash in on its valuable property and build a better community center somewhere else?

….Neighborhood House was founded in 1916 in the storied melting pot of Greenbush as part of the settlement house movement of the early 20th century that helped immigrants acclimate to America. In the decades since, the center adapted to changing needs but has struggled in recent years after urban renewal sparked a mass migration of families from much of the neighborhood and UW-Madison students replaced many others.

In what marks a major shift in the way UW-Madison handles problem drinking, officials are now requiring most students who get an underage drinking ticket or some other alcohol-related citation to take a course on the risks of alcohol abuse. Students pay $78 for two group sessions or $200 for two one-on-one sessions with a professional substance-abuse counselor. That?s in addition to the cost of the ticket ? $263.50 for a first-offense underage drinking citation, according to the UW-Madison Police Department. Previously, the university did not have a consistent approach to dealing with alcohol-related issues, said Tom Sieger, prevention director at University Health Services UHS. Students would be referred to counseling if they caught the eye of a staff member or could be kicked out of the dorms if they violated the alcohol policy, Sieger said.

UW-Madison students planning to snooze, er, study at the Memorial Library on Wednesday will have to make other plans. The Madison Fire Department will be conducting final testing of a new fire alarm system installed at the library, so it will be closed to users from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, the university said.

A member of the UW football team was arrested for battery after a fight outside the Red Gym earlier this month.

A member of the Wisconsin Badgers football team, Jake Irwin, was arrested on two counts of disorderly conduct and two counts of battery for his role in a fight outside the Red Gym on Sept. 1, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department.

MADISON, Wis. — The parents of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student killed more than three years ago are renewing their plea for help in solving the case.

Kevin and Jean Zimmermann drove down to Madison last week from their home in Marshfield, exactly 41 months to the day since their daughter, Brittany, was killed in her campus apartment.

The parents of slain UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann are renewing their plea for help in solving her 2008 murder while urging participation in a fundraising run in her name. The second annual Brittany Zimmermann 5K Run/Walk will take place Sept. 17 starting at 9 a.m. at the Memorial Union. The course will follow the scenic Howard Temin Lakeshore Path. The $20 entry fee benefits the Madison Area Crime Stoppers reward fund, which helps law enforcement agencies solve crimes by offering money for information leading to arrests.

The parents of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student killed more than three years ago are renewing their plea for help in solving the case. Brittany Zimmermann was strangled and stabbed after someone forced open a door to her apartment building in April 2008. Her mother, Jean Zimmerman, says someone knows who killed her 21-year-old daughter and she?s begging for someone to come forward with information.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison fraternity has a new home after fire burned down its chapter house three years ago.

UW-Madison police are investigating a battery that happened early Thursday outside the Red Gym, 716 Langdon St. Sgt. Aaron Chapin said that two men, both UW-Madison students, were victims of an unprovoked attack by a group of four to seven males about 12:19 a.m. Thursday.

UW-Madison Police have arrested one person for involvement in the assault of two students outside the Red Gym, 716 Langdon St., early Thursday.

If you?re wondering why the first day of class at UW-Madison is the Friday before a holiday weekend — and the day after the Badgers season opener — UW-Madison has an explanation. It?s because state statute dictates that the semester must start after Sept. 1. But faculty need to fit in a certain amount of instructional days before Christmas Eve. Instructors would not be able to fit in the full course content if class started on, say, Tuesday, Sept. 6, according to UW-Madison.

The 1928 building at 800 Langdon Street is the only student union in the country to have a vital, active member program, and many of those members packed the second-floor Tripp Commons Tuesday night along with UW-Madison students and staff to talk about an expansion scheduled to begin construction next summer.

The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity is hosting an open house and tour today of its new house, which was rebuilt on the ashes of the old building. The fraternity house, 237 Langdon Street, was destroyed in a late night fire on May 12, 2008. The Madison Fire Department has not released a cause for the blaze, said Ryan Sugden, a member of the fraternity?s alumni board.

As a student and an employee of UW-Madison, I have spent many hours on the Terrace enjoying the wonderful, unique and laid back surroundings. To replace this with glass and concrete is crazy.

Ted Crabb isn?t surprised about the outcry over a proposed addition to the Memorial Union which could affect the iconic facility?s popular lakefront Terrace.

“When we expanded the Terrace 25 years ago, there were complaints about what we were doing then,” says Crabb, the director of the Wisconsin Union from 1968 to 2001. “We?d hear how we were using too much concrete or altering someone?s favorite space on campus and turning it into something else. That?s kind of par for the course. Change is difficult.”

Sarah Omernick maybe describes it best when she says: “its insane.”

Long before 9/11, America was struck by a domestic terror attack in the name of peace. Forty-one years ago this week … at the height of the Vietnam War protests … an explosion rocked the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Peter Greenberg was a student there, and this morning he reports our Cover Story:

In honor of dorm move-in days, check out this photo album UW-Madison Archives created of “100 years of student housing at UW-Madison.” It includes photos of Leila Bascom arranging photos and decorative dishes in Chadbourne Hall in 1898. We?re guessing fine china is off the “must-bring” list for most students these days.

Citing increased violence and cost to the city, Madison police say the annual Mifflin Street block party “simply cannot continue.” The statement, made in a Madison Police Department report on the 2011 event, echoes the call Mayor Paul Soglin has made to end the annual bacchanal. The 42-year-old event occurs annually near the end of the UW-Madison school year ? with or without official sanctioning. This year?s block party in April was marred by a large, drunken crowd and violence that included two stabbings, three sexual assaults, three substantial batteries, four strong-armed robberies and numerous reports of property damage during and after the event, according to the report. Police arrested 162 people, including 37 UW-Madison students. Soglin said he wants the event to occur on its traditional date ? the first Saturday in May ? when students will be studying for final exams. Ald. Scott Resnick, who represents the student-dominated 8th District near UW-Madison, said he believes the party needs to be more “Madison-centric.” He said he would like to see less advertising of the party on social media sites to people outside of Madison.

A Madison police department reports cites binge drinking and other increasing problems as reasons to end the Mifflin Street block party.

MADISON, Wis. — The Madison Police Department is recommending the city shut down the annual Mifflin Street Block Party after recent violence and overconsumption of alcohol.

Nervous parents and their excited offspring will be swarming all over the UW-Madison campus beginning Thursday during the annual migration known as Move-In Day. By the time it?s all over next Wednesday, more than 7,000 students will unpack boxes and set up speakers in the university residence halls, according to the UW-Madison news service.

Only 18 days away from the 10th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history, Madison on Wednesday is quietly commemorating the 41st anniversary of one of its darkest days: the bombing of Sterling Hall on the UW campus. Early in the morning of Aug. 24, 1970, four anti-Vietnam War radicals ? Karleton Armstrong, his brother Dwight Armstrong, David Fine and Leo Burt ? used a van filled with almost a ton of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil to bomb Sterling Hall, killing researcher Robert Fassnacht and injuring three others.

For students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, going to class has taken on multiple meanings. Since Rabbi Mendel and Henya Matusof moved to campus in 2005, it?s just as common to find Jewish students studying for their final exams as delving into a classical work of Jewish thought.

MADISON, Wis. — Madison police are looking for two men wanted in connection with a sexual assault early Monday morning on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.