Category: Campus life

Forums featuring the final four candidates for director of admissions and recruitment were held last week, giving campus community members an opportunity to meet the individuals who may have a hand in shaping future generations of Badgers.

Playboy magazine sent out a press release last week with its list of the top party schools in the country, and UW-Madison ranked third. The general reaction to these lists on campus is a few grins from students along with some hand-wringing from the administration.When I received the release, I had a different reaction. I let out a primal scream. The release reminded me of a strange episode from my occasionally strange past. I think of it as “the story that wonâ??t die.” It began a decade ago and it still doesnâ??t really have a satisfactory ending.

Ronald Wiggins stood on the front stoop of his West Side apartment Saturday morning. As he watched, volunteers dug up the front lawn at 5818 Russett Road to plant fruit trees and shrubs, vegetables, herbs and flowers. About 70 volunteers worked from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday to transform the front yards of eight Russett Road apartment buildings into a community garden and beautification project. Members of the Madison Permaculture Guild created distinct designs for each building, whose owners agreed to turn over their front yards to the effort.The Russett Road Garden Project was made possible by about $3,000 in grants, donated plants and dozens of volunteers, including students from UW-Madison and Edgewood College.

Anti-war soccer mom Cindy Sheehan and a panel of national political activists are in town today to challenge both political partiesâ?? support for the war, but the event location remains up in the air. The event was originally scheduled to be held in the Memorial Union, but Steve Horn, the local student organizer, didnâ??t have the appropriate sponsorship lined up when he reserved the space, Wisconsin Union communications director Marc Kennedy said.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Campus Womenâ??s Center is in jeopardy after it has, for the first time, been found ineligible for its student funding.

In this academic year, between 200,000 and 450,000 U.S. college students will be raped.Thatâ??s what author Jessica Valenti and founder of the Feministing blog told a UW-Madison audience Thursday night. She calls it a “national epidemic,” and she blames what advocates call our rape culture.

UW-Madison officials are investigating the presence of a stripper at a university-sanctioned function involving dozens of medical school students. “This is not consistent with our school, our campus, our profession,” UW School of Medicine Associate Dean of Students Patrick McBride told 27 News.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine is investigating a university-sanctioned event where a group of medical students paid a stripper to attend and dance. The investigation focuses on an April 17 annual formal dinner and dance at the Great Hall in the Memorial Union.

A number of UW-Madison student groups honored the 40th anniversary of Earth Day with campus events Thursday.

A Madison man accused of stalking a University of Wisconsin member of the womenâ??s cross-country and track team made his initial appearance in court Thursday.

The UW-Madison students who rejected a $108 increase in their annual fees to fund an expansion of the Natatorium certainly showed a better understanding of todayâ??s economic conditions and burdens on students and their families than the empire-building and wasteful administrators within the entire UW System.

First, the UW-Madison Campus Womenâ??s Center was stripped of its funding. Now itâ??s going to be stripped of its furniture. Because the center didnâ??t get funding from the General Student Services Fund for next year – a fund paid for and administered by students – the group has to give back all the capital purchases it has made over the years, said Tina Trevino-Murphy, programming coordinator.

The Madison Police Department said Thursday that officers busted a very large and sophisticated marijuana grow operation on April 13. One of the suspects is a UW-Madison student.

First, the UW-Madison Campus Womenâ??s Center was stripped of its funding. Now itâ??s going to be stripped of its furniture.

Because the center didnâ??t get funding from the General Student Services Fund this year – a fund paid for and administered by students – the group has to give back all the capital purchases it has made over the years, said Tina Trevino-Murphy, programming coordinator.

The UW-Madison students who rejected a $108 increase in their annual fees to fund an expansion of the Natatorium certainly showed a better understanding of todayâ??s economic conditions and burdens on students and their families than the empire-building and wasteful administrators within the entire UW System.

I hope the students at the other campuses follow their lead, and that the administrators and Board of Regents learn from their example.

â?? James Pawlak, West Allis

Habitat for Humanity volunteers on the UW-Madison campus will be constructing one of the more unusual homes in the area on Friday.

The organization will be constructing a shack on Library Mall with the goal of showing how many people live across the globe.

Projects from a group of University of Wisconsin students ranging from youth outreach to developing websites were presented at a conference honoring the 40th anniversary of Earth Day Wednesday afternoon.

The world will be a little greener thanks to the winners of the University of Wisconsin 2010 Climate Leadership Challenge who were chosen earlier this week.

How does one restore a “sense of place” when there is little evidence of what the original looked like? Architectural detective work, attention to quality, brilliant – meaning both bright and intelligent – solutions and persistence were brought to the task of restoring the Library Reading Room at the Wisconsin Historical Societyâ??s campus headquarters. For the $2.9 million renovation and restoration project, the society received a room demure in tone, expansive in structure and inventive in meeting an odd challenge of in-with-the-really-old, out-with-the-old. These subjectives the public can test for itself in tours Friday and Saturday, but students and other researchers have already responded positively to the new room: The comfy brown leather reading chairs, the special soothing color tones, the lovingly restored column plaster curleys and cues and dangly bell flowers, the mahogany tables, the handy outlets for laptop computers and the inviting green-shaded lamps.

Madison officials have long labored to keep the Mifflin Street Block Party from turning the street into a “beer garden,” but this yearâ??s celebration will likely have one with the cityâ??s blessing. The 41st annual party, nearing final approval, is set to have a sponsor for the second straight year, two music stages, portable toilets, vendors, and, for the first time since 1995, a city-approved beer garden. The fete is a UW-Madison student tradition to celebrate the end of the school year, but it has bedeviled police and city officials because of its focus on alcohol and history of trouble. This year, officials hope to reduce alcohol use at the party by monitoring its flow. The idea is that sponsors and the police have more control at the beer garden than at house parties that rage along Mifflin Street.

When Madison Police Officer Chris Masterson isnâ??t working his State Street beat, he bikes the highways of Dane County, training for triathlons.Masterson, 27, is among the departmentâ??s new generation of bike officers seeking to maximize the tactical potential of their two-wheelers. After UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann was killed in her West Doty Street apartment in April 2008, Dexheimer and other members of the community policing team went out on bikes to distribute fliers and talk with neighborhood residents.

A negligence claim by the family of slain UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann against the owners and managers of the apartment building where she died will go forward, a Dane County judge ruled Tuesday.

Noted: In 2002, Eddy Bailey was a 20-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Similar to Good, his roommates took him to the hospital after he reported flu-like symptoms. Eddy was dead within hours.

Noted: Also in Europe, a UW professor stuck in London. 27 News emailed with Professor William Murphy Tuesday. He said in an email, “There are lots of stranded travelers here and the situation is becoming desperate for some. Flights are supposed to resume this evening, but it is not clear when I will be able to return.”

UW-Madison communications leaders say theyâ??ve sent an email to the 500 students studying in Europe. They say a handful of students were on spring break trips during their semester or year-long stay: some have had troubles getting back. 

A negligence claim by the family of slain UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann against the owners and managers of the apartment building where she died will go forward, a Dane County judge ruled Tuesday.

Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi denied a motion for summary judgment that was sought by Wisconsin Management, which managed the apartment building at 517 W. Doty St. where Zimmermann lived, and building owners Russ Endres and Carl Van Rooy. Sumi ruled that there are too many issues of fact that, by law, should be addressed by a jury and not by a judge.

The Sustainable Design and Energy Committee hosted a presentation Monday by graduate students in the Energy Analysis and Policy certificate program in an attempt to establish a carbon baseline for reducing energy consumption.

Recently proposed legislation may require universities to report the number of sexual assault hearings and their outcomes annually.

In the wake of a volcanic eruption that left flights both to and from Europe grounded, a number of Madison residents have been stranded across the Atlantic.

Of the roughly 500 UW-Madison students studying in Europe, only a handful are reportedly experiencing travel difficulties, according to spokesman John Lucas.

With most major campus sports and events winding down and finals week looming, University of Wisconsin students can relax and recharge this week with the annual All-Campus Party.

Facing a $1 million budget deficit, the University of Wisconsin Transportation Services will be hosting a number of public forums for members of the UW community to voice their opinions on possible changes and cuts to transportation services.

A survey of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students shows a majority of those who responded do not support an increase in a student fee to help pay for $75 million in possible renovations to the student Union building.

After finishing sixth last year, Playboy magazine ranked the UW as the third best party school in the country.The University of Texas came in first. West Virgina came in second and Bucky was in third.Only one other big ten school made the top ten: Iowa.

Many UW-Madison student organizations partnered to create the Sexual Assault Awareness Month Coalition to coordinate events in April with the goal of focusing student attention on the issue of sexual assault. One of those events, the Sexual Health Dance, takes place Friday.

A UW-Madison committee pored over a long list of submitted names, choosing only the best to put before students for a vote. And this week, students finally settled on the perfect name for the new south campus union: Union South. Yup – by a wide margin – students voted to rename the new union the same as the old one, ousting such options as Randall Union, Discovery Union, and Varsity Union.

Bishop Robert Morlino says instead of replacing our cathedral, he’s embarking on plans to build a 14-story multi-purpose building on the UW campus.

The Mifflin Street Block Party and Central Library plans were discussed Wednesday during the West Mifflin Street Neighborhood meeting.

Following a proposal presented to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents last week that would increase graduation rates across the UW System, concerns were brought forth over how the plan will be implemented and at what cost to students.

Preparations for the upcoming Mifflin Street Block Party are nearing completion with Wednesdayâ??s conditional approval of a street use permit.