Category: Campus life

Halloween costumes might disguise visitors to Madison for the annual Freakfest party on State Street, but a costume canâ??t mask the flu.

University of Wisconsin-Madison health officials are asking partiers who plan to flock to Freakfest to stay home if they have flu-like symptoms as they try to keep the H1N1 flu virus from spreading.

Dr. Sarah Van Orman, executive director of University Health Services, the health clinic on the UW-Madison campus, said out-of-town visitors with the flu should stay out of town, and in-town flu sufferers who plan to party should think otherwise.

As the health care debate winds its way through Congress, everyone can agree on at least this much: Bringing more young adults into the health care system would balance out the costs for everyone else because the young use the least amount of care.

Quotes Eric O’Connor, 27, who now gets his health insurance through the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is studying for a doctorate.

Freakfest, the annual Halloween-themed bash on State Street, lands on October 31st this year.

“What we have in front of us now is a fun, safe, community-based event that we can all be proud of,” said Joel Plant, assistant to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.

Two 18-year-old UW-Madison students were mugged Saturday afternoon by two teens purportedly trying to help them find Halloween outfits, Madison police reported.

The mugging took place about 5:30 p.m. Saturday in a bike path tunnel cutting under the Beltline south of Grand Canyon Drive on the west side. The two freshmen were robbed of cash and a cell phone, with one getting punched, said police spokesman Joel DeSpain.

Itâ??s home to a baseball stadium dubbed the “Duck Pond,” a busy community recreation center and a summer fireworks extravaganza that can draw hundreds of thousands of spectators.

But 180-acre Warner Park, at Northport Drive and Sherman Avenue on the cityâ??s north side, also abuts Lake Mendota, envelops a 28-acre lagoon and attracts a surprisingly diverse assortment of wildlife.

….”I had no idea an urban park could have so much wildlife,” says Trish O’Kane, a graduate student in environment and resources at the Gaylord Nelson Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who moved to the neighborhood a few years ago. O’Kane spent some 130 hours in Warner Park in the past 18 months, studying its wildlife.

Freakfest, Madison’s annual Halloween party on State Street, lands on the holiday this year.

The event draws thousands of people to the capital city — mostly college students. In 2005, rioting ensued, pushing police and safety costs to more than $750,000 in subsequent years.

The staff of two student newspapers at UW-Madison are calling for a boycott of one of the most popular bars for students downtown.

Very few students are taking advantage of a new law that allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at University of Wisconsin System schools, according to university data.

The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates took a meaningful step forward Friday when the Madison Initiative Student Board and Madison Initiative Oversight Committee presented their reviews and ratings for the first 27 accepted proposals to the chancellor and provost.

A University of Wisconsin female student was the victim of a strong-armed robbery Thursday night on the 200 block of North Lake Street outside of Witte Hall.

The Madison Police Department is cutting back the number of officers for Freakfest this year in anticipation of a continued downward trend of arrests.

A female student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was mugged Thursday night while walking on campus, University Police reported. The attack took place at about 9:25 p.m. Thursday in the 200 block of North Lake Street near Witte Hall.

A UW student was the victim of a strong arm robbery Thursday night around 9:25 near Witte Hall on N. Lake Street.

Authorities say the suspect shook the victim and demanded money. The suspect fled the scene on foot. The victim was not hurt.

A new committee will consider mandating health insurance for all UW students, among other options, when it evaluates the UW Systemâ??s insurance policies next semester, according to UW System Assistant Vice President Larry Rubin.

Swine flu vaccine clinics scheduled at Dane County schools after Friday are in question as health officials devise a new plan to get scarce vaccine first to high-risk people who need it most.

Pregnant women and people with chronic diseases likely will have priority over healthy children and young adults in a plan to be announced by early next week, said Dr. Thomas Schlenker, director of the Madison-Dane County Health Department.

Madison police are expecting Freakfest, State Street’s annual Halloween bacchanalia, to be tamer this year.

They’re scheduling about 27 percent fewer officers for the Halloween weekend, including a sharp decrease in the number of officers to handle arrests.

New data shows a significant drop in the four-year UW-Madison graduation rates for two campus diversity programs, though their retention rates are higher than the overall campus minority population.

University of Wisconsin System applicants reached an all-time high this year.

Although many UW System school enrollment totals still require finalization, a preliminary total of 178,000 students were enrolled in UW System schools as reported by UW System President Kevin Reilly at last weekâ??s Board of Regents meeting.

Wisconsin first lady Jessica Doyle encouraged University of Wisconsin students to engage in volunteer activities during and after their time in Madison Tuesday, when she came to campus to share her experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer.

The number of reported cases of influenza-like illness on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus was up slightly in the seventh week of the fall semester, according to the latest report from University Health Services UHS.

Forty-nine students with flu symptoms were evaluated by UHS Oct. 11-17, a half-dozen more than the 43 students evaluated with the flu the week before.

The campus started out with 198 flu cases the first week of classes in September, with cases jumping up to 345 the second week, then falling back to 168 the third week, 94 the fourth week and 58 the fifth week.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison club plans to build a mock Berlin Wall and then destroy it.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the wall coming down. To celebrate, UW-Madison’s German Club plans to erect an 8-foot tall cardboard wall on the school’s Library Mall. The university says the German embassy has supplied funding.

The last time I paid to watch a sporting event was last summer to watch the Brewers play. One of the best things about Miller Park, despite the inflated prices, is the stadium always allowed fans to carry in whatever snacks they might have brought from home to enhance the experience. Fansâ?? bags were inspected on arrival, and upon entrance attendants observing that Mr. and Mrs. Baseball-Fan had nothing more than peanuts and sunflower seeds in their bags, they were allowed in.

This fall, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee implemented a Hmong Studies certificate program, which the University of Wisconsin-Madison discussed creating in 2007 but failed to get off the ground.

A 19-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student was mugged early Sunday morning, but the alleged thieves only got away with the studentâ??s backpack, which had a couple of cans of soda inside.

The mugging happened at about 12:45 a.m. Sunday on South Charter Street between Bowen Court and Regent Street.

Dear Editor: One of the biggest sources of waste I have ever witnessed is student move out on Aug. 14 and 15. During the week preceding move out, the streets of downtown Madison gradually become lined with piles of garbage and abandoned furniture. A large portion of this stuff is still in perfectly good condition, but unless someone walks by who wants it, it is destined for a landfill.

Noted: Campuses, from the University of Wisconsin to the University of Maryland, are producing more professional-level journalism with student manpower. Former Boston Globe reporter Walter Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has used his Northeastern University students to conduct 11 front-page investigations for the Globe since 2007. The report urges more universities to become centers for professional reporting, as they are for medicine, law, science, business, engineering and education.

If given a choice between reading the 1,200-page epic novel “War and Peace” on a Kindle digital reader or curling up with an old-fashioned book, itâ??s no contest for UW-Madison student Rule Johnstone.

The lack of details and short time frame for student input on a proposed tuition hike at UW-Eau Claire had members of a UW System Board of Regents committee skeptical that it would be approved by the end of 2009.

With Halloween and the annual citywide Freakfest celebration right around the corner, city officials said they are right where they want to be in terms of preparedness.

The UW System Board of Regents attended to the progress of a call to action at their monthly board meeting at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Thursday morning during a presentation of â??Give the Students a Compass.â?

Two University of Wisconsin alumni spoke to students and faculty Thursday about their accomplishments since graduation as part of â??Wisconsin Rewind,â? a new homecoming program this year.

When her mast broke during qualifying for the national womenâ??s collegiate single-handed sailing regatta, Lauren Knoles of Michigan State thought her quest for a national championship was over. â??It was like everything was torn from me,â? said Knoles, a junior from Grosse Ile.

Photo: Magdalena Cerrina, a senior at UW-Madison, gets a seasonal flu shot Tuesday from registered nurse Laura Forcia at University Health Service

Residents of the West Mifflin neighborhood met Wednesday with Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, to address concerns for the proposed renovation plans of the Mifflin Street area.

Working while in college doesnâ??t necessarily hurt your grades. A study finds it can help.Two economists have found what UW officials have known for a while: some work is better than none and too much, worse than some work. UW-Madison financial aid director Susan Fisher says undergraduates who work between 10 and 15 hours a week, tend to have better grades, but working more than 20 hours a week, can hurt grades.