Category: Campus life

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig will speak at each of the four University of Wisconsin spring undergraduate commencement ceremonies, the university announced Monday.

While 2009 marked the event’s 40th anniversary, this year’s installment of Mifflin Street Block Party was worth celebrating in more ways than one.

About 15,000 people attended the annual springtime street party in downtown Madison last Saturday, but things were far tamer than they’ve been in years past — much to the relief of police and the event’s sponsors.

Congratulations to city officials and private sponsors for reducing problems and protecting participants as well as taxpayers at the Mifflin Street Block Party on Saturday.

Arrests at the 40th annual event fell dramatically to 164. Most arrests were for minor alcohol violations. Just three people were taken to jail.

Some University of Wisconsin System students who misbehave off university grounds could face punishment on campus under new rules that attempt to clarify the universityâ??s jurisdiction.

If approved by the Board of Regents on Thursday, the board will ask the state Legislature to consider putting the changes into state law.

Even with larger crowds and more beautiful weather than previous years, the 40th annual Mifflin Street Block Party saw significantly fewer problems and arrests, which authorities are attributing to official sponsorship of Saturdayâ??s event.

A laptop and other belongings were stolen from a Tripp Residence Hall room in the Lakeshore area early Saturday morning.

Showcasing a sponsor for the first time since 1995, the 40th anniversary of the Mifflin Street Block Party Saturday proved to be an overwhelming success according to partygoers, sponsors and the Madison Police Department.

Affordability. Itâ??s a word advertised in college brochures, catalogs and financial aid packages.

While every college and universityâ??s marketing department seems smitten with the word, affordability doesnâ??t have a concise or even similar meaning depending on whoâ??s doing the talking.

Student guides give potential incoming freshman and their family members a tour of the Viterbo Univesity campus Friday. PETER THOMSON photo

Nate Emerson, vice president for student affairs at Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical in Winona, Minn., calls affordability what students actually have to pay out of their pocket. In other words, the net cost: Gross tuition minus financial aid, not including student loans.

UW-System officials are trying to find ways to make textbooks more affordable for students. As the average college student can spend up to $900 a year on them, the Board of Regents plans now to develop guidelines to help out.

Possibilities include having professors announce their text selections as early as possible, so students have more time to find the best deals. Another is to have professors order just the text, as opposed to â??bundledâ? versions that come with extras like workbooks and CD-ROMs, that drive up the price. (7th item.)

The first Saturday in May means Mifflin Street is packed with college party goers.

Madison police say this year’s block party is mellow compared to years past –as of 8:00 p.m., around 140 pople were cited and released for minor offenses. Only two were taken to jail.

Last year, there were 440 arrests, with 63 taken to jail.

â??You donâ??t know me, but I know you.â?

Allie, a freshman at UW-Madison, listened to her stalker speak to her for the first time. She was a victim of both phone and cyber stalking by an unknown perpetrator. He began by obsessively calling her and sending 28 friend requests on Facebook under different aliases.

Although Madison officials believe a sponsorship will contribute to the success of the Mifflin Street Block Party Saturday, some Mifflin Street residents expressed their fears about new regulations at a meeting Thursday night held by Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4.

In an effort to save money and increase technological opportunities for students, University of Minnesota colleges will allow students and staff to switch their Internet messaging services to Gmail and other Google Apps.

With the Mifflin Street Block Party Saturday, the event sponsors and police and fire departments met with Mifflin residents Thursday to discuss the finalized rules and regulations for the festivities.

The former treasurer of a University of Wisconsin-Madison fraternity blamed an addiction to video games for his alleged theft of more than $12,000 from the fraternityâ??s coffers, according to a criminal complaint.

“My initial reaction is flu. ”

That was what Brock Waterman thought about a week ago while he was studying abroad in Mexico.

Since then he’s changed his tone a little…. and is now back in Boscobel in southwestern Wisconsin.

Concerns about swine flu are prompting possible travel changes for some University of Wisconsin students.

Reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization and the U.S. State Department have cautioned people against traveling to Mexico because of swine flu, and that could mean some changes for students planning to study there.
Mexico is suspected to be the center of the outbreak.

The one UW-Madison student who was studying in Monterrey, Mexico, this semester has left the city, and UW-Eau Claire announced Tuesday it has canceled its study abroad programs to Mexico.

The Adult and Student Services Center honored 26 students at the Pyle Center Wednesday for their tenacity in earning a UW-Madison degree.

The Madison Street Use Staff Team voted unanimously Wednesday to grant a street use permit to Saturdayâ??s 40th annual Mifflin Street Block Party, making the event officially sponsored for the first time since 1995.

In response to a declining economic climate and growing costs of higher education, the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents is working to create a systemwide policy to make textbooks more affordable for students.

After many meetings with city and University of Wisconsin officials, the newly licensed sponsors of the Mifflin Street Block Party revealed their finalized agenda Wednesday when they were granted a street use permit for the May 2 festivities.

The former treasurer of a University of Wisconsin-Madison fraternity blamed an addiction to video games for his alleged theft of more than $12,000 from the fraternityâ??s coffers, according to a criminal complaint.

Mifflin Street will be Party Central on Saturday during the annual block party, with thousands of young people expected for the revelry.

But do they know the laws about drinking and how to stay safe during the event?

University of Wisconsin-Madison officials put together a list of safety tips and do’s and don’ts for Mifflin Streeters, and the Madison Police Department also is encouraging partiers to be safe.

When Abby Sears was accepted into the journalism school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she had hopes of one day working for a public relations firm.

Then she did some work at the Daily Cardinal news desk and “fell in love with writing and reporting.”

A Madison native, Sears covered last year’s downtown homicide of UW student Brittany Zimmermann. Her reporting led to several appearances on Greta Van Susteren’s “On the Record” and a summer internship at Fox News in New York. And she is committed to the craft.

A union consisting of faculty from several UW System campuses is pushing for state money set aside to retain and recruit quality faculty to instead be spent on student financial aid.

The University of Wisconsin System schools faculty and staff voted at an annual assembly this weekend to endorse a proposal that would reallocate a state recruitment and retention fund toward student financial aid.

Mifflin may be one step closer to reliving its heyday with a large-scale music sponsorship after a local production company applied for a street permit Monday.

University of Wisconsin Dean of Students Lori Berquam gave her support to WSUM 91.7 potentially managing a soundstage at the Mifflin Street Block Party Saturday afternoon.

Going out with friends on the weekend and hitting up a bar for a $5 beer is the norm for many students at the University of Wisconsin, but a $172 underage drinking citation isnâ??t often accounted for on the nightâ??s tab.

In an 11th-hour decision, it appears that next week’s Mifflin Street block party will be an organized, sponsored event.

If all goes planned, it could be the first time the large campus-area block party has had some sort of organization in almost 20 years.

Police said if that happens, they will welcome the positive change to the annual end-of-school celebration that has featured many alcohol-related arrests in past years.