When Chynna Haas was about 10 years old, her father asked if she had hopes of one day going to college.
“Yes,” she answered.
“OK, then start saving,” her dad told her.
Haas took that advice to heart and now is a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But making ends meet while coming from a family of modest means has not been easy.
A group of college reporters asked Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen on Wednesday for his opinion on whether Wisconsinâ??s open records and meetings laws apply to University of Wisconsin System student government.
Jonathan Anderson, editor of the UWM Post, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus newspaper, and Mark Zoromski, a UW-Milwaukee broadcast journalism instructor, and two of his students filed the 147-page request. They argued that state law mandates UW System students perform government functions, including divvying up millions of dollars in public funds each year. That means the open records and meetings laws should apply to student government, just as it does to other government entities.
One of UW-Madisonâ??s aspiring student leaders already has a famous name.
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field will likely take a seat in UW-Madisonâ??s student government, the Associated Students of Madison. You could say she was destined to be a Chicago Cubs fan, if not born one.
Three UW-Milwaukee journalism students want Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to decide if student governments must abide by public record and open meeting laws.
The students submitted a formal request for a legal opinion to Van Hollenâ??s staff Wednesday, said Jonathan Anderson, editor-in-chief at the UW-Milwaukee Post.
Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s tuition surcharge plan is called the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, but the big winners are graduate students.
By now, the details are well-known. Undergraduate tuition rises faster than normal for the next four years. Half of the new money goes to expand financial aid; the rest goes to opening more sections of bottleneck courses and better student services.
UW-Madison students had mixed feelings about the MTV show â??College Lifeâ? following its premiere Monday night.
Campus experts on sexual assault urged students to look for the roots of abuse in unhealthy relationships at a forum hosted by the Campus Womenâ??s Center Tuesday.
A proposal to tame the Mifflin Street Block Party will be considered by the Street Use Staff Team today, as sponsors hope the addition of organized music will lower the amount of police regulation.
The series premiere of College Life on MTV delivered a 1.18 rating in the network’s target P12-34 demo and 1.16 million total viewers Monday night, according to Nielsen live plus same day data.
That is up slightly from the last major series launch in that timeslot, Run’s House spinoff Daddy’s Girls, which debuted Jan. 5 to a 1.15 rating.
Focusing on the disparity in tuition costs between UW-Madison and other Big Ten universities, Chancellor Martinâ??s Madison Initiative for Undergraduates proposes a yearly progressive hike in tuition. This proposed increase would support greater financial aid, expanded student service and improved faculty retention.
Although the intention of this proposal is on track in many ways, there are a few inherent flaws. For one, the choice of $80,000 as the cutoff that determines whether students will pay the cumulative increase seems to be one of convenience rather than logic. Second, although it seeks to provide aid for students who demonstrate financial need, raising tuition is generally not an ideal process to make the cost of a college education more affordable. Third, as a soon-to-be alumnus of the university, I would much rather see any monetary donation used to retain faculty and be a lure for newer faculty instead of providing financial aid.
Chancellor Biddy Martin recently released the details of a plan to enhance the quality of the undergraduate educational experience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison while preserving affordability for families with demonstrated financial need. The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates will be funded through an increase in tuition, a premium that will be offset with private grants for those who can least afford to pay the increase. The stakes have never been higher for our great university, and I wanted to share my thoughts on this initiative with current students who may feel confused or burdened by this.
A proposal to tame the annual Mifflin Street Block Party will go before a city of Madison committee today.
The Street Use Staff Team will discuss giving a block party permit for May 2 to DCNY PRO, a local music and event production company.
After months of tweaking plans, Union South Design Committee members discussed the most recent and nearly finalized sketches for the interior of the new Union South building during one of their final design meetings Monday.
The University of Wisconsin Committee on Student Organizations suspended the Sigma Chi fraternity Monday for the duration of an investigation of an alleged alcohol-related incident that occurred April 2.
Raking leaves, pulling weeds, trimming, planting, cleaning and more â?? they may even whistle while they work.
The UW-Madison Concert Choir is offering to do your spring yard chores in order to pay off the cost of a European concert tour.
The Sigma Chi fraternity has been suspended on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus for an alleged alcohol-related violation on April 2.
The fraternity chapter, 221 Langdon St., will be investigated, most likely by the office of the dean of students, following the suspension from the UW-Madison Committee on Student Organizations.
The fraternity house was vandalized in March when rocks were thrown through three picture windows, apparently in retaliation for an alleged rape of a student at the house last October.
Does Facebook lead to lower grades? Or do college students with lower grades use Facebook more than their higher-achieving peers? A study of 219 students at Ohio State University being presented at a conference this week doesnt answer those questions definitively. But it suggests a link between the social networking site and academic performance.
Students who said they used Facebook reported grade-point averages between 3.0 and 3.5; those who dont use it said they average 3.5 to 4.0. Also, Facebook users said they studied one to five hours a week, vs. non-users 11 hours or more.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Committee on Student Organizations has suspended the Sigma Chi Fraternity chapter on campus for an alleged alcohol-related violation.
Officials said that an investigation is continuing into an incident that occurred on April 2. They said that sanctions are possible for members or the fraternity as a whole.
According to a UW news release, a suspension “prevents a student organization from holding events, reserving space or enjoying the other privileges of student organization status.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison police said that they’re seen a significant spike in laptop computer thefts on campus in recent months, prompting new calls for vigilance.
Madison Area Technical College has seen more than 30 laptops stolen since January, but the trend is also hitting those on the UW campus.
UW police said that laptop thefts are up more than 500 percent this year as compared to 2008. In most cases, the crime is completely preventable, they said.
Equipped with personal video cameras, eight University of Wisconsin–Madison students began filming themselves last fall, as part of MTV’s new reality series “College Life.”
They said they were extremely excited for Monday’s premier, and packed couches in front of every TV on or near campus.
“College Life” is billed as a real and uncensored look at the lives of college students — everything from academic stress to relationship adventures.
A U-W Madison fraternity is suspended after allegations of alcohol violations.
University Communications confirms that the Offices of the Dean of Students is investigating the Sigma Chi fraternity for an alleged alcohol violation that occurred on April 2nd, into April 3rd.
Details of the violation are not available, but the fraternity will not be able to hold events or hold club activities until the investigation is complete.
About 40 student leaders and administrators met with Chancellor Biddy Martin Monday to clarify and introduce advancements to the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates.
In an effort to include the student voice to the greatest extent, the chancellor received an extension for when the final date the plan must be submitted to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness month, and students at the University of Wisconsin are shedding light on how alcohol adds to the problem.
The student group called, Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment, or PAVE, is focusing on the dangers of alcohol.
Members say not enough attention is paid to alcohol as a date rape drug.
With the commencement of Sexual Assault Awareness Month and the recent allegations of the crime on campus, students are engaging in a discussion about the issue of sexual consent.
With the MTV reality show â??College Lifeâ? set to premiere tonight, University of Wisconsin officials are concerned about the balance of aspects of campus life the show will depict.
Under a change made this month to the bylaws of the University of Wisconsin Greek Judicial Board, the board can now vote to send complaints they feel are especially egregious directly to the Committee on Student Organizations.
Spencer Sebo dreams of developing the fuel source of tomorrow, and he has a plan for how to get started. Next fall, the D.C. Everest Senior High School student will attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study chemical engineering.
The big question, though, is where he’ll find the money to pursue his dream.
“If the economy picks up, I should be good,” said Sebo, 18, of Ringle.
Starting college can be an intimidating experience. New people, new home and no parents to set a curfew or make sure you do your homework. Now imagine placing a camera in the hands of these college freshmen and sending them off to record their lives – the good, the bad and the unexpected.
Remember your freshman year of college? Yeah, there are parts of it we’d like to forget, too. Now imagine you’ve filmed all the ups â?? new found freedom, more responsibility â?? and downs â?? too much drinking, too little studying â?? for the whole world to see. That’s exactly what St. Paul’s Kevin Tracy did when he (along with seven other students) were chosen to document their lives at the University of Wisconsin Madison for the new MTV show “College Life” (9:30 p.m. today). For half a year, the 19-year-old Cretin-Derham Hall grad used a camcorder to captured all his freshman year’s highs and lows. We phoned Tracy, a communications major, in Madison to chat about his experience.
â??Quiet Please! Filming in Session,â? warns a sign on the second floor of UW-Madisonâ??s Memorial Union.
Thatâ??s because in a nearby lounge, five students are chattering at 100 miles-per-minute for UW-Madisonâ??s own version of â??The View,â? a talk show about student life.
The show, called â??IMHO,â? or â??In My Humble Opinion,â? is one of a number of shows UW-Madison staff members have created for the Big Ten Network. It aired for the first time last month.
A month-long education effort is underway across the nation in hopes of eradicating sexual violence.
One organization heavily involved in April’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month is the Dane County Rape Crisis Center. Officials there say the impact of sexual violence affects millions of men, women, and children from all walks of life, many of whom keep their stories to themselves out of fear or embarrassment or both.
Cable media monster MTV is hours away from shining the national spotlight on Madison and the University of Wisconsin.
It’s a reality show with a twist, with students taping their own stories, both good and bad.
The show’s preview paints a wild picture. Everything that is freshman year at the University of Wisconsin they claim, filmed and documented by the students themselves.
“They’re really getting things that you probably wouldn’t get in any other show,” Kevin Tracy said.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison campus is buzzing in anticipation of a new reality show set in the city that aims to give a candid look at college life, but some are concerned about how the show will portray the university.
The show “College Life” is premiering on MTV next week. It’s all shot by students with handheld cameras instead of by camera crews and aims to show what the collegiate experience is like.
Amid a blur of images of parties, dorm rooms, kissing and close-ups, University of Wisconsin-Madison student Kevin Tracy makes a confession: â??I drank too much. I made a mistake, Iâ??m sorry.â?
This is the trailer for the new MTV reality series, â??College Life,â? premiering Monday night. The show follows the lives of four freshman at UW-Madison, including Tracy, who documented their first year of college with handheld cameras.
Although we all come from different backgrounds, are majoring in different subjects and have different goals and expectations for ourselves, every single UW-Madison student can agree with the following statement: Tuition hikes suck.
Unfortunately, these increases are inevitable, even in the midst of a recession. Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s Undergraduate Initiative proposal is yet another justification for an additional tuition increase. However, is it a practical and justified burden to place on students? The short answer is yes, but despite the many issues Martinâ??s Undergraduate Initiative proposal addresses, it also unfortunately contains several flaws which need to be dealt with before the proposal itself actually takes effect.
You and I have been privileged to attend one of the top 25 teaching and research universities in the world. We are the beneficiaries of the people of the state of Wisconsin and of the ongoing support of our federal government. The people of Wisconsin recognize the role the university plays in educating the workforce of the state, in fostering the arts, in making breakthrough discoveries that improve our health and well-being and in broadening the opportunities for the citizens of Wisconsin.
In the midst of midterms and finals UW-Madison students often find it difficult to receive help from professors with crowded office hours, but with the Greater University Tutoring Service looking to expand its services, help may be more readily available to students.
Shuhan He, a senior at UW-Madison, said he has big plans to expand GUTS to include Skills Acquisition Guiding Experience. The program would provide peer-mentoring groups, beginning in the Zoology department. SAGE would eventually expand to all departments on campus that wish to collaborate with GUTS.
On more than one occasion this fall, a group of researchers streamed out of the Microbial Sciences Building, garbage bags flapping in the breeze, each a different degree of overqualified for this work.
MTV’s new “reality” show about four University of Wisconsin-Madison freshmen has a far more real feeling than most such programs.
Part of that comes from the fact that the four subjects of “College Life” – premiering at 9:30 p.m. Monday – are shooting their own stories with hand-held cameras. That means plenty of blurry images that stir college memories for some of us.
The first installment features plenty of drinking, lots of boy-girl stuff and even a bit of time devoted to studying in the half-hour weekly show.
Everybody knows Bucky Badger. Then again, nobody knows Bucky Badger.
That’s why the documentary “Being Bucky” will likely open a few eyes as to what it’s like — and what it takes — to be the live version of the state’s most visible symbol.
The film, which played to a sold-out theater at the Wisconsin Film Festival and will return Friday, April 10, to Point Cinemas, tracks the lives of the seven guys who play Bucky. It begins with the tryouts and continues throughout a busy, busy year.
MTV has tapped eight underclassmen from the University of Wisconsin-Madison for an experiment in reality TV. Rather than trailing the kids with a camera crew, the network gave them their own cameras. They spent several months documenting their lives, and MTV has assembled the footage in a show called College Life. It premieres at 9:30 p.m. on Monday, April 13.
“Technology has democratized the filmmaking process for our viewers,â? says Tony DiSanto, head of MTV programming. â??That fact combined with this generation’s real-time publishing online of every aspect of their lives brings us into a new era of honesty and openness, and College Life exemplifies this.”
MTV’s new “reality” show about four University of Wisconsin-Madison freshmen has a far more real feeling than most such programs.
Part of that comes from the fact that the four subjects of “College Life” – premiering at 9:30 p.m. Monday – are shooting their own stories with hand-held cameras. That means plenty of blurry images that stir college memories for some of us.
The first installment features plenty of drinking, lots of boy-girl stuff and even a bit of time devoted to studying in the half-hour weekly show.
The deans of the UW-Madison School of Business and College of Engineering want their students to know they will benefit from a proposed tuition hike for all undergraduates.
Engineering Dean Paul Peercy and Business Dean Mike Knetter penned an editorial in todayâ??s edition of the student newspaper The Daily Cardinal in support of the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, arguing it is necessary on top of the extra tuition engineering and business students already pay.
Although largely scrutinized, Biddy Martinâ??s proposed Madison Initiative for Undergraduates will do more good than harm for the student body. It is easy to get riled up by numbers, but after hearing all of the fuss, I was surprised to find much of the commotion is over petty change. With tuition numbers in the thousands, it is hard for me to comprehend the impact $2,500 at most is likely to have on me in the long-run.
But I do know something that is likely to have an impact. Lecture halls filled to the brink, the loss of renowned faculty to a student body unwilling to fork out the money and the end of distinguished reputation in a school known for above-average academia. I have heard enough horror stories about seniors who are unable to graduate on time due to competitive majors. It is about time the student body put their money where their mouth is. Stop complaining about the bitter-sweetness of Biddyâ??s cookies and realize how fortunate we are to have an initiative that is looking out for our needs as students.
Leave it to libertarians to reduce every single issue on earth, be it political, economical or social, to absolutism.
Leave it to them to turn an innocuous and practical initiative like Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s Madison Initiative for Undergraduates into a new battlefront between those who value freedom and self-reliance and those pesky Marxists who just love leeching off the rich. One needs to look no further than the way those who oppose the Madison Initiative are going about framing the discussion as proof of these tendencies. Yet, is it true that this initiative is just another case of â??wealth redistributionâ??
Tables and volunteers encircled Library Mall Wednesday for Promoting Awareness Victim Empowermentâ??s Sexual Assault Day of Action.
The University of Wisconsin group Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment set up shop on Library Mall Wednesday as part of the national Sexual Assault Awareness Month Day of Action.
WHITEWATER (WKOW) — A Milwaukee-based religious group spent part of the day on the UW-Whitewater campus preaching against homosexuality. Students said everyone has a right to protest, but many opposed the message.
MENOMONIE, Wis. — Students at the University of Wisconsin-Stout have voted to ban smoking anywhere on campus.
Stout Student Association President Michael Lubke said students were concerned about “walking through clouds of smoke and having cigarette butts littered around campus.”
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A judge has granted a new trial to a man convicted of exposing himself to women near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Appeals Court Judge Paul Lundsten says Tyler Schmidt’s trial was tainted because prosecutors introduced evidence that he had exposed himself to another woman in the same area months earlier.
Every spring, U.S. colleges and universities shut down for a week or two, allowing students to relax at home or take a vacation from their studies. Some head to the beaches in Florida or other warm spots. But more students are trading their vacation opportunities for volunteer work projects in Miami and other cities.
At Everglades National Park outside Miami, Louie Toth is leading a group of students from the University of Wisconsin into remote areas of the forest.
Louie Toth teaches student volunteers to identify and remove invasive plant species in the Florida Everglades.
“This is a Brazilian pepper tree, and if you scan the area around it, you will see there is no other vegetation growing around it,” he explains.
The Brazilian pepper and other foreign plants were introduced by accident to the Everglades and now crowd out native species. Student volunteers are ripping out these invaders and trying to collect the seeds to prevent new plants from growing.
Nearly three months after the man convicted of fatally stabbing Joel Marino in his Madison home hung himself in prison, his cellmate has been charged with assisting in his suicide.
Joshua Walters, an inmate at the Dodge Correctional Institution, was charged Wednesday in the death of 20-year-old Adam Peterson. Peterson, who dropped out of UW-Madison several weeks before he killed Marino on Jan. 28, 2008, was serving a mandatory life sentence.
A Dodge County Correction Institution inmate is charged with assisted suicide in connection with the death of his cellmate, Adam Peterson, last January.
Dodge County District Attorney William F. Bedker filed criminal charges on Wednesday against Joshua Walters, 20.
Dodge County authorities said that the charges follow an investigation by the Dodge County Sheriffâ??s Department, with the assistance of the Dodge Correctional Institution, which was holding Peterson.
UW-Madison Chancellor Carolyn â??Biddyâ? Martin has proposed a new initiative to provide additional investment in the undergraduate experience at UW-Madison through a premium tuition applied only on the Madison campus. We support this initiative for the following reasons:
â?¢ We believe there are important investments that need to be made in undergraduate education on our campus. We believe these investments will boost the quality of the experience and student outcomes (which accrue over a lifetime) by more than the increase in cost.
The Associated Students of Madison partially endorsed the Wisconsin Initiative for Undergraduates Wednesday and resolved to create a shared governance committee to oversee the allocation of the funds if the initiative passes.
â??We are hemorrhaging faculty. Itâ??s directly impacting the quality of education,â? ASM representative Jeffrey Wright said. â??Somethingâ??s got to give. Students on this campus who can be giving more should be giving more.â?
While ASM supports the initiativeâ??s vision, the group has lingering questions about how the initiative will operate if passed by the UW System Board of Regents in May.
The Associated Students of Madisonâ??s Student Council voted Wednesday to partially endorse Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s budget initiative to raise student tuition Wednesday.
The council decided on only a partial endorsement for the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates in an effort to ensure all students, as well as council members, fully understand the proposal before taking a permanent stance.
I never thought Iâ??d hear myself say this, but given a recent discussion with Associate Dean of Students Kevin Helmkamp â?? one of the key figures in the revisions to the Student Academic Misconduct Policy â?? Iâ??ve had something of a change of heart on the controversy. Thatâ??s not to say I donâ??t object to a vast number of the proposed changes; I most certainly do. But given Helmkampâ??s statements on the policy, there are a number of points that deserve clarification.
An argument between two roommates over where to store a beer pong table and who should clean up a trashy mess ended up with one of the roommates getting arrested for allegedly damaging the table belonging to the other roommate.
Jeffrey Ross Klein, 22, Madison, was tentatively charged with intentional damage to property following the incident, which happened Monday night in an apartment in the 700 block of University Avenue.
There is a lot of quiet in the Lower 9th Ward, but this was different.
The only sound was that of a gentle breeze and a couple of volunteers picking up trash. Everyone else — the rest of the volunteers and two residents — was silent, looking out over the tranquil water of the Bayou Bienvenue Cypress Triangle.
UW-Madison students are involved in the effort.
