After concluding the Plan 2008 diversity program did not entirely meet its intended results, the University of Wisconsin System is forming a new program to speed up the increase in diversity and close the diversity achievement gap through a series of reforms.
A public hearing scheduled by the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will take place today to discuss final changes to the student conduct code regarding student behavior outside off university property.
At the City Council meeting Tuesday, the Peter Talen Memorial Ordinance was unanimously approved, enstating the first city regulation to be named in someoneâ??s honor.
On Feb. 25, The Badger Herald sat down with a University of Wisconsin student who made allegations of rape against unknown members of the Sigma Chi fraternity, as well as a friend of hers who was present to tell a portion of the story and give emotional support. Below is the transcript of the 44-minute interview.
â??My life is ruined because of this. I donâ??t trust anyone; I honestly feel as if I canâ??t be a normal college student anymore. There are days I donâ??t want to get out of bed. Iâ??ve never had that before in my life.â?
The Sigma Chi fraternity has placed itself on a form of social probation amid a controversial investigation into at least one sexual assault that allegedly took place at its Langdon Street house last October.
Four young women having breakfast in their apartment on Feb. 25 had an unexpected visitor come to their patio door, prompting a call to police and a warning to residents on the near west side to call 911 if suspicious characters are seen lurking about.
The brief encounter between the four women, three 19-year olds and a 20-year-old, and the man was in the 100 block of North Brooks Street.
On Monday afternoon, for what may have been the first time in 30 years, I was back in a classroom on the UW-Madison campus.
Like the old days, I tried to hide in the back row. Still, once I heard about this event, there was no keeping me away.
“This is like the Academy Awards,” Doug Bradley was saying into a microphone, up on stage. “Only a week later.”
Dozens of entrepreneurial University of Wisconsin-Madison students took part in a 100-hour “Wiscontrepreneur” challenge.
The contest required teams to use materials from the UW Swap shop — the campus store selling surplus equipment — to create a valuable, innovative or socially beneficial product.
“I think you learned a little bit about what it might take to be an entrepreneur. I hope some of you are invigorated with that spirit and are ready to take the plunge and do something with this,” Doug Bradley, of the UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations, said to the participants.
Madison Alderman Eli Judge is working with UW-Madison students to develop a “Madison Property Ratings” website for the campus area.
The project will help renters and property owners by focusing on the quality of campus area housing in Madison.
The site will be similar to the already popular “Rate My Professor” site, but instead will enco
Madison City Council Members unanimously passed a new stricter smoke alarm ordinance.
It’s called The Peter Talen Memorial Ordinance. Named after a 23-year-old Plymouth man who died in a fire inside a home on North Bedford Street on UW’s campus on November 18th 2007.
Three people escaped. Talen did not.
The UW marching band took their instruments on the road today to deliver meals to people who are homebound.
Members played mini concerts and helped deliver 200 meals in Madison to those who have difficulty leaving their homes or are disabled.
Tragedy brings change to Madison. The city council has approved changes to the city’s fire code, almost a year-and-a-half after a college student lost his life in a fire downtown.
Tim and Patty Talen described Tuesday as being “bitter sweet.”
They lost their son in a blaze in November of 2007.
The UW System wrapped up its 10-year plan to increase diversity on campus with mixed success.
Plan 2008 was meant to attract more students of color to UW campuses through recruitment, scholarships, retention efforts, and diverse coursework.
A new report says Wisconsin made progress, but much work remains to be done.
The new economic-stimulus law includes more than $29-billion in provisions directed at making college more affordable in the next two years. That includes $13.9-billion budgeted over 10 years for education-tax-credit changes in 2009 and 2010, $15-billion in additional Pell Grant support, and $200-million for the Federal Work-Study program. But what will all that money actually do for students?
Among many items guaranteed to cause a fuss in Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s plan to fix the troubled state budget is the inclusion of a provision that would allow faculty members in the University of Wisconsin System to collectively bargain with the university administration. Currently, UW relies on a haphazard assortment of payment structures and hiring processes for its untenured professors that rely primarily on their merit as instructors and researchers. Doyleâ??s plan in essence allows staff of all ranks to unionize for improved benefits.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin told members of the Faculty Senate Monday she predicts UW will be subject to over $50 million in budget cuts under Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s proposed biennial budget.
A dress made of air filters, a â??drunk tankâ? that captures party crashers, a water purification system and a terrarium made of test tubes became winners Monday of the University of Wisconsinâ??s third annual 100-Hour Challenge.
MADISON (WKOW) — Madison Alderman Eli Judge is working with UW-Madison students to develop a “Madison Property Ratings” website for the campus area.
The project will help renters and property owners by focusing on the quality of campus area housing in Madison.
The site will be similar to the already popular “Rate My Professor” site, but instead will encourage renters to rate their landlords and the properties they rent.
A dress made out of air filters, yellow wire, vacuum filters and foam peanuts was the most creative entry in the annual 100-hour Wiscontrepreneur Challenge on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
A record 63 entries made by almost 200 students competed for honors in four categories in the third annual competition, put on by UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations.
Struggling college students are having an even more difficult time because of the financial downturn. Some opt to wait in food-pantry lines. Others have stopped drinking soda, using their cars or eating out.
Those who watched the University of Wisconsin Varsity Marching Band concert at Hartford Union High School on Sunday night likely recognized a few familiar faces on stage.
HUHS graduates Michelle Gehlhausen (trumpet), Christy Fritche (mellophone) and Jessica Scheunemann (trumpet) were joined by Slinger grads Nathan Retzlaff (trumpet) and Heather Wheiland (trombone) for a rousing performance of arrangements and compositions.
Winners were announced Monday in the University of Wisconsin’s 100-Hour Wiscontrepreneur Challenge.
The third annual event attracted a record of nearly 200 students and 63 entries, compared to last year’s 17, during the four-day competition.
As the U.S. war in Iraq appears to be winding down, officials at UW-Madison are exploring a unique partnership with the university in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.
President Barack Obama’s recent promise to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by the end of this summer is good news for supporters of a plan to establish a formal relationship between UW-Madison and Tikrit University in Iraq.
So far, negotiations have involved only U.S. embassy staff in Iraq and the Department of International studies at UW-Madison. But plans are underway for a video phone conference between Tikrit University faculty and their counterparts in Madison within the next six weeks. UW-graduate Brett Bruen, now a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Baghdad, is helping design a memorandum of understanding between the two campuses. Heâ??s hopeful that the agreement will be mutually beneficial. (Second item.)
More than 80 UW-Madison community members attended Saturdayâ??s basketball tournament at the Southeast Recreational Facility to support the City of Chicago as a candidate for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Wisconsin Dance Marathon raised almost $57,000 for the American Family Childrenâ??s Hospital Friday and Saturday during the overnight dance marathon event at the Shell.
President Barack Obamaâ??s new budget for the 2010 fiscal year proposed Thursday called for the abolition of bank-based student loan programs and directed funding towards maximum Pell Grants.
Apple’s iPhone can help you find a restaurant, discover who is singing the song you’re listening to, play on Facebook, tweet on Twitter, and stream Internet radio into your ears.
Thanks to a couple of enterprising, entrepreneurial University of Wisconsin-Madison students, Apple’s popular smart phone – as well as its iPod Touch – soon may be able to help you sleep better, too.
PLATTEVILLE, Wis. (AP) — An art display at a southwestern Wisconsin college has prompted free-speech debates after campus police ordered it modified.
Student Michael Hannigan wanted to juxtapose the innocence of teddy bears against the ferocity of real bears. So he lined up 25 stuffed bears in the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Art Building — with kitchen knives in their laps.
With just $15 in their pockets and a time limit of 100 hours, University of Wisconsin-Madison students dreamed up and created such inventions as an egg-cracking machine and an isolation chamber for studying.
The winner of the 100-hour Wiscontrepreneur Challenge will be announced Monday.
There could soon be more money than ever to help students go to college, but figuring out how to get it is the trick.
Both the proposed state and federal budgets included significant investments in financial aid, beefing up grant and loan programs and creating new ones.
The concern among some officials is that the federal application form for aid â?? a labyrinthine 109 questions â?? intimidates prospective college students and their families from applying to college.
Itâ??s a story that stretches the bounds of credulity: Police arrest a man, pour blood on him and plant a blood-smeared knife in his truck to frame him for a murder he didnâ??t commit.
Prosecutors and police then withhold, alter and destroy the evidence that could let the man prove his innocence.
Kenneth Hudsonâ??s account of what happened the day 19-year-old UW-Madison student Shanna Van Dyn Hoven was stabbed to death in Kaukauna in 2000 may seem improbable.
While University of Wisconsin students are looking forward to spring break in just two weeks, the U.S. State Department is issuing new travel warnings.
Citing rising violence in the country, the State Department is asking the estimated 100,000 American college students that head to Mexico for spring break every year to take extra caution.
Officials said that among the U.S.-Mexico border, escalating violence by Mexican drug cartels has created dangerous situations, including large firefights in some towns.
A record number of University of Wisconsin students rolled out of bed Saturday morning to attend a seminar on personal finances.
More than 120 students attended the Alumni Student Board’s annual personal finance seminar. That’s more than double the number last year.
UW-Madison students and community members will participate in a recreational basketball tournament this weekend to support the city of Chicago in its bid to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“Requesting you write a column on Ali Marie Raddatz, the recently passed UWM student,” said an e-mail I received this week.
My response: What would I say? She was only 18. It’s tragic beyond words. What more can anyone tell college kids to convince them that drinking yourself into a stupor is dangerous? I wouldn’t have listened at that age.
Fewer prospective freshmen have applied for admission to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay compared with a year ago, reflecting a trend also evident in Madison.
As of Feb. 15, UWGB freshmen applications were down about 5 percent versus last year, said Pam Harvey-Jacobs, director of admissions. Officials had received 3,175 new freshman applications for fall, versus 3,345 at the same time in 2008.
Affording tuition and other school expenses is proving harder than ever in the current economic recession, but for student-parents, paying the bills is becoming nearly impossible.
Marcus Landry is by no means the best basketball player in the country, but what some players have in skill, Marcus Landry has in passion and drive.
Matt Albrecht isn’t your typical theater guy. He’s an avid outdoorsman with a big truck who loves to fish, someone who’s been known to come into rehearsal still outfitted in hunter orange.
“I pull about 90 percent of my inspiration from nature,” said Albrecht, a graduate lighting designer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who will complete his Master of Fine Arts degree this May.
The Associated Students of Madison’s proposal for a new constitution was voted down earlier this week, ending plans for a new form of student government on the UW-Madison campus.
Of the 6,034 students who cast ballots Monday and Tuesday, 61.1 percent voted against the new constitution, while 38.9 percent voted for the new government — which would have been led by a popularly elected president.
Directors of the first campus-wide UW Dance Marathon are encouraging all students and community members to join the fundraiser this weekend.
The event will take place from Feb. 27 at 9 p.m. through Feb. 28 at 9 a.m. The 12-hour-long dance marathon will work to raise money to benefit the American Family Childrenâ??s Hospital.
MADISON (WKOW) — As college students plan their spring break trips, a new warning about a popular destination. The State Department issued a travel alert for Mexico. It says drug-related violence has reached alarming levels — especially along the Mexico-U.S. Border.
A proposal to provide housing for a dozen homeless men in a three-flat in the Greenbush neighborhood is stirring fears among some residents over safety, property values and the future of the area. Others say it is an opportunity for their community to step up and provide housing for people many don’t want as neighbors.
The lineup of movies for the Wisconsin Film Festival will be announced next week, but here’s a sneak preview: “Winter of Frozen Dreams,” a noir thriller based on one of Madison’s most notorious murder cases, will play during the festival’s April 2-5 run.
….For some of us it’s hard to grasp that next year it will be 30 years since Barbara Hoffman, a brilliant UW-Madison chemistry student who played the violin and spoke six languages, was convicted of murdering a man she met while working as a “masseuse” in a West Side “health studio.”
The mother of an 18-year-old University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student found dead of an apparent overdose over the weekend offered a warning Monday to young people who might consider partying with alcohol and prescription drugs:
“As strong and brilliant and bright and popular as you can be, you can’t cheat death,” said Kathleen Raddatz of Waukesha. “You think you can have a good time with this stuff and be safe. You’re wrong.”
A Dane County judge is expected to rule in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann in May.
A pre-trial and motion hearing was held Monday afternoon. Zimmermann’s parents and her fiancé, Jordan Gonnering, filed suit against Dane County and the 911 dispatcher accused of mishandling a call from Brittany’s cell phone sometime before she was killed. The call came on the day she was killed in her West Doty Street apartment last April.
Providing college students with ways to make the most of their money, especially during a recession, is the focus of a seminar being held this weekend at UW-Madison.
UW-Madison Business School professor Ron Smith says the financial independence seminar will give students advice on how to budget, save, and invest their money. He says students approaching graduation are often uninformed about financial issues and have a lot to learn before they start their career. (Final item.)
With last fall marking the end of Plan 2008 and another diversity initiative on the horizon, a University of Wisconsin leader called for â??inclusive excellenceâ? on campus Thursday to pursue diversity in the coming years.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board unanimously approved a reduced athletics budget for the 2009-10 academic year Friday but opted to maintain current ticket prices.
Diversity leaders on the UW-Madison campus gathered in front of students and faculty Thursday to express their ideas about what a diverse campus should look like.
With the global financial crisis bearing down, study-abroad officials are considering changes in both their immediate and long-term strategies for sending students overseas. They are budgeting more conservatively, seeking out cheaper destinations, and weighing collaborations with other colleges or private study-abroad providers.
At the same time, international educators need to remind campus leaders about the valueâ??in today’s economy more than everâ??of gaining a global perspective, said speakers at the annual conference of the Forum on Education Abroad, which ended here on Friday.
Nearly 40,000 Wisconsin college students would get enough financial aid to offset tuition increases during the next two years under Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal.
Doyle promised that University of Wisconsin System tuition increases would be moderate and in line with recent hikes of 5.5 percent the past two years. But he said all students from families with the state’s median income of $60,000 or less would be protected from the increases.
The 108-year-old University of Wisconsin Education Building on historic Bascom Hill will undergo a $34 million renovation over the next 18 months to prepare the building to meet the School of Educationâ??s needs in the next century.
A joint letter written by representatives of the three sectors of Wisconsin upper level education may have proved effective when Gov. Jim Doyle announced an increase in financial aid for each division Tuesday.
A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student from Sun Prairie who was reported missing on Thursday was found safe.
Campus police had issued an alert on Thursday for freshman Jessica Malecek, 19, after she hadn’t been seen for two days. She was last spotted at her residence hall on Downer Avenue in Milwaukee on Tuesday afternoon.
Saturday night in Witte Hall means one word for hundreds of the students who reside there: Party.
While the University of Wisconsin considers a formal partnership with a university in Iraq, UW officials say they have no intention of allowing students to study abroad at the Iraqi university.
The University of Wisconsin System could face a combined budget cut of up to $174 million under Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s proposed 2009-11 budget, which would lead to a possible 5 to 6 percent tuition hike for students and cutbacks across the system.
It’s a weeknight rehearsal in the Humanities building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, and the scene is chaos. Somebody’s playing the piano. Somebody else is eating Doritos. One guy is mugging for the photographer with a bottle of Tabasco sauce (“Take a picture of this!”). Everybody is talking and laughing.
Eventually the dozen or so college boys meander toward the center of the room, pushing back chairs and tables and lining up in a horseshoe formation. Someone plays the starting pitch.
