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.
The state Building Commission Wednesday added $7.1 million to the Union South replacement budget, bringing the project total to $94.8 million.
University of Wisconsin System Vice President David Miller explained that construction costs have been better identified as the project planning progresses. While a number of cost-cutting alternatives have been considered, including reducing the number of guest rooms from 120 to 60, the project remains above the estimated budget, and further cuts would contradict the student-approved scope of the project funded from $85.7 million in student fees.
Violinist Benjamin Seeger, 18, knows the math on winning music competitions. Last summer, he was among 100 young musicians competing for a four-year scholarship to UW-Madison for 2009.
Ten students won the prize, including him.
The Fisher family of Sheboygan calls itself a middle-class family who makes ends meet after picking up a third job â?? but now they’re staring at a $100,000 college tuition bill during the next four years.
Chelsea Fisher, 17, will graduate from Sheboygan South High School this spring and plans to attend Marian University in Fond du Lac, where tuition this year runs more than $20,000.
The $200-million for Federal Work-Study in the economic-stimulus law that President Obama signed this week is expected to help an additional 130,000 students, each earning an average of $1,500 a year, according to government estimates. The money, despite rumors to the contrary, will not be pegged to a new community-service requirement.
Members of an advocacy group against binge drinking collaborated with Madison city officials and the Madison Police Department Tuesday to promote programs on the University of Wisconsin campus to increase safety in bars and other alcohol-serving establishments.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student has been recognized as a future leader in higher education.
Tessa Lowinske Desmond received the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders award from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, in ceremonies in January at the association’s annual meeting.
President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law Tuesday, dedicating a major portion of the budget to the promotion of higher education.
A San Diego real estate group has purchased seven properties in downtown Madison from local landlord Harold Langhammer, with eyes on redeveloping the busy corner of West Washington Avenue and Broom Street.
Cardinal Group Investments, LLC announced Tuesday it acquired the seven properties totaling 78 bedrooms for $4.5 million.
The purchase includes the historic 25-room Zeta Beta Tau fraternity building at 233 Langdon St
The new state budget repair bill will help tenants in apartment buildings facing foreclosure and deliver $200,000 to the financially strapped Tenant Resource Center in Madison.
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, who helped craft the legislation, said the bill protects tenants who might lose housing in the economic downturn and that the TRC, an established nonprofit working on tenant issues, was the logical agency to handle toll-free calls and do education and outreach.
“I just came home, the door was bashed in and my girlfriend has been shot.”
Those were the words of Jordan Gonnering, speaking to a 911 dispatcher last April after he found the body of Brittany Zimmermann in the downtown Madison apartment that he shared with her.
Increasingly, the media use transcripts and audio of 911 calls as part of their coverage of public safety, a strategy that some applaud but others fear harms crime victims and violates their privacy.
District 2 candidate Bridget Maniaci waited with a group of family and friends at Supreme Pizza on Tuesday night, talking excitedly while half-eaten pizza was neglected on the table. One by one, campaign volunteers darted into the near east side restaurant with unofficial vote totals from the district.
By 8:30 p.m., there was only one ward of four left to report, and Maniaci was in second place by 20 votes to candidate Adam Walsh.
….In District 8, which covers most of the University of Wisconsin campus, Bryon Eagon handily won the District 8 primary with 273 votes, while Mark Woulf beat challenger Katrina Flores for the second general election spot by a margin of only seven votes, 117-110.
If you channel-hop local radio stations a lot in the car, you know that feeling of being trapped inside a loopy time warp as yet another ’80s megahit or Pussycat Dolls production gets flogged to death.
Meanwhile, UW-Madison’s student radio station, WSUM/91.7 FM, is guaranteed to have entertaining, unusual and fresh programming throughout the day. Unless, as has been known to happen on occasion, a DJ abandons the studio early to make his biology exam on time.
At first glance, Adam Levin, Andrew Thomas and Tobi Adeoye appear to be average UW-Madison undergrads. Laughing about dorm life, undecided about their majors, they’re notably humble and self-effacing. But unlike many of they’re peers, they’re not viewing graduation as a gateway to the day-to-day grind of the real world.
“My first year out of college, I want to do a year of shows,” says Adeoye, known on stage as Kid Quo. “I want to stretch the music thing, and work with kids and teach them how to express themselves through music.”
When College GameDay came to Madison last weekend, The Badger Herald was able to catch up with Reese Davis, Digger Phelps, Hubert Davis and Jay Bilas to discuss University of Wisconsin basketball, the Big Ten and the fans who packed the Kohl Center for the broadcast Saturday morning.
For the third consecutive year, University of Wisconsin students of all backgrounds are encouraged to express their creativity and entrepreneurial skills by participating in the Wiscontrepreneur 100-Hour Challenge.
In their most recent issue, Forbes Magazine named Madison the third best college sports town in the nation.
UW-Madison students, staff and faculty are taking dangerous steps when ignoring “sidewalk closed” signs along the north side of the Education building on Observatory Drive.
Construction has closed the sidewalk, so pedestrians are using the pavement of Observatory Drive as their walkway.
There’s a tight hairpin curve a short distance down the hill from the Education building, so walkers aren’t always visible to motorists.
If you channel-hop local radio stations a lot in the car, you know that feeling of being trapped inside a loopy time warp as yet another ’80s megahit or Pussycat Dolls production gets flogged to death.
Meanwhile, UW-Madison’s student radio station, WSUM/91.7 FM, is guaranteed to have entertaining, unusual and fresh programming throughout the day. Unless, as has been known to happen on occasion, a DJ abandons the studio early to make his biology exam on time.
The Brink Lounge is banning hip-hop shows indefinitely after 16 Madison police officers responded to a call from a Valentine’s Day hip-hop party where a fight broke out close to bar time.
Struggles and pain infused the â??hope and changeâ? sentiment last night when students gathered for a Black History Month event at the Red Gym.
University of Wisconsin juniors Keith Jackson and Martinez White have both experienced their share of struggles.
Madison police officers are skeptical they have the adequate processes and staffing in place to respond to every dropped 911 call in which the caller does not pick up on a return call, a policy introduced by Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.
UW-Madison graduate student James Kryshak heads to competitive audition at the Metropolitan Opera.
It looks decidedly unacademic â?? a room with a plush couch, a coffee table and a flat screen TV rimmed with candles.
But there it sits, smack in the middle of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s biomedical engineering department, a room outfitted more appropriately for a living room than an educational building.
Professors and administrators call it the “innovation room,” and its main purpose is to provoke deep thought.
It has long been considered an advantage â?? one might even say necessary â?? for students to think, mull and brainstorm whilst in college.
On Sunday at noon, James Kryshak walked onto the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in a three-piece suit and embarked on one of the most important auditions for a young singer on the continent.
“For an American, this is the competition,” said Kryshak, 25. “It’s very, very exciting. I never expected this to happen so soon.”
Kryshak — a high lyric tenor and UW-Madison student working on his master’s degree of music in opera performance — was one of two singers chosen from the Upper Midwest last month to advance to the semifinals of the Met’s National Council Auditions.
They finally found a way to wake up the student section at the Kohl Center.
It took Digger Phelps and Rece Davis bopping to “Jump Around,” Bob Knight dancing with Bucky Badger, and television cameras zooming in and out to send a charge through the University of Wisconsin students who made up most of the crowd of 2,384 that took part in the “ESPN College GameDay” production Saturday morning at the Kohl Center.
The final phase of the Dane County 911 Center’s audit that was released Thursday included recommendations for more staffing and more training, and the attorney for the boyfriend of Brittany Zimmermann reacted to the findings Friday.
The audit was ordered by county officials after the alleged mishandling of a 911 call from Zimmerman, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student who was found killed in her downtown Madison apartment last spring.
139,700,000. I know youâ??re going to start processing all those digits. This number reveals the total budget of Wisconsin Union Redevelopment Project (estimated last Dec.), including the construction of a new Union South and renovation of Memorial Union. Surprisingly still, news is pouring in that Union South now is way over budget.
Members of the Madison Police Department and Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, met with residents of Mifflin Street Thursday in an effort to improve the annual Mifflin Street Block Party.
A statement released Wednesday by the University of Wisconsin indicated a sharp decrease in the amount of in-state applications the University has received compared to years past. Roughly 1,000 less applications were received by the Feb. 1 deadline. University officials could not offer any explanation for the dwindling numbers other than the sagging economy. This notion may be a good rationalization, but biased funding among the universities departments â?? among other factors â?? is the likely culprit.
The University of Wisconsin is considering a formal relationship with a university in Iraq, which officials hope will create academic opportunities in multiple disciplines across UW.
City officials are attempting to put a new face on the Mifflin Street Block Party this year after holding the first of what they hope will be many neighborhood meetings Thursday night to increase the quality and safety of the event.
Ice on Lake Mendota has melted so fast the Statue of Liberty, buried under the ice sheet, is beginning to reappear behind the Memorial Union on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
OK, that’s stretching the truth just a little bit.
But the top of Miss Liberty’s head and her torch-holding arm will be “protruding” through the ice, an homage to the university’s wacky past, serving as a beacon to all attending the annual Hoofers Winter Carnival this weekend on campus.
When this alarm clock wakes you from your slumber, you will hopefully never have cause to glare angrily at it while hitting the snooze button.
Thatâ??s because the Proactive Sleep tool, invented by two University of Wisconsin-Madison students, is smarter than the average alarm clock. It is calibrated to wake people during a light phase in sleep. Thus, the sleepy-head in question feels less groggy, ready to get up and at â??em.
University of Wisconsin officials are scratching their heads as to why their application numbers are down 4.4 percent this year, especially since many admissions officials expected interest in public universities to increase as the economy continued to founder. Even more confounding, applications from out-of-state students actually increased by 211, while the number of in-state prospective students went down at least around 900.
Today some UW-Madison engineering students are putting their homework aside for the University’s annual Innovation Days. The student inventors are vying for thousands of dollars in prize money awarded to the most useful and original devices. Christina Clarkson reports. (Audio, eighth item.)
Chancellor Biddy Martin emphasized the value of the humanities in higher education Wednesday to a group of UW-Madison students, faculty and alumni.
UW-Madison, constrained by state and federal regulations, must provide a studentâ??s name, address and other personal data to any company that wants it, officials said Wednesday.
University of Wisconsin undergraduate admissions for the fall semester have decreased for the first time in five years.
