Category: Campus life

Representatives and participants of national and international service programs shared experiences and answered UW-Madison student questions during an informational panel Monday.

Last semester, a man dressed as a FedEx employee burst into Kristopher Olds’ geography class, announcing he had a package for a student in the 70-person class.

It turned out he was no delivery man, but a marketer for the energy drink Red Bull â?? and the box was full of the product. Red Bull promoters hit up at least three classes across campus in a guerilla marketing campaign.

Although that scheme was unusually bold, college students are a prime target for such marketing techniques, experts say.

At UW-Madison, such solicitations are prohibited, unless the vendors get special permission from the university.

Surveillance cameras could capture ugly behavior near and inside Madison bars if a Downtown coalition’s ideas move forward.

The effort, begun last year and involving perhaps the broadest coalition ever to confront crime and violence Downtown â?? and the perception of it â?? includes Downtown Madison Inc., the city, UW-Madison, bar owners, police, the business community, neighborhood leaders and others.

There were no records broken nor many snowballs assembled in what was supposed to be a massive snowball fight on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon at Bascom Hill on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

An estimated 700 students — most underdressed despite bone-chilling temperatures hovering in the single digits — hurled snow chunks at each other for nearly 30 minutes. The cold temps made it difficult to form actual snowballs, but that didn’t stop the students from engaging in battle.

Henry Weiner is a University of Wisconsin-Madison junior studying this semester in Prague, Czech Republic. Nate Juergens is a Macalester College sophomore studying this month in Rome, Italy.

On orders from their father (me) and mother (my spouse, Ann Juergens) they wrote emails about what they saw and felt an ocean away on Tuesday during Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Can $400,000 buy UW-Madison a better campus radio station?

Former chancellor John Wiley thought so. Last year he earmarked an unrestricted grant to help WSUM move from its former location in the Towers on State Street. The station’s posh new studio is inside the newly constructed University Square multipurpose monolith.

The invitations have been sent through Facebook. The rules are set. Police and medical responders are ready to go.

When a whistle blows Saturday afternoon, University of Wisconsin-Madison students will begin pelting each other with snowballs in a fight they hope will go down in history.

The snowballs flew in barrage after barrage at UW-Madison, but Saturdayâ??s fight fell far short of the record that organizers hoped to achieve.

After two teams at the UW-Madison campus battled back and forth for about 45 minutes, organizer Mike Basak acknowledged the turnout was nowhere near the record for a snowball fight.

The snowballs were flying on the UW-Madison campus Saturday, but it probably won’t result in a world record.

Nonetheless, it was an amazing site to see on Bascom Hill. A UW student used a page on the social networking site Facebook to recruit students for the snowball fight of all snowball fights. He wanted to break the current record of most participants.

The students came prepared and excited. “I first heard about it in class, then the Facebook thing started, and you know, I loved watching that thing grow from the first few days from 200 to several thousand,” said student Jacob Sager.

A group of UW-Madison students braved the cold on Saturday to send a message to President Barack Obama.

They urged the newly inaugurated President to not forget his promise for change at the “Hold Change Accountable” rally outside of Library Mall.

While President Obama is promoting his economic stimulus package, some University of Wisconsin-Madison students are promoting the idea that Obama needs to live up to his many campaign promises.

Students gathered in downtown Madison Saturday for a peaceful rally calling on President Obama, Wisconsin state legislators, and new UW chancellor Biddy Martin, to fulfill their promises and bring necessary change directly into young people’s lives.

UW senior Alex Kalfayan wasn’t initially planning on joining the rally.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of Violence Against Women granted UW-Madison $300,000 Thursday to help prevent domestic violence on campus. Other partners from within the university and around the Dane County area will work with the university to help prevent not only domestic violence, but sexual assault and stalking as well.

Madison landlord Dave Wood recently proposed a campaign directed toward UW-Madison students that seeks to increase safety education in student housing.

Madison landlord Dave Wood had to look no farther than his own eight rental buildings Downtown for examples of the need for his first-of-its-kind safety campaign for student housing.

An apartment owner in Madison is taking safety concerns into his own hands — and his efforts are catching on.

Property owner Dave Wood said he is working to change the culture of a stereotypical renter. He said the idea is to get renters to think about protecting themselves and their property — both inside and outside their apartment.

An unexpected $20,000 had to be pumped into the University of Wisconsin-La Crosseâ??s textbook rental program to ensure all students had materials in time for Mondayâ??s start of the spring semester, officials said.

Bart Vanvoorhis, associate professor of psychology, said UW-Lâ??s textbook rental staff told him last week they couldnâ??t buy more textbooks, even though his spring semester psychology class was 14 books short.

â??It flabbergasts me that we could ever be in a position that this could happen at a university,â? said Vanvoorhis.

University of Wisconsin junior Mark Woulf officially announced his candidacy for the District 8 alder seat Wednesday night.

Several biochemistry buildings were evacuated after a gas main was punctured during a routine excavation project east of engineering mall.

Madison landlord Dave Wood had to look no further than his own eight rental buildings Downtown for great examples of why the new safety campaign for student housing that he was planning was needed.

In the space of just a few days over the last two weeks, as Wood posted new laminated posters he designed with safety tips approved by the Madison police and fire departments, Wood spied the following:

At 2020 Kendall Avenue, at the front of the building, the main entry door stood wide open, Wood said. Inside the building, on a landing outside one apartment, the unit’s smoke detector was sitting among some shoes on the steps, after someone detached it from the unit’s ceiling.

Students across the UW-Madison campus gathered in groups and watched with excitement as Chief Justice Roberts swore President Barack Obama into office at the 44th inauguration ceremony Tuesday.

Madison Police are searching for a man who they say exposed himself outside a sorority house last weekend.

Saturday night, two UW-Madison students told officers they spotted a man outside their sorority house on the 100 block of Langdon Street, “performing an act of sexual gratification outside of their window.”

As I stepped onto the U.S. Capitol lawn, chilled from waiting outside for hours in the cold and about to witness the inauguration of the first African American president of the United States, my involvement with the Obama campaign came full circle. I was an early primary supporter of the candidate, helped start the Students for Obama group on the UW-Madison campus, and worked for the general election campaign with the College Democrats this fall. While Election Night last November was an incredible and gratifying experience, the opportunity to see Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th president was a fitting way to see the campaign through its end.

Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are sharpening their foreign language skills and developing global perspectives in foreign language housing.

As part of the program, students immerse themselves in their language of choice on one of six floors, each with a focus on a different culture, WISC-TV reported.

“It’s really important to just understand cultures and the world, I feel, because if you don’t understand the people of the world, you can’t really understand where they’re coming from,” said Christy Pankratz, a student who speaks English, Portuguese and Spanish.

Even as Madison, Wis., suffers arctic-like temperatures, there is a warm ray of hope for the commercial real-estate industry.

The city’s academic sector is seeing a building boomlet while developers in other parts of the country slam the brakes on new office buildings, stores and shopping centers.

A student-services hub at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is part of a larger mixed-use project called University Square.

About $600 million of new building projects are under construction on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and more than $450 million of additional projects are in the planning stage, said Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor of facilities planning and management at the university.

Katherine Skroch teared up when President Barack Obama finished speaking.

“The gravity of this day will be remembered for a very long time,” she said. “I’m glad I was here to witness this.”

Several hundred students and staff watched Obama’s inauguration speech at a viewing party at the Multicultural Center in the Red Gym on campus.

The climbing costs of textbooks are convincing some college students to get creative.

Instead of turning to the Internet to find used textbooks on the cheap, some students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are finding another low-cost option. Some students said the price of textbooks is mind-blowing, WISC-TV reported.

“Last semester, it was about $500,” said student Laura Reich. “Yeah, it’s painful.”

UW-Madison students discuss the inauguration in this video report.

The closing of the fall semester brought the end of Pat Farrellâ??s time as the UW-Madison provost.

President-elect Obamaâ??s historic inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20 is expected to draw a record crowd, including a handful of UW-Madison students.

Semester after semester, students on campuses across the country voice concerns about out-of-control textbook costs.

Yet year after year, little seems to be done to address the issue.

Over the past two academic years alone, UW-Madison students have seen the average amount paid for textbooks and supplies jump $100 — from $890 during 2006-07 to an estimated $990 this year, according to a UW System review unveiled at a Board of Regents meeting in December.

….Instead of waiting for the powers-that-be to take significant action to address the issue, UW-Madison students are continuing to take steps themselves to lessen the burden of soaring costs.

It is for some the realization of a dream deferred, for others a sweet soaring entry into the world of politics. For Madison’s African-American community, Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration is a historic moment full of the promise he held out to voters in his campaign.

Some of them will be joining the millions of people expected to gather, shoulder to shoulder, on the National Mall on Jan. 20 to witness Obama’s swearing-in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The family of slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann and her fiancé are suing Dane County.

According to court records, the Zimmermann family and Jordan Gonnering have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Dane County.

The University of Colorado this week leap-frogged over the University of Wisconsin-Madison to claim the No. 2 spot on the Peace Corps’ annual ranking of alumni volunteers.

Only the University of Washington provided more volunteers — in the large-school category, featuring institutions with more than 15,000 undergraduates — than CU’s Boulder campus, according to figures released Monday by the Peace Corps.

While feelings of shock still linger, an investigation is continuing into the apparent suicide this weekend of the man accused of killing Madison resident Joel Marino last year.

Adam Peterson, a former University of Wisconsin-Madison student and Minnesota native, apparently hanged himself. The Dodge Correctional Institution, which was holding Peterson, is investigating his death, including an apparent letter left by Peterson. Officials aren’t releasing any of the details surrounding that letter at this time, WISC-TV reported.

Convicted murderer Adam Peterson’s father told 27 News his son’s death happened just one day before Melvin Peterson’s first planned visit with his son in prison.

“I would have hugged him. I could have held his hand,” Melvin Peterson of St. Paul told 27 News.

State corrections officials said Peterson was discovered Saturday in his cell at Dodge correctional facility in Waupun, hanging by bed sheets from the top rail of his prison bunk.

Nearly a year after Adam Peterson attacked and killed a man in his downtown Madison home, and a month after being taken off suicide watch, the convicted killer took his own life late Saturday night by hanging himself with a sheet from his bunk bed in the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, according to a news release from the state Department of Corrections.

Peterson, who would have turned 21 on Feb. 22, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and psychosis after being arrested for the killing of Joel Marino, 31, in Marino’s home on Monona Bay. Peterson had attempted suicide on Sept. 25 in the Dane County Jail while awaiting trial but was rescued by a deputy.

The former University of Wisconsin-Madison student convicted of killing Madison resident Joel Marino last year apparently committed suicide on Saturday night while serving a life sentence in the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, according to Dodge County authorities.

Adam C. Peterson, 20, apparently hanged himself and was found by his cellmate. Peterson was discovered hanging from an upper bunk bed railing shortly after 10 p.m. One end of a bed sheet was tired around his neck and the other tied to the railing of the bed, according to the Dodge County Sheriff’s Department.

“Our purpose in life for a year was to get justice for Joel, and apparently that ended today as far as the total priority of what we do first and foremost,” Lou Marino said Sunday night.

The man convicted of killing a Madison man almost a year ago dies in prison. On Sunday, the victim’s father spoke about the man who took his son’s life.

The murder happened almost a year ago. Joel Marino was stabbed to death near his Madison home one afternoon.

About one-quarter of the 911 call placed by Brittany Zimmermann’s fiance after he came home and found her killed last April was omitted by Madison police before being released to the media.

The heavily redacted call was released on Thursday under court order to WISC-TV and three other media outlets — the Wisconsin State Journal, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee — that sued Dane County for release of a 911 call apparently made by Zimmermann herself before she was killed and related documents.

The UW-Madison veterinary school is trying to increase the number of researchers and classroom teachers. Many vets are choosing private practice, creating concern that fewer people doing research could affect discoveries that help both animals and humans.

For some vet students, money is a factor in choosing which career path to follow. There are school loans to pay, $100,000 on average, and caring for the medical needs of animals is often more lucrative than working in a lab. Another obstacle for animal scientists is the smaller amount of government money available for research on pets compared to people.

In an effort to lure more vets to the lab and classroom, UW-Madison is connecting with students in various medical training programs all over the country. Lauren Trepanier is an associate professor at the Department of Veterinary Medicine. She says during a workshop this fall, they will mentor and guide students toward a career combining research with patient care. (Tenth item.)

College students and other renters in Madison might better be able to discriminate between good landlords and slumlords if an idea from Ald. Eli Judge, 8th District, gains momentum.

Judge said he hopes to create the Web site ratemypropertyowner.com, where tenants would be able to gather information on prospective property owners from the people who would know best: other tenants. Judge is a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior whose district encompasses mostly dorms and student-rented apartments.

Now a first-year student at UW-Madison, Marley Wheeler, remembers she once did not know how she would pay for her college when she was accepted.

She wasn’t a valedictorian, but she applied herself and was 19th in her class. Despite this, she still doubted she’d receive a full year’s scholarship when she applied to the L.H. Eckhardt Memorial Scholarship Trust, created by Chester Bible.

Dane County 911 Call Center officials said the volume of the recorded 911 call from made by a slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student sometime before she was killed in April could have been different from the actual call.

WISC-TV found that’s because recorded calls and those at dispatcher consoles can have different volume levels.

At issue nine months after the slaying of Brittany Zimmermann, 21, is why a former 911 dispatcher didn’t hear “sounds of an emergency” on the April 2 call from Zimmermann’s cell phone when police and others did hear sounds of a struggle.