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.
The head of the Wisconsin private school system called Wednesday for a more equal distribution of financial aid among the private, technical and University of Wisconsin systems.
Several biochemistry buildings were evacuated after a gas main was punctured during a routine excavation project east of engineering mall.
Mariah Dunham lost a cherished family member a couple weeks ago when her aunt, Debbie Simonds, died after a yearlong battle with brain cancer. At the same time, she was reminded that she has a big extended family with the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team.
It has been an emotional period for Dunham, a junior forward from Watertown, as she has tried to juggle family and basketball. In the end, she has learned that they are one and the same.
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.
As students return to campus for the spring semester, the new Student Services Tower will offer endless dining, shopping and health facilities.
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.
As Harriet Knight-Everette set out from Madison to Washington, D.C., to witness the inauguration of the next president of the United States, she reflected on how far her nation had come.
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.
Area universities and colleges are doing what they can to ensure college remains affordable for students and their parents, officials said.
Students and their parents provide information about their income through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Since the application draws on income tax information from the previous year, it might not reflect a job loss, said Susan Fischer, director of UW-Madison’s student financial aid office.
Fischer urges students from any school to give notice if their financial situation has changed. This goes for high school seniors who still are applying for colleges.
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.
MILWAUKEE — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said Marquette University is doing classroom experiments in which turtles are being struck on the head with a hammer to kill them and frogs and rats are being maimed and killed in teaching physiology.
The group has asked the university to use non-animal methods for instruction in the class, including detailed computer animations.
DEERFIELD — At 23, Christine Walters was figuring out who she wanted to be.
Friends and family hope she’s still out there, embracing nature and taking a break from traditional society.
But two months after the Deerfield High School graduate was last seen in northern California, they’re increasingly frightened.
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.
As a cold gray winter day began, more than 50 enthusiastic volunteers gathered at Chet’s Car Care Center in north Madison on Saturday to load boxes of medical and school supplies onto a semi-trailer headed for Honduras.
Many more hours had been spent during prior months boxing and wrapping the material, and designating where in the Central American country it should go so that volunteer teams arriving in February and March can provide free services for 4,000 to 5,000 patients.
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 director of a University of Wisconsin think tank is analyzing education options for Racine, including free college tuition for students.
The economic and education analysis is the first step toward creating the recently proposed Racine Promise program, which would provide free college tuition for all City of Racine high school graduates.
It would be funded by private and corporate dollars rather than city taxes, but the details on how it would run have not been established.
Noel Radomski, who is conducting the analysis of Racineâ??s economic trends and education options, said the Racine Promise could be feasible. But he said a lot needs to be done first.
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.
Dear Editor: Much has been said already about the increasingly quiet nature of the basketball fans at the Kohl Center. Rob Schultz described the crowd at the Penn State game as morose and the quietest in the history of the Kohl Center. This did not happen overnight.
It is a sad day in Badgerland when the student athletes have to act as cheerleaders to exhort the fans to get involved.
For nearly the first half of this decade, former University of Wisconsin-Madison student Reed Rogala was raking in cash by bringing thousands of pounds of Canadian marijuana to Madison.
And when that business failed, he turned to making and selling glass bongs.
In Dane County, more young people between seventh and 12th grades are abstaining from alcohol than regularly using it, according to a 2005 assessment. Still, the fact that nearly 30 percent of local youth are considered regular drinkers is a cause for concern for many.
About 30 people turned out Monday night for the first meeting of a new coalition looking to combat alcohol abuse in Dane County. Every seat was filled in an upstairs meeting room at the Exhibition Hall of the Alliant Energy Center.
The union that represents a former Dane County 911 dispatcher accused of mishandling an emergency call from a slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student shortly before she was killed will appeal her three-day suspension.
The first meeting of a new coalition to combat alcohol abuse in Dane County will be held Monday night after being postponed in early December because of bad weather.
Students who start classes at one college and transfer after just one year might harm their chances of graduating further down the road, according to University of Wisconsin System data.
UW students who began their studies in fall 2001 had a 68 percent graduation rate if they transferred from a UW college after two years, according to a report released by the UW System Office of Policy Analysis and Research.
University officials say there are no UW-Madison students studying in Gaza as Israeli air strikes rain down on the area.
But Jennifer Loewenstein, associate director of UW-Madison’s Middle East Studies Program, said she was supposed to be there. After living in Gaza for six months in 2002, Loewenstein said she has been back almost every year since.
While sitting in his Dane County courtroom last week, I didn’t hear Judge Richard Niess give a single good reason in support of his decision to let local authorities continue to withhold the recording of murder victim Brittany Zimmermann’s mishandled 911 call.
As I’ve noted elsewhere (“Judge Backs Secrecy on Zimmermann 911 Call,” TheDailyPage.com, 12/22/08), Niess’ ruling was wildly at odds with his reasoning. He observed that local authorities have on this matter been completely untrustworthy, even in their arguments for suppressing the recording. Then, in a stunning display of pretzel logic, he came around to declaring that he had decided to trust them.
When Ryan T. Muneio was tailgating with his parents at a Michigan State football game this fall, he noticed a big tent emblazoned with a Bank of America logo. Inside, bank representatives were offering free T-shirts and other merchandise to those who applied for credit cards and other banking products.
More students are applying for scholarships in the D.C. Everest School District, possible signs of the rising cost of a college education and tough economic times.
Last year, one or two students came in the career center each day to get information and applications. This year at least five or six students a day are coming in, said Rose Matthiae, career specialist at the school.
“I’m also seeing more parents come in to get information, at least two or three a week,” she said.
Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk on Monday defended the three-day suspension that her interim chief of the county’s 911 call center gave the dispatcher who took the emergency call from slain student Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone last spring.
Former 911 dispatcher Rita Gahagan now has another county job, but was suspended last week.
Earlier this year, county officials said after an investigation that the call, apparently made sometime before Zimmermann was killed in her campus-area apartment, was mishandled. After Zimmermann’s minute-long call disconnected, Gahagan didn’t send police or call the number ba
As the number of college students using MySpace and Facebook social networking sites grows, so do concerns about what theyâ??re posting. Some companies see an opportunity in helping them avoid embarrassing themselves, and even hurting their future.
Quoted: Justin Doherty of the UW Madisonâ??s athletic department says they could potentially use such a service. He says right now, they just talk to all the UW teams about online postings. (Third item.)
Andrew Knips picked UW-Madison over some other schools, in part, because he knew there was a local table tennis club of longtime players.
And in 2006, Knips, 22, met Richard Qian and Brian Hibler, both of Brookfield, and worked to start table tennis as a club sport at UW-Madison.
Wind, rain and sleet greeted 14 University of Wisconsin students as they trudged through briars, mud and hilly terrain, driving whitetail deer from the woods.
About a dozen other students â?? members of the Badger Hunting Club â?? waited in anticipation, rifles ready to shoot as deer bolted into a clearing.
The hunt Nov. 8 was a field trip as part of the Madison’s school’s Geography 343 class â?? People, Wildlife, and Landscape â?? in which Professor Lisa Naughton teaches the dynamics of human/wildlife interactions using deer hunting as a case study.
Everyone who has heard the recording of the 911 call from Brittany Zimmerman’s cell phone seems to agree that something went horribly wrong at the Dane County emergency dispatch center April 2.
A Dane County judge has ruled, however, that the time has not yet come for the taxpaying public to hear exactly how wrong it was.
A former emergency dispatcher has been suspended for mishandling a slain college student’s 911 call.
Topf Wells, chief of staff for Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, said Friday that Rita Gahagan will serve a three-day suspension without pay from her current job as a county child support clerk. Gahagan’s immediate supervisor will decide when she must begin the suspension.
Someone broke into University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann’s campus-area apartment in the middle of the day on April 2 and stabbed her to death. The killer remains at large.
The Dane County 911 dispatcher who mishandled the emergency call from murder victim Brittany Zimmermann will face a 3-day suspension without pay.
Rita Gahagan is no longer working in the 911 call center, but she will serve her suspension sometime in the new year, according to the Dane County Executive’s office.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — It’s the “P” word that Willy Leparulo dreads. Pingpong.
“It’s like putting nails on a chalk board,” Leparulo said. “It’s defeating some of the stereotype with just the general sport. Hopefully, by calling it table tennis you get a little bit more respect.”
UW-Madison’s winter commencement ceremonies have passed, but one student’s speech has generated continuing controversy for giving parents and families a little too much detail about what their graduates may have been doing over the past four or more years.
UW-Madison graduate Savannah Ziegelbauer spoke on behalf of graduates at the 10 a.m. ceremony Sunday. While her speech’s focus was on three campus landmarks that symbolized the growth and achievements of graduates, it also made eight references to drinking or partying — including four in the first 30 seconds — which caused offense for some faculty and audience members.
Hillel Foundation University of Wisconsin in Madison is gearing up for another exciting winter Taglit Birthright Israel trip, scheduled for next month.
Twenty-five UW students are weeks away from embarking on their free trip to Israel, and they will share a bus with 15 students from New York University.
UW-Hillelâ??s new Israel program coordinator Nilli Glick will be on staff for this trip. Nilli brings with her several years of experienc
Recordings of the 911 calls from a Madison homicide victim’s cell phone and her fiancee will not be released to the public, a Dane County judge decided Monday.
Judge Richard Niess said the tapes still had investigative value to the police and that value was more important than the public interest in disclosing them.
The Wisconsin State Journal asked on April 17 for recordings of all 911 calls related to the death of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann on April 2.
