Category: Campus life

Students have recently begun to blog about their time while studying abroad to give others prospective and to emphasize the â??Wisconsin Experience.â?

UW-Madisonâ??s Division of International Studies publicly launched Badgers Abroad Blog recently to commemorate International Education Week, Nov. 17 â?? 21. The blog gives students planning to study abroad a chance to learn about their destination, and it helps expand the universityâ??s global presence, according to University Relations Specialist Masarah Van Eyck.

Recently unsealed search warrants revealed the call made from the cell phone of Brittany Zimmermann on the day she was killed started with a woman screaming and sounds of a struggle for a short period of time.

In the wake of bits and pieces of the 911 call made by slain UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann being made public, lawyers for media interests on Tuesday asked a Dane County judge for an immediate hearing to make the tape of the call public, even if that hearing had to be held over the phone.

Dane County officials signaled Tuesday they did not oppose the hearing, but Madison police and the Dane County District Attorney’s Office gave a different answer.

Brittany Zimmermannâ??s screams are apparently captured on an audiotape of a 911 call she placed as she was being attacked inside her downtown Madison apartment, according to newly released court documents.

â??The disconnect call started with the sound of a woman screaming and the line remains active and open picking up the background sounds of a struggle for a short period of time,â? according to a search warrant affidavit signed by Madison Police Det. Marion Morgan.

Students who live along West Doty Street said Tuesday they will feel safer once police catch the killer of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student who lived nearby.

According to newly released search warrants, Brittany Zimmermann was lifeless and cold when her roommate found her in the afternoon of April 2 in their apartment on West Doty Street.

Search warrant documents mistakenly left unsealed by the Dane County District Attorney’s Office and Madison detectives, and obtained by WISC-TV, indicate that a 911 call from a University of Wisconsin-Madison student’s cell phone the day she died included sounds of a woman’s screams and noises of a struggle.

At 11:30 in the morning on April 2nd, Brittany Zimmermann spoke to her fiance on her cell phone.

Less than an hour later she was dead.

Newly unsealed search warrants show that Zimmermann made her desperate call to 911 at 12:20 p.m.

According to a search warrant, “The disconnect started with the sound of a woman screaming and the line remains active and open, picking up the background sound of a struggle for a short period of time.”

Unsealed Dane County court documents state a police detective heard “the sound of a woman screaming” in a tape of a 911 call from the cell phone of murder victim, UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann.

The court information contradicts previous statements on the call from a union representative for the operator who handled the call, Rita Gahagan.

A day after accounts of Brittany Zimmermann’s murder and 911 call were unintentionally released to the public, Dane County officials said they still don’t know why a 911 operator didn’t hear screams and a struggle.

But 911 center interim director Kathy Krusiec said steps have been taken to reduce the chance other errors â?? like the failure to call back Zimmermann’s phone after the call was disconnected â?? will happen in the future.

Plans to create a pedestrian mall as a part of the design for the new south campus union made their way to Madisonâ??s Plan Commission at a public hearing Monday night.

Ald. Eli Judge announced Monday that he would not seek a second term as the campus-area representative to the City Council.

Judge, 21, is a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior expecting to graduate in May and go on to law school. While UW-Madison is at the top of his list of schools, Judge cited the demands of law school as his reason for not running again.

University of Wisconsin officials said Monday the investigation into the hazing incidents that prompted a one-week suspension of the marching band this fall is over.

Search warrants show that a college student slain in her off-campus Madison apartment was lifeless and cold when her roommate found her, but she had called 911 about 50 minutes earlier — only to have the call mishandled.

Forty-eight minutes.

That’s how much time passed between the mishandled 911 call from Brittany Zimmermann’s phone and when Madison police were sent to her West Doty Street apartment to find her brutally murdered on April 2, investigators reveal in previously sealed court documents obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal.

The notorious 911 call from Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone the day she died carried the sounds of a woman’s screams and a struggle, according to long-sealed search warrants obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal.

Madison police and Dane County officials have for months refused to disclose the content of the call, which has been at the center of a public controversy over operations, management and staffing at the county 911 center

It’s time to put director Mike Leckrone and his UW Marching Band on notice.

Either Leckrone gets the band to stop the senseless, repulsive hazing of younger members, or UW officials replace Lekrone with somone who can.

Jewish, Muslim and Christian families gathered together on the walls of the DeRicci Gallery at Edgewood College in Madison between October 19 and November 28.

Images of the families are part of a photo exhibit, â??Families of Abraham,â? which kicked off with a reception on October 22 that included a lecture from Eleanor Brawley, the curator and lead photographer.

The exhibit follows 11 Jewish, Muslim and Christian families in the Charolette, N.C., area throughout the course of a year.

The diverse group of families includes single mothers and families of eight and secular households and Muslims that pray five times a day. It shows weddings and funerals, and how religion guides the families through their daily lives.

When the University of Wisconsin Law Schools Mock Trial Team earned a second-place finish at a tournament in Los Angeles last month, it marked a noteworthy accomplishment for a program that, just over five years ago, didnt exist.

In the sea of red that enveloped Union South on UW-Madison’s campus Saturday afternoon were guarantees of green.

The facility, built in 1971, is set to be torn down at the end of this year for a new, larger, and more environmentally friendly building.

Among those in Saturday’s last Badger Bash pregame festivity was Al Radliff, class of 1972. “It’s been a while since I’ve been here, but it’s great to be back and be able to see this place one last time before they tear this down for the new Union South,” he said.

In light of Mondayâ??s all too familiar appearance of slush and ice in the streets, the University of Wisconsin warned moped drivers to exercise caution in the coming winter months.

Parents of Wisconsin marching band members expressed outrage over the school’s handling of a hazing investigation in dozens of e-mails to administrators, according to records released Monday.

The parents threatened to withhold donations, sought refunds for football tickets and even vowed to seek the firing of an assistant dean who led the probe, the e-mails show.

The parents said they were angry the university suspended the entire 300-member marching band while investigating allegations against a small minority of its members.

The investigation into hazing allegations by members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison marching band stemmed from complaints from parents of two male freshman band members, according to documents released Monday.

A few previously unreported examples of inappropriate behavior by band members included singing a cadence that includes the word vagina, placing a condom on a banana and a game involving alcohol in which some band members formed a “hamster cage” for other students using torn up pages of phone books.

Alarmed parents of two male UW Marching Band members helped trigger the university investigation into alcohol and sexual-related hazing allegations earlier this fall, according to newly released UW-Madison documents.

The charges, which were mostly confirmed by the university, led to the entire band’s one-game suspension Oct. 4.

Private student lender Edamerica has met its loan obligations to Milwaukee Area Technical College students after announcing earlier this year it did not have the cash to cut loan refund checks on time.

In late September, Knoxville, Tenn.-based Edamerica told MATC that it would not be able to make about $250,000 in payments for more than 100 students by the agreed-upon deadline. Like other lenders, Edamerica lacked liquidity because of the credit crisis.

MATC was among several colleges across the country to get the warning. Loan checks from Edamerica to students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stout were several weeks late as well.

Students, friends, family and alumni of the UW-Madison community are preparing to celebrate the last Badger Bash tailgate at Union South before the Badger football match against California Polytechnic Saturday.

Norovirus has caused an outbreak of diarrhea-causing illness that has sickened at least 140 students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this month, a health official said Thursday.

The Madison Police Department on Wednesday released a sketch of a man they say sexually assaulted a 21-year-old woman while she was jogging on the city’s East Side on Sunday night.

The incident occurred at about 9 p.m. in the 2200 block of East Washington Avenue when the woman, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student, was apparently grabbed from behind by a man.

Adam Peterson did not intend to kill Joel Marino, according to his defense attorney.

Marino was killed inside his Madison home in January. Peterson has pleaded not guilty to first-degree intentional homicide.

Assistant Public Defender Dennis Burke says Peterson admits he caused Marino’s death, but Burke says the killing was an impulse act. He will be pushing for a lesser charge. (Audio.)

A proposed new fire safety ordinance is named in honor of University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student Peter Talen, who died one year ago yesterday in a house fire on North Bedford Street.

After record snowfall in Madison last year, the University of Wisconsin announced Tuesday it is stepping up its efforts to combat the elements.

Of equal concern to police are robberies, crimes that have gotten a lot of attention around this city where so many people walk or bike to get around. It’s a common site on campus.

Lieutenant Eric Hollen with the UW-Madison Police Department says, “We have seen an increase in the surrounding area.”

Armed Robberies and strong armed robberies have happened 15 more times in Madison this year than they had at this time last year.

Hollen says, “At any time of day you really have to look at what the situation is.”

A member of the University Police Department for 17 years, Lieutenant Hollen often gets questions from students and concerned parents about how to stay safe.

Members of the Wisconsin Union are approaching the final months of planning for the new south-campus union construction, which will commence after the demolition of Union South in January.

One year after a house fire on Bedford Street killed a UW-La Crosse student and injured three UW-Madison students, city officials are taking action in the form of a new fire-safety ordinance that would create stricter fire-alarm regulations in downtown housing.

Madison alders and the Madison Fire Department are introducing a new fire safety initiative today, one year after a house fire on North Bedford Street claimed the life of a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student.

UW-Madison officials are being proactive this year in preparing for any repeat of the snowiest winter in Madison’s history, with a variety of snow removal improvements and storm warnings being put in place.

“After last winter, we reached out to the university and sought ideas for how to keep the campus clear and slip-free and studied how other large snow belt campuses deal with snow removal,” said Alan Fish, UW-Madison associate vice chancellor for facilities.

Record numbers of University of Wisconsin-Madison students are studying abroad, an increase that exceeds the national average and places the school among the top 10 U.S. research universities for study-abroad participation, according to an international report released Monday.