Category: Campus life

Although UW-Madison School of Business Dean Michael Knetter told a womenâ??s leadership organization Tuesday the school undercharges for its tuition, he clarified Wednesday he is sensitive to the financial struggles many students face.

â??When I said UW-Madisonâ??s tuition was underpriced, I meant it in relation to both the in-state tuition rate and the economic opportunities created in other Big Ten institutions,â? Knetter said in an interview. â??I specifically did not mean it in relation to all students and all families attending the university.â?

Two young men walking along Breese Terrace early Sunday morning were beaten, one quite viciously, after one of the two accidentally bumped into another man who was in a group on the sidewalk.

The attack took place at 12:30 a.m. in the 100 block of North Breese Terrace, along the west side of Camp Randall Stadium.

A caller to Madison police said she overheard someone walking by saying he had just severely injured someone, but police responding to the area couldn’t find a victim. At 1:30 a.m., a man was carried by two other men into a local hospital.

The Associated Students of Madisonâ??s Constitutional Committee put together a timeline and recommendation delaying a vote on the newly restructured constitution Tuesday night.

The committee told the Student Council the vote should move from the expected fall election date to a special election in February 2009.

The UW-Madison Department of Economics is currently struggling to provide economics majors with the classes needed to graduate and prospective students with necessary resources.

â??The number of people who are interested in getting an economics degree has exploded over the past 10 years, and that has happened at a time when we have had constrained resources,â? said Gary Sandefur, dean of the College of Letters & Science.

UW-Madison students can register to vote at their campus addresses without facing consequences for registering in locations away from their hometowns, despite recent controversy over the issue in other states.

Virginia Tech students were discouraged from registering to vote when local election officials issued two statements last month incorrectly warning them against registering at their college residencies, according to The New York Times.

http://chronicle.com/news/article/5110/u-of-wisconsin-economics-department-faces-growing-demand
As more and more students decide to major in economics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, some are voicing concern about waiting lists for required upper-division courses, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

The three young people killed in a car accident late last month on Madison’s west side were remembered for their sparkle, their hard work, their excellence and their quirky personalities during a UW-Madison memorial service Monday night.

About 40 people gathered in the Red Gym to pay their respects to the friends and families of Lindsey Plank, 23, Dan Myers, 22, and Rick Putze, 22, who died when the car they were in crashed into a tree on South Midvale Boulevard between Mineral Point Road and Regent Street Aug 27.

This would be Teach for Americaâ??s first effort in Wisconsin, although the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been an active source for participants. Steve Mancini, a spokesman for Teach for America, said 250 UW-Madison students applied and 55 were accepted into Teach for America this year. In addition, 11 Marquette University graduates are beginning work this fall.

Sixteen bike thieves have been caught red-handed as a result of the University of Wisconsin Police Departmentâ??s â??Bait Bikeâ? program.

Using GPS technology, UWPD officers leave locked and unlocked bikes around campus and wait for them to be stolen. When one of the bikes moves, UWPD is notified and an officer is dispatched to issue the thief a citation. The fine for stealing a bike in Madison is $406.50.

University of Wisconsin community members mourned Monday the death of three students killed in a car accident and remembered them as enthusiastic students who positively affected the UW community.

In attendance were dozens of UW students, staff and faculty who shared stories to celebrate the lives of Rick Putze, Lindsey Plank and Dan Myers.

A new tracking system initiated by the University of Wisconsin Police Department is aiming to cut down the amount of bicycles stolen on campus.

â??Bait Bikes,â? launched in May, places GPS equipment on select bicycles around campus.

UWPD Officer John Deering followed University of Toronto Police officers in starting the program at UW-Madison.

Members of the UW-Madison community gathered at the Red Gym Monday evening to pay their respects to students who died in a car crash days before the fall semester began.

Lindsey Plank, 23, Dan Myers, 22, and Rick Putze, 22, were killed in a single vehicle car accident Aug. 27 on Midvale Boulevard.

Dean of Students Lori Berquam began the service with a reflection of the studentsâ?? lives at the university through a Power Point video.

It’s a new way to catch bike thieves at colleges.

In May of this year, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department began using GPS technology to track stolen bicycles. Sergeant Jason Whitney says despite most students — and their bikes — absent from campus for summer break, police still managed to capture several thieves due to the new “bait bike” program.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department (UWPD) has a new, high-tech answer to the decades-old problem of campus bicycle thefts. In May 2008, the department began placing bikes equipped with GPS units in places around campus where other thefts have been reported.

The program, created by Police Officer John Deering, is showing positive early results. From January 2007 to May 2008, the UW-Madison police took reports of a total of 100 reported bike thefts. During the 2007-2008 academic year, only one person was arrested for a bike theft.

With the GPS program in place, 16 arrests had been made between May and August 1.

UW-Madison students and staff, family and friends are invited to the Red Gym on campus Monday night for a campus memorial service for three students killed Aug. 27 in a car crash on Madison’s west side.

The service for Lindsey Plank, Dan Myers and Richard Putze will be at 8 p.m. in the historic facility located at 716 Langdon St. on campus just east of the Memorial Union.

The service is being coordinated by University Religious Workers in cooperation with the offices of the dean of students. Attendees are invited to share stories and reflections about the lives of the three students. Dean of Students Lori Berquam is also expected to speak at the service.

Dane County 911 Director Joe Norwick, who came under heavy fire following the center’s mishandling of a call from homicide victim Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone, has resigned.

Norwick, 54, a 30-year veteran of the Dane County Sheriff’s Office and former chief deputy, tendered his resignation Tuesday. Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said Norwick indicated that stress was a major reason for his decision.

Hundreds of students attended the Multicultural Student Centerâ??s 27th Multicultural Orientation Reception Friday, an event consisting of fairs, a multicultural showcase and a dance.

The eveningâ??s theme was â??Mind, Body and Soul: Making Every Experience Count,â? to reflect the challenge â??to make the very most of your experience here while youâ??re at this campus,â? according to Candace McDowell, chair of the planning committee for the MCSC.

http://badgerherald.com/news/2008/09/08/uw-oshkosh_to_pledge.php
While the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh announced last week it will provide as many fair trade products as possible to its students, UW-Madison is not currently moving in the same direction.

UW spokesperson John Lucas said the chancellorâ??s office has been encouraged to look at purchasing fair trade products, but it would be a â??stretchâ? for such a large university to move in the same direction as UW-Oshkosh

Embattled Dane County 911 Center Director Joe Norwick resigned, five months after the mishandling of an emergency call from the cell phone of a murder victim led to intense scrutiny of 911 Center operations.

Joe Norwick, the embattled director of Dane County’s 911 Center, has resigned effective Sept. 19.

Norwick came under heavy criticism this summer following the revelation that the 911 Center had received a call from Brittany Zimmermann just prior to her murder on April 2. Although the call came in, it was disconnected, and dispatchers did call back, so police were not dispatched to Zimmermann’s apartment on Doty Street until after her death. There have been no arrests in the case.

Five months after University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann was found dead in her West Doty Street apartment, a $5,000 reward fund has been created in the hopes it will lead someone to come forward with information regarding her death.

An emotionally charged message written by Brittany’s parents, Kevin and Jean Zimmermann, and read by her aunt, Kim Heeg, at a news conference Thursday morning said: “The past five months have been agonizing and today we still have no answers as to who took our daughter from us. … The days since Brittany’s death have been very dark and we are desperate to find justice for our daughter.”

The family of slain UW Madison student Brittany Zimmermann launched a reward fund Wednesday with an emotional appeal for information that will bring her killer to justice.

“We have to believe that someone has additional information that has not been shared with the police,” said Kim Heeg, Zimmermann’s aunt, as she tearfully announced the fund, now at $5,000, for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

She attended high school in Middleton, but Y Mae Sussman’s musical tastes span the globe. Most recently, she’s been making sonic journeys to exotic pop landscapes like Sweden and Denmark.

For Sussman, the names of Scandinavian artists â?? Jens Lekman, the Figurines and Peter, Bjorn & John â?? come as easy as John Mayer and Coldplay.

Sussman will be broadcasting an hour of Scandinavian folk, rock and electronic tracks every Friday at 3 p.m. this fall on WSUM, 91.7 FM, the student-run radio station of UW-Madison. At 11 a.m. each Friday, Sussman will be on the air with her roommate, Mary Beth, spinning Bollywood hits.

Thursday morning, the Madison Police Department reported the sixth murder in Madison in 2008. Juan J. Bernal, 22, of Madison was stabbed outside the Plaza Tavern following an altercation with another bar patron Wednesday evening.

This homicide comes only two days into the new school year and follows a tragic end to the 2007-â??08 academic year.

In February 2007, the Madison City Council approved the Downtown Safety Initiative, citing the need to decrease crime before and after bar time. The Initiative received $100,000 in funding to increase police overtime on Friday and Saturday nights in addition to the installation of new security cameras in the downtown area.

Somewhere between the election of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and the appointment of Noble Wray as police chief, the annual Mifflin Street Block Party began to lose its spark. Revelry was replaced by restriction as the arrest tally ballooned from seven in 2003 to more than 400 last May.

In the wake of this frivolous increase in official presence, the Majestic Theatre has proposed sponsoring the event in order to address the cityâ??s concerns about security as well as student concerns about arrests.

The titles of senior class president, vice president, treasurer and secretary may soon become a thing of the past, Associated Students of Madison leaders said Thursday.

Senior class officers currently do not officially report to ASM, nor do they have many responsibilities beyond finding commencement speakers and photographers.

The family of Brittany Zimmermann announced Thursday they have established a $5,000 reward fund to help further the investigation of the University of Wisconsin studentâ??s homicide.

â??We are here today to remind all of you to please remember her as much as we still are,â? said Kim Heeg, Zimmermannâ??s aunt. â??Itâ??s been five months, and it feels like we are at a bit of a dead end.â?

MADISON (WKOW) — A $5,000 reward has been established for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann’s April murder.

Madison police chief Noble Wray said authorities were particularly interested in anyone who may have seen Zimmermann, 21,  during the mid-morning hours of April 2 as Zimmermann made her way from campus to her West Doty Street apartment.   Zimmermann was found fatally wounded by her fiance in the early afternoon.

The Offices of the Dean of Students and University religious workers will hold a campus memorial service Monday for three UW-Madison students killed in a car crash last week.

The service will commemorate the lives of UW-Madison chemistry lecture volunteers Lindsey Plank and Richard Putze, as well as elite pianist Dan Myers, who died in a car crash Aug. 27 on Midvale Boulevard, days before the start of the fall semester.

UW-Madisonâ??s Office of the Registrar issued a new Wiscard to incoming freshmen and business school students this semester.

In addition to acting as a debit card, the new â??one cardâ? gives students access to some classrooms and computer labs across campus. Freshmen received the first round of Wiscards this summer.

According to Wiscard administrator Jim Wysocky, the university plans to increase key-card access throughout campus, and Grainger Hall, the School of Pharmacy and campus residence halls already have security card technology in place.

MADISON, Wis. — Authorities are hoping a new reward fund will help investigators solve the killing of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student from Marshfield.

At a news conference Thursday morning, Madison police announced the reward fund through the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Foundation for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the death of Brittany Zimmermann.

MADISON, Wis. — Authorities are hoping a new reward fund will help investigators solve the killing of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student from Marshfield.

At a news conference Thursday morning, Madison police announced the reward fund through the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Foundation for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the death of Brittany Zimmermann.

The fund will start at $5,000 and increase as more donations come in, WISC-TV reported.

About 20 UW-Madison students will be cruising around campus on a free Huffy this fall â?? the only catch is they’ll also be peddling a product.

Free Bikes â?? a business started by Matt Lerner, a graduate of the UW-Madison School of Business â?? offers students a semester bike rental, lock and storage, and in exchange they ride around with an advertisement affixed to the bike’s basket and between the frame.

After the first two days of classes, lines are wrapping through the aisles of every bookstore on campus as University of Wisconsin students shell out lots of cash to pay for their books.

But while most students complain about the steep prices of textbooks, individuals are turning to other websites and methods to get the needed material at a cheaper price.

http://www.dailycardinal.com/article/20293

Wisconsin Democratic officials elected UW-Madison junior Analiese Eicher as national chair of the College Democrats of America Womenâ??s Caucus during the CDA National Convention last week in Denver.

Eicher said educating women about their option to be vaccinated against HPV and challenging students around the country to do their part and vote are major priorities.

MADISON, Wis. — Madison police are offering a correction following the investigation of a University of Wisconsin student hit by a car in downtown Madison last week.

Police have now said that the pedestrian was crossing Lake Street last Thursday when a car ran a red light. Initial reports said police ticketed the woman but tickets were dropped, WISC-TV reported.

MADISON (WKOW) — From Wisconsin Democrats:

Last week at the College Democrats of America (CDA) National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Wisconsin student Analiese Eicher was elected National Chair of the CDA Women’s Caucus….Eicher is a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison majoring in political science. She has been active in the College Democrats of Wisconsin as the Women’s Issues Director for the past two years and was previously the CDA Women’s Caucus Campus Outreach Director.

On the night of May 12, University of Wisconsin sophomore Nate Anderson and junior Mike Miesen were both studying for their upcoming finals â?? one was at the library and the other in the study of the Sigma Phi Epsilon house, 237 Langdon St.

At about 11:30 p.m., Miesen, the fraternityâ??s chapter president, heard screaming and yelling. When he turned to look at the back of the house, he saw a fire

Outgoing University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley overturned two decisions made by the student finance committee this summer, granting contract status to a student organization and funding another for the upcoming academic year.