Category: Campus life

MANITOWOC â?? Brian Backhaus wants to take a bite out of Silver Lake Park’s restoration balance, and he’s willing to travel 3,500 miles to do so.

Backhaus, a town of Newton native and junior forestry student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, leaves Saturday on a cross-country bicycle trip he hopes will raise $15,000 for the park. The 25-year-old is accepting pledges by the mile or in lump sums.

His route weaves from Wisconsin to Massachusetts before he boards a train for Oregon and pedals back home to the Dairy State. He set aside 60 days for the journey and hopes to average about 60 miles per day. He expects to reach Massachusetts by July 11.

The Public Safety Communications Center Board decided Wednesday afternoon to change their policy, and dispatch law enforcement to 911 calls coming from cell phones, even if the dispatcher can’t determine whether there’s an emergency or not.

911 Center policies came to light after the murder of UW student Brittany Zimmermann in April. A review found Zimmermann made a call to 911 the day she was murdered but the call dropped, and the dispatcher did not send police officers to the area, or call back as required.

Following a slew of high-profile crimes at some of the state’s college campuses, university leaders are trying to ease the fears of parents whose students will be going off to college in the fall.

The parents of slain UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann have asked to join a lawsuit filed by media groups seeking the release of 911 tapes related to their daughter’s death because they have been denied copies of the tapes.

La Crosse will continue to shelve any efforts to limit drink specials, despite a May Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that shut down price fixing charges against Madison taverns.

The cityâ??s Alcohol Oversight Committee agreed this week to wait out the verdict in a corresponding lawsuit filed in federal district court.

Local officials said they didnâ??t want to invite a lawsuit by eliminating drink specials or encouraging taverns to do so before the federal court has its say.

The unsolved murder of a college student in Madison, a string of robberies near Marquette University and a recent spike in assaults at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have some parents packing summer orientation sessions at local colleges, anxious about studentsâ?? safety.

Colleges, in turn, are trying to ease those fears while helping parents take an active role

The parents of a slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student want authorities to release the 911 call she made before she was murdered.

Kevin and Jean Zimmermann want to intervene in a lawsuit brought by media groups seeking audio of the call from Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone.

MADISON, Wis. — The dormitories on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus will soon be following the trend of other college campuses around the state in ditching their landline phones.

After an extensive two years of surveying students on their phone usage habits, university officials said that the $400,000 a year to operate the phones isn’t necessary. They said that about 98 percent of students rely on their cell phone instead of their free dorm phone.

Well, here we are again. In November 2004, Madison Magazine columnist John Roach issued a negative opinion piece titled “The State of State.” In the January 2005 issue of the magazine I responded. Now in the May 2008 edition Roach attacks the downtown again (“A Safer Madison”). It too requires a response.

Quoted: Nick Nowakowski, 19, a pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, talks about the possibilities of going pro on the competitive video gaming circuit.

On a blessedly rain-free Friday afternoon, two dozen or so friends and neighbors of slain UW-Whitewater student Kelly Nolan’s family gathered under a gazebo at Centennial Park in Waunakee to mark the upcoming one-year anniversary of her disappearance and death.

Kelly Nolan, 22, disappeared in the early hours of June 23, 2007, about one month after moving to Madison, after a night of partying on State Street with friends. Her body was found in Fitchburg on July 9 after a massive search.

UW-Whitewater ‘s popularity among high school seniors has increased significantly in recent years, with applications up about 10 percent from last year.

Overall applications to the rest of the UW System, including UW-Madison, increased slightly.

Until a few months ago, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay freshman Kate Higgins was a rarity: Unlike an estimated 88% of college students in the country, she didnâ??t have a cell phone.

Kate Higgins, 18, of Milwaukee, checks her e-mail Thursday at the Wauwatosa Public Library. A laptop and cell phone became necessities for Higgins while at UW-Green Bay, where landlines in dormitories will be disconnected this fall.

Higgins, 18, kept in touch with her family in Milwaukee the old-fashioned way â?? a call home once a week from the landline in her on-campus apartment.

But last winter, Higgins heard the news: The university would soon disconnect landlines in residence halls and use the savings to pay for something more useful, like wireless Internet.

Hey, high school graduates. Quit texting and listen up. Todd Hanson, lead writer of The Onion, has some advice for you.

“Get ready to start suffering,” Hanson told nearly 500 students at Madison West High School’s graduation ceremony Saturday afternoon at the Kohl Center.

Hanson later reneged on that statement and admitted “unbelievable, wonderful things are also going to happen to you,” but not before sharing his own personal suffering with the graduating class.

MILWAUKEE â?? The family of a murdered University of Wisconsin-Madison student has filed a federal lawsuit against Dane County and the 911 operator who handled a call from the student’s cell phone.

Kevin and Jean Zimmermann of Marshfield claim negligence by the county and 911 operator Rita Gahagan contributed to their daughter’s death two months ago.

MADISON, Wis. — The family of a slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student is suing Dane County and the 911 operator who handled a call from the woman’s cell phone.

Kevin and Jean Zimmermann are the parents of Brittany Zimmermann, a 21-year-old killed in her Madison apartment on April 2.

The federal lawsuit filed Friday alleges that operator Rita Gahagan took Brittany Zimmermann’s 911 call but lost contact with her, then failed to call back as required or send police to investigate.

The suit requests a jury trial and seeks unspecified damages.

The family of Brittany Sue Zimmermann, a UW-Madison student who was killed in her downtown apartment in April, will file suit against Dane County and one of its former emergency dispatchers Friday in U.S. District Court, according to preliminary papers filed.

Zimmermann, 22, made a 911 call on her cell phone before her death, but the call was disconnected, and the dispatcher did not call her back. No police officer was sent to Zimmermann’s home until after her death.

No one has been arrested in the case.

Friends and family of Kelly Nolan will hold a memorial service for the young woman from Waunakee who was found murdered almost a year ago.

Nolan, 22, disappeared early in the morning on June 23, 2007, after bar-hopping with friends in downtown Madison the night before. Her body was discovered two weeks later on July 9 in the town of Dunn.

Her murder remains unsolved.

Who said it’s difficult to defend a championship title?

For the second consecutive time, Mississippi State University won the General Motors and U.S. Department of Energy’s Challenge X competition, which saw 17 teams from different colleges and universities attempt to transform an ordinary Chevrolet Equinox into the most efficient hybrid SUV available.

The University of Wisconsin and Ohio State University won second and third place, respectively. Both universities also chose to power their vehicles with the same GM-sourced 1.9-liter turbocharged diesel engine.

Money was flying everywhere at this week’s University of Wisconsin Board of Regents meeting.

The board gave new Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin a $437,000 salary — about $100,000 more than outgoing chancellor John Wiley made this past year — and hiked UW System President Kevin Reilly’s annual paycheck by $73,000 to $414,593.

At the same meeting, the board approved raising tuition for most students in the system by 5.5 percent. It will now cost most in-state undergraduates $6,678 in tuition alone for the next school year.

While it would be easy to criticize the regents for raising salaries in the face of the nation’s and state’s economic downturn and balancing higher costs on the backs of the students, if fingers need to be pointed, they need to point directly at the State Capitol.

MILWAUKEE â?? Engineering students at University of Wisconsin-Madison will pay higher tuition than all other undergraduates at the state’s flagship school.

The Board of Regents approved a $1,400 tuition surcharge for students accepted into the College of Engineering.

27 News has found the investigation into Brittany Zimmermann’s April 2 murder has included six court-sanctioned searches for evidence in the first week after her homicide.

Documents show one of the searches requested by a Madison police officer and approved by a judge was a search of Zimmermann’s West Doty street apartment on the day of her killing.

Members of a neighborhood association representing residents north and east of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus protested Thursday against the university’s enrollment increase and its policy on off-campus behavior by students.

MENASHA â?? Students at the University of Wisconsin colleges won’t see the tuition increase university students will see next year, and they’re sighing with relief.

The UW Board of Regents decided Thursday to freeze the tuition at the 13 UW colleges for the second consecutive year in a push to provide affordable education for low-income and nontraditional students.

MADISON, Wis. — Madison police and Madison Fire Department are asking for the public’s help with the ongoing investigation into the blaze that destroyed the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house last month.

The cause of the fire near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus is still under investigation. Fire officials said that they’re not ruling out arson as a possible cause.

Fire destroyed the house on May 13.

Fire investigators are looking for help from the public in the investigation into the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house fire May 13.

The Madison Police and Fire Investigation Unit issued the request for help Thursday.

To make the cut for the nationally televised Jeopardy! Collegiate Championship is no small feat. Suchita Shah reflects on her 15 minutes of fame.

I’m a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the host school for this year’s Jeopardy! College Championship.

The adventure really kicked off when some members of the Clue Crew, and the contestant coordinators, landed in town a couple of months ago to audition the many brilliant Badger hopefuls. I had passed the online test in the fall of 2007, so I had an audition spot reserved.

WASHINGTON — Trevor Mahoney is spellbound.

The Marshfield resident is part of a young crew working to keep the Scripps National Spelling Bee a smoothly running operation.

He’s majoring in actuarial science and risk management and insurance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mahoney, 20, will be a junior this fall.

The Dane County Board wants to hear from the public about the 911 communications center.

A public hearing about the emergency communications system is set for 6 p.m. today in Room 201 of the City-County Building, followed by a presentation from Richard Tuma, the Waukesha County director of emergency preparedness, and a review and possible approval of what should be included in a planned internal audit of the county’s 911 system.

County Board Chair Scott McDonell said the public is invited to talk about anything regarding the 911 center, which has come under fire since a call that came from Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone April 2 was mishandled. Zimmermann was murdered in her downtown apartment right about the time the phone call came in to the 911 center.

When Tim Fish made the difficult decision to leave his parents’ home on the Osage Nation Indian Reservation in Oklahoma after his junior year of high school, he did so with the dream of bettering his life.

“I didn’t want to leave home, but I knew that I had to if I wanted something better, something much bigger in life,” said Fish, who noted that unemployment was high and opportunities were scarce on the reservation.

Last Thursday, outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley announced his decision to allocate a $400,000 unrestricted university grant to help WSUM move into a new studio this summer. According to WSUM general manager Dave Black, that was more than the student radio station had originally requested from Wiley.

A college can spend millions of dollars a year polishing its image, but one viral video on a user-generated Web site like YouTube can undo it all in a minute and a half.

Some colleges, like the University of Wisconsin at Madison, are lucky enough to have user-generated campus tours come up on their first YouTube hit. Others have set up their own YouTube channels: Auburn University has uploaded more than 150 videos to the site.

Madison police officials say the Brittany Zimmermann homicide investigation has not turned into a cold case, two months after the UW-Madison student’s April 2 killing.

“They’ve come up with fifty people who you could describe as persons of interest,” Madison police spokesperson Joel DeSpain told 27 News.

Students at four-year schools in the University of Wisconsin System could see a tuition increase of 5.5 percent for the coming school year.

The plan released Tuesday would keep tuition at the 13 two-year UW colleges frozen at current levels for the second straight year.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin System leaders want lawmakers to pay the full cost of tuition benefits they’ve given to veterans.

Wisconsin veterans can attend the UW System and Wisconsin Technical College System for free under a 2006 law.

Madison police are looking for a man involved in a stabbing that injured a 26-year-old on State Street early Sunday morning.

Thousands of miles away from the tapped kegs and beer gardens of Wisconsin, Erika Campbell happened upon a business idea perfect for Madison.

She saw an advertisement in a London restroom for a designated-driver service that takes people – and their vehicles – home safely after a night out on the town.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison senior was stabbed early Sunday morning while walking in the 700 block of State Street.

Jason H. Lawler, 26, suffered stab wounds to the left side of the lower back and left elbow.