Category: Campus life

Fifteen of the countrys brightest college students will compete in the 2008 “Jeopardy” College Championship, which taped at the University of Wisconsins Kohl Center in Madison on April 11 and 12. The winner will take home a grand prize of $100,000.

A University of Wisconsin Law School “Sex Toys 101” talk was shut down by the school, and the event organizersâ??who say the event was an attempt to promote safe alternatives to sex and discuss laws concerning sex toysâ??are not happy about it, the Badger Herald reports.

The official reason the seminar was canceled was that policy “prohibits the promotion or sale of commercial products by a private company.” But many students suspect it’s possible that the event’s racy fliers had something to do with it, too. Accompanied by a photo of wrists in shackles, one advertisement asks: “Finals got you tied up at the library all night? Wouldn’t you rather be tied up at home?” The other, littered with photos of sex toys, is probably too scandalous for me to repeat.

After several separate incidents over the weekend at Sellery Hall, officials reminded residents to lock their doors and take caution while walking at night . According to Sellery Hall Area Coordinator James Franzone, two Sellery Hall residents were harassed by an individual in the ally near the Double Tree Hotel last weekend. One of the victimsâ?? bags was stolen and they left the scene with bruises to the head.

More than 50 Mifflin Street residents and students gathered Tuesday night to learn how to avoid behavior that could possibly cost them hundreds of dollars in fines at Saturdayâ??s block party, and a petition to relax the cityâ??s noise ordinance for the party failed to garner police support.

The University of Wisconsin Law School canceled an event with controversial sexual content last Wednesday, and some students are calling the action a possible First Amendment violation.

Want to tell a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention how to vote?

University of Wisconsin student Awais Khaleel is, by virtue of his status as the current vice president of College Democrats of America, in the same league as former President Jimmy Carter, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold and other prominent Democratic officials and party insiders. He’s an unpledged superdelegate to the convention that will decide whether Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.

Unlike most superdelegates, Khaleel remains genuinely uncommitted.

Bands and other music at the Mifflin Street Block Party aren’t any louder than popular Madison events like Concerts on the Square, Rhythm & Booms or even the noise coming from Camp Randall on game days.

At least that’s the argument being put forward by Tom Wangard, a UW-Madison junior and Mifflin Street resident who has petitioned the city for a noise ordinance amnesty for the annual party this Saturday.

“The Mifflin Street Block Party is a historical event here on campus,” he said. “We realize that we can’t be completely out of hand with noise, but it would be reasonable to have the hours of 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., the daytime hours, set aside for no noise violations at all.”

Some UW-Madison students and Mifflin Street residents are upset with noise limits that police said will be enforced at the upcoming Mifflin Street Block Party on Saturday.

Madison police will allow an elevated level of music from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m., but if music can be heard more than three houses away, revelers will risk getting a $172 noise citation.

A group of UW-Madison law students asked for an apology from the university for the abrupt cancellation of a sex toy seminar scheduled at the Law School last week.

Calling it a misunderstanding, Law School Dean Kenneth Davis said the group can hold the event if no commercial products are promoted or sold.

Students at Lynn University say they’ve been working like dogs to prepare for final exams. So who better to relieve some of that stress than a couple of four-legged friends?

Therapy dogs have been used at other universities, including Albright College in Reading, Pa.; Indiana University in Bloomington; and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to published reports.

I was speechless. I, a campus tour guide, was at a loss for words when I first found out that I was selected to compete in the 2008 Jeopardy! College Championship. I mean, what can you really say to that phenomenal news? I think Iâ??m still trying to figure out how to express my elation.

George Washington University usually receives five to 10 notices per week from the Recording Industry Association of America complaining that a specific song or movie is being illegally traded by a computer user on the campus. But in the past week alone, the university has received 123 notices.

Colleges and universities around the country are reporting similar increases in complaints from the industry group. Because most colleges investigate every incident and take action against the online pirates, the surge is putting a sudden strain on their resources as the semester winds down.

The UW-Madison dean of students is urging Mifflin Street block party revelers to play nice and be aware of individual safety in the wake of Brittany Zimmermann’s murder April 2 a block away.

Madison police will be out in force for the block party on Saturday, with more than 100 officers on duty, and three security cameras will observe the goings-on instead of one camera, but Dean of Students Lori Berquam said today it’s important for students to watch out for each other.

Two UW-Madison students will try to solve the puzzles this week on Wheel of Fortune’s College Week.

Kelly Clinton-Cirocco, a junior biology major originally from Gurnee, Ill., will appear in tonight’s episode. Nick Lamantia, a senior finance major originally from Arlington Heights, Ill., will appear in an episode airing Thursday night.

Ralph Armstrong was convicted nearly three decades ago of raping and killing UW-Madison student Charise Kamps in her downtown apartment. But now defense attorneys claim Armstrong’s brother, Steve, confessed to the murder in 1994 or 1995.

A Madison foreign exchange student found drowned in Lake Mendota is on a list of college students possibly murdered rather than accidentally drowned.

You may remember the name Kenji Ohmi – he was here from Japan learning English when he disappeared.

A man convicted of attacking a University of Wisconsin student in 2006 was sentenced Friday to seven and a half years in state prison and nine and a half years of extended supervision.

MADISON, Wis. â?? The late-afternoon regulars on State Street â?? Lonnie, Ron, Bruce and dozens more, nearly all of them men with outstretched hands or jiggling styrofoam cupsâ??know all too well that they’re not the most admired members of the community.

They may be drug addicts, alcoholics, ex-cons, mentally ill or homeless, but they can sense when public sentiment has shifted against themâ??like now.

A Fitchburg man who attacked a stranger in the stairwell of her apartment building in 2006 was sentenced Friday to seven years and six months in prison.

Dane County Circuit Judge John Markson also placed Paul C. Aud, 34, on nine years and six months of extended supervision after prison. Markson found Aud guilty of second degree attempted sexual assault and substantial battery in November.

MILTON â?? For Jenna Zanton Mood, it all started in elementary school.

She used to see the Milton High School show choir, Choralation, perform for the younger students, and she dreamed of being a member.

â??Thatâ??s kind of where I first thought, â??That looks so cool. I want to do that in high school,â??â? she said.

Today, Jenna, 27, makes her living arranging show choir numbers for teams across the nation, including UW-Madisonâ??s Wisconsin Singers.

An attorney for Ralph Armstrong claimed in a court motion Armstrong’s brother, Steve, confessed to two women he was the one who raped and killed UW-Madison student Charise Kamps in 1980.

Attorney Jerome Butig’s motion to a Wisconsin appellate court includes affidavits from the two women, including Debbie Holsomback of Fort Worth. In Holsomback’s affidavit, Holsomback says Armstrong’s brother, Steve Armstrong told her several years after Ralph Armstrong’s murder conviction and imprisonment his brother may want revenge against him. “Steve…responded with words to the effect of: ‘The DNA testing is going to show he didn’t do it. I did it,’ .”

MADISON, Wis. — A man convicted in a brutal attack of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student in the stairwell of a campus apartment building was sentenced Friday.

Paul Aud, 34, was sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison after being convicted of attempted second-degree sexual assault and substantial battery.

On Aug. 23, 2006, prosecutors said that Aud followed the woman into a Langdon Street apartment building and repeatedly beat her, pulling her down some stairs.

Madison, Wis. – How many start-up companies can boast the competitive advantage of being first to market, have its own fan club on Facebook, and take advantage of three established technologies – electronic games, mobile phones, and global positioning systems?

One of them, PerBlue, recently took home second place and $7,000 from the 2008 G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

One runner was absent from Madison’s 27th Annual Crazylegs Classic.

Last month, NBC 15 reported on the sudden death of Adam Nickel. The U-W Madison graduate student and avid runner died after crossing the finish line at the Little Rock marathon in Arkansas.

Saturday, one group of runners and walkers, with bright yellow shirts, decided to go the distance to honor and remember their late friend and co-worker.

“We have 89 people which were more than we expected. We were hoping for about 50, so that just goes to show the type of person Adam was,” said Mark Wilberg.

Adam Nickel’s passion for running reached its peak in Madison.

And that passion will live on Saturday, when a team of Nickel’s friends and Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin co-workers participate in the Crazylegs Classic in memory of the 27-year-old Kaukauna native and University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy graduate student who died shortly after completing the Little Rock (Ark.) Marathon on March 2.

“A lot of us that worked at our Capitol Clinic pharmacy, we wanted to get together and just talk because (Nickel’s death) was a shock to us,” GHC-SCW employee and team captain Mark Wilberg said. “In that talk, we decided to do something in his memory. Adam loved running, and this is a way we can honor his memory.”

The unblinking eye of the law will be watching this year’s Mifflin Street Block Party.

For the first time, three cameras will be trained on revelers at the annual, last-hurrah street party before the end of the school year. The party will be May 3.

Jenny Cooper has Ford on the brain.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison junior throws Ford-sponsored sushi dinners in residence halls. She shows off new cars at fraternity houses. She wore her Ford sweat shirt to a Barack Obama rally.

Cooper is a brand representative for the automaker. She was hired last fall by the New York-based marketing firm RepNation, which specializes in peer network-based campaigns.

My baby recently left home. He’s 19 and launching his life in an age-appropriate way: subsidized by his parents, at school in a distant city, directing himself toward self-sufficiency and maturity. Nevertheless, the day his move became effective, I felt like I’d left him alone in the woods with no pebbles. This tender son was born 16 years after his big sister. She was learning quadratic equations as he was learning how to hold a spoon. When either child faltered, I’d try to help: “Here, let me.”

The Madison Police Department is beefing up security for next weekend’s Mifflin Street block party – an event notorious for getting a little out of hand. This year they will have two high tech ways to watch the crowd.

For the first time in Mifflin Street Block Party history, cameras will be placed at various locations on Mifflin Street to monitor the actions of partygoers, police said Wednesday.

As the academic year comes to a close, many University of Wisconsin students are beginning to plan their summers, life after graduation or simply deciding on a major.

A University of Wisconsin student petitioning to lessen noise violations for music at the annual Mifflin Street Block Party met with two city officials Wednesday afternoon, attempting to reach a compromise.

As the Mifflin Street Block Party nears, the Madison Police Department said Wednesday they are increasing the number of cameras to monitor the celebration May 3.

When Suchita Shah was in middle school, her family would sit around the dinner table and watch â??Jeopardy!â? Shah played along at home by shouting out answers at the television.

â??It has always been a life dream of mine to be on the show,â? Shah said. â??It has been my favorite TV show for as long as I can remember.â?

Shahâ??s dream came true this month. The Holmen native and University of Wisconsin-Madison student competed in the 2008 College Championship â??Jeopardy!â? competition at Madisonâ??s Kohl Center April 11 and 12.

Madison, Wis. – How many start-up companies can boast the competitive advantage of being first to market, have its own fan club on Facebook, and take advantage of three established technologies – electronic games, mobile phones, and global positioning systems?

One of them, PerBlue, recently took home second place and $7,000 from the 2008 G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The All-Campus Party was John Jungâ??s brainchild. With the help of the Wisconsin Alumni Association, Jung spearheaded the weeklong, sober event eight years ago for all University of Wisconsin students to celebrate the springâ??s colorful Union Terrace chairs, Bascom grass and warm weather.

WHITEWATER — College students who went without heat and hot water in their dorms for about six days are getting the service back — and using the experience in a fundraiser to provide safe drinking water to those who need it in India.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater said temporary repairs to the steam system allowed hot water to be restored in some residence halls by 4 p.m. Tuesday, and others were getting it restored Tuesday night. Hot water and steam were to be restored to all campus buildings by noon today, officials said.