Category: Campus life

MADISON, Wis. — A recent car crash involving pedestrians on Madison’s University Avenue has some community members re-evaluating safety in the downtown and campus areas. The isthmus area is often jammed with commuters along with more than 40,000 students and staff on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, WISC-TV reported. In the first incident on Monday night, a car apparently struck two people as they crossed the street at the intersection of University Avenue and Mills Street. The two went to the hospital with minor injuries, authorities said.

The University of Wisconsin Police Department released statistics indicating a City Council ordinance passed seven months ago aimed at stemming textbook thefts was effective in the second half of 2007.

A high-speed car chase in downtown Madison ended with an overturned car and a foot chase early Wednesday morning.

Several Wisconsin Union student workers are unsatisfied with working conditions at the Memorial Union and said the union has lost its â??student voice,â? according to a letter sent to the Offices of the Dean of Students Wednesday.

Five bartenders at the Memorial Union’s Stiftskeller were charged Wednesday with stealing thousands of dollars by skimming off sales from various cash registers in the bar.

The complaint says the five, including one who said skimming from the tills was widespread and part of the “culture” of the Stiftskeller workers, took a total of more than $14,000 from the Union.

Any university student who figures the University of Wisconsin System for a heavy-handed Goliath, large and in charge, should probably take the UW up on its most-recent, fair, open-door feedback offer.

The UW System wants to hear what everybody thinks about proposed administrative code changes that, among other things, would make a sweeping policy shift, amending “Student Nonacademic Disciplinary Procedures” to give a system university some power to reprimand a student based on his or her off-campus conduct.

UW-Madison doctoral student Michael Ciuchta was awarded a 2008 Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship Monday for his research in entrepreneurship, an area of study that the university is attempting to expand within the student body.

Nearly four months after the three finalists were announced, the University of Wisconsin still does not have a new vice provost of diversity and climate.

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin campuses could discipline students for certain off-campus misconduct under a proposed rewrite of system rules.

The UW System is seeking feedback on the rules, which would be the first revisions of the system’s conduct code in more than a decade. The Board of Regents could approve them in April.

MADISON, Wis. — The UW is getting input on how to rebuild its student unions.

A mini-conference was held on Monday to discuss upgrades to the Memorial Union.

Details are also forthcoming about a new Union South, which will be at the same site as the current one.

UW officials want feedback from faculty, alums, students and staff by May 5.

A large acid spill occurred Friday in the Engineering Research Building on campus, forcing it to be evacuated by the Madison Fire Department.

Roundyâ??s Supermarkets, owner of the Copps and Pick â??n Save chain stores, announced Friday it is in negotiations to lease retail space for a grocery store in the new University Square development.

In light of recent increases in residential burglaries and robberies, Madison and Dane County officials are calling on people to use caution late at night and keep their eyes peeled for anything suspicious.

A University of Wisconsin building was evacuated Friday after several gallons of chemicals were spilled in a 12th-floor laboratory.

Percy Julian Jr., a pioneering Madison civil rights and liberties attorney, died Sunday in Madison. He was 67. Julian never regained consciousness after suffering a stroke at his home Saturday, according to Jeff Scott Olson.

“He was a pioneer in the field of civil rights litigation,” said Olson, Julian’s close friend and fellow attorney. “He started out during the time of Martin Luther King Jr. and was one of the people who made the civil rights laws passed in the King era real tools for justice, especially for African-Americans.”

Julian was best known for representing University of Wisconsin-Madison students charged in the Dow Chemical demonstrations in the 1960s and handling pioneering employment discrimination and voting rights class action suits across the United States, often in cooperation with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Julian received his law degree from UW-Madison in 1966.

A pleasant house on Gorham Street is offering hope and help to young men with alcohol or drug addiction problems.

That house is the result of Tom and Cathy Meyer’s devotion to their deceased son and their wish to make one of his ideas become reality. It’s also the result of many donations of time, furnishings and renovation by a caring community.

UW officials want downtown bars to crackdown on underage drinking. They’re even giving away the latest technology to help bar owners find fake id’s.

The id scanners cost up to $700 a piece.

The Recording Industry Association of America released its 13th wave of pre-litigation letters Thursday.

This wave, which did not include UW-Madison among the 12 offending universities, is the most recent in the RIAAâ??s year-long campaign to combat illegal downloading on university campuses.

For University of Wisconsin sophomore Daniela Juarez, a typical day doesnâ??t really have a beginning or an end.

A University of Wisconsin student spoke out Thursday on charges of disorderly conduct, after allegedly pulling a knife on two students in Witte Residence Hall following a night of drinking Feb. 1.

The bells of the Carillon Tower at the University of Wisconsin solemnly tolled for an entire minute Thursday, stopping all pedestrian and vehicle traffic in the area as the ROTC honored the victims of last weekâ??s shootings at Northern Illinois University.

With competition for jobs heating up, colleges are looking to give their graduates an edge in the employment market. Will a second transcriptâ??one that focuses on a student’s so-called soft skillsâ??do the trick?

University of Wisconsin officials think so. The 26 universities that make up the state system, which includes the undergraduate business program at Madison, are working on a plan to develop dual transcripts that could be sent to job recruiters and graduate school admissions committees. These dual transcripts would include the traditional one with courses and grades and a second one that somehow validates a graduate’s creative thinking, participation in extracurricular activities, jobs, and internships, and gives those reading it a sense of the person’s life outside the classroom.

One hundred miles and one week separates the UW-Madison campus from the school schooting at Northern Illinois University.

In a show of support and as a way to remember the six victims from last Thursday’s rampage in Dekalb, the carillon bells rang at UW at noon.

In light of the record-setting snowfall and bitterly cold temperatures building up ice on campus sidewalks, UW-Madisonâ??s Physical Plant is looking to hire students to help clear ice and snow on nearly 50 miles of sidewalks.

UW-Madison received a record number of applications for admittance next fall. According to Associate Director for UW Admissions Tom Reason, about 25,000 applications were submitted to the admissions office as of the Feb. 1 deadline, surpassing last yearâ??s record by nearly 500 applicants.

The University of Wisconsin Greek community and Madison Police Department recognized a police officer Tuesday for his contributions toward safety in the Langdon Street area.

Poll workers had their work cut out for them Tuesday as a record number of student voters braced the cold and headed to the polls to cast their vote for the 2008 presidential primary.

The University of Wisconsin announced Wednesday it has received a record number of freshman applications for fall 2008.

Second semester is in high gear, and so is flu season. College campuses, those great breeding grounds for illness, are widely reporting an unusual number of cases this year, possibly because the vaccine is a poor match to the flu viruses circulating.

Flu traffic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s health center likewise has “increased dramatically in the past three weeks,” says Sarah Van Orman, director of clinical servicesâ??and two doctors and a pharmacist have been out of work sick so far this season.

In an election season when young voters have made more impact than ever, a quarter of Wisconsin’s eligible voters under 30 participated in Tuesday night’s primary – making youth turnout here equal to Massachusetts and second only to New Hampshire this year.

According to The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, 220,200 voters under age 30 cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary – 25% of eligible voters in that age group.

At 16 voting wards at or near University of Wisconsin-Madison, Marquette University and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Sen. Barack Obama beat Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton among local college students, grabbing at least 79% of the vote. He was most popular at UW’s Gordon Commons, capturing 87% of the vote there.

Youâ??re doing some serious cramming by yourself at the library, your laptop open in front of you and your iPod bringing sweet tunes to your ears.

A group of University of Wisconsin College Democrats huddled around a small heater that inadequately warmed their tent on Library Mall as they coordinated volunteer efforts during Tuesdayâ??s presidential primaries.

University of Wisconsin-Madison students, most voting in their first presidential primary Tuesday, were excited to have the opportunity.

Caroline Gomez, 19, who aspires to be a politician one day, voted absentee at the City Clerk’s office a week ago so she could spend all her time at the polls Tuesday volunteering, thanking voters and just making sure everything went smoothly.

“I like the election process. I’m a political science major and democracy in itself is inspiring,” Gomez said, standing next to the vote feeder and counter at the Doyle Administration Building on West Dayton Street just before the poll for Ward 44 closed at 8 p.m. “It’s a beautiful thing about our country, the ability to choose our leaders and choose how things are supposed to run,” she said.

Election observers closely watched student turnout for this election because young voters have been strong supporters of Sen. Barack Obama in his race for the Democratic nomination against Sen. Hillary Clinton. Obama targeted UW students for support early on and drew more than 19,000 people — many of them students — to the Kohl Center last week for a rally.