Category: Campus life

At 11 a.m. Monday, New Era Cap Co. leadership and workers staged a rally at the company’s Derby plant designed to show “who the real New Era is.”

Two hours later, the Buffalo-based hatmaker was slammed in a Washington, D.C., press conference by the leaders of the Teamsters and NAACP.

What fueled the dueling press conferences were charges from the NAACP and Teamsters that New Era discriminates against employees at its Mobile, Ala. plant.

New Era Cap Co. came out swinging against the Teamsters union Monday with a rally at its Derby production facility. Workers rattled the plantâ??s corrugated roof as they joined to support the company against allegations of racial discrimination and unfair labor practices at a warehouse in Alabama.

MADISON, Wis. â?? University of Wisconsin-Madison has canceled a licensing contract with New Era Cap Co., citing allegations of discrimination and anti-union activity at one of its factories.

The action is part of a growing national movement to get the company, the exclusive cap supplier for Major League Baseball teams, to improve its labor practices at a distribution center in Mobile, Ala.

The NAACP released a report Monday accusing the company of paying black workers less than whites, passing minorities over for promotions and firing employees involved in organizing workers. The Buffalo, N.Y.-based company called the allegations baseless.

MADISON, Wis. — A student labor group is calling it a victory for labor rights.

After months of outside pressure, citing unfair labor practices and low wages, UW-Madison has ended a contract with New Era – a hat company responsible for numerous UW-Madison licensed baseball and knit hats.

The university announced the contract cut on Friday, after a member of the Student Labor Action Coalition recounted what she witnessed at a production facility in Mobile, Ala.

Arriving in Kenya, the nine of us were unaware of the dangers and uncertainties that lay before us. From the plane, even the fires we saw were all “natural” in our minds. Our drive to the hospital in Maseno forced our eyes open as we bribed our way through a myriad of roadblocks. Hundreds of men were on the road that day, Dec. 29, some carrying machetes, others with loads of looted materials.

As senior nursing students at UW-Madison on the La Crosse campus, we had tried to prepare ourselves for what we would experience in Kenya. Since this was the second annual trip, we thought that we knew what we were getting into, but we couldn’t have anticipated what the next few weeks would bring.

Nobody knows the importance of working smoke alarms better than UW senior Andy Talen. He was asleep inside his house on N. Bedford St. last fall when it caught on fire. Andy escaped, but his brother, Peter, died.

Andy asked the UW’s dean of students office and Madison fire department if he could help pass out batteries on Friday during their planned event to raise awareness.

“It’s just a simple check…just put a battery in,” said Andy.

MADISON, Wis. — A student group at UW Madison is promising to continue its fight against what it believes is religious discrimination.

A District Court ruled last week that the UW must allow funding for the Roman Catholic Foundation’s programs, even though the activities include prayer and worship.

The UW has refused to fund the programs because officials believe sponsoring the group violates the separation of church and state, reported WISC-TV.

A Madison neighborhood association presented strategic plans Thursday to increase prices and taxes on alcoholic beverages.

Several major city intersections, some which are located in UW-Madisonâ??s campus, are now equipped with traffic lights featuring a vocal signaling system.

Representatives from UW-Madison and the city of Madison met with downtown residents to outline current and future plans to combat the cityâ??s alcohol problems at a Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc. meeting Thursday night

Madison and UW-Madison officials took a wait-and-see approach Thursday to a report by a Downtown neighborhood association that — among other things — calls for a crackdown on underage drinking, higher drink prices and fewer bars to stop alcohol-related crime in the central city.

UW-Madison announced Wednesday its participation in the first national teach-in on global warming solutions.

â??Focus the Nationâ? will feature a live Web cast produced by the National Wildlife Federation and presented by the Earth Day Network at more than 1400 colleges and universities across the country and at three UW-Madison locations.

More than 30 years later, Lori Berquam looks at photographs recovered from the fire that burned her family ‘s home to the ground and swears she can still smell the smoke.

“And your clothes. As many times as you wash your clothes, the smell, it ‘s such a hard thing to get out, ” Berquam said. “And then you think, is the smell really there or am I just imagining it to be there? “

While other University students enjoyed winter break, global studies senior Emily Hassing was hanging out in Zanzibar, Kenya, trying to avoid the postelection violence that had broken out around the country.

Hassing was one of nine students in Kenya for a year with the Minnesota Studies in International Development program on Dec. 27 when the incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, was accused of rigging the election.

The program serves a group of UW-Madison students.

Dean of Students Lori Berquam, in partnership with the Madison Fire Department, announced a week-long campaign Tuesday to promote fire safety.

A Catholic student group is suing the University of Wisconsin at Madison, claiming it is being discriminated against because it is a religious organization.

The Roman Catholic Foundation says the university unfairly refused to release funds from student fees to pay for some of its activities. The university has disallowed funds to pay for activities such as printing Lenten booklets, running evangelical Catholic training camps and hosting retreats where counselors were priests and nuns.

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison officials are urging students to make sure their smoke detectors are working after two recent off-campus fires.

School officials are handing out nearly 2,000 9-volt batteries at the student union on Tuesday to students who live in houses and apartments.

Dean of Students Lori Berquam said that the goal is to have a safe second semester after two tragic fires in November

For the second time, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Roman Catholic Foundation-UW-Madison saying the university cannot refuse to fund certain student religious-based activities.

Two University of Wisconsin alumni donated a record $175 million to start a need-based scholarship foundation for college students in Wisconsin.

There is no telling what University of Wisconsin students could afford if they did not have to spend the nearly $900 average college students spend on textbooks and supplies each year.

An attack at a UW-Madison dorm room, coupled with the theft of checks from a friend, will mean 10 years in prison for a homeless man.

JOHN QUINLAN
‘Harness the strength we already have’

John Quinlan, 48, of Madison, is host of “Forward Forum” on WTDY and president of Q Solutions, a communications and consulting company.

Returning to school at UW-Madison to finish the undergraduate degree he started in 1978, Quinlan has been impressed by his 20-something classmates who know their history.

MADISON, Wis. — Investigators still aren’t saying much about the questions surrounding the death of a 22-year-old University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student in the Madison area last summer.

Madison Police and Dane County Coroner John Stanley still aren’t saying how or when Kelly Nolan died, or whether her death is believed to have been an intentional act or resulted from someone else’s recklessness or negligence.

TOWN OF DUNN — For two and a half weeks last summer, newspaper headlines blared and the airwaves crackled with the search for Kelly Nolan, a popular 22-year-old UW-Whitewater student who disappeared June 23 after a night of partying in Downtown Madison.

On July 9, a signal from Nolan ‘s cell phone led searchers to a patch of woods in the town of Dunn, about 10 miles south of where she was last seen. There, police found a woman ‘s body later determined to be that of Nolan.

Once again a federal judge has ruled that the University of Wisconsin at Madison must provide student-activity funds to a Roman Catholic student organization â?? even though the money will be used for religious purposes like worship services and proselytizing.

In an order issued today, Judge John C. Shabaz of the U.S. District Court in Madison said the university could not deny funds to the UW-Madison Roman Catholi

MADISON, Wis. â?? The University of Wisconsin-Madison can no longer refuse to pay for student activities involving prayer, worship and proselytizing, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge John Shabaz said the schoolâ??s policy of turning down funding requests from student groups for such activities violates their First Amendment right to free speech.

He granted a preliminary injunction sought by the Roman Catholic Foundation, a student group, that calls for the university to immediately stop enforcing the policy.

Waiting for word on whether or not a student has been accepted into UW-Madison is always a nail-biter, but this year that waiting game is even more stressful than usual.

Admissions decisions are coming about four to eight weeks later than normal, said admissions director Rob Seltzer, because the office of admissions is still getting up to speed with some major new technology.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison was once again ranked the No. 2 university for producing Peace Corps volunteers, according to a statement posted on the Peace Corps web site yesterday.

UW-Madison sent 99 undergraduate alumni volunteers as of September 2007. Coming in first place for the peace-prize was last year’s big winner, the University of Washington, with 113. Check out the rest of the list here.

How does UW-Madison pump out such a steady stream of do-gooders?

The University of Washington, for the second year in a row, tops the list of colleges and universities sending the most number of volunteers to the Peace Corps in 2007.

The University of Washington sent 113 volunteers to the 47-year-old, Washington D.C.-based program, ahead of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s 99 volunteers and the University of Colorado-Boulder’s 94. The University of Washington also sent the most graduate school volunteers, with 17.

Student groups from Madison and Green Bay are headed to New Orleans this weekend, and will become the latest of many Wisconsin volunteers helping repair homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Recently, members of a church group from Central Wisconsin helped out in The Big Easy…where much hard work is still ahead to rebuild parts of the city. Chuck Quirmbach reportsâ?¦ (Audio.)

….On Tuesday you may want to check out WSUM-FM/91.7, the UW-Madison student radio station. As was the case for one day last January, the station — with many students out of town — is being “hijacked” by old guys, including Madison radio veterans Tom Teuber, Rick Murphy and Dave Benson. The day’s programming — from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. — will be coordinated by UW-Madison alum Bruce Ravid, who now lives in Los Angeles, where he runs an executive search firm. Ravid spent years in the music industry, including a stint as promotions director for Capitol Records.

If Madison’s parking operations manager has his way, there will be fewer cars on downtown streets for plows to maneuver around as soon as early next month.

Operations manager Bill Knobeloch is recommending that “non-pay” availability of city parking ramps be expanded by four hours a night during snow emergencies and that the city offer monthly overnight parking passes for the Overture ramp.

Knobeloch sees a market for the 24/7 monthly parking passes among downtown condo owners whose units come with only one parking space, and among university students. “I have had several parents call asking how to get their kids’ cars off the streets at nights and in out of the weather,” he said.

As part of its master plan to redevelop downtown Madison, WI, the University of Wisconsin, along with private businesses, has embarked on the 11-story, 1.1 million-sq.-ft. University Square Project. The project will consolidate several existing services and businesses at one location. The result is a private-public partnership between Executive Management Inc. of Madison and the University. The new $100 million complex will include 350 apartments, 250,000 sq. ft. of University health service offices (known as University Tower), 140,000 sq. ft. of retail space and 420 parking spaces.