If youâ??re a candidate counting on those enthusiastic college voters, donâ??t. For some college students, getting to the ballot box can be as difficult as registering in that Nobel laureateâ??s honors seminar.
Turnout on college campuses has been depressed by some simple but strong barriers.
The Governor’s use of UW students to make a point about the delayed budget draws a federal complaint.
The UW sent emails to students who applied for but have not yet received state financial grants due to the state budget impasse. The emails asked if the students wanted to appear with Governor Doyle at a news conference today to make an appeal for a state budget that would give them their grants.
A handful of UW students held up signs of protest during Governor Doyle’s Tuesday campus news conference on the state budget impasse, which included a student speaker, who had been approached to participate through university e-mail, from a confidential list of students eligible for financial aid.
“This is not a legitimate educational interest, recruiting people to stand with the governor at a press conference, while he launches into an attack on all Republicans in the state,” said UW-Madison student Mike Hahn of Wisconsin College Republicans. “It’s not a legitimate education interest.”
In late July, college officials lobbied successfully to defeat a U.S. Senate proposal that would have forced some institutions to buy computer tools to detect student music and video piracy. But the administrators were in no mood to celebrate: It was only a matter of time, they said, before the House of Representatives brought up a similar measure.
Summary: Students must assert their independence from the partisan figureheads, network with one another and act as diplomats on behalf of the thousands of students reliant on state funding.
The Wisconsin College Republicans filed a formal complaint against the UW-Madison Monday, claiming the university violated student privacy rights with an e-mail about a Gov. Jim Doyle press event.
Members of the WCR claim the university violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 in that studentsâ?? personal information was used to â??recruit students for a political rally,â? according to the formal complaint.
The e-mail was sent to 33 UW-Madison students still awaiting financial aid due to the budget impasse.
University of Wisconsin students gathered on Library Mall Monday to celebrate Indigenous Peopleâ??s Day in efforts to spread awareness and appreciation of Native Indian culture.
Initiated by Wunk Sheek, a UW American Indian student organization, the event consisted of native dance, music and speeches given by the groupâ??s leaders in opposition to Columbus Day.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley and members of the Campus Antiwar Network discussed Monday the possibility of having a campuswide referendum to decide whether Halliburton should be included in future graduate recruiting fairs.
The meeting with the chancellor comes in light of a recent demonstration in which nearly 200 students protested the inclusion of Halliburton in a College of Engineering recruiting fair last month, accusing the company of making billions of dollars off the Iraq war.
The Wisconsin College Republicans filed an official complaint Monday against the University of Wisconsin-Madison, claiming the university violated federal student privacy laws.
The allegations stem from an e-mail UW-Madison sent to an undisclosed number of students who previously received Wisconsin Higher Education Grants, but were not awarded them this year due to the undecided state budget. The message told students Gov. Jim Doyle would hold a press conference today at Memorial Union to address UW System financial aid concerns and the need for a state budget.
In a move to finally get the stalled state budget passed, Gov. Jim Doyle said today that unless lawmakers pass the spending bill by Friday, he will call them into special session on Monday to take up a compromise proposal.
Doyle, who has played host to two weeks of closed-door negotiations between Senate Democratic and Assembly Republican leaders, said he has “become convinced” that the two sides cannot reach agreement. Doyle introduced a budget plan in February, and the two houses have each passed a version of the bill, but the attempts by the two sides to reach a final compromise have dragged on since July.
The governor’s comments came this morning during a news conference on the steps of the Memorial Union, where he underscored the need for a new budget to provide more student financial aid.
Representative Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) said UW-Madison officials had no business using state e-mail, to invite select students who were on a wait-list for a financial aid program, to a news conference with Governor Doyle.
In the e-mail from UW-Madison’s Associate Director of Financial Aid, students who received a Wisconsin Higher Education Grant (WHEG) last year but did not receive one this year are told “the Governor is looking for a few UW-Madison students…’wait-listed’ due to the budget impasse.” E-mail recipients were told, “you are under no obligation whatsoever to participate in this press conference.” Federal privacy law shields the names of the students who are WHEG applicants.
Complete shock and devastation — that’s the only way to describe University of Wisconsin senior wide receiver Luke Swan’s season-ending injury.
The Greek community on the UW-Madison campus is offended and worried about two cartoons in the Badger Herald that recently depicted fraternity and sorority members as receiving oral sex from pledges.
One of the cartoons also implied that the other fraternities might show the new Delta Lambda Phi fraternity — a progressive fraternity for gay, bisexual and progressive men — what real Greek life is like by smashing up their house.
The controversy comes at a time when alumni are returning to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for an Oct. 19 weekend of fraternity and sorority events honoring the Greek community’s 150th anniversary on campus.
As I travel around Wisconsin, I consistently hear one question from high school students, parents and counselors: What does it take to get into the University of Wisconsin-Madison?
Because I analyze every part of an application, from grades and class rank to personal statements and special talents, there isn’t one magic answer to that question.
However, during the past 30 years that I’ve worked in college admissions, I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of applications. I’ve also experienced the process firsthand, as my son ventured into his own college search.
An idea that was the brainstorm of members of two small, student organizations, morphed into a spectacle of Star Wars characters, video game tournaments and role playing theater at UW-Madison in the first Geek.Kon.
“We were just blown away,” said Geek.Kon organizer Sarah Eichhorst. “I never expected to see anything this huge.”
An estimated one thousand people were expected to attend the weekend event at UW-Madison Humanities. Geek.Kon also included lectures from science fiction writers, and internet, television and film producers.
At this weekendâ??s Geek.Kon, all coexisted peacefully: The otaku got their share of anime, once arguments over English overdubs versus subtitles were resolved. The Trekkies and Star Wars junkies â?? often fierce rivals â?? shared limited space. And the classic nerds were bound to find something to pique their interest, from comic books to Guitar Hero.
Some Republican lawmakers say UW-Madison and Gov. Jim Doyle acted inappropriately when they e-mailed 33 students waiting for financial aid to participate in a press conference Tuesday.
The notified students, who are typically low-income, are awaiting Wisconsin Higher Education Grants they need to pay tuition this semester. Since they have been waitlisted, funds can only be awarded after the state budget is finalized.
The e-mail asked students if they wanted to appear with the governor, who is asking for the prompt passage of a budget that funds higher education at the levels the UW System has asked for.
Associated Students of Madison launched its Neighborhood Watch Program Friday night in an effort to increase the presence of student safety watchers on and near campus during crime-prone weekends nights.
Volunteers will cover the Spring Street/College Court and Camp Randall areas, an area south of Regent Street and an area south of State Street, including West Washington Avenue and Mifflin Street. Two shifts will run every Friday and Saturday night, from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m. and 12 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Hundreds of self professed geeks converged at the UW Saturday afternoon to celebrate what they say nerds do best.
The Geek.Kon Convention was for anyone that enjoys, role-playing, video gaming, costumes, fantasy novels and of course science fiction.
MADISON, Wis. — You might call them “nerds,” “techies,” or just “those guys from the AV Club.” But this weekend, ‘”geeks” have taken over the UW-Madison.
More than 600 people got their “geek on” Saturday and Sunday on the UW campus for “Geek.Kon,” which bills itself as a conference for all things geeky.
Washburn Observatory, which has hosted public star-gazings since its opening in the 1880s, announced Thursday it will close for renovations until summer 2009.
When the Badgers meet Northern Illinois in the next home football game Oct. 20, UW-Madison students might be surprised to know they may be on videotape.
The UW System Board of Regents unanimously passed a resolution Thursday that may â??taxâ? all UW students come next semester if the 2007-â??09 biennial budget is not passed by the Conference Committee soon.
Attention Madison geeks: start practicing your Elvish, polishing your best works of fan fiction and putting the finishing touches on your costumes, because Geek.Kon is coming to campus this weekend.
With ticket sales for this weekâ??s Freakfest Halloween celebration beginning this morning, the eventâ??s organizers continue to make preparations.
University of Wisconsin students can be in wheelchairs, be blind or be deaf.
But when a student cannot attend class because she is repeatedly hospitalized due to a genetic mutation, one student believes the line between what qualifies someone as a UW student begins to blur.
The University of Wisconsinâ??s Washburn Observatory will close its doors late October due to a renovation project budgeted at $2.5 million.
Neighborhoods just outside of the University of Wisconsin will soon see extra patrol on the street, but instead of police, they’re students! They aren’t being trained but instead they are working with Madison Police. It’s all part of a student watch program to increase off-campus safety.
Starting tomorrow, with flashlights in hand, students will be pounding the pavement to kick crime to the curb.
“There were a lot of muggings going on so we wanted to put a lot of students on the streets more later in the night and this is something that came out of it,” says Campus Safety chairman, Kelly Arendt.
Jack Ikegwuonu lost part of his motion to supress statements made to police during a court appearance Thursday in Sycamore, Ill.
The judge denied part of the motion, which means those statements would be admissible at trial, while taking the rest under advisement. Ikegwuonu’s attorney had sought to suppress the statements on the grounds Ikegwuonu was not read his Miranda rights.
Ikegwuonu and his twin brother, Bill, both from Madison, were arrested last November in DeKalb, Ill., after they allegedly broke into an apartment and stole an Xbox system.
Outcast and vilified in many places, they are coming together in Madison to be cool amongst their peers. They are the proud, the few, the . . . geeks.
The basement of the Sigma Phi Epsilon house at the University of Missouri-Columbia is filled with familiar fraternity icons like a well-worn pool table, stacks of violent films like Kill Bill on DVD, and of course, the stench of stale beer.
A closer look reveals a much different scene. With the soothing sounds of a Zen Cafe CD playing in the background, Sig Ep brothers listen raptly as a campus yoga instructor leads them through a series of contortionist poses during an 8 a.m. workout.
Early morning yoga is just one of the changes at the fraternity since the Missouri chapter adopted its “Balanced Man” program in 2006 â?? just a few years after the university punished the chapter for hazing.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Sports Illustratedâ??s declared â??Best College Sports Town in America,â? now has another thing to add to its bragging rightsâ??its very own sports drink.
Igal Hendel, a former UW-Madison economics professor, resigned two years ago along with several other professors due to the declining salaries and resources of the university.
Wisconsin has now entered its fourth month without a budget for 2008, leaving the state with last yearâ??s provisions and a guarantee for fiscal failure before next summer. Students can be forgiven for largely ignoring the political spitting match unfolding between Democrats and Republicans at the Capitol since July, but now the budget â??impasseâ? threatens to directly affect UW-Madison, and it is time to take note.
The Madison Police Department briefed UW students and residents in a meeting at Memorial Union Wednesday about crime and safety issues in the downtown area.
The Student Labor Action Coalition delivered â??face-to-faceâ? demands Wednesday to Chancellor John Wiley, insisting he cut UW-Madisonâ??s athletic apparel contract with Adidas.
The Madison Police Department held a meeting Wednesday evening at Memorial Union to report crime statistics and discuss area safety with downtown residents.
Dozens of University of Wisconsin students rallied Wednesday to demand the cancellation of a UW athletic apparel contract with Adidas.
By JOSHUA FREED
AP Business Writer
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — An attorney for six major music companies urged a federal jury Thursday to find a Minnesota woman liable for damages for illegally downloading and sharing music online, activity he said has gnawed at the industry’s bottom line.
Record companies have filed some 26,000 lawsuits since 2003 claiming their music’s been misused, but the case against Jammie Thomas, a mother of two from Brainerd, is the first to go to trial. Many other defendants settled by paying the record companies a few thousand dollars.
Regardless of how the first trial of a person accused of illegally sharing music online turns out, a spokesman for a record industry group said companies plan to keep suing listeners.
Dear Editor: I moved to Wisconsin 11 years ago to work and raise my family. Having grown up in Iowa and having gone to school at the University of Iowa, I have been a lifelong Hawkeye fan, and I have an appreciation of the deep Big Ten rivalry between the UW and University of Iowa.
In Iowa there have been many stories and hard feelings historically about how the Iowa football team and sports fans have been treated when visiting the UW. We can tell you stories of the snowballs thrown at players, chants, etc.
….I know that the UW has had challenges for years controlling inappropriate chants during games from students. The behavior I experienced, however, was over the top and will only serve to harm respect from people visiting Wisconsin to support their teams in the future.
Ethan Carlson, Baraboo
Downtown tavern owners who ended weekend evening drink specials in 2002 don’t have immunity from anti-trust legislation because the city of Madison never officially enacted a ban, an attorney for former University of Wisconsin students told the state Supreme Court Wednesday.
Although they may have been pressured by Ald. Tim Bruer to take measures to reduce their customers’ binge drinking, 24 tavern owners illegally conspired to fix prices when they voluntarily banned drink discounts Fridays and Saturdays after 8 p.m., said Kay Nord Hunt, attorney to the students.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday for Freakfest 2007, which will sport three stages of live music featuring some nationally-known acts.
Details were announced Tuesday about the revamped Freakfest, which aims to build on the success of last year’s event. As businesses complained that Halloween on State Street had become too rowdy and destructive, city and student groups created Freakfest, a more organized event featuring live bands and a cover charge to get in.
UW-Madison engineering student Zach Heise, a member of the Campus Antiwar Network that organized the recent protest of Halliburton ‘s appearance at a campus recruiting fair, said he knew the rally was being videotaped by campus police.
He even talked to the plainclothes officer with the camera. “I saw his earpiece. I asked him and he told me right away he was with the police, ” Heise said. “I personally have no problem with the police videotaping us. If that ‘s part of their standard procedure … I ‘m not going to make a big deal of it. “
In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, college administrators, students, faculty and parents have become hyper-sensitive about the time it takes for a campus to be notified of an emergency.
Last April it took several hours for students to receive formal notification from the University of a bomb threat on campus. Subsequent emergency test e-mails took a matter of minutes. But even if e-mails appear in an inbox minutes after a threat is discovered, the chances that students would be at a computer or checking their University e-mail accounts are slim.
We live in a day and age where before anybody says or does something that affects the mass population, they must be cautious not to make their comments or actions related to race, no matter how remotely correlated they are.
Sometimes, however, minority groups need to be a little less hasty when they throw out the racial trump card.
Recently, the UW-Madison Police Department decided to cancel a party that would have kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month. It was scheduled by the fraternity Lambda Theta Phi, a Hispanic fraternity on campus, according to an article in the Daily Cardinal.
Wisconsin has now entered its fourth month without a budget for 2008, leaving the state with last yearâ??s provisions and a guarantee for fiscal failure before next summer. Students can be forgiven for largely ignoring the political spitting match unfolding between Democrats and Republicans at the Capitol since July, but now the budget â??impasseâ? threatens to directly affect UW-Madison, and it is time to take note.
Members of UW-Madisonâ??s PACE Coalition discussed the cityâ??s new Alcohol License Density Plan Tuesday as well as strategies for upcoming Halloween events.
Two UW-Madison chapter fraternities will appeal to the Interfraternity Council after an alleged hazing last spring and a violation of probation earlier this semester that led to expulsion from the University.
Four entrepreneurs with connections to UW-Madison spoke to students about the three Ms of entrepreneurshipâ??money, marketing and mentorshipâ??Tuesday night at Memorial Union.
I donâ??t mean to shock anyone, but Wisconsin is a pretty white state. Itâ??s telling that the University of Wisconsin, which itself is nearly 90 percent white, seemed like an oasis of diversity when I first moved here from my Green Bay suburb.
University of Wisconsin students will have the opportunity to voice their safety concerns to the Madison Police Department tonight at a downtown community safety meeting.
Members of a local coalition met Tuesday to discuss the cityâ??s plans for Halloween and possible new alcohol policies for the future.
A University of Wisconsin fraternity is being investigated by the Intrafraternity Council for allegations of misconduct, in a case that could lead to the groupâ??s suspension from campus.
People don’t immediately think of State Street as a neighborhood where people live, but Bill Cosh has lived on the street for the past 10 years.
His apartment, in a 38-unit building above Walgreens on the corner of State and Lake streets, sits across from where the popular campus bar Madhatters planned on opening, causing an uproar.
That the bar’s owner decided not to relocate to the bottom of State comes as a big relief to Cosh and others like him.
….(Ted) Gervasi, who could not be reached Tuesday night, told (Alderman Mike) Verveer that he would still like to open Madhatters somewhere in the campus area and that he was going to start a new search for a suitable location.
As it turns out, the first step to world peace is sharing some couscous pilaf and cracking a joke or two about soccer teams.
That’s the main thrust behind Dialogue International, the organization that sponsored an interfaith dinner and discussion last night at Hillel, the Jewish center on the UW campus. A group of Turkish Muslim graduate students started Dialogue International shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11 with a goal of fostering cultural understanding and debunking religious stereotypes with social events.
For the first two years Danielle Barker attended UW-Madison, almost every phone call home â?? and they were pretty much daily â?? involved tears.
“I would just bawl. I’d have these conversations with my mom, ‘I’m just not happy, I don’t want to be here,’ ” recalled Barker, now a fifth-year senior from Racine. “I listen now to my mom say how heart-wrenching it was for her that I was so very, very homesick.
In the past week, sections of UW-Madison campus were locked down twice. The first was last Tuesday after Jesse A. Miller called the Dane County Crisis Center and saying he was at the UW Hospital, had a weapon and wanted to be killed by police.
The second occurred Friday after a man robbed an Italian deli on Regent Street. Following the robbery, police locked down the Welcome Center, Newell Smith Residence Hall and Ogg Hall because a suspect of interest was inside the Center.
Dean of Students Lori Berquam again sent important campus safety information to members of the UW-Madison community Monday to highlight services available on campus.
The latest plans for the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building to be constructed across from Union South were unveiled Monday at the first of three town hall meetings hosted by UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Chancellor John Wiley commended efforts to urge the state budget conference committee to pass a budget sufficient for UW-Madison, but again stressed the need for enough funds at his State of the University address Monday.
