Category: Campus life

Dear Editor: In response to the recent coverage about UW-Madison students, alcohol overdoses and detox, I wanted to share my perspective on the issue.

Alcohol is indeed a problem here at UW-Madison, as it is at many, if not all of our peer institutions. In partnership with students, police, the city and community, the Office of the Dean of Students is committed to the safety of our students, which includes communicating important messages about drinking on our campus and promoting programs that do not involve the consumption of alcohol.

The University of Wisconsin Band is marching to a better tune this season, putting last yearâ??s sexual misconduct and hazing allegations behind them and reestablishing themselves as a positive symbol for the university.

Beginning in early November, a kosher meat kitchen will open in Chadbourne Residence Hallâ??s renovated Rhetaâ??s dining facility, which is available to all students.

Drawing from the results of the 2007 Student Computing Survey released Tuesday, the UW-Madison Division of Information Technology is making improvements to keep computing safe and effective at the university.

At this time of year it’s customary for the media to reach out. We want to help. We understand you. We’re just like you, after all – except old. Terribly, terribly old . . . sometimes I get so lonely.

Wednesday’s article on increasing textbook costs did a good job of identifying possible solutions. As a recent graduate from the UW-Madison with a triple major in liberal arts, allow me to propose another: Advise faculty to reconsider their reading lists.

Madison police are trying hard to reduce crime Downtown, and surveillance cameras will help this important effort.
Police will install eight wireless video cameras by mid-September to monitor trouble spots in and around State Street and University Avenue near the UW-Madison campus. Video will be transmitted to a central server and streamed to squad cars in the street.

The future of higher education in Wisconsin is at stake as budget negotiations continue between the state Assembly and Senate.

One item of particular concern is a proposed cap to limit the growth in tuition paid by University of Wisconsin System students to 4% a year for four years.

If approved, the tuition cap might preclude needed differential tuitions for high-demand majors, proposals that have been endorsed by students and approved by the Board of Regents.

Madison- 40,000 students are returning to UW-Madison this week, just 2 months after the disappearance and murder of UW-Whitewater student Kelly Nolan in the downtown Madison area.

Her killer was never caught. The crime is fresh in the minds of students. Some say they will be more cautious while out partying, knowing that Nolan’s killer is still on the loose.

MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Marching Band has been staying in line — both literally and figuratively — since it was threatened by officials for rowdy behavior and hazing last year.

News about the band has been positive since a series of embarrassing incidents came out about lewd behavior by the group led to Chancellor John Wiley’s decree to shape up.

Casey Nagy, an assistant to Wiley, said administrators have been “very pleased with their response” after band members were strongly warned about losing performance and travel privileges.

Madison police bust underage and over-served students on one of the busiest party weekends.

27 News rode along with Madison Police Department’s Party Patrol Friday night.

Six officers went from house to house and bar to bar busting underage drinkers.

The University of Wisconsinâ??s state-of-the-art, $28-million Ogg Hall opened in late August in the midst of a battle at the Capitol to secure funding for more housing projects at UW.

MADISON, Wis. — Heather Zucker ate mostly salad and spaghetti during the years she lived in the University of Wisconsin dorms. Sometimes, her dinner was just a bowl of ice cream.

Zucker wasn’t being picky. She keeps kosher, and she said there were ”slim pickin’s” for Jewish students in the dining halls.

MADISON – As students returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the fall semester, detectives continued their search for the killer of a woman who vanished after a night of bar-hopping, common among the school’s 41,000 students.

Police and university officials are cautioning students to drink in moderation, stay with their friends and have a plan for getting home — things that 22-year-old Kelly Nolan apparently didn’t do before she disappeared early June 23.

Think back to your freshman year of college: what comes to mind?

Maybe meeting new people, taking tough classes or ordering pizza every night?That first year of freedom brings big changes for many new students. The most daunting may be managing their money for the first time.UW-Eau Claire allows credit card companies to market to students but only if a student organization or academic department sponsors the company’s visit to campus.

Policies vary by school in the UW-System, but at UW-Stout and UW-Madison, school leaders restrict where credit card companies or other marketing organizations can try to sell to students

MADISON, Wis. â?? As students returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison this week for the fall semester, detectives continued their search for the killer of a woman who vanished after a night of bar-hopping common among the school’s 41,000 students.

As students returned to UW-Madison this week for the fall semester, detectives continued their search for the killer of a woman who vanished after a night of bar-hopping common among the school ‘s 41,000 students.

Ticket prices for the famed Halloween party on State Street will increase this year.

Over the summer, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, along with other city officials, hiked Halloween ticket prices from $5 to $7 on Saturday, Oct. 27, the day of the event. The $5 tickets were introduced last yearâ??attendance was free before then.

Ogg Hall, the Campus Master Planâ??s latest edition and the second new campus residence hall in the last 42 years, is open and ready for move-in.

MADISON, Wis. — A new campus residence offers University of Wisconsin-Madison an alternative to regular dorm life with the option of a faith-based lifestyle.

The Pres House Residence is one of the first-of-its-kind apartment buildings in the country. A cross between dorm and apartment living, it is run by the Pres House, a Presbyterian Campus Organization.

MADISON, Wis. — Wednesday marks the start of moving for hundreds of University of Wisconsin-Madison students living on campus.

On Wednesday and Thursday, about 2,500 students and their belongings will be moving into residence halls for the upcoming school year, WISC-TV reported.

“We probably have around 300 Badger Buddies to help us, plus our house fellows, plus all of our full-time staff, plus some of our student employees. So there’s a lot going on and a lot of people helping,” said Paul Evans, director of UW-Madison housing.

It’s goodbye mom and dad, hello college for freshman at the UW. But, move in day involves more than heavy lifting and unpacking.

“I’m really excited,” exclaims Elysha Decker! “I just don’t know how all this will fit in my dorm room.”

The first of more challenges to come for Elysha, who is from Portage.

“It will be an adventure, definitely,” she says. “I’ll learn a lot and have a lot of new experiences.”

As a new school year begins, University of Wisconsin officials are launching an effort to make students realize how dangerous alcohol can be.

“This is a messaging campaign aimed at incoming freshmen, primarily in the UW Housing dorms,” said Susan Crowley, director of prevention services at University Health Services at UW-Madison.

“We are very concerned about the increase in the number of students transported to detoxification with very high blood alcohol content. We want to let students know very early in the year about the seriousness of alcohol incapacitation.”

There are three things that can waylay the well-oiled machine of move-in day at UW-Madison, says Associate Dean of Students Kevin Helmkamp: Weather, an elevator breaking down and some guy who’s pulling a trailer for the first time in his life.

(MADISON) In downtown Madison, more than 30 surveillance cameras are scheduled to be installed and tested soon as a way to crack down on crime. But there are already mixed feelings on the camerasâ?? use and effectiveness.

Nearly $390,000 has been spent on the venture, which will set up a video monitoring system along State Street, University Avenue, and other areas police want to watch closely. Backers, like UW-Madison sophomore Becky Layman, say the cameras provide them and others with some peace of mind. UW grad student Nathan Vernau says heâ??s not entirely sure how effective the cameras will be, but says they can help police investigate incidents like the recent disappearance and murder of a UW coed and the shooting death of a Minnesota man during a fight on State Street.

MADISON, Wis. — It was move-in day for UW students.

The new Ogg Hall opened its doors to 615 students.

The â??New Oggâ? is UWâ??s newest residence hall, which replaces the historic Ogg Hall towers.

Convicted killer Ralph Armstrong has waited 27 years for a new trial, and now may have to wait a little longer.

Armstrong was convicted of the 1980 killing and sexual assault of Charise Kamps, 19, a UW student from Platteville who was found murdered in her apartment on West Gorham Street.

Designers of the UW-Madison’s new Ogg Hall, which opens to 615 students next week, have thought of pretty much everything — security, academics, water conservation, art.

The six-story residence hall at North Park and Dayton streets cost $28 million to construct, with costs for design, green space, art and demolition of the old Ogg bringing the total cost to $36 million.

Matzo ball soup and kugel will soon be sharing a spot at the table with cheeseburgers and shellfish at UW-Madison.

A box brimming with favorite photographs will travel with Grace Duray, 18, when she moves across the country next month to start classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The 2007 Tumwater High School graduate also will bring picture frames and a bulletin board she’ll use to make an unfamiliar dorm room feel like home. But Duray decided against taking along many other South Sound mementos in part because she knows her living quarters will be small. Plus, traveling with extra luggage isn’t any fun.

Next Wednesday, many incoming students to UW Madison will be moving into a new Ogg Hall.

The new residence hall on the university campus opened its doors Thursday for tours.

615 students will call the new dorm home this fall semester, and it is filled to capacity.

“Freakfest 2007,” the informal name for the Halloween party on State Street this fall, was the first item on the city’s Street Use Staff Team meeting Wednesday morning.

As in 2006, the party will be fenced and gated along the length of State Street and access permitted only with a ticket — this being the city’s response to the early-morning disturbances of the previous four years. Unlike last year, though, the event organizer is not the city, but Frank Productions, a national concert promoter based in Madison.