Category: Campus life

A former UW student who faked her own abduction has finally paid off her debt to the city of Madison.

Audrey Seiler told police she was kidnapped from her dorm in March 2004.

Amid the modern, austere buildings of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, something peculiar and esoteric is taking place at the Stock Pavilion.

On the front steps, two women dance in tandem to the sounds of the Middle East, their chain belts emphasizing the sinuous gyrations of their hips.

Through the open doors of the pavilion, a flash of metal beams into the evening air, followed by the sound of muted blows. Men and women clad in glittering armor rush at each other, rattan weapons at the ready.

The search for Kelly Nolan, a UW-Whitewater student who was last seen downtown in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 23, is widening each day. Utilizing Facebook, a blanket of fliers around the city, and a swell of national media attention, the family and friends of the 22-year-old woman persist in their search and efforts. Their latest tool is a blog, helpfindkelly.org, through which they are tracking the search and offering background information, photos, and flyers for persons looking to help.

Twenty-two year old Kelly Nolan disappeared from downtown Madison nearly two weeks ago after a night out with friends.

Her mother, Mary Jane Nolan has been searching. She’s also been recruiting. Trying to get anyone who will listen to be on the look out for her daughter. She says it could be their daughter and hopefully will think what they would do.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Was Kelly Nolan kidnapped? Is she lost, hurt, or worse? Or did she just walk away and not look back? All anyone knows for sure is the 22-year-old college student has been missing for a week and a half, and Madison detectives have been unable to pick up her trail.

“Under most circumstances, I’d be less hopeful, but if you knew Kelly, she’s just a really tough girl. That girl, I’m sure she’s out there. I’m sure she can be found,” said Nolan’s co-worker, Megan Janeway.

….Janeway said Nolan “was always up for a good time, like any other college student.”

Buoyed by information from Madison detectives, the family of Kelly Nolan announced Tuesday they were offering a reward for information leading to her whereabouts.

“We’re here with hope and optimism,” Nolan’s mother, Mary Jane Nolan, said at a press conference Tuesday on Library Mall near the UW campus.

More than 10 days after a 22-year-old college student went missing, police continue to search for the woman who virtually vanished from a downtown campus.

Kelly Nolan, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student who was planning to take advantage of part-time job opportunities at the university’s main campus in Madison this summer, was last seen in the early morning hours of June 23 in the downtown area.

An American exchange student studying at the UCT was killed on Sunday and another was injured in a car accident during a guided tour in Palapye, Botswana.

Andrea Sperka, in her early twenties, a senior from the University of Wisconsin Madison, died at the scene.

Police are reviewing surveillance videotape of a bar in Madison, Wis., where a 22-year-old college student was reportedly spotted before she vanished more than a week ago.

It used to be that new students were dropped off at college with no more than a hug from Mom or Dad. They were thrown into the classroom with little advice from the school.

Today, colleges roll out lengthy orientations that are part pep rally, part counseling session. Many encourage parents to participate.

Visit one of UW’s two-day sessions, and you’ll understand why.

This week Kelly Nolan became a statistic, one of nine adults reported to the Madison Police Department as missing in June.
Most of those nine have been found, police said, but Nolan is an open case, a troubling question mark.

The search for a 22-year-old woman missing since Saturday is getting a boost in exposure both locally and across the nation. Mentions UW-Madison’s efforts to publicize the case of a missing UW-Whitewater student.

Krysta Huser, Tracy Peterson and Tara Grant, 2004 graduates of River Falls High School, were â??The Fabulous Three,â? â??The Three Musketeers,â? â??The Three Stoogesâ? â?? or whatever nickname you wanted to tag on to the number three.

Low-income students in the University of Wisconsin System applying for a popular financial aid program this fall will be put on a waiting list for the aid due to uncertainty surrounding the state budget, officials say.

The Higher Educational Aids Board is imposing the waiting list for applicants starting today. The agency says it is running out of money for the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant program, which gives grants of up to $2,730 per year to thousands of students.

A 21-year-old woman from Spring Valley died early Sunday morning, apparently from carbon monoxide poisoning from electric generator fumes, in a tent at the Chip-pewa Valley Country Fest grounds.Tara M. Grant was taken to St. Josephâ??s Hospital in Chippewa Falls shortly after a 12:42 a.m. 911 call, but efforts to revive her failed.Her friend, Jesse J. Jenson, 24, also of Spring Valley, was taken to the hospital for observation for an elevated level of carbon monoxide.

The Chippewa County Sheriffâ??s Department says it believes carbon monoxide poisoning led to a death at the Country Fest grounds in Cadott early Sunday morning.

The department got a call around 12:45 Sunday morning of an unresponsive female in a campsite on the Fest grounds.

For country music fan Tara Grant, 21, of Spring Valley, Wisconsin, Country Fest was an event to look forward to all year.

For the past five years Tara had camped at the Cadott music festival with a group of former students from River Falls High School. But overnight Saturday the good times ended.

WAUKESHA – Waukesha native Becky Gunn has known all of her life that she was going to help people in one form or another.

When Gunn graduated from high school in 2003, she decided that she was going to pursue a career that would help people, such as working in the medical field.

However, Gunn decided that she could make more of an impact by working in a field that could help prevent people from getting hurt as opposed to just healing their wounds – mechanical engineering.

A couple of college kids are trying to make restaurant-goers healthier … or at least give them that option.

It’s touted as a business-friendly alternative to implementing an outright ban. UW-Madison students Dan Chavas (chuh-VAHS) and Eli Persky are co-founders of Informed Consumers Equal Improved Health. Chavas says we can check the food labels and control what we eat at home, but when we go to a restaurant, there’s no way of knowing the amount trans fats in our meal.

It could limit the number of bars in downtown Madison, but only if it ever gets past the revision stage.

Madison’s Alcohol License Review Committee again discussed the Alcohol Beverage License Density Plan tonight, but there was still no vote on the proposed law.

Last Fall, the committee proposed limiting liquor licenses to help decrease downtown crime.

Downtown businesses do not support the plan.

Surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings and cushy fraternity houses, the Emma Goldman Cooperative at 625 N. Frances St. might be seen as a throwback to the Madison of the 1960s.

The three-story wood and stucco house is home to activism and casually dressed, relatively young people, who eat communal vegetarian meals and pay low rents near the shore of Lake Mendota.

This week, the UW- Madison’s Office of Multicultural Initiatives is teaming with the Hip-Hop Association and Urban Word NYC, in offering a program on spoken word programs and how they can be used by educators.

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh officials on Monday defended a contract that allows students to use their college Ids to open accounts at U.S. Bank following a newspaper’s report that the university was promoting the bank’s services even though no other bank in the Oshkosh area charges students a higher overdraft fee for checking accounts.

University officials said the arrangement, which pays the university $15,000 plus royalty payments, generates revenue that helps pay for campus services.

The proposed resolution also would encourage organizations to sponsor free or discounted tickets. Verveer said UW-Madison students expressed interest in receiving a free or discounted ticket, while students flocking from across the Midwest to party in Madison would pay full price.

SEATTLE (AP) – And you thought badgers were land animals.

For the fifth year in a row, the University of Wisconsin-Madison won the National Concrete Canoe Competition over the weekend in Seattle.

The Wisconsin team used a 179-pound, natural gray canoe — named the Descendent — to capture the “America’s Cup of Civil Engineering” prize at what is officially called the American Society of Civil Engineers’ National Concrete Canoe Competition.

Recent college graduates, including tens of thousands graduating this spring, are seeking community service jobs, where they can learn marketable skills while doing work they find meaningful. For many, it offers a chance to test out a career before settling into one. But as interest in service grows, some organizations are getting more selective; others are feeling the squeeze of a competitive market for idealistic young adults.

Second place is a good finish for one UW team. The UW Madison team was among 17 schools to re-engineer a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox, using advanced propulsion technologies to increase fuel efficiency and reduce environmental impact. Challenge X team leader Becky Gunn says their biodiesel hybrid gets about 36 miles per gallon, compared to seventeen mpg for a stock Equinox.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents moved Thursday to eliminate ties between campus officials and private lenders that pose conflicts of interest, saying a national student loan scandal that touched Wisconsin required a swift response.

When he started college at UW-Madison five years ago, Marcus Marty had no idea he’d be working for a NASCAR race team one day.

But after graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering this spring, Marty was hired by Roush Fenway Racing — the team that Cambridge native Matt Kenseth races for — to work on its vehicle dynamics and road simulation.

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosseâ??s Growth and Access Plan has suggested the need to increase the diversity on this campus. The plan is now considered in the governorâ??s budget and likely to see implementation. However, it seems that the UW-L administrationâ??s, especially the Office of Residence Lifeâ??s, view of diversity and their record on it is pitiful.

In White Hall, on Nov. 6, 2006, messages of â??White Power,â? and the Nazi swastika, among others, were written on paper in the stalls that were intended to let people convey ideas for hall apparel. After a hate-incident report was filed, the hall director stated that these messages were not covered by the First Amendment.

Sick of paying $40 or more to fill up your tank? Worried about global warming? If so, you might be interested in the advanced drive systems that student engineers showed off in downtown Detroit on Thursday.

As gas prices remain above $3 a gallon, teams of college students involved in the Challenge X automotive engineering competition used a variety of advanced propulsion technologies. Their goal was to increase fuel efficiency and make vehicles more environmentally friendly without sacrificing their appeal to consumers.

The propulsion systems aren’t planned for production right away, but top engineers from General Motors Corp. and the U.S. Department of Energy said the students’ work could influence future product decisions, help address concerns about the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and limit the emissions believed to cause global warming.

UW-Madison finished second in the contest.