Category: Campus life

GREENWICH VILLAGE. A history class from the University of Wisconsin crowded into the backroom of the Stonewall Inn on Monday. The bar, of course, is famous as the site of the Stonewall riots, sparked by a police raid 38 years ago this month.

That uprising is considered the defining moment of the gay rights movement. But the students in the bar had been studying the less-celebrated history of gay activism in the years before Stonewall.

A team from UW Madison is competing against the best in the nation, but not on the playing field. This group of Badgers is going head to head with teams from 16 other schools, in a three year automotive competition known as Challenge X.

OTHER CITIES have claimed the pink flamingo as their own, but Madisonians know the truth.

For many reasons, this city can lay claim as the true spiritual home of the pop culture classic pink plastic flamingo. News this week that the presumed demise of the plastic bird was premature offers city leaders a nice opportunity to seize the moment and name the plastic pink flamingo Madison’s official bird.

The panel lauds the crisis team at the University of Florida. That team, according to the report, includes representatives of the campus police department, the legal counsel’s office, the university counseling center, and the offices of student affairs and residential life. It meets weekly to “review and evaluate specific individuals and incidents … and channel the institution’s coordinated response.”

Several other institutions, including the University of Wisconsin at Madison, have similar intervention teams.

A university class from the Midwest passed through Philadelphia yesterday on a two-week tour of historic sites in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender equal-rights movement.

When their red-and-white bus, adorned with the University of Wisconsin badger mascot, pulled up in front of Independence Hall, Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, had a surprise for them.

Speakers described mental-health issues as a growing concern among providers of study-abroad programs. More students are disclosing pre-existing mental-health problems, and are seeking help in finding counselors overseas or taking medication into a foreign country, said Julie Z. Lindsey, assistant director of international programs at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

She and two other administrators at the university talked about the importance of preparing for potential problems, and working out legal, insurance, and logistical issues.

The UW-Madison Formula SAE Racing team recently claimed the prestigious SAE Foundation Cup at the international racing competition in Detroit, which featured 130 schools from 11 countries on five continents.

Vying to build the best bridge to nowhere, engineering students from across the U.S. and Canada on Saturday joined trusses to struts and abutments to beams, creating sturdy 20-foot spans as they raced against the clock in the finals of the National Student Steel Bridge Competition at Cal State Northridge.

The 16th annual contest drew teams from 43 schools that had drilled and pounded their way through regional contests to reach the finals, held for the first time at the campus’ main athletics building, Redwood Hall.

The UW-Madison team came in third.

Madison, Wis. – Employers who wonder where their future technologists will come from, take heart.

Fourteen Madison area high school students soon will graduate from an intensive information technology training program offered through the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Information Technology Academy.

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Jim Doyle has appointed Colleene Thomas to the University of Wisconsin System’s Board of Regents. She will replace Christopher Semenas as the student representative. Her appointment is effective immediately and will expire May 1, 2009.

Thomas lives in Poplar. She is a student at the UW-Madison where she is majoring in political science and geography.

MADISON, Wis. — In the wake of Tuesday night’s fatal shooting, some University of Wisconsin-Madison students and downtown business owners said that they’re worried about safety.

UW student Steve Caringello said on Wednesday that for the first time at school, he was scared on State Street as he and his friends walked past the crime scene where a 23-year-old man was shot and killed. (For more on this story, click here.)

(MADISON) A University of Wisconsin-Madison official is stressing patience as the school probes reports of worker abuse and corruption with Hermosa Manufacturing, a former subcontractor for Adidas.

Dawn Crim, of the UW Chancellorâ??s Office, told the campusâ?? Labor Licensing Committee that Adidas has pledged to: crack down on blacklisting among its suppliers, start a hotline for reporting worker abuses and help 63 blacklisted workers find new jobs.

Crim acknowledges some labor advocates want UW-Madisonâ??s contract with Adidas cut now, instead of letting it expire in 2011. She says the school intended all along to monitor the situation, to ensure that workers are in fact being rehired and to ensure that the strategy is working. However, she says they feel like they need to give the strategy an opportunity to work. (Second item.)

Futons are strapped to cartops. Old, stained carpets are tossed in the trash. Football game ticket stubs and textbooks are stuffed into boxes.

It’s move-out time at UW-Madison’s residence halls, a process that’s done with surprising efficiency.

Ask any college student to define a mutual fund or a money market account, and odds are they won’t be able to.

But Christine Muggee, a UW-Madison sophomore majoring in business, will proudly tell you she put hours of research into picking out the best of these two investments for herself.

For the presidents of 19 colleges, this month’s mail has already produced at least one unpleasant surprise: a letter, signed by five influential lawmakers, warning of a “troubling” epidemic of online music and movie piracy on the campuses.

Leaders of two committees in the U.S. House of Representatives sent the letters to the top 10 colleges on each of two lists released recently by the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America. The lists, which overlap slightly, named the colleges that the trade groups said had received the most notices of copyright infringement over the past academic year.

Futons are strapped to cartops. Old, stained carpets are tossed in the trash. Football game ticket stubs and textbooks are stuffed into boxes.
It’s move-out time at UW-Madison’s residence halls, a process that’s done with surprising efficiency.

MADISON, Wis. — Parents of students attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison will soon be able to keep better tabs on the experiences their sons or daughters are having.

A special parent program will launch in June that includes a Web site, a parent newsletter and special notices for any emergencies on campus. UW officials said the move is to help keep parents informed as they’re becoming increasingly involved in their children’s education, WISC-TV reported.

MADISON, Wis. — One of the University of Wisconsin’s oldest graduates to earn a bachelor’s degree this year had to overcome some life-changing obstacles to walk with his fellow students.

Mike Hinrichs, 40, lost his vision in 1999 to diabetes.

“When I went blind over 8 years ago, I never had any idea how far I’d be able to make it,” said Hinrichs.

MADISON, Wis. — The inaugural class of the PEOPLE Program graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Friday.

PEOPLE — Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity for Learning Excellence — is designed to give minority students a jumpstart on college. The students apply for the program in either middle school or high school.

One of the students who graduated this weekend is Mohammed Farhoud. He said the program has given him a chance to pursue his passion: designing 3-D models.

MADISON, Wis. — It was a happy weekend on the UW Madison campus as thousands earned degrees.

Graduates are entering one of the best job markets in years, and many at the UW are taking full advantage.

“I’m starting work on June 4 at Epic Systems in Verona and I’m very excited about it,” said industrial engineering graduate Andrew Forecki.

Forecki is joining a group that’s increasingly in demand.

“I think it’s been a very good job market for engineers at least, most of my engineering friends have really good jobs lined up,” said Forecki.

A Madison man is presumed drowned after he was swept out to sea more than a week ago during a trip to South Africa.

Rescuers had been searching for 52-year-old Sasha Sternberg since he disappeared May 10th.

The Kohl Center was packed with proud parents and students for a graduation ceremony at UW Madison.

About 5,000 students will receive degrees from UW.

Some UW-Madison law students are questioning a decision by administrators to end the Legal Defense Program, in which students gain experience working as public defenders on criminal cases under the supervision of an attorney.

“The program offers so much of a diverse experience. I was able to handle every aspect of the criminal litigation process from the initial appearance in court all the way through sentencing,” said Nicole Weir, who is graduating this month. “No other program offers that independence.”

MILWAUKEE — Ryan Lipscomb lived to tell how it felt to have a truck run over his head. “Really strange,” he said.

Lipscomb, 26 of Seattle, suffered a concussion but was otherwise unhurt. He was shaken up, especially after he saw his mangled helmet.

Lipscomb, a graduate student in medical physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was riding down a bike path in Madison on Friday afternoon. As he approached an intersection, he said, he noticed the oncoming delivery truck preparing to make a right turn in front of him.

Congressional leaders have sent letters to 19 major university presidents warning them to step up efforts to curb illegal Internet file sharing or Congress “will be forced to act.”

“The fact that copyright piracy is not unique to college and university campuses is not an excuse for higher education officials to fail to take reasonable steps neither to eliminate such activity nor to appropriately sanction such conduct when discovered,” said a letter addressed to Purdue University president Martin Jischke May 1, 2007.

Purdue is among the top universities with the most illegal Internet downloading activity in the United States, according to surveys cited in the letter.

“It worked perfectly. Without the helmet, I wouldn’t be here,” Ryan Lipscomb says.

His helmet’s almost crushed, but a local bicyclist says it saved his life during a hit and run crash on Madison’s East Side.

This week is Bike to Work Week. A local graduate student is a living example of why you should wear a helmet on your next commute. This young man says he always wears a helmet. He was on his way home to study when the crash happened. On Monday, he took his test, after putting his head to the test in a hit and run crash.

MADISON, Wis. — A UW graduate student is thankful to be alive after being involved in a hit-and-run while biking on Friday.

Ryan Lipscomb said he was biking along the bike path along Eastwood Drive near Division Street around 3 p.m. on Friday when he was hit by a delivery truck.

“The delivery truck was in the right lane and turned right,” said Lipscomb. I slammed on my brakes. I was probably to that first cross mark on the crosswalk.”

“You know I was laying there in the street for a second and I thought to myself, ‘Man this could have been a lot worse, you know,’ said Lipscomb. “Then I felt the truck run over my head.”

The end of the runway stretching the length of the Great Hall in the Memorial Union will be just the beginning of many journeys for students in the University of Wisconsin’s textile and apparel design program in the School of Human Ecology.

And becoming true professionals, they’ll show no sign of all the sleepless nights of preparation that lead up to the annual Textile and Apparel Student Association (TASA) Spring Fashion Show on Sunday.

It was a routine day in Iraq for Jake Wood.

And routine means dealing with the daily strife that includes sniper fire, searching for buried explosive devices and crushing boredom.

Wood is a former University of Wisconsin football player, an offensive lineman from Bettendorf, Iowa, and a lance corporal in the U.S. Marines, stationed near Fallujah. He’s in charge of a squad of 12 men.

MADISON, Wis. — The 42-year history of one of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s most historic dormitory halls will come to an end next week.

Students will vacate Ogg Hall for the last time after finals are finished next week. The building is set to be demolished over the summer, WISC-TV reported.

Many students said that they’re wondering what the legacy of Ogg Hall will be.

The 42-year old building will be gone by fall, but it’s name will live on in the new dorm built just a block away.
Even in its final year. Ogg’s reputation didn’t stop students from requesting to live in the dorm that couldn’t be saved.

Ogg opened in 1965. It went up pretty quick because of increased enrollment at the UW in the 60s.
But 40 years later, the towers became too expensive to renovate. The inside reflects that.

A security review triggered by the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech will focus on how University of Wisconsin campuses can intervene with troubled students to prevent violence, officials said Thursday.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A security review triggered by the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech will focus on how University of Wisconsin campuses can intervene with troubled students to prevent violence, officials said Thursday.

Among the problems already discovered is a shortage of mental health counselors to treat students, said University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Chief Sue Riseling, who is leading the review.

â??At this point what I can safely say is that we do not meet the national average for staffing in our counseling centers,â? she said. â??This is a problem thatâ??s growing and we know it. Unfortunately, weâ??re not sure right now the system has the resources to meet what we are currently seeing.â?