Category: Campus life

Ask the mother of any bride, or any bride for that matter, and they will tell you it’s never too early to begin to plan the party and never a mistake to hire the best party planner available.

Summer is a prime time for crime.

Madison Police Department spokesperson Mike Hanson said Madison sees an increase in crime and service calls during the summer months because people spend more time outside, especially downtown.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and the city of Madison called last Halloweenâ??s lack of tear gas, violence and uncontrollable crowds a great â??success,â? and hopes to maintain these standards for celebrations in the future.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will meet today and discuss approval for two new degree programs â?? including a doctor of physical therapy at UW-Madison.

Several representatives from a number of different climate-friendly student groups participated in a rally on Library Mall Wednesday that culminated in a disappointing march to Chancellor John Wileyâ??s office.

The University of Wisconsin System Commission on University Security met Wednesday to discuss its plans to address campus safety and emergency preparedness.

A Madison-based production company will help the city plan and manage the entertainment and ticketing system at the 2007 State Street Halloween celebration, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz announced Wednesday.

A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduate who said he posted threatening messages on Facebook.com as a joke has apologized to the campus community and members of UWM’s student government who were the target of the hoax.

The City of Madison is getting ready for this year’s Halloween event.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has hired Frank Productions to help with the bash. It will again feature live entertainment and a ticketing system

A University of Wisconsin System committee traveled to UW-Milwaukee Monday to hear public feedback on whether the Board of Regents should amend its student nonacademic misconduct policies.

A young attorney who has served as Madison’s bar czar for the past two years will join an attorney who moonlights with a salsa band, a civil servant who has served three mayors and a former Kerry-Edwards campaign staffer as Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s assistants.

Cieslewicz lauded Joel Plant as one of the key players in the development of last year’s successful Halloween celebration and predicts Plant “will bring that consensus-building approach to a wide range of issues in our office.”

The 29-year-old Plant has been the city’s alcohol policy coordinator since 2005.

As some students prepare to leave Madison next week after finals, construction crews are getting ready to tear up large portions of the University of Wisconsin campus for several projects.

MADISON — Kyle Everson found himself smack dab in the middle of paradise during his spring break from the University of Wisconsin-Madison last month.

On March 30, the 20-year-old Monroe native and nine fellow students packed themselves and their camping gear into two minivans. They drove 22 hours to Georgia and took a boat ride to Cumberland Island, the largest of the Peach State’s barrier islands and the group’s Alternative Breaks destination. They returned April 8.

Memorial Library will extend its days of 24-hour finals hours to include the three days before finals week this semester, according to Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Gestina Sewell.

Although Memorial Library usually stays open 24 hours during finals week, Sewell said, some students want to begin studying before finals week into the late hours of the night.

The number of arrests at the annual Mifflin Street Block Party increased by more than 100 people since last year, although the Madison Police Department estimates fewer people to have attended the event.

Under gray skies and cool temperatures, a good natured crowd celebrated “Cinco de Mifflin” at the 39th annual Mifflin Street Block Party.
At least a half-dozen homemade T-shirts riffed on the cross-cultural theme created by the coincidence of this year’s block party with the Mexican holiday, including a blue one that dubbed the day “Cinco de Drunko.”

Madison: A discrimination lawsuit between the UW and a student group is settled. The U-W Roman Catholic Foundation will receive more than $253,000 in student fees next year.

Last fall the UW Roman Catholic Foundation filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Wisconsin. The UW had revoked their status as a registered student group, because only 3 out of 12 RCF board members were students, and because the RCF discriminated against other students by requiring members to be Catholic.

Arrests were up and the crowd size was down at the Mifflin Street Block Party on Saturday, compared to the revelry last year. In their final release at 9:15 p.m., the Madison Police Department reported a total of 366 arrests, with nearly every person cited for a city alcohol ordinance violation and subsequently released. By comparison, some 265 persons were arrested at the party in 2006.

Madison: More than 10,000 people showed up to the annual Mifflin Street Block Party, and police made more than 350 arrests, most for alcohol related violations.

In the past, if you threw a house party for the Mifflin Street Block Party you could expect to make a little money from selling cups to your guests.

But in recent years Madison Police have cracked down on illegal house parties, handing out fines of more than $10,000 to the hosts.

A settlement was reached in the UW Roman Catholic Foundation federal lawsuit against the UW System Board of Regents and four UW-Madison administrators Thursday.

UW-Madison students and Mifflin Street residents are primarily worried about alcohol and noise violations Saturday at the 38th annual Mifflin Street Block Party.

Nobel Peace Prize winner â??His Holinessâ? Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, will give a public talk at 2:30 p.m. in the Kohl Center in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 9,000 UW-Madison students, faculty and community members.

A University of Wisconsin law student was allegedly mugged early Thursday afternoon walking on West Gilman Street toward State Street.

he University of Wisconsin announced Thursday that Broadway, television and film actor André De Shields will speak at spring commencement.

he University of Wisconsin law student who first started the outrage regarding a professorâ??s comments about the Hmong community will be honored with an award May 18.

The University of Wisconsin announced Thursday it reached a settlement with the UW Roman Catholic Foundation over a discrimination lawsuit filed in November over the groupâ??s funding.

Madison Police Department officials say they are ready to regulate Saturdayâ??s 38th annual Mifflin Street Block Party and are prepared to make upward of 500 arrests.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – In a case closely watched in higher education, the University of Wisconsin-Madison agreed Thursday to award $250,000 in student fees next year to a Catholic group to settle its religious discrimination lawsuit.

Both the university and the UW Roman Catholic Foundation praised the agreement, which settles a federal lawsuit filed after the university refused to recognize the group despite a campus presence dating to the 1880s.

The dispute has been watched closely because it could set clearer standards on whether student fees at a public university can go to religious groups – and for what activities – without violating the constitutional separation of church and state or discriminating against religion.

Shortly after a federal judge ordered the University of Wisconsin to hand over the names of 53 UW System students targeted as habitual illegal music downloaders, the Recording Industry Association of America cracked down on more campuses Wednesday.

You will be ticketed if you break the clearly-defined rules of the Mifflin Street Block Party.

That was the message echoed by representatives from the Madison Police and Fire Departments Wednesday night at a meeting meant to allow Mifflin residents and police to voice concerns to one another about Saturdayâ??s party.

The Dalai Lama arrived in Madison Wednesday afternoon to start his three-day visit, and tomorrow he will give a sold-out talk to University of Wisconsin students and community members at the Kohl Center.

A congressional committee sent letters Wednesday to the University of Wisconsin and 19 other universities identified as having received the highest number of illegal-downloading infringement notices for the purpose of gathering information.

It is not every day that college students discuss their house parties for the upcoming weekend with police officers before they even occur.

How many people show up for the annual Mifflin Street block party Saturday is anybody’s guess. A lot of it depends on the weather, which right now calls for coolish conditions.

….”It could be a thousand people, it could be 40,000. We have no feel for it at all,” said Madison Police Sgt. Dave McCaw, adding that another factor is the final exam schedule of colleges and universities in surrounding states.

The police are introducing mounted horse patrol to Mifflin Street for the first time in the event’s 38-year history. “They won’t be as much crowd control as they will be crowd management,” McCaw said.

MADISON, Wis. — With days away from the Mifflin Street Block Party, Madison police are urging residents to do their part to help keep the annual bash safe.

With great weather in the forecast, high turnout is expected on Saturday, but police said they hope revelers will keep problems to a minimum.

“I don’t think we’ve had a block party in recent years that hasn’t attracted at least 10,000 partiers throughout the day, and I think with the nice weather, we’ll more likely double that figure,” said Alderman Mike Verveer.

A new law approved by the Madison City Council on Tuesday will require shops that buy secondhand textbooks to keep lists, available to police, of the people who sold the books.

Textbook theft, which the ordinance is intended to address, is a major problem, according to Eli Judge, Mike Verveer and Robbie Webber, the council members representing the districts with the highest concentrations of UW-Madison students.

The new regulations, however, will only deal with people who are looking for quick cash from stolen books, not the people who sell the books they steal on eBay and other Internet sites, said Ald. Zach Brandon, who supported the proposal.