Category: Campus life

The Madison City Council voted Tuesday to ban glass bottles May 5, effectively confirming that date for the annual Mifflin Street Block Party.

As soon as they started to appear, the quotes seemed remarkably offensive: â??Hmong women are better off now that Hmong men are dying off in this countryâ? or â??all Hmong men purchase their wives, so if he wants to have sex with his wife and she doesnâ??t consent, you and I call it rape, but the Hmong guy is thinking, â??man, I paid too much for her.â?? â? The remarks were attributed to Leonard V. Kaplan, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

“Iâ??m going to pull the hat off. You run and you donâ??t turn around,â? Dina Marieâ??s rapist warned her before he let her go. â??Donâ??t look at my car. Donâ??t look at my license plate. The man pulled off the black hat he had used to cover Dina Marieâ??s eyes. Immediately, she heard the door slam and the car drive away.

Crime levels over the past three years have remained steady in Madisonâ??s central district, but recent violent crime, such as sexual assaults and robberies, has prompted both students and city officials to identify safety as a key issue.

A heightened sense of fear has spread over the UW-Madison community, a sentiment administrators acknowledge and students attribute to high-profile crimes that have shocked the campus and its greater community this school year.

Police and city officials are urging student safety following the first reported sexual assault of the semester which took place on Spring Street Saturday morning. The two male suspects are still at large.

Alderman Vereerâ??s comments on the recent Spring Street sexual assault were inappropriate. Too often our society downplays sexual harm when it is not accompanied by additional physical brutality

In a public statement released Monday, a University of Wisconsin professor denied making several controversial statements about Hmong culture attributed to him in a February lecture.

Back in the late 1960s, when disposable clothing was all the short-lived rage, your household names in fashion were not the Armanis, Ann Taylors and Calvin Kleins of today. They were Scott Towels, Kimberly-Clark, Hallmark cards. And Reynolds Aluminum, of kitchen-foil fame.

Programs like Colleges Against Cancer allow students to increase awareness and one UW student is doing just that. Kari Liotta is the survivorship chair for Colleges Against Cancer.She was diagnosed with cancer in high school–now a cancer survivor, she’s says she’s thankful to live and tell her story to help others.

The U-W Madison athletic department is celebrating a big milestone. Collectively student athletes are posting the highest GPA in the school’s history, on the heals of a darker spot on the university’s academic record. Last year the basketball Badgers were plagued with ineligibility that likely hurt them on the court, but this year the team is rebounding with the help of additional resources and a dedicated staff.

MADISON, Wis. — Four University of Wisconsin-Madison students were recognized by the American Red Cross Thursday for helping pull a mother and two children from a crashed van just moments before it burst into flames.Paul Thoresen, Robert Johnson, Alex Hill and Ryan Oldenbury received the Youth Good Samaritans award at a ceremony at the Monona Terrace on Thursday.

A 21-year-old UW student says she was sexually assaulted while walking home early Saturday morning, but a friend says that’s about all she remembers.

“She was out walking with friends and walking home,” says Travis Johnson.

A female UW student told police that two men attacked and sexually assaulted her on Spring Street in the early morning hours on Saturday. In the wake of this report, the university says demand for its late-night safety programs is growing.

“Every weekend our phone lines are maxed out,” said Jacob Hahn with UW’s transportation office. The number of students asking for a walking escort more than doubled since 2003, this fall, 1,350 students called.

Police are seeking two suspects in a near west side assault of a 21-year-old UW-Madison student over the weekend.

The woman was walking in the 1000 block of Spring Street at about 1:40 a.m. Saturday when two men she did not know approached her, forced her to the ground and assaulted her.

According to police reports, both suspects are white, in their mid-20s and about 6 feet tall. One had dark hair and a goatee and was wearing a blue puffy jacket. The other was clean-shaven and had on a dark blue “skull cap” and a black puffy jacket. Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 266-6014.

Madison Police say a UW student is recovering after being sexually assaulted and they need your help in finding the two men suspected of the attack.

University of Wisconsin police are investigating an attack on the campus early Sunday morning.

The University Committee for Academic Freedom and Rights released a statement Friday saying UW Law School professor Leonard Kaplanâ??s academic freedomsâ??and the academic rights of all UW-Madison professorsâ??must be protected, after Kaplan was accused of making racist remarks regarding Hmong people in his Feb. 15 Legal Process class.

Two men sexually assaulted a female UW-Madison student early Saturday morning on the 1000 block of Spring Street, Madison Police reported.

It is late at night, and you are out walking alone. Suddenly you hear footsteps behind you. Your worst fears about who it is flash through your mind, and you break out in a cold sweat. You speed up, but the footsteps keep pace, and finally you turn. Then what?

….Madison campus residents are particularly on guard after media focus on campus stranger assaults this past year. Recent statistics show eight UW-Madison students were victims of serious stranger assaults in 2006, nearly three times the number assaulted by strangers in 2005. All but one of the stranger assault victims in the past two years were male.

The number of stranger assaults pales in comparison to the 43 students, primarily women, who reported sexual assaults in 2005.

A law professor at the center of a growing debate about racist comments he allegedly made in lecture spoke out for the first time since the controversy arose at an open meeting Friday.

College students from across the country flocked to the University of Wisconsin Friday for the second annual Midwest Student Clean Energy Conference.

A 21-year-old University of Wisconsin student was sexually assaulted early Saturday morning on the 1000 block of Spring Street, according to a report filed with the Madison Police Department.

News of another sexual assault has kept students concerned about safety in the area just south of the UW-Madison campus.
Madison police reported that a 21-year-old UW-Madison student was sexually assaulted by two men just before 2 a.m. Saturday in the 1000 block of Spring Street. Police said the two strangers forced her to the ground and assaulted her.

The recording industry continued its crackdown on illegal downloading Wednesday by threatening to sue what it says are its worst offendersâ??college students.

Mayoral candidates Dave Cieslewicz and Ray Allen focused on Madison poverty at a debate Thursday night at Witte Hall.

Discussing issues such as downtown safety, Halloween, the proposed Alcohol Density Plan and Madisonâ??s transportation system, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and mayoral candidate Ray Allen showed students their unique â?? and opposing â?? viewpoints at a debate Thursday evening.

An emotionally charged group of hundreds of students, faculty and community members met Thursday night to address a University of Wisconsin professorâ??s statements about the Hmong community.

Clearly, eloquently and sometimes tearfully, the seven young Asian women who raised the issue of a law professor’s allegedly insulting remarks about the Hmong told their story at a public forum Thursday night.

The other side was not heard, however, as Professor Leonard Kaplan did not attend the forum at the University of Wisconsin Law School, to the intense disappointment of many of the more than 200 who came, hoping to hear both sides of the matter.

By the April 3 city elections, if you don’t know the differences between the candidates for Madison mayor, it’s not because you didn’t have your chance.

University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor’s alleged comments about Hmong stereotypes last month sparked a heated discussion on campus Thursday night.

Four University of Wisconsin-Madison students were recognized by the American Red Cross Thursday for helping pull a mother and two children from a crashed van just moments before it burst into flames.

Madison’s two mayoral candidates went head to head on Thursday vying for the votes of one of the city’s most elusive groups: UW-Madison students.

A UW-Madison instructor may have broken the law when the instructor did not report to higher authorities after a student revealed she was sexually assaulted at a UW-Madison fraternity, WKOW said Wednesday.

The former UW-Madison student whose alleged sexual assault at a campus fraternity party is under Madison police investigation told 27 News she informed one of her instructors during the fall, 2006 semester of the alleged sex assault.

A UW-Madison Safety Task Force may soon form after a private safety summit held Tuesday in Bascom Hall analyzed current campus safety and plans for improvement.

As a national leader in foreign language studies, the University of Wisconsin made an effort Tuesday evening to help UW students discover the plethora of opportunities available to students who can communicate in different languages.

Student government leaders might vote today to formally join many University of Wisconsin students in opposition of a hotly contested alcohol policy recently introduced by university administrators affecting all registered campus organizations.

A student who is in Professor Leonard Kaplan’s legal process class questions the accuracy of the quotes distributed in an e-mail complaining of his characterization of the Hmong.

Nicole Vadjunec, a second-year law student, said the main point of the Feb. 15 class discussion was how Wisconsin government has failed to bring the Hmong and Wisconsin cultures together.

Peng Her wonders how a man as educated as University of Wisconsin law Professor Leonard Kaplan could have been ignorant enough to make the ethnic slurs Hmong students have reported.

What’s more, Kaplan is a tenured professor at the Law School, prized for its nationally recognized diversity, he noted.

“We’re trying to figure out why he would say things that would jeopardize his career and the university’s reputation,” said Her, a local business owner and Hmong activist.