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Category: Campus life

Affirmative action undermines equality

Daily Cardinal

UW admissions policies regarding race are currently being debated.While many state officials oppose affirmative action, proponents of ââ?¬Å?comprehensive admissions,ââ?¬Â including Chancellor Wiley, believe it promotes diversity and equality.

Holistic admissions necessary for UW System

Daily Cardinal

Last fall, UW System President Kevin Reilly asked the Board of Regents to implement a ââ?¬Å?holisticââ?¬Â freshman admissions policy at all UW campuses. The policyââ?¬â?which has been used effectively at UW-Madison for yearsââ?¬â?requires admissions officers to consider non-academic factors in evaluating prospective students, while maintaining the primacy of academic factors. Non-academic factors include race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, motivation, leadership qualities and legacy status, among other things.

Editorial: UW Admissions Forums Welcome (Channel 3)

WISC-TV 3

Next week, five UW System campuses are hosting statewide educational forums on a draft policy for freshman admissions. The draft under review is a rewrite of the System’s admissions criteria, some of which are 35 years old. The Board of Regents considered the proposal in December but postponed action. So the System is seeking input on the guidelines for just how applications are reviewed.

2-state tuition pact in jeopardy

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Minnesota is threatening to pull out of a tuition reciprocity agreement between Minnesota and Wisconsin unless its students from Wisconsin start paying between $1,200 and $2,700 more a year.

Wisconsin has rejected the proposal, but the University of Minnesota is pushing back.

“We would like to reach agreement within the existing agreement,” said Craig Swan, vice provost for undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota. “That’s the preferable outcome. But I don’t want to rule other things out.”

Public schools, property taxes spur lack of diversity

Badger Herald

The Board of Regents seems poised to extend UW-Madisonââ?¬â?¢s ââ?¬Å?holisticââ?¬Â approach to admission, which considers race, to all UW System schools. While I believe in the goals of affirmative action, the board should consider this advice before changing system policy: There are politically expedient solutions to UWââ?¬â?¢s diversity problem.

Business school undergrads likely to face tuition increases

Daily Cardinal

Undergraduates at UW-Madison�s Business School dreaming of a future filled with plush, high-paying jobs will likely have to pay more in the short term, as the Business School announced to students last Tuesday it would raise tuition in order to remain competitive with other top-notch programs.

Tuition may rise at Grainger

Badger Herald

University of Wisconsin business undergraduates could face a $500 per semester tuition increase if a new proposal announced in an e-mail to Business School students last week passes.

Minnesota fan charged with felony

Capital Times

A young Minnesota man was undoubtedly happy when his Gophers won a hard-fought 1-0 victory over the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team on Jan. 13 at the Kohl Center. But a felony charge of battery to a police officer probably dampened his spirits quickly.

Ryan T. Hartwell, 19, of the Minneapolis suburb of Lakeville, was charged with both the felony count and a misdemeanor of obstructing an officer after a wild chase through the Kohl Center hallways in which his running style was said to be like a football player and it took several officers and fans to finally stop him.

Dane County Crash Kills Two

NBC-15

A single-car crash in in the Town of Blue Mounds kills a father and his daughter. It happened just before midnight Friday on North Road near Mt. Horeb.

According to the Dane County Sheriff’s Department, the driver of the car, 21-year-old Euricky Eduardo Tanuwidjaja of Madison, was traveling south on North Road when he lost control and struck a tree.

Tanuwidgaga and his 19-year-old front-seat passenger, Ian Santosa, received minor injuries and were treated at UW Hospital.

Nass says UW admissions policy misguded (Wisconsin Radio Network)

Wisconsin Radio Network

A legislative critic of a new UW admissions policy says he’s not backing off. Representative Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) says admissions criteria like community service, motivation, special talents and student experiences can’t disguise the real intentions of UW administrators. “They are hiding behind a lot of other verbiage in their policy, to get at race-based admissions,” says Nass.

UW System aims to reverse drop in ‘nontraditional’ students

Capital Times

When Shawn Cassiman got divorced, she knew it was time to go to college to be better able to support herself and her children.

A high school dropout with an equivalency diploma, she enrolled at UW-Superior at age 40. Commuting from Ashland, she worked at a pizza joint as well as work-study jobs between classes, before gaining her bachelor’s degree in 2002.

Now Cassiman has a master’s degree and is working toward a Ph.D. in social welfare at the UW-Madison. She says she was “lucky” to get scholarships and to find the mentors she needed to gain her degrees. But the University of Wisconsin System is launching a new Adult Student Initiative aimed at taking much of the luck out of the equation for older “nontraditional” students such as Cassiman.

UW No. 2 producer of Peace Corps volunteers

Daily Cardinal

For the first time in over 20 years, UW-Madison is not the top-producing institution for Peace Corps volunteers.

The University of Washington, with 110 alumni volunteers, narrowly gained the top position over UW-Madison, which had 106 alumni participants. UW-Madison still holds the No. 2 overall ranking, with 2,764 alumni serving since 1961.

Suspect from last semester�s assaults caught

Daily Cardinal

Just days before the fall semester ended, Madison police arrested Antonio L. Pope for the two campus sexual assaults that took place only weeks earlier.

The criminal complaint filed against Pope details the charges against him in the Nov. 29 and Dec. 9 sexual assaults.

Where students come from

Badger Herald

As tuition costs continue to rise and college becomes less and less affordable for many students, the debate over the increasing influx of out-of-state students accepted into the University of Wisconsin remains a hot issue.

Selling books back may require ID

Badger Herald

After a reported rise in textbook thefts on the University of Wisconsin campus, city officials have proposed an ordinance that would require used bookstores to participate in a crime prevention effort.

UW looking for comment on admissions policy (Wisconsin Radio Network)

Wisconsin Radio Network

The UW System and legislators have already started sparring over the proposed change in admissions policy. Now the UW wants to hear from you.
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According to the UW System’s Dave Jiroux, grade points and class rankings aren’t the only things you’ll need to get into a UW school. Admissions counselors will look at the applicant’s entire life experience.

Low grades could cost UW students

Badger Herald

D’s and F’s could become even more costly for some University of Wisconsin students.

A bill that would penalize UW students receiving state financial aid for getting any grade lower than a C could come before the state Legislature in the near future.

War in Iraq hits home

Badger Herald

Capt. Kevin Kryst, a 2001 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, became the first UW alumnus to die in the Iraq war when he was killed in combat in the Al Anbar province Dec. 18.

Regents want race to count

Badger Herald

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents has come under close scrutiny in recent weeks for considering allowing race as a factor in admissions decisions at all UW System schools.

Costs keep students from first-choice colleges

USA Today

Fewer college freshmen are attending their top choice of schools, and many appear to be doing so not because they were rejected by their first choice but for financial reasons, a national survey shows.More than two-thirds (67.3%) are attending their No. 1 choice, the survey says. Of those who are not, 52.6% said they were accepted and opted not to go.

Wisconsin refuses to give up U discount (St. Paul Pioneer Press)

St. Paul Pioneer Press

Wisconsin college students get a sweet deal in Minnesota: If they go to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, they pay $1,200 a year less in tuition than Minnesotans.

It’s a benefit they don’t plan to give up any time soon. After two years of talks, Minnesota officials asked Wisconsin to renegotiate a tuition pact that now makes the University of Minnesota cheaper for Wisconsinites.

Wisconsin recently responded politely: No, thanks.

UW students: We CAN end this war

Capital Times

As the U.S. occupation of Iraq nears four years and President Bush promotes a so-called surge of troops to quell the Iraqi resistance and civil war, others want a surge toward peace that doesn’t involve more troops.

One of those others is Paul Pryse, a University of Wisconsin-Madison junior journalism major. Pryse, 20, is a member of the UW-Madison branch of the Campus Antiwar Network and is an elected member of CAN’s national coordinating committee.

He says he got involved in CAN “because I suspected from the beginning that this was a war based on lies, and I turned out to be right.”

UW football: Ikegwuonu enters not guilty plea

Capital Times

University of Wisconsin star cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu entered a plea of not guilty to charges of residential burglary and criminal trespass in a court appearance Wednesday in Sycamore, Ill.

Ikegwuonu, a first-team All-Big Ten Conference performer this past season as a sophomore for the Badgers, was making his initial court appearance after being arrested Nov. 25 in DeKalb, Ill., along with his twin brother Bill, a reserve defensive back at Northern Illinois.

House slashes interest rates on student loans (AP)

Capital Times

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Democrat-controlled House voted overwhelmingly to cut interest rates on need-based student loans Wednesday, steadily whittling its list of early legislative priorities.

The strong bipartisan vote in the House came as a dispute between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate derailed ethics and lobbying reform that the new Democratic majority had made its first legislative initiative.

The House legislation, passed 356-71, would slice rates on the subsidized loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent in stages over five years at a cost to taxpayers of $6 billion. About 5.5 million students get the loans each year.

Double Duty (Madison Magazine)

Madison Magazine

At 5:15 a.m., the streets of the UW–Madison campus are silent and deserted. Most typical students have gone to bed a few hours earlier, and won’t wake until their first class sometime around 9 a.m. However, in a few dorm rooms and apartments, members of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps are stirring. They will be showered, dressed, and at the Shell, one of the campus workout facilities, for training by 6:15 a.m. sharp.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, this is the routine of UW students who have chosen to dedicate their time to the Army, Navy, Marines or Air Force. At the UW, some students will not only earn their undergraduate degree, but be proficient in land navigation, how to drive a Humvee, and how to aim and shoot a rifle.

Tech-based firms can connect with UW interns

Wisconsin Technology Network

Madison, Wis. – Technology-based businesses and other companies hoping to connect with student intern programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are invited to attend the Jan. 23 luncheon meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network in Madison.

A mother and her daughter face up to Facebook (Christian Science Monitor)

Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON – According to my daughter Joanna, a college student, the world is divided into three basic categories: friends, “Facebook friends,” and everybody else.

I’m trying to get a handle on this. From what I can tell, Facebook friends are not friends in the same way that her pals are friends. In fact, Facebook might well be changing the nature of relationships, making them both more intrusive and yet somehow less intimate at the same time.

A rare year: UW not first in Peace Corps volunteers

Wisconsin State Journal

For the first time in more than two decades, UW- Madison is not the top- producer of Peace Corps volunteers.

UW-Madison had 106 alumni serve in the program last year – up from 104 last year – but was edged out for the No. 1 spot by the University of Washington in Seattle, which had 110 alumni participating, up from 102 last year.

UW-Madison Loses Top Spot In Peace Corps Volunteer Recruitment

WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis. — After proudly holding the title for 20 years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is no longer the No. 1 school in the country for recruiting Peace Corps volunteers.

The University of Washington grabbed the top spot with just four volunteers more than UW-Madison.

Washington had 110 volunteers compared to UW-Madison’s 106.

UW Student Speaks About Finding Missing Camper

WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis. — A University of Wisconsin-Madison student credited with helping save a woman’s life in the New Mexico mountains is being called a hero, but he said it was just a matter of good timing.

Peter Kottke, 20, and his brother Albert were on their annual backpacking trip in New Mexico when they stumbled upon a woman missing for five weeks.

Kottke said he and his brother were looking forward to a third trip into the wilderness, and said they never thought they would come back heroes.

Brothers’ heroism saves woman in N.M. (AP)

Capital Times

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A faint sound made Peter and Albert Kottke stop and look around as they hiked out of the Gila Wilderness at the end of backpacking trip.A figure moved on the other side of the Gila River. As it drew closer, the University of Wisconsin-Madison junior and his older brother saw a woman, hunched over and moving slowly.

The Kottkes crossed the river to find Carolyn Dorn, 52, who had been alone in the Gila National Forest for five weeks after becoming trapped on the wrong side of the rain- and snow-swollen river. The search for her had been called off two weeks ago.

(Peter Kottke is a junior majoring in geological engineering at UW-Madison.)

Activists win King awards

Wisconsin State Journal

Jason Carlos Gonzalez, 22, is being honored for his volunteer work at two fire departments and at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Wisconsin. Although he is putting himself through college at UW- Madison, Gonzalez said he has been given many opportunities throughout his life so it’s always been his priority to give back.

Local station drops hip hop

Wisconsin State Journal

Aside from shows on community-sponsored WORT- FM (89.9) and UW-Madison’s WSUM-FM (91.7), hip-hop now will be aired only on occasion by pop station Z104.

Break-Dancing Community Growing In Madison (Madison Magazine)

WISC-TV 3

In Madison, hip-hop has had a hard time gaining prominence. In the 1980s, groups such as the GeneRations and Home Boys Only brought the first wave of break dance to town. Since then, the popularity of break dance and hip-hop has moved in waves as skilled artists have entered and exited the scene. Still, there has never been the kind of support for break dance here as there has been elsewhere.

“Madison’s hip-hop/break-dance scene is small compared to other hip-hop scenes in the Midwest,” said Jonathan Truong, president of the University of Wisconsinââ?¬â??Madison Break Dance Club (UWMBC).

Woman Rescued By UW Student And Brother

NBC-15

A UW student and his brother are being credited with saving a woman who had been missing for weeks.

Peter Kottke, a UW-Madison junior was backpacking with his brother in New Mexico., when they heard a faint sound that turned out to be 52-year-old Carolyn Dorn.

Students push bill to ease ‘scary’ debt

Capital Times

Sophomore Stella Luong had two jobs during her freshman year at UW-Madison, but she already faces about $3,000 in debt.

“I can’t imagine how it would be not having that fear of piling it on,” she said. “It’s scary when you’re 18.”

….Luong came to a press conference at the Memorial Union on Thursday to support a bill to be considered next week in the House of Representatives – as part of the new Democratic majority’s goal for its first 100 hours – that would cut the interest rate in half for subsidized Stafford loans for undergraduate students.

Wiley defends UW admissions, race policy

Wisconsin State Journal

No applicant to UW-Madison has ever lost a slot to another because of race, Chancellor John Wiley says.
If two equally qualified candidates apply, both get in, Wiley told the Legislative Council’s Special Committee on Affirmative Action at a hearing Thursday.

UW chancellor defends use of nonacademic factors in admissions (AP)

La Crosse Tribune

MADISON – No applicant to the University of Wisconsin-Madison has ever lost a slot to another because of race, Chancellor John Wiley says.

If two equally qualified candidates apply, both get in, Wiley told the Legislative Council�s Special Committee on Affirmative Action at a hearing Thursday.

ââ?¬Å?There has never, ever been a student admitted because of the color of their skin,ââ?¬Â Wiley said. ââ?¬Å?Itââ?¬â?¢s not the case where some student lost a seat to a lesser qualified applicant of any race.ââ?¬Â

UW Admissions Initiative to Boost Production Agriculture

Wisconsin Ag Connection

A fall 2007 pilot admissions initiative for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences is working to retain Wisconsin students who are both highly qualified and deeply committed to long-term careers in Wisconsin agriculture. The pilot applies to applicants who are currently involved in state agriculture with demonstrated commitment to one of seven production agriculture degree programs.

College bound: Required service a good idea

Capital Times

Several weeks ago, I heard Jim Lehrer of the “NewsHour” speak. He talked about his career as a journalist and also his time as a proud Marine. He seemed especially nostalgic about serving our country. He spoke of the rich diversity found in the military and of the value of teamwork.

Then Lehrer made an interesting proposal: mandatory public service after high school.

….for college-bound students, could mandatory public service calm the frenzy of college admissions?