IF A front page New Year’s Day story in the New York Times is to be believed, it is not inherently bad for drunks to pee in an alley in downtown Madison.
It is only bad if a yuppie looking out his living room window can see them. He might be startled and spill his cappuccino.
The Times article, datelined Madison and written by Susan Saulny, was headlined: “This Remaking of Downtown Has Downside.”
MADISON, Wis. ââ?¬â? This college town received what it wanted when, during the 1980s and 90s, it sought to reverse the decline of its downtown and to create a more vibrant civic center that would draw people at night and on weekends.
Since then, thousands of young professionals, retirees and former suburbanites have moved to glistening condominium buildings in the shadow of the state Capitol�s dome and only a few blocks from the University of Wisconsin�s main campus. And there is hardly a bad night for business near State Street, where university students and tourists pack restaurants and bars to capacity even on freezing weeknights.
But as downtown�s population and revelry have grown, so have overcrowding on the streets, vandalism and, most significantly, the police say, alcohol-related crime.
MADISON, Wis. — Playing in a bowl game was a dream shared by one Badger player and his brother from the time they were small children.
Matt and Nathan Brown are former LaFollette High School athletes, and they said that they both dreamed of playing football for the Badgers, WISC-TV reported.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Although many Badgers fans have grown used to their team playing in a bowl game, the University of Wisconsin-Madison marching band is as energized as ever as they prepare in the Orlando heat to perform at the Capital One Bowl.
If anyone has a right to feel blasÃ?© about New Year’s bowl games, it’s longtime UW marching band leader Mike Leckrone. For the band and its leader, it might seem like preparing for the umpteenth bowl would get old by now.
“It hasn’t yet,” Leckrone said.
Kent Sklarow and his roommate had pulled it off many times before.
But one night three years ago, luck ran out for the UW- Madison students, who were both freshmen.
They were caught drinking alcohol with 14 other students in their residence hall room on the university’s only substance- free floor, and the transgression didn’t come without consequences.
This year’s annual Musician of the Year, the fifth to be awarded by this column, goes to the University of Wisconsin’s Pro Arte String Quartet.
It’s probably long overdue, but that’s how these things go, especially in the world of journalism, where current events often overshadow quieter long-term efforts. What isn’t in doubt is the quality of the playing and programming that this venerable ensemble brings to its concerts.
….Honorable Mention for this year’s Musician of the Year honor goes to UW-Madison music students….
Dear Editor: When it comes to cracking down, spraying down or beating down some defenseless 19-year-old at Freakfest in order to protect the plate-glass windows on State Street, Madison’s “thin blue line” proves fit and robust.
….On campus, the dean of students remains obsessed with removing the UW from Playboy’s list of party schools or tracking down freshmen pranksters, while virtually ignoring serious attacks. A young student is kidnapped and raped within shouting distance of Bascom Hall, and the University Police announce on their Web site that the “crime of the month” involves a couple of kids stealing some banner.
They say that no increased patrols are necessary and return to sniffing at dorm room doors to nab pot smokers. I’m just waiting for them to blame students for stumbling out of the library in a stupor from studying so late at night.
City Council President Austin King is highlighting a serious issue with regard to the spring elections in Madison.
Spring break for students on the University of Wisconsin campus runs March 31 to April 8. If the past is prologue, the vast majority of students will head out of town. The spring election falls on April 3.
….The UW should work with the city to implement a major absentee voting program, which will ensure that every student who wants to exercise his or her citizenship rights is able to do so.
The Downtown Madison Inc. Board (DMI) is not convinced that there is direct correlation between reducing the number of liquor licenses downtown and a safer downtown, DMI President Susan Schmitz said today.
This echoed both Business Improvement District (BID) executive director Mary Carbine’s and DMI Board member Rick Petri’s Dec. 13 comments at a BID-sponsored public hearing on the alcohol density plan that Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and alders Judy Olson and Mike Verveer introduced to the Madison City Council Nov. 29.
It’s dinnertime at the house at 140 W. Gilman St., where people troop into the dining room to serve themselves from giant pots of sticky rice and veggies in some sort of yellow sauce. No one seems quite sure what they are eating, but that does not stop them from filling their plates.
As more people arrive, the conversations and laughter become almost deafening.
….Housing co-ops can be traced back to the 1800s, but many in Madison originated during the 1960s and ’70s, when students and community members sought greater control over their living situations.
When Lauren Woods entered the race for Madison’s City Council on Friday, she changed the complexion of this spring’s contests – literally.
….Woods is the first person to jump into the race to replace Austin King, who has represented the 8th District in downtown Madison since 2003. He announced Friday morning that he would not seek re-election.
By that time, Woods, a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior and former president of the Wisconsin Black Student Union, had filed all the necessary paperwork.
Harvard University is considering revising its curriculum to make it “more relevant” to the real world, but University of Wisconsin-Madison Provost Pat Farrell said no major changes are planned for the UW, which evaluates courses all the time.
“The whole notion of assessing everything we do in as many ways as we can, learning from those assessments, and changing curriculum as needed to achieve the goals we seek for ourselves and our students, is ongoing,” Farrell said.
I MAY as well warn you right now that this story is about black fishnet stockings. There’s a red feather in it, too. What can I say? Readers contact John Nichols about presidential elections. They contact me about cocktail waitress attire.
In this instance, a reader called my attention to a story about female executives in the business section of Sunday’s New York Times. Featured prominently was Carol Bartz, one of the first female CEOs in the country. Now retired, Bartz in the 1990s (and until last year) ran a hugely successful Silicon Valley high-tech company called Autodesk.
What caught the eye of my correspondent was this sentence: “After working her way through college at the University of Wisconsin in Madison as a cocktail waitress (required uniform: red miniskirt, black fishnets and red feather in hair), Ms. Bartz graduated with a computer science degree in 1971.”
College students, most of the time, get a bad rap… Partying too much, getting in trouble with police – the basic early 20’s irresponsibility. Mitch Weber met some of these students who spend several hours a month making a difference in the community. They spend most of their time volunteering with children. Badger Pals has hundreds of members. Between all the homework, hanging out with friends, and enjoying college life, this group finds time for others.
Even after being confronted by Madison Police Detective Al Rickey with the fact his DNA had been found on two rape victims, Antonio Pope was defiant with investigators.
“You gotta see my face to say I raped somebody,” Pope, 31, a man with a long criminal record, reportedly insisted.
But later, according to a criminal complaint filed against him Tuesday, “he hung his head and cried intermittently,” then acknowledged that he had raped both women after kidnapping them as they were walking in the campus area, one on Nov. 29, the other on Dec. 9.
One current and one former member of the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team were charged withÃ? criminal damage toÃ? property onÃ? Tuesday.
Kyle Klubertanz, a star defenseman from Sun Prairie on both this year’s team and last year’s national championship team, and Jeffery J. Slinde ofÃ? Monona, who quit the squad at the end of the first semester last year, were charged with being party to the crime of criminal damage to property for toppling a cow sculpture in front of the Kohl Center in August.
UW hockey player Davis Drewiske is breathing a sigh of relief after his national championship ring, stolen by burglars earlier this month, was recovered.
On Dec. 10, Drewiske, 22, a member of last year’s national championship Badgers team, lost his ring to burglars who pushed in a window of his Gilman Street apartment. The burglars also took two laptop computers, a portable DVD player and other items.
UW hockey player Davis Drewiske is breathing a sigh of relief after his national championship ring, stolen by burglars earlier this month, was recovered.
On Dec. 10, Drewiske, 22, a member of last year’s national championship Badgers team, lost his ring to burglars who pushed in a window of his Gilman Street apartment. The burglars also took two laptop computers, a portable DVD player and other items.
They came from universities around Wisconsin in buses from Whitewater, Milwaukee and Kenosha, a van from UW-Stout and about 100 marchers from UW-Madison.
“We’re here to make a statement about how important affirmative action still is,” said Dellareese Williams, a freshman at UW-Whitewater, as she entered a packed hearing room at the State Capitol where a legislative committee was considering changes in the state’s affirmative action policies.
MADISON – Wisconsin state colleges shouldnââ?¬â?¢t use an applicantââ?¬â?¢s race to help decide whether he or she gets into school, an affirmative action opponent told a packed committee hearing Tuesday night.
Ward Connerly, chairman of the California-based American Civil Rights Coalition, which supports banning public affirmative action programs, said he believes the University of Wisconsin System should look at other factors besides academics when deciding who gets a slot, but not race.
MADISON, Wis. — Hundreds of people from across the state packed a state Capitol hearing room to hear a special legislative committee discuss affirmative action.
Part of the reason for the large turnout was the presence of a polarizing figure. The State Special Committee on Affirmative Action brought in Ward Connerly, chair of the American Civil Rights Institute, to testify.
The special legislative committee is considering how to ban the practice in state government.
MADISON, Wis. — Police say a suspected rapist confessed after authorities confronted him with DNA evidence linking him to two abductions and sexual assaults on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Antonio Pope, 31, of Fitchburg, is accused in two separate knifepoint abductions of the students.
Pope made his initial court appearance Tuesday, and he faces multiple criminal counts in connection with the assaults.
A group of UW students marched their way to the capitol Tuesday night, getting ready for a verbal battle over affirmative action.
“There are those, probably at least 50% in the nation who believe that it’s wrong to use race,” said Ward Connerly, wants affirmative action abolished.
Inside, a prominent figure in the fight against affirmative action laid out his case.
Madison: “Don’t say anything or I’m going to cut your throat.” Those are the words a rape victim heard as she was kidnapped on campus earlier this month.
It took just 6 days for the state crime lab to link DNA evidence from two downtown rapes to Antonio Pope
Nationally known affirmative action opponent Ward Connerly brought his message to Wisconsin today: that the era of affirmative action is over and that attacking economic disparities would be a better way of bringing racial equality.
Connerly, a former member of the University of California Board of Regents, was brought to Madison by former University of Wisconsin Regent Fred Mohs – a fellow affirmative action foe – to speak tonight to a Special Legislative Committee on Affirmative Action considering changes in state policy.
Confident heââ?¬â?¢s had a good semester and used to showing his marks to his parents, Winona State University freshman Steven Frank said heââ?¬â?¢ll opt for full disclosure when his grades come through. ââ?¬Å?Itââ?¬â?¢s kind of like a business deal,ââ?¬Â he said, since his parents pay his tuition.But under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, neither he nor the Winona, Minn., school are obligated to share those college marks.
It only took a week from the last attack for the State Crime Lab to zero in on Antonio Pope, the man police believe raped and kidnapped two UW students. Police caught Pope using DNA matching technology. He wasn’t even a suspect in the case until his name showed up as a match on the crime lab’s computer.
MADISON, Wis. — Authorities said that until his DNA was given to crime lab scientists, the man suspected of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in recent weeks wasn’t even on detectives’ radar.
Antonio Pope, 31, of Fitchburg, is accused in two separate knife-point abductions of the students. Pope is expected to face multiple counts when he makes his initial court appearance, which could come on Tuesday, WISC-TV reported.
(SUPERIOR) The first test of a new University of Wisconsin Board of Regents policy is allowing the re-installation of a UW-Superior Christian student group that only allows Christians to lead its organization.
A student government committee unanimously approved re-instating the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship as a student organization. That allows it to get student fees and use university facilities. IVCF has chapters throughout the nation and UW System.
Dear Editor: While considering free tuition for all University of Wisconsin students is unrealistic for the simple fact that it raises taxes in a state whose residents, if not the politicians, know that it is already on the high end on the tax scale. We can accomplish the objective, which is to keep students in Wisconsin after graduation, with a much better and actually workable solution.
When asked if she were proud, Cathy Mitchell was so overcome with emotion that she was initially struck speechless.
Mitchell’s daughter, Molli, received her master’s degree in social work at Wisconsin’s 153rd commencement exercises on Sunday. Cathy, her husband Jeff and Molli’s sister Carli were on hand to celebrate Molli’s accomplishments.
“She worked hard and she has affected hundreds of people with her dedication to the domestic abuse programs in the area,” Cathy said.
DNA evidence taken from two sexual assault victims in Madison matched a DNA sample in the state’s Crime Lab database, authorities say, enabling officers to arrest Antonio L. Pope last week in connection with the two assaults.
Law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, praised the efforts of the Madison and UW police departments and the State Crime Lab at a news conference today at the Madison lab.
To get ready for final exams, UW-Madison junior Samantha Leimontas is at her favorite study spot – the Espresso Royale coffee shop on the west end of State Street.
Emmy and Peabody award-winner Ben Karlin told UW-Madison graduates Sunday he has a lot in common with them.
Karlin, 35, announced recently that at the end of the month, he’ll be leaving his position as executive producer of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” and hasn’t given many specifics about what he’ll do next.
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) – Maureen Fitzgerald wanted to find out what she was good at before declaring a major at the University of Dayton. So she took communications, philosophy, history, English, among other courses.
She’s still looking.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison graduated around 1,600 students during winter commencement ceremonies on Sunday. As graduates walked down the aisle, they were also walking into one of the best job markets in more than four years.
WISC-TV spoke with several graduates who all had at least two job offers, some more.
“Management, real estate, risk management, insurance, they’re all majors in demand,” said Career Center director Steve Schroeder.
MADISON, Wis. — Police said they have arrested a man who has been sought in connection with two sexual assaults in downtown Madison.
City and University of Wisconsin-Madison police said they jointly captured the 31-year-old Madison man at about 2 p.m. on Friday without incident.
Police said the man is believed to be connected to sexual assaults on Nov. 29 and Dec. 9.
Aaron Meyer was just 18 when he died. In the months before his death, Aaron had overcome a drug addiction. His parents say he envisioned his future supporting other college-aged recovering addicts.
His dream was cut short, but next month Aaronââ?¬â?¢s father, Tom Meyer, will close on “Aaron’s House,” a place where young men can live while transitioning from recovery to college.
Madison: One man is in custody for a pair sexual assaults, but another rapist may still be on the loose.
Authorities believe 31-year-old Antonio Pope may be responsible for two attacks downtown. One happened November 29th on Observatory Drive and the other happened December 9th along North Carroll Street.
“When you don’t have a car and you’re at the library until 2 in the morning, you can always call Saferide and you can always catch the bus,” says UW student Cari Schulman.
You can call SafeRide, but you might not get through.
“all of our lines are curently busy. please call back in a couple of minutes.”
We expect to learn more on Monday about a man police suspect is responsible for two recent sexual assaults in downtown Madison.
Police arrested 31-year-old Antonio Pope on Friday.
UW Police say people feel safer, but they remind students still to take precautions.
A commission originally launched to examine the future of Wisconsin�s two-year colleges will recommend the UW System consider granting students free tuition if they live and work in the state for 10 years following graduation.
As the end of the semester rolls around and classes meet for the last time, there is still something that must be done before University of Wisconsin students can breathe a collective sigh of relief: evaluations.
You don’t have to look far to see why the University of Wisconsin makes the Top 10 list of party schools year after year, CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports. A trip down popular State Street says it all.
But these days, another kind of bingeing is catching on, one that is less about beer and more about the Bible.
With the end of UW-Madison’s fall semester imminent, many students, and more specifically roommates, are settling into their ways.
Perhaps your roommate’s peanut butter-covered knives have been resting on the kitchen counter for weeks, your favorite pair of earrings are missing or the $60 you lent her at the beginning of September for textbooks has yet to be repaid.
With costly pranks in the dorms making headlines over the last few years, UW-Madison has increasingly invoked its non-academic behavior policy.
The next friend you make on Facebook could be a man of the law.
Madison police are using Facebook to crack down on campus parties, and may heavily incorporate the website to track gatherings during the Mifflin Street Block Party.
MADISON, Wis. — As police continue looking for a man they said abducted and sexually assaulted two women in the last two weeks on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, demand has spiked for the university’s SafeRide and Walk programs.
Programs aimed at keeping UW students safe are having a hard time keeping up with demand.
The recent attacks on or near campus are leading to an increase in calls for services like Safe Ride or Safe Walk and students who work for those programs have a message for those who might be abusing them.
After two random sexual assaults on campus, students are hoping the SAFE-walk and safe ride programs can expand.
The programs offer escorted walks home and rides for students after dark – students want the program to expand to later hours. But the safe program says increased demand already has them stretched to their limit and that change cannot come overnight.
A website launched by the governor�s office Tuesday seeks to educate Wisconsinites about the global threats stemming from a pandemic flu breakout.
Though many students scramble to bring home ââ?¬Ë?Aââ?¬â?¢s, they might not have to worry about their not-so-good grades spoiling the holidays. Under an act, parents are forbidden access to a studentââ?¬â?¢s grades unless the student authorizes it in writing.
In the wake of recent abductions and sexual assaults on campus, many students have developed concern about getting home safely from late exams and nights spent at the library. SAFEride services are one way to get home safely, but the limited hours and response time have students frustrated.
The Madison Police Department caught one of two suspects involved in a burglary on the 500 block of West Dayton Street Monday, continuing a recent trend of residential thefts in the campus area.
Underneath the sidewalks and buildings so familiar to University of Wisconsin students lies a maze of terrain even the most seasoned campus veteran might not know about.
The University of Wisconsin Associated Students of Madison initiated a campus safety campaign at the beginning of this semester and discussed the future of the campaign at a press conference Tuesday.
Less than a week after the University of Wisconsin announced three finalists for the permanent dean of students position, Chancellor John Wiley said Tuesday he ââ?¬Å?wishedââ?¬Â he had more candidates to choose from.
Stranger-danger is top of mind after the recent UW student attacks. But, statistics show the true threat lies elsewhere. One in four women will know what it’s like to be sexually assaulted–as many as 90-percent will know their attacker.
“The image we have in our heads is that stranger that grabs you off the streets or breaks into your home,” says Kelly Anderson
MADISON, Wis. — A University of Wisconsin-Madison student government group is pushing for changes to make students safer on campus.
After a year-long examination, Associated Students of Madison released a series of safety recommendations on Tuesday. The ASM report comes amid heightened safety awareness among students, staff and police because of two sexual assaults on UW students in the past month.
ASM campus safety intern Kelly Arendt said that students want a neighborhood watch program. UW fraternities and sororities have been conducting bar-time walks, which are popular among students. ASM leaders said that they want the program expanded campus wide, WISC-TV reported.
Police on Monday said they believe the abductions and sexual assaults of two UW-Madison students in the past two weeks were committed by the same person, raising the prospect of a serial rapist at work on and around campus.
