Category: Campus life

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.

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.

Policy passed by the UW System Board of Regents Friday will allow student organizations to deny membership to students who do not sign an affirmation confirming they subscribe to the basic beliefs of the organization.

Numerous Madison groups, including the Madison Police Department, assembled Monday night in an attempt to counter the problem of crime and violence in the downtown area.

Madison police announced Monday that two recent sexual assaults of UW-Madison students are linked to the same suspect and are warning students to take extra precautions in the coming days.

For Christina Hanna, it was a Toto moment.
Not long after starting a new semester of study last winter, the UW-Madison student looked outside and saw monkeys.

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison officials said that the campus is on high alert on Monday and they are launching a public awareness campaign after a string of sexual assaults in recent weeks.

On Monday, Madison police said that they believe two of the attacks on young women who were walking alone are related. Both victims were UW students who were abducted and then assaulted.

They have the ideas …

“We had been looking at the neighborhood watch program,” said one student.

And now they have the money …

“At the beginning of rolling all this money out,” said another student.

… to make their ideas, realities.

This is a busy time of year for foot traffic at the UW. The fall semester is coming to a close with final exams starting this weekend, and for many students that means late-night walks home from the library. Police and UW leaders are working together to make sure there isn’t another sexual assault attack on campus

The latest happened early Saturday morning – the victim was forced into a car in the 500 block of North Carroll.

Less than two weeks ago, another student was abducted on Observatory Drive. Madison Police say there are too many similarities to ignore.

In both cases, the suspect description is similar, and in both cases, the victims were abducted… and then dropped off…

For months, dangers in downtown Madison have gotten to the point, the community was called together to find a solution.

Alex Sheridan is part of the Langdon Street Neighborhood Watch Program.

(SUPERIOR) The scrap between a Christian student group and the University of Wisconsin may be over, after a change of wording in a policy passed Friday by the Board of Regents. Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship was rejected as a campus organization by a student government committee at UW-Superior last semester. The committee contended that since the Fellowship required its leaders to be Christian, that it discriminated against non-Christians. Inter-Varsity sued, and the Board of Regents re-wrote the policy. It still bans discrimination on the basis of religion and other things, but adds wording that gives student groups flexibility.

Authorities Release Description Of Attacker

UPDATED: 1:43 pm CST December 11, 2006

MADISON, Wis. — Madison police are investigating three sexual assaults that have occurred near the University of Wisconsin campus in recent weeks, and investigators now believe two of them are related.

The latest incident occurred on Saturday morning when a female University of Wisconsin student was apparently abducted on the 500 block of North Carroll Street. She was taken to another location, where she was sexually assaulted and then released, WISC-TV reported.

Madison police said today they are working under the assumption that two recent abductions and rapes in the University of Wisconsin campus area were done by the same suspect, but are unsure whether a recent home invasion and rape on the far east side were also committed by the same man.

The Wisconsin Union Travel Center that has provided services to UW-Madison students for 32 years will close in 2007, a victim of the Internet age.

“The travel industry has changed in the last decade, and so has how students make their travel plans,” said Susan Dibbell, assistant director for social education for the Wisconsin Union. “Students started using the Internet for deciding where to go for spring break and summer.”

UW-Madison has appointed the director of the University of Chicago student health center to direct clinical services at University Health Services, the university announced Dec. 7.

Madison saw its second stranger kidnapping and sexual assault in less than two weeks early Saturday morning when a UW-Madison student was abducted, assaulted and then dropped off near campus at approximately 3 a.m.

The third sexual assault of the semester by a stranger near the University of Wisconsin campus occurred early Saturday morning near the intersection of Langdon Street and North Carroll Street, and the suspect is still at large.

MADISON, Wis. — A public works project slated to begin on West Mifflin Street in Madison this spring prompted a stir on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus about the fate of the Mifflin Street Block Party.

Police were investigating three sexual assaults by strangers in less than two weeks.The first happened Nov. 29, the second last Tuesday and the most recent was at about 3 a.m. Saturday. No arrests have been made.

Police are investigating their third sexual assault case in less than two weeks.

No suspect is in custody for any of the assaults.

The latest involves a female UW student assaulted in the 500 block of North Carroll street early Saturday morning.

The Mifflin Street Block Party earned its raunchy reputation almost from the very beginning. Police and partiers clashed at its birth in 1969, when it was actually a protest, and not a drinking event. Riots in 1996 also put partiers against police.

Acknowledging public confusion, University of Wisconsin System regents delayed action Thursday on a new admissions policy that would give greater weight to nonacademic factors, including race and income.

Despite a conflict between university spring break and Madison alder elections, the university has no plans to reschedule spring break.

ââ?¬Å?Although break cannot be changed, UW-Madison will work to publicize absentee options for students planning to travel,ââ?¬Â UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas said in a statement.

The Student Rights Coalition petitioned Thursday to protest UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley�s memo to the Student Services Finance Committee to disallow funding for student organizations� off-campus rents.

UW System Board of Regents committees discussed issues such as the UW System freshman admissions policy, the possibility of limiting membership of student organizations to those who subscribe to certain beliefs, criminal background checks and the health crisis in Milwaukee at its meeting Thursday.

The University Regents is one of the few state institutions heading in the right direction in dealing with the problem of this state�s lackluster racial diversity.

After extensive debate Thursday, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents postponed a final decision on revising its freshman admissions policy until their meeting in February.

Flexing their democratic dexterity Thursday at Library Mall, a coalition of students collected nearly 400 signatures for a petition against University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley�s policy concerning off-campus student organizations.

Musical acts from across the state, the nation and the world are set to take Madison by storm this weekend at the first annual Madison Pop Fest. Featuring some of the newest and hottest acts in a variety of genres, Pop Fest provides music lovers of all ages and types with the chance to indulge their musical appetites.

After agreeing to return the annual Mifflin Street Block Party to its traditional date on the first weekend of May this year, city officials decided Thursday to not interrupt the celebration, holding off street reconstruction until May 28.

After months of deliberation, a University of Wisconsin search and screen committee announced Thursday three candidates to take over as dean of students, a position that has not been filled on a permanent basis since June 2005.