Category: Campus life

When officers arrived another fight broke out. Officers used pepper spray and a taser to break up the fight after several officers were hit.

Madison Ald. Mike Verveer was almost gleeful.

“I’m exceedingly pleasantly surprised,” he said at 2:40 am, early Sunday morning. “I’m in the command post now and they’re packing up and going home. The only police left on State are those patrol cars avoiding the street sweepers. Half of State Street is clean and it’s only bartime now.”

In recent years, Verveer had been among the group of city officials and police leadership fretting over the necessity of using pepper spray and other measures to quell a late-night crowd intent on destruction of property at worst and a brush with confrontation at best.

A group unhappy with plans to charge admission to State Street has put the street up for sale.

Bidding was at $15.61 this morning for the deed to the venerable downtown thoroughfare, which lists access prices to such events as Maxwell Street Days, football game days, rallies and marches as $0, then ends “Keeping a straight face while selling tickets to a spontaneous occurrence: Priceless.”

If you fence it, will they come? That’s the question surrounding the new Freakfest, in which State Street will be closed off on Saturday night for a giant Halloween-themed block party — basically like past years, but maybe without that ugly aftertaste.

It won’t be the free-for-all of old, but the city-sponsored event, running from 7:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., looks like a lot of fun, with two stages of local bands and lots of food. Madison just has to supply the freaks, who will have to pay a $5 admission to get in. Behave yourselves, now.

Fraternities and sororities along the six blocks of Langdon Street are bracing for what could be a wild Halloween weekend.

After every Halloween since 2003, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has openly thrown around the idea of closing Madison�s downtown area to protect citizens and maintain the city�s order.

With Mayor Dave Cieslewicz�s new plan for Halloween 2006, the Madison Police Department does not know what to expect � and with the event only one day away, they are prepared for anything.

While making no guarantees of a problem-free event, police and city officials say they’re as prepared as they can be for the first staged Halloween bash Saturday on State Street.”We’re excited about it,” Madison police spokesman Mike Hanson said Thursday. “This is something we have planned for so many months, and now it’s time to play ball.”

For establishments such as State Street Brats, preparations for Saturday’s Halloween celebration have been weeks in the making.”Halloween is probably the biggest weekend,” said Tyler Kneubuehl, a manager at the tavern. “We will probably do about four or five times the business we do on a regular Saturday.”

Police and security guards won’t be the only people keeping an eye on State Street during Halloween.

“The cameras that we have in place allow us to zoom in very close to help identify individuals and help track officers well, but their also able to scale back to see the size of the crowd so they’re a very useful too, Mike Hanson said.”

MADISON, Wis. — As the annual Halloween party on State Street draws near, police are busy settling into their command center where they will keep a watchful eye on the event.

In plain view of neighbors who thought they were witnessing an abduction, eight Carroll College students carried out an apparent hazing incident that led to their arrest early Thursday, police said.

Russell Rueden, the longtime University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student leader at the center of an investigation into a possible $10,000 embezzlement, was suspended from his position as speaker of the Student Senate after financial records were released that raised additional questions about his use of student funds.

MADISON – To avoid the drunken violence and mayhem that previously marred a downtown Halloween party that attracts up to 100,000 people, city leaders are imposing new restrictions and tighter controls this year.

Aside from how the night ends, one of the foremost concerns among those running the city’s Halloween party is whether they can sell tickets quickly enough to avoid a pileup at the gates.

With only a few thousand advance tickets sold, organizers now anticipate a huge crush of demand as the party gets started Saturday on State Street.

That worries some, including City Council President Austin King, because if crowds are forced to wait long for tickets, they could become unruly or simply give up and take the party elsewhere.

Forgot your ticket to State Street Halloween 2006???Do not plan on getting an exception from the city or Madison police. Rightly so, considering all the planning and publicity invested in this yearââ?¬â?¢s ââ?¬Å?Freakfestââ?¬Â celebration.

Tom Wangard and Brandon Sivret used to head a movement that directly challenged the city�s Halloween plans.

City officials are looking for final input from residents and students in the design plan for the 500 and 600 blocks of State Street � the last phase of Madison�s multi-million dollar reconstruction project.

With Halloween weekend becoming increasingly known for its drunkenness, University of Wisconsin nighttime service SAFE is taking extra measures to make sure students get home OK.

For the thousands of University of Wisconsin students who attend Madison�s Halloween celebration every year, participation in the State Street festival is simply a given � but it was not always that way.

Bringing a self-proclaimed extreme right-winger to speak at the University of Wisconsin created a spark that nearly blew the roof off Memorial Union Theater Wednesday night.

MADISON, Wis. — Tens of thousands of tickets are still available for Madison’s unofficial Halloween party on State Street, Freakfest

In a bar just a few steps off State street is where Wanda Baker and her friends spent Wednesday night.

And that’s as close as they’ll be on Saturday, when the area is fenced off for thousands of partiers.

Local businesses hope for a boost in Halloween ticket sales for State Street over the next few days.

Madison officials will use Halloween ticket profits to fund law enforcement and city programs, not bands or sound systems.

According to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, the city will not use any of the money earned to fund State Street entertainment during the event. That announcement directly contradicts previous statements made by student leaders concerning the cover charge.

The Tenant Resource Center, a Madison-based center devoted to helping local renters with landlord and other living issues like tenants� rights, declared Monday it is suing the Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee because it was denied funding eligibility due to not being a Registered Student Organization.

The provost at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sent a comprehensive letter to students and faculty Monday regarding the shutdown of its student government.

Most of todayââ?¬â?¢s students were not even alive to see Ted ââ?¬Å?The Nugeââ?¬Â Nugent take the stage at sold-out venues to perform his hit ââ?¬Å?Cat Scratch Fever.ââ?¬Â Instead, they may know him for his fanatic hunting and outspoken conservative views.

MADISON, Wis. — A student vote approved up to $150 million in construction and renovations for University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Union South and Memorial Union.

UW-Madison students voted to take Union South down and construct a new building in its place, even though that could mean increasing student fees nearly $100 a year for the next 30 years.

The actual student cost will depend on how much a major fundraising campaign brings in, WISC-TV reported.

When out of town visitors arrive in Madison for Saturday’s freakfest on State Street, they’ll have to fight with football fans for places to stay. Hotel space is nearly booked solid around town, and the University of Wisconsin is locking out visitors from campus dorms.

At Ogg Hall, there’s a sign telling students that visitors will not be allowed in beginning at 9:00 p.m. Thursday.

MADISON, Wis. — With the new city-organized “Freakfest On State Street” only days away, many Langdon Street residents said that they’re bracing for the prospect that Madison’s annual Halloween tradition might move onto their street.

To quell those concerns, University of Wisconsin and fraternity and sorority leaders said that they already have a plan in place to keep Madison’s fraternity row quiet and trouble-free this weekend.

Rumors have swirled for weeks that rogue Halloween partiers will try to move the sometimes infamous festivities to Langdon Street instead of State Street, where the city’s “Freakfest” is scheduled for Saturday, WISC-TV reported.

Police are leaving many questions unanswered about this year�s Halloween celebration on State Street this Saturday.

There are a few specific regulations about this year�s celebration that have changed from past years. Most obviously, State Street will be fenced off with a $5 charge to enter. The gates will open at 7:30 p.m., and people will be forced off the street at 1:30 a.m. Police have not granted a time extension because of daylight-savings time.

City officials and the Madison Police Department joined forces this weekend to spread the word about Madison�s glass ban and alternate traffic routes for Halloween 2006.

Much of the Memorial Union shook with jubilant celebration as the Associated Students of Madison�s Student Judiciary read off the fall 2006 Student Council election results Monday night.

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison officials said that new election problems are keeping the UW student government from releasing the results of last week’s election.

The Student Election Committee counted votes by hand all day on Friday after confusion with the Scantron ballots caused several students to fill them out incorrectly, WISC-TV reported.