Category: Opinion

You call that Halloween? You call that neutered, watered-down, city-sponsored, band-infested, well-policed, benign event Halloween? Celebrants from years ago would barely recognize what the city has wrought upon a fabled student tradition â?? the unbridled carnage and tomfoolery of Halloween on State Street.

Madison Area Technical College — MATC to most of us — is going great guns, now serving more than 43,000 students at its seven campuses and turning out graduates in many of today’s high-tech skills. Ninety percent of them take jobs right here at home.

But the school’s president, Bettsey Barhorst, is still perplexed that more area high school grads who can’t get into the University of Wisconsin-Madison as freshmen aren’t taking advantage of a new program that allows them to get a two-year liberal arts associate degree at MATC and then guarantees them admission to the UW-Madison for their junior and senior years.

This school year, UW-Madison has already dealt with two reports of men with weapons on campus.
Buildings were locked down and searched, and both incidents ended without injuries.

But an unpublicized incident this week raises questions about how well the university and larger community deals with the issue behind the Virginia Tech campus shootings: student mental health problems that threaten others.

Of all the great traditions enrooted at the University of Wisconsin, it is the timeless pledge to â??ever encourage that fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be foundâ? that students ought to be most proud of â?? and most eager to defend.

The University of Wisconsin Police Department has made necessary advances toward developing an emergency plan in the case that an incident on the scale of the Virginia Tech shootings arises on a UW campus.

Leaders of student protests 40 years ago didn ‘t have the problems of those today.
There were no iPods, no Xboxes, no Facebook, no cell phones.

And no “Grey’s Anatomy.”

In the past week, sections of UW-Madison campus were locked down twice. The first was last Tuesday after Jesse A. Miller called the Dane County Crisis Center and saying he was at the UW Hospital, had a weapon and wanted to be killed by police.

The second occurred Friday after a man robbed an Italian deli on Regent Street. Following the robbery, police locked down the Welcome Center, Newell Smith Residence Hall and Ogg Hall because a suspect of interest was inside the Center.

Wisconsin ‘s military veterans deserve our gratitude and support. One way we recognize their sacrifice is by helping them earn their college degrees. Those educational benefits should be preserved, and they should be paid for.

Together with state legislators on both sides of the political aisle, the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents has steadfastly supported veterans.

Student rights are under attack. Thatâ??s right, I said it.

Dean of Students Lori Berquamâ??s recent comments on student activism indicate that either she is willfully ignorant of student organizing around issues affecting this campus or she would prefer to divert attention away from campuswide activism completely.

Ald. Mike Verveer admits “the timing is absolutely atrocious, it couldn’t be worse.”

On Sept. 19, just hours after voting for a Alcohol Density Plan that Verveer promised would stop State Street from turning into Bourbon Street by freezing the number of taverns, he voted with the majority of the city Alcohol License Review Committee to allow Madhatters tavern to open at 651 State Street.

And if the timing is bad, the location is worse.

her piece, Ms. Turcotte describes the moral oppression of the universityâ??s policy toward drinking. The policy states that if a student is ejected from or receives a ticket during a football game, the student will take a Breathalyzer test before they enter the stadium for the next game.

I got out of work around 9 last night, ushering for a show in the Humanities building. Before I left, I checked my phone, as many do religiously. Seeing that no one had called, I began my walk home. It was dark out and the sidewalks eerily empty, although Iâ??ve never felt particularly uneasy at night in Madison. I arrived at my dorm to a group of house fellows asking if I was aware of what was happening on campus. They informed me of the suicidal man, the campus lockdown and the additional information that could be found on the University of Wisconisnâ??s webpage.

You may have heard about UWâ??s new questionably titled â??Show and Blowâ? policy, which requires students with a previous ejection or citation during a football game to blow into a Breathalyzer before games to prove sobriety. Mess up just once and youâ??ll be blowing into a tube for the police before kickoff.

Lori Berquam ought to be careful what she wishes for.

One week ago, this newspaper ran a news story in which Ms. Berquam, the University of Wisconsin dean of students, bemoaned the lack of student activism regarding the ongoing war in Iraq.

Ethnic movies at Memorial Union, live international bands on the terrace and a variety of food stands on State Street are just some of the perks of attending school at UW-Madison. After being immersed in other cultures, I did not anticipate seeing the outright bigotry as I have.

Part of the ongoing confusion regarding the state of Wisconsinâ??s 2007-09 budget involves a proposal meant to increase the safety of University of Wisconsin-Madison students and downtown residents.

It is old news that the state budget is in limbo. It is two months past the due date, and Wisconsin is the only state to be tardy in producing a budget. The question now is, who or what is to blame. Many are quick to blame the Republicans and Democrats for reaching an uncomfortable stalemate.