Category: Opinion

Yes, on my first day of college, a guy down the hall encouraged me to take a peek at his roommate having sex. Yes, I once heard the thud of a drunken student hitting concrete after he fell from a 12-foot perch in the middle of the night. And yes, during a football game, a tumbler of ice struck my head with such force that the plastic shattered.

So, like most University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni, I was not shocked that hundreds of revelers were arrested in Madison again this Halloween, or that UW has again topped the annual list of party schools. Perhaps more surprising to the average Badger is that, in my four years there, I didn’t have a single drink.

I guess Facebook isn�t only for stalking and poking. As demonstrated by the Student Labor Action Coalition late last week, some people believe the popular website can also be used for pressuring university officials to take action on important issues and proposals. Debatable, though, is whether creating mock Facebook profiles for university administrators is the best way to get them on your side.

When freshman students begin life on a new campus, safety is of the utmost importance. After a while, the feeling of safety becomes interminable and immunity to danger develops. Crime rates are as low as they have ever been, and the belief that ââ?¬Å?thereââ?¬â?¢s no way anything could happen to meââ?¬Â is overwhelming. Walking home at night alone? No problem. This feeling of safety is what every student deserves to feel while at home at his or her school. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and the root of some problems may be the fault of the university.

Next weekend marks the annual flight home of the college freshmen, the midterm migration in which recently fledged students return home to prove their parents are getting their money’s worth.

We have so many questions for these kids. How are they holding up against all those liberal professors we keep hearing about? Is it really possible to live on nothing but Chipotle burritos? And how could they have gone so many minutes over their monthly cell phone allotment without ever having called home?

Now that we have a couple of weeks’ distance from this year’s Halloween “festivities” in Madison, during which the police decided to pepper-spray a crowd to pre-empt the drunken rampages of previous years, perhaps we can begin to think seriously about underage drinking.

University of Wisconsin Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam gets my vote for the overzealous, super-mother of the year award.

….(Robert) Kenner’s film, based on David Maraniss’ book, “They Marched Into Sunlight,” forced viewers to confront the lessons of Vietnam that are made even more searing by the war in Iraq.

The television footage from the Halloween street battle, on the other hand, showed what happens when the UW-Madison’s Internet and bar culture reputation as America’s No. 1 Party School turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Here are a few ideas about how to make sure future Octobers in Madison don’t end up in a swirl of hard feelings, hangovers and hospital bills:

The Capital Times suggests that I chill out over Halloween. It is true that thanks to an unprecedented level of planning and cooperation among city officials, the Police Department, UW-Madison, students and downtown business owners, this year’s event was an improvement over past years. Most notably, we avoided the kind of serious property damage that has marred the event in the past.

But there is reason to be concerned, and a need to have a communitywide discussion about the future of Halloween.

Earning the title of the No. 1 party school in the nation is something that many students here are proud of. Our school is known for being a place where students like to have fun, but lately it seems that this behavior has gotten too out of control and even dangerous.

In the wake of another Halloween celebration that ended in police force and pepper spray, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has had enough. The mayor, who has crusaded against the festivities for some time now, has already begun to rally support for the cancellation of the annual tradition.

Tens of thousands lined State Street for this year�s Halloween event Saturday night. While this weekend�s party was an overall improvement from past years because there was not a riot, a few thousand partygoers lost their common sense and impeded the evening�s potential to reach expectations of city officials.

On a cold October evening in Madison some three years ago, a few ordinary people decided that a holiday normally reserved for elementary school children with candy pails should include excessive inebriation, pyromania and looting. These troublemakers were not a representative sample of the city�s population or even the University of Wisconsin student body; they were a group of bad apples with no caramel coating.

When Provost Peter Spear packed his bags and bid adieu to the University of Wisconsin earlier this week, this campus lost an accomplished administrator who helped guide the university to where it is today.

Last week, the Student Services Finance Committee faced a difficult decision regarding whether the SAFEwalk service was beneficial overall to the campus given its steep costs per walker. SAFEwalk is based on two central tenets: transportation and safety.

A solitary cup defiantly remains across the table, half-filled with warm beer and taunting the player on the opposite side to sink the ball and finish the game. Staring at the hazy cup with glazed-over eyes, the player leans precipitously over the table to steady himself, at the same time releasing the ball in a hurried, erratic motion. The ball sails across the table in a wobbly arc, landing nowhere near its intended target. The ball is picked up and the game continues.

Though the University of Wisconsin-Madison consistently ranks as one of the nation�s finest state universities, this mark of distinction could very well lose all validity in the near future. As the university continues to receive less and less money from the state, it faces the serious possibility of becoming a de facto private institution. Indeed, statistics suggest that the status of many of the nation�s state-financed institutions may be in peril.

The first few days of class are always the same. The professor introduces him or herself, reads through the syllabus (although most students are capable of reading on their own), and discusses the rules of cheating. An especially salient topic that arises in the cheating segment is that of plagiarism.

As we, the university community, come together to celebrate Bucky’s pirate homecoming, let us take a minute to think about where the Bucky Badger T-shirts that are so ubiquitous this week came from. All UW-Madison clothing is made in sweatshops by individuals who in many respects are just like ourselves. Although it is impossible to fully understand the struggles of workers far away, there are parallels between their experiences on the factory floor and ours at the university.

In order to make Halloween a safe, peaceful and enjoyable weekend, the following question must be answered: Who is responsible for the events of Halloween?

A problem that plagues the University of Wisconsin is diversity, or lack thereof.