'Not Enough, Not Yet.' - Volume 53, Issue 6

STUDENT MEDIA AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2022 · VOL 53, Issue 6 · BADGERHERALD.COM

NOT ENOUG

H, NOT YET .

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SPRING CLASSES START IN PERSON 7

RESEARCH SUPPORTS WI FARMS 10

As the semester began, TAA, ASM and others in the campus communtiy raised questions about returning in person

UW’s Dairy Cattle Center helps students get experience in the industry with aims to improve dairy research for farmers

Herald Public Relations Public Relations Directors

Keagan Schlosser Madison Hibner

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Philomena Lindquist Erin Gretzinger Arushi Gupta Savannah Kind Shayde Erbrecht Katie Hardie Keagan Schlosser John Spengler Nuha Dolby Janani Sundar Madison Hibner

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FEATURE

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19

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BANTER

PAVE: SUPPORT FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS FALLS SHORT

18

Given 1 in 7 students have experienced sexual violence since coming to UW, Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment argues it is hard for student advocates not to feel exhausted, but more resources could make all the difference for survivors

DANA RETTKE TO CONTINUE LEGACY AS PRO PLAYER IN ITALY

2 • badgerherald.com • February 1, 2022

Rettke arrived at her new home in Monza, Italy, where she will compete on one of the top pro team’s in the country and hopes to ride the high of UW’s NCAA championship victory to new heights as a pro volleyball player

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RISING STARS The No. 11 Badgers (17-3, 8-2 Big Ten) have exceeded expectations during the conference schedule, with the young squad currently tied for first place in the Big Ten

Photos by Justin Mielke

February 1, 2022 • badgerherald.com • 3

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Nontraditional student enrollment poised to rise as pandemic continues

Increasing availability of online programs, career burnout could propel new wave of nontraditional students, UW coordinator says

by Lauren Elder Reporter

Eight years after John Walker stopped going to college classes at Murray State University in western Kentucky, he returned as an adult college graduate student at the University of Wisconsin.

But Walker’s path to UW had a lot of detours.

He worked in Kentucky as a local journalist, later moving to Germany to work at a dairy farm.

When Walker returned to the U.S., he hiked 2,700 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada and eventually ended up in St. Louis as a busboy.

It wasn’t until he was New Zealand on a mountain overlooking at a lake wondering “what next?” that he realized he wanted to return to school.

Walker started his freshman year in 2007 right as the Great Recession swallowed up the United States and graduated in 2012 with degrees in journalism and anthropology.

In fall 2020, while in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Walker started his first year as a graduate student in UW’s Library Information Science program, housed within the UW iSchool at the School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences.

“A lot of people — at least in my program who are nontraditional — are still working, or they’ve already had their families and they’re just doing part time classes and they’re not as involved,” Walker said. “I’ve come back as a full time student, and that makes it very different for me than other people usually who are my age.”

Walker is not alone in this unique educational journey, as returning and nontraditional students flock back to gain degrees as the pandemic continues to surge.

At the UW, the Adult Career and Special Student Services offers special and guest student admission, education planning and career services for special/nontraditional students like Scala.

Nontraditional students often fall into the category based on their age or other variables in their lives that can interfere with successful completion of their education, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Tuition rates for individual students are calculated based on a number of factors including academic program, the number of credits taken and residency status. “[Special students] can include high schoolers wanting to take classes at UW-Madison, auditors, and all people in between,” Associate Dean and Director of Continuing Studies Martin Rouse said.

Adult students are typically classified as being age 24 or older and return to school for a variety of reasons, Rouse said. Like Walker, some older individuals want to finish what they started after years in the workforce. Currently, the oldest undergraduate at UW is 73 years old.

“Often, [special students] never finished, want to come back and want to learn about something they’re interested in,” Rouse said.

Rouse believes other adults, still in the midst of their career, return because they want a better job that requires additional credentials to help themselves and their families.

Nontraditional students face unique challenges

Photo · John Walker came to complete graduate school at UW eight years after he stopped taking college classes Courtesy of Walker 4 • badgerherald.com • February 1, 2022

Photo · COVID has led to an increase in UW’s online courses and programs, which could draw nontraditional students Kate Cooney The Badger Herald in higher education, with factors like fear, children, difficulty with technology and a lack of confidence potentially complicating their experience at UW, Rouse said. He also said there can be more pressing financial concerns for adult students who are busy with their work and home lives and struggle to fulfill the credit load required to qualify for financial aid.

“There’s definitely a lot of times when I feel very alienated from the experiences of — or my lack of experiences [compared to] — my peers,” Walker said. “And that’s okay. It’s not a bad thing, and I just try to find a good synthesis to those relationships and understand that everybody’s on their on journey, on different places.”

Compared to other universities, UW is more traditional in the sense that the percentage of nontraditional students enrolled is significantly lower, Rouse said. According to the NCES, changes in enrollment can be indicative of institutions success — or lack thereof — in reaching less traditional students and attracting them to nontraditional programs.

Before the pandemic, the drop-out rate for nontraditional students after their first year of college was more than double the rates of traditional students. Adult students may face the additional impacts of COVID-19 on their employment and family life, and mental health issues also appear more prevalent among nontraditional students.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the introduction of more online courses and programs at UW and other universities across the country.

Adults who have taken on the responsibility of assisting their children with at home school or who have jobs keeping them busy throughout the day may find online schooling to be favorable.

“Offering more online degrees works really

well for nontraditional students,” Rouse said.

Adult Career and Special Student Services services coordinator Ace Hilliard said he hopes to see UW expand into online programs to increase accessibility to higher education. Hilliard said online classes bring in different populations, noting the pandemic may bring adults back to school in pursuit of a career change or exploration.

“Being in jobs related to hospitality, the medical field, teaching … can be detrimental to well being,” Hilliard said when asked if the COVID-19 pandemic has brought in an influx of special and returning adult students.

Walker, who started his first year of graduate school during the pandemic, said he wasn’t able to get the full UW experience due to most of his degree being online, plus the postponement of other programs like Wisconsin Hoofers, an outdoors club, and the in-person events at the Unions.

The ACSSS has also introduced the Badger Ready program — which Rouse called a “forgiveness program” — that specializes in assisting adult students over the age of 25 and veterans of all ages in transferring to UW when they otherwise would not be able to. To qualify for the program, students must have previously completed 24 credits of college work and taken two cumulative years off of schooling.

The program typically requires students to complete 12 credits of UW courses over two to four semesters with a grade point average of at least 3.0. After completion, students may be eligible for admission as a transfer student. To date, Rouse said the Badger Ready program has helped 58 participants over the last three years with six graduates.

Managing Editor Arushi Gupta contributed to this report.

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Recent cocaine busts indicative of growing problem in Wisconsin

Local groups discuss treatment options for cocaine addiction as busts raise questions about cocaine usage in Dane County

by Cat Carroll Reporter

As prosecutors charge 10 people with participating in a multi-year cocaine conspiracy connected to individuals operating out of the Dane County area, local groups contend the recent busts are part of a larger issue with cocaine growing in Wisconsin.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, a federal grand jury in Madison unsealed three indictments charging 10 people with cocaine conspiracy on Jan. 5, including four individuals from Madison and one from Sun Prairie. Timothy M. O’Shea, who is the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that the indictments would be issued against the individuals accused of cocaine conspiracy.

The charges listed include the possession and distribution of cocaine between December 2014 and April 2021, indicating the conspiracy was ongoing for multiple years.

Though the 10 individuals were charged for their participation distributing cocaine, the indictments raise questions about cocaine usage in Dane County.

Sarah Johnson, the community health

education specialist for Public Health Madison & Dane County, said cocaine-involved deaths in Dane County have increased over the past several years. Between 2014 and 2016, 22 individuals died as a result of cocaine-involved overdoses. But the number of cocaine-involved deaths more than tripled from 2018 to 2020, increasing to 75 deaths, Johnson said.

This 241% increase in the number of cocaineinvolved deaths among Dane County residents points to an increase in overall cocaine usage in the area. 5 Door Recovery, a residential alcohol and drug treatment center in Madison, has also noticed an increase in cocaine usage among its patients.

5 Door Recovery’s Clinical Supervisor and Licensed Clinical Social Worker Laurie Duraney said the number of individuals seeking treatment for a primary cocaine addiction recently increased — about 50% of patients come to 5 Door Recovery seeking help with a primary cocaine addiction.

“We rarely see people who are only facing addiction to one substance,” Duraney said. “But about 50% of the patients are facing cocaine as their primary addiction. For example, a patient may be addicted to cocaine and opiates or cocaine and alcohol, but cocaine is the primary source.”

Many patients at 5 Door Recovery face co-

occurring disorders and a history of trauma in addition to their addiction, according to the 5 Door Recovery website. 5 Door Recovery uses a variety of techniques to treat adults living with substance use disorder, ultimately providing patients with up to 35 hours per week of therapeutic programming, Duraney said.

With group and individual sessions, family education, art and animal-assisted therapy, and recovery yoga, patients at 5 Door Recovery make immense progress, Duraney said. 5 Door Recovery remains focused on helping people recover from addiction, while simultaneously addressing mental health and trauma issues, according to their website. Ultimately, 5 Door Recovery has adopted a holistic approach to recovery.

“Through this therapy, we teach people ways to begin refusal skills, but also how to cope with all of the problems that come with extended substance abuse problems,” Duraney said.

Funded by the state of Wisconsin, 5 Door Recovery is different from other rehabilitation programs, which can cost patients thousands of dollars, according to the Addiction Center.

Through state funding, 5 Door Recovery can have a greater impact on eliminating addiction in Dane County and surrounding areas.

According to the Journal of Study on Alcohol and Drugs, socioeconomic status plays a role in drug addiction, and many individuals of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to develop a drug addiction.

But the high prices of services to fight addiction can often act as a barrier to care, keeping individuals of low socioeconomic status from ending their addiction.

With 5 Door Recovery’s state funding, more individuals can fight their addiction, without having to face the concerns of the high costs of the process.

Addiction issues have plagued Wisconsin for a long time, according to archived National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) records. Madison is a secondary distribution point for trafficking, with more instances occurring in Milwaukee.

In recent years, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services has taken initiative regarding the opioid crisis in response to the high numbers of opioid-related deaths. number of state-funded treatment facilities prohibiting the prescription of particular opioid drugs.

Still, the usage of other drugs in Wisconsin remains a concern, Duraney said.

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Exact Sciences to invest $350 million in developing Madison location

Money for Madison branch development will create 1,300 new jobs for varying skill levels, Exact Sciences associate director says

by Owen Wolman Reporter

In partnership with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, also known as WEDC, cancer prevention research company Exact Sciences will invest $350 million into their industry in Madison to create more than 1,300 new jobs.

The announcement of the new plan has state leaders and employees hopeful for the future, said WEDC Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes.

“Exact Sciences … has such an incredible vision for the future,” Hughes said. “Having a company like that in Wisconsin means all of Wisconsin is working on Exact Sciences’ mission … so it really has this ripple effect that makes the whole state feel and act innovatively.”

WEDC is a financial organization that works with over 600 partner companies in the state of Wisconsin in all different sectors, providing economic and technical assistance to help strengthen their growth and potential to succeed in the state, according to the WEDC website.

Exact Sciences will divide the money between three projects, according to a press release from the WEDC website. They will

build the Research and Development Center of Excellence, create more laboratory space with updated technology and automation features, and expand the current warehouse space, according to the press release.

Exact Sciences is a medicinal diagnostics company specializing in early detection and analysis of cancer, most notably prostate, breast and colorectal cancer according to the company website. Exact Sciences Associate Director of Corporate Affairs Scott Larrivee envisions these projects creating jobs for a wide range of people, including those with less education.

“We have jobs for everything from folks with a high school degree all the way up to a PhD,” Larrivee said. “If you look at these different positions, there’s a variety of those with starting pay from $17 to $35 an hour plus a cash bonus each year.”

Evers to close controversial ‘Dark Store’ loopholeGov. Tony Evers announced Feb. 5 his biennial budget will include a provision to close the “Dark Store” loophole that Read...

WEDC will increase Exact Sciences’ enterprise tax credits from $9 million to $27.5 million according to the press release.

Enterprise tax credits serve as a sum of dollar credits companies can use to subtract from

the total amount of tax dollars they owe to the government according to the Tax Foundation.

But it’s important for people to know Exact Sciences is being held accountable and graded by the WEDC, Hughes said.

“I think it’s important for taxpayers in Wisconsin to understand that we don’t pay any tax credits out until the company performs,” Hughes said. “So until Exact Sciences does the construction and creates those jobs, we are … standing in the wings as support, ready for that to happen.”

This is not the first time WEDC and Exact Sciences have partnered for a similar industrygrowing project. Exact Sciences previously signed a contract to invest at least $26.2 million starting in 2015 to create 758 jobs in exchange for enterprise tax credits, according to the press release and Hughes.

Judging by the success of their previous partnership with WEDC, Hughes is confident Exact Sciences will meet their job creation goal.

“They had performed over and above what they said they were going to do,” Hughes said.

“They came to us and said … ‘we want to do more in Wisconsin.’”

Their current partnership with Exact Sciences has begun to move forward, with Exact Sciences

posting new job opportunities on their website, according to Larrivee.

These positions can provide employees with flexible schedules and meaningful work, according to job reviews on Indeed, though other reviews indicate employees are dissatisfied with the work environment due to micromanagement and low pay relative to the industry.

Exact Sciences’ flagship product is their noninvasive colorectal cancer screening test known as Cologuard, according to the press release. Cologuard helps adults above 45 screen for colon cancer by detecting DNA markers in their stool. Since being approved by the FDA in 2014, it has been used by patients over 7 million times, according to the Cologuard website.

In recent years, Exact Sciences has grown substantially and now employs 3,500 people in the Madison area, Larivee said. The investment

by WEDC hopes to continue their growing impact on the community.

“As we’ve grown, we’ve tried to invest in the community and support local organizations and causes,” Larivee said. “So hopefully this just continues all of that great work to strengthen the community, but also create economic opportunity.”

February 1, 2022 • badgerherald.com • 5

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Senate makeup may hinge on Wisconsin in 2022 midterms, experts say

UW students should cast their votes this Senate election because Wisconsin will be tight race, political science expert says

by Abigail Leavins State News Editor

The Democrats currently hold the majority in the Senate with 48 seats and two independents who tend to vote Democrat, according to the U.S. Senate website.

But this is liable to change, and Wisconsin is poised to once again play a major role in the 2022 midterm elections that could renew the Democrat’s majority or return the Senate to Republicans.

There will be several states with swing elections this year, including Georgia, Ohio and North Carolina, but Wisconsin in particular will be significant in determining which party will become Senate majority, University of Wisconsin political science professor Barry Burden said.

The race in Wisconsin has further drawn national attention given the recent announcement that incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson will seek re-election.

Initially, Johnson claimed he would not run for re-election this term, but later revoked this decision, according to the New York Times.

Johnson may have changed his mind due to concerns that the Republicans will not be able to maintain control of the Senate, Burden said.

Though Johnson won his last two

elections by large margins, University of Columbia political science professor Robert Erikson said he thinks Johnson is worried about his prospects in the upcoming election.

“At this point, he is probably the most vulnerable Republican Senator,” Erikson said in an email statement.

Several key changes will make this election different from past elections for Johnson, Burden said.

Having the weight of the U.S. Senate riding on this election is one key reason experts expect to affect Wisconsin voter turnout.

“The balance of control of the U.S. Senate is likely to be decided by this race,” Burden said.

Another consideration for Johnson’s campaign is the Democrats’ reinvigorated winning streak in Wisconsin, with the state becoming more and more blue since the 2016 election, according to Five Thirty Eight.

In 2018, Wisconsin elected a Democratic governor, and in 2020, a Democratic president — perhaps indicating a trend of support for the Democratic party in Wisconsin, according to the County of Dane election information.

Still, both of these elections were won by relatively narrow margins.

Photo - Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is a strong candidate for the Senate race, UW political expert contends Shane Fructherman The Badger Herald 6 • badgerherald.com • February 1, 2022

Photo - Current incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson is up for re-election in 2022 and will face one of many potential Democratic candidates in the spring Badger Herald Archives Also since the last election, Johnson has publicized his strongly right-wing stances on issues like vaccines, election fraud and the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — views that Democratic candidates are already attacking him for, Burden said.

Johnson’s extreme opinions could jeopardize his chances in the upcoming election, UW public affairs and political science professor Dennis Dresang said in an email statement.

“He has a record that is embarrassing — conspiracy theories, anti-science, and against most women’s rights issues — and he is part of a Senate that is known for inaction,” Dresang said.

Though Johnson has several notable disadvantages in the upcoming Senate election, he has several advantages as well.

Most notably, it is unusual for a state to elect the same party for both senate and president in the same election period, according to FiveThirtyEight.

This is especially true for this midterm election, Burden said.

President Joe Biden’s ratings as president are currently low, combined with the fact that the party at the helm of the White House typically suffers losses in midterm elections, according to Forbes.

Additionally, incumbents often have an

advantage, which could give Johnson an edge.

Still, a large pool of progressive Democratic candidates faces off against Johnson.

According to Burden, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is the most promising Democratic candidate, boasting the most success in raising money and finding sponsors for his campaign.

Barnes already works closely with Gov. Tony Evers and was appointed as the chair of the Governor ’s Task Force on Climate Change, according to Barnes’ website.

Despite Barnes’ successes so far, Burden said it is possible that Barnes, as well as the other Democratic candidates, might have underestimated the strength of Johnson’s proponents and overestimated Johnson’s vulnerabilities.

No matter how the upcoming election pans out, the votes of UW students can have a significant effect on the balance of political parties in the U.S. Senate election this year, Burden said.

Wisconsin elections for U.S. Senate will take place on Nov. 8, 2022 with a primary to narrow the candidate field on Aug.,9, 2022.

UW-Madison students can learn about their voting options and register to vote online at vote.wisc.edu.

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UW resumes in-person classes amid Omicron surge, student concerns

UW hosts virtual town hall to answer questions about in-person, TAA, BIPOC Coalition protest UW’s push for return

by Maddie Bergstrom and Arushi Gupta Reporter and Managing Editor

For the upcoming semester at University of Wisconsin-Madison, sophomore Sam Drees sees both positives and negatives. Learning is a lot easier in person, in his opinion. Though classroom instruction is ideal, Drees said there are also stresses that come with in-person learning during the pandemic. As a student living in the dorms, Drees is worried he may not have a place to quarantine.

Drees is not the only student weighing the pros and cons of in-person instruction. As the highly contagious omicron variant continues to sweep the nation, 55% of in-person classes moved online at UW-Milwaukee for the first week of spring and individuals within the UW-Madison community have been asking administrators to tighten precautions and move classes online for the first two weeks of instruction.

In a Jan. 7 open letter to Blank, the Teaching Assistants Association, UW-Madison’s graduate student worker union, demanded the university pivot to online instruction for the first two weeks of spring semester.

After receiving no response from the university, graduate workers from the TAA, student government leaders and activists marched up Bascom Hill on Jan. 24, demanding to meet with UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank. The group said they would not leave Bascom Hall until Blank agreed to hold classes online in light of soaring COVID-19 cases.

On the day classes started, the Associated Students of Madison, UW-Madison’s student government body, released a statement asking the university to adopt hybrid models for learning until the pandemic is over and called for stronger COVID-19 precautions at the university.

Despite these concerns and rising cases nationwide, UW-Madison opened its doors to students and faculty for an in-person spring semester as planned.

A town hall meeting held virtually Jan. 21 outlined how the upcoming semester will look. Four expert panelists who have aided COVID-19 policies over the last two years answered questions selected from over 150 community submissions.

This semester, UW-Madison introduced take-home antigen tests into its COVID-19 response strategy and consolidated four PCR testing sites into one location at University Club — while keeping the PCR testing capacity the same at 5,000 tests a week.

Ashley Cheung, a member of the UW BIPOC Coalition and ASM’s sustainability chair, said UWMadison’s consolidation of four testing locations to one makes PCR testing less accessible to the campus community members who live far from campus, including graduate students and workers living in Eagle Heights and Madison’s west side.

UW-Madison is following Wisconsin’s state guidelines for shaping their COVID-19 response, according to which positive COVID-19 tests reported

outside of a clinical setting are not considered in the total case count on the COVID-19 Dashboard, McGlone said. So, though UW-Madison is providing rapid antigen tests, they will not be reporting positive test results from them on their COVID-19 Dashboard.

Unlike UW-Madison, Public Health Madison & Dane County is offering an online form to report at-home test results so PHMDC can understand the level of infection and spread in Dane County, PHMDC spokesperson Morgan Finke said in an email statement to The Herald.

UW-Madison’s Associate Dean of Clinical Trials, Dr. Nasia Safdar, said case counts remain a valuable tool in combating Omicron.

“Case counts serve a valuable purpose because they can give people an idea,” Safdar said. “Especially

following their risk mitigation strategy, in-person classes will continue throughout the semester.

“Instructors are going to face this coming semester situation where students are missing class, some circumstances where multiple students in a particular class are missing [and] circumstances where the instructor themselves tests positive or becomes ill,” Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning John Zumbrunnen said.

Professors are asked to be flexible throughout the semester if one or more students have to miss class.

Zumbrunnen said instructors need to take students at their word. If they report a positive COVID-19 test or feel ill, then they should not be treated like someone who would miss a class for a different reason, according to Zumbrunnen.

Photo - TAA, the BIPOC Coalition and others gathered outside Blank’s office to list their COVID-related demands Arushi Gupta The Badger Herald with Omicron, it gave people an idea of how rapidly it’s spreading and how contagious it was.”

Carol Griggs, who is an associate executive and operations director at University Health Services, said UW-Madison community members should report their positive antigen test results to PHMDC. “This is due to the sheer volume of antigen testing and at-home usage,” Griggs said.

The switch to at-home testing provides results quickly, allowing individuals to immediately isolate upon a positive result, but at-home testing can result in inaccurate case numbers, according to University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

Even as cases rise, the university believes by

But UW does not always extend this flexibility to its faculty and employees who are hesitant to teach in-person.

When asked about the possibility of switching to remote learning, Zumbrunnen said there are currently no plans of making a transition.

“There’s no one best way to deal with these circumstances,” Zumbrunnen said. “So that’s where we pull together and put our heads together and figure out the best path forward.”

Some have said it is time to scale back precautions and return to pre-pandemic times, especially as effective antiviral pills and booster shots become more readily available. In addition, throughout the pandemic, there has been an enormous spike in

Zoom fatigue, mental health concerns and burnout as universities switched to holding most classes online.

At UW-Madison, these concerns were exacerbated last year when the university canceled spring break and extended winter break by a week to compensate.

Like Drees, some at UW-Madison feel the first two weeks of class set the tone for the rest of the semester, and the in-person classroom environment cannot be replicated over Zoom.

Though TAA member Miranda Alksnis feels it is important to prioritize mental health, the consequences of an in-person reopening tip the scales against the people who are disabled and immunocompromised.

“I don’t disagree with any of those points,” Alksnis said. “I just don’t think anyone should die for those goals.”

According to Jack Phillips, who is a neuroengineer and member of ASM and TAA, spacing out the two waves of students returning to campus to party before the semester starts and being in tightly packed spaces could help Madison’s hospitals from getting overwhelmed.

In-person instruction right now, however, will strain healthcare systems more than it would have otherwise, even if UW-Madison reports the same number of infections for those two separate causes, Phillips added.

“The point of doing an online start is that we can space out the wave of infections that we’re going to get when we see people coming back to Madison and partying and going to bars, and the infections that we’re going to get from people going to inperson classes and being in tightly packed spaces for hours on end,” Phillips said.

A study by the CDC revealed counties in which higher-education institutions opened with in-person classes experienced a 56% increase in COVID-19 cases than those with online classes in the beginning of the semester during fall 2020.

While this study did not include data from UWMadison — which had a largely online semester in fall 2020 — it shows a general trend of accelerating cases in counties that house university campuses, particularly those that start the semester with inperson classes.

During the 14-day period UW-Madison resumed in-person classes last fall, 1 in 5 Dane County cases were affiliated with the UW-Madison — with almost one-third comprising all of Dane County’s breakthrough cases, according to PHMDC. Compared to the Aug. 23 to Sept. 5 time period, there was a sharp increase of 206% in positive cases in the 18-22 age group during Sept. 6 to Sept. 19, 2021.

“We [UW-Madison] don’t operate in a bubble here,” Matt Mayrl, who serves as the chief of staff at the UW-Madison’s chancellor’s office, said. “At this point in the pandemic, many normal activities are occurring throughout society.”

Despite constituting only 8% of total tests conducted, the 18 to 22 age group forms the secondhighest percentage of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Dane County, as of Jan. 30.

Almost half of all cases are from Madison.

February 1, 2022• badgerherald.com • 7

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SCIENCE NEWS

UW Health nurses continue clash with administrators in push for union

‘It’s definitely been really frustrating ... and you feel like the people that you work with just aren’t listening to you,’ UW nurse says

by Kara Kneafsey Reporter

At University of Wisconsin Health, nurses and administrators continued to clash over the formation of a union at a meeting in January between nurses and University of Wisconsin Health and Clinics Authority CEO Alan Kaplan.

UW Health nurses presented over 1,500 cards from fellow nurses in support of a union to Kaplan at a meeting Jan. 13 and shared the personal hardships they have faced working at UW Health during the pandemic.

Outside the hospital, dozens of nurses demonstrated their support for the union with signs, said Dave Bates, the former communications director of a prominent healthcare union and current president at Hailstone Communications.

UWHCA Media Relations Manager Sara Benzel said they do not have documentation of the signatures or the amount.

“They claimed to have 1,500 signatures but did not leave anything with us,” Benzel said. “So we do not know how many of those signatures may be from our 3,400 RNs at UW Health.”

SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, a union for nurses, said in a statement that executives at UW Health have cut staffing levels and health and education benefits, leading to some nurses leaving the profession. The ability to recruit and maintain staff has become more difficult throughout the

pandemic as the hospital has faced a strain on the system for nearly two years.

“It’s definitely been really frustrating and stressful and you feel like the people that you work with just aren’t listening to you and they’re profiting off of your sacrifices,” UW nurse Courtney Younkle said. “That’s really, really hard.”

Gov. Tony Evers expressed his support for the union at a Jan. 5 digital forum, where nurses shared their concerns.

Evers issued a statement after the event, stating nurses can advocate best for patients and themselves when given a union voice.

This enables them to hold management accountable regarding staffing, health benefits, continuing education funding to recruit and retain nurses, he claimed.

“I want UW Health nurses to know they can count on me to stand with them and do whatever I can to encourage all stakeholders to come together so that the UWHCA Board and administration recognize their union voice,” Gov. Evers said.

In October 2020, the nonpartisan Wisconsin legislative council reviewed state law and concluded that UW health can voluntarily recognize their union and negotiate a contract, according to SEIU. Act 10, which was passed in 2010, removed the requirement for UWHCA to recognize a union for collective bargaining.

The legal council said in a memorandum that employees can seek voluntary recognition for UWHCA to negotiate a contract with. UW Health is currently

Photo · In a statement, Gov. Tony Evers voiced support for the UW Health Nurses’ push for a union Courtesy of Dave Bates 8 • badgerherald.com • February 1, 2022

Photo · UWHCA CEO says they will not acknowledge nurses union, but recognize the burden the pandemic has caused Daniel Yun The Badger Herald working with both an employee relations consultant and a legal expert to determine what is legal under Act 10, UW Health press secretary Emily Kumlien said in a previous email to The Badger Herald.

Kaplan issued a message Dec. 21 to all UW staff acknowledging the burdens the pandemic has put on them. In the message, Kaplan reaffirmed his position that UWHCA hasn’t changed its mind and will not acknowledge a nurses union.

In his statement, Kaplan said he hopes the passion of these nurses will be redirected toward the state legislature, which he deems the most appropriate venue for the issue. But some nurses like Younkle in favor of unionizing disagree.

“I think the hospital is willing to take advantage of people who want to work at UW because it’s such a great organization,” Younkle said.

Younkle emphasized the importance for nurses— especially nursing students who work at UW— to stand up for themselves and their patients. Nurses are looking for increased community support, stressing the importance of advocating for safe staffing levels for the patients and quality care for the community, she said.

“The situation is definitely very dire,”

Younkle said. “The staffing is getting worse and worse every day as nurses are leaving the hospital and leaving the profession because we just can’t safely take care of our patients.”

Younkle also encouraged nursing students to stand up for themselves when it comes to the nature of their employment and what the hospital offers.

Though she believes the hospital attempted to address the issues nurses are facing, Younkle said they have failed to make substantive change.

“I think that [the hospital has] made efforts to try to address it,” she said.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the ways to address it are like band aids to much larger issues that really require them to sit down at the table with the nurses and work with us on how to fix it.”

UW Health nurses aren’t the only healthcare professionals in the state trying to unionize. Frontline workers in La Crosse held a rally after rejecting a union contract with Gundersen Health System Jan. 17.

Though UW Health nurses who want to unionize have the support of Gov. Evers and Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, UW Health administrators and staff who want to unionize remain at odds.

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UWPD to beta test security scanners at Camp Randall, other locations

Start-up Liberty Defense partners with UWPD to offer cutting-edge artificial intelligence security technology on campus

by Azul Kothari Science News Associate Editor

A chilling news ticker scrolling through headlines of recent school shootings, recordbreaking airport security gun confiscations and ominous predictions of 3D-printed weapons greets visitors as they browse the website for the security technology company Liberty Defense. The company isn’t shy when it comes to discussing the security threats its cutting-edge scanners could protect against.

Though the scanners, branded as HEXWAVE, are still in testing and development, they will soon be making an appearance on campus through a partnership with the University of Wisconsin Police Department and Liberty Defense, the company announced in a press release. Liberty Defense will be providing the scanners free of charge to campus through a beta test phase that is currently anticipated to take place sometime during the second and third quarters of 2022, UWPD Captain Jason Whitney said. ‘[We’re] always, always looking at the latest and greatest technologies that are out there to make our campus safe and secure and help us do our job a little bit better and more efficiently,” Whitney said.

Around three years ago, scanners that could identify objects inside pockets through artificial intelligence began appearing on the market, Whitney said. He was drawn to HEXWAVE over alternatives due to its lack of a metal detector.

Unlike what happens with scanners offered by competitors, members of the public do not have to remove wallets, keys and phones as they pass through.

The patented technology, which Liberty Defense has licensed, was developed at MIT’s Lincoln

Laboratory. William Moulder, the technical lead on the team that built the prototype scanner, said the Department of Homeland Security funded their project to look into scanners that could work in open, crowded environments that might not be well suited to airport security style scanning.

According to a Liberty Defense promotional video, the HEXWAVE can process 1,000 people per hour, which is equivalent to one person every 3.6 seconds.

Though the scanners appear similar to ordinary metal detectors, they operate in a fundamentally different way. Instead of detecting the presence of metal from a weapon, the scanners utilize microwave imaging technology to analyze the shapes of objects that exist near the body of the subject, According to a paper published on IEEE. org.

According to an article from Lincoln Laboratory, the HEXWAVE is a commercialization of a patented prototype developed at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory.

Liberty Defense, which is not affiliated with MIT, licensed the patent to bring it to the market.

Although HEXWAVE has further developed the MIT prototype, including the addition of a second parallel scanning panel, the same technological principle underlies both.

The process is analogous to how humans extract a three dimensional sense of their surroundings from rays of light reflected into the eye, according to a video from National Geographic. Unlike the eye, which relies on light rays from within the visible spectrum, the scanners use lower energy light rays called microwaves which can penetrate materials like fabric.

Although large quantities of microwaves can heat certain molecules — a process that takes place in microwave ovens — the scanner releases

Photo · Liberty Defense will be providing the scanners free of charge to campus through a beta test phase to UWPD Marissa Haegele The Badger Herald

Photo · HEXWAVE technology will be used as security scanners at high traffic locations like Camp Randall across campus Ahmad Hamin The Badger Herald small quantities that have no effect on the subject.

According to Moulder, the power is on the order of a milliwatt, far less than the hundred of milliwatts that a cell phone releases in a similar frequency range. Furthermore, microwaves are low energy and non-ionizing, meaning they do not induce cancer causing DNA damage that high energy wavelengths have the potential to.

In the MIT prototype, a panel produces low energy microwaves from various transmitting antennas. Some of the microwaves reflect off of the subject being scanned and back to various receiving antennas, which function as a sort of retina.

According to the paper on IEEE.org, A computer performs complex calculations on the data in order to return a three dimensional video of the subject that peers inside clothes and backpacks.

For both humans and scanners, producing these 3D microwave images is just half the challenge.

If the human brain simply received images, but could not recognize objects within those images, all of humanity would be effectively blind, according to an article in Scientific American. While human brains must recognize objects like familial faces, hamburgers and the sidewalk, the scanners must recognize knives, pistols and pipe bombs.

HEXWAVE and its MIT predecessor achieve object recognition with an artificial intelligence algorithm that learns to recognize certain shapes over time.

“The more that we looked at them, the better we got at interpreting them, the more data you have, the better the AI is going to do,” Moulder said.

“The idea behind AI is can we train a machine to sort of make the same inferences.”

Moulder did not elaborate on the objects the team used to test its prototype scanner.

“We had a set of test objects that we felt were relevant,” Moulder said.

The published paper presenting the prototype demonstrated the scanner’s ability to image and recognize a metal can inside of a backpack.

Liberty Defense CEO Bill Frain cited flairs, plastic explosives and pipe bombs as examples of threats HEXWAVE can recognize that a traditional metal detector would not.

Using artificial intelligence to interpret the microwave scans mitigates privacy concerns, Moulder said. The scans show the human body surface in a level of detail that could make people uncomfortable. By using AI, no human being ever looks at the scan.

“That’s one of the important roles of AI,” Moulder said. “Instead of having a human look at the image, you could have, for example, a neural network, look at the image and abstract the result to somebody rather than actually show them the microwave image.”

Image abstraction could be as simple as a yellow box on a stick figure that indicates an area for security personnel to investigate closer.

Whitney said the department is considering testing the scanners at Camp Randall and similar high traffic venues.

Similar AI utilizing scanners exist on the market from $100 to $150 thousand, Frain said. He hopes to have the cost of HEXWAVE to be around 25 to 30% less. By contrast, a basic walk through metal detector can cost slightly over $1,000.

Frain said that as security measures evolve, so do threats.

“Having been in this business for 30 years in the security space, you always think that you’ve saturated the market with [security] technology, and that’s not the case,” Frain said. “But I have a feeling that the technology will continue to evolve, and our goal is to stay ahead of the threats that are out there” February 1 2022 • badgerherald.com • 9

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UW Dairy Science research aims to support Wisconsin dairy farms Dairy Cattle Center, Dairy Innovation Hub continue to fund projects, propel industry forward with new advancements

by Caroline Crowley Science News Associate Editor

Cars and buses rush down University Avenue. Sidewalks and bridges lace the intricate web of buildings in the center of the University of Wisconsin campus. And in the middle of it all lies the Dairy Cattle Center, home to a herd of 84 milking cows.

The Dairy Cattle Center is used for teaching and research in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences. The milk produced there is processed by the Department of Food Science with the Dairy Research Center and used to create the campus star — Babcock ice cream.

The Department of Animal and Dairy Science raises dairy cattle to produce the highest-quality milk for our eating pleasure. Despite how delicious it is, the ice cream can cause some students to overlook the complexity behind the production process, according to Heather White, an associate professor in nutritional physiology at UW and the faculty director of the Dairy Innovation Hub. “I think the part that’s most overlooked is how complex and integrated it is, how many different aspects there are to it,” White said. “So everything, from how we take care of the animal to how much value the farmer is placing on the impact on the environment and the consumer’s perspective of what they produce, all the way to how delicious the ice cream is from Babcock.”

UW professor and extension specialist in dairy farm management Victor Cabrera said there should be a greater emphasis on the importance of raising cattle and milk production because it is the first step in the process of creating the dairy products we know and love.

The process of raising the dairy cattle herd is mostly run by undergraduate students in the Department of Animal and Dairy Science. Gaelan Combs, a senior in White’s lab majoring in dairy science, said having cows on campus allows for valuable hands-on experience, especially for people who were not raised on dairy farms.

“It’s important to sit in lecture and learn, it’s a lot more fun and more valuable to learn it handson, and so I think that’s a big part of the value of [having dairy centers and research facilities],” White said.

Dairy at UW has a lengthy and prominent history — it’s part of America’s Dairyland, after all. White said the state and the university have continued their legacy through dairy research with programs like the Dairy Innovation Hub, a state-supported research program that funds dairy science research at three Wisconsin universities.

According to its website, the Dairy Innovation Hub is focused on research in four areas — land and water resources, human health and nutrition, animal health and welfare and farm businesses and communities. The Dairy Innovation Hub is unique to our state, according

Photo · The Dairy Cattle Center is used for teaching and research in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences Joey Reutman The Badger Herald 10 • badgerherald.com • February 1, 2022

Photo · In the past, the Dairy Innovation Hub has funded over 100 projects in a variety of disciplines to support dairy farming Joey Reutman The Badger Herald to Maria Woldt, the program manager of the Dairy Innovation Hub. “There are other states that have allocated lines of funding for dairy research … but none that are really talking about the entire dairy system, so not just the cow but the community, our climate, our water, our air, what we eat,” Woldt said. “So, in that sense, there’s a lot of eyes on this initiative from around the country and around the globe.”

In the past, the Dairy Innovation Hub has funded over 100 projects in a variety of disciplines, White said. Among them, one used waste products from milk processing as materials for 3D printing, and another studied ways cheese can be good for the heart.

Due to Wisconsin’s lengthy history of dairy research, White said the research funded by the organization often engages researchers who have never answered dairy-related questions before. The focus of the project is on research that impacts farmers who live in Wisconsin.

Cabrera also works to improve dairy research for Wisconsin farmers as the director of the Dairy Brain project, which is a collaboration between the Department of Animal and Dairy Science and the Department of Computer Science.

The Dairy Brain project collects and analyzes data from Wisconsin farms to help farmers and consultants predict their future performance and make decisions about their farm management systems.

Farms send data about their nutrition, genetics

Photo · UW researchers focus on dairy-related questions that have never been answered before Joey Reutman and production systems to the Agricultural Data Hub, where a team of developers is working on creating a web application to integrate and analyze the data.

In the meantime, an extension team meets with farms to review and add value to their current data. Currently, the project is collaborating with five Wisconsin farms, but Cabrera said he expects the project will scale up in the future.

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Researchers find healthy diets pay off in low-income countries

UW researchers discuss feasibility of diets, explain how barriers such as education, environment, cost may stand in the way

by Lauryn Dominick Science News Reporter

A recent article highlighting the correlation between environmental and health sustainability suggests healthy diets in low-income and lower-middle-income countries are less costly than western diets.

A westernized diet is characterized by a high dietary intake of sucrose and saturated fats with a low intake of fiber.

Teaching faculty member in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Wisconsin Taiya R. Bach said the composition of the westernized can be viewed through many different perspectives.

“In general, [the westernized diet is] higher in calories, which can be a good or bad thing, depending on who you talk to and it’s usually higher in protein,” Bach said.

In high-income and upper-middleincome countries, dietary change is easier to implement than in low-income and lowermiddle-income countries, according to the dietary patterns modeling study. This is attributed to resourcefulness — being more efficient with food waste.

High-income countries also have access to more knowledge, which contributes toward reducing food waste, knowing which foods are better for you and how to effectively access those foods.

The main takeaway from this study is that healthy foods themselves are not more expensive, but the cost of and access to knowledge of them is. This affects public health spending as well as national climate change commitments.

The article by Springmann et al. said the healthy and sustainable dietary patterns were up to 22–24% lower in cost in uppermiddle-income to high-income countries, but 18–29% more expensive in lowermiddle-income to low-income countries.

These patterns consist of reductions in food waste, diet-related costs of climate change and healthcare and socio-economic development.

According to the Lancet modeling study, the agricultural food system has been facing an increase in environmental challenges.

It is responsible for approximately onethird of all greenhouse gas emissions and its environmental impacts risk exceeding ecological limits.

These include carbon emissions, land and water use and applications involving fertilizer.

Recently, an increase in dietary changes is causing a shift from animal-based products to nutritionally dense plant-based foods such as vegetables, nuts, legumes and fruits.

Global Health Program Advisor and UW researcher Devika Suri gave her perspective on what accounts for the differing cost of certain diets in different parts of the world.

“The change in cost for the flexitarian diet is going down in higher-income countries and going up in lower-income countries and my guess is [it’s] because [high-income

— of a region has been found to be generally higher for scenarios with less meat and highest for the lacto-vegetarian diet.

The evidence in this article supports the argument that agricultural lands producing less meat have a higher carrying capacity.

But, carrying capacity is highly influenced by starting assumptions about

Photo · An increase in dietary changes is causing a shift from animal-based products to more vegetables and fruits Kate Cooney The Badger Herald countries] would be reducing [their] animal food intake and [low-income countries], on average, would be increasing their animal food intake and their dietary diversity would increase,” Suri said.

This change is in an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions, as well as improve nutritional status and dietary health.

The carrying capacity — the ability of land to support a certain number of people

the percentage of cropland available for cultivation.

“On one end, the argument is that there is a lot of land that is not arable and you are not able to farm and that is where animals are useful,” Suri said.

Generally, veganism, vegetarianism and flexitarianism are the most sustainable diets from a health, environmental and cost perspective.

Avoiding animal products is one of the

best ways to reduce environmental impacts on the planet.

“There’s also the argument that for every pound of beef you can feed 100 people a piece of bread and there’s that argument that we’re growing a lot of food to make meat and it’s not efficient,” Suri said.

Because some farmlands require expansion into wild areas, loss of wildlife has been an increasing concern. Without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75%, according to the Guardian.

Meanwhile, animal-based food products use 83% of farmland and produce 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the Guardian, the lowestimpact meat and dairy products still cause more environmental harm than the least sustainable plant-based products.

“There’s a lot of reasons for people being vegan or vegetarian, it is about the ethics and morality of it,” Suri said in reference to understanding how people choose various types of diets.

But sustainability goes beyond environmental impacts and also involves dietary considerations.

This specifically includes having access to enough calories, as well as sufficient nutrients.

The most common nutritional deficiencies include vitamin A, iron and iodine.

These issues most frequently appear in lower-income countries relying on staple foods such as rice and other grains as the primary source of calories.

While nutritional value is an important factor, most individuals are also concerned about the overall price of their diets.

Pescatarian diets were found to be relatively costly, with fish having one of the highest prices per calorie.

In comparison, protein sources from grains and plant-based products had lower costs than vegetables and most animal based products, making high-grain vegan and vegetarian diets increasingly affordable.

“Generally, the percentage of staple crops in your diet is higher in lower-middle income countries, the most common ones being rice, wheat and maize,” Suri said.

Staple crops had one of the lowest costs of all foods, which made deviation from current diets dominated by staple crops less affordable. Here, it becomes clear that unless these circumstances are complemented by reductions in food waste, accounting of costs of diets and socioeconomic changes, changing to a healthier diet will become increasingly less affordable.

February 1, 2022 • badgerherald.com • 11

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'Fatigued' advocates make progress on UW's sexual assault response, but shortcomings persist

by Audrey Thibert Digital News Editor

Content warning: references to sexual violence “Seeing your abuser on campus and seeing them live their life with no consequences.”

“Carrying an extra weight when already fatigued, and sometimes having people not understand why you aren’t keeping up with them.”

“It means being scared of being alone for too long, and not knowing if you are going to see them around campus.”

Sexual assault survivors at the University of Wisconsin candidly expressed how it feels to live on the UW campus after an unwanted sexual encounter. Feelings of isolation, exhaustion and frustration fueled the anonymous responses collected by Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment, a UW student organization focused on preventing sexual assault, dating violence and stalking.

These anonymous voices captured the state of survivors on campus, they are far from alone in their advocacy for the unification and simplification of survivor resources on campus.

Collaboration among students, medical professionals and local experts has yielded positive steps forward, such as the creation of a campus-housed forensic nurse program, but some survivors continue to fall between the cracks. A reinvigorated movement to provide survivors the support they need has exposed UW’s shortcomings in resources and funding for sexual assault survivors — to the detriment of those who need care the most.

Unwavering Campus Culture

Jane Vander Meer, a nurse practitioner in gynecology at University Health Services, feels dispirited sometimes. It is difficult to face that after more than two decades at UHS, she has not seen a decrease in the number of students who are assaulted each year.

“It’s hard, especially when you feel like you’ve been working on this for a long time and those numbers don’t really change,” Vander Meer said.

After allegedly assaulting a woman in 2018, UW football player Quintez Cephus did not face legal consequences, returned to the football team and went on to play in the National Football League.

Even when rapists are convicted, many receive minimal sentencing.

Alec Cook, a former UW student who sexually assaulted 11 women in 2018, was sentenced to just three years in prison. These events fostered deep disappointment across the campus community about the lack of legal and social accountability in sexual assault cases.

UW sophomore Mackenna Achter said though students have the resources to support them, the university’s response is nowhere near adequate. Achter wants to not only see bolstered prevention measures, but a sufficient response when UW receives reports of assault.

“Student rapists, in the cases I have seen, are often given the minimum punishment and are allowed to remain on campus, potentially leading to further assaults,” Achter said.

The 2019 AAU survey results reveal the shortcomings in UW’s response to sexual assault. The survey showed one in four women at UW have been sexually assaulted — an exceptionally concerning statistic that does not only plague UW. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, 26.4% of undergraduate female students experience rape or sexual assault.

Such statistics have spurred increased activism around combatting rape culture — a culture where social beliefs, attitudes and morals normalize sexual violence and minimize the seriousness of sexual violence.

Chynna Lewis, a violence prevention specialist and advocacy coordinator at UHS, feels is it important to acknowledge that sexual violence happens across a spectrum and wants UHS to make clear that their services are not just for people who identify as women.

“Most of our survivors that we see are women,” Lewis said. “We want everybody to know that our office is for everybody, not just limited to straight women. I think we also need to do a better job of letting men know that they can come to us regarding different events that they might experience.”

While only 12% of college student survivors report the assault to police, even less report if they were incapacitated. According to the National Crime Victims Research & Treatment Center, only 7% of survivors who were under the influence report assaults to the police.

Part of the reason is that students may not know how to name their experience.

Vander Meer said a big barrier on college campuses is that students are not certain what to report, particularly if alcohol or drugs are involved.

UW’s Amnesty policies that grant safety to survivors — even if drugs or alcohol were involved — are often unknown or not communicated to students.

“Some students don’t identify their experience as a sexual assault, even though it would meet the criteria for that,” Vander Meer said.

“I think sometimes students feel like if they don’t have a physical injury, it doesn’t count.”

Despite disappointing statistics, Vander Meer has hope in the recent developments in advocacy and other resources on campus.

“

Even with recent efforts to improve campus culture, the numbers Vander Meer fears have continued to grow. The rate of nonconsensual sexual contact by physical force or the inability to consent increased from 2015 to 2019 for undergraduate women, graduate women and undergraduate men.

12 • badgerherald.com • Feburary 1, 2022

“I think there’s certainly been an increased awareness amongst students of these issues,” Vander Meer said.

Survivor-Led System

Chancellor Rebecca Blank has expressed disappointment in the “distressingly high” number of reported sexual assaults and committed to bettering UW’s approach through opting to join programs like the Culture of Respect Collective, a collective that enables universities to end sexual violence through expansive central change and holding forums on campus.

While these wide reaching efforts are beneficial to survivors, educators and other students, critics say the measures fall short of providing specific aid to survivors.

So when Kate Walsh saw an opportunity to streamline UW’s response to sexual assault, she took it. Walsh, an associate professor in the Gender and Women’s Studies and Psychology departments at UW, was awarded a $500,000 federal grant to expand sexual assault services on campus.

“If you’re a student and you experienced an assault, we have complex systems that are just difficult to navigate,” Walsh said. “Best care practices for anyone is to not have to repeat your story over and over again and not have to make a million calls to get all your different needs met.”

Walsh’s grant has two parts — medical forensic care and advocacy. The funding for medical forensic care allows for rape kits to be brought directly to students on campus instead of requiring students to go to Meriter Hospital.

Before Walsh’s program, Meriter Hospital was the only place in Dane County where UW students could go to get a rape kit – a set of tools and procedures that forensic nurse examiners use to collect evidence after someone experiences a sexual assault.

Vander Meer said the program appeals to students who were deterred from seeking care because they had to go to Meriter.

“Every single one of the students Jane Vander Meer who elected to use the Forensic Nurse Examiner services said they would not have gone to Meriter,” Vander Meer said. “I think that’s a powerful statement that shows for a variety of reasons, they just don’t want to go. So having it be something that’s brought right to them with kind of a soft handoff from UHS providers has been a great thing.”

Walsh worked closely with the Dane County Multi-Agency Center, a nonprofit that came to Madison in 2021 and helps to aid survivors in their path to safety, to further streamline the new

It's hard, especially when you feel like you've been working on this for a long time and those numbers don't really change.

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With the help of DaneMAC, UHS and student input, Walsh was able to eliminate other obstacles that complicated survivors’ medical experience such as long wait times. Some students experienced 12hour wait times at Meriter, which prevented them from staying to get the exam.

Other students avoid a rape kit because they are afraid the process is “invasive” and “painful,” but they don’t have to be, Vander Meer said. Students have always had full control of their own exam process both at UHS and Meriter, though many students are unaware of this.

“Sometimes people want a pelvic exam for reassurance, other people would say, ‘Please don’t make me do a pelvic exam,’” Vander Meer said. “The student gets to decide. That can really be different for each person depending on injury, symptoms and their own preferences and what they want for reassurance or not.”

Since the start of the program, there has already been an increase in the number of students who sought survivor resources through UHS. Walsh said 33 people scheduled appointments for FNEs from July to November 2021 – double the amount during the same period in 2019.

“The exams don’t cost them anything, and I think a lot of students are concerned about parents finding out or having to use insurance,” Walsh said. “I wanted to think about all the reasons students might not be using the exams and the ways that we can address that.”

“

[UW] often place[s] preventative measures in the hands of victims, which can be emotionally damaging to sexual assault survivors on campus.

They act without obvious concern and do not verbally address the problem.

Walsh is excited about the student turnout since the program’s launch. She said feedback has been promising and extremely positive.

“I’ve spoken to a few students who have used the new survivor services, the advocacy in particular, and they’ve been really, really happy with the care that they’ve gotten,” Walsh said.

Recovery Through Advocacy

Achter knows more female students at UW who have been raped and sexually assaulted by fellow students than she count on her fingers. For every finger Achter is forced to put down for another victim, she wants to see a comparable rise in emotion and concern from the university.

Designs by Corey Holl

“They [UW] often place preventative measures in the hands of victims, which can be emotionally damaging to sexual assault survivors on campus,” Achter said. “They act without obvious concern and do not verbally address the problem.”

The second part of Walsh’s grant hopes to address this issue, too.

Her program promotes advocacy to facilitate victim empowerment rather than victim blaming.

At UW, students have a variety of advocacy services available to them including referrals to medical and mental health services, Mackenna Achter information about survivor rights, accommodations, accompaniments, consultations and assistance related to brief intervention. “[Advocacy is] an amazing, comprehensive service where you can have a person who can meet with you multiple times during your recovery and figure out what you need emotionally, what you need physically and if we can help with aspects of your environment,” Walsh said.

Prior to the grant, UW offered medical and mental health services for survivors, but there were no full-time advocates. UHS workers like Violence Prevention Specialist Chynna Lewis provided advocacy in addition to their full-time positions, but it was mostly side work.

Walsh hopes her program will respond to the need for a renewed approach to advocacy.

Currently, the grant funds only one full-time advocate at UW. Walsh and Lewis all emphasize the need for more full-time advocates to best serve over 43,000 students on campus. One full-time advocate plus two part-time empqwloyees from violence prevention is not enough for the UW campus, according to Walsh.

UHS keeps an advocate from the Rape Crisis Center on staff as well. In the spring semester, UHS hopes to offer students the choice of a UHS or RCC advocate to be present for their exam for the first time.

“We fully recognize that it’s really important to partner with other agencies in the community to make sure that all of our advocacy needs are met,” Walsh said. “I’d love to grow this program. I think it would be incredible to be able to hire a larger team.”

The three branches of survivor services at UHS – mental health, advocacy and medical – recognize that each person’s needs are different depending on their experience and what they want for reassurance.

Lewis said not all students want to utilize the mental health or medical services but still need support and “non-clinical validation,” so UHS added the advocacy branch in 2016.

“That’s just one thing that we’ve been considering– where’s the best space? What is the best way to serve students?” Lewis said. “We also have to have students that are willing to have conversations with us regarding what’s necessary for us to be utilized and beneficial for the student body overall.”

The branches, however, are separate entities that have previously not worked closely together. In the past, UW junior and PAVE Chair Jessica Melnik noted that people working in Survivor Services have been unwilling to break out of their designated roles in fear of encroaching upon another branch’s territory. Since the rollout of Walsh’s program, the services are now beginning to work in tandem.

“Campus is just so siloed, and survivors are suffering as a result,” Melnik said. “Thankfully, programs like Walsh’s are unifying the services at UW to create an integrated model that includes advocacy, mental health and medical care.”

Future of Support on Campus

Achter says accountability could not only prevent future assaults but also provide a sense of safety to victims.

“I would love to see real action from UW and for rapists to face real punishment,” Achter said. “UW must realize that sexual assault impacts the victim for the rest of their life. Without proper punishment, UW-Madison will continue to show that they care more about their statistics than they do their students’ well-being.”

UW had seen great improvements in their response to sexual

assault from efforts like Kate Walsh’s grant and organizations like PAVE that work to combat sexual violence on campus and provide support for those who experience it.

In an email statement to The Badger Herald regarding funding to enhance services, Director of Media Relations and Strategic Communications Meredith McGlone emphasized the importance of continuing to make progress in UW’s response to sexual assault.

“One of our strengths as a campus is that in each of the units that work in this area, we have incredibly dedicated staff members who are constantly seeking out ways to improve and advocating for and with students,” McGlone said. “Many of them work directly with PAVE and other student organizations.”

There are, however, always improvements to be made to best assist survivors at UW. Melnik would like to see a written plan at UW that outlines their approach and proves their commitment. Melnik said administrators at UW claim that the issue is really important, but there has been no actions to prove that concern.

“The chancellor hasn’t really communicated anything about this to us,” Melnik said. “But the rhetoric doesn’t match the actions.”

To see deeper, lasting change, there needs to be more crosscommunication between administration and student groups to unify efforts and break down those isolating “silos.”

Melnik believes in the ongoing expansion of services. If someone is going through the process of getting a forensic exam or seeking advocacy services, she said they should be able to be connected with everything they need immediately.

At the end of the day, she says, it is about being there for students – no matter what.

“People don’t get assaulted [just] during business hours. They get assaulted at all times of the day,” Melnik said. “It’s like we are expecting people to wait until 9 a.m. to solve the problem.”

Read the full story featuring a section about PAVE’s advovacy on campus online at badgerherald.com under Features.

February 1, 2022 • badgerherald.com • 13

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Take a bow: Violinist Gil Shaham awes Memorial Union crowd

Shannon Hall event, previously postponned due to COVID-19 pandemic, displays Grammy artist’s musical mastery, passion

by Nick Woodhouse ArtsEtc. Editor

Grammy-winning, world-renowned violinist Gil Shaham performed Dec. 11 in front of a packed Shannon Hall theater within University of Wisconsin’s Memorial Union.

There was no shortage of anticipation as patrons were eager to see a performance that was long overdue.

Shaham was originally scheduled to appear March 2020 in Madison — just weeks before the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic. With many tickets already sold for Shaham’s performance prior to its cancellation, in a show of good faith, many supporters chose to forgo their refund, opting instead to help support and preserve the Wisconsin Union Theater and its long-running concert series.

On that note, rescheduling Gil Shaham became a priority, and there was no better way to cap off a brief yet magical concert series than doing just that as part of the David and Kato Perlman Chamber Music Series.

From an early age, Gil Shaham showed promise as a nascent violinist. At the mere

age of seven, Shaham was featured in the Jerusalem Symphony. At ten, he made his debut with the Israeli Philharmonic. By eleven, Shaham was admitted into The Juilliard School of Performing Arts in New York City where he fine-tuned his craft.

For the next several decades, starting with his stint with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1990, Shaham traveled around the globe performing with worldleading orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

For his group and solo work, Shaham racked up numerous awards including a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance in 1999 and was named Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year” in 2012.

Gil Shaham’s 90-minute performance is broken down into two distinct segments: lengthy classical works and short modern compositions. Shaham opens “Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Minor,” a tribute to the legendary composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

The 20-minute-long piece — which Shaham performs entirely by memory — is marked by four distinct movements: Grave, Fuga, Andante and Allegro. Characterized

by its dramatic shifts in pace and tone, it is a melodic journey that introduces both Shaham’s mastery of his craft and his exceptional command of the instrument.

Following a brief intermission, Shaham performed a short piece entitled “Isolation Rag.” Composed by his musical peer Scott Wheeler, “Isolation Rag” was written during the peak stages of the pandemic.

The piece speaks to the common affliction amongst musicians of not being able to collaborate, share and play music together during months of social distancing.

This attitude-heavy ragtime served as a remarkably relatable piece of music, perhaps a refreshing variation from the night’s showcase of longstanding classical epics.

For his final piece, Shaham reunited with Bach, performing his well-known “Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major.” The 20-minutelong piece is an endless dance, quick in tempo but slow and deliberate in its detail.

Suggested by the audience’s long applause, this dynamic conclusion was amongst the highlights of the night, capping off a night of musical brilliance.

Shaham represents the great lengths that can be achieved at full capacity. Beginning

with his upstart as a musical prodigy and throughout his illustrious career, it is clear by his talent, demeanor and class, that his success is derived from his devotion to his work.

While most musicians are frantically sifting through sheets of music, Shaham has his 90-minute-long performance memorized which helps him to squeeze every ounce of emotion from the music in which he so elegantly performs.

Yet equally energizing is his ability to connect with the audience. From selecting an appetizing variety of music to cracking jokes with the audience between songs, it was inspiring to see a composed, serious musician care so greatly about ensuring a worthy experience for every member of the audience.

While Gil Shaham put a stamp on the 2021 Concert Series, many incredible talents are already lined up for 2022. Third Coast Percussion presented their program entitled “Metamorphosis” at Hamel Music Center Jan. 27. February 10, Memorial Union welcomes Brentano String Quartet as part of their 30th Anniversary Concert Tour. For tickets and more information, visit the Wisconsin Union Theater website and social media pages.

An Interview with HBOMax’s ‘Station Eleven’ creator, Patrick Somerville

UW alum, creator of new hit show discusses fictional plague’s eerie resemblance to real life during actual pandemic

by Braden Ross ArtsEtc. Writer

When production on HBOMax’s latest miniseries, “Station Eleven”, started, no one could have foreseen just how eerily relevant it would become.

The series, created by University of Wisconsin alumni Patrick Somerville, is based on Emily St. Mandel’s 2014 novel of the same name and follows a young girl named Kirsten as she navigates the world after a devastating flu pandemic that wipes out most of the world’s population.

The series began filming in January 2020, but halted production in March due to the real-world COVID-19 pandemic.

Somerville said the pandemic shook their team just like it shook everyone else.

“The first part of that conversation was ‘this is really fucking weird,’” Somerville said. “I think we had the same experience as everyone. It was less about TV and work and more about, ‘woah, what are we doing and what’s going on with our 14 • badgerherald.com • February 1, 2022

families.’”

While some may have argued it was not the right time to release a post-apocalyptic pandemic show, Somerville and his team knew their story could be successful, even as its audience was living through a world-changing pandemic themselves.

“It felt like we had the right filter, the right point of view about how to do this kind of story in a way that wouldn’t just re-traumatize everybody who we were asking to watch it,” Somerville said.

“It wasn’t a post-apocalyptic show exploiting how horrible the end of the world is or exploiting survival situations,” he explained. “Had it been, I think it would have been hard to continue, but it was a show that was already trying to be about rebuilding, already trying to be about joy and happiness and how to create out of destruction.”

When production picked back up, writers knew their story would hit close to home, but they didn’t shy away.

Not only do viewers see their own pandemic-induced anxiety reflected on screen, but they also get to see how the characters in “Station Eleven” deal with these all too familiar emotions.

In a way, it’s cathartic.

“In some ways, the writers’ room had already gotten to some of the weird and scary wrinkles of a pandemic, as did Emily in her novel, but what I noticed watching it is you can really feel in a new way, in a known way, the anxiety,” Somerville said.

“The thing that changed was us, just like everyone else. You can’t live from March 2020 to February 2021 and not have a new perspective on what matters.”

Though the show is set in the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, it’s also about so much more.

The series continuously poses the question, if the world ended, what would we still care about?

It touches on tensions between generations, childhood, the persistence

of art, the realities of cults, life with disabilities and more.

At its core, “Station Eleven” is a story about resilience and finding beauty and power in difficult situations.

“The pandemic was disempowering for all of us, but also I feel like a lot of people have been oddly empowered in some way,” Somerville said. “There’s something that forces the truth out a bit when you’re put under pressure.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaped us in many ways.

It has emphasized the importance of having strong relationships, forced us to be resilient and fundamentally changed the way we feel about society.

“Station Eleven” echoes these changes.

It shows how people not only survive an apocalyptic pandemic but thrive in its aftermath. After all, survival is insufficient.

All 10 episodes of “Station Eleven” are available to stream now on HBOMax.

OPINION

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Jan. 6: Reflections on Trump presidency, voting rights and democracy From attacks on fair elections, voting rights to widespread conspiracy theories, the US must act to save itself while it can

by Celia Hiorns Opinion Associate Editor

Despite being too young to cast a ballot in the 2020 Presidential Election, I was incredibly invested throughout the entire process. I learned about the mail-in disputes, kept up with close races and lost sleep during the drawn-out tally.

With false allegations of voter fraud rising to the highest levels of government, the electoral vote confirmation of Jan. 6th became a point of interest. Around 2:20 p.m. that afternoon, the chambers of Congress entered lockdown as rioters forced their way inside. Eventually, reports of an attack on the Capitol — an insurrection — began flooding in.

That night, my family gathered around the TV as the events in Washington dominated the news cycle. I grew up in a country believing

it respected democracy, and I was deeply frightened by the horrifying reality of what had taken place.

Perhaps the most unsettling part was the premeditation. In fact, it was later revealed that some high-ranking officials had the means to predict the attacks long before rioters arrived in Washington.

Since his early campaign days, many believed former President Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and disregard for political norms could lead to violent uprisings among his diehard supporters. Throughout his presidency, he accumulated an unprecedented amount of support despite his frequent hate speech, mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, desperate attempts to overturn election results and finally, invocation of violence in Jan. 6 rioters.

Trump’s unthinkable popularity garnered a

Photo · Voters celebrate Joe Biden’s 2020 Presidential Election win at the Wisconsin Capitol, with Trump supporters positioned on the opposite side of the building contesting the election results Katie Hardie The Badger Herald

feeling of powerlessness among young people who came with spending our teenage years under his administration. We were forced to watch our future descend into chaos without having the right to vote. In confronting the flaws of our democracy, we’ve accepted the burden of repairing what our predecessors couldn’t. After more than a year, some of the major instigators of the insurrection are not facing tangible consequences.

For one, the Justice Department has yet to directly address Trump’s role in the events.

Prosecution, while not entirely out of the question, could be difficult without proof of coordinated malicious intent.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was another symbol of the insurrection after notoriously raising his fist in solidarity with rioters. While he initially faced calls to resign and funding losses, he has maintained a highly successful political career.

Considering the severity of their offenses, the ease with which these officials have evaded repercussions is disturbing. After attempting to undermine democracy itself, these powerful politicians have yet to face prosecution, and some even continue to participate in the lawmaking process. This demonstrates an inability to hold government officials accountable for their actions.

Another source of concern lies in the unresolved race issues that played a part in the attacks.

Jan. 6, 2021 marks the first day in American history that the Confederate flag was flown inside the nation’s Capitol. Born out of a battle over slavery in the 19th century, the flag today represents a revisionist history that downplays the impacts of race in the Civil War. The Confederate flag inside the Capitol in the 21st Century was a somber reminder of these racist beliefs.

Additionally, because the vast majority of insurrectionists were white, many couldn’t help but wonder, what if they were Black?

Thinking back to the summer of 2020, we are reminded of the wave of protests that emerged after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minnesota police officers. Despite political violence reports that show nearly 95% of protests during the summer were peaceful, media coverage of these racially diverse demonstrations were overwhelmingly negative.

In fact, research shows that protests related to radical social movements are more likely to be portrayed as violent than conservative movements. The framing and perception of these events in the media is not equal across different protest ideologies.

Considering Black people are more than three times more likely than white people to be killed by police and are incarcerated at five times the rate, impacts such as the death toll,

prosecution rates and media coverage would conceivably be much more severe for a group of Black protestors.

But the primarily white insurrectionists had the entitlement to disregard the outcomes of democratic institutions, and for many, the privilege to get away with it.

Evidently, not only does democracy have to work, but people have to believe it works.

That the insurrection took place indicates many Americans didn’t believe our institutions had properly demonstrated election results, or they didn’t respect democracy enough to accept defeat.

Even after Capitol security had been restored and many began to acknowledge the gravity of the attacks, others continued to perpetuate the delusion of a fraudulent election. This is a frightening outcome of the Trump presidency — the devolution of democracy into a tool to consolidate power rather than the means for a citizenry to exercise their rights.

The targeted efforts to restrict such rights have been one of the long-term impacts of Jan. 6. The 2020 presidential election saw the highest voter turnout in the century, and Democrats boasted many notable victories.

With hopes to counteract this phenomenon, Republican-led efforts to restrict voting access have become widespread. Voter identification requirements, restricted early voting and other measures aim to make it difficult for Americans, especially blue voters, to get to the polls.

While Democrats have been working to pass voting rights bills with their 50 Senate seats, the filibuster requires a 60-vote supermajority to pass legislation. Jan. 20, 2022, a measure to abolish the filibuster failed, leaving the future of voting rights uncertain. Nevertheless, major reforms are necessary to allow equitable access to the polls and to prevent baseless accusations of fraud from undermining the electoral process.

In such a diverse nation, there will always be ideological differences. But amid these differences, the country has to share a level of respect for the institutions that hold our democracy together.

One year after Jan. 6, I have no doubt that irreversible damage has been done, and the responsibility to restore democracy is falling to my generation. In our lifetimes, we’ve seen it challenged in a way that has impacted our perception of politics. Repairing our systems requires recognizing the magnitude of the situation while having the ambition to make an investment in our future.

We are running out of time to fortify our institutions. And the country is counting on the next generation to take the lead before democracy degenerates beyond repair.

Celia Hiorns (hiorns@wisc.edu) is a freshman studying political science and journalism.

February 1, 2022• badgerherald.com • 15

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OPINION

UW, students must adjust perceptions of COVID-19 to new data Two years into the pandemic, COVID-19 is here to stay but is no longer risk seen in 2020 with vaccines, widespread infections

by Jessica Lewin Opinion Associate Editor

It has been about two years since we’ve first heard about COVID-19. While many of us imagined the pandemic starting and finishing with a standard two-week long quarantine, we find that two years later, COVID-19 is at its peak.

The past two years have left many both physically and mentally tired. Now, we are finally looking towards the end of the tunnel, hoping to find the light.

The University of Wisconsin has done a decent job handling the pandemic with little information available and ever-changing government mandates. With that said, we have come to a point where COVID-19 is far from being completely eradicated. So, are we going to start living with the virus like it’s here to stay?

At UW, the current vaccination rate among students is 94.6% and 96.2% among employees.

It’s evidence the campus at large has taken ample steps to secure their health and safety. So, now what?

According to epidemiologist Michael Osterhold, eradicating the virus from the world right now is “unrealistic.” But, in his opinion,

our failure to eradicate the virus does not mean that death, illness or social isolation will persist.

Evolutionary biologist Jesse Bloom also said to Nature that COVID-19 will become a less serious problem and become a virus with similar effects to the flu, taking on a seasonal pattern of outbreaks.

We have collectively learned a lot more since the beginning of the pandemic and will continue to develop tools — like oral antivirals — that will allow us to live day-to-day life with the virus.

When oral antivirals become available in the United States, there will be simple prescribable pills that will prevent hospitalization and serious sickness from COVID-19.

It is unrealistic to think the virus will leave our lives totally, but it is realistic to believe it will become a more tolerable and less fearprovoking virus. If this is the case, then it is time for the world and UW to transition to change their perspective of the virus.

As we learn more about the implications of COVID-19, we have started to learn more about what is most effective in prevention efforts, which has caused significant controversy in recent months.

Recently, the Biden administration announced they will be withdrawing their COVID-19 shot-or-test rule for workers at large

businesses after the U.S Supreme Court deemed the rule an “unauthorized exercise of agency power.”

It’s time to lift the mask mandates. Masks can still be encouraged for those who are more at risk, and to those who feel more comfortable with them.

Older adults, immunosuppressed groups and others with underlying medical conditions may require more isolation as they are more likely to experience severe illness from COVID-19. Additionally, according to the CDC, some people may be more likely to get infected because of “congregate living settings, or systemic health and social inequities.”

Masks should no longer be required, but it’s still important to individually assess — with the help of a medical professional — how at risk you are. This choice should be left to make at one’s own discretion.

But they should no longer be required, especially because blunt non-pharmaceutical interventions have less medical value. UW wouldn’t be the first school to lift their mask mandates. A Long Island judge ruled against Gov. Kathy Hochul’s mask mandate for schools and public locations. Judge Thomas Rademaker said neither the governor nor the state health commissioner has the authority to push the mandate since “the governor no longer has

emergency powers.”

It seems both judges and schools alike are finally allowing people to make their own medical decisions, restoring their freedom of choice. If the government doesn’t have a constitutional authority to impose mask mandates, then the university no longer has the authority to maintain them on campus.

There is no doubt across the world, people did the best they could to make informed decisions based on the wretched circumstances of the pandemic. But, now there is more information and the newest variant has proved to not be as deadly.

Removing the mask mandates would be a soft retreat for the university, which will allow the students to change their perception of the pandemic and allow them to start living their lives as they were.

Because we have been living in fear for such a long time, it is hard to imagine a world without it. It will be hard to return to a new normal, as we have gotten so accustomed to living the pandemic normal.

But we must change the narrative and change the way we live our lives. This is the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Let’s declare a return to normalcy and live by it!

Jessica Lewin (jrlewin2@wisc.edu) is a sophomore studying journalism.

Photo · UW junior, Olivia Wasserman, receives the COVID-19 vaccine at the Nicholas Recreation Center vaccination site in the spring of 2021

Photo - A sample COVID-19 Artigen Home Test, of which UW has pledged to provide one test per week to all students in the spring 2022 semester

Ahmad Hamid The Badger Herald

Claire Turke The Badger Herald

16 • badgerherald.com • February 1, 2022

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OPINION

UW’s COVID-19 testing capacity is not sufficient for Omicron spike Widespread infections mean UW’s spring testing approach will not do enough to protect faculty, immunosuppressed groups

by Leah Terry Columnist

The University of Wisconsin is sticking to its plan of providing just one testing site for 47,000 students and 24,000 faculty and staff members for the spring semester, despite record-high COVID-19 cases in Dane County.

More UW students and employees tested positive during the first week of January than at any point since August 2021. Nonetheless, several of the university’s testing sites have been closed heading into the spring semester, including Union South and the Pyle Center.

The only remaining testing site on campus is the University Club, which will operate with a capacity of 5,000 testing appointments per week.

This is insufficient given the current surge in Omicron cases.

In mid-December, UW students were also having trouble getting tested. UW urged students to get tested before going home after finals, and some faced testing requirements to travel.

But the university did not have the capacity to follow through on its own recommendations.

Not enough appointments were available, which directly interfered with many students’ winter break travel plans.

In an email sent out by Chancellor Rebecca Blank earlier this month, it was announced that students are being asked to complete two tests before beginning class, “one before they return to Dane County and one after they arrive.”

While the university’s mask mandate and weekly testing requirement for unvaccinated students will remain in place, UW has no way to ensure that students actually follow the new testing measures at the beginning of the semester.

With cases reaching record highs and testing capacity maintained at previous levels, how does UW expect to provide enough tests to go around?

The university has already expressed concerns of testing scarcity on their COVID-19 response page.

“We need everyone’s cooperation in using campus testing resources responsibly,” UW said.

“If you are using campus PCR testing, avoid noshows or last-minute cancellations.”

Testing scarcity should not be an additional fear that immunocompromised students and staff are burdened with, and students should not have to worry about whether or not a test will be available to them if they start to feel sick or need a PCR test to travel. UW’s rhetoric about using testing resources responsibly demonstrates the university’s awareness of the storm of positive cases that is coming.

In an apparent attempt to make up for the lack of PCR tests, UW has begun offering free at-home antigen tests to students, providing one test per person per week. Students in residence halls are able to pick up an antigen test upon move-in, and

off campus students can pick up an antigen test at Memorial Union or Union South.

This effort serves as a preliminary step in detecting COVID-19 as students move back, but studies have shown that antigen tests may be less able to detect Omicron, especially in the early days of infection. Many experts are encouraging people to confirm antigen results with a PCR test, which UW does not have the capacity for.

The alarming possibility of false negatives does not bode well for the return to in-person classes.

In addition, students, staff and faculty are not required to submit their positive antigen test results to UHS. If the majority of students utilize the at-home antigen tests, this will lead to misleading positive case rates on the UW COVID-19 Dashboard.

UW’s COVID-19 Dashboard also does not indicate what percentage of the positive cases are due to the omicron variant, which will make it difficult to interpret the state of the virus on campus. While not requiring students to report positive at-home antigen tests aligns with state guidelines, it ignores the city-county health department that encourages people to report at-

home positives to “better understand the level of virus spreading in our community.”

Not having access to accurate data on how many students on campus are infected with omicron is highly dangerous and puts all of campus at risk. UW must become more transparent with positive antigen results and positive omicron cases if they continue to depend heavily on at-home testing.

Staffing shortages have been cited as a reason for only having a singular testing site.

“We are continually working with multiple suppliers to expand our supply in this period of higher viral spread and public demand for tests,” a statement from the Chancellor said.

Considering the 94.8% vaccination rate on campus and the relatively low number of positive cases on campus in the fall, a few months ago it may have made sense to consolidate to one testing site. But despite a record-setting surge in cases with the Omicron variant, the university has shown a disregard for students’ and employees’ safety and accessibility needs by not moving to reopen any additional testing sites.

The Teaching Assistants’ Association of

Madison recognizes the loopholes of UW’s plan and is demanding a switch to remote learning for the first two weeks of classes. According to reporting by The Badger Herald, the TAA gave a letter of their demands to the Office of the Chancellor in-person Jan. 24. The group, joined by student government leaders and activists, cited safety concerns as well as accessibility concerns that the University Club testing site is not accessible to graduate students in Eagle Heights.

The university is remaining steadfast in its decision to return to in-person classes, but does not have the testing infrastructure to justify this risk that will jeopardize the health of students, faculty and staff.

We are nearly two years into the pandemic, and the biggest lesson to be learned is that adaptability on an institutional level is crucial. Increasing PCR testing capacity would set campus up for a stronger and safer start to the semester. UW must take further steps to protect its students and employees during the peak of the Omicron wave.

Leah Terry (lmterry@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in political science and communication arts and pursuing a certificate in public policy.

Photo - Though saliva tests are a thing of the past, antigen tests now make up a bulk of the testing strategy on the UW campus, raising critical questions Abby Cima The Badger Herald February 1, 2022 • badgerherald.com • 17

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OPINION

Letter to the Editor: UW is falling behind in its support for survivors

Lack of available resources, funding and active counseling leaves students vulnerable on campus with high rates of sexual violence

by PAVE

Content warning: references to sexual violence and/or other possible traumatic experiences On a campus where nearly 1 in 7 students have experienced sexual violence since enrolling, and only 46% of students understand what campus resources are available to them in the face of violence, it is hard not to be exhausted.

Survivors are exhausted. Their support people are exhausted. And those attempting to build a safer community on campus are feeling left behind to deal with their exhaustion by themselves. We need more help.

The current state of survivor services is grim – one advocate, on a limited tenure until the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crimes grant funding her

position expires, has services only available during business hours.

Mental health services on campus are being pushed to capacity, and there are countless stories of students being pushed to the margins and referred to other services, each as overrun as the other.

Students and survivors deserve to be supported, and month-long waitlists and appointment-only services are barriers to them getting that support.

As a result, student organizations like Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment, also known as PAVE, have taken on the work that isn’t being done by the university — we become the therapists, the support lines, the advocates, the educators.

We sit on shared governance committees and student government committees and university committees. We go into

classrooms and we give workshops and we organize events and we speak on panels.

When the waitlists are full at University Health Services, and survivors experiencing trauma in November are told to wait until second semester for help, we become what survivors need. We fill in.

We demand something different.

We demand something better. We are demanding your action.

We are a coalition of students demanding our administration take notice of the crisis in front of them.

When we engage in anti-violence work, we engage with the work as students, and despite our knowledge, passion and enthusiasm for the world we want to see, this work is not ours to do alone.

The work is hard and draining, and the burden for creating the systems of change and support should not stand on the

shoulders of student survivors.

We all have a story — no one of us has lived a life untouched by violence, but we don’t experience this campus holding the same influence to change.

It’s time for our administration to prove to survivors what they need. Join us in our call for action here: tinyurl.com/ViolenceAtUW Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment (PAVE-UW) is a student organization dedicated to preventing sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking through education and activism.

If you or someone you know has experienced violence and is looking for resources, visit our website to see our Campus Resource Guide.

CONTACT chair.pave@gmail.com with questions.

Editor’s note: Check out our feature on pg.

12 or at badgerherald.com to learn more about available resources on campus and PAVE’s work to better survivor services for students.

PAVE

6 demands

1

Increased funding for Survivor Services and Mental Health Services

Expanding the accessibility and availability for services, including: •Weekend support •Drop-in availability •Advocacy in spaces where students are (ex. dorms and learning communities, the Student Activity Center, RecWell facilities, the Red Gym)

3

A transparent evaluation process that sees through the implementation of initiatives, ensuring student feedback at every step

Continuing participation with the American Association of Universities (AAU)ʼs surveys on campus sexual violence

5

2

4

A strategic planner at the Assistant Vice Chancellor level who would coordinate university response to RVSM (Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct), similar to the models seen at other Big 10 institutions — develop a strrategic plan, etc.

A transparent evaluation process that sees through the implementation of initiatives, ensuring student feedback at every step

6

Source Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment at UW Infographic Katie Hardie

18 • badgerherald.com • February 1, 2022

Photo - In the wake of sexual assault allegations against UW senior Alec Cook in 2016, students participated in a protest on Bascom Hill.

Marissa Haegele The Badger Herald

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SPORTS

VIVA LAS BADGERS Badger football ended 2021 on a high by winning the Las Vegas Bowl game against Arizona State University, with both fans and players celebrating the victory in the stands after the final play of the season

Photos by Erin Gretzinger

February 1, 2022 • badgerherald.com • 19

SPORTS

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UW Athletics: NACDA ranks Wisconsin fourth for fall sports performance

Various UW teams contributed to rankings, Women’s Volleyball leads with highest point total of all fall sports, championship win

by Jake Ross Sports Writer

Every year the NACDA, or the National Association of Collegiate Directors, awards schools the Learfield Directors’ Cup for their sports performances in the fall, winter or spring seasons. The intricate scoring system considers rankings and tournament placements for their respective sports.

NACDA ranked University of Wisconsin was ranked fourth for this fall season, amongst all schools in the NCAA Division I category. The sports that were looked at for the fall were men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey, volleyball, water polo and both the FBS and FCS football programs.

Of the six Wisconsin teams that were eligible for consideration, five of them contributed points with only the men’s soccer team missing the board.UW’s main contributor was the national champion volleyball team. Of the 339.50 points scored

by Wisconsin, the volleyball team scored the max 100 points. This team dominated all season, going 31-3 with three All-Americans — Dana Rettke, Sydney Hilliard and Lauren

Barnes.

They came into the NCAA Tournament as the #4 seed and won their first 12 sets in a row. They then knocked off the undefeated #1 Louisville in five sets before closing out the tournament with a five-set victory against Nebraska, securing UW’s first-ever volleyball championship.

The next two highest-scoring sports for Wisconsin were the men’s and women’s cross country teams, which scored 66 and 64.5 points respectively. The men’s team won their fourth straight conference championship and finished 11th overall in the NCAA championship. They also saw an incredible seven runners make the All-Big Ten team, including three on the first-team — Evan Bishop, Bob Liking and Olin Hacker.

The women’s team was just behind the men’s in terms of success, finishing second in the conference to Minnesota, and 12th in the NCAA. Two UW runners made the AllBig Ten second team — Alissa Niggemann and Samantha Stieve. Niggemann had the best overall placement in the NCAA Championship, finishing 68th overall.

Coming in .5 points behind the Women’s cross-country team was the women’s soccer

team. Though the Badgers finished just outside the top 25, they made an impressive run to the Sweet 16 during the NCAA tournament.

They beat Butler and UC Irvine, before losing a close 2-1 battle to Santa Clara. The two standouts on this squad were midfielder Natalie Viggiano and freshman Aidan McConnell on defense.

Viggiano led the team with 5 gamewinning goals and finished with 21 points.

McConnell on the other end led a stout defense which posted 10 shutouts, third in the Big Ten. These performances were rewarded with an All Big-Ten second team appearance for Viggiano, and an All Big-Ten third team and freshman team appearance for McConnell.

The last sport to receive points for Wisconsin was football, with a seven-game win streak that led to a 9-4 season. This was another defensive-minded Badgers team, one that included the Big Ten Linebacker of the year Leo Chenal.

The team had the fourth-best opponents points per game (16.2) in the nation and had eleven players receive All-Big Ten mentions.

Despite being ranked outside of the top 25,

the football team still managed to obtain 45 points, thanks to a 20-13 Las Vegas Bowl victory against Arizona State.

This is a squad that found its footing in the middle of the season and is expected to continue to progress thanks to young players such as freshman running back Braelon Allen.

BYU was the highest-ranking school for the fall season with 368 points thanks to two NCAA runner-up performances from their women’s soccer and cross-country teams.

Notre Dame was second with 360 points, finishing third in men’s soccer and fifth in women’s cross-country. Michigan — with 354 points — was the lone Big Ten school ranked ahead of Wisconsin. Michigan earned a spot in the college football playoffs and was the only top-4 school to have a field hockey team.

There was certainly a lot of competition this year when it came to fall sports, which makes Wisconsin’s appearance in the top five all the more impressive.

It goes to show just how well-rounded the UW Athletics truly is. Hopefully, in a future season, Wisconsin will take the coveted #1 spot.

Volleyball: Dana Rettke signs contract with Vero Valley Monza in Italy

Badger star will continue her volleyball career overseas after signing first professional volleyball contract in January

by Amalia Laskaris Sports Writer

Jan. 4, volleyball legend Dana Rettke arrived at her new home in Monza, where she joined her new professional volleyball team. Rettke, who led the University of Wisconsin to its firstever NCAA championship in 2021, signed with Vero Volley Monza, one of Italy’s top pro league teams.

Despite being halfway through the season, a strong addition such as Rettke can put Vero Volley Monza at the top of its standings.

According to Kenosha News, Claudio Bonati, sports director of the Vero Volley Consortium, views Rettke as a strong contributor to the end of the team’s season success.

Likewise, in a statement released by the team, Rettke said she wants to pursue the goals of her new team with the same enthusiasm she carried on Wisconsin’s court. Now, as an official member, Rettke became able to compete with Vero Volley Monza Jan. 23 to play against Cucine Lube Civitanova. While it is unclear what Rettke can bring to the table immediately, Rettke’s accolades show there is no doubt Vero Volley Monza will benefit from their new addition.

Monza is a northeast suburb outside of Milan, located in northern Italy. The town is most famous for hosting the annual Italian Grand 20 • badgerherald.com • February 1, 2022

Prix, in which race cars compete on Monza’s Formula One racetrack in pursuit of the World Championship title. While Monza is known for its auto racing, it is also notable for its volleyball team. Vero Volley Monza plays in the A1 league, Italy’s premier volleyball league.

Rettke played high school volleyball at Riverside-Brookfield High School in Riverside, Illinois. By her senior year of high school, she was deemed a star. Rettke was named No. 8 on PrepVolleyball.com’s record list of Senior Aces and became the best player in her conference.

In 2016, she was selected first-team high school all-American by four publications and named Illinois High School State Player of the Year.

With offers for both basketball and volleyball, she decided to graduate early after her spring season to play volleyball at UW. Before her freshman season started, in Big Ten play, Rettke was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week nine times — a conference record — and Player of the Week twice. As a freshman, she was already on track to pass Haleigh Nelson, who previously set the record for the highest hitting percentage (.422) her junior year.

After her freshman season ended, Rettke was unanimously selected as national freshman of the year after being named American Volleyball Coaches Association Northeast Regional Freshman of the Year, Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Year and first-team All-Big Ten.

In 2018, as a sophomore, Rettke was the youngest member to join the US Collegiate National Team China Tour, which consisted of a five-match, 10-day trip to China. The team finished 4–1 overall against professional teams from the Chinese Volleyball League.

Due to Rettke’s outstanding performance, she was selected to play for the 2019 Fédération Internationale de Volleyball Volleyball Women’s Nations League in Nanjing, China. During that time, Rettke trained rigorously and competed on the national team. Her efforts not only qualified the U.S. for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but secured them the gold medal in the Volleyball Nations Cup. During this time, Rettke continued to dominate as a middle blocker for Wisconsin — she was named the 2019 Big Ten Player of the Year, AVCA Northeast Regional Player of the Year and 2019-20 Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year.

As a senior, Rettke repeated the AVCA Northeast Player of the Year award and was named to the first-team All-Big Ten. Due to COVID-19, she returned to play for a fifth year, earning her the title of becoming the first-ever five-time first-team AVCA All-American and one of just two five-time first-team All-Big Ten honorees.

By the end of her college career, she had earned two-time AVCA National Player of the

Week, 11-time Big Ten Player of the Week and three-time Academic All Big-Ten recognitions.

Rettke currently ranks in the top five of eight different statistical categories at UW. In the program’s history, she owns the record of most blocks (751), points scored (2,333), highest hitting percentage (.418) and is second in kills (1,810). Nationally, Rettke is ranked sixth in hitting percentage (.430) and fifth in blocks per set (1.43).

Aside from her stats, Rettke was selected as a finalist twice for the Honda Sport Award, a national award for volleyball. She received the 2022 Honda award, making her the first threetime consecutive Honda finalist and first UW volleyball player to earn a national award. She was also one of 10 finalists for the 90th AAU James E. Sullivan Award.

Rettke’s integrity and grit led the Badgers to three consecutive Big Ten titles and five NCAA Tournament appearances. She helped advance the team to the Sweet 16 in 2017, the Elite Eight in 2018, the championship match in 2019 and 2021, and the final four in 2020.

She ended her college career by scoring the last point to win the 2021 National Championship.

With hard work and determination, Rettke has succeeded in all levels of volleyball. The Badger community is looking forward to her success with Vero Volley Monza.

SPORTS

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Women’s Hockey: Checking in on reigning champs at midway mark

Halfway through their season, Badgers are poised for third championship win led by coach Mark Johnson despite losses

by Sam Harrigan Sports Associate Editor

The University of Wisconsin Women’s Hockey team is well on its way to winning its third consecutive national championship. Mark Johnson’s club is yet again proving themselves as one of the best teams in the country and despite a few slip-ups lately, they are far and away the favorites to take home the women’s college hockey crown once again at the end of the season.

Here is everything you’ve missed and everything to come for the Badgers.

The Badgers have been led by a deadly top line of Daryl Watts, Casey O’Brien and Makenna Webster. Watts, a former Patty Kazmaier Award winner and arguably the most talented player in all of women’s college hockey is currently second on the team in goals (16) and points (35).

Webster is tied with Watts with 35 points, but Watts claims a slight edge as the team’s assist leader with her 20 helpers on the year.

O’Brien might just be the front-runner for the Patty Kazmaier Award at this point in the season as her goals not only lead the team but the entire nation.

She is third in the nation with 39 points and her shooting accuracy of 0.206% is also near the top of college hockey.

This line has been by far the best scoring line in America this season as they have combined for 52 goals and 109 points between

the three of them. The three are the main reason for Wisconsin’s impressive average of 4.33 goals per game — second in the nation.

They will continue to have to lead a relatively inexperienced Badger team for the rest of the year.

On the back end, Nicola Lamantia is having one of the best seasons by a defender in all of college hockey. Her 21 points have her fifth on the team and she has been one of the most trustworthy defenders that Mark Johnson has.

Her partner, Chayla Edwards, has had an equally impressive defensive season. While she has yet to put a puck in the back of the net, she has been invaluable on the Badger blue line.

The top defensive pairing of Grace Bowlby and Katie Kotlowski has been fantastic for Wisconsin. Bowlby, the team captain, has maintained her role as one of the best shutdown defenders in college hockey. In addition, Bowlby has remained active on the offensive end with 15 assists through 24 games.

Kotlowski is a sophomore from Minnesota who has gained significant trust from head coach Mark Johnson this season. She has earned her role as the team’s starting right defender and she will be the leader of the blue line for years to come in Madison.

Behind them is senior goalie Kennedy Blair.

Blair, a Mercyhurst University transfer, has been the team MVP this season. Blair ranks near the top nationally in almost every major statistical category for goalies.

Blair started in all but two games for the

Photo · Johnson’s squad suffered tough losses to University of Minnesota, but there is still hope for a championship season Ahmad Hamid The Badger Herald

Badgers and nearly single-handedly won multiple games for Wisconsin. Blair ’s season has been nothing short of incredible.

Wisconsin started the year as well as they possibly could have. They won their first 12 games and were undefeated in their first 16.

In these 16 games, they averaged an outstanding five goals per game while surrendering less than one goal per contest.

Granted, these games were against primarily lesser competition, but mixed in were sweeps against top-five ranked Minnesota Duluth and Ohio State squads.

The Badgers established themselves as the best team in college hockey by the time the calendar flipped to December, but a weekend set with arch-rival Minnesota changed that.

When the Gophers visited LaBahn Arena as the fifth-ranked team in America, they shocked the hockey world by stealing the series with a game one victory and a tie in game two.

This served as a bit of a humbling point for a Wisconsin team that had yet to really be tested in the early season.

The following weekend, the Badgers dismantled conference foe Bemidji State before heading into a three week break for the holidays. On the flip side of the break, the Badgers welcomed second-ranked Quinnipiac to LaBahn Arena where the Cardinal and White took game one and tied game two in what was another test to see where the Badgers stood going up against some other of the nation’s best.

After an exhibition against UW Eau-Claire and a COVID cancellation against St. Thomas, the Badgers finally returned to the ice against Minnesota once again. Wisconsin lost both games in Minneapolis and, for the first time this season, dropped from their number one spot in the rankings.

While the consequences of the struggles against Minnesota are far from dire, it will make winning the WCHA difficult for the Badgers with Minnesota holding a firm advantage in the head-to-head matchups.

Making the NCAA tournament is nearly a sure thing for Wisconsin right now, but winning the WCHA for the third straight season is far from it.

Fortunately for the Badgers, better days seem to be in front of them. They still have matchups with lowly WCHA foes St. Thomas and St. Cloud State, a weekend against a beatable Minnesota State Mankato club and series against Ohio State and Minnesota Duluth teams that they have already taken down.

While it will be more difficult after the losses to Minnesota, Wisconsin still remains fully alive in the race for the WCHA. They will most likely need wins in three out of four contests against Minnesota Duluth and Ohio State and handle business in all of their games

Photo · The Badgers lost there number one rank, Northwestern currently holds that title Ahmad Hamid The Badger Herald against St. Cloud State, St. Thomas and MSU Mankato.

In addition to that, the Badgers will need some help from Ohio State, as they take on Minnesota in Columbus. If the Buckeyes can take at least one of the two games against Minnesota, the Badgers will be right back in front of the pack in a heated WCHA race.

As far as NCAA tournament seeding goes, Northeastern is the current number one team in the country and they have not lost since October 9. While there are some difficult games remaining on the Huskies’ schedule, it seems more likely than not that Northeastern will enter the NCAA tournament as the top seed.

Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Minnesota Duluth make up the next four teams in the current rankings, meaning that the WCHA regular season standings and tournament results will most likely decide seeding for the rest of the top seeds.

This adds even more emphasis to Wisconsin’s two games against Ohio State in Columbus the last week of the season. Not only will a potential WCHA title be on the line, but a significant jump in NCAA tournament seeding could be as well.

Wisconsin is in a great spot entering the final stretch of the season. Their 18-3-3 record is one of the best in America and they are undefeated against everyone besides Minnesota.

With some winnable games up on the schedule, they should regain some good form before crucial series against Minnesota Duluth and Ohio State at the end of the year.

February 1, 2022 • badgerherald.com • 21

Sports

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UW Athletics: Recaping all Badger sports we missed over winter break

From high points to bitter losses, here’s a rundown of everything that happened over winter break in Wisconsin sports

by Austin Kellner Sports Writer

FOOTBALL For the fifth time in school history, the Badgers squared off against Arizona State. This time around, each team entered the contest with an 8-4 record on the season in an attempt to add the Las Vegas Bowl to their resume.

The Badgers were hot right out the gate, getting off to a 14-3 start in the first quarter thanks to John Chenal’s eight-yard touchdown run followed by a seven-yard touchdown strike from Graham Mertz to Jake Ferguson.

In the second quarter, Collin Larsh converted two field goal attempts to give the Badgers a 20-6 lead heading into halftime.

After intermission, there would go on to be just one more score in the game between both squads produced by Arizona State’s Daniyel Ngata in the third quarter.

On offense, Mertz threw an efficient 11/15 passes for 137 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Braelon Allen had his work cut out for him finishing the contest with 159 yards on 29 carries. Lastly, the Badgers had three pass-catchers collect at least 30 receiving yards by virtue of Ferguson, Markus Allen and Chimere Dike.

Wisconsin ends the 2021 season with a 20-13 victory over the Sun Devils in the Las

Vegas Bowl and an overall record of 9-4 on the season.

MEN’S BASKETBALL The Badgers have been red hot with substantial victories over No. 3 Purdue, No. 16 Ohio State, Iowa, Maryland and Northwestern.

The sophomore guard Johnny Davis is having a breakout season accounting for plenty of Wisconsin’s success by averaging 22.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.

Davis is atop the leaderboard for Naismith College Player of the Year after lighting up Northwestern for 27 points while shooting 80% from three.

Senior guard Brad Davison has been another key contributor for the Badgers this season averaging 15.4 points and displaying his veteran leadership night in and night out. Wisconsin has climbed from unranked all the way up to No. 11 in the recent college basketball rankings thanks to a 17-3 record on the season thus far.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY The defending national champions have been dominant all season long (18-3-3) ranking as the top squad in the nation for weeks. But, they have gone 2-2-1 over the winter break

Photo · Brad Davidson has been another key player in the Badgers’ climb to tie for first in the Big Ten Justin Mielke The Badger Herald with hiccups against Minnesota.

Though losing is a rarity for this prestigious women’s hockey team, there certainly is no cause for concern just yet. This team is led by sophomore forward Casey O’Brien who has accumulated an impressive 21 goals and 18 assists on the season thus far.

Other major contributors to Wisconsin’s success this season include senior forward Daryl Watts (16 goals and 19 assists) along with sophomore forward Makenna Webster (15 goals and 20 assists).

Up next for the Badgers includes an expedition through the state of Minnesota consisting of matches with St. Cloud State, St. Thomas, Duluth and Minnesota State Mankato.

MEN’S HOCKEY

Photo · Johnny Davis’ breakout season has been crucial to the Badgers’ success so far this conference season Justin Mielke The Badger Herald 22 • badgerherald.com • February 1, 2022

Over the last month, the men’s hockey team has managed to go 3-3-2 with a pair of victories against Michigan State and one against Yale in the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off bringing the yearly record to 8-15-3.

Leading the way for the Badgers over winter break is sophomore forward Mathieu De St. Phalle, accumulating four goals within the last month and a team-leading seven on the year.

Other key contributors for this season include sophomore forward Carson Bantle and senior forward Brock Caufield. Each compiled six goals on the year and a combined five over an eight-game stretch. As far as team leaders in assist totals, senior forward Tarek Baker

and freshman defenseman Corson Ceulemans pave the way with 12 each through the first 26 games.

Following the matchup with the Michigan Wolverines on the weekend of Jan. 28, Wisconsin will travel to Columbus to square off against the Buckeyes Feb. 4 and 5.

Wrestling: The Badger wrestling team has found success all throughout the season going 7-1 and finding themselves ranked No. 8 in the recent NCAA rankings.

Since Dec. 29, Wisconsin placed third in the Illinois Matmen Open and collected key victories during a grueling stretch of ranked opponents including No. 12 Northwestern, No. 16 Rutgers and No. 14 Minnesota.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY Marisa Moseley’s team has not lived up to expectations as they have gone 5-13 to this point and 2-4 since Jan. 5 picking up conference wins against Rutgers and Penn State.

In the recent victory versus Penn State, 5-foot-8 guard Katie Nelson put together 24 points on a superb shooting night going 7-10 from the floor including 4-6 from three and 6-6 on free throws while also adding six rebounds, three assists and three steals on a game-high 40 minutes played.

Coincidently, Nelson wasn’t the only Badger to reach the 20+ point mark in the contest as the 6-foot junior guard Julie Pospíšilovà continued her consistent scoring (14.6 ppg) with 23 points in 39 minutes played.

BANTER

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Sick of dating apps? Try the new Nielsen Tennis Center partner signup Singles players are finding their doubles partners in wonderful new ways in 2022 with this great, untapped dating idea

by Katie Hardie Banter Writer

Welcome to the second semester, my single friends! If you’re here in Madison, I hope you had a wonderful break. If you immediately went overseas to study abroad, go away.

I know what you thought when you read this headline -- Katie, what the heck? I’m trying to find a date, not a tennis partner!

Well, I’m here to tell you those two could very well be the same thing. If you don’t play tennis but think you can learn for a chance at true love, keep reading. If you don’t play tennis and you don’t think you’ll be able to learn, you’re a silly goose because of course you’ll be able to learn!

For those who aren’t aware, our school’s tennis stadium has a spreadsheet on its website where people can list their names, skill level and contact information for others to message and play.

Surprisingly, people haven’t thought of using this for dating. I can’t wrap my head around it — people are literally publishing their names and numbers online with the intent to find a partner — what else would you use that for?

First, let’s review the alternative and why it’s not working anymore.

The dating app, made by and for people that are a little horny but mostly lonely, arrived on the scene circa late 90s. I’m punting here, but I’m pretty sure it revolutionized

dating and did a lot to technology and whatever.

The point is, we got online dating a while ago, and despite its medium success rate, I think college students are made for innovation and starting fights for pop culture.

Basically, to get the brawl started, try turning your tennis partner into your perfect tinder match.

While apps like Tinder and Hinge are great for people seeking more casual gratification, the constant surface-level conversations you have with others on those sites will never yield the intense and deep connections the sweet game of tennis could.

A fun fact -- the inventor of Tennis was named Tom, and according to History, he named the zero value in scoring “love” because he believed people were meant to find love in tennis. Doesn’t that make you want to cry? I want to throw up just thinking about it.

I believe in this idea more than I’ve ever believed in anything, so I went out and took testimonials from students on the UW campus who tried NPS (Nielsen Partner Signup™).

Sophomore Julie Hoffman, who just got out of a situation-ship with a Tinder hookup in September, credited NPS with having a great network of single people.

“I looked up the partner list and just texted someone random,” Hoffman told The Herald. “Next thing I know, we’re bonding over movies while practicing volleys and now

we’re getting married next month.”

WOW! Can you believe that? All from playing a little tennis? Talk about fate.

Hoffman added she liked NPS more than other dating apps because the other partner doesn’t know you’re just going there to date her.

“So, telling a new singles partner you’re looking to date has predator undertones, so I went under the radar with this one,” Hoffman said. “It was nice she didn’t know I wanted a girlfriend because it allowed us to form a relationship organically. My last Tinder hookup knew I wanted to date and that made me feel vulnerable and open to attack.”

Senior Jake Bee agreed tennis provided a great disguise for his dating motives.

“I usually suffer from chronic nervous sweating when I go on dates,” Bee shared shamefully. “So being able to talk about our lives without the pressure of it being a date made me sweat a lot less which is good.”

And even for the slip-ups where Bee does sweat too much, he says he can just blame it on the tennis!

After a fruitless venture with Hinge, University of Wisconsin senior Alex Perez predicts tennis partner websites are the future to dating.

“Look, I don’t even like tennis. I just like texting new people and meeting up with them for a magical night of some epic ball,” Perez said.

In conclusion, if you’re finding yourself

sick and tired of the dating app game, I highly encourage you to turn to the underutilized world of rec center contact lists. There is even a Facebook group, folks, so it honestly couldn’t get any easier.

If you want a friend, if you want a lover, mosey on over to the Nielsen Tennis Center partner signup — you never know what you could find.

Photo · Sometimes tennis is really all you need.

As strong doge demonstrates here, asking someone out to go hit a crazy tennis ball can sometimes (and most times) work way better than a simple online dating pickup line.

Courtesy of ImgFlip LLC 2022

Photos · Photos from when some of our beloved Herald staffers fell ill to the awful pandemic that’s plaguing this earth and unfortunately student journalism. Thankfully, the swag never stops, and these are some photos to prove that. Stay safe out there, kids.

Courtesy of Keagan Schlosser, Arushi Gupta and Erin Gretzinger February 1, 2022• badgerherald.com • 23