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THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN’ WISCONSIN’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1969 Wednesday, September 28, 2011
www.badgerherald.com
Volume V Vo olu lume me X XLIII, LIIII L IIIIII,, Is IIssue ssu sue 17 17
OPINION | EDITORIAL
NEWS | COURTS
ARTS | SPOT ON
All time low, indeed
Judge indefinitely closes south side bar after weekend shooting, deeming it a public nuisance. R’ Place owner plans to appeal. | 2
Wisconsin’s own vineyard
Enough is enough; Madison deserves a Freakfest with better artists and a hip hop stage. | 4
With the right love and attention, grapes can survive a Midwestern winter and become something delicious. |
5
Erpenbach will sit out Senate race Matt Huppert State Editor A Wisconsin state senator who gained national attention as a staunch opponent to Gov. Scott Walker ’s budget repair bill last spring will not run for higher office
next fall. In a statement posted on his Facebook page Monday, Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, announced he will not seek his party’s nomination to fill the 2nd Congressional District seat.
In the statement, Erpenbach said the political and economic climate in Wisconsin is too drastic for him to leave his position to seek higher office. Erpenbach was one of the 14 Wisconsin senators who fled to Illinois to
avoid voting on Walker ’s budget repair bill. Due in large part to name recognition, University of Wisconsin political science professor Donald Downs said the state senator would have been a very strong candidate for the 2nd
Congressional District seat, which in the past decade has resoundingly gone to Democrats. The actions of Walker and Republican legislators over the past nine months, Erpenbach said in the statement, have threatened Wisconsin’s
history as a leader in worker’s rights. “I want to fight to have our state’s corporate class show some of the personal responsibility that we demand, rightly, of all our citizens,” Erpenbach
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MIU funds 15 new advisers Selby Rodriguez Campus Editor
Matt Hintz The Badger Herald
A protester makes his voice heard on Capitol Square Tuesday at a rally fighting national legislation that would make severe cuts to the financially taxed public mail service.
Postal protest takes Capitol Matt Huppert State Editor Mail carriers across the state gathered with Democratic politicians on Capitol Square Monday to protest a bill that would implement significant cuts to the United States Postal Service. Monday’s rally, which drew approximately 60 people, was a part of a nationwide effort on the part of postal worker unions to discourage Congress from passing the Postal Reform Act in favor of passing House Resolution 1351, which would end a 2006 mandate that requires the Postal Service to pre-fund future retirees benefits, according to a statement from Save America’s Postal Service. The Postal Reform Act, proposed by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California,
would reform the USPS through budget cuts and structural adjustments, according to a statement from Issa. At the rally, State Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, said the bill is a part of a nationwide movement on the right to cut funds to public agencies in favor of private sector alternatives. Due to legislation passed in 2006, the Postal Service is required to pre-fund the health benefits of future retirees for the next 75 years. Pocan said this has led to most of the Postal Service’s financial problems and should be overturned. “This is cookie cutter Tea Party, Grover Norquist legislation that they want to do state by state and to federal agencies in the United States Postal Service,” Pocan said. In 2010, Issa said in
the statement, the postal service lost over $8 billion and is estimated to lose at least that much this year and in 2012. The passage of the Postal Reform Act would save the agency at least $10.7 billion each year, he said Issa said the changes to the Postal Service inherent in the Postal Reform Act would keep the financially struggling Postal Service from seeking a multibillion dollar bailout with taxpayer money. Pocan said House Resolution 1351, which includes spending cuts to the USPS but also eliminates its prefunding of health care requirement, is a better alternative to the Postal Reform Act. “That measure will keep post offices open, keep mail delivery timely and save the jobs of tens of thousands of workers,” Pocan said.
The reform act, Issa said in the statement, would modernize USPS and give the agency more power to run itself like a business. He said this will curb the Postal Service’s financial troubles by allowing the public agency to operate like a private sector corporation. The source of the Postal Service’s financial burden has been increasingly high labor costs and unnecessary infrastructure, Issa said. He said these must be eliminated in order to keep the USPS operational. Paul Muenkel, a spokesperson for the American Postal Workers Union, said post offices across the state are not having trouble financially due to a poor business structure or a lack
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Fifteen advising positions were implemented at the University of Wisconsin last week with Madison Initiative for Undergraduates funding intended to combat advising problems. Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Aaron Brower said MIU put aside $1.5 million strictly for advising concerns. The academic and career advising positions, he said, fulfilled just one of four major recommendations developed to benefit advising efforts. The other recommendations are centralized advising to better coordinate across campus, more web presence for higher accessibility and better training, oversight, development and assessment of advisers, Brower said. The initiative itself began three years ago and uses a supplemental tuition charge to improve campus services while also expanding the amount of need-based aid available. The surcharge created roughly $40 million and over the past two years, students and faculty have been reviewing proposals on how to spend the money. Through these proposals, the MIU Oversight Committee was able to put aside the $1.5 million for advising. Last year, Brower said, another group put together recommendations on how this money was to be spent — one of the ways of which was to hire 25 new advisers. Brower said a wide array of students brought
up advising concerns, making it an area of importance for MIU. Many concerns students have with advising stem from a decentralized system, according to Associated Students of Madison Rep. Tom Templeton, who is also a member of the MIU Oversight Committee. “I think some of the issues surrounding advising were that there were not enough advisers available to meet the needs of students, and it was a very decentralized system with little to no cross campus standards,” Templeton said in an email to The Badger Herald. One of these issues included receiving different information whenever students met with different advisers, Templeton said. Brower said the committee decided which areas the advisers would go to through another proposals process, focusing on proposals addressing advising in new ways. He emphasized the majority of the positions given out are to general areas instead of specific departments. The advisers hired also needed to have an innovative approach to their profession, Brower said. “A large criteria [for these advisers] was thinking about advising in new ways and not a onesize-fits-all approach, but looking at different needs different students have and developing models,” Brower said. Templeton said these new approaches to advising and a shared notes program will help reduce communication
MIU, page 3
UWPD: Beware Wisconsin vs. Nebraska ticket scams Badger fans should be cautious of their voucher sales for upcoming game Caroline Wittenburg City Editor Experts are comparing Saturday’s football game against the Nebraska Huskers to last year ’s Ohio State game, causing ticket prices to skyrocket well past their base values and forcing University of Wisconsin Police Department officials to put students on high guard for scalping violations and fraudulent tickets. UWPD Sgt. Aaron
Chapin said fans are falling victim to scalping at unusually high prices and buying tickets that have already been scanned so they will be denied entry. He said students also might accidentally buy tickets for a different game in the midst of all the excitement. Chapin said his department within UWPD is actively warning students against these kinds of scams and said students purchasing tickets to the game should purchase from a reliable source, such as StubHub or the UW Athletic Office itself. “Using reputable sources that are associated with the
Athletic Office is the best option,” he said. “Those kinds of sources have safeguards available to protect the consumers.” UWPD will take precautions Saturday to ensure that violation of the scalping code does not occur and that transactions are run given what the face value of the ticket is. “For the purposes of enforcing the administrative code, our department will have officers assigned to details enforcing those kinds of laws,” Chapin said. Justin Doherty, Associate Athletic Director for External
NEBRASKA, page 3
Megan McCormick The Badger Herald
On game day, Badger fans “Jump Around,” rocking Camp Randall. UWPD is reminding people to be cautious selling tickets for the game. © 2011 BADGER HERALD