'An Experiment in Independence' - Volume 51, Issue 3

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 · VOL 51 Issue 3 · BADGERHERALD.COM

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ADDRESSING OPPORTUNITY GAPS 9

IMPROVING CRIMINAL JUSTICE

With the lowest jail population in the state, Dane County is making progressive change in redesigning the criminal justice system.

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As UW comes off its second straight win, all signs point to a season already stronger than in 2018.

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THE HERALD THROUGH THE YEARS Circa 2009 Contributed by Alicia Artus

1982 Contributed by Robert Schwoch

2010 Contributed by Sarah Witman

Circa 2011 Contributed by Alex Smathers

Take a trip down memory lane with these snapshots of Heralders throughout the past half-century.

2019 Contributed by Herald Staff September 10, 2019 • badgerherald.com • 3

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Madison boosts renewable energy as program installs solar panels Rhodes-Conway says they’ll “just keep finding roofs” to put panels on, as Madison works to reach 100% renewable energy

by Azul Kothari Reporter

GreenPower, a job training program within the Madison’s Engineering Division that prepares students for careers in the solar energy sector, has completed its 12th solar panel installation. Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway symbolically flipped the switch on the array’s inverter at a press conference Aug. 23.

The installation, which is at the Goodman Maintenance Facility, will generate enough electricity to power 12 homes, Engineering Division spokesperson Hannah Mohelnitzky said.

“The GreenPower program is in its fourth year now, I hope it has many more years to come,” Rhodes-Conway said at the press conference.

“We’ll just keep finding roofs for you to put solar up on.”

The GreenPower Program, started in 2016 by the Engineering Division to prepare individuals from underrepresented populations for employment opportunities in the rapidly growing solar energy industry, is a six month program designed to provide classroom training in basic photovoltaic technology with on the job training through installations at various city facilities, Mohelnitzky said.

These installations reflect the city’s broader commitment to reduce its energy carbon footprint. The installation makes the Goodman Facility the 23rd city building to have solar power, Joel Roltgen said at the press conference, who is an advisor for Focus on Energy, a program that partners with utilities in Wisconsin to reduce energy consumption.

The city has a long way to go to meet its 2017 resolution goal of drawing 100 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2030 for all city operations. Under the resolution, the rest of the Madison community including businesses and private residences would have until 2050 to make the same transition.

In early 2018, the Engineering division hired Stacie Reece as its first sustainability coordinator to bring the city closer to its goal.

Reece works across departments to incorporate sustainability across a wide range of city operations in areas including transportation, waste management and energy.

Madison’s operations currently draw 49% of their electricity from renewable sources, Reece said.

For now, the primary renewable energy source will continue to be solar energy for economic and practical reasons, Reece said.

The price for solar installations has dropped considerably. Furthermore, the city does not need to acquire land for solar installations, which can be easily installed on the roofs of city buildings. Wind turbines, which must be placed a certain distance away from roads and buildings, are significantly less feasible to install in an urban area like Madison.

The GreenPower program tries to do two to three solar installations a year. The program’s 4 • badgerherald.com • September 10, 2019

next project will be a solar installation at the Madison Metro Bus Barn. The project should be completed by the end of this year, Mohelnitzky said.

“Really [the GreenPower program] is the idea of workforce development and clean energy at the same time,” Reece said. “It provides hands on training from start to finish on solar installations, so individuals can be employable in a hugely growing market for renewable energy.”

From 2016 to 2017, the solar energy job sector grew by 24.5%, according to a report published by the Environmental Defense Fund.

Madison is the 25th city in the US to adopt this goal of drawing 100% of its energy needs from renewable sources. Over 100 other cities have set similar goals, Reece said.

Since President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accords, efforts to reduce carbon emissions have fallen to

individual states and cities. Just after the decision, Dane County announced plans to stay in the agreement.

Madison is a member of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, a group of municipalities that share out ideas and discuss sustainability goals, Reece said. ”We’re amongst friends when it comes to other municipalities that are setting goals for renewable energy,” Reece said. “We can learn from each other and not have to reinvent the wheel.”

One particularly challenging aspect of the 100% renewable energy goal is that energy for heating and transportation come almost entirely from fossil fuels. During Madison’s frigid winters most buildings use natural gas heating. For heavy-duty transportation, alternative energy vehicles have not been established. This means that at least for the time being, carbon offsets must form a part of the renewable energy pie,

Reece said.

Carbon offsets are economic ways of compensating for greenhouse gas emissions.

The city plans to follow certain guidelines when purchasing renewable energy credits, Reece said.

An REC is a specific type of offset which exists as a certificate corresponding to an amount of energy produced by a renewable source elsewhere.

RECs should be for new projects rather than existing ones. That way the city will actively help start new renewable energy projects that will add renewable energy to the grid, Reece said. Also, those projects should be relatively local even if they are not directly in Madison.

“We’re really making sure [the renewable energy projects] are in our backyard, a stone’s throw from Madison,” Reece said.

Photo ·The city of Madison looks to increase renewable energy use, as solar panels are installed and environmental efforts are made.

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Gentrification in Madison attributed to rise in millenial population Long-term residents forced to leave as wealthier, more-educated young adults move to Madison and costs increase, experts say

by Jackie Miller City News Editor

Over the past few years, the city of Madison’s millennial population has been growing dramatically. According to The Isthmus, out of the 100 biggest metropolitan areas in the United States, Madison is the number one city for young adults to reside in.

According to Kristopher Olds, associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin, not only is Madison’s economy doing well, but there are plenty of job openings for graduates who are searching. These factors can make the city very appealing for young adults.

“It’s an expensive city, but compared to some of the bigger cities such as Boston or Chicago where these jobs are also available, it’s relatively more affordable,” Olds said.

Despite the growing economy and the abundance of job opportunities, the rapid influx of millennials to Madison has caused gentrification in many parts of the city.

Olds describes gentrification as a social change which happens within a city when more educated and affluent people move in and bring with them new ‘tastes and aesthetic values’ that change the original culture of that city.

“The Willy Street area has been going under gentrification for decades,” Olds said. “What’s been happening now is just evolution of that.”

Olds mentioned gentrification has been happening in Madison since the ’60s or ’70s and a lot of the people who were affected were working-class people. According to Olds, the same holds true today.

As mentioned on the UW website, when wealthier, more educated young adults move to Madison, they are primarily looking for housing in the downtown area. This high demand for housing allows landlords to skyrocket their rental prices.

“Rent has certainly been going up,” Olds said. “There are more people coming here with higher income and wages. … There’s not enough new housing being built and a lot of the housing that is being built is expensive.”

As stated on the UW website, when individuals are pushed out of the city, they move to more affordable neighborhoods where crime rates are higher.

So, while gentrification might benefit the young adults moving into the city, it has an extremely negative impact on those who must leave.

“If you’re talking about the city of Madison and you’re talking about people who have relatively low incomes, they can face severe challenges and problems [due to the high cost of living],” Olds said. “There are some severe problems associated with the Madison rental market right now.”

Not only are less wealthy residents being

Photo ·gentrfication causes problems for lower-income families and households pushed out by rising costs, experts say.

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forced out of the city, but according to Brittney DeBoer, a junior at UW, students at the university are having a hard time keeping up with the outrageous rent prices on campus as well.

DeBoer explained students must practice time management and learn how to balance their schedules in order to keep up with the high demands and costliness of renting an apartment in downtown Madison.

“Being a full-time student is supposed to be our main focus and dedication, but when we need to come up with $650 a month, it’s hard to remain focused on your schoolwork,” DeBoer said. “You’re already stressed about your schoolwork, but on top of it you need to be working 30-plus hours a week.”

As reported in the Madison Magazine, Madison’s rental vacancy rate is roughly at 2.3% when the average vacancy rate for most cities is around 5%. This means the housing demand is high compared to the amount of housing actually available.

According to DeBoer, the rentals are also extremely overpriced for the quality. Many landlords skyrocket their rental prices because they know that students will rent them anyway due to the lack of vacant housing in downtown Madison.

“I think that the quality of apartments is livable and doable but not ideal for the amount of money that I’m paying,” De Boer said. “In Madison, it’s probably the best you’re going to get for the price.”

In mid-April 2019, Satya RhodesConway was elected as the new mayor of Madison. According to her personal blog, she plans to focus a lot of the city’s budget on providing affordable housing for everyone and making Madison a more inclusive community.

Residents must be patient when awaiting change, however, because Olds added the change will not happen overnight.

“Some of these challenges related to rental housing have been brewing for

decades now, so there’s not going to be an easy solution to this,” Olds said. “If it’s taken decades to come to where we are now, it’s not going to be resolved overnight.”

“Being a full-time student is supposed to be our main focus and dedication, but when we need to come up with $650 a month, it’s hard to remain focused on your schoolwork” - Brittney DeBoer , Junior at UW September 10, 2019 • badgerherald.com • 5

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After water concerns, Evers signs order to establish PFAS standards The guidelines the executive order establishes are in response to previous issues with contamination in Madison water

by Lauren Henning State News Editor

Gov. Tony Evers has signed Executive Order 40, which will establish the PFAS Coordinating Council and set out to establish specific standards regarding PFAS water contamination.

Chair of Water@UW-Madison Matthew Ginder-Vogel explained that PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are very robust organic chemicals that, due to their stability, do not break down and contaminate water sources and originate from sources such as Teflon pans or the foam agent used in firefighting.

Ginder-Vogel explained that while there may be a good understanding of one specific compound, due to there being many variations of these compounds, there is an overall lack of understanding and research of possible health effects they may have if consumed through drinking water.

According to another Badger Herald article, at least two PFAS are linked to tumors in animals, increased cholesterol, low infant birth weights, cancer and thyroid hormone disruption.

“There’s hundreds of these compounds out

there. There is no understanding of the human health effects of all the variations,” Ginder-Vogel said.

Madison Water Utility has shut down Well 15 as a precautionary measure. While the well meets EPA standards, Madison Water has chosen to temporarily shut the well down as they work with experts on what to do next.

Public Information Officer Amy Barrilleaux stated that the testing recommended by the EPA had reporting limits, meaning that it would not record PFAS concentrations until it reached a certain point, and that Madison Water Utility was not comfortable with this and sought out labs that could do more sensitive testing that would report lower concentrations of PFAS, despite this not being required, which GinderVogel extensively praised.

Ginder-Vogel described Madison Water Utility as being a “very progressive water utility” and having an “abundance of caution.”

Barrilleaux explained all but four of Madison’s wells have been tested for PFAS, the four being seasonal wells and while PFAS chemicals are detected in ten of the nineteen

tested, they are usually only presenting trace levels.

Well 15, however, is presenting a compound known as PFHxS at 20 parts per trillion, for which there are no state or federal guidelines.

Barrilleaux went on to say that while they have this information, without guidelines to follow, Madison Water Utility is unsure how to proceed.

“Well 15 isn’t shut down because we know the water to be unsafe. We just don’t have enough information or guidance about what we’re finding,” Barrilleaux said, “The advance testing we’ve been doing has given us a lot of information, but the research and regulations haven’t caught up yet.”

According to Barrilleaux, Madison Water Utility is considering treatment options to remove PFAS from Well 15, but that it there may be more cost-effective solutions to ensuring water supply demands are met on Madison’s East Side. The utility will consider alternatives that could possibly provide greater benefits at a much lower cost.

Barrilleaux felt that by establishing PFAS

standards, Executive Order 40 will be key in helping to assess what’s occurring. She also stressed the importance of what the treatment protocol from the state will be, seeing as there are no protocols provided by the EPA. “And treatment protocols — at what level of PFAS, and for which types, should utilities start to look at treatment? We don’t have that right now,” Barrilleaux said.

Government Relations Director of Clean Wisconsin, a non-profit environmental advocacy group, Carly Michiels, stated that Clean Wisconsin supports the Executive Order as being a big step towards addressing PFAS contamination and commended Gov. Evers for his continued prioritization of PFAS during his declared Year of Clean Drinking Water.

Michiels emphasized that Clean Wisconsin has been advocating for collaborative and comprehensive solutions — tackling the complicated issue of PFAS is going to take a large state-wide effort of local and state governments.

Read the full article at badgerherald.com

UW professionals discuss measures to reduce e-cigarette usage Experts and professionals call for further FDA regulation on e-cigarette usage, especially among young adult users

by Caroline Li Campus News Editor

In early August, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 11 cases of serious lung impairments among teenagers and young adults who vaped recently, according to the City of Madison website.

Based on the website, electronic cigarettes and vaping products could contain toxic chemicals which are often detrimental to human lungs.

According to the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention website, electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices are battery-powered products designed to deliver nicotine, flavor and other chemicals to users. They turn chemicals, including nicotine, into an aerosol that is then inhaled by the user.

UHS Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist Jenny Damask said nicotine found in electronic cigarettes is highly addictive, increases heart rate and blood pressure and could impact brain development.

UW Chief Medical Officer and Director of Medical Services Dr. Bill Kinsey said the vapor emitted by electronic cigarettes often contains toxic chemicals which pose risks to human health.

Based on statistics Damask accessed and discussed from AlcoholEDU, a compulsory online course for all incoming students at UW, 20.9% of incoming students this year reported past usage of 6 • badgerherald.com • September 10, 2019

electronic cigarettes, compared to 6.2% three years ago.

Director of Advocacy for the American Lung Association in Wisconsin Dona Wininsky said the organization was working with various universities and colleges in the state to promote tobacco-free policies on campus.

Wininsky said UW had not yet fully implemented the policy but was working towards that direction.

“By reducing, and eventually eliminating, the use of cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotinecontaining products on campus, we continue our efforts to provide a safe and healthy environment for students and employees,” Kinsey said.

Wininsky also said for universities that had already implemented the policy, there was not a universal enforcement mechanism across the board, and each university set up its own punishment guidelines for people who violate the policy.

Damask said at UW, electronic cigarettes were added to the tobacco policy in 2016. Under the policy, people are not allowed to use electronic cigarettes inside university buildings or within 25 feet of these properties.

Wininsky said despite all the efforts the organization and universities had put in, the key to combat electronic cigarette usage still largely lay on FDA and the Congress. The FDA needs to “step up its game” and Congress needs to pass relevant laws to better regulate the product, Wininsky said.

“Right now we don’t know what is in these products,” Wininsky said. “They can vary from one product to the next depending on who is mixing up the juuls and where they are getting their supplies.

There needs to be some uniformities and some regulations on both the manufacture but also the sales and distribution of these products.”

UW junior Pooja Sivakumar said more regulations needed to be put into place in order to reduce electronic cigarette usage, since she has observed the relative ease with which teenagers and college students gain access to and purchase these products.

When it came to quitting, Damask said, there were various strategies available. People could also consider seeking help from an app and quit line, Damask said.

One such example was the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line. UW-CTRI Outreach Specialist Alex Peeters said the quit line offered free, confidential phone-based services to help users who were at least 13 years old to quit tobacco products.

Peeters said all coaches working for the quit line had undergone intensive training, including training on how to effectively work with youth, and were able to provide individualized services based on different needs of customers.

To better cater to the needs of youth, online coaching services were also added to the quit line, Peeters said.

“I know most youth today aren’t the biggest fans

of having to pick up the phone and actually talk to somebody, so this might be a way for them to access the quick line a little bit more readily,” Peeters said.

On the university level, Damask said at UW, students planning on quitting could ask for help from professional staff at UHS. Damask said students could set up appointments with a primary care doctor through their MyUHS portal, who would then refer them to the Behavioral Health team for further actions.

“By reducing, and eventually eliminating the use of cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine-containing products on campus, we continue our efforts to provide a safe and healthy environment for students and employees.”

- Dona Wininsky , Director of Advocacy for the American Lung Association in Wisconsin

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County, UW introduce sustainability projects, seeking partnerships

New UW council to provide “hard data” on sustainability needs, potentially helping taxpayers and saving them money

by Courtney Erdman City News Editor

Madison sustainability efforts have grown as the University of Wisconsin revealed a new council that will create a plan to make campus more sustainable. A new committee also plans to make Dane County a more sustainable place to live and potentially save taxpayers money over time.

According to a press release, the Sustainable Leaders Collaborative was created to find more sustainable practices in four areas: solar development, renewable fuel usage for municipal fleets, energy efficiency/ sustainability for facilities and green infrastructure to manage run-off from heavy rain events.

According to the press release, the collaborative met for the first time on Aug. 15 to gauge community interest in these types of projects. Individual municipalities have their own environmental related projects, but this collaborative is meant to bring everyone together to work towards the same goal.

County Executive Joe Parisi said the collaborative includes officials and executives from many municipalities divided into working groups under the four areas mentioned above.

The officials will gather information and ideas from their communities related to their assigned topic and reconvene in the winter.

A more solid timeline of goals is expected to develop after a second meeting.

Some of the group’s main goals include reducing carbon emissions and implementing practices to help improve resiliency for extreme weather events, according to a press release from the county executive’s office.

Climate change is expected to bring more frequent severe storms and extreme temperatures, resulting in increased damage to infrastructure, threats to our lakes and waterways, challenges to agriculture, and negative health effects for both urban and rural residents of Dane County.

The budget of the potential projects isn’t a concern right now, Parisi said, and the costs will be discussed after the goals are established. Potential projects may have no cost to municipalities if they receive investors, and their successful completion can save taxpayers money over time, Parisi said.

“Energy efficiency projects usually pay for themselves within a few years,” Parisi said. “If taxpayers can spend less money on their energy bills and have that money available for services, that reduces the tax burden.”

Dane County extracts methane gas from landfills and compresses it into fuel for vehicles, and the current fleet of county vehicles are being converted to accept this alternative fuel, Parisi said. These are vehicles commissioned by Dane County for their employees.

Current places using this renewable compressed natural gas include the Dane County Highway Department, Dane County 8 • badgerherald.com • September 10, 2019

Photo · UW and Dane County are working on various sustainability initiatives.

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Department of Land and Water Resources and the Dane County Regional Airport. Eightyfive vehicles are using RNG as of February 2018, the county executive’s office Director of Communications Ariana Vruwink wrote in an email.

Many municipalities are engaging in their own sustainability related projects, Parisi said.

In 2017, Parisi established the Dane County Office of Energy and Climate Change and the Dane County Council on Climate Change.

From 2017 to March 2019, the OECC and the DC4 worked to create a Climate Action Plan.

According to the OECC website, the plan is based on science and evidence, and aims to maximize economic and health benefits, while increasing Dane County’s energy security.

UW has also been working on sustainability related projects. UW submitted its first Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System report this month, which includes the work of more than 150 staff, faculty and students who identified, compiled and reviewed data.

STARS highlights achievements, identifies opportunities for improvement and sets a baseline for future performance goals. Examples of projects include professors partnering with Madison Gas and Electric to evaluate its plan for net zero carbon electricity by 2050 and recent hires in 30 academic departments to address sustainability concepts, according to a document provided by the UW Office of Sustainability.

UW Office of Sustainability Assistant Director Nathan Jandl said the Sustainability Advisory Council and the Resiliency and Stewardship Committee are new campus groups that will be organized in the fall using the STARS data to create a sustainability strategy for UW. “We have a long history of environmental stewardship, but STARS gives us the hard data to look at gaps and how we can improve,” Jandl said.

The UW Office of Sustainability hopes to explore a partnership with Leslie Orrantia, Jandl said. Orrantia was hired as a deputy mayor last month and will work to build regional relationships for the long-term growth and

sustainability of our larger region, she said.

There has not been a partnership established with the new Sustainability Leaders Collaborative, though its work may overlap with the university’s efforts, Jandl said.

The UW Office of Sustainability is seeking to create partnerships with student groups on campus, such as the Multicultural Student Center, Jandl said.

One of the Office of Sustainability’s goals is paying attention to the unequal effects on disadvantaged populations, who often take on the brunt of toxic waste and climate change.

“Sustainability is not a thing that we should associate with a certain class background, or a certain racial background or sexual orientation,” Jandl said.

“It must take in everybody.”Recent energy and water related projects completed by the UW include installing solar panels on Gordon Dining and Event Center in March and installing low-flow toilets in campus housing buildings this past spring.

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Experts say marginalized identities face opportunity gaps after college Post-recession job market continues to favor white graduates, experts suggest, and requirement inflation also contributes

by Lena Simon Reporter

Marginalized communities have faced opportunity gaps after college, according to experts. This, according to the sources, is in part due to a job market that favors white graduates.

Noah Williams, professor of economics and the Director of the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy, explained how the Wisconsin job market has fared post-recession.

Though the job market has improved since the 2007 recession, the employment rate for recent college graduates is still lower than it was in the bustling economy of the year 2000, Williams said.

“Unemployment [in Wisconsin] has been at three percent or below for the past two years, which is historically low,” Williams said. “ ... But the primary economic issue facing the state has been the slow growth of the labor force.”

There has been a great increase in the number of four-year degree-holders who are neither employed nor enrolled in further schooling — known as idling, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Certain demographics are recovering from the recession far more easily than others. Per the Economic Policy Institute, the employment rate of white college graduates has improved to nearly 2000 levels. But the gaps between employment levels for white graduates and black, Hispanic, and Asian American and Pacific Islander graduates have grown larger since the year 2000.

This gap has also been more quantitatively observed.

According to a meta-analysis from researchers at Northwestern University, Harvard, and the Institute for Social Research in Norway, anti-black racism in hiring is still prevalent today.

Twenty-four studies done in 2015 have shown that, on average, “white applicants receive 36% more callbacks than equally qualified African Americans” and “24% more…than Latinos.” For women in the labor force, opportunity gaps occur where businesses are inflexible in terms of scheduling and paid leave.

“Though there has been a lot of progress on this, women are often primary childcare providers,” Williams said. “They need more flexible schedules. Even controlling for that, there is still a gap that is probably due to pure discrimination.”

Kaan Jittiang, a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, says requirement inflation can serve to exclude applicants who are not members of a social class that would allow them to acquire several college degrees, even if such degrees are not needed to perform the job.

Requirement inflation, according to Jittiang, involves jobs whose requirements

are not necessarily reflective of the work performed. For example, a job may say a master’s degree is required, when a bachelor’s or an associate’s would suffice as long as onthe-job training is offered.

“It’s not simply about race — it’s also about gender and social class as well,” Jittiang said. “Sometimes, a company might consider someone from an Ivy League school over someone from another university with a high [grade point average]. But if you want to get into an Ivy League School, it requires social capital and money.”

Jittiang said education from institutions that are generally more pricey simply cannot be obtained by people who lack the funds to attend, regardless of admission status.

There are, however, also large racial disparities in college admissions in Wisconsin, Williams said.

“Particularly in Wisconsin, the bulk of the college-educated workforce has a smaller minority makeup than the high school population — there are fewer minority

populations getting into college,” Williams said.

A close reference of such is UW. According to CollegeSimply, 76% of the student population is white, while only 2% of enrolled students are black and 6% are Hispanic. Williams said the current Wisconsin job market is rather tight, with an average of 1.2 unfilled jobs per each unemployed person in the state.

He adds, however, that there are unforeseen positives. Recently, many businesses have decreased the number of qualifications for the positions they are trying to fill, reducing requirement inflation.

This has led to an uptick in hiring from the formerly incarcerated population, who have a notoriously difficult time finding employment upon their release.

“Some businesses in the past may have been wary to do so, but given the economic conditions, they’ve been forced,” Williams said. “Hopefully this will continue when the labor market is not so tight.”

Other paths to increases in workforce diversity come from technology. Mark Richardson, CEO and founder of Unfinished Business, works to link young professionals from diverse backgrounds with potential employers. Recently, he began building an app called GigBlender that will streamline this process.

According to Madison.com, Richardson is dedicated to closing the large racial disparities that exist in Madison by going up against requirement inflation and giving marginalized identities access to the networks he has built.

The app will be able to connect veterans, women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, among others, to gainful employment opportunities.

Jittiang says that Richardson’s app has a lot of potential.

“This kind of app will allow people who were historically excluded more of a chance,” Jittiang said. “ … But there’s no guarantee that the attitudes of employers will change.”

Photo · Marginalized identities face issues when it comes to the job market, UW experts suggest.

Andrew Salewski The Badger Herald September 10, 2019 • badgerherald.com • 9

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‘Breaking Bad’ movie breaks out with ‘El Camino’ title, October release Eerie Netflix announcement trailer for new ‘Breaking Bad’ movie sets title, release and suggests Jesse Pinkman will be running from the law

by Zach Lutz ArtsEtc. Editor

After a six-year hiatus, the world created in the AMC original hit show, “Breaking Bad,” is officially back. But this time it’s in the form of a Netflix original spin-off movie titled “El Camino,” and we could not be more excited for it.

Rumors around this production first stirred when filming began in November 2018. Social media hit the fan once news broke that “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan would be at the helm while “Breaking Bad” star Aaron Paul would return to reprise his role as Jesse Pinkman.

Plot and production details mostly remained under wraps until Aug. 24, 2019 when Netflix announced the title of the film and an Oct. 11, 2019 release. A simple tweet of the title and date would not suffice, however, so Gilligan, his team and Netflix gave people what they wanted: a taste of the film in the form of a teaser trailer.

The trailer clearly delivered in a big way as the Netflix tweet racked up 173.5 thousand retweets and 473.3 thousand likes.

The brilliance of the teaser trailer lies in its brevity and focus on one character in one scene. It gives us enough to be excited but not enough to fully understand what is

going on, and it’s this mystery factor that proves effective.

We do not see the film’s protagonist, Jesse Pinkman, in the trailer because they need to build the anticipation of his appearance. Jesse is one of the most beloved and well-developed TV characters in recent memory, so to spoil his return in a short announcement clip would take some of the air out of the movie’s build-up.

Who and what we do see in this clip is everyone’s favorite dense druggie, Skinny Pete, in a holding room with what appears to be some police officers discussing the whereabouts of Jesse. Skinny Pete professes he does not know where Jesse is and if he did he would not help the cops get him and “put him back in a cage.”

After he makes his point, the clip cuts to black and the audience is hit with “El Camino” followed by a somewhat cryptic reveal of the release date as a familiar snake rattle (played at the end of the show’s brief theme song) fills the audio and gives fans a sense of nostalgia.

Since this announcement, a cover/poster has been created and released for the film and plot details, while vague, have been added to IMDb. Similar to the announcement, the poster is eerie and vague, but also visually pleasing.

It features the El Camino car we last saw Jesse escape in, blazing a trail of green smoke.

The hazy green trail is reminiscent of the green associated with “Breaking Bad.” While the movie’s plot has been greatly speculated, the vague plotline listed on IMDb confirms the speculation that Jesse will be on the run from the police, but also on the

run from his own inner turmoil. to come back to Jesse, seeing how amazing From the looks of it, “El Camino” could the character ’s conclusion on the show be a character study more than anything. was. But after reading the first script from Given the major success Aaron Paul had Gilligan for the movie, Paul was reportedly playing Pinkman, racking up three Emmy speechless and was on board immediately. wins and a Golden Globe nomination Lastly, this is one of many Netflix original for best supporting actor, we would love movies coming out this awards season. This nothing more than to watch Paul display would not have been added to their stacked the struggle and wide range of emotions of slate in the thick of awards season if Netflix Jesse in a full-length movie about Jesse. felt Gilligan’s screenplay unworthy.

There is no doubt there are some We only have a little more than a month “Breaking Bad” fans who are worried about left to come up with reasons to feel one way the film tarnishing Jesse’s legacy and even or the other about this movie, so let the the show if it fails spectacularly. This is a speculation continue and the anticipation reasonable concern but there is cause to build. erase any grave doubts you may have.

First, it should not be too difficult once it is said and done to separate the film from the show. Walter White is dead, so if he is to appear in the movie it would be via flashback.

The absence of Heisenberg and all the characters who are now dead or were connected to only him should make this movie feel like a whole different adventure.

Second, the success of “Breaking Bad” spin-off series, “Better Call Saul,” is a good omen for “El Camino.”

Gilligan is also the creator of that, and he has done more than enough to prove his work is worthy of continuing the “Breaking Bad” narrative and guiding these characters wherever he pleases.

Third, Paul said in a conversation Photo ·Aaron Paul will reprise his role as Jesse Pinkman in ‘El Camino’ after reportwith The New York edly being stunned by film’s script Times that he was photo courtesy of Flickr user Thibault hesitant at first

ARTSETC.

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Future unclear for beloved Spider-Man after new deal falls through

Sony, Disney fail to reach new agreement, Spider-Man set to leave MCU with Tom Holland staying on as the webslinger for future films

by Philomena Lindquist Copy Chief

Your friendly neighborhood SpiderMan has recently left his most recent community: the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This all occurred after Sony, which has owned the character since 1999, and Disney, which owns Marvel Studios, failed to reach a deal last month.

Spider-Man has only been in the MCU for about four years since his appearance in “Captain America: Civil War.” Yet his winsome portrayal by Tom Holland, his fan-favorite father-son-like relationship with Marvel legend Tony Stark and his funny, relatable scripts have won him a firm place in movie-goers’ hearts.

So what really happened and what does this mean for the future of the beloved Spidey?

The current agreement — or lack thereof — places Spider-Man in the hands of Sony rather than Marvel. But to be clear, up until this impasse, Sony has been a part of this character ’s life.

Until Aug. 20, when it was officially announced that the two studios had reached no agreement, it is widely believed Sony owned 95% of the rights and Marvel claimed 5%. The agreement also meant Sony released all films with Spider-Man as the main character (“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “SpiderMan: Far From Home”) while Marvel released all films with Spider-Man within a larger MCU team or as a supporting character (including “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War”).

Sony released “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” on its own.

Sources said when Marvel tried to renegotiate for a 50/50 split, the two studios talked, but Sony ultimately rejected the proposal.

But the end of this arrangement does not mean the end of Tom Holland SpiderMan vehicles. Though it does mean Holland’s Spidey will no longer appear in the MCU, Holland expressed he plans to continue making movies with Sony at the D23, Disney’s biennial expo.

“It’s going to be so fun, however we choose to do it,” Holland said. “The future for Spider-Man will be different, but it will be equally as awesome and amazing, and we’ll find new ways to make it even cooler.”

In fact, it is believed Sony has two Spider-Man titles with Holland in the works. And Holland expressed excitement in working with Sony exclusively in the future in a written correspondence with GQ Style.

“Sony has also been really good to me, and the global success of ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ is a real testament to their support, skill and commitment,” Holland

Photo · Tom Holland won’t be spending any more time in the MCU but we will see him again in the iconic spidey suit photo courtesy of Flickr user Ma_Co2013

said. “The legacy and future of Spidey rests in Sony’s safe hands. I really am nothing but grateful, and I’ve made friends for life along the way.”

For fans and critics, however, expectations for Sony’s solo Spidey iteration are mixed. The immense popularity and excitement surrounding “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” brings hope to some. But the memory of the Andrew Garfield’s lackluster reign as the Brooklyn webslinger, an endeavor produced and released by Sony, still leaves

a bitter taste in many fans’ mouths. Sony also put out the Tobey Maguire iterations of the early 2000s.

The addition of Peter Parker to the MCU improved Spider-Man’s popularity immensely. Not only did the MCU give him a critical role in its family, but it allowed him to grow to heights the character has not seen in a very long time — possibly ever. His incorporation into the larger universe, paired with Holland’s engaging performance, rejuvenated him and turned him into one of the best-loved members of

the Avengers, as well as a strong solo force.

Perhaps Sony’s involvement in the MCU has taught them what it will take to continue this momentum with the character. After all, the artistry and entertainment value of “Into the SpiderVerse” should surely tell audiences something about what they can expect from Peter Parker ’s future.

Only time will tell, but one thing is sure — with great power comes great responsibility, and Sony has taken on a considerable amount with this step.

September 10, 2019 • badgerherald.com • 11

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An experiment in independence

Through 50 years of innovation, integrity and even near collapse, The Badger Herald endures

by Abby Doeden, Molly Liebergall and Emilie Cochran Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editors

Nick Loniello never imagined that his independent student newspaper would last 50 years. In fact, none of the other founding members did either.

Perhaps by some miracle, though, what started out as an “experiment” is still standing — 50 years to the day that “Harrington protests: Budget hurts UW” ran on the front page of the very first issue of The Badger Herald.

It was never a lack of confidence in the staff ’s journalistic abilities that made Loniello doubt the paper ’s future prosperity, but rather a lack of financing. Ironically, this issue stemmed from a quality every journalist strives for: integrity. The staff refused to ask the university for assistance in establishing the Herald, and in turn, bankruptcy sometimes loomed right around the corner.

The founders likely could have obtained a small amount of funding to get themselves on their feet, but Loniello and his cohorts would have sooner capsized than sacrificed any amount of the Herald’s independence.

“We decided that more likely than not, the ship is going to go down, but it will go down with all of our flags flying, and we aren’t going to feed at the public trough — we’re not going to get a subsidy,” Loniello said. “We’re either going to be worthy of publication because we have a readership that commands advertising, or we just go out of business and have fun trying.”

Amid numerous relocations, dozens of editors, hundreds of new staffers and countless late nights at the office, independence and integrity are two key traits of The Badger Herald that have never faltered in its 50 years.

History In 1969, stories and images of protests were abundant in nearly every newspaper around the nation — even in Madison, where riots surrounding the Vietnam war culminated in the bombing of Sterling Hall in 1970.

These events, coupled with what some University of Wisconsin students thought were extremely leftist views from papers around campus, are what the Badger Herald was founded on.

Four students gathered at the Brathaus on State Street one evening in 1969 and debated over what they should do to better record and combat the protests on campus.

Their idea was to create an alternative voice students could turn to that would shed a new light on the events surrounding the rallies and protests, all the while challenging common ideologies at UW. Huddled around a few beers, Loniello and The Badger Herald’s other founders — Patrick S. Korten, Mike Kelley and Wade Smith — discussed how to create such a voice on campus.

One idea was to revitalize an older student magazine on campus, Inside and Outlook, which had died out in the early 60s, but the four decided they wanted something more serious.

It was then that they determined their answer: a weekly independent newspaper that would run on advertising 12 • badgerherald.com • September 10, 2019

revenue, and focus on issues surrounding the Madison community and student life.

After several months of fundraising, scrounging up desks and typewriters, and renting office space where the Sunroom Café is now located, the first issue of The Badger Herald hit the stands on Sept. 10, 1969.

“We decided ... we’re either going to be worthy of publication because we have a readership that commands advertising, or we just go out of business and have fun trying.”

Nick Loniello

Co-founder of The Badger Herald

Loniello, sometimes doubtful the paper would survive, said the staff members in the beginning fought hard to continue this experiment.

“The two things I’m most proud about from the Badger Herald is first and foremost the fact that there were students who came after us who believed that what we were doing was worthy of their participation,” Loniello said. “That’s the biggest compliment I’ve ever gotten in my life. The second thing that I’m most proud of is that it remains vigorously independent of any financial controls ... That we are self-regulated, self-disciplined and we run our own show.”

Since that first office, The Badger Herald has changed quite a bit. Hundreds of staff members have had bylines, office locations have changed and the paper now has an online component.

The Editorial Board no longer carries its founding conservative viewpoints, but it does share the same core concept on which Korten, Loniello, Kelley and Smith founded the paper: to give a voice to the variety of views on campus.

UW School of Journalism and Mass Communication faculty member Robert Schwoch fondly remembers his involvement with the Herald between 1980 and 1982.

“We were sort of the rebels, the voice of the voiceless,” Schwoch said. “That was how we fancied ourselves.”

Despite all of the changes, one thing has remained the same throughout all of these years. The Badger Herald continues to be a place that aims to foster creativity and connections for every student that walks through the office doors, no matter where that office may be.

Unique competition Students who come to UW looking to write for the university’s student newspaper will find they have to make a choice when they get to campus — whether to

write for the Daily Cardinal or The Badger Herald.

Both newspapers are independent of the university, meaning they are not sponsored by UW and the university does not have any say over what the papers can and cannot publish.

2016-17 Editor-in-Chief Hayley Sperling said she originally decided to join the paper because a friend’s boyfriend was the city news editor at the time.

Sperling said that having two papers on campus brings healthy competition to both the Daily Cardinal and The Badger Herald. Since both papers have the exact same audience, it forces both to aim to be the better paper.

“The two papers definitely complement each other in a way that you’re pushing yourself harder to be one faster, and two better than each other. And sometimes the Cardinal scoops the Herald on a story and sometimes it goes the other way around,” Sperling said. “We’re competing for the same awards, we’re competing for the same audience, you know, everything, so again, it really goes back to the fact that this is real-life experience where you’re not only dealing with your own student-run newsroom, but you also have competitors.”

In the same vein, former Badger Herald graphic designer Davy Mayer said the fact that UW has two student newspapers makes both publications better than other student papers across the country.

Mayer added that the competition at UW forces both the staff at the Daily Cardinal and the Badger Herald to put out the better paper, therefore both papers have higher expectations than at a school with only one paper.

“I have seen newspapers from other Big Ten universities and they are pretty much ‘university terrible.’ And I think it’s because they don’t have competition,” Mayer said.

“But here we have this absolute direct competition of equals and peers, and it made both of those pieces better.”

Fall 1992 editor-in-chief and current city news editor at the Cap Times Jason Joyce said the UW campus is the “most competitive” media market in the country because every student involved has a “start up” mentality. This mentality has fostered other media start ups, such as the Onion.

This same competitive nature does not only affect the writing portion of the papers. In the end, both papers’ business departments have the same goal — to keep the papers printing.

“People who work [at the Herald] have to think in terms of business,” Joyce said. “I think that the business and competition aspect of this, and the necessity of looking at everything at the end of the month and making these decisions to stay in business is really a great experience.”

Campus impact Though he now considers his time with the Herald as having revolutionized his college experience, Schwoch initially had no intention of joining the staff. But when the transmitter he used for his campus radio show broke, one of his journalism professors suggested he try his hand at writing in the meantime.

Schwoch started a sports column at the Herald, and one of his first pieces addressed a recent football game where

enraged Badger fans ripped bleachers out of the student section and threw them over the side of the stadium in response to the team’s poor performance. UW was, unsurprisingly, quite angry with its student section, and Schwoch proposed a solution to the university: get a better football team.

“I raised all sorts of ‘h’ ‘e’ double ‘l’ over those next two years,” Schwoch said.

The Daily Cardinal was the official student newspaper at the time, so Schwoch said they were constrained as to what they could and could not write — something The Badger Herald did not need to worry themselves with.

Schwoch wrote and reported on issues regardless of if they targeted the university. Back when the men’s hockey team was one of the only UW squads having a good season, Schwoch investigated salaries and discovered that Bob Johnson, the hockey coach, was earning less than the losing basketball team coach. The next year, Johnson got a pay raise.

“We held the administration’s feet to the fire in a way most student newspapers couldn’t do back then,” Schwoch said. “[They] were risking [their] funding, and we weren’t.”

Schwoch shares both his fondness of the Herald and his current place of employment with fellow journalism school faculty member Katy Culver.

“We held the administration’s feet to the fire in a way most student newspapers couldn’t do back then.

[They] were risking [their] funding, and we weren’t.”

Robert Schwoch

Former Herald Sports Editor, SJMC faculty member

Students in the SJMC all likely know Culver, who teaches the school’s gateway course J202: Mass Media Practices. Regardless of which publication UW students choose to write for, she said it’s a win-win for the entire community.

“When you have two staffs driving each other like that, I think it’s fantastic for everyone involved, and for the campus.”

Though the existence of two student newspapers has fostered a friendly rivalry, Culver said it has also united the UW SJMC. Culver recalled a course she taught in the recent past where she witnessed the editors of both the Cardinal and The Badger Herald sitting together, a contrast to how each paper ’s staffers used to sit separately in class.

Culver joked The Badger Herald and Cardinal competitors also can’t escape each other if they happen to

be in the same J202 lab, something that has helped to break down the wall between the two papers and bring a sense of camaraderie from the newsroom into the classroom.

“The feeling that you used to only get in the student newspaper you now get in the [journalism] school as well,” Culver said.

A tightly knit community Like any other student organization, The Badger Herald has its own community of past and present staffers.

For 50 years, The Badger Herald has served as a place for students with a passion for journalism to come together to form a team. And it’s not just daily articles that result.

“I probably made my best and most long-lasting friendships [at the Herald],” Mayer said. “You meet a lot of really great people and I’ve enjoyed following where they have gone since then.”

Mayer, who joined the Badger Herald in 1999 as a graphic designer and later worked on the website, has maintained connections with his fellow Heralders, and considers them close friends.

For many current staffers, it is important to remember past Heralders and everything they have done to get the paper where it is today. Matt O’Connor, 2018-2019 editorin-chief, credits much of what he learned at The Badger Herald to those who came before him.

“Every single person who worked at the paper before me helped, in some way, to build the platform that I was blessed to lead for a year, and so all of them helped me out,” O’Connor said. “For that I am thankful.”

Tom Kertscher, Herald 1983-84 editor-in-chief, said the paper was a crucial part of his college career both socially and professionally. “[The Herald] was really the glue for my experience at UW,” Kertscher said. “I came out of high school knowing exactly what I wanted to do and jumped into the Herald as soon as I got to campus. And so it was really the glue for me in the sense of being vital for my career and a big social outlet.”

Kertscher said The Badger Herald quickly became part of his daily life at UW, being at the office nearly every day as he moved up into the higher editorial roles.

And for Kertscher, The Badger Herald not only impacted his day-to-day college life, but became crucial to life after graduation as well.

“I think [The Badger Herald] was at least as important, if not more important, than the journalism coursework,” Kertscher said. “Getting to be thrown into different situations in the different positions … each step along the way, you’re gaining experience and confidence. As I went on, I felt like I could take on the next challenge and probably be successful.”

This preparation for the real journalistic world is one of the elements of The Badger Herald that Loniello is most proud of.

“The Badger Herald has definitely been a stepping stone for significant careers in journalism for many people,” Loniello said. “It’s a great launching vehicle and feather in the cap of somebody who aspires for journalism. And I dearly hope that this results in similar success for [current

and future] staff.”

For some staffers, however, The Badger Herald gave them more than just a leg up in the professional world.

“The Herald was truly a formative experience for me both professionally and personally ... [It] gave me a career, and it gave me a life.”

Katy Culver

Former Herald Editor-in-Chief, SJMC Professor

Culver ’s passion for journalism and the opportunity to have an outlet for that outside of class was what originally drew her to the Herald. Upon graduation, though, she left the paper with more than she ever thought she would find.

Culver met her husband while working on staff. She was an associate news editor, and he was an associate sports editor. A tale as old as time.

“The Herald was truly a formative experience for me both professionally and personally,” Culver said. “[It] gave me a career, and it gave me a life.”

A continuing experiment The Badger Herald mission statement reads, “The Herald strives to present objective news, entertaining sports and arts coverage and insightful editorial stances that reflect the interests and tastes of the University of Wisconsin community. In the process, we also hope to train the next generation of student journalists for success.”

And with that statement comes an exciting opportunity — something the founders knew from the beginning.

“This newspaper is an experiment,” Korten, the first editor-in-chief, wrote in the pages of the first Badger Herald issue. “We are attempting to do that which has never been done before.”

Every day, The Badger Herald continues to be an experiment, challenging us to create factual, objective and ethical journalism.

That challenge is what has kept students coming to the Herald for 50 years and will continue for years to come.

While Loniello says he is proud of how far the Herald has come and is hopeful for another successful 50 years, his dreams have already come true.

“When I was elected editor of the Badger Herald after its second year, I remember being seated at my desk in the Herald office,” Loniello said. “I imagined at that time, 48 years ago, that in my 70th year I would be invited to the Badger Herald 50th anniversary dinner party, and guess what happened … It’s a dream come true.”

September 10, 2019 • badgerherald.com • 13

OPINION

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Debunking misinformation surrounding vaccines, natural immunity Personal conviction waivers for vaccines jeopardize everyone and protect no one — state law needs to disallow them

by Aly Niehans Columnist

When first meeting a person, their medical records probably aren’t the first thing to cross your mind as you shake their hand. But medical records — specifically immunization records — are on the minds of parents and lawmakers nationwide following a measles outbreak that has struck more than 25 states since the beginning of 2019.

As of May 30, the Center for Disease Control reported 971 cases of measles in the United States in 2019 — the highest number of cases reported since 1994. The highest volume of cases were reported in New York, where the largest measles outbreak in nearly 30 years cost New York City more than $6 million.

The New York outbreak was largely concentrated in an ultra-Jewish community, where misinformation about the measles vaccination ran rampant.

Of the 654 individuals who contracted measles in New York City, 73% of them were unvaccinated, with an additional 7% incompletely vaccinated.

But New York was not the only state forced to grapple with the spread of a disease that, in 2000, was declared eliminated by the CDC. Because of the highly-contagious nature of the disease, measles has returned throughout the United States — including in Wisconsinneighbors Illinois, Iowa and Michigan — in communities with low vaccination rates.

In response to the growing proximity of the measles outbreaks, State Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, introduced a bill to end personal conviction waivers for opting out of vaccinations. Personal conviction waivers allow parents to exempt their children from vaccinations for personal rather than medical or religious reasons.

Wisconsin is one of 18 states to provide parents with this option.

“It’s just a matter of time, given the declining vaccination rate, that we have our own public health crisis in Wisconsin,” Hintz said. “So it’s time for the state to be proactive and do everything possible to get that number up so we have herd immunity and can protect folks.”While Hintz’s bill has enjoyed bipartisan support in the Wisconsin legislature and is backed by groups such as the Wisconsin Medical Society, it has drawn criticism from parents who choose not to vaccinate their children.

There has been no action taken on the bill.

There are numerous reasons parents choose not to vaccinate their children, 14 • September 10, 2019 • badgerherald.com

including the belief in natural immunity, where contracting a preventable disease will ultimately strengthen the child’s immune system, that the dangers of the side effects of vaccines outweigh their benefits and, most notably, that vaccines cause autism.

But the arguments posited by anti-vaxxers are misinformed, false and harmful in the midst of the largest measles outbreak the country has seen in years. For parents to continue sending unvaccinated students to school places their classmates, teachers and innumerable other people in danger of exposure to a disease entirely preventable through modern and safe vaccinations.

First and foremost, there is no link between vaccines and autism, nor do the ingredients used to make vaccines cause autism.

Thimerosal, a mercuryPhoto · Spread of misinformation about vaccines has allowed measles outbreaks to propagate around the county. Don’t let based preservative misinformation jeopardize public health any longer. used in preventing contamination of Alice Vagun multidose vials of The Badger Herald vaccines, was studied by researchers specifically survive the disease in the first place. This be ineffective, the numbers are far too with regard to the autism-vaccine debate. means that they were, at best, moderately close for comfort, and many of the stated Not only did a 2004 review and nine ill, they were contagious, and they came reasons for refusing to vaccinate children subsequent CDC studies find no causal into contact with other, healthy people, are far too unsubstantiated by science to be relationship between vaccines containing during the quest to attain this natural justifiable. thimerosal and autism, but between 1999 immunity.

Eliminating the personal conviction and 2001, thimerosal was removed or When thinking about settings such exemption in Wisconsin schools and reduced to trace amounts in nearly all as school, both K-12 and universities, nationwide would work to ensure the childhood vaccines. unvaccinated individuals pose a real safety of vaccinated and unvaccinated It is also not true that contracting threat to herd immunity. In order for students alike. Vaccines are not a measles, or any other preventable disease, herd immunity to effective in relation to negotiable part of back-to-school season if is the most effective way of strengthening measles, 90 to 95 percent of the population the reasons for not getting them are easily one’s immune system. Vaccines function needs to be vaccinated. falsifiable. by introducing a small amount of weak or During the 2018-2019 school year, about The goal, this year and every year, dead remnants of a particular disease to 92 percent of students met the Wisconsin should be to keep eliminated diseases spur an immune response. This helps the minimum immunization requirements, a eliminated, and this is achieved first and body remember this disease, so if it ever 0.4% decrease from the previous year. Of foremost through vaccinations. is present again, the body has a reserve of the 8% that did not meet the requirements, things to attack it with.

4.6% used the personal conviction waiver.

Aly Niehans (aniehans@badgerherald.com) Natural immunity, on the other hand, While 8% is not quite the 10% is a senior majoring in political science. happens after someone was already sick threshold for measles herd immunity to with the disease, providing that they

Point Counterpoint: Getting involved with politics on campus Why you should join the College Republicans of UW-Madison When I walked into the Kohl Center for the student organization fair three years ago during the first weeks of my freshman year, I was overwhelmed with the options in front of me. I dove in headfirst and signed up for close to a dozen clubs. Among those were the Christmas Caroling organization and ballroom dancing — I’m still meaning to get to those meetings. Being just one person, I obviously could not commit to everything I eagerly signed up to join. But one organization I am very proud to be an active part of throughout my college journey is the College Republicans of UW-Madison.

College Republicans is a group of about 500 conservative students with varying beliefs, backgrounds and political ideologies. We welcome students that define themselves anywhere along the right side of the political spectrum, and we’re happy to have visitors who perhaps don’t identify with the Republican Party, but want to learn more about what we stand for.

Our meetings typically highlight a guest speaker of interest to students.

In the past we’ve welcomed state and federal-level candidates, party leaders, elected officials, economists and leaders of various conservative movements.

At a meeting, you can expect to meet plenty of new like-minded friends, pick up some GOP swag and enjoy a slice of pizza, too.

Aside from meetings, we also host and participate in various events throughout the year. Fan favorites include a bus trip to Milwaukee for a Brewers game in the spring and a Badger game tailgate in the fall. We send a delegation of students to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington every year where they can learn more about the conservative message, grassroots strategies and get the chance to explore the city. We also have non-political volunteer opportunities and engage in Design by Greta Zimmerman The Badger Herald

debates and other activities with our friends at the College Democrats. We pride ourselves on productive, civil discourse.

College Republicans will open doors to a myriad of career opportunities for conservative students.

Many legislative and congressional offices funnel their internship and job openings directly to our organization, and our members have a competitive edge when applying. Additionally, we have a very active executive board with openings every year that offer great leadership experience.

But we’re not just a group for political science majors. We’re focused on building up a conservative presence on campus made up of students of all backgrounds. We want to help Republicans connect with one another in a city that may otherwise feel like it disregards them. College Republicans is a place where real bonds are formed with people who share your values. I personally have this organization to thank for a few of my closest friends whom I’ve spent the last three years with, as well as countless doors it has opened for me to pursue my goals.

If great friends with shared values, exciting speakers, fun events and opportunities to grow as a person sound appealing to you, I hope you’ll consider joining College Republicans.

You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates, and check out our website as well. We also have an office space on the third floor of the SAC this year and would love if you stopped by to meet us.

We hope to see you at a meeting this year, and remember: ain’t no party like the Grand Old Party.

Alyssa Birkeland is a senior studying political science, management & human resources, and Spanish. She is the vice chair of the College Republicans of UW-Madison.

Why you should join the College Democrats of UW-Madison Maybe you read the news. If you have a strong stomach, maybe you’ve even read the tweets. But you don’t have to follow politics that to tell that something’s gone wrong.

It’s in our high schools, where students are interrupting their math classes to practice how to hide from gunfire. It’s you, or your family, friends, or loved ones who are immigrants, people of color, or members of the LGBTQ community, walking the streets carrying the weight that the rhetoric of this country’s highest leadership emboldens hate crimes targeting you. It’s even in the weather — the record-setting summers and the bitter Polar Vortex driving you inside as the seasons grow more extreme.

And as each new crisis seems more overwhelming than the last, every headline prompts the same question:“What can I do?”

At College Democrats of UW-Madison, the answer is “a lot.”

It was students like you knocking on doors, calling phones, and registering voters who elected and re-elected talented, compassionate and dynamic liberal officials like Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Justice Rebecca Dallet. It was students like you who beat big money to replace a budget-slashing union buster with education expert Tony Evers as governor.

It doesn’t matter how bleak it seems — when students join America’s flagship progressive party, they get stuff done.

College Dems is a great way to meet new people who share your convictions, whether it’s at ice cream socials or teaming up for trivia “Jeopardy!” But you won’t just meet friends who will last a lifetime — you’ll also see elected officials and party luminaries speaking at meetings.

Is there something you’ve wanted to ask a state or congressional representative, a city councilor or a senator? At College Dems, you’ll get your chance.

With the 2020 election around the corner, you can get the skills that will have your peers looking to you for help. When you want to support the leaders who share your ideas or make sure you and the people you know have a voice, it always pays to know

your way around the electoral process, whether that’s getting people on the voting rolls or reaching out to local officials.

If you want to go even further, it’s College Democrats that can take your progressive career to the next level. It could be an internship with your favorite Wisconsin Dem’s office or their campaign, in the state or down in D.C. We can help you get the best application and references to connect you with the work you love.

When you join College Dems, you aren’t just joining a student organization here — you’re joining an organization that spans the entire state. With opportunities to visit campuses around Wisconsin and link up with fellow Democrats from across America’s dairyland, as well as all the exciting opportunities our organization’s conventions present, who could resist taking the dive and broadening their horizons?

If it makes you happy to see headlines about well-funded schools instead of slashed revenues, there’s a place for you here. If you want to have a state where the pride flag can fly over the capitol building, there’s a place for you here. If you believe in an American dream that has a place for immigrants, a country that shows steady global leadership, and a state where opportunity doesn’t come from a wallet, there’s a place for you here.

After 2016, pundits labeled America’s political left “the Resistance.” But here at College Democrats, we don’t just fight against — we fight for what we believe in, whether that’s healthcare, equality or a living wage.

If you stand up with us, you can change the world — and sometimes, there will even be pizza. What could be better?

Ethan Carpenter (emcarpenter2@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in political science. He is the press secretary for the College Democrats of UWMadison.

Editor’s note: Ethan is a columnist for The Badger Herald. Here, his views strictly represent those of the College Democrats and do not represent the Herald.

badgerherald.com • September 10, 2019 • 15

OPINION

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Redefining purpose, redirecting progress in the criminal justice system

As Dane County takes steps to reduce jail population, divert youth offenders, efforts to implement positive change are clear

by Cait Gibbons Opinion Editor, Editorial Board Chair

One day in the summer of 2017, David — who asked to go by a pseudonym — was arrested for eluding the police, a felony charge, even though he had an alibi and witnesses to confirm it.

The court commissioner set David’s bail at $5,000, and when he asked the bail to be lowered to an amount he could afford, the commissioner decline. Eventually, public defenders were able to dismiss David’s case, but until that happened, he sat in jail — for 84 days.

During that time, according to reporting from the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, David’s life changed around him.

“David lost his job, his car, his apartment and visitation time with his now-12-yearold son,” according to the report. “While David was in jail, his son’s mother filed for child support, which David could not pay.

After he was released, his 50-50 custody changed to one weekend a month.

Although David got his job back, he had to dip into his retirement savings to pay off the loan still owed on the SUV that police seized. The impound fees, which had accumulated while he was jailed, eventually totaled more than the vehicle was worth.”

So while his jail-time lasted less than three months, the impact still hurts him to this day — all for a crime he did not commit.

Earlier this year the Dane County Criminal Justice Council commissioned the JFA Institute, a nonprofit agency that assists jurisdictions in implementing more effective criminal justice policies, to conduct research and issue a report on the county’s jail population.

Who does it protect to enforce a vicious, “inescapable cycle of recidivism? In the end, does anyone really benefit from the prison-industrial complex in the U.S.?

”

The report found more than half of inmates are in some kind of pretrial status — meaning they haven’t even been convicted of a crime. This is a jarring number. In fact, the report found one of the biggest drivers of Wisconsin’s jail population is correlated directly to pretrial detention.

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But encouragingly, the report also found that out of every 100,000 people there are 154 people incarcerated in Dane County, which is significantly lower than the national average of 229 per 100,000 people.

“Compared to other national sites, Dane County has done a good job of keeping the jail population fairly low,” executive director of the JFA Institute Jim Austin said in a statement to the Cap Times.

In response to the high rates of incarceration around Wisconsin, including the state’s particularly high rates of pretrial detention and disproportionately high rates of incarceration for black men, Dane County has launched a series of initiatives to keep the prison population down.

“We are building a Photo · Oppressive practices in probation systems, pretrial detention, violent police practices only reinforce recidivism and do not smaller, safer, more really serve any citizens — behind bars or not. humane jail and in order to safely lower Alice Vagun our population even The Badger Herald more, [it] requires all of us in the criminal pay to maintain sky-high incarceration It’s time to ask ourselves what the justice system working together,” Sheriff rates doesn’t even benefit the public. benefit of this really is. Who are we serving Dave Mahoney said in a statement.

By diverting youth from the criminal when we use taxpayer dollars to punish “Clearly, decisions throughout the entire criminal justice system have an impact on justice system, the county establishes a goal people who might even be innocent? of supporting youth, rather than punishing Who does it protect to enforce a vicious, the number of people held in jail.” and entrapping them. By working to inescapable cycle of recidivism? In the Specific initiatives Dane County is reduce sentences for people who don’t end, does anyone actually benefit from the taking on include reducing jail sentences pose a threat to society, the county affirms prison-industrial complex in the U.S.? and actively working to divert young its commitment to serving all constituents.

Research like that from the JFA Institute people from the criminal justice system.

And in a broad sense, by taking action says no one really benefits. Thankfully, “Expediting the processing of felony and working to be self-critical, they are actions like those Dane County is taking cases in pretrial status and reducing the say something needs to be done about it. sentence lengths by 30 days would reduce recognizing that this issue is important and needs to be addressed.

For too long, Let’s not stop with Dane County. the current jail population by 20%,” The the prison populations around the country, For people like David, their lives are Cap Times reported. depending on it.

The key here is that Dane County seems and particularly in Wisconsin have been subjected to inhumane treatment, forced to be rethinking the purpose of their to participate in legalized slave labor and Cait Gibbons (cgibbons@badgerherald.com) detention system. Public safety has a very is a senior studying math and Chinese. high value, but oftentimes, the price we denied basic rights.

OPINION

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E-cigarettes are destroying people’s lives and we have no idea why

Once thought harmless, vape pens, Juuls, dab pens and the like are devastating young people around the country — it’s time to take note

by Julia Brunson Columnist

Take a breath — this isn’t yet another Facebook forward from grandma, cautioning you about the dangers of “those electronic cigarettes.” Nor is it a hysterical indictment of teens who should “know better.” You got enough of that in D.A.R.E., or whatever pieces of it remained in your elementary curricula.

No, to defy expectations, this article isn’t about shocking you with the dangers of vaping. But you should still be worried — more than worried, even. Because we like our vices a little too much — we always have — and only recently have the consequences for a shifting culture reared their heads.

E-cigarettes, vape pens, dab pens, nicotine, hash oil, CBD or THC — perhaps one of the most amusing parts of inhalant news coverage is its inability to distinguish between the bunch.

Regulate Juul pods, and you run into an obvious problem — they’re not the only thing teens have — or have ever had —to smoke. Walking down State Street at bartime, and the clouds of smoke are as different as the people puffing them —

blueberry, citrus CBD, bubble gum, and fresh mint intermingle with the stale smell of Lucky Strikes.

And, of course, don’t forget the weed, though that’s a given for State Street. Its absence would be surprising.

Constructive criticism, from your local news’ investigation team and your mother alike, misses the woods for trees more often than not. States regulated Juuls, in a mindblowing effort to track every single Juul pod sold via barcode, only to find out we hadn’t even scratched the surface.

Whether it’s a bootleg weed pen, or a semi-legal THC pen from your local apothecary, the options — really, the oils — are endless.

The average smoker today is not as blind or naïve as two generations ago were. They know, deep down, every time they crack open a new pack or pod, that there is something inherently dangerous in the action. And, contrary to popular belief, I believe that most e-cigarette smokers know that too, on some level. We were too conditioned by late 1990s PSAs not to wrinkle our noses at the thought of nicotine.

Yet much of the narrative surrounding e-cigarettes focus on the idea that we have been tricked — coddled and befuddled by candy-floss smoke to know that, with every breath, we are

inhaling something unregulated, untested, and risky.

But we did it anyway. And, for a few years, everything seemed OK. Barring a few thousand nicotine addictions, it was hard to put fact to the fiction in forwards from Grandma. Nobody died.

There wasn’t even a peep of danger.

Until July 2019. Something changed — something big. And in our home state, nonetheless.

People started dying. And those who didn’t were crippled by a sudden-onset disease that tore through their lungs, causing irreparable damage.

Oxygen saturation dropped, lungs collapsed, children were intubated, and doctors were mystified.

This was no longer your garden-variety Juul hysteria. In fact, the years-long campaign might have even prolonged the spread of information.

Despite patient history of e-cigarette usage, news of a possible connection didn’t make it to other hospitals until almost a month later. But once the line was drawn, the implications were stunning.

Uncurbed, the number of patients would undoubtedly rise.

I prefaced this column with a disclaimer about shocking audiences into action — and I stand

by my refusal to do so. But as many ceaselessly remind me, facts “don’t care about your feelings.”

So consider the following in a vacuum, and use them to guide your next steps.

Something has changed in the manufacturing of e-cigarettes of all kinds. It devastates your lungs, felling some of the healthiest young people in the state. And we have no idea why it’s happening.

If you want to read more about preliminary findings look up the research by The New England Journal of Medicine. They do little editorializing, largely because the details from Wisconsin case studies are more than enough to convey their importance. The outcomes are difficult.

Until the CDC and a half-dozen other NGOs figure out a root cause, the most irresponsible of us will turn a deaf ear to their warnings. We have been conditioned to ignore the stakes for years, but they have just risen significantly.

There are more than 112,000 people currently on the donation list for a lung transplant. Where will vaping put you in line?

Julia Brunson (julia.r.brunson@gmail.com) is a recent graduate with a degree in history.

Madison’s new E-Bikes: with upgraded bikes comes downgraded safety Though popular, the new additions to Madison transportation system pose safety risks to pedestrians, drivers, cyclists

by Courtney Degen Columnist

There are many methods of transportation in Madison: buses, cars, ubers and more recently, electric bikes. This is because Madison’s bike-sharing system called BCycle has recently upgraded to using e-bikes.

The new electric bikes offered through BCycle assist riders with their peddling, and can support speeds reaching 17 miles per hour. According to state law, however, those operating e-bikes must own a driver ’s license, special restricted operator ’s license or an instruction permit.

While Madison is often considered to be a bike-friendly city, the introduction of electric bikes poses many new dangers to riders, pedestrians, and other vehicles on the road. Electric bikes are similar to electric scooters in that they can be hard to control.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, researchers found that the introduction of electric scooters in California and Texas led to head injuries,

broken bones and intoxicated drivers. Three riders following their GPS in Texas ended up on I-94 with their electric scooters, resulting in tickets and fines for all of them. When Milwaukee was introduced to Bird electric scooters last year, a rider was ticketed after hitting and injuring a pedestrian.

Simply put, the introduction of electric scooters and bikes increases the risk of danger for all those involved. Wisconsin state law indicates that those on electric bikes must follow the same rules and regulations as traditional cyclists. But electric bicycles are not regular bicycles, and simply treating them as such is not safe for those on the road.

Electric bikes create a new type of vehicle in the bike lane, which can already be a source of collision and confusion for those on the roads in Madison. This means that cars and other vehicles must be especially wary of e-bikes when on the roads, as they can often move much quicker than traditional bicycles.

In addition, though it seems obvious, riders of e-bikes should be required to

wear a helmet. Wisconsin law requires that e-bike riders are over 16 years of age and possess some sort of license, but there is no requirement that riders wear a helmet.

Helmets should be required because studies show that both electric scooters and traditional bicycles cause head injuries.

A study in Austin, Texas found that of 190 scooter riders that were injured and sent to the emergency room, half of them suffered from head injuries. Furthermore, The New York Times reported that cycling caused 86,000 sports-related head injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2009, nearly double the amount caused by football.

If riders do not have a helmet, then they should not ride. It’s as simple as that.

If these electric scooter and electric bike companies want to make a profit without endangering users, then they should probably start equipping their vehicles with a helmet.

Electric scooter companies like Lime, Bird and Spin provide helmets to users who request one, but to encourage safe practices for everyone, they should require them with every scooter.

Additionally, Wisconsin’s legislature should consider taking a second look at this issue. Simply treating e-bikes as regular bicycles is irresponsible and unreasonable, as the stakes behind an electric bike are much different.

Personally, I have used an electric scooter while in Chicago over the summer. I only rode around my neighborhood, but I can say with confidence that the electric vehicle speeds up very quickly, and it’s hard for cars to know how to react when sharing the road.

Overall, it seems that the introduction of electric scooters and e-bikes, particularly in Madison, could lead to more complications in everyday transport. Pedestrians and drivers will need to exercise increased caution when sharing the roads with e-bikes. For the electric cyclists themselves, cyclists should always be sure to use a helmet and be as aware of their surroundings as possible.

Courtney Degen (cdegen@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in political science and journalism. badgerherald.com • September 10, 2019 • 17

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SPORTS

Basketball: Wisconsin searches for new identity in post-Happ era

Following first-round exit in NCAA Tournament, Wisconsin must reshape their identity behind shooter-heavy offense

by Harrison Freuck Sports Editor

The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team ended last season disappointingly in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, losing to the Oregon Ducks in San Jose, California.

Despite such a storied career with the Badgers, Ethan Happ departed the team without an appearance past the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament, a major departure from the Final Four teams in years past.

Wisconsin has also lost seniors Khalil Iverson and Charlie Thomas IV. Iverson — perhaps known best for his emphatic dunks — took over as one of the leading scorers late in his senior season, while Thomas was a serviceable reserve player throughout his career.

Moving on from these players this season will be difficult, but the Badgers will be forced to create a new identity for themselves as they move forward with veteran juniors D’Mitrik Trice and Brad Davison.

Davison and Trice proved their worth last season with several impressive games, but the tandem also struggled from beyond the arc at various points in the season, especially down

the stretch when the team needed their abilities the most.

Wisconsin will look to support the duo with scoring from players who will see an increase in minutes this season, including juniors Aleem Ford and Nate Reuvers.

Without Happ, it will be interesting to see if Wisconsin continues to focus on utilizing their big men, a trend that has continued since Frank Kaminsky took the college basketball world by storm in the 2013-2014 season. If this is the case, Reuvers is a likely candidate for a breakout season with his ability to shoot from outside and his height advantage under the rim.

Junior Trevor Anderson will also return from injury this year, while sophomore Kobe King will likely see an increased role on the offensive end after playing some meaningful minutes in his redshirt freshman season.

Graduate student Brevin Pritzl will also contribute to what is likely to be a highoctane offense, as his three-point shooting has continued to improve throughout his career, making him a deadly weapon off the bench.

Even though the team lost two of its top scoring options, look for the Badgers to continue to be a force in the Big Ten, especially if the trio

of Trice, Davison and King can shoot as well as they’ve shown previously.

The Badgers also won’t be as young of a team as many fans may have thought, considering nearly all of their projected starting lineup consists of sophomores and juniors.

It also remains to be seen how Wisconsin plays this season under interim assistant coach Alando Tucker as Howard Moore takes a season off under medical leave following a tragic car accident that took the lives of his wife and daughter.

Tucker — Wisconsin basketball’s all-time leading scorer — will return to the Badger bench this season as the assistant coach under head coach Greg Gard.

“We’re thankful to have someone like Alando able to step into this role. His familiarity with the program and our players, combined with his incredible basketball experience and energy will be a great fit,” Gard said.

Despite Wisconsin’s strong offense and consistent coaching staff, the Big Ten will prove to be a challenge with perennial superteam Michigan State and teams like Maryland and The Ohio State University on the rise this season.

Michigan State will more than likely provide the toughest competition of any team in the Big Ten, as they head into the season as one of the top teams nationally behind the scoring duo of senior Cassius Winston and junior Joshua Langford, who will return from injury after missing all of last season.

The rest of the Big Ten is more balanced than ever before, as eight of the 14 teams made the NCAA Tournament last year and all but one team finished with at least six conference wins a season ago.

The Badgers’ season will tip off Friday, Nov. 1 in an exhibition against UW-Lacrosse at the Kohl Center, followed by their first regular season game Nov. 5 on the road against Saint Mary’s.

Wisconsin will open Big Ten play with a matchup against Indiana at the Kohl Center Saturday Dec. 7. UW-Madison has won 15 consecutive games against the Hoosiers in Madison.

The team has several high-profile home games this season, including Marquette, The Ohio State University, Maryland, Michigan State and Purdue. Be sure to get your student season tickets when they go on sale Thursday, Sep. 12 at 7 a.m. on uwbadgers.com.

SPORTS

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Volleyball: Kelly Sheffield shines light on depth for upcoming season Following Elite Eight appearance last season, Badgers enter season as Big Ten favorites behind Dana Rettke, Sydney Hilley

by Harrison Freuck Sports Editor

The University of Wisconsin women’s volleyball team recently began their regular season schedule. Hopefully, this season will be one of fully realized potential as the team entered the season ranked No. 5 nationally.

Furthermore, a selection of Big Ten coaches also voted the Badgers to be the preseason favorites to win the conference, ahead of nationally ranked No. 2 Nebraska and No. 3 Minnesota, leaving high expectations for the team.

In a recent interview with Head Coach Kelly Sheffield, Sheffield opened up about expectations for the team this season, including star player Dana Rettke who continues to dominate teams across the country.

With the high expectations, it is clear that the team refuses to get cocky about their ranking, staying humble and focusing

on each game individually in order to compete and prove their value not only individually, but as a team.

“The hope is that our body of work puts ourselves in a position to compete for the Big Ten Championship and also that we improve and progress in a way that allows us to be competitive for a long tournament run,” Sheffield said. “The only way to do that is to take it one match at a time — and that’s what we are going to try and do.”

While the Badgers retained just about all of their key players from last year, their one major loss entering this season is Tionna Williams who graduated this past spring.

Replacing her will be sophomore Danielle Hart, who Sheffield sees a lot of potential in. Even with the loss of Williams, things may not change as much as one might normally expect.

But besides Hart, it doesn’t seem Sheffield expects the team to alter their identity much from a season ago, as the rest of the core remains the same. It is likely

that we see improvement across the board from most players, but there probably won’t be any breakout players for the Badgers this season, at least according to Sheffield.

“Tionna was a very talented player and had one heck of a career here,” Sheffield said. “Danielle Hart will move into that position. Danielle has a lot of potential and has worked hard to learn the skills that are necessary to play that position in our league. I would expect her to continue to get better and better as the season progresses. Other than Danielle, I’m not sure who else to expect to see take a major step forward from what they were a year ago. One of our strengths will be our balance — balance across the front court and across the back court, and the ability to set anyone at the net.”

Junior Rettke could not be stopped during her first two years at Madison and it would be wise to expect more of the same this season after she was given the opportunity to train with the U.S. Women’s National Team over the summer. In fact, in just the first two games of the season, Rettke managed to accrue 39 points for the Badgers’ score line.

The next-closest team member, Molly Haggerty, procured just 22.

Rettke also led the team in kills for both of their opening two games.

Against Florida State in their season opener, she had 17 spikes before oneupping herself against North Carolina with 18 spikes.

Rettke’s opportunity, according to Sheffield, will give her confidence moving forward which will help her improve her speed and power — if that’s even possible considering her skills to this point.

At the end of the interview, we asked Sheffield how tough he believes the Badgers’ competition is in this coming season.

“There are 334 Division I teams in volleyball,” Sheffield said. “In the preseason national rankings, five of the top eight teams and seven of the top 17 are all in the Big Ten. This league will test you up, down, sideways, and every other way. Year in and year out the Big Ten is crazy good, and our pre-conference schedule is also pretty challenging. As an athlete, if you are a competitive junkie, there’s nothing better.”

It is no doubt that the Badgers will face stiff competition both within and

outside of the Big Ten. Yet, this is exactly what the team is looking forward to, according to Sheffield. Without it, there is no way to test your true mettle that will be necessary to execute in the post season when everything is on the line.

The tough schedule that lays ahead of the Badgers only serves to ensure that they will be tested early and often during a season that holds much promise.

With that in mind, be sure to check

“There are 334 Division I teams in volleyball. In the preseason national rankings, five of the top eight teams and seven of the top 17 are all in the Big Ten. This league will test you up, down, sideways, and every other way. Year in and year out the Big Ten is crazy good, and our pre-conference schedule is also pretty challenging. As an athlete, if you are a competitive junkie, there’s nothing better.”

Kelly Sheffield Wisconsin volleyball head coach

out the team this season at the UW Field House. Admission is included with the purchase of a Red Card, which is $25. The team’s next home game will be Sept. 19 against the University of Washington at 8 p.m. The Badgers will then open Big Ten play against Purdue at the Field House Sept. 27 at 7 p.m.

September 10, 2019 • badgerherald.com • 19

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SPORTS

Women’s Hockey: Roster consistencies signal renewed opportunities

Wisconsin enters 2019-20 season with multitude of raw talent, experience and depth following championship season

by Jake Gross Associate Sports Editor

The University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team ended their 2018-19 campaign with a national championship victory, defeating the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers by a score of 2–0.

The women’s team finished with a record of 354-2 (18–4–2 WCHA) and finished the season on a seven-game winning streak in order to capture the title.

It will be tough for the Badgers to surpass last season’s performance, but with a majority of the roster returning and a dynamic freshman class incoming, their winning culture should remain constant.

The Badgers dominated opponents last season in numerous categories. More specifically, they managed to outscore opposing teams in commanding fashion, averaging 3.8 goals per game and only allowing a measly 1.0 goals per game.

Furthermore, Wisconsin had four individual Western Collegiate Hockey Association award winners: Annie Pankowski was named offensive player of the year, Kristen Campbell was named top goalkeeper, Sophie Shirley was named rookie of the year and head coach Mark Johnson was

named coach of the year.

Individual talent played a massive role in carrying the Badgers to a national title. As it is with all collegiate teams, that talent can’t stay forever.

With a new season around the corner, the Badgers will be forced to reload their roster if they hope to once again achieve success.

Through examination of the renewed Badger roster, let’s assess the women’s prospects of repeating their championship run.

Overall, the Badgers have a solid chance of defending their national championship title. Much of the starting squad from last year is returning for the 2019-2020 campaign.

As a senior, Pankowski finished with a teamleading 22 goals and 50 points. She held season highs for the Badgers in multiple categories, including four points, three goals, three assists and 10 shots.

Perhaps most importantly for the Badgers, Pankowski was the face of the team and its undoubted spiritual leader. Without her welldocumented leadership abilities as well as extensive experience guiding the Badgers throughout the season, there remain questions as to whether or not someone else will step forward.

Along with Pankowski, the Badgers will say

goodbye to seniors Emily Clark, Sam Cogan, Sophia Shaver, Maddie Rolfes and Mikaela Gardner.

With new departures comes new arrivals, in which the Badgers add a skillful incoming class.

The Badgers will be bringing in a recruiting class featuring six new players: Chayla Edwards, Kaitlyn Kotlowski, Grace Shirley, Dara Greig, Teagan Grant and Daryl Watts.

Head Coach Johnson described his expectations for the new class in a recent interview for UW communications. ”As I look at it, this year’s class fills the need of what we lost from last year,” Johnson said. “We lost a couple high-quality defensemen and we’re bringing in three defensemen in Chayla, Teagan and Katie to battle for that position. The same thing upfront, we lost four tremendous forwards and we need people to come in and fill those quality minutes. Obviously Dara, Grace and Daryl are going to be asked to do that.

The Badgers will also be bringing back a large core of their roster that helped them to the top of the WCHA not long ago.

Forward Shirley played a massive role in the Badgers’ offense, putting up 38 points as a freshman, marking the third-most for the Badgers.

Shirley also led the Badgers with 26 points in conference play.

Redshirt junior and starting goalkeeper Campbell will be returning as well. Campbell had an outstanding save percentage of .940 percent and a Big Ten best 11 shutouts last season.

Forward Abby Roque will be returning for the Badgers for her senior season. Roque contributed 43 points overall, marking the second-most on the team behind Pankowski.

Other returners include forwards Britta Curl, Presley Norby, senior defenseman Mekenzie Steffen and a roster that had 15-plus double-digit point-getters.

With a head coach of the year, tremendous goalkeeper, and deep and experienced roster, the Badgers have an exceptional squad with a substantial chance at another national title.

There is no doubt that the hole created by Pankowski’s departure is large. If the Badgers want to move past it, they’ll have to lean on someone else, or possibly multiple people, to fill those shoes of leadership in a timely manner.

Perhaps most importantly, they’ll have to do so quickly, as a hot start is crucial to building momentum throughout a regular season that is necessary to have the chance at another title game.

Football: Can defense return to 2017 form following poor 2018?

The Badger’s 2017 defense was gold standard for college football, but declined drastically in 2018 with loss of starters

by Ben Kenney Associate Sports Editor

Summer is finally over and the Wisconsin Badgers are back.

Back like their dominant 13-1 2017 season?

Maybe not completely. But after a disappointing 8-5 season during which they barely managed a winning record against Big Ten opponents, Head Coach Paul Chryst’s team is taking strides back toward 2017 form.

That team was built on a stingy defense, a strong offensive line and a game manager at quarterback handing the ball off to Jonathan Taylor 25 times a game.

The difference between the team’s success in 2017 and the lack thereof in 2018? The stingy defense.

Defensive Coordinator Jim Leonhard’s 2017 defense ranked third in the nation with only 13.9 points allowed per game, and the team as a whole paced the country with an SRS score — a statistic which takes into account point differential and strength of schedule — of 22.61.

In 2018, they finished the year 34th in the country with 22.6 points allowed per game, 100 more points allowed in total than the 2017 team and an SRS of 7.67, good for just 30th in the nation.

20 • September 10, 2019 • badgerherald.com

This decrease in defensive production not only affected the Badgers statistically, but also significantly lowered their ability to close games.

While part of 2018’s 8-5 record can be attributed to the injury of Alex Hornibrook and a weakened receiver core, the loss of a stalwart defensive played an extremely large role in exacerbating the existing problems on offense.

Much of the dropoff can be attributed to Chryst and Leonhard saying goodbye to seven defensive starters, most notably leaders of the unit Leon Jacobs, Nick Nelson, Alec James and Natrell Jamerson. And while the linebacking core of T.J. Edwards and Ryan Connelly — the team’s two leading tacklers — returned for 2018, the cast of new faces on the defensive line and in the secondary hurt Leonhard’s unit immensely.

His 2017 defensive line only allowed 98.4 rush yards per game, .5 touchdowns per game and a yards-per-carry average of 3.2. His new-look 2018 line conceded a whopping 155.1 rush yards per game, 1.3 rushing touchdowns per game and a yards-per-carry clip of 4.4.

In total, Leonhard’s 2017 defense gave up 262 yards per game. In 2018 that number was 344.

Now with the 2019 season underway, Leonhard returns the majority of the secondary and defensive line. And though he and Chryst lost defensive

leaders Connelly and Edwards to the NFL, Chris Orr returns to lead the defense and will line up behind a vastly improved defensive line that is headlined by senior Zack Baun and junior Isaiahh Loudermilk.

This formula, a strong and athletic defensive line paired with tough, veteran linebackers, is what brought Chryst’s 2017 team one drive away from the College Football Playoff and is what will determine whether the 2019 defense can return to that dominant form.

Friday night against South Florida, all signs pointed towards the return of Wisconsin’s defense as we know it.

From the first drive of the game the defense’s experience, talent and improvement were apparent, and the unit shut out USF Head Coach Charlie Strong’s explosive offense. The final score, 49–0, didn’t even tell the whole story on how dominant the defense was.

South Florida’s final statistics: nine total first downs, three of 16 on third and fourth downs, 157 total yards, 26 rushing yards and three turnovers including one returned for a touchdown.

The last time Wisconsin allowed fewer than 30 rushing yards in a game was Sept. 30, 2017 against Northwestern. It was also 2017 when the Badgers last shut out an opponent.

On top of an already-impressive game defending against South Florida’s rushing attack, the Badgers also managed to largely shut down veteran senior QB Blake Barnett. The defense held him to just 131 yards passing for the entire night and managed to also force two interceptions.

This impressive performance points toward signs of a revamped secondary that barely weathered a storm of injuries and lack of experience last season.

If it hasn’t been made apparent already, Friday night’s game bled shades of 2017 and is pointing toward a great season in Madison.

If Orr, Sanborn and the defensive line can continue to control the run game and pressure opposing QB like they did on Friday and like the 2017 unit was able to do, expect the defense to build upon its impressive week one showing and bring the Badgers to the Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis.

Tough tests certainly remain for the Badgers throughout the season, including multiple highpowered threats such as The Ohio State University offense and Nebraska QB Adrian Martinez.

It remains to be seen whether or not they can live up to the defense expectations set by their highly impressive 2017 season.