University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Freshman class sees rise in Wisconsinites The UW-Madison freshman class has the second largest number of in-state residents since 2001, with 3,750 of the 6,264 enrolled students coming from Wisconsin. The total class is the third largest in UW’s history, according to numbers released by the university’s registrar. “We strive to get distribution from many parts of the state,” Steve Hahn, interim vice provost for Enrollment Management, said. “We don’t want all urban or all rural students, but students from all walks of life in Wisconsin.”
Of this year’s freshman class, 71.9 percent of residents who applied to UW-Madison were accepted. “We place a high priority on admitting the best and brightest among Wisconsin high school graduates, and these numbers reflect that commitment,” Hahn said. In 2001, there were 3,947 residents enrolled. Last year’s numbers were the highest since, with 3,843 in-state students. “Wisconsin as a whole sends us great students, and we think that every one of them can suc-
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EMILY BUCK/THE DAILY CARDINAL
The UW-Madison freshman class of 2014 brings the second largest number of in-state students since 2001, with 3,750 students of the total 6,264 hailing from Wisconsin.
Election officials ask court to throw out ballot lawsuit Officials in charge of running Wisconsin’s elections asked a judge to dismiss a case brought forward by Republican legislators who alleged the state’s new ballots are unfair and will confuse voters. The Government Accountability Board argued in their request to dismiss the case that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Scott
Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, improperly filed their lawsuit. The GAB said in their motion to Waukesha County Circuit Judge James Kieffer the lawmakers cannot challenge the ballots in all 68 counties because their combined legislative districts only include Racine, Walworth, Columbia and Jefferson counties. Wisconsin Attorney General
J.B. Van Hollen, who is representing the GAB, also contended that lawmakers should have filed complaints with their respective district attorney’s or the Board itself before filing in court. In the original lawsuit, Vos and Fitzgerald argued the new formats of lines and shading could make it difficult for voters distinguish between the different political races.
Last week, Kevin Kennedy, the state’s chief election officer, said in a press conference it would be impractical to redesign and reprint new ballots with fewer than 50 day until the election. “The ballot looks different,” Kennedy said last week. “We’ve made some changes but they’re not significant differences.” —Eoin Cottrell
UW-Madison labs to switch to electronic notebooks
Improved outlet for student voice in UW System, state decisions on the horizon UW System students could soon see a new form of representation across the state, one that is more conducive to sharing and organizing their ideas and initiatives. Currently, UW Student Representatives meet with staff from the UW System Administration five times throughout the year, providing an opportunity for discussion between students and administration. Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Derek Field said the new representative outlet would allow UW students a more direct group to voice their opinions. Field said the current student representation needs more student portrayal than solely the student government president and vice president. “UW Student Representatives is only open to the two highest ranking members at each cam-
“Specifically, GAB’s new ballot design will result in confusion and a failure to understand the ballot and will lead to an increase in what are known as under-voted ballots,” Vos and Fitzgerald said in their original complaint. An under-voted ballot occurs when citizens fail to vote for all the elections listed throughout the ballot.
KATIE NELSON/THE DAILY CARDINAL
ASM Vice Chair Derek Field said a new organization is in the works that will cater to more overall student involvement. pus, which is part of the problem because people who are experts on the issues that they work on can’t actually go, they’re doing work and then there’s no organizing there,” Field said. This student body, titled Wisconsin Student Association, would meet more often with the administration than the UW Student Representatives, and tackle issues with other UW campuses such as voting laws and college affordability.
Ammerman and Co. + SPORTS, page 8
In addition to creating the Wisconsin Student Association, Field said higher education institutions across the nation are in the process of sending a letter to the secretary of education, requesting greater transparency on schools’ interactions with financial institutions. Student leadership will meet later in the month to further discuss the new association and letter. —Ellie Herman
UW-Madison researchers soon will have the option to store and organize lab notebooks with a new software service called Electronic Lab Notebook, according to a university release Tuesday. The new software application serves many of the same functions as a paper lab notebook but offers additional searchability, integration with digital data sources and access controls to facilitate collaboration and protect intellectual property, according to the release. Many electronic notebooks on the market do not meet important security, usability and data storage requirements important to UW researchers. A campus ELN team therefore identified a central software solution. Several UW-Madison labs already use electronic notebooks and have participated in software pilots for years. Jean-Michel Ané, a profes-
sor of agronomy, said in the release a large amount of data was being lost before switching to electronic notebooks. He said researchers dealt with confusion between digital and print before switching to electronic notebooks. Mark Meyer, an associate scientist in Wesley Pike’s lab in the Department of Biochemistry, also started using an ELN. “Nearly everything our lab does is digital,” Meyer said in the release. “An ELN was a no-brainer.” The university established the new contract with LabArchives, which will make new software available for use in labs at no cost beginning this month. The software features include basic drawing, image annotation, chemistry tools, a PDF export resembling a traditional lab notebook, calculation tools and integration with Google documents. —Dana Kampa
Tragedy personified + ARTS, page 5
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”