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Nintendo’s next generation console hits the stands
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University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Revisions to proposed HR redesign released By Cheyenne Langkamp The Daily Cardinal
The University of WisconsinMadison released a revised version of the controversial Human Resources redesign plan Monday, which focuses on changes to enhance employee job security and further commit the university to continue considering campus input as the plan is implemented. According to Bob Lavigna, redesign project team leader and director of Human Resources, the changes were based on feedback received from extensive campus engagement on the plan, which he said reached over 10,000 individuals since last spring. Lavigna said the altered plan includes new components to increase job security for classified staff employees, which includes clerical and technical positions. These employees would be renamed “university staff” under the redesign. These changes include a 30-day period in which classi-
fied staff who take a new position can return to a former position without penalty. The plan would also reinstate a policy that requires the university to find laid-off classified staff a similar position within the same division within a year. Current classified staff member Gary Mitchell said these changes were a “step in the right direction,” but still said the lack of weight given to employee’s seniority rights would be a loss. Additionally, Lavigna said his team made other small adjustments to the plan to further emphasize the importance of shared governance, especially regarding continued faculty, staff and student input as the implementation of the HR plan moves forward. One change the plan would now require is that governance bodies be involved in the selection of a vendor to conduct a study that will serve as the basis for a comprehensive restructuring of the titles and compensa-
tion levels of employee positions. “It was really a matter of emphasis to make sure that in all of the aspects of the plan it came through clearly that this would be something that we would implement in collaboration with all of the governance groups,” Lavigna said. Other additions to the plan include a more formal emphasis that teaching and public service, as well as research, be considered in evaluating faculty compensation. Sara Goldrick-Rab, sociology and educational policy studies professor and faculty senator, said this change is incredibly important to the plan, as faculty are often rewarded for being “research rockstars” but not “teaching rockstars.” “I think the students should be very happy that the faculty pushed back and said ‘Hey, we want to be rewarded for teaching well,’” Goldrick-Rab said.
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SSFC approves modified ASM budget The Student Services Finance Committee approved a $1.2 million version of the Associated Students of Madison internal operating budget, which now faces approval by the Student Council, at its meeting Monday. SSFC cut nearly $100,000 from the 2013-’14 budget initially approved by Student Council Nov.
7, with the largest cuts coming from Finance Committee travel and events grants. Included in the budget are funds for Varsity Day, which would be used to bring prominent speakers to campus for an end of the academic year celebration event. Although SSFC members proposed separate motions both
Jane Thompson/the daily cardinal
SSFC Rep. David Vines said he supported allocating $60,000 in budget funds for an end of the year speaker event on campus.
to increase and decrease funding for Varsity Day, neither passed and the committee approved the same amount Student Council had passed two weeks ago for the event. SSFC Representative David Vines said the $60,000 allocated to Varsity Day is reasonable. “This gives us enough flexibility to get other [sponsors] involved to hopefully pitch in more money,” Vines said. The committee also cut from funds ASM uses for its own operation, including training and orientation for members and a portion of salary funds for the press office. Student Council representative David Gardner said the Council will likely discuss cuts SSFC made, particularly those to student council trainings, when it votes on the budget. “I believe this was very much a compromise,” Gardner said. “However, I do think there will be more conversation about the extent to which that compromise was reached at Student Council.” Gardner added many Student Council representatives support training funds for Student Council members. Student Council will vote on the budget at its Nov. 28 meeting. —Meghan Chua
Shilpa Kalluru/the daily cardinal
Dan Savage, a syndicated sex columnist, answers questions submitted by UW students about sex and homosexuality Monday.
Columnist Dan Savage visits UW, talks sex By Shannon Kelly The Daily Cardinal
Dan Savage, widely syndicated sex columnist and co-founder of the “It Gets Better” Project for the prevention of suicide among LGBT youth, spoke at Union South Monday night as part of the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Distinguished Lecture Series. Savage’s speech took place in the form of an hour-and-ahalf-long question-and-answer session with questions submitted anonymously by the audience beforehand, a style which he is well known for. Perhaps equally well known is his frank and often irreverent approach to talking about sex, relationships and love. During his speech, this open approach kept the audi-
ence laughing as he answered questions ranging from how to introduce sex toys into a relationship to his opinion of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” One message Savage highlighted was that people of all sexual orientations can benefit from creating a sexual environment that is safe, inclusive, non-judgmental and values sexual activity that both partners enjoy over activity that society has prescribed as the “real” way to have sex. Savage said straight couples can learn from homosexuals about being more communicative about what they want during sex. “We are better at sex because we communicate, because we are forced to communicate in a way
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UW-Madison student struck by car on West Johnson Street, fractures back A car hit a University of Wisconsin-Madison student while she was biking near East Campus Mall and West Johnson Street on her way to class Monday morning, leaving her hospitalized with a fractured back. UW-Madison junior Stephanie Castillo, who is a reporter at The Daily Cardinal, said she was at the south end of West Johnson Street crossing toward East Campus Mall at approximately 9:45 a.m. when a car struck her. Castillo said she was “somewhat in a hurry” when she crossed the intersection and entered the street when she observed most of the cars
were slowing down for a yellow light. The Madison Fire Department responded to the scene, and she was transported to the University of Wisconsin Hospital by MFD paramedics, according to MFD spokesperson Lori Wirth. UW-Madison junior Erick Diaz, who is Castillo’s boyfriend, said a nurse told him Castillo hit and shattered the windshield of the car, which was traveling at approximately 20 miles per hour. Castillo told the paramedics to call Diaz while she was in the
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“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”