Weekend, April 11-13, 2008 - The Daily Cardinal by The Daily Cardinal

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Weekend, April 11-13, 2008

An independent student newspaper, serving the University of Wisconsin-Madison community since 1892

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News and Editorial edit@dailycardinal.com Editor in Chief Jill Klosterman Managing Editor Jamie McMahon News Editor Jillian Levy Campus Editor Amanda Hoffstrom Abby Sears City Editor State Editor Charles Brace Opinion Editors Rachel Sherman Mark Thompson Arts Editors Emma Condon Ryan Hebel Sports Editors Nate Carey Ryan Reszel Features Editor Sarah Nance Food Editor Marly Schuman Science Editor Jennifer Evans Photo Editors Jacob Ela Amanda Salm Graphics Editors Meg Anderson Matt Riley Copy Chiefs Andrew Dambeck Al Morrell Gabe Ubatuba Copy Editors Catlin Gath Cathy Martin, Ryan Matthes Hannah McClung, Mario Puig Laurel Tiedemann, Jake Victor Dan Williamson

Business and Advertising business@dailycardinal.com Business Manager Babu Gounder Assistant Business Manager Alex Kusters Advertising Manager Marissa Gallus Christopher Guess Web Director Account Executives Natalie Kemp Sarah Resimius, Tom Shield Sheila Phillips Marketing Director Assistant Marketing Director Jeff Grimyser Creative Designer Joe Farrell Accounts Receivable Manager Jonathan Prod Archivists Raighne Mitchell-Luft Erin Schmidtke The Daily Cardinal is published weekdays and distributed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and its surrounding community with a circulation of 10,000. The Daily Cardinal is a nonproﬁt organization run by its staff members and elected editors. It receives no funds from the university. Operating revenue is generated from advertising and subscription sales. Capital Newspapers, Inc. is the Cardinal’s printer. The Daily Cardinal is printed on recycled paper. The Cardinal is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. All copy, photographs and graphics appearing in The Daily Cardinal are the sole property of the Cardinal and may not be reproduced without written permission of the editor in chief. The Daily Cardinal accepts advertising representing a wide range of views. This acceptance does not imply agreement with the views expressed. The Cardinal reserves the right to reject advertisements judged offensive based on imagery, wording or both. Complaints: News and editorial complaints should be presented to the editor in chief. Business and advertising complaints should be presented to the business manager. Letters Policy: Letters must be typewritten, double-spaced and no longer than 200 words, including contact information. Letters may be sent to letters@dailycardinal.com.

Editorial Board Kyle Dropp Dan Heidenreich Dave Heller Jill Klosterman John Leppanen Jamie McMahon Rachel Sherman Mark Thompson l

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KIERA WIATRAK taking kiera business

ast week was a tough week for Wisconsin students. We lost one of our own. Even those of us who never met Brittany Zimmermann somehow felt a connection to her. Maybe it happened as we locked our doors an hour before we usually would, or avoided late nights at the library that would force us to walk home alone. Maybe we thought about Brittany when we sat in lecture realizing she sat in these same chairs, contemplating complicated math formulas or classic literature only days before. No matter when it happened or under what circumstances, I think we all felt something. We felt her and realized how close we could come to having a memory of some-

one we never met. I never met Brittany Zimmermann. I don’t know if she was a party girl or a homebody. I don’t know how many siblings she had. I don’t know how she ended up at Wisconsin. I don’t know if we would have hit it off and become friends if we had met or just written each other off like we do with 95 percent of the people we cross paths with on this campus. But there are a few things I can assume. She probably waited impatiently at the Park and University intersection when she was late for class. She probably hoped for the e-mail announcing classes were canceled during the blizzards earlier this year. She was once new here, probably wondering where she would ﬁt in with the rest of us. These little, almost insigniﬁcant things make her seem more like a real person than another tragic news story. She seems more real to us than the victims at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. But every victim of these tragedies seemed this way to

people close to them, too. The truth is, hypothetically, going a year in the United States without any random tragedies such as this one seems almost inconceivable. Tragic stories we hear on the news are awful and horrifying, but they’re not unique. In fact, they’re expected. We expect to hear heart-wrenching stories every year, but we just don’t expect them to hit so close to home. What we often forget is all of the other tragedies we hear about happened at someone else’s school, in someone else’s neighborhood and to someone else’s friend. We hear about the details—the when, where and how—but we don’t hear about that person’s favorite shirt, her tendency to bite her nails when she was thinking hard about something or the episode of a TV show that always made her laugh. All of these victims were close to people who loved them. And all of their stories affected the people around them who may not have known them, just like Brittany’s has affected us.

Wis. voters say economy top concern in upcoming election By Rebecca Autrey THE DAILY CARDINAL

A survey released Thursday by St. Norbert College shows Wisconsin residents view the economy as the most important issue in the upcoming presidential election. Wendy Scattergood, assistant professor of political science at St. Norbert College, said the results are useful because few polls focus specifically on Wisconsin. “There aren’t that many statewide surveys that are done in Wisconsin, considering that we are considered a battleground state,” she said. “I think that it really gives people an idea of what’s going on.” The poll found that Wisconsin voters think U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is the candidate

best equipped to deal with the current economic situation, while U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would best handle the Iraq War. U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, DN.Y., would be the best candidate to manage U.S. health care issues, respondents said. Voters also feel these are the three most important issues this year, according to the poll. Charles Franklin, a professor of political science at UWMadison, said it is “striking and awe inspiring” the economy has quickly surpassed the Iraq War as the No. 1 issue on voters’. “It certainly has set the stage for a fall election that is far more about domestic politics and far less involved with the war,” he said. John Cooper, UW-Madison M.E. Gordon Fox professor of American Institutions, said the

decreased emphasis on Iraq is not surprising. “The economy is in very bad shape,” he said. “Unless we’re in a really … major war, terribly and immediately in a dangerous situation, the economy nearly almost always trumps foreign policy.” According to the survey, Wisconsin residents would currently vote for Obama over McCain, but would vote for McCain over Clinton. Franklin said most of the survey results are not surprising. He said Wisconsin parallels national trends and the survey is an indication the election in November will be close. A separate St. Norbert survey released Thursday shows President Bush has an approval rating of 31 percent in Wisconsin, the lowest it has been in seven years.

Board of Directors Marissa Gallus Babu Gounder Nik Hawkins Tim Kelley Jill Klosterman Janet Larson Chris Long Benjamin Sayre Adam Schmidt Terry Shelton Jeff Smoller Jason Stein l

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WEEKEND: snow hi 39º / lo 29º

Times like these call for quiet reﬂection

Volume 117, Issue 123

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TODAY: rain hi 50º / lo 35º

This year’s Relay for Life at UW-Madison will be held from Friday at 6 p.m. until 8 a.m. Saturday at the Shell, and will feature U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., as a speaker. “We’re really, really excited about that,” said Stephanie Van Hecke, a UW-Madison Relay for Life committee publicity chair. Van Hecke said this year’s Relay is the biggest Madison has ever had and credited the committee’s co-chairs, Ally Nathan and Megan Geissler, with the success. “For me it’s huge,” Geissler said, adding this is the ninth Relay for Life she has been involved in. “Our goal is to raise $165,000, which I think we’re going to blow out of the water. Even to meet our goal I think is a tremendous accomplishment—it means a lot.” “Every community that there’s a Relay for Life is people who don’t know each other coming together because everyone supports this cause. I think that is something truly unique about Relay for Life.” According to the event website,

more than 1,330 individuals on 128 teams will participate Friday. UW-Madison’s Relay for Life had raised $70,914 as of press time. “Most of [the teams] are just groups of friends who have been touched by somebody with cancer or are friends of somebody who has been touched with cancer,” Van Hecke said, adding teams usually consist of 10 to 15 individuals. One such individual is Liotta, who participated in her first Relay for Life in 2003 with friends from high school, raising $2,300 with her team. Liotta has focused on ways to make an impact on those affected by cancer ever since. She has even been asked to give speeches at American Cancer Society events about her survival story. “By letting others into my world, into my experience, I’m letting them know that they have the same opportunity and power to help make a difference,” Liotta said. “If what I say and do inspires others to get involved, they are, in turn, inspiring others to do that same thing.” —Heather Bonzelet contributed to this report.

transients from page 1 business owners and commuters in the area, DeSpain said. “In the context of the investigation, we’re talking with anyone who was in and around that Bassett neighborhood on the day of the homicide,” he said. Police said they have made about two dozen arrests during the Zimmermann investigation for probation holds and other unrelated crimes, but do not have any suspects in the case. DeSpain said there is concern some members of the transient population have become more aggressive. Ketchum said the police have identified a group of “chronic” homeless people who are not representative of all transients. She said she hopes people will “stop painting an entire group with a broad brush.” A follow-up to the news conference is scheduled for April 15 at 4 p.m. in the Tenant Resource Center offices at the Social Justice Center on Williamson Street.

Tragedies like this happen every year, so consistently in fact, that some mathematician could probably calculate the odds of it happening to us. When these disasters happen, we often look at them as numbers, such as how many times it has happened this year and how much crime has occurred in that area. Statistically speaking, something like this shouldn’t happen to us. It should happen to someone else. But this was also true for Brittany, rendering all numbers and equations useless for the people who knew and loved her. Maybe we should take a look at the numbers and the larger scale that puts crime into context. But I think it’s more important to remember that Brittany is more than a black-andwhite photo on the front page of the newspaper or a warning to lock our doors at night. She encompassed a unique combination of little things, like we all do, that make a person who she is. She was one of us. E-mail Kiera at wiatrak@wisc.edu.

Board of Regents launch scholar fund UW System President Kevin Reilly said in a Board of Regents meeting Thursday a multi-million dollar fundraising campaign would soon begin for greater financial aid at state colleges. Reilly wants to raise $6 to $12 million a year in privately funded donations for need-based financial aid, UW System spokesperson David Giroux said. According to Giroux, a major portion of the campaign calls for a comprehensive website to make donating easier, and to raise awareness about the importance of financial aid. He said the fundraising drive would not require hiring any additional staff. According to Giroux, less state funding for higher education is a factor in promoting more private donations. He said a major reason for the campaign is the increasing costs for college. Members of several student councils around the state also presented their priorities for the upcoming UW System budget at the meeting, including better faculty retention and domestic partner benefits for staff.

Libraries sponsor file-sharing event UW-Madison Libraries is scheduled to host a symposium Saturday on the culture of Internet file sharing, focusing on students’ rights and responsibilities in peer-to-peer file sharing. The event includes speakers Nelson Pavlosky, co-founder of Students for Free Culture, and Gavin Baker, cofounder of the University of Florida chapter. At the library symposium, students will be able to participate in breakout sessions about YouTube, file sharing, open access publishing, open source programming and digital rights management. “We hope this program helps create a community of interest in these issues among students and that the forum will be one of many discussions and programs related to copyright and access,” Carrie Nelson, associate academic librarian at College Library, said in a statement. The Culture of Sharing will be in Memorial Union at 3 p.m. Check TITU for exact location. For more information log on to http://cultureofsharing.library.wisc.edu.