Freakfest and concerts and plays, oh my!
DATING VIOLENCE AT UW:
Check out The Daily Cardinal arts calendar and find out about the events billed to come to Madison this October. + ARTS, pages 4-5
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With October being Domestic Violence Awareness Month, PAVE reminds students that they are not immune from the difficult reality. +OPINION, page 6
dailycardinal.com
New bill promotes abstinence education
Disabled at UW: Number of handicapped parking spots on campus will decrease, higher proportion to require $495 permit
Story by Scott Girard Jayme Memmel drove himself to campus every day last year, and often had to park five or six blocks from his classes. For someone who is a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, that distance can be problematic. “My chair broke down twice in the winter because of where I had to park,” Memmel, a recent UW-Madison graduate, said. This year, UW-Madison Transportation Services plans to change disabled parking on campus. According to the plans, the university will eliminate 55 disabled spots in total, as well as change some from state disabled parking spaces to handicap spots that require university permits. The permits cost $495 a year. Casey Newman, associate director at UW-Madison Transportation Services, said the changes for most of the spots are based on data collected about how often the parking is used. “It doesn’t really do anybody any good to have a lot of disabled spots in a part of campus where nobody uses them,” Newman said. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the proposal does not violate Americans
with Disabilities Act standards. But Memmel said little usage does not mean spots are unnecessary, and that eliminating them will hurt people with both power and manual wheelchairs, as well as those with walkers or other physical disabilities. “Even if they are used once a week or once a month, if somebody is handicapped they need to be as close to the doors as possible,” Memmel said. Memmel said he would often park at the Educational Sciences building on Johnson Street, and then have to go to the Education building on Bascom Hill in his wheelchair. Although the parking garage under the Education building has handicap spots, Memmel said the ramp down into the garage is too steep for him to drive down, so it was not an option.
“It doesn’t really do anybody any good to have a lot of disabled spots in a part of campus where nobody uses them.” Casey Newman associate director UW-Madison Transportation Services
He also had trouble finding spots with enough room to park and get his wheelchair out of his van. “They don’t have enough of those spots around, and some of those spots they do have, certainly where I went to class, are very
parking page 2
Lisa Grulke/the daily cardinal
Transportation Services will eliminate 55 disabled parking spaces on campus and require $495-permits for many handicap spots.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
By Rachel Fettig The Daily Cardinal
Ben Koeppen/the daily cardinal
UW-Madison faculty proposed a policy that would prohibit employees from carrying weapons on campus Monday.
Under proposal, UW staff could not carry weapons By Corinne Burgermeister The Daily Cardinal
As the university prepares for a law permitting concealed weapons to go into effect, a UW-Madison Faculty Senate committee proposed a policy that would prohibit university employees from carrying weapons on campus Monday. The University Committee proposed the policy, which suggests no university employee would be allowed to carry firearms or weapons at any time they are engaged in work-related activities, unless approved in advance by the chancellor or “designee,” usually a police chief. Under the legislation, if an employee violates the policy, they would be subjected to “discipline or dismissal” from UW-Madison. The body voted to not apply the policy to university law enforcement officers. While the legislation would apply to UW-Madison employees, students are allowed to carry concealed weapons on university grounds under the law. According to the law, employers are allowed to prohibit employees from carrying weapons in university buildings and at university events, but cannot do the same for students.
The faculty senate said they plan to post signs prohibiting individuals from carrying concealed weapons in university buildings to protect students, faculty and staff from potential danger stemming from weapons on campus. The University Committee said they worked with campus administrative legal services and human relations personnel to draft the policy.
“We wanted to get this in front of the Faculty Senate ... so we have the policy of the university stated clearly and preemptively.” Brad Barham chair University Committee
According to University Committee Chair Brad Barham, the committee hopes the Faculty Senate approves the policy in a timely matter with the concealed carry legislation going into effect Nov. 1. “We wanted to get this in front of Faculty Senate hopefully before then so we have the policy of the university stated clearly and preemptively,” Barham said.
Wisconsin public school districts with sexual education programs may no longer be required to inform students of contraceptive information if a bill recommending abstinence-based education passes the state legislature in the coming months. State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, authored the bill, which recommends school districts teach abstinence as “the only reliable method for avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.” It would also remove information about contraception from the curriculum and emphasize “the positive connection between marriage and parenting.” “The bill gives each community options, rather than mandates,” Lazich said in a memo. “This provides local school districts the power to choose a curriculum that is reflective of the surrounding community’s values.” Currently, Gov. Jim Doyle’s Healthy Youth Act requires public schools with sex education programs to teach contraception as a part the curriculum. According to Lazich, the bill would give more control to school districts to interpret the 2009 act. If passed, the bill would ban volunteer health services like Planned Parenthood from giving instruction on sexual education in public schools, something Lazich described as being “an irresponsible practice that should be reversed.” But some UW-Madison student leaders say the bill does not promote a comprehensive sexual education curriculum. Young Progressives President Steve Hughes said the bill would “abridge freedom in school” and “does not deserve to be given an audience on the floor of our state Senate.” “Sen. Lazich’s bill is an attack on scientifically proven reproductive educational requirements, which are supported by the vast majority of parents in Wisconsin,” Hughes said in a statement. But Lazich said the bill provides “the most scientifically accurate overview of the entire process of human development” and “fosters a partnership between parents and the school district … that is in the best interest of the student’s health and well-being.”
lazich page 2
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”