Scholarships slashed from state budget, pg. 4 Wisconsin football preview, pg. 5
Tarriffs likely to hurt dairy farmers, pg. 11
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Trump adminstration cuts
UW-Madison research grants
By Alaina Walsh ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
The University of WisconsinMadison lost at least $12 million in federal research grants since the start of the second Trump administration, forcing faculty and researchers to shut down projects, lay off staff and scale back scientific progress.
Dr. Ellen Selkie, an assistant professor at UW-Madison and principal investigator on a now-defunded National Institute of Health-funded study, said her team enrolled more than 325 adolescents from across Wisconsin and collected comprehensive data to explore a question they believed to be at the center of national concern: How does social media affect youth mental health?
The National Institute of Health (NIH) informed the university of the $10 million grant’s termination via email in late March, citing a shift in funding priorities, specifically around the inclusion of gender identity in the study. The grant was one of three grants under a 2020 initiative calling for research into the impact of technology and digital media on health, during the pandemic.
“Ours was the only one in the country that specifically focused on adolescents,” Selkie told The Daily Cardinal. “Losing it not only sets our research back, it leaves a void in national understanding of this issue.”
The terminations raise broader
concerns on academic freedom from faculty and administrators. Several of the grants terminated at UW–Madison shared common threads: their research topics included gender, adolescent development or racial equity. Faculty and administrators worry these decisions reflect growing political pressure on federal agencies to steer away from socially sensitive or controversial research.
At an R1 research university like UW-Madison, where federal funding supports nearly $900 million in research annually, the ripple effects are already visible.
Selkie and the rest of her team had reached full stride when the funding was cut. Her team was collecting data through MRIs, surveys and interviews, all designed to track how teenagers interact with social media and how those interactions shape their brains and behavior over time.
“The science was just beginning,” Selkie said. “Now that momentum is gone.”
The consequences stretch far beyond lost data. The grant supported tuition remission and stipends for several graduate students. One of them, Selkie said, abandoned their plans for graduate school entirely after learning there would be no funding to support their education.
“Being a grad student is already a financial challenge,” Sulkie said.
“Without funding, it becomes nearly impossible.”
She also pointed to the loss of public trust. More than 300 Wisconsin families had committed time, energy and personal information to the study.
“When you shut down a project midstream, you risk eroding faith in the research process,” Selkie said. “It becomes harder to ask families to participate in the future.”
Federal grants fund far more than data collection. They help maintain research facilities, employ staff and fuel local economies through jobs and services.
“Research isn’t abstract,” Selkie said. “It involves equipment, people and community partnerships. Cutting grants has real economic consequences.”
Selkie emphasized the research community has long operated under financial uncertainty. Securing grants has always been competitive, but she worries the current climate will push young scientists out of the field altogether.
“I don’t blame anyone who chooses not to take this risk anymore,” she said. “If this is what it means to build a career in science, people will look elsewhere.”
Selkie said her team has submitted new proposals to NIH and private foundations. She remains hopeful that the importance of their work will continue to resonate with funders.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that our research matters,” she said. “We’ll keep going, even if the path forward is much harder.”
UW-Madison’s queer student organizations celebrate Pride Month amid political turmoil
By Jake Kilander STAFF WRITER
LGBTQ+ students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are preparing to acknowledge and celebrate June’s pride month, despite looming political threats from the Trump administration and cuts to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion funding.
“It goes without saying that Pride will be different [this year],” said Morgan Morris, co-president of The Pride Society (TPS). “It [will be] a bit scarier, but also a bit braver. Now more than ever we need community. I think we fight through celebration and joy.”
Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election brought a tsunami of threats and executive orders to college campuses that fund “DEI programs.”
Queer organizations, such as the UW-Madison Gender and Sexuality Campus Center (GSCC), rely on that funding to hold events.
“We have gotten information that a lot of funding is just going to be cut,” Morris said. They also expressed how hard it’s been to pin down any real answers from administrators.
“We’re planning for the worst-case scenario,” they said.
The TPS’ co-president Forrest Jensen echoed the same sentiment.
“Anyone that is a full-time staff member can only tell you that they don’t know,” he said. “It’s very exhausting and frustrating.”
UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas said he was unable to address “specific funding questions” but said
the GSCC continues to be funded by UW-Madison Student Affairs. Lucas also said the university was focused on “creating community” during Pride Month. The GSCC declined to comment on possible federal threats to LGBTQ+ organizations on UW-Madison’s campus.
TPS is part of Qouncil, a collection of queer clubs designed to strengthen communication between organizations and discuss funding propositions. According to Morris and Jensen, TPS and other Qouncil members have had to discuss the possibility of losing university funding all together. TPS has discussed ways to secure outside funding, should that become necessary.
Founded in 1983, TPS is UW-Madison’s oldest LGBTQ+
organization. They are an LGBTQfriendly social group dedicated to providing a safe space for queer students at UW-Madison, famous for holding their “Pride Prom” every May.
The GSCC inside the Red Gym has administrative control over the groups in Qouncil. Members range from groups such as Queer & Trans Engineers, to Sex Out Loud and Queer & Trans People of Color.
All of these groups use funding for club functions, like holding social events and bringing in speakers. Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, what will happen to Qouncil is still “up in the air,” according to Morris.
In February, UW-Madison sent a newsletter to students and faculty addressing concerns about how the
federal actions would affect the university. While the letter focused on how research and admissions would be affected, it did express concern for how the university’s values of “diversity of identity” and “support for our community” could be affected by federal policies. Three months later, questions still remain for LGBTQ+ groups on campus.
“The climate has been very scary,” Morris said. “Community is essential for the survival of all queer people. I’ve definitely found that in The Pride Society.”
Both Morris and Jensen expressed how queer organizations like TPS were invaluable for making friends and having events to go to around campus. They said many queer students come to UW-Madison feeling isolated in their identity.
“I wasn’t in [the] queer community. It didn’t feel like I could be gay all year-round,” Jensen said. “Now, when I go to TPS events or meetings, I do feel like that.”
With many UW-Madison students leaving for the summer, most student-run organizations will not be holding in-person pride celebrations. But for those who are staying — like Morris and Jensen — there’s no shortage of events throughout Madison.
“I’m excited for The Big Gay Pride Market,” Jensen said. The market runs from June 13-15 at Alliant Energy Center. He and Morris also plan on attending the Henry Vilas Zoo Pride Night on June 14.
The GSCC will also hold a pride picnic on June 25th at Library Mall.
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Meriter nurses sign two-year contract after first strike in history
By Sonia Bendre SCIENCE EDITOR
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) aided nurses in agreeing to a tentative contract Saturday after almost 1,000 nurses at UnityPoint Health-Meriter Hospital launched the first strike in the union’s history on May 27, fighting for increased security, lower patientto-staff ratios and higher wages.
“We fought for every penny they had to offer [and] won an 8% increase across the board over two years for every single nurse at Meriter,” cochair of the Meriter nurses bargaining team Amber Anderson told the Wisconsin State Journal.
The strike followed more than 20 bargaining sessions since January, assisted by SEIU. Since March 23, they have been working without a contract.
“Nurses have been sounding the alarm about staffing concerns and adequate workplace safety and burnout for months, but management has refused to act or even hear us,” Pat Reis, president of SEIU Wisconsin and a registered nurse (RN) at Meriter, said at a press conference. “We do not take this action lightly. We are striking for our community, we are striking for our fellow nurses, and we are striking for every patient who walks through Meriter’s doors.”
Three nurses on the union’s collective bargaining team described Meriter management “walking away from the
bargaining table” after offering a contract with a 2.5% wage increase and a “vague promise to review staffing.”
The union refused the deal.
Cars passed by honking in support as the nurses marched around the block before joining a picket line they planned to hold for the next five days, or until their demands were met.
The nurses’ union provided Meriter administration with a mandatory 10-day strike notice on May 9. Nurses were temporarily replaced by traveling nurses until the union and administration met on May 29 and returned to work Sunday after agreeing to a temporary contract, WPR reported.
Meriter management said the agreement is still subject to a vote by union members.
The evening before the strike, Meriter sent an email to staff threatening to rescind striking nurses’ health insurance during June, according to Reis and several other nurses. Striking nurses were locked out of their work emails until they returned, and their badges were deactivated.
Meriter reported on May 27 they were “open and providing exceptional care.” They did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Meriter nurses have been fighting for wage increases, safer staffing ratios and security measures since 2014.
Meriter is not the only Madison-
area hospital with labor disagreements between nurses and administration. UW Health, a UnityPoint Health partner of Meriter Hospital, did not initially recognize its nurses’ union’s right to collectively bargain, though the nurses gained union recognition following a strike in 2022. The Capitol Clinic center of Group Health Cooperative South Central Wisconsin (GHC-SCW) has also faced struggles seeking union recognition. SEIU has filed over 60 unfair labor practice complaints against GHC administration.
Nurses call for increased security measures, wages
Several nurses spoke at the press conference, including postpartum nurse Madison Vander Hill, who said her work at Meriter helps her feel connected to the city where she grew up and all of her family lives. Vander Hill, who has worked at Meriter for almost a decade, said she joined the strike because she wants to see change from management to ensure safety and security are prioritized.
“This is my dream job, and I would like to retire at Meriter someday,” Vander Hill said at the press conference. “Helping a new mother breastfeed at 3 a.m., or teaching a father how to do skin-to-skin with his newborn or helping an adoptive family feed their precious baby for the very first time — these moments
How UW-Madison is responding to federal funding cuts, visa terminations
By Julia Walkowicz STAFF WRITER
President Donald Trump’s administration has issued a dizzying number of executive orders on colleges and universities since taking office, including threats to federal research and limitations on student visas, impacting universities around the country.
From limitations and revocations of student visas to federal grant cancellations, what threats are the University of Wisconsin-Madison facing, and how is the university responding?
Blocks and delays to federal funding
The Trump administration cancelled over $12 million in research grants at UW-Madison, including studies on how social media impacts the health and well-being of adolescents, research on preventative efforts against future coronavirus pandemics and a teacher preparation program designed to address the shortage of qualified special education teachers in Milwaukee Public Schools, according to a statement by the university.
Executive officials have also threatened and revoked federal funding from universities such as Harvard University and required institutions to comply with demands to restore their funding. Despite federal pressure, UW-Madison has spoken out against the Trump administration’s “unprecedented political interference” in the institution’s proceedings.
UW-Madison is ranked sixth in the nation in university research expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation’s annual rankings, with nearly half of UW-Madison’s
$1.7 billion in total research expenditures coming from federal awards. But after years of stagnant state funding and new challenges to federal funding, the future of that research looks more uncertain.
In April, UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin signed an open letter condemning the Trump administration’s action against public research funding, joining over 220 higher education leaders.
Additional setbacks at UW-Madison include delayed grant application reviews and attempts to cut payments for research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), UW-Madison’s largest source of federal funding.
UW-Madison issued a public statement in April, warning these cuts could hinder ongoing research, limit student training opportunities and disrupt efforts that benefit the broader community.
“These terminations and delays would have devastating impacts on the university and the broader community,” the statement read. “Harming the university’s ability to pursue projects of importance to Americans; its ability to make critical, life-saving discoveries; and limiting opportunities to train students to enter the workforce.”
The Trump administration also gutted the U.S. Department of Education in March, firing most of the staff responsible for higher education policy and oversight.
On Thursday, a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked President Trump’s executive order which aimed to dismantle the Department of Education, ordering officials to reinstate thousands of its employees.
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are etched into my soul.”
Audrey Willems Van Dijk, a perinatal nurse, said she would like to provide the best possible care at Meriter without sacrificing her health and well-being.
“Our patients deserve care that reflects the impacts of these moments in their lives. Despite being asked to do more with less every day, we continue to offer that care,” Willems Van Dijk said at the press conference.
One of the union’s safety demands is installing a metal detector, which Meriter said they would do by the end of the summer, according to Anderson.
Though Meriter has had the equipment in the basement for at least four years, they said they did not have the appropriate space or staff to operate
the machinery, Anderson said.
“My specific experience has been that [administration members] are very resistant to wanting to work with us,” Anderson said.
Vander Hill and Anderson both said they are scared to go to work, partly because of insufficient security measures.
“Every day in nursing, I say, ‘I can do this scared.’ Every day, I do, and I wish I didn’t have to,” Vander Hill said.
Democratic figures and politicians, including Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wilker, Dane County Executive Melissa Agard and Wisconsin Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, also attended the strike, voicing their support for the nurses.
Wiscards as valid voter ID? Student voting organization campaigns to make voting more accessible|
By Natasha Hicks SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The Associated Students of Madison (ASM) passed legislation advocating for Wiscards to become valid forms of Wisconsin voter ID on April 16, bolstering the Student Voters Unions (SVU) campaign to reduce voting barriers for University of WisconsinMadison students.
While five other University of Wisconsin System schools currently have voter-compliant student ID cards, UW-Madison’s Wiscard lacks a signature and two-year expiration date, two factors that would make it compliant with Wisconsin state voting laws.
If Wiscards become valid voter IDs, outof-state students would not need to print a separate voter ID through the Wiscard office, Genevieve Lambert, SVU Vice President, told The Daily Cardinal. “It’ll make elections run smoother and the process of physically voting smoother for students.”
SVU member and ASM intern Ava Berg agreed, emphasizing how making the Wiscard a valid form of voter ID would create one less barrier for UW-Madison student voters.
“Obtaining the voter ID, that’s a challenge. The secondary ID, that’s another barrier, and especially with the line on election day, it just creates a whole hassle. The Wiscard creates one less step for students,” Berg said.
The next step would be meeting with the Wiscard office to discuss implementing two changes: reducing the five-year expiration date to two years and adding a
signature to the card.
Berg said they hope to work with the Wiscard office in the future, though it’s proven challenging. “I see that as more of a project for next semester,” she said.
Berg said the ASM legislation helps “add legitimacy” to SVU’s goals. Lambert told the Cardinal current Wisconsin voter ID laws are among the strictest in the country. Current compliant voter IDs include United States passports, Uniformed Services Cards, Veterans Affairs IDs, tribal IDs and Wisconsin state driver’s licenses, but out-of-state drivers licenses are not eligible, according to Lambert.
“We’re accepting more and more out-ofstate students, and they have every right to vote here. The residency requirement is only 28 days,” Lambert said. “The issue is, they don’t have Wisconsin-issued driver’s licenses, and how many students bring their passport with them to college?”
Furthermore, this two-year expiration date would not affect students’ current use of Wiscards after the card has ‘expired.’
“The expiration date doesn’t mean that after that point, you can’t use [the Wiscard],” Lambert explained. For voter ID purposes, she said “it’s just about the printed date.”
Lambert also noted the campaign has generated bipartisan student support amongst SVU members.
“All citizen students should be able to vote and it should be as accessible as possible,” Lambert said. “Making their voice heard is and ought to be a nonpartisan issue.”
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Wisconsin borrowers confused as student loan payments required again news
By Clara Strecker STATE NEWS EDITOR
Over 700,000 Wisconsinites will once again face consequences for missed federal student loan payments after five years without mandatory collections ended May 5, leaving some borrowers feeling uncertain.
“They don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing. They may not know what total debt they have. They may not know who their loan servicer or servicers are,”
Carol Trone, executive director of Wisconsin Coalition on Student Debt, told The Daily Cardinal.
Trone said some borrowers and University of Wisconsin System students face confusion amid the funding tug-of-war.
Some borrowers are unable to contact their loan servicers, are stuck in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) program’s pause or caught in the six-week period where no one could apply for an income-driven repayment plan,
Trone said.
On April 21, the U.S. Department of Education announced collections would begin May 5 for default or failed loans following a five-year payment pause. Then-President Donald Trump put a hold on loan payments during the pandemic and the pauses were continued during President Joe Biden’s term.
“There were no required payments. There were no required collections. During that time, borrowers could choose to continue to make payments, but many did not,” Trone told the Cardinal.
Former President Joe Biden tried multiple times to give broad student loan forgiveness, which the courts blocked, eventually leading him to extend the federal payment pause seven times, ending in September 2023. An additional 12-month grace period was added, Trone said.
During those extra 12 months, loan repayment was technically due, however, collections and credit report actions were not going
to start until October 2024. Since then, borrowers with outstanding loans who have missed payments are considered to be in default, meaning the government can seize their wages, tax refunds and social security benefits if they do not pay back their loans 270 days after a missed payment.
Wisconsin has around 725,000 people with outstanding payments totaling $23.6 billion in federal student loan payments. The average UW System graduate has a little over $30,000 in debt, and half of UW System students rely on federal aid to finance their education, Trone said.
President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” if passed, would eliminate types of student loans by changing loan caps, payment plans and who can qualify for certain loans. The bill would also adjust income-based repayment plans.
Low-income undergraduate students would no longer be able to
Financial aid programs cut from capital budget
By Zoey Elwood COPY CHIEF
The Republican-controlled legislature cut two financial aid proposals for University of Wisconsin System students along with over 600 other items from Gov. Tony Evers’ 2025-27 Capital Budget, while also passing provisions approving statewide infrastructure projects.
Wisconsin’s two-year budget process begins July 1 of every odd-numbered year. Evers introduced the next biennial budget on Feb. 18, consisting of agency requests and governor recommendations on how to allocate funds for various projects. Evers’ budget prioritizes funding increases for public schools, including the largest funding increase for the UW System, calling it the “most pro-kid budget in state history.”
Previously, Republicans have disregarded Evers’ proposed budget and created their own, ignoring the Democratic governor’s proposals. This year, Republicans opted to remove items rather than scrapping the budget altogether, showing more collaboration.
Cuts to the budget’s proposed financial aid programs
On May 8, the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee (JFC) cut a $128 million financial aid proposal aimed at helping 5,000 low income students across all 12 UW-System campuses.
The proposal would have funded a $39 million “last dollar” scholarship — similar to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s privately funded “Bucky’s Promise” — covering tuition for students whose family’s adjusted gross income falls below the state median, around $70,000 for a four-person household.
“Anybody who wants to and is willing to do the work, should have the opportunity to go to one of our great public universities,” Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, told The Daily Cardinal. “Unfortunately, every decision that Republican politicians make is driving young people away and making it harder for all of us to succeed, and hurting our economy in the process.”
Republican lawmakers also blocked a scholarship for tribal students in Wisconsin to receive free tuition at all UW System schools, not just UW-Madison, and Evers’ proposed tuition waiver for education majors who student teach.
The 2025-27 Capital Budget also includ-
ed an $856 million investment for the UW System, the largest two-year increase in state funding for the UW System in state history, which still stands as of now, despite Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, calling the increase a likely “nonstarter.”
UW System president Jay Rothman has continuously called for increased state investment in the system, pointing to a study which found Wisconsin ranked 44 out of 50 in public funding for four-year universities.
Although some items have been cut from the budget, Republicans argue the budget process should not create policy, meaning some of the removed proposals may come back later this year as separate legislation.
Statewide repair project approval
The Republican-led Wisconsin State Building Commission (SBC) approved statewide projects totalling approximately $125 million May 8, including the expansion of UW-Madison’s ownership of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery and space under the new Computer, Data and Information Science building, a gift from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Additionally, the SBC approved the replacement of aging underground stream lines, chilled water systems, vaults and electrical infrastructure at UW-Stevens Point and UW-La Crosse.
“Whether it’s supporting the success of students and our state’s dedicated public servants, investing in community infrastructure to uphold public safety, or ensuring we are laying the groundwork to advance future development, these investments today will pay dividends for our state’s future,” Evers said in a statement.
The UW System submitted their budget request to the Department of Administration in September 2024, which Evers then reviewed before preparing his budget proposal.
The JFC began reviewing Evers’ budget proposal in February, followed closely by Evers’ announcement of the Capital Budget in March, with reviews and modifications from the JFC continuing until May.
Finally, the budget will go to the state Assembly and Senate for them to act on in June. Evers is then expected to sign the budget and issue any vetoes in July, though the timeline may face delays.
access subsidized Direct Plus loans, a type of federally subsidized loan for parents and graduate students.
The bill would only allow parents to take out a Direct Plus loan for their student if the annual amount borrowed is less than the cost of attendance, and if the student maxes out their unsubsidized direct loans.
Under the bill, many federal repayment plans, including the SAVE program, are combined into one, income-based repayment plan. Borrowers can either choose to pay a certain percent age of their income or a standard fixed pay ment over a certain period of time, which could result in higher payments for many bor rowers.
Higher edu cation leaders, like
UW System President Jay Rothman, criticized the bill saying he was “dumbfounded” by the move.
“It makes no sense for the U.S. to narrow opportunities if our country wants to win the global War for Talent. I’m dumbfounded that cutting educational opportunities would even be considered when our economic vibrancy is at stake,” Rothman said in a statement.
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Madison’s unionized Starbucks workers walk out over new dress code
By Joseph Panzer SENEIOR STAFF WRITER
Unionized Starbucks baristas in Madison walked out of the 1 E Main Street location on May 17 to protest the company’s new dress code policies and what they say is a continued failure to finalize union contracts.
“Our store is proud to join our fellow union baristas who have bravely walked out this week to reject Starbucks’ failure to bargain with us over dress code changes or finalize fair contracts that include the staffing, hours, and protections we need to do our jobs,” barista Tasha Schilling said in a press release issued by Starbucks Workers United’s Madison Action Group.
Starbucks announced the updated dress code in April, requiring baristas to wear “any solid black short-and long-sleeved crewneck, collared or button-up shirts and any shade of khaki, black or blue denim bottoms” to accentuate the company’s signature green apron. Some employees allege the new rules stifle their personal freedom of expression.
Barista Tasha Schilling said in a press release issued by Starbucks Workers United’s Madison Action group that “it seems like they’re trying to get rid of queer baristas who are organizing” through dress code changes.
Starbucks Workers United argued on social media that understaffing, lack of access to benefits, low wages and discrimination were more pressing issues than a dress code change.
In a later press release acquired by The Daily Cardinal via email, the union said stores were thrown into disarray after the rollout. Starbucks had not provided the promised compliant t-shirts, and previously acceptable shoes were suddenly deemed inappropriate.
Starbucks Workers United filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Starbucks of undermining collective bargaining. The complaint stated the updated dress code “materially differed from both the status quo and what the parties had tentatively agreed to at the bargaining table.”
The union said its demands, including increased staffing, guaranteed hours and adequate support baristas, are essential to store operations.
“The punitive enforcement measures have worsened the longstanding understaffing issues plaguing stores, as baristas are forced to obtain shoes, pants and other clothing rather than focus on serving their customers,” Starbucks Workers United said.
Starbucks has a long history of resisting union efforts. The Economic Policy Institute reports the company has previously attempted to shut down stores with unionization efforts and retaliated against unionized workers to deter organization.
Efforts to unionize Starbucks locations gained momentum nationwide in 2021 when a location in Buffalo, NY started Starbucks Workers United as part of a wider post-pandemic trend of labor union membership rising. The Capitol Square café in Madison became the nation’s third unionized location, and the State Street location quickly followed suit.
Starbucks announced they would be bargaining with Starbucks Workers United for a path forward for unionized workers in February 2024, but workers say the company has not followed through on that promise.
Madison baristas and union organizers were not available for further comment.
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Column: Pingeton brings results in first month as women’s basketball head coach sports
By Gabriella Hartlaub SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
Few things in sports are more elusive than viable hope for a successful Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team, except maybe a Browns Super Bowl, the Milwaukee Bucks making it past round one of the NBA Playoffs and at this point, any team staying in Oakland, California.
The hiring of Robin Pingeton was marketed by UW Athletics as a “new era” in Wisconsin women’s basketball. Pingeton joins the Badgers after 15 seasons at the helm of the Missouri women’s basketball program, posting a 250–218 record.
Based on the program’s recent track record, it would be easy to look past that statement. In the past month, however, Pingeton has put her money where her mouth is and recruited an impressive collection of transfers to join the team, quickly building momentum in her first months in Madison.
And as Badger fans look down the barrel of what will almost certainly be another painful football season, it’s not a pipe dream to have hope for women’s basketball.
Before the abrupt departure of former head coach Marisa Mosely in March, two of the team’s most talented players beat her to the punch.
After the conclusion of the 2024-25 season, forward Serah Williams announced she would be entering the transfer portal and later her commitment to UConn.
Close behind Williams was guard Ronnie Porter. However, three weeks after Pingeton was hired, Porter announced that she had removed her
name from the transfer portal and decided to return to Wisconsin.
Retaining Porter was crucial for the roster, as she’d played for the Badgers since she was a freshman and is a well-known member of a team that often underperforms relative to their talented roster.
Pingeton’s first and arguably most notable transfer, junior guard Laci Steele, comes to Wisconsin from NC State. Steele scored only 3.4 points in 11.8 minutes per game, but her recruitment showed Pingeton’s ability to lure power conference players to Wisconsin.
In her year with NC State, Steele reached the NCAA Women’s Sweet 16 and the ACC Championship game. Steele’s willingness to give this program a chance during a rebuild hints that Pinegton is building something special.
Along with Steele, Pingeton’s team has recruited high scoring transfers from small programs, like senior
forward Gift Uchenna, junior guard Kyrah Daniels and graduate guard Destiny Howell. Uchenna, a transfer from Southern Illinois, averaged 14.5 points per game. Daniels averaged 12.0 points and 5.1 rebounds last season with Missouri State. Howell averaged 14.9 points, with more than nine 20-point games in the season.
Pingeton has also made additions to the coaching staff. Assistant coaches Chris Bracey and McGhee Mann will join her from her previous job at Missouri, she announced at her introductory press conference. UW Athletics announced in May that Ariel Massengal, a former University of Tennessee player and rising coaching talent, will also join the team as an assistant coach.
While the fruits of Pingeton’s rebuild may not be immediately visible in her first month, it’s clear that she is putting the pieces in place to win at a program where success has been elusive.
Wisconsin Football 2025 preview: Can Fickell turn the Badgers around in year three?
By Tejas Rao STAFF WRITER
Wisconsin Football under head coach Luke Fickell stands on a growing pile of assignments with less than three months until the 2025 season. After a disappointing first two seasons for the Badgers under Fickell, year three will test whether the Badgers’ name can reemerge at the national level.
Fickell has appeared willing to change philosophies going into year three, but Badger football will face one of the toughest schedules in the nation. In order to return to Big Ten success in year three, the Badgers must stabilize quarterbacks, bring the offensive line’s dominance back to the top and maintain defensive IQ and toughness, all while managing an unforgiving schedule.
Fickell’s replacement of former head coach Paul Chryst in 2022 brought optimism about a new era for Wisconsin football, but so far, the results on the field have yet to bring that optimism to life. Wisconsin is just 13-13 at home, with a losing Big Ten record.
Under Fickell, the Badgers have lost their 23-year bowl streak — the longest in the nation — and Fickell enters 2025 ranked 11th among Big Ten coaches by USA TODAY. Las Vegas oddsmakers set Wisconsin’s 2025 win total at just 5.5, which seems justifiable considering the Badgers’ struggles under Fickell.
The Badgers’ grueling schedule isn’t doing them any favors either. It includes road games at Alabama, Michigan, Oregon, Indiana and Minnesota, plus a home slate featuring Maryland, Iowa, Ohio State, Washington and Illinois. The Badgers face one of the nation’s toughest schedules with five opponents having been ranked the NCAA’s top 25 last season.
Coaching changes
After last season’s failure, however, Fickell has shown a willingness to change philosophies. This is most evident in his decision to replace offensive coordinator Phil Longo, whose offense
consistently floundered over the last two years, with Kansas offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes.
“I really do feel like we’ve got the identity that fits us. It’s not completely all the way old-school, but I think the idea of being more multiple and truly understanding what physicality-first looks like,” Fickell said about Wisconsin’s offseason decisions.
So, what can we expect from Grimes in the upcoming season?
Grimes’ offense is tailored to make heavy use of physicality and versatility. Extensive use of tight ends, outside zone runs, pre-snap motion and passes from the shotgun are part of the “tough, nasty and disciplined” football that gave Wisconsin its best years in the past.
“This isn’t for everybody, right? This is a grown-ass man’s league, and this is a grown man’s game. If guys don’t understand that, and this isn’t the right thing for them, it is what it is,” Fickell said, elaborating on why
this change in play style is crucial to the team’s development.
Roster updates
The new-look 2025 roster is the result of tons of movement around the transfer portal from the previous season, especially in the Badgers’ quarterback room. Although he spent most of the season injured, quarterback Tyler Van Dyke was replaced by Braedyn Locke early into the 2024 season. Now, both have said their goodbyes to Badger football, and Fickell hopes new faces, like transfer quarterbacks Billy Edwards Jr. from Maryland and Danny O’Neil from San Diego State, and gel with the rest of the team.
Last year, Fickell said he preferred quarterback competition instead of explicitly naming a starter.
“The best thing for us is to have a legitimate competitive battle. Some would say it’s better if you can name
a starter at whatever position, particularly the quarterback. But, I think it’s much better if you can continue to have a competitive battle because you’re going to find out what you got. Because, probably like last year, you’re going to need them both,” Fickell said.
Those are not the only changes made to the offense. The addition of tight end Lance Mason from Missouri State and wide receiver Jayden Ballard from defending champions Ohio State are significant to Fickell and Grimes’ vision.
The defense, on the other hand, remains under defensive coordinator Mike Tressel. While still the backbone of the team, the defense will see promotions from within as Tressel is tasked with replacing key contributors, like defensive lineman Curt Neal, safety Braedyn Moore and veteran cornerback Max Lofy, who either graduated or were lost to the portal.
Fickell’s third year digs deep into Wisconsin’s standards. It is now more than just making a bowl game, it’s about proving Wisconsin still belongs in the Big Ten’s upper tier and perhaps even atop the rest. As Fickell put it, “We’re going to continue to push and develop the guys within and the guys that understand what it takes to climb this mountain and play in this league.”
Fickell’s Badgers being able to outperform the 5.5 projected wins hanging over their heads, immensely improving their offensive play under Grimes and competing with — and beating — the Big Ten’s powerhouses is what success looks like for the 2025 season. This 2025 campaign is on the horizon and will ultimately shape what Fickell’s time in Madison has meant to Wisconsin football. There’s no space for excuses, and the roster, as well as the system, belongs to Fickell.
As the Wisconsin Badgers and their fans prepare for another season of jumping around at Camp Randall, all eyes are on the program’s future: whether Fickell’s third year is the return of Wisconsin football of old or another chapter in a series of misused potential and possibilities.
KAYLA NORTHWAY/THE DAILY CARDINAL
EVAN HALPOP/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Madison sexual violence agencies struggle amid funding slashes, political changes
DaneCountysexualassaultorganizationsandsurvivorssaytheyfacean uncertainfutureamidstfundingcutsandchangingculturalattitudes.
By Sreejita Patra SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Content warning: This article contains mention of sexual assault and violence.
When University of Wisconsin-Madison student Mia Marcy describes her life from age 6 to 14, she often compares it to the Barbie dolls she used to play with as a kid.
“My stepfather would dress me and touch me, kind of like I was his, um, puppet,” Marcy said. “He would do whatever. I was never raped by him, but he would be there when I got out of the shower.”
Marcy said she has only just begun to tell people she was abused, after years of losing friendships from cageyness and avoiding intimate relationships with men. The biology and criminal justice double-major wants to one day work in sexual assault forensics to help victims receive justice. But advocates at anti-sexual violence organizations across Madison are facing rocky futures, as funding for their services gets slashed while the need only continues to increase.
Funding challenges and the Trump era
Most of the funding sexual assault centers in Madison traditionally receive is from the Victim of Crime Act (VOCA), which provides grants for state and local programming supporting victims of violent crime. One of these agencies is Madison’s Rape Crisis Center (RCC), one of the oldest sexual assault centers in the country.
According to Executive Director Dana Pellebon and Assistant Director of Outreach & Prevention Bri Breunig, VOCA funds to the RCC were slashed by $250,000 in the last year of the Biden administration, but supplemented through state grants. Due to uncertainty on whether Gov. Tony Evers’ VOCA fix will pass again this year, the center is not rehiring a bilingual advocate and an educator position.
“In many small areas, there is maybe one rape crisis center for four counties,” Pellebon said. “They’ve already seen the impact of the cuts. Now, those of us in the larger areas are getting an influx of their clients, at the same time I’m having to cut positions.”
UNIDOS and Freedom Inc have also had to restructure their services due to funding cuts, with Freedom Inc laying off multiple staff members.
Beyond funding, both agencies are also worried about anti-immigration policies preventing survivors from accessing care.
“There’s a lot of fear. Our numbers of people using our services are already a bit down, and I think we’ll see it even more months later,” Escudero said.
To many survivors, Trump’s presidency marks a danger to progress, not just because of his policies, but because he was found liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll. Spencer Runde, a survivor and peer facilitator at UW-Madison student organization Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment (PAVE), said Trump is a painful reminder of how sexual offenders can occupy societal positions of power.
“To see someone in the highest office in our country be a rapist, an abuser, and to see so many people write it off or say E. Jean Carroll made it up and stuff, is very hurtful,” Runde said.
Madison’s sexual assault agencies
Madison is a hub of sexual assault organizations and resources serving all of Dane County, which encompasses 1,238 square miles and more than 60 municipalities.
Breunig said the center is the only “full service sexual assault provider” in the county, focusing not only on medical, legal and therapy services after an assault, but also prevention.
“One of the most crucial things you can do is, ideally, prevent sexual violence before it happens,” Breunig said. “It’s one thing to respond to a crisis, but to prevent it, you need culture change.”
Through funding received after the 1990s, RCC has created a seven-person outreach department dedicated to sexual assault prevention, offering safer bar trainings, middle and high school educational programming, self-defense classes and more.
Pellebon said this outreach has also shifted to include a more “multicultural, anti-oppression” approach to sexual violence in Dane County. Her work today consists of coordinating with different communities and culturally specific agencies, includ-
Campus Climate Survey.
“Every one of my friends here has either endured being sexually harassed, from the basic cat calls on State Street, to like, my friend being forced by her situationship to give him a blow job,” Marcy said.
Marcy said the man who assaulted her friend, like many of the men she has interacted with in college, said they think of women and girls as “objects” and were misogynistic toward women.
She and Runde both said they think the university should take further steps to educate students on sexual violence, with Runde criticizing the university’s prior removal of a safe and consensual sex module in 2024 due to conservative backlash.
“UW-Madison has not prioritized marginalized students, including survivors,” Runde said. “At the end of the day, our school could help us have in-person, peer-led conversations about consent. But they don’t.”
‘What were you wearing?’ exhibit highlights UW sexual assault survivors
By Sreejita Patra SENIOR STAFF WRITER
In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) this April, five University of WisconsinMadison students partnered with University Health Services (UHS) to organize a ‘What Were You Wearing?’ art installation, an effort to challenge victim-blaming toward sexual assault survivors.
Currently on display at the Class of 1973 Gallery in the Red Gym, the exhibit holds 20 outfits UW-Madison students were wearing during their sexual assaults, and the anonymous testimony of the survivors who wore them. The collection is recreated with clothing donated by Madison thrift stores St. Vincent de Paul and Plato’s Closet.
“It’s a medium that really speaks to audiences,” Ashlyn Jakacki, one of the creators of the exhibit,
said. “It shows that a lot of the time, you’re getting assaulted by someone you know and you love and you trust, while you’re sitting there wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants.”
Ever since the first ‘What Were You Wearing?’ exhibit was conceived at the University of Arkansas in 2013, campuses across the United States have put up the art installation as a way to tell survivors’ stories. Sofia More, one of the creators behind the UW exhibit, said both survivors and non-survivors can see themselves in the art.
“The entire point is that you need to care about it, because this is a thing that happens to real people and you never know how or when it could,” she said.
Jakacki and More, along with creators Laila Kirstein, Greta Hansen and Allison Bradley, said they were inspired to bring ‘What Were You Wearing?’ to Madison as a project for the class Psychology 322:
Sexual & Relationship Violence Research & Activism.
Hansen said she thinks having the installation on campus is particularly important right now, as “our culture shifts toward misogyny and structures that silence women rise.”
“Survivors are being actively attacked, and that is something that absolutely contributes to the social landscape of our school,” she said. Kirstein also noted how the exhibit includes a section featuring survey responses of UW-Madison survivors’ advice to other survivors in the community.
“It can be so isolating after an assault, between self blame and just living in a society where rape myths are so prevalent,” Kirstein said. “So we’re really excited to show survivors that they’re not alone — that they have resources and a place they can come to.”
The ‘What Were You Wearing?’ exhibit will be up until Monday, May 12.
ing UNIDOS, which was formed in 1996 to mainly serve Madison’s Spanish-speaking community.
“When I first started at RCC, it was an organization that primarily served middle-class white women, because what we did was meet people here once a month,” Pellebon said. “Now, the back work has really changed. We don’t let anyone walk out of our office without resources.”
Having worked in bilingual sexual assault services for more than ten years, Executive Director Virginia Gittens Escudero said the “trauma-informed, culturally responsive” legal, emotional and judicial services UNIDOS provides are important in helping Madison Latinos respond to sexual violence.
“When we are talking about things that hurt, that we cannot process or understand, it is so important that you’re able to do so in your own language,” Escudero said. “Otherwise, you risk delaying the healing process and the understanding by the victim that it’s not their fault.”
Freedom Inc, a Black and Southeast Asian nonprofit in Madison, also works mainly in low-income communities of color to address the root causes of sexual violence. The organization’s operations manager, Houa Yang, said the organization helps bring awareness to the alarming rates of violence against girls and women in her community.
“People exploit Hmong women through sex trafficking, abusive international marriages and murder-suicides, but it’s not even really talked about,” Yang said. “If anything, a lot of the time the court systems here just end up further victimizing our survivors.”
Survivors at UW-Madison
According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, there were 315 reported cases of sexual assault in Dane County two years ago, with 180 of these cases taking place in Madison.
In 2023, there were 18 reported incidents of sexual assault on campus and 46 reported incidents of domestic/dating violence and stalking.
Among the UW-Madison student body, roughly 26.1% of undergraduate women and 6.8% of undergraduate men say they have been sexually assaulted since entering university, according to the most recent Association of American Universities (AAU)
MOLLY SHEEHAN/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Broadway’s ‘Clue’ comes to Madison arts
By Sonia Bendre SCIENCE EDITOR
Broadway’s “Clue” at the Overture Center in Madison does exactly what it sets out to do: outlines a murder mystery, introduces memorable lead characters and their motives, excites with a plot twist, and finishes strong with the same rowdy, smart slapstick comedy featured throughout the show, which played May 13 through 18.
While the show differs from the board game, it immerses audiences in a live-action playthrough. Campy, self-aware references pack the play. When one character asks who designed the mansion, another replies “The Parker Brothers,” referring to the board game company who owns the U.S. version of Clue.
Clue’s original designer, Anthony E. Pratt, created the game while hiding in his home in the United Kingdom during World War II air raids. The game takes place in Tudor Mansion, based on a real mansion in East Sussex. When a murder is committed,
players must determine the killer, the room of the murder and the murder weapon.
Despite some changes, Clue stayed true to its original design and became a staple board game for families and friends throughout the 20th century. It also evolved into a franchise, receiving movie, musical, video game and film series adaptations. Now, on Broadway, Clue has been adapted once again, this time into a play.
The play begins when six guests arrive at Boddy Manor, described as a New England mansion of “epic proportions and terrifying secrets.” As they enter one by one, they are greeted by the butler, Wadsworth (Jeff Skowron).
The guests are the iconic board game ensemble: Colonel Mustard (David Hess), Mrs. White (Donna English), Mrs. Peacock (Jennifer Allen), Mr. Green (John Shartzer); Professor Plum (Evan Zes) and Miss Scarlet (Christina Anthony).
After they arrive, each guest is accused by Mr. Boddy (Alex Syiek), the mansion’s owner and chair of
the House Un-American Activities Committee, of committing scandalous activities. Mr. Boddy gives each guest a weapon — a candlestick, a dagger, a lead pipe, a rope, a revolver and a wrench — and tells them if they don’t kill Wadsworth and the maid Yvette (Elisabeth Yancey), they’ll face charges. When Mr. Boddy turns up dead moments later, followed by others, the party quickly devolves into an investigation to find the killer.
Cast members brought a unique flair to their roles. The standout character was Mr. Green, especially notable for backbending acrobatics saving him from death by chandelier. Wadsworth’s antics with the police were also a delight, with the butler leading them from room to room and laughing nervously while the characters tried to hide the numerous bodies in increasingly creative ways.
The Boddy Manor comes alive as the characters move through the story. Each room in the show’s intricately designed set is memorable in its own right. The main
room is complete with spooky chandeliers and candles. The technical aspects of the set are just as impressive, with characters jogging in place as they move from one room to the next, the walls seamlessly shifting behind them.
One curious element occurs at the end of the play when several characters explain their version of events. As one tale ends and another begins, the actors ‘rewind’ to their original positions,
remaining in character as they execute the difficult maneuver.
“Clue” works because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Though the storyline is comical and jaunty, the excellent technical design and character execution were clearly top priorities during production. It’s a difficult feat to create a play out of a board game, but “Clue” draws heavily from the franchise’s movie to create an engaging and silly audience experience.
Summer 2025 Madison Arts Guide
By Lydia Picotte and Oliver Gerharz
ARTS EDITORS
Arts remain through the summer in Madison, even as many students are absent from campus. Artists and art lovers can look forward to movies, concerts on capitol square and so much more.
All Summer Long:
“Corpus” at the Chazen Art Museum
Apr.7-July13
This summer, the Chazen will feature the temporary exhibit “Corpus” by Anamika Singh, a graduate student at University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, Singh’s film “Sheetla” — an extension of the project — will be screened at the museum throughout the summer. More info can be found at chazen.wisc.edu
Open Mic Nights on the Memorial Union Terrace
May 28 - Aug. 27; Wednesdays from 7-9 p.m.
WUDMusic will present weekly open mic nights at the Memorial Union Terrace. Musicians, singers, speakers and poets are encouraged to share their work. Performers can sign up to perform the night of the show. Performances and attendance are both free. More info can be found at union.wisc.edu
Movies on the Terrace
June2-Sept.1;Mondaysat9p.m.
WUDFilm will host one free lakeside film screening each week. Films vary widely and include hits like “Pitch Perfect,” “La La Land” and “Mad Max: Fury Road.” The Brat Stand will offer $1 hot dogs, soda and chips during the showings. More info can be found at union.wisc.edu
Lunch Time LIVE! on Capitol Square
June 3 - Aug. 26; Tuesdays from 12-1 p.m.
Madison’s Central Business Improvement District has organized a free outdoor concert each week on the King Street walkway of the Wisconsin State Capitol. More info can be found at visitdowntownmadison.com/events
The Moth StorySLAM
June9,July14,Aug.11
On the second Monday of each month, storytellers gather in the High Noon Saloon to tell stories adhering to a simple theme. Anyone can sign up to tell a story, but only ten names are drawn from the hat each night. Over the summer, the themes will be “hospitality,” “dirt” and “childish”. More info can be found at themoth.org or high-noon.com
Night Markets on State Street
June 12, Aug. 21, Sept. 18, Oct. 16; 5-9 p.m.
The city of Madison will host local businesses, vendors, artists and musicians to create a unique night market environment each month. Each event features live music and artwork for sale from local creatives. More info can be found at visitdowntownmadison.com/events
Concerts on the Square
June 25 - July 30; Wednesdays at 7 p.m.
Founded in 1960, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra is no stranger to Madison summers. In keeping with tradition, the Madison-based orchestra will host a lineup of summer concerts on the square. Each show will feature a different genre of music, so there should be something for everyone. More info about specific shows can be found at wcoconcerts.org
Cinematheque Movie Showings
June 25 - Aug. 1; Wednesdays, ThursdaysandFridaysat7p.m.
UW-Madison’s Cinematheque will screen three free films each week. This summer’s films include several from the late filmmaker David Lynch. More info can be found at cinema.wisc.edu/ calendar
Downtown Movies in the Park
June28,July26,Aug.16
Throughout the summer, the movies “Mufasa,” “Inside Out 2” and “Twisters” (2024) will be shown at Lisa Link Peace Park. More info can be found at visitdowntownmadison.com/events
June:
Madison Jazz Festival
June6-15
Madison Jazz Festival is an annual celebration of jazz music around the city. For 10 days, all kinds of artists take to the stage to showcase their talents. The festival culminates with free performances on the Memorial Union Terrace on June 14 and 15. More info can be found at union.wisc.edu
The Big Gay Market
June 13 - 15
This multi-day experience celebrates the LGBTQ+ community. Events will range from a ticketed drag show to kids’ bingo night. Queer vendors will also be able to use the space to share their goods and connect with the community. Friday’s events are 18+ only, and Sunday’s events require facemasks. More info can be found at thebiggaymarketllc.com
Make Music Madison
June 21
June 21 is celebrated around the world as a day of music. In this DIY music festival, local musicians perform all over town. Madison’s celebration has grown into one of the largest in the country and is an easy way to discover what the city’s musicians have to offer. More info can be found at makemusicmadison.org
Morgan Wallen Concert at Camp Randall
June 28 - 29
As part of the tour for his fourth studio album “I’m the Problem,” country music star Morgan Wallen will stop at Camp Randall to host the stadium’s first concert in 28 years. Union South will host a tailgate featuring Madison-based DJ Aaron Jai to accompany the show.
July:
“Wicked” at the Overture Center
July9-27
Broadway at Overture will be putting on the Broadway sensation “Wicked” this summer. The play
focuses on the Witches of Oz and runs for 2 hours and 45 minutes with an intermission. Ticket prices vary. More info at overture.org
Art Fair on Capitol Square
July12-13
The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art presents the 67th annual Art Fair on the Square this summer. Admission to the event, which features over 500 artists, is free. More info can be found at mmoca.org
QueerSPEAKS! A Humanities Happening
July16-17
Majestic Theater is hosting an allencompassing event focused on queer voices this summer, including keynote speakers, artists and activists. More info can be found at majesticmadison.com
Coldplay Concert at Camp Randall
July19
British rock band Coldplay will make a stop at Camp Randall as part of their “Music of the Spheres” world tour. Union South will host a tailgate featuring Madison rock band The N’achos to accompany the sold out show.
August:
“Assassins” at the Overture Center
Aug.1-10
Capital City Theatre presents Stephen Sondheim’s musical focusing on the lives of people who killed or attempted to kill a US president. More info can be found at overture.org
Jazz @ Five
Aug.6-Sept.3;Wednesdaysat5p.m.
A free neighborhood concert event featuring two jazz shows and youth jazz performers each week. More info about specific shows can be found at jazzatfive.org
Black on State Festival
Aug.23;11a.m.-7p.m.
The Black on State Festival creates a space to celebrate Black and minority artists. More info can be found at blackonstate.com
ISABELLA BARAJAS/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Badger grad credits extracurricular involvement with future success
By Kaylie Wiedmeyer LIFE & STYLE EDITOR
University of Wisconsin-Madison
senior Abigail Rosin listed off all the activities she had planned in her twelve hour day: work, classes, a meeting with her future employer and a student worker appreciation dinner. She would end her long day grabbing margaritas with her friends after a week balancing classes and three leadership roles. Despite her busy schedule, Rosin credits her extracurricular involvement at UW-Madison with setting her up for success in life after college.
Rosin, who graduated this spring with a degree in journalism and certificates in science communication, digital studies and environmental studies, said being involved in activities on campus beyond academics helped her build resilience and necessary skills for the real world.
“I’ve always been someone who’s really involved,” Rosin said. “In high school, I was doing three sports, student council, speech team. Coming to college, I knew I’d want to stay just as busy.”
Rosin held multiple leadership positions, including head student supervisor at Gordon Dining and Events Center, leading fundraising efforts
for the Association of Women in Communication and co-founding Badgers for IBD.
For many students, extracurriculars may be hard to fit into already busy schedules. But Rosin argued these roles are important for character development, building community and preparing students for jobs in the real world that require skills not learned in the classroom.
“You just have to put yourself out
there, which is not a comfortable thing to do, but honestly it’s fine now, and now I have connections that I can pass on to my replacement, and then I can also rely on those connections in the future if I need to,” Rosin said.
Rosin started working at Gordon Dining and Events Center, one of UW-Madison’s dining halls, her freshman year because it was across the street from her dorm. She didn’t know she’d eventually become head student super-
visor, but said she found her work to be rewarded with promotions. From team member, to shift lead and head student supervisor, Rosin felt encouraged to keep working hard.
“I honestly think my full-time job will be easier than what I’m juggling now,” Rosin said. “If I can handle this, I can definitely handle what’s next.”
It’s this leadership role that has prepared her most for her full-time career as a client success specialist after college, Rosin said.
“You’re responsible for time management — leadership skills in general — like delegation and learning how to be a leadership figure,” Rosin said.
Many students often realize that joining student organizations is the best way to find community. Similarly, being involved on campus gave her structure and purpose, Rosin said.
Rosin estimated she spends 30-35 hours a week on her job and extracurricular responsibilities. With strong time management skills and setting personal boundaries, she makes sure to find balance.
“When I’m with my friends, I really try to turn off my work brain,” she said. “It’s about setting boundaries, reminding yourself that work isn’t life.”
How students spend their summer in Madison
StudentsstayinginMadisonbetweensemestersplanfortheirmonthsofffromschool.
By Oliver Gerharz
ARTS EDITOR
During the school year, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus is filled with the neverending buzz of over 52,000 students. When summer comes, many students leave for home, but for the thousands that decide to stay, the summer months are about staying busy and making campus a home-awayfrom-home.
For some students, that means enrolling in summer classes. Peter Spiegel, a rising senior, is enrolled in an educational policy studies class called “Democracy and Education” to fulfill a general education requirement. In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, about one–third of UW–Madison students have enrolled in at least one summer class, the majority of those classes being online.
“I just hadn’t gotten to it yet so I decided to take it over the summer,” Spiegel said. Required classes are often
taught during the summer as a way for students to get credit for classes that fill up quickly or are hard to schedule.
These summer classes take place over multiple windows of time, with the most popular being the four and eight-week sessions from June to August. Spiegel’s educational policy studies class starts in early June, but for now, Spiegel is working at the food kiosks at Union South.
Over the summer, students work a variety of jobs on campus. Nathan Wagner, a rising senior double majoring in physics and math, is working as a research assistant for two physics professors researching quantum computers.
“Right now, there’s a lot of interesting design challenges with quantum computers,” Wagner said. “It’s a very fastgrowing, competitive field.”
Valentine Schneider, a rising junior, is an operations intern for Student Orientation, Advising and Registration (SOAR), working as a part of the team that introduces admitted students to campus.
Schneider said she also hopes to start teaching cello lessons this summer to bring in a little bit of extra money. As a music performance major, Schneider said they plan to play for an hour on weekdays and three hours on weekends to avoid getting rusty.
“It’s one of those skills that you can’t really take off,” Schneider said. “I mean, you can, but you run the risk of — between semesters — of either not advancing or regressing.”
As a student, summer offers a lot of extra free time. While Schneider uses that time to keep on top of her cello practice, Wagner said he is planning to start a hydroponic farm this summer. Wagner said that he had been planning the hydroponics — the process of growing plants using a water–based nutrient
solution instead of soil — since he took a horticulture class last fall, but only now can dig into the hobby with his free time this summer.
Overall, the defining characteristic of being on campus during the summer is that you don’t see nearly as many students.
“It’s much emptier in the summer,” Wagner said. “It’s just a different feel.”
Study spots that would usually be packed during the school year are vacant in the summer. The swell of students between classes is gone, and according to Spiegel, there aren’t many people coming to Union South either.
“During the semester, we’d have lines out the door at Ginger Root and Cantina around noon,” Spiegel said. “And now, maybe you’ll get 15 people throughout the entire day.”
HAILEY JOHNSON/THE DAILY CARDINAL
BRYCE RICHTER/THE DAILY CARDINAL
opinion
Five tips to survive freshman year
Advice freshman should know before entering their new chapter of life.
By Ellie Zgonc STAFF WRITER
When entering freshman year, everything is new and exciting. The possibilities are endless, and it is the first time in your life you can truly take initiative and be independent. Here are five pieces of advice to get the most out of your first year at UW!
1. Get involved as early as you can. Whether it is physical exercise or social involvement, it is important to use this transition to grow as a student and human being. Doing this will help you feel not only more connected, but confident as well! During my first semester of college, I was not very active because I was so overwhelmed with all of the different clubs and activities, meeting new people and managing my time. In retrospect, I wish I would have joined more clubs and put myself out there more. During second semester, I was able to join a few clubs and meet new people, but I truly believe that I would have had a better first semester if I had been more active.
2. Don’t skip class, seriously. I started off strong with my time management skills and attended class often, but, as time progressed, I decided to skip a class. At the end of the semester, I was frantically trying to catch up. As someone who was a straight A student, ending with a D in my math class was horrifying, and it
was all because I decided to skip a few classes. It was a very rude awakening to realize that I need to take initiative for myself and my academics, because it is such a stark contrast from high school.
3. The great Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” While this quote may have you rolling your eyes because of how often you have heard it, it is truly such a good reminder. When going into college and adjusting to my new life, I found myself feeling nostalgic of the past as well as wishing I was somewhere other than where I was in that certain moment. Even if you are just chilling in the dorm or out with your friends, soak all of it in the best you can, because time moves very fast, and you do not want to miss or waste any moment of it. Be satisfied, happy and proud of yourself wherever you are.
4. Communicate with your roommates! No matter if they are random or your best friend of 10 years, it is always a good idea to ensure you are on the same page. I recommend setting up a list of ground rules, like chore delegation and their comfort level with guests. Roommates can be very fun, but it can also be a good learning experience, because you are sharing a space with someone that you may have never met before. Reach out to a house fellow if you ever have
UW condemns Trump’s federal funding cuts. It’s not enough.
By Safa Razvi OPINION EDITOR
Since taking office in January of 2025, the Trump administration has cut over $12 million in federal research funding, leaving educators and students in complete disarray. Researchers are struggling, and the future of public health hangs in the balance. This isn’t just a bump in the road; it’s a direct attack on life-saving research and a targeted threat to international students whose immigration status and visas rely on a system that’s actively being dismantled.
Time-sensitive projects with real implications for public wellbeing, such as NIH-funded initiatives on vaccine development and LGBTQ+ health research, that push society forward, improve healthcare systems and influence public policy have been cut short. That progress is now halted. Yet, UW-Madison’s leadership responded with weak statements, refusing to directly address the root of the issue: this presidential administration is deprioritizing education in favor of culture wars and political optics.
ments of concern aren’t enough. If UW-Madison was truly committed to the Wisconsin Idea, the belief that education should improve lives beyond the classroom, then now is the time to act.
A more meaningful response would be to involve actionable institutional policies. Partnering with other major research universities could help sustain research efforts in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, building and expanding partnerships with charities and local agencies to create alternative funding arrangements for research would provide critical support and help.
The long-term consequences are clear. UW’s loss of graduate students and federal funding will erode its prestige, slowing innovation and causing them to lose their competitive edge. This is incredibly damaging for a school known to be one of the top research universities and for its groundbreaking discoveries. Public health initiatives will suffer, constrained by limited resources and delayed timelines.
larger problems.
5. Talk to professors and teaching assistants, and open emails. In doing so, you will be able to feel more on top of things and more comfortable with the course material. It is also important to communicate BEFORE the deadline, because it shows initiative. Even just a few hours makes all the difference. Introducing yourself after the first class or asking for help on a problem or question that confuses you can go a long way. I made sure to introduce myself to all of my professors and TAs and ask questions during lecture and discussions, and I truly believe this helped me succeed.
Overall, if you focus on your studies and having fun, the rest will fall into place and you will have a wonderful freshman year. If you ever feel like you are falling behind, don’t worry because everyone is following their own path and doing different things. One of the best parts about attending college today is the plethora of resources available to you, including class Instagram pages for finding friends, using course search and enroll to build your schedule and looking through all of the clubs at UW-Madison.
Ellie Zgonc is a sophomore studying finance. Do you agree that these pieces of advice can helpfreshmanstudentsadaptto college? Send all comments to opinion@dailycardinal.com
The consequences of this silence are tangible and devastating. Faculty and staff across departments are struggling with slashed budgets, paused research and uncertainty about the future of their work. Graduate admissions have already decreased by 25%, a number that signals deep instability in the university’s research system. It’s a warning, and still, the university continues to act as if condemnation alone is a strategy. While UW has engaged in legal action against the Trump administration to prevent wrongful funding cuts and grant terminations, it falls short.
Losing funds, students and staff is only the tip of the iceberg. Consider Krish Lal Isserdasani, an international student from India who completed his bachelors in Computer Science this May. What should’ve been a celebratory occasion was instead clouded by fear — fear that his visa might be terminated under Trump’s new rules. And he’s not alone. Countless international students have faced anxiety, uncertainty and potential deportation. They were only met with a statement signed by Chancellor Mnookin, a deeply inadequate response to this crisis.
These human costs cannot be brushed aside. The university has a responsibility to protect its students and researchers, especially those most vulnerable to federal policy shifts. Empty state-
Then comes the brain drain, where talented minds — both students and faculty — will look to other universities more prepared to support them and their research. Recruitment will become more difficult, and academic quality will inevitably decline. MIT and UC Berkeley have teamed up with other schools to keep research going and to push for science-friendly policies at the federal level. These institutions aren’t just surviving the cuts, they are adapting, protecting their people and asserting their values.
These cuts don’t just setback labs, they hit the heart of what UW-Madison stands for. Graduate students, supported by research grants, are the engine of innovation here. Letting them fall through the cracks is more than a mistake, it’s poor leadership. It betrays the Wisconsin Idea and risks the university’s mission of generating new knowledge through research.
Protecting international students and preserving groundbreaking research isn’t just an administrative concern, it’s a reflection of UW-Madison’s values. The future of the Wisconsin Idea depends on it.
Safa Razvi is an opinion editor for the Daily Cardinal. She is a sophomore studying Journalism. Do you agree that UW-Madison should be doing more in light of Trump’s federal funding cuts? Send all comments to opinion@ dailycardinal.com
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Inside UW’s Zoological Museum science
By Sabriel Murphy STAFF WRITER
All that most students see of the University of Wisconsin Zoological Museum (UWZM), located in the Noland Zoology Building, is the fourth floor staircase’s sign prohibiting entrance from all other than museum staff.
Behind the locked doors, however, the museum’s extensive collections of animal skins and skeletons serve as a powerful resource for research and learning. They date back to the beginning of the university itself in 1848 and include extinct passenger pigeons, exotic animals confiscated from the pet trade and boxes of animal skeletons, just part of the museum’s nearly 750,000 specimens.
Although the museum’s collection is growing, it doesn’t have the staff or budget required to support the exhibits of a traditional museum, and it struggles with physical conditions like humidity that can damage specimens. Still, the UWZM manages to make its collections available to researchers and serve as a launching point for future curators.
Despite challenges, museum stays strong
The museum is staffed by a team of part-time student workers, a volunteer team formed mostly of retired staff and few full-time workers. Many of the volunteers are former researchers whose specialized knowledge base adds immense value to the work.
The main way UW-Madison students are involved in the museum is through museum studies internships, completed for credit in the Zoology 699 class. These students benefit from the museum’s extensive collections and tight collaboration with zoos and state and campus organizations. Interns first learn general practices for museum studies. Then, they can focus their internship on areas that align with their interests and unique skills.
Many former students go on to work part-time at the UWZM and pursue museum studies graduate programs.
“We actually have a former student who is now the preparator at the Smithsonian…We have a former student right now working at Cornell. We have a couple of students
who have gone on to the American Museum,” Laura Monahan, the museum’s Distinguished Associate Director and Curator of Osteology, told The Daily Cardinal.
Museum internships offer a valuable learning experience for future curators. However, volunteers and interns who are in the process of learning can’t accomplish as much as a full-time workforce, and the museum’s lack of funding presents an additional barrier.
Monahan said the museum has just three full-time staff members, and its budget hasn’t increased in 45 years.
The museum relies on grants to cover much of its expenditure. Monahan was awarded the 2023 Regents Academic Staff Excellence Award in part for her ability to secure over $800,000 in grants for the museum.
These grants don’t fulfill all the museum’s needs, though, and the effects of UWZM’s funding limits are not isolated to staffing.
The UWZM sells zoological posters and puts the revenue back into education and exhibits, most of which are located on the second floor of Noland Hall. But the muse-
um’s tight budget leaves no more room for outreach.
“We just don’t have the money to do exhibits,” Monahan said.
In addition, the UWZM’s environmental conditions must be carefully managed to preserve some of its delicate specimens. Noland Hall is not designed for this management. Staff must take care when categorizing, as well as simply walking through the museum, to preserve their specimens.
“We have temperature and relative humidity problems in our building, and that’s what is most detrimental to our museum collections and their preservation,” Monahan said.
Relocating the museum would help with these issues, as well as increasing space, but that seems to be a possibility only in the distant future,
requiring resources that the museum simply doesn’t have.
“If there ever is a new building, there is talk of putting exhibitions in the building, which we love,” Monahan said. “Again, we would need funding to make it happen… and we would need staff to make that happen.”
Despite these limitations, the museum continues to support new discoveries. In just 2024, UWZM loaned out 2,738 specimens for use in research. The museum allows the UW-Madison campus to continue to be a top performer in biological research and offer exceptional opportunities to students, supporting their learning and future.
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Dairy tariffs cut incomes UW professor awarded for HPV device
By Elliott Murray STAFF WRITER
Throughout the United States, the price of milk will soon be reduced by $0.22/cwt to $1.29/ cwt because of the ongoing tariff war. While American consumers celebrate the few dimes they can tuck back into their wallets, reduced prices reflect struggling farms nationwide.
The international blowback from recent tariffs implemented by the Trump administration will have substantial destructive effects on the American dairy and agricultural industries, Chuck Nicholson, associate professor of agriculture and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told The Daily Cardinal.
Nicholson predicts the net income of all U.S. dairy farms will be reduced by $1.6-$7.3 billion in the next four years, with individual farms seeing an income reduction of 25% or more. The average annual value of all U.S. dairy product exports during the next four years is predicted to reduce by nearly $5 billion, or up to half of its current value. The United States currently exports around 17% of the dairy products it produces, according to the Department of Agriculture.
In Wisconsin, the economic fallout will be significant.
Wisconsin plays a significant role in the dairy industry. The state is home to around 5,300 dairy farms — more than any other state in the country — which contribute over $52.8 billion annually to the state economy.
Many countries have already placed significant retaliatory tariffs on the United States, including Mexico, Canada and China. As these retaliatory tariffs make it more costly to buy dairy and agricultural products from the United States, fewer products will be exported. As less milk is exported out of the country, businesses will lower domestic prices to curb the sudden inventory surplus.
“Fewer sales made outside the United States means there are more products available here,” Nicholson said. “It costs companies to keep that inventory, so they have to lower domestic prices.”
But any slight benefit an American consumer may notice in this cost reduction is “not nearly as noticeable as the predicted drop in dairy farm income,” he added. This decrease in income is expected to worsen as other countries find new suppliers of agricultural and dairy products.
Foreign buyers are concerned about not only the rising costs of exporting agricultural and dairy products, but also the rapid rate at which tariff policies are changing. Nicholson said the uncertainty around what tariffs are implemented
at any given moment significantly disrupts the established trust between the United States and its foreign buyers, encouraging global buyers to purchase from alternate sources.
Although the sale of exports may temporarily increase, Nicholson explained, this is only occurring as global buyers rush to purchase goods before permanent tariffs are set. He said there will be a significant decrease in export sales long-term.
The longer the Trump administration’s tariffs are in place, Nicholson said, the less likely it becomes that the United States can recover its previous trading relationships and export sales.
As tariffs continue to change daily, Nicholson said farmers and agricultural companies in Wisconsin and throughout the nation do not want to commit to large decisions regarding their businesses.
“They don’t know if they should buy these supplies or continue to build that new plant,” he said.
The Trump administration is also considering a reduction in funding for food assistance programs throughout the nation, which rely on large dairy suppliers like Wisconsin. As these programs purchase fewer dairy products, Nicholson said dairy farm income would be further reduced.
To offset this strain of reduced income, the Trump administration is considering giving farmers compensatory payments, an action also taken during the first Trump administration.
While such payments may help in the short term, “there is no scenario in which you can pay enough to fully compensate for the loss due to these [tariffs],” Nicholson said.
By Jake Piper SENIOR STAFF WRITER
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Emeritus James Dahlberg received the BayhDole Coalition’s American Innovator Award for his work turning university research into a Human Papillomavirus (HPV) screening device used by over 19 million people.
For Dahlberg, the journey from biochemistry research to a nationwide screening tool started not with a business plan, but with scientific curiosity and a few strands of DNA. Dahlberg’s discovery led to a diagnostic test that has detected more than 623,000 cancers in the last decade alone and launched a decadeslong journey of entrepreneurship and invention which has helped make Wisconsin a biomedical hub.
Dahlberg, who served in UW-Madison’s Biochemistry department for 36 years, used his research at the university to create an enzyme and DNA combination capable of identifying virtually any DNA sequence.
A chance discovery
While Dahlberg was a professor at UW-Madison, he stumbled across a unique function of the DNA replication process Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), a laboratory tool used to rapidly generate millions or billions of copies of a specific DNA sample.
When inserting triple-stranded DNA into PCR, he noticed an interesting reaction: the PCR enzymes would not only replicate the DNA, but also “cut” the DNA, separating unneeded strands out of the replication sequence. At the time of this discovery, Dahlberg said there were “no enzymes that would cut DNA specifically.”
The discovery allowed researchers to further sequence genomes and conduct screening tests for a range of diseases, including HPV.
Dahlberg’s method of using PCR enzymes to cut triple-stranded DNA was patented by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) in the early 1990s. UW-Madison researchers apply for WARF patents when they discover or build material that could be applicable in an industry setting. Typically, these patents are licensed out to companies through the university, and in the early 1990s when Dahlberg’s discovery was patented, WARF only allowed established companies to license their patents.
“[In the] early 1990s, WARF had two poli-
cies,” Dahlberg said. “One is that they would not pass or not license discoveries back to the university inventor. The second problem was that even if they did, they wanted cash for license fees, and we certainly couldn’t afford that.”
Dahlberg and two fellow professors created the company Third Wave based on his patented research, and with the help of WARF’s newly elected CEO Dick Leazer, his team became the first ever researchers at UW-Madison to bring their discovery to market. Leazer gave the team the rights to their research and bought a stake in the newlyfounded company to give them funding.
After applying for federal grants and receiving seed money from private investors, research on how to apply Dahlberg’s discovery could begin in earnest. But becoming a businessman didn’t come naturally to the veteran researcher.
“There are ups and downs in anything,” Dahlberg said. “I mean, times when we thought that our product was so good it could solve all the problems of the world. Then, of course… we started to burn money in a way that we shouldn’t [have].”
After hitting hard times, Dahlberg and his team hired a new chief executive officer who consolidated the team’s vision around a singular application: detecting HPV.
HPV is one of the most common skin-toskin transmitted viral infections in the world, with over 80% of all sexually active men and women estimated to be infected by the virus at least once in their lifetime. While the virus itself is usually minor, and most infections usually do not lead to cancer, certain strains can develop into five different types of cancer.
Third Wave realized they could use the PCR enzyme’s “cutting,” or “cleavage,” activity to probe inside DNA molecules, finding changes in their sequences that would have previously remained undetected.
Using this discovery and a newly directed focus, Dahlberg and his team synthesized “probe” DNA structures to combine with a patient’s existing DNA and see if it would create a cleavable structure, indicative of being HPV positive.
After years of research and development, Third Wave was eventually bought out by the women’s health company Hologic in 2008, marking the start of commercial sales for Dahlberg’s research, which has now been used for more than 19 million screenings.
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Badger bites: Where to dine near campus
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Vintage Spirits & Grill, located on University Avenue, offers a great patio for summertime dining.
Colectivo Coffee’s multiple locations close to campus serve college students with a variety of coffee drinks and cafe food.
The Globe is a charming restaurant that lives up to its name, providing a range of dishes from countries like India, Nepal and more.
Lucille is a three story tavern that is well-known for its wood-fired and steel-pan pizzas.
Teddywedgers is a small carryout near the Capitol that serves a variety of hand pies for any meal of the day.
Well-known for it’s pel’meni, a small dumpling, Paul’s is a staple spot just off State Street.
Indie is Regent Street’s charming coffee shop with a beautiful outdoor patio and all-day waffles.
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One of many coffee shops on State Street, Fair Trade offers housemade soups and panini alongside its coffee.