THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1969 TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2011
WWW.BADGERHERALD.COM
VOLUME UME XLI XLII, LIII,, ISSUE LI IIS ISS SSUE 1 137
ARTS | MUSIC
OPINION | COLUMN
SPORTS |COLUMN
Beauty of Seattle band’s music far from fleeting on ‘Helplessness Blues’ page 7
Herald columnists weigh-in on the great Mifflin fail page 5
Assessing Badgers’ NFL prospects Watt, four others land in promising situations with prime chances to succeed at next level after NFL Draft page 10
Mayor says Mifflin culture may change Stabbing, violence on Saturday prompts Soglin to call for major shift in party’s drinking attitude Ryan Rainey Deputy News Editor An exceptional level of violence at Saturday’s Mifflin Street Block Party led Mayor Paul Soglin to say the future of the event could hang in serious jeopardy. At a Monday press conference, Soglin reacted to the stabbing of a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin student and what he said was a disturbing level of belligerence among drunken partygoers. Soglin said he believes the high number of partygoers attending only to consume alcohol led to a more belligerent party atmosphere on Sataurday afternoon. “I saw far more inebriated people … at 1:15 on Saturday than I did at 4 o’clock two years
ago,” Soglin said. “It usually takes, as we saw, more than one officer to deal with an inebriated person — not just for the officers’ sake, but also for the safety of the individual.” Soglin added, however, the city has no definitive plans for the party’s future. He did say he plans to make the event uninviting by shifting the event’s alcohol-based culture over the next year. “My guess is despite whatever we do for next year, some folks will show up,” he said. “It would be my intention to make it as uninviting as possible for anyone who planned to get fallingdown, stupid drunk.” Although he declined to mention specific examples of what the city might do to prevent future violence, Soglin said he would consider forcing the event to move to the next Saturday
in May to discourage students studying for final exams from attending the party. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, told The Badger Herald he plans to meet with Mifflin neighborhood residents to hammer out new plans for the party’s future. He also said he understands negative reactions from UW students disappointed with the possibility of a diminished or canceled block party. Verveer said students should remember one of their own suffered nearly fatal injuries because of a stabbing on the 500 block of Mifflin Street Saturday afternoon. “I just can’t condone an event that someone could have been killed at — and it wouldn’t have been accidentally,” Verveer said. “I don’t think it was an isolated incident, sadly.” City officials were
Megan McCormick The Badger Herald
The aggressive incidents at the Mifflin Street Block Party this year could shift the course for the party’s future. not the only individuals associated with Mifflin to condemn Saturday’s events. Scott Leslie, coowner of event sponsor Majestic Live, repeatedly said before Saturday he believed Majestic would
participate in Mifflin in future years. On Monday, Leslie said he was disappointed with the event’s outcome. “I can’t see [Majestic] being involved with this in any way in the future,”
Leslie said. The disappointment over Saturday’s stabbings and police injuries might also have implications
MIFFLIN, page 2
Officials question possible support network for Osama While Pakistan supported U.S., terrorist’s proximity to military base raises concerns Andrew Averill State Editor
Matthew Pennington Associated Press While state and national leaders are thankful Osama bin Laden is dead and acknowledged Pakistan’s assistance in the fight against al-Qaeda Monday, they also questioned whether bin Laden had a support system within the
country that allowed him to remain hidden for so long. The contradicting messages emphasize the problem between the two countries — Washington needs Islamabad’s partnership but is unable to trust its ally completely. The covert operation that saw the end of bin Laden was done without notifying Pakistan and, although drone strikes are commonplace, it would seem a raid by ground troops is in defiance of Pakistan’s wishes to not let foreign troops on its soil. President Barack
Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said the government worried Pakistan would call upon its fighter jets while U.S. special forces flying in two Chinook helicopters got closer to their destination in Abbottabad, which is host to thousands of Pakistani troops. Had a clash occurred between the two allies’ forces, Brennan said, a contingency plan had been created, though he would not give details. Relations between the U.S. and Pakistan were already strained after a CIA
operative shot and killed two Pakistanis. Although Pakistan did not object to the killing of the al-Qaeda leader, many questions remain as to how a man who evaded U.S. intelligence for more than a decade could have found asylum in a compound located so close to a major military base without anyone discovering his whereabouts. Thankful for the help Pakistan did offer U.S. forces in the fight against terrorism, Brennan said he believes it is “inconceivable” bin Laden did not receive help from
a support network inside the country. He would not reject outright that it could have been “official” in nature and said U.S. officials had already begun discussing the oddity with Pakistan. The three-story compound in Abbottabad — about 35 miles from the country’s capital city, Islamabad — was custom-built for bin Laden sometime in 2005, according to U.S. officials. Prominent U.S. lawmakers sounded off on the issue with mixed opinions. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.,
chairman of the Armed Services Committee, had no reservations and spoke forthright, saying to reporters that Pakistan’s military and intelligence services “have a lot of explaining to do,” he told reporters. “The Pakistani army and intelligence have a lot of questions to answer, given the location, the length of time and the apparent fact that … this facility was actually built for bin Laden,” Levin said. Secretary of State
OSAMA, page 4
UW faculty endorse public authority model Following contentious debate among members of Senate, vote to support status for campus passes Matt Huppert Campus Reporter
RESOURCES FOR EQUITY, PAGE 2 Laura Hill The Badger Herald file photo
Damon Williams, vice provost for diversity and climate, said his office looks to launch a newsletter and social media outreach efforts.
Diversity department hit with backlog Bascom office working to boost communication amid criticism for lack of action Jen Zettel Senior News Reporter Six months ago, a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin sent an email regarding the fall 2010 Diversity Forum. The documents in this particular email, sent to Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate Damon Williams, resulted from an intense discussion at the Outstanding
Women of Color panel, in which members of the campus community shared their stories, concerns and hopes for a more accepting climate at UW. And now six months later, panel moderator Patty Loew, a UW life sciences communication professor, still has not had an update from Williams’ office. “It’s really frustrating,” Loew said. Besides teaching, Loew sits on three campus diversity committees, represents her department as a Faculty Senator and is an all-around
advocate for diversity. But someone, she said, has to support her and others like her on campus. “I teach and do outreach and I do research and everything I do involves diversity, but as far as trying to implement new policies, that would be Damon Williams. … I guess I’m not sure what else I can do,” she said. Williams said the group was “spot-on with a lot of their insights” and the documents
DIVERSITY, page 2
© 2011 BADGER HERALD
In what began with quiet disagreement and evolved into polarized debate, the Faculty Senate voted to support public authority status for the University of Wisconsin Monday after representatives emphasized the necessity for the body to take a definitive stance on the proposal. Members of the Faculty Senate fiercely deliberated whether the body should support the plan proposed by Gov. Scott Walker and supported by Chancellor Biddy Martin. The debate quickly divided the group between those in favor of financial and political separation from the UW System and those who wish to retain membership as part of the network of public institutions. Proponents of the resolution said the UW System unfairly reaps financial benefits from UW that it then funnels down to the smaller schools instead of sending back to the top. Political science professor John Coleman said UW has been “shackled” by the UW System since the
institutions merged in the 1970s. Provost Paul DeLuca said while the UW System does help bring more secondary education to native Wisconsinites, it does little to benefit the Madison campus. DeLuca said keeping UW a part of the UW System incorrectly links it to the other schools. “In no way are we a large [UW-Green Bay] or a more complex [UW-La Crosse],” Deluca said. “We are unique from other UW (System) schools in our professors, our students and our mission.” Supporters of the proposal also argued continuing to be a part of the System could jeopardize the national and international prestige of the campus. Coleman said assistant professors report they are no longer sure if they want to continue teaching at UW-Madison because they are unsure what public authority status will mean for the future of the university. Others faculty contended a separation from the System stemmed not from a desire to keep UW-Madison academically
FACULTY SENATE, page 3