2012.02.17

GETTING INTO FULL SWING With 10 returning starters, the Badgers and head coach Yvette Healy look to build on last season’s success SPORTS | 8

THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1969 Volume XLIII, Issue 88

Friday, February 17, 2012

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Adidas dispute not UW’s first In the face of widespread student opposition, Ward moving toward discussions Katie Caron Higher Education Editor

Megan McCormick The Badger Herald

SSFC Chair Sarah Neibart addresses the committee Thursday night. She and other members said SSFC did not have sufficient information to pass two budgets.

SSFC votes down budgets Rec Sports, Union currently do not provide sufficient detail, transparency for approval Tahleel Mohieldin Herald Contributor Members of a branch of the University of Wisconsin student government voted Thursday to reject budget proposals for both the Wisconsin Union and Recreational Sports.

Committee members of Student Services Finance Committee raised concerns about the lack transparency and accountability associated with both budgets.

“These are student fees that we are given no control over because they are pooled into a pot,” Rep. Tia Nowack said about the Wisconsin Union budget.

“There is no working together on this budget.”

While some committee members expressed appreciation that the

Union provided them with more information since the original budget hearing on Monday, some said they still felt the information was not enough.

SSFC Rep. Justin Gerstner thanked the Union for cooperating with SSFC in providing the body with more detailed information but said the with the state of the budget the committee was not at the point where a decision could be made.

Nowack said she wanted to be clear that her vote was note against the union itself.

“It’s not a vote against the Union; I support the Union and the people that work for the Union, especially students,” she said. “We just don’t have

SSFC, page 3

The current issues between the University of Wisconsin and Adidas over fair compensation for workers is not the first time the Madison campus has had to wrestle with apparel company contracts and workers’ rights.

Currently, UW is moving into a mediation period with Adidas to address a dispute about the university’s code of conduct regarding the ongoing case involving an Adidas-subcontracted factory owner fleeing without paying 2,800 workers.

After the Worker Rights Consortium report solicited

by Interim Chancellor David Ward provided more information, Adidas released a statement denying responsibility.

When the UW Labor Licensing Policy Committee recommended Ward place Adidas on notice, he decided to move

into mediations to resolve the dispute.

University spokesperson John Lucas said each of the past situations has been complex and emphasized there are two current contracts with Adidas for all extensive purposes — one stipulating Adidas can produce apparel with the motion W, and the other that provides the exclusive contract making Adidas is the sole provider of UW sports team athletic gear.

The dispute with Adidas comes after three main cases in the past few years which have involved Adidas, Nike and Russell Athletic.

The case with Adidas arose when Adidassubcontracted factory Hermosa Manufacturing closed in 2005 without compensating 260 workers $825,000 in back pay or severance, according to a UW statement.

In response, Adidas committed to a rehiring effort and a plan to curtail future abuses.

In the 2007 case involving UW’s license with Russell Athletic, workers at the company’s Jerzees de Choloma were fired for union activity. According to a UW statement, after UW put the company on notice, it agreed to provide back pay to the workers and job reinstatement.

In the case with Nike, UW severed its ties in April 2010 after two Nikecontracted factories in Honduras closed without paying $2.2 million in severance pay to 1,800 workers. According to a UW statement, Nike had made no clear indications that it would remedy the situation after placed on notice.

Later in 2010, although UW had cut ties with the group, Nike announced a decision to contribute $1.54 million to a worker relief fund to aid those affected by the Honduras case, according to a UW statement.

In an email to The Badger Herald, Trademark

Licensing Director Cindy Van Matre said the mediation with Adidas will be the first time the university will go into mediations for a labor licensing issue.

Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Community Relations Dawn Crim said cases like this are unfortunate and UW is committed to ensuring and promoting fair labor practices.

“In each of these cases, the university takes the allegations seriously and works with the group to remedy the situation,” Crim said.

Crim also said the nuance of each situation which has arisen with licensees of UW is different and dependent on the nature of the factory owner and the license itself.

“There’s a different outcome depending on what the leverage points are,” Crim said.

In a letter sent Feb. 14

ADIDAS, page 3

UW alum Shadid dies in Syria Pulitzer Prize winner passes away after apparent asthma attack while on assignment Jackie Allen Campus Life Editor Anthony Shadid, a University of Wisconsin alum, New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner, died while on a reporting assignment Thursday in Syria.

Shadid, a 43-year-old American of Lebanese descent, died from an apparent asthma attack, according to the New York Times. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Tyler Hicks, a Times photographer who was also once arrested with Shadid, was with him and carried his body across the Syrian border to Turkey. Hicks said in the Times Shadid began to show symptoms early Thursday in an allergic reaction to the horses they were riding to travel in a

mountainous area.

Shadid earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science at UW in 1990.

He also studied Arabic, eventually becoming fluent in the language.

He visited the UW campus over a year ago, giving a day’s worth of talks for students, staff and faculty as well as local reporters and media activists as the keynote speaker at a Journalism Ethics lecture.

“Calling Shadid a ‘prize-winning newspaper correspondent’ is a grand understatement,” School of Journalism Chair Greg Downey said in a statement released Thursday night.

He added Shadid donated his time and talents freely whenever he returned to Wisconsin.

In the campus lecture in 2010, which drew more than 150 people, Shadid spoke on his experience reporting in war-torn Iraq and American foreign policy.

“In the end, it’s about stories,” Shadid said in the lecture. “If I’ve learned one thing I think in 15 years of being a foreign correspondent, it’s that only stories really matter.”

According to the Times, Shadid has been reporting in Syria for a week and gathering information on armed resistance to the Syrian government. The exact circumstances and location of his death are unclear.

Shadid earned a Pulitzer Prize in 2004 for his reporting from the Middle East on the Iraq war in 2010. He was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist

In solidarity Protesters march in support of the potential recall of Gov. Scott Walker at Monona Terrace Thursday afternoon. The activists turned out as part of the “Anniversary Week of Action to Celebrate the 2011 Wisconsin Uprising,” which runs from Feb. 11 to Feb. 19.

in 2007 for his coverage of Lebanon and was nominated by the Times for his coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East over the past year.

The Pulitzer Board in 2004 praised Shadid for “his extraordinary ability to capture, at personal peril, the voices and emotions of Iraqis as their country was invaded, their leader toppled and their way of life upended.”

Shadid also worked for the Associated Press, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe in addition to the New York Times.

In 2002 while reporting for the Boston Globe, he was shot and wounded in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Shadid, Hicks and two

ALUM, page 3

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UW considers new hybrid art institution If approved, school would combine major expressive forms under 1 roof; public encouraged to offer ideas Katie Caron

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Higher Education Editor In future years, students majoring in theater, art history and music could fall within the realm of the same college at the University of Wisconsin.

The university has reached the next stage in its consideration of creating a new College of the Arts, which would comprise the School of Music and the departments of art history, art and dance, theatre and drama and design studies.

Executive Director of the Arts Institute and theatre and drama professor Norma Saldivar said the creation of the new school would benefit UW by providing a more uniform governance

structure, more efficiency and more collaboration across art departments.

“There are three pieces this would allow for — administrative benefits, sharing resources and offering a more cohesive arts curriculum that would not only present new resources for students but really give them an advantage in real world opportunities,” Saldivar said.

Saldivar said the initiative is now entering the next phase of presenting the proposal for the college to the campus community. She said her intent and hope is to engage with the community through town hall meetings and make any changes based on the input.

This is an idea, Saldivar

said, that has been floated for about 30 years, and the current proposal began to be discussed in 2008 when the Arts Institute began addressing the idea more formally.

She said the preliminary steps also involved taking a survey of each of the departments to see about any interest and that faculty generally expressed high interest.

She added this is the farthest the idea has come, as interim Chancellor David Ward charged a task force in November 2011 to work on the logistics of the proposal.

“There has always been an interest not only within the arts departments but also across campus,” she said. “This very much is

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the transfer of departments who wish to be a part of the college.

Harris said important to stress is that the proposal now being finished and made public is not the end, but only the beginning of creating the new college.

He said the task force is now soliciting public input before review by university governance committees and ultimately bringing the proposal to the University of Wiscosin System Board of Regents in July.

According to a UW statement, the first Town Hall meeting will take place on Monday, Feb. 20 from 1-3 p.m. in 1310 Grainger Hall, with the next meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 28 from 5-7 p.m at the same location.

Multiple ethics bills target GOP

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the right time to have this conversation because of what we’re already discussing on campus.”

Darin Harris, spokesperson for the Office of Quality Improvement, said his role has been to act as the project manager, facilitator and consultant for the task force — made up of about 30 faculty and staff members — that has been working to create the proposal.

He said his role has partially involved overseeing meetings of a governance committee and a curriculum committee, which have each met four times.

Saldivar also said the task force is currently looking at two things — the creation of the College of the Arts and

Tara Golshan Herald Contributor

Malory Goldin The Badger Herald file photo

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi said the new initiative will hopefully keep the door to the polls open for most.

Parisi announces plan to ease process of obtaining Voter ID Leah Linscheid City Life Editor Two Dane County employees jointly announced a proposal to aid area citizens in obtaining identification to vote in future elections in accordance with the voter ID law.

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and Dane County Board Chair Scott McDonell proposed a plan allowing people born in Dane County to receive a birth certificate for voting purposes only, free of charge, according to a statement from the two county board members.

The proposal was modeled after a program already implemented in Milwaukee County, Dane County Clerk Karen Peters said. Residents seeking a free birth certificate must state in writing the birth certificate is only for the purpose of obtaining a type of official identification card used to vote.

Under current Wisconsin law, residents are required to show state-issued identification to vote in an election. The Department of Transportation will issue an identification card to vote free of charge to individuals who present a birth certificate, but many citizens are unable to afford them,

according to a statement by Parisi and McDonell.

Birth certificates can currently be issued to citizens for $20 at the Dane County Register of Deeds, Peters said.

The statement said the driving force behind the proposal offering Dane County residents a free birth certificate is the concern that the voter ID law could “disenfranchise voters.”

“The state’s voter ID law continues to have flaws that could lead to the disenfranchisement of voters — particularly minorities, those who are homeless, the elderly or students,” Parisi said in the statement. “The county’s effort is critical to protecting the integrity of our elections and preserving our citizens’ right to vote.”

According to Peters, approximately 10 percent of Madison voters do not have the proper identification to vote in the upcoming elections.

Peters said the proposal is a step in the right direction to aid Dane County residents in the voting process.

“I think it will definitely help because in Dane County we do have a group of people, like the elderly, that appear not to have this document in order to get their ID,” Peters

said. “I think it’s good that it’s out there as an option because people will need it.”

Dane County Supervisor Dianne Hesselbein, District 9, also expressed her support of the proposal.

She said she was happy Dane County was taking steps to guarantee as many people vote in Dane County as possible.

“I am so grateful that when the state of Wisconsin drops the ball, Dane county picks it up,” Hesselbein said. “It is so important that we have as many people voting in Dane County as possible.”

According to the statement, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University estimated 11 percent of Wisconsin voters do not have the appropriate photo identification needed to vote in an election.

The center also said ID requirement issues “fall disproportionately” to minority and low-income residents.

Peters said the proposal is currently being circulated to gather sponsors. The Dane County Board will address the proposal and vote for its implementation at its next meeting, scheduled March 1. If approved, the proposal would go into effect within the week.

Claiming the current Republican administration has committed ethics violations, Democratic legislators introduced a package of bills Thursday, prompting their Republican counterparts to accuse them of hypocrisy.

The introduced bills deal with a wide range of issues such as placing caps on fundraising during recall campaigns, requiring judges to recuse themselves from cases if the attorneys involved ever represented judges and increasing government transparency, according to a statement released by the Office of Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha.

The contents of the package, which according to the statement are aimed at reversing the worst abuses of Gov. Scott Walker and legislative Republicans, have all been introduced previously as separate bills and are now grouped together as they all pertain to the idea of ethics, Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison, said.

Berceau, who has worked in Wisconsin Legislature for 13 years and served in the minority party for 11, said the covertness of the Walker administration was unparalleled by any other administration.

“I have been working with Republicans for a long time, and nothing compares to what the Walker administration has done,” Berceau said. “I have never seen anything like the secrecy that this administration has been engaged in.”

In a weekly radio address, Rep. Sandy Pasch, D-Whitefish Bay, spoke to the some of the Walker administration’s specific actions, which the Democratic Party feels threatens the government’s once transparent reputation and is behind the loss of the public’s faith and trust in Legislature.

“Restore Integrity” Highlights POLITICAL APPOINTMENT REFORM ACT Repeals parts of Act 10 that allowed Walker to appoint 32 “political cronies” that were previously appointed by the Civil Service

RECALL FUNDRAISING LOOPHOLE REFORM ACT Eliminates the statute that allows unlimited fundraising during a recall period

OPEN MEETINGS CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT Calls on Legislature to follow Open Meetings laws and creates penalties for violations SOURCE: “Restore Integrity” legislation package

“Again and again, they have chosen to reward special interests and big corporate donors over working families across our state,” Pasch said.

However, as unprecedented as Berceau finds the Walker administrations actions, Mike Mikalsen, spokesperson for Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, finds the proposed Ethics Package to be hypocritical and a “usual” from the Democratic lawmakers.

According to Mikalsen, the package is valueless and is nothing more than an attempt to paint the Republicans as “evil.” He said the Democrats have repeatedly attempted to portray the Legislature as being broken, even though it is not.

Mikalsen called the Democratic proposals hypocritical in light of the election of Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who he accused of being bought out by special interests.

He said the Democratic Party did not question the origin of Bradley’s fundraising.

“The Democratic Party did not have an issue with her election being bought out.” Mikelson said. “Some of the rules in question were originally put in place by Democrats, and these are all things the democrats could have done when they had the majority but didn’t.”

Despite, Mikalsen’s examples, Berceau denied all accusations of hypocrisy. She said the Republicans keep pointing fingers and saying that the Democrats do it too, even though they do not.

Berceau said she is aware of Republican supporters of this package.

“There are Republicans that have also seen the wrongs in the ways of this administration,” Berceau said. “But I think that the Republicans are very disciplined, and if someone tells them to vote ‘no,’ then they will because it will look bad otherwise.”

The Badger Herald | News | Friday, February 17, 2012

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National women’s organization endorses Falk Leah Linscheid City Life Editor A candidate in the potential recall election against Gov. Scott Walker has snagged the endorsement of an influential women’s rights political organization.

EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, announced its endorsement of former Dane County Executive and gubernatorial candidate

Kathleen Falk Thursday, according to Falk spokesperson Scot Ross.

“The endorsement by EMILY’s List is an important endorsement,” Ross said. “The fact that Kathleen’s been endorsed by them based on her record, her experience and her ability to get the job done, will only build momentum for her campaign to defeat Walker and restore openness, accountability and transparency to the governor’s office.”

EMILY’s List cited several reasons for its decision to endorse Falk in their statement, including her commitment to women’s health and workers’ rights.

EMILY’s List’s President Stephanie Schriock said in statement that Falk kept a balanced budget for 14 years during her time as Dane County executive and continued to fight for “progressive values.”

Falk expressed gratitude for the endorsement from EMILY’s

List in her statement.

“I am so honored to have earned the endorsement of EMILY’s List,” Falk said.

“EMILY’s List has been instrumental in electing strong, pro-choice women across the country, including nine governors, and I am grateful for all they will do for our campaign.”

EMILY’s List also released a statement that said the nation may enter 2013 with no female Democratic governors in office--

an issue that the organization hopes to address with its nomination of Falk and future women political actors.

The organization boasts a membership of over one million, according to the statement. The organization has raised more than $38 million in its goal of supporting women candidates for 27 years. EMILY’s list among the country’s largest political action committees.

“The EMILY’s List community now stands at more

than one million members strong, and we are ready to take action to ensure that more pro-choice Democratic women like Kathleen run for governor — and win,” the statement said.

“We know this recall election will be a tough fight, but we will stand strong with Kathleen all the way.”

Falk is not the only challenger Walker is set to face in the recall. Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma has also come forward as a gubernatorial hopeful.

Police investigate alleged torture of 15-year-old girl Officers say child was held captive in basement, starved, sexually assaulted Leah Linscheid City Life Editor Madison police have arrested three suspects in connection with the alleged torture and starvation of a 15-year-old girl, including the victim’s father and stepmother.

Chad Chritton, 40, and Melinda Drabek-Chritton, 42, both of Madison, were arrested on counts of first degree reckless

endangerment, intentional child abuse and child neglect, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday. Both suspects are being held in Dane County Jail with a bail of $20,000 each.

The victim was forced to live in the basement of the family’s home with no access to a bathroom, according to the complaint. The victim told police her father and stepmother deprived her of food, and often forced her to consume her own feces and urine.

Chritton confirmed that the victim was locked in the basement with barred windows, and said he had placed an alarm on the door

ADIDAS, from 1

SSFC, from 1

to Chairperson of the LLPC Lydia Zepeda, Senior University Legal Counsel Brian Vaughan wrote that the university is contractually obligated to pursue mediation when disputes over sponsorship agreements arise, although the LLPC recommended that Ward put the group on notice before cutting ties.

Vaughn wrote that the current case with Adidas is unique because mediation was not available in past disputes, and in past cases the companies have not disputed the applicability of the code to severance pay in the past whereas Adidas now is.

adequate information on the budget.”

In a budget recommendation letter to the chancellor, Board of Regents and UW administrators, the committee said it is requesting more itemization and specification of line items in the budget.

Wisconsin Union representative Katie Fischer said the union hopes to continue working with SSFC and respects the committee’s decision to deny the budget and submit the budget recommendation.

Following the decision to vote down the Union’s $9 million budget, committee members debated the Rec Sports budget and raised concerns similar to those regarding the Union’s budget.

Rec Sports planned

ALUM, from 1 other Times journalists were also arrested and held for six days by progovernment militias in Libya by former dictator Moammar Gadhafi last March.

“Shadid died in the midst of performing his life’s work as a journalist of the highest quality and integrity — thoughtful, serious, important work that I know we are all so very proud of and so very thankful for,” Downey said in the statement. “We will miss him terribly.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

to alert him if the victim tried to leave, according to the complaint. Chritton also told police he installed cameras near his food pantries to monitor the girl’s eating, because he believed she was diabetic.

The complaint said a doctor had never diagnosed the victim with diabetes.

The girl’s stepbrother, Joshua Drabek, 18, was also arrested on counts of sexual assault and intentional child abuse. Drabek is also facing prior allegations of sexual assault of a child, according to court records.

The complaint said the victim told police her stepbrother engaged her in forced sex on multiple

to utilize the $2 million requested for equipment repair and facility management, SSFC Chair Sarah Neibart said.

Rep. Cale Plamann said the problem with the budget was not a question of money, but of process.

He said that he believed the Rec Sports budget was clear but lacked adequate information.

He also added the same could not be said about the union’s budget, citing what he called “vague titles” in the union’s budget for large sums.

Neibart noted in addition to the group’s inadequate budget, in the past SSFC has advised Rec Sports to restructure its board, but the organization has not taken any steps to do so.

“It shows that the recommendations of SSFC don’t follow through; shared governance is not happening, and there is

occasions.

Dr. Barbara Knox, child abuse pediatrician at the University of Wisconsin Children’s Hospital, told police the girl was exposed to prolonged starvation that resulted in pubertal arrest, the complaint said.

Knox said in the complaint the victim suffered from serial child torture, isolation, terrorization, and physical and sexual abuse, among other injuries.

According to a police report, the victim was found walking outside barefoot and in pajamas Feb. 6 by a passerby, who notified police. The girl was transported to a Madison

no consultation,” Neibart said. “Students have to have involvement and the ability to be engaged in this budget.”

Following the decision to disallow the two budget proposals, the committee passed a motion to contact Interim Chancellor David Ward with budget recommendations for both Rec Sports and the Union.

“Both units should be funded if they offer valuable services, but we are not comfortable making this decision unless the governance process is adhered to,” Neibart said. “It’s time for student leaders to stick up for students on campus, and I think SSFC is doing that.”

During the meeting, SSFC also voted to pass the WSUM budget, increasing the station’s budget by less than one percent.

hospital.

The complaint said the girl told police she fled her home after her stepmother threatened to throw her down a flight of stairs for completing a chore too slowly.

The girl was taken to Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center, where a forensic interview took place. The report said the interview provided probable cause to make the three arrests.

Jennifer Ginsburg, forensic interviewer for Safe Harbor, said interviews are conducted to establish the facts of an incident and to help officials determine what steps to take in the investigation.

“We work with a team of professionals; we work cooperatively with law enforcement, child protection, the district attorney offices and others … to make sure the child does not fall through the cracks,” Ginsburg said. “The goal is to reduce the number of times the child has to recount their story rather than having to repeat it over and over, and then everyone can hear it one time in a child-friendly environment.”

According to Ginsburg, the center conducts an average of 200 forensic interviews a year, resulting in approximately 16 interviews a month.

Opinion

Editorial Page Editor Taylor Nye oped@badgerherald.com

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The Badger Herald | Opinion | Friday, February 17, 2012

Vouchers not entire answer to Wis. education system Ryan Plesh Columnist The United States’ education system is extraordinary in several ways. A quick look at rankings of universities around the world reveals that America is home to many of the world’s best.

However, despite having more resources than many other nations, the U.S. lags behind many other developed nations in primary and secondary education. Furthermore, the U.S.’ education system manages to perpetuate and produce massive inequalities not seen in many other developed nations.

In an effort to address the issue of inequality and provide adequate education for a greater number of students, the Milwaukee Public School system instituted a voucher program in 1990. The first in the nation of its kind, the voucher system grants children from low-income families a voucher they can use to attend a private school.

The program has faced scrutiny over the years for a variety of reasons. First, the taxpayers who fund the program have cried foul because their children are not directly benefiting from it. Second, the program has been dogged by questions of efficacy since its inception.

On Sunday, Erica Breunlin of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the findings of a new study on the effectiveness of the program in light of recent changes. New legislation

was aimed at increasing enrollment in the program, and it has: Enrollment in the program grew by more than 10 percent in the last year. However, bigger isn’t always better.

There are still questions surrounding the ability of the program to effect positive change for Milwaukee Public School students. The program may be a temporary solution, but predictions that it will help to bring about educational equality are dubious at best.

Among the report’s findings, the most striking is that voucher enrollees scored no higher on math or reading standardized tests than did their Milwaukee Public School counterparts. Now, I’ll be the first to criticize the use of standardized tests as a metric for quality of education, but the fact is this is how educational quality is determined in

this country.

There are many different possible interpretations of what constitutes a good education. Many Americans no doubt place a high value on whether their children’s education will put them in a position to successfully compete for well-paying jobs.

Others may see education as having more intrinsic worth and place higher priority on learning itself. Most people probably combine these two approaches to some extent, but it seems clear enough that the ultimate purpose of education is to place children in a position to pursue what they think is a good life.

This is, of course, a rather broad definition of what education is, and it would be impossible to measure the effectiveness of one education over another according to this description. By the

fairly compensated. Abandoning connections to Adidas without pursuing a resolution won’t address the heart of the matter.

Mediation implies the relationship between the university and the apparel company can somehow be repaired. Specific outcomes for the workers in Indonesia are required for this to happen. There is no going back to being on good terms without a proper resolution, ending with all 2,800 Indonesian workers compensated.

If this cannot be reached, the contract must be cut.

While the mediation was born from a contractual obligation, it must focus less on preserving the business relationship and more on ensuring the workers receive fair pay. Ward has said mediation will be the most effective means to achieve this.

Unfortunately, Adidas’ attitude is concerning. They have stated they are happy to meet with UW, and they maintain they haven’t broken the campus’ code of conduct. While the unrepentant nature may be chalked up to a PR strategy, it does not lay a promising groundwork for the dialogue.

UW and Adidas have 60 days to meet and come to a conclusion. In the meantime, Ward should be more vocally opposed to Adidas’ alleged conduct. The deadline for mediation is flexible, but there should be more pressure from the university for a resolution as soon as possible. The longer they wait, the longer the workers go uncompensated.

The apparel company denies culpability for the actions of PT Kizone, its subcontracted branch in Indonesia, but there are simply no excuses when workers’ rights are in jeopardy.

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Weekly non-voting Community Member Scott Resnick | District 8 Alderman Ed i t o r i a l B o a r d o p i n i o n s a r e c ra f t e d i n d e p e n d e n t l y o f n e w s c o v e ra g e .

Young misleads: Pan ideal candidate Leland Pan Guest Columnist This letter is a response to Reggie Young’s 2/15 Badger Herald column about my candidacy for Dane County Board.

Mr. Young argues that I would be ineffective as an elected official because of his perception that I am too “hot-headed” and “partisan” to work productively with other supervisors.

As proof, he offers up a Facebook status that briefly appeared on my personal profile’s wall.

In hindsight, I freely admit that this status was inappropriate, and I take responsibility for posting it in such a public manner. Additionally, while the second quote was actually a quote from the comedian Bill Hicks, I understand the quote is not funny and is highly offensive and I sincerely apologize for that as well. However, I strongly disagree with Mr. Young that an online comment that existed for less

than ten minutes should become even a minor factor in this important local election.

I am running to represent District 5 on the County Board because I’m passionate about bringing students’ voices to the table in a forum where they are too often ignored. I’m also running because I have a strong passion for social justice and want to help our great county live up to the ideals its residents so often espouse. This means fighting for policies that better protect workers’, tenants’ and immigrant rights, as well as advocating for a county budget that adequately funds vital social services for our community’s most vulnerable residents. It also means defending our natural environment by enacting laws to clean up area lakes, preserve open space and incentivize sustainable, peoplecentered development.

To achieve these goals, I plan on working closely with grassroots

organizations, both on and off campus, in an effort to turn popular energy into tangible progressive victories. I also plan on collaborating with my fellow Supervisors, whatever political

To achieve these goals, I plan on working closely with grassroots organizations, both on and off campus, in an effort to turn popular energy into tangible progressive victories.

persuasions they may hold, on projects where we are in agreement, and look forward to striking reasonable compromises in situations where that may be the most prudent way to proceed.

intentions. Someone needs to be trying to improve the overall quality of education offered by schools, but this is not the only solution to the problem of education inequality.

The voucher system breeds competition by funneling students from failing schools into private schools, which compete for these students in order to gain resources. This will improve the education offered by these schools, but what happens to the schools from whence these students came? What happens to their peers?

A free market system in which only the strongest schools survive cannot be applied to the issue of educational inequality in a way that will facilitate the improvement of education for all.

Ryan Plesh (rplesh@wisc. edu) is a senior majoring in philosophy and physics.

Compromise more needed than recall

Herald Editorial All day I dream of severance University of Wisconsin Chancellor David Ward declared a period of mediation between Adidas and the campus following allegations of misconduct concerning overseas labor. It appeared to be a way to avoid a messy and expensive confrontation between the campus and the apparel company, which has been accused of owing factory workers in Indonesia approximately $3.2 million in wages.

However, the meeting between administration and Adidas has potential to be constructive.

UW is contractually obligated to participate in this kind of conflict resolution and, according to a statement from the university, has had successful meetings with other apparel companies in the past.

However satisfying it might be to denounce Adidas in a self-righteous huff, the mediation period is an opportunity for the workers to be

standard we do have, however, the voucher system in Milwaukee is at best doing no harm. But it also is not improving the education of Milwaukee Public School students in any measurable way.

I think there are many people, proponents and opponents of the voucher system alike, whose main intention is to improve education. This is a noble goal, but their approaches to it are very different, and the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Rather than taking a student-focused approach, proponents of the voucher system are focusing on schools themselves. Instead of trying to improve the education received by students, voucher supporters are trying to improve the education provided by schools, but only certain private schools.

There is a place for good

This is the very opposite of partisanship, as it is a legislative strategy that puts issues, not partisan, gain at the center of a Supervisor’s political calculus. And since we’re on the subject, I’d like to politely remind Mr. Young that while political parties often make endorsements in County Board races, these elections are officially, and mercifully, non-partisan.

In the weeks leading up to April 3 I look forward to engaging District 5 residents in a dialogue about the important issues that will affect how just and livable our county will be in the years to come.

I sincerely hope that during this time members of the media join me in keeping this race about those issues, and not sensationalist judgments about the candidates’ personalities.

Leland Pan (ltpan@ wisc.edu) is a sophomore majoring in political science and sociology.

Hannah Sleznikow Columnist As the upcoming recall election approaches, Wisconsin Democrats are looking for change in the form of a promising candidate for governor.

Although many feel their intentions for doing so are reasonable, the reality of Wisconsin’s political predicament dictates that the mere election of a new, more liberal governor is not likely to turn the tables for politics in the state of Wisconsin.

A recent article by Paul Fanlund in The Cap Times titled “Madison 360: As Governor, Herb Kohl Could Heal Wisconsin” casts the inherent deficiency of the Democratic approach into apparent relief. The title of the article alone suggests there exists a known healing agent for Wisconsin’s present state of malaise. In accordance with the message conveyed by the title, the article essentially argues Kohl could be the remedy necessary to resolve Wisconsin’s ever-declining political situation if he would be willing to run against Gov. Scott Walker in the recall election.

Regardless of whether or not Kohl agrees to embrace a candidacy for governor, it is apparent Wisconsin Democrats are vesting too much faith in the possibility that any candidate can resolve Wisconsin’s current state of affairs by simply implementing more liberal policies.

At the root of the state’s dilemma is a deep partisan division. However, even more deeply rooted is the fact that the most pervasive political issues are not partisan at all, but rather universal. Issues including education, poverty, unemployment and state finances are plaguing the state as a whole, and it is compromise rather than competition that is necessary to resolve them.

The problems facing Wisconsin are far more complex than liberal cohorts seem to realize.

Wisconsin politics have become a partisan battlefield on which the opponents are willing to utilize whatever means necessary to achieve the satisfaction of their own interests.

As a state, coming to

terms with this actuality is the first critical step in the process toward achieving unified resolutions to problems that are collectively hindering state progress.

Although their concerns about Walker’s administration are legitimate, liberal Democrats are undoubtedly seeking a candidate they believe can facilitate significant change consistent with their own economic and political interests.

However, by seeking a left-leaning candidate, they are only deepening the already existing partisan divide. If there is one thing we have learned from the Walker administration, it is that universal issues cannot be resolved with conservative measures alone.

In the same vein, imposing liberal policies as a means of resolving these concerns is arguably an equally non-pragmatic approach. The proverb “Two wrongs don’t make a right” comes to mind, for Democrats are essentially seeking to remedy a dilemma fueled by partisanship with liberal policy falling on an extreme end of the political spectrum. Well intentioned or not, the implementation of non-moderate policies will ensure partisanship remains inextricably woven into the political fabric of Wisconsin.

There is undoubtedly no perfect solution to this quandary. However, recognizing there is no “ultimate cure” to Wisconsin’s political problems is a positive place to begin.

It is no shock whatsoever that a political party will pursue goals in its own interest, but in this case it does not resolve the problem.

The true remedy for Wisconsin’s state of affairs is to find a moderate point of convergence, or a point at which politicians and constituents can reach compromises that are focused on fairly resolving issues that affect everyone. In other words, a willingness to work together honestly and openly, with the best interests of all Wisconsin citizens in mind, must be embraced on both ends of the political spectrum in order to bring about universal resolutions to the state’s abundant challenges.

Hannah Sleznikow (hsleznikow@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in political science.

Your Opinion · Send your letters to the editor and guest columns to oped@badgerherald.com. Publication is based on space and takes into account relevance and quality. Letters should be sent exclusively to the Herald. Unsigned letters will not be published. All submissions may be edited by the Herald for length and style. Reader feedback on all articles and columns can be posted at badgerherald.com, where all print content is archived.

Comics

A Brief Respite Only Worsens The Pain Noah J. Yuenkel comics@badgerherald.com

5

The Badger Herald | Comics | Friday, February 17, 2012

WHAT IS THIS

SUDOKU

HERALD COMICS

PRESENTS

S

U

D

O

K

U WHITE BREAD & TOAST

toast@badgerherald.com

MIKE BERG

NONSENSE? Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

What? You still don’t get it? Come, on, really? It’s not calculus or anything. Honestly, if you don’t know how to do a sudoku by now, you’ve probably got more issues than this newspaper.

TWENTY POUND BABY

DIFFICULTY RATING: Because I could not stop for class/ It kindly fail-ed me

HERALD COMICS

PRESENTS

K

A

K

U

R

O

baby@badgerherald.com

STEPHEN TYLER CONRAD

YOURMOMETER

LAURA “HOBBES” LEGAULT

C’EST LA MORT

PARAGON

yourmom@badgerherald.com

HOW DO I

KAKURO?

I know, I know. Kakuro.

Looks crazy, right?

This ain’t no time to panic, friend, so keep it cool and I’ll walk you through. Here’s the low down: each clue tells you what the sum of the numbers to the right or down must add up to.

Repeating numbers?

Not in this part of town.

And that’s that, slick.

paragon@badgerherald.com

The Kakuro Unique Sum Chart Cells Clue 2 3 2 4 2 16 2 17

DIFFICULTY RATING: Sunday is the Lord’s Day (for homework)

MOUSELY & FLOYD

Possibilities { 1, 2 } { 1, 3 } { 7, 9 } { 8, 9 }

3 3 3 3

6 7 23 24

{ 1, 2, 3 } { 1, 2, 4 } { 6, 8, 9 } { 7, 8, 9 }

4 4 4 4

10 11 29 30

{ 1, 2, 3, 4 } { 1, 2, 3, 5 } { 5, 7, 8, 9 } { 6, 7, 8, 9 }

5 5 5 5

15 16 34 35

{ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 } { 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 } { 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 } { 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }

6 6 6 6

21 22 38 39

{ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 } { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 } { 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 } { 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }

7 7 7 7

28 29 41 42

{ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 } { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 } { 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 } { 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44

{ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 } { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 } { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 } { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 } { 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 } { 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 } { 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 } { 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 } { 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }

ehmandeff.tumblr.com

CLASSIC MADCAPS

HERALD COMICS 1

2

3

4

5

madcaps@badgerherald.com

MOLLY MALONEY

PRESENTS 6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

CROSSWORD 30 Rachel

15

16

McAdams’s

17

“Sherlock 18

Holmes” role

19

31 Choose to

20

refuse 21

BUNI

pascle@badgerherald.com

RYAN PAGELOW

22

23

24

25

32

26

27

28

33

35

29

30

31

34

party?

36 Beyond, to

36

37

Browning

38

39

40

43 Put the finger

41

on 42

43

44

45

46

54

RANDOM DOODLES

random@badgerherald.com

ERICA LOPPNOW

47

48

34 Big wheel at a

49

50

51

52

44 Short plea 45 Some govt.

53

55

56

57

raiders 46 Imitated Niobe

58

47 Dept. of

59

Labor

Puzzle by Todd Gross and Doug Peterson Across 1 Eaters of halal food 8 Like many

PRIMAL URGES

primal@badgerherald.com

ANDREW MEGOW

mall fixtures?

15 Star of 2011’s “Puss in Boots” 17 One shooting out on a golf

MODERN CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT

mcm@badgerherald.com

being 38 Hit film directed by

2 Like surprises

48 Stole option

playwright

49 Do one’s

23 Surgical aid 24 Big band

you’d rather

25 Done to ___

part:

not get

26 Foundering

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39 Football

3 Youth

call

4 Chop source

Abbr.

5 They have

and-white

53 Except

40 Arctic or

keepers

giants

55 Univ.

27 Black-

18 Oil sources

fish-eater

equipment

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21 Unhealthily light 25 From 29 It may be fat after a fight 32 Digs 33 Onetime Taliban stronghold 35 What twisty arrows warn drivers of

51 Concerning

linemen:

28 Geologist’s

19 Mode

part?

50 N.F.C.

Cameron

6 Bit of D.J.

Day

skypirate@badgerherald.com

señor

Affection”

Antarctic

Constitution

COLLIN LA FLEUR

1 More, to a

division

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41 It has left and

7 Flat bottom

right channels

8 Hold hands?

20 Mo. containing 42 Part of

THE SKY PIRATES

Down

course for oil paint DENIS HART

37 Bring into

S.F.S.U. 43 How some hearts are

10 Nestlé brand 11 Partridge family setting 12 Hanging

48 Car exhaust

out in

part 57 Worker

galleries, say 13 Isle of Man man

whose charges 14 “Nine may charge

Stories”

58 Answer that

title girl

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16 Flat bottom

answering

20 Web presence

59 Writer’s field

retreat

helpers 56 Some 55-Down: Abbr.

9 Nav. position

broken

54 Potential pets

29 Couples’

52 Order

22 “Natural

Get today’s puzzle solutions at badgerherald.com

Rocky the Herald Comics Raccoon™

Even the most ardent of anti-gun activists still yearns for a t-shirt from the t-shirt gun.

ArtsEtc. WEEKEND

ArtsEtc. Editor Lin Weeks arts@badgerherald.com

6

The Badger Herald | Arts | Friday, February 17, 2012

Soja

Le Roy

Friday 9:30 p.m. $ $18 High Noon Saloon H

$ $5

Friday 7:30p.m.

pl The Project Lounge

2 Nights of Carnaval!

Friday 9 p.m., Saturday 9 p.m. $ $12, $20 package Majestic Theatre

CONCERT PREVIEW

Nick Nice, Zebo

Two Fresh + Nit Grit

Saturday 9 p.m.

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Sunday 9:30 p.m.

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POINTCounterpoint

The real Best New Artist Allegra Dimperio

Lin Weeks

ArtsEtc. Content Editor

ArtsEtc. Editor

Photo courtesy of XO records.

Photo courtesy of EarStorm Records

Knife Party members Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen reinvent their sound after a decade-long music career.

Every year I psych myself up to watch the Grammys, hoping to catch a bestof-career performance, a heartfelt acceptance speech or at the very least some regrettable comments (I’m looking at you, Kayne).

While I’ve totally given up on the first and am halfway to giving up the second, the Grammy Awards Show at the very least provides some entertainment. But every year when the little envelope is opened, at least one of my reactions is “What the hell?”

The Best New Artist award is usually one such moment.

It seems like the Recording Academy is hell-bent on throwing its audience for a loop with the category, choosing jazz musician Esperanza Spalding last year and the country Zac Brown Band the year before that. Although watching Justin Vernon of Bon Iver awkwardly tell the country he was “uncomfortable” accepting the award for Best New Artist was close to priceless, it would have been refreshing to see the artists most deserving of the award clutching their Grammy.

Cue Knife Party.

While lex-police Lin may get on me for the fact that Knife Party’s members Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen are anything but new artists, the duo from the legendary Australian electronic band Pendulum has gone in a completely different direction with its recentlyformed side project.

Even though Knife Party just dropped its first EP at the tail-end of 2011, the handful of tracks has already sparked a cult following, upcoming collaborations with DJs such as Steve Aoki and a slot at this year’s Ultra Music Festival. Pendulum was most successful with UK audiences, and now Knife Party has already proven to be music to at least one American’s ears: The duo’s remix of Porter Robinson’s “Unison” was used in a trailer for Director Anthony Hemingway’s “Red Tails.”

Knife Party doesn’t deserve the Grammy for defying history by landing a trailer for a World War II movie. However, where its members have truly proven their worth of the award is through the production of electronic music’s new breed. Knife Party’s

music currently defies classification, combining drumstep, electro and dubstep to produce a sound that essentially has no peer.

Skrillites could argue that Skrillex has done the same and done it so well that the Academy actually nominated him for Best New Artist. But what sets Knife Party on a higher plane is not that it hasn’t sent electronic into the land of “Is this Avicii?” as Skrillex has (though that by itself deserves an award), but the fact that this is not Swire and McGrillen’s first foray into electronic music.

The duo formed Pendulum along with Paul Harding in 2002, starting as a drum and bass band but revamping its sound to include everything from metal to industrial to electro.

Knife Party only emerged after Swire and McGrillen had nine years of success producing electronic music.

That the new project can come out swinging with a sound unlike any other leaves no question as to who deserves Best New Artist.

In the coming months, don’t be surprised if you find yourself asking “Where’s the bloody Knife Party?”

The Weeknd’s Abel Tesfaye reinvigorates a dying R&B with raw songs that would make a Top 40 DJ cringe.

Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon was not 2011’s Best New Artist, no matter what’s engraved on that Grammy he just won.

And that’s not because the group’s music sounds like the mumbled verse of a lateera Nirvana song layered over the soundtrack to Discovery Channel’s “Planet Earth” and played through a wall — sorry, the wall of a cabin deep in the Wisconsin Woods. That’s neither here nor there.

No, Bon Iver was not last year’s Best New Artist because it wasn’t new. Bon Iver was that band’s second album; it’s been around for four whole years.

So though we may differ in our own picks, Allegra, we can at least agree that the entire Recording Academy deserves to be labeled lex-offenders for that perversion of language.

Yes, that means they’ll have to stay away from English classes; their temptation to sully minds with poor usage is apparently too strong to control.

That aside: The Weeknd, right? Few other artists, new or experienced, had a stronger 2011, and no other artists had a stronger debut

last year than the Canadian project’s series of three free mixtapes, each polished enough to be considered an album.

R&B was dead, and The Weeknd revived it. But, as is so often the case, the reanimated corpse was a little darker, a little harder to control.

Even once you scrape away the hype The Weeknd built up through that carefully cultivated web presence — the mysterious Tumblr, the carefully guarded personal identity (and really, shouldn’t that stuff count in a modern evaluation of an artist?) — the fact remains that The Weeknd has taken a genre of music long thought too popped-out to be truly relevant, and roughly shoved it back into the conscious of people that don’t spend seven hours a day pressing spring-noise sound effect buttons in a

Top 40 studio.

Good music evokes an emotional response. So how terrifying is this, from “Initiation” on December’s Echoes of Silence: “And the clocks don’t work, you don’t gotta check the time/ And the blinds don’t work, you don’t gotta check the sky.”

It’s an R&B ballad stripped bare of any pretense of suave, with singer Abel Tesfaye’s vocals modulating wildly across a spaced-out waterbed of a beat. And absolutely nothing is creepier than a waterbed.

R&B was dead, and The Weeknd revived it. But, as is so often the case, the reanimated corpse was a little darker, a little harder to control. The Weeknd brought a harder edge to songs that, recently, had been the audio equivalent of “Jersey Shore”: vacuous, club-obsessed bullshit.

That’s a far cry from the predatory, yet occasionally self-conscious persona present in the lyrics on House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence. For its highly-detailed invention of the party scene’s pitchblack reducto ad absurdum, The Weeknd is 2011’s Best New Artist.

Houdini exhibit captivates, brings magic to Madison MMoCA art exhibit offers vivid look into life of Wisconsinite Aly Pavela ArtsEtc. Reporter

Complete with a straitjacket and live pigeons, Harry Houdini has made an entrance at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Houdini: Art and Magic, organized by The Jewish

Museum in New York, traces Houdini’s development from a little-known magician and circus performer to a world famous escape artist and popular star on film and stage. This is the first large exhibit focusing on

Houdini’s life and lasting impact, according to MMoCA’s website.

The exhibit is tangible and interactive, including many historic artifacts and 23 works by artists from the 1970s to present day. With historic photographs of Houdini, sculpture, posters from his shows, Art Nouveau-era posters, historic and modern film, holograms, and an installment complete with live pigeons, the exhibit demonstrates Houdini’s cultural influence in the past and present. Magic apparatuses, such as a straitjacket, handcuffs and a packing trunk are featured as well.

The exhibit is immediately gripping.

Viewers are welcomed into the large room with gray-blue walls and yellow text introducing the exhibit. All the rooms of the exhibit are open, allowing viewers to look ahead to the various media relating to different aspects of Houdini’s life or influence ahead.

A visitor to the exhibit is drawn into the story of Houdini, born Ehrich Weiss, one of the most incredible magicians and escape artists of the 20th century. Propelled into popularity by the mass media, Houdini’s performances were theatrical and terrifying.

His outdoor performances attracted unheard of

numbers as his popularity spread worldwide.

According to placards placed around the installations, Houdini gained fame from feats that required immense amounts of strength and endurance, such as the straitjacket escape, which became Houdini’s most chronicled performance in 1920. The exhibit includes archival footage of this feat — footage that Houdini himself hired cameramen to record.

The exhibit includes a life-size black-and-white photo of the escape that makes viewers feel as though they are on the street, joining the back of the crowd in Boston. It is not initially clear where Houdini is. Visitors have to follow the immense crowd’s gaze to spot a small blur in the right corner: Houdini in action attempting to get out of the straitjacket while suspended above the street.

Another of Houdini’s tricks included swallowing needles and thread, and extracting them from his mouth all threaded.

Jane Hammond, in an untitled oil painting from 1990, documents Houdini doing so on a tightrope in a black suit and bow tie. In front of a vivid red background and full moon, Houdini is painted pulling a string out of his mouth, surrounded by women holding needles.

Next to this painting are needles and thread from 1899 — the exact type Houdini would have used in this trick.

Another photograph in the exhibit is by contemporary artist Vik Muniz, titled “Houdini, Pantheon (from Pictures of Ink)”. It is a black, white and navy blue photograph of Houdini’s face slightly obscured by his hand, and has the look of a pointillism painting.

Houdini died on Halloween in 1926, according to the MMoCA website. Fittingly, the exhibit holds Matthew Barney’s Ehrich Weiss suite, an installment representing Houdini’s grave, complete with Kite Jacobin pigeons — it wouldn’t be true Houdini without the elements of shock and surprise.

The holistic demonstration of Houdini’s life, works and lasting influence ends with guests exiting under a black velvet curtain through a small passage with a timeline of Houdini’s life on one side, and a video on the other. The curtain was reminiscent of a magic show, and so too was the captivating exhibit.

Houdini: Art and Magic will be in the MMoCA’s main galleries from Feb. 11 through May 13. This is the only Midwestern venue for the exhibition.

To place an ad in Classifieds: Roshni Nedungadi rnedungadi@badgerherald.com 257.4712 ext. 311

7

The Badger Herald | Classifieds | Friday, February 17, 2012

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Sports NUMBERS, from 8 really even followed her career her freshman year.

She was close to playing for me when I was at a former school, so we were one of her options. She takes the game to another level--she’s that elite of an offensive kid.”

With Spence being one of five newcomers to Healy’s squad, the Badgers have the continuity and talent on their roster to be a challenger for one of the top places in the conference this year.

Although many of the players are the same, the expectations for Healy’s second year are not.

“Well we have more experience this year

and we’re settled in with coach,” sophomore Stephanie Peace said.

“We’re looking to perform well on all cylinders, offensively and defensively. We’re pretty proud of all the work we put in this offseason.”

“I think this year will be harder than last year,” Healy said.

“I think your first year [coaching] there’s a bit of a honeymoon and everyone’s excited and wants change, but the second year to sustain that kind of momentum is a bigger challenge than creating it, in my opinion.

I think we could surprise people this year, but I think it’s going to be a bigger challenge than last year was.”

Noah Willman The Badger Herald

FIAMMETTA, from 8 often ended up without Jordan Taylor handling the ball, and Evans, Bruesewitz and the like seemed wholly uncomfortable converting on the other hand in the face of limited defensive pressure.

Granted, Michigan State played one of its finest games of the season. Green, hyped (overly, in many respects) throughout the broadcast for his on-court leadership and basketball IQ, delivered a stout performance in totaling 20 points on 5-for-9 shooting (including 2-for-4 from 3-point range), 10 rebounds and five assists. Point guard Keith Appling also scored 20 and reserve center Derrick Nix contributed 12.

Aside from its advantage in the open court, the Spartans also benefited from a stretch in the second half where they tallied three straight and-one penalties on the Badgers. In total, Michigan State drew eight such and-one opportunities and converted six. That’s a half-dozen points made even larger by a deficit that seemed unlikely to narrow given Wisconsin’s offensive struggles.

Though the Badgers scored nearly nine points

INVADE, from 8 early to emerge with a statement win in Madison.

The Badgers held the lead just once in the game, and it came in the opening minute at 2-0, quickly allowing Michigan State to take over.

“We didn’t come out with energy, and that’s what we needed to do,” Covington said. “Michigan State always brings energy, and that’s what we lacked at the beginning of the game.

Without energy, you don’t do the little things like get bouncing balls and get the rebounds that you could get.”

One of the few bright spots for the Badgers was Gorman’s nine points, which tied a careerhigh for the young point guard. Tiera Stephen, who finished with six points,

fewer than their season average, optimists will point to the Spartans totaling four less than their average.

True, and MSU also was the first team to shoot above 50 percent from the field against UW this season.

But how much silver lining can be clung to when familiar problems manifest themselves time and time again? Inefficient outside shooting coupled with a weak presence from the free throw line will doom this offense, and its short rotation with weak contributions from the bench makes defending fast break teams a tremendously tall task.

Wisconsin lost one Thursday night to a truly great team inside its own arena, but the Badgers flaws aren’t diminished by the quality of their opponent.

Come Big Ten Tournament time, expectations will be sky-high for a squad fans hope will atone for last year’s brutal performance.

Come March Madness?

Third-round losses are appealing only for so long.

Mike is a senior majoring in journalism. How’d you evaluate the Badgers performance in East Lansing? Let him know on Twitter @mikefiammetta.

also provided a nice spark off the bench with two quick steals midway through the first half that allowed Wisconsin to temporarily halt MSU’s momentum.

Against a skilled Michigan State squad that hit the Kohl Center hardwood winning three of its last four games, Kelsey pointed out that Wisconsin’s sloppy ballhandling and lack of urgency around the glass were simply too much to overcome.

“We didn’t help ourselves by not being aggressive on either end,” Kelsey said. “And we had some spurts; I’m not saying it was all negative, but with a team like this you can’t have so-so here and there, being very inconsistent, or they’re going to capitalize on it, which they did.”

Eric Springer is the only senior skater on the Badgers’ roster this season. In his career with UW thus far, Springer has scored two goals and notched eight assists for a total of 10 career points.

Final home series rife with emotion Badgers welcome back Daubenspeck, celebrate Springer’s career as lone senior Brett Sommers Statistics Editor The only thing that will be missing from a playoff-like atmosphere Friday night in the Wisconsin series opener against Denver is an actual playoff game, but emotions will certainly be running high for players and fans alike at the Kohl Center.

Prior to the Wisconsin men’s hockey team (1214-2, 7-13-2 WCHA) taking on Denver (179-4, 12-6-4 WCHA) Friday night, a touching moment for all in attendance will take place as former Wisconsin All-American goaltender Kirk Daubenspeck will serve as an honorary captain and drop the ceremonial first puck exactly one year after surviving a car collision with a tractortrailer on Feb. 17, 2011.

The accident left the Badger great in a coma after sustaining serious head injuries.

Daubenspeck’s story may provide inspiration for UW, currently mired in a season-long fourgame losing streak and coming off a bye week. It is something they will need to beat a Denver team coming off an impressive series sweep of WCHA leading Minnesota.

“Except for our freshman, they were all in the room last year when [Daubenspeck’s former teammates] Mark Strobel and Jamie Spencer came in and spoke to the team about Dauber, his life, his career, the things he had gone through and what they were trying to do,” UW head coach Mike Eaves said. “[Strobel and Spencer] talked about

the family of Badgers and how they were pulling together and they tried to help their teammate. It was an eyeopening experience for everybody.”

“The first time I’m really going to feel that way is going out there for senior night.”

Eric Springer

Senior defenseman In what will be the only regular season matchup of the two teams, Friday and Saturday will also mark what is likely to be the final home series of the season for the Badgers as well as lone UW senior Eric Springer’s final chance in his career to skate in front of the Wisconsin fans at the Kohl Center.

The series has been dubbed senior and parent weekend and will no doubt leave at least one Badger reflecting on his experience as a University of Wisconsin student-athlete.

“We are a team; it’s kind of like a brotherhood,” Springer said. “We are all there for each other, and the fact that I am the only senior, [but] the first time I’m really going to feel that way is going out there for senior night. I try to be a leader for the guys and try to set an example … as much as I can. You feel like one of the guys in the locker room. It’s a great feeling, and I am going to miss it.”

It seems as if the storylines surrounding this series could make

it easy to forget that the Badgers and Pioneers still have to go out and play two games of hockey that could have WCHA playoff seeding implications for both teams.

The Pioneers sit third in the WCHA with 28 points, and the Badgers are in 11th place with 16, but both squads are within striking distance to improve their positions.

“We are playing a very good team, and it’s another opportunity for our kids to step up and get better,” Eaves said. “We have beaten some pretty good teams in our own building. We just need to play to that level once again. We haven’t played in a couple of weeks; that first 20 minutes will be really important for us.

We need to get out there and compete.”

Eaves doesn’t want the team sitting back on rest as an excuse to play better, however.

“There has been more energy just because of the fact that we’re fresh, but there is a tradeoff there,” Eaves said.

“There is the freshness that you have in your leg, but that still doesn’t compensate for not being in games. That’s why that first period on Friday night will be important for us.”

The home ice should provide the Badgers with some much-needed familiarity, as the Kohl Center has played host to 11 of Wisconsin’s 12 victories this season. And if the two weeks of rest and ceremonial activities planned for the weekend weren’t enough, Eaves has reminded his team to live by a particular quote he firmly believes in by inspirational figure, Charles Swindoll.

“Ten percent of life is what happened to us,” Eaves said.

“And 90 percent is how we react to it.

“We have a choice now.

[The team has] heard it before. It is one that is in our locker room all the time. It is one of our cornerstones.

It’s one of those fundamental truths of life that I have come to believe in.”

Sports Editor Elliot Hughes sports@badgerherald.com

8 | Sports | Friday, February 17, 2012

SPORTS

WISCONSIN

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MICHIGAN STATE

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Finding strength in numbers UW returns 10 starters as raised expectations mark Healy’s 2nd year Nick Korger Associate Sports Editor After her inaugural year at the helm for the Badgers, Wisconsin softball head coach Yvette Healy had plenty to smile about.

The then-first year coach led Wisconsin to its best conference finish since 2005, going 9-11 in the Big Ten on its way to a 30-win season. The 30 wins in Healy’s first year marked only the sixth time in school history a Badger team won 30 or more games, as Healy’s squad became the first since 2005 to accomplish the feat.

The number of wins was not the only historic aspect of Healy’s Badgers. The team won 10 more games in 2011 than they did in 2010 — the second-largest improvement in program history.

Last year the Badgers were the 11th youngest team in the country. Now, with a core of returning players that features 10 starters, with seven position players and the entire pitching staff, the Badgers have the roster continuity, chemistry and familiarity under Healy to make the outlook on 2012 a bright one.

Swinging for the fences Just a year ago, the Badgers benefited from the long ball potential in their lineup, as they hit the fifth most home runs

in the conference with 29. Leading the Badgers’ offensive power is the returning duo of 2011 First Team all-Big Ten selection senior Karla Powell and junior Shannel Blackshear.

The duo combined for 18 of the Badgers’ 29 homers, often batting next to each other in the lineup.

However, Healy and Powell both believe there is room for growth in the Badgers’ long ball game.

“We have definitely done a lot of homework and nerdy statistics this offseason trying to see what makes the best teams the best,” Healy said. “One of the big things was home run production, and I think a lot of the best teams that made it furthest in the NCAA have the ability to hit more home runs per game. So we kind of studied it, analyzed it and then put a whole program in place with strength and conditioning, med balls and rotation and bat speed to try to amp that up.”

“I’d like to break the home run record here in my last season,” Powell said. “I’d like to make allBig Ten again and AllAmerican this year. Coach [Randy] Schneider talked to me about what I need to do to stand out and be a leader this year as well, because I’m the only senior.”

There’s truth to those beliefs. The best softball teams in the country have been traditionally teams who can belt the ball out of the park. Last year, for example, Michigan recorded 56 homers — a number good for the best in conference.

Michigan also recorded

Noah Willman The Badger Herald

The Wisconsin softball team returns 10 starters for its 2012 campaign, with seven position players in addition to the whole pitching staff. In 2010, then-first-year head coach Yvette Healy turned the softball program in the right direction, leading the Badgers to their first 30-win season since 2005 and their best conference finish (9-11) since that same year. the conference’s best record last season at 18-2 in conference play.

Similarly, the two teams that made the NCAA championship game last season were both in the top 10 for home runs in the country.

Former offensive MVP returns

Besides all the familiar faces from last year, the Badgers are happy to welcome back offensive dynamo junior Molly Spence to the team.

After missing her entire sophomore season just a year ago due to injury, the Badgers will only benefit from adding the mighty bat of Spence. In her

freshman year in 2010 with the Badgers, Spence was named the offensive MVP and the team MVP for her .347 batting average, eight home runs and 41 RBIs (a single season school record).

Although Healy has never had Spence on her roster, the coach has some background with her junior

from her days recruiting before she took the job at Wisconsin.

“Luckily Molly’s from Chicago and so am I,” Healy said. “So I was fortunate to recruit her when she was a high school student athlete, so I know how good she is. I

NUMBERS, page 7

Spartans invade Madison, leave with 62-46 victory Ian McCue Associate Sports Editor

Megan McCormick The Badger Herald

Freshman guard Lindsay Smith (above) got the start Thursday as head coach Bobbie Kelsey hoped to match Michigan State’s smaller, more agile lineup. Smith and her fellow Badgers struggled to contain the Spartans inside, as they finished the game with 40 points in the paint.

With only one player reaching double figures, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team struggled on both ends of the floor Thursday night in a disappointing 46-62 defeat at the hands of the Michigan State Spartans.

Anya Covington led all scorers with 10 points, but shots consistently fell short or bounced off the rim with the shot clock inside five seconds as the Badgers spent most of the night chasing a hot-handed Michigan State team at the Kohl Center.

UW limped to a 20 percent shooting percentage from beyond the arc and sunk 38.5 percent of its shots from the field. Wisconsin head coach Bobbie Kelsey called it her team’s worst performance of the year.

MSU dominated play by scoring a commanding 40 points in the paint and outrebounding the Badgers

handedly by a 38-21 margin.

“You’re going to have a game or two like this; this is really our first game where we played this poorly all year,” Kelsey said. “I thought we pretty much remained very competitive in our other games. So that’s the most disappointing part of the game, is that we did not give ourselves a chance to really compete to get the win.”

Though Wisconsin reigned in the Spartans’ lead to nine heading into halftime following a four-point boost from freshman guard Lacia Gorman, Michigan State controlled the second half.

Never letting their lead slip below 11 and boasting a game-high 20-point cushion with 5:42 remaining, the Spartans silenced any thought of a UW comeback in the final 20 minutes.

Critical to MSU’s victory was senior forward Lykendra Johnson, who powered the Spartans’ post presence with 16 points to go along

with seven rebounds. The Spartans’ physicality and aggressiveness on the boards were things head coach Suzy Merchant, whose team leads the Big Ten in defensive rebound percentage, emphasized heading into the contest.

“They were 1-10 when they were outrebounded, so that was a big focal point for us, and we won it,” Michigan State head coach Merchant said.

Wisconsin struggled to find any true offensive rhythm against a suffocating MSU defense, as Taylor Wurtz, the foundation of UW’s fast-paced offense, went 3-of-13 from the field and 1-of-6 from three-point land.

Wurtz was held to only two points in the first half — both of which came on free throws — and coaches and players agreed that Wisconsin lacked the confidence with the ball

INVADE, page 7

Quality opponent no excuse for UW’s blunders Mike Fiammetta Mike’d Up This year, the Badgers just haven’t fared well in the state of Michigan.

Thursday night in East Lansing, Mich., Wisconsin rode a steady streak of momentum into the Breslin Center, where the Michigan State Spartans hadn’t lost in 16 consecutive opportunities.

Winners of seven of their last nine, the Badgers also hadn’t

played in a week, allowing a much-needed respite for a team fresh off two consecutive riveting Big Ten matchups.

The Spartans, though, had recently emerged as the trendy selection for best team in the Big Ten following their 10-point upset of Ohio State last week. Draymond Green staked a sizable claim in the Big Ten Player of the Year race, and MSU showed every sign of being a team not to be messed with. Not this time, not on their home floor.

Well, what happened then?

The simple answer is Michigan State ran Wisconsin out of the building in a 69-55 win that, in many respects, wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicated. MSU shot

52.2 percent from the field — thanks largely to 15 fastbreak points that came all in the first half — while UW was a far colder 34.0 percent. From 3-point range, where the Badgers have made clear all season long they live and die from, they were just 5-for-24 (20.8 percent). Jordan Taylor was limited to just 13 points on abysmal 3-for-13 shooting, and only two players (Rob Wilson and Frank Kaminsky) scored off the bench. That duo combined for seven points.

In games such as Thursday night’s, it inevitably — and typically, not before long — becomes clear Wisconsin has no chance at winning when its shots aren’t falling.

Well, sure. You’ll never win

if you can’t hit shots. But the Badgers have a devastating propensity to cling to the 3-point arc as if the area inside it was painted with imaginary lava.

Moreover, they appeared to have learned their lesson against Ohio State nearly two weeks ago. When the Buckeyes invaded the Kohl Center for the most anticipated game of the year, the Badgers attempted 27 3-pointers and made just five.

The result was an offense unable to muster any lategame production — when they knew that would be needed, no less, against a more talented team ranked third in the nation.

Alas, it was bombs away

once again Thursday night, and once again there was very little combustion. At least this time, UW got to the foul line 14 times (hitting all of them).

Against the Buckeyes, the Badgers attempted just three.

Wisconsin’s offense, always replete with big men who not only can shoot but also deftly move their feet, inherently brings its post players away from the hoop. This limits the amount of free throws the Badgers attempt, but there are, of course, other ways to draw fouls. Taylor, Josh Gasser, Ryan Evans and Mike Bruesewitz are all adept (the first two, especially, as guards) at putting the ball on the floor and driving to the hoop.

Yet, entering last night’s

game, Wisconsin had attempted only 405 free throws, third-fewest in the Big Ten. For a team that can also convert from the foul line (72.1 percent, fourth in the conference), the inability or hesitation to get there is straight-up baffling.

Several other issues emerged Thursday night, some more familiar than others. Michigan State’s 15 fast break points played an integral role in their high field goal percentage, though Wisconsin added literally nothing in that category on offense. On the few opportunities the Badgers did get on the break, they

FIAMMETTA, page 7