THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1969 Volume XLIV, Issue 30
Thursday, October 18, 2012
www.badgerherald.com
Latest poll shows races in dead heat Marquette Law School
Presidential Election Poll Results 8/22
9/19
10/3
54%
10/17
53%
Obama 49%
49% 48%
46% Romney 40% Polo Rocha State Legislative Editor With less than a month to go until the election, a new poll showed the presidential and Senate races are essentially tied among likely voters in Wisconsin. The Marquette Law School Poll revealed President Barack Obama leads former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., 49 to 48 percent. In the Senate race, former Gov. Tommy Thompson is up 46 to 45 percent in his race against Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison. The margin of error is +/- 3.4 percentage points. Interviews for the poll
42% took place between Oct. 11 and 14, prior to the second presidential debate Thursday night. The poll showed voters likely changed their minds after the first presidential debate, which was regarded by some as a loss for Obama. The 73 percent of likely voters who watched the debate supported Romney 50 to 48 percent, while the rest supported Obama 50 to 42 percent. “Rarely has a debate produced such large movement in the polls,” poll director Charles Franklin said in a statement. “In September, President Obama held a steady lead, but now the
race is a pure tossup, in large measure because of the first debate.” The poll asked whether voters agreed with the statement that the candidate “cares about people like [them].” Obama’s numbers on that stayed about the same, with 59 percent saying he does care and 38 percent saying he does not. Romney saw “considerable improvement” with a 4749 percent rating, up from the 39-56 rating he had two weeks ago. Dietram Scheufele, University of Wisconsin life sciences communication professor, said perceptions of which candidate would win the elections are now shifting. “Romney was able to build a lot of momentum among his followers and perceptions of momentum,” Scheufele said. “In [this] poll, Wisconsin is all of a sudden in play. This will be a hard-fought battle and among very clear fault lines.” He said Tuesday’s debate, the second between both candidates, was a “very different” debate, noting the first was characterized by pundits on both sides as a loss by Obama. In an email to The Badger Herald, Obama campaign
DEAD HEAT, page 3
Kelsey Fenton The Badger Herald
Matt Romney, son of presidential candidate Mitt Romney, stressed the importance of economics to voters at The Kollege Klub Wednesday.
Romney son speaks to students at campus bar Jake Ebben Reporter Matt Romney, son of presidential candidate and former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., gathered with a crowd of University of Wisconsin students at The Kollege Klub Wednesday evening. At the event, Romney outlined why his father’s plans for the economy would be beneficial and said Wisconsin is a key state in this election. Romney made it clear to supporters the RomneyRyan ticket is “not about
celebrity status” like President Barack Obama’s campaign but instead is focused on the economy, which he called “the driving issue” with which voters are concerned. “During the Obama administration, there was 43 months of unemployment over 8 percent, and we are now $16 trillion more in debt,” Romney said. “This debt is not wrong; it is immoral.” According to Romney, his father is “equipped with dealing with serious things” such as the economic recovery, noting
his record of working with Democrats as governor of Massachusetts to balance the budget, something he said Obama could not do. “[There was] a $3 billion budget deficit, and [my father] turned that around and ended up getting a budget surplus. How much do we see of that with the current administration?” he said. His father, Romney said, can help the nation grow by allowing small business to grow, and he would not “take the economic pie
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Search and screen committee involves public in process Chair: community will have opportunity to provide input to choose chancellor Dana Bossen Reporter The University of Wisconsin furthered efforts to involve the public in the search for the next UW chancellor with the Search andScreen Committee’s second open forum held Wednesday afternoon. David McDonald, chair of the committee and UW
history professor, said committee members are interested in gathering the perspectives, ideas and clarification from communities across campus in the process of choosing the next chancellor. McDonald said public forums are important because they allow an opportunity for the community to voice their opinions and create a set of criteria of what qualities they think the next UW chancellor should have. “We need somebody who is not only able to bridge all these different constituencies, but also
give us a common sense of mission,” McDonald said. Civic Engagement Coordinator for University Health Services Katherine Loving said the next chancellor should be someone who is willing to interpret the Wisconsin Idea in new ways and put more resources behind that concept. Loving said in terms of outreach, she is worried UW is lagging behind other similar universities. “One of the things we really need to think about is what kind of leader is going to have a vision for our future as a public
institution,” Loving said. “We need somebody who is really going to work on infrastructure, staffing and other issues related to how we are going to carry that out.” McDonald said the implementation and carrythrough of the Wisconsin Idea is something that has been, and always will be, very important to the university. Sam Seering, UW student and shared governance chair of the Associated Students of Madison, said he believes the chancellor should work to find ways of connecting different areas and
communities within the university to advance its mission. Seering said ideally, the chancellor should reach out to governance groups on campus for an understanding of what issues are most important for students. Ilene Seltzer, manager of the Student Information System in the Division of Enrollment Management, said the major distinction between other campuses and UW is that shared governance is real. “Here, we actually do shared governance,” she said. Seltzer said she was also
New reps voted into student gov. Four first-year positions filled in ASM election amid low voter participation Tara Golshan
Brothers no more Construction workers tore down the remnants of the ill-fated Brothers Bar to make room for a future addition to the UW campus. Andy Fate The Badger Herald
Higher Education Editor Four University of Wisconsin freshmen are preparing to join student leadership on campus after the Student Council unveiled the winners of the Associated Students of Madison elections Wednesday night. ASM Student Elections Commission Chair Mickey Stevens announced Callen Raveret, 291 votes, Michael Quesnell, 368 votes, AJ Hipke, 389 votes and Carissa Szlosek, 439 votes, as this year’s seat winners. The elections, which were open throughout the week, were held in order to fill the four annually-opened Student Council seats designated for firstyear students, ASM spokesperson David Gardner said. According to Stevens,
© 2012 BADGER HERALD
this year’s election had 1,351 completed ballots out of the 6,279 students in the freshman class, which he found to be a “pretty standard number.” Although the 21.5 percent voter turnout rate received applause from the current ASM Student Council members who were in attendance, Stevens said the turnout rate was lower than in past years. However, Stevens, who said he was pleased with the elections overall, attributed the decline in voter turnout percentage to the increase of approximately 1,000 students in this year’s freshman class. “That voter turnout is actually a little bit lower than our normal voter turnout, but I would
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worried the university’s global vision was not being adequately translated into the day-to-day activities of students, faculty and staff. “It’s a matter of having someone who can articulate if this is a goal by working with various deans and directors and coming up with a process to move that goal forward,” Seltzer said. Loving said shared governance has its roots in the Wisconsin Idea, and because of the importance of shared governance, the next chancellor should understand its importance
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EVENTS today 4 p.m. Harmonica Lessons Board Room Memorial Union
7 p.m. WUD Film Presents: “The Golem” The Marquee Union South
INSIDE UW handles GB and weather in win Associate Sports Editor Nick Daniels recaps the in-state rivalry match, which saw the Badgers top the Phoenix.
SPORTS | 8
Animal research benefits humans Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals unfairly portrays UW scientists as torturers.
OPINION | 4