EDITORIAL: Promises post-Jodi O’Brien must be kept. – Viewpoints, page 8
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Gospel Choir’s beat brings crowd to feet
Final homestand a pivotal test for MU
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Volume 96, Number 21
Thursday, November 10, 2011
‘MU Cash Cab’ LIMO to hit streets Friday Passengers can earn up to $25 in MUSGsponsored event By Elise Angelopulos elise.angelopulos@marquette.edu
Photo by Elise Krivit/elise.krivit@marquette.edu
Derek Marten, program vice president for MUSG, came up with the idea for the ‘MU Cash Cab’ LIMO event.
Anyone who has ever ridden in a Marquette LIMO knows there is rarely a dull moment en route. It is safe to assume LIMO drivers (and passengers) have seen it all. However, they may finally see something new this weekend. The first-ever MU Cash Cab event will take place Friday and Saturday evenings from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. in one unknown LIMO. The event is sponsored by Marquette Student Government and conceptualized by Derek Merten, program vice president for MUSG and a senior in the College of Business Administration. Merten said Marquette’s version of the game will be very similar to the Discovery Channel game show it is based on, hosted by
Ben Bailey. Like in the Discovery Channel version, students who call or flag down the select car will enter thinking they are taking a normal ride, only to be surprised when they discover they’re contestants on MU Cash Cab. During the ride, students will be asked to answer university-centered questions increasing in difficulty as time goes on. However, MU Cash Cab will differ from the original in a number of ways. While games are ongoing, no other passengers may enter the shared van. While students may work together to solve the trivia, they can only answer up to four questions per ride. If students answer two questions incorrectly, they will be eliminated from the game, but still dropped off at their final destinations. Like the original show, if contestants lack the knowledge to answer a question, they get either one “shout-out,” which allows them to consult other passengers in the See Cash Cab, page 7
Law School to Digging new ‘Ground’ social justice poll Wis. voters Local group gets banks to Project to monitor, analyze divisive topics in primaries By Katie Doherty kathleen.doherty@marquette.edu
The Marquette University Law School will launch an independent political polling project in 2012 in anticipation of Wisconsin’s primary election season to study voter attitudes on hot issues. Professional researchers will poll voters on issues surrounding upcoming presidential, U.S. senator and possible recall elections. While the study will collect data on attitudes toward the various candidates, it is more focused on divisive topics in Wisconsin. Charles Franklin, co-founder of Pollster.com, a nonpartisan site for polling analysis, and a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will oversee the project and serve as a visiting professor of law and public policy at Marquette. The project will use a sample
size of about 700 registered voters, implementing about 10 to 15 polls throughout the state. Franklin said the project will poll at least monthly, but most likely more frequently as the fall final elections approach. “It will be more than a horse race,” he said. “What we really care about are what issues are driving those voters.” No media organization in the state has had the resources to conduct a public poll of this nature, Franklin said, and while other organizations conduct some detailed studies, this will be the first Wisconsin poll that is truly independent and nonpartisan. “Wisconsin has been ground zero politically for the past year and probably this year,” he said. “It’s really unprecedented to poll that much in the state ... Wisconsin will be at the center of politics this year.” Franklin said once the project begins, the data from the polling will be placed on a website and available as a resource to the entire Marquette community. Mike Gousha, a distinguished See Polling, page 7
INDEX
DPS REPORTS.....................2 CALENDAR.......................2 VIEWPOINTS.....................8 CLOSER LOOK...................10
CLASSIFIEDS..................13 STUDY BREAK....................14 SPORTS..........................16
back neighborhoods By Simone Smith simone.smith@marquette.edu
On Oct. 31, Milwaukee social justice organization Common Ground got some good news: Chase Bank had chosen to commit more than $2.5 million to its latest city initiative. The decision made Chase Bank the fifth of five big banks to join with the businesses, colleges and congregations of Common Ground in its “Milwaukee Rising” campaign, which has now raised $33.8 million to rehabilitate foreclosed homes in the Sherman Park neighborhood to help stabilize the Milwaukee housing market. Kathleen Scott, associate organizer for Milwaukee Rising and a Marquette alum, said the campaign to convince the five banks, also including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Deustche Bank and U.S. Bank, to invest in the neighborhood took two years to achieve. She said the rehabilitation will be a project twice as long, though. “We are trying to rehab at least
Photo courtesy of Julie Lange
The “Milwaukee Rising” campaign received backing from five major banks.
25 homes per year over the next four years, for 100 total, on a block by block basis,” Scott said. Scott said she has been with the organization since 2009, and that her Marquette education propelled her into the current work. “With a Marquette education, you’re encouraged to do work that betters the community, so I asked myself how I could do that,” she said. The Marquette connection does not end with Scott, though. Many faculty members are part of Common Ground, and others, like Alan Borsuk, a senior fellow in law and public policy at the Law School, are not directly affiliated but have worked with
the group independently. Borsuk said he participated in a Common Ground event last spring. “I give them a lot of credit on the education front ... they spend a lot of time finding out what they’re talking about,” Borsuk said. “They’ve met with people from schools, community, politics ... everyone I’ve talked to has said they’ve met with them.” One of the things Borsuk admires about the organization is that it is nonpartisan — a sharp contrast, he said, to other community organizations. “They haven’t set an agenda, and they’re systematic in finding
NEWS
VIEWPOINTS
SPORTS
Cheesemaster
WHITE
Men’s Basketball
Wisconsin hosts all 51 of the nation’s master cheesemakers. See PAGE 5
Keep your PDA out of my last sanctuary: the library. See PAGE 9
See Common Ground, page 7
Get to know the brains behind the basketball team’s brawn. See PAGE 18