Weekend, April 7-10, 2016 - The Daily Cardinal

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Weekend, April 7-10, 2016

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Voter ID brings little disruption to UW By Andrew Bahl and Noah Habenstreit THE DAILY CARDINAL

Despite fears of long lines and unprepared voters, for the most part UW-Madison’s first major election under the state’s new voter ID laws went smoothly. The state’s flagship public university was spared hour-plus wait times that existed at colleges elsewhere in Wisconsin, including Marquette University and UW-Green Bay. Nate Moll, social media specialist for UW-Madison Communications, attributed the lack of problems to a robust campaign designed to inform students of what they needed to vote. The initiative spanned numerous university departments, including the housing and student life divisions. “We’re not only trying to get community members to be engaged academically but also to be good citizens,” Moll said out-

side the Red Gym polling location, where he worked as a poll worker. Moll said the use of social media was especially crucial in spreading the message to as many students as possible. “Social media has become more of a modus operandi,” he said. “Now students are using social media as a primary source of information. And we realize that.” Out-of-state students, who had to obtain a voting ID card or use a passport to vote, had mixed reviews of the new system. Louise Lyle, a sophomore from Maine, said she encountered no issues and that the university did a good job making students aware of requirements. “I was expecting it to be a lot worse,” Lyle said, noting she got her voter ID card from Gordon Dining and Event Center on election day. However, senior Garrett Payne of Illinois said he was unaware of the new law. After

he said the new law made him even more motivated to secure a voter ID card and eventually vote. “It is important to me [to vote] and I feel like they’re inhibiting me and I’m trying not to take my vote with me,” Payne said. “It makes me want to vote more.”

University issues nearly 4,000 IDs

KATIE SCHEIDT/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Tuesday’s presidential primary marked the first major election where Wisconsinites had to present a photo ID to vote. registering to vote and waiting in line at his polling place, he was told his out-of-state driver’s

Young wins seat on Dane County Board

By Madeline Heim THE DAILY CARDINAL

THE DAILY CARDINAL

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Board of Regents cancels budget cuts presentation

By Miller Jozwiak Hayley Young was elected as the Dane County Board of Supervisors representative for District 5, which covers most of the UW-Madison campus, beating UW-Madison sophomore and former Associated Students of Madison University Affairs Chair Angelito Tenorio. Young—a recent UW-Madison graduate and part-time legislative aide in state Rep. Melissa Sargent’s, D-Madison, office— won the election with more than 60 percent of the vote. She earned 2,903 votes while Tenorio earned 1,722, according to the Dane County website. Incumbent and recent grad Leland Pan did not seek re-election. Young expressed gratitude to supporters with a post on her official campaign Facebook page Wednesday morning.

license would not be sufficient to cast his ballot. While Payne was frustrated,

UW-Madison’s efforts to provide students with voter identification cards were largely successful, according to a university press release. The university provided 3,846 voter ID cards to students throughout the spring and 1,272 on election day alone, according to UW-Madison’s Director of News and Media Relations Meredith McGlone. ID printing was offered at Gordon’s and Union South on election day. Voter IDs were largely provided

KATIE SCHEIDT/THE DAILY CARDINAL

The Madison Police Department reported that there were 167 officer recognitions and two reprimands in the first quarter of 2016.

Madison Police Department releases officer recognitions, reprimands By Miller Jozwiak THE DAILY CARDINAL

The Madison Police Department reported 167 employee recognitions for extraordinary service and two internal disciplines during the first quarter of 2016, according to a press release. The 167 positive recognitions included acknowledgement from inside the department and citizen thank-yous in the form of emails, letters and voice mails. The officer acknowledgements ranged from small acts of kindness by officers to lifesaving acts. One report noted an officer who

saved a suicidal citizen with one leg over the edge of a six-story parking ramp. “The officer arrived on scene and instead of driving up to the top of the ramp he ran up the 6 flights of stairs to get close as possible as quickly as possible to the subject,” the report said. “The officer exited the stairwell quietly and then swiftly moved to grasp the subject and wrestled him back off the ledge securing him onto the floor of the parking ramp until other officers arrived to assist.” Another recognition noted one

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The UW System Board of Regents removed a presentation from its upcoming meeting that originally allowed system chancellors to speak about the impact statewide budget cuts have had on their campuses. Before the removal, UW System President Ray Cross asked each chancellor in an email to put together a one-page synopsis of their campus situation that was “factual, not whiny.” The chancellors would then share a five-minute summary at the meeting Thursday and Friday at UW-Green Bay. UW System spokesperson Alex Hummel said the presentation was canceled due to time constraints and a greater focus on the local level. Each school is assigned a “regent buddy,” Hummel explained, who will meet faceto-face with campus, community and economic partners in the next several months to assess the cuts’ impacts. UW-Madison spokesperson Meredith McGlone said she was not aware of any current plans for such meetings between the university’s administration and three regent buddies. Hummel said the eventual goal is to disseminate the chancellors’ written summaries to the public, and this switch in focus

to the local level would make the discussion surrounding the cuts “more expansive” and not confined to a meeting where viewership is limited. However, several Democratic members of the state Joint Committee on Finance spoke out against the regents’ removal of the presentation, arguing it prevents public discussion on the issue. In a Wednesday release, state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, said Wisconsinites are concerned about the “dramatic” cuts. “Everyone knows this is not an issue where it is acceptable for each campus to just hand the Regents a stack of papers,” Erpenbach said in the letter. “So why would the Regents eliminate an opportunity to educate themselves—and the public—on how the cuts will be carried out?” Erpenbach and three other Democratic state legislators sent a letter to the Board of Regents, requesting that they inform the Joint Committee on Finance about plans to facilitate an “adequate” public discussion on the implementation of the budget cuts and their effect on each campus. Several chancellors at universities around the system, including UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, did not comment on the presentation’s cancellation.

“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”


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