Monday, April 25, 2016 - The Daily Cardinal

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University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Monday, April 25, 2016

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+OPINION, page 5

Unhood Yourself

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at the Chazen

The importance of engaging with #TheRealUW

+ARTS, page 4

Hundreds from UW-Madison walk out of class, call for administrators to resign no matter what is critical, not just us as members of the campus community, but also specifically as teaching assistants and graduate students is really, really important to us.”

By Peter Coutu THE DAILY CARDINAL

Roughly 400 students walked out of class Thursday at 11:30 a.m. and marched around campus for about three hours to peacefully protest the UW-Madison Police Department’s arrest of student Denzel J. McDonald last week. No students were arrested. McDonald was arrested last Thursday for 11 charges of vandalism, which featured messages condemning racism on campus. The protest started just outside of Bascom Hall, where students taped a list of five demands to the statue of Abraham Lincoln. The demands included the dismissal of the case against McDonald, the immediate return of his belongings, assurance that he can graduate in May, the resignations of UW-Madison administrators and UWPD officers involved in the arrest and community control of UWPD. Michael Davis is a UW-Madison graduate student studying AfroAmerican studies and educational policy studies who helped organize the event. He said now is the time for underrepresented students to have their voices heard. “This is the right moment to organize student power and for the university to hear our demands,” Davis said. “I think it went amazing, I really love everyone who came out to support us. But again, it does not stop here. We are really pushing for an adequate university response to meet our demands.” After the demands were read, hundreds of students continued

Calling for resignations

THOMAS YONASH/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Hundreds of students walked out of class Thursday, marching and shutting down traffic around campus. down Bascom Hill holding a banner that read “Black Lives Matter” while chanting “no justice, no peace” and “no racist police.” Many protesters also held signs that had the same words McDonald spray painted on university buildings. The demonstrators congregated at the front entrance of College Library, chanting their demand for community control of the police and saying “this is our library, fuck white supremacy.”

Occupying College Library

The demonstrators occupied the first floor of College Library in

Helen C. White Hall for roughly an hour, chanting that they were disrupting students in the library because McDonald, also known as King Shabazz, had his education disrupted by his arrest. “I think it’s awesome that the community is coming together. I think it’s really important and I think they made a good point about what happened with the arrest,” said UW-Madison senior Irina Shavlik, a student who was in College LIbrary when the protesters entered. “I love the idea of taking time away from our education because [UWPD] took time away

from [McDonald’s] education.” The disruption of a university class by UWPD was a focal point of chants and speakers throughout the protest. Cynthia Burnson, a UW-Madison graduate student who is studying human development and family studies, said she joined the movement today because of her perspective as a teaching assistant. “What we know is that our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions and vice versa. Making sure that this campus is someplace that truly welcomes and supports all students

While in College Library, several professors—including Rachelle Winkle-Wagner and M. Bruce King—condemned how the university was handling the recent incidents of hate and bias on campus this semester, such as when a student was spat on in Sellery Hall or when another student received a clearly threatening letter that included racial epithets. Last week, more than 500 professors, graduate students and teaching assistants signed a letter calling for more action from university administration. Professor King read a prepared statement from professor John Diamond. In the statement, Diamond said the university is not upholding its stated mission and that the university is more concerned with its image than the mental and physical health of its students. While still in College Library, the protesters specified names of the administration members they wanted to resign. They chanted for Chancellor Rebecca Blank, Dean of Students Lori Berquam and UWPD Police Chief Susan Riseling to be fired. Another organizer of the event, Alix Shabazz, who shares no relation to King Shabazz, said she want-

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Waukesha water policy creates controversy Story by Claire Hornacek Until the Flint, Mich., water crisis, most Americans’ minds would likely jump to the dry Southwest when thinking about restricted access to drinking water. However, despite the seemingly abundant supply of drinking water in the Great Lakes region, Midwestern states are suddenly paying more attention to their water supply and its cleanliness. The City of Waukesha currently faces a water quality and

quantity problem. According to Milwaukee Riverkeeper, a nonprofit organization seeking to maintain high water quality in the region, some deep wells in the area contain high levels of naturally occurring radium. Waukesha currently gets its water supply from a variety of shallow and deep wells in order to dilute radium levels from the deeper, radium-rich wells. The state Department of Natural Resources has mandated that Waukesha get its water quality levels back up to code by 2018.

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IMAGE COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

Waukesha is applying for an exemption to pull water from the Great Lakes basin, a move which has generated significant controversy.

“…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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