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Thursday, April 26, 2012
‘Cinco de Mifflin’ met with ethical questions By Ben Siegel The Daily Cardinal
On Campus
He Bought a Zoo
Former journalist Benjamin Mee speaks Thursday at Varsity Hall in Union South. His family’s story inspired the 2011 film “We Bought a Zoo.” + Photo by Stephanie Daher
Opening the sexual assault conversation By Alison Bauter The Daily Cardinal
During Sexual Assault Awareness Month, this three-part Daily Cardinal series delves into the numbers, spotlights available resources and expands the conversation to reflect the real impact of sexual assault at UW-Madison. In 1992, Jaclyn Friedman attended an undergraduate campus party. She tried to keep up as her friends took shots and pounded beers. Soon, she was much drunker than she planned, and went back to her room to go
to bed. A male acquaintance followed her, entered her room and raped her. According to a report from UW-Madison’s Dean of Students office, cases like these—involving alcohol and an acquaintance— describe the majority of the 123 sexual assaults reported by students between 2010 and 2011. But statistics and stories like these capture only the basic elements of a crime that impacts the entire campus community.
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Student council determines MCSC is eligible to receive funding next year By Mackenzie Chaffee The Daily Cardinal
Following months of debate, student council deemed the Multicultural Student Coalition eligible for funding Wednesday. Council’s vote resulted in a tie, which Associated Students of Madison Chair Allie Gardner broke, ruling in favor of MCSC. Whether MCSC had intentionally violated the university’s contracting policy and spent more than half its time directly serving students were hot points of debate during the meeting.
The Student Services Finance Committee ruled Monday the group intentionally sidestepped proper procedures to contract an alumni trainer without proper approval. But MCSC members said the violations were a result of miscommunication. Gardner said the policy violations were the fault of both ASM staff and MCSC and deeming the violation intentional would not be appropriate.
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Stabbings at last May’s Mifflin Street Block Party mired the future of the event in uncertainty for the past 12 months. Its occurrence now all but certain, the block party is still unable to outrun controversy, as the first Saturday in May of 2012 happens to be the fifth--also known as the date of Cinco de Mayo. The combination of events in plans for the upcoming celebrations has members of the university community concerned with cultural insentivity. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican defeat of a larger invading French army around the city of Puebla in 1862--a pivotal victory for Mexican independence and sovereignty.
Perception of the holiday in the United States, as with St. Patrick’s Day and Oktoberfest, often emphasizes revelry over traditional observance. In the weeks leading up to May’s first Saturday, some more entrepreneurial participants in the tradition of commemorative Mifflin T-shirts have co-opted the circumstances with designs emblazoned with “Cinco de Mifflin.” “It was a good opportunity,” said UW-Madison student and shirt designer Nate Straub. ”People have been calling it ‘Cinco de Drinko’ for the last four years and they’re very much relating it to a drinking holiday anyway.” Eunji Kang, another student and shirt designer, said that “it’s part of American culture” to drink
Courtesy WiscRelic.com
alcohol while celebrating holidays. Other students are disappointed by the misappropriation of Mexican culture. The organization Badgers Against Racism
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National student loan debt reaches $1 trillion, grabs national spotlight By Tyler Nickerson The Daily Cardinal
As of Wednesday, American students who have taken out loans to pay for school are collectively $1 trillion in debt, a number that has the UW-Madison campus, the president and even Jimmy Fallon taking note. On Library Mall, students gathered to sign a “Wall of Debt” in protest of rising student debt, which has now exceeded credit card debt in the U.S. “We are paying more, getting less and it’s getting worse,” said Seth Hoffmeister, President of United Council of UW Students. Hoffmeister said the issue seems to be gaining more national attention and is becoming an important campaign topic. As a testament to the growing importance of the issue, President Barack Obama has visited the University of North Carolina, the University of Iowa and the Universiyt of Colorado-Boulder to speak about student debt. The president even appeared on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” Tuesday to talk about student loan debt on a segment called “Slow Jam the News.” Unless Congress does something to keep interest rates for student loans at their current 3.4 percent, they will rise to 6.8 percent in July. In a surprising show of bipartisan agreement, both Obama and likely Republican
MarK Kauzlarich/the daily cardinal
Students gather at Library Mall to protest student loan debt. presidential nominee Mitt Romney have said they want to freeze the interest rate at its current level, at least temporarily. “Helping more of our young people afford college should be at the forefront of America’s agenda,” Obama said at a speech Wednesday in Colorado. “It shouldn’t be a Democratic or a Republican issue. They have to prevent the interest rates on federal student loans from shooting up and shaking you down.” UW-Madison Professor of educational policy studies and sociology Sara Goldrick-Rab agrees. “Interest rates shouldn’t and needn’t go up,” Goldrick-Rab said in an email to The Daily
Cardinal. “Those loan dollars are going straight to executive compensation, making the rich even richer. Stop that, and debt will stop rising so dramatically.” But Director of the UW-Madison Student Financial Aid office Susan Fischer said part of the problem is not that the amount of Madison students taking out loans is increasing, but the amount of money they are borrowing out has increased. Also, according to Fischer, half of the students who borrow money do not have a demonstrated need to do so. “They are borrowing because they can,” Fischer said. “If it is available they will take it.”
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”