OBSERVE A DISTURBED SETH ROGEN IN ‘REPORT’ Seth Rogen drops his loveable, goofball act for a psychotic mall cop in this cringe-inducing comedy
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Monday, April 13, 2009
SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH A monthlong series focused on sexual violence in America and on the UW-Madison campus in an effort to dispel myths and educate students, including weekly feature articles and daily facts.
Alcohol a factor in sex assaults, students say By Andrea Carlson THE DAILY CARDINAL
With the commencement of Sexual Assault Awareness Month and the recent allegations of the crime on campus, students are engaging in a discussion about the issue of sexual consent. Compared to other campuses in the UW System, UW-Madison had the highest rate of sexual assaults in 2007. According to the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance, UW-Madison had a reported number of 42 assaults, and Milwaukee had 23. However, experts of sexual assault know the number of sexual assaults on campus are much higher because the reporting rate is traditionally low for the crime. “One reason that may contribute to why Madison has more sexual assaults compared to Milwaukee is the different types of cities and
their surrounding areas,” UWMadison sophomore Scott Reid said. “Madison is a smaller city than Milwaukee, so people may feel that, because it is a smaller community, they are safer.” Rachel Roesslein, a UWMadison junior, said she often gets nervous walking alone at night in the late hours. “I try not to walk alone but I have to sometimes. I’m more afraid of getting mugged,” she said. UW-Madison offers students several different safety options for getting home from other parts of campus at night. SAFEWalk, a student-run service, runs from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. every night, and SAFEride runs from 10:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. University administrators encourage students to take advantage of the resources to ensure a safer campus. “Sometimes I am afraid of being attacked or raped [while walk-
ing alone at night],” UW-Madison sophomore Monica McCarthy said. “But overall I think I feel safer than I actually am … Madison seems so safe.” Although students express a sense of security while walking around UW-Madison, incidents like the recent Sigma Chi allegations initiate concern having to do with alcohol consumption and sexual assault. According to Kelly Anderson, director of the Dane County Rape Crisis Center, the number one date rape drug is alcohol. In past years, UW-Madison has been ranked as one of the top party schools in the nation. Although their ranking no longer holds, students still consider alcohol a big part of the university’s nature. McCarthy said she would be surassault page 3
GUTS to expand peer mentoring program Kayla Torgerson THE DAILY CARDINAL
In the midst of midterms and finals, UW-Madison students often find it difficult to receive help from professors with crowded office hours, but with the Greater University Tutoring Service looking to expand its services, help may be more readily available to students.
Shuhan He, a senior at UWMadison, said he has big plans to expand GUTS to include Skills Acquisition Guiding Experience. The program would provide peermentoring groups, beginning in the Zoology department. SAGE would eventually expand to all departments on campus that wish to collaborate with GUTS. He said the current peer men-
LORENZO ZEMELLA/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Students receive help from the Greater University Tutoring Service, which will use increased funding to expand peer-mentoring services across campus.
toring system on campus is inefficient. He envisions the SAGE program transforming peer mentoring on campus, allowing it to be more accessible to students of all majors. “The expansion’s goal is to create an organized, coordinated campus wide effort to integrate a …[peer mentoring service] into every large lecture series on the UW-Madison campus by 2015,” He said in his expansion plan proposal. He said he thinks the program will become a unique aspect of UW-Madison education that other universities around the country will not have. “[Currently] every department that wants a peer mentoring program does it on their own blood and sweat,” He said. With the creation of SAGE, the organization will serve as a nexus, providing the logistical organization a peer-mentoring system requires for departments to focus on teaching students. He experimented with a trial run of the SAGE program in Biology 151 in the fall semester. He started by selecting six students from the lecture who were passionguts page 3
LORENZO ZEMELLA/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Protestors rallying against the recent federal bank bailouts converged on the Capitol Square Saturday, including marching to Chase Bank at 22 E. Mifflin St.
Group rallies against bank bailout at Capitol By Steven Rosenbaum THE DAILY CARDINAL
The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, in conjunction with A New Way Forward, campaigned against the recent bank bailout at a protest held at Capital Square Saturday. The groups joined in a nationwide campaign organized by A New Way Forward, a national campaign that advocates re-organization and nationalization of major banks, to “Break Up the Banks.” The Madison rally was one of about 75 simultaneous demonstrations across the country, according to A New Way Forward’s website. According to Tiffany Cheng,
a national organizer for A New Way Forward, their campaign against the banks is about national unity. “We put a call to unify all of the different reactions across the country, and we’re pushing for a platform that all of us can get behind. We’re asking for a nationalized, reorganized, decentralized exit plan for the economic crisis, and it’s the most sound policy that has the public interest in mind,” Cheng said. After a short speech, Steve Burns, program coordinator for the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, led supporters across rally page 3
Questions arise over Peterson suicide By Rachel Holzman THE DAILY CARDINAL
The father of convicted killer and former UW student Adam Peterson said he was “disturbed” by recent discoveries that his son’s suicide may have been assisted by his cellmate Joshua Walters, in an interview with The Capital Times. Melvin Peterson, Adam Peterson’s father, learned of the new information after a call was received from law enforcement officials from Dodge County. Peterson was serving a life sentence in jail for the January 2008 murder of Joel Marino. “I was blown away by the level of involvement of his cellmate
and the graphic description in the report,” Melvin Peterson told The Capital Times Thursday. “As a parent, I found it very disturbing that, of all the inmates Adam could have been placed with, he was placed with someone that was more than willing to help him take his own life. That blew me out of the water.” Walters first told officials he was asleep during the time Peterson killed himself. However, the criminal complaint against Walters reveals otherwise. Allegedly, Walters told Peterson he would also kill himself after helping Peterson hang himself. reaction page 3
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”