SOMETHING TO CHALLAH ABOUT
Students promote aid to needy areas with traditional Jewish dish FOOD University of Wisconsin-Madison
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By Rachel Holzman THE DAILY CARDINAL
UW leaders look past Plan 2008 for diversity UW-Madison campus leaders reframed and broadened the image of diversity on campus through speech and performance Monday as part of the Multicultural Student Coalition’s Hip Hop as a Movement Week. MCSC Financial Specialist Jamie Yancovitz and Associated Students of Madison Diversity Chair Steven Olikara planned the event, bringing in over 50 community members. The forum, “In the Wake: Plan 2008,” focused on the effects of UW-Madison’s earlier 10-year diversity plan, called Plan 2008, and how to move forward
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Number of Dane County homeless rose in 2008
LORENZO ZEMELLA THE DAILY CARDINAL
THE DAILY CARDINAL
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UW-Madison students Jeffrey Vinokur (left) and James Gavins perform an interpretive dance representing the barriers of race in society at Monday’s “In the Wake: Plan 2008” forum.
By Rory Linnane
Stumbling at the end: Men’s tennis falls to Buckeyes and Nittany Lions, on three-game skid entering Big Ten Tournament SPORTS PAGE 8
with diversity on campus. “The title has a dual meaning,” Yancovitz said. “A wake is a trail left by a vessel after it passes. It’s also about waking up.” Damon Williams, vice provost for diversity and climate, said the rigid structure of Plan 2008 discouraged people from creating new diversity efforts that may not have fallen under the plan’s specific goals. “We’ve operated under the plan for so long that folks feel like they have no ability to work outside of it,” Williams said. “It’s about authenticity. It’s about the person in the back of the room looking like they got no swag, and they get
up on the stage and it’s like, ‘Oh my god, I didn’t know they were bringing it like that.’” Looking ahead, Williams said future initiatives should set more open-ended goals. “[Diversity is] something that’s always moving forward,” Williams said. “When you look at diversity as an end you’re just counting heads. If you look at it as a means you’re talking about something much more deep and entrenched.” Olikara said the university should look beyond race and economic status as determiners of diversity and diversity page 3
The estimated homeless population increased 17 percent last year in Dane County, but the effects of the recent recession on these numbers has yet to be seen. According to new data obtained by Madison’s Community Development Block Grant Office, the total estimated homeless in Dane County jumped from 6,410 in 2007 to 7,529 in 2008. This is the largest homeless population since 2003, and homeless children and parents outnumber single men and women for the first time since 2002. The data also show nearly half of the area’s homeless were turned away without shelter last year. Nevertheless, the number of homeless served in shelters increased from 3,432 in 2007 to 3,894 in 2008. A survey conducted by the CDBG shows the varying reasons for each subpopulation seeking shelter in Madison. The most common reason
HOMELESSNESS IN DANE COUNTY 3,635 3,207 2,484
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2,476
1,310
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INDIVIDUALS TURNED AWAY FROM SHELTERS
UW-Madison students Eric Maloney (left) and Brett Wisniewski (center) perform as part of their band The Nod during All-Campus Party’s Battle of the Bands on Engineering Mall Monday. The band won and will open for OK Go at the Overture Center Friday night. LORENZO ZEMELLA THE DAILY CARDINAL
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CHILDREN IN SHELTERS
SOURCE: MADISON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT OFFICE
Survey shows signs of recession possibly winding down in U.S. By Claire Wiese THE DAILY CARDINAL
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for families and single women seeking emergency shelter was “violence or threat of violence.” Single men reported they were seeking shelter most often as a result of “no or low income.” For homeless youth, “conflicts with family/roommate” was mentioned by nearly 75 percent of those seeking emergency shelter. Interestingly, the number of single men served, who were most likely to report financial troubles as their reason for seeking shelter, decreased slightly last year. Sue Wallinger, CDBG grants administrator, said the poor economy has not yet had an influence on the numbers of homeless in the Madison area. “People assume that when the economy gets bad, the homeless numbers are going to go up,” Wallinger said. “I think there is that potential, but right now I think the people that we’re seeing is the people we always see, the people who have been poor for a long time.”
The United States’ recession may be easing off, according to a survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics. According to a survey summary, “Key indicators—industry demand, employment, capital spending and profitability—are still declining, but the breadth of decline is narrowing. Declines still outnumber gains, but fewer firms are reporting declines and more are reporting gains.”
The survey, which has been polling national companies since the early 1980s, “does a fabulous job of capturing what is happening in the real economy,” Shawn DuBravac, an analyst for NABE, said. DuBravac also said responses improved slightly since NABE’s last survey in January, even though overall numbers were still negative. He added even though some factors remain negative, the rate at which the economy is economy page 3
Wis. congressmen award staff bonuses By Megan Orear THE DAILY CARDINAL
Several Wisconsin congressmen gave tax-funded bonuses to their staffs during the end of 2008, according to a watchdog group. When a congressional office has a surplus of funds, it can either spend them or relinquish them, and most Wisconsin federal lawmakers spent that surplus in the form of bonuses for employees, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
reported Monday. U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin, DWis., Gwen Moore, D-Wis., Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Tom Petri, R-Wis., increased payrolls by more than 20 percent. Petri spent over $100,000 on bonuses and raised salaries by as much as $14,000 per staffer, according to databases compiled by LegiStorm, a watchdog website that works bonuses 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.”