Fall 2009 Farewell - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - The Daily Cardinal

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Fall Farewell Issue 2009

graphic by jenny peek

“…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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Fall Farewell Issue 2009

An independent student newspaper, serving the University of Wisconsin-Madison community since 1892

TODAY: partly sunny hi 10º / lo 1º

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Drunk girl on chair has something to say

Volume 119, Issue 67

2142 Vilas Communication Hall 821 University Avenue Madison, Wis., 53706-1497 (608) 262-8000 l fax (608) 262-8100

News and Editorial edit@dailycardinal.com Editor in Chief Charles Brace Managing Editor Justin Stephani Campus Editor Kelsey Gunderson Caitlin Gath City Editor State Editor Hannah Furfaro Enterprise Editor Ryan Hebel Associate News Editor Grace Urban Senior News Reporters Ariel Shapiro Robert Taylor, Kayla Torgerson Anthony Cefali Opinion Editors Todd Stevens Editorial Board Editor Qi Gu Arts Editors Kevin Slane Kyle Sparks Sports Editors Scott Kellogg Nico Savidge Features Editor Diana Savage Food Editor Sara Barreau Photo Editors Isabel Alvarez Danny Marchewka Graphics Editors Amy Giffin Jenny Peek Kate Manegold Copy Chiefs Emma Roller Jake Victor Copy Editors Katie Foran-McHale, Katie Mioni Jacqueline O’Reilly, Margaret Raimann

WEDNESDAY: cloudy hi 21º / lo 12º

ERIN KAY VAN PAY hail to the vp

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ou’d better shut your mouth because this girl wearing some sort of velour unitard/dress now converted into a skirt/T-shirt with a giant stain on it probably has a speech to make. And I’m sure it’s meaningful because she’s getting up on her kitchen chair as we speak. Personally, I only trust information, news and factlets that I receive from inebriated people three feet in the air because, after all, that’s how I learned about the snow day and the final scores of the last four football games of the season (even though I had already known hours prior, but that’s not the point).

Here she goes! “Everybody!

Oh my GOD! EVERYBODY BE QUIET! SHUT THE FUCK UP

YOU ASSHOLES! I’M SERIOUS! RACHEL, WILL YOU HELP ME?! CLOSE THE DOOR! I SAID CLOSE THE DOOR!” I am simply captivated. I’ve found that the best and most efficient way to get a crowd to listen is to belittle them to no end while locking them in a small, sticky kitchenette. Isn’t that how the Gettysburg Address began? Except I don’t think Lincoln needed to stand on a chair, I mean, he was like seven feet tall, right?

“I know that we are all gathered here today to celebrate the two week anniversary of Mr. Dewey Dingleheimer the dwarf hamster’s adoption into our family...” Pathos has been established, my friend.

This girl is already appealing to my heartstrings in the first line of her speech! I should just get the tissues ready now. “But I’m really, really, really, really happy that...” (Would you just savor that emphasis for a minute?) “JIMMY! GET BACK IN HERE!” What?! How dare James try to

evade this highly pragmatic address that would put even Winston Churchill to shame! I can’t possibly think of anything better or more beneficial for that young man to do than stand shoulder to shoulder in a 90° room that reeks of Marlboros, Keystone and swass! For shame.

“Okay! Thanks for helping me this time, Rachel. Haha! Love you, hun! Let me start over. I—” ...Ugh, what just happened?

Why am I so groggy? Man, my head hurts...

“And then, last night when we were putting Dew Dew in his rollyball, he did this cute little thing where he—” Oh my God! I must have passed out from the extreme lack of oxygen in this 9x12 foot windowless space I’m forced to share with 50 other people! How awful! I must have missed about, what time is it now, almost all of this half-hour riveting speech!

“And we were like, Dew Dew! You’re so kew kew! But that’s my

baby! Isn’t that right, lil Mr. Dewdy poo poo? Dew dewpoo poo poo!

Dewdy—AGH!” She’s down! Oh, dear Lord, she’s down! How could someone have done this to one of the most celebrated orators of the 21st century?! Everything she said was cogent! EVERYTHING! I am certain that during my temporary loss of consciousness that not a single fallacy came out of her drooling, slurring mouth! The most intelligent and logical person on earth has been assassinated. I have nothing to live for, I—oh, she just broke a heel? Self-assassination? Why, that’s brilliant! It had to have been planned! Her conclusion has simply reinforced all of her previous premises, and I can’t say I’ve ever seen such visuals or hard evidence in a speech!

If you would like to share a great speech or celebrated moment in history with VP, please email her at evanpay@wisc.edu. Please, let them be warranted.

Business and Advertising business@dailycardinal.com Business Manager Alex Kusters Advertising Manager Katie Brown Billing Manager Mindy Cummings Accounts Receivable Manager Cole Wenzel Senior Account Executive Ana Devcic Account Executives Mara Greenwald Kristen Lindsay, D.J. Nogalski, Jordan Rossman Sarah Schupanitz Online Account Executive Tom Shield Mara Greenwald Graphic Designer Web Directors Eric Harris, Dan Hawk Marketing Director Mia Beeson Archivist Erin Schmidtke The Daily Cardinal is published weekdays and distributed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and its surrounding community with a circulation of 10,000.

The Daily Cardinal is a nonprofit organization run by its staff members and elected editors. It receives no funds from the university. Operating revenue is generated from advertising and subscription sales.

Capital Newspapers, Inc. is the Cardinal’s printer. The Daily Cardinal is printed on recycled paper. The Cardinal is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.

All copy, photographs and graphics appearing in The Daily Cardinal are the sole property of the Cardinal and may not be reproduced without written permission of the editor in chief.

The Daily Cardinal accepts advertising representing a wide range of views. This acceptance does not imply agreement with the views expressed. The Cardinal reserves the right to reject advertisements judged offensive based on imagery, wording or both.

Complaints: News and editorial complaints should be presented to the editor in chief. Business and advertising complaints should be presented to the business manager.

Letters Policy: Letters must be typewritten, double-spaced and no longer than 200 words, including contact information. Letters may be sent to editor@dailycardinal.com.

Editorial Board Charles Brace Anthony Cefali Qi Gu Nico Savidge Jamie Stark Todd Stevens Justin Stephani l

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Board of Directors Vince Filak Alex Kusters Joan Herzing Jason Stein Jeff Smoller Janet Larson Chris Long Charles Brace Katie Brown Benjamin Sayre Jenny Sereno Terry Shelton l

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Farewell, outgoing editors!

How can one cutline sum up two semesters of working at The Cardinal? Words like “booty babes,” “copy shuffle” and “Biddy’s dog” all resonate immediately with our departing editors, but are foreign to the outside world. Instead, we’ll have to settle for more generic, yet fitting words like dedication, passion and persistance.

Every single editor who spent the last year working at The Cardinal put in countless hours without pay.

But every major story they broke, every brilliant headline they wrote and every dazzling photo they took was its own reward.

Former editor Allison Hantschel once said that “The Herald is a job, but The Cardinal is a family.”

While our outgoing editors certainly considered The Cardinal a job too, there is no question that the friendships built in the basement of Vilas this past year will last a lifetime. Plus, this group of editors can always remember that they beat the Herald in football the same way they reported their news: 24-7.

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© 2009, The Daily Cardinal Media Corporation ISSN 0011-5398

Dear Joe, Lindsay and the rest of the Capital Newspapers crew, Thank you for all your help this semester!

For the record Corrections or clarifications?

Call The Daily Cardinal office at 608-262-8000 or send an e-mail to edit@dailycardinal.com.

Love, The Daily Cardinal

ISABEL ÁLVAREZ/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Front Row (L-R): Caitlin Gath, Kevin Slane, Emma Roller, Kate Manegold, Diana Savage. Back Row (LR): Ryan Hebel, Sara Barreau, Amy Giffin, Kyle Sparks, Grace Urban, Justin Stephani, Jenny Peek.

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Fall Finals Issue 2009

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Poverty support at risk in recession

By Rory Linnane The Daily Cardinal

LEft: Danny Marchewka, RIGHT: Tricia Lapointe, cardinal file photos. Top: Courtesy The Hammes Company, Inc.

The Central Library and Edgewater Hotel, two iconic downtown Madison landscapes, are poised for possible redevelopment in the next year. Peace Park construction begins in January.

New development projects set to alter city; students a high priority

By Callie Rathburn The Daily Cardinal

Over the past semester, a countless number of new development projects began popping up across Madison. The city soon found itself at the center of controversy and excitement as the line between new and old Madison continued to grow, despite a nationwide recession.

The Daily Cardinal took a look at some of the latest developments to hit downtown Madison in the last four months.

Madison is a vibrant younger town looking to encourage projects that can grow resources in the future of the city, said Ald. Bryon Eagon, District 8.

“We want to invest in developments that can last decades, but also fit into the priorities and qualities of life we enjoy here in a great city,” he added.

Upcoming projects include a new apartment complex and pharmacy that will soon replace the former Badger Bus Depot at the corner of West Washington Avenue and South Bedford Street, a newly renovated Peace Park on State Street and a University Square grocery store.

A new Central Library to replace the current building on Mifflin Street and the possible redevelopment of the Edgewater hotel in the Mansion Hill neighborhood are also on the list of new projects.

Serving student needs is part of the reason so many developers are attracted to Madison, said Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4.

Apartment complexes have maintained strong rental rates, and new buildings fill up quickly despite a slow economy, he added.

“Generally there has been a trend over the years in the downtown,” Verveer said. “Ten years ago all the craze was building new office buildings, then the craze was building new condominiums, and now the craze is building hotels.”

The demolition of the Badger Bus Depot began Oct. 8, and over the next year 83 new apartments in three different buildings, as well as a CVS pharmacy, will soon take its place.

“Students like the option of having newer buildings fairly close to campus,” Verveer said.

If all goes according to plan, the apartment complexes should be filled by August 2010, with the pharmacy opening in January 2010.

Fresh Madison Market, the grocery store currently being constructed on U Square property, also fulfills a student need.

“There is a demand for it,” Eagon said. “Especially in this economy, it is an exciting opportunity to invest

As the bitter chill of winter weather and a tough economy settles over Madison, the social service agencies people depend on for respite are facing their own challenges. Declining donations and budget cuts to the Dane County Department of Human Services are forcing service providers to make difficult cuts at a time when demand for their services is rising.

“We’ve reached the tipping point,” said Linda Ketcham, executive director of Madison-area Urban Ministry, an interfaith coalition that provides social services with aid from county funding.

The county budget cuts affect programs from prevention, to treatment for illness, poverty, homelessness, abuse and other social issues.

Without the funding to accommodate the growing population seeking services, Ketcham said she anticipates long waitlists.

“We can serve our existing population half as well, or we can continue the same quality and bury people on a waiting list.”

Linda Ketcham executive director Madison-area Urban Ministry

“We can serve our existing population half as well, or we can continue the same quality and bury people on a waiting list. Either way people suffer,” she said. “But if you keep diluting your services eventually you reach a point where you just have the illusion of services, and we’re not willing to go there.”

County budget cuts The 2.83 percent cut to the county’s human services trickled down to almost every social service agency the county funds, according to Lynn Green, director of the Dane County Department of Human Services.

Green said while this year’s budget cuts aren’t bigger than years past, the effects could be worse because the services have already exhausted cost-saving measures.

“There’s a certain point where you can’t ask industries to provide the same level of services. We’re at that point.”

Linda Ketcham executive director Madison-area Urban Ministry

“If you have reductions year after year, it gets harder to take the reductions,” Green said. “You’ve already done the looking for creative ways to save money.”

Ketcham said that in the past social services coped with budget cuts by placing more work on their current employees, but this year’s constraints will force them to lay off workers.

“There’s a certain point where you can’t ask industries to provide the same level of services,” Ketcham said. “We’re at that point.”

Ketcham said the cuts will even affect organizations that aren’t funded by the county.

“It’s going to hurt everyone,” Ketcham said. “Even agencies that don’t get county funding rely on referring to other agencies that do ancillary services.”

County Supervisor Kyle Richmond, District 27, proposed a vehicle registration fee increase in October that would repair the budget gap, but the board voted it down.

County Supervisor Jeremy Levin, District 6, said he voted against the fees because it would be a short-term fix for a long-term problem.

“We were hit from the recession and it filters down,” Levin said.

“Things haven’t turned around yet and I don’t think anyone thinks homelessness page 5

development page 5

UW fights against high African-American infant mortality rate in Wis.

By Amanda Gasper The Daily Cardinal

Wisconsin ranks among the worst states in the nation for African-American infant mortality, according to the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

According to proposal for a community action planning grant request from the UWSMPH, most of these deaths are in four cities: Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and Beloit. Milwaukee alone accounts for 77 percent of the deaths.

The Wisconsin Partnership Program, a program through the UWSMPH dedicated to the health and well-being of Wisconsin, started the Healthy Birth Outcomes Initiative to change the disparities between infant mortality rates for African-American and white infants.

In Wisconsin, the African-American infant mortality rate is three to four times higher than white infant mortality. The average African

American infant mortality rate from 2002-2006 was 17 percent, and for white births 5.2 percent, according to the UWSMPH. Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and Beloit will be awarded Community Action Planning Grants, through the WPP’s Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families, for plans to improve birth rates and decrease the infant health disparities.

Andrain Horton, an African-American mother from Milwaukee, gave birth to her daughter Abrina three and half months prematurely.

“She was only 1 lb and 3 ounces when she was born,” Horton said.

According to Cathy Frey, associate director of the WPP, premature births are one of the main causes of African-American infant mortality.

“The answer for this problem is not just about prenatal care,” Frey said. “The plans infants page 5

danny marchewka/the daily cardinal

Downtown Madison’s Grace Church, operated through Porchlight, is one of many homeless shelters experiencing the funding crunch in the recession.

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Fall Finals Issue 2009

UW secret society has sheltered history

By Ariel Shapiro The Daily Cardinal

As the fall semester comes to a close, many students have begun to think about what student groups they want to join during spring semester. However, some groups on campus do not have a history as well known as others.

Through a series of interviews, The Daily Cardinal was able to uncover some details behind one such group, the little known student organization called the Iron Cross Society.

In the spring of 1951, then Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Cardinal Jack Zeldes attempted to nominate his successor, Jean Matheson, to UW-Madison’s Iron Cross Society. A nomination to the Iron Cross Society, a UW honor society, is “the highest honor an undergraduate could achieve at this university” according to the group’s website.

“The secret part is how they select members and what the society does.”

Shayna Hetzel Wisconsin Union president 2006-’07 Iron Cross Society

However, the tradition was not to continue as Jean Matheson was barred from receiving the honor.

At the time, membership to the Society was only open to men.

Zeldes fought to earn a spot for Matheson in the organization but was out-voted by a margin of eight to one by then-active mem-

bers and alumni alike. The Society did not begin to admit women until 1987.

The Society has had a complex role as a university organization since its founding in 1903. Deemed a “secret society” by some, the Society is neither entirely secret nor public according to 2006-’07 Wisconsin Union President Shayna Hetzel.

“I think it depends on how you frame ‘secret society,’” Hetzel said. “Membership is very public.

The names are cast on a shield in the union. The secret part is how they select members and what the society does.”

Hetzel added, “the fundamental principle of Iron Cross is that it is a prestigious group of student leaders to sort of influence the governance of the campus community.”

The organization’s proudest achievement is the founding of the Wisconsin Union in 1907, according to Hetzel. However, she said many do not know the Society intended the Union to be for men only.

Hetzel said the idea of a “men’s Union” was not fulfilled because women raised more funding than men for its construction. Instead, the Union separated male and female students. The Capitol Room served as the women’s lounge, and the men received the Rathskeller and the Terrace.

According to Ted Crabb, Wisconsin Union director from 1968-’01 and Society adviser from 1969-’01, just as women received their own section of the Union, they also started the UW-Madison chapter of the National Mortar Board Society.

Crabb, who was a student member in 1953-’54, said “the biggest issue [with integration] was one of the fact that there was already a women honor’s society, and that Iron Cross would be infringing upon Mortar Board’s turf.”

“It is a prestigious group of student leaders to sort of influence the governance of the campus community.”

Shayna Hetzel Wisconsin Union president 2006-’07 Iron Cross Society

However, as Zeldes wrote in a 1952 letter to Society alum and former congressman Wayne Morse, “the main argument for maintaining the status quo regarding women … emphasized the traditional element.”

“I tried to emphasize the importance of progress along such lines,” Zeldes wrote, “[and] pointed out the analogy between the ‘anti-women in Iron Cross’ arguments and the anti-suffrage for women arguments of some years ago.”

The “separate but equal” stance was maintained until the UW-Madison chapter of the Mortar Board dissolved in the mid-eighties. After that, as 1987 Iron Cross President David Weidig said, the decision to let women in was easy.

“There really wasn’t any opposition to it. It hadn’t been done society page 5

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Doyle vetoes Regents bill Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed legislation Monday that would have required the UW System Board of Regents to include citizen members from seven different geographic districts.

Doyle vetoed the bill in its entirety citing his concern for unnecessary duplication of programs across the UW System schools. He said creating districts would also cause members to increase their focus on regional issues rather than the system as a whole. “[The bill] will hamper the board’s ability to eliminate underutilized programs, reallocate resources between campuses and address the evolving educational needs of our workforce,” he said in his veto message.

State Rep. Jeff Smith, D-Eau

development from page 3 in the downtown.”

The access to fresh food has a high expectation of being popular among students.

“The access to fresh foods and groceries for students will be a great asset instead of having to travel farther off campus, use a friend’s car or wait for your parents to come,” Eagon said.

The renovation of Peace Park, located on the 400 block of State Street across from Hawk’s Bar and Grill, was recently approved with the hope of

Claire, the author of the state Assembly version of the bill, said he was frustrated with Doyle’s decision to veto the legislation.

He said the legislation is important for ensuring there is representation from across the state on the board.

“The bill provides regional diversity to the UW Board of Regents and would help establish more equitable representation on higher education decision-making in our state,” he said in a statement.

Last week, some legislators and former UW System presidents sent letters to Doyle urging him to veto the bill. The legislation originally passed through the Senate and the Assembly with bipartisan support.

—Hannah Furfaro drawing more visitors.

“For an urban park in a green space in the downtown it’s [currently] underutilized in a sense of quality and in a sense of the number of people that use and don’t use the park,” Eagon said.

Construction of Peace Park will begin in January 2010 and continue throughout the summer.

Aside from specific projects such as these, Madison is also going through a master redesign known as the Downtown Plan.

Over the past year, the city government has gone through a planning process to update its 1989 plan,

Fall Finals Issue 2009

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infants from page 3

before because of tradition, but everybody was fine with it,” Weidig said. “It just made sense.”

Crabb said the issue surrounding women members in the 1980s was much different than concerns in the 1950s.

“Once the decision was made … it was just accepted and we moved on,” he said.

At the Iron Cross Society’s 100th Anniversary Celebration in 2003, at the urging of Zeldes, Jean Matheson was finally given an honorary induction to the organization which had barred her over fifty years earlier.

“One thing I did notice was that at least half the inductees were women,” Matheson said of the event. “It was a very gratifying evening.”

should include health care before, during and after pregnancy, along with programs for strong African-American families.”

The WPP chose the Healthy Births Outcome Initiative “to really make an impact,” Frey said.

She added, “This was really an unacceptable problem. We felt compelled to put our resources to this.”

According to Frey, white infant mortality rates have declined since the mid-’80s. But the same cannot be said for the African American infant mortality rate, which has remained steady.

“You’d have thought you would see improvements among all races, but you don’t,” Frey said. “Milwaukee is dead last in the country with disparities.”

And it is not just certain portions of the African-American community that face this problem.

“It’s consistent across socioeconomic issues,” Frey said.

According to Frey, the biggest contributor to low birth outcomes is stress. Horton said stress contributed to her daughter’s early birth.

“I had a lot going on,” said Horton, who had a job and was going to school. “I was still doing the same things that I did before I was pregnant. It was stressful.”

According to Frey, stress can be caused by things such as jobs, poverty, racism and safety.

“Stresses accumulate over the course of life,” Frey said. “What we aim to do is reduce the stress factors and increase the positive factors.”

The first step the program is doing to change these factors is asking the four cities to come up with a plan to improve African American birth outcomes.

“We are looking at a longterm commitment and working with community partners to reduce the disparities,” Frey said.

“It’s like a negotiated partnership with each community.”

Lorraine Lathen, program leader for LIHF, said each com-

Verveer said.

Yet, the new plans do not come without controversy, especially proposals that could radically change the face of Mifflin Street.

“The city would allow much larger buildings to be built because of deep lots,” Verveer said. “I very much oppose any efforts to change the face of Mifflin Street.”

As the Downtown Plan and other developments continue to move forward, Eagon said it is important for students to give their input.

“We’re trying to hear from students about their opinions,” he said.

homelessness from page 3 we’re out of the woods.”

Ketcham, who supported the registration tax, said people should look at funding for human services as an investment in the infrastructure of society.

“Are we willing to invest in people in the same level that we’re willing to invest in development?

It’s about strengthening the infrastructure in terms of our citizens.”

Donations down As cuts to county funding intersect with the growing need for those services, agencies are turning to private donations to make up the difference.

Despite a 2 percent reduction in county funding, the Salvation Army hopes to expand its shelter services to meet the increasing demand. Planning to provide 1,000 more shelter nights, its organizers are hoping to bring in more money through their Christmas Campaign, employing many new strategies to encourage donations.

“We’re a very old, traditional organization, but all of a sudden we’ve come screaming into the 21st century,” said Ruth Ann Schoer, Salvation Army development director.

For instance, this year The Salvation Army has set up credit card readers at five of their kettle dona-

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munity will have 12 to 18 months to develop a plan. First, the communities will submit proposals, which are being accepted until Jan. 31, 2010.

Lathen said, “LIHF has committed $10 million over a five- to 10-year period.”

The first year, Racine, Kenosha and Beloit will receive up to $200,000 and Milwaukee will get up to $250,000 to develop community collaboratives and action plans. When the action plans are approved, the cities will receive more funds to implement them.

“There is a 12-point plan called ‘closing the black-white gap in birth outcomes,’” Lathen said.

“They must choose one point from each category to address.”

“You’d have thought you would see improvements among all races, but you don’t.”

Cathy Frey associate director Wisconsin Partnership Program

The three categories are: improving health care for AfricanAmerican Women, strengthening African-American families and communities and addressing social and economic inequalities.

After more than four months in the hospital, Horton’s baby survived.

“She’s a very happy and healthy baby,” Horton added.

“But she’s had some complications and surgeries.

“Women need to be educated,” Horton said. “There are a lot of single women who are very busy, still doing the same things as before they were pregnant.”

Lathen agrees.

“We really try to work in a way to allow African Americans to live in healthy environments,” Lathen said. “We also want to deal with those social conditions that cause adverse birth outcomes such as employment, housing, safe neighborhoods, food and health care.” tion stands and an “online kettle.”

They have a new Facebook page, an e-newsletter, and people can even donate via text message.

“I think people are ... realizing how fortunate they are to have their homes and jobs so they want to help others.”

Ruth Ann Schoer development director Salvation Army

Despite these efforts, Schoer said donations are down from last year, five percent for kettles and slower than usual for mail donations as well.

Schoer said the Salvation Army plans to lay off two employees in January—the disaster services coordinator and a secretary. If budget constraints worsen, she said they will have to look at cutting programs.

But Schoer sees a silver lining in volunteer numbers, which she says have stayed steady.

“I think people are saying, ‘I don’t have as much money this year but I want to do something to help, so I’ll give two hours and ring bells and do my part that way,’” Schoer said. “And I think people are also realizing how fortunate they are to have their homes and jobs so they want to help others.”

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Fall Farewell Issue 2009

Our top 10 news stories of fall 2009

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New diversity program unveiled, encourages campus diversity debate The unveiling of a new program called Inclusive Excellence aimed at improving diversity on the UW-Madison campus kick-started a campuswide discussion on diversity.

The beginning of the 2009-’10 school year meant the last decade’s diversity initiative, Plan 2008, had come to a close. Although the plan was found to be successful in some areas, such as an increase in enrollment of minority students, a study

from Academic Planning and Analysis found the plan too narrow to achieve widespread success.

When The Daily Cardinal published Andrew Carpenter’s opinion piece “Race deserves no place in university admissions,” the debate surrounding diversity on campus intensified.

Carpenter’s controversial column sparked criticism, and The Daily Cardinal published numerous letters to the editor as well as

an editorial board piece in response. The Badger Herald also published opinion columns that addressed similar issues.

On Nov. 24, a diversity forum hosted at Smith Hall drew about 150 students to discuss diversity-related issues. The forum aimed to highlight general diversity topics, but discussion focused on issues brought up in both The Daily Cardinal’s and The Badger Herald’s opinion sections.

Chancellor Martin calls off classes because of snow

When Chancellor Biddy Martin declared a snow day Dec. 9 because of potential blizzard conditions, students across campus were encouraged to stay indoors.

Despite this recommendation, the following afternoon an estimated 3,000 students commenced a snowball fight on Bascom Hill, which pitted Lakeshore dorms against Southeast dorms. Martin was present to witness the Lakeshore win Wednesday.

Although many students flocked to Bascom, others used the extra day to catch up on schoolwork or study

for upcoming finals.

UW-Madison staff and faculty avoided coming to work at Martin’s request.

The city of Madison and Gov. Jim Doyle both declared a snow emergency, which lasted until Friday. At Doyle’s request, all UW System schools with the exception of UW-Milwaukee remained closed Dec. 9.

All nonessential state agencies and offices were also required to stay closed during the blizzard.

Classes and the opening of state agencies resumed Dec. 10.

Women’s center denied funding by Student Services Finance Committee The Associated Students of Madison’s Student Services Finance Committee denied funding eligibility to the Campus Women’s Center in late September, leading to the creation of a campuswide campaign in protest of the decision.

Following their denial, supporters of the CWC formed an organization called Save the Campus Women’s Center in an effort to fight SSFC’s decision and eventually secure their funding.

SSFC denied the CWC’s eligibility because it said the organization’s direct services did not make up a majority of their time, which is one of the requirements an organization must meet to receive funding.

CWC members said, however, that SSFC members were misinformed when they made their decision and that this violated ASM bylaws.

Throughout most of October, Save the Campus Women’s Center held sev-

eral events, like letter-writing campaigns and protests, and also encouraged all students to wear blue on Thursdays to gather support for the organization.

However, Save the Campus Women’s Center’s efforts throughout the semester were unsuccessful.

The CWC took their case to the ASM Student Judiciary several times throughout the semester, but were eventually denied the opportunity for a second eligibility hearing.

Isabel Álvarez/the daily cardinal

Proposed changes to graduate school spark controversy UW-Madison faculty members butted heads with administrators earlier this semester over newly appointed provost Paul DeLuca’s plan to restructure the graduate school.

The proposal would split the current graduate school authority structure by creating a new vice chancellor of research position to help bolster UW-Madison’s influence within federal grant agencies and address increasingly complex financial and safety regulations required for federal grant management.

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At the five widely attended town hall meetings that followed, faculty, academic staff and graduate students grilled DeLuca, expressing concern not only about potential side effects of his proposal, but even more about its perceived lack of transparency, details and faculty input.

The heated debate culminated in early November with a nearly unanimous Faculty Senate vote to oppose administrators taking action before the two committees commissioned to analyze the plan had completed their work. Before the vote, Chancellor Biddy Martin reassured faculty that she and DeLuca would wait and follow the shared governance process unless an emergency need arose.

According to University Committee Chair Bill Tracy, the committees are hoping to submit their findings to the provost over winter break.

H1N1 outbreak hits campus

The H1N1 influenza outbreak hit campus in early September, affecting over 1,300 students throughout the course of the semester.

The highly contagious virus peaked in mid-September, when nearly 350 students reported symptoms at University Health Services within one week.

Campus officials soon became concerned about the severity of the virus and quickly implemented a “surge plan” at UHS. The plan placed restrictions on the availability of routine appointments to keep pace with the growing numbers of students reporting symptoms.

Throughout the semester, officials urged students to take extra sanitary

precautions and stay home if they have symptoms. Professors were told to remain lenient on students who missed class because of the virus.

Although the reported cases of H1N1 steadily decreased as the semester continued, the virus still remains a topic of discussion on campus, as UHS recently received large doses of the H1N1 vaccine.

The vaccine first arrived in limited numbers, so it was limited to only “high-risk” students, which included those who were pregnant or diagnosed with chronic illnesses.

The vaccine is now available to anyone, and over 4,500 students have been vaccinated.

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Fall Farewell Issue 2009

Quadruple homicide leads Madison Police Department on manhunt

Obama speaks at Madison school

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Authorities suspect a Dane County man killed his two daughters, their mothers and himself earlier this month in what may go down as “the worst incident for homicides in Dane County,” according to Madison Police Chief Noble Wray.

On Dec. 3, police suspect Tyrone Adair, 38, fatally shot his daughter, Neveah WeigelAdair, 2, and her mother, Amber Weigel, 25, in a car in the garage of their home on Madison’s Southwest side.

About three hours after finding the victims, police found Adair’s girlfriend, Tracy Judd, 33, and his daughter Deja Adair, 23 months, dead in the

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trunk of a car in the Forest Ridge Apartments parking lot in Middleton.

Police charged Adair in the killings after being tipped off by calls he made earlier to his family and one of Judd’s other children.

Adair had been involved in paternity suits with both women and was living with Judd and their daughter in their Middleton home at the time.

Authorities launched a weekend-long manhunt until finding Adair dead in Weigel’s SUV parked on Natvig Road in Cottage Grove. Two handguns were also found in the car, and the Dane County coroner said Adair likely killed himself.

Isabel Álvarez/the daily cardinal

President Barack Obama addressed education reform at a Madison middle school in November.

On the anniversary of his election, Obama spoke to a crowd of students, parents, school officials, press and community members about the federal Race to the Top program.

Obama called education reform “America’s national mission” and emphasized accountability and quality in education standards.

He focused on how states can improve their education standards in competition for over $4 billion in federal Race to the Top funds.

Since Obama’s visit, Gov. Jim Doyle has worked to push legislation that aims to restructure Milwaukee Public Schools in an attempt to make Wisconsin more competitive for Race to the Top dollars.

Obama’s visit to Madison raised speculation about Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s possible gubernatorial bid. Although Barrett denied discussing this issue with Obama during his visit, Barrett announced his candidacy less than two weeks later.

Boycott leads to student voting member on ALRC

Building projects incite citywide controversy

Marsh Shapiro, Nitty Gritty owner and Tavern League representative on the Alcohol License Review Committee, made his lack of support for a student voting member on the ALRC known at the committee’s Oct. 21 meeting.

Shapiro’s comment was in response to a proposal

by Ald. Bryon Eagon, District 8, to add a permanent student voting member to the ALRC. His position began a firestorm of criticism and subsequent boycott of the Nitty Gritty led by The Daily Cardinal and The Badger Herald.

Although the ALRC rejected the amendment, an appeal was made to the Madison Common Council, and ultimately a compromise was reached.

The council voted to add a new citizen voting member, as well as an additional alder, to the ALRC, and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz announced his plan to appoint UW-Madison student Mark Woulf to the position.

Redevelopment plans for Madison’s Central Library and the Edgewater Hotel sparked controversy in Madison this fall.

The city’s Landmarks Commission voted to deny Hammes Co. a certificate of appropriateness for their proposed redevelopment of the Edgewater Hotel Dec. 2 because opponents of the project said the proposed tower is too big and would not blend in with the existing neighborhood.

Hammes Co. will appeal the decision to the Madison

Common Council Tuesday.

The Madison Common Council approved funding within the 2010 executive capital budget for a proposition by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Public Library Board members calling for renovations to the Madison Central Library.

According to Cieslewicz, renovations will benefit Madison’s economy.

“This project and [the Edgewater Hotel project] will help create over 1,000 jobs in our community, and more after the facility opens,” he said.

Alison Bauter/the daily cardinal

Doyle drops out of gubernatorial race, opens up Democratic ticket

Isabel Álvarez/the daily cardinal

After Gov. Jim Doyle announced he would not seek re-election, the race for governor became a wide-open race for the Democratic Party. On the Republican side, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker announced his candidacy in April, and former Congressman Mark Neumann made his candidacy official in July.

Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton became the leading Democratic candidate after Doyle declined a re-election bid. Lawton cited a “green economy” and investments in the job market as two of her primary campaign commitments.

Much to the surprise of pundits on all sides, Lawton exited the race in late October citing personal reasons.

Explanations for Lawton’s departure from the race sparked controversy when Lawton decided against revealing details of her decision.

With Lawton out of the race, all eyes turned to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett as a potential Democratic frontrunner. Speculation surrounded Barrett’s friendly relations with President Barack Obama, and after Obama’s visit to Wright Middle School in Madison, many suspected Barrett would make his candidacy official.

Barrett officially announced his candidacy Nov. 14, solidifying the candidacy of a major Democratic contender going into 2010.

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Fall Farewell Issue 2009

ISABEL ÁLVAREZ/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Chipotle prepares food in an open kitchen, so customers watch the process.

Story by Valerie Klessig

F

ast food often means a cheap, greasy burger and french fries. Struggling to cover monthly expenses, students may take the cheap, often less nutritious fast food meal over a wholesome one.

However, Chipotle thinks of itself as a quick service restaurant that does not force students to sacrifice quality to save money.

Nearly 10 years ago, Niman Ranch, a natural meat company supplied by a network of over 600 traditional farms and ranches, began to provide Chipotle with naturally raised pork, making it Chipotle’s first purveyor of naturally raised meats.

According to Bill Niman, founder of Niman Ranch, flavor comes first.

“When it passes that test, then [come] the issues of how is it raised, all the ... health issues that are attributable to the various ingredients,” Niman said. “Then there is the sustainability from an environmental and community point of view.”

Serving naturally raised meats is part of what Chipotle founder Steve Ells calls “Food with Integrity.”

Niman said Chipotle uses standards of quality that it applies to each menu item. “[Food with Integrity] is Steve’s vision to do everything humanly possible in his business to provide delicious, wholesome and healthful food at an affordable price that everybody in the country will have access to,” Niman said. “There are a lot of buzz words, including ‘sustainability’ and ‘green’ and ‘humane.’ Food with Integrity is the scripture of all those things wrapped into one.”

Founded by Ells in 1993, Chipotle pursues the feat of serving an all-natural menu.

In the meat category, as defined

by Niman, naturally raised meat comes from animals that are free of antibiotics and added growth hormones, fed a vegetarian diet and humanely raised. In addition, the animals live in sufficient space to move around.

“The pork is almost exclusively from farms that don’t raise their animals in confinement,” Niman said.

“The pigs have access to pastures or barnyards, which is dramatically different from the 95-99 percent of the pork produced in this country today.”

In addition to 100 percent naturally raised pork, Chris Kelley, general manager of the Chipotle on State Street, said every Chipotle serves 100 percent naturally raised chicken as well. On Chipotle’s additional efforts

Graphics by Jenny Peek

to serve Food with Integrity, Kelley said all the sour cream and cheese purchased by Chipotle is made with milk from cows that are not given recombinant bovine growth hormone, a hormone that stimulates milk production but, according to critics, can have negative health effects on cows.

Although Chipotle serves 100 percent naturally raised pork and chicken, only about 40 percent of its beef is naturally raised. According to Niman, Chipotle experiences supply challenges in its efforts to serve 100 percent naturally raised beef because not enough is yet available to meet its needs. Additionally, only 30 percent of Chipotle’s black bean supply is organic.

Along with naturally raised meats, Chipotle purchases locally grown produce when it is available.

“In late summer and early fall, a majority of Chipotle’s produce is locally grown, purchased from Wisconsin and nearby states rather than from states across the country,” Kelley said.

Niman currently serves as the sustainable agriculture advisor for Chipotle. He said he helps the company stay aware of where the food is coming from.

Niman describes himself as an advocate of humane animal husbandry because he says he supports treating animals with dignity and respect. To benefit animals and the environment, he said he is returning to farming practices used in this country 40 to 60 years ago.

“Animals were actually living on the landscape and on the land,” he said. “I began my farming in a traditional way, which allows the animals to thrive, and created an environment that wasn’t altering the land unnecessarily [or] in an overly negative way.”

The reincorporation of natural habitat into the food production system provides animals with scenery different from that of animals on the larger, conventional operations called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Because those farms house thousands of animals, the animals often live in smaller spaces. The quality of food from CAFOs is a source of debate between supporters of natural production methods and those of conventional ones.

According to Bill Bruins, president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, quality is present in both conventionally produced and naturally produced food.

Many fast food restaurants provide a cheap and less-than-nutritious meal. But one restaurant claims it can provide both quick service and affordable prices without compromising the quality of the food.

“The question really isn’t ‘Is better quality food produced on a large farm or a small farm?’” Bruins said.

“It depends on the operator himself or herself as to the quality of the product, not the production method or size of the operation.”

UW-Madison senior Andrew Hoffman, a soil science major pursuing a career in agronomy, said although he supports organic operations, a need exists for new technologies and modern operations.

“I don’t see anything wrong with conventional farms, because the world population is rising and will eventually double, while the amount of productive land in the world will not,” Hoffman said.

Bruins supports conventional operations because of their impact on the economy.

“CAFOs are hugely important from an economic standpoint for providing consumers with safe, very affordable, very high-quality food,” he said.

Considering the different farming methods, Monica Theis, UWMadison food science professor, said some people eat organic foods to be more environmentally conscious. “[Chipotle is] responding to a consumer movement that is genuine,” Theis said. “I personally advo-

cate for being good stewards of the land, and from the best of my knowledge, that is the spirit of organics.”

Kelley said the organic trend seems to have grown more popular since some Chipotle locations began serving naturally raised pork in 2000.

Organic means purity to UWMadison sophomore Katrine Colton.

An environmental advocate, she said she eats organic foods because it promotes the wellness of humankind and the earth.

“I value my health above all, and only the purest and most wholesome foods will promote health.

Also, organic food is produced with the consumer, the processing of the product, and the land in mind,” Colton said. “Since we as humans share a common environment, we must be conscientious to keep it as pristine as possible for each other and generations to come.”

According to Kelley, the Food with Integrity efforts are also seen in actions such as recycling and employee interactions.

“Something that we look for in the people we hire [is] to be passionate about what we’re doing,” Kelley said.

Kelley said customers have a variety of incentives for eating

at Chipotle, adding that although its competitor Qdoba is merely a block away, people choose Chipotle because of the quality of its food.

UW-Madison senior Chris Mayer, who has worked at Chipotle since April, said Chipotle’s open kitchen proves the food quality to its customers.

“We prepare it in front of the customers so they can see how fresh it is,” Mayer said. “If you can see us preparing the food, there is nothing we are hiding.”

Kelley added that customers also eat at Chipotle because they receive a substantial amount of food for nearly the same price as they would pay at similar quick service restaurants.

“The best thing about it is just because it is high-quality food, we still don’t have to skimp and give less, you still get a lot of food,” Kelley said.

According to Niman, Chipotle’s transition to an all-natural menu is a continuing process.

“One of the things [Steve Ells] always says that is very true is that it’s a process and it’s still going, but we’ve made some huge strides,” Kelley said.

However, although Chipotle is working toward supplying more natural foods, it is clear that the process is ongoing.

ISABEL ÁLVAREZ/THE DAILY CARDINAL

The State Street Chipotle says it hires employees passionate about the ‘Food with Integrity’ movement.

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Fall Farewell Issue 2009

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Sports photos of the semester

Senior golfer Molly Schemm goes for a bunker shot at the Big Ten Preview Badger Invitational in September. The women’s golf team will host the Big Ten tournament next April.

Isabel álvarez/the daily cardinal

Isabel álvarez/the daily cardinal

Senior safety Chris Maragos picks off a pass in overtime, all but clinching the win over Fresno State.

danny marchewka/the daily cardinal

The Wisconsin women’s soccer team celebrates after defeating Central Florida, 1-0, and continuing on to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament in Boston.

Lorenzo zemella/the daily cardinal

Senior safety Chris Maragos gets up-ended during a game against Northern Illinois in September.

Lorenzo zemella/the daily cardinal

Lorenzo zemella/the daily cardinal

(Left) Sophomore receiver Nick Toon hauls in a pass over a Michigan defender during the Badgers’ 45-24 win over the Wolverines. The play was named the Wisconsin Football Play of the Year at the Wisconsin football awards show Friday. (Above) Wisconsin football head coach Bret Bielema walks off Ryan Field after Wisconsin’s 33-31 loss to Northwestern.

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News photos of the semester

The 39th annual Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival came to Madison Oct. 1-4. The festival ended with a parade from Library Mall to the Capitol steps.

Madison’s annual Freakfest celebration on State Street drew in over 43,000 costumed partygoers in its fourth year.

Nick kogos/the daily cardinal

kyle bursaw/the daily cardinal

Families welcomed home loved ones from the 115th Fighter Wing during a reception on Thursday, Nov. 11, held at the Wisconsin National Guard’s Headquarters after the soldiers returned from a two-month deployment to Iraq.

Isabel Álvarez/the daily cardinal

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(Above) Alaska natives Portugal.

The Man perform at the Majestic Theatre Oct. 9.

Fall Farewell Issue 2009 11 l

isabel ĂĄlvarez/the daily cardinal

UW-Madison students celebrated the first-ever full day of canceled classes with a snowball fight on Bascom Hill on Dec. 10.

danny marchewka/the daily cardinal

Kyle Bursaw/the daily cardinal

(Above) UW-Madison junior Michael Haggart, a member of the MadHatters a cappella group, performs during the group’s fall concert series in the Overture Center’s Capitol Theatre.

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So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night. I hate to go and leave this pretty sight. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye! dailycardinal.com/comics

Fall Farewell Issue, 2009

Bittersweet

Today’s Sudoku

Evil Bird

By Caitlin Kirihara kirihara@wisc.edu

Angel Hair Pasta

By Todd Stevens ststevens@wisc.edu

© Puzzles by Pappocom

Solution, tips and computer program available at www.sudoku.com.

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

The Graph Giraffe

By Yosef Lerner ilerner@wisc.edu

Charlie and Boomer

By Natasha Soglin soglin@wisc.edu

Today’s Crossword Puzzle

Washington and the Bear Answer key available at www.dailycardinal.com

Limber Up ACROSS 1 Ripped 5 Traffic cop?

9 Andy Capp order 12 Alda and Rickman 14 Inventive thought 15 Highly proper 16 Tabletop rinsing dish 18 Prefix meaning “all” 19 As of now 20 Abalone eater 22 Hook for landing fish 24 Cut out of one’s will 25 Did a cobbler’s job 29 Lapland native 30 ___ mode 31 The “y” in NIMBY 33 Buckwheat porridge 36 “Wheel of Fortune” name 39 The Holy ___ (Vatican) 40 Either of 12-Across, e.g.

41 Close with 42 Change from wild to mild 44 “Center” lead-in 45 Shipboard jail 47 Medieval strummer 50 Bell’s first phone call recipient 52 Cantina munchie

53 Arrived on the beach, as driftwood 55 18th-century undergarment 59 Sharp price increase 60 Time on one’s hand?

62 “How can I ___ repay you?”

63 Wight, Man or Capri 64 Land along the coast 65 Amount after costs 66 Summer intern, often 67 Wheeled around DOWN 1 Sherman was his veep 2 A little of this and a little of that 3 Money in Johannesburg 4 Mesh, like gears 5 Beak 6 Bustles of activity 7 Marry again 8 French port on the English Channel 9 Forceful cajoler 10 Hanky material, sometimes 11 Eastern potentate 13 Biological bristles

15 River to the Chesapeake Bay 17 Test a model airplane again 21 City of Japan 23 Abundant meal 25 Thumbs-up review 26 Spirited selfassurance 27 Small carryall 28 Visions of sugarplums, perhaps 32 Relinquish, as an office 34 Rosy anticipation 35 Seed covering 37 Stormy winter blast 38 Absinthe flavor 43 Bring into law 46 Large wading bird 48 Garbage barges 49 Some sacred scrolls 50 Give up, as a right 51 Bedside companion 53 “At what time?”

54 Accumulate (with “up”) 56 Word on a red sign 57 A shade of beige 58 “___ again ...” (“on the other hand ...”)

61 Capitol person?

By Derek Sandberg kalarooka@gmail.com

featuresfood

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Fall Farewell Issue 2009

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Ten Commandments of Fueling for Finals Stay alert during long study sessions and ace grueling exams with drool-worthy brain food

By Jacqueline O’Reilly THE DAILY CARDINAL

When finals roll around, you need everything in life working in your favor. When it comes to what you eat and drink, if you follow these guidelines, food will be one more thing working for you during the hell of final exams.

Thou Shall Eat “Brain food” Your brain must be at its best for finals. Enter “brain food.”

Professor Dave Rakel from the Department of Family Medicine says, “Foods that are good for the brain are also good for the body,” and have been dubbed “brainfood. He recommends eating foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, specifically green vegetables and nuts. Rakel advises to stick to “multi-colored whole food that was recently alive.”

Thou Shall Not Drink Alcohol We’ve all fallen victim to the temptation of alcohol during finals or at least know someone who has.

A word of advice: don’t. Professor

Susan Smith of the Nutritional Sciences Department warns that alcohol will impair your ability to recall information from the day it was learned, so if you’ve spent all day studying and are looking for a good way to calm yourself down afterward, don’t turn to alcohol.

Information you managed to jam into your head that day will be jeopardized as alcohol “reduces the neurons’ efficiency in consolidating memory, and you retain and remember less information that you recently studied.”

Thou Shall Eat Breakfast Breakfast is indeed the most important meal of the day.

Your brain depends on energy from carbohydrates in order to function and protein in order to make neurotransmitters. As you sleep, these energy sources are depleted. Eating breakfast replenishes them. Professor Smith says, “Having a good breakfast really is a great way to boost your brain power by recharging its nutrient needs.”

Thou Shall Not Ignore Hunger Pains If you’re hungry, eat. Food will provide you with the energy you need to study more efficiently and effectively. When you shove your books into your backpack for a day of library mayhem, toss some snacks in there too. Having food on hand will help you to keep your energy and concentration levels up.

“Having a good breakfast really is a great way to boost your brain power by recharging its nutrient needs.”

Susan Smith nutritional sciences professor UW-Madison

Thou Shall Not Run Merely on Caffeine While those five espresso shots often seem vital to the studying process, “Too much caffeine can lead to fatigue by artificially over-stimulating the body, preventing it from resting when it needs to,” Professor Rakel warns. “This catches up with you in the form of fatigue.”

Basically, even if you managed

to pull an all-nighter, the fatigue it creates could catch up with you during your exam and actually hurt your ability to perform well. Grab a cup of coffee, but grab some Zs too.

Thou Shall Request a Care Package From Mom When you’ve been studying American history for the past 11 hours, nothing packs as much relief as Mom’s homemade cookies. Because you’ll be too consumed in textbooks to make baked goods for yourself, have Mom do it for you. She’ll appreciate the fact that you still need her to get you through the tough times, and you’ll have the comfort of soft-baked deliciousness as you reach the point where you can’t remember who won the Revolutionary War. Thou Shall Not ‘Pig-Out’ Let’s not forget what follows finals: the holidays. No one wants their great aunt coming up to her at Christmas dinner and pointing out to the table, “Boy, she’s gained weight at college!” There’s no need to obsess over the caloric content of your finals provisions, but avoid eating habits that will bring negative attention from the relatives.

Thou Shall Treat Oneself When Thou Deserves It This finals season, try a new form of studying motivation: food. Tell yourself that when you’ve been studying for a certain amount of time, you’ll reward yourself with a tasty snack. Whatever this treat is, make sure it will keep you studying. This way not only will you have earned yourself some delicious food, but maybe even a good grade on your final.

Thou Shall Make Studying More Interesting With Food Here’s where you allow yourself a little fun during the darkness of finals. If you and your friends are getting together to study Spanish, whip out the chips and salsa or order some burritos. Dairy science exam?

That’s a perfect excuse for ice cream. Whatever the class is, be creative, and allow this to lighten up the gloom of finals.

Once Finals Are Over, Thou Shall Feast Like a King Finals are over, so enjoy yourself and indulge a little. In the words of Kool and the Gang, “Let’s all celebrate and have a good time!”

AMY GIFFIN/THE DAILY CARDINAL

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Fall Farewell Issue 2009

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Top 15 Albums of 2009 2009 is the year indie music finally made it to summer. Once dominated by bands like Belle & Sebastian, who perused spring rainstorms, or Arcade Fire, who embraced the chills of autumn’s decay, the genre finally met its most complete realization with music that doesn’t require raincoats or sweaters. Be it household names like Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear embracing more pop sensibilities, or newcomers like Girls and Japandroids providing ceaselessly summery hooks, indie music was in full bloom through the decade’s waning moments.

Compiled by arts staffers, The Daily Cardinal’s Top 15 Albums of 2009 acknowledges this sea change in popular music.

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There isn’t much undiscovered land left on earth. While most authorities have dubbed space the final frontier, there’s a serious divide—both geographically and personally—between people in living rooms and gaudy NASA equipment light-years away. Although our future relatives might own real estate on the moon, for our sake we’re likely confusing literary and scientific fodder for legitimate expansion.

And if you take only one lesson away from indie rock’s most ambitious debut, Cymbals Eat Guitars’ Why There Are Mountains, it’s that. Although we’re indefinitely stuck on this increasingly crusty rock, we’re wasting our resources if we fail to revisit and re-evaluate the forest behind the trees.

Why There Are Mountains might be the most unlikely success of the year. A group of east-coast college kids recording an album that sounds like everything we’ve already heard, Cymbals don’t cover much new ground, but they put a magnify-

Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains ing glass to the peaks and valleys of the western world’s rural sprawl. They’re more Sal Paradise than Hernán Cortés, though.

They don’t waste time turning over rocks in search of uncovered gems; they scale mountains and ford rivers, all the while daring us to keep pace. Simultaneously cathartic and invigorating, the songs embody both a liberating freedom and a solitary reprieve the way a car acts as a cozy vessel for the breathtakingly novel awes in exploration. They use tracks like “Cold Spring,” “Wind Phoenix” and “Like Blood Does” as brushstrokes of displacement and remorse to paint a majestic portrait of clarity and freedom.

From his piercing wails to his trudging whimpers, lead singer/ guitarist Joe Ferocious wears his heart on his sleeve and evokes devastatingly pervasive emotions in their most gristly, pure form.

From the riotous, crashing “...

And the Hazy Sea” to the pleasant, swaying melody of “Indiana,” Cymbals conjure sprawling grandeur and eloquence in an impossibly tight package.

Ruthlessly meticulous, Mountains’ most impressive

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JENNY PEEK/THE DAILY CARDINAL

The artistic scope of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix shows a new maturity from a band that knew they could not keep lusting without direction like they had in the past.

Pulling together t h e artistic aspirations of classical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the diametrically flamboyant Franz Liszt, Phoenix finds a new, more intense lust stirring deep inside. They capitalize on this feeling in Wolfgang and drench it with their keen pop instincts, lending an authenticity often attempted but rarely accomplished.

Opening track

strength is its depth and cohesiveness. However powerfully each song stands on its own, they’re at their best when entrenched in the album’s strong inner context. We can only hope that, by the time we’re all crotchety old geezers, Why There Are Mountains is the record high-schoolers will aspire to in their garages.

The past year saw the biggest influx of ill-advised Pavement rip-offs and gratuitous hipster nut-flexes in history. Once a fruitful reservoir for uninhibited creativity and progress, indie music has shown its first major wave of saturation and contentedness, and Cymbals Eat Guitars gives it its biggest gut-check yet.

Mountains doesn’t break any new ground, but their disregard for conventions creates an expansiveness and depth unparalleled this year. We never needed to reinvent the keyboard, we just had to dig deeper into our fretboards.

And while most have their heads in the clouds looking skyward, Cymbals Eat Guitars brought the rest of us back down to earth and spoon-fed us a profoundly realized introduction.

—Kyle Sparks

Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix “Lisztomania” sets the tone for an album of wistful romance, the kind that conjures up the thoughts of loves that were, loves that could have been and the pangs of regret for both.

Lead singer Thomas Mars performs at his best, his earnest lyrics work seamlessly with the tight instrumentation and danceable rhythms, those sharp guitar riffs and full synth lines that punctuate all of the longing. The reprise of both parts of “Love Like a Sunset” gives us a moment to reflect with a krautrock backdrop before launching us into “Lasso” and introducing us to the second and more emotionally complex half of the album. “Rome” pulls on history with syncopated bass and a spacey sequencer, and “Armistice” wraps things up succinctly, putting us in a dire situation and leaving us stranded.

There is this new, constructive yearning that stands out in every aspect of Wolfgang. We’re listening to Phoenix as they reflect back on a less-than-perfect past, highlighting the truths that we’re all too scared to face in the moment. Lyrics like “True and everlasting didn’t last that long” evoke a sadness that we rarely acknowledge. Wolfgang forces us to face that moment to see how our dreams got dislodged from our reality and if they will ever fit back together. It’s ironic that it took so much reflection on the past to create such perfection in the present.

—Anthony Cefali

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Dirty Projectors — Bitte Orca

To step outside of the box, you must first realize where the boundaries of the box lie. Boundaries are a strength for the Dirty Projectors on Bitte Orca, in the sense that they show that the human imagination knows none. Orca is the most refreshing album of the year, one that makes you double-take at the thought of its very inception and wonder how humans could even conceive such a disjointed work of art.

Each time signature is calculated to stir sonic inundation and each word another quirk to pause on before lead singer and composer Dave Longstreth turns down another, more aurally hyperactive path. Orca is steeped in esoteric harmonies that hint at an unwonted blue sunrise, eccentrically complemented by guitars that feel like a rubbery dream finishing up an allaround surreal experience.

With its deceptive opening chords, album opener “Cannibal Resource” isn’t fully realized until the backing vocals of the band’s sirens, Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian, enter. On first listen, the song is utterly disorienting, the sonic equivalent of Dalí’s melt-

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Japandroids — Post-Nothing

Japandroids’ debut LP, Post-Nothing, is not particularly original. Then again, saying Post-Nothing isn’t all that original itself is not all that original—after all, the album is titled Post-Nothing.

Japandroids aren’t looking to blaze any new trails in garage rock, but why should they when the band already has a well-paved six-lane highway blazed ahead of it? All band members Brian King and David Prowse seem intent to do is continue the well-crafted tradition of their predecessors, all while making a kickass record that runs strong from start to finish. On Post-Nothing, they

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ing clocks or de Chirico’s mismatched mannequins. Their vocals permeate the record, providing the backdrop necessary to augment the distinct qualities of Longstreth’s own voice.

Both girls get a chance to show their vocal chops, Coffman lending her prolific range to the upbeat booty-shaker “Stillness is the Move” and Deradoorian fully embodying the angelic qualities of “Two Doves,” a heart-wrenching acoustical composition that provides solace to the chaos of Orca.

Longstreth’s compositional abilities soar, particularly in the spastic chorus of “Useful Chamber.” The first verse features Longstreth balling up an almost pastoral image of love and preservation, only to fire it haphazardly from a cannon as the disjointed rhythms pull apart the jilted narrator.

People are quick to label Longstreth and his work as experimental. Orca is an entropic accomplishment that spreads itself, almost gratuitously, across all spectra, packaging the otherworldly with efficiency and spacey pop sensibilities. Yet the term “experimental” is rather worthless when applied to a record as sure of itself as Bitte Orca.

—Anthony Cefali

definitely succeeded. From the charging rhythm of “The Boys Are Leaving Town” to the paradoxically smoothyet-jarring wrap-up of “I Quit Girls,” Post-Nothing simply does not have any weak points. What the album does have are several stand-out tracks, including the infinitely catchy “Wet Hair,” with its id-centric focus on uncontrollable lust that is so intense it is impossible to listen to without getting caught up in the feeling. Other bands can be as innovative as Thomas Edison if they want, but sometimes all an album needs is a good dose of enthusiasm. Thankfully, Japandroids are more than willing to dole that out in spades.

—Todd Stevens

Mos Def — The Ecstatic

“You’re living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution / A time where there’s got to be a change,” begins The Ecstatic.

An intro featuring Malcolm X speaking at Oxford University finds Mos Def comfortable in his pre-established niche as a socially conscious rapper educated enough to rep with both hard and soft intellectuals.

From Black Star to Black on Both Sides, Mos consistently provoked more thought than dance parties. However, after Malcolm X fades to silence, a swirl of ambience leads into a searing guitar sample. From here on out, The Ecstatic still finds Mos Def in his comfort zone, only he takes a back seat to the vivid world surrounding him, letting the collateral damage of his exploding production strike all corners of creativity. “ Wa h i d ” finds Mos Def

backing strings that swirl around dense opening stanzas of relentless rhymes. “No Hay Nada Mas” flexes foreign muscle as Mos’ laid-back delivery blends together smooth Spanish.

“Worker’s Comp.” delivers reggaeinflected rhythms with contemporary orchestration, only to be followed by the anxious marimbas foreshadowing war on “Revelations.”

The production wanders from one distinct landscape to the next at a clip that doesn’t let the listener, nor Mos, grow comfortable in any one place. From Middle Eastern to African instrumentation, urban to Central American lyricisms, Mos Def guides a ride through rap culture many touch on, but not many can encapsulate, in 45 minutes and 16 songs.

If we’re lucky, Malcolm X’s quote will foreshadow an ambitious hip-hop revival that will mean no more scouring digital depths for genuine, meaningful hip-hop. Either way, Mos’ outburst of ingenuity on The Ecstatic provides guidance for those ambitious enough to continue to believe in hip-hop.

—Justin Stephani

arts

dailycardinal.com/arts

6 The debut from Girls, Album, commences with the retrospective “Lust for Life,” which traces singer/songwriter Christopher Owens’ reflection of his youth, singing about the lack of a “loving man” in his life with a devastating whine, “And maybe then I woulda turned out right / But now I’m just crazy, I’m totally mad / Yeah I’m just crazy, I’m fucked up in the head.” One

7 These days it seems you have to actually be saying something in order to be heard. Talking heads laud romantic comedies for their culturally insightful subtexts, and children’s cartoons earn merits for their life lessons and political correctness. And in all honesty, there are probably 40 albums just as good as Smith Westerns’ eponymous debut hidden in high school talent shows that actually say something, but

8 It has become extremely difficult to point out exactly where Bradford Cox’s strengths lie. Between his affective and disorienting work with post-punk noise-rockers, Deerhunter, and his spacey solo project, Atlas Sound, he has shown a breadth and dedication to his craft far beyond many of his contemporaries. His latest release under the pseudonym Atlas

9 Rappers always seem to deliver when you least expect it... Except for the Wu-Tang Clan, who have seemingly been living like gangsters for so long they can’t help but be authentic, offensive, crude and disturbing.

The best of them when he’s at his best? Raekwon.

With every member taking part (even ODB in sample form), it has the feel of a contemporary Wu album, and true to form, Raekwon

10 Although it might seem slightly eccentric to listen to traditional African music, The Very Best have jazzed it up in a way that makes it accessible to anyone smart enough to listen. Comprised of Malawi-born singer Esau Mwamwaya and DJ/ production duo Radioclit, each half of the collaboration brings to their debut album, Warm Heart of Africa, what they do best. The end result is an energizing pop-

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Girls — Album cannot help but draw connections to Owens’ obscure youth as a member of the Children of God cult and his straightforward lyrical expression.

He sings in a nasally, drowsy voice that carries his introspective lyrics of regret, heartbreak and thirst for a new love fittingly against a backdrop of appealingly simplistic music.

“Big Bad Mean Mother Fucker” is reminiscent of a California surf feel of the early ’60s, telling of their San Francisco origins. The album closes on an appropriately philosophical

note as Owens opens the song, “I was feeling so sad and alone / And I found a friend in the song that I’m singing,” vowing to the remedial powers of diving within the soul to write and compose music.

On the whole, Album finds credibility in its artistic integrity.

Girls never stray from the place they started: catchy and harmonious rock ’n’ roll that invites you into a world startlingly melancholy, yet alluring at the same time.

—Cole Wenzel

Smith Westerns — Smith Westerns what sets Smith Westerns apart is the way their grimy aesthetics and mucky presentation play off their unrelenting ebullience. Instead of airing grievances against overbearing principals or suffocating suburbs, Smith Westerns just take it as it comes, all the while wearing ear-toear, shit-eating grins.

Smith Westerns evoke a postmodernized bubblegum pop. They no longer “just wanna hold your hand,” but would rather shotgun beers and talk about Sonic Youth until the early morning. Their intentions aren’t triv-

ial, and their fresh-faced presentation even less so. Amidst rising activism and calls to action, “Boys are Fine” and “Tonight” stand out as critical triumphs for insouciant and irreverent endearment, and their impossibly catchy hooks can reel in even the heftiest of fish with ease.

A truly moving political statement can have transcendental importance, sure, but if Smith Westerns teach us anything, it’s that sometimes everyone just needs to take a minute to shut up and dance.

—Kyle Sparks

Atlas Sound — Logos Sounds, Logos, is the summation of a life full of disconnect, adventure and genuine gratitude. Opening track “The Light That Failed” begins as a soupy mess of loops, Cox’s voice rising up from the mess and beginning the coagulation into “An Orchid,” a track punctuated with noxiously lazy guitars and atmospheric vocals.

Logos is, at times, pronounced and sure of itself, as well as an amorphous canvas for the sonic whims of Cox. What Cox does so

well on Logos is seamlessly integrate electronics with the human element, each blip and reverb pang creating an ethereal blend of digital and analog. Not to mention the album features “Walkabout,” a four-minute romp through the world of unfulfilled expectations with Animal Collective member Noah Lennox, that could possibly be the smoothest, best-executed pop song of the year.

—Anthony Cefali

Raekwon — Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Part II and Ghostface Killah lead the way with their trademark storytelling.

Painting urban landscapes dreary and desperate on “Cold Outside,” “They found a two-year-old / Strangled to death / With a ‘Love Daddy’ shirt on in a bag at the top of the steps.” Reminiscing a criminal lifestyle, “Heroin stirrers, the crib, cracked mirrors / Career thugs who serve only judges and jurors / Got to make my money this year, whether it’s through rhyming or criming.”

And finally boasting about the fact that they have not lost a step over the course of 17 years on the most

accessible track, “New Wu.” Raekwon and friends yet again prove they still represent the grimiest lyricists and rawest deliveries in the game. In fact, the only thing holding Built for Cuban Linx... Pt. II from creeping up this list is that after almost two decades, fans have come to expect such quality. They’ve become presumptively stellar in a game that is presumptively phony on the surface; a compliment that should be startling, but following an album with Raekwon’s name on it, it just feels obvious.

—Justin Stephani

The Very Best — Warm Heart of Africa dance sound with intriguing cultural flair.

The album is made of elements both familiar and foreign, each melding beautifully with the others to create a sound listeners can recognize while still being introduced to music they hadn’t previously experienced. It’s a breath of fresh air, but one that’s so unfamiliar, it’s more intriguing than refreshing.

Adding further accessibility to the album’s sound, Warm Heart of Africa features guest artists M.I.A.

and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig. Koenig’s contribution to the album’s title track adds a playful sense to the song, one similar to Vampire Weekend’s own sound.

M.I.A., on the other hand, lends her talents to create an intensely rhythmic dance song.

This isn’t to say The Very Best cannot be enjoyed without mainstream artists, because they can. And it is for that reason why Warm Heart of Africa is one of the top albums of 2009.

—Jacqueline O’Reilly

Animal Collective — Merriweather Post Pavilion

January’s Merriweather Post Pavillion was touted as one of the best albums of the year since its release. Regarded as the most accessible Animal Collective album, early fans lamented its departure from the band’s earlier squirreliness and spontaneity.

Does the new-found hype reflect of the band’s earlier spirit?

Have Animal Collective changed?

We at The Daily Cardinal think not. MPP is just one progression in their catalog.

The emphasis is on growth and simplicity. “Daily Routine” is a gripping song about fatherhood, fully capturing the balance between altruistic paternity and selfish desires. “My Girls”

is a given classic, possibly one of the most heavily played songs of the year.

While not exactly the most wiley entry in Animal Collective’s catalogue, MPP brings their earlier work out into the fold and complements it with enhanced pop sensibilities.

—Ben Pierson

Fall Farewell Issue 2009

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place could not ask for a better listen.

The genuine vocals Hegarty empathize with listeners when they’re at their lowest. Why? Because Hegarty is right there with them.

On the whole, The Crying Light contains features that have compelled people to love music since the beginning of time: beautiful melodies, soulful vocals and effortless rhythms. It’s classic music done in a contemporary way. Perhaps now, when all of these contributing factors addressed, it’s clear one adjective can do The Crying Light a bit of justice: exquisite.

—Jacqueline O’Reilly

The Antlers — Hospice

Emotion is a tool that is so often overlooked by artists in modern music. Truth, longing, elation, disgust and the rest of the emotional gamut appear everywhere, but they usually exist somewhere below the music, taking secondary status to the rhythm and the melody. It isn’t often that a song comes along with as much genuine gut-wrenching pathos as a well-crafted drama, let alone an entire album. But that is exactly what you get with Hospice from the Antlers: an album that goes to such jarring, raw emotional depths that only the coldest of souls would fail to be affected by it.

But don’t be misled, Hospice isn’t

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of Veckatimest, it becomes clear each of these calm, peaceful tracks brings the depth to the table even if they’re not the first tracks to jump to mind. “Dory” in particular has a sorrowful whimsy to it that can be easy to pass over, but piques curiosity and invites repeated listens, much in part to the fact that it sounds like absolutely nothing else in indie rock. This sound would justify much of Veckatimest’s praise on its own, but even beyond that Grizzly Bear varies up the album just enough so those not in tune to the serenity of “Dory” can still fall in line with the stomping infectiousness of “While You Wait for the Others,” solidifying the album’s deserved high status.

—Todd Stevens

Antony and the Johnsons The Crying Light

There are a million adjectives that could be used to describe Antony and the Johnsons’ 2009 release, The Crying Light, none of which would do justice to the drama of the energy Antony Hegarty’s operatic falsetto and lush orchestration. But for lack of a better way of explaining the album’s intensity, they must be used: spellbinding, passionate, transfixing, compelling, striking; the list goes on and on.

The record is one of tremendous emotion, with many of its songs calling for a very particular state of mind, specifically extreme calm or sadness.

It is the most situational listen of the year for those located in a bit darker

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Grizzly Bear — Veckatimest

The much-hyped release of Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest could have led to abject failure. True, it got the band more attention than it has ever had, both critically and commercially, but all too often bands can collapse under the pressure of that good press, even if they put out a record that is good, but not great.

So it is just all the more impressive that Veckatimest stood up to such scrutiny and managed to impress everyone from hipsters to Beyonce and Jay-Z. At first listen, the album may seem frontloaded with leading songs “Southern Point” and “Two Weeks” segueing into more serene fare like “All We Ask.” But right around the time the album gets to “Dory,” perhaps the secret weapon

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some angsty late ’90s emo throwback album. The mental anguish of its tracks comes directly from its literary through-line detailing the story of a man watching a loved one slowly die of cancer. Yet at the same time, the Antlers make the whole account entirely relatable even for those who haven’t gone through similar experiences, as they paint in broad strokes recognizable to anybody who has ever watched something in their life fall apart while feeling helpless to do anything about it. Hospice is not easy to listen to by any means, but that difficulty makes it all the more worthwhile an experience.

—Todd Stevens

Yeah Yeah Yeahs — It’s Blitz!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs made me cooler in high school. After trudging through my freshman year listening to R.E.M. and Suzanne Vega, I remember reading about a new band on my friend’s LiveJournal—no joke. After picking up Fever to Tell a few weeks later, I was hooked.

Not only did Yeah Yeah Yeahs make me cooler, but I matured as they did.

From their unashamed riot grrl sensibility on Fever to Tell to their indierock debut on Show Your Bones, they nudged me along in my own painful ascendance to coolness.

This year, It’s Blitz! cut back on the latent self-consciousness of Show Your Bones without rejecting their new-

found cred as screeching dance track spinners. Similarly, I tried to cut back on some of my own self-consciousness and danced my ass off to “Zero” and “Heads Will Roll.”

It’s Blitz! showcases the best of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ musical spectrum.

The album reaches lonesome depths in songs like “Little Shadow” without sounding self-pitying, while heavier tracks like “Shame and Fortune” don’t get bogged down in cheap vamping.

2009 was good to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and It’s Blitz! showed they could bask in the success without letting their guard down.

—Emma Roller

Honorable Mention In alphabetical order: Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career Dan Auerbach - Keep it Hid Do Make Say Think - Other Truths Freddie Gibbs - The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs Future of the Left - Travels With Myself and Another John Vanderslice - Romanian Names Mastodon - Crack the Skye Micachu & the Shapes - Jewellery St. Vincent - Actor Look for additional coverage at dailycardinal.com/arts

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opinion dailycardinal.com/opinion

Fall Farewell Issue 2009

Ensuring justice

By Sarah Obernauer THE DAILY CARDINAL

If you’re familiar with the term “environmental justice,” you’ve likely heard it used in a technological context. Do phrases such as “e-waste,” “toxic components of electronics” or “developing nations” ring a bell?

If not, perhaps you heard economist and environmentalist Majora Carter speak at the Tales From Planet Earth film festival in November. She discussed the notion of environmental justice in relation to the South Bronx, in New York City.

But, for those who haven’t heard of this term, it can be best understood by learning what environmental injustice is. A former professor of mine gives a pretty good working definition: “the inequitable distribution of environmental burdens on low-income areas, minorities or developing nations.”

Factories, industrial waste, crime, garbage dumps, pollution—anything NIMBY (Not In My Backyard)— have a home in the world of environmental justice. What’s interesting is that those of us preaching NIMBY often get our way, leaving the less fortunate with a host of problems in their backyards.

Living on the isthmus, it is hard to recognize what environmental injustices harbor themselves in Madison.

In fact, the biggest injustices occur on the very lakes that give Madison its geographical nickname.

Much of the city’s population uses the lakes in some way, shape or form. For some, the lakes serve as a site of recreation—swimming, boating, ice skating, skiing or fishing.

Others simply enjoy gazing upon their beauty. For yet another portion of the population, the lakes and their inhabitants serve as a supplemental food source. Interacting with the landscape in a variety of ways can be a mutually beneficial relationship, except when human action proves toxic to the lake ecosystem.

According to research completed by the Madison Environmental Justice Organization (MEJO), contaminants such as mercury, PCBs, and pesticides are found within the Yahara lake system. These toxins are capable of accumulating in fish tissues and, when ingested by humans, can lead to long-term health problems.

MEJO data also demonstrates that the Yahara lakes are frequently used by Hmong and Southeast Asians, African Americans and Latino residents not, only for food, but also as a way to preserve important cultural traditions.

Can you see where this is going?

Efforts such as fish advisories have been implemented as a way to spread information about the potential hazards of consuming lake fish. However, these efforts are less likely to reach minority groups and lower-income residents, the ones perhaps most in need of the message.

If such efforts are successful in the future, what is a user of the lake to do with this newly gathered information?

The options are slim and seem to be a lose-lose scenario.

Option one is to continue using the surrounding resources as a source of food and cultural importance, but risk exposure to multiple toxins.

Option two is to let culture go by the wayside, let stomachs grumble for an evening and prevent some toxins from entering the body.

While this choice doesn’t affect many of us, there are members of the Madison community who find this to be a harsh reality. Though organizations such as MEJO exist, increased awareness and citizen involvement on all levels—local, national, and international—are the necessary components in creating an environmentally just world.

Sarah Obernauer is a senior majoring in communication arts with an environmental studies certificate. You can send all Green Room feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

Take a clean look at nuclear energy

By Rachel Slaybaugh THE DAILY CARDINAL

In 2007 Governor Jim Doyle created a task force to investigate how Wisconsin can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The task force identified short- and longterm goals and provided policy recommendations to achieve those goals. A variety of stakeholders, including environmental groups, utilities and citizen groups, participated and agreed to endorse the set of recommendations. This spring, Wisconsin lawmakers will debate the legislation that encompasses these policies. This legislation should be passed as a whole.

Recently there have been statements and articles in the news suggesting that some of the environmental groups that participated in the task force are withdrawing support of the part of the bill that deals with nuclear power plants.

Nuclear plants are very low-emission across their life cycle, and they are a safe, proven, existing, readyto-build technology. The reason the task force is proposing the nuclear legislation (and presumably that the environmental groups originally agreed to the recommendations) is “so that this option may be considered, among others, in the effort to meet the state’s emissions reduction goals over the long term.”

Why is it that only nuclear power is expected to be responsible enough to meet these requirements?

The new rules would make it easier to consider nuclear power plants but still require “the proposed nuclear plant must be built

to meet Wisconsin needs at a cost that is reasonable and advantageous to customers in comparison with available alternatives, taking account of emission reductions benefits,” and “the Public Service Commission must find the nuclear waste plan for the plant is economic, reasonable, stringent and in the public interest, given the safety and other risks presented by such waste.”

We should at least be able to talk about choosing low-emissions nuclear when evaluating the possibilities of how this electricity will be made.

These are great requirements, and nuclear should absolutely have to meet them. In fact, all electricity generation methods should have to meet them. It seems sensible to me that all sources should have to be economically reasonable and advantageous to customers and account for their waste. Why is it that only nuclear power is expected to be responsible enough to meet these requirements? The nuclear industry has always carefully tracked and accounted for its wastes. Had other generation forms been required to be responsible about their waste streams, e.g. coal CO2 emissions, we would have not needed this task force in the first place. I’m not suggesting nuclear should not meet these standards. I’m simply pointing out that other sources are not necessarily held to such high standards.

One of the strengths of the task force recommendations is the portfolio approach, focusing first on efficiency and conservation. The new rules about nuclear would only go into effect after the 25 percent renewable portfolio standards

by 2025 legislation have been enacted and a revised energy efficiency program is approved. The idea of focusing first on efficiency and later on nuclear makes perfect sense. A recent study detailing the costs of carbon abatement found that in general, efficiency measures were cost negative and nuclear was very close to cost neutral.

The Global Warming Task Force wants to make it easier to consider nuclear power plants because they recognize nuclear could be part of a cleaner energy future. Existing coal plants provide 65 to 70 percent of Wisconsin’s electricity, and we will eventually need to replace these plants. Electricity demand may grow in the future if, for example, we switch to an electricity-based vehicle fleet. This electricity must come from somewhere. We should at least be able to talk about choosing low-emissions nuclear when evaluating the possibilities for how this electricity will be made.

There are many reasons to make good choices about how electricity is generated—ocean acidification, air pollution, resource scarcity, energy security, climate change and general good stewardship of the environment.

We must conserve and increase efficiency. We must use more renewable electricity sources. It is fair to ask that all resources be comparatively advantageous for customers and to take care of their waste. The Global Warming Task Force legislation should be passed as a whole so all technologies will be available for solving our energy challenges while protecting the environment.

Rachel Slaybaugh is a Ph.D. student in nuclear engineering and a founder of UW Energy Hub. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author, and do not reflect the views of UW Energy Hub. You can send all feedback for the Green Room to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: WISPIRG essential to UW campus I was upset to read a recent Cardinal editorial depicting WISPIRG’s staffing infrastructure as a misuse of segregated fees. The editorial overlooked several important points, including WISPIRG’s history and methods of success and the nature of the segregated fee process in this university.

Having worked closely with WISPIRG, I have seen how well the organization is run and how its internal dynamics easily translate to student victories. One of the most important programs WISPIRG runs is its intern program. Interns often account for a majority of victories within the organization and are integrated into campaigns through the training and guidance provided by

staff. Without this program, which almost all student leaders within WISPIRG were once a part of, the organization would be left with little to no leaders and would be severely restricted in carrying out meaningful campaigns like Hunger and Homelessness, the Transportation Campaign and the Textbook Campaign. Since staff run the intern program, without them, the core of WISPIRG would be in trouble.

So why not just have a student do it? Well, for anyone who has ever participated in or observed the intern program in action, they would know that it is an extremely time-intensive and in-depth process (especially with nearly 100 interns). The reason the staff run the program is because they

are grassroots organizing experts and because they have the time to give interns the support and direction they need to succeed. WISPIRG would be hard-pressed to find a student who had the kind of time and commitment to fully invest in this program (much less find another one after the first student graduated). Despite the time and effort requirement of the intern program, it is only one duty, among many equally significant ones, that compose WISPIRG’s staff responsibilities.

Next, the segregated fee system is designed to invest student money in the programs that most benefit students. This has been a time-tested method on this campus and is one that is especially effective because it is

run by students. WISPIRG has been able to prove that a nonstudent staff is the most beneficial to the 42,000 students on this campus to the Student Service Finance Committee, contract advisory boards and even the chancellor. Thus, if students are most benefited by spending segregated fees on a professional staff, then that’s what should be done. By disputing this claim, one is disputing the foundation of our seg fee system: that students should decide how to spend students’ money for the maximum benefit of students.

Finally, you simply can’t argue with success. WISPIRG has been an installation of activism, student power and successful campaigning for decades.

Without WISPIRG, this campus would not be where it is today in social, environmental and economic progress. Staff are an integral part of that success and provide the sustainability that so many campus organizations lack. WISPIRG has clearly found a system that works, and that fact is not disputed by the chancellor, by the SSFC nor by the thousands of students who benefit from WISPIRG’s programs and campaigns.

—Jonah Zinn Chair Academic Affairs-ASM Student Labor Action Coalition

opinion dailycardinal.com/opinion

Fall Farewell Issue 2009

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Editorial Cartoon

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By John Liesveld opinion@dailycardinal.com

Cardinal View editorials represent The Daily Cardinal’s organizational opinion. Each editorial is crafted independent of news coverage.

keep student activism strong

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et’s admit something that has been fairly obvious for the past few months: this semester was pretty slow for news. Compare this to last fall, and there’s no presidential election, no new chancellor. There were no big local electoral races or campus decisions like last spring’s ASM constitution vote either. Overall, it was an incredibly boring time to be a politically involved Badger.

That’s one reason why we couldn’t be more impressed with this campus.

Even though this past semester may have lacked some of the sexier issues of past terms, student engagement and activism remained high, showing that the enthusiasm for 2008’s Obama campaign was no fluke. This semester students made their voices heard on a wealth of topics because the issues were important, even without a charismatic young leader throwing out buzzwords like “change” and “hope” at them.

The examples of student activism were bountiful this past semester, and every group involved should be proud. Granted, we recognize that statement is somewhat self-laudatory, considering this editorial board’s own involvement in the call for a student voting member on the Alcohol License Review Committee and the corresponding boycott of the Nitty Gritty. We recognize the role we played in the event, as well as the role of our colleagues at The Badger Herald (and we can say it was a pleasure to work with the Herald for once, as opposed to our usual battle for campus news supremacy).

However, it was a coalition of students that were really responsible for ultimately putting UWMadison student Mark Woulf into the student seat on the ALRC. Ald. Bryon Eagon, District 8 deserves a large portion of the credit for launching the issue in the first place and communicating the details of the cause to his student constituents, as does Woulf himself for his impressive work previously on the ALRC as a non-voting member. And all of the people who showed up at the Common Council vote, from members of the College Democrats to the College Republicans to almost the entire ASM Legislative Affairs Committee, helped show Madison’s leaders that students can have just as much of an impact

on city affairs as anybody.

But the ALRC was far from the only local issue that caught the eye of students. Students also had a sizable presence at the vote to approve the creation of the Regional Transit Authority. UWMadison is an integral part of the Dane County community, and it is good to see students taking an interest in a vote that could change the very shape of the Madison metro area in the years to come.

The examples of student activism were bountiful this past semester, and every group involved should be proud.

Of course, it is hard to talk about campus activism without mentioning the Student Labor Action Coalition. We have been critical of some of SLAC’s tactics in the past, as often their events seemed like nothing more than publicity stunts that added up to few concrete results.

But dating back to the university’s cancelation of its Russell Athletic contract in February, SLAC has been working as part of a national effort to get the apparel company to rehire over 1,000 Honduran workers, which it finally did just weeks ago. SLAC deserves credit where credit is due for its part in this achievement. Also, with Chancellor Biddy Martin recently reprimanding Nike for its labor issues, it appears the UW-Madison administration may finally start taking a principled stand for labor rights. While we may not agree with many of their cakesending and office-storming tactics, we do hope SLAC can continue to effectively fight for the workers of UW-Madison’s business partners.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of student activism this semester. We haven’t even touched on the groundswell of diversity discussions that raged on campus over the last few weeks. But we do feel the need to say that wherever student activism occurs, it needs to continue. Students are a force to be reckoned with, and with County Board elections nearing, now would be a terrible time to lose our voice. Let’s keep the momentum going, and make sure the student voice continues to echo across the isthmus.

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Send 3 samples to opinion@dailycardinal.com

by Dec. 31.

Key to education is knowledge

By James Meincke COLLEGE DEMOCRATS

As the semester comes to an end, many of us start to focus solely on our grades and GPAs. How will we get into grad school, or who will hire us with a low GPA? These concerns are legitimate, but for many this is our only concern. Students often view education as a stepping stone to getting a job when they often have no consideration for the subject matter of their classes. Has school become part of an equation that hopefully ends with a good job and a lot of money? Sadly enough, for many this is a reality and changes need to be made in order to maintain and strengthen the success of our nation.

There is a disconnect here: we compete for grades, not for knowledge.

The United States has always had reason to boast about its education. From the best universities in the world, to a public school system that gives many children the chance to succeed, citizens here have privileges most people in the world only dream of. But the education system has become so competitive for students that we care more about the result of a test than what we actually learn.

In this nation competition is often viewed as beneficial. If harnessed properly, competition can be useful in education, but many students have realized it is possible to do well on tests while learning little or nothing of real substance. There is a disconnect here: we compete for grades, not knowledge. This is why the United States has been slipping in international ranks. In 2003, UNICEF ranked the U.S. at 18 out of 24 nations in regard to effectiveness of our educational system, and performance continues to decline.

President Barack Obama nderstands the need to educate our nation’s youth. He addressed

the ever-important issue of K12 education during his visit to Madison, despite having bigger political fish to fry. He understands the need to invest in our future. Governor Jim Doyle and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett have staked huge amounts of political capital on the difficult task of fixing the Milwaukee Public School system. Democrats have been and continue to be incredibly committed to helping all American students succeed.

By working to provide all children with a solid education, we can efficiently and effectively reduce social ills like crime and poverty and help more of our fellow citizens achieve their own American dream.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we have world famous professors, stateof-the-art research facilities, an enormous variety of classes, and the freedom to study whatever we choose. But all too often we focus only on our degree and our individual classes become mere stepping stones to gain a higher goal.

Instead of enriching ourselves with knowledge, we do the bare minimum and take shortcuts to get our desired grade.

The truth is that the worldclass education we receive here could be extremely beneficial in the future. Our education should entail gaining an incredible wealth of knowledge that gives us perspective about the world and different ways of life.

And through a broad and diverse area of subjects, we can ultimately find where our interests

lie and how to use them to make a difference. In this view, education is meant to open our eyes to the rest of the world so we can learn where we fit in.

Our education should ential gaining an incredible wealth of knowledge that gives us perspective.

So with the semester coming to an end, ask yourself what you have learned. My hope for you is that the past three months have been more than just a stepping stone to a higher goal. In the midst of final exam stress, take some time to reflect on what you have learned and how it has changed your perspective.

Ultimately, I would hope that you would have a deeper knowledge of the world and a better view your life. If we can embrace education as a tool to learn more about this world, we can use it to better our lives and make lasting impacts in others.

Jamie Meincke is the communications chair of the college democrats. This is the final article by the Collge Democrats.

Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.

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sports

Fall Farewell Issue 2009

dailycardinal.com/sports

Badger Classics

The Top 5 Wisconsin Games of 2009

5 LORENZO ZEMELLA/CARDINAL FILE PHOTO

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Wisconsin Football vs. Minnesota, Oct. 3, 31-28 Wisconsin

Heading into the first ever Big Ten conference game at TCF Bank Stadium to take on 4-1 Minnesota, the undefeated Badgers still faced plenty of questions: When will John Clay develop into a reliable feature running back? How will quarterback Scott Tolzien fare in his first game away from Camp Randall? Can the Wisconsin defense stop Eric Decker and the proficient Gopher passing offense? After the first half, the answers to these questions weren’t very reassuring.

Tolzien threw one interception, but very well could have been thrown more as he struggled to find consistency. Clay couldn’t get past the Gopher defensive line and rushed for just 25 yards. To top it off, Decker made the Badger secondary look like a sieve and helped spot Minnesota to a 13-10 lead at halftime.

In the second half, everything changed.

In his signature half of the season, Clay bulldozed over the Gopher defense for 159 yards and two touchdowns and finished the game with a career-high 184 yards and

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three touchdowns.

Ironically, the Badger’s biggest run of the game came from Tolzien. With less than five minutes left and the Badgers up 24-21, the junior took a naked bootleg 47 yards down the field to set up Clay’s third touchdown to give Wisconsin a 10 point lead. Yet the game was far from over.

No stranger to close games, the Wisconsin defense gave up a quick score and the Gopher’s regained the ball with less than two minutes down just three points. A play after the Badgers allowed the Gophers to convert a fourth and 16 deep in Minnesota territory, senior defensive end O’Brien Schofield sacked and stripped quarterback Adam Weber and freshman linebacker Chris Borland pounced on the ball to end the game.

It wasn’t Wisconsin’s prettiest win of the year, but few were. Ultimately, clutch performances from key players helped retain Paul Bunyan’s axe for the Badgers.

—Justin Dean

Wisconsin Women’s Hockey vs. Mercyhurst, March 22, 5-0 Wisconsin

Considering the way the 2008-’09 Wisconsin women’s hockey team dominated their competition all season, there was only one way for the NCAA National Championship game in Boston to go. After handling the WCHA and the nation easily throughout the year, the Badgers capped off their near-perfect season with an impressive 5-0 win over Mercyhurst in the NCAA finals to claim the program’s third title.

Senior goaltender Jessie Vetter stopped 37 shots en route to her 14th shutout of the season and the 38th of her career, extending the NCAA shutout record she set earlier in the season. On the offensive side, the Badgers’ balanced threat was on display as five players scored Wisconsin’s five goals.

The game was the swan song for a historic class of six seniors who left the school truly on top, smashing records and claiming three national titles in four years. It is a testa-

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ment to the strength of the team that six of its members and head coach Mark Johnson were selected for the U.S. National Team that will play this February in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Despite the team’s early struggles this year, they appear to be reclaiming some of the swagger that led to their dominating performance in the NCAA title game.

Though they did not attract much attention from most Wisconsin fans, the women’s hockey program was certainly the strongest and most successful team at Wisconsin last year, and their victory in the NCAA finals was the last piece to their dream season.

—Nico Savidge

Wisconsin Men’s Hockey vs. New Hampshire, Oct. 31, 6-1 Wisconsin

You might think Halloween is not the ideal time for a hockey game.

But despite heading to a contest sandwiched between an afternoon football game at Camp Randall Stadium and a night on State Street, the crowd at the Kohl Center was electric and the Wisconsin men’s hockey team turned in a dominating 6-1 performance over perennial Hockey East power New Hampshire.

After skating a scoreless first period with the Wildcats, the Badgers exploded for three goals in a threeminute span early in the second.

Sophomore forward Jordy Mu r r a y started the barrage 2:54 into the period, and ended it exactly three minutes later with a beautiful breakaway goal.

Wisconsin continued to pour it on in the third period, getting goals from

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freshman defenseman John Ramage and senior forwards Sean Dolan and Michael Davies.

The win put an exclamation mark on a series that began with a 4-1 victory and saw Wisconsin outscore New Hampshire 10-2, earning its first sweep of the year.

The game stands as a microcosm of Wisconsin’s current campaign, showcasing a high-octane offense and the Badgers’ talented corps of defensemen. On this night the Badgers also got great play from junior goaltender Scott Gudmandson, who stopped twelve of the thirteen shots he faced, capping off the Wisconsin men’s hockey team’s best game of 2009.

—Parker Gabriel

ISABEL ÁLVAREZ/CARDINAL FILE PHOTO

Wisconsin Men’s Basketball vs. Florida State, March 20, 61-59 Wisconsin

To begin their 2009 NCAA tournament the 12th-seeded Badgers had their hands full when they drew the 5th-seeded Florida State Seminoles.

Wisconsin hovered around the bubble line as the conference tournaments ended and were one of the last atlarge bids to get it, usually not a g o o d formula for a first round victory.

Some saw the Badgers as an attractive upset pick but nobody gave Bo Ryan and his team a significant chance to eliminate Florida State.

DANNY MARCHEWKA Less than a CARDINAL FILE PHOTO week prior

to the game the Seminoles knocked off North Carolina, the eventual national champions, in the ACC tournament, and the Seminoles also suited up one of the most underrated guards in the country in Toney Douglas.

The Badgers’ chances shrunk even smaller when they found themselves down 31-19 at halftime after shooting just 28 percent. But behind 11 second half points from Jason Bohannon, including a 3 at the end of the shot clock with less than a minute in regulation, the Badgers managed to send the game to overtime.

Overtime went back and forth and with eight seconds remaining the Badgers had the ball, trailing by one point. Then, in one of the great moments in the tournament the Badgers cleared the lane and let Trevon Hughes do his thing. With Douglas guarding him Hughes drove, spun, was fouled, and flipped up a shot that banked off the glass and fell in to seal the upset win for the Badgers.

Even though Wisconsin lost in the next round, the win over Florida State proved what Badger fans already knew: You can never count out the Badgers and Ryan, even when chances are slim. It was a lesson fans would learn once again the next season against Duke.

—Nick Schmitt

Wisconsin Men’s Basketball vs. Duke, Dec. 2, 73-69 Wisconsin

In college sports, there are not many more exciting moments for fans than when their school brings in a prestigious non-conference opponent for a big home game. That’s exactly what Badger fans got when the Duke Blue Devils traveled up to Madison.

Wisconsin jumped out to a 12-5 lead to start the game and didn’t looked back.

Propelled by 26 points from Trevon Hughes and some clutch free-throw shooting and defense late in the game, the Badgers never trailed, holding on for the upset victory over the No. 6 Blue Devils.

The victory for the Badgers was a special one on multiple levels, with the most obvious being the fact that Wisconsin beat a program like Duke. Regardless of who is on the team, or even particularly how good the team is that year, a win over Duke is a signature victory the UW fans, players and coaching staff can

remember for the rest of their lives.

When one thinks about big college basketball victories, NCAA Tournament games will likely come to mind first. But there is something to be said about a big victory at home. The Duke victory was one thousands of fans could enjoy live, from the tip-off to the final buzzer.

The crowd made the most of the chance, bringing the noise volume to an ear-piercing level at numerous points in the game and of course rushing on to the court, creating an unforgettable memory for fans at the Kohl Center.

The icing on the cake was that the game helped secure an unexpected victory for the Big Ten in the Challenge, its first in the 11year history of the affair, and marked Duke’s loss in the challenge.

Wisconsin’s home win over No. 6 Duke this season should go down as its greatest regular season non-conference win ever.

—Scott Kellogg

KYLE BURSAW/CARDINAL FILE PHOTO

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basketball from page 20 teams, this Wisconsin basketball team could be in a very different place than they are now when students return.

The highlight of Wisconsin’s winter break schedule is a home game against No. 4 Purdue. The Boilermakers present perhaps the most experienced squad in the conference, as they return basically all contributing players from their last two seasons. Junior forward Robbie Hummel headlines this year’s Purdue game. Hummel was named the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year before last season but missed some time due to an injury. With a healthy Hummel, the Boilermakers bring an entirely new dimension in a player with both size and outside shooting ability.

Wisconsin will prepare diligently for Hummel, but it must also be aware of junior guard E’Twaun Moore, whose 16.6 points per game are a team high. And down low junior forward JaJuan Johnson will challenge the Badgers’ low post defense.

The Badgers’ greatest challenge of winter break may be a road game at Michigan State. The Spartans began the season No. 2 in the country, but losses to Florida and North Carolina have dropped MSU down to No. 12.

Nonetheless, the defending Big Ten

champions and last year’s national runner-up will be a handful.

Junior guard Kalin Lucas, the 2009-’10 Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year, leads the way for the Spartans, scoring 16.7 points per game.

The other ranked foe the Badgers face over the recess is No. 18 Ohio State, whom the Badgers face at home Dec. 31 and on the road Jan. 16.

The Buckeyes surged out of the gate this season to a 7-1 record, but the major plotline surrounding Ohio State is the nasty back injury junior forward Evan Turner suffered.

Turner had a scorching start to this season, scoring 18.5 points per game, pulling down 11.4 rebounds per game and dishing out 5.6 assists per game. Turner put up 20-plus points four times in his first eight games and recorded two triple-doubles, a feat not often seen in the college game.

Turner’s back injury will keep him out of the lineup for up to seven more weeks, meaning the standout forward will not play against the Badgers. The Buckeyes may turn to junior guards Jon Diebler and David Lighty for offensive production.

The Badgers also play two conference road games during the break, a Jan. 3 contest against Penn State and a Jan. 13 game at Northwestern.

Fall Farewell Issue 2009

2009 favorites of the fall 341 State Street

the students have voted.. here are the results...

Favorite Badger Football Player 1. John Clay 48% 2. Chris Maragos 19% 3. O’Brien Schofield 18%

Best Fall Movie Release 1. Where the Wild Things Are 33%

2. The Blind Side 3. New Moon

25% 19%

Favorite Football Pre-game Spot 1. House Party 74% 2. Engineering Mall 7% 3. Bar 6%

Music Album of the Fall

Favorite Place to Study 1. College Library 37% 2. Memorial Union 17% 3. Memorial Library 16%

Favorite New TV Show 1. Modern Family 22% 2. Glee 18% 3. The League 13% 4. The Jay Leno Show 11%

Favorite Workout Class @ the SERF

1. Jay-Z - Blueprint 3

2. Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster 3. Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon

27%

26% 11%

1. Zumba 2. Core Crunch 3. Yoga

29% 24% 21%

Favorite Fall 09 Performance

Best Dorm 1. Sellery 2. Ogg 3. Witte 4. Liz Waters

21% 18% 14% 11%

Most Overused Word or Phrase 1. FML 35% 2. Like 26% 16% 3. Coastie 4. Totes 10%

1.Third Eye Blind 2. Ludacris 3. Sean Kingston

37% 19% 18%

Favorite Form of Communication 1. Text Messaging 46% Saddest to See Leave...

2. Cell Phone Call 27% 1. Cafe Montmartre 32% 3. E-mail 8% 2. Ramhead Bar 23% 3. Madison Avenue 21% Favorite A-bar Food 4. Crave Lounge 17% 1. Ian’s 43% 2. Qdoba 16% Favorite Halloween Costumes 14% 3. Taco Bell Lady Gaga, The Mighty Ducks, Tel12% 4. Jin’s etubbies, Magic School Bus, Edward Cullen, KISS, The mom Bucky did, Favorite Beer Garden Facebook, Terrace Chairs, Operation, 1. State Street Brats 53% Swine Flu, the Geico money stack, 2. The Vintage 21% Green Man, ATT Rollover Minutes, 10% 3. Johnny O’s Rock, Paper and Scissors.

10% 4. Cabana Room Favorite Fall Weekend 1. Halloween 55% 2. UW Homecoming 17% 14% 3. Welcome Week Favorite Mode of Transportation 1. Walking 53% 2. Bus 18% 9% 3. Own Vehicle Construction Project Needed Most 1. Central Library 56% 2. Apts (Park & Regent) 13% 11% 3. Edgewater Hotel

Most Outrageous Facebook wallpost

“i wanted to make out with someone so badly last night i almost called you. seriously.”

“If I had a choice between breathing and loving you, I would use my last breath to say I love you” “Omg ridicilozxityyyyy and sooooo dranjjjkkkkyay msdison.”

“Remember that time you passed out and peed yourself, all while standing up? That was awesome.” “i am lady gaga?” “studying” “If you were born after 1990, there’s a 17 percent chance that Shawn Kemp is your biological father.”

Team to win this year’s Superbowl 1. Green Bay Packers 37% 2. Minnesota Vikings 18% 3. New Orleans Saints 10%

2009 PRIZE WINNERS

Paciugo Drinks for One Full Year - Katie Mioni Gelato ‘til You Graduate - Max Gelderman One Plane Ticket within the U.S. 48 - Meredith Dodd Winners, please call 608.262.8000 to redeem your prize

Thanks to everyone who participated!

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Fall Farewell Issue 2009

Football

Men’s Basketball

Badgers get ready for Big Ten season

By Scott Kellogg THE DAILY CARDINAL

While most students head to cars, buses and airports and head home for a relaxing winter break, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s season trudges on with three more nonconference

LORENZO ZEMELLA/CARDINAL FILE PHOTO

Chris Maragos and the Badgers fell to Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl last year but will try to do better at the same bowl in 2009.

Take Two: UW hopes for better bowl outcome

By Ben Breiner THE DAILY CARDINAL

When it comes to Wisconsin’s recent bowl trips, the company keeps changing, but the place always seems the same.

The No. 25 Badgers will wrap up their 2009 season with a secondstraight trip to the Champs Sports Bowl, this time drawing No. 15 Miami as an opponent. Last year Florida State cruised 42-13 over Wisconsin, which will be making its fourth trip to Orlando in five seasons.

That game helped set the tone for the Badgers’ bounce-back season. “[Last year’s bowl] really left a bad taste in our mouth. We really thought that we could play with them ... but they came out, and they opened the gate pretty wide on us,” senior safety Chris Maragos said. “The whole offseason we wanted to prepare, we wanted to make sure that wouldn’t happen again.”

Junior quarterback Scott Tolzien added the game last year was “quite frankly, embarrassing.”

This year’s game brings a dynamic Hurricane passing game centered around sophomore quarterback Jacory Harris and a deep group of talented receivers. Harris was one of the most prolific passers in the ACC with over 3,164 yards but has also thrown the nation’s most interceptions with 17.

Wisconsin will counter with a pass defense that ranked 10th in the Big Ten but kept Hawaii’s aerial attack under wraps in its last game.

“We’re going to face guys that are faster than we’ve seen all year,” Maragos said. “We really need to make sure that we’re playing, doing the things that we need to do and containing them.

That’s what we did well at Hawaii and that’s what we’re going to need to do here at Miami.”

Entering many bowls, the perception comes out that Big Ten teams are at a disadvantage in terms of speed, especially against southern opponents.

Few of the Badgers would disagree with that.

“The story line is going to be their speed, and it’s going to be a nice challenge for us, just in our preparation,” Tolzien said.

Wisconsin will try to answer that speed with the bruising power of John Clay, the Big Ten’s top rusher, but the Racine native could be in for a stiff challenge. Miami boasts one of the top 30 rushing defenses in the country and held ACC champion Georgia Tech to only 95 rushing yards, 212 below its season average.

Before the bowls decided which team to invite, most experts believed the Badgers would be playing in the Outback Bowl Jan. 1. That bowl, however, selected a Northwestern team that tied with the Badgers in the conference standings but finished with a worse overall record.

The team refused to look at getting passed over as a snub, instead focusing on the quality of their opponent.

“I’m not disappointed at all. I had a lot of fun down there last year, the Champs bowl treated us great,” sophomore wide receiver Nick Toon said. “Obviously the game didn’t turn out like we wanted it to, but [it] kind of gives us a chance to go back down there and do better.”

The last time the Badgers faced Miami came in 1989, when the ’Canes were a dynastic power and the Badgers were simply an afterthought.

Wisconsin scored the first three points at Camp Randall, and Miami piled on the final 51 to open a national championship season.

Despite the Hurricane mystique, the challenging game ahead and a return to the site of last season’s embarrassment, the Badgers are just excited about the chance to close the year with a 10th win against a strong team.

“Getting to and going to a bowl game number one and playing a good opponent, you can’t really ask for anything else,” Toon said.

games, followed by the beginning of its Big Ten schedule.

The Badgers, who dropped out of the top-25 rankings after splitting intrastate games with UW-Green Bay and Marquette, face Cal-Poly, UW-Milwaukee and Illinois-Chicago

before diving into their conference slate, where the importance of each game rises up a level. With six Big Ten contests before the first day of spring classes, including four against ranked basketball page 19