SPRING FOOTBALL GAME PREVIEW INSIDE
Practice?! We’re talking about practice?! What to look for at the game and next season SPORTS University of Wisconsin-Madison
Complete campus coverage since 1892
l
l
Why Richard Leinenkugal would be ‘Weiss’ to enter the senate race soon OPINION
PAGE 5-8
dailycardinal.com
l
PAGE 10
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Record voter turnout denies Nat renovation The Daily Cardinal
Isabel álvarez/the daily cardinal
Students celebrate the Natatorium referendum results Wednesday.
ASM announces 17th session student council The Associated Students of Madison announced the members of the 17th student council session Wednesday, after the student body voted April 12-14. The election resulted in a small turnover from the 16th session, as several current members of ASM Student Council earned seats, including current Chair Tyler Junger, Vice Chair
Tom Templeton and Student Services Finance Chair Brandon Williams. Madison People Organizing for Wisconsin Educational Rights, a slate of ASM candidates who organized to address several issues relating to higher education, had 10 members elected out of three open posiasm page 3
With a record turnout, UW-Madison students voted against raising student-segregated fees to fund the proposed renovations for the Natatorium. The referendum failed 8,616 to 5,311, with a record 34.5 percent of the student body turning out to vote, according to an Associated Students of Madison press release. The proposal, which included renovations to the Natatorium’s weight and cardio rooms, as well as adding new basketball courts, a turf field and a running track, would have been funded partly by an increase in student segregated fees by about $54 a semester. Peter Rickman, co-president of the Teaching Assistants’ Association and member of No New Seg Fees—the organization pushing for students to vote down the Natatoriums referendum—said he was thrilled with the results. He said he feels the voter turnout shows that students care about the rising cost of education.
“Tonight’s results demonstrated going to have to step up and make what we’ve been saying all along, an investment for the future,” he and that’s that students don’t want said. new segregated fees,” he said. “We Although members of NatUp can’t afford new segregated fees at said they were disappointed with a time when our university needs the results, Jen Werwie, a first-year to be prioritizing its core education graduate student and NatUp memand academic mission.” elections page 3 Mike Bernatz, president of Yes (5311) No (8616) NatUp, the Student Vote 38.90% 61.10% group that Nat Referendum Voting Results pushed for the Natatorium renovations to 61.10% pass, said he believes students made the wrong decision 38.90% in this referendum. “In the next few years as these facilities continue to go u n a d d re s s e d and continue to get worse, people will realYes (5311) No (8616) ize that at some Graph by Natasha Soglin/the daily cardinal point someone’s Percentage of Vote
By Kelsey Gunderson
Mifflin Street Block Party, Library plans considered at neighborhood meeting
Preparing for Mifflin 2010
By Taylor Curley The Daily Cardinal
Lorenzo Zemella/Cardinal file photo
Permits for Mifflin Street Block Party poised for approval By Dan Tollefson The Daily Cardinal
The Madison Street Use Staff Commission discussed approving the permit for the annual Mifflin Street Block Party Monday. DCNY Pro, which sponsored the party in 2009 with the help of WSUM Student Radio, addressed the commission to review details of its street use application for the upcoming event this year. In its permit application, DCNY Pro presented an official event schedule, map and security plan. The commission also reviewed vending, traffic
and clean-up operations for the party. The party, which will be held Saturday, May 1 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., stretches from the 400 to 600 blocks of West Mifflin Street in addition to the 10 to 100 blocks of North Bassett Street and Bedford Street. In addition to the DJ stage introduced last year, this year’s event will also host another stage for live music from local artists. A new beer garden will also appear on the 400 block of West Mifflin Street to sell alcohol to partygoers over the age of 21. Cpt. Mary Schauf, Police Captain of the Madison Central District,
attended the meeting to offer insight into police presence at the party. Outside of minor scheduling changes, Schauf outlined plans for parking and security enforcement while the streets remain closed off. Last year, arrests and citations at the party dropped dramatically from previous years. According to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, most arrests in years prior resulted from open intoxicants, he said. Police seemed more accomodating in 2009 due to the official permits page 3
The Mifflin Street Block Party and Central Library plans were discussed Wednesday during the West Mifflin Street Neighborhood meeting. The city’s Common Council already approved two sponsors for the block party, as well as plans to block off Mifflin Street. Local music company DCNY Pro will accompany the UW-Madison’s own radio station WSUM as the sponsors. Among the two sponsors of the party, the plans also include implementing a beer garden on a former Planned Parenthood site. “This will cut down on the people filling the streets with no place to go,” said Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4. “It also opens up a location to legally consume beer; you won’t have to literally be in a house or a yard to drink.” Plans on the renovation of a new Central Library were also discussed during the meeting. The current plan is to remove everything out of the current library and remodel it on the same site, temporarily moving the circulation and books. Although the library board unanimously voted to accept Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s earlier plan to build a totally new library, the
proposal failed. “I feel very disappointed and let down,” Verveer said. “I was looking forward to a beautiful new structure on West Mifflin Street, but in reality I just don’t think it’s going to happen.” Verveer said the deterioration of the structure of the existing building is an issue, along with possible complications of the temporary move. “What the public doesn’t see in this building is more important than what they do see,” Verveer said, and said the falling plaster in the bathrooms was a “possible catastrophe’’ if the city waits much longer to go into construction. The Madison Plan Commission has already interviewed ten potential architects for the site, with the possible new structure occurring in one year. Also discussed at the meeting was the demolition of the former Plant Parenthood building, which will be replaced with a 33-unit apartment structure. A representative of the aparments, Jerry Connoly, said they do not own the building yet, and are in the initial stages of planning. The neighborhood group proposed having another meeting with renderings of the prospective apartment during the first week in May.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”