University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Thursday, September 27, 2018
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ICE arrests 83 people statewide last weekend By Sydney Widell ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
After an unexpected visit over the weekend, federal immigration officials arrested a total of 83 people in Wisconsin, 20 of which were in Dane County. Between Friday and Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents launched a “targeted enforcement” effort across the state. Some detainees remain in ICE custody pending their deportation, according to a press release from the agency Tuesday. “This operation targeted criminal aliens, public safety threats and individuals who have violated our immigration laws,” said Ricardo Wong, field director for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arm in Chicago. “Operations like this reflect the vital work our ERO officers do everyday to protect our communities, uphold public safety and protect the integrity of our immigration laws.” The majority of the detain-
ees are originally from Mexico, but others came from Columbia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Thailand and Vietnam. Of the 83 arrested, ICE reported half had criminal records. City officials and campus leaders have spoken out in the wake of the arrests. Madison Mayor Paul Soglin joined state Senators Tammy Baldwin and Mark Pocan in criticizing the way ICE made arrests, the conditions at their detention centers and the rhetoric they used to describe immigrants. “We speak collectively in calling these recent actions what they clearly are: racist and xenophobic,” Soglin said in a press release Wednesday. “We are heartbroken as we consider the plight of our Madison residents who were literally taken from their homes, their place of work or, in some cases, parking lots.” Soglin went on to echo
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GRAPHIC BY CHANNING SMITH
City officials called immagrent arrests by ICE “heartbreaking.”
GRAPHIC BY LAURA MAHONEY
Despite falling student voting rates, UW-Madison is taking steps to get more people to the polls.
Students, faculty combat dropping voter turnout By Hannah Filippo STAFF WRITER
Will a new wave of eligible college voters line up at the polls this voting season? Studies show that may be unlikely. UW-Madison student voter turnout was roughly 53 percent during the 2012 re-election of Barack Obama, but then dropped nearly 4 percent in the 2016 election of Donald Trump, according to data analyses by the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement. Though UW-Madison students voted more than the national average in 2012, they fell short of the average in 2016. Badgers make up a fraction of thousands of college students across the nation who don’t consistently show up at the polls. In fact, college students make up the lowest percentage of voters in the U.S. “Research shows that many young people have not yet made voting a regular habit,” UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said. “This is partly because young adulthood is a period of transition that often involves shifts in social
relationships and moving from one location to another.” Beth Alleman, an out-of-state student, found it difficult at first to vote in Madison. She formerly worked at an assisted living community and often encountered similar problems when guiding older residents through the election process. Alleman’s experiences motivated her to become Associated Students of Madison’s vote coordinator, where she works with UW-Madison to help make the voting process smoother. Alleman is also part of the League of Women’s Voters, an organization that encourages American women to take part in democracy. Alleman found that informing students in a nonpartisan, nonconfrontational manner effectively encourages voting. “Talking friend to friend, person to family [increases voting],” Alleman said. “That personal touch makes people more likely to vote than being told by someone on TV.” In her classes, she announces to students and faculty on how and where to vote, a step she said is easy
for anyone to take. She also suggests professors include an informational slide at the end of PowerPoints to further educate students. Student voters face unique obstacles, including being busy with school and confusion on how and where to register to vote when living in a new place. Students may also fall into the common belief that their “vote doesn’t matter.” However, UW-Madison consistently works to help students in the voting process and alleviate this stress. UW-Madison has joined two competitions since 2016 to further encourage student participation in democracy: the All In Campus Democracy Challenge and the Big Ten Voting Challenge. The Challenge is dedicated to “improving democratic engagement, increasing voter participation rates, and graduating students with a lifelong commitment to being informed and active citizens.” Forty-eight colleges and universities compete for seals and awards
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New campus initative works to recruit underrepresented university faculty, staff By Jenna Walters CAMPUS NEWS EDITOR
A new initiative meant to enhance the faculty recruitment process by attracting staff from underrepresented populations was introduced at the Faculty of Color reception Tuesday. Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced the Target of
Opportunity Program, which focuses on the hiring process and encourages department chairs and their deans to recruit faculty of different races, ethnicities and genders. “TOP adds new tools to the toolbox. Departments will play a much more active role in identifying people they’d like to
recruit,” Blank said. The program is meant to foster a more diverse faculty and support the university’s statement on diversity, which encourages the inclusion of identity, culture, background and experience, as well as status, ability and opinion. “Diversifying our faculty
is among my highest priorities,” said Sarah Mangelsdorf, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. TOP is an enhancement to the Faculty Diversity Initiative, which was created to provide salary support to encourage the hiring of a diverse faculty, supplement recruitment packages for new
faculty and encourage retention of faculty by supporting their research and teaching in areas related to diversity and inclusion. The new initiative will allow UW-Madison to invest their resources into the hiring process of underrepresented staff, as well as over the course of their careers at the university.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”