University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Thursday, April 19, 2018
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How new state laws adversely affect the planet this Earth Day
New course enrollment application to simplify registration By Lawrence Andrea CAMPUS NEWS EDITOR
Having trouble registering for classes? There is now an app to help with that. Course Search & Enroll, a new application found on Learn@ UW, aims to make the course enrollment process simple and stress-free by allowing students to complete enrollment tasks like choosing classes, scheduling and enrolling all in one place. Prior to the introduction of Course Search & Enroll, students used the Course Guide app to search for classes, the scheduling system to arrange a schedule and the Student Center to enroll. This was particularly challenging and stressful for first-year students, according to university officials. Wren Singer, director of undergraduate advising at UW-Madison, said advisors were spending a lot of time helping students use the tools they needed to enroll in courses rather than actually advising students on courses and future plans. In fact, an internal university survey found that advisors spent an average of 10 minutes of a 30-minute appointment explaining how to use the tools, according to University Registrar Scott Owczarek. “We really determined that, in order for advising to improve, we needed to improve this enroll-
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By Andy Goldstein STATE NEWS EDITOR
Sustainability Communications Director Nathan Jandl. UW-Madison won’t meet its goal of sustainability until it has zero waste, according to Wagner, with all items either being reused or recycled. A culture of sustainability on the UW-Madison campus, which involves reducing as much landfillbound waste as possible, also saves the university money. Despite the convenience of throwing things away, attempting to mitigate waste
As Earth Day approaches, many activists fear Wisconsin’s famous richness of natural resources is beginning to wane in the face of faltering environmental protections. During an especially busy legislative session, the state government approved a series of measures that could have a significant influence on the environmental regulatory landscape. “It’s no secret that the decision-makers have rolled back a number of core environmental protections in the last few years, and this session was no exception,” Amber Meyer Smith of Clean Wisconsin said, referencing recent changes to mining rules, water oversight and wetlands protections. “There does seem to be maybe a greater voice by industry that does prevail now versus in the past.” Last year, the Legislature approved the repeal of a longstanding “mining moratorium,” which formerly required any mining company to first prove it could operate for over
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CAMERON LANE -FLEHINGER/THE DAILY CARDINAL
UW-Madison emphasizes disposing items in the correct bins to inch toward campus sustainability goals.
Zero Waste
UW-Madison’s trash system strives toward sustainability goals By Erica Gelman SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Every Sunday — after a weekend of campus parties — the UW-Madison student organization Cleaning Up Campus picks up trash on Langdon Street. Each member of the crew usually collects two to three full grocery bags of trash, mostly beer cans. Throwing away trash, for many, is simple: Take what isn’t wanted or needed, toss it into a garbage can or onto the ground and leave without a second thought. “It’s so ingrained in our genera-
tion that you can throw away whatever you [don’t] want and then get a new one, and you don’t have to be responsible for [the old thing],” said Claire Clark, president of Cleaning Up Campus. What is thrown away isn’t always “trash.” Steve Wagner, communications director for UW-Madison Facilities Planning and Management, said trash is only what cannot be recycled, reused or composted. However, even a recyclable object, like an aluminum can, can be trash if it is not taken care of properly, according to Office of
Student council members less likely to engage in ‘respectful debate’ than they were last semester By Bremen Keasey STAFF WRITER
Over the course of the year, Associated Students of Madison members’ commitment to constructive and respectful debate has dropped by 17 percent, despite other improvements to the council, according to a recent survey. After a survey revealed a hostile student council climate last semester, the survey for this semester suggests the council has improved for the most part. ASM Student Council Chair Katrina Morrison initiated the survey to measure growth in council climate from the beginning to the end of the year. Morrison said this was particularly important after a 23rd session filled with controversy. “I wanted to get a better pic-
ture of what we were going into the beginning of the year with as far as attitudes and beliefs student council members had [about each other] and how that changed by the end of the year,” Morrison said. The survey revealed that after the spring session, council members trusted their fellow members more, felt they had more of a say in official ASM communication and could better communicate their role in council. However, members felt less committed to “participating in constructive and respectful debate.” Rep. Yogev Ben-Yitschak said that it surprised him to see the decrease in that commitment, especially because the overall ASM climate improved. He guessed that maybe people felt more comfortable passionately
disagreeing with others as the year progressed. “They maybe felt more comfortable in the amount of freedom they had to argue things rather than always being professional,” Ben-Yitschak said. Ben-Yitschak was also quick to point out that while the commitment to respectful debate went down, it is important to look at the survey results in context, saying that the session really did get better throughout the year. Morrison also agrees that there was overall improvement but hopes to see even more improvement in the next session. Morrison suggested implementing more team bonding activities outside of the student council meeting space. “By default, they’ll become more comfortable with one
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An internal ASM study revealed likelihood of “respectful debate” has dropped. another, they’ll trust one another and I think they’ll continue
to have a level of respect for one another,” Morrison said.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”