After days of seeing her face on campus doors and watching news

broadcasts of her disappearance, the campus community gave a

collective sigh of relief Wednesday afternoon when the news broke

that Audrey Seiler was found alive.

“It spread like wildfire,” Austin Evans, ASM Student Council

president, said. “People are very relieved she is alive and is

doing well.”

Conversations about Seiler’s discovery buzzed throughout

libraries and in classrooms across the university as students

shared the news that their fellow student, who was missing for more

than four days, was discovered in a Madison marsh. Relief over

Seiler faded quickly, however, due to concerns about her kidnapper

still being on the loose.

“I’m happy she’s been found, and I’m just hoping the assailant

can be found,” said Jeevan Gnanam, a UW junior living next door to

Seiler at the Regent.

For Regent residents, worries that the kidnapper could possibly

have access to the apartment or even live at the Regent arose due

to police officials’ discovery of a car marked with a Regent

sticker near the site where Seiler was found.

“A lot of people feel it was a person from the Regent,” Gnanam

said, adding, however, that any hard news about the identity of the

kidnapper or details surrounding Seiler’s disappearance have been

hard to come by. “It doesn’t help there wasn’t any news from the

press conference.”

Throughout campus, some students are finding it hard to feel at

ease again, even though Seiler has been found.

“It’s nerve-racking,” Amy Unti, a UW junior, said. “[You] aren’t

getting any definite answers. Not having found out if this was an

isolated incident and not knowing if it could happen again is

really unsettling.”

Unti said the abduction of a fellow student hits close to home,

personally making her more aware of potential safety dangers. Yet,

although Seiler’s kidnapping has given UW a scare, Unti said it

also brought about a sense of community on the large campus as

students united over their shared concern for Seiler.

“I think this campus makes you subscribe to the idea that you

are just another number. But seeing everyone come together shows

you how close this campus can be,” Unti said.

More than 300 students volunteered to help find Seiler as part

of ASM’s coordinated search effort with area police. Austin Evans

said the enormous student outpouring of concern reveals how united

the university can become.

“People are so concerned about one another. [This] was a big

community-builder. It’s just unfortunate it took an abduction to do

it,” Evans said.

UW Dean of Students Luoluo Hong agreed that the student response

to the abduction was “amazing” as pockets of students became

concerned with the safety of Seiler, recognizing her as “one of

us.”

The university, which took charge in informing the student body

about Seiler’s disappearance and beginning the campus lookout

campaign for her whereabouts, has garnered a barrage of national

media attention as the entire country followed the saga of the

missing UW student. Hong said the story’s human-interest angle not

only brought the campus together but also had people around the

country worrying about the missing Madison 20-year-old.

“Folks have not had to be a part of the Madison campus or

community to have a response and feel our anguish,” Hong said.