This semester at The Badger Herald’s News Island provided fodder for a newsie banter galore. The Multicultural Student Coalition drew near-record numbers of headlines in the paper, the infamous Mifflin Street Block Party took on a life of its own and the recall elections dominated state news.
And, from time to time, these stories tore at the hearts of the editors behind the desks. The hours that were poured into each story at times required us to reaffirm our prerogatives as objective beacons of news. Other times we had to shrug off the frustration of a story that refused to just go away already or a piece that needed an extended word count to allow a nuanced story to be fully realized.
Yet, as another semester comes to a close, we think it is only fair to reflect back on the people who made these stories possible and who defined the direction for the news section this semester. Some of them forced the news family to groan, grunt or roll our eyes, in our four semesters at the news team. But we’ve grown to a state of being in which we cannot help but smile when those familiar numbers pop up on our phones. Although neither of us will be leading the news team into the deep blue abyss that is next semester, we could not miss the chance to expound of some of the strange and controversial figures that will always hold a strange and somewhat embarrassing soft spot in our heart.
For our last article as official members of the news team, we’d like to share our top six campus characters – the people who have shaped the news section this semester.
Mayor Paul Soglin
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin has never been timid about getting his two cents in on just about any city issue.
Often adversely outspoken about issues students hold close, Soglin has managed to stir up a whole lot of mixed feelings among the student body and the Madison community.
Serving as a prominent voice against the Mifflin Street Block Party, the mayor’s face made its way to popular party t-shirts sporting his head in neon colors with a note reading “Sorry for Partying.”
Soglin urged students to take an active role in planning the event and vowed it was time for the 43-year-old annual party to end once and for all. Still, he eased up after this year’s event drew a smaller crowd that was overall better behaved. He has not offered up a firm stance on the future of the party.
The mayor also received grief from campus students after pushing a nuisance party ordinance that makes it easier for police officers to target house parties, but imposes greater risks on students caught hosting parties that are deemed to cause a public nuisance.
Members of the student government went head-to-head with Soglin and his team of city officials, arguing the legislation was an attack on students because of high fines and broad language.
Soglin eventually pushed the ordinance through City Council and officers cited the legislation while breaking up parties at the Mifflin Street Block Party.
The mayor’s most recent term in office – he’s currently in his third stint as mayor – was initially met with an anonymous “Soglin the Grouch” Twitter feed, which has since died as his name has fallen further out of headlines.
University of Wisconsin Dean Lori Berquam
Don’t go. Don’t go. Just don’t go.
Despite all the good work Berquam has brought to the University of Wisconsin campus, these are the words that could define her legacy.
Although previously a partially behind-the-scenes campus figure, there is not a student on campus – possibly not a student in the Midwest – who does not know who Berquam is today.
After her video debut advising students to “don’t go” to the Mifflin Street Block Party went viral, campus newspapers throughout the Midwest reported on the video that was, well, to put it mildly, unpopular.
Within hours of the video making its way through the student body, “don’t go” remixes swarmed Facebook and Twitter feeds, depicting Berquam’s message along with Mike Posern’s hip hop song “Please Don’t Go.”
While her video certainly had good intentions, it arguably only reinforced the community’s drive to attend the notorious event. Students donned party gear reading “Dean says don’t go, we say #YOLO,” in reference to a popular Twitter hashtag.
UW took down the original video several hours after it debuted, and Berquam issued an official statement saying the video might not have been in the best taste, but reminding students she had their best interest in mind and wanted them to have a safe Mifflin.
She’s still encouraging smart people to avoid doing stupid things.
Graeme Zielinski
The spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has arguably brought more character to our pages than any other source.
He is the living, breathing epitome of a political spokesperson. He hates Chicago sports teams, and his Twitter feed suggests abhorrence toward good old-fashioned fun.
Still, if there’s a political bandit on which we should keep a social media eye, it’s this guy. His followers are treated on a daily basis with magical glimpses into the ludicrousness Zielinski puts forward.
And, while some of his commentary is best suited off the pages, News Island has been sure to keep a running log of all its favorite Graeme quotes.
Throughout this semester, and certainly for semesters to come, Zielinski will remain a source favorite – after all, he really is the source equivalent of a teddy-graeme.
Scott Resnick
It has been a busy semester for campus-area Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8. Whether he was nabbing headlines for facilitating campus safety forums or engaging students in a community-wide conversation on the planning for the future of the Mifflin Street Block Party, Resnick was everywhere.
In serving as a representative for a predominantly student district, Resnick pushed to create additional lighting in campus neighborhoods that saw a rash of crimes, including on Spring Street and Frances Street. He voiced his opinions on changes to student bus routes. He was involved in efforts to mobilize student voters amid ever-shifting voter ID law provisions.
In a recent campus safety forum hosted by the Madison Police Department and city officials, Resnick expressed the need to execute large-scale changes in order to make the campus area safer for all.
“It takes more than just students locking their doors to create a safe community, and that’s what we’re striving toward,” he said at the forum.
His involvement in student issues even earned him the honor of being featured as the “Alder-Man” meme – a superhero saving Madison’s downtown area from certain destruction – on The Badger Herald’s opinion page. He lauded a Startup Weekend for Madison’s up-and-comers in business to convene and actually kept up with maintaining a city blog (and Twitter feed!) throughout the semester to keep his constituents in the loop with important city policy decisions.
With all of the fanfare, we have one question: Resnick for Congress?
MultiCultural Student Coalition
This semester’s Student Services Finance Committee deliberations over eligibility and later funding for the MultiCultural Student Coalition were wrought with frustration and open hostility as the months-long saga played out.
The trouble began with a missed deadline to file a waiver for budgets exceeding $250,000 and continued to snowball downhill, culminating in several protests hosted by the group and two unsuccessful appeals before the Student Judiciary. In meetings, MCSC staff and SSFC representatives griped over conflicting math about the breakdown for the organization’s direct services provided to students and whether the types of activities unique to the group’s mission fit the bylaws’ definition of a direct service.
With the issue at deadlock, MCSC sent a lengthy last appeal to Chancellor David Ward after the cycle’s budgets had been submitted for final approval. Highlights of the letter included decrying the process employed by the SSFC chair, SJ chief justice and University of Wisconsin professional staff as discriminatory and unfair, just for starters.
“Perhaps there is a relationship between the racist student government genocide against student of color organizations and the empowerment seized by the perpetrators of white racist hate,” the letter read.
Members also posited a lack of funding would cause hate crimes to skyrocket and made ample use of the word “corruption” to characterize the decision.
Ward sent the decision back to Student Council for a final decision, helping fuel the uncertainty on policy and allegations of biased decision-making that have typically plagued the body.
As the semester draws to a close with the funding dispute still unsettled, MCSC and SSFC will likely have to duke it out in the fall.
At least we will have front-row seats to the big show.
Allie Gardner
It was not a good semester to be chair of the Associated Students of Madison, and Allie Gardner was often at the heart of the controversial shitstorm.
Gardner took heat for getting arrested, along with other elected student representatives, at a United States Student Association protest on student loan debt outside lending firm Sallie Mae in Washington, D.C., March 26.
The Herald reported United Council of UW Students funded Gardner’s travel, but ASM Chief of Staff David Gardner, Rep. Libby Wick-Bander, SSFC Rep. Tia Nowack and Rep. Max Love received funding from the internal budget, which is directly funded through students’ segregated university fees. At least students did not pick up the tab for posting bail.
Another snafu during Gardner’s tenure was her vote to break the tie in Student Council’s eligibility hearing for MCSC, even though she had previously protested SSFC decisions alongside members of the group. Critics cried foul, but MCSC got eligibility (for the time being).
While it remains unclear what Gardner’s legacy will be from her tenure as chair, ASM certainly tested readers’ patience with debates mired in obscure policy and by endlessly crossing accepted protocol for civility in their meetings this semester.
It is a tough job for any student to do, but we were left with nothing to do beside use words like “embattled” and “tense” in our meeting story ledes and watch the Student Activities Center burn.
