1. Campus safety
From Langdon Street Watch to the Guardian Angels—in downtown Madison, street justice is the newest trend in downtown safety.
The Guardian Angels recently announced they plan to increase their numbers in the Madison area to further support safety on the UW-Madison campus and the downtown as a whole.
Langdon Street Watch and other neighborhood watch programs, such as the Spring Street area watch, are proof that students plan to take campus safety into their own hands.
We commend students and other groups for making campus safety a priority, and further call on the City of Madison Police Department to work with students and use funds from the Downtown Safety Initiative to make the UW-Madison campus a safe place for students.
2. Ald. Eli Judge
This board endorsed Eli Judge for the 8th District of the Madison City Council because we felt he had more interest in serving the students that elected him than the political grandstanding that dogged the tenure of his predecessor, Austin King.
So far he has not disappointed.
Judge's first act on the council was to push through a law that protects students by making it harder for thieves to resell stolen textbooks.
But his decision not to act when he swore his oath to uphold the constitution really speaks to Judge's character. Judge refused to attach a statement to his oath of office, condemning the state's ill-conceived constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Despite working tirelessly to defeat the ban as a co-founder of Students for a Fair Wisconsin, Judge realized attaching a statement to the oath would set a dangerous precedent.
By doing nothing, Judged showed more respect for government than those of us in District 8 have seen for a while.
3. UW Athletics
The UW-Madison Athletic Department made many headlines this semester. The women's hockey team won a second consecutive national championship, while the men's basketball team topped the Associated Press' college rankings. Thanks to the great overall athletic prowess of the university, UW-Madison formerly ranked first in the Director's Cup standings, which measure overall athletic success.
The athletic department ended the semester on a bitter note for students denied season football tickets. The season ticket policy for men's basketball and hockey also drastically changed, eliminating the tradition of camping out for the best seats.
We congratulate the Athletic Department for their great successes this year, and call on them to tweak the season ticket policies so the hockey and basketball season tickets do not deny younger students from getting good seats and older students have easy access to football season tickets.
4. Virginia Tech
On April 16, 2007, Cho Seung-Hui went on a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech in both West Ambler Johnston Hall and Norris Hall. At the end of the day, 33 people were dead, including the shooter himself. Due to its sheer brutality and the high death toll, this event stands out as a tragedy to remember.
Following the outpouring of media coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings, there was a sense of uncertainty and fear as bomb threats occurred at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and UW-Lacrosse.
Here on campus, people questioned whether UW-Madison was equipped to deal with a comparable situation. The campus authorities reviewed security measures and the campus as a whole joined in the mourning process.
As bells rang at 11 a.m. on April 19 and candles lit up Library Mall on April 23, UW-Madison reflected a sense of compassion that was much needed in light of the media frenzy.
5. Annette Ziegler
Annette Ziegler emerged victorious in the most expensive state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin history this April. However, her image is now seriously tarnished.
After Ziegler failed to disclose conflicts of interests in numerous court cases, Ziegler denied there was any bias involved. Her opponent, Linda Clifford, attacked her heavily throughout the campaign, eventually eliciting a complaint from the state Ethics Board.
After her victory, Ziegler tried to get the state Supreme Court to block the complaint, but last week the court decided to allow the investigation. Now we are on the cusp of an investigation into one of the state's highest-ranking justices.
Whether Ziegler did anything wrong remains to be seen, but she has certainly made a name for herself. Within the next few months we will see the results of the investigation and Wisconsinites can determine if they made the right choice or not.
