Thursday, October 30, 2008 - The Daily Cardinal

How to fix some frighteningly fun food for your Halloween party FOOD

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Thursday, October 30, 2008

New Halloween bash on Mifflin riles officials By Abby Sears THE DAILY CARDINAL

City officials responded Wednesday to a student movement to combine elements of two of Madison’s biggest parties—Freakfest and the Mifflin Street Block Party—into one celebration for a Halloween block party on Mifflin Street Saturday. Joel Plant, aide to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, acknowledged the mayor’s office is aware of the effort, but stressed that no street-use permits have been taken out and any party on Mifflin Street Saturday is not an official city event. Ald. Eli Judge, District 8, said his biggest concern with having an unofficial party on Mifflin Street is the safety of attendees.

Judge said it takes months of preparations to create a glass-free zone and put protections in place to ensure student safety during the spring Mifflin Street Block Party. Floodlights and an increased police presence were even staples of preFreakfest Halloween on State Street. Judge said these amenities would be crucial to a safe night on Mifflin— which he described as one of the darkest streets downtown—but that they might not be available in light of a larger, official event. “I don’t see [police] having a whole lot of patience with this, especially with a lot of the police force being used on State Street to help cover [Freakfest],” Judge said. mifflin page 3

MATT RILEY/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Traffic detours, delays surrounding Freakfest on Saturday With Freakfest 2008 just a few days away, officials from the city and Frank Productions met Wednesday to present a traffic plan and event details for Saturday’s party. Madison Police Department Central District Captain Mary Schauf said approximately 200 police will be on hand both Friday and Saturday nights and an additional 45 to 50 officers

will implement a full traffic plan in the downtown area. The Capitol Loop will close around 6 p.m. Friday, and a portion of Gilman Street from University Avenue to Henry Street will close early Saturday for stage setups. Schauf said other side-street closures will go into effect around 5 or 5:30 p.m., but police will try to keep Johnson and Gorham Streets

open until about 6 p.m. As a general rule of thumb, Schauf urged people to utilize public transportation to avoid street closures and traffic delays. Joel Plant, aide to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said only 2,000 tickets out of the 50,000 allotted for the event have been sold so far, but the majority of sales are expected to occur Friday and Saturday.

For student veterans, Iraq war a central election issue By Abby Sears THE DAILY CARDINAL

LORENZO ZEMELLA/THE DAILY CARDINAL

Damon Williams, vice provost for diversity and climate, speaks to students at the Plan 2008 diversity open forum. Students voiced their opinions about steps the university should take to increase diversity on campus.

Plan 2008 meeting asks for student input on campus diversity By Estephany Escobar THE DAILY CARDINAL

With Plan 2008 coming to an end, UW-Madison students voiced their opinions and possible solutions to increase the diversity of the campus during a student forum Wednesday. Plan 2008 is a 10-year program created by the university to include more diversity on campus, but is coming to an end this year. The plan includes specific strategies to increase the enrollment, retention and graduation rates of students

of color in order to increase the education pipeline, financial aid, faculty and administration of color and improve the campus climate. “It is important that we have student voices as part of all the successes and the challenges that we face as part of the plan,” said Amandeep Kaur, executive staff member of the Multicultural Student Center. Kaur said conversations among students is key to the success of future endeavors. Kaur introduced keynote

speaker Damon Williams, UWMadison vice provost and chief officer for diversity and climate, who discussed Plan 2008’s successes and failures. Williams said the greatest thing the plan achieved was building pipeline programs that have academic outreach. “[Although] we have made incredible investments into access issues, equity issues and education issues in recent times, we diversity page 3

As a theater and drama major, UW-Madison senior Ricky Berlin spends much of his time working as a stage electrician, programming lighting fixtures to make for a perfect performance. But just three years ago, Berlin found himself center stage in a very different scene—as a member of the U.S. Army securing sites of suicide bombers in northeastern Iraq. “When you’re knee-deep in violence like that, it personifies the things that you see on the news and it makes you realize how bad things really are,” Berlin said. “It’s a lot more than just a 30-second news clip.” On a campus with about 500 student veterans, Berlin is just one of them who feels his civic duty extends beyond his tour of duty

overseas. With the presidential election rapidly approaching and the war in Iraq a particularly hotbutton issue, many student veterans are anxious to hit the polls and make their voices heard. After graduating from Marinette High School in Marinette, Wis., in 2001, Berlin joined the Army to help pay for college and served in the Iraq War for 14 months from 2004 to 2005. Berlin, now 26, said he aligns his political beliefs with those of the Democratic Party—an affiliation he proclaimed long before he experienced the war firsthand. “My political views [didn’t change after fighting in Iraq] because I was a Democrat before, but my outlook on life did,” Berlin said. After experiencing some of the most gruesome bloodshed of the Iraq war, Berlin said his beliefs about bringing the troops home intensified. He said he feels the United States is fighting cultural differences rather than making progress in stopping terrorism. “It’s my belief that what we’re doing over there is just killing a lot of people but not solving any problems,” he said. “Things didn’t change from the time I got there to the time I left.” veterans page 4

“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”