University of Wisconsin-Madison
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UWPD defends Flock camera usage By Zoey Jiang ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department’s Chief of Police Brent Plisch spoke with University Committee members Monday about the presence of eight Flock Safety cameras on campus, addressing their privacy concerns. Plisch said the Flock cameras are only used for vehicle data and not tracking individuals. “There is no expectation of privacy for a vehicle, specifically people’s license plates, when it’s being operated on a public property,” Plisch said. Anyone can see that information, and it’s not protected information, he said. “If the vehicle was parked in a garage, there would be an expec-
tation of privacy.” UWPD operates eight Flock cameras around campus. “We were seeing a lot of talk about Flock being utilized for facial recognition technology,” Plisch said. “The cameras just don’t do that.” The Flock cameras are set to capture photos of the rear of vehicles because there’s more information from the rear, Plisch said. “There’s just no way to obtain facial recognition out front. It’s not a high enough quality image to do that.” Plisch said UWPD is constantly evaluating risks. “We believe we weighed the benefits of the risks and put in the appropriate safeguards.” One of those safeguards is no agency outside
the state of Wisconsin can utilize the data. “The things that we’ve done to limit exposure to our community is restricting to in-state agencies only. We have an audit trail to follow for every search that’s run utilizing our camera system,” Plisch said. Plisch mentioned how there are risks with any organization. “We put requests in with Flock. Could Flock violate that contract? Absolutely they could. But so could Workday. Workday could sell all employee information,” Plisch said. Workday is another widely used organization at UW-Madison. Plisch said UWPD limits access to data obtained from the cameras to nine members
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of the department. “There’s a process where our officers, if they’re investigating a case, have to submit a request to [use] Flock that’s reviewed by a supervisor before that search is ever done,” he said. Police officers in cities across the country, including Wisconsin cities like Appleton and Milwaukee, have been investigated for using Flock camera data to track and harass ex-partners. Plisch added that those searches are then audited, creating audit paths for every piece of data that’s run. “We have an audit path for every piece of data run. We can see everybody who runs data and comes through our system,” he said.
UW’s 3 provost finalists By Annika Bereny CAMPUS NEWS EDITOR
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Wisconsin Gymnastics Club invites all skill levels, from beginners to the next Simone Biles. By Haellie Opp SENIOR STAFF WRITER
In the early ‘90s, the University of Wisconsin cut a variety of varsity sports, including both men’s and women’s gymnastics. To make up for it, the Wisconsin Gymnastics Club formed in 2002. This year, the club boasts 100 members on their roster. Competing under the National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs (NAIGC), the club participates in meets throughout the spring. Becca Tran, Wisconsin Gymnastics Club president, has been in the sport since she was 2 years old. She competed throughout her childhood before quitting in high school. “I was thinking about how I missed it, [and] I want to get back to the events. So, I joined the club, and it was very fun to keep doing gymnastics, but also a great way to meet new people,” Tran said. Knowing she wanted to continue with gymnastics, Tran sought out the club from
the website. She said she was nervous as a freshman when joining, but everyone was “super welcoming.” “There was a very big range of skill levels too, which I thought was interesting,” Tran said. “There was no pressure on the gymnastic side, and it was a really good way for me to have made friends freshman year.” Wisconsin Gymnastics Club invites all skill levels to practices and competitions. They have a team composed of diverse skills. At the UW-Madison Student Organization Fair his freshman year, senior member Isaac Alvarez said the club got his attention while he was walking by their booth. “They said that I looked like a gymnast and [asked], ‘oh, did you ever do gymnastics?’ I [said] no, it always interested me, but there wasn’t an outlet or a program in my hometown for that. I thought that was pretty cool that it just kind of happened,” Alvarez said.
After a nine-month search to replace the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s second-highest academic official, three finalists — Anna Stenport, John Zumbrunnen and Charles Martinez Jr. — are presenting their visions for the future of campus this week. With Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin departing UW-Madison at the end of the semester, the next provost will play a key role in shaping campus policy during a transitional period for the university. Former UW-Madison Provost Charles Isbell Jr. announced his departure in June to become the president of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and vice president of the University of Illinois System. In the time since, a search-and-screen committee of 15 faculty members, staff and students has been working with executive search firm Isaacson, Miller to conduct the search. Now, they’ve narrowed the list down to just three finalists, including Interim Provost Zumbrennan, who are presenting on the largest challenges facing research institutions like UW-Madison and how they would approach solving them as provost.
Tran said she’s seen the club grow since her freshman year, where they were more focused on introducing students who had never done gymnastics before to the sport, instead of prospective returning gymnasts. “I think it’s kind of evolved to support both ends of that,” Tran said. “We are very supportive of members who have never done gymnastics before and would love to teach them everything, but we’re also very supportive of our members who want to be competitive and will give them the means that they need to succeed.” The club competes every spring semester, where they travel to other universities and compete with other gymnastics clubs. Each year, the team travels to nationals for a three-day meet where most club teams in the country compete at.
Anna Stenport - University of Georgia
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Stenport is the current dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia. She has been in this role since 2023 and also serves as a professor of Communication Studies. Before heading to Athens, she was the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the Rochester Institute of Technology from 2021-2023. From 2016-2021 she chaired the College of Languages at Georgia Institute of Technology and from 2005 to 2016 worked at UIUC, beginning as an associate professor and ending as the director of undergraduate research. She taught a multitude of subjects, including Comparative and World Literature, Media and Cinema, Scandinavian Studies, Theatre, and Gender and Women’s Studies while at Illinois.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”