Phoning Home When Students Drink Dangerously, Parents Now Get a Call
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DISPATCHES Phoning Home When students drink dangerously, parents now get a call. The university has enlisted a times deal with alcohol and been mostly positive. In several new ally in its long-running drug overdoses that are, liter- cases, she says, excessive drink- struggle against student binge ally, matters of life and death.” ing was a manifestation of drinking: parents. By early October, twenty- other troubles, and by involving Beginning this fall, staff two parents had been notified, parents, Berquam’s office was members from University Hous- says Lori Berquam, interim able to put the student in touch ing and the Offices of the Dean dean of students, and feedback with additional help. of Students started contacting following those interactions has — John Lucas parents and guardians of underage students involved in serious drug and alcohol inci- Halloween Is Again Fright Night dents. The change applies only to serious incidents, such as WWW.MERLIN-NET.COM when a student is taken to a detoxification facility or local hospital for an overdose of alcohol or other drugs, or viola- tions that result in campus judi- cial sanctions. In such cases, staff members meet with the student and explain that par- “It’s not that we wouldn’t love ents will be informed. Most to have you attend the UW, but often, students are encouraged not under these circumstances. to make the initial contact. But when you graduate, come Some students regard the on back for grad school.” policy as an invasion of privacy that could discourage danger- — Chancellor John Wiley, ously intoxicated students from Two partiers recoil from pepper spray dispensed by Madison police in welcoming more than sixty seeking help. “If a parental riot gear to scatter the last Halloween revelers early Sunday morning. students from Tulane, the notification phone call or letter University of New Orleans, accomplishes anything at all,” For the fourth consecutive year, came to Madison for the holi- Xavier, Loyola, and Dillard who the Daily Cardinal wrote in a Madison’s Halloween party day weekend, died early Sun- enrolled for UW-Madison’s fall staff editorial, “it is to put the ended in chaos as police used day morning. The cause is semester after Hurricane Kat- most vulnerable students at pepper spray to disperse revel- under investigation, and police rina shut down their schools. greater risk.” ers who had massed on State are reluctant to say whether it But university officials say Street. The celebration is directly related to Halloween that they studied notification attracted record crowds, and celebrations. Another visitor, policies at other schools before though it avoided any major nineteen-year-old Nicholas enacting the change, and they violence or property damage, Giancana of St. Charles, Illinois, are confident the policy pro- Madison police are hesitant to suffered a serious head injury tects students and their privacy. call the weekend an unquali- after falling in a campus-area Ironically, the new policy comes fied success. neighborhood Sunday morn- in the same semester that the At its peak on the night of ing. He remains in critical con- 2,600 university was picked by the Saturday, October 29, the unof- dition as of press time. Number of access ports, located Princeton Review as the ficial Halloween bash drew Police added stadium light- in 130 campus buildings, that nation’s top party school, seventy thousand to eighty ing and snow fences on State will be created by next summer underscoring an image prob- thousand people, according to Street in hopes of preventing as part of UW-Madison’s devel- lem that administrators have Madison Police public informa- riots, which have taken place opment of a wireless network. been working to counter. tion officer Mike Hanson. the past three years. At two Currently, wireless access can be “We respect the independ- Record attendance contributed o’clock Sunday morning, a found in public areas, such as ence of our students and aim to to a record 468 arrests, most broadcast message instructed the unions, the libraries, and treat them as adults during alcohol related. partiers to leave the area, but some residence halls. their stay here on campus,” There were two more seri- police needed pepper spray to says Chancellor John D. Wiley ous incidents away from State disperse the remaining group MS’65, PhD’68. “However, Street. Adam Haese ’05, a of two thousand partiers. university staff members some- Chicago man who apparently — John Allen WINTER 2005 9 DISPATCHES Dollars and Sense A student group offers newcomers a lesson on passing the buck. One of the biggest stresses on “More than 50 percent of the Since the workshops began Q AND A college students isn’t grades, students have never even talked in 2001, more than four hun- Steven Fosdal deciding on a major, or getting to their family about how col- dred students have attended. into fights with roommates. lege is going to be paid for.” Those numbers will increase as Information technology spe- It’s money. At the workshops, students the program expands — with cialist by day, Argentine tango Especially now, when stu- pass on warnings, such as the financial support from the dancer by night. Such is the life dents carry their own credit Direct Selling Education Foun- of Steven Fosdal ’93, a com- cards and sign apartment dation — to other UW puter programmer at the Divi- leases as early as their campuses, as well as sion of Information Technology freshman year, living Madison Area Techni- and founder of the Madison away from home can cal College and St. Tango Society, which performs require a level of Xavier University in monthly at Union South. financial savvy that Chicago. FOCU$ Q: How did you get started many students just members also staff a in the tango scene? don’t have. And that’s counseling center at A: I first heard some Argentine why members of the the Office of Student music near Milwaukee. Eight Financial Occupations Financial Services, years ago, I signed up for a Club for University where they provide SPENCER WALTS class taught by a student, Students (FOCU$) use one-on-one consulta- where I learned the dance free pizza and prizes to tion to fifteen to twenty behind the music. I started to lure incoming freshmen to students each semester. get my biggest impulses to attend two-hour educational fact that making minimum Michael Gutter, an dance after participating in sessions on budgeting, renting, credit card payments usually assistant professor of consumer workshops at the Tango Nada and credit cards. does nothing to reduce the science, came up with the idea Mas Studios in Chicago. “I think money is more of a balance. The sessions also for Money Talk$ after conduct- taboo in our society than sex cover how to rent an apart- ing a small survey of students Q: It takes two to tango. is,” says Brandon Peterson ment and choose a roommate, on the UW campus. Who is your partner? ’04, MSx’06, one of the first which are critical skills for stu- “Sixteen percent of just a A: Krista Bultman, a physical undergraduate students to lead dents living away from home couple hundred kids that I hap- therapist at Meriter Hospital. the Money Talk$ workshops. for the first time. pened to get to were actually We didn’t meet through having signs of what we call tango. We have been friends ‘financial strain,’” he says. for more than ten years and “They were emotionally were friends as undergrads. Fired Up affected by their debt; they Together we started the Madi- Painting a nighttime were physically affected.” son Tango Society in 1998. sky with streaks of Money, and particularly fire, Miranda Knox Q: How often do dances to the beat of credit, is a mystery to many stu- JEFF MILLER you practice? music played by a dents because most Wisconsin A: On average, two hours a capoeira student high schools don’t offer any group on Library Mall day, three to four times a kind of personal-finance during Global Village, week. But sometimes five an event that show- instruction, says Gutter. He and hours a day, five times a week. cased international the School of Human Ecology student organizations are working with the Great Q: Do your colleagues and cultures. Knox, a Lakes Higher Education Guar- know you tango? Madison resident and anty Corporation to develop A: Yes, they do. Two of them an aspiring acupunc- turist, first learned a pilot personal finance course have even come to some of my about “fire poi,” or to be offered in schools this tango events. dancing with fire, spring. But parents also need during a visit to Thai- Q: Do you tango to provide a good example, land. The event was around the office? part of Wisconsin he says. It’s one thing to tell A: No. I don’t use any sort of Welcome, which students to use credit cards tango at my day job. There kicked off the semes- responsibly, he says, but “if really isn’t room. ter by introducing you’ve seen your own parents incoming students go on shopping sprees, what to college life and to each other. does responsible mean?” — Jenny Price ’96 10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES Silence Broken A Pakistani rape victim brings her story to UW-Madison. Washington Monthly magazine tabbed UW-Madison as the At seven o’clock on the last Fri- Network Against Abuse of nation’s top research univer- WWW.MERLIN-NET.COM day in October, Mukhtar Mai Human Rights (ANAA) in 2002 sity in a new guidebook that sat at a table in the Red Gym to draw attention to the seeks to measure “what col- and smiled shyly at the stand- oppression of women in her leges are doing for their coun- ing-room-only crowd.