Wisconsin, Long Rich in Water, Goodgood Toto Thethe Lastlast Ponders a New Era of Scarcity

WISCONSIN, LONG RICH IN WATER, GOODGOOD TOTO THETHE LASTLAST PONDERS A NEW ERA OF SCARCITY.

BY ERIK NESS IX DAYS BEFORE LABOR DAY, 9:50 A.M., and Dave Baker is already sweating through his work shirt. Today’s projected high is ninety-two degrees, and the asphalt at Noah’s Ark Water Park in Wisconsin Dells is quickly filling with cars, each one disgorging pilgrims robed in towels, anointed in sunscreen. Baker pilots his cart among the growing crowds with a task of singular impor- tance: prime the pump, turn the spigot, and keep the water flowing. Entering the Jungle Rapids pumphouse, he flies from power box DROP to flow valves as the array of pumps and filters and PVC thrums to life. He shimmies down a ladder through a hole in the floor and the sound DROP?? escalates. Then he’s gone, off to the next attraction. When the park is finally at flood stage — five million gallons in thrall to recreation — Baker shows off one of the six on-site wells that make it all work. It’s remarkably small; in fact, the moving parts for “America’s Biggest Water Park” probably wouldn’t fill an average house. Shear away the scaffolding and its filigree of turquoise fiberglass and you’re left with six holes, twelve inches wide and 150 feet deep. It’s a testament to the simplicity of the formula: water plus gravity equals fun plus profit. I put my hand on the wellhead to feel the water surging within and ask Baker if he believes anyone at the park really thinks about where all this liquid refreshment comes from. “No, not really,” he replies. After all, what’s to think about? Wisconsin is seriously wet, with ample coast- line along both the mighty Mississippi and two Great Lakes, a bounty of fifteen thousand inland lakes, thousands of riparian miles, endless soggy acres. What we know about drought you could scribble on a Dells postcard and send to Denver or Los Angeles, signed Alfred E. Newman: “What, me worry?” “It’s when you’re most complacent that you’re most vulnerable,” warns Curt Meine MS’83, PhD’88 of the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters. For the better part of two years, Meine, along with his colleagues, Michael Strigel MS’94 and Shaili Pfeiffer MS’01, has helped shepherd a statewide brainstorm called Waters of Wisconsin (WOW). Guided by an all-star committee, including five UW-Madison faculty members and ten alumni, the ongoing process has involved thousands of citizens, and is painting a portrait of both promise and peril

for the state’s storied waters.

WINTER 2003 23 DON FARRALL/PHOTODISC PHOTODISC COLLECTION At the foundation is the public trust settler of the region who, among other a great underground sponge now filled doctrine embedded in the state’s consti- things, harnessed the local water power, with billions of gallons of fresh water. tution, which protects all navigable Mount Simon is the barest geological “It’s a wonderful aquifer,” says Ken waters for the public. This protection has hint of a massive sandstone formation Bradbury PhD’82, hydrogeologist for been fortified through 150 years of case that underlies much of the Midwest. The the Wisconsin Geological and Natural law, and extends even to scenic beauty. rock is ancient, dating back some five History Survey, part of UW Extension. Beyond oft-cited Aldo Leopold ’36, hundred million years to the Cambrian “It’s a thick sequence of sandstones that John Muir x1863, and Gaylord Nelson days of the early Paleozoic Era. What we are very porous, very permeable, and ’42, Wisconsin is also the birthplace of now call Wisconsin was located in more very extensive.” Ranging from eight limnology, or lake science, in the United tropical climes, a shallow, coral-filled hundred to two thousand feet thick, it is States. The first limnology class was sea lapping sandy beaches and bays. hundreds, even thousands, of years old, taught in 1900 at the UW and, by some Time passed: Cambrian to Ordovician and there is a lot of it. Indeed, if you One of WOW’s more symbolic That’s fifty liters — five for drinking, ten • Florida, Alabama, and Georgia fight measures, Lake Mendota is the most to Silurian, Paleozoic to Mesozoic to brought all of Wisconsin’s groundwater achievements was prodding officials for preparing food, fifteen for bathing, over allocation of the Chattahoochee studied lake in the world. Appleton gen- Cenozoic. The sandy sea bottom was to the surface, it would cover the entire into declaring 2003 the Year of Water in and twenty for sanitation and hygiene. River. Virginia and Maryland bicker erated the world’s first electricity from gradually covered and compressed into state to a depth of 103 feet. Wisconsin, coinciding with the United Still, millions of people in countries such over the Potomac. falling water. The Coon Valley watershed sandstone. In some ways, it’s still a sea, Nations’s International Year of Fresh- as Gambia, Haiti, Somalia, Mali, and • Water-short California, which in southwestern Wisconsin pioneered soil water. But no proclamation can match Cambodia get by on fewer than three produces about half of the nation’s conservation. State management of flood- the power unveiled when the rain won’t gallons daily. Me, I’ve used about fifty produce, lost 15 percent of its yearly plains, lake cleanup, groundwater quality, “We have a train wreck coming in just a few years in some fall. Noah’s Ark may live by deluge, but gallons today, counting the laundry, Colorado River allocation when it and surface water are all national models. JEFF MILLER elsewhere in the Dells, the grass is a sere dishes, cooking dinner, a shower, and failed to meet a negotiation deadline. And Wisconsin was the only state to portions of Wisconsin. In the Fox Valley, in Waukesha, brown. It barely rained in August, and our low-flush toilet. A dairy cow needs • New York City holds its breath as a enact additional wetland protections fol- we’re running out of groundwater. Thankfully, in 75 percent many farms in the southern part of the thirteen to fifty gallons daily, depending long overdue third tunnel designed to lowing a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court deci- state are officially in drought. The Wis- on her output. The manufacture of a safeguard its ancient supply lines is sion that opened 20 percent of previously of the state that problem is many years away. However, the consin is more a river of sand than water. silicon wafer requires three thousand. years behind schedule. protected wetlands for development. general water quality challenges are immense.” Lake Michigan’s shoreline is approach- If you live in Wisconsin, or some- Sitting lakeside with UW planning Despite this foundation of leadership, ing historic lows. Waukesha’s water is place else where thirst is not yet an issue, professor Stephen Born MS’68, PhD’70, precedent, and law, water policy in Wis- radioactive, and a rancorous state legisla- consider yourself lucky. Worldwide: the world doesn’t seem quite so dry. A consin resembles Frankenstein: many ture is slated to draw up new groundwa- • 1.1 billion people do not have access river rat by vocation and avocation, Born working parts, and a few areas of mon- ter legislation this fall. to potable water. is approaching retirement with a fixed strous dysfunction. For example, despite Scarcity is an unsettling notion in • 2.4 billion people do not have gaze on the mating habits of those aquatic consumption advisories for hundreds of a state where water has always been adequate sanitation facilities. insects favored by trout. What keeps state fisheries, the state has been unable taken for granted. But for the foresee- • Water-borne diseases fill half of all him in the classroom is a desire to help to regulate mercury emissions. Todd able future, it’s the dominant paradigm hospital beds and kill one child every revamp the state’s outlook on water. With Ambs, who ran the environmental in most of the world. Water can both eight seconds. some interference from a cool Terrace advocacy group River Alliance before create and destroy; the wisdom to • Those of us in rich countries use ten breeze, Born relaxes into his pipe, and taking on the water division of the state’s benefit from its power comes only from times more water than citizens of pops the bubble: “We’re coming to a time Department of Natural Resources under following its course. poor nations, who often pay rates when — even in wet climates — we’re Governor Jim Doyle ’67, sees the faults “With water, there are always new ten times higher. going to have to start looking at urban in glaring relief. connections,” says Meine. “You can These problems are not expected water management,” he warns. “We’re “We have a train wreck coming in never fully account for them all, know to get better. As a report by the BBC going to have to give much more atten- just a few years in some portions of about them all, or predict them all. You recently put it, “The present is dire: the tion to conservation, to recycling, to aug- Wisconsin,” he says. “In the Fox Valley, can’t deal with water issues in isolation.” future looks so grim it must be entirely mentation of flows. We can’t talk about in Waukesha, we’re running out of unmanageable.” managing groundwater without talking groundwater. Thankfully, in 75 percent Water issues in the United States about managing surface water, and of the state that problem is many years WATERMARKS aren’t yet that grim, but water is clearly quantity is related to quality, and pretty away. However, the general water The next time you flush an old toilet — becoming a high-profile concern in soon it becomes a conundrum, because quality challenges are immense.” the kind that flushes with authority — many places: everything is connected to everything consider that you’ve just used up all the • The East is coming out of a major else. But how the hell do you manage it?” water that the World Health Organiza- drought, while the already arid It’s a question that has vexed many. GROUNDED tion says you need for the day. The UN West has been over-dry for nearly Wisconsin offers a good example of how Just outside of Eau Claire, the sandstone is a little more generous, allowing an a decade. July was the hottest and even abundance requires stewardship, face of Mount Simon rises nonchalantly absolute daily minimum of 13.2 gallons. driest in the Southwest in 109 years. forethought, investment, and innovation. above the river. Named after an early

24 ON WISCONSIN WINTER 2003 25 PHOTODISC COLLECTION(2)

An illustration: Last year Wisconsin its Ice Mountain label. The first site prof- and of itself,” he says. “It’s a tip of an approved some of the strictest runoff fered by state development officials was iceberg that speaks to the inadequacy standards in the country, and has begun just downstream from the Mecan Springs in how we manage groundwater.” to invest $65 million annually for ten Natural Area, which the DNR had been To effectively make decisions in the years to meet those standards. But given safeguarding for years. When word future, he says, the state needs a larger current growth patterns — the location, leaked out, the reaction was strongly framework that recognizes all of Wiscon- housing density, and design of new negative, and Perrier wisely backed off. sin’s waters as a complete system. “Not development — that $650 million invest- Hundreds of other wells of similar capac- just an ecological system,” he explains, ment will only maintain water quality. ity already operate in Wisconsin, but by “but a competing system of users, a com- If a currently besieged smart-growth law the time Perrier was through studying Big peting system of values, with people as gets fully implemented, then the state Spring in Adams County, the opposition part of the equation. The complexity is might see gains in water quality. was intense enough to scare the company such that you can’t solve the problems Individual homeowners may be to Michigan. without dealing with it as an integrated This might seem an endless supply, the temptation: over the horizon lies a with the even more troublesome quagga able to do more to alleviate the problem Perrier essentially became a scape- system. How can we fashion our institu- but in southeast Wisconsin, it’s being full 20 percent of the world’s usable mussel now advancing in Lake Michi- just by changing the way they garden. goat, a victim of our failure to compre- tions, our rules, our policies, to address drained faster than the rain can replace freshwater. There’s just one problem: gan. Every time a powerful new species “Everything is landscaped to move water hensively manage water, argues planning these kinds of complex questions?” it. Groundwater levels have dropped Waukesha drains to the Mississippi, not washes through the lakes, it rebuilds off of somebody’s lot as quickly as possi- professor Born. “Perrier is not an issue in four hundred to five hundred feet during the Great Lakes. Under the Great Lakes them in its own image. Continued on page 62 ble,” says Nancy Frank ’77, a green the last century, and are now declining charter of 1985, the pipeline must be “They completely change the flow infrastructure specialist at UW-Milwau- six to seven feet a year. The deeper a well approved by the governors of eight lake of energy, the flow of food, the flow of kee. If people started to see the value of As big as they are — it takes 191 years for Lake Superior to goes, the more expensive it is to pump. states and two Canadian provinces, contaminants,” says Andren. keeping some or all of that water on site, And Waukesha and nearly fifty other who must sign off on diversions of five As big as they are — it takes 191 replace its water, and ninety-nine years for Lake Michigan — the they might begin to realize how water Wisconsin communities have discovered million gallons or more. A significant years for Lake Superior to replace its and land are intertwined. Great Lakes are vulnerable to the smallest things: the “just-in- another cost: the deepest reaches of the amendment to the charter, called Annex water, and ninety-nine years for Lake “For too long it’s been hidden, [so] aquifer contain dangerously high quanti- 2001, is not complete, but it is expected Michigan — the Great Lakes are vulner- case” fertilizer we put on our crops and lawns, where we pile our we don’t see the connection immedi- ties of dissolved radium. The Environ- to require review of even smaller diver- able to the smallest things: the “just-in- ately,” Frank says. “We see these grates leaves ... no matter how small these actions ... it all adds up. mental Protection Agency has ordered sions, and that significant withdrawals case” fertilizer we put on our crops and in the street, and we know that the rain the city to clean up its water. be accompanied by offsetting ecological lawns, where we pile our leaves. That’s water goes down the grate, but then we According to Ambs, warped market restoration. because no matter how small these have no idea where it goes.” signals help drive this emerging ground- Waukesha’s proposal was met with actions, your neighbors are probably water crisis: the more water that utilities outrage in Milwaukee, where the average doing them, too, and it all adds up. This pump, the more revenue they generate. citizen is already wondering about the pollution is called non-point, because A TALE OF “This is a fundamental flaw in an age of state of the lakes. Summer beach closings instead of one big, bad pipe, the pollution increasingly scarce resources,” he argues. weigh heavily, as do low lake levels. comes from everywhere. TWOCONFLICTS “It’s not an acute disaster. It’s an Anders Andren, director of UW-Madi- “Our next big, big water-quality Two particular battles shed light on the incremental disaster,” adds Bradbury. son’s Sea Grant Institute, says levels are problem is to try to get some handle on politics of Wisconsin’s water. In 1985, the “It’s been pretty much every city and vil- cyclical, and beyond our control. Indeed, [this] problem,” says Andren. “That’s U.S. Army Corps of Engineers extended lage out for itself, and that’s not a very during the last four thousand years, the really difficult, because we have to make regulatory protection to so-called iso- efficient way to use the aquifer. The wells lakes have been as much as eighteen feet some painful changes in agriculture and lated wetlands, arguing that even if they are sited for all the wrong reasons: where higher and perhaps fourteen feet lower. in the way we keep our lawns.” But if did not drain into a larger system, they the city happens to be able to buy some “We cannot really change the water levels we don’t, he warns, the same problems were connected by the migratory birds land, where the city is planning to grow, in any meaningful way,” he says. that plague smaller lakes like Mendota that used them. In January 2001, the and where the boundary is — none of The good news in the Great Lakes is — algal blooms, some of them even U.S. Supreme Court struck down this which has anything to do with the that the toxic problems of the past are toxic — could bedevil Lake Michigan. additional protection, opening an esti- hydraulics of groundwater.” Regional abating. What remains are primarily Non-point pollution is both behav- mated one million acres of wetlands to groundwater management, used in legacy pollutants, leaching from forty- ioral and systemic: it’s not only how you development in Wisconsin alone. Though Florida to prevent saltwater encroach- one so-called areas of concern, such as take care of your yard, but where it is, developers took quick advantage, conser- ment, could optimize water use, save the lode of PCBs in the Fox River and how big it is, and how well your commu- vationists of every stripe swung into money, and improve everybody’s water Green Bay. nity was designed to accommodate the action. Within four months, both houses quality, he says. Of more urgent concern, says water that flows off asphalt and rooftops. of the legislature acted unanimously to But Waukesha has rejected this Andren, is the establishment of more “To take care of water, you’ve got to protect these wetlands in Wisconsin. approach, asking instead for a pipeline than 160 invasive species in the basin. take care of land use,” says DNR’s Todd This kind of consensus was conspicu- to Lake Michigan to draw twenty In this game of ecological musical chairs, Ambs, referring to sprawl. “It really is all ously absent when Perrier came prospect- million gallons a day. It’s easy to see the zebra mussel is already old news, connected.” ing for a new source of spring water for

26 ON WISCONSIN WINTER 2003 27 Good to the Last Drop? facilities may cost as much as $1 trillion In dry country, rain is usually this Continued from page 27 during the next two decades, according kind of metamorphic event, as practically Regionalism is the only thing that to the Environmental Protection Agency. every living thing crowds through the can work, Born argues. “It’s like having window of opportunity and excess. Here a problem in a marriage, and saying, in Wisconsin, the land of exuberant ’I’m going to deal with it by myself,’ ” AFTER THE RAIN waterparks and fifteen thousand lakes, he laughs. The solution isn’t necessarily The rain finally began to fall in southern it felt like that kind of rain, signaling a centralization and top-down decision- Wisconsin in mid-September, bringing change beyond the weekend forecast. making, he says, but “finding ways of more than four inches during a single But did it change how we think about coordinating, communicating, resolving weekend — although, even with that, water? Follow the water, and it will conflicts so that we can share both the rainfall for the year was still be below provide new answers. bounty and the dilemmas. normal. Friends, neighbors, and “You’re always synthesizing with “Conflict management is ultimately strangers all talked about the rain, and water because you’re drawing connec- the key to water management.” people walked the streets without slick- tions,” says the Wisconsin Academy’s In an era of fiscal drought, it doesn’t ers or umbrellas. More than once, I went Curt Meine. “Can we find a new way help that water will be more expensive. outside, raised my face to the sky, and to do things? Can we find a way to Since 1997, budget fights and shortfalls let the water wash away the worry. I felt break out of the political battles of recent have taken 50 percent of the general- a palpable weight lift from my heart, years? We have huge resources of people fund money used to enforce state water knowing I could relax about our trees, and scientific information. Can we bring laws, even as regulatory tasks have our potatoes, our lawns, and the stagnant the best science in the state to bear?” grown to include the 1996 revision of Yahara River. Within twenty-four hours the federal Safe Drinking Water Act after the rain, everything shifted three Erik Ness lives in Madison, not far from the Yahara River. and new state stormwater standards. shades deeper into green, and the sound He writes about environment and science for Discover, Additionally, the nationwide repair or of the leaves rustling in the wind took on Preservation, Wisconsin Trails, and Isthmus. replacement of drinking and wastewater softer, more luxuriant tones.

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62 ON WISCONSIN At the three-quarter- century mark for Memorial Union, we offer seventy-five things we bet you didn’t know about the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s “living room.”

BY JOHN LUCAS

Porter Butts disliked pinball. The legendary Wisconsin Union founder and director resisted putting the popular machines into Memorial Union because he felt that they compromised the Union’s highest mission: providing productive and satisfying uses for leisure time. Pinball, to his mind, was a game without skill that cut off interaction with others. After all, the Union’s motto is “Societate Crescit Lumen” or “Light [learning] enhanced by human relationships.” “It was like the English department recommending comic books or dime novels,” he said in 1979, although he eventually relented after learning that the machines raked in fifty to sixty thousand dollars in quarters. Butts ’24, MA’36 decided that the money could help fund other worthy Union pursuits. The love-hate affair with coin-operated machines is just one of the quirky bits of lore that have made the Wisconsin Union — including the seventy-five-year-old Memorial Union and its younger sibling, Union South — what it is today. On this anniversary, On Wisconsin dove headlong into the Union’s eminent history, with the assistance of the Union, UW Archives, and the archives of the Daily Cardinal, Badger Herald, Capital Times, and Wisconsin State Journal. The list here is by no means comprehensive or complete, but just a few points of light from the Union’s history of nurturing human relationships.

28 ON WISCONSIN 4. 574 Number of “sun- burst” chairs on Union Terrace. 9. ON THE BRINK, PART I: The Union’s Music and Entertainment Committee booked 5. 5,091,294 Number the Tar Babies in 1990. Their opening act, a little known of people who passed through group called Smashing Pumpkins, was paid only seventy-five Memorial Union and Union dollars for the gig. South’s doors in 2002, an aver-

Waiting for Union food, 1949. age of 97,910 people per week. 10. 580 Number of annual events in 1. The favorite meals of 6. 1,000 Number of gold- the Wisconsin Union UW-Madison students, as served fish Hoofers dumped into the Theater, which draw by the Wisconsin Union, circa fountain on Library Mall in 1978 127,000 patrons. October 1947: hamburgers, as part of “The Great Goldfish spaghetti, baked beans, pork Giveaway.” No figures were avail- 11. No bugs here: chops, pot roast, and Swiss steak. able on how many survived. The Union’s kitchens are so clean, it was said in a 1947 State 7. Until the early Journal story, that they Good cheer at the Union Bash, 2001. 1980s, most pieces typically carry a bacteria in the Union’s art count “as low as one,” 12. Gemütlichkeit: German for collection could while other restaurants average a feeling of well-being or conge- be rented for fifty between five hundred and ten niality, the principle on which the cents per semester thousand. Rathskeller was founded. as part of the “Art- to-Go” program.

A gallery showing, 1970.

2. At the 1939 World’s Fair in San Francisco, the Wisconsin Union Theater was voted “one of the twenty-five most distinguished contemporary buildings in America” in an architectural competition. Sinclair Lewis called the building the “most beautiful theater with the most beautiful site in the world.”

3. Only in Wisconsin (and If you build it: from a 1921 funding campaign. maybe Germany): For a time beginning in 1934, on the 13. During the campaign to build Rathskeller’s 8. The late Lewis “Bus” Topp Memorial Union, UW President Glenn annual was the Union’s one and only Frank said, “The Memorial Union build- “Cheese barber for more than fifty years. ing will give us a ‘living room’ that will Night,” a Topp noticed a decline in busi- convert the university from a ‘house’ of fifty-pound ness as many men wore their hair learning into a ‘home’ of learning. It is wheel longer in the 1960s and 1970s. worth any sacrifice that we may be called of cheese was “I don’t think it’ll ever go back to upon to make in order to bring it to com- moved into the where it was, because wives and pletion.” Roughly half of UW-Madison center of the room and put girlfriends go for this long hair,” students in the 1920s pledged fifty dollars under a spotlight. A chef he said in a 1974 interview with or more (the equivalent of more than five cut free slices in honor of the the State Journal. “It’ll take some hundred bucks in today’s dollars) to pay German tradition of consuming guys with prestige to get the ball for a building that they would never get to beer with cheese. rolling on short hair again.” use as students.

WINTER 2003 29 18. The Union’s first twenty-five years were 20. Ever visited in January?: In 1948, Time magazine dramatized in a color praised Memorial Union, saying: “It’s almost impossible not film titled Living Room to have a good time at Wisconsin.” of a University. The effort won a Hollywood Screen Producer‘s Guild Award.

A happy twenty-fifth in 1953.

14. School ties: Today, one out 19. Women in the picture: The of every five UW-Madison alumni Union had its first female presi- takes out a Union membership dent in 1943–1944. Also in within a year of leaving Madison. 1943, the Union hired a female The Wisconsin Union has more student to run the projector in than eighty thousand lifetime the Play Circle Theater. She was members worldwide. believed to be one of only three female projectionists in the coun- 21. Rufus Rollback: The ficti- 23. Hula fever: Classes in hula try at that time. tious chef of the 1950s, who cut were offered twice weekly in food prices to pre-World War II Memorial Union in 1951. levels on certain menu items each day. In 1952, between nine 24. Bermuda shorts were thousand and ten thousand unwelcome dress in Memorial meals were being served daily. Union until the late 1950s.

The Rathskeller, 1941. 22. Intercollegiate 15. In 1932, the ping-pong billiards: Founded room in Memorial Union was at Memorial Union renamed the “Katskeller” by the in the 1930s, the Women’s Affairs Committee to game was first protest the male-only Rathskeller. played by telegraph, During World War II, when and only later face- female students outnumbered to-face. males by nearly four to one, the Corner pocket: “men only” signs came down. billiards in the 1930s.

16. 24 cents Average A poster from when movies were movies. price of meals at Memorial Union during the Great Depression, 25. 780,000 Number of when the Union Council voted popcorn kernels popped in an to reduce prices to help students average week at the Stiftskeller afford to eat. (which amounts to six hundred pounds of popcorn). 17. Among the Union issues investigated by the alumni associ- 26. Not everyone appreciated ation and state legislature in Memorial Union’s architec- the 1930s: “Do you cook with ture, designed by Arthur Wisconsin butter or Crisco?” Peabody to evoke the feel of and “Why does the Union Italian lakeside palaces. In 1932, have dining rooms competing one fellow architect slammed with private restaurants?” the concept, saying: “Yes, it The Union Council responded speaks Italian, extremely bad that such questions were Italian, and very difficult to “implicit in the nature of a understand.” The critic’s name: democratic institution and neces- Frank Lloyd Wright. sary to its effective functioning.” Fellow well met: a Tudor dinner, 2002.

30 ON WISCONSIN 27. Luminaries: Martin Luther 39. Before the Union, there was King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Robert 31. ON THE BRINK, PART II: In spring 1960, Madison author Dad Morgan’s, a State Street F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, and historian Ronald Radosh was friendly with an aspiring malted-milk shop and billiards Jawaharlal Nehru, Saul Bellow, folk singer who frequently played at a State Street coffee- hall where campus men congre- and Carl Sandburg, among house called The Pad. One day, Radosh and the singer sat gated in the late 1920s. Despite others, appeared or spoke at together on the Union Terrace, playing guitar. the fact that the Union essentially Memorial Union. The singer: “I’m going to be as big a star as Elvis Presley.” put Morgan out of business, he Radosh: “Singing Woody Guthrie songs?” donated a famous oak table to The singer’s name: Bob Dylan. the Rathskeller, where it was prominently displayed.

32. The Union was officially designated as the “Division of Social Education” by the Board of Regents in 1935, in accor- dance with Butts’s ambition to see the Union serve as a focal point for out-of-class learning. 28. 1,000 Gallons in the world’s largest milkshake, mixed 33. 14 Years before Memo- in 1978 for the fifty-year anniver- rial Union opened that the UW’s sary of the Union. No word on Union Board helped found the how many straws it took to slurp Association of College Unions. up the drink. Wisconsin’s student president returned from that group’s first national conference with renewed determination to have a dedicated Union building on campus. 36. Taming of the Shrew was the opening act for the Wisconsin Union Theater on 34. Fasching, a German drink- October 9, 1939. The performance, head- ing festival akin to Mardi Gras, lined by Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, was was held at Memorial Union written up by the New York Times. annually between 1959 and 1980. The Daily Cardinal lamented its end with the head- 37. The wreck of the Queen line, “No Drunkfest at the Union Ann: The Union was once home this Year.” to a “fleet” of tour boats: the Dana and the Queen Ann. The Let them eat pancake: Porter Butts latter sank in a storm in 1972, serves up flapjacks in 1950. 35. After visiting the legendary Stiftskeller St. Peter in Salzburg, and the former was sold soon 29. 42 Number of years Austria, Butts named Memorial after, when it was determined Porter Butts served the Union, Union’s Stiftskeller, which the Union couldn’t afford to before retiring in 1968. Ted means “cellar of the founders.” continue operating the boat. Life in the Rat, 1959. Crabb, previously a member of 40. 1933 Year the Butts’s staff and director of the Rathskeller began serving 3.2 UW-Milwaukee Union, became 38. “Save the beer, following the repeal of the second director, but served Stones”: Rallying cry Prohibition, becoming the first a mere thirty-three years. of the Daily Cardinal, college union in the nation to trying to save the rough do so. The brew was legally 30. 6 Number of female flagstones of the Ter- classified as “non-intoxicating.” students appearing nude in a race from renovation 1967 production of Peter Pan during the mid-1960s. 41. “Fewer Walls, More in the Fredric March Play Circle Notorious for tipping Bridges”: Theme under which Theater, which was canceled due tables and turning Union South opened on Novem- to campus outcry. ankles, the stones were ber 10, 1971. The building was replaced by cut stone dedicated as a peace memorial. and colored cement.

WINTER 2003 31 “

46. It is the custom here at the Union that he who 55. The name Memorial Union eats and drinks also pays for it. Such a guest is was chosen when fundraising for the new campus student center dear and cherished, who promptly pays for was insufficient to complete the what he gets.” job. Advocates for the campus — Translation, from German, of the Rathskeller motto. center joined with those promot- ing a World War I memorial, hence the Union’s designation as “ 49. Bummelling: A German a “living memorial.” Purdue and Wisconsin welcome: Memorial Union university tradition dictating that Indiana Universities followed suit. greeting desk, 1951. students must lounge, dance, 42. 27,000 Campus room drink, and sing before getting 56. 700 Number of puppets reservations scheduled by the down to serious study. “Die brought for a performance by Union’s central reservations office Rathskeller Bummel” was a popu- the Salzburg Marionette Theatre per year. lar promotion for a time in 1939. in 1951.

43. ON THE BRINK, 50. The name “Hoofers” Tooting the horn for Louis Armstrong, was established in 1931 PART III: Ever heard of 1957. the Indigo Girls, the from a similar group at Mighty Mighty Bosstones, 47. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzger- Dartmouth known as the the BoDeans, or Phish? ald, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, “Heelers.” At the UW, Not many people had Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir “Heelers” served as when those acts played Horowitz, Duke Ellington, Itzhak apprentices to the upper- the Unions during their Perlman, Wynton and Branford classmen “Hoofers” who early, pre-fame days. Marsalis, Uta Hagen, Henry managed the outdoor Fonda, Anthony Quinn, and Paul activities group. Hoofers boats on the lake. Robeson, among many others, 44. The Royal Order of all performed as part of Union Catering Waiters: An elite team Theater-sponsored programs. 51. 1,400 Gallons of milk 57. “Reunion at the Union”: of Union waiters known for their served weekly in the Rathskeller Title of a popular song written speed, timing, and use of hand 48: The 770 Club, so named for in 1967, compared to 190 by two Truax Field airmen during signals. “If the backfield of the the Union’s old address at 770 gallons of beer. World War II. The Union pub- football team can shift and run Langdon Street, was the nation’s lished the song and sold out like those waiters,” remarked first collegiate nightclub in 1933. 52. “The Battle of Beer and almost immediately. During the football coach Ivy Williamson in It lives on at Union South as Club Wine,” a mural in the Stiftskeller, war years, the Union never 1949, “we won’t have to worry 770, an alcohol-free entertain- is modeled after one in Munich, closed for one day. on the football field.” ment venue. Germany. Painted by Milwaukee artist Kurt Schaldach in 1978, the full verse (translated from German) goes: “When wine and beer make war on each other, who will win and who will lose?”

53. 110 Number of colleges and universities from around the nation that sought assistance from Butts in establishing their own unions. In 1964, he visited twenty universities in Asia to aid in the development of their union programs. Wheel away: the craftshop, 2000. Babe blue: James Watrous creates the Bunyan murals. 54. 8 Number of blind 58. 10 Number of wheels 45. The late artist James Watrous ’31, MA’33, PhD’39, who students who enrolled in a for making ceramic pottery in the painted Memorial Union’s murals of Paul Bunyan from 1933 to special Union ballroom dance Union’s craftshop, which also 1936, had to return several times to repair the eye of Babe, the class offered in 1940, believed includes woodworking tools, a blue ox, which was cut out by souvenir-seeking students. to be one of the first of its kind. darkroom, an art metal shop, and equipment for making batik.

32 ON WISCONSIN “

66. “I found the students at Wisconsin alert, 59. The Union intelligent, and uninhibited. It was a most Theater wing was financed with stimulating meeting for me.”

$585,000 from a — then-Senator John F. Kennedy, after his May 16, 1958, loan, $266,000 from speech at the Union Theater. the Public Works Administration, and

71. Memorial Union hosted $135,000 from gifts “ the university’s first lecture- and Union operating discussion series on courtship surplus. A 1935 drawing of the Union Theater. and marriage in 1938. “ 72. 1,300 Pieces in the 60. 97 Number of Picasso permanent Union Art Collection, etchings displayed in 1959. The first established upon the open- works of other artists, including ing of Memorial Union as one of Union pledge plea, 1921. Diego Rivera and Georgia the first collegiate art galleries. O’Keeffe, were also displayed. 67. “Let’s Dig”: The drive to Today, more than 75 percent raise money for Memorial Union of the works are on display in was the first university effort to Memorial Union or Union South. 61.“The old Rat is dead!” solicit pledges from alumni. Prior — Editorial in the Daily Cardinal to the drive, alumni were never 73. 900 Students employed in the early 1960s, after the asked, as they expected tax annually by the Wisconsin Union. Rathskeller food counter was dollars to fund university needs. converted to self-service and “hostesses” began checking ages 68. 80 Number of gallons of and asking patrons to take their tomato and chicken soup — the feet off tables. 64. $135,200: Projected annual most popular choices at the time “ take in quarters from “Dance — produced each day by Union 62. Barefoot: Joan Baez Dance Revolution,” the Unions’ kitchens in the late 1940s and performed, sans shoes, before most popular arcade game. early 1950s. a sellout Union Theater crowd in the early 1960s. The Daily Cardinal raved: “Joan Baez — 69. 1,500 Number soon this is all we will need to of students to volunteer say when this plaintive little girl at more than twenty sites presents an evening of folk songs around the country as part about frustrated love.” of the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Alternative Flipped out: students at work in 63. The original Union Terrace Breaks program. the Union kitchens. chairs were made of wicker, far less sturdy than the current “sun- Students at a Habitat for 74. During the early 1950s, burst” variety. However, when Humanity project, 2000. Oxford Union-style debates the company that manufactured were held regularly. The first the metal chairs went bankrupt, focused on a resolution stating, the Memorial Union Building 65. I will have a dream: In 70. 4 Number of future “The University of Wisconsin Association purchased the tool Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1962 Olympians who trained on the would have achieved greater and die so speech at the Union Theater, he old Hoofers ski jump on Muir fame if women had been that chairs proclaimed, “We’ve come a long Knoll in the early 1930s. excluded.” The women won. could be way, but we’ve got a long, long made in way to go” in the struggle for the future. integration. He told segregation- 75. All of this history and more is being preserved by the ists, “We will wear you down by Wisconsin Union and the UW Archives. An ever-expanding our capacity to suffer.” collection of photographs is now available online; visit http://webcat.library.wisc.edu:3200/ and click on, “Select a database,” then “The University of Wisconsin Collection.”

HISTORICAL PHOTOS COURTESY OF UW ARCHIVES; OTHER PHOTOS BY JEFF MILLER, STEPHANIE JUDGE AND MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

WINTER 2003 33 they were in the twenties, thirties, and thousand people. Union South was The Union’s Next Era forties. Today, it’s grab-and-go dining, added at a time when the campus com- and we’ve changed to meet that. I can’t munity — including students, faculty JEFF MILLER tell you right now what the dining prefer- and staff — was close to forty thousand ence will be in ten years, but we will be people. We now serve a campus commu- ready to serve it. nity of sixty thousand, and that doesn’t In entertainment, perhaps in 1939, begin to add in the Madison community. when the Union Theater was built, clas- We are beginning to outgrow our facili- sical entertainment was in its heyday. ties. Through the master plan, we’ve This type of programming still has an examined to what extent we can add important part to play in what we offer facilities for additional meeting space, to the campus, but it’s probably not entertainment space, and food space. At As Memorial Union began marking its central to the mission of the theater any- Memorial [Union], we’re hemmed in in more. As campus interests change, the a lot of ways, so we’ll need creative solu- seventy-fifth anniversary, writer John type of entertainment will change, but tions to add space. [Union] South’s the Lucas talked with Mark Guthier, above, our commitment to offering first-class same way. We’re looking at under- who in November 2001 succeeded quality entertainment will still be there. ground options and the possibility of Theodore (Ted) Crabb ’54, becoming The same might be true of Hoofers. The other ways to expand. ski jump came down off Muir Knoll in only the third director of the Wisconsin the thirties and forties, and that’s not What about a proposal for the west Union. Guthier came from Indiana there anymore. Now we have scuba div- end of campus? University, where he served as assistant ing and horseback riding. Those are just a few examples. Currently, the Union doesn’t really serve director of its college union for nearly the west end of campus well, as far as ten years. He talks about the Wisconsin being within close walking distance. The What kinds of physical changes Union’s history — and what the UW’s students, faculty, and staff who study and do you envision for the Union buildings? work on the far western edge of campus beloved institution will reach for next. We’re very close to finishing an overall need convenient dining opportunities, long-range facility master plan that takes meeting rooms, possible program space to into account the rehabilitation, restora- support conferences, student organization tion, and expansion of Memorial Union space. A new west-campus Union could, What do you think has been the Union’s and Union South and begins to ask the out of all three facilities, serve a grad biggest accomplishment? question about the possibility of other school population more directly than the The greatest accomplishment for the locations and the possibility of building a other two, which would make it some- Wisconsin Union over the last seventy- third union someday. what unique. five years is what it will continue to do for When you look at walking distances the next seventy-five years, and that’s to from our two main facilities, you begin to A master plan is a long-range document. see there are sections of campus that are be the one place that students, faculty, How do you prioritize which improve- not within a ten-minute walk. That gets staff, alumni, and Madison community ments come first? members all have in common— the one us thinking about whether we need an The consulting team that worked with home for UW-Madison. And it does that additional location to reach the areas of the Union to develop a master plan has in a way unlike any other college union in campus we don’t currently touch. organized the elements of the plan into the country. We’ll always be about bring- In addition, our facilities and physical what we’d call “doable chunks.” Begin- ing all those constituents together. That’s surroundings need to change to meet ning with the seventy-fifth anniversary one of the Union’s great strengths. current needs, tastes, and desires. They must be more tech-savvy than they were through the hundredth anniversary, in ten or twenty years ago. How people that twenty-five year span, if we were In what ways do you think the Union proceed through a building is different going to do something every three to five will change or evolve? from how it was ten or twenty years ago, years, what would it be? How would we Sometimes we think of students as the so corridors and wayfinding and paths go about raising the funds for each of piece that changes the most. We’ve also and lighting and those types of things those initiatives? We’re looking at differ- seen the needs and tastes of faculty must continue to be improved. ent funding models — our own opera- change over the years. For example, When Memorial Union was built, it tions, plus some level of support from faculty dining clubs aren’t the big things served a campus community of eight students, as well as donor support.

34 ON WISCONSIN How could Union South become more project, which included adding central air What big-ticket items could be in the integrated into the campus community? conditioning into the space, was not so future for Memorial Union? much a historic preservation project, but The key to [Union] South is to think of it One example would be the Wisconsin a historic rehabilitation. That is a good as a wonderful union in its own right and Union Theater wing — there’s a possibil- example of what we want to have happen to do something there that allows it to ity of adding space on the north side to throughout the building. stand on its own and not be compared to support receptions and catering. Or a Another thing is that the main Memorial. It needs to have its own sense ballroom with a wonderful view of the entrance used to be the entrance off the of place and identity. Something that lake, in addition to a new entrance on the second floor. People went in that way makes it a point of destination, like the south side and an expanded box office. and down into the building. The Rath Terrace. It also needs to be more trans- There are ideas for expanding the was in the basement. But that’s changed parent — the master plan includes ideas Terrace to go from the Union across the over the years. Can we design entrances for opening up the space so that you can East Campus Mall (and the current park- that are grand, much as you got when see the activities going on inside. ing lot), across the Red Gym and to the you entered on the second floor? Can this Alumni Center. Can we start to think of be done in the other two entrances off Do you have any “high concept” ideas the Terrace as being larger than just the Langdon and Park Streets? for Union South at this point? space behind Memorial — that it would encompass Lake Street to Park Street — A coffeehouse-cyber café concept is one The redo of the Lakefront Café — thing that’s being talked about. Instead of creating a neighborhood of sorts? soon to be called Lakefront on Langdon trying to replicate the Rathskeller, let’s go the other direction and have it spill out — will be the most visible change What are the top two or three things onto an urban terrace and amphitheater. immediately, right? you hear when you’re out talking to Lakefront on Langdon will be an exam- people about the Union? How about Memorial Union? ple of what we hope to do with all of our The Union is the heart and soul of the One of the things we want to do with food service outlets, which will be to campus. People love the fact that it has Memorial is to renovate spaces and bring modernize them and make them more such a history about it, and that it’s them back to the aesthetic quality they customer friendly. It’ll be a “market” always been here, and it’s this common had when the building first opened. One concept, and we’ll be able to change our thread. Whether you came in 1928 or example of that is what we did with the food concepts more quickly — without graduated in 2002, you have something renovation of the Main Lounge, thanks to having to wait ten or twenty years to gut in common with everyone in between, a gift from the Class of 1950. That the whole thing again. because you’ve all shared the Wisconsin Union.

MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART The other thing that I hear is that we need to take care of the Union. And that we can’t allow it to deteriorate. I proba- bly hear that more from people who go away and come back, because if you’re here every day it’s kind of like you don’t notice yourself growing old. But see someone you haven’t seen for ten years — they look different to you. UW alumni love this place and have fond memories, but they also notice that we need to take care of it. We want it to be as everybody remembers it, and for a lot of those people, it was this shin- ing jewel for the campus. That’s really what this master planning process has been about — to identify ways we can do that, celebrate that, in the years to come, so students will come in 2028

With projects such as the renovation of Memorial Union’s historic second-floor lounge, which and have the same experience students received a thorough makeover in 2002, the Union envisions a future that still embraces its past. had in 1928.

WINTER 2003 35 BOB RASHID

UW-Madison recently added ”Campus Scenes That Rock” to its repertoire of awards and recognition from national publications. So what does this honor mean for Madison’s music scene?

By Christine Lampe ’92 adison is a great place to live, earn a degree, work, and raise a family — but most MUW grads knew that well before the rest of the country began hearing about it in “best of” lists from Forbes, Child, Ladies’ Home Journal, and other publications. Today, this well-kept secret is just as difficult to keep under wraps as its resident university, which, for years, has held its own in collecting honors from popular publications, even as adminis- trators caution about how little such rankings really mean. There are the academic accolades, like being listed for five years in a row above number nine on U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Public Colleges.” And, of course, the unsubstantiated rumor that’s been circulating for decades about landing a spot on Playboy’s Top Ten Party School list. And the most recent, where UW-Madison earned top billing as Sports Illustrated’s Best College Sports Town, and was listed in Backpacker’s Top Five Outdoor Colleges.

36 ON WISCONSIN But somewhere between Monday’s Beyond the loss of O’Cayz, Deth- points out, “Students don’t need to go 8:50 a.m. classes and Saturday’s 1:05 mers has seen many changes in the live out to hear what they want to hear — p.m. kickoff at Camp Randall is Friday music landscape, and admits she was it’s all over the place. And a lot of that night. And UW-Madison has earned surprised to see UW-Madison surface in good stuff gets on CD and winds up some recognition there, as well. Rolling Stone. She estimates that a mere right here. That’s part of our mission.” In February 2003, Rolling Stone 10 to 20 percent of the crowds at her Opening the eyes of UW-Madison ranked UW-Madison among America’s alternative club were students. “I think students to quality music is part of the top “Campus Scenes That Rock.” Based that’s part of why Madison is unusual ... mission for the Wisconsin Union Direc- on criteria that included venue, rising [There are] so many young people with torate (WUD), as well. This student-run talent, and total party volume, Madtown the opportunity to see live music, yet it organization books more than two hun- clinched the number five spot ahead of seems like they don’t really take advan- dred shows a year at the Memorial such music meccas as Eugene, Oregon, tage of it.” Union Terrace and Rathskeller, and at and Berkeley, California. Aaron Honore x’04, program man- Union South’s Club 770, and relies on Madison’s immediate reaction was ager at student radio station WSUM, the knowledge and research of its volun- mixed. While some felt it was fitting that agrees. “Ten to 20 percent will seek out teers to bring successful new acts to the capital city made the list, there were activities outside of football Saturdays campus. “There’s constantly new input naysayers, too. Those interviewed in a or other obvious entertainment,” he from UW students, so the Union plays a Badger Herald article called “Local Musi- observes. “But there’s always something big part in helping make the scene,” says cians Dispute Rolling Stone Claim” going on. It’s just a matter of knowing Student Music Director Jenny Ng x’04. strongly disagreed with Madison earning where to look and who to talk to.” Hon- Natasha Kassulke MA’93, WUD’s such honors. Subsequent feedback on ore says a lot of the shows he attends are music adviser, adds, “We always say you Herald message boards went so far as to in people’s basements — the kind of can see new bands here first. We take a blame UW students “who refuse to travel thing you learn about through those in lot of pride in our history and the fact off campus or journey into a new scene.” the know. He finds others on message that Phish, the Indigo Girls, Jimi Hen- Could America’s premier rock ’n’ roll boards such as www.madhc.com. And drix ... all played the Union before they magazine be wrong? some, he hears right on WSUM. became huge.” Indeed, Madison has become a city The station hosts a show on Sundays That legacy of bands on the brink where increasing restrictions are being that plays only local bands. WSUM’s playing in small venues is what a lot of placed on local club owners in an effort general manager, Dave Black MA’03, UW grads remember about their years to curb binge drinking. And many students are too busy trying to stay competitive to seek out an evening of live entertainment. While neither scenario seems like a formula for success, and JEFF MILLER while it’s important to note that rock ’n’ roll is just one genre among many offered in such a diverse city, many local experts agree that Madison has earned its new reputation — only in unexpected ways. Vanishing Venues? Cathy Dethmers ’94 moved to Madison from Milwaukee to go to school, but, she says, “Part of what drew me here was the music scene.” Dethmers owned Madi- son’s legendary O’Cayz Corral for seven years before it was destroyed on New Year’s Day 2001 in a fire that ignited in the adjoining Comic Strip bar. That day, her popular club joined a growing list of Madison venues that had closed, been Some complain that the lack of venues in Madison is to blame for a vacillating music scene. But shut down, or burned, including Headlin- who could forget about the Terrace, the 2,500-capacity venue that offers free live music every ers, the Paramount, and Club de Wash. week throughout the summer?

WINTER 2003 37 here. Ken Adamany of Last Coast Pro- events like Blues Fest and all ducing has been booking bands around of the neighborhood festivals town since he was a student at the UW. have really stepped up, and “In the sixties and early seventies, we I think sometimes we take had a thriving music scene,” he says, them for granted. They may recalling clubs like the Factory and not be nightclubs, but you Dewey’s on Gilman Street, which held can see free music and a lot the first Wisconsin shows for performers of local bands.” such as Fleetwood Mac and Rod

Stewart. “There were a JOSH JANKE JOSH

Where else but in a university town can you find a band named after the first philosophy book written by Nietzsche? Birth of Tragedy (left), Madison’s cathartic supra-heavy metal duo, was recognized as talent on the rise in Rolling Stone, above.

music mag. “The Rolling Stone thing is cool because we can say we’ve been men- tioned, but as far as opening any doors that hadn’t already been open ... it kind of happened at a bad time,” he says. The band, which has performed with Rick James, The Temptations, and Earth, number of night clubs, and I think a lot You Have to Wind, and Fire, has slowed its booking of people were more interested in seeing schedule while keyboardist Tim Whalen live music in those days. And then it sort Start Somewhere ’01 attends graduate school at the presti- of went away with the disco phase.” The Rolling Stone article recognized local gious Manhattan School of Music. That, But Adamany says there was a resur- acts Birth of Tragedy, the German Art in essence, gives Braatz the freedom to gence in the eighties. “Almost any act Students, and Phat Phunktion as bands explore a different style of music with his that came through the Midwest that on the rise in Madison. If nothing else, latest group, Bon Pantalon. wanted to play in Madison appeared at Birth of Tragedy drummer Ryan Peter- Thankfully — especially for bands Headliners or The Boardwalk.” When son ’99 and singer/guitarist Cory Divine without as many credentials as Braatz’s asked about today’s atmosphere, he says credit the magazine with helping to give — the number of small venues willing to it’s surviving. “It seems to be improving a name to up-and-coming musicians. move pool tables to accommodate live now, although a slow economy affects “As a result, we signed a manage- music is increasing. Places like Mother the number of times people go out in a ment deal with a company called Anger Fools on Williamson Street, Café Mont- week, let alone in a month.” Management,” says Divine. “Through martre, and the Tornado Club on the Kassulke adds that those in search of that, we’re working on a new demo and square — and even Atwood Avenue’s good, live music also have other options. have generated some interest throughout Glass Nickel Pizza Company — are “A lot of people look back on the ‘good the industry.” offering alternatives for those willing to old years’ when we had some of those But Jason Braatz x’05, bass guitarist seek out nontraditional venues. Glass other clubs, but there are efforts under for Phat Phunktion, had a slightly differ- Nickel owner Brian Glassel has hosted way to replace some of those. Also, ent reaction to being referenced in the Tuesday night open jam sessions

38 ON WISCONSIN featuring acts such as The New Recruits It will still offer a variety of music with moving on. Rolling Stone editors favored and the Cork ’N Bottle String Band for an intimate feel, but at twice the size, cities that pumped out more than thirty about six months. But Glassel admits his Dethmers hopes to draw high-profile new acts per year, and Madison’s influx restaurant will never be a major venue. touring bands, filling a niche she feels is of fresh talent no doubt propelled it ahead “We offer our customers live music missing in Madison. “The larger national of those cities where the same ten local because we can. But there are no plans in bands are recognized and draw more bands stick around for years and years. the works to grow offerings to more than people out to see live music than would “I suppose every music scene is once or twice a month,” he says. normally search it out on their own,” she diverse,” says Braatz, “but [in Madison] Even Luther’s Blues, a major venue says. “The more that happens, the more there are a lot of bands that are great in that books five to six national acts every they get exposed to local bands. It helps a lot of different genres. The quality is week, offers space to local talent on bolster the whole scene in general.” what’s unique about Madison. For the Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The amount of bands, the majority of them club’s marketing director, Mike Haight, are really good.” says, “We do a lot with trying to bring There’s More to Madison Surprisingly, the amount of talent in new bands up. We’ll take a chance on a So is a Rolling Stone ranking enough a town of Madison’s size seems to lead local act and let them play and see how to make local residents — especially to more camaraderie than competition. they do. Bands like the Kissers, Love students — fork over five dollars at the Kassulke, who spent ten years covering Monkeys, and Know Boundaries that door or comb the Isthmus to find good local music for the Wisconsin State Journal started out on Tuesday nights now draw live music on a Friday night? Maybe. before working at the Union, notes that to capacity on the weekends.” But there’s even more to Madison music as a positive change in Madison. Cross- Meanwhile, some of Madison’s old than the Rolling Stone story tells. promotion is big among bands, which favorites are expanding their ability to By virtue of being a university town, often fill in for one another at the Union support live entertainment, as well. The there’s a certain transience that breeds and other venues in a pinch. Union’s Open Mic series still takes place variety and creativity. And that’s not a Madison’s well-insulated economy on Thursday nights, but now runs until given on every campus. In Ann Arbor, may even play a factor. “I think part of 1:00 a.m. as part of its Fashionably Late Michigan (rated number seven in the why this scene is so good locally is that campaign. These extended hours offer an Rolling Stone article), one student griped, there are the kinds of jobs that musicians alternative to bar-hopping, while giving “The venues import decent national acts, can have to pay their bills and still go more new bands a chance to be heard. but the scene still lacks progression and out and create music without making a And today, after almost three years of imagination.” lot of money at it,” says WSUM’s Black. struggle with the city and local develop- Not so in Madison. Students meet in “There’s the way the local economy is set ers, Dethmers is finalizing plans to open UW-Madison residence halls. They pick up, and then there’s a built-in fan base, the long-awaited High Noon Saloon in up drumsticks and guitar picks and really so you have all of these things coming February on East Washington Avenue. give it a go for three or four years before together in a semi-urban environment that really, really works.” Whether the UW and Madison should even be considered one and the Your same, and whether either should have What’s made the list at all (or risen higher than five) is of little consequence — it seems In her career as a Wisconsin State Favorite Journal reporter and as music adviser that the local scene really does work. And for the Wisconsin Union Directorate, with any luck, Rolling Stone will join the Natasha Kassulke has seen hundreds list of publications that have exposed Music of live performances in the Madison yet another one of Madison’s best-kept area. But when it comes to her all- secrets, creating new focus on rising time favorite music memories, you Memory stars, new venues, the local economy, might be surprised to find that her ? loyalties lie with one venue. and appreciation of the many types of Read about Kassulke’s favorite music moments — and post your own — on music Madison has to offer. That is, until the Madison music memories message board at uwalumni.com/musicmemo- the next top ten list is released. ries. The best stories will be published in the Summer 2004 issue of Insider Magazine. Christine Lampe ’92 comes from a long line of local musicians. Her late grandfather Jack (trumpet, Hal Mack uwalumni.com/musicmemories Quartet), father, Bix (drums, The Relics), and husband, Joe (bass, SuperTuesday), have all played a part in Madison’s music scene.

WINTER 2003 39 Law and Monsters Although the ICTY is still handing the highly unlikely event that a member Continued from page 43 down indictments — the most recent of our administration would ever have to leave off — it aims to be a permanent, were announced in May — its work face a tribunal of this kind,” he says. “I impartial court for crimes against human- may be winding down. The United think the vast majority of people would ity. It has yet to indict a defendant. States, with its powerful military and feel offended that our own criminal jus- The ICTY is the model for future far-flung interests, holds considerable tice system couldn’t take care of the situ- war crimes trials. “It will be the prece- sway over issues of international crimi- ation and would be actively working to dent for international criminal cases,” nal justice. And Kostich feels that find a way to send in the special forces, says Kostich. “There’s really nothing “this country has done a 180 as far as as the president has threatened to do, to else for the ICC to draw on.” international courts are concerned,” extricate someone if they’re arrested.” So as a precedent, how is the ICTY referring to the U.S. turnabout and In the meantime, Kostich narrows doing? Is it pushing the world closer to withdrawal from the International his focus to keeping the ICTY honest. that ideal in which all people can find a Criminal Court in 2002. “You can judge a society — how pro- refuge in justice — even those who are “The ICTY does create a precedent,” gressive and civilized it is — by looking accused of denying justice to others? says Kostich, and it’s a precedent that at its criminal justice system,” he says. So far, the ICTY has brought in 134 many powerful governments wouldn’t “The way it treats the indigent and the indictments. The prosecutor’s office has like. “If you can have a tribunal for accused will tell you how that society secured nineteen convictions to five Yugoslavia, why couldn’t you have one treats the elderly, the poor, and so on. acquittals, with fifty-one defendants with jurisdiction over, say, the U.S.? And the same is true for the interna- currently detained at The Hague. It’s Or over Russia for what’s going on in tional community. At the end of all this, now in the middle of what will likely be Chechnya? That ain’t gonna happen.” as a practitioner, I want to be proud. its biggest case, the trial of Slobodan For Kuzmanovic, too, the ICTY I want to be able to come back to the Milosevic. “He’s the big fish,” says presents an ideal of justice that neither it U.S. and say that we’re doing a hell of Kostich. “The tribunal has to convict nor the world is ready to live up to. He a good job him of genocide. One way or another, suspects that nations will resort to force he was involved in everything that as the ultimate determiner of justice. happened in the former Yugoslavia.” “You can imagine what would happen in John Allen is the associate editor of On Wisconsin.

64 ON WISCONSIN LAW&MONSTERS DAVID MCLIMANS

During the last decade, politicians and diplomats have experimented with war crimes tribunals as a means of bringing peace and justice. But is anyone looking out for the rights of war criminals? Why should anyone want to?

40 ON WISCONSIN BY JOHN ALLEN convicted, they should be sentenced. If Al-Qaeda operatives captured in Auschwitz, Nanking, Verdun, My Lai: not, they should be set free.” Afghanistan and with various members all war is a crime against someone. That’s Kostich and his colleagues on Todor- of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Neither its nature. War is the breakdown of civil ovic’s defense team found irregularities labeled prisoners of war, which would society into organized violence. Willful in the Monster’s arrest (he’d essentially protect them from prosecution, nor for- killing, robbery, dislocation, rape: they’re been abducted from Yugoslavia by a team mally charged with any crime, they sim- all part of the process. of mercenaries). With this argument as ply wait in jail until their fate is decided. Of course, some warriors are nastier leverage, the defense team convinced the Such treatment may seem like poetic than others. Some (Cromwell, Stalin, Pol justice, offering criminals no more rights than they gave to others. But Heinz Pot) get away with it, leaving the question “If you want a serious of criminality to the hung jury of history. Klug, a UW Law School professor, Others (Eichmann, Tojo, Pinochet) face conviction, you’ve got warns that it lacks true legitimacy. “If judgment from a more temporal court. to have a serious you want to legitimately declare someone a war criminal,” he says “you’ve got to Add the name Stevan Todorovic to defense. You want to the latter list. He’s one of the 134 leaders, prove it by a decent process.” followers, soldiers, and politicians formally show that you can win And so, to ICTY defense attorneys, accused of committing crimes against that conviction under representing their clients is an essential humanity during Yugoslavia’s wars of part of moving the world from depend- dissolution in the 1990s. Each of these any circumstances.” ence on raw power to trust in justice. men and women has been indicted before After all, there’s a reason why justice is a court — the International Criminal Tri- prosecutors to accept a plea bargain — symbolized by a balance. Unless defen- bunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Todorovic pleaded guilty to one count dants have full opportunity to answer or — which was convened by the U.N. and (persecution) in exchange for a pass on refute the charges against them, there’s sits in The Hague in the Netherlands, the others. He’s now serving a ten-year no point in having a trial. Fighting tooth attempting to mete out justice for some sentence in Spain and may be paroled, and nail for defendants’ acquittal — or of the worst crimes in recent history. Kostich estimates, as early as 2005. at least for leniency — is as essential as Todorovic was the chief of police in “Todorovic was a very bad dude,” is their prosecution and punishment. the Bosnian town of Bosanski Samac says Tomislav Kuzmanovic ’85, JD’88, “If you want a serious conviction,” from April 1992 to December 1993, another ICTY defense attorney, “but he says Klug, “you’ve got to have a serious while Serbian forces controlled the area. got a very good deal.” defense. You want to show that you During his time in power, non-Serbs It may seem that defending accused can win that conviction under any were persecuted and displaced, and war criminals is just that: an attempt to circumstances.” many were beaten while in his prisons. win good deals for bad dudes. But provid- Kuzmanovic and Kostich are both At least one of them was beaten to death. ing the likes of the Monster with the best filling that role, keeping up a serious Most spectacularly, Todorovic, known to possible defense may be the only way to defense and making sure the tribunal’s his inmates as the Monster, was reputed ensure that international criminal justice is work is legitimate. They’re members of to sexually torture male prisoners for his actually just. a relatively small clique — there are just amusement. In 1995, the ICTY charged “It’s a gray world for me,” says Kos- 102 defense attorneys currently working him with thirty-seven counts of crimes tich, “but one thing remains black and at ICTY, and only twenty of them are against humanity. white, and that’s the issue of the rights of Americans. But when Todorovic landed at The the accused. Every defendant deserves a But Kostich is special — he’s Hague in 1999, he made a lucky move — full and fair trial.” worked with a dozen defendants and he placed himself in the legal care of witnesses at The Hague, most Serbs Nikola Kostich JD’70, one of America’s or Bosnian Serbs. He was the first leading defenders of the rights of accused Genocide, extermination, American defense counsel at the ICTY, war criminals. torture, sexual assault: the charges are a the lead attorney for the first sentencing, “I don’t care how awful the crime is,” laundry list of horrors. It isn’t necessary and he negotiated the first plea bargain says Kostich, “and some of these guys to defend such criminals. For that matter, “ever,” he says, “in the history of are accused of dastardly stuff, and I’ve it isn’t necessary to try them — a country international jurisprudence. represented them — I don’t care what could, when it lays hands on someone it “It’s pretty heady stuff,” he adds. the crime is, the international community believes is a war criminal, simply lock “Me, a little country lawyer, tangling is required to provide a fair and trans- him up and throw away the key. In with these big cases.” parent criminal justice system so that recent months, the United States has Outside The Hague, the cases may these guys are tried fairly. If they’re flirted with this idea, both with suspected not seem so big at the moment. The wars

WINTER 2003 41 in Yugoslavia sputtered out in 1995, and “What the ICTY should be about is see- after their sequel, the 1999 NATO inter- ing if certain individuals are guilty of vention in Kosovo, they disappeared BOB RASHID (2) committing certain crimes, not about from the front pages of U.S. newspapers. bringing peace,” says Kuzmanovic. Other wars and other crimes quickly “Those aren’t mutually compatible goals.” took their place. Though occasionally How the tribunal’s political intent the antics of former Yugoslav president has affected its judicial function is open Slobodan Milosevic, defending himself to interpretation — and both Kuz- before the ICTY, bring the tribunal into manovic and Kostich interpret freely. the news, the actual operation of the Kuzmanovic, who’s of Croatian descent, court goes almost unnoticed. believes the tribunal has tried too hard Nevertheless, the ICTY represents a to be politically correct, in some cases revolutionary concept in international apportioning guilt simply to show that it relations. The tribunal is an attempt to isn’t out to blame any particular national- make real the often professed but seldom ity but is willing to hold all nations at credible notion that law is superior to least partially responsible. power, that right trumps might. To Kostich, the court has focused its The ICTY isn’t the first international Kostich: “The professors and activists forget attention too closely on Serbs. “I had a about the rights of the accused.” war crimes tribunal. Its most famous feeling, from the first time that I heard predecessors were the Nuremberg and justice to persons allegedly responsible of the ICTY, that the Clinton administra- Tokyo courts that held German and for violations of international humanitar- tion had a bias against the Serbs.” Japanese officials responsible for the ian law, to render justice to the victims, But Kostich’s concern for ICTY depredations of World War II. But there to deter further crimes, and to contribute defendants isn’t solely idealism. “Every- are important differences. The tribunals to the restoration of peace by promoting body in this has biases,” he says. that followed the Second World War reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia.” Some of Kostich’s bias grows out of were created and presided over by the Instead of judging the warring factions, his connection to Serbian politics. He victorious Allies; the defendants all came the tribunal was to have jurisdiction was born to Serbian parents outside of from the defeated nations. Although Sarajevo, now the capital of Bosnia- bringing Axis Power criminals to justice “There should be a Herzegovina. His grandfather, an Ortho- was certainly the main aim of the tri- dox priest also named Nikola Kostich, bunals, it cannot have escaped the place to try the great was the first president of the Serbian judges’ attention that guilty verdicts criminals of the world.” National Congress after the creation of would also justify the Allies’ war effort. Yugoslavia. His father, Mladen, was an In 1993, when the Yugoslav wars “only over natural persons and not over officer in the royal Yugoslav army and were at their peak and Stevan Todorovic organizations, political parties, adminis- fought as a guerrilla when the country was running his police department, the trative entities, or other legal subjects.” was occupied by the Nazis. After the war, U.N. Security Council made a break “For years, I’ve felt it would be nice Mladen escaped the incoming Commu- with history. It determined that the to have an international criminal court,” nist government, which had placed him Balkan situation warranted judicial inter- says Kostich. “There should be a place under a death sentence. Kostich spent vention, even though no member of the to try the great criminals — the Pol Pots years under a regime that was trying to Security Council was involved in the and the Augusto Pinochets of the world.” eradicate all loyalty to race, religion, and conflict. The crimes there, they declared, But there was a problem in the royalism. He was a teenager by the time “constitute[d] a threat to international ICTY’s fourth founding objective: to that he and his mother were able to peace and security.” These crimes needed bring about peace and reconciliation. emigrate and join Mladen in Milwaukee. to be stopped, not to gain geopolitical “Those are political goals, not goals “That kind of experience puts a advantage, but because they were wrong. of justice,” says Kuzmanovic. Concern stamp on you,” says Kostich. “It made In the resolution that created the for how ethnic groups get along compro- me a better lawyer, because I learned to ICTY — or, to give the tribunal its full mises the court’s objectivity with respect think on my feet, but it also made me name, the International Tribunal for to particular defendants, he argues. If quietly pro-American. I appreciate the the Prosecution of Persons Responsible Serbia bears the most guilt for the crimes freedoms I’ve found here.” for Serious Violations of International committed during the wars, does recon- After law school at the UW, Kostich Humanitarian Law in the Territories of ciliation demand that every Serb who spent a year at The Hague, then returned the Former Yugoslavia — the Security comes before the court be convicted, to Milwaukee to practice criminal law, Council set out four goals: “to bring irrespective of individual responsibility? first as a prosecutor, then as a defender.

42 ON WISCONSIN When the ICTY set up shop in Hashing out such questions, as well 1993, Kostich felt his profession and his as sifting evidence, takes time and often genealogy coming together. He set off the effort of many people — and that for the Balkans to educate Serbs on the costs money that defendants usually tribunal’s existence. He met with some don’t have. Thus the one issue that has of the most controversial Bosnian Serb grown to be a recurring difficulty for leaders of the time: President Radovan ICTY defense attorneys is budget, or Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, rather, the fraction of the tribunal’s whom former U.S. Ambassador budget that may be spent on a defen- Richard Holbrooke calls “the Osama dant’s legal expenses. “This is kind of and Saddam of Bosnia.” Two years a bugaboo with us,” says Kostich. after Kostich met with them, the ICTY In the ten years since the tribunal charged both with genocide. They’re was created, the ICTY budget has grown still on the run. from $276,000 to more than $223 million, While in the Balkans, Kostich also which may sound like a lot. But consider came into contact with the legal team rep- this: the Bush administration, in its resenting Dusko Tadic, the ICTY’s first $87 billion request for the administration Kuzmanovic: Peace and reconciliation “aren’t of Iraq, requested $100 million just for the defendant. Kostich became increasingly mutually compatible” with individual justice. interested in Tadic’s defense until, in 1996, investigation of crimes against humanity under Saddam — five hundred investiga- he began arguing before the tribunal. with future international criminal courts tors at $200,000 apiece. And currently, “All the hard work I’d done before, all — is that, essentially, those who created there’s no court to try any criminals those the toil, all the homicides I’d prosecuted, the court seem to have neglected the investigators turn up. all the drug cases I’d defended — the nature of war crimes defendants. To At the ICTY, nearly half the budget is ICTY comes as a culmination of all that,” commit crimes of great magnitude, peo- earmarked for the office of the prosecutor. says Kostich. “Also, as a Serb defending ple generally have to hold considerable The rest must be split among the defense, fellow Serbs, I can walk in their shoes. I power (and often considerable wealth). judges, guards, translators, and many can explore what really happened in the They don’t seem like the sort of people others. Defense attorneys have not only Balkans. That’s a huge burden, if you’ve who would need a public defender. But their own expenses and pay to consider, declared yourself a Serb who wants to by the time potential war criminals are but salaries for aides, investigators, and help the country and the culture.” indicted and arrested, they’ve been expert witnesses. What he found at The Hague was also driven from power, used up their con- “I’m not complaining about the fact disappointing. “The people who are most nections, and spent their fortunes trying that I’m paid by the U.N. or about how interested in international law tend to be to escape their accusers. Most of the much they pay me,” says Kostich, “but I’m professors and academics and some people ICTY’s defendants have declared them- having trouble getting support staff.” Such who work for non-governmental organiza- selves indigent. a staff is vital when the prosecution may tions in the human rights area,” he says. And the law that their attorneys must have spent several years preparing for a “And the professors and activists — they face is far more complex than domestic case, piling up boxes of documents, and have blinders on. They’re focused on giv- laws. When the U.N. Security Council interviewing hundreds of witnesses before ing justice to victims, but they forget about began setting up its plan for the tribunal, even bringing an indictment. “I simply run the rights of the accused. There was no it had precious little in the way of prece- out of time to do everything,” he says. real equality of arms” between prosecutors dent to draw on. Nuremberg and Tokyo “That’s an overlooked part of the rights and defendants, “and nobody seemed were heavily weighted in favor of the of the accused, and that’s disturbing.” concerned about this.” prosecution, and international statutes The question of equality of resources tend to be open to interpretation. The may seem too mundane to list among Geneva Conventions, for instance, limit Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo, rights. After all, why should a court cre- legal attacks to only those that offer East Timor: the ICTY has spawned a ated for the prosecution of accused criminals “a definite military advantage” in the series of offspring. Perhaps the most concern itself with funding their defense? “circumstances ruling at the time.” ambitious is the International Criminal But evidence, transportation of witnesses, The “circumstances ruling at the time” Court (ICC), created by the Treaty of documents — they’re all essential parts of invite different readings, and a general Rome in 1998 and, since 2002, operating a case, and they all cost money. may easily see “definite military advan- near the ICTY at The Hague. The ICC The trouble with the procedures at tage” where civilians (and their lawyers) hopes to pick up where ad hoc tribunals the tribunal — and thus, potentially, do not. Continued on page 64

WINTER 2003 43 Law and Monsters Although the ICTY is still handing the highly unlikely event that a member Continued from page 43 down indictments — the most recent of our administration would ever have to leave off — it aims to be a permanent, were announced in May — its work face a tribunal of this kind,” he says. “I impartial court for crimes against human- may be winding down. The United think the vast majority of people would ity. It has yet to indict a defendant. States, with its powerful military and feel offended that our own criminal jus- The ICTY is the model for future far-flung interests, holds considerable tice system couldn’t take care of the situ- war crimes trials. “It will be the prece- sway over issues of international crimi- ation and would be actively working to dent for international criminal cases,” nal justice. And Kostich feels that find a way to send in the special forces, says Kostich. “There’s really nothing “this country has done a 180 as far as as the president has threatened to do, to else for the ICC to draw on.” international courts are concerned,” extricate someone if they’re arrested.” So as a precedent, how is the ICTY referring to the U.S. turnabout and In the meantime, Kostich narrows doing? Is it pushing the world closer to withdrawal from the International his focus to keeping the ICTY honest. that ideal in which all people can find a Criminal Court in 2002. “You can judge a society — how pro- refuge in justice — even those who are “The ICTY does create a precedent,” gressive and civilized it is — by looking accused of denying justice to others? says Kostich, and it’s a precedent that at its criminal justice system,” he says. So far, the ICTY has brought in 134 many powerful governments wouldn’t “The way it treats the indigent and the indictments. The prosecutor’s office has like. “If you can have a tribunal for accused will tell you how that society secured nineteen convictions to five Yugoslavia, why couldn’t you have one treats the elderly, the poor, and so on. acquittals, with fifty-one defendants with jurisdiction over, say, the U.S.? And the same is true for the interna- currently detained at The Hague. It’s Or over Russia for what’s going on in tional community. At the end of all this, now in the middle of what will likely be Chechnya? That ain’t gonna happen.” as a practitioner, I want to be proud. its biggest case, the trial of Slobodan For Kuzmanovic, too, the ICTY I want to be able to come back to the Milosevic. “He’s the big fish,” says presents an ideal of justice that neither it U.S. and say that we’re doing a hell of Kostich. “The tribunal has to convict nor the world is ready to live up to. He a good job him of genocide. One way or another, suspects that nations will resort to force he was involved in everything that as the ultimate determiner of justice. happened in the former Yugoslavia.” “You can imagine what would happen in John Allen is the associate editor of On Wisconsin.

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