UWM Post 04/19/12

THEUWMPOST est. 1956

the student-run independent newspaper

April 09, 2012

POST ENDORSEMENT FOR SA PRESIDENT

Panthers win second home series page 6

Issue 25, Volume 56

page 12

SA election scandal Weekend Natives page 14

VP candidate’s leaked Facebook reveals personal attacks, conspiracy to defraud election Failed emergency A look at the How to rig an SA turmoil leaked messages election without senate meeting from Grow’s complicates really trying spells budgetary Facebook account trouble ICONIC and UP candidates

election

Includes racist and sexist attempt to subvert election remarks; plot to rig election ICONIC party tossed off commission independence

By Audrey Posten and John Parnon Staff Writer and Assistant News Editor news@uwmpost.com Vice presidential candidate Eric Grow resigned his position and was fired from his job at the Milwaukee Election Commission after an anonymous source leaked private Facebook messages, highlighting racist and sexist remarks about other members of the UW-Milwaukee Student Association and a plot to rig the presidential election.

Twenty-nine of the 39 leaked pages are a conversation in which ICONIC presidential candidate Hugo Nguyen proposes bribing students to take vacant seats in the senate. They planned on using the votes of the fake senators to install Sen. Terry Maxwell as election commissioner.

“Fine. I’ll stuff the senate,” Nguyen said to Grow in the leaked Facebook messages. “U do ur thing. But if they don’t approve Terry [Maxwell] then what, no elections? Cause if there is an election with ASV I personally feel that they will win.”

In the leaked messages, Hugo and Grow conspired to stack the March 20 senate session. If they still could not get Maxwell elected, they thought about forcing him through a poorly attended emergency senate session, during which the 2/3rd approval required to secure his appointment would be easier to obtain.

Grow said he believed Maxwell, as IEC, would disqualify Allied Student Voice, a third party headed by presidential candidate Daniel Laughland and vice presidential candidate Tereza Pelicaric.

Nguyen told the Post that all 29 pages of the conversation were meant to be humorous, and that Grow “probably knew [he] was joking.”

Another five pages of the leak are a conversation between Grow and his friend Samantha Zager, in which he said that his position in SA was “shady,” he was actively working to remove his political opposition from the ballot and made racially charged remarks about his party’s presidential candidate Rick Banks.

“It has made me give up on black people,” Grow said in the message. “My candidate is black and he is just not a good candidate. It’s the most frustrating thing. He is just bad at politics.”

In a separate conversation with Sen. Elle Rodriguez, Grow expressed frustration over what he said he saw as Bank’s unwillingness to take more of a leadership role.

“I know that he can act like he’s above

ballot; Grow remains

By Justin Jabs and Zach Brooke Staff Writers and Assistant News Editor news@uwmpost.com

The upcoming Student Association election has changed dramatically after the Independent Election Commission’s last-minute decision to remove the ICONIC party from the ballot, days before they are distributed to students’ email accounts.

The commission ruled late Sunday evening to assess ICONIC a total of 475 points for three different infractions related to defacing an opposing party’s campaign materials, harassing another candidate and conspiracy to subvert the electoral process. That amount was nearly double the 250 point threshold needed to disqualify ICONIC presidential candidate Hugo Nguyen and vice presidential candidate Jory DeLoach from this week’s election. The commission also ruled that all ICONIC senatorial candidates would remain on the ballots as independents.

“My concern from the beginning is Hugo’s blatant mocking of the electoral process,” acting IEC Commissioner Anthony DeWees said shortly before ruling on the first of three complaints against Nguyen, who was not present to contest the charges.

Following the ruling, Nguyen remained defiant, telling the Post by phone, “I have no intention of going gently into the night, and I plan on staging the largest write-in campaign UWM has ever seen.”

The upheaval comes after private Facebook conversations between Nguyen and United Panthers vice presidential candidate Eric Grow were leaked by an anonymous source.

The messages detail a plot to subvert SA elections and undermine the independence of the election commission.

In the messages, Grow talks about “trying to get [his] political opposition off the ballot,” and he and Nguyen discuss ways to “stuff the senate” with paid students to get Sen. Terry Maxwell installed as the independent election commissioner.

Grow has since resigned his position as special assistant to the president. While he remains on the ballot, his running mate on the United Panthers ticket, presidential candidate Rick Banks said if elected, he would ask Grow to resign. Grow himself told the Post via email, “I will not continue working for the Student Association under any circumstance.”

DeWees assessed 200 points against the United Panthers and ICONIC parties following the

The leaked private Facebook messages of United Panthers vice presidential candidate Eric Grow, who served as special assistant to the president before he resigned Friday, revealed an attempt to undermine the upcoming Student Association elections and subvert the independence of the election commission.

The messages sent between Grow and ICONIC presidential candidate Hugo Nguyen detailed a plot to remove Chief Justice Anthony DeWees as the acting independent election commissioner and replace him with Sen. Terry Maxwell.

Grow claimed in the messages that DeWees’ role as both acting independent election commissioner and chief justice violated the SA constitution.

“The chief justice would have to rule that what they were doing was somehow constitutional … If he did that we would appeal to everyone at the university,” he told Nguyen.

Grow and Nguyen said in the leaked messages that they believed Maxwell, whose appointment by President Angela Lang as commissioner was voted down at the March 11 senate session, would be willing to overlook blatant campaign violations committed by ICONIC and would be willing to throw Allied Student Voice off the ballot.

Allied Student Voice is led by presidential and vice presidential candidates Daniel Laughland and Tereza Pelicaric, respectively.

“At this point it’s a shame, because it takes down the legitimacy of the election,” Laughland told the Post.

“I’ve always said I want this to be about the issues … and now it’s coming back to personal attacks again.”

Both ASV candidates expressed sympathy for UP presidential candidate Rick Banks, who they said they believe was unaware of Grow’s underhanded political tactics.

Banks said that he knew that Grow and Nguyen were talking about campaign issues, but did not know they were planning to rig the elections.

“They wanted to do all these things with Hugo, and I thought we were focusing on the wrong thing, why couldn’t we focus on building a campaign,” Banks said.

Grow told the Post through email that Maxwell was not involved in the plot and is “a fresh face within the Student Association who is not running with any party in the upcoming elections.”

Maxwell claimed via email that he saw the IEC seat as a way to stay involved with SA while avoiding the “carnage” of senatorial battles and the election.

See TURMOIL page 4

See RIGGED page 4

See FACEBOOK page 5

INDEX

NEWS SPORTS

By Steve Garrison News Editor news@uwmpost.com

1-5 6-7

FRINGE EDITORIAL

8-11 12-13

COMICS PUZZLES

Deadline for Fair Parking Bill among many issues not addressed by SA at meeting

By Zack Garhart Staff Writer news@uwmpost.com

An emergency Student Association senate session held on April 6 failed to draw enough senators to meet quorum, meaning that a deal to obtain 200 subsidized parking spaces in the Klotsche Center and Pavilion parking garage may be in jeopardy.

The SA was under pressure from administrators to approve the deal, which would increase student segregated fees by $6.50, before the UWMilwaukee auxiliary budget was to be submitted to the UW System on April 15.

President Angela Lang said she felt uncomfortable calling an emergency senate session, but felt she had to after her request for an extension was denied.

“Parking was the one thing we could do for students, even in this weird political climate,” Lang said. “I really don’t want to lose the fact that we should really be working for the students.”

Also unaddressed at the failed meeting, which fell two senators short of the 2/3rd majority necessary to hold an emergency meeting, was the approval of the Senate Appropriations Committee bylaws.

SAC grant kick-off week, scheduled for April 14 and April 15, will become legally tenuous without approved bylaws, SAC Chair Rachel Falk said.

“It’s possible that the parking deal will fall through now and parking rates might go up next year in the garages,” Speaker of the Senate Rick Banks said. “Depending on what happens on SAC weekend, there could potentially be lawsuits for violations but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

The SA office was crammed with senators, reporters and curious onlookers at 2 p.m. on April 6, with some members of the senate ready to phone in their vote on the time-sensitive agenda items.

Nonetheless, the senate fell short of the 25 senators necessary, and within minutes of calling the meeting into session, Banks called to adjourn.

Several senators, including Michael Ludwig, were displeased with the decision but Chief Justice Anthony DeWees said he had no other choice.

Although the emergency meeting was called 48 hours ahead of time and both Lang and Banks had received a number of e-mails saying certain members would not be there, Lang said she was not sure what to expect.

“Given other situations, we could have gotten

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Grow’s Misconduct

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NEWS

April 09, 2012

THEUWMPOST Editor in Chief Zach Erdmann

Production Editor Caitlin Loepfe

Managing Editor Mike La Count

Chief Copy Editor Brad Poling

News Editor Steve Garrison

Copy Editor Kara Petersen

Assistant News Editors John Parnon Zach Brooke

Distribution Mgr. Lucas Hubanks

Features Aaron Knapp Fringe Editor Steve Franz Assistant Fringe Editors Kevin Kaber Graham Marlowe Sports Editor Jeremy Lubus Assistant Sports Editor Tony Atkins Editorial Editor William Bornhoft Photo Editor Sierra Riesberg

Off-Campus Distribution Alek Shumaker

the uwm post

From The Matrix to the Union: an evening with Dr. Cornel West

West brings his views on the injustice to the UWM Union

Business Mgr. Tyler Rembert Advertising Mgr. Stephanie Fisher Ad Designer Cathylynne Ahlgren Account Executive Zhanet Buchokova Ashley Haut Brody Hess Sr. Online Editor Kody Schafer Board of Directors Zach Erdmann Stephanie Fisher Mike La Count Tyler Rembert Kody Schafer

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Two members of Panther’s basketball team to transfer

Know something we don’t?

In the April 2, 2012 edition of the UWM Post it was incorrectly stated in “UWM men’s soccer coach fired after university investigation,” that Martin Castro currently serves as a volunteer assistant to the men’s soccer team. Castro no longer serves in this role.

20 year old Tyler Martell is the newest elected member of Manitowoc’s city council, beating out a former alderman by a large margin. Martell, a Marquette student, said he will plan out his classes around committee and council meetings schedules. Martell told the Manitowoc Herald Times he is only a phone call and address away from those who have any issues. In the past, Martell ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Manitowoc school board as well as the Aldermanic District 5 seat he now holds. Martell said his biggest priorities are spending cuts in the budget as well as paying for Manitowoc’s five million dollar public utilities loan.

The UWM Post was recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists in their 2011 Mark of Excellence awards. Representing the region including Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota the UWM Post placed in the following: Breaking News PhotographyThird Place: Kostal accosted – by Austin McDowell Breaking News Reporting- First Place: SA president resigns amid scandal – by John Parnon and Zach Brooke Editorial WritingSecond Place: UWM Post editorial board, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee In-Depth Reporting- First Place: SA official admits to newspaper theft, implicates former President Kostal –

by Steve Garrison and Zachary Brooke

Mailing Address Union Box 88 UWM P.O. Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201

CORRECTION

20 year old Marquette student elected to Manitowoc city council

UWM Post places in Mark of Excellence

Phone: (414)229-4578 Fax: (414)229-4579 post@uwmpost.com www.uwmpost.com

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NEWS BRIEFS

Post photo by Austin McDowell

By Chelsey Dequaine Staff Writer news@uwmpost.com An Evening with Dr. Cornel West sold out early Tuesday morning, with 850 civil rights activists, admirers, fans and friends packing into the Wisconsin Room auditorium.

UW-Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) member Jacob Flom stepped to the podium preceding Dr. West. He said SDS is “fighting to build student power,” and thanked the other organizations that sponsored the event, including the Black Student Union, Campus Activities Board and Union Programming, among others.

Everyone was on their feet as the spotlight shined upon the bushy-haired, bespectacled man wearing his traditional black suit and white undershirt.

He has many names, but who would have thought that he would become Councillor West in three of the Matrix movies? Yes, add actor to his resume, along with author, scholar, philosopher and violinist.

As West spoke, his long arms flew in the air – pointing, gesturing and always moving in symphony with the fast stream of words coming out of his mouth. His voice would whisper, so soft that it was almost hard to hear, but he thundered his point home.

“When did it become fashionable to be well adjusted to injustice?” West asked the audience.

His lecture consisted of insight on Wisconsin’s struggle against the austerity agenda of the one percent, the Occupy movement and the global struggles

against racism and inequality.

West spoke of the people he meets on his travels and the stories they tell of the power arbitrarily wielded by law enforcement officers. Although he never directly mentioned Treyvon Martin, the room seemed to know of whom West was referring so often throughout his speech.

West went on to speak about life.

How we as “hu-mans” should live it.

West stressed the “hu” syllable when he spoke of people.

“It’s not just about a particular moment,” West said. “But about how you’re going to live your life. Not about your career, but about your life calling. What do you think it means to be hu-man?”

His message of the evening was the power of what a person can do on this planet throughout a lifetime. He followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps in using love to fight, not hatred. He said like King and Rosa Parks, there was no time for hatred in this life.

“She had to sit down to stand up for justice. We should be committed to justice. It’s the same tradition,” West said.

He also pointed out the power King had within his passion and how the officials feared that power.

“Hoover was right when he said [King] was dangerous,” West said. “His love was dangerous.”

The end of the evening crept up on the vocal activists that filled the Wisconsin Room. West ended his lecture and the crowd jumped to their feet yet again, exploding with applause.

Occupy Milwaukee, a local activist group, was among the list of sponsors including the Black Student Union, Sociocultural Programming, Campus

Activities Board, History Department, Center for 21st Century Studies, Cultures and Communities, Committee to Stop FBI Repression and the UWM Bookstore.

Occupy Milwaukee organizer and UWM alum Danielle Meyer ran amongst the pre-show crowd, handing out NATO bus cards for the upcoming rally in Chicago. She said the group chose Dr. West because he is the “voice of radicals all over the country.”

Meyer said the Occupy Movement is about fighting the injustices of the one percent: the rich, the corporations and the politicians.

“It’s only going to get worse,” Meyer said regarding inequality. “We need to fight the system.”

Some attendees even made the trip up from Chicago. David Moore, 28, took off work and travelled from Chicago to sit in on West’s presence.

“He is a great mind in our country,” he said.

Moore had an ear-to-ear grin as he told me he shook Dr. West’s hand in the lobby before the speech. Moore’s cousin is a UWM student and Milwaukee has always seemed to be an open-minded community to him. He came to hear Dr. West speak about the problems of the world and race.

SDS member Chelsea Ottery stood by the front door, wearing a camo SDS t-shirt, dark blue jeans and grey boots.

“I hope Dr. West will bring passion for activism and community involvement to the Milwaukee area,” she said. The UWM sophomore was attracted to SDS by the friendly atmosphere and the people with a passion for social justice.

After injuries derailed their junior seasons, both men’s basketball student-athletes Lonnie Boga and Ja’Rob McCallum will transfer from UWMilwaukee. Boga, who was primarily a bench player, averaged 4.3 points per game in 59 games played. Boga had a career-high 17 points against Colgate back in 2009. Boga had season-ending surgery on his shoulder early in the season.

McCallum’s presence will be missed, as the shooting guard averaged 7.8 points per game in 64 games played. McCallum had season-ending surgery on his wrist that ended his season. McCallum who will always be remembered for his career-high 23 points on seven three pointers that helped clinch the Horizon League Title in the 2010-2011 season.

Both were scholarship players and leave the Panthers roster depleted with three seniors graduating as well.

Nation’s “smallest town” sells online The Wyoming town, Buford, which consists of a single resident, was sold in an online auction to an anonymous Vietnamese buyer for $900,000.

The buyer stated owning land in the U.S. has been a lifelong dream. The 10-acre town includes only a convenience store, gas station, modular home and Don Sammons. Sammons is the sole resident and purchased the town in 1992. It was sold through the Oklahoma auction house Williams & Williams and billed as the “nation’s smallest town.” Buford originally served as a military outpost during the construction of the transcontinental railroad and got its name from a Civil War Union Army General, John Buford.

NEWS

uwmpost.com

April 09, 2012 3

Presidential Candidate Profiles

United Panthers

By John Parnon Assistant News Editor news@uwmpost.com Biography Rick Banks, a junior at UW-Milwaukee who began his career with SA in Oct. of 2009, is running as the presidential candidate for his party, United Panthers. He said he originally wanted to get involved in student government because it seemed like something that would be cool to do and he regretted not being more involved in high school. Although student govern-

Allied Student Voice

President: Daniel Laughland

Biography ASV presidential candidate Daniel Laughland grew up in Brookfield, Wis. and currently resides in Waukesha. He attended Brookfield Academy, where he founded the Technology Club and participated in the Academic Decathlon. In his first year at UW-Milwaukee, he was sent an all-student email that listed an opening in Student Association and was hired as the web developer in 2009. He ran as

ICONIC

Quick Facts Hometown: Franklin, Wis. Majors: Accounting, Finance and Marketing

Economics,

Post Graduate Plans: Enrolling in UWM’s MS-finance analysis program for the 2012-2013 school year.

Year at UWM: Senior Year Joined SA: January 2012 President: Hugo Nguyen *Nguyen was removed from the ballot Biography ICONIC presidential candidate Hugo Nguyen grew up in Franklin, Wis., and chose to attend UW-Milwaukee because he wanted to stay in the Milwaukee area and was attracted by the amount of value the university offered. Nguyen joined SA at the end of January 2012, and has been active and vocal since. Nguyen believes the SA system should emulate UW-Madison’s ASM, which he says “has a relatively scandal free history and is very cooperative and united when compared to UWM’s SA.”

Voting/Attendance Record Attendance record 100 percent Executive Pay Raises N/A Senate Pay Raises N/A Motion to place former President Kostal on Leave N/A Responsible Compensation Act N/A Joint Resolution on the Integrity of the Student Voice Act Nay

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ment turned out to be a lot different than he expected, he said he stayed on because he believes there’s some great things that can be done to make the campus better. Banks, a Milwaukee native, says UWM is an affordable, good school in a familiar location.

He originally intended to transfer to another school but ended up staying because he got involved in student life and met some great people. United Panthers is running on a platform that hopes to build a globally competitive UWM, protect student interests on issues such as parking and rebuild the SA to make it more accountable and transparent.

an independent candidate for senate last year, but lost by a narrow margin. He ran again late last fall and was approved by the senate. Laughland said that some of the best experiences he has had in SA were the result of getting involved with committees. “Even though SAC is incredibly grueling and at the end of the week you are just exhausted, you walk away and you see all the things that are going on around campus,” he said.

Quick Facts Hometown: Milwaukee, Wis. Post Graduate Plans: Graduate/law school.

Lives On Campus: Murray Hill Year at UWM: Third year junior.

Date started in SA: October 2009.

Attendance record 100% Executive Pay Raises Aye Senate Pay Raises abstain Motion to place former President Kostal on Leave Aye Responsible Compensation Act Aye Joint Resolution on the Integrity of the Student Voice Act Objection

Voting/Attendance Record

Quick Facts Hometown: Brookfield, Wis. Major(s): Professional Writing and Communication Lives Off Campus: Waukesha.

Year at UWM: First Year Graduate Student Date Joined SA: October 2009

Voting/Attendance Record Attendance Record: 80 percent Executive Pay Raises N/A Senate Pay Raises N/A Motion to place Former President Kostal on Leave Aye Responsible Compensation Act Nay Joint Resolution on the Integrity of the Student Voice Act N/A (Absent)

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the uwm post

April 09, 2012

TURMOIL

Continued from page 1 incident. He also assessed ICONIC 25 points for defacing chalk advertisements for rival party Allied Students Voice, and 250 points for harassing United Panthers senatorial candidate Callin Slifka during a bizarre April 4 incident laden with sexual overtones. ICONIC had previously received 50 points on March 14 for attempting to bribe an election official, giving the now-defunct party a total of 525 points for the campaign.

DeWees also claimed that Nguyen and DeLoach requested to be taken off the ballot before the hearing was scheduled, only to withdraw the request shortly after making it.

With the surrounding controversy and half of the election candidates dropping out of the race at some point, there was some initial uncertainty of whether voting would begin as scheduled on Tuesday, April 10.

DeWees, however, played down any talk of delaying the elections.

“The elections will occur as planned,” DeWees said.

Assistant Dean of Students Daniel Kast said that there was nothing that could be done to push the elections back from an administrative perspective. Even with a chancellor recommendation, postponing the elections “would ultimately be the SA’s decision.”

Brandon James, an advisor for SA, says now is the “perfect time” to hold an election, saying the recent events would “bring out more student voters than ever.”

ASV presidential candidate Daniel Laughland, meanwhile, said he would not be opposed to delaying the election.

“I would like to see Rick have the chance to appoint someone else as his new VP,” Laughland said. “I’d like to win in a fair fight.”

The combination of Grow’s unexpected departure from the race and the uncertainty surrounding ICONIC’s ballot status also stirred rumors that a pos-

sible deal between ICONIC and United Panthers to unite their tickets before being assessed points by the IEC was in the works. However, the plan to unite Banks and DeLoach on one ticket was complicated by IEC bylaws, and on Friday, April 6, DeLoach said he will not be running with Banks but will help campaign for him.

For his part, Banks said he plans on continuing his campaign without a vice presidential candidate. In a statement released following the actions of the IEC, he said “I, however, have no intention of removing my name from the ballot …

United Panthers’ campaign will continue for this final week. During that week we will work hard to prove to our fellow students that no matter what, we want to service them and to see true change in our student government. I hope that they continue to support us in that endeavor.”

Voting for Student Association president and vice president takes place online from April 10 to April 12.

PUZZLE SOLUTIONS Try your hand at this week’s puzzles, turn to page 15

Continued from page 1 However, in the leaked messages, Nguyen told Grow he was on the phone with Maxwell and asked if the new senator should be honest about running with ICONIC. Grow replied: “No, he should say everyone approached him and he was collecting signatures just in case he ran.”

Maxwell also posted a message in support of ICONIC on his Facebook page on March 26, a day after the senate session in which he was supposed to be voted into the IEC position.

Nguyen claimed in an interview with the Post that he was “joking” in his detailed, 29-page-long conversation with Grow.

Grow said his conversation with Nguyen took place from March 12 to March 13, a day after Maxwell was originally rejected as the commissioner.

Nguyen told Grow that he was going to send an email to DeWees threatening to file a complaint against the IEC. Nguyen was upset that the independent election commissioner chose to penalize ICONIC 50 points for a joke the presidential candidate made about buying votes.

DeWees confirmed that he received the email at approximately 10 p.m. on March 12.

The discussion then turned to the votes necessary to get Maxwell elected as commissioner.

“Just get token senators in that r ur friends,” Nguyen suggested. “And make them senators for only one meeting and pay them $5.”

Grow considered bringing in a “random candidate” instead of Maxwell, but rejected the idea out of concern that ASV will vote any candidate down to keep DeWees commissioner.

The candidates then discussed what Maxwell should say about his past relationship with ICONIC. Grow suggested that Maxwell should dodge the issue.

Maxwell did as much at the March 11 senate session when his appointment as commissioner was first rejected.

“I never took serious any consideration to join any party,” Maxwell claimed at the

TROUBLE

This week’s In-Word Solution

Continued from page 1

This week’s crossword solution

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A R O U S E

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H I C C U P

“CHEETAH” PECAN MAKER HEALTH REFUTE

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RIGGED

quorum but 2/3 is always hard to get in any meeting,” Lang said.

The meeting was initially called to pass the Fair Parking Bill, which had been tabled by objection at the previous senate session on March 11.

Former Special Assistant to the President Eric Grow was heavily involved in bringing the deal together.

The meeting was under increased scrutiny after Grow’s leaked Facebook messages revealed that he had conspired with ICONIC presidential candidate Hugo Nguyen to undermine the independence of the election commission.

One of the ideas forwarded by Grow during the conversation with Nguyen was the possibility of forcing Sen. Terry Maxwell in as commissioner during an emergency senate meeting.

Lang said that was not the meeting’s purpose and Banks said that whether such an action could be taken is questionable.

“You can only take things up due to timeliness,” Banks said about emergency meetings. “I guess it would count,” but he said only Lang could place the appointment on the agenda and she had not done so.

As for the repercussions of the failure to pass the bill, Banks said that some bad things could come out of it but the exact outcome has yet to be determined.

“It’s possible that the parking deal will fall through now and parking rates might go up next year in the garages,” Banks said. “Depending on what happens on SAC weekend, there could potentially be lawsuits for violations but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Immediately following the adjourned meeting, both Banks and Lang said they

session.

Nguyen then suggested they gather fake signatures for potential candidates and asked Grow how much he would be willing to pay to fill vacant seats with fake senators.

Grow brushed off paying senators as unnecessary and then revealed his plan to get DeWees and the other members of the court thrown off the independent election commission.

Grow then revealed why he was so eager to have Maxwell serve as the commissioner.

“Then any complaint we file, Maxwell is our guy. He is 100% of the vote,” Grow said.

After a discussion of the feasibility of removing the justices, Nguyen said: “And no election commissioner means I go Rambo and hand out money for votes.”

The candidates then threw around the idea of putting forth another fake commissioner, unfamiliar to ASV member.

“U don’t know any kid that’s extroverted, lacks a sense of ethics and morals that u know well enough,” Nguyen asked.

They suggested several candidates, including Director of Outreach Julio Guerrero and former SA member Nicholas Reindl.

Nguyen rejected both and suggested paying somebody $300 to “screw over ASV.” “First and foremost, it is just someone who sees ASV’s tactics and isn’t afraid to dish out points,” Grow said. “I personally actually believe they have run a crooked campaign.”

Nguyen disagreed.

“Personally,” Nguyen said. “I believe SA is a dog-eat-dog world with no rules.”

Shortly after the messages were leaked, Grow sent an email to Post staff members, Lang and Vice President Sana Khan, which emphasized the seriousness of the crime.

“My Facebook conversations were private conversations and this was most likely an illegal hacking,” Grow said. He also blamed ASV for the invasion of his privacy.

Grow said via email he has apologized to Banks for his behavior and will not serve as vice president if UP is elected.

The elections are expected to continue as planned. Voting will take place via email from April 10 to April 12.

would explore various options. Lang said that she had touched base with Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Michael Laliberte and received recommendations to wait until the next meeting on April 15.

“We could propose another emergency meeting but with it being so close to the upcoming meeting, we might just wait,” Lang said. “There are also a lot of other things to think about with elections coming up.”

Another issue that will need to be resolved at the next senate session is a vote on SAC bylaw changes.

The changes, which had been tabled in the past three sessions, concerned the legal standards for operation set by the university and state law as well as the handling of finances by student organizations on campus.

Falk said that although the bylaws failed to pass through the emergency meeting, she does not expect the funding process for student organizations this semester to be affected very heavily.

“We want to make sure we’re not violating any state or university law while going through the funding process,” Falk said. “I’m disappointed in the senate that these were not able to pass earlier.”

The repeated inability of the senate to pass the bylaws has put both her and the Center for Student Involvement in a limbo, with the group being largely unable to answer student organization questions about funding.

Despite these issues, she said that the grant kick-off week will still take place from April 13 to April 15.

“It’s not possible to push things back,” Falk said. “We will have to work with the bylaws that are currently in place.

With that, we have to be very careful with funding decisions and make sure we stay within the legal guidelines.”

uwmpost.com

April 09, 2012 5

Learning through laughter

UWM biologist pair leads April’s Science Bag

MPD spring overtime grant goes into effect Number of repeat offenders debated at grant renewal meeting

Post photo by Austin McDowell

By Zach Brooke Assistant News Editor news@uwmpost.com

Post photo by Zak Wosewick

By Aubree Omachinski Special to the Post news@uwmpost.com The sound of laughter filled the hallways of the Physics building on Friday night as Dr. Douglas Steeber and Dr. Heather Owen of the UW-Milwaukee Biology Department used Nerf guns and a giant model of a nose to teach during the first lecture of the April Science Bags series.

This month’s Science Bag series, “Your Immune System: Up-Close and Personal,” focused on educating attendees on how the human immune system functions and why people have reactions from allergies. The series kicked off with an impressive start.

There was a line of people waiting outside the door, and the lecture hall was filled with attendants ranging from adults to children interested in the science field.

“This kind of exposure for young people makes them realize ‘I can do this,’” audience member and lab manager for the UWM

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Continued from page 1 everything,” Grow said. “But he needs to make some kind of stand, senate-wise. None of the new people even know who he is.”

One conversation from 2009 was leaked in which Grow said that taking anthropology courses was “making him racist.” He expressed his interest in an outdated belief that white people were genetically more intelligent than other races.

Grow wrapped up his four paragraph long views on phrenology by saying, “Also, there are so many black people in all these classes teaching anthropology, which is hiiilarious [sic].”

In an email to the Post, Grow said, “I said some questionable things, but all clearly out of frustration or honest concern about the organization and those running it behind the scenes.”

Grow also commented on his election opponents in a conversation with

ACE Lab Elizabeth Hoppe said.

Audience members sat in on a lecture explaining the basics of how our immune system works. Through humor and creative demonstrations, Steeber and Owen educated those in attendance on the important role vaccinations play in the immune system, and how disease prevention works.

The children in the crowd were invited down to shoot squishy Nerf darts at a peer wearing helmets painted like germs to show how the immune system is defensively boosted with vaccinations. Steeber then explained the link between the immune system and common allergies many people suffer from. The children were invited down again to throw fuzzy arts and crafts pieces up a giant nose model to act as pollen in the nose.

The nose then oozed green slime to display runny-nose symptom of allergies.

“At least 50 million people in the United States suffer from some type of allergy,” Steeber said.

Owen also invited audience members

over to the Scanning Electron Microscopy lab in Lapham Hall for a first hand view of the equipment and to get an up-close look at common allergens such as ragweed pollen, golden rod pollen and cat hair. The microscope used was donated to UWM through a National Science Foundation grant in 2008 and is valued at $600,000 and can magnify up to 800,000 times. The microscope pictures were also displayed on a large projector screen back in the lecture hall so all attendees could get a good look.

The event lasted about 90 minutes and attendees left with a better understanding about how their body works, why it is important to get vaccinations and why they may suffer from allergies. The April Science Bag series is the last one of the spring 2012 semester. The remaining April events will continue to take place every Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 15 at 2 p.m. All Science Bag events are held in room 137 of the Physics building. All of these events are free of charge and open to the public.

Rodriguez and SA Vice President Sana Khan.

“Daniel Laughland is a fucking smug prick,” Grow said in a leaked conversation with Vice President Sana Khan and Rodriguez. “...With the personality of a piece of cardboard.”

Laughland said if that was the worst thing Grow could say about him, he was probably doing a good job.

Grow also called Sen. Michael Ludwig a “pig-faced 28-year-old with no friends and no life.”

In an email to the Post, Grow said, “I regret many of the things that I said about other members of SA. They are not a legitimate expression of how I feel about them. They are words of frustration and exasperation. If those or any of my words offended anyone, I am very deeply sorry.”

Grow also accused President Angela Lang of being in love with him, as well as using all of his ideas.

“The president…is emotionally unstable and pretty awful politically,”

Grow said in a message to Zager.

The anonymous source that leaked the Facebook messages still has not been identified, but Assistant Dean of Students Daniel Kast said the university is launching a Chapter 17 investigation.

Chapter 17 allows the university to investigate and make charges for nonacademic misconduct.

Lang said the message’s substance and content are a bigger issue than the identity of the hacker.

“I’m upset that people aren’t focusing on the bigger issues of racism and sexism and corruption,” Lang said.

In an email response, Grow stressed that hacking was not to be condoned. He expressed sadness over the level someone would go to in order to expose him.

While Grow is still on the ticket for United Panthers, he said, regardless of whether or not UP wins the race, he will no longer be involved in the Student Association in any capacity.

Milwaukee Police Department presence in neighborhoods surrounding UWMilwaukee increased this past weekend, as the recurring Law Enforcement Special Assignment Grant Agreement went into effect for the spring of 2012.

According to documents obtained by The Post via an open records request with the university, the grant allows UWM to reimburse MPD for extra weekend patrols throughout campus area neighborhoods at a rate of one and a half times the top police officer pay rate. It also requires MPD to coordinate the deployment of officers with UWM police, and that information about arrests and citations occurring during the time the grant is in effect is forwarded to the university.

At a university meeting held last Monday to discuss the current grant period, Assistant Dean of Students Daniel Kast spoke on what happens once it reaches his office.

“Every week we get a list from the Milwaukee Police Department, and then we have our staff go through and determine who’s a student and who’s a nonstudent, and then all the students are sent a letter and required to meet with us,” Kast said.

Under the terms of the current agreement, UWM will pay MPD up to $15,000 dollars for as many as four additional officers. The boundaries of the patrol area extend north to Edgewood Avenue, south to Park Place, east to Lake Drive and west to the Milwaukee River.

Officers will patrol campus neighborhoods in teams of two for four-hour periods between 5 p.m. and 4 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

While MPD has control of the officer’s start times, once in their patrol area they are considered non-preemptible, which means they are locked in place barring a major emergency.

The current grant is the latest extension of an agreement that has been in place since 2003 as part of UWM’s initiatives to enhance neighborhood relations. Since that time, grants have been issued to coincide with spikes in UWMarea crime and nuisance complaints occurring at the beginning and the end of the school year.

The spring grant period is traditionally shorter and less costly than its fall counterpart. The fall 2011 grant, for instance, was three weeks longer and $10,000 greater than the grant for spring 2012.

Unlike last fall, however, MPD will enter the spring 2012 semester equipped with four volunteer auxiliary officers, who were sworn in at an MPD District 1 community meeting on March 27.

Afterwards, Captain Stephen Basting told The Post that the auxiliary officers would not be able to issue citations by themselves, though they did have the power to “transfer information” to regular officers.

And at Monday’s university meeting, one of the auxiliary officers, Richard Ippolito, elaborated on his role in campus-area police actions.

“The auxiliary force sort of alleviates the problem of the police actually taking down names. The auxiliary force is going to do that so the police could then go about their business at other parties.

So you may get more in the way of data,” Ippolito said.

That data could prove to be the catalyst that sparks an uptick in Chapter 17 disciplinary actions, an outcome long-sought after by neighborhood residents and echoed by public officials like Alderman Nik Kovac, who told The Post on Monday, “UWM is a great institution. We’re glad they’re here, but they don’t take the quality of life concerns of neighborhoods seriously. That’s less true now, but certainly it was extremely true a couple years ago and is still true now.”

Kovac agreed, however, that the overtime grant was effective and showed a good faith effort on the part of the university to address the concerns of permanent residents. But like many of those residents, he questioned whether repeat offenders were being caught, and, if so, weather UWM was disciplining them appropriately.

UWM Neighborhood Relations Officer Heather Harbach attempted to address those concerns at the overtime grant meeting, telling neighborhood residents and city officials that UWM takes its responsibility to neighborhoods seriously, but for many students, a single warning is often enough.

“I can tell you that there are many students, who when they get the email that says they need to come in to the Dean of Students office, that’s scary. That has an impact,” Harbach said.

For Ippolito, however, UWM’s assurances of reforming its students mean little compared to his newfound ability to reign in order as an auxiliary police officer.

“I want them to spend a night in jail.

Just one night,” Ippolito said. “It won’t happen again.”

6 6

April 09, 2012 April 09, 2012

SPORTS

the uwm post the uwm post

Panthers win second straight home series

UWM wins two out of three over Butler and tallies 32 total runs in the series

Paul Hoenecke leads an offensive outburst this weekend as the Panthers took the series from Butler. Hoenecke collected his 200th hit for his career. Post photo by Zak Wosewick

By Nick Bornheimer Staff Writer sports@uwmpost.com As if putting up 14 runs Thursday wasn’t enough for the red hot UWMilwaukee ball club, Milwaukee scored a season-high 16 runs on 15 hits in their beat-down of Butler Saturday at Henry Aaron Field.

Coming off of a crushing 3-2 loss on Friday, the Panthers (11-17, 6-6 Horizon) tore the leather off of the ball to earn the victory and the series over the Bulldogs (17-15, 6-6 Horizon).

“We did a really good job of keep-

ing pressure on their defense,” UWMilwaukee coach Scott Doffek said.

“We got a lot of stolen bases early, and we really did a good job of hitting the ball hard on the ground instead of easy, lazy fly outs. We forced them into some errors and got quite a few big hits.”

Freshman pitcher Justin Jaquish pitched 4 2/3 innings of relief, giving up just one run and earning his first victory of the season. He also tallied five strikeouts and allowed only four hits.

Junior Will Fadness was a perfect three-for-three at the plate. Tell Taylor was the only starter to not record a hit, but drove in two runs in the contest.

After Butler knotted the game at three runs apiece in the top of the third, Milwaukee unleashed their offense.

UWM scored four runs in the third and added another in the sixth before putting up a total of eight runs in the final two innings Milwaukee batted.

Senior Paul Hoenecke, who usually bats in the three-hole, was switched with junior Jonathan Capasso before the game and batted fifth.

“It’s just something we’re trying out. Hoenecke is just really struggling,” Doffek said. “He is one of the best hitters in this league. He’s just going through a hard thing; everyone will go through it if

Milwaukee Brewers look to continue success minus Fielder Pitching and improved defense will be key

By Eric Engelbart Staff Writer sports@uwmpost.com Milwaukee Brewers fans have been spoiled over the course of the last four MLB seasons. They have seen the Brew Crew reach the postseason twice since 2008, once more than in the franchise’s previous 55 years. The team will look to continue its recent winning ways in 2012 despite the loss of star first basemen Prince Fielder to free agency.

Since Mark Attanasio purchased the Brewers in 2004 and took the reins from Wendy Selig-Prieb, the team has been on a steady incline. Attanasio hired Doug Melvin as his general manager, and Melvin has been practically clairvoyant in his ability to evaluate team needs and acquire the best available

talent. Attanasio has changed the team’s culture by reaching out to the community, establishing new customs while reintroducing old staples (such as the retro-hip bat and ball logo), and most notably putting a winning team on the field every season since 2007.

The tandem of Braun and Fielder have played no small part in the team’s recent success, and maintaining a high level of play in Fielder’s absence will prove difficult. Outside of hired gunslinger C.C. Sabathia’s contributions in 2008, the season in which the Brewers returned to the postseason for the first time since 1982, Braun and Fielder have been the keystone pieces in keeping the Brewers near the top of the NL Central perennially. However, Melvin understands the importance of pitching,

and with last season’s addition of the hermetic ace Zack Greinke through a trade with Royals, the continued growth of homegrown Yovani Gallardo, and the acquisition of regular season hero turned post-season fan scapegoat Shaun Marcum, the team appears ready to sustain its momentum from last year’s postseason campaign.

With Fielder following in his father’s footsteps and taking over first base for the Detroit Tigers for a lucrative deal, the Brewers needed to bolster their offense.

Melvin made an apt move by shipping away underachieving barnacle third basemen Casey McGehee (.223 AVG, 13 HR, 67 RBI, .3 WAR in 2011) and replacing him with one of the top-five offensive third basemen in baseball, Aramis Ramirez (.306

Mike Schneider deals a strike Saturday against Butler Saturday.

Post photo by Zak Wosewick they play long enough. We just thought we’d take a little pressure off of him.

And Jonny has been swinging the bat better, so we just flipped the two.”

The offensive output during Thursday’s game was almost as potent, as Capasso led the way with a four-forsix performance.

It was the game sandwiched in between the two offensive clinics where Milwaukee had some trouble. A threerun inside the park homerun from Mike Hoscheit would be all the Bulldogs needed as they fended off the Panthers 3-2 on Friday.

“We just didn’t make an adjustment

in the box,” Doffek said. “We didn’t get on top of the ball. We hit a lot of lazy fly outs, and we couldn’t really get anything going against [Eric Stout]. He did a good job. We just weren’t able to maximize pressure.”

The Panthers brought the game within one run in the eight, but were sat down in order in the bottom of the ninth.

UWM will finish out their eightgame home stand Wednesday against Wisconsin Lutheran College at 3 p.m. before heading to Dayton, Ohio to take on Wright State in a weekend series.

AVG, 26 HR, 93 RBI, 3.6 WAR). With that significant improvement at the hot corner, the Brewers will only require moderate success from longtime farmhand Matt Gamel, who is taking over for Fielder (.299, 38 HR, 120 RBI, 5.5 WAR) at first base. Coupled with Ramirez’s stats, if the Brewers can get 20+ homeruns and a .270 average from Gamel, they will be able to offset Fielder’s numbers from 2011.

On the defensive side of things, shortstop Alex Gonzalez was picked up via free agency from the Atlanta Braves to replace the sluggish Yuniesky Betancourt. Gonzalez isn’t remarkable in terms of his bat, but is a stellar defensive shortstop. Gonzalez has a stronger arm, better footwork and improved range compared to Betancourt. Ramirez is a slight upgrade defensively at third base.

The Brewers will need Corey Hart to return to his 2010 form and continued production from fan-favorite Nyjer “T-Plush” Morgan at the top of the order. The Brewers also brought in Norichika Aoki, a Japanese outfielder who has won batting titles and gold glove awards for Japan Central League’s Yakult Swallows over the course of an eight year career.

With the loss of Fielder, this year’s incarnation of the Brewers could potentially regress to a third or fourth place team in a strong NL Central. The Brewers’ 2012

success will depend on the starting rotation for keeping in the hunt for October.

Zach Greinke should have improved numbers in his sophomore season with the Crew.

Developing aces Yovani Gallardo and Chris Narveson should both move a step closer to realizing their potential. Shaun Marcum will undoubtedly come back strong and determined to prove his value after his complete October collapse last season. Randy “Big Bad” Wolf will continue to provide veteran leadership while serving as a reliable back of the rotation starter. John Axford and Francisco Rodriguez will continue to be one of the most reliable set up man and closer combos in all of baseball. The vastly improved infield defense will also enhance the pitching statistics and should cause a slight improvement in team ERA. The 2012 Brewers should play more like the Tampa Bay Rays than the New York Yankees, relying on timely hitting and consistent pitching rather than the other way around. Ron Roenicke is an accomplished and effective manager and will have these players motivated to build on last year’s success. The Brewers should win a minimum of 85 games this year, and should be competing for a post-season spot come August and September along with the Central crown.

SPORTS

uwmpost.com

A two-horse race in the East

April 09, 2012 7

Panthers suffer conference set back; remain focused

It’s come down to the Milwaukee Bucks and New York Players break records and look towards end of season tournament Knicks for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference

By Mitch Pratt Staff Writer sports@uwmpost.com

By Zack Garhart Staff Writer sports@uwmpost.com

The end of the season is drawing near and the Eastern Conference playoff picture is becoming clearer. Somehow, the Milwaukee Bucks have crawled back from the dead and found themselves in the thick of the hunt for the ever so coveted eighth seed.

Since the trade in which the Bucks sent fan favorite Andrew Bogut to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for dynamic scoring guard Monta Ellis, the Bucks have been playing fairly well but can’t seem to beat any teams that find themselves higher than they are in the standings.

The Bucks have played four games against teams higher than them in the Eastern Conference standings since the Ellis trade, and have won just once against the Atlanta Hawks on March 27.

On March 22, the Boston Celtics showed the Bucks why they’re a perennial playoff team by playing suffocating defense.

The Indiana Pacers dominated all over the floor against the Bucks on March 24, a game in which backup point guard George Hill was the leading scorer for Indiana.

On March 26, the New York Knicks (aided by their home court) beat the Bucks in a pivotal game for leverage toward the eight seed.

Do the Bucks have the ability to get to the playoffs this year? Yes, they probably do.

Will they?

That’s a different question given that their window is still open but it’s closing quickly.

The UW-Milwaukee women’s tennis team traveled to Cleveland, Ohio on April 7 with the hopes of keeping their undefeated conference record (3-0) alive. While the team did not come away from the highly competitive match with a win, both the players and coach said that positives can be drawn from the in conference play.

“Today definitely showed how, talent wise, we can play with some of the best,” coach Sean McInerney said following the match. “What we didn’t show is that we can maintain that level throughout the two hour period and beat the team.”

The team fell 6-1 to Cleveland State after highly competitive play in both singles and doubles matches.

First doubles, junior Maddy Soule and freshman Christina Colarossi, claimed victory over Cleveland State’s Catrine Bjerrehus and Maria Lazaris 9-8. With the win, Soule and Colarossi sealed their name in UWMilwaukee women’s tennis record books for reaching 21 wins in doubles play during one season.

“Maddy and Christina played great in doubles, especially considering that Cleveland State has one of the best doubles sets in the conference,” McInerney said. He also added that there’s still room for the record to grow in acknowledging that four matches remain on the schedule.

Soule, winning both her doubles and singles matches, shared excitement for the record while recognizing

Ellis hasn’t quite been the differencemaker that many Bucks’ fans might have expected. He’s had the one really standout game against the Hawks but he otherwise seems to be feeling out and trying to fit into Scott Skiles’ system. If nothing else, Ellis has made the Bucks a more exciting team to watch but he’s going to need to score a few more points down the stretch.

No question, the Bucks are in the midst of a critical time in their schedule.

They are being met with a five-game home stand in which they will face the Knicks again on Wednesday for a chance to really see if they’ll be in the playoffs.

It will really come down to a twohorse race between the Bucks and the Knicks.

The Knicks are playing exceptionally well right now. The spike in great play is in correlation to the sudden resignation of coach Mike D’Antoni. They’ve bought into a better brand of basketball. Mike Woodson is not only letting them play

UWM track and field tunes up at mid-week Marquette duel

Panthers face cold temperatures and blistering winds in “The Valley”

By Erika Hanson Staff Writer sports@uwmpost.com

After two prior weekends of sunfilled days of competition, the UWMilwaukee track and field team was thrown into an unfamiliar climate. The location of Marquette’s blue oval boasts a spectacular view of the Milwaukee skyline and a central location in the midst of the city’s most recognizable landmarks. However, it also rests in the middle of “The Valley:” a phenomenon where the winds seem to blow from every direction. That, paired with a 33 degree wind chill, took a toll on the athletes across all events.

Even with the adverse conditions, several UWM athletes posted promising results this early in the outdoor season. Many Panthers brought home golds, claiming a “city title” in their event. Perhaps the most exciting event of the day occurred in the women’s

4x100m race. At the final handoff from senior Calanetta Burrows to freshman Chelsea Maxey, the Golden Eagles and the Panthers were neck in neck.

Maxey had less than 13 seconds to make up the deficit. With a burst of speed and a rush of focus, she managed to edge out the competition, winning the event by a mere hundredth of a second.

Despite amazing races like this, UWM fell short of an overall win on both the men’s and women’s sides.

However, many members of the team were okay with the loss.

“It really was more of a workout rather than a competition. It was a good tune-up for the team and with a lot of people not doing their normal event, we were okay with a loss,” senior polevaulter Courtney Fisher said.

The Panthers return to action this weekend at the Pacesetter Triangular in Terre Haute, Ind.

wide-open and using their obvious talent, he’s gotten them to play at least a little bit of defense here and there and it’s paid off.

The Bucks have slid a bit this year on the defensive end of the floor. They’ve gone from the best defensive team in the league in 2010-2011 to 21st in points allowed.

The absence of shot- blocking Bogut for most of the year, and now forever, has definitely affected the defense’s performance.

However, the Bucks may have found themselves a guy that can protect the basket like Bogut once could in Ekpe Udoh.

Udoh is that one other guy that came from Golden State in the Bogut-Ellis trade that is less talked about. He has shown an ability to block and rebound very well. He also showed some offensive ability in the game against the Washington Wizards last week, where he scored 15 points off the bench.

If they can find their defensive swagger again, they’ll have a fighting chance to find themselves a part of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

the strengths of the duo.

“We play well together and today she really stepped it up when I wasn’t able to,” Soule said. “That’s what makes a good doubles team and I think that we do that for each other.”

Though Colarossi is a freshman and this is their first year playing together, Soule said that she is very comfortable playing with her partner.

Following the record setting win

by Soule and Colarossi in doubles, Megan Gow and Kelly Fritz lost their second doubles set in a closely competitive 8-5 match. Sophomore Chelsea Bailey, second singles, said that although the team lost the match, each court had closely competitive sets.

“It was clear that each individual player on our team had all the right shots,” Bailey said. “We just need to adjust and learn how to channel that level of play throughout the entire match.”

Yet, as McInerney said, seeing his players contend in the same ball park as a talented Cleveland State team was certainly a positive that will be carried into next week’s road conference matchups against Butler and Wright State.

“We’re currently qualified for a spot in the conference championship tournament at the end of the season and if we sweep next week then we are guaranteed a top three seed,” McInerney said. “We’ve never been that high seeded in school history.”

8

fringe

April 09, 2012

the uwm post

The art of ruling the night

All photos copyright of Weekend Natives

The rise of Weekend Natives and the rebranding of Milwaukee’s club culture

By Aaron Knapp Features Editor fringe@uwmpost.com

A year ago, Michael-Bryan ByersDent had hit rock-bottom.

Since recently dropping out of UWMilwaukee, where he dabbled in a number of subjects including graphic design, illustration and film, he had lost his job, his apartment and without money, he was moving back to his parents’ basement near Madison.

At this moment, a friend of his offered to pay him $50 to photograph people at a one-year anniversary party she was throwing for her company at a bar in Milwaukee.

For Byers-Dent, that was a turning point.

“Right then and there, after that night ended, I was like ‘holy shit, that was fun. I wonder if this could actually work as a business,’” he said. “And it seemed like it could, so I decided that I should do another event.”

That night inspired Byers-Dent, 22, to start what he would come to call Weekend Natives, a company that has come to play a major role in Milwaukee’s club scene.

While most people think of Weekend Natives as a group of photographers that are at bars and clubs around Milwaukee

virtually every night of the week, ByersDent says that photography is only a small piece of what the company does, analogizing it to the tip of an iceberg.

“A lot of companies hire us to not only come in and take pictures, but help them rebrand their business,” ByersDent explained. “So, a lot of what we do is marketing, graphic design and art – it’s much more than just the pictures that people see.”

Byers-Dent’s name for what his work is “party production,” explaining how he and his company network with bars, liquor distilleries and brewers, DJ’s and other players to organize an event, while also planning, marketing and promoting events, in addition to photographing the events.

The best events for Byers-Dent are the ones where he is given complete control to do all of those tasks in whatever way he sees fit, such as last month’s Pon De Floor, at Dicks Pizza and Pleasure, which offered free Three Olives mixers and featured music by Milwaukee-native DJ’s Chris Vrakas and Kid Cut Up. “They hired me to just run with it, so I did,” he said. “I branded the night, I had Kid Cut Up and Chris [Vrakas] in there, did the social media advertising and marketing, did the flier design, and then did all of the photos for it … I prefer that. I prefer having something that’s

part of me that I work on.

Byers-Dent has been learning and perfecting the skills to run Weekend Natives even before he got to high school.

He started a blog on Xanga in junior high, and once he started to get more than 30,000 hits on his blog per week, he began it as more than just an outlet to share his experiences.

“I stopped thinking of it as sharing and more as telling a story, and thought of it as more of a business,” he said.

In addition to rewriting the HTML code on his blog to make it his own design, Byers-Dent began to photograph bands at concerts he went to, which eventually turned into bands requesting him to come their concerts and take their photos, which also led high school seniors to ask him to take their photos.

By the time he came to UWM, photography had become stale and he was anxious to move on to new things, but he was far more fascinated by Milwaukee’s night life than doing well in school.

“I came to school to continue the route of business and all that jazz, but found myself in art and found myself kind of not driven. I wasn’t ready for school,” Byers-Dent said. “I wasn’t interested in doing better in school. I was interested in doing better in life, and for some odd reason that meant partying.”

He dropped out during his fifth semester and things went from bad to worse. He had been promoting events for local bars on Facebook in exchange for free beer, but that could not sustain him when he lost his job working security.

It was not until that $50 photography job for his friend’s party that he gained a new vision. Although the beginning was rough and he lived in his car for four months, he reconnected with friends at local bars offering to plan, promote and photograph events.

Now, Weekend Natives is a force to be reckoned with in Milwaukee’s nightlife and even offers consulting and rebranding services to local bars and clubs.

“When new businesses get created they need help, and if I can help them then I help them, because then in the future they turn around and book me again and that’s growing my business,” Byers-Dent said. “But at the same time, it’s good to create new friends, and Oak’s Lounge is going to be a new friend,” referencing a new club in the Third Ward that celebrated its grand opening on Saturday with Weekend Natives’ help.

Within five months, Byers-Dent plans to launch a new arts and culture website, based in Milwaukee, which will give insight on up and coming music, art and trends nationwide, what

he describes as a combination between Pitchfork and Vice, while also producing much larger events with numerous bands on numerous stages, like the 414 Party Weekend Natives is hosting on Saturday, a 12 hour outdoor party on the corner of Oakland and North, featuring five musical performers.

“The future of Weekend Natives is a content-based website that hopefully one day turns into print with articles, exclusive videos with DJ’s that we bring to Turner Hall and Riverside Theater… content-based and party productions but on a larger scale,” he explained.

Although he typically works 1012 hour days in his studio space off of Oakland and North in addition to four or five events a week, consuming 100 ounces of Red Bull per day to accomplish it (even before getting a Red Bull sponsorship), the whole business earns Byers-Dent little more than he needs to pay his bills. However, making money is not the primary objective for him.

“There’s really not much luxury in what I do other than the people I get to meet and the connections that I’ve made, and being a part of something in Milwaukee, which is just brilliant,” he said. “That is really the great thing about what I do – it’s not the money, it’s being part of something.”

fringe

uwmpost.com

April 09, 2012

9

“It’s going to be a summer of love” Sat. Nite Duets’ Summer of Punishment basks in greatness

By Kevin Kaber Assistant Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com Summer of Punishment has been available for streaming for quite some time now. However, this week (April 10, that is) marks the “official” release of MKE act Sat. Nite Duet’s latest album – an album that I can honestly say has accompanied a many of my weekends off (read: drinking escapades).

SND has a certain aura about it. Not only does each member appear to be nothing but typical (in the sense of your fellow Riverwest-y neighbor – beardy, capable of playing music, drinks, etc.), but they also produce a sort of downto-earth mysticism, whereas they’re the type that garage bands aspire to be – not

merely on a level of musicianship, but also on a level of cool.

Punishment opens with an introduction regular to most other rock albums; “Collegiate Metal Freak” is like an album liner mixed with the album’s expectations (“…Saturday mornings with omelets and hangovers… and bubblegum”), speeding up to an underground garage band-like opening, which, despite its quirky lyricism, sounds quite a bit different from what follows.

From there on, Punishment takes on a Pavement-type feel, so much so that the album’s ode to the nineties is uncanny, let alone awesome. It’s as if SND had been making music 20 years ago, only to surface today. The grungy tones of tracks like “Genghis Kahn” and “Off the Chain” will attest to this. The

nostalgic feel to the album shouldn’t be its main cornerstone; SND easily add an indie dimension unique to the last five-or-so years.

With its coming-to-age sensibilities and instantly catchy melodies, Punishment also has a successful sense of mediocrity to it. While several band members share vocal responsibilities, it’s safe to say that their low, shaky voices haven’t been classically trained, easily paving the way for more emphasis on their idiosyncratic lyricism and driving guitars. As brought up in “Way Behind My Age Group:” “There are things I believe / like that every girl is really mean / and that moms will cry / if and when their sons do weird drugs” All the while, a chaotic piano pulses away, leading to a speeding and fluctuating

A hidden history Jenni Olson exposes transgender images in film

By Steven Franz Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com The lesson on display at Jenni Olson’s “We Who Are Sexy: The Whirlwind History of Transgender Images in Cinema” was quite simple: the depiction of transgendered individuals is incredibly complex. That is to say that Olson, a film historian, director (“In my other life, I’m an experimental documentary filmmaker,” she said, grinning), blogger and outspoken LGBT activist, was making the point that the ways in which transgendered, transsexual or gender-queer characters have been portrayed in the cinema since its silent dawn are as complicated, subtle and ever-changing as the varieties of very real transgendered identities that inspired or terrified those who felt the need to put their eye to the camera lens.

The presentation, an hour-plus multimedia essay and clipshow curated by Olson and her partner Susan Stryker

(who, despite being quoted plentifully

by Olson with regard to many of the films up for discussion, could not attend) that was featured as one of the LGBT Film & Video Festival’s ongoing monthly screenings, was more a history lesson than anything else.

Composed of trailers, selected film clips, one DVD special-feature documentary clip and even Hilary Swank’s Best Actress Oscar acceptance speech (for her performance in Boys Don’t Cry), “We Who Are Sexy,” which was also the title of one of the films on display, was a multimedia essay narrated as much by the sheer presence of many of the clips as much as it was by Olson’s engaging, intermittent narration and commentary.

The clips themselves were cobbled together from a variety of films, in content, intent and quality, that LGBT Film Festival curator (and UWM Film Department faculty member) Carl Bogner described as “bits of film history that would never otherwise be on display at the Union

Theatre” (in spite of Olson’s sly encouragement that Bogner screen the documentary classic Paris is Burning, the outstandingly sassy trailer for which was part of the program). The proceedings were divided into five sections, each covering a different era or subject; the first, for example, was a run-through of early cinema’s comedic usage of men in dresses and women in suits and the anxieties they represented. Clips were shown out of both seriousness and irony, some used to highlight specific issues and flawed representations – i.e. Buffalo Bill’s famous The Cure-soundtracked dance sequence from Silence of the Lambs, which Olson lamented wasn’t protested fiercely enough by the trans community – some to reinforce positive images – a beautiful clip from the Japanese film Summer Vacation 1999 in which several androgynous young men lament the death of a wasp – and some out of sheer kitsch, including titles like John Waters’ infamous divine-starring exploitation farce Female Trouble.

guitars and a cadence of “oh’s.”

Most of the tracks, and even the album at large for that matter, rely heavily on an immediately memorable bass melody, which will always be found bumbling around in the background, providing the backbone to the song’s vocals and light guitars. This much can be said of “Of Age,” a song that begins with shambling vocals and a bumpy bass guitar: “Dust off your sitar / it’s going to be a summer of love.”

“Of Age” is likely one of the album’s strongest songs. With a slew of instrumentation that varies in its flamboyance, the song is instantly jam-able, causing any listener to bob his or head along with its humbleness.

As seen in their homegrown video for the EP One Nite Only’s “All Nite

Long,” Sat. Nite Duets is a peculiar band. Between slamming down Four Lokos and appearing naked, the band obviously likes to have a good time… and share one as well. Summer of Punishment effortlessly provides such fun, and with its happy-go-lucky feel and music, the album will probably be ranking high around the band’s hometown of Milwaukee.

Sat. Nite Duets is definitely a band any Milwaukeean should keep on his or her radar. The band plays an incredibly fun bar show for a crowd regardless of its intoxication level or appreciation of indie and or local music. As the band says, “There’s only one drug / it’s called life and we’re all on it.”

In between spurts of bizarreness and beauty, Olson, the diminutive, wise-looking editor of the LGBT blog Butch.org, devoted her most interesting time to exposing the subtle troubles involved with many films that have traditionally been hailed as positive, or that had been intended as empowering only to end up being patronizing. The cult classic Hedwig and the Angry Inch, for example, long hailed as an affirmative and progressive depiction of transsexuality (and admittedly one of Olson’s favorite films), was described (and demonstrated) to possess the potentially troubling message that one gender must be preferable over the other, and the satisfaction of the main character’s story occurs only after he firmly commits to being a gay male.

She also described a sequence from Boys Don’t Cry in which Swank’s male character Brandon Teena has sex with Chloë Sevigny’s Lana Tisdel after being raped, a misguided scene (that Swank refused to participate in) that was born of director Kimberly Peirce’s mistaken assumption that Teena was a lesbian.

The point of the night was less deep education than it was the general overview of transgender history (“When I say ‘transgender,’ I mean that in the broadest and most inclusive way possible,” Olson clarified) on the silver screen, but Olson, a witty, engaging, delightfully vulgar speaker, still man-

aged to dig at some important truths of which many in the mostly-LGBT audience were unaware. There was also an arcane element to the proceedings, as many of the films were only discovered through intense, somewhat unrelated research (Susan Stryker uncovered more than one while researching Christine Jourgenson, the first person to undergo a sex change operation, and who the misguided Christine Jorgensen Story, included in the program, was about) and others – many trailers, for instance – were a part of Olson’s own collection of VHS tapes and 16mm reels and are unavailable either on DVD or the internet.

The fact that the Union Theatre audience was only the third to have experienced “We Who Are Sexy” therefore became significant, as did Olson’s role as a cataloger of the rare. Were it not for her vast knowledge on the subject, as well as her strident efforts to possess many works of art that are either out-of-print or lost to time, the wealth of information contained within them may realistically have never come to light. And for that, as well as her invigorating and informative program, she deserves all the credit in the world.

LGBT Film & Video Festival screenings are held monthly, both on-campus and off. For more information visit the festival’s website at ht t p://w w w4.uw m.edu /psoa /f ilm / lgbtfilmfestival.

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fringe

April 09, 2012

the uwm post

Now showing at a theater near you A look at what’s to come at UWM’s Union Theatre

Cuba’s first zombie flick, Juan of the Dead is exactly what it sounds like.

By Kevin Kaber Assistant Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com The UWM Union Theatre is one of the most notable and diverse movie theaters in the entire country, but it can be easy to overlook, in the context of studies and the day-

to-day bustle of the UWM campus. Every week, the staff at the UWM Post provides a brief guide to the theater’s most notable titles, in an effort to encourage students to make the most of this unique and vibrant resource.

This week marks the beginning of the 34th Annual Latin American Film Series.

One of the Union Theatre’s longest running festivals, the LAFS brings in over a week’s worth of great films from Latin America.

All screenings are free and are subtitled in English.

Land (Tierra) (Wednesday, 7 p.m.)

Though the threat of American military imperialism and colonialism is now an af-

terthought, an American takeover of beautiful Nicaraguan landscapes has and will continue to loom. Land documents the struggles between picturesque Nicaraguan villas and land developers, most of whom hail from the States. Many of the developers work with the locals, providing jobs and promises of adding electricity and schools to the region; however,

some locals find these terms to be nothing but false hopes. Though not technically a part of the LAFS lineup, director Julian Pinder’s has just as much placement within it as it does in the Share the Earth Environmental Film Series.

Norberto’s Deadline (Norberto apenas tarde) (Friday, 7 p.m.)

Noberto is a timid loser. Having just lost his job and on the verge of losing his next occupation as a real estate agent (a job he kept secret from his wife), Noberto is forced into trying his hand in therapy to cure his timidity.

However, the loser ends up in a theater class instead, causing him to find his true passion as a comedic actor. Directed by Uruguayan actor Daniel Hendler, Norberto’s Deadline is every bit filled with wit as it is with inspiration.

Juan of the Dead (Juan de los muertos) (Saturday, 9 p.m.)

Billed as Cuba’s first zombie film, Juan of the Dead is just as its title implies. Fifty years after the Cuban Revolution during a worldwide zombie apocalypse (thought by the Cuban government to have been caused by American biological warfare), titular character Juan and his close friend form a business that would have a sure fit in any Romero or Argento movie. Their service simply acts as a means of killing the zombie relatives of any paying family. Director Alejandro Brugués’ captures the right kind of gore and humor all the while brilliantly poking fun at CubanAmerican relations.

Lost in the clouds

Bear in Heaven lose sight of what works

By Samantha Radle Staff Writer fringe@uwmpost.com Bear in Heaven seems to have gotten lost en route from their previous releases, 2007’s Red Bloom of the Boom and 2009’s Beast Rest Forth Mouth. Even the title of their latest, I Love You, It’s Cool, seems to imply a newly disinterested attitude, and the album itself is a mediocre tangle of synths, guitars and overdone psychedelia.

The album’s opener, “Idle Heart,” has a breathless, spacey air with heavy percussion and a relentless beat. It’s cool and detached, and seems like the sort of first track found on those albums that rise exponentially

with every track. Unfortunately, it’s an empty promise.

“Reflection of You” seems to bring the music back down to earth without slowing its pace at all. The electronics crackle and sweep behind lead singer and instrumentalist Jon Philpot’s echoing, reserved voice. The songs seem meant for the dance floor, but maybe not a typical dance floor. It’s hard to say where exactly they’d fit in – there’s a sense of wide open spaces and adventure, but it seems more like adventure filtered through 3D glasses or daydreams. If Philpot’s talking to anyone in his lyrics, it’s himself or an imaginary girlfriend.

“Noon Moon,” despite its gritty guitar, doesn’t quite find its footing, and it soon becomes clear that the major flaw of I Love You,

It’s Cool is its lack of direction. Though typically around four minutes each, the songs don’t seem to have enough room to breathe, or maybe their contents are just too cramped.

The electronics add an influence part ‘70s psychedelic and part MGMT, but overused, they start to lose their spacey effect. With heavier guitar and less vocals, “Sinful Nature” branches out at the end, and “Cool Light” sounds exactly like you’d expect. It’s hard to think of a song called “Cool Light” as possibly being too literal, but somehow it is. Also, Philpot’s vocals sound uncannily like those in Phoenix. Not saying that’s good or bad, just throwing it out there.

At first “Kiss Me Crazy” sounds basically like a cross between Animal Collective and

MGMT, though without Animal Collective’s offbeat charm and MGMT’s smarmy confidence. It gets bogged down in the chorus though, and never quite recovers. In fact, that’s Bear in Heaven in a nutshell - it’s like all the ingredients for a psychedelic indie rock band are there, but it’s missing some exotic spice that makes it noteworthy and original.

“World of Freakout” sounds way too wellgroomed and glossy to actually live up to its title. Like the other tracks, it has a strong beginning, but ends up getting weighted down under layers of synths, mild vocals, and production - maybe that’s what makes the album sound like virtual reality that's trying too hard to look real, like a bad actor in a made-forTV movie on SyFy, running unconvincingly

from budget CGI pterodactyls except not as amusing.

“Space Remains” sounds like it’s coming from inside an Atari, if a million people were all playing Asteroids at once. This is its redeeming feature. I Love You, It’s Cool ends with “Sweetness & Sickness,” and it’s a good song – the smoky, half-sung vocals are soft and take a backseat to the music, which sounds vaguely tribal and mysterious. One gets the sense that Bear in Heaven wants to go more in that direction, that it’s aware of how over-saturated its alien landscapes are, and that it just wants to come back to Earth.

If they’re attempting to go in a new direction, good for them – but they’ve apparently lost their way somewhere in the clouds.

fringe

uwmpost.com

Back to the future

Cornmeal takes bluegrass for a joy ride

By Graham Marlowe Assistant Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com Shank Hall’s ‘80s comedy club décor was an unusual background for Chicago’s progressive bluegrass titans, Cornmeal, Thursday night, as an impressive opener and an almost mystical exploratory vibe made for an unforgettable night of roots music.

In mid-‘70s America, a hard-driving bluegrass-gone-rock-and-roll sound grew popular thanks to the forceful musicianship of Southern rockers like The Outlaws, and because of such influence, Cornmeal’s ability to expand on that format is why they still fill modest venues with eager crowds.

The quintet’s generally glowstick free bluegrass was presaged by Yorkville, Illinois’ The Giving Tree Band, one of the more eco-friendly of today’s folksier jam bands, who received a boisterous ovation for their exceptional performance. Interspersing proto-jam artifacts like The Band’s “I Shall Be Released” and The Grateful Dead’s “Brown-Eyed Women” with a batch of rough-hewn originals, it’s a wonder how all seven of them found room onstage to rip through the songs with such twangy dynamism.

“Brown-eyed women and red grenadine / The bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean / sound of the thunder with the rain pourin’ down / And it looks like the old man’s gettin’ on.”

Sung with the mostly bearded, unadorned stage presence of its members, this refrain adhered to the night’s theme of open-air jubilance, and bore witness to the septet’s colorful grasp of

American folk-rock.

In front of trippy tapestries, the band played like a young and hungry version of Railroad Earth, one of the scene’s universally adored bluegrass acts whose contemporary style and influence also carried over to the headliner later on. TGTB exude an exciting and confident style, and it was refreshing to hear songs like “Early to Bed” and “Caged Lion” stand out to an audience accustomed to stereotypes.

Around 10:30 p.m., the spotlight moved to Cornmeal, whose set took on the spirit of a wild and crazy night on the American frontier. From the opening chords of the trailblazing “Midnight” (from 2003’s Tales from Magic Stone Mountain), their set epitomized their distinctively Midwestern appeal. This was topped off by their longtime preference for Texas swing and the blitzkrieg pace of Bill Monroe’s legendary bluegrass, both of which inevitably led the band down trance-y, new-age paths where at times the unexpected felt more comforting than a song’s casual chord progressions.

The setlist was shorter on songs than customary, though only because the quintet’s ballsy improvisations brought most tunes beyond the 10- and 20-minute mark. Well-worn grooves like “Troubled Land” and “On My Own” came replete with Frank Zappa’s sinewy psychedelia (courtesy of Kris and JP Nowak on guitar and drums) and red-hot fiddle shredding from the stocky and photogenic Allie Kral.

Despite a strong preference for double-time and breakneck tempos, the ensemble toggled back and forth from electric to acoustic themes frequently,

and at the simple shrug or smile of an adjacent band member. Just as they did in “Onward” and “Shelter,” songs with tamer, more traditional cores,

April 09, 2012 were stretched out through a series of lengthy, picturesque Allman Brothers melodies.

Ticketholders spun around and around a blissful jubilee that soon looked like a moonshiner’s libertarian fantasy. Dimmed-dark swaths of tiedye, denim and earth tones shifted with the music’s left and right turns.

Of all the modern bluegrass acts doing unique things, the tendency for Cornmeal is to take their instrumen-

11

tal virtuosity as far out as possible. At times they push forward so hard that for all its deceptive beauty, one can’t help but wonder what allows them to operate on this level so unflinchingly.

Exasperation sometimes follows life’s biggest thrills, but at 12:45 a.m. the band looked as if the venue’s curfew had stifled their inner desires. Kris Nowak’s squinty-eyed grin of admiration and fatigue was the last we saw after the all-too-short encore.

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the uwm post

April 09, 2012

EDITORIAL The following piece represents the views of the Editorial Board of THE UWM POST. The editorial board is not affiliated with the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and these views do not represent the views of the university.

From the ground up

LETTERS

TO THE EDITOR

All of us at THE UWM POST want to hear what you think and welcome your letters to the Editor. Feel free to comment about articles, opinions or anything you find in our weekly issues. Send your letters in an email to letters@uwmpost.com. In your submission indicate whether or not you wish to remain anonymous.

Creating the world Rush To save student government we must first destroy it Limbaugh doesn’t want to see It has been said, and is quite possibly true, that nothing reaffirms the democratic process so much as an election. Unfortunately nothing undermines it so much as a UW-Milwaukee Student Association election.

While we would prefer to have the election delayed until the results of the most recent rounds of university investigations into the SA office have been concluded, those with the power to suspend the campus-wide vote to elect next year’s stewards of over nine million dollars in student money have chosen to ignore the latest screeching train wreck and start printing ballots.

And why shouldn’t they? What’s going on in the SA right now that isn’t normal? In fact, when stacked against past scandals, the personal and political destruction of severely misguided human beings through possibly illegal means coupled with the coarse antics of a highprofile freakshow comes across as a rather pedestrian affair.

Even so, we admit it’s tempting to sit out the election this week just to spite the bastards. However, it’s wise to remember that the SA is powered by spite, and voter apathy is a big part of what got us in the mess in the first place.

With that in mind, we believe it to be our duty to endorse Allied Student Voice’s Dan Laughland and Tereza Pelicaric for SA president and vice president, respectively. Not only are they the sole candidates yet unmarred by the misconduct of student politics, they have shown themselves to be dutiful public servants. In addition to these, which are really quite refreshing considering what we’ve seen from the SA lately, they also seem to possess an admirable measure of common decency – a character trait which we find lacking in politicos overseeing all levels of government.

To be fair, we believe United Panthers presidential candidate Rick Banks also possesses these qualities, and overlooking all he’s accomplished while in SA to vote against him is no easy task. But we feel that in light of the revelations into the character of his hand-picked running mate, we could not in good conscience

endorse him for chief executive, fearing any potential misjudgments he could make while in office.

It should be noted, however, that though we are resigned to legitimize this whole disgraceful affair by backing a ticket, our endorsement is not an implicit approval of the Student Association. Far from it. In fact, despite what we’d like to think will be earnest and hard work from the next leaders of the Student Association, we find it hard to believe it could ever be close to what is needed to marginalize corruption and make the SA a functional and meaningful organization to the tens of thousands of students who rely on it for representation.

The Student Association has proven time and time again that the cronyism and self-serving agendas are not the issues of a few bad seeds, but rather a systemic and cultural issue encompassing the organization itself. The rot goes all the way to the root. The best thing Laughland and Pelicaric can do is dismantle it.

We understand the magnitude of what we are suggesting; the level of student involvement it would take is ten times what we see for even the most exciting campus proposals. But it can be done. UW-Madison did exactly this in 1992, when the students voted to disband the Wisconsin Student Association after many of the same scandals. They spent the next year without a student government, but in 1994, the Associated Students of Madison were founded.

There were many problems with the way rebuilding was handled in Madison; the referendum to dissolve the government had only a four percent voter turnout, the WSA spent much of the year stagnant and the Post even joked that they “couldn’t find a bridge to jump off,” and most importantly, in our opinion, ASM is no improvement. The intervening decades have allowed the new ideas of shared governance to collapse into the same tired scandal and self-service, and students there are just as disenfranchised as us.

What will make the difference are students. If this is a process that is orga-

nized and run by few with the input and experiences of only a small group shaping it, it is bound by its very nature to only serve the interests of those few and is not better than what we have now. As we have experienced ourselves, convincing students to come to the table for often dry and unexciting, albeit important, tasks is no easy matter.

It is here that we also owe an apology; it was our original intent to run a list of endorsements in this space, not only for the presidential office, but for the dozens of senators who run in near anonymity and receive very little recognition. Due to the politics of last week, it quickly became impossible to interview all 45 senators running for contested seats, but to the handful we did interview; we are sorry.

Many of you seemed not only genuinely interested in serving students, but also intelligent and thoughtful, exactly what the SA needs more of. Unfortunately, history suggests that most of you who really do care will become frustrated at the politics and vitriol and leave the senate before your term is up. It is you, precisely because you have so much potential, that we entreat to go just a little further for your causes. Demand that your voice be heard without the weight of the SA’s history of scandal and divisiveness.

There is no guarantee that dissolving the SA will lead to more inclusive governance, and there is some surety that it will be arduous and difficult. However, there is a hard guarantee that if we do nothing, nothing can be expected to change. If we continue to contribute only the minimum, then we guarantee we will all continuously be led by self-serving egomaniacs who seek personal prosperity.

Tearing down the current Student Association and replacing it from the ground up is with a system of self-determination more inclusive, responsive, competent and honest than what came before is the rare goal that’s both expansive and admirable, while at the same time behind practical and possible. The only drawback is, for us to succeed, the work must be perpetual. Complacency is its cancer. Dismantling the SA is the easy part, the real work starts after.

Republican lawmakers continue to push for antiwomen legislation There is a war being waged on American women, and it is escalating. Rush Limbaugh and his pals, with their “slut shaming” comments about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, are only one piece of a much broader attack.

In Virginia, Texas, Illinois, Alabama and elsewhere, Republican lawmakers are pushing legislation to shame women seeking abortions by forcing them to receive ultrasounds before they are permitted to receive the procedure. In Kansas, these laws will go an additional step by allowing doctors to lie to their female patients without the threat of malpractice lawsuits – so long as they think the lies could dissuade women from seeking abortions. In New Hampshire and Arizona, these laws would also instruct doctors to tell their patients that abortion causes breast cancer, a theory debunked by the American Cancer Society, among others.

Right here in Wisconsin, Republican legislators are pushing legislation that will make employers less accountable for discrimination against women (and other marginalized groups), and State Sen. Glenn Grothman (R - West Bend) recently made national headlines by proposing a law that will classify single mothers as child abusers.

All of this comes on the heels of a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found that one in five American women has been raped in their lifetime, one in four has survived severe physical violence from a partner, and one in six has been stalked in a manner that made her fear being harmed or killed. Another study, by Boston University, found that one in five pharmacies attempts to deny young women access to emergency contraception.

Speaking out against Limbaugh is not enough to stem this assault. Even with the fallout among his advertisers, Limbaugh has established that women who speak publicly about their reproductive health will be subject to public ridicule. After all, even Republican front-runner Mitt Romney took issue only with Limbaugh’s choice of words, not the content of his message.

That is why we are proposing a vending machine for Plan B (“the morning after pill”) on UW-Milwaukee’s campus. As a community and a place of learning, UWM should take a clear stand that establishes a respect for women’s health and flatly rejects attaching any stigma or shame to it.

It is time to stand up for women’s rights. This means opposing sexist legislation, sexist institutions and public displays of sexist behavior. It also means being proactive and creating the world Rush Limbaugh doesn’t want to see.

Dawson Barrett, Beth Robinson, Kyle Schulz, Jessica Hodkiewicz, Jacob Rohde, Courtney Herrick, Greg Greenya and Emily Bunzel are activists in the organizations Act Everywhere and the Positive Body Project.

FEATURED PHOTO

EDITORIAL BOARD Zach Erdmann Editor-in-Chief

Mike La Count Managing Editor

Steve Garrison News Editor

Steve Franz Fringe Editor

Jeremy Lubus Sports Editor

William Bornhoft Editorial Editor, Chair

The emergency SA Senate meeting held on April 6 was canceled when it failed to meet quorom.

Post photo by Sierra Riesberg

uwmpost.com

OP-ED

April 09, 2012 13

Spin the black circle Did somebody say Record Store Day keeps independent spirit alive

free healthcare?

MTV and Planned Parenthood partner up for GYT

By Natalia Koss Vallejo Columnist editorial@uwmpost.com

By David Rangel Columnist editorial@uwmpost.com Though it may be a bit early, music fans and collectors are getting ready for the internationally-celebrated occasion that is Record Store Day. It’s a special day in the world of music where people pay homage to the dying but still important brick and mortar record stores that still offer tangible products. Now, many serious fans and music buyers already know that the big day falls on the third Saturday of April. For those not yet in the know, I implore you to step away from the cold, mundane world of music downloading on April 21 and visit a local record store. Step into the world of preinternet music buying and participate in the hunt for that hard-to-find gem that’s only available on vinyl or CD. Though not an official holiday, Record Store Day can be like Christmas to music collectors. It’s a day that the true spirit of the music buying experience brings fans together for a ritual that has been all but

lost to the past. Fans and artists realize the importance and fun of coming together for all that is music. Record Store Day features bands both obscure and world famous playing sets in the intimate setting of record store aisles.

Artists in many genres of music record special limited version vinyl records, CDs and feature other merchandise specifically for the occasion.

Special releases have been recorded by artists like independent band Great Lakes Swimmers to some of the biggest acts in music including Bruce Springsteen and Fleetwood Mac. Fans often get the chance of seeing special performances, appearances and meet and greets from artists that may be huge, but humble enough to participate in a modest celebration of the medium that they work in.

Record Store Day is not only about the music and the merchandise for sale, but also the sense of fellowship that music fans experience. People gather together to talk music with each other and with the knowledgeable clerks that are some of the last hold-outs in a market that is now dom-

inated by cyberspace. The independent feeling is all around. People who understand the independent spirit talk shop like “trekkies” at a Star Trek convention. Though obsolete to much of the general public, independent record stores have been a haven for some of today’s biggest and smallest independent bands.

From its humble beginning in 2007, Record Store Day now has more than 1,400 independent record stores from the USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada and over 25 other countries.

The level of participation suggests that the old brick and mortar record store is still a relevant and needed entity within music culture. For those only familiar with buying music online, try an independent record store. See if you don’t get wrapped up in rummaging through the many colors and photos of the recordings that may be the soundtracks to your life. Bring home an obscure musical find and help keep the independent record store from undeserved extinction.

Head cold, head case

How habits hold us

By Krislyn World Columnist editorial@uwmpost.com

William James is commonly referred to as the father of American psychology. James was pointing out that, though we give habits little thought, they define our lives: how much we eat, save or spend, how often we trek to the gym and what we say to our kids each night.

But these compulsions aren’t inscribed in our genes or wired into the brain at birth. Scientists are discovering that habits are simply an extreme form of learning, a behavior that’s so familiar we no longer need to think about it.

Effective commercials show how people can be quickly trained to do something new and then keep doing it. The secret, it turns out, is the quick combo of memory cues and rewarding experience.

Charles Duhigg recounts in his book The Power of Habit that Febreze, a product to reduce bad odors, underperformed in early tests and was in

danger of being canceled. Consumers couldn’t fathom what the product was for, nor how to use it. Febreze didn’t become popular until Proctor & Gamble marketed and campaigned based on habit formations.

Febreze commercials featured homemakers performing chores, making beds or mopping kitchens and then spritzing a little scented Febreze into the air or directly onto objects. The spritz was always followed by a big smile. Ten years later, my mother always warns if I get something second hand, to wash and Febreze the item really well before I consider putting it on my person. Febreze is a law in her household.

What’s most interesting is that instead of focusing on removing bad smells, the ads set up Febreze as the reward for a bout of cleaning, satisfying the desire to make things smell nice and not just look good. The ads taught consumers a new habit. Before long, the product was a bestseller.

Today, my shelves are stocked with various kinds of scented Febreze.

Now we can see how the habits

take hold in our brains. At Georgia Health Sciences University, it was proven that mutant strains of mice were capable of developing new habits. When ordinary mice quickly developed the habit of pressing a lever to get food pellets, they began to overeat.

The mutant mice stopped pressing the lever as soon as they felt full. Duhigg has also shown through research that younger mice brains have significantly more receptors, which is why they absorb new information and acquire new routines so much more rapidly.

William James would appreciate this research. As he pointed out, the intelligence of humans is inseparable from our reliance on habits, the most mindless of behaviors.

That’s because they let us reserve brainpower for those things that can’t be predicted in advance, those situations without relevant cues. Those are the circumstances that we actually need to think about. We have habits for everything else.

This April, Planned Parenthood facilities all across the country are partnering with MTV to bring you and everyone you know free STD testing. They’re calling it “Get Yourself Tested” month, or GYT, and if you’ve never done it before (because, let’s face it, it can be scary) this is your chance.

Even if you are not insured or wouldn’t normally qualify for state government assistance like BadgerCare or Title X, Planned Parenthood guarantees that you will be seen by a healthcare professional and can be tested for Chlamydia, gonorrhea and HIV. Now if you’re thinking to yourself, “doesn’t Planned Parenthood already offer free healthcare services?” the answer is yes, most of their clinics can either get your services covered through the Medicaid Family Planning Waiver or operate on a sliding scale based on your income. For most students with a limited income, this means that on any visit to Planned Parenthood, the staff will do everything they can to help you get care at a cost that you can afford. This month, however, it’s a sure thing.

It’s hard to believe that an organization that does so much to protect the public health has come under fire (literally, fire)

lately. A health clinic in Appleton this past Sunday was the target of a laughably ineffective attempt to intimidate staff and clients.

Francis Grady, an ex-con whose crimes include cocaine possession and drug dealing, poured some gasoline from a plastic bottle into a clinic window and attempted to light it on fire. The fire went out on its own before the fire department arrived on the scene, and Grady left so much evidence behind that he was apprehended within days. This conservative maniac was about as savvy as the burglars from the movie Home Alone.

His actions, while clumsy and idiotic, were designed to scare people away from getting the care that they need. This kind of zealotry is not just an attack on Planned Parenthood, it’s also an attack on the rights of young people and the uninsured: people like many students here at UWM, who rely on Planned Parenthood’s compassionate care and affordable services like contraception, cancer screenings, counseling and sex education. The fact is, one in two sexually active youth will be infected with an STD before the age of 25, and there are people like Francis Grady out there who are willing to go to jail to prevent us from making informed decisions about our own sexual health. Prove him wrong. GYT.

Postmodern truth

Our ‘free press’ isn’t reporting on what matters

By Joe Ford Columnist editorial@uwmpost.com People, we have a problem - a problem with these phony ‘free market’ capitalists taking all our money trashing our planet and ruining our society.

They’re trying to weaken the regulations that protect us and strengthen the regulations that protect them.

Take a good look at the proposed regulation/deregulation legislation coming down the pipe. Listen to the regulation/deregulation trope republican presidential pretenders are promising to “pass when I’m elected.”

Loosen environmental regulations and let business make money. Tighten recall requirements. Loosen air and water quality standards but stop letting people sue corporations. In fact, stop citizen oversight and potential influence altogether. And bankruptcy’s out unless you’re a billion dollar multi-national.

Industry and the rich get served, citizens get screwed.

The Reg-Dereg Dance.

And social welfare and the environment aren’t invited to this tax payer funded black tie affair.

Affluence determines admission.

Corporate press tells us about food stamp fraud while political obfuscation and financial malfeasance get ignored or explained as ‘too complex’ and ‘needs further study.’

The Republican polls use anecdotal evidence to justify cutting back and cash-starving social programs. The money saved gets siphoned back up to the top through tax breaks so they can purchase more political clout and design laws that give them an even bigger slice of the American pie.

This cycle’s primary presidential campaign is taking spectacle not to new heights, but new lengths. We’re made to believe it’s important and these posers are worth our consideration, our scrutiny and the utilization of our journalistic resources for years

ahead of the time a decision needs to be made. One of these slick purveyors of rightwing spin has been at it since right after his fade in the 2008 charade.

The empty content of the collective messages from these performers could be analyzed and dismissed by a competent electorate in a matter of weeks, if not days, but we’re subjected to over two years of hollow and divisive rhetoric. And now we have the super-pacs weighing in, flooding our public airwaves with vindictive, self serving vitriol we’d be better served not being exposed to.

They tell us to worry about immediate concerns like oil prices and supply chains and terror threats and immigrants and their drugs and their subversive work ethic. The long-term inevitabilities we’re going to be facing, like how we’re going to live in a drastically altered environment with a dramatically reconfigured social reality, are ignored because they hold no commercial value.

Our press is doing us a disservice.

We’re not figuring out long term strategies to cope with blowback from the squandering of resources and the environmental devastation our current institutions and business models depend on.

The distractions our media deploys makes them complicit in the crime by indirectly, they would claim innocently (we give ‘em what they want), directing our focus to the B.S. The emphasis is on the trivia and minutiae of our hollow culture and our bankrupt political economy with only obscure, if any, references to our worsening condition, the reasons for the deterioration and what can be done about it.

China calls theirs the Department of Propaganda. We call ours a free press. Same suit, different stripes.

Forget Afghanistan, we need a hearts and minds campaign right here. We need people to just say “No, I’m not supporting this form of social organization. I opt out.”

The climate crisis will force cultural change and I want to be far away from population centers when that shit hits the fan.

People, we have a problem.

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April 09, 2012

COMICS Primal Urges

the uwm post Andrew Megow

She Said, He Said

Katherine Rodriguez

Mock Duck Soup

Mitchell Moeser

I Like Your Shoes

Carol Brandt

PET OF THE WEEK

Sniper is a three-year-old cute cat who loves eating Jimmy John’s, playing in the sink and bathtub, and watching other cute cats on TV. He also enjoys licking plastic and sitting in cardboard boxes of all sizes.

Sniper is extremely outgoing, approaching anyone he sees and begging for attention. Just don’t get too close – he’s named Sniper for a reason.

To view more adorable photos of Sniper, visit sniperlikeschips.tumblr.com.

PUZZLES

uwmpost.com

April 09. 2012

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THEUWMPOST CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

ACROSS

INSTRUCTIONS: Fill in the squares so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9 exactly once.

1 ____ Cum Laude 6 Cleaning agent 10 Scads 14 Mr. Newton 15 ____ Major (Big Dipper) 16 Domain 17 Simple 18 File 19 Not women’s 20 Sesame Street character, with “Aloysius” 23 Tennis player Andre 25 Sticky black substance 26 Unrefined metal 27 Part of a min.

28 Pixies 31 Had 33 Idol 35 Careless 36 Cow sound 37 Sesame Street character (3 wds.)

42 Long time 43 Tyrannosaurus 44 Always 46 Capital of Vietnam 49 Men’s magazine 51 Flightless bird 52 Wrath 53 Chinese sauce 55 Not fine 57 Sesame Street character (3 wds.)

61 Adorable 62 Mimic 63 Saw logs 66 Exploits 67 Head bugs 68 Mister, in 36-Down 69 Jaunty 70 Reason 71 Corp. bigwigs

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31 36

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42 46

12

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45 51

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64

65

Jonas Wittke, 2009

DOWN 1 Bro. or sis.

2 The Land of the Free 3 Texas Chainsaw ____ 4 Water lines 5 Blame 6 Ride the waves 7 Spoken 8 Resources 9 Word before New Guinea 10 Dalai ____ 11 American state 12 Academic freedom 13 Talked back 21 Do someone else’s job, temporarily (2 wds.)

22 Evidence 23 Fire remains 24 Nerd 29 Large vessel 30 Additional

32 Had on, as clothing 34 Sandwich cookie 36 Tijuana’s country 38 Slightly wet 39 Jinx 40 Harmonic note 41 Precious stones 45 Regret 46 Respiratory spasm 47 Wake up 48 Fix a pet 49 Shortsightedness 50 Foamy dessert 54 Squashed circles 56 Building attachment 58 Bird’s home 59 Bottle part 60 Canadian Indian 64 Charles S. Dutton TV sitcom 65 Hospital depts. solution found on page 4

solution found on page 4

ANAGRAM CRACKERS INSTRUCTIONS: Unscramble the letters below to spell out everyday English words. When you’re finished, unscramble the circled letters to find the missing word from the quip!

PANCE

––––– KERMA

––––– HATHEL

–––––– FRUTEE

–––––– Know something we don’t?

Send tips to news@uwmpost.com

Q: What type of cat should you never play cars with?

A: “A ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ .” solution found on page 4

IN-WORD Find as many words as possible using only the letters from this week’s IN-WORD. Words must be four or more letters long. Slang words, proper nouns, and contractions are not permitted. Only one form of a verb is permitted. Words that become four or more letters by the addition of “s” are not permitted.

HOLIDAY

Can you find 15 or more words in “HOLIDAY?” Our list can be found on page 4.

WORK AT JIMMY JOHN’S Now hiring drivers,in-shop staff and managers. F/T or P/T. Flexible hours. Fun, fast-paced workplace. Apply in person at 3129 North Oakland Avenue or 1344 East Brady Street.

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April 09, 2012

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