Assuming the Mayans are right and the world is ending, The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board is glad we no longer have to worry about these issues because of the whole being dead thing.
Mifflin is here to stay, get used to it
Everyone who has been to the Mifflin Street Block Party—at least in recent years—knows Mifflin to be a celebration of collegiate drinking. It is not surprising then that the city of Madison finds the party to be a bit embarrassing. Even though the 2012 Mifflin saw a massive decline in attendance and a huge jump in citations, the party isn't going anywhere.
The city of Madison needs to stop trying to change Mifflin from what it really is, because the party is here to stay. Mifflin might not have been as meaningful or as well attended in past years, but the party isn't on the verge of withering and dying out in 2013. Last year, the city flooded Mifflin with a large amount of police officers. They succeeded in keeping a lot of students from drinking at Mifflin, but all these students probably still went out on other parts of campus. Basically, the student body is going to let off some highly-pressurized steam before spring finals whether anyone condones it or not.
The city needs to accept how boozy and delirious Mifflin is, and deal with it in a manner that matches up Mifflin's anarchic organization and importance to the student body. Having gangs of officers on the street is expensive and not the right answer. The city and university should find ways to limit the amount of out-of-towners who have no attachment to the weekend but a desire to get hammered. Companies should be strongly discouraged from advertising or promoting the event outside the city. The event is a unique problem, but trying to shut it down is time that could be spent tamping down Mifflin's costs and keeping it safe.
The attendance of Mifflin has always fluctuated. The expectation that the student body would just abandon Mifflin was overhyped in 2012. But, Mifflin and the city need to find a more permanent relationship soon.
Real estate developers, tear down your walls
The city of Madison has a unique culture and feeling to it. The run-down houses and beer can littered lawns give this town character. However, in recent months that character has come under attack.
Real estate developers have submitted a multitude of proposals to tear down iconic buildings such as Stadium Bar and several houses in the southeast neighborhood and replace them with apartment complexes. This board believes that while student housing is always an important issue, the destruction of Madison history to build complexes—most of which are not even intended for student use—is unacceptable.
There are more than enough housing options for students, including existing apartment complexes, houses on the outskirts of town and even dorms. In fact, the construction on Dejope Hall has recently been completed and a new dorm called New 32 Hall is planned to open in August 2013.
The simple fact of the matter is that real estate developers do not care about students. They come into town, build their complexes and charge way more than they are worth because as long as they are somewhat close to campus, they know they will get filled. They may claim they are giving more options to students, but in reality they are merely replacing one for another.
Madison is a city of rich and vibrant culture. The history of this city is what makes Madison, Madison. It’s nice to know that as we all meet our inevitable doom, these real estate developers won’t see their destructive work come to life.
Seating policy ruins game day experience
An abrupt enforcement this football season of a previously unenforced official seating policy threatened students’ enjoyment of Badger game days and caught the attention of this editorial board.
Throughout the season, we heard several complaints from students saying they were ejected from Badger football games for sitting in the wrong seat, even if they were sitting in the correct section. These ejections were not based on behavioral or drinking violations, but solely due to students sitting in the incorrect seat.
We believe enforcing a policy where students must sit in their assigned seat is unrealistic and unfair to students.
While the seating policy is official, students were not given any notice prior to the football season alerting them that police were going to begin enforcing the policy. Police should have ensured students were given ample warning that this policy was going into affect. How could they expect students to abide by a policy that most students did not know existed?
Additionally, we feel first-come first-serve seating within sections is a good, fair policy. Requiring students to only sit in the correct section reduces overcrowding while not unnecessarily ejecting students for a useless rule.
We were disappointed with UWPD’s utter lack of communication with students and expect it to take the correct steps in the future to inform students of policy changes.
Watch dog groups, mostly annoying
One positive about the end of humanity would be the end of overzealous organizations that make serious accusations, only to have them found to be baseless.
Over the last semester, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been involved in a few of these accusations. The university has been asked to cut ties with Palermo’s Pizza for alleged workers’ rights violations and was accused of animal rights violations in a 2008 study.
In the first case, the Teaching Assistants Association, the Labor Licensing Policy Committee and the Student Labor Action Coalition all asked Chancellor David Ward to cut ties with the pizza company. All three jumped to the conclusion that Palermo’s was guilty on all counts.
However, in November, the National Labor Relations Board produced a mixed result. The board ruled Palermo’s had terminated 75 of the workers legally, and nine illegaly. While this shows some wrongdoing, it doesn’t measure up to the overreaction by the three committees.
On top of that, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals accused the university of animal rights violations in a 2008 study, specifically focusing on a cat named “Double Trouble.” Less than a month after the accusations, the United States Department of Agriculture cleared UW of any wrongdoing.
While the National Institutes for Health reopened its investigation, these groups showed an affinity to overreaction that this board is tired of.
Recent poll shows polls are overrated
If the 2012 president is the last one humanity sees, this board will not miss the overcoverage of polls. This year there was quite a bit of election coverage surrounding polls. While polls can give an interesting look into what the electorate is thinking, they are never perfectly accurate and often distract from coverage of the actual issues.
It seemed that after the election results were reported the night of Nov. 6, most of the coverage was about how amazing Nate Silver is. Sure, he’s cool, but we re-elected the first African American president in our country’s history. That’s a little more important and should have taken quite a bit more precedence in the days following the election.
While almost anyone following the election knew what the previous day’s polls showed, both nationally and in the swing states, it was tough at times to completely understand what either President Barack Obama or challenger Mitt Romney were actually planning to do if they were to win.
So if the world ends, at least the media’s over and usually inaccurate coverage of polls can end along with it.
