2005 in Review: A year in Madison

WASHINGTON – Having now reflected upon some of the people – and corresponding events – that helped shape the United States during 2005, it seems proper to shift attention back to Madison, Wisconsin. It has been quite the year for the state capital and the University of Wisconsin; here are the 10 events that mattered most:

10. Partying in April – As the spring semester chugged along, a startling realization was made: the annual Mifflin Street Block Party would coincide with UW's study day before exams. How could students possibly be expected to spend a whole day surrounded – and filled – with liquor and then take their finals the next morning? It simply wouldn't fly. So the student government raised a fuss. But the mayor stood tough. There was back and forth. Then there was a closed door meeting. And then the student government huffed and puffed and blew the mayor's stance down! Well, sort of. The date of Mifflin got moved back, but before long a group of aldermen were protesting the pricey nature of the booze festival and demanded that the mayor send the student body a bill for the event, which would be extra costly this year because of the late date change. Of course, the tab was never sent to the Associated Students of Madison. But a clear division could be felt in town – one that divided students and permanent residents. And divides like that can take some time to heal.

9. Barry Steps Down – After a career that essentially put Wisconsin athletics back on the map and turned Bucky into a perennial contender, head football coach Barry Alvarez announced his retirement, effective at the end of the 2005-2006 season. The swan song has been over-played ever since, with few people willing to step up and point out that while the wins and losses may have been favorable, UW's football team is in serious academic trouble, “student athletes” are mingling with the justice system at an alarming pace and the man Mr. Alvarez tapped as his successor has barely been able to keep the team's defense – his current assignment – in check this season. Sure, Mr. Alvarez has been great for Wisconsin athletics but what people seem afraid to either realize or say is that it might just have been high time for him to step down and allow someone else to try to insert some academic and behavioral integrity into a team that badly lacks it.

8. Luoluo Departs – It seems difficult, with the aid of hindsight, to separate the sudden departure of UW Dean of Students Luoluo Hong from the Paul Barrows scandal (which ranks elsewhere on this list). But the stories broke at different times and the correlation is not absolute. Ms. Hong's departure certainly brought a troublesome amount of controversy to UW, as her disregard for the notion of due process and utter obsession with political correctness left the Dean of Students Office in duress. But in her place, Lori Berquam has taken the helm as the Interim Dean of Students (just one of numerous interim posts in that part of Bascom Hall) and has done a thoroughly spectacular job across the board. So while Ms. Hong's departure may be ripe with unfortunate events and allegations, the school really does seem to have found a net gain by filling the office with a far more stable, competent and able individual.

7. TAA Strikes a Deal – My generally hostile attitude toward unions is no secret, and the TAA bears no exception. A strike in 2004 proved the organization to be a juvenile, petty group of radicals with little grasp on the realities of capitalism or economics. And the strike only served to seriously harm their cause. So it came as a great relief to see the organization ink a deal in 2005 that will hopefully keep the spoiled brat tactics to a minimum for the next couple of years. There is no such thing as a free lunch and the TAA seems to have finally realized that when you can get health care for the cost of a lunch, you really ought to take the deal. Ratification still isn't 100% as a few state hurdles remain, but this has been a major step in the right direction.

6. Neutrality Violated – The inability of ASM to look beyond generally liberal political agendas was all too clear in 2005. The Student Service Finance Committee was overturned for violating viewpoint neutrality in its funding decisions so many times that the majority of the committee, but for a Student Judiciary ruling, was nearly dismissed. Sure budgets were tightened across the board, but the Roman Catholics and the conservative-minded CFACT both got particularly harsh treatment from the committee in glaring episodes of ideological hypocrisy. And while many of these issues will spill over into the spring semester, this seems high time to perhaps revisit the notion of opt-in or even opt-out segregated fees, something that might have passed a UW ballot not too long ago had segregated fee-reliant groups not thrown the entirety of their muscle into its opposition.

5. Moonlight Over Overture – The allegations against Bob D'Angelo are too numerous and lurid to dignify a full repetition here (though a solid example will be included). And had the fall of 2005 not been marked by a series of sex scandals on the other end of State Street (appearing elsewhere on this list), the outrage over the Overture Center's president allegedly engaging in such harassing acts likely would have been exponentially greater. One employee, notably, claimed, “Mr. D’Angelo groped me, grabbed my breasts, fondled me, made me touch his private parts, pushed himself up against me and exposed himself to me once at my desk.” Mr. D'Angelo – once a giant in the City of Madison – was forced out promptly and Overture is still very much scarred.

4. Professors Behind Bars – Roberto Coronado sexually assaulted three young girls. Steven Clark stalked a woman. And Lewis Keith Cohen attempted to meet a 14-year-old boy for a sexual rendezvous. All of them were University of Wisconsin professors. All of them were found guilty. And, at one point, all of them were on the UW payroll despite being convicts. Mr. Cohen even got work release from prison and discreetly returned to Madison. The national media honed in, state politicians went nuts and UW's image was seriously tarnished.

3. Sexy Nurses, Ghosts and Cops with Riot Gear – For the fourth straight year, Halloween in Madison came to an end with the police using force. Gas was dispensed, riot gear donned and physical force employed. But for once, the out-of-control students weren't as easy to spot in the crowd as the overzealous cops. Journalists were assaulted by the police, as were numerous students and revelers. Force seemed to be capricious and overdone. For the first time in recent memory, Madisonians had good reason to ask if there would have been a riot at all but for the police department's apparent will to start one.

2. Paul Barrows – In an undeniably sick sense, there is a certain irony to the fact that Paul Barrows was UW's Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. And he sure did take that title literally. It isn't clear just how many women he harassed or engaged in consensual relationships with while in a position of undue influence, but it is clear that the scandal surrounding his departure, return, suspension and second return was the very story that got Madison through the summer. No one emerged from this tale looking good. Louluo Hong, when her once-confidential eight-page rant against Mr. Barrows was released, looked like a reckless administrator obsessed with destroying her superior and utterly unconcerned with due process. John Wiley looked like a chancellor who tried too hard to protect a friend and cost the school a large chunk of money in the process. And Mr. Barrows came off as a lying cad. That he is now suing Mr. Wiley and Ms. Hong only adds to the drama. Indeed, Susan Steingass' report on the whole sorry affair (no pun intended) was almost as lurid as the Starr Report. It was a pitiful ordeal and it shook UW and the City of Madison to the core in 2005.

1. Economic Ashes – In 2005, it became illegal to smoke a cigarette, cigar, pipe, hookah or just about anything else in a Madison restaurant or bar. Chewing tobacco was also outlawed. The City Council decided it was time to kick into high gear paternalism and essentially work toward the abolition of a legal substance. Bars on the east and west sides of town are paying the price. Business is down, waitresses and waiters are having to find work elsewhere to supplement (or replace) plummeting tips and doors may not be open for long. In fact, one of the city's cigar bars didn't even survive into the summer. The ban is nothing short of an affront to the principles of libertarianism, assault on the local economy and over-extended middle finger to those Madisonians who elect to smoke or chew tobacco. It is the catastrophe that has marked 2005 for the city and, until repealed, will continue to mar Madison's reputation.