Regular readers of this page know we’re not the biggest fans of Alicia Chavez, UW-Madison’s dean of students. Throughout this semester, her office has been less than cooperative in our efforts to provide a public forum and even less cooperative in helping student organizations draft well-crafted budget proposals.

We are not alone in our plight. Word around the Herald newsroom is that Chavez’s office rarely returns reporters’ phone calls. When they do, she and her staff provide astonishingly little information.

So we watched in amazement Wednesday afternoon when Chavez immediately returned a phone call from a Herald reporter working as a stringer for The New York Times.

Clearly, congratulations are in order: First to N. Zeke Campfield, for scoring a gig for America?s newspaper of record.

And second, to Chavez, for learning how to return a phone call.