I’m not Santa Claus, but since I’m in the holiday spirit, I will try to help Sara Machi get the presents she asked for in her column yesterday, “Dear Santa: A Wish List for the UW Community.”

The first solution could be not to attend school here. That would solve a lot of her problems, especially if she finds the winter to be so cold. If she still wants study here, ditch the “high heels and a short skirt.” They’re probably the reasons why she keeps falling on the sidewalks while taking 40 minutes to cross campus.

Then she could see that it is completely within the realm of human possibility to traverse the distance between the biochemistry building and humanities within the fifteen minutes between classes.

She could also use the L, the LN and the Associated Students of Madison’s bus pass to get around. The bus pass helps since there’s not a “cheap, quality grocery store within walking distance.” What is walking distance to her, anyway? Take the bus to a grocery store and see more of Madison in the process. While there, she could purchase some coffee. Then she wouldn’t have to wait at Starbucks and would save money, too.

While Grainger is entirely new, only the front part of Engineering Hall was renovated and the sections that hold almost all of the classes has been around longer than humanities or Vilas Hall. The nice lecture halls are rarely used for student classes — they’re more commonly occupied by seminars for alumni or business representatives.

I’d try to resolve shortening her wait to get in bars with the wish for nonalcoholic entertainment, but I give up.

Elizabeth Nee
UW senior

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a woman is raped every two minutes in the United States. Stop and think about that. It means 720 women are raped in a day and 262,800 in a year. These are not just numbers, they are people, real people who are really being hurt. This is not happening somewhere else in some dark, dirty little corner of the world. It is happening right here on campus. You may not realize it, but you know someone who has been sexually assaulted and it is very likely they know the person who did it. So, the question is, what are we as a community doing about sexual assault? How are we supporting students who have been sexually assaulted? How are we working to prevent sexual assault? Today, at 3 p.m., in upper Luther’s Blues, several speakers will be answering these questions.

Take a half hour out of your time to show the UW-Madison campus that we care about this problem, and we will keep fighting until this campus is free from sexual assault even if that means fighting forever.

Erica Tietz
ASM Campus Safety Coordinator