Uppity Wisconsin

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk talked sense to Madison's Downtown Rotary on the subject of alcohol abuse.

Details here.

There's a remarkable story in the NY Times this morning about a University of Wisconsin-Madison program to combat dangerous binge drinking on campus.

A program by Chancellor John Wiley that includes notifying families of students who become so drunk they require detox is the focus of the article.

If that program has been publicized in Wisconsin, it has escaped my notice.

What's remarkable about it is Wiley's determination to tackle a problem that has been pervasive on the campus for time immemorial.

In the 1950s and 60s, beer flowed at 18-year-old bars on the campus end of State Street.

The Madison campus used to pride itself as a party school, ranked #1 by Playboy with the notation that it was in a league of its own, not to be compared with amateurs.

Wiley doesn't think it's amusing, and rightly so.