Jeff Miller/UW-Madison
A scene from 2013's Revelry Music and Arts Festival at UW-Madison's Union South.
Dear Police Chief Koval:
I read your blog today about the dreaded M-word. You write about the solution to the Mifflin Street block party, but fail to see what the answer truly is. You acknowledge that from 1996 to 2011 various attempts were made to curb unruly behavior, and that finally, in the wake of events at the 2011 party, the city decided to no longer support it.
I realize you were yet to become chief, but your department and the city of Madison failed at the time to realize that the students had had enough as well. It took a senior to stand up and do something about it — to give the students an alternative to the stabbings and sexual assaults. With the support of the Wisconsin Union, ASM and various campus departments, Revelry was born. One can debate its success based on total turnout in 2012, but what cannot be disputed was its impact on the M-word. Who never really supported Revelry? The city of Madison, which nevertheless provided $5,000 in funding for the event in 2015 and 2016.
As you note in your blog, incidents went down at Mifflin from 2012 to 2015 as Revelry grew to a nearly 10,000-person party on Library Mall. Chance the Rapper was tweeting to Nigel Hayes about playing some hoops before the show, and the students had a popular alternative that was growing. UW and the city of Madison were getting exactly what they wanted: the opportunity for students to have a meaningful end-of-the-year party with no major incidents.
This year, the Wisconsin Union was under construction and lacked a viable venue for Revelry. If the students ever needed support from the city and Bascom Hill, this was the year. The obvious answer was to throw the party elsewhere on campus, like the Kohl Center, which can easily be secured. But UW Police and others on Bascom Hill would not have it. Not only would UW not fund it, the UW Police simply refused to allow any rental of the Kohl Center on dates around the last week in April. With those doors shut, the only option was to throw a small party the night of April 30 at the Orpheum.
Without a good daytime alternative, the city and students will once again be at odds. Somehow the city and UW figured out a solution to Halloween, but can't find a solution to the dreaded M-word, even when the answer is right in front of them.
[Editor's Note: This post was changed to reflect that the city of Madison provided funding for Revelry in 2015 and 2016.]
Jeff Haupt is co-owner of Isthmus and an associate trustee of the Memorial Union Building Association.
