Yes, this is an isolated incident. No, it is not representative of all male students. But it shows that to some men, women are still seen as objects. That ideology must change.

I took a course called theories of media and culture. The professor, Mary Rose Williams, discussed how the media perpetuates images that essentially brainwash our society into believing something is right or wrong.

This is no clearer than with how women are portrayed. Lets look at the popular Spike television show “Manswers” – a favorite among teenage males and college students. In this show, scantily-clad women parade around while a testosterone junkie answers such eloquent questions as, “Which candy guarantees you’ll be eating beaver,” “What car makes chicks the horniest” and “Which nationality is most likely to put out on the first date.” According to Spike, the show averages over 1.1 million viewers an episode ranking number two in its time-slot for men between the ages of 25-34 and number three among men ages 18-34. This show is practically a blueprint of how to mistreat women, and with so many men ingesting its flawed perspective; it does not take a genius to connect the dots and see how such shows lead to objectifying women.

Television is not the only place that perpetuates this image. Facebook groups show gems like “Sexism is funny, if you’re a man” (519 members), “Women should be seen and not heard” (1,099), and “Why do girls go to college, you don’t need a degree to make a sandwich” (7,014). Hundreds of these groups are made, deleted and remade every week. They show pictures of women being abused, mistreated and objectified–each with a slew of comments from men, and surprisingly women, who find it funny.

For those of you who find this trash a harmless joke, let me ask you: Is it still a joke when a man breaks into a women’s room and assaults her? When 1 in 3 women are abused during their lifetime? When your mother, sister, cousin or children are treated this way?

I say no, but I am just one man. If we are to make a change in society it will take all the good guys out there who think this behavior is disgusting to stand up and fight for it. Otherwise the next woman assaulted on campus might not be left alive to tell her tale.

The officer, 28-year-old Michelle Salentine, was taken into custody without incident and was in a Madison courtroom Tuesday afternoon where she was charged with maintaining a crack house.

Platteville Police Chief Doug McKinley said Salentine has worked as a night patrol officer for the department since 2004. Salentine is now on paid administrative leave.

The AP is reporting that Salentine could face 20 years in prison if convicted.

According to court documents, an informant contacted FBI agents in February and told them Salentine regularly smoked crack at a Platteville location as well as her own home. The informant said he had seen Salentine smoke crack on at least six occasions, including times when she was in uniform and carrying a firearm.

FBI agents searched her house on Monday and recovered several suspected marijuana bongs and crack pipes as well as drug residue and suspected crack pipes in the garage.

Accorindg to the AP, after her arrest, Salentine told investigators she had been smoking crack for about a year, four to six times a week. A person she lived with also smoked crack and she sometimes drove the person to Milwaukee to purchase the drug. The person was not named in the documents. A third person, who was also unidentified in the documents, told agents she had sold Salentine crack about 20 times since October 2009 and that she had seen Salentine use crack many times before going on duty. The informant also said she had also seen Salentine use powder cocaine and marijuana.

Scott Marqardt, chief of campus police, said that over the past few years students who live on campus and use firearms recreationally were concerned about the safest options to store their guns. They are not allowed to be stored in their dorm rooms, or in their vehicles, so many students were left with limited legal options. Marquardt talked with Rob Cramer, assistant chancellor of Administrative Services, and they looked at what others were doing to solve this problem.

According to the proposal, any enrolled student at UW-P may store personally owned sporting weapons at the UW-P police department. Sporting weapons include, but are limited to rifles, shotguns, handguns, bows and paintball guns. Students will be able to store or pick up a weapon 24 hours a day, depending upon officer availability.

Students must first call campus police to make arrangements for storage. They then must bring the weapon to the Brigham Hall parking lot by vehicle, making sure that the firearm is cased and unloaded with the action lock open and a trigger lock secured. Other weapons must also be cased and unloaded.

Once the student arrives to the parking lot, an on-duty police officer will meet the student at the vehicle to escort them and the weapon into the police department.

Inside, the students must fill out paper work before the gun can be storage. They must also bring a valid photo identification. The first step is filling out an application, which must be filled out each time a student drops off a new weapon. The application asks for a students name, date of birth, address, phone number, e-mail address and information on the weapon including the make, model and serial number. They also sign an agreement that statesthat all the information provided is truthful and accurate, releasing liability in case of theft or damage and agreeing to pick up the weapon after leaving the university.

When police receive the weapon, the officer accepting it will conduct a full inspection. During this process, the officer will take digital photographs of the weapon, especially areas of previous damage and any identification markings. It will then be stored.

Students can then come to campus police at any time, provided an officer is available, to check their weapon in or out. Marquardt said students will not be allowed to accompany the officer to the storage area to retrieve their weapon. Individuals and weapons will be checked to validate the individual can legally possess the firearm and the firearm is not reported stolen or lost. Marquardt said this will be done whenever the weapon is checked in or out of storage.

There are restrictions on when a gun can be picked up. Individuals picking up sporting weapons must not be under the influence of intoxicants in any way or have any alcohol in their system to sign the weapon out. If the releasing officer detects an odor of intoxicants, a preliminary breath test may be used to determine the presence of alcohol.

Individuals picking up and dropping off weapons will be told to minimize their time on campus possessing the weapon. They will be instructed to immediately leave campus property once they assume possession of the weapon.

The idea of allowing students to bring their weapons to campus has unsettled some people on campus, including the Dean of Students Rich Egley.

“In all candor, I have a general aversion to any program that might bring more handguns, rifles and shotguns into the campus community. I’m not sure that the service is a priority to many students … and I’m concerned about whether or not it is a most effective use of a sworn officer’s time,” Egley said. “But I do know that those who do want the service are very desirous of it and I understand that. I’m not losing any sleep over the weapons storage proposal. The fact is, the students who use the sporting weapons storage service are likely to be very responsible when it comes to the proper and safe use of weapons, and that includes their observance of all the laws and regulations associated with the transportation and use of weapons.”

Marquardt said he understand why some people might be a opposed to the idea at first, but he believes this could actually make the campus community safer.

“The weapons are already near campus as it is. Residence hall students can legally keep them in their vehicles as long as they are parked in the street. I presume that there are also weapons already in off-campus housing that border our property,” Marquardt said. “This simply gives those folks a secure option for storage of their items. We will also be judicious in the release of weapons if the owner has been drinking, or has made threats or things of that nature.”

Egley said for the sporting weapons storage proposal to become official, it requires the expressed approval of the Chancellor of UW-P. The three Senates (Students, Faculty and Academic Staff) will have the opportunity to review the policy proposal and provide their input to the Chancellor on the proposal. The Chancellor’s decision on the proposal will be final.

Matthew Mikulecky pulled into the Dairy Queen drive through April 14 to get a Blizzard, but he got a shake.

Mikulecky, a senior business construction management student at UW-P, was waiting at the window to get his food when something caught his eye.

“It looked like someone turned on a flood light,” he said.

Mikulecky looked up to see something streaking across the sky above him. Two minutes later a loud boom shook his car.

“I didn’t know what it was,” Mikulecky said. “My first thought was that it was a firework, but it was way too bright.”

According to police, what Mikulecky saw was a meteor, and he was by no means the only one to see it. Platteville Police reported that the meteor streaked over the city at approximately 9:59 p.m. on April 14, lighting up the skies and causing sonic booms that could be heard and felt for miles. Soon after, a large number of calls began to pour into the office.

“A lot of people reported the flash and loud boom,” Lt. Bruce Buchholtz with the Platteville Police Department said. “Most people just wanted to know what happened.”

Buchholtz said the light show caused from the meteor was caught on one of the department’s street cams.

“It lit up the sky like it was day time,” he said.

Platteville was not alone in the sighting. The Grant County Sheriff’s Office, reported a slew of calls from across their jurisdiction, clogging their phone lines for hours. People from six Midwestern states reported seeing the meteor.

According to an article published in the Wisconsin State Journal, the meteor tracked from west to east, gradually getting brighter until it lit up the whole night sky, breaking up across the southern half of the state, sparking a mad rush of meteorite hunters looking to cash in. CBS reported that meteor fragments can sell from $30 to $40 per gram.

According to NASA scientists, when the meteor exploded, it unleashed as much energy as the detonation of 20 tons of TNT. Their analysis found that the meteor was likely about 3.3 feet wide before it blew apart. They expect the meteor was from the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

At least five pieces of the meteor are currently on display at the UW-Madison Geology Museum for public viewing. They were turned in by a local farmer who said the pieces hit his barn.

Barb Daus, public information officer* at UW-P, confirmed this week that the university is investigating a potential breach in security, but would not confirm what exactly was breached. Daus did say that the student information system (PASS), employee records and financial records for the university were not compromised.

Daus said that the investigation is being held internally through the human resources department. She would not say if the investigation had also been passed on to law enforcement or if charges had been filed against those involved.

This information comes three weeks after the Exponent received word from a source close to the situation that an emergency meeting was held for all Office of Information Technology staff. At this meeting it was announced that someone within the networking department in OIT had done something “bad” and was being removed from the position. It was also announced that Andrew Krueger, academic computer support specialist for the college of BILSA, was being moved to networking to fill the void.

Daus said the names of those involved with the potential breach could not be released for personnel reasons and possible hindrances to the investigation. She also said she could not comment as to whether or not those involved have been put on leave or are still working at UW-P.

“What is most important is that no student information, no human resources information and no university financial information has been compromised,” Daus said. “I only know what information is not involved.”

Daus said she has released all the information she can on the incident and that more information will not be released until the investigation is over. She had no time line on the investigation.

Log on to uwpexponent.org for updates as soon as we have them.

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* Correction (4/22/2010): Daus’s official title is Public Information Officer, not Chief Information Officer as previously reported.