By: Lexi Schweinert (reporter) and Chris Zhang (photojournalist)

In just a week, one of the most anticipated events of the year for non-Madison students will be upon us.

“I just know that there is this huge Halloween party kind of,” said UW-Madison student Angela Wolter.

The name of this event is Freakfest. Even though it may be a fun weekend for those attending, UW staff must prepare for the spooky madness.

“We have done for a good long while now, a no-guest policy, that weekend from Thursday through Sunday. And so if you do live with us in the residence halls, you can not bring in guests who are not other residence hall students,” said Jackie Scola-Bernstein, Assistant Director of UW Housing.

Witte is one of 20 residence halls on the UW-Madison campus. Like Bernstein said, each dorm does require tight security for the weekend from Thursday to Sunday to ensure that no guests are sneaking into the buildings.

“All of the buildings we kind of operate a bit differently, because need is just different. Some of the buildings from the Southeast, where there is just a lot more people walking around down there and State Street, like we just want a little more staffing in place to make sure that our buildings are safe and nobody is coming in who doesn’t belong here,” Scola-Bernstein said.

Not only do UW residence hall staff prepare for the influx of visitors, the UW police department takes precautionary measures too.

“We have extra officers who patrol the unions, extra officers who are patrolling the residence halls and we also send some officers over to State Street,” said Jake Lepper, UW police department officer.

With these things in mind, students should have a safe Freakfest weekend. For the Badger Report, I’m Lexi Schweinert.

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