It’s like I always say, “Once a Badger, always a Badger.” The “W” you saw on the wall owes its existence to the caricature right next to it — that of former UW chancellor Donna Shalala.

Shalala served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1988 to 1993 before accepting a position as the 18th secretary of health and human services under former president Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. On several occasions, she visited the Washington, D.C., Palm restaurant, which requested permission to draw a caricature of her on its walls. She agreed and, being a Badger through and through, also requested that the restaurant put up the UW-themed drawings right next to her.

Shalala currently is president of the University of Miami and still visits the Palm whenever she is in Washington, D.C.