By Meredith Jarchow [email protected]ere’s a commotion about transportation to St. Cloud— and it’s a locomotive. A project that started in May of 1997, the Northstar Corridor Development Authority (NCDA), is a joint powers board formed in order to offer more transportation services between St. Cloud and Minneapolis. In 2009, the North- star Commuter Rail opened. However, currently the train only runs between Big Lake and down- town Minneapolis. On Nov. 12, the leaders of GRIP/ISAIAH, a grassroots group made up of people from many different faiths, met with elected officials St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis, Minnesota House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Representative Jim Knoblach, Metropolitan Council Chairman Adam Duininck (speaking on behalf of Govenor Dayton) and other transportation leaders at a town hall meeting, “Time is Now: Finish Northstar!” to call for the completion of the Northstar Commuter Rail to St. Cloud. “[e Northstar Rail] is something that is overdue over a long period of time, but the time is now,” Kleis said during the town hall meeting. e GRIP/ISAIAH sup- porters call for the extension of the Northstar Commuter Rail because of the moral obligation to citizens to help promote econom- ic growth and opportunity within Minnesota. GRIP/ISAIAH’s goal is to gather 10,000 signatures on petitions asking for the extension by the time the new legislative session begins in March 2016. “We’re better than that. We’re Minnesota; we don’t want to have an average system, we don’t want to have an average way to get around,” Duininck said. “We want to be above average and I think By Leah Byron [email protected]e Center for Global Edu- cation has made more options for students wishing to go abroad. Joy Ruis, Assistant Director for Semester Education Abroad, says that for the upcoming year (2016-2017) students have more choices for their study abroad experience. e Chile and Guatemala programs have low- ered the language requirement in both programs, allowing those with less Spanish experience to apply. “Ultimately we’re excited to offer new options. It’s something we’ve thought about in the past,” Ruis said. “We looked at the how our programs could be altered and how to attract more students.” e Chile program has the capacity to host 26 to 27 students. e Guatemala program can hold more than 20 students. Since the Center for Global Education no- ticed that both these programs weren’t reaching the capacity, there needed to be some changes. By Emeline Brudwick [email protected]While CSB/SJU students may not have to think about their next meal or where they will sleep for the night, many people outside of campus who are impover- ished, famished or homelessness consider these things daily. Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week 2015 is in full swing, and campus is filled to the brim with the sights and sounds of all the accompany the 10-day event. e objective is to not only raise awareness about poverty’s prevalence, but also to educate students about immense problems in the community that are not always seen on campus. “[Various groups on campus], individual faculty, students and staff members all came together with a shared vision: education, action and advocacy regarding hunger and homelessness locally, nationally and internationally,” said Carley Castellanos, the as- sistant director of CSB Campus Ministry, via email. CSB and SJU Campus Ministries, Experiential Learning and Community Engagement, Student Activities and Leader- ship Development (SALD), Joint Events Council (JEC) and the Institute for Women’s Leader- ship have all banded together to provide a powerful driving force for increasing mindfulness regarding the community’s needs. Michaela Connolly, a soph- omore who works in social outreach at SJU Campus Min- istry explained the slight shiſt in focus towards homelessness this year, primarily because it’s becoming more and more prev- alent in today’s society. Connol- ly also explained why student participation has increased from previous years. “ere’s a lot more students on the planning committee than there was last year. We’re really trying to get more students in- terested in it, so we can say ‘is would be a really good time,’ or ‘is would be really interesting because it’s what a lot of students are interested in,’” Connolly said. NICOLE PEDERSON • [email protected]Newsroom: 320-363-2540 Subscriptions: email [email protected] and provide address Advertising: [email protected]Submissions: [email protected]Like us on Facebook or follow The Record on Twitter at @csbsjurecord to stay updated with the latest from CSB/SJU’s official student newspaper. There is a new issue of The Record published every Friday—grab your copy today. Contact Us SPORTS, pg. 11 OPINION, pg. 8 csbsjurecord.com SINCE 1888 NOV. 20, 2015 ECORD The R Latino/Latin American Studies Opinion VARIETY, pg. 7 THE COLLEGE OF ST. BENEDICT/ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY Gorecki Dining Hacks SJU: Playoff Bound President Mary Hinton discusses the relationship between CSB and the St. Benedict’s Monastery with Prioress Michaela Hedican during a monthly meeting. The football team begins its quest for a national championship New language requirements abroad ►See CRP Page 2 Funds cut for CRP program at CSB/SJU ►See TRAIN Page 3 Hopes for train to St. Cloud area Students talk about bilingual public discourse at CSB/SJU In the final installment of our two-part series on the CSB/SJU presidents, e Record’s Gretchen Brown gives CSB/SJU an inside look at President Mary Hinton’s many roles. Not only does Hinton serve as a community leader, but she is also a spouse and mother. Go to page five for the full story. Utilizing the different culinary stations at Gorecki Dining Center Northstar looks to extend ►See ABROAD Page 4 Language requirement lowered Student experiences culture of Chile while studying abroad through CSB/SJU SUBMITTED BY CENTER FOR GLOBAL EDUCATION AT CSB/SJU Hunger and Homelessness week spreads awareness on campus ►See HUNGER Page 3 CSB/SJU promotes awareness week Senates cut e New York Times, USA Today By Michael Swearingen [email protected]Aſter tension-filled min- utes of debate in the J-Club room, the St. John’s and St. Ben’s senates voted to take away the New York Times and USA Today from newspaper racks at both CSB and SJU. e motion will take effect next semester when the papers will be replaced by the Star Tri- bune. According to the senate, the Star Tribune should already be delivered but, due to logistical issues, the paper will not make an appearance until next semester. e motion to cut the program developed following a Joint Senate meeting on Oct. 7 where the senates commis- sioned a joint senate task force that would spend the following weeks assessing the value of hav- ing the New York Times and USA Today, otherwise known as the Inside Main 106
There’s a commotion about transportation to St. Cloud— and it’s a locomotive.
A project that started in May of 1997, the Northstar Corridor Development Authority (NCDA), is a joint powers board formed in order to offer more transportation services between St. Cloud and Minneapolis. In 2009, the North-star Commuter Rail opened. However, currently the train only runs between Big Lake and down-town Minneapolis.
On Nov. 12, the leaders of GRIP/ISAIAH, a grassroots group made up of people from many different faiths, met with elected officials St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis, Minnesota House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Representative Jim Knoblach, Metropolitan Council Chairman Adam Duininck (speaking on behalf of Govenor Dayton) and other transportation leaders at a
town hall meeting, “Time is Now: Finish Northstar!” to call for the completion of the Northstar Commuter Rail to St. Cloud.
“[The Northstar Rail] is something that is overdue over a long period of time, but the time is now,” Kleis said during the town hall meeting.
The GRIP/ISAIAH sup-porters call for the extension of the Northstar Commuter Rail because of the moral obligation to citizens to help promote econom-ic growth and opportunity within Minnesota. GRIP/ISAIAH’s goal is to gather 10,000 signatures on petitions asking for the extension by the time the new legislative session begins in March 2016.
“We’re better than that. We’re Minnesota; we don’t want to have an average system, we don’t want to have an average way to get around,” Duininck said. “We want to be above average and I think
The Center for Global Edu-cation has made more options for students wishing to go abroad.
Joy Ruis, Assistant Director for Semester Education Abroad, says that for the upcoming year (2016-2017) students have more choices for their study abroad experience. The Chile and Guatemala programs have low-ered the language requirement in both programs, allowing those with less Spanish experience to apply.
“Ultimately we’re excited to offer new options. It’s something we’ve thought about in the past,” Ruis said. “We looked at the how our programs could be altered and how to attract more students.”
The Chile program has the capacity to host 26 to 27 students. The Guatemala program can hold more than 20 students. Since the Center for Global Education no-ticed that both these programs
weren’t reaching the capacity, there needed to be some changes.
While CSB/SJU students may not have to think about their next meal or where they will sleep for the night, many people outside of campus who are impover-ished, famished or homelessness consider these things daily.
Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week 2015 is in full swing, and campus is filled to
the brim with the sights and sounds of all the accompany the 10-day event. The objective is to not only raise awareness about poverty’s prevalence, but also to educate students about immense problems in the community that are not always seen on campus.
“[Various groups on campus], individual faculty, students and staff members all came together with a shared vision: education, action and advocacy regarding
hunger and homelessness locally, nationally and internationally,” said Carley Castellanos, the as-sistant director of CSB Campus Ministry, via email.
CSB and SJU Campus Ministries, Experiential Learning and Community Engagement, Student Activities and Leader-ship Development (SALD), Joint Events Council (JEC) and the Institute for Women’s Leader-ship have all banded together to
provide a powerful driving force for increasing mindfulness regarding the community’s needs.
Michaela Connolly, a soph-omore who works in social outreach at SJU Campus Min-istry explained the slight shift in focus towards homelessness this year, primarily because it’s becoming more and more prev-alent in today’s society. Connol-ly also explained why student participation has increased from
previous years. “There’s a lot more students
on the planning committee than there was last year. We’re really trying to get more students in-terested in it, so we can say ‘This would be a really good time,’ or ‘This would be really interesting because it’s what a lot of students are interested in,’” Connolly said.
Like us on Facebook or follow The Record on Twitter at @csbsjurecord to stay updated with the latest from CSB/SJU’s official student newspaper. There is a new issue of The Record published every Friday—grab your copy today.
Contact Us
SPORTS, pg. 11OPINION, pg. 8
csbsjurecord.comSINCE 1888 NOV. 20, 2015
ECORDTheR
Latino/Latin American Studies Opinion
VARIETY, pg. 7
THE COLLEGE OF ST. BENEDICT/ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY
Gorecki Dining Hacks
SJU: Playoff Bound
President Mary Hinton discusses the relationship between CSB and the St. Benedict’s Monastery with Prioress Michaela Hedican during a monthly meeting.
The football team begins its quest for a national championship
New language requirements abroad
►See CRP Page 2Funds cut for CRP program at CSB/SJU
►See TRAIN Page 3Hopes for train to St. Cloud area
Students talk about bilingual public discourse at CSB/SJU
In the final installment of our two-part series on the CSB/SJU presidents, The Record’s Gretchen Brown gives CSB/SJU an inside look at President Mary Hinton’s many roles. Not only does Hinton serve as a
community leader, but she is also a spouse and mother. Go to page five for the full story.
Utilizing the different culinary stations at Gorecki Dining Center
Northstar looks to extend
►See ABROAD Page 4Language requirement lowered
Student experiences culture of Chile while studying abroad through CSB/SJUSUBMITTED BY CENTER FOR GLOBAL EDUCATION AT CSB/SJU
Hunger and Homelessness week spreads awareness on campus
After tension-filled min-utes of debate in the J-Club room, the St. John’s and St. Ben’s senates voted to take away the New York Times and USA Today from newspaper racks at both CSB and SJU.
The motion will take effect next semester when the papers will be replaced by the Star Tri-bune. According to the senate, the Star Tribune should already be delivered but, due to logistical issues, the paper will not make an appearance until next semester.
The motion to cut the program developed following a Joint Senate meeting on Oct. 7 where the senates commis-sioned a joint senate task force that would spend the following weeks assessing the value of hav-ing the New York Times and USA Today, otherwise known as the
Distribution ManagersElizabeth SchneiderMeredith Jarchow
Web Editors
Gretchen BrownMichael Swearingen
AdviserKelly Smith
About UsThe Record is the official student newspaper of St. John’s University (since 1888) and the College of St. Benedict (since 2000). The Record reserves the right to free speech. Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the student body, faculty or the CSB/SJU administration. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written consent from its editors. The Record does not necessarily promote the products or services it advertises, and it reserves the right to refuse advertising space. The Record is printed weekly at Northstar Media in Cambridge, Minnesota. The Record is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and the Minnesota Newspaper Association.
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Nov. 10 - St. Vincent Court Apts.: matter of information
Nov. 10 - St. Vincent Court Apts.: medical Nov. 11 - Guild Hall: fire alarmNov. 11 - Quadrangle: found propertyNov. 11 - St. Michael Hall: (2) stolen prop-
ertyNov. 12 - Sexton Dining: theftNov. 13 - Sexton Bus Stop: medicalNov. 13 - St. Benet Hall: matter of informa-
tionNov. 13 - St. Mary Hall: alcohol violationNov. 14 - Sexton Bus Stop: (2) alcohol vio-
lationNov. 14 - St. Mary Hall: alcohol violationNov. 14 - St. Mary Hall: vehicle damageNov. 14 - St. Patrick Hall: fire alarmNov. 15 - Campus: deer-vehicular accidentNov. 15 - Flynntown Bus Stop: alcohol vio-
lationNov. 15 - Sexton Bus Stop: alcohol violationNov. 16 - St. Maur House: property damage
CRPFrom page 1 Collegiate Readership Program (CRP). Ultimately, the task force suggested the senates cut it.
Although the motion was passed, not all of the 31 senators in attendance agreed with the final vote. Eight senators, approx-imately a quarter of both senates, voted not to cut the CRP.
Senator Frantz Soiro is one of the eight individuals that vot-ed no. He disagrees with the approach the task force took in crafting their proposal.
“I wasn’t too keen on the idea that it was decided by [the task force] only,” Soiro said. “They were rather opposed to reach-ing out to students...in terms of having a survey. They thought it would not be not representative enough to ratify the proposal or keep it so they kind of went with numbers from previous years.”
The task force did consider conducting a survey, but they did feel that it would not be repres entative of the campus. Alex Wald is the President of the St. John’s Senate and co-led the CRP task force. He says the task force went as far as completely crafting a sur-vey. But the survey never made it to students.
“The reason that we didn’t do a student survey is that we have done them in the past and we’ve gotten extremely unreliable results,” Wald said. “The only people that we could get to answer the survey are people who feel very strongly about reading the paper. So we wanted to make a decision that was for the entire student body.”
Many senators that were in favor of cutting the CRP advocat-ed for the Star Tribune because of its reputation as a local favor-ite. Soiro is concerned that the absence of the New York Times and USA Today will mean lower quality journalism when it comes to international news. To him, the Star Tribune will not be a good enough replacement.
“Not being from Minnesota, I would like to get that information elsewhere,” Soiro said. “I know that local news is always great but for someone who is from New Jersey or New York... getting
information from a place that has national exposure is important for me.”
Throughout the CRP’s life at CSB/SJU, the senates have gath-ered consumption rates on both campuses. After assessing the data, task force members reported that consumption rates have gone down this year. Starting from the beginning of the semester and going until Nov. 1, about 49 copies of the New York Times and 38 copies of USA Today were tak-en on average each delivery day. In addition, CRP task force mem-bers had doubts as to who was actually taking the paper. During senate debate time on Mon-day, many senators echoed the
concern that faculty are the most responsible for what they ar-gued were already low consump-tion numbers. Opponents of the motion to cut the CRP respond-ed that, if faculty consuption was a concern, it certainly would not end when the Star Tribune arrives to campus next semester.
Yet, for CSB Senate Presi-dent Erin Ryan-Mosley, the CRP’s demise arrived mostly due to an overall lack of interest in having those papers.
“I basically asked every single human being that I have ever come into contact with about this thing over the past two weeks,” Ryan-Mosley said during debate. “And what I’ve gathered
is that, from the peers that I have talked to, they are in agreement with that and they think it’s good [to cut the CRP].”
Regardless of which way each senator voted, not all senate members who were in favor of cutting the CRP agreed on why it should be cut.
Edwin Torres is the Vice President of the St. John’s Senate. During the meeting debate, he called on senators to be honest as to why they wanted to cut the program: budget issues.
“I don’t know about you all but I talk to people and they want to know why we’re [cutting CRP],” Torres said to fellow sen-ators. “And I’m not going to lie to them. I mean if that’s the reason, then we need to really have great [public relations] and let them know that [the CRP] will only be available for the rest of the semes-ter but the Star Tribune will be next semester.”
Beneath all of the talk and debate that surrounds this con-troversial decision, all senators can agree on one thing: The New York Times and USA Today will be gone next semester. But they hope the period will act as a trial run for students. The time spent without the CRP will be spent with the Star Tribune and the task force will continue to search for cost-effective alternatives.
Meanwhile, funds that both senates save by cutting the CRP will go to a discretionary fund accessible to all clubs and organi-zations on campus. Money that is no longer being spent on the New York Times and USA Today can be allocated for club activities and events.
“It’s been something that our senates have been ponder-ing for a couple of years and I know was pretty controversial within our senates as well,” said CRP task force co-chair Kaitlyn Ludlow. “The fact that we cut the newspaper does not mean that we just wanted more money for certain things or anything like that. It was strictly ‘Is this where we need to be using our student activity fee versus other ways that we could be using it?’”
The reason that we didn’t do a student survey is that we have done them in the past and we’ve gotten extremely unreliable results. -Alex Wald SJU Senate President
This week’s senate meetings happened all at once with a joint gathering in the J-Club room on Monday. To start, the Joint Events Council (JEC) co-chairs Joe Buysse and Lydia Ogren pre-sented their findings on student involvement with JEC events. After restructuring, Buysse and Ogren say the group sought to increase Johnnie attendance as well as senior attendance. John-nie attendance did increase this semester especially with JEC’s bubble soccer and “Friday Night Lights.” Senior attendance
also rose from 11 percent to 22 percent this semester. Buysse and Ogren attribute both rises to better marketing and events that were geared towards both groups.
Senator Andy Kuhl expressed his comfort with the board’s prog-ress compared to previous years. The board allocated $250 to the Climate Action Club, $1,027.75 to Noteworthy, $654 to the Com-munication Club, $656 to the Pre-Law Club and $849.95 to Hmong Americans in Society.
Senators Ian Cochran and Steph Van Beek say they are in talks with St. Joseph mayor Rick Schultz about developing a 5k run. Cochran says the 5k’s theme
will be based on businesses or mental health awareness. Both Cochran and Van Beek say they are working on promoting local businesses in St. Joseph. Van Beek has interviewed Gary’s and Baby Doll Boutique and will interview the St. Joseph Co-op, the Local Blend and numerous bars in town to promote local businesses.
Following board reports, both senates passed a motion to cut the Collegiate Readership Program which includes delivery of the New York Times and USA Today. For the full story on this motion, look to page 1. A motion to allocate $1,000 from each sen-ate for an “It’s On Us Club Con-
test” was passed unanimously.After the meeting adjourned,
the St. John’s Senate gathered and unanimously passed a motion to allocate $2,000 to SJU Athletics for the NCAA playoff game be-tween the Johnnies and Dubuque. During the senate’s discussion, Dean Mike Connolly expressed his concern regarding what he says has been poor attendance at recent football games.
The St. Ben’s Senate will have their next meeting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 2 in Gorec-ki 120. The Saint John’s Senate will have their next meeting at 9:20 p.m. on Nov. 30 in Brother Willie’s Pub.
It’s been something that our senates have been pondering for a couple of years and I know was pretty controversial within our senates as well. -Kaitlyn Ludlow CRP task force co-chair
“ “Senates vote to cut Collegiate Readership Program
PAGE 3 • THE RECORD csbsjurecord.com • NOV. 20, 2015NEWS
TRAINFrom page 1
SJU unveils new military honor roll multimedia board
The Military Honor Roll, located in the Quadrangle near Benet Hall, is dedicated to St. John’s students who have served. RACHEL KETZ • [email protected]
A proposed map for the extension of the Northstar Commuter Rail to St. Cloud including possible and current stations.COURTESY OF NORTHSTAR CORRIDOR DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (NCDA)
HungerFrom page 1
that’s something we need to keep talking about.”
The Climate Action Club on campus has also gotten involved by tabling in Gorecki to help inform students and ask for their support through petitions. The Climate Action Club supports the Northstar Commuter Rail in order to help the environment.
“It’d be great to have an easy and less expensive way for students to reduce their carbon footprint,” secretary of the club Diana Elhard said.
Aside from possible economic and environmental benefits the groups propose, there are count-less other reasons people are supporting the Northstar Com-muter Rail extension. Admission marketing director for the School Of Theology, Jeannie Kenevan lives in the Twin Cities metro area and prefers the train ride over a car ride.
“I can read or work on my laptop or catch up on social media instead of sitting in traffic and constantly changing lanes to avoid semi-trucks or people who hang out in the left lane all
day on I-94,” Kenevan said via email. “I would have loved to have this train available when I was a student at CSB/SJU.”
Supporter of GRIP/ISAIAH and long-time resident of St. John’s, Fr. Wilfred Theisen’s want for the train is personal.
“Senior [citizens] need mass transit, they need to keep us old people off the highways,” The-isen said. “If they provide it, the seniors will use it.”
While the expansion of the Northstar Commuter Rail may not have any effect on currents students, supporters urge others to look at the project as a benefit for future communities. Louisi-ana native and current graduate student at the School Of Theol-ogy and faculty resident, Joseph Eichorn says his goal to extend the Northstar is based on the idea of community.
“It’s important to get people thinking of not just their own experience. I’ve heard people say ‘Well, I’m never going to use the train, why would I care if I’m not going to use it?” Eichorn said. “[The Northstar Commuter Rail] is building up the community and is going to help other people down the road.”
The planning committee kept students and their sched-ules in mind when planning out events that would take place over the ten-day stretch. From book groups to films to con-certs, there’s a little something for
everyone. Film fanatics enjoyed two showings of ‘Gimme Shelter’, a film about a homeless teenage girl, hosted by SALD and JEC. Book lovers anticipate a book discussion for “Tattoos on the Heart” by Gregory Boyle on Nov. 22, while those who find passion in music can enjoy the annual benefit concert at Brother Willie’s Pub on Nov. 20.
Other events this year include nonperishable and monetary collections for Anna Marie’s Al-liance and the St. Joseph food shelf, meal deliveries, hands-on service opportunities, presen-tations about poverty and the devastating impact of homeless-ness, and a handprint campaign that asked various members of the community to advocate for a
specific action or step in the fight against poverty.
This year’s special guest speak-er is Julia Dinsmore, a self-pro-claimed poet, singer, songwriter, author, educator and community capacity builder. She delivered an engaging seminar using poet-ry, music and humor on Nov. 17 about her personal experience of overcoming poverty and home-
lessness.When Hunger and Homeless-
ness Awareness Week is over, the goal isn’t that students return to their daily lives and resume where they left off, but rather to initiate a movement of advocacy and awareness that spreads across campus and continues on for years to come.
A CSB student donates items to the Anna Marie’s Alliance Collection for Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. MAGGIE SULLIVAN • [email protected]
Students gather for speaker Julia Dinsmore’s talk, ‘Upholding Human Dignity’. MAGGIE SULLIVAN • [email protected]
For decades, the hallway from the first floor of the Quad to Guild Hall had a wall adorned with metal plaques engraved with the names of Johnnies who served in the military. Recently, however, they were replaced with something more fit for the times: a touchscreen.
The touchscreen sits in the hallway from the Quad to Ben-et Hall, titled “Military Honor Roll,” and featuring a benedictine cross. It’s been in the works for the past five years, having become a personal project for John Taylor, a senior associate in St. John’s Institutional Advancement. De-spite the long wait, many have been pleased with the new board after the release on Veteran’s Day.
“I think it’s really important for everyone,” senior ROTC cadet Holly Spitzer said. “There’s a lot of people that have made a huge sacrifice that has gone unnoticed for far too long.”
The original plaques hadn’t been updated since the turn of the century and often contained repeated or misspelled names. Most of all, though, the only fact about those who served was their name. The new screen changes all of this.
“It’s really cool to see your name etched in brass, but not if it’s spelled wrong,” Spitzer said. “This board is easy to update and
is really flexible.” Captain Brian Riverman of the
ROTC program agreed, saying that the board is more tailored for this generation of students.
“Students will just walk by a brass plaque,” Riverman said. “A form of multimedia like this is much more interactive and makes the experience much more powerful.”
One unexpected feature that this project lends itself to is like a military version of the Cane Files.
“It’s actually huge for net-working in the different branch-es,” Spitzer said. “I’ve already connected with a few military doctors that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. It’s a huge educational feature.”
Taylor says part of his motiva-tion for taking on a project like this comes from the distinguished Johnnies who have served. These men include numerous gener-als, a medal of honor recipient and numerous soldiers who were killed in action.
“We knew we needed to do it right this time,” Taylor said. “We wanted a respectful, memorial area. It needed to be a place where people could reflect on service while also being factually accurate and offering other neat things.”
Some of the things that the board offers are photographs of those that served and eventually biographies. There are two major goals on the horizon for the board that Taylor is looking to focus on
now that it has been unveiled: biographies written by every in-dividual as well as making the project accessible via the internet, making it reachable from any part of the globe.
One of the aspects that is notably missing, however, is the lack of Bennies on the board. As the project was commissioned and created by St. John’s Institu-tional Advancement, the board only includes Johnnies. Part of this comes from their inability to access the records for St. Ben’s but
it’s part of a larger theme in the military as a whole where women are a small minority.
“Unfortunately, women hav-en’t been well-represented in the military but some of the best people I’ve served with have been women,” Riverman said. “I think it’s very important to include women as they are now starting to trailblaze.”
Overall, though, Riverman said the board is important to show off the quality of students that come through the ROTC program and
those that enlist without being part of ROTC.
“It’s really a testement to how good the students are. Every person on that board is part of an awesome team,” Riverman said. “Hopefully the board will help students realize how good the ROTC program is and be proud of it just like we are of our football team.”
PAGE 4• THE RECORD csbsjurecord.com • NOV. 20, 2015NEWS
In response to recent events across the globe, CSB/SJU Campus Ministries held a Prayer Service for Peace and Justice on Nov. 17 in Gorecki Center which was attended by more than 50 students, staff, faculty and admin-istration. People gathered at the service to reflect on events and to pray for peace for those who are suffering—wherever they may be.
The service opened with an introduction from CSB President, Mary Hinton, who offered a brief commentary on the purpose of a service and how each commu-nity member attending likely had different sources of pain and concern that needed to be reflect-ed upon.
“Some of us have hurts that are very local, pain caused by those closest to us,” Hinton said to attendants. “Some of us grieve over communal pains and injus-tices, a desire for a truly just world within which we can all thrive.
And, some of us are suffering over global violence, destruction and hatred that afflict so many. Most of us feel each of these hurts.”
In response to all that the community and the world has experienced, Hinton examined the need for prayer and what she believes it can do in a time of despair.
“Tonight we gather in prayer,” Hinton said to attendants. “Prayer to reflect on our aspirations of peace and justice for the world. Prayer that envelops us in the strength of our community and equips us to use that strength to lift up another. Prayer to renew and recharge us so that we can reflect and share the light of the world. Prayer that uplifts. Prayer that empowers. Prayer [that] enables.”
Through the rest of the service, the crowd witnessed and responded to a selection of prayers led by a handful of different campus leaders. SJU President, Michael Hemesath, opened with a prayer that ob-
served light and darkness in the world and five student speakers offered up prayers that highlight-ed peace, justice, listening, mercy and community.
“I believe that God has a very powerful influence on our lives and I truly believe in the power of prayer and a communi-ty gathering together in prayer,” said sophomore Mary Cather-ine Steenberge, one of the atten-dants of the service. “I think this service was really important. It recognizes that we need to pray for so many people. We need to pray for the people in France who were attacked and who were killed, we need to pray for the people who are now demonized because of a few extremist people. We need to pray for people who do feel marginalized. I think that this was a great way for the CSB/SJU community to show that sol-idarity and to show the influence of our faith on our actions.”
Sophomore Nathan Libra also attended the service and mentioned the act of prayer to
be one that can help in a way that humans could not in regards to global suffering.
“Of course, I can get all theological [on] how this is all God’s plan and we are all God’s children,” Libra said. “And, when our brothers and sisters are hurt we are still impacted by that and we still have either a moral responsibility for ourselves or a theological responsibility as children of God to support our brothers and sisters across the globe. Of course we can do a lot physically, but sometimes prayer is just as helpful.”
Though Steenberge, Li-bra and other attendants of the service found some spiritual peace in the prayers that were spoken, others used the time and space to simply reflect quietly on their own reactions to the global events.
“This was my first prayer service,” junior Stacey Guzman said. “I think I just came from a really inspiring talk and just thought, ‘I’m going to sit down
and listen.’ It helped me reflect on all of the bad things going on and how important it is to just take ten minutes out of your day to kind of reflect.”
The initial cause for the service was the pain and suffering that many people felt, but Hin-ton advised the attendants to go away from the service trying to find light and hope in spite of the brutal recent happenings.
“In the face of all of this, we cannot be without hope,” Hinton said to attendants. “We must, as those fortunate enough to have this opportunity and educa-tion, determine how we want to engage and transform the world. We must, as those who live in an intentional community, utilize our communal strength to support those around us, near and far. Friend and stranger. We must, as future leaders and advocates, embrace the world with courage and passion.”
St. Ben’s and St. John’s students, staff, faculty and administration gathered together in Gorecki Center for Prayer Service for Peace and Justice to reflect on current global events.NICOLE PEDERSON• [email protected]
They wanted to offer a way that more students can go on these programs without having to just focus on language.
“It’s not hard to tailor it to a lower language proficiency,” Ruis said.
Students who have now completed Spanish 111 can choose the Guatemala program. Similarly, students who have completed 112 may choose the Chile program.
They use a tiered approach in Guatemala, according to Ruis. Students at different levels of proficiency can learn and build on their fluency in Spanish. In Chile, the program has a two-track model. Bascially, there are two levels: the lower one has two
courses in English and two in Spanish and the higher one has all courses in Spanish besides the
course taught by the instructor.”“The students on the Austria
program have completed one level of German. If they can get by with that proficiency, so can the stu-dents on the other two programs,” Ruis said. “If those students could navigate in other countries, like China or Austria, so can they with the little foundation they have and can build on it.”
Hannah Esselman, a student on the Chile program says that she uses physical body language as a start to communicating with her host family.
“A great example is when I am in the kitchen with my host mom, I can ask her how to say Tupperware in Spanish by hold-ing it up and show her what I’m asking,” Esselman said. “When I don’t have a visual aid to help me, we sometimes have no idea what the other person is talking about and it goes downhill from there.”
She adds that the Chile program has built her language proficiency more than she could have ever imagined. Immersing herself directly into the culture has been a unique experience. Realizing that she is growing in her speaking abilities is one of the most rewarding experiences.
“Time will tell as far as num-bers are concerned,” Ruis said. “But we’re excited to have it start this year. It’s more than just study-ing the language, it’s about culture as well. Both programs offer a wide variety of courses including film studies, peace studies and art.”
According to Ruis, the pro-grams will offer an experience to gain greater learning outcomes in both the language and culture.
PAGE 5• THE RECORD csbsjurecord.com • NOV. 20, 2015NEWS
As the sun rises, she pulls out of her driveway, 11-year-old daughter Hosanna in tow.
She drops Hosanna off at nearby All Saints Academy, but not before a special drop-off se-cret handshake (“cheek cheek, nose bump, fist bump”).
Robert Williams, Hinton’s husband, will take their son Hil-lel, 14, and daughter Hallela, 16, to St. John’s Prep later.
Then it’s off to work. Hin-ton has a busy day ahead of her, with eight meetings and events sprinkled throughout. But it’s not much different from the norm.
“A key part of my philosophy is, I have to engage with the stu-dents as often as possible,” Hin-ton said. “I can’t go out into the world and talk about the mission and the vision of the institution if I don’t know what that looks like for you.”
In a college president’s life, a day without a single obligation doesn’t exist.
“When you look at this cal-endar, that’s not easy to think about sometimes,” Hinton said. “So what helps me focus, and what makes all of this worthwhile is when we’ve done something that supports you.”
Hinton literally builds stu-dent engagement into her calen-dar. Last year, in her first year as president, she instated monthly open office hours, something that was unprecedented at CSB.
“I think it made my office very nervous, like, ‘how will we control it?’” Hinton said. “Be-cause they really work hard to keep me organized and on task and to make my life as easy as possible, and this idea of people
descending on the office with no level of control over how many or who was a bit startling. But it’s been wonderful, it’s been really, really wonderful. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Office hour visitors are as diverse as the campus. Students. Faculty and staff. The mayor of St. Joseph.
They’re not one-sided con-versations. In her last office hours, Hinton asked a professor for ad-vice on reentering the teaching world (Hinton is set to co-teach a class with St. John’s President Mi-chael Hemesath next semester).
Hinton takes a personal ap-proach to her presidential posi-tion.
She learns and knows the stu-dents’ names in a pair of schools of 4,000 students. Anywhere she walks on campus, she knows and acknowledges someone by name.
“People tell me that I’m good at it,” Hinton said. “I don’t feel very good at it, to be honest with you. At the end of the day, every human being just wants to be known by someone else. And if we can facilitate that happening, then I think part of my job is to help every person feel welcome.”
That kind of approach may stem from her K-12 background.
Hinton’s professional career began in school development. But she has an undergraduate degree in psychology, a master’s in clinical child psychology, and a doctoral degree in religion and religious education.
“I went back to get my Ph.D. somewhat later in life, because I wanted to study something that I loved.” Hinton said. “There was no conscious intent that, I’m gon-na get my Ph.D. and go into high-er education. It was, ‘I really wan-na study religion, and I wanna do this graduate program.’”
In her collegiate career, Hin-ton has only worked on Catholic campuses. But she grew up in the
south in the historic black church, part of the Protestant tradition.
“I was the kid who played church, that was my favorite thing,” Hinton said. “I thought I wanted to grow up to be a nun, I thought that was the most won-derful thing in the world.”
Through her work, Hinton developed an appreciation and love for the Catholic intellectual tradition.
“[The Catholic intellectual tradition] enables you to put your intellectual life and your spiritual life in dialogue with one another,” Hinton said. “That, to me, has en-riched and grown my own spir-ituality in ways that have been unimaginable.”
Hinton meets monthly with Sister Michaela Hedican, the prioress of the monastery. The school has a working relationship with the monastery, so some of the visit is business-related. But a good portion is spiritual.
The meeting typically starts with a prayer about the schools and about the world. And per-sonally, Hinton leans on Hedican for personal and spiritual advice.
“She is such a personal role model and a mentor for me,” Hinton said. “The commitment that she‘s made with her life and her leadership.”
Another essential partner-ship for Hinton is with St. John’s. Last year, she helped to develop Strategic Directions 2020, CSB/SJU’s strategic plan for the next five years. It was the first plan developed in full coordination between the colleges.
But between the serious planning, they keep things light.
“Hemesath and I always tease one another. It’s just how we are.” Hinton said. “When you’re working this number of hours, addressing these kinds of issues, enjoying the work is important.”
The number of hours is sig-nificant. Hinton makes it a point
to attend evening athletic and arts events to support the students.
The Hinton-Williams fam-ily lives on-campus in Renner house. So even when Hinton is home, she never quite leaves the office.
Hinton stresses that “bal-ance” isn’t the right way to think about juggling all of her commit-ments.
“The way I think of it is in-tegration,” Hinton said. “In this role, I don’t always get to sepa-rate my professional life and my personal life. What enables me to do the job, though, is the sup-port that my family offers. Robert is incredibly supportive. When I decided to take this job, it was a family decision.”
No matter how early or late Hinton gets home at night, life goes on, with family first.
“I check Hosanna’s home-work, that’s my job is to go over homework, and I quiz her on her spelling words,” Hinton said. “There’s usually some running joke that our family laughs about for 15 or 20 minutes. Eventually I
will eat dinner, and that’s usually not until 9 or 10, whenever I get home.”
Hinton doesn’t have much free time.
She loves Adele’s song “Hel-lo.” She listens to all kinds of mu-sic, including gospel and spiritu-als. And she has made the leap into social media with a personal Instagram account with more than 700 followers.
“Someone told me I should get someone to take all my Ins-tagram photos,” Hinton said. “I think that was their way of saying I’m not very good at Instagram.”
At the end of the night, she checks the news. Then her email. Then, she turns in, ready for an-other day.
In a few hours, sky still black, she will wake up.
She will run a college for an-other day.
“It is the best job ever. I will tell you that,” Hinton said. “That’s what I want people to know: how grateful I am to be a part of this community.”
For the first time in 25 years, CSB/SJU has commissioned a production that has been written and arranged directly for its cast members.
CSB/SJU will present the premiere of “Laying Out the Colors,” a musical drama writ-ten and composed by Flannery Cunningham at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 19-21 and 2 p.m. Nov. 22 in the Colman Black Box Theater.
Many college students ask themselves, “What am I going to do with my life?”
This question becomes the theme of the musical drama production, “Laying Out the Colors.”
CSB/SJU students will premiere the never before seen opera this upcoming weekend. A $2 donation is requested to attend the performance with no advance ticket sales.
The hour-long drama centers on Hannah, an aspiring artist and recent college graduate, unsure of what she is supposed to do with her life, and her boyfriend Tom, another recent college grad who, unlike Hannah, seems to have his life together and knows what he wants to do.
As the story unfolds, the conflict between Hannah, played by sophomore music major Maria Baumann, and Tom, played by senior music major Thomas Friebe, becomes clear in the different pathways they each wish to pursue.
“I relate to (Hannah)…trying to find what passions I want to pursue (in college),” Baumann said.
Music director and music/voice professor Carolyn Finley contacted Cunningham last year about writing a piece for CSB/SJU. Flannery is a daughter of philosophy professor Tony
Cunningham and FYS profes-sor Mickey Cunningham and is currently pursuing graduate work at Stony Brook in New York.
“I contacted (Flannery) and said that I wanted to get a faculty development grant to write us a piece,” Finley said. “She wrote us a piece with dialogue and music and she wrote it with our particu-larly singers in mind.”
The show is designed specif-ically for the cast of 14 students, centered on their particular rang-es and voice skills.
The cast of Bennies and Johnnies were sought out and recommended last year to Finley. They have been preparing for the musical drama since mid-Sep-tember, rehearsing twice a week plus individual vocal coaching with Finley.
“The way an opera workshop works is by seeing what the department has and seeing what we want to work on. The main thing that is different (this year) is that this piece is made just for us,” Stage Director Tom Speck-
hand said. “Laying Out the Colors,” is
very similar to an opera, yet differs in that not all of the lines are sung. Instead, dialogue is inserted within the musical score, making it resemble that of a musical theater production.
“This piece is wonderful and challenging. (There are) no refer-ence points…(it’s) very fun that way,” Speckhand said.
The music for the show requires two pianos and includes a number of classically sung piec-es. The songs are created to show off the individual cast members’ classically trained voice, which will in turn resemble musical the-ater.
After weeks of rehearsing, the cast is excited to perform this new form of art on campus.
“The cliché slogan for the show could be ‘follow your dreams,’” Friebe said. “But, it’s more about finding what your passions are.”
Fellowship, Festival of Cultures, mentorships, Home-coming, common values and Pines. These are a few things that get brought up when discussing community at CSB/SJU.
Community is one of the Bene-dictine Values on these campuses and it states, “we are committed to forming stable relationships in the community. To become who we are by our
relationships with others.”This view of community is
a traditional one, the view that everyone is together as one on these campuses. Although this is a common view, many others have their own way of defining community.
A common perception of community is helping others and having a place to call home.
“Community is performing acts of kindness to all, even the small things,” SJU junior Zach Grieves said.
Whether that is holding doors
open for people or helping some-one who doesn’t know their way, we see these types of acts played out every day on CSB/SJU campuses.
“Community is being inclusive with others around you and being hospitable,” CSB senior Natalie Mancia said.
It’s about being able to meet new people no matter what year you are. It is knowing you will be
included in everything you do and feeling accepted.
“It’s a shared belief, support for each other, and a campus full of love,” CSB senior Wenni Lu said.
Another way community is defined at CSB/SJU is by having differing opinions and values but still showing respect for one another.
“Community is a group of individuals that share very different and common values and beliefs,” CSB junior Vanessa Voigt. “We work together to better ourselves and each other.”
It is also about having a place to learn together and grow together.
“Community is where you share the same struggles and find ways to combat them,” SJU senior Alexander Melchor said.
Even after someone has gradu-ated, they still maintain the sense of community with the campus-es. Often alumni will help current students and act as a mentor for upcoming interviews or even to help them find a job.
“I see community every day on these campuses by groups of
Bennies and Johnnies banding together,” CSB junior Brenna Pierskalla. “They help one
another out outside of the CSB/SJU community for example with jobs, interviews and mentor-ships.”
Alumni stay connected after graduation is coming back for Homecoming every year. Each year there is a huge Homecoming celebration on the Tundra to wel-come back previous Bennies and Johnnies.
“The alums have great relation-ships with one another and part of the community is coming back to this special place,” Psychology Chair Pamela Bacon said.
“Community is a group of people who feel committed to one another, who care about one another as individuals and about the group and the group’s goals as a whole,” communication profes-sor Kelly Berg said.
Students say community is something that makes CSB/SJU unique. Bennies and Johnnies have a place to come back and call home.
What: Festival of CulturesWhen: 5 to 8 p.m. SaturdayWhere: HCC Field House, SJUDescription: A festival including food, music, entertainment and culture.Cost: Free for students
What: Bennie-Johnnie FuedWhen: 8 to 10 p.m. Friday Where: Alum Hall, CSBDescription: JEC hosts a classic game of Family FuedCost: Free for students
What: SJU Basketball vs. St. Scholastica When: 4 p.m. SaturdayWhere: SCSU Halenback Hall
What: The Country WifeWhen: 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. SaturdayWhere: Benedicta Arts Center
2 PERFECT FOR TWO
3CAMPUS COMMOTION
instagrams of the week Use the hashtag #csbsju
for your chance to be featured
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Community is a group of people who feel committed to one another, who care about one another as individuals and about the group and the group’s goals as a whole.
Bennies and Johnnies are blessed with such a quality dining hall that is Gorecki. With that being said, Gorecki could not fulfill my late night Pinterest recipes I desperately wanted to recreate, or so I thought. With the help of my friends, I have been able to make some out-of-the-box things with the daily selection Gorecki has to offer.
Ingredients:Chex Cerealchocolate chips, chocolate syrup or
nutellapeanut butterpowdered sugar (by the waffle maker)Instructions:First, fill the small shallow bowls with
peanut butter and your choice of choco-late and microwave for 30 seconds until smooth. Fill a cereal bowl up with Chex, and pour the peanut butter chocolate mixture over and stir. Then, shake pow-dered sugar (Tip: Take the top off the powdered sugar).
Ingredients: peppers, onions, black beans, spicy chicken, wrap, cheeseInstructions:First, go through the mongos line and get a stir-fry of your favorite fajita fillings. I
usually go for green peppers, white onions, black beans and spicy chicken. Once you have your cooked filling, make your way to the sandwich line and grab your desired tortilla. Arrange stir-fry on the tortilla. In the salad bar, grab desired amount of cheese and place it on the tortilla. The last step is to go to the sandwich press and cook until crispy. Grab salsa or shake on some sriracha- make it your own!
Ingredients:tortilla chipscheeseblack beansonions salsaInstructions:Grab a plate full of tortilla chips from
the center island. Then go through the salad bar and sprinkle on desired amount of cheese. Go through the Mongolian Grill (Mongo) line and top with your favorite ingredients. I usually do black beans and onions. Microwave until cheese is melted. Grab a bowl of salsa and enjoy!
Ingredients:PastaMongolian grill toppingsInstructions:This dish is a true personal creation.
Go through the Mongo line and get your favorite ingredients for a pasta dish. I usually get broccoli, mushrooms, onions, garlic and chicken. Pour the cooked Mongo ingredients over a bowl of pasta and drizzle olive oil. Utilize the seasonings on the backside of mongos to spice it up a little more. I sprinkle garlic powder and onion powder on top.
Gorecki Hacks
NACHOS MONGO ITALIA PUPPY CHOW
FAJITA-DILLA
Sophomore student shares do-it-yourself recipes using ingredients from daily selections at Gorecki
Beneath the first years in Corona Hall and alongside book-worms in the Dungeon of Alcu-in Library, sits a woman whose work it is to conserve the ins and outs of The CBS/SJU campuses. Surrounded by history, Peggy Roske comes to work every-day to make sure our stories are preserved.
Peggy is the Archivist for CSB/SJU. She oversees the work done, “to appraise, collect, organize, describe, make available, and preserve records of historical, legal, fiscal, and/or adminis-trative value to the College,” according to the Archives’ mis-sion statement. Or as she puts it, “preserving the past for the future and accessing the past for the present.”
Part of the ultimate graduating class of St. Ben’s High School and a graduate of CSB, Roske has a long history with the institution. After a few years as an alumna, she came back to campus to seek advice from career services and was steered towards becoming an editor or a librarian.
Soon after, she started her work at the St. John’s library before going back to school to
get her masters degree in Library Science. For the next twenty-five years she would be seen in and around Alcuin library.
“[Archiving seemed to be] in my blood,” Roske said as she described her collection of docu-ments, like catalogs, phone books and class schedules from the Reg-istrar’s Office, on her shelves.
This made her the perfect choice when the nuns in charge of the CSB Archives wanted to move on. In 2005, she took over the CSB Archives and in 2006 she added the SJU archives as well.
“It made sense to do both. I really love it. I’ve never looked back,” Roske said. “The history is fascinating.”
Her favorite thing about her job is doing investigative work. As an archivist Roske not only organizes and stores records, but she uncovers secrets from St. Ben’s and St. John’s.
“One of the coolest things is to come across old maps and photos and try to figure out what they show,” she said.
A hand drawn map from the 1800s of the land surrounding Lake Sagatagan is an example. Her work isn’t solitary though.
“At least 50 percent of my time is spent communicating,” Roske said.
Whether it is the work she does with her assistant and student workers or bringing bits of history to life through presen-tations, or “vignettes” as she likes to call them. This week, she will be presenting on the foundation of CSB and its early years as an educational institution. All of these resources and more can be found on the Archives websites, which Peggy also maintains.
Her current project is getting ready for the renovations at Alcuin Library, the home of the SJU Archives. They are the first ones to move in January. It is a big feat.
“There’s not a shelf in the space that doesn’t have stuff on it,” Roske said.
The new archive space will have reading rooms for research, and a similar look to the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library renovations.
“[I plan on] taking photos of the whole process so we can archive what happened and put updates on the website for people to see,” Roske said.
Over twenty-five years in the library business, Roske lived through the digital age transition.
“Paper is still the best archival material. It is stable,” Roske said. “Digitizing is possible, but soft-
ware for accessing it changes.” Floppy discs and VHS tapes
are almost, if not completely obsolete. There are
very few technologies today that can read them. However, digitiz-ing is still a very useful tool as it facilitates searching information. In addition, Roske has been able to put things on the Internet for public access, something she wishes students had more time to look at.
“Most students would enjoy exploring these websites,” Roske
said.Another change that makes
life difficult for the archivist is the way student activities are docu-mented.
“Since we no longer have a yearbook, I don’t get much in the way of information for posterity that documents what students do,” Roske said.
Roske is a busy woman, never without a project.
“I love what I do. I love answering questions for people. I love investigating.”
Your Story:
CSB/SJU Archivist maintains and oversees all archived documents
Somos un grupo de siete estudiantes y un profesor partic-ipando en un círculo de lecturas y discusiones sobre temas relacio-nados a América Latina y latinos en los Estados Unidos. Duran-te este semestre el programa de Estudios Latinos-Latinoamerica-nos (LLAS) ha auspiciado las visi-tas de tres personas para hablar de temas relacionados a Guatemala. En el primer evento un cineasta guatemalteco mostró su pelícu-la documental llamada Abrazos y nos habló de las experiencias e historias de migrantes guate-maltecos en Worthington, Min-nesota y los hijos de éstos que via-jaron a Guatemala para conocer a sus abuelas y abuelos por prime-ra vez. Un profesor de literatura, también de origen guatemalteco, dio una ponencia sobre los identi-dades indígenas y literatura maya. Una graduada de CSB también exhibió una película documental y nos habló acerca de su proyec-to de investigación, de la salud
pública y la planificación familiar en Cobán, Guatemala. Después de cada evento nos hemos reuni-do para reflexionar sobre las ideas expresadas. En ese contexto se nos surgió la idea de escribirles a ustedes, los editores del Record.
Somos un pequeño grupo de ocho personas con interés en temas relacionados a América Latina, al mundo hispano y el uso del español en los Estados Unidos. Todos leemos, hablamos y escrib-imos el español, pero en general, nuestro uso diario del español se limita a la esfera estrictamente académica y a los aulas. Esto nos parece curioso porque hay muchas personas aquí en CSB/SJU que tienen por lo menos una experiencia mínima con el español. Estudiar un idioma, “una lengua global,” es un req-uisito para todos los estudiantes de CSB/SJU y sabemos que la gran mayoría eligen estudiar el español. También hay estudiantes cuyo primer idioma el español. Es
un orgullo para nosotros recon-ocer que hay muchos estudiantes de CSB/SJU que son bilingües en inglés y español o que son de familias hispanohablantes. Tam-bién nos da mucho gusto recon-ocer que hay estudiantes bilingües en inglés y muchos otros idiomas. Tenemos entendido que el núme-ro de idiomas representados entre los estudiantes bilingües en CSB/SJU llega a 24 idiomas—y eso es sin incluir los estudiantes interna-cionales. Sin embargo nos hemos dado cuenta que el inglés es el único idioma del discurso público en los campuses de CSB/SJU. Por ejemplo, nunca hemos visto nada publicado en el Record en español ni en ningun otro de los idio-mas de los miembros de nuestra comunidad.
En relación a lo anterior, lle-gamos al motivo de esta carta. Les rogamos a los editores del Record que publiquen nuestra carta en español como el comien-zo de una práctica regular. Al
mismo tiempo queremos ani-mar a sus lectores a contribuir a la creación de una esfera pública multilingüe. Podemos imaginar artículos y comentarios en es-pañol sobre las visitas de artistas e intelectuales de España o Améri-ca Latina, visitas como las que hemos tenido este semestre y que son frecuentes. Podemos imag-inar un diálogo en la sección de opiniones sobre las elecciones en México o en Guatemala o sobre lo que es llamado “voto latino” en los Estados Unidos. Podemos imaginar análisis o comentario en español sobre los discursos o homilías del Papa Francisco, un argentino que habla con frecuen-cia en su idioma nativo. Podría-mos incluso imaginar una serie en el Record al estilo de “cartas desde el extranjero”: cartas que el Record recibiría de Bennies y Johnnies durante sus semestres en España, Chile o Guatema-la. Las posibilidades son, como dicen, infinitas. Nos gustaría
ver, escuchar y leer el español en lugares más amplios—no sólo en el aula. Creemos que un Record multilingüe contribuiría de manera significativa a la misión global e intercultural de estas instituciones. Pensamos incluso que otras personas podrían contribuir no sólo en español, sino también en otros idiomas. En suma, nuestro men-saje es: hablemos, escuchemos, escribamos y leamos en los vari-os idiomas de CSB/SJU. Creamos una esfera pública que mejor refleje la diversidad lingüísti-ca que existe en esta pequeña comunidad global.
PAGE 8 • THE RECORD csbsjurecord.com • NOV. 20, 2015OPINION
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the English translation of the above editorial, translated by Emma Zvanovec.
Estimado editor,
We are a group of seven stu-dents and a professor participat-ing in a reading circle that engag-es in discussions about themes related to Latin America and Lati-nos in the United States. During this semester, the Latin American Studies Program has sponsored three events with speakers com-ing to talk about themes related to Guatemala. In the first event, a Guatemalan filmmaker showed his documentary titled “Abrazos” and talked about the experiences and histories of the Guatemalan migrants in Worthington, Minne-sota and their children who went to Guatemala to meet their grand-parents for the first time. A litera-ture professor, also of Guatemalan descent, read a paper about indig-enous identities and Mayan liter-ature. A graduate of St. Ben’s also showed a documentary and talk-ed about her investigation proj-ect in Cobán, Guatemala, which
focused on public health and fam-ily planning. After each event we got together to reflect about the ideas that were expressed.
In this context the idea of writing to you, the editors of The Record, arose.
We are a small group of eight people with an interest in themes related to Latin America, the His-panic world and the use of the Spanish language in the United States. We all read, speak and write in Spanish, but in general our daily use of Spanish is lim-ited to the academic sphere and classroom. This seems strange to us because there are many people here at CSB/SJU that have at least a minimal experience with the Spanish language. To study a “global language” is a requirement for all students and we know that the large majority elect to study Spanish. Also, there are students whose first language is Spanish.
We’re proud to recognize that there are many bilingual students of English and Spanish and stu-dents of Spanish-speaking fami-lies. We’re also happy to recognize that there are bilingual students of English and many other languag-es. We have learned that the num-ber of languages represented by bilingual students at CSB/SJU is 24—and this is without including international students. Howev-er, we have realized that English is the only language of public discourse on our campus. For example, we have never seen any-thing published in The Record in Spanish nor any other languages of the members of our communi-ty.
In relation to the above, we arrive at the motivation behind this letter. We ask of the editors of The Record that you publish our letter in Spanish as the begin-ning of a regular practice. At the
same time we would like to ask your readers to contribute their own creations to this multilin-gual public sphere. We can imag-ine articles and commentaries in Spanish about visits from artists and intellectuals from Spain or Latin America, visits like the ones we had this semester and that are frequent. We can imagine a dialogue in the opinion section about the elections in Mexico or Guatemala or about the “Latino Vote” in the United States. We can imagine analysis or commentary in Spanish about the speeches or homilies of Pope Francis, an Argentinian that frequently speaks in his native language. We could even imagine a series in The Record in the style of “let-ters from the foreign,” letters that The Record receives from Bennies and Johnnies during their semes-ters in Spain, Chile or Guatemala. The possibilities are, how you say,
infinite. We would like to see, hear and read Spanish in broader plac-es, not only in the classroom. We believe that a multilingual Record will contribute in a significant way to the global and intercul-tural mission of our institutions. We even think that others could contribute, not only in Spanish, but other languages as well. In summary, our message is this: we speak, we hear, we write, and we read in many languages at CSB/SJU. We want to create a pub-lic sphere that better reflects the linguistic diversity that exists in this small, global community.
Atentamente,
Kendra Butkowski Jacob ShawbackAnne DeSutter Alison StackenMegan Lundquist Emma ZvanovecClaudia Marquez Roy Ketchum
Sincerely,
Kendra Butkowski Jacob ShawbackAnne DeSutter Alison StackenMegan Lundquist Emma ZvanovecClaudia Marquez Roy Ketchum
On Tuesday, I went to an event featuring Julia Dinsmore for our hunger and homelessness week. Julia talked us through her journey and other people she has encountered and read us several of her poems. Her most famous poem is called “I Am Not Those People.” This poem stemmed from a man belittling her expe-rience and making her and oth-ers in her position feel as if they were less than. I even got the opportunity to go on stage and read powerful questions regarding homelessness which left the audience in awe. At the end of her event, she opened the floor for question and answer. At first I was so filled with emotion that I couldn’t even think. Then it hit me!
Around 3 a.m. on most T.V. channels, programming switches to start advocating for the home-less and hungry in Africa. Most of these infomercials have “In the Arms of the Angel” playing very softly in the background. They usually ask for their audience to realize the huge problem Africa has and that donating even one dollar a month can make such a huge difference. Being born in Ghana, West Africa, I did notice people who were poor, people who were well-off like my family and then the elite. There was defi-nitely a variety of classes just like there is here in the United States. Since moving here, I have noticed that the media and the West tends to paint this picture of the whole of Africa being in such dire need of help when I can personally tes-tify to living in an eight bedroom house my parents built from scratch. Yet, the media seems to love this new idea of “poverty porn” to achieve their personal agendas.
With all this in mind, I raised my hand and proceeded to comment. I want to understand why there are people like Julia Dinsmore in the United States with $36 to live on every month. I want to understand why peo-ple are so blinded to their fellow citizens who live out on the streets and get abused on a daily basis. I want to understand why people who suffer from poverty are seen as abusing the system. Yet, there are countless commer-cials and millions of dollars in aid being sent to Africa yearly. Don’t get me wrong, the help is appre-ciated. As I stated earlier there are people in dire need of help and it is wonderful that people can open their hearts to help but this same attitude and will should go towards people who live right in our inner cities. I guess I have always thought that as a country we need to make sure we are okay first before we stretch ourselves to help others.
Going forward, I hope more young people can stand up for the injustices around them and that we don’t feed too much into the propaganda we see in the media every day. If you see a commercial with a little African boy wearing no shoes, just remember that there’s a similar little boy roam-ing the streets of Minneapolis. Remember that they both need help. And lastly, when you see people in need whether in the U.S., Africa or Europe, remember that they are experiencing a trag-edy, but they are not their trage-dies.
“The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it. They want to turn the world into a sickroom. And once they get humanity strapped to the operat-ing table, they operate on it with an ax.” This excerpt from Eric Hoffer’s “The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms” can be easily applied to the recent terror attacks in Paris. Those who committed the atrocities were clearly sick in mind, and saw humanity as the problem.
The fact that incidents like this still happen is truly depressing.
While the victims of the attack should be mourned, I do not intend to make this opinion into an eulogy. The past cannot be changed, but the future can.
We, as in Western culture, must be careful about how we respond to terror attacks.
We must by no means cave in and live in constant fear. No one, and I mean, no one, should ever have to live in terror. And that means that we must be will-ing to recognize that other peo-ple around the world live in fear everyday.
France has had one horrif-ic night, but what about a child who lives in Iraq or Syria? If all are created equal, then why do
we pay more attention to attacks like those in France than the same incidences in Syria?
Part of this outrage in the Mid-dle East is that we perpetuate this “West vs. the rest” mentality. Do we really care about what happens in Jordan, or Lebanon, or Egypt? Many in the Middle East and even at home here in America would argue that no, we do not. There was not large public support for the suicide bombing in Beirut the day before.
If we are not consistent with our condolences, then we need to fix that.
So how do we start to build bet-ter relationships with the Middle East and prevent more anti-West-ern terrorist attacks?
First, we need to fix our im-age. We need to show the Middle East that we are involved out of concern for their safety, not because we are there for personal gain.
Second, once we have estab-lished friendly connections with the public, we must start to work with populace and legal institu-tions to condemn those who see humanity and people of all faiths,
as a disease. More Muslims have been killed by ISIS than Western-ers.
Finally, once public condemna-tion has occurred, radical groups will be ostracized, they will lose popular support, and fall apart. What will not work is marching into the Middle East, bombing militants and removing govern-ments. That type of action defeats the physical threat, but does not stop the psychological threat. We, as in the West, will only infuriate more men and women. Like a hydra, when you cut of one head, two more take its place. There-fore, you must not only cut off the head, but eliminate its roots. Ending popular support for terror groups is the root we need to cutoff. Only then can we prevent misunderstanding be-tween cultures and prevent hate-based attacks like those we saw in Paris.
A safer world is what the vic-tims would want. We must be the ones to honor them by respecting their deaths by preventing more.
After the terrorist attacks on Paris on Friday evening, Face-book released a photo filter which allows users to overlay their pro-file pictures with the red, white and blue of the French flag.
Many active users on my friends list applied the tempo-rary change, including myself. I found it remarkable how many people were standing together to show their support for a coun-try facing so much devastation, but that feeling was short-lived. Astonishingly, after people be-gan to learn more about the var-
ious other attacks on Friday users began removing the filter and writing posts about how the world and humanity needs support, not only France. It turned into sup-porting France versus supporting humanity.
I find it appalling that people are being scrutinized for chang-ing their Facebook picture to sup-port a country that has been our ally throughout history.
For one, if someone chang-es their picture, they have their own reasons and that decision shouldn’t be the target of exam-ination from others.
Secondly, individuals showing support for other countries in any manner is a step in the right direction for our society. Many citizens believe that the United States should close our borders to foreign citizens in an attempt to prevent terrorism on our land.
This country was built on the acceptance of all cultures, so why has our view shifted?
It has shifted because we as citizens ignorantly make gener-alizations about things we don’t understand. ISIS is not Islam. ISIS is a militia group with reli-
gious roots that separated itself from Islam. Not all Muslims are members of ISIS. Not all Islam-ic regions are violent regions. By showing support for France, I am not rejecting the fact other coun-tries are equally important.
As an American I changed my profile picture to show my sup-port for France, who is respond-ing to an act of war imposed on their land. As a humane person my heart aches for the people of Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, Yemen, Turkey, Libya, Beirut, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Afghani-stan, France and all of the other regions who are vulnerable to vio-lence and danger every single day.
By standing with one, I intend to show I am standing with all.
I am a privileged American who may never understand what it’s like to live in constant fear of being attacked. I am a privileged American who knows things from reading, watching, and learning rather than through experience. I am a privileged American who has so much to offer for other countries, yet the best I’ve done is add a picture to Facebook and write about it. These events have opened my eyes to how fortunate we are as a society, and specifi-cally as a private Catholic institu-tion, and I hope other people have similar views on this and also feel inclined to do more.
In conclusion, I believe that we should support countries fac-ing violence from ISIS. Chang-ing Facebook profile pictures to support France is a start. More can, and must, be done to sup-port people facing violence every single day.
Festival of Cultures is around the corner again. On one hand, this should be a proud moment for CSB/SJU. Twenty-seven coun-tries are represented here; that’s insane. Surely then it makes sense to spend a whole day celebrating the diversity that abounds at these wonderful campuses.
On the other hand, as an inter-national student, I wonder what the point of it all is. Here at CSB/SJU, we pride ourselves on hav-ing a community that is inclusive, diverse and welcoming, whatever
buzzword sounds good on a par-ticular day. We say a lot of good things about ourselves, but I won-der how accurate they are, when one actually takes the time to stop, look around and see what’s going on.
Community and a liberal arts education are essentially the pil-lars that CSB/SJU stands upon; they are our calling cards; they are often the reasons people choose to come here in the first place. And yet, I see not one community, but many little sub-communities, or cliques, of the majority that are more than eager to keep to them-selves. It’s hard to step out of one’s comfort zone. I get that. I find it quite strange, however, that we speak so highly of ourselves, and of this “community,” knowing that this is the case.
There are students from twen-ty-seven different countries on these campuses. Students from places you probably haven’t even heard of. But how wonderful it is that we celebrate Festival of Cultures every year. We finally acknowledge that these students
actually exist. We smile and be merry, cheering them on as they dance and sing and tell stories about where they’re from—sto-ries you’re sure to forget the next day as you resume life; business as usual. It makes so much sense, after all, to make ourselves feel good about having such diversity at CSB/SJU—we feel so good that maybe we’ll get our names written in Japanese to hang on our dorm room walls as mementos of such a wonderful day. But do we actu-ally take the time to sit down and ask about these students’ culture, or their backgrounds? Do we take the time to ask them about what bothers them, worries them, and affects them?
Many times, I’ll attend inter-cultural events and marvel at just how invisible the attendants are. For a place where liberal arts is supposed to be so important, I’m confused because it takes extra credit, free food and tickets to see Taylor Swift live in concert to drag students out of their dorm rooms to these kinds of events. It’s almost as if “they don’t care about us,” as
the late Michael Jackson put it. It’s so perplexing then that Festival of Cultures is such a big deal, given the fact that in reality, it’s just a one day celebration to satisfy our need to feel good about being so diverse as a community.
True diversity isn’t a daylong celebration. True community isn’t two sub-communities here and three more there. We should care enough to reach out to interna-tional students; to sit with them, listen, not just hear, their stories, and to do all we can to eradicate the inherent divisiveness that exists on these campuses. If we can convince ourselves that we care at Festival of Cultures, we should be able to actually care every day; care that these students came thousands and thousands of miles to CSB/SJU, to share their cultures.
Show them you care. Show us you care. Consider that my challenge to you.
PAGE 9 • THE RECORD csbsjurecord.com • NOV. 20, 2015
Write a letter today, and see it in the paper on Friday!
Dear Editor,
Sincerely, Kaitlyn Ludlow
CSB junior
As a team, CERTS (Promot-ing Consent, Equality, Respect, Talking and Safety) would like to publicly apologize for the incident that took place at our Journey Through Healing event on Monday, Nov. 2.
This event is put on by our team to bring awareness, and promote conversation and understanding of sexual assault. Your story was
intended to be displayed, and it was not our choice to leave it out.
We feel strongly that every story received deserves to be told and are very sorry for this incident. This action undermines our mission. As a team, we read your story and support you.
If you feel comfortable reaching out to us, we would love to talk with you.
The long-awaited Thanksgiv-ing dinner finally arrived this past Wednesday in the Great Hall at St. John’s. This has been an amazing Bennie and Johnnie tradition for many years. Being a tour guide at St. John’s, I know Thanksgiv-ing dinner is a tradition we are always sure to highlight about our community.
Maybe I have not been paying attention the past two years, or maybe this is a new aspect of the Thanksgiving dinner, but I know for a fact that the dinner was only advertised in Sexton. As the event approached, my friends and I waited for an email or even a sign that tickets would go on sale for Thanksgiving dinner.
Sadly, we did not get an email or see any advertisement about
the dinner. To my shock and disappointment, I found out the St. John’s students received first dibs on Thanksgiving dinner tick-ets, leaving very few tickets left for Bennies to receive.
Yes, the event is always held at St. John’s, but this is not a reason Johnnies should get tickets be-fore Bennies. Christmas dinner is held at St. Ben’s every year and do Bennies get first dibs on those tickets? Absolutely not. There is a booth in Gorecki where every Bennie and Johnnie can buy tickets at the same time. I am extremely disappointed with how Thanksgiving dinner was run this year and I will do everything in my power to make sure this is not how it is run in the years to come.
On Monday, the Senate voted to cut the Collegiate Readership Program (CRP).
The Record has made no secret of our fondness for this program, and we are upset with this deci-sion, naturally.
However, we are more upset at the apparent lack of Senate en-gagement with the student body they are responsible for repre-senting.
Several weeks ago, we were promised a survey where we could express our opinions on the CRP. That survey never came.
Now, we receive emails from our Senates asking us what we’d like them to help us achieve on campus. But where was this out-reach before?
We vote for these representa-tives, because we expect them to vote for us—for our interests, on the issues we care about. We feel left out of the recent decisions.
The senates have done many positive things for these cam-puses that we would never like to overlook, but this is an example of an oversight that will affect ev-eryone. This lack of consultation leaves a bitter taste in our mouths.
A major reason for cutting the CRP is for financial reasons, and this is a fair reason for cutting a program. The program was in-vested in for a reason, though, and has since become a mainstay in the lives of many Bennies and Johnnies. Taking it away without any discussion makes the change ever harsher for those of us that did use the program.
With most topics, there are supporters and dissenters; there’s a majority and a minority. We only ask that each side is identi-fied statistically after an honest attempt to ask the masses, not just anecdotally. Whether they voted for or against the cut, we would like to thank those senators who demanded this level of responsi-bility to the student population. Transparency in government, in-cluding student government, is an essential ingredient for produc-tive decision-making and com-munity development. Hopefully the next major discussion will in-clude more of those voices.
Unpopular decisions are made every day. They’re just a little eas-ier to swallow when the processes behind them seem fair and open.
The College of St. Benedict Blazers basketball team started their season strong with a 69-64 nonconference road victory against UW-Stout last Saturday.
The win featured four Blazers scoring double figures, prov-ing early on that this team is a force to be reckoned with. The scoring attack was led by junior Annie Dittberner with 14 points, complemented by sophomore Kate Banovetz scoring 11. Fellow sophomores Niki Fokken and Chelsey Guetter each added 10 points of their own.
The Blazers also made a state-ment on the glass on Saturday,
Fokken secured 11 rebounds finishing the night with a dou-ble-double. Banovetz grabbed eight, and Guetter added seven in the win.
“Our game on Saturday was a good start to our season,” Banovetz said. “It really set the standard for the rest of the season.”
The Blazers shot 35.5 percent from the field and 61 percent from the free throw line in their season opener.
“We need to work on shooting the ball better and handling the ball better,” Head Coach Mike Durbin said.
Along with ball handling and knocking down their shots, the team will work to clean up their
press break and limit turnovers. They understand that the
season is young and they have to keep improving. A unique aspect of this year’s Blazers is that they are playing without any seniors.
“You always want seniors on the team, but I cannot overstate enough how much confidence I have in the leadership ability of my three junior captains; Annie Dittberner, Macy Kelly and Ali-son Newton,” Durbin said. “The team is very fortunate to have those three captains as their leaders.”
Kate Oswald who received a concussion early in the sea-son and has been on the side-lines watching her teammates couldn’t agree more.
“Not having seniors on our team is hardly noticeable,” Oswald said. “We have really good junior leaders.”
The team may be young but they are proving their depth; there is no go to player, just a lot of players they can go to.
“Ten players could start this year,” Durbin said.
The tough attitude of the Blazers is also a plus in Durbin’s opinion.
“[Our team] has got some grit to it, I like coaching teams like that,” Durbin said.
The players and coaches both feel that the depth and intensity they bring to the floor in both practice and games will lead to success for the team this year.
As the Blazers look forward into the season. They hope to be in the top of their confer-ence, win more home games and advance to the postseason.
“If the team can have more success at home; which I believe this team can do,” Durbin said. “They will have more confidence, and with more confidence they will play better.”
The Blazers will square off against Crown this Friday, at 7 p.m. Nov. 20, and take on St. Mary’s in a nonconference matchup on at 3 p.m. Nov. 22, in Claire Lynch Hall.
On Oct. 28, an awareness organization called Cover the Athlete (#CoverTheAthlete) released a video that already has more than 1.5 million views. In it, they ask well-known profes-sional male athletes several ab-surd questions that have been posed to female athletes about things like their hair, weight and figure. The men are dumb-founded at the questions, and it effectively points out just how ridiculous the questions that some female athletes hear are.
Now, I know that we likely can’t change which wom-en’s sports have well-established professional leagues or who gets to play on TV, but I think we can focus on something that I be-lieve is more important. We need to be able to talk about female athletes just as we do male athletes.
Thus far, 2015 has been another exciting year in sports, although we have witnessed a particularly dominant year in women’s sports. Some of these successes have included: the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team win-ning the World Cup, the Min-nesota Lynx winning their third WNBA title in five years, Serena Williams winning three of the four Grand Slam Tennis Tourna-ments and many more.
Among this long list of talented athletes, UFC fight-er Ronda Rousey has quickly become one of the “faces” of women’s sports. She was the first woman to sign with the UFC in 2012, and proceeded to go 12-0 in three years until suffering her first loss to challenger Hol-ly Holm on Nov. 15 in front of more than 50,000 in attendance. Prior to the fight against Holm,
after an incredible rise to fame in her sport, EA Sports announced that Rousey would be on the cover of their video game, “UFC 2.” Earlier this year, EA Sports also released “FIFA 16” with women’s international soccer teams included in the game for the first time while also featuring U.S. Women’s soccer star Alex Morgan gracing the cover.
So, with this recent emer-gence of female athletes being recognized more significantly, it made me think. First of all, why did it take this long to fully em-brace the great athletes that also happen to be female? I recog-nize the fact that many profes-sional women’s sports are either younger than their male coun-terparts or simply don’t exist, but I think it’s interesting that we are seeing this now.
I think it is great that these
female athletes are getting the attention they deserve. However, moving forward, I think we need to ensure that they also all be given the respect they deserve. Many of them have worked their entire lives to reach the pinna-cle of their profession, so why should they be greeted with odd comments about things that are unrelated to their performance? The rhetoric surrounding athletes should not vary based on gender.
The progress we have seen is good; women deserve to be recognized for their athletic accomplishments just as men do. We are making progress, but we can still improve, and it can be as simple as changing the questions we ask.
PAGE 11 • THE RECORD csbsjurecord.com • NOV. 20, 2015
Sports
The problem with media and female
athletics
This is the opinion of Brett Zallek, an SJU first-year.
SEAN DONOHUE • [email protected] The Johnnie football team will line up at Clemens Stadium against the University of Dubuque for the second time this season. The first matchup resulted in a dominant 45-9 Johnnie win on Sept. 5.
After finishing the season with an identical record to 2014, the Johnnies (9-1, 7-1 MIAC) are headed back to the NCAA post-season for the second season in a row and the 22nd time in school history.
The Johnnies have been dominant over the last six games of the season, outscoring opponents by an average of 43 to 11.5 per game. A balanced offensive attack, paired with exceptional play on the defensive side of the ball, have been key for the Johnnies to get back into the hunt for the national champion-ship.
“Our players believe in them-selves, and they have raised their level of play the past six weeks,” Head Coach Gary Fasching said
in an email. “We knew that every game was like a playoff game.”
Last season, the rushing performances of Sura helped land him a MIAC MVP award along with many other nation-al accolades. This season has been no different, with Sura creeping closer and closer towards many records in the SJU record books. Last week-end, Sura broke the school re-cord for most career carries, and is closing in on school records that would place him with the Johnnie greats. Forty-one rushing yards are all that sep-arate Sura from breaking Tim Schmitz’s career rushing record that has stood since 1977, and is one rushing touchdown away from breaking Matt Malmberg’s career record of 48 set in 1994. The entire offense, most nota-bly the offensive line, have been keeping their eye on the totals
and will be very proud to see their work accomplished if and when the record is broken.
“It’s super special to be men-tioned with some of the Johnnie greats,” Sura said. “It’s something that I’m proud about.”
The Johnnies, currently ranked as high as 10th in the nation, will be taking on the nationally-ranked University of Dubuque Spartans in a rematch of both teams’ season opener, when the Johnnies won 45-9. Since losing their first two games to the Johnnies and UW-Platte-ville, the Spartans have won eight games in a row on their way to the Iowa Intercollegiate Athlet-ic Conference title. Dubuque seems to be a much different team from week one, with DI transfer quarterback Rio John-son appearing to find rhythm in the offensive system and fresh-men running back Maurece
Herrion running for more than 800 yards on the season despite not playing a down the first two games of the season. The John-nies will have their hands full against an offense that has aver-aged more than 35 points a game during their eight game winning streak.
“We’re gonna take (Dubuque) on like they’re the number one team in the nation, because they’re our next opponent,” Perez said. “They’re gonna come out with everything they have to come beat us.”
The winner of Saturday’s game will take on the winner of St. Thomas and La Verne (California), who play at the same time as the Johnnies in St. Paul. The first time the Johnnies played UST this season, the Tom-mies prevailed 35-14 in front of a DIII record crowd in Collegeville. Even though the Johnnies must
perform well on Saturday in order to move on, the possibility of a rematch with the archrivals remains in the back of the heads of the Johnnies.
“I think the idea of that happening would be pretty cool, but it doesn’t matter who we play,” Perez said. “Our entire goal, week by week, is getting to the Stagg Bowl (DIII Champion-ship Game).”
Since losing in week four, the Johnnies have refocused their goals towards playing for a national championship. In order to make a run to the Stagg Bowl, the Johnnies will need to continue to improve on their play just as they have all season.
“We have to be better than the day before, we have to be bet-ter than the week before,” Sura said. “We have to just keep on building on what we’ve been doing.”
Last year, the Blazer volley-ball team featured a long list of returners and a core group of seven experienced seniors.
The 2015 season scripted a different story.
Of the 16 players on the team’s roster, 11 were first or second-year players.
“No one expected much from us,” junior Meghan Koop said. “Except we knew that there was so much potential in our incom-ing class.”
The young team started their season with back-to-back losses.
“When we lost our first few games, it was kind of discouraging,” Koop said. “But we stayed positive.”
In early September, the Blaz-ers traveled east for the U-Mass Tournament, competing against nationally-ranked Christopher Newport University and Eastern University. Despite a 1-2 tourna-
ment record, the Blazers forced five-set games against each of those ranked teams.
“The games that we did lose, we lost in five [sets], against some pretty good teams,” Koop said. “That tournament showed us that we could play at that lev-el.”
And when things started to come together, the Blazers found their groove. An eventual 10-game win-streak included victories over top conference teams like Bethel and St. Thom-as.
“The winning streak was a fun stretch for us,” senior Laura Schmitt said. “But we didn’t let that get to us. We focused on improving every single day.”
Upon the conclusion of the regular season, the Blazers placed third in the MIAC with a record of 8-3, a finish that helped them clench the third seed in playoffs.
“We finished at a high level, and we weren’t really expected
to,” Schmitt said. “It was about how hard this team worked together, and it speaks to how talented our young players are, too. They kept pushing us in practice every day.”
In the first round of the MIAC tournament, St. Ben’s hosted Carleton and beat the Knights in five games. But the Blazers hopes of claiming the conference crown came to an end in a semifinal loss to Bethel.
Despite St. Ben’s tournament loss, the Blazers’ post season was prolonged after learning that they had received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament for the fifth consecutive year.
The Blazers were scheduled to play Wartburg the first round of the tournament—a team they had already faced this season and defeated in four sets in a September tournament.
St. Ben’s couldn’t secure another win against the Knights, however, and lost to Wartburg in
a five-set, back and forth battle.“It was fun to play them again
and see how much we both have grown as separate teams,” Koop said. “It was kind of a bookmark ending. The rallies were so long and there was so much growth in that five set match.”
Despite the loss, Schmitt said, it was a fun game to end her career.
“It was fun to play in front of such a big crowd,” Schmitt said. “Neither team won two in a row.
They pushed us, and we pushed back.”
Koop and the new set of returners look back on the season with high expectations for the next year, once again.
“It was definitely one of the most fun seasons I’ve been a part of,” she said. “We grew together so much and really became a team. I’m excited to continue that next year.”
Junior Jose Alvarez has been swimming since the age of six. He made the difficult decision to move from Florida to Minnesota to continue doing what he loves and has never looked back.
ERIK TERNSJÖ • [email protected] has had good and bad moments in his swim career. The most memorable was when he lost to a Tommie by .006 seconds; he earned his first college medal, but it is still a bittersweet memory.
For Jose Alvarez, swimming quite literally took him by surprise.
At just six years old his father took him to the Swimming Hall of Fame in his home state of Florida. The trip marked the beginning what would be a long and sometimes difficult journey for Alvarez.
“I had no idea where it was going to take me,” Alvarez said. “It started as an extracurricular activity to keep me busy and it was a way to make friends.”
Jose was a natural in the water. Picking up technique and differ-ent strokes felt almost effortless and he found himself more often than not, at the top spot on the
podium. The years passed and Jose
found himself struggling to improve in the pool. Swimmers that he used to beat began to edge him out and consistently got better times. Disheartened and frustrated, Alvarez sought any excuse to get out of practice.
“I just fell out of touch with it,” Alvarez said. “I hated going to practice, I was constantly trying to come up with ways to get out of it. I used every excuse in the book.”
He struggled to stay excited about a sport he once loved. In middle school, Jose turned to his other passion: soccer.
Alvarez didn’t get back into the racing lanes until high school. Swimming once again took the spotlight.
“I suppose I had sort of an epiphany after my freshman year,” Alvarez said. “I realized it (swimming) was something I could be good at and if I tried hard it could take me some-where.”
As a sophomore he made it to the state meet after several years of noncompetitive swimming. In the summer Jose worked hard in and out of the pool with two-a-day workouts.
The two following seasons, Jose’s intense summer training paid off and he not only made it to the state meet but placed as well.
As his final high school swimming season came to a close, Alvarez looked toward the future and his potential collegiate athletic career. Some
DI schools, including New York University and University of Miami, offered swimming scholarships but DIII St. John’s University won in the end.
“My mom was actually a Bennie,” Alvarez said. “She would talk about it growing up and the great experience.”
After his initial tour as a junior, Jose remained some-what uncertain about St. John’s. However, after a second stay on campus the spring of his senior year, Alvarez found his place at St. John’s with the swim team.
The distance from his native Florida was a challenge for Jose but the Minnesotan weather was less of an adjustment. Not unlike many out-of-state students, Alvarez was asked the question “is this your
first time seeing snow?” With grandparents in Wisconsin, Jose was no stranger to Midwestern winters.
Though it has been difficult at times, Alvarez has never looked back. He credits the swim team for shaping him into the person he has become.
“I honestly love the team,” Alvarez said. “Even at my lowest points at St. John’s I always felt like I could fall back and rely on them.”
The swimmer Jose is today is a far cry from where he was as a middle schooler. Instead of avoiding practice, he enjoys them. For several hours a day he can escape the pressures of school, friends, work etc. and do what he truly loves; swim.
CSB ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONSSeniors Laura Schmitt and Mary Franz celebrate a point against Wartburg.
