THE SPECTATOR THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1923 VOL. 91, NO. 26 SPRING 2013 Thursday, April 25 NEWS SPORTS CURRENTS OP / ED STUDENT LIFE PAGES 1-5 PAGES 7-9 PAGES 10-12 PAGES 13-15 PAGE 16 Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter (@spectatornews) for exclusive, up-to-date content! Daily updates, breaking news, multimedia www.spectatornews.com >> page 3 >> page 9 >> page 12 >> page 13 PRESIDENTIAL GOALS ‘CLOUD’Y WEATHER TWITTER TRIUMPHS GLOBAL VIEW RECORD WIN STREAK Larson, Rector aim for increased student awareness of Student Senate next year Cloud Cult performed a free show on campus as part of Earth Week festivities Editor-in-Chief Chris Reinoos says the Boston bombings showed the website’s best International students share their outlook on Eau Claire, adjustment to American culture Softball team sweeps La Crosse, wins 17th consecutive conference game >> page 16 THIS WEEK ON LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD AT www.facebook.com/spectatornews Should background checks be part of any gun reform legislation in the U.S. Congress? UW-Eau Claire student presumed dead MICHELLE ENGER/ The Spectator MISSING: Eau Claire Police and other responders attempt a rescue April 19 after reports of a student falling off the campus footbridge into the Chippewa River. An Eau Claire resident watches from near the edge of the water. Sophomore David Patrick Rodgers is still missing after reportedly falling into the Chippewa River late on the evening of April 19. >> page 4
Transcript
THE SPECTATORTHE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1923
VOL. 91, NO. 26 SPRING 2013Thursday, April 25
NEWS SPORTS CURRENTS OP / ED STUDENT LIFEPAGES 1-5 PAGES 7-9 PAGES 10-12 PAGES 13-15 PAGE 16
Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter (@spectatornews) for exclusive, up-to-date content!
Daily updates, breaking news, multimedia
www.spectatornews.com
>> page 3 >> page 9 >> page 12 >> page 13
PRESIDENTIAL GOALS ‘CLOUD’Y WEATHER TWITTER TRIUMPHS GLOBAL VIEWRECORD WIN STREAK
Larson, Rector aim for increased student awareness of Student Senate next year
Cloud Cult performed a free show on campus as part of
Earth Week festivities
Editor-in-Chief Chris Reinoos says the Boston bombings showed the
website’s best
International students share their outlook on Eau Claire,
adjustment to American culture
Softball team sweeps La Crosse, wins 17th
consecutive conference game
>> page 16THIS WEEK ON
LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD AT www.facebook.com/spectatornews
Should background checks be part of any gun reform legislation in the U.S. Congress?
UW-Eau Claire student presumed dead
MICHELLE ENGER/ The Spectator MISSING: Eau Claire Police and other responders attempt a rescue April 19 after reports of a student falling off the campus footbridge into the Chippewa River. An Eau Claire resident watches from near the edge of the water.
Sophomore David Patrick Rodgers is still missing after reportedly falling into the Chippewa River late on the evening of April 19.
>> page 4
THE SPECTATOR
NEWSTHE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - EAU CLAIRE STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1923
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Thursday, April 25
UW-Eau Claire opened its doors to a day of cultural aware-ness as it played host to a Pow-Wow April 20 in Zorn Arena, or-ganized by the Native American Student Association.
The NASA program’s defini-tion of a Pow-Wow is a celebration of life where many American Indi-an nations gather to express them-selves through song and dance and also serve as a social gathering to renew old friendships and make new ones.
The event also gave Eau Claire students the chance to learn about a different group of people.
“We don’t have a large com-munity of American Indian people in Eau Claire, so bringing an event like this to campus would really di-versify people’s experiences here,” professor of American Indian stud-ies Heather Moody said.
The event, held annually on campus, included a grand entry, where people dress in historic American Indian attire and en-ter the arena. The Eagle Feath-er Staff and other flag bearers entered the arena first followed by head dancers. After the flags were presented, three songs
took place, which concluded the grand entry.
Following the grand entry, in-ter-tribal singing and dancing took place, and everyone in the audi-ence was invited to dance.
Sophomore Matt Weber, at-tending his first ever Pow-Wow, said he was surprised at how much he enjoyed the event.
“I thought it was going to be a lot more serious and they were going to be more strict about what you could do and what you couldn’t do,” he said. “But it’s pretty laid back and you could do whatever you want.”
Murray Hall Resident As-sistant Tyler Richardson made a wing event out of the Pow-Wow so he could promote diversity while also having a fun outing with his residents. He said he saw a lot of students dancing and that the feedback was generally positive about both the dancing and the grand entry.
“In general there was a wide variety of students there,” Rich-ardson said. “But I heard after that a lot of students liked it.”
According to a study conduct-ed at Eau Claire in the fall of 2011, 90 percent of the student popula-tion is of Caucasian descent, while only 0.4 percent of students cate-gorize themselves as American
Indians.According to the 2010 cen-
sus, the Eau Claire metro-politan area is made up of 93 percent Caucasian residents and only .04 percent American Indian residents.
Moody said it is important to bring events like this to the com-munity to expose people to the different culture that has actu-ally had a significant part in the area’s past.
“It’s something that’s different in the community and really ex-presses the culture,” Moody said. “Sometimes people tend to forget that this is Native land, and the history of this area makes it im-portant to have at this venue.”
Richardson said he will con-tinue to promote cultural events because he thinks people need to start becoming more knowledge-able on other cultures, not only for
remembering people that shaped the history of the United States and Eau Claire like American In-dians, but recognizing any culture that is different because the racial populations in the country and world is balancing rapidly.
“We all should go to cultur-al events, not just to feel obliged to go, but the world is globalized now,” he said. “We should go to be a worldwide citizen.”
Pow-Wow brings diversity to campus
Nick Erickson STAFF WRITER
For more coverage of the Pow-Wow,
including a photo slideshow, go to
Spectatornews.com.
Living among students sometimes a strain
The off-campus stu-dent living area, generally thought to cover the Water Street neighborhood’s nu-merous blocks, is not home to only UW-Eau Claire stu-dents. There are also older residents in the area, some of whom have lived in their houses for decades.
This can sometimes make the living situa-tion uncomfortable for both sides.
Senior Sam Genung, a student who lives on Fifth Avenue and Lake Street, said bonfires caused a is-sues during the summer, including her neighbors calling the police.
"They were making me feel like an intruder,"
she said. "I can definitely see where it could be a lit-tle annoying for them, but then again they did choose to live there."
Genung said her neighbors are some of the only residents surround-ing them that don’t live in student housing. She also said the relationship with her neighbors has gotten better after she apologized.
“I would just say to other people to talk to them, make peace, and let them know that you’re not out to bother them or make them upset or anything,” Genung said.
Eau Claire Executive Director of Communi-cations Mike Rindo also serves as a community liaison to neighborhood groups like the Historic
Randall Park Neighbor-hood Association. He said the issues they have most-ly encountered between residents and students involve house parties, parking and vandalism.
“I would say one of the main factors is excessive drinking and the behav-ior then that results from that,” he said.
The university has taken steps to better con-nect with neighborhoods by budgeting for a new representative from the Center for Alcohol Studies and Education who will serve as a mediator for is-sues between residents.
President of the Historic Randall Park Neighborhood Association Helene Smiar has been a part of the organization
for several years and also said she has noticed a de-cline of bad behavior in her neighborhood.
During her time with the association, she has met many different stu-dents and said avoiding conflict is a simple matter of getting along.
“Students just have to understand they’re in a neighborhood,” she said. “You make friends with the neighbor. It doesn’t mean you become best friends, but you build up a rapport.”
Smiar also said the Randall Park statue’s continued degradation is also a sore spot for local residents.
However, she said that students are a great resource to her. She and
her husband recently asked for help with moving large furniture. Her prac-tice of welcoming new stu-dents to the neighborhood with a plate of homemade brownies usually creates a respectful connection.
But Smiar said alco-hol and vandalism have been large parts of the problem, from urinating on someone’s potted plants to vomiting in a lawn.
“I think students are different when they drink,” she said. “These are good, decent people 99 percent of the time.”
Smiar said the as-sociation has plans to bring both sides together through volunteer work in gardens and public events with food and entertainment.
Off-campus students at times struggle with their older neighbors; university hopes to lessen the friction
Bridget Cooke STAFF WRITER
ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator AN ANNUAL TRADITION: The April 20 Pow-Wow in Zorn Arena provides Eau Claire residents the chance to learn more about Native American culture.
Students watch, participate in treasured American Indian tradition
NEWS3NEWS EDITORS: David Heiling & Alex Zank Thursday, April 25
CAMPUS CALENDAR
NOTABLE EVENTS HAPPENING BOTH ON AND OFF CAMPUS
THURSDAY, APRIL 25
FRIDAY, APRIL 26
SATURDAY, APRIL 27
SUNDAY, APRIL 28
MONDAY, APRIL 29
TUESDAY, APRIL 30
WEDNESDAY, MAY 1
• 7:30 - 9:30 p.m. — Guest Artist Recital: Eugene Alcalay, piano, Haas Fine Arts Center
• 3 - 5 p.m. — Eau Claire Planet Walk Grand Opening, Haas Fine Arts Center to Phoenix Park
• 2 - 4 p.m. — Concert: Wind Symphony, Haas Fine Arts Center
Even though Bryan Larson and Jason Rector were just elect-ed as student body president and vice president last week, they al-ready have formulated several goals they hope to accomplish nextyear,butultimatelythey’dlike to make students more aware of what goes on in Senate.
“People don’t realize howmuch influencewehaveandallthe work we do here on Senate, especially how much funding we have to allocate of student dollars,” Larson said. “The abil-ity of students to impact and change campus here is essential-ly unprecedented, certainly in Wisconsin.”
There are several proj-ects Larson and Rector want to continue with such as keep-ing tuition low, meal plans fair and affordable and furthering
sustainability efforts. The main problem they see with Senate is that the student body is gen-erally unaware of what Senate is doing.
Larson and Rector said the current session has built a framework for them to work on. Many of the bylaws that have passed this session have been aimed at making Senate run moreefficiently.
“They’ve actually donea lotof the work for us,” Larson said. “Sonextyearit’sjustamatterofimplementing everything.”
Their main goal for nextyear is to expand Senate’s out-reach. Rector has plans to make Student Senate more accessible and a bigger presence on cam-pus.Office hours, listening ses-sions and public hearings are all part of Rector’s ideas to allowstudents to be involved.
Rector knows it can be in-timidating for people to walk into the organizations complexto ask a question. Larson and Rector hope that by re-branding Senate, they can make it more inviting.
“Getting senators out of the office and out into Daviesand other parts of campus to leave our comfort zones and
work with the students, who (we) represent,” Rector said. “There are other avenues to be exploredandwelookforwardto exploringthose.”
Freshman Sydney Flottum didn’t feel informed enough tovote in the elections, but thinks that Senate can do more to reach out to students.
“I feel like holding get-to-know-you type things would be verybeneficialjusttogetpeopleout there and get them thinking about different issues related to student affairs,” Flottum said.
Larson and Rector attribute students’ lack of awareness tothe fact that theydon’t turnoutto vote. Around 934 students voted in this year’s election,compared to only about 470 last year.
“College students tend not to vote in any election, so it may have been nine percent, but it was also fairly huge numbers for a campus election,” Rec-tor said. “Competition, I feel, is what grew that number to what it was.”
Rector also credits the out-reach efforts he and Larson took part in before the elections. Junior Amanda Houle learned aboutLarsonandRector’s cam-
paign when Larson visited the Student Athlete Advisory Com-mittee that Houle is a part of.
“He informed us about what he’s done with the budget oncampus,” Houle said. “He said he has a lot of experience withit and he worked really hard to make sure that athletics have enough funding.”
Mat Riedel, Larson’s presi-dential opponent, will be serving asasenatornextsemester.Heislooking forward to working with Larson and Rector to accomplish common goals.
“I’m excited to work withthem,” Riedel said. “If you look at the parallels between what we ran on, we both agreed on a lot of issues, including trans-parency and outreach of Student Senate.”
The outreach that was start-ed during the campaign will be continued in the next year,Larson said. They hope to get as many students involved by reaching out to students with particular interests.
“There’s absolutely some-thing in senate that every-one here cares about,” Lar-son said. “We want to make sure that message reaches the right people.”
Katie BastSTAFF WRITER
Larson, Rector aim to raise student awareness
This summer, the Stu-dentOfficeofSustainabil-ity’sthree-yearsolarpan-el project will become a reality when photovoltaic solar panels are installed on the roof of McIntyre Library.
The UW-Eau Claire Student Senate passed a bill approving the project by voice vote Monday night.
The project has been in the works since 2010, SOS Director Ellen Sorenson said.
SOS put out an ini-tial report about the solar panels in 2010. The report was created through H&H Solar Energy Services, Inc. and stated the uni-versity had good potential for two types of solar tech-nology, both photovoltaics (PV) and solar hot water.
While the Davies Cen-ter has a solar hot water
system located on its roof, the library will be getting PV solar panels.
The purchase of a 40 kW PV system will cost $166,685 and will be paid entirely by student segregated fees.
“This is the biggest solar panel project that would be going up in Eau Claire as of right now,” Sorenson said. “It’s goingto be completely fund-ed by students, which is reallyexciting.”
The SOS budget is typically allocat-ed $200,000 from the Finance Commission each year.
Though SOS is in charge of its own fund-ing, any project that SOS needs to spend more than $6,000 on needs to come before Student Senate for approval, Sorenson said.
The SOS will be tak-ing $30,000 from their capital account and put-ting it toward the project.
Sorenson said there is
already $130,000 set aside by prior SOS directors for the project and this last $30,000 will make pur-chasing it possible.
They’ve taken theirtime to save up funding for the project to ensure students get the most out of their money.
If you’re going to doa solar panel project, and the reason why we put off getting it from 2010 until now, is that the bigger your solar panel project, the more energy you can produce,” she said, “so the more you can offset your carbon footprint.”
Chief of Staff Tyrel Zich, a former intern for SOS, said he was glad to see the project finallycome to term.
It’sasubstantialpor-tion of the SOS budget, but Zich said he’s finewith that.
“While the life of the solar panels is relative-ly unknown because it is new technology, it does
exceed 16.5 years, whichin my mind is all that matters,” Zich said. “If it exceedsthepaybackperi-od, it is sustainable.”
Sorenson said it is un-clear how long the panels will last, but they come with a 25-year warran-ty. She said she foresees them lasting much longer than that.
The panels are ex-pected to produce $3,660 of energy per year, based on the current cost of elec-tricity. This offsets the carbon footprint of the university, Sorenson said.
Right now, SOS pays Xcel Energy a total of $11,921 to offset the uni-versity’s carbon footprintthrough the Xcel Energy Windsource Program.
She said offsetting the buildings affects stu-dents because they pay for non-academic buildings such as the Davies Center and the library.
“The idea is that stu-dents will be paying for
these buildings and if we can offset these buildings we’re saving studentsmoney,” Sorenson said.
Senior Jacki Zwiefel-hofer said though she won’t be here to seethe benefits of the so-lar panels, she supports the project.
“If they’re saying it’ssomething we’ll be ben-efiting from in 16 years,it’s obviously somethingthat will last a long time,” Zwiefelhofer said. “I feel like EC takes all my mon-ey anyway, but if they’reputting this toward some-thing that will save stu-dents money in the long run,I’mallforit.”
Sorenson will be fi-nalizing the project withAssociate Director of Facilities Management Mike Traynor within the next couple of weeks tomake sure funding can be moved over to Facil-ities properly and plans can be made to set up installation.
Haley ZblewskiCHIEF COPY EDITOR
Solar panels to be installed on McIntyre Library roofStudent-funded project approved, to begin in summer
Newly elected Student Senate President and Vice President want
more student involvement
As part of UW-Eau Claire’s Human Rights Week, many different activities are available for students, faculty and staff along with Eau Claire community members. These include guest speak-ers and experts in the field of human rights and trafficking.
One of the experts in the field of human rights, Ruki Fernando, is a man who is a journalist, a Christian and practitioner along with having a certain affection for equality amongst all peoples.
Fernando, a human rights activist from Sri Lanka, was on campus giving presentations Sunday and Monday.
Along with talking about his Christian back-ground, he spoke to a class of a dozen religious studies students about the struggles in Sri Lanka between different ethnic and religious peoples.
The current chair of Rights Now, a group of hu-man rights defenders in Sri Lanka, Fernando said his work on human rights and trafficking really overlaps with his faith.
“What I do for the church and what I do for people are the same thing,” Fernando said. “When I come here to talk to you to spread the word and share stories about Sri Lanka, that’s human rights work. It’s also spiritual work.”
Fernando said disappearances are common in Sri Lanka, and as a human rights activist, if there is anyway he can help he would be the first in line.
“To be able to hide someone whose life is in dan-
ger, because they wrote a book or said something to someone is something that I used to do,” he said. “Human rights organizations do it in Sri Lanka too ... all over the world people are trying to help other people.”
Senior religious studies major Marsha Her-manson was one of the students who traveled to Sri Lanka for one month and said all is not fine there.
She said disappearances are common in the country and the political regime tries to make the world internally and externally think the island country is handling the crises correctly.
“The government wants to make the people think everything is fine,” Hermanson said. “If a journalist writes something about the government, or something is said negatively ... that person can either flee the country or risk getting taken.”
She also said when she met Fernando she was surprised at how selfless he was and how he genu-inely cares for the people of Sri Lanka.
“To see someone like Ruki, who is not afraid to put his life on the line to save someone he doesn’t even know, because it’s the right thing to do, is re-ally inspiring,” Hermanson said. “He started out just as anyone else, and he has come so far. He should be an inspiration for everyone.”
As part of Human Rights Week on the Eau Claire campus, an on-campus organization called the Human Trafficking Abolitionists set up events from April 22-25 spanning from lectures to documentaries explaining the brutality of hu-man rights violations along with information to educate everyone interested.
Department of Homeland Security officer Doug Gilmer along with two other officers from the same department spoke to students via web chat Tuesday to talk about human rights and trafficking viola-tions domestically.
Gilmer said there are many different aspects of hu-man trafficking. He continued explaining that the difference between smuggling and traf-ficking is the implementa-tion of the sexual component, which makes trafficking profitable.
The organizer of the Human Trafficking Aboli-tionists, senior Kristine Rivall, said they decided to put on Human Rights Week because they are one of the very few human rights campus organizations still afloat and the word needed to get out.
The biggest human trafficking and violation of human rights in this country is during an event that might surprise you, but Rivall said when ev-erything adds up, it makes sense the Super Bowl is that event.
“It’s because a lot of people gather from a lot of different places for one particular city,” Rivall said. “The unfortunate truth behind it is they will bring in a lot of people for trafficking there because the
mindset with them is that, ‘everyone wants to have a good time.’”
Rivall, a liberal studies major, said she orga-nized Human Rights Week because people deserve to be aware of what is happening in the world and to see the truth behind the lines.
“Never forget, that’s what they said after the Holocaust. Never forget about the genocide,” she said. “Don’t use mass weaponry to commit geno-cide, but it’s happening. And they don’t care. That’s why we’re putting on the awareness week.”
Places where human rights violations occur around the world, such as Sri Lanka and Super Bowl sites, are highly publicized and known by many, but are not even the tip of the iceberg in regards to places around the world where human rights violations are still happening.
Earlier this month, a prostitution ring was apprehended in Eau Claire. According to an Eau Claire Leader-Telegram article, 11 men aged 29-72 were apprehended on charges of pandering when a sting operation led the police to a hotel.
Eau Claire Police Department Community Re-lations Officer Kyle Roder said although this occur-rence happened, he does not see an overwhelming human rights problem in Eau Claire.
“The phrase ‘human trafficking’ has become the buzzword and seems to get thrown around a lot,” Roder said. “I know that fits under the over-all definition of human trafficking, but we didn’t have anything here where there were underage or
violent occurrences.”Instead, Roder said he is
trying to be proactive and not trying to arrest the “moral compass” of individuals, rath-er try to flush out other aspects of crime that come along with prostitution.
“Here in Eau Claire, we’re a small community, but for the area we are the biggest com-munity,” Roder said. “We have different access points and highway systems that come through this community. We do attract people who come through the area for prosti-tution. The people who are
involved in prostitution often are involved in other crimes such as bringing drugs into the community, along with some armed robberies stemming from prostitution.”
Those other crimes are what law enforcement are focusing in on, instead of the physical prosti-tution crimes.
Human Rights Week continues Thursday, April 25 on the Eau Claire campus.
Documentaries depicting other aspects of hu-man rights and human trafficking, such as “Syr-ia Undercover” and “Kony 2012 part II” screened Tuesday and Wednesday and “The Human Expe-rience” will air Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Hibbard Humanities Hall 100.
“When I come here to talk to
you to spread the word and
share stories about Sri Lanka,
that’s human rights work. It’s
also spiritual work.”
RUKI FERNANDOHuman rights activist
DAVID HEILING / The Spectator DOING THEIR PART: Junior Matthew Laffin petitions for human rights early afternoon Tuesday in Davies Center.
4NEWS EDITORS: David Heiling & Alex Zank Thursday, April 25NEWS
Knowing your human rights
David HeilingNEWS EDITOR
Specialized week on campus highlights basic inheritable rights, human trafficking violations
Sophomore presumed dead after falling in
riverLocal authorities call off
night search due to dangerous conditions; no
body found
A UW-Eau Claire sophomore is presumed dead after reportedly fall-ing off the campus footbridge April 19 into the Chippewa River.
According to Eau Claire Fire and Rescue Operations, David Patrick Rodgers was seen on the railing of the footbridge just before 11 p.m. He was reported to have fallen in the river from somewhere near the middle of the bridge.
The Eau Claire Fire Department responded to a call after the incident and began searching the river. A total of six vehicles arrived at the scene, in-cluding three fire trucks and members of the Eau Claire Police Department.
The crews began their search where the river arrives at Fifth Ave-nue, just a block from Water Street. There was a boat on the river involved in the search as well.
After approximately two hours, the search was called off for the night because the river was moving very quickly and had large chunks of ice and debris in it, so rescue work-ers would have been in danger if they attempted to work through the conditions.
Crews continued the search the next day but did not find Rodgers. The search was ongoing as of Wednesday.
The river has been high in recent weeks due to melting snow and rain-fall. The prolonged cold temperatures have left the river much colder than it has been at this point in the past as well.
Eau Claire students were alerted of the incident by an April 22 email sent by Dean of Students Brian Car-lisle. Along with a brief message from Carlisle, the email included a message from Rodgers’ family and a poem that his mother said was im-portant to Rodgers.
Since a body has not yet been discovered, authorities have not been able to confirm Rodgers’ death.
The case remains under inves-tigation with the Eau Claire Police Department.
Check back for the latest updates in the story as they develop.
— The Spectator Staff
5NEWS EDITORS: David Heiling & Alex Zank Thursday, April 25
NEWS
With the assistance of $30,000 of student segre-gated fee money, two class-rooms, Hibbard 318 and Phillips 281, will be renovat-ed into active learning labs.
Student Senate passed the bill allocating the mon-ey on Monday by voice vote. The bill was introduced by Senator Christian Paese, director of the Information Technology Commission.
The entire project is expected to cost $150,000. When the labs aren’t in use for classes, they will be open as general access labs,
Paese said during the meeting.
“ T h i s is a real-ly unique model in that typ-ically an academic classroom
is only available
… if someone reserves it,” Paese said. “The whole idea with this active learning lab is that when there’s not a class being taught in the lab it would be open to general student use so especially around finals time when all the rooms in the library are booked this would be an ad-ditional area where students could go.”
Each lab will consist of pods — a unit made up of two tables, six chairs and
a large monitor. Each pod will have a computer with a wireless mouse and key-board. The monitors will have the ability to connect to an outside laptop or device.
A teaching station in each room will have the abil-ity to control the monitors. This means the professor can take the information from one pod’s screen and display it to every monitor in the room, said Kent Ger-berich, the IT manager of the client support services unit of LTS. The rooms are designed to adapt to the needs of the class, he said.
“The idea is that all the furniture is movable,” Ger-berich said. “You could be in the pods one day if you’re doing collaboration but if you wanted it in a giant oval shape for that day you could move it around so that the furniture meets the need of the curriculum for that day.”
A key part to the plan, Gerberich said, was creating a space that would be avail-able not only to classes, but to general students while still ensuring there was enough technology to truly benefit everyone.
Being an alumni, Ger-berich understands how dif-ficult it can be for students to find adequate space to work together.
“It was very frustrating when it comes to crunch time of the semester and you have group work and trying to find a spot to work with your group, especially when you need technology,” he
said. “That’s really what’s driving me to get these rooms built with the proper technology so that students can use them in the evenings when they need to.”
Before professors use the labs, which will be com-pleted by the fall semes-ter, they will need to go through training to ensure they will use the technolo-gy to its full potential, said Cindy Albert, the associ-ate director for the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
“What they teach will be the same because that’s the curriculum,” she said. “But, how they teach is go-ing to change, so less stick-ing things up on a power point and more framing questions for groups of stu-dents to think about, more engagement, more solving problems, more personal connection.”
Classrooms in this style promote more active learn-ing on the part of the stu-dent, she said.
“Students will have to take more responsibility to come prepared to class and not expect to come to class and just listen to a lecture and just listen and take notes, but instead will have to listen and do,” Albert said.
She also said If these first two labs are successful, LTS and CETL hope to add more, particularly for the use of the political science and history departments.
Brittni StaseskeSTAFF WRITER Geography and
the French language came together as ten UW-Eau Claire stu-dents embarked on a journey to Cajun country in Louisiana as part of a watershed and intercultural im-mersion trip to break down barriers and explore another cul-ture during this year's spring break.
Cajun country is a place where people of French-Canadian de-scent live or migrate to along the bayous, marshes, and prairies of southern Louisiana.
Jessica Miller, as-sociate professor in the foreign languages department, teaches F r e n c h and is a native of France. M i l l e r , a l o n g with the g e o g -r a p h y depart -m e n t , w a n t e d to create a course t h a t would meet once a week for an hour and then take part in a domestic intercultural immersion experience over break.
She said she want-
ed to open students’ minds and help them see past stereotypes.
“Before the trip, we talked a lot about things that people would ask Cajun (peo-ple), things that peo-ple would ask Wiscon-sin people, based on preconceptions,” Mill-er said. “And during the trip then students could see what was true, what wasn’t.”
Miller said they also wanted students to realize Wisconsin and Louisiana are connected environ-mentally even though they seem like two different worlds.
Sophomore Carly Murray said it was an incredible experience that drew her closer to her major in French
and was a way for her to b e c o m e m o r e i n v o l v e d in geogra-phy.
I n E a u C l a i r e , she said people are e n v i r o n -menta l ly
conscious, but peo-ple in Cajun country might feel as if they have more to lose since most of their liveli-hood comes from the environment.
“I think they see it differently,” Murray said. “I think they are more aware of it. Peo-ple there are on the river canoeing, crab-bing, shrimping; they are working to preserve their coastline.”
M u r r a y said the stu-dents came into this trip wanting to mainly focus on their area of study, but over time people be-gan to learn more about the other side of things. She said in the end, the immersion trip taught everyone how to appreciate all aspects of geography and culture.
Murray also said the bonds and ties they gained during the trip was invaluable and they gained an appreciation for those people in whom they were in contact.
“They have gone through more than I have heard many people go through,” Murray said. “Pret-ty much they won’t let themselves be Americanized, they have really retained their culture.”
Just like Murray, the chair of the de-partment of geogra-phy and anthropology
at Eau Claire, Doug-las Faulkner said the main thing he per-sonally took away from the trip was how approachable the people were.
“I don’t know if I have ever met a group of peo-ple in an area like this that were genuine-ly friendly,” Faulkner said. “And so for me it showed
this is still a willingness to
accept outsiders still, it can still exist out there, that was an eye opening experience for me.”
Senior Mariah Dorner said the stu-dents experienced ex-actly what the profes-sors wanted. Dorner said she now better understands how Wis-consin and Louisiana are connected.
"A lot of people don’t realize the im-pact practices up north have,” Dorner said. “It’s really all connected to the entire Mississippi River sys-tem and watershed.”
She said she thinks the university should have more op-portunities like this for students because it was a great way to learn so much in a short amount of time.
Students immersed in a new culture
Emily AlbrentOP/ED EDITOR
Senate approves allocation of fundsRenovation of classrooms into active learning labs gets green light
Wisconsin and Louisiana are environmentally connected by the Mississippi river
“A lot of people don’t realize the impact practices up north have ... It’s really all connected... ”MARIAH DORNER
Senior
PAESE
MURRAY
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SPORTS7SPORTS EDITOR: Andy Hildebrand Thursday, April 25
The streak continuesBlugolds win again for eighth straight victory
The UW-Eau Claire women's tennis team picked up its eighth win of the spring season, beating Northwestern College (Minn.) 8-1 in a strong performance on the indoor Olson Courts of the McPhee Center Saturday.
All six Blugolds won every match within the singles competition and lost only the No. 1 match in doubles against the Ea-gles. Eau Claire shut down Northwestern after the Ea-gles won five of their last six matches.
Junior Katie Gillman won No. 3 singles at 6-0, 6-0 without dropping a game. She said her preparation for the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament and goal of facing No. 1 UW-White-water was what gave her the edge against her opponent.
“I really wanted to be aggressive and take my shots and keep moving forward so that I could be more on the offense and utilize the fast surface to my advantage,” Gillman said.
The women’s tennis team has yet to lose a match this spring. With this win, they improved to 16-2 on the season.
Junior Mary Frassetto lost just one game in her singles play, winning 6-1, 6-0 at the No. 5 match. She said she is proud of the strong focus throughout the team.
“I think we’ve all tried to work on still being aggressive and to take smart shots,” Frassetto said. “If you put a lot of effort into your play and feel confident in what you’re doing, it’ll all work out in the end.”
In the doubles competition, Frassetto and ju-nior Madison Rossebo defeated their opponents
with a score of 8-2 in the No. 3 match.Senior Gretchen Bachmeier and sophomore
Maddie Johnson also had an 8-2 victory during the No. 2 doubles match.
Rossebo said the home court advantage was beneficial to the team, but there were some
missed opportunities.“We were consistent
with our game,” she said. “But some of our shots that we can normally hit, we didn’t go for our full poten-tial on those.”
The WIAC tournament for women’s tennis will be hosted by Whitewater Sat-urday where six-year head coach Tom Gillman said they hope to win against No. 3 UW-La Crosse in the semi-finals.
“La Crosse has been good and it’s been a hard match for us, so we certainly have a lot to accomplish in order to win that match,” he said. “We’re hopeful, but we know we’re really going to have to be ready.”
Katie Gillman said she looks forward to bringing her aggressive play to the WIAC tournament.
“I think I was happiest that I really raised my level of play,” she said. “It’s not going to be easy on Saturday, but it’s definitely doable.”
Coach Gillman said having a game plan is es-sential going into the conference tournament, but that the girls are definitely reliable.
“Our girls have been very consistent, not only in matches, but in practice,” he said. “It’s just a matter of tweaking things here and there; most of the big things we have going for us.”
If the Blugolds win both the semifinal and final matches on Saturday, they will be automat-ically qualified to continue on to the NCAA Div. III championships May 20-25 at Stowe Stadium in Kalamazoo, Mich.
ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator STRONG FOLLOW THROUGH: Senior Gretchen Bachmeier sends a backhand over the net. Bachmeier won both her No. 2 singles match and her No. 2 doubles match.
ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator TAKING AIM: Freshman Colleen McCullough takes aim before launching a two-handed backhand over the net. McCullough won her No. 6 singles match 6-1, 6-1.
Bridget Cooke STAFF WRITER
“Our girls have been very consistent, not only in matches but
in practice.”TOM GILLMANHead tennis coach
Box scores: Northwestern at UW-Eau Claire
SPORTSSPORTS EDITOR: Andy Hildebrand Thursday, April 25 8
spectatornews.com
GET THE NEWS EVEN WHEN
YOU SKIP YOUR 8 O’CLOCK
Seventeen regular season conference wins in a row seems like a memorable accomplish-ment, especially when it matches a school record. But for UW-Eau Claire softball Head Coach Leslie Huntington, the streak has bare-ly registered on her radar.
“Until I read it on the website, I had no idea that was even the case,” Huntington said. “That’s cool to be a part of history and we certainly respect that, but our focus is not on those records.”
The Blugolds moved to 18-3 on the year after beating UW-La Crosse 3-2 and 5-2 in an April 20 doubleheader and pushed their conference winning streak to seventeen games.
The current streak matches the record set spanning the 2005 and 2007 seasons.
The last time the team lost a regular season conference game was April 4, 2012 to UW-River Falls.
The opening game against La Crosse, Eau Claire’s first contest since April 7, went nine
innings before the Blugolds scratched out a win.
After squandering a 2-0 lead by giving up runs in the fifth and sixth innings, the Blugolds seemed in position to win the game in the eighth.
Freshman Abby Hansen singled and stole second and junior Amanda Houle walked to put two on with one out. But Hansen was caught try-ing to steal third and the Blugolds eventually went
down without a run.Another unsuccessful steal attempt, this
one by freshman Gracia Larson, left the Blu-golds with two outs and nobody on in the ninth. But consecutive singles by sophomores Amanda Fisher and Nikki Brooks gave fellow sophomore Taylor Pierce a chance to win it.
Pierce, who hit two game-winning home runs last year, came through with a base hit to center field, scoring Fischer and giving the Blugolds momen-tum heading into game two of the doubleheader.
Huntington said the coaching staff has been working with Pierce on hit-ting more line drives and not getting under the ball as much.
Huntington said Pierce’s competitive nature makes
her an ideal player for late-game situations.Pierce said she is able to stay relaxed in
big moments, which helps her come through with timely hits.
“I definitely want it to be a good at-bat, but I don’t get too excited because I don’t want to psych myself out or anything,” Pierce said.
Huntington also said senior second base-man Jenny Hess made several key defensive plays that saved base hits and runs in the first game, which the coach said was one of the main reasons the team won.
Game two was not nearly as exciting, as the Blugolds pushed three runs across in the second inning, including a solo home run from Fischer.
Eau Claire added runs in the third and fifth innings and got a dominant relief outing from freshman Zana Lorbetske to finish off the Eagles.
Lorbetske entered the game in the fourth inning and allowed just one base hit while
striking out seven to earn her sixth win of the year and second of the day.
Lorbetske also threw three scoreless innings of relief in game one to get the win. For the year, the fresh-man has racked up 39 strike-outs in 32 innings of work, by far the best strikeout rate on the pitching staff.
Huntington said having defined roles for the pitching staff has made everyone’s job easier.
“That’s really been able to help her be successful coming in those situations because she is a very different pitcher than Emma (Wishau) or Laura (Raflik),” Huntington said.
The defense, which had been an area of concern for Huntington for much of this sea-son, performed well in the two games, com-mitting only one combined error and featured Hess’ standout play.
Paired with a consistent offense and im-proved pitching, the team seems to be rolling at the moment.
Fischer said the team has been clicking lately and the players have a lot of confidence in themselves and each other.
“I think we still have room to grow, but we are playing really well right now,” Fischer said. “The fact that we do have room to get that much better, I’d be scared to play us.”
The Blugolds’ long-awaited home opener, a doubleheader against River Falls sched-uled for April 24, was postponed and moved to April 26. Game one is set to begin at 4 p.m. at Bollinger Fields.
Softball ties record with 17-game streakBlugolds have not lost a conference game in more than a year
Chris Reinoos EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
“Until I read it on the website, I had no idea that was even the case. That’s
cool to be a part of history and we certainly respect that, but our focus is
not on those records.”LESLIE HUNTINGTON
Head softball coachHUNTINGTON
PIERCE
LORBETSKE
SPORTS9SPORTS EDITOR: Andy Hildebrand Thursday, April 25
Before the UW-Eau Claire women’s softball team starts any game, they come together on the field to do their pregame ritual.
They huddle together and the seniors lead a chant that ends with the team shouting “Blu-golds!” The simple tradition may not make them better players, but it gives them confidence.
That confidence is what is driving their win-ning streak, sophomore Amanda Fischer said.
“When players are playing with confidence, their individual performance gets higher and that increases the team performance,” Fischer said. “If the person next to you is playing with confidence, that makes it easier for you to play with confidence.”
There’s more to a winning streak than just confidence though. The pressure of the game can have different affects on the mentality of the team.
For some teams, like the softball team, a winning streak increases the pressure to keep
winning. Fischer said it feels like the team has a target on its back as the team to beat, but it’s
a better pressure.Rob Anderegg, defen-
seman for Eau Claire’s national champion hock-ey team, has experienced both a winning streak and a losing streak and says the pressure feels worse in a losing streak.
“The pressure definitely builds and you can feel ev-eryone kind of forgets about their role on the team a little
bit,” Anderegg said. “You try to do just a little bit extra to try to score an extra goal or create an extra opportunity and that’s where it hurts you.”
The mentality of the team as a whole chang-es during a streak. Anderegg said once the team had strung together a few wins early in the sea-son, performance anxiety started to get to them.
“You get a little bit anxious to play,”
Anderegg said. “Especially if you escape a few one-goal games, which we did, and then you’re going into an opponent that we historically didn’t play very well against.”
When they reached this stage in their streak, Anderegg said the team didn’t want to mess with anything. The starting lineup remained the same so they could keep going with what works. They were focusing on the big picture: the national champi-onship.
For the softball team, it’s different. Fischer said she doesn’t think about other games and tries to take each game one play at a time.
Winning and losing streaks don’t just happen in team sports.
Jeremy Kieser, a mem-ber of the track team, said runners can get in ruts, but they’re pretty easy to reverse.
“All it takes is one better race to get them
out of it and they’re thinking positively again,” Kieser said.
In general, Kieser said the track team focuses on positive thinking and training to keep them in the right mind-set for a race.
“If we’ve all been doing poorly and we’re thinking we’re never going to get better, that reflects poorly on us as a team,” Kieser said. “I just try to stay relaxed as much as possible before the race. We have a warm-up and drills that we always do … so we just treat it like a workout so we can stay in that mind frame and get used to it and come race time, we’re ready to go.”
All three teams highlighted the impor-tance of team unity whether they’re winning or losing.
Like the softball team, the hockey and track teams both have unity-building rituals that they do. The softball team’s may be the most elaborate though.
In addition to their pregame chant, they also say, “win” after each inning and after each game, they gather at home plate to say, “together.”
Dealing with the streakBlugold athletes of all sports react differently to winning and losing streaks
Katie Bast STAFF WRITER
Practice may make perfect, but during this cold, windy, rainy, snowy spring the UW-Eau Claire women’s golf team has been left virtually un-able to get out on the course to hone their skills.
Despite the lack of practice, the team traveled for their April 20-21 match in Waverly, Iowa, to participate in the Wartburg College Invitation-al where they finished 4th out of 10 teams. The Blugolds total score, 332, put them behind St. Thomas (Minn.), Wartburg, and tournament champion St. Olaf College (Minn.).
Results were based solely on the April 20 round be-cause the second day of play (April 21) was canceled due to weather conditions after competitors completed just four holes. Sophomore Emily Stone said the cancellation came
as a disappointment to Blugold golfers who haven’t spent a significant amount of time out on the course this spring.
Top finisher for the Blugolds was sophomore Kate Engler who with 79 strokes (+7) tied for eighth place. Se-nior teammate Catherine Wagner tied for 14th with an 82 stroke (+10) finish.
“My weekend started out pretty good,” Engler said. “The last holes were kind of disappointing for me because I was three over but overall I'm pret-ty happy considering we don’t practice very much.”
Sophomore Mandi Salo said the team’s biggest concern going into the tournament was their lack of prepara-tion compared to the other teams. Salo said the teams from Iowa and Nebras-ka have had many more opportunities to get outside.
“Going to the tournaments without much practice is a little bit scary but we find that we’re still able to hold a candle to the other teams even when they’ve been able to practice and we haven’t,” Salo said.
Salo shared her teammates disap-pointment when officials called off day two of the tournament.
“I’ve played in a lot worse condi-tions than the conditions we had on that day but I guess with the wind, rain and cold all mixed together it was just
way too much,” Salo said.In a typical spring, the Blugold
golfers will play a round of 18 holes every week at practice as well as going
to the driving range and working on their short game. However, this spring their practice schedule has called for much more creativity.
To stay on top of their game the team has been hitting balls off mats into the snow filled driving range, prac-ticing inside the clubhouse, putting on the floor of McPhee and working on swing drills.
“We’re doing whatever we can to keep our swings and trying not to get too rusty,” Stone said.
As the team continues to fight the conditions they are hopeful they will be able to complete their next two tourna-ments: both scheduled to be played on courses that aren’t currently open.
“This weekend we are heading to Minnesota for a tournament in North-field hosted by Carleton College and then the weekend after that we have our home tournament,” Salo said. “We’re really looking forward to both of these tournaments and just facing some other competitors and we’re hoping that both of these tournaments will happen.”
Despite setbacks from Mother Na-ture the golfers are focused on their goal: a bid for the national tournament.
It will depend on a variety of things like scoring average and strength and num-ber of tournaments. In terms of meeting the requirements, Engler said the team is practically all set and just waiting for a decision.
“We have two more tournaments and then nationals,” Engler said. “We still have to get a bid for nationals but we won’t hear about that for another week but we’re going to keep playing obviously.”
While the team continues to place well despite conditions Stone said it will make their job more difficult down the road as they try to accomplish their post-season goals.
“We have a good history at the national tournament. We went last year and the 12 or 13 years before that and we’re just trying to get back there again,” Stone said. “It’s obvious-ly going to be a little bit harder this year but that’s what we’re working towards now.”
ANDEREGG
KIESER
Courtney Kueppers COPY EDITOR
UW-Eau Claire women’s golf rained outWartburg Invite ends early due to weather; Blugolds take 4th
ENGLER
SALO
“Going to the tournaments
without much practice is
a little bit scary but we
find that we’re still able
to hold a candle to other
teams even when they’ve
been able to practice and
we haven’t.”
MANDI SALOSophomore golfer
CURRENTS10CURRENTS EDITOR: Martha Landry Thursday, April 25
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This past weekend, amidst the usual barista sounds from the UW-Eau Claire’s Cabin, singer/songwriter Will Hutchinson per-formed several tracks from his new album: “Goldfish Diaries.”
Three regional artists are selected every semester to perform in The Cabin, and this semester Hutchinson was one of those three. The fact that he was performing in Eau Claire didn’t escape him, as was evidenced by his choice to cover Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love.”
Hutchinson’s music is a pleasant blend of folk, acoustic and soft rock sounds that have the ability to numb and soothe the listener while stirring up myriad emotions.
Every song Hutchinson played was the same basic set up: a man and his guitar. However, I wouldn’t call him a one-trick pony, and I was never bored throughout his performance. I think this is partly due to his killer vocal range and smooth instrumental arrangements, but also because he was — plainly and simply — a funny guy.
Hutchinson stepped into what he called a mad house, with approximately 20 people in attendance at the Cabin. Without the joke, the attendance would have, quite frankly, made the show a bit awkward, but Hutchinson took it in stride and handled it candidly.
In fact, he really embraced the small performer feel of the place by adorning his guitar case with a sign that read, “ten buck a roos” for each physical copy of his new CD.
Audience participation was encouraged — nay, required — during the show as Hutchinson enlisted anyone with vocal cords to belt out choruses they had recently learned.
Hutchinson wasn’t afraid to be a vulnerable on stage either as he talked about a song he co-wrote with his now deceased grandfather. His sincerity added quite a bit to how I perceived him as an artist.
For me, the stories Hutchinson told were one of the highlights of the show. Only a traveling musician would have stories about a
truck stop’s $8, all-you-can-eat steak buffet. As he told it, the steak tasted pretty good, but he couldn’t shake the feeling it was too good of a deal. The logical conclusion, then, is the meat was probably not steak, but rather, recycled trucker meat.
Still, humorous stories were not all Hutchinson had to offer; he also provided a few of his insightful, philosophical life tidbits. His philosophy is experientially-derived and stresses the importance of never dating girls you meet while street performing — something he learned after three unsuccessful tries in Los Angeles.
I was impressed by Hutchinson’s live performance even though it was notably different sounding than his studio album. Usual-ly if the two sound different, the live version ends up flopping in comparison with the studio version, but both have a charm of their own.
I’m always drawn in by an artist’s lyricism, and that was defi-nitely not something Hutchinson’s music was lacking. His songs were honest and unapologetically his own. I mean, the man used rescind and callous in the same sentence. The Lincoln, Neb. native weaves together words in a way that is foreign enough to be inter-esting, but not so foreign that it impedes understanding.
Unequivocally and without reservation, I would recommend Hutchinson’s music; I can honestly say he made me a fan.
Ryan Spaight STAFF WRITER
Folk featured artist performs at Cabin
A review of Will Hutchinson’s campus show
On Tuesday night, Hibbard 101 hosted that night’s event as a part of the Human Traffick-ing Abolitionists’ attempts to raise awareness in coordination of Human Rights Week.
The lights were dimmed and come 7 p.m., the Frontline documentary “Syria Undercover” start-ed playing on the screen. There was one problem though. Despite screening in Hibbard’s largest room, only five people were in attendance, includ-ing freshman Hannah Herzfeld, who was running the event.
Herzfeld joined the Human Trafficking Aboli-tionists after becoming aware of an issue she was previously ignorant to.
“I didn’t know anything about human traf-ficking before I got on campus,” Herzfeld said. “After I realized what was going on, even here in the United States, I just wanted to help. The more people who know, the better. That’s what this documentary series is all about.”
The documentary series, which the Human Trafficking Abolitionists put on in conjunction with the university, worked under the theme “Ev-ery Person Matters” and was free to the public.
The series began Monday with the documen-tary “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” a story about a Chinese artist who strictly opposes his country’s censorship policies.
Tuesday’s film, “Syria Undercover” examined
human rights conditions in Syria amidst the na-tion’s ongoing revolution.
After poor attendance at each of the first two films, the group’s objective of increasing aware-ness hasn’t been as successful Herzfeld hoped.
“Not too many people showed up which is disappointing,” Herzfeld said. “It’s a really heavy topic. It’s overwhelming and people don’t want to think about that kind of stuff. It’s hard to get people passionate about it.”
Sophomore Wyatt Opelt said he attended Tuesday’s film out of simple curiosity.
“I wasn’t really all that aware about what was going on in Syria,” Opelt said. “It was really interesting and I’m glad I came. It’s important to be informed.”
Sophomore Alyssa Krantz said she too was un-aware of the events in Syria and was shocked by the film’s content.
“All the images and the atrocity that is going on there is terrible,” Krantz said. “You have to be aware of these things. If you live in a bubble, what good are you?”
The Human Trafficking Abolitionists aren’t relying just on the documentary series to increase awareness though. Herzfeld was personally in-volved in the baked goods giveaway that took place all week at the Davies Center.
“We set up a table in Davies and tried to make ourselves available,” Herzfeld said. “Some people have come up with questions, which is great.”
The documentary series resumed Wednesday night with the screening of “Kony 2012 Part II.” The film spotlights human rights violations in cen-tral Africa and was created by the controversial
group Invisible Children. Attendance remained low with only five people in attendance.
Fifth year senior April D’Water introduced the Wednesday’s film and said she was disappointed in the low numbers the film series has been drawing.
“Last year we had a lot better attendance,” D’Water said. “We put up posters and had a ban-ner on the university website, but no one looks at that. We would like more support from the professors, ultimately.”
She said low numbers don’t diminish the im-portance of the message though.
“It’s been a year since Kony went viral,” D’Wa-ter said. “It’s a good time to discuss it again. It’s important we open our minds to conflicts around the world that don’t affect us directly. By staying silent, we’re allowing these things to continue.”
The film series will conclude Thursday night with the screening of “The Human Experience,” the story of Jeffery Azize as he travels the globe in search of an answer to the question, “What does it mean to be human?”
The film will start at 6:30 p.m. in Hibbard 100 and is free to the public.
Andy Hildebrand SPORTS EDITOR
Despite low attendance, Human Rights Week aims to increase awarenessSeries of documentaries
screen for free on campus
SUBMITTED
CURRENTS11CURRENTS EDITOR: Martha Landry Thursday, April 25
Remember Cruella De Vil? Glamor-ous, fur-crazed, evil. For an animal lov-ing five-year-old, she was the ultimate Disney villainess. You still probably shudder when you think about how she wanted to murder dalmatian puppies to make a coat.
Looking back at every child’s reaction to Cruella and “101 Dal-matians,” you’d probably think any-one participating in the fashion in-dustry would treat the use of fur in clothing like a leper, but that’s not the case.
As much as you or I loathe to think this is actually gaining in popularity, according to Women’s Wear Daily, the fur industry earned between $15 billion and $16 billion in the 2010-2011 season, and in the decade before had risen 70 percent.
A Fur Trade Association spokes-person said the reason is because young people don’t care about animal rights anymore. Spokesperson Mark Oaten stated, “‘There is less focus on welfare. Maybe it’s because we’ve got our act together, maybe it’s because attitudes have changed, maybe it’s be-cause they’re seeing fur more on the catwalk, in magazines and in products that they like, (Oaten) explained. ‘The
younger generation loves fur trim, and they are buying it.’”
According to an article on Fashion-ista.com, 70 percent of designers show-cased fur in their Fall 2013 collections. In the same article Keith Kaplan, the executive director of the Fur Informa-tion Council of America, said designers have done their research and designers know that the fur industry is “com-mitted to the humane and responsible treatment of animals.”
Proponents of fur claim the resource is renewable and biodegradable, which is true. Faux-fur is generally made of petroleum based products, which is not biodegradable. So maybe Oaten is right about the younger generation being more worried about environmental is-sues than animal rights.
In the Fashionista.com article, a Gallup poll conducted in May 2012 said of the 1,024 people included in
the survey, 60 percent of those saw fur as morally acceptable. The poll is a relatively small sample size, mean-ing the margin of error would be pretty high.
An example of seeing fur as morally acceptable can be found in Alice + Ol-ivia designer Stacey Bendet, a vegan, who wears fur. In an article for New York Magazine’s The Cut, Bendet said she doesn’t feel guilty about wearing fur: “I don’t feel that guilty wearing it. I don’t know why. It doesn’t make sense. But something about putting it inside me feels really barbaric. Some-thing about wearing it just feels a little glamorous.”
While there is a constant debate about the use of new fur in fashion, there is also a moral issue on vintage fur. This debate can be boiled down to wearing any fur is reprehensible, to wearing vintage fur is OK, because no new animals have been killed for it, and wearing vintage clothing is recycling.
A final point I would like to make is no matter if it’s fake fur or real fur (or any other textile), clothing should always be labeled properly. Earlier this year, Humane Society investigators found real fur was mislabeled at Centu-ry 21. This poses problems for both peo-ple who want to wear fur and for those who don’t, and brings to question how other textiles in clothing are labeled.
Elizabeth Jackson PHOTO EDITOR
“A Fur Trade Association spokesperson said the
reason is because young people don’t care about
animal rights anymore.”
ALL NATURAL DESIGN: As part of Earth Week, the Student Office of Sustainability invited junior Cora Fox to perform henna tattoos, temporary dyeing of the skin, on April 24 on the UW-Eau Claire campus. Above, Fox tattoos Eau Claire junior Carissa Jobe with a flower design. Fox said if taken care of properly, the design can last up to two weeks.
ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator
Temporarily tatted
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CURRENTS12CURRENTS EDITOR: Martha Landry Thursday, April 25
Success affords musicians lots of opportunities. In Justin Vernon’s case, it gave him the chance to step away from the growing monster that is Bon Iver and into his rock band The Shouting Matches.
Thanks to Vernon’s towering stature in the indie rock communi-ty, The Shouting Matches played at this year’s Coachella Festival. The band has existed for several years, but played only sparingly be-fore this year and just put out its first proper release, the full-length “Grownass Man.”
The band, made up of Vernon, Phil Cook and Brian Moen, don’t do anything innovative or original on “Grownass Man,” and that’s part of the appeal. The record has a tossed-off feel that makes it charming and accessible. Vernon and his band-mates are clearly having a great time playing these songs, which makes it hard to not have a great time listening to them.
Vernon trades the falsetto and spacious productions he be-came known for in Bon Iver for a bluesy howl and a straightfor-ward bar rock sound with his new group. The opener, “Avery Hill,” moves along with an easy stomp and sets the tone for the record. None of this is essential, the song seems to suggest, but you’re going to enjoy it.
The guitars and drums are the musical stars of almost every track, with organ and harmonica added on several songs for an extra lay-er of soul. Despite the blues rock of “Grownass Man,” the record is well-produced and may be perhaps a bit too polished. Music like this should have some dirt to it, but most of that seems to have been scrubbed away.
But that’s a minor qualm
for songs this infectious. “Seven Sisters” is a knockout, with a riff straight out of the Rolling Stones’ playbook and Vernon’s blue-eyed soul vocal delivery of lyrics about romantic failure. “Mother, When?” is a tale about a dysfunctional, alcoholic family.
“Gallup, NM” features guitar lines that meander over Moen’s shuf-fling drums. Moen’s drumming is one of the finest parts of the record, alter-nately pounding and restrained but always noticeable.
There is an undercurrent of gos-pel influence throughout the record, which is most evident on tracks such as “New Theme” and album closer “I Need A Change.” “New Theme” swells with backing and call-and-re-
sponse vocals and heavy organ, while “I Need A Change” is a soulful slow burn about a relationship no longer benefiting either person.
Make no mistake: this record sounds nothing like Bon Iver. The lyrics are far less abstract, the vocals clearer and louder and the guitars plugged in and turned up. Fans who worried about a change in Vernon’s sound after he announced the Bon Iver hiatus could have a hard time warming up to this record.
But for people interested in Ver-non’s next career move, “Grownass Man” proves to be the most immedi-ately enjoyable record he has made. It may not be important or unfor-gettable, but it’s a blast from start to finish.
Chris Reinoos EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Grownass Man: A review
Twirling canvases, flying paint and a small army of multifaceted instrumen-talists all came together Sunday night during Cloud Cult’s dynamic, visual per-formance in Schofield Auditorium.
In an effort to bring light to Earth Day during the university’s week-long celebration of the planet, the Student Office of Sustainability hosted the Min-neapolis experimental art-rock collec-tive for an overwhelmingly successful free show.
The concert, open for students as well as the public, was opened by bluesy, energetic punk-rockers The Heart Pills, an Eau Claire-native quartet.
After the Wisconsinites’ set, Cloud Cult took the stage offering a variety of instrumentation with a veteran sound, which has developed over their 19 years of touring and releasing music since forming in 1994.
As an environmental science alum-ni of the University of Minnesota, band founder Craig Minowa said he was pleased to see some of the ecologically friendly aspects of campus.
“We were really amazed at the great changes the sustainability group has brought to campus,” Minowa said. “It’s nice to see things like bottle filling sta-tions and LED lights here in Eau Claire.”
Thematically, the group was found-ed in part on ideas in reference to conservation of the environment.
“The name ‘Cloud Cult’ references some ancient prophecies that discuss the necessity for balance between technology and nature,” Minowa said.
Minowa’s label, Earthology Re-cords, was formed in 1997 on his organ-ic farm. Using only recycled material, the non-profit label donates all profits to charity.
While the group’s use of strings, horns, percussion and a number of electronic tones is impressively developed, Cloud Cult sets themselves apart through their unique use of live artists.
Minowa’s wife, Connie Minowa, along with Scott West, provide a visual backdrop for Cloud Cult by painting on large, spinning canvases throughout the duration of the band’s set.
Cloud Cult auctioned off Connie Minowa’s and West’s paintings after the performance, as is tradition for the group.
Victoria Zelinski, a freshman art major, said she considers music to be the only form of art that can move and in-spire, so the performance’s visual nature was easy for her to identify with.
“The visual arts are rarely incor-porated in musical performances past the typical fancy light shows and visual cues,” Zelinski said. “So I think the fact that they gave the artists a starring po-sition to express their emotion added an extra layer to the show.”
Sophomore philosophy major Na-than Taylor agreed the band’s artistic qualities were impressive, but said he was most struck by the band’s energy during the performance.
“Schofield is a fairly small venue considering all of their equipment,” Tay-lor said. “But there was such a frenetic energy when they played that couldn’t be ignored … it was easy to lose yourself in the show.”
Moving forward, Craig Minowa said Cloud Cult will be playing a number of summer festivals, and continue to tour this fall.
“I’m amazed and thankful our mu-sic has spread so far and that people are finding some good in it,” he said. “Our Eau Claire performance was a beautiful experience for us.”
Cloud Cult performs for Earth Week
Band brings attention to conservation issues through Schofield performance
Zack Katz COPY EDITOR
SUBMITTED
ZACK KATZ / The Spectator NO CLOUDS HERE: Cloud Cult, a band who formed on ideas of conserving the environment, played a free show on April 21 in Schofield in honor of Earth Day.
Online this
week!
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
review
Seventh annual poetry
reading
Justin Vernon’s new blues group delivers the goods on debut album
OPINION / EDITORIAL13OP / ED EDITOR: Emily Albrent Thursday, April 25
Twitter has incredible value during times of national tragedy.
I was in The Spectator office when I first heard about the Boston Marathon bombings. As with most terrorist acts, there was a lot of initial confusion and uncertainty. It took a few hours for people to begin piecing together exact-ly what happened and how many were injured.
When I got home, I simultaneously turned on television news and opened my laptop to check online news sites. But after some time of seeing the same stories on multiple sites, I decided to go on Twitter and see what kind of discussion was happening there.
Between brief periods of watching the hor-rifying footage on television, I kept my eyes on Twitter for the better part of two hours. Up-dates were coming in on my feed at least ev-ery minute, if not quicker. The discussion using #boston was too fast to keep up with.
Most of the people I follow on Twitter are comedians or friends of mine. I do follow some news outlets and sportswriters, but mostly I have viewed Twitter as a great way to hear some of the funniest people in the world tell great jokes.
But even if I had wanted to go on Twitter that day to escape from the bombing cover-age, I would not have been able to. Many of the comedians I follow were also following the news closely and tweeted personal thoughts and retweeted the latest news from reputable sources, including The Boston Globe and The Washington Post.
But this wasn’t what proved to me the beau-ty of Twitter in these situations. It was how people came together to help those who needed it the most. The humanity on display that day on Twitter was something I will remember for a long time.
People retweeted messages giving address-es for Boston residents to go to if they wanted a place to feel safe. People opened up their homes to their fellow man almost immediately and the people I follow passed these offers on in hopes of aiding those in danger.
People were able to alert friends and family that they were safe, hopefully saving traumat-ic hours of worry for some. Newspapers posted
the number of the Boston Police Department for people to call if they needed help or had tips on the identity of the bomber(s). Comedians linked to the Red Cross donation page to make it easy for people to give blood to Boston-area hospitals.
I was depressed when I learned of the bomb-ings. So many sickening acts of violence have occurred in this country in the past year that it made it difficult for me not to rail about the sad state of humanity. I was just beaten down, sad and not positive for our future.
But then I saw Twitter and a lot of my faith in humanity was restored after these few tragic hours. No matter how many people do unspeak-able things, there are always so many more who will run to help or do whatever they can to give comfort to victims. I was touched by what I read that day.
I wish it did not take horrible events like the Marathon bombings for me to gain a new perspective on the inherent goodness of hu-mans. But the times when our worst compul-sions and actions are on display are often the times when our best comes out as well.
I still love Twitter for the comedians and their jokes. But I have gained a newfound re-spect for the medium in the past two weeks.
It is amazing what you can do and how many people you can touch with 140 characters.
#Beautyofhumanity
SUBMITTED
Chris Reinoos EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Reinoos is a senior journalism major and Editor-in-Chief of The Spectator.
All in 140 characters Social networking is a way to reach
out and help during tragedies
Last week sucked. Monday was both Pa-triot’s Day in Boston and the famous running of the Boston Marathon — it was meant to be a day of camaraderie and American spir-it but was turned into a day of terror and uncertainty.
That uncertainty hung over our heads for the rest of the week until Friday night’s cap-ture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — but even then it wasn’t over. It’s still not over.
As soon as we learned the Tsarnaev brothers were from war-torn Chechnya with supposed links to the al-Qaida terrorist group, it seemed we could blame this on someone, somewhere else. But we can’t.
The Tsarnaev brothers were legal, nat-uralized citizens of the United States (Dz-hokhar became a U.S. citizen in September and older brother Tamerlan’s citizenship application was pending at the time of his death). Effectively, they bombed their own country and their own city.
This is no different from the terrorism we’ve endured at the hands of our fellow Americans countless times over the past year. In July, James Holmes killed 12 and injured another 58 people who simply wanted to see a movie that night in Aurora, Colo.
In December, a masked gunman took two lives at a Portland, Ore. shopping mall while families were doing their Christmas shopping. And, unforgettably, just days later Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
Movie theaters. Shopping malls. Elemen-tary schools. And now, at one of the ultimate presentations of the endurance and tenacity of the human spirit: marathons. How much more terror can we take?
Like the rest of my country, I’ve been following coverage of the Boston bombings intently, including, of course, Friday’s day-long manhunt, which was unlike anything else most of us have ever witnessed in our lifetimes.
Along with Boston, we felt the fear, the insecurity, the confusion and the disarm-ing lack of clarity for an entire week, ending
finally with triumph, the feeling of a wrong being made right and a killer being brought to justice.
Except … a wrong has not been made right. And nothing will ever be “right” until Americans stop inflicting pain, suffering and tragedy intentionally onto other Americans.
Now, I’ll be honest: I’m not an overly pa-triotic person. I appreciate a Fourth of July parade and fireworks show and I’ll belt out Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” with pride, but I’m not driving around in a souped-up pickup truck emblazoned with eagles soaring across a backdrop of American flags (lookin’ at you, Jed).
That’s not patriotism, that’s arrogance. That’s the pompous assumption that our coun-try is, untouchably, the best, the strongest, the most powerful.
True patriotism is the generosity, love and brotherhood America responds with each time it faces a setback.
There is no triumph in bringing a killer to justice, only closure. The real triumph is how our country reacts each and every time we face tragedy: we unite.
It’s in our name. It’s what we do. And I’m proud of that, but I wish we could get to a point where tragedy upon our country isn’t ever perpetrated by the hands of our fellow Americans.
But I fear that this is where we are now, and we can’t come back.
Taylor Kuether MANAGING EDITOR
Kuether is a senior journalism major and Managing Editor of The Spectator.
The state of our union
Why we all need to start acting like Americans
“There is no triumph in
bringing a killer to
justice, only closure. The real
triumph is how our country
reacts each and every time we
face tragedy: we unite.”
OPINION / EDITORIAL14OP/ED EDITOR: Emily Albrent Thursday, April 25
When I think of politics, a lot of things come to mind. Barack Obama, Washington, D.C., lobbyists and lead-ers to name a few.
But there is a different type of politics. An idea that is not decid-ed on votes, popularity or ideas with platforms and maybe cannot be de-fined as politics at all. In my head it is the following behind-the-scenes conversations and sneaky operations that trigger how certain aspects of society work.
Let me give you an example as to what I mean to clear some things up.
When I was in seventh or eighth grade, I was on the club basketball team with a bunch of my friends and classmates. I would say that I was a pretty damn good player back in the day, but got lit-tle playing time throughout the league.
I would of-ten get frustrated with being a bench warmer after trav-eling all across the countryside to play the game that I loved. I would frequently express my dismay to my mother and she would always respond with “Just keep doing your best and maybe you’ll get more minutes.”
I stuck with basketball through-out middle school and high school and soon enough I found out why I never got to play. There were other kids with money. There were other kids’ parents who were boosters and gave the coach money. I was poor. My parents couldn’t afford to help sponsor the team.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying if they would have played me more I would have been the second-coming of LeBron James or something. But after my playing days were over, it became much more evident that what I am saying was true.
A player I looked up to when I was on the freshman squad while still in high school was a kid named DJ Brae-mer. Braemer was the starting point guard on the team that made it to the state championship. He was also my younger brother’s coach when he was in eighth grade.
While watching one of my brother’s
games when Braemer was his coach, I overheard a parent talking about the booster club program, bragging to a fellow parent that he gave Braemer $1,000, “just to help out a little.”
Guess who played every minute of every game? Guess whose minutes on the court that kid was stealing?
My little brother was going through the same thing that I went through at the same age, and when he expressed his frustration to me I said the same thing my mom told me. Be-cause that’s all I could do.
“Just keep doing your best and maybe you’ll get more minutes.”
It’s about time we change that. I hated being benched with nothing I could say or do to make any-thing better. Unlike Washington, D.C. politics, I couldn’t vote my brother into more playing time. So in a lot of senses, this type of weasel-ish political agenda is much worse than what we hear about on C-SPAN everyday.
When I came to college, I thought everything was going to get better. There was a fresh start. No one knew my name. I could build my reputation as I pleased and no one would judge me for my lack of financial background or anything like that, for UW-Eau Claire’s mission statement says the campus is, “An inclusive campus com-munity that challenges students to develop their intellectual, personal, cultural, and social competencies.”
I have found out, however, that some things never change.
Throughout the course of my time here, I have been judged. I have been overlooked for opportunities given to me because I am not rich, do not look the part of a professional, cannot give anything to the university besides my time and effort and that won’t be good enough.
I am not going to give you the pity speech here, because I know that I could have done better for myself throughout my time at this fine uni-versity. I have done some pretty stupid things, but I have grown up more than I could ever imagine in my four years.
I just want fair opportunities for everyone who deserves it. Is that too much to ask?
David Heiling NEWS EDITOR
Heiling is a senior journalism major and News Editor of The Spectator.
The “other” politics Money should not dictate who has
more opportunities
HEILING
It’s a seller’s
market...Use the
Spectator Classifieds
to get rid of your stuff!
OPINION/EDITORIAL15OP / ED EDITOR: Emily Albrent Thursday, April 25
More cheese, please
You know what Wisconsin needs more of? Cheese.
If you’re like me, you know that cheese is awesome and needs to be consumed on the daily.
There will be a grilled cheese contest coming to Southwestern Wisconsin. And this isn’t just fun and games, this is for real, guys. It’s getting serious.
It will be held on April 27 in Mineral Point. I’m not finding any set time for this to happen, but trust, there is always time for grilled cheese. The competition has many different divisions, so you aren’t just being set up with a professional cheese connois-seur, if there are such things. And I hope there are. New job path? Get at me.
The divisions for this championship are amateurs, professionals and young chefs aged 12-18 years old. I would rank myself an amateur at making them but a professional at eating them. That’s acceptable right?
The sandwiches presented to the judges
(I want to be one) will be judged on taste, presentation and style. It’s like a real life “Top Chef.” Entry fees are $10 for amateurs and young chefs and $20 for professionals. OK. That makes no sense. Cheese is cheese. Let’s get real, Wisconsin.
Cage my heart
It’s all about the Cage. Let’s take ev-erybody’s obsession with Nicolas Cage a step further by drawing to attention that CollegeHumor has put together a petition to award Cage the Declaration of Independence.
I’m sure I could just stop right now, be-cause I know you will all run to the site and sign your name. He deserves it, because for one, his acting is flawless, he has so many different facial expressions, he has a video called, “Nicolas Cage Losing His Sh*t” on YouTube (which you need to watch) and he’s overall just perfect.
I’m not sure how much sarcasm was in the last paragraph, but it was probably
a lot. As of now, the petition has 3,526 sig-natures and they need 96,474 more to reach their goal.
Let’s get this to Obama. I’m sure he will agree that Nic deserves this honor. Our president seems like a chill dude who would support something like this.
Everyone. I’m counting on you. Go here. Do it. Now. Sign your name. http://tinyurl.com/d2567vf
Albrent’s believe it or not
SUBMITTED
Every week, Op/Ed Editor Emily Albrent will find stories that are incredibly weird in nature and tell you why they are so awesome. This is the place to come for those stories that will shock you, surprise you and hopefully make you laugh. Senate Republicans and
rural-state Democrats reject-ed a bill that would allow for tighter background checks for buyers of guns on Wed. April 17.
Pleas from families and those who were affected by last winter’s massacre in Newtown, Conn. spurred the want for increased gun con-trol. However, the 60 votes that were needed to pass the bill fell short. The vote on the background check rang in at 54-46.
It is difficult to under-stand why a bill such as this has not passed already with the increased gun violence that has happened recently. What will it take for people to see that we need to protect each other more than ever?
The sad part is if the re-quired vote of 60 was not in place, or not as high, the bill might have had a chance to
pass. The majority of the vote was for passing the bill, and it seems odd that this was not taken into consideration.
This could be potential life saving legislation. This is a big deal and some of the vot-ers may have been swayed a certain way based on powerful lobbying groups or the pres-sure to keep voting the way they have been historically.
The Editorial Board came to the conclusion that some-thing very traumatic is going to have to happen in order for future action to take place re-garding gun control. That is proof enough that it is time to change the way we think about weapons and what they are used for.
The staff editorial reflects the views only of the edito-rial board, not those of The Spectator nor the university.
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STUDENT LIFE16STUDENT LIFE EDITOR: Michelle Enger Thursday, April 25
Eating pizza and cheeseburgers, doing home-work, playing “nose goes” and living in a dorm are some day-to-day things most students at UW-Eau Claire experience and expect. But for some Blu-golds, it has been an adjustment or unfamiliar territory.
Walking among the Blugolds from all around the United States are 216 international stu-dents from 34 different countries.
Coming from a dif-ferent culture and hav-ing to learn a new one could create some confu-sion and getting used to, but just how challenging is it for international students to adjust?
Maria Carvalho, international student advisor at the Center for International Education at Eau Claire, said some students arrive at Eau Claire and can be completely comfortable, while others have a more difficult time and have to work through it.
Shock
For Noor Al Bayat, of Saudi Arabia, Eau Claire’s atmosphere came as a bit of a shock after she arrived in the summer of 2012.
“Last semester I had culture shock, I was cry-ing all the time, I didn’t understand anything, I hated myself,” she said. “I called my family all the time and finally I adjusted.”
Al Bayat said her shock was a result of not feeling at home. Her home campus in Saudi Ara-
bia separates male and females, so she was not used to the integration at Eau Claire.
Talita Lomba Silva, of Brazil, said she is still adjusting to life in America even though she has been in the country since January 2010.
“I love it here because of the quality of life and all the opportunities, but the way people interact with each other is completely different,” Lomba Silva said.
In Brazil, she said people are warm and welcoming but she somehow senses a barrier in America.
“Americans tend to have a bigger personal bubble and they just have this different way to communicate,” she said. “I guess I have a hard time explaining it because it is more of how I feel
in certain situations then specif-ic things they do.”
School System
In addition to her adjust-ment to Eau Claire, homework played a part in Al Bayat’s culture shock. She said she doesn’t have homework at her university.
Yasha Aakesson, a junior business major from Sweden, also said her home campus does not assign homework and the school system is quite different.
“This feels like going back to high school for me because (in college) we don’t have a schedule at all,” Aakesson said.
She said in Sweden, she would take one class at a time for about one and a half months, take an exam and then move on to another class.
Independence
Yiwen Wu, a freshman from China, said he sees a lot of independence in the American stu-dents. He said Chinese students are often in a group, but he sees more American students sit-ting at a table eating or reading by themselves at
times.Hanning Chen, a senior from Beijing, said he
did not have much independence before coming to study in America.
“Before I came to the U.S., my parents had to prepare almost everything ready for me,” Chen said.
He said he would associ-ate the lack of independence in Chinese children because of the one-child policy there. The policy was introduced in 1979 in an effort to slow the rising growth in pop-ulation, so families can be
fined thousands of dollars if they have more than one child.
Language
Language is one of the two most common things Carvalho said she sees international stu-dents have difficult time adjusting to.
Chen said the hardest part for him to get used to is the language. However, he began to learn a lot the more time he spent in America. He learned the phrase “What’s up?” and now he uses the expression every time he goes back to his dorm room and talks to his roommate.
Wu said the language was difficult for him as well because Chinese and English are so different.
“Not because of just the grammar, but the whole thing,” Wu said. “We use symbols and (Americans) just use 26 letters to make up the whole thing.”
Al Bayat said her English was not great when she first arrived and it played a big role in her culture shock during her first semester.
“I’m not used to being in an environment like here,” she said. “I didn’t speak too much, my lan-guage was a little horrible and I didn’t have the confidence in myself, but at the end of the semes-ter I started to speak good and now very fluent.”
In order to improve her language skills, Al Bayat would meet with a conversation partner each week, which is something the ESL program required her to do. She and her partner would meet and have an organized conversation which would allow her to better her English.
But for Aakesson, the language was a fair-ly easy part of adjustment even when it came to slang.
“I think we are kind of used to slang words because we have so many English in American TV shows that we all have watched since we were kids,” she said.
Aakesson used to watch shows like the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” “Friends,” “Spin City” and “Sa-brina the Teenage Witch.” But that doesn’t mean she is never confused either.
She said she was in class when one
of her classmates played “nose goes” by putting her pointer finger on her nose. “I had no idea what that was,” she said. “I was like what are you doing?”
Food
High calorie is how Wu would describe the food in America.
“I have been eating American food for almost one year, so I am getting fat,” he said.
He said the food is quite different from what he is used to in China and although the cafeteria on upper campus has American Chinese food, he said he doesn’t get food from there because “that is not really good.”
Food was the second most common adjust-ment Carvalho said she sees international stu-dents have trouble with because a lot of the food that is readily available in Eau Claire is not some-thing they are used to.
Lomba Silva said the food is one of the things she misses the most in Brazil. She said she is used to so much fresh food and every-one eats lots of grains, beans, salad, vegetables
and fruits.“Here so much of the food
is processed and has all these nasty things like corn syrup and tons of salt,” she said. “I don’t even think we use corn syrup back in Brazil.”
One thing that still shocks her is how almost anything can be bought pre-made.
Benefits
Although Al Bayat had a rough start when she first arrived at Eau Claire, she said she really likes it here. She said the students have so much opportunity from being able to rent technology from the library to going on field trips through classes. She said she is very appreciative of the professors, students and friends she has been able to meet.
Aakesson said she is really happy she took the opportunity to study in America because she has learned so much from the culture and she has been able to make friends from all around the world.
“So I think it’s a good way to make con-tacts and networking around the world and also being able to improve your English,” Aakesson said.
Carvalho said the international students bring a lot of different perspectives, backgrounds and experiences to the university which is valu-able to the students on campus as well as the com-munity.
“We want to bring our students to the world and also the world to our students.”
Michelle Enger CHIEF COPY EDITOR
GRAPHICS BY TYLER TRONSON / The Spectator
AL BAYAT
WU
Five international students share their outlook on American culture
“I was crying all the time, I didn’t under-
stand anything, I hated myself.”
NOOR AL BAYATInternational student from Saudi Arabia
