The Wake

In the next 10 years, the University of Minnesota aims to become one of the world’s top three research universities, according to the “Strategic Positioning Report” prepared by Provost E. Thomas Sullivan and a group of faculty and staff.The group who prepared the strategic plan was composed of an academically diverse group of faculty and some distinguished staff members, but no students.The two task forces working on refining the plan and putting it into action are also full of faculty and staff, but again, no students.Students received monthly emails, since October, updating us on the strategic planning process, and inviting …

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Thursday February 10, 2005 marks a sad day for many University of Minnesota Gopher hockey fans. It wasn’t the fact that our beloved men’s hockey team was in the middle of a slump. Oh no, it takes a lot more than that to get us down. It was worse … PrideOnIce.com, the premier men’s Gopher hockey Web site was down – out with a career-ending injury.As a freshman I originally went to PrideOnIce so that I could learn the cheers that everyone did at the games. It was only after I ventured into the message board that I realized POI …

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Have you ever been unhappy? Have you ever felt depressed? Have you ever thought about talking to a doctor about it? Chances are you answered yes to the first two questions. The third question, however, is something many people from our generation ponder. When did it become normal to take a pill for mental health? Do these pills actually help your mental health? Are we too quick to take the easy road by popping a pill as opposed to taking a look at the relationships in our lives, or lack there of? From 1998 to 2002, sales of antidepressants …

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My life has always been sheltered. I grew up in a safe neighborhood, went to a good school and always hung out with “good” people. Even after starting college, I never really left the bubble of suburbia. Of course there are those isolated instances where my personal safety has been compromised, but generally my life has been one big safety pin. As a result, when those few moments of unadulterated exposure occur, I relish every second. This isn’t to say that I seek them out, they just happen.Earlier this year I was watching “Showgirls” with my roommate Tyler. After realizing …

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In the late 1970s, the Bronx was on fire –- literally. Gangs ruled the projects in this incendiary time, and the world feared these neighborhoods might tear themselves apart. Out of this violent and seemingly chaotic epilogue to the Black Power movement, a new and revolutionary culture was born –- hip-hop. Jeff Chang uses this tumultuous era as the catalyst for his new book, “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation.” A point of contention among hip-hop historians, the beginning of this movement is tackled masterfully by writer, Jeff Chang. From there, he moves through the 80sand90s, …

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To shimmy, hop, or rove in cohorts with music is to indulge in blissful joy. However, the followers of many genres have turned this idyllic concept of carnal expression into a rationale for squabble. Case in point: classical music vs. anything modern. Stereotypes suggest for example that classical elitists and techno drug addicts should have no grounds to come together – no singular musical weapon of solidarity. Wrong. Despite such a seemingly accurate situation, there is at least a tarnished lining to this dilemma of classical crossover. That lining is Bond. Not that one.This Bond is a group of four …

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I’m a model. Well, sort of. I’m a “pseudo-model,” as I was once so lovingly named by a “dear friend.” I don’t have an agent – too much commitment. I don’t actively seek work, because I don’t want to model for a living. But embarrassingly enough, there’s this certain thrill – a fantastically bizarre jolt of energy/exhilaration that comes with stepping on to a stage and possessing all eyes. Nothing to do with pride, heavens no, but rather a sense that quietly screams, “Bring it on, bitches. I will handle anything you slam …

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The movies we see and the books we read tend to romanticize acts of suicide. Effectively, they desensitize us to the trauma and grief that is involved when a person takes his or her own life. On March 2nd, the University’s Residence Hall Association staged a talent show called “Show for Life” with the goal of raising suicide awareness. It was a chance for U students to show off their various skills, and raise money for an organization called Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (www.save.org).The acts themselves ranged from funny to sentimental, sometimes hitting on the theme of the show, …

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Garrison Keillor’s radio series “Literary Friendships” affirmed my suspicion that writers are actual people who do dishes and pick their noses. The series, which ran in early March at St. Paul’s Fitzgerald Theatre, explores the bonds that exist between writers, despite their sometimes solitary, obsessive, and madness-driven profession. Listening to Pulitzer prize-winner Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman discuss their marriage and life in terms of their writing cemented the fact that writers are not gods, but human beings with senses of humor and bills to pay. This may not be what most college students want to hear as we are …

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I am a college student awake at 6 a.m. on a Wednesday. Has the shock and confusion settled in yet? Good. Few things can arouse my limbs out of their down-heated home, coax them into clothes that aren’t pajamas, and get them to move past my apartment’s backdoor barrier and outside walking on earth that has yet to be warmed by the sun. However, I have found one motivator so powerful that my body, in its excitement, awoke at 5:58 a.m. that Wednesday morning before the alarm could bark me out. What is this supernatural force? Pancakes and …

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It isn’t a true L.A. premiere party without a dozen or so Hollywood (stick)figure-heads attempting poisonous, biting remarks to their cohorts over their Prada clutches while their agents scurry desperately in search of table scraps. Or so we’ve been told via the endless flicks of Hollywood fodder we watch. You know the type – those that recount the lives of numerous Tinseltownies who live their American Idolized fantasies up in the hills. The ones that at the same time reveal that if you ain’t Jennifer Aniston, it’s assured that you’ll bare fangs with the likes of Carrot Top on who …

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Are you ready kids? March 1st marked the DVD release of “The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie” and let me tell you, it’s a zany little gem. I’d only caught a couple episodes of “SpongeBob Squarepants” before seeing the feature film. Maybe this makes me un-American or just plain sad, but nevertheless I can definitely say this is one of the most entertainingly dumb movies I’ve ever seen. And just so we’re clear, this isn’t just a kid’s movie. There’s plenty of humor that’s intended for adults.The film version plays much like a typical episode of the show. The scheming Plankton tries …

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Stars, burning bright from Montreal, create delightful, yet flawed baroque pop. Set Yourself on Fire, the band’s third album, canters through joyful melodies and mellow introspections. Though their sound is light and airy Stars do get heavy and perhaps pretentious with the lyrics. During a few songs Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan’s vocals stretch too far and seem misplaced. For instance, when Millan yelps “this scar is a fleck on my porcelain skin” one can’t help but feel jarred. Likewise, when Campbell confesses “In the year of my decline sucking freezies in the rain,” a disjoint forms within the music’s …

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When I think of music and Canada, a barrage of Bare Naked Losers – oh, I mean Ladies – a certain country singer turned pop punk (*cough* Avril Lavigne) and bodies drowning to the sound of Celine Dion’s Titanic of tunes fill my aggravated ears. But, no longer. One of the most eclectic and dare I say, easy on the eardrums, band as of late has actually come from this same former, northern wasteland . They are Apostle of Hustle and their new CD is “Folkloric Feel.” Praise the Lord that head Apostle Andrew …

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I wanted to go gonzo with this article –-in order to pay homage to the late H. Thompson (if you don’t know who that is drop out of college. They’ve taught you nothing and you’ve wasted $20,000). However, Kings of Convenience don’t lend much to that whole flawlessly manic, mescaline-laced, militant scene. I guess we’ll just have to save my gonzo tribute for the first time I join the ranks of the rest of you brilliant drug-abusing college students (Gasp. She’s never used drugs? What has she been DOING for the last 21 years!?)In fact, Kings of Convenience lean more …

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