The Wake

As I sat silently in my seat, poring over my Spanish flash cards, I took a moment to peep around my surroundings. It was Monday, Oct. 9, and I was in the Coffman Bookstore, awaiting the arrival of heralded author, renowned radio personality, master storyteller and (as of most recently) international movie star, Garrison Keillor. There were representatives from most age groups present; however, those on the wrong side of 50 greatly outnumbered those of us on the right. Small smatterings of college students were seen here and there. There was a group of freshmen in front of me, discussing the new Michel Gondry movie. To my right was a fellow in his fourth year studying a bit of Arabic and in the very front I spied a wide eyed freshman who could be found …

Read more →

Every summer, eager and nervous incoming freshmen flood the University of Minnesota campus to take part in a required two-day student orientation, led by current students clad in maroon and gold polo shirts. This program is meant to offer a smooth transition into the University community in order to maximize academic success. Students come prepared to meet fellow classmates and staff members, register for classes and enjoy their very first dorm-living experience. Hopefully these students gain a sense of community and support as they enter the college world. It is here that these young minds can listen to experienced college students talk about how to survive their first year and make it fun while they’re at it. But few people realize the time and effort that goes into the program that leaves a lasting …

Read more →

More than likely the United States will never be one nation for liberty and justice for all. Everyday, people are divided into race, class and gender, but wealth is also added into this division. Rose Brewer, professor of African American and African studies at the University of Minnesota, co-wrote a book that looks deeply into the wealth divide of five different racialized groups. The Color of Wealth: The Story behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide lays out the obstacles for Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans by government actions or inactions. The book also looks at details that have boosted the white population’s wealth status through public policy.At Coffman Memorial Union Bookstore on Wednesday Oct. 4, Brewer had a book signing discussing her book and her personal experiences. At first glance, it …

Read more →

In case you missed the barrage of political commercials on TV and the radio lately, or if this semester you don’t have one of those professors who enjoys getting up on his or her soapbox to lecture about the importance of getting involved in your community. Or, if you somehow managed to dodge all of those ever-present student activists distributing highlighter-colored flyers on the Washington Avenue Bridge or in Coffman, someone should remind you that there is an election coming up. It’s on Nov. 7. And you should vote.Here come all of the excuses: I don’t care about politics. Politicians are all the same anyhow. I don’t even know where to vote. No one is going to convince you that you should care about politics. If your tuition skyrockets again or the draft is reinstated …

Read more →

“It is a great pleasure to be with you,” former Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday, Oct. 3 when he spoke at Northrop Memorial Auditorium. “At this stage in my life and career it’s a great pleasure to be anywhere,” he said, followed by laughter from the crowd. Powell continued by talking about the transitions that we make in life. Powell joked about a time when he had his own 757 and the red carpet that went with it. “One day you’re the Secretary of State and the next they give your plane to ‘Condi,’” Powell joked.After retiring from the United States Government, reality set in while eating breakfast with his wife. It was a shocker for both when they realized he was going to be home all day. In an effort …

Read more →

The four American designers highlighted in the exhibit at McNeal Hall on the St. Paul Campus emerged in the 1940s and are considered monumental in closing the gap between European and United States fashion. Together, Norman Norell, Pauline Trigere, Geoffrey Beene and Bill Blass transformed America into a flourishing world of fashion in a post-World War II environment.Norman Norell was born in 1900 in Indiana. He broke new ground by translating French couture into fresh-looking, ready-to-wear apparel. He made New York’s 7th Avenue garment district the rival of Paris at the end of WWII. By 1928 he had become the head designer for highly respected fashion designer, Hattie Carnegie, who imported European designs for inspiration. In 1960 he started his own label and perfected the jumper and the pantsuit. He has been called the Rolls …

Read more →

Nov. 21, 1981 marked the last Golden Gopher football game played on campus grass. The Gophers led in the fourth quarter only to fall to border-rival Wisconsin 26-21 at Memorial Stadium. A year passed, and the home team moved off-campus to the newly-built Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. Ten years passed, and empty lots replaced an aged athletic amphitheater. Home field advantage became a memory.Nearly twenty-five years later and with Stadium Village a little quieter, the groundbreaking of the new TCF Bank Stadium on Sept. 30 brought football fever on an unseasonably warm afternoon. U of M supporters walked, the band marched, and Goldy scootered onto the flat parking lot at Oak and 4th S.E. that, by the start of the 2009 football season, will be the foundation for a 50,000-seat, open-air …

Read more →

Across the Midwest, hundreds of immigrants and refugees are detained in county jails contracted by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the National Immigrant Justice Center, these immigrants spend months, even years in remote detention facilities, isolated from attorneys and criminalized by society. They face obstacles in due process and are often refused basic rights.Barbara Frey, director of the Human Rights Program on campus, along with the Midwest Coalition of Human Rights, is working to change all of that through education and advocacy. In a lecture at Elmer L. Andersen Library on Sept. 26, Frey touched on the many issues facing non-citizens in the Midwest. According to Frey, the “post-9/11 climate of fear” is an issue that faces non-citizens of all races. Workers’ rights issues such as low wages or failure to collect workers’ …

Read more →

You may not have heard the names John James, Jeff Johnson, or Lori Swanson, but come No. 7 you will have to decide which of these three you want to be Minnesota’s next attorney general. This year the “AG” race was noted early on for its drama, following Matt Entenza’s withdrawal and subsequent scramble by DFLer’s to replace him. The response of the candidates has been to keep low profiles. Swanson won the DFL endorsement in the Sept. 12 primary and faces Republican nominee Johnson and Independence Party candidate James in the race. Entenza’s withdrawal was certainly the most high-profile event in the attorney general race. He withdrew amidst complaints from Republicans that he violated ethics laws after failing to report expenses paid to investigate the current attorney general, Mike Hatch, who is now the …

Read more →

Stomach growling? Yearning to fill that empty space inside? If faith-based-fast-food is what you’re craving look no further than Coffman Union’s resident Chick-fil-A!Chick-fil-A has served up chicken sandwiches in the name of the Lord for over 60 years – in some respects. The Atlanta-based chain – pronounced “Chick-fil-lay,” doesn’t dish up religion to its customers, but was founded on Christian biblical principles.In Minnesota, home to only two of Chick-fil-A’s 1,250 restaurants (Minnesota State University, Mankato houses the other), we hear little about the faithful Southern roots of the company credited with inventing the quick-service industry’s first boneless chicken sandwich and spawning the whole nugget idea. S. Truett Cathy, Southern Baptist founder and chairperson of Chick-fil-A, has used biblical tenets as a guide to steer his restaurants since opening his first, The Dwarf Grill, in 1946. …

Read more →

“What comes to mind when you think of the word Muslim?” Faisal Alam asks, speaking to the crowd at the Hubert H. Humphrey Cowles Auditorium. “Homophobic, terrorism, intolerant of other religions, Middle East, lack of women’s rights.” “OK, any good things?” Alam says jokingly. He then explains that the largest populations of Muslims live in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan – none of which are in the Middle East and all of which have had a female head of state, unlike the United States. In fact only 12 percent of the entire Muslim population live in the Middle East, Alam points out.“The United States tries to understand east versus west by making things black and white, but there is more gray in the Muslim world than black or white,” Alam says.Alam was …

Read more →

Two U.S. Senate hopefuls, Congressman Mark Kennedy and Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, have engaged in a war of words that’s become increasingly heated as the Nov. 7 election draws near. Both candidates have released television commercials and made statements recently that harshly criticized one another in their campaigns to become Minnesota’s next senator, replacing retiring Sen. Mark Dayton. Independence Party candidate Robert Fitzgerald has withheld from the fiery exchanges for the most part. Republican nominee Kennedy recently aired commercials accusing Klobuchar of breaking promises she made in her successful bid to win the seat she now holds. Kennedy’s advertisement claims that Klobuchar promised to “crack down on drug dealers” and “be tough on repeat offenders” but “”52 percent of first degree drug felons were given lighter sentences” and “career criminals continued to get plea …

Read more →

We were all told during orientation that the campus is safe and it’s rare to feel unsafe when walking through the mall or Dinkytown at night. With the recent assaults that have sprung up during the first few weeks of the school year in the surrounding University neighborhoods, everyone is having second thoughts about our so-called “safe” campus. After the first month of the school year, seven assaults had happened in the Southeast Como, Marcy-Holmes and Cedar-Riverside neighborhoods, all surrounding the University’s East and West Banks, mostly occupied by students. With the year starting, “we have more people on the streets,” says James DeSota, neighborhood coordinator for the Southeast Como Improvement Association. There are a lot of factors adding up to the additional crime, DeSota says. (what factors?)Three assaults happened on Friday, Sept. 9, the …

Read more →

A new exhibit on the West Bank features photographs, set models, costume sketches and other items from the Guthrie collections that have been part of the Guthrie history since 1965. These items have been on display in the Elmer L. Andersen Library since August 7. The display allows for guests to get an idea of the early history of the theater and its creators as well as a feeling for all that goes into a show and how this has changed over the years. Sir Tyrone Guthrie announced his plan for a theater outside of New York City in 1959 and chose Minneapolis over several other cities because of the strong arts community. Early documents and sketches of Guthrie’s original Hennepin Avenue location, where it sat for about four decades, are also featured and …

Read more →

If you were beyond devastated upon hearing that Pluto was recently demoted to dwarf-planet status, you are not alone. On Sept. 14, in the first of a weekly series of events hosted by the University’s Institute for Advanced Study, Pluto admirers came from far and wide to mourn the loss of their beloved planet. The series of events, titled “Thursdays at 4:00,” selected Terry Jones as their first speaker. Jones has been working in the University’s astronomy department since 1982 and sought to provide information about Pluto’s discovery, its brief stint as a planet and why it got the boot. In 1929, Kansas farmer Clyde Tombaugh was hired by the Lowell Observatory to search for the ninth planet. After less than a year of searching, Tombaugh discovered Pluto. Differing from the other eight …

Read more →