The Wake

Nanaboozhoo took the piece of Earth from Muskrat’s paw. Just then, the turtle swam forward and said, “Use my back to bear the weight of this piece of Earth. With the help of Kitchi-Manitou, we can make a new Earth.” Nanaboozhoo put the piece of Earth on the turtle’s back. Suddenly, the wind blew from each of the Four Directions, The tiny piece of Earth on the turtle’s back began to grow. It grew and grew and grew until it formed a mi-ni-si’, or island in the water. The island grew larger and larger, but still the turtle bore the weight of the Earth on his back. Nanaboozhoo and the animals all sang and danced in a widening circle on the growing island. After a while, the Four Winds ceased to blow and the waters …

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As spring break approaches, many students will head to local tanning parlors for that perfect “base tan” to get the best bronze glow possible while on vacation. Many students continue to tan and take advantage of tanning specials this time of year, even though the dangers of tanning are widely known. “Our business increases about 50 percent [around spring break],” says Grant Vaith, owner of the Planet Beach tanning salon on Como Avenue in Dinkytown. “People start tanning for spring break in February and tan for the months afterward to maintain their tan,” he says. Vaith says that spring break is so busy because it brings new customers to the salon as well as increases the tanning frequency of regular customers. “If you provide good customer service they will come back,” he says. “We hope …

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Spring break in today’s culture can mostly be summed up by MTV, where (on its “Essential Spring Break Guide”) the mega-channel geared towards college students touts Cancun, a popular spring break destination, as “rightfully known as a netherworld of debauched frat dudes and raunchy girls where you may drunkenly sign a release and then everyone and your parents can see you on the latest ‘Girls Gone Wild’ commercial.” For some students, though, spring break can be anything but your typical vacation.For students involved with the University of Minnesota chapter of Habitat for Humanity, this third week in March is all about giving others a break and having fun with hammers and saws.“You’ll never forget the week you’ll spend building a house for someone else,” says Sally Holzapfel, one of the chapter’s collegiate challenge coordinators. The …

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It’s happened to the best of us. Just hanging in Coffman, waiting in line for a bagel, we’ve cast a curious sideways glance and spied a television airing images of overcrowded, bloody, dirty and downright unhappy hens. Some of us might have canceled the egg on our bagel and maybe others just grinned and reminisced about that scene in Napoleon Dynamite where he works in a hen barn … haha, oh Napoleon.But these images are no laughing matter to Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA), the student organization that has been showing the documentary “Meet your Meat” in Coffman. The group of about 200 active volunteers has been campaigning for several months in hopes that University Dining Services (UDS) will begin serving Certified Humane cage-free eggs.“Certified Humane” implies strict standards and inspections and is backed by …

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With each revving engine, climate change threatens our lifestyle and very existence. Many Americans make efforts to “go green” by recycling, but how often do we ignore the effects our other actions undoubtedly have on the environment? Driving is a necessity, cutting meat out of your diet is for ultraliberals and the factors that go into choosing a house don’t include sustainability. But four local mayors gathered Feb. 15 at the Mayors Summit on Affordable Housing’s GREEN Issues: Environmental and Economic Sustainability in the Hubert H. Humphrey Center to say that maybe sustainable and affordable housing options should be available to Twin Cities residents. Maybe a house’s sustainability should be a factor in the complicated process of building homes. Mayors Chris Coleman of St. Paul, Stephanie Klinzing of Elk River, R. T. Rybak of Minneapolis …

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A cold Sunday afternoon finds the normally bustling Lake Street barren. Several blocks between Bloomington and Chicago Avenues are blocked off from normal traffic by police but the beating of drums seem to pull pedestrians from all directions to a crowd that is gathered in front of the Chicago-Lake Liquor store. Here in the shadow of the restored Sears building is a symbol of hope for economic change that citizens from all walks of life have gathered to support—to demand a change for immigrants’ rights.The March For Immigrants’ Rights, held on Sunday, Feb. 12, was meant to promote “immigrant dignity” and “the right to live and work like all human beings.” The march was organized by “a large coalition representing faith groups, labor unions, lawyers, schools” and other organizations including the university student group LaRaza. …

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National Freedom to Marry Day was well on its way. The bathrooms were marked “unisex,” assortments of rainbow-colored balloons adorned the room and 150 people gathered in the Great Hall of Coffman Memorial Union Feb. 12 as the Queer Student Cultural Center kicked off its celebration to end discrimination against gay marriage.This event is the first time the QSCC has thrown a gala in recognition of National Freedom to Marry Day. “This event is usually much smaller,” says QSCC co-chair Jen Mohnkern. “Previously this has been an open house or lunch event mostly focused on the students who stopped by our office,” she says. The night of merriment, dancing and activism was in support of keeping gay marriage off of ballots and out of the Minnesota constitution. “We want more understanding about gay marriage and …

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After the break-up of the Soviet Union, the gaze of “western Europe” and others in the international community has shifted farther and farther east. Recently, with the EU beginning to consider Turkey a candidate state for membership, the university has followed suit. “The U has devoted more and more resources to this part of the word,” says Eric Weitz, director of the Center for German and European Studies, adding that the university has begun teaching Turkish as a foreign language.However, with this newfound examination of Turkey come unpleasant revelations of human rights violations in the country’s treatment of its largest ethnic minority group—the Kurds. Most Kurds, a primarily Sunni Muslim people with a unique language and culture, mainly live in the bordering areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Syria. This mountainous region …

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The Steelers battled the Seahawks, but neither tin-man nor bird stole hearts in Coffman’s Great Hall on Super Bowl Sunday. This year, the dog was all the rage.The Chinese American Student Association (CASA) brought in the Year of the Dog with a celebration in the Great Hall Feb. 5th, Super Bowl Sunday. More than 350 students and community members skipped the big game for dinner, dancing and music at the Chinese New Year’s party.“I was gleaming inside … I was so surprised how many people came, and especially how many people stayed,” said Albert Leung, president of CASA. CASA originally planned to host the celebration on the actual Chinese and Lunar New Year, Jan. 29. Due to scheduling conflicts, the group changed the date and was later dismayed to find they chose Super Bowl Sunday. …

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It’s a sight that deservedly gets a second glance. The dining hall at Bailey, usually filled with sleepy-eyed freshmen and their PJ-clad sophomore counterparts waiting for food, and 50-year-old Bill Greuling, in line with his food tray, who may not be in his pajamas but still comfortably calls the St. Paul campus dormitory his home.“The quintessential non-traditional student” is how Greuling identified himself last May at a Board of Regents public forum. And, with his salt-and-pepper hair, the visits from his 14-year-old son and the fact that he is 30 years older than most of his fellow residents, he might just be right.“I try not to act 17 or 18,” Greuling says about being a resident in Bailey. “But I will try not to act my age. My life is like any other college kid, …

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The issues surrounding abortion rights highlight a more intrinsic problem with our society as a whole, according to the fourth annual Faith and Bioethics Lecture held on January 27 at the Moos Tower. The lecture, given by Dr. Robert Spitzer, president of the catholic Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, was part of the MacLaurin lecture series whose goal is “dedicated to bringing God into the marketplace of ideas.”In his lecture, entitled “Toward a Philosophy of the Pro-Life Movement: Personhood, Rights and Purpose in Life,””, Spitzer said that the “violation of the silver rule,” which is “do not do harm to others that you wouldn’t have done to you,” was a symbol of the case for abortion rights. He added, “Why wouldn’t you consider that every human being is deserving of human nature?”The government is a …

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When purchasing a sweatshirt or a pair of jeans, the majority of us completely ignore the “made in” label. What concerns us at the shopping mall is whether or not the article of clothing is flattering or comfortable, but the many people who worked to make the clothing rarely, if ever, cross our minds. It may seem surprising, then, that the trade of textiles and apparel is one of the most highly contested issues in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Many developing nations are dependent on the export of textiles to fuel their economies. According to the WTO’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC), international textiles and clothing trade has also just recently gone through a fundamental, perhaps even radical, change. Before the agreement took effect, quotas controlled a large portion of such …

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Ignore the script. Imagine that Marty McFly and his comrade Doc Brown, wacky inventor of the plutonium-powered, time-traveling DeLorean, could have traveled to any time period.Are you picturing them blundering around in the Middle Ages? If so, you might just be a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), also called “The College of Tor Aerie.” The student organization has been reenacting and researching the Middle Ages for over 20 years. “If there’s something that was done in the Middle Ages or medieval times, you can find someone [in the SCA] who does it,” explains Breena Stanton, the group’s president (in medieval terms, she is Seneschal, Breena of Tor Aerie).The group of about 15 students and friends meets weekly for various activities like crafts, dressing up, dancing, and fighting pre-17th century European-style. (Actually, …

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Any student traveling from the East Bank to the St. Paul Campus on the transitway can see that industry is alive and well in Minneapolis. As you zoom to our rural neighbor campus you pass tall, ugly buildings shooting out steam. You look to the ground and see a mass of railroad tracks. The industry of private businesses and railroads north of University Avenue is not always a pretty sight to see, but this area shouldn’t be ignored. The University of Minnesota transitway was built in 1992 and the bike path that runs along the road opened on Oct. 29, 1996. In contrast, most of the buildings in the area have been there for most of the century and the rail lines were built in the late 19th century, says John S. Adams, professor …

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Students walking through the “Knoll” area of campus last year noticed the construction being done to the area, particularly on Jones and Nicholson Halls. The projects are part of the developing humanities district in this historic part of campus. On Jan. 27, the university held a special open house in celebration of the reopening of Nicholson Hall, which has been open for classes since the start of spring semester.Nicholson Hall, which is on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Old Campus Historic District, was built in 1890 by architect Leroy Buffington, who also worked on Eddy, Burton and Pillsbury Halls, but additions were made by C.H. Johnston in 1925. The building once housed chemistry and physics laboratories, a “Men’s Union,” and was used by the Navy as a machinists mates school …

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