The Wake

Mark Desrosiers, a library assistant for the University of Minnesota, also joined in the picketing at Coffman. Desrosiers says he is “sick and tired of getting screwed by the ”U.” [The University] expects things out of us that we can’t afford anymore.” Almost exactly a year after a two-week strike by the University’s clerical and technical workers, certain issues surrounding the walkout remain unresolved.University workers’ unions have chosen to focus on issues surrounding their new health care plan, or U Plan. University Unions United organized informational pickets outside of employee health and benefits fairs, which occurred Oct. 26 at St. Paul Student Center and Oct. 27 outside Coffman Union. The coalition consists of American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local Unions 3260, 3800, 3801 and 3937.Desrosiers adds that getting the unions …

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It’s noon on a Friday and Coffman Union is its usual hub of activity: activists debate abortion on the front steps, students in sweatpants study in the first-floor lounge, a handful of bowlers strut their stuff in Goldy’s Gameroom. But, walking into the fourth-floor Campus Club at lunchtime, I enter a different realm, one in which university faculty, staff and their guests schmooze and dine in an ambient, country-club-like dining room. Floor-to-ceiling windows line the dining room’s walls, boasting spectacular views of the Mississippi.As I grab a table near some suits who can’t be anything other than math professors, I feel somewhat out of place in the members- and-guests-only club. Middle-aged and older diners chat quietly over red snapper and caviar, the day’s special. But, as I dig into my roast chicken and potatoes, I …

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If keeping a diary seems a little too second grade, and writing in a journal is just too old-fashioned for you, a blog may be the right fit. Blogs, short for Web logs, are essentially online journals that give tech-savvy tell-alls the ability to share their inner thoughts, rants and rages with the world.Last spring the University of Minnesota got in on the action with the creation of UThink, a system that gives university students, staff and faculty all the necessary tools to create their own blogs, as well as a centralized place to house them. Shane Nackerud is the mastermind behind UThink. He came up with the idea a little over a year ago after the University Libraries conducted focus groups with undergrads asking for their input into how the libraries could better serve …

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Bobby Joe Worrell hates to be late. He tells me this apologetically as he sits down across from me five minutes late for our interview. He fiddles with his glasses and glances at the clock. He settles into the interview, glasses in hand. Throughout the interview he glances, squinting, around the crowded Coffman Union cafeteria never becoming completely comfortable with the idea that he has anything important to say. “I’m pretty boring, huh?” Worrell asks after he answers the first question.Better known as “Salad Bar Bob” on campus, Worrell has worked for University Dining Services for the last two years and is anything but boring.Worrell says students started to call him “Salad Bar Bob” because he was so friendly when he worked in the cafeteria at Middlebrook Hall last year before he was switched …

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Socially conservative, fiscally liberal: these kinds of labels can often be confusing, especially during the election season. And how do all the candidates line up on the political spectrum anyhow?A research group has developed a Web site where the Average Joe can figure out which political sector he falls into. Be careful, your little green dot may put you right next door to Hitler—or Gandhi.If you have 20 minutes, you can find out exactly how far you are from the candidate you currently support. The test will fire you a series of statements spread over six pages about financial strategies and social conventions. You will then answer agree or disagree to each statement. Too bad moderates—there’s no neutral stance in the questionnaire.So elect to take your computer to: www.politicalcompass.org.For fun, see if you can figure …

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Dark clouds hung over Washington Avenue as I, gently misted by the drizzling rain, sought refuge with a descent to the second floor of the Mayo Building. The bright lights in the hall stood out in stark contrast to the proposed purpose of my investigation. Little did I expect that my venture into the mortuary science department would reveal more than morbid dreams and death.The University of Minnesota mortuary science department was founded almost a century ago in 1908. There are 54 schools in the United States offering mortuary science programs, most of these only two-year associate programs. The University of Minnesota is one of only four in the country offering a bachelor’s degree in mortuary science, and the only one with a mortuary department housed within a medical school. Students usually complete two years …

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I arrived in Washington D.C. on the same day that former President Ronald Reagan died. I was sitting in the Philadelphia International Airport when the continuous stream of Airport CNN was interrupted by breaking news. Even in the airport, I dreamed of my oversized press pass, gaining me access to key officials for my stories.Thus my summer of interning in D.C. began. I was participating in a program that I’d never heard of before applying for it. The Fund for American Studies has about 1,000 college students convene in Washington D.C. every summer for eight weeks of interning and classes.My dream almost came true on a program-wide trip to the White House briefing room where we were allowed to shuffle past and take a photo behind the podium. The room was tiny, about half …

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Rage, bewilderment, wildly throwing punches in the air all are common symptoms of being “booted,” or having one’s vehicle immobilized for parking in the wrong spot.Because of the nature of the practice, immobilizing vehicles often results in an intense confrontation between the person who has been booted and the person collecting the fee for removing the boot, which is usually around $100. For this reason, some Minneapolis City Council members, including Paul Zerby, are in favor of enacting a ban on devices that immobilize vehicles. Zerby’s ward includes the University of Minnesota campus and its surrounding areas, where booting has been an issue for a while.”I had only been gone for about a minute,” Vinh Chung says, who returned to a booted car one day in late August. Chung, who works as event coordinator …

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When the Student Public Affairs Coalition organized the October 20th debate among State House District 59B candidates, they created a platform for the four to argue. Surprisingly, there was a lot of agreeing going on.All four candidates say the budget is their highest priority for the upcoming term, and agreed that the state must restore funds cut last year from the “U.”On how the state would find money for the “U,” incumbent Phyllis Kahn (D) said, “Unfortunately, there isn’t a line in the state budget that says, ‘fraud, waste, and inefficiency.” She attacked Gov. Pawlenty’s “no tax policy,” suggesting that we repeal tax breaks for the wealthy and seek federal funding for education. Kahn supports a gopher-only stadium, but she’s “troubled” by the amount of time spent pursuing a stadium while problems like rising tuition …

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At first, when Gil Schwartz went vegetarian as a seventh-grader he didn’t really understand why. Later, when he got involved with animal rights issues as a junior in high school he became a vegan. Schwartz decided to become vegan because he saw how animals were treated on factory farms. Now as a member of Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA) and president of Minnesota Student Animal Rights Alliance, Schwartz actively campaigns for animal rights.“Animals are raised in wretched conditions,” Schwartz says.While he is not fundamentally against eating meat, Schwartz says he believes humans no longer need to rely on animals for survival. He drew a distinction between earlier cultures’ meat eating habits, like American Indians, and modern-day factory farms. Schwartz added that there is a huge myth that farm animals are raised humanely.In an effort to …

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The Progressive Student Action Coalition comprises of many campus chapters, including Jewish Progressive Students, The Young Voter Project and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, joined forces to hold Progressive Student Action Day on Monday, October 11 at Coffman Union. The event helped students become more involved in the political process by registering them to vote. Progressive Student Action Day was the result of student groups concentrating their efforts to get out the vote and make students aware of progressive causes that each student group advocates. “It has worked out really well. We just decided to work together on this and we have shared responsibilities,” says Sarah Kramer, a member of Jewish Progressive Students and one of the chief organizers of this event.Student group members and volunteers spent the beginning of …

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Names rung out in solemn, clear voices, cutting through the chilly air of early fall on the Northrop Plaza at 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 29.Over a 24-hour period, each volunteer took approximately 15 minutes to read a section of a book that held the names of an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 Iraqi civilians and more than 1,000 Americans killed since the beginning of the war. The event was sponsored by Faculty Against War. David Bernstein coordinated the efforts of 92 volunteers, 60 to 65 of whom were faculty members. “We want to put a human face back on the suffering,” says Bernstein, a staff member in the university’s theater arts and dance department. Since the June 28 sovereignty hand-over that took place in Iraq, news about deaths have slipped off the front page, Bernstein …

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We find ourselves trapped in the heat of election season once again. So many issues are being discussed and debated that they all blend into one grand argument. However, have you given any thought to human rights lately? Have you heard anyone talking about this hot topic? Has it even been an issue to discuss, since the Nazi internment camps, the horrors of Rwanda or the humiliating incidents of Abu Ghraib? It is an important issue that continues to present itself.In the post 9/11 society we now live in, our country has been forced to re-evaluate its stance on human rights. After the events at Abu Ghraib prison and other places such as Guantanamo Bay, where U.S. soldiers allegedly abused British Muslim prisoners, the U.S. government made the decision to close itself off from the …

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So, school’s started and you’re finally getting settled into that great new apartment. One problem—you have no furniture. There aren’t many college students that can run right down to Gabberts to gobble up all the latest in home furnishing fashion. So what are our options? The cheap and chic home furnishing market became more than just the offerings of your local Target store this summer with the much-anticipated opening of Minnesota’s first Ikea. Those pesky trips to Chicago (previously the nearest location) are no longer necessary in order to obtain the fabulous Scandinavian flat-packaged items you’ve been drooling over in the catalogue. But even Ikea is beyond many of our budgets when it comes to furnishing an entire apartment. Sure, I can afford $3.99 for a 12-pack of wine glasses, but the dark brown Värnamo …

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University of Minnesota students are facing double-digit tuition and fee increases for the fourth consecutive year, and they’re paying 14 percent more than they did last year. The deficit, which is around $70 million, is mostly due to budget cuts, along with some increases in university expenses. The main expense is a 2.5 percent average increase in all university employee wages, which totals $25 million. Each employee’s increase varied based on which department or college they are employed by, along with how influential the department’s union is, says Chief Financial Office Treasurer Richard “Fitz” Pfutzenreuter. Some reductions in operating and administrative cost are used to counteract the deficit, but the students pick up the $51 million that’s left over. This seems like a large portion of the overall deficit, but Pfutzenreuter says it’s due to …

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