On Wednesday Nov. 10, 50,000 students gathered in London to protest the government’s proposed tuition raises. Currently, most British university students at public institutions pay just under $5,000. The tuition increases would raise yearly rates to a maximum of about $14,000.

According to the BBC, government ministers have said that their plans offer “a fair deal for students.” When I first read about the proposal, I was shocked for two reasons. The first was because of how drastic the proposed increase was. However, I didn’t feel bad for the students at all. The cost of in-state tuition at the University of Minnesota is comparable to the proposed rate, and often the cheapest option for a four-year degree that Americans have. Our European counterparts have it good when it comes to higher education. A friend of mine from Norway was actually paid to go to school, and in Portugal students generally pay only for their textbooks. As recently as 1997, all British students were offered a free university education.

The second reason I was shocked was because of how many students came out to show their discontent with the government’s handling of its affairs. Imagine 10,000, let alone 50,000, students showing up for an event at the U of M that doesn’t have to do with football!

The last time something even remotely radical happened at our university was back in 2009 at convocation for the class of 2013. I was there (however unwillingly), and witnessed the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) banner drop from the upper deck box seats. Unfortunately, most of the crowd was made up of wide-eyed kids fresh from Faribault or Woodbury with not the slightest clue what the banners were referring to. Even with all of the literature that was dropped from the upper levels onto us incoming freshmen, most people that I talked to later were confused.

Protests do sometimes occur on campus. On Oct. 7 of this year there was a protest against high tuition and worker layoffs, but the gathering of 100 people in front of Northrop Auditorium wasn’t exactly radical. It was but a blip on the radar for the greater university population, and no one cares about another protest out in front of a building. How about a sit-in, at least? Without highly organized coordination and support from groups across campus, we will do nothing of lasting importance at our university. At the same time, we need people to participate in these groups.

Where have all our activists gone? We need to get people agitated again. No one enjoys taking out student loans and paying all the money he or she earns to the university, so why aren’t more people visibly upset? It is because we have become so apathetic that we barely give any struggle a passing glance. But this is our struggle, our university, our future. This isn’t some person on a street corner with a clipboard asking us if we have a minute for starving children or the Boundary Waters.

If unorganized radical student groups with no sense of solidarity cannot help our cause, where else can we turn? Well, we have the Minnesota Student Association (MSA), our student government of sorts that is modeled after our state’s legislature and gets about as much done as a middle school student council. Any resolution that is passed is non-binding, which basically means the MSA has no real power in our university’s system. According to its description on the U of M website, the council’s “principle events and programs include DEF and SEF Grants, the ‘Lend a Hand, Hear the Band’ Concert, Student Concern Forum, the Renter’s Survey, the Renter’s Guide, and community safety walks in addition to other events.” A community safety walk isn’t going to address my issues with tuition, and “Lend a Hand, Hear the Band” isn’t going to affect my disillusionment with the school’s high-paid administration.

With a seemingly exhausted list of ways to produce change on campus, what’s an angry, radical student to do? We can look to Europe and Canada for examples. How did students in London get 50,000 people to show up for a march against the conservative party in power? How did French students coordinate university participation in last month’s nationwide strike? What made for such high student participation in the riot-protests in Greece this past spring? The answer is student unions. What I am talking about is completely different from the University of Minnesota’s own Coffman Union. In Europe or Canada a student union functions more like a labor union, representing a collective student voice that can put pressure on the administration or on the state to give into its demands.

Instead of having a group of people that few people actually voted for play congress with the university president as “student representatives,” the union would be made up of us, your regular run-of-the-mill students. We would make decisions that affect our university life, and then, through direct actions, demand that our voice be heard. Such direct actions could include sit-ins, marches on the president’s office, or university-wide strikes—anything that would make the cash-cushioned regents turn their heads and shake in their robes.

We need to make them understand what we can do together, and eventually they will give in. Bruinink’s regime will end next year, and the presumptive new President Eric Kaler, another old white guy, will take his place. Now is the time to change the direction of the university. It’s time to organize and put some power into our hands.

“Jobs, jobs, jobs” was the rallying cry of the 2010 elections. Americans consistently rated the economy and lack of jobs as the most important issues facing the country by large margins. Republicans won control of the House of Representatives, many governorships, and state legislatures all over the country presumably because voters preferred their position on this issue. House Republican Leader John Boehner even claimed the election gave them a “mandate.”

Given these facts, one would expect the Republicans to immediately start talking up their plans for job growth and stimulating the economy upon taking office. As it turns out, that is not quite the case. Boehner’s “mandate” claim was not about jobs at all; in fact, he claimed the mandate was “for Washington to reduce the size of government.” In other words, he interpreted the election results to mean that Americans wanted government to do even less to promote job growth.

Republicans around the country have rapidly signed on to this baffling misinterpretation of the message from voters. The policies they have put forward almost exclusively work to undermine economic recovery and job creation.

Nationally, they have proposed to cancel what remains of the spending from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the stimulus bill), which has already created or saved as many as 3.3 million jobs and lowered unemployment as much as 1.8 percent according to the Congressional Budget Office. They have spoken out strongly against the bailout of General Motors—in fact, the bailout was one of the events that kicked off the Tea Party movement, which proved to be a major reason Republicans were so successful in 2010.

The only problem is that the GM bailout actually saved over 1 million jobs in 2009, and has saved over 300,000 more this year (and will wind up costing taxpayers almost nothing to boot).

On Nov. 18, House Republicans blocked the extension of unemployment benefits. In addition to being flagrantly uncompassionate and unfair, especially while simultaneously calling for cutting the taxes of the wealthiest Americans, this is poor economic policy. When unemployment insurance was created in 1935 after the Great Depression, it was not to create a nanny state that invited freeloaders to live off the government; instead, it was to sustain demand during economic downturns and periods of high unemployment. Instead of the economy losing a laid-off worker’s entire wage, it would only lose a fraction, and the newly unemployed citizens would immediately put these payouts back into the economy by spending them on necessary goods and services.

Most economists agree that unemployment insurance payouts are one of the most effective ways to stimulate the economy, and a study by the Department of Labor found that extending unemployment benefits in 2008 and 2009 “kept an average of 1.6 million Americans on the job in each quarter” and “lower[ed] the unemployment rate by approximately 1.2 percentage points.” The further extension that House Republicans blocked could save up to 700,000 more jobs.

Incoming Republican governors have also announced plans for massive cuts that will remove demand from the economy and cost jobs. In Wisconsin, the governor-elect, Scott Walker, has promised to cancel a high-speed rail project (funded entirely by the federal government) for which construction has already begun, a measure that will cost jobs in construction, operation, and maintenance of the line, plus detract from the projected economic development around the line—a number that could be in the thousands. He has also promised reduced pay and benefits for state workers. Likewise, Michigan’s Rick Snyder and New Mexico’s Susana Martinez are proposing cutting the state payroll to cover budget deficits. New Jersey governor Chris Christie, elected in 2009, rejected $3 billion in federal money for a rail tunnel project that would have created 6,000 jobs. Florida’s governor-elect Rick Scott has similarly pledged to return $2 billion in federal funds for high-speed rail in his state.

There’s no getting around it: these cuts will cost their states jobs. Complicating the issue is that many Republican gubernatorial candidates will have to solve budget deficits caused by the recession, yet made campaign pledges not to raise taxes. For example, in Ohio, Governor-elect John Kasich will face an $8 billion budget deficit, but said he would not raise taxes to fix it, and would in fact simultaneously eliminate Ohio’s income tax. Balancing an $8 billion dollar deficit with only spending cuts while also making the problem worse with massive tax cuts will suck a huge amount of demand from Ohio’s economy, necessarily costing a significant number of jobs. And any economic help from the tax cuts they propose will have to be offset by even further spending decreases, further lowering demand.

While Republicans talk almost constantly about the need to create jobs, the policies they are pursuing will actually cost jobs and halt economic recovery. They are parroting ideological tenets that are not based in economic reality. Either they are being intellectually dishonest for political purposes in the promotion of their policies or they have a profound misunderstanding of how government and the economy work.

Ironically, Republicans have claimed a popular mandate for these policies, even though their consequences will fall most heavily on the working and middle classes. Indeed, they won the election to a significant number of offices by campaigning on these policies. But they only did so by telling a story about the economy and job creation that the facts simply do not support.

Streetcars: they came, they evolved, they conquered. And then they were hit by a whole slew of buses. But now, the near extinct Minneapolis mode of transportation may be making an unexpected comeback.

After years of persuasion, City Council finally approved the implementation of a long-term streetcar network. March marked the beginning of a 20 to 50 year plan to rebuild seven streetcar routes in and around the metro area. The metro area already claims an intricate bus system, and plans for the expansion of a light rail are in progress, so a third mode of transportation may seem excessive. The fact that this proposed mode of transportation would be the nostalgia-inducing streetcar seems almost overindulgent. But streetcars today are a far cry from the horse-drawn relics and quaint tourist boxcars that hark back to the 1800s.

In national studies, modern streetcars have proven to draw in 40 percent more riders than busses. The return of the streetcar may be scoffed at for its old-fashioned notions, but ironically, it’s the very simplicity of the “old-fashioned” streetcar that makes it more attractive than the bus. New riders or tourists who worry about climbing onto the wrong bus can have absolute trust that they are taking the correct route on a streetcar. They need only look at the tracks bolted to the ground and pick the direction they want to go. In addition to simplifying travel, the set routes also help to catalyze development in communities around the transportation. A permanent route and high frequency of stops means a more consistent flow of human traffic than the light rail can provide. More than this, it’s the increased environmental efficiency of the streetcar that makes it attractive to Minnesota public transportation planners. Streetcars promise to connect Minneapolis to the neighborhoods and cities around it while staying 95 percent cleaner than diesel buses.

But in a time when money is tight, is the resurrection of ye olde streetcar something worth investing close to $500 million in? Federal funding from grants is allotted to cover half of the cost, but that still leaves much to be accounted for. According to Access Minneapolis, the city’s working plan for transportation reform, the remaining 50 percent of funds would be attained through a 12.5 percent increase in meter fees and a $50 annual surcharge on public and commercial parking spaces for those within the “streetcar benefit zones.”

Though streetcars can provide more consistency and comfort than buses, they can’t promise a faster trip. Streetcars run in the street with normal traffic so there is no way for them to maneuver out of possible backups or traffic jams like buses can. In addition, the streetcar consumes hefty amounts of street space and could elbow out room for bikers and cause congestion on the road.

Minneapolis is already dealing with some loose transportation threads as promised light rails and new bus lanes remain unfinished. The implementation of a streetcar system will mean another “work-in-progress” in the streets of Minneapolis. There’s a feeling of contentment that comes from checking a completed task off a list. It’s a shame city transportation planners can’t seem to experience it.

“I’m not a big fan of Mesa Pizza.” Just uttering these words here in Golden Gopher land is almost enough to provoke the masses to assemble with pitchforks and torches in hand, ready to stampede and run you out of town. If the masses don’t assemble, you still better be ready to clench your fists and dust off your knuckles because chances are that someone within earshot of you is more than willing to step into the ring on behalf of their beloved, late-night drunken eatery.

Mesa Pizza is undoubtedly a staple in the Dinkytown social scene. Its reputation is echoed throughout campus and its validity is vehemently testified to up and down frat row, throughout the mall, in classrooms, East Bank, West Bank—everywhere. Finely tailored to the collegiate lifestyle, Mesa is cheap, open late, and its convenient 4^th street location funnels in a crowd that brings the hooting and hollering of inebriated stress relief.

Raised in Minnesota, I had heard the “oohs” and “ahhs” about Mesa before I had even applied to the U my senior year in high school. My first experience, though recalled foggily at best, left me full and quite content. I remember the unique pizza options and having great difficulty communicating to the staff amidst those folk who had lost all control over the decibel levels of their voices. Nonetheless, I strolled on out of there with a full tummy and only a small dent in my wallet. It wasn’t until I sat down and ate at Mesa on a Tuesday afternoon with a clear head that I began to contemplate Mesa’s prestige status. Upon digesting my third bite of a fresh southwest chicken slice I had an epiphany. I instinctively uttered aloud, “This is a mediocre piece of pizza.”  This statement was met with expressions of disgust, shame, and betrayal on the faces of my friends. I felt as if I had shown up to TCF Bank Stadium decked out head to toe in Wisconsin red (face paint and hair dye included). As I pressed forward with the notion, I was presented with no logical defense of Mesa’s place atop the totem pole. To my friends, Mesa Pizza was the best because Mesa Pizza is the best and that’s the way it is.

Though Mesa’s reputation is mostly derived from hazy, 2 a.m. experiences, it has skillfully infiltrated the minds of sober weekday customers. The greasy, Americanized, oddly topped pieces of pizza seem to be sprinkled with a special ingredient that has allowed Mesa to flourish—nostalgia. Each bite is flavorfully seasoned with subconscious recollections of good, stress-free times. It only costs $3.25 to take a break from studying and taste last weekend, or the weekend before. The pizza itself has come to represent the joys of college nightlife. When stripped of this context, all that’s left is a mediocre piece of pizza. I’m not a big fan of Mesa Pizza.

The RNC 8 case is finally over. On Oct. 19th, the remaining four defendants accepted a gross misdemeanor plea agreement carrying no jail time. For those not up to date on leftist activist causes and activities, the RNC 8 is a group of eight members of the RNC Welcoming Committee, all of whom were preemptively arrested prior to the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Held by law enforcement officials throughout the weekend of the convention, the eight were then charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism under the Minnesota PATRIOT Act.

Later in the year, state prosecutors added charges of conspiracy to commit criminal damage to property in furtherance of terrorism, as well as charges without relation to terrorism. These new charges left the defendants with four felony charges apiece. As a result of outside pressure from the Twin Cities community and various groups around the country, prosecutors removed the charges of terrorism in early 2009. In August 2010, the first defendant accepted a plea bargain agreeing to a single gross misdemeanor charge, and began serving a 91-day jail sentence on Oct. 20.

Later in September the prosecution, due to a lack of supporting evidence, dropped the charges against three of the RNC 8. Before taking the plea agreement last month, the four remaining defendants were scheduled to begin their trial on Oct. 25.

Max Specktor, the youngest of the eight activists, is a University of Minnesota student taking a hiatus from his studies to accommodate the time commitments the trial would have entailed. Specktor, who is active in other groups around the Twin Cities including the MARS Collective and the Jimmy John’s Workers’ Union, has mixed feelings about taking the plea bargain. “On one hand, it would have been nice to be able to make our case in court,” he said, “But on the other hand, I wouldn’t have trusted a jury hearing our case. It wouldn’t have necessarily been a jury of our peers, and probably wouldn’t have been a fair trial.”

As part of his plea agreement, Specktor will be on probation for one year, and is required to complete 100 hours of community service, a task that comes naturally to him. In his pre-sentencing statement, read before the judge on Oct. 19th, Specktor said, “I refuse to sleepwalk through life. Instead, I’ve chosen to celebrate life and fight to defend it. In practice, this means I am an active participant in my community, and work to provide resources to assist in supporting that community. In these hard times, I believe that communities need to learn how to support themselves and I am committed to furthering that goal.”

The other three defendants also made statements at the sentencing, and used the time to make political and social observations about the trial, as well as the current state of the world in general. Nathanael Secor, another member of the RNC 8, told the judge, “The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office and other cooperating agencies broke down unlocked doors and used violence and threats for the political purpose of repressing activists and agitators working to expose the injustices of colonial wars and environmental destruction.

We are told this is called ‘keeping the peace’ and was done in the name of ‘justice,’ yet when other people find it necessary to go beyond the sanctioned means of protest, they are called ‘terrorists’” He added, “We must seize every opportunity to abolish these institutions of domination. We must be prepared to firmly face the politics of business-as-usual. And we must continue to work for nothing less than full liberation.”

The legacy of the RNC 8 case will most likely hang over the leftist community for a long time to come. As it took place in the Twin Cities, it shook up many people locally, and opened their eyes to the repression of dissent that goes on every day in the United States. It also brought together a strong and committed group of people, the Friends of the RNC 8, to defend the rights of political and social activists. If nothing else, the case has fired up another generation of people drawn to causes of peace and justice. As Max Specktor said in his pre-sentencing statement, “My only hope is that out of this chaos, we can maintain the wisdom and foresight to build the world we wish to see.”

If you’ve never adjusted anything outside of your yearly password restart at the University of Minnesota, your personal information is likely accessible by anyone with internet access and the will to search.

The University’s directory search allows the search for current students, faculty and alumni by their name or Internet ID and can filter by the person’s role or campus location. If no adjustments are made to one’s University account, your information, such as current enrollment semester, email address, internet ID, home or campus address, and phone number, will be publically displayed on the website.

This private information is not exclusive to the web either. The University also publishes a campus directory – committing your information to libraries and alumni dial sheets for your second and third tuition contributions.

Your personal number and address could be in the hands of anyone – including a stalker from a lecture who thought the back of your head looked pretty cute in 2007.

So how do you retreieve this information from the world’s fingertips? It can be difficult to find on the Internet labryinth that is umn.edu – afterall, the University is looking to keep you on those call lists.

The quickest way is to direct your browser to https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/personaldemographics/

Select your campus and using the dropdown menu navigate to your desired page. There are individual pages to change any of your (in)accurate personal information. Though the menu option of primary interest is “Directory Suppression”.

From this page you will be able to select the degree of your suppressed information. There are five options: Suppress only phone numbers, suppress only address, suppress both phone numbers and address, suppress phone numbers, address, and email, or suppress all information.

The last of these options will remove you completely from the directory. If a third-party even wants to know you attend or attended the University of Minnesota, the University must first obtain your address.

Of course, as the website will tell you, the limit of directory suppression will not limit access to your information by authorized individuals (for example: subpoena-holding individuals, the law, and probably any paper-pushing, inspired organization – coughloancollectorscough).

Further, the website will warn you that completely removing your information from the directory may prevent classmates or professors from getting in touch with you for group assignments. With a bit of foresight, this could be easily avoided by getting contact information to and from your professors and classmates on a case-by-case basis.

To check the degree of your personal advertisement go to umn.edu/lookup

On Oct. 21, the city of Minneapolis unveiled a neighborhood project at a Community Action of Minneapolis building. The new welcome initiative, called “Hello Neighbor,” asks volunteers to go out into their communities and personally greet recent immigrants to their area.

The Hello Neighbor project provides volunteers with gift bags for the new members of the community: tote bags stuffed with “Tap Minnesota” water bottles, prepaid calling cards, coupons for nearby businesses, and information about city services.

The goal is to reach 500 new residents in the Minneapolis neighborhoods within the first year of the Hello Neighbor program. Then the city can start thinking about branching out to welcome all new residents to the area. Hello Neighbor is meant to be a “holistic effort to establish a human connection with newly arrived immigrants at an early stage with the hope that new residents will learn about city services and resources, feel a part of the community, connect with civic and neighborhood organizations, and improve their overall quality of life,” according to the Neighborhood and Community Relations department.

Hopefully volunteers heading out this month will start their welcome campaign by shaking off the image the comment boards of the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, KSTP, and other websites give of immigrants.

On the Star Tribune’s message board under its short article on Hello Neighbor, six of six people “liked” the following comment: “They should include an English dictionary in that care package, as well as a driving manual.”

Another person wrote: “Really? How about including a bus ticket to Chicago, or better yet New York,” and “Can’t we just mail it to them, with their welfare check?”

With that sort of sentiment (and I warn you those are tame comments), it’s no wonder the city of Minneapolis decided to invest in a welcome program.
The Hello Neighbor program got the go-ahead in January 2010, when the city council authorized the Neighborhood and Community Relations department to accept a $100,000 grant from the Bush Foundation for the pilot program.

The beige canvas totes and the distribution materials volunteers will hand out, including the large folder full of city services information, are emblazoned with a blue and green earth and Minneapolis skyline logo designed by student Tousue Vang from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. A blue water design on the back of the tote will be printed with the word “welcome” in English, Oromo, and Somali.

Mayor Rybak’s office, the Neighborhood and Community Relations department, City Council Vice President Robert Liligren, and Council Member Cam Gordon were all involved in the launch of Hello Neighbor.

To get involved in the program, contact Ahmed Muhumud, the Access and Outreach Manager with the Neighborhood and Community Relations department: ahmed.muhumud@ci.minneapolis.mn.us. Or call his office at 612.673.2162.

As you probably know from the emails that flooded your U of M inbox, on October 23rd, President Barack Obama gave a speech at the University of Minnesota Field House, to lobby for Mark Dayton in the November 2nd election. “Know that he’s been fighting for the people of his state his entire life,” Obama said of Dayton’s past work.

In the speech, Obama argued that Mark Dayton could strengthen the state’s economy, put people back to work, and save taxpayer dollars by cutting waste and abuse. He spoke of “a brighter future” under a Democrat-led state government, in which new jobs would be created, the economy would improve, and healthcare and education systems would bulk up. “[Obama] stirs up people’s enthusiasm, makes full use of it, and hopes to turn it into Mark Dayton’s vote,” said Kathryn L. Pearson, a Professor in Political Science Department.

Obama’s speech lasted for nearly half an hour, and was punctuated by frequent applause. He stated by analogy that before his administration, the American economy was sluggish, like a car trapped in a ditch; 8 million people lost their jobs, many small businesses went bankrupt, and families couldn’t afford to send their children to college.

The President addressed jobs, economy, school and health—people’s foremost concerns today—making it clear that Obama knows what most people want to hear, and makes use of it to stir up emotions. He convinces people that he is trying hard to “get the car out of the ditch,” and that though it is hard, it is possible, and that Mark Dayton is the only candidate who could “pull the car out” for Minnesota.

When it comes to the influence of Obama’s speech on the upcoming election, his purpose became just to “mobilize the base,” Pearson says. “His speech mainly plays a part in encouraging people who already intend to vote for Mark Dayton, instead of persuading people to change their opinions to vote for Mark Dayton.”

The University of Minnesota was the last rally station in Obama’s cross-country campaign trip. He chose the University to draw more young people into the election, especially given that there are many political activists at the U of M. “Obama inspired many people’s enthusiasm in 2008 for the upcoming election,” Professor Kathryn says. “Among them, were young people. This rally should help Mark Dayton in the elections, as Dayton is too serious to inspire people in the same way that Obama can.”

While Obama may have motivated a few Dayton supporters to actually go out and vote, the election results show that Obama’s speech did not affect students who were already planning on voting for Emmer or Horner.

Until the week before the election, Mark Dayton led Republican opponent Tom Emmer by 7 and 10 percentage points in the governor’s race. In addition, the chance of each candidate winning based on 100,000 simulations with random variation in the local and national political environment conducted before the election showed Mark Dayton at 85.1% while Tom Emmer had 14.9%, according to the Minnesota Independent News Network.

President Obama also visited universities in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada to rally students to vote Democrat. However, in each of these states the Gubernatorial race was either won by the republican candidate or was so close that votes are being recounted. In all but Nevada, the Senate race was also won by the Republican candidate. While many of these election results are still being held up by recounts, these preliminary results illustrate the failure of Obama’s get out the vote campaign for the 2010 elections.

With Dayton leading Emmer by only 9,000 votes on election day, it seems Obama’s rally may not have had the desired effect. In Minnesota this means we are again stuck in a too-familiar recount limbo.

Embarrassment? Shame? Humiliation? Guilt? Regret? What do you feel the morning after the booze cruise down Washington Avenue? If you suddenly find yourself suffering from intense feelings of self-loathing and regret, you may very well be suffering from “The Other Hangover.” You may have been laughing uncontrollably before you tossed back that fifth drink (or was it the sixth) but you’re not laughing now.

“The Other Hangover” is the real deal. Unlike the typical hangover where you undergo the physical ramifications of extreme drunkenness and debauchery, “The Other Hangover” is characterized by the social aftereffects of getting well and truly drunk.

We have been seeing different aspects of “The Other Hangover” advertising campaign for the past several weeks. There is a billboard in Stadium Village. There are posters hung in bus shelters, residence halls, and student unions. There are sidewalk clings, mirror clings, and coasters in bars and restaurants. There have even been ads in the Minnesota Daily, not to mention the fact that the campaign has been publicized via Facebook and Twitter.

“Before you got wasted, you weren’t known as ‘The Creep’,” says one sign. “’But I was drunk,’ doesn’t repair the friendship,” proclaims another. The posters depict college-age men and women drinking alcohol and behaving in a manner that can only be described as socially inappropriate. One poster features a young woman apparently flashing her peers, much to their astonishment (or in the case of some of the men, to their delight). “Reputations aren’t drunk proof,” the caption says.

Developed by undergraduate advertising students from the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication, “The Other Hangover” speaks out against binge and high-risk drinking on the university campus. The campaign, which was originally developed for competition in the 2008-2009 National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC), focuses attention on the social consequences of over-drinking, like shame, regret, embarrassment and guilt.

The competition’s sponsor, The Century Council, is a non-profit organization that encourages and promotes responsible drinking habits. After the competition, The Century Council invited the team to apply for a grant totaling $75,000 which could then be used to implement the campaign at the University of Minnesota.

Unlike traditional anti-binge drinking campaigns, “The Other Hangover” does not focus on the negative health effects that accompany binge drinking but instead on the negative effects over-drinking may have on your social life or reputation. Why? According to the project’s co-advisor Michelle Gross, a graduate student at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, research indicates that many college students tend to ignore the consequences binge drinking may have on your health, finding the most serious of these unrealistic and not applicable to themselves.

“For our campaign to be effective, people need to actively regret their actions,” Gross said. That’s all very well and good, but can a campaign like this actually reach students and convince them to stop binge drinking? Even the team members of “The Other Hangover” find this unlikely.

“We recognize that we can’t effectively change everyone’s attitude and behavior during a three-month campaign,” Gross said. What “The Other Hangover” does hope to do is get people talking about binge drinking and in turn thinking about it. In addition, Gross acknowledged that though they hope to reach as many students as possible, the campaign is estimated to reach only about 35 percent of the students on campus.

As well as actually implementing the campaign, the team members of “The Other Hangover” hope to evaluate its effectiveness throughout the course of the fall semester. One way they will be doing this is by performing a longitudinal-style survey, said Gross. For us laypeople, this consists of making observations of the same group of people over time in an attempt to determine causality.

The team surveyed a group of 550 people once before the campaign in an effort to determine their attitude and behavior towards binge drinking and will survey them twice more throughout the course of the semester, said Gross. Gross said they will also be performing before and after surveys which tend to be less biased than the longitudinal method.

Overall the campaign seems to be pretty popular. So popular in fact that many students have actually taken to sequestering campaign materials for their own use. Within in the first two weeks of the campaign several of the campaign’s posters, sidewalk clings, and mirror clings have mysteriously disappeared. Whether or not students are taking them to promote the cause or just as a joke, apparently the stylish ads are well worth the risk.

Everyone knows that during college, your available funds drop drastically, no matter what background you come from. In order to keep from working during every free moment outside of class, it’s important to make the most of the free and nearly-free things around you, and The Wake is here to help.

Clinics and Health Services

While everyone is required to have health insurance to attend the U, that doesn’t mean that the insurance plan makes health care affordable: high co-pays and long waiting lists for appointments are still huge problems for many students.

Boynton Health Service is one resource on campus to consider; from primary care to mental health to urgent care visits, Boynton does it all (as long as you’ve paid your student services fees).

Another service on campus is the University Counseling and Consulting Service. The UCCS offers individual, group, and urgent counseling resources. The UCCS is not only for students experiencing mental health difficulties, but also includes career and academic counseling. Again, these services are included with tuition.

Planned Parenthood is a classic choice for the uninsured or underpaid. With many locations around the city, service fees are charged on a sliding scale. One major plus about PP: free condoms. Red Door Clinic is another clinic in Minneapolis, focusing on HIV awareness in all communities. Red Door operates on donations, and while there are price recommendations for services, no one is turned away if they are unable to pay.

While there are many clinics near campus offering free pregnancy testing (including the coupon offered in the Campus Special coupon book), it is important to be wary of the motives behind the organization: many of these clinics will attempt to persuade women to keep their child or choose adoption, and while these are both valid choices, they will discourage others.

Food

Most importantly, food is required to fuel studying (and partying). But food prices have continued to rise in the past few years, making eating cheap a difficult feat.

Mesa Pizza is a no-brainer choice for quick, cheap, food around campus. Though they recently raised their price per slice by .25 cents, Mesa still beats most of the competition when it comes to price and creativity. Plus, they are open after bar close on weekends.

Hoan Tien Yi

Tucked in a strip mall off of Nicollet Avenue and 28th Street, Hoan Tien Yi is worth the trek. Bahn Mi, vietnamese sandwiches, is the specialty and at $3.50 per full-sized baguette, one could live off Bahn Mi alone. The dining area is usually filled with the sounds of Vietnamese tele-dramas and fresh tea, hot or iced depending on the season, is complementary. While it is a good distance from campus, the huge portions make $3.50 stretch over two meals.

Taco Taxi

Open until 2am weeknights, 3am weekends, this hole in the wall taco joint is what it would look like if Mesa did Mexican. Individual tacos are a mere $1.75 each regardless of filling (they even offer tongue and tripe for that authentic flavor), and delivery is available. When you get sick of pizza, Taco Taxi is the place to call. Be sure to know whether you want your tacos American style (smothered in sour cream and cheese) or Mexican style (classic cilantro and onions only).

Wally’s

While Dinkytown is filled with falafel and gyro options, Wally’s is the best choice of them all. Deluxe falafel sandwiches run under $5 and are stuffed full of falafel, cauliflower, tahini, eggplant and onions. The shawirma and chicken roast on electric spits in the front window, a sure sign that this is the place for gyros. The service is friendly and the music sounds as if it is the Arabic language version of reggatone. Don’t forget the baklava!

Mayday

Looking for somewhere to study, but Espresso Royale too full of Ugg boots and U of M hoodies? Sick of dirty looks from the Hard Times baristas? Mayday is a neighborhood cafe staffed by friendly baristas and talented bakers. A small coffee runs exactly $1, and a huge, cheesy, black bean burrito with chips and salsa is under $5.  Get ready to share your table during busy hours; seating is intensely communal. The one drawback: hours are 6am to 6pm, which doesn’t leave much room for late night studying.