The Center for Neighborhoods is an organization formed in 1994 to strengthen neighborhoods. It promotes innovation, equity and sustainability at the neighborhood and community level. The Center asked the Metropolitan Design Center to assist in coordinating a workshop that will encourage the community to take an active role in making cities more livable.

The Metropolitan Design Center is an endowed center that investigates how design can be used to make metropolitan landscapes more livable, workable and sustainable by examining urban design across metropolitan areas through projects, research and education. The Design Center was privileged to have Wendy Sarkissian speak at the U of M on November 8 at Burton Hall. Sarkissian spoke for community members and students, highlighting case studies on design strategies that can make our communities safer and more sustainable. “She is committed to finding spirited ways to nurture, support and engage citizenry,” Gretchen Nichols, executive director for the Center for the Neighborhoods, says.

Sarkissian offered case studies on crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) strategies in Australia and shared creative solutions for safer communities. According to Marcus Felson, author of Crime and Everyday Life and professor of criminal justice at Rutgers University, CPTED is a set of sociophysical techniques for reducing harm and fear of crime without negative consequences. Basically, it’s using your surroundings in an effort to create safer communities, homes and workplaces.

According to Sarkissian there are a few CPTED basics that everyone should know:

Territoriality

Access control

Surveillance

Building and Landscape design

Legitimate activities

Management and Maintenance

Socio-cultural context

Sarkissian’s work as a social planning consultant has paved a path for innovative planning and development approaches. Her suggestions are simple: a fence or a tree hedge that separates private property from public property, buildings without balconies on the lower levels and a clear view to your car or child’s playground from the kitchen window. Don’t leave your new laptop sitting in the window, visible to people passing on the street. She also suggested that landscaping and maintenance are signs of a crime conscious neighborhood. Put signs up indicating that you have a security system or a neighborhood watch program. Let a possible criminal know that certain behavior is not tolerated in your community. She also recommends trying to be in a populated and well-lit area like a crowded street or market place.

Sarkissian also spoke about situational crime prevention, which means considering why someone might be a target and minimizing the excuses for someone to commit the crime. A broken window and a run-down dwelling are often easy targets for criminals. Walking alone down a dark alley or standing at the bus stop with your hands full of shopping bags also makes you an easy target. Dwellings that are well lit, well landscaped and well kept are often intimidating to criminals, and might cause them to second guess their decision to make you their victim. Sarkissian also pointed out that young people are the most vulnerable.

Sarkissian holds a Masters of Arts in literature, a Masters of Town Planning and a PhD in environmental ethics and has earned forty professional awards. Sarkissian is a member of the International Board of Global Urban Development and is now an award winning author of several books dealing with safe housing and community involvement. Sarkissan offered some helpful lessons that she has learned throughout the years, such as: think like a criminal, and know that they are very intelligent; lighting can make a big difference; and maintenance and management are important for public spaces.

“The police cannot prevent crime by themselves; they depend on the community members for support. A safe place happens by creating a sense of community and neighborhood ownership,” Sarkissian says.

At 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 8, I stood in the unusually temperate fall sun calmly waiting for the Campus Connector to drop me off for my self-guided tour of the St. Paul Campus. I cordially invite you, dear reader, to follow me on my tour; with the goal to inform and educate you on the activities and destinations of our splendid sister to the east.

By 1:50 p.m., after a pleasant ride on the bus, I end up on the South exterior of the St. Paul Student Center. Stepping off of the bus, the verdure of the agricultural-education dominated campus is a refreshing jolt from the typically scentless East and West Banks. Turning south, I first notice the vast expanse of greenery known as “The Lawn.”

Described as “a symbolic front lawn, welcoming visitors to the campus” by the Campus Heritage Marker at the threshold of one of the Lawn’s pathways, the field is a benevolent introduction to St. Paul. Though much of the vegetation has succumbed to the perils of autumn, the tans and saffron shades present a comfortable November setting. I travel south along one of the many well-manicured paths that slash through the lawn like a scythe, down Cleveland Avenue, then back east over the grass field toward the cow statues that reside on the corner of Eckles Avenue and Carter Avenue, observing the abundance of squirrels preparing for the rapidly-approaching winter. Please, follow along, there is still much to see.

The statues consist of three facially non-descript black cows lying down in various positions, exemplifying the environmental consciousness of some of St. Paul’s major disciplines.

As I turn north onto Eckles, I pass Haecker Hall, home to the Animal Science Department. At this time, I will ask that if anyone needs a restroom break, they use the facilities of Haecker Hall; the best restrooms on either campus. The wonderfully aromatic crimson and cream animal-tiled facilities are a delight to anyone fortunate enough to utilize them.

Continuing on, I walk down the staircase just north of Haecker Hall leading to Fitch Avenue. I hike down Fitch towards the Gabbert Raptor Center, passing the construction site of the Ben Pomeroy Student-Alumni Learning Center on my right. With a projected opening in early 2007, the converted 1907 dairy barn will serve as additional classrooms, seminar rooms and offices for the College of Veterinary Medicine.

The further east I move along Fitch, the closer the Gabbert Raptor Center becomes. A small, one-story building with a boxy metal façade, the Raptor Center is responsible for the treatment and rehabilitation of approximately 800 birds a year. As I enter, there is an interesting smell of wood and small animal bedding. After dwelling in the lobby for a few moments admiring the avian décor, I find the motivation to approach the front desk.

“Would you like a tour?” asks Amanda, the cheerful volunteer working behind the counter. The tour begins with a brief explanation of the Raptor Center and a look at the four viewing cages adjacent to the lobby. Amanda states that the Center is privately funded and more or less run by volunteers with the main purposes of student education and rehabilitation for injured raptors. After our brief stay inside, we exit the back door out to where the rest of the birds reside. The back display area is a complex arrangement of wooden staircases forming a pathway around the cages. Amanda provides fascinating facts about the wide array of raptors and the manner in which they arrived at the Center. In its entirety, the tour takes merely 20 minutes, but I feel like it could have lasted much longer.

As I exit back out onto the campus, a man walks a dog nearby; the small animal hospital is close, and numerous canines can be seen throughout the area, a trend that differs greatly from the East and West Banks. The sun shines brightly as I walk north up Gortner Avenue, then west on Buford Avenue, approaching McNeal Hall, home to the Goldstein Gallery. I trudge up the hill towards the southeast entrance, admiring the foliage of the nearby plants and trees.

At about 2:30 p.m. I enter the back door of McNeal Hall to find numerous students meticulously working on design projects; McNeal is home to DHA, the School of Design, Housing and Apparel. Being relatively lazy, I opt to take the elevator up to the 2nd floor, the location of the Goldstein Gallery of Design.

Though the gallery consists of one modest room, it is a must-see for anyone interested in the field of fashion. The current exhibition, American Fashion Transformed: Four Master Designers, explores the work of Bill Blass, Geoffrey Beene, Norman Norell and Pauline Trigère. All of these designers flourished in post-WWII America, leaving their influence on the fashion industry. The collected work in the gallery is a captivating insight into the post-war world of fashion.

Leaving the Gallery, I walk down the stairs and out the front door of the atrium onto Buford Circle. Stay close, there is only one stop left, and it will definitely be worth your while.

I briskly trace the sidewalk west on Buford and then south on Eckles. After passing three buildings on the left, I come upon the Andrew Boss Laboratory-Meat Science Building. Pushed back from the street, the edifice appears distant. As I approach down the sidewalk, I notice numerous students eating ice cream at a picnic table. I enter through the doors shortly after 3 p.m. and make an immediate right, taking the hallway to its near-end, until I reach room 166.

Room 166 houses the Dairy Food Products Salesroom. Each Wednesday, from 3 to 5 p.m. only, the Food Science and Nutrition Department hosts a sale of ice cream, frozen yogurt and cheese “made from production classes or from control lots of student projects for the sole purpose of recouping funds for teaching and student research projects,” according to the Department’s website.

With over 50 flavors of ice cream and frozen yogurt ranging from Green Tea to Pumpkin to Blueberry Cheesecake, at $2.50 a pint, the sale is a definite bargain. The sale also includes well over a dozen varieties of cheeses, appealing to the Wisconsinite in all of us.

I leave the sale, ice cream and spoon in hand, and proceed down Eckles back towards the bus stop outside of the St. Paul Student Center. I ride back to the East Bank, reflecting on the multiple untapped splendors that the unappreciated St. Paul Campus has to offer. Often times the simple pleasures are the most fulfilling. I hope the tour was beneficial to you, dear reader; and yes, gratuity is always welcome.

Avian flu has evolved from a harmless virus in wild ducks to a deadly virus that may one day become the next catastrophic pandemic. In order to combat this infectious disease, millions of birds in Asia have been killed and a vaccine against the H5N1 strain of avian flu is under development in several countries, according to the World Health Organization.

These measures, though necessary, are not addressing the root of the problem according to Dr. Michael Greger, Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture from the Humane Society of the United States. The next pandemic will be an unnatural disaster of our own doing, Greger says.

In a presentation given on Nov. 8 and hosted by Compassionate Action for Animals, Greger discussed how the change in farming practices over the past half a century has played a key role in the transformation of avian flu. In his new book, Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, he also outlines the toll an avian flu pandemic would take on the entire world.

An increase in the use of antibiotics on birds and the harsh overpopulated conditions of birds on poultry farms and in live markets prove to be the two clearest changes in the poultry farming industry, according to Greger.

In 1950, scientists announced that antibiotics make chickens grow faster. One year later, the Food and Drug Administration approved the addition of penicillin and tetracycline to animal feed in order to promote growth, Greger says. By 1970, 100 percent of all commercial poultry were being fed antibiotics.

In 1968, New Scientist magazine editorialized that the use of antibiotics to make animals grow faster should be abolished altogether. Also, the inventor of penicillin himself told the New York Times in 1945 that inappropriate use of antibiotics could lead to the selection of “mutant” forms resistant to the drugs, Greger says in his book.

“Mutating is what influenza viruses do best,” Greger says. The problem begins when they mutate into an antibiotic resistant strain of the virus. When birds receive the antibiotics, the majority of the viruses are killed. However, the strong strains that have developed a resistance will spread and multiply. This leads to a widespread and ever-growing resistance to antibiotics, causing any medical arsenal we may have had against avian flu to become useless, according to Greger.

In an effort to suppress a major avian flu outbreak, Chinese chicken farmers gave their livestock the human drug amantadine. Amantadine is an antiviral drug that was meant to protect people if an avian flu pandemic were to ever occur. But in 2004, researchers determined that the H5N1 strain of bird flu had become resistant to this human drug due to the virus’s mutation, Greger says.

This increased use of antibiotics in birds is not the only change the poultry farming industry has undergone in the past half a century. The cramming of thousands of birds into small cages, stacking them on top of each other and warehousing them in confining spaces are other changes.

Greger describes this lifestyle as a breeding ground for disease. These birds are living in overcrowded, filthy quarters, causing them to experience a great deal of stress and correspondingly increase their vulnerability towards disease.

“Highly concentrated poultry and pig farming, in conjunction with traditional live animal or ‘wet’ markets, provide optimal conditions for increased mutation, reassortment and recombination of influenza viruses,” Greger says.

This results in the rapid spread of disease first within the farm, and then out into the world.

This emergence and spread of disease does not happen in sparsely populated, open-air farms. “There has never been recorded a virulent strain of avian flu coming from an outside flock of chickens,” Greger says.

“We need to change the ways animals live,” Greger says. “This is not how animals were supposed to live.”

If we do not, we may unleash the most devastating pandemic to date. In 1918, a “Spanish flu” pandemic, a strain similar to avian flu, killed more people in 25 weeks then AIDS has in 25 years, according to Greger. However, that 1918 strain of flu had a less than 5 percent mortality rate. The H5N1 strain of avian flu currently spreading across the globe has about a 50 percent mortality rate, Greger says. If an H5N1 avian flu pandemic were to break out, it would be ten times as deadly as the worst plague in human history.

“The bottom line is, humans have to think about how they treat their animals,” Greger says. However, he is fearful that that will not happen until a post-pandemic world.

Nothing is free today, especially at the University of Minnesota. Freshman year is blurry and who knows how much money was spent that year. Sophomore year is when you become more aware of the finances because now a job is required to survive. Junior and senior year forces some to move back home with mom and dad and commute to school. This seems to be a logical thought. A free place to live, home cooked meals, free laundry services: but think again.

Many parents are still dizzy thinking about freshman year when all their money was spent on ridiculous party clothing and inflated textbook prices. Later in the game, a job is the solution for students, so that they can afford going to and from campus.

A little more money savvy, its apparent living with the parents isn’t as luxurious as one may have thought. Commuting to school can be almost as expensive as living on campus. With gas prices creeping up to $2.50 a gallon, students within range consider biking or walking to school. However, gas is not the issue here, the university’s parking rates are.

For everyday student commuters, the parking rates on campus can take a toll on dwindling checking accounts. The University of Minnesota Parking and Transportation Services set the parking rate prices. The most expensive places to park on campus are the parking ramps and garages. However, they offer the convenience of being next to classroom buildings. But if trying to save money is your priority, then daily parking lots are the place to be.

Hourly facilities begin their rates at $2.50 for the first hour with a $12 daily maximum, or seven plus hours. Daily lots cost $3.50 and carpool lots are $2.25, for the whole day.

Once in a while, these prices wouldn’t be too bad, but think about paying five days a week. If parking at an hourly ramp, being at school for seven or more hours, five days a week, expect to pay $60 a week. For the whole semester or 15 weeks of school it would cost $900.

School is important but paying $900 to park is not. For 2006-2007 tuition, residential students paid per semester $4,705 for 13 or more credits. Non-residential students paid per semester $10,520 for 13 or more credits. Adding parking and tuition fees together, school is not cheap. Many options are given to students to help finance tuition, but what is given to help pay for parking costs?

Because students pay a hefty amount in tuition each year, it would seem only fair that students should get a discount on parking on campus.

Marketing Manager Mary Sienko, of the Parking and Transportation Services, says, “We try to be an equal opportunity for all, even with faculty and staff.”

PTS is a self-supporting department. The university or the government don’t help or support PTS. All revenue from parking ramps, garages and lots go toward funding the PTS, Sienko says. Each student also pays an additional $15 per semester for transportation through their student service fees. This $15 goes toward paying for the free campus shuttle, U-Pass/Metropass and other programs.

PTS offers other options to students, faculty and staff to avoid paying high parking rates. Most are familiar with the $62 U-Pass/Metropass that is offered each semester. “Per month what people are getting value wise is $196 and multiply that by four, for $62 for four months, students pay practically nothing for that pass,” Sienko says.

On top of the $62, PTS pays an additional fee to cover Metro Transit fees through their contract. That money is funded by the user fee or student service fees.

Students can also participate in a contract-parking lottery for several of the parking lots on campus. Even contract parking comes with a price, but it’s convenient and easy.

In Spring 2005, 3.883 students signed up for contract parking. Of that, 68 percent of commuters and 53 percent of residential hall students were chosen to receive contract parking spots in nearby ramps, Sienko says.

The new Limited Use Parking Contract has just been released. This is ideal for those students who don’t always drive to school. It costs $90 for ramps and is limited to 22 parking uses at certain areas. The contract is good for one year.

“We encourage people not to drive separately,” Sienko says.

As of this September, approximately 21,000 parking spaces are available on campus, Sienko says. Students make up the majority of the population on campus with 51,469 in Fall 2006, according to the PTS Fundamental Facts. When students, staff and faculty are combined, 32 percent drive alone to school while 7 percent carpool.

The number of available parking spaces has decreased due to the new university stadium. PTS is working on finding new areas to make up for the lost parking area. To rebuild additional parking also costs money, but it’s a necessity for an overpopulated commuter campus.

Discounted parking for everybody, especially tuition-paying students, will never happen. PTS relies on money from all commuters to help finance their department but to also build more facilities. For PTS’ fiscal year of 2005-2006, they made almost $27 million. This amount may seem excessive for a transportation department but it’s all turned around to better the university parking and transportation services for its people.

“Vote for change” was the theme Democrats picked to campaign upon in the recent election and the results show that it appealed to voters. Across the nation, Democrats picked up 15 more seats than they needed for a majority in the House of Representatives and won a narrow majority of 51 seats in the Senate when several Democratic candidates upset their Republican opponents.

At a post-election analysis sponsored by the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance , former Congressman Vin Weber and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak joined professor Lawrence Jacobs to explore “What Happened on Tuesday?” Jacobs called the election a “tropical storm, not a tsunami.” He says that national issues such as the war in Iraq and alignment with some of President Bush’s controversial policies were big factors for voters, but the results also showed the “continuing importance of local issues and personalities.”

The Minnesota governor’s race clearly demonstrated the importance of a candidate’s attitude and image. Incumbent Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who barely defeated Attorney General Mike Hatch, was a very charismatic candidate, probably more so than his opponent, Rybak says. “Personality did play out there,” he acknowledged. But, Jacobs pointed out that “clearly [Independent Peter] Hutchinson had a major impact on this race,” because he drew many otherwise Democratic voters. In many races across the country, other issues outranked personality.

Exit polls done by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International showed that 60 percent of voters surveyed felt that national issues were the most important deciding factors. “It’s important to accurately construe what the voters said,” Weber says. He thought voters prioritized Iraq, corruption in government and associations with Bush.

So what impact will a Democrat-controlled Congress have? California Rep. Nancy Pelosi will be the first female Speaker of the House, for starters. She’s already said she plans for ethical reform, which Weber considers a hopeful sign that may lead to civility and bipartisanship. “The polarization of the last few years was driven by Congress,” he says. So a change in power is a good sign, he says.

And the Congress will have its “power of the purse,” with which it can veto funding for military operations, to set a new direction for the war.

“My guess is that the president will change his approach pretty easily,” Weber says. “This is going to end up being a very bloody confrontation…the war could drive our politics for the next few years.” Weber says that Republicans will possibly shy even further away from Bush now, because they will view the war as what “cost [them their] majority.”

Rybak agreed with Weber that the war was key in the election. “The fine line should not be passivity…there should be rage about what’s going on in Iraq,” he says. “The Democrats that [were] elected are Democrats that will reach across the aisle.”

The question now is whether Congress will take action to withdraw or reduce troops in Iraq. Pelosi, in interviews with CNN, has said that denying the military the funds they request is not a favorable option. She says Democrats wouldn’t want to jeopardize the well-being of the troops, so she favors diplomatic efforts to reduce U.S. involvement in Iraq.

Rybak clearly favors a withdrawal. “People’s kids are dying because this issue was spun,” he declared. “A timetable should now be set.”

Weber was skeptical if a withdrawal could even be pulled off in the remainder of Bush’s term. “This comes to Bush at the end of his presidency,” he says. Bush is not going to look to compromise as much as past presidents, such as former presidents Clinton and Reagan, had to, because they had to deal with an opposing Congress for much of their presidencies, whereas Bush has only two years left, Weber explains.

Weber and Rybak agreed on one other thing: that fiscal issues weren’t on the table as much as they should have been in this election. Weber says that the “biggest disconnect [from voters] was the wave of spending that’s going to put us into a hole fiscally…something has to be done about that large growing problem,”. Whether it’s a tax hike, a reduction in social security benefits or cutbacks to social programs, the public is not going to be happy, he says.

Rybak blames Republicans for the debt, saying “their entitlement spending is out of control.” He says Clinton proved that Democrats could lead the country in a responsible fiscal policy. Fighting a war and giving large tax breaks to the wealthy is not possible without driving up the debt, Rybak asserted, which is why he’s happy to see Democrats back in control. “You can’t say Republican financial strategy in the last few years has been honest. It’s been deeply dishonest.”

Laura Gatz is a white female of average build, with brown hair and large eyes. She is standing in a black jacket next to a table in front of Coffman Union, next to an arch made out of red, white, and blue balloons. The table is staffed by several other students—white males—who are also wearing the appropriate clothing for an unusually mild November afternoon. I know that I am looking for a female named Laura, and since there is only one at the table I walk towards her with confidence. “Hi, I’m Jenny from The Wake, we spoke on the phone?” She turns and smiles, her perfectly straight white teeth gleaming next to her shimmering pink lips. Gatz is the president of CFACT, or Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow, a national conservative action group with a branch on the U’s campus.

We decided to go inside, where we could talk with less hindrance from the wind. In the back of Coffman, on one of the couches near the windows, I start digging into what exactly Conservative Awareness Week is. Gatz says that the primary function is to let other conservatives know that they have a place to go on campus. “Since most of the students and faculty are liberal, it’s hard to feel comfortable as a conservative,” she says. At times, Gatz suspects that she has been graded down for her political views, and says she has heard similar stories from friends. “We are all about opening up the marketplace of ideas that this university is supposed to be,” says Gatz. In the real world, she says, not everyone is liberal, and students of all political ideologies should feel at home here.

The day we spoke, Wednesday, Nov. 15th, was coined as a “coming out day” for conservatives on campus. “We have been misinterpreted over the phrase ‘Conservative Coming Out Day,’” says Gatz. She says that she supports the GLBT community, despite a disclaimer after the event’s tagline—“Conservative Awareness Week: Because the GLBT’s feel more comfortable at the U than we do.” Gatz insists that “we aren’t mocking the gay community. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.”

But some students are unwilling to accept this form of flattery. A nursing student, member of the National Guard, and veteran of the Iraq war who requested he not be named, says that he is offended by the coming out day. “They have no idea what discrimination is. It’s really offensive that they can equate their feelings of discrimination with any other minority,” he says, going on to point out, “they’re not in the minority, they’re very privileged. Middle to upper class, typically white, the most privileged people in the U.S. For them to say that they’re coming out is ludicrous.” He also shared that he has seen firsthand the type of discrimination that gay people can face. “I’ve seen repercussions of someone coming out publicly. They were out of the military the same day … I think that there are a lot of gay people in the military because they love their country and they want to do something for it.”

Another student, Brandon Mchie, says that using the term “coming out” seems like an implicit parody, and that “being conservative is not appropriate to equate with being gay, that’s really heavy.”

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) reported that in 2004, there was “a 4 percent increase in reported incidents of anti-LGBT violence … Included in rise in incidents for the year, was an 11 percent increase in anti-LGBT murders.” The NCAVP’s report on hate violence in 2003 concluded that the 26 percent increase that year was a public reaction to the victories in the GLBT community of removing anti-sodomy laws and being granted the right to marry in Massachusetts. The organization linked the increase in violence in 2004 to the President’s call to ban same-sex marriage, which they called “the demonization of lesbians and gay men in particular in the 2004 election cycle.”

Civilrights.org, a website sponsored by Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, does not have any information available on the prevalence of hate crimes aimed towards those who identify as conservatives.

Tyler Jones, a member of the gay community, says that this is a “wretched comparison. There is no flattery involved here.” He says that “they need to deal with it, having elected the president, it’s time to deal with the repercussions of what he has done. Of course they’re going to feel uncomfortable, we disagree with what has happened here.” He adds that “they are making it sound like they are refugees in war.”

Gatz wants to makes sure that students understand that this event is about political ideas, and is not associated with a political party or a religious group of any kind. “We welcome students from all political identities who have conservative views. One of the things we are trying to do today is to help students identify with us and as a member of our community,” she says. The website for the event says that “The College Republicans’ members may be a part of this event, but due to fees restrictions, the club cannot technically be a part of this event due to partisanship.”

In that same vein, Gatz says that she and the other organizers are trying to get away from the negative connotation that being a Republican holds. She says that a lot of people are conservative or have many conservative viewpoints, but don’t necessarily identify with the Republican Party. “Like a lot of Minnesotans on the Iron Range, they vote Democrat, but they feel the same way we do about allowing people to carry guns and less restrictions on trade, and the removal of the welfare system,” she says. Gatz says that she believes in the value of the dollar, and that people just need to be more responsible with their money, rather than relying on the government to support them. She says that the welfare program that began with Roosevelt’s New Deal was not meant to be long term and that private enterprise and charity can take its place. “America has a social responsibility because we are on the top,” says Mchie in reaction to Gatz’s comments. “It’s shooting ourselves in the foot to only think about the U.S.” Gatz went on to say, “Schools and teachers need to learn to be more responsible with the money that they are given.”

On the Tuesday of Conservative Awareness Week, the group focused on environmental issues. The day was called “Free Market Environmentalism Day.” Gatz discussed her organization’s stance on the global economy, stating, “we are for free trade, not fair trade.” And that while many think that caring for the environment is a liberal issue, CFACT believes that our environmental problems can be solved through the free market. I asked her about the issues involving the free trade zones and pollution, since it is widely known that factories in free trade zones are not held to any laws requiring environmental responsibility. Gatz said that she was unaware of this issue, and that all of the information she had on the subject came from Center for American Progress, which she describes as a conservative think-tank that does independent research to support conservative viewpoints. With a huge staff of conservative scholars, Gatz says the Center is the primary source of information for CFACT.

The National Guard veteran I spoke with says that the Center sounds to him like “basically a bunch of people saying to themselves ‘how can we skew this for our purposes?’”

Gatz says that regardless of the pollution in free trade zones, “what happens in other countries is not our problem, our problems lie at home. This country is not perfect.” Gatz says that she and CFACT are opposed to plans to create a super-highway built to simplify trade between the United Sates, Mexico and Canada. She says that the third world is highly corrupt, and that “when we open ourselves up to helping them, we open ourselves up to deterioration.” She stressed the importance of the United States being more of a sovereign nation, and explained that Monday’s event had been themed as “Patriotism Day: securing our borders, supporting our troops.” The day’s activities included passing out yellow ribbons and writing notes to send overseas to troops. They also hosted speaker Ruth Hendrycks, from Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform. In response to this, the National Guard veteran says, “securing borders does not equal supporting our troops. Most of the troops are immigrants, so that would be totally counterintuitive.” He pointed out how vital the immigrant population is to our armed forces, and that many love this country and want to protect it.

Wednesday, as has been noted, was “Coming Out Day” for conservatives on campus, which was centered around students walking through the red, white and blue balloon arch to “come out” to the public as conservatives. There was also a scheduled appearance by Jason Lewis, a Fox talk radio host, to discuss what it means to be conservative. Sue Jeffers, a former candidate for governor, was also scheduled and planned to talk about the smoking ban.

Thursday’s theme was “Education or Indoctrination?” In conjunction with distribution of the academic bill of rights, the main event planned was a teleconference with several anonymous University faculty members who were going to “act as whistle blowers without a face,” says Gatz, exposing the liberal bias in the administration. The speakers planned to discuss the discrimination they experienced as a result of their political views. Journalism and Mass Communications professor Ken Doyle was a tremendous help in organizing the event, says Gatz, adding that Doyle is a great resource for CFACT and an understanding faculty member. A member of The Wake staff attended the event, advertised to have been at 7:00 p.m. in Anderson Hall, room 250. Ethan Stark, the photo editor, reported that the room was empty except for a display of balloons, the photos of which are displayed above.

Friday was “2nd Amendment Day,” focusing on the right to bear arms. Members of the College Republicans have been involved in an effort to allow guns into University-owned buildings, and Friday was supposed to be a discussion of the right to bear arms. Along with this, Gatz said that there would be information from the National Rifle Association and from Students for Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The event was advertised to run from 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. in the lower level of Coffman, but when I arrived after 2:00 pm there was no sign of CFACT or the NRA.

On November 28th, CFACT will be hosting “The Inconvenient Truth Squad” with Marlo Lewis, a political scientist who argues against those who say that global warming is occurring. Lewis will be speaking alongside a showing of Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth and discussing the errors in reasoning that the scientific community and Gore have made in assessing global warming. CFACT plans a follow up to this event sometime in January, when they will throw a “global warming beach party” on Northrop Mall in their bathing suits to show campus how ridiculous it is that so many people think the world is getting warmer. Obviously, Gatz says, January is still freezing in Minnesota. She says that the event happened last winter, and was a success.

Gatz says that her political views can be summed up by a T-shirt she saw online that says “American, Conservative, Republican. In that order.” She said that it is most important to support the country, above all other ideals that she holds. After that, her conservative stances on trade, welfare, the environment, gun control and immigration are the principles she votes on. And lastly, she is a member of the Republican party, because they represent her views on a national level and fight to keep the country moving in what she feels is the right direction.

For more information about CFACT, visit .

Usually Dia de los Muertos, which translates to “day of the dead” in English, is a time to remember and honor lost loved ones, but this year the celebration was politically themed. The Center for Multicultural Academic Excellence, the Department of Chicano Studies and La Raza Student Cultural Center sponsored the event, which is very common in Mexico, and each built an altar devoted to democracy in an attempt to raise awareness for the concerns of the Chicano and Latino communities.

“Historically the day of the dead is celebrated where those who have died come back,” says Michael Duenes, a teaching specialist in the Chicano studies department. “There are certain traditions to help welcome those who have come back,” he says, such as a decorated altar, which often includes the deceased’s picture, favorite foods, reminders of a favorite activity or sport, incense and pungent marigold flowers, which help guide spirits home. But the holiday, Duenes says, “has evolved into a political and social commentary.”

Richard Martinez, an assistant professor in the Chicano studies department, says that the Nov. 7 election was the inspiration for the event’s focus. Awareness needs to be raised about the “political issues that Latinos face,” Martinez says. “We encourage people to raise questions and challenge” the status quo. The issues important to the Chicano and Latino communities remain largely under the radar, he says.

Three sub-spins were chosen to represent some of the groups major concerns. An altar on display at Klaeber Court brought up the government’s broken promises, such as the lack of weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq and the deception surrounding the war. That’s a big concern to the Chicano and Latino communities because “Latino males are overrepresented in the military,” says Lisa Sass Zaragoza, programs and outreach coordinator of the Chicano studies department.

“Patriotism as a two-sided coin,” as Martinez put it, was the focus of the altar at Scott Hall. “The idea is to get people to think. Patriotism can take more than one form,” Martinez explains. “It can be used to encourage democracy and to silence it.”

Sass Zaragoza also mentioned immigration. Immigration “is a huge political tool that’s used as a wedge issue,” she says. “I think it’s a ridiculous use of resources.” She’s also disappointed that “the discussion has not included the importance of Latino laborers.” She considers the two issues of immigration and labor related. The United States economy is very dependent on immigrant workers, she says, and curbing immigration rates will likely have a negative effect.

Diversity on campus, and the challenges that minority students face, was the third sub-theme. Martha Ockenfels-Martinez, the intercultural representative of La Raza, says that if minority concerns, such as the closing of the General College or the killing of a bill last year that would provide government aid to undocumented students, are ignored it’s a “spiritual death.” She sees this as a call to action because she doesn’t want a college education to be “out of reach” for minorities. “A lot of people aren’t aware that institutions like the University aren’t accessible to Latino students,” adds Kevin Terry, a double major in political science and Chicano studies.

“We’re here to visibly demonstrate that there are people who care about Latino politics,” says Miguel Vargas, the office manager of the Chicano studies department. “There are people who are concerned.”

Many were surprised by the political nature of the day. “I was a little confused at the political chanting going on. It seemed out of place,” Jacob Miller, a global studies major, says. “That must be a modern part of it,” adds Andrew Berg, a communications junior, who attended because he has a Mexican coworker and wanted to learn more about the tradition and culture.

There was still a lot of focus on those who have passed. “Death is always present. It’s nothing to be feared,” Duenes says. Jana Burt, a second year theater major who is taking a class that required her to attend the event, says that death with “Latino tradition is a lot more of a celebration than a grievance, which I think is fascinating because in American culture we don’t view death in quite the same way.” She says she wanted to learn more about the way Latinos and Chicanos celebrate.

“The tradition really started with the ancient Aztecs, so it’s old,” Martinez says. “I think the importance lies in the ceremony of remembering those who have passed. They can be kept alive in our hearts and minds,” Martinez says.

“Cultures all over the world remember the dead in some way and this is one way of doing it,” Martinez continued. “If we don’t talk about [the important issues] we’re missing an opportunity.”

Usually, when Halloween weekend rolls around, the U of M campus becomes a ghost town. Students flock in the thousands to our eastern neighbor for the second biggest party in the country (besides Mardi Gras, of course). Madison has always complained of the costs out-of-towners cause the city in damages and clean-up, so this year they charged admission to the famed State Street in Madison, and to that students said: Forget it.

According to a news release from the city, last year’s Halloween in Madison cost the city $600,000, mostly spent in public safety and clean-up.

In order to cover the costs of the party, Madison charged a $5 admission to State Street (the location of the all-night party flocked with drunk students and hundreds of cops) and only allowed 50,000 partygoers to be on the street. This means that almost half of the almost 80,000 who were there in 2005 would not be allowed into the party. But 32,000 tickets were sold and the city only made about $150,000, which is expected to cover one-third of estimated costs for the event.

The goal of these limits was not only to cover costs, but also to keep outsiders out. Madison has not been quiet about its resentment of the fact that people from as far as Florida come to the college capital city to mess it up for a weekend and then leave. “This is a community event. It’s time we take it back,” Susan Schmitz, president of Downtown Madison Inc., told the Wisconsin State Journal.

For years, UW students have not been allowed to have visitors over the weekend in student housing, and this year was no different. “Keep in mind that nonresidents will not be allowed in University Housing residence halls Oct. 27-28,” Lori Berquam, interim dean of students at Madison, said in a statement released to campus students.

There were strong hopes to “rebrand” the event into a community festival, rather than seeing how many drunken students the police can arrest.

Most of the security measures were taken on the night of Saturday, October 28. Many worried that this meant the students would come out in full force on Friday, October 27, but this wasn’t the case and Friday only saw 10,000 visitors.

According to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, the city had three goals with this year’s celebration: to not have to use pepper spray on partiers to end the festivities, to reduce the amount of over-consumption of alcohol, and to recover part of the costs. Cieslewicz says all of these goals were met.

There were a total of 117 arrests over the course of the weekend, which is less than half the approximately 447 arrests made in 2005 and these charges were mostly related to alcohol consumption, not violence.

Police were also not forced to wear riot gear as they have in the past few years, which was another goal of the city.

Because of this “re-branding,” many U of M students, who Madison says cause the most damage of anyone on State Street, chose to stay home and save the gas and admission money.

Instead of heading east, many U of M students opted to cruise University Avenue in their Halloween best. Also, “Freak Fest,” a Dinkytown pub crawl, kept students occupied over the weekend and was quite a success, showing that Dinkytown could pull off its own Halloween celebration.

Madison’s Halloween Action Committee is trying for free admission for UW students in 2007, but with this the city may make no money, as this could be the beginning of the end of Minnesotans heading to Wisconsin for a good time.

Five hundred years ago, halfway across the world, the eternal flame of romantic love was fueled by poets and artists now forgotten by most. But professor Walter G. Andrews has devoted his career to letting these poets reshape his perceptions of this primal feeling.

On Friday, Nov. 3, I tore across campus on my bike in hopes of making it to the Social Sciences Building’s Ford Room before noon to attend the presentation “Love, Gender, Poetry and Politics during the Ottoman (and European) Renaissance.” I succeeded, but upon entering the David Bowie-esque labyrinth of the 14-story West Bank building, I didn’t find the room until it was too late.

By 12:03 the small conference room was filled to capacity with people from all walks of life. Versed Persian scholars, Turkish language-studying undergrads and Middle Eastern cultural aficionados, among others, were in attendance. Due to the lack of seating space, many of the late arrivals, myself included, settled on the rough carpet.

I entered the room at the tail end of professor Andrews’ introduction.

“I have to admit, I am nervous,” came forth from beneath his frosty-white moustache. Andrews is a kindly, scholarly-looking older man with balding gray hair and glasses. His lean frame is attired in a sophisticated gray suit coat over a black turtleneck. When he speaks, he is noticeably animated and passionate about his field of study. This passion is not unjust, however. Andrews’ expertise is love.

A professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Literature at Washington University, Andrews has a collection of published works that just happened to be circulating the audience as he spoke. His most recent book, The Age of Beloveds, uses 16th Century Ottoman poetry and art to explore “cross-cultural parallels in the sexuality, sociology, and spirituality of love in Greater Europe extending from Istanbul to London,” according to Andrews’ personal Web site.

“[Researching Ottoman poetry] brought me face-to-face with my own deficiencies with the idea of love,” Andrews says. The crux of the presentation was about the Ottoman’s concept of the beloved. Poets and artists alike during this age of spiritual rebirth harped on the idea that there were two types of these so-called beloveds: the beloved woman, who typically represents carnality, sex, lust and reproduction, and the beloved boy, symbolizing purity, longing and hopeless, chaste love.

By today’s standards, the Ottoman Empire seems like a hedonistic foreign planet. We are so far removed from their paradigm of cultural ideals that it is almost hard to relate to any aspect of their world. In fact, going into this presentation, my knowledge of this Empire was nearly limited to the belief that it was, “full of furniture for some reason,” as comedian Eddie Izzard would say. When Andrews first mentioned the idea that these “cultural elites” of the Ottoman Empire romantically exalted young boys in their poetry and art I was surprised and confused.

It is no wonder that my initial reaction was skeptical aversion. Our society has rightfully vilified the romantic adoration of young boys; so much so that this vilification has extended to the general perversion of homosexuality.

“These [issues of adolescent male idolatry] didn’t have to do with sex. They had to do with companionship,” Andrews says in a voice that oddly resembles Dana Carvey’s impersonation of George Bush Sr. The cultural elites that created this poetry used these boys to represent a longing for a forbidden love non-existent in this world. This longing trained the heart to love through adoration.

Midway through his presentation, Andrews began illustrating his message through Ottoman art. The paintings were unexpectedly tame in their depictions of the beloved boys. The love represented in these paintings was spiritual and full of life. Music, wine, food and dancing were all employed within the jubilant paintings to illustrate the companionship and intoxication associated with such a love.

“[The Ottomans] would see us as ‘cold people,’” Andrews says with a hint of disparagement. He then proceeded to offer an anecdote in which he described the affectionate relationships of same-sex friends in many parts of the Eastern world. He spoke of a culture less sexually repressed and obsessed with the subversion of social norms.

I could not help but share his covert contempt for the sexually oppressive members of our society. As I exited the room with my Perrier and plate of figs and apricots (fantastic finger foods and refreshments were provided) I couldn’t help but dwell on our modern perceptions of love; both hetero- and homosexual. How arrogant and barbaric it is to say who can love whom?

As I biked home my mind continued racing over the upcoming gay marriage vote in Wisconsin. On a global level, this legislation is a frightening exercise in frigidity on behalf of our fellow Americans. By Ottoman standards we would probably be considered heartless.

If nothing else can be taken from professor Andrews and the Ottoman poets it is this: without a passionate love, the spirit will be cursed to a state of perpetual longing, and to suppress this eternal love would be inhumane.

Thursday November 2, the Anti-War Committee and Al-Madinah Cultural Center sponsored an event that hosted three local experts who spoke on U.S. conflict in the Middle East. Marie Braun, Ramla Bile and Jess Sundin offered insight into what the United States is doing in the Middle East and advocated a change in U.S. foreign policy with the Middle East, which includes an immediate end to occupation in Iraq.

“Oil Arabs and War: Learn the truth about U.S. Policy in the Middle East,” was held in Blegen Hall on the University of Minnesota West Bank. The event sponsors hope to raise awareness about policy problems in the Middle East.

Marie Braun, the first speaker of the evening, described the failures of the war in Iraq by comparing it to Vietnam. She says that U.S. citizens are “spending 2 billion dollars a week for a war that is looking more and more like Vietnam.” Braun is co-founder of Women Against Military Madness Iraq Committee and the Twin Cities Peace Campaign-Focus on Iraq. In 2000 she was awarded the Activist of the Year Award by the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action (MAPA).

Braun stressed the fact that Iraq is still in a state of turmoil, and called the situation in the Middle East a “nightmare.” It has been over three years since occupation has begun and we have sat by and watched as the United States has become the hated empire. The longer occupation continued, the more Iraqi’s have joined the resistance, she says.

According to Braun, a poll of U.S. citizens that was released last June revealed that many Americans are unhappy with U.S. efforts in Iraq. Braun asked members of the audience to act on this discontent by advocating an immediate end to occupation. She admitted that “no one knows what will happen” when we pull out of Iraq, but whatever the consequences, they will be more manageable than staying in Iraq. Braun, as well as speaker, Jess Sundin, advocated an immediate end to occupation of Iraq.

But is this proposal too optimistic? At least one member of the audience thought so. Nathan Cheng attended the event because he holds opinions that oppose those of the Anti-War Committee. Cheng called the opinions of the speakers too “idealistic.” It’s “a bit of wishful thinking,” he says.

Sundin, the evening’s closing speaker, took Braun’s views to the extreme. Sundin is a founding member of the Anti-War Committee and is active in AFSCME 3800 and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. She focused her speech on the importance of Iraq’s oil supply in U.S. conflict with the Middle East.

Iraq contains 11 percent of the world’s total oil reserves. According to Sundin, because of America’s need for oil, Iraq’s oil reserves are at the center of U.S. politics. Oil in Iraq is nationalized, meaning that it’s government owned. To this day, Iraq won’t give up control of their oil, and Sundin believes that the United States won’t evacuate troops until our government receives control over some of Iraq’s oil. “Iraqi’s have a great deal of national pride,” Sundin says.

Sundin reaffirmed Braun’s claims by stating that “the U.S. can’t win in Iraq.” Every day the war in Iraq is getting deeper and is becoming an even bigger problem. Occupation will get harder and problems won’t end until we leave, Sundin says.

Not only did Sundin criticize the Republican Party for how they have handled conflict in the Middle East, she also condemned the Democratic Party by saying that they, too, aren’t hitting the mark. Democrats say they want to pull some troops, but not all, Sundin says. Not one democrat has said we have no right to a military base in Iraq.

So what can those who oppose the war in Iraq do to influence the future of U.S. policy in the Middle East? Sundin also offered insight into how people can help make a change in U.S. foreign policy. Sundin asks us to pressure government leaders and ask them to take a different look at how the United States is dealing with the Middle East. “We need to get into the streets and protest the governments,” she says.

Students can obtain more information on anti-war efforts by contacting some of the event’s co-sponsors. They include the Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Iraq Peace Action Coalition, Middle East Peace Now, Middle Eastern Student Association, Women Against Military Madness and the Mideast Committee.