In case you missed the barrage of political commercials on TV and the radio lately, or if this semester you don’t have one of those professors who enjoys getting up on his or her soapbox to lecture about the importance of getting involved in your community. Or, if you somehow managed to dodge all of those ever-present student activists distributing highlighter-colored flyers on the Washington Avenue Bridge or in Coffman, someone should remind you that there is an election coming up. It’s on Nov. 7. And you should vote.

Here come all of the excuses: I don’t care about politics. Politicians are all the same anyhow. I don’t even know where to vote.

No one is going to convince you that you should care about politics. If your tuition skyrockets again or the draft is reinstated and you’re sent to North Korea or the snowplowers go on strike this winter and you have to walk two miles to school in sub-zero temperatures because the buses aren’t running and your car tires are stuck in three feet of snow, you can still proudly proclaim that you didn’t vote because you don’t care. Likewise, no one can prove to you that politicians aren’t all the same. Keith Ellison, Alan Fine and Tammy Lee, all Martin Sabo successor hopefuls, surely have the same records, experience, values and stances on the issues. Well wait, who are they, anyhow? And lastly, you’re right: it is impossible to learn where you’re supposed to vote. Or is it?

Not all students vote at Coffman, as some may think, but you definitely can vote in your neighborhood. Minneapolis is divided into wards and precincts, neither of which really makes any difference to the average voter. But these boundaries do determine your polling location. The easiest way to find out where you vote is to go to this website: pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us. Students also have the option of voting in their hometowns if they’ve maintained a permanent address there.

In order to vote, you do need to register. Fortunately, Minnesota is one of only six states that allows same-day voter registration, according to Demos, a non-partisan public policy organization. Students can bring a photo I.D. with a current address, or can use a picture I.D. with certain documents that state your address. Acceptable documents include a utilities bill or school registration or fee statement, provided the bill or statement is less than 30 days old. You can also have a resident of your precinct vouch for you on election day. So you and your roommate who has all the utilities bills in their name can go to the polls together and they can verify your residence.

Still not convinced how easy it really is? Well, then let someone guilt you into it. Jim Forrey, of Democracy Matters, says, “It’s our job to participate or democracy doesn’t work.” There, you don’t want to let anyone down, now do you?

“It is a great pleasure to be with you,” former Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday, Oct. 3 when he spoke at Northrop Memorial Auditorium. “At this stage in my life and career it’s a great pleasure to be anywhere,” he said, followed by laughter from the crowd. Powell continued by talking about the transitions that we make in life. Powell joked about a time when he had his own 757 and the red carpet that went with it. “One day you’re the Secretary of State and the next they give your plane to ‘Condi,’” Powell joked.

After retiring from the United States Government, reality set in while eating breakfast with his wife. It was a shocker for both when they realized he was going to be home all day.

In an effort to occupy his time and feel young again Powell purchased a Corvette – a silver one. “I don’t miss anything in life,” Powell said in response to not missing his position in the United States Government. “There is no point going through life looking in the rearview mirror. I am always looking ahead to see what’s next.”

Powell looked into the crowd of almost 5,000 and began speaking on the topic of leadership, both personal and political. Against the advice of his wife, he treated his first day at the state department like his infantry in the army. “Good Morning troops, how are you?” were his first words to his team. To Powell, it didn’t matter if it was the entire U.S. Armed Forces or the Department of State; to him, leadership is leadership is leadership.

“Leaders have the principle responsibility of making sure they convey a sense of purpose to an organization,” Powell said. “They also recognize that leaders are there because of the followers – they are the ones that get the work done. Leaders set the vision and the purpose and then they get the people motivated.”

Powell went on to talk about some of the great leaders that he met during his time working for the United States. Powell spoke highly of great leaders like Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union who realized the Soviets had to end the Cold War. “It took a great leader [Gorbachev], someone with a vision, a mission and a purpose to say to the Soviet people ‘we can’t keep moving like this.’”

Another great leader, Deng Xiaoping of China, also became an ally of the United States while Powell served. Xiaoping realized that China was falling further and further behind, so he changed the economic system. According to Powell Xiaoping, like Gorbachev, faced reality and didn’t turn away.

Powell also spoke of a world that is about to be bequeathed to the youth of America. He spoke of an Asia that is more interested in trade than war and the fact that Americans are investing more money in Africa now than ever before. “It is a world that you will inherit and you will move forward. It is a world in which there is more democracy now then ever before, but it is a world with challenges,” Powell said.

According to Powell, there are three challenges that will define our times and this presidency: Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East.

Powell spoke of the war in Iraq in three phases. Phase one: go to Baghdad, take out Iraqi army and bring the regime down – the easy one. Phase Two: the Insurgency. More difficult because we [America] did not have enough troops, political will or political understanding to suppress it before it got too large or out of control. Phase Three: the sectarian warfare, Shia vs. Sunni. This phase is more difficult because this war can only be solved by the Iraqi people themselves.

Powell said that it is up to leaders, especially new, young leaders, to deal with those challenges and find solutions. “But as you watch these challenges unfold don’t ignore, don’t overlook the great successes that we [America] have had.” Powell reminded the crowd of the trust the world still places on America. He explained that we are the leader of the world that wants to be free. People still come to the shores of America betting for a better life, believing that the opportunity here exists nowhere else.

“What makes it all work is the fact that we have great universities such as this, great institutions such as this where we are turning out great young people with smiles on their faces and energy in their eyes,” Powell said.

The four American designers highlighted in the exhibit at McNeal Hall on the St. Paul Campus emerged in the 1940s and are considered monumental in closing the gap between European and United States fashion. Together, Norman Norell, Pauline Trigere, Geoffrey Beene and Bill Blass transformed America into a flourishing world of fashion in a post-World War II environment.

Norman Norell was born in 1900 in Indiana. He broke new ground by translating French couture into fresh-looking, ready-to-wear apparel. He made New York’s 7th Avenue garment district the rival of Paris at the end of WWII. By 1928 he had become the head designer for highly respected fashion designer, Hattie Carnegie, who imported European designs for inspiration. In 1960 he started his own label and perfected the jumper and the pantsuit. He has been called the Rolls Royce of the fashion industry.

Pauline Trigere was born to Russian-Jewish parents in 1909. She was known for her imaginative tailoring of women’s suits and coats. She was raised in Paris by parents who also had an interest in tailoring. Her father made military uniforms for the Russian aristocracy and her mother made dresses. Trigere operated a sewing machine by the age of 10. She moved to New York in the 1930s and by 1945 had started a well-respected label. Her technique included draping and cutting fabric on the model. She wore her own designs with a signature turtle pin on the shoulder or cuff. “The turtle stands for longevity,” she would say. She continued to design until her death in 2002.

Bill Blass was born in 1922 in Indiana. He joined the Maurice Rentner firm in 1959, where he was able to develop into a world-renowned designer. In 1970 Blass bought the firm and the label and designed for famous clients such as Nancy Reagan. He was one of the first in the industry to license his name to other products including chocolates. “Sometimes the eye gets so accustomed that if you don’t have a change you get bored. It’s the same with fashion you know and that, I suppose, is what fashion is really about,” Blass says.

Geoffrey Beene was born in 1924 as Samuel Albert Bozeman in Louisiana. Beene originally began training in the field of medicine but dropped out to pursue fashion. He opened his own shop on 7th Avenue in New York and in 1963 released his first collection, which was an immediate hit. Beene was acknowledged by the fashion world for his innovated techniques. “The whole point of design is to make people feel better about themselves and fashion is one of the professions that accomplishes that,” Beene once said.

The guest curators of the exhibit, Dolores DeFore and Gloria Hogan, chose these four artists specifically because, to them, these were the four designers working in America that had the biggest impact on the changes that took place in fashion design after World War II. “They felt that other designers followed,” says Barbara Porwit, Administrator for the Goldstein Museum of Design. “Another factor in choosing these designers was the longevity of their influence; each one individually had a career that spanned fifty years.”

A number of graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota contributed to the development of this show. All of the graphic identity, panels, titles and publications were designed by U of M design students, specifically Eric Price and Tyler Stevermer. Special recognition should also be given to the students of the Material Culture and Design class who researched the biographies on all of the designs displayed.

The entire exhibit was produced, created and funded by students, faculty and the University. “It’s not a traveling exhibit that we paid for,” Porwit says. “All the displays were donated to the Goldstein Museum of Design. It is a very unique exhibit to the University and something that we should be proud of.”

The Goldstein Museum of Design is the only museum of design in the country that is specifically housed in a university’s college of design.

The exhibit runs until Jan. 7 and is sponsored by the Goldstein Museum of Design in McNeal Hall. Contact for more information.

Nov. 21, 1981 marked the last Golden Gopher football game played on campus grass. The Gophers led in the fourth quarter only to fall to border-rival Wisconsin 26-21 at Memorial Stadium.

A year passed, and the home team moved off-campus to the newly-built Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. Ten years passed, and empty lots replaced an aged athletic amphitheater. Home field advantage became a memory.

Nearly twenty-five years later and with Stadium Village a little quieter, the groundbreaking of the new TCF Bank Stadium on Sept. 30 brought football fever on an unseasonably warm afternoon.

U of M supporters walked, the band marched, and Goldy scootered onto the flat parking lot at Oak and 4th S.E. that, by the start of the 2009 football season, will be the foundation for a 50,000-seat, open-air stadium. Fans carried signs and wore jerseys of Gopher running backs, while others wore gold “Back to Campus 2009” T-shirts. Former players and coaches were in attendance, including Bob McNamara, the last coach to bring the Gophers to the Rose Bowl. Tyrone Carter, a free safety for the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, also made an appearance.

Amidst the smattering of maroon and gold walked three University of Michigan students who watched the festivities from afar. Proudly donning their yellow and blue school colors, the students couldn’t help being noticed by Gophers young and old.

When the students, who said they travel to every Michigan away game, were asked why they would want to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a school not their own, they simply remarked, “We get to go to a stadium that doesn’t exist yet.”

University President Bob Bruininks stepped to the stage and, in the fashion of Monday Night Football, asked the crowd, “Are you ready for football?” Bruininks addressed the expansion of the university, the Driven to Discover campaign, and reiterated his longtime dream of bringing Gopher football “back to the University campus where it belongs.”

The Gopher home won’t come cheap – the stadium’s construction costs will run up to an estimated $248 million.

The University will be responsible for raising 45 percent, or about $112 million, of the costs. $35 million of that will come from a corporate sponsorship with Wayzata-based TCF Bank. The remaining 55 percent of funding will come from the state of Minnesota. Additional support will come from Best Buy, Target Corporation, General Mills, Federated Insurance and Norwest.

Athletics Director Joel Maturi stepped up next and announced that there had been a possibility of the Oct. 7 home game against Penn State being moved to late November due to conflicts with a Minnesota Twins playoff game. Maturi related the scheduling conflict to a game versus University of Michigan three years prior when the two teams were forced to play on a Friday night instead of a Saturday. Maturi said he was later asked by University of Michigan Athletic Director William Martin what it would take to bring a stadium to campus. The response: money. And on Oct. 9, 2003, Maturi said that Martin proceeded in giving him a $100 check for the stadium.

Gophers football coach Glen Mason, who followed Maturi at the podium, quipped in reminding Maturi to not waste any time depositing Martin’s check. “Make sure it doesn’t bounce. He is from Michigan, you know.” Mason, in a slick black suit, boomed over the loudspeakers as he explained what was missing from the university. “We’ve got a beautiful campus, we’ve got a great faculty, we’ve got great students, we’ve got a great band, we’ve got great alumni,” Mason said. “But we didn’t have a damn stadium.”

In June, University officials announced a local firm, Architectural Alliance, will work with HOK Sport, whose design portfolio includes stadiums for the Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, and Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League, to build the stadium.

On this day, university and corporate officials put on yellow hardhats and took hand in shoveling a mound of dirt. And although the home team would come up short against Michigan later that night, Gopher fans look forward to taking back the home field advantage.

Across the Midwest, hundreds of immigrants and refugees are detained in county jails contracted by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the National Immigrant Justice Center, these immigrants spend months, even years in remote detention facilities, isolated from attorneys and criminalized by society. They face obstacles in due process and are often refused basic rights.

Barbara Frey, director of the Human Rights Program on campus, along with the Midwest Coalition of Human Rights, is working to change all of that through education and advocacy. In a lecture at Elmer L. Andersen Library on Sept. 26, Frey touched on the many issues facing non-citizens in the Midwest. According to Frey, the “post-9/11 climate of fear” is an issue that faces non-citizens of all races.

Workers’ rights issues such as low wages or failure to collect workers’ compensation for fear of deportation are other issues immigrants deal with. But general discrimination in the areas of housing, employment, and education is the most visible problem for these workers. The most pressing issue that Frey discussed was the issue of non-citizen detention. The nature of detention facilities is just one obstacle that immigrants come across. They frequently receive poor healthcare, if any at all.

Often times these detained immigrants are denied access to a phone because of no service, or access to phones. This makes it nearly impossible for these immigrants to contact family members or seek legal council. The other issue is finding someone willing and qualified to take the case. In the Midwest there are simply not enough pro bono attorneys available to help the number of non-citizen detainees in need.

Minnesota has three legal service providers for immigrants. They are Centro Legal, Inc., Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota and Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights.

Combined, these three service providers are not enough to cover the needs for the countless number of detained immigrants throughout Minnesota.

According to Frey, one way to end this battle is through education and advocacy. Advocacy on behalf of detained immigrants is an integral part of the process. Holding rallies and writing letters to state legislatures is necessary in order to bring this issue to light and give it a voice.

Advocacy can only do so much before education needs to happen. According to Frey, education needs to take place on multiple levels. Professional training on how to participate in immigration cases needs to be provided to lawyers, Frey says. Students at all levels of schooling need to be educated on the rights of non-citizens and common myths about immigrants need to be dispelled. Most importantly, the immigrant communities themselves need to be informed of their rights and the issues they face through “Know Your Rights” presentations. With the combination of advocacy and education, Frey hopes to make a positive impact on the lives of non-citizens throughout Minnesota and the Midwest.

You may not have heard the names John James, Jeff Johnson, or Lori Swanson, but come No. 7 you will have to decide which of these three you want to be Minnesota’s next attorney general. This year the “AG” race was noted early on for its drama, following Matt Entenza’s withdrawal and subsequent scramble by DFLer’s to replace him. The response of the candidates has been to keep low profiles. Swanson won the DFL endorsement in the Sept. 12 primary and faces Republican nominee Johnson and Independence Party candidate James in the race.

Entenza’s withdrawal was certainly the most high-profile event in the attorney general race. He withdrew amidst complaints from Republicans that he violated ethics laws after failing to report expenses paid to investigate the current attorney general, Mike Hatch, who is now the DFL’s nominee for governor. Democrats criticized Entenza for what many deemed an intra-party attack. Entenza dropped out in mid-July.

Unfortunately for James, Johnson and Swanson, they’ve been able to generate little press and have had trouble getting their messages out since then. A recent Minnesota Public Radio poll showed that one week after the September primary, large majorities of those surveyed didn’t recognize the names of the candidates. Forty-nine percent didn’t recognize Swanson’s name and 56 percent didn’t know Johnson, while James was unknown to 72 percent. James admits that it’s going to be a tough race. “Basically nobody knows who any of us are,” he says. “I guess we [the Independence Party] start from further behind because we don’t have a great big activist base like the Republicans and the DFLer’s do.”

All three of the candidates, however, think they have time enough to reach voters and win. “I think people make up their minds right at the end,” Johnson told Minnesota Public Radio. “We’ll continue to work hard, continue to travel and get a message out about public safety and keeping kids safe. And also hopefully we’ll have raised enough money to get on TV for the last couple weeks before Election Day.”

“We’ve got a real opportunity to get the word out on my candidacy,” James told MPR. “We’re really just starting to ramp up our marketing. So, I think there’s a lot that’s hopeful here.”

Swanson’s campaign staff explained that her name might still be relatively unknown because she was a latecomer who didn’t get into the race until July, when the Entenza debacle began. Swanson planed to “get out there and meet as many Minnesotans as possible,” Ben Wogsland of Swanson’s campaign says. “Once people get a chance to hear what Lori’s running on, I think they’ll be impressed.”

The problem may lie with the fact that the role of the attorney general isn’t widely understood. The AG is the chief legal officer in Minnesota and the office represents the state in court. The attorney general’s office usually focuses on “consumer protection, antitrust enforcement and charities’ regulation,” according to the Minnesota Office of Attorney General website. Many state agencies turn to the attorney general’s office for legal advice as well.

But, the AG also often acts as counsel to the governor, which is how James would run his office if elected, he says. He wants the Independence Party to lead Minnesota in a joint effort between elected officials. James says he wants to provide support to education, environmental initiatives, a balanced budget and public safety programs. “There is an unconscionable vacuum of state-level leadership on public safety,” he says.

Wogsland says that the attorney general’s role “boils down to being a watchdog for the people of Minnesota.” He says Swanson wants to focus on corporate accountability, healthcare reform and public safety. “She [Swanson] has a really strong sense of justice and wants to fight for ordinary Minnesotans,” Wogsland says. “She’s running on her track record as solicitor general.”

Johnson, according to his website, includes child safety, consumer protection and job growth in his top priorities. “No one who illegally preys on consumers should be allowed to stay in business in Minnesota, and under my watch, there will be no place to hide,” he says online.

Each of the three candidates is very worried about methamphetamine use as well. “Obviously meth is a plague right now. We’ve got to fight it,” James says. He would focus on providing better education on the drug to more Minnesotans to combat what some consider an epidemic. “Clearly, one [way to fight meth] is relentless education,” he says. Swanson plans to crack down on meth dealers, according to her website.

In Johnson’s “Meth-Free Minnesota Plan,” he says that “meth is a scourge in Minnesota, and although we’re making some headway, it is not a problem that can be addressed with a halfhearted plan. It needs to be the top priority of the chief lawyer in the state if we really want Minnesota to become meth-free someday.” Johnson’s plan outlines two phases to fight meth. The first steps would increase penalties for dealing the drug and crack down on meth labs. In the second phase, Johnson would create an “education, treatment and enforcement campaign in collaboration with surrounding states.”

Swanson and James have a common message for students. They want students to know that they’re aware of the hardships students face. “Huge tuition hikes are… prohibitive,” Wogsland says. Swanson would “like to see that reigned in.” And James agreed, saying “we’ve got to deal with the affordability issue.” Both candidates want to encourage students to get involved in politics. “Don’t write off this election,” James says. “Vote your hopes, not your fears.”

Stomach growling? Yearning to fill that empty space inside? If faith-based-fast-food is what you’re craving look no further than Coffman Union’s resident Chick-fil-A!

Chick-fil-A has served up chicken sandwiches in the name of the Lord for over 60 years – in some respects. The Atlanta-based chain – pronounced “Chick-fil-lay,” doesn’t dish up religion to its customers, but was founded on Christian biblical principles.

In Minnesota, home to only two of Chick-fil-A’s 1,250 restaurants (Minnesota State University, Mankato houses the other), we hear little about the faithful Southern roots of the company credited with inventing the quick-service industry’s first boneless chicken sandwich and spawning the whole nugget idea.

S. Truett Cathy, Southern Baptist founder and chairperson of Chick-fil-A, has used biblical tenets as a guide to steer his restaurants since opening his first, The Dwarf Grill, in 1946. The grill gave way to Chick-fil-A and today, the private company, who reported systemwide sales of almost $2 billion in 2005, stands by its unusual corporate mission, “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A,” as stated on their website.

For instance, Chick-fil-A supports strong families, says Chick-fil-A training manager Ty Yokum.

Several policies are in place to “treat us [Chick-fil-A employees] with dignity, honor and respect,” as Yokum puts it. The company offers marriage counseling to all employees, scholarship opportunities, pays free full benefits to all full-time employees and their families, and closes every restaurant on Sundays (typically a fruitful day for fast food joints) – and boasts about a 97 percent retention rate of its employees.

Cathy gives employees Sundays off to recover from the workweek, spend time with their families and participate in fellowship or worship if they choose, explains Chick-fil-A spokesperson Brenda Green. The policy is still questioned by some business-savvy folks wondering why Chick-fil-A forgoes the day’s sales – and probably also by customers who just wonder why they can’t get their chicken fix on Sundays. Cathy maintains, “I feel it’s the best business decision I’ve ever made.” Cathy’s son Dan, the company’s president and chief operating officer, has promised to keep the closed-on-Sunday policy.

Yokum participated in Chick-fil-A’s employee marriage retreats twice, he says. Though retreats are not free, they are a “great value,” Yokum says. “It was a life-changing experience,” he says. Retreats are sponsored by Cathy’s WinShape Centre Foundation, which also has a four-year joint scholarship program with Berry College in Georgia, leadership camps for boys and girls and a foster home program with nine homes throughout the south and Brazil. Cathy and Chick-fil-A also support various religious groups and other projects through philanthropy.

Chick-fil-A caters to the customer’s family values too, via kid’s meals, says Rich Moorhouse, vice president of Minnesota manufacturing and marketing company Mello Smello, LLC, vending company for Chick-fil-A’s packaging and kid’s meals. Chick-fil-A chooses not to target children with cheap, flashy toys like other fast food chains, Moorhouse says. Instead, a book, tape or CD is included with the meals “specifically to promote parent and child interaction or education,” he explains.

“Chick-fil-A is like no other corporation we work with,” Moorhouse says. “I was shocked,” he explains, at a Chick-fil-A vendor conference last year when Dan Cathy “got down on his hands and knees and shined my shoes.” Dan personally shined the shoes of each vendor representative (about 40) on their way out of the conference before hugging them and thanking them individually for their support, Moorhouse explains. “I’ve met with many different CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies, and this is just something you’d never find … not in the corporate world,” Moorhouse says.

“Basically, people are treated like people,” Yokum says of Chick-fil-A’s practices, “and that’s a huge benefit in itself.”

Chick-fil-A seems to balance its business and morals agreeably. Opting to close down registers 15 percent of the week, the company continues to grow faster than fast food giants such as McDonald’s and Burger King, Frederick Reichheld explains in his book, Loyalty Rules!. Chick-fil-A beats the two in both freestanding restaurant (i.e. not in malls) sales and total percentage of growth, according to Reichheld. Since Chick-fil-A first opened in 1967, it has earned 38 consecutive annual sales increases, including double digit jumps the last 12 years, according to their website.

The success could have something to do with Chick-fil-A’s loyal customer base. When was the last time you grabbed a sleeping bag and your best thermos, and pitched a tent at the door of a new McDonald’s? When a new Chick-fil-A pops up, so do hundreds of customers, who set up camp the night before. Chick-fil-A “entertains these raving fans” too, she explains, with a DJ, karaoke, raffles and other festivities to keep energy going. The first 100 customers in the restaurant opening day get coupons for one free combo meal a week for the year – and the offer attracts a loyal following of college students, Green says.

One die-hard fan base from University of Texas, Austin even set up a website, chickenpack.com, as a forum to connect with other Chick-fil-A opening junkies. “We’ve endured hours of hundred degree heat, rain, sleet and freezing cold temperatures with a smile and a dance,” in the quest for a year’s worth of free Chick-fil-A, the site says. The site also has a tribute to Dan Cathy, who camps out with the customers at most openings – he makes it to about 50 a year, Green says.

Though Chick-fil-A currently keeps most of its unconventional do-good business ethics and gives away most of its free grub in the Southern states, Brenda Green says the company plans to spread north and into the Midwest, “slowly migrating up the West Coast.” Amen to that.

Coffman Union’s Chick-fil-A is a brand licensure with University Dining Services, which serves a smaller menu and may or may not operate with the same business principles.

“What comes to mind when you think of the word Muslim?” Faisal Alam asks, speaking to the crowd at the Hubert H. Humphrey Cowles Auditorium. “Homophobic, terrorism, intolerant of other religions, Middle East, lack of women’s rights.” “OK, any good things?” Alam says jokingly.

He then explains that the largest populations of Muslims live in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan – none of which are in the Middle East and all of which have had a female head of state, unlike the United States. In fact only 12 percent of the entire Muslim population live in the Middle East, Alam points out.

“The United States tries to understand east versus west by making things black and white, but there is more gray in the Muslim world than black or white,” Alam says.

Alam was born in Germany and lived in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan before his parents, both from middle class families, moved to a small town in Connecticut. There were two mosques in his hometown but, like most of the Muslims in the United States, his parents feared that his religion would be lost to American ways. Alam spent 40 hours a week in school being “American” but during the weekends and at home he spoke no English and practiced his religion diligently. He was living two lives, conflicted by a split identity.

“It was my junior year and I had to make the decision to defy my parents and go to the prom or stand by my religious beliefs,” Alam says.

Alam chose Islam and started to pioneer the movement of Islam in Connecticut. His name became familiar on the East Coast and he became the “model” child within the Muslim community. Choosing Islam may have seemed like the most difficult decision of his life, but Alam’s allegiance to his religion would be tested again further down the road.

Alam attended college in Boston and continued to be a large supporter and public figure in spreading the Islamic religion through the East Coast. It was in college, after being engaged for six months, that Alam realized he was not only different because of his religion or his nationality. Alam felt different because he is gay.

To say that homosexuality is wrong in the Muslim community is the understatement of understatements. “Basically, it’s not an option, in fact it’s not even talked about,” Alam says.

Now as a supporter, model child and pioneer of Islam, Alam had to choose between his religion and his sexuality. For him, his religion was something he could not live without and his sexuality was something he couldn’t change.

“I was split between two identities, they co-existed but were separate.” After a mental breakdown in November of 1996, Alam realized he had to merge the two into one. His first mission was to find others who were facing the same dilemma.

Alam started an e-mail list for gay Muslims, and a number of people joined but were scared to voice their thoughts. For the first eight months there were no messages written. Even without admitting to being gay, Alam was asked to resign from every organization he chaired, just for being on the list. He was forced out of his community simply because he believed it was OK to be born homosexual. In 1998, the subscribers on the list met in person at what has become known as the First International Retreat for GLBT Muslims, held in Boston, Mass.

“We talked about everything,” Alam says. “We decided to formally make the organization Al-Fatiha, which means ‘beginning’ or ‘opening’.”

Al-Fatiha is now an international organization dedicated to Muslims who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, those questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity and their allies. The organization strives to provide a safe space and a forum for LGBTQ [is this really an abbreviation?] Muslims and their friends to address issues of common concern and share individual experiences. Today Al-Fatiha has 700 members in the U.S.with eight chapters in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, D.C.

Alam closed with two quotes. The first was from Coretta Scott King, referring to her husband Martin Luther King, Jr. “We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be.” She also said, “I’ve always felt that homophobic attitudes and policies were unjust and unworthy of a free society and must be opposed by all Americans who believe in democracy.” The other quote is from Ghandi, “Be the change you want to see in this world.”

Alam has certainly done everything he can to be the change that he wants to see in this world.

Two U.S. Senate hopefuls, Congressman Mark Kennedy and Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, have engaged in a war of words that’s become increasingly heated as the Nov. 7 election draws near. Both candidates have released television commercials and made statements recently that harshly criticized one another in their campaigns to become Minnesota’s next senator, replacing retiring Sen. Mark Dayton. Independence Party candidate Robert Fitzgerald has withheld from the fiery exchanges for the most part.

Republican nominee Kennedy recently aired commercials accusing Klobuchar of breaking promises she made in her successful bid to win the seat she now holds. Kennedy’s advertisement claims that Klobuchar promised to “crack down on drug dealers” and “be tough on repeat offenders” but “”52 percent of first degree drug felons were given lighter sentences” and “career criminals continued to get plea bargains.”

“We’re looking at her record as Hennepin County attorney,” says Heidi Frederickson, Kennedy’s campaign press secretary. “It doesn’t do any good to have laws on the books unless they’re being enforced.”

Klobuchar, the Democratic nominee, shot back at Kennedy in more ways than one. In her latest ad, the mother of a homicide victim tells viewers that “Amy saw to it that those gangmembers [who killed my daughter] were put away” and continues “Mark Kennedy, you should be ashamed.” Klobuchar also put out a press release in which Ben Goldfarb, Klobuchar’s campaign manager, says “Congressman Kennedy has failed in Washington for six years. Now he’s going to offer the people of Minnesota [weeks] of nasty, misleading campaign ads.” Goldfarb also says that Kennedy “has nothing to offer but more of the same. Same old policies. Same old attack ads.”

Klobuchar defends her record as Hennepin County Attorney. In the same press release, it’s stated that “the average prison sentence for first-degree drug offenders in Hennepin County is now 20 percent longer than the year before Klobuchar took office” and that “since 1999, more than 125 career criminals have received longer prison sentences because of Klobuchar’s focus on repeat property offenders,” according to Hennepin County records.

Likewise, Kennedy claims that Klobuchar’s statements against him are false. The Minnestoa native’s online biography says that he “frequently [led] bi-partisan efforts to address concerns ranging from health care and transportation to keeping spending under control” in Congress.

Fitzgerald seems to be the only senate candidate abstaining from the crossfire, with one exception. Earlier this year he appealed to voters’ sanity in a Minnesota Public Radio debate. “There’s a definition of insanity¬—that’s doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result,” says Fitzgerald. “Minnesotans have a choice this coming fall, and they can vote independent. And that’s where they can get an independent voice in Washington representing other Minnesotans.”

That’s not the only difference among the three candidates. The war in Iraq has become a serious point of contention.

Kennedy wants to wait to bring American troops home until “necessary milestones defined by our commanders on the ground” have been met, according to an issue paper. Kennedy wants to stay there until the job is done, Frederickson says. “[Kennedy’s opponents] want to see how fast we can retreat.”

Klobuchar, a native of the western suburb, Plymouth, wants 2006 to be the year that control of the country is handed over to the Iraqis. “It should be a year of transition in which we bring a significant number of our troops home.” According to her position paper, Klobuchar wants Congress to demand a withdrawal plan that includes a “realistic time frame based on specific milestones and benchmarks, with honest and current information from the administration about the status of our efforts, the training of the Iraqi forces, and the restoration of basic services to Iraq.”

Fitzgerald supports immediate withdrawal. On his Web site, he says “it’s time to get out of Iraq now. Congress has abdicated its responsibility of oversight while cost overruns and emergency funding have masked the true cost.”

Their differences are also highlighted by their positions on healthcare. Kennedy would offer tax credits to buy health insurance for those who don’t have any. “Giving government more control is the surest way to make things worse. We must put patients and doctors, not bureaucrats, insurance companies, and trial lawyers in charge of healthcare,” his issue paper says. Klobuchar says that she “believe[s] every Minnesotan— and every American — should have access to quality, affordable healthcare.” Fitzgerald says “the goal is to balance affordability with universality. Healthcare should no longer be tied to employment. Insurance should be used for the unexpected and unaffordable.”

Each candidate also considers education a priority, but again, their approaches differ. Kennedy wants to “help make college affordable again by requiring colleges and universities that take federal aid to explain and justify double digit tuition increases and limit aid to those that don’t,” according to his website, but “Washington, D.C. has an important, but limited role to play in helping educate Minnesota’s children.” Frederickson says that higher education is important to Kennedy. “[He] is a first generation college graduate… He knows what it’s like to pay back student loans.”

Klobuchar, on the other hand, says that she “will fight for a stronger federal commitment to higher education.” In her issue paper, she says that she will fight the current administration’s policy to undermine education. “It makes no sense for Washington, D.C. to cut access to grants and loans for students when higher education costs are skyrocketing.”

Fitzgerald, who was born in Fargo but has lived in Minnesota since grade school, states simply that “local communities and the states can best react to education needs.”

Regardless of their differences, Minnesota’s historical tendency to lean left might prove to be a benefit for Klobuchar this November. She’s already leading Kennedy by double digits in several polls. One pool from the Pioneer Press and MPR, conducted in late September, put Klobuchar at 52 percent, while 37 percent of registered voters surveyed said they would elect Kennedy.

However, some recent elections indicate that a “blue” Minnesota could be a dying trend. Republicans and Democrats currently hold an equal number of Minnesotan seats in Congress and one senator from each of those parties represent the state in the Senate right now. Klobuchar is hoping to hold on to Dayton’s seat for the DFL, while Kennedy and Fitzgerald hope to score it for their parties. Frederickson thinks Kennedy has a real shot. When people are informed of both Kennedy’s and Klobuchar’s stances on the issues, Kennedy “frequently polls ahead,” she says. Minnesota has become “much more of a purple state.”

We were all told during orientation that the campus is safe and it’s rare to feel unsafe when walking through the mall or Dinkytown at night. With the recent assaults that have sprung up during the first few weeks of the school year in the surrounding University neighborhoods, everyone is having second thoughts about our so-called “safe” campus.

After the first month of the school year, seven assaults had happened in the Southeast Como, Marcy-Holmes and Cedar-Riverside neighborhoods, all surrounding the University’s East and West Banks, mostly occupied by students. With the year starting, “we have more people on the streets,” says James DeSota, neighborhood coordinator for the Southeast Como Improvement Association. There are a lot of factors adding up to the additional crime, DeSota says. (what factors?)

Three assaults happened on Friday, Sept. 9, the first weekend of school where traditionally the State Patrol is brought in to assist area police with the busy weekend. Two of these assaults were within one mile and 15 minutes of each other around 12th Avenue Southeast and Como Avenue. These three separate assaults started off a month filled with attacks and crime throughout Dinkytown and the Como area. The first attack was at 12:30 a.m. at 16th and University Avenue. The next two were within one block of each other, one at 2 a.m. at 12th and Como Avenue and the other at 2:15 a.m. at 12th and Talmadge Avenue.

Aaron Smith, a journalism junior, lives on 12th Avenue and saw an undercover police vehicle parked on 12th Avenue before 2 a.m. “I thought it was just a car parked in the middle of the street, but I got closer and realized it was an undercover cop car,” he says. This was before 2 a.m., because Smith’s parents were helping him move and had left by 2 a.m. along with the police car. “It wasn’t on the street at 2 a.m…obviously,” he says. “The attacks had to be related, they were too similar, too close to one another to not be,” Smith says.

These first three attacks resulted in the UMPD sending out a crime alert to all students via e-mail. The alert gave information on all three assaults including that in two of the incidents “the victim was assaulted with either a baseball bat or a stick,” and “two of the victims were hospitalized due to the extent of their injuries.”

As of press time, Lt. Chuck Miner of the University of Minnesota Police Department said the Minneapolis Police are close to solving two of the three assaults that they sent an alert out on.

Sept. 16 saw three assaults; one each in the Southeast Como, Cedar-Riverside and Dinkytown neighborhoods, where a man was punched in the face after refusing to give another man money.

An assault on Sept. 17 in Dinkytown resulted in a trip to the emergency room (by who? Should we delete?) due to a concussion. On that day a Chi Psi fraternity member was also attacked after telling people not to walk through the house’s yard.

Miner says that there seems to be no motives in any of the assaults or attacks, adding to the suspicion that the attackers were college-aged people just moving from party to party. “The three separate assaults [that happened the weekend of Sept. 9] did not appear to involve a motive…and were very unusual for this area,” he says.

The last attack of the month, on Sept. 23, was the only one with an apparent motive; two Augsburg students were assaulted after leaving a party in Dinkytown for being homosexual.

According to the University of Minnesota Police Department crime statistics, in September 2005 there was one case of simple assault and one case of aggravated assault. This number had tripled by the first two weeks of September 2006.

The Como attacks have been in the northwestern portion of the Como neighborhood because, DeSota says, this area is more concentrated with students. “There’s a high concentration of larger houses in this area, which results in more students and more house parties,” he says. “People are walking from party to party here, and therefore leave themselves open to the vulnerabilities of robbery and assault,” DeSota says.

One important factor to consider according to DeSota is that there has been an increase in house parties in these areas and therefore the police resources are going toward that rather than to patrolling the street. “Because of drinking and loud partying, a lot of resources are being directed toward that,” he says. All of these things are adding up to what DeSota calls, “a bad environment.”

With partying in mind: “Be aware that you are more likely to be a crime victim when you are under the influence of alcohol,” Miner says.

An important factor that many say is adding to the crime is that before this year most of the crime in the area only used to come from outsiders, those who did not live in the surrounding neighborhoods. DeSota suggests that these people would come to the U’s community because the law was being strictly enforced in other areas due to the recent murders in downtown Minneapolis, but now residents of these neighborhoods are adding to the crime as well. “People feel it’s OK now to just take things and use force,” DeSota says. “There definitely seems to be a more vicious feel to what’s going on,” he says, adding that there has also been an increase in vandalism in the area. “The majority of people committing these assaults seem to be residents of the area. This is being done by college aged students, the 18- to 24-year-old crowd,” DeSota says.

Miner seconds DeSota’s ideas about non-students coming into the university area. “As more student-orientated apartment complexes are being built off campus, non-University-affiliated individuals are moving into the older complexes in the neighborhoods that are less desirable to students,” Miner says.

The UMPD is increasing its weekend patrolling to deal with the increase in crime around the University. “Since the beginning of the school year and continuing throughout the semester, we have teamed up with the Minneapolis Police, the Minnesota State Patrol and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office to have more officers on patrol on weekend evenings in and around the University,” Miner says, but adds that the additional officers are focusing on combating underage alcohol abuse rather than the recent assaults. The department is hoping that this increased presence of about 20 officers will indirectly have an affect on other crimes as well.

On a normal shift, there is one sergeant and three to four officers from the UMPD patrolling the area, and the only increase in patrol on the weekends is the addition of the officers from surrounding departments mentioned above. Unfortunately though, the addition of 20 officers most likely does not make up for the thousands of students that are out and about on the weekends.

During the second week of school, the UMPD did receive permission to add two officers to the force. In addition to this, “we are requesting to add up to eight additional officers prior to the 2009 opening of the TCF Bank Stadium,” Miner says. This is due to the fact that, with the opening of the stadium, the campus will be more of a “home base” for partying before and after football games, which will require additional police force and resources.

But, the UMPD only patrols property “owned, leased, or operated by the University of Minnesota,” Miner says. This includes the dorm areas, but not the neighborhoods experiencing the crime. “The off-campus areas of Dinkytown, Como, Marcy-Holmes, Cedar-Riverside are the primary jurisdiction of the Minneapolis Police Department,” he says. “However, we assist them as needed and try to ensure that the area around the University is safe as well.”

The UMPD and the Minneapolis Police are in constant radio communications with one another, and either or both departments may respond to calls, the UMPD website says.

As a resource to those concerned about protecting themselves from the crime, a free workshop was held Oct. 2 at the Van Cleve Community Center, and was open to both students and residents. The event was planned before the recent spike in crime, DeSota says, but the Minneapolis Police have been holding workshops such as this for years around the city of Minneapolis, says Rick Maas, SAFE crime prevention specialist in the Minneapolis 2nd Precinct Safe Unit.

The workshop was led by Mary Brandl, a self-defense instructor. She ran workshops on defending yourself against threats and violence and how to manage confrontation. This community event taught students to avoid situations where assault or crime could happen and how to be aware of your surroundings to protect yourself, Maas says. There were also demonstrations by Brandl and participants about how to get away from attackers if there is an altercation. “This is one of the best self-defense courses we offer,” Maas says.

The Southeast Como Improvement Association holds community meetings on the first Monday of every month, DeSota says. “These meetings are open to anyone and crime and assault in the area is usually discussed because citizens are concerned,” he says. At these meetings community members may bring their concerns about crime in the area and SECIA takes these concerns to create community programming and communicate with police about the concerns.

The assaults on campus were not linked to robberies, but students and others in the community worry about the increased frequency of robberies in other parts of the city.

On Sept. 17, three robberies occurred in the university area. All of these incidents happened within four hours of one another. 2005 saw only two robberies, while 2004 had zero.

This recent crime and overall viciousness is giving an eerie feeling to the weekend nightlife that is such an integral part of the university community. So you don’t have to stay in and get ahead on your homework, keep this in mind: “Do not walk alone at night. Use the free campus escort service,” Miner says.

As the UMPD urges, “Do not hesitate to call 911 on or off campus if you observe suspicious circumstances or are in fear.” Hopefully October will bring us friendlier news.