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St. Cloud State University
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Year in Review
Top headlines of 2004-05 revisited
By Lesley Christianson
Published:
Monday, May 2, 2005
Media Credit: Adam Hammer
First-year student Amber Manko decorates the CSOLD office window in Atwood. Manko said she drew multiple designs for the display in an attempt to come up with a non-cultural holiday display.
Media Credit: Kell Sanders
First-year Elizabeth Templin reads the marker about abolitionist Jane Grey Swisshelm next to Shoemaker Hall. Student government removed the sign because of Swisshelm´s racist comments.
Media Credit: Tim Gruber
Travis Bistodau makes his way up the Mountain Dew Extreme Rock Climbing Wall shortly after the Rec Center opened.
Media Credit: Matthew Kaster
President George W. Bush waves to supporters during a rally in September at Dick Putz Field.
The 2004-05 academic year provided SCSU with as many life lessons as it did entertainment.
The year witnessed a presidential election, a controversial performance by student government, bags of money left over from last year's budget and a man elected homecoming queen, among other delightfully head-turning events.
September
Alarm clocks blared at 4 a.m. Sept. 20 for St. Cloud citizens preparing to gather at Dick Putz Field to attend a rally for the first sitting president to visit the area.
President George W. Bush spoke to more than 13,500 cheering residents about his plans to privatize social security and scourge evil lawyers from the sanctity of the civil courtrooms. Both issues are still pending in Congress.
Bush advocates were not the only people up before the sun. Close to 200 protesters lined Veterans Drive between the River Bats stomping grounds and the now-empty Fingerhut complex to welcome the president's entourage with posters, flyers and shouts of indignation.
Giving Bush a taste of "Minnesota nice," protesters and rally attendants alike tossed profanity and classy gestures of the one-fingered persuasion back and forth after the president's speech.
Earlier that month, SCSU students had another reason to cheer. The Sept. 9 grand opening of the Husky Stadium had more than 4,000 fans cheering as the Huskies won over Minnesota-Crookston, 49-14. The $9.7 million multi-purpose stadium with a seasonal dome was combined with a $6 million recreational center project that students voted in favor of bonding in 2001.
In other news, the first student government meeting of the year under the new leadership of president Hal Kimball and vice president Bianca Rhodes kicked off Sept. 16. Kimball and Rhodes were elected on a platform of change and transparency.
"We're not going to hide a lot of things," Kimball said. "Our egos aren't going to get in the way."
The political pair also claimed to continue the 2003-04 student government's efforts in ending the relationship with Minnesota State Universities Student Association (MSUSA).
"It's not your daddy's MSUSA anymore," Kimball said.
Each of these comments would later prove to hold little water in the actions of elected student government representatives.
What would be a good month of academia progression be without the attack on a good portion of college students' pastime-- alcohol?
Members of student government, Center for Student Organizations and Leadership Development (CSOLD), and Student Life and Development drafted a new policy, which regulated that any student organization fundraising event must not involve alcohol on or off campus. The policy further restricted alcohol availability at other functions to be served or distributed by a licensed third party. Furthermore, the policy indicated that alcohol must not be the sole purpose for conducting an event.
The policy impacted several student organizations whose main form of fundraising was pub crawls.
October
Homecoming this year did not yield record numbers of arrests, although the SCPD were out in full force. In fact, some SCSU students believed the traditionally rowdy night filled with intoxicated co-eds was rather uneventful. But a few noteworthy events did take place.
SCSU student government member Fue Khang sparked controversy with his election to the coveted, traditionally female role as SCSU homecoming queen. St. Cloud showed its tolerance level by responding with hate mail, threats and other forms of harassment.
The 2004-05 homecoming court was also the first to have each of the royalty positions filled by a student of color.
Halloween events included the first Atwood After Dark. More than 700 people participated in the various spooky, pumpkin-themed events.
Student government was busy in the month of October fighting the good fight to remove concrete slabs from campus.
With a vote of 15 to two, members of the student government passed a resolution to remove a controversial marker commemorating the life of St. Cloud newspaper editor Jane Grey Swisshelm. She was active in the abolitionist and women's rights movements. Student government fought for the marker's removal on the grounds that Swisshelm was also openly against Native Americans. The marker was removed late April.
Alcohol was not the only legal substance under attack this year. Health officials put the spotlight on smoking on campus during the fall.
Jodi Rohe, coordinator of Tobacco Free Communities at the Central Minnesota Heart Center, incited emotions concerning secondhand smoke, which led to efforts to close the Apocalypse room, the only indoor smoking area on campus.
November
Bush won. Democrats cried. Republicans cheered.
In other news, Support the Court conducted a rally to curb the hate messages flowing into SCSU. The rally was in response to a letter the committee sent to SCSU President Roy Saigo with a list of demands to address racism, homophobia and transphobia on campus. The committee found the administration's response insufficient.
Next, the Web site, http:// www.pickaprof.com chose SCSU as its potential launching pad for its continued expansion.
The creation of Texas A&M University graduates John Cunningham, 27, and Chris Chilek, 28, allows students to locate assuredly unbiased opinions of their fellow college students' professors.
Last, students took a break from the homecoming aftermath and red state/blue state bickering to hop a flight to "cloud nine" with Incubus.
The rock group performed for nearly 4,000 fans in Halenbeck Hall. The event kicked off without security members stealing memory cards from Chronicle photographers, but one female fan did manage to accost bassist Ben Kenney in a Hanson-fan like death grip.
December
SCSU students thought Christmas was coming early this year with the announcement of a $4.8 million surplus.
The administration considered ways to "give back" the money through funding of certain programs and services, but denied requests of student refunds.
"That money belongs to the students that paid the extra money," student government legislative affairs chair Gordie Loewen said. "We can't write checks back to students, because writing each student a $0.54 check would be ridiculous, but we want to get it back in the general populous so that many of the students that are still here can benefit from it."
Loewen showed his mathematical prowess in citing these figures. A $4.8 million surplus, divided by the student population of 15,000, would have equaled $320 checks issued to each student. But heck, what's a $319.46 difference?
The Grinch visited campus for the holidays this season. Many students claimed to feel pressure from RAs and other administrators into keeping holiday decorations to a minimum.
SCSU made the KSTP Channel 5 nightly news with the controversy surrounding the Christmas tree overlooking campus from the roof of Sherburne Hall. Some students argued the display promoted Christianity, while others asserted a small pine tree had no religious connotations.
While many students watched the tsunami that hit the shores of the Philippines and much of the southern Asian coasts on the evening news, 18 SCSU students arrived 10 hours north of the scene, unaware of the waves of destruction washing onto the shores in the south.
The students arrived Dec. 26 in Thailand to complete field study work for anthropology requirements, completely unaware of the hundreds of thousands of people fighting for their lives just hours away.
When the students returned to SCSU, they collaborated with student government to organize a clothing drive to aid in the tsunami relief efforts. �
January
Even though students did not return to campus until mid-January, the latter part of the month proved eventful.
After months of construction, the not quite completed state-of-the-art Recreation Center opened to a throng of eager students.
The Rec. Center included a Mountain Dew Xtreme Climbing Wall, the dome, a fully-equipped fitness center, a student lounge area and two aerobic studios, all of which provided a plethora of healthy activities for students.
For $25 (the cost of one hour spent downtown), anyone could purchase a year pass to use the facilities.
The Freedom to Breathe Act of 2005 generated fear from St. Cloud bar owners as the bill made its way through the state Legislature. If passed, the bill would ban smoking from all restaurants and bars in the state.
The Press Bar and Parlor owner Jim Gillespie voiced his concern over the ban.
"I'm not a smoker, but I think a total ban is a little tough, especially for bars," he said. "I think it's just using laws to manage everything that we do."
Advocates of the ban cite the dangers of secondhand smoke to employees and patrons, while opponents claim the ban overreaches the government's power to control private businesses.
February
Students who are mathematically challenged found February confusing, frustrating and simply puzzling with the allocation of the budget surplus.
The university decided to spread $1.95 million of the one-time monies to fund scholarships and "student support initiatives" over the next three years.
Accreditation efforts received $364,000 over three years, $55,000 for first-year experience course developments such as the Husky workshops that have been available since last semester, $50,133 to a student e-mail program, $90,000 to undergraduate studies, faculty and student development, $75,000 to a field research facility in Kathio State Park and a $500,000 matching grant for donations given to renovate Centennial Hall. The smallest portion of the money was allocated toward a diversity and social justice fund.
The administration divvied $2.7 million to technology endeavors over the next three years for items like computer replacements, maintenance for e-classrooms and equipment.
University-community relations will be receiving $817,200 divided between a $100,000 advertising campaign, $25,000 to fund the alumni magazine Outlook and $450,000 toward fundraising campaign planning.
SCSU also proposed spending $5.7 million over the next three years on various parking improvements.
Many, after they added up all of the various funds disbursed to organizations, programs and services, found that the sum totaled considerably more than $4.8 million. The reason given is that the university expects the same surplus for the next three years. Another tuition increase, anyone?
It was a time for mourning for students who knew SCSU third-year student Jacob Pfingsten, who died in Germany while serving on a mission for the Army National Guard.
Pfingsten died of a brain aneurysm brought on from a case of pneumonia and whooping cough. The Brainerd native was studying aeronautics when he succumbed to his illness.
Recent SCSU graduate Sgt. Jesse Lhotka was killed Feb. 21 by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, Iraq. It was the deadliest day for Minnesota soldiers since May 5, 1968, when nine men died in Vietnam.
Lhotka graduated with a degree in finance. He married last fall and was shipped to New Jersey shortly after, from which he departed to Iraq. The news of his death hit many of his friends, associates and fellow campus members, including Lhotka's advisor William Hudson, extremely hard.
"I was shocked and deeply saddened," Hudson said. "The finance majors are a family and we lost one of our own. We are a tight knit group."
Next, U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman visited SCSU to address the problems facing international students.
SCSU also played host to one of the largest BLGTA (bisexual, lesbian, gay, transgender, ally) conferences in the nation.
More than 900 people attended the 13th Annual Midwest BLGTA College Conference. Participants in the conference discussed the issues of homophobia, tolerance and gay marriage.
Student government brought February to a halting end with the resignation of the entire finance committee and the attempted resignation of vice president Bianca Rhodes.
Finance chair Ibrahim Bah said that he and his fellow finance members resigned because they believed certain executive members of student government had shown favoritism toward particular organizations when approving or denying budget requests and dealing with other fiscal matters.
Rhodes, in her failed letter of resignation, claimed student government was not accomplishing all that it should have this year and these frustrations prompted her to step down.
The same week accusations of biased allocations of student fees were made public, student government received its certification of incorporation.
The incorporation is a step toward independence from SCSU and MnSCU (Minnesota State Colleges and Universities) and gave student government even more access to student fees.
March
A University Program Board (UPB) survey asking students for their input about regulations on future homecoming court nominations was released and the results called for a few major changes.
The changes included the removal of titles for members of the court, and no future restrictions on the gender of nominees. The alterations could generate a homecoming court of four men or four women.
Next, drinking shared the spotlight in the Minnesota legislative session.
Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, authored a bill that would prohibit people from consuming alcohol until 8 a.m. on their 21st birthday.
Advocates of the proposal hoped to curb the "power hour" celebrations in which newly legal drinkers consume 21 shots of alcohol in the hours between midnight and 2 a.m. on the eve of their birthday. The bill is currently making its way through the House.
Once again, student government continued its campaign against historical markers with the announcement of their plan to remove a plaque that recognizes the burial site that was found when the Miller Center's foundation was being built in 1999.
Vice President of Student Life and Development Nathan Church said the plaque will be replaced with a re-worded message or will be re-installed with additional information about the content of the plaque.
Student government members said they want the plaque removed because it glorified the stealing of Native American lands.
Tom Andrus, outreach coordinator at the American Indian Center, said he initially thought the plaque was offensive because of what Chanmany Sysengchanh, chair of the student government's campus affairs committee, had told him. After reading the plaque, Andrus said he found nothing controversial about the wording.
In sports, the SCSU women's basketball team gave students and fans an exciting season that carried them to the playoffs. In the final game of the Elite Eight, the Huskies lost to Merrimack, 79-78 with a last-second shot by All-American Joelle Martin to give the Warriors the lead.
Perhaps the final story in the lawsuit in which former SCSU dean Richard Lewis lodged claims of libel against SCSU and the University Chronicle came to an end.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that SCSU and MnSCU have no editorial power over the student-run newspaper, and thus Lewis' lawsuit deflated.
April
April showers brought May flowers, but also student government sorrows.
President of SCSU student government Hal Kimball ran unopposed for state chair in the Minnesota State University Student Association (MSUSA) election, and was voted unanimously into the position.
The election baffled some, who had believed student government would follow a student-approved referendum to discontinue membership in MSUSA. Kimball's failure to respond to the Chronicle's numerous attempts to contact him for comment on the story only cast a larger shadow on the issue.
Student government's apparent refusal to cut ties with the organization was even more confusing to students when representatives continued to walk out of MSUSA meetings.
Southwest Minnesota State University student government president Michael Boulton and senator Kayla Lindberg submitted a letter to the Chronicle last week, voicing their disapproval of the SCSU student government's actions during these meetings.
Off-campus news included an incident at the popular night club, The Red Carpet in downtown St. Cloud, which resulted in a man dead and the county conducting an extensive investigation.
The incident occurred April 8 when Justin Smiley, a 28-year-old Sauk Rapids man, was found unconscious by police officers after they responded to a call from The Red Carpet. According to the police report, a bouncer from the bar held Smiley face down on the sidewalk after an altercation occurred.
Smiley was in a coma suffering extensive brain damage until family members removed him from life support and he died the following Tuesday. He is survived by a fianc�e and three young children.
The SCSU campus community suffered the loss of two more students in April.
Fourth-year student John Udvig died by suicide April 9 in his house near campus. He would have turned 22-years-old the following Sunday.
Udvig was an avid outdoorsman who also enjoyed music and had just released his first CD before his death.
A second student died April 28 in the St. Cloud hospital following a two-day stay. Friends found Matt Wallace unconscious the previous Tuesday in his dorm in Mitchell Hall.
Students passed a few referendums to kick off the end of the year. Students voted to allow SCSU to purchase wind power from Xcel Energy to power the university, at a cost of a 1 percent tuition increase to students.
More news from student government came at last Thursday's meeting, when several senators attempted to remove president Hal Kimball from power. The vote lost by a slim margin.
And what would the end of the year be like without more alcohol policy examinations?
SCSU President Roy Saigo issued a charge to Vice President of Student Life and Development Nathan Church and other campus administration to form a task force whose duty would be to reevaluate the current alcohol policy.
Possible changes include the clarification of allowing tailgating parties to have responsible use of alcohol, alumni banquets to have a bar and wedding receptions conducted in Atwood to have access to alcohol.
Penalties for misuse of alcohol on campus could also receive a facelift. Church said a 25-year-old enjoying a beer at their desk would receive fitting consequences as would a 19-year-old hosting a floor party passing out liquor to minors. As the policy currently stands, each offense receives the same punishment.
As students look toward next year, they can expect to find SCSU's top stories published in the Chronicle. It has been one interesting year, and assuredly the next will prove just as newsworthy.
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