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Minnesota State University, Mankato
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Retiring custodian made his mark Longtime janitor helped many in his time spent with the university. EMMA DEPPA Staff Writer This semester, one of Minnesota State University, Mankato’s oldest and most cherished janitors traded in his maintenance equipment for retirement. Sixty-four year old Bill Oliver is retiring after twenty-nine years of service to MSU in the Building Services department. He is remembered as a hard-worker, but above all a friendly man who always wore a smile. One story that Bill fondly recalls is his experience with a new Nepalese student. “Wandering the hallways, the student looked lost, confused, and like he needed something. Or someone,” Oliver said. After Oliver took this new student under his wing and spoke with him, the student nearly cried about how hard the tran-
sition was, but through that they formed a strong friendship. Their relationship lasted the four years he was at Minnesota State University, Mankato and the student invited Mr. Oliver to come visit him in Nepal. Oliver’s path didn’t initially lead him to MSU. Oliver was born to a farming family in Minnesota. Later in life he served in the U.S. Navy, a very honorable feat. When he returned from the Navy Bill took over the family farm, as his father was ill. Unfortunately, during the mid-1980’s there was a farming crisis and many families lost their farms, including the Oliver family. The combination of climbing interest rates and declining livestock health eventually lead to the unfortunate surrender of the farm. That was when a friend advised Bill to search for work up
at MSU. Bill’s first shift on campus was in 1985 where he was a part of the night crew cleaning the library. He also did maintenance tours of Nelson Hall, the Performing Arts Center and the residence halls. His last venue was the Centennial Student Union. Many maintenance workers would choose to avoid the CSU because of the seemingly never-ending crowds, however in Bill’s case, that is what attracted him to the building. “I enjoy people, and I love the students,” Oliver told the Free Press. “That’s why we’re here! They’re here to learn and they’re so excited about it.” Bill Oliver will be greatly missed by the staff and students that got the chance to meet him. He will now be filling his days with fishing and relaxing, a much deserved retirement.
Web Photo
Hmong association to host culture day HANNAH KLEINBERG Staff Writer
Web Photo Hmong Association students.
INSIDE:
The Hmong Student Association will be giving the campus a splash of culture this Friday with Hmong Culture Day, where students of all ethnicities and backgrounds will come together and celebrate this special event. Hmong Culture Day will be on Friday and will take place in Centennial Student Union’s Ballroom from 5 to 8 PM. An after party will follow the celebration from 9 to 11 PM, where there will be more colorful festivities and an auction. Tickets purchased in advance are $3, $5 at the door and, if you choose to wear Hmong clothing, $4. Hmong Student Association Treasurer Babie Yang knows what Hmong Culture Day really means. “Hmong Culture Day is a celebration of the New Year,” Yang explained, “ It is a time to
pass away misfortune.” The Hmong New Year is an event very dear to those of the Hmong community, and they avidly attend the events off campus as well. There is a large celebration held in the Cities, so the Hmong Student Association yearned to bring the Hmong flavor back to the campus for all of us to enjoy. This year’s theme is “Once Upon A-Hmong Time,” otherwise known as “Puag Thaum Ub,” and according to Treasurer Yang, there’s a lot to be excited about. There will be a large show with a variety of activities, including traditional dances, skits and a large selection of Hmong cuisines. A booth for HSA will also be present, selling chocolate bars to fundraise other future events such as this. “[The play] is very important to us,” Babie Yang said. “It’s an orally-passed folklore that’s been with us for as long as I can remember.”
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There will be an array of food to choose from. Among other things, there will be sticky rice, chicken stir-fry, ginger pork, vegetarian egg rolls and a special cuisine called ‘Nab Vam’, or Tri-color. It’s a mix of coconut milk, tapioca pudding and fruit that, according to Yang, is always a hit. There will also be a fashion show, to show the progression of Hmong clothing from olden times to the present, modeled by participants from the HSA. “I’m excited to see the people there,” Yang said. “It’s been a lot of hard work, with the dancing and play rehearsals, and I’m very excited to see it all come together.” Six different committees are ensuring Hmong Culture Day will happen. Forty to fifty people are working to make the event possible. Babie Yang and others from the HSA couldn’t be more grateful for their hard work. ED/OP
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Thursday, January 30, 2014
Blakeslee Stadium awarded top honors in statewide contest Recognition given to stadium groundskeepers. ALEX KERKMAN Staff Writer While everyone knows the Minnesota State University Mavericks have one of the best football programs around, their home turf is earning some top notch recognition as well. Two weeks ago, the Minnesota Park and Sports Managers Turf Association named MSU’s Blakeslee Stadium the 2013 Minnesota Field of the Year. As the stadiums head groundskeeper, Bruce Leivermanns takes great pride in the stadiums’ recognition. “It goes to show how much work the university puts into the field,” Leivermann said. “It really is a whole team award.” Leivermann, who is in his fourth year as head groundskeeper, is one of five full time and seven part time employees on the Minnesota State Mankato grounds keeping staff. The other full time employees are Dean Becker, Jacob Button, Bernie Kozitza and Jon VanThoyne. There are three main criteria the Minnesota Park and Sports Managers Turf Association looks at when bestowing the annual award. 1. Resourcefulness of staff, budget, maintenance practices as well as challenges in the management of the athletic field. 2. Condition and aesthetics of the athletic field. 3. Number and type of games and/or events taking place on the field. In the association’s opinion, the Mavericks home field passed the test with flying colors. As far as the field is concerned, Leivermann believes in maintaining a high standard for the players sake. “We do it for the student athletes,” said Leivermann. “Its great to be able to show off the stadium to new recruits on visits.” Though there are some challenges to maintaining an NCAA caliber football field, Leivermann admits that he enjoys his job. “My favorite part is all of it,”Leivermann said. Minnesota State Mankato director of athletics Kevin Buisman is as happy with Leivermann as Leivermann is with the University. “Our experience with Bruce and his crew has been terrific,” Buisman said in an interview with the Mankato Free Press.
Web Photo Blakeslee Stadium during Vikings training camp- August 2012.
“Bruce is fairly new to us here at Minnesota State, Mankato, but he’s already one of the best in the business. He and his crew are very deserving of this honor.” Along with the Mavericks football team, Blakeslee Stadium hosts the Minnesota Vikings summer training camp, the annual Mankato East vs West high school football game and the Thunder of Drums marching band performances. Apart from Blakeslee Stadium, the staff also takes care for the university’s baseball, softball, soccer and rugby fields. In total the staff maintains about 34 acres of turf throughout university grounds. Before joining Minnesota State Mankato, Leivermann worked in the golf and landscaping industries for nearly 35 years. Leivermann, a Minneapolis native and University of Minnesota at Waseca alumni, has lived in Mankato since 1999. Spring through fall keeps Leivermann and the grounds keeping crew busy, although they have a little bit of a breather come Winter. “It’s mainly just trash pick up in winter,” Leivermann admitted. Blakeslee Stadium was
built in 1962. The 7,500 person capacity stadium was named in honor of former athletics administrator and coach C.P. Blakeslee, who was inducted
into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame as a charter member in 1963. Besides baseball, Blakeslee also coached the university’s
basketball, gymnastics, track, golf, baseball and tennis. Over 43 years Blakeslee racked up 21 conference titles between seven sports.
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Thursday, January 30, 2014
ATLANTA (AP) — Across the South, residents stocked up on fuel and groceries, schools and offices closed, and road crews were at the ready as a storm moved in Tuesday from the central U.S., threatening to bring snow, ice and subzero temperatures to a region more accustomed to air conditioners and sunscreen than parkas and shovels. Even with the timing and severity of the blast of freezing precipitation uncertain, officials from parts of Texas to southeastern Virginia warned motorists to stay off the roads. Popular warm-weather tourist destinations — Charleston, S.C.; Savannah, Ga.; Pensacola, Fla.; Virginia Beach, Va.; and New Orleans — expected ice and snow over the next two days, rare occurrences in places that seldom even see prolonged subfreezing temperatures. At an Ace Hardware store in the north Georgia town of Cumming, snow shovels were in short supply, but manager Tom Maron said feed scoops - often used in barns - could be substituted. Workers expected brisk business, with patrons buying insulation, faucet covers, portable heaters and other coldweather gear. “We’re fixing to put the ice melt out, and we’ve got plenty of sand here to mix in,” Maron said shortly before dawn. Much of Georgia was placed under a winter storm watch for Tuesday and Wednesday, with some areas forecast to see as much as 3 inches of snow. But Jason Deese with the National Weather Service said the snow totals would “matter very little in this situation because of the ice potential.” “Some parts of the state may end up seeing the greatest impact just because they get more ice than snow,” he said. In rural Mississippi, amid warnings about snow and ice, four people died when an early morning fire destroyed a mobile home in Itawamba County, near the Alabama border. Investigators believe a space heater was to blame, and local officials said it was bitterly cold overnight, with temperatures dipping to about 20 degrees. Sheriff Chris Dickinson said nine people were in the mobile home at the time, using the heater for warmth. Officials didn’t identify the victims but said they ranged in age from 3 months to 30 years. Snow began falling before dawn Tuesday in the extreme northwest portion of Alabama. In Montgomery, Bradley Thrift sat in a hotel parking lot letting his truck warm up before head-
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South continues battle with extreme weather ing out with a crew to work on sewers. “We’ve got a job to do. We’ll just be out in it,” said Thrift, wrapped up in a thick coat. “We’ll be safe. When the boss man says that’s it, it’s too slippery, we’ll just come back here and wait.” At a nearby Publix grocery story, shoppers had cleaned out three shelves of bottled water, and all the boxed fire logs were gone. The milk cabinet had big gaps where rows of gallon jugs were missing. “We kept having to replenish the milk yesterday — people were buying it so quickly,” worker Jeneen Gabson said. In the Hampton Roads area of Virginia — which forecasters said could see a foot of snow — store shelves started emptying of staples such as bread by Monday night. Schools and businesses planned to close early, with the storm expected to further clog an already-busy afternoon commute. In coastal Charleston, it was a balmy 62 degrees Monday. But the approaching weather led the College of Charleston to cancel classes Tuesday. There was a forecast of rain and sleet in the late afternoon, with the first snow expected Wednesday morning. Nationwide, nearly 3,000 flights within, into or out of the U.S. had been cancelled by 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to statistics from the flight tracking service FlightAware. Only a couple of hundred flights are canceled in the U.S. on a typical day. The airport hardest-hit by cancellations Tuesday was also the world’s busiest: HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International, where a total of 863 inbound and outbound flights had been cancelled by 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to FlightAware. Meanwhile, in the Midwest, plummeting temperatures and increasing winds took root for another day even as the storm moved south. Several states in the central U.S. saw schools and other facilities close for a second consecutive day as dangerous wind chills were predicted. In Minnesota, forecasters said wind chills could reach 35 to 50 degrees below zero. In the Carolinas, many school districts were running on half-day schedules Tuesday so students could head home before the worst of the storm system hit. In North Carolina’s Outer Banks, barrier islands that are popular with tourists during the warm seasons, residents were bracing for as much as 8 inches of snow.
Several inches also were expected in South Carolina, where the state department of transportation planned to send crews out Tuesday to treat roads with sand and brine to ease any troubles caused by ice. In Louisiana, state Public Service Commission Chairman Eric Skrmetta told residents to be prepared by stocking up with food, fueling cars and making sure to have cash on hand. State
police said freezing rain was falling in the central part of the state early Tuesday, but most highways remained open. The heaviest snowfall was likely to be 1 to 3 inches just north of the Baton Rouge metro area Donna Vidrine, a cashier at Simcoe Food World in Lafayette, said her store was already busy Monday. “They’re buying things like canned goods — nonperishable
items — and bottles of water and diapers for their baby,” she said. In Livingston Parish in southeast Louisiana, authorities said a curfew would be in effect Tuesday night and Wednesday morning because of the threat of freezing rain. Sheriff Jason Ard said motorists in the parish should stay off roadways, except essential personnel and first responders.
Web Photo Areas of Southern Alabama are seeing extreme weather- including snow, an extremely rare occurrence.
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U of M Professor, author to discuss water sustainability Wednesday’s lecture will center around protecting our water supply. RYAN BERNDT Staff Writer Dr. Deborah L. Swackhamer, faculty member and co-director of the Water Resources Center at the University of Minnesota, will lead a lecture on Wednesday from 12:00 p.m. to 2 p.m. in Ostrander Auditorium, entitled “Water Sustainability: Planning for Future Generations. Dr. Swackhamer is the lead author of the “Minnesota Water Sustainability: Planning for Future Generations.” Swackhamer led the framework with the help of state legislature appropriating $750,000 to the University of Minnesota’s Water Resources Center back in spring of 2009. At 400 pages, the document evaluates Minnesota’s water usage in terms of what it’s used for, how it’s used, as well as mentioning good practices the state should follow when it comes to protecting and treating water. The framework provides a 25year plan to protect, conserve, and enhance the quantity and quality of the state’s groundwater and surface water. If it wasn’t for The Clean Water, Land and Legacy Act, an amendment passed back in fall 2008, money wouldn’t have been able to be allocated towards the project. An estimated 85 million dollars per year will be spent on protecting and preserving Minnesota’s surface and ground wa-
ter. The goal of the act is to help maintain and grow “world-class parks and trails that connect everyone to the outdoors.” With a 3/8 percent increase in state sales tax that will fund the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Act until 2034, the state is actively searching for projects to fund. During the 2013 Legislative Session, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) received requests that amounted to $51,138,047 in requested funds from possible projects. Swackhamer is considered an expert on the subject of environmental health sciences, having received a BA in Chemistry from Grinnell College, IA and holding a MS in Water Chemistry and a PhD in Limnology & Oceanography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Not only is she a member of the Science Advisory Board of the International Joint Commission of the US and Canada, Swackhamer holds other various positions in national committees and recently finished a four-year term as Chair of the Science Advisory Board of the US Environmental Protection Agency. As the population grows and demands for natural resources increase, water availability will need to be addressed. Although Minnesota may be known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” once those are dried up what will we have left?
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MSU Reporter • 5
News
Using words as a manipulating tool Manipulating people through words is a simple step to molding minds.
SAM WILMES News Editor In politics, oftentimes the biggest weapon you can have at your disposal is not the policies you want to implement but the words you choose to represent your policies. Master of this domain Frank Luntz has perfected this technique and is mainly responsible for the terms you see fly out of politician’s mouths today. He has perfected the art of the word. Think of the difference between these two terms: Undocumented Workers and Illegal Aliens. The two, while used to describe the same set of people, are bound to produce different views of the issue. Another term that can gain a significant foothold depending on the terminology used is centered on the Keystone Pipeline. “Drilling for oil,” is significantly less attractive than “Exploring for energy,” a phrase commonly used by proponents of the policy. Another component of the Luntz playbook is the use of the word Government. Luntz mentions that you should never use the word- instead you should rely on the word Washington. The word is commonly used in politics to describe every problem: Washington waste,
Washington bureaucracy, Washington regulation and Washington rules. Instead of taking the words at face value always realize that since they are framing a question in a certain way they are not saying what they really mean but only what they want you to know to mean. They are molding your subconscious mind to change your perception of an issue. They have been extremely successful at changing public perception in part due to their play on words. While 68% of Americans support the inheritance/estate tax, 78% oppose the death tax. The two phrases are, again, describing the same tax. According to Frank Luntz, Republican usage of the word “Death Tax” would kill it. Word manipulation was a common tool used during the buildup to the Iraq war. “Patriot” was described by many political commentators, particularly on the right, to imply that they were warriors for their country. By self-describing themselves as such they were successful at painting any opponent, no matter the reasoning, as unAmerican. Luntz is also responsible for the changing of the term “Global Warming” to a far-less intimidating “Climate change.” Successfully painting the issue as
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such is not only a changing of words but a changing of the parameters of the issue. In his most important work, Luntz changed the perception of the looming War in Iraq one word at a time. While today
people refer to the conflict as the Iraq War, the terminology 12 years ago was dramatically different. “War on Terror,” permeated the airwaves, mainly due to the contributions of Luntz.
This component of political life goes to show that, like every aspect of society a debate can be won or lost on marketing. It’s not necessarily about the message but rather the way you frame a message.
Web Photo Frank Luntz (Center) has changed the political word with his talent of word manipulation.
6 • MSU Reporter
Thursday, January 30, 2014 Follow the Reporter on Twitter @MSU Reporter or Like Us on Facebook.com/ msureporter
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Real women don’t all come in one size
Letter to the Editor:
An open letter to all tobacco users on campus
EMMA DEPPA Staff Writer
To the MSU Campus Community: At Minnesota State University, Mankato, our campus is a source of pride. Considerable resources are expended to maintain our facilities. Our goal is to provide a clean, comfortable environment that supports our academic mission. Several universities have banned smoking on campus not because of health issues but because of litter issues. In these cases, considerate smokers lost out because of the behavior of their littering counterparts. MSU policy prohibits the use of all tobacco on campus. Violation of this policy is evidenced in this photo (above). This action is not merely an expression of opinion against the policy but an act of vandalism. If you are a smoker who does
litter, we hope that you will learn about the impact of your actions and break the habit. Consider your actions and how they reflect on our community. There is no excuse for littering. Trash cans are available everywhere, use them. Be absolutely sure your cigarette is out before depositing. Smokers who liter give a bad name to all smokers and make non-smoking activists even more dedicated to increasing smoking bans and raising taxes. “Considerate smokers don’t litter. Those who do deserve criticism as much as any other litterer.” --Militant Smoker’s Rights Group It’s your campus. Please respect it. Terry Lewis Physical Plant Director MSU, Mankato
Ladies, I’m sure you’ve had days where you feel fat because you’re not the size 0 model in the magazines. In this day and age it’s nearly impossible to avoid the constant media influence on body image. The fallacious images from the media, impossible expectations of peers and new cultural ideas of beauty are placing more pressure on women to be stick thin, yet curvy in the right places. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, the average American woman is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds, whereas the average American model is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 117 pounds. Edward Lovett, in his article on ABC news titled Most Models Meet Criteria for Anorexia, Size 6 is Plus Size, stated that “20 years ago, the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today she weighs 23% less.” With that as the harsh reality of what our society has defined beauty as, it’s hard to feel satisfied with what is a normal and healthy bodyweight. That was until Aerie, a branch off of American Eagle Outfitters that sells undergarments and sleepwear for teen and young adult females, started their advertising campaign
Aerie Real. This new series of advertisements features beautiful young women who are not Photoshop-ed or airbrushed in any way. Their statement reads, “Dear Aerie Girls, We think it’s time for a change. We think it’s time to get real and think real. We want every girl to feel good about who they are and what they look like, inside and out. This means no more retouching ourg girls and no more supermodels. Why? Because there is no reason to retouch beauty. We think The real you is sexy. Aerie.” Wow, how refreshing. This campaign is taking the first step in the right direction that, hopefully, other companies will follow. This is not only good for young girls who look to advertisements like this to decide what beauty is, it is also good for boys and society. It is highly beneficial for our culture to embrace different body types and learn that women don’t need to be underweight to be beautiful. If boys grew up seeing different shapes of women in the media, perhaps when they grew up to be men they wouldn’t be as prone to press their preconceived notions of what a woman should look like on those surrounding them. I applaud Aerie for starting the trend of using real and beautiful young women in their advertisements. Hopefully the trend will catch on and change the social dilemma of ridiculous standards of beauty.
“How do you feel about using size ‘zero’ women to pedal products?”
AVERY CARTER, EXERCISE SCIENCE
RACHEL OTT, BIOCHEMISTRY
NAVDOS TESFAYE, NURSING
“It’s misleading because the average woman is not a size zero.”
“They should use average girls because in reality there are very few girls who are a size zero.”
“I find it okay because I’m a size zero but I think there should be more plussize models to help plus-size women.”
NIKKI VANG, DENTAL HYGIENE
“I believe companies are using size zero to define what a woman should be like. Women come in all different sizes. Their size is what makes them beautiful.”
Minnesota State University, Mankato
STAFF
SPRING 2014 EDITOR IN CHIEF: Reece Hemmesch.......389-5454 NEWS EDITOR: Sam Wilmes..............389-5450 SPORTS EDITOR: Joey Denton.............. 389-5227 VARIETY EDITOR: James Houtsma.......... 389-5157 ADVERTISING SALES: Natasha Jones........... 389-1063 Mac Boehmer............389-5097 Parker Riesgraf.......... 389-1079 Brandon Poliszuk.......389-5453 BUSINESS MANAGER: Jane Tastad............... 389-1926 ADV. DESIGN MANAGER: Dana Clark............... 389-2793
POLICIES & INFORMATION • If you have a complaint, suggestion or would like to point out an error made in the Reporter, call Editor in Chief Reece Hemmesch at 507-3895454. The Reporter will correct any errors of fact or misspelled names in this space. Formal grievances against the Reporter are handled by the Newspaper Board. • The Minnesota State University Mankato Reporter is a studentrun newspaper published twice a week, coming out on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Reporter generates 78 percent of its own income through advertising and receives approximately 22 percent from Student Activities fees. The Reporter is free to all students and faculty, but to start a subscription, please call us at 507-3891776. Subscriptions for the academic school year are $55.00 and subscribers will receive the paper within three to five days after publishing. • Letters exceeding 400 words may not be accepted. The Reporter reserves the right to edit letters to fit space or correct punctuation. The Reporter reserves the right to publish, or not publish, at its discretion. Letters must contain year, major or affiliation with the university, or lack thereof. All letters must contain phone numbers for verification purposes.
Compiled by Arnold Bagamba
NOU VANG, PRE-NURSING “Companies using size zero models are not in the wrong, however, it is wrong when they expect to only carry size zero clothing in their store or companies.”
Thursday, January 30, 2014
MSU Reporter • 7
Ed/Op
Generation of technology cannot be blamed on those who received it Our generation has had technology forced down its throat from its inception, so why are we the bad guys for utilizing what they told us to?
Web Photo Technology used to be seen as a necessity only to be used when necessary, but it evolved, clung on to our generation and has yet to let go.
REECE HEMMESCH Editor in Chief Lately, our generation (the me, me, me generation) has been taking blow after blow as it is now apparent that our self-centered attitude and selfishness has helped us to being called a bad generation. Though our egotistical manner should not be blamed on anybody but ourselves, one would imagine that technology has something to do with that. With so many ways to communicate with one another along side a laundry list of different sites to track every single movement we make, it’s easy to see why people in this generation would have a life that centers solely on themselves. Yes, us kids with our twitter
machines and instagram and so many other forms of social media are bringing this country down. But truthfully, with the technology that was forced in our hands at a young age by the generation before us, do you really blame us for being so technologically centered? I can remember sitting in a computer lab in first grade listening to a teacher at our elementary school explain to us what a computer is and how it would be beneficial for us to use them. Strike that last sentence, I was in first grade when we were forced to learn everything there was to know about a computer so that we would be better equipped for the future. “When you’re older, everything is going to revolve around these machines,” they told us as we sat there not quite sure what this heavy box in front of us was. “If you don’t, you’ll never be
able to get a job or manage in the future.” So with every step towards growing up, another device or system on a computer would be introduced to our generation with that exact same mindset: you have to be able to use these things otherwise your forthcoming will be a waste. The generation before us drilled our brain with thoughts of never being able to function in the real world and told us our only hope was to cling tightly to anything that beeped, rang or would make our lives easier. That was in the early part of the century; now it is 2014, and the technology has gotten out of control to say the least, even to the point where kids now spend every waking hour updating some kind of site online. But in most respects, technology has been the most key contribution in our lives and even though it can get a little ridiculous, makes every day life
Letter to the Editor:
Another perspective on global warming This letter was written in response to the article titled, ‘An inconvenient truth about global warming’ written by Alex Kerkman in the January 16, 2014 issue of the MSU Reporter. I read with great interest Mr. Kerkman’s opinion piece about global warming, and the expense involved in doing something about it. For an al-
ternative viewpoint on whether the earth is warming or not, I urge your readers to review NASA’s website on climate change: http://climate.nasa.gov/ evidence. NASA has no axe to grind for or against climate change, and they are known for generally sound science in their work. As to the expense in doing
something about it, one should consider that it may be more expensive to ignore climate change. But that requires first that people accept the evidence that scientists have gathered concerning global warming. Howard Miller Professor of Management MSU - Mankato
easier. This past fall when my family and I embarked on a trip to Dallas for a professional football game, the amount of traffic and construction in the Dallas-Fort Worth area made driving on the road impossible. We had a printed out map from MapQuest handy, but the construction took us on so many different turns we could not get back to our original plan. I had just received my first IPhone a few days before that, so I quickly whipped it out, opened up the maps app and got us back on the right track with no problems. That is how technology is supposed to function, to help you out in dire situations. The inventor of the cellphone was not looking for a way to make people attached to their devices; he or she was probably thinking of emergency situations where it helps to have a phone on you no matter what.
The point here is that technology has evolved, as have we as a society. So even though I do not approve of spending every waking moment online, I can see why kids are so hooked to doing everything at the palm of their hands now days. The 15-year-olds in America who are guilty of never putting down their phone were probably given one at the age of five or six, again for emergency, but they still evolved into the people they are now where they can’t put it down. I am not blaming the generation before us for our miscues in social situations where things appear anything but that, social, but at the same time, we as a generation can not and should not be blamed for getting acquainted with technology when after all, we were not the ones who said we would need to be able to use it in the first place.
8 • MSU Reporter
News
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Obama vows to flex presidential powers in speech
WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking to energize his sluggish second term, President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday night in his State of the Union address to sidestep Congress “whenever and wherever” necessary to narrow economic disparities between America’s rich and poor. He unveiled an array of modest executive actions to increase the minimum wage for federal contract workers and make it easier for millions of low-income people to save for retirement. “America does not stand still and neither do I,” Obama declared in his prime-time address before a joint session of Congress and millions of Americans watching on television. Draped in presidential grandeur, Obama’s hour-long address served as the opening salvo in a midterm election fight for control of Congress that will quickly consume Washington’s attention. Democrats, seeking to cast Republicans as uncaring about the middle class, have urged Obama to focus on economic mobility and the gap between the wealthy and poor. His emphasis on executive actions was greeted with shouts of “Do it!” from many members of his party. Declaring 2014 a “year of action,” Obama also sought to convince an increasingly skeptical public that he still wields power in Washington even if he can’t crack through the divisions in Congress. Burned by a series of legislative failures in 2013, White House aides say they’re now redefining success not by what Obama can jam through Congress but by what actions he can take on his own. Indeed, Obama’s proposals for action by lawmakers were slim and largely focused on old ideas that have gained little traction over the past year. He pressed Congress to revive a stalled immigration overhaul, pass an across-the-board increase in the federal minimum wage and expand access to early childhood education — all ideas that gained little traction after he proposed them last year. The president’s one new legislation proposal calls for expanding an income tax credit for workers without children. Republicans, who saw their own approval ratings fall further in 2013, have also picked up the refrain of income inequality in recent months, though they have cast the widening gap between rich and
Photo Courtesy of Associated Press President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday Jan. 28, 2014, as Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio look on.
poor as a symptom of Obama’s economic policies. “Republicans have plans to close the gap, plans that focus on jobs first without more spending, government bailouts and red tape,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., in the Republicans’ televised response to the president’s speech. “We hope the president will join us in a year of real action, by empowering people, not making their lives harder with unprecedented spending, higher taxes, and fewer jobs.” The economy and other domestic issues, including health care, dominated the president’s address. He touched only briefly on foreign policy, reiterating his threat to veto any new sanctions Congress might levy on Iran while nuclear negotiations with the Islamic republic are underway and touting the drawdown of American troops from Afghanistan this year. In an emotional high point, Obama singled out Cory Remsburg, an Army Ranger who was a guest of first lady Michelle Obama. Remsburg, who was nearly killed in Afghanistan during one of his 10 deployments, rose slowly from his seat and was greeted by long and thunderous applause from the president and lawmakers. Even as Washington increasingly focuses on income inequality, many parts of the economy are gaining strength, with corporate profits soaring and the financial markets
hitting record highs. But with millions of Americans still out of work or struggling with stagnant wages, Obama has found himself in the sometimes awkward position of promoting a recovery that feels distant for many. “The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by, let alone get ahead,” Obama said. “And too many still aren’t working at all.” The president garnered some of his loudest applause — at least from Democrats — when he took on lawmakers who oppose his signature health care law, which floundered in its initial rollout last fall. Obama said that while he doesn’t expect to convince Republicans on the merits of the law, “I know that the American people aren’t interested in refighting old battles.” The president’s speech drew an eclectic mix of visitors to the House chamber. Among those sitting with Mrs. Obama were two survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing, as well as Jason Collins, an openly gay former NBA player. Republican House Speaker John Boehner brought business owners from his home state of Ohio who say Obama’s health care overhaul is hurting their companies. Willie Robertson, a star of the television show “Duck Dynasty,” also scored a seat in the House gallery, courtesy of the Republicans.
Though Obama sought to emphasize his presidential powers, there are stark limits to what he can do on his own. For example, he unilaterally can raise the minimum hourly wage for new federal contractors from $7.25 to $10.10, as he announced, but he’ll need Congress in order to extend that increase to all of America’s
workers. The executive order for contractors, which Obama will sign in the coming weeks, is limited in its scope. It will not affect existing federal contracts, only new ones, and then only if other terms of an agreement change. Republicans quickly panned the executive initiative as ineffective. Said Boehner: “The question is how many people, Mr. President, will this executive action actually help? I suspect the answer is somewhere close to zero.” White House officials countered by saying many more working people would benefit if Congress would go along with Obama’s plan to raise the minimum wage across the board. “Give America a raise,” Obama declared. Among the president’s other executive initiatives is a plan to help workers whose employers don’t offer retirement savings plans. The program would allow first-time savers to start building up savings in Treasury bonds that eventually could be converted into traditional IRAs. Obama is expected to promote the “starter” accounts during a trip to Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
STATE OF THE UNION • Page 10
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For Putin, Sochi Olympics carry big risk, reward Security threats and ban on homosexuality surround Olympics. MOSCOW (AP) — For Vladimir Putin, the Winter Olympics he brought to Sochi have always been about far more than sports. The benefits the Russian president expects from holding the games range from improving Russia’s international standing and instilling a sense of national pride to turning around the country’s demographic decline. And of course Putin wants to be seen, at home and abroad, as the man who made this all possible. That’s a tall order for an international sports event. And what if terrorists strike the Olympics, which are taking place Feb. 7-23 just a few hundred miles (kilometers) west of a region where Islamic insurgents carry out bombings and other attacks almost daily? Or if a winter storm rips through the Black Sea resort, knocking out its hastily finished electric grid? Or even if Russian athletes in Sochi repeat their dismal performance of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games? If — for one reason or another — Sochi is deemed to be a disaster, the $51 billion spent on Putin’s games may suddenly seem like a colossal waste of money. That amount dwarfs the spending of any other Olympics, winter or summer. “Has Putin over-invested in these games?” Stephen Sestanovich, a Columbia University professor and Russia scholar, asked rhetorically. “Almost surely. And I think the disproportion of the investment will be clearer if the Russians don’t bring home a trove of gold medals and if the security situation goes badly.” Putin has made the 2014 Winter Games his personal project from the very beginning, directing an ambitious undertaking to
Web Photo
Sochi, more of a tropical location than much of Russia.
transform Sochi, a once-tacky Soviet-era summer resort, into a world-class winter sports center. Along the way, the games took on a state propaganda aspect that one of Putin’s former advisers says has not been seen since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, which the Nazis used to promote their concept of racial supremacy. Andrei Illarionov, Putin’s economic adviser from 2000 to 2005, says the Sochi Games have become a celebration of the “cult
of strength” for Russia’s muscleflexing leader, a demonstration of his and Russia’s physical, intellectual and economic might. In a recent interview with Russian and foreign TV stations, Putin said the Sochi Olympics should be seen as proof of Russia’s economic resurgence during his 14 years in power. He also hoped the games would lead people “to take an unbiased and fresh look” at what he called the new Russia. “I am sure that this will hap-
pen, that it will ... help to build Russia’s relations with its partners around the world,” he said in the Jan. 19 broadcast. This may be wishful thinking. “Foreign governments that deal with Russia are more inclined to take seriously specific policy items on their agenda that they want to be able to advance, and most governments over the past few years have found Russia to be harder to deal with,” said Sestanovich, who has held sev-
eral U.S. government posts and has a book coming out on U.S. foreign policy. “Are they going to find Russia easier to deal with if they’ve won more gold medals? I’m a little skeptical.” At home, Putin is counting on the Olympics to inspire more young Russians to take up sports, which he said will go a long way toward improving the nation’s health and resolving its demographic crisis. The number of births in Russia last year outnumbered the number of deaths for the first time in a decade. Putin has toned down expectations of a high medal count — although he certainly expects Russia to perform better than it did in Vancouver, when the team won only three gold medals. In the TV interview, he said he wanted Russian athletes to “fight to the end, demonstrate their skills and make their fans happy.” More important, Putin added, is for Russians to see that their country is capable of pulling off such a major event and to regain some of the national pride lost in the years following the 1991 Soviet collapse. The Sochi Olympics are the first for Russia since the Soviet Union held the Summer Games
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No charges for Minnesota church leaders in abuse case
Web Photo The Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul where Wehmeyer has led the congregation since 2009. Wehmeyer was accused in 2012 of molesting two brothers, but there is insufficient evidence to show church officials failed to properly report suspicions of abuse.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Prosecutors in Minnesota declined Wednesday to charge leaders of the Minneapolis-St. Paul archdiocese over their handling of an abusive priest, but said the archdiocese needs to do better in its reporting of abuse claims. Ramsey County prosecutor
John Choi said there was insufficient evidence to show church officials failed to properly report suspicions of abuse by the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, a St. Paul priest accused in 2012 of molesting two brothers. Still, he said, investigations into other matters surrounding allegations of abuse by priests in
the archdiocese are ongoing. In a separate case, Washington County prosecutors said they would not charge another archdiocesan priest, the Rev. Jon Shelley, who had been accused of possessing child pornography. The Wehmeyer and Shelley cases were among several that raised questions about the
archdiocese’s handling of abuse police earlier complained of cases after a church insider foot-dragging by archdiocese went public with her concerns. officials in responding to their Internal documents showed that efforts to get information. church leaders knew Wehm“I continue to be troubled by eyer had issues with sexual some of the church’s reporting misconduct, including at least practices,” Choi said Wednes- c two solicitations of men for sex, day. “Elaboration on that point before he was is for another promoted to lead day.” Church of the In WashBlessed Sacraington Counment in 2009. ty, prosecutor Archbishop Pete Orput John Nienstedt said investigaapologized last tors found no fall for his hanevidence of a dling of Wehmcrime when eyer, saying he they examdidn’t suspect he ined computer was a threat to files that once children. belonged to The archShelley. St. Curtis Wehmeyer diocese declined Paul police immediate comreopened the ment Wednesday on the proscase last year after receiving ecutors’ announcements. new information, including three As the scandal around the computer discs that contained archdiocese grew last fall, images from Shelley’s old hard Nienstedt appointed a task force drive. to examine church policies on Orput said investigators from abusive priests and ordered an the Internet Crimes Against external review of all priest files. Children Task Force, National He has also apologized to the Center for Missing and Exploitarchdiocese’s more than 800,000 ed Children, St. Paul police and his own child abuse specialist Catholics. Nienstedt himself all looked at the files and agreed has been accused of improperly they are not child pornogratouching a boy while posing for phy. Even if they were, he says, a photo during a confirmation the statute of limitations has ceremony, a claim he vehementexpired. ly denied. Despite those moves, St. Paul
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WONDERLAND “Largely because of the law, a number of western leaders and officials have decided to stay away from Sochi. Unusually for an Olympics, the United States will not be represented by its president, vice president or first lady.” continued from 9 in 1980, which were boycotted by the United States and dozens of other countries because of the war in Afghanistan. Putin’s Olympic show already has been tainted by the international criticism of Russia’s attitude toward gays, illustrated by a new law banning gay “propaganda” among minors. Largely because of the law, a number of Western leaders and officials have decided to stay away from Sochi. Unusually for an Olympics, the United States will not be represented by its president, vice president or first lady. But the main worry is terrorism. Those fears were heightened by two suicide bombings in late December in the southern city of Volgograd that killed 34 people and injured many more. Islamic militants in Russia’s North Caucasus asserted responsibility for those bombings and have threatened to strike Sochi. A terrorist attack would be a major embarrassment for Rus-
sian security services and would diminish Putin’s international prestige but probably would not weaken him at home, Sestanovich argues. “When has terrorism ever been bad for Putin politically?” Sestanovich said. “He has generally been able to make the problem of terrorism a political winner for him. He has used it to rally people, to argue that the Russian state has to be strong, that he in particular needs increased powers.” Russia has put in place sweeping measures to build what it calls a “ring of steel” around Sochi involving tens of thousands of police, army and security officers. But after the Volgograd bombings, international visitors may now be more accepting of the intrusive and time-consuming security checks at Sochi. Illarionov, now a Putin critic, said his prognosis for Sochi “is that it will be more or less OK.”
Web Photo Despite this friendly exchange, President Obama won’t be attending the Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
MSU Reporter • 11
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STATE OF THE UNION “Declaring 2014 a ‘year of action,’ Obama also sought to convince an increasingly skeptical public that he still wields power in Washington even if he can’t crack through the divisions in congress.” continued from 8 The president also announced new commitments from companies to consider hiring the long-term unemployed, the creation of four “manufacturing hubs” where universities and businesses would work together to develop and train workers, new incentives to encourage truckers to switch from dirtier fuels to natural gas or other alternatives and a proposed tax credit to promote the adoption of cars that can run on cleaner fuels, such as hydrogen, natural gas or biofuels. The president’s go-it-alone strategy is in many ways an acknowledgment that he has failed to make good on two major promises to the American people: that he would change Washington’s hyperpartisanship and that his re-election would break the Republican “fever” and clear the way for congressional action on major initiatives. Some Republicans have warned that the president’s focus on executive orders could backfire by angering GOP leaders who already don’t trust the White House. “This isn’t the American way, courts have not supported his past attempts, and he only does damage to the American people’s confidence in government when he doesn’t work with Congress to pass real reforms,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Obama isn’t abandoning Congress completely. He made a renewed pitch for legislation to overhaul the nation’s fractured immigration laws, perhaps his best opportunity for signing significant legislation this year. But the odds remain long, with many Republicans staunchly opposed to Obama’s plan for creating a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people already in the U.S. illegally. Seeking to give the GOP some room to maneuver, Obama did not specifically call for a citizenship pathway Tuesday, saying only, “Let’s get it done. It’s time.” Opening a new front with Congress, the president called for an extension of the earned-income tax
credit, which helps boost the wages of low-income families through tax refunds. Obama wants it broadened so that it provides more help than it does now to workers without children, a view embraced by some Republicans and conservative economists. Obama singled out Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who has proposed replacing the tax credit with a federal wage supplement for workers in certain low-paying jobs. Unlike Obama, however, Republicans have suggested expanding the tax credit as an alternative to increasing the minimum wage. Pivoting briefly to foreign policy, Obama reaffirmed that the U.S.-led war in Afghani-
stan will formally conclude at the end of this year. But he said a small contingent of American forces could be left behind if the Afghan government quickly signs a bilateral security agreement, a prospect that looks increasingly uncertain. The president also warned lawmakers in both parties against passing new economic sanctions against Iran while the U.S. and international partners are holding nuclear negotiations with the Islamic republic. He renewed his commitment to veto sanctions legislation if it passes, arguing that a new round of penalties would upend the sensitive diplomacy.
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Poet’s paradise for next GTRS Sarah McKinstry-Brown and Christopher Howell are featured in tonight’s residency
Photo Courtesy of GTRS Sarah McKinstry-Brown
MIRANDA BRAUNWARTH Staff Writer The Good Thunder Reading Series will resume its 20132014 season tonight with poets Sarah McKinstry-Brown and Christopher Howell. The event is hosted by the Nadine B. Andreas Visiting Writer Residency.
The poets will meet with community writers at 10:00 a.m. in Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Centennial Student Union, room 204 for a question and answer session. Following the community writers meeting, McKinstryBrown and Howell will be interviewed by KMSU-FM. The interview will air as part of the “Authors of Transit” series. It will air at 1:00 p.m. Thursday and 11:00 a.m. Friday. The interview will be archived on the GTRS website. McKinstry-Brown and Howell will lead a discussion talking about craft of writing at 3:00 p.m. in CSU Ostrander Auditorium. The poets will read from their published work at 7:00 p.m. in CSU 253. McKinstry-Brown, a Nebraska resident, is the winner of the 2011 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry for her collection, Cradling Monsoons. Cradling Monsoons also won McKinstry-Brown the 2010 Blue Light Award. As well, she has won the Academy of American Poets Prize.
Photo Courtesy of GTRS Christopher Howell
McKinstry-Brown studied poetry at the University of New Mexico and at the University of Sheffield, England. At the University of Nebraska she earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry. McKinstry-Brown has had her work published in various forms including literary journals, slam poetry anthologies and West Virginia Standardized tests. At poetryspeaks. com her work can be viewed
alongside Emily Dickinson and Lord Byron. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, McKinstryBrown has taught workshops in performing and writing at libraries, schools and universities across the nation. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Nebraska, Omaha while residing in Omaha with her husband Matt Mason, a poet, and their two daughters.
Christopher Howell has three Pushcart Prizes, two fellowships from the National Endowment for Arts, as well as dozens of other awards. Originally from the Northwest, Howell started out as a military journalist during the Vietnam War. Howell later received his Master of Arts from Portland State University and his Mas-
GTRS • Page 14
Spider’s web ensnares mainstage ADAM MILLER Staff Writer The Department of Theatre and Dance continues their mainstage season with a musical about imprisonment, torture and escapism with the Minnesota State Mankato’s debut of Kiss of the Spider Woman. Based on a novel by Manuel Puig, the show revolves around two men in prison. Molina is a homosexual imprisoned for corrupting a minor and Valentin is a Marxist revolutionary. To escape the harsh prison life, Molina escapes into fantasies of Aurora, an actress whose work he is in love with, except for one role -that of the spider woman. The play won the Tony Award for Best Musical as well as multiple
other Tony Awards. The show is being directed by Theatre Department Chair Paul J. Hustoles. The musical direction and choreography is being handled by two of MSU’s undergraduates Evan Collins and Jaclyn Juola, with Collins handling the musical direction and Juola doing the choreography. The onstage performers include senior BFA Musical Theatre candidate Sam Stoll as Molina. Stoll is no stranger to the stage of MSU appearing in other productions such as Spring Awakening and Rent. Valentine will be played by junior BFA Musical Theatre candidate Jordan Oxborough. And the role of the starlet, Aurora, will be played by senior BFA Musical Theatre candidate Kaitlin Dahlquist. This isn’t the first time that Ox-
borough and Dahlquist have worked together on the mainstage, both played lead rolls in Phantom of the Opera. The show opens at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the Andreas Theatre of the Earley Center for Performing Arts. In addition to tonight’s performance, the show will run for two weekends, with 7:30 p.m. shows on Jan. 30-Feb. 1 and Feb. 5-8. There will also be special matinee showings starting at 2 p.m. on Feb 2 and Feb. 8-9. Tickets are on sale now. The cost is $15 for current MSU students, $22 for regular tickets and $19 for seniors and youth 16 and under. You can purchase tickets online at MSUTheatre.com or by going to the box office in the lobby of the Earley Center for Performing Arts between 4-6 p.m.
Photo Courtesy of Mike Lagerquist Jordan Oxborough (bottom) and Sam Stoll (top) in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
14 • MSU Reporter
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Thursday, January 30, 2014
Entertainment update: directors take their pick ANDREW SIMON Staff Writer In development: Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes) and Warner Bros. are gearing up to create an epic six-part cinematic retelling of King Arthur. With the studio looking for its next Harry Potter success, Ritchie, who penned the script for the first film, and the studio are setting their sights to the Arthurian legend to bring in the crowd. Director Jason Reitman (Juno) will adapt The Possibilities for the big screen, based on the novel by Descendents author Kaui Hart Hemmings for 2016, following a mother in grief who is visited by a strange girl connected to her son’s death. Fans of 2013’s apocalyptic comedy, This Is the End, have a new sausage-fest to look forward to – Sausage Party, co-written by Evan Goldberg (co-writer/director of This Is the End), Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir, the film follows a sausage’s “quest to discover the truth about his existence” before returning to his aisle in time for the Fourth of July sale. This animated adventure of self-enlightenment is expected to hit 2015, but the real reunion comes with the voice cast: Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Michael Cera, Kristen Wiig, Edward Norton, Nick Kroll and David Krumholtz will all help voice the story of the little sausage that could. Rogen, Goldberg and Franco’s next live action comedy, The Interview,
GOOD THUNDER “McKinstry-Brown has had her work published in various forms including literary journals, slam poetry anthologies and West Virginia Standardized tests. At poetryspeaks. com her work can be viewed alongside Emily Dickinson and Lord Byron.” continued from 13
Web Photo Director Guy Ritchie.
hits this October. The latest young adult adaptation to hit cinemas, Divergent, isn’t even out, yet Summit has tapped Akiva Goldsman to write the sequel, Insurgent. With shooting for the follow-up expected to start spring 2014, targeting a March 20, 2015 release date, the search for director is on. Allegiant, the third and final installment of the series, will open March 18, 2016. Pitch Perfect 2 is finally forging ahead, although still at a glacial pace. Elizabeth Banks, co-producer and actress in the original, is replacing first film’s director, Jason Moore, as director of Pitch Perfect 2, making her directorial debut with the sequel. The stars from Pitch Perfect, including Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson, are expected to return. Finally, it’s good to be Christopher Nolan. The director, whose last five films grossed a
global total of $3 billion, is putting the finishing touches on Interstellar, his November sci-fi release for Paramount Picture. Last week Paramount announced that, starting with The Wolf of Wall Street, they will be the first studio to go strictly digital, abandoning the costlier 35MM film print for the inexpensive digital hard drive. Nolan is but one of several directors who still favor print over digital, and in a move retconning their previous statement, Paramount amended their digital-only conditions to digitalonly-save-certain-exemptions, Nolan’s sci-fi mind-bender being the first. In a climate of digital overpowering film, both in cost cutting and theater conversion, how studios react to Paramount’s announcements and what it means for the future of the industry should be interesting.
Tickets are $39.00 per person and include a three course meal, show, tax, and tip. Tickets are available on line at www.newlmact.com or at the New Ulm Chamber of Commerce.
Press. All events surrounding the poets are free and open to the public. The Good Thunder Reading Series is funded by the MSU Department of English, a part of the College of Arts and Humanities. Funding also comes from the Office of Institutional Diversity, the Nadine B. Andreas Endowment, the Eddie B. Barber Visiting Writer Endowment, the Robert C. Wright Endowment and other individual donors. Other funds are awarded for the event through Minnesota grants. The MSU Library services and the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on campus offer additional services. To learn more about the Good Thunder Reading Series, contact Richard Robbins at the MSU Department of English at 507-389-1354 or at www.english.mnsu.edu/gt/.
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ter of Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts. Having written numerous poems, translations and essays he has been seen in publications such as CrazyHorse, Gettysburg Review, and Harper’s. In all, Howell has published 10 collections of poems. His most recent are Gaze, Dreamless and Possible: Poems New & Selected and Light’s Ladder. As well as writing, Howell has extensive editing skills working with Christopher Buckley on Aspects of Robinson: Homage to Weldon Kees and Nuts, Bolts, and Coil of Rope. Howell has been awarded the Stanley W. Lindberg Award for Editorial Excellence. Howell currently teaches at Eastern Washington University, is the director of Willow Springs Editions and is principal editor for Lynx House
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Netflix addictions: Nikita
Web Photo Lindsy Fonseca and Maggie Q in Nikita.
ANDREW SIMON Staff Writer Assassins turned rogue stories seem like a dime a dozen these days and when broadcast on The CW – a channel typically known for its glamorous high school soap operas – the idea of venturing into another retread of the same idea seems like a unnecessary effort. Luckily, Nikita has one thing going for it that propels it above what could be a sloppy remake of shows past: Maggie Q. Nikita (Maggie Q) is one of the most lethal killing machines in the world, found and trained by Division, a top secret, government-sanctioned organization of assassinations and espionage, for years. Her allegiance is terminated when a personal tragedy ties directly to her own agency. Separated and on the run, Nikita and any allies she can bring into the fold plot to bring down Division, led by the cunning and ruthless Percy (Xander Berkeley) and his second-incommand, Amanda (Melina Clarke). Against all odds, with the weight of the government bearing down on her, Nikita will never stop. Loosely based off the ‘90s series and French action film La Femme Nikita, this new iteration keeps the broad strokes of the Nikita character – a wayward woman who is given new meaning in life by becoming a government assassin – but creates an entirely new world around her. The first season kicks off in spectacularly addicting fashion, with the entire might of Division descending on Nikita, and Nikita consistently outmaneuvering her enemies and crippling their operations, only making Percy even angrier and more deter-
mined to eliminate her. A game of cat and mouse ensues for most of the first year between the two adversaries, but two other important elements are introduced: Alex (Lindsy Fonseca), a young woman Nikita’s got on the inside at Division, and a series of black boxes, which Percy has stored around the world with all of the government’s dirty secrets, threatening to release them if anything fatal happens to him. Maintaining Alex’s cover and collecting the black boxes becomes just as important as destroying Division, but with Percy’s determination, Nikita’s efforts seem to become more and more futile. For a first year, Nikita’s freshman outing is quite strong. Excellent action scenes feel at home in a bigger budget movie, creative storylines, a lot of impressive performances from the cast, Berkley especially, and a great sense of serialized storytelling assisted by its episodic nature are all at play here. This being a CW series, there is melodrama and there are romantic subplots but neither element overshadows the innate coolness of Nikita’s war. Ultimately, seasons two and three fail to maintain the same level of excellence as its first season. The plot thickens into a convoluted mess of shifting allegiances and random, topsecret government agencies coming out of nowhere. Characters that were especially strong the first year, like Fonseca’s Alex and Shane West’s Michael, falter and become CW fodder of pure soap operatic swings. This, ultimately, originates from the writers who seem to have become lazy in the characterization and dialogue department, with Michael transforming into a onenote cardboard whiner. Alex
is given lots of interesting plot nuggets but the fault there really lies on Lindsy Fonseca’s incredibly awful, flat performance. One of the bigger sins Nikita commits in its third season is a problem many series suffer: keeping a character alive long after their expiration date. Melina Clarke’s Amanda was a menacing force of pure evil in the first two seasons, but by the third, she became a (metaphorical) mustachetwirling psychopath who, quite literally in several episodes, monologues endlessly about her nefarious plans and reiterates over and over about her goals. Season two still boasts some interesting twists and turns to make the spy drama just as thrilling as the first but its third season is where the show became a mess. To its credit, the status quo of Nikita is altered, with Nikita ending up in the most unlikely of places -- in command -- and that opened up an incredible canvas of possibilities, with the final stretch of episodes concluding in spectacular, riveting fashion. Although seasons two and three sort of went off the rails into the absurd, the series remained entertaining nevertheless and the addictive factor of Nikita was always, and remains, watching Maggie Q beat the snot out of fellow assassins and bringing down cocky, megalomaniac corporations. In this sense, Nikita rocks. Bolstered by some stellar performances from Maggie Q, Melina Clarke, and Xander Berkley, the action sequences are all wildly impressive and the storylines ridiculously creative, one of the better littlewatched-shows from the CW. Nikita seasons 1-3 are streaming on Netflix now.
16 • MSU Reporter
A&E
Thursday, January 30, 2014
We are on our own JAMES HOUTSMA A & E Editor Mistakes were made – let’s get that right out there. As some of you may have noticed, the front-page headline of Tuesday’s issue of The Reporter read “Manicled Monday”, referring to the overall restrictive nature of our latest blizzard. The truth is it should have read “Manacled Monday”. Despite the alternate spelling having some small merit in the old English sense, it wasn’t a nonexistent word, rather just a typo. So, yes we messed up. It’s certainly happened before. Take pride in noticing that and sleep better at night, dearest snowflakes. Criticism is nothing new in the media industry, bolstered by its incredibly public nature and the fact that, last time I checked, we all make mistakes. Heck, you may even say that criticism is essential. But the type of criticism matters too. Shortly after Tuesday’s paper hit, a notable and supposedly professional member of the Mankato media community and someone who works with students decided it was in her best interest to take to Facebook not once, but sever-
al times over the day and harp upon the mistake in a most pointed way. While this may have seemed like a cute way to kill time on what must have been a very slow day at the office, what it ended up being was an unproductive crock. Was it the snide attitude that came off as the worst aspect off the tirade? The pandering for a comment from a former Reporter writer? The overall lack of meaning in the comments that followed? First of all, yes to each of those but the thing that stung the most was that this was coming from a leader of students. Someone young media minds at our university are supposed to look up to. If this rude display is how she acted towards other student media outlets, I’d shudder to think of what working under her as one of many of her volunteer students would be like. But then again, this shouldn’t be too surprising. As a student media outlet, most of what we have had to look forward to from our superiors is either complete indifference or break room mockery. Behind it all, it’s this individual and others taking the smooth, easy route instead of coming to their paper’s defense. The path of least resistance, if you will. It’s siding with the neurotic crowd
that always has something to squawk about but nothing to contribute – the crowd that thinks threatening letters and implied death threats will get them somewhere. Listen up: we are a studentrun newspaper. We’re still in the learning process and we strive to make ourselves better in preparation for life outside the college bubble. To those who should be looking out for us, I say this: teach us, don’t mock us. If any of my various piano teachers over the years had jeered me offstage when I biffed it, I would have seriously wondered what the point of it all was. There will always be some crazy people out there who think the newspapers are part of an Illuminati conspiracy to brainwash them and lash out but we rely on the staff and faculty who are supposed to advise us to have our backs in that case. If, instead, taking part in this unprofessional gossip heap over a simple typo is the preferred way, I highly question what good you’re actually doing. Until then, we’ll just be at our little island here, watching the buzzards circle while we wait for our next “mangling of the manacle.” It’s nothing new and that’s the saddest snafu of all.
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Pete Seeger: folk artist, folk activist ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Unable to carry his beloved banjo, Pete Seeger used a different but equally formidable instrument, his mere presence, to instruct yet another generation of young people how to effect change through song and determination two years ago. A surging crowd, two canes and seven decades as a historysifting singer and rabble-rouser buoyed him as he led an Occupy Wall Street protest through Manhattan in 2011. “Be wary of great leaders,” he told The Associated Press two days after the march. “Hope that there are many, many small leaders.” The banjo-picking troubadour who sang for migrant workers, college students and star-struck presidents in a career that introduced generations of Americans to their folk music heritage died Monday at age 94. Seeger’s grandson, Kitama Cahill-Jackson, said his grandfather died peacefully in his sleep around 9:30 p.m. at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where he had been for six days. Family members were with him. “He was chopping wood 10 days ago,” Cahill-Jackson recalled. With his lanky frame, useworn banjo and full white beard, Seeger was an iconic figure in folk music who outlived his peers. He performed with the great minstrel Woody Guthrie in his younger days and wrote or co-wrote “If I Had a Hammer,” ‘’Turn, Turn, Turn,” ‘’Where
Have All the Flowers Gone” and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine.” He lent his voice against Hitler and nuclear power. A cheerful warrior, he typically delivered his broadsides with an affable air and his fingers poised over the strings of his banjo. In 2011, he walked nearly 2 miles with hundreds of protesters swirling around him holding signs and guitars, later admitting the attention embarrassed him. But with a simple gesture — extending his friendship — Seeger gave the protesters and even their opponents a moment of brotherhood the short-lived Occupy movement sorely needed. When a policeman approached, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger said at the time he feared his grandfather would be hassled. “He reached out and shook my hand and said, ‘Thank you, thank you, this is beautiful,’” Rodriguez-Seeger said. “That really did it for me. The cops recognized what we were about. They wanted to help our march. They actually wanted to protect our march because they saw something beautiful. It’s very hard to be anti-something beautiful.” That was a message Seeger spread his entire life. With The Weavers, a quartet organized in 1948, Seeger helped set the stage for a national folk revival. The group — Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman — churned out hit recordings of “Goodnight Irene,” ‘’Tzena, Tzena” and “On Top of Old Smokey.” Seeger also was credited with
popularizing “We Shall Overcome,” which he printed in his publication “People’s Song” in 1948. He later said his only contribution to the anthem of the civil rights movement was changing the second word from “will” to “shall,” which he said “opens up the mouth better.” “Every kid who ever sat around a campfire singing an old song is indebted in some way to Pete Seeger,” Arlo Guthrie once said. His musical career was always braided tightly with his political activism, in which he advocated for causes ranging from civil rights to the cleanup of his beloved Hudson River. Seeger said he left the Communist Party around 1950 and later renounced it. But the association dogged him for years. He was kept off commercial television for more than a decade after tangling with the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in 1955. Repeatedly pressed by the committee to reveal whether he had sung for Communists, Seeger responded sharply: “I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent this implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, or I might be a vegetarian, make me any less of an American.” He was charged with contempt of Congress, but the sentence was overturned on appeal. Seeger called the 1950s, years when he was denied broadcast
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exposure, the high point of his career. He was on the road touring college campuses, spreading the music he, Guthrie, Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter and others had created or preserved. “The most important job I did was go from college to college to college to college, one after the other, usually small ones,” he told The Associated Press in 2006. “ ... And I showed the kids there’s a lot of great music in this country they never played on the radio.” His scheduled return to commercial network television on the highly rated Smothers Brothers variety show in 1967 was hailed as a nail in the coffin of the blacklist. But CBS cut out his Vietnam protest song, “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” and Seeger accused the network of censorship. He finally got to sing it five months later in a stirring return appearance, although one station, in Detroit, cut the song’s last stanza: “Now every time I read the papers/That old feelin’ comes on/We’re waist deep in the Big Muddy/And the big fool says to push on.”
Photo Courtesy of Associated Press
Seeger’s output included dozens of albums and single records for adults and children. He appeared in the movies “To Hear My Banjo Play” in 1946 and “Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon” in 1970.
SEEGER • Page 18
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18 • MSU Reporter
A&E
Thursday, January 30, 2014
SEEGER “His scheduled return to commercial network television on the highly rated Smothers Brothers variety show in 1967 was hailed as a nail in the coffin of the blacklist. But CBS cut out his Vietnam protest song, “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” and Seeger accused the network of censorship.” continued from 17 A reunion concert of the original Weavers in 1980 was filmed as a documentary titled “Wasn’t That a Time.” By the 1990s, no longer a party member but still styling himself a communist with a small C, Seeger was heaped with national honors. Official Washington sang along — the audience must sing was the rule at a Seeger concert — when it lionized him at the Kennedy Center in 1994. President Bill Clinton hailed him as “an inconvenient artist who dared to sing things as he saw them.” President Barack Obama on Tuesday said Seeger used his voice to strike blows for worker’s and civil rights, world peace, and environmental conservation. Seeger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as an early influence. Ten years later, Bruce Springsteen honored him with “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions,” a rollicking reinterpretation of songs sung by Seeger. While pleased with the album, Seeger said he wished it was “more serious.” A 2009 concert at Madison
Square Garden to mark Seeger’s 90th birthday featured Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder and Emmylou Harris among the performers. Seeger was a 2014 Grammy Awards nominee in the Best Spoken Word category, which Stephen Colbert won. Seeger’s sometimes ambivalent relationship with rock was most famously on display when Dylan “went electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Witnesses say Seeger became furious backstage as the ampedup band played, though just how furious is debated. Seeger dismissed the legendary tale that he looked for an ax to cut Dylan’s sound cable, and said his objection was not to the type of music but only that the guitar mix was so loud you couldn’t hear Dylan’s words. Seeger maintained his reedy 6-foot-2 frame into old age, though he wore a hearing aid and conceded that his voice was pretty much shot. He relied on his audiences to make up for his diminished voice, feeding his listeners the lines and letting them sing out.
“I can’t sing much,” he said. “I used to sing high and low. Now I have a growl somewhere in between.” Nonetheless, in 1997 he won a Grammy for best traditional folk album, “Pete.” Seeger was born in New York City on May 3, 1919, into an artistic family whose roots traced to religious dissenters of colonial America. His mother, Constance, played violin and taught; his father, Charles, a musicologist, was a consultant to the Resettlement Administration, which gave artists work during the Depression. His uncle Alan Seeger, the poet, wrote “I Have a Rendezvous With Death.” Pete Seeger said he fell in love with folk music when he was 16, at a music festival in North Carolina in 1935. His half brother, Mike Seeger, and half sister, Peggy Seeger, also became noted performers. He learned the five-string banjo, an instrument he rescued from obscurity and played the rest of his life in a long-necked version of his own design. On the skin of Seeger’s banjo was the phrase, “This machine surrounds
hate and forces it to surrender” — a nod to his old pal Guthrie, who emblazoned his guitar with “This machine kills fascists.” Dropping out of Harvard in 1938 after two years as a disillusioned sociology major, he hit the road, picking up folk tunes as he hitchhiked or hopped freights. “The sociology professor said, ‘Don’t think that you can change the world. The only thing you can do is study it,’” Seeger said in October 2011. In 1940, with Guthrie and others, he was part of the Almanac Singers and performed benefits for disaster relief and other causes. He and Guthrie also toured migrant camps and union halls. He sang on overseas radio broadcasts for the Office of War Information early in World War II. In the Army, he spent 3½ years in Special Services, entertaining soldiers in the South Pacific, and made corporal. He married Toshi Seeger on July 20, 1943. The couple built their cabin in Beacon after World War II and stayed on the high spot of land by the Hudson River for the rest of their lives together.
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The couple raised three children. Toshi Seeger died in July at age 91. The Hudson River was a particular concern of Seeger’s. He took the sloop Clearwater, built by volunteers in 1969, up and down the Hudson, singing to raise money to clean the water and fight polluters. He also offered his voice in opposition to racism and the death penalty. He got himself jailed for five days for blocking traffic in Albany in 1988 in support of Tawana Brawley, a black teenager whose claim of having been raped by white men was later discredited. He continued to take part in peace protests during the war in Iraq, and he continued to lend his name to causes. “Can’t prove a damn thing, but I look upon myself as old grandpa,” Seeger told the AP in 2008 when asked to reflect on his legacy. “There’s not dozens of people now doing what I try to do, not hundreds, but literally thousands. ... The idea of using music to try to get the world together is now all over the place.”
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Mavericks lose top spot in NSIC After splitting their weekend series, the squad sits with Bemijdi State in the second spot of the conference. LUCAS RYAN Staff Writer The Minnesota State University, Mankato men’s basketball team lost to their conference rivals for a second time this year over the weekend but remain near the top of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. MSU is now tied with Bemidji State for second place in the NSIC standings with an 11-3 conference record (17-4 overall). Winona State has been able to get the best of the Mavericks over the past three years. Six of the last seven meetings dating back to 2011 the WSU earned wins against MSU. Offensive struggles and a lack of making tough plays Friday at Winona contributed to the loss, giving the Warriors sole position of first place in the NSIC. “We didn’t have a great offensive output that night from really anybody; our effort was good. I thought that Winona just made the tougher plays; more so than
we did. Over 40 minutes that really determined the outcome of that game,” head coach Matt Margenthaler said. MSU scored a season low 57 points against WSU, in a game that they shot a season-low 18.2 percent behind the arc making just 4-22. MSU also had a season-low seven assists in the game. The Mavericks rebounded from Friday’s loss with a 95-78 win at Upper Iowa. After shooting a season low 4-22 from behind the arc Friday, the Mavericks rebounded by making 43.8 percent Saturday. MSU’s top players continue to lead for the Mavericks. Junior forward Assem Marei led the Mavericks’ offense over the weekend with 22.5 points per game. Marei leads MSU in scoring with 16.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Marei has the 37th best shooting percentage of in NCAA DII basketball with
BASKETBALL • Page 23
David Bassey • MSU Reporter Junior guard Zach Monaghan (pictured) proves a good case of being the best point guard in the NSIC, averaging 7.71 assists and 1.90 steals per game.
Winter Sports Update: Track and Field & Wrestling
Photo Courtesy of SPX This past weekend, sophomore Brooke Foreman hurdled a personal-best time of 9.32 in the 60m hurdles.
The men’s track and field team is currently no. 5 in the USTFCCCA poll, which is the highest ranking of all the NSIC teams.
ADAM PIERSON Staff Writer
and Darick Vancura and sophomores Scott VanDeLoo and Alphonso Vruno all combine for a 79-35 record and plan on writing more tallies in the win column. 157 pound freshman Adam Cooling wrestling has posted a 6-1 dual record as well as a 14-4 tournament record for the MSU. Against division II opponents Cooling is 8-1 so far. After the Mavericks forfeited their first weight class Saturday, they immediately started with a 12-point deficit in the Mavericks’ 30-10 loss to the Augustana Vikings Saturday. Despite that, Cooling extended his win-streak to five.
Minnesota State University, Mankato’s wrestling and track and field teams have reasons to look forward to the remainder of the season. Despite starting off slowly, the wrestling team at MSU has their sights set on upcoming NSIC opponents. The Mavericks are off to a 2-6 start overall and have posted a 2-2 record in the NSIC. Makovsky’s four top wrestlers are not only excelling for underclassmen, they are excelling to be some of the top wrestlers in the NSIC. Freshmen Adam Cooling WINTER UPDATE • Page 20
20 • MSU Reporter
Sports
Thursday, January 30, 2014
WINTER UPDATE “The MSU track and field team has also posted some impressive feats thus far. At the Northwest Open and Jock Johnson Classic, both the men and women did great things, including breaking records.” continued from 19 The Mavericks have also witnessed promise from 141-pound sophomore Alphonso Vruno also posted a win in the loss to the Vikings. Vruno is now 16-9 overall this season with a 5-3 dual record, 10-7 tournament record and a 7-3 record vs. division II opponents. 174-pound freshman Darick Vancura also notched a victory Saturday, improving his overall record to 23-8. He has posted a dual record of 5-3, tournament record of 19-6 and is 5-3 against division II opponents. The Mavericks wrestling team will finish off their season against four NSIC opponents before the NCAA DII Super Region 3, in Edmond, Oklahoma on March 1. The wrestling team travels to Marshall, Minnesota to face the Southwest Minnesota State Saturday. The MSU track and field team has also posted some impressive feats thus far. At the Northwest Open and Jack Johnson Classic both the men and women did great things, including breaking records. Senior Chris Reed¬ finished first in shot put Friday at the JJC. His throw of 65’ 5.50” landed him fifth in all divisions in the nation this year, qualifying him for the NCAA Division II national indoor meet. He set a JJC record and MSU indoor record. Reed also won the title in shot put at the Northwest Open with a throw of 62’ 10.75” as well as finishing third in the weight throw, throwing it 64’ 10”. Junior Carmono Lane finished third in the 200-meter dash with a
Shannon Rathmanner • MSU Reporter The grapplers of MSU currenlty sit in fifth place of the NSIC.
Photo Courtesy of SPX Jumping his person best 6’ 4.75” at the Northwest Open, freshman Denell Castro-Oats took home seventh place.
time of 22.39 at the JJC. In the Northwest Open he finished second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.96 as well as second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.38. Lanes teammate Anthony Gustafson finished behind him with a time of 22.52 at the JCC and finished third, behind lane at the Northwest Open with a time of 22.60. Finishing in first place, freshman Myles Hunter ran a qualifying time of 8.08 in 60-meter hurdles at the JJC. Hunter won the title as well at the Northwest Open with a qualifying time of 8.25 in the 60-meter dash, with freshman Benjamin Ojika right behind him with a time of 8.29 Senior Keyvan Rudd jumped 6’ 10.75” to take first in high jump at the Northwest Open. Sophomore Khalil Jor’dan placed first in triple jump with a
distance of 47’ 5.75” and fellow teammate, senior David Pearcill behind him in third jumping a distance of 45’ 1.75”. The track and field success hasn’t only came from the men. Junior Jenni Vanttinen finished first place in the 60-meter dash with a time of 9.00 at the JCC and finished third at the Northwest Open with a time of 8.95. Anna Veroeven took third place in the triple jump, jumping 38’ 0.25” at the JJC as well as a first place finish at the Northwest Open with a distance of 37’ 5.75”. Freshman Eden Rogers finished behind her in third place at the Northwest Open with a jump of 30’ 8.50”. Freshman Brieanna Puckett taking third in long jump at the JCC with a distance of 18’ 4.50” and placed second in the 60-meter dash behind teammate Holly
Suss at the Northwest Open. Suss finished first with a time of 7.78, Pucket took second with a 7.87 with sophomore Rachel Lindquist trailing behind her with a time of 8.01. Sophomore pole vaulter Faryn Wirkus finished second with a vault of 11’ 9.25” at the UWStout open with junior Bryanna Sudman in third with a height of 11’11.75” Pucket finished took first at the UW-Stout open with a long jump of 18’ 1.00” and Vanttinen finished third with a distance of 17’ 0.50” e In the 4x400-meter relayp team, freshman Taylor Glover,f Taylor Naatz, junior Bonnies Pickford and Madison Alexander took second place with a time of 3:59.92. The men and women take foot Friday at MSU for the all day MSU Open and Pentathlon.
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MSU Reporter • 21
Sports
Future is looking Wild
Jason Pominville, Mikko Koivu and Ryan Suter are following suit with their numbers, but it’s the young guns that are impressing the state of Minnesota.
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So far in 42 games, the Finland native Mikael Granlund has 24 points on four goals and 20 assists. He’s only 21 years old.
DEREK LAMBERT Staff Writer
The Minnesota Wild has been enjoying a good year up to this point of the season. Sitting in fourth place in the central division of the Western Conference
of the National Hockey League, they are in good contention for a playoff berth, holding a record of 29-20-6 on the season. While there have been some unfortunate injuries to forwards Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise, the latter of whom just returned to the
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lineup, the young players on the roster have been stepping up and pulling their weight. The future looks promising in St. Paul with these rising stars contributing to the Wild lineup and holding their own against the league’s best. The core group of these youngsters includes Switzerland native Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Justin Fontaine, Erik Haula, Jason Zucker, Jonas Brodin, and goaltender Darcy Keumper. Niederreiter, 22, was acquired through an offseason trade that dealt Minnesota fan favorite Cal Clutterbuck to the New York Islanders. Nino was selected fifth overall in the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, but in the past two seasons had struggled at the NHL level, only scoring three points over two seasons on Long Island. This season, Niederreiter has produced 26 points on nine goals and 17 assists, looking much more like the first round draft pick he was than in the previous two seasons. Nino has quickly become a fan favorite in Minnesota, and will skate for the Swiss national team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Just trailing Nino in the point column is Mikael Granlund, who was the Wild’s first round draft pick in 2010. At 21, Granlund has finally found himself a permanent roster spot this season after playing between the NHL and
American Hockey League last season. Mikael has collected 24 points on the season and played considerable minutes on the power play this season, as well as being a consistent top two line forward for the Wild. Another Minnesota player who will compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics, Granlund will compete for Finland in Sochi. A young player who has perhaps received the most attention of the group is Coyle. A Massachusetts native, Coyle, 22, came to the Wild in a trade from the San Jose Sharks, where he was a first round draft pick before playing two seasons at Boston University. Coyle garnered a lot of attention earlier in the season for taking a moment out of warm ups to interact with a young fan, which left the fan all smiles and a video of the interaction went viral. Often playing on the top line this year, Coyle has scored 18 points which has him tied with another Wild youngster, Justin Fontaine. Fontaine isn’t as young as the rest of the group, being 26, but is a rookie nonetheless. After winning a national championship in 2011 with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, the Alberta native signed with the Wild as a free agent and until this season played with their AHL affiliate the Houston Aeros, now the Iowa Wild. A pure goal scorer at the college level, his knack of
finding the back of the net has translated to the NHL, where he is third on the Wild roster with 12 goals. Fontaine is one of three youngsters who are alumni of the Western Collegiate Hockey Conference, the others being Haula and Zucker. A seventh round draft pick of the Wild, Haula, like Granlund, is from Finland, though he has spent much of his life in Minnesota. After playing for and graduating from Shattuck St. Mary’s in Fairbault, Minn., Haula played one season in the United States Hockey League before spending the next three at the University of Minnesota where he led the Gophers in scoring in his sophomore and junior seasons. Spending the majority of the first half of the season with the Iowa Wild, Haula has been playing with the NHL Wild on a consistent basis as of late, and found himself a spot as a versatile forward who plays well in both ends of the ice. At 23 years old, Haula certainly has plenty left to show in his young career. A rival of Haula in their college days, the 22 year old Zucker comes to the Wild from the University of Denver Pioneers, where he racked up numerous WCHA honors in just two seasons before signing with the Wild. A second round pick by Minnesota in the 2010 NHL
WILD • Page 23
22 • MSU Reporter
Sports
NSIC’s most feared hurler wears purple and gold Not only do the MSU Mavericks baseball squad sit on top of the 2014 NSIC Preseason Coaches Poll, but they also possess the best pitcher in the NSIC. REECE HEMMESCH Editor in Chief
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Adding to an already impressive list of accolades heading into the season, Minnesota State University, Mankato pitcher Jason Hoppe will begin 2014 as the NSIC preseason pitcher of the year as the Mavericks have been named the preseason favorite to take the conference. 2014 is the fifth year in a row that the Mavericks have claimed the preseason no. 1 ranking in the NSIC, where four of those five prophecies have come true with the exception of last season when the Mavericks fell just short to St. Cloud State in the final conference standings. In a voter’s poll where coaches cannot vote for their own team, MSU took home 14 of 15 first place votes and pulled in 196 points to claim the preseason poll. SCSU came in second place with 179 points and Augustana pulled in the final first-place vote and finished third. As for Hoppe, he beat out the likes of SCSU’s Kyle Fischer and Concordia-St. Paul’s Adam Kramer as the three were all regarded as possible preseason pitcher of the year. Hoppe fin-
ished last season third in the conference in ERA, second in innings pitched and first in strikeouts while in conference matchups. The first-team all-conference selection paced MSU in 2013 with an overall 8-1 record, a 1.26 ERA, 99 strikeouts and an opponent’s batting average of just a meager .203. Hoppe received national attention last season as he fired 55 and 1/3 scoreless innings in the later part of the season, a new all-division single-season NCAA record. On the other side of the ball, Minnesota-Duluth sophomore Alex Wojciechowski was named NSIC preseason player of the year. Wojciechowski, who last season took home freshman and player of the year honors and was a third-team all-American finished his freshman campaign batting .425, smacking 15 doubles and homering five times. He also scored 37 runs and batted in 37 more to lead the Bulldogs. MSU’s season will begin February 8th as they head to Monticello, Ark. to take on the Boll Weevils before heading to Northeastern State in Oklahoma for a two-game stand.
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2014 NSIC Preseason Coaches Poll School (first place votes) 1. Minnesota State (14) 2. St. Cloud State 3. Augustana (1) 4. Wayne State Winona Sate 6. Minnesota-Duluth 7. Concordia St. Paul 8. Sioux Falls 9. Bemidji State 10. Southwest Minn. State 11. Upper Iowa 12. Northern State 13. U-Mary 14. Minot State 15. Minnesota-Crookston
Points 196 179 169 150 150 117 109 94 92 82 79 62 44 38 14
2013 record 18-4 42-9 19-3 47-11 21-7 38-18 18-12 27-20 16-7 23-16 14-10 14-26 13-7 20-16 14-14 20-24 13-13 25-22 11-13 17-23 6-16 14-25 8-20 15-27 8-15 17-21 7-17 15-23 1-29 1-42
Thursday, January 30, 2014
WILD Draft, Zucker has seen time in each of the past two seasons and even scored the overtime game winner in game four of the Western Conference quarterfinals last season against the Chicago Blackhawks. This season Zucker has been in the lineup on a more frequent basis and could be a great player in years to come. Perhaps the most underrated of the group is Jonas Brodin. At only 20 years old, Brodin logs by far the most ice time of the group, playing nearly half of every game, second to only Ryan Suter in ice time. Brodin also gets ample minutes on the power play and leads all Wild defenseman in goals with seven on the year. A definite snub from Team Sweden for the Winter Olympics, Brodin looks like he could be a franchise defenseman; someone the Wild should try and hang on to as long as they can. Another franchise player could be the new goaltender between the pipes in Keumper. Darcy Keumper was best known earlier this season for the saves he failed to make. The minutes he played last season and early this season were few and far between, as well as less than impressive. However, after being sent down to the Iowa Wild, Keumper came back and seems to have taken over the starting role, at least for now. At 23 years of age, the Saskatchewan native looks like a bright light in a position where the Wild franchise has historically struggled to find a true winner. Keumper has been
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winning the Wild games against some of the best teams in the NHL and doing so with impressive numbers. With one shutout, he also holds a .924 save percentage and a 2.26 goals against average, well above average statistics for an NHL goaltender. With how young in their careers these players are, it may seem like a long shot to keep them all in the organization in the long run, but the foreseeable future looks bright for this franchise. These are all players who are still polishing their game but keeping up with top NHL players and holding their own on the score sheet. Keumper needs to be starting almost every game, making him the goalie of the franchise. For too long the Wild have rotated goalies, but winning teams always have a definite number one goaltender to rely on. Also, it seems as if the usual process of these young players bouncing around between the NHL and AHL has come to a halt, and they have earned the right to be in the NHL Wild’s lineup every night. That’s a good sign. While the Wild are in contention to make the postseason for the second straight season, a championship team may be a couple years away. These players are on the way up, but Minnesota is still waiting for these youngsters to turn into game changers. To be optimistic, a Stanley Cup coming to Minnesota in the next few years is no longer out of the question.
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BASKETBALL “For us we are in a situation where we are one game behind from the top spot in the league. We’re approaching every game like it is our last, and we have to,” Margenthaler said. continued from 19
Ronald Sejjoba • MSU Reporter
59.3 percent. Junior guard Zach Monaghan has recorded a league-high 162 assists while averaging 13.8 points per game. The Mavericks national ranking fell eight spots after the weekend, falling from 14th to 22nd in the latest NABC poll released Tuesday. “Our guys need to understand that Friday night is the biggest game of the season and then same thing for Saturday night. It doesn’t matter who we play from here on out we have to be prepared to win and do the things discipline-wise that we are capable of doing,” Margenthaler said. The Mavericks will have a good opportunity to earn two wins over the weekend. Both of the Mavericks opponents this weekend have posted a 3-11 record in the NSIC. MSU will begin a four-game homestand Friday when the Mavericks host the University of Mary with opening tip set for 8 p.m. The Mavericks will play Minot State at 6 p.m. Saturday. The University of Mary lost 11-straight games to start the NSIC season but has won three of the last four games. Marc Musungayi leads the Marauders with 13.2 points and 5.9 rebounds per game while Jalen Jaspers has the sixth best field goal percentage in the NSIC making .580 percent of his shots. The University of Mary also ranks sixth in 3-point field goal defense in the NSIC with opponents shooting just .341 against the Marauders. “For us we are in a situation where we are one game behind for the top spot in the league. We’re approaching every game like it is our last, and we have to,” Margenthaler said. “Our backs are a little against the wall. This needs to be a month where we continue to get better and better to try to get ourselves in a situation where we have an opportunity to play in the post season.” The second game of the weekend will feature a matchup between MSU and Minot State. The Beavers went 1-1 over the weekend including a win against Minnesota Crookston. Minot State is one of the better rebounding teams in the NSIC. The Mavericks have forwards to compete against the Beavers, but definitely will be busy Saturday. Minot State has the fourth best rebounding margin in the NSiC averaging 5.7 more rebounds than their opponents. Chris East averages 7.9 rebounds (fifth best in the NSIC) per game while Samuel Johnson pulls down 6.6 rebounds (ninth best in the NSIC) per game in the NSIC. Minot State is led offensively by E.J. Williams with a team-high 15.5 points while recording fourth most steals in the NSIC (34). “We are 17-4 after 21 games. It’s hard to complain about that but I think the basketball team is better than even 17-4. We have allowed ourselves to get beat a couple times when it shouldn’t of happen,” Margenthaler said. “There is no better group of guys that I would rather go to battle with than these guys that we have in the locker room. I am really looking forward to a great last month of the season. I think that great teams will really start playing their best basketball at this time and that’s what we are going to do, and I think that we have great things ahead of us.”
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