April 17, 2012

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Minnesota State University, Mankato

UN Representative discusses Tunisian Revolution

MEGAN KADLEC

news editor

Thursday through Sunday, the Centennial Student Union at Minnesota State University, Mankato was overrun with dress pants, button-down shirts, skirts and ties on the individuals participating in the 36th annual Arrowhead Model United Nations Conference.

The conference brought together students from across the Midwest, including South Dakota State University, North Dakota State University, Minnesota State University; Morris, Saint Cloud State University, as well as students from the University of Wisconsin at Superior, Eau Claire, Lacrosse and River Falls.

The conference was created in 1975 at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, after faculty from colleges in the upper Midwest and central Canada were searching for a way for university students to learn

about the United Nations as well as the issues it addresses.

Since 1976, the conference has rotated to various participating schools, as to give the students involved the opportunity to travel to different locations. The conference was last held at MSU in 2009.

The conference was named after the region within the conference was created; the northeast corner of Minnesota, an area which runs northeast and northwest from Superior, Wisconsin forming the shape of an arrowhead.

The Arrowhead Conference begins with an opening ceremony where delegates for each country address the General Assembly, identifying their goals, aspirations and positions on policies for the conference. Following the opening ceremony is two days full of simulations of the Security Council and four of the main committees of the

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• msu reporter

International Festival finds its way back to MSU

MEGAN KADLEC

news editor

The Centennial Student

Model UN / page 4 Union will be full of students,

david bassey • msu reporter Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Nejmeddin Lakhal spoke to Model UN participants in a keynote address Saturday.

Variety............................................7

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faculty, staff and community members Sunday for an international celebration of epic proportions. All three levels of the CSU will be filled with tables selling cuisine and crafts from different cultures across the world. There will also be numerous cultural performances throughout the festival.

In its 36th year, the International Festival has a rich history in the Mankato Community.

“It basically started off as a community-run event to showcase international culture and cuisine,” said graduate assistant in the Kearney Internatonal Center, Kyle Goodfellow. “[It’s meant] just to get a bunch of people together to showcase their culture and heritage whether that be in an international sense to domestic people of the Mankato area or to people from Minneapolis and beyond.”

The festival has previously been held at the Verizon Wireless Center, Mankato East High School and the former mall in downtown Mankato.

• courtesy of the kearney international center Last year, the International Festival was held at East High School.

This year, the festival is coming back to MSU after several years held elsewhere.

According to Gregory Husak, a graduate student in Speech Communication, the festival benefits from being held in the CSU as it allows for more flexibility.

East High School was a central location in the community, however the confined area was difficult to work around, especially when the organizers see more than 3,000 individuals at the festival.

Because notes from plan-

ning since 2003 come from East High School, it was difficult to use those notes to effectively plan this year’s festival.

“The essence of the festival is still there but it’s in a different space,” Goodfellow said.

Goodfellow said that many community members were hesitant to come to MSU for the festival for various reasons.

“They think parking is a major issue,” Goodfellow said.

“It kind of scares some people in that they think they are going to have to park really far away

International Festival / page 6

Page 2 • Reporter

News

Relay for Life brings together MSU students

Tuesday, April 17, 2012T

‘Gender outlaw’ to speak at MSU

Carol Ortman Perkins lectureship to be held Tuesday ELISE KONERZA

assistant news editor

elise konerza • msu reporter MSU students worked around the clock Sunday night to raise more than $18,000 for the American Cancer Society.

ELISE KONERZA

assistant news editor

Students, faculty and Mankato community members gathered in Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Myers Field House Saturday evening in a campaign to kick cancer to the curb.

Relay for Life is supported by 300 chapters of the student organization, Colleges Against Cancer, nationwide. The event required formations of fundraising groups to camp out

overnight and take turns walking around the track to raise money and awareness to help the American Cancer Society create a world with less cancer and more birthdays.

Groups had the opportunity to raise a set goal of donations with the freedom to choose however they may fundraise before the actual Relay for Life event.

At the event, groups had to continue fundraising all evening from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. at their table selling

In a world of ever-changing semantics, how do we begin to identify others exempt from gender definitions solely as male and female?

Gender outlaw Kate Bornstein is welcomed to the Minnesota State University, Mankato campus today at 7 p.m. in the Centennial Student Union Ballroom, in hopes to dismantle the strict “gender system.”

The Women’s Center, LGBT Center, and Gender and Women’s Studies Department will host Bornstein as the Carol Ortman Perkins Lecturer.

Bornstein is an author, performer and advocate for teens, freaks and other outlaws and accredits her life work too.

As an author of several books including: Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us, My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely and Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws, Bornstein has created a library of information for “Z” individuals.

“Z” is a pronoun that a transgender individual identifies themselves as, along the lines of “X” for female and “Y” for male, “hir” is commonly used too.

Bornstein will talk about what’s happening in the media and the importance of accep-

Gender Outlaw / page 4

food, Twins tickets and much more.

Loved ones affected by cancer were commemorated in the Luminaria service. White bags were decorated and colored with the names of those loved ones whether they have died, were a survivor or are fighting now. The lights were turned off, and the white bags glowed, lining Myers Fieldhouse track.

Participants played a variety of games throughout the evening like tippy cup; the basketball game, lightning and pie eating contests. Teams could also choose a male member to dress up like a female and

• web photo

Relay for Life / page 5

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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

News

Catching a bike thief

Coming together to combat bike theft

• courtesy of to catch a bike thief A bait bike is being rigged up to a tracking system.

LINDSAY PETERSON

staff writer A group of people has come together to confront, promote discussion and explore the problems of bike theft – in person and on camera.

Producer Ingo Lou became inspired with an idea for a new web series “To Catch a Bike Thief ” once he had his bike stolen for the fourth time outside his own home.

“It was really surreal to imagine that at that very moment, someone somewhere in the city was riding around on my bicycle,” Lou said.

Roughly two and a half bicycles are stolen every minute, and when bike theft is reported to police,

victims have a less than one percent chance of actually recovering their bike, according to a report prepared for the US Department of Justice.

“I want to understand the big picture of bike theft, in order to help cyclists protect their bikes,” said Series Director Kirsten Aubrey.

Minnesota State University, Mankato students should remember that campus isn’t safe from bike theft either.

“Bikes can make life so much easier, so be sure your lock is working, and if you don’t use your bike often, be sure to check on it.

You never know if someone might be tampering with it,” said Laura Hanson, a

junior studying family and consumer science education.

“To Catch a Bike Thief ” aired its pilot episode April 2. The group uses handmade, GPS-enabled bikes as bait to follow and retrieve from a thief that has fallen into the experiment. Its mission is to help the community and disrupt the chains of supply and demand that fuel the underground industry of bike crime as well as find new strategies for cyclists to protect themselves against bike theft.

“GPS tracking gives our intercept team dispatch real-time response of the bait bike and allows our

Bike Thief / page 5

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former computer specialist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory spent much of his free time advocating for the idea that a higher intelligence must have had a hand in creation.

Now, a judge will decide if his commitment to that belief cost him his job.

Closing arguments in the wrongful termination lawsuit filed by David Coppedge against Pasadena-based JPL began Monday after a fiveweek trial that generated intense interest among proponents of intelligent design — the idea that life is too complex to have evolved through evolution alone.

The case will be decided by Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige after both sides agreed to forgo a jury.

Coppedge, an evangelical Christian who worked on NASA's Cassini mission exploring Saturn and its many moons, claims he was demoted then let go for promoting his views.

The former team leader alleges he was discriminated against because he engaged his co-workers in conversations about intelligent design and handed out DVDs on the topic while at work.

Coppedge lost his team leader title in 2009 and was let go last year after 15 years on the mission.

Coppedge was called to a meeting with a supervisor on

March 2, 2009, and told to "stop pushing your religion," his attorney William Becker said in his closing argument. The supervisor later claimed he was trying to help Coppedge, but Becker said the statement smacked of religious intolerance.

"Imagine if employees were told, stop pushing your gay agenda or stop pushing your feminist agenda, your civil rights agenda?" Becker said.

"This is just another way that ... shows it's prejudice and it's another shifting explanation to provide cover."

JPL denies the claims.

In court papers, lawyers for the California Institute of Technology, which manages JPL for NASA, have said Coppedge received a written warning because his co-workers complained of harassment.

They also said Coppedge lost his leader status because of ongoing conflicts with others.

Caltech lawyers also say Coppedge was one of two Cassini technicians and among 246 JPL employees let go last year due to planned budget cuts.

Coppedge, who began working for JPL as a contractor in 1996 and was hired in 2003, is active in the intelligent design sphere and runs a website that interprets scientific discoveries through the lens of intelligent design.

His father authored an anti-

NASA / page 5

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Page 4 • Reporter

News

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

GENDER OUTLAW

MODEL UNITED NATIONS “The good thing in Tunisia is that we are proud. We did it ourselves. There was no international intervention.”

continued from 2

continued from 1

tance. In a conference, Bornstein as a speaker creates an emotional atmosphere where one second everyone is laughing and the next everyone is crying, Sammie Hedwall, The Women’s Center Assitant Director said.

Hedwall says her books are readable and relatable.

“What Bornstein writes is so exciting and liberating,” Laura Schultz, the Interim Violence Awareness and Response Program Coordinator of The Women’s Center said.

She exemplifies the grey spaces, and highlights that “it is okay, and that’s what so many people need to hear.”

Her transformative message defers from the “strict binary message,” and it’s something that not everyone has to stick with.

The Department of Gender and Women’s Studies launched the Perkins Lectureship campaign in 2003 after Perkins retired as Chair of the Department. The ambition of the lectureship is to invite a distinguished feminist scholar or activist to the MSU campus each year to deliver an ample message conducive to forge connections between modern day theory and practice.

Bornstein’s lecture will take place as the 2012 feminist voice at MSU today. Her message is free, informative and inviting to all MSU students, faculty, staff and Mankato community members.

General Assembly.

At MSU, both the International Relations Club and a Model UN class, taught by Abdalla Battah, participated in the event.

On Saturday, following a banquet and preceding an awards ceremony, a keynote speech was given by deputy permanent representative of Tunisia to the United Nations Nejmeddin Lakhal.

Lakhal spoke about the Tunisian Revolution as well as the Arab Spring. On Jan. 14, 2011, 28 days after the revolution began, President Zine El Abidine fled the country to Saudi Arabia after officially resigning from 23 years in office. The protests were said to incite numerous revolutions across the Middle East, also known as the Arab Spring.

A month later, on Feb. 18, a transition to democracy was established in Tunisia.

In the following October, the first free elections since the country’s independence in 1956 were held. During the elections for the Constituent Assembly, the Islamic Ennahda Party won a majority of seats.

As a result of the election, more than 45 women were given positions in the Constituent Assembly. Out of 217 seats, this was a sharp increase in female representation in the Tunisian government.

“It was amazing to be able

david bassey• msu reporter Abdallah Battah, left, is an International Relations professor at MSU, organized this year’s conference.

to see girls with jeans, girls with hijabs, young people – everybody was outside,” Lakhal said. “Women were leaders [in the revolution].”

The address, which was completed within 20 minutes, and was followed by a 30-minute question and answer ceremony that was possibly more enlightening than Lakhal’s speech.

During the question and answer ceremony, Lakhal addressed questions relating to the impact of technology on the revolution, and the relationship between the Arab Spring and the Occupy protests of the United States.

To both of these questions,

Lakhal said that he had not thought about the topics enough to form an opinion.

Lakhal discussed the difficulties of drafting and forming an entirely new constitution as well as the implications for doing so.

“Nobody can tell you what the constitution is going to be because we don’t have one, but the constitution should be a consensus between Tunisians,” Lakhal said. “All Tunisians should be able to see themselves [in the constitution]. It’s not going to be a majority rule.”

Lakhal also said that building a new government cannot happen overnight, and you

must be patient.

“Things are not going to change in 24 hours. It’s a transition,” Lakhal said. “Sometimes it takes more than two or three years but the good thing in Tunisia is that we are proud. We did it ourselves.

There was no international intervention. The people did it themselves, but they need to be patient.”

After the keynote address, an awards ceremony took place for the individuals involved in the conference.

The Arrowhead Model United Nations concluded Sunday morning with a General Assembly closing session.

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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

News

Reporter • Page 5

RELAY FOR LIFE “This year, there BIKE THIEF “Bike theft seems to persist despite best were 326 participants. The 42 teams efforts of communities and law enforcement agencies.” raised a combined total of $18,544.” continued from 3

continued from 2 strut their stuff for dollar donations at the relay.

This year, there were 326 participants in MSU’s Relay for Life. The 42 teams raised a combined total of $18,544. TriSigma’s team raised the most with $2,185 with the help of the relay’s top participant, Elise Boleman, with a total donation of $960.

The MSU CAC chapter focuses their efforts on four directions: advocacy,

cancer education, Relay for Life and survivorship. CAC meets once a week, generally Tuesday evenings in CSU 201 at 9 p.m.

The organization signs weekly Care Cards and develops new events and ideas to fundraise and inform others about the movement of fighting cancer. All proceeds go to the local American Cancer Society Relay for Life at MSU.

team to develop a proper intercept strategy that is both safe and effective,” Lou said.

A vibration sensor in the bait bike, constructed by the team, is activated once the lock is cut. That triggers the tracker to broadcast its real-time location every 10 seconds to a mapper server, which is accessed through a webapplication by the team’s designated dispatcher.

To avoid any potential

violent breakouts during confrontation, the team has security guards on bicycles on-hand.

“Bike theft is one of those things that is really personal, affects so many people and seems to persist despite best efforts of communities and law enforcement agencies,” said Broderick Albright, one of the first members of the To Catch a Bike Thief team.

The web-series will air the adventures of the To

Catch a Bike Thief team and raise awareness, so individuals and communities can protect themselves against theft.

“Biking is a great way to get around college campuses, so it’s unfortunate that students have to be so cautious about using this form of transportation because of bike theft issues,” said Ashley Christiansen, a sophomore majoring in marketing.

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continued from 3 evolution book and founded a Christian outreach group.

He is also a board member for Illustra Media, a company that produces video documentaries examining the scientific evidence for intelligent design.

The company produces the videos that Coppedge was handing out to co-workers, said Becker, his attorney.

His main duties at JPL were to maintain computer networks and troubleshoot technical problems for the mission.

In 2000, he was named "team lead," serving as a liaison between technicians and managers for nearly a decade before being demoted in 2009.

He sued in April 2010 alleging religious discrimination, retaliation and harassment and amended his suit to include wrongful termination after losing his job last year.

Coppedge is seeking attorney's fees and costs, damages for wrongful termination and a statement from the judge that his rights were violated.

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Page 6 • Reporter

News

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL “I’d be escaping the question if I didn’t say there were any challenges, because there have been a lot of them, but I think they are good challenges.” continued from 1 to get to the campus center or they maybe don’t know the buildings.”

Goodfellow said that the International Center is trying to make the Visitor Paylot free, as well as creating additional parking spaces on the roads surrounding the CSU. Overflow parking will be available in the Gage Parking Lot. Other individuals are worried about the amount of stairs in the CSU and having to wait for elevators.

While the transition from East High School to the CSU has warranted space changes, the organizers of the event are keeping many of the same aspects of the festival consistent.

“A lot of the stuff that they have done year in and year out has worked, and it continues to work, [bringing] people back,” Goodfellow said. “We’re trying to keep all of those things that keep the community coming back for more.”

Goodfellow said that the organizers of the event are adding their personal touches to the festival.

“We’re not trying to get too in over our heads,” Goodfellow said. “We want to take this as a trial run almost to see how it

will work out coming back to the CSU.” Goodfellow said that his programming band event planning background helped him organize this event, however, the festival posed challenges he wasn’t used to.

“I’d be escaping the question if I didn’t say there were any challenges, because there have been a lot of them, but I think they are good challenges,” Goodfellow said.

These good challenges include working with individuals of different cultural origins.

“Programming with international students presents a challenge because a lot of them come from cultures and backgrounds that obviously are a lot different than growing up in the United States,” Goodfellow said. “A lot of the students I work with have a different sense of what planning an event means.”

Because Goodfellow is a new student at MSU, he said that it was difficult to keep track of all the different individuals he needed to talk to in planning this massive event.

“Obviously you’re not going to please everyone with every-

• courtesy of the kearney international center Mankato’s International Festival is the second largest festival of its kind in Minnesota.

thing you do no matter what the event,” Goodfellow said.

According to Husak, the international student population is increasing at MSU and it is important that these students feel as though they belong on this campus. He said that many

international students are anxious to tell their story to those who ask it and that this festival allows domestic students and community members to ask those questions.

“The international community, they love this and they get

involved with it,” Goodfellow said. “I think if we can get the larger campus community more on board with it as it is coming back to the campus, for this year and future years, is a big goal of mine, being a domestic student myself.”

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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

www.msureporter.com/arts-entertainment

The Popcorn Report JAMES SCHUYLER HOUSTSMA

staff writer

•web photo

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – I’m not a big fan of discs with front covers containing quotes from critics that say, “The Best of the Year”. For Mission: Impossible, it says, “The Best Action Movie of the Year.”

In this case, it absolutely deserves it.

After a failed operation

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that resulted in the bombing of the Kremlin, Ethan Hunt and his team, along with the entire International Monetary Fund (IMF), have been disavowed and branded terrorists. Now, they must capture the nuclear strategist responsible for the bombing, who is out to incite global nuclear war in order to clear their names, this time without backup and stakes that have never been higher.

Like a lot of studio action movies, the set pieces are conceived first and then everything else is added in, but the action scenes here are honestly some of the best ever put on film. The entire 40-45 minutes in Dubai is amazing. Director Brad Bird not only has a very kinetic sense with action scenes, but more importantly he cares about making the story as interesting as possible

and plays upon the great dynamic between Cruise and his team members.

Fun, fast and smart, Ghost Protocol is one of the most exciting flicks from 2011.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is available immediately on Netflix, Redbox and digital rental/ purchase.

Shame – If you’re a fan of Michael Fassbender, you should know this is probably his most revealing role yet.

Fassbender plays Bran-

•web photo

don, a successful New York businessman, who is struggling with sex addiction. When his wayward, and equally messed up, sister moves into his apartment, everything begins to spiral out of control for him.

Shame has gotten some attention for being rated NC-17 due to its graphic nudity and sex scenes. As a film, it’s been praised for its performances, while few don’t care for the movie’s slow burn pace.

Fassbender has been on a roll the past year, having headlined movies like Jane Eyre, X:Men – First Class and A Dangerous Method, and his presence here alone is the biggest draw for anyone who is still a bit leery of the premise.

Shame will be available on Netflix and Redbox May 15, and immediately on digital rental/copy.

The Cabin in the Woods Double-Take

ANDREW SIMON

staff writer

T

he Cabin in the Woods is not what anyone expects it to be. It’s daring in how it pushes the envelope, clever in how it uses archetypes for its own devious purposes, hilarious in its many quotable one-liners, and all around brilliant in how a story that, by all intents and purposes appears to be simple, ends up becoming a complex, layered, meta film that demands to be seen by everyone and analyzed through and through.

The bones of the plot is such: five friends head out to a cabin – in the woods - and one by one they start getting picked off in a most brutal, horrific fashion; the very structure of a pantheon of horror movies

that have come before it. There’s the virginal Dana (Kristen Connolly), the star quarterback Curt (Chris Hemsworth, Thor), the been-around-theblock Jules (Anna Hutchison, Drag Me to Hell), the stoner Marty (Fran Kranz) and finally the shy but nice guy Holden (Jesse Williams).

As to what happens when they’re at the cabin, why they’re at said cabin, and what the big picture concerning the cabin in the woods – revealing too much would be detrimental to the enjoyment of the film. For any LOST fans, the plot shares similarities to this particular device: on the island, in a hatch, there is a button that needs to be pressed every 108 minutes or something cataclysmic will occur – the

SIMON / page 8

JAMES SCHUYLER HOUTSMA

staff writer

T

•web photo Andrew Simon and James Schuyler Houtsma present their different, individual takes on the Cabin in the Woods, released April 13 (Friday the 13th). Producer Joss Whedon has stated about the film; “On another level it’s a serious critique of what we love and what we don’t about horror movies. I love being scared.”

here are two types of people who are going to walk into The Cabin in the Woods: the ones who are fooled into thinking the movie is exactly what the title suggests, a by-thenumbers slasher flick, and those who have done their homework and know better than that.

While there is a good amount of spilt blood, The Cabin in the Woods is even more a horror satire, and an incredibly satisfying one at that.

The initial premise is the same: five college kids go to a cabin (you’ll never guess where it is) and are slowly picked off. Meanwhile, two office workers engage in some witty banter

and start taking bets in an office pool, the topic of which becomes surprisingly apparent. From this point on, the plot takes such a turn that anything more said about it could be described as a spoiler, so here is where I stop describing what’s happening and reraise the curtain of mystery.

Admittedly, it’s really hard to review this movie, since a lot of its truly great moments would be ruined if I described them to someone who hasn’t seen it.

I’ll get into detail later about preparing to see it, but now to the broad things that work so well.

Like Scream, Cabin in the Woods knows its audience is aware of horror tropes and how horror movies play out, with some charac-

HOUTSMA / page 8

Page 8 • Reporter

A&E

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

SIMON “The sense of meta-narrative Whedon and Goddard bring to the script is too good to resist...”

HOUTSMA “Much of Cabin’s success can be credited to the creative team of Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard.”

continued from 7

continued from 7 portrayed. That said, Cabin is a straight up horror film – but it also transcends the genre and becomes something more. And this is the true skill of writers Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard: they clearly have a blast meddling with a genre they have a passion for, mix in some humor and social commentary (without sounding too social commentary-ish) along with some blood and guts, putting it all together, and having a movie that is so freakishly familiar yet something no one has ever seen before.

There are some flaws in the script, specifically of the ‘well, why can’t they just do that?’ kind,

but it doesn’t hinder the enjoyment one bit. Each member of the cast is perfect in their respective roles, fulfilling the duties of their respective archetypes and rising above them, (most) eventually becoming fully rounded characters. The sense of meta-narrative Whedon and Goddard bring to the script is too good to resist, and how they push the envelope, specifically in the film’s climax, is worthy of applause and accolades. Fans of the horror genre will love it, teenagers and young adults will eat it up – run, don’t walk, to the nearest theater and enjoy the brilliance of Cabin in the Woods.

ters’ actions poking fun at the things audience members do. Unlike Scream, where clichés are only pointed out, Cabin actually identifies the tropes and then provides amusing explanations as to why they exist and why they are an integral part of the story.

Much of Cabin’s success can be credited to the creative team of Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard.

Whedon’s writing brings a refreshing amount of satirical wit and knowledge of the genre, and Goddard executes everything almost perfectly, with only a few inconsistencies at the end.

And unlike most horror movies, the characters are all likeable people from the start and only become archetypes who make stupid slasher movie decisions (“We need to split up”) because they are manipulated into it by unseen forces.

This movie is an enthusiastic gift for loyal fans of the genre, and people who crave and respect movies that just go for it. But to truly realize all the awesome things going on, one has to see it for his or herself, which brings us to the most important part.

This is not the movie you believe

it to be. This was not the movie your friend who hated it thought it was going to be. This is not like the spoon-fed, banal, lame horror crap they keep churning out every year, which is partly what it’s being sold as, and probably what said friend wanted it to be. It does what it wants, unapologetically, and it ends how it logically should. Just because a movie is not what people are expecting it to be doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie. It’s a smart film, but it’s also a wildly fun and humorous film, and one that does not deserve to be ignored or misunderstood.

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events of Cabin in the Woods tie into that idea and sense of urgency and hovering doom.

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Plus, both feature plenty of lighthearted but hilariously accurate jabs at the genre, pointing out the flaws of clichés (e.g., the ‘let’s split up’ idea) and the ludicrous nature of how females are

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Sports Tuesday, April 17, 2012

www.msureporter.com/sports

MSU Women’s Tennis:

Freshman Laura May’s singles win led MSU to a 5-4

win over the College of St. Ben’s. The Mavericks play in the NSIC tournament on Friday.

Men’s Basketball:

The Mavericks added South Dakota St. transfer Zach

Monaghan to the roster last week. Monaghan will be eligible for the upcoming season.

MSU Track and Field:

Maverick junior Tandy Juell is the reigning NSIC Men’s

Field Athlete of the Week after winning the St. John’s University Decathlon.

Hastings takes over as third men’s hockey coach in program history JOEY DENTON

staff writer

It’s a great day to be a Maverick.

That’s how everybody in the administration felt on Monday morning when they introduced Mike Hastings as Minnesota State, Mankato’s new men’s hockey coach.

Hastings, most recently an assistant coach for the NebraskaOmaha Mavericks, signed a fouryear contract that pays $225,000 per year, and is now the man in charge of taking the biggest sports program at MSU to the next level.

He is now an MSU Maverick.

All of the team’s staff and supporters, such as the Blue Line Club, were all on board with this decision and excited for what Hastings brings to the program, especially School President Richard Davenport.

“He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge as an assistant coach and a junior hockey coach,” President Davenport said.

In Monday’s press conference at the Verizon Wireless Center, Davenport noted the program is not broken, it just needs some help to build it up to the next level, and Hastings is the man for the job.

Coach Hastings has shown a lot of excitement since the announcement was made over the weekend, and he can’t wait to get started.

“I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity,” Hastings said.

Softball

The theme of the day was commitment. Hastings went on to say how important it is to be committed to your family first, then your working family.

“The commitment level from the process when this started, to myself and my family, and what I have seen with the university and the players and everybody that has been involved, we’re all after the same goal,” Hastings said.

Hastings, a Crookston, Minn. native, was most recently the associate head coach at NebraskaOmaha for the last three years.

In that stint, the UNO Mavericks went 55-50-12. Before that, he spent one season as an assistant coach under Don Lucia at the University of Minnesota.

Before coaching collegiately, the 46-year old had a 14-year stint coaching the Omaha Lancers in the USHL, and what a career he had.

In his 14 years in Omaha, the Lancers had a 529-210-56 record, and they never had a losing season. In that time, he earned three USHL Coach of the Year awards.

With such great success, he had the opportunity to be an assistant coach for the U.S. National junior team in both the 2003 and 2005 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships.

It is never a smooth transition to start coaching a new program, but Hastings might be getting a little help from MSU junior defenseman Tyler Elbrecht, who was a

MSU Reporter Hastings made a name for himself as head coach of the Omaha Lancers of the USHL, posting a 529-210-56 record. His most recent coaching stint was as an assistant with Nebraska-Omaha.

member of the Omaha Lancers before he decided to play for MSU. Hastings enjoyed coaching Elbrecht when he was in Omaha, and he is excited to coach him again.

“He’s a very impressive young man, as well as a hockey player,” Hastings said. “I’m excited about having him in our locker room because of that.”

On Friday before he was hired, Hastings got to meet the players, and they got to talk about what they want to accomplish going forward.

“They want to accomplish what

we want to accomplish,” Hastings said. “I’m excited about what we have here.”

If there is one word that can describe Hastings’ style of play, it would be speed. He has been using this style down in Omaha, and he is planning on bringing it with him to Mankato.

“It’s hard to defend players that are playing on an offense with speed,” Hastings said.

Usually when a new head coach is hired, it is because of a bad season or two and there simply needed to be a change. But

MSU’s cupboard is not completely empty.

Hastings gets to come into a program that not only looks to be on the rise, but is a year or two from being a contender in the WCHA. Hastings is aware of this and believes that he and his team have the tools to accomplish their short and long term goals.

“We need to do more than [just] hope,” he said. “We need to accomplish our goals, and that’s going to take a lot of work and commitment.”

Pitching the story yet again for Mavericks in home sweep of Mustangs LEE HANDEL

sports editor

To say that Minnesota State, Mankato starting pitchers Kendra Huettl and Courtney McKelvogue are “locked in” at this point of the season would be an understatement.

Huettl, a senior, and McKelvogue, a junior, each tossed complete-game two-hitters over the weekend as the Mavericks shut down Southwest Minnesota St. by scores of 3-0 and 2-0, picking up yet another sweep of a conference rival.

Ninth-ranked MSU improved to 38-7 overall with the sweep and 18-2 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The Mavericks were the second seed in the region heading into Saturday’s games, and have now gone 18-1 in their last 19 contests.

Huettl and McKelvogue are the biggest reasons for MSU’s late-season surge, as they have combined to hold opponents to

zero runs over the Mavericks’ last 30 innings played.

MSU’s offense has done its part during the streak, picking up some well-timed hits off some tough pitching to give its star pitchers the little run support they needed.

Freshman infielder Brittani Robinson continued her solid rookie campaign in the first game of the series, scoring two of the Mavericks’ three runs after reaching on a walk and a single.

Robinson was driven in by fellow freshman Chelsea Riordan’s single in the second inning to put MSU up 1-0.

Riordan came through again in her next at-bat in the fourth inning, plating junior infielder Abby Sonner with an RBI double to give the Mavericks a 2-0 lead.

Senior second baseman Amanda Umhoefer put the game all-but out of reach 3-0

in the sixth inning when her infield single allowed Robinson to cross the plate for the second time.

Huettl put the finishing touches on the shutout with a flawless seventh inning, earning her 17th win of the season while striking out 11 Mustang hitters.

“Overall, we played good softball in all aspects of the game: hitting, defense and pitching,” said Huettl.

McKelvogue “Different players continued to step up when we needed it and that has helped us to be successful.”

McKelvogue picked up right where Huettl left off in the second game, throwing seven scoreless innings of her own

while picking up six strikeouts.

The win was McKelvogue’s 17th of the season as well.

The Maverick hitters did all of their damage in the bottom of the second inning, scoring the only runs of the contest in that frame.

Sophomore Kelly Wood and Sonner both reached base on singles, then Riordan completed her stellar day with another RBI hit. Wood scored on the single, and Riordan stayed in a run-down between first and second base long enough to plate Sonner for the 2-0 lead.

The way McKelvogue was pitching, the umpires probably could’ve ended the game right then and there. The junior went on to mow down the Mustangs for five more innings to complete the 2-0 shutout.

“It is great to have Court as a counterpart. We truly work as a staff versus as individual players. We can bounce ideas

off each other and sometimes pick up on small things when we find ourselves struggling,” Huettl said.

After prevailing in 18 of their past 19 games, the No. 9 Mavericks have a great chance to keep the good times rolling with their next three series at home in Mankato. Huettl isn’t surprised by the team’s recent success.

“I think we challenged ourselves to play at an energy level we know we can play at. We kept calm in pressure situations versus pressing and forcing things to happen,” said Huettl. “It will be nice to have the rest of the regular season at home so we can rest up and play in a familiar environment.”

MSU returns to action today at 3 p.m., with a double-header against St. Cloud State at The Diamond behind the Gage Towers.

Page 10 • Reporter

Sports

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Baseball

Mavericks earn split in St. Cloud thanks to Martin’s seventh win of year No. 11 MSU St. Cloud State

TIGE HUTCHESON

staff writer

In what was supposed to be one of the biggest conference series of the season, the Minnesota State, Mankato baseball team’s four-game road series against rival St. Cloud State was cut to a single doubleheader due to harsh weather in St. Cloud, Minn.

The Mavericks split Saturday’s games, winning the first game 5-2 before dropping the second 11-3, and were supposed to finish the four-game set the following day. However, a washout on Sunday forced the games to be postponed until yesterday, but the rain wouldn’t stop, ultimately cancelling the final two games due to inclement weather.

As disappointing as the cancellation was, Saturday’s doubleheader gave head coach Matt Magers plenty to be pleased with, but also plenty to learn from.

MSU set the tone early on Saturday, jumping out to an early lead following senior third baseman Pat Dockendorf’s three-run home run in the first inning.

And while St. Cloud did respond with one run in the bottom of the first and second innings, MSU never let its lead deflate to less than two runs, as junior Mike Eckhart’s double to left-center in the second inning and Dockendorf’s RBI single in the seventh kept the lead comfortable for the Mavericks.

Dockendorf led the way at the plate, going 2-for-4 with four RBIs and a run scored, while Eckhart (2-for-3, one run and one RBI) and senior second baseman Matt Kuchenbecker (2-for-3 with one run scored) also contributed on offense for MSU. As impressive as Dockend-

5 2

No. 11 MSU St. Cloud State

orf’s four RBIs were, perhaps the biggest story was starter Harvey Martin improving to 7-0 after transferring to the Mavericks from Central Michigan during the offseason.

Martin outdueled 2011 AllNorthern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Second Team ace Scott Lieser (6-4) and gave up only two runs and four hits to the explosive St. Cloud State offense in six innings on the mound.

In addition, sophomore Tyler Ockuly was named NSIC Pitcher of the Week yesterday following last Wednesday’s 1-0 shutout against Wayne State.

With pitching posing the biggest question mark entering the season, the Mavericks have to be feeling pretty good about their rotation following all of the good news from this weekend.

The momentum stopped in

3 11 game two against St. Cloud though, as the Huskies roughed up MSU starting pitcher Bryce Bellin (6-1) early and found themselves with an 11-2 lead after only three innings.

“They won the first-third of the game and we won the last two-thirds of the game,” said Magers. “They did a lot of damage in the first three innings, but after that [we calmed down and finished out the game].”

But even the eventual 11-3 loss had a few bright spots.

One of the biggest was redshirt freshman pitcher Mathias Butala, who finished out the game after relieving Bellin in the third.

Butala gave up only one run and four hits in six innings on the hill, and pitched well enough for Magers to admit that maybe it’s time to expand his role.

“We saw a redshirt freshman step up and prove to his teammates and the coaches that he’s going to play a bigger role than maybe what he had been,” said Magers.

While it would’ve been nice to finish the series with a sweep, even just two games offered plenty of proof that the Mavericks are headed in the right direction.

“I think it shows that we can play with the better teams, which we’ve been proving all year long. If we come out and play like we can, we’re going to be a very tough team to beat,” said Magers. “I think overall we’re happy with the split but ultimately, for us to be competitive at the end of the year, we’ve got to keep plugging along no matter who we’re playing, and that continues with Augustana tonight.”

Congratulations 2012-13 International Student Endowment Scholars Kirill Graminschi......................................... Dr. Kuhn H. Lee Scholar Cristina Hracovschi......................................Olson/Olszekski Scholar Subham KC................................................Florence Sponberg Scholar Neelam Khadka................... Beatrice & Joseph Moosally Scholar Kalpana Koju.................Louise & Linda Steele/Syverson Scholar Anuka Muhandiramge Rodgiro......Waldo & Jean Jaax Scholar Monish Mukhiya........................Carole & Dwain Petersen Scholar Wendinpui Ouendraogo........................Elizabeth Kearney Scholar Sashindra Shrestha..........................................Mary Taggert Scholar shannon rathmanner • msu reporter Freshman catcher Nolan Johnson went 1-for-3 with a run batted in for the Mavericks in Saturday’s 3-11 setback in St. Cloud. Johnson is hitting .404 in his rookie season at MSU.

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Page 12 • Reporter

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