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Minnesota State University, Mankato
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MSU moves up the diversity list MSU moves ahead in their international student program. SAM WILMES News Editor
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Minnesota State University, Mankato has moved from 38th to 34th in international student enrollment, according to the annual “Open Doors Report,” recently put out by the Institute of International Educational. According to the report, Minnesota State, Mankato has 885 international students, up from 770 in last year’s report. MSU has seen a 72% increase from 2005-2012 in international student population, and the growth has been seen as a positive contribution to the Mankato community at large. According to analysis conducted by the Open Doors and The Association for International Educators analysis, Minnesota State Mankato international students and their families gave $19.2 million to the local economy in the last school year, up
three million dollars from the 2011-2012 report. In the past, MSU has been selected to receive U.S. Department of State-funded students by organizations like the Institute for International Education, The International Research and Exchange Board and World Learning, an organization that sends students via the Thomas Jefferson and William Fulbright Scholarships, the Global Undergraduate Exchange Programs in Eurasia, Pakistan, Central Asia, East Asia, Pakistan, Serbia, Montenegro and the Pacific. More than 90 countries are represented at MSU, with most coming from Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Nepal. Students from many countries in Africa are represented on campus, such as Burkina Faso, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda.
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Unique class teaches students to defend themselves Students are taught the valuable skill of self-defense in case of the worst. MIKELL MELIUS Staff Writer While some students are sitting in class listening to their professor lecture or are taking notes, the students in Darlene Loiselle’s self-defense class are learning the basic groundwork it takes to defend themselves against an attacker. “Avoid, escape, and destroy is a motto we have,” said Loiselle. “This class is all about building self-respect and confidence.” Loiselle, or Dar, as her students call her, has been teaching self-defense at Minnesota State University, Mankato since 2008. “It teaches them that they are vulnerable, and to react,” she said about the class. Loiselle started teaching selfdefense by helping out a friend. “She wasn’t able to take on the
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amount of students so I helped out.” Five years later, the self-defense class is thriving. “There is room for 25 students per class and it always fills up,” she said. Self-defense is offered every
ty, honing your intuitions, and even discussing women’s roles in specific cultures. Setting boundaries is also a big topic discussed. “You decide what your life looks like,” Loiselle said. “If you allow disrespect
to the test. Guy volunteers dressed up in red suits, giving them the look of an animated combat character, and the students, decked out in head gear, combat gloves, as well as arm and leg pads, were given a cou-
“Along with the experience students attain by getting to test out defense moves, they also are required to complete a final project.” semester, fall, spring and summer, with three 50 minute classes between 12-3 p.m. The class always occurs twice a week and there is a new topic every day. Topics cover everything from sexual harassment, spousal violence, car, home and travel safe-
it will only keep happening.” Right now the class is self-defense for women, but Loiselle says she hopes to get a self-defense class for men as well. I was able to sit in on a class where the women put there freshly learned defense moves
ple minutes to punch, kick, and defend themselves from their faux attacker. “You can be a lady and take care of yourself too,” Loiselle said. Loiselle makes sure to push her students to show them that they can fight back. “We’re not
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trying to turn the girls into Tae Kwon Do experts, but get them to do what they physically can,” she said. “Using their voices is probably the best thing they can do. The bigger the scene you make the better.” Along with the experience students attain by getting to test out defense moves, they also are required to complete a final project. Each student has to conduct research on an organization or a resource that women can use if they are being abused or feel threatened. The second half of the final project includes each student finding a defense move they have not already learned and share it with the class. “I know that I’m helping them,” Loiselle said about her students. “I believe that this class is changing lives.” ED/OP
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