During his tenure as the head of the UW-Eau Claire athletics depart-ment, Director of athletics Scott Kil-gallon has seen a lot of success.

In his 10 years, the Boston native has been a part of three national cham-pionship sports as well as a slew of in-dividual national champions, 27 WIAC titles and 31 WIAC Coach of the Year Awards.

Despite the trophies and accom-plishments on the field, gym, court, ice or track, Kilgallon measures success by the experience of the student athlete not just in athletics but in the commu-

nity and classroom as well as creating close relationships.

Kilgallon can be seen at almost ev-ery home event of all 22 Blugold sports, with his New England accent echoing throughout any venue. And he’s not just a figurehead there, he’ll stay, cheer and go to bat for every single one of the about 550 athletes who call the Eau Claire athletic department home.

“You’re in this profession for them, and I never lose sight of that,” Kilgal-lon said. “It makes you want to work harder and harder.”

In 2004, the then-Southern Ver-mont College director of athletics packed up his bags and moved to a place unfamiliar to him in Eau Claire. Immediately, he had a vision and a

concrete goal for his new athletic de-partment: move up in the Director’s Cup standings, measuring the most successful collegiate athletics depart-ments in each of the NCAA divisions through championships, records and standings in each sport.

And the only way to accomplish this, he said, was to give as close to equal attention as possible to every sport in the department, demanding excellence from all areas.

“I’m all about the student athlete and the experience, also, all about par-ody as best you can for all sports,” Kil-gallon said. “You want to give it time to all 22 sports. I think that’s really,

THE SPECTATORTHE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1923

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Setting the Blugold standard

On March 10, UW-Eau Claire will host to a voter registration rally to raise awareness and support for the Confluence Project, which will feature speakers like Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.

Student Body President Bryan Larson said having an on-campus ral-ly will hopefully generate interest and educate students on the upcoming ref-erendum, which asks voters whether the city should spend $3.5 million on the Confluence Project. The rally also asks if the city should hold a future ref-erendum before spending $1 million or more to build an arts center.

The Confluence Project, a proposed $77.2 million mixed-use building in downtown Eau Claire, would include three performance spaces, classrooms, fine arts studios, gallery space, dance studios, offices, community/retail space and student housing.

Student Senator Jacob Wrasse said the Student Senate has been en-couraging students to vote and under-stand the importance of the upcoming election.

“We want to register voters and educate the students on the project for April 1,” Wrasse said.

Campus viewpoints

But some students have mixed feelings on the Confluence Project. A common complaint about the project is the university would no longer be lo-cated in a single location. Larson said although some students wouldn’t enjoy

the cross-town travel, the positives would outweigh the negatives.

“I think that to a certain extent, we are blessed and cursed by having such an isolated campus,” Larson said. “On one end it’s great because it only takes a few minutes to walk to class. On the other end it limits us and al-most ends in an exaggeration on how far things are apart from each other.”

Senior Jillian Cram said she does not think the project is needed for stu-dents, even though it would eliminate some overflow.

“I don’t know if the housing part is necessary,” Cram said. “It would be better to have it closer to campus.

Larson said Senate sees campus expansion as a key reason for students to be supportive of the Confluence Project. Larson said there is typically a high demand to be housed in apart-ment-style housing that is controlled by the university, like Chancellors Hall.

According to the university, be-ginning plans estimate 100 apart-ment-style rooms. About 300 to 375 residents would live in the downtown area, but no first year students would be allowed.

“The one issue we run into all the time is right now we are operating at over-capacity, somewhere around 108 percent capacity,” Larson said.

Freshman Jessica Onsager said she thinks the idea is good but is still unsure if the project should move for-ward.

“I think it’s cool that they are put-ting student housing in it, but I do think that people should get the oppor-

Voter rally featuring Confluence supporters Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, city council mem-bers and Student Body President will speak

Martha Landry and Courtney Roszak

EDITOR IN CHIEF AND STAFF WRITER

SUBMITTED

>> DIRECTOR page 8 >> RALLY page 2

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Thursday, March 6NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

Three UW-Eau Claire stu-dents spent part of their winter break investigating geomorphic sites and studying the sub-surface using ground penetrating radar in New Zealand with Harry Jol, professor of geography and an-thropology. These students were funded to participate in an inter-national research program.

“Without the funding from the Blugold Commitment, this trip wouldn’t have occurred, point blank,” Jol said.

The International Fellows Program at Eau Claire is an op-portunity for faculty and students to collaborate on a research proj-ect internationally and is the re-cipient of the Institute of Interna-tional Education’s 2014 Andrew Heiskell Award for International-izing the Campus.

The International Fellows Program supports one or more faculty members to go abroad with one or more students. It requires

a research component and a mini-mum of three weeks in a country. Students are eligible for a $1,000 stipend and also have airfare and lodging covered by Blugold Com-mitment money. The students are responsible for their own food and any personal expenses.

Karen Havholm, the assis-tant vice chancellor for Research and Sponsored Programs and di-rector of the Center of Excellence for Faculty and Undergraduate Student Research Collaboration, said receiving this award raises the profile of the center for inter-national education and the uni-versity.

“I really believe that the more of those kinds of recognitions and awards that we get, the more valuable your degree is,” Havholm said. “Even though you might not

go on the International Fellows Program, it raises the value.”

One goal of the Interna-tional Fellows Program is to increase access and innovation within study abroad, by providing an option to those who often can’t participate in traditional study abroad opportu-nities.

Shanti Freitas, the Interna-tional Immersion coordinator, said often students in the STEM programs are limited in their op-tions for studying abroad, since many classes are only offered once a year.

With the International Fel-lows Program, Freitas said Eau Claire did a really good job of targeting the students who were not going abroad, identifying why they were not going abroad, and creating opportunities for those students.

The International Fellows Program offers research oppor-tunities over the summer or over winter break so students on a rig-

id schedule can be involved.“The award will have a big im-

pact because it recognizes the fact that Eau Claire is really dedicated to increasing the impact of study abroad, making it more affordable and making it more accessible,” Freitas said.

Programs through the Inter-national Fellows Program create experiences for students which also act as a faculty professional development program, Halvolm said.

Jol said while in New Zealand, the Eau Claire students were able to interact with other students, both graduate and undergradu-ate, from other countries. Since coming back to Eau Claire from New Zealand, Jol has included what he learned on the trip into his lectures, letting students know what their peers accomplished.

“Often these are graduate stu-dent experiences,” Jol said. “And so I think we need to let students know that this is a significant ex-perience, and most people in the world do not get this experience.”

Jessie TremmelSTAFF WRITER

Tremmel can be reached at tremmejr@uwec.edu or @jessi-etremmel.

Fulfilling goals of internationalizationUniversity receives

award for internation-alizing campus

FREITAS

“... Eau Claire is really

dedicated to increas-

ing the impact of study

abroad.”

SHANTI FREITASInternational Immersion Coordinator

TT: This is your last semester as a professor here, what will you miss most about UW-Eau Claire and the city?

VC: I will miss students, I enjoy young people. They inspire me, chal-lenge me and teach me. They give me faith in the future, I sincerely believe our world will become a better place when the college students I’ve taught take over the reigns of society from my generation.

TT: What is the weirdest thing

that has ever happened to you in one of your classes over your years here?

VC: I’ve had many weird things happen to me. This was after class rath-er than in class. In one Sociology 164 class, students became emotionally dis-traught with one another over the issue of child discipline.

Trent Tetzlaff STAFF WRITER

tunity to vote on it,” Onsager said.

In fall 2012, the majority of City Council members were in favor of the project. However, the members who serve now are different from those who served in fall 2012. City Coun-cil President Kerry Kincaid is one of the members in favor.

“I think the Confluence Project is a burst of pride for the city,” Kincaid said. “The City Council looks forward to hearing from the citizens on the referendum.”

The rally

In addition to Vernon at the rally, City Council mem-ber Catherine Emmanuelle, Homecoming King and Sing-ing Statesmen President Dane

Jaskowiak and Larson will be speaking.

Larson said Senate is hop-ing prominent members in the community will draw more stu-dents to the rally.

“The point of the rally is to bring students together,” Lar-son said. “Obviously a lot of people are familiar with Justin Vernon.”

Senior Tori Prager said she recently became familiar with issues surrounding the Conflu-ence Project. Prager said she will be attending the rally and plans on voting in the upcom-ing referendum.

“I think it’s just a cool thing to vote,” Prager said.

Prager is a supporter of the Confluence Project and the idea of extending the universi-ty into the downtown area.

“Since being a student here over the past four years, just going downtown even in the summer when there isn’t something necessarily going on, the downtown area could be better. It could be so much better than it is,” Prager said.

Also a Bon Iver fan, Prager said she is excited to have the musician on campus. She said she is assuming that a presti-gious Blugold alumnus on cam-pus will encourage students to come and educate themselves at least.

“I think that a lot of people will go,” Prager said. “I hope.”

Landry can be reached at landrymm@uwec.edu or @MarthaLandryy. Roszak can be reached at roszakcm@uwec.edu or @CRoszak22.

RALLY/ Senate hopes to educate and involve students in referendum

What is the referendum?— County referendum: “Should the county give $3.5 million to help build the Confluence Project’s arts center?”— City referendum: “Shall a charter ordinance be en-acted that would require a binding referendum before $1 million or more in municipal funds can be appropriated for any building construction that is planned for dramatic, musical or artistic performances?”Source: Eau Claire City Council

How should you vote?— Supporters of the project should vote YES on the county referendum and NO on the city question.—Project opponents should vote NO on the county question and YES on the city referendum.

More information about the Confluence Project can be found online. Supporters of the Confluence call them-selves Community for the Confluence and opponents the Citizen Referendum Committee.

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER/The Spectator

NEWS3Thursday, March 6

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

NOTABLE EVENTS HAPPENING BOTH ON AND OFF CAMPUS

THURSDAY, MARCH 6

FRIDAY, MARCH 7

SATURDAY, MARCH 8

SUNDAY, MARCH 9

MONDAY, MARCH 10

TUESDAY, MARCH 11

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12

• 7- 8 p.m. — Planetarium show: Constellations, Myths and Legends, Planetarium

• 8 p.m. — Artisan Evening Open Mic, The Plus

• 9 a.m.- 1 p.m. — Winter Farmers Market, L.E. Phillips Senior Center

• 10 a.m. — Shamrock Shuffle 5K Run/Walk, McPhee Physical Education Center

• 3- 4 p.m. — Women’s History Month: Inspiration-al Women of Eau Claire, Davies Center

• 3 p.m. — Voter registration rally with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Davies Center

Foster Gallery

“Artifacts from the Hamilton Woodtype and Printing Museum”

10 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. — Mon. - Fri.1 - 4:30 p.m. — Sat. - Sun.

Runs from Feb. 20 - March 13Haas Fine Arts Center

UAC Films:“Jiro Dreams of Sushi”

This documentary tells the story of Jiro Ono, an 85-year-old considered to be the best sushi chef in the world. The film follows

Jiro’s life in the culinary world and as a loving father.

7 p.m. — Fri. - Sat.2 p.m. — Sat. - Sun.

Runs from March 7 - 9Woodland Theater, Davies Center

• 2- 7 p.m. — Ninth annual Aldo Leopold banquet, Davies Center

• 7:30 p.m. — The Foreigner, The Grand Theatre

• 12- 1:30 p.m. — Majors and Student Services Fair, Davies Center

• 8 p.m. — Micah Ryan, The Cabin

• 7-9 p.m. — Wednesday night jazz session, Acoustic Cafe

NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

• 5:30 - 8 p.m. — Winter & Spring Free Music Series, Fanny Hill

• 7:45 - 9:15 p.m. — Adult Open Hockey, Hobbs Ice Center

Junior physics education ma-jor Michael Yohn was awarded the Barbara Lotze Scholarship for Future Teachers last month.

Yohn is the first person from UW-Eau Claire, and one of only five students nationally, to receive this scholarship.

The American Association of Physics Teachers gives the scholar-ship to future high school teachers.

Yohn said he knew he wanted to focus on education even before college.

“In high school, I started off just helping people who were in classes with me,” Yohn said. “It felt good to help people understand what I felt was so cool about what I was learn-ing.”

J. Erik Hendrickson, a physics professor and Yohn’s advisor, said over the past several years, he saw Yohn’s aptitude for teaching and connecting with classes grow.

“He just blossomed,” Hendrick-son said. “As he finally figured out his way of being in front of students.”

Hendrickson said although Yohn hasn’t done any student teaching yet, he has been able to get experience working with students through the physics department as

a lab assistant and member of the Society of Physics Students.

In one of those classes, Physics 100, Yohn worked as a lab mentor answering questions and doing reviews for freshman outside the physics major.

Yohn has experience explain-ing and reviewing physics with students, who like high school stu-dents, aren’t focused on a physics degree.

“That was highly enjoyable,” Yohn said. “It was pretty much the pick-me-up of my Monday.”

Matt Evans, who enlisted Yohn as a lab assistant, said Yohn, then a freshman, did research with him on liquids and halfpipes.

Yohn has been involved in the department ever since he arrived, Evans said.

“We all saw how he evolved from someone who came in with-out much knowledge, to someone who really tries to help his fellow students,” Evans said. “As a lab TA and really went out of his way to be a resource for other students in both physics and at the university.”

Yohn came to the universi-ty with almost junior standing through retroactive credits, which he used to take more classes, do more in physics and gain more expe-rience working with other students and explaining material.

In addition to working with the physics department and being a member of the Society of Physics Students, Yohn is also a student member of the American Associa-tion of Physics Teachers and Sigma Pi Sigma.

Yohn said acting as an am-bassador for physics to high school

students is tough but rewarding. “You have to figure out how

you’re going to make what you love relevant to them, and just make it as awesome for them as it is for you,” Yohn said.

Olson can be reached at olsongp@uwec.edu or @GlenPOlson.

Glen Olson STAFF WRITER

Physics major awarded scholarshipStudent sets sights on

teaching high school, wins national education scholarship

GLEN OLSON / The Spectator EARNING AWARDS: Michael Yohn, junior physics education major, demonstrates the halfpipe built to study liquid flows.

UW-Eau Claire fo-rensics outscored eight teams to claim their 22nd straight Wisconsin State Forensics Tournament crown, Feb. 14-15 at Ri-pon College.

Sophomore political science major Elijah Free-man said he is privileged to have contributed to the team’s continued success, which dates back to be-fore he was born.

“It’s an honor to have upheld that legacy,” Freeman said. “We take forensics pretty seriously

here at Eau Claire, and to see that rewarded once again by another state championship secures your place in that lega-cy, and we are honored to have kept that going and hope to keep it going next year and the year after that.”

Freeman, who spe-cializes in public address speeches, said he believes the team’s win result-ed from a combination of various talents of his teammates and the expe-rience and knowledge of his coaches.

“We have tremendous coaching from Karen Mor-

ris and Kelly Jo Wright, who have been in the business, so to speak, for a very long time,” Free-man said. “So that com-bination of the talent that we have, and the develop-ment of those coaches in helping us to reach our full potential was instru-mental in helping us win again.”

Karen Morris has been the forensics direc-tor for 18 years. In that time, she said the pres-sure to continue their winning tradition varies because the competition changes each year.

“It’s a huge tourna-

ment for us in that, to call ourselves state champions and to have been doing that forever,” Morris said. “Because when you think about it, every state has a state tournament. So to be the best in our state is pretty significant.”

Freeman said al-though they are a talent-ed and successful team, they still have minor struggles.

“The core of our team is sophomores and fresh-men, so we are compar-atively a young team,” Freeman said. “A lot of us are still trying to find our way a little bit.”

However, Morris said the average age and ex-perience of this year’s team is what makes them distinctive.

“I think what is most unique about this group of students is that we are

bottom heavy, in that we have more sophomores than anything on this team,” Morris said. “So our sophomores are our crux of the team. They are really dedicated and that’s not to say that the junior and senior classes and these new freshmen are not, too.”

Morris said securing their win in this tourna-ment also qualifies them to represent Eau Claire at the national level.

“For us, this tourna-ment is significant be-cause of the Interstate Oratory Contest, which is the oldest forensic competition. Every state gets to send two people to represent. This year we won oratory, so Elijah Freeman gets to go to this national competition.”

>> TEAM page 4

Danielle Pahl MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

The success continuesUW-Eau Claire forensics team maintains

a winning tradition

The March of Dimes is a nonprofit organiza-tion with the mission to help with the pre-vention of birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. It was this mission statement that made senior man-agement major Saman-tha Noltner want to help this cause.

“I can’t even imag-ine going through what these families have gone through,” Noltner said. “So I wanted to get in-volved with this worthy cause.”

Noltner, along with two other students, Grif-fin Lefeber and Rebecca McCormick, have been working to raise aware-ness about March of Dimes. McCormick said the group is mainly help-ing with the marketing aspect of this event. She also said she wanted to raise awareness within the UW-Eau Claire com-munity.

“It seems like a really good cause … and a fun event,” McCormick said. “I thought it was a really good thing to start this year and maybe next year we’ll get people to come again.”

The group has set out with the goal of having as many campus organizations involved with this event as possi-ble, Noltner said. Even though over 10,000 people attend school here, not one team from last year represented Eau Claire. This year, the group wants to see change, and they are do-ing whatever it takes to see it happen, Noltner said.

“We’ve done a radio interview and we’re in the process of reaching out to organizations on campus,” Noltner said. “Then, our next step will be to reach out to local businesses around Eau Claire.”

In addition to reaching out to campus organizations, Noltner said she and her group have also reached out to the residence halls, hoping to spread the word to everyone on campus.

Tonia Johnson, community director of March of Dimes, said she has worked very closely with the trio of students and wants as many students as possi-ble to be involved.

“The students are a huge part of the com-munity,” Johnson said. “They should be repre-sented in this walk. It’s a great cause.”

Noltner said the next goal in mind is

to raise money for the cause. The three-mile walk is scheduled for 10 a.m. on May 3 in Car-son Park. Unlike some other charity events, there is no registration fee. All of the money raised for the event will come from donations.

“Come walk, help us raise public aware-ness and money,” John-son said. “We value any contribution.”

Currently, there is no set amount of money Noltner, Lefeber, Mc-Cormick and Johnson are looking to raise, they are just looking for students to contribute to the cause. If every-one could donate one dollar, Noltner said, it would help the cause immensely.

The trio has even thought of an incen-tive to get students in-volved. Pairing up with Buffalo Wild Wings, the group that raises the most money will re-ceive a free party at the restaurant.

“Register on the March of Dimes website today,” Johnson said. “It’s so much easier when you have time to ask for donations in ad-vance. The walk seems like it’s far away, but it will arrive quicker than we think.”

4NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast Thursday, March 6

NEWS

“Punctuation saves lives.”These are the words written on

junior Erin Kelly’s new water bot-tle, which shows the phrase “Let’s eat Grandma,” can mean something much less shocking if it becomes “Let’s eat, Grandma.”

As part of the second annual cele-bration of National Grammar Day at UW-Eau Claire, Kelly won this water bottle in a contest on the College of Business Facebook page.

This year, the Department of

Business Communication hosted the Facebook competition and held re-ceptions in the Business Writing and Presentations Studios in Schneider Hall to raise awareness of the signifi-cance of using correct grammar.

Every hour from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the “grammar gremlins” in the BCOM department posted two sentences on the Facebook page. The first person to comment choosing the sentence with correct grammar won a gram-mar-related prize ranging from tote bags to keychains and water bottles.

“It’s just a fun way to call atten-tion to the importance of polished grammar to one’s professional suc-cess,” Paula Lentz, the academic program director for the department, said.

National Grammar Day started in 2008 after Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Pro-motion of Good Grammar, decided a day should be set aside to recognize the imperative to “march forth” for speaking and writing well.

Lentz said grammar skills are particularly essential in the work-place because employers will see a student’s ability to use standard En-glish business grammar as a mark of intelligence, professionalism and competence.

Tutors in the Business Writing Studio help students hone their skills in writing and grammar for their fu-tures.

Kate Morrison, a senior health care administration major and tutor in the Business Writing Studio, said any student on campus who needs help with business-related commu-nication can come in and get help with written work such as resumes and cover letters for internships or careers.

“I think the better you are at communicating, the more positive in-teractions you’re going to have with people and the better you’ll be to prepare yourself for a job,” Morrison said.

Morrison also said the Business Writing Studio is a good resource for students who may want another set of eyes to see their work, and it is less intimidating than having a pro-fessor review an assignment.

While students can also receive help with writing and grammar at the Writing Center in Centennial Hall, Morrison said if students want assistance specifically with business projects, it’s nice to have another op-tion.

The writing and presentations studios have now been open for about a year and Morrison said more stu-dents are starting to take advantage of the resource. She said National Grammar Day is a good way to focus on the studios for a day.

Kelly, a Latin American stud-ies major who has taken a business writing class, said she sees the im-portance of receiving help with gram-mar if needed because professors in the department tend to deduct points on assignments for each grammatical error.

While Kelly is pursuing a busi-ness communication certificate, she said business communication class-es are important for any profession because they help students become more powerful candidates in the workplace.

At the end of the day after win-ning twice in the Facebook contest, Kelly said it was a unique way to cel-ebrate National Grammar Day even though the page was not flooded with comments.

“I think it does have the potential to unite fellow grammar nerds,” she said.

Lentz said National Grammar day is significant for educational purposes, but it’s also simply a fun occasion the Department of Business Communication continues to observe on campus.

Rachel Streich STAFF WRITER

Streich can be reached at streicrn@uwec.edu or @RachelStreich17.

In preparation, Freeman said he will revisit critiques of his past per-formances, modify his delivery and continue to work closely with Morris and Wright.

“With the coaches I will look at some of the ballots some of the judg-es have given me in the past and see what they think went wrong with the speech or if they didn’t like it or what I did well and try to emphasize those points,” Freeman said.

The Interstate Oratory Contest will be hosted by James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. at the end of April.

TEAM/ Forensics looks ahead to Interstate Oratory Contest

Pahl can be reached at pahldj@uwec.edu or @DaniellePahl.

SUBMITTED GRAMMAR SWAG: UW-Eau Claire students could participate in contests on the College of Business Facebook page for a chance to win water bottles, tote bags or keychains as part of National Grammar Day on March 4.

Department of Business Communication uses National Grammar Day to promote the skill as important for all students

ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator

DANIELLE PAHL / The Spectator ORAL TRADITION: Sophomore Elijah Free-man, above, took first place in oratory at the Wisconsin State Forensics Tourna-ment, qualifying him to compete at na-tionals at the end of April.

Hosely can be reached at hoselym@uwec.edu or @meghanhosely.

Meghan Hosely STAFF WRITER

March for awarenessMarch of Dimes

walk set for May 3

Pointing out proper grammar

5Thursday, March 6

COMMUNITY NEWSNEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

Last September, Eau Claire Transit Commission provided a bus route connecting Eau Claire and Menomonie – a joint effort with Dunn County Transit, Jefferson Lines and Greyhound Lines.

But this service is now obsolete after Dunn County Transit built a route which goes to the Eau Claire Transit transfer station directly. Eau Claire Transit Manager Mike Bran-co said the move has created prob-lems for ECTC.

The route in jeopardy is the E-12. It stops at the Westridge Center, Al-pine Road, Menards and the Chippe-wa Valley Technical College’s west campus.

Branco said while ridership has been down, there are people who use the E-12 route for reasons other than connecting to Dunn County.

“There are riders who rely on this route to help them get around the west side of town,” Branco said. “We may end up just taking out the Dunn County connection stop from the route.”

UW-Stout sophomore Adam Wendt said the change is an improve-ment to the E-12 route.

“I like the new route more, it makes the trip go by quicker,” Wendt said. “Sometimes there would be a delay at the connection point, and that’s no concern now.”

Wendt, an Eau Claire native, said the direct route is more conve-nient when riding to connect with friends in town. But the E-12 route

has benefits, he said.“I do like the E-12 route because

of the stops by Menards and the tech’s west campus,” Wendt said. “It makes it easier to reach my parent’s house that way.”

Kent Conklin, the transit direc-tor of the Dunn County Transit Com-mission, said the new route was cre-ated for the convenience.

“Changing the Eau Claire con-nection from McDonald’s to the transfer station has helped our rid-ers,” Conklin said. “The transfer sta-tion is a more central location and offers better connections with other routes.”

Despite the added distance, Conklin said the route is presently economically sustainable.

Branco said he will discuss the route’s future at a public hearing held by ECTC on March 26.

“We’ll be presenting a lot of op-tions of what we can do with this excess of hours if we cancel E-12,” Branco said. “First we’ll be present-ing a vote to cancel or continue the route.”

Branco said ideas have been in-ternally discussed and may be con-sidered when assessing the potential open hours.

A Carson Park route could be in the works, but the ECTC is not prepared to extend a route through Chippewa Falls.

Branco said the vote on what new route would replace the E-12 would most likely come in April.

As plans went into play for Jammin’ in the Valley, an annual summer concert event, Eau Claire City Council raised a new concern about the location.

Council member Monica Lewis said — with a few chuckles from other members — floaters on the Chippewa River could sneak into the concert series from the water.

Lewis said as a member of the council, it is her job to look at access points for events like this, evaluate security and raise concerns.

“Because there was water on that side, and I happen to like to be on the water, it came to mind,” Lewis said. “If you take a look at the topography there, that is one of the local sites that I think peo-ple can get down to and get into the river.”

Jammin’ in the Valley is one event in Eau Claire’s larger Taste of the Valley bash.

In previous years, both events were held at Phoenix Park. This year, the concert will be held in Haymarket parking lot on the cor-ner of Eau Claire Street and Gra-ham Avenue. Taste of the Valley will stay in Phoenix Park.

Lewis said floaters could enter the lot from the river, and it’s im-portant all aspects of the concert be considered.

It’s possible people could be on the river, hear music and want to see what’s going on, so it is import-

ant that event organizers are pre-pared for that, she said.

But based on the current weather, Lewis said she’s not sure too many people would be out floating.

“When you take a look now at the date (May 31) … and the snow we have on the ground, it might be some really hardy people who want to be in tubes that time of the year,” she said.

Phil Fieber, city public works director and head of the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Depart-ment, said he isn’t too concerned about floaters entering the parking lot that day.

“I suppose you could get over there by inner tube, or you know

submarine, or some other aircraft carrier,” Fieber said. “There’s 27 miles of waterfront access, you could probably try to get in there, but I don’t think the event orga-nizers are really worried about it.”

To his knowledge, Fieber said there have never been issues with people sneaking into summer events via waterfront. The only time security was ever placed on the river was when President Obama was campaigning in Eau Claire and the United States Se-cret Service had patrol boats in the water.

However, he said there are other concerns with holding an event so close to the waterfront, and they do need to be taken se-riously.

“I’d be more concerned with people who are at the concert and it was a really hot day and they’d been drinking and they wanted to go jump in the water to cool off,” he said. “That, to me, would be a dangerous situation.”

Fieber said it is important for the event organizers to be aware of what’s happening down by the wa-ter, floaters aside, in order to en-sure the safety of those attending.

“They’re prepared to do that,” he said. “I think they have a good plan for monitoring the event all the way around, whether it’s on land or by sea.”

Eau Claire Transit may cancel route to Dunn CountyNew direct route may replace existing one; cut could

create further issues despite decreased ridership

Austin Mai STAFF WRITER

Mai can be reached at maiat@uwec.edu or @austinisfresh.

FILE PHOTO DUNN WITH THE ROUTE: The E-12 bus route which connects not only to Dunn County but the west side of town may discontinue.

“I think they have a good plan for monitoring the

event all the way around, whether

it’s on land or by sea.”PHIL FIEBER

City public works director

Katy Macek COPY EDITOR

Macek can be reached at macekkn@uwec.edu or @KatherineMacek.

Floating through the valleyEau Claire City Council member proposes a new

concern for summer events

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spectatornews.com

GET THE NEWS EVEN WHEN

YOU SKIP YOUR 8 O’CLOCK

SPORTS7SPORTS EDITOR: Steve Fruehauf Thursday, March 6

For more sports and campus-related news, go to spectatornews.com

Thurgood DennisSprints, 400

Men’s track and field

JuniorAllouez

Green Bay Notre Dame High School

Getting to know Dennis:

Favorite musical artist: Kendrick Lamar

Favorite movie: “300”

Favorite restaurant: Grizzly’s

Favorite sports team: Green Bay Packers

Dream vacation spot: Australia

Dennis was named the men’s indoor NCAA Division III Athlete of the Week Monday. This came after he placed a conference and school record in the 60 meter dash in the WIAC Cham-pionship this weekend. He also won the 200 meter dash and contributed in two separate 400 relay first place finishes. Eau Claire fin-ished second overall at the tournament, their

best since 1993.

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER / The Spectator

UW-Eau Claire men’s hockey beat UW-Stevens Point in their second game of the WIAC championship to force a mini-game, which they also won to advance to the final game Saturday night at K.B. Willett Ice Arena.

The Blugolds started their two-game semifinals series against the rival Pointers on Friday night. Game one of the series did not finish in Eau Claire’s favor, Stevens Point won 4-2.

“We played well (Friday night), but Stevens Point is a good team, they’re a top team in the nation,” head coach Matt Loen said. “They got three power play goals and it’s hard to come back from that.”

Despite the loss, the team was pre-pared for the next night.

“Since it’s a two-game series with a mini-game, whoever wins the second game is in the drivers seat,” junior for-

ward Ross Andersen said. “We focused on winning Saturday to carry that momentum.”

In the case of a series tie, the teams would play another period called a mini-game to decide the series victor.

Saturday’s game was a defen-sive battle with only one goal scored. Junior forward Joe Krause supplied Eau Claire with the game winner about half way through the first period.

Krause was in front on a penalty kill and checked Stevens Point’s Gar-rett Ladd at center ice.

Ladd fell over, Krause stole the puck and skated down the side board.

“All of a sudden the defense stepped up on me so I had to take the shot,” Krause said. “Luckily, the shot went in.”

The Blugolds forced the mini-game and had a 20 minute intermission to prepare. Eau Claire was set to start and ready to take advantage of their

exhausted opponents.“During the regular game, we

could tell that we were wearing them down,” Krause said. “We could tell that our conditioning was prevailing.”

The mini-game started and at 3:42, Andersen scored un-assisted to put the Blugolds up 1-0.

And about six minutes later, fresh-man forward Pat-rick Moore scored on a power play with assists from sophomore forward

Charles Thauwald and senior defensem-

an David Donnellan. “We got five on three there in the

mini-game and I was fortunate enough to get on the ice,” Moore said. “The puck came to me, I put it away, it was fun.”

Austin Mai STAFF WRITER

Men’s hockey moves to WIAC championship game after late wins in tournament play

Blugolds to play in title game

>> TITLE page 8

KRAUSE

SPORTSSPORTS EDITOR: Steve Fruehauf Thursday, March 6 8

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER / The Spectator

Copy Editor Courtney Kueppers logs her triumphs and tribulations of marathon training in

this bi-monthly running column

For this runner there are very few things more frustrating than someone else telling me I can’t run, and lately Mother Nature has been that someone.

She seems to be doing every-thing in her power to keep Wis-consin runners off the roads this season. Though I rarely let her win, she was triumphant in keep-ing training partner Johnny and I inside when her most recent snow-storm hit. While the flakes weren’t enough to close the university for a full day, it did put our plans for a 14-mile trek on hold.

When I don’t get a run due to my own lack of ambition is some-thing I can deal with but when an external factor like snow keeps me off the roads I get anxious. Deter-mined to get some kind of run in, Johnny and I headed to the indoor track.

It didn’t take much more than one 200-meter lap around the blue track in the stuffy Ade Olson Addi-tion to McPhee Physical Education Center for me to remember why I don’t run track and how much ad-miration I have for those who do. A round and a round and a round: I get dizzy just thinking of it.

Those who have the determi-nation and dedication to run track, especially indoors, have my utmost respect, but the inside run left me longing for the streets I normally curse for being too icy.

Refusing to let Mother Nature win, Johnny and I fought back last Sunday with a 15-mile run. We met up early in the morning to tackle the challenge: two miles further than our last distance run, and the furthest either of us had ever run at one time.

My weather channel app read

29 degrees below zero with wind chill before we left, so it seemed like the perfect time to break out the hand warmers my mom sent back to school with me. I was thankful I did.

As we headed down Water Street toward Carson Park to begin the first leg of the journey I became kind of freaked out by myself. Who was I? Had I really become someone who willingly gets up in the morn-ing and runs 15 miles when it feels like 29 degrees below zero out?

Just a year ago I would have laughed at the thought and yet there I was. Heading toward the North Crossing, wrapping around in front of Banbury Place and fin-ishing down Clairemont Avenue.

The weirdest part was I enjoyed every step, even with sidewalks that resembled snow banks, ice and slush. I knew that with every corner Johnny and I rounded in sync we were a step closer to finishing a run that was vital to our training. Even when my legs were begging to stop somewhere around mile 13, I knew I could keep going.

We paused the progress only twice to quickly swallow down the GU Energy Gel’s with a swig of Powerade Johnny lugs along on a fuel belt. As my watch beeped with each passing mile I was proud of our training thus far.

Even though we have nine more miles and two more months of train-ing before we can call ourselves marathoners I have gained a new sense of confidence that we can and will do it.

Kueppers can be reached at kueppecm@uwec.edu or @cmkueppers.

Erickson can be reached at ericks-na@uwec.edu or @NickErickson8. Williams can be reached at williaml@uwec.edu or @BookofEllis.

DIRECTOR/ Kilgallon said he models his job around his student athletesreally important.”

His parody method worked, as the Eau Claire athletics department skyrocketed up the Director’s Cup list during his reign. Kilgallon en-tered the university when the teams combined to finish in 68th-place. In 2013, the Blugolds sat at 14th-place out of all NCAA Division III institu-tions.

His efforts didn’t go unnoticed by student athletes. Although Kilgallon said he can’t put a name to the face of every student athlete, he makes a conscious effort to protect the wel-fare of them.

“You hear people throw around the term player’s coach, well he was really a player’s athletic director,” junior football and track athlete Thurgood Dennis said. “He under-stood what it meant to be in our shoes, and not just as athletes, but as D III athletes.”

Dennis said he felt like he could always approach Kilgallon because he knew he’d be willing to listen. He said this was apparent the first time he met the calm and collected direc-tor of athletics.

“Scott always sounded so laid back — it might be because of his ac-cent but his message was, ‘you guys are adults now and we’re gonna let you be adults, but if you ever do need anything feel free to come to us,’” Dennis said.

While Kilgallon strives to be a mentor to every student athlete as well as faculty members in the de-partment, he was also the head of important decisions ranging from facility renovations to budget battles to even changing the culture of Blu-gold athletics.

One of Kilgallon’s goals, he said, was to create the ultimate package in a student athlete, focusing on athletics, academics and communi-ty outreach. His commitment to the goal saw the Blugolds become more active in the Eau Claire area as well

as raising the student athlete GPA higher than the general student body.

But changing the culture didn’t just stop at molding role models for the university and Chippewa Valley region. It continued with his tireless efforts in generating money to bene-fit not only his department, but the university as a whole.

Kilgallon said most directors of athletics across the nation are able to take Mondays off, but for several years, he spent his Monday nights in front of the Eau Claire City Council, stepping into the batter’s box for the student athletes once more as he lob-bied for a $6.8 million renovation of Hobbs Ice Center.

Eventually, the project was com-pleted in 2010 and turned Hobbs Ice Center into one of the finest hockey venues in Division III.

“It’s been night and day to where our facilities were before and what they’ve become now,” current men’s hockey captain David Donnellan said. “We don’t realize the amount of time he puts in behind the scenes that makes our jobs easier to go out and play.”

And of course, Hobbs Ice Center plays host to the defending NCAA Division III national champion men’s hockey that Donnellan is a part of. Although facilities don’t literally go out, recruit players, hire coaches and win games, Kilgallon said he thinks the renovation might have some-thing to do with it.

“At the end of the day, you saw a private and public partnership, and coincidence, I don’t know, but we hired a great coach in Matt Loen and won a national champi-onship,” Kilgallon said. “That’s what happens when peo-

ple get together.”Kilgallon made

it a point of em-phasis to create an environment with-in the department where everyone involved, including faculty, would put the student ath-letes first.

Head softball coach and Assis-tant Director of athletics Leslie Huntington said Kilgallon created a professional environment where ev-eryone involved carried on the motto of Blugold excellence.

“We are very cohesive and all committed to the values of an inter-collegiate athletic program at the Di-vision III level – doing what’s right and best for our student athletes,” Huntington said. “I appreciated Scott’s willingness to let our coach-es coach their teams and his support of our overall goals and mission as a program and as a university.”

So what’s next for Kilgallon? Al-though he announced his retirement on Feb. 18 from Eau Claire, bigger institutions are actively pursuing him, and he intends to continue his work at one of them.

While he will undoubtedly face different challenges wherever he winds up, one thing will remain con-stant: his actions and decisions will only be made for the best interest of his student athletes.

“When you make decisions, you’re not always right, but I always think how this affects the student athletes,” he said. “You’re right 95 percent of the time when you let that guide you because that’s what you’re in this business for.”

HUNTINGTON

DONNELLAN

Eau Claire was up 2-0 and Stevens Point was hungry to score. The Point-ers tried for the comeback, but didn’t score until they brought in an extra attack-

er late in the g a m e . With 43 seconds left, the Blugolds h e l d off the a t t a c k and pre-v a i l e d

2-1.“It was a bigger victo-

ry because we played Ste-vens Point so many times and hadn’t beat them this year,” Andersen said. “It felt good to rub it in their face, that we had beat them in the most import-ant game.”

Loen said despite the victory, or even a victory in the championship game, there’s a chance the team will not receive a national championship bid.

Currently the Blugolds are ranked the fifth in the

NCAA’s Division III west region.

It’s unknown how many bids the NCAA will give this season. Regard-less of the team’s high ranking, if it’s only four per region, the Blugolds will not play for the na-tional championship.

“We have to take care of business this Saturday,” Loen said. “If we lose on Saturday, I don’t think we’ll get a bid.”

Selections for the NCAA championship with be announced on Sunday,

March 9.Earlier last Saturday,

fourth-seed UW-Superior beat UW-River Falls 2-0 in the series to upset the WIAC first-seed and make their way to the champion-ship game.

The original third-seed Blugolds will host the Yel-lowjackets at Hobbs Ice Center Saturday night at 7 p.m. for the WIAC cham-pionship.

TITLE/ UW-Eau Claire will play UW-Superior in WIAC championship

Mai can be reached at maiat@uwec.edu or @austinisfresh.LOEN

SPORTS9SPORTS EDITOR: Steve Fruehauf Thursday, March 6

The UW-Eau Claire softball team kicked off the season with three wins and a loss at the Roch-ester Dome Tournament last weekend.

The tournament, a two-day event hosted in Rochester, Minn., allowed various regional teams to compete despite the terrible softball weather.

Eau Claire started their weekend off playing St. Scholastica (Minn.) Saturday afternoon. The victory went to the Blugolds winning 10-6.

“We did a lot of very good things,” head coach Leslie Huntington said.

She said there are always things that can be tweaked and practiced. Last year, the Blugolds lost two captains, but still look to provide similar positive results this season.

Against Loras College (Iowa), the team went on to win from mercy rule after the Blugolds ran the scoreboard up 14-1 in five innings.

Eau Claire’s second day started early when the team played St. Norbert. The Blugolds defeat-ed the Green Knights 7-6 in eight innings.

Immediately after game three, Eau Claire played Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.) to fin-

ish their play in the tournament. Eau Claire was defeated 8-9.

“I think it went really well. We definitely had one of our best performances in the dome since I’ve been here,” junior catcher and captain Casey Arnold said. “We learned a lot about our team and what we need to work on.”

Despite the success, Huntington said she be-lieves it will be difficult to go back to indoor prac-tices. She said once the team has had a taste of authentic playing conditions, it’s hard to keep up motivation in practice.

“There’s no benefit to being inside, especially after we played on a regulation-sized field,” Hun-tington said. “That’s always the challenge at the beginning of the season.”

She said the team wants to be known for its defense, and being stuck in the gym due to weath-er, it’s hard to get better at pitching and defense.

“I’m very concerned,” Huntington said. “Not only with the amount of snow but the tempera-tures that aren’t allowing the snow to melt.”

Because of the snow, the Blugolds will travel during spring break to Arizona to play in the Tuc-son Invitational Games.

“The spring break trip is critical and will be

25 percent of our season,” Huntington said. “All the games that we’ll play are considered in region games and we don’t have any games where we can afford to take any breaks.”

Along with the competition, the invitation-al brings the opportunity to grow as a team and develop chemistry, which will be especially im-portant this year as nine of the 22 players are freshmen.

Arnold said in the years prior the trip has helped bond the team thanks to the games and planned activities.

Moving forward, the team will continue to

live by the motto on their team necklaces, “we will.”

“We have the teammates, we have the speed, we have the pitching, we have the defense, we have the hitting for sure, we just need to exe-cute,” Arnold said. “We definitely feel that we will contend for the national championship. That is our ultimate goal and that’s what we want to accomplish.”

Austin MaiSTAFF WRITER

Despite positive start, poor weather tampering with practice

Softball goes 3-1 in season opening tournament

FILE PHOTO BY ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator LET THE GAMES BEGIN: Former UW-Eau Claire third baseman Emily Haluska eyes up the ball during a game last season at Gelein Field in Carson Park. This season, the Blugolds have started off with a 3-1 record.

Mai can be reached at maiat@uwec.edu or @austinisfresh.

CURRENTS10CURRENTS EDITOR: Zack Katz Thursday, March 6

International Culture night, representing many of the different cultures on campus, will present a fashion show, dancing and everything in between at 7:30 p.m. Thursday night in Schofield Auditorium.

International Culture Night Committee publici-ty Manager So Young Lim, sophomore from South Ko-rea and student at Eau Claire, said they wanted to perform to build a bet-ter environment to live together.

“Since we are interna-tional students and even though this university has more than 100 internation-al students, I don’t think we have enough connection with American students or with the community, so we want to share our cultures with them so we can learn from each other and under-stand each other better,” Lim said.

Lim said she does not believe the university cele-brates diversity enough.

“It’s hard for me to find events that include a lot of international students,” she said. “I don’t think pro-motion is good enough, it’s really hard for me to gath-er a lot of international students to events. I don’t think many feel welcome, it’s hard for us to find a great friend who under-stands us better.”

Junior Katherine Moua, head of the event, said this is an important event for the university to put on.

“We are going to have some cultures from India, Irish dancing, Chinese cul-tural dance, Italian music being played and we are go-ing to have a skit by some Malaysian students on cam-pus,” Moua said.

She said Eau Claire has a big international student

population that many peo-ple on campus might not know about.

“So I think it’s really re-spectful for us to represent these cultures throughout campus in this one night,” Moua said.

Moua said Eau Claire might recognize diversity, but doesn’t show it enough.

“I think this is one event that motivates the university to do more with it,” Moua said. “The over-all goal is to basically open the eyes of the community on the college diversity we have on campus, it’s not just ethically or racially or culturally, it’s all types of cultures whether it’s Amer-ican or not, we find people to find acceptance.”

Junior Anne Wickland is part of the outreach group for the event and also in the fashion show repre-senting Norway.

“We just think it is re-ally important to show Eau Claire is not a super white campus, there is diversity,” Wickland said.

She said the hardest part about this event is get-ting people to know about it, and to recruit people who are interested in being involved.

“I have been the one contacting students, so I think that’s been really dif-ficult, just because not ev-eryone responds to emails, or there are people who are interested and who back out,” Wickland said.

The doors open at 7 p.m. and Wickland said she en-courages all students and the community to purchase tickets.

Emily AlbrentNEWS EDITOR

Albrent can be reached at albrenec@uwec.edu or @emilyalbrent.

SUBMITTED PHOTO NOT THE YMCA: University students representing a number of cultures on campus come together to celebrate and educate fellow students at the ICN.

Celebrating diversity

International Culture Night to showcase ethnicity on campus

CURRENTS11CURRENTS EDITOR: Zack Katz Thursday, March 6

Uncovering a diamond in the rough is an idea society likes to float out in the open air.

And of all the great places to eat in Eau Claire, that diamond lies in a little local tavern just a block past the boundaries of the in-famous “student ghetto” stretching from 1st and Water Street all the way to 7th and Lake Street.

To anyone who has paid a visit to Ray’s Place at 838 Water St., one menu item glows on the light–up board illuminating the back of the smallish bar: the hot beef sandwich for $4.25.

I know what you might be thinking, and that thought is, really? Can’t I sim-ply put beef in a crock-pot all day, run up to Gordy’s for a few ham-burger buns and make my own?

W h i l e the answer to that particular question might be yes, you truly haven’t had a legit-imate hot beef sandwich until you venture down to the tavern just a block from the Hobbs Ice Center.

First off, they put on the right amount of beef. Isn’t it the worst when you try to eat a sandwich and half of it ends up on your plate be-cause it is physically impos-sible to fit everything into your mouth, or you are sim-ply biting down on flavored bread? I agree.

The bun is heated up just a little bit to create a nice soft taste so the meat soaks in your mouth and takes you to a place where all your problems go away.

But here’s the real kick-er of the sandwich, and when I say kicker, I truly mean kicker. The fine folks of Rays offer horseradish sauce. If you’re a condiment person like myself, you might be tempted to spread this sauce all over the joint.

Here’s a word for the

wise: be careful. It is arguably the most delicious sauce in the world, but it will literally make your eyes water if you put too much on. If you are lucky enough to put on the perfect amount, it will compliment your sandwich perfectly.

Yes, the hot beef sandwich has become a renowned treat in Eau Claire. But there’s a lot more to the tavern that makes it a must-visit.

First off, this is a shoutout to all those students who live past the last bus stop on 7th Street and Water Street, where the more well-known Water St. establishments are a bit uncomfortable of a walk

on a frigid winter day (in case you forgot, we have plen-ty of those). Ray’s Place is right in the mid-dle of the n e i g h b o r -hood where the student ghetto tech-nically cuts off, but of course, plen-ty of stu-dents still

live there, making it a very conve-nient stop if you’re looking for a getaway.

Also, it has some fantastic

food deals. Unlike a lot of bars and restaurants on Water St., the food is almost just as good as the drinks. You can get a plentiful amount of cheese and crackers for a mere $1.25. For just a little something to nibble on, that’s perfect.

Also, they have almost a con-venient store-type setting near the entrance. Yes, that means you can buy candy bars, bags of chips or small bags of popcorn to have with you as you sit with some of your friends at the bar or a table. Doesn’t get much better.

As far as the atmosphere goes, it is a very nice change of pace from other college hangouts. It caters to an older crowd, giving you a nice break from that one bumbling idi-ot screaming at a bar farther down the street (you all know who you are).

Also, they have dart boards to make for a friendly competition if that’s what you’re feeling.

And lastly, once the weather gets warm out, which who knows how long that will be exactly, they have a great outdoor patio that is absolutely perfect for a gorgeous summer night.

If you’re looking for something low-key and casual, Ray’s Place is definitely a great option. And as far the horseradish sauce goes, you’ve been warned.

Don’t forget the mustardRay’s Place on Water Street offers customers an affordable menu and a

neighborhood atmosphere not found in other places near student housing Nick EricksonMANAGING EDITOR

Erickson can be reached at ericks-na@uwec.edu or @NickErickson8.

“You truly haven’t had a

legitimate hot beef sandwhich until you venture down to the tavern just a block from the Hobbs Ice

Center.”

Jessie Tremmel STAFF WRITER

The Fire Ball brings in capacity crowds

NICK ERICKSON / The Spectator WHAT’S YOUR BEEF: Ray’s Place on Water has become well-known for its hot beef sandwich.

Dragshow filled with bright lights and runways all in the name of human and social rights

The Fire Ball, a dragshow supporting gender and sexuality equality, came back for its third year in a row Friday and Sat-urday at UW-Eau Claire with two sold out, three-hour shows.

For Friday, general admission pass-es sold out during the night, but Satur-day, general admission tickets sold out by 2 p.m. More than 1,400 tickets were sold total.

The LGBTQA Student Support Fund raised a little less than $10,000 from The Fire Ball ticket sales. An additional $3,000 came from merchandise and other sources. The LGBTQA Student Support Fund is not limited to LGBTQA students, but is available to anyone who is seeking social change and asks Christopher Jor-genson, the director of the Women’s and LGBTQ Resource Center, for help fund-ing their experience.

The money to fund The Fire Ball came from the center’s budget, which Jor-genson manages in order to sponsor all the events that the Women’s and LGBTQ Resource Center puts on through the year. The majority of the queens are local with a few flying in for the event. Booking the queens cost the Women’s and LGBTQ Resource Center about $7,000.

“The Fire Ball is really the office’s gift to students,” Women’s and LGBTQ center intern Jared Beighley said. “It’s not something that the office profits from.”

Women’s and LGBTQ Resource Cen-ter interns Beighley and Kim Schnurr were included in the ballroom setup dis-cussion, assisted with some of the light-ing, worked backstage with the queens and helped with decorations both in the ballroom and in the hallway.

“Very stressful, but very rewarding,” Beighley said. “I could not believe the transformation that that ballroom had

gone under from Thursday night to Sat-urday night. It was really nice to be able to see all the hard work that Chris did, and that we did, pay off.”

Along with the queens, there were backup dancers and pre-show dancers. Eau Claire junior Alyssa Sass has been dancing for 15 years. She was encouraged to participate in The Fire Ball her fresh-man year but doubted she could improv for the entire pre-show, about one hour.

This year, Koryna Flores, the main choreographer for The Fire Ball, gave Sass no choice but to audition for the show.

“I grew up as a ballet contemporary dancer; the most I did that was outside of that realm was hip-hop,” Sass said. “I’ve always wanted to do hip-hop jazz funk fu-sion, and that’s Koryna’s style.”

Sass put about 30 hours into prepar-ing for the show and said she hopes to be more involved with the choreography next year, since Flores is graduating and her role will need to be filled.

The queens were gracious toward other dancers and the audience. When Sass got a minor cut on her leg from her heel, Shangela, one of the headliners, comforted her by telling her that it was “a battle wound from diva-dom.”

After the show, the Meet the Queens event was filled, and Beighley said the queens were really good about it, making a point to spell names correctly and ask-ing questions.

“Drag is a very tight-knit commu-nity,” Beighley said. “They interact with each other the exact same way, they jok-ingly insult each other. They are the best of friends.”

Next year’s Fire Ball is still being drafted but is expected to return to the university for a fourth time.

Tremmel can be reached at tremmejr@uwec.edu or @jessietremmel.

JESSIE TREMMEL / The Spectator ALL FOR A CAUSE: Queens from all over the country performed for LGBTQA rights at the Fire Ball.

OPINION / EDITORIAL13OP/ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, March 6

Think of how much $426 is. And in a few months, think of how much $439 is for you.

For most college students, that is around the same amount of money as a month’s rent with utilities tossed in and maybe a few dollars extra for textbooks, gas or groceries.

Basically, for an 18-to-22-year-old student, that’s no small allotment of dough. Most students know that. But here’s a startling statistic I would be willing to bet not a lot of students know: that is how much you spend on segregated fees each year, which fund student organiza-tions and various activities on campus.

That’s right, this school year, you paid $426 in these segregated fees, and on Feb. 17, Student Senate passed unopposed a bill increasing these funds by 3.05 percent to $439 for the 2014-2015 school year.

And here’s the scary part. You might not be taking advantage of any of these because you simply go to class and work part time. That’s all fine and dan-dy, but if this is all you do, you might as well be flushing a month’s rent straight down the toilet and watch your opportu-nities spiral away from you.

Here are some examples of what you could be doing with that money, because quite frankly, there’s no reason for you not to get your money’s worth with segregated fees. UW-Eau Claire provides a lot of opportunities for stu-dents to mingle, get involved and better their careers.

Your ticket to athletic events on campus is technically proof that you are a student; in other words, your

Blugold card. While that looks free of charge as you walk past all of the com-munity members at the ticket windows, that is built into segregated fees. So go put on your blue and gold, get to an athletic event and watch some great competitions.

Speaking of blue, if you are feeling homesick, stressed or even a little depressed, coun-seling services are included at about 4.5 percent of seg-regated fees.

Intramurals is projected to get 7 percent of next year’s segregated fee budget, and yes, I know each team has to pay $25, but if you have a big team,

that is essentially nothing. So get active and join a team.

Thirty-four organizations will com-bine to get $32,000 in funding next year through segregated fees – organizations ranging from College Democrats and the Conservative Union to the Singing Statesmen to Campus Pride to Men’s Volleyball.

There are also other student groups not included in the Organization Activi-ties Budget, including right here at The Spectator. Yes, here is my disclaimer, we are also partially funded by Stu-dent Senate through segregated fees. The student radio station, WUEC also receives seg fee funding. So please, do yourself a favor and pick up the paper weekly and listen to 89.7 FM on Sunday nights to get caught up with campus news.

The full list of organizations, activ-ities and services your $426 and next year $439 goes to is available on the Student Senate homepage through the university’s main site.

If all you do is go home or back to the dorms after class, I hope you read this as a challenge for you to go out and

Erickson is a junior journalism major and Managing Editor of The Specta-tor. He can be reached at ericksna@uwec.edu or @NickErickson8.

Nick Erickson MANAGING EDITOR

Get the bang for your buckSegregated fees should motivate students to become active

“This school year, you paid $426 in segregat-

ed fees, and on Feb. 17, Student Senate passed unopposed a bill increasing these

funds by 3.05 percent.”

get involved on campus for two rea-sons.

Reason one: this university offers a lot of great things for students to do to get involved and meet people as well as legitimately help them out, so don’t be a lump on a log.

Secondly: you are paying for all of these services, so why wouldn’t you want to get all the bang for your buck and at least give something a try?

An Editor’s Note:A glimpse into the finances of The Spectator

Martha Landry EDITOR IN CHIEF

On Feb. 28, members of The Spectator staff walked away from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association convention in Waukesha with five awards.

In the midsize campus newspa-per category, the paper placed: third in general web excellence, second in photography for a submission by Pho-to Editor Elizabeth Jackson, third in general reporting by previous Multi-media Editor Haley Zblewski, third for sports reporting taken home by Managing Editor Nick Erickson and finally it received third for best edi-torial.

As the Editor in Chief of The Spec-tator, I could not be more proud of my staff for continuing the award-win-ning tradition of the paper. We work hard every week to bring the students, staff and faculty quality, unbiased and ethical campus and community news.

On that note, I am writing this ed-itorial to shine light on the financial situation of The Spectator. Like most organizations on campus, The Specta-tor is allocated segregated fees, which are controlled by the Student Senate of UW-Eau Claire. The first point that I want to make is that media outlets

on this campus receive and depend on funding from the government body they are support to report on, which is an ethical situation.

On a yearly basis we apply for segregated fees that Senate votes and approves. For the 2013-2014 school year, The Specta-tor was allocated

$17,990. (As stated in Managing Ed-itor Nick Erickson’s Op/Ed, The Spec-tator is partially funding by segregat-ed fees, which comes from students’ pockets. You help pay for the paper, so take advantage and give us a con-sistent read.)

Currently we are operating at a $55,778 budget for the 2013-2014 school year. In the next year, the pa-per will be operating at the same bud-get. These costs must cover printing, staff salary, maintenance, as well as other small costs. Our advertising staff works to make up the difference between our allocation and budget.

TV10, the student broadcasting organization receives funding from the Residence Halls funds because

LANDRY

THE HIGHEST BIDDERS

Top five activities receiving 2014-2015 seg fee funding

1. Student Health Service: $1.3 million2. Athletics: $950,0003. Recreation / Intramurals: $280,0004. Student Senate: $203,5005. Student Office of Sustainability: $200,000

>> SPECTATOR page 15

OPINION / EDITORIAL14OP/ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, March 6

We’ve all been there. You had a re-ally long day and when you finally get home the last thing you want to do is lis-ten to your roommate complain about her on-and-off boyfriend for the 50th time that month.

But you listen anyway, because you expect whenever she finally finishes that rant she’ll turn around and ask you how your day was and she’ll do the same for you.

Except when she finishes — an hour later — and you finally try to get a word in about yourself she blows you off, not deeming your problems important enough to pay attention.

In some way or another, we’ve all been in a similar situation. But most of us have been that roommate too.

This weekend I went to a leadership conference at Davies Center, but one of the most important sessions I attended had nothing to do with leadership. It sim-ply had to do with being a better person.

The session, titled “Shut up and Lis-ten” and presented by Livi French, a stu-dent at UW-Eau Claire, focused on the importance of active listening and how to apply this skill to leadership.

But I think it’s more important than that. I think this skill, while it is vital to being a good leader, is necessary to be a good friend.

An article on the Eastern Washing-ton University’s Student Life section of its website says active listening “involves receiving and interpreting the aural stimuli, and creating meaning from the sound.”

Basically, that means instead of hearing your friend talking, you are re-sponding and engaging in the conversa-tion.

At the presentation, French said there are many distractions in our daily lives that affect our ability to be active listeners, and some of them we aren’t even aware of.

These distractions can include day-

Katy Macek COPY EDITOR

Macek is a junior journalism major and Copy Editor of The Spectator. She can be reached at macekkn@uwec.edu or @KatherineMacek.

Can you hear me now?There’s a major difference between hearing a conversation and listening to one

dreaming, focusing on what you’re going to say next instead of what the person in front of you is saying and the most bla-tant one of all, cell phones.

If we are talking to a person and tex-ting a message on our cell phone at the same time, French said more often than not we are more engaged in the screen than the person in front of us.

In order to be a good active listener, it’s important to put down the phone and focus your attention completely on the person you’re talking to.

I know I’ve told my friends countless times about problems in my life, but the times it really stands out to me is when someone follows up later with simple questions like “How was that exam?” or, “Did you finish that paper?”

Asking questions and being involved, not only in the conversation as it’s hap-pening but also after it ends, are very

important components, not just of active listening but of being a good friend.

My supervisor and role model Donna Lehmkuhl, the ECLIPSE Program Man-ager at Eau Claire, told me something last year that has stuck with me ever since.

“The most important person is the one you’re with,” she said.

It is very easy with all of the tech-nology to get distracted by text messag-es, Facebook updates and tweets, but nothing will ever beat the intimacy of a real, one-on-one conversation with a good friend who is not only present, but active-ly listening with their full attention.

Everything else can wait.

“In order to be a good, active listener, it’s

important to put down the phone and focus your attention com-pletely on the person

you’re talking to.”

SUBMITTED LISTENING: ECLIPSE workers like the one above work with children to build early childhood literacy in the Eau Claire area.

Rules of the road: Follow these steps for a

smooth Zimride experience

DON’T AGREE WITH A STORY?

Tell us about it! Go to spectatornews.com and

submit a letter to the editor

“Actually, I need you to drive me two hours out of your way and throw off your entire day and make you late for everything for-ever for the rest of time.”

So that’s probably not how my rider phrased it, but that’s what I heard.

The rider in question was one I met through Zimride. We left early one Friday and pre-ar-ranged where everyone would be dropped off. About an hour from our destination, my rider decided she actually needed to be dropped off much farther from our pre-arranged spot. It normal-ly wouldn’t be a big deal to me, but I had a dentist appointment and the detour would make me late.

So do I risk seeming incon-siderate to my riders or inconsid-erate to my dental hygienist?

Zimride is a carpooling ser-vice provided by Enterprise and funded for UW-Eau Claire by Student Senate and the Eau Claire Parking and Transporta-tion Office. It was useful for me as an underclassman when I didn’t have a car on campus, and it’s still useful to me now that I do. I was able to get inexpensive rides home then and now I can provide that same service to oth-ers and alleviate my gas bill.

As someone who has used Zimride as both a rider and a

driver, I feel I have a unique per-spective, and I try to be as accom-modating as possible. I’ve spent a little too much time sitting in mall food courts with my duffel bag so I try to make sure my rid-ers can get as close to their des-tination as possible. But I can’t personally drop off everyone at their doorsteps.

Both parties need to be as understanding and cooperative as possible. Zimride’s website has a few etiquette tips, but here are a few thing I’ve learned as a rider and a driver that should help make Zimrides as smooth as possible.

Tips for being the best rider:— Communicate with your

driver. If you need to be dropped off somewhere at a certain time, make sure the driver knows that well enough in advance

— Don’t ask the driver to change their plans last-minute. This one’s obvious. Once the plans are made, don’t change them.

— Don’t haggle on price. I’ve had people ask if they can pay significantly less than what I ask. When I have a smaller number of riders, splitting costs means it’s going to be more per person.

Tips for being the best driver:— Tame the road rage. When

I’m driving down I-94 by myself, no one is safe from my wrath. People who don’t use blinkers,

Katie Bast NEWS EDITOR

>> RIDE page 15

OPINION / EDITORIAL15OP/ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, March 6

it is housed in the Towers base-ments. NOTA, the Flip Side and Student Radio Initia-tive all receive funding from Senate.

The Spectator follows similar guidelines that the Society of Pro-fessional Journalists follows. The principles it abides by come from the code of ethics that newspapers around the country follow: seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently and be account-able.

I write this as an assurance to our readers that The Spectator acts in an ethical, transparent manner for every article and every issue — just as many other news organiza-tions, including NPR and the BBC, receive government funding. In ad-dition, The Spectator does not and

will not allow editorial content to be influenced by Senate or administra-tive influence.

Also, we act in a way where we know Senate and the university ad-ministration would not attempt to steer editorial content.

The Spectator has been a vital part of the university since 1923. We appreciate the continued support from the campus and Eau Claire community and look forward to the future of the news industry.

Landry is a senior journalism major and Editor in Chief of The Spectator. She can be reached at landrymm@uwec.edu or @MarthaLandryy.

SPECTATOR/ The paper has been in print since 1923

Recent victories on same-sex couples’ rights show this isn’t a legal question of religious freedom

The South has perhaps been a sur-prising venue for the most recent strides toward equality.

Last Wednesday, a Texas judge struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriages, following a similar Oklaho-ma ruling in January for its marriage restrictions. On the same day, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that would have granted businesses the right to deny service to gay men, lesbians or oth-er individuals on religious grounds.

These steps make it clearer than ever that the issue of same-sex couples’ rights are indeed not a question of reli-gious freedom, but an adherence to civil liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Consti-tution.

U.S. District Judge Terence Kern, presiding over the case in Oklahoma, wrote in the ruling that “Oklahoma’s constitutional amendment limiting mar-riage to opposite-sex couples violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Four-teenth Amendment” of the Constitution, adding this protection was “at the very heart of our legal system.”

It’s important to note there is no way of stopping someone of downright dislik-

ing a group of people. The Ku Klux Klan, for example, is still an active group.

What we won’t tolerate as a na-tion, however, is legally discriminating against a group of people over something that makes them no less human than us — in essence, we cannot infringe on a person’s natural rights.

These rights are protected in the Constitution and its subsequent amend-ments. There is no rule or law regarded as superior. This includes any kind of holy text, which someone may use to argue against these laws. If we regard-ed any religious doctrine in a higher es-teem to the Constitution, simply put, we would not be a democratic nation. We’d be an autocratic religious state.

The nature of guaranteeing basic freedoms should explain itself as to why it’s important for us to care about LGBT equality. From what I’ve experienced on campus, we seem to be accepting of all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification. But that doesn’t mean we can pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.

In Wisconsin, gay marriage is banned in our Constitution. This ban was put in place in 2006 after a popu-lar vote siding in favor (which brings up another argument entirely that I lack space to get into). This clearly shows there is still a lot of work to do.

It also shows just because there’s a strong network of acceptance or a victo-ry of legal equality in one place does not mean the battle is over. People are still being treated unequally, and the Consti-tution still is being ignored in these cases.

On an individual level, we can con-tinue striving for equality by teaching tolerance instead of wrongfully framing discrimination under the guise of a ques-tion on religion.

The more and more people under-stand a person’s sexual orientation is just a part of who they are rather than a lifestyle choice increases our overall un-derstanding as to why barring same-sex couples from having the same freedoms as everyone else is legally wrong.

SUBMITTEDDON’T JUDGE ‘EM: U.S. District Judge Ter-ence Kern was responsible for overturning Oklahoma’s restriction of marriage be-tween opposite-sex couples only.

those who tailgate in the slow lane in-stead of going around, semi-trucks that cut you off — they’re privy to any num-ber of profanity or sarcastic comments. But when you have strangers in your car,

— Don’t overcharge your riders. Just as riders shouldn’t give too little, drivers shouldn’t ask too much. $20 per way seems reasonable, but when you have three people paying $40 each, it’s a little much.

Zimride is definitely something Eau Claire students should be taking advantage of. By making sure rid-ers and drivers alike are considerate, the whole process can be even more beneficial.

Bast is a senior journalism major and News Editor of The Spectator. She can be reached at bastkv@uwec.edu or @Katie_Bast.

RIDE/ don’t overcharge

Zank is a senior journalism and political science double major and Op/Ed Editor of The Spectator. He can be reached at zankam@uwec.edu or @AlexZank.

STUDENT LIFE16STUDENT LIFE EDITOR: Nate Beck Thursday, March 6

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER/ The Spectator

Nick Bures remembers standing next to his dad, who was decked out in full army fatigues, in front of his third grade classmates on bring-your-parent-to-school day.

And from that point on, there wasn’t any doubt what Bures wanted to do with his life, he said.

But he’s now a senior at Eau Claire majoring in world politics — a field he said he wouldn’t have latched onto in high school.

“I want to help people,” he said. “I would never have went into this if I hadn’t seen the uglier side of human interaction.”

He enlisted in the National Guard when he was 17, midway through his junior year of high school. He then went to basic training the summer before his senior year.

He was determined to be a soldier; he was full of “piss and vinegar,” he said.

Deployment

Although Bures wasn’t required to, he volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan with his unit after high school gradua-tion in 2008.

Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, account for more than half of all soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

And it was Bures’ job to remove them. His platoon used two different

mine-sweeping trucks to unearth IEDs along travel routes. Bures rode in the gunner turret on a Buffalo, a 32-ton armor-equipped vehicle that patrolled roads at 2 mph, extracting explosives with a hydraulic arm.

Mine-sweeping missions started at dawn on dirt roads and could last any-where between three hours and three weeks.

“It seems a little asinine what we did looking back at it,” Bures said. “But that was the job.”

And the job wasn’t quiet. His team hit IEDs or was ambushed on each mis-sion they ran, he said.

“The crap you see on TV is not that accurate,” Bures said. “It’s not a big fi-ery ball and all glorified, it’s just com-pression and shockwaves everywhere.”

But his platoon also ran humanitar-ian missions, doling out donated blan-kets and food to local tribes. Bures said those missions are most memorable. He’s still smiling in photos with Af-ghan children gripping American teddy bears.

“That was probably the most satis-fying part looking back at it,” he said. “Granted, at the time I was saying ‘get these smelly guys away from me, I don’t care. They’ve been blowing us up.’ I like to think I grew up from that ‘shoot ‘em all’ mentality.”

Common thread

Nick Crooks, now an information sys-tems major, wasn’t a great high school student. Grades weren’t a top priority then, he said. He’s from Blanchardville, a town of 825 people near Madison.

Crooks and Bures are good friends. Crooks served as event coordinator while Bures was Veterans Club pres-ident at Eau Claire. They lived across the street from each other last year on Menomonie Street.

Crooks was active in Boy Scouts growing up, which fueled an interest in the military. He has an uncle was in the army and another was a major in the Air Force, so despite fears of sparking a family feud, he signed up for the Air Force during a trip to Alaska.

“I talked to the recruiter … literally within that week, flew me to Anchorage and shipped me to Wisconsin for basic training,” Crooks said.

Crooks flew triple-propeller trans-port planes, called C-130’s in Iraq, haul-ing supplies from base to base.

Senator John McCain and four state governors hitched a ride on his plane on one transport run. McCain was wearing a headset, chatting up the pilot and the crew. When the plane touched down, Crooks started unloading luggage until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“(McCain) said, ‘it’s OK, I got this,’” Crooks said. “He’s been hung by his shoulders, had them ripped off and reat-tached, and he grabs his stuff and limps off the plane.”

Veterans on campus

Eau Claire is on numerous “best for

vets” lists honoring veteran-friendly col-leges across the nation.

And the biggest reason Eau Claire lands on these lists is Miranda Cross-Schindler, Veterans Center coor-dinator, Crooks said.

Cross-Schindler, an Army veteran and Eau Claire grad, took over as a full-time coordinator in 2011.

Cross-Schindler nudged Bures to run for Veterans Club president. She need-ed someone, and Bures said he needed to meet Eau Claire students.

Bures led the club for a year and a half and said it helped him connect with students who had followed similar paths.

“It was a nice way to branch out and talk to veterans,” Bures said. “You prob-ably won’t see another club on campus where older people and younger people get along really well.”

Cross-Schindler said she’s working to earn that “military friendly” label, through safe space training and advis-ing.

She said the Veterans Center helps provide services she wished she had when she was an Eau Claire student.

“I did not connect with any students during my time here,” Cross-Schindler said. “I was a com-muter student; I was a parent. Hav-ing the space and having somebody to connect you has made a really big difference.”

Eau Claire retained 84 percent of student veterans in the 2011-2012 school year, which is 20 percent high-er rate than Eau Claire’s total student population.

Nearly 60 percent of veterans visit the Veterans Center in the basement of Schofield Hall at least once a week, according to a survey. Most vets are be-tween ages 25 and 35, and veteran stu-dents are 28 years old on average.

And many veterans have families to support, she said. Cross-Schindler had a child when she was an Eau Claire stu-dent. Crooks got married last August.

Because many veterans navigated tough situations in service, and because veterans are older than most students, they are more career-focused, Crooks said.

“The other students, they don’t look down at you, they don’t look sideways at

you,” Bures said. “They just look at you different. Like you’re damaged goods almost.”

Coming home

Bures returned to his parent’s dairy farm in 2009. He lived across the road from his parents, in a house his grand-parents owned.

He didn’t jump into school or work after service. He needed time to ad-just, clear his head, he said. His officers warned him about driving cars back home. Bures swerved to avoid plastic bags and trash in the road — IED warn-ing signs overseas — for the first month he was back.

Bures said it’s called post, not pres-ent, traumatic stress disorder for a rea-son. In the heat of battle there’s no time for reflection. Fuzzy focus in the field means you might get yourself or other soldiers killed.

“If you think, ‘this could be my last day on the earth,’ it kind of gets you in a depressed mood,” he said. “We joke around a lot. That was our escape. The things you had to do to survive, you have to live with when you come back.”

Bures was running a mission at night — something mine sweepers try

to avoid — when his convoy was am-bushed.

Unseen Afghanis fired four rock-et-propelled grenades from buildings. Three hit trucks in Bures’ convoy. Sgt. Ryan Adams, a mentor to Bures and his platoon, was injured after a rocket bar-reled through the side of his truck.

“He died of a brain injury,” Bures said. “A bunch of guys got wounded. That’s always your worst fear when you’re over there. That somebody is go-ing to get killed.”

Back in the states, Bures and his fel-low soldiers hold a golf outing each year with Adams’ mom, dad and sister.

“I look at how hard it was on them,” Bures said. “Even though I don’t know these a******s who shot at us, they still have families somewhere. It’s hard to think you’re the cause of someone not seeing their son again.”

He said it took a tour in Afghanistan for him to realize war wasn’t the best solution, and he wants to use his major to help avoid future conflicts.

“I don’t think humans are meant to kill other humans,” Bures said. “Peo-ple are violent. But killing, it’s just not natural.”

Nate Beck CHIEF COPY EDITOR

Beck can be reached at becknc@uwec.edu or @NateBeck9

From combat to campus

National Guard veteran finds renewed mission after tour; other vets relate

NATE BECK / The Spectator BACK FROM ACTION: Nick Bures was deployed to Afghanistan through the National Guard. After a nine-month tour overseas, he enrolled at UW-Eau Claire.