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

VOL. 92, NO. 27 SPRING 2014Thursday, April 17

NEWS SPORTS CURRENTS OP / ED STUDENT LIFEPAGES 1-5 PAGES 7-9 PAGES 10-12 PAGES 13-15 PAGE 16

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A coiffed blond mop and a gelled black one. Samuel Fish and Jacob Wrasse are next

year’s UW-Eau Claire student body president and vice president after collecting 393 votes in an uncontested election Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Both are sophomores, which means they’ll have another shot at Student Senate’s leadership next year.

Fish and Wrasse sat down in The Spectator office Tuesday to lay out their priorities for the coming year.

Here’s where they stand on everything from frozen differential tuition, lawmaker lobbying and student apathy:

Blugold Commitment freezeThe Blugold Commitment is a charge on top

of tuition that funds a slew of programs aimed at helping students graduate in four years, study abroad and claim seats in high-demand class sec-tions.

Commitment charges were scheduled to reach the full $1,200-per student funding lev-el by the start of this year. But a state tuition freeze passed with the Wisconsin biennial budget in July froze Eau Claire’s differential tuition at last year’s $900 level.

“Blugold commitment has become my baby,” Fish said. “I want to pursue every avenue we can to get differential tuition unfrozen.”

Student Senate leaders met with state law-makers this year, lobbying to lift the freeze on Eau Claire’s differential tuition.

Other UW-System schools have differential tuition programs in place, but Eau Claire provost Patricia Klein, said at these schools, students don’t have much say in how their fees are spent.

At Eau Claire, students hold majority seats on committees that disperse student money. At other schools, administrators cast majority votes.

“It’s very, very different,” Klein said. “I don’t think people can appreciate the level of student involvement (at Eau Claire).”

Shared GovernanceUW-System student representatives, usual-

ly the student body president and vice president from each UW school, meet five times a year to discuss statewide issues.

It’s basically one big Student Senate com-prised of student governments from across the state.

“I’d like to see a bigger presence on our stu-dent representatives,” Fish said. “Other student govern-ments look at our model and are kind of amazed.”

That’s because Eau Claire Senate controls a big-ger chunk of student fees than many other UW-Sys-tem school. At UW-Madison, about 90 percent of student fees are non-allocable, which means their student govern-ment doesn’t control how they’re spent.

At Eau Claire, only about 40 of percent stu-dent fees are non-allocable; Student Senate de-cides how to spend the other 60 percent of about $17 million in student money.

“People were saying ‘this is UW-Eau Claire, how can they have 60 percent allocable fees?’” Fish said. “We have a very powerful student government here, compared to other UW-System schools.”

Student reps also meet with state lawmakers and lobby on issues affecting students.

Wrasse was Senate’s intergovernmental af-fairs director this year.

He organized on-campus debates between City Council president candidates Monica Lew-is and Kerry Kincaid. Wrasse also organized a pro-Confluence rally before the vote April 1.

Wrasse said he wants to see Senate continue to work with other governments on student and community issues. That means working on bike trail projects with the city and tracking Conflu-ence Project progress on the state level.

A dynasty in the makingSophomores Fish and Wrasse elected top

Student Senators unopposedNate Beck

CHIEF COPY EDITOR

FISH

>> ELECTIONS page 2

Continuing the tradition40th Annual Viennese Ball lights up Davies Center

ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator POWERED BY PERFORMANCE: Women’s Concert Chorale opened the 40th Annual Viannese Ball on Fri-day with a program that not only consisted of songs in English, but also German. Other groups per-forming were Jazz Ensemble, Singing Statesmen, Dorf Kapella, among others. Read more about the history of the event on page 12 and look at images from the two-day event on page 16.

Apathy and engagementWhile Wrasse was visiting Arizo-

na State’s campus last week, someone handed him a flyer trumpeting their student government’s role in doling out about $2.5 mil-lion in student fees.

“They’ve got almost 70,000 stu-dents,” Wrasse said. “We have 10 or 11,000 students and we allocate $17 million on their be-half.”

Fish said he wants to keep stu-dent fees low and make sure students know how much of their money Senate controls.

Next year students will pay about $450 in seg fees – a $13 increase from this year’s seg fee level.

“We don’t want a student gov-ernment that operates behind closed doors,” Fish said. “It’s irresponsible, and this is their money we are spend-ing.”

Most Eau Claire students said Student Senate controls between $200,000 and $5 million in a survey last year, Wrasse said.

Students aren’t aware of how

many programs Senate controls, and he wants to make it clear Senate funds programs ranging from the Blugold Commitment to mobile printers, he said.

“I think because the process runs so smoothly, students do forget that it’s happening,” Wrasse said.

Many students don’t know how their programs are funded, Wrasse said. So Senate will use it’s Public Re-lations Commission to put ads in pub-lic bathrooms and other places around campus.

He said he’d also like to see the Senate logo on student org websites.

“Which is not to take credit for that organization’s activities, but to let them know that if they believe this organization deserves more, if they have a question, we could be the ones to come to to make that happen,” Wrasse said.

But Fish said no matter how many engagement programs Senate spon-sors, some students won’t tune in.

“Unfortunately we can only do so much as far as outreach goes,” Fish said. “If someone isn’t interested, we can’t make them interested.”

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The Spectator is a 100 percent student-run university publication published under the authority granted to the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

CORRECTION POLICY:While The Spectator continually strives for excellence and accuracy, we resign the fact that we will occasion-ally make errors. When these errors are made, The Spectator will take responsibility for correcting the error and will maintain a high level of transparency to be sure all parties are confident that the incorrect information does not spread.

CORRECTIONS: In a story published on page 3 in the April 10th issue, The Spectator incorrectly identified the graduation ceremony that served as a trial run for the new reservation system. The May 2013 ceremony

served as the trial run.

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Thursday, April 17NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

Student Senate ap-proved $27,495 in student fees to buy a site license for Visix, a software which reg-ulates and manages digital signs on campus.

Christian Paese, the in-formation technology com-mission director, introduced the bill last week, which was approved unanimously by Senate.

Paese said in addition to working toward university goals of developing direc-tions for visitors navigating campus, having the software will allow the university to control all aspects of the sig-nage and individualize it for each building.

“It just comes down to having a more standard sys-tem,” Paese said. “Instead of this building having this software, and this other building having this soft-ware.”

Now that the software has been approved, the signs can be updated and new ones will be gradually added to other buildings.

Paese said the system is a partnership between Learning and Technology Services, the Information Technology Commission and University Centers, and each will be monitoring dif-ferent building types.

Compost SignsThe Student Office of

Sustainability has been ap-proved to start developing signs with instructions for composting in the Davies Center.

Emy Marier, the di-

rector of the student office of sustainability, said the current composting system in the Davies Center is not clearly labeled, which leads to large amounts of waste and impure compost.

She said what goes into each bin has not been clear-ly explained and because of this the students don’t use them correctly.

“The difference between a square and a circle is not something students know right now,” Marier said.

The Student Office of Sustainability was proposed the changes by two students working on a liberal studies capstone project addressing the efficiency of the Davies Center composting.

This is similar to the student developed project on the Single Stream contain-ers that are in place around campus.

Marier said having the signage in the Davies Center would drastically increase the purity of the compost and help the building be-come more sustainable, and if the signs can be imple-mented in Davies they can look at Hilltop Center next.

She said if University Centers is unwilling to de-velop its own signs, the Stu-dent Office of Sustainability will look at developing them for their approval and fund-ing it out of their budget, as it helps reach broader goals.

“If we can have signage that educates on what can and cannot be composted, that’s an educational goal for students leaving the uni-versity,” Marier said.

Glen Olson STAFF WRTTER

Senate approves plans for campus signs

Plans created for compost intructions and money for digital signs

ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator VOTE HERE: Student Senate elections were held this week in the Davies Center. >> SENATE page 4

ELECTIONS/Fish wants to reach out to all students

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

WRASSE

Award-winning author and Assistant Professor of English at UW-Eau Claire B.J. Hollars is continuing his run with “Opening the Doors: the Desegregation of the University of Ala-bama and the Fight for Civil Rights in Tuscaloosa.”

Hollars is set to receive the Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award for his novel, which was published in spring of last year.

“During my last year at Alabama I had to write a thesis, and I asked my-self, ‘What do I want to take away from this place or leave behind?’” Hollars said.

While teaching an Af-rican-American literature course in his last semester in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Hollars said he was shocked to find the majority of his students were unaware of the histori-

cal Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.

“We were in a classroom 100 yards from where the scene took place, and yet my room full of students had very little understanding of the historical events that had transpired,” Hollars said. “I told myself I wasn’t going to leave this university without at least trying to tell this important story.”

Hollars said he dedicat-ed a portion of his book to the students of that term after learning from his experience with them.

Having written on is-sues of race relations in the past, Hollars said this novel was a long time coming for him. Walking around the University of Alabama li-brary, he was directed to an atomic-age emergency water bottle that sparked an inter-est in his mind.

“From that point I saw the fears transferred from the atom bomb to racial vi-

olence, scapegoating and things of that nature,” Hol-lars said. “As a writer you never know exactly where you’re going to end up.”

Hollars said he was for-tunate to be able to conduct research in a personal man-ner, beginning by walking around his former home city and going to the doorsteps of affected citizens with ques-tions.

With more than 60 pag-es of notes and index, Hollars said the amount of research he put in was shocking.

“The issue was so im-portant to me that I tried to leave no stone unturned,” Hollars said. “I talked to community leaders, former students and the editor of the newspaper among oth-ers … there were so many different perspectives to pick up on.”

While senior broadcast journalism major Ginna Roe said she hasn’t had the expe-rience Hollars has, she’s not

unfamiliar with his area of study. She participated in several of Eau Claire’s Civil Rights Pilgrimages.

During her experience, Roe talked to key members of the civil rights movement, such as a Freedom Rider and the former police chief of the Montgomery Police Depart-

ment.“I think that we have

different dynamics in our school,” Roe said. “Being that we’re a majority white school it makes the issues seem less relevant when in fact it’s not. It’s just that we’re not

It’s one of the biggest security threats to ever hit the internet.

The Heartbleed Bug, a soft-ware flaw in the encryption phase of website log-ins, attacked the authentication process of many websites and made off with a lot of personal data.

Chip Eckardt, chief informa-tion officer with UW-Eau Claire’s Learning and Technology Ser-vices, said the university was on top of things once the bug was an-nounced.

“We scanned all our network devices as soon as we heard about the issue,” Eckardt said. “Because of the software we currently use, we did not have anywhere near the number of issues some other businesses and campuses had.”

Eckardt said the university has a few printers and a PolyCom video camera that are susceptible, but no confidential data goes to them.

Eau Claire computer science professor Jack Tan said the bug is a malicious hack.

“It was an open secure socket layer type of hack,” Tan said. “So what it did was gain access to your passwords and other memory.”

According to an article pub-

lished by Lookout, a computer software and mobile security com-pany, if somebody logged on to an affected site, the website would encrypt the password per usual and send it to be authenticated. Hackers catch cloaked passwords and unscramble them to receive login information directly. The hacker can use this information to snatch data at the rate of 64 kilo-bytes per request from the affect-ed system.

“This flaw is that an attacker can continually request different data like user passwords and se-curity certificates,” said Peter Bui, assistant computer science profes-sor. “This exposes data which is usually protected.”

Bui said another flaw is the OpenSSL authentication process doesn’t usually log security trans-

actions.“Since (login authentication)

is such a low level protocol, it’s normally not logged,” Bui said. “No one can be sure if they were exposed or attacked because of this.”

Bui said he believes this bug is a major problem because of the other ways hackers could exploit the flaws.

“Anytime you go to a website with a lock in the corner, it’s a metaphor for trust,” Bui said. “If security certificates are stolen, someone else can impersonate an entity.”

Bui said this means someone could steal and impersonate the web presence of Eau Claire. A hacker could create a fake doppel-ganger site and send emails to stu-dents from this new site, he said.

The website would check out with most browsers and appear to be secure, because the hacker has the security certificate.

At that point, Bui said a hacker can ask for credit card, bank account or social security numbers.

Reddit recently sent a mes-sage to users saying they’ve been affected, and they can’t be sure whether any user information was stolen. The site recommends all users delete their accounts.

According to an article pub-lished on Mashable, websites like Facebook and Google were affected by the Heartbleed Bug. All these online services have patched their websites since, but it is highly recommended to change passwords for any of these sites.

Bui said all people can do to try to protect themselves is change their passwords and email addresses for affected sites. When possible, avoid giv-ing important information out. There is no way to track the bug, and it’s the best way to keep your accounts safe.

THURSDAY, APRIL 17

FRIDAY, APRIL 18

SATURDAY, APRIL 19

SUNDAY, APRIL 20

MONDAY, APRIL 21

TUESDAY, APRIL 22

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23

• 7 - 8 p.m. — Astronomy, Old and New, Phillips Hall Planetarium

• 7:30 - 9 p.m. — The Chamber Orchestra, Gantner Concert Hall

• 7:30 p.m. — Theatre Production: “Skyline”, Haas Fine Arts Center

• 8 p.m. — Beautiful Buzz, The Plus

• 9 a.m. — 4 p.m. — Contemporary Issues of Hmong Communities, Woodland Theater

• 8 - 11 p.m. — Live Band Karaoke, The Plus

• 8 a.m. — 4:30 p.m. — Hmong Studies Symposium, Dakota Ballroom

• 7 p.m. — Devroy Forum: The Washington Post’s Scott Wilson, Schofield Auditoriu

• 9 p.m. — Dessa Darling, House of Rock

• 7:30 p.m. — Theatre Production: “Skyline”, Haas Fine Arts Center

• 10 p.m. — Goo Maid featuring Sayth and Low-lives, House of Rock

• 7-9 p.m. — Wednesday Night Jazz, Acoustic Cafe• 7:30 p.m. — How Gender, Race and Socioeco-

nomic Status Define Equality for All, Schofield Auditorium

• 11:30 a.m. — 1:30 p.m. — Free Easter Day Lunch, Culver’s on Golf Road

• 6 -8 p.m. — Exhibit: “Hmong in America”, Chip-pewa Valley Museum

NEWS3Thursday, April 17

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

NOTABLE EVENTS HAPPENING BOTH ON AND OFF CAMPUS

NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

Foster Gallery

“57th Juried Student Art Show”10 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. — Mon. - Fri.

1 - 4:30 p.m. — Sat. - Sun.Runs from April 3 - 24Haas Fine Arts Center

International Film Society:

“The Host”

When an unseen enemy threatens mankind by taking over their bodies and erasing their memories, Melanie will risk everything

to protect the people she cares most about.

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

Runs from April 18 — 20Woodland Theater, Davies Center

Austin Mai STAFF WRITER

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

This bug will break your heartA major flaw in website security has left many people vulnerable

Zack KatzCURRENTS EDITOR

UW-Eau Claire professor wins award for published novelEnglish professor’s book speaks about pieces of history that may go unnoticed

>> NOVEL page 4

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER/ The Spectator

ZACK KATZ / The Spectator WRITING FOR RIGHTS: UW-Eau Claire English professor B.J. Hollars won an award for his novel on fighting for civil rights in Alabama. It was published last spring.

4NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast Thursday, April 17

NEWS

Sacred Heart Hospital and the UW-Eau Claire Student Nurses Association will team up for their second annual bone marrow drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today in the Maple Lounge Room in Davies Center. Over 100 donors registered at last year’s event.

Since receiving her own transplant in 2005, Sacred Heart sur-gical technologist Hailey Craig said she thought an event would be a perfect way to spread awareness and get potential donors to register for the cause.

“We want to make sure people understand what goes into do-nating if they do get called and make sure that they are committed volunteers and that they would be available to donate if there was a person who was in need of their tissue type,” Craig said.

Craig said she brought up the idea to a Sacred Heart organ donation committee last year, and it was received well. She then contacted a representative from Be The Match, a non-profit organi-zation and global leader in bone marrow transplants, to see if they would help with the event, she said.

Be The Match Account Executive Julie Slipka said they were on board immediately. Slipka suggested contacting the Student Nurs-es Association to help work the event. Given the road nursing stu-dents are pursuing, Slipka said they were a great fit for the cause.

“Last year, we did 107 (registries) at Eau Claire,” Slipka said. “This year we want to beat that and I think we have a good chance … Any average person can save a life.”

Craig said it was important for not only students, but every-one to know how much of an impact they can have on someone’s life given the opportunity to donate. Special education major Britta Ave’Lallemant said she registered for the donor’s list when she was 18.

“My dad had a bone marrow transplant, and my family and I moved out to Seattle, Washington so he could receive his bone

marrow transplant,” Ave’Lallemant said. “So I became very aware of the process at that time.”

She said she took a special interest once she entered college and contacted Be The Match to get involved. She was a part of last year’s inaugural event and said she hopes there is an even larger turnout this time around.

“We are just hoping to get as many as possible,” Ave’Lallemant said. “Anyway you can partake in it is awesome. There are 11,000 students at this university, so it would be cool to get even more students if possible.”

There are no physical donations at the event, just a cheek swab that will be tested for donor and recipient compatibility. Slipka said if people are unable to physically help for any reason, they also ac-cept monetary donations. All proceeds go to patient assistance and research.

Fruehauf can be reached at fruehasl@uwec.edu or @StevenFruehauf.

Steven Fruehauf SPORTS EDITOR

Donating could save a life

Bone Marrow Drive asking for students, community to register

Blugold CommitmentSenate voted to support a spending

plan for frozen Blugold Commitment funds unopposed, Monday.

The Blugold Commitment, now a $900 charge on top of tuition, dis-perses cash for programs aimed at raising Eau Claire’s 23 percent four-year graduation rate and dealing more students into off-campus expe-riences like study abroad.

But the Blugold Commitment is in limbo after state lawmakers passed a tuition freeze in the state budget last summer.

Student Senators met with law-makers this year to explain why the Blugold Commitment, also known as a differential tuition charge, is different from similar plans at other schools and should be unfrozen.

Students outnumber adminis-trators on committees that decide where Blugold funds go. That’s the main argument for thawing the Blu-

gold Commitment, Eau Claire Pro-vost Patricia Klein said. At other UW System schools, students have less say in how their fees are spent.

Klein said students and staff can keep trying to convince lawmakers that the Blugold Commitment is dif-ferent.

“We’re doing everything we can,” Klein said. “But when students ex-plain it without my prompting, that’s

when it’s most effective.” Because the last stage of Blugold

funds didn’t go into effect this year, Student Senate didn’t make chang-es to the plan. Programs that were funded under the plan this year will get funding next year.

The Blugold Commitment aims to attack Eau Claire’s gradua-tion rate through more staffing for high-demand classes and funding for freshman four-year graduation plans.

Klein said despite the freeze, the university will still be able meet its graduation goals within its 10-year time limit.

“I’m very confident,” Klein said. “And I’m a statistician.”

Nate Beck contributed in reporting.

recognizing it because of the lack of diversity at our university.”

Though her trip took her far from Eau Claire, Roe said race relation is universal, and subjects of Hollars’s novel bring her ex-perience home.

“Going into historical places where you know so much has hap-pened when you’ve never been ex-posed to it before is daunting and eye-opening,” Roe said. “It’s powerful to put yourself in that position and to make yourself feel in some ways uncomfortable.”

Associate Dean of Students Jodi Thesing-Ritter assisted in coordinat-ing the Pilgrimage that Eau Claire students embark on twice yearly. She said Hollars’s novel is partic-

ularly striking because it calls on everyone, not just social figures like Rev. Martin Luther King, to take action.

“I love that he’s approaching it with the mind that civil rights work can be in any career you do, it’s not just for social workers,” Thes-ing-Ritter said. “If someone doesn’t take time to capture the stories, they can be lost … the approach BJ took in his book was careful to en-compass the entire picture.”

For his next act, Hollars said he will be writing a novel about Eau Claire.

“I really do happen to write about where I happen to be,” Hollars said. “I think these stories transcend boundary lines, we don’t have to go that far to find our own stories of racial violence.”

“When students explain

it without my prompt-

ing, that’s when it’s

most effective.”

PATRICIA KLEINUW-Eau Claire provost

SUBMITTED

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

Katz can be reached at katzzt@uwec.edu or @theKatz_meow.

SENATE/Blugold Commitment aimed at assisting graduation rate NOVEL/ Hollars says next novel about Eau Claire

THESING-RITTER

For several years, the city of Eau Claire has owned a 40-acre parcel at the Jeffers Road and Shorewood Drive neighborhood in the northwest part of the city.

Thanks to an initiative by local youth baseball and softball leagues, that barren lot could be home to an array of happy kids, teens and families as soon as spring 2015.

Eau Claire Fastpitch and Eau Claire Na-tionals Little League proposed The Jeffers Park Development Project to the city in De-cember. The $300,000 operation features a five-field baseball and softball complex and include other public park amenities like a playground, pavilion and trails. The city ap-proved the project and planning is underway.

Stephen Nick of Eau Claire Fastpitch said the new park would not only be great for people living near that residential area, but for the city in general.

“It has a number of exciting aspects,” Nick said. “First of all, for the Jeffers Dis-trict, it opens up a new city park. But beyond the immediate neighborhood, for the city, it opens up a first-ever youth baseball and soft-ball complex.”

He said the Jeffers Park Development Project has already received of support from local businesses and community members.

Nick and Rick Souba of Eau Claire Na-tionals Little League teamed up with the Eau Claire Community Foundation for support.

Susan Bornick of ECCF said the founda-tion is willing to manage the project’s dona-tions and expenses. This way the committee can focus on raising funds and perfecting lo-gistics so it fulfills its potential to the city.

“The Foundation’s Board of Trustees be-lieves in the mission of the Jeffers Park De-velopment and that the park will be a viable, sustainable addition to our community,” Bor-nick said.

Last week, the project took another step forward as the Chippewa Valley Home Build-ers Association announced it would volunteer contract labor for a pavilion and restroom building for the park.

Executive officer of the CVHBA Jennifer Johnson said she and her company supports the project. She said it will bring people to-gether and improve businesses on that side of town.

Another opportunity this project brings is attracting people from outside the region for tournaments. The five-field setup would

allow teams to travel to Eau Claire.“The bigger complex will enhance the Eau

Claire fastpitch tournament, which draws probably 80 teams to the region every June, and it will allow the Eau Claire Nationals Little League to host state and regional Lit-tle League tournaments,” Nick said.

Nick also said it is important to push the project forward as soon as possible. The city has installed a street and utility project on that side of town, and they could combine ef-forts with the city on the project to help with irrigation and seeding of the fields.

Nick said there are challenges in running a $300,000 project, but he said he enjoys see-ing Eau Claire’s support for youth initiatives and parks, and the end result will be worth every penny.

“They’re fun to work on when you know the end product is going to be a city park where kids are going to be able to play ball and play on the playground and enjoy for generations to come,” Nick said.

5Thursday, April 17

COMMUNITY NEWSNEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

Nick Erickson MANAGING EDITOR

Erickson can be reached at ericksoe@uwec.edu or @NickErickson8.

Jeffers Park Development Project makes significant stridesForty acres of unused land in Eau Claire could turn into a softball and baseball field complex by 2015

SUBMITTED PLAY BALL: The proposed pentagon-shaped softball complex at Jeffers Park is slated for completion by spring 2015. The plan was approved by the city in December.

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Recycle the

Spectator

Save a tree and

breathe easy

SPORTS7SPORTS EDITOR: Steve Fruehauf Thursday, April, 17

Hallways, apartments and dorm rooms have been unofficial practice spaces for the UW-Eau Claire women’s golf team as they try to stay sharp while battling Mother Nature, head coach Meghan Sobotta said.

Last weekend the Blugolds were back on the greens. Despite strong winds and looming storms, the team finally got to play outside.

They opened their spring sea-son swinging clubs at Illinois Wes-leyan Spring Fling tournament Sunday.

The Blugolds ended in ninth place at 680 strokes. First place for the day went to Washington Uni-versity (Mo.).

Sobotta said she was pleased with the team’s performance since practice was lim-ited. There’s an-other reason to be more relaxed this spring, Sobotta said.

“Since we won the confer-ence last fall, we already have the automatic qualifi-er to the national tournament,” she said. “So we are just building up to that, it’s a step-ping stone each tournament.”

Last spring, the team was fo-cused on getting a bid to the na-tional tournament, which added a lot of stress to the season, Sobotta said. This year, she said she wants to see the team progress a little bit every day so they are ready when

it is time for the national tourna-ment.

“I tell the team to take one day at a time and do one thing better than you did the day before,” Sobotta said.

Top perfor-mance for the Blu-golds last week-

end went to junior Kate Engler, finishing 13th overall with 160 strokes, just 10 strokes behind the overall champion.

Junior Emily Stone tied for 25th with 167 strokes and was the only other Blugold golfer who land-ed in the top 25, among the five Blugolds who competed.

Sobotta said she has been very proud of how the top two golfers have stepped up as leaders this year both on and off the course. She sees a lot of good things for both of them moving forward, she said.

Engler said things went well considering the team hasn’t had much practice, but she knows she could have done better.

“I want to see some all-around improvement in my game, I need to be more aggres-sive,” Engler said. “It’s tough when you don’t play for a while. You forget what you need to do to control your misses and it’s all about remember-ing how to play again.”

Engler said it’s good to have a teammate like Stone because the two understand each other’s game.

“We have each other’s backs,”

she said. “We know we aren’t just fighting a battle for us, it’s for the whole team, so we try to not let lit-tle things get us down.”

Stone said the team hopes to work on their short game between now and nationals, but they aren’t dwelling on the results of their first tournament.

“We are just getting back into the swing of things,” Stone said. “Your short game is usually the first thing to go during a long win-ter and it’s the last thing to come back.”

The Blugolds continue their spring season Friday when they head to Waverly, Iowa, for the Wartburg Spring Invitational.

Courtney Kueppers COPY EDITOR

Blugolds finish ninth

Women’s golf happy to be back outside, hoping to get back into form

in season opener

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

SUBMITTED SPRING START UP: Junior women’s golfer Mandi Salo takes a big swing during the Illinois Wesleyan Spring Fling at Ironwood Fold Course, April 13. The Blugolds finished ninth in their first tournament of the spring season.

“I tell the team to take it one day at a time

and do one thing better than you

did the day before.”

MEGHAN SOBOTTAwomen’s golf head coach

STONE

On Feb. 17, Student Senate allo-cated the UW-Eau Claire athletics de-partment $950,000 for the 2014-2015 school year, a $38,000 increase from their $912,000 budget this school year.

That sum of money was the sec-ond-highest slice of the annual stu-dent segregated fee budget, behind only Student Health Services at $1.3 million.

Retiring Director of Athletics Scott Kilgallon said the athletics de-partment requested more funds from Student Senate in order to garner more money for the evolving basic op-erations it takes to run successful and competitive programs.

A piece of the $38,000 will also go towards spending down the about $90,000 deficit the athletics depart-ment has currently.

“A lot of this is keeping with oper-ational costs,” Kilgallon said. “We do this every year. We work with city fa-cilities, we let the students know that we will probably be coming back from special allocations to cover the current year.”

The athletics department’s allo-cation, a part of the 2014-2015 Orga-nized Activities Budget, passed Senate unopposed.

Student Body President Bryan Larson said Senate has tradition-ally supported athletics because of the potential notoriety it brings to campus.

“Athletics helps build school spir-it,” Larson said. “... Also, it’s a way to involve ourselves in the community and have events that people from all over want to attend.”

Kilgallon said the reason athletics needs higher funding than other or-

ganizations is, for starters, the sheer number of people involved. There are 22 varsity sports with more than 500 Blugold student-athletes, not to men-tion the coaches and administrators in the system.

Along with that, equipment and facility maintenance costs are a cru-cial part of any athletics department success. Kilgallon said while most of these costs are minor, there are so many sports at Eau Claire that it eventually adds up.

Even though athletics didn’t re-ceive the exact amount they want-ed, the department still fundraises about $250,000 each school year as well as revenue through differ-ent event costs. This money is then put back into the athletics depart-ment’s bank and is used largely for travel expenses.

Larson said while the athletics department goes under the same scru-tiny and evaluation process as every other organization appearing on the Feb. 17 bill, the fact the department can bring in revenue outside of Sen-ate allocations is a big selling point for granting more funds.

“The thing about athletics is that it does do a very good job of fundrais-ing on its own, which I think is one of the main reasons students have con-tinued to support our allocation,” Lar-son said.

The Blugolds fall near the medi-an in allocations, compared to other WIAC schools.

One school making a big commit-ment to athletics is UW-Whitewater, a school that has already won three na-tional championships this school year alone. Kilgallon said the Warhawks spent $5.2 million on their department last time he checked.

Whitewater Interim Director of Athletics Amy Edmonds said the de-partment receives funding through

the school’s student government and segregated fee committees, and the athletic success has led to more pri-vate donations.

Edmonds said the department made a big push recently to get stu-dents on campus interested in War-hawk athletics, and the results have led to more success for Whitewater on the field of competition.

“With our students and faculty collectively, if we didn’t have them un-derstanding and embracing becoming a Warhawk, there’s no way we could do what we’re doing,” Edmonds said. “If you don’t have that pride from the institution, faculty, staff, then you have a lot more hurdles to overcome in order to make anybody feel there’s a value to the athletics department.”

Eau Claire is in the process of building up school support for athlet-ics with efforts to reach out in both the

university and community.While Kilgallon and Larson both

said they wish more could be done, efforts to grow relationships between Senate and athletics, as well as the student body as a whole, are improv-ing.

Kilgallon, who is winding down his last season as director of athletics, said he is always grateful of student support of Blugold athletics.

“We have been very fortunate,” Kilgallon said. “We are obviously very dependent on student support and I know when I got here 10 years ago we were probably getting about, I’m estimating, $450,000, so obviously the students have been very good to us.”

SPORTSSPORTS EDITOR: Steve Fruehauf Thursday, April 17 8

A closer look into the

UW-Eau Claire’s athletics department to receive $950,000 for the 2014-2015 school year

NICK ERICKSON / The Spectator MONEY ON MY MIND: An increase in allocations allow for upgrades campus wide, includ-ing the restored bleachers in the McPhee Physical Education Center.

Nick Erickson and Steve Fruehauf

MANAGING EDITOR AND SPORTS EDITOR

Erickson can be reached at ericksna@uwec.edu or @NickErickson8. Frue-hauf can be reached at fruehasl@uwec.edu or @StevenFruehauf.

athletics department budgetWomen win 6-3, men lose

by same score

Tennis

The UW-Eau Claire men’s and women’s tennis teams hit the road last weekend looking to keep their strong seasons afloat, but they faced a chal-lenge at Luther College (Iowa).

On Friday against Luther in Win-ona, Minn., the women's team picked up a 6-3 victory thanks to a sweep in doubles play and three wins in singles matches.

On the men’s side, the Blugolds fell 6-3 after losing two out of three doubles matches and struggling in singles.

Head coach Tom Gillman said he liked what he saw out of the men’s team despite the loss, but what he saw out of the women’s team was a lot of coasting, which he said can’t happen.

“I was more pleased with the guys than the girls even though they had dif-ferent outcomes,” he said. “The girls ba-sically just coasted along where as the guys finished strongly, the way I always want us to on the court.”

The women’s doubles team of senior Mary Frassetto and junior Madison Rossebo dropped the fewest number of games as they won 8-3 at No. 2 doubles thanks to strong movement and com-munication.

Frassetto said what the pair can re-ally attribute to their success this year is the ability to work together and stay hungry to achieve the goals they set early in the year.

“The fact that we all cooperate well together and want to achieve the same goals, regardless of who we play with, has made our doubles teams so strong,” Frassetto said.

Senior Katie Gillman was also able to keep up her strong play at No. 1 sin-gles this weekend, losing just one game, winning 6-0, 6-1. She has now won five singles matches in a row dating back to mid-March.

Junior Maddie Johnson, like coach Gillman, said she still sees a lot of room for improvement for the team as they move on.

“I think we can still work on staying focused every point,” she said. “Tennis is a sport that is mentally tough and exhausting at times. It's easy to lose fo-cus and think about the score or what is going wrong.”

Trent TetzlaffSTAFF WRITER

teams split

Read more about Blugold tennis on spectatornews.com

Tetzlaff can be reached at tetzlata@uwec.edu or @ ttetz5.

SPORTS9SPORTS EDITOR: Steve Fruehauf Thursday, April 17

Kate EnglerGolfer

Women’s Golf

JuniorBeloit

F.J. Turner High School

Getting to know Engler:

Favorite movie: Bourne series

Favorite food: Spaghetti

Favorite place to eat: Olive Garden

Favorite Athlete: Phil Mickelson

Favorite vacation spot: Dominican Republic

Favorite musical group: The Beatles

Engler placed 13th at the Illinois Wesley-an Spring Fling at Ironwood Golf Course, lead-ing the team. She finished with 160 strokes, 10 behind the winner. Eau Claire took ninth place overall. This was the Blugolds first tournament

of their spring season.

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER / The Spectator

The UW-Eau Claire softball team started its run at the Illinois Wesleyan Tournament in Blooming-ton, Ill., playing Washington (Mo.). Eau Claire won the first game, 8-0, in six innings.

The team took a quick lead and would not let up, belting four home runs on the nationally-ranked oppo-nent.

Juniors Taylor Pierce, Casey Ar-nold and Amanda Fischer hit home runs, including two for Fischer.

“We went in thinking that if we lose to them, we’d have lost to a na-tionally-ranked team,” Arnold said. “But if we beat them, that’s pret-ty awesome. We ended up beating them, and it was awesome.”

Head coach Leslie Huntington said the team saw this tournament as an opportunity to turn their sea-son in a better direction.

“If you can get solid pitching, it builds the confidence of your de-fense,” Huntington said. “Once the defense started playing confidently, the bats came alive and had a lot of fun.”

In the second game, the Blugolds challenged nationally-ranked Ander-son University (Ind.) and succeeded, winning 10-1 in five innings.

“We had good pitching again out of our senior pitcher Emma Wishau and junior pitcher Laura Raflik in relief,” Huntington said. “It starts in the circle, and when the pitchers come out and are solid, we can get the batters to do what we want.”

Defense was especially import-ant early in game two, as Eau Claire was able to stop Anderson’s offensive push in the top of the third and get the three outs, stranding three run-ners on base.

“Another signif-icant change that we made was bring-ing Amanda Fischer in from the outfield to play third base,” Huntington said. “She was very solid. Having that happen gave our team a sense of calm."

Eau Claire’s of-

fense erupted in the fourth and fifth innings as the team scored nine runs to end the game early.

“It was crazy,” Arnold said. “It was incredible. It was one of the cool-est things in the world. We had some of the hardest hits and they were all back to back.”

The second day at the Illinois Wesleyan Tournament did not go as well.

Eau Claire had a rematch with Washington University.

The game was close but didn’t bode well for the Blugolds as they lost 4-2.

With Eau Claire down two in the bottom of the third, Brooks swung a double to bring home two runs and tie the game at 2-2.

“We made a couple of key mis-takes in right field that allowed Washington University to score their first two runs,” Huntington said. “If we don’t make those mistakes, no-body knows how the game would’ve went.”

Both teams were neck and neck, neither school scoring again until the seventh inning.

In the seventh, the Bears were able to put the game away, leaving Eau Claire with its first loss in the tournament.

The Blugolds’ fourth game pre-sented them with the highest-ranked competition yet, the tournament’s host, Illinois Wesleyan (Ill.). Eau Claire never put any points on the board and lost to the host 6-0.

“The score didn’t show how close the game really was,” Arnold said. “They had bases loaded with two outs, and hit a triple down the right side that let them score three runs.”

Freshman pitcher Lauren Blas-czyk pitched five innings, and gave up four runs on six hits with one strikeout. Raflik pitched the final two outs of the sixth inning.

“We got picked off at first base four times, that’s pretty frustrating,” Huntington said. “We gave up four outs, and when we’re not crushing the ball, four outs hurts.”

The Blugolds return to action at 3 p.m. Friday as they host UW-Ste-vens Point for a doubleheader.

Austin MaiSTAFF WRITER

Softball drops two

Even with two bigs wins, Eau Claire splits 2-2 in away tournament over the weekend

ranked squads

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

The men’s and women’s track and field teams competed Satur-day at the UW-Platteville Invita-tional. The men came home with three event wins while the women secured two event victories.

For the women, sophomore jumper Julia Stedman took first place in the triple jump with a distance of 11.27 meters. Stedman said competing in non-team meets is less stressful because she is competing on her own and is not worried about scoring points for the team.

“If I make a mistake, it’ll only affect me,” she said.

Individual meets are unique because it gives athletes an op-portunity to try other events, St-edman said. Despite the altered format of the meet, Stedman said she still goes out and tries her hardest and focuses on the things she’s been working on in practice.

At the competition, Stedman

said she tried new techniques during her jumps. She said this is a common practice at non-team meets because if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t affect a total team score.

Six other Blugolds landed top three finishes.

Junior Carly Fehler took third in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.20.

The 4x400 meter relay team of sophomore Jessie Reineck, juniors Kim Drewiske and Megan Mulli-gan and freshman Sarah Glidden took second with a time of 3:58.71.

In the high jump, freshman Sarah Glidden tied for second, clearing a height of 1.61 meters. Also in the field, senior Kelsey Weigel took third in the javelin throw with a distance of 33.33 meters.

On the men’s side, it was Thur-good Dennis once again, as he won both the 100-meter and 200-meter

dashes. Dennis also broke his own school record in the 100 with a time of 10.28 seconds. His old re-cord was 10.30 seconds.

Senior Matt Scott joined Den-nis in the winner’s circle as he beat out 46 other competitors in the 5000-meter with a time of 14:18.65.

In the 4x400-meter relay the team of freshmen William LaJeu-nesse and Jimmy Paske, junior Cory White and sophomore Adam Moline placed second with a time of 3:20.28, and a second Eau Claire 4x400 team finished third.

— Spectator staff

Blugold track takes on Platteville

Read more on track and field at spectatornews.com

CURRENTS10CURRENTS EDITOR: Zack Katz Thursday, April 17

Minneapolis native Dessa Darling was performing some of her slam po-etry when a friend asked her to spit of her rhyming poems over a hip-hop beat. She told him, “Oh, I don’t think I’d be very good at that.”

Three solo albums and a handful of contributions among the Doomtree rap collective prove her fans disagree.

Despite her initial reaction, Des-sa said she went over to that friend’s house and began working her way into the world of hip-hop music.

“I’m not an Adele caliber singer by anyone’s stretch of the imagination,” she said. “I can’t rap as fast as Lu-dacris, but I think there’s an X factor that people can perceive when they know that someone is telling the truth, and I am.”

For Dessa, writing came first. Her first book, “Spiral Bound,” was published in 2009 and contained a mix of essays and poems.

A friend en-couraged her to try slam poetry and she won first place in her first compe-tition. That’s how she was introduced to Doomtree, whom she now raps with.

It was a gradual progression from essayist to slam poetry, she said, and hip hop interested her because, un-like other forms of music, it gave her the opportunity to say everything she wanted.

“You get so many words in a rap song, so for me it’s an opportunity to stay in the language arts,” she said.

Her third solo album, “Parts of Speech,” came out last June, and she said it’s different from her others be-cause she performed with a live band and also wrote a handful of the songs herself on the piano.

She said she’s most proud of “Call Off Your Ghost,” featured on Speech, because it showcases her talents as a musician and a writer.

It is also one of her favorite songs to perform at shows, she said, because “it’s catchy and people sing along.”

Performing is something Dessa said she looks at differently than some artists in the music industry.

“I try to focus less on what I hope

people will take away and focus more on what I’m bringing,” she said. “If you go on a date and you’re worried about the impression you’re making all the time, you might not be your most genuine self because you’re too busy monitoring the reaction of the person you’re with.”

In her music, Dessa said she tries to present her audience with an hon-est, heartfelt performance and a mas-tery of her craft as a rapper.

Instead of standing apart from the audience, she said she prefers to act as a conductor, moving through the emotions of the night with them.

“Maybe different parts will reso-nate with different people, and maybe

their impres-sions will be different, but I think I wor-ry more about what I offer than what peo-ple choose to take,” she said.

In one way or another, she has left impres-sions on at least two students at the McNally College of Mu-sic in Minneso-ta, where Dessa and other Min-n e s o t a - b a s e d artists have

been special guests.Lydia Liza, a 19-year-old who

studied at McNally before taking a year off to pursue her musical career, said she will be opening with Toki Wright, another rapper who taught a class at McNally, and DJ Big Cats for Dessa’s performance 9 p.m. Thursday at the House of Rock in Eau Claire.

Liza said she met Wright after he was a special guest for her band Bomba de Luz, at their studio release show. Since then she said he has be-come a mentor of hers, and he asked her to go on tour with them as a vocal-ist and guitarist.

They also opened for Dessa April 3 in Iowa City, and she said watching Dessa perform is both inspiring and intimidating.

“She is a super arresting person to watch perform,” she said. “She’s just incredibly other-worldly to me, just the way she writes and presents herself is really professional and in-credible.”

While Liza herself has been per-forming professionally for three years, she said there’s something different about performing with her band,

which is more folk music, and per-forming with hip hop artists like Toki Wright.

“It’s gotten less and less hard, but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t get the but-terflies, if I didn’t get nervous,” she said. “It’s that rush.”

Eric Wells, a student at the Uni-versity of Minnesota and Eau Claire native, used to attend McNally.

Wells said he grew up listening to Dessa and Doomtree, and it’s because of their influence that he began to pursue his musical career, under the stage name Sayth.

He also promotes shows, he said, and for this performance Wright and

Doomtree gave him fliers to hand out and put up around Eau Claire.

“(Dessa) is a fantastic slam poet, so I think that really shows in her mu-sic,” he said. “She’s also a phenomenal singer and she can rap, so her style is very unique.”

An up-and-coming musician him-self, Wells said meeting inspiration-al people like Wright and Dessa has been influential for him.

He said he hopes people realize both performances are a big step for the community.

“It’s really important for our scene that we keep bringing bigger names like Dessa and Toki Wright to Eau

Claire,” he said, “And making sure that their shows are well attended so that we have more shows like this in the future.”

Katy Macek COPY EDITOR

“... maybe their impressions will be

different, but I think I worry more about what I offer than

what people choose to take.”Dessa Darling

Minneapolis Hip Hop Artist

BILL PHELPS / SubmittedDOOMSDAY: Dessa Darling is a writer, slam poet, hip-hop artist and general word-smith of the Doomtree Collective hailing from the Minneapolis hip-hop scene.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

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

Minneapolis-based Dessa of Doomtree Collective to perform at Eau Claire House of Rock

Catch Dessa April 17 at House of Rock with Toki Wright &

Big Cats.Tickets: $20

CURRENTS11CURRENTS EDITOR: Zack Katz Thursday, April 17

Around the side of The Community Table, there is a non-descript stairway with an overhang. Down the few stairs and into a spacious, cluttered room, people crowded around tables sharing the happenings of the day.

Positive Avenues is a drop-in facil-ity for homeless or mentally ill people in Eau Claire. Last Friday at Positive Avenues, a group of six University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire students orches-trated an art therapy event as a class project.

Erin Hanson, an Eau Claire stu-dent and intern at Positive Avenues, said between 20 and 30 people showed up to create dream catchers.

“The goal of the art project was to have everyone write a goal or some-thing they care about on the dream catcher,” Hanson said.

Nicole Schultz, an Eau Claire communications professor, connected students in her Small Group Commu-nications class with Positive Avenues, where she is on the advisory board. Students researched and produced an event to enhance community aware-ness of an issue.

Jean Minnich said she spends time daily at Positive Avenues. When she first went to Positive Avenues she was seeking answers about mental health issues. She got the information she needed, created new friendships and set a new goal. Minnich wants to open

a facility similar to Positive Avenues to reach out to children.

“I originally wanted to find more out about mental health issues because my mother has a mental health issue and she wouldn’t talk to me about it,” Minnich said. “I am going to open up a program like this for children. My thinking is that if you help children with mental health issues, they will better be able to deal with it when they are adults.”

Anneke Brainerd, a peer specialist at Positive Avenues, said she appreci-ated the art therapy event because it brought people in. She said often people lose interest in the activities that she does daily so it is beneficial to have oth-ers come in to run an event.

“I was really psyched because we had more people back here than we have on a normal project and part of it was because it was built up, they knew somebody was coming in,” Brainerd said. “Anyone who is working here gets to be old, but when it is set up like this, there is participation and they are do-ing something they feel good about.”

When participants finished their dream catchers they went back to roaming around the room, with voices loud and cheery. Brainerd kept repeat-ing, “Who would have thought that having a messed up life would someday come to this.”

Crafting dreamsStudents work with Positive Avenues to produce art therapy event

Jessie TremmelSTAFF WRITER

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

JESSIE TREMMEL / The Spectator GETTING CRAFTY: Larry Coleman, with the intricate dream catcher he made at Positive Avenues on Friday, has been volunteering there for more than four years.

It began in Central Park. In 2001 Theatre professor Reed Brown camped for 36 hours in the park wait-ing for tickets to see Meryl Streep in “Seagulls.”

Two weeks later, 9/11 happened.“Suddenly theatre seemed rath-

er insignificant,” Reed said. “A lot of things did because there was this huge event.”

A year later Brown was reading an article in the New York Times about Australian aborigines who came to Ground Zero to bless the scarred area. The idea of Australian natives traveling across the world in the name of peace struck a chord with Brown, and so began the 10-year jour-ney of the production “Skyline.”

On Friday the play, written and direction by Brown, will be performed for the first time on the UW-Eau Claire stage.

The story intertwines history and imagination as it travels across time periods to explore the connections be-tween people throughout the world. Brown said the play does not follow the typical progression beginning, middle, end.

“It’s a very complex little thing we are doing here because it’s not linear,” Brown said. “This is a script that is very post-modern. ... It is a collage of seemingly disconnected events and hopefully by the end we have made it seem logical to the audience.”

Transporting through time peri-ods and changing characters creates more work for the actors and actress-es, but senior Aaron Suggs, who plays

the main character Allooloo, said the cast has worked through the chal-lenges.

“At first it was a bit difficult, but as you start to become invested in the world of the play, it becomes natural,” Suggs said.

At the first dress rehearsal on Monday Sophomore Jake Pritchard, who plays the character Scott, said preparing for the show’s unique progression was different than past shows.

“Nothing about this show is what I’m use to,” Pritchard said. “Just the fact that Reed wrote it and is direct-ing it, that puts a different spin on it.”

But even with the non-traditional approach, he said the cast only had some logistics left to straighten out. The changing time frame was diffi-cult to adjust to, Pritchard said, but it was a welcome challenge.

“Things have been going on with my (character’s) life that we haven’t been showing the audience,” Pritchard said. “So, I have to get all of that into my head. From one scene to the next I change drastically.”

It was a 10 year process for Brown to complete the script for “Skyline.” He said he is excited for the show to reach the stage and hopes the audi-ence enjoys the story progression.

“I think the audience is going to tell me what I need to know,” Brown said. “I’m really looking forward to having an audience there.”

Martha Landry EDITOR IN CHIEF

Use imagination, travel through time

“Post-modern” story touches on diversity and inclusivity

Landry can be reached at landry-mm@uwec.edu or @MarthaLandryy.

ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator PAINTING THE PICTURE: Senior Aaron Suggs performs under the role of lead character Allooloo during a practice leading up to “Skyline’s” upcoming opening night this

CURRENTS12CURRENTS EDITOR: Zack Katz Thursday, April 17

A weekend to rememberThe Viennese Ball cele-brates 40th anniversary

at UW-Eau Claire

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

Meghan HoselySTAFF WRITER

For the second year, the new Da-vies Center was host to the world’s second largest Viennese Ball.

When the event started in 1974, Executive Director of the Viennese Ball Karen Stuber said it was one night, and only took up a part of the second floor of the old Davies Center. Two hundred people were expected for the occasion.

Instead, 600 people showed up.“Years later, it went to the entire

second floor,” Stuber said. “And then in 1988 I suggested … why not do two nights?”

The idea was crazy, Stuber said, but everyone worked with it. Even-tually, more entertainment came in, heightening the popularity of the Vi-ennese Ball, and the whole building was blocked off for this event.

With the addition of the new Da-vies came a new set of challenges for everyone working the Viennese Ball. Stuber said her team had to figure out what venues worked best in each of the ballrooms, and the new space was a challenge to the committee.

“When we moved into to new building, what we had to do was re-move a lot of the decor that had been custom made for the old building,” Stuber said.

Their hard work paid off, and the changes made from last year to this year impressed students like sopho-more Sarah Naegeli. She said the new set up allowed for more open space, and the decorations were prettier as well.

“It was a lot better than last year,” Naegeli said. “I really liked how they set up the ballrooms and the different dancing areas.”

Stuber said after a few more events this school year, planning for next year will begin. Paperwork for this event begins in January, but the final touches continue until the mo-ment people are allowed in.

To read more about Viennese Ball go to spectatornews.com

OPINION / EDITORIAL13OP/ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, April 17

As the school year comes to a close, some of us can already feel the relief of summer break. For most, I’m sure these last three weeks of the se-mester will be a nightmare. With the pile-up of final projects, papers and quizzes on top of final exams, stress can take quite a toll.

According to a 2009 study by the Associated Press and MTV, 85 per-cent of students say they experience stress daily. Of the 2,200 students surveyed, 77 percent said they felt stressed due to academic concerns.

Stress is not always avoidable, but there are ways to cope with it and overcome it. Simple changes such as your sleep schedule, diet and amount of physical activity to your routine could mean a less-hectic and anxious final few weeks.

SleepMy advice, and the advice of

experts on the matter of sleep, is nothing you haven’t heard before. Although it can be difficult at times, especially as a college student, it is important for your body to have close to eight hours of sleep each night.

A lot of us have taken a psycholo-gy course and have learned about the brain’s need for a restful night. The brain needs to go through various sleep cycles to organize the day’s ac-tivities. The University Health Cen-ter at The University of Georgia said sufficient sleep not only contributes to the body’s amount of energy, but can also affect academic performance.

“The very qualities you need to maximize in order to do well on tests ... are decreased when you are sleep deprived,” the study reported. “Re-search has shown that students who get six or fewer hours of sleep have a lower GPA than those who get eight or more.”

Getting enough rest after study-ing allows your brain time to compre-hend and better retain information. You will also be more alert during the day, which can lead to better test performances and decision-making ability.

In the next few days, set time aside to plan out your schedule for the rest of the semester. Go through your syllabi, speak to your teachers and group members to identify due dates and meetings.

With that information, create a calendar or a list. From there, plan and set time aside for your assign-ments and for sleep. In this way, you are more likely to stick to your sched-ule and feel less stressed as you cross things off.

ExerciseWhen making your schedule, you

should also set time aside for phys-ical activity. Ac-cording to Mayo Clinic, apart from increasing your body’s energy, exercise has the ability to com-bat stress and boost brainpow-er. Sometimes I get stressed just thinking about how exhausted I will be after a run, but I always feel proud of myself for doing it.

Physical activity releases endor-phins that contribute to a positive mood and help you alleviate stress from the day’s activities. Mayo Clin-ic also reports that “exercise can increase self-confidence and lower the symptoms associated with mild depression and anxiety. (It) also can improve your sleep, which is also dis-rupted by stress.”

For those of you like me, start off slowly. You don’t need to be running a mile right away. Set goals you know you can accomplish, and then alter those goals as you go. Start by going on a walk through Putnam Park or attend one of the free exercise class-es provided by the University. Then work your way to more rigorous activ-ity if you desire.

Make sure to change up your rou-tine. Repetition causes boredom and will likely lead to you abandoning your commitment. Consider asking a friend to exercise with you. That way you are more likely to push yourself and increase your tolerance and more importantly, stick to your goals. Ex-ercise will improve both your men-tal and physical health. Who doesn’t want to feel and look great?

NutritionA healthy body and mind starts

with a balanced diet. When you con-sume the right foods, they, like sleep and exercise, have the ability to boost brainpower and your mood. As you complete assignments, presentations, and especially when taking exams, you need to provide your brain with the right nutrients to perform your best. According to Forbes' “10 Top Foods to Boost Brainpower,” foods high in antioxidants and omega-3 fat-ty acids are the way to go.

One of the most common anti-oxidant superfruits is blueberries. Forbes says research finds “a diet high in blueberries” contributes to “faster learning, sharper thinking,

and improved memory reten-tion.”

Medical Daily also said the vita-min power of blue-berries can help combat a number of diseases by sup-porting your over-all health.

“Just a hand-ful can satisfy your daily fiber

requirement. Plus, blueberries are an excellent source of manganese, which plays an important part in bone de-velopment and converting carbohy-drates and fats into energy.”

Forbes also said foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as walnuts, work to protect the brain by increas-ing the function of neurotransmit-ters.

And of course, don’t forget the pyramid!

Final adviceAs you head into the home

stretch, don’t let stress wear you down. Make a schedule and set time aside for a full and consistent night’s rest and sufficient exercise. Be con-scious of the food you are eating and strive to eat foods that are beneficial to both your physical and mental health.

What you do from this point on could mean a significantly less stress-ful and prepared final weeks, or you turning into a sleep-deprived, emo-tionally-rampant monster not even your mother could love.

“When you consume the right foods, they, like sleep and exer-

cise, have the ability to boost brainpower

and your mood.”

Make an effort to prepare your mind and body for the semester’s end with these tips

Danielle PahlMULTIMEDIA EDITOR

Pahl is a senior journalism major and Multimedia Editor of The Spectator. She can be reached at pahldj@uwec.edu or @DaniellePahl.

Avoiding stress in final weeks

OPINION / EDITORIAL14OP/ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, April 17

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in McCutcheon v. FEC striking down lim-its on individual campaign contributions may have riled up some people, but for most, it probably meant little to nothing.

I’m not just saying this out of pure cynicism. An article in The Atlantic cited statistics from several surveys highlight-ing a disturbing public sentiment. First, more 90 percent of respondents believe it’s important to reduce the influence of money in politics. This is a good start, but then again, more than 90 percent of respondents also believe “such influence just won’t be reduced anytime soon.”

Chris Cillizza in a Washington Post article on the same topic, said: “Yes, in polls people will say there is too much money in politics and that it’s a bad thing. But, time and again in actual elec-tions they don’t vote on it.”

If we value our freedom, we need to change our attitudes at the polls. The situation is dire, and it’s not just about money. The issue isn’t about those who

have money versus those who do not, like you’d see in an Occupy Wall Street talking point. It is a fight for the very core of our political freedom, a battle of First Amendment proportions.

Plenty of pundits talk about the growth in spending and how the big do-nors influence politicians, but what I want to focus on is how this big spending limits everyone else’s freedom.

A person could easily argue they have every right to spend their life sav-ings on a candidate if they have the want. When looked at it as freedom of speech — which should not have a maximum ca-pacity a person can use before being cut off — money is essentially being substi-tuted for speech.

I’m not going to argue this should not be true. A major difference, however, is the quantity of the two. Speech is far more vague and comes in many forms, and is essentially unlimited to every indi-vidual citizen (some restrictions include not being allowed to shout, “Fire!” in a

crowded theater).Money, however, is finite, and is dis-

tributed unevenly in the economy. This isn’t an inherently evil thing; I’m not saying everyone should have the same amount of money, because that is just not how our system works nor would I want it to work that way. The thing about this fact, though, is if money is viewed as a form of speech, and we are allowed to fun-nel as much as we (people and corpora-tions) want into political campaigns, this severely limits the freedom of a massive group of people.

If getting your opinion out in a cam-paign requires you to reach into your pocketbook, those with the deeper pock-etbooks hold a great advantage. This is an instance where “putting your money where your mouth is” results in a few big mouths devouring the rest that have less money in them.

Frankly, I don’t see how this issue does not enrage more people. While this is going on right in front of us, we are de-bating things like ‘Who wore that dress better?’

To the more than 90 percent of you who think nothing can be done: it’s time to civically engage the enemy, because believe it or not, voting still holds more power over campaign contributions. Nine out of 10 Americans speaking at the bal-lot box is a much stronger message than a handful of people throwing money into Super PACs.

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

Why we should be enraged with recent SCOTUS decision on campaign donations

Americans tend to be hard work-ers. We have high stress levels and experts to prove it.

An average full-time employee in the U.S. works 8.8 hours a day, ac-cording to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A “typical” student spends at least three to four hours a day studying, along with the added time constraints of work and extra-curricular activi-ties, Audrey Rob-inson, director of the Academic Skills Center es-timates.

But working so many hours in a day can have serious conse-quences. Alter-natives to the long work day could help show it’s not the best option.

A recent article in The Atlantic reports a year-long study in Gothen-burg, Sweden will compare groups of people working six hours a day to those working eight hours a day. The hope for the experiment is to improve the health and well-being of employ-ees by working fewer hours.

Students could benefit from working fewer hours in a day, as they are especially vulnerable to the nega-tive effects of a busy schedule. When our planners are full and they don’t allow for time to rest, it becomes eas-ier to get sick.

Gina Wagner is a junior biology major and pre-dental student who is on campus either at class or study-ing from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. She works eight and a half hours a week and is involved in four student organiza-

tions.Wagner said it’s easy to get the

cold or the flu when she is busy. A recent walk home in the rain after a night of studying in the library has given her a touch of the cold once again.

Even finding time to eat meals can be difficult, she said.

Wagner said vending machines have become her friends. When she doesn’t have time to make a meal or wait in line somewhere, the fastest option is not always the healthiest.

On a quick interview during Wagner’s small amount of free time, which consisted of a walk to the li-brary, she said her 17-credit semes-ter taught her to use her time well.

“I have trained myself to be a very good crammer,” she said.

On the same note, another fore-seeable benefit to the six-hour work day in Sweden is an increase in pro-ductivity.

Psychological studies have shown people work harder if you limit their time to complete a certain task, as The Atlantic stated while citing a

2012 article by Charles Kenny in The Foreigner.

As the amount of tasks in a day build up, students must develop the survival tech-nique of being diligent in the short amount of time they have to complete as-signments. This could pay off in the future if they are working few-

er hours in a day.Until then, students’ lack of spare

time affects their ability to maintain healthy social lives as well.

Wagner said going home on the weekends is rarely an option due to tests early in the week. Time for friends also dwindles.

While options for students to work and study fewer hours in a day will not change any time soon, the well-being of many Americans with monstrous workloads would be im-proved if we considered shorter work days.

The case for shorter workdaysWorking too many hours in a day is detrimental

to health and productivity

Rachel Streich STAFF WRITER

“Students could benefit from working fewer hours in a day, as they are especially

vulnerable to the negative effects of a

busy schedule.”

Streich is a junior journalism major and staff writer for The Spectator. She can be reached at streicrn@uwec.edu or @RachelStreich17.

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER/ The Spectator

SKYLINE

For ticket inFormation callService center, 715-836-3727 orwww.uwec.edu/Servicecenter

written and directed by F. reed brownriverSide theatre april 17-19, 23-26 at 7:30 p.m. and april 27 at 1:30 p.m.

2013-2014 UW-EaU ClairE ThEaTrE arTs PrEsEnTsParT of UW-EaU ClairE’s YEar of inClUsiviTY ProjECT

OPINION / EDITORIAL15OP / ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, April 15

In the last several days, Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic has been publishing a series of articles about one of the most contested issues of our generation: gay marriage. The series has sought out and included reactions and opinions from readers, including gay marriage opponents and propo-nents.

While the articles do a lot to shed light on the greater dys-function of the gay marriage con-versation, they also highlight what is wrong with the way we consume news in general.

Despite being labeled news sourc-es, not every outlet offers both sides of an issue. This is what The Atlan-tic did last week. The author pre-sented readers’ letters as a way to communicate views other than his own.

The first ar-ticle featured a letter written by a 23-year-old gay marriage oppo-nent. In it she explains clearly and thoughtfully why she doesn’t support it. Anoth-er article used pieces of a letter from someone who believes gay marriage opponents should be punished. Again, the letter is considerate and clearly communicates the writer’s views.

I think this is a much more ef-fective and productive way of having these conversations. Neither letter seeks to change people’s opinions. The authors of the letters to the editor only want to have their voices heard. The gay marriage opponent in partic-ular said in her piece that she feels her side of the argument often goes unheard.

What Friedersdorf did by juxta-posing these letters was offer readers of a single publication the chance to read passionate and reflective pieces from two sides of a contested issue.

Friedersdorf admits he doesn’t completely agree with every point out-lined by either writer, but he presents them to his audience nonetheless. This is an example of responsible re-porting on his part.

While gay marriage is certainly something that gets its fair share of

coverage in the news, both the op-ponent and proponent who wrote to Friedersdorf wanted to make sure their side of the topic was better un-derstood.

The authors of the letters to the editor deserve praise for offering their thoughts they way they did. If every-one had the presence of mind to calm-ly explain their side of an issue and was open-minded enough to listen to the other side, issues wouldn’t be so contested. Of course, issues would still have a few different opinions sur-rounding them, but the hatred for the other side that we so often see might be alleviated.

Media outlets aren’t the only ones to blame for media consumers only knowing one side of an issue. The problem lies with consumers them-

selves. While it may be more con-venient to visit only one news source, we should know that we likely won’t get the whole story that way.

It’s great that some media out-lets offer more than one side of an issue, but readers still need to explore the other side, even

if they disagree with it. Considering The Atlantic articles, I know there were parts of both that I disagreed with, but I feel I have a better under-standing of the two sides and I’m more willing to listen to the other side than I was before.

With social media like Twitter and Facebook, it’s easier than ever to curate our own personalized news sources. Following a variety of news outlets and publications on Twitter is an easy way to get a quick look at dif-ferent sides of an issue.

As media consumers, we need to make a habit of making sure we’re getting well-rounded coverage. Es-pecially when it comes to issues that have strong opinions on both sides, which today is most things.

We can’t change how media is presented, but we can change how we consume it.

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

All sides of gay marriage deserve attention

Media outlets, consumers need to be aware of all sides of an issueKatie BastNEWS EDITOR

“It’s great that some media outlets offer

more than one side of an issue, but readers still need to explore

the other side.”

As I walked up the front steps of Hibbard Hall for one of my af-ternoon classes, I noticed the guy in front of me hold the door open. I politely said thank you, and then I proceeded to do the same for the person behind me. It is something students see all over campus; it is a chivalrous act. Yet why are we hearing so often that chivalry is dead?

When most people think of chiv-alry, they think only men can act chivalrous. Which poses my first question, “Why can’t women be chivalrous towards their significant other?” In an age where we are all for gender equality, why are men being singled out?

This is where I think the next

issue comes into play. Women have been working for gender equali-ty for so long. They are advocates for the movement and stand by it. At the same time, those women become upset when a man doesn’t wait on her hand and foot or even wait to eat until she has served herself.

In my opinion, you cannot con-tradict your beliefs and complain about inequality and a man not waiting on you. A man can only take as big of an act as you will al-low him.

I do not think chivalry is dead, I think it has evolved and changed with time. It is difficult to pinpoint what exactly caused the change.

It might have something to do with the evolution in technological advances. People in society rely on cell phones and computers too much nowadays. Just take a second and look around you.

How many people are using their phone, tablet or computer? Chances are a majority of the peo-ple around you are, even if they are engaged in conversation.

Also in today’s college atmo-sphere there is emphasis on a one-night-stands rather than relation-ships.

Chivalry is more apparent in relationships than casual dating or hookups. Statistics show although some people are against chivalry, others are still all for it.

Statistics given by the Daily

Mail show only 1-in-7 men would give up their seat on a bus or train to a woman, while 3-in-5 men ap-preciate when women open and hold the door for them. Only seven percent of women view chivalrous acts as patronizing, although 1-in-25 women feel embarrassed when men demonstrate old-fashioned be-havior.

In my opinion, part of the prob-lem is today we live in a society where we overthink everything we do and say. Messages can get mis-interpreted and it is a lot easier to offend someone. In the long run, men are afraid their actions will come off sexist while women are nervous to be ‘independent’ or come off too feminist. If women want something done, step up and say it.

There is a scene in the mov-ie “Think Like a Man” where one of the main characters, a female, will not get into the car, unless her date opens the door. She vocally an-nounces that to him, and then he did it. You cannot complain about something if you’re not asking for it.

Chivalry isn’t dead; it has just evolved over the years. It’s little chivalrous things that can make or break a relationship.

Roszak is a freshman journalism ma-jor and staff writer for The Spectator. She can be reached at roszakcm@uwec.edu or @CRoszak22.

Chivalry is not dead, just evolvedYou can’t always get what you want if you don’t ask

Courtney Roszak STAFF WRITER

STUDENT LIFE16STUDENT LIFE EDITOR: Elizabeth Jackson Thursday, April 17

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER/ The Spectator

UW-Eau Claire’s Viennese Ball celebrates 40 years with a program of music, dancing and comaraderie.

PHOTOS BY ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator ROLL OUT THE BARREL: (Left) The Dorf Kapelle played polkas during the Viennese Ball in the “Golden Lion Festival Room.” The ensemble has been performing at UW-Eau Claire’s Viennese Ball since 1988.

A NIGHT OF COMARADERIE: (Below) Women’s Concert Chorale and The Singing Statesmen join together in a song in the “American Bar” at the Viennese Ball on Friday.

ELEGANT ENTERTAINMENT: Junior Leah Beckman and other members of UW-Eau Claire Players provided entertainment in the form of living statues.

ONE FINE NIGHT: (Left) The weather for Friday’s Viennese Ball was warm enough for the revelers to relax on the third floor terrace of Davies Center.

DANCING THE NIGHT AWAY: (Right) UW-Eau Claire students, staff and community members danced the night away to polkas, waltzes and swing dances.