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Vol. 90 No. 15

A Civil Rights marcher will speak to students Thursday about

their responsibility for activism .

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As the lights lowered, the audience be-came still with anticipation. Out walked a man with a microphone in hand, along with a dancer poised gracefully to begin.

Not a whisper could be heard as the or-chestra started to play and the man began to sing. A rendition of Coldplay’s “The Scien-tist” reverberated against the walls and a sad, yet pensive sensation went through the audi-ence. This is Cabaret.

Dr. Alan Rieck, the coordinator of music education, said Cabaret is a excep-tional musical variety show. Cabaret de-buted in 1978, giving students the op-portunity to create and direct their own production. Rieck said a show like Cabaret is not something many universities get the chance to do.

“It offers a unique experience for our stu-dents,” said Rieck. “The students do every-thing in the show.”

See CABARET, page 2B

CAL MCCNEIL/The SpectatorSenior Singing Statesman Luke Benson hits a high note with fellow Statesmen junior Joel Smith (left) and sophomore Erick Sood (right) during the song “Come Sail Away” at the Jan. 21 perfor-mance of “Cabaret XXXIV: Careers.”

Life’s a cabaretStudent-run production enters its 34th year

By Emily AlbrentCOPY EDITOR

Local business sets up Saturday shuttle

Evening rides to and from campus to cost $1

iPads available for checkout at McIntyre Library

CHRIS REINOOS/The SpectatorRight Way Shuttle’s buses will be running on campus starting Saturday night. Buses are scheduled to leave Towers hourly from 6:15 to 9:15 p.m.

The Saturday night shuttles on the UW-Eau Claire campus will not be gone for long anymore.

Local bus company Right Way Shut-tle announced plans to run a shuttle bus on campus on Saturday nights, just one month after the Student Senate voted to cancel a pilot program providing a simi-lar service to students.

Right Way Shuttle owner Tom Klatt said the plan was formed independent from the university.

“When I learned that the funding was cut, I decided to just step up to the plate on my own,” he said.

Student Senate voted 17-9 to get rid of the Saturday Night Shuttle program effec-tive as of the Spring 2012 semester. At the time of the decision, Student Body Pres-ident Phil Rynish cited cost as the main reason for ending the program.

Klatt believes students benefit from having affordable and safe options for getting around the city on weekends.

“I’m basically providing this because I feel the students need it and should have the opportunities just like anybody else,” Klatt said.

Junior Leah Bauer, a resident of Gov-ernors Hall, says the program is great for students who do not have cars on cam-pus and that the shuttle rides should be busy once again.

“I think that you will probably still see a fair number of students utiliz-ing it as long as it is well-advertised,” Bauer said.

Rides on the Right Way shuttles from Towers Hall will cost students $1 round trip on Saturday nights. Stops will be made in front of Towers hourly be-ginning at 6:15 p.m. and ending at 9:15 p.m., with the last drop-off being made at 10:15 p.m.

Students can ride to Oakwood Mall and Action City, among several other locations. Riders will be given some form of proof of purchase when they first board, with tickets, tokens and stamps all options being considered by Right Way.

Although regular pick-ups at Towers will end at 9:15 p.m., students can call Right Way after that time and sched-ule a pick-up. Three shuttles will run in and around the Water Street area until 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

However, Klatt does not believe that some campus groups are on board with his service. He specifically cited the Cen-ter for Alcohol Studies and Education as not being receptive to how he runs his business.

“They feel that our image is just providing students with just the option to go out and drink, and here at Right Way, we are so much more than that,” Klatt said.

Jennifer Lee, Director of CASE, does not believe CASE has given Klatt any reason to feel that way.

See SHUTTLE, page 2A

By Chris ReinoosCOPY EDITOR

Klatt

It is no secret that Apple products such as Mac com-puters, iPads, iPhones, and iPods are a popular com-modity among the younger generation. And, now stu-dents at UW-Eau Claire can try out some of the latest technology.

The McIntyre Library has made 10 iPads available for students to checkout. Kong Yang, the circulation super-visor at McIntyre Library, explained that each checkout period can last up to a week,

but it may be shorter if the desire for the iPads becomes greater.

The iPads have only been in circulation since Jan. 10, and McIntyre is anticipating an increase in demand during the spring semester.

“It’s awesome, no one re-ally has them,” said Alethia Moua, a senior who works at the library.

A student can check these out at anytime, but some stu-dents are concerned about how fragile and expensive these devices are. Some, like freshman Sierra Hoover, are a little apprehensive

about storing them in their backpacks.

“It would be too much of a responsibility,” Hoover said.

In addition, McIntyre’s website states that you are able to download any app you choose as long as you have your own Apple ID. However, once the iPad is returned, the library staff will completely clean out any added material that may have been placed on it during the checkout period.

See IPAD, page 2A

Apps like CNN, Angry Birds accessible for downloadBy Emily Albrent

COPY EDITOR

Campus News2A •

CONTINUED FROM FRONTThursday, January 26, 2012 News Editors: Emily Gresbrink & Haley Zblewski

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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY HALEY ZBLEWSKI/The SpectatorJohanna Gasper, a junior who works at McIntyre Library, holds one of the library’s new iPads.

With this new addition comes excite-ment for some students who work at the library.

“It’s really cool that we have them, but they will probably be used more for fun than for school purposes” said Ashly Curtis, a junior who works at the library circulation desk.

However, not everyone is excited about the opportunity to checkout iPads.

“I probably won’t check one out,” Hoover said. “I already have a laptop and an iPod.”

Freshman Brittany Zey commented that it was a cool idea, but that she could not see herself checking out an iPad in the future.

“It might work for some people if they don’t have a laptop,” Zey said.

So whether students want to pick one up for a quick game of Angry Birds, or to fin-ish some last minute school work, the iPads are now here for them to decide.

IPAD from page 1A

Major websites black out in protest of SOPABill would set stronger measurements to end online piracy issues, online strike influences Congress

Anyone trying to access the English version of Wiki-pedia on Wednesday, Jan. 18 saw something a little unusual: Wikipedia was blacked out for a full day, as well as countless other websites. This was a re-action to the SOPA and PIPA bills in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

SOPA and PIPA, also known as the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, were bills introduced in the House and Senate with both intending to end the issue of online piracy. Websites like Wikipedia and Google, however, claim that these bills would make it in-credibly difficult to keep their sites running.

According to junior and LTS Student Manager for classroom support Kristine Rivall, SOPA and PIPA would begin to allow

the government to essentially censor websites that have vio-lated any copyright laws.

“I think (SOPA) would stifle a lot of innovations on the In-ternet,” Rivall said.

According to Wikipedia, over 162 million users came to use the site only to discover the black out in protest of the two bills. Wikipedia also instructed users to contact their represen-tatives and speak out against these bills.

Rivall said something needs to be done about Internet pira-cy, but this was not the correct way to handle it and the bills would have a lot of unforeseen consequences.

Freshman Joe Leavitt said he tried accessing a website on that day, and it was completely inaccessible. Leavitt said that SOPA, if made into law, would do more harm than good.

“If (the Internet) is not bro-ken, don’t fix it,” said Leavitt.

Freshman Matthew Knut-son said he uses websites like Wikipedia on occasion and ex-pressed concerns for any sig-nificant changes these sites may have to make as a result of a bill like SOPA.

“I would be pretty affected (by any big changes to Wiki-pedia) if it changed a lot,” said Knutson, who added that he uses the website often as a starting point for any signifi-cant research.

Reacting to the blackouts occurring on that day, many people chose social media as a means to either vent frustra-tion over their inability to use their favorite cites or advocate pro- and anti-SOPA stances themselves.

A National Post online article published on Jan. 18 reported that “thousands of teenagers and college students” flocked to Twitter to express their frus-tration with the blackouts.

Leavitt said he saw several friends posting information about SOPA and PIPA on Face-book as well as a Facebook poll.

Rivall said she forwarded a petition against SOPA from the website Change.org to other websites such as Reddit and Facebook in hopes of getting other internet users to sign.

SOPA, with rare bipartisan support, was expected to be voted on without a problem be-fore the online blackouts and social media attention. Then supported dwindled as a result of the intense backlash.

Regardless of the initial co-operative support in Congress, Rivall said officials were work-ing on the bills for the wrong reasons.

“When I was researching the bill ... I didn’t know if I agreed with the benefits of the bill,” she said. “I didn’t think they (Congress) were looking out for the best interests of the people.”

By Alex ZankSTAFF WRITER

“I think (SOPA) would stifle a lot

of innovations on the Internet.”

KRISTINE RIVALL LTS Student Manager

SHUTTLE from page 1A

“I recognize that the Right Way Shuttle has a place in our univer-sity. We hand out basically 10,000 free advertisements for him,” Lee said, referring to Right Way’s phone number being placed on all CASE business cards.

Lee said CASE has no current plans to be involved with the shut-tle or its operation, and Klatt’s busi-ness model is his own and CASE would not need to be involved in such a program.

Gordy’s County Market has partnered with Right Way and is the only free location on the route so far. Klatt said he is attempting to gather sponsors to eventually make the shuttle free for students.

The Right Way shuttles will be-gin making Saturday night runs to campus this week on Jan. 28 and continue each Saturday through May 12.

Towers North Hall Director

Kerry Day said many Towers resi-dents were pleased with the program last semester and that she was disap-pointed when the program was can-celled. She is hope-ful that the Right Way shuttles can serve the needs of students lacking transportation.

“I am glad to hear that is some-thing that is going to be provided,” Day said. “Assuming it will be the same setup, I think it will be fan-tastic.”

iPads can be checked out up to a week

“I am glad to hear that is something that is going to be provided ... I think

it will be fantastic.”KERRY DAY

Towers North Hall Director

Shuttle to start on Jan. 28

Lee

Thursday

• 7:30p.m.Civil Rights activ-ist Joanne Bland to give lecture. Room007,PhillipsScienceHall.

Friday

• 7:30p.m. University Theater: “I Bet It Was the Butler”. KjerTheater.

• 8to10p.m.Savannah Smith. TheCabin.

Saturday

• 11a.m.to12p.m.Children’s Planetarium Show: Life-styles of the stars. Planetar-ium,PhillipsScienceHall.

• 8to10p.m.Whalehouse. TheCabin.

Sunday

• 2to3:30p.m.Faculty Recital: Dr. Mark Mowry, tenor and Dr. Owen Lovell, piano. GantnerConcertHall,HaasFineArts.

Tuesday

• 7p.m.Planetarium Show: Ancient Horizons. Planetar-ium,PhillipsScienceHall.

Wednesday • 11a.m.to2p.m.Blugold

Organization Bash. CouncilFireRoom.

News3AThursday, January 26, 2012 •

As a service to the community, The Spectator publishes upcoming events. Events must be submitted to The Spectator office by 5 p.m. Monday for the Thursday issue and will be published as space allows.

Campus CalendarR E C U R R I N G

E V E N T S

Campus Film Series: Goodbye Lenin!

Davies Theatre, Davies Center6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Thur. — Sun.

Foster Gallery Exhibit:

Risk + RewardFoster Gallery, Haas Fine Arts Center

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mon. — Fri.

Cabaret XXXIV: CareersCouncil Fire Room, Davies

7:30 p.m. Thur. — Sat.

News Editors: Emily Gresbrink & Haley Zblewski

A fuming fake-outSaturday, Jan. 21

At 10:45 p.m., of-ficers were directed toTowers Southon a callreporting the scent of marijuanacoming fromthe second floor eastwing.OfficersarrivedatTowers South and metwithtwoResidentAssistantsonduty.BothRAswereunabletodetectwhichroomthescent

wascomingfrom; thescent,however,wasstrongest inthecenterstairwellandeastendof theeastwing.Police officers spoke to residents in four different

roomsnear the burning smell, butwere still unable toidentify the origin of the marijuana smell. Officerscleared the building with no positive identification of thelocation.

Pants on the groundSunday, Jan. 22

At12:28a.m.,UniversityPoliceofficersweredirectedtoPutnamHallinregardstoadetoxcase.Uponarrival,

theyweredirectedtooneof themen’srestroomswherethestudentwaslocated.The student, amale,was found in abathroomstall

sittingonthetoiletwithhisjeansaroundhisankles;therewasvomitonhispants,thewallandonthefloor.Hewasleaningtothesidewithhisheadonthewall.Officers asked the student his name. He respond-

ed with several different names and was speaking in-coherently. At this point, a medic was called to re-move the student from Putnam for detox with aPBTblowof .15.When asked what he was drinking, the student re-

plied“151,”referringtoBacardi151.Hewasissuedanunderagedrinkingcitationandinformationalpamphlet,whichheplacedinthefrontpocketof hisjeansasheleftPutnamHall.

The Police Blotter is compiled from campus police files. All names have been withheld. Call 9-1-1 to report emergencies. Call the Anonymous Tipster Line at 855-5555 to report suspicious activity that is not in progress.

CAIRO—Ayearago,Tahrir Square was a car-nival of unity — Egyp-tian protesters stoodChristian with Muslim,Islamist with leftist,women with men, richwith poor for the com-mon cause of bringingdown Hosni Mubarak’sauthoritarianregime.

Now,Mubarakisgone,andsoistheshowof sol-idarity that ended his re-gimeandgalvanizedotherArab Spring rebellions.The revolutionary move-ment has fragmentedinto rival blocs overseenby an all-powerful mili-tary council. The squareitself is a bullet-pockedbattleground where asmall, perpetual dem-onstration snarls trafficand chokes downtownCairobusinesses.Within this mosaic,

Islamists have emergedasEgypt's dominant newpolitical force, much tothedismayof liberalpro-testers, whose Western-style demands sometimesrun counter to strict re-ligious teachings. As the

competing groups bickerover parliamentary postsand the ruling Mubarak-era generals wield theirauthority, revolutionaryactivists say their dreamsof speedy democratic re-forms and civil libertiesseemasdistantasever.“We didn't win,” said

Mohamed Abla, a well-known painter and vo-cal critic of the militarycouncil. “The revolutionhas moved into anotherstagenow,anditseemswestillhavetofightandfightandfight.”Afterabloodyanddif-

ficult transitional year,Egyptians are expectedto stream back to Tah-rir Square by the thou-sandsWednesday, thoughthere’s no clear revolu-tionary agenda for thecommemoration of thefirstprotests last Jan.25.Somegroupscallforare-newed uprising to bringdown the military coun-cil; others want a som-ber remembrance of the“martyrs,” the estimated1,000 protesters whowere killed in the pastyear’s uprising and manysubsequent spasms of politicalviolence.Liberal blocs are wor-

ried that Islamists willturntheevent intoavic-tory rally after winningmore than 70 percent of

parliamentary seats inthe first post-Mubarakelection.The Muslim Brother-

hood and the literalistSalafist factions, mean-while, are nervous thatthegatheringwill lead toclashes with governmentsecurity forces, forcingIslamists yet again tochoose between support-ing fellow protesters orstayinginthegoodgracesof thepowerfulgenerals.Thediscordsurround-

ing the anniversary mir-

rorsthefranktalksgoingon in closedpolitical ne-gotiations,withthenewlyemboldenedBrotherhoodpulled in at least threedifferent directions: Lefttowardestablishedliberalparties, right toward theultraconservative Salaf-ists or into a risky part-nership with the status-quogenerals.Women,CopticChris-

tians and the revolu-tionary youth barelyregister in power-shar-ing negotiations, those

groupscomplain.“Theeuphoriaof their

stunning victory and up-surgemightresultinmis-calculations, particularlyif they seek to appeasethemilitaryattheexpenseof the revolutionary ob-jectives of other forces,”said Khalil al-Anani, aprofessor at the UnitedKingdom'sDurhamUni-versity who’s written ex-tensively on theBrother-hood. “It's an uncertaingame that might lead tounintendedoutcomes.”

Egypt’s protesters see little progress one year later

By Hannah AllamMCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

(MCT)

StudentSenateapprovedMondaytheBlugoldCom-mitment Differential Tu-ition Budget for the 2012-2013year.Thebudgetwaspassed unanimously on aroll-callvote.Thebudgetdecidedthe

programsthatwillbefund-edbyBlugoldCommitmentDifferential Tuition dollars,as chosen by the FundingAnalysisCommittee.Vice President Mark

Morgan,whohasalsobeenon the Funding AnalysisCommittee for three bud-gets, said that the Fund-ing Analysis Committeelooked at about 76 newproposal to be fundedby the Blugold Commit-ment, and out of those,12werechosen.“Given the amount

of money we were work-ing with at the time, youhave constraint and canonly fund so many pro-grams,” Morgan said.“Thosewere theprogramsthat we thought would bemost effective, that wouldhave themost student im-pact for the price thatthey’repaying.”

While several new pro-posalswereincludedinthebudget,themajorityof thebudget is allocated towardprogramming that receivedmultiple-year funding fromthe Blugold Commitment,the continuation of theProvost’sInitiative,and thefinancialaid helpprovidedby theBlugoldCommit-ment.Sena-

tor AprilR o s svoiced her concern aboutthe way things werebeingfunded,especiallyfornew programs that mightnotmakeit.“My concern is with

the process of funding,”she said. “For example, if weweretovotedownoneof the lines on the alloca-tionthatmoneywouldnotgobacktothestudents,orit wouldn’t be preventedfrom being collected fromthestudents.Butthat’showbudgetingworks.”If asectionof thebud-

get were turned down bysenate,themoneyallocatedtothatprogramwouldthengo back into the BlugoldCommitmentfundandwaituntil the next year to beused,Rosssaid.Ross voiced her con-

cerns before the vote,but still voted to approvethebudget.“What I think is truly

good,” Morgan said “isthat despite individual dis-agreements,weallcometo-gethertovoteitupforthegreatergood.”

STUDENT SENATE

Senate approves Blugold Commitment Budget for next yearBy Haley Zblewski

NEWS EDITOR

/MCTIslamist, liberal and revolutionary figues lead thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, on Friday, November 18, 2011. in unifying protest to criticize policies of the cur-rent military government of Egypt.

Morgan

Conflict and uncertainty remain post-Mubarak

“Giventheamountof moneywewereworking

withatthetime,you

haveconstraintand

canonlyfundsomany

programs.”

Mark Morgan StudentSenator

Campus News4A • Thursday, January 26, 2012 News Editors: Emily Gresbrink & Haley Zblewski

On Jan. 17, recall workers from across the state of Wisconsin filed over a million signatures on peti-tions in hopes of overthrowing Gov. Scott Walker in what is thus far the largest recall effort in American his-tory.

For senior Jimmy Haggerty, it was an incredible feeling.

“It was great seeing the people of Wisconsin, not just Eau Claire it-self, not even the campus itself, but the state as a whole, come together,” Haggerty said. “They’re making a statement that what Scott Walker is doing and what the Republicans in the Senate are doing is not right for the people, and it’s not what the people want.”

Though the recall petition numbers were a historic feat, it’s not over.

Haggerty, a political science ma-jor and former president of the Col-lege Democrats, said the Govern-ment Accountability Board has been granted a 30-day extension to review all the signatures.

Then Republicans have a 10-day challenge phase to look over each signature. Any discrepancies can be flagged and brought back to the GAB supervisor.

After this, typically six weeks pass and then the GAB will set an election date and depending on the number of Democratic candidates, there may be a primary to choose who will face Scott Walker in the re-call election.

“The recall process is set up to be very difficult by definition,” said

senior Paydon Miller, chairman of the College Democrats of Wiscon-sin.“540,000 (signatures) was a lofty number and to almost double that? Anyone who says that isn’t a strike against Scott Walker is either lying or delusional.”

But for the recall effort, there are still plenty of obstacles to pass. One-hundred eighty-five percent of the signatures required to force an election were there, but turn-ing those numbers into votes isn’t a guarantee. And the approximately $9 million to hold an election (not counting the possible Democratic primary) doesn’t exactly warm vot-ers to the idea, but Miller said the people of Wisconsin need this recall to go through, regardless.

He said that even if a person may have voted a certain way in 2010 or not at all, Walker’s actions warrant a groundswell of recall support.

“The fact is that what Scott Walk-er has done, what his administration has done, has woken up a lot of peo-ple that may not have been involved in the past,” Miller said. “People around the state are realizing that

these things that they might not have cared about have real effects on the people they care about: their friends, their family, their peers.”

At UW-Eau Claire, Haggerty said the recall supporters will now try to get the word out about voting come election time. He said activity on campus will be relatively similar to any election.

“We’re going to get students reg-istered, give them information about absentee ballots and do what we can to make sure whoever wants to vote can vote,” Haggerty said. “We’re not targeting just Democrats. Any student that wants to come up, that wants to register to vote, we’re going to help.”

Haggerty said that encouraging students to vote in general is much more important that catering to par-ty lines. He said the recall workers will spread around the information that they have and let people draw their own conclusions.

“Even though we’re trying to re-call the governor, the Republicans aren’t the enemy,” Haggerty said. “It’s the apathy.”

Recall efforts move forwardAfter unprecedented petition phase, voting is now the priority

By Eric ChristensonOP/ED EDITOR

1. GAB verifies

signatures for 30 days

2.Republicans have

10-day challenge period

3.After six weeks, GAB sets election date

4.Democrats pick

candidate(s)

If there are more than one Democratic candidates, there will

be a primary

5. Democratic candidate

faces Scott Walker in election

Any discrepancies sent to

GAB supervisor

the ROAD to RECALL

Nursing degree programs honoredReaccreditation creates confidence, boosts program’s reputation

The UW-Eau Claire School of Nursing has long been noted for its e x c e l l e n c e , r e c e i v i n g national recognition for its strong dedication to teaching, practice and service in the discipline.

This December, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences received further validation when the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Educa-tion granted a full, 10-year reaccreditation to the baccalaureate and mas-ter’s degree programs along with a five-year accreditation for the new doctor of nursing practice (DNP) program.

The nursing program now has full support from their accrediting body and maximum time for new program development, said Dr. Linda Young, who was recently named Dean

of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

“It’s been a privilege to come to this college and take on the role as dean with a program fully accredited for 10 years — the undergrad and mas-ters — and the maximum of our DNP program for five years,” Dr. Young said.

Dr. Young also said the accredita-tion launches the DNP program in great standing.

To be recog-nized with such a distinction requires a thorough accreditation process of investigation and review. Sheila Smith, as-sistant dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sci-ences, explains that the ap-plication process involves extensive evaluation from a team of nursing program representatives before being turned to a board

that makes the final deci-sion.

“There’s typically two or three years of pretty concerted effort toward ensuring that we meet the accreditation standards, and then a very involved

self-study process,” Smith said. “So the result is a lengthy document that addresses each of the accreditation standards and key elements.”

Young said the nursing program’s recent award has provided a real confidence boost

during tougher times.“[Being accredited]

means we can focus and move forward our energies what we want to accomplish as a depart-ment of nursing, and we do not need to dwell on rectifying areas of deficit,” Young said.

Senior Jessica Miller, an

Undergraduate Curricu-lum Committee member and nursing major, said she is confident that being accredited will aid in post-graduate employment.

“The Eau Claire nurs-ing program has a really high name and other hos-pitals think highly of the students from Eau Claire,” she said. “Getting reac-credited just continues that standard and enables me to graduate and get a job, eventually.”

The reaccreditation for the baccalaureate and master's degree programs expires Dec. 31, 2021 and the accreditation for the DNP program expires Dec. 31, 2016.

“Eau Claire has a lot of passionate and diverse nursing faculty,” Miller said. “I’ve really created a lot of good relationships with my instructors, and they’ve created a lot of opportunities for me, too.”

By Anna SoldnerCOPY EDITOR

Young

A slice of history Civil rights activist to speak on campus about activism

Reading about history in books serves a great purpose, but it is rare for students to get the oppor-tunity to meet those who played roles in the events they have read about. Students at the UW-Eau Claire will have that chance Thursday, Jan. 26.

Joanne Bland, a civil rights activist from Ala-bama, will be giving a lec-ture at 7:30 p.m. in room 007, Phillips Hall. The Blu-gold Beginnings Learning Community and the stu-dent coordinators of the Civil Rights Pilgrimage are hosting the event.

Over winterim, a group of Eau Claire students had the opportunity to spend the day with Bland in her hometown of Selma, Ala. as a part of the 10-day Civil Rights Pilgrimage through the Deep South.

The students spent their time traveling by bus to eight different cities in Georgia, Alabama, Missis-sippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee. They visit-ed museums and historical sites, where they learned about the hardships many people had to endure to gain civil rights. During their time with Bland, they went on a tour of Selma and had the opportunity to give back to the com-munity.

Sarah Tweedale, a se-nior at Eau Claire, has been a trip coordinator for the Civil Rights Pilgrim-age since 2009. “(Bland) is an incredible person with a lot of spunk and a lot of sass, and she takes no nonsense,” Tweedale said. “She’s really good at mak-ing a call to action, like, ‘I did this for my grandchil-dren, what are you going to do for your grandchil-dren?’”

Jordan Kitch, a junior and organizational com-munications major, also met Bland on the trip.

”(Bland) is very pas-sionate about everything she does, and that is re-ally clear when she talks to you,” Kitch said. “She’s a little intimidating initially,

but really she’s just very passionate.”

Bland’s involvement in the civil rights movement began when she was very young. She was involved in various protests that began peacefully, such as Bloody Sunday and Turn Around Tuesday. Unfor-tunately, the protests often ended with violence from the authorities. According to a university press re-lease, Bland is the young-est person to have been jailed in any of these dem-onstrations. She was put in jail when she was only 11 years old.

“I’m guessing she’ll talk a lot about the civil rights movement and what hap-pened in her town spe-cifically,” Kitch said. “She spoke to us a lot about what we can still be do-ing today, so I’m guessing she’ll probably focus on that.”

Tweedale has some ad-vice for those planning on going to the speech.

“Come early,” Tweedale said, “because I think a lot of people will be attend-ing.”

Bland will also be in Eau Claire on Friday, Jan. 27. She will meet with stu-dents from a Eau Claire women’s studies course and will give another lec-ture at North High School.

Eric Christenson/The Spectator

Carolyn Tiry/The SpectatorJoanne Bland and her sister, Lynda Blackmon-Lowery, told their stories of the “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Ala., to UW-Eau Claire students on the Civil Rights Pilgrimage.

“(Bland) is

an incredible

person with a

lot of spunk

and a lot of

sass, and

she takes no

nonsense.”

Sarah Tweedale Senior

By Tyler HartSTAFF WRITER

“People around the state are realizing

that these things that they might not

have cared about have real effects on

the people they care about.”

PAYDON MILLERSenior

SportSThursday, January 26, 2012 • 5Awww.spectatornews.comSports Editor: Frank F. Pellegrino

Sigrist

Blugold of the WeekTony Sigrist, senior

Track and Field

Sigrist helped lead the Track and Field team to a second place finish at the UW-Stevens Point

Tringalar last weekend. Following a fifth place finish in the shot put, he had a dominating first

place finish in the weight throw. His toss of 19.69-meters was just shy of the 19.83-meter

school record, and has him ranked him no. 1 in the country for that event.

Stat of the WeekMen’s Hockey:Outshot 25-17

Despite being outshot by such a wide margin against

UW-Superior, the team never trailed on their way to a 3-1 victory last Friday.

This was due in large part to junior Brandon Stephenson’s

24 saves.

What’s on deck ...

Men’s basketball takes down Superior‘Golds improve to 13-6; will face no. 2 team next

The UW-Eau Claire men’s bas-ketball team completed a three game home stand last night with their third straight victory as the team beat the UW-Superior Yel-lowjackets 69-55 in Zorn Arena. The win brings Eau Claire to 13-6 overall and 5-5 in Wisconsin Inter-collegiate Athletic Conference play.

Despite shooting 25 percent from the field in the first ten min-utes of play, along with 6’9” center James Pfitzinger not being able to suit up, the Blu-golds won thanks to two big mo-mentum swings at the end of the first half and ear-ly in the second half.

Eau Claire led in almost every major statistical category includ-ing shooting percentage, three-point shooting percentage, assists and steals.

The Yellowjackets only shot 39 percent while the Blugolds shot 49 percent from the floor, a large part

of their success.Freshman guard Alex Anderson

led the charge in the first half rally by scoring four points, including a three-pointer that got the crowd into the game, and sent the team into the locker room leading by a score of 34-27. Anderson played just 14 minutes, but had nine points on seven shot attempts. He said that he really felt comfortable out there with his shots.

“It’s about confidence, it’s in the flow of the game. You see a shot and you don’t want to hesitate,” Anderson said.

Although the Blugolds did win by 14 points, their sluggish start may be an issue as the team goes forward toward the end of the year tournament. However, first year coach Kyle Green doesn’t think it will become a pattern.

“In the first half we settled for too many threes” Green said. “At halftime we talked about just get-ting to the rim, still take some threes, but get to the rim first and create those opportunities. I think it paid off.”

Junior guard Jordan Petersen led the Blugolds in scoring with 14 points, including 12 points in the first half. Junior forward Nick

Craggs was the only other Blugold to score in double figures with 13 points.

The bench play was a big fac-tor in the game. The Eau Claire bench outscored Superior’s bench

24-10. Nine play-ers scored at least four points in the win, something that coach Green thinks is essential going forward.

“The success of this team is go-ing come as a team ... we don’t have a guy that is neces-

sarily an all-conference player, but as a team, we can be an all-confer-ence team,” Green said.

Seven-foot UW-Superior center Bronson Byrne led the Yellowjack-ets in scoring with 14. The Blugolds fouled Byrne often in the game, which ended up being a blessing in disguise. Byrne went 2-9 from the free throw, and the team as a whole shot 7-17.

The Blugolds will travel to UW-Whitewater on Saturday to take on the conference-leading Warhawks, who are 17-2 overall and 8-2 in WIAC play.

By David HeilingSTAFF WRITER

Anderson

Green

CAL MCNEIL/The SpectatorFreshman Lewis Mau dribbles around a UW-Superior defender during Wednesday’s game at Zorn Arena.

ELIZABETH JACKSON/The SpectatorJunior Leah Rempert takes the ball up court in Saturday’s game against UW-La Crosse. Eau Claire was tied with the Eagles at halftime, but out-scored them by 13 points in the second half on their way to victory.

Women’s basketball adds to winning streak; now 16-3Blugolds take down UW-La Crosse over weekend; bests UW-Superior in Wednesday night game

The UW-Eau Claire women’s basketball team continued their winning ways on Saturday, beat-ing the UW-La Crosse Eagles 49-36 in Zorn Arena. The Blugolds are currently riding a four game winning streak and are in first place in WIAC conference play.

Neither team shot the ball particularly well, with Eau Claire shooting about 35 percent and La Crosse shooting just under 30 percent. The team hadn’t played since Jan. 14, but senior guard Nicole Christianson said she didn’t think that was a result of the team being rusty. “They just weren’t falling for us, and we found other ways to score,” Christianson said.

Eau Claire started the game off slow and had eight first half

turnovers, which led to a 22-22 tie game at halftime. Coach Tonja Englund said the slow start could be attributed to rust, but doesn’t think that tells the whole story.

“With five seniors, I don’t think you want to necessarily make that ex-cuse,” Englund said. “If we struggle a little bit with our shooting, then sometimes we compound it and make it harder than it really needs to be.”

Christianson was 2-11 shoot-ing on the day, and said she tried to find other ways to help the team. “I try to keep shooting, because I don’t want to give up on that, but I also find other ways

to get other people involved,” Christianson said. Christianson finished with eight points, four assists and four steals in 38 min-

utes of play. Senior for-

ward Callie Hal-ama led the Blu-golds in scoring with 14 points and eight re-bounds. Halama said she was able to exploit her size advantage on the offen-

sive end, while having to guard a smaller, quicker player on the de-fensive end. “It goes both ways,” Halama said.

Coach Englund said she thought the team’s free throw shooting was a big key to their success.

By Spenser BickettCHIEF COPY EDITOR

HalamaEnglund

See HOOPS, page 6A

Major League Baseball fans were hit with some pretty big news this week that came in surprising fashion.

Prince Fielder, the 27-year-old dough-filled

power-hitting first base-man, signed the mega deal his agent claimed he would all along. The nine-year contract worth $214 mil-lion wasn’t the only un-foreseen part; it was the fact that it was with the Detroit Tigers.

After all the specula-tion, it didn’t end up being the Washington Nation-als, the Texas Rangers, the Seattle Mariners or — the most-depressing rumor to Brewers fans — the

Chicago Cubs.After finally hear-

ing which team ended up snagging him, and how much it ended up costing them, I could not decide which piece of information was most shocking to me.

I’ll admit that I was one of the few Brewers fans clinging

to hope that Prince would sign a pricey one-year deal with the Brewers if the free agent market contin-ued to sputter. Maybe that was irrational, but until he was officially gone, I wasn’t willing to completely ac-cept it.

Now that I see how much was actually on the table for him, I real-ize that this was a pipe dream at best.

By Frank F. PellegrinoSPORTS EDITOR

See PRINCE, page 6A

Brewers fans should be grateful for the time they had with Fielder

Track teams off to fast startWomen take first place at meet; men finish second

Both the men’s and wom-en’s indoor track and field teams opened their seasons on Saturday at the UW-Stevens Point Triangular. Compet-ing against the Blugolds were teams from UW-Platteville, UW-Stevens Point and Car-thage College. The men’s team took second overall with 103 points. The women’s team was more successful, edging out the Pointers by 4.5 points to claim the meet title with 130.5 points overall.

WomenThe Blugold Women

claimed their first victory Sat-urday, getting a strong perfor-mance from Talisa Emberts,

among many others. The senior from Sussex-Hamilton took first place in the 400-me-ter race.

Senior Kim Miresse, last year’s conference champion in

the 100-me-ter hurdles, t h o u g h t the team performed very well c o n s i d e r -ing it was the first real meet of the year.

“ W e have really high goals and ex-pectations for this season,” Miresse said. “So we were definitely expecting to win the meet.”

Several Blugolds finished

first in their events, includ-ing sophomore Jami Riley in the 800-meter run; fresh-man Lucy Ramquist in the 3000-meter run, and senior Julia Baranek in both the high and long jump. Senior Britta-ny Frederick also placed first, with her throw of almost 40 feet in the shot put.

Sophomore Shaina Weath-erhead set a personal record in the 3000 meter run, besting her old mark by four seconds. She took third place overall in the event, and was only out-done by fellow Blugolds.

Weatherhead said she be-lieves they have the talent to make some noise both in the conference and national levels this year.

By Brian RobertsSTAFF WRITER

Miresse

See TRACK, page 6A

Blugold sporting events on campus this week:

FridayMen’s Hockey vs UW-Stevens Point

7 p.m. @ Hobbs Ice Arena

SaturdayMen and Women’s Swim and Dive

vs UW-Whitewater1 p.m. @ McPhee

SportSwww.spectatornews.com Sports Editor: Frank F. Pellegrino6A • Thursday, January 26, 2012

SPRING ‘12

RESIDENT ASSISTANT

APPLICATION FOR FALL 2012

Applications Due:

Applications Available:

Meetings:

Monday, January 30, 2012 by 4:30 pm

To RASelection@uwec.edu

Monday, December 12, 2011 - Monday, January 30, 2012

Online at www.uwec.edu/housing

Tuesday, January 24

9:00 p.m. General Information Meeting

- Towers Commons (1st Floor)

9:30 p.m. RA Informational Fair

- Towers Commons (1st Floor)

- Representatives of each hall will be available at this time

- Information and answers to individual circumstances

“We want to win confer-ence, that’s the goal,” Weath-erhead said. “We want to send a lot of people to nationals. We are aiming high and I defi-nitely think we can get there.”

MenThe men’s team expe-

rienced success in Stevens Point but was unable to claim an overall victory. The team’s second place finish was high-lighted by dominant perfor-mances in both the 400-meter dash and the throwing events.

Freshman Cody Prince came close to history, missing the indoor school record by .51 seconds in the open 400. His time of 49.75 edged out sophomore Jacob Dennis-Oehling and Carthage’s Aryan Avant, who both had identical times of 50.13. Close be-hind were freshman Thurgood Dennis and senior Marty Richardson, who helped secure four of the top five spots for Eau Claire.

The throwers performed well during the meet. Senior Joe Lilek grabbed a first place finish in shot put, throwing more than 50 feet. Fellow senior Tony Sigrist placed 5th in shot after his throw of 47 feet 9 inches. Sigrist added a dominating weight throw of 19.69 meters, a

mark that ranks him number one nationally.

In other events, senior Bart Mestelle placed third in high jump at 6 feet 2 inches. Soph-omore Tony Floyd snagged a second place finish in the 60-meter hurdles after run-ning a time of 8.63 seconds. In the 4x4 relay, seniors Mitch Sebranek and Richardson, ju-nior Jeff Marmar, and Den-nis-Oehling finished two sec-onds behind first place with a time of 3:24.40.

“I think we did really well, we had some seniors who did very well in their events,” junior Patrick Swan-son said. “A lot of the fresh-man guys stepped up big time

and ran some really good races.”

Chip Schneider, coach of both the men’s and women’s teams, said the expec-tations are high for the season.

“I think both men’s and women’s teams have some lofty goals for both conference and nationals,” he said.

“Obviously it is early in the season and much can and will happen. However the right people are in place to have outstanding years.”

The track and field teams continue their indoor seasons next Saturday when they trav-el to UW-Stout to compete in the Warren Bowlus Open.

Eau Claire shot 15-17 from the free throw line, while La Crosse was 6-17.

“That was a game-changer,” En-glund said. “On a positive note, that’s the best that we’ve shot from the line probably all year.”

Eau Claire had a key 15-0 run in the second half that opened up a 13 point lead that helped them secure the victo-ry. Englund said the team’s switch to a zone defense in the second half forced La Crosse to take more outside shots.

“That helped us make that run be-cause we could rest a little bit more on

within that zone, and also protected Ellen (Plendl), because she was in foul trouble,” Englund said.

A little over 1,000 people attend-ed the game, which created a high-energy atmosphere, said Englund. “We loved having a big crowd to-day, and it’s only going to get better now that the students are returning,” Englund said.

Englund said the team’s success can be attributed to their focus on themselves, and not on other teams.

“This is such a tough league,” Englund said. “You have to spend more time on improving rather than

worrying about what everyone else is doing.”

UPDATE: The women’s basket-ball team traveled to UW-Superior Wednesday night, and earned a 61-56 comeback victory. After trailing at halftime 34-27, it wasn’t until the 5:18 minute mark of the second half be-fore they regained the lead.

Two Blugolds earned double-dou-bles in the game. Halama lead the way with 18 points and 10 rebounds. El-len Plendl added 15 points and 16 re-bounds. Eau Claire is now 16-3 overall and 9-1 in conference play.

I couldn’t help but ask myself, as a fan of the Brewers, how should I feel about Prince’s de-parture? Should I be bit-ter like many others seem to be?

For starters, let’s think about everything Prince actually did for the organi-zation. Growing up a huge baseball fan, and someone who vividly remembers an empty County Stadium and multiple 100-loss sea-sons, it is impossible for me to forget where the Brewers were less than a decade ago.

Prior to Prince being called up, the statistic I always remembered from the team I followed most came in 2001. That year, the offense broke the record for most strike-outs in a season. That all started to change once Prince was called up. He made a brief appearance

in 2005, but 2006 was his first full season with the Brewers.

Since then the team reached the playoffs twice, including last season’s Central Division title and run at the NL Pennant. Screw the division title, I can’t even tell you how ec-static that first playoff ap-pearance made me. I kid you not, I literally wasn’t sure I’d ever see the day.

Regardless of where you think the credit should be dispersed for this success, I think you’d be hard-pressed to argue that Fielder’s contribution was less significant than anyone else’s.

I’m truly happy for the guy who came through the farm system as a high-ly touted prospect, and more than exceeded any-one’s wildest expectations. How often do over-hyped players end up missing

the mark?He rarely missed

games and was always a true competitor, so he de-serves the gigantic payday that he earned.

And don’t give me that ‘how much money does he need?’ line. The Brewers offered him 6-years and $120 million, almost $100 million less than what he got. That’s not Monopoly

money. How can you ex-pect a guy to pass up the opportunity to know his entire family can live com-fortably forever?

There is no replacing Prince, but I think the Brewers made enough acquisitions in the off-season to make a run at the NL Central title again next year. For those Brew-ers fans who remain bit-ter about Fielder leaving, their blame should be di-rected towards MLB for their lack of a salary cap, not at Prince.

We should be grateful for the time we did have to watch the guy on a nightly basis. It sure beats 2001’s record-setting campaign.

TRACK from page 5A

Men’s team has strong performances in 400-meters, throwing events

HOOPS from page 5A

Schneider

Blugolds improve to 9-1 in WIAC

PRINCE from page 5A Brewers fans should be grateful for time with Fielder

/MCT

Pellegrino is a senior print jour-nalism major and Sports Editor of The Spectator. ‘Let me be Frank’ is a weekly column.

CurrentsThursday, January 26, 2012 • 1Bwww.spectatornews.comCurrents Editor: Katie Hoffman

“2012 GRAMMY Nominees”Various Artists

“Emotional Traffic”Tim McGraw

“Human Again (Deluxe Edition)”

Ingrid Michaelson

“Paranormal Activity 3”

“50/50”

“Meet the Browns: Season 4”

“Revenge of the Electric Car”

“Man on a Ledge”Starring: Sam Worthing-ton, Elizabeth Banks, Ed HarrisPlot: After he is framed for the theft of a rare diamond, Nick Cassidy (Worthing-ton) makes a life-threatening move to prove his innocence.Release date: Jan. 27

“one for the Money”Starring: Katherine Hei-gl, Jason O’Mara, Sherri ShepardPlot: Desperate for some fast cash, Stephanie Plum (Heigl) turns to her last re-sort: convincing her sleazy cousin to give her a job as a recovery agent at his bail bonding company.Release date: Jan. 27

“the grey”Starring: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, James Badge DalePlot: An unlikely hero (Neeson) leads a group of rough guys home after their plane crashes in the remote Alaskan wilderness.Release date: Jan. 27

The beginning of the semes-ter is upon us and unfortunately Mother Nature has finally decided to drop real Wisconsin weather as we come out of our month-long hibernation and back to our busy schedules. After an unusually warm November and December icy sidewalks, frigid temperatures, and gusty winds are filling the forecast, forcing us to add more layers to our daily outfits.

Instead of sticking to the ubiq-uitous UGG boots, sweatpants/sweatshirts and North Face jack-ets, take into consideration the following tips and statement piec-es of winter clothes and acces-sories to make your outfit more unique, fashionable and most importantly, warm.

Bold Outerwear:Military inspired jackets, tog-

gle and pea coats, parkas, puffer jackets with fur-lined hoods and faux fur jackets are still going strong in numerous major de-signer collections. These are great alternatives to the standard North Face and Columbia coats that can be similar in price and just as warm.

College is a great time to slowly update your wardrobe to a more professional one. Pea coats, toggle coats and military jackets are great investment piec-es for both men and women and will last you far past your col-lege career. These options, along with blazers and suit jackets, will give you a wide range of clothes that will be appropriate for any professional situation.

TIP: Business is slow in the retail industry after the holiday season and spring collections are replacing the fall and winter col-lections, so check the sale racks in-store and online for great deals on coats and jackets and stock up while they are cheap!

Sturdy Boots:The debate over UGG boots

and whether they are stylish and sensible for winter has been fought for years. It is almost im-possible to walk through cam-pus and not spot the clunky, tan sheepskin boots with jeans or sweatpants tucked in.

Luckily for you, I have great footwear ideas to help you breakout

from the go-to winter boots. Leather knee-high riding boots can be less ex-pensive than UGG boots and can be a great day to night alternative. Pair them with dark skinny jeans or jeg-gings and tall wool socks or warmer knit tights.

An option for both men and women are classic duck boots, or waterproof rubber and leather lace-ups. Men’s boots options are scarce, but these are fashionable and durable and will also keep your feet warm and dry.

TIP: If you cannot get over your UGG addiction, check out other models besides the classic suede that have more sturdy rub-ber outsoles and better traction, and try different fabrics such as leather and rubber.

Knitwear Accessories:Scarves, mittens and hats are

essential pieces for every per-son’s winter wardrobe to protect yourself from the harsh winter elements and can pull an entire outfit together. Knitwear acces-sories keep you warm while still bringing out more personality to the outfit of your choice. Fair isle and other rustic prints are great options for these accessories and thick, which will keep you warm.

Bursts of bold colors can also be paired with your favorite blue or black jacket to add contrast to your outfit. Fur (or faux fur) hats, earmuffs and mittens are sure to keep you warm and add great texture.

TIP: Thrift stores, cloth-ing stores that specifically make homemade knitwear and clothes and online sites such as Etsy.com, or learning to knit are all great options to help save money on knitwear accessories while still looking fashionable.

By Cal McNeilPHOTO EDITOR

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Being home and free from exams, quiz-zes, and projects was great, and laying around watching TV for four weeks was even bet-ter. But now, winter break is over and spring semester is heating up.

Have you ever said to yourself, “This is the semester that I’m going to (fill in the blank with a lofty goal)?” The Spectator is here to help you get focused, and accomplish your goals!

Follow these tips from fellow classmates and professionals, and soon enough you won’t even notice the depression of dark, early mornings and a bunch of new classes minus your friends.

ACADEMIC ADVICEJunior Kristina Matthas said she loves

the excitement of starting new classes. She prepares a few days ahead of time by going through her schedule, deciding how many folders and notebooks she needs, and then labels them with her new class titles.

However, Matthas is a rare breed among college students. Getting back into a routine is often difficult and takes a period of adjust-ment. The hard part about adjusting, though, is it can feel like an excuse to slack for the first couple of weeks.

Holly Hassemer, a math tutoring co-ordinator for the Academic Skills Center, said it is hard for students to start fresh every semester.

“I think the change of routine is really challenging for students,” Hassemer said. “They need to re-navigate all of the new classes and learn new professors.”

Hassemer, along with her colleagues at the ASC, help students with this transition-al period. Whether it be studying for a dif-ficult class, finding reading strategies or just improving a letter grade.

Among the top strategies for starting a new semester strong and staying motivated are time management, systematic studying and planning study vacations.

1. Time managementStaying organized is a huge component

to success, according to Hassemer. She said starting habits right away by dedicating time throughout the week puts students in a position to really succeed.

Amanda Richert, a senior organizational communication major, said new deadlines are the worst part of starting a new semester. She said she works to prevent procrastinating and causing herself stress.

“I love making lists and writing everything down, so I know exactly what I have to do,” Richert said. “Deadlines scare me.”

Going through syllabi and writing down important dates early in the semes-ter is the best way to approach deadlines, Hassemer said.

“Don’t look at the semester day by day, but rather as a long-term event,” Hassemer said.

2. Systematic studyingYou’ve been there, causally floating

through the semester without really much work to keep you busy. But then all of a sud-den, it hits you — that huge exam you have next week in the class that you always skip.

Hassemer said a great way to avoid being unprepared for an exam is to study over the course of the content, then studying more aggressively a week before the date.

“Even if students can spend as little as 15 minutes a day … each week, it will help them to be ready for exams and not feel like they missed other things due to studying,” Hasse-mer said.

Pulling an all-nighter right before an exam is not recommended by the staff in the ASC, although it’s common among students. With systematic studying, students can go to sleep early and arrive at their exam without being stressed the night before.

3. Study vacationsAlthough Richert plans ahead to avoid

falling behind, she said she still has trouble saying no when plans with friends come up.

“The procrastination comes in when my roommates are all watching a movie,

and I want to join them, even though I’ve scheduled everything out weeks ago,” Richert said. “Hanging with my friends always seems to take priority over work.”

Hassemer said she likes the idea of a study vacation — otherwise known as a break from studying and school stress for a night.

“They really need to be built in,” Has-semer said. “Its not realistic to study seven days a week. Plan ahead for events so you can enjoy them without the voice in the back of your head making you feel guilty.”

Freshman Christian Larson said it was dif-ficult adjusting to college life, but he has a better feeling going into his second semester.

“I put school first, get that done, and then I can enjoy myself later without feeling guilty,” Larson said. “I schedule in free time with my friends to try to avoid stress.”

A new semester is almost always over-whelming, but doesn’t have to be a cause of stress. Staying motivated throughout the up-coming 15 weeks is possible if you follow the tips above. However, Hassemer cautions try-ing to completely reinvent yourself.

“Take baby steps — don’t try to become a whole new person at the beginning of the semester,” Hassemer said. “Pick one or two areas to change and be proud of those things, no matter how small.”

“I think the change of routine is really challenging

for students. They need to re-navigate all of the

new classes and learn new professors.”

HOLLY HASSEMER Math Tutoring Coordinator

REALITY RESOURCES

Academic Skills Center Hours: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Location: Old Library 2112Contact: (715) 836-5844

Center for Writing Excellence

Hours: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.Location: McIntyre Library

2003AContact: (715) 836-2644

McIntyre Library Hours: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.Contact: (715) 836-3856

CheckThese Out!

GRAPHIC BY BRIAN MILLER/The Spectator

By Katie HoffmanCURRENTS EDITOR

The cutie that sits behind you in economics is looking for a study buddy. Looks like you have an absolute advantage over your class-mates.

Your “great” boyfriend is looking for a new girl to spend his nights in the li-brary with. Dump him, be-fore he does it first.

Remember to live in the moment and enjoy your last couple months of the col-lege experience.

It’s been a busy week of new classes and syllabi, and you deserve to have some fun! When a friend invites you out, don’t hesitate to accept — it will be worth it!

Take some time for your-self, especially Thursday and Friday. Get a fun, new haircut — your hot lab part-ner will be sure to notice.

A new opportunity will come along in the next few weeks and it will be better than anything you could’ve imagined.

You have a tough sched-ule this spring — life is all about school, exams and projects for you, and your social life is going to suffer.

You and your significant other are going through a rough patch right now, and the future seems uncertain, but stick it out and things will be better than ever.

Be brave this week and leave your comfort zone. Your significant other will be excited to see a differ-ent side, and it will improve your love life dramatically.

The hottie you’ve had your eye on since freshman year spotted you around campus yesterday. A reunion will create some serious sparks.

Winter break was nice, but it’s time to get back to reali-ty. Focus on working hard...money, love and good grades are in your future!

Winter has you down in the dumps, but a new friend will approach you soon about a fun spring break trip that will change your outlook.

Currentswww.spectatornews.comCurrents Editor: Katie Hoffman Thursday, January 26, 2012 • 2B

CABARET from page 1A

Rieck said the experience includes ev-erything from directing to choreographing the dance numbers. It is written every year by the students, with music faculty there for guidance.

“It’s amazing that all these people could come together,” Rieck said.

Each year, a main theme is chosen for the show. This year, it was Careers. The ca-reers ranged all the way from heel clicking cowboys to prim and proper social work-ers.

Each act included accompanying songs and dances. These musical numbers came in a wide range of styles. One minute audi-ence members were jamming to the pop princess herself, Britney Spears, or listen-ing to the electric guitar of Aerosmith’s “Dream On.”

According to the Cabaret website, the production staff consists of 10 student directors and 130 cast members. It takes a skillfully planned 10-month schedule to help keep everything on track.

“Cabaret is the largest production put on by the music department,” said Dr. Gary Schwartzhoff, director of choral ac-tivities.

The size of the cast can be one of the most challenging parts of the whole expe-rience, Schwartzhoff said. He added that it takes diligent work to make sure that each person knows what they are doing at all times.

“The hardest part, but most rewarding, is getting everyone on the same page,” said senior Mark Quamme, a member of The Singing Statesmen.

It takes a lot of patience and practice to put on each and every one of these per-

formances. During the show, the cast runs across the stage, arms expertly pointed and voices tuned to perfection.

“It is mentally and physically exhaust-ing,” said Elizabeth Sletten, a senior from Woman’s Concert Coral.

However, even though the show can be challenging at times, both Quamme and Sletten said they enjoy building relation-ships and making new friends.

Sletten said Cabaret is not just about dancing and singing — the show is about something more to many of the cast mem-bers. It is about creating bonds that will last a lifetime. And since many of the students do not get the chance to meet many of the other choir ensembles, Cabaret brings ev-eryone together.

“The biggest thing is getting to spend time with all the other groups,” Quamme said.

In addition to the various choirs per-forming, one of the highlights for an audi-ence member was the live music.

“It was great and I was impressed with the live orchestra,” said freshman Ashley Redfern.

Cabaret also lends a hand in collecting scholarship money for the students. Rieck said the ticket sales and generous donors are to thank for this wonderful opportu-nity.

In true Cabaret tradition, the show end-ed with all cast members lining the stage and the outer rim of the room while sing-ing, “We Are Family.”

Sletten and Quamme were right — Cabaret is not just about the singing and dancing. It is about something more.

Something like community.

CAL MCNEIL/The SpectatorSenior Mark Quamme grabs the attention of The Singing Statesmen while singing the song “Day-O” at the Jan. 21 performance of “Cabaret XXXIV: Careers.”

Stick it to the man, my dad always told me.

And you can bet I stuck it to the man – I stuck those colorful, translucent pegs right into my Lite-Brite and made art so beautiful that Andy Warhol rolled over in his grave.

OK, so maybe at six years old I wasn’t a Warhol. But I was certainly entertained by my Lite-Brite — you remember those, right?

Refresher: Lite-Brites were first created by Hasbro in the late 1960s. It consisted of a medium-sized light box and an over-laying piece filled with aligned holes.

You placed a piece of black paper over the sheet of holes and poked in these little pegs in green, blue, red, yellow, orange, pink, purple and clear. Then you created scenes, words, shapes, whatever you want-ed — then you turned the light box on and BAM! Beautiful art.

Over the years, Lite-Brites became sealed into childhood toy culture. The

biggest honor was when Time magazine ranked it in the top 100 toys of all-time.

Whatever happened to Lite-Brites, any-way?

Good news — they’re not even close to being gone. They’re still around and pretty much the same as they were in the 1960s, with a few added perks: they’re now flat-panel (and only 10 bucks!) and there is a 4-sided cube version as well.

They come in different colors and even shapes like seahorses or butterflies. You can log on to Hasbro’s website and even make templates and buy replacement pegs for your pretty panels.

Not into hours of precision placement and design, or dealing with the conse-quences of stepping on a rogue pointy peg? There’s an app for that … and it’s ready for iPhone users with a passion for nostalgia and 99 cents.

About 45 years have passed since the first panels were illuminated. What will happen in another 45 years, you think?

I’ll answer when I finish sticking it to the man.

By Emily GresbrinkNEWS EDITOR

Show is music department’s largest production

Lite-BriteBy HASBRO

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Let me begin by stating the obvious: the Internet is absolutely fantastic. It has opened up count-less forms of self-expression, communication, entertainment and resources for the world.

On the other hand, it’s a curse. There are as many loopholes and legal fiascos as there are joyous cat pictures. It’s a minefield under-neath the biggest and best play-ground in the world, as I like to think of it.

As many of you know, the cen-sorship of the Internet was chal-lenged with SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). The Internet blew up into a rage-fit, blacking out major sites such as Wikipedia, WordPress and The Oatmeal (anything but that, Lord, please!) in protest.

But guess what? Senators and supporters flipped the switch on the blackout and the bills im-mediately were put on hold for the time being. That means the Internet community is not only

highly entertaining and a great resource, but super effective as a mass protest figure!

Anyway, a day or so after the bills were sedated, Megaupload was shut down.

Megaupload is — excuse me, was — a rather large download-ing, torrent and viewing site for videos and music; its most famous offshoot is probably Megavideo, a website you could stream hard-to-find film noir or the episode of “Bones” you missed last week.

However, you had the option to download the content and that’s what got it shut down. Intellectual property was being illegally shared and pirated, in fancier terms.

I do not think Megaupload should have been shut down. There is absolutely nothing wrong with watching (not downloading) videos online. You’re not stealing anything by just watching it: Try-ing something on at the store and leaving it there is much differ-ent than stuffing the clothes into

your pack and walking away.Here’s the other side of

Megaupload’s mega shutdown: While it is super inconvenient for me (as Oscar season is nigh), I’m glad it was shut down — the content you should be sharing and downloading needs to be le-gally authorized to be shared. The punishment is necessary to set an example. Illegal downloading is (guess what?) illegal.

In a way, the shutdown is good for Internet users as a protec-tive measure that I agree with. Megaupload kind of had it com-ing, since it was stolen content. By shutting it down, we can’t down-load things and get into boatloads of trouble.

Here at UW-Eau Claire we have pretty strict illegal down-loading policies. According to the fabulous blue planners available in Towers Hall, you can lose your Internet access for an entire se-mester with enough offenses, not including the sky-high fines for

downloading the newest Selena Gomez song (because you know you love it!).

What if you stumbled into a Megavideo download and thought you could get away with it, then had to pay a fine three times your tuition? Yucky.

Maybe allowing Megavideo to turn into a MPAA/RIAA-friendly site would have been better than ambushing it. For our personal use, when credit is given, consent shared and nothing is download-ed, I do not think it’s wrong to utilize filesharing.

I won’t keep you here forever,

but do this for me: Be careful on the Internet playground.

I want you to reblog all the hilarious images you want, but keep the sources linked. I want you to watch all the videos you can, but watch the legal ones only from official accounts or ones that give full credit. Avoid those hidden landmines of downloads and torrents.

Nobody likes the Internet when it costs more than what you’ve got.

OpiniOnThursday, January 26, 2012 • 3BOp/Ed Editor: Eric Christenson

Carolyn Tiry Editor-in-ChiefDebora Biasutti Managing Editor

Eric Christenson Op/Ed EditorEmily Gresbrink News EditorHaley Zblewski News Editor

Taylor Kuether Chief Copy EditorSpenser Bickett Chief Copy Editor

Frank F. Pellegrino Sports EditorKatie Hoffman Currents Editor

Cal McNeil Photo EditorMax Grones Online Editor

Camille Gerstenhaber Multimedia Editor

Brian Miller Graphic DesignerAnna Soldner Copy EditorChris Reinoos Copy EditorEmily Albrent Copy EditorDavid Heiling Staff WriterTyler Hart Staff WriterTuesday Wustrack Staff WriterBrian Roberts Staff WriterAlex Zank Staff WriterElizabeth Jackson Staff Photographer

The Spectator is written and edited by students of UW-Eau Claire and they are solely responsible for its editorial policy and content.

Editorials in The Spectator reflect the majority opinion of the editorial board and are written by the Op/Ed editor. The editorial board is generally comprised of the editor in chief, managing editor, Currents editor, chief copy editors, news editors, sports editors, but may include other members of the editorial staff. Columns, cartoons and letters are the opinion of the author/artist and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board.

Students, faculty and staff members are invited to write letters to the editor to express their views on public issues and other matters of concern or to respond to editorials or other opinions in the newspaper. Letter writers are not allowed to respond to attacks on their letters. Letters should be typed or written legibly and include a name with signature, address and phone number. Students should include their year in school and major. The Spectator reserves the right to edit, shorten or withhold letters. Letters should be 300 words or fewer. Letters will be published in their entirety online. Email letters to spectator@uwec.edu.

For more information about The Spectator contact Carolyn Tiry by phone or email. Faculty adviser Michael Dorsher can be contacted at (715) 836-5729 or mdorsher@uwec.edu.

THE SPECTATOR

www.spectatornews.com

By Eric ChristensonOP/ED EDITOR

The Axis of Brilliance was a graphic ranking of everything awful and brilliant this week from here to infinity.And now it’s back.

The old building that used to be a Burger King on Madison St. was torn

down, which is good because it was kind of an eyesore.

My biggest discrepancy now is: Can we put a 5 Guys there?

Sure, President Obama has a lot on his plate.

And yeah, we could talk about how he

should fix the economy and create jobs or

whatever, but OH MY, did you hear him sing

Al Green? Is there a way he can sing to me while I try to fall

asleep? Or sing for North Korea? What I’m suggesting is he could probably solve world problems with

that silky voice of his.

Google+ hit 90 million users. Congrats Google! I’m assum-ing that’s 90 million cats that look at the computer screens of owners who had signed up for Google+ and accidentally

left the tab up.

Remember when they let a komodo dragon wear a terrible scarf

and sing the national anthem at the

Patriots/Ravens AFC Championship game?

What an adventure!

Scott Walker turned down $37 million for health care funding for Wisconsin. What a hero.

AWFUL BRILLIANT

I am going to assume that most of you do not know me. My name is Ben Krall, and I work for the Student Senate as the Information Technolo-gy Commission and serve the student body as a senator.

On Dec. 14, 2011, a member of the student body sent out an email to many staff and administrators, as well as to the members of the Student Senate. I wanted to take this oppor-tunity to respond to a few things and try and clear the air.

First off, some background on what Student Senate is: Wisconsin state statute 36.09.5 allows for stu-dent governments to “formulate and review polices concerning student life, services, and interests.” This lan-guage has been interpreted as allow-ing students to have the say in how a large chunk of their tuition and fee dollars are spent.

In Eau Claire, the Student Sen-ate has control of approximately $14 million.

The author of the letter states that the Student Senate has nothing better to do than to try and make lives mis-erable. Not only is this insulting, it is patently untrue.

Senate does its absolute best to try to allocate the funds of which it has oversight on to the programs that most benefit students. However, the money is not unlimited and hard choices have to be made. Not every program is funded.

This is where the outreach pro-gram within Student Senate comes into play.

Our job is to try to gauge the stu-dent’s feelings towards programs. Then, senators will vote on a pro-gram using that information, along with any other pertinent data from administration, staff, faculty and oth-er sources.

Every senator makes an individual choice on how to vote, and they do so by asking what they believe is in the best interest of the students, who are, after all, the people we represent.

Now, I won’t make any claim that we are perfect. We do need to make significant changes in how we reach out to students. However, Senate

is a group of 32 students and, un-fortunately, does not have the abil-ity to speak to many students for every vote.

Most senators are volunteers who do not get paid at all, yet sacrifice up to 10 hours a week trying to better the university. It is frankly impossible to gauge the student body’s feelings on every issue.

Instead, we hope that we can come to a compromise. The Senate will continue to work towards informing and listening to the student body, but we need ideas about how to get your feelings.

I encourage each and every one of you who wishes to see UW-Eau Claire continue to excel into the fu-ture to contact myself, or any other member of the Student Senate. We love to hear from the student body as much as possible, and want to be held accountable to the student body as a whole.

There are three specific ways you can contact us:

1. Attend a meeting. Student Sen-ate meets every Monday at 6 p.m. in Davies Center. We have time allotted for every meeting for what is known as “open forum,” where any person from campus can speak to us directly.

2. Contact any of us via email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Visit our webpage (http://bit.ly/ysb2Q0) to find our emails, or search Facebook or Twitter and talk to us.

3. Come into our office. There are almost always a few senators in our office (Davies 132) and we love see-ing students come in and talk to us about issues.

Let us promise that we will work together. The Student Senate will continue to work towards expand-ing and improving our outreach, and I hope that every person who reads this will take the opportunity to contact us.

We all share the mutual goal of making Eau Claire a better university, and working together is the first step toward doing that.

Let’s work together

Megaupload’s mega shutdown

By BEN KRALL

A response to Student Senate

criticisms

The media sharing website’s close was pointless and too protective

Krall is a senior political science and history ma-jor and is a freelancer for The Spectator.

Gresbrink is a junior journalism major and is a News Editor for The Spectator.

Congratulations America. We officially live in a country where “Puss in Boots” is an Academy Award- nominated movie.

We all must love S*** ____ Say videos too much. They’re fine, but now they’re every-where! “Please stop?” -S*** Timid Haters Say

By EMILY GRESBRINK

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

The Editorial Board discusses the pros and cons of incorporating SMART Boards into elementary classrooms.

STAFF EDITORIAL:ONLINE THIS WEEK @ spectatornews.com

Editorial4B • Thursday, January 26, 2012 Op/Ed Editor: Eric Christenson

Let me be the first to say that I feel awful about contributing to the massive media coverage devoted to the Wisconsin recall efforts.

I hate it when topics get beaten into the ground relentlessly by the media, but I think this column will be a little bit different; it’s different because my po-sition is anti-recall, and at least tentatively, pro-Scott Walker.

You read that right: pro-Walker and anti-recall. Let me explain myself.

I’ll be the first to say that my political views tend to skew liberal. I voted a straight democratic ticket in 2008 and 2010, but both times I was underinformed on the is-sues. I simply followed what I thought my political views were. But the past year and a half has made me reexamine my views, and I’m surprised by what I’ve found.

When Walker was campaigning, it was evident that Wisconsin’s budget was go-ing to have a shortfall of about $2.7 billion when he took over. He said he would ac-count for this by cutting spending, specifi-cally by reducing state employees’ wages and benefits to help pay for his tax cuts to-wards businesses that would help promote job growth.

He then won the election, and did ex-actly what he said he was going to do. Nat-urally, people acted like this came out of left field and were shocked that he would do these things.

At first, I was with everyone else who opposed Walker’s cuts to the University of Wisconsin. I participated in the walk-out from classes last spring, and thought I understood the issues at hand. However, once I looked into the subject, I started to see the other side of the issue and the rea-soning behind Walker’s actions.

I’ll admit, it stinks that teachers are go-ing to get paid less and get less benefits, but at least they get to keep their jobs.

Walker faced a tough decision when he took office. He could either cut jobs and keep some people happy, or he could cut wages and keep people employed.

He made an unpopular decision, but he stuck by it the whole time. Like dads everywhere would say, “the right thing to do and the easy thing to do are rarely the same thing.”

There was no easy way out in this situa-tion, but it’s my opinion that allowing peo-ple to keep their jobs was the right thing to do.

Walker’s supported budget cuts resulted in a recall movement by those that op-posed him.

Recall workers needed to collect 540,208 signatures, which is 25 percent of the to-tal votes in the last gubernatorial election. There was also a time limit of 60 days to collect these signatures. The recall started on Nov. 15, and wrapped up on Jan. 13.

According to a Dec. 16 article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette, supporters col-lected over half a million signatures in little over a month.

According to a Jan. 17 article in the Huffington Post, recall efforts produced over a million signatures. But an As-sociated Press article from Jan. 20 says organizers said they turned in almost 1.9 million signatures, which is almost equal to the 2.1 million votes cast in the gubernatorial election.

When the recall started, I knew right away that I didn’t support it or the thinking behind it.

To me, it looked like people were whin-ing about the way things were, and this was their way to try and change it. I just don’t understand recalling someone for doing exactly what he or she said they were going to do.

I understand if people had tried to re-call Walker for doing something terrible, or not doing what he said he was going to do, but he’s sticking to his word.

Where were all these people on Elec-tion Day, when they could have kept Walk-er from taking office in the first place?

The recall and the anti-Walker senti-ments in Wisconsin are a good example of political participation, which is all well and good. I have nothing against political participation, which is a key component of a successful democracy, but people need to look at the different sides of an issue before making a decision and simply fol-lowing the crowd, as I did at the beginning of all this.

Just because everyone is behind some-thing doesn’t make it right or correct.

I know of a place, a wonderful place, where any person can go to be alone with their thoughts regard-less of who they are or what they believe in.

It’s no place out of the ordinary. There are no fields of green or skies of blue. No golden sunsets or end-less beaches. Just four walls and a modest white throne. We’ve all been there before: The Bathroom Stall.

You see, The Stall is a place of freedom, a place of release (both physical and emotional). The bathroom boasts one of the strict-est and most well-enforced sets of unwritten rules we as Americans have to offer. Who dares disturb the user of such a place? The Stall is a mountain in the sea, a slice of stability.

You may be asking yourself, “Why does this guy like bathroom stalls so much? Is he some kind of pervert?” In reply, I would say to you, “Look around you, friend, and tell me what you see. There’s life. There’s emotion. There’s graffiti.”

Now you may be asking,

“What makes bathroom stall graffiti so great?”

Well, it’s great because of where it comes from. We spend our days hold-ing doors for strangers and exchanging pleasantries with barely-acquaintances. These actions and reactions come from the outside of ourselves, from what we have learned we must do as a part of the social ma-chine. But bathroom graf-fiti is something different.

It comes from deep in-side us because we know that no person will ever know the true identity of the artist responsible for each masterpiece. It is a way to express one’s tru-est feelings to hundreds of people without the slightest chance of being exposed.

Bathroom art may be beautiful or ugly, well-researched or ignorant. It may be created out of love or out of spite. Many peo-ple are offended by what they read on the walls, and some even take the initia-tive to respond to some brave individual’s bold re-mark. To me, this reaction is pure beauty.

The Stall forces us to ask ourselves things like, “Do I agree with that state-ment? Why am I offended by what I’m viewing? Do I feel strongly enough about this statement to respond, or to prevent myself from responding?”

There is a raw truth in both the message and the response, and that truth is not something that should be covered up.

The money spent con-cealing bathroom graffiti may not be a particularly significant amount, but it is money that doesn’t need to be spent.

We could all use a little time alone with our truths or, at the very least, a little entertainment. This whole idea may seem a bit ri-diculous, but it deserves a moment of consideration.

So next time you find yourself offended or en-tertained by some strang-er’s baring of their soul, go ahead and think about why you feel that way. And please, don’t forget to flush.

By SPENSER BICKETT

By TYLER HART

Bickett is a senior journalism major and a Chief Copy Editor of The Spectator.

Hart is a sophomore English major and a Staff Writer for The Spectator.

A Walker turnaroundDuring anti-Scott Walker recall efforts, columnist has a change of heart

Bathroom stall graffiti opens unique dis-course between patrons, is beautiful

Thinking inside the box

COLLEGE EXCELLENCE AWARDS

UNIVERSITY-WIDE EXCELLENCE AWARDS

SPECIAL CATEGORY AWARDS

T O N O M I N A T E S T U D E N T S

WWW.UWEC.EDU/ACTIVITIES/LEADERSHIP/AWARDS.HTM

ALL NOMINATIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL AWARDS ARE DUE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2012. ORGANIZATION APPLICATIONS AND ORGANIZATION ADVISOR NOMINATIONS ARE DUE FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012.

E X C E L L E N C EA W A R D S

2 0 1 2U N I V E R S I T Y

S T U D E N T

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www.spectatornews.comStudent Life6B • Thursday, January 26, 2012 Editor: Carolyn Tiry

A three-week sojourn in the Peruvian rainforest seems like an experience best left to explorers and outdoorsmen. But for two UW-Eau Claire honors students, that trip was how they spent their winter break.

Christine Manwiller, a junior bachelor of fine arts student with an emphasis in painting and draw-ing, and Shauna Stoeger, a senior double-majoring in psychology and Spanish, traveled to northern Peru to study the interaction of the local culture and the environment.

“I wanted to study abroad, so I’d already been looking for opportunities,” Manwiller said, “but going for a whole semes-ter wouldn’t have worked with my schedule and would have put me back.”

The programManwiller and Stoeger were

two of 12 honors students cho-sen nationally to participate in the Honors Amazon Winterim 2012 program, called “Living on the Edge of a Rainforest Frontier.” The program was organized by the National Collegiate Honors Council and the honors college at Florida International University.

The program was based in Iquitos, Peru, which is the larg-est city in the northern Peruvian rainforest. However, the group also spent part of their time at the Madre Selva Biological Station, 90 miles east of the city.

The station is run by Project Amazonas, a Peruvian-American non-profit organization that fo-cuses on humanitarian, educa-tional, research and conservation work in the Peruvian Amazon.

During the trip, the Manwiller and Stoeger enrolled in two three-credit courses — “Living Off the Rainforest: Biodiversity, Sus-tenance and Sustainability” and “Culture, Identity and the Envi-ronment in the Peruvian Ama-zon” — to learn about the local environment and culture and how they interact.

Each student was required to complete an independent study research project related to their major and each of the classes.

Devon Graham, president of Project Amazonas and professor at Florida International Univer-

sity, said that even though this was the inaugural year of the trip, the group had few problems and gelled immediately.

“It was pretty amazing,” he said. “By day two, it seemed as though everyone had gone to

kindergarten to-gether.”

Each of the students was generally left to complete their class projects on their own, Graham said, though he didn’t think that inhib-ited them at all.

“Even though it was indepen-dent study,” he said, “the students collaborated a lot, particularly in terms of translating. That was one of the really strong points of the program.”

Stoeger also thought the in-dependent study worked in the program’s favor.

“The independent study re-ally helped us to not be just a big group of Americans all go-ing out together,” she said. “(The professors) really encouraged us to go and explore on our own and not depend on other people to show us.”

Graham said having both Stoeger and Manwiller adding to the classes was a great experience.

“They definitely contributed to the overall success of the pro-gram,” he said. “They were both full participants in every sense of the word.”

Art and the environment: Manwiller’s study

Manwiller, who wants to be an art conservationist, studied local artists and their relation-ship to their vendors and the environment.

For the culture-based class, she interviewed these artists — some who made art exclusively to sell to tourists, some who were stu-dents, some who were famous locally — to understand the dif-ferences between Peruvian and American artists.

She also worked in the studio of a painter named Juan Montes, who showed her how to work with chan chama paper, a prod-uct made from the chan chama tree, which grows in the area around Iquitos.

“Working with him was prob-ably the highlight of my trip,” Manwiller said, adding that getting the chance to use indigenous ma-terials was something she would rarely be able to do at Eau Claire.

The second part of Man-willer’s research project, which coincided with the science-based class and the group’s time at the Madre Selva Biological Sta-tion, tied together the artworks and their possible effect on the surrounding environment.

“I wanted to focus on art, still,” she said, “so I researched more of the handicrafts that they produce for tourists and the effects of the harvesting of the materials on the environment.”

So far, Manwiller said, she hasn’t found a correlation be-tween the amount of materi-als harvested and any damage to the environment. She found that there simply wasn’t enough har-vesting occur-ring yet for it to be detrimental.

Based on her interviews, she concluded that the artists’ only source of revenue was tourists, and there weren’t enough of them to need mass production of local art.

“There isn’t any support, re-ally, from the community for art,” Manwiller said, “so I interviewed a lot of artists who sell only to tourists.”

Manwiller said that because of this trip, she has become more interested in the production and study of non-Western art.

Hunting the endangered: Stoeger’s study

Stoeger, who wants to get a degree in criminal psychology and work in a mental health field with Latinos, focused her independent study project on the hunting and selling of endangered species in local markets.

During their time in Iqui-tos, she counted the number of goods from endangered species for sale — including both fin-ished products and live animals. She then compared them to num-bers from a similar study one of her professors did in 2009 to see

if there was a change in the total number of products. She found that though the total amount of merchandise had increased, the number of species from which they came had decreased.

“They were ex-ploiting a smaller group of animals but getting more out of them,” Stoeger said, “most likely be-cause there are now more animals on the red list.”

However, Stoeger said, the more interesting part of her study came in the in-terviews she conducted with vendors and hunters of en-dangered species.

“I found that nobody thought (hunting endangered species) was illegal,” she said. “Not even the zoo workers, none of the vendors, none of people in the indigenous communities. No-body even knew what the law was or perceived the law enforcement as a threat.”

What’s more, hunters and vendors blame each other for the continuation of the problem, Stoeger said. It isn’t as clear-cut as she thought it would be going in to the project.

“I thought it would be really easy to label them as criminals,” she said, “but now I’m like, ‘They’re not criminals, it’s part of their culture.’”

The impactBoth Stoeger

and Manwiller said they went in to the experience try-ing to avoid any precon-ceived notions about the local culture and people.

“I had absolutely no idea what to expect,” Manwiller said, “and I was really nervous be-cause I had never trav-eled before.”

Stoeger had pre-viously spent a se-mester abroad in Costa Rica and Ni-caragua, where she stayed with host families. Because this trip was much shorter and they didn’t stay with locals, she didn’t think it would be as affecting.

“I didn’t expect to get such a life-changing experience out of this trip, but then I did,” she said. “So now I’m back, and I’m like, ‘Crap, now I have to go through reverse culture shock again.’”

What made the experience so welcoming, Stoeger said, was the openness of the people.

“You couldn’t walk 20 feet without some-body striking up a conversation,”

Stoeger said, “so you really got to know the people you were working with.”

Stoeger attributed the strong sense of community in part to the poverty in the area. Families simply don’t have the material possessions to worry about, so they focus more on taking care of each other.

“When you’re actually im-mersed in the culture of an

impoverished community,” she said, “it’s so beautiful because people just do let you into their community so readily.”

Manwiller agreed and added that the lack of tour-ist attractions made her more attentive to the local culture and people.

“You have to focus on the people because there’s just nothing else to see,” she said.

Manwiller, who before this had wanted to study abroad in Italy, said the ex-perience changed her ideas about the poverty and im-poverished areas.

“I kind of went in ex-pecting to feel sorry for people or be ashamed of

being an American,” Manwiller said,

“but at the end of the trip I almost felt like I wished I could live there, mostly because of the

community. They just live more.”

SUBMITTED PHOTOSenior Shauna Stoeger said it was easy to connect with the people — especially children — in Iquitos, Peru, because of their openness and strong sense of community.

Two honors students travel to Peruvian Amazon for immersive studyBy Carolyn TiryEDITOR IN CHIEF

Manwiller

Graham

“You couldn’t

walk 20 feet

without somebody

striking up a

conversation, so

you really got to

know the people

you were working

with.”

SHAUNA STOEGER

Senior

For more information on the work Project Amazonas is doing in Peru,

visit projectamazonas.org

GRAPHICS BY BRIAN MILLER/The Spectator

Iquitos

Madre SelvaBiological Station