NCC’s has 180 computers open for student use. There are 9646 students enrolled this semester. Something doesn’t add up.

Lions’ Roar

www.lionsroar.infoVol. 17 No. 8 freefebruary 25, 2011 normandale community college

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SHORT CIRCUTED!Budget shortfall means cuts and tuition hikeThe proposed budget shortfall is causing administration to prepare for less state appropriation. Opatz is brainstorming cuts to services and the ever-looming threat of a tuition increase: 4

Students react to unrest in Egypt: 7

MCT Campus

V-Day not just naked babies

Valentine’s Day means different things to different people. But what does it mean to cultures different from mainstream America? Let’s take a look: 13

Auschwitz survivor at NCCJosef Rozenberg shared his fi rst-hand experiences of being a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

14Find out the best music shows in town, campus events and other items worth knowing: CALENDAR 15

PAGE 3

february 25, 2011page 2

Briefs As of Feb. 18, the position

for NCC’s dean of business has come down to five final-ists, according to Rex Gas-kill.

They are as follows: The first candidate is

Chris Austin, who works in the Economics Depart-ment at NCC. Next is Mi-

On Feb. 7, NCC President Joe Opatz sent a letter to all Normandale staff inform-ing them of his plans for the upcoming school budget. Here is his letter:

Dear Colleagues,I am writing to update

you on our budget plan-ning, summarize our cur-rent financial challenges, and share steps we are considering to address these challenges. As you know, we have received reduced state appropria-tions in recent years and have done many things to lower our spending through both personnel and non-personnel reduc-tions. For this year, that has meant a balanced bud-get with additional money added to our reserves.

As we work to develop our FY2012 budget we are faced with a great deal of uncertainty about what the legislature and governor will do to the budget for MnSCU. We have been us-ing planning assumptions that assume significant re-ductions in appropriations and very modest tuition increases. I believe that we must have a plan that prepares us for the “worst case” scenario. That sce-nario, adopted by most of the other colleges in the system and used as a framework by the Office of the Chancellor in advising the colleges, would result in a loss for us of $2.3 mil-lion (or a 12.5% reduction in state appropriations) for FY12 and an additional loss of $2.2 million (or a 16% reduction in state ap-propriations) for FY13. Re-ductions of this magnitude are not sustainable and could only be partially offset by reserves and for only a short period of time at that.

We will not know our state appropriation or tu-ition rate until late spring or early summer. Waiting until then to solidify our budget plan would find us making some very tough decisions without the op-portunity for deliberative discussion and review.

Therefore, we have been preparing a list of possible budget reductions to save the college money. Some of these can and should be implemented soon while other more difficult choic-es can be deferred until we see what the final state appropriation will be.

Although not exhaus-tive, items currently under consideration but in no particular order include:

Develop strategies to reduce PSEO costs:

-Review organizational alignment and staffing in support and service areas of the college

-Increase maximum enrollments for selected courses

-Reduce departmental library budgets

-Identify additional op-portunities to offer the Board Early Separation In-centive (BESI)

-Direct departments to plan on a 5-10% cut in non-personnel expenses from FY10 actual expenses

-Reduce reliance on overtime

-Review/reduce print publications and mailings

-Reduce spending on technology

-Leave selected vacant positions unfilled

-Identify opportuni-ties to participate in the MnSCU shared services initiative to reduce cost of operations, like process-ing financial aid.

We will be discussing with you these plans as part of the overall budget process. I encourage all of us to review activities in each of our areas for addi-tional savings that are pos-sible. I am confident with careful planning and the efforts of everyone, we can minimize the impact of the state’s fiscal problems on our students.

Thanks, Joe

President proposes

service cuts

see budget editorial: 4

chael Kirch, dean of Arts and Communication at Lone Star College-Cy Fair in Cy-prus, Texas. Third is Genella Stubrud, director of STEM and the Diversity Initiative Program at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Fourth is JC Turner, chief technology officer at Cru

Wine Specialists. Finally, there is Sally Vogl-Bauer, who is the assessment spe-cialist and administrative fellow at University of Wis-consin-Whitewater.

On-campus interviews are scheduled Feb. 28 and March 1, 2, 15 and 16.

Dean of business finalists narrowed to five

Normandale’s latest theater produc-tion debuts on Thursday Feb. 24th at 7.30 p.m. in the Black Box Studio The-atre. Almost Maine, directed by Kath-leen Bagby Coate, is a romantic com-edy by John Cariani where residents of mythical town of Almost, Maine are found falling in and out of love in un-expected ways, as the Northern lights hover in the sky overhead.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Feb-ruary 24-26 and again March 3&4 with special matinees on Feb. 26 and March 5 at 2 p.m. Tickets are strongly recom-mended as there is limited seating. Admission prices are $10 for general public but $5 for seniors, Normandale staff and students.

Normandale Theater Department presents ‘Almost Maine’

Performances:Feb. 24, 25, 26 @ 7:30 p.m.

Mar. 3,4 @ 7:30 p.m.Matinees: Feb. 26, Mar. 5 @ 2 p.m.

Tickets: $10 for public, $5 for seniors and students

• On Feb. 16, students from Normandale went to Rally Day down at the Capitol in St. Paul. We marched from St. Paul College to the Capitol. 450 student from around the state showed up to support the Tuition Cap for college students. Neal Olmstead, Carlin Struckman, Isaac Davy, and Anna Johnson stay back to talk to their law makers to get them to support the tuition cap.

• Normandale Student Senate also start-

Student Senate News ed a smoking ad-hoc committee looking into the smoking policy here on campus.

• Student Senate will also be holding elections from the new President and Vice president for the school year 2011-2012 on March 29th and the remaining execu-tive broad members on April 5th it could take could take multiple meetings to fill all the positions.

• Now is the time to submit nominations for Student Senate Teacher ofd the Year. For more information please contact Bryan Fields at Bryan. Fields@Normandale.edu.

february 25, 2011page 3

As part of the Black History Month celebra-tions at NCC, many events were held. One of them was a remembrance march in honor of the Civil Rights Movement on Friday, Feb.

18 when the keynote speaker was the internationally renowned Omekongo Dibinga.

Many people came to the event ranging from stu-dents at NCC and some of the local high schools. The event was described as “a great opportunity to get a diverse group of students some hands on experi-ence of Black History Month,” said Shonn Schnitzer, dean of students at Jefferson High School.

Dibinga was in the area for a pair of speaking en-gagements and he was warmly welcomed by all in attendance.

Civic dignitaries including Bloomington’s May-or Gene Winstead were present as Dibinga gave a stirring rendition of two of his poems and spoke at length about how we can all play a part in remem-bering the efforts and sacrifices which led to the civ-il rights of all. Dibinga is an accomplished trilingual poet and writer fluent in English, French and Swahili.

Examples of his work can be found on his website at www.omekongo.com.

by Tim Wellman Jr.

Currently NCC only has 180 gen-eral use or open lab computers available for its 9,646 Spring 2011 students currently enrolled, ac-cording to NCC’s Office of Planning and Institutional Effectiveness.

Not so, says Andrea Kodner-Wen-zel, the chief information officer on campus.

“NCC has 805 computers avail-able for student use.” Unfortunate-ly 625 of those computers are “in classrooms or designated for lab use and dedicated to specific tech-nology needs,” she said.

With NCC restricting 77.6 per-cent of its total student computers to classroom use it makes it quite dif-ficult for any student to find an open computer to use. This also makes the ratio of unrestricted computers to 1 for every 54 students.

To help free up the small number of general use-open lab comput-ers students are advised to utilize the classroom computers whenever possible.

Students in specific courses or within the following areas such as admissions, financial aid, Biol-ogy, Computer Sciences, Dentistry, English, Mathematics, Nursing, and various clubs and organizations throughout campus can use the oth-erwise limited set of computers.

Of the 180 computers for general use-open lab it breaks down in the following amounts and locations. The computer center on the third floor has 100 PCs and 20 Macs. The library has 24 PCs on its main floor, 26 PCs on its upper level, and 10 Lenovo Thinkpads, or laptop com-puters, available for use within the library only.

When I asked Andrea Kodner-Wenzel if the college has any plans to increase the amount of comput-ers on campus, she said, “we’re al-ways looking for ways to improve yet dealing with a tight budget and the economy have not helped mat-ters. There are many hidden costs with computers that people don’t realize such as maintenance, soft-ware, and upgrades which hinder our college from investing in addi-tional computers.”

With the ever-increasing student population at NCC and the upcom-ing state budget cuts in education one question remains. How will NCC keep up with the increasing demand of student computer usage on campus?

NCC’s lack of

computers is a problem

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WS

Community joins

together to celebrate Civil Rights

The keynote speaker, Omekongo Dibinga, a renowned poet and writer.

photos by Stephen Dodds

Above: Audience members awaiting guest speaker

Left: Mary Solverson marches Feb. 18

february 25, 2011page 2

Briefs As of Feb. 18, the position

for NCC’s dean of business has come down to five final-ists, according to Rex Gas-kill.

They are as follows: The first candidate is

Chris Austin, who works in the Economics Depart-ment at NCC. Next is Mi-

On Feb. 7, NCC President Joe Opatz sent a letter to all Normandale staff inform-ing them of his plans for the upcoming school budget. Here is his letter:

Dear Colleagues,I am writing to update

you on our budget plan-ning, summarize our cur-rent financial challenges, and share steps we are considering to address these challenges. As you know, we have received reduced state appropria-tions in recent years and have done many things to lower our spending through both personnel and non-personnel reduc-tions. For this year, that has meant a balanced bud-get with additional money added to our reserves.

As we work to develop our FY2012 budget we are faced with a great deal of uncertainty about what the legislature and governor will do to the budget for MnSCU. We have been us-ing planning assumptions that assume significant re-ductions in appropriations and very modest tuition increases. I believe that we must have a plan that prepares us for the “worst case” scenario. That sce-nario, adopted by most of the other colleges in the system and used as a framework by the Office of the Chancellor in advising the colleges, would result in a loss for us of $2.3 mil-lion (or a 12.5% reduction in state appropriations) for FY12 and an additional loss of $2.2 million (or a 16% reduction in state ap-propriations) for FY13. Re-ductions of this magnitude are not sustainable and could only be partially offset by reserves and for only a short period of time at that.

We will not know our state appropriation or tu-ition rate until late spring or early summer. Waiting until then to solidify our budget plan would find us making some very tough decisions without the op-portunity for deliberative discussion and review.

Therefore, we have been preparing a list of possible budget reductions to save the college money. Some of these can and should be implemented soon while other more difficult choic-es can be deferred until we see what the final state appropriation will be.

Although not exhaus-tive, items currently under consideration but in no particular order include:

Develop strategies to reduce PSEO costs:

-Review organizational alignment and staffing in support and service areas of the college

-Increase maximum enrollments for selected courses

-Reduce departmental library budgets

-Identify additional op-portunities to offer the Board Early Separation In-centive (BESI)

-Direct departments to plan on a 5-10% cut in non-personnel expenses from FY10 actual expenses

-Reduce reliance on overtime

-Review/reduce print publications and mailings

-Reduce spending on technology

-Leave selected vacant positions unfilled

-Identify opportuni-ties to participate in the MnSCU shared services initiative to reduce cost of operations, like process-ing financial aid.

We will be discussing with you these plans as part of the overall budget process. I encourage all of us to review activities in each of our areas for addi-tional savings that are pos-sible. I am confident with careful planning and the efforts of everyone, we can minimize the impact of the state’s fiscal problems on our students.

Thanks, Joe

President proposes

service cuts

see budget editorial: 4

chael Kirch, dean of Arts and Communication at Lone Star College-Cy Fair in Cy-prus, Texas. Third is Genella Stubrud, director of STEM and the Diversity Initiative Program at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Fourth is JC Turner, chief technology officer at Cru

Wine Specialists. Finally, there is Sally Vogl-Bauer, who is the assessment spe-cialist and administrative fellow at University of Wis-consin-Whitewater.

On-campus interviews are scheduled Feb. 28 and March 1, 2, 15 and 16.

Dean of business finalists narrowed to five

Normandale’s latest theater produc-tion debuts on Thursday Feb. 24th at 7.30 p.m. in the Black Box Studio The-atre. Almost Maine, directed by Kath-leen Bagby Coate, is a romantic com-edy by John Cariani where residents of mythical town of Almost, Maine are found falling in and out of love in un-expected ways, as the Northern lights hover in the sky overhead.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Feb-ruary 24-26 and again March 3&4 with special matinees on Feb. 26 and March 5 at 2 p.m. Tickets are strongly recom-mended as there is limited seating. Admission prices are $10 for general public but $5 for seniors, Normandale staff and students.

Normandale Theater Department presents ‘Almost Maine’

Performances:Feb. 24, 25, 26 @ 7:30 p.m.

Mar. 3,4 @ 7:30 p.m.Matinees: Feb. 26, Mar. 5 @ 2 p.m.

Tickets: $10 for public, $5 for seniors and students

• On Feb. 16, students from Normandale went to Rally Day down at the Capitol in St. Paul. We marched from St. Paul College to the Capitol. 450 student from around the state showed up to support the Tuition Cap for college students. Neal Olmstead, Carlin Struckman, Isaac Davy, and Anna Johnson stay back to talk to their law makers to get them to support the tuition cap.

• Normandale Student Senate also start-

Student Senate News ed a smoking ad-hoc committee looking into the smoking policy here on campus.

• Student Senate will also be holding elections from the new President and Vice president for the school year 2011-2012 on March 29th and the remaining execu-tive broad members on April 5th it could take could take multiple meetings to fill all the positions.

• Now is the time to submit nominations for Student Senate Teacher ofd the Year. For more information please contact Bryan Fields at Bryan. Fields@Normandale.edu.

& february 25, 2011

OpinionCommentary

page 4

Looks like tuition is gonna be fl ying high like a G6

Given the state’s $6.2 billion defi-cit, Minne-sotans can expect a

reduction in college appro-priations. This year there is an expected 12.5 percent decrease in funds.

Early in February NCC president Joe Opatz sent a letter to all NCC personnel regarding ideas for trim-ming the budget. He cre-ated a short list of possible areas from which to cut the fat. They are the following:

-PSEO costs -Support and service ar-

eas of the college -Departmental library

budgets -Non-personnel expens-

es -Overtime -Print publications and

mailings -Spending on technology -Cost of operations (like

processing financial aid)

In addition to these cuts classroom size will most likely increase.

NCC is a much better deal than some of the other colleges and universities in the area. The classroom ex-perience (I have heard from students who have trans-ferred) is more intimate and the instructors here are much more approachable than at, say, the U of M. This is the main selling point for attending NCC. If classroom sizes do in fact increase then the only redeeming aspect of attending this col-lege will be gone.

There already aren’t enough computers; park-ing is impossible and gets worse every semester; there are no sports. And now they want to increase class sizes and cut services.

Now, though Opatz made mention of trying to not pass these hardships onto students, saying that there will be only “modest tuition increases”, I’m skeptical.

Tuition is over-priced as it is. The cost of college is outrageous. The student debt that most of us will be dealing with for the next twenty years is egregious. Many of us will default on loans. Many of us will not find gainful employment

after we graduate—at least without addition education.

So if I understand this letter correctly, basically Opatz is saying that the over-priced tuition will go up even further while at the same time there will be a reduction in services at this college.

Sounds about right. None of this is for sure at

by Matt Homaneditor-in-chief

If classroom sizes do in fact in-crease then the only redeeming aspect of attending this college

will be gone.

this point, but if the past ten years are any indication of what will happen for fiscal year 2012 then you can ex-pect tuition increases.

Count on it.

Emma Alden ConnorOmara AnjumMuse AhmedDerek Burt

Tim WellmanJosh WickstromCaleb SorernsenAmanda Brown

Laurent D’AlmeidaBryan Kissee

Editor-in-ChiefMatthew Homan

Business ManagerYueping Zhu

Letters may be edited for style and length.

Some stories in The Lions’ Roar come from MCT

Campus, a news service paid for by the newspaper.

Funding for the newspaper comes from advertising and

student activity fees.

Normandale Community College is an affirmative action,

equal opportunity employer and educator.

This document is available in alternative formats to in-

dividuals with disabilities by calling 952-487-7035 (TTY

952-487-7032) or through the Minnesota Relay Service at

1-800-627-3529.

On the Web: www.lionsroar.info

On Twitter: NCClionsroar

Some stories in The Lions’ Roar come from MCT

Campus, a news service paid for by the newspaper.

Funding for the newspaper comes from advertising and

Normandale Community College is an affirmative action,

This document is available in alternative formats to in-

Address comments and letters to:

The Lions’ Roar2503 Activities Building9700 France Ave. SBloomington MN 55431

orlionsroar@normandale.edu

You can drop letters in the box outside our office located in A2503. 2503 Activities Building.

AdviserMark Plenke

WebmastersDominique Williams

Brittny Garrett

Lions’ Roar Staff Spring 2011

Sharon CarrollSteve Dodds

Rebecca FreemanEvan JohnsonJay Johnson

Miriam MongareBen Rasmussen

Amber PetrikEmily Rasmussen

Shukri Abdalla

Writers and Reporters

february 4, 2011page 5

Op

inio

n

Midlife cri-sis. We read about them; we joke about them.

And in our 20s, we think we have at least another 20 some years until it’s time for us to have one of our own. But is it possible to have a mid-midlife crisis?

I, like many of my fellow community college peers, am a full-time student who also has to juggle working full time in with schoolwork, bills, keeping my house clean and occasionally at-tempting to have a social life. I have also been living on my own and supporting myself 100 percent since I was 18. It can get pretty tough and there have been

Quarter-Life Crisis: Not just a joke among friends

The stress of the real world setting in, can make a college grad long for the good old days

by Emily Rasmussen

times when I’ve joked that I was having a mid-midlife crisis. At first it just start-ed out as a joke that my friends and I would laugh about whenever I felt like I was losing it from stress or just plain old hormones. But then I got to thinking: is there really such a thing? Do other people feel the same way? Have I discov-ered a new disorder? Am I going to be famous? I won-der how much I’ll get paid. Ok, maybe not the last two questions. That was purely for entertainment purposes. Anyways, being the journal-ist that I am, I decided to in-vestigate.

Apparently, my idea wasn’t that far-fetched. I did have the name wrong however; it’s actually called a “quarter-life crisis”. Ba-sically, it’s the time of life right after the major chang-es of adolescence and it usually ranges from your late teens to your early thir-ties. It seems to most com-monly occur within those in their mid-twenties, many times not too long after they graduate from college. The

person starts off with all these aspirations and this indestructible attitude and excitement about their new career and life in general. Only to be let down when it doesn’t live up to the fan-tasy they had created and played out over and over again in their head. Bills stack up; their sense of sta-bility is threatened. On one hand, there’s a sense of free-dom and liberation from not relying on your parents any-more. But there still isn’t the structure of a marriage, kids, long career, and etc. They long for the care-free days of their young-er years; mix these things together and boom, you’ve got yourself a quarter-life cri-ses.

It seems that people are experiencing this more now-a-days. Some may con-tribute this to the economy, while others just say that a

lot more is expected of us at a younger age than there used to be.

Some characteristics of a quarter-life crisis are:

Confronting their mortal-ity.

Feeling too insecure to love themselves, let alone, someone else.

Insecurity about their current accomplishments.

The lack of friendships, romantic relationships, sex-ual frustration.

Disap-pointment with their job.

Tendency to hold stronger opinions.

Bored with social interactions.

Loss of close con-tact with high school

or college friends.Financial stress.Depression, loneliness.The desire to have kids.A sense that others are

doing better than them.

Frustration with their own social skills.

Well, the bad news is that I am probably not go-ing to be famous. Seems that someone has already beaten me on the whole discovery of the crisis and failed to give me the memo. The good news is that there is hope for us twenty-some-things that feel like we’re going a little loony lately. These feelings of stress, changes in future plans that once seemed so set in stone and sudden urges to find some sort of stability in life are completely normal. “You’re never going to be certain that you’ve chosen the right path,” said Abby Wilner, co-author of “Quar-terlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties.” “You’ll always have doubts, but you learn to deal with those doubts. Learning to cope with that is when the crisis ends.”

Well, ladies and gents, maybe let’s start learning to cope.

“The person starts off with all these as-pirations and this indestructible at-titude and excite-ment about their new career and life in general. Only to be let down when it doesn’t live up to the fantasy”

Facebook Photo

february 25, 2011page 6

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by Becca Freeman

Last week, the 2nd annual NCC Winter Writ-ing Festival was held. It featured sessions for people who want to write, or are pursuing an English degree.

It had people come in from all different parts of the working world. According to the faculty who headed up this year’s Writing Festival, it was done to show how writing could be used in every area of one’s life. As for why it was picked to be set in February, faculty said it was a way to shake up the ‘winter blues’ and have something that could bring the entire community of NCC together and have fun doing it.

There were many sessions, and many people were brought in to share their opinions on what writing is for them. Also, there was a very spe-cial guest speaker, James Levine, who came in to talk about his book, “The Blue Notebook”, and share how it affected his life and others’. James Levine’s book was the common book voted upon by students in last year’s Writing Festival, and at the end of the day, they had another session to vote on the 2011-2012 Common Book for NCC.

There were many different sessions, includ-ing ones on how to improve your writing skills in school. Some focused on how to avoid B.S. in Exam Essays, how to create paragraphs that cap-ture attention, and how to avoid using plagiarism at all in anything you write. Others, like Writing in the Fine Arts, and Why Writing Matters in the Business World, showed how to take the writ-ing skills you have and apply them to real life outside of school. All the sessions were there to show that writing is a big part of our lives, no matter how irrelevant it may seem.

One of the sessions called “Why Writing Mat-ters in the Business World” was a very informa-tive session that showed how writing is not only used in a school setting, but in every day life. It featured three business experts who in their field noted that they hardly go a day without writing! Each one of the experts noted that in their line of work, they use writing for everything. They use it to draw up proposals, conduct research, and keep in contact with their clients.

Not only were there sessions on using writing in different careers, there were some that showed how to hone writing skills so they could be used to get you a career. If you’re somebody whose dream it is to be published, they had a session titled “Pathways to Publication” available. This session discussed the different types of writing and the different ways to have them published. They offered tips on sending out your work, such as finding a match to the type of places that actu-ally publish work like the one you have written,

and how to spice it up so they don’t pass it over. It was refreshing for students to be talked to by people who have had multiple works of theirs published, and that it can be a successful career if it’s what you want to do.

Another session that showed how to use writ-ing as a career was the “Writing for a Living: Working Journalists in the Twin cities Scene”. It featured a panel of various journalists who work for all sorts of different types of news publica-tions. The four panelists each had similar tips on making journalism a career. One common tip was to be flexible, and to be quick at writ-ing. News media are looking for people who can do multiple things, such as Tweet, update their blog, write pieces for the newspaper, etc.

The keynote address by James A. Levine was an eye-opening look into what he’s doing for countries where sex trafficking, especially high with children, is very common. Though Mr. Levine was visiting India to collect research on the effects of children labor on children’s nu-trition and education, when he saw Batuk (the main character in his book), he was more than intrigued. This particular young girl was writing in a blue notebook, and this notebook became the inspiration for the entire novel. Though Mr. Levine was not an author, but rather a scien-tist, he wanted to tell this young girl’s story to the world. There has been a lot of impact from this novel, and it has been the reason for many schools to allow children in that lifestyle to have a place to go and do something with their lives. James A. Levine, if nothing else, proved that any-one, even those without English degrees, can be an author.

Finally, there was a session to decide upon the common book for next year at NCC. The three choices were: “The Immortal Life of Hen-rietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, “Zeitoun” by Dave Eggars, and “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

Each book had a faculty member to argue why it should be considered for next year’s common book. Each book had a convincing argument as to why they should have been chosen, and each caused much debate. However, it is ultimately the responsibility of students at NCC to decide which book should win, and there is a simple way to do so. By the Writing Center, there will be a ballot box where you can cast your vote for which book should win. The deadline is March 2nd, so hurry and place your vote!

Ultimately, the NCC Winter Writing Festival can be considered a success. It did exactly what it was supposed to bring students together and show them how to use writing in every aspect of their lives.

by Becca Freeman

Republican members of the government have been trying to pass a bill that will make English the official language of Minnesota.

The bill states, “No law, ordinance, order, program, or policy of this state or any of its po-litical subdivisions, shall require the use of any language other than English for any documents, regulations, orders, transactions, proceedings, meetings, programs, or publications, excepted as provided in subdivision 3.”

What it means is that all documents pertain-ing to government business must be done in English. This would affect business transactions such as forms that are included in Spanish as well as English. There are, of course, exceptions to this new bill. Exceptions would include in educational places where languages other than English are taught to students, and issues that comply with the Native American Languages Act and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, criminal hearings, and public safety.

Some companies, such as the Department of Revenue, are seeking to claim an exception to this law, saying their business has Spanish forms on its website, and receives thousands of calls from Latino residents asking about tax informa-tion. Whether they will be exempted from this new law remains to be determined.

With the example of the tax services asking that the law not apply to them, it brings to light many issues with the law that critics have only just begun to point out. They also say it is preju-diced against immigrants and is harsh against their traditions and native languages. Even more so, critics claim it does not list a specific set of documents to be affected by this new law, and it needs to do so.

According to Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, “There are plenty of peo-ple here legally whose dominant language is still [Spanish]. That’s historically been true of many immigrants.” Indiana also is pushing to have this legislation passed.

Problems with this bill could even be more shocking, such as in other states that this leg-islation has been passed. Students have been suspended for speaking Spanish in the school hallways. If that isn’t ridiculous enough, imag-ine how much more it would affect the one thing this country has strived for—a democratic way to government. If this bill were passed, it would create issues for people who then couldn’t view voting documents in their native language.

Although they are legally citizens of the Unit-ed States, they would be unable to vote. Draz-kowski, one of the main writers and pursuers of the bill, and one of Minnesota’s representatives, says, “It’s about reducing costs to the govern-ment.”

He also says that by allowing Minnesotans to print state services in other languages besides English, we’re encouraging people who are here illegally or those who refuse to learn the Eng-lish language to continue what they’re doing. He says as a country, we’re spending millions a year on these programs that don’t further our coun-try’s ambitions.

Author James A. Levine and Professor Lynette Reini-Grandell, NCC instructor

Festival shows ways to use writing daily

Republicans push for English as

official language of Minnesota

photo by Becca Freeman

february 25, 2011page 7

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By Miriam Mongare

After the amount of times Egypt has been mentioned in the news, I decided to look into it and interview students originally from there to obtain their per-spective. I met Mohamed Sonbol and Karim Habib studying in the library. They are both Egyptian citizens and have a very humble na-ture that attracted my atten-tion. Though things are now looking up for Egypt as the president decided to step down from power and flee the country, I still wanted to get their opinion on the chaos back in their home country. I asked them a few questions about the ongo-ing crisis in their country that had been progressing rampantly

How long did you live in Egypt?

Mohamed Sonbol: I lived in Egypt for 12 years.

Karim Habib:I lived in Egypt for 16 years.

How do you feel about what is happening in Egypt at the moment?

M.S: If I were in Egypt today, I would be protest-ing against the president as well. I think he should let go of his power.

K.H: I feel terrible for Egypt, especially the peo-ple who are trying so hard to fight, but I would do the same thing if I were there.

What do you think is the right thing to be done?

M.S: Right now the presi-dent needs to give up pow-er. The right thing is being done by ‘protesting against him’.

K.H: Yes, I agree that the right thing to be done is for the people to keep pro-testing and the president should step down from pow-er.

Do you think the gov-ernment’s idea to shut down the internet and mo-bile phones was a fitting punishment?

M.S: I think that was a silly idea to think that would have done anything to stop pro-tests. In fact, it would have actually led a loss of several

operations in the country. Internet is being used by everybody as much as the mobile phones and that was just not necessary and also a very unwise decision.

K.H: I think it was a very unnecessary thing to do because it led to business failure since most busi-nesses depend on the inter-net. Cutting off the internet in Egypt actually made me lose contact with my mom for awhile, even though I know she is doing fine now.

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, had been in power for 30 years, and that’s a very foreign concept to Americans. Do you think his prolonged presidential term could have been avoided, and if so, how?

M.S: It could have been

by Emily Rasmussen

Now that NCC has changed student e-mail-from metnet.edu to norman-dale.edu, many questions come to mind regarding this switch. Why the change? When will it happen?

Jeff Judge, dean of Hu-manities, answered some of these questions.

Tell me a little bit about this email change. Why are we doing it? What is the benefit? Are there any non-benefits from it?

I can’t think of anything that’s negative about this except maybe the confu-sion factor while we’re switching over. The change over’s happening because the metnet service is no lon-ger going to be supported. So we’ve moved to this new email system that is going to be a se-cure site…It does of-fer some expanded services as well…Just like met-net, you’ll be able to, if you want, f o r w a r d all of your information that goes to your Normandale.edu email onto whatever like a Gmail account if you want.

How long have you guys been thinking about this?

We found out about it at Deans Counsel in the fall and because a lot of peo-ple were having questions about it in upper manage-ment of the college, we de-cided it would be smart to put together a work group to facilitate the roll out plan of it. I think it’s going to be very smooth. I hesitate to say this but I do think we have headed off any bugs that could happen before we roll it out

Do you know why met-net suddenly won’t be supported?

I don’t know why. I doubt that it would be random, but that is a question you might want to ask our new CIO.

Do we know a set date in February when this all begins?

We purposely didn’t tell faculty or students or anybody ahead of this se-

mester because we didn’t want them thinking that it was going to be neces-sary to have in place first semester. So we waited until middle of the semester to let people know, or at least, you know, got the semester going, be-cause we want to work out the bugs…I think it’s going to be done in stages, so I think that there is a certain population that will start with rolling it over, and again, try and work out any issues that are happening before we tell 15,000 stu-dents, “okay, we’re switched to the other one.” The roll-over process is going to be long in that metnet is still going to be serviceable all the way through this semes-ter, which is really helpful.

Which is helpful!Which is really helpful

yeah. So it’s not like if you don’t activate your new email account that you’re not going to get the infor-mation. You will all the way through this semester.

So would you recom-mend forwarding metnet stuff to that account?

I have a feeling it’s auto-matic.

It sounds like it’s easy to forward everything to a Gmail or a Yahoo.

It’s very easy and I have sent out to all of the faculty the links as how you do it, and how easy it is and that…the best thing about this is it’s going to be a chance for us as a college to sort of reiterate “hey guys check your email because that’s how we communicate with you”. As dean, I get a lot of student complaints that come in and I have to use a secure network when I com-municate with them. So I’ll come up with a decision to something and I’ll send it to their, currently metnet, ac-count and then they’ll call me a month later mad be-cause they haven’t heard from me. And I’ll say, “No I’m sure that that issue was resolved, did you check your metnet?” “Oh no I nev-er check that.” Well that’s problematic…we have to use this as an opportunity to just blank it …we have a chance to get a clean slate here …let’s get everybody on board because it’s a win-win for everyone.

Jeff Judge

NCC changes student e-mail

avoided if he left the coun-try and stepped down long ago, but he couldn’t let go. Eventually, his corrupt gov-ernment became too much for the Egyptian people to handle and they decided to finally do something about it.

K.H: It could have been avoided if he had left ear-lier but there’s no way Mubarak would have will-ingly stepped down. He only did so because people were protesting against him. However, his time has passed and it’s time for him to go.

After interviewing these students, it was clear to me they felt the same as many of the citizens in Egypt. Hopefully, there will be a new president more suited to run the country.

Students react to Egypt’s crisis

Photo by Miriam Mongardi.

Photo by Miriam Mongardi.

Top: Mohamed Sonbol. Bottom: Karim Habib.

february 25, 2011page 8

Only have 26 hours to visit in Seattle? No problem! I’ve already done the footwork to lead you to the three best places to view “The Emerald City”.

For Valentine’s Day, my boyfriend decid-ed to fly us to Seattle. This was the first time either one of us had ever been to this city. We decided that the main goal, besides Valentine’s Day dinner, was to find the best places to view the city skyline. So our jour-ney began.

After a nearly four hour flight from Min-neapolis-St. Paul International Airport to the Tacoma-Seattle International Airport, we landed around 7:30 on Sunday evening. From the time we arrived in Washington until about the five hours before departure, drizzling rain coated our getaway. That didn’t stop us from exploring. We loaded up our rented SUV and set course for Se-attle.

By the time we grabbed our luggage from baggage claim, shuttled to the rental car company and signed the paperwork for the rental, our first night mainly consisted finding our hotel, a place to buy wine and eating dinner. Along the way, we caught a rainy view of the night time skyline but were able to take some roadside pictures (from the moving vehicle). Passing by along the Interstate, we saw the famous Pike Place Market, Safeco Field and the Space Needle. I knew Monday was going to be super busy, so we got into bed fairly early.

Up early on Monday, Valentine’s Day, we headed to a place called Louisa Boren Park, to take sunrise photos over Lake Washing-ton. Still cloudy and rainy, we traveled the downtown streets, around the town and up to the park. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the sunrise, but I still snapped some great shots of the mountains and clouds. I firmly believe that this would have been a spec-tacular if the sky wouldn’t have been so

Destination: SeattleWhen you only have 26 hours

stories and photos by Amanda Brown

february 25, 2011page 8

Only have 26 hours to visit in Seattle? No problem! I’ve already done the footwork to lead you to the three best places to view “The Emerald City”.

For Valentine’s Day, my boyfriend decid-ed to fly us to Seattle. This was the first time either one of us had ever been to this city. We decided that the main goal, besides Valentine’s Day dinner, was to find the best places to view the city skyline. So our jour-ney began.

After a nearly four hour flight from Min-neapolis-St. Paul International Airport to the Tacoma-Seattle International Airport, we landed around 7:30 on Sunday evening. From the time we arrived in Washington until about the five hours before departure, drizzling rain coated our getaway. That didn’t stop us from exploring. We loaded up our rented SUV and set course for Se-attle.

By the time we grabbed our luggage from baggage claim, shuttled to the rental car company and signed the paperwork for the rental, our first night mainly consisted finding our hotel, a place to buy wine and eating dinner. Along the way, we caught a rainy view of the night time skyline but were able to take some roadside pictures (from the moving vehicle). Passing by along the Interstate, we saw the famous Pike Place Market, Safeco Field and the Space Needle. I knew Monday was going to be super busy, so we got into bed fairly early.

Up early on Monday, Valentine’s Day, we headed to a place called Louisa Boren Park, to take sunrise photos over Lake Washing-ton. Still cloudy and rainy, we traveled the downtown streets, around the town and up to the park. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the sunrise, but I still snapped some great shots of the mountains and clouds. I firmly believe that this would have been a spec-tacular if the sky wouldn’t have been so

Destination: SeattleWhen you only have 26 hours

stories and photos by Amanda Brown

february 25, 2011page 9

cloudy.After the disappointment of not being able to

see the sunrise, redemption was made at this next viewing location, which is the first of the three best places to view the city. Kerry Park. Breathtaking views of downtown Seattle, Elliott Bay, the West Seattle peninsula, Bainbridge Is-land and Mount Rainier! Take a look at the pic-ture and I think you’ll agree! Located on the south slope of Queen Anne Hill, this spot is defi-nitely a must see.

Next on my map, is a place called Alki Beach. This place is the westernmost point in West Se-attle and gives a gorgeous view of the city from the west side. While we were on the Westside we ate lunch at eclectic Luna Park Diner, which had great service and yummy chocolate malt milkshakes.

When time is of the essence, the ultimate place to get the best view of Seattle is the Space Needle. Rising about 605 feet above the city, this build-ing has been standing tall since 1962. Night or day, you will be able to see the beautiful wonders of this famous West Coast city. Views span from the heart of Downtown Seattle, the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Mount Baker, Mount Rain-ier, Elliott Bay and all the surrounding islands. Again, if the weather had worked to our advan-tage, we would have been at the top to see the sunset. Even with the rain and storm band, the Space Needle was definitely the ultimate place to view the city. We even had a chance encoun-ter with a celebrity and got to meet Josh Harris

from Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch”. We ended our Valentine’s Day in Seattle at a

lovely restaurant called Etta’s, next to Pike Place Market. Crab cakes, fried shrimp, calamari, fresh oysters and a bottle of local pinot noir set the table for a tasty dinner.

Now that you know where to go, you have more time to explore. My best advice is to never let time, or lack of, overwhelm you into thinking you can’t enjoy the best of a city. Even if you only have 26 hours to enjoy Seattle, visit these places and you will not be let down.

february 25, 2011 page 10

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By Evan Johnson

NCC’s psychology class-es have a reputation for be-ing interesting, and the Psy-chology of Religion class, taught by Professor Andrew Tix is no different. He’s been having the students conduct a series of inter-views with students, to ask them some questions about how their religion affects them. I talked to Professor Tix, who has taught psy-chology at Normandale for eight years, to find out ex-actly what these interviews entailed.

The students “interview three people about their experiences with religion or spirituality. They inter-view one sincere Christian, one sincere Muslim, and one person of their choice, hopefully from some other perspective that they’re cu-rious about…. This is a psy-chology course,” Tix said, “so I want them to focus more on people’s experi-ences, so how the religious or spiritual view affects how they think, how they feel, how the act in their daily lives, or how they approach relationships, or how they spend their money or time.”

“I tell them to try to steer away from the teach-ings of the religion,” said Tix as I interviewed him in his book-lined office. “So if they interview a Muslim, the focus is more on what it’s like to be a Muslim, not what does a Muslim be-lieve. They interview these people, and then they have a class blog… they each are to write a description of the interviewee’s experiences.”

“They have to interview a Christian and a Muslim for two reasons,” he explained. “First, I think Christianity and Islam are very power-ful religions in the world, and secondly, we have stu-dent groups,” Tix laughed. “We need to have someone around to interview.” The third person interviewed could be anyone the stu-dent chose, but preferably someone who had formed beliefs and did their best to

By Laurent D’Almeida

Kristen Cooper is an aca-demic counselor at NCC. She grew up with both of her parents. Her mom fin-ished college, but her dad did not so it was important for him to see his daughter go to school and get an ed-ucation. There is the saying that, “parents want to pro-vide a better life for their kids and push them toward the right path.”

Well, you can say that is true about her dad. She was not sure what her major would be. She tried a lot of things and eventually end-ed getting a major in math. She went back to school to master in counseling.

The major experience that has contributed to her being a counselor today is the opportunity to travel to Cambodia to volunteer and Central Europe. During this time she got to play in a mu-sic festival, tour and volun-teer. A program called Up-ward Bound helped her to realize she wanted to be a counselor. She wanted stu-dents to achieve their goals and make them realize any-thing is possible. Upward

bound helps first-genera-tion students with low in-comes.

“It is hard being the first to go to college,” she said. Upward Bound was de-signed to break the cycle of poverty through education. Her Christian faith plays a role in how she goes about being a counselor. Kristen is passionate about helping first generation students because education means a better life.

She likes working with students from all walks of life to learn about them and because she has been for-tunate to travel and witness the other people’s cultures. In her spare time she plays the oboe, she runs, enjoys family and friends and is involved with groups and activities in her church or school.

Her advice to second generation students espe-cially those who speak a different language would be to seek-out support, have people to encourage or mentor you so you do not give up and the choices you make today will affect the generations after you.

Upward Bound led counselor Cooper to her career

INSPIREDKristen Cooper likes working with students from all walks of life.

Photo by Stephen Dodds

live according to them. I asked Dr. Tix how the

students were reacting to the interviews. “Well, it’s amazing,” he said, sound-ing a little amazed himself. “The students love it… I think, it really challenges their preconceptions. I mean, that’s really the rea-son I assigned this in the first place. I have this sense that people have these pre-conceptions about what it means to be a Christian or a Muslim or whatever. Peo-ple get these stereotypes in their minds and have noth-ing to challenge them.”

“When you have the stu-dents do this, they start to kind of appreciate that their preconceptions don’t line up with at least some-one’s reality. I’ve had a lot of people say that these in-terviews just smash their preconceptions about what it means to be part of one of these groups. And that’s great, I mean, it’s wonder-ful!”

The students in Professor Tix’s classes have much the same views. “I think every-one should do it,” said Beth Bray, a student in the Psy-chology of Religion class. “I think everyone should take the time to find someone they don’t understand and ask questions, because fear is that barrier to tolerance. If you don’t understand something, ask. And if you don’t understand still, ask again…

“Tolerance is way more than just letting people be. Tolerance is about accept-ing that other people don’t see things the way you do but still respecting them…. I think it’s definitely some-thing everyone should do,” Bray said.

Other students in the class like Miah Gilbertson thought the same thing. “It’s awesome digging into it. You see Christians, you see Muslims, you see all these different people who are associated with these reli-gions, but you don’t know anything about them. And so it’s so interesting to dig in deeper into why they be-lieve what they believe and

how it affects them.”When asked if she would

recommend this class, Gil-bertson responded enthu-siastically. “Oh my gosh! I love this class! This class is the best class this semester that I have. It’s so interest-ing for everyone ‘cause it makes you think. It’s not just the psychology class where you learn about the people and you learn about the brain. It applies to your life.”

The class has experi-enced some rough points though, as especially re-lated to the blog they set up. They received a very anti-Muslim comment from an outside viewer on one of their posts, and one of the interviews between two people ended somewhat badly. The class discussed these events and voted “al-most unanimously” to allow the comments to stand, to better represent the popu-lation’s views on the sub-ject.

I asked Professor Tix if he planned on continu-ing the interviews in com-ing semesters. “I think so. I haven’t really thought it through. I change my mind every semester. And we could keep the blog up, and as new semesters go by, we’d have new students add and it would be an even richer tapestry.”

The class’s blog can be seen at tixpsych2400.word-press.com

In this class, students ask each other

about...religion

Andy TixPhoto by Amanda Brown.

february 25, 2011 page 10

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By Evan Johnson

NCC’s psychology class-es have a reputation for be-ing interesting, and the Psy-chology of Religion class, taught by Professor Andrew Tix is no different. He’s been having the students conduct a series of inter-views with students, to ask them some questions about how their religion affects them. I talked to Professor Tix, who has taught psy-chology at Normandale for eight years, to find out ex-actly what these interviews entailed.

The students “interview three people about their experiences with religion or spirituality. They inter-view one sincere Christian, one sincere Muslim, and one person of their choice, hopefully from some other perspective that they’re cu-rious about…. This is a psy-chology course,” Tix said, “so I want them to focus more on people’s experi-ences, so how the religious or spiritual view affects how they think, how they feel, how the act in their daily lives, or how they approach relationships, or how they spend their money or time.”

“I tell them to try to steer away from the teach-ings of the religion,” said Tix as I interviewed him in his book-lined office. “So if they interview a Muslim, the focus is more on what it’s like to be a Muslim, not what does a Muslim be-lieve. They interview these people, and then they have a class blog… they each are to write a description of the interviewee’s experiences.”

“They have to interview a Christian and a Muslim for two reasons,” he explained. “First, I think Christianity and Islam are very power-ful religions in the world, and secondly, we have stu-dent groups,” Tix laughed. “We need to have someone around to interview.” The third person interviewed could be anyone the stu-dent chose, but preferably someone who had formed beliefs and did their best to

By Laurent D’Almeida

Kristen Cooper is an aca-demic counselor at NCC. She grew up with both of her parents. Her mom fin-ished college, but her dad did not so it was important for him to see his daughter go to school and get an ed-ucation. There is the saying that, “parents want to pro-vide a better life for their kids and push them toward the right path.”

Well, you can say that is true about her dad. She was not sure what her major would be. She tried a lot of things and eventually end-ed getting a major in math. She went back to school to master in counseling.

The major experience that has contributed to her being a counselor today is the opportunity to travel to Cambodia to volunteer and Central Europe. During this time she got to play in a mu-sic festival, tour and volun-teer. A program called Up-ward Bound helped her to realize she wanted to be a counselor. She wanted stu-dents to achieve their goals and make them realize any-thing is possible. Upward

bound helps first-genera-tion students with low in-comes.

“It is hard being the first to go to college,” she said. Upward Bound was de-signed to break the cycle of poverty through education. Her Christian faith plays a role in how she goes about being a counselor. Kristen is passionate about helping first generation students because education means a better life.

She likes working with students from all walks of life to learn about them and because she has been for-tunate to travel and witness the other people’s cultures. In her spare time she plays the oboe, she runs, enjoys family and friends and is involved with groups and activities in her church or school.

Her advice to second generation students espe-cially those who speak a different language would be to seek-out support, have people to encourage or mentor you so you do not give up and the choices you make today will affect the generations after you.

Upward Bound led counselor Cooper to her career

INSPIREDKristen Cooper likes working with students from all walks of life.

Photo by Stephen Dodds

live according to them. I asked Dr. Tix how the

students were reacting to the interviews. “Well, it’s amazing,” he said, sound-ing a little amazed himself. “The students love it… I think, it really challenges their preconceptions. I mean, that’s really the rea-son I assigned this in the first place. I have this sense that people have these pre-conceptions about what it means to be a Christian or a Muslim or whatever. Peo-ple get these stereotypes in their minds and have noth-ing to challenge them.”

“When you have the stu-dents do this, they start to kind of appreciate that their preconceptions don’t line up with at least some-one’s reality. I’ve had a lot of people say that these in-terviews just smash their preconceptions about what it means to be part of one of these groups. And that’s great, I mean, it’s wonder-ful!”

The students in Professor Tix’s classes have much the same views. “I think every-one should do it,” said Beth Bray, a student in the Psy-chology of Religion class. “I think everyone should take the time to find someone they don’t understand and ask questions, because fear is that barrier to tolerance. If you don’t understand something, ask. And if you don’t understand still, ask again…

“Tolerance is way more than just letting people be. Tolerance is about accept-ing that other people don’t see things the way you do but still respecting them…. I think it’s definitely some-thing everyone should do,” Bray said.

Other students in the class like Miah Gilbertson thought the same thing. “It’s awesome digging into it. You see Christians, you see Muslims, you see all these different people who are associated with these reli-gions, but you don’t know anything about them. And so it’s so interesting to dig in deeper into why they be-lieve what they believe and

how it affects them.”When asked if she would

recommend this class, Gil-bertson responded enthu-siastically. “Oh my gosh! I love this class! This class is the best class this semester that I have. It’s so interest-ing for everyone ‘cause it makes you think. It’s not just the psychology class where you learn about the people and you learn about the brain. It applies to your life.”

The class has experi-enced some rough points though, as especially re-lated to the blog they set up. They received a very anti-Muslim comment from an outside viewer on one of their posts, and one of the interviews between two people ended somewhat badly. The class discussed these events and voted “al-most unanimously” to allow the comments to stand, to better represent the popu-lation’s views on the sub-ject.

I asked Professor Tix if he planned on continu-ing the interviews in com-ing semesters. “I think so. I haven’t really thought it through. I change my mind every semester. And we could keep the blog up, and as new semesters go by, we’d have new students add and it would be an even richer tapestry.”

The class’s blog can be seen at tixpsych2400.word-press.com

In this class, students ask each other

about...religion

Andy TixPhoto by Amanda Brown.

february 25, 2011 page 11

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atu

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by Caleb Sorensen

With the ever rising cost of tu-ition, some of you maybe looking to cut costs or you may also be look-ing to just move out of your par-ent’s place. Either way, renting out a house or apartment is the best op-tion out there for students looking to save money. However, beware because with the low cost of rent-ing also comes problems that can spring up with roommates and oth-er things if you are unprepared. So here are five things that you should be aware of before you decide to get a roommate and start renting.

Know Your Roommate:Recently, a horror movie entitled

“The Roommate” was released in theatres. The movie focuses on two college students who move in to-gether. It becomes apparent that one of them has some serious prob-lems when she tries to take on the life of her new friend. This never has to happen to you as long as you know everything about the person you choose to move in with. If you decide to move in with a stranger, you can always get a background check on that person using veromi.com or backgroundchecks.org.

Leases and Rental Agreements:When it comes to leases, you

need to be sure that you have all of your priorities in order. That means that if you sign a lease for one year, then you better be sure that you are not going anywhere for that year. If you do decide to take off early and break the lease, you may be charged with a hefty fee or your roommate may even be forced to pay off the remainder all on their own.

Security Deposit: A security deposit is paid to a landlord before the renter moves in and protects the landlord from any damages the renter may inflict on the property. The first thing that you should do before you officially move into your new location is go over the property with your land-lord so that you can point out any pre-existing damage, hence pro-tecting your security deposit.

Location: It doesn’t matter how nice an

apartment is or how cheap it is, be-cause all that means nothing if the location is terrible. If your property is too far from your school or job then you will end up paying much more a month in transportation costs. Even if you use public trans-portation you will suffer from all the time you will be losing. Another factor of choosing the right loca-tion is making sure the vibe of the neighborhood fits your personality. Normandale also provides a hous-ing list every semester which shows available renting and housing op-tions for students near Normandale.

Cost of Living: As college students, our budgets

are perpetually being stretched to their limits. So finding the perfect living situation that fits our budgets is critical. However, it is important to remember that the cost of renting per month is nowhere near the ac-tual cost of living. You will still need to pay for food, transportation, en-tertainment and of course, college tuition. With all of that taken into account it can become quite easy to rack up over $1,000 a month in expenses.

Tips for renters

february 25, 2011page12

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by Ben Rasmussen

Community Gardens have been springing up across the country at break-neck speeds. With the cur-rent green revolution, an in-creasing number of individ-uals are seeing the value of local, fresh and whole foods and the benefits growing them can provide. Learn-ing how to produce one’s own healthy food is an in-valuable life skill that ev-eryone should know. Since Normandale is an institution of higher education that does its best to prepare its students to be successful fu-ture leaders, it only makes sense to have one on cam-pus.

The goal of a community garden is to form a coop-erative place in which com-munity members can work together and stake out a plot and grow their own food. This is done while im-proving a neighborhood’s sense of community, pro-moting positive interaction and encouraging physical exercise.

The city of Bloomington has more than doubled the amount of available com-munity garden plots for this season to a total of 82 plots at two sites. Members apply for a plot via the cities gar-den website and pay a fee of $32 per season per plot. Mara Evans, from the city’s park and recreation depart-ment, says that in past sea-sons the gardens have been “outrageously popular” and that “all plots are usually gone the very first day ap-plications are accepted and we added more plots based on the level of demand and also because we were get-ting so many referrals from Richfield and Edina”.

A community garden on campus could be whatever we wanted it to be. It could be a traditional community garden, open to students and neighbors of the school. This alone could improve the image of Normandale as a community partner

and in the MNSCU world as a progressive campus. It could be taken further; students could be offered credit for working in the garden or it could be done as service learning. The food could then be donat-ed to a participating food shelf or directly to families in need. The college of St. Olaf in Northfield, MN, has a very large and successful garden (STOGROW) near their campus that is run and maintained by students and faculty. The produce is then sold to Bon Appétit, their food service provider, and the profits make the garden completely self sustaining, according to their website. The point is, a garden on campus could be tailored to meet our exact needs and desires.

According to Joseph Mc-Culloch, faculty in biology, there had been brief talk of a community garden be-fore, but nothing came of it. When I approached him with the idea, he was ea-ger, interested and brought me along to Normandale’s green committee meeting where I was able to pitch the idea. Chairman Caro-lyn Wanamaker, faculty in chemistry, along with the others was keen on the idea and would like to see a com-munity garden on campus.

The next step is to find out what space we would be able to use, as every square inch of campus space is documented and allotted for a certain purpose. Mc-Culloch has been in con-tact with Jon Stein, building services, about a potential location. The good thing about a project like this is that we will be able to work with whatever space we can get and do our best with it. In a scouting trip I took around the school I found ample space along the east side of the building parallel to France Avenue that could be used for the bulk of the garden and the front of the building could be home to a few large, raised bed gar-

dens. Currently there are ap-

proximately 15 students and teachers who are will-

ing to help get this project underway. Once space gets approved, a committee will be set up and planning

Community garden on campus?

can begin. If you want to be a part of the garden please send an e-mail to Nccgar-den@gmail.com

Normandale students hope to have a garden similar to this one

photo courtesy of www.giveplantsachance.com

february 25, 2011page 13

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Valentine’s Customs

Saint Valentine’s Day, commonly short-ened to Valentine’s Day is an annual com-

memoration held on Febru-ary 14 celebrating love and affection between compan-ions. The day is named after one or more early Chris-tian martyrs named Valen-tine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 500 AD. It was deleted from the Roman calendar of saints in 1969 by Pope Paul VI, but its religious obser-vance is still permitted. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confec-tionery, and sending cards. The day first became asso-ciated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chau-cer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

During Valentine’s Day it is assumed that most cou-ples have to:

Celebrate it romantically; couples get together on this day intimately

Red flowers are passed from the male partner to the female mostly

Most people dress in red outfits, which symbolizes love. Some cultures consid-er red to be a death symbol, therefore they do not recog-nize this day as special.

During the Valentine’s season, most stores usu-ally have higher sales of strawberries and whipped cream! (Interesting)

Is there a special way of spending this time in your culture? In Japan, it is only the women who give pres-ents (mainly chocolates) to men. Japanese women are usually too shy to express their love. Men are too busy with business and only ex-press love by showing up early on this particular day.

February 14th is celebrat-ed in Mexico as the Día de San Valentin, but it’s more commonly referred to as El Día Del Amor y la Amistad, the “day of love and friend-ship.” People commonly give flowers, candies and balloons to their roman-tic partners, but it’s also a day to show appreciation for friends. At Normandale, most people are dressed as usual and everything runs normally. A few people from other cultures recog-nized this day and at least dressed for it.

stories and photos by Miriam Mongare

Top: Dressing up for Valentine’s DayBottom Left: A heart-shaped Valentine’s Day gift Bottom Right Below: RoseBottom Right: A gift card

february 25, 2011page 14

fe

atu

re

by Bryan Kissee

Josef Rozenberg, survivor of the ho-

locaust, spoke at NCCs sec-ond annual Success Day. He was one of the many Jews living in Poland when it was invaded and taken over by Nazi Ger-many.

Rozenberg, a very soft-spoken man, stood in front of hun-dreds to tell his story of experiencing the nightmare of geno-cide first hand.

Life in Poland was tough even before the invasion due to a failing economy caused by dicta-torships. Josef Rozenberg was the fourth child of six, four girls and two boys. His father owned a small busi-ness that focused on kitch-en utensils and steadily employed ten workers. He spoke of the local syna-

gogues as being large and beautiful.

In 1939 Rozenberg had just graduated the seventh grade when the Nazis over-took Poland. As a result, this was the highest degree of education he received. He

was fourteen when the war broke out.

“They would grab Jews off the street and force them to wash German tanks and machine guns,” claims Rozenberg. Some were forced to use their tallis to scrub such weapons, a type of scarf Jew-ish men wear during

prayer service. Before too long the Nazis

had established a curfew of 5:00pm for the Jewish people. His father’s shop was closed down by the Germans and the beautiful synagogues burned to the ground. Shortly thereafter

Jews were made to wear blue and white armbands or the Star of David so the Nazis could easily identify them. Jews that did not fol-low these rules would be jailed or shot no matter if they were women or chil-dren.

In October 1939, Rozen-berg’s family, along with many others, were forced to move to the Polish town of Lodz, better known as the Lodz Ghetto. Living situa-tions were less than poor. There was no running wa-ter, just a pump, so when the weather would get below freezing there was no water.

There were no bath-rooms, instead outhouses and no place to buy food. The Germans put factories in the ghetto that produced supplies for their army and forced Jews to work in them in exchange for food.

“If you did not work, you did not get any food rations,” said Rozensberg. Even though this trade of food for work was not guaranteed, at the age of fourteen he took the risk and started working in these German factories. He states that, “You have to take a chance or you won’t have a chance to survive in

any case.”In 1942, Germans went

to the Jewish elders of the ghetto and asked that they give them 25,000 of their people--the old, sick, the ones who couldn’t work--and they would take them to farms where life would be much easier on them.

The elders agreed and gave the Nazis 25,000 peo-ple. Rozensberg’s mother and his younger brother were part of those individu-als that left.

“That was the last time I seen them,” he said. Within a few hours of leaving the ghetto, those who made up the 25,000 were executed.

In 1944, Rozenberg, his father and four sisters left the ghetto. Along with many other Jews they were put in cattle cars and shipped to concentration camps. When his family arrived in Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Poland, they were told to leave their personal belongings on the ground and were divided up by sex. This was the last time Rozenberg would see three of his four sisters (His old-est sister survived the holo-caust as well).

They were taken to facili-

ties that had large shower systems; at one point his father and he were split up. Rozenberg went into one shower room, his father into another. He said that when the shower system was turned on in the room, wa-ter came out; it was actually a shower. Unfortunately the room his father was in did not have the same result, it was a gas chamber.

He was later moved to an-other camp called Ahlem, located in Hannover, Ger-many, where he says the living conditions were even poorer than the previous; the work was harder and the food was scarce.

At one point, the Ger-mans were taking Jewish volunteers within the con-centration camp where Rozenberg was, to go on a march to another camp. He was so weak that he could not even walk, so he chose not to go.

A few days after the volun-teered Jews were marched to another camp, on April 10, 1945; the Ahlem concen-tration camp was liberated by U.S. troops. Josef Rozen-berg had officially survived the worst genocide man-kind has ever faced.

Rozenberg

First-hand account of life during Nazi

occupation

february 25, 2011page 15

CALENDARCAMPUS

CLUBSmonday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday

LOOKING AHEAD...

FEBRUARY 28 - MARCH 19, 2011

MONDAY Campus Crusade for Christ – 11 a.m. in A2562Archaeology club – noon, S2338Gay-Straight Student Alliance – 3 p.m., C2032

TUESDAYBreak-dance club – 3:30-6 p.m., S2338 or A1570 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship – 9 a.m. in F2231 and 11:30 a.m. in F2235Juggling club – noon, GymnasiumHats for the Homeless, 11 a.m., A2552Student Senate – 2 p.m., A2570Black Student Alliance – 1 p.m., L1747Table Tennis Club – 3-5 p.m., A2562

WEDNESDAYBreak-dance club – 3:30-6 p.m., S2338 or A1570 IVCF – 11 a.m. in L1747, noon in S2322 IVCF – Bible Discovery, noon, L3701 Peer Mentors – 2-4 p.m., TBDTae Kwon Do – 3 p.m., A1560 Table Tennis Club – 3-5 p.m., A1550 NCC STEM Club – 4 p.m., S2320

THURSDAYIVCF Women’s Group - 4 p.m. at Rachel’sCSL – Intercultural Service Circles, 1p.m., A2570Anthropolgy Club – 3:30 p.m. ,S2320

FRIDAYBreak-dance club – 3:30-6 p.m., S2338 or A1570 Outdoor Club – 2 p.m., front of the buildingTae Kwon Do – 2-4 p.m., A 1560

NCC Intramural Public Speaking Contest - March 28, two required prelim rounds at 2 and 3:15 P.M.. Details and sign up by March 25 outside C2016.

Auditions for Normandale Student Commencement Speaker April 25, 3 p.m. C2003 Contact Mike Wartman.

South Suburban Conference Art Show, March 1-27,NCC Fine Arts Gallery

Priority Deadline for all two-year degrees, certificates and the MnTC certification applications

Community SpeakerMary Dierich RN geriatric Nurse Practitioner, 10 a.m. A2556

NCC Night With The Timberwolves - March 30, 7 p.m ,Target Center

6th Annual Soup Bowl Sale - March 23, 10:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m., F1293

spring break!!

‘‘Almost, Maine’’ NCC Black Box Studio,March 3-4 at 7:30 p.m. , March 5 at 2 p.m.

Aim for the Head: The Zombie Pajama Party, 8 p.m.-2 a.m., The Loft at Barfly, 711 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis

Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Soul, 7 p.m., Dakota Jazz Club, 1010 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis

Good Charlottewith Forever the Sickest Kids and This Century, 5 p.m., First Avenue Mainroom, all ages

Comedy Open Mic Night, 8-11 p.m., Half Time Rec, 1013 Front Ave.,St.Paul

The Japhies CD release show with City of Sound, Live From Heaven and American Revival, 7th Streeet Entry, Minneapolis, doors at 8 p.m., 18+

28 1 2 4 5

7 8 9 12

14 15 16 17 18 19

february 25, 2011page 16

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