By John F. O’Sullivan
After chanting for an encore for a few minutes, Cake stepped back onstage. It was during the final minutes of Pinestock on Saturday. The crowd of 1300-2000 students went wild as the band launched into one of their best-known singles, but suddenly their focus was drawn elsewhere.
The SJS removed Senator Brendon Murn Monday. When the discussion became heated, two senators walked (more…)
In her annual speech, the CSB president addresses CSB Identity, endowment increases and the future
Compiled by The Record
Leadership Recognized
Students and faculty from CSB/SJU were honored at the Inspiring Leadership 2007 recognition banquet April 22 at Guild Hall.
The event, which was sponsored by Student Activities and Leadership Development at CSB/SJU, featured a keynote speech from Bruce Jackson, CEO of the C. Charles Jackson Foundation.
CSB student Carliene Quist received the “Excellence in Leadership Award.” Quist, a senior from St. Cloud, Minn., is majoring in peace studies and Spanish. The award was presented by Gar Kellom, vice president of student development at SJU.
Quist also shared the “Inspire a Shared Vision” award with CSB student Melissa Rosenthal (senior, theology, Red Wing, Minn.).
The “Club of the Year” was Magis, a Christian outreach organization for students at CSB/SJU.
“Advisor of the Year” was awarded to Paul Marsnik, associate professor of management at CSB/SJU. Marsnik advises Students in Free Enterprise.
New to CSB/SJU this year, the Inspiring Leaders Certificate Program (ILCP) seeks to prepare students for leadership roles and responsibilities in service to the college and community.
By Raj Chaphalker
Thursday, the HMML welcomed an honored guest, Her Excellency Dr. Eva Nowotny, Austrian ambassador to the United States.
The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library plays host to countless visitors from around the globe, often unbeknownst to CSB/SJU students.
Many of these scholars flock to Saint John’s to access the world’s largest collection of manuscript images, totaling more than 30 million pages of ancient and medieval texts.
Nowotny toured the Saint John’s Abbey and University campus, including the HMML, with her husband. HMML board member and Honorary Consul General of Austria Ron Bosrock hosted the tour, continuing the longstanding history of HMML’s relationship with Austria.
The ambassador visit focused on HMML’s Austrian collection, a project which began in 1965 under the direction of Fr. Oliver Kapsner, OSB, and later Fr. Urban Steiner, OSB. The early microfilming project, which began at Kremsmünster Monastery in the Alps, gathered images of more than 30,000 manuscripts throughout Austria, including approximately 14,000 manuscripts at Vienna’s Austrian National Library.
The Austrian collection is now the largest, oldest and most complete collection at HMML and remains in great demand among international researchers, according to the HMML Web site.
Fr. Columba Stewart, OSB, HMML’s executive director, says he is proud of the Austrian collection.
“This collection is really the one that ‘made HMML’ . . . (it) set the standard for the collaboration that has characterized HMML’s mission,” he said in a press release.
Nowotny attended a luncheon with invited guests, including CSB/SJU music professor Axel Theimer, a native of Austria. Theimer says he is pleased by what he sees as a strengthening of the existing ties between the monastery, HMML, and the Austrian Benedictines.
“I am thrilled that the ambassador is visiting,” he said via e-mail. “It must be seen as a confirmation that Austria appreciates what St. John’s has done to help preserve and make available countless cultural, theological and literary treasures.”
Following the reception, Nowotny and guests attended a presentation on the Austrian microfilms in Alcuin Library.
“I am pleased that Ambassador Nowotny will be able to learn about the Austrian collection at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Librarym,” Bosrock said. “It is a unique repository of the Austrian culture here in Minnesota [and] an important focus for Austrian studies.”
Nowotny served as Austria’s ambassador to France from 1992 to 1997 and to the United Kingdom from 1997 to 1999. She held an assistant professorship at the University of Vienna from 1969 to 1973. She has served as Ambassador to the United States since September of 2003.
By Tom Mix
Next time you crack open a can of beer, you may want to take a glance at CSB senior Elizabeth Donovan’s recent research findings.
Donovan conducted a study on C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in the blood of college-age adults and its relation to CRP risk factors such as smoking, medication use and alcohol consumption. She presented her research at the American Heart Association’s eighth annual conference on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
High CRP levels in the blood have been linked to inflammation, a risk factor for heart disease.
The study
The study Donovan conducted surveyed 25 college students. The survey assessed their consumption of potential CRP risk factors. A blood sample was then collected from each student to measure their CRP level.
Donovan, who will attend Minn.-Duluth Medical School next fall, said the study was interesting to conduct.
“I knew I wanted to do something related to medicine,” Donovan said. “(Amy Olson, nutrition professor) found a new technique to measure C-reactive levels that was feasible to do on campus.”
Heart disease
Donovan’s study compared the CRP levels to the different amounts of alcohol consumption of college students.
Heavy drinking was defined as consuming three or more alcoholic drinks at least three times a week or at least five drinks two days a week.
Moderate drinkers were classified as consuming two to five drinks at a time one or two days a week.
Donovan’s research found that CRP levels of heavy drinkers were double than those of moderate drinkers, putting them at a moderate risk for heart disease.
Recognition
Donovan’s research caught the eye of several people in the medical profession.
Sanjay Gupta, M.D., who writes a health column for Time magazine, used Donovan’s research for a story that is on newsstands nationwide.
Donovan was surprised her study received as much media attention as it did.
“I think it is something important for college-age students to look at because their lifestyle habits now could impact their health later in life,” Donovan said.
Olson, Donovan’s advisor, said she was pleased with Donovan’s study and the fact it got the attention of a national media outlet.
“It has been exciting,” Olson said. “Her research is comparable to a master’s thesis.”
Olson also said that CRP research is a growing area of research and has been linked to diabetes and other health problems.
“(CRP) will be a hot area of research the next couple of years,” Olson said.
Donovan said that she is not planning on conducting future research on CRP levels, but she will see where she is at after medical school.
By Amy Zimmermann
Campus pets come with challenges for students.
These challenges range from keeping the pet alive to, for some, keeping it hidden from Residential Life.
Students are only allowed to have fish in tanks no larger than 10 gallons in their campus rooms or apartments, according to the Residential Life Web site.
Heidi Hilleson, resident director in Brian and Margretta Hall, said it is a full-time commitment to have pets, especially in residential communities.
“Students are sharing a living space,” she said. “It can create more roommate issues than already exist.”
Sophomore Maura Cavanaugh has had several fish this past year. She and her roommate struggle with keeping their fish longer than a month.
“Currently, we are trying to see how long we can keep them alive,” Cavanaugh said.
Cavanaugh and her roommate are currently on their fifth fish of the year. She said they have learned something new from each of their former fish, which helps keep the next one alive even longer.
“We didn’t realize the location of the fish in the room and the time it’s fed makes a difference in its health,” Cavanaugh said.
Cat-sitting
Some students have challenged the residential life staff by having pets such as cats, guinea pigs and birds in their rooms or apartments. Some were caught, but others decided they didn’t want to have the pet anymore.
Senior Steph Roers and her roommates had a kitten for a short time during fall semester. The kitten was her roommate’s pet that was rejected by its mother and would have died.
“This cat was so small,” Roers said. “It lived in a shoe box with an incubator, and they had to bottle feed it.”
She said they didn’t have to work to hide the kitten from Residential Life staff because they live in Luetmer. They did, however, try to keep it from getting too close to the door by locking it in the back two rooms or the second bathroom.
The kitten was moved out when it was strong enough to eat solid food.
Legal cats
Hilleson said that as a resident director she is allowed to have a cat because her apartment in Brian Hall is her permanent home.
During her first two years as a resident director she lived in Corona, and the students welcomed her cat, Lily.
“Students who missed their cat or dog would come to play with her,” Hilleson said.
She doesn’t get the same response from students in the sophomore resident halls.
It can be a challenge to keep a pet on campus with the busy schedules students have. Cavanaugh said she found the challenge rewarding.
“It has been a joyous event,” she said. “It has improved my college experience.”
By Doug Trumm
“This is art!?!” a confused student is heard saying at the Senior Art Exhibit at the Gorecki Gallery at CSB.
The student, skeptically pondering a mixed media project consisting of hundreds of prescription vials smattered on falling shelves and cascading to the floor, is surrounded by throngs of other potential art critics. Many of them are first-year students desperate to complete their fine arts events requirement for the year.
The first-years also swarmed to the Alice R. Rogers and Target Galleries in the Art Center at SJU where more senior artwork was on display and another FAE worker was busy swiping student IDs.
The CSB and SJU galleries exhibit the work of each of the 16 senior art majors in a variety of mediums from paintings and ceramics to video, computer art, mixed media, fashion and sculpture.
Some students were much more accepting of the adventurous nature of the senior artwork.
First-year student Andy Aebly admired Jenna Dodge’s exhibit, which portrayed a plain pot gradually morphing into an emaciated blob of clay through a series of stoneware pieces.
“The clay pots are interesting because they take a stationary medium and portray an experience” Aebly said.
Another project, by Grace Brogan, included a piece consisting of a beeswax frame hanging a yard from a wall covered in painted tree rings.
“I really like the tree cross-sections, because they have widely varied colors that together represent a beautiful landscape,” first-year student Alyssa Hoff said, adding, “when looking through the frame each person sees the landscape from a different perspective.”
First-year student Ann Koller was drawn to Lauren Sitany’s series of portraits. The paintings depicted a gambit of emotions in each portrayed person.
“I really liked the paintings, but all of the artwork was impressive,” Koller said.
The artwork is the fruit of a full year of work.
“The basic themes and goals were put together about a year ago in a thesis proposal, and I’ve been working out how to effectively make those concepts a physical reality ever since,” Brogan said.
Brogan found it challenging to bring so many abstract ideas into a physical reality amid the burden of other classwork and figuring out what comes after college.
“I am relatively happy with the finished project. I made some interesting changes and hit on a number of things I had hoped I would,” Brogan said. “I’m excited to put the project aside for a while and return to it under new circumstances.”
Steve Lemke said, “As a junior art major, I know that it represents a big step in the transition from being an art student to becoming an exhibiting artist. Throughout the process the seniors learn how to present their work in a gallery setting, form artist statements, as well as how to experiment in lighting design and curatorial layout.”
While working on her exhibit, Brogan said she learned how to persevere, offering the advice, “Keep making things!”
Lemke said, “For my campus job as gallery installationist, I’ve been working with the seniors to assist and facilitate their installation process. In doing so I’ve learned how much I appreciate their hard work. I’m sure the faculty is proud of them.”
Bennies and Johnnies should take time to reflect upon their experiences, create new memories and look toward the future.
By the Editorial Board
We are at the end of yet another school year. Looking at the wistful good-byes to CSB/SJU and the excitement for what the future will bring, The Record offers advice to students. Seniors, good luck with all that comes next. Returning students, have a wonderful summer we’ll see you next year.
By Jolene Brink
San Francisco is a city of redwoods, hippies and coastline.
This year it was also home to the 21st National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR) and the story of 12 CSB/SJU students eager to explore California.
It was still snowing in Minnesota when our plane landed on the West Coast. I’d been crawling under my fluorescent lamp for weeks trying to get tan. Just imagine the joyful shock I felt seeing sunlight and green plants for the first time in months.
Copyright © 2007-2008 The Record