YEAR IN REVIEW
TOP 2007
WINONA CAMPUS NEWS
WINONA, Minn., Dec. 31, 2007 --The biggest news has legs. Never a one-shot story but a series of snapshots, the biggest stories can run for months. In Winona campus news, the biggest news of 2007, a community-polarizing plan for a mega-arena between the main Winona State campus and the river, is sure to play itself out in the year ahead.
These are the top campus stories, as reported in the CyberIndee, in the year just past:
2007 NEWS
NO. 1. COLISEUM
A huge coliseum to accommodate more Warrior basketball fans than McCown gym is a glint in the eye of Winona State University planners. Six months of closed-door planning were unveiled in December for a multi-purpose convention center and arena. And, oh, yes, the planners said a Shakespearean fest theater would be included in $250,000 in planning funds from the Legislature is turned over to their larger project, The Winona arts community was incensed. "Shakespeare a barn?" asked Winona State theater prof Dave Bratt. Theater people, who had been kept in the dark, felt pre-empted. For four seasons they had worked hard to make the Great River Shakespeare Festival a success and won the $250,000 in state funds to plan a permanent theater. Your gateway to the whole story |
|
| 
HUMUNGOUS, YES, BUT REALLY UGLY
Winona coliseum backers cite Northern Illinois convocation center as their model |
2007 NEWS
NO. 2. CAMPUS DEATHS
For decades, Winona State student leaders had bemoaned apathy about student governance and promised to solve it. Jared Stene, taking reins as student president this year, was the first student leader to go beyond lip service to improving student involvement and laid out a specific plan. Then in November, Stene, 22, developed sudden-onset liver disease. WIthin a week he died. The campus mourned. Who couldn't love a guy who extolled Minnesota hot dishes, set up a daily "Price is Right" watch-a-thon, sipped Mugby coffee hour after hour, and had time to talk with anybody and everybody. On issues that matter, like tuition relief and student power, he was thought out and he spoke out, Do his successors have the drive and savvy to continue Stene's unfinished agenda, including the the stirring of student interest in participating in enduring issues? We'll see. |
|
|
JARED STENE
KERRY WILLIAMS
2007 departures |
|
Other losses:• Mike Brown, 23, a recent Winona State business grade, to injuries from a motorcycle accident.
•Tom Farren, 58, golf coach at St. Mary's University.
• Jenna Foellmi, 20, a Winona State biochem major, to binge drinking after fall finals.
• Lee Allyn Wells, 20, a Winona State accounting major, to injuries from an automobile accident.
• Psychology prof Kerry Williams, 61, an architect of the core Winona State curriculum, to cancer.
What news would you add to this ranking of top 2007 Winona campus events and issues? Would you rejigger the ranking? Let us know. This is a work in progress.
editor@indee.info |
2007 NEWS
NO. 3. AT THE BUZZER
Drama on the basketball court doesn't get any better than this. Nor heartbreak any worse. After dominating and looking like the better team in the NCAA Division II championship game, Winona State watched a seven-point lead disappear with 45 seconds remaining. With one-10th of a second remaining, Barton College senior guard Anthony Atkinson took the ball at half court, glided to the Barton hoop and rolled the ball softly off his fingers for an 77-75 victory. Winona State fans, who traversed half a continent to Springfield, Mass., tournament, hopeful of an encore a national championship, were devastated. So too was Warrior senior guard Zach Malvik, who had let the ball got into Atkinson's hands. Malvik couldn't bring himself to talk with reporters. Said teammate Quincy Henderson: "It's definitely tough to swallow right now." Your gateway to the whole story
|
|
|
ZACH MALVIK.
The super-performing Malvik lost control of the ball in the NCAA national championship game, giving Barton the chance to score the winning basket in the last 10th-second of the final game. So emotionally shaken was Malvik that he couldn't meet with reporters post-game. |
2007 NEWS
NO. 4. HUNGER STRIKE
Nobody has quite figured how why Paul Scheevel, the dorms director at Winona State, went so trigger happy, ignored university and legal processes, and fired four popular student dorm supervisors. Students mounted a protest against Scheevel over due-process and justice issues. The Ramaley administration, plainly out of tune with students,turned a deaf ear even as the outrage escalated. Transfer student Brandon Nagel saw no recourse but a hunger strike. That got state Chancellor Jim McCormick's attention. As Nagel was drawing more students to his hunger protest, McCormick ordered university President Judith Ramaley to get control of the situation. Academic Vice President Sally Johnstone negotiate a deal that got Nagel and a handful of increasingly hungry students back to eating. Scheevel survived the career crisis she created, but her supervisor, acting student affairs Vice President Ruth Schroeder, left campus within months after being passed over for two positions. Ramaley survived, partly by casting the issue not as an administration failure but as a communication failure.
Your gateway to the whole story
JOURNALISM AWARD
For her coverage of the hunger strike on the CyberIndee, journalist Shannon McGraw won the Dean Lanz Award for reporting on social justice and free expression issues. |
|
| 
SHANNON
MCGRAW |
OTHER NOMINEES
Also considered for WSU Student of the Year:
JARED STENE, student president whose death interrupted his project for more meaningful student involvement
OLIVER TODRYK, tragically brain-damaged after a heart stoppage at gym
KARI WINTER, student vice president whose experience and competence contributed importantly to effective student governance
|
|
|
| WSU
STUDENT
OF THE YEAR
BRANDON
NAGEL
In the courageous spirit of history's great advocates on nonviolence in the cause of justice and reforms, junior Brandon Nagel brought attention to administrative indifference in dorm governance with a hunger strike. Ostrich-like, campus administrators at first paid no heed.
But the Nagel protest got attention in St. Paul. State Chancellor Jim McCormick, concerned that people die if they don't eat, rattled cages in Winona. Administrators began negotiations.
Nagel demonstrated leadership in illustrating not only an official indifference but arrogance toward students. |
|
STUDENTS ASK:
HOW ABOUT TUITION RELIEF
ARE STATE COLLEGES
OVERDOING TECHNOLOGY?
LEADING LEGISLATORS DISPLEASED;
MNSCU ENTERS DEFENSIVE MODE
MARSHALL, Minn., Dec. 31, 2007 -- The state college system has diverted major resources to unnecessary, fancy technology, says the chair of the Minnesota State University Student Association. Kara Brockett said that part of a giant $63 million system technology initiative should have gone to tuition relief. Brockett faults system Chancellor Jim McCormick. "We're willing to sacrifice some of these fancier initiatives to save us some money, but that's not an option in the eyes of the chancellor," she told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In the current economy, Brockett, a senior at Southwest Minnesota State, said that students are willing to trade technological perfection for a tuition break.
Brockett's voice is in a growing choir of criticism at McCormick's insistence of using $63 million from $152 million in new money that the 2007 Legislature. The Legislature had intended for operations of the Minnesota State Colleges and University system, which includes Winona State and Southeast Tech. The McCormick initiative effectively doubling the money spent on technology in recent years. State Rep. Gene Pelowski, D-Winona, was critical of the MnSCU technology plan early on. Although a technology buff himself, Pelowski favored spending that would directly benefit MnSCU campuses -- rather than technology centralized in St. Paul. Other leaders on higher-ed issues, including Sen. Sandy Pappas, D-St. Paul, and Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, have told McCormick's people that the system is committing far more money on technology than
the Legislature anticipated.
System officials deny that their technology initiative is all about centralizing control and bulking up its St. Paul bureaucracy. They argue that a trickle-down effect will benefit students and faculty. The central MnSCU computers and state network desperately needs updating. The updating is intended not must to maintain current performance levels but also to move the system into more online courses that, say critics, threaten to displace bricks-and-mortar facilities over time.
The statewide faculty union's lobbyist, Russ Stanton, accused the system of "simply throwing money at technology. The union, said Stanton, may ask for an independent audit of the technology plan. Also, he said, the faculty may press for a ceiling on how much money the can spend on technology. Others leaders in the Inter Faculty Organization see MnSCU using the $63 million to move pell-mell to a technology infrastructure for a single virtual university that will divert students from the system's existing 32 universities and two-year colleges and also away from traditional instruction.
The chancellor's staff, however, has tried to keep the focus on updating that they say is essential. "Our system was crumbling," Jim Dillemuth, who oversees MnSCU's technology needs, told the Pioneer Press. "We had to fix the infrastructure, or it was going to continue to deteriorate." Dillemuth said. The system currently supports systemwide online registration, which is widely recognized as wobbly and fails frequently. This year, Dillemuth said, the system is spending $27 million just to "keep the lights on." He noted that the 180,000-student system is facing increasing demands. Enrollment in online courses last year passed 33,000, a 29 percent increase.
System spokesperson Melinda Voss said that "essentially all" of the technology money from the Legislature is being spent to:• Provide easy and reliable access to all students, faculty and staff. This includes true round-the-clock availability so students, faculty and staff can focus on learning, teaching and efficient business processes.
• Significantly enhance security and identity management to protect against security breaches.
• Renovate current administrative systems (student records, finance,and human resources) to support technical changes with software vendors.
Handling these services through one centralized system is the most efficient way to provide and maintain these essential services, Voss said. Without these information technology services, institutions would be unable to operate or would have to provide their own administrative and academic
information technology systems at a significantly higher cost than when
they are delivered statewide from a central operation. Boss also said that In addition $10 million is being allocated directly to the campuses for local information technology needs over a two-year period. This allocation, she said, will support, local networks, wireless networks, email, smart classrooms and other purely local needs.
So was it out of line for MnSCU to take 40 percent of its new money from the Legislature on spend it on technology. The system, MnSCU says, spends far less per student on technology than the University of Minnesota. Even so, political observers believe that MnSCU's decision will raise new skepticism about budget requests to he Legislature in coming years. To the 2007 Legislature, the system argued that it needed flexibility in spending new budget money. Now, said the faculty union's Stanton, "The flexibility has been abused." |
|
| SOLONS
UNHAPPY
STOPPING SHORT OF THE "B" WORD BETRAYAL
SEN. SANDY PAPPAS
D-St. Paul
REP. TOM RUKAVINA
D-Virginia
REP. GENE PELOWSKi
D-Winona |
|
Background: Charge: St. Paul mishandled tech funds
Minority college enrollment growsWASHINGTON, Dec. 31, 2007 -- Hispanic higher-ed enrollment grew 25 percent, mostly at two-year colleges, in the first seven years of the decade, according to the Government Accountability Office. African-American and Asian and Pacific Islander students both increased 15 percent. Enrollment growth for white students was less than 3 percent.
Reading scheduled for WSU novelistDAVENPORT, Iowa, Dec. 31, 2007 -- Newspaper reporter Brian Krans, a Winona State University grad, will read from his first novel, "A Constant Suicide," in Davenport. Krans, who holds a 2004 Winona State journalism degree, covers police and courts for the Rock Island and Moline, Ill., Dispatch and Argus. "Constant Suicide" is a slightly veiled story that Krans drew from his college days.Date: Thursday, Jan. 31
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: 225 E. Second St., Suite 303
Cost: Free |
|
| BRIAN KRANS
2004 WSU j-grad |
|
Background: Shades of WSU in grad's suicide novel
Smith is week's Northern Sun starST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 31, 2007 -- Winona State University senior John Smith had back-to-back double-doubles for No. 5-ranked Warriors in a pair of men's basketball victories over Minnesota State-Mankato to be named Northern Sun conference player of the week. Smith had 28 points, 25 rebounds and 10 assists in the two games. The victories improved Winona State to 14-1 for the season and extended its winning streak to eight games. Smith also helped the Warriors snapped the MSU's Mavericks' 26-game home winning streak.
Background: WSU 66, MSU-Mankato 62
Background: WSU 92, MSU-Mankato 75 |
|
| 
JOHN SMITH
WSU forward |
Giuliani names education advisersNEW YORK, Dec. 31, 2007 -- Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani has plucked former U.S. Secretary of Education Roderick Paige from the Stanford University faculty for a panel of education advisers for his presidential bid.
Paige has been an advocate of private-school vouchers. Terry Moe, a political scientist at Stanford, is chairing the panel. Giuliani also appointed Benno Schmidt, a former Yale University president who is now chairs the governing board of the City University of New York; Brian Jones, executive vice president of College Loan Corporation, which specializes in student loans; and Abraham Lackman, president of the New York Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities.
Background: Campaigns that campus people are watching
WSU SECURITY REPORT
DEC. 31, 2007
A trouble alarm was activated in Lourdes Hall at 8:33 p.m. Nothing found awry.
|
Case Western halts live animal useCLEVELAND, Ohio, Dec. 31, 2007 -- The Case Western Reserve medical school joined other schools in abandoning live cats, dogs and ferrets in surgery classes. Also, pigs will no longer be used in lab courses. The decision, said Case Western, was based on several factors, including the availability of realistic alternatives, such as computer simulations. The university also acknowledged pressure from students and animal-rights groups.
Smash-up disables two cars; no injuriesWINONA, Minn., Dec. 31, 2007 -- A car driven by a Winona State University student, Holly JoAnn Pajak, pulled out from the stop sign at Fourth and Franklin into the path of a second car, police said. Neither Pajak, 20, of Blaine, Minn., nor the other driver, Ashley Felix, 21, of Waseca, Minn., was injured. Both cars were disabled, Police cited Pajak for failing to yield. The accident happened about 6 p.m. Although Felix was not responsible for the accident, police performed a sobriety test and found her blood was 0.17 percent alcohol, more than twice the legally allowable limit. Felix was cited for drunken driving.
College gigs staff for student plagiary
SYDNEY, Australia, Dec. 31, 2007 -- After an inquiry into student plagiarism. the University of New England will discipline its staff for letting it happen. Chancellor John Cassidy promised "an ongoing enquiry into the conduct of the staff." Cassidy noted that a private partner, the Melbourne Institute of Technology, was involved even though the students graduated with University of New England diplomas. The plagiarism involved mostly students from Asia. Cassidy said the inquiry raised questions about staff management of the curriculum, the distinction between intentional and unintentional plagiarism, cultural understanding, natural justice, and the time since graduation." No students will lose their diplomas, he said. In the inquiry the work of 210 foreign students in the master's degrees program in information technology were examined and a "significant proportion" of the work contained material copied from the Internet.
Nobody's cookin' with DinahWINONA, Minn., Dec. 30, 2007 -- Firefighters were responding to St. Mary's University when they learned it was a false alarm and turned around. The alarm, triggered by smoking food, sounded at 9:25 a.m.
How does prof deal with drunks?WINONA, Minn., Dec. 29, 2007 -- A Winona State prof said he found no support from the university in trying to deal with a student who showed up regularly for a 10 a.m. lab "smelling like a gin mill." The prof, who asked not to be identified in this story, said he contacted the university's health services office, which has run a program to discourage alcoholism, for advice. "They told me there was nothing that they could do to help the student, unless he sought help," the prof said. The prof called he student "a happy drunk" who was not disruptive and proceeded through assignments. "Clearly there was a long-term addiction," said the prof, who said he had no experience or competence to deal with it. "The university was professing to have services available for students like this, but there was no program in place to extend a hand."
The prof related his experience following the death of sophomore Jenna Foellmi, 20, from alcohol poisoning. Although there is no record that Foellmi was addicted to alcohol, her death prompted university President Judith Ramaley to issue a statement of university concern about am "epidemic" of high-risk drinking among young people. Ramaley said that Karen Johnson, dean of students, was standing by to help "students who have concerns about alcohol abuse, for themselves or someone they know."
The prof with the student who smelled like a gin mill said the university was "a little late" with the services that Ramaley announced. "My student no longer is at the university, and I worry the habits he either brought here or developed here have him on a skid row somewhere."
Background: Ramaley sees lessons in Foellmi death
| BASKETBALL (MEN'S)
DEC. 29, 2007
WSU 66, MSU-Mankato 62 |
|
WSU runs winning streak to fiveMANKATO, Minn., Dec, 29, 2007 -- Winona State University held Minnesota State-Mankato scoreless in the final three minutes and 30 seconds and scored nine unanswered points for a 66-62 nonconference men's basketball victory. The victory snapped a 26-game home winning streak by MSU-Mankato and upped the No. 5-ranked Winona State winning streak to eight.
Winona State trailed 62-57 with 3:30 left to play. Jonte Flowers hit a couple field goals. David Johnson and John Smith followed up with two more two-pointers. Travis Whipple iced the game with two free throw with seven seconds left.
Winona State did not allow any MSU-Mankato field goals in the final 4:40.
For the second night in a row, five Warriors scored in double figures. Johnson and Smith led with 13. Smith converted on a double-double with a team-high 12 rebounds to go along with four assists, three blocked shots an one steal. Also in double-figure scoring were Flowers, Ben Fischer and Quincy Henderson.
Winona State held the edge on the boards 39-30. At the half, the led 34-33. Winona State outscored the Mavericks 32-29 in the second half.
Statistics
Yale prof: Chinese plagiarism rampantNEW HAVEN, Conn., Dec. 29, 2007 -- A cultural lack of respect for academic integrity plagues both Chinese higher education but the culture in general, a
Yale University prof charged in an open letter after teaching at Peking University this fall. Stephen Stearns, who teaches ecology and evolutionary biology, said he found rampant plagiarism and official indifference. "The fact that I have encountered this much plagiarism ... tells me something about the behavior of other professors and administrators here," Stearns wrote. "They must tolerate a lot of it, and when they detect it, they cover it up without serious punishment, probably because they do not want to lose face. If they did punish it, it would not be this frequent." He noted the irony of official Chinese policy to upgrade academic standards, About the large society, Stearns said intellectual property rights are regularly ignored in China. He cited the his own textbook being reproduce without authorization by Peking University itself. "Disturbingly," he wrote, "plagiarism fits into a larger pattern of behavior in China/" Stearns' letter quickly made the rounds the Chinese-language Internet
WSU SECURITY REPORT
DEC. 29, 2007
An ambulance crew was called at 12:45 a.m. for a drunk student at the Sheehan dorm. She was taken to the hospital.
|
Big Ten starts criminal checks on refs
PARK RIDGE, Ill., Dec. 28, 2007 -- The Big Ten college athletic conference will begin annual background checks on all of its football and basketball referees. The conference made the decision after a report that one of the conference's top game officials, Stephen Pamon, has a history of bankruptcy, casino gambling, child abuse, and allegations of sexual harassment. The bankruptcy court documents said that Pamon and his wife had more than $400,000 in liabilities, including debts to two casinos.
RECENT DAYS IN
THE CITY
POSTED DEC. 28, 2007
HISTORY NEVER STOPS. The Winona Historical Society passed the $1 million mark in a fund drive for a 15,000-square foot expansion. Putting the drive over $1 million was $50,000 from Winona National Bank.
RAPE CONVICTION. The fourth defendant in a 2004 gang-rape of an unconscious 16-year-old girl pleaded guilty to reduced charges in a plea agreement. Subject to a judge's approval, the deal will send Xee Thong Xiong, 20, to prison probably for four years. One of the rapists used a beer can in the rape of the unconscious girl.
|
Senate wins time to ponder tuitionWINONA, Minn., Dec. 28, 2007 -- The Winona State University Student Senate has pushed back a vote on a tuition increase until Feb. 27 to more thoroughly discuss whether to support a zero percent increase or go along with university President Judith Ramaley's proposed 3 to 4 percent hike. The extra time resulted from a complaint by the late student President Jared Stene, who died Nov. 29, to the state college system that a state schedule for consultation with Ramaley was too tight for reasoned discussion. "More time," said Senate Treasurer Travis Carlson, will allow each senator to really get a chance to speak up about the stance, and more voices mean more opinion to discuss the stance and that's how we will get the best results." Carlson said that the Senate would be able to really develop a stance and see what students want from their representatives.
The original timeline for consultation was leaving not only the Senate but university administrators blind to fiscal issues that are yet ti unfold, Carson said " We don't know anything about second semester or what the costs will be," Carlson said. The new semester begins in January.
Carlson himself sees tuition will inevitably increase because the cost of running the university is going up. "What we've got to figure out is where those tuition dollars are coming from," Carlson said. "The students want to know if it's going to come from their pockets or the state's." He likened the university's revenue resources to a pie, with tuition being a very big slice.
The state college system's board of trustees requires that students be consulted on university issues affecting them. "Basically, the field is completely open right now, which gives us more time to figure out what that means," Carlson said. Student positions, advisory. At all levels, from Ramaley up the chain to the chancellor and the board of trustees and even the Legislature, student positions for minimal tuition hikes have failed to be heeded.
Reporter: Stephanie Trask
Background: Senators divided over tuition plan
Mom: Last day not all boozeBROWNSVILLE , Minn., Dec. 28, 2007 -- The last day in the life of Winona State University sophomore Jenna Foellmi, 20, was mostly a quiet respite after final exams, her mother said. Kate Foellmi said she has talked with friends of her daughter and learned that Jenna and friends watched two movies at her Winona apartment late the morning of her last exam and "talked and visited as young girls do." Then, Mrs. Foellmi said, they ordered out a late lunch. Jenna also called home, Mrs. Foellmi said. When Jenna began the drinking that led to her death was not clear in a letter that Mrs.. Foellmi wrote to newspapers that covered the death. She confirmed, however, that Jenna went to two parties that night. Jenna, 20, was found dead at 9:30 the next morning.
Coroner Tom Retzinger has not realized specifics of toxicology tests except to say that the blood-alcohol level was "not compatible with life." The legally defined level for impairment is 0.08 percent alcohol. The point of fatal alcohol poisoning varies from person to person and other circumstances, but 0.30 is dangerous. A police investigation, meanwhile, is continuing into how Foellmi obtained the alcohol. At 20, she was too young to buy alcohol legally or to be served.
Mrs. Foellmi faulted news coverage of the death. She accused reporters and editors of being sanctimonious: "some of the news media have led such perfect lives and they write and report as though, when they were in college, drinking was not an issue for them whatsoever." She said some reports were in error in saying that Jenna had been at "several" parties.
Background: Top cop: Take a sober buddy along
Background: Autopsy: Foellmi died from alcohol
Bartender off hook in binge deathMANKATO, Minn., Dec. 28, 2007 -- Criminal charges will not be brought against a bartender at Sidelines Bar, who served a former Minnesota State-Mankato college student the night she died of alcohol poisoning. Prosecutor Ross Arneson said he doubted he could convince a jury that the bartender was responsible. Amanda Jax, 21, died Oct. 29 with a blood-alcohol level of 0.46 percent -- almost six times the legal max.
Background: Mankato State aims to deter bingeing
Pfeilsticker's blood 0.17% boozeWABASHA, Minn., Dec. 27, 2007 -- Legislative hopeful Linda Pfeilsticker was driving with her blood-alcohol level at more than twice the legal limit when she went off the road near Wabasha 2-1/2 weeks ago, records show. A car driven by Pfeilsticker was found in a ditch about 1:30 a.m., a Sunday morning, by a deputy sheriff. She was unhurt. A field sobriety test found her blood-alcohol at 0.17 percent, the accident report shows. The max allowable behind the wheel is 0.8 percent, Pfeilsticker, 36, is a Democrat making a second bid for the Minnesota House.
Background: Legislative hopeful driving drunk
Background: Campaigns that campus people are watching
| BASKETBALL (MEN'S)
DEC. 28, 2007
WSU 92, MSU-Mankato 75 |
|
Warrior break loose in 2nd half, winWINONA, Minn., Dec. 28, 2007 -- No. 5-ranked Winona State University put up 54 points in the second half and streaked past Minnesota State-Mankato 92-75 in a nonconference men's basketball game. The two teams battled in the first half with the lead changing hands eight times and the scored tied twice. But in the second 20 minutes of play the Warriors turned up its defense. Jonte Flowers scored 11 points, and the team went on to win.
Winona State led 38-35 at the half after John Smith hit a jumper just before the halftime horn.
The Warriors finished with five players in double figures. Flowers, who has been battling a knee injury, came in the second half with just over 15-1/2 minutes to play. He finished with his 11 points to go along with a rebound, two assists and four steals. Quincy Henderson scored 17, Smith 15, and Travis Whipple and Curtrel Robinson each 12. Smith capped off his game with a double-double by adding 13 points. He also had six assists and five blocked shots.
Statistics
WSU SECURITY REPORT
DEC. 27, 2007
A trouble alarm was activated in the Minne classroom building at 10:09 a.m., a false alarm.
|
College fined for concealing murderYPSILANTI, Mich., Dec. 26, 2007 -- the U.S. Department of Education has fined Eastern Michigan University $357,500 for failing to warn the campus of a student's murder. The fine is the largest ever imposed under the Clery Act, which requires colleges to keep campus people abreast of dangerous situations. The federal agency fond 13 violations of the law in a bumbled cover-up in the Laura Dickinson in her dorm room last December. At the time the university issued a public statement announcing her death but denying foul play. A university vice president later said said that he thought disclosing any information would compromise the criminal investigation. In announcing the fine, the Education Department called the university's response t "an egregious violation of the regulations and of its responsibility to its students, employees, parents, and the public."
Background: Mistrial in dorm murder
WSU SECURITY REPORT
DEC. 26, 2007
An individual was warned at 12:21 a.m. for harassing phone calls.
|
Med school dean firedSAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Dec. 26, 2007 -- The medical school dean at the University of California at San Francisco, David Kessler, has been fired after investigations spurred by his claims that he inherited "financial irregularities" when he became dean four years ago. The investigations found the claims unjustified. Kessler, a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said he will stay at the med school and teach.
COMMENT
WSU STUDENT SENATE
WHY WE WORRIED
ABOUT EMILY FEEHAN
AND STILL DO
Emily Feehan can be engaging. Her likability got her elected to the student vice-presidency at Winona State University last spring. She had tough shoes to fill. Her predecessor, Kari Winter, was superb at organization and detail. As vice president, Winter ran student elections smoothly and expertly. And when Winter graduated, she compiled a how-to manual to help Feehan do it right.
Feehan lost the manual. And the fall elections were so screwed up from Feehan's inattention to detail that the Senate shut them down mid-way through four days of online voting and ordered a restart. Although embarrassed by the Feehan disaster, senators gave her the benefit of their doubts and shielded her from critics as best they could. Feehan herself was slow to acknowledge responsibility, engaged in shameful buck-passing aimed at Sen. Ian Galchutt, and sat back demurely at Senate meetings as if nothing was amiss.
The whole mess, attributable to sheer incompetence, suggested that Feehan, an art student, is a creative right-brain person without the left-brain skills needed to run an election. She had no previous Senate experience. Clearly she was in over her head.
Now Jared Stene, the student president, is dead. Feehan is in charge. What does this mean? Everybody hopes she can find her way. But there are doubts. Feehan's spring campaign for the vice presidency suggested she saw it all as a popularity contest. A joiner, Feehan focused on getting friends in her clubs to vote for her. That worked. She won. On issues she was simplistic. Being against tuition increases is a campaign no-brainer. So is promising to end student apathy. Even on those front-burner issues, Feehan detailed no plan, no program. Now she's waffled on the tuition issue. And apathy? You answer that question yourself.
During the campaign, Feehan spurned countless reporter requests for interviews, saying she had talked with some other reporter and was too busy. In her rare campaign interviews, there wasn't much substantive that she had to say. This fall as vice president, after a long silence during her election fiasco, Feehan has been better in responding to reporters, but the record shows she hasn't had much worth saying to say.
Among fellow student senators there is an uneasiness about Feehan taking on the Stene mantle. Stene not only was exceptionally likable but also a leader with vision. And he was planning on a second term to promote his detailed plan to increase student involvement. He was strong where Feehan isn't. His left brain was strong. He had learned the ropes of university structures, personalities and dynamics. He had a solid record of speaking truth to power, including a successful confrontation with the county election czar for student voter registration and a battle with university president Judith Ramaley on ferrying students to the polls. He immersed himself as Minnesota State University Student Association baord member to press the state chancellor on tuition issues.
Perhaps it's unreasonable to expect great things of Feehan in these coming post-Stene months before she graduates. Generally anything that a student president accomplishes during a year in office has been accomplished by Thanksgiving. The rest is all downhill. All things considered, Feehan is a caretaker. She doesn't have a long enough window between know and May to create a legacy. |
Background: Feehan takes helm, O'Shea moves up
POLICE CHIEF
BIG NIGHT OUT?
TAKE A SOBER BUDDY
WINONA, Minn., Dec. 26, 2007 -- Police Chief Frank Pomeroy called on college students to ask a friend to go along and stay sober when they go out drinking. A "buddy system," he said, may have prevented the death Dec. 14 of 20-year-old Winona State sophomore Jenna Foellmi. After a day of binge-drinking after final exams, friends dumped Foellmi off at an apartment to sleep it off. WIthin hours she was dead of acute alcohol poisoning. Pomeroy said a buddy system with a designated responder would reduce risks from binge-drinking.
Background: Bingeing called everyone's problem
Background: Autopsy: Foellmi died from alcohol
Students: College hid accreditation lossROANOKE, Va., Dec. 26, 2007 -- Nursing students filed a $20.7 million law suit against Virginia Western Community College, claiming they were never informed that the program had lost its national accreditation. The plaintiffs number 59 students and grads, each claiming $350,000. They said they will have trouble getting jobs.
R.I.P.: Emma Loretta (Malles) EikampBUFFALO CITY, WIs., Dec. 25, 2007 -- A Winona State Teachers College grad, Emmy Eikamp, 95, died at a nursing home, She taught at one-room schools at Garden Valley and near La Crescent and Dakota, Minn.
SMU former-exec now Marian provostFOND DU LAC, Wis., Dec. 25, 2007 -- A former administrator at St. Mary's University in Winona, Dan Maloney, has been named provost at Marian College. Maloney has been at Marian six years as an education prof in Leadership Studies program. He has been president of the Faculty Senate. At St. Mary's, Maloney had been executive vice president at the Twin Cities campus.
UW-La Crosse murder case reopenedLA CROSSE, Wis., Dec. 24, 2007 -- The body of a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse senior, Terry Dolowy, who was murdered more almost 23 years ago, has been exhumed. Police said new forensic technology may yield clues to the murderer. Dolowy, 24, disappeared on Valentine's Day 2005. Her headless body was found six days later, burning in a ditch in a neighboring county. Her fiance last saw her about 1 a.m. as he left for work. When he returned, the front door open and Dolowy missing So was her poodle. There was no sign of struggle. Nothing was missing.
WSU'S ROCKY ROAD
GETTING DEATH RIGHT
AND OH SO WRONG
This has been a sad semester at Winona State. Nobody can recall so many campus people dying in so short a period. The semester has also been a painful,
embarrassing learning experience for university administrators. They fumbled in each tragedy, each time differently.
After sophomore Lee Wells died in a car wreck over Thanksgiving, administrators overlooked their campus-wide network to communicate the information. This at a laptop university that has spent millions of dollars on a campus intranet. Twelve days later, yes, 12 days, Vice President Connie Gores and university communication-marketing chief Christeen Custer issued an apology. "It won't happen again," they promised.
But it did. When prof Kerry WIlliam died, students were left in the dark again. This time, though, the faculty was notified.
The brief and tragic period in which student President Jared Stene was dying was bizarre. It was like an information black-out at Somesen Hall's top echelons. Either to her credit or discredit, depending on who you listen to, a junior-grade minion in student activities across campus at Kryzsko Commons, Kelly Clark, appointed herself as gatekeeper to keep students apprised of information they desperately wanted and deserved about the student they had elected to their highest position. Alas, Clark kept some students posted, others not.
University President Judith Ramaley finally took charge herself when Jenna Foellmi, a sophomore, died of binge-drinking after final exams. Ramaley was relatively prompt in notifying campus people that there had been a death. She got the word out within four hours. Later Ramaley said most of the right things for a university president to say in the sad circumstances.
Even so, there was fumbling. In an interim message Vice President Connie Gores attributed to the Daily News that the victim had been identified as Foellmi, when the police, in fact, had informed their campus liaison two days earlier of the victim's name. It seemed some kind of denial or buck-passing or just plain confusion. Whatever, the Gores message hardly inspired confidence that Winona State can handle death with institutional competence. This, especially considering all the earlier clumsiness.
None of this is to say that coping with death is easy for any of us. But death is an inevitability of life, and it's reasonable to expect an institution of 12,000 people to have contingencies in place. The contingencies need to recognize the reality that a university's role is not throttle information. This might be difficult for Ramaley, who has a compulsion about control. There also is the confusion that campus administrators over the years have created in wacky interpretations of federal and state laws on privacy. It's time for a reality check. This means calling together experts on the issue, including journalists, to devise workable communication procedures that make sense.
The university has an obligation to be prompt and forthright in disseminating information to meet the needs of campus people and others. In recent months it's been only journalists, whose work explicitly is to serve informational needs of the public, who have gotten it right. |
Background: WSU loses another obit
Background: Ramaley sees lessons in Foellmi death
Background: Gores: Death saddens campus
Background: Comment: WSU doesn't own our emotions
Peters to All-America teamNEW YORK, Dec. 24, 2007 -- Winona State University wide receiver, senior Scott Peters, has been named to the second team of the Associated Press Little All-American Team. Last season Peters was the leading receiver for the Warriors. He had 74 receptions for 1,308 yards and 13 touchdowns. Peters was also the leading receiver in the Northern Sun conference. He ranked in the top five among NCAA Division II wide receivers.
VERBATIM
THE CYBERINDEE IS YOUR NEWS SOURCE OF RECORD
|
"A PAINFUL REMINDER"
WSU PRESIDENT:
LESSONS FROM FOELLMI DEATH
WINONA, Minn., Dec. 23, 2007 -- This is a statement issued by Judith Ramaley, president of Winona State University, after the autopsy report that binge-drinking was the cause of death of sophomore Jenna Foellmi:
We extend our sincerest condolences to the family of Jenna Marie Foellmi. Her death has been very distressing for me, and for all of the Winona State community.
The medical examiner's report issued this morning indicates Jenna's death was caused by alcohol poisoning. Her death is a painful reminder that many of our young people are vulnerable as they make the transition to adulthood, and we must do all that we can to help them grow up safely.
Colleges and universities continue to struggle with the issue of high-risk drinking by young people. Along with students, their families, and society as a whole, we have a shared responsibility to find a way to end this
epidemic.
In recent years Winona State has increased its efforts to curb alcohol abuse. As an institution of higher education, our responsibility is to impact student behaviors through education, through fostering a safe and
engaging environment, and through enforcing consequences for inappropriate
and dangerous behaviors.
We must also work with our community and the families of our students to find solutions to the growing dangers of binge drinking. It is important that we find a way to help students understand the consequences of this harmful behavior.
Jenna's death is a great loss to all of us. As we face the circumstances of her death, we must use our resources to make a difference for other students.
We cannot do this alone. We need everyone's help if we are to turn around a pattern that is growing ever more dangerous for our young people. We are renewing and strengthening our collaboration with the Winona community, including the Winona Police Department, to address the high rate of binge drinking in our part of the upper Midwest. I am confident that, together, we can effect positive change in the lives of our students.
Students who have concerns about alcohol abuse, for themselves or someone they know, are encouraged to contact Karen Johnson, Interim Dean of Students, at 507-457-5300 or e-mail: Johnson@winona.edu.Judith A. Ramaley
President |
Background: Bingeing called everyone's problem
Background: Cause of death: Acute alcohol poisoning
Shakespeare fest co-founder is backWINONA, Minn., Dec. 22, 2007 -- The co-founder and producing director of the Great River Shakespeare Festival, Alec Wild, will return to direct "The Taming of the Shrew" this summer. Festival General Manager Jeff Stevenson called Wild and "Taming of the Shrew" a "strong pairing." Wild left the Winona State University-based festival a year ago without a clear explanation and ended up as artistic director with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival in Bloomington, Ill.
Things didn't work out in Bloomington even though Wild said he believed he delivered an excellent season. Citing "creative differences," he said: "I am saddened by the fact that Illinois State University and I don't share the same artistic vision." In October, the Illinois festival hired a local theater prof to replace Wild. The festival's managing director, John Poole, said Wild had not been a good fit.
WSU SECURITY REPORT
DEC. 22, 2007
Security guards responded to a trouble alarm in Memorial Hall at 10:40 p.m. An electrician was caleld.
A student reported the theft from his dorm dorroom.
|
$175 million to Wisconsin scholarshipsMADISON, Wis., Dec. 22, 2007 -- Two University of Wisconsin at Madison alumni have promised $175 million for a fund to to help financially needy Wisconsin students. John Morgridge, former chairman of the Cisco computer-networking company, and his wife Tashia, made the gift, . Both graduated from Wisconsin in the 1950s. The fund will provide about 2,000 grants of $1,000 to $5,000 each next school year and more than 3,000 grants annually after that.
Bingeing called everyone's problemWINONA, Minn., Dec. 22, 2007 -- The death of a Winona State sophomore after a day and night of binge-drinking is a reminder of how vulnerable young people are as they make the transition to adulthood, university President Judith Ramaley said. Ramaley said the university has been proactive in addressing binge drinking but also shares the responsibility to end what she sees as a drinking epidemic. Jenna Foellmi, 20, had begun drinking after final exams on Thursday morning last week. After she made the rounds at campus-area parties that night, friends left her at a friend's apartment. She was found dead the next morning.
About youthful over-imbibing Ramaley said: "Colleges and universities continue to struggle with the issue of high-risk drinking by young people. Along with students, their families, and society as a whole, we have a shared responsibility to find a way to end this epidemic."
Ramaley called for a broad-based approach to the problem, including not only the university but also the community and friends and family. "We cannot do this alone," Ramaley said. "We need everyone's help if we are to turn around a pattern that is growing ever more dangerous for our young people." She said We are said that the university will step up collaboration with the community and police to to address "the high rate of binge drinking in our part of the upper Midwest."
Ramaley called on students who have concerns about alcohol abuse, for themselves or someone they know, to contact interim Dean of Students Karen Johnson
Background: bingeing led to Foellmi death
35 photos chosen for exhibitWINONA, Minn., Dec. 22, 2007 -- Of more than 125 photos entered for exhibition in a Winona State University student show at the Winona Arts Center, 35 have been selected organizer Tom Grier said. Four photos by photojournalism student Paul Solberg were chosen, three by classmate Andrew Link.
The winners:
Roxanne Abler, "First Snow"
Ingrid Alm, untitled musician in motion
Emma Archbold, "Mirror Image"
Sarah Botzek, "Resting Place"
Bekka Buck, "Inspiration From Monet's Garden"
Cassie Busse, "Harsh Reality"
Eliane Cohen, "Lo Concreto y lo Efimero," "Libertad Sublime"
Karissa Eastman, "The Dragon In The Fly"
Tracy Ebmeyer, untitled sail
Nikki Fleck, "Deserted"
Nick Furlong, "Trigger Happy"
Jenni Gustafson, "Kenny's River"
Whitney Jones, untitled rose in water
Andrew Link, "Heartbreaker," "Eiffel Tower At Night," "Waiting"
Jennifer Lorrigan, "Locks Of Love"
Stephanie Magnuson, "The Olive Grove"
Taylor Martinson, "Reverie"
Kaylyn Messer, "Engagement Photo 1"
Matt Mrozek, "King Of The Garden"
Jordan Ogren, untitled light bulb
Courtney Pate, "Fighting It," "Simply Jessie"
Kristina Pick, "World of Hopes and Dreams"
Jake Rajewsky, "Bubbles"
Fred Schulze, "Hey You"
Paul Solberg, "Age Defined," "Red Baron," "Calvin DeFoster," "Face Mask"
Pete Swanson, "Crosswalk/Rabbit in Headlights"
Nicole Tyrrell, untitled window frame
Brady Whealon, untitled star trail
A reception to open the exhibit:Date: Friday, Feb. 1
Time: 5 to p.m.
Place: Winona Art Center, 28 E. Fifth
Cost: Free
COURT CONVICTONS
WEEK ENDING DEC. 22, 2007
IN WINONA COUNTY DISTRICT COURT
UNDERAGE BOOZING
Jared C. Bagniewski, 18, Holmen, Wis., $177.
Melissa J. Blexrud, 19, La Crosse, Wis., 30 days and $277.
Nicole M. Corey, 19, 1116 Sugarloaf Road, 30 days and $206.
Tyson W, Goose, 18, 304 W. King, $177.
Allison E. Kidder, 20, Winona, $177.
William C. Miller, 19, 323 W. Broadway, $177.
Jonathan T. Walters, 22, Rushford, Minn., 60 days and $77.
LOUD PARTYING
Robert A. Fitting, 20, 166 Olmstead, $177.
Jason Skugrud, 19, Mendota Heights, Minn., $177.
Joseph A. Gish, 20, 478 W. Fifth, $277.
|
Police continue probe into student deathWINONA, Minn., Dec. 22, 2007 -- Police are piecing together the events that led to the binge-drinking death of Winona State University sophomore Jenna Foellmi last week, including where she was drinking, Deputy Police Chief Paul Bostrack said. Foellmi, at 20, was not old enough to be served alcohol legally. Police know of at east two parties that Foellmi attended, both supposedly bring-your-own bashes, but that doesn't explain where Foellmi obtained the alcohol. Bostrack said the investigation will be wrapped up by the start of spring classes in mid-January, when students are all back in town. Whether there will be criminal charges remains to be decided, Bostrack said.
Background: Death blamed on binge-drinking
WSU SECURITY REPORT
DEC. 21, 2007
Security guards responded to a trouble alarm in the Guildemeister classroom building at 7:20 a.m. An electrician was called.
|
Seminoles may be 25 players short
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Dec. 21, 2007 -- The Florida State University football cheating scandal may leave the team down as many as 25 players for the Music City Bowl against Kentucky on Dec 31. Coach Bobby Bowden used the term "academic ineligibility" in announcing that the players will not participate. "We have some players not traveling for one reason and some for another, including those who are ineligible for the bowl because of academic issues," Bowden said.
An internal investigation has fund 23 athletes cheated on tests administered over the Internet. Two employees have lost their jobs.
Background: Florida State jocks accused of cheating
Cause of death: Too much alcoholWINONA, Minn., Dec. 21, 2007 -- Acute alcohol poisoning caused the death of Winona State University sophomore Jenna Foellmi, 20, who died the night after final exams. The conclusion of an autopsy were released by coroner Tom Retzinger. He declined to specify the blood-alcohol level in Foellmi's system except to call it "not compatible with life." The death, Retzinger said, was accidental. Police said they have learned that Foellmi began celebrating the end of fall semester about 11 a.m. the day before -- after her last final exam. That night she attended at least two parties with alcohol, police said. She was found dead at 9:30 the next morning in a friend's apartment, where she had been left.
Background: Gores: Death saddens campus
2008 contests in early startWINONA, Minn., Dec. 21, 2007 -- Important dates leading up to the November 2008 elections:
Feb 5: Minnesota Democratic precinct caucuses
Feb. 5: Minnesota Republican precinct caucuses
March 4: Minnesota Independence precinct caucus
Aug. 25-28: Democratic national convention, Denver
Sept. 1-4: Republican national convention, Minneapolis
Races that Winona campus people are watching:
U.S. PRESIDENCY
Joe Biden (Democrat): Delaware senator
Hillary Clinton (Democrat): New York senator
Chris Dodd (Democrat): Connecticut senator
John Edwards (Democrat): Former North Carolina senator
Mike Gravel (Democrat): Former Alaska senator
Dennis Kucinch (Democrat): Ohio member of House
Barack Obama (Democrat): The Illinois senator
Bill Richardson (Democrat): New Mexico governor
Sam Brownback (Republican): Kansas senator
Jim Gilmore (Republican): Former Virginia governor
Rudy Giuliani (Republican): Former New York mayor
Duncan Hunter (Republican): California member of House
John McCain (Republican): Arizona senator
Mike Huckabee (Republican): Arkansas governor
Ron Paul (Republican): Texas member of House
Mitt Romney (Republican): Massachusetts governor
Fred Thompson (Republican): Former U.S. senator
U.S. SENATE
Minnesota
Norm Coleman (Republican): Seeking second term
Mike Ciresi (Democrat): Tobacco Settlement attorney
Al Franken (Democrat): Former Air America host
U.S. HOUSE
District 1
Dick Day (Republican): State senator from Owatonna
Brian Davis (Republican): Mayo Clinic physician
Randy Demmer (Republican): State representative from Hayfield
Tim Walz (Democrat): Expected to seek second term
MINNESOTA HOUSE
Distict 28-B
Steve Drazkowski (Republican): Announced candidacy
Linda Pfeilsticker (Democrat): Announced candidacy
MINNESOTA HOUSE
Distict 31-A
Gene Pelowski (Democrat): Expected to seek 12th term
MAYOR
Jerry Miller (incumbent): Expected to seek re-election
Todd Ouellette Former City Council candidate has expressed interest
CITY COUNCIL
1st Ward (Far West End)
Al Thurley (incumbent): Expected to seek e-election
CITY COUNCIL
3rd Ward (Central city, including WSU)
Deb Salyards (incumbent): Expected to seek second term
CITY COUNCIL
At-large
Debbie White (incumbent): Expected to seek second term
COUNTY COMMISSION
2nd District
Dwayne Voegeli (incumbent): Expected to seek re-election
Wayne Valentine: Retired newscaster has considered running
COUNTY COMMISSION
3rd District
Jerry Heim (incumbent): Expected to seek re-election
COUNTY COMMISSION
4th District
Dave Stoltman (incumbent): Expected to seek re-election
SCHOOL BOARD
Vicki Englich (incumbent): Expected to seek re-election
Kelly Herold (incumbent): Expected to seek re-election
Fred Peterson (incumbent): Expected to seek re-election
$1.2 million
to Child Protection Center WINONA, Minn., Dec. 20, 2007 -- The National Child Protection Training Center at Winona State University has been awarded a $1.2 million federal grant to expand its work across the country. Victor Vieth, director, said the grant is the largest ever received by the center. The funding was an earmark approved by Congress in the new budget bill. "Thousands of child protection professionals and hundreds of thousands of children will
benefit," Vieth said.
The funds will finance an expansion of the Finding Words program that teaches interview techniques with sexually abused children. Another project will help universities adapt a model child protection curriculum developed at Winona State. Also, ongoing training will be funded for investigators and prosecutors.
Prison for prof in contract-murder planNORFOLK, Va., Dec. 20, 2007 -- A prof at Tidewater Community College was sentenced to 8-1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to hiring hit men to bump off a colleague who had filed a sexual-harassment complaint against him. Jay Glosser, who taught information systems technology, had pleaded guilty. Court documents claimed that Glosser offered two men $3,000 to $4,000 to persuade a faculty colleague to withdraw her complaint or, if she didn't, $10,000 to "take her out."
Cunningham to academic All-America teamDELAWARE, Ohio, Dec. 20, 1007 -- For a second straight year, Winona State University cornerback Shawn Cunningham has been selected to the ESPN magazine Academic All-America football team. Cunningham, an accounting major. again is on the College Division second team. Requirements include B-plus grades playing in 75 percent of the' games. Cunningham helped the Warriors to a 10-2 record, a conference championship and a spot in the NCAA Division II playoffs.
COMMENT:
STATE OF THE ARTS
LIBERAL ARTS
NEEDS A VOICE AT WSU
With the pending departure of Troy Paino as a Winona State liberal arts dean for bigger, better things, university President Judith Ramaley will be appointing an interim dean until a full-scale search can be arranged. It's unreasonable to expect an interim dean to be much more than a caretaker for a year, but this does not mean that Ramaley's choice should be invisible or silent.
At this point the liberal arts at Winona State desperately need a champion and a strong voice. Ramaley, whose background is the sciences, needs to hear that liberal arts is the heart of an undergraduate education. The point needs to be made again and again. Ramaley's record has not been strong. The most recent example is her priority for a huge new basketball arena, costing perhaps $30 million, in lieu of a stand-alone Shakespearean theater that had wide support in the arts community. Earlier Ramaley started her bricks-and-mortar ball rolling for a new building to house the College of Business. The last major structure on campus was the showcase sciences building. Athletics will be the prime beneficiary of the Memorial and Wabasha renovations. Nothing is wrong with a bigger basketball arena or a new business building, but in all of this we ask: "What about the arts?"
A number of faculty have led the College of Liberal Arts in the past, all of whom have the passion for the arts to serve the college's interests and who have the courage to tell Ramaley what she needs to hear. These include Ron Mazur of foreign languages and Peter Henderson of history. Jim Reynolds of sociology might be persuaded out of retirement for a year of interim duty. One of the strongest advocates of liberal arts has been former Dean Joe Gow, although, now chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, he is way beyond the pay grade of a Winona State deanship. |
Background: WSU dean Missouri-bound
Tancredo halts presidential bidDES MOINES, Iowa., Dec. 20, 2007 -- The presidential bid of Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., has ended. Three weeks ahead of the crucial Iowa caucuses, Tancredo announced the end his bid for the Republican nomination. His emphasis on a single issue, illegal immigration, had failed to ignite voters even though leading candidates Mitt Romney, Rudy Guilliani and John McCain all found traction on the issue. Tancredo asked his voters to support Romney, who he said "can go the distance."
Background: Campaigns that campus people are watching
WSU SECURITY REPORT
DEC. 20, 2007
E Learning reported at 3 p.m. that a student had taekn a laptop and sold it at a pawn shop. Police were notified.
|
NEWS AND COMMENT
WINONA MEDIA WATCH |
NEWSPAPERS
AS COMMON CARRIERS
SCARY STUFF IN BISMARCK
THE LEE WAY?
These are not good days for newspapers. Survival is the issue. Readers are drifting elsewhere for news, mostly online. Advertising revenue is shrinking. What to do? A corporate sibling of the Winona Daily News, the Bismarck, N.D., Tribune, has shifted away from cultural leadership and discontinued staff-written and commissioned book reviews. The editor, John Irby, was frank with readers. He wrote that the newspaper no longer could afford a book reviewer. Rather than drop reviews, Irby invited readers to submit their own.
Here's how it works. Irby lists books he would like to be reviewed and sees what comes in over the transom. Critics see Irby as abdicating journalistic leadership on cultural affairs. Traditional journalistic gatekeeping is sacrificed. Not quite, says Irby. Submissions will be reviewed before publication. Irby's bottom line defense of the policy: Amateur reviews, despite the range in quality, are better than no reviews.
Irby's free labor scheme is working and has kept the Tribune's book review section alive. The downside, however, is scary. The Tribune is shifting to a new different model of doing journalism, that of becoming a common carrier like the old telephone companies. The common-carrier model is that the company is a mere conduit available for anybody to send messages. In its purest form, the common-carrier model obviates editorial discretion and decision-making. No gatekeeping.
These are sad times for Bismarck literati. What will be the next steps in moving the Tribune into a common carrier: Slapping unfiltered police blotter accounts in the paper, letting the cops tell police news their way? Reprinting City Council minutes rather than covering meetings? Giving the mayor access to news pages without the filter of context that journalists have traditionally provided?
The slopes are slippery in Bismarck. |
Legislative hopeful driving drunkWABAHA, Minn., Dec. 20, 2007 -- A Winona high school teacher running for the Minnesota Legislature, Linda Pfeilsticker, beat the news media to the story with an announcement that she had been arrested for drunken driving. Pfeilsticker said the incident represented a bad lapse in judgment. Pfeilsticker, a Democrat, was stopped near her home in Wabasha County early the morning of Sunday, Dec. 9. The arrest was her first for drunken driving, she said.
Pfeilsticker is seeking the Democratic nomination to unseat Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Wabasha She was defeated narrowly by Drazkowski in an August election to replace long-time District 28B incumbent Steve Sviggum.
Word about the arrest has been making the rounds at the Winona high school after Pfeilsticker informed her social science students. The students deserved to know, she said. She called school administrators supportive.
Background: Campaigns that campus people are watching
COMMENT:
COLISEUM GREED
MIXING
OIL AND WATER
Earl Laughenberger was a well-intentioned, likable but idiot mayor. He's gone. But the tale lingers abuot the day in 1983 that the mayor paid a courtesy call on Tom Stark to welcome the new president of Winona State University to the city. The mayor had an agenda. "How about pooling the university and county resources and combining the Maxwell Library and the public library?" To Laughenberger, a library was a library was a library. No matter that a university doesn't maintain subscriptions to Mademoiselle or Hot Rod magazines. Nor does a small-town public library subscribe to Political Science Quarterly.
As the story goes, Tom Stark just shook his head in incredulous wonderment after the mayor departed.
How much things remain the same. This time, though, it's Winona State President Judith Ramaley who doesn't have her head screwed on right. Ramaley has bought into a plan to merge a proposed Shakespearean theater and a mega-basketball arena and convention center under one roof. Uhh? Yes, Ramaley's big-bucks project fund-raiser, Carl Miller, has put together a plan with local industrialists, bankers and power-brokers to usurp $250,000 in state planning money for a theater for the Great River Shakespeare Festival. Their scheme is put the money into planning for a coliseum. Oh, yes, Miller says there be a nook or cranny somewhere for the artsy folks to do their thing. Under which hoop?
Earl Laughenberger would be pleased. From here, though, it's looks from here like Winona State has lost its way. |
Background: City manager tries making nice
Background: Mega-arena plans announced
Background: Secrecy shrouded planning
| BASKETBALL (MEN'S)
DEC. 19, 2007
WSU 100, Viterbo 81 |
|
Students' house ransacked in burglaryWINONA, Minn., Dec. 18, 2007 -- A house shared by seven Winona State University students, all of them away for the weekend, some for the holiday break, was broken into a lot of electronic gear stolen. The house, in the 350 block of Grand Street, was entered from an enclosed porch, police said. A storm window inside the porch was removed. Tenants said the burglary occurred sometime after 8 p.m., Sunday. An inventory of missing items will be made when all the tenants return. Known to be missing were a university-leased laptop computer a flat-screen television and change. Bedroom doors were forced open and rooms ransacked, police said.
| BASKETBALL (MEN'S)
DEC. 18, 2007
WSU 84, Lewis 76 |
|
City OKs big arena planningWINONA, Minn., Dec. 17, 2007 -- The City Council voted to ask the Legislature to shift state planning funds earmarked for a Shakespearean theater into planning for a much larger coliseum project whose space would be mostly for Winona State University varsity athletics and regional trade shows. The funds, $250,000, originally were sought from the Legislature to study the feasibility for a home for the Great River Shakespeare Festival. On Friday, Mayor Jerry unveiled plans for a mega-arena, costing perhaps $30 million, that would include the theater. An arena, Miller said, had potential to draw far more revenue to the city.
Background: Mega-arena plans announced
Background: Shakespeare volunteers feel body blow
Background: Secrecy shrouded planning
Campus vexed on naming promise BROOKINGS, S.D., Dec. 17, 2007 -- The University of South Dakota Foundation denied that it has abrogated a promise to donor Walter Buhler to apply his name to the business program. Or was it to apply his name to the business building? In court documents, the foundation has responded to a demand from the widow of the South Dakota alum, who died in 1998, to return at least half of his $9.2 million donation. At the moment, Buhler's name is prominent on the building. Meanwhile, the issue has been complicated by another donor who has come forward with money to have the program named for the Beacom School of Business.
SHAKESPEARE VOLUNTEERS
FEEL BODY BLOW
CITY MANAGER
TRIES TO ASSUAGE HURT
SORENSEN: YOU CAN STILL HAVE A VOICE
WINONA, Minn., Dec. 17, 2007 -- The crowd wasn't exactly upbeat when City Manager Eric Sorensen walked in. At a meeting of a volunteer community committee that has spent a year in preliminary plans for a home for the Great River Shakespeare Festival, the sense of betrayal was palpable. Sorensen knew what he had to do: Explain how the group had been kept in the dark while a a self-appointed group, including Mayor Jerry Miller and Winona State University officials, had been meeting secretly and working at cross-purposes with the Shakespeare group. Sorensen also had to win the group over to support the new project. As city manager, answerable to the mayor, that was his job.
Sorensen, who had not been part of the secret planning, told the community volunteers that he hoped they would fold themselves into planning for the larger project -- a mega-arena for varsity sports, regional trade shows and, yes, a theater too. Said Sorensen: "I see it as an opportunity to join in and make sure clearly that the fine arts are part of the equation."
Sorensen himself had been meeting with the Shakespeare planing group for year, unaware of what was going in behind closed doors with the other group. Sorensen was brought up-to-speed ahead of the mayor's Friday news conference and shifted gears. It fell ti him, however, to face the pre-emoted Shakespeare planning volunteers. Sorensen tried to salve the volunteers' anger at seeing their work, dozens of hours each over many months being for nothing. Now, said Sorensen,the question is to be part of something bigger.
Committee members registered doubts -- like how compatible is a boisterous Winona State basketball crowd with the elegance of a fine arts facility? If the theater is to be part of the central floor space, how about acoustics? Could a basketball arena with a 120-foot ceiling be designed to also accommodate a a theater with very different acoustic needs?
The volunteer committee had thought it was a roll since spring, when the state Legislature provided $250,000 for a feasibility study for a home for the Great River Shakespeare Festival. The committee has been exploring sites, mostly downtown near the river, and designing specs for preliminary planning. The committee's concept of multi-use for the facility was to fold in the new Beethoven Festival and perhaps a gallery. In contrast, the concept of multi-use to the group formed six months ago by Winona State fund-raiser Carl Miller and Winona industrialist David Keller included Warrior basketball and university graduations.
The Miller-Keller coliseum plan, announced by the mayor Friday, hit the Shakespeare group like a piercing blow in the gut. The coliseum plan is in a whole other league, with backers claiming they can raise $5 million for starters and put together a borrowing plan for the rest, perhaps %30 million total. The Miller-Keller group, however, wants $250,000 allocated for Shakespeare planning to jump-start its own planning.
Background: Mega-arena plans announced
Background: Secrecy shrouded planning
Obama pulls higher-ed donorsWASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2007 -- College administrators, profs and other higher-ed people have donated $6.2 million to the presidential candidates so far this campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. More than three-quarters went to Democrats. The research group said information required by federal campaign finance disclosure laws showed that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., leading with $2.1 million, about one-third of the total. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y, was a distant second.. Mitt Romney, the top Republican, picked dip $564,000 from higher education. The totals:
TOP
RECIPIENTS
Barack Obama, $2.1 million
Hillary Clinton, $1.6 million
Mitt Romney, $564,000
Rudy Giuliani, $462,000
John Edwards, $351,000 |
|
|
| DONORS'
CAMPUSES
Harvard, $281,050
Stanford, $135,850
Columbia, $120,350
Georgetown, $105,150
University of Chicago, $92,902
Northwestern, $78,450
New York University, $74,350
California-Berkeley, $71,976
California- Los Angeles, $65,980
Southern California, $63,950 |
|
Background: Campaigns that campus people are watching
Louisiana State alert system faltersBATON ROUGE, La., Dec. 17, 2007 -- A new campus emergency-alert system failed at Louisiana State University the night that two grad students were shot to death in a campus apartment. Some of 8,400 students who had subscribed for free emergency-alert text messages didn't receive them. The extent of the failure was not immediately clear, but Chancellor Sean O'Keefe said at a news conference that an outside vendor that operates the alert system had been notified about 2 a.m. "There are some technical challenges that they obviously encountered,"O'Keefe said.
The chancellor said the university acted promptly through other means to alert campus people to the possibility of dangerous people on campus. An e-mail notification went to everyone with a campus e-mail address. Also, he said, a voice-mail message went to those who had signed up for that. In addition, he said, officials went door to door notifying tenants at the campus apartment complex where the shootings had taken place.
Two doctoral students, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, were found shot in the head, one of them bound. A campus lock-down was not ordered because security official believed that the shootings were an isolated incident. The bodies were discovered by Allam's pregnant wife. Three suspects were being sought.
Background: Cops: Shootings in a "home invasion"
COUNSELORS AVAILABLE
WSU LEADER:
DEATH SADDENS CAMPUS
WINONA, Minn., Dec., 16, 2007 -- Sadness at the death of Winona State sophomore Jenna Foellmi at a campus-area apartment over commencement weekend was expressed Sunday by university Vice President Connie Gores. In a campus-wide e-message Gores said: "On Friday morning the WSU community gathered to celebrate the commencement of more than 500 students. Today we unite as a community to mourn the loss of a talented young woman. We ask the entire WSU community to hold Jenna's family and friends in your thoughts."
Foellmi, 20, of Brownsville, Minn., was found dead Friday morning at a friend's apartment across Johnson Street from the campus. Gores cited a police report that nothing at the scene or in the subsequent investigation indicates that foul play was a factor.
Gores said that counseling and support services were available to students and community members and directed affected individuals to campus counselors at (507) 457-5330 or to Gildemeister 132.
In her campus-wide message Gores appeared to have waited for news reports before issuing a statement with Foellmi's name. The message, issued at 9:26 a.m., Sunday, said: "Jenna's identity was confirmed by her family today through a Winona Daily News article." The Daily News had interviewed Jenna's stepmother the day before. At 10:21 a.m., the university media contact person, Andrea Mikkelsen, followed up on Gores' message with a news release that began: "Winona State University is sad to report one of its students, Jenna Marie Foellmi, was found dead Dec. 14 at an off campus location."
The times of the Gores message and the new release were noted among campus people because of significant delays by university administrators, one almost two weeks, in confirming deaths of campus people. The administration was severely criticized for the delays. With the latest death, university President Judith Ramaley was prompt on Friday in issuing a statement to campus people. At 1:39 p.m. after leaving commencement ceremonies, Ramaley reported in a campus-wide e-message that she had learned from campus security officials that a student had died off-campus. She did not offer the name, which although known to investigators, was being withheld by police until the family could be notified.
The Gores statement followed the Ramaley message by 47 hours. The Gores statement was also almost a day after the family had posted funeral details through McCormick Funeral Home of Caledonia, Minn.
Background: Funeral to be Tuesday in hometown
Background: Friends irate at WSU lapse
| Holiday
greetings
from the
CyberIndee |
|
|
Zipping up, he said had only a coupleWINONA, Minn., Dec. 16, 2008 -- A 19-year-old man told cops he had had a couple drinks after they spotted him pissing in public at Huff and Sanborn streets at 1:12 a.m. They checked he breath with analyzer, which indicated his blood was running 0.126 percent alcohol, twice the legal definition of impairment. he was cited fro underage consumption and public urination.
Enrollment off, Namur president outBELMONT, Calif., Dec. 16, 2007 -- The president of Notre Dame de Namur University, John Oblak, resigned after faculty and student leaders demanded he leave. Obiak has been under criticism for declining enrollment. Other controversies have also plagued Oblak since he began at the college in 2000.
Daktronics picks Peters as all-regionalELLENSBURG, Wash, Dec. 16, 2007 -- Senior wide receiver Scott Peters heads a list of four Winona State University players named to the 2007 Daktronics Division II All-Northwest region team. Peters was the only Warrior named to the first team. Second team Warrior selections were senior running back Alex Wiese, junior offensive lineman Nick Urban and senior cornerback,Shawn Cunningham. Cunningham and Urban are both repeat second-team selections.
Creationists eye Texas teaching degreeAUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 16, 2007 -- The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board agreed to consider giving permission to grant graduate teaching degrees to the creationist Institute for Creation Research. The degrees would be to teach science. The institute is geared for what it calls "believers" to learn "evidences of the Bible's accuracy and authority through scientific research, educational programs, and media presentations, all conducted within a thoroughly biblical framework." The institute held accreditation Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools before it moved from California to Texas. In Texas the institute needs recognition from the state higher-ed coordinating board.
Funeral Tuesday in hometownCALEDONIA, Minn., Dec. 16, 2007 -- The family of Jenna Foellmi, the Winona State University sophomore who died |
