The Spectator

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

VOL. 92, NO. 27 SPRING 2014Thursday, April 24

NEWS SPORTS CURRENTS OP / ED STUDENT LIFEPAGES 1-5 PAGES 7-8 PAGES 10-12 PAGES 13-15 PAGE 16

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After about a year of planning, UW-Eau Claire revealed a new branding campaign to the public last week.

“The Power of And,” will help the campus stand out from other insti-tutions, said M.J. Brukardt, director of Marketing, Communication and Strategic Planning at Eau Claire.

“We wanted to be able to find a way to talk more effectively about what really sets us apart as a univer-sity,” she said. “That’s why we knew that we had to do this now rather than wait.”

Brukardt said she was the head of a large committee involved in the planning process, which included faculty, staff and students as well as Mind Over Media, a research firm from Pittsburgh that has higher edu-cation marketing experience.

In phase one of the process, Bru-kardt said she talked to prospective and current students, staff members and alumni. They held focus groups and sent out surveys that asked questions like “What does it mean to be a Blugold?” and “What is our

perception out there by others who aren’t part of our community?”

In phase two, she said Mind Over Media took these results and came up with a couple different campaigns that they thought would fit the uni-versity best.

After discussing, surveying and voting, the university settled on “The Power of And.”

“This is an investment,” Bru-kardt said. “We’re looking to make sure that our messages, our adver-tising, the communications we have with students help to bring new stu-dents, prospective students to our institution in the future.”

Brukardt said the Eau Claire foundation contributed $50,000 and the university paid $145,000 for re-search and services from Mind Over Media.

While this is a lot of money, she said she’s confident it will pay off.

“If we are able to attract just six new students to come to UW-Eau Claire and stay and graduate in four years, we’ll have recovered the cost of this effort,” Brukardt said. “We’re confident that while this was a sig-nificant amount of money to invest in something like this, it’s very import-

What’s your ‘And?’UW-Eau Claire unveils new branding to ‘set itself apart’ from other universities

ant for us as an institution to be able to reach out effectively and attract students.”

Tim Bortner, a junior, is a mem-ber of Campus Ambassadors, a group of students who, among oth-er things, work with prospective students.

Bortner said ambassadors were asked to help set up the campaign about a month ago by doing photo shoots.

He said a handful of the ambas-sadors were also asked to submit their Power of And stories. He and Abby Nygaard, president of Campus

Ambassadors, were asked to speak at the brand launch breakfast April 16.

Bortner said he believes in the Power of And campaign because he got involved in new activities after

Katy Macek COPY EDITOR

KATY MACEK / The Spectator SCHOOL SPIRIT: Left, seniors Brittany Schalow and Cassie Zopfi informed stu-dents about “The Power of And” branding campaign at the April 16 unveiling cere-mony in the Davies Center. Above, UW-Eau Claire students walk out of Davies under “The Power of And” banner.

NATE BECK / The Spectator

>> BLUGOLD page 4

The final version of a cam-pus bike and pedestrian plan, introduced in a resolution to Student Senate Monday, features a path for cyclists, a no-wheels campus mall and a

wired bike tracking program. Senate will vote on wheth-

er to support the plan at its next meeting, Monday.

The bike project is up for consideration as another chapter of Eau Claire’s 20-year Master Plan, which lays out long-term goals for the

university. Senate Student Office of

Sustainability Director Emy Marier said the bike and pe-destrian plan is a set of long-term ideas on how to make campus better for bikes and pedestrians.

“It’s aimed at recognizing

Final walking, biking plan proposedProject could corral bikes away from campus mall, record rider data

Nate Beck CHIEF COPY EDITOR

biking as a true form of trans-portation,” Marier said. “And that comes with regulation.”

The detailsThe plan calls for a no-

wheels campus mall coupled with a bike loop carved out along Garfield Avenue and cir-cling lower campus.

Covered bike parking will be constructed along the bike loop, under the plan. But students won’t be allowed to

store bikes for long periods under covered parking, so the university will monitor which bikes are left untouched for days and which ones are in use.

Bob Eierman, Eau Claire chemistry professor and mem-ber of the bike and pedestrian project planning team said the university will need to enforce temporary bike parking under covered racks. Which means someone will need to check

parking stalls for abandoned bikes.

If someone parks their bike in the wrong spot and doesn’t claim it, the university will cut the lock and sell the bike through the campus Sur-plus Store.

“They sell crap all the time, we have a way to get rid of (abandoned bikes),” Eierman said.

>> BIKE page 2

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Thursday, April 24NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

Two professors from UW-Eau Claire and Northland College, along with student researchers, have developed a method for con-verting plastic into useful chemi-cals, which can sustainably reuse plastic waste materials.

Typically, a recycled soda bot-tle is cut up into tiny pieces and reused for other plastic products. Once in the waste stream, the materials are considered contami-nated and cannot be used for new plastic soda bottles.

The research team can now change that. By converting the plastics back into chemicals, the researchers sterilize the material and it can be reused as “building blocks” for other plastics or chem-ical applications.

Northland College professor Nick Robertson said the practice is more sustainable than typical recycling because it completely re-uses the product instead of form-ing it into another product.

“It’s not so much we are reduc-ing the amount of plastic that we use, we are reducing the amount of plastic that we send to landfills and we are reducing the amount of oil we pump to make these oth-er chemicals,” Robertson said.

Mike Carney, a professor of chemistry at Eau Claire and one of the project’s leaders, said the process opens up a bigger market where plastics can be reused.

“These building blocks aren’t just useful for making plastics,” Carney said. “They can be used for making a variety of things in the cosmetics industry, flavor in-dustry, even ... the pharmaceuti-cal industry.”

Carney has been working with Robertson, a 2004 Eau Claire graduate, and students from both universities for the past year and a half. Northland Col-lege lacked the tools and resourc-es for research that Eau Claire could provide.

Robertson, who researched with Carney while attending Eau Claire, said there is still a lot of

work to be done. The process is currently not commercially viable because it is cheaper to drill more oil than break down plastics into pure chemicals.

“We were interested in seeing if we could take a technology to unzip the polymer into something that is more valuable, because

if you can do that then all of a sudden you can use these waste streams to make other types of chemicals,” Robertson said.

The research was published in the journal Chemical Communi-cation and featured online in the March issue of the Royal Society of Chemistry publication Chemistry World, and Carney said the work had generated some conversation.

In addition, the practice has sparked conversation about sus-tainability efforts and student-fac-ulty research collaboration, be-cause both universities support

Researchers develop sustainable plastic conversion method

University worked with Northland College faculty and studentsMartha Landry

EDITOR IN CHIEF

SUBMITTEDRESEARCH TO REUSE: Northland College professor and UW-Eau Claire alum-nus Nick Robertson, center, is collaborating with university staff to find a more sustainable way to reuse plastic.

>> PLASTIC page 4

“Now this is getting pretty cold, this is nasty business, this is really going to piss people off, especially if it’s a decent bike.”

University Police currently collect and hold abandoned bikes. Police are required to store these bikes for 90 days before passing them off to surplus which sells them.

The University Park-ing and Transportation office attaches twist ties with a 30-day impound warning to bikes with flat tires, rust and other signs of stagnation in the summer.

If no one claims the bikes in 30 days, Parking and Transportation pass-es them to the Surplus Store too.

“If you don’t want your bike we’ll sell it. That’s what happens to impounded bikes, they get sold,” Eierman said. “Here’s the first thing, we’d rather not have a

bunch of stored bikes in this brand-new facility that costs thousands and thousands of dollars.”

Eierman said the bike and pedestrian plan will include a bike reg-istration program so the university knows which bike belongs to which student.

If someone leaves their bike at a covered parking stall, Eau Claire can send an email or make a phone call and ask the student to re-move their bike.

Eau Claire will issue active electronic spoke tracers that ping off scanners placed at cam-pus entry points, like the Haas footbridge.

These scanners will track how many times each student rides their bike to campus. Eierman said the university will use this data to assign incentives like bike hel-met giveaways and free food based on how many times a student bikes to

class. But that means the

university can also use that data to track length of rides, high-traffic bike times and high-traffic ar-eas of campus, Eierman said.

“The only valid uses I can see for it is the in-centive program and for tracking bike usage,” Ei-erman said. “Who actu-ally is going to take the time to go look for (bike usage data).”

But he said he’s not sure who would legal-ly own and access that data.

“The other thing is would you sell that data?” Eierman said. “I think there’s a huge set of issues there.”

Moving forwardThe plan was intro-

duced to Senate as a res-olution, which shows stu-dent support of the plan. Resolutions are normally introduced and voted on in one meeting, but Sen-

ate tabled the plan after a debate.

The university doesn’t need Senate to approve the project before it moves forward.

But if Senate doesn’t approve the project, oth-er committees, like the Master Plan Committee, which make binding de-cisions to add the plan would be less inclined to sign off.

And if even if each decision-making univer-sity body approves the plan, nothing will hap-pen right away.

That’s because this project’s funding struc-ture piggybacks off other Master Plan projects and potential grant money injections, Eierman said.

Jeremy Gragert of the Chippewa Valley Transit Alliance said, during Student Senate’s meeting, he was disap-pointed the university didn’t engage the com-munity during the plan’s drafting process.

Gragert said parts of the bike and pedestrian plan like the registration program and the dis-

mount zone in the cam-pus mall won’t stick with students.

“I think those poli-cy responses come from previous failures in en-gineering the campus mall,” Gragert said. “We have no idea who de-signed it. They’re not going to put their name on it, I’ll tell you that. They’d be ashamed of themselves.”

The plan would also establish a university bike and pedestrian com-mittee, Eierman said, which could advocate for bike and pedestri-an transportation when pieces of Master Plan construction begin.

“Most of what we’re going to tap in to is the continuing evolution of campus which is going to happen anyway,” Eier-man said. “Over a gener-ation of change we’ll get to the point where we’re a mature bike and pedes-trian-friendly campus.”

BIKE/ Plan to monitor bikes in the works

Beck can be reached at [email protected] or @NateBeck9.

Rachel Streich: Why chemis-try? What sparked your interest in the field?

Kurt Wiegel: When I got to college I knew I wanted to be a professor. The only issue was what I wanted to be a professor of. When I started out in college I was

a genetics major. The university I went to was Western Kentucky University. I was a recombinant genetics major. That’s what I started out in and I was starting to flounder a little bit. It wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be, it wasn’t as cool, it wasn’t like it is on TV. I had a very good, very engaging organic chemistry pro-fessor named Rob Holman who

really helped shape my career and what I wanted to be, and I knew that this was the field I wanted to go into. I blame him. He was a fan-tastic mentor and a great guiding force in my life.

RS: How did you know right away in college you wanted to be a professor?

KW: I love the college atmo-sphere. I love a campus. To me there’s nothing more depressing than a campus without students. If you walk around in the summer or in the winterim or over spring break and there’s nobody here, it’s really sad. I love the vibrancy of college, I love the energy. There’s a will to college that’s a lot of fun, sometimes it can be annoying, but there’s a real life to a campus that you don’t see at any other level of teaching … I feel like I watch students develop and grow

while they’re here in ways that I wouldn’t be able to in any other setting.

RS: What is your favorite part about teaching?

KW: I would say it’s the lec-ture. I treat each lecture like a mini stage performance and a lot of it is improv. The way I teach there’s more feeding on the energy of the classroom than I would say is typical. If I have a dull class or if it’s a Monday at 8 a.m. and no-body’s there mentally or physical-ly, and it’s just sort of drool slowly coming out of the corner of their mouths, it’s hard to teach that class. It’s hard to get an energy or a vibrancy. Some classes are nat-urally more energetic than others.

THURSDAY, APRIL 24

FRIDAY, APRIL 25

SATURDAY, APRIL 26

SUNDAY, APRIL 27

MONDAY, APRIL 28

TUESDAY, APRIL 29

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30

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

• 7 - 10 p.m. — Open Volleyball, Northstar Middle School

• 8 p.m. — Artisan Evening, The Plus

• 8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. — Chippewa River Adventure Camp, Round Hill

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

• 8 p.m. — Jared Bartman, The Cabin

• 7 - 9 p.m. — Beehive Collective storytelling “Rock Bottom”, Davies Center

• 10 p.m. — Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy, The Mousetrap

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

• 9 - 11:30 p.m. — Jazz Night, The Plus• 9 p.m. - midnight — Love Taxi, The Fire House


• 7:30 p.m. — Fiddler on the Roof, State Theatre• 8 p.m. — Jared Bartman, The Cabin

• 8:45 - 10:15 p.m. — Open Broomball, Hobbs Ice

Center• 9 p.m. — Karaoke, The Plus

• 5 - 7 p.m. — Concert: Women’s Concert Chorale, Haas Fine Arts Center


NEWS3Thursday, April 24

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

NOTABLE EVENTS HAPPENING BOTH ON AND OFF CAMPUS

NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

Foster Gallery

“Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Exhibition”

10 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. — Mon. - Fri.1 - 4:30 p.m. — Sat. - Sun.

Runs from April 30 - May 12Haas Fine Arts Center

UAC Films:

“How to Train Your Dragon”

This action comedy is the story of Hiccup, a viking teenager who doesn’t fit the tribe’s long standing image of heroic dragon slay-ers. Set in a mythical world, Hiccup learns to see the world from

a different point of view when he meets a special dragon.

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

Runs from April 25 — 27Woodland Theater, Davies Center

Throughout the month of April, Hmong students at UW-Eau Claire have been celebrat-ing, teaching and learning about their culture in celebration of Hmong Heritage Month.

The event began in the beginning of April with an info booth in Davies Center. Students handed out fliers and explained what the month represents. Since then, students have shown two Hmong documentaries, held a vol-leyball tournament and a folktale and story-telling session.

Pa Kue Vue, a sophomore advertising ma-jor, said she attended several of the events last year and wanted to be more involved in the planning this year.

Hmong Heritage Month isn’t all about raising awareness in the community, she said, because they know it’s there. This month is an educational experience for everyone involved.

“It’s really a time for us to see our heritage, celebrate it and do more than just the food, fun and festivals of it,” she said.

On Monday, students held a symposium at Woodland Theatre in Davies Center featuring three guest speakers who spoke about various contemporary issues in the Hmong community.

Vue said these topics ranged from family dynamics to academic success.

“This is a good time for us to get students who maybe didn’t grow up doing all these things, or learning about their own culture and history,” she said. “It’s just a good time for us to get together to actually talk, learn about ourselves.”

Symposium speakers included Zha Blong Xiong, an associate professor from The Uni-versity of Minnesota, Pau Lor from UW-Green Bay and Hui Nui Wilcox from Saint Catherine University (Minn.).

While this event isn’t exactly a celebration, Vue said events like this are more important

for people to attend, especially those from dif-ferent cultural backgrounds.

“We have the fun and festivals, but we also want the critical side of it, and I think that’s what we want the community and campus to come to,” she said.

Choua Her, a freshman who is also a mem-ber of the executive board for planning this month’s events, said these events are a way for her to get in touch with parts of her culture and heritage that may have gotten lost growing up in the U.S.

“I didn’t learn most of these things growing up, so I think this is a great opportunity for me to learn and just listen to other people’s perspec-tives on what Hmong Heritage Month could be,” she said.

She said the events are important to pro-mote a sense of culture among students and give the community a better understanding of what Hmong culture is and where it comes from.

Hui Nui Wilcox, one of the speakers, did a presentation on Hmong racialization in Ameri-

ca with a study she and a colleague conduct-ed called, “Hmong and/in Asian America: The Politics of Racial Formation and Ethnic Iden-tities.”

The conclusions gathered from the study suggest data on Hmong Americans came from small subsets of their culture, but failed to look at the bigger picture, thus creating a master narrative about Hmong Americans in the U.S. that doesn’t fully compensate for individual Hmong communities.

“The diversity within the community is not recognized, because your focus is on comparing this community versus the mainstream soci-ety,” Wilcox said in her presentation. “When you focus on the comparison you lose sight of the diversity within.”

The month will end with the first annual Hmong Heritage Month banquet 6-9:30 p.m. Friday in the Ojibwe Ballroom in Davies.


Connecting the past to the presentHmong Heritage Month brings tradition and contemporary culture together

ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator RAISING AWARENESS: The display case on the first floor of Hibbard Humanities Hall shows students of Hmong heritage with signs refuting racial stereotypes.

Macek can be reached at [email protected] or @KatherineMacek.

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER/ The Spectator

Rachel Streich STAFF WRITER

Read the rest at spectatornews.com

4NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast Thursday, April 24

NEWS

Over the two decades UW-Eau Claire has been holding the Symposium on East Europe, the topics ranged from nationalism, demography and national security, Paulis Lazda, professor of his-tory and co-chair of the symposium said.

As the 14th installment to the series approaches, “This time the news is all around us,” Lazda said.

The Symposium on East Europe, a free on-campus event, will be held from 1 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 2 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 3 in Cen-tennial Hall room 1614. The event is hosts big-name speakers ranging from former ambassadors, diplomats and professors at Eastern European univer-sities.

“We have as much diversity of ideas and personnel as possible,” Lazda said. “There always is a good amount of … heat in arguments.”

This year’s topic is resurgent Russia and the response of East Europe. The timing of the topic could not be more relevant, given the situation between Ukraine and Russia is the focus of inter-national attention.

“This is the opportunity if you’re wondering what exactly is going on over there, you’ll get that firsthand expe-rience ... the straight answers to what is happening over there as opposed to what you hear or see on the news,” said Charles Lindberg, a freshman who helped organize the symposium.

The keynote speaker this year is Valerii Kuchynskyi, former ambassador of Ukraine to the U.S. He’ll speak on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

“Having (Kuchynski’s) voice rec-ognized in this keynote address will be very important,” said Emils Birkavs, an international student from Latvia who

is also helping organize the symposium. “There will be a large amount of people who would like what he has to say, since he has been directly involved in issues relating to Ukraine internationally.”

Birkavs and Lindberg are two of about a dozen students who have helped coordinate the symposium. The stu-dents’ duties range from administrative work, publicity and providing transpor-tation for the speakers.

The symposium gives an avenue for the Eau Claire area

to discuss events like Ukraine and Rus-sia, something vital to society, Birkavs said.

“What is happening in Eastern Europe … is very unique and novel,” he said. “To hold a conversation about it and discuss certain issues is one of the fundamental things that need to be done, and this symposium grants us that chance to involve both the commu-nity and the individual students here.”

There are plenty of opportunities for audience involvement as well. There will be a panel discussion featuring the symposium speakers from 2 to 4 p.m. on May 3, where they will debate topics and answer audience questions. The dis-cussion moderator will be Stephen Hill, professor of political science and sympo-sium co-chair.

For those wishing to talk with the speakers in a one-on-one setting, Lazda invites all those interested to a reception at his residence after the keynote ad-dress May 2. He said he holds one after every symposium, and about 80 people usually attend.

Lazda suggested Eau Claire should hold more symposiums like this. He said seeing a discussion of this scale on top-ics he teaches in the classroom is one of the most gratifying experiences as a professor.

“This is really the kind of intellec-tual excitement that a university should generate,” he said.

Alex Zank OP / ED EDITOR

Symposium on East Europe to focus on crisis in Ukraine, resurgent Russia

A timely discussion

Zank can be reached at [email protected] or @AlexZank.

This summer, UW-Eau Claire fac-ulty and students want to help combat the local hunger problem by making sure elementary-age youth have ac-cess to food after the school year ends.

An honors civic engagement class taught by Ruth Cronje, professor of English, developed ideas about how to aid young children in the fight against hunger during the summer months. The leaders of the project, Garry Running, professor of geography and seniors Nathan Schaffer and Corrin Turkowitch connected with Feed My People Food Bank to expand on an ex-isting program.

Assistant Director at Feed My People, Suzanne Becker said every summer there is a need in the Eau Claire community with kids who are no longer receiving school lunches and when summer comes around, they may be at risk of going hungry.

“Garry Running and his students were wonderful working with us, we are very excited about having some new possibilities this summer and being able to reach a lot more kids,” Becker said.

She said they sometimes struggle with where to find these kids after they have left school and how to reach

them, and that is where Running and his geography students came in. He said geographers can help figure out where people are and how they are go-ing to travel.

“It’s hard to be healthy when you don’t have any food, it’s hard to get ac-cess to resources in a culture designed around automobiles if you don’t have one,” Running said.

Through this project, children will be able to find food on the weekends at more locations in Eau Claire such as city playgrounds and the L.E. Phil-lips Memorial Public Library. Chil-dren will also be able to use the bus system for free in order to get to the free meals.

Schaffer said they would never have been able to do this without the help of Feed My People.

“They are the distributor, they are the ones who produce this, they have the weekend kids program, we just facilitated an extension, we have con-nected people,” Schaffer said.

Turkowitch said she loves geogra-phy and school, but what is really im-portant to her is that she is able prac-tice these skills beyond the classroom.

“This was a way that I could ap-ply my skills to solve a very real need, there are so many problems and they can be fixed so actually going out in the field working with real people as

an undergraduate, it was intriguing to me,” Turkowitch said.

To help spread the word about the expanded weekend meal pro-gram, Schaffer said postcards will be mailed out to families who have kids who qualify for free or reduced lunch during the school year.

He said this project is important to him because he has grown up in the Chippewa Valley and has seen and worked with many families and students who are in a situation where they experience food insecurity.

Schaffer said he will continue with this project after this summer.

“I will be continuing to be avail-able to the different agencies includ-ing Feed My People Food Bank who are making this all happen and kind of be ready if they need something,” Schaffer said.

Running said classes that involve civic engagement and active student participation in the community are classes that help students the most and are far better than classes that have pretend goals and projects. He said he hopes these types of class-es continue to be successful in the future.

Emily AlbrentNEWS EDITOR

Albrent can be reached at [email protected] or @emilyalbrent.

UW-Eau Claire faculty and students work to feed children during summer months

Summer food program to reach children

Landry can be reached at [email protected] or @MarthaLandryy.

ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator SYMPOSIUM PREPARATION: Stephen Hill, professor of political science, and Paulis Lazda, professor of history, lead the planning of the symposium on Eastern Europe.

coming to Eau Claire, some things he had never done before, such as joining the lacrosse team.

“I’ve since been in six different clubs, and now I’m the president of PSE, the Sales and Marketing group, and I play lacrosse,” he said. “I really believe in the power of Eau Claire and the Power of And has given me lots of opportunities.”

After setting up the photo

booths last week to help launch the campaign, Brukardt said the uni-versity’s Facebook page reached over 105,000 people and 1,880 pho-tos from the booths were posted.

The campaign isn’t just about prospective students, she said, but current students can also use this to celebrate the university and maybe consider trying something they’ve been wanting to try for a long time.

Nygaard said she was happy to see how excited and involved stu-dents were when the photo booths were set up in Davies Center.

“It was a great opportunity for students to really reflect on how much they have gotten out of their Blugold experience,” she said. “And hopefully really take that to heart and thank professors and other staff members who have made an impact on them.”

BLUGOLD/ Rebranding campaign reaches out to current, prospective students

attended Eau Claire he worked on student-faculty collaborative re-search with Carney. He said working on unsolved problems was an import-ant and eye-opening experience as a student.

“It’s a lot of fun to see my stu-dents experience that as well,” Rob-ertson said. “To see that we can work on problems that people don’t know the answers to. And if we can figure some of them out, that might inch the technology closer to being sustainable.”

The researchers are focusing on the proof of concept development. Robertson said the researchers will be looking for a more economical catalyst to develop the work. In the mean time, Robertson said he hopes the work will sparks questions with other researchers about how to make waste streams more sustainable as well as cost-effective.

ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator WITH THE BAND: As part of the rebrand-ing launch, the Blugold Marching Band played in Davies around lunch time April 16.

PLASTIC/ New sustainability concepts spark conversations

Macek can be reached at [email protected] or @KatherineMacek.

About six months ago, Chippewa Falls native and owner of Pioneer Painting Dennis Fehr was driving down the road listening to talkshow radio.

The 2009 Chippewa Falls High School graduate had experience in business management as well as man-ufacturing and engineering, but he was also interested in politics, and he knew of the stalemates and bickering between the Democratic and Republi-can parties on all levels.

On this particular November day, a host on the talk show he was lis-tening to said something that encited movement in Fehr.

“One of the radio announcers I was listening to said, ‘You know, if there was anybody reasonable out there, I’d vote for that guy,’” Fehr said. “And I was thinking the exact same thing, you know, why can’t I find

anybody who wants to work together?”Fehr took that as a challenge,

and he now finds himself about 700 of 2,000 needed signatures deep to put his name on the ballot and challenge Republican incumbent Scott Walk-er and Democratic challenger Mary Burke for Wisconsin’s Governor.

After starting his own business several years earlier, Fehr went back to his entrepreneurial ways and founded the People’s Party, one he said would challenge the idea of the

two-party system and put the ball back into constituents’ court.

“I’m trying to bring together the best ideas, the best people, and I don’t really care what party they’re from, to create a good mixture of ideas and how to solve problems for the peo-ple you’re trying to represent,” Fehr said.

Fehr is running on a five-point plan: smart government, tax reform, judicial system review, lowering the drinking age to 18 and entertain-ing the idea of using marijuana for recreational use.

As a business owner, Fehr said he has plenty of experience hiring peo-ple and dealing with the company’s finances and taxes, which is why he is actively pursuing simplifying the tax code and making it easier for people to get out of troubled situations and contribute to society.

“They both feed into the overall efficiency standpoint of the People’s Party,” Fehr said.

He is also attacking two social is-sues that have been hot topics of con-versation in government recently, the drinking age and recreational use of marijuana.

Fehr said he uses the word “con-sidering” for both of these issues, be-cause he wants to have honest con-versations with people about what government should and shouldn’t re-strict, which is basic premise for the People’s Party.

“People should ultimately have the responsibility and accountability for their own actions,” he said. “And if people want something done, their representation should take them on.”

UW-Eau Claire senior Ryan Ham-ilton said he values a government lead-er who is willing to listen to people about social issues instead of shooting things down be-cause of traditional ideas.

“If you think about it, we don’t all believe in the same political val-ues,” Hamilton

said. “If we’re going to have a democ-racy and make things last and work out for the best for everybody, I think that would be the best idea.”

Roger Briski of Al’s Painting in Eau Claire has worked with Fehr on several projects. He said Fehr is ag-gressive, determined, a sharp guy who thinks outside of the box and sociable, which he said should make him a le-gitimate candidate for governor.

“I like the way he laid out his five-point plan and how he related it back to the family,” Briski said. “It’s peo-ple’s opinions that matter, and that’s kind of what he’s platformed.”

“A Future for the Family” is the visible slogan for the 24-year-old’s campaign, one the Chippewa Valley region’s own hopes will not only earn him a spot on the gubernatorial ballot come November, but make him a seri-ous thought to run the Badger State from his office in Madison.

“If we can bring together the best ideas from all the platforms and the best and the brightest on,” he said. “We’ll be able to provide a foundation for a family that can do anything.”

5Thursday, April 24

COMMUNITY NEWSNEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

FEHR

Chippewa Valley resident to try for gubernatorial Young business owner wants to stop

political polarizationNick Erickson MANAGING EDITOR

Erickson can be reached at [email protected] or @NickErickson8.

Zack Katz contributed to the reporting of this story.

“ If people want something done ...

their representation should take them on.”DENNIS FEHR

Chippewa Falls resident

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SPORTSSPORTS EDITOR: Steve Fruehauf Thursday, April 24 8

Men’s golf team takes second place, one Blugold finishes in top three at Gustavus Tournament

Blugold golfers work through

The goal for the UW-Eau Claire men’s golf team this season has re-mained constant the whole year — qualify for the NCAA Championship. Monday and Tuesday, the Blugolds took another step towards nationals.

Eau Claire took second place out of 15 teams in a three-round tourna-ment at the Bobby Krig Invitational, hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.). Head coach Mike Greer said he was impressed with the team’s con-sistent play in a overly talented envi-ronment.

“We battled a very competitive field,” Greer said. “Along with that we played two challenging golf courses in really challenging weather.”

The Blugolds competed in windy conditions but kept their composure and handled the elements, Greer said. He said this composure comes from preparation and mental attitude.

In tough condi-tions, a golfer’s game can go south quick-ly, and Greer said talking to the team the night before the tournament was an-other reason for their success.

“The main three things we focused on were dealing with the things we can

control, playing our game and having fun,” Greer said.

The Blugolds struggled with their short game over the two-day tourna-ment and Greer said his team would have come out with a victory had their shots inside 100 yards been a little sharper.

Sophomore Eric Hagstrom shot a 223 and took third place golfing as an individual. Not being a member of the top five meant Hagstrom’s score did not count toward the team’s total, but he still caught the attention of his head coach.

“What I’ve been so impressed with is our depth,” Greer said. “It shows our young talent.”

Hagstrom said he came into the tournament with a high level of con-centration and took on each hole one shot at a time. He said despite not be-ing in the varsity lineup, he saw his

opportunity to compete as a chance to prove himself.

“I did feel some pressure because I want to post low rounds to get into the top five,” Hagstrom said.

The top five, also known as the varsity lineup is a group that has con-stantly been changing for the Blugolds this year.

Freshman Brady Hanson was one of the golfers in the top five, tied for sixth with a 226. He said the team put up a good score, but left a lot of shots out on the course and didn’t play their best.

Like Hagstrom, Hanson has expe-rienced success competing as an indi-vidual. In the 2013 fall season, Han-son took first place at the Twin Cities classic.

“Whenever you play that good in a big tournament it gives you a lot of confidence, and it was a good moment for Eric,” Hanson said.

But Hagstrom’s success has come at a price. Competing on consecutive days of the school week has proven to be a challenge for the Blugolds off the course, and Hagstrom said he is getting hounded with homework right now.

The Blugolds played 10 hours of golf on Monday and Hagstrom said when the action concluded, he went back to his hotel room to do a few more hours of homework despite being ex-hausted.

“The professors are lenient and helpful, but you really have to catch up because we still have to get the work done in the classroom,” Hagstrom said.

As the Blugolds work to catch up in the classroom they are also prepar-ing for what Hagstrom said is their biggest tournament of the year.

This weekend Eau Claire will compete at the Saint John’s Universi-ty Invitational. Greer said the strong field will include familiar faces like the University of No. 24 St.Thomas (Minn.), No. 18 St. Johns (Minn.) and Gustavus.

“We go in with the goal in mind to win tournaments,” Greer said, “but with the competitive field a top two or three finish would be considered a suc-cess as well.”

Ellis Williams STAFF WRITER

tough conditons toward goals

GREER

Williams can be reached at [email protected] or @BookofEllis.

Softball sweeps conference foesUW-Eau Claire softball team on six-game conference winning streak

In their first two games at Gelein Field this season, the Blugold softball team proved they were more than happy to finally play on home turf. They took both games in a double-header against UW-Stevens Point this weekend, winning 7-2 and 8-0, respectively.

In the first game Friday, UW-Eau Claire held a 3-0 lead heading into the fifth. After two quick groundouts in the bottom of the inning, the Blugolds were able to score four runs off of three consecutive walks, a couple costly er-rors and a wild pitch.

The Pointers were able to score two in the top of the seventh, but it wasn’t enough, as freshman Blugold pitch-er Laura Blasczyk finished things off. She threw all seven innings, only allowing two runs off of five hits in their 7-2 victory.

The Blugolds dominance continued in to game two on Friday, putting 5 runs on the board courtesy of two home runs from junior Amanda Fischer and freshman Kenzie Winning before the fifth. Fischer said playing at home defi-nitely played a role in their success Friday.

“We were so excited to be back at Gelein,” Fischer said. “We just went in with the mentality that we wanted to pro-tect our home turf. We haven’t played there in almost two years.”

Eau Claire added two more runs that inning and one more in the sixth to end things early at Gelein Field, com-pleting the home field sweep against Stevens Point with an 8-0 victory. Junior Laura Raflik pitched the complete game shutout, only giving up four hit

On Monday the Blugolds continued their winning streak in a doubleheader at UW-River Falls. Eau Claire won 6-1 and 11-6 against the Falcons, respec-tively.

The Blugolds started off early again, scoring a quick four runs in the first inning after a walk, a double and two singles. After being walked, Fischer stole second base allowing junior Casey Arnold to start off the scoring with a deep RBI single to center field. Fischer said succeeding in close games is something the team has learned over the season.

“We’ve been in a lot of nail biters that a couple we’ve come out on top, a couple we haven’t,” Fischer said. “Those are really good learning opportunities for the entire team, but coach does take us through those types of scenarios in practice as well.”

River Falls scored one in the fourth inning, but Eau Claire responded with two more in the sixth to finish the first game with a 6-1 victory.

Blascyzk started the game at the mound but was re-placed by senior Emma Wishau in the fourth. She pitched a couple innings and then sophomore Zana Lorbetske closed out the game. Combined, the three ladies only allowed one run off five hits.

The second game of the River Falls doubleheader proved to be more exciting for the Blugolds than their past three outings. In an exciting, back and forth game two, Eau Claire was able to finish off the four-game sweep with an 11-6 victory.

Eau Claire got off to an early start again, posting three runs on the board in the first inning alone. Heading into the sixth, the score was a tight 6-5 in favor of the Blugolds.

Fischer and junior Taylor Pierce led off the inning with their back-to-back singles followed by a sac bunt and an in-tentional walk to load the bases. Junior Nikki Brooks then stepped up to the plate and delivered a two-RBI single to centerfield.

The Blugolds scored five runs in the sixth, putting the score at 11-5. The Falcons were able to respond with a score of their own in the same inning, but that was all they could do. The game finished 11-6, ending one of the Blugold’s wildest games in recent memory. Fischer said

“In that game, we came out hard and scored three runs right away and then we just had a dead point in the game where our energy was low for some reason,” Fischer said. “But then we recognized that and picked ourselves back up and had that big inning and got some more runs.”

Raflik pitched three and a third inning before being re-placed on the mound for Wishau. The second pitcher picked up her second win of the day with the Blugold victory. Lor-betske finished up the last one and two thirds inning. Com-bined, the ladies gave up five runs off of 12 hits.

The Blugolds also swept UW-Superior Wednesday at Gelein Field 2-0 and 15-2, respectively. With the win, Eau Claire is now on a six-game winning streak and sit at 8-4 in conference play. They are 23-13 overall.

They will play another doubleheader against UW-Osh-kosh Saturday at Gelein Field. The first game begins at 2 p.m. Fischer said the team’s is coming in with the mentality of that they have to go hard, regardless of the opponent.

“We have got to go in hard,” Fischer said. “We just need to go in and play our game. If we play our game, we are going to win games. So we are going in with confidence.”

— The Spectator staff

ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator BRING OUT THE BROOM: Junior Deanna Gilane steps up to the plate during the Blugold’s doubleheader against UW-Stevens Point April 18 at Gelein Field.

FISCHER

SPORTS9SPORTS EDITOR: Steve Fruehauf Thursday, April 24

Nicole PothenSingles/DoublesWomen’s Tennis

JuniorCenterville (Minn.)

Centennial High School

Getting to know Pothen:

Favorite food:Food on the grill (hamburgers/steak)

Favorite sport to watch: Hockey (Minnesota Wild)

Favorite musical artist: Any country artist

Favorite movie: “Bridesmaids”

Favorite hobbies: Tubing/knee boarding

Favorite travel destination: Florida

Over the weekend, the Blugolds won 9-0 over UW-River Falls in a dominating home finale. This was thanks to Pothen’s No. 6 singles win (6-0, 6-0). Her and doubles partner Paige Kuepers

won their No. 3 doubles match 8-1, as well.

GRAPHICS BY KARL ENGHOFER / The Spectator

Carlos Gomez isn’t your ordinary cen-terfielder in the MLB; it turns out he is a heck of a lot more. Gomez showed the MLB he is a passionate player Sunday, and may be the spark to propel the Brewers into a postseason run in 2014.

Gomez was the main piece of a bench-clearing brawl in Pittsburgh be-tween the Pirates and the Brewers Sun-day.

Although the brawl wasn’t instigated by Gomez, he became in-volved when Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole fol-lowed him to third base screaming profanities. Gomez then respond-ed like Gomez always does, by going off.

Although many around the league are outraged at what Go-mez did, you can watch the highlight and see he simply wasn’t at fault during his at bat.

If you didn’t see the replay, Gomez hit a deep fly ball to center-field which he thought was routine so he watched it and didn’t run, like most MLB players do.

But as it carried, he noticed it was go-ing to go off the wall and was able to sprint into third base safely. All was fine until Cole came off the mound.

Pirates fans stood and cheered as Go-mez, Cole and their respective teammates went at it for what seemed to be at least a minute, with only one solid punch thrown by Brewers catcher Martin Maldonado be-fore it was broken up.

After all was said and done, Gomez was given a three-game suspension and Maldonado, a five-game suspension. Pi-rates catcher Russell Martin was also giv-en one game, and outfielder Travis Snider,

who ran at Gomez, received two games.The Brewers, however, came out of

this brawl unscathed in my mind. Gomez is appealing his suspension, so he will most likely only miss a game or two.

The Brewers sit at 16-6 and lead the tough National League Central division. During this span, we learned a ton about who the Brewers really are.

They are a tough, hard-nosed, ready- to-battle-day-in-and-day-out team that many around the league have grown to hate. Although I’m fond of the style.

Gomez, as I talked about ear-lier, is the main reason the Brewers are where they are today. He gives the team a spark day after day, whether at the plate in his leadoff position, on the basepaths using his blinding speed or in centerfield making gold glove-type plays.

It’s all bene-ficial to the team, but what I think is most important, is his ability to chirp with other players

and get in the other teams head, as we saw Sunday.

He has become one of the most hated players over the past few years because of his cocky style of play, but what people don’t understand is how much this style helps his team.

As Gomez shows off, talks to the oppo-nent and does his thing, the Brewers are able to build momentum and have fun.

The Brewers have consistently sur-prised me this season in all facets of play, but what Gomez has shown me is some-thing I never could have expected, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Carlos Gomez gives team just the spark they were looking for

Trent Tetzlaff STAFF WRITER

Tetzlaff can be reached at [email protected] or @ttetz5.

“Although many around the league

are outraged at what Gomez did, you can watch the highlight

and see he sim-ply wasn’t at fault during his at bat.”

ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator TOURNAMENT TIME: Junior women’s tennis player Maddie Johnson returns a shot Friday against UW-River Falls during the team’s last home meet in Eau Claire this season. The Blugolds beat the Falcons 8-0 after strong doubles play. They lost just six games in doubles and nine in singles. They will play next Saturday in a four-team WIAC Au-tomatic Qualifier Tournament at UW-Whiterwater. The winner of the tournament will automatically qualify for the NCAA Championship.

CURRENTS10CURRENTS EDITOR: Zack Katz Thursday, April 24

There’s just something about sum-mer in Eau Claire. It’s all about float-ing, grilling and Express games at Car-son Park. And since 2009, add Tuesday Night Blues at Owen Park to the list.

The event, which is hosted by the Chippewa Valley Blues Association, runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day and is held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Owen Park.

Along with live music from some of the region’s finest blues musicians and groups, a festive summer ensemble full of refreshments and atmosphere will also be on full display.

A great set of concessions are pro-vided by 9 Degrees Ice Cream, Joel’s Weenie Wagon (Brats & Hot Dogs), Dickeys Bar-B-Que as well as sno-cones and cotton candy put out by sup-porters of the current night’s non-profit beneficiary.

And of course, with all of the open-ness and abundance of seating at the park separating the Water Street District from the Chippewa River, it’s never a bad idea to bring a blanket and picnic.

Tuesday Night Blues is also a com-pletely free event, making it easily ac-cessible and manageable for those who are looking to kick back and unwind after a long day’s work.

Fourteen bands are set to headline Tuesday Night Blues this summer.

— Spectator staff

Owen Park to host live music series at bandshell

A case of summer

blues

Summer Lineup 5/27 The Jones Tones6/3 Sue Orfield Band6/10 Spark & Friends6/17 Mojo Lemon6/24 Charlie Parr7/1 Left Wing Bourbon7/8 Dave Rogers Band7/15 Howard ‘Guitar’ Luedtke & Blue Max7/22 The Swamp Kings7/29 The Kingsnakes8/5 Dave Arcari8/12 Code Blue8/19 Tommy Bentz Band8/26 Rhythm Posse / Blues Brothers Tribute

For the 57th year, the Foster Art Gallery is hosting the annual Juried Student Art Show, which showcases works from students of all majors.

Gallery Director Tom Wagener said this year marks 20 years of in-volvement with the show. He also said he noticed the mediums artists choose to use are becoming more di-verse each year.

“In the last several years we have seen more multimedia, more elec-tronic entries,” Wagener said. “When I first started everything was wet photography. Now we see a lot of dig-ital manipulation. So as the art forms evolve so does the show.”

According to Wagener, after a student submits work, digital copies of the pieces are sent to a juror se-lected by the gallery committee made up of art professors. He said usually the selected juror is both an educator and an artist. This year, the commit-tee selected nationally recognized ce-ramics artist Margaret Boozer.

Wagener said Boozer reviewed the 179 entries submitted and nar-rowed it down to 85 she thought could be installed in the show. Boozer came to campus to review the 85 works she placed on the tentative list in person. In that final review, she also selected winning works for first, second and third place.

Boozer awarded Pheng Vang first place for his woodwork piece “Escala-tion”. Vang, a senior arts education major, said this was the first time he worked with wood and was surprised that his piece beat many of the other worthy works.

“I was very surprised actually,” Vang said. “During the opening night I came in and I was just astounded at the work my colleagues produced and I was like ‘Wow, there is no way

I am going to win.’ When Tom called my name for first place I was just sur-prised and astounded.”

Vang said his piece, which is made completely out of wood, com-bines two unlike items in a way that juxtaposes their function. He decided to combine a rocket launcher and a pillow to create this contrast.

“I chose the rocket launcher based on the pop-ularity of its image,” Vang said. “I wanted to use that imagery that ev-eryone is familiar with and change

its function. It causes the function of the rocket launcher to be something other than it was intended to be.”

Boozer awarded third place to se-nior photography major Ryan Kann for his photo “Underwear”. Kann said this piece, a digital photo of a tattered pair of underwear, is part of a set of photos of lost clothing he found on the streets of Eau Claire. He said the intended message of his work comments on the value placed on material items by different groups of people.

“A lot of it had to do with keeping a timeless item,” Kann said. “Some-thing that didn’t have a logo or some-thing that tied it to a certain time period. Just the texture of it. I was drawn toward more of the tattered items.”

Like Vang, Kann was natural-ly excited to place in the top three, though originally he was unsure how viewers were going to react to it.

“I like the idea of recycling and repurposing lost items,” Kann said. “Some of the ones that might be in a little better condition could be washed and reused or donated. I’ve actually found clothing that I have ended up wearing.”

Vang, Kann and second-place winner Betsy Olaussen were also awarded cash prizes. Six other stu-dents received cash prizes for honor-able mentions. Wagener said usually the honorable mentions are limited to five students, but Boozer was in-sistent on six works.

“I really can’t argue with the choices she made and I would have

to agree with the juror’s awards she made,” Wagener said. “They are very deserving students that received the awards.”

Wagener also said he encourages all students producing art, whether in a course or on their own, to submit their work next year.

The pieces will be on display un-til tonight at 8:00pm.


Danielle PahlMULTIMEDIA EDITOR

DANIELLE PAHL / The Spectator STUDENT DESIGN: Dalan Hartmann’s “The Landscape Box,” which earned him an honerable mention in the Foster Gallery’s 57th Juried Student Art Show.

To see more coverage of the Juried Student Art Show, go to spectatornews.com

Pahl can be reached at [email protected] or @DaniellePahl.

Nationally recognized artist selected student artworks for 57th Juried Student Art Show

Art for the students by the students

BOOZER

“... as the art forms

evolve, so does the show.”

TOM WAGENERFoster Art Gallery Director

When asked about how to describe his genre, Jared Bartman, a singer/song-writer from Peoria, Ill. listed a variety of categories from folk to Eastern Europe-an to 1920’s jazz to Latin to 50’s women’s vocal groups. Bartman said these unre-lated themes all come together when he writes.

“These different genres are all fil-tered through my songwriting,” Bart-man said.

All of Bartman’s genres will be on display Friday and Saturday at The Cabin.

The University Activities Commis-sion hosts Cabin shows. UAC co-chair Becca Lawrence said she listened to his music last fall as she and her co-chair set about picking the featured performers for this year.

Lawrence said there are about 15

people in three categories: female, male and band. The Cabin Committee votes and the top person or group in each cate-gory becomes a featured performer.

“We made him a featured performer because we felt he stood out from other performers,” Lawrence said.

A simpler term for Bartman’s mu-sic is indie, he said, since it’s a blanket term. He credits eclectic variety with trying to make different-sounding records.

“What I’m feel-ing on a record to record basis, trying to make something

that doesn’t sound like the previous re-cord and is better than the previous re-cord,” Bartman said.

He said his shows at The Cabin will be unique because he will be playing

with just a drummer, as opposed to a full band set-up. He said he will be playing guitar, accordion and bass on organ foot pedals in addition to vocals.

“(It’ll be) stripped down, more like rock band, minimal versions,” Bartman said. “I’ll be doing some stuff solo, trying out new material. In a way, it’s a depar-ture from other stuff I’ve done in the past, which is exciting.”

Steve Plock, who will accompany Bartman on drums said the set up cre-ates a looser feel because there’s more of a give-and-take and he won’t have to worry if the rest of the band is following along.

“He’s the songwriter and he’s the one driving the show and even though I’m the drummer which is typically the driving force, it’s easy for me to just play to him,” Plock said. “There is much more open communication between two people playing than four or six.”

Bartman said his music is more lyr-ically motivated and he puts a lot into the arrangements so audiences should be prepared for a more thoughtful show.

“I would go for more of an attentive, introspective, listening crowd than play-ing at a bar for a party crowd,” Bartman said.

Bartman said he enjoys the age group that is usually present at college shows because he said he considers col-lege campuses to be more progressive environments.

“It’s an age group that is more open to a lot of different styles of music, kind of open in general,” Bartman said. “Cool things are always happening on college campuses. It’s good to be among that col-lege town vibe.”

Plock said the energy at college shows is different because he thinks they’re more eager to see music.

“College kids, I always get the im-pression, are just excited to be out and being someone who’s come from a differ-ent city to play music on their campus, there’s a more tangible excitement,” Plock said.

While Bartman said it’s nice being able to perform on tour, he said his real passion is making records.

“It’s really sort of an obsession,” Bartman said. “The reward at the end of the arduous process of writing songs and recording material is having the final product and having gone to great pains to get it how you want it to be and enjoy-ing that. Just enjoying being able to go out and sort of eek out a living, emphasis

on sort of, making my own music that I’ve written is really rewarding for me.”

Despite it being rewarding, Bart-man said there are always challenges. Since he’s a solo artist, he said there are additional challenges because there are fewer people for his ideas to filter through.

“It’s really up to me as a solo artist to make it the way I want it to be,” Bart-man said. “Ultimately it is the artist’s duty to fulfill the vision they have and make sure it’s done right and say when it’s wrong and re-do it until it’s right. ... Just really having the perseverance to make it happen is challenging.”

Plock said the set for The Cabin shows is really diverse.

“I think we’re just going to try to make it a dynamic show. ... I’m looking forward to trying to make each song a little bit different and sort of surprise people every now and then. Jared’s an amazing songwriter and probably even more amazing singer, so at the very least you’ll be entranced by his voice and music.”


This weekend, UW- Eau Claire alumnus Sean Carey will return to campus to perform be-fore starting the bulk of his band’s tour.

Carey, who goes by the moniker S. Carey, started his tour in Michigan on Tuesday.

After making stops in Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, the folk band will play at Scho-field Auditorium Saturday night.

Carey said returning to Eau Claire will be refreshing for him and his band.

“Schofield is one of the bigger venues we are playing at this tour,” Carey said. “We play most-ly smaller clubs, so this will be a nice change of pace to be in a seated theater-type room.”

Despite the change of venue, the change of audience is what could make performances like this one more difficult.

“Sometimes, it’s hardest to play in your hometown,” Carey said. “There are more nerves and pressure when I look out and recognize most of the audience ... it’s a bit easier to loosen up in some far off place where you can just play the show.”

Carey said it will be a fun show and he’s looking forward to playing for college students that might not get to go to a lot of shows.

This concert will not be a solo event, as the band members including Zach Hanson on drums, Nick Ball on guitar and vibes, Jeremy Boettcher on bass, and Ben Lester playing percussion, ped-al steel and keyboards will play as well.

Carey had major success when he joined lo-cal indie folk band Bon Iver, but found himself tinkering with his own recordings, which led him to start a solo act under S. Carey.

S. Carey released his debut album “All We Grow,” and soon after added contributors from the album as full-time band members.

“He incorporates some elements of classi-cal music and minimalism into his folk music, there’s another level to it, it’s not just some guy with a guitar playing folk songs,” local musician and Eau Claire alumnus Davy Sumner said. “Sean and most of the members of his band stud-ied classical music and played jazz music togeth-er.”

Sumner, known locally for his performance series The Arco Sessions, has had many experi-

ences with Carey musically and personally.Sumner said returning to Eau Claire before

heading out of the country will be a good time for the audience and the band itself.

“Four of the five band members are from Wisconsin, and three of the five are graduates of Eau Claire’s music program,” Sumner said. “It’ll be special to have them all back and having the show on campus should be a special perfor-mance.”

Carey said his time at Eau Claire prepared him to be a good musician.

“I acquired a lot of skills and confidence in my craft while at Eau Claire,” Carey said. “Also, I was exposed to a lot of cool music and compos-ers that really shaped my writing style.”

The tour is scheduled to last until Septem-ber, including minor breaks after this weekend’s performance and in mid-July.

S. Carey will be traveling to the United Kingdom to kick off the major haul of the tour in May and said long distance touring doesn’t real-ly bother him.

Carey said the band will be playing a mix of new and old songs, including tracks from their new album “Range of Light.”

Massachusetts native Casey Dienel will be performing as White Hinterland and opening for

the band this Saturday.The event begins at 8 p.m., and admission at

the door is $12.

Katie Bast NEWS EDITOR

Spanning years and countriesIllinois-based Jared Bartman to perform at The Cabin

Bast can be reached at [email protected] or @Katie_Bast.

Austin MaiSTAFF WRITER

Musician begins European tour in late spring S. Carey to play Schofield Auditorium on Midwest Tour

Mai can be reached at [email protected] or @austinisfresh.

Nick Erickson

8

BARTMAN

SUBMITTED LOCAL SOUNDS: S. Carey, above, said sometimes hometown shows bring more nerves because of the fa-miliarity of the audience.

OPINION / EDITORIAL13OP/ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, April 24

“It’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know.”

How often are those words said between speakers, professors or even other students? I’m not even close to figuring out what my plans are after college, but those words sound all too familiar to me.

Which is why, ever since I’ve stepped on campus, I knew I was get-ting involved in as many organizations as I could because of the resources they would provide to help me succeed.

Let me back up: In no way, shape or form am I trying to get every single student involved

on campus. I’ll let the facts speak for themselves.

A 2010 study conducted by Right Management surveyed more than 59,000 people and asked how they found their jobs.

Getting involved is essential

Campus orgs provide good networking resource

to find jobs in the future

HOSELY

Meghan Hosely STAFF WRITER

Freshmen move-in day is the start of something new for millions of first-year college students world-wide. It’s also the beginning of a new level of responsibility and hard work.

Some students will take this fresh responsibility and run with it, but others will struggle with this unusual amount of pressure on their shoulders and falter.

Forbes reported that a 2013 Uni-versity of California, Merced study shows the more money a parent dish-es out for their kid’s college educa-tion directly correlates with the child

performing worse academically. As years have passed less parents are paying for their student’s tuition be-cause of the economy. However, this doesn’t take away from the problem.

This, however, is not a surprise to me. When a student isn’t paying for their college education they are more likely to take it for granted and not push themselves as hard. Where-as a student who pays his or her own bills will likely be much more conscious about academic and social deci-sions.

I grew up in a middle class household with two older sib-lings, and be-ing the baby, I learned to earn something, you really did have to work for it. When it comes to college, this is a prime example.

I know there are those of you out there thinking won’t kids work just as hard, if not harder, because they want to please the parents who are dropping thousands on them for an education?

But according to Forbes, studies show students will feel less weight

on their shoulders when they don’t have to pay for school and stress about loans. In return they will feel less obligated to study and perform well on exams.

Believe it or not, students whose educational costs are paid for entire-ly by their parents engage in more leisure activities, such as partying. Most students don’t party so hard

they flunk out of college, but they do damage to their academic performance.

As a student who is paying for a majority of college, I will do what it takes in order to help me get out of school in four years, and if that means studying until 3 a.m. for an exam, it will

be done. No matter how hard school may be, students like me who pay for school know the pain of paying tuition every semester, so seeing A’s on your transcript is a great feeling.

I understand not every student with parents paying their bills fits the breed of a student that doesn’t perform as well, but many will take

the free ride and run with it.Along with this, Forbes also indi-

cated students with parents paying for their college are more likely to stay more than four years in school as compared to a student paying for themselves. Not surprising whatsoever.

I believe college is a time to be independent, which is why I feel that paying for my own college is benefi-cial for me, although it is something that is tough to do.

By paying for my own college, I have learned how to manage my money, hold a part-time job and pay my own bills. These are all things everyone will have to do one day in society.

These skills can go a long way in helping everyone become better, more responsible people when it comes time to put on the big boy/girl pants and enter a fast-moving pro-fessional world.

Yes, college should be the best time of your life and you should meet some of the your best friends, but being able to take away a lot more than friendships and good memories should be the ultimate goal.

Trent Tetzlaff STAFF WRITER

The free ride must become the path less traveled

Tetzlaff is a sophomore journalism major and staff writer for The Spec-tator. He can be reached at [email protected] or @ttetz5.

Responsibility with schoolwork becomes a problem for students who don’t pay the bills

“I believe college is a time to be indepen-

dent, which is why I feel that paying for my own college is beneficial for me.”

>> INVOLVED page 15

SKYLINE

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

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

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

conference over a disabled mic and the din of people filing out the doors.

And in the summer of 2013 he used $1,200 in campaign funds to buy a red 1987 Volkswagen Cabriolet convertible. For “parades,” he said.

Hulsey asked Government Ac-

countability Board administrator Jonathan Becker in an email if the car could be considered legitimate on a campaign expense ledger, accord-ing to the Capitol Times.

“Lots of people go to parades in

governor.But Hulsey doesn’t seem to mind.“I like a good David and Goliath

story,” he told the Capitol Times Tuesday.

Let’s just hope he fills his ar-mory with rocks, not muskets or box cutters.

OPINION / EDITORIAL14OP/ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, April 24

Brett Hulsey, Madison-area state rep, announced Monday he would challenge Democratic candi-dates Mary Burke, Marcia Mercedes Perkins and Hariprasad Trivedi for the Democratic nod for Governor.

Hulsey isn’t your average law-maker. He’s been lurking on the fringes of the Democratic party since he was elected to the assembly in 2010.

He’s been cited for dunking a 9-year-old into Lake Mendota, threatening a police officer with karate moves and hijacking sitting governor Scott Walker’s press con-ference.

Welcome to the world of a whack-a-mole.

Hurley’s troubles with state Democrats stem from what we will call a failure to communicate. Or failure to know when not to commu-nicate.

He forged endorsements from retiring Rep. Spencer Black on fliers for a campaign to fill Black’s west Madison seat. He said Democratic Assembly leader Peter Barca was “running up the white flag of the

French army,” because Democrats weren’t introducing enough amend-ments to the state budget.

And he accused Madison mayor Paul Soglin of pulling strings on a conspiracy after he was cited for in-appropriate contact with a minor in 2012.

Here’s what happened:Hulsey flipped a 9-year-old boy

off an inflatable chair and into the water at Spring Harbor Beach in Madison on Independence Day 2012. Then he whipped out his iPhone and snapped a few pictures. Of the sun-set and sailboats, not the kid, he told police.

Don’t worry, he didn’t “touch” or “molest” the boy or anything, he later said.

But Hulsey was running out of jokers with state Democrats before he was cited in the beach fiasco.

He re-labeled Walker’s 2011 bud-get repair bill the “budget despair bill” in a press release a couple hours after reading it. Just one in a long string of bad puns.

Hulsey stood hand in the air at a Walker press conference in 2011.

When he wasn’t called on, he hopped behind the podium and began holding his own impromptu press

Wisconsin governor’s race just got weirderNew Democratic challenger entering race has a history of zany — and ethically questionable —

actions while serving as a state representative

Nate Beck CHIEF COPY EDITOR

convertibles but I don't have one,” he wrote. “(I) am looking to buy an old one for $1,000 to use for that and campaigning.”

It’s illegal to use a campaign ve-hicle for day-to-day transportation, but Hulsey has been spotted pull-ing up to the capitol building in the 27-year-old ride.

More strange behavior: • In early 2013, an aide report-

ed Hulsey to Madison police after he brought a box cutter to the office and told her he was going to reserve a room for training against a box cutter attack, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She refused.

• That same day, according to a separate report, he showed a police officer the un-extended box cutter, put the officer in a compliance hold and said he was going to use karate on him, the Journal Sentinel report-ed

• About a month before the box cutter incident, Hulsey asked a police officer if he could bring a musket into the capitol building to protest con-cealed carry laws.

I don’t have enough space to lay out every odd thing this guy has done. He has a long way to climb to secure the Democratic nod for

Beck is a senior journalism major and Chief Copy Editor of The Spectator. He can be reached at [email protected] or @NateBeck9.

SUBMITTED MEET THE CANDIDATE: Rep. Brett Hulsey recently entered into the race for Wis-consin governor. His questionable antics make for an interesting choice for the executive spot.

“Hulsey flipped a 9-year-old boy off

an inflatable chair and into the water

... Then he whipped out his iPhone and

snapped a few pictures.”

As the semester draws down to a close, and this marks one of the last times I will be writing this col-umn (a sad day indeed), I would like to pass on some wisdom to every-one, starting this week with words of caution:

Do not trust everything you read on the Internet.

Before you say, “Well, obvious-

ly!” and quit reading, please consid-er this thought more carefully.

A lot of people have opinions on political issues. The Internet is a very cheap medium for someone to use as a soapbox. Designing and maintaining websites is becoming easier and more affordable.

Not to mention, this new tech-nology makes it easier for ancient habits to thrive. People can choose to consume solely the information they agree with politically with

greater ease than just a decade ago.These things are foul ingredi-

ents to a recipe for disaster. Those looking for trustworthy content de-serving of the title “political jour-nalism” are more susceptible to deception. Hard-headed individuals are not being exposed to alternative views or lively debate, something vital to a democratic society with an informed electorate.

What makes this problem unique compared to even a few years ago is social media. Far too often I see images or links to stories on Facebook friends’ timelines that are either blatant fabrications of facts or misrepresentations of polit-ical arguments.

Social media misinformation woes are not limited to just Face-book. Reddit has an infamous subreddit /r/politics. (For those of you who do not use reddit, I’m not going to explain it. Start using it.)

This subreddit has some inter-esting links to articles, but for the most part — at least the posts that frequently get the most upvotes — are either about marijuana legal-

ization or testaments to our nation’s political corruption.

Being a journalist, I’m not against reading or writing articles about these topics, but consuming information with such a narrow scope is dangerous.

The World Bank keeps track of Worldwide Governance Indicators. Two of the variables for the WGI dataset are control of corruption and voice/accountability. If you check out how the U.S. fares (reg-ularly above the 80th percentile in both variables), redditors may be a little surprised. There is corruption, but not on the systemic scale /r/poli-tics might have one believe.

And just a couple weeks ago, a reddit post linking to a (poorly writ-ten) article suggesting the U.S. is an oligopoly instead of a democracy garnered more than 3,000 upvotes. This is a sad testament to a person’s willingness to believe anything pre-sented to them as long as it matches their political ideology.

I have a few suggestions to combat the spread of misinforma-tion. Use trustworthy sources with

good reputations. Traditional me-dia such as NPR and the New York Times websites are a safe choice. If you are unsure of a newer or less-er-known website, however, do your research on it.

Also, do not trust any old thing your cousin Jim from Holmen posts on his Twitter or Facebook account. This advice seems obvious, but sometimes close relationships can be mistaken for sources of credibil-ity.

So, fellow readers, keep this in mind in the future. In an era where anything goes on the Internet, we must be fully aware of what infor-mation we are consuming.

OPINION / EDITORIAL15OP / ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, April 24

The top response, at 41 percent, was networking. The second method was an Internet job board at 25 percent.

The difference between the two shows the effectiveness of networking. Even four years ago, it was the leading source of finding a job. I can’t even imag-ine the stats for 2013, especially with so-cial media evolving at all times.

I get it, some majors require more networking than others, so some peo-ple might not be inclined to be involved. However, if the resources are at your disposal on campus, why not take ad-vantage of them?

Some organizations have guest speakers come in periodically to talk about their job field, and regular gath-erings allow for students to meet others in the same major. Both are incredibly beneficial networking opportunities.

The Society of Professional Jour-nalists president-elect Dana Neuts said recently at the Midwest Journalism Conference that if it weren’t for SPJ, she wouldn’t have landed any of her jobs. Most were obtained through networking within the national organization.

Joining clubs isn’t the only way to find out about networking opportunities. Our good friend the Internet also helps us out. LinkedIn is a social media site designed to connect businesses with job seekers. According to the website, Linke-dIn is “the world’s largest professional network on the Internet.”

If going to a meeting once a week or once every other week is too time con-suming, making a profile on a website would eliminate some of the time com-mitment, but still allow people to net-work and share ideas.

In the end, it’s up to the person

Hosely is a freshman organizations communication major and staff writer for The Spectator. She can be reached at [email protected] or @meghanhosely.

Every Friday morning starts out pretty much the same way for me. I make a cup of coffee and pick up my latest copy of Glamour Magazine.

Last Friday I stumbled across a statistic scary enough to make me want to write about it.

Of the 30 million Americans who will suffer from an eating disorder in their lifetime, only 1 in 10 will receive proper treatment, accord-ing to a recent study conducted by Glamour Magazine and the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, an advocacy group in Florida.

I was learning about eating dis-orders in my early teenage years, and I am certainly aware of the symptoms that are commonly asso-ciated with Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa.

I’m not saying I am in the po-sition to properly diagnose these. However, with all the advance-ments in the medical field and tech-nology we have seen in recent years, this is something doctors should be more equipped to understand.

The study sent seven volunteers who either had eating disorders in the past, or worked with women who have, into primary care doctors’ offices. There they listed off sever-al symptoms associated with these behaviors to test doctors’ reactions.

Five of the seven dismissed their symptoms and just suggested

to eat more. There was one doctor who even expressed jealousy to hear the weight loss one volunteer men-tioned.

“Just eat three meals a day and stop being so dramatic,” one doctor said to one of the volunteer patients.

“Eat some salty crap like potato chips – we’re going to pack on the pounds. It will be easy. You’ll see,” another doctor said in the study.

These are supposed to be the people we trust to take care of us, but the things they told these volun-teers are in some cases worse than the advice a friend would offer.

Fortunately, this isn’t the case for all doctors.

Johanna Kandel, founder and CEO of the Alliance for Eating Dis-orders Awareness, said while these responses are “heartbreaking”, there is still hope.

“Women with eating disorders have also told me that it’s because of a well-informed general practi-tioner that they’re alive today,” she said in an interview with Glamour Magazine.

This becomes a matter of mak-ing sure all doctors receive proper training before entering the profes-sional medical field and knowing how serious these diseases still are.

And not just to females. Eating disorders affect both males and fe-males and aren’t limited to a single body type. They can affect anyone.

Judith Wylie-Rosett, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology

and Population Health at the Al-bert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, said in the article that only one session on diagnosing eating disorders is scheduled in the second year of medical school.

While we can’t change the med-ical field, there are several things you can do if you or someone you know may be battling an eating dis-order, according to the article.

Make an appointment with a professional if you are dealing with sudden weight loss or gain, but make sure they have experience in treating these issues. Check for lo-cal providers at Aedweb.org or Na-tionaleatingdisorders.org.

If you’re concerned about a friend, talk to them. Just make sure to be supportive and not accusatory. Share observations about his or her behavior and mention you’re wor-ried.

If you care about the issue, ask your representatives to support the FREED Act, a bill that “would expand federal funding for eating disorder education, training and re-search.”

In my experience, talking to a friend has always been easier than talking to a medical professional, but the first step is simply talking to someone.

Diagnosing certain disorders still problematicA recent study alarmingly suggests eating disorders are still going unnoticed


Macek is a junior journalism major and Copy Editor of The Spectator. She can be reached at [email protected] or @KatherineMacek.

whether or not they want to get involved. Personally, I would much rather spend my time in extra-curriculars now, even if they take up some of my free time. Being involved might not pay me now, but it will pay off for me in the future.

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER / The Spectator

Alex Zank OP/ED EDITOR

INVOLVED/ networking is essential to finding a job

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

New age of instant information also means instant misinformation

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER / The Spectator

STUDENT LIFE16STUDENT LIFE EDITOR: Cori Picard Thursday, April 24

Senior Brittany Greenawald fights for a cure after her own battle with brain cancer

Cori Picard STAFF WRITER

Brittany Greenawald’s journey has been a long one.

While most students may be stressed over final projects and exams, Greenawald, a double major in elementary and special education, is more concerned with staying alive. It has been 10 months since Greenawald had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in her brain, and she’s plagued with painful side effects that take a toll on her daily life.

“I’ve had to ask professors for extensions, sometimes I’m not able to get to class,” Green-awald said. “But I’m a pretty stubborn girl, so I’m really determined to not miss class.”

Greenawald’s battle with brain cancer start-ed last May while working as a lifeguard at No-ah’s Ark in Wisconsin Dells. She said her friends and coworkers noticed she had a loss of coordina-tion, as well as severe bruising on her knees, hips and arms. Greenawald was suffering from two to three migraines daily.

After a visit to the emergency room, doctors advised Greenawald to see her doctor at home in Green Bay. When she returned home in June, a CT scan revealed her brain was bleeding, and an MRI showed a tumor doctors thought could be precancerous. She immediately met with a brain surgeon, and surgery was scheduled for June 26.

“I was a little scared, I was a little worried about not waking up because there was a chance of that,” Greenawald said, “but I’m a strong Christian, so I knew it was in God’s hands, and if it was time for me to go home, it was time for me to go home.”

Greenawald underwent a six-hour surgery to remove the tumor, which was about the size of two to three grapes. She said she had 30 staples and over 60 stitches. The scar runs from the base of her neck to the top of her head on her right side.

She spent four days in the Intensive Care Unit and on July 3, doctors told her the news. It was stage 1 brain cancer, but they believed they removed it all.

“I definitely cried, it was hard to hear,” Gre-enawald said. “My dad was diagnosed with a heart disease when I was a little girl, and at that time, it was a life-threatening thing, so I kind of felt like, ‘why me?’ It felt unfair almost.”

But getting through surgery was only the be-ginning for Greenawald. She spent a month and

a half in therapy, relearning to walk, which she said was an exhausting task.

“The tumor was on the muscle control area of my brain, so I actually had to learn the differ-ence between walking on grass and walking on a hard floor.”

She also suffered with vision problems after surgery. She had triple vision consistently, but it eventually turned into double vision and then finally, single vision. She also said it was normal for her to vomit 20 to 30 times a day.

But Greenawald was determined to return to work, so with perseverance, she convinced her doctors to let her return to Wisconsin Dells in the beginning of August.

She had trouble though, and couldn’t get back in the water at Noah’s Ark. With her skull still open, she was not allowed to swim. Diving and head injuries were also concerns, but Gre-enawald was able to work three to five hours a day as long as she didn’t get overheated and got plenty of rest.

“My doctors said I needed eight to 10 hours of sleep at night, plus three to four-hour naps every day,” Greenawald said. “I’d wake up, work for a few hours, and then come home and nap. I would see my friends for a little bit at night, and then go to sleep and do it all over again.”

Now, looking forward to graduation in De-cember after student-teaching in the fall, Green-awald still suffers from migraines, about three to six a week, plus numbness in her legs and blurred vision. She said she’s very sensitive to sound and light during her migraines, but she makes accom-modations so she can attend class.

“It’s not uncommon to see me in class with sunglasses and earmuffs on,” she said, “so when my professors see me, they’ll say, ‘Brittany, you can go home if you want,’ and I’ll say, ‘No, I’m fine.’”

Greenawald’s determination to keep up in school does not go unnoticed. Rosemary Battalio, department chair for the special education de-partment, said Greenawald’s strength is awe-in-spiring.

“She really wants to be a teacher, this is her lifelong dream and she’s going to do it,” Battalio said. “She’s doing everything she can to keep up, I have not seen any kind of slacking off in her work.”

Greenawald said she uses her dream of be-coming a teacher and working with children as a way to keep going.

“I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was a

little girl, so I’m really fighting for my future,” Greenawald said. “I’m fighting for my future stu-dents.”

Greenawald has become a model of strength and hope to her peers, including Battalio.

“She is my role model,” Battalio said. “I look at this young lady who is at the beginning of her life as a teacher, and the fact that she has this kind of determination humbles me.”

But Greenawald’s roommate and friend, Ash-ley Treder, said she knows first-hand Greenawald has her bad days, but she always picks herself up.

“There are days that it’ll just hit her,” Treder said. “But she knows who to talk to, and every-one’s so willing to give her the help she needs. I don’t know how she does it.”

Greenawald is currently involved in a differ-ent kind of fight. She said she’s determined to help find a cure for brain cancer. She’s done sev-eral fundraising events for the American Brain Tumor Association, including selling T-shirts and bracelets. She’s raised over $100, which will go toward research efforts and support for affected families. She’s scheduled to speak at this year’s Relay for Life as well.

Greenawald said her passion for reaching out and spreading awareness stems more from her

great-grandfather’s diagnosis with brain cancer than her own.

“He was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer and he went really fast,” Greenawald said. “It was really hard to watch, especially since I was going through my own experiences with brain cancer at the time.”

Right now, Greenawald is cancer-free, but she must go five years cancer-free to be consid-ered in remission. Every three months, she re-turns to Green Bay for MRI’s. Every three weeks, Greenawald checks in with her doctor, and start-ing soon, she’ll see a specialist every two months to control her migraines and headaches.

Greenawald said she considers herself a fighter, and she’ll continue to fight as long as she can. She said she wants to inspire others with the disease to fight, as well.

“I want to tell people battling this disease that they can’t give up hope,” she said. “I know that it’s a rough road and there are a lot of chal-lenges that other people can’t quite understand, and it’s scary, but you have to fight. Fight, fight, fight.”

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER/ The Spectator

SUBMITTED UNENDING SUPPORT: Greenawald (back row, second from left) poses with her Noah’s Ark coworkers, some of who have braided their hair to the side in support of Greenawald’s battle with brain cancer.

Picard can be reached at [email protected] or @CoriFPicard.

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