The university made the decision this spring as part of a plan to use internal service providers, said Bruce Van Den Berghe, associate vice president of auxiliary and administrative services.

Rockey Grounds will be replaced with a university-run coffee cart that will feature an expanded menu. (Katie Broadwell/TommieMedia)

“It was just a move on the part of the university to internalize as much of the services that could be provided on campus,” Van Den Berghe said. “We thanked them for their years of service to the university, its faculty, staff and students, and informed them in line with the terms of the agreement that we were giving them their formal notice that their services would no longer be required.”

Independent of the St. Thomas dining services, Rockey Grounds was operated by owner Lorna Rockey under the terms of a month-to-month lease.

Rockey said she was stunned when she received what she called “a very impersonal, short letter,” informing her that the lease would be terminated July 30.

“It came out of nowhere, they gave me no heads up at all,” Rockey said. “After 15 years of service, you’d think if they were thinking of making a change they’d give you a year or at least a semester heads up to tell you, ‘Hey, we’re phasing this thing out, you might want to look for other venues.’”

Rockey said she believes the change was handled unprofessionally and unethically by the university, since she never received a phone call or was asked to meet with St. Thomas officials to discuss the change.

“It just is not reflective of anything to do with a Catholic university to be treated this heartlessly. I’m really surprised,” Rockey said.

Van Den Berghe said he didn’t believe the situation was handled unfairly and that nothing in the agreement was violated.

“Things like this are never easy to handle. A business decision is made and then business processes kick in,” Van Den Berghe said. “It’s not as though they had a 99 year lease and we elected to end it prematurely.”

The new coffee cart will open at the beginning of fall semester  and will be run by student employees, said Todd Empanger, director of dining services. Empanger said it will serve Starbucks products and accept cash and eXpress dollars.

Students should not expect a reduction in quality and the new cart will feature an expanded menu, said Gayle Lamb, cash operations manager for dining services.

“We’re just in the process of hiring our new staff person and she comes from a coffee background,” Lamb said. “We have a lot more resources than what Rockey Grounds had, to be able to supply a more expanded menu. With the support of Starbucks, we’ll have their full product line.”

Sophomore Tommy Glass, a frequenter of Rockey Grounds, said he’s most concerned about losing the uniqueness of Rockey’s coffee cart.

“One of the biggest things, obviously besides having a good cup of coffee, is losing just the entire atmosphere,” Glass said. “Even if you were just passing by, it was a really nice touch to the BEC. I know plenty of my friends even formed friendships with her and they are just outraged at the situation.”

Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu.

And one St. Thomas law professor hopes to secure her spot as Republican candidate for the 4th Congressional District in Tuesday’s primary election.

Photo Courtesy: School of Law, University of St. Thomas.

Professor Teresa Collett is the Republican Party’s endorsed candidate for the district and is running against Jack Shepard.

Collett said she’s optimistic about her chances in what she called a “unique race,” and has been working hard to spread the word about Tuesday’s primary.

“It is not unusual for there to be a low turnout, especially in a midterm primary, so we’re not sure what we’re going to see tomorrow,” Collett said. “We’re hoping that the sort of energy that we’ve seen with people coming out for rallies regarding the health care bill, with people’s concern over the bailouts, with their concern over the national debt, that that will motivate them to get out and vote. But we’ll wait and see.”

Shepard, a former Minneapolis dentist who is still wanted on a 1982 arson charge, has been seeking public office since 2002 and got 36 percent of the vote in the 4th District party primary in 2006. He is currently living in Italy.

Collett, in addition to teaching at St. Thomas, is a wife, mother of three and an author who describes herself as a fiscal and social conservative. She said her background as an attorney and St. Thomas law professor would serve her well if she were to represent the 4th district in Congress.

“I’m used to reading law and understanding what it says and what it impacts,” Collett said. “I also have assisted both in the drafting of laws that have been presented to Congress, as well as the drafting of laws that have been presented to the state legislature. That sort of practical experience means that I’ll start with an advantage that a lot of freshman congress people don’t start with.”

All polling places in Ramsey County will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voting for Ward 4, Precinct 6 will take place at McNeely Hall.

You can locate your polling place at http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/elections/precinctfinder/index.asp

Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu.

Photo Courtesy of School of Engineering, University of St. Thomas

The rebuttal would result in harsh words and threats of legal action, but Abraham, who specializes in heat transfer, said he created the online rebuttal because he felt it was his responsibility as a scientist to challenge the content of Lord Christopher Monckton’s speech at Bethel University last October.

“When I listened to the talk, [I thought] someone in the audience who wasn’t trained in the scientific method would come away thinking there’s this big conspiracy, scientists are lying and this global warming isn’t such a big deal,” Abraham said. “One of the things that I’m very passionate about is making sure that science is communicated effectively and honestly to a live audience, and I just didn’t feel that his communication of science was truthful to the intent of the originating scientists.”

Monckton, current deputy leader of the anti-European-Union UK Independence Party and a former journalist, struck back in various ways.

His first response came in the form of letters to St. Thomas officials, including University President the Rev. Dennis Dease, saying Abraham’s presentation is “academically dishonest” and demanding that the university open an academic misconduct investigation.

The debate became even more personal June 24 when Monckton appeared on a syndicated radio talk show and called Abraham a “wretched little man,” St. Thomas a “half-assed Catholic Bible college” and Dease a “creep.”

In response to Monckton’s letters and public comments, St. Thomas’ representative law firm Moore, Costello & Hart wrote to Monckton saying that Abraham “has done nothing improper or illegal” and that he “has not engaged in any academic or professional misconduct.”

The letter also said there would be no investigation, retraction or apology, and threatened legal action if Monckton continued making “disparaging or defamatory comments” about St. Thomas or anyone else associated with the university.

On July 12 Monckton issued his own 99-page rebuttal to Abraham’s presentation. In his rebuttal he asks Abraham to either respond to a total of 466 questions or remove the presentation and issue a public apology for it.

Abraham said he has no desire to continue the public debate with Monckton.

“What I want to do is go back to my research activities and get back to really focusing on classes,” Abraham said. “My dream would be to let my work stand and let him say what he wants, let both of our works stand and let the general public come to their own conclusion over who’s right.”

The university’s position

St. Thomas hasn’t issued a formal statement but is standing behind its professor, said Jim Winterer, university spokesman.

“The university has not been taking steps to send out news releases or somehow take a public stand, although we’re encouraging good science and the kind of debate that goes on in scientific circles,” Winterer said. “We are supporting John Abraham’s research and the way he’s conducted his analysis….He has a civil tone and he’s not making personal attacks.”

About Monckton

Monckton is a hereditary peer also known as 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. He was a policy adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and is currently chief policy adviser to the Washington-based Science and Public Policy Institute, which disputes the belief that climate change is occurring.

He has argued against anthropogenic climate change in many venues, highlighting what he sees as a lack of scientific consensus on the subject and calling it “unscientific, freedom-destroying nonsense.” His critique of climate change science led him to testify before the U.S. Congress in May.

Libel?

In a recent interview from London, Monckton said Abraham’s presentation was libelous and that he may pursue legal action against the St. Thomas professor.

“It is a systematic, deliberate, serious, malicious libel,” Monckton said. “In Britain, so serious is this libel that it might even be a police matter because in Britain we have a thing called criminal libel.”

Monckton’s threats of legal action are baseless, said Mark Anfinson, an adjunct media law professor at St. Thomas and longtime First Amendment lawyer.

“There’s absolutely no merit whatsoever. It is in fact difficult to express in English just how completely lacking in substance his threats are legally,” Anfinson said. “This is the quintessential type of debate that the First Amendment was adopted to protect, debates and disputes about important social and political issues….The courts would throw this out as fast as they possibly could.”

Public response

The reaction of the greater St. Thomas community has been very positive, Winterer said.

“I’ve heard nothing but support here at St. Thomas for John Abraham and the manner in which he’s handling this,” Winterer said. “We feel he’s really representing the university well in those regards and we’re heartened by letters and e-mails of support from scientists….They’re also appreciative of the tone and the manner in which he’s doing this. It’s not a personal attack; it’s an analysis of the data that’s out there.”

While he’s received positive feedback from people across the world, Abraham said he’s disappointed the issue has become such a controversial topic.

“This is viewed as a really polarizing issue, and I don’t think it needs to be,” Abraham said. “One thing that we really need to be able to do is debate these points without being argumentative. We need to be civil. In that regard, these public debates tend to turn vitriolic pretty quickly, and as soon as that happens, you lose the ability to actually discuss the points.”

Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu.

When St. Thomas students decide where to spend their hard-earned dollars on a bite to eat, food quality and location/convenience are the two most important factors in their decision, according to a TommieMedia survey.

The survey, aimed at gauging student satisfaction with on-campus food options, received 469 responses from April 23 to May 14.

According to a TommieMedia survey, food quality and location/convenience are the two most important factors in deciding where to eat. (Brent Fischer/TommieMedia)

“Food quality” (374 votes) and “location/convenience” (332) received the most votes for most important factors in deciding where to eat. “Cost” was next with 207 votes, while “service” received 40 votes.

Junior Breana Lucius said she isn’t overly impressed with the food quality on-campus, but the convenient locations of some eating spots determine where her next meal will be. For Lucius, this means Food for Thought, the student favorite located in Minneapolis, is too out-of-the-way.

“The food on north campus, it’s all right; it’s there, it’s convenient. It’s not awesome,” Lucius said. “I just don’t have time to go to Minneapolis campus.”

Since the locations of on-campus food establishments rarely change, Director of Dining Services Todd Empanger said his primary concern is providing students with a quality product at an affordable price.

Dining services achieves this through high-volume ordering and comparing prices with other restaurants around the Twin Cities, Empanger said.

“Our initiative is to try and keep our prices under any place,” Empanger said. “When you compare us to like a Jimmy John’s or a Subway, we buy a four or five stage up in quality of meat.… Our sandwiches have more meat, more cheese, more toppings, and they’re usually the same price or less.”

Dining services orders about 90 percent of its food from U.S. Foodservice and about 10 percent from Reinhart FoodService, Empanger said. While all on-campus eateries order their food through dining services, Empanger said they are independently run and even have different recipes.

“Businesswise, everyone is all independent of each other. They all provide weekly updated reports to show what they’re doing and where they are,” Empanger said. “We’re not supposed to lose money so we’ve got to watch our labor and our food costs.”

The Grill vs. Scooter’s

With just one floor separating them in Murray-Herrick Campus Center, the Grill and Scooter’s are natural competitors for drawing in hungry students on North Campus.

While both restaurants order food the same way, Empanger said the two have different goals.

“The Grill is kind of the quick pickup and go and is designed to be more value-ready,” Empanger said. “Scooter’s is more like a restaurant. It is more expensive because you’re getting a better product.… At Scooter’s, as soon as you order it, it’s on the grill fresh. So there’s a cost to that.”

But the survey showed that students think food quality is more an issue at Scooter’s than at the Grill.

Fifty-four percent of students surveyed said the food quality at Scooter’s was “satisfactory,” while “below expecations” and “above expectations” received 21 percent of the vote. On the other hand, when asked about the Grill’s food quality, 60 percent said it was “satisfactory” and the next most popular response was “above expectations” with 25 percent of the vote.

Empanger said he’s surprised with the results, but food quality is something dining services is always looking to improve.

“As far as food quality, we’re always looking at upgrading and getting it better so that [students] stay on campus,” Empanger said. “We want to keep them here. Our goal is to try to do that.”

TommieMedia’s on-campus food survey results (PDF)

Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu.

The survey, aimed at gauging current St. Thomas student’s satisfaction with on-campus food options, received a total of 469 responses from April 23 to May 14.

In a TommieMedia survey, 230 students picked the Minneapolis campus cafeteria "Food for Thought" as their favorite choice for on-campus food. (Brent Fischer/TommieMedia)

Out of 469 responses, 306 students picked the north campus cafeteria as their least favorite choice for on-campus food in a TommieMedia survey. (Brent Fischer/TommieMedia)

Food for Thought was the overwhelming choice for students’ favorite on-campus food establishment, receiving 49 percent of the vote. The Binz Refectory finished a distant second with 15 percent of the vote.

Senior Adam Dressel said he eats at Food for Thought about twice a week and it’s his favorite place to eat on campus.

“In my opinion, the best food is probably in Minneapolis because it’s actually prepared right in front of you,” Dressel said. “I know the Caf is working to change that for next year. Their food has gotten better but it still really doesn’t compare to the Minneapolis campus.”

The north campus cafeteria, affectionately referred to as “the Caf” by many students, received the most votes (65 percent) for the least favorite on-campus food option. In that category, Food for Thought didn’t receive a single vote.

Director of Dining Services Todd Empanger said he isn’t surprised at the results, and added that the north campus cafeteria’s low popularity is likely due to its high volume cooking and an aging facility that doesn’t allow for action station cooking.

“When I look at the dining rooms and favorite places, the Binz and Food For Thought are always the hottest here. The perception of having it cooked in front of you makes a huge difference,” Empanger said. “We know [the cafeteria] is old, built in ‘62. We do what we can … By the time next year comes around, you’ll see some change … We’ll see some differences over time as Ken [Grogg] starts doing his thing.”

With the arrival of new Executive Chef Kenn Grogg at the beginning of spring semester, students may have wondered if he would achieve his goal of making St. Thomas “the hidden gem among university dining services.”

The survey asked students whether they’ve noticed a difference in food quality at the north campus cafeteria in the past few months, to which 55 percent answered, “No difference.” But the next most popular response was “slightly better” with 20 percent of the vote, a sign that Grogg may be turning things around.

Empanger said it’s still early and he expects students to see a change before long.

“He’s only been here three months. He’s never been in a college atmosphere before, more hotels and business operations, so he’s seeing what is all involved,” Empanger said. “To turn it around in within that time, it usually takes about a year, and we know that. So we’re not putting too much pressure on him yet.”

Come January 2012, Grogg and the north campus cafeteria will be relocated to the $66 million Anderson Student Center, a venue Empanger says will be fully equipped for the action station cooking that makes Food for Thought so popular.

“We will have the equipment to make it work. That’s the key, because right now we don’t have the equipment to make it happen,” Empanger said. “There’s no limit to what you can do … Now, you make a whole bunch of it up, it sits there, and nobody eats it, then you throw it away. We’re going to try and reduce some of that.”

TommieMedia’s on-campus food survey results (PDF)

Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu.

Senior pitcher Matt Schuld pitches a three-hit shutout against Concordia, earlier this season. (Josh Kleven/TommieMedia)

The St. Thomas baseball team’s season, unlike last year’s season, did not end in a College World Series national championship.

But the Tommies finished with an impressive 35-9 record on its way to winning the MIAC title and tournament before a one-run loss to UW-Whitewater ended the team’s season in the NCAA Midwest Regional tournament.

Interim coach Chris Olean said he was pleased with his team’s effort.

“Obviously we’re disappointed we didn’t make it to the World Series because that’s something that I think we had the talent to do,” Olean said. “Overall, I’m very happy with the season. The guys played hard, very few mental mistakes. It’s just baseball; you’ve got to be kind of lucky at the end of the year and be the hot team.”

St. Thomas finished the season ranked 10th in the nation in D3baseball.com’s final poll, making it one of only two teams to stay in the top 10 all season.

After a convincing 19-9 victory over Augsburg in the MIAC title game May 16, the Tommies entered the double-elimination regional tournament as the second seed.

In the first game of the tournament, the Tommies overcame an early 4-0 deficit to defeat Carthage 14-6 and advanced to play UW-Stevens Point the following day.

Despite grabbing a 1-0 lead in the first inning, the Tommies suffered a tough 2-1 loss to Stevens Point May 20. The loss meant the team would have to win four games in a row to return to the College World Series.

Junior Kris Edwards said that while the players had their backs against the wall after the Stevens Point loss, they never lost faith that they could put together a run and return to the World Series.

“Usually you should be down a little bit in knowing that you’ve got to win four games in a row to even have a chance to go to the World Series,” Edwards said. “But we knew that we were good enough to do it, so I would actually say we had quite a bit of confidence after that loss.”

The Tommies looked poised to make that run with a 7-5 victory over Carthage the following day. But a 5-4 loss to UW-Whitewater on the evening of May 21 ended the Tommies’ season and hopes of returning to the World Series.

Edwards said it was a tough way to end the season but he was happy with how the team performed down the stretch.

“We had a good year … I know we could have gone a little bit farther but I think it’s a little bizarre that people are saying we should be right back in the national championship game because it’s tough to get there,” Edwards said. “I know we had a lot of high expectations, but the way I look at it, last year nobody had the expectation of us even making it to the World Series.”

Continuing tradition

St. Thomas was on a streak of seven consecutive MIAC titles coming into the season.

All-American Matt Schuld said as a senior, he felt personally responsible for continuing the team’s tradition of MIAC domination.

“This year, I think I appreciated it more than any other year, partly because I was a senior,” Schuld said. “It was extra special this year because it wasn’t an easy road like we’ve had in the past. I think that’s always our number one goal that we set at the beginning of the year.”

Shining star

Schuld had a particularly good season, receiving recognition for his efforts on and off the field.

He finished with a 10-1 record and a 2.05 ERA this season, earning him the title of 2010 MIAC Pitcher of the Year and Division III National Pitcher of the Year by D3baseball.com. Schuld was also named the CoSIDA Baseball College Division Academic All-American of the Year.

Despite his individual success this season, Schuld said much of the credit should go to his teammates.

“I had bad games, but in my bad games we’d score a bunch of runs. So my record looks a lot better than I probably actually pitched,” Schuld said. “I owe a lot to my teammates, I’ll tell you that much.”

Olean said Schuld’s departure will be a huge loss for the program.

“He’s one of those once every ten years type of pitcher in my opinion. He was the best pitcher I’ve ever coached here,” Olean said.

Looking ahead

This year’s team graduated seven seniors this May, but Olean said he’s confident that a strong roster and incoming recruits can step up to fill the open positions left by graduated seniors.

“How good we are and how much noise we can make towards the end of the season, that’s really going to depend on how some of these freshman develop and how some of these juniors, who will be seniors, can take over and be those leaders,” Olean said. “But talent-wise, I feel very good that we’re going to make some noise again next year.”

Olean currently holds the title of interim coach, but his position isn’t guaranteed for next season.

Olean said other candidates will be interviewed for the position, but he’s hopeful he’ll be appointed permanent head coach for next season.

Schuld said Olean did a great job in his first year as head coach, especially considering the high expectations placed on the program.

“He handled the pressure really well, he was a great in-game manager,” Schuld said. “He was a huge stabilizing force for us. We were under pressure too and he kept us all calm, making sure we didn’t have big ups and downs. Even after a bad loss, we were still fine. He did a great job.”

Edwards agreed and said he hopes Olean will return as head coach for next year.

“He put us in positions to win every game and that’s all you can ask for from a coach,” Edwards said. “I’d love to have him back; not only did he help the team but he helped me personally. I had my best year I ever had in college… I have him to thank more than anything for just helping me have a successful year.”

Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu.

With the MIAC championships this weekend in Winona, TommieMedia sat down with track and field standouts sophomore Devin Dirth and senior Nikki Arola to talk about the two teams’ chances at winning yet another conference title.

Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu.

KUST decided to cancel its proposed Brother Ali concert due to planning difficulties. (Creative Commons)

If KUST’s spring concert plans had materialized, Minneapolis hip-hop artist Brother Ali would have performed in McCarthy gym last week.

But the campus radio station encountered numerous obstacles in the concert’s planning phases: obstacles KUST Promotions Director Matt Lichtfuss said were unprecedented and introduced to prevent the concert from happening.

“I believe that [university officials] didn’t want to bring in a hip-hop performer,” Lichtfuss said. “For whatever reason, they thought that it would go against what the administration would want… It was telling by all the obstacles they put into place.”

However, Director of Campus Life Margaret Cahill called the issue one of timing.

“They’re disappointed, and I totally get that,” Cahill said. “What they wanted to do was plan a very large concert, which is exciting, with a genre that we have had some difficulty trying to get because of the lyrics that tend to be in hip-hop… But it really wasn’t about Campus Life. It’s about just the logistics of planning a big event so that they have a good event.”

Trying to bring diversity to campus concerts

This spring’s effort came after KUST’s successful sponsorship of two concerts in spring and fall 2009, when they brought Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Halloween, Alaska to campus.

Lichtfuss said KUST’s goal this spring was to bring variety to a “strangely homogenous” list of previous performers at St. Thomas.

“We really felt there’s a lack of diversity in music with what STAR is already bringing in themselves for the fall and spring concerts,” Lichtfuss said. “You’ve got Michelle Branch, Sara Bareilles, Matt Kearney and now Jordin Sparks. You get to a point where you’re like, ‘That’s not what the whole campus wants to hear.’”

Lichtfuss said the KUST executive board asked students at February’s activity fair for their opinions about who they’d like to see perform on campus. He said KUST decided on Brother Ali because its members “felt like that was the pulse of what students wanted.”

The planning process

KUST then contacted Brother Ali’s agent and was able to negotiate “a very discounted rate” of about one-fifth of Jordin Sparks’ $50,000 price tag, Lichtfuss said.

KUST leaders then met with Cahill before submitting the event proposal to STAR and Campus Life.

One of the key issues raised in KUST’s meeting with Cahill was the controversial nature of Brother Ali’s lyrics. According to Cahill, a university policy stipulates that on-campus performers cannot use obscenities and “that gets tricky for hip-hop.”

Lichtfuss said KUST then contacted Brother Ali’s agent, who agreed the artist would perform a clean show.

“We were so pumped at this point because we thought that was our only obstacle,” Lichtfuss said. “There were some minor issues, but we thought they would be resolved.”

Besides obscenity, other issues raised were the need to hire five public safety officers and three undercover St. Paul Police officers, to cover equipment and lighting costs, and to pay for laying carpet in McCarthy Gym for the event at an estimated $8,000, Lichtfuss said.

KUST was also asked to make two separate presentations before the student life committee, something Lichtfuss said never happened in planning previous concerts.

“The past two semesters, the two shows, we were set to a certain protocol to make a show happen,” Lichtfuss said. “And then suddenly, for whatever reason, we’re playing with whole new rules in the game. For what reason? Because it’s a hip-hop artist coming in?”

Cahill said the student life committee becomes involved in the decision-making process for all controversial events, and KUST’s event was approached as any event organized by student clubs or organizations.

“Any time a space request comes through for student clubs and organizations, it comes to Campus Life for approval,” Cahill said. “What we’re approving is the content — meaning if it’s a large campus event or if it’s anything that might be controversial to the university or anything like that. Some of Brother Ali’s songs, some might consider controversial. Does that mean we can’t have him? No. But there’s a process.”

Deciding to cancel the show

About a month before the concert’s scheduled date, KUST called an emergency executive board meeting and decided to cancel the concert.

“Though we would have had funding, there would have been too many issues and obstacles, too many committee presentations,” Lichtfuss said. “It took the wind out of our sails. We looked at it realistically. There are four weeks left, and we just didn’t think that we could do it.”

Although frustrated with the process, Lichtfuss said he hopes KUST’s efforts will pave the way to bringing a more diverse range of performers to campus, starting with Brother Ali next fall.

“There are some really positive things that came out of it,” Lichtfuss said. “We were able to see that we do have a lot of support from the student body about this, about bringing a better performer onto campus. I don’t want Campus Life to view KUST as an opponent because we need to work with them. I hope it doesn’t come off like that, but it’s really important students know this.”

Brian Brown, KUST’s staff adviser, said there are lessons to be learned on both sides.

“I can’t imagine that it would be handled the same way,” Brown said. “I don’t think that worked particularly well for either side.”

Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu.

The Undergraduate Student Government investigated the practice this year as one of its strategic goals, but found it’s not feasible.

USG Executive Vice President Tony Linn, a senior, said the issue has been raised every year since he joined USG as a freshman.

“This year it was actually brought up by Felipe [Pino]; he’s our international representative, and he brought it up this year because he has the concern that the international students who come to St. Thomas, they leave with their degree and it simply says ‘bachelor of arts’ and ‘bachelor of science,’” Linn said. “He was under the fear that that could lead to misunderstanding in other countries. They might think that he got that degree in art or in science.”

This year, after speaking with University Registrar Paul Simmons, Linn and other USG senate members concluded that printing majors on diplomas just wasn’t feasible.

“It was the most clear understanding that we’ve been given, in my opinion, in the four years that it’s been brought up,” Linn said. “Paul Simmons was very clear with his three reasons: the logistics, the resources and the practice.”

Simmons declined to speak to TommieMedia about the issue.

Michael Jordan, director of undergraduate academic affairs, said Simmons declined to comment because the registrar’s office has no direct influence over the decision, but does play an important role in consultations over what it would take to make the change.

Jordan said making the change would be a matter of considerable trouble and expense.

“The vendor from whom we order our transcripts is not equipped, and in fact it would be a fairly complicated matter, somewhat labor intensive as well, because we have students with double majors, triple majors, two majors and a minor,” Jordan said. “The logistics don’t present insurmountable obstacles, but they present obstacles sufficient to prevent us from going ahead and acting affirmatively in response to this request.”

University officials also didn’t see a reason for the change, Jordan said.

“The diploma itself is a ceremonial document; it is not a document that is used for official verification of academic record,” Jordan said. “The official transcript is the means through which any person presents evidence of what their accomplishments were in the undergraduate program. The transcript does certainly print the major. All majors and minors are there on the official transcript, even individualized majors.”

Academic transcripts better serve the purpose of documenting majors than diplomas do, Jordan said.

“For international students, just as for any St. Thomas student, complete information and actual verification of your educational accomplishments is there in the official transcript and not on the diploma,” Jordan said. “When somebody needs official verification of educational accomplishment, transcripts go through the registrar’s office with a system of security that assures us and the recipient that the document being received is an official approved document.”

Jordan also noted that some schools let students pay to have their majors printed on their diplomas.

“It certainly could be considered [at St. Thomas],” Jordan said. “But it’s just not clear that the desire to have the major on the diploma is really well grounded or entirely sensible, given the limitations in the way in which diplomas actually function as evidence of undergraduate accomplishment… If you can fake a passport, you can fake a diploma.”

Linn said he was satisfied with the explanation USG received from the university registrar, but wouldn’t be surprised if the issue is raised in future years.

“Maybe it will get turned around; maybe someday there will be majors on their diplomas,” Linn said. “But I’m sure it will get brought up and maybe it will come to the same conclusion it did this year.”

Macalester is the only ACTC college that prints students’ majors on their diplomas.

Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu.

Despite some technical difficulties with online balloting on the first day of voting, April 21, voting resumed the next day and yielded more votes in one day than the total of the last four elections combined.

Current USG President Kevin Hampton said he was pleased with the unprecedented level of student participation but would like to see even more in the future.

“I thought it was fantastic that we had so many campaigns that were actually contested between different groups,” Hampton said. “There’s still room for improvement. A thousand students out of 6,000 undergrads, that’s saying something. You need to have more involvement and more participation.”

The freshman class had the highest voter turnout with a total of 263 students participating. The next highest was the sophomore class with 242, followed by the senior (233) and junior classes (210).

Junior Dwight Anderson won a tight race for USG president, edging out fellow junior Liz Motz by just 1.3 percent. Anderson received 50.2 percent of all votes compared to Motz’s 48.9 percent.

Anderson said he’s grateful to have won such a tight race and is looking forward to his year as president.

“It feels really good,” Anderson said. “I was kind of nervous at first, but then I was like, ‘Whatever happens, happens.’ I’m excited for what we can do next year with the group of people that we have, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Anderson’s first presidential order was naming sophomore Greg Scharine as Vice President of Financial Affairs. Anderson’s decision was ratified by the USG’s general council at Sunday’s meeting.

The remaining executive board positions received more than 90 percent of the votes.

• Executive Vice President: Ann Ziegler (declined the position)
• Vice President of Academic Affairs: Abby Schutt
• Vice President of Public Relations: Corey Dahl
• Vice President of Administrative Affairs: Seth Williams

Some of the other general council positions were hotly contested, with three or more candidates in contention for the sophomore, junior and senior class senator positions.

• Senior Class President: Marcy Warren
• Senior Class Senators: Scott Hansen and Mohamed Hussein
• Junior Class President: Jazz Hampton
• Junior Class Senators: Adam Miller and Shakira Onwuachi
• Sophomore Class President: Mike Orth
• Sophomore Class Senators: Chad Miller and William Oppong-Bio
• Residential Senator: Jessica Root
• Neighborhood Senator (Merriam Park): Linnea Bicking
• Neighborhood Senator (WSNAC): Jared Scharpen
• Transfer Senator: Jessica Yang
• Legislative Affairs Senator: Quinn Abraham
• Commuter Senator: Dilbi Hussein

Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu.