On March 4 at 3:08 p.m., Public Safety reported a disturbance in Lot B. A cab driver had a dispute with a non-UST affiliated individual over a fare.

On March 4 at 1:50 p.m., Public Safety reported a theft in Minneapolis Opus Hall. A UST student reported his unsecured laptop was stolen from Keffer Library.

On March 3 at 4:41 p.m., Public Safety documented an electronic copyright infringement at the request of Information Resources and Technologies.

On March 3 at 3:23 p.m., Public Safety reported a medical at an off-campus location in Chicago, Ill. A UST employee reported a UST student received a head injury at a club-sporting event.

On March 2 at 5:06 p.m., Public Safety reported property damage in Brady Residence Hall. A UST employee reported an inappropriate image was drawn on a UST student’s door.

On March 2 at 2:13 p.m., Public Safety reported property damage in Lot F. A cement pylon was struck, knocking pylon off its base.

On March 2 at 12:46 p.m., Public Safety reported a theft in Koch Commons. A UST student reported his UST ID was stolen and used to make unauthorized purchases.

On March 2 at 12:40 p.m., Public Safety reported a theft in McNeely Hall. A UST employee reported his unsecured sweater was stolen from outside a MCH classroom.

On March 1 at 8:37 p.m., Public Safety reported a medical incident in Lot I. A UST student reported she slipped on the ice in the lot and injured her knee.

Juniors Hans Pflaumer and John Kharouf of Rock Climbing Club sell brownies to raise money for Haiti relief. (John Kruger/TommieMedia)

Members of the St. Thomas Rock Climbing Club set up shop Monday afternoon outside Murray-Herrick Campus Center, selling brownies to raise money for Haiti relief.

The club sold brownies, banana bread slices and muffins for 50 cents each and will donate the money raised to Habitat for Humanity.

When the Rock Climbing Club members were asked why they were selling baked goods in the blustery cold, junior club president Hans Pflaumer had a simple yet heartfelt answer.

“Because someone needs to help Haiti,” he said. “There’s enough people doing it, but the more the merrier.”

The members of the rock-climbing club baked many of the treats for sale.

“We’re mixing it up a little bit,” Pflaumer said. “We have the members baking most of these for service hours.”

Many St. Thomas students had already stopped by the baked goods table, judging by two cups filled with money.

“We’ve sold three pans (of brownies), a batch of muffins, and almost a whole banana bread (loaf),” junior John Kharouf said.

Although Kharouf said, “I can’t feel anything,” both members of the club said they believe it was worth standing in the cold to raise money for the devastation in Haiti.

“The biggest part of this is seeing all the donations and all the money that’s going towards Habitat for Humanity,” Pflaumer said.

Rebecca Omastiak can be reached at omas5009@stthomas.edu.

Senior Cameron Carson plans to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest peak in Africa. (Katie Broadwell/TommieMedia)

While his classmates were cramming for finals in the spring of 2008, senior Cameron Carson was enduring the toughest physical test of his life so far – climbing North America’s highest mountain.

On Mount McKinley, Carson and his fellow climbers battled subzero temperatures, 150 mph winds and low oxygen levels throughout the grueling climb, but he said the experience was worth it.

“One thing I learned about mountain climbing is you have to be willing to suffer to reach your goal,” Carson said. “Mountain climbing is a different type of workout. It’s a challenge, but you get a much greater sense of success rather than pumping a bar in a gym.”

The high winds kept Carson and his group from reaching the summit of Mount McKinley because they would have run out of food if they had waited until the winds died down. However, Carson climbed to an altitude of 16,000 feet, just 4,320 feet short of the mountain’s summit, and he wants to return someday.

“I’d like to go back and try to summit, if my girlfriend will let me,” Carson said. “She doesn’t like me to go because of the danger. My parents wonder where [my love of mountain climbing] comes from, and they worry sometimes.”

Carson’s girlfriend, junior Danielle Bores, said she knows Carson is a good climber but still worries because mountain climbing can be a dangerous hobby.

“I think, ‘He could get caught in an avalanche, get injured or fall off a cliff and die,’” Bores said.

Start of a hobby, future plans

When Carson was young, his parents would occasionally take him to Vertical Endeavors, an indoor rock climbing facility. But he didn’t start to seriously climb until his freshman year at St. Thomas, when he started rock climbing four to five times a week. He also founded the Rock Climbing Club at St. Thomas, which provides students with opportunities to go on weekly rock climbing excursions.

Junior Hans Pflaumer, who took over as club president this year because Carson is preparing to graduate, said he would describe Carson as “conscientiously fearless.”

“He’s fearless with things he can control, but he knows his limits and he knows how far to push himself,” Pflaumer said.

Since freshman year, Carson has gone on a climbing trip to the Badlands in South Dakota and has climbed mountains in California’s Kings Canyon National Park. Since his trip to Mount McKinley, he has started to plan another mountain climbing expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.

“I’d really like to [climb] it, hopefully between this summer and next summer,” Carson said. “I’m waiting to be done with school, and I have to figure out the budget and who can go.”

Carson would someday like to “do the seven summits.”

“That’s when you climb to the tallest point on each continent,” Carson said. “It’s an awesome goal.”

Climbing Mount McKinley

Since Carson has climbed Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, he can already check one of the seven off his list. He said the experience of climbing Mount McKinley was like nothing he had ever done before.

“My favorite part was spending weeks sleeping above the clouds,” Carson said.

But the climb also had elements of danger.

“While we were on the mountain, two Japanese climbers went missing and were never found,” Carson said. “A Spanish woman lost eight fingers due to frostbite, and a German climber lost four or five toes.”

Three of the members from Carson's journey look toward the peak of Mount McKinley. (Photo courtesy of Cameron Carson)

Carson had to be in peak physical condition to climb so his body wouldn’t be susceptible to the many health risks of living for weeks in thinner, colder air.

“You face things like HAPE and HAZE, where your lungs or brain cavities fill with liquid,” Carson said. “You have to have the physical power to do something about it.”

Carson trained for weeks before the climb, doing aerobic exercises and lifting weights to prepare his body for the harsh demands of mountain climbing.

“We climbed McKinley expedition style, which means you carry more gear,” he said. “We wore 80 to 90 pound packs and pulled sleds with 40 or 50 pounds behind us.”

The trip was sponsored by an organization called Climbing for Christ. Climbers going on trips through the organization typically evangelize and bring food and water to people living in impoverished mountain communities. However, Carson described the excursion as a “bridging trip.”

“Many people don’t see Christians in a mountain climbing environment,” he said. “We helped them realize Christians can be normal people, not just Bible pushers.”

Adventures during the climb

Carson said one challenging day during the climb was when they started going down the mountain and winds were blowing over 100 mph.

“The weather reports said the winds were supposed to die down, but they stayed about the same,” Carson said. “The wind blew off the loose snow, so it was just glacial ice. We got to a big open field which ended in a cliff with a 6,000 foot drop-off, and there was only a narrow path as wide as your feet.”

The climbers were roped together for safety, which made it more difficult to go through the passageway.

“One person froze up and didn’t want to go anywhere,” Carson said. “We needed him to go because we were all connected to him, so we had to help him get over his fears.”

Carson’s group climbed alongside groups from around the world, and he said he enjoyed meeting people from different countries.

“We had an ‘International Sexy Contest’ for fun, and two Austrian brothers won,” Carson said.

He said one of the most memorable parts of the trip was watching a blind man climb Mount McKinley.

“He was in the middle of the rope, and the other guys would tell him where and how to move. It was amazing,” Carson said. “There’s lots of teamwork involved in mountain climbing.”

Katie Broadwell can be reached at klbroadwell@stthomas.edu.

A little more than 100 St. Thomas students filled the OEC auditorium Friday night for the United for Haiti benefit. The event shared a message of “brotherhood, friendship and hope,” sophomore emcee Sarah Tinsman said.

African Nations’ Student Association (or ANSA) president Brian Osende organized the event that included inspirational performances from the Dance Club, PULSE, HANA, and St. Thomas Gospel Choir, as well as various student musicians and speakers.

“I hope students come out and really look at it as, ‘I lose nothing, and I get to feel great about the whole thing at the end,’” Osende said.

Daniel Wordsworth, president of the American Refugee Committee and recipient of the funds raised by the benefit, spoke about the committee’s efforts in Haiti. The American Refugee Committee set up encampments and makeshift clinics immediately after the earthquake to provide care and shelter for homeless Haitian individuals. The multiple encampments are currently providing aid to more than 10,000 individuals.

St. Thomas geography professor Robert Werner commented on the historical turmoil and political instability that gave rise to the country’s extreme poverty. In addition to the unstable government, Haiti is prone to many natural disasters and land degradation, and there are also few natural resources for exportation, he said. All of these factors contribute to the 80 percent of Haitians living in poverty, according to Werner.

Macalester student Wes Alcenat spoke about his experiences growing up in the slums of Haiti.

“The Haitian life is so hard to imagine,” he said, commenting on the difficulties impoverished Haitian individuals face each day in their search for adequate food, water and shelter. “It is like living hell on Earth, but Haitians keep believing and Haitians keep hoping … Their story is also my story. In solidarity, we can help the Haitian people.”

Sophomore Molly Pichler particularly enjoyed the dance performances.

“PULSE always does such a great job of adding emotion and energy to any show, and just adding that to this amazing benefit is a great thing,” she said. “I loved the UST ‘We Are the World’ song, and just bringing people from all different backgrounds to come together for this great benefit was amazing.”

Other students enjoyed the diversity of the performances.

“I liked how students from all grades collaborated and made something that we can understand,” senior Grace Udeh said. “It was both educational and musical. That was the best part about it.”

Tinsman was impressed with students’ overall willingness to devote time and talent to the benefit.

“All these kids that have never been there, that aren’t from there, they come together because they think it’s a cool, good thing to get involved in,” she said. “Their stories and just having people be there (in Haiti) experiencing it in real life I think is something super powerful.”

Rebecca Omastiak can be reached at omas5009@stthomas.edu.

The African Nations Student Association, led by president Brian Osende, is putting together a Haiti benefit March 6 in the OEC auditorium complete with dancing and poetry readings.

TommieMedia sat down with Osende to find out more about the fundraiser.

St. John Vianney’s last-chance Mass singer, senior seminary student Luke Spehar, performed a concert featuring his original songs Friday evening. Spehar released his new CD, “Be Still” and allowed audience members to take a copy home for free but welcomed donations.

An estimated 400 people filled OEC auditorium to hear Spehar’s music. His roommate, senior Vince Richardson, said it was, “an amazing turnout. It’s a testament to who Luke is and that people want to see his music.”

Archbishop John Nienstedt attended and blessed the concert before it began.

Spehar had a very simple setup onstage. With a few microphones and three guitars he played throughout the show, he sang all his songs and played the guitar.

Freshman Dillon Bogenreif said he thought the concert was “really good” and found the simple music to be “calm and peaceful.”

A faith journey through music

With his music, Spehar took audience members on his personal faith journey and decision to join the seminary. Before performing each song, he told the story that inspired it. The audience was engaged in his stories, and every song was followed by a thunderous applause.

Marcus Milless, a senior seminary student and friend of Spehar, said the stories before each song “brought everyone in.” Milless called the concert “a very prayerful time.”

“Pretty much all the songs are based on prayers,” he said. “It [was] just enjoyable to peek into his journey.”

Junior Catherine Tristani said the concert was “incredible.”

“[The concert was] the most active OEC has ever been,” she said. “It was cool to see all these people who want to come and support Luke.”

Spehar’s sister sang three different songs with him during the show. She joined him in his final song, and the two got a standing ovation and an encore from the audience. His sister sang “Somewhere over the Rainbow” alone, and Spehar followed with an instrumental that closed the show.

Putting together his first CD

Spehar told the audience how he has been working the songs for his first CD for a number of years, but he kept getting busy with other things. He said he prayed at the beginning of this year, asking the Lord to whether it was time for him to put this together, and heard from a friend a few days later who had just got recording equipment and wanted to record Spehar’s music.

In his album cover, Spehar wrote, “I praise and thank the Lord for blessing the making of this album … These songs are prayers of mine that I believe the Lord has given me. They are prayers that have helped me through some very difficult times and still sustain me today.”

For those who missed the concert, Spehar sings and plays his guitar at 9 p.m. every Sunday for the last-chance Mass in the St. John Vianney chapel.

Theresa Malloy can be reached at mall5754@stthomas.edu.

Kamal Mohamed plans to reopen his kitchen in the coming months and said he hopes to expand the business to campuses throughout Minnesota. (Ben Katzner/TommieMedia)

Earlier this year, weekend nights were all business for junior entrepreneurship major Kamal Mohamed. He was the creative mind behind Kamal’s Kitchen, which served late night snacks to any customer looking to escape the agony of an empty stomach.

According to Mohamed, business was booming too, which made the members of Kamal’s Kitchen dream about the future of their cozy kitchen on Grand Avenue. But that dream got dragged back to reality once Mohamed and company realized that to do big things with their little business, they’d have to do it legitimately. That meant lawyers, licenses, a new location – the works.

That also meant Kamal’s Kitchen had to go, at least for the time being.

“I talked to a lawyer at St. Thomas, and she kind of explained the procedure to me,” Mohamed said. “Even though we washed our hands, even though we used gloves, even though we followed all that … we realized that we still have to work on a lot of things.”

Minnesota state law dictates that no one is allowed to partake in manufacturing, processing, selling, handling, or storing food unless the party has a license. Without a license, fines can range from $33 to more than $1,000. Mohamed and the rest of the members of Kamal‘s Kitchen, decided that the risk was not worth the reward, and made the choice to temporarily shut down instead of face potential legal action.

It was a hard choice, but the right one in Mohamed’s mind, especially for a group of college students with a lot on its plate already.

“We all have classes. We all have other activities that we have to work on,” Mohamed said. “We don’t see this as a failure. We see this as the next step.”

Junior L.J. Stead, who was a member of Kamal’s kitchen, also had a positive outlook.

“It was saddening, [but] we have a bigger vision for this,” Stead said. “In order to do that, we had to protect ourselves legally.”

Mohamed and Stead both believe that business would have stayed strong due to a loyal base of costumers, and both believe that a fresh start will benefit everyone involved, especially with the improvements they hope to make.

Stead hopes that Kamal’s Kitchen will be able to re-open within the next few months while Mohamed aims for a venue change and potentially an increase in the size of his operation. While subduing grumbling stomachs across St. Thomas campus, Mohamed doesn’t want to stop there. He’s dedicated to feeding students on college campuses around the state.

Mohamed’s ambition doesn’t surprise Stead. After all, it was those big dreams that started Kamal’s Kitchen in the first place.

“Don’t worry. Kamal’s Kitchen will be coming back,” Stead said. “Expect bigger and better things. When you’re sitting around a guy like Kamal, there’s always something in the works.”

Ben Katzner can be reached at bekatzner@stthomas.edu.

The idea seems innocent enough-use the Web site to semi-anonymously video and text chat with random people. They can see you, you can see them.

It wasn’t until I heard from friends about how going to the site might have changed their lives, mostly for the worse, that I decided it was finally time for me to check things out.

Having no Webcam, I enlisted the help of some of my roommates: Nate (the shy guy), Andrew (never one to shy away from attention) and Brandon (though he’d never admit it, he was mildly enthused that I roped him into this). Having established a well-rounded group of characters to ensure strangers that I wasn’t a creeper, we nervously embarked on our very first Chatroulette journey.

Our first stranger

Defying the odds, the very first person we were connected with was an attractive blonde girl. Though that may come off as a bit blunt, it’s a well-known fact that girls on Chatroulette are a slim commodity and when running into one it’s common practice to do anything in your power to sustain conversation with her for no other reason than to tell your friends you did.

My roommates and I marveled at the odds and were in the midst of coming up with a clever opening line when she “nexted” us, disappearing into Internet oblivion. Clearly Chatroulette is a cold, cruel realm.

Round two

Still in awe of running into a girl so early in our experiment, we hit the “next” button filled with youthful exuberance. Our next strangers were two dudes sitting in what looked like a dorm room. So we quickly blurted out any phrases we could come up with dealing with college. I came up with what I thought was an ever-so-clever quip of “I remember the first time I went to college,” while someone behind me quoted lines from Asher Roth’s annoyingly catchy college anthem “I Love College.”

It was immediately clear that these “bros,” as we called them, didn’t find us as funny as we found ourselves.

After a quick “We’re in high school!” followed by a plethora of profanities, they were off. Then and there, we decided being jerks for no reason wasn’t the right way to go. We inducted a certain code of ethics, at least initially, that we were going to be the nice guys of the net, greeting people with waves and smiles rather than the often popular angry slurs and flipping of birds.

Getting “nexted” hurts more than you think

With our new dedication to better Web manners, we were off. But while the smiles and waves seemed like a good idea, no one else seemed to be picking up on our charm. It was an endlessly hurtful cycle of people skipping us before we could squeeze a word in or at the very least “next” them first.

We tried different approaches, with each roommate being at the center of our posse. We tried having one person sit at the computer and all of us popping out behind him. We tried all of us popping on the screen at the same time. No luck. The closest we got to human contact was the myriad of people exposing themselves to us (another common fact of Chatroulette is that if you’re not acquainted with male anatomy, you will be by the time you’re done).

After a while, all of our self-esteems took noticeable hits. Even though they were strangers who I’d never see again most likely, the fact that they judged me enough in a tenth of a second to know that they didn’t want to even say “hi” to me was a painful concept to grasp. Our coping mechanism became to “next” people first. So we came up with another system.

We decided that anyone sitting by themselves was getting “nexted”, anyone we thought looked creepy was getting “nexted” and if you had a mask on, we’d stare and laugh but probably avoid any real conversation. Once we employed this strategy, things actually went pretty well.

A disturbing series of event

This was by far the most disturbing thing that we came across on our adventures. We broke our rule of immediately “nexting” people who were laying in bed by themselves, and we paid for it. For some reason, we stopped for more than a few seconds on a guy sitting alone in bed kind of just staring at us. He then asks if we want to see him cut himself.

We thought it was a joke so we all skeptically said “yes,” assuming he was about to pull a prank of some sort on us. Wrong.

Instead, he shows us an arm already equipped with six scars and begins to cut his arm. We scream, he smiles, and I was on the verge of throwing up. And then he asked if we wanted to see more. Needless to say, we respectfully declined and went on our way.

International flavor

After recovering, we met a girl from London who wasn’t afraid to pressure my roommates, who had a few beers by this time, into drinking every time she told them to. Apparently people from London can be quite sadistic when it comes to drinking games because if she had her wish, my roommates would have drank themselves into a coma. Nice girl though.

Next we came across a young gentleman from Kazakhstan. He spoke serviceable English but didn’t laugh when we quoted lines from Borat. He was met with a swift “next.”

Our trip around the globe continued (kind of) when we met two girls who went to school in Texas, but one of them happened to be from Russia. This chance meeting was important because it was the first time that we decided not to lie about where we were from. Normally if anyone asked where we lived, someone would blurt out a lie without thinking. For some reason, these girls were friendly and disarming enough to actually get us to open up. This is where the innocent appeal of Chatroulette was finally relayed to me.

Yes, it’s entertaining to go on the Internet and mess with people, but at the heart of its existence, this Chatroulette is a way for a people to take themselves out of the Internet’s numbing anonymity and plunge into the sometimes awkward, yet sometimes rewarding, realm of meeting new people. While the amount of disturbing things on the internet is utterly endless, and make no mistake that this site can be overwhelming when it comes to the bizarre, Chatroulette is surprisingly effective at helping the people who use it meet new people and expand their own comfort zone. And that‘s a chance I think people should be willing try.

Ben Katzner can be reached at bekatzner@stthomas.edu.

“Part of this class is about discovering all these cool, little movies you wouldn’t have heard of otherwise, and it is fun,” Snapko said. “I’m hoping the students walk out of my class knowing they have a connection to the history of cinema. All they have to do is find it.”

Snapko wants his students to find the connection through hands-on experience, so he assigned the Lumiere Film Project. The assignment is based on the early black and white films produced by the Lumiere brothers. Their earliest work focused on the natural setting of humans and was only about a minute long with no audio or editing.

“Early filmmakers, like the Lumiere brothers, needed to be really good because they could only use visual expression,” Snapko said. “I want the students to experience the creative process under the confines I’ve placed on them so it gets them thinking about what they like and further engages them.”

The students are supposed to complete the project in their small groups with an original idea, a camera and time outside of class. These confines encourage creativity, but also pose difficulties for the students.

For senior Kathryn Rowe, the difficult and nerve-wracking part of the process is showing the finished project to the entire class because they aren’t just judging the film, but also the creator.

Other students in the class, such as junior Nick Lankford, find the struggle of the project in the early stages: choosing the topic.

“We are given a limited amount of time and resources to do this project, and it is hard to construct an idea that everyone agrees on,” Lankford said. “That’s what we are struggling with, but we’ll get it done with the deadline approaching fast.”

Although the students have more than a week before the project is due, some of them are already making the connection Snapko hoped they would make.

“This project makes me think outside the box, use my imagination and creativity and use my knowledge to take a big idea and consolidate it in a small amount of time,” senior John Krull said. “Experiencing how film was back in the day makes you appreciate the longer, higher-quality films today.”

Ashley Stewart can be reached at stew1177@stthomas.edu.

Students gathered Monday night in the basement of Murray-Herrick Campus Center to celebrate the Chinese New Year. STAR hosted the event in the campus square and Scooter’s.