USG’s Vice President junior Mike Orth will be taking over as the council’s president and was sworn in at the meeting.

“I believe in the integrity and privilege this award and leadership position represents and feel that this is the right thing to do,” Scharine said in his apology letter.

Under an “extreme amount of stress,” Scharine said that he lost his temper, which led to a reaction resulting in damage to another St. Thomas student’s property.

“I make no excuses for my actions and take full responsibility for the damage resulting from my actions,” Scharine said.

USG President Mike Orth talks about his goals for the spring semester. (Hannah Anderson/TommieMedia) 

Scharine said that he has worked to amend his wrongdoings with the other student.

“My greatest hope is that you will acknowledge my remorse and reflection in this decision and forgive me,” Scharine said. “It is my wish that I am able to grow from this experience and continue to give back to the school that has given me so much.”

Orth said that it’s tough to see a good friend drop out of USG but is excited for the new opportunity.

“It’s certainly exciting for me,” Orth said. “It’s something I’ve wanted for awhile. I think it’ll be a great way to get to know a lot more about campus and to really work for the student body.”

Vice President of Administration Ben Schmitz also resigned from his position before the start of spring semester.

Orth said that Schmitz’s resignation was not related to what happened with Scharine.

With multiple executive board positions open, USG will hold special elections at its retreat on Saturday, Feb. 11, to fill these positions for the rest of the academic year. These positions are open to any St. Thomas junior or senior.

USG has also put together an amendment to add a Chief of Staff position to its executive board this semester.

Orth said that the position serves as a middleman between the USG executive board and council members and will make for a more efficient running of the organization.

“I think, especially with my new job as president, I have to make sure I know what’s going on at USG,” Orth said. “So when anybody asks me about any event or anything that anybody is doing, I need to know what everybody’s working on.”

Orth said that he hopes to pass the amendment at USG’s spring retreat.

Junior Class President Collin Kearney also discussed the campus signage initiative at Sunday’s meeting.

The initiative is in its beginning stages and would involve a system of signs that label buildings and provide maps of the St. Paul campus.

Briggs LeSavage can be reached at lesa4364@stthomas.edu.

The apartments at 2085 Grand Ave. currently are used for sophomore housing. (Dan Cook/TommieMedia)

 After $120 million worth of building projects at St. Thomas, the upcoming on-campus housing registration deadlines are generating rumors about a need for additional housing options and have many students wondering if new dorms are in the works.

Although these rumors are circulating, Director of Residence Life Bryan Helminiak said that on-campus housing is only at 94 percent capacity for spring 2012.

Sophomore Steven Gitzen, an Ireland Hall resident, said that he did not make the cutoff for the sophomore apartment selection and had to live in the dorms.

“I tried to get into the sophomore apartments on Grand, but that didn’t work out lottery-wise,” Gitzen said.

Mark Dienhart, St. Thomas chief operating officer, acknowledged that situations like Glitzen’s happen but stressed the university’s financial interests.

“Could everyone be accommodated (on-campus) where they wanted to? I’m sure not. But if we built another residence hall, we might be faced with 500 empty beds. That would be a waste of money,” Dienhart said.

With the additions of the Anderson Student Center and the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex, Dienhart said that students may be motivated to stay on campus for programming, food, events and to work out. He also said that the university has consistently seen less than 50 percent of its students living on campus.

“If we’re going to do something in terms of Residence Life, it would probably be to try to either replace or upgrade the older structures we have,” Dienhart said.

Some of the university’s offices located in buildings on Summit, Cleveland, Grand and Cretin avenues could be moved into the Murray-Herrick Campus Center. This move would create space for the possibility of what Dienhart called a “residential village made up of individual apartment buildings that could be added to incrementally.”

St. Thomas will be considering other high priorities such as additions to the Frey Science and Engineering Center and a new fine arts building for its next capitol campaign, which Dienhart said may launch in five or more years.

Heidi Enninga can be reached at enni5264@stthomas.edu.

Public Safety will rely on Anderson Student Center staff and St. Thomas students to keep crime to a minimum in the new building. (Rita Kovtun/TommieMedia)

Michael Barrett, associate director of Public Safety, said the university will not be funding extra officers.

“It’s a big space. As with anywhere else, we will rely on the community to help us,” Barrett said. “The student center has a lot of building managers.”

Barrett said that Public Safety trained the managers to respond to problems and to handle other safety procedures.

Even though the student center is open to anyone in the St. Thomas community, Barrett does not think students need to be worried for their safety because there are “more eyes and ears” to notice something wrong.

“Because it’s staffed, there will always be someone in the building,” Barrett said. “If more people are in a building, we focus less on it.”

Sophomore Scott Fusco agrees with Barrett but disagrees that the amount of people occupying the space will make it seem safer.

“It’s also easier to steal something,” Fusco said. “If there’s more people, it’s way easier to duck in the crowd and get out. No one’s going to see anything.”

The most common crime at St. Thomas, after underage alcohol consumption, is theft because students can be too trusting, Barrett said.

Sophomore Rachel Murray is one student that is trusting of others when it comes to her personal property.

“In the library, I’ll have my laptop and my phone, and I’ll just leave and go to the bathroom,” Murray said. “I just leave it there. I feel like it’s pretty safe…I would probably do that at the student center.”

Patrol status of Murray-Herrick

Even with the reduced use of the Murray-Herrick Campus Center, Public Safety will not change the way the building is patrolled.

Barrett said that a minimum of three Public Safety officers patrol the St. Paul campus per shift. During the weekend, as many as six officers are stationed across the campus.

Each officer goes through the building in his or her assigned area at least once per shift. If there’s a threat, more officers will patrol the area.

“Life comes first, then property,” Barrett said.

He also said that officers will focus on dorms more than buildings that do not house students.

Rita Kovtun can be reached at kovt1547@stthomas.edu.

John P. Monahan Plaza is one of the three outdoor locations on the St. Paul campus where the university can serve alcohol within the first year of its liquor license. (Briggs LeSavage/TommieMedia)

The license takes effect later this week, and the university will be allowed to serve liquor in 15 indoor locations and three outdoor locations at reunions, wedding receptions and other events.

Doug Hennes, vice president of university and government relations, said that the university will save money now that it does not have to use outside vendors for events involving alcohol sales.

“Bottom line is we’re going to save money,” Hennes said. “It’s more expensive to use (outside vendors) than it is to do it ourselves because they’re a full-profit company.”

Even though the license will cost $5,700 a year, Hennes said that by handling the liquor themselves, the university will “save more than the actual cost of the license.”

Sophomore Anna Wright said that the license will be convenient for the university when putting on events.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for St. Thomas to have control over it because that way it can be a lot easier for them to do fun organizations for the alumni and people of age,” Wright said.

Hennes said that the liquor license will also be efficient for events because the food service staff will be able to serve the liquor.

“We’re essentially eliminating the middle man,” Hennes said. “It’s our responsibility now.”

Neighborhood concerns

Although the West Summit Neighborhood Advisory Committee supports indoor alcohol sales, some neighbors and WSNAC members are concerned that the outdoor alcohol sales will add to the possibility of noise and disruption in the surrounding neighborhoods.

“It’s usually in those situations that people tend to be a little noisier and less mindful of the fact that they may be parked in a neighborhood or walking through a neighborhood,” Scott Banas, WSNAC co-chair, said.

Another WSNAC concern was that the university was not modeling good behavior to its underage student population by selling alcohol on campus.

Because of these concerns, WSNAC wanted to restrict the university to serving liquor in one location, one time a year: the John P. Monahan Plaza on homecoming.

The university did not agree.

“We said that wasn’t acceptable,” Hennes said. “We wanted multiple locations with unlimited number of occurrences. A point that we made there was we don’t expect to have an outdoor event more (than) once a week throughout the entire year where we’d be selling alcohol.”

Hennes said that the university experimented with the outdoor liquor sales last fall during football season with the Purple on the Plaza event.

“It was low-key,” Hennes said. “Nobody got drunk, nobody made a spectacle of themselves. It was all adults, not a bunch of kids trying to sneak beers. It was very tightly regulated.”

Banas said that it is important to understand why WSNAC is concerned about outdoor alcohol sales.

“The primary reason WSNAC objected is for the health and welfare concerns for students,” Banas said.

The dispute prompted three public hearings last fall, and the city eventually asked the university to list all the specific locations on St. Paul campus where alcohol would be sold.

The university’s original list consisted of 15 indoor locations and nine outdoor locations. The city approved all indoor locations but asked the university to limit its liquor sales to three outdoor locations within the first year.

The university narrowed down its outdoor locations to Monahan Plaza, the Lower and Upper Quads and the McNeely Hall courtyard.

Hennes said that the restriction to three locations within the first year “will easily meet (the school’s) needs.”

“Virtually anything we’re going to do outside is going to be connected to (Anderson Student Center),” Hennes said. “It’s perfectly set up.”

As part of the license’s conditions, an annual review is required to assess how the university is progressing within the terms of the license. The university will be able to add more outdoor locations if the license is successful and the university is complying with the conditions.

The city’s conditions also included an agreement that the university will not hold a permanent bar on campus.

“We’re going to be even more responsible when we’re handling (the liquor) ourselves, and the city agreed with that,” Hennes said.

Briggs LeSavage can be reached at lesa4364@stthomas.edu

Cold weather and icy roads are common during Minnesota winters, but bike enthusiasts do not stow away their bikes and hibernate when the temperature drops.

Students wait in line at the Bookstore Monday, Jan. 30. (TommieMedia)

The bookstore faced the busiest day of the year Monday, said Bookstore Director Tony Erickson. The university registrar and service center both ran into similar situations. That’s what happens on the first day of a new semester.

“At about 12, the store will be packed, and we’ll have people waiting in line to get in the store,” Erickson said. “We will have to close the store down for a while because of fire regulations. That usually happens three or four times the first day of the spring semester.”

Freshman Sean Warner was in the bookstore Monday because it was the only time his schedule permitted buying books.

“It wasn’t open yesterday, and I was in Mexico over J-Term,” Warner said.

Service Center Director John Barron said that the center has been working overtime for the last ten days printing classroom materials.

“We have been very busy with calendar year-end documentation for a variety of departments on campus,” Barron said. “So a lot of what we have been doing is not class related, but we have also been doing a lot of class related stuff too.”

University Registrar Paul Simmons said that the registrar’s office is normally busier during the first day but because technology has simplified the process, things have stayed relatively calm.

“We have gone from 20 years ago where we used to have gymnasium registration where everything was done by paper, in person…to web-based registration,” Simmons said.

Freshman Nicole Scott said that she bought most of her books in the bookstore over the weekend, and it wasn’t really busy. On Monday, Scott bought the last book on her list, knowing the line would probably be long.

Sophomore Mohamed Samaha bought his books Monday and thought it went well.

“It actually went pretty fast. Me and my roommates just waited until today for some reason…kind of procrastinating I guess,” Mohammad said. “It went fine though, I got everything I needed.”

Patrick Roche, Katherine Curtis, Olivia Cronin contributed to this story.

Junior Robbie Vannelli kept the men’s hockey team’s winning streak alive with his sudden-death overtime goal to defeat St. Olaf 2-1 Saturday at home.

Vannelli also scored a power-play goal in the first period, and the Tommies have now won nine consecutive games.

“I just kind of got a rebound out in front on the power play and just tried to get everything on it that I could and snuck in luckily,” Vannelli said.

With both teams scoring in the first period of the game, the Tommies and Oles battled back-and-forth until Vannelli was able to find the net four minutes into sudden-death overtime.

Juniors Travis Baker and Riley Horgan had assists on both of Vannelli’s goals.

“I got a great pass from Riley from the other side and just tried to get a shot through,” Vannelli said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had an overtime win.”

Coach Jeff Boeser said he was in “a little bit of a daze” at the end of the game.

“I didn’t know what the outcome would be,” Boeser said. “(I’m) just really proud of our guys – it’s not always pretty, but they’re just finding a way.”

Freshman goalie Drew Fielding was not too worried when the game went into overtime.

“I felt confident in our team,” Fielding said. “We have a lot of go to players in there and then obviously Robbie came up huge.”

Fielding finished the game with 24 saves, and St. Olaf goalie Ben Leis recorded 31. Fielding is now 7-0 in the net this season.

“Once (St. Olaf) scored was when I really settled in and decided that I…wouldn’t let in any more goals,” Fielding said.

Boeser said the team’s 15-3-2 record is due to hard work. The Tommies practiced at 6:30 a.m. over J-Term.

“Our kids were here every morning – we never had an issue,” Boeser said. “They’re just making those little sacrifices that you really need to have a successful season.

St. Thomas will face Bethel next weekend.

“It seems so far just kind of magical how things are working out,” Boeser said. “We’re very, very happy. They’ll enjoy it this weekend and then back to work to Monday.”

Rita Kovtun can be reached at kovt1547@stthomas.edu.

A study from the British Psychological Society, released on Jan. 1, states smartphone use causes higher levels of stress. (Patrick Roche/TommieMedia)

Balding’s study suggests that because smartphone’s allow for easy access to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, the pressure to keep up with one’s social life becomes a large contributor to stress.

“The presence of information a smartphone can provide may indeed work to overwhelm people within their already busy and demanding environment,” psychology professor Paul Beckmann said. “It’s like having a fire hose of information.”

Many students said that they agree with the study, and sophomore Mauricio Carranza said that smartphones keep people “wondering what everyone is doing at every minute of every hour of every day.”

“Then you are wondering what other people think of what you are doing,” Carranza said.

Freshman Samantha Bogdanovich said that she agrees that smartphones not only add stress, but they also interrupt everyday activities.

“If you are talking to someone on Facebook or texting and then there is something going on that is stressful, it interrupts what you are doing,” Bogdanovich said.

Beckmann said that smartphones are an issue because people “don’t have the mental horsepower to deal with everything in the environment.”

“There may be other things going on in an environment, but we are selecting those things out,” Beckmann said.

Bogdanovich said that she does not believe turning the device off will necessarily solve the problem.

“I feel like maybe if you just didn’t have it with you because you can always just turn it back on, I think that would help,” Bogdanovich

The study also found that smartphone use for work purposes did not increase stress levels.

“I prefer to read my emails on my phone,” sophomore Max Bischmann said. “If I am out on the go, I want to know what is going on.”

Carranza said that he is sometimes relieved when his phone is not able to distract him.

“I am actually sometimes happy when it (phone) is not charged or the battery goes out sometimes. You’re like, ‘OK, I don’t have to worry about that anymore,’” Carranza said.

The research suggests that those people who are most stressed out, experience phantom vibrations. A phantom vibration is when a person thinks their phone has vibrated when it really has not.

“You can develop heightened sensitivity under conditions of stress…if they have a high level of stress they may have a muscle tremor,” Beckmann said. “That muscle tremor may be a real movement of their skin against their cellphone rather than their cellphone against their skin.”

The study was conducted by a questionnaire that was administered to over 100 participants, including university students and employees from a range of occupations.

Patrick Roche can be reached at roch6667@stthomas.edu

Men’s hockey coach Jeff Boeser and junior forward Riley Horgan join Chief Studio Producer Carly Samuelson in The Locker Room to talk about the season and upcoming games.

The men’s basketball team (13-4, 10-2 MIAC) had six players score in double figures Wednesday night on its way to a dominating 89-73 performance over Hamline at Schoenecker Arena.

St. Thomas used a 20-9 second half run to build a 17-point lead, and junior Zach Riedeman scored a team-high 15 points.

“(Hamline) got us here last year, and they almost beat us is the playoffs too,” junior Noah Kaiser said. “We were talking about that in the locker room, getting fired up.”

Both teams were fired up to start the game, and tempers flared early. Senior captain Peter Leslie was called for a technical foul with less than nine minutes to go in the half, and Hamline’s Tyler Parnell hit a 3-pointer shortly after to put the Pipers ahead 23-19.

“He hit me a little bit, and I was like ‘you can’t hit me,’ and I got T’d up for it,” Leslie said.

The technicals kept coming later in the first half, but this time it was Hamline’s Parnell who was whistled for a foul and a technical after shoving sophomore Erik Tengwall. Unhappy with the call, Hamline coach Nelson Whitmore voiced his displeasure with the referees but was also charged with a technical.

After the technicals, junior Will Deberg made 4-5 of free throws for St. Thomas, and the team took a 30-25 lead.

“It seems like we never have any technicals all year, and then every time we play Hamline one of us always seems to get into it,” Kaiser said. “It’s kind of a rivalry. We both play hard and are scrappy teams.”

Riedeman scored the final four points of the half for St. Thomas, and the team led 43-36 at halftime.

Second half surge

St. Thomas struggled at the start of the second half, turning the ball over four times in four minutes. The Tommies committed 11 turnovers in the second half and had 17 in the game.

Hamline capitalized on the St. Thomas mistakes, using a 11-2 run to get within five points with 10:37 left. However, Kaiser  hit a 3-pointer seconds later that would help spark a 20-9 St. Thomas run that put Hamline away.

Freshman Marcus Alipate scored 14 points off the bench, and DeBerg, Kaiser and Tengwall scored 12 points each. Junior John Nance added 11 points, six rebounds and four assists.

“Hamline’s a really aggressive team,” Tauer said. “We knew it was going to be a fast-paced game.”

Brandon Rieg and Al Tillman each scored 17 points off the bench for Hamline, but St. Thomas was able to make 31-39 free throws in the game and shot 90 percent from the line in the second half.

Wednesday’s win keeps St. Thomas one-game ahead of second-place Gustavus in the MIAC. The Tommies face the Gusties Saturday on the road.

“(Gustavus) is as good a team as we’ll see,” Tauer said. “We have eight chances left in the conference, and we want to take advantage of each one. Saturday will be a great test.”

Ryan Shaver can be reached at Shav7005@stthomas.edu