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.

 A St. Thomas student reported that while walking home, she saw a man looking into the window of her neighbor’s home. As the student approached her residence, the suspect turned and started looking into the windows of the student’s house too.

The student asked the suspect what he was doing, and the suspect said, “I’m looking for Rick.” He then left the area and headed eastbound toward Prior Avenue.

The student reported the incident to the St. Paul Police Department.

The suspect was described as a white male, between 30 and 40 years old, with shaggy blonde hair. He was reportedley wearing a dark colored wind-breaker and dark colored jeans.

Public Safety was not available for comment.

Ryan Shaver can be reached at shav7005@stthomas.edu

This is News in :90 for Friday, Feb. 3, 2012.

This is Sports in :60 for Friday, Feb. 3, 2012.

Junior Kirsten Haukoos runs sprints during practice. Coach Terry Peck said that the women's team is young this year and will "go through some growing pains." (Baihly Warfield/TommieMedia)

The men’s team ended last season with an overall record of 15-4 (7-2 MIAC). The Tommies will start this season ranked No. 15 in the Central Region rankings, a position that coach Terry Peck is proud of.

“The men’s (team) is ranked in the region, which is really good because it’s a very strong region,” Peck said. “We cracked the top 15 teams, which is pretty good.”

The women’s team finished with an 11-5 record (6-4 MIAC). The Tommies earned the fifth seed in the MIAC playoffs but lost their first match.

Sophomore Rachel Wright has enjoyed practicing with some of the new members of the team.

“I’m looking forward to all the new freshman and recruits,” Wright said. “It’s a good group of girls, and we’ve had a lot of fun so far.”

Peck is also excited about the young talent he has been working with during the winter.

“We have a real solid team coming back and some excellent freshmen,” Peck said.

Peck is coaching the youngest women’s team he has ever had this season, and he said that it may be a challenge.

“We’re going to go through some growing pains,” he said. “But I look forward to them developing into a top team.”

Senior Daniel Cooper said that the players have trained hard and have had some beneficial captain’s practices over the winter.

“It’s going to be a new team,so it’s going to be exciting to see what happens,” Cooper said.

Peck is looking forward to a great season from junior Brian McCarthy, who played in the semifinals of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Tournament last spring.

“Battling (Brian) for the top spot in the lineup will be our No. 1 from last year, Brendan O’Connell,” Peck said.

When asked about the toughest competition the teams will face, the unanimous agreement was that Gustavus and Carleton will be the most difficult opponents.

“Gustavus and Carleton are always our biggest opponents,” junior Kirsten Haukoos said. “Hopefully we’ll have a tough match against them and come out victorious.”

The men’s next home match is against the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse on Feb. 4. The women’s team will participate in the alumni game on Feb. 5.

Baihly Warfield can be reached at warf3860@stthomas.edu.

This is News in :90 for Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012.

This is Sports in :60 for Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012.

The St. John’s men’s basketball team (12-7 overall, 8-6 MIAC) defeated St. Thomas (14-6, 11-4 MIAC) 61-56 Wednesday night at Schoenecker Arena, completing a regular season sweep of the Tommies for the first time since the 1993-94 season.

At halftime, the St. Thomas community honored retired coach Steve Fritz, who led the Tommies to the Division III national championship last season, by dedicating the court to him. However, St. Thomas could not come away with the win in front of near capacity crowd of 1,650.

“(The loss) really sucks, especially on dedication night to coach Steve Fritz,” junior guard John Nance said. “I really wanted to get that win for him tonight, and it just sucks for him to have a dedication night and not even get a win.”

An early run put the Tommies ahead 7-4 in the game’s opening minutes, but Johnnie senior forward Aaron Barmore kept it close by putting up 12 points in the first half.

“We didn’t get up on (Barmore) and pressure him quite well enough in the first half,” coach John Tauer said. “Their penetration hurt us quite a bit… and we just weren’t very good tonight.”

A near capacity crowd of 1,650 people turned out for the Tommie-Johnnie men’s basketball game. (Nick McAndrews/TommieMedia)

Despite a tight first half, sophomore guard Erik Tengwall ‘s 3-pointer sent the Tommies into halftime with a 29-28 lead.

Second half fizzle

The second half went back-and-fourth, but junior guard Noah Kaiser hit a deep 3-pointer to give the Tommies a 45-43 lead with 8:59 left in the game.

The turning point in the game happened when Johnnie sophomore forward Seth Marx hit a 3-pointer that sparked an 8-0 run. With 4:50 to go in the game, St. Thomas trailed 49-47 and never took back the lead.

Nance had an opportunity to pull St. Thomas closer to a tie by getting to the foul line with 37 seconds left, but he missed both attempts. Nance led the Tommies in scoring with 20 points, and his teammates were impressed by his strong play.

“John’s been picking it up as the year’s gone on,” Kaiser said. “He’s been a real strong player for us, done great things. Without him, we wouldn’t have even been in the game.”

Tauer said that this is a tough loss for his team.

“We’re certainly incredibly disappointed no matter the circumstances,” Tauer said. “We certainly fully expected to play better and put on a better show. We appreciate the crowd support, but we’re just very disappointed in how we played.”

The loss dropped St. Thomas to second place in the MIAC standings. Gustavus took first place in the conference with a 64-63 home victory over third-place St. Olaf.

The Tommies will face Augsburg (13-7, 10-5 MIAC) next, and Tauer said that his team has much to improve on before its next game.

“Defense, offense, the press… we have got to take a hard look in the mirror after a game like this,” Tauer said.

Nick McAndrews can be reached at mcan1933@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.

Food Services and Undergraduate Student Government are working to get food venues in the student center to accept credit cards by the end of March. (Kelsey Broadwell/TommieMedia)

Bruce Van den Berghe, associate vice president of auxiliary services, said that the original prediction for the credit card implementation was at the end of March, but he now believes that may be too optimistic.

“(The university) is still working through some issues with the IRT department. The end of March doesn’t look as viable, it might be some time in April,” he said.

University Student Government Vice President Michael Orth said that the implementation is lagging behind because the university is waiting to get a refund policy approved by the credit card companies.

“Both Dining Services and USG can’t wait to see it happen, but it comes back to these credit card companies. The latest it could happen is summer,” Orth said.

Van den Berghe also said that some of the delay is due to federal banking regulations, the university’s identification of a vendor and finding the lowest bank and transaction fees.

“There are a lot of behind-the-scenes accounting complications, and St. Thomas screened a number of potential vendors,” Van den Berghe said.

Heidi Lillie, a food service worker, said that the implementation will be beneficial because it will allow The View to admit more people.

“People have been asking if that’s one of the new features (of the student center),” Lillie said. “I say ‘no.’ It’s just the normal eXpress, flex and cash.”

Orth said that the university is aware that students and faculty want the credit card option.

“The university is working as hard as they can to get this in place with the new student center,” Orth said.

Junior Jeremer Kingler, a Scooter’s employee, said the implementation cannot come soon enough.

“I’ll be happy when I can put money on my credit card so that when I go home in the summer, I don’t have to worry about left over eXpress money,” he said.

Senior Taylor Melvin agreed.

“I think they need to implement it sooner. Because when you think of us seniors who don’t have meal plans and who live off-campus, we want to be able to just go in and pay with our cards,” Melvin said.

Even though credit cards will make things more convenient, Orth said it still makes more sense if students use their eXpress money.

“When students use eXpress, they get that 5 percent back because they don’t have to pay for the processing fees through the credit card companies,” Orth said.

Orth added that the change will likely be more beneficial for St. Thomas staff and faculty.

The Minneapolis campus is going to be the first to implement credit cards.

“What we have gathered from Minneapolis is that cards will give access to more grad students,” Todd Empanger, director of dining services, said. “As for (the St. Paul campus), I am not sure how eXpress will be affected since students receive a discount. It will depend if they feel it is convenient.”

The university hopes that allowing students to use credit cards will increase overall sales.

“The reason they didn’t have it in past years was that it costs money,” Orth said. “I think it costs extra for the university to have contracts with these credit card companies.”

Further Plans

Van den Berghe said that similar to other companies who accept credit cards, St. Thomas will have regulations for its machines.

For example, if a purchase total is below $25 or a certain dollar amount, students may not have to sign a receipt.

“It’ll make it much faster if you’re standing in line waiting to check out with your food,” Orth said. “We all know nothing is worse than standing in line waiting for your food at lunchtime.”

Kelsey Broadwell can be reached at broa3324@stthomas.edu.