Construction clangs away on the Lower Quad, reminding pedestrians how different the campus landscape will look in just two years.
With six-figure salaries for university administrators, obscenely high on-campus housing prices and numerous examples of wasteful administrative spending, it’s understandable that some students feel gouged out of money by the university.
Construction on the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex is progressing ahead of schedule, as Opus Northwest work crews continue building the structure and its exterior.
According to Reuters, Uganda’s parliament has a serious chance of passing the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009, a proposed law expanding the criminal punishment for homosexuality. In Uganda, homosexuality is a crime which already carries a life sentence in many cases.
St. Thomas may have a 40 square meter garden on campus this spring that will provide wholesome outdoor activity and fresh local produce to St. Thomas community members.
Although the social host ordinance doesn’t take effect until Dec. 12, avoiding legal prosecution weighs heavily on the minds of alcohol imbibers on both sides of the legal drinking age. Both of the parties I attended this weekend featured signs posted on the front door politely warning underage persons not to enter.
The federal holiday now called Veterans Day originally recognized the end of World War I, “The War to End All Wars.” In the 81 years since, America’s many military involvements have ensured robust numbers of former service personnel in every generation born after the 1918 armistice.
After going into cardiac arrest during a dance performance Oct. 16 in Scooter’s, freshman Gauthier Biyanga Mubwa has resumed attending St. Thomas.
Since his Oct. 23 release from Regions Hospital, Mubwa has returned to the hospital for checkups and will attend biweekly heart rehabilitation therapy sessions.
“I was really surprised [to collapse],” Mubwa said. “It’s never happened to anyone in my family.”
When the St. Thomas theater department dissolved last year, many campus thespians were devastated and feared diminished dramatic performance in their lives. But senior and longtime St. Thomas stage presence Steve Broszko continued his hobby, accepting a job as theater director at his former high school.
Cable news overexposing the “balloon boy” event is best exemplified on the Oct. 16 “News in :90,” where Ashley Bolkcom spends about 20 seconds on the subject, then moves on. In the background, CNN covers balloon boy for all 90 seconds.
In many evening classes, especially languages and business courses, it’s not unusual to see middle-aged adults seated alongside students young enough to be their children. According to the registrar, 84 parents of undergraduates signed up for free classes this fall.
Among them were Steve and Mary Kulseth, parents of sophomore Chris and junior Diane.
The Kulseth couple is taking a third Spanish course together and the classes have already changed one part of the family’s interaction.
On Sunday night the Undergraduate Student Government held a special election. Freshman residential and transfer student candidates presented before the USG council and two were chosen within a half-hour.
Perhaps John Gardner of the Policy Center on the First Year of College said it best: “Residence halls are not just places for students to eat, flop and make love.”
St. Thomas’ decision not to run an alumni profile in the business school’s magazine because the Saudi government could not be reached for comment is a familiar one. The decision drew comparisons to online comment boards in October 2007, when an invitation for Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak at a campus event was pulled because of concerns it would offend the Jewish community.
Again, our school sided with a powerful minority over an internationally respected voice expressing concerns over the treatment of human beings.
Reforming America’s health care system is a daunting task largely because it is so dysfunctional to begin with. We pay more for health care than any other country in the world by far and have some of the worst overall health outcomes. Our costs are also rising faster than most other countries.
Sept. 21 was World Alzheimer’s Day, as well as Respect for the Aged Day in Japan. This is meaningful to me because my grandmother has been slowly deteriorating from Alzheimer’s disease for much of my life. She is currently in the moderate-advanced dementia stage, meaning she is completely dependent on the caregivers at her nursing home.
Plaques and tangles cling to much of her brain like barnacles, and the gradual, irreversible withering of higher brain function has choked out any real sense of awareness, reasoning, personality, memory or recognition.
