THE SPECTATORTHE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1923

VOL. 92, NO. 26 SPRING 2014Thursday, April 10

NEWS SPORTS CURRENTS OP / ED STUDENT LIFEPAGES 1-5 PAGES 8-9 PAGES 10-12 PAGES 13-15 PAGE 16

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A NEW SEASON

Pages 8-9

Fence-less mall in mid-to-late June will mark construction-free campus for first time in three years

Junior Paul Savides had a brief moment his freshman year without major construction on the UW-Eau Claire campus. Aside from that, the “most beautiful campus in Wisconsin” has been consistently under construction for the past three years.

Savides said aesthetics was an important part of his reason for attending Eau Claire. He said he hopes the “barren, brown campus” will get its beauty back soon.

Assistant Chancellor for Facilities and Uni-versity Relations, Mike Rindo said the university is removing the last remnants of construction — the fences enclosing the center of campus mall — by mid-June or early July.

“There is a punch list of work that still needs to be completed,” Rindo said. “Which includes grass maintenance, finalizing the brick work and placing the Sprites statue in its future location — the center of campus mall.”

Finally, greening grass and growing trees are turning the mall into a recognizable space for stu-dents.

On March 7, 2011, ground broke for the “new student center.” The old Davies Center was torn down and rebuilt at the current location. Other projects including Centennial Hall, campus mall complete reconstruction and the Haas Fine Arts

Parking Lot have kept the campus under con-struction.

The campus mall has been a restricted space since fall 2012, because the tear-down of the old Davies Center meant open soil and pathway recon-struction. The fences have stayed in place on cam-pus mall because the sod needs time to anchor itself and snow removal were potentially damaging.

“We are going to need to get three to four cuttings out of it before it is allowed to be used,” Rindo said. “We expect there are going to be a lot of people out there taking advantage of the green space.”

Freshman Cassi Ott said she can’t wait to re-lax and study on the campus lawn once warmer weather hits Eau Claire.

“I’m excited to get out in the sun,” Ott said. “This winter has been way too long so I’m excited to just lay out in the grass.”

Rindo said a large rainstorm last spring washed away much of the grass seed between Schofield and the Davies Center, so the universi-ty wants to be extra careful about protecting the grass in the rest of the mall.

Along with placing the statue, Rindo said the university has to confer with the art department about the alterations needed to fit the Sprites in the campus mall.

Missing from the discussion is the clock tow-er. Savides said he is looking forward to the re-placement of the tower on campus mall.

“It’s been sitting (in storage) behind Phillips

Hall for such a long time,” he said.But Rindo said the university is holding off on

its re-debut until the next phase of the university Master Plan is completed — the restoration of Garfield Avenue.

Next stepsMaster Plan construction began in 2011 with

the $48.8 million student-funded student cen-

ter, followed by the $44.5 million state-funded education building. Future projects include new residence halls and current restoration, a new science building, and biking and pedestrian up-grades. The Priory was also a part of the Master Plan. (More information about The Priory can be found on page 3.)

Martha Landry EDITOR IN CHIEF

Almost back to normal

>> FENCES page 2

ELIZABETH JACKSON/ The Spectator GREEN AT LAST: The fences around the campus mall in front of the brand-new Centennial Hall are expected to be removed in the earlier part of summer. For the first time since 2011, campus will not be under construction.

Student Senate voted unani-mously Monday to approve $86,000 for the renovation of the 24-hour lab in the Old Library.

Student Body President Bryan Larson said the improvements are part of continually working to at-tract students to the campus and im-

proving existing services. “I think that when they’re bring-

ing tours through here, and they’re like, ‘this is our lab for students’ there is something to be said for that to be outfitted with the most up-to-date technology,” Larson said.

Senate introduced and approved the bill in a single meeting, which is unusual.

Information Technology Com-

mission Director Christian Paese in-troduced the motion for the suspen-sion of the rules for the vote.

“It’s about the timing, and get-ting everything ordered,” Paese said. “We want to make sure that the lab is not closed for students.”

They plan to have the renovation completed over the summer.

Paese said the costs were not necessarily going to be the same as

the $86,000 set aside, but could be that high. He said they submitted a higher number to account for price changes as they solidify the plans.

The lab was chosen based off student responses to ITC surveys, where they answered questions about labs and what they need for improvement.

Paese said this can also improve other areas of campus, because they will take the equipment from the 24-hour lab and use it to replace even older equipment elsewhere in places they chose not to redo.

Paese also introduced a bill to be voted on next week, to allocate

$27,495 to buy a site license for Visix, a software which would regu-late and manage the digital signs on campus.

He said this fits with the cam-pus’ overall Master Plan by increas-ing the amount of digital signs and allowing for directions or “way-point finding.”

Originally $39,000, Paese said they were able to talk the price down through the negotiations.

If this is passed, the funding would come from the Information Technology Commissions carryover

Funding approved for upgrades to computer labs in Old Library, plus org travel

Glen Olson STAFF WRITER

Senate quickly approves renovation

>> SENATE page 2

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Thursday, April 10NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

Wisconsin Campus Compact presented a UW-Eau Claire faculty member and ser-vice-learning program awards in recognition of their contributions to civic engagement.

English professor Ruth Cronje was awarded the Sister Joel Read Civic Engagement Practi-tioners Award for her contributions, which in-clude a combination of presentations, service, research and teaching focused on civic engage-ment.

“It’s really very touching and moving to have my colleagues recognizing me in that way,” Cronje said. “For them to find (my work) worthy of an award is very gratifying because their opin-ion means a lot to me.”

Cronje’s work focuses on incorporating op-portunities for students to become involved in bettering their communities into her courses, which she collaborates with other university fac-ulty on. Cronje said her inspiration ignited from a book written by Harry Boyte titled “The Cit-izen Solution.” According to Cronje, Boyte asks

that all citizens, not just political figures, commit to improving their communities.

“It was a really cool idea and I was really ex-cited about it, and so I thought ‘OK, can we build

a class around something like this?’” Cronje said. “So we started trying it and one of the early prototypes was this Pedal Paddle Pollution class. That was really the ini-tial spark.”

Since that time, Cronje and her students have di-rected their focus on other community needs such as educating the public about the importance of pollinators

and how to support their habitat and surviv-al. Students involved with this project created videos, booklets, posters and other educational materials. With the collaboration of community members and organizations, students also built a pollinator habitat in the Forest Street commu-nity garden.

During the 2013 spring and fall semesters,

Cronje’s courses have dedicated their attention toward community health issues. Cronje said many low income residents do not have the knowledge of or access to healthcare resources in Eau Claire. Cronje and her students collaborat-ed with Eau Claire nursing students, the Com-munity Table, Marshfield Clinic and Chippewa Valley Free Clinic to combat this issue.

“We organized two mini clinics at the Community Table,” Cronje said. “We got the nursing students to cooperate with us and they took blood pressure, visual acuity and body mass index measures. We distributed health information and we collected some data from Community Table guests regarding what healthcare services they know about and what barriers they have to access those healthcare resources.”

Although the class is an honors course, Cronje said all students are welcome to enroll. She said her next course, which will be offered this fall, will continue to focus on community health issues. She also said she is looking to build a stronger support system with a local clinic to ensure the needs of the community are being met.

“We are in the process of pulling an even stronger effort together in cooperation with one of our local clinic systems to continue this in a much more systematic way at that clinic,” Cronje said. “We are partnering with these community organizations to address public issues that our community has. The students and these community members are

Danielle Pahl MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

Improving the community

UW-Eau Claire faculty member and program receive state recognition

The Garfield Avenue reconstruction, with a pe-destrian focus that more efficiently and aesthetical-ly links upper and lower campus, is slated to begin in 2015 or 2016. Rindo said university officials met last month and sent out a re-quest for design proposals, so the project is still in be-ginning design phases.

Rindo said it will take two summers to complete the project, and substan-tial disruption should be expected because of the magnitude of the project. He said a majority of the work will take place over summer months.

But short term, stu-dents can still expect the famous Blugold tulips in time for the May gradua-tion ceremony, as well as greener grass and an open mall.

“They will be doing those garden beds and all those things that people are accustomed to,” Rindo said. “The campus will be looking a lot more beauti-ful this summer than it has in the last couple of sum-mers.”

FENCES/ Construction to con-tinue in 2015 with Garfield Ave-

CRONJE

Landry can be reached at landrymm@uwec.edu or @MarthaLandryy.

SENATE/ Travel funding for orgs approved

>> AWARD page 4

budget, which is around $170,000.Larson said these improvements

seem to fit well with recent develop-ments.

He credits ITC for coming up with realistic ideas based on data, not talking about things hypotheti-cally.

“Which probably doesn’t sound all that revolutionary,” Larson said. “But at a university sometimes it is.”

Org fundingSenate also approved the special

allocation for travel funding for two organizations and approved two oth-er group’s constitutions.

The only vote of the meeting that wasn’t unanimous was travel funding for Eau Claire DECA.

The vote was originally on ap-proving $1,600 for the group’s trav-el, which was approved in a 7-2-3 vote by the Finance Commission.

In the meeting, however, an

amendment was introduced to change the amount to $1,375, which would cover only the registration fees.

The opposed Senators said this was more fair, because they’ve done that for other groups receiving allo-cations.

Aaron Polzin, DECA president, said they work on finding a lot of different funding to help cover the nearly $8,200 needed to transport and lodge the 11 students going to Washington, D.C.

“It’s still good,” Polzin said, “be-cause the other funding is out-of-pocket, or through dues and fund-raisers.”

After the changes, which passed with a 10-12 vote, Senate approved the allocation unanimously.

Olson can be reached at olsonpg@uwec.edu or @GlenPOlson.

Earlier this year, UW-Eau Claire announced graduating se-niors would be guaranteed only one ticket for the graduation cer-emony in May.

Second-semester seniors, like Maggie Nelson, were able to re-quest additional tickets so family and friends could attend the cere-mony.

“I requested two tickets, but I will not find out until the end of the month,” Nelson said.

The ticket shortage upset se-niors and thier families. Last year they were guaranteed more than one ticket.

The university stopped prom-ising multiple tickets after the May 2013 ceremony when com-mencement coordinator Lynn Dehnke noticed 10 rows of empty seats on the floor of Zorn Arena,

which could have been used to seat additional friends and family.

“We put the commencement ticket reservation into play so that we could deal with special seating in advance and so that we could have a fair way to provide tickets to parents,” Dehnke said.

The December 2013 com-mencement was a trial run for the new ticket reservation sys-tem. Dehnke said it went well, but there were a few glitches. She said they helped her improve the system for May’s commencement, since it is larger.

Before the universtiy re-worked the ticket reservation sys-tem, seniors went to the service center and filled out a form for extra tickets.

Dehnke said the new system eliminates hassle for both students and commencement planners.

Some students, like senior pub-lic relations major Alaina Streblow,

said it’s stressful waiting to hear how many tickets they will receive.

“It is frustrating, since I know I am not the only person who has two parents who would like to sup-port their child during one of the biggest days of their lives,” Stre-blow said. “If the administration is having problems fitting gradu-ation in Zorn Arena, perhaps they should be looking into hosting graduation at a different location to fit the needs of their students.”

Mary Streblow, Alaina Stre-blows’s mother, said she was in disbelief when her daughter said she wasn’t guaranteed two tickets.

“In our case, we are two very proud parents who will be devas-tated if we cannot see our daugh-ter graduate,” Mary Streblow said. “We should not be denied the proud moment of seeing them graduate.”

Alaina Streblow requested additional tickets for her parents and grandmother so they could see her receive her college diploma.

Dehnke said commencement, which is held in Zorn Arena, does allow limited space considering the number of students graduating.

For some seniors, it is not a big deal if multiple people cannot attend their graduation. Senior nursing major Denae Nygren said she worries she won’t receive the number of tickets she requested, but she understands there is noth-ing she can do.

“Just because someone won’t be sitting through a three-plus-hour long ceremony does not mean they won’t be supporting me,” Nygren said.

Dehnke said students should find out no later than April 18 how many tickets they will receive. But she is confident each student will get three tickets. She said she hopes to receive her final distribu-tion list later this week.

THURSDAY, APRIL 10

FRIDAY, APRIL 11

SATURDAY, APRIL 12

SUNDAY, APRIL 13

MONDAY, APRIL 14

TUESDAY, APRIL 15

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16

• 10 a.m.- 3 p.m. — Employee Wellness Fair, Davies Center

• 7 p.m. — Adult Open Volleyball, Northstar Middle School

• 6:30 p.m. — 40th Annual Viennese Ball, Davies Center

• 7 p.m. — Eau Claire Figure Skating’s Club 35th Annual Ice Show, Hobbs Ice Arena

• 7 p.m. — Yoga for Endurance Athletes, Chippewa Valley YMCA

• 8- 11 p.m. — Live Band Karaoke, The Plus

• 6:30- 8:45 p.m. — Tunnel of Oppression, Towers Hall

• 7 p.m. — Let’s Be Honest- A Grown-Up Storytell-ing Series: We’re in Trouble Now, The Volume One Gallery

• 6:30 p.m. — 40th Annual Viennese Ball, Davies Center

• 7 p.m. — Grease the musical, Eau Claire North High School Auditorium

• 7-9 p.m. — Ask a Scientist: ‘Tornadoes,’ Acoustic Cafe

• 7:30- 9:45 p.m. — Ballroom Dance Lesson and Dancing, Eau Claire Moose Lodge

• 1- 3:30 p.m. — Concert Choir concert, Haas Fine Arts Center

• 5 p.m. — University symphony orchestra concert, Haas Fine Arts Center

NEWS3Thursday, April 10

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

NOTABLE EVENTS HAPPENING BOTH ON AND OFF CAMPUS

NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

Foster Gallery

“57th Juried Student Art Show”10 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. — Mon. - Fri.

1 - 4:30 p.m. — Sat. - Sun.Runs from April 3 - 24Haas Fine Arts Center

Three miles south of campus lies more than 100 acres of university land — or a world of pos-sibilities, Garry Running, professor of geography and anthropology, said.

Blugold Real Estate purchased The Priory, formerly St. Bede’s Monastery, in October 2011. It is now home to 20 university students, UW-Eau Claire Children’s Nature Academy and 112 mostly wooded acres.

The UW-Eau Claire Priory Advisory Council asked Running to convene a grounds and gardens committee made up of university and community members to make recommendations to the council on how to use the land at The Priory.

Running will hold a summit from 8:30 a.m. un-til noon April 19 at The Priory to hear ideas from people and organizations in the community. From there, Running hopes to form the committee and start making suggestions, he said.

Running said his goal for the priory includes gardens, green houses, experimental areas for long-term monitoring and food plots for wildlife among other things.

“What I would really like to see is a lot of dif-ferent things going on,” Running said. “Mostly I want to see what people want. I’d like to see it as a place where UW-Eau Claire, CVTC, Eau Claire Area school district and the public do things to-gether.”

Eau Claire alum Joe Weirich, a volunteer for an on-campus student organization called Food-lums, said The Priory would be a great site for some projects the organization has been working on.

Foodlums has been restricted to the garden in the Phillips courtyard in the past but The Priory could be an opportunity for them to break out of their shell and do bigger projects; they plan on voic-ing that at the summit, he said.

“What we are trying to do is an edible land-scape, projects that don’t require much mainte-nance but would still benefit,” Weirich said.

The organization wants to grow fruit trees and bushes, he said.

Senior David Pierce is among the inaugural group of students living at The Priory this school year. Pierce said he supports the university tak-ing advantage of the land at The Priory. The pres-ence of more university students wouldn’t bother the residents because there is more than enough ground, he said.

“A garden would be a great idea, it’s a great natural place to be able to study things,” he said. “I think there’s enough ground for everyone to use without there being a shortage.”

Running is inviting as many stakeholders as possible to attend the summit while pinning down

who those stakeholders are, he said.“I’m hoping that I can convince some partic-

ipants at the summit to sit on the committee,” Running said. “Then there would actually be a real committee from the stakeholders who seem inter-ested in making decisions that matter to them.”

Beyond using the vast acreage for educational purposes, Running said he hopes there is a food se-curity spin to the project also.

“We have a lot of people around here that don’t know if they are going to have dinner,” Running said. “So if we can grow some food that can provide particularly the fresh fruits and vegetables that are really hard for food insecure people to get, well why wouldn’t we do that?”

Courtney Kueppers COPY EDITOR

University welcomes input for The PrioryCommittee chair to hold summit to decide how best to use grounds

Kueppers can be reached at kueppecm@uwec.edu or @cmkueppers.

ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator WIDE OPEN SPACES: The Priory, located three miles south of UW-Eau Claire campus, has more than 100 acres of university owned land. A majority of the acreage is wooded.

Courtney Roszak STAFF WRITER

Graduating seniors guaranteed one ticket for commencementGraduation changes upset students and parents

Roszak can be reached at roszak-cm@uwec.edu or @CRoszak22.

Due to the success of the course and positive affect they had on the commu-nity, Cronje said she is looking for ways to implement civic engagement into the courses she teaches.

“I could not have done this without the collaboration of my colleagues, the hard work and co-creation of my stu-dents, these community organizations who have cooperated with us and admin-istration of this institution, who’s finding ways of making this possible for us to de-liver a curriculum like this,” Cronje said.

Eau Claire’s Early Childhood Lit-eracy Intervention Program, Services and Evaluation program, also known as ECLIPSE, was recognized for its contributions to civic engagement and

was awarded the Esther Letven Cam-pus-Community Partnership Award.

Donna Lehmkuhl, the director of ECLIPSE, said the program, which is in its 13th year, establishes a one-on-one relationship between Eau Claire stu-dents and children preparing to enter school with what Lehmkuhl called skills necessary for “lifelong learning.”

Lehmkuhl said a few changes were made to this year’s program. In past years, she said reading and social in-teraction were major focuses. This year, they incorporated math and increased the number of children the students are paired with.

“We are trying a new way of ap-proaching it,” Lehmkuhl said. “When the

students are working with the children, they are working with a child one-on-one, but now they are paired with either one or two children. One day they work with this child, another day they work with a different child.”

Kinzey Stoll, a freshman geology and engineering double major and mem-ber of ECLIPSE, said it is rewarding to see positive changes in the children the program helps.

“I really like seeing how the kids have grown, not only the child I work with, but the other children as well,” Stoll said. “To see them improve is really cool and to see how much of an impact as a group we are able to make on this small community.”

4NEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast Thursday, April 10

NEWS

Pahl can be reached at pahldj@uwec.edu or @DaniellePahl.

It’s not everyday there’s a giant tee-ter-totter on campus.

On April 16, Alpha Xi Delta will be hosting its annual Teeter-Totter-a-Thon to raise money for Autism Speaks.

President of the Eau Claire chapter of Al-pha Xi Delta Sarah Nigro said, national-ly, all Alpha Xi Delta sororities partner with Autism Speaks. Each sorority partic-ipates in a challenge to raise money for the cause.

“We’re the only one that does the

Teeter-Totter-a-Thon,” Nigro said. “So we’re the ones who created this. Every year we have to get approval from our national fraternity to do the Teeter-Tot-ter-a-Thon, because it is so different.”

The event is more than just a tee-ter-totter sitting in front of Davies for 24 hours. Since the goal is to raise money and build awareness for autism, there are many ways to help the cause. For $5, you can take a ride on the tee-ter-totter. The sorority is also selling puzzle piece-shaped cookies and taking donations the day of the event.

Programs Vice President Kaeleigh Wilson said the support of the commu-nity and of her fellow sisters is great for raising awareness about this event.

“I think a lot of people are intimi-dated by donating to a cause and they’re not sure what the repercussions are,”

Wilson said. “We’re contacting busi-nesses, and when people see your face or the name of the organization year after year … they’re more likely to do-nate.”

Planning for this event doesn’t hap-pen overnight. Typically, planning starts in January. Business packets are made out to local businesses with information about sponsoring the event or donating to the cause. Members of the sorority go door to door in the community, asking for donations.

Alpha Xi Delta promotes the event heavily on campus as well, especially since the teeter-totter will be placed right in front of Davies. Every Wednes-day, there was someone at a table in Davies promoting the event and raising awareness. April 2, all of Davies was lit in blue advertising the cause.

Public Relations Vice President Ele-onor Thomas said at the end of the event, she and her sisters will release 68 bal-loons.

“We’re going to do 67 blue balloons and one white balloon to signify 1 in 68 children are diagnosed with autism,” Thomas said.

Nigro said the reason the Teeter-Totter-a-Thon has been so successful throughout the years is because it’s so familiar to businesses and they will support the cause. To learn more about autism, find the sorority at a table in Da-vies, or check out the event April 16-17.

Meghan Hosely STAFF WRITER

Hosely can be reached at hoselym@uwec.edu or @meghanhosely.

NIGRO

Staff writer Courtney Roszak is a member of Alpha Xi Delta.

Alpha Xi Delta prepares for ninth annual Teeter-Totter-a-Thon

SUBMITTEDSEE THE SEE-SAW : Junior Andrea Clark-Johnson, BetXi Bear and alumna Anja Meer-wald teeter-totter for autism awareness at last year’s event. This year’s Teeter-Totter-A-Thon will take place April 16.

AWARD/ ECLIPSE recognized for civic engagement

Wisconsin democrats said voter ID laws and recent redis-tricting are threatening clean elections, during a panel discus-sion Monday at UW-Eau Claire.

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, Rep. Dana Wachs, D-Eau Claire, Jeff Smith, the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s regional political director and Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, spoke to students and communi-ty members in a two-hour lecture and question and answer session.

Heck said Reps. Tom Larson, R-Colfax, Terry Moulton, R-town of Seymour, Kathy Bernier, R-Lake Hallie and Warren Petryk, R-town of Pleasant Valley, declined or were unable to attend Monday night’s event.

Panel speakers said republicans consolidated republican and democrat-leaning districts, which means candidates must be a deeper red or truer blue to get elected.

New legislation would require the redistricting process to mirror Iowa’s, where districts aren’t drafted by lawmakers, but by a non-partisan organization in the Hawkeye state.

“(New districts) were sprung on the state on one summer day in 2011, and then rammed into law,” Heck said. “As a result we have less competitive elections.”

Wachs represents the 91st assembly district, which covers Eau Claire. He said redistricting was an intentional attempt to keep left-leaning voters out of right-leaning districts.

“Eau Claire became a standalone district,” Wachs said. “Democrats were packed into Eau Claire and the surrounding districts were, by design, made more republican to give the republicans a better chance at re-election.”

The panel touched on two contentious supreme court de-cisions during Monday’s discussion – Citizens United and Mc-Cutcheon vs. FEC, which was resolved last Thursday.

The Citizens United case prohibits the government from preventing unions, corporations or other groups from donating to political campaigns. The McCutcheon decision allows peo-ple to donate the maximum $2,600 to an unlimited number of candidates.

Dems bash big money in state politicsFour-person panel said lobbying in

Madison bypasses voterNate Beck

CHIEF COPY EDITOR

Read more about election reform online at spectatornews.com.

Beck can be reached at becknc@uwec.edu or @NateBeck9.

Teeter-tottering for awareness

5Thursday, April 10

COMMUNITY NEWSNEWS EDITORS: Emily Albrent and Katie Bast

While it takes 80 days to travel around the world by hot air balloon, some Eau Claire runners crossed the globe in about 30 minutes last week-end.

AIESEC, a UW-Eau Claire cam-pus organization connecting study abroad students with business spon-sors, held the Around the World 5K Saturday in Carson Park

Event organizers set up booths marked as different countries along Carson Park’s paved running trail.

Camila Bedoya and Seama Rezai, both Eau Claire students and AIESEC members, stood behind the first booth on the trail — Colombia. A boombox bumped Spanish-language beats. Or-ganizers spraypainted a Colombian flag into fresh snow before the race.

As runners cruised by the booth, Bedoya and Rezai stamped “pass-ports,” runner’s number tags, with

Colombia stickers. Samantha Dvorsak, junior, orga-

nized the fundraiser. She said the idea for the event caught attention from the national AIESEC chapter, which chipped in funding for the event.

“We’re kind of trying to have a cultural experience while being ac-tive,” Dvorsak said.

Bedoya was born in Colombia, but moved to the states when she was a kid. Rezai studied in Colombia through AIESEC. Rezai is also the group’s vice president of expansions. She travels to ailing AIESEC chapters and coaches them on how to improve.

Rezai said proceeds from the race registration fees will help fund a sum-mer trip to a national AIESEC confer-ence in South Carolina.

Brian Laskowski, who works as a landscaper, said he tries to run a 5K, half-mile or some kind of running event each weekend.

“I enjoyed the atmosphere, the people, it was just a really fun event,”

Laskowski said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Adam Alderson drove to Eau Claire from Northern Illinois Univer-sity in Dekalb, Ill., for the race. He’s also involved in AIESEC.

“I’ve wanted to get more active anyway,” he said. “This is a nice little warm up to more active runs.”

About 20 minutes into the race, 5K frontrunners jogged into Colombia — again.

Alderson said the last fork in the trail wasn’t marked, and a handful of runners chose the wrong tong. Instead of crossing the finish line, the trail led them in a loop, and they landed back at the beginning of the route.

“The first few people in front got lost,” Alderson said. “I think we went around an extra loop. That kind of thing always seems to happen to me.”

Nate Beck CHIEF COPY EDITOR

Beck can be reached at becknc@uwec.edu or @NateBeck9.

Around the world fun run raises money for real-life globetrotting Runners visit ‘countries’ set up

along trail at Carson Park

NATE BECK / The Spectator A TREK AROUND THE WORLD: Runners convene at Carson Park Saturday at an Around the World 5k fun run put on by UW-Eau Claire student organization AIESEC.

Watch the video online at spectatornews.com.

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Student SenateElection Dates:

Monday, April 14Hilltop & Haas Fine Arts

8:00am - 7:30pm

Tuesday, April 15Davies Student Center

8:00am - 7:30pm

Wednesday, April 16Davies Student Center

8:00am - 4:30pm

SPORTSSPORTS EDITOR: Steve Fruehauf Thursday, April 10 8

Cory WhiteSprints/High Jump

Outdoor Track & Field

JuniorTomah

Tomah High School

Getting to know White:

Favorite music performer: Awolnation

Favorite meal:Sloppy Joe’s

Favorite restaurant:Ground Round (in Tomah)

Favorite sport’s team: Wisconsin Badgers

Favorite vacation: Claremont, Calif., with the track and field team

White won the 200-meter dash last Saturday with a time of 22.02, beating his previous person-al best by .43 seconds. The men’s team earned second place last Saturday at the Ashton May Invitational hosted by UW-La Crosse. The team is preparing for their next meet at 10:30 a.m. this

Saturday for the UW-Platteville Invite.

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER / The Spectator UW-Eau Claire senior doubles part-

ners Joe Meier and Ryan Vande Linde came out firing at No. 1 doubles Sunday against St. Cloud State (Minn.). They pulled off the early victory, but after struggles in singles play, the Blugolds slowly fell out of contention.

Despite the loss, the Eau Claire men’s tennis team is happy with its per-formances after a win on Saturday and strong efforts on Sunday, Vande Linde said.

“There were a ton of strong points to take away from this weekend,” Vande Linde said. “We worked extremely hard in both matches, and still had fun even in a loss.”

The Blugolds cruised to a 9-0 victory against St. Ambrose University (Iowa) at the McPhee Physical Education Center Saturday, but struggled Sunday against a tough Division II opponent in St. Cloud State, losing 7-2.

On Saturday in singles play, the Blu-golds won all six matches and lost only a combined seven games as all won in straight sets.

Meier said they showed strong play throughout on Saturday.

“Our team did a great job of playing at a consistent level on Saturday by al-ways moving our feet,” Meier said. “Mak-ing good shot choices and staying strong mentally to make quick work of our op-ponents.”

The Blugolds got strong performanc-es from the underclassmen. Sophomore Nathan Tretsven and freshmen Will Weyenberg and Conrad Felten all won with scores of 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 singles, respectively.

The No. 3 combo of freshman Luke Zwiener and sophomore Jordon Stevens didn't drop a game as they won 8-0 in

doubles. The two other doubles teams composed of Meier and Vande Linde at No. 1, and freshmen Michael Mauthe and Austin Auleta at No. 2 both controlled their matches throughout with 8-2 vic-tories.

Despite the individual success Satur-day, head coach Tom Gillman said he still sees some room for improvement.

“It’s easy to show up and do things well in practice,” Gillman said. “But re-membering the things you worked on all week and displaying them in the match is tough, and that’s where our inexperience comes into play.”

On Sunday, the lone victories against Division II St. Cloud State went to Meier and Vande Linde at No. 1 doubles, and to Weyenberg at No. 5 singles.

Weyenberg has been a bright spot in singles for the Blugolds switching be-tween No. 4 and No. 5 throughout the season and winning 12 straight matches dating back to February to post a 12-2 re-cord thus far.

Meier said tackling two different lev-els of competition in one weekend will help the team as the season progresses.

“Playing great competition like we did Sunday definitely helps us grow,” he said. “It teaches younger players that even if you play two very different teams in one weekend, our game shouldn't change just because one team is drasti-cally better than the other.”

The loss on Sunday drops the team to 12-6 on the season and ends its win streak at seven in a row.

The Blugolds will be on the road next weekend for three more contests. They will face Luther College (Iowa) in Win-ona, Minn., on Friday and will play the University of Dubuque (Iowa) and Edge-wood College in Madison on Sunday.

SUBMITTED DANGEROUS DUO: Senior doubles players Ryan Vande Linde and Joe Meier high five after a match April 6 at the McPhee Physical Education Center in Eau Claire.

Trent TetzlaffSTAFF WRITER

Win streak ends at sevenMen’s tennis team splits weekend matches at home

Tetzlaff can be reached at tetzlata@uwec.edu or @ ttetz5.

Blugolds drop two against La Crosse, rally to beat Platteville in doubleheader

Softball splits conference opener

This past weekend, the UW-Eau Claire softball team traveled to UW-La Crosse on Saturday and to UW-Platteville on Sunday for its first conference games of the sea-son.

La Crosse handed the Blugolds their first two losses in conference play, winning 5-3 and 5-4, respec-tively. On Sunday, the Blugolds swept Platteville, 13-7 the first game and 13-3 the second.

In both games against the Ea-gles, La Crosse was able to find a way to edge out the Blugolds.

In the second game, it came down to the last play for La Crosse to break the tie, handing the Blu-golds another loss.

“We had a lot of chances to win

the La Crosse games,” head coach Leslie Huntington said. “We left runners on base, we left runners in scoring position and we didn’t come up with the clutch RBI hit.”

Huntington also said her pitch-ers need to be able to start games. If they’re sharper, the team will play better.

Junior infielder Taylor Pierce had two hits during both La Crosse games, leading the team. She said the game was a back and forth battle.

“They’d score, and then we’d score,” Pierce said. “A couple of in-nings, it was three up three down.”

On Sunday, it was a different story for the Blugolds. The team beat Platteville by five runs the first game and 10 runs the second.

The Blugolds got off to a slow start in the first game, tying the Pi-oneers in the third. Two home runs

and four innings later, Eau Claire captured its first win of conference play.

In the second game, the Blugolds produced the ma-jority of their runs in two of the five in-nings played. The top of the third was the first big inning

for their offense, as they tacked six runs. The Blugolds struck again in the top of the fifth, scoring six more runs. This ended the game early due to the 10-run rule.

Meghan Hosely STAFF WRITER

>>CONFERENCE page 9

PIERCE

SPORTS9SPORTS EDITOR: Steve Fruehauf Thursday, April 10

The UW-Eau Claire men’s and women’s track and field teams opened their 2014 outdoor season this past weekend at the Ashton May Invita-tional at UW-La Crosse.

It was both of the teams’ first action since the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, and both teams picked up right where they left off.

The women’s team scored 103 points, finishing third while La Crosse won the event with 329. The Blugolds notched two first place fin-ishes and also had five other top-three finishes.

One of Eau Claire’s first-place finishes came from sophomore Kara Metzger as she tied for the top spot in the pole vault with a height of 3.20 meters. Metzger said it was good to compete outdoors because she was able to experience competing out in the elements rather than practicing indoors like the team has all year.

“It’s really nice for pole vault be-cause we had the wind at our back,” Metzger said. “So we got to feel what it was like to run a little bit faster and it made it easier to get over the bars.”

Metzger said the wind helped her focus less on her speed and more on the top end of her form, which al-lowed her to clear the heights.

Also taking home a first-place fin-ish was Eau Claire’s 4x400-meter re-lay team of sophomores Taylor Wirth, Jessie Reineck, junior Calla Karl and senior Kelsey Weigel. They won with a time of 4:04.27.

Wirth, who ran the final leg of the race, said she thought it was good to start the outdoor season with a win. When Wirth received the baton, her teammates had gained a lead and she said although she had no one to run with it was important that she fin-ished strong.

“The biggest thing is just getting out as hard as you can and maintain-ing through the straightaway,” Wirth said. “Then you just hold on until the end.”

The transition from the indoor season to the outdoor season has been going well, Wirth said. This past week, the team was able to have its first full week of outdoor practices.

She said the in-door season tends to be a lot harder because the cor-ners are much tighter and it is harder on the ath-letes’ bodies.

“It was nice to be able to go outside to go out and run times we wanted to run,” Wirth said.

The men finished second at La Crosse with 159 points and five event victories.

The men’s 4x400-meter relay team of junior Thurgood Dennis, freshmen Alexander Vandermause, Connor Drexler and Jimmy Paske won the event with a time of 3:19.36. Eau Claire also had a second team in the event, and it finished in third.

Drexler said in an outdoor set-ting, races are a lot wider and there is more space for people to relax in between events compared to everyone being cramped inside a field house. For this meet, the 4x400-meter relay teams were scrambled, which means sprinters were running with unfamil-iar teammates.

“We were hoping to be a little more competitive with the two relays we had in it, but it was still a fun race,” Drexler said.

Dennis won the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.54 seconds and Eau Claire brought home the other top four finishes in the event.

Junior Cory White won the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.02 seconds, and senior Tony Floyd won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.06 seconds. Junior Roger Steen won the shot put with a distance of 16.77 meters.

Both teams are preparing this week for their meet on Saturday at the UW-Platteville Invitational. Drexler said during this part of their season workouts tend to be tough and then their coaches will taper down the intensity as they get closer to the meet.

“We are just looking to be compet-itive with the other relays this week, and individually I want to have a good split,” Drexler said.

Ellis Williams STAFF WRITER

Smooth transition

Men’s and women’s track and field began their outdoor seasons with top finishes

into season opener

WIRTH

Williams can be reached at williaml@uwec.edu or @BookofEllis.

Aaron Harrison’s shot still painful-ly replays in my head. My heart hasn’t dropped that far since Josh Framm let Air Bud go, which may be one of the saddest moments in the history of cinema, and you’re a fool if you think otherwise.

I digress. Harrison’s 22-foot 3-pointer over Josh Gasser Saturday night ended the finest season for Wis-consin basketball in the Bo Ryan era with a gut-wrenching loss. But there’s still a lot for Bucky fans to be excited about, and 2015 could even top this magical three-week run.

So I’m going to bring out my in-ner Bo Ryan and point out some necessary adjustments so the cham-pionship trophy will come back to

Madison.The Badgers only lose Ben Brust

from this year’s Final Four squad. Brust was an extremely vital part of the team, and his shooting ability and over-all leadership will be extremely missed, no doubt. But there are ways to fill the void, and the first question is who Ryan will start in his place next season.

First off, it’s noteworthy to point out Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky both committed to coming back to UW instead of bolting for the NBA, which is huge. With that in mind, Nigel Hayes should get the early nod for the final spot in the starting lineup.

Hayes proved all year he could play, and he was the one who carried the team midway through the Big Ten season. But if he starts, this would give Wisconsin a more traditional swing offense look by starting two bigs and

three guards instead of the four guard, one big lineup it used this season.

Hayes would play the power for-ward spot, which Dekker technically occupied this season. But Dekker is more of a small forward, and starting Hayes would get Sammy D back to his natural position. In this position, Dek-ker can post up smaller players, and he’ll be just as quick if not quicker than anybody guarding him.

If he can take it to the hole with authority like he did against Kentucky and even get to the free-throw line, he could break out into a National Player of the Year candidate. He’s that good.

I also really like Bronson Koenig coming off the bench for energy. He played his best game of the season Saturday night by scoring 11 first-half points against the high flyers of Ken-tucky. He can shoot the ball, which will help fill Brust’s absence. Also, Koenig can flat out pass. He got a little more confident in making those “wow” passes he made constantly at La Crosse Aqui-nas High School, and he’s only going to get better.

Next, I’d really like to see the ball wind up in Gasser’s hands a little bit more. The guy is a playmaker. He al-ways has been. He got to the rim sever-al times in the tournament, and he’s a smart guy who can create for others. I think if he even runs the show at times when Traevon Jackson is on the bench, Wisconsin could truly benefit.

Bucky could definitely get back to the promised land in 2015

Nick EricksonMANAGING EDITOR

Erickson can be reached at ericksna@uwec.edu or @NickErickson8.

CONFERENCE/ Blugolds struggle with outside practice, but improving slowlyJunior catcher Casey

Arnold recorded the team-high in hits in the second game against Platteville, with two. She said the team played at 100 per-cent against the Pioneers, but everyone still needs to bring confidence.

“I think we’re trying too hard,” Arnold said. “What we’re doing is, we’re just pushing ourselves too hard and expecting this in-sane amount of perfection … getting the job done is what you need.”

The Blugolds still ha-ven’t had much luck with practicing outdoors, so their practices haven’t changed much either. During one practice last week, the team fielded about 1,000 ground balls on the gym floor. Hunting-ton said the team focus-es mainly on defense and pitching.

Although, with the weather warming up earli-er this week, the team saw time outdoors on Bollinger Field. On Tuesday, Arnold said some of the assistant coaches picked off ice from the dugouts and around

the field, so it will soon be ready for practices.

After being swept Wednesday, the Blugolds will travel to Illinois this weekend to play four non-conference games be-fore heading back to Eau

Claire to face the WIAC conference in the upcoming weeks.

Hosely can be reached at hoselym@uwec.edu or @meghanhosely.

Read the full column on spectatornews.com

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER / The Spectator

ELIZABETH JACKSON / The Spectator ONE-HIT WONDER: Sophomore pitcher Zana Lorbetske delivers a pitch Wednesday against UW-Stout. She pitched 1.2 innings in relief and only gave up one hit and struck out one Blue Devil batter.

CURRENTS10CURRENTS EDITOR: Zack Katz Thursday, April 3

If you know me well, you’d know there are only two things that can get me

out of bed Sunday mornings. Church and brunch.

That’s where the Nucleus comes in. Located between Artisan Tattoo and Eau Claire Bike and Sport at 405

Water St., the Nucleus is a breakfast-lunch hotspot that attracts college kids and fam-ilies.

The Nucleus is connected to the Racy’s, a local coffee

shop, which can be a little confusing for Eau Claire new-comers. But natives and regu-lars frequent both spots for a unique breakfast and a side of hot coffee.

My first time at the Nu-cleus was generally positive, but it started out somewhat odd. When you enter the restaurant, the first thing you’re greeted by is a big red curtain, reminiscent of one you’d find on the stage of a high school auditorium. I guess I can understand it as a means of privacy but it made for a very awkward entrance on my part.

The restaurant has eclec-tic decor, but it manages to feel homey and rustic at the same time. It feels upscale yet comfortable and caters to a wide-ranging demographic which explains its popularity.

You have to be careful though, the Sunday morning breakfast rush was in full swing when I went, and the

Cori PicardSTAFF WRITER

Picard can be reached at picardcf@uwec.edu or @CoriFPicard.

CORI PICARD / The Spectator COMMUNITY CLASSIC: Water Street’s The Nucleus is a neighborhood staple, offering a spread of breakfast and lunch options.

Comfort food with a creative twistThe Nucleus offers new and improved classics

In the past, senior graphic design major Jacoby Matott worked mainly with graphic design, but this semester he said he has enjoyed working more with photog-raphy and film.

“I’m really in my element this semes-ter,” Matott said.

He said he’s even found a way to in-corporate his work in his photography class to his independent projects. He said they’re working with text and images in class so he’s used the time to create a poster for an independent film he’s work-ing on called “Grenade.”

“I’m kind of killing two birds with one stone because in my photography class, we’re working with text and image,” Matott said. “I’m kind of creating grind-house exploitation-style movie posters.”

Matott said the idea for the film came about while watching action films with his friends. He said they liked that the films didn’t take themselves too seriously. He describes his film as “over-the-top, cheesy and campy.”

Once they got the idea, Matott said he wrote up a quick summary and recruited more friends to help.

Matott said he’s been putting lots of time and money into the project so far.

“Granted I’m a broke college student so it’s kind of fun to prioritize there,” Matott said. He said he has the normal college expenses.

“After that’s all done, instead of spending your money on something fun … I’m putting it into props for this movie.”

Like Hawaiian punch as fake blood, Matott said.

After writing the script and planning the budget, Matott said he and his friends traveled to Rice Lake, a town about an hour north of Eau Claire around which the movie is written.

Matott said they spent entire days filming the action movie. Matott said he and his friends got so into filming, they got up at 9 a.m. and filmed until 2 a.m.

He said the film has a simple plot. A man is on the hunt for his wife’s murderer. He travels from Mexico, across the United States and winds up in Rice Lake. His life prior to the murder is told in flashbacks as he takes out the henchmen in order to get to the top guy.

“It’s a fun film, it doesn’t get very deep,” Matott said.

Matott said he wants the style of the film to mirror those he and his friends ad-mired.

“I’ve had the privilege to work with a really beautiful camera, but once the film is all said and done, I’m going to give it an aged, scratched look so that it looks like it’s something from the ‘70s or ‘80s.”

Matott said he hopes to premiere the film on campus when it’s done.

Katie Bast NEWS EDITOR

KATIE BAST / The Spectator CAMERA AND ACTION: On Tuesday senior Jacoby Matott works on the movie poster for an independent films he’s creating with friends.

Bast can be reached at bastkv@uwec.edu or @Katie_Bast.

Graphic design student experiments with photography and film

“I’m kind of killing two birds with one stone

because in my photog-raphy class ... I’m kind of creating grind-house exploitation-style movie

posters.”JACOBY MATOTT

Senior

Mixing work and pleasure

wait on our food was long.I ordered a veggie omelette

but was disappointed when I realized it was cheeseless, and in my opinion, cheese is a sta-ple ingredient in any omelette. But the veggies were fresh and seasoned well, something I’d be willing to wait for to eat.

I got a few bites of my boyfriend’s El Presidente, a hashbrown scrambler with peppers, corn, cheese and chorizo. It was so good, I may have eaten more of his meal than my own.

The food was a little on the pricey side but it reflect-ed the food fairly. The entire menu has a mix of comfort food favorites with a unique twist, like the strawberry and Nutella crepes, lemon ricotta hotcakes and omelettes and scramblers that feature salm-on and crab.

The cafe also offers a sim-pler menu including toast, egg sandwiches and bagles for the faint of heart. There is also accompanying lunch menu for the brunch crowd, including sandwiches and vegetarian options.

The creative twists on classic breakfast food definite-

ly made me want to visit the Nucleus over and over again. It has become the go-to spot to take friends and family from out of town.

If you’re thinking about trying the Nucleus out, I’d suggest going in the morning because their breakfast menu is really the star of the show. I’m sure lunch is just as good but you get more options for breakfast. Racy’s coffee shop offers creative drink specials too, so don’t forget to check out their menu.

Also, be aware that the full-service restaurant is not open Mondays or Tuesdays.. The restaurant is only open until 2 p.m. so there is no din-ner menu.

Despite the somewhat odd hours and despite that fact we’re denied delicious food on Mondays and Tuesdays, I am going to keep trying new dishes Sunday morning after church.

CURRENTS11CURRENTS EDITOR: Zack Katz Thursday, April 10

Three months ago Shawn Alt dis-covered a district — a place where people of like mind can meet up and socialize. He first heard of the place from a friend and after his first visit, he was hooked.

“I use to play down at the Foun-tain of Youth,” Alt said. “I decided to come and check it out one day and just kept coming back.”

Alt heard about The District Company, located at 224 north Dew-ey street, in January and has been coming to the shop every other day since.

Alt said he likes The District Company because of the relaxing vibes. He spends much of his time playing Magic the Gathering, League of Legends and occasionally a few board games including Cards Against Humanity.

The District is an all-ages gam-ing venue on the rise. Currently, it has almost 1,800 likes on Facebook which has grown significantly in the last few months. The most popular event has been game tournaments, which garner a lot of attention in the local gaming community.

The most prominent event since their opening has been a League of Legends tournament held March 3. The District expected 8 to 12 teams; instead, 19 teams showed up with a total of 100 attendees. Each team had five members and tournament play went on for 24 hours non-stop. During that time, the District broad-casted the event on twitch.TV, an online live streaming service and got over 3,000 people watching the stream worldwide.

Aron Frey, an employee at the District Company said while League of Legends is a popular electronic sport and has teams all across Wis-consin, Eau Claire is an oddball in the scene.

“We did a report on this, and Eau Claire is out of the norm in Wiscon-sin. Eau Claire is one of the few cities that does not have a League team,” Frey said.

The District has also hosts fight-ing game tournaments — one of their largest was a Nintendo Super Smash Brothers tournament.

“We had 70 to 80 people show up. They came from Fargo, North Dako-ta; Chicago, Ill.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Appleton, Lacrosse and Madison,” District Company owner Tim Sexton

said. “We had a good representation of the Midwest.”

Beyond just hosting game tour-naments, the District Company has also hosted charity events.

“The one thing that catches peo-ple really well on charity events is we donate a large amount of the profit of the tournament to charity. In the past we have run tournaments and it is really good for growing the commu-nity,” Frey said.

“As a sociologist, I think there is no substitute for face to face in-teraction especially for the gaming community where the games require

people to be physically present,” As-sistant Professor of Sociology and Communication Peter Hart-Brinson said. “Collective identities are built on shared interests, shared location and mutual interaction over time. Having a physical place where dif-ferent people can come together to express their common identity is critical to people’s social health and happiness.”

The Company holds events daily, and keeps their Facebook followers updated on the venue’s happenings. The District holds two to four events a week for Magic the Gathering, Mon-

day and Tuesdays are retro console game night, Thursday afternoons and Sunday nights are Yu-Gi-Oh, Friday nights are fighting games and Pokemon is every Sunday afternoon.

The District plans to open a second building on Barstow Street around June or August. Alt said he is psyched about the District expand-ing.

“It shows that the District Com-pany is getting bigger and popular,” he said. “People actually want them to expand to other places.”

Matt RothschildFREELANCER

A new way to play the gameDowntown Eau Claire is home to The District Company, an all ages gaming venue rapidly gaining popularity

CURRENTS12CURRENTS EDITOR: Zack Katz Thursday, April 10

It is Eau Claire’s built-in tour guide. It’s always there, even on the coldest winter morning, for anyone wishing to enjoy it. It gives the har-diest of travelers an opportunity to explore dozens of miles of western Wisconsin.

It, of course, is the Chippewa River State Trail.

The trail offers an avenue for safe and fun recreation throughout the city and beyond. The trailhead is in Phoenix Park, next to the con-fluence of the Eau Claire and Chip-pewa rivers, and it continues into Durand.

It also connects to other trails, and once construction work attaches it to the Old Abe trail to the north, the entire Chippewa River Trail sys-tem will stretch 70 miles.

Senior Alana Jenkins said the biggest benefits of the trail are the safety and access to areas in the city it provides.

“You don’t have to combat vehi-cles,” she said.

In TownThe section winding through

Eau Claire highlights some of the best parts of the city.

The already mentioned Phoenix Park is an excellent place to stop and admire the converging rivers. It’s also near the local shops to the north and south of the Eau Claire River. It also serves as a staging location for floaters in the summer months.

The section of trail heading east takes travelers along Banbury

Place. This ex-factory now provides apartment and business space and hosts events like the Banbury Art Crawl in February.

To the west, the trail leads jour-neyers across the bridge at Phoenix Park. This spot offers a great view the river and parts of downtown during sunset. Immediately after the bridge the trail splits two ways.

If you continue straight you en-ter the Lakeshore Trail, which is technically separate from the Chip-pewa River State Trail. This trail is roughly a two-mile stretch that takes recreators along Oxbow Pond and into Carson Park. The trail of-fers easy access to the baseball sta-dium, Paul Bunyan Logging Camp museum and plenty of spots along the lake to fish.

If you instead turn left at the bridge, the trail continues along the Chippewa River and takes you through Owen Park (a nice spot to play tennis) and eventually turns west, running parallel to Water Street.

Beyond Eau ClaireThe Lakeshore Trail reconnects

with the Chippewa River State Trail at another bridge that crosses the Chippewa River. From here, the trail takes you to a world beyond the city limits.

Eau Claire community member Jeremy Gragert said the scenery dramatically changes outside the city limits.

He takes the trail to Durand and sometimes Menomonie, and camps in Durand for overnight bike trips, a town he considers a perfect location for doing so.

“Durand is kind of a hidden place for most people,” he said. The campground is only about $5 a night and there is also a swimming pool to cool off in, he added.

“(Durand) is a nice reward for people on the trail.”

Along the trail is plenty of his-tory as well. Gragert said. The trail runs along Porterville, an old

logging town, and Caryville, which features a run-down gas station straight out of the 1940s or ‘50s.

The trail also runs along Tyrone, the site of a proposed nuclear pow-er plant in the 1970s. Eau Claire students and others protested its construction, and it (obviously) was never built.

Bikers looking to trek outside of Eau Claire need to purchase a trail pass. This is enforced once you trav-el past the city limits. Gragert said people can buy passes at the bike shops on Water Street.

Whether you choose the trail for your daily commute to class, a dependable running route or the source of a day-long bike trip, it pro-vides easy access to both places of interest and the best views of Eau Claire.

Alex Zank OP/ED EDITOR

Chippewa State Trail

Zank can be reached at zankam@uwec.edu or @AlexZank.

Next meeting: 6:45 p.m. April 22 in Hibbard 211

Members of the Toms Club are a part of the wide group of students who trek across campus wearing the popular Toms shoes. But this stu-dent organization supports more than a fashion trend.

Ian Behlke, the club’s president, said the group exists on campus to promote the Toms mission.

Toms’ one-for-one mantra means for each pair of shoes a person buys, the company gives a pair to a child in need. Toms has also expanded to offer eyewear to give people the gift of sight through glasses, eye surgeries and medical treatments. They recently announced their new line of coffee, which provides 140 liters of clean water to those in need for every bag of coffee pur-chased.

The Toms Club is different from other stu-dent organizations on campus because it seeks

to make a difference beyond the Eau Claire com-munity, Behlke said.

“If we can spread awareness so more peo-ple know what Toms is, then they can give back worldwide,” he said.

With this goal in mind, Behlke helped co-found the club three years ago after one of his peers talked about Toms in his speech class.

He said he was interested to learn more about the company, and later decided he was passionate enough to start a group on campus to support it.

Since then, the group has continued to meet every other week to plan events and socialize. Behlke said the current crowd is small, with six or seven people attending the meetings, but he hopes more will join in the future.

“It would be nice if we could get a larger group of people who wear Toms to come to meet-ings and help us spread the word,” Behlke said. “Because obviously you’ve supported it if you wear them.”

Behlke said an upcoming event will help pro-mote Toms club. The Day Without Shoes event will take place April 29, and this year the weath-er might be a little warmer for the barefooted

bunch. The event spreads awareness about people who walk without shoes every day and the problems associated with it, he said.

Another event the group promotes is Style Your Sole, a fall that gives people the chance to buy a pair of Toms and decorate them.

These events are opportu-nities for students to gather

and promote the Toms cause, Behlke said. Behlke also said students can benefit from

participating in the group.“They can gain the ability to learn about

Toms and feel like they’re supporting something bigger and having fun,” he said.

Students can also bond with members who share the same interest, Behlke said.

However, not everyone supports Toms. Controversy arises from the fact that Toms is a for-profit business, not a non-profit.

Behlke’s response to the debate is Toms’ business model helps the company to expand and continue to progress.

While the future of the Toms Club is un-certain because of a turnover on the executive board, Behlke said students who get involved can not only become members, but they can also become leaders in upcoming semesters.

Rachel StreichSTAFF WRITER

Group aims to raise awareness on issues of poverty, shed light on charity footwear lineStudent organization showcase: Toms Club

Streich can be reached at streicrn@uwec.edu or @RachelStreich17.

BEHLKE

GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER/ The Spectator

OPINION / EDITORIAL13OP/ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, April 10

SUBMITTEDCLEARING THE AIR: CVS’s recent decision to stop the sales of cigarettes in its stores has spurred a national conversation about health and wellness, and whether similar shops should follow suit.

For years and years in society, smoking was a hob-by of sorts. During lunch break, between classes, or even with a morning coffee, the average American would enjoy a cigarette.

Now fast forward to 2014. Smoking bans are popping up in cities left and right and smoking is no lon-ger a norm, but rather a nui-sance to most. People now know the effects of a ciga-rette and have responded by breaking the habit.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times,

in 1965 nearly 42 percent of all American adults smoked. Now after years of learning what that cigarette can do to you, only 19 percent of all U.S. adults smoke.

In response to the drop in tobacco sale profits and the changing image of smok-ers in society, CVS phar-macies decided to remove themselves from the tobacco game and stop selling ciga-rettes in February.

After CVS did this, 28 attorneys from 24 different states began pushing five re-tailers, including Walgreens and Wal-Mart, to follow the move by CVS and end sales of tobacco.

Now I know there are those thinking, ‘Why would these multi-million dollar companies do something like this?’ It is because this is the correct decision to make.

With companies highly involved in the pharma-ceutical field, community healthcare and wellness means a lot to their reputa-tion. Selling tobacco prod-ucts in the first place makes no sense for them other than the fact that over the years tobacco sales have brought

in steady profits.As an adult that has

never smoked a cigarette in his life, and coming from a family with little history of smokers, I like where this is going.

Tobacco sold at a store whose main purpose is to keep the community healthy makes little sense. If these shops stop selling cigarettes a long list of other retailers could possibly follow.

Public health advocates are hoping the reduction of the number of stores where tobacco products are sold and advertised will help push smoking rates down even further, and I believe these hopes will come true once stores begin to follow the route of CVS.

Sorry to say it smokers,

but I think society may be pushing you out the back door to forget about the past. A past that many would like to forget about I’m sure, af-ter nearly 480,000 people are killed every year due to tobacco-related disease.

The dangers of smoking are things I grew up learn-ing and are still taught to children and teens. Whether the dangers are learned in school, online, or by a par-ent, people are catching on.

CVS has become a ma-jor company in the United States over the last few years and has brought a great knowledge of pharma-ceuticals and healthcare to communities. The compa-ny quickly learned selling a product dangerous to the customer made no sense, and maybe other compa-nies such as Wal-Mart and Walgreens will jump on the bandwagon and run with it.

CVS kicking the habit of cig salesOther retailers should follow their lead and stop selling tobacco products

Tetzlaff is a sophomore journalism major and staff writer for The Spectator. He can be reached at tetzlata@uwec.edu or @ttetz5.

Trent Tetzlaff STAFF WRITER

In third grade, my teacher nick-named me Teacher Tremmel. In Girl Scouts I was taught I could be a leader. I am what some people call bossy. I just think I have leadership abilities.

“Ban Bossy” is a public service campaign to encourage leadership and achievement in girls. The Girl Scouts and Sheryl Sandberg, the author of “Lean In,” are collaborating to eliminate “bossy,” arguing the negative put-down makes girls shy away from leadership roles.

“When it comes to girls and am-bition, the pattern is clear: girls are discouraged from leading,” according to the handout with leadership tips for Girl Scout troop leaders. “When a little boy asserts himself, he’s called a ‘leader.’ Yet when a little girl does the same, she risks being branded ‘bossy’ — a precur-sor to words like ‘aggressive,’ ‘angry,’ and ‘too ambitious’ that plague strong female leaders.”

Many in society are concerned with teaching young girls they should be liked while neglecting to teach them that they are entitled to their own opinion and a voice to express their desires.

“I was called bossy when I was in ninth grade,” Sandberg said in an in-terview on Good Morning America. “My teacher took my best friend Min-dy aside and she said, ‘You shouldn't

be friends with Sheryl. She's bossy.’ And that hurt.”

Sure, I wasn’t the most popular kid growing up. I wasn’t afraid to ask for what I needed and request from others what I would expect from myself. Being called bossy at a young age didn’t con-vince me to give up on being a leader. But strong will doesn’t work for every-one.

In a 2008 study, the Girl Scout Research Institute found more than a third of all girls report having been dis-couraged or put down, usually by peers, when they were trying to lead.

We need to teach young girls to take on leadership roles. Positive female role models, such as Jennifer Garner, ex-Sec-retary of State Condoleezza Rice and Jane Lynch have helped the “Ban Bossy” campaign gain popularity.

Empowerment of young girls in leadership roles starts when people change the language they use to describe girls and women. The campaign can help people realize that words have the power to change the direction of a person’s life, both positively and negatively.

The girl who is encouraged to raise her hand and speak up in the classroom is the woman who is able to stand up for herself in the workplace.

Jessie Tremmel STAFF WRITER

Tremmel is a senior journalism and women’s studies double major and staff writer for The Spectator. She can be reached at tremmejr@uwec.edu or @jessietremmel.

The other ‘B-word’We should support, not slander

leadership skills in women

Cover what countsNews outlets shouldn’t just focus on stories that

will sell a productNick Erickson MANAGING EDITOR

Let me start this by saying I am a media man through and through. As a young journalist, I think people who deliver breaking news are nothing but vital in society.

But as a media man, it pains me to see the struggles publications and stations everywhere have to balance de-livering news of all kind with delivering news that will gain readership, viewer-ship or website hits.

It’s undoubtedly a challenging time for every journalist at every level, as a change in media culture has led to news outlets scrambling to stay afloat finan-cially.

But the direction a few prominent media corporations are going with news coverage, more of a Buzzfeed type of approach to things, is not the long term solution to gaining readers and remain-ing credible.

Recently, the tragic and mysterious disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370 caused me to reevaluate the priorities a lot of supposed top-notch organizations have and what kind of a journalist I wish to be.

And let me say this, I am absolutely not knocking down the severity of Flight 370 and how sad it is for the members of the families. It is also a huge deal to find out exactly what happened to the plane since there are still questions of wheth-er or not this was simply an accident or plotted out by a group of people.

However, every 30 minutes it seems, I feel a little buzz in my pocket with a notification from my CNN app that they possibly found something in the Indian Ocean, and then they didn’t, and then a certain group of supposed experts from the United Kingdom con-firmed it went down in the ocean and on and on and on.

>> MEDIA HYPE page 15

“Whether the dan-gers are learned in school, online, or

by a parent, people are catching on”

OPINION / EDITORIAL14OP/ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, April 10

Brendan Eich held a very short-lived tenure as CEO of Mozilla before stepping down. After his appointment a few weeks ago as chief executive of the company that runs Firefox, a popular internet browser, employees began criticizing the choice.

The new CEO was catching fire for making a $1,000 contribution in 2008 to support a ban on gay marriage in Califor-nia. Eich’s critics argued this was not in line with the company’s values.

Eich said in an interview on April 1 he was capable of separating his personal beliefs from work, according to an New York Times story.

The same New York Times story reported Mitchell Baker, the executive chairwoman of Mozilla, claimed the com-pany did not act quick enough respond-ing to criticism. She also said Mozilla is a company that promotes openness and equality, while not directly saying Eich’s views did not reflect those of the compa-ny.

Even if Eich’s beliefs were the direct opposite of the company’s, it is unfair he had to step down as a result. Just as it is unfair to fire a teacher because they mar-ried someone of the same sex — the edito-rial board covered this very topic earlier in the semester — someone’s views on gay marriage should not be a determin-ing factor in their resignation as CEO.

Eich even stated he was able to keep his personal life out of his profession-al one, and his views would not change the way he handled his job. If this is the case, this amounts to firing someone just because their political beliefs don’t match others that are in charge. This does not sound very just.

Companies do have the right to take a stand on an issue like gay marriage. If this is the case and the CEO’s opinions differ that of the organization’s, then it is in good taste they don’t share these views in public. In this case, however, Eich made this donation years ago, well before being appointed to chief executive.

Forcing a resignation would be more justifiable if Eich had proven incapable of separating his beliefs from the business, but he did not get much of a chance to demonstrate this capability. Therefore, there was no solid justification of his resignation.

The editorial board was unanimous in thinking Mozilla’s board of directors should not have asked him to step down.

Editorials in The Spectator reflect the majority opinion of the editorial board and are written by the Op/Ed Editor. The editorial board is generally com-prised of the Editor in Chief, Manag-ing Editor, Currents Editor, Photo Ed-itor, News Editors and Sports Editor but may include other members of the editorial staff.

OPINION / EDITORIAL15OP / ED EDITOR: Alex Zank Thursday, April 10

And then after I get a notification essentially about how no progress has been made in finding Flight 370, I get another about how Oscar Pistorius sobbed so hard the court had to ad-journ for the day.

These two stories are human in-terest stories. I get that. A missing air-craft with possible links to terrorism and a high-profile athlete on the verge of going to jail make readers pick up papers and viewers tune in.

But look at everything that’s flown under the radar in the midst of these stories. For example, a huge pile up after a landslide in the state of Wash-ington killed 33 people as of Monday, according to the New York Times.

Or how about the Supreme Court decision last week removing limits on campaign finance laws, essentially al-lowing individuals or organizations to donate to as many political candidates as they want.

Now these are the things people need to know. Monetary donations to help those in Washington would I’m sure be greatly appreciated. Spark-ing conversation and debate about the campaign-finance law would only

strengthen the way political funding is dealt with.

But fewer people in the general public are aware of these events, and in my opinion, it’s really not entirely apathy that’s the problem. Major news outlets aren’t doing a good enough job getting these stories to the masses.

You see celebrity gossip and hu-man interest stories rock the tabloid racks at grocery stores. That’s what people see, and it’s time for media to at least look for an alternative way to generate traffic and money.

If society is going to move forward, it has to be informed on all of the hap-penings in the world, not just a few items that peak interests more than others.

As someone entering the industry, I challenge my fellow young journalists to take a chance, change the culture and re-emphasize the extreme impor-tance of our profession.

Erickson is a junior journalism major and Managing Editor of The Specta-tor. He can be reached at ericksna@uwec.edu or @NickErickson8.

MEDIA HYPE/ News orgs should report real news

Sundress is not a season. Catcall is not a season. Yelling out a car window to a woman that she has nice legs is not a compliment. And street harassment is not something to take lightly.

Everyday around the world women deal with disrespectful treatment from men based on appearance and dress. The term ‘sundress season’ is based on a woman’s decision to simply embrace the warmer spring weather.

Street harassment is an action or comment between strangers that is unwanted, unsolicited, disrespectful or harassing and is motivated (mostly) by gender. I say mostly because cases of street harassment typically are men ob-jectifying women. For example, many of my male friends will say ‘sundress sea-son’ right in front of me without thinking of the insult it has on my gender.

Chris Jorgenson, director of the Women’s and LGBTQ Resource Center at UW-Eau Claire, told me more empha-sis needs to be put on the people giving the street harassment, not the harassee, because there isn’t an effective way to stop harassment once it has started.

Jorgenson said repeating the mes-sage that street harassment is not wel-come and catcalls are not compliments can not be repeated enough.

“It’s unwanted solicitation,” Jorgen-son said. “It’s not sought after. To the person on the receiving end of the street

harassment they have no idea what it might lead to.”

And that is a very important issue to touch on. I hope I am correct in stat-ing that the average Eau Claire man does not intend harm when shouting out their car on Water Street, but the wom-an doesn’t know that. She might feel in-credibly threatened or deeply offended. Do you want to be the person making her feel that way?

I know many people will groan and roll their eyes because ‘it doesn’t matter,’ ‘it’s just a saying,’ and ‘no one actually means it,’ but it is serious. It is offensive, and it is not a compliment.

This topic relates to the shift in how sexual assault is now discussed. Now educating the potential assaulters has become the next step to combat the is-sue. You don’t ask young women to stop consuming alcohol or wear more conser-vative clothing because those actions do not mean she is not ‘asking for it.’

It’s the same with street harass-ment. If I am wearing a skirt to class it is because I want to and it doesn’t give anyone permission to whistle at me.

The public sphere is where much of the harassment occurs. In public spaces, it is important for everyone to feel safe and comfortable. Not only is it unfair for people to be put in a position where they feel unsafe, but it is embarrassing.

Martha LandryEDITOR IN CHIEF

Street harassment seasonUnwanted, disrespectful comments do not equate compliments

I am writing in response to an editorial in last week’s Spectator regarding the Student Senate’s in-volvement in the Confluence Project. Any student concern regarding the conduct of our student government is very important to me, and I am grate-ful for the opportunity to respond.

Each semester Student Senate passes a Legislative Priorities Sum-mary which outlines Student Senate’s stance on a number of nonpartisan projects, bills, and initiatives that have an impact on UWEC students. For the past two years, Student Sen-ate has unanimously supported the Confluence Project with the passage of four separate pieces of legislation (Resolutions 56-R-14, 56-R-17, 57-R-18, and 57-R-30).

Student Senate is registered with the state as the official recognized lobbying entity of the student body of UWEC. When we vote to support ini-tiatives, we take that message to the regents, the capitol, and City Coun-cil when applicable. The Confluence Project presented us with a tremen-dous opportunity to have the outcome of two referendums in the hands of the voters, and in turn, the UWEC students.

With the decision firmly in the hands of voters, we found it necessary to educate the students about the Confluence Project, and why (after thorough deliberation), we believe it is of significant benefit to the student experience at UWEC. While we took a “Pro-Confluence” stance during the election season, we made countless efforts to ensure that all information we were distributing was informative and factual.

Our education campaign began far before we had any idea that the project would be put up to referen-dum this past fall. Through tabling, graphics, social media, listening sessions, voter registration rallies, public hearings, classroom visits, and office hours, Student Senate has offered multiple opportunities for students to become knowledgeable of the project. As a registered lobbying organization we took a stance on the project, but we registered and pro-moted the election to all students, not just those who supported the project. At no point was any student’s ability to rationally consider and research the project taken away by the posi-tion we took.

Additionally, Student Senate

hosted a lunch presentation by the “Anti-Confluence” group, Voters with Facts, that was open and promot-ed to the entire campus. While we disagreed with the stance that this group took, we felt it was important to make sure that students had an opportunity to hear both sides of this issue.

The Confluence Project is a prag-matic, nonpartisan opportunity that provides a solution to many upcoming challenges facing both the University and community, including housing shortages and the need for upgrad-ed performing arts facilities for both the campus and community. I am incredibly proud of all the work that our Student Senate put in to inform students on this issue and also the record number of students who came out to vote.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Student Senate about our in-volvement with the Confluence Proj-ect in the future, we look forward to taking our message to the greater Wisconsin community and continue to move this project forward.

— Bryan Larson, Student Body President

Read the full story on spectatornews.com

After taking a creative writing class and not doing well, some college students might get discouraged. For one student, that led him to the career path he wanted to pursue.

Josh Close, a senior and former elementary education major, switched to a creative writing major after he took a class and realized writing was for him, even though that class was not.

“I was writing for children in a creative writing class for adults, and it still made me decide that I had this love for writing, and it’s kind of just grown from there,” Close said.

Close is currently in the final round of #MMPoetry, or March Madness Poetry, which is a children’s poetry contest hosted by think-kidthink.com that follows the same framework as the NCAA March Madness tournament.

For every round, each “authlete” is given a different word that they have 36 hours to in-corporate into a children’s poem and submit, which then goes to a vote between him or her and the competitor. The winner of that round moves on.

The national competition, which started with 64 poets, is now down to the final two, with one of them being Close.

Close said he heard about the competi-tion last year when an author he followed on Facebook posted something about it, and he decided to enter. He participated last year, and even though he only made it past the first few rounds, he said it was enough to persuade him to come back.

“(The director) reveals the bracket on a cer-tain date, and I just remember watching it and just seeing if my name would pop up,” he said. “I guess I wasn’t as nervous for it this year be-cause I figured I’d have a decent chance of get-ting in based on last year.”

Not that it gives him any better of a chance. As far as competition goes, Close said he is one of the youngest, least-known poets competing.

“Honestly I look at my competitors for fu-ture rounds, and I just write the poem, and I didn’t necessarily think I’d get this far,” he said.

Yet here he is, one of two remaining poets fighting for that winning title.

This year, instead of just doing a public vote in which anyone who has the link can

vote, Close said two additional voting cate-gories were added, the authlete and classroom votes.

The authlete vote is where all of the oth-er competing poets can cast their vote, and the classroom vote is a section that has been opened specifically to students around the na-tion.

Each registered teacher can take a class vote, log in on the web-site and cast one vote per class.

Because his competitor, Samuel Kent, is a published writer and illustrator from Alabama, Close said the vote he is most worried about is the public vote because he knows Kent has a larger network of people who know who he is.

Despite this, Close said because they add-ed the other two categories, he still believes he has a chance to win.

“I could lose the public vote 800 to 200 in this final round, but if I win the other two cate-gories I’ll win anyways so that’s what I’m hop-ing for,” he said.

Rob Reid, a professor in the education stud-ies department at UW-Eau Claire, had Close in his Children’s Literature and Literature for Adolescence classes and said he has seen a great deal of his writing and thinks Close’s strongest poetry is his light, humorous verse.

“I’ve seen his progress over the last three years, and he is getting much smarter with his word choice and his rhyme and rhythm, as evidenced by his participation in this Think-KidThink program,” Reid said.

While Reid said the program is not well-known in the area, it is still impressive in the poetry and writing community to see someone he knows not only get accepted into the compe-tition but continue to win.

He said while he was initially surprised Close made it this far in the competition, after thinking about his talent and skill, it wasn’t as much of a shock.

“This is really what he wants to do, and he’s become more skilled at so I’m happy that he has made it this far,” Reid said. “So when I think about his determination I could say, ‘well then it makes sense that he’s gone this far.’”

Deedee Close, Josh’s mother, said she was a little concerned when he told her he was tak-ing on this competition because she knew, be-tween an internship and 18 credits, this was a busy semester for him.

Now that she has seen his progress, she said she is glad he did it.

“It’s a gift. I don’t know how he does it,” she said. “He gets this word, and the poem is there, you know, in a few hours.”

After graduation, Josh Close said he hopes to continue using this gift by taking a few years off, maybe being a substitute teacher and con-centrating on getting his work out there.

Even if he doesn’t win, he said The March

Madness children’s poetry contest is a good place for him to start, and he said he is hoping that making it this far will catch a publisher’s eye.

“I think I’ll apply for it every year as long as I don’t get … well I guess I can’t get much busier than this semester,” he said. “I think I’ll keep doing it.”

In the future, Josh Close said his minor in library science could help him land a job own-ing a small-town library, but ideally he has much bigger hopes than that.

“To be a published author, and make a ca-reer off that, that would be great, but it’s kind of a risky deal,” he said.

Josh Close said if he wins this competition he will get a trophy with his name on it, which he can keep for the next year and hopefully will gain some more popularity with his writing.

Voting for the final round will close Thurs-day evening, and he will find out sometime af-ter that if he will bring home the trophy.

STUDENT LIFE16STUDENT LIFE EDITOR: Katy Macek Thursday, April 10

Katy Macek COPY EDITOR

Macek can be reached at macekkn@uwec.edu or @KatherineMacek.

KATY MACEK / The Spectator MARCH MADNESS: Senior Josh Close is in the final round of the 2014 March Madness children’s poetry contest, hosted by thinkkidthink.com. Voting ends Thursday evening.

CLOSE

UW-Eau Claire poetry student makes a different “Final Four”GRAPHIC BY KARL ENGHOFER/ The Spectator

“ I just write the poem ... I didn’t necessarily think I’d get this far.”

JOSH CLOSESenior