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ON THE CAMPAIGN
TRAIL
Left: Student interns for former Democratic candidate Martin OMalley made calls to New Hampshire voters alongside the Governor. Right: As part of their interim class
in New Hampshire, students attended class at St. Anselm College in Manchester. Pictured from left to right: Eden Faure 17, Rhea Rajan 18, former Maryland Governor
Martin OMalley, Emma Whitford 18, Rose Byrne 18, Lindsay Mattei 18, Lily Ansel 16, Eleanor Anderson 16 and Genevieve Akins 18.
By Aidan Zielski
Contributing Writer
Tribune, writing journals and reading textbooks characterized the academic side.
Why New Hampshire, one might ask?
The state holds an important position in
presidential primary elections because it
holds the first primary of the season and
thus can be a critical make or break moment for a campaign. Victories and losses
coming out of New Hampshire can shape
a campaigns momentum for the remainder
of the primary season.
For a long time, no one became President without first winning the New Hampshire primary, Hofrenning said in a blog
post for the Star Tribune.
Will Seabrook 16 describes New Hampshire voters as indecisive and proud.
They often would boast in your face
that they didnt have to tell me who they
were voting for and proceed to shut the
door in my face, Seabrook said.
He was not alone in that experience.
Rhea Rajan 18 worked long hours for Martin OMalleys campaign, going into the office at 10:30 a.m. every morning and work-
Issues of power, privilege and inequality addressed in new intended learning outcomes
By Amy Mihelich
Managing Editor
We felt we had to be
true to the resolution.
When we think about
power, privilege and
inequality we need to
have a clear sense of
what we are talking
about. We were trying
to create a clear and
common purpose for
MCD courses.
Professor Jon Naito
Professor of Political Science and Asian
Studies Katherine Tegtmeyer Pak explained
that the changes will lead to a more rigorous curriculum.
When we have a program that encourages people to study material in a broad
way, we need to make sure the way we go
about that is still rigorous, she said. We
have to find that sweet spot between appropriately broad and also having intellectual
rigor. This change is a nice move in that
direction.
Naito agrees that the revised curriculum
will encourage new ways of thinking.
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The MCD is taking out a clearer position on our institutional values and is saying that studying cultures beyond the dominant culture is not merely a question of
thinking about these cultural differences in
a vacuum but recognizing these differences
these issues of power, he said.
The changes will take time to implement
and will not retroactively affect GE credit
for current students. Students who have
taken an MCD course need not worry.
I hope students understand that just
because courses bearing the MCD GE as
of Fall of 2016 will have to meet a new set
of requirements, this will not remove any
credit for MCD courses they have already
taken, Parr said. I think if students compare the old Intended Learning Outcomes
with the newer ones, they will find more
detail and conceptual connections in the
revised ILOs.
Sheppard is looking forward to the next
set of challenges.
We now move to the next phase of this
change, which is to provide support for faculty members as they adapt to the revised
MCD requirements materials, workshops, etc., Sheppard said. At this point,
its all about implementation.
The ad hoc committee will now begin
compiling resources to assist faculty in the
reimagining of old classes and the creation
of new ones. Workshops will be available
during the school year and the summer for
faculty to receive support during the curriculum transition process.
Over time, we hope this work alone will
change the conversation around race, ethnicity, sexuality and gender on campus so
that students wont think of these as things
they can study or not study as they choose,
Naito said. Rather, they will be able to
think of them as necessary to study as part
of a larger system as having a relationship
to present day life in the U.S. as well as in
the past.
mihelich@stolaf.edu
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NEWS
Manitou Messenger
students.
This is reality, it happened in the
60s, and, yes, it happened in the 50s
and the 40s, but guess what? Its still
happening now, the pictures may
look a little different, but not very,
Eaton-Neeb said.
The intent of the student vandal
was widely misunderstood.
We are allowed to disagree here,
Eaton-Neeb responded, but being
destructive is not okay.
Ultimately, the response to the incident was positive. Email responses
to the students apology were kind
and understanding.
The student that tore down the
posters, who wishes to remain anonymous, reflected on the difficulties of
being a student of color at St. Olaf.
We arent surrounded by people
like us, the student said. We just
dont get the support we need.
For many students at St. Olaf, ra-
Senator Kevin Dahle spoke to students in the Black Ballroom on Tuesday, Feb. 11 about the future of education in Minnesota and the nation.
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By Danny Vojak
Contributing Writer
Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing Jennifer Kwon-Dobbs is well regarded not only by her students but
also by the literary community at large. Her educational background is a hybrid of literature and Asian American studies
as well as capital adoption history. Kwon Dobbs obtained her
Masters of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the University of
Pittsburgh, she earned her Masters and her Ph.D. in literature
from the University of Southern California.
Kwon-Dobbs is Program Director for the Race and Ethnic
Studies program at St. Olaf. She teaches an Asian American
literature class and an advanced poetry writing class, and she
collaborates with Professor Timothy Howe in teaching a class
titled The Soul of Stuff: Arts, Culture, and Ethics.
Kwon-Dobbs was born in Wonju, South Korea and grew up
in Oklahoma (the state which she claims has the best barbeque
in the world). She currently lives in St. Paul and remains active in the Twin Cities literary scene by holding a position on
the Board of Directors for Coffee House Press.
She has written a plethora of highly regarded anthologies,
essays, individual poems and other works. For example, her
lyrical essay titled Nothing to Declare appeared in Crazyhorse magazine. In addition, she has received the White Pine
Press Poetry Prize and the New England Poetry Clubs Sheila
Motton Book Award for Paper Pavilion. One of her works,
Notes From a Missing Person, can be viewed in its entirety
online.
Kwon-Dobbs is working on a number of projects at the moment. She was recently invited to Vancouver to participate in
the Art Song Lab, a program that pairs poets with composers.
The song resulting from the program will debut at a music festival this summer. She is also working on a poem for a dance
project with Professor Janice Haws Roberts.
One of her largest undertakings is her work on her second
book, Three Legged Bird. The book focuses on different ways
to imagine Korean reunification. While writing the book, she
has drawn upon the history of the Korean diaspora, the Koryo
dynasty, cosmology and the Samjoko (the three legged crow)
for inspiration.
Outside of the classroom, Kwon-Dobbs loves cooking and
considers herself a foodie. When she travels, she inevitably
ends up bringing back suitcases full of food, such as ham and
red pepper.
Kwon-Dobbs loves the learning possibilities that a classroom environment presents. She appreciates that the classroom is one of few places where one can test out new ideas
and concepts creatively and critically. She finds teaching to be
a real gift and an opportunity to explore alongside students.
She explains that she is really happy here at St. Olaf, and she
has found that folks here really care about their work and
that both the students and classes at St. Olaf are so distinctive. Upon returning from speaking at other academic institutions, Kwon-Dobbs always remembers how striking it is
that the students at St. Olaf are unique in their commitment to
learning and seeking to truly understand material.
vojcak1@stolaf.edu