In This Issue:

Campus Camp Wellstone

For all aspiring politicians out there, or for those who just want to have their voices heard throughout their community, Campus Camp Wellstone is the training program to attend. Dedicated to the late senator Paul Wellstone, Campus Camp Wellstone is a nonpartisan, one and a half day training program that welcomes both veteran and green activist students alike. The heart of the program emphasizes campaign planning, coalition building, message development, triumphant recruiting and retaining and the skills of developing new leadership...

The Zone Program: You can help

With the help of Metropolitan State University students, staff and community volunteers, over 160 neighborhood students per week visit the Zone Homework Center at St. Paul’s Dayton’s Bluff Branch Library. Since opening in May 2004, the library has been providing neighborhood students with homework help, computer and Internet access, and office and art supplies...

CSITS acquires new staff member

The Center for Strategic Information Technology and Security (CSITS) is pleased to announce the addition of Abdulai (Michael) Musa to its staff. Musa comes to the center from the College of Management as a graduate assistant. Musa has a background in accounting and auditing. He is a Chartered Certified Accountant trained in the UK. He is a member of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA/USA). Musa’s primary focus will be the MnSCU Security Assessment Program...

TC3 upcoming events

TC3, Twin Cities, Technical Communication, Technical Community, is holding a Dreamweaver workshop Saturday, Jan. 26 2008 to kick off the spring semester. The workshop will focus on beginning Dreamweaver skills and also spend time on the application of what students will learn. There will be a follow up workshop for those students who choose to apply the information they learned at home on Feb. 23, 2008...

Federal funds approved for many college programs

Federal funds were approved for a veterans re-entry program, nursing education, renewable energy, engineering technology and child protection programs at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities will receive nearly $4 million in federal funds, including $1.1 million for veterans re-entry education, under an appropriations bill signed into law Wednesday by President Bush. The veterans re-entry project will provide specifically designed career and education services to military veterans, National Guard members and reservists, as well as enhancing veterans’ employment success upon returning to their communities...

The message is clear: Find a better way to fund schools

The message to legislators at the State Capitol on Nov. 27 was clear: design a stable funding system for Minnesota schools. Representatives from schools and communities from across Minnesota told a large group of state senators and representatives that continued reliance on operating levies to fund school basics would not provide quality education for students. "This past November, 100 Minnesota school districts - one-third of the state’s total number - asked voters to provide more money for basic education programs," said Senator Ellen Anderson, DFL- St. Paul/Falcon Heights. "Minnesota is known for quality, innovative education programs. We can’t watch this crumble because of an antiquated funding system that doesn’t meet the needs of the 21st century..."

Forward Motion

"It’s an intensely personal experience," Eric tells me over breakfast at Dick’s a few weeks earlier. "Only one percent of the population has done it." He takes a slow sip of his Bloody Mary and bites the celery. "We’re an elite group," he says, smiling with green splinters in his teeth. "If riding in an airplane is flying, then riding in a boat is swimming. If you want to experience the element, then get out of the vehicle." And that’s how I was enticed into jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, 10,000 feet up in the air, moving at 120 mph...

The experience of Nobles eXperiment interMedia Group

As the trite (yet very true) saying goes, "all good things must come to an end," students from Metropolitan State University’s Experimental Music class capped off their 16-week course with a final group effort performance - and a radiant one at that - on Friday, Dec. 7. The Strange Attractors 17 Festival, produced by the program in experimental music and intermedia arts and orchestrated by David Means, the coordinator of the program, featured guest artist, Stephen Goldstein, veteran laptop composer-performer and in addition featured the students of this fall’s Experimental Music class...

Metropolitan State University announces new Textile Art exhibit

Metropolitan State University’s Third Floor Gallery is pleased to present "Tradition and Innovation: Contemporary Textile Art in Kumasi, Ghana." The exhibit opens Thursday, Jan. 24, with a reception from 4 - 7 p.m. The show continues through Friday, Feb. 22. Gallery hours are Monday - Thursday, 11 a.m - 7 p.m. and Friday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. The gallery is located in the Library and Learning Center, 645 East Seventh Street, St. Paul.

St. Cloud twenty-somethings release bizarre sketch comedy show online

St. Cloud State University student Jason Schueppert gathered up a handful of buddies, a few aborted short stories, and a cat-in-a-box last spring and shot the debut episode of "Sparkle Picnic" in one day. The response was better than expected and led to an ongoing series now available online at http://www.sparklepicnic.com. The "Sparkle Picnic" crew sought out the most despicable humor they could find. Mocking the disabled, abusing cats, rural bigotry, drug-dealing racism, and many more are spun into irreverent comedy that’s either too smart to be offensive, or too dumb to be taken seriously...

Technology Bytes : Office 2007 and You

Beginning Spring Semester 2007 (or, by the time you read this) - the computers at Metropolitan State University will have been upgraded to feature Microsoft Office 2007. This is the first major upgrade to Microsoft's premiere office suite in 5 years and Microsoft promises a wealth of new features and an improved user experience...