Campus News

In with a bang: Inaugural ceremony mirrors president’s experience and vision
Nobody who attended the inauguration of Metropolitan State University’s sixth president, Dr. Sue K. Hammersmith, on Friday, Oct. 2, can say the affair was dull, staid or lugubrious. While it echoed traditional university ceremonies, there were some refreshing and eye-opening differences—the kind that mirror the differences between Metropolitan State University and every other public university in Minnesota.The ceremony at Founders Hall Auditorium literally began with...

Interview with the president
Dr. Sue K. Hammersmith became president of Metropolitan State University last year and was formally inaugurated in a bright and colorful ceremony on Friday, Oct. 2. A couple of weeks later, President Hammersmith took a few moments to talk about her short- and long-term goals and pressing issues at Metropolitan State University. First of all, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman referred to both you and new Vikings quarterback Brett Favre as being “game-changers from Green Bay.” Humor aside, is the scholarship committee the biggest...

Hispanic Heritage Month highlights Latino issues
Hispanics account for nearly nine percent of Minnesota and 25 percent of the Minnesota minority population. In celebration of these numbers, Metropolitan State University recently invited the Latino community to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by welcoming Latino service providers and professors to address an array of contemporary topics, as well as exhibit Latino art and culture. Metropolitan State co-hosted the third annual summit of the MN Network of Latinos in Higher Education on Friday, Oct. 9, which addressed a broad range of topics affecting Chicanos and Latinos in higher education...

Help observe America Recycles Day
student, there are several ways you can contribute to the preservation and protection of our resources both on-campus and off. With the help of ME3, an ad hoc group of students, faculty and staff working to help Metropolitan State University develop sustainable practices, recycling has never been easier. As Nov. 15 is America Recycles Day, join millions of Americans in improving your recycling habits. Last year, ME3 worked to put new green recycling containers on the St. Paul campus. These containers make recycling painless as they collect plastic, aluminum and paper all in one bin. You don’t have to sort items to be recycled–there’s a company that does it for us! So go ahead, throw any of these...

Camp Darfur visits Metropolitan State
On Oct. 8, 2009, Metropolitan State University hosted Camp Darfur, an interactive awareness and education event that brought attention to the ongoing genocide in Darfur and Sudan. This traveling refugee camp was created by Stop Genocide Now, a group advocating for societies in danger of violence, death and displacement resulting from genocide. Five canvas tents were set up and filled with an abbreviated history of genocide in Armenia, Germany, Cambodia, Rwanda and Darfur. Timelines and testimonies of destruction covered each wall, while photographs and banners brutally illustrated the horrors of genocide...

Metropolitan State observes Banned Book Week
Like many institutions across the country, Metropolitan State University observed Banned Books Week Sept. 26-Oct. 3. The annual event is a way to promote unrestricted access to information and literature, and raise awareness about book banning. The American Library Association’s (ALA) Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) defines a challenged book as one where an active attempt has been made to remove it from an institution, such as a library, school or university. A banned book is one where the challenge attempt was successful. The OIF compiles lists of the most frequently banned and challenged books throughout the country...

Protect yourself from the flu this season
October marked the beginning of flu season, and on June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of H1N1 (swine) flu a global pandemic. Flu season is expected to peak in January and February and last until the end of spring. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), H1N1 is now widespread in 37 states. The new flu strand was first diagnosed in...

Volunteers needed for MLK breakfast
The Center for Community-Based Learning (CCBL), the African-American Student Association (AASA), the African-American Student Support Services and the Equal Opportunity and Diversity Office (EOD) have banded together to co-chair the 2010 Martin Luther King Holiday Breakfast in January in the St. Paul area. The breakfast is part of a larger event held in Minneapolis and sponsored by General Mills since the ‘90s to recognize Dr. King’s life and accomplishments during the Civil Rights Movement.Initially a single event held downtown, the breakfast has expanded to include six satellite locations in the Twin Cities, Duluth and River Falls, Wis. A public-television broadcast will allow attendees at all satellite locations to view the Minneapolis program and keynote speakers...

Contemporary Macbeth previews Nov. 11 at Metropolitan State
Shakespeare’s Macbeth previews Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. on Metropolitan State University’s Minneapolis campus in the Stagedoor Theater in the Whitney Fine Arts Center. The play is an adaptation which “recognizes certain parallels to our contemporary society and its travails,” says director and adaptor, Camille D’Ambrose. “In Macbeth, human beings are capable of anything,” says D’Ambrose. “The man—Macbeth—is a hero, greatly loved by his friends, his wife and his king. But he is, above all, a soldier...

Metropolitan State announces next art exhibit
Metropolitan State University Third Floor Gallery is pleased to present City Behavior by Grace MN. This exhibit features a number of local urban art projects by a collective of artists who call themselves Grace MN and includes Marcus Young of St. Paul, Kathleen Maloney of Minneapolis, Aki Shibata of St. Paul and Travis Spangler of St. Paul, among others. Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk, executed in collaboration with St. Paul Public Works and Public Art St. Paul, features the poetry of 34 St. Paul poets stamped into sidewalks throughout the city. Other projects, such as Wishes for the Sky, Don’t You Feel It Too? and From Here to There and Beyond, will be presented as well...