Public Panel to Discuss Devils Lake Outlet Plans

By Steven Petherbridge

With all of the complex issues, opposing arguments, and multiple levels of bureaucracy involved in the Devils Lake excess water issue, it can sometimes be difficult for citizens to stay afloat, much less to be involved in, or even aware of the latest developments and how they may affect them.

For this reason, the What in the World Is Going On? community – campus organization is sponsoring a panel discussion titled Bridges over Troubled Water? to be held on Tuesday, November 30^th at 7pm in Vangstad Auditorium on the Valley City State University campus. Representatives from agencies involved in the issue will be discussing the Devils Lake outlet plans and their effect on the Sheyenne River.

 “I think people have a lot of questions, “said VCSU professor Dr. Julee Russell who is a part of the WITW group. “Water quality is an issue for everyone and it needs to be discussed in a more public way. This kind of an activity gives people a chance to come in and say, ‘hey, this is what I want to know about this,’ and hopefully someone on the panel will be able to address that concern.”

 Invited panelists include ND State Engineer Todd Sando, Valley City Mayor Bob Werkhoven, Bill Csajko and Ferris Chamberlin from the Army Corps of Engineers, and VCSU Biologist Dr. Andre DeLorme. Panelists will discuss the different aspects of the issue as well as the latest information and planning details and how they may affect Valley City and its surrounding areas. Following panelists’ remarks audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions.

” I still see issues I don’t always understand,” said VCSU professor Dr. Kay Kringlie who is also a member of the WITW organization, “so I’m looking forward to this personally as well as for the WITW group.”

Pertinent issues to be addressed include: What plans the State Water Commission has for releasing additional water into the Sheyenne River and what these plans might mean to Valley City and its surrounding areas. How sulfate standards will be maintained or changed. And, how water added to the Sheyenne River will affect potential spring flooding, the flood plain, and the cost of flood insurance.

“We are hoping people can come away from this with an increased awareness and a sense of having a say, of participating and being heard,” added Russell. “Its easy to say,’ I don’t like what is going on,’ but it’s another thing to be able to voice your opinions, ideas, or questions in a place where maybe you can get some answers.”

 The What in the World Is Going On? community-campus organization has sponsored events regarding current social and cultural issues since 2001.

Hunting Season Encounter





Piles of gear ready for the morning hunt

The time of year has come, when you start to see blaze orange everywhere! You may see them on clothes lines or hear of people washing them in “Scent Locker” detergent. The night before, there are piles of gear scattered around the house. Dad has the pile by the door, you get the pile by the stairs, and your brother has the pile down stairs.

 Hopefully, prior to this week you were out in the woods checking your stands making sure they were safe enough for the upcoming excitement.

While out in the woods, did you may have run into other hunters doing the same? Maybe find they were putting a stand within spitball distance of your own, and wonder what they are thinking “Is that your stand” . . .  “Yes” . . .  “Do you use it?” . . . “Yes”.  It is kind of obvious. What do you say to something like that?! 

While out helping fix deer stands and enjoying the warm fall day, Casey Nelson, a frustrated hunter states, “There is nothing we can do about it, because it’s county land.”

 Shane Rasely, also a hunter explains what he would do in a situation similar to that, “you don’t do something like that. I’m hunting public land to and I made sure there isn’t a stand anywhere around me”. It is common courtesy to respect a former hunter’s property.

For the first time in your family’s history, on opening morning, struggling to see in the dark, have you stumbled upon a few other hunters on your way to your stand or find they are sitting in your stand? What is your reaction? What do you do in that situation?

Casey Nelson building a deer stand

In general, a respectful person would do or say the following. If you built the stand, ask them to get down and move, but because it is public land, there is no law that requires them to leave, it would just be the respectful thing to do. Also, avoid getting defensive. They have a gun, and you never know what they are capable of doing in a situation like that. While walking by someone in another stand, try to be quiet, hurry through, and maybe give them a courtesy wave signaling you are sorry to disrupt them. Make sure you have plenty of orange on so they see you and know you are not a target. Whatever you do, do NOT let them know you are making noise and purposely trying to corrupt their hunting because you are mad, even though you really are.

Kim Hanson, an active hunter in Minnesota, sat in her stand in which others had put one next to but didn’t get there till mid-morning, ultimately ruining the hunting for the other people. She walked directly under their stand, waved and climbed into hers. “Within 20 minutes they got down and left” she giggles. “I didn’t mind that I wouldn’t see anything. It was the fact that they realized it was my stand and rude to put theirs so close that made me feel better”.

Trimming a few trees for better visibility

 You may think different, but throughout the last few years, many hunters have noticed hunting ethics is not the same as it used to be. It was not only these few people that had their hunting grounds interrupted by other, less respectful hunters this season, there were many others. If you have a story or comments, please don’t hesitate to add them below.

Pictures taken by Emma Nelson

Drawing Nude Models Not Pleasing Drawing III Students

Written by Derek L. Davis
Read by Kyle Hess

Field Participates in No Shave

Mustaches, beards and goatees! Men from all over the world are participating in an event that is kicking off Thanksgiving month. An event mysterious to wives, girlfriends and women involved. An event that puts shaving creams and razors away for an entire month. No Shave November has people talking. 

The men participating kick off their growth session on November 1^st and don’t stop until the end of November. Plenty of men on the VCSU campus are partaking in the event and are beginning to look grizzly. However, what if a girl were to participate in no-shave November? What kind of looks would she get from the norm? Would she survive?

Amy Field, sophomore at VCSU is relinquishing her feminism for an entire month. Field hasn’t shaved her legs from the beginning of November and plans on seeing it through. She did add that it is just her legs though and everything else is currently kept up. Field doesn’t want people to think that her entire body is covered in hair as that would be gross.

Field said, “It makes me feel a little upset that they just assume that girls wouldn’t participate and it’s a bit sexist.”

Amy & boyfriend Logan. Permission to use from Amy.

The 19 year old has a point. It is uncommon for women to participate in such an event as they are not known for their hair growing abilities. Females are targeted through magazines, commercials and the media to show their feminine side since day one. As they have been learning this at a very young age it can be quite difficult to stray away from the norm. “It’s nice not having to think about shaving, but I get a little self conscious”, said Field. The men in Valley City give Field props for her uniqueness. “My boyfriend is a tish worried about dating a wookie”, said Field. Her boyfriend Logan Becker, pictured with her, admits he admires her courage.

Field is involved with Viking ambassadors, improve club and other extracurricular activities. She shows her Viking colors everywhere she travels and is a proud member of the Valley City Campus. Anyone who knows Amy on campus knows that she is a hoot to be around and is always smiling. She is one of the most remarkable girls on campus and deserves kudos for her always chipper attitude.  

Men and women are not measured by hair in society. Their worth is not determined by how many strands of locks they have streaming from their bodies. However, in November, their hair is everything. Those competing are held accountable for not only the amount of hair, but its grotesque quality. Both genders are taking place in No Shave November this Thanksgiving and it is quite the site to see. Don’t forget to ask Amy to show you her prized legs throughout the month of November.   

Black Ops is it a Friend or a Foe

By Dustin Krueger

Call of Duty 7 Black Ops is the newest game of the century.  It’s the seventh game of its kind, but this one was made by Treyarch. All the games are put in some sort of war period. Black Ops is put in the Cold War era. The areas of battles and fighting are set in many locations including Vietnam and Cuba. Black Ops has many types of games to go with it you can play campaign, live multiplayer or even kill zombies.  The campaign follows a story line and as its being played you become many different leaders throughout the war. But mostly you play as a guy named Mason and who ended up getting brainwashed and ended up killing many different leaders and didn’t even know what was going. Till the end of the game when the Americans are able to make him snap out of it and realize what he had done.  

Picture taken by Dustin Krueger

                During multiplayer you play against many other people throughout the world and try to out kill the other opponents. There are also many other games called wager games, were you put down money that you earn in the game. If you place 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd you get paid and earn more money to keep playing the wager games. Also you can play with your friends online on private matches and play just them or you could even play with your friends and verse other players.  Then finally there is a zombie game. There are three maps made for this type of play you can play with three of your friends or just go in and play with random people that are on. You can have 2 to 4 players and you have to go through the levels and see how many levels you can get through without both of you dying.

                But what could be so bad with playing this game. Well according to Stephani Steffen “the game takes away time from things, guys spend 2 to 3 hours on it and could use that time on more productive things. The guys are on it and don’t even know what is going on around them and don’t care they are so into their game I could be yelling at them and would probably still not even look at me.”  But according to john Lindstrom “if I wasn’t playing Black Ops I would just be watching TV or on my computer.”

What are the effects of the game on school and homework? Depends on who you are talking to, many none gamers say that people are putting off the homework and skipping classes and playing the game. People don’t do what they need to get done its affecting there life’s.  But like John said “he would procrastinate the homework and school by doing other stuff like watching TV.” But like he said why not play video games that I enjoy that are almost real like and have objectives to complete.

Does the game affect schooling and family activities we really don’t know? The game has only been out for two weeks and still is selling off the records. Before the holidays this game could out sell any other games that have taken years to sell that many games. What’s to come next we don’t know and will have to only wait and see.

New Horizons at the Learning Center

By Kayley Erlandson

By Kayley Erlandson

The foundation of education doesn’t change, but the way students learn is always evolving.  The Learning Center at Valley City State University is proof of this as it undergoes many external and internal changes to accommodate to students more efficiently.  

“It’s publicized more, so we have more people than last year,” said Nicole Hedmark, a VCSU student and writing tutor at the center. 

The VCSU Learning Center (originally titled the Writing Center) was founded in 2004 and started 2005 to respond to the needs of students with ACT scores lower than 16. Originally, the center only concentrated on writing skills, but now offers help in mathematics, English Language Learners Support, and to Praxis I students.  The Learning Center has been through four directors in five years.

The current director is Jodi Shorma, Instructor of English/Learning Center Director, the person credited for making big changes in the center. 

“We have had a series of directors whose (sole) job was not to run the learning center,” said Margaret Dahlberg, the Vice President of Academic Affairs, “Joan (Aus, the first director) focused on ELL (English Language Learners); that was her job.  Jodi has been hired to run the Learning Center, which makes a huge difference.”

According to Kyle Vareberg, a writing tutor at the center, “The first thing Shorma did to change service was create a concrete schedule of tutors, one that students can follow and know the hours will be the same week after week.”  Before, the hours of the center changed daily.  With set business hours, Shorma hopes to make the availability of tutors more convenient for students searching for help.

Shorma also implemented student profiles to track which students and what classes were coming to the center.  The Learning Center also started making connections between the Learning Center and athletics when Shorma volunteered the tutors to record the hours for athletic team study tables.

Pictured: Kyle Vareberg signing in athletes on the digital sign-in sheet for athletic study tables

“Students at VCSU need to ‘see’ learning and practice learning as a community or social event to prepare themselves for the world after college,” says Shorma.

“Everyone is going to use writing no matter what they are going to do,” said Hedmark, “if you can’t communicate effectively, you’re going to struggle in any field.”

The number of clients utilizing the Learning Center has doubled since spring of 2010. “There are more people aware that we have tutors,” said Oluwatoyin Oladosu, a tutor for international students, “Students come to students, so the tutors understand what a student is going through.”

The center has also undergone physical changes, transforming from a few old tables in the basement of the Allen Memorial Library to a well-furnished setting, including couches and small tables behind dividers. 

(Pictured: Top (a comfortable study area in the Learning Center) Bottom (Some tables and private divider areas off to the left))

 

The Learning Center is still relatively young in comparison other schools’ tutoring programs, but it seems that it is finally hitting its stride. “There are still some kinks to work out,” said Vareberg, “but the Learning Center has survived and is ready to change even more in the years to come.”

Cattle Rustling Continues