Having an accent can result in unintended consequences in a person’s life. Is there anything wrong with having an accent? Is it fair for people to pose popular socially constructed stereotypes based on accents? Hang on with me as I explore this mind boggling topic. There are all kinds of assumptions that are attached to…
SGA plans new journal, other initiatives
Three new Student Government Association projects are scheduled to hit campus this month. These include a new campus publication, a new award and a campaign to save energy. The largest of these projects is the plan for a new campus publication. Vice President Greg Clark has been leading the planning for the publication called Eighth…
E-books: A threat to democracy?
When Amazon originally released the Kindle in 2007, its appearance (and price) was much different than today’s model. It was clunky. The first Kindle looked and operated more like a fun prototype, and less like a serious reading device. Over the past few years, however, the device (and its competitors, like the Nook from Barnes…
Dealing with change
This past week I was working on a group project for one of my classes that entailed making a group video. No, it didn’t require an Oscar-winning performance from me; instead, the assignment required we find clips and assemble them together. The project seemed simple enough. Our group did an excellent job working hard to…
Local Starbucks serves caffeine and charisma
Nate Tower, store manager of the Starbucks on Eighth Street, was fired from his first job as a barista. At 17, his parents forced him into a part-time job at Great Plains Coffee and Roasting Company in Sioux Falls. It wasn’t his ideal work situation, and it showed, so his boss – and good family…
The importance of the public intellectual
Not too many people knew about global warming before Former Vice President Al Gore premiered “An Inconvenient Truth.” Climate change research was something that was reserved for elites in the sciences and environmental fields. Gore successfully used the platform of being a well-known political figure to convey scientific findings to a mass audience. Rather than…
Black reigns supreme
The atmosphere was electrifying, the energy palpable, as Kendal Black of the Office of Student Success and Retention Services stood facing her opponent, President William Craft, at the fourth annual Rock Paper Scissors Tournament on Jan. 23 in the Centrum. The two figures loomed large, center stage, a bright light casting their shadows on the…
Music department faces high faculty turnover
Professor Scott Jones announced his resignation on Jan. 18, ending seven years of teaching, conducting and leading hundreds of Concordia students. His resignation adds to the significant transition within the music department alongside the retirements of June Rauschabel, Peter Nygaard and Michael Smith. “This is absolutely normal in any department,” said Robert Chabora, who is…
Our commander in chief
While many Americans watched last week’s State of the Union address, its possible President Obama’s mind was somewhere else. Specifically, halfway across the globe in Somalia, where concurrent to his speech, a hostage rescue mission was carried out by Navy SEALs. The raid, which brought an American and Danish citizen to safety, is yet another…
Hair today, gone tomorrow
I am a scissorholic. I am a curling iron user, a flat iron lover, a hairspray buyer and a pomade/mousse/wax aficionado. I have had every hair cut imaginable. I remember every single one, and here I am to tell you about it and the loveliness that is my ginger mane cropped cut. From bobs to…