The play “American Dreaming” is described as a “devised bootstrap play.” This means it was developed through a democratic decision-making process and that it emphasizes collaboration. It is an original production by two minds, Carol Cooley and Jen Tuder. They began production last spring and wanted a topic that would “resonate with the audience.” They thought that the “American Dream” would accomplish this goal.

The production is framed as a sort of television show complete with commercials. It started out with a fake advertisement for “300 minute energy” in a hilarious parody of 5-hour energy commercials. It then transitioned to a show called “Super Hero Academy” in which various pop culture icons such as Captain America and Feminist Hulk answered nonsensical questions about American values. As the contestants were eliminated, they returned in black suits wearing Guy Fawkes masks so they resembled members of the internet protest group Anonymous. They proceeded to form a sort of assembly line where they passed people through while repeating singular lines. This assembly line bit was repeated several times throughout the performance.

Another repeated segment was a reality tv-style bit called “The Family Show” with an apathetic father, a party girl daughter, a homely angsty daughter, and a “cool” mom who parties with her daughter. They act like any other dysfunctional household seen on MTV with cameras rolling and the interview cutaways that are the mainstay of reality television. The show takes a turn for the bizzare when the mother is kidnapped by the show staff and fed a steady diet of Zebra Cakes and Valium in a last-ditch-effort to boost ratings for the show.

One of the other segments was “Let’s Make a Deal: American Dream edition” with 3 college graduates learning about how much their degrees were worth and the futures that awaited them. This segment offered some harsh truths on the economic conditions that await college graduates.

Another repeat show was News Network 5, which offered such news stories as “The Stuffed Animal Killer”, whose murderous exploits caused an increase in sales of stuffed animals. The network lead complained that killers in the news are basically celebrities and that today’s news coverage just gives them free publicity. They then transitioned into the hard- hitting segment “Meme Culture”, featuring an interview with Crabby Cat, in an obvious parody of internet sensation Grumpy Cat.

The fake commercials were present throughout the entire play with ads for “The Spouse Improvement System”,“The Info Downlow, which eliminates the need for memory”, and “The Cyborg Surgery Center”, which was actually a voice-dubbed Droid commercial. These commercials carried a wonderfully sarcastic overtone that poked fun at modern American culture and merchandise.

The directors called the play a “critique of popular culture” and the tone of the play shows it. The whole thing was highly enjoyable so long as you don’t mind a bit of satire about the good ol US of A.

It all started with a conversation.

That conversation resulted in the craft shows taking place in Atwood this spring.

Kelsey Kaeding, senior at SCSU, got started planning her first event the first time she sat down with Brandy Favilla, owner of Brandy’s Boutique.

“We met up here, at Caribou,” Favilla said, “and got her trained in on using the tools to register exhibitors.”

Kaeding, who has two other jobs as well as being a full-time student, said she had no idea who Favilla was when they first got in touch, but said they talked for hours the first time they sat down together.

“I really want to go into event planning. So this is a great first step, first avenue to get into,” Kaeding said. “You only have one chance so you might as well do it all at the same time.”

Kaeding said she never has felt overwhelmed at any point during the process of organizing the craft shows in Atwood this spring. She said she would love to get in to some bigger markets and bigger cities, and maybe eventually taking her talents over seas.

Kaeding handled pretty much all of the planning and logistics of putting the shows together, Favilla said.

One key area of focus when putting the shows together is making sure the environment is conducive to the vendors.

“We provide a low cost option,” Favilla said. “It’s a nice opportunity to get up here and showcase some products.”

Kaeding said the process is multitasking at its finest.

“Less vendors give them more of an opportunity to buy,” she said.

Kaeding also said the experience she has gained by working hands-on with these shows is invaluable.

“I’m a firm believer that real world experience is better than sitting in a classroom and learning about it,” Kaeding said.

Favilla said Kaeding does a great job of going around and talking to the exhibitors, getting to know them and making sure they have everything they need.

The planning is an ongoing process, Kaeding said, adding the second show went much smoother than the first because she knew more what to expect going in to it.

The success of each show is something both Kaeding and Favilla take very personally. They said they are always taking feedback from each of the exhibitors and passing that information along to those who will be at the next show.

At the end of the shows Kaeding walks around and talks to the exhibitors, asks if they enjoyed their experience, and usually offers them a spot in the next show.

Favilla said they always try and make improvements and make the next show better than the last.

“We learn from each one and make the improvements,” she said.

Favilla said she never solicits anyone to come and be in one of her shows. She said a great moment is when someone calls her and says they heard she has a show going on somewhere and asks if they can be a part of it.

With everything going on and everything being learned, there was one important thing specifically Kaeding said she learned from the first show.

“No heels, not at expos,” she said.

Shun Jie Yong

Thumbing through the paper archives of the University Chronicle, it’s clear that a lot has changed since 1988.

Cartoons were edgier, hairstyles were fluffier and Michael Vadnie was the new adviser on the block.

In one of his early columns, Vadnie praised the outoing adviser, J. Brent Norlem.

He went on to talk about the ethics of journalism.

He channeled Tom Sawyer as he writes, “‘I’m afear’d’ I’ve got bad news. I’ve got lots of questions about ethics. Not many answers.

“That’s the damn thing about ethics. People who indignantly bat an eyelid before proclaiming absolute adherence to most ethical principles are unrealistic fools. On the other hand, people who know the precepts of journalistic ethics but are ‘afear’d’ to make a definitive decision are moral and legal loose cannons.”

Anyone who knows Vadnie as a journalist, an editor, a professor, an adviser or in any professional capacity knows he’s all about ethics. As adviser to the campus Society of Professional Journalists chapter, he’s used their Code of Ethics in the regular defense of student journalists.

“Vadnie always has your back, because he always has good journalism’s back, and he’s always ready to teach if you’ve made a journalistic mistake,” said Molly Willms, outgoing editor-in-chief of the Chronicle.

His former students and Chronicle staff say they wouldn’t be where they are if it weren’t for Vadnie.

“I may have gotten into journalism without Mike Vadnie, but I wouldn’t have been as good at it without him,” said Frank Rajkowski, Chronicle alum. “He was a tremendous teacher, a tremendous mentor.”

Rajkowski partially credits Vadnie with his current gig: sports writing for the St. Cloud Times. It was thanks in part to Vadnie that he got a part-time job there, and has since gone full-time.

Joey LeMay feels the same.

“Michael Vadnie did not get me into journalism. He did, however, keep me in journalism,” LeMay said in an email.

“It’s easy to be tempted or lured away from a career in print media. But every time I made that consideration, I remembered the man that motivated me through school and kept me going with challenge after challenge.

A little apparition of Michael Vadnie appears on my shoulder from time to time, telling me to ‘Write hard, die free.’ I fully intend to. He is irreplaceable.”

SCSU Mass Communications professor Tim Hennagir was editor of the Chronicle during Vadnie’s first year as adviser.

“Mr. Vadnie’s opus (see Mr. Holland’s Opus, movies) will be the thousands of well-trained mass communications and journalism students who have passed through his classroom in 32 years of teaching,” Hennagir said in an email. “His legacy will be historic if not legendary.”

It was this first year that riots broke out at SCSU. Some say they started because of recent changes in drinking regulations and a lack of activities around campus for minor. In the end, 34 SCSU students and 26 non-students were arrested.

Amid the violence, which included fires, tipped cars and reports of police brutality, Hennagir and Chronicle staffers Brady Kreger and Bill Olson Jones were among the crowd, shooting pictures and observing the scene.

By most accounts, it was a bad time to be at SCSU. But it was a head-first dive into new reporting at a diverse, lively campus in times of change and unrest.

Vadnie has met the challenge with grace ever since.

He’s no stranger to reporting unpleasant news. In recent years, an increase in focus on investigative reporting has led to praise and criticism from all corners of the community.

There have also been mistakes. The Chronicle is a human institution, run by students. Vadnie takes all mistakes as teaching moments, and seeks to repair all damage in a way that serves all parties involved.

Though he’s been an official Chronnie for 24 years, he’s been at SCSU for 32. Former student Al Neff was 19 in 1981, when he first met Vadnie.

“He was the James Dean of SCSU,” Neff said in an email.

“I would see him leaning back against the wall outside of his classes, smoking a cigarette. I was a radio guy but I decided to take some of his print journalism classes just so I could have an excuse to talk to him.

“Over the next 32 years we evolved from the student-teacher relationship to friends to colleagues when I began teaching at SCSU, and now back to friends.

“He will always be my big brother and mentor, and always my James Dean.”

Neff’s story is common among the SCSU community. Tim Hennagir started as an advisee, turned into a friend and is now a colleague.

The same can be said of Dan Barth, owner of Diversified Media Productions and Pioneer Place on Fifth, and a fixture in the St. Cloud arts community.

He graduated in 1989 with a mass communications degree from SCSU.

He and Vadnie now play on a trivia team together for KVSC’s annual contest, and Vadnie has appeared in plays at Pioneer for the last three years.

Working journalists say they still think of him and turn to him for advice.

“Michael Vadnie has tremendously influenced the way I approach journalism,” said Lesley Toth, who currently works at the Mille Lacs County Times, in an email. “Even after nearly 10 years have passed since sitting in his classrooms, I still hear his voice giving sage advice and turn to that whenever I’m struggling with an issue or story.

“His knowledge, experience and counsel is such a deep reservoir of support. Generations of Minnesota journalists have benefited greatly from his pivotal role at SCSU, with SPJ and the University Chronicle. I have met dozens upon dozens of his former students throughout the years and have yet to hear one negative word about their experiences with Vads.”

Emily Peterson, former editor-in-chief and currently a copy editor at the St. Cloud Times, says Vadnie has given her confidence to succeed.

“Vads taught me not to take any crap from anyone, especially yourself,” she said. “He knew I could succeed when I was sure I was going to fail. He seemed to find amusement in my stress and frustration as a tired college student because he knew I was having the time of my life.

“He’ll gladly push you off the edge because he knows you can fly. And you will fly because Vads said you will.”

The story of Vadnie as a person, friend, husband, father, grandfather, professor, journalist, lawyer, mentor and community leader could take up an entire April 24-pager.

We knew him as an adviser, and no matter how many words we use, it all comes down to this:

Thank you.

We would not be the powerful, independent voice for students if it weren’t for your hard work and dedication.

We’ve all learned so much from you, most especially in our time working here. As you and you colleagues always tell us, there’s more to be learned working in news than reading about it.

You gave us the tools in the classroom, then sent us into the community to use them.

To paraphrase Mark Twain for a final time, you’ve never let schooling interfere with our education, and we can’t thank you enough.

It’s been over three years since the first students moved in to Coborn Plaza Apartments.

It was a symphony of firsts for the university: first off-campus student housing, first private partnership for residence halls, and first rooms with built-in kitchens and private bathrooms.

“In the first few years of operation, we were watching very closely to see if this experiment was a good thing or a bad thing,” said Dan Pedersen, director of Residential Life.

According to the numbers, it was good: there were no significant conduct or GPA differences between on-campus residents and those living in Coborn Plaza.

The biggest problems weren’t anticipated.

Chief among them, said Pedersen, is safety.

With the prevalence of crime in the Southside neighborhood, Pedersen said it didn’t occur to them that students would be routinely traversing non-campus property to get home.

Between bus lines and the Public Safety escort service, Pedersen said he hopes students feel safe commuting the short distance to campus.

The other problem has been wireless connectivity.

On a given night, according to CPA resident Samantha Carley, it’s impossible to access email or stream video.

Mike Schomer of the workstation support team at SCSU says it’s partially because of new building materials that can block a wireless signal.

Still, he’s not bemoaning building renovations that add bricks and steel: it’s an opportunity to pull wires and add more wireless access points, a necessary expense, as more devices require it.

“It’s reasonably expensive, but it’s important to provide good wireless coverage,” Schomer said. “There are many devices that are coming out that only have wireless access.”

There have been many complaints about wireless internet at CPA, Pedersen said, but the team will be changing the setup of the wireless network this summer to hopefully fix the issues for good.

Even with an improvement in wireless, Carley isn’t impressed with Coborn Plaza.

“I think it’s more expensive than it’s worth,” Carley said. “It’s supposed to be upperclassmen housing, but I feel like you get treated like a kid, for the price you’re paying.”

Coborn Plaza is open to all students, Pedersen said, but it’s meant to be transitional housing from dorms to off-campus living.

In the last few years, first-year applicants have gone down.

Carley said the policies aren’t freshman-friendly, either. Her roommate pays the $3,800 per semester for an apartment with a kitchen but, as a first-year student, she also has to pay for a meal plan, which she can take advantage of several blocks from her home.

Pedersen said these requirements are in place to give first-year students a sense of community and address their basic needs so that they can focus on adjusting to college life during their first semester.

“If you don’t have to worry about your food, you don’t have to worry about your shelter, and you don’t have to worry about your safety, we’ve covered a lot of Maslow’s needs,” Pedersen said.

He said there’s a less expensive meal option geared toward off-campus students, but most in CPA choose the more expensive unlimited plan anyway.

Carley’s other issues are with the age-old campus problem of parking. She says there’s not enough for students and guests, and what is designated for the retail stores is never used.

What’s more, students pay $310 per semester to park in the underground heated garage, which Carley also thinks is steep.

Her other complaint is with Res Life policies extending to CPA. She says she was cited for having a friend in her apartment when she wasn’t home. The friend was kicked out, and she was given a warning.

“I’m paying $800 a month to live here, and you’re telling me I can’t have people in my apartment?” she said.

Pedersen’s response: Res Life policies are part of the Student Code of Conduct, which applies to all students, everywhere.

Though it’s only part of the reason, Carley said housing has played a part in her decision to transfer to the University of Minnesota next year.

She’ll be leaving CPA, but many students are planning to return. Pedersen said returning applicants are up 28 percent from what he expected them to be at this time last year.

If fall applications meet his expectations, the facility will be at 73 percent occupancy, or 334 residents.

They base these predictions on projected enrollment and students who reapply for housing.

“I would be lying if I said it was a scientific formula,” Pedersen said. “It’s basically using the best data you have available.”

In its first year open, the building was at less than half occupancy. Thanks to an enrollment dip, occupancy stayed lower than expected for the first few years.

In a 2011 interview with the Chronicle, Pedersen predicted 90 percent occupancy by FY 15, or Fall 2014.

The most recent prediction is that the 90 percent mark will by reached in FY 17, or Fall 2016.

“We knew it would be a series of years before we started to see the occupancy numbers increase out there, because it was a new entity,” Pedersen said. “Nobody had a frame of reference to it.”

The department recently finished a survey of students living in Stateview and Coborn Plaza Apartments.

Without diving into the data, Pedersen said it looks mostly positive.

Carley doesn’t feel positive about her experience there, and said she wouldn’t recommend the place to a fellow student.

“Find somewhere off-campus,” she said. “Even if it’s the same price, at least you’ll get treated like an adult.”

Meg Iserloth

The crowd was shy, the coffee-makers loud, but despite the distractions Indie rock musicians played on in the corner of Atwood’s Caribou Coffee.

Last Wednesday marked the final Coffee Break performances of the semester, led by Wisconsin local artists The Way She and Darrian Kaye.

Sponsored by the University Program Board Live Music Committee, Coffee Break is a free program which brings in local artists to play music for Caribou Coffee visitors in the afternoon. To learn more, visit UPB’s website at http://www.stcloudstate.edu/campusinvolvement/upb/.

From noon to 1:00 p.m. last Wednesday, artist and musician Darrian Kaye performed several songs to an, at first, unresponsive audience. It wasn’t until her fifth song, “Nowhere to Be”, when she jokingly said that clapping was allowed, that the crowd began to loosen up.

A local artist from Appleton, Wisconsin, Kaye says she has “drawn recognition for her earthy soulful style, lyrical content with insight well beyond her years and melodies that the listener carries away with them.” As influences, she credits an array of artists, including Modest Mouse, Teagan and Sarah, the Cranberries, Traci Chapman, and Joni Mitchell.

During and after Kaye’s performance, attendees and passerbys were given the opportunity to buy her CD “Wake Up For Yourself” for five dollars, or, she joked, by “trad[ing] something cool in your pocket for one.” The album, which features several of the songs performed last Wednesday, was recorded by Appleton artist John Lambert. Kaye also has released an E.P. called “If I Were Right”.

Although posters for The Way She depicted the three original members, only Sam Jansen and Lindsay DeCleene are still official members of the band, having gone separate ways with “no hard feelings” in February. At the very beginning of the duo’s performance, a curveball was thrown as they announced they were playing different instruments than they were used to, both settling on guitar instead of the usual set-up of Jansen on guitar and DeCleene on drums.

Originally from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, The Way She describes themselves as “a female acoustic group that may be a little more edgy than meets the eye.” They tour in several parts of the Midwest, including this year’s Pridefest in Milwaukee.

Earlier this month, the band announced on their Facebook page that “a lot of good stuff is happening and we will be hitting the studio in a few weeks to start making our CD!” They said that those who pre-order their album will receive a free poster and necklace with “The Way She” engraved into it.

They hope to have the CD, their first, out in June. In the meantime, The Way She is urging fans to vote for them to get on this year’s Vans Warped Tour.

Visit the website of Darrian Kaye (http://www.darriankaye.com/) and the Facebook of The Way She (https://www.facebook.com/TheWayShe) for more information.

The Beaver Islands Trail continues to expand.

A resolution was submitted to the St. Cloud City Council on Feb. 25 titled “Resolution Ordering Beaver Island Trail Phase 4 Improvements”.

The resolution stated the improvements to the trail as follows:

1- Installation of bituminous trail improvements connecting the existing Beaver Island Trail southern terminus located at 33rd Street South to River Bluffs Regional Park located at 38th Street South.

2- Construction of trail head parking facility.

The resolution also stated these improvements as “necessary, cost-effective and feasible.”

In a letter on Dec. 20, 2012 Courtland Nelson, director of Parks Trails Division, wrote to Scott Zlotnick, director of Parks, City of St. Cloud, “I am pleased to inform you that your application to the 2012 Parks and Trails Legacy Grant has been selected for funding. A reimbursement grant in the amount of $580,000 will be established contingent upon final processing of your application.”

The letter also stated that over $46.9 million had been requested from the Parks and Trails Legacy Grant, and $7.5 million were available to fill those requests.

Nelson also wrote, “Thank you for helping to connect people and the outdoors by providing outstanding parks and trails in your community.”

Here is a timeline of action taken from the St. Cloud city website:

BOARD/COMMISSION/COMMITTEE/RECOMMENDATION:
January 03, 2006: The Park & Recreation Advisory Board approved a federal grant writing
effort and provided a recommendation to move forward with this project.
July 8, 2010: The Area Planning Organization Policy Board approved the Transportation
Improvement Program containing the Beaver Island Trail Phase #4 project.
July 7, 2011: The Park & Recreation Advisory Board approved the preferred trail alignment
for the Beaver Island Trail Phase #4 project and provided the recommendation to the Mayor
and City Council that the project move forward in the planning process to investigate the
future trail right of way acquisition.
August 9, 2011: The Planning Commission approved the preferred trail alignment for the
Beaver Island Trail Phase #4 project and provided the recommendation to the Mayor and
City Council that the project move forward in the planning process to investigate the future
trail right of way acquisition.
March 1, 2012: Project Memorandum approval granted through MnDOT for Federal Project
SP 162-090-006 – Beaver Island Trail Phase #4 Improvements.
February 12, 2013: The Planning Commission provided an approval recommendation for
this project.

PREVIOUS COUNCIL ACTION:
December 21, 2009: Approved a resolution certifying public participation for a project to be
submitted to the St. Cloud Area Planning Organization for FY 2014-2015 Federal
Transportation Funding.
December 21, 2009: Approved a resolution requesting funding assistance from the Federal
Highway Administration under its Transportation Enhancement Program for the FY 2014-
2015 to construct a bicycle/pedestrian trail from 33rd Street South to River Bluffs Regional
Park.
March 22, 2010: Approved a resolution agreeing to the St. Cloud Area Planning
Organization’s local “Overmatch” for the Beaver Island Trail Phase #4 project.
September 26, 2011: Conducted a public hearing and approved a resolution providing for the
alignment for the Beaver Island Trail Phase #4 Improvements and authorized the acquisition
of right-of-way and construction easements.

January 30, 2012: Approved a resolution requesting funding assistance from the MNDNR
under its Statewide Regional Trail Grant program to construct a bicycle/pedestrian trail from
33rd Street South to River Bluffs Regional Park.
August 6, 2012: Approved a resolution accepting $200,000 in funding assistance from the
MNDNR under the 2012 Statewide Regional Trail Grant program.
January 28, 2013: Approved a resolution setting a public hearing for February 25, 2013, to
consider the Beaver Island Trail Phase 4 Improvements.

The project is slated to begin in late summer 2013.

Hung Minh Nguyen

On April 17, Husky fans from all over the region piled into the National Hockey Center one last time this season to congratulate the Huskies on their historic season.

After the press conference that officially re-named the new hockey facilites the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, the doors were opened to the general public for the ‘Celebrate with the Huskies’ party.

Fans could purchase a commemorative posters, t-shirts, hats, and other souvenirs for members of the hockey team to sign after presentation.

Former Husky hockey player and Fox9 News anchor Jeff Passolt emceed the event, even leading a live shot of the stadium along with an interview with Dan Brooks, the son of hockey coaching legend Herb Brooks.

Fans also heard from university president Earl H. Potter III, athletic director Heather Weems, head coach Bob Motzko, and Brooks.

Brooks showed a lot of gratitude and spoke highly of the University and the hockey program his father helped build from the ground up.

“He would be honored to have his name on the front of this beautiful new building. He was at his happiest when he was in St. Cloud,” Brooks said of his father during his speech.

Fans got to experience and share video highlights of the season with the faculty and the players as well.

“I’m an SCSU alumni, class of ’87. I remember when Herb Brooks came to this program and it was the biggest news this hockey program could’ve ever asked for. And now, after all these years, to see what he did is astonishing,” said Amber Wallace, mother of two. “My kids were so ecstatic to come here today and meet all the players and get their autographs. I’m sure they would say they’ll be the coolest kids in school tomorrow.”

After the ceremony concluded, fans made a long line extending partially around the stadium to get autographs from each one of the players. All players were in attendance other than Drew LeBlanc and Ben Hanowski, who are pursuing careers in the NHL.

“It’s a pretty special experience, without the fans this wouldn’t be even half as special,” said sophomore goaltender Ryan Faragher.