November 15, 2012

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Minnesota State University, Mankato

www.themsureporter.com

THURSDAY

H 48 • L 23

FRIDAY

H 44 • L 31

MSU celebrates veterans

Veterans Appreciation Day asks students to remember

willian cahyadi • msu reporter MOLLY HORNER

staff writer

Minnesota State University, Mankato took a special interest in veterans this year, celebrating Veteran’s Appreciation Day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Centennial Student

Union. There was a spaghetti lunch served from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. paid for by the president’s cabinet. 76 people attended the event. An email invitation went out to all faculty, students and staff who are veterans or who

are currently serving. Ashley Strom, Assistant Director for Non-Traditional Students, Registered Student Organizations, and Leadership, and David Schrader, education coordinator with the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, coordinated the event. They worked with student government and the president’s cabinet. “It was humbling seeing how willing everyone was to work together to give thanks to members of the campus community who are or have served,” Strom said. Joel Stephenson, professor in Military Science opened up the event and said a few words of thanks. Students made videos that played during the event in honor of “remembering all the battles that have been

fought, what American soldiers sacrifice for their country, and leaving their families; unsure of what their future holds.” President Davenport also said a few words after the airing of the videos. The Hearth Lounge was decorated by thank you cards from two different elementary schools and both associations wrote poems which were edited with Mark Martinez, CSU Technical Coordinator. It was an intimate event with great people although many may be surprised on the turnout. There are 600 plus veterans on campus but under 50 responded to the email invitations that were sent out. Meaning, only 8 percent of those who identified themselves as veterans responded. It may cause one to wonder: are Vet-

eran’s Day celebrations what students are interested in? “We were hoping for a really big turnout but the response wasn’t as big as we would have liked it to have been from the student population,” Strom said. In the rouse of Veteran’s Day, MSU plays a big role in getting the community together to appreciate and say thanks to all the extremely important veterans, as well as those serving our county today. “I was so impressed by the upper administration, support and involvement in the programs,” Strom said. Veteran’s Day is observed across the world as both Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, and has been an officially holiday in the United States since the end of World War I.

Annual Fall History Forum focuses on Cold War

CHRIS HOUCK

staff writer

Every year, a new page in history is written. And with every spring and fall semester that passes during a students’ time here at Minnesota State University, Mankato, the history department puts aside time to emphasize and further educate young and older learners alike on an area of history that is important to them, as well as relating to the lives of students and community as a part of the school’s history forum. Mankato’s Fall History Forum lecture took place on Wednesday, and was facilitated by a lecture from European historian and adjunct professor here at the university, Jonathan Trutor. The lecture focused on the media and its communication with citizens during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the western world. Tao Peng, a professor of Asian history at MSU spoke about the department’s commitment to the forum. “Basically, we hope to show our university, and wider community, what our faculty is focusing on,” said Peng “We also tend to

see, in terms of the forum, for it to be a social event and try to expand our social connections.” While the event pertained to historical events, the forum was open to the public and attracted a variety of students to the lecture. “We like to appeal to people of multiple disciplines and just try to broaden the understanding,” said Trutor, who also said that a creative writing student came up to him and asked about his sources for his presentation for a possible story. “I thought that was kind of a cool, interdisciplinary moment for me,” said Trutor. “This really connects to somebody in a field that’s completely different from mine, but can use history as a jumping off point for their creativity.” The presenters are selected to present on the forum based on the research they’ve conducted and the impact it has on university students’ and community’s lives. “It was an offshoot of an interest of my research,” said Trutor on his lecture, “[It] focuses on British public information films and French public information films, which are kind of like pub-

lic service announcement films.” In his lecture, Trutor focused on the effect that governmental media and civil safety films had on the European public, relating it to how new modes of media were used back then, such as television, and how new ones are currently being utilized today. “Ultimately, I think it runs through a lot of different threads in history, one of which is media history,” said Trutor on his presentation’s subject. “There’s a fair amount of interest in how media is used to send messages to people.” “I think professor Trutor’s topic is very closely related to our own experience,” said Peng. “What he discussed is about the European people, but we’ve had similar experiences [in the U.S.]” Trutor, in his lecture, emphasized the many possible results that mass media can have on a population. “More than anything, I think it’s an enlightening look at how the governments and their people interact,” said Trutor. “In many cases it’s a one-sided communication. The government provides information and it’s designed to

web photo The threat of nuclear warfare was very real for many European countries during the Cold War, leading to a surge in educational films.

be absorbed by the listener. But people can see public information as just being merely propaganda and either dismiss it out of hand, or take public information designed to make you feel safe and feel very unsafe because of it.” The fall History Forum is one of two the history department offers in a school year, the other being held in spring, which covers a broader, less specific area of history. Typically, a forum will have 40 minutes of lecture,

DEBATE ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD See Page 4

followed by questions from the audience. “Sometimes, in classroom teaching, students feel bored,” said Peng. “So an interesting topic like this can be refreshing. Normally, students like this interaction better.” While there are no plans set in stone for this spring’s History Forum, it is expected that it will continue discussing European history as its focus.

A&E

9

INDEX: SPORTS

12

CLASSIFIEDS

15


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