SEPT. 25, 2009
COLLEGE OF ST. BENEDICT/ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY
RECORD@CSBSJU.EDU
CSBSJU.EDU/RECORD
St. Joe bars rethink 2 a.m. close
Students aim to make campus
sustainable
By Jenny Wesser
jawesser@csbsju.edu
Students gathered at last week’s Friday Forum to discuss ways CSB/SJU can become greener and make use of cleaner, more sustainable energy. Hosting the discussion were students who attended a Power Shift conference last March in Washington, D.C. Power Shift is a campaign that brought 12,000 students from across the country together to engage the nation’s leaders in action toward a cleaner climate. Students attended concerts, speakers, and had an opportunity to connect with other students from all over the country — united under the cause of
promoting a greener United States.
“There were a lot of groups able and willing to offer students advice and financial assistance to make movements happen,” junior Casey Wojtalewicz said.
The consensus at the Friday
Forum was clear: students want to take the excitement from
Power Shift and bring it back to CSB/SJU. Several students in
attendance voiced their ideas for how the goal of becoming a
carbon-neutral campus can be made possible.
Both President MaryAnn Baenninger and former president Br. Dietrich Reinhart signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), which is a clearly laid out initiative for college campuses to become carbon-neutral in the near future. The plan requires our campuses to keep inventory of all greenhouse gas emissions. It also demands a plan of action to make climate neutrality a reality.
In attendance was CSB/SJU Sustainability Fellow
SOPHOUEN CHHIN• stchhin@csbsju.edu
Bartender Beth Burgraff serves drinks at the LaPlayette Bar, which is considering closing at 2 a.m. starting in 2010.
By Anna Martin
a1martin@csbsju.edu
Many upperclassmen are spending the opening weeks of the semester trying figure out what time the bar is going to close this year. Until August of this year, the bars were required to close at 1 a.m., but on August 6, the St.
Joseph City Council voted to allow the bars to close at 2 a.m.
The mayor of St. Joseph, Al Rassier, said the issue of a 2 a.m. bar close had been talked about for a few years, although there had always been too much
concern with parking and foot traffic at the late hour.
After months of discussion and communication with nearby towns, however, the city has
decided to give the 2 a.m. bar close a trial period.
“It will be a two year trial to see if it works and if any adjustments need to be made or if there is anything we need to add,” Rassier said.
While the city will allow the bars in St. Joseph to stay open until 2 a.m., none of them have applied. For the bars, choosing to apply to stay open the extra hour is more of a financial issue.
The State of Minnesota’s
Department of Public Safety,
Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division requires each bar to apply for a 2 a.m. liquor license and pay a license fee, which is about $750.
This is not a fee that is prorated, and the bars would be forced to pay the entire fee now, and then again after Jan. 1. Both Loso’s and LaPlayette are waiting until the first of the year to make any decisions, while Sal’s is simply going to wait and see what the other bars are doing and what would be the best plan for them. For now, all agree that “the costs at this point they are too much to make it worth it,” according to Kyle
Schneider, an employee at Sal’s.
Scanner purchase considered too expensive
The ordinance that was passed in August has raised some
concern among bar owners and managers, including both Kenny Loso, long time manager of
Loso’s, and Mark Zimmer, owner of LaPlayette.
Although the city council
believes they have created a working ordinance, some bars feel
differently.
“Through the process, the bars made a verbal agreement that they would be willing to purchase the scanners and clean up outside the bars,” Rassier said.
The manager of Loso’s Pub
disagreed.
“No one is really happy with it. Most every one thinks (the
issue) will come up again. The city council went ahead and approved (the ordinance) with all the stipulations and didn’t know about it until after they approved it,” Loso
Photo courtesy of Record Archives
Bar owners must pay
license fees to close later.
.See NEUTRAL Page 3
CSB/SJU’s dedication to a carbon neutral campus
.See BAR Page 7
Bars must apply to stay open
Hagel
promotes civility
Sun to power campus
Delivering the third annual McCarthy Lecture, Sen. Chuck Hagel stressed the importance of
bipartisanship and
mutual respect.
By Hannah Wittmeyer
hawittmeyer@csbsju.edu
After a delayed flight and a hearty lunch consisting of a Snicker’s bar, former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb) was
eager to speak with and discuss
foreign policy, public life and the ills of partisan politics with Johnnies and Bennies on Wednesday
afternoon. Following a senior seminar discussion about war,
Hagel also met with members from the International Affairs club and affirmed his confidence in President Obama in regards to current policy considerations in Afghanistan. In an instable world, the former senator stresses proper engagement and dialogue as means for cooperation.
“Force is an effective instrument of power,” he said, “but force
cannot be the centerpiece of your foreign policy.”
Hagel shares a striking parallel
By Joey Fiedler
jdfiedler@csbsju.edu
Construction on a solar energy power field has begun on 3.9 acres of St. John’s Abbey land just west of the main entrance to the St. John’s campus. The field will be filled with 1,800 solar modules that will produce an anticipated annual energy amount of 575,000 kilowatt-hours.
Upon completion of the project, St. John’s Solar Farm will be the largest solar photovoltaic
system in the Upper Midwest. The field will be four times larger than the current largest photovoltaic
system in Minnesota.
The solar modules will be
connected to the internal energy grid of St. John’s and will flow back out onto Xcel Energy’s grid to power both the university and the central Minnesota area.
It is expected that the solar field will offset 20 percent of SJU’s peak energy needs during the summer months and four percent of the campus’s overall energy needs on an annual basis. The 575,000 kilowatt-hours annually that the system will produce would be enough to provide
annual power for 65 homes.
Because the Abbey and University believe they are responsible for the campus’s natural environment, the solar modules and the incorporation of solar energy into the campus’s energy resources is the first major step in the Abbey’s initiative to enhance the monastic community’s commitment to both education and green energy.
Having the solar energy power field on campus will be a major addition to the environmental studies curriculum, being that
students will be able to study a fully operational system without having to leave campus.
The new solar panels will be a huge addition to the solar array that was added to the New Science Center in 2008. Both projects are fallouts from the American
College and University Presidents Climate Commitment that late president Br. Dietrich Reinhart signed back in 2007.
“The Commitment directs St. John’s to the ultimate goal of
carbon neutrality, or more simply put, to reduce St. John’s overall carbon footprint,” said the project’s media contact, Br. Aaron Raverty, OSB, Coordinator of
Abbey Communications and
Development.
.See SOLAR Page 7
The field will power 65 homes
.See HAGEL Page 2
Former senator visits campus
SILU MA • s1ma@csbsju.edu
Chuck Hagel addressed a full auditorium on Wednesday.
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