At Marquette University, mission is everything. Mission is, or should be, the reason behind every major decision made by every office on campus. It is, and should be, what drives this University to become the very best that it can be. Especially this time of year, mission takes on a new meaning. It transcends the ambiguous and becomes a concrete reality in the form a week geared towards celebrating what it means to be Marquette University.

Every year, Mission Week offers Marquette administrators, faculty, staff, students and members of the Milwaukee community a chance to evaluate the meaning and impact of Marquette’s mission on the world around us. It allows the abstractness of “mission” to take on a more practical and vocalized meaning, and in doing so, allows this Mission Week to motivate students in a special and unique way. Past Mission Weeks have included a wide diversity of speakers from a variety of different backgrounds, mostly centered on social justice issues.

This year, the many Mission Week activities seemed to focus on enriching student’s minds with diverse perspectives, and providing programs and lectures whose intent was ethical decision-making and acknowledgement of one’s impact on others. iAct, the theme of this year’s Mission Week, implies that students play a very active role in the definition and formation of Marquette’s mission on a daily basis.

According to Rev. Douglas Leonhardt S.J., of Marquette’s Office of Mission and Identity, “The Mission of Marquette as a Catholic Jesuit University is what gives us our deepest identity. Stepping back and focusing on our mission can make us more aware of what really defines us as Marquette.”

One major challenge to the continued success of Mission Week is keeping it fresh and dynamic. To counter this, Leonhardt says, “Mission Week gets tweaked each year so that the activities and programs stay fresh, attract more participants, and help people reflect on the pillars of: faith, excellence, leadership and service. Each year the planning committee has many new members from the student body, faculty, administrators and staff, so new ideas emerge.” Leonhardt continued to say that he hopes that all students are able to take advantage of Mission Week events, as it is a very special time for the University as a whole.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Shirin Ebadi, was poised, seemed well spoken (although the whole speech was translated), and had a very direct message for the Marquette community. To Mara Branli, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, “it was really pretty simple for me: she is not afraid to dream…but she is truthful in that our dreams cannot stay in our imaginations, we must bring them into reality through action.”

For freshman Scott Luke, College of Business, “I think it was really neat to witness a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. It is always interesting to hear someone not native to the U.S. give a perspective of what other nations globally think of the U.S. and its policies. Dr. Ebadi had a great message and profound messages about Islam and human rights.”

Those who were in attendance seemed truly interested and open to what Ebadi was saying, however due to the reactions of many in attendance it seemed that the opinions of the crowd were congruent with those of the speaker. Perhaps this is another reason why a wider variety of student tickets should have been made available, to ensure a greater diversity of students. An event attended by just as many, if not more, middle-aged attendees as students does not provide members of the Marquette student body with the opportunity to learn, or be exposed to new ideas. In fact, the erupting applause and standing ovation that occurred after her praise of President Obama demonstrated that many in the audience really enjoyed having their own personal beliefs ratified.

Whatever one’s personal political stance or viewpoint of Ebadi is, it is hard to deny her ability to inspire. One particularly touching moment was when Ebadi exclaimed, “Non-Democratic Islamic governments don’t hold the key to Heaven; suicidal operations will not take you to Heaven. The framework of Democracy is human rights laws… [and] weapons such as religion and ideology should not be in the hands of the government.” Her sentiment echoed through the room as her translator relayed the message to everyone in the ballrooms, and it became evident that no matter how negatively she views the previous U.S. administration, Ebadi is truly passionate for human rights.

One disappointing feature of the event is that Ebadi did not stick around for a panel discussion or question and answer segment following her keynote. It would have been interesting to hear her publically expand on her wide political stance on some of her more polarizing views, especially those towards the former President Bush and U.S. intervention abroad. Regardless, a successful Mission Week needs a successful keynote speaker, and has been the case in the past, the keynote did not fail to get people talking.

One problem this year’s Mission Week faced is that many students were unable to attend the Mission Week keynote, either due to the time it was planned for, or poor ticket distribution schemes. Either way, Mission Week continues to be evaluated, that it might be implemented better next year. A few suggestions have been raised for improving Mission Week here at Marquette by students, staff and faculty alike.

In evaluating Mission Week as a whole, Leonhardt says, “There are the two major events of Mission Week, the Mass on Sunday and the keynote speaker, which are always well attended. But some of the other events during the week, which are well planned, but poorly attended, need evaluation.” In reference to these events, Leonhardt reflects, “perhaps they need to be changed or dropped entirely. We do an evaluation after Mission Week each year, during which we ask questions about numbers attending and whether they accomplished their goal of bringing people together and focusing on a particular aspect of our mission.”

Many people noticed a discrepancy between the amounts of faculty, staff and administrators present and the number of students. In a random polling it was concluded that, for the vast majority of students, the time of the event was the major deterrent.

Mike Hennicke, a junior in the College of Education, said of Mission Week, “I went to the last Mission Week speaker. Sadly, I would have loved to go [this year], but 4 p.m. on a Thursday? I had class and a meeting.” Scheduling was the issue for seniors Brandon Rindfleisch, Arts & Sciences, and Greg Shutters, Communication, as well as many others who had prior academic commitments that afternoon.

Further, many students are not fully aware of what Mission Week is. They know that there is something outside of the ordinary going on, but never take the initiative to learn more. The Mission Week planning committee also faces the challenge of raising awareness and interest among the student body.

The challenge of an event such as Mission Week is to ask members of the Marquette community, what does “mission” mean to your identity? At a Catholic University, the question changes slightly: What does “mission” mean to my relationship with Christ? This challenge to students and faculty stands as a constant reminder of a lesson learned by many at a Tuesday night 10 p.m. Mass two years ago. When showing off the beauty of the chapel one night, Rev. John Naus S.J. pointed to the arm-less Jesus (lost during a bombing in WWII), which hangs on the back wall of the St. Joan of Arc Chapel. According to Fr. Naus, “we are all called to be the arms of Christ reaching out to the Marquette community, to those who need us.”

Perhaps rather than searching out a great keynote speaker, we need only look to the people we have right here at Marquette to learn something about being men and women for others. After all, what would Mission Week be if it were simply one week? Mission Week, at Marquette, should be every week.

Popularity: 16% [?]

According to the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), the leading opponent of Milwaukee’s paid sick day leave, “This mandate will make the City of Milwaukee an island of regulation.” Unless you are one of those who believe regulation is bad on principle – except when it ensures the purity of your drinking water, the safety of your streets and the unadulterated efficacy of your medicines – then the MMAC-filed injunction against the implementation of paid sick days is absurd.
Paid sick days fulfill our better impulses of promoting strong businesses and stronger families in the city of Milwaukee. We need to ensure that the 47% of private sector workers and the 75% of low-wage workers (those making less than $10/hour) can have the access to medical care for themselves and their loved ones that the more affluent workers in this city already enjoy. No one should have to make a forced choice between working while sick and seeking necessary medical care. Those of us at Marquette who enjoy good health most of the time should be generous, not stingy, with our privilege.

We have directed much of the attention around public health in the United States to the care and treatment of chronic disorders before they turn into something worse. The paid sick day ordinance is a concrete step towards putting our laws in line with our words. It enables a mother to take her son, who has a toothache, to the dentist for treatment, instead of her son contracting a gum infection and needing the tooth extracted. It allows a pregnant woman to take time off in the first and second trimesters to secure adequate prenatal care. It gives a man who works on a construction site, exposed to the elements, time off when he catches a nasty head cold from Wisconsin’s variable weather. When he decides to “tough it out” and keep working for lack of paid leave, the head cold can turn into bronchitis or pneumonia, requiring hospitalization and further costs (often borne by Badger Care, thus indirectly by our tax dollars).

In addition, businesses have every reason to support paid sick leave: who wants to transact business with sick employees? Low-wage workers are disproportionately in the food-service and janitorial industries. Do we want sick people preparing and serving our McNuggets? Do we want to step into a hotel room when the person who cleaned it had a hacking cough? Of course not! Only the ignorant among us would be indifferent to such things. The health and safety of fellow employees and the general public is on the line for businesses whose lack of sick leave compels people to work when they are feeling ill. We should not play roulette with our own health because of the short-sighted profit-seeking policies of a few local businesses.

When the Journal Sentinel endorsed the paid sick leave referendum on October 22, 2008 – a referendum, mind you, that passed with 69% of the vote, greater than the two-thirds majority required to override a Presidential veto – staff writer Ellen Bravo quoted a McDonald’s manager who said, “I’ve lost so many good employees because they didn’t have paid sick days.” A similar measure in San Francisco has markedly reduced employee turnover without any significant deterioration in economic growth. Better-informed, longer-tenured employees are generally happier and more productive, and firms can spend less money on recruiting and training new employees. The paid sick leave measure is a winning bargain for everybody in Milwaukee, whether you are at the bottom, the top or somewhere in the middle of the economic ladder.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Milwaukee’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance was supposed to take effect on February 10, 2009, after being enacted via a referendum. The ordinance states that employers must offer one hour of paid sick leave for every thirty hours of work, although not more than seventy-two hours for one year. However, smaller businesses shall only be required to pay for forty hours of sick leave a year.

At first, this bill looks harmless. In fact, it is very reasonable that people should have paid sick leave. But we have to remember that these are no longer the times of Teddy Roosevelt and Fighting Bob LaFollette. Working conditions are very good. People are no longer waking up at five in the morning and getting home at nine like my grandfather did.They’re going to work at nine and going home at five. The workplace is safer and more sanitary than it has been in the past. Yet, some people want to go far beyond any reasonable compromise and take nine days of sick leave every year.

Those in favor of the ordinance say that employers will actually benefit from the ordinance. But according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 99.9% of employers were against it. If the ordinance were in favor of employers, you would think that at least a few employers would be in favor of it. But most employers know that if paid sick leave is offered for nine days out of the year, people will take sick leave for nine days out of the year no matter how minuscule their sickness. It’s called human nature. The paid sick days should really be referred to as paid vacation days.

You really know there must be something wrong with the ordinance when the single largest employer in the nation, the government, is excluded from offering paid sick leave, not that the majority of government workers do not have enough benefits as it is. This ordinance excludes all government workers at the federal, state and local level.

Furthermore, small businesses will undoubtedly be hurt the most by this ordinance. It is true that the bill does make exceptions for them, but small businesses will still be harmed. This becomes even more relevant in light of the fact that many small businesses are facing extinction.

Among other things this ordinance was meant to prevent employees from being fired for taking days off to take care of medical issues for themselves or family members. Quite frankly, in economic times like these, if employers have to give paid sick leave for nine days out of the year, the businesses will have to cut jobs anyways. In fact, employers have already let go a lot of people because the economy is so bad.

Moreover, it is possible that some businesses may just get up and move to a neighboring suburb. Not to mention that companies will be unwilling to start up in Milwaukee. What does that mean? Job growth will take a drastic downturn. Many of those people who were so adamant about getting paid sick leave will have all the time off they want.

So while more employees get laid off and companies go out of business, voters in Milwaukee can remember why the founders of our nation were so frightened of a direct democracy where the electorate voted on the issues and why they chose to establish a representative democracy.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Last week Marquette once again hosted its Mission Week entitled; iAct: Consequences of Faith. Throughout the course of the week the University hosted a variety of different events and speeches designed to promote St. Ignatius of Loyola’s philosophy that, “Love is found more in deeds than in words.”

This is an idea that certainly needs to be taught; particularly at a Jesuit institution, and over the past four years I believe each Mission Week has done an excellent job educating us on how we must act to correct the injustices throughout the world. I particularly enjoyed the panel last year on “War, Peace, and People of Faith.” The different perspectives helped the audience better understand the concept of “just war” as well as the relationship between faith and justice. Unfortunately I did not believe this year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Shirin Ebadi, provided the same insight into this year’s theme or the importance of faith.

The beginning of her speech was extremely interesting, especially when she discussed how winning elections does not guarantee democracy, and emphasized how the elected majority must maintain a framework of human rights laws in order for democracy to flourish. But following these insights Dr. Ebadi quickly decided to delve into politics, congratulating the audience on the election of President Obama and his closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. She then proceeded to state how the United States government violated civil rights following September 11, and explained how the War in Iraq was only about oil.

Even if you agreed with her statements you should be disappointed, just as I would have been if another speaker had decided to digress from his or her speech topic to defend the actions of former President Georgea W. Bush. A university should be a free marketplace for ideas but there is a time and a place for certain ideas to be shared. If Dr. Ebadi had been asked to come and speak at Marquette by a student organization or for a lecture series hosted by one of the colleges her comments would have been appropriate. Mission Week simply was not the forum for these political comments.

Rather the Mission Week keynote speaker should devote his or her speech to the theme of the week. His or her goal should be to show the audience how their faith can be a catalyst for action; how each individual can and should be a champion for justice. Dr. Ebadi had experienced a life full of injustice that she could have shared with the audience; truly demonstrating the “consequences of faith.” It is unfortunate she decided not to take advantage of this opportunity.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Today, we are all under a relentless and unwavering attack by society as it tries to force feed us tolerance of just about everything. Tolerance, as viewed by society, is the pinnacle of cultural progress in our modern world. To see this, simply turn on MTV and watch shows like “The Real World.” The show is filled with drama, fighting and back-stabbing as people from many different backgrounds and sexual orientations all try to ‘tolerate’ each other. Society tries to tell us that, just like on “The Real World,” tolerance of each other is the best way for us to get along and progress as a society.

This is where society is dead wrong. Tolerance never got anybody anywhere. It is basically a sugar-coated way of saying “I’m right, but I don’t have the guts to prove you wrong.” Moreover, it is an admission of a lack of faith in yourself, as you tell yourself that there is a chance that you are wrong. If you are certain that you possess the truth, then you actually owe it to others to show them so. You have an ethical obligation to do everything reasonably possible to ensure that the truth becomes known to all.

If society wants true progress, or “change,” then what it should really be preaching is INtolerance.Not intolerance in the sense that you disrespect, hate or hurt others, but in the sense that you refuse to settle for anything less than the truth. Intolerance strives for a universal truth agreed upon by both parties; a much more pragmatic situation then just agreeing to disagree. Consider this: if tolerance was the root of Dr. Martin Luther King’s message, then we all would still hold prejudices towards each other, but would be in agreement not to say so to each other’s face. If Nelson Mandela was not intolerant, he would have been fine with the system of governance in which blacks and whites “tolerate” each other but were just kept separated. No, these gentlemen were extremely intolerant of racial injustice. As a result, the problem of racism is not just being painted over, but is being attacked at its roots so that everyone sees THE truth instead of just their own version of the truth.
Here at Marquette, we can emulate the power houses of intolerance that I mentioned above and refuse to tolerate the many injustices that are present in our society. We may not experience the same injustices that our forefathers did, but the Milwaukee community certainly has its share of injustice. For example, there is a division of Planned Parenthood just past Mashuda on Wisconsin Avenue, and we have all witnessed people asking for a bite to eat as we walk to class.

While we cannot all be Dr. Martin Luther Kings or Nelson Mandelas, we can all strive to embody their healthy intolerance. We can open our eyes to what is going on around us and through our democratic system we can refuse to support those who wish to tolerate or even further these injustices. Yes, there is hope for a better future, one which has truly progressed beyond primitive tolerance, but this will only be possible if we start today by living and breathing intolerance for the wrongs of this world.

Popularity: 10% [?]

The CIA does not often consider criminal enterprise a grave threat to the National Security of the United States. In fact, the average criminal organization only poses a threat confined to the neighborhoods in which it operates and projects influence. In the southern United States however, and particularly in Mexico, organized crime poses what the CIA calls the second most serious threat to National Security, trailing only behind Al Qaida.

The drug trafficking cartels have established themselves as some of the most violent organizations on earth, using scare tactics more commonly associated with the Middle East war zones then North America. In one Mexican border village, the police chief’s head was found in a bucket of ice outside the police department, and many local and federal cops have been assassinated or paid off. The simple fact is that Mexico does not have the cash to pay and equip its law enforcement personnel as well as the drug cartels can. Estimates vary, but the average guess is that $25 billion found its way from the U.S. to Mexican cartels in the past year, allowing the cartels to offer ‘wages’ unmatchable by legitimate authorities. Recent arrests have shown that the cartels are using former military members, including ex Special Forces types with formal paramilitary training, to combat Mexican authorities. The allure of higher wages caused some 17,000 Mexican soldiers to desert in the past year, according to a recent news article from Fox News. The Wall Street Journal reports that police are attacked with an array of weaponry including M-4 assault rifles, fragmentation grenades, anti-personnel mines, rocket propelled grenades and .50 caliber sniper rifles, all wielded by military trained cartel members with body armor and night vision goggles. The situation on our southern border is perilous, and has caused both the CIA and the State Department to question the stability of the Mexican government.
Those members of the Mexican military and law enforcement establishments who have maintained their loyalty to the state of Mexico deserve respect and admiration for the risks they take to fulfill their duties. However, the U.S. would do well to offer more than kind words of praise for their efforts. There are four steps that should be taken to combat this problem.

First, the U.S. should use the National Guard to augment the Border Patrol and seal more of the gaps along the border. Unmanned drones and infrared technology can also be employed in much greater frequency to detect illegal activity and to allow precision responses to border violations. This would help contain the problem of both drugs and illegal immigration.

Second, the U.S. must show more concern for the smuggling of contraband into Mexico. It is absurdly easy to smuggle things out of the U.S. – according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), 7,700 weapons, not to mention billions in cash were smuggled over the border last year. The border is a two way street, and it is time that this fact was reflected at border crossings. Doing so will help to curb the flow of guns and cash to the cartel and it is America’s responsibility as an ally and good neighbor to do so.

Third, the U.S. should use offer more fiscal assistance directly to certain factions of the Mexican government. The money can be used to fund the recruitment of loyal troops and police officers inside the Mexican government and can also improve training and conditions for troops already in service. It could also be used to better equip the police and soldiers in the region. Obviously ex-Special Forces members armed with American military quality equipment can overwhelm cops armed with a sidearm and a shotgun. It would hardly be a drain on U.S. resources as every battle won in Mexico is one that does not have to be fought on the U.S. side of the border.
Fourth, the U.S. has to get serious about using the Justice system to punish drug users as well as drug dealers. As long as there is a demand for drugs, someone will supply them. The drug cartels are responding to the demand created here at home. If drug use carried mandatory sentences recreational use would decline. As a general rule of thumb, first time drug use offenders should be subject to 200 hours of community service wearing distinctive clothing. Repeat offenders would be subject to jail terms and mandatory attendance in rehabilitation. Building prisons would also fold nicely into President Obama’s infrastructure construction based stimulus plan. Combatting drug use could ultimately be the most effective means to reducing the violence in Mexico in the long run, and the most cost effective for the U.S. as it is the government that ends up footing the bill for enforcement and much of the rehabilitation costs.

The bottom line is that Mexico is doing its best to fight an evil and ruthless organization within its borders, and like the insurgency in Iraq, it is a largely faceless enemy that hides among the people. The cartels have committed outrage after outrage against the population and the police in particular deserve the support of the United States, because ultimately it is American citizens and their demand for drugs that is financing and extenuating the problems south of our border. It is the duty of this country to help a struggling ally clean up the mess that some disreputable American citizens are generating.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Some Wisconsinites may have noticed Jim Doyle’s support of an idea to increase spending and financial support in the healthcare industry by taxing hospitals. The basic idea reflects a backward idea that increasing hospital costs will allow the underprivileged to spend more in hospitals by giving them the hospital’s profits. While the next step in the logical process involving the loss to hospitals being made up somewhere else may seem obvious to most, Jim Doyle sees this as a way to stimulate Wisconsin’s economy because Medicaid recipients will have more money to spend on consumer products. I mean all that expendable income is why America created means-tested social welfare programs… right?

In retrospect of previous actions by current political leaders, many expect this ridiculous political action to be somehow connected to the unbelievable deficit that coincidentally is the fault of generally the same people. Wisconsin, previously known as one of the great laboratories of democracy in the United States, has lately become one of the great laboratories of Democratic mistakes as our citizens fall into debt that anyone who demonstrates knowledge about the second tallest capitol building in the country would be ashamed to hear. However, this strange apparent attempt to raise government revenues by regressively taxing the sick has no link to our current deficit. The ploy is above Doyle’s usual partisan pandering, like his refusal to recognize Ronald Reagan Day. Doyle actually is supporting a much more sinister objective along with Wisconsin’s entire Democratic Party.

In an effort to undermine the religious right, Wisconsin Democrats are assaulting the moral and religious base that many associate with modern Republicans. The increase on hospital taxes is being fiendishly coupled with a bill pushed by Democrats to allow breast-feeding to occur publicly all over Wisconsin. Then, when women begin their public displays of nudity while feeding their children, everyone will go crazy at the barrage of visual inappropriateness assaulting them in shopping malls, parks, perhaps even their bi-weekly political science class. Both ideas alone may only seem stupid, but in conjunction they are an evil ploy to destroy the Republican Party and create a totalitarian regime in the Badger state.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Pope Benedict XVI has recently declared the four bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) to not be excommunicated. However, around the same time Pope Benedict made his declaration, one of the bishops, Richard Williamson, was seen on an interview on Swedish television discussing his views on what happened during the Holocaust.

Without a moment’s delay, the Jewish leaders, cognizant of Williamson’s interview, were greatly offended that the Pope would declare that the bishop was once again inside of the Church, even though the Pope did not know about Williamson’s interview.

Bishop Williamson has been accused of saying a lot of things. Many of those accusations are probably well-founded. Nonetheless, there are certain things which you cannot accuse him of, namely that he denies the Holocaust and that he is anti-Semitic. Unfortunately, now the traditionalist bishop is facing possible imprisonment in Germany for his comments during the Swedish interview.

Although Williamson’s comments were historically inaccurate, you cannot claim he is anti-Semitic or that he fully denied the Holocaust. On the other hand, he denied aspects of the Holocaust. For example, he believed that there were only 200-300,000 Jews killed, not six million, and that gas chambers were never used. He says that he bases his conclusions on “historical evidence”, and he denies “emotion” playing a factor in his decisions.

He also claims that he made his decisions based off of opinions of those whom he thinks judge by historical evidence. In fact, he states that if they changed their opinions, he would also. He trusts those authors whom he believes are good historians.

These are not the comments of an anti-Semite. After all, the murder of 200-300,000 Jews is not exactly a petty matter. Furthermore, he nowhere claims in the interview that he hates Jews. He is by no means another Adolph Hitler.

As mentioned earlier, Williamson says he based his decisions on those of certain historians and states that he would change his opinion if they changed theirs. In other words, if they decided that there were gas chambers and that six million Jews died in the Holocaust, he would believe them! Does that sound anti-Semitic?

He is not an anti-Semite because he does not hate Jews. He is not a heretic because the Holocaust is not part of Catholic doctrine. He is not a liar, as Monsignor Robert Wister called him, because liars say things which they do not believe, and he clearly seems to believe what he says.

However, he is a conspiracy theorist. Not to mention, many of his facts are wrong. Six million Jews most certainly died in the Holocaust, and many of them died in gas chambers.

Nonetheless, everyone regardless of his decisions or beliefs deserves a fair trial.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Before the emergency vehicles arrived on the scene, Marquette ’02 alumnus Nick Skiffington was driving down Clybourn Ave. when a construction worker running away from the site of the new Marquette Law School, Eckstein Hall, caught his eye. Then, Skiffington saw the flames shooting up behind the worker.

“I slammed on my brakes, and the guy behind me slammed on his,” Skiffington said, “It took me a second to grab my cell phone and call, but when I did, the lady said emergency vehicles were already on their way.”

Skiffington placed his phone call at 3:50 p.m. Emergency vehicles arrived at 3:51 p.m.

In the nearby academic buildings, evacuation did not start until approximately 4:10 p.m., according to Amanda Hein, a teaching assistant for a class held in David A. Straz, Jr. Hall. “Public Safety sent officers to evacuate the building floor by floor,” Hein said.

The Haggerty Museum of Art was fully evacuated, while Straz Hall, Gesu Parish and O’Hara Hall were only partially evacuated.

According to Brigid O’Brien Miller, Director of University Communication, Marquette University enacted the evacuation of the east campus buildings only as a safety precaution.

The fire started due to a ruptured vaporization line leading to one section of three interconnected 1,000-gallon propane tanks.

The propane gas within the tanks is a liquid at cold temperatures and needs to be heated to a gas by a vaporizer for use. When the vaporization line ruptured, the heat started the line on fire, which in turn started the tank on fire, according to Battalion Fire Chief Michael Labinski.

Approximately 1,900 gallons of propane were still in the three interconnected tanks, so the Milwaukee Fire Department had to wait for the gas to burn off, although the firefighters stayed busy by directing large amounts of water at the tanks to keep them cool.

“We’re just cooling the tanks… and letting it burn. We keep them cool so the tank doesn’t superheat and explode,” Labinski said. “This is a controlled situation.”
Six construction workers were on the scene at the time the fire started. According to Labinski, they were in the trailer, heard a hissing noise and came out to find the tank on fire. All six workers are safe and without injury.

Damage to the structure itself has yet to be determined, but due to its containment between two concrete walls in the basement of the building, it is expected to be minimal.

Because of the fire, Clybourn Ave. was closed from 11th to 13th streets, and classes in Straz Hall were cancelled for the rest of the night.

The most disappointing closing was the cancellation of Marquette University Chorus’ concert with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra at Gesu that was co-sponsored by Marquette University and Gesu Parish.

“Marquette University called us and decided to cancel the concert,” said Margi Horner, Director of Liturgy at Gesu. “We did not make the decision.”
MU Chorus member Christine Kehl was disappointed not to be able to perform but said that the concert will be rescheduled.

Popularity: 13% [?]

As the school year enters its second semester, MUSG is looking toward the future and has started holding meetings to discuss the upcoming elections. While this transition will affect the entire student body, the two individuals it affects the most are Ray Redlingshafer and Kathleen Blaney, the President and Vice President of MUSG, respectively.

As such, I thought it would be wise to look at their election platform and see what they have gotten done thus far and what is still left to be completed before the end of the year. I was fortunate enough to be able to ask Blaney some questions about where the Redlingshafer/Blaney camp has been and check out what the future holds.
Here is a quick refresher of what Redlingshafer and Blaney’s campaign promised back in March of 2008. They wanted to create a smoother Student Organization Allocation process, improve communication with the Department of Public Safety about what is going on around campus, and add more computers to the Alumni Memorial Union. In addition, they wanted to add a position on Programs Board directed at service, improve Marquette by making it a more environmentally sustainable campus, improve financial aid, and work on getting an electric LIMO.

According to Blaney, they are doing well at reaching their goals for the school year. In fact, when asked about the possibility that anything on their long list of campaign promises might not get completed, Blaney answered with a simple and confident, “no.”

How is the SOA process going? Well, there were several club sports teams that were deeply troubled by the lack of funding they were able to receive from the budget surplus due to submission deadlines, but the large number of students concerned with this prompted action from MUSG to find a way to get at least some money allocated to them. Other than that snafu, Blaney was happy to announce the holding of three “SOA information workshops… to clarify the funding process.”

She notes that MUSG has a “strong relationship with Chief Rickard” of DPS and the Neighborhood Initiatives Committee discusses safety issues on campus and the surrounding area.

As for the computers in the AMU, that is something that was brought to the Senate a long time ago. However, none have been installed and many people have complained that it has taken way too long to actually get the computers for student use.

No word from Blaney about the service position being enacted or proposed for Programs Board, but she said that MUSG started a Thanksgiving food drive competition back in November.

While Redlingshafer sits on the Environmental Task Force, nothing concrete has materialized out of this goal, but Blaney said that ETF is “in the process of organizing a new website to explain the sustainability and environmental movements of the university.” This future website will also include a place for students to post their environmental concerns.

The other environmentally friendly goal of Redlingshafer and Blaney was to have a working electric LIMO on campus but that has not yet happened.
It was unclear at the time of publication how MUSG has improved financial aid, but as soon as the Warrior knows, you’ll know.

As you can see, it is a mixed bag of accomplishments and hypotheticals for the Redlingshafer administration, however, Blaney, as noted before, is confident all the things they have promised the student body will eventually get done. We may have to wait until after their administration is complete to see their vision come to be.
If there is something you as a student feel is missing from campus, or if you don’t feel that MUSG is doing enough, there is always something you can do about it. Tell your representative how you feel, come to a Senate meeting and voice your opinion during the forum for concerned students, or even run for MUSG President. Elections are coming up, you know!

Popularity: 12% [?]