Oracle Online

The Hamline Bookstore, like all well-conceived and operated campus bookstores, recognizes that it sits at the center of a complex and intricate set of relationships. Each of the relationships involves the bookstore and a constituency of the university and brings to the relationship a set of goals and expectations. The goals and expectations of one of the constituencies may be in marked contrast to those of another. It is the duty and responsibility of the management and staff of the bookstore to reconcile those contrasting goals and expectations. I’ve heard someone compare this to pushing on one side of a balloon. It’s easy enough to push on that one side but it’s not all that easy to keep the other side of the balloon from bulging out. Pick your own metaphor: a tightrope walk on multiple tightropes, a juggling act with way more than just three balls to keep in the air, a bulging balloon; they’re all fair ways to model what a campus bookstore does every day. I truly hope that the bookstore has been wise and fair in the ways that it has managed the delivery of services to these various constituencies.

I’m proud of the work that’s been accomplished in the bookstore over the past two-plus decades. The co-workers that I’ve had the pleasure to spend my days with have been some of the most committed and hardworking people that I can imagine. Whatever success the store has enjoyed has come from these employees’ time and energy and good humor and their realization that service to our community is what makes us tick. Students, alumni, faculty, staff and administration have been far more than abstract constituencies. These groups have provided the framework to build the bookstore around and it has never been less than a privilege to work with and for all of the people who have formed these groups.

The recent support that the bookstore has received and the concerns that have been expressed of the hopes that I will be able to return to this work next September have been gratifying beyond measure. I’d like to thank everyone who has made time in the middle of their own busy schedules to make those expressions of support and concern. This has only strengthened my own hopes to be able to move ahead with the work that has occupied me here.

Being at Hamline has been far more than selling textbooks and sweatshirts for me. My greatest pleasures have been the friendships that have been formed and the opportunities to do good work beyond the walls of the bookstore.

I want to be able to build on my contributions to the Bush Library and scholarship funds. I want to be able to continue to provide support to the student and staff organizations that have come to the bookstore hoping for that kind of support. I want to be able to continue to plug Hamline in my contributions to our local jazz public radio station.

I hope that you can sense my gratitude and accept my thanks for the chance to work with all of you here. And I hope that you can understand and share my wishes to be back for more of the same.

-Dave Young
Hamline University Bookstore

Bringing professionalism, high expectations back

At the end of this school year, your representatives, the executive board, and I will begin preparing for the next school year. It is my challenge and pleasure to lead this endeavor over the summer.

Before we all go home, start new work schedules, and try to forget about the late nights of finals week I would like to remind you of our plan for the coming year.

Ed Elfmann and I were not elected by HUSC members, but rather by individual members of the student body. We believe our vision and platform for the activities of HUSC reflect the importance we place on the many beliefs, ideas, and interests of our fellow students.

Despite the onslaught of resistance from within HUSC itself, we are determined to make HUSC an organization that works for and with you in a compassionate and mutually respectful way. We intend to bring professionalism back into the general assembly and to the relationships between the students and the administration. We will strive to help HUSC overcome the fighting and pettiness which have tarnished its image and all of its relationships for so long. We will challenge ourselves to rise above pettiness as well.

But we can do none of these things on our own. Our strong leadership depends on a strong student body that is willing to voice its opinion, ask tough questions, and maintain high expectations not only of HUSC but also of themselves.

Gandhi said “be the change you seek.” Over the summer I ask that you reflect on what changes you wish to seek on campus and think about how we can all work to be that change in the fall. I will do the same.

For now, I seek to live up to HUSC’s charge to be tolerant, open, and accepting of individuals of different backgrounds, perspectives, and persuasions with the hope that members of HUSC, the student body, and I can continue to do so throughout our work together.

-Mchael Elliott
HUSC President-Elect

HUSC members should support students' choice

On March 7, 2007, Michael Elliott was elected President of HUSC for the ‘07-’08 academic year. This was an unprecedented election in which the student body spoke more loudly than ever, electing a candidate by write-in vote after HUSC members removed his name from the ballot.

From the moment this election was announced, current members of student congress began working to undermine the students’ choice for the coming year. Those individuals sought support from several members of the university’s faculty and staff and attempted to undermine the students’ choice for president by intimidating his supporters and executive board candidates using Facebook to spread their erroneous accusations.

Last Tuesday-May 1-members of HUSC further invested themselves in the struggle to maintain the status quo by voting no confidence in the students’ choice for leadership, despite the dissenting opinions and votes of several reputable members of HUSC.

On May 8, in Giddens Learning Center room 100E, HUSC will hold their final general assembly meeting for this academic year.

At this meeting the same members of HUSC who have sought to undermine the student body throughout the previous months behind closed doors, through secret channels, and most notably via Facebook will make their intolerance and close-mindedness official by rejecting the incoming president’s chosen executive board and attempting to impeach him before he has served a single day in office.

Their intent is to replace the president with his vice-president elect, who has been actively working to undermine the president by working directly with these malicious individuals to accomplish their goals.

Vice President-Elect Ed Elfmann publicly raised two hands in front of the General Assembly to support the vote of no confidence in the president-elect thus lending his support to the libelous, disrespectful, and unprofessional activity of certain members of HUSC.

This sort of intolerant, reactionary behavior and activity is what the students of Hamline rejected when they elected Michael Elliott, who clearly plans to bring new life to Hamline and its student congress in the form of professionalism, strong leadership, and a real commitment to improving campus life.

HUSC members who choose to work against him work against the constitution of their own organization and the policies of their school both of which support the involvement of individuals of various and diverse perspectives and experiences. They work against building that real community to which HUSC members have paid so much lip service over the years.

Amrit Sharma '08

Mob mentality judges unfairly, lacks respect

Ridiculous is the only word that comes to mind when I hear about current affairs in HUSC. When I think of HUSC, I think about a governing body using decision-making power over a great deal of money to create great opportunities for Hamline students. More so, it is a representation of how Hamline students should work when it comes to proposed advocacy work.

HUSC is not a minority group of people trying to discredit a hard working president-elect. Michael Elliott won; he is the HUSC president for the academic year ’07-’08. He would not have won if the student body did not believe in him. He did win by an overwhelming amount.

It’s not the student body that has no confidencečit’s a mob of people “playing” politics who are offended that Elliott defied the odds and won. I am using strong language here because it appears that people are not trying to work with Elliott, that they just want to push him out, even to the point that his own vice president won’t support him.

When Elliott won, I was a told by a HUSC rep. who was in talks with other reps. that Elliot was “going to have a hard time feeling comfortable in HUSC, because people are not going to work with him willingly.” Now, this was said to me one day after the announcement of Elliott’s victory, way before the so-called communication issues came into the picture. However, I believe that the mentality of this young rep and her fellowship reflects the attitudes that Elliott has been facing.

I can’t speak much on the communication issues, but it would be very hard to communicate effectively with a group who doesn’t want you around. Even before knowing what he stood for, people had their judgments and minds made up about how they were going to treat Elliott, all in an effort to push him out.

That’s not right. No HUSC experience may be a good thing. Most students think HUSC is a joke-which, if you were to look at the current situation, that thought is confirmed. Maybe if the E-board did not have HUSC experience it would be a good thing. It could mean a renewing of the true values of HUSC, and it would also mean that the people are removed from the immaturity which is currently present.

Elliott is not getting respect. Yes, he has to earn respect; he has not been welcomed into HUSC but met with extreme hostility. Instead of respect, Elliott is met with members walking out of his appeal proposals. Disrespectful.

Now I find this disheartening, because I, Tony Wilson, Pete Winiecki’s most vocal critic, do have respect for what Winiecki has done to EAC and the integrity he has brought to the position of treasurer, but his actions were extremely unprofessional and disrespectful. The same with Tina VanSteenbergen. The examples provided do not reflect no confidence, they show personality differences that the aforementioned people have with Elliott. These are personal attacks.

Now draw in the quote from earlier which shows the mob mentality out to make Elliott so miserable that he steps down and Elfman steps up. That’s not going to happen. I personally believe in the passion, integrity and overall advocacy that Elliott plans to bring to HUSC; a lot more than the other candidates would have done.

Basically, behind-the-back debates about Elliott should stop. Elliott is open to meeting and discussing the issues people have, as long as mob mentality doesn’t accompany. Round table discussions will be scheduled where everyone will be invited to discuss issues that currently exist; they will serve as a workshop to learn how Elliot can work for HUSC better, but also how HUSC can work with him. It has to be a two-way street.

I am not saying that Elliott has done everything perfectly, but everyone has to hold themselves accountable for their adult decisions and actions. I am leaving myself open for any comments or discrepancies that people may have with this piece. Please contact me: awilson02@hamline.edu

Tony Wilson ’08

Longevity does not allocate

P.J. O’Rourke phrased it succinctly when he said, “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”

Unfortunately, this dilemma is one aggravated by the existence of student councils everywhere. They may not have much power, but they do have money-at least to some feeble degree-and the positions it offers represent dominance of one’s social environment. To say the least, it is an alluring prospect to many of the frumpy creatures seen stalking about college campuses, seeking to reaffirm their ability to “fit in” to a changing world.

However, when reasoned debate degenerates into inane squabbling over who deserves what more, the line between student council and cheer squad becomes uncomfortably blurred.

This brings us to the thesis of my argument: in the democratic system allegedly used to govern HUSC, power is rightfully manifest in a few individuals selected by voting folk.
In democratic systems, power is not allocated according to who has been around the longest. Such a system is based on the premise that seniority inspires wisdom and virtue, and it is properly known as oligarchy. To those fond of such a system, I say simply: move to Europe. America is not accustomed to or accepting of emperors and fiefdoms.

With regard to the issue of whether the committee chairs being advised by president-elect Michael Elliot should be approved, the answer is unequivocally yes. They may not have extensive experience with the specific organization of HUSC, but those who insist they must are those whose lives consist only of HUSC. They believe that their involvement with that organization has made them so enlightened that no one who has not been involved for as long as they have is as qualified.

I have found that in bureaucracies, the extent to which people generate conflict varies inversely with the degree of value they bring to an organization. Those who insist on insurrection are those unable to win elections.
It is interesting to note that those most prominent in objecting to Elliot’s selections are those who have been most unable to attain power through honest and forthright means.

If nothing else, O’Rourke’s analogy was a fitting one. So long as students are to have this “money and power” with which to deal, it would make sense for them to have the accompanying whiskey. Rather than focusing on insignificant trivialities, we should unite in seeking broad initiatives which would benefit us all-a minibar in the HUB, perhaps?

-Rudy Takala ’08