Sitzmann Hall opened its doors Oct. 29 to the public for the first time since the $4.2 million summer-long renovation began last spring. Don Briel, director of Catholic Studies, said some Catholic Studies classes may be moving back into Sitzmann Hall as early as Nov. 6.
“Well the only delay right now is the technology with the smart room, the seminar room and the classroom,” he said. “And there has to be an adjustment in the location of the camera in the classroom.”
Aïcha Ech Channa, founder and president of a Casablanca, Morocco, organization that provides services for unmarried women with children, won the $1 million 2009 Opus Prize. St. Thomas and the Opus Prize Foundation of Minnetonka presented the award Wednesday night in Minneapolis’ Orchestra Hall. The other two finalists – Sister Valeriana García-Martín of Bogotá, Colombia, and the Rev. Hans Stapel of Guaratinguetá, Brazil – each received $100,000 awards.
After going into cardiac arrest during a dance performance Oct. 16 in Scooter’s, freshman Gauthier Biyanga Mubwa has resumed attending St. Thomas.
Since his Oct. 23 release from Regions Hospital, Mubwa has returned to the hospital for checkups and will attend biweekly heart rehabilitation therapy sessions.
“I was really surprised [to collapse],” Mubwa said. “It’s never happened to anyone in my family.”
Last year on Election Day, a line wrapped around outside of McNeely Hall as voters waited for their turn. This year, election judges sat and waited for voters to file in.
At McNeely Hall, where 4th ward, 6th precinct St. Paul elections were held, 219 people voted. Of the voters, 18 people were new registered voters. Eighty-five to 90 percent of new registered voters were students, said registration judge Richard Simmer.
But in last year’s election, 2,101 people voted at McNeely Hall and 845 people were registered on Election Day.
Lindsey Bitter spent the first few weeks of her freshman year at St. Thomas lying in bed, trying to summon the energy to get up and meet other students. She had dreamed of going to St. Thomas since she was young, but depression almost took that dream away.
“I was really excited when I first got to St. Thomas. But when my parents left me, I began to cry hysterically,” Bitter said. “I would go to my room and just lay in bed crying.”
Up ‘til Dawn has extended its registration deadline to Nov. 6 as 419 students were signed up by the original Oct. 29 deadline.
Last year, St. Thomas raised $88,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. That total was good enough for fifth out of more than 300 competing schools and as a result Up ’til Dawn awarded St. Thomas the top recruiting award for its efforts.
“We’re a pretty small school,” said senior Annie Donnellan, St. Thomas’ Up ’til Dawn executive director. “We did really well for our size.”
Sophomore quarterback Dakota Tracy completed 15 passes for 185 yards and three touchdowns in his first career start Saturday at O’Shaughnessy Stadium as St. Thomas (7-1, 6-1 in MIAC) pounded Augsburg College 42-3.
The family of a St. Thomas student who died on a spring break trip to Mexico has filed a lawsuit alleging it happened after a struggle with a traveling companion who has competed in ultimate fighting competitions.
Opus Corporation, the construction company, moved the demolition date of nearby O’Shaughnessy Hall to the beginning of March instead of at the end of the school year in May.
A St. Thomas health official said the number of reported H1N1 cases at St. Thomas has reached 277. Although its arrival date is still not set, the vaccine may arrive on campus around Thanksgiving.
Last April, three students were paired with the Opus Foundation to evaluate three humanitarian sites nominated for the Opus Prize and these students came back with much more than another stamp in their passports.
St. Thomas students and their professor have designed the first portable biodiesel production system, which can fit in the back of a pickup truck.
“Other companies were trying to get this done and we got it done in a year before they did,” said graduate student John Gorman, who worked on the system last year.
The Tommies’ high-powered offense was led by sophomore quarterback Dakota Tracy who came in early in the second half in place of Greg Morse.
This year’s intramural football league wanted to include more than just men, so a co-ed division was created in the traditionally male sport.
Friends Julia Brandes and Ellen Traynor are some of the women taking advantage of the first year of co-ed intramural football. And these women are no strangers to the game of football.
“My dad taught me how to play football a long time ago,” Brandes said.
In 2000, Tracy Ertl made a trip to Rome for a special purpose. Throughout her childhood she had lived in a broken, disruptive home; a home where she was a victim of sexual abuse by her own father.
