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By Caitlyn Witt
senior sta writer
 Accepted or rejected?
United Nations at astandstill with Palestine
The St. Catherine University (SCU)community was asked last week to challengethe conceptions surrounding something weencounter on a daily basis: ood.Food Week, which began ater midtermbreak, consisted o over 30 events ocused onood justice, workers’ rights and sustainability,calling SCU to both awareness and mobilizationon these subjects. This resulted in a list o demands rom the community to the school.“The ideas that have been coming out o this community have been antastic in termso the survey, in terms o the panels, in termso leaders in this community,” senior CirienSaadeh said. “People are stepping orwardto the table and are really engaging in thedialogue and the mobilization eort in away I have never seen beore rom my peerson a single issue.”The idea or Food Week came aboutthrough discussions by Saadeh and juniorLiesl Wol on campus last semester, andood justice continued to rise as a topic thatneeded to be addressed. Since then, they have been receiving support rom Sodexo,the Sisters o St. Joseph o Carondelet (CSJ)Justice Comission, Student Senate, MinnesotaPublic Interest Research Group (MPIRG), thePublic Health Club, the School o Businessand Leadership, and the President’s ClimateCommitment (PCC).Food justice, as described by Saadeh, isthe recognition and awareness o how oodis grown and how it has reached your plate.This understanding encompasses the stagesrom the seed to the produce, to the picking,to the transportation, to the economics, tothe workers, to the caeteria, to the chesand to the plate in which money is handedover to purchase.“What ood justice means to me is thatevery step o the way in how ood is planted,harvested [and] transported, how it gets toour tables essentially, there’s airness, there’sequity and people are treated airly and justly,” Wol said.
Learn to eat ‘glocally’
Organizers challenge SCUto consider ood justice
By Becky Doucette
associate editor
See EAT ‘GLOCALLY’ pg. 2
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ST. CATHERINE UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPER
November 8, 2011 - VOLUME 79 ISSUE 5
T
Wheel
This newspaper, like many other things, is recyclable.Online at thewheel-scu.tumblr.com
Index:
Opinion:2-3 features:4-6 health:7-8 sports:8
Students, faculty, staff, CSJs, and other members of the SCU community marched during the opening ceremony of Food Week onMonday, Oct. 31. They held signs reading phrases such as “Food should be fair” and “Peas now.” Photo by Heather Kolnick.
In Ramallah, Palestine, more than 1,000Palestinian citizens assembled outside o the Palestinian government headquartersanti-United States protest ater PresidentBarack Obama addressed the United Nations(UN) General Assembly, giving what many Palestinians believe to be the “most pro-Israeli speech to a non-Jewish audience in hispresidential career,” according to The TelegraphMahmoud Abbas, President o Palestine,submitted an application or recognition tothe UN in late September which addressedseveral ocal areas, including two-staterecognition o Israel and Palestine, meetingwith the Quartet on the Middle East andthe Separation Wall between Palestine andIsrael. The Quartet is a group consisting o the our supranational and internationalentities including the UN, the United States,the European Union and Russia.The Palestinian government is asking orrecognition o the original state borders inwhich Israel occupied East Jerusalem, theWest Bank and Gaza beore the Six-Day Warbetween Palestine and Israel.“The West Bank has been occupied by theor the irst oicial Media.
Graphic by Heather Kolnick.
See PALESTINE, pg. 3
Israeli army since 1967,” sophomore andinternational student Zain Jarrar romPalestine said. “[It] is divided intothree areas; A, B and C. Area A isunder the Palestinian administrationand control but is only 17 percent o the West Bank territories. The restare under Israeli control.”St. Catherine University (SCU)Assistant Proessor o PoliticalScience Maria Tzintzarova explainedthe process that the Palestinianstatehood bid has to undergo inorder to be a member o the UN.“A sovereign state submits a request
Currently, there are
193member states in theUnited Nations.
 
South Sudan
 
 was the
to join the UN to the UN Secretary General,”Tzintzarova said. “The Secretary Generalhands the request to the Security Council.Then the Security Council has to approvethe request with nine out o 15 votes. Theve permanent members cannot veto (the
most recent country to beadmitted
as a new memberstate, ocially joining the UnitedNations on July 14 o this year.
The United Nations was
 
established in 1945
in responseto the events that occurred duringWorld War II.
An application or recognitionto the United Nations wasormally submitted by thePresident o Palestine, MahmoudAbbas, on Sept. 23.
There were two primary eorts madeduring Food Week and one o these eortsocused on eating locally.“Actually, one o our themes this year‘Beyond Your Plate,’ in which we dened itin a more dicult concept, ‘think glocally,’”Saadeh said. “It’s thinking beyond our platein a way thats more global and local. In the year o global thinking at [SCU] and globallearning, this is glocal eating and thats areally powerul concept.”Food Week annunciated the concept thateating local is a global and internationally based issue. Communication Studies ProessorJoshua Haringa brought to light a dilemmapeople ace.“We do make an impact when we decideto eat these products that are coming romSouth America[n] produce and we don’t seehow those workers are being treated,” Haringasaid. “That has a huge global impact. Ourignorance to how our ood is produced andwhere it comes rom allows or those exploitativesorts o systems, literally plantations.”Wol stressed the changes that can occurwhen switching to local eating and shopping.“When we support local armers, thatmeans our economy grows and we become
 
NEWS & OPINION
2 | The WheelNovember 8, 2011
Editor-in Chief:ALEXA CHIHOSLayout Designer:SARAH WENTEAssociate Editor:BECKYDOUCETTESections Editor:ANNE MOECopy Editor:ANNA HAYESPhoto Editor:HEATHER KOLNICKPhotographers:DEVON ARNDT,SARAH KICZULA Adviser:SHEILA ELDREDSenior Staff Writers:CAITLYNWITT, ELYSE JOHNSON, DEVONARNDT, RACHEL ARMSTRONGStaff Writers:SARAH KICZULA, JULIE SAWADOGO, DANA AL-EMAM, ISHIKA HUQ, KAITLYNDAHLEIf you would like to contribute toThe Wheel, please contact us at wheel@stkate.edu.
MISSION STATEMENT
The Wheel aspires to reflect thediversity and unique atmospherethat comprises St. Catherine Uni- versity. We strive to provide aninclusive newspaper primarilyfor the students and by the stu-dents. The Wheel promotes the vision of empowering women tolead and influence as well as anunderstanding of the universitycommunity inside and outsideof the gates. As a staff we aim tomeet the highest journalistic stan-dards and stand in accordance with the 1st Amendment of theConstitution of the United Statesof America and policies of priorrestraint. The Wheel is not a pub-lic relations vehicle for any SCUindividual, group, department orfor the college as a whole. We welcome feedback and encour-age an open discourse. The Wheelis supported by student fundsand is distributed free of charge.
ST. CATHERINE UNIVERSITY
WHEELSTAFF
Volume 79, issue 5
EAT ‘GLOCALLY’continued...
Food Week supporter Rachel Thompson ’14 holds a sign while marching in theFood Week opening ceremony. According to the Food Week Facebook page, “The
week is about dening food as it means to SCU and seeing what needs to be done
at St. Catherine University to make our food be a better representation of our com-munity.” Photos by Heather Kolnick.SCU Food Week supporters created a symbolic community garden and placedit on the SCU Quad for the duration of the weeklong event.
Let’s say you decided to spend the wintersemester in a hot, un and sunny place,and so you spent many days during the alllooking or a place to go until you ound thisawesome island called Sunland. You are very excited to discover this beautiul island, itsculture, new riends and, above all, practice your Sunlandish. On the other hand, youeel bad leaving your riends and amily inMinnesota. However, the excitement is greaterthan all these ears. You can’t wait to leave!This is the experience many internationalstudents who study at St. Catherine University (SCU) had beore they came to the UnitedStates. Most o us were very excited to cometo the U.S. and most importantly, to an all-women’s college in Minnesota. What comesto mind right away is that it will be easy toconnect with other students because weare all women and we will understand eachother. However, things don’t always happenthe way you plan them. You have to acechallenges you didn’t even consider whenleaving: the weather, the language and thecultural dierences.It turns out that Sunland is way too hot orthe Minnesotan you are, and you didn’t thinkit would be so hard to speak in Sunlandishwith native speakers. In addition, people havestrange habits compared to the ones you wereused to dealing with in Minnesota. You ndit hard to connect with people because thereare dierences in the way people interact.Lost in your thoughts, you remember thatthere is a student club ull o oreigners atSunland. At least people there ace the sametroubles so you will understand each other.And guess what: many o them speak Englishas their native language.Likewise, many international students havetrouble adjusting to their new environmentat SCU. Here are the thoughts o some o them who wanted to remain anonymous:A French speaker said,“I had some dicultiesto understand English speakers a ew monthsater I came to the U.S.” This made it dicultor her to connect with Americans. Sometimes,this issue becomes almost unbearable.As another international student stated“The rst day when I started school was thetoughest time in my lie. I elt something I
Knock down the barriers
•
An internationalstudent speaks aboutcultural diiculties
By Julie Sawadogo
had not elt beore. I remember sitting in aclass ull o students who were talking to eachother and not understanding what they weresaying. In this situation I elt lonely becauseo the language barrier.”Besides the language barrier, the culturaldierences make it harder or internationalstudents to blend into their new society.Indeed, many o them have to ace many stumbling blocks in their interactions withAmericans such as “Minnesota nice.” It ishard to understand why somebody smilesand even says hi to you when she does notintend to connect with you.An international student said with muchsadness, “I eel like people here don’t mindtalking to you in class or at work but when you want to hang out and have un withthem ater that, they always have somethingelse to do. ”The only American riend some o theinternational students have is their roommate.It is rustrating or international studentsnot to be able to make new riendshipswith American students and so they alwayshang out with other international studentslike themselves.“I try to nd an escape by talking to my riends back home on the internet, whichtakes me away rom communicating withAmericans,” one student conessed.Spending time with other internationalstudents denitely prevents internationalstudents rom having an eective culturalexperience in the U.S. But the good news isthat everyone can help make SCU a moreenjoyable place.International students can try to go outo their comort zone and reach out toAmerican students. It is inevitable to acecultural dierences, so the best attitude is justto embrace them and get used to them. Befexible and tolerant with cultural dierences.American students can help a lot by talking to an international student in classand hanging out with her sometimes, maybeeven inviting her to do something o-campusoccasionally. Most students would be happy to answer all your questions, and you willget the chance to discover a lot about othercultures, too. I am quite sure that you wouldmake lielong riendships, and by the way,have a new destination or your next vacation.Sunland is a very good place to be and itlooks great on the brochures and the maps, butis it really worth it to go to a beautiul islandwhen you don’t get the chance to interactwith the people there? Let’s go beyond thebarriers and make some new riends!Julie can be reached at
 jsawadogo@stkate.edu.
more sustainable as a community rather thanrelying on other sources,” Wol said. “It alsocreates community and i we all operate inthat way then other communities who usedto be sustainable, who now have all o theirarmland owned by big corporations, they can go back…in a way it’s helping those whohave already been exploited too.”The second ocus oFood Week wasworkers’ rights. According to the denitionFood Week used, a concern o ood justiceis awareness o whether workers are beingexploited.“I saw that [on a trip to] El Paso, [immigrants]were given seven dollars an hour and thatwasn’t enough to sustain their amilies andthey were essentially homeless, they wereliving in shelters.” Wol said. “There are alsotoxicity [issues], where they are exposed toimportant stakeholders,” Haringa said. “But,sadly, we know that students are a transientpopulation. They come and they leave. Weneed to take rom their lead, ollow their leadand get aculty, sta and people that will behere or much longer time periods to showthe same commitment.”In looking toward the uture beyond FoodWeek, Saadeh challenges the SCU community to act as she asks whether our own caeteriaand dining options ollow through with themission o SCU and gives the community opportunities to achieve and excel in theirwork. However, she also sees that SCU isalready making progress towards somethinggreater.“Two years ago, Sodexo was trying to getrid o Peace Coee on campus,” Saadehsaid. “Now they are saying, ‘Peace Coee,Community Garden, Food Week, Localproducts, let’s make it happen.’”On Thursday, Nov. 10, the Food WeekSteering Commission will hold a publicmeeting in which students and aculty canevaluate and refect on the events o FoodWeek. this meeting will also ocus on takingthe next steps to continue the actions o making ood justice present on campus.“It’s very important or us to consider theprice o dignity that goes into each meal andthe act that we need to respect the peoplewho come to our campus community by respecting everybody else and everythingpesticides and the healthrisks that encompass thattoo, such as back problemswith bending down andpicking ood.”Other events during FoodWeek included Secretary o State Mark Richie’s visitand support o the eorts,movie showings and tourso the kitchens and greenroos. However, there wasdisappointment amongFood Week organizers inthe lack o administrativeappearance at these events.“A set back o Food Weekwas the lack o support rom alot o the powerul gures oncampus and administration,”Wol said. “I think [that] wasreally disappointing. We’veonly had two administratorsshow up to events thusar and we only had twoadministrators show up toMark Richie, the Secretary o State, who came on campus…maybe [the support] is therebut we haven’t seen it.”At the rally that closedFood Week, Dean o StudentAairs Curt Galloway waspresent to accepted the listo demands created out o the surveys. The steeringcommission o Food Weekreceived over 200 completedsurveys rom the community,which described what changesthey would like to see in thedining options available.“We are here or studentsso that they become the mostelse,” Saadeh said. “It’s much bigger than onecampus or one culture or one internationalsetting; it’s a matter o recognizing ourdierences, recognizing the disparities thatexist, and then taking a step orward.”Becky can be reached at
rjdoucette@stkate.edu
 
NEWS & OPINION
November 8, 2011 The Wheel | 3
Editorial:
Do we have a choice?
By Becky Doucette
associate editor
United States is not one o the ve), otherwiseit will not pass successully. I approved by the Security Council, the request goes inront o the General Assembly and has tobe approved by [a] two-thirds majority.”The issue with this process, however,is that Palestine is only recognized as anobserver entity. The Palestinian LiberationOrganization (PLO) along with the Fatahpolitical party are the leading orces inrepresenting Palestine in the UN.“It doesn’t seem right to deny Palestinethis membership because o our own politicalinterests,” Political Science Club PresidentChristina Paetzel said. “I believe that allowingPalestine to have the protections o UNmembership would lead to more peaceuloptions rather than more confict, because itwould result in a standard o accountability or violence against Palestine.”The Israeli government highly opposes thePalestinian membership into the UN due totheir lack o cooperation during negotiationsto bring peace between the warring countries.“As a Palestinian, I was very skeptical aboutit and I neither supported nor opposed it,”Jarrar said. “The U.S. calls the Palestinians andIsraelis toward talks and negotiations but theact that Israel reuses to stop building homeson Palestinian land makes the negotiationsuseless. It’s like negotiating how to share apiece o pizza while the other person is eatingit. That’s the No. 1 reason why Abbas decidedto leave the negotiating table and requesta membership state in the UN. I supportpeaceul resistance, and the Palestinianstatehood bid seems a sensible and a goodstep towards peace.”Israel rejects the 1967 borders as basis ornegotiations or as basis or a Palestinian stateand does not support the UN membershipstate.“I think the number one reason is that i Palestine became a state, the 500,000 illegalsettlers (under international law) who live inthe West Bank will be internationally knownas occupiers,” Jarrar said. “Many Palestiniansalso believe that the reason Israel does notwant a Palestinian state is because they aredreaming o a Greater Israel, and that explainsthe continuous land conscation and homedemolitions in the West Bank and especially near Jerusalem.”The Israeli-Palestinian confict has beena long-running issue or the UN and theQuartet on the Middle East. In 2001, theQuartet laid out a plan called The RoadMap, a three-phase plan in which Israeli-Palestinian territorial, security and politicalissues would be negotiated and monitoredby the Quartet. In recent years, however,suicide bombings, civil unrest, protests anddiplomatic disagreements have caused bothIsrael and Palestine to break negotiationsand end or themselves.“Add us on Facebook, ollow us on Twitter”doesn’t that sound like a phrase we hearevery day?The huge growth o social mediathroughout web-based networks allows usersto communicate and promote ideas, servicesand items. We asked a ew o the internationalstudents in St. Catherine University (SCU)about social media in their countries and inthe United States:
Sahar Abbas from Pakistan
How does social media operate in yourcountry?
The usage o social media depends on the
PALESTINE continued...
By Dana Al-Emam
sta writer
Ater participating in some o the FoodWeek activities and sharing in the joys o St.Catherine University (SCU) moving orward,a question had come up in discussion: dowe have a choice in what we eat? Choiceis exceedingly larger than standing in thesuper market or convenience stop with abox o organic or non-organic crackers, it’s amultitude o actors, actors that decide or us.It’s easy to point at someone’s lunch and judge them, “you’re going to eat all that meat?”Or, “you got pizza instead o a sandwich?”An assumption goes into this judgment, thatall students make an individual choice onwhether they eat healthy and organic or not.First o all, prices are skewed in the USeconomy and grocery system. I have workedat a grocery store or three summers now,and I can state that the price o one apple,there in the grocery store, is always a ewcents more than a burger at McDonalds. I challenged to eed a amily o our with 10dollars, a realistic experience or many, wouldit make more sense to buy eight apples, orour meals? Most likely the latter.These price diculties happen within theSCU caeteria, too. Should I get the sandwichthat has been sitting out or a while, or thepizza that has been sitting out or just as longbut is hal the price? With the meal plan Ihave, I am tired o ried oods. However, Ihaven’t necessarily had the nances to switchmy diet entirely.Second, there is a crisis o “ood deserts.”This past week I learned that this term can benegative; however, the implications are stillpresent. There are regions, predominantly poor, that have little-to-no access to reshproduce or meat. Consumers either have todrive an hour just to get to a market, or they have to buy canned goods. The option toeat well isn’t even available to some amilies.Living in the Highland area I know this is nota diculty I ace. However, I do not have themeans to get to a grocery market except by walking. In the winter time I will be orcedto use the dining services provided to me.According to British Braodcastingcorporation (BBC) News, Israeli PrimeMinister Netanyahu believes that Palestine’smembership into the UN will not help resolveany o the ongoing conficts between theMiddle Eastern countries.“A diplomatic conrontation is not in theinterest o any party,” Jarrar said. “For Israel,i the Palestinian statehood bid ailed, it willprompt an outburst o public anger andpossible violence in the occupied territories.For Palestine, it means more restrictive control.”The Israeli-occupied territories in Palestineare already under strict control and ail to bein suitable conditions or Palestinian civilians.“The Palestinians don’t enjoy their ullreedom, even in the Palestinian-controlledterritories, and are subject to invasions at any time without question,” Jarrar said. “Humanrights are deeply violated in those territorieswith house demolitions, land conscation,disregard o human lives, minors less than theage o 15 in prisons, destruction o property and the list goes on.”Currently, Palestine’s membership isdivided between the UN Security Council,but Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyadal-Malki has stated to Reuters that thePalestinian delegation is working hard tosecure the minimum nine out o 15 votesto pass membership approval on to theGeneral Assembly.United States opposition comes romPresident Barak Obama’s speech to theGeneral Assembly on Sept. 21.“Despite extensive eorts by America andothers, the [Israelis and Palestinians] havenot bridged their dierences...peace is hardwork, peace will not come through statementsand resolutions at the United Nations...ultimately peace depends on compromise,”President Obama said.No recent news reports have been madeabout the UN’s decision to admit the observerentity Palestine into the organization butthe Palestinians are hopeul that they willreceive the minimum nine o 15 votes romthe UN Security Council without veto andthe General Assembly will pass with a two-thirds majority.“Membership would denitely increasethe leverage o Palestine in negotiationswith Israel, but it might also lead to negativeresponse, such as economic measures, againstit by economic power-houses such as theU.S.,” Tzintzarova said.“The Palestinians have been denied theirbasic rights or 60 years and has been sueringto gain reedom and sel-determination,”Jarrar said. “The option or the Palestinianso just sitting back and doing nothing isn’ta very good one. It will change the termso the debate and tilt the balance o powerinternationally against Israel and in avor o the Palestinians.”Caitlyn can be reached at
cmwitt@stkate.edu.
Pressure on the media has a grasp urtherthan we even consider as well. The act that,on an everyday basis, we see an average o 300 advertisements, is disturbing. These300 advertisements can convince us, asconsumers, on what clothes we “choose” towear, the car we “choose” to buy, the oodwe “choose” to eat. How much individualchoice is realistically considered? A study states that 47 percent o girls in grades 5-12want to lose weight specically because o magazine images.Which leads to my inal point: eatingdisorders are not uncommon, especially orwomen. As a college that tries to help andsupport students with whatever they need,discussions o ood can be challenging anddicult or some students on our campus.For students who ace an eating disorder,they might have a hard time entering thecaeteria and choosing ood or their ownwell-being. In order to make progress in theirhealth, they might not ocus their choiceson being socially responsible, but on beingsel-responsible.The topic surrounding choice and decisionneeds to be addressed both in the community,and outside o the SCU gates. We must takea step back and decide i we have a choice inwhat we eat or the well-being o ourselves,the beings who are aected (produce andmeat) and workers who are all aected by our decisions. I we do not have a choice,how can we move orward and make thesechoices available? How can we change theprice system? How can we minimize “ooddeserts”? How can we have these conversationssurrounding choice and other challenges thataect ood decisions? These questions arenecessary to discuss and engage in; especially since ood is a challenge we all have to acedaily. Why not ace these challenges as aunited community?Becky can be reached at
rjdoucette@stkate.edu.
region. For example, people in the villagesdon’t use social media but people in the citiesare crazy about it and use it all the time.
What is a dierence between social mediain The U.S. and your country?
In the U.S. it’s used a lot or gettinginormation and displaying announcementsand advertisements. People here in the U.S.tend to overuse it compared to the cities inPakistan.
What do you think about using socialmedia?
It could be positive since it’s an easy andcheap way to communicate with others andconvey ideas. For me, I preer seeing catchy advertisements on the web rather thannewspapers. On the other hand, it couldwaste peoples’ time on unimportant things.
 Wend-YamCompaore fromBurkina Faso
How does socialmedia operate in yourcountry?
Young people areattached to social media,since many people liveoutside the country seeking education or jobs. So people usesocial media to stay in contact with eachother. Everybody has a Facebook account,even my cousin’s six-year-old son in Londonhas a Facebook account.
What is dierence between social mediain The U.S.A and your country?
The speed o networks here in the U.S.is way aster than the speed o networksin Burkina, although the level o using theinternet is almost the same.
What do you think about using socialmedia?
For me it’s good because I can stay closeto my amily, but some people use socialmedia to upload bad pictures and don’tunderstand that they shouldn’t share everything.
Lucia Abolafia Cobofrom Spain
How does social media operate in yourcountry?
People in Spain use the internet, but youdon’t see people using their laptops in publicplaces as you see it here in the United States.I need social media to stay connected withamily members and riends, I also use itbecause I work in translation.
What is dierence between social mediain The U.S. and your country?
Since I came to the U.S. I started receivinga lot o emails every day but I think thattalking to people is a more eective than justsending them an email with a readymadeormat, because when you interact withpeople ace to ace you deliver your messagein a clearer way.
What do you think about using socialmedia?
Social media is important or companiesor advertisements and publicity, it’s easy or people to click and see.Dana can be reached at
dwalemam@stkate.edu.
Graphic by Heather Kolnick.
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