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1. Reminder: First-Year Students are Registering Tomorrow |
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Please remember that first-year students will be registering for classes tomorrow (Thursday, Aug. 28). Administrative Information Services would appreciate your cooperation; please limit your use of Banner, Discoverer, Oracle Reports and Admin1 between 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. |
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2. Pasties: From Cornwall to Everywhere in Miner's Lunch Buckets |
by John Gagnon, promotional writer
At the recent alumni reunion, the most popular event among the 21 activities was the pasty picnic, which attracted more than 400 participants who savored this Cornish fare steeped in the culture of Upper Michigan.
There is a half-baked notion that pasties are to Upper Michigan what jambalaya is to Louisiana and cured hams are to Virginia. In reality, pasties are fare all over the world, because Cornish miners, out of tin, out of copper and out of work, traveled afar looking for minerals and jobs.
So much so, it was once said of these stalwart miners, "If you look at the bottom of a hole anywhere in the world, you'll find a Cousin Jack." And where you find Cousin Jacks, you find pasties, says social sciences Professor Pat Martin.
An industrial archaeologist, Martin has traveled the world to study historical mining districts; he's particularly interested in the relationship among industry, communities and the environment.
He has been to Cornwall, Australia, Mexico, Germany and Sweden to learn how minerals are extracted—whether silver in Mexico, lead in Wisconsin or copper and iron in the Lake Superior district. He finds common ground all over, and, he says, the Cornish not only brought their mining techniques with them, but their social organizations as well, not to mention the grub. "That's what brings us to pasties." Martin says. He has found them in downtown Mexico City.
The mining industry in Mexico is age-old, predating the Hispanic arrival, but the Cornish established a presence there, Martin says. "You can spot the descendants all over," he points out. He knows, for instance, a man named Jose Trevathan in Pachuca.
"That's one of the towns where the Mexican pasty is made," he says. "Go into those mining towns and buy food on the street—what do you find? Pasties. It might be a mole pasty, or a pasty that includes pineapple instead of rutabaga, but it's a pasty nonetheless."
He has found them in Australia, as well. "The Cornish heritage is very powerful there," Martin states. "The state of South Australia was founded in 1837, just like the state of Michigan. Copper mining began very soon after that, just like in Michigan. The Cornish showed up in Australia, just like in Michigan. And the pasty showed up in Australia, just like in Michigan."
Martin, who plans to visit mining districts in Chile, knows he’ll find pasties there too.
But he allows that he is "not an expert on pasties."
"Seeing them in a mining context is what I know," he says.
Jean Ellis, who taught at Tech in the early 1980s, knows about pasties. Of mostly Cornish descent, she is active in promoting her heritage and chaired a festival, called the "Gathering of Cornish Cousins," that rotates around North America and was held in the Keweenaw in 2007. For her work, she has been designated "a bard of the Cornish" by an ethnic group dedicated to the preservation and celebration of the culture.
There are different recipes for this meal of meat, potatoes and vegetables wrapped in a pie crust that is usually shaped like a half moon. Some use ground chuck, others flank steak and pork with a pinch of suet to make it more moist. No rutabaga, no pasty, some insist, or a good measure of carrot, just a little bit for color, or none at all. "Ketchup is fine," Ellis says. Gravy? "Yuck."
In general, Ellis partakes of a variety of pasties. "If I don't have to cook it, I like it," she jests.
One other ingredient of the pasty is magic. Ellis says there is an old saying, "The devil couldn't go to Cornwall—they would cut him up and put him in a pasty."
More down to earth, she says, the pasty was a handy, portable meal for miners to take into the bowels of the earth—a meal concocted by a "proud and resourceful people."
She treasures that lineage.
"A lot of things go into who we are," she says. |
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3. First Year Students Learn About Academic Integrity |
by Elise Cleary, student news writer
First-year students are learning plenty about Michigan Tech in serious sessions on academic success and a lighter workshop featuring The Troupe.
Through it all orientation team leaders are working hard to mentor and prepare students.
"They have exhibited boundless energy, flashed welcoming smiles, and gone above and beyond to serve students and their families," COMPASS Coordinator Kathrine Russell said.
Hundreds of first-year students packed into Fisher 135 Monday evening. Provost Leslie Lovett-Doust, Director of Student Judicial Affairs Patricia Gotschalk, The Troupe and orientation staff entertained the audience as they discussed academic integrity.
Lovett-Doust began by talking about plagiarism, which maybe tempting in the short term. However, in addition to the risks of getting caught, plagiarisms interferes with true learning and defeats the purpose of an education.
Lovett-Doust ended her short speech by asking everyone to stand and cross hands with the people next to them as she said a pledge about not cheating to which the audience responded "aye, aye," in agreement.
The comedy group The Troupe kept the audience laughing as they acted out situations a student may encounter. Two scenarios dealt with the temptation to look for answers online and helping friends cheat. The performance ended by portraying one student, "Gallant" as the student who hadn’t cheated through college and went on to become successful, where as "Goofus" cheated his way through and failed.
Afterward, The Troupe shared personal stories about how easy it is to accidentally cheat and why students must know what is acceptable and what is not.
Gotschalk concluded the session. "You're supposed to work alone unless otherwise stated," she said. She left students thinking about the 190 cases of cheating reported last school year to the Office of Student Affairs.
Students enjoyed the presentation. "It was well done, and they got the information to stick," said first-year student Andrea Kovacich.
First-year students are in the midst of a full week of orientation, with sessions centered on academic success, college life, student organizations and healthy living. Other activities include Vegas Night, the 500-foot banana split, bowling and billiards, illusionist Craig Karges and Capture the Flag. |
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4. School Builder for the Poor in Afghanistan, Pakistan on Campus Today |
Bestselling author Greg Mortenson will address Michigan Technological University's first-year students at a lecture set for 6:30 p.m. today (Wednesday, Aug. 27) at the Rozsa Center. His talk is free and open to the public.
Mortenson's book, "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time," topped the New York Times best seller list for many months and is the University's 2008 Summer Reading selection. Michigan Tech's 1,400 entering students were asked to read the book over the summer and are discussing it in small groups during orientation.
If the event of an overflow crowd, Mortenson's talk will be broadcast on TV monitors in the Horner Lobby of the Rozsa Center, standing room only.
The book begins with Mortenson's attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain. Weakened by the effort, he was sheltered for weeks by the people of the impoverished Pakistani village of Korphe. To show his gratitude, he promised to build the town's first school, the first project of what would be his Central Asia Institute.
The institute has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan, with emphasis on educating girls. Mortenson and coauthor David Relin assert that collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls, are the only viable tools in the fight against Islamic extremism in the region.
Time Magazine named "Three Cups of Tea" its 2006 Asia Book of the Year and called it "an astonishing tale of compassion—and of promise kept."
A Christian Science Monitor reviewer wrote, "Laced with drama, danger, romance and good deeds, Mortenson's story serves as a reminder of the power of a good idea and the strength inherent in one person's passionate determination to persevere against enormous obstacles."
"Three Cups of Tea" was also the summer reading for Finlandia University and Conserve School, in Land o' Lakes, Wis., and Mortenson will be addressing students from those schools at 11 a.m. today in Room 641 in the Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building. At 1:30 p.m., he will host a question-and-answer session for Michigan Tech faculty and other area educators, also in Dow 641.
The public is welcome at all three of Mortenson's talks. |
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