Radio Script

10/29/2011                                                                                                                 Jenna Long

Slug: Bemidji Critical Mass

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Anchor in Studio:

Make sure that you keep an eye out for a group of bicyclists if you are driving through the city of Bemidji this afternoon.  A critical mass event is set to begin within the next thirty minutes.  The event consists of a group of bicyclists riding together through city streets.  Sandy Callwell is currently at the statues of Paul and Babe, the starting place for the critical mass.

Reporter:

Critical mass is an event that occurs in cities across the world every month and can consist of up to five hundred bicyclists riding as a group through city streets.  Critical mass events are controversial in some cities because the event is notorious for breaking traffic laws, but we have been assured that today’s ride will be peaceful.  Luke Holden, a B-S-U student and bike enthusiast, has participated in several critical mass events and is excited about the ride today.

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Intro: “I’ve always loved bikes. . .

Extro:  . . .take back the streets for a while.”

As someone who grew up infatuated with bicycles, even going so far as to recreate the bicycle from the movie “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure,” Holden feels his bike is just a natural extension of himself.  Holden has yet to participate in any illegal activity while riding in a critical mass event, but he has endured rude and demeaning encounters while riding his bike throughout the years.

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Intro: “People in vehicles have . . .

Extro:  . . . I wasn’t doing anything but riding my bike.”

Bemidji, being relatively small, does not see violence as described very often but it is easy to see how an interaction between a driver and bicyclist could get out-of-hand, especially if it involved a group of bicyclists.  As of now, Bemidji’s critical mass involves less than twenty participants and meets the last Saturday of every month.

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Intro: “It has been getting larger. . .

Extro: . . . more people will hear about it.”

Posters are usually hung up around the B-S-U campus and Bemidji community.  Anybody can publicize the event because there is no one person in charge of critical mass events.  

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Health Insurance Affecting Spring Registration

Although Bemdiji State University administration knew months in advance, BSU students ran straight into a brick wall labeled “mandatory health insurance policy” only one week before registration for spring term began.

BY JENNA LONG              

Bemidji State University implemented a policy requiring all students enrolled in six or more credits to have health insurance. With health care on the minds of most Americans, BSU’s decision should have come as no surprise to the student body.  The policy was adapted by student senate on April 27, 2011, set to be effective for the 2012 spring term. 

The policy requires students only to provide the name of their health care providers during the class registration process, and any insurance company is acceptable.  For students without health care, BSU has provided an affordable option through United Healthcare.  For just over a thousand dollars a year, students can be insured for most medical expenses, excluding eye and dental.  Students can also buy insurance for individual semesters which are priced separately.   

The problem that I see in BSU’s new policy is not the idea of mandatory health insurance for students but instead the untimely manner that the policy was brought to the students’ attention.

Although the policy passed through student senate in late April 2011, most students had no idea that they would need insurance to register for spring semester until a week before registration windows began to open.  “Our senate meetings are on T.V.,” Joe Moubry, the university liaison and senate cabinet member, stated when asked why the policy wasn’t publicized to students. “Why haven’t students been watching or coming to us with their concerns?”   The simple answer to Moubry’s questions is that college students are simply not interested in watching a meeting on T.V. 

Students were not directly informed about the health insurance policy going into effect until an e-mail sent on Oct. 17, 2011, by Mary Ward, interim vice president of student development and enrollment.  There was no e-mail sent to students informing them of the policy in spring 2011 when it was passed nor was a notification sent out at the beginning of the 2011 fall semester.  Pres. Hanson believes that the lack of communication between BSU administration and the student body was due to Mary Ward being hired in July 2011, taking over for Lisa Irwin who sparked the interest in making health insurance mandatory.

This, to me, is not an acceptable reason for students to remain uninformed of such an important addition to the registration process.  A letter or e-mail should have been sent as soon as the policy was officially adapted, and another should have been sent at the beginning of fall 2011.  The lack of communication has resulted in students scrambling to find and pay for affordable insurance before their registration window opens.  “I think it’s stupid that they didn’t let us know sooner. I don’t have time to look into insurances and find the best kind for me.  Now I’m stuck and probably won't be able to register right away.  I'll loose time because of this,” Richard Lawless, an un-insured BSU student said, expressing some frustration. Some students, like Tara Rootes who has five children, a husband, and a job, will have to take money from student loans in order to afford personal health insurance.  "Trust me, if I could afford to have insurance for myself or my kids, I would," Rootes explained.  With student debt now higher than credit card debt in the U.S., I do not think it is wise to raise the cost of living for a student attending college.

The health insurance policy is a good in theory, and we will have to wait and see how it actually works at BSU.  Minnesota State University Moorhead has the same policy in place at their school and administration says that it has worked well and the students seem to like it. Currently no other university affiliated with MnSCU has a mandatory insurance policy. If the policy had been brought to students’ attention in a more timely fashion, allowing the approximate 12% of BSU students without insurance to explore different options, I’m sure it would have been more widely accepted by the student body.

 Health insurance should be something that everybody has; I’m just not sure that it is the job of a state university to require that students, of all the demographics in the country, have it.

Jenna Long is an freshman at Bemidji State University majoring in Business Administration.  She has health insurance through her parents' policy.

Critical Mass: an Event for all Bicyclists

By Jenna Long

Another critical mass bike rally will happen this month on Sat. Oct. 29 at noon in Bemidji, Minn.  The route will begin in front of the statues of Paul and Babe.

The bike that Luke Holden brought in as a prop for his press conference was unique.  It looked rather old, beat-up, and unwanted.  The seat had a slit down the middle for a more comfortable ride, duct tape was wrapped around various parts, and the foot pedals were the kind that marathoners use.  A homemade shelf designed to hold a U-lock rested on the bikes body.  From the small bag attached to the bike, Holden pulled out a potato and various tools.  At first glance, it would never be the prime choice for a bicycle thief.

In cities all around the world bicyclists gather to ride in the streets once a month.  In every group a bicycle like Holden’s can be found riding alongside a $400 mountain bike, unicycle, or a small child’s tricycle.  The event is called a critical mass and, as Holden likes to say, “It’s really fun to do.”



Critical mass bike rides began in 1992 in San Francisco.  The definition of the phrase “critical mass” is a size, number, or amount large enough to produce a particular result according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.  A critical mass bike ride does not have one set objective or goal. 

The riders in the event like to say that it is meant to be a “celebration of bike riding” but the rides can sometimes seems more like political-protest rides or a means to defy authority.  Holden says that “it’s really just about celebrating bicycles and the freedom to ride them…it’s not really [a protest].” Critical Mass bike rides are unique in that there is no real head to the organization.  Anybody can post posters to publicize the event and the route of the ride is decided by whoever is in front of the pack.



An example of a critical mass poster

Holden, an art student at Bemidji State University, has “always loved biking” and will be taking part in the critical mass ride happening in Bemidji on Sat. Oct. 29.  He stopped by a class full of his peers to share about his experiences with critical mass bike rallies in hopes that the small procession that happens in Bemidji every month will expand.

As a person who has always been enamored by bicycles, critical mass rides are a home away from home for Holden.  Besides his love for riding, he also wants to “see bicyclists take back the streets for a few hours.”  Holden, in a press conference-type setting in front of fellow BSU students, shared personal experiences with aggressive drivers.  He has been shouted at, called demeaning names, and had objects thrown at him.  His only offense to the drivers abusing him: riding a bicycle. 

Holden is not the only bicyclist who has been treated badly by motorists.  There is rising tension between bicyclists and motorists.  “It’s like there is some sort of hierarchy on the road, and motorists are at the top,” Holden explained.  Because of this tension, critical mass rides often get a negative light cast upon them, but in most cases the riders mean no harm to motorists.

The last Friday of the month at 5 p.m. is the traditional time for a critical mass ride, but Bemidji riders have begun to meet on Saturdays, allowing more people to attend. Last month’s ride involved fifteen people, a substantial amount when considering the small size of Bemidji.  When compared to the 100 or more participants in the Minneapolis events, however, Bemidji’s involvement is dwarfed.

Holden would love to see a larger turn-out as time goes on.

An Occupy Wall Street protest is also set to happen on Oct. 29, beginning towards the end of the critical mass ride.  The objective of the protest is to raise Bemidji’s awareness of the wobbly economy and corporate greed.

Book of BSU Travel Students' Experiences Released

A collection of essays submitted by Bemidji State University students titled “The Journey that Matters: Travel Essays by 2005 Participants in Bemidji State University Travel Programs” will be available Wed. Oct. 19 for $10 in BSU’s Bookstore. 

Contact: Jenna Long at jennabeelong@gmail.com

BEMIDJI, Minn. (Oct. 10, 2005)–- Bemidji State University journalism Prof. Louise Mengelkoch and Eurospring student Andrea Kroll edited a stack of essays from participants of Bemidji State University’s travel study programs; the result an easy-to-read book that highlights the advantages of participating in BSU travel programs.  The book includes essays from students who traveled to Europe, China, Hawaii, Argentina and the Boundary Waters as well as students who participated in the Habitat for Humanity Collegiate Challenge.

The essays in “The Journey that Matters” are diverse in topic and voice. From an anecdote about a stolen backpack to poems written about the Chinese culture, each page contains a different point-of-view and a unique experience.  This book is aimed at students who are interested in BSU travel study programs and want to learn more about what the experiences entail.  The book is a testimony to the positive effects of traveling and experiencing a new culture. Erika Bailey-Johnson, a graduate assistant and co-chair to BSU’s Advocacy Committee, wrote in her essay about her experience at the Boundary Waters, “I think it is often in the ‘stopping’ we grow.”

Writings submitted by Eurospring participants comprise 29 of the 48 essays in the book.  Eurospring is unique to Bemidji State University and Minnesota State University—Moorhead. This popular travel study program spans eight weeks during the spring semester and allows the students to travel around Europe while also earning credits. 

Mengelkoch, who acted as the academic director of the Eurospring program in 2001 and 2005, undertook the project of editing the book so that other students could learn more about BSU’s travel study programs.  “So many students had good stories to tell,” she said, “and I thought they deserved an audience.”  The book also includes an essay written by Mengelkoch about her own experience with the Eurospring program.

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About Bemidji State University Bemidji State University, located in northern Minnesota's lake district, occupies a beautiful campus along the shore of Lake Bemidji. The University enrolls nearly 5,000 students annually and offerings include more than 65 undergraduate majors and 13 graduate programs encompassing the liberal arts, interdisciplinary studies and applied fields. The University is a member of the Minnesota State College and Universities System and has a faculty and staff of nearly 600. University signature themes include environmental stewardship, civic engagement and global/multicultural understanding. For further information about the University, visit our web site at: http://www.bemidjistate.edu.

To contact BSU’s Bookstore: www.bemidjistate.edu/bookstore or call (218) 444-8509

For more information about the book contact Prof. Louise Mengelkoch: lmengelkoch@bemidjistate.edu

For additional information about this press release contact Jenna Long: jennabeelong@gmail.com or call (641) 590-0255

Wise Words from an Amazing Source

Prof. Allan Chapman visited Bemidji State University on Sept. 19.  While there he shared with them his knowledge on the topic of mass communication and his involvement with the university’s Eurospring program.

By Jenna Long

Oxford Prof. Allan Chapman began his lecture to an overflow crowd of students when he set his gold pocket-watch onto a desk in front of him, mumbling something about how he always seemed to run out of time.  Exactly 50 minutes later, the lecture was finished but the students were still mesmerized by what they had heard.

Prof. Chapman giving his lecture. 

Prof. Louise Mengelkoch likened Chapman to the white rabbit from “Alice in Wonderland” in her personal blog about her 2011 Eurospring adventures–an apt comparison.  The silver-haired man was dressed in a well-worn black suit, a green waistcoat with brassy buttons, a golden watch fob and dull black dress shoes.  His green print bowtie hung crookedly around his neck and he held an antique-looking pocket-watch.  He wore his wedding ring on his right hand and pinned to his lapel was a British Flag -- both details indicated that the man hailed from Europe.

The crowded lecture hall had previously hummed with the impatience and small talk of roughly 140 mass communications students.  Once they realized the man had appeared at the front of the room, however, they quieted to near silence.

After a brief introduction by Assoc. Prof. Dave Smith, the academic director for Bemidji State University’s 2012 Eurospring program, Chapman began to share his knowledge on the history behind mass communication and his experience with Eurospring.

As soon as Chapman began to speak, it became glaringly obvious that he was indeed British –every word he spoke was peppered with a British accent and enunciated perfectly. It also became obvious that he was a well-practiced and excellent speaker. He used no visual aids or notes as he spoke; his words came purely from his well-researched knowledge.

As the lecture progressed and Chapman began to speak on the role ancient Greek culture has on mass communication, his personality began to shine through.  “They invented what we are doing here today,” he said, laugh lines visible as he smiled, “listening to a windbag speak to younger people.”  He spun a story of the history of mass communications, including the ancient Greeks, the Olympics, Europe and the start of the printing press, the Protestant religion, piracy, scandalous magazines, the American railroad, and inventions of the telegraph and telephone.  The lecture was packed with dozens of facts and anecdotes, even though the lecture had only been assigned to him just minutes before class.

Though most who have the opportunity to hear him speak consider him a gifted speaker and accomplished scholar, his intelligence hasn’t always been acknowledged.  “He is by far the most intelligent person I have ever been in the same room with,” Erin Sundvall, a participant in the 2011 Eurospring adventure said about Chapman. “He does not stutter. His facts are extremely precise.  He always amazes me.”  Chapman actually came from a very humble background, according to an essay by Mengelkoch published in The Journey that Matters: Travel Essays by 2005 Participants in Bemidji State University Travel Programs.  His family had a very limited education, but they were literate.  Even though he dropped out of high school, he managed to gain admittance to the University of Oxford on full-scholarship to pursue his interests in astronomy and history.

Dr. Chapman has authored six academic books including Mary Somerville and the World of Science, and has been in two BBC TV series, “Gods in the Sky: Astronomy, Religion, and Culture from the Ancients to the Renaissance” and “Great Scientists.”  He is also a founder member and president of the Society for the History of Astronomy.

In addition to his studies and writings, Chapman still makes the Eurospring program a priority in his life. Bemidji State University and Minnesota State University-Moorhead are the only universities in Minnesota that utilize the program.  Not only does he speak to the schools annually about the benefits of the program, but he also teaches two courses and gives 26 lectures to the students in while they are in Oxford.  However, he will be the first to admit that he is not the best person to ask about the program.  “Ask students who’ve been on it,” he said. “They are the closest friends to [Eurospring].”

Jenna Peterson, 79, Altered Lives of Hundreds of Children

Date of story:  07/15/2072

Jenna Peterson, the founder of a thriving primary school in Honduras and a leader in the effort to make sure all families in Honduras had electricity, died at home on Sunday night at age 79 after a long history of heart complications.



Mrs. Peterson at age 17



Her death was confirmed by her husband of 54 years, Skylar Peterson.

From the very beginning of her adult life, Mrs. Peterson was not afraid to tell people her dream. “She would always come up with brilliant plans for her future and forget them a few months later,” said Alison Ramsley, Mrs. Peterson’s childhood friend. “So when she began to tell us she was going to start a school in a third-world country we all thought she was just off on another tangent.  Boy, did she prove us wrong.”

In 2020, at just 27 years old, Mrs. Peterson moved herself, her husband, and her young son, Liam, to Honduras to pursue her dream.  She was hired by Transitions Abroad to help manage an elementary school in Comayagua, the seventh largest city in Honduras.  Once established, she began to make major changes to the school, especially in the curriculum.  Mrs. Peterson worked side by side with the teachers and students to figure out the best way to accomplish the school’s goals.

The school improved markedly, but Mrs. Peterson was still not content with what she had accomplished.  She started a sister school in a more rural area so that it would be more easily accessible to students that lived outside of the city limits.  She contracted a bus to pick up students from their homes that were outside of walking distance so that they didn’t have to pay a bus fare.  Most families in the area knew who Mrs. Peterson was and why she was in Honduras; she was respected.

Jenna Brianne Long was born on April 23, 1993, to Christopher Long and the former Ona Ellingson in Littleton, Col. She was the third of four children.  Growing up, she liked to play by herself, but never rejected a playmate if one crossed her path.  In 2003, her mother, now divorced, moved the family to Buffalo Center, Iowa, where they lived for four years. After her mother remarried to Mr. Rory Knudtson, the family made a final move to Kiester, Minn.  Mrs. Peterson went to United South Central High School in Wells, Minn.  She was very involved with extracurricular activities such as yearbook, student government, band, tutoring and mentoring. She also worked as a lifeguard at the Wells community pool and worked as a student aide at The Shepherd’s Inn, an assisted living home.

Mrs. Peterson’s career was actually inspired by a two-week mission trip that she took in 2010 as a senior at United South Central High School in Wells, Minn.  The trip inspired her to major in business administration at Bemidji State University so that she would have the tools she needed to run a school in Honduras.  After five years, the young Mrs. Peterson graduated from the honor’s program offered at BSU with a bachelor of science in business administration.

The same year that she graduated college, Mr. Skylar Peterson asked for her hand in marriage.  They married on June 15, 2017.  The couple had five healthy children: Liam, Charolette, Wyatt, Oliver, and Chloe.

By 2026, her school had 170 students age 5-12 enrolled full time along with seven full-time staff; Mrs. Peterson was right in the middle of her biggest dream.  Her family, however, was struggling on the miniscule income and in the very unique culture of Honduras. In 2028, she finally admitted her family’s unhappiness and moved back to the United States, leaving her school and her students in the capable hands of Mr. Carlos Rico, her second-in-command.  “When Jenna left, I knew that it would be a struggle for the school to keep up morale and stay on track, but I also understood why she had to go.  Family always comes first. Looking back, it was a time of turmoil, but we survived and thrived even after she left,” Mr. Rico said of his companion and employer.

Even after returning to the states, Mrs. Peterson didn’t lose the determination to help the people of Honduras.  Once back in the U.S., she began to find investors to help her install solar panels at her school and at the homes of those who lived too far away from the city to get electricity.  The four-year project proved successful –the main investors of her project were GM and Shell.

Though she never got the chance to go back to Honduras, Mrs. Peterson continued to help the school and the people from afar both fiscally and by gaining American support. She spent the rest of her life on a small ranch in northern Minnesota.

Mrs. Peterson is survived by her husband; children, Liam (Mary) Peterson, Wyatt (Carrie) Peterson, Oliver (Hattie) Peterson, Charolette (Richard) Smith and Chloe (Daniel) Fisher and fifteen grandchildren.  She is preceded in death by her siblings Corey Roof, Megan (Roof) Graham and Connor Long; her mother and her step-father Rory Knudtson. 

TO THE EDITOR

Re “Educators Tackling Problems in Two Crucial Age Groups” (Sept. 9) 

Whenever a school is composed of students from different areas where each has been taught in a different style, at a different pace, and by a different teacher, getting everybody on an equal level of understanding is going to be a challenge.

The struggle Johnson College Prep has in trying to get all of its 9^th grade students on the same page is something most high schools, colleges and universities across the nation can relate to.  It is difficult for a student to excel in class when he never learned the information and skills the teacher or professor expects.

Regulating the information every U.S. elementary and high school feeds its pupils and at what pace could potentially fix this problem. Some may consider this restricting, but isn’t equal education worth letting the government be reasonably heavy-handed?

Jenna Long

Bemidji, Minn., Sept. 9, 2011