Connected. – Nov. 19, 2009

In this week’s edition of ‘Connected.’, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops debates the amount of authority bishops have at Catholic colleges, students hold “die-in” to protest the School for Americas, more college graduates are entering the military, pigs chow down on left-over caf food, and the UST Dance Team will compete in national competition.

Bus times, class schedules not mixing well

Senior Jelena Tolimir remembers the day she was stranded in Minneapolis.

She had been sitting at the bus stop for an hour. As the sky turned darker, she realized the St. Thomas shuttle wasn’t coming to bring her back to St. Paul.

“I didn’t realize the shuttle ran only until 7 p.m. on Saturday nights,” Tolimir said.

LEED tag for student center, not athletic center

Right down the road from St. Thomas, Macalaster College reached a milestone in sustainability. In 2009, Macalaster opened the doors of Markim Hall, its new LEED platinum certified building.

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED provides building owners and operators a framework for identifying practical and measurable green building design, construction and maintenance solutions.

Bus crash near Austin kills 2, injures 21

At least two people are dead and 21 are injured after a tour bus ran off a southern Minnesota interstate and rolled over in a ditch, officials said.

Minnesota Department of Public Safety spokesman Andy Skoogman has confirmed the deaths from the crash that happened about 3:30 p.m. today just two miles west of Austin on Interstate 90.

Can’t finish caf meal? These pigs will

The St. Thomas cafeteria produces nearly 5,000 meals each day. With the high number of people being served, it is common to see nearly 200 gallons of wasted food at the end of the day.

In an effort to become more sustainable, the cafeteria puts the wasted food to good use. Scraps from the cafeteria help feed nearly 3,000 pigs at a pig farm just north of Andover in St. Francis.