SPORTS
CAMPUS & METRO
The conference achieved its highest RPI this season since 1999.
SDS will speak at a Board of Regents forum on the budget June 5.
Students push for spending cuts
Improved Big Ten emerges as force on the diamond
u See PAGE 5
u See PAGE 9
P.M. T-STORMS HIGH 76° LOW 68°
U OF M
MINNEAPOLIS
WEDNESDAY
ST PAUL
MAY 29, 2013
HOUSING
New apts. force early move-out for students Some students say they were given little notice to vacate early.
BY KIA FARHANG mfarhang@mndaily.com
Summer constr uction on new apar tments in the Marcy-Holmes neighbor-
hood is forcing some current tenants to move out earlier than expected. Several residents living on 15th Avenue in MarcyHolmes will have to move out to make way for new apar tment buildings built by Dinkytown Rentals and CPM Proper ty Management.
While some tenants have said they were told about moving out months ago, others said they were given little notice. Owners of both Dinkytown Rentals and CPM said they’re of fering alternative housing for displaced tenants. Psychology senior
Max Zimbel said one of his roommates got a call in early May letting her know they had 60 days to vacate their house on 15th Avenue between Seventh and Eighth Street streets u See MOVE-OUT Page 7 Construction is set to begin on the new apartments this summer.
FACULTY
EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS
Early childhood education The state Legislature rightly expanded access to kindergarten and preschool. u See PAGE 8
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT MNDAILY.COM
LEGISLATURE
Failed bonding bill delays U renovations The bill included about $110 million in University funding. BY CODY NELSON cnelson@mndaily.com
The r enovation and reconstruction of several University of Minnesota buildings will have to wait another year after funding was cut late in the legislative session. A bonding bill that included almost $110 million for the University failed days before legislators adjour ned, leaving projects across campus unfunded and some at the school disappointed. Though legislators don’t often pass larger bonding bills, which fund public works projects, in odd-numbered years, some indicated they
would take advantage of the year’s low-interest rates and fund more projects, said University Chief Financial Of ficer Richard Pfutzenreuter. But the original bill failed to get the votes needed to pass, and buildings like the Bell Museum of Natural Histor y and Tate Laborator y of Physics will remain the same a year longer. The bill also allocated $35 million for upkeep and renovation of University buildings. A smaller bonding bill was later passed but funded mostly renovations to RELATED CONTENT See more, as well as a list of bills passed this year that could affect students u See Page 4
ADMINISTRATION
New vice provost balances marriage, moving with new job EMILY DUNKER, DAILY
University of Minnesota chemistry professor Chris Cramer demonstrates example slides from his Statistical Molecular Thermodynamics MOOC course Thursday, May 23, 2013, in the Digital Media Studio in Walter Library.
What’s it take to make a MOOC? Hundreds of hours, no pay The University started offering five massive open online courses this summer. BY JANICE BITTERS jbitters@mndaily.com
Chris Cramer didn’t sleep much last semester. The chemistr y professor and four other University of Minnesota professors are volunteering hundreds of hours to teach free massive open online courses this summer. MOOCs are open to an unlimited
number of people from anywhere in the world who have access to the Internet, and the University’s MOOCs have drawn anywhere from about 8,000 to more than 16,000 students so far. “I’ve probably put 400 hours into preparation,” said Cramer, whose course started May 20. “That’s a lot of time.” Cramer isn’t the only one logging long hours on his MOOC. Assistant professor Jason Hill pushed his Sustainability of Food Systems class back from what was originally a May star t date to mid-June because he
PUBLIC SAFETY
ROY AKER raker@mndaily.com
A University of Minnesota student was killed last week in a motorcycle accident, authorities announced Tuesday. Patrick Buxbaum, 30, was on his motorcycle at the intersection of 27th Street and Emerson Avenue when he rode into the rear driver-side of a limousine headed south on Emerson, according to Minneapolis police Sgt. William Palmer. The accident occurred shortly after 3 a.m. on May 19, just blocks away from his Minneapolis home, according to the Hennepin
u See MOOCS Page 5 The five classes being offered online are also offered at the University for credit.
BY HAILEY COLWELL hcolwell@mndaily.com
Danita Brown is busy. She’s planning a June wedding, moving to a new state and prepping to be the University of Minnesota’s new vice provost for student affairs and dean of students. After a five-month search, she’ll step into the position July 31, taking over for Jerr y Rinehar t, who began his retirement in April after seven years in the position and 35 at the University. Brown’s experience in student affairs and her references made her a “persuasive” choice for the position, said Senior Vice
President for Academic Affairs and Provost Karen Hanson. “She was uniformly described as somebody who was a charismatic and caring student affairs leader who had great relationships with the students [and] with her staff,” she said. The vice provost for student affairs and dean of students oversees a “huge portfolio” of activity at the University, Hanson said, including the Department of Recreational Sports, Boynton Health Service and Student Unions and Activities. More broadly, the dean of students is responsible for ensuring student success outside of the University’s academic mission, which is still crucial for academic u See PROVOST Page 7 Brown hopes to increase greek enrollment at the University.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
U student dies in motorcycle accident The student crashed near his S. Minneapolis home.
needed more time to work on his lecture videos. Hill taped inter views between him and other professors at the University for his class videos, which he said could help to create more interest in MOOCs at the University for the future. “One of the wonder ful things about the conversations I’ve been having with faculty is that they come to the studio with me, they see the
Danita Brown of Purdue will replace Jerry Rinehart July 31.
County Medical Examiner’s Office, which released the University junior’s identity Tuesday. Authorities have yet to reveal the circumstances leading up to the crash but said Buxbaum was found dead at the scene of the crash. Buxbaum was not wearing a helmet, Palmer said. Buxbaum, who was originally from Sidney, Mont., was a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and had served overseas in Japan. After four years in the militar y, Buxbaum moved to Minneapolis to attend Minneapolis Community and Technical College, later transferring to the University. Minneapolis police and the Hennepin County Medical Examiner are continuing their investigations.
Local recruit Travis eyes U Gophers assistant coach Ben Johnson is an alum of Travis’ DeLaSalle HS. BY JACE FREDERICK jfrederick@mndaily.com
Local four-star basketball recruit Reid Travis places an added emphasis on relationships when looking at his college options. “That’s one of the biggest things for me,” said Travis, a junior at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis. “You want to build a relationship with the staff because that’s who you’re going to be with for four years and that’s who’s going to be guiding you.” For a new Gophers basketball staff hoping to lure the 2014 recruit, one relationship has proven vital. Gophers assistant coach Ben Johnson also played high school basketball at DeLaSalle. He led the Islanders to state titles in 1998 and 1999. His legacy carries weight with Travis. “I think [Johnson] going to DeLaSalle and kind of u See TRAVIS Page 9 The junior has several offers to play football as well, but said the choice of school will come before the choice of sport.
EMILY DUNKER, DAILY
Howard Pulley Panthers forward Reid Travis prepares to shoot a free throw at the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League tournament Sunday at the High Performance Academy in Eagan, Minn. Travis is a top target for the Gophers this recruiting season.
VOLUME 114 ISSUE 117
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Daily Review
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
THIS DAY IN HISTORY 2005
23-YEAR-OLD DANICA PATRICK BECOMES THE FIRST FEMALE DRIVER TO TAKE THE LEAD IN THE STORIED INDIANAPOLIS 500. HISTORYCHANNEL.COM/TDIH
SLIDESHOW Vol. 114 Wednesday, May 29, 2013, No. 117
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Soundset had its biggest year yet with 28,000 fans attending the annual music festival in Shakopee, MN on May 26, 2013 despite the windy, cold weather. Artists included Snoop Dogg, Brother Ali, Atmosphere, Prof, Schoolboy Q and Mac Miller.
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Israel warns Russia against giving Syria missiles BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense chief said Tuesday a Russian plan to supply sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles to Syria was a “threat” and signaled that Israel is prepared to use force to stop the delivery. The warning by Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon ratcheted up tensions with Moscow over the planned sale of S-300 air-defense missiles to Syria. Earlier in the day, a top Russian official said his government remained committed to the deal. Israel has been lobbying Moscow to halt the sale, fearing the missiles would upset the balance of power in the region and could slip into the
hands of hostile groups, including the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, a close ally of the Syrian regime. Israel has carried out several airstrikes in Syria in recent months that are believed to have destroyed weapons shipments bound for Hezbollah. Israel has not confirmed carrying out the attacks. The delivery of the Russian missiles to Syria could limit the Israeli air force’s ability to act. It is not clear whether Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace in these attacks. Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Russia to discuss the Syrian situation with President Vladimir Putin. The sides have said
In China, US official promotes military ties
little about the talks, but the S-300s were believed to have been on the agenda. “Clearly this move is a threat to us,” Yaalon told reporters Tuesday when asked about the planned Russian sale. “At this stage I can’t say there is an escalation. The shipments have not been sent on their way yet. And I hope that they will not be sent,” he said. But “if God forbid they do reach Syria, we will know what to do.” Since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011, Israel repeatedly has voiced concerns that Syria’s sophisticated arsenal, including chemical weapons, could either be transferred to Hezbollah, a bitter enemy of Israel, or fall into the hands of rebels bat-
tling Syrian President Bashar Assad. The rebels include alQaida-affiliated groups that Israel believes could turn their attention toward Israel if they topple Assad. Syria already possesses Russian-made air defenses, and Israel is believed to have used long-distance bombs fired from Israeli or Lebanese airspace. The S-300s would expand Syria’s capabilities, allowing it to counter airstrikes launched from foreign airspace as well. In Moscow, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, wouldn’t say whether Russia has shipped any of the S-300s, which have a range of up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) and the capability to track and strike multiple targets simultaneously.
Suspect in UK soldier death out of hospital
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BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Do you think the University should ban smoking on campus?
BEIJING — U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon pushed Tuesday for stronger militar y relations with China, on the final day of a visit to Beijing to set the stage for a summit next month between President Barack Obama and China’s Xi Jinping. Nontraditional militar y activities such as peacekeeping, disaster relief and anti-piracy operations offer opportunities to boost cooperation and “contribute to greater mutual confidence and understanding,” Donilon told Gen. Fan Changlong, a vice chairman of the commission overseeing China’s armed forces. A “healthy, stable, and reliable militar y-to-militar y relationship” is an essential part of overall China-U.S. ties, Donilon said at the start of the meeting at China’s hulking Defense Ministry building in central Beijing. Donilon met with a range of Chinese officials over two days to hammer out plans for the June 7-8 summit, the first face-to-face meeting between the presidents since Obama’s re-election and Xi’s promotion to Communist Party chief last November. Their informal summit at the private Sunnylands estate of the late publishing tycoon Walter Annenberg in southern California will come months before the two leaders had been originally scheduled to meet, underscoring concerns that the U.S-China relationship was drifting. Xi told Donilon on Monday that relations were at a critical juncture, and that the sides must now “build on past successes and open up new dimensions for the future.”
LONDON — One of two suspects shot by police following the slaying of a British soldier in London last week has been released from the hospital and taken to a police station for questioning, police said Tuesday. The release came as new details emerged about links between the other main suspect and a radical Islamic cleric in Kenya who had been sanctioned by the United States for being part of a terrorist network. The case centers on the brazen killing of off-duty soldier Lee Rigby, 25, who was slain by two men wielding knives and meat cleavers near his barracks in southeast London’s Woolwich area. The two suspects were shot by police and arrested on suspicion of murder. Video showed two men rushing a police car that arrived on the scene about 15 minutes after the killing of the soldier. The younger suspect, 22-year-old Michael Adebowale, was judged well enough to be released from hospital and taken into police custody, where he was arrested on suspicion of the attempted murder of a police officer. The other suspect, Michael Adebolajo, 28, remains in a hospital in stable condition under armed guard. He was seen on a separate video boasting about the killing minutes after the attack. His family released a statement Tuesday expressing horror over what it called a “senseless killing.” The family spoke of its “profound shame and distress” in a statement issued Tuesday, saying it has sent “heartfelt condolence” to Rigby’s relatives. In Kenya, police said they believed Adebolajo had earlier associated with a radical Kenyan Muslim cleric who tried to help him join an al-Qaida-linked rebel group in neighboring Somalia.
4Yes, second-hand smoke is deadly. ........................................36% 4Yes, but with designated smoking areas. ...............................27% 4No, it’s unenforceable. ...............................................................7% 4No, the arm of the University shouldn’t reach that far into people’s lives. .....................................................................................27% 4I don’t care. .................................................................................3%
EXTENDED WEATHER FORECAST THURSDAY FRIDAY HIGH 79° HIGH 77° LOW 65° LOW 60°
SATURDAY HIGH 68° LOW 51°
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Scattered t-storms
Showers
Partly cloudy
SUNDAY HIGH 66° LOW 50° Mostly cloudy
CORRECTIONS
errors@mndaily.com The Minnesota Daily strives for complete accuracy and corrects its errors immediately. Corrections and clarifications will always be printed in this space. If you believe the Daily has printed a factual error, please call the readers’ representative at (612) 627–4070, extension 3057, or email errors@ mndaily.com immediately. THE MINNESOTA DAILY is a legally independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and is a student-written and student-managed newspaper for the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus. The Daily’s mission is: 1) to provide coverage of news and events affecting the University community; 2) to provide a forum for the communication and exchange of ideas for the University community; 3) to provide educational training and experience to University students in all areas of newspaper operations; and 4) to operate a fiscally responsible organization to ensure its ability to serve the University in the future. The Daily is a member of the Minnesota News Council, the Minnesota Associated Press, the Associated Collegiate Press, The Minnesota Newspaper Association and other organizations. The Daily is published Monday through Thursday, during the regular school year and weekly during the summer, and is printed by ECM Publishers in Princeton, Minn. Midwest News Service distributes the 22,000 issues daily. All Minnesota Daily inserts are recyclable within the University of Minnesota program and are at least 6 percent consumer waste. One (1) copy of The Minnesota Daily per person is free at newsstands in and around the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. Additional copies may be purchased for $.25 each. U. S. Postal Service: 351–480.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Businesses, community groups fight Dinkytown rezone for development Opponents argue for preserving the character of the neighborhood.
OPUS DINKYTOWN PROJECT FIFT T
HS
Duffy’s Dinkytown Pizza
TRE
ET S
OUT
HEA
ST
House of Hanson
Hair Design Book House
13
TH
AV
EN
UE
SO
UT
HE
AS
BY MEGHAN HOLDEN mholden@mndaily.com
Plans for a new apartment complex on Fifth Street and 14th Avenue have been moving quickly, but the efforts of Dinkytown advocates at City Hall could slow it down. The group Save Dinkytown presented a petition calling for an environmental review of the project to the Minneapolis City Planning Commission last week. Now, the effects of developer Opus Group’s planned 140-unit apartment complex on the neighborhood will be reviewed by the Council Committee on Zoning and Planning before the City Council can approve the project and the rezoning it requires. Save Dinkytown collected more than 100 signatures on a petition that stated the stillunnamed development could negatively impact the “unique history, aesthetic character and identity of Dinkytown.” The state’s environmental policy says the state has a responsibility to “preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our national heritage.” The Opus Group’s project would require a rezoning of the current neighborhood
3
The Podium
SOURCE: MNDAILY REPORTING
EMILY DUNKER, DAILY
Casablanca hair design owner Abdulhad Batal cuts the hair of 10-year customer Imed Labidi on Friday. Casablanca, which opened in Dinkytown 15 years ago, would be affected by the Opus development and the delay over Dinkytown environmental concerns.
commercial district to a community activity center district, which allows more mixed-use residential and commercial development. The new apartment building would replace House of Hanson , Book House , the Podium , Duffy’s Dinkytown Pizza and Casablanca Hair Design. The complex would have 9,500 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor , according to city documents. Matt Rauenhorst , senior director of real estate development at Opus, said Opus hasn’t come out with its
retail prices yet, and tenants will drive the rates. Opponents of the project said in the petition the cost of this new space would “push [the] traditional small business base out. ” Book House owner Kristen Eide-Tollefson said any delay to the project is good. “We’re relieved that there’s a little more time,” Eide-Tollefson said. Save Dinkytown’s petition says the large scale of the Opus project would “diminish the apparent significance and character of the historic
business district,” while destroying the “Dinky” in Dinkytown. Imed Labidi , a University lecturer and Casablanca customer for 10 years, said he’s sad to see these small businesses go because of their “sentimental value.” “The character [of Dinkytown] will completely disappear,” he said. Rauenhorst said he thinks the new apartment complex will rehabilitate Fifth Street and add to the character of Dinkytown. As some businesses keep
fighting to stay in Dinkytown, others say they’ve been fighting to keep their businesses afloat. Laurel Bauer , owner of the House of Hanson, said the Opus project would improve the neighborhood. She said it was a ver y difficult decision to sell the grocery store that has been in her family for over eight decades, but trying to stay in business has been a “fiscal nightmare” since CVS Pharmacy came into the area. “I’m tr ying to bow out gracefully,” Bauer said. Susan Duffy , co-owner of Duffy’s, said the cultural and historical aspect of Dinkytown won’t go away with the new developments. “It’s an area that embraces changing times,” she said. “This will save Dinkytown.”
OPUS DINKYTOWN PROJECT
BY THE NUMBERS
$30 million COST OF PROJECT 6STORIES 140 UNITS 68 PERMANENT PUBLIC PARKING SPACES
August 2013 CONSTRUCTION BEGINS August 2014 PROJECT COMPLETION SOURCE: THE OPUS GROUP
International students face barriers after graduation A current bill in the U.S. Senate would allow more work visas. BY BRANDEN LARGENT blargent@mndaily.com
Haonan Sun was in a dilemma after graduating from the University of Minnesota in December. The mechanical engineering student needed to find a job within three months after graduation or attend graduate school. Otherwise, Sun would have to go home to China. “It was ver y stressful,” said Sun, who found a job at a medical device testing company. “Even if you haven’t decided what you want to do, you have to jump into the next phase right after you graduate.” With limited jobs and work visas available, many international students either have to attend graduate school or go back to their home countries. In 2012, more than 1,500 international students received degrees from the University, a more than 500-student increase from 2008. Dong-Sung Kim, an economics junior from South Korea, said many of his friends had to go back to his home country after graduation because they couldn’t get jobs. Kim said he’s working to build his career before graduation through internships and jobs so he has a better chance of getting a job when he finishes school.
“I don’t want to go back right away to Korea,” Kim said. Newly graduated international students can get jobs under Optional Practical Training, a federal program that allows them to work in the country for an additional year. Sun and other international students with science, technology, engineering or mathematics degrees can extend their OPT to 29 months. “It’s very competitive to find a job,” Sun said. “And after that, you need luck to get a work visa.” After their OPT ends, foreign degree-holders have to apply for H1-B work visas, which allow foreigners to legally work in the country, said Barbara Kappler, director of University’s International Student and Scholar Services. “When they’re done being students, they can only use a limited number of options,” Kappler said. The 85,000 available H-1B visas in the country this year ran out within five days, said Mark Schneider, an ISSS associate director for employment-based visas. Almost 39,000 requests were denied this year. Schneider said applications for H-1B visas can cost companies $825 each, and many of them don’t know how to handle H-1Bs, which can cost companies more than $2,000 in attorney fees. “That can be expensive and prohibitive for some employers,” Schneider said. Because of the complicated and costly process of
H-1B DEMAND ANNUAL CAP NOT YET MET; NEW APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED ANNUAL CAP MET; N0 APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED
’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11 12
’13
SOURCE: BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
EMILY DUNKER, DAILY
University of Minnesota graduate Michael Sun Haonan holds stacks of forms, guides and applications in his Minneapolis apartment Monday, May 27, 2013. As an international student, the process for staying in the United States to work or attend graduate school is complicated and includes finding employers willing to sponsor work visas.
hiring degree-holding foreigners, Schneider said many companies decide to hire American applicants with the same degree. A current U.S. Senate immigration bill would increase the number of available H-1B visas to 110,000, said Schneider, who works on H-1B visas for incoming employees. If the bill doesn’t pass, he said
he hopes the cap increase could move forward in another piece of legislation. Schneider was in Washington, D.C., in March to advocate for more H-1B visas and fewer barriers for international students when they enter the working world. “You get ’em here, you educate them and then they have nowhere to get a job,”
Schneider said. “There are lots of barriers.” Many universities and companies have also been pushing for a higher cap on H-1B visas so employers can have more hiring options and students have more job opportunities, Schneider said. Sun said he considered himself lucky to find his new job, which he starts in June.
Most of the jobs Sun applied for turned him down when he said he would need sponsorship to get a work visa in the future. “We need to welcome students, graduates and highly skilled laborers into the United States,” Schneider said, “because that’s the future of the economy and our country.”
4
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Capital plan moves forward despite state cuts The Regents will discuss the plan at the June 14 meeting. BY JANICE BITTERS Bylineinfo
University of Minnesota administrators are adjusting their six-year capital improvement plan after facing cuts from the Legislature. Nearly two-thirds of the funding for the plan that comes from the Legislature was rejected last month. The plan, which will be discussed at a June Board of Regents meeting, is awaiting approval from the University regents. Because of the lack of state funding, much of the work originally planned would need to be deferred, said Monique MacKenzie, depar tmental director for Capital Planning and Project Management. But some construction will still move forward. Under the current plan, MacKenzie said students on the Twin Cities campus would likely notice more classroom sharing and changes to buildings near Pleasant Street next year. The primary goals of the capital plan include updating laboratory space, consolidating classrooms and buildings and creating more active learning environments.
Tate Laborator y One of the largest renovations highlighted on the plan is to the Tate Laboratory of Physics, which earth sciences professor Peter Hudleston said will be a welcome change. Research needs have changed over time, he said, leaving some laboratories outdated and scattered to six different buildings around campus.
“The needs of the department … cannot be met by the labs in Pillsbur y Hall, which is part of the reason we have labs in dif ferent buildings,” he said. Hudleston said the department eventually plans to consolidate into just Tate. Among the departments that will share the rehabilitated Tate Laborator y will be the School of Physics and Astronomy, which physics professor Joe Kapusta said will allow for important collaboration. “I think it could be very interesting to have this broad spectrum [of departments],” he said. “… We go from the stars all the way to the earth. It’s a nice, broad continuum.” Kapusta said he’s also looking forward to lab space that’s designed for more modern research. “The [Tate] labs were designed for experiments in the 1930s or 1950s, and we are now well into the 21st century,” he said. “The environment in the lab is nowhere near what you would see in a modern industry.” MacKenzie said students will see many classes move out of Tate and into the Physics and Nanotechnology Building in 2014 in preparation for the renovation.
Sharing spaces The University will also begin encouraging different departments to share classrooms and labs. MacKenzie said space sharing will build support systems for departments and save money. On the St. Paul campus, the colleges of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences are planning to share lab space in a new building, making current research labs “obsolete,” according to the capital improvement plan.
PRELIMINARY CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGET $1.0 MILLION GRANTS AND GIFTS $11.8 MILLION LOCAL FUNDS $14.8 MILLION UNIVERSITY FUNDS $32.5 MILLION SELF SUPPORT
u from Page 1
the state Capitol. Staf f at the Bell Museum had hopes for almost $50 million in state funding to help open a new museum with a 120-seat planetarium on the University’s St. Paul campus. “I’m not just disappointed for the Bell Museum; I’m disappointed for the University,” said museum director Susan Weller. The museum’s current building is about 70 years old and has some str uctural problems, including occasional flooding in the basement, which can put exhibits at risk. It’s also too small to host school groups larger than about 150 students, Weller said, which is the museum’s biggest drawback. “It limits how well we can ser ve the schools and the local community,” she said. The cur rent building has other space limitations, Weller said, includi n g a 2 0 - s e a t t h e a t e r, where tickets are often gone quickly and some are denied admission to events. This year’s attempt
for a new museum isn’t the first — of ficials have pushed for a new facility since 1995, and the University included the museum in its capital request for the first time in 2008. W ith help from Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, the new museum was closer to a reality this year. “This time we got ver y close, so it’s probably that much more disappointing,” Weller said. The bonding bill needed 81 votes, but fell only five votes short. At the Tate Lab, of ficials hoped for $6 million to begin planning renovations for the 86-year-old building. “Even though we’ve done things over the years to tr y to keep it up-to-date, it’s not in any sense a moder n building,” said Ron Poling, head of the School of Physics and Astronomy. The “old-fashioned” building, where about 4,000 students take introductor y physics and astronomy each year, has issues with space in its lecture halls and accessibility, Poling said. The $6 million requested from the state would be to fund two-thirds of the planning costs of the $85 million total renovation
A wrap-up of new legislation affecting students BY CODY NELSON cnelson@mndaily.com
The Minnesota state Legislature adjourned its 2013 session last week, and with it comes a slew of new legislation that will directly affect the University of Minnesota and its students. With the end of the session, same-sex marriages
will be legal in the state star ting Aug. 1, undocumented Minnesota students can pay in-state tuition) pending University approval) and the tax on cigarettes will rise. This graphic details the various new laws that will af fect students as well as some legislation that failed.
$57.1 MILLION UNIVERSITY DEBT $172.1 MILLION STATE DEBT SOURCE: BOARD OF REGENTS FACILITIES AND
“The deans have agreed it’s important to create what we call a thematic building,” MacKenzie said. “[The space] is focused on the practice of a certain field of science that researchers from all those colleges can share.” Others around campus have expressed interest in sharing classroom space in the future, including the Department of Psychology and the Institute of Child Development, MacKenzie said. In the future, the two departments may replace the buildings they’re currently using with a shared one. MacKenzie said the consolidations are necessar y to accommodate changing department needs and the large student population on campus. “If we went about building a campus today that would serve 50,000 people, it would not look anything like how [the University] does,” MacKenzie said. Russian studies senior Meredith Gulsvig said while she likes the renovated buildings on campus, she would miss ones. “I like how sitting on the mall, looking out, now you can see all the old structures of the buildings,” she said. “I think that is super cool.” Gulsvig said the changes
Failed bonding bill delays U renovations Bonding
WHAT PASSED, WHAT DIDN’T
project. Legislators and Gov. Mark Dayton see the Tate Lab project as “par t of a valuable package,” Poling said, adding that the Tate Lab project is in a “ver y strong position” to get funding in a future session. “[The Tate Lab] is where we do our physics educating and it’s extremely impor tant for us to be able to get those facilities updated,” Poling said, “because there are a lot of students who are ver y dependent on our doing that job well.” A $35 million funding request for renovation and upkeep, known as Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement (HEAPR), was also left unfunded. These funds ar e for “emergency, critical, holdthe-place-together kind of projects,” Pfutzenreuter said. “To not get any of those dollars at all, we’re ver y disappointed.” The Legislature passed a smaller bonding bill, but it mostly provided funding for state Capitol repairs and offered no funding for University projects. Pfutzenreuter said this year’s “unmet needs” will be added to next session’s bonding request.
could also impact the culture of the University in the future. “Changes make it look fresher, but it’s going to draw different kinds of students no matter what,” she said.
Active learning classrooms
Another major component of the capital improvement plan is to incorporate more active learning classrooms. Active learning classrooms — like those in the Science Teaching and Student Ser vices building — bring technology into the classroom with computers and TV screens and generally offer shared round tables for students. Though funding for active classrooms is limited, MacKenzie said the University will continue to look for ways to place more of them on all University campuses. In addition, she said the University plans to ask for state funding for the classrooms in the future. “It’s clear to the academic side that there are huge gains to be had from reconfiguring spaces to an active learning format,” she said. “We are trying to balance out our multiple funding sources and timelines.”
UNIVERSITY PROJECTS SET TO BE FUNDED BEFORE THE BONDING BILL FAILED $47.5 MILLION The initial bill proposed funds to design and build a new Bell Museum of Natural History on the St. Paul campus, which would have included a 120-seat planetarium. $35 MILLION For Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement. The University uses HEAPR funds to renovate its older buildings for energy efficiency, safety, accessibility and other issues. $9.7 MILLION This appropriation would have funded the renovation of Eddy Hall to be used for international and transfer student admissions programs. $6 MILLION For the design and planning of a Tate Laboratory of Physics renovation. $6 MILLION The old bill included this funding to replace the University’s Bee Research Facility and some College of Biological Sciences greenhouses. $4 MILLION To replace, renovate or decommission older laboratory facilities on the St. Paul campus.
$1.13 MILLION To design renovations and expansions for the Crookston campus’s wellness and recreational center. SOURCE: MINNESOTA REVISOR’S OFFICE
HIGHER EDUCATION BUDGET The Legislature increased higher education funding by about $250 million, including an $80 million increase to the University to fund items like the two-year tuition freeze for in-state undergraduates, the DREAM Act — which allows undocumented Minnesota students to pay in-state tuition, pending University approval — and a new research initiative. University Chief Financial Of ficer Richard Pfutzenreuter said this higher education budget is the “first realized increase” for the state’s appropriation to the University in six years. About $25 million in the second half of the University’s biennial budget is dependent on some performance goals. To receive that money, the University must complete at least three of five goals, like decreasing administrative spending by $15 million and improving graduation rates.
$42.6 MILLION
With the funding, the University will freeze tuition for resident undergraduates. This amount will be dispersed over the next two fiscal years.
$100,000
This one-time appropriation covers the information technology costs to implement the DREAM Act — or Prosperity Act — which provides instate benefits to undocumented students. These funds will go to the Office of Higher Education’s general fund in fiscal year 2014.
$36.65 MILLION
This appropriation will go to a new University research initiative called MnDRIVE.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE After a contentious, months-long debate in both legislative chambers, Minnesota became the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriage. The law will take effect Aug. 1. The historic measure marks a rapid shift in state policy regarding same-sex marriage. Two years ago, the Republican-led Legislature put last fall’s proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota on the ballot. Minnesotans, however, voted the amendment down and put DFLers in control of both the House and Senate for the 2013 legislative session. They were able to push the measure through this session in a vote that stayed mostly along party lines, with a few from each side bucking party beliefs.
OTHER BILLS MEDICAL AMNESTY This bill will provide legal immunity from alcohol consumption and possession charges for underage drinkers seeking emergency medical help. It will go into effect Aug. 1 and was largely pushed by the Minnesota Student Association.
TRANSPORTATION Lawmakers allocated $2.5 million to the Southwest Corridor light rail project, which would connect suburbs as far away as Eden Prairie to downtown Minneapolis and the Hiawatha light-rail line.
INTERNSHIPS The omnibus tax bill offers tax breaks for greater Minnesota businesses that offer internships to college students. The policy had been pushed for two years prior to passing, and supporters hope it will increase the amount of students looking outside the metro area for internships and jobs. Students must receive college credit for the internship.
MINIMUM WAGE A bill to raise the state’s minimum wage to $9.50 by 2015 failed. House DFLers pushed the measure until the final days of the session but never got the necessary support. Minnesota businesses must follow the federal government’s minimum wage of $7.25.
DRIVERS LICENSES There was a push to give driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, but the measure didn’t pass this session.
CLOTHING SALES TAX After lengthy debate, there will still be no sales tax on clothing in Minnesota.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA A bill was introduced to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, but it didn’t pass. The measure has been attempted before and will likely be brought up in future legislative sessions.
TAXES Smokers and high-income Minnesotans will pay more taxes when this session’s omnibus tax bill takes effect. In a move that some hope will decrease smoking in the state, the cigarette tax will go up to $1.60 a pack. A higher income tax rate is expected to affect the wealthiest 2 percent of Minnesotans. The new rate of 9.85 percent gives the state the country’s fifth highest income tax.
GUN CONTROL After much debate and controversy, few gun control laws were agreed upon this session. This issue could come back in future sessions.
BIKING In efforts to improve bike safety, the Legislature passed a law that makes it illegal to drive through, stop or park in a bike lane, with a few exceptions.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
5
Students push for spending cuts SDS will speak at a Board of Regents forum on the budget June 5. BY ROY AKER raker@mndaily.com
University of Minnesota students are star ting to echo state legislators’ calls for spending accountability. Students passed a referendum pushing for a 10 percent pay cut to any administrator making more than $200,000 in an April student vote on tuition increases and public budget disclosure. The authors, student group Students for a Democratic Society, will speak at a Board of Regents public forum on June 5 about Eric Kaler’s recommendation for the fiscal year 2014 operating budget. Because SDS’s referen-
dum — which passed with more than 85 percent of the 2,800 students who voted — holds no actual lawmaking power, enacting the three points of the referendum will be SDS’s goal fall semester. President Eric Kaler said in an April letter to the editor published in the Minnesota Daily that cutting “salaries and benefits while retaining or attracting capable people to manage a $3 billion organization is unrealistic.” University spokesman Chuck Tombarge said in an email that “Kaler’s letter to the editor represents the University’s response to the SDS vote.” SDS officer Nick Brambilla disagrees with Kaler’s statement. “Governor [Mark] Dayton’s salar y is less than $200,000 a year; we don’t
believe the president of a public institution should be making so much money,” he said. Kaler’s salar y in fiscal year 2012 was $610,000, according to University data. More than 150 people at the University who are classified as administration, accor ding to that data, ear n more than $200,000 per year. A 10 percent cut to those salaries would save the University $1.6 million annually. The University is “one of the worst in the country for administrative bloat,” Brambilla said, referencing a December Wall Street Journal ar ticle about the University’s administrative overhead. Brambilla said he and other SDS officers sat down with Kaler twice in April to
talk about the referendum. In the referendum, SDS calls for University administration to “fully disclose the budget in April, prior to any decisions to raise tuition or fees.” In his letter, Kaler said the budget is already transparent. The budget he presents to the Board of Regents, Kaler said, is publicly available online and is usually expected before the end of June. SDS member Christopher Getowicz said transparency doesn’t mean a public budget presented before the Board of Regents. He said he’d like to see students share in the process of review and critique before final decisions are made. Although Getowicz described the recently announced two-year tuition
freeze as an “important victor y for students,” he said more should be done to halt tuition increases in the long term.
Looking ahead Bram b i l l a s ai d S DS plans on bringing together other groups, like the Minnesota Student Association, on what he said is a “unifying issue” this fall. The group will hold an October rally in front of Morrill Hall as part of the National Day of Action to Defend Public Education. Getowicz said Minnesota House Speaker Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, and former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson are “strong allies,” and the group hopes to involve them in its campaign this fall. A part of that campaign will be getting more students engaged, Brambilla
said. “Hopefully we can start a bigger student movement,” he said, “to try to make our University a good example for the rest of the country.”
SDS REFERENDUM’S PROPOSED SALARY CUTS 161 administrative people at the University make more than $200,000 per year. A 10% salary cut for these employees is equal to more than $1.6 million.
SOURCE: UNIVERSITY SALARY DATA
IT employees question job reclassifications The project is meant to better define job duties and pay ranges.
$200,000
BY HAILEY COLWELL hcolwell@mndaily.com
$175,000
In the midst of a job reclassification haul meant to better define job duties and pay ranges, some employees in the University of Minnesota’s Office of Information Technology are questioning whether their new job descriptions and salaries are appropriate. The Information Technology Job Family Project is using University and industry employment trends to redesign the job classification and salar y structure for ever y OIT employee. Having more distinct job positions is meant to help the University make sure salaries are consistent and appropriate for corresponding job titles. The changes will take effect in mid-June. About 500 OIT employees will be reclassified to Professional & Administrative from Civil Service, which employees say typically has higher job security and flexibility with more vacation time. While most employees’
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY JOB PROJECT NEW SALARY RANGES
4
$150,000
5 3
$125,000 4
$100,000
3
1
2
$75,000 $50,000
3
2
2 1
1
$25,000 $0 END USER SUPPORT
BA/SA, DEV, SYS/ DB ADMIN, SEC, INFRASTRUCTURE
IT MANAGEMENT
SOURCE: OFFICE OF HUMAN RESOURCES
salaries will stay the same, almost 60 will receive less than the minimum salary for their new job group, and about 50 will be paid more than their new group’s maximum, according to the Office of Hu-
man Resources When completed, the study will reclassify about 1,100 employees, said OHR Director Lori Lamb. Initiated in 2009, the IT Job Family Project is the
What’s it take to make a MOOC? Hundreds of hours, no pay MOOCs u from Page 1
process and then they can go back to other faculty members and talk about [the MOOC],” he said. Cramer said his Statistical Molecular Thermodynamics class of more than 8,000 students has changed the way he prepares for the classroom version of the course he also teaches. “[Professors] are used to creating our courses almost on our own,” he said. “You can’t do a MOOC that way.” Cramer said he relies on a production team made up of staff from the Educational Technology Services, The Center for Teaching and Learning and University Libraries almost every day. University librarian Nancy Sims and other team members have shifted job responsibilities to suppor t MOOCs. Some on the team have devoted most of their time to working on the online courses since the University agreed to do them in February, she said. “Sometimes people think of the librar y of just being buildings with books in them, but I think this has shown that this is not what we are,” she said. “The way the library folks have been able to just dive right in in a shor t time frame has shown a ver y high level of amazing talent.” Karen Monsen, who is teaching a MOOC called Interprofessional Healthcare Informatics, said she also frequently leans on
the team for help. “They are the ones who really showed us about the in-video stuf f,” she said, adding that they have also shown her how to see the real-time progress of data collection. Sims said the classes reinforce the University’s land-grant mission “to provide resources and education to the public.” “This is a great example of the way that MOOCs are being used to create something really accessible and applicable,” she said. The five classes being offered online are also offered at the University for credit, which Monsen said has prompted questions from some students. “I’ve heard that some students are concer ned that they have to pay for this and others are getting it for free,” she said. “What [MOOC users] are getting is the content, not the course as it is delivered at the University of Minnesota.” University students who are not in the MOOCs may reap some rewards from the massive online classes, however. Cramer said preparing for the online class has helped make his traditional course at the University better. The University will retain the rights to the materials professors use in the MOOCs so they can be used in classrooms at the University. “If you want to know if your materials are good, let 8,000 people see them and you will find out quickly if you made a mistake,” Cramer said, adding his online class has
UNIVERSITY MOOC CLASS SIZES 16,502 STUDENTS ASSISTANT PROFESSOR JASON HILL, SUSTAINABILITY OF FOOD SYSTEMS: A GLOBAL LIFE CYCLE PERSPECTIVE 16,077 STUDENTS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MICHAEL OAKES, SOCIAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
11,194 STUDENTS ASSISTANT PROFESSOR KAREN MONSEN, INTERPROFESSIONAL HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS 8,761 STUDENTS PROFESSOR CHRIS CRAMER, STATISTICAL MOLECULAR THERMODYNAMICS 8,043 STUDENTS PROFESSOR PEGGY ROOT, CANINE THERIOGENOLOGY FOR DOG ENTHUSIASTS
SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA NEWS SERVICE
found at least one mistake in a video that he’s corrected. Monsen is teaching her MOOC and University course simultaneously. She said the preparation she’s done for her massive online class prompted her to change a textbook she uses for her class at the University. “It stretches your thinking to create material for a global audience,” she said.
fourth of 18 studies in OHR’s Job Classification System Redesign, a product of University President Eric Kaler’s emphasis on “operational excellence,” which will look at all Civil Service and P&A jobs at the University. The remaining 14 studies will be conducted by a third-party consultant and should be completed in the next two years, according to OHR. OIT employees were asked to fill out a form acknowledging their job reclassification. The deadline was extended to Tuesday due to a large number of people trying to meet with benefits counselors to discuss how their benefits would change with the reclassification, Lamb said. “It was important to us that they got full information,” she said. By setting minimums and maximums to ever y position’s pay range, the reclassification will help OHR become more specific about what salary applies for each type of work, Lamb said. It will also help supervisors understand how to give pay increases as employees move up the career ladder. This is one of OHR’s larger job studies, Lamb said, and “there’s a lot of work to be
done.” “Our focus has been on trying to get employees the information they need to understand this and to make the decisions they need to make,” she said. IT professional Peter Gutierrez said regardless of duties, almost everyone working for OIT is currently called an IT professional. Gutierrez said his job reclassification remained in the Civil Ser vice group under the new job title End User Support 1. Though his salary wouldn’t be affected under these arrangements, he said both he and his manager don’t think this was an appropriate classification for his position and that he should at least be classified as a 2. “I found it a little insulting considering that I’ve worked for the University for about 19 years, and I’ve done all kinds of different duties that are a lot higher than that User Support 1 classification,” he said. Gutierrez said other employees with the same duties as him who received the same reclassification are “not too happy about it.” “I think they under-classified me in my opinion,” he said, “and I have a reason to believe that there’s a lot of folks that feel the same way.”
Gutierrez said he plans to meet with his manager to discuss the best strategy, which could include filling out an appeal form or looking into ways he could work toward a level 2 classification. As he goes through the process, he said he doesn’t want to make too big of deal of the situation by completely refusing his reclassification. “I’m kind of just taking this with a grain of salt,” he said. “I don’t want to jeopardize my employment at the University.” Matthew Kauf fmann, an IT professional who’s worked for the University for 18 years, said he was reclassified as a level 3 System Database Design Administrator, but his current salary is above that — meaning he’d have a lower salary when the changes go into effect. He said he will appeal the reclassification. Kauffmann said he and his co-workers are “a little confused” about why the University decided to reclassify the positions and pay ranges. “We get that they’ve got to fix something,” he said, “but we’re tr ying to figure out how and why they came to this conclusion.”
Engineering and design students partner up to redesign lab space Renovations in Keller Hall should be complete by the fall. BY LIBBY RYAN eryan@mndaily.com
John Phillips and Sam Finnegan were hard at work in Kenneth H. Keller Hall the week after spring semester ended, adding the eyes to clay busts of University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler, which they were using to make an animatronic barbershop quartet. Phillips and Finnegan ar e members of Tesla Works, an engineering and design student group. Tesla Works has been fighting for more student lab space for years because space is always booked up, said Hunter Dunbar, vice president of Tesla Works. Now, the College of Science and Engineering is working with three student groups, including Tesla Works, and students from the College of Design to redesign and renovate three rooms in Keller Hall for student groups’ use. Renovations should start this summer and be finished before fall semester starts. Between research, student group meetings and engineering courses, it’s difficult for students to find space to work on their own projects, said Kyle Dukart, a CSE academic advisor. Redesigning the rooms will allow students 24-hour lab access. Dukar t said CSE will foot the $20,000 bill for the renovation, which is still being finalized and approved
by CSE administration. A group of CSE students first presented the idea to administrators last spring, but the project “got serious” in the fall, Dukart said. Along with Tesla Works, Innovative Engineers and Eta Kappa Nu are collaborating on the redesign. Overall, more than 25 students are working on the project, including several from CDes. Architecture senior Sarah Wolf redesigned the labs to make them more userfriendly by clearing out old workbenches, adjusting the lab layout and adding a new sink. “We’re excited to get more kids in the room, and hopefully more people will join student groups,” said Alex Miller, vice president of Innovative Engineers. Miller said Tesla Works is also building a new program, FIDO, to help manage the space. FIDO will be a centralized computer ser vice comparable to the ar tifi-
cially-intelligent computer J.A.R.V.I.S from the “Iron Man,” series, Dunbar said. The system would control access to the labs and help with safety concerns. “It will only turn on a power tool if you are able to use it and have the training to use it,” Dunbar said. The group began designing FIDO this year, and Dunbar said a prototype should be ready by December. The newly renovated lab space will showcase student projects like FIDO and the animatronic Kaler barbershop quartet. Prospective students visiting the University can tour Keller Hall and see a hands-on workspace for engineering students outside of class. Miller said she hopes tour groups visit the newly renovated labs in the fall often. “I would hope the inner nerd in them comes out a little bit and thinks, ‘Oh my gosh, this is really cool!’ ”
KELLER HALL REDESIGN SKETCH PEG BOARD WALL AND CLUB BANNERS
SAFETY
UTILITY SINK
LARGE TABLE AREA CHILL ZONE AND COUCH
MACHINERY AREA BAR SHELVES AND STORAGE
STORAGE AND WHITEBOARDS
SOURCE: SARAH WOLF, SENIOR ARCHITECTURE MAJOR
6
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Minneapolis sets diversity goals A report showed women- and minority-owned businesses hold few contracts with the city. MEGHAN HOLDEN mholden@mndaily.com
For the first time, the city of Minneapolis has created diversity goals for goods and ser vices contracts under $50,000. The Supplier Diversity Program set goals for the city to have 25 percent of its contracts with minorityand women-owned small business enterprises. The program’s March repor t found all City de-
partments spent about 1.5 percent of their total contracts on women-owned businesses and about 2.7 percent on minority maleowned businesses for goods and ser vices under $50,000. The city first star ted tracking diversity in its depar tments’ contracts under $50,000 after last August’s approval of the Suppor ting Equity in Employment in Minneapolis and the Region resolution. After the Economic Policy Institute named Minneapolis as having the worst unemployment disparity between white and black citizens in 2010, the city began taking steps to remedy the problem. “The Twin Cities has a
ver y significant employment gap, especially for African-American and Native Americans,” said City Councilman Cam Gordon, who represents par ts of the University of Minnesota’s campus. Before now, tracking of diversity in the city’s spending for ser vices under $50,000 didn’t happen and wasn’t considered, Gordon said. He said he’s been working on this issue since 2007 and is happy to see goals set. Michael McHugh, assistant director for the City of Minneapolis’ Contract Compliance Division, said the high goals are attainable because there are a large number of women- and minority-owned
businesses available to do smaller projects. The City’s Small and Under utilized Business Program, which ensures diversity in the City’s spending of more than $50,000, meets their goals by reaching out to small businesses to get them certified to work with the government, McHugh said. The current low utilization of women- and minority-owned businesses could be due to a depar tment’s familiarity with large companies, McHugh said. These goals will force depar tments to make a conscious decision about who they’re hiring, he said. Chris Olsen, director of marketing and events at WomenVenture — a non-
String of thefts hits University Also, a man was arrested for disorderly conduct outside Keller Hall. KIA FARHANG mfarhang@mndaily.com
A string of thefts occurred on the University of Minnesota campus last week, but police don’t think they’re related. Third-year law student Jie-Hye Lee said her laptop and textbook were stolen May 21 from the Mondale Hall library when she went to the bathroom. “It was like five minutes,” Lee said. “I don’t know whether it was a law student or whether it was a person outside.” The officer who responded to Lee’s call found a plastic bag with clothes in it and a cardboard panhandling sign in the librar y, according to the police report. Lee said she bought a new laptop the same day because she needs it for class. “I think it’s always important to store your docu-
ments” on a USB drive or cloud ser vice, Lee said, so they’re safe even if the computer isn’t. Another laptop was stolen May 22 from an unlocked office in Nils Hasselmo Hall, according to a police report. “Sometimes we have spurts [of thefts],” said University police Deputy Chief Chuck Miner, “but it generally isn’t timed so much at the end of the year.” A bike rack was noticed missing May 21 from outside the University’s Fleet Ser vices Building on 29th Avenue, according to a police report. “That’s the only time I’ve heard of that happening,” Miner said, adding that stealing an entire bike rack probably would have required more than one person. Miner said the laptop and bike rack thefts probably aren’t related because the stolen items are so different. “When we see a trend, it’s usually people stealing the same type of thing,” he said. “I don’t know if these
two would be tied together.”
UMPD CRIME STATISTICS 2012 VS. 2013
Minor consumption Eight people were cited for minor consumption early in the morning May 22 when officers saw a fight outside Starbucks Cof fee near The Commons Hotel. One man was standing over another and holding a chair, Miner said. The group told police they were friends and weren’t seriously fighting. “Sometimes it’s actual fighting,” Miner said. “In any event, the officers did the right thing.”
April 2012
University police booked a man May 21 for disorderly conduct, according to a police report. The man, who is not affiliated with the University, was allegedly shouting obscenities at Facilities Management workers from the second floor of Kenneth H. Keller Hall, the report said. The man may have gotten into Keller Hall through doors that FM propped open for cleaning, it said.
36
25
15 11 2 THEFT
ALCOHOL DRUG OFFENSES OFFENSES
SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA POLICE DEPARTMENT
When an FM supervisor asked if there was a problem, the suspect allegedly challenged him to a fight. He was booked at Hennepin County Jail.
Gunfire in Venezuela hurts 2 US officials BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CARACAS, Venezuela — Two of ficials from the U.S. Embassy suf fered gunshot wounds early Tuesday during an altercation at a strip club in Venezuela’s crime-ridden capital, police and U.S. State Department officials said. Their injuries were not considered life-threatening. The circumstances of the shooting were unclear, with conflicting repor ts over whether it happened inside or outside the Antonella 2012 nightclub. Police said the two U.S. of ficials were shot following a brawl inside the club, which is in the basement of a shopping center in the upper-middle-class Chacao neighborhood. A woman who works at the club said the two men got into a fight with each other. The club’s Twitter account features racy photos of nude or scantily clad women pole dancing, posing inside cages or reclining on beds. The text under one photo invites visi-
tors to come and watch the club’s “sexy show.” “Apparently it was a fight originating in a nightspot where these people were attacked and shots were fired at them and they suffered gunshot wounds,” police spokesman Douglas Rico told TV channel Globovision at the health clinic where the victims were taken. He said one was shot in the leg and abdomen and the other was shot in the abdomen. A police of ficial identified one of the victims as militar y attache Rober to Ezequiel Rosas. She said he was shot in the right leg during an argument outside the night club in Chacao, which is east of the city center. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to release the information publicly, said she had no information on suspects. Deisy Ron, who identified herself as the club’s ar tistic director, told The Associated Press that she wasn’t at work when the shooting happened, but
said employees she supervises told her that the men got into an argument and star ted throwing punches inside the club. “They wer e fighting with each other,” she said. “One of them pulled out a gun and shot the other in the stomach and the leg.” Ron said she didn’t know how the other man was injured or how he managed to bring a firearm inside the club, which has metal detectors at the entrance. In Washington, State Depar tment spokesman William Ostick confirmed that “two members of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas were injured during an incident early this morning.” “Medical staf f inform us that their injuries do not appear to be life-threatening,” Ostick said. “Embassy security and health unit personnel are at the hospital and have been in touch with the two individuals and their families.” Patrick Ventr ell, another State Depar tment spokesman, told reporters that the incident happened in “some sort of social spot
Diversity contracts at the U
The University of Minnesota also recently in-
or somewhere outside of the embassy grounds.” “I am not sure if it was a restaurant, or a nightclub, or what the actual establishment was, but that is why we are in touch with embassy personnel,” he said. An Associated Press repor ter who went to the scene saw no obvious signs of a shooting, though plain-clothes police of ficers were investigating the area outside the club. A Spanish sign saying “gun-free zone” and with a pistol crossed out was posted next to the entrance. Another sign said the club doesn’t allow entr y to couples, unaccompanied women or anyone under 30 years old. Crime is a serious problem for Venezuela, which has one of the world’s highest homicide rates. Ve n e z u e l a ’ s g o v e r n ment expelled two U.S. militar y attaches in March for allegedly talking to members of the countr y’s armed forces. Washington responded by ejecting two Venezuelan diplomats.
creased its goals to hire women- and minorityowned businesses, as well business owners with disabilities, from 10 percent to 13 percent. This is the first time the goals have been increased since they were implemented by the Board of Regents in 1999, said Craig Taylor, director of the University’s Office for Business and Community Economic Development. “We’ve probably had a 97 percent success rate across our projects where those goals are being applied,” Taylor said. The availability of these small-business owners helped increase the University’s goals, Taylor said.
EU leaders sound the alarm on youth unemployment BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 2013
53
Disorderly conduct
profit organization that provides financial and educational support for womenowned businesses — said she’s optimistic about the city’s goals, but there could be potential challenges. Small businesses may have to wait longer for payment from gover nment contracts, as typical contracts could pay within 30 days of service, Olsen said. Despite the longer wait time, Olsen said the new goals benefit the community. “It makes it inclusive so ever yone has the same opportunities,” she said.
PA R I S — E u r o p e a n leaders sounded the alarm on youth unemployment Tuesday and called for businesses to help solve a problem that has left nearly one in four young people in Europe without a job. At a conference in Paris, French, Italian and German ministers war ned that if high youth unemployment is not addressed, young people will lose faith in their governments and the European Union. “We now have to rescue an entire generation of people who are scared,” said Enrico Giovannini, Italy’s labor minister. “We have the best ever educated generation in this continent, and we are putting them on hold.” European countries have seen their unemployment rates skyrocket, first fueled by the global recession and then by the continent’s debt crisis. The unemployment rate for the EU’s 27 member countries is now 10.9 percent. For young people in Europe, those aged between 15 and 24, the situation is much worse: Their unemployment rate in the EU is 23.5 percent. In Greece and Spain, youth unemployment is over 50 percent. By comparison, it is 16.1 percent in the U.S, where the age range is 1624. EU countries have struggled to tackle the problem. Budget cuts imposed to control outsized deficits — which have cut have thousands of public-sector jobs and left little money for economic stimulus or employment programs — have only exacerbated youth unemployment. Many countries with the worst unemployment problems, like Greece, Spain and Italy, are implementing labor market reforms that should eventually spur growth and create more jobs by making it easier for companies to hire and fire people, but they will take a long time to yield results. The EU has already set aside funds, including 6 billion euros ($7.8 billion) for its “Youth Guarantee,” a commitment to getting every young person in the EU into a job, an internship or training within four months of their becoming unem-
ployed. Another 16 billion euros in European structural funds are also available for youth employment projects. But to tap the funds, countries need to come up with projects — and they have been slow to do so. The French and German labor and finance ministers met Tuesday to come up with a plan to bring more urgency to the subject. In a joint editorial published in French and Ger man newspapers Tuesday, they warned that “elevated unemployment that (young people) are enduring is a social, economic and political threat.” Few details have come out of the meeting, however, and much of the plan seems to be repackaging old promises. A statement following it said a full plan should be unveiled and adopted at the European Summit at the end of June. French President Francois Hollande proposed Tuesday that governments star t spending money on youth jobs this autumn and get reimbursed by the EU next year. Hollande spoke after meeting Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Paris. Taking an extra step, Rajoy called on the EU to change its deficit procedures so that countries would no longer be penalized for spending money on fighting youth unemployment. “This is an urgent situation,” Rajoy said. At the conference in the morning, the ministers also said that one of the major components of their plan has to be ensuring that small businesses have everything they need to grow — and hire. Small- and mediumsized businesses, which employ the vast majority of young people, have complained that since the global economic meltdown in 2008, gaining access to loans has become increasingly difficult. In 2008, the youth unemployment rate for the EU stood at just 15.8 percent. The minsters said that they are working on establishing a special credit line for these small businesses from the European Investment Bank, which will have a 70 billion euro lending capacity this year.
Poverty doubled in Twin Cities suburbs The increase reflects a national trend. BY BRANDEN LARGENT blargent@mndaily.com
As the number of poor Twin Cities residents has climbed over the past decade, the suburban area has more than doubled its poor population to about 200,000 people. The Twin Cities metro area suburbs have one of the highest increases in poor populations in the countr y, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution , a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C. The growth reflects a national trend in which the majority of poor people are now living in suburbs. The study found population increases and unemployment after the 2008 recession to be major factors in the increase. A family of four with an income of $23,550 or less is considered below the
poverty line, according to 2013 federal guidelines. Most federal programs fighting pover ty haven’t evolved to address the spread-out nature of suburban poverty , according to the study. Tom Luce , a research director for the University of Minnesota Law School’s Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity , said suburbs have outpaced metro poor populations for years, and the institute has written extensively on the changing suburban landscape. “This has been going on for a long time,” Luce said. The largest jump in T win Cities suburban pover ty was from 2008 to 2010 and has since slowed down, said Jane Tigan , a researcher for Minnesota Compass and Wilder Research . Despite the major increase in suburban poverty, the Twin Cities suburbs still have one of the lowest suburban pover ty rates among major metropolitan areas in the countr y,
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that will be replaced by a six-stor y, 643-bedroom CPM apartment complex . “They only spoke to her,” Zimbel said, and never sent a letter or called the other tenants. Zimbel said he’s currently working with University Student Legal Ser vice to negotiate the end of their lease with their cur rent landlord. CPM President Daniel Oberpriller said his company is tr ying to mitigate the concerns of those living in properties he’s buying. “ We ’ r e w o r k i n g o u t deals with them,” Oberpriller said. “We’re tr ying to make it positive.” While the early moveout surprised Zimbel and his roommates, some in the area knew it was coming. Joe Nelson, who rents from Dinkytown Rentals and whose house will be replaced by his landlord’s new four-stor y, 38-bedroom apar tment complex, has known for some time he’d be leaving early. “There was a little bit of hinting that this might be the last lease [for the property],” he said. The Minneapolis Community and Technical Col-
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lege sophomore said he has to be out by the end May but is planning to move home to Apple Valley, Minn., for the summer. Dinkytown Rentals owner Tim Harmsen said all of his tenants knew about the new development well in advance. “We’ve been in communication with all of them,” said Harmsen, who noted there’s an early termination clause in the leases. The new proper ty has to be constructed quickly, Har msen added, or he won’t be able to show it to prospective tenants. Har msen said he offered to let current tenants rent his other proper ties for the summer if they had nowhere else to go, but they weren’t interested. The new CPM development will also displace some long-term residents in the area. Ardes Johnson, a University alumna, decided to sell her townhouse in the Rollins Court complex after living there for 22 years. “It was har d to say, ‘O.K., for the right price, I’ll give in,’ ” Johnson said. “That’s what it amounted to.” Constr uction on the Dinkytown Rentals development is slated to begin July 10, while CPM will break ground Aug. 1.
growth. “This is a ver y big and complex place,” Hanson said. “I think she is someone who is not afraid of that challenge.”
A tradition of leadership
Brown grew up in Kent, Ohio, where she said her family were the first AfricanAmericans to settle and had always been very involved in the community. Her grandfather was a city councilman and a member of the school board. Both of her parents were involved in their church and the community. She recalls stepping into her first leadership role when she was elected safety patrol captain in elementary school. “I tell people, ‘I’ve been protecting and serving students ever since I was in the fifth grade,’ ” Brown said. She knew she wanted to be part of a sorority as early as eighth grade because of the impact the women of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. had on her community. She joined the sisterhood as soon as she enrolled at Kent State University, where she started out as a secondary education mathematics major. When she began a teaching practicum during her sophomore year at Kent State, Brown said she worked with students more outside of the classroom as she helped them cope with academic or family problems. This prompted her to switch her major to sociology with a minor in psychology. She attended Loyola University Chicago for a master’s degree in counseling, but she said she found her true callS.E. Avenue Como ing while completing a graduate apprenticeship in student DINKYTOWN leadership and education. RENTALS PROJECT “That was my first entry inBY THE NUMBERS to the world of student affairs and higher education,” she said, “and I fell in love with it.” COST OF PROJECT After more than a year of working as a counselor in Chicago’s South Side neighUNITS borhood, she realized how much she missed higher education and got a job at Ohio CONSTRUCTION BEGINS University. A year later, she began her Ph.D. work in the university’s higher education PROJECT COMPLETION program. Her goal was to obtain SOURCE: CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS, TIM HARMSEN her Ph.D. before turning 32. She finished the program in S.E. Como threeAvenue years while working a full-time job at the university and graduated in 2007 ― four
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PERCENTAGE OF INDIVIDUALS BELOW THE POVERTY LEVEL BY SUBURB
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they would age,” Lindeke said. Public transpor tation choices are limited for suburban people who can’t afford cars but need to access medical care, food and jobs, said Rosemar y Heins , a University Extension educator. Heins provides financial education in Anoka County, where she also works
with the nonprofit Free To Be! , which provides car repairs and donated vehicles to needy residents. “Maybe they’re not going to lear n ever ything all at once, but if they can learn two or three things that can save a few dollars, that’s progress,” Heins said. Although the Twin Cities have areas where jobs
and groceries are scarce, Lindeke said there’s still access to resources that are more limited in suburbs. Luce also said he’s concerned with how the new data could af fect future policies in suburbs. “You don’t want to allow suburbs to pursue policies that ef fectively zone poor people out,” he said.
CPM PROJECT
months before her deadline. She’ll turn 38 in August, right as students begin to move back to the University. Brown said she plans to spend that time welcoming new students and families to campus. “I’m used to celebrating my birthday at work. My birthday celebration consists of orientation,” she said. “I couldn’t see myself doing anything else.” Although she said she was content at Purdue University, where she’s served as the dean of students since 2011, she applied for the University’s vice provost position to put her “hat in the ring” and assess herself on the skills she’d gained during her time in administration. “I knew my goal ultimately was to be a chief student affairs officer,” she said. “It didn’t have to happen today, but it did, which I’m grateful for.”
‘Transition together’ Before officially taking over the position July 31, Brown has a multitude of items on her to-do list — including moving to Minnesota, finding a place to live and getting married. Brown said her fiancé has always been supportive and understanding of her career, even as they maintained a long-distance relationship. “I figured, we’re going to have all this transition,” she said. “Let’s transition together.” Brown indulges herself in her work and will keep the University and its students “at heart,” said her fiancé, John Allen, who works for the Social Security Administration and will re-locate to Minnesota with Brown after their June wedding. “She’s very unselfish,” Allen said. “She’s always thinking of how we can make the student experience better.”
BRIDGET BENNETT, DAILY
Newly announced Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Danita Brown will replace Jerry Rinehart beginning July 31, 2013. University’s programs, ser- American professionals at the vices and culture to see what university but because they works well and what could be were in the same sorority. readdressed in the future. When she began working “It’s not about coming in with Brown, Evans said she and changing anything [right immediately saw her passion away], because I just don’t for interacting with students. know,” she said. When it came to their sororBut one area she will ad- ity, she said Brown worked dress is fraternity and sorority to get its student members to life at the University, she said, the next level of professional namely by looking at why development. such a high percentage of the “Interacting with her, you student population chooses really see that love of the stunot to be part of those orga- dents,” Evans said. “That pasnizations and working to in- sion is there. A lot of people crease those numbers. in upper administration don’t As an active sorority have that.” member who wrote her disBrown demonstrated sertation on the leadership Evans’ sentiments as she debehaviors of members of the scribed one of the moments greek system, Brown said in her career she’s most she believes in the underly- proud of — seeing students ing service, scholarship and coming across the stage at leadership principles of frater- commencement. nity and sorority life. But she “You know what some stressed that students don’t of them had to endure. You have to be in a leadership po- know their struggle … but sition to be leaders, greek or then they graduate,” she said. not. “I don’t have kids, but I feel “You can be a leader in like they’re my children.” your family; you can be a leadEvans said she and her er in the classroom, on the colleagues are sad to see job,” she said. “We all have Brown go but excited for the different leadership styles students she’ll go on to advodepending on different situa- cate for. tions.” “You have those people Zenephia Evans, direc- that shine in what they do, tor of multicultural science and you’re definitely getting a programs at Purdue, said bright star when you get [Dr. she connected with Brown Brown] ser ving in that canot only over being African- pacity at Minnesota.”
‘Know the students’ The biggest part of every visit she makes to the University before finally moving here in July is getting to know the people, Brown said. Though this includes meeting with key University stakeholders like administrators, she’ll also try to meet as many students as possible, both formally and informally. “I’m here to be an advocate for students and be the voice for students,” she said, “so I need to get to know the students.” During her first year here, she’ll focus on observing the
BY THE NUMBERS
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with a rate of 7.6 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, almost one in four Twin Cities residents lives in poverty. “Many folks would be surprised by that number,” Tigan said. “That has also been on the rise since 1999.” Luce said the high pover ty level in the suburbs should be factored into the creation of new policies in the countr y, like encouraging increased affordable housing and pr oviding more transpor tation and transit services in suburbs. “How do people get around in places that aren’t built for pedestrians and transit users?” said Bill Lindeke , a University doctoral candidate. “A lot of these neighborhoods are very un-walkable.” The geography graduate instructor said retrofitting suburbs, like putting in neighbor hood sidewalks, would be an “immense challenge.” “They were built ver y quickly, and not a lot of attention was paid to how
New vice provost balances marriage, moving with new job
New apts. force early move-out for students
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January 2003-March 2006: Began as assistant director for March 2006student organizations and leadership of the Department of Campus September Life at Ohio University, Athens 2007: Promoted to associate director of the Department of Campus Life at Ohio University
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September 2007-July 2008: Served as interim dean of students at West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg, W. Va Spring 2007: Received her doctorate of philosophy and March 2011-July 2013: Served as August 2008-2011: Served as associate higher education Purdue University’s dean of students dean of students at Purdue University in West from Ohio University Lafayette, Ind. and published April 2013: Announced as candidate for vice provost for student her dissertation, affairs and dean of students at the University of Minnesota Transformational May 2013: Named vice provost and dean leadership behaviors and achieving styles of fraternity and sorority July 2013: Officially begins new post at the leaders University of Minnesota
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Editorials & Opinions www.mndaily.com/opinion
Go to the University of Reddit A Reddit-style online university offers some unique courses, sans karma points. nline and open learning opportunities are abundant and spreading like weeds in an untreated lawn. This shouldn’t be surprising: The digital age has created more spaces for these opportunities than any other point in human history. They’re ever ywhere. Massive open online courses — or MOOCs — seem to be ubiquitous when discussing online learning and education. It can’t be helped. MOOCs are in vogue, and the requisite terminology creates an opening for redefining conceptions of learning and education. Coursera, Udacity and other MOOC providers seemingly of fer free, informal learning, and while this can be considered notable, it of fers an unstable platform on which to gauge parity. So much of the discussion on informal learning in the digital age depends on context and
TRENT M. KAYS columnist
definition. Often, we expect too much from a platform or a place of learning, or perhaps we assume that if something works in one context, it will work in another. This simply isn’t the case. The current MOOC fever has given rise to other online learning spaces. Online learning is a well-worn idea; however, there are new incarnations every day. Cue the University of Reddit. Yes, you read that correctly: the University of Reddit. While the website technically isn’t af filiated with the social news and entertainment website Reddit.com, it has adopted a similar name and platform. Except instead of up- or down-voting links and news stories, users rank potential courses. Users from Reddit
populate the University of Reddit website, though being a member of the former isn’t a prerequisite for par ticipation in the latter. What type of classes can one expect to take at the University of Reddit? Well, there are a host of classes on the website to please most people. For example: Introduction to Filmmaking, Introduction to C++, Wet Shaving 101 and, of course, How to Make a MOOC. However, those classes don’t even begin to examine the potential of this platform. Perhaps the most important course on the site is the most imperative to ever yday college students — Introduction to Magic: The Gathering. This course introduces participants to the concepts and strategy of this popular trading card game, which are important life skills. I’m being a bit facetious. I’m happy there are courses like these because they provide a space for informal learning on a platform that lets users decide what stays and what goes. This is most certainly a drawback of the platform, es-
DEATHS IN IRAQ: U.S. & COALITION TROOPS: 4,802 — IRAQI CIVILIANS: 112,789- PLUS DEATHS IN AFGHANISTAN: U.S. & COALITION TROOPS: 3,303 — AFGHAN CIVILIANS: UNKNOWN
pecially if an awesome course gets pushed aside for a betternamed course. Though, in many ways, these are the types of courses best suited for Redditors. You wouldn’t find a course on “StarCraft II” strategy in the military science department at a typical university. Maybe this is the future of higher education: completely participatory, user-generated and open to anyone with an Inter net connection and a computer. Users learn from other users, and while the current University of Reddit idea may not be suited for formal learning, it certainly can serve as a supplement to it. Moreover, it’s not all that dif ferent from the informal learning that happens in our day-to-day lives. We lear n how to do things all the time outside of a classroom. That will never change. At the very least, perhaps the University of Reddit can teach us how to deal with the +4 Shadowmage that roams the Dean’s office. Trent M. Kays welcomes comments at tkays@ mndaily.com.
NATIONAL POLITICS
Cornucopia of “controversies” Republicans have attempted to devise fake controversies for political gain.
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Maxwell Smith welcomes comments at msmith@mndaily.com.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Farm bill is backward on food production
With so much talk over cer tain amendments of the Constitution — such as the Second Amendment — perhaps an additional amendment should guarantee each citizen of the United States the right to food, clothing, shelter and medical care. Pover ty is defined as the condition of being poor or lacking the necessar y means of support to live or meet needs. Today we read of enormous corporate tax breaks, outsourcing of jobs overseas and outrageous salaries “earned” by athletes and enter tainers. More recently, the revelation has come of the billions of dollars spent by the U.S. on two wars. In the meantime, the number of those in poverty continues to increase. The Old Testament of the Bible often makes references to the “promised land,” flowing with milk and honey. All one has to do in this countr y is take a trip to the grocer y store or depar tment store and bear witness to the fact that if anywhere was close to exhibiting the characteristics of “the promised land,” this countr y is one such place. Yet somehow we are still unable to meet the basic needs ever y citizen has. Some would argue that this proposal is an extension of socialist or communist principles. Nothing could be fur ther from the truth. Socialism is a political or economic theor y in which
The Editorials & Opinions department is independent of the newsroom. The editorial board prepares the editorials labeled “EDITORIALS,” which are the opinion of the Minnesota Daily as an institution but not representative of Daily employees’ opinions. Columnists’ opinions are their own.
EDITORIALS
HIGHER EDUCATION
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013
community members own all property, resources and the means of production and also control the distribution of goods. No one is suggesting the replacement of capitalism — an economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately owned and prices are chiefly determined by open competition in a free market. What is being suggested is that in this land of surplus “milk and honey,” there is absolutely no reason why the basic needs of ever y U.S. citizen cannot be met. Some would argue that food stamps, thrift stores, public housing and Medicaid already meet these needs, but in the words of former President John F. Kennedy, “this country is divided between those who have never had it so good and those who know we can do better.” I think we can do better. It should be the right of ever y U.S. citizen — in order to further guarantee the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — to receive food, clothing, shelter and medical care that are adequate to meet their basic needs. H o w e v e r, a c c e s s t o food is in jeopardy with the U.S. farm bill currently being considered by Congress ,which is a multibillion dollar farm subsidy bill renewed ever y five years. The bill comes as an extension of legislation first passed in 1933 as a means of preventing farmers from taking a loss on
their annual production of crops — cor n, wheat, cotton, rice and soybeans. The gover nment paid farmers the difference between what they sold and what it cost to produce. At the time, it was a brilliant means of “priming the pump” so that farmers could be temporarily shielded from the ef fects of the Great Depression on their industr y. Today’s farm bill is a clear example of a gover nment program being continued way beyond its original intention. Essentially, the government now pays far mers to underproduce crops in order to charge higher prices. Adding to the controversy is that it gives two-thirds of the subsidy to the top 10 percent of farmers. As with most gover nment programs, bureaucratic self-perpetuation has allowed this subsidy to become corrupted. Not surprisingly, the gover nment has it backward. Why not let the farmers produce as many crops as possible, sell what they can on the world market and give their surplus to the poor? Whatever they don’t sell, the government should pay them for and distribute it among those in pover ty. In a world facing a food crisis never before seen in the histor y of humankind, we should never halt the production of food under any circumstances. Joe Bialek Daily reader
ver the past few weeks, President Barack Obama has had to deal with many controversies. These include RONALD DIXON the Benghazi, the columnist Internal Revenue Service, the Associated Press and the “Umbrella-gate” scandals. However, only the AP scandal has actually revealed harmful actions taken by the Obama administration. Deputy Attorney General James Cole signed off on the collection of emails and phone records from the AP and Fox News, threatening the essence of the freedom of the press. The other three scandals were concocted merely to benefit Republicans. The most controversial is the IRS scandal, in which it was discovered that the IRS placed extra scrutiny on groups with conservative keywords, such as Tea Party, in their reclassification applications. What the media have failed to realize, however, is that it is the job of the IRS to vet applications to become a 501(c)(4) organization, groups associated with the “social welfare” of society that are tax-exempt. These Tea Party groups should not have had this status, and yet none of them were denied after the scrutiny. In fact, there was at least one progressive group that was denied 501(c)(4) status. This supposed “discrimination” is justified by the fact that 85 percent of campaign spending at the time was from conservative groups, along with an incredible influx of applications coming from conservative organizations. The Benghazi scandal involves the accusation against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that she was personally responsible for the deaths of four Americans last year at the Libyan embassy. Republicans have tampered with emails to attempt to prove this point, attacking a politically popular potential 2016 candidate, but their lies are as clear as day. Finally, the Umbrella-gate controversy involves Obama asking a soldier to hold an umbrella for him during a speech, a common practice that Democratic and Republican presidents have performed. Republicans have attempted to attack the president for a vast array of “scandals,” but the AP controversy is the only real dilemma. Moreover, their constant attacks did not harm Obama’s popularity; his approval rose, as did Republicans’ disapproval rates. Let us see what Republicans can conjure up next. Ronald Dixon welcomes comments at rdixon@mndaily.com.
Early childhood education The state Legislature rightly expanded access to kindergarten and preschool. Last week, the Star Tribune reported that all-day kindergarten is set to launch statewide fall 2014 thanks to the efforts of the Minnesota Legislature to pass the education-funding bill last Wednesday. State lawmakers quickly responded to the growing body of research showing the vital importance of a good education early in a child’s life. New studies show that students who learn more in kindergarten are more successful later in life. Studies also demonstrate that a quality pre-kindergarten education can have lasting effects and can boost kids’ reading and math skills, regardless if they come from an affluent family or not. Earlier this year, the Minnesota Daily Editorial Board echoed President Barack Obama’s call to make “high-quality preschool available to every single child in America.” Though Congress unsurprisingly ignored the call, the state Legislature approved a $40 million increase in scholarships for lower-income families to send their children to preschools. The focus on early childhood education is a welcome shift from the tried argument that simply increasing funding will solve the state’s education problems. While funding is obviously crucial, structural changes are needed as well. Far too many children grow up with poor social skills and fail to develop long-lasting good behaviors, and unless these problems are addressed early, they’ll have a lasting negative impact on the child’s learning abilities through adulthood. Providing universal preschool remains a crucial next step in strengthening American education, but progress at the state level is an encouraging sign that Minnesota lawmakers are willing to make structural changes based on compelling social science research.
Rape during Spring Jam An alleged rape during Spring Jam serves as a reminder of a wider problem. Over Spring Jam weekend a woman reported being raped at a campus fraternity. Though it has not been confirmed, the situation is problematic for a university with a troubled past with sexual assaults. Spring Jam weekend presents a unique level of stress for security in the University community. Ideally, campus organizations, like fraternities and sororities, should consider additional security precautions, just as the Dinkytown Business Association has done with extra law enforcement, with programs like Arkeo — which was created in the wake of three sexual assaults — that can help ensure a safer campus. At the University of Minnesota, 61 forcible sexual offenses were reported between 2008 and 2010. The Aurora Center served 146 clients in 2011 who had concerns or experiences of sexual assault. The Statesman, the Duluth campus newspaper, reported that every year 2.8 to 5.6 percent — as many as 300 — of its female students say they have experienced attempted or completed sexual assault, according to University surveys. The University of Minnesota-Duluth, however, reported only three sexual assaults to the federal government between 2008-10. Though we may hear about a handful of sexual assaults that happen on campus, that number is likely a small fraction of what is actually happening in the community. With one of the first big recreational weekends on the University campus coming with news of an alleged rape, this situation should come as a reminder — one that we should not need — that sexual assault is a problem that will not simply go away. It requires action from groups like the Interfraternity Council, law enforcement and the University student body to take this problem seriously. Simply put, it is the University student body’s responsibility not to rape, and with a sensitive crime as this, survivors should feel comfortable seeking justice.
LETTERS AND GUEST COLUMNS
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Sports
@MNDAILYSPORTS
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Local four-star recruit Travis connects with new assistant coach, eyes U
Travis u from Page 1
being a mentor in that aspect of it ... is going to be a strong attribute to them [in recruiting me],” Travis said. Travis said Johnson and Gophers head coach Richard Pitino contact him two to three times a week. He said it’s clear the Gophers have a strong interest. “When they see something they like, they go after it,” he said. “Not too much pressure, but you can still tell that they’re very interested.” If Minnesota lands Travis — the No. 41 recruit in the class of 2014 by Rivals. com — some of the state’s other top talent could follow. Travis is one of Minnesota’s “Big Three” recruits for 2014, along with Apple Valley point guard Tyus Jones (No. 3) and Robbinsdale Cooper guard Rashad Vaughn (No. 6). Vaughn said he looks at who he’d play with when evaluating colleges. But Travis didn’t seem concerned with where other recruits commit. “It doesn’t affect me too much,” he said. “I’m just
looking at the school itself and just tr ying to pick for me. You get caught up in where ever yone else is committing and that just causes a whole other set of problems.” Pitino’s recruiting style varies from other coaches across the nation, said Travis’ Amateur Athletic Union coach, Antwan Harris. “He’s laid back a little bit more. He’s a little bit more focused,” Harris said. “He’s maybe not as much of a people person as others have done, but he’s a good guy.” Listed at 6 feet 8 inches, 240 pounds, Travis of fers an inside presence Minnesota may lack with the departures of senior forwards Rodney Williams and Trevor Mbakwe. He averaged 20 points and 12 rebounds at last weekend’s Nike Elite Youth Basketball event in Eagan as his AAU team — Howard Pulley — went 5-0. Travis enjoys a physical style of play — something he would see often in the Big Ten. “When [the referees] are letting us play and use our physicality … I think that plays into my game,” he said. Some of Travis’ toughness on the basketball court comes from his experience
EMILY DUNKER, DAILY
Howard Pulley Panthers guard Tyus Jones dribbles at the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League tournament Sunday at the High Performance Academy in Eagan, Minn.
on the football field. He has several scholarship offers to play football as well, but Travis said the choice of school will come before the choice of sport. “I think at the end of
the day … what you want to get is a good education,” he said, “so that’s what I’m looking for in a school, and a sport comes second.” Travis said he hopes to narrow his list of colleges to
EMILY DUNKER, DAILY
Wisconsin Playground guard Rashad Vaughn plays at the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League tournament Sunday at the High Performance Academy in Eagan, Minn.
three or four schools in the fall. “[The Gophers] ar e pretty high up there — especially being from [Min-
nesota] and the relationship I’m star ting to build with the coaches,” he said. “They’ve got strong interest from me.”
BASEBALL
Improved Big Ten emerges as force on the diamond
EMILY DUNKER, DAILY
Minnesota catcher Mark Tatera dives back toward first base Friday during the Big Ten tournament at Target Field. The Gophers lost 7-4 to Nebraska and finished fourth in the six-team tournament.
The conference achieved its highest RPI this season since 1999. BY JACE FREDERICK jfrederick@mndaily.com
Michigan head coach Erik Bakich gave a simple response when asked how to increase interest in Big Ten baseball at last week’s conference tournament at Target Field. “Winning and weather,” he said. “The two W’s bring better attendance.” While no one can control the weather, the winning is well on its way for the conference. The Big Ten finished the 2013 regular season with a .521 ratings percentage index, according to Boyd’s World — good for sixth in the nation. It’s the highest RPI the conference has achieved since 1999. RPI measures winning
percentage, strength of schedule and opponents’ strength of schedule. “I’ve been for tunate enough to be in this conference for 23 years, and far and away, this is the best this conference has ever been,” Illinois head coach Dan Hartleb said. The Big Ten received two NCAA tour nament bids — a common measuring stick for a conference’s success — Monday when Illinois and Indiana were named to the field. It’s the second straight multi-bid season for the Big Ten, which had received just one bid in both 2010 and 2011. “If you look at the parity that’s been created, it’s just unbelievable to look at where the conference was two or three years ago and where we are today,” Hartleb said. The conference produced an NCAA regional host for the second year in
a row as Big Ten champion Indiana will host a regional in this year’s tournament — a privilege reserved for the top 16 teams in the country. Indiana won series against traditional powers Louisville and Florida this season. Both those teams qualified for the NCAA tournament. “I’ll put [Indiana] up against any team in the countr y,” Nebraska head coach Darin Erstad said. “They’re that good, in my opinion.” Though the Big Ten has bolstered its competitiveness in recent seasons, advances in facilities, coaching and talent have ignited the conference’s turnaround, said Gophers’ head coach John Anderson. He said the Big Ten is probably the best he’s seen in his 35-year tenure in the conference. And that top talent could soon be displayed
professionally. Six of Baseball America’s top 250 prospects for the 2013 MLB draft reside in the Big Ten, including Gophers pitchers Tom Windle (No. 46) and D.J. Snelten (No. 141). The Big Ten Network has increased the league’s visibility as well. The network scheduled at least 16 regular-season games and aired ever y game of last weekend’s conference tournament. While the Big Ten’s recent improvement is noticeable, some expect more. Despite the cold climate in the Midwest that affects scheduling for most of the season, Bakich said the conference can receive four to five NCAA bids each season. “It’s getting better,” he said, “but it certainly needs to improve and has room to improve. And there’s a lot of growth potential because
we’re all at great schools ,and there’s tremendous academic institutions [in the conference].” While the Big Ten experienced arguably its best regular season in a decade, the success of Illinois and Indiana at the NCAA tour nament will have the greatest effects on the conference’s
perception. “We’re really excited about what’s going on in the conference,” Har tleb said. “The number of great players we have, the coaches, the facilities, all of the things that our administrators have done to continue to push our sport for ward, makes this postseason part very exciting.”
GOPHERS BIG TEN TOURNAMENT RESULTS
Illinois Minnesota
1 0 0
2 2 1
3 0 0
4 0 0
5 0 1
6 0 0
7 0 0
8 0 0
9 0 1
R 2 3
H 8 10
E 0 0
Minnesota Indiana
1 0 3
2 0 0
3 0 0
4 0 0
5 1 1
6 0 0
7 0 0
8 1 0
9 0 X
R 2 4
H 9 7
E 2 1
Illinois Minnesota
1 0 0
2 1 0
3 0 0
4 0 3
5 0 0
6 0 0
7 0 0
8 0 0
9 0 X
R 1 3
H 8 9
E 0 3
Minnesota Nebraska
1 0 0
2 0 0
3 0 0
4 0 6
5 4 0
6 0 0
7 0 1
8 0 0
9 0 X
R 4 7
H 6 10
E 1 0
SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM
10
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
SOFTBALL
Coach Allister leads Gophers’ turnaround in third season Minnesota made an NCAA regional for the first time in 10 years.
GOPHERS SOFTBALL RECORDS BEFORE ALLISTER
BY DANE MIZUTANI dmizutani@mndaily.com
2010
Jessica Allister arrived on the University of Minnesota campus three years ago with a vision: turn around the Gophers softball program. She may have already done it. The Gophers ended one of their most successful seasons in the last 10 years two weeks ago with a 3-0 loss to Hawaii in the NCAA Seattle Regional. Minnesota finished the year 36-19, recording its most wins in a season since 2003, the last year it made an NCAA regional. The Gophers have won more than 30 games in each of Allister’s three seasons. “She has the heart, and she believes in us,” said senior catcher Kari Dorle. “She knew how good we were as soon as she got here, and she pushed us to get that out of us.” In 2010, the season before Allister was named head coach, the Gophers finished 16-37 — 2-17 in the Big Ten. Allister was an All-American catcher at Stanford in the early 2000s and coached at Georgia, Stanford and Oregon before she accepted the head coaching job at Minnesota. She has experienced success at ever y stage of her career, but she said she entered her first season with the Gophers blind. Allister was familiar with some of the talent on the roster, but she hadn’t really seen the team in action. “I’m not going to sit here and say it was easy,” Allister
2011 2012 2013
OVERALL BIG TEN 16-37 2-17
UNDER ALLISTER OVERALL BIG TEN 31-24 9-11 31-22 10-14 36-19 14-6
SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM
said. “I think people are always resistant to change in some respect, but we had a core group of players on the team that wanted to win.” Junior Sara Moulton has been part of that core group from the start. She has since morphed into the backbone of the team as a dominant pitcher at the top of the Gophers’ rotation. “There were a lot of players that wanted to help turn the program around,” Moulton said. “That was added motivation for us — and with Coach Allister, that was her goal, too.” Moulton said her success as well as the team’s success stems from Allister and her attitude on the diamond. “She’s the most competitive coach I’ve ever played for in my life,” Moulton said. “She brings a very competitive approach to her coaching style, which definitely rubs off on the rest of us.” Dorle is one of the few players on the current roster who played under the previous regime of co-head coaches Lisa Bernstein and Julie Standering. Dorle said she noticed significant differences in Allister’s coaching style right away. She, too, said there was an increased sense of competitiveness with Allister at the helm. “She wants to win, and she will do whatever it takes to win,” Dorle said. “She’s a
JERRY LEE, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Minnesota head softball coach Jessica Allister, right, volunteer assistant Dannie Skrove and pitching coach Piper Ritter cheer from the dugout May 5 against Indiana. Allister has led the Gophers to three straight seasons with 30 or more wins since her arrival in 2010.
perfect fit for this program.” Minnesota was a perfect fit for Allister, too. She said she looked at the success of women’s programs at the University and at the overall commitment placed on women’s athletics before she made her decision. “It’s not just a focus on men’s basketball and football with this University,” Allister said. “That is something that was important to me because there was a support system
in place to succeed.” The Gophers have been near the top of the Big Ten in defense in each of the past three seasons, and Moulton has become one of the top pitchers in the nation. Allister credited assistants Jessica Merchant and Piper Ritter for the team’s improved defense and pitching. “I couldn’t do it alone,” Allister said. “It’s a 24/7 job with college athletics, and it never stops, so the fact that we are on the same page is
important.” This is only the start for the softball program, said Allister, who wants to focus on the major aspects of building a program in the coming years. “We have to keep all of our staff together and recruit the right athletes to this program,” Allister said. “It’s a little piece at a time with building a program.” The Gophers have an inherent disadvantage in college softball because
they play in a cold climate. But Moulton said there’s no doubt Allister will lead the team to a College World Series appearance in the future. Dorle has more lofty goals for the program. “I can see this program as the next Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama or one of those top schools,” she said. “I cannot see [Allister] ever letting up.” “She will achieve her goal of making our program a top school in the nation.”
TRACK & FIELD
Men continue improvements; Docherty makes first NCAA meet Minnesota will send 11 to the NCAA championships. BY CHARLIE ARMITZ carmitz@mndaily.com
An unusually cold and wet spring hasn’t stopped the Gophers men’s track and field team from succeeding in the postseason. After weeks of canceled meets and rescheduling early in the season, Minnesota’s athletes have performed their best in their last two meets — the Big Ten outdoor championships May 10-12 and last weekend’s NCAA regional. The Gophers sent 25 athletes to the regional in Austin, Texas, and advanced 10 to the NCAA championships for the second year in a row. Two weeks earlier, they placed second at the conference outdoor meet. “We have a pretty veteran team with some senior leaders,” head coach Steve Plasencia said, “and I think they’ve done a good job of making the guys aware that when you get to the end of the year, you’re going to have to be doing your best.” Improved weather in May has also helped the Gophers. They rarely competed in ideal conditions in March and April, when snow or rain were a factor most weekends. Seven men athletes qualified in individual events for the NCAA meet, which will be held in Eugene, Ore., on June 5-8. The team’s 4x400-meter relay of seniors Har un Abda and Cameron Boy, junior Jacob Capek and freshman Goaner Deng also qualified. The r elay capped the Gophers’ strong weekend by r unning the sixth-fastest time in school histor y (3:06.12) on Saturday. Fr eshman Wally Ellenson, a member of the Gophers basketball team, qualified Thursday with a high jump of 7 feet 1 inch — less than an inch short of his personal record. Plasencia said the
strong performances of Ellenson and senior Oladipo Fagbemi stood out to him. Fagbemi set a personal record in the triple jump to qualify. “He’s been building momentum all spring,” Plasencia said of Fagbemi. “It just lined up for him.” Plasencia said seniors Quentin Mege and Abda have the best chance to succeed at the NCAA meet. Mege threw 66.33 meters S a t u r d a y, t h e s e c o n d far thest distance at the regional. Abda ran the 800 meters in 1:48.18 on Friday to advance. Senior Micah Hegerle will join Mege in the hammer thr ow, and senior Travis Burkstrand will join Abda in the 800. Plasencia said sending multiple athletes to the NCAA meet in the same event gives them an advantage.
“Having a strong level of comfort on the national level I think is important,” Plasencia said. “You have more of a normal team situation versus just one or two guys going.”
Docherty makes first NCAA meet
The Gophers women’s team will send just one athlete — junior distance runner Laura Docherty — to the championships. Eleven other Minnesota athletes competed at the Austin, Texas, regional and did not advance. Docher ty ran a personal-best time of 16:10 in the 5,000 meters Saturday to make her first NCAA meet. The junior has been a bright spot on a women’s team that has str uggled this year. She set a school record in the 10,000 in
March, placed in the top five in both the 5,000 and 10,000 at the Big Ten outdoor championships and focused on just the 5,000
for the regional. “Last year she had a great breakthrough at the end of the year … and it just rolled into this year,” head coach Matt Bingle
said. “She had a good summer and trained smar t and then had a great cross countr y season. Things just kept going and going for her.”
NCAA WEST PRELIMINARY CHAMPIONSHIPS GOPHERS MEN’S QUALIFIERS Harun Abda Travis Burkstrand John Simons Oladipo Fagbemi Wally Ellenson Quentin Mege Micah Hegerle Harun Abda Jacob Capek Goaner Deng Cameron Boy
800 meters 800 meters 1,500 meters Triple jump High jump Hammer throw Hammer throw 4x400 relay
1:48.18 1:48.46 3:45.54 15.68 m* 2.16 m 66.33 m 64.60 m 3:06.12
GOPHERS WOMEN’S QUALIFIERS Laura Docherty
5,000 meters 16:10* *Personal record
SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM
JAAK JENSEN, DAILY FILE PHOTO
Minnesota’s Harun Abda competes in the 800-meter run Feb. 15 at the University Fieldhouse.
Minnesota junior Laura Docherty runs at the Roy Griak Invitational on Sept. 29, 2012, at Les Bolstad Golf Course.
ANTHONY KWAN, DAILY FILE PHOTO
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
A&E EDITOR
Sarah Harper (612) 627-4070, ext. 3237 sharper@mndaily.com
ASSISTANT A&E EDITOR Joe Kleinschmidt (612) 627-4070, ext. 3198 jkleinschmidt@mndaily.com
RADIO K TOP 7 1. Mutables “Broken Toy” 2. Spiritualized “I Am What I Am” 3. Toro y Moi “Take the L to Leave” 4. Trampled By Turtles “Walt Whitman” 5. Kishi Bashi “Bright Whites” 6. Dirty Projectors “Gun Has No Trigger” 7. Lucy Michelle & The Velvet Lapelles “Just A Kid”
11
ONLINE WWW.MNDAILY.COM/AE
CORRECTIONS
errors@mndaily.com 2221 University Ave. SE Suite 450 Minneapolis, MN 55414
MUSIC
Soundset 2013 rehashed A mixture of bangin’, high-fallutin’ and pop hip-hop made a dreary day in Shakopee, Minn., worth the muddy extremities. BY SPENCER DOAR sdoar@mndaily.com
Busta Rhymes was slated to headline Soundset on Sunday, but he never showed up; whispers in the wind indicated that he was, for whatever reason, in Las Vegas. That meant that 4:30 p.m. came and instead of that husky-voiced, square-jawed titan, Minneapolis’ own Prof took the helm, playing an impromptu 45 minutes that saw him stop the set to chastise a section of the crowd for fighting and sing a blues track that he’s been working on — seriously. It’s unfor tunate that Rhymes’ absence resulted in Prof performing, not because Prof was crap, but because of the brevity of the sets during the sixth annual festival. It felt as though those minutes could have been spread to the other artists, who sometimes left the stage just as they seemed to really get going, as was the case with Aesop Rock and P.O.S. Before any Rhymesayers hit the stage though, the crowd was stagnant, even being called the “walking dead” by 12:30 p.m. performer R.A. the Rugged Man. The masses fittingly came to life when the aforementioned Aesop Rock performed at 2 p.m. (But then, Rhymesayers are the Twin Cities’ babies and are often thrown the af fection that comes with it.) He was the catalyst, charging the crowd until bursting into “None Shall Pass,” its synthy pop undercurrent
getting all manner of fitted cap-wearing men and Daisy Dukes-clad women dancing in a manner befitting such a large event — and, as P.O.S. said less than 15 minutes later, it’s the best way to stay warm on what was a chilly, windy day for 23,000 people in Shakopee, Minn. Mother Nature did seem to agree to a tenuous nine hour cease-fire, only sporadically spitting a few drops at one patron or another. The wind in particular did alter the stereotypical festival air, as, multiple times, event staffers and audience members attempted to get beach balls out into the crowd, only to have them instantly blown behind the main stage. Aesop Rock ser ved the crowd to P.O.S. on a platter, and boy did P.O.S. take advantage. He was joined by the only live instrumentation of the day, performing with Marijuana Deathsquads, which added necessary punk intensity. The crowd knew this was a triumphant comeback moment for P.O.S., as he spent much of the last six months in wait of a kidney transplant and only recently decided to step back on stage. P.O.S. said that it was the most fun he’s had since his last time at Soundset. Despite the anger and intensity that seems a natural byproduct of hip-hop, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” could have been the theme of this year’s festival, with host Sway Calloway (MTV News, anyone?), consistently celebrating the community roots of hip-hop. That, and maybe “titties,” as Joey Bada$$, Juicy J and Tech N9ne all spent a good part of their sets hitting on the crowd. “Damn girl,” “Where the best strip club at,” and “White
JAAK JENSEN, DAILY
Snoop Dogg performs at Soundset on Sunday at Canterbury Park.
girls dancin’ for me like I’m Atmosphere and [expletive]” are a few illuminating moments of what passed for witty banter. Things went smoothly, but there were certainly a few hiccups. The Busta Rhymes no-show was a big one. The over worked ground crew had to battle with woodchips to prevent Canterbury from turning into a mud pit; the network that supported the ATMs and credit terminals went on the fritz for two hours in the middle of the day, and lines for cash reached epic proportions. The day culminated with the choreographed entrance of Snoop Dogg. Barely on
time, he and his posse rolled up to the back of the stage in two black Mercedes-Benz vans as security cordoned off 20 feet on either side, pushing aside artists and press alike. When Dogg’s costumed mascot came on and “Gin and Juice” filled the air, it was easy to imagine some housewife in nearby Savage, Minn., catching whiffs of cannabis and bass in the air. When all was said and done, what was left was the detritus of 10 hours of drinking, smoking and dancing — and a clear picture of the fundamental differences between Minnesota acts and the national awning under which they huddle.
JAAK JENSEN, DAILY Soundset attendees enjoy Prof’s set Sunday, May 26, 2013 at Canterbury Park.
MUSIC
CLAPS won’t leave the basement
BY JOE KLEINSCHMIDT jkleinschmidt@mndaily. com
JAAK JENSEN, DAILY Claps, a local dark wave, post-punk band, play a dark, minimalistic style of synth pop music that is comparable to acts such as New Order and Cold Cave.
recreate through the ARP Axxe. “New Science,” the band’s first EP, showcases this pop sheen par tly inspired by new wave pioneers John Foxx and Fad Gadget. But CLAPS still left room to grow. “At that point we were so new in what we were making, we didn’t really know what we wanted to sound like,” Donohoe said. G oth and p ost- p u n k
Lizzy Herder EP release Twin Cities singer/songwriter Lizzy Herder looks like Ke$ha if Ke$ha wasn’t a dir ty rock diva—given their music styles, that’s a compliment for the both of them. Herder demonstrates a degree of composure and stage presence at 20 — not to mention the songwriting skills to back it up — that bodes well for her future. Apparently she’s even busked just for the experience. She’s joined by American Youth, who have most notably had their tunes featured in “Real World” and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” Interesting…
u Where: 7th Street Entry, 701 N. First Ave., Minneapolis u When: 7:30 p.m. u Cost: 7 u Age: 18+
sounds also influence the band, possibly a testament to Donohoe and Smentek’s shor t-lived streaming radio show at the University of St. Thomas. With the band’s latest album “Glor y, Glor y,” a dark dirge encompasses most of the record where clean sounds once dominated. Instrumentalist Sara Abdelaal moved from the synth to the bass for even more
friday
thursday
Jed Smentek founded his band after buying a retro synthesizer off of Craigslist. To form CLAPS, he’d need the inspiration from the ’80s synth to build the moody minimalism his band is known for. “The ARP [Axxe] was pretty much the whole reason we started a band,” vocalist Patrick Donohoe said. “We found one on Craigslist for 300 bucks.” “That was my hobby,” Smentek said. “My whole life was looking on Craigslist.” Smentek invested his time searching for the right synth for a type of minimalism he wanted to
possibilities. “When we star ted ‘Glor y, Glor y’ and the tail-end of ‘Wreck,’ we felt like we were coming into something that was ours,” Donohoe said. The singer par tly credits the evolution in adding rougher elements, ditching the simple per fection for more organic per formance. Seeing CLAPS live now represents an entirely dif ferent experience than listening to the band’s recorded output. “So much synth in electronic music is not live-based,” Smentek said. “It’s like someone does something on a computer, and then they put the computer up and they’re like, ‘Here’s my song.’ ” In the age of laptops in the increasingly commercialized electronic dance music scene, the analog synthesizers CLAPS embrace forge an opportunity to break the wall that a computer brings. “That’s r eally never what we ever wanted to
Live races at Canterbury Park It is shouting with a racing form clenched in white-knuckled hands as some horse named Abracadabra comes from behind that makes up for the voyage out to Shakopee. You won’t find the same barrage of odd attire as you would at premier racing events like the Kentucky Derby, but the track remains a place for fantastic people watching. Fridays also feature live music and a happy hour. If you get sick of the races, there is always Canterbur y’s card club to while away the hours, and with the World Series of Poker right around the corner, what better time to get in a few hands?
u Where: Canterbury Park, 1100 Canterbury Road, Shakopee, Minn. u When: 6:30 p.m. u Cost: $5
be,” Smentek said. “When we write music, it’s like we’re performing.” CLAPS prefers the basement of a house as their stage, where even the most electronic and scientific sounds they acquire never feel sterile. The pulsating synths feel mor e alive among cramped par tygoers than bar attendees anyway. “I kind of hate the idea of being a band that just hangs out in the greenroom and plays the venue,” Abdelaal said. “I think that people who go to basement shows are more into music. Or maybe just drinking.” The three strive for immediacy in per formance and songwriting, something they’ve developed through a longstanding relationship — Donohoe, Smentek and Abdelaal all work in visual ef fects together outside the band. Through “Glor y, Glor y” and the for thcoming “Lies White Lies,” the synth trio gives of f a col-
saturday
The synth trio CLAPS details their origins in new wave, the benefits of house shows and breaking down the barriers of electronic music.
lective gloomy disposition. Where the former played into a heavy spiritual aesthetic, the new album joins the clinical instr umentals with a slightly more optimistic outlook. But Smentek insists that the seriousness never interrupts the fun. “It’s not like an ar tist who pours their soul into a painting and it becomes a process that can be exhausting,” Smentek said. “It’s not like that.” Abdelaal r elates the purpose of CLAPS to the band’s penchant for playing impromptu house gigs: “I just think we got into writing music that would be fun to play in a basement.” Although the bleak lyrics Donohoe sings on stage give of f a sinister atmospheric haze, CLAPS remains infectiously danceable, without solely relying on ’80s revivalism. “We’re having a good time being sad, I guess,” Smentek said.
Minneapolis Caffeine Crawl With two routes, this jitter-provoking crawl outing of fers par ticipants some options on how they wish to get their extended morning fix. The $30 ticket gets goers some par ty favors and a free drink at each location. You’ll be perky and attentive on this journey, which will also prove to be a learning experience for those that aren’t informed about the process behind their morning cup o’ Joe. Let’s just say if this makes it on your iCal, watch yourself while par tying that evening — you won’t have the I-needto-pass-out gauge to monitor your readiness for another libation.
u Where: Starts at Peace Coffee’s roasting facility, 2801 21st Ave., Suite 130, Minneapolis u When: 10:30 a.m. u Cost: $30
CULTURE COMPASS BY SPENCER DOAR
12
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Putter around some unusual putt-putt in honor of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden’s 25th anniversar y. Two eight-hole courses utilize the ability to move the hole, optical illusions and twists on classic obstacles.
Beer-jito 2 teaspoons sugar Handful of mint leaves 1/2 a lime, sliced in wedges 2 shots of white r um A bottle of light beer
There are hot dogs and miscellaneous vending on hand, plus wine and keg beer — this might be the greatest mini-golf oppor tunity you’ll have unless you make it to the golf (of both types) mecca that is Myr tle Beach, S.C. But even then there won’t be the focus on the ar t and design side.
Yield: two drinks
Just leave the 9-iron in the closet, and come down to a green where your slicing 50-yard drives won’t screw up your game.
Other wise make as one would a mojito: muddle the sugar, mint and lime before adding r um. Then strain, add the beer and enjoy!
For those of you looking to up the booze quotient in your summer refreshments, look no fur ther. A classic Caribbean treat gets a simple twist by merely replacing sparkling water with a light beer of your choice.
Summer block parties: festivus for the rest-of-us Find the best of the local acts and big names outdoors in A&E’s 2013 guide to summer block parties. BY JOE KLEINSCHMIDT jkleinschmidt@mndaily. com
Nothing spells the advent of summer like the local block par ty, a Twin Cities tradition. Even though the First Avenue and River’s Edge festivals were shelved this year, the Cities are alive with an oncoming slew of local garage bands for free and some big-name ’90s acts playing on hyped-up nostalgia. Standard festivals like Rock the Garden and the Basilica Block Par ty satisfy a mix somewhere in between — a blend of national and local acts headline both. Newest is the Skyline Music Festival at Target Field. (Thankfully, no Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw on the field this year.) Whether you’d rather spend your money on beer while listening to some local jams or you’ve got the cash to see Soul Asylum at Target Field, now’s the time to star t planning. So roll out your dingiest Pavement T-shir t or some swanky evening formalwear — A&E found the best fests for the highest and lowest spenders among us. FREEBIES FOR THE SMALL FRY:
Grand Old Day Three miles of St. Paul sprawl gives a family spin on the beer-drenched block par ty, with possibly the most varied musical lineup of the summer. When: 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday Where: Along Grand Avenue, St. Paul Cost: Free Lineup: Dixie’s Stage: The Amends, Tramps Like Us, Night Moves, Har Mar Superstar K-TWIN Grand Garden Stage: The Melismatics, Skypiper, The Unlikely Candidates Billy’s on Grand: Arc Flash Hazard, Butter face, Orange Whip, Hookers and Blow
Twin Cities Jazz Festival
Local jazz groups will also per form all around St. Paul, with concerts outside Union Depot, the Artists’ Quar ter and Amsterdam Bar to name a few. When: June 27-29 Where: Mears Park, 221 E. Fifth St., St. Paul Cost: Free Lineup: Night One: (Funk Night): RJ and the Soul, Black Market Brass, New Sounds Underground Night Two: The Illicit Sextet, Ariel Pocock, Kenny Werner Trio Night Three: Walker We s t M u s i c A c a d e m y, JazzMN Orchestra with Connie Evingson, Matt Slocum with Walter Smith III, Cyrus Chestnut Trio
Uptown Pride Block Party This zero-waste event capitalizes on a wide local music spectr um — from the acoustic folk of Chastity Brown to the sweltering post-rock of L’Assassins. When: 6-10 p.m., June 28 Where: Br yant Avenue and Lake Street, Minneapolis Cost: Free Lineup: MC Foxy Tann, Epitome No Question, Southside Desire, Sick of Sarah, Dykes Do Drag, Chastity Br own, L’Assassins
Bastille Day Block Party Celebrate French National Day in style with some of the best up-andcomers of the local scene and some punk mainstays. Also, cake will be ser ved. When: 3-10 p.m., July 14 Where: Barbette, 1600 W. Lake St., Minneapolis Cost: Free L i n e u p : John Mark Nelson, Lucy Michelle, Nadine Dubois, Sweetpea & Les Folies Risque, The Suicide Commandos, LEAGUES, MC Foxy Tann BIG TICKETS FOR THE BIG SPENDER:
Rock the Garden The picturesque concer t venue easily makes for the best place to see music this summer, that is, if you bought a ticket before all those 89.3 The Current listeners. When: 3-10 p.m., July 15
GO ONLINE FOR AN INTERACTIVE MAP
W h e r e : Walker Ar t Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis Cost: Sold out (about $72 on StubHub) Lineup: Metric, Silversun Pickups, Bob Mould Band, Low, Dan Deacon
Basilica Block Party Praise the loud at the pri c i es t mu s i c f es t i v a l around town this year. Began in 1995 as a fundraiser for the str uctural restoration of the Basilica, you can still suppor t the church through rock ‘n’ roll. Raise hell as you praise Him. W h e n : 5-10:30 p.m., July 12-13 Where: Basilica of St. Mar y, 88 N. 17th St., Minneapolis Cost: One night: $4550, two nights: $80-90 Lineup: Night One: Father John Misty, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Family of the Year, Matt Nathanson, Mayer H a w t h o r n e , Z Z Wa r d , Churchill, Southwire, The Cactus Blossoms, Actual Wolf Night T wo: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Goo Goo Dolls, Matchbox Twenty, Walk the Moon, Kate Earl, Cloud Cult, Van Stee, Bomba De Luz, On An On
Skyline Music Festival Dubbed “the LP tour,” each act will play an entire album. Expect “Girlfriend” from Sweet, for instance. W h e n : 4-10:30 p.m., July 26 Where: Target Field, 1 Twins Way, Minneapolis Cost: $25 – $45 Lineup: Soul Asylum, Matthew Sweet, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Gear Daddies
TOYS
A toy story University professor Roy Cook’s passion for Legos goes beyond simple sets. BY SPENCER DOAR sdoar@mndaily.com
hile the mislaid brick remains the bane of barefoot late-night snackers, Lego has undergone a shift in the 21st century. For avid hobbyists like University of Minnesota philosophy professor Roy Cook, Lego provides a problem and a pastime that has grown to a collection of
“After Earth” in theaters Friday Father-son duo Will and Jaden Smith star as father-son duo Cypher and Kitai Raige. “After Ear th” follows the Raiges on a voyage back to Ear th in a cataclysmic near future. What is tr uly amazing is the star power of Will and Jaden Smith has allowed marketers to conveniently obfuscate that this is a M. Night Shyamalan movie, a guy who hasn’t done something decent since 2000’s “Unbreakable.” Considering that the plot includes hyper-evolved life forms and a super-power ful alien who needs to be reined in, it’s hard to imagine a way that Shyamalan won’t r uin this picture with some stupid plot device. However, this will be an interesting metric for gauging Jaden’s acting chops — as good as he was in 2006’s “Pursuit of Happyness,” starring once again as Will’s son, much of the per formance was powered solely by cuteness.
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Mini-golf at the Walker
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CULTURE COMPASS BY SPENCER DOAR
some estimated 2.5 million bricks and encompasses his whole basement. Cook is a former Lego Ambassador, and co-founder of the Twin Cities’ Lego User Group, or TwinLUG. His scale models of the state Capitol and the Cathedral of St. Paul are currently on display at those respective locations. “The trick is to get things as close as possible — you can never get the dimensions exactly right,” Cook said. “You need the critical details.” In the case of the state Capitol, the eagles at the
base of the dome were a challenge. Lego does not make an eagle piece, but they do make an owl. Cook needed white owl pieces though, which only could be found in a large Harr y Potter set. It’s at this point when Cook and builders like him tur n to third-par ty sources to acquire specific pieces or quantities that wouldn’t be viable in-store purchases(think StubHub but for Lego). By Cook’s estimation, there are a few dozen people who make their living solely as unofficial Lego distributors.
Trash talk At the Trylon’s showings of “Trash Film Debauchery,” you can freely launch your sarcastic remarks towards the silver screen. BY JOE KLEINSCHMIDT jkleinschmidt@mndaily. com
“
Starcrash” hasn’t aged well, but last Wednesday, the 1978 Italian sci-fi romp graced the screen of the Tr ylon Microcinema, where Bmovie fans gather each week to embrace the forgotten pop-culture refuse of the past. When the Emperor of the known universe once again initiated yet another bout of handholding with the protagonists, a man in Tr ylon’s tiny, 50-person audience suddenly sang “Kumbaya.” “I think that’s the cool thing about watching films like this —you don’t need to be super quiet and pay close attention,” said Theresa Kay. As the founder of Trash Film Debaucher y, Kay encourages jeers from her audiences. Kay star ted the group on the University of Minnesota campus in 2003 and has since moved the scorn-filled screenings to the Tur f Club, the Tr ylon and soon Club Jäger. “Starcrash” represents a long line of “trash” films she’s spread. “The first series I did was a double feature of the best cinematic head explosions of all-time,” she said. “So I showed ‘Scanners’ and ‘Maniac.’”*** Although her taste ranges from sci-fi to slasher and horror, Kay combs for rare gems among the bargain bins of thrift stores like Discount Village. For “Starcrash,” she says the per verse appeal to the campy “Star Wars” rip-of f lies in the film’s principal actors. “It’s a really low-budget Roger Corman sci-fi movie, but it has a bunch of well-known [actors] now, unknowns then,” she said. Halfway through Stella Star’s (Caroline Munro) scantily clad cosmic adventure, she encounters the Emperor’s son, Simon. The golden nest of frizz emerges under neath Simon’s helmet, revealing a young David Hasselhoff. “It’s always hilarious to see well-known actors who were successful and made a name for themselves beBut his commissioned work is only a small par t of Cook’s hobby. He was a Lego Ambassador for TwinLUG, connecting Lego and the community. The Lego Ambassador program’s origins lie at the turn of the centur y, when Lego realized the need to be better in touch with its adult consumer base. “For a long time Lego thought that for every adult who spent $100, there were 10,000 kids who spent $10,” Cook said. “They started doing some research and realized that wasn’t true.” Cook experienced what many adult fans of Lego, or AFOLs, call a “dark age,” a period of time when a childhood interest in the building block toy is followed by a hiatus. For Cook, that ended at the age of 31 when he decided to make a mural of his nephew with 1x1 Lego bricks for his first birthday. Now, besides his micromodels of city scenes and buildings, his mural work is
JAAK JENSEN, DAILY
Ryan, a member of the shadow cast for the Rocky Horror Picture Show, plays Frank N. Furter during a midnight showing of the film Sunday, May 26, 2013, at the Uptown Theatre.
ing bad,” Kay said. The future “Bay Watch” star can’t quite make up for the schlock of “Starcrash,” but the cult audience of Trash Film feeds of f the base filmmaking. An impromptu martial arts scene pits Akton (Marjoe Gor tner) against a nemesis, a cheap display of missed punches and overacting. “A huge aspect of a lot of the things I show is sor t of the unintentional comedy,” Kay said. “The filmmakers are really putting a lot into what they’re making and tr ying so hard to make something good. And it’s successful, but not in the way it’s intended to be.” Trash Film Debaucher y gives a social setting to enjoy the unintentional humor of “Starcrash,” full of shoddy special ef fects, but Kay still requires a movie to be enter taining. Perhaps she treads a fine line between pop enter tainment and sheer boredom, but her eclectic selections often surprise the audience. During her days at the University, Kay remembers a disgruntled viewer of “Zardoz,” a particularly strange fantasy featuring Sean Conner y. When the film’s hero wandered around a giant cr ystal toward the conclusion, the onscreen inaction resulted in one girl’s dramatic exit. “It’s really disorienting and strange. There’s nothing happening, and it goes on for five minutes, at least,” Kay said. “So this girl in the back of the room just screamed, ‘What is happening?’ She got up and stormed out because she’d had enough.” “That was a successful moment for me.”
ING LOCATIONS THIS SUMMER:
The Trylon Microcinema 3258 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis
The Turf Club 1 6 0 1 W. U n i v e r s i t y Ave., St Paul
Club Jäger 9 2 3 N . Wa s h i n g t o n Ave., Minneapolis Visit TrashFilmDebaucher y.com for complete program list. MORE CHANCES TO TALK TRASH AT THE MOVIES: Midnight showings at the Uptown Theater (2906 Hennepin Ave.). Each month, Uptown screens “The Room” and “Rocky Horror Picture Show” for audiences to mock and/ or enjoy. Bring a bag of plastic spoons or a football with you for “The Room,” and be sure to dress in drag for one of the best interactive cinematic experiences. The local cast, T ransvestite Soup, perform alongside the movie each month.
HURL INSULTS WITH TRASH FILM DEBAUCHER Y AT THE FOLLOW-
The Defenders series at the Tr ylon (3258 Minnehaha Ave.). A local luminar y screens a myster y movie for this monthly series at the T r ylon. If you don’t like the surprise cinema, be prepared to mount your case against the local film expert. After the movie, the defenders must proudly profess the reasons for their par ticular pick. Guilty pleasures, rare and forgotten films form most of the past film picks. Upcoming defenders: Theresa Kay, Blake Iverson, Jim Brunzell.
well known in Lego circles. Those circles converge in June for Brickworld, a Lego convention in Chicago. This year sees Cook building his largest model yet, a 5 1/2 foot-long model of the Hall of Justice from
the ’70s television series “Super Friends.” But his building interest does not seem all that out of place when you realize that Cook’s lower arm tattoo is that of R2-D2’s access panels.
AMANDA SNYDER, DAILY
Members of the TwinLUG group, including U of M professor Ray Cook, designed and use Micropolis, which allows individual builders to make modules and connect them to create a microscale city.
Wednesday, May 28, 2013
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BACKTALK sudoku
horoscopes
Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve sudoku, visit sudoku.org.uk. Visit mndaily.com to see the solution to today’s puzzle.
5/29/2013
May 9’s solution © 2013 Michael Mepham. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.
Today’s Birthday (5/29): Jupiter is in your sign until June 25, shining optimism and opportunities. The trick is to balance action and rest, carving out time for wellness practices. Stay organized with money.
To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging. Written By Linda C. Black
Aries (3/21 - 4/19): Today is a 7 — Consider practical measures for getting there. Don’t buy toys or aggravate a conflict concerning your household. Tempers could be short.
Libra (9/23 - 10/22): Today is a 7 — Turn down an expensive invitation. Re-assess priorities. Handle unfinished work without getting snarky. Do your part in private.
Taurus (4/20 - 5/20): Today is a 7 — Stay alert and flexible. Create new venues for your ideas. Reconsider your methods and check machinery. Discuss a disagreement.
Scorpio (10/23 - 11/21): Today is a 6 — Ignore someone else’s rudeness. Treat yourself with more respect. It’s not a good time to travel or launch. Let the others figure out the details.
Gemini (5/21 - 6/21): Today is an 8 — Choose the right spot for an important engagement. Don’t bother with money. It’s about showing up and taking responsibility.
Sagittarius (11/22 - 12/21): Today is a 7 — Focus on practical career action. Confidence could seem challenging. Put up with an annoying restriction. Money’s not required.
Cancer (6/22 - 7/22): Today is a 7 — Exercise to stay out of the doldrums. This requires change on your part. Mail packages. Don’t ask for favors now. Keep a low profile.
Capricorn (12/22 - 1/19): Today is an 8 — Chaos reigns. Get support from someone with more experience. Stick close to home, but don’t let friends spend all your money.
Leo (7/23 - 8/22): Today is a 7 — Bring your financial expertise to the table. State the obvious facts, and set priorities. Defend your position. If you get nervous, breathe deep.
Aquarius (1/20 - 2/18): Today is an 8 — New information challenges old practices. This is a good thing. Till the rich soil for revelations. Get chores done early.
Virgo (8/23 - 9/22): Today is a 7 — You have less than you thought. Don’t give to groups, yet. Heed a friend’s warning to be frugal. An older person gets an emotional rise out of you.
Pisces (2/19 - 3/20): Today is a 6 — Attend a public event with your partner. Practical effort sets the stage. Slow and easy does it, so bid high. Choose to work now, and play later.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
overheard “So, I was texting him again yesterday, and he sent me his first text with an exclamation point. I was so excited that I almost cried.”
—Ford Hall
Professor: “Go take a hit off of a baby’s head. It’ll get you high!”
—Science Teaching and Student Services building “YOU HAD A SEX COUCH?!”
—Middlebrook dining hall “You can’t just marry people without them knowing”
—Bailey Hall
“You weren’t supposed to have sex with anyone else! That wasn’t part of the deal!”
—Outside Middlebrook Hall
“I saw you coming inside, so I looked you up on Facebook to see how we knew each other!”
—Smith Hall
Guy: “Cold sores are only a mild form of herpes. A lot of people get cold sores.” Girl: “Yeah, but if you have 20 of them at the same time?” Guy: “Then she probably has herpes. Or she just wants attention.”
—Outside Walter Library
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis
“Suck my Dinkytown”
—DInkytown
Exam proctor: “If you are stressed, don’t worry. In seven years you won’t remember any of it.”
—Hanson Hall
“I’m an EMT, but I also like to party.”
—West Bank
“Dude, do you just wanna go home, smoke and play some Candy Crush to call it a night?”
—Rollins Avenue
“After all these finals, I just pop a few pills, and it’s all better!”
—Veterinary Science building
“I’m going to his frat house tonight. It’s going to be scary ... so I brought a fork.”
—Bailey Hall
—Centennial Hall
About a professor carrying finals: “Look at him just carrying in a big box of ‘[expletive] you.’ Just a box full of middle fingers to us.”
crossword
FOR RELEASE MAY 29, 2013
What did you overhear? 4Post submissions on the “overheard at U of M Facebook group. 4Visit mndaily.com and look for the “Connect with the Daily” box on the homepage. 4Email submissions to overheards@mndaily.com.
ACROSS 1 President of Syria 6 Foreigner, to a Polynesian 11 Many SSI recipients 14 Rich kid in “Nancy” comics 15 K.T. of country 16 Bounce 17 Hit a ball caught by Ted Williams, say 19 Future flounders 20 Motorola smartphone 21 On the line 23 Bar order in a very small glass 25 Potter’s oven 27 Seat of Garfield County, Oklahoma 28 “Mazel __!” 29 Outdoor sport with sticks 32 Rock or horse follower 34 Firewood wood 35 Bug on the phone 38 Solo performance 42 Reference ending 44 Grammar school sequence 45 Tried to collect unemployment benefits, say 50 UPS delivery 51 Polluted Asian sea 52 “The Galloping Gourmet” 53 “... baked in __” 54 Garage event 57 Bank holding 59 Short life story? 60 Longtime Cuban leader 64 Barcelona bear 65 Get a chuckle out of 66 Showed dissatisfaction, fan-style 67 Itch 68 Move to new soil 69 Run through 57Across DOWN 1 Weimaraner warning
By Jerome Gunderson and Marti DuGuay-Carpenter
2 San Juan sun 3 Made room on a crowded bench 4 Heads-up 5 Ignoramus 6 Sweatshirt with a head cover 7 Syst. with hand signals 8 Poisonous flowering shrub 9 Hitchhiker’s hope 10 Tolkien’s Treebeard et al. 11 Got smaller 12 Dugout newcomer 13 Quick 18 Polynesian carving 22 Computer wonk 23 Stash 24 Kachina doll maker 26 Me. retailer, initially 29 Destined 30 Bray beginning 31 Philosopher William of __, known for his “razor” 33 Drives away 36 Cavity filler’s org.
5/29/13
Tuesday’s Puzzle Solved May 9’s Puzzle Solved
(c)2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
37 Paid for everyone, as the tab 39 Step stealthily, informally 40 World Golf Hall of Famer Isao 41 Swift sled 43 Bar pint 45 Oxymoronically named British DJ __ Slim 46 Poker declaration
5/29/13
47 Coral reef enclosure 48 Sleeve band 49 Camaro __-Z 53 Greek fable writer 55 Miles away 56 Garnish for a Moscow Mule 58 Arrests 61 That, in Spanish 62 Bug-eyed TV dog 63 Peculiar
Visit mndaily.com to see the solution to today’s puzzle.
dr. date Dr. Date,
I’m home from the U for the summer after my first year in college, and my girlfriend from high school is suffocating me. I don’t think she’s acting any different than before, but it just seems more constrictive after a year away at school. She reminds me of my parents nagging me when I come home. How can I tell her that I am not the same I was in high school and that she needs to give me more space than she did when we spent every day together?
—New Man
Old Tricks,
I know you think your big year at college transformed you into a mature and beautiful individual, and I respect your sense of self-worth. Really, it’s awesome that you think you’re a new man. And hey, maybe you are. A new, shiny man with a few boring gen-eds, some chewy res hall nosh and a handful of rockin’ dorm parties under your belt. So maybe, for a sec, you can use your newly enlightened brain to entertain the idea that Li’l Miss G-Friend also spent the year changing. Maybe she’s a new woman now, one who realizes that the summer is your ONE CHANCE TO BE TOGETHER EVERY DAY. Seriously, the caps make it look like I’m JK, but this Doc is not LOL — maybe Ms. GF spent the year pining for your tender touch and is dying for a taste of that college boy lovin’. Heck, not just a taste, a heaping plate of the g-dang stuff. What I’m saying, New Man, is that your girl probably spent a healthy amount of time fantasizing about the summer as a time where she could fulfill all her fantasies of gluing herself to you. I think you’re being kind of nuts to be obsessed with this space thing, especially considering summer has only been in existence for like three weeks
anyway. Did you not miss her, too? Or have you just developed some monklike tendencies from your majestic year spent hunched over a TI-83 and a handle of raspberry Smirnoff? If you don’t want to spend time with her, don’t fool yourself (or her) into thinking it’s because you went through some mystical transformation in college — college doesn’t do that to people. It is, occasionally, a convenient excuse. So go forth and use it, if you’re that lazy.
—Dr. Date
Dr. Date,
My brother is dating this beautiful, sexy woman. She and I get along really well, and I recently found out my brother is cheating on her. I could see the two of us getting together, but I don’t want to hurt my relationship with my brother. But he’s hurting their relationship anyway. Can I simultaneously be the hero by outing my brother’s bad behavior, be around when she is looking for a shoulder to cry on AND not ruin my relationship with my brother?
—Curious George
Monkeyin’ Around,
It’s like my beautiful, sexy mama always used to say, George: Three absolutely horrifying wrongs don’t make a right. When the beautiful, sexy woman in your letter finds out that her boyfriend has been playing her, my guess is that she won’t want anything to do with him or his freaky brother, who’s obviously been staring at her with hungry, glazed eyes. Yep, bro, I’m talking about you and your freaky obsession. My advice is to run and to run fast. There are tons of beautiful, sexy women out there, and they all want someone like you —weird, kind of cruel and obviously lacking any kind of social tact and common sense.
—Dr. Date
Need relationship advice? Email Dr. Date at drdate@mndaily.com.
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013