4.18.14

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Friday, April 18, 2014 | Volume 209 | Number 139 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.

Big

designs for

small towns Kyle Schlichting/Iowa State Daily

Alexis Rokes, left, and Shelby Gagnon work on their projects for the Iowa Retail Initiative at the design studio on Main Street. The students are working to save small town retail shops.

ISU design students, retail initiative aim to improve Iowa life By Kelly.McGowan @iowastatedaily.com Design on Main comes alive at 1:15 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday as College of Design students begin to arrive at the studio. Surrounded by detailed sketches of pubs, restaurants, coffee shops, bike trails and breweries, students develop their ideas of how to improve life in rural southwest Iowa. These ideas are part of a multi-faceted effort from the Iowa Retail initiative, which includes another project focused on branding and business strategy in Story County. The course doing this portion of Iowa Retail Initiative outreach, DSN 546, is a senior-level studio option for design students. The Iowa Retail Initative began in the Spring 2013 and works with a $250,000 grant from the Iowa State University Extension

and Outreach Strategic Initiative. Some of this money has been allocated to the professors working on this design project. “We were interested in pulling together resources from across the university to assist local retailers across Iowa,” said Mary Erickson, Iowa Retail Initiative program co-director and program coordinator in the Institute for Design Research & Outreach. Tom Neppl, landscape architecture lecturer and Iowa Retail Initative project co-director, said that the project leaders collaborated with the College of Design and Communities Extension to define a geographical region with a demonstrated need that would benefit from working with this course. They wanted a community whose members would engage in the process. This region is southwest Iowa. Students are working closely with the communities of Red Oak, Clarinda and Shenandoah in an attempt to create a regional identity that would promote success in the area. Lisa Bates, interior design lecturer and Iowa Retail Initative

Kyle Schlichting/Iowa State Daily

The workspace of the design studio on Main Street provides a space for graduate students in the integrated visual arts program to work in the community they are trying to improve through the Iowa Retail Initiative program.

project director, said that southwest Iowa faces issues that are common to small communities in Iowa, such as empty storefronts and a struggle to bring in young people, professionals and

new businesses. Erickson said that in the past 40 years, there has been an emptying out of small town retailers and that it has harmful effects on the communities.

She also said that designers are able to look at these types of social problems with a holistic approach.

DESIGN p4 >>

Tinker, Kuhlmeier Frey encourage First Amendment understanding By Justin.Lo @iowastatedaily.com

Kyle Schlichting/Iowa State Daily

Cathy Kuhlmeier Frey, left, and Mary Beth Tinker discuss the U.S. Supreme Court cases in which they testified. They discussed these landmark free-speech cases Thursday at the Memorial Union.

Mary Beth Tinker and Cathy Kuhlmeier Frey, plaintiffs in two of the biggest Supreme Court cases regarding student speech, spoke to almost 400 people about their cases and talked with the audience about the First Amendment. This discussion was a part of Iowa State’s First Amendment Day. “The First Amendment isn’t getting the attention that it should,” Tinker said. “It’s really the basis of our

democracy.” The first half of the discussion focused on Tinker and Kuhlmeier Frey telling their stories about the events that led up to their Supreme Court cases. Tinker wore a black armband to school along with her older brother, John, and other children in the Des Moines area to protest the Vietnam War and support President Kennedy’s proposed Christmas Truce after watching news reports about the conflict in 1965.

TINKER p4 >>

Leath assembles Veishea task force By Bill.Dyke @iowastatedaily.com The list of members for President Steven Leath’s Veishea Task Force was released Thursday, containing university faculty, former Veishea committee leaders, ISU alumni, Ames police and current students. The task force is set to meet over the next several weeks to formulate a recommendation for Veishea’s continued celebration. The original deadline — the end of the spring 2014 semester — has been pushed back to “sometime in the summer,” according to Government of the Student Body President Hillary Kletscher during an address to Wednesday’s GSB Senate meeting attendees. However, no definite timeline has been set.

Kletscher has said that as a representative of students, she would encourage student feedback via email. Also on the task force is Jeff Woody, graduate student in biomedical sciences and co-president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. Woody wrote a blog post denouncing the April 8 riot during Veishea. Sophia Magill, the 2004 GSB president, will also serve on the task force. Magill is a 2005 ISU alumna and assistant director of federal relations, and she served on the committee that canceled the 2005 Veishea celebrations after the 2004 riot. To give feedback to the task force, you can contact GSB President Kletscher at hillklet@iastate.edu or the task force directly at veisheataskforce@iastate.edu.

Blake Lanser/Iowa State Daily

SLACK LINE: Students take advantage of warm weather After a cold and brisk morning, warm weather crept up on ISU students late Thursday afternoon. Morgan Masters, freshman in physics, broke out his slack line and invited a couple of friends to join him. Masters and his friends use the slack line for fun. After being set up in old Richardson Court for around two hours, three other friends eagerly joined Masters. “It’s mainly for fun ... [and] I invite others to join” Masters said.


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