CEDAR-RIVERSIDE ARTISTS CONNECT RESIDENTS PG 2 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019
SUMMER EDITION
NEIGHBORHOOD ARTISTS COMBAT STIGMA AGAINST THE AREA
MNDAILY.COM
ADMINISTRATION
Meet the new regents
STATE LEG.
Fewer funds for U than Minn. State Over the next two years, Minnesota State will receive $180 million more than UMN. BY DYLAN ANDERSON danderson@mndaily.com
After the University of Minnesota received half of its two-year budget request, and much less than Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, regents are concerned about the growing disparities between the two higher education systems. In the higher education omnibus bill passed last month, the University received about $180 million less for 2020 and 2021 than Minnesota State, continuing a trend of increasing imbalance between the schools dating back to 2014.
DISPARITY BETWEEN MINNESOTA STATE AND UMN APPROPRIATION NEGATIVE NUMBERS REFLECT UMN RECEIVING A LARGER APPROPRIATION THAN MN STATE
Clockwise from top left: University Regents Mary Davenport, Ilean Her, Janie Mayeron and Mike Kenyanya.
The regents have a range of backgrounds, supporting an ongoing push for diversity. BY J.D. DUGGAN jduggan@mndaily.com
Mar y Davenport
At-Large Representative Regent Mary Davenport has deep ties to higher education, setting her apart from other members of the board and helping her earn bipartisan support from the Legislature. She has spent more than 30 years in the Minnesota State system, working as a dean, vice president
and president. “She leads by trying to grow the people around her and grow the people that she supervises,” said Melissa Fahning, who worked with Davenport for about 20 years in the Minnesota State system. When Davenport took the role as interim president of Rochester Community and Technical College in July 2016, she stepped into a battle among union and faculty leaders. Judy Kingsbury, executive assistant to the president at RCTC, said Davenport facilitated communication and built trust with the community. At RCTC, Davenport started a president swap day, switching places with the student body president for a day, attending all their classes and allowing them to fulfill
MORGAN LA CASSE, DAILY
presidential duties. This gave her the opportunity to connect with students more intimately and exposed the student president to a career in higher education, Davenport said. She was awarded 2018 President of the Year by LeadMN, the statewide student association for community and technical colleges. Fahning and Kingsbury said students are always Davenport’s main focus. “I’m hoping that, although my background’s in a different system with a different mission, that I can bring that forward and be a positive contributor to the regents and the University as a whole,” Davenport said. u See REGENTS Page 3
A&E
Taking on activism, armed with a needle and thread
ACADEMICS
U’s new history class results from renaming debate “Prejudice and Protest at the U of M” will be offered in the fall as a special topics course. BY FARRAH MINA fmina@mndaily.com
of celebrating,” they said. By working in a traditionally feminine medium which is often more associated with “craft” than “art,” Gorman-Baer uses u See EMBROIDERY Page 5
u See RENAMING CLASS Page 3
BY BECCA MOST bmost@mndaily.com
CHRIS MCNAMARA, DAILY
Liza Gorman-Baer works on an embroidery piece in Minneapolis on Saturday, June 8.
in mainstream media. “I want people to see themselves represented in art, and if we’re going to be celebrating bodies through art, I want my queer, trans, disabled friends [and] people of color to know that their bodies are just as worthy
u See FUNDING Page 3
The University of Minnesota’s history department will offer a new course this fall in response to recent discussion on the University’s history elicited by efforts to rename campus buildings. The idea for the course, titled “Prejudice and Protest at the U of M,” was conceived when the history department’s advisory committee discussed how to further conversations confronting the University’s past, history professor Ann Waltner said. The course will engage with the University’s history with eugenics, racism and anti-Semitism. It will be offered in the fall as a special topics course. “There has been much discussion and controversy recently over the University’s history, particularly in regard to questions about building names,” Regents Professor of American Studies and History Department Chair Elaine Tyler May said in an email. “We believe that this controversy has opened a discussion on campus and in the wider community about issues of historical memory, accountability, and how the University should confront and reckon with its past, even parts of the past that are not admirable.” At the end of April, the Board of Regents voted 10-1 against renaming Coffman Union, Nicholson Hall, Coffey Hall and Middlebrook Hall after more than
U graduate Liza Gorman-Baer fosters community, activism through their embroidery.
Liza Gorman-Baer’s most recent embroidery series focuses on the nude human body. Each of the six pieces contains a tracing from a photograph of one of their close friends. Using leftover fabric scraps from their mother’s quilting bin, Gorman-Baer said they were first drawn to the repetitive nature and creativity of embroidery. The result is realistic with body hair, fat rolls and stretch marks. One subject holds a cane; another shows off a strap-on. All of them are adorned with colorful pinwheeled flowers and snaking vines. “When you think about the politics of what kind of bodies you see in art, its always been a celebration of a very specific kind of beauty,” Gorman-Baer said. Although feminist art has been given more space in traditional art galleries, some exclude trans and non-binary bodies, Gorman-Baer said. Through their work, they hope to bring attention to bodies that are not often shown
SOURCE: MINNESOTA LEGISLATURE
POLICE
As debate around “warrior” training continues, UMPD still uses alternative tactics UMPD is already practicing training methods different from controversial warrior training. BY MOHAMED IBRAHIM mibrahim@mndaily.com
While Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey recently moved to ban “warrior-style” police training, the University of Minnesota Police
Department is already implementing alternatives to the controversial practices. During his State of the City address on April 18, Frey announced a ban that would prevent Minneapolis Police Department officers from participating in fear-based or warrior-style training. A local police union opposes the policy, but UMPD officials say its training tactics, which resemble Frey’s proposal, have worked well for the department.
Warrior-style police training seminars emphasize officer survival. The training came under fire in 2016 after it became known that former St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez, who was acquitted for the killing of Philando Castile, had attended one such seminar. In response to the ban, the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis announced a partnership with a law enforcement organization called Law Officer to pay for the
training of any officer until the end of Frey’s term. “While it seems the lives of our officers are not important to politicians, they certainly are [to] Law Officer and we are grateful for this partnership,” Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis President Lt. Bob Kroll said in a statement. On the morning of April 26, Frey told u See TRAINING Page 2
VOLUME 119 ISSUE 60
2
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019
MN DAILY
EXTENDED WEATHER FORECAST WEDNESDAY THURSDAY 68° 74° 47° 59° Partly cloudy
Daily Review
MNDAILY.COM
Sunny
FRIDAY 82° 61° Rain
SATURDAY 80° 57° Rain
SUNDAY 73° 57°
Partly cloudy
Wednesday, June 12, 2019 Vol. 119 No. 60
An Independent Student Newspaper, Founded in 1900. 2221 University Ave. SE, Suite 450, Minneapolis, MN 55414
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Phone: (612) 627-4080 Fax: (612) 435-5865
1987 President Ronald Reagan challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
Copyright © 2019 The Minnesota Daily. This newspaper, its design and its contents are copyrighted.
HISTORYCHANNEL.COM/TDIH
Art project joins mentors, youth In Cedar-Riverside, the new initiative featured art, music and film by locals.
Training u from Page 1
the Star Tribune that the two parties had reached an agreement, only for the union to respond that afternoon, claiming the mayor had misrepresented their conversations. In an email Tuesday, Frey said he and MPD Chief Medaria Arradondo are committed to enforcing the policy, and any officers who participate in
=
=
Faisal Khalif stands with his mentor Allen Christian at the House of Balls in Minneapolis on Saturday, June 8.
lanterns in hopes of bringing city attention to a need for more lighting to deter crime in parts of Cedar-Riverside. Bosteya Jama, a mother with the group, said they are working to reach out to young people and to the city to solve youth crime and violence. “We feel like there’s a lot of disconnection between the community and the youth themselves, mothers and the youth. And we’re trying to find a way where we can come up with some kind of
such training without prior approval will be subject to discipline. “If we’re serious about shifting the culture of policing, there’s no room for half measures,” Frey said in a statement to the Minnesota Daily. “Our hope is that this can help us build trust between our community and our police department and, over time, contribute to that culture shift.” UMPD does not practice warrior-style training for its officers, said University
change,” Jama said. Faisal Khalif and Abdinajib Ibrahim are two young people who showcased their art. Allen Christian, a local artist at the House of Balls studio, taught Khalif and Ibrahim how to create different art pieces through welding, plasma cutting and other methods. Mahmud said Khalif and Ibrahim can use these skills to create economic opportunities. “I really don’t have too
spokesperson Lacey Nygard in a statement to the Minnesota Daily. This training, which is not mandated federally or by the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards, is evaluated on a case-by-case basis, she said. Michelle Gross, president of Minneapolis-based organization Communities United Against Police Brutality, said the training is the opposite of community policing. It doesn’t teach a skill but a “dangerous”
much art in my background,” Khalif said. “That’s something I always wanted to learn. ... When I get older and have my own house and get a garage, [I’ll] just start welding things, start putting art together. Probably open up a spot like this soon for the future, probably help other kids like [Christian helped] us.” Khalif and Ibrahim were introduced to the project through Daryeel Youth, an East African street outreach program for young people.
ideology, one that teaches officers that every person around them is an “enemy combatant,” she said. “It makes people in the community fear the police because they come in like an invading army, rather than people that are supposed to be sort of helpers,” Gross said. “It breeds deep fear and deep mistrust.” UMPD Chief Matt Clark said de-escalation and impartial policing are areas the department focuses on in training. Recognizing
JASMIN KEMP, DAILY
Daryeel Youth partnered with House of Balls for the project. “A lot of times, young people who are dealing with addiction and other problems, we stigmatize them, we don’t acknowledge them as human beings,” said project lead and Daryeel Youth founder Abdirahman Mukhtar. “So my role is really acknowledging them and giving them a second chance, connecting them to resources and mentors and people that can help them.”
implicit biases and maintaining an impartial stance with all community members is imperative in law enforcement, and more importantly keeping people safe, he said. “I think we’ve done a lot to show the campus community and the surrounding community that we’re dedicated to training our officers to be fair, and that those relationships are really important,” said UMPD operations manager Shannon McGoffin.
UMN deals with declining transfer applications Transfer students report lower levels of satisfaction than others at UMN. BY DYLAN ANDERSON danderson@mndaily. com
After working for 16 years in the restaurant industry, Kia Thompson decided she wanted to go back to school. She transferred to the University of Minnesota at age 35 from Minneapolis Community and Technical College to pursue a degree in psychology. Though she was nervous about connecting with younger students, she said she felt welcomed by joining a transfer student group and staying engaged with events the University offers for transfers. Unlike Thompson, many transfer students’ experiences are less positive, with only about half of transfers surveyed saying they feel a sense of belonging at the University, according to the 2018 Students Experience in the Research University survey. The University ranks near the top of the Big Ten in percentage of transfer students, but it is also seeing a decline in transfer applications
EDITORIAL STAFF Max Chao Managing Editor mchao@mndaily.com Christine Ha Managing Production Editor cha@mndaily.com Michelle Griffith Campus Editor mgriffith@mndaily.com Madeline Deninger City Editor mdeninger@mndaily.com Paul Hodowanic Sports Editor phodowanic@mndaily.com Madeline Folstein A&E Editor mfolstein@mndaily.com Liv Martin Assistant A&E Editor omartin@mndaily.com Courtney Deutz Multimedia Editor cdeutz@mndaily.com Bailey Davis Copy Desk Chief bdavis@mndaily.com Emily Martens Assistant Copy Desk Chief emartens@mndaily.com Desmond Kamas Chief Page Designer dkamas@mndaily.com Morgan La Casse Visuals Editor mlacasse@mndaily.com =
BY IMANI CRUZEN icruzen@mndaily.com
Cedar-Riverside leaders and residents are using art to counteract negative perceptions of the neighborhood and bring community members together. The Connecting Community project, with support from Springboard for the Arts and the West Bank Business Association, took place last weekend and featured art, music and film from the neighborhood. By bringing together local activists and artists, event organizers aimed to counteract Islamophobia and connect youth with mentors. “This project brought them together, and introducing them together and now; they are teams that are working really hard with the common goal and their goal is to serve the community or the neighborhood, especially the youth in the neighborhood,” said project coordinator Abdurrahman Mahmud. “The main goal of the project was to tackle Islamophobic behaviors that are recently on the rise.” Projects for the event included an “audio playground” where attendees could use instruments and technology to play music, a showcase of art by local youth and a screening of a documentary. A group of local mothers also took part in lighting
OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER Cleo Krejci Editor-in-Chief ckrejci@mndaily.com (612)-227-5914 Kyle Stumpf Business Operations Officer kstumpf@mndaily.com (612)-435-5772
in recent years, reflecting a national trend and prompting discussion among University officials about how best to respond. Since a peak in transfer student applications in 2011, the number of transfer applications has declined overall by more than 22 percent while the number of transfers enrolled has remained largely stagnant. Transfer students were offered admission and enrolled at higher rates in 2018 than in more than a decade. Addressing the changing transfer landscape Nearly 40 percent of transfers to the University originate from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, the vast majority of students from twoyear schools in the system. As the economy improves, fewer students choose to go to these colleges, shrinking the pool of students that may transfer to the University, said Robert McMaster, vice provost and dean of the Office of Undergraduate Education. “The four-year institutions in Minnesota State are now trying to retain more of their two-year students,” McMaster said. “They would rather have their students
stay within the Minnesota State system than transfer to the University of Minnesota.” Minnesota State is harmonizing programs between its two- and four-year institutions to make the transfer process smoother for its students and make its own schools more attractive. One solution to declining transfer admissions could be admitting fewer transfer students and more freshmen, keeping transfer admission competitive and maintaining enrollment levels. Regent Michael Hsu said he supports admitting more freshmen students and relying less on transfer students to fill enrollment. “If in fact that decision was made ... we would have to do a fair amount of homework to figure out: can we adequately serve those [additional freshman] students?” McMaster said. Changing the current balance puts more stress on housing, advising, access to high-demand classes and the amount of financial aid available for freshmen. Financial aid programs, like the University of Minnesota Promise Scholarship (U Promise) for Minnesota residents, cover two years of school for transfers even though most transfers need
more time to complete their education, McMaster said. After having a bad experience at a Missouri private school where she received a full ride, Samantha Boring said financial aid was a huge consideration when coming to the University of Minnesota. She said she thinks the University needs to do more to provide financial aid specifically for transfer students. Currently, the University does not have the resources to extend U Promise for transfer students past two years, McMaster said. He works with the University of Minnesota Foundation to raise money specifically for transfers, but most donors gravitate toward freshmen support, often because they attended the University as freshman themselves, he added. Another solution could be to change recruiting efforts geared toward transfers, either starting to target on a national level or working to appeal to more Minnesota students, McMaster said. Transfer student experience Transfers say they would choose to enroll at the University again more than other students, according to
SERU data. They also report feeling less welcome and less satisfied than non-transfers. The University has worked to improve the experience and increase threeyear graduation rates for transfers by implementing a more robust orientation process, providing more financial aid assistance and creating student groups like the University Transfer Student Board. Boring, president of the board, transferred to the University as a sophomore in January 2018 and was scared about the prospect of making friends and meeting people. “I didn’t feel as welcomed, because in the spring, they just really don’t put as much of an effort as they do for the fall,” she said. Joining the transfer board completely changed her experience. The small community of students with similar difficulties helped her connect with peers. Boring works to extend the reach of the group and involve more students, who are not required to be transfers, by doing outreach events and learn about their new community. “Transferring is really hard, but it’s also very rewarding in the end, if you make the most of it,” she said.
EDITORIAL BOARD Ariana Wilson Editorials & Opinions Editor awilson@mndaily.com Joshua Jordan Editorial Board Member Cleo Krejci Editor-in-Chief ckrejci@mndaily.com BUSINESS Jacob Kenyon Sales Manager jkenyon@mndaily.com David Keane Controller dkeane@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 and Thursday during the regular school year and weekly during the summer, and it is printed by ECM Publishers in Princeton, Minn. Midwest News Service distributes the 10,000 issues biweekly. All Minnesota Daily inserts are recyclable within the University of Minnesota program and are at least 6 percent consumer waste. U.S. Postal Service: 351–480.
3
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
New Regents u from Page 1
Ilean Her
At-Large Representative Regent Ilean Her is known as a trailblazer within the Twin Cities Hmong community. As a first-generation college student and University of Minnesota Law School graduate, she carved a place for herself as a community organizer with deep roots within her community. “I’ve been very involved with the community,” Her said. “I do carry with me community expectations of how I will conduct myself, how I will use my voice ... to better the lives of the community and the people who are closest to me that have been disenfranchised for so long.” Her is a founder and current board member of nonprofit Hnub Tshiab: Hmong Women Achieving Together, which works to empower Hmong women. She has worked in a variety of roles advocating for the Minnesota Hmong community, including spending 15 years as executive director of the Council on AsianPacific Minnesotans. Since 2012, Her has also been the executive director of the Hmong Elders Center in St. Paul. Consistently acting as a voice of the community at the State Capitol, she plans
Funding u from Page 1
“The continued growth in the gap between Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota is troubling,” said Regent Darrin Rosha. The state system received about $150 million more in funding than the University in the last biennium. In the funding bill for the institutions for 2016 and 2017, Minnesota State’s appropriation topped the University’s by about $90 million. Regent Michael Hsu said the University getting half the increase it asked for
to carry civic engagement and advocacy into her work as a regent. “She’s really a changemaker,” said Cindi Yang, board member of Hnub Tshiab. “She’s ... a change agent to empower Hmong women, but also just our community as a whole.” Throughout the election process, Her emphasized affordability and accessibility of college, especially to those who may have greater barriers. She eventually won the seat with primarily Democratic support.
Mike Kenyanya
Student At-Large Regent Mike Kenyanya’s graduation was fast-approaching, and his eligibility for the student seat was in jeopardy as the Legislature struggled to set a date for the regent election. Lawmakers rushed to appoint him in a unanimous vote with just days to spare. As the University of Minnesota-Duluth Student Association’s president for two years, Kenyanya built connections between Duluth and the other campuses. “You’ll never be more humble than when you walk around the halls of UMD with Mike,” said Allie Ulland, UMD representative to the Board of Regents. “He truly knows almost every student on campus, so he’s just saying ‘hi’ to literally everyone. He’s very connected
is disappointing. “Regardless of the amounts we asked for, we like to see the fact that the numbers overall are even,” Hsu said. “We’re losing the battle with respect to Minnesota State.” Regent Steve Sviggum said Minnesota State has a “political advantage” over the University. “They have more campuses in more districts of legislators,” Sviggum said. “Representatives and legislators want to make sure that their local communities are taken care of.” Minnesota State has 54 campuses throughout the state, while the University has five. This “political
Renaming class
Fifth District Between her legal experience in mediation and time as a board member to various educational nonprofits, Regent Janie Mayeron offers a unique perspective to the Board of Regents. With decades in law, including 14 years as a judge in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota, Mayeron said she can help the Board direct discussions toward resolution.
“I think I’ve got a skill set that will help us hopefully reach a resolution that will address everybody’s interest,” Mayeron said. “Not because they necessarily agree, but hopefully, because we can find something that works for everybody.” Mayeron’s passion for music led her to positions on the board of directors for MacPhail Center for Music. She also served as University of Minnesota Alumni Association president from 1993 to 1994, with eight years on the board. “Her style is very gentle, but very direct. She’s a pleasant person to work with,” said Larry Laukka, who served on the UMAA board with Mayeron. “She has her ideas and she listens to your ideas. And the outcome is usually a combination. So she’s flexible, but she’s also determined.” Her experience has earned her the University’s Regents Alumni Service Award. She said forwarding the University’s mission is critical to the health and welfare of the state. J a n i e M a y e ro n s a w support primarily from Republicans, but said her position is nonpartisan. “I recognize we’re elected by individuals who have party affiliations, but that’s not where I’m coming from ... there is no aisle for me,” Mayeron said.
advantage” is not new, as the state schools have outnumbered the University in terms of campuses and students before the disparity in funding began. Mina Kian, the Minnesota Student Association president-elect, said she doesn’t think it should be viewed as the University and Minnesota State pitted against each other for funding, rather the two working to lobby for more higher education funding in general. “Together we are responsible for creating the workforce of the future,” Kian said. “I don’t want them to lose out for us to gain more, I want us both to win in the end.”
At an October Board of Regents meeting, Rosha questioned whether the initial ask by the University was large enough, saying it seems the state awards funding on a percentage basis, and a large ask could return a larger allocation. Minnesota State received an additional $81 million, about a third of its $246 million ask, which if granted in full, promised to freeze tuition. The University chose a different strategy, making what it considered a very reasonable request. “I thought our request was needed and justified,” Sviggum said. “We didn’t ask for the sky.”
Pressure on tuition
to the student body.” Before serving as student body president, Kenyanya was a student representative to the Board of Regents — his first exposure to the board. “I saw the impact that you can make on campus by being at the table, by advocating for students to administration, by the legislative advocacy we did — the different policies we’re able to influence,” Kenyanya said. Earlier this year, he received the UMD Sieur du Luth award for his service to the campus and community. Kenyanya said some of his core focuses as a regent will include affordability, mental health and graduation rates. He said his previous experience gives him a wide array of perspectives on student issues. “A lot of the same issues at the boardroom we tackle, we’ve talked about at the campus level,” he said.
Janie Mayeron
u from Page 1
a year of discussion and campus input. A task force drafted a 125-page report detailing actions of previous University administration. Some regents later criticized the report, stating it was illresearched and left out important context. By extending these discussions into the classroom, the course will enable students to critically analyze the University’s institutional history. The Minnesota Student Association recently encouraged students to take the course because of its timeliness with the Rename/Reclaim campaign, which supports renaming efforts. Although University officials voted against renaming campus buildings, MSA reaffirmed its efforts to continue advocating for changing the buildings’ names. “It is important that we as historians make connections between the past and the present,” Waltner said. “It’s important that we as historians teach in ways that helps students understand the world around them.” The course will be taught by adjunct professor Joseph Haker, who researches issues of public commemoration and its controversies. “I think the connection between all of this is that
The University’s Operations and Maintenance budget, primarily used for its education mission totaling about $1.6 billion, is funded entirely through state appropriation and tuition. “When the state can’t invest at the levels we’ve asked for, it does put pressure on tuition,” said Brian Burnett, senior vice president for finance and operations. When adjusting for inflation, the state provided the University the equivalent of $160 million more toward the Operations and Maintenance budget in 2007 than it will in 2020. In 2007, the budget was funded by about half from
my research and teaching often deal with the politics of writing and memorializing American history — specifically, how historical narratives or sites of memory perpetuate systems of domination by silencing certain perspectives and stories,” Haker said. “My hope is that it will make a meaningful contribution to ongoing discussions about how the University can memorialize its past in a way that is consistent with the values it claims to uphold in the present,” Haker said. Because of the course’s timeliness and relevance to students, Haker said he is excited to teach it. “One reason I wanted to teach the course is because I thought it was a terrific way to respond to the ongoing controversy over namings on campus. ... Having a space where the community can very meticulously go through this history with rigor and depth, and even do some uncovering themselves, seems extremely useful.”
“It is important that we as historians make connections between the past and the present.” ANN WALTNER UMN history professor
each funding source, but this past year tuition shouldered 63 percent, or almost a billion dollars, of the total. After receiving less than was requested from the state this session, President Eric Kaler has proposed a 2.5 percent increase on undergraduates on the Twin Cities campus, less than the 3 percent increase cap the state requested. “It’s a little bit oxymoronic or ironic of the legislature to not fund our request … and then ask us to hold tuition to a certain level,” Sviggum said. Hsu said he thinks raising tuition is the easy answer to budget shortfalls and feels the University needs to do more to make hard cuts.
UMN needs on hold without requested state infrastructure funding The U’s $232 million capital investment request will be pushed to next year. BY J. D. DUGGAN jduggan@mndaily.com
The country’s top developmental psychology program will remain in the same century-old brick building for at least another year without state infrastructure funding. The Institute of Child Development’s building at the University of Minnesota was erected in the early 1900s and required $28 million in state funding this year for a replacement. Without a capital investment bill, this project and other University infrastructure needs will roll into future legislative sessions. The list of possible infrastructure projects exceeds an estimated $12 billion
systemwide. Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement funding sits at the core of the school’s facilities maintenance strategy. HEAPR funding keeps University facilities operational — from plumbing and electrical, to roofing and elevators. The longer a repair is delayed, the more expensive it may become, said Bill Paulus, associate vice president of University Facilities Management. “The fact is, without that money, that just puts us even a little further behind, a little further in the hole on keeping up with capital renewal needs for the campus,” said Paulus, who helps to oversee University maintenance. Of the $12 billion in estimated replacement value, the Twin Cities campus makes up more than $10 billion of those needs. The systemwide need is projected at about $4.5
J.D. DUGGAN, DAILY
The University’s Institute of Child Development building was erected in 1913 with an addition in 1967.
billion over the next decade. The University prioritized the $200 million HEAPR request ahead of the Institute on Child Development building replacement and $4.3 million renovations to A.B. Anderson Hall on the Duluth campus. “We could certainly use more than that [$200 million],”
said Regent Steve Sviggum. “But in all fairness and honesty, I don’t think you’ll see our request any higher because you have to be reasonable.” Sviggum believes the University’s request will slide into next year, keeping priorities similar for capital investment.
When the University does not receive state funding for infrastructure, administrators are squeezed to find solutions. Brian Burnett, senior vice president for finance and operations, said it can be difficult to find private donations for repairing existing buildings. The University budgets a recurring $10 million for repair and replacement, and sometimes departments will have unused funds that go toward infrastructure, he said. “We don’t solely rely on HEAPR, but it’s just going to make it difficult to address our backlog ... without [it],” Burnett said. “I think that we’re hopeful that there’s a good sized bonding bill in the next legislative session.” Capital investment typically is not prioritized during odd-numbered years, with the state’s biennial budget taking precedence. “There are competing
demands. We feel that the governor and the Legislature fully understood why the University is a value to the state,” said J.D. Burton, University chief government relations officer. While some statewide capital investment needs were addressed in other bills, many lawmakers said they wish they could have funded HEAPR for the University and state colleges. Some House Democrats emphasized costs will grow if infrastructure needs aren’t addressed. Paulus said his conversations with Big Ten peers show deferred capital renewal is a national problem. “We’re not in any way unique at the University of Minnesota,” Paulus said. “In one, having this enormous backlog, and two, not having a clear vision as to how we get out of this.”
4
Sports
MNDAILY.COM
MN DAILY
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019
MEN’S GOLF
U recruit named Mr. Minnesota Golf High school senior Connor Glynn is the first Gopher to win the award. BY CHAD FAUST cfaust@mndaily.com
When the Minnesota men’s golf team tees up for the first time in the fall, it will return every member of the 2019 Big Ten Championship lineup from the spring. However, one new face will hope to break onto the scene — Connor Glynn. Glynn, who began his quest for a Minnesota state championship on Tuesday June 11, is a recently graduated senior representing Waconia High School and soon-to-be Gopher. Glynn was named 2019 Mr. Minnesota Golf by the Minnesota Golf Association on Sunday June 9. “I got off to a slower start this year,” Glynn said. “I feel like, as the courses became better with the weather, I started playing better as sections rolled around and leading into the state tournament I feel a lot better with my game.” After his slow start to the season, Glynn put in work to improve his game and his future coach at the University of Minnesota, Justin Smith, said he noticed. Smith has scouted Glynn since he was a freshman in high school and said he has seen Glynn consistently improve throughout his high school career. “He’s been absolutely striking the golf ball,” Smith said. “He’s worked his tail off, and that’s a huge reason why we’re excited to have him on campus.” Waconia struggled out of the gate this season, but
CLEO KREJCI, DAILY
Waconia High School senior and University of Minnesota golf recruit Connor Glynn follows the ball during the Minnesota state tournament at Bunker Hlils Golf Club in Coon Rapids on Tuesday, June 11.
a strong second-half surge landed them an opportunity to compete in the 2019 3A state tournament at Bunker Hills Golf Club in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Now, he’s looking to make his mark as a state champion before starting his collegiate career at Minnesota in the fall. The last Gopher recruit to win the Minnesota state high school league championship as an individual was John
Dutoit in 2012. In his opening round on Tuesday, Glynn shot a twounder-par 70, tying for first place. Glynn is in the last pairing for the final round on Wednesday. Waconia is tied for second in the team competition. The team shot nine-over-par, five shots behind the leaders, St. Thomas Academy. “It would mean everything,” he said. “As a team we’ve been talking about
it for years now, and we’ve been working really hard to get there.” Glynn entered the tournament hoping to enjoy himself in his final high school tournament for Waconia. “I always remind myself that it is just a game and that I can’t put too much pressure on myself. If you try too hard, then it just goes the opposite way. You’ve just got to go out there and relax.”
Coach Smith echoed that it’s crucial to not put too much pressure on a young golfer. However, he believes that Glynn’s demeanor and skill gives him a fantastic chance to finish off his high school career in style. “He’s as good at his age as I’ve seen; his patience, his discipline, his ability to accept what’s in front of him,” Smith said. “He’ll be ready to go.”
The Gophers have never had a Mr. Minnesota Golf recipient call the University of Minnesota their home, and Smith hopes that it will be a positive impact on the program moving forward. “It’s what we saw in him,” he said. “He possesses all those things that separate the great from the good. Hes got all of the qualities, even as an incoming freshman, to be a leader in his own way. It’s very exciting.”
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Lindsay Whalen honored as Lynx jersey is unveiled in rafters The UMN coach is the first player to have her number retired by the Lynx. BY NOLAN O’HARA nohara@mndaily.com
Lindsay Whalen was honored Saturday as the Minnesota Lynx retired her No. 13. The Minnesota native spent nine seasons with the Lynx, helping lead them to four championships. Now the head coach of the Gophers’ women’s basketball team, Whalen’s jersey is the first in Lynx history to be retired. “Her jersey is in the rafters because she is
a winner,” Cheryl Reeve, the head coach and general manager of the Lynx, told reporters LINDSAY Saturday. WHALEN “The alltime winningest player in the WNBA, just a class act on and off the court.” Whalen was drafted fourth overall by the Connecticut Sun in 2004 after her successful collegiate career at the University of Minnesota. She left the University as the program’s all-time leading scorer. She currently sits at second in the all-time
scoring rankings behind Rachel Banham, who surpassed Whalen during her time with the Gophers from 2011-16. In 2004, Whalen led the Gophers to their first ever Final Four appearance, and her No. 13 jersey was retired by the University a year later. Whalen’s impact on the game of basketball goes beyond a successful career as a player. Annalese Lamke, a senior forward for the Gophers, mentioned the inspiration and example Whalen has been to both the team and the state of Minnesota. “She worked hard, everything she did sets the perfect example of how you should go out and
what you need to do to be successful,” Lamke said. “If you try to live the way Lindsay Whalen did and h o w h a r d s h e w o rk e d and how tough she was throughout the sport, I think it’s just an incredible example.” Reeve also spoke to the impact Whalen has made on the game of basketball. “I’ve had so many — this is my 10th season now — people that have said they’re following women’s basketball because of Lindsay Whalen,” she told reporters. Reeve coached Whalen during Whalen’s time with the Lynx and was joined by another of Whalen’s former coaches, Geno Auriemma,
in appearing in a tribute video during Saturday’s event. Auriemma is the head coach at the University of Connecticut and had the opportunity to coach Whalen for Team USA. Whalen spoke to their influence as coaches. “Two best coaches in women’s basketball right there,” she told reporters. “I want to be that for my players.” The University hired Whalen in April 2018 prior to final season in the WNBA. According to Lamke, it didn’t take much time for the team to find out she was the real deal. “Our first shootaround we had to finish it with half-court shots,” Lamke
said. “All of us kind of missed because it’s the first shootaround, no one really practices [half-court shots]. Lindsay just walks up to the half-court line and says, ‘Guys shootaround is for making half-court shots.’ First attempt, chucks it up there and drills one.” In Whalen’s first season as coach, she led the Gophers to a 21-11 record to finish sixth in the Big Ten. The team will look to build upon their 9-9 record in conference play. The Gophers will have nine nationally televised games in 2019, including home games against Iowa, Syracuse, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Northwestern and Penn State.
BASEBALL
Schulze excited to begin his career with the Phillies Brett Schulze was selected with the 210th pick in the seventh round. BY JOHN MILLER jmiller@mndaily.com
Brett Schulze was sitting with his family in his Maple Grove, Minnesota home on June 4, when his phone rang. It was a call he had been waiting for. On the other end was Justin Morgenstern, a Philadelphia Phillies local scout, congratulating him on becoming the newest member of the team. “It feels great, still kind of surreal. It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” Schulze said. “[Morgenstern] gave me a call shortly after I was picked, congratulating me. Kind of giving me a quick little rundown of what’s going to happen. He just told me to relax, have fun and celebrate a little bit.” The junior right-handed pitcher was the first of four Gophers drafted in the 2019
DAILY FILE PHOTO
Pitcher Brett Schulze throws the ball at Siebert Field on Friday, March 29. Eli Wilson’s home run in the bottom of the tenth inning lead the Gophers to a 5-2 win over Nebraska.
MLB draft. He was selected with the 210th pick in the seventh round. As a freshman in 2017, he began his career as a starter and struggled, amassing a 5.50 ERA. However, he found
success when he moved to the bullpen in 2018, finishing the season with a 2.09 ERA. It wasn’t until halfway through the 2019 season that Schulze felt he had what it took to play at the
next level. Schulze went from 24 batters walked during the 2018 season to 15 in 2019. He finished the 2019 season with a 3.07 ERA in 41 innings pitched to go along
with 55 strikeouts and nine saves for the Gophers. Schulze has three pitches: a curveball, a change-up and a fastball. His changeup has lacked consistency, which has forced him to rely heavily on his fastball and curve. “My fastball has been in the mid-90’s which has been really good, really reliable, which sets up my curveball pretty well too, since I throw a little bit harder now,” he said. “Those are my two main pitches and they balance pretty well off of each other.” The Phillies brought Schulze to Philadelphia last weekend to meet with the team’s front office. He is waiting for his medical exams to clear before he signs a contract. He has not been told how the organization will use him or where he will start in the minor leagues. Growing up idolizing former Twins pitcher Johan Santana, Schulze knows he must improve to make it to the major leagues. “I probably [have] got
room for 15 to 20 more pounds,” he said. “If I can kind of slowly keep weight and get a little stronger, throw a little bit harder, get a little bit better control and just keep trending upwards, I think I can be able to make it.” Schulze isn’t going to Philadelphia alone. Fellow Gophers left-handed relief pitcher Nick Lackney was also drafted by the Phillies in the 18th round. Schulze said he had to do a doubletake when it was announced. “I realized, ‘Holy crap, we are actually going to be teammates again,’” Schulze said. Lackney finished 2019 with a 2.38 ERA in 20 appearances, including two starts. Lackney is excited to continue his career in the same organization as Schulze. “I think it will help feed our competitive edge,” Lackney said. “Brett [Schulze] has an electric personality, so it is really fun to play with him. Always bringing energy to the ballpark and getting guys to talk.”
5
MNDAILY.COM
MN DAILY
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019
CONCERT
CULTURE TO CONSUME BY SOPHIE VILENSKY
Watch this: “Chasing Happiness” No matter how much you begged for a “Camp Rock” comforter set at Target in 2008, there’s a lot you don’t know about the Jonas Brothers. Billed by many as the product of good ol’ Disney-manufacturing, this documentary chronicles the brothers’ lives from childhood Broadway auditions to their breakup and recent comeback. You just might find yourself in love with … KEVIN.
Read this: “Trust Exercise” I’m only a little over halfway done, so this recommendation doesn’t count for a full review, but wow. With the first half of Susan Choi’s newest book chronicling the lives of ‘80s high schoolers at an elite performing arts school, the second half — upon early understanding — calls the meaning of trust into question. Ask me for a full review tomorrow.
CULTURE COMPASS BY SOPHIE VILENSKY
Friday: “25 Years Out: MCAD MFA Alumni Exhibit” This Friday, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design will celebrate 25 years of its master of fine arts program with the coolest college graduation there ever could be. Celebrating a byappointment exhibit running through July 19 that features the work of 24 MFA program alums, the reception will also include recent Weisman Art Museum artist-in-residence and 2013 MCAD MFA graduate Peng Wu’s lovely “Sunset Practice.” Clear your mind, throw your worries out and start the weekend right.
Where: MFA at MCAD, 2201 1st Ave. S., Minneapolis When: 6 to 9 p.m. Cost: Free
Saturday: Midsommar Celebration Knowing the toll an Ari Aster film can take on one’s psyche, we recommend attending this event before screening “Midsommar” in early July. In Sweden, Midsommar (Midsummer) is one of the most exciting events of the year. With the big sky above and breeze blowing, locals come together for dancing, singing, food and flowers. Admission to the festival comes with museum admission, so take in some art while you’re at it.
Where: American Swedish Institute, 2600 Park Ave., Minneapolis When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost: $12
COURTNEY DEUTZ, DAILY
Billie Eilish performs at the Armory in Minneapolis on Saturday, June 8.
Review: Billie Eilish flirts with being an angel and a demon Eilish played for a sea of admirers at the Armory on Saturday, June 8. BY LIV MARTIN omartin@mndaily.com
Billie Eilish’s dark silhouette appeared on stage amid the shrill screams of thousands of fans Saturday night. The 17-year-old’s signature blue hair was done up in two space buns and, like usual, she sported an androgynous, oversized outfit: big black shorts, a black jacket and a graphic tee. The crowd didn’t know it yet, but her printed T-shirt — featuring cherubs surrounded by flames — would serve as a metaphor for the
entire show. It’s hard to believe that Eilish played at the 7th Street Entry just last year. Since then, she has gone mainstream, amassing millions of fans. It’s not hard to see why. Eilish’s music transcends traditional genres. Sometimes referred to as anti-pop, it is a melange of intense electro-pop and whispery, dark ballads. Joined on stage by a drummer and her songwriting partner and brother Finneas O’Connell (FINNEAS) on bass and keys, Eilish began the show with one of her bangers, “bad guy,” which instantly had the crowd jumping to the beat. The energy was soon topped by the earthshattering refrain of “you
should see me in a crown.” The deep bass was much better consumed inside an arena than through headphones. With the maturity of someone well beyond her years, Eilish’s voice was drenched in sweetness during the slower ballads “idontwannabeyouanymore,” a track from from her first release; the dreamy, super-slow “listen before i go;” and a heartfelt rendition of “xanny.” She consistently proved that she has control of her voice. Even more impressive was Eilish’s ability to switch her persona at the snap of a finger. This was best demonstrated in “COPYCAT.” Eilish’s voice during the verses — innocent and lovely — im-
mediately became dark and intensified at the chorus’ first beat drop. Her aura of maturity was interrupted only during the few times she conversed with the crowd, once yelling, “Dude, my fucking shin splints are acting up. Do you know how annoying that is?” followed by, “It’s hot as fuck in here, oh my god.” Yet, her teenage relatability made her all the more likable. Behind Eilish were three large screens displaying images only nightmares could conjure: giant spiders, Slender Man-looking figures, ink pouring from her eyes and mouth, and, during the freaky hit, “bury a friend,” a corpse crawling towards the audience. However, this did not seem to deter the
excitement of her youngest fans, some of whom had their own blue-dyed locks. Juxtaposed with Eilish’s nightmare-fantasy were a few sappy moments. During “listen before i go,” Eilish sat on the stage before an image of a sunset. One of the final songs, “i love you,” was a duet with FINNEAS on a fullsized bed — a recreation of the night they wrote it. Before she parted, Eilish had some final advice for her fans: “Whether tonight is one of the best nights of your life or the worst you have ever had, live in that feeling.” Wise words from the girl who knows how to do it best.
Embroidery
Jennifer Smith, founder of Bunny Besties, a therapy animal nonprofit that works with PAWS at the University, said she was shocked when Gorman-Baer handed her an envelope with about $140 to help cover start-up costs for the organization after having auctioned off their embroidery at an art fair the previous weekend. “I never had another volunteer do anything like that,” she said. “It was the time when we at one point had seven dollars in our [bank] account … I was so floored.” Gorman-Baer has also raised money for the National Network of Abortion Funds and Planned Parenthood. “I want people to recognize embroidery and fiber arts as revolutionary and artistic and give it the value it deserves,” they said. “And I think I can see that already happening.”
Grade: A-
ART u from Page 1
Sunday: Stone Arch Bridge Festival Year after year (this is the 25th!), the Stone Arch Bridge and surrounding area draws artists, food trucks and free concerts. Peruse the many booths: printmaking, pottery, jewelry, photography. Buy yourself a present (even if it’s a personal helping of Spinning Wylde cotton candy).
Where: Father Hennepin Park (and surrounding area), 420 Main St. SE., Minneapolis When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost: Free CHRIS MCNAMARA, DAILY
Liza Gorman-Baer works on an embroidery piece in Minneapolis on Saturday, June 8th.
embroidery to start a conversation on multiple levels. Raegan Jaeger, a former manager and friend of Gorman-Baer, said their work is especially impactful because of its accessibility as an art form. “What Liza is doing in their work is creating this platform to talk about these really dense concepts as casual conversation and creating a way to talk about [them],” Jaeger said. “Especially if people … have art hanging on their jacket like it is on mine, all [of] the sudden someone can ask you about it and in that moment you can jump into a conversation about something that may be bigger.” Gorman-Baer also uses their work to give money directly to communities.
6 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019
MN DAILY
MNDAILY.COM
Editorials & Opinions
COLUMN
Politicians who support abortion bans are funded by corporations Abortion restrictions are not their explicit agenda, but they should be held accountable.
I
n response to CAROLINE SKOOG legislators’ recolumnist cent advancement of multiple harsh limits on abortions, my social media feed repeatedly blazoned an image reading, “men shouldn’t be making laws about women’s bodies.” This syllogism, as perfect as it is for a 10-second Instagram story or a bumper sticker, highlights the historic debate of abortion as a matter of women’s rights. And it is. Partially. However, ovaries as the single credential to governing reproductive health loses its moxie with Kay Ivey, a woman and governor in Alabama, as the face and signature of the state’s recent restrictive abortion measures. And the money that funds her campaign? It’s coming from popular corporate entities that boast about workplace equality and supporting women in the workforce. In late May, Popular Information released campaign finance reports from six states that recently passed substantial restrictions on abortion. The newsletter disclosed significant contributions from six mega-corporations — AT&T, Coca Cola, Eli Lilly, Walmart, Pfizer, and Aetna — to politicians who are in favor of the abortion ban.
It should be noted that locating these donations within a public database, like followthemoney.org, is immensely difficult. Despite laws requiring PACs, political action committees with the intent to contribute money to elect political candidates, disclose their donations to political campaigns, campaign finances are uniquely documented from state to state and are often categorized under multiple titles, impairing transparency. The data presented is not necessarily factually unreliable, but verifying the information is deliberately exhausting. As these corporations financially backed aggressively pro-life politicians, they simultaneously boasted women’s empowerment at their companies. On its website, AT&T flaunts having a management team that’s 35 percent female and declares “...we make sure women at AT&T feel supported in everything they do.” At the 2016 Women’s Global Forum Meeting, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent puffed that their senior leadership team is 32 percent female during a session titled “Why I am a Feminist.” Pfizer’s website exhibits more direct irony, asserting its commitment to gender equality “by improving access to equitable healthcare for women in underserved communities.” The list of contradictions continues. Corporations posing as front-runners of the social justice movement isn’t new, nor is the emptiness of their claims. Just as institutions like Coca-Cola use progressive rhetoric to remain relevant, they pay politicians to maintain
power. These companies are not secret Christian pro-life advocates; enabling abortion restrictions is not explicitly their agenda, though they should be held accountable for the consequences of their apathy. They are advocates for their own power and will do whatever it takes to preserve their interests — even if that means thirty-something percent of their leadership team surrenders their uteri to lawmakers. Why would women in leadership positions at these corporations tolerate this? Given their elevated roles at these companies, their own access to reproductive care is not in jeopardy. In the case of unwanted pregnancy, they have health insurance, as well as means to travel to a different state for an abortion. Companies that take pride in supporting equality within the workplace need to be mindful about the politicians they are supporting with their corporate dollars. Ovaries do not equate to the ability to police other bodies, just as speaking at a global women’s forum does not justify a 32 percent female workforce. But the abortion ban cannot be summed up as an attack on women’s rights alone; like any medical matter within a private system of healthcare, it is inherently classist. The issue isn’t merely men governing women’s bodies, but rather, privileged people punishing poor people. Caroline Skoog welcomes comments at cskoog@mndaily.com.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
U renaming task force’s conspiracy Par t three in a series by University of Minnesota Professor Ian Maitland. One of the reasons the building names task force gave for its recommendation that former Dean of Student Affairs Edward Nicholson’s name be stripped from Nicholson Hall is that he was part of a conspiracy on the campus. The task force makes the sensational claim that “[d]uring the 1930s, [Dean of Student Affairs, Edward Nicholson (aka “Dean Nick”)], monitored student activists and reported their names and alleged actions to his political allies at the state and national levels.” Among those who are supposed to have received Nicholson’s information were prominent Republican politician Ray P. Chase, the FBI, and, most shocking of all, “open allies of Nazi Germany.” The report painted Nicholson in even darker shades of malevolence by charging that his surveillance had “targeted” Jewish and Black students. The story isn’t exactly new. Four decades earlier, late UMN History Professor Hyman Berman reported that archives which Chase left with the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) contained “voluminous reports on ‘Jew reds’” on campus that Chase had received from Nicholson, according to an article Berman wrote titled “Political Antisemitism in Minnesota during the Great Depression.” Berman didn’t actually employ the term “surveillance” to describe Nicholson’s activities. But recently, professor Riv-Ellen Prell revived Berman’s charge in her “A Campus Divided” exhibition. In her account, Berman’s allegation that Nicholson provided reports about campus radicals to Chase mushrooms into something even bigger. Prell charges that “[t] ogether, Ray Chase ... and Dean Edward Nicholson contributed to creating the University of Minnesota as a POLITICAL SURVEILLANCE CAMPUS, where monitoring of students became the norm” (emphasis in original text). The choice of the word “surveillance” was not accidental. It implies systematic monitoring, probably surreptitious or clandestine. It is a term typically used in counterintelligence or in relation to crime suspects. The task force report charges that Nicholson “collaborated with ... Ray Chase to identify groups and individual students as potentially dangerous based on their political leanings.” The scale of the surveillance conducted by Nicholson must have been considerable, if the task force report and other accounts are to be believed. The report says that “Nicholson played a major role in providing Chase with detailed information about ‘Jew Reds’ at the University.” Similarly, Berman’s article claims that Chase “received voluminous reports” from Nicholson. Finally, in “A Campus Divided,” Prell says that “[i]nformation about left-wing student activism flowed from Nicholson to Chase,” including “not only ... the names of dozens of student activists, but their on-campus activities and the political organizations they joined and led. These lists remain in Chase’s papers, which are housed at the Minnesota Historical Society.” The task force report assures us that its account of Nicholson’s actions is based on an “[e]xamination of archival material.” So, in order to fact-check its claims, I scoured the task force report’s sources for the archival material that supposedly supports the claim about a conspiracy between Nicholson and Chase to conduct surveillance of left-wing students on campus. What did my search yield? It netted a grand total of two letters (with attachments) from Nicholson to Chase. Both letters are reproduced on the “A Campus Divided” website along with a copy of an FBI report stating that Nicholson had identified the leader of the local chapter of the American Students Union (ASU). Based on my research, these two letters are the only archival material cited in either the task force report or “A Campus Divided”
that show Nicholson sharing student or faculty names with Chase. There is no doubt that the first list is of left-wing faculty members (two of them, Profs. Benjamin Lippincott and Joseph Beach, had previously been accused of communist activity by Minnesota state Senator J. V. Weber). As for the two (or three) students, Nicholson seems to have passed their names on because, as he says to Chase, they resembled another student “whom you have on your list.” Based on that, it seems safe to infer that Chase asked Nicholson to review a list of students for accuracy or completeness. From an April 7 letter, it appears that Nicholson returned the (corrected?) version to Chase together with a clipping from the Minnesota Daily. The letters are hardly in accordance with the task force’s depiction of Nicholson as a master spy. It is not just how few names there are — eight faculty and three students, not “voluminous reports.” Another thing is that none of the information looks like the products of surveillance. It seems improbable that any sentient being on campus was unaware that Profs. Lippincott and Beach had been called out for being communists by Senator Weber. So Nicholson did not need a spy ring to tell him that they were “suspects.” It is just as improbable that the identity of the leader of the campus chapter of a major national student organization like the ASU was a secret that only snooping could ferret out. In the case of one of the students whose name Nicholson passed on to Chase, Nicholson told Chase that his source was an FBI agent. One of the pieces of information Nicholson passed to Chase was a clipping from the Minnesota Daily. My point is that it did not take surveillance of campus radicals to compile this sort of information. Notice too the date of the correspondence — it is 1941. But the task force alleges that Nicholson conducted his surveillance of student radicals “[d]uring the 1930s.” According to my research, neither the task force report nor “A Campus Divided” cite any dossiers or lists from Nicholson in Chase’s files from the 1930s. By 1941, a time of wars and rumors of wars, the outlook for peace had grown far darker. It is probably no coincidence that only a few months earlier, in the fall of 1940, the FBI had begun an extensive investigation of the student movement and the ASU in particular. “Since the ASU in 1940 was an antiinterventionist, communist-led organization, the FBI deemed it necessary to gather intelligence on the ASU’s strength, anti-war agitation, and potential resistance to the recently adopted conscription act,” according to “When the Old Left Was Young: Student Radicals and America’s First Mass Student Movement” by Robert Cohen. My hunch is that Chase — an ardent anti-communist — was pressing his friends for leads that he might share with the FBI. Finally, notice that in neither of his letters does Nicholson refer to “Jew reds” or “Jew agitators.” None of this is to deny that Chase’s files contained materials from the campus. There are collections of communist or socialist flyers that were apparently picked up on the campus grounds, reports on public meetings of radical organizations like the Social Problems Club and the Socialist (Workers) Party and some lists of students who (presumably) were radicals. For example, the files contain a list of names of 25 students who participated in a 1934 Peace Demonstration on campus. The catch is that, apart from the two letters I mentioned, nothing in Chase’s files ties these materials to Nicholson, according to my research. The task force seems to have blindly followed Prell and Berman in treating anything emanating from the campus as the handiwork of Nicholson — all without even the slightest pretense of a justification. The question naturally follows: If Nicholson wasn’t Chase’s source, then who was? To answer that question, I need to say a few more words about Chase. Ray P. Chase was a high-
profile opponent of Farmer-Labor governor Elmer Benson. He was also a former U.S. congressman who had his eye on a U.S. Senate seat. And he was an outspoken critic of what he saw as communist infiltration of the Farmer-Labor Party. As a result, he was a natural rallying point for many Minnesotans who saw communism as a mortal threat to the United States. That is the most plausible explanation of how Chase’s files came to hold voluminous reports about suspicious activity both on-campus and (keep in mind) off-campus. The upshot is that it is highly likely that Chase had a network of freelance informants — “spies” if you prefer the term, though they would doubtless have called themselves concerned citizens or patriots. I am saying that Chase would not have needed Nicholson to go around collecting radical leaflets on campus for him. By virtue of his visibility and anticommunism, Chase would have been a magnet for such information. (True, it might be retorted that Nicholson employed his own spy network, but in the absence of any evidence, that would be to pile unsupported speculation on top of unsupported speculation.) Another puzzling aspect of these events is why a national political figure like Chase would show an interest in the activities of student radicals on the University’s campus. It all seems so disproportionate. But that overlooks the extent to which the Communist Party had penetrated American campuses at the time. As Robert Cohen says in “When the Old Left Was Young,” “Communists achieved a degree of influence in American student politics far superior to their meager impact on the larger national polity. Not even in the labor movement where communists had an impressive presence during the 1930s, could communist influence compare with what it was in the student movement.” So Chase’s interest was not completely irrational. The most important case of a document in the Chase archive that has been falsely attributed to Nicholson is the notorious “Notes on Radicalism at the University of Minnesota.” (It was the subject of an earlier letter I wrote to the Minnesota Daily. ) Recall that the task force’s theory is that, “[d]uring the 1930s, Nicholson monitored student activists and reported their names and alleged actions to his political allies at the state and national levels.” That theory rests almost entirely on the unsubstantiated assumption that Nicholson was the source of the reports on campus radicals in Chase’s files like the “Notes on Radicalism.” But if the task force’s attempt to pin the “Notes on Radicalism” on Nicholson fails (as it must), there is even less reason to trust its claim that Nicholson must have been the source of the other information about campus radicals. None of Nicholson’s confirmed correspondence with Chase, nor the “Notes on Radicalism,” nor the other reports in Chase’s files support the theory that Nicholson collaborated with Chase in spying on radical students. The only “surveillance” that Nicholson likely conducted on campus was from the window of his office. Without stronger evidence — or really any evidence at all — the task force’s story is just a conspiracy theory conjured out of thin air. The task force report has blackened Nicholson’s reputation with unsupported accusations like this one and with its grotesque charges that he was an anti-Semite and shared information about students with “open allies of Nazi Germany.” I renew my call for the building names task force to do the right thing and give Nicholson his good name back. But it is not just Dean Nick. The University’s reputation has been tarnished by these unfair accusations. That shadow should be lifted too. Ian Maitland is a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. This letter to the editor has been lightly edited for style and clarity.
OBITUARY
Dylan Robert Christy
Dylan Robert Christy, age 21, of Grand Rapids, MN, passed away unexpectedly Saturday, May 11, 2019. Dylan was born in 1997 to Dale and Misty Christy in Grand Rapids. He graduated from Grand Rapids High School in 2016 and was a junior at the University of Minnesota. Dylan loved his family, traveling, music, sports, volunteering, his brothers from Delta Tau Delta, and spending time with all of his friends and his best friend “who he loved like a brother,” Alex Rajala. Dylan was preceded in death by his grandfather, Robert Christy. He is survived by his parents, Misty and Dale; sisters, Brielle Christy (Zac Quammen) of Minneapolis and Marriah Christy of Grand Rapids; grandmothers, Jean Christy of Grand Rapids and Michele Gooch of Colorado Springs, Co; grandfather, Robert (Carol) Marcella of Grand Rapids; and special aunts and uncles, Deron (Kristeen), Gina, Mike (LeAnn), Abe, Britta, Tony, and Lindsey; and special cousins. Visitation will be Saturday, May 18, 2019 at 12:00 PM at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Grand Rapids, MN until the 1:00 PM Memorial Service. Rev. David Anderson and Eric Northard will officiate. Following the memorial service, a celebration of Dylan’s life will continue at the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Grand Rapids, MN from 2:30 P.M. until 5:00 P.M. Burial will be at Itasca-Calvary Cemetery, Grand Rapids at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations received will be used for a memorial in Dylan’s honor. Arrangements are with Rowe Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Grand Rapids, MN. To sign the online guestbook or send condolences, visit www.rowefuneralhomeandcrematory.com. Rowe Funeral Home 510 NW First Avenue Grand Rapids, MN 55744 (218) 326-6505 - (218) 326-2622 (fax)
SHARE YOUR VIEWS The Minnesota Daily welcomes letters and guest columns from readers. All letters must include the writer’s name, address and phone number for verification. The Daily reserves the right to edit all letters for style, space, libel and grammar. Letters to the editor should be no more than 500 words in length. Guest columns should be approximately 350 words. The Daily reserves the right to print any submission as a letter or guest column. Submission does not guarantee publication.
letters@mndaily.com Fax: (612) 435-5865 Phone: (612) 435-1578 Letters and columns to the editor 2221 University Ave. SE Suite 450 Minneapolis, MN 55414 EDITORIALS & OPINIONS DEPARTMENT Editorials represent the voice of the Minnesota Daily as an institution and are prepared by the editorial board.
THE EDIT ORIALS AND OPINIONS DEPAR TMENT IS INDEPENDENT OF THE NEW SROOM
7
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019
MN DAILY
HOROSCOPES
Today’s Birthday (6/12): Take your romance to the next level this year. Strategize and contribute steadily for shared gain. Extra money flows in this summer, before a family financial shift. Shared accounts surge next winter, before unexpected personal expenses arise. Put your hands and hearts together.
MNDAILY.COM
To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging. Written by Nancy Black
Aries (3/21 - 4/19): Today is an 8 — Don’t try a new idea yet. Discover a structural problem. Define the work schedule carefully and handle responsibilities on time.
Libra (9/23 - 10/22): Today is an 8 — Focus on making money. Use your own good sense with a financial deal. Make sure the numbers add up. Mistakes could get expensive.
Taurus (4/20 - 5/20): Today is a 7 — Stay patient with your partner. Don’t make assumptions. Impulsive words could backfire. Consider common goals, dreams and commitments.
Scorpio (10/23 - 11/21): Today is a 7 — You’ve got the confidence to pull off your idea. Stifle rebellious tendencies for now. Clarifying misunderstandings could get time-consuming.
Gemini (5/21 - 6/21): Today is a 6 — Nurture your physical health and wellness. Self-esteem increases when you avoid arguments. Stay out of somebody else’s argument.
Sagittarius (11/22 - 12/21): Today is a 6 — Maintain a mystery. Take a refreshing pause. Privacy soothes your sensitivities. Listen more than you speak. Sort, clean and organize.
Cancer (6/22 - 7/22): Today is an 8 — Relax and prioritize fun with people you love. You’re developing a new perspective. Don’t overextend yourself.
Capricorn (12/22 - 1/19): Today is an 8 — Work together for an inspiring possibility. Cultivate leadership on your team. New facts dispel old fears. Guard against impetuous moves.
Leo (7/23 - 8/22): Today is a 7 — Make domestic repairs and renovations. Nurture home and family. The gentle approach works best now. Keep your agreements.
Aquarius (1/20 - 2/18): Today is an 8 — Work has your attention. Slow down to avoid mistakes. Costs can vary widely. Don’t get burned. Get creative to find a solution to a challenging puzzle.
Virgo (8/23 - 9/22): Today is an 8 — Study new developments. Slow and easy does it. Don’t rush into anything. Draw up plans and communications. Consider changes.
Pisces (2/19 - 3/20): Today is an 8 — Conditions favor travel and exploration. Get out while the getting is good. Make long-distance connections. Stay respectful, even when it’s chaotic.
DR. DATE Dr. Date,
Last Friday, I purchased a very expensive pair of green-colored jeans. (I am a heterosexual male.) I wore them out that night and, long story short, managed to bed a female. But not just any female. A (divorced?) middleaged woman with a tramp stamp and obnoxious red highlights in her hair. Think newwave Harley-Davidson biker chick. It should go without saying that I never want to contact this woman again. I have her number, and I know the jeans are there because my friend picked me up at 7 a.m. the next morning before she woke up —nothing like walking out of a strange apartment in boxers and a t-shirt. I don’t care so much about green jeans as I am intrigued by them. Even my roommates want to test their luck by trying them on — brotherhood of the cougarslaying green jeans. How do I go about getting them back?
—Green-Jeaned Lady Killer
Dear Heterosexual Male,
Well, you got what you wanted — your hilaaaaaaarious story is printed in the back pages of this college newspaper. Hang this up on your fridge, Hetero. Then open it up, stick your head in and chill out for a mother-loving minute. I’m sure the woman you slept with has an equally low desire to see you. After all, you’re the bro who probably couldn’t satisfy her and scurried off at dawn, blushing and pantsless. Go ahead and call this woman and ask if you can please pick up your jeans. The female will understand. This isn’t her first time at the rodeo. I might not guess the same for you. Have fun with your pants-sharing brotherhood.
than I am! Should I break up with him? I seriously am at a loss. What do I have to do to have my boyfriend remember me?
—A Second String Girlfriend
Dear Side-Lined Side Piece,
While my gut reaction is to criticize someone making their partner feel undervalued, can we pause and first allow for a moderate swoon over Steph Curry? Anyway, if you have been unsuccessful in drawing him away from sports, I have good news for you: it’s almost over. Both the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the NBA Finals are nearing their close and your boyfriend will soon be back in your arms. If your boyfriend has a tendency to ignore you for sports, which it seems is the case, the issue will extend far beyond the month of June. Both partners in a relationship need to balance their own interests with the interests of their significant other. That could mean him putting in the conscious effort during playoff season to make you feel important. But at the same time, it could mean more effort on your behalf to put effort into caring about what he cares about. Ultimately, if you can’t find your way to a middle ground, I am not sure if your relationship will make it to the playoffs. Maybe I’m wrong though. I guess all you can do is shoot your shot.
— Dr. Date
— Dr. Date
Dr. Date,
Real experience. Real world. Real opportunity.
MN DAILY MEDIA is hiring account executives for its sales department.
Apply online today mndailymedia.org/jobs
I think I’m losing my boyfriend to sports. It seems like every night there is another game that he and “the boys” HAVE to watch. We have been dating for several months, starting in January, and things were great until recently. When we go out to dinner, he just scrolls through sports things on his phone. All he talks about is Steph Curry this and some hockey player that! I care about him, but his complete and total obsession with athletics is more important to him
Want advice from the love doctor? Email Dr. Date at drdate@mndaily.com
SUDOKU
CROSSWORD
Last Issue’s Puzzle Solved Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9.
6/12/19
For strategies on how to solve sudoku, visit sudoku.org.uk.
Last issue’s solution
© 2019 Michael Mepham. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.
8
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
University alumni open cider taproom The new taproom aims to provide a curated experience for its customers. BY CAITLIN ANDERSON canderson@mndaily.com
A Minneapolis-based cider company is bringing some more zest to the Marcy-Holmes area with its new taproom. Founders of Minneapolis Cider Co., which opened early May, designed the taproom to give consumers a refined yet educational experience. Throughout the summer, the taproom will roll out new food and host cider tours, classes and tastings leading up to a grand opening celebration in late July. “We’re not just a taproom, we are a cider house, and our guiding ethos and everything we do is: welcome to cider,” said Jason Dayton, Minneapolis Cider Co. brand manager. Co-founders and University of Minnesota alumni Dayton and David O’Neill both gained a passion for cider while studying abroad in the United Kingdom. They later teamed up for a senior entrepreneurship capstone project at the University to create Lionheart Cider Company in 2015. The two founders rebranded to Minneapolis Cider Co. two years ago. They also brought on Rob Fisk, former owner of Wyndfall Cyder and another University alumnus, as co-owner and head cidermaker. “We eventually decided that it made the most sense to combine those two businesses and go at this new project together,” Dayton said. The taproom aims to introduce new customers to cider in a comfortable and educational environment. “We want to be approachable,” Fisk said. “[Cider] may seem out of reach for some people and we want to bridge that gap.” Ciders include orchard blend, raspberry, citrus hop and peach varieties. Minneapolis
Cider Co. also offers food options paired to match the ciders, like charcuterie boards with local meats and cheeses. Located in the north end of Marcy-Holmes, the cider company is at the “epicenter of craft companies,” Dayton said. The trio started looking at warehouses for the taproom 18 months ago, ultimately settling on an area that community members expect
will see a boom of new developments in the next few years. The Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association supported the repurposing of the warehouse, said Chris Lautenschlager, MHNA executive director. “[That area] has been a historically underutilized part of our neighborhood ... most people don’t even know it exists,” he said. “We applauded any recent development that had moved
Northrop Presents
MUSIC ON THE PLAZA
Wednesdays, noon-1:00 pm FREE and open to the public Funktion Junction Jun 12 New Riverside Ramblers Jun 19
The Mae Simpson Band Jul 17 Tim Sparks and Phil Heywood Jul 24
Dan Newton’s Café Accordion Orchestra Jun 26 Dave Sandersfeld Jul 31 Innocent Jul 3 Black Widows Aug 7 The Fragrants Jul 10 #GopherSummer
northrop.umn.edu
TONY SAUNDERS, DAILY
Roxy Krietzman pours a flight of ciders on Thursday, June 6 at Minneapolis Cider Company.
in there and are encouraging more.” The neighborhood association’s master plan laid out a vision for this area in 2014. This plan recommended businesses and developments reuse existing buildings to preserve the industrial history, something Minneapolis Cider Co. did by moving into an old steel manufacturing plant. “It’s exciting to see a lot people from the neighborhood and University alums,”
Dayton said. “I think that when school starts up again, we will see a lot more of that.” The July grand opening celebration will feature new releases, seminars, food trucks and giveaways. “All of that is really centered around making other people passionate and excited about cider,” Dayton said. “ That’s where we found our love and that’s why we want to share that.”
“Located in the north end of MarcyHolmes, the cider company is at the ‘epicenter of craft companies.’” JASON DAY TON Minneapolis Cider Co. brand manager