September 8, 2014

Page 1

GOPHERS HOLD OFF MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE PAGE 7

PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH 76° LOW 62°

HEALTH

Ebola prompts U precaution

U OF M

MINNEAPOLIS

ST PAUL

MONDAY

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT MNDAILY.COM

ENVIRONMENT

Fighting the decline

The school is adapting some policies in accordance with new federal recommendations. BY HALEY HANSEN hhansen@mndaily.com

As the largest Ebola outbreak in history continues to plague parts of West Africa, the University of Minnesota and other colleges nationwide are adjusting their travel policies to comply with new recommendations from the federal government. The advisements, which the Centers for Disease Control released late last month, suggest that schools place stronger restrictions on faculty and students traveling to and from the affected regions. The University is largely complying with the guidelines, and it has been continuously u See OUTBREAK Page 5

HIGHER ED

New policy could boost college apps Starting this year, all high school juniors in the state will need to take the ACT to graduate.

ZACH BIELINSKI, DAILY

Graduate student Amanda Stephens shows Lydia a monarch butterfly before it’s tagged and released at the Minneapolis Monarch Festival on Saturday afternoon in the Nokomis neighborhood. School researchers say monarch populations have dropped in recent years, but they’re optimistic about reversing the decline.

Through tagging and education efforts, researchers hope to reverse a drop in monarch butterfly populations. conser vation efforts can help the insects

BY ETHAN NELSON enelson@mndaily.com

A

bounce back.

gainst a backdrop of milkweed,

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation

flowers and bright orange wings,

Board, along with the U.S. Forest Service

monarch butterfly researchers and educa-

and the University’s lab, staged Saturday’s

tors gathered Saturday to enlist the public’s

festival, which had more than 1,000 attend-

BY TAYLOR NACHTIGAL tnachtigal@mndaily.com

help in saving the delicate insects.

ees celebrating the butterflies and tagging

For almost a decade, Minnesota has been a leader in average ACT scores among high school students. Now, a state requirement mandates that all high school juniors take the test in order to graduate this year — a policy change that lawmakers, educators and University of Minnesota officials say might have an effect on college application rates but will likely not affect the state’s average scores. The new requirement, which will provide the test to students free of charge, passed during Minnesota’s 2013

sota’s Monarch Lab attended a festival on

Members of the University of Minne-

hundreds of them to track their migration patterns.

the shores of Lake Nokomis, where they

Residents raised the monarchs as part

tagged and released monarch butterflies

of a series of citizen science workshops in

with the public to learn more about migra-

August, where Monarch Lab staff mem-

tory patterns.

bers gave away 300 monarch eggs in prepa-

Loss of habitat and weather extremes

ration for the event.

have made for grim monarch population

Researchers and volunteers will recov-

rates in recent years, but University ex-

er the tagged insects in parts of the U.S.

per ts are optimistic that education and

and Mexico this fall during their annual

u See APPLICATIONS Page 3

u See MONARCHS Page 5

TRANSPORTATION

Officials push LRT safety Police may begin giving more tickets for unlawful crossing near the Green Line light rail. BY KATE CLARK AND JOHN THOMAS kclark1@mndaily.com, jthomas@mndaily.com

ALEX TUTHILL-PREUS, DAILY

University police officer Jason Printz observes pedestrians crossing Washington Avenue Southeast on the East Bank on Tuesday, assuring they abide by the walk signals.

As crowds of students crossed the Green Line light rail for the first time last week, University of Minnesota and city officials upped safety measures to prevent accidents this year. Metro Transit and school police of ficers ramped up their efforts in educating students about moving safely around the Green Line and patrolled the highly trafficked area on Washington Avenue Southeast. With the campaigning and extra surveillance, police hope to instill safe habits among the University community. It’s important that pedestrians use the designated crosswalks, wait for lights, remove their headphones and stay off cell-

phones when crossing, Metro Transit police captain Jim Franklin said. “We are just asking they use commonsense, aler t behaviors around the light rail,” Franklin said. Although police were along the light rail last week primarily advising commuters, ticketing could come soon, University Services spokesman Tim Busse said. “Ultimately, they will start writing citations for people crossing against the light and [performing] dangerous behaviors,” he said. Vice President for University Ser vices Pamela Wheelock said the first step is education, rather than issuing a ticket for simple offenses. The University began discussing its plans last winter to catch students’ attention and educate them about how to cross the street safely with the new Green Line, Busse said. Wheelock said the University has only u See SAFET Y Page 4

VOLUME 116 ISSUE 4


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.