Wednesday, September 17, 2014
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Saint Anthony Falls Lab gets facelift Renovation u from Page 1
things it has been doing all along,” he said. “What makes it dif ferent now is that new systems make the possibility of receiving grants in a wider array of projects [more likely].” Assistant mechanical engineering professor Jiarong Hong, who is researching wind energy there, said he also anticipates the lab’s refurbishment will attract attention, par ticularly from future researchers. “If you have a good working envir onment,” Hong said, “that can attract people to come, especially graduate students.”
A much-needed breath of life
Built to take advantage of the Mississippi River’s rushing currents as they cascade over St. Anthony Falls, the lab’s unique location made it a cutting-edge facility when it first opened, Sotiropoulos said. It was there that 20thcentury scientists found an ideal environment to perform landmark hydraulic research, river engineering, flood protection and dam constr uction — without having to use massive water pumps. Spanning the waterfall’s full 50-foot height, the building’s network of labs harnesses the river’s natural water flow for the channels, basins and tunnels its researchers use to simulate rivers and waves. The passage of time, however, had begun eroding the more than 75-yearold lab’s luster by the time Sotiropoulos became its director in 2006, he said. “It violated ever y building code you can imagine,” Sotiropoulos said. “We
ELIZABETH BRUMLEY, DAILY
The Saint Anthony Falls Lab, located north of the Washington Avenue Bridge, has completed renovations that will continue to promote research.
didn’t have a fire sprinkler system.” The facility also had no working elevator or central air control systems, he said, the latter of which greatly hindered research. “The lack of climate control essentially compromised our ability to do precise experiments at certain times of the year,” Sotiropoulos said. Kevin Howard, a recent University aer odynamics doctoral graduate who
Senator ties NFL tax status to Redskins name BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WA S H I N G T O N — A U.S. senator thr eatened the NFL with legislation over Washington’s nickname, a letter was dispatched to the other 31 team owners, and the issue was linked to the league’s others recent troubles Tuesday as the anti”Redskins” movement took its cause to Capitol Hill. In a news conference that featured Native American, civil rights and religious leaders, Sen. Maria Cantwell took aim at the NFL’s pocketbook by announcing she will introduce a bill to strip the league’s tax-exempt status because it has not taken action over the Redskins name. While prospects for such a bill becoming law would be tenuous, the inevitable hearings before lawmakers would enhance the spotlight on a movement that has gained substantial momentum over the last two years. “The NFL needs to join the rest of America in the 21st Centur y,” said Cantwell, D-Wash., the former chair woman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. “We can no longer tolerate this attitude toward Native Americans. This is not about team tradition. This is about right and wrong.” Overall, the message from the “Change the Mascot” leaders was that they don’t plan to go away, despite Redskins owner Dan Snyder’s vow not to change the name. They presented a letter that will be sent to ever y NFL owner except Snyder, asking each to use his “position of authority” to end the league’s “promotion of a dictionary-defined racial slur.” Oneida Nation representative Ray Halbritter said he hoped an owner will take a bold position against the name. He cited Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey, who integrated major league baseball by signing Jackie Robinson, and longtime Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin, who changed his NBA’s team from Bullets because
of the violence associated with the term. “We’re looking for the Branch Rickey, looking for Abe Pollin,” Halbritter said. “They’re out there. We know the owners don’t share in this, but they share in the profits.” Halbritter had harsh words for the league as a whole, referencing the NFL’s handling of health problems suf fered by former players, as well as the recent Ray Rice domestic violence saga and the child abuse charge levied against Adrian Peterson. “The NFL is currently facing an integrity crisis. ... While these are dif ferent issues, they are joined by a common thread of showing commercial and moral arrogance and a blatant lack of respect for those being negatively impacted,” Halbritter said. The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier T uesday, the league announced that it has hired a former White House of ficial to help the league with legislative issues. Cynthia Hogan will be the league’s senior vice president of public policy and government affairs and will be based in Washington. Redskins spokesman Tony Wyllie responded to Cantwell’s proposed legislation by citing a poll in the team’s favor. “Our position remains consistent with more than 80 percent of Americans who do not want to change the Washington Redskins name,” Wyllie said. The debate over the name could influence the Redskins’ plans to build a new stadium when their lease at FedEx Field, located in D.C.’s Maryland suburbs, expires in 2027. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s delegate to Congress, said the team would have a hard time moving back to the city unless the name is changed. “I would make ever y ef for t in the Congress to make sure they could not come back with that name,” Norton said.
spent three years working with the lab’s wind tunnel, said the outdated systems made scheduling experiments difficult. “If we were doing temperature-sensitive measurements in there, it would be a little bit tougher to plan based on the weather,” Howard said. “Now that we got these thermal controls upgraded, we can do more robust measurements.” Staf f had long sought upgrades to the St. Anthony
Falls Laborator y, Kaveh said, but it took the NSF grant to finally bring those plans to fruition. The University’s Higher Education Asset Preser vation and Renovation funds picked up the cost of renovating the lab’s basic infrastructure problems, which the NSF wouldn’t cover, said Sotiropoulos. He said his team laid out a plan to make the laboratory a world-class research destination.
Now armed with modern facilities, researchers are forging ahead on their studies, which include of fshore wind turbines, algae gr owth, medical d evi ces an d water way restoration. They’re also looking to push the virtual boundaries of their fields, Sotiropoulos said. “Our ultimate goal is to build the next generation of computer simulation models,” he said.
Because the St. Anthony Falls Laborator y can’t accommodate all of its global research par tners on-site, some of its staf f has already laid the basic framework to develop an Inter net-based por tal into the lab, Sotiropoulos said. “What we would like to do is provide an experience where somebody, wherever, they can sit on a terminal and work with somebody here in real time,” he said.
Ginsburg discusses women’s rights Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg discussed high-profile court cases at Willey Hall on Tuesday. BY CHRISTOPHER AADLAND caadland@mndaily.com
Although the U.S. Supreme Court won’t reconvene until next month, a longstanding justice offered the University of Minnesota community a glimpse into issues the high court may address in the future. About 1,000 community members and University students, staff and faculty gathered in Willey Hall on Tuesday as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has served on the U.S. Supreme Cour t for more than two decades, discussed recent high-profile cases, the types of cases the court will likely hear in coming years and other hot-button topics. After joking about her popularity on social media, Bader and University law professor Robert Stein, who led the event, discussed recent cases like the Hobby Lobby ruling in June, which said corporations could refuse
to pay for contraceptives if it goes against the owner’s religious beliefs. Ginsburg, who dissented the ruling, restated her opinion on the controversial topic and said she’s concerned it will affect the way companies comply with federal regulations. “An employer for for-profit companies should not be able to impose their beliefs on their employees,” she said at the discussion. While the lecture covered a variety of topics, Ginsburg paid special attention to women’s rights issues and said female law students shouldn’t shy away from voicing their opinions. Ginsburg was the second woman in history to serve on the Supreme Court when she entered the position in 1993. First-year law student Julia Peng said she felt Ginsburg’s message was empowering.
“I really enjoyed her enthusiasm for women’s issues,” she said. “[Ginsburg] really wants us to renew the spirit of women in the ’70s.” Other topics, like privacy issues surrounding technology, discrimination and the environment, are poised to be highly debated subjects in the future, Ginsburg said at the event. First-year law student Tyler Adams agreed that his generation of law students will likely encounter cases dealing with those issues when they enter the workforce. “Environmental issues will be hard to avoid,” he said. The discussion was part of the Law School’s annual Stein Lecture Series. Stein said he and Ginsburg have known each other for 30 years. Last year’s lecture featured former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale. Stein said another Supreme Court justice will talk in the series next year, but said he couldn’t release the future speaker’s name. As law students learn
“I really enjoyed her enthusiasm for women’s issues. [Ginsburg] really wants us to renew the spirit of women in the ’70s.” JULIA PENG First-year law student
about the judicial system, Stein said, it’s important for them to hear a high authority like Ginsburg speak about important cases and current events. “They’ll better understand how the cour t approaches issues and how effective oral argument is in making those decisions,” he said. First-year law student Andrew Heiring said Ginsburg’s speech not only helped her learn about the cour t process, but it was also motivational. “It’s exciting to get to go to events like this,” he said.
Students prepare protest of Redskins name Nickname u from Page 1
For the past month, the Council of Graduate Students and the Native American Law Student Association have been working together to draft a letter challenging the use of the team’s name on campus, which they hope to send to University administrators soon. Though members of the groups still have to approve the letter before it’s sent, the working draft urges the University to “formally support a strong condemnation of the Washington franchise’s name.” The letter also suggests that the University and the Vikings create a scholarship endowment from gameday profits that would go toward hiring and enrolling more Native American professors and students across all departments.
COGS President Andrew McNally said it’s important that the University is a welcoming environment for all cultures and having the Redskins name on campus doesn’t support that. “This is really racist, and it’s unacceptable that the University would allow this kind of behavior to happen,” he said. This summer, Kaler publicly spoke out against the team’s name and deemed it of fensive after Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum sent a letter to Vikings owner Zygi Wilf in June. McCollum said the use of the name would violate the University’s policies regarding diversity on campus. School officials are still working with the Vikings to address the issue, Kaler said earlier this month. While some groups are seeking administrative action against the name,
others will take their frustrations to the streets and protest the team when it plays at TCF Bank Stadium. American Indian Student Cultural Center President Chelsea Holmes said the group will dispute the upcoming game, adding that the group also joined a protest with a Minneapolisbased organization, the American Indian Movement, last year when the team played at the Metrodome. She said it’s important that AISCC’s protests are peaceful, and she said members have been tr ying to rally suppor t from other student groups at the University. Holmes said because the game will be played on campus, it’s key that students address the issue, adding that the AISCC has been working with the University’s Office for Equity and Diversity to create programs to
discuss the controversy. Holmes said more people need to understand the histor y behind the name and why it’s considered offensive. Arielle Dagen-Sunsdahl, president of NALSA, said the mascot inaccurately portrays Native American culture and many people may not understand why it’s insulting. “I think it doesn’t give a fair representation of Native people,” she said. “So if you don’t have a background in that, all you’re [being exposed to] is this crazy caricature.” Dagen-Sunsdahl and Holmes said they’re happy OED and University officials are taking their concerns seriously. “We are glad that they are willing to address the issue, and it sounds like they’re willing to work with us,” Dagen-Sunsdahl said.