STUDENT RIDERS BOOST GREEN LINE PAGE 5
T-STORMS HIGH 66° LOW 56°
U OF M
MINNEAPOLIS
ST PAUL
WEDNESDAY
OCTOBER 1, 2014
CAMPUS
THE EAST BANK STOP HAS SEEN THE LINE’S HIGHEST RIDERSHIP.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT MNDAILY.COM
WEST BANK
U dept. shuttering in 2016 Immigrants find aid in The Postsecondary Teaching and Learning department will be spread throughout CEHD. BY ANNE MILLERBERND amillerbernd@mndaily.com
The University of Minnesota will close its Department of Postsecondar y Teaching and Learning in two years, school officials announced Tuesday.
TERRORISM
The depar tment’s programs, staf f and faculty members will be disbursed throughout the College of Education and Human Development and continue “under different administrative structures” beginning in the 2016-17 academic year, according to an email announcement from the CEHD dean, Jean Quam. “The cur rent complement of PsTL faculty and staff will provide for the best possible realignment across the college,” Quam said in the email sent to the
depar tment’s students and faculty and staff members. After the Board of Regents voted in 2005 to eliminate a few University colleges, including the General College, the University created the PsTL department, which serves many of the same functions. The department has more than 40 faculty and staf f members. CEHD students spend two semesters in the department’s First-Year Experience program, which acclimates students to the University.
‘Why are they leaving?’
law center
A new center helps immigrants and refugees navigate the legal system and stay in the country. BY CHRISTOPHER AADLAND caadland@mndaily.com
Pe Paul Goromou came close to getting booted out of the country. Goromou, a Guinea native, sought asylum in the United States shortly after he fled his home, where he said the government tortured him for nearly a week, accusing him of being involved in a coup d’état. But without a lawyer, Goromou was in danger of being deported, until a group — which included students and faculty members at the University of Minnesota’s Law School — stepped in to help him gain asylum. “[I came to the U.S. to] be protected and live as a free man,” Goromou said. Goromou sat in the front row of a packed auditorium at the University’s Law School on Tuesday to help celebrate the launch of the school’s new center that helps immigrants like him navigate the legal system. The Law School’s Center for New Americans opened all three of its law clinics this fall after receiving funding from the Robina Foundation in 2013 to bolster legal services for immigrant communities nationwide. The center collaborates with three local nonprofit organizations and three u See JUSTICE Page 4
LEGISLATURE
ELIZABETH BRUMLEY, DAILY
The Cedar Riverside Youth Council advocates for Somali youth and against foreign recruitment efforts by terrorist organizations in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood Tuesday. About two dozen participants marched through the streets, chanting and waving signs.
Cedar-Riverside youth protested terrorist recruitment in the area on Tuesday, saying the neighborhood needs more resources. the area.
BY PARKER LEMKE plemke@mndaily.com
A
“Our real problems are community de-
group of Cedar-Riverside youth
velopment,” said Mubashir Jeilani, who co-
marched through their neighbor-
founded CRYC with general director Mo-
hood’s streets late Tuesday afternoon to
hamed Jama. “We have so many different
demonstrate against terrorism, the stereo-
organizations claiming that they help our
typing of Muslims and what they said was a
youth, but … they don’t help us.”
lack of community resources.
In recent months, Cedar-Riverside has
Wielding signs and chanting “power to
been the focus of investigations and efforts
the youth,” the protesters, led by the Ce-
to stop extremist terrorist groups like the
dar Riverside Youth Council, said the lack
Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL,
of opportunities and resources for local
and al-Shabaab from enlisting locals to join
young people was due to foreign terrorist
them overseas.
organizations’ recruitment of residents in
While Tuesday’s protesters condemned
u See CEDAR-RIVERSIDE Page 3
Facing building decay, admins look to state At least 37 buildings on the Twin Cities campus classified as in critical need of updates. BY BLAIR EMERSON bemerson@mndaily.com
Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a three-par t series examining the University of Minnesota’s efforts to garner state funds for building maintenance. Inside Bur ton Hall, sunlight shines through a stained-glass skylight, and marble carvings on the walls bespeak a history filled with countless students roaming the corridors. However, the East Bank building is just one of at least 37 facilities on the Twin Cities campus that University of Minnesota officials say is in critical need of repairs this year. University leaders say increased state funding is necessary to preserve these historic structures, but some legislators say practicality and fairness sometimes stand in the way of fulfilling those requests. The University requests state aid to u See FACILITIES Page 12
STUDENT GROUPS
Group kicks low numbers Campus martial arts student groups are aiming to increase visibility and attract members. BY SARAH CONNOR sconnor@mndaily.com
The University of Minnesota’s Tae Kwon Do club lined up on the Great Hall auditorium stage in Cof fman Union on T uesday, barefoot and dressed in all white. One by one, each member let out a guttural shout before cracking a pine board with a swift kick of the leg. The students were demonstrating their martial arts skills in front of a small audience for a special exhibition, marking the first time several campus martial arts group met in one place. Following a recent downward trend of par ticipation in the spor t, the groups joined forces for the exhibition with hopes of increasing their visibility on campus and attracting new members.
T r evor Foster, one of the event planning coordinators and member of the Vo Lam Kung Fu student club, said while there’s been some interest in martial arts on campus, par ticipation in the University’s clubs has dropped over the past couple of years. Foster, a longtime practitioner of martial arts, said he hopes Tuesday’s expo will generate students’ interest in the activity. The event included aikido, karate, judo, taekwondo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Kung Fu demonstrations. In the past, Foster said, University mar tial ar ts groups have hosted events that targeted certain cultural demographics that the sport reflects, but Tuesday’s event was geared toward students of all backgrounds. “There hasn’t been a big event like this for many, many years with all the martial ar ts groups in one place,” Foster said. “For me, it’s really about creating that sense of community because we all pracu See EXPO Page 12
JULIET FARMER, DAILY
Erik Dreyer, Mitchell Le and Kahanh Duong perform at the Martial Arts Expo at Coffman Union on Tuesday. The event is part of an effort to attract new members to martial arts student groups.
VOLUME 116 ISSUE 18