Identity in three parts A series of plays about Indian heritage hits Mixed Blood Theatre this month. u See PAGE 14
T-SHOWERS HIGH 68° LOW 56°
U OF M
MINNEAPOLIS
RESEARCH
Shutdown threatens U research Federal workers who review grant applications have been furloughed. BY ALEX CHHITH achhith@mndaily.com
Because of the U.S. government shutdown, federal funding for new research at the University of Minnesota could be at risk. With application deadlines fast approaching, the process for federally funded research grants at the University is inactive, though of ficials are confident accommodations will be made to fill funding gaps.
According to a statement from Brian Herman, the University’s vice president for research, new grant awards are expected to be delayed during the shutdown, but the University will help “bridge shortterm gaps in funding.” The government shutdown began Oct. 1 after legislators were unable to pass a budget resolution with an amendment added by Republicans in the House of Representatives that would delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Because nearly 800,000 u See GRANT Page 4 Research grants already awarded likely won’t be disrupted.
ST PAUL
THURSDAY
For the love of the game
JULIET FARMER, DAILY
Students try out for the Minnesota Quidditch team on Sunday at the East River Flats. The teams play both intramural and regional competitions each year.
After the end of “Harry Potter,” the U’s Quidditch league is thriving. BY ANNIE MILLERBERND amillerbernd@mndaily.com
City planners teach the basics BY NICOLAS HALLETT nhallett@mndaily.com
Emma Weiss remembers a different landscape in neighbor hoods surrounding the University of Minnesota. Chain-link fences and constr uction company signs now line str eets where familiar shops and businesses stood two years ago when she was an undergraduate. As the neighborhood has changed, community
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STUDENT GROUPS
NEIGHBORHOODS
Training sessions will teach residents how the city vets development.
OCTOBER 3, 2013
evolved past just a shared interest in the series — they see it as a competitive
A sea of brightly colored
members have expressed concern. The city is now helping residents to understand what action they can take. Approximately 40 community and neighborhood leaders attended a land use training session Tuesday, hosted by the MarcyHolmes Neighborhood Association and the University District Alliance. Minneapolis city planners Haila Maze and Jason W ittenberg explained a number of planning terms, like the dif ferences between a variance and a conditional use permit, while u See PLANNING Page 4 Planners will lead another session at the end of the month.
sport now more than ever.
T-shirts covered East River
On the page and the
Flats Park on Sunday after-
silver screen, Quidditch
noon as more than 200 stu-
players fly on broomsticks
dents gathered to tr y out
and the game is a kind of
for a sport that doesn’t get
combination of rugby and
much Big Ten attention —
s o ccer. Bu t r eal - wo rl d
Quidditch .
players have adapted the
Luke Zak said his love
game, holding a broom-
for the “Harry Potter” book
stick between their legs
series, where the game
while r unning instead of
originates, inspired him to
flying.
start the University of Min-
The University’s Quid-
nesota’s Quidditch league
ditch student group has a
in 2010.
competition team that trav-
But two years after the
els around the nation for
last “Harr y Potter” movie,
games, and an intramural
players say the group has
league of 11 teams.
u See QUIDDITCH Page 4
WEEKEND
Artists prep sights, smells and screams The Soap Factory is turning its basement into a den of terror for the seventh year. BY EMILY EVELAND eeveland@mndaily.com
The Soap Factory’s staff and volunteers swear the basement is haunted. Over the years, they’ve brought in local paranormal investigators who have confirmed their suspicions using readings and recordings. “Whether or not you believe it, we have so many stories to support it,” company and stage manager Birdie Freitag said. These stories include inexplicable childsize footprints, creeping shadows and falling light fixtures. The Soap Factory’s Haunted Basement is now in its seventh year, and this time around it’s trying a new approach. In the past, local ar tists would submit ideas for rooms, which would then be CHELSEA GORTMAKER, DAILY
Makeup designer Kristen Leigh and makeup artist Amanda Allery paint costume designer Alli Olwell’s face for a rehearsal of the Soap Factory’s Haunted Basement on Sunday evening.
u See SOAP FACTORY Page 12 When artists bought the factory in 1998, the basement was full of creepy, abandoned equipment.
HEALTH
Students seek marrow donors A student group is clearing up misconceptions about donating bone marrow. BY HAILEY COLWELL hcolwell@mndaily.com
University of Minnesota student Carl Johnson joined the national bone marrow donor registry in 2008 when he was serving in the U.S. Navy. Three years later, he learned he was a perfect match for a 50-year-old man with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Finland. Because Johnson donated his marrow, the Finnish man is now 90 percent recovered. Johnson, an economics junior, is now working with the 1-year-old University student group Be the Match on Campus to u See MARROW Page 7 Patients of color are less likely to find a match than white patients.
VOLUME 115 ISSUE 19