CAMPUS & METRO
MEN’S BASKETBALL
A&E
The Dept. of Ed. is pushing incomebased student loan repayment.
Elliott Eliason had 11 points and 17 boards in a season-opening victory.
Sorry, mom and dad.
Government promotes loan repayment plan
The fashionista is in: Getting inked
Eliason ready to fill big man role for Minnesota
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SUNNY HIGH 31° LOW 19°
U OF M
MINNEAPOLIS
ST PAUL
TUESDAY
NOVEMBER 12, 2013
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT MNDAILY.COM
CRIME
Armed man puts U on alert An alleged robbery attempt put the West Bank on alert Monday afternoon. BY ALEXI GUSSO AND JESSICA LEE agusso@mndaily.com jlee@mndaily.com
University of Minnesota police asked students, faculty and staff to seek shelter at around 3:15 p.m. Monday after an
armed man allegedly attempted to rob a student in Anderson Hall. Police arrived at the scene a little after 3 p.m. Shortly after 4 p.m., a text alert said a search of the West Bank was complete and no shooting had occurred. University police Chief Greg Hestness said the suspect approached a student studying on a stairwell in Anderson Hall, displayed a handgun and demanded her laptop. Hestness said the suspect took the victim’s backpack, which was empty. The
student screamed, and the man fled. The student wasn’t harmed, Hestness said. The suspect was still at large Monday night, and may have escaped through the University’s tunnel system, University Services spokesman Tim Busse said. Hestness said the suspect description, sent via a text alert shortly after the notice to take shelter, was vague and “not too u See WEST BANK Page 3 Police also searched the area around Coffman Union after receiving a call the suspect was there.
A worldwide footprint
New faces join City Council Alondra Cano, Lisa Bender and Andrew Johnson will join four other City Council newcomers. BY JESSICA LEE jlee@mndaily.com
Following the 2013 city election, the Minnesota Daily will be running a twoweek series that profiles new City Council members. Alondra Cano, Lisa Bender and Andrew Johnson were chosen by voters last week to represent wards 9, 10 and 12, respectively, and will serve on the council beginning in January. u See CIT Y COUNCIL Page 14 The candidates discussed public safety, education and why they decided to run for office.
RESEARCH
Medical magnet is on its way The University will use one of the world’s strongest magnets for brain imaging. BY T YLER GIESEKE tgieseke@mndaily.com
JULIET FARMER, DAILY
Established in 1958 by the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, the Landscape Arboretum is the largest public garden in the Upper Midwest. It includes gardens, woods, prairies and plant collections.
The University system owns land for various uses across the state, nation and world. BY HAILEY COLWELL hcolwell@mndaily.com
The University of Minnesota owns a mansion on the shore of Lake Superior, apartments in Birmingham, UK, and forests on a Chippewa reservation. Across the state, country and world, the University owns more than 28,000 acres of land and receives the financial benefit of about 56,500 acres of land. It engages in more than 1,400 leases and easements. And each of these proper ties is bought and used in a unique way. All of the University’s land is used for specific purposes, from a peat soil bank
used to restore wetlands to a parking lot that keeps the Minneapolis campus less congested. Long-term plans for properties include multiple uses for the land over time. The way the University goes about acquiring these proper ties is just as varied. Sometimes the Real Estate Of fice acquires a proper ty and determines a use later, and sometimes it hunts for land to ser ve a specific goal in the campus’s master plans. A department may approach the Real Estate Of fice when in need of a research facility, or property owners may contact the office about land they’re looking to sell that might
be useful to the University. Because the Real Estate Of fice doesn’t have a comprehensive land budget, its purchases are made with a combination of sources. State funding, grants, donations, money from academic departments, internal University loans and even land the University sells fund future acquisitions. The office acts as a gatekeeper for University land. It handles transactions for thousands of small chunks of land that collectively form multimillion-dollar spans of property. The following pages provide a closer look at land ownership and leasing at the University.
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PUBLIC SAFETY
Mech E cleared after reported gas leak Police and firefighters responded and reopened the building after an hour. BY JESSICA LEE jlee@mndaily.com
BRIDGET BENNETT, DAILY
A Minneapolis firefighter wraps “fire line do not cross” tape around the perimeter of the Mechanical Engineering building on East Bank on Monday around 4 p.m. Students, faculty and staff were evacuated due to a potential gas leak.
University of Minnesota students, faculty and staff evacuated the Mechanical Engineering building on Church Street Southeast because of a suspected gas leak late Monday afternoon. University spokesman Matt Hodson said responders searched the building for a leak but found none and cleared the building for re-entry around 5:30 p.m. University and Minneapolis police responded to a call from a professor after a graduate student reported hearing a hissing noise. Of ficials evacuated the building around 4:20 p.m. By that time, seven fire trucks, two University police squad cars and four other emergency vehicles were on the scene. Alexi Gusso and Marion Renault contributed to this report.
The world’s strongest imaging magnet is on its way to the University of Minnesota after being delayed more than a year. Come December, the Siemens MAGNETOM 10.5T will aid in brain research as part of the University’s new addition to the Medical School’s Center for Magnetic Resonance Research. A global shortage of helium delayed the arrival of the magnet, which uses the element for cooling. Researchers will use the magnet primarily for brain activity and human body imaging, said Kamil Ugurbil, CMRR director. “Being able to image human brain function improves significantly with magnetic field,” he said. The higher magnetic field will likely provide better imaging of the human body and extremities as well, he said, although they’re much trickier to work with in a high magnetic field. Tested and constructed in England, the u See MAGNET Page 6 A global helium shortage delayed the magnet’s arrival by a year.
CAMPUS
U buildings brace for winter chill Limited funding puts some older buildings on the waiting list for renovation. BY JULIA MARSHALL jmarshall@mndaily.com
Facilities Management employees prepare University of Minnesota buildings for winter every year, but they are limited by funding. University officials say some buildings need improvements to withstand tough winters. But because there aren’t sufficient funds to renovate every building, Facilities Management is forced to prioritize which buildings get fixed first. An outside contractor assesses University buildings so they can be ranked for renovation, said Rob Tunell, associate director for Facilities Management’s St. Paul district. “The need is so much greater than the resources that are allotted to the University,” he said, “so it’s always a challenge to stretch those resources as far as they possibly can be.” u See WINTER Page 3 Some older buildings leak heat because they’re not properly insulated.
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