CAMPUS & METRO
CAMPUS & METRO
VOLLEYBALL
MEN’S HOCKEY
Facilities Management reduces wintertime tree thefts by spraying evergreens with a skunk scent.
Some groups are now seeking alternative funding.
The Gophers will take on Stanford next weekend in the Sweet 16.
Minnesota lost in a shootout Friday and beat Michigan State on Saturday.
University sprays evergreen trees to deter theft
MSA grants for groups run dry
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U OF M
MINNEAPOLIS
Minnesota earns trip to Sweet 16
Gophers get four points in East Lansing
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MONDAY
ST PAUL
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DECEMBER 9, 2013
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT MNDAILY.COM
CRIME
Profiling worries black community Some faculty, students and staff say suspect descriptions are doing more harm than good.
When Chisom Esele walks around the University of Minnesota campus at night, people sometimes get nervous, walk faster or cross the street when they see him coming. “I feel like when you’re black and you’re walking on the street at night, you’re kind of viewed [in a certain way],” the electrical engineering junior said. “I kind of understand, but at the
BY BRYNA GODAR bgodar@mndaily.com
Editor’s note: This is the third in a four-par t series on perceptions of crime on campus. Look for the fourth installment later this week.
end of the day, when this kind of stuff happens to me … it affects the way I feel.” With the recent string of crime alerts emailed to University students, faculty and staff, the black community has an additional safety concern: racial profiling. All but two of the 19 crimes in alerts sent this semester have described one or more young, black males as suspects. The other two
NEIGHBORHOODS
didn’t include race descriptions. “The problem is that it’s not descriptive enough to say who they’re actually looking for, because a black male in their 20s is me, and I’m a professional staff member here,” said Black Faculty and Staff Association logistics and technology coordinator Delonte LeFlore. Black faculty, staff and students across the Univer-
sity are working with police, administrators and the campus community to address the growing safety issue. They say they are worried about racial profiling by police, racial fear in the community and the potential for the situation to escalate into racially based violence. u See PROFILING Page 14 University police policy is to profile behavior, not race.
RESEARCH
Como residents sue over TCE Faculty push
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Come Januar y, Betsy Hodges will be moving into a new office and a new home. The 37-year-old Ward 13 City Councilwoman will take over for Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and move in with her husband of two and a half years for the first time. After months of running an active campaign, Hodges won the crowded election last month with nearly 50 percent of votes in the final count. Gar y Cunningham,
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clean up the property star ting in 1985, even though it had sold the land four years earlier. Those cleanup ef for ts ended in 2010, when state of ficials deter mined TCE levels were low enough. Norman Berger, a Chicago attorney prosecuting one of the suits, said he’s handled a number of similar cases before and that the Southeast Como situation is the worst of its kind he’s ever seen. “It’s a very strong case,” Berger said. He said several people had already called to join
the lawsuit, but he couldn’t give an exact number. Berger called the TCE levels in some neighborhood homes “alarmingly high.” But Rita Messing, a Minnesota Department of Health toxicologist, said the results fall into a gray area. “They’re not levels that the health depar tment would consider safe, but they’re not high enough to be obviously unsafe,” she said. A health depar tment
analysis found the number of birth defects in Southeast Como fell in normal ranges compared to the rest of the state, Messing said, and the department is doing a similar analysis of cancer rates across the neighborhood. TCE susceptibility depends on several factors, Messing said, including age and the amount of exposure. Students who live in u See COMO Page 3 A major Los Angeles law firm met with Como residents Saturday.
The Faculty Senate wants an outside panel to examine clinical trials. BY MARION RENAULT AND KIA FARHANG mrenault@mndaily.com mfarhang@mndaily.com
The University of Minnesota Faculty Senate is calling for an independent, external panel to examine how the University does clinical research on human subjects. The measure passed in a 67-23 vote Thursday after renewed calls from scholars and bioethicists to re-examine the 2004 suicide of Dan Markingson, a 26-year-old who participated in a clinical dr ug trial 10 years ago at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fair view. Since Markingson’s suicide, many within and outside the University have raised questions about the CAFE study, the psychiatric drug trial he participated in and the University’s standards for ethical research. An international group of bioethicists wrote to University President Eric Kaler and the Faculty Senate in October asking for an independent investigation of issues arising from the CAFE study.
The measure calls for a look at cur rent human research practices at the University, not an investigation of the Markingson case. The resolution that passed Thursday isn’t binding, said Eva von Dassow, Faculty Senate vice chair and associate classical and near Eastern studies professor. But Kaler, who chairs the Faculty Senate, told repor ters after the meeting that he’s moving for ward with the recommendation. University of ficials will begin scouting nationwide early next year for experts to conduct the review, Kaler said, but no timeline is set for when the evaluation would be completed. Kaler said he thinks the investigation will show that the University’s current research policies are “in ver y good shape.” The Faculty Senate made three amendments to the original proposal, including one that requires the results of the inquir y to be reported back to the Senate for discussion. The other two amendments added more details about Markingson to the resolution and struck the word “investigative” from the panel’s definition. u See SENATE Page 4 Some scholars don’t think past investigations were credible.
FOOTBALL
Hodges rests up for her toughest job yet
BY NATHANIEL RABUZZI nrabuzzi@mndaily.com
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The mayor-elect has a history of fighting for what she wants.
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Southeast Como residents filed two class-action lawsuits against General Mills on Thursday after several neighborhood homes tested positive for high levels of a potentially dangerous chemical. Both suits allege thattrichloroethylene, or TCE, dumped decades ago from a former General Mills site has threatened residents’ health and lowered property values. State health officials notified residents last month that vapor containing TCE could potentially be seeping into their basements. Engineers have since tested more than 70 neighborhood homes, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. More than half of the homes with available results tested above the depar tment’s threshold and need to be cleared by installing ventilation systems. Prolonged TCE exposure can lead to bir th defects and kidney and liver cancers. A spokeswoman for General Mills said the company doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation. General Mills dumped TCE on its former Hennepin Avenue site for 15 years as part of its chemical research efforts, according to the MPCA. The company paid to
SOU RCE :M INN ES
BY KIA FARHANG mfarhang@mndaily.com
for independent research review
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Residents filed two class-action suits against General Mills last week over the vapor.
Hodges’ husband, has served on the Metropolitan Council since 2011. He represents a district separate from Hodges’ City Council ward, so the couple has lived apart until now. “If anything, [the election] made our relationship stronger,” Cunningham said. Hodges has a histor y of active and fruitful participation in Minneapolis, something that those close to her say she’ll carry on as mayor. She cur rently chairs the City Council’s Ways and Means Committee, which makes the final budget proposal to the full council. Outgoing Ward 6 City Councilman Rober t u See HODGES Page 4 Hodges wants to strengthen the city’s partnership with the U.
Gophers to face Syracuse in Texas Minnesota will play in the Texas Bowl for the second year in a row. BY JACK SATZINGER Jsatzinger@mndaily.com
Not everything’s bigger in Texas. For the second straight season, the Gophers are going to the Big Ten’s bowl game with the smallest significance. Minnesota (8-4) will face Syracuse in the Texas Bowl slated for Dec. 27 at Reliant Stadium in Houston. After the Gophers’ most successful season in 10 years, some speculated they could at last make it to a more prestigious January bowl game. But those slots were filled by Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan and
CHELSEA GORTMAKER, DAILY
Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill speaks to the media Sunday at the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex about the announcement that the Gophers will play Syracuse in the Texas Bowl.
Nebraska. “You can’t control any of that,” head coach Jerr y
Kill said of the selection process. “Our control is getting nine wins and winning
u See BOWL Page 8 The Gophers said they’ll benefit from familiar territory in Houston.
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