EARLY VOTING TURNOUT UP IN WARD 6 PAGE 3 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017
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MNDAILY.COM
POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT SPIKED FROM PREVIOUS CYCLES
CAMPUS
GOVERNMENT
Senator, grad team on sex assault bill Abby Honold aims to help other victims of sex assault with Al Franken’s collaboration. BY ALLISON CRAMER acramer1@mndaily.com KEVIN BECKMAN, DAILY
Right-wing commentator Lauren Southern gives a talk to a crowd in Anderson Hall on West Bank on Wednesday, Oct. 25.
Protests, arrest at right-wing talk Approximately 200 protestors stood outside West Bank to protest Lauren Southern, a right-wing speaker
BY MN DAILY STAFF
Protest, an arrest and fights marked the campus’ reaction to right-wing commentator Lauren Southern’s talk at the University of Minnesota Wednesday night. A group of nearly 200 demonstrators gathered outside Anderson Hall where around 80 listened to the Canadian YouTube personality give a talk on “the evils and inefficiencies of socialism and the necessity of free speech in political discourse.” One person was arrested for
disorderly conduct by the end of the event. Southern is a self-proclaimed “identitarian” — a movement associated with white nationalism — and has become associated with alt-right figures like Milo Yiannopoulos and Richard Spencer. Critics call her a white nationalist, a title she disavowed in her talk. Once announced, the event was met with backlash from left-leaning and far-left students and community members for its u See PROTEST Page 8
JACK RODGERS, DAILY
Minneapolis police officers create a perimeter outside of Anderson Hall after a scuffle at the protest against rightwing commentator Lauren Southern on Wednesday, Oct. 25.
A Twin Cities area sexual assault advocate and a U.S. senator from Minnesota are working together on a bill to improve interactions between victims of sexual assault and the police. The bill, the product of a partnership between recent University of Minnesota graduate Abby Honold and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., would award grants to police departments that undergo trauma-informed training to share best practices for initial interviews of sex assault victims. Honold — who fought for a conviction for her rapist, former University student Daniel DrillMellum, while pursuing her undergraduate degree — said her first interview with police after the rape was damaging. “I had a really rough experience with the police and I think some of it, of course, was a lot of very purposeful victim blaming... but I think also a large percentage of it was that they simply didn’t understand how victims of sexual assault respond, how trauma affects the brain,” Honold said. She doesn’t know if officials would have had enough information to prosecute Drill-Mellum if her forensic nurse hadn’t used a sensory form of questioning called a Forensic Experiential Trauma Interview, which the bill could provide training for. While police officers traditionally receive lots of training on how to gather as much information as possible from victims and suspects, these techniques can fail when used u See SEXUAL ASSAULT Page 3
STUDENT GOV.
MSA plans to launch landlord list by November ANANYA MISHRA, DAILY
Members of the Anti-Fascist group speak out against right-wing commentator Lauren Southern outside of Anderson Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 25.
The list compiles bad landlords and will be followed by a state legislation push in the spring. BY MAX CHAO mchao@mndaily.com
ENTERTAINMENT
COURTNEY DEUTZ, DAILY
LEFT: Chicago based band, Lala Lala, plays a set at Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis on Monday, Oct. 23. RIGHT: Triple Rock Social Club as seen on Tuesday, Oct. 24. Triple Rock recently announced that it would be closing in November.
Local musicians say goodbye to Triple Rock Social Club The legendary Minneapolis music venue will be closing at the end of November. BY MADDY FOLSTEIN mfolstein@mndaily.com
For 19 years, the Triple Rock Social Club was West Bank’s punk hub for local music and high-quality vegan brunch. This month, news reverberated across the Minneapolis music scene and social media that the Triple Rock will close Nov. 22. The Triple Rock’s Facebook post announcing the news received over 4,000 reactions, and fans of the venue are left wondering where to turn next. “I’m going to miss having a place that felt independent [and] that I could relate to,” said Luke Michaels, a graphic design senior at the University of Minnesota who serves as Radio K’s director. “It’s a place that felt a little more connected to the Minneapolis DIY [music] community and the
art community.” The Triple Rock was the ideal venue for students — affordable tickets and a close walk from West Bank campus made the setting an easy introduction to the local music scene. “One of my first shows in Minneapolis was at the Triple Rock,” said Sylvia Jennings, a senior studying economics and communication who hosts Radio K’s local music show, “Off the Record.” “One of my friends was going to the show, and we took the Green Line over from Superblock… Triple Rock is easy to get to, and you don’t really have to figure out transportation that much.” Over the course of its 19-year life, the Triple Rock stayed in the hands of its owners Gretchen and Erik Funk, a rare occurrence for a local venue. “This one never changed hands in the 19 years that it’s been in existence,” said Natalie Krueger, a Twin Cities musician who performed at the Triple Rock. “That’s insane to have the same place for 19 years
and be in charge of it… So you know what? If they’re ready to be done, they’re ready to be done.” Most regulars have a favorite Triple Rock memory, whether it’s jumping on stage to play with a favorite band or being able to break out a new idea for a song. “My favorite memory was during our release show with the Florists. We have this long sort of dance-y song, and we collaborated with some University of Minnesota dancers,” Michaels said. “We miked the floor, so the dancers were creating percussion along with the band… The Triple Rock was so down to… do something different… You could experiment with ways that the show looked or sounded to people.” With such a long-standing reputation in the music community, the Triple Rock fostered a tight-knit, distinctly Midwestern community unseen in other venues. With its commitment to local and national bands, music fans of all genres found a home at u See TRIPLE ROCK Page 2
Students at the University of Minnesota will soon have access to a list identifying landlords who violate housing policies, along with other resources to protect them from landlord mistreatment. In late November, MSA plans to launch a landlord accountability campaign that educates students on housing issues, increases awareness of troublesome landlords and features an eventual state-level legislation push. “Last spring, this was a top issue on our platform. It’s something almost every single student can relate to, especially considering that the vast majority of students live off campus,” said Trish Palermo, the University’s student body president. The campaign will promote existing resources offered by University Student Legal Services and Off-Campus Living, such as free legal assistance to students who pay the student service fee. MSA will distribute a list of common myths about leasing and a list of landlords who have repeatedly violated student rights compiled by USLS and Off-Campus Living. The website will be promoted by an informational video outlining problems students often face. Landlord issues comprise around one third of cases reviewed by USLS. The office hopes that the increased availability of resources will decrease future cases, said Hunter Pederson, student chair of USLS. “I’m really excited that USLS and MSA are working together on this because this is one of the issue areas where we have a ton of overlap and a lot of common interest,” Pederson said. In addition to the accountability campaign, MSA is also working with Rep. Ilhan Omar, DFL-Minneapolis, to make changes at the state level. “Students recognize that there’s only so much that the University themselves can do,” Palermo said. Omar drafted legislation to address three main goals identified by MSA: short-end leases, limiting mandatory arbitration clauses and requiring leases to be unit-specific. These goals seek to protect students from signing confusing leases and getting trapped in restrictive housing situations. Omar is currently looking for co-sponsors for the bill and plans to bring it to the Legislature in the spring, Palermo said. The list will be available on the OffCampus Living website later this fall, said Kendre Turonie, program director of OffCampus Living, at an MSA forum meeting on Oct. 10.
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