TOP HEADLINES INSIDE:
VP CANDIDATE TIM KAINE VISITS U AHEAD OF FUNDRAISER PAGE 3
■■ New arboretum director to assume position
THE DEMOCRATIC HOPEFUL TALKED TO YOUNG VOTERS.
■■ Gun buyback programs questioned by critics
A horticulture buff, Peter Moe will take over on Friday. PAGE 12
Some doubt the program is having its intended effect. PAGE 9
CHANCE OF STORMS HIGH 74° LOW 65°
U OF M
MINNEAPOLIS
ST PAUL
LATE WEEK
SEPTEMBER 15-17, 2016
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT MNDAILY.COM
ADMINISTRATION
MARCHING BAND
U uses tuition, state funds to pay legal fees The U has paid an outside law firm $500K as it battles faculty unionization supporters in court. BY KACEY HOLMEN AND JACKIE RENZETTI kholmen@mndaily.com, jrenzetti@mndaily.com
BRIDGET BENNETT, DAILY
University Director of Marching and Athletic Bands Betsy McCann directs a football pre-game performance at TCF Bank Stadium on Sept. 1. McCann is the first female director of a marching band the University has had, as well as in the Big 10.
For McCann, a historic ‘surprise’
The University of Minnesota has spent more than $500,000 of state taxpayer and tuition money in legal fees as it battles faculty unionization advocates in court. Records obtained by the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group through a public records request show the money — nearly $515,000 from a University fund of tuition and state money — was used to hire the law firm Fredrikson & Byron as the school clashed with faculty union suppor ters to determine what faculty positions could be included in the union vote. While the University defended the expenses as necessar y to defeat an “unprecedented request to create a bargaining unit that does not conform to state law,” supporters of a faculty union say the money was used by the University to hire the law firm to tr y and thwart the unionization effort.
Betsy McCann is the first female marching band director in Big Ten history. BY RAJU CHADUVULA rchaduvulaa@mndaily.com
Nearly half a centur y after the University of Minnesota Marching Band begrudgingly welcomed its first female percussionist, a woman is running the show. Betsy McCann is the first female marching and athletic bands director in the University band’s 125-year history — and the first woman to lead a marching band in the Big Ten Conference. But getting there wasn’t easy. “I knew the University never had [a woman director] … but being the first in the Big Ten came as surprise,” McCann said. The flutist joined the University marching band in 2000 as an alto saxophonist, looking to stretch her skills in preparation for a future career in music education. After graduating from the University
STUDENT ISSUES
For some grad students, voice lacking at U The FCC has discussed adding a new senate committee geared toward graduate education. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY MARCHING BAND
An image from 1972, the first year the women were allowed to be full members of u See MCCANN Page4 the University’s marching band, provided by the University Marching Band.
sue, and the law is much stricter.” Golden said the rise in the amount of University housing options has decreased the number of students who drive around campus. He believes this might have had an impact on lowering the amount of DWI arrests. Donna Berger, Minnesota Of fice of Traffic Safety director, said the popularity of ride-hailing services like Uber has also helped lower the number of students driving drunk. u See DRIVING Page 11
u See GRAD Page 12
DWI arrest rates decline in state and at University BY KRISTINA BUSCH kbusch@mndaily.com
Minnesotans, it seems, are making wiser choices when it comes to driving under the influence. According to the Minnesota Depar tment of Public Safety, DWI arrests have declined by 40 percent since 2006. Efforts
to curb drunk driving at the University of Minnesota have had similarly positive effects. The University of Minnesota Police Department made 57 DWI arrests in 2014, according to UMPD data. That number dropped by over 40 percent to only 34 DWI arrests last year. “[Avoiding driving drunk] is one of those things that people can generally agree on when it comes to alcohol use,” said Dave Golden, Public Health and Communications Director at Boynton Health. “There’s been a lot of campaigns on this is-
BY OLIVIA JOHNSON ojohnson@mndaily.com
University of Minnesota graduate and post-doctoral students feel they lack a voice on campus. At a Thursday Faculty Consultative Committee meeting, University faculty members discussed one possible remedy for students’ concerns — to create a separate post-doc and graduate committee in the student Senate. “The graduate … students are central to the University, yet there’s nothing ... that focuses in on graduate education issues,” said Scott Lanyon, vice provost and dean of Graduate Education Council. “The closest might be SCEP.” The faculty Senate’s Educational Policy Committee — called SCEP — deals with education policy that affects the University as a whole, but its area of control is ver y broad, said Colin Campbell, FCC chair and
CRIME
Officials suspect that an increase in the number of students living on campus contributed to the shift.
u See FEES Page 3
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Syedah ‘pushing boundaries’ In her tenure as MSA President, Abeer Syedah aims to spotlight social justice, inequality issues. BY RILYN EISCHENS reischens@mndaily.com
With a dynamic following on Twitter, Minnesota Student Association President Abeer Syedah has embraced the connectivity of social media, posting her musings on topics, such as xenophobia to heteronormativity, to her thousands of followers. And while she has sometimes been criticized, like when she asked her followers to reflect on queerphobia after the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida — in turn receiving countless hate-mongering replies, she has continued to use the plat-
form to speak about social justice and issues of diversity. “I didn’t get into this role to sacrifice who I was, and I do think that there are people who would rather I did,” Syedah said. “I wasn’t elected to be anything other than who I am.” MSA Vice President Samantha Marlow said Syedah’s candid demeanor has helped her become an icon for underserved communities on campus. “She is pushing boundaries in who’s being represented in … key positions in University administration,” Marlow said. Syedah’s role as a woman of color in a visible leadership position is especially important for students of color at a time when few minorities occupy those spaces, said Evonne Bilotta-Burke., u See PREZ Page 6
MADDY FOX, DAILY
Minnesota Student Association President Abeer Syedah listens during the association’s forum in Mondale Hall on Tuesday. Syedah was elected president earlier this year. VOLUME 116 ISSUE 4