January 24, 2019

NEW SALAD RESTAURANT COMING TO CAMPUS PG 3 THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

LATE WEEK

SIMPLS IS SET TO OPEN IN STADIUM VILLAGE NEXT MONTH

MNDAILY.COM

NEIGHBORHOODS

ADMINISTRATION

The art venue owes over $2 million in reconstruction costs after an investor moved on.

Hasselmo, former U pres., dies Nils Hasselmo, who served as University president from 1988-1997, died at 87 years old.

BY CLEO KREJCI ckrejci@mndaily.com

ELLEN SCHMIDT, DAILY

Rosemary Williams, vice president of the Soap Factory’s board, poses for a portrait in the empty art nonprofit on Monday, Jan. 21. The Soap Factory, which occupies the historic National Purity Soap Factory, is more than $2 million in debt.

Soap Factory steeped in debt

The art nonprofit’s board held a town hall meeting to address its multimillion dollar debt.

BY IMANI CRUZEN icruzen@mndaily.com

The Soap Factory in Marcy-Holmes faces an uncertain future as it struggles to pay off millions of dollars in debt.

The art venue currently owes around $1.2 million to an investment firm after attempting to finance a reconstruction project.

If the Soap Factory fails to pay off its debt to the investment company by the summer, the company will take over the building’s title. Community members were made aware of the situation at a town hall earlier this month.

Renovations on the Soap Factory building began late fall 2017 to meet standards for the Americans with Disabilities Act and address concerns related to heating and usability. When the organization was rejected for a mortgage to continue the renovations, construction stopped last spring.

During the halt, an investor who had

planned on converting the space into a restaurant moved on, taking $1 million he had invested into the building. At this point, RJM Construction, the company completing the renovations, stepped in and bought the $1 million mortgage from the investor.

“I think RJM is still trying to help us stay in the building and find the best solution for us,” said Soap Factory board vice chair Rosemary Williams. “But they also have a lot of money invested in the building and need a financial solution for themselves.” u See SOAP FACTORY Page 4

PUBLIC HEALTH

UMN study finds discrepancies in health care for gender minorities Gender minorities have been refused treatment, according to a UMN researcher’s article.

BY DYLAN MIETTINEN dmiettinen@mndaily.com

A University of Minnesota researcher published an article late last month that outlined health discrepancies among gender minority individuals — finding they are not

treated as effectively as people who identify with the sex that was given to them at birth.

Gender minorities include individuals whose gender identity differs from that which was assigned at birth. The article, written by University researcher Walter Liszewski and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found gender minority individuals are more likely to be refused treatment or discriminated against in health care.

“The health care infrastructure is just

not keeping pace with society. You cannot assume the anatomy of an individual based off of their outward appearance or their name,” Liszewski said.

Nineteen percent of gender minority individuals have been refused treatment by clinics because of their gender identity, according to the article. More than 20 percent have avoided treatment in the past year due to a fear of discrimination. u See HEALTH CARE Page 10

Nils Hasselmo, former University of Minnesota president, died Wednesday at the age of 87.

Hasselmo joined the University as professor of Scandinavian language and literature in 1965 before becoming presiNILS dent from 1988-1997.

HASSELMO He also served as the University’s vice president for administration and planning and associate dean for the College of Liberal Arts.

“The University of Minnesota has lost a dedicated member of our community. Nils was a remarkable higher education leader, and our University is better because of his service,” said University President Eric Kaler in a statement to the University.

CAMPUS

Police searching for missing MN Hillel member UMN student Andrew Geller was last reached Sunday, the group’s Facebook stated.

BY TIFFANY BUI tbui@mndaily.com

A University of Minnesota student and member of Minnesota Hillel has been reported missing, according to a Facebook post by the group.

Andrew Geller was last reached Sunday afternoon when he was in Edina, according to the post. Minnesota Hillel put the notice on its page Tuesday afternoon, urging anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact police and Hillel staff.

Plymouth Police Investigator Molly Lynch said they don’t believe foul play is involved.

Geller is an “active member” of the Hillel community, said the group. According to his Facebook profile, he is from Plymouth.

Hillel could not be reached for comment at time of publication.

RESEARCH

UMN gauges opinions on police, black men confrontation programs in survey A North Minneapolis and East St. Paul study explored thoughts on police initiatives.

BY KATIE SALAI ksalai@mndaily.com

A recent study from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health aims to understand public sentiment and awareness about initiatives directed toward violent encounters between police and young black men.

University researchers surveyed multiple stakeholders in North Minneapolis and East St. Paul to assess efforts to prevent these encounters. The study found that many individuals are aware of community-based programs, but not programs specifically designed to reduce aggressive confrontations.

“I think clearly building community relations is part of the solution, but we need to be explicit,” said Rhonda Jones-Webb, lead author of the study and professor in the School of Public Health. “Police talk in general

terms [like] alternative activities and alternative programs. They never explicitly say the goal is to reduce potentially violent encounters between the two groups.”

The study surveyed a group of 48 people varying from members of youth-serving organizations, law enforcement individuals, educators and young black men ages 14 to 24.

The pilot study aims to pursue a larger intervention and is meant to be an early step toward preventing violent encounters between police and young black men, JonesWebb said in an email. The team’s next step is to build a group of community stakeholders in hopes the research will be used to further specific initiatives.

Sasha Cotton, youth violence prevention coordinator for the City of Minneapolis, said groups like Resilience in Communities After Stress and Trauma — or ReCAST — and Blueprint for Action connect law enforcement with the communities they serve.

ReCAST specifically serves areas affected by police-involved shootings of unarmed u See POLICE Page 4

ELLE MOULIN, DAILY

Linda Taylor creates a protest sign on Monday, Jan. 21 at the Powderhorn Recreation Center in Minneapolis. The 21st annual celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., held by the Seward Co-op, drew around 250 people.

VOLUME 119 ISSUE 32

2

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

MN DAILY

EXTENDED WEATHER FORECAST THURSDAY FRIDAY 9° 6° -7 ° -5 ° Partly cloudy

Daily Review

MNDAILY.COM

Partly cloudy

SATURDAY 12 ° -9 ° Mostly cloudy

SUNDAY 4° 1° Snow

MONDAY 7° -11 ° Snow

Thursday, January 24, 2019 Vol. 119 No. 32

An Independent Student Newspaper, Founded in 1900.

2221 University Ave. SE, Suite 450, Minneapolis, MN 55414 Phone: (612) 627-4080 Fax: (612) 435-5865

THIS DAY IN HISTORY 1935 The first canned beer went on sale in Richmond, Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the product.

Copyright © 2019 The Minnesota Daily. This newspaper, its design and its contents are copyrighted.

HISTORYCHANNEL.COM/TDIH

OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER Kelly Busche Editor-in-Chief kbusche@mndaily.com (612) 435-1575 Genevieve Locke Business Operations Officer glocke@mndaily.com (612) 435-2761

WRESTLING

EDITORIAL STAFF Max Chao Managing Editor mchao@mndaily.com Christine Ha Managing Production Editor cha@mndaily.com Michelle Griffith Campus Activities Editor mgriffith@mndaily.com Madeline Deninger City Editor mdeninger@mndaily.com J.D. Duggan Campus Administration Editor jduggan@mndaily.com Drew Cove Sports Editor dcove@mndaily.com Sophie Vilensky A&E Editor svilensky@mndaily.com Ellen Schmidt Multimedia Editor eschmidt@mndaily.com Molly Tynjala Copy Desk Chief mtynjala@mndaily.com Desmond Kamas Chief Page Designer dkamas@mndaily.com Abby Adamski Visuals Editor aadamski@mndaily.com Morgan La Casse Visuals Editor mlacasse@mndaily.com =

=

=

=

=

=

Members of the wrestling team jog during practice at the new Gopher Wrestling Training Facility on Wednesday, Jan. 23.

JACK RODGERS, DAILY

New class hopes to spark creativity Comedian and U alum Tane Danger wants students to think creatively.

BY JAKE STEINBERG jsteinberg@mndaily.com

Design students are often put into the unenviable position of being asked, “Hey, I need you to be creative right now.”

Tane Danger, a University of Minnesota alumni and local improv comedian, promises to arm these students with the tools for spontaneous creativity by applying the principles of improvisational comedy. His new class, Improvisation for Design, includes exercises that improv comedians use to practice creative thinking.

“Creativity is not an on-off switch. It’s a muscle,” Danger said. “The more you practice being creative, the more you are able to then be creative.”

The key, Danger said, is discovering patterns that allow you to make non-obvious connections. “[Practicing] these exercises allows your brain to start to build different

pathways where your brain gets more used to going and finding that different kind of information,” he said.

A growing body of research links improvisation and creativity. A 2008 study by researchers at John Hopkins University looked at MRI brain scans of improvising jazz pianists. They found decreased activity in areas of the brain associated with self-censorship and increased activity in areas associated with daydreaming and selfreflection.

Barry Kudrowitz, director of the University’s product design program, has studied the association between improv comedy and creativity.

In one study, he found improv comedians came up with 20 percent more product ideas than professional product designers.

“The skills that you need to come up with ideas in an improvised show are the same skills that you need to come up with new design ideas,” said Kudrowitz. “Innovation starts out as a silly concept and eventually becomes the norm.”

Kudrowitz said he thinks of improv as a skill set. It also

BUSINESS Kyle Stumpf Sales Manager kstumpf@mndaily.com David Keane Controller dkeane@mndaily.com

“Creativity is not an on-off switch.

It’s a muscle.”

=

TANE DANGER U alumni and local improv comedian

improves important interpersonal skills that designers need when collaborating with others.

“We have to be able to listen, to pay attention to what they’re saying and respond accordingly,” he said. “Improv helps with listening and talking to people and feeling comfortable in new situations.”

Kudrowitz has brought Danger to his product design classes for years to put on improv workshops for his students.

With a longtime belief that everyone could benefit from skills related to the comedic art form, Kudrowitz approached Danger with the idea for an improv class geared toward design students. The theater department doesn’t offer an improv class, but Danger’s class is open to all students.

The Minnesota Daily strives for complete accuracy and corrects its errors immediately. Corrections and clarifications will always be printed in this space. If you believe the Daily has printed a factual error, please call the readers’ representative at (612) 627–4070, extension 3057, or email errors@mndaily.com immediately.

JACK RODGERS, DAILY

Professor Tane Danger poses for a portrait before the start of his new class, Improvisation for Design, on Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Freshman Jack Lanners said he took Danger’s class because he wants to learn how to think “out of the box” and get out of his comfort zone. Lanners, who studies music, writing and design, signed up after Danger came to his introductory design class.

Though Danger is teaching a design class, he has a background in public policy.

As a graduate of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Danger is a proponent of using improv to connect people to policy. He is the

co-founder of the Theater of Public Policy, an improv troupe that invites policymakers to explain ideas and satirize them. In doing so, he said, it helps the audience understand them too.

Danger especially believes the improv principle “yes, and” would help policymakers to engage with differing perspectives. “Yes, and” is the idea that you take what you’re given and add to it.

“It makes us so much better as a collaborative team,” he said. “It makes us better able to work together.”

MSA initiative aims to reach more student groups MSA is working to expand diverse perspectives in their biweekly forums.

BY NIAMH COOMEY ncoomey@mndaily.com

In an effort to make forum meetings more diverse, the University of Minnesota’s undergraduate student government is developing a new outreach initiative to include more voices and improve student group representation.

Minnesota Student Association Outreach Director Nikil Badey started the initiative with an emphasis on inclusion in a time of political divisiveness.

“Our ideas might not match, but we really do need to come together in terms of

community,” he said.

MSA has received feedback from certain groups that they do not feel represented, Badey said. MSA President Simran Mishra emphasized the importance of having diverse representation and making MSA accessible for groups who may not have the time or resources to commit to the biweekly forum meetings.

“I think it’s really, really important for student government leaders to not push what they think is important, what their priorities are, but rather what students want. And the best way we can do that is [by] having genuine relationships with diverse groups of students,” she said.

While many student groups have a designated MSA representative who attends meetings, some do not.

“We’re trying to make MSA more accessible to those groups,” Mishra said.

The initiative will implement an advisory board, which will actively reach out to groups that are not represented. The board aims to gain an understanding of issues that are important to various student organizations.

“When you’re an advocate for someone, that means you have to hear them out [and] give them a chance,” Badey said.

Badey said the logistics of the initiative were initially worked out last semester, but more work is being done to communicate with groups now. MSA is working to develop agreements that will define the relationship between MSA and individual groups.

The first phase of the

EDITORIAL BOARD Ellen Schneider Editorials & Opinions Editor eschneider@mndaily.com Ariana Wilson Editorial Board Member awilson@mndaily.com Hailey Almstead Editorial Board Member halmstead@mndaily.com Kelly Busche Editor-in-Chief kbusche@mndaily.com

initiative involved rounding up three main groups for potential involvement, Badey said, including college boards, Greek councils and the second-floor multicultural groups of Coffman Union.

Several Greek life groups, including the Multicultural Greek Council and the Interfraternity Council, are expected to join MSA in the initiative this spring.

Gerry Weber, the president of the IFC, emphasized that many Greek organizations have been trying to shift their focus outward.

“We’re trying to find ways to branch more outside of our own community,” Weber said.

While Greek organizations have a history of working closely with student government, not all groups have had the same opportunity, which prompted the new

outreach efforts.

“When you look at your student government, you want to know that you are being represented by someone that knows your ideals and experiences, and that’s something that we’re trying to work on,” Badey said.

He said he hopes to see the program grow and build a strong foundation that will last throughout elections and shifts in MSA governance. He stressed that better representation in the future will come from acknowledging MSA’s history.

“We’ve come a long way from the white, straight men to strong women of color [in power] … it cannot stop here. We have to keep on growing that foundation ... that’s the only way we can represent the entire University.”

THE MINNESOTA DAILY is a legally independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and is a student-written and student-managed newspaper for the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus.

The Daily’s mission is: 1) to provide coverage of news and events affecting the University community; 2) to provide a forum for the communication and exchange of ideas for the University community; 3) to provide educational training and experience to University students in all areas of newspaper operations; and 4) to operate a fiscally responsible organization to ensure its ability to serve the University in the future.

The Daily is a member of the Minnesota News Council, the Minnesota Associated Press, the Associated Collegiate Press, The Minnesota Newspaper Association and other organizations.

The Daily is published Monday and Thursday during the regular school year and weekly during the summer, and it is printed by ECM Publishers in Princeton, Minn.

Midwest News Service distributes the 10,000 issues biweekly.

All Minnesota Daily inserts are recyclable within the University of Minnesota program and are at least 6 percent consumer waste.

U.S. Postal Service: 351–480.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

3

New restaurant to offer green options The restaurant, SIMPLS, plans to open in Stadium Village on Feb. 11.

BY MIGUEL OCTAVIO moctavio@mndaily.com

A fast-casual restaurant with an environmental cause is slated to open in Stadium Village next month.

Co-founded by University of Minnesota alumni Ryan Rosenthal and Michael von Fange, SIMPLS will offer a variety of hot meals and soups along with pre-made salads and sandwiches. The local chain will be located at 712 Washington Ave SE. Rosenthal said the

campus area has a void of healthy food options, which prompted them to open a location in Stadium Village.

“Imagine it as a quirky, independent child of 7/11 and Whole Foods,” Rosenthal said.

The Stadium Village restaurant’s grand opening on Feb. 11 will mark the chain’s third location. Its previous locations opened in 2014 and 2016 in downtown Minneapolis.

The eatery is aimed at providing meals to customers on the go without losing nutritional value, Rosenthal said. The 1,500-squarefoot space will also provide seating for 30 customers, unlike its downtown counterparts. The Stadium Village spot is also expected

COURTESY OF RYAN ROSENTHAL

A pad thai meal is displayed in one of SIMPLS’ downtown locations. The location will open at 712 Washington Ave. SE.

to offer a more extensive menu than the downtown locations.

Crisp & Green in Dinkytown, another store offer-

ing salads and other graband-go foods to open in the area, opened last month.

Sprout and Freshii, both near campus, offer similar

menu items.

Rosenthal said SIMPLS has a mission to promote ethically sourced products.

SIMPLS also donates 1 percent of its sales to environmental organizations as a member of 1% For The Planet.

“We have a heavy emphasis on responsible sourcing, so doing not just local sourcing but trying to use organics when possible,” Rosenthal said. “If not organics, finding small vendors that we know are trying to farm as responsibly as possible and minimizing their impact.”

Alcoholic beverages like local craft beers and organic wines will be exclusive to the Stadium Village location. Non-alcoholic op-

tions include organic, fairtrade coffee and an espresso bar.

Prospect Park resident Julie Wallace said she appreciates the company’s emphasis on sustainability.

“It seems like a worthy endeavor,” Wallace said.

“There’s a reasonable variety, this seems like a good addition.”

Hannah Brickson, a third-year student studying child psychology at the University, said restaurants with healthy options and local produce are lacking near campus.

“I’m from way up north,” Brickson said. “I definitely feel like the more we can utilize the farmers in the area, I think [it would be] a great option for them.”

Academic health center overhaul finally in place Administrators say good communication across all units will be the key to sucess.

BY AUSTEN MACALUS amacalus@mndaily.com

Following the restructure of its Academic Health Center, University of Minnesota administrators say they’re looking forward to a more collaborative approach to health sciences.

The overhaul, which went into effect earlier this month, split up administrative structure into three domains — clinical affairs, education and research — while dispersing operations and shuffling research centers among multiple top-level administrative units.

“The model we had before served us well at different times, but what we were really looking for was a model that allowed us to broaden and, in a new way, think about how we do health sciences work across disciplines,” said Jon Steadland, chief of staff

to University President Eric Kaler, who helped implement the restructure.

President Kaler announced the restructure this summer after faculty raised concerns about the dual role of the Medical School dean and AHC vice president, which oversaw operations related to clinical, interdisciplinary and administrative issues.

“The faculty overwhelmingly had qualms about the leadership structure,” said Wendy St. Peter, chair of the AHC Faculty Consultative Committee. “They felt that the job overall was too big for one person to deal effectively with changes that need to take place.”

Under the old AHC, the majority of oversight fell to one administrative unit: the vice president for health sciences, who also served as dean of the medical school.

The revamp took away a singular leader for health sciences.

Under the new structure, Medical School Dean Jakub Tolar will serve as the vice president for clinical affairs,

M Health sign is seen on Jan. 23.

which oversees clinical research and training. The position is one of the three senior leader units. The other two are the executive vice president and provost’s office, which focuses on professional education, and office of the vice president for research, which is in charge of research and increasing collaborative efforts.

Each unit will have their own associate vice president, a new administrative role intended to increase collabora-

ELLEN SCHMIDT, DAILY

tion across health sciences.

Steadland said that the position will be vital to one of the main goals of the restructure: interdisciplinary research, interprofessional education and improved clinical training.

“The associate vice presidential level is really where this work is going to happen on a day to day basis,” he said. “That’s going to be the key intersection to that horizontal work between those various units.”

Christine Mueller, an associate dean in the School of Nursing, currently serves as the interim associate vice president for academic health sciences, under the provost’s office.

Mueller said she is looking forward to helping implement the new health sciences operation, but others may have questions about the changes.

“I think faculty are waiting to hear more about what this will look like,” she said. “Anytime you make a significant change such as this, it just takes a while to get things sorted out.”

Although excited about the restructure, St. Peter said there are qualms about how the three units work with one another.

“What faculty are really concerned about is [if] can they go about their day-to-day lives in research and teaching and service and do that seamlessly,” she said. “But, of course, the devil’s in the details.”

The AHC FCC has put forth draft benchmarks to determine the success of the health sciences operations in

“The model we had before served us well ... but what we were really looking for was a model that allowed us to broaden ... how we do health sciences work.”

JON STEADLAND University chief of staff

the coming years.

But it will take some time to gauge whether the restructure is working.

“Once you get into the work itself, we’re going to have to have some trial and error,” Steadland said. “This is a pretty big change. It’s not minor what we’re undertaking here, and anytime you undertake pretty big administrative and structural change there’s a relatively high level of uncertainty about how this is going to play out.”

4

Soap Factory u from Page 1

The mortgage was later sold to an investment firm for $1.2 million. The Soap Factory board has until June 17 to raise the money to buy that mortgage back and retain the title to the building. The building owes an additional $1.25 million to RJM for already completed construction.

Attendees of the Jan. 7 meeting expressed frustration with the organization’s lack of communication as these issues arose. While the community wants to help, many questions remained unanswered, said artist Andy DuCett, who sits on the Soap Factory’s artist advisory board.

“How [is it that] a nonprofit was able to take so much risk?” DuCett said. “It seems like an entire game playbook predicated on Hail Mary’s. And each Hail Mary [was] depending on that first one connecting.”

While community members have suggested ways to improve communication, Williams said financial issues have kept the board occupied.

“We’ve been having meetings with all the parties

Thursday, January 24, 2019 involved, we’ve been going through our books and we’ve been trying to put that stuff together,” Williams said. “So, that’s really where we’re putting our energies.”

Williams said the organization did lose sight of community members who wanted to be involved in the conversation, but the focus on finances seemed appropriate at the time. She said they are trying to meet with experienced community members before holding another town hall and putting groups together.

“And then, I think we’ll be ready to have a town hall, put some information out there that’s a little bit more detailed,” Williams said.

“And at that point, there might be clarity around what those committees could do.”

Three local artists started a GoFundMe page in late December to raise $250,000 for the Soap Factory. It has raised over $11,000 as of Jan. 23. By raising one-fifth of the amount needed for the building, board members have a better chance of convincing investors to help the Soap Factory, said Patty Healy McMeans, one of the artists who started the page.

City of Minneapolis

ELLEN SCHMIDT, DAILY

The Soap Factory, which began renovations in 2017 and stopped operations in 2018 due to lacking funds, is seen with its windows boarded up on Monday, Jan. 21 in Minneapolis. Board members and supporters of the art nonprofit are working to buy the property back.

leaders, including Mayor Jacob Frey, have also expressed support for the Soap Factory. At the January

town hall, Frey said the City has no clear solution for the organization.

“I could stand up here

today and tell you we’ve got everything figured out,” Frey said. “The truth is that I can’t tell you that yet. But

I’m going to do everything possible to make sure that the Soap Factory is really retained for the long haul.”

Police

responses from young black individuals, saying their responses were nuanced and showed an ability to look at the issue from not only from their perspective, but the perspective of police officers as well.

“Just the balance and perspective and insight ... they looked at the issue from different perspectives. The part that was more surprising was being consistent with ‘informal practices’ when dealing with police,” Jones-Webb said. These informal rules include keeping one’s hands on the steering wheel or waiting to retrieve one’s ID, according to the study.

Jones-Webb’s own appeal to the subject matter stems from her interest in high rates of premature mortality among

African-Americans.

“It was really the constant headlines regarding violent encounters between police and young black men, and feeling [that] this is not acceptable,” JonesWebb said.

u from Page 1

ELLE MOULIN, DAILY

Rajané Katurah Brown leads a protest on Monday, Jan. 21 at the Powderhorn Recreation Center in Minneapolis. The 21st annual celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., held by the Seward Co-op, drew around 250 people.

African-American men, and Blueprint works to prevent youth violence using a public health approach.

“It’s harder to build relations when you only call on cops in a crisis,” Cotton said.

“People don’t call the police on a good day.”

Michelle Gross, president of Minneapolis group Communities United Against Police Brutality, said accountability is key to building trust between police and their communities.

“A lot of stuff is out there about building trust. You can’t build trust without justice, trust is the end result of better policing,” Gross said.

Jones-Webb was most surprised by the survey

“A lot of stuff is out there about building trust. You can’t build trust without justice, trust is the end result of better policing.”

MICHELLE GROSS Communities United Against Police Brutality president

Sen. Tina Smith visits U to meet with officials impacted by shutdown The government shutdown strained U finances and research efforts.

BY IMANI CRUZEN icruzen@mndaily.com

Sen. Tina Smith, DMinn., met with school officials Tuesday to discuss the government shutdown’s impacts on University of Minnesota research and services.

Representatives from departments like One Stop Student Services and the Polar Geospatial Center said the shutdown affects research projects, student loans, agricultural projects and a number of other University programs. Smith said President Donald Trump and Congress need to reopen the government and work toward immigration reform.

University research institutions are finding that

DAILY FILE PHOTO

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., hugs a supporter during the DFL election party in St. Paul on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018.

many research projects, some of which are time sensitive, are being put on hold during the shutdown.

This impacts farmers,

researchers and students w h o s e w o rk a n d p a y depend on research.

The University is spending $500,000 a day to com-

pensate for a lack of federal funding during the shutdown, said Assistant Chief Financial Officer Mike Volna at the meeting. The total

cost was about $10 million as of Jan. 18, with a projected $12.5 million by the end of the month. Volna said the University expects the federal government to reimburse this funding.

“All of these activities that should have been going on for the last month, of course, haven’t been,” said Associate Vice President for Research Administration Pamela Webb at the meeting. “So, you’re going to have a huge backlog, the federal government will, of projects that need to be funded, need to be awarded [funding].”

Financial aid and refunds could also face delay, said Associate Director for One Stop Student Services Nate Peterson at the meeting.

The government needs to reopen, taking the pressure off government workers, before a reasonable conversation about immigration reform can be had,

Smith said.

“We should not be doing that behind the scenes without a full conversation about exactly how that works,” Smith said to the media. “And the people that we heard about today shouldn’t be used as bargaining chips in that conversation.”

While Smith said she will not vote for the president’s most recent proposal to end the shutdown, she is optimistic a bipartisan agreement can be reached.

“Earlier this year, Democrats and Republicans together came up with a proposal to reform immigration that included a path to citizenship for Dreamers and more border security, and the president shot it down,” Smith said. “But there is effort and energy in the Senate and the House, I think, to pass something strong. We just shouldn’t be doing it in these circumstances.”

Board of Regent candidates meet with legislators The University Alumni Association hosted the regent candidate forum.

BY MIGUEL OCTAVIO moctavio@mndaily.com

Candidates vying for the University of Minnesota Board of Regent’s four open seats gathered at the State Office Building in St. Paul Wednesday to address their platforms.

The University of Minnesota Alumni Association hosted the forum as an opportunity for legislators, alumni members and the public to hear from 15 candidates. Lawmakers will vote on representatives for the state’s 5th Congressional District, two at-large seats and the student regent seat this legislative session.

“The regent position is crucial to the mission of the University and its

future,” said Lisa Lewis, president and CEO of the Alumni Association. “This is the one opportunity for the legislators to come and see all the candidates at once.”

Campus administrators questioned candidates about their top issues before the forum was opened to the public. Candidates addressed affordability, diversity and safety as prominent concerns.

Candidates were also asked how they plan to balance affordability and enrollment with maintaining a quality education.

“To be realistic and empathetic [about tuition] is the first and foremost importance,” said Sara Ketterling, an applicant for the student at-large seat and a Masters of Public Health student.

Ca ndida t e s a ls o e mphasized the importance of diversity in the University’s governing body and student population.

“[To] foster dialogue among all of those groups of people,” said Janie Mayeron, an applicant for the at-large and 5th District seats and former Minnesota district court judge. “It means being respectable, being accountable and embracing every one of those groups.”

At large-seats candidates were asked whether it is better to contribute state funding to the University‘s administrative needs or low-to-middle class students to address tuition costs.

“The University has to determine what its priorities are,” said at-large candidate Sandy Wiese, a senior vice president at Data Recognition Corporation in Maple Grove, Minnesota. “I believe that we should look at alternative sources of revenue, including publicprivate partnerships.”

Some candidates also voiced support for incoming University of Minnesota

president Joan Gabel.

“One of the reasons why it makes me excited about applying for becoming a regent is because I think it would be good to have some other women on the board,” said at-large candidate Lynn Abrahamsen, the CEO of Hennepin Healthcare.

Rep. Bud Nornes, R-Fergus Falls, said he is looking for candidates who are willing to work well in a group setting. “[Selecting candidates] probably the most difficult job as a legislator that I have,” Nornes said. “When they’re all high-quality people, that makes the job really hard.”

Earlier this month, the Regent Candidate Advisory Council forwarded 16 candidates for the state Legislature for consideration in the upcoming regent election. Real estate developer Kelly Doran has since withdrawn from the process.

5

MNDAILY.COM

MN DAILY

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

ART

CULTURE TO CONSUME

BY KSENIA GORINSHTEYN

Listen to this: “Remind Me Tomorrow” by Sharon Van Etten Sharon Van Etten’s new album is spacey, profound and quite possibly the most vulnerable album you will ever listen to.

It’s short but sweet, and it carries such a heavy sense of nostalgia with it. The songs “No One’s Easy To Love” and “Seventeen” capture the artist’s growth and, simply, how she came into her own.

Watch this: “You” If you haven’t watched this yet ... this is your sign. The show everyone’s talking about, which you can find on Netflix, is absolutely thrilling.

Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg makes Dan Humphrey look like an angel. And no, you’re not supposed like the main characters.

Read this: “Hooked in America” This three-part series from the New York Times describes the opioid crisis from a more personal perspective, rather than offering pure numbers. Each article is extremely detailed and may include pictures, videos and statements that are graphic and sensitive. However, they add to the chilling reality of the issue and help us remember that these are real people going through very real experiences, all of which should not be taken lightly.

CULTURE COMPASS

BY KSENIA GORINSHTEYN

Friday: Fool’s Errand Comedy Variety Show Back with another variety show, Fool’s Errand will provide the Purple Onion crowd with some jokes and tunes for the first Friday night of the semester. The show includes improv, stand-up and music from The Enchantments. It’s the perfect opportunity to get those laughs in before the semester really hits hard.

Where: Purple Onion Café, 1301 University Ave S.E., Minneapolis Hours: 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Cost: Free

ABBY ADAMSKI, DAILY

Revisiting ‘once upon a time’ A new fairy-tale postcard exhibit at Weisman Art Museum works to bring folklore back to life.

BY BECCA MOST bmost@mndaily.com

Challenging the way fairy tales are depicted in Walt Disney’s popular animated films, the Weisman Art Museum’s new exhibit, “The Wonderful World Before Disney,” gives viewers a unique look into the power of storytelling.

The exhibition, which opened Jan. 12, features a selection of whimsical postcards from the late 1890s through the early 1930s.

The postcards were donated by Jack Zipes, a University of Minnesota emeritus professor of German and comparative literature. The exhibition is organized into six sections — one for each of the most popular fairy tales in Europe and North America.

Zipes, who has studied folklore and fairy tales for more than 40 years, was fascinated by the communicative medium of the postcard.

He owns well over 3,000 fairy-tale postcards, having spent years scouring flea markets, garage sales, eBay

profiles, attics and auctions for more to add to his collection.

Although he has donated nearly all his postcards to museums, he’s still on the hunt for more unique and exciting finds.

“What is fascinating in the production of fairy-tale postcards is that they present a new ‘optique’ or perspective about the stories,” Zipes said. “They demand that we visually review the different ways a fairy tale can be represented through art, whether it be an oil painting, a water color, a photograph, an ink drawing, a silhouette and so on.”

Although the plots of some of these fairy tales may appear outdated (because, really, who leaves a trail of breadcrumbs anymore?) the act of storytelling certainly isn’t.

“Storytelling is a way to create alternative narratives to our present reality, a way to question our everyday life,” said May Abnet, a former intern at WAM who worked on the

“The beauty of fairy tales is that, due to their oral origins, they can’t be frozen into text, and continue to evolve through the diversity of medium chosen to tell them, over and over.”

MAY ABNET former WAM intern

design and layout of the exhibit, in an email.

“The beauty of fairy tales is that, due to their oral origins, they can’t be frozen into text, and continue to evolve through the diversity of medium chosen to tell them, over and over.”

Anatoly Liberman, a p ro f e s s o r w h o t e a c h e s

linguistics and folklore at the University, said he admires the way fairy tales continue to saturate everyday life, often without consciously thinking about them.

“Fairy tales and tales of all kinds — pictorial or verbal, it doesn’t matter — I think they remain a part of our life forever,” Liberman said. “The fairy tale permeates our lives in so many ways. They’re reflected so strongly in art, in music, in opera, in ballet. Even if not directly, there is always the triangle: the princess, the hero and the villain.

That is the paradigm of life.”

Diane Mullin, a senior curator for WAM, is fascinated by the way the themes in fairy tales are evolving to reflect the social and political backdrop of today.

Although fairy tales were originally told to inform, provide solace and offer moral instruction to those who heard them, Mullin said the exhibit is interesting because some

darker themes that permeate fairy tales (like hunger, rape, child neglect and abandonment) are still pressing problems today.

“It is interesting — these notions of a supine, comatose woman getting kissed and waking up is just part of the tale of ‘Sleeping Beauty,’” she said. “And I think what it tells us is that we look at the morals and ethos of another time and another place, and we’re like, ‘Hmm, maybe we have to think more about this.’”

Zipes said fairy-tale stories are, and will continue to be, relevant to modern audiences because their themes are still relatable.

“Essentially, if we dig deep and we really analyze all of these classical fairy tales, they really continue to stay with us because we haven’t resolved a lot of the existential problems that prevent us from living harmoniously together,” he said.

“I think that these tales will continue to be told until we continue to resolve these problems,” Zipes said.

Saturday: ART

Pelham and the Stella Loons Looking to expand your local music taste? Pelham and the Stella Loons are a great place to start. Pelham’s music is genuine and gentle, with a sound reminiscent of Ed Sheeran and Bon Iver. The Stella Loons are a folk duo that cite First Aid Kit and The Staves as influences (and it’s apparent in their music).

They mix their harmonies with sincere storytelling and a strong stage presence.

Where: Troubadour Wine Bar, 2827 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis Hours: 9 to 11 p.m.

Cost: $9 bar tab minimum

Sunday: Cat Café Meditation With the beginning of a new semester, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You have assignments upon assignments due; it’s stressful! The Café Meow has a great solution for you: meditation, but with cats.

For $20 you can practice mindfulness, play with some cute cats and drink free tea.

All you need to do is bring your own yoga mat.

Where: The Café Meow, 2323 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis Hours: 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Cost: $20

Emerging artist Ellie Bryan connects the natural world to society through ceramics Bryan focuses on natural imagery in her music, pottery and illustrations.

BY KSENIA GORINSHTEYN kgorinshteyn@mndaily.com

Ellie Bryan’s connection with the natural world is ever-present in her work. As a crafter, Bryan’s pottery, illustrations and music harbor the spirituality she feels is present in nature.

Bryan graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota in 2015, but pursued various creative outlets before her time at the University. From age 7 to age 17, Bryan took art classes at Studio Seven in downtown Minneapolis every week.

However, her flair for the creative was apparent even before that.

“When most kids [were] drawing scribbles, I was drawing little stick figures and putting eyelashes on

them,” Bryan said. “[My mom] always says, ‘You used to put eyelashes on them, that’s not something that most kids do.’”

Bryan’s mother, Jenny Bryan, wasn’t the only one who could see Bryan’s need for a creative outlet.

“When she was in kindergarten … the teacher said to us, ‘Ellie really needs to do art,’ and we kind of laughed like, ‘Oh yeah, we know, Ellie loves art,’” Jenny said. “She goes, ‘No, you don’t understand. Ellie has a need to do art,’ and she was like really serious.’’

This inclination for the arts led Bryan to attend Perpich Center for Arts Education and Minneapolis Community and Technical College for media arts and photography.

After taking a class in ceramics at the University, she started making pottery more seriously.

“It’s one of the most challenging things I’ve ever tried in my life, so I was actually really discouraged at first,” Bryan said. “I felt like I was

really bad at it, and I had been feeling kind of successful in the other things I had been trying.”

She found her niche in pottery with a technique called sgraffito. Bryan would scratch through the surface of her pots to reveal contrasting colors, making her illustrations pop.

“It’s just so smooth and it feels super natural,” Bryan said. “I got to do what I really loved, which is drawing in that style … so it just kind of clicked.”

Bryan’s work is filled with illustrations of owls, goats and various natural scenes from hikes and time spent outdoors. These scenes motivate her to create art that unites the natural world with an anthropogenic society.

“The inspiration is kind of this perpetual thing of being inspired by nature and animals and that’s something that has always been really important to me,” Bryan said.

Much of Bryan’s connection to nature is spiritual and

symbolic; she believes there is a certain kind of energy in nature.

“I could see her being inspired by the textures and the visuals of the things that we would be hiking around and witnessing and see that a couple months later in a piece on the table,” said Jason Tompkins, a friend of Bryan’s.

Bryan’s work as a potter was highlighted when she received the 2016 Jerome Resident Artist of Color grant at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. For a year and a half, she was able to use the space and materials to produce her art for one of their shows and for her business, Black Banjo Arts.

“It was really awesome to be recognized there as … a legitimate emerging artist,” Bryan said. “All of the opportunities I got there to make work, to meet people ... it’s an opportunity I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

In 2017, Bryan joined the art collective Conspiracy of Strange Girls. The collective

“The inspiration is kind of this perpetual thing of being inspired by nature and animals and that’s something that has always been really important to me.”

ELLIE BRYAN artist

is another source of motivation for her, pushing her to create pieces for various shows that the collective puts on.

“It was kind of this small thing where we were just like, ‘OK, let’s find some artists in Minneapolis that are like, kind of weird, kind of edgy, kind of dark, and we’ll get together and we’ll make some stuff happen,’” Bryan said.

6

Sports

MNDAILY.COM

MN DAILY

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

MEN’S GYMNASTICS

DAILY FILE PHOTO

Sophomore gymnast Shane Wiskus performs on the pommel horse during a meet on Jan. 27, 2018 at Maturi Pavillon.

Youthful team faces greater responsibility The 2018 National Championship runners-up lost 10 seniors from team.

BY PAUL HODOWANIC phodowanic@mndaily.com

Last season, the Gophers men’s gymnastics team reached their ultimate goal.

The team qualified for the NCAA championships after a strong regular season and ultimately came in second overall — the best finish for the Gophers since 1990.

“That was probably the most fun I’ve had at a competition,” senior Michael Harris said. “Making sure that happens again is really

important, and hopefully we can have the same outcome this year.”

The Gophers will rely on a much different cast of gymnasts this year, as last year’s team lost 10 seniors to graduation. The result is an infusion of youth, as nine new freshmen were added to the roster. The freshmen will be tasked with picking up some of the responsibility the senior class left.

“It’s a lot of pressure put on us. From the start, we’ve realized we are filling spots, but it’s not like we are replacements for them,” freshman Garrett Kasiski said. “We are making our own legacy by being here and trying to bring us all up

together.”

The Gophers hope that legacy can include similar results, if not better than last year.

“I think we will be better than last year’s team,” freshman Eric Nakamura said.

“We want to be better than last year’s seniors and not just keep it at the same standard, but we want to raise the bar for this team and we want to achieve more than they did.”

Six of the nine freshmen have competed in at least one of the first two meets this season, with more nipping at the heels to get their shot.

At this week’s practice, the team only had a few

spots locked in for their upcoming match on Saturday against Michigan. The rest of the spots would be decided through competition throughout the week.

“Every week is a battle for lineup, especially for freshman,” Kasiski said.

“It’s fun though, it’s a healthy competition,” freshman Danny Yoon said. “It’s not breaking friendships, we push each other.”

Head coach Mike Burns said he believes this competition will lead to better performance by the freshmen and the rest of the team, regardless if the freshmen win.

“The key is, can the freshmen push these guys

up to a point where maybe they don’t make the lineup, but they are pushing hard and making the other guys get better,” Burns said. “It’s easy to focus on the top five guys on each event, but the most important guys are the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth guys that are pushing to make the lineup and make sure these guys [keep] looking over their shoulder … and it forces them to maintain their high standard so we can continue to go out there and do a good job.”

The upperclassmen have taken note of the infusion of youth into the team, which has changed their outlook on the team.

“Last year we tried to

focus on what we could do best, and now, this year as upperclassmen, we are trying to focus on what they can do best,” said senior Vitali Kan. “If we lead by example and teach them how to do their jobs, then collectively we will be ready for Big Ten’s and NCAA’s and put up the same if not better results than last year.”

The team has begun their season with back-toback third place finishes.

Going into last week’s Windy City Invitational, the Gophers were ranked No. 5 nationally. The team is hoping the freshmen continue growing and compete so that last year isn’t the peak, it’s the beginning.

WRESTLING

Mitch McKee surges back from knee injury The junior is back on the mat just four weeks after surgery for a torn meniscus.

BY DAVID MULLEN dmullen@mndaily.com

Wrestling is brutal on the body; it’s common for wrestlers to participate while dealing with aches and pains. Junior Mitch McKee has taken this to the extreme, fighting back from severe injury to quickly get back into the Minnesota lineup.

This isn’t new for McKee. He has had his fair share of injuries in his three years wrestling for the Gophers. The St. Michael, Minnesota native has torn his meniscus three times since joining the wrestling

team: twice on his right knee and most recently on his left.

His latest meniscus injury occurred shortly before winter break, but McKee said he did not know it was torn at first.

“I knew my knee was hurting, but I didn’t know it was torn until we left for the Air Force dual,” McKee said.

Ultimately, McKee had his meniscus removed and missed two matches.

Although he only missed four weeks, he decided that he was going to return to wrestling despite his sore knee at the two-day South Beach Duals in late December. McKee returned in convincing fashion as he pinned Luke Karam of Lehigh in just 2:16 on the opening day of the tournament.

“My knee was still hurting pretty bad, but I knew I wanted to wrestle,” McKee said.

“Getting that pin right away felt really good.”

McKee is ranked at No. 7 in the NCAA in the 141-pound weight class with an 11-1 record so far this season. His first loss of the year occurred just hours after making his initial return at the South Beach Duals. He attributed the loss to exhaustion and mistakes that ended up costing him the match.

“I got a little tired and I hadn’t wrestled in four weeks, so I was fatigued and didn’t wrestle very well,” McKee said.

Despite the loss, McKee has stormed back since the injury. He has wrestled his way to a 6-1, including a victory

against No. 4 Iowa.

“It’s not easy coming back from an injury.” said Gophers head coach Brandon Eggum.

“It’s nice that he has had a lot of success in his time coming back, but there’s still work to be done.”

McKee has performed well at the 141-pound weight class since being moved up from the 133-pound class, which he wrestled in during his first two seasons. Eggum attributes this success to McKee’s understanding of the fundamentals.

“The thing he’s doing well at now is his basic skills,” Eggum said.

Even with his success , McKee believes he can improve. He aims to be an AllAmerican and an NCAA champion, which he said he

JACK RODGERS, DAILY

Mitch McKee warms up during practice at the new Gophers Wrestling Training Facility on Wednesday, Jan. 23.

has devoted his life to since learning he would be switching weight classes.

The Gophers return to action Jan. 25 against Wisconsin.

Notes: The Gophers finished undefeated at the South Beach Duals, which included North

Carolina, Lehigh, Kentucky State and Utah Valley.

Minnesota has opened the Big Ten season 1-1 after a 22-15 victory over Rutgers on Jan. 6 and a 24-10 loss to No. 4 Iowa in the first sell-out at the Maturi Pavilion for Gophers wrestling since 2004.

MEN’S HOCKEY

U looks to rebound after two losses at Michigan State Minnesota will play Wisconsin for two games in first time home since break.

BY JACK WARRICK jwarrick@mndaily.com

After almost every game — whether it be a win, a loss or a tie — there is usually something a hockey team can take out of that game, no matter how small.

Apparently, there are some exceptions.

“Crunch it up, throw it in the trash,” Gophers forward Jack Ramsey said about his team’s two losses over

the weekend to the 9-12-3 Michigan State Spartans, a team the Gophers beat 7-2 earlier in the season (they lost 4-2 in the other game of the series).

“Didn’t really look like us last weekend, didn’t feel like it. So, tough weekend, moving forward and looking forward to this one [against Wisconsin],” Ramsey said.

The Gophers (9-10-4) are back on campus after over a month of winter break.

While they’re starting classes and getting into their normal schedules, they will play Big Ten rival Wisconsin (8-10-4) on Minnesota’s own ice in the upcoming series,

hoping to get their skates back under them against a familiar opponent. “[It’s been] a crazy couple of weeks. Couldn’t have been higher and couldn’t have been lower, so let’s hope the truth is right in the middle,” said head coach Bob Motzko, referring to the sweep over ranked Notre Dame the weekend before losing both games to Michigan State.

“You want to get off the break and get back in a routine, and we’re going to be a lot better this weekend than we were last weekend.”

Minnesota played Wisconsin at the Kohl Center in Madison,

Wisconsin for the first Big Ten series of the season on Nov. 9 and 10. Minnesota split the series. It won the first game 3-2 and lost the second 3-1. Now, Minnesota takes on a Wisconsin team with a similar record, though Wisconsin has lost three of the last four games (the other was a tie), and has yet to win in 2019.

“They’re a pretty young team. They [have] a lot of freshmen just like us and I know a few of the kids playing with them growing up.

So they’re a good team and it’ll be fun to see them again,” said Gophers defenseman Ben Brinkman.

Motzko echoed his alternate captain’s belief that the team will be different this time around.

“I was reluctant to use the word ‘turning the corner’ ‘til you see it,” Motzko said. “I’m going to tell you we’re going to be good again, and it’ll be this weekend.”

Remembering ‘79

Minnesota will honor the 40th anniversary of the 1979 NCAA champion Gophers hockey team at Saturday’s game. It was the third championship of the program’s five current total national championships. The team beat North Dakota 4-3 in

Detroit on March 23, 1979 to give then-head coach Herb Brooks his third national championship with Minnesota in a six-year span. Many players on that team went on to play for the United States in the 1980 Winter Olympics to shock the world and win gold.

“I think that’s a very special team in the history of the University of Minnesota,” Motzko said. “The legacy of that group is probably as deep into the hockey fiber of our culture in our state, and pretty special group. It’s going to mean a lot to the community to have them back in the building.”

7

Thursday, January 24, 2019

U works with researchers in Puerto Rico The collaboration aims to look for new sustainable energy options to help out.

BY NATALIE RADEMACHER nrademacher@mndaily.com

After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, many went without electricity for months.

Now, students and faculty from the University of Minnesota are working with partners on the island to explore different energy platforms that could withstand future natural disasters.

University students went to Puerto Rico this month through the University’s Global Convergence Lab. They met with researchers, members of nonprofits and community members to learn about the challenges that come with energy transition on the island.

“The trip was focused more on building a long-term collaboration,” said Gabe Chan, an assistant professor in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

The lab is a course made up of 11 students from the Humphrey School, the Insti-

tute on the Environment and the School of Architecture.

Having students of different majors and backgrounds helps provide different perspectives and makes the work more valuable, Chan said.

While in Puerto Rico, lab members visited communities and learned about how energy is currently operating.

“I think it is important to be on the ground and talking to folks because you get such a limited, narrow and sometimes inaccurate view of what is going on in a place [by] only reading news articles,” said Elizabeth Arnold, a graduate research assistant in the Chan Lab who went to Puerto Rico.

Chan said the intent of the trip is to start a long-term relationship through collaboration between Puerto Rico and the University. “[It] is centered around a couple of projects between organizations with similar goals and we can go back and forth with what is going on in Minnesota and … Puerto Rico and share and learn together,” Chan said.

The lab is part of the Resilience through Innovation in Sustainable Energy (RISE) platform, which works to

change how universities interact with communities and other entities after natural disasters. Jacob Mans, assistant professor in the School of Architecture, helped create the network and the partnership between the University and researchers in Puerto Rico.

Mans traveled to Puerto Rico in 2018 and helped design a community solar powered station there.

Cecilio Ortiz García, a member of the Instituto Nacional de Energía y Sostenibilidad Isleña (INESI) and an organization part of RISE, said the University is helping by bringing the message of this collaboration to other universities.

“A lot of universities came after Hurricane Maria but weren’t collaborating. …The idea could be that all these universities interested in working in Puerto Rico could share that information in a broader network,” Chan said.

Marla Pérez Lugo, a member of INESI, said that the electric grid was destroyed following Hurricane Maria, giving the island an opportunity to try different energy systems.

Instead, the island is reverting back to the prior

COURTESY OF GABE CHAN

Members of the Global Convergence Lab at the Ponce Neighborhood Housing Service in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

electric system, she added.

“INESI is calling attention to universities and the government that we have resources to run better electrical systems,” Ortiz García said. These improved electrical systems include things such as solar powered energy

and electric cooperatives, which are owned by users.

The relationship with the University shows the Puerto Rican government that INESI has legitimacy, Pérez Lugo said, adding that the collaboration takes off some of the burden of having to reach

out to other universities.

Now that members of the Global Convergence Lab are back in Minnesota, they are planning to present on their trip and have invited students and faculty from the University of Puerto Rico to visit Minnesota in May.

Variety of student groups set to start this spring Gaming, advocacy and a capella among new student groups at the University.

BY NORAH KLEVEN nkleven@mndaily.com

From gaming to public advocacy to a capella, there are a variety of new student groups for University of Minnesota students to take advantage of this semester.

These newly formed groups add to the hundreds of student organizations on campus, which allow students to explore their interests and become active members of the University community.

That’s a good thing for the University, said Patrick Haught, student activities advisor with the University’s Student Activities Office.

“We know from data and statistics that students that are more involved in student

organizations, specifically those that take officer or leadership roles, show higher rates of retention, graduation and satisfaction with their college experience,” Haught said.

NintenDomain The NintenDomain gaming club emerged from the disbanding of the Pokemon League — a student group that played cards and Pokemon-related games. The Pokemon League dispersed last spring due to a lack of members. In hopes of attracting more students, members from the group rebranded as NintenDomain.

The NintenDomain club, which registered with the University in November, will have its first meeting Jan. 29.

The group’s founder and president Johnathon Farra said NintenDomain’s goal is to create a new, more diverse place for people to enjoy both video and non-video games

together. While the club already has some of its own assets — including a Wii, the newer Wii U and Pokemon card decks — members are encouraged to bring their favorite games to enjoy at meetings.

“It is a comfy place to hangout, unwind, destress, meet new people [and] meet

City Council energy disclosure program aims to inform renters New program helps students understand energy costs before signing their lease.

BY EMMA DILL edill@mndaily.com

With energy efficiency in mind, the Minneapolis City Council will introduce a measure next week requiring landlords to inform potential residents of a property’s utility costs.

Under the ordinance, landlords will have to provide applicants with a building’s average per unit energy costs. Council members say the disclosures could better inform renters and motivate landlords to make their properties more energy efficient.

Ward 2 Council member Cam Gordon, who worked on the ordinance, said the measure will make energy considerations a standard part of renting in Minneapolis.

“Just like you disclose how much rent is going to cost, we want to also have this information about what your energy costs might be,” Gordon said.

Council members collaborated with renters’ advocacy groups and held community meetings to develop the ordinance language.

While previous versions of the proposed ordinance required disclosure at the time of signing the lease, attendees advocated moving the disclosure time up to the application stage.

“Renters advocates and the rental property owners actually agreed that that

DAILY FILE PHOTO

Ward 2 Council Member Cam Gordon poses for a portrait in his office at Minneapolis City Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017.

would be the best time for the disclosure to happen,” said Robin Garwood, Gordon’s policy aide who helped draft the ordinance.

The energy disclosures are part of the Minneapolis Climate Action Plan, a 2013 report that outlines strategies to reduce the City’s energy use by 17 percent by 2025, among other goals.

The disclosures will help Minneapolis more accurately estimate how much energy is used citywide, Gordon said.

Kendre Turonie, the University of Minnesota’s Off-Campus Living program director, said the ordinance helps ensure student renters are informed about their leases.

“I think that the intention here is to get some of that information before you sign the lease, so you can decide and know, ‘Oh my gosh, my heating bill’s going to be $400 to $500 a month … and I’m only budgeting for $25 a month. That’s a problem,’”

Turonie said.

While newer apartment buildings near campus usually have consistent utility bills year-round, renters in older houses often see significant utility increases during the winter, Turonie said.

Turonie also hopes the ordinance might prompt landlords to make energy efficiency investments in their properties.

“It’s a business,” she said.

“There’s no benefit because it’s just an investment in the property and a benefit to tenants. It doesn’t impact how much money they make from the property.”

Gordon said the disclosures have the potential to change the rental process in the city.

“We think this could make a big difference as part of the bigger picture, but only if people react and do something about the disclosures,” he said.

The program is anticipated to begin in 2021.

ABBY ADAMSKI, DAILY new friends,” Farra said.

“To me, this club is not meant to focus so much on the games as [on being] an enjoyable place.”

Leading Women of Tomorrow For women interested in holding public office, the University has a newly

implemented chapter of the national and nonpartisan organization Leading Women of Tomorrow.

“Our organization strives to equip women with the skills, resources, and confidence to become advocates in their professional fields,” the Leading Women of Tomorrow’s website states.

Though the organization was formally registered with the University in November, president Lilli Ambort said that last semester was devoted to planning meetings and events. She said she hopes to create a community of those who are exploring opportunities in public service and prove women can hold office.

“Our main mission is to breach the gender gap,” Ambort said.

Chinese Singers The Chinese Singers Club, like the NintenDomain club, was also reborn from a previous organization.

Chang Liu, originally a mem-

ber of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, started the Chinese Singers Club to offer a place for students to focus exclusively on singing. CSSA did have a singing program, but Liu said she and other members wanted a group more devoted to singing.

Liu said that while the name might seem exclusive to some people, the club is open to all ethnicities.

In addition to meetings, which consist of rehearsal and planning for events, the club hopes to showcase its talent for the University community.

Liu hopes to organize two performances this semester, but says definite plans are on hold until grants are secured.

To join the Chinese Singers Club, Liu said potential members must attend an audition. This semester’s audition is set for early February, with a date to be finalized soon.

8 THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

MN DAILY

MNDAILY.COM

Editorials & Opinions

COLUMN

EDITORIAL

Minnesota legislators, politicians, regents: please leave your politics off campuses

State money is answer to lack of federal funds

Political interference on campus, North Carolina-style, is the last thing that Joan Gabel needs.

A

s our University goes through a transition period between President Eric Kaler and incoming president Joan Gabel, students, faculty and administrators — everyone JONATHAN ABABIY who makes the columnist University what it is — are thinking long and hard about what they want the University to be in coming years.

The outgoing President of the University of North Carolina Margaret Spellings put this quite well at a press conference: “Governance is always being calibrated and recalibrated over and over, and that’s part of the fun of the job.”

However, I don’t know how much fun it was on the job for Spellings. Her presidency has been, as it has for many public University presidents across the country, a short and bumpy ride. As she felt, partisan politicians have a tendency to prevent leadership from Universities from focusing on the true mission of the University: academics. North Carolina and Spellings offer valuable lessons about what partisan micromanaging from above may feel like for incoming president Gabel.

Much of the damage inflicted on higher education in North Carolina came from above.

In a hyper-partisan North Carolina, the UNC system became a political battleground. When Republicans took control of the General Assembly in 2010, they undertook a “systematic partisan purge” of the UNC’s Board of Governors. They remade the Board in their own image, forced out UNC’s Democrat-appointed president in 2015 and appointed Spellings, a former education secretary in the George W. Bush Administration, as the new system president.

By 2017, UNC’s board was nearly 79 percent Republican and willing to insert itself into the daily affairs of UNC. Even though she was one of their own, this did not bode well for Spellings. The board took aim at a legal advocacy center at UNC, banning its legal advocacy on behalf of poor and minority clients.

A Republican board member stated that civil rights work was good, but just not under the University’s name.

When protests began to start on campus about the confederate Silent Sam monument, board members rebuked Spellings for discussing security concerns with the Democratic Governor. Spellings eventually resigned.

The friction from above was too much for the Chancellor of UNC’s Chapel Hill campus Carol Folt too. Seeking an end to the Silent Sam controversy on campus, she proposed moving the now-toppled statue and its remaining pedestal to a museum. The board, not wanting to give up on tradition, rejected the proposal. Folt, exhausted, resigned.

North Carolina is perhaps an extreme example of partisan micromanaging from above, but it is not something Minnesota isn’t familiar with. Last year, the Minnesota Daily reported that after conservative pressure had resulted in the removal of a reproductive health fellowship at the Medical School,

abortion played a role in the selection of Regent Randy Simonson.

Minnesota’s new legislature, class of politicians and partisan regents must keep their politics out of campus — or else our state may look a lot more like North Carolina.

The Minnesota Republican-controlled legislature rejected the referrals of both the House and Senate higher education committees in favor of Simonson. After Simonson was selected, Rep. Bud Nornes, R-Fergus Falls, told the Star Tribune that “Randy Simonson matched up with the values of being conservative and pro-life; those are important to members.” He added, “but the main reason is that his resume is really strong.”

Minnesota’s new legislature, class of politicians and partisan regents must keep their politics out of campus — or else our state may look a lot more like North Carolina. Students shouldn’t be paying for politician’s political grievances. Hopefully, they’ll let Gabel do what she does best: lead.

Jonathan Ababiy welcomes comments at jababiy@mndaily.com.

EDITORIAL

PolyMet Mining land exchange going to happen Some refer to PolyMet land swap as tentative, but PolyMet officials claim the deal has been made.

Several News Tribune editorials have argued in support of a land swap between the federal government and PolyMet Mining, pointing out that with or without the coppernickel mining that could result, the deal is a good one for the state of Minnesota, for us taxpayers, and for anyone who loves the outdoors.

“The public is to receive more land than it’d give up in this deal: 6,690 acres would become part of the Superior National Forest in exchange for 6,650 acres at the mining site near Babbitt,” stated the most recent of the editorials, published last week. “What’s more, the land to be received by the public has road access, making it ideal for things like fishing and hunting. It also offers access to wild rice lakes. And it includes valuable shoreland property, including frontage on the Pike River in the headwaters of Lake Vermilion. The land the public is to give up, by stark contrast, is almost entirely inaccessible and has been surrounded by mining activities since the 1950s.”

The News Tribune stands by its view — acknowledging, however, this point of clarification or correction: “It is not accurate to talk about the land exchange in the future tense as if it is still yet to happen,” Bruce Richardson, vice president of corporate communications and external affairs for PolyMet, pointed out, responding to the editorial, in a note last week to the News Tribune Opinion page.

“The land exchange was in fact consummated in June last year when titles changed hands,” Richardson wrote. “The Forest Service has received and is in ownership of the former PolyMet parcels and is managing those lands as part of its forest management plan; PolyMet has full control of what were once Superior National Forest lands, and we can do with that land what any landowner can do on their land with the proper permits.”

On Jan. 14, newly sworn-in U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber introduced the Superior National Forest Land Exchange Act. If it passes, it “simply ratifies a transaction that has already been authorized and executed,” according to Richardson. “It also provides legal certainty because Congress has ... (ultimate) authority over federal lands, and its decisions cannot be challenged in court. It’s a worthy effort, and we appreciate Rep. Stauber’s support for the project and mining in general.”

Before Stauber, a Republican, his Democratic predecessor, U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan, also supported the federal government and PolyMet trade of property. So did Minnesota’s Democratic U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Tina Smith, and Al Franken, among others.

In addition to the positive-for-the-public real-estate gain, a PolyMet mine promises new life for an abandoned industrial site, 300 construction jobs to build out the facility, 860 full-time and spinoff jobs after construction, and a $500 million estimated annual economic impact on our region.

With or without mining, the land exchange is too big a win to not finally get ratified. News Tribune editorials have argued that, too.

This editorial was originally published in the Duluth News Tribune.

Some state elected leaders are not willing to supply funding for special education programs.

T h e p ro b l e m o f f u n d i n g s p e c i a l education has gone on for decades in Minnesota, and it’s time to solve it.

We can’t count on the federal government. It has never fulfilled its promise to fund 40 percent of special education costs to the states.

And the dysfunction in Washington means funding is unlikely to arrive anytime in the next decade.

States, unfortunately, are faced with federal mandates but inadequate funding to support those mandates.

The federal government funds about 8 percent of special education costs while states fund about 63 percent, according to a report in the Star Tribune. Local school districts are left to pick up the tab, a gap of about $724 million of Minnesota’s $2.2 billion in special education funding.

Everyone, it seems, sees the need to fund special education, with many saying it is a moral obligation to provide education to every child’s needs. If that’s the case, then someone has to step up and fund it and fill the funding gap.

When then-Gov. Mark Dayton asked the Republican Legislature last year to fund deficits at school districts to the tune of about $138 million, Republicans balked, with some arguing schools were to blame for their deficits.

The leader of the state’s major business group, Charlie Weaver, of the Minnesota Business Partnership, told the Star Tribune the state doesn’t have a K-12 funding issue because schools have been given funding increases under Dayton.

But the reality seems to tell a different story. More and more school districts are taking money away from regular programs to meet the mandated funding under special education. And the number of special education students is growing to a point where school administrators are calling the gap a “crisis.”

A bipartisan group points to special education paperwork as an onerous burden and budget drain and has proposed cutting some of the time special education teachers have to spend on the paperwork.

It sounds like a good idea until you hear parent groups say the procedures that take time also make sure their children are treated fairly in their programs and their needs are met.

The state and Gov. Tim Walz need to make a bold move on special education and fund a good portion of the gap. Schools and parents need to work together to reduce paperwork and bureaucracy that takes money away from students’ needs.

We’d like to see the state pay more and school districts try to be more efficient with the dollars they do have. With a state surplus of $1.5 billion, there should be room in the budget.

Special education funding has been an incessant problem for too long. An educator/governor like Walz should be the one to solve it.

This editorial was originally published in the Mankato Free Press.

Robert McGrady welcomes comments at rmcgrady@mndaily.com.

EDITORIALS & OPINIONS DEPARTMENT Editorials represent the voice of the Minnesota Daily as an institution and are prepared by the editorial board.

EDITORIAL

Start the semester off by joining a student group UMN has many student groups, take some time to see what’s available and take advantage.

With a new semester comes new opportunities. Whether it be to achieve your New Year’s resolution or trying something new, the University of Minnesota offers over 800 student groups. There’s something for everybody, from the great outdoors to learning new dance moves. It’s the ideal time to head up a group or test the waters.

Get outdoors Though Minnesota is home to all four seasons, it sure seems like winter will never come to an end. Luckily, these outdoor adventure groups make it easy to enjoy the outdoors and the beauty Minnesota has to offer. For example, the Outdoors Club has several communities in the group that aim to reach different aspects of the club. The backpacking community and beginner camping community are two of the more popular communities among the several choices.

Check out these student groups: Outdoors Club, Ski and Snowboard Club, Figure Skating Club, Archery Club and Hunting, Fishing and Shooting Club Bring out your inner artist Minneapolis is practically the arts and entertainment capital of the Midwest.

First Avenue is located near campus and the Whole Music Club is on campus, so it’s only fitting that the University has an

abundance of A&E groups. The Electronic Dance Music Club is one to check out. EDM Club includes DJ lessons, production lessons and Q&A meetings with local artists. The group also regularly partners with other student groups and offers chances to DJ events.

Check out these student groups: Electronic Dance Music Club, Minnesota Dance Club, Campus Meme Society, Comedy Club and Musicals Inc. Have your voice heard With hundreds of social action clubs, the University offers many politically charged groups. Whether it be bettering animal health, human rights or supporting local charities, the University has a student group for it. One of these groups includes Colleges Against Cancer, a volunteer group dedicated to spreading awareness surrounding cancer. CAC hosts events and activities throughout the semester, with the most notable being the University’s Relay for Life.

Check out these student groups: Colleges Against Cancer, Feminist Ambassador Brigade, Hearts2Help, Human Rights Student Association and Minnesota Youth Collective As we begin a new semester, it’s the perfect time to try something different. Grab a few friends and check out a new student group — you never know what you’ll like until you try it!

If you’re looking for more opportunities, GopherLink provides a directory of the more than 800 student groups that the University offers.

SHARE YOUR VIEWS The Minnesota Daily welcomes letters and guest columns from readers. All letters must include the writer’s name, address and phone number for verification. The Daily reserves the right to edit all letters for style, space, libel and grammar. Letters to the editor should be no more than 500 words in length. Guest columns should be approximately 350 words. The Daily reserves the right to print any submission as a letter or guest column. Submission does not guarantee publication.

letters@mndaily.com Fax: (612) 435-5865 Phone: (612) 435-1578 Letters and columns to the editor 2221 University Ave. SE Suite 450 Minneapolis, MN 55414

THE EDIT ORIALS AND OPINIONS DEPAR TMENT IS INDEPENDENT OF THE NEW SROOM

9

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

MN DAILY

MNDAILY.COM

DR. DATE

HOROSCOPES Today’s Birthday (1/24): Communication profits this year.

Share your affection and kindness steadily. Study to unveil a mystery. Summer glory for your crew comes before physical obstacles alert you to stop and smell the roses. Follow your heart this winter. Express your creativity and passion.

To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging.

Written by Nancy Black

Aries (3/21 - 4/19): Today is an 8 — Group communication pays off with Mercury in Aquarius.

Friends make everything more fun over the next three weeks. Review the game plan with your team.

Libra (9/23 - 10/22): Today is a 7 — Practice hobbies, sports and passions. For about three weeks, fun takes priority. Creative expression flowers with Mercury in Aquarius.

Taurus (4/20 - 5/20): Today is a 7 — Patience with tests and challenges earns reward. Take leadership over the next three weeks with Mercury in Aquarius. Communication benefits your career.

Scorpio (10/23 - 11/21): Today is a 7 — Make household upgrades. Discuss home improvements with family. For about three weeks, with Mercury in Aquarius, domestic harmony comes naturally.

Gemini (5/21 - 6/21): Today is an 8 — Make travel plans. For about three weeks with Mercury in Aquarius, communications and transportation flow with greater ease. Get organized.

Sagittarius (11/22 - 12/21): Today is an 8 — Complexities fascinate with Mercury in Aquarius for about three weeks. You’re especially clever.

Communication and transportation flow clearly.

Cancer (6/22 - 7/22): Today is a 7 — Discuss shared finances over the next three weeks with Mercury in Aquarius. Track earnings and revise the budget. Strategize and collaborate.

Capricorn (12/22 - 1/19): Today is an 8 — Wheel, deal and negotiate terms. There’s money to be made over three weeks with Mercury in Aquarius.

Profit through networking and communication.

Leo (7/23 - 8/22): Today is an 8 — You and a partner are on the same wavelength for three weeks under Aquarius Mercury. Share your talents and resources.

Aquarius (1/20 - 2/18): Today is a 9 — Begin a logical, rational cycle with Mercury in your sign.

You’re especially witty, charming and persuasive over three weeks. Tell your personal story.

Virgo (8/23 - 9/22): Today is an 8 — Get advice from coaches, doctors and advisors over three weeks. Communicate and connect about your work, health and fitness with Mercury in Aquarius.

Pisces (2/19 - 3/20): Today is a 7 — Dream up something wonderful. Imagination flowers with Mercury in Aquarius. Review and revise plans over three weeks. Inquire into eternal questions.

Dr. Date,

Look, a girl’s gotta eat. When I am running low on money, I do what any hungry single girl does — swipe right on every guy on Tinder in hopes of a dinner date. So far, this method has been working well. I get a free meal, some guy gets company and we both part happily (and satiated) — never to meet again.

This month, my budget has been rough, so I’ve been swiping right more than usual.

I actually matched with someone who’s totally my type and was thrilled when he suggested we go out to dinner. Maybe this time, my night could end with a little more action, right?

We went out to this great pho place and had a wonderful time. For once, I was actually enjoying the night. But when the check came and the waiter asked if we were together, he said, “Split check, please.” I was horrified! I thought we vibed together but he’s making me pay for my own meal!

Worst of all, I didn’t have enough and had to run to the bathroom to transfer money from my savings account.

He just asked me out again, but I don’t know how to tell him he’ll have to pay.

Should I go back to the days of loveless lunch or try my luck (and my bank account) with a new man?

—Famished and Flat Broke

Dear Famished and Flat Broke,

Look, I don’t mean to be too harsh, but you are everyone’s Tinder nightmare.

Thinking someone likes you and then finding out they were taking advantage of you is soul-crushing in the dating world. There are plenty of viable options for free food without borderline scamming people.

Anyway, unless you’re prepared to explain your financial situation and history on dating apps, I wouldn’t go out on a date that costs money with this guy. You can always have him over to Netflix and chill, but hoping he’ll take care of the bill and having no backup plan when he doesn’t is a relationship-killer. Check out some free date ideas and search for low-income resources so you can stop using dating apps — it’s just not fair to the people involved.

— Dr. Date

Dr. Date,

I was perpetually single during high school, as were all of my friends, so I’ve never really known how exes were sup-

posed to interact. Do you awkwardly nod in the hallway? Do you wish each other happy holidays via text once a year? Do you friend the new girlfriend on Facebook?

The latter is what I’m dealing with now.

See, I’ve been dating this guy for a few months now, but we just made it Facebook official. Less than two hours later, I received a friend request from a girl around my age, and when I made an offhand comment about it to my boyfriend, he recoiled. Apparently, the girl is his “crazy ex” who “just won’t leave him alone.”

He said they had a messy breakup and that she’s been obsessed with him — and who he dates — ever since.

I believed him, but later that night, when she messaged me a wall of text about him. According to her, my new boyfriend is a serial cheater. He apparently did some horrible things to her in their relationship, so she wanted to warn me. By the time I finished reading the message, I wasn’t even sure she was talking about him anymore — the guy I know is nothing like that! Then again, she said he was totally normal “at first.” She seems nice, but I don’t want to assume my boyfriend has done all of those things. I don’t know if she’s lying or if he is. What do I do?

—Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Dear Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,

While I normally try and assume the best in people, this is definitely not something you want to ignore — messages from exes warning the new person are a major red flag. Did she include any proof of what she’s been saying? If there were texts or other evidence backing this up, I’d definitely question your new man.

If she can’t provide any, I still wouldn’t completely disregard her words. Talk to your boyfriend about what happened, but also ask anyone else who might know.

If your boyfriend already thinks his ex is “crazy,” he might brush this off. Asking a longtime friend what happened between the two of them could allow you to understand the bigger picture. Either way, don’t make any rash decisions until you find out the full truth — bitter breakups can result in lies from both sides.

— Dr. Date

Want advice from the love doctor?

Email Dr. Date at drdate@mndaily.com

SUDOKU CROSSWORD

Last Issue’s Puzzle Solved

Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9.

For strategies on how to solve sudoku, visit sudoku.org.uk.

Last issue’s solution

1/24/19

© 2019 Michael Mepham. Distributed

by Tribune Media Services.

All rights reserved.

10

Thursday, January 24, 2019

MSA pres. discusses new initiatives Simran Mishra talked about her presidency and the new U president.

BY NIAMH COOMEY ncoomey@mndaily.com

The Minnesota Daily recently sat down with Minnesota Student Association President Simran Mishra to discuss initiatives and goals for the spring semester.

How has your presidency been going so far?

The presidency has been going really well. I think MSA is coming out of a really successful and strong semester, where we’ve spent a lot of time building strong relationships with administration. [MSA is] being very inquisitive and asking the right questions of all the new administration to come. … [We are] really connecting with the student body and trying to push for initiatives that will improve our student experience on campus.

How do you hope to work with [University President-Designate and University of South Carolina Provost] Joan Gabel in the coming months and help her adjust to the school?

We are really hoping that. she’s willing to engage with our student government. She’s already shown that she is. ... We hope that we can sit down with her sometime in the next semester and really give her a thorough [brief] ... to let her know that these are the biggest issues facing students at the University of Minnesota.

Health care u from Page 1

This did not surprise Jimmy Cooper, a nonbinary University first-year student who uses he/him and they/them pronouns.

It took nearly two weeks for Cooper to be diagnosed with a urinary tract infection because he did not want to have to explain his gender identity to a health care provider.

Tanith Broom was also not surprised. For Broom, a nonbinary trans health advocate who uses they/ them pronouns, it took 19 doctors to be diagnosed with a chronic illness — a process they think would have been expedited had they been cisgender.

“If you identify on the nonbinary scale, the pushback you get from supposedly educated and competent doctors and surgeons is kind of insane. It creates this environment that’s just so much more hostile,” Broom said.

Personal encounters with health care inadequacies, both on the patient and provider side, are part of the reason why Broom co-founded TransChance Health — an organization that aims to educate and empower the trans community in health care.

“With trans medicine,

Minnesota Student Association President Simran Mishra poses for a photo on Monday, Aug. 27, 2018 at Coffman Union on East Bank.

What do you see as some of those biggest issues or issues that might be specific to U of M students right now?

Tuition is a big one. [Nonresident, non-reciprocity] tuition and, in fact, it was really interesting because the University of South Carolina student [representative] on their Board of Regents equivalent voted in favor of tuition increase. I think that’s very much in stark contrast to here, where students were so, so opposed to the numerous increases that we’ve seen in [non-resident,

just basic population study and research is so far behind and that almost goes doubleso for the non-binary community. It’s another level of discrimination that trans and non-binary individuals face because there’s so little research out there,” Broom said.

James Pathoulas, a c o - c h a i r o f P ro m o t i n g Recognition of Identity, Dignity and Equality in Healthcare, a student organization on campus that aims to promote LGBTQ inclusivity in health care, also said research is lacking.

“If we’re not collecting the data, we’ll never know that there’s a problem, and we’ll never be able to intervene to create a positive outcome,” Pathoulas said.

“Whatever you are, whoever you are, if you care about patients – which is everyone in health care – to really give quality care, you need to have quality data.”

Erica Anderson, a University alumna and San Francisco-based psychologist who specializes in gender-identity, said while she was an undergraduate and graduate student, most people still believed that gender was a binary: a person was either male or female. Anderson, who identifies as a trans woman, said there has since been progress in understanding gender identity.

non-reciprocity] tuition. …

I think that is one big one that we want to ensure that [Gabel] knows — here, we’re in a different spot.

I also think it’s important for her to understand just how much [the University] work[s] with student government. We want to create change, and I think there’s some student governments that do that across the country, and some don’t. [We want to make] sure that we establish ourselves as one of those student governments.

So when she is here starting her term, she knows

that we’re people who really want to work with her.

How will you work with [President] Kaler to finish up his term?

We met with him last semester. We’ll continue to meet with him this semester.

He’s been very, very receptive to our concerns. For the first time ... we had a meeting with him in [the MSA office]. He made an effort to be here and I think that’s a milestone for us and something for all student governments to aspire to have — a president who is willing to come to your space and work

with you. And so we hope to continue that same trend going forward, to have these strong relationships that we’ve built with him as we continue to create change.

What are your goals for the rest of your term and what do you hope to accomplish before you are out of office?

It’s safe to say that not everything is accomplished in one year. That’s why I think it’s very important that now that we’re into the second semester, we start thinking about transitioning and bringing really

MORGAN LA CASSE, DAILY

“Many things have happened in both science and culture, and we now are beginning to recognize that there are differences, a continuum in sexuality and gender,” Anderson said. “I think that people are coming to realize that there really is nothing about being human

that is binary. There’s no single narrative to explain any group of people. You have to understand an individual’s developmental journey.”

The University has shown this progress as well, like the proposed pronoun policy and a more inclusive

approach to health care at Boynton Health.

“We’ve been able to carve out a space in our current electronic health records so that we can use preferred pronouns and preferred names,” said Dave Golden, director of public health and communications

DAILY FILE PHOTO

talented people into MSA. That’s on my mind really in addition to addressing issues on campus like emergency contraception accessibility or perceptions of Cedar-Riverside or sustainability on campus.

What are you hoping to see from the new administration?

Understanding that every student experiences this campus differently I think will be key in ensuring [a] very strong impact at the [University] for administration and our new regents.

for Boynton. “We should just work on not constantly defaulting to the binary.”

Though other gender identifications for male and female are a good start, there is still room for improvement, Broom said.

Both Cooper and Broom said that multiple health care providers have told them that the real conditions they have could be because of their gender identities.

“I put off seeing a gynecologist for years because I don’t want to sit there and be stigmatized and dehumanized for an hour or however long,” Cooper said, commenting on how hurtful it can be to be misgendered.

“I’d like to believe that it’s not malicious. … It’s just really a level of incompetence surrounding trans people.”

Trans rights and gender identity have become politicized and polarized issues, and Liszewski said that’s why more physicians should educate themselves on gender identity.

“One of the wonderful things about medicine is that it is political,” Liszewski said. “The needs of our patients can be controversial, and I think [that] as health care providers, we have an obligation to advocate for all of our patients but particularly advocate for the most vulnerable or for those who society sort of neglects.”