March 24, 2014

CAMPUS & METRO

SWIMMING & DIVING

BASEBALL

The national org replaced the pledge program with an expedited process.

The Gophers had 10 athletes swim or dive at the NCAA championships.

Minnesota also won four games in California over spring break.

SAE fraternity to eliminate pledging

Minnesota places 10th to close season

u See PAGE 3

Gophers take 2 of 3 against Northwestern

u See PAGE 9

MOSTLY CLOUDY HIGH 36° LOW 8°

STATE GOVERNMENT

Tax cuts include students

U OF M

MINNEAPOLIS

ST PAUL

u See PAGE 10

MONDAY

MARCH 24, 2014

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT MNDAILY.COM

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

‘This was an incredible team’

A portion of the $500M cut will go toward students, parents and recent grads.

BY HALEY HANSEN hhansen@mndaily.com

Amid a state budget surplus, Gov. Mark Dayton signed a proposal Friday that includes tax breaks for more than 1.2 million Minnesotans, including current college students and recent graduates.

The bill, which passed the state House and Senate earlier this month, provides up to $190 per year for more than 285,000 college graduates by deducting their student loan interest. Additionally, 40,000 current students and parents will get tuition deductions of $140 per year on average.

“I think that students have been put into extremely unfair situations by older generations for the cost of college and the lack of resources to pay for it,” Dayton said in a March 13 conference call. “But I feel that we’ve made some good progress.”

Despite the tax breaks, many say the state

BETSY HELFAND, DAILY

Minnesota defenseman Milica McMillen watches Clarkson players celebrate their NCAA title victory Sunday at the TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden, Conn. The Gophers had won the previous two NCAA titles.

The Gophers lost their second game in two years, falling to Clarkson 5-4 in the NCAA national championship.

u See TAXES Page 4

Now, after the loss, they’ve experienced the

BY BETSY HELFAND bhelfand@mndaily.com

COURTS

H

Former golf coach gets $360K

agony of defeat.

AMDEN, Conn. — Gophers sopho-

“It hurts pretty bad, but I think in retro-

more defenseman Milica McMil-

spect, we [will] look back at this year, and

len took a knee alone on the ice after the

[we will say], ‘Man, what a year,’ ” senior

final buzzer sounded. She barely moved.

captain Bethany Brausen said.

She just watched the Clarkson players celebrate.

Though the Gophers didn’t finish the season the way they wanted to, the team

Minnesota’s women’s hockey team fell just short of its third consecutive national

isn’t letting the title game loss define this year.

championship Sunday, losing 5-4 to Clark-

A judge ruled that Katie Brenny was discriminated against for being a lesbian.

son at the TD Bank Sports Center.

“Success for us is the embodiment and fulfillment of our values,” head coach Brad

For the past two years, the Gophers

Frost said. “We didn’t win the biggest one

have experienced the pinnacle of success.

here, but our kids were successful. They

BY NATE GOTLIEB ngotlieb@mndaily.com

u See HOCKEY Page 7

A Hennepin County judge last week awarded almost $360,000 to a former University of Minnesota associate women’s head golf coach who claimed the school’s former golf director curtailed her responsibilities after learning of her sexual orientation.

Hennepin County District Judge Thomas Sipkins ruled that former University Director of Golf John Harris’ discrimination against Katie Brenny created an intolerable work environment that led to Brenny’s resignation in October 2010.

Sipkins awarded Brenny $334,588 for lost wages and $25,000 in damages for mental anguish. He found that “she was demeaned, belittled and prevented from performing the job that Harris had recruited u See BRENNY Page 10

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

GAPSA presidential candidates seek reform Alfonso Sintjago and Scott Petty say they want more input and collaboration.

BY BLAIR EMERSON bemerson@mndaily.com

As candidates for president of the University of Minnesota’s Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, Alfonso Sintjago and Scott Petty are strategizing ways to restructure the assembly’s divided leadership.

Both say GAPSA’s member councils aren’t effectively represented by its executive board, and they have similar goals for how to improve GAPSA and generate more collaboration among its members.

In the last year, GAPSA has seen a large recommended cut to its student ser vices fees request, one of its member councils leave the assembly and the controversial election of its current president.

Sintjago, cur rent GAPSA President Brittany Edwards and Vice President of Finance Kevin Lang all filed as candidates in

last year’s election, but Sintjago and Lang both dropped out of the race before the election began.

Sintjago said the three agreed they would all file for candidacy and two would drop out, depending on their schedules.

Petty staged a write-in campaign against the three registered candidates upon hearing that two of them planned to drop out of the race.

“They said last year that the three of them u See GAPSA Page 3

AGRICULTURE

Students fill hop demand Mighty Axe Hops is working to provide craft breweries with rare local, organic hops.

BY KRISTOFFER TIGUE ktigue@mndaily.com

BRIDGET BENNETT, DAILY

Ben Boo and Eric Sannerud at Sannerud’s family farm March 16 in Ham Lake, Minn. The farm has been in Sannerud’s family for four generations and will be the new home for Mighty Axe Hops.

A foot of hard snow clings to the more than 70 acres of land at the Sannerud family farm in Ham Lake, Minn., where other farmers have planted corn and mushrooms and laid out compost.

For three generations, the Sannerud family has rented its land to others rather than tending it themselves, but that will change soon.

University of Minnesota alumnus Eric Sannerud and two other University students will turn a chunk of that land into Mighty Axe Hops. Their new project will farm local, organic and sustainable hops,

filling a growing demand from the state’s booming craft brewing industry.

“Duh, there’s a market,” Sannerud said.

“People want craft breweries, and they’re going to want local hops.”

There are 47 companies registered in the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, and the majority of them are based in the Twin Cities. And that doesn’t include breweries just beginning to establish themselves, such as Fair State Brewing Cooperative and the Day Block Brewing Company, which both operate out of Minneapolis.

Hor ticulture senior Ben Boo is in charge of designing and developing the cropping system for Mighty Axe. He said most hops come from the West Coast, where the weather is more temperate. But he said he believes plenty of breeds, like Cascade hops, will grow here despite the u See BEER Page 14

VOLUME 115 ISSUE 90

2

Daily Review

Monday, March 24, 2014

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1989 The worst oil spill in U.S. territory begins when the supertanker Exxon Valdez runs aground on a reef in Prince William Sound in southern Alaska.

HISTORYCHANNEL.COM/TDIH

SLIDESHOW Vol. 115 Monday, March 24, 2014, No. 90

An Independent Student Newspaper, Founded in 1900.

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OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER Tony Wagner awagner1@mndaily.com Co-Publisher and Editor-in-Chief (612) 435-2759 Morgan Goronkin mgoronkin@mndaily.com Co-Publisher and President Bailey Alto balto@mndaily.com Co-Publisher and Business Operations Officer =

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PATRICIA GROVER, DAILY

Actors covered in fake blood, some even carrying fake limbs, played victims of a simulated explosion and light rail derailment Tuesday morning along the tracks near the Transitway and 25th Avenue.

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WORLD BRIEFING

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Egypt: Court orders leading activist to be freed on bail

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAIRO — An Egyptian cour t on Sunday ordered the release on bail pending trial of a prominent activist charged with breaking a new law that heavily restricts protests, after he spent nearly four months in jail.

The case against Alaa Abdel-Fattah and 24 other defendants was criticized by rights groups. It was seen as part of a sweeping clampdown by authorities on dissidents, widening an already ongoing crackdown on Islamist suppor ters of the ousted President Mohammed Morsi to include the secular opposition.

Egyptian authorities arrested Abdel-Fattah, a leading figure in the 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak, in November.

He was charged with organizing a protest without permission and assaulting police.

At Sunday’s opening hearing of Abdel-Fattah’s trial, lawyers called on the judge to release AbdelFattah and the only other defendant imprisoned in the case, Ahmed AbdelRahman, saying there was no reason for their continued detention, hinting it amounted to a punishment.

The presiding judge Mohammed el-Fikki, agreed, ordering their release and set bail at 10,000 Egyptian pounds (about $1,400). The cour t adjourned the proceedings until April 6.

The defendants and lawyers broke out in chants: “Revolutionaries and free, we will continue our journey!”

Egyptian courts are cur-

rently swamped with legal cases against thousands of defendants arrested in the past eight months on various charges, from violating the protest law to waging a campaign of violence against security and state institutions. Morsi and leading members of his Muslim Brotherhood are also facing more serious charges such as conspiring with foreign groups to destabilize Egypt and inciting murder.

With so many court cases going on simultaneously, lawyers and rights groups express concern about the fairness of such trials.

Ahmed Seif, Abdel-Fattah’s father and lead lawyer, said his release was welcomed as a “start on a long road to tr y to guarantee justice.” He said the deeply polarized political environment makes such prospects

unpredictable.

Justice “has become like rolling the dice. It depends on so many other things, not including the rule of law or how clever the defense is.”

The case of Abdel-Fattah has, however, gained particular attention. It was the first case filed since Morsi’s ouster against secular activists, many of whom were vocal critics of the Islamist president and called for his stepping down. The case was also the first moved against protesters for violating the law adopted in November by the government— explaining that it needed to regulate continued street protests.

Three other prominent secular activists have since been sentenced to three years for violating the law since Abdel-Fattah’s arrest, in December.

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HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE DAILY

Police move in on Turkish jet shoots Taiwan protest down Syrian warplane over China pact

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Baton-wielding riot police cleared Taiwan’s Cabinet of fices of scores of angr y protesters opposed to a trade pact with China on Monday, in a sharp escalation of roiling tensions against the island’s rapidly developing ties with the communist mainland.

Authorities said they arrested 58 protesters while dozens were injured. Police action came five days after mainly student demonstrators occupied the nearby legislature following the decision of a ruling party politician to renege on a promise to submit the pact to legislative review.

While political protests in Taiwan are common, violent confrontations between demonstrators and police are relatively rare, reflecting the high level of civil discourse that has taken hold of Taiwanese society since the island completed an impressive transition from oneparty dictatorship to robust democracy in the mid-1990s.

The occupation of the Cabinet of fices marked a sharp escalation in tactics by a mostly student-led protest movement that now appears to be showing signs of a split between anti-government militants and a main group seeking dialogue with President Ma Ying-jeou on the China trade pact.

The occupation of the legislature has been mostly peaceful, attracting tens of thousands of suppor ters to the area surrounding the legislative building.

ISTANBUL — Turkish fighter jets shot down a Syrian warplane Sunday after it violated the countr y’s airspace, Turkey’s prime minister said, in a move likely to ramp up tensions between two countries already deeply at odds over Syria’s civil war.

A spokesman for Syria’s militar y confirmed the incident, denouncing it as a “blatant aggression.” The unnamed spokesman quoted on Syrian state TV said the plane was hit while pursuing gunmen near the border, and that the pilot safely ejected from the aircraft.

Syria’s of ficial SANA news agency quoted the pilot as saying that he was shot down while 7 kilometers (5 miles) inside Syrian airspace.

Turkey, a NATO member that once enjoyed good ties with Syria, has emerged as one of the strongest critics of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is now one of the main backers of the 3-year-old rebellion against him. Hostilities have flared along the border on several occasions, although the exchanges of fire have generally been brief and ver y limited in scope.

Despite protestations from Syria, there was little indication either side wanted the confrontation to escalate.

In a statement, the Turkish militar y said a Syrian MiG-23 entered Turkey’s airspace near the Hatay border zone after ignoring four warnings to turn back. One of two Turkish F-16s conducting a patrol in the area then fired a missile that str uck the Syrian jet, which crashed 1,200 meters (yards) inside Syrian territor y near the town of Kassab, the militar y said.

EXTENDED WEATHER FORECAST TUESDAY HIGH 26° LOW 8° Partly sunny

WEDNESDAY HIGH 41° LOW 32°

Mostly cloudy/wind

THURSDAY HIGH 41° LOW 21°

Rain/snow showers

FRIDAY HIGH 35° LOW 19°

Few snow showers

Freelance audio/video: Contact Multimedia Editor Amanda Snyder at asnyder@mndaily.com.

Letters to the editor: Email submissions to letters@mndaily.com Guest columns: Emails submissions to Editorials & Opinions Editor Eric Best at ebest@mndaily.com.

All submissions are welcome, but there is no guarantee of publication.

CORRECTIONS

A front-page story in the March 11 Daily provided information about the projected nine-month salary for a graduate student teaching assistant or research assistant without necessary context.

The story said these assistants’ wages started at $27,177 for this year, but this figure was based on a 100 percent appointment. Few graduate students receive a full appointment, and many receive only a half-time appointment. errors@mndaily.com 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.

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 through 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 22,000 issues daily.

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One (1) copy of The Minnesota Daily per person is free at newsstands in and around the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota.

Additional copies may be purchased for 25 cents each.

U.S. Postal Service: 351–480.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Increasing social programming

Sintjago and Petty both said they want to see GAPSA facilitate more social programming for graduate and professional students. But if the assembly’s student services fees funding is cut, its plans may not have the money needed to take off.

GAPSA received more than $392,000 from the Stu-

CURRENT POSITION: Executive vice president of GAPSA DEGREE SOUGHT: Ph.D. in comparative and international development education COLLEGE: College of Education and Human Development HOMETOWN: Gainesville, Fla. UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE: Ouachita Baptist University, Arkansas GOALS: Improve COGS and GAPSA relationship, restructure GAPSA leadership and help international students

SCOTT PETTY

CURRENT POSITION: Vice president of university relations of COGS DEGREE SOUGHT: Ph.D. in economics COLLEGE: Graduate School HOMETOWN: Houston UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE: University of Houston, Texas GOALS: Restructure GAPSA leadership and increase social programming SOURCE: MN DAILY REPORTING

dent Services Fees Committee for this year. It requested about the same amount for next year, but the committee’s initial recommendations offered just $176,500 for the assembly.

Sintjago, an international student from Venezuela, recently became a board member of the Council for International Graduate Students. He said he wants to incorporate more programming for international graduate and professional students who may have a hard time adjusting to the University.

“Any way we can help international students deal with some of those cultural difficulties that they have, or just to have a place to socialize, that’s important to us,” he said.

But CIGS founder Sumitra Madhuri Ramachandran said Sintjago was not supportive of CIGS in its early stages.

“GAPSA wasn’t supportive, and Alfonso had all the means to support us,” she said. “If he supports it, [then] it would be a good help because he’s been in GAPSA for three years.”

After a failed attempt getting support from GAPSA, she said, the group went to COGS, which was receptive and

helped the council start up.

CIGS President Takehito Kamata said he hopes whoever is elected GAPSA president next year will suppor t CIGS and its programming.

“We are a new student organization, and we think that the experience and knowledge, especially from GAPSA leaders, will be very crucial to us,” he said.

Petty said he hopes to increase all social programming within GAPSA. It’s easy for graduate and professional students to not connect with students outside their programs, he said, even though it can be important for their education.

“I would like to see GAPSA do more actual programming that would target the students that pay the GAPSA fee,” he said.

But Petty said in light of the group’s recommended funding cut for next year, he’s concerned the budget won’t be able to fund much social programming.

If the current fees recommendation sticks, Petty said leadership stipends may need to be cut. If elected president, he doesn’t plan to take a stipend.

Appeals court temporarily halts gay marriages in Michigan

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MASON, Mich. — An appeals court reinstituted Michigan’s constitutional ban on gay marriage, but not before several hundred same-sex couples rushed to the state’s county clerk’s offices to get hitched.

The order on Saturday by a federal appeals court in Cincinnati to at least temporarily restore the ban that Michigan voters approved in 2004 came after Glenna DeJong, 53, and Marsha Caspar, 51, of Lansing, were the first on Saturday to arrive at the Ingham County Courthouse in the central Michigan city of Mason. DeJong and Caspar, who have been together for 27 years, received their license and were married by Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum.

“I figured in my lifetime it would happen,” Caspar said.

“But now, when it happens now, it’s just overwhelming.

I still can’t believe it. I don’t think it’s hit me yet.”

Similar nuptials followed one after another, at times en masse, in at least four of Michigan’s 83 counties.

Those four — Oakland, Muskegon, Ingham and Washtenaw counties — issued more than 300 marriage licenses to same-sex couples Saturday.

DeJong said the threat of

a stay was all the encouragement they needed. “ C o m e M o n d a y, w e might not be able to do it, so we knew we had a short window of time,” she said.

She was right. Later Saturday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals froze until at least Wednesday a decision by a lower court judge to overturn Michigan’s ban.

The appeals court said the time-out will “allow a more reasoned consideration” of the state’s request to stop same-sex marriages.

The cour t’s order was posted just a few hours after it told the winning side to respond to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s request for a stay by noon Tuesday.

In his appeal, Schuette noted the U.S. Supreme Court in Januar y suspended a similar decision that str uck down Utah’s gaymarriage ban.

Voters approved the gay marriage ban in a landslide in 2004. But in Friday’s historic decision, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman said the ballot box is no defense to a law that tramples the rights of same-sex couples.

Schuette’s spokeswoman, Joy Yearout, said Saturday that a stay would preserve a state constitutional ban pending the appeal’s

outcome. She declined to say whether the state would recognize the new marriages in that scenario.

“The courts will have to sort it out,” she said.

Yearout later said her office anticipates that the appeals court “will issue a permanent stay, just as courts have ruled in similar cases across the country.”

After the U.S. Supreme Court inter vened in Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert ordered state agencies to hold off on moving for ward with any new benefits for the hundreds of same-sex couples who mar ried during the three-week window until the courts resolved the issue. Agencies were told not to revoke anything already issued, such as a driver’s license with a new name, but were prohibited from approving any new marriages or benefits.

Utah made clear it was not ordering agencies to void the marriages, but that their validity would be decided by the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Anna Kirkland, a University of Michigan professor who submitted an exper t report in the Michigan case, said people who have received licenses are “legally married” regardless of what state officials do.

2010

All other fraternities

2011

Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a fraternity that’s drawn scrutiny in the national greek community, eliminated its pledging process earlier this month.

The decision stems from a number of behavioral issues on a national scale, including hazing, alcohol, drugs and multiple member deaths.

The organization replaced the eight-week pledge program with the “Tr ue Gentleman Experience,” which includes an add/drop process allowing a potential new member 96 hours after accepting his bid to complete the requirements for new membership.

The University’s SAE chapter president, Bradley Otto, said the aim of the change is not only to curb bad press and some future behavioral issues, but to better educate members during their time in the fraternity.

“One death of any member is too many, and that’s just something that we can’t have anymore,” he said. “The new system … really takes a holistic approach to educating the entire fraternity.”

Instead of just educating new members about the history and traditions of SAE during pledging, those stages of education will be spread out over each year spent as a member, Otto said.

At least 10 member deaths since 2006 have been

SAE

2012

BY ANNE MILLERBERND amillerbernd@mndaily.com

FRATERNITY-RELATED DEATHS IN THE U.S.

2013

were homogenous [and] that it literally didn’t matter which one of them was president,” he said.

Petty received about 35 percent of votes, with Edwards taking about half of votes.

Now, both Petty and Sintjago want to restructure GAPSA to avoid these past issues.

Petty said he believes leadership problems within GAPSA have been getting worse since last year.

“My first priority is I think some structural reform is vitally needed,” he said.

Petty is the Vice President of University Relations for the Council of Graduate Students, which voted to split from GAPSA effective this summer after having issues with the assembly.

If elected GAPSA president, Petty said, he would structure GAPSA to have a more open dialogue between the assembly’s leadership and its member councils.

“I want a GAPSA that views the councils as … kind of constituents,” he said. “I would like decisions to actually be made by the people in the assembly.”

Sintjago said he would also like to involve the general assembly more in decision making. GAPSA’s current leadership structure will likely to lead to various problems, he said.

To make sure that decisions are more collaborative among all GAPSA members, Sintjago said he wants to make a horizontal leadership structure with more dialogue between the executive board and member councils.

He said he would also like to improve the relationship between GAPSA and COGS. It’s not effective to have two different organizations that represent the same students, Sintjago said. This could lead to graduate students becoming disengaged from student government, he said.

“Right now, it doesn’t make much sense,” he said.

“Students don’t know who represents them.”

The national org replaced the pledge program with an expedited joining process.

2005

ALFONSO SINTJAGO

2006

CANDIDATES FOR GAPSA PRESIDENT

2007

u from Page 1

2008

GAPSA

SAE fraternity to eliminate pledging

2009

GAPSA presidential candidates seek reform

3

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG NEWS

linked to hazing, alcohol or drugs at the fraternity’s events nationally, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

SAE sanctioned its chapters more than 100 times between 2007 and 2012 for violating university or national policies, according to a list of risk-management issues published on the national organization’s website.

The University’s chapter has mostly stayed out of the trend of behavioral sanctions. Since 2007, it has had only one sanction: consumption of alcohol by minors in September 2012. The chapter has been in normal status since May 2013.

Pledging is a deep-rooted tradition for many fraternities, University Inter fraternity Council President Cameron Schilling said, but the change in the pledging process may not mean fewer new members for SAE. “There sometimes are those negative stereotypes with the term ‘pledging’ based on how it was in the ’80s and ’90s,” he said.

“Maybe parents or kids will be drawn to something like [this].”

The pledge program, or probationar y period, ser ved as a way for members and pledges to get to know each other before initiation, Otto said. Eliminating the pledge program won’t be detrimental to the fraternity, he said, but will require some adjustments.

“There’s going to have to be … some more considerations before that bid is given out to potential new members,” he said. “But overall, it’s nothing too drastic.”

Office for Fraternity and Sorority Life Director Matt Levine said the University’s chapter members have been receptive to the move so far.

“I think our organization’s really embracing the change,” he said. “The members seem to be responding well, and they want to serve as leaders on this initiative.”

Though the pledge program will be missed, Otto said, the decision is positive for the fraternity nationally.

4

Monday, March 24, 2014

Minneapolis reworks 911 staffing SUMMER CALL VOLUME

4.2 seconds UNIVERSITY AVERAGE CALL

ANSWER TIME IN FISCAL YEAR 2013

PER TH, Australia — France provided new satellite data Sunday showing possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, as searchers combing a remote part of the souther n Indian Ocean tried without success to locate a wooden pallet that could yield clues to one of the world’s most baffling aviation mysteries.

The new data consists of “radar echoes” in the same par t of the ocean where satellite images previously released by Australia and China showed what might be debris from the plane, French authorities said.

Flight 370 vanished March 8 with 239 people aboar d while en r oute from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, setting of f a multinational search that has turned up no confirmed pieces and nothing conclusive on what

STAFF SCHEDULED

100 UNITS

7MINNEAPOLIS secondsAVERAGE CALL ANSWER TIME THIS YEAR

5.8 seconds MINNEAPOLIS AVERAGE CALL

80

ANSWER TIME IN MARCH

5.5 seconds MINNEAPOLIS AVERAGE CALL

40

20

7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m.

SOURCE: MINNEAPOLIS EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

happened to the jet.

The latest satellite data came to light as Australian authorities coordinating the search, conducted about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) southwest of Per th, sent planes and a ship to tr y to “re-find” a wooden pallet that appeared to be surrounded by straps of dif ferent lengths and colors.

The pallet was spotted on Saturday from a search plane, but the spotters were unable to take photos of it, and a PC Orion military plane dispatched to locate it could not find it.

“So, we’ve gone back to that area again today to try and re-find it,” said Mike Bar ton, chief of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s rescue coordination center. He added: “It’s a possible lead.”

Wooden pallets are often used by ships, Barton cautioned. But he said airlines also commonly use them in cargo holds.

MINNEAPOLIS AVERAGE 911 ANSWER TIMES

497,481

461,162

MINNEAPOLIS 911 TOTAL CALLS

424,146

“It is my job to serve [the citizens of Minneapolis] in public safety to the best of my ability. ...

The recent staffing levels are perilously close to making that impossible.”

424,345

said the University’s 911 response system works well in its current form. At least two employees are scheduled to answer and dispatch calls at all times, he said, and staff members are already trained to do both parts of the job.

The city’s 2014 average call answer time is about seven seconds, while the University’s is usually about four seconds.

University operators are rarely bombarded by a heavy influx of calls, Lessard said, but the center sometimes schedules more employees to work during traditionally busier times, like during r ush hour and early days in the week when students, faculty and staf f are returning to campus.

Ward 2 City Councilman Cam Gordon, who represents neighborhoods ar ound the University, said at the meeting that he’s heard concerns from constituents regarding the number of 911 employees staffed at one time.

In an open letter posted on Hodges’ blog, Minneapolis police and fire dispatcher Robin Jones said

60

444,725

ANSWER TIME 2014 GOAL SOURCES: MINNEAPOLIS AND UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

IN SECONDS

7.33

7.3 6.25

6.31

6.15

ROBIN JONES Police and fire dispatcher

sometimes just one or two 911 employees are answering phones in the early morning hours.

“It is my job to ser ve [the citizens of Minneapolis] in public safety to the best of my ability,” Jones wrote. “The recent staffing levels are perilously close

New data show possible debris from Malaysia jet

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WINTER CALL VOLUME

484,190

Minneapolis City Council members reviewed a new staffing plan last week designed to lower 911 answer and dispatch times — upgrades the University of Minnesota’s Emergency Communications Center says it doesn’t need.

As par t of the reform — which aims to streamline the response process and is expected to be completed by 2017 — the city is r escheduling shifts, adding 911 staf f members based on when calls are most frequent and training employees to both answer calls and dispatch emergency ser vices, Minneapolis Director of Emergency Communications Heather Hunt said at a city committee meeting Wednesday.

The city started revamping its system and implementing the cross-training last year and is currently in the hiring and training phase of the rollout.

Under the old system, city 911 operators only answer phones while dispatchers talk with callers and coordinate emergency ser vices. Also, staf f members are scheduled more evenly throughout the day, regardless of how many calls are received.

“We know that stakes involved in emergency responses are high and that we are often dealing with life-and-death situations,” Mayor Betsy Hodges wrote on her blog March 6.

Although Minneapolis is reworking its model, University Emergency Communications Center manager Jef f Lessard

MINNEAPOLIS 2014 DEMAND-BASED SCHEDULING

488,138

BY T YLER GIESEKE tgieseke@mndaily.com

911

BY THE NUMBERS

482,833

A new process to cut response times is expected to be completed by 2017.

An of ficial with Malaysia Airlines said Sunday night that the flight was, in fact, car r ying wooden pallets. The of ficial spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with company policy.

AMSA said it has requested a cargo manifest from Malaysia Airlines.

When Brazilian searchers in 2009 were looking for debris from Air France Flight 447 after it mysteriously plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, they found a wooden pallet. The militar y initially repor ted the pallet came from the Air France flight, but backtracked hours later and said the plane had not been carr ying any wooden pallets.

Sunday’s search was frustrating because “there was cloud down to the surface, and at times we were completely enclosed by cloud,” Royal Australian Air Force flight Lt. Russell Adams told reporters.

2005

2006

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 SOURCE: 911 RESULTS MINNEAPOLIS 2013 REPORT

to making that impossible.”

But Hunt said the city always staf fs at least nine 911 employees.

Gordon added he would like to see more in-

formation on the depar tment’s problem areas, like longest wait times and the number of hang-ups that 911 doesn’t call back.

“We always kind of pay

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 SOURCE: 911 RESULTS MINNEAPOLIS 2013 REPORT

attention to what we measure,” he said, “so maybe we need to be measuring some other issues.”

Tax cuts will relieve students Taxes u from Page 1

should consider additional ways to help students finance their higher education. Hamline University professor David Schultz said state leaders should instead look at creating more loan forgiveness programs to help students pay for college.

“The current tax cuts are helpful, but certainly I don’t think they are going to help current students or recent graduates as much as perhaps some options would,” he said.

House Speaker Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, agreed. He and said while the bill has many benefits overall, students would benefit more if there was more funding allocated for Minnesota’s grant programs.

Still, he said, it’s unique that students are included in the tax breaks alongside married couples, parents, small business owners, educators and other middle-class Americans.

“This is a way to get money into people’s hands in a much more cost-effective way without creating a new program,” Thissen said.

University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs professor Larry Jacobs said Dayton may have signed the tax relief bill as a political move, hoping to gain popularity as he seeks re-election.

“I think politicians generally like to be Santa Claus and, in general, like to give tax cuts and give things to people,” Schultz said, noting that providing tax cuts is a typical response to a budget surplus.

$508 MILLION TAX CUT BILL $3M tax credits for innovation and jobs $43M simplifying the estate tax and eliminating the gift tax

$230M reducing taxes for middle-class Minnesotans

$508M TOTAL

$232M reducing business sales taxes

SOURCE: GOV. MARK DAYTON’S OFFICE

Minnesota Student Legislative Coalition Chairman Matt Forstie said the tax breaks for students and recent graduates are significant, but the state should use the extra funding in alternative ways to help students.

“Where we really need to make investments is directly in our higher education institutions and directly in students through things like financial aid,” he said.

In order to easily receive the new tax cuts, it’s best to wait until Monday to file taxes, said Sen. Ann Rest, DFLNew Hope, vice chair of the Senate’s Taxes Committee.

She said the Minnesota Department of Revenue is currently working to ensure that the new tax cuts are implemented smoothly and the department is reviewing returns to assess where changes need to be made. Some Minnesotans who have already filed will have to amend their returns to receive the tax breaks.

Sen. Kari Dziedzic, DFLMinneapolis, who represents the University area, said that by including students in the tax relief bill, the Legislature is solidifying its commitment to helping higher education.

“Every little bit helps,” she said.

Hamas supporters rally in Gaza City

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters thronged the streets of downtown Gaza City on Sunday, a show of strength at a time when the Islamic militant group faces its deepest crisis since seizing power seven years ago.

Hamas is dealing with a severe financial shortfall, caused by heavy pressure from both Israel and Egypt.

But leaders stressed that the group remains opposed to Mideast peace efforts and is ready for battle against Israel at any time.

“The resistance is stronger than you think, and our force has doubled and our arsenal has doubled,” Hamas’ prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, told the crowd. “What is hidden from you is bigger than you think.”

Hamas staged Sunday’s rally to commemorate the

10-year anniversary of the death of its spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in an Israeli airstrike, and the assassinations of other top figures a decade ago. But a series of events in recent days, including Israel’s discovery of a tunnel stretching from Gaza into Israel, presumably to carry out militant attacks, and the killing of a top Hamas operative in the West Bank by Israeli forces, gave the rally an extra sense of defiance.

Editorials & Opinions www.mndaily.com/opinion

Monday, March 24, 2014

5

The Editorials & Opinions department is independent of the newsroom. The editorial board prepares the editorials labeled “EDITORIALS,” which are the opinion of the Minnesota Daily as an institution but not representative of Daily employees’ opinions.

Columnists’ opinions are their own.

EDITORIALS

HEALTH

Dead diseases return without vaccines Bolster trans We can’t leave it up to parents to decide if vaccines are right or wrong for children.

T

hrough vaccines, we can eradicate debilitating diseases, but many parents choose against vaccinating their children. Without protection, these ailments continue to spread. Measles, a highly contagious illness that kills or disables one in ever y 1,000 patients, was once dead, but thanks to ignorant or disadvantaged parents, measles are back.

Several major cities across the United States, including New York and Los Angeles, have had several cases of measles this year, particularly children and people who have not received vaccines.

Why are these parents and guardians so fearful of a safe injection that won’t endanger their children?

Some parents listen to delusional politicians and talking heads who have expressed the view that vaccines can cause autism. A 1998 study found that there

RONALD DIXON columnist

was a link between these two ailments, but scientists have since retracted it. Nevertheless, several lawmakers, including congresswoman Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., continue to espouse this belief.

Some of this opposition comes from conser vative or fundamental religious beliefs. In the case of the human papillomavirus vaccinations, for example, some social conser vatives argue that this medication encourages promiscuity, which contradicts their interpretation of the Bible. Others claim that any sort of medical treatment is an insult to God, because messing with the supernatural being’s creation would lead God to believe that the

vaccinators have no faith in his divine plans.

Whatever the ideological justification, however, these parents’ inaction has allowed for outbreaks of measles and other diseases.

We should not tolerate their neglect, which borders on child abuse.

Tackling the dilemma will be ver y arduous. If we attempted to get more parents to vaccinate their kids through persuasion or ad campaigns, we wouldn’t have any luck. According to a recent study in Pediatrics, when researchers gave subjects four dif ferent pro-vaccine messages, not only were many people not more willing to seek vaccination, but it actually created or enhanced antipathy toward them.

If parents will not listen to evidence, then the only alternative would be to use the power of the federal government to force parents to vaccinate their children. When people are getting sick due to a preventable ailment, then the justification for gover nment action outweighs parental rights.

DEATHS IN IRAQ: U.S. & COALITION TROOPS: 4,802 — IRAQI CIVILIANS: 122,161- PLUS DEATHS IN AFGHANISTAN: U.S. & COALITION TROOPS: 3,415 — AFGHAN CIVILIANS: UNKNOWN

On the state level, Colorado’s House Health, Insurance and Environment Committee passed a bill that requires parents to vaccinate their children before they attend public school, or the parents must undertake online classes and visit a medical professional. Although I applaud the efforts of Colorado lawmakers, they could go further.

There should be no exemption based upon ignorance, politics or religion, and classes will not persuade these parents. Instead, a federal law should require all parents to vaccinate their children once appropriate.

This law could also subsidize vaccines to ensure that all families can treat their kids.

Finally, it could also fund experiments to find alternatives for children who are allergic to vaccines.

Federal action is the only way we can guarantee the rights of children, and the protection of society, from delusional parents.

Ronald Dixon welcomes comments at rdixon@mndaily.com.

GUEST COLUMN

M

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Scientific illiteracy in ‘Shake it Up’ I read the March 13 article “Shake it up” in the A&E food section recently, and I found it both misleading and full of fear-mongering. Now mind you, I do not frequent McDonald’s regularly. Yes the Shamrock Shake is well advertised, and yes, it has a lot of ingredients, but the bottom line is that people are willing to buy it and enjoy it, so there is market potential there. Of course McDonald’s is going to sell it if the demand is there. Don’t get me wrong; there are definitely healthier options, but pointing to those specific ingredients as reasons for the Shamrock Shake being “toxic” is ridiculous.

The Shamrock Shake is not toxic.

Maybe the ar ticle was going for hyperbole for ef fect, but public perception of these ingredients as intrinsically harmful is scientifically inaccurate.

Other recent media outlets have pointed to there being yoga mats in bread just because the two share one compound in common. That is inaccurate.

Your body contains water, but you would never say that you have an ocean in your body. It all depends on the scale you are talking about, and the levels that these ingredients are included should be within the limits set by the Food

and Dr ug Administration and based on scientific studies.

Regarding several other points the ar ticle makes: Emulsifiers do not mean that a product is unhealthy.

Emulsifiers allow two liquids (e.g., oil and water) to be able to mix together and be stable without undesirable separation. If you want your salad dressings or mayonnaise to separate, then by all means, avoid emulsifiers.

Second, while there is no “mint” listed in the ingredients section of the Shamrock Shake, they do list “natural flavor (plant source),” so they may in fact incorporate mint, as well as other natural plantbased flavors that give the Shamrock Shake its taste.

The ar ticle states that it’s topped with “ar tificial ‘whipped cream’ and nitrous oxide.” The nitrous oxide is incorporated in this and other food products that need to be propelled. The nitrous oxide is dissolved in the fat, and upon reaching the atmosphere, it becomes gaseous and leaves. So suggesting that you are directly eating nitrous oxide is wrong, and it’s likely in the same aerosol whipped cr eam that you use at home; it’s not unique to McDonald’s.

Third, “preser vativesoaked cherr y” is also exaggerated. The fact that the preservatives are listed

last in the ingredients list means that they are the least present within the formulation, and all of these should fall within the limits set by the FDA. Finally, the article suggests making your own version at home with mint ice cream, whole milk and vanilla extract. The mint ice cream you buy likely has exactly the same types of ingredients as the Shamrock Shake. It, too, will have added sugar, emulsifiers, stabilizers, preser vatives, etc. If you are worried about these in the Shamrock Shake, then why is it OK to eat them in your ice cream?

Finally, I am not suggesting that one should go out and buy an extra-large Shamrock Shake every day while they are available.

People have varied tastes and opinions, which they are entitled to. I just wanted to set the record straight on the science behind these ingredients. Companies are looking for better and cleaner labels, especially since consumers care about those more than ever these days. This is a good thing, and it often makes formulas healthier in terms of ridding them of added sugars, fats, etc. However, blatant scientific illiteracy and ignorance never solves the problem.

David Potts The author is a University Ph.D. student studying food science and nutrition.

Student health insurance plans should cover medical care for transgender students.

T

he University of Minnesota’s Student Health Benefit Plan began covering procedures related to gender dysphoria during the last academic year. Many colleges nationwide, including in the Big Ten, are still behind and lack any coverage of medical care for transgender students.

The University’s coverage comes after student Alena Neumann sued in 2010, and more than three years later, Neuman finally received medical care. It reflects poorly on the University that coverage came only after students needed medical care, but the University is ahead of other schools around the country.

Boynton Health Service Chief Operating Officer Carl Anderson told the Daily that he estimated gender confirmation surger y can cost from $20,000 to $90,000. Anderson also told the Daily that the University would likely increase the coverage cap from $35,000 to $50,000, which is a step in the right direction.

While increasing the coverage cap won’t affect a vast majority of University students, the coverage has huge power to improve the lives of transgender students.

A majority of Big Ten student insurance plans don’t cover surgical procedures related to gender dysphoria. Given the high costs of the surgery, it’s best to break down the price tag among the insured. This makes substantial coverage all the more necessary to give transgender students access to the medical care they need.

By having this coverage, the University has made a move to welcome a more diverse student body. Increasing the coverage gap would be an approachable way of improving the lives of transgender students on campus. Big Ten universities and other colleges nationwide should follow in the University’s example in updating student health plans.

Kaler, the University and area development Dayton budget Kaler’s call for a University voice in development supports its mission, faculty and campuses.

Maxwell Smith welcomes comments at msmith@mndaily.com.

insurance coverage

aybe it takes a former student who lived in the University neighborhood, as University President Eric Kaler did, to think about the University’s role in the growth and development of this par ticular student neighborhood. It is also a commendable recognition of the three-pronged mission of U.S. land-grant universities: teaching, research and service. As an old alumnus (1948) and a longtime southeast Minneapolis neighborhood activist, I congratulate Kaler for this acknowledgment of the University’s interest in, and a measure of responsibility for, its surroundings.

The Minnesota Daily Editorial Board is right to pose questions about this new endeavor, as it did in a March 12 editorial (“Kaler calls for U hand in development”), but the questions are limited to development projects. Transportation, transit, public health, safety and many other concerns are also elements of a healthy neighborhood. Why shouldn’t the University think of the area and the city as a laboratory for thought and experimentation, not only in urban development but in public health, traffic safety and a myriad of other problems that need attention? Why shouldn’t the talents of many renowned and brand-new faculty members be put to the service of the city and the neighborhood? Putting theory into practice can be very interesting and informative.

Why shouldn’t the University think of the area and the city as a laboratory for thought and experimentation ...?

proposal would help students Under Gov. Dayton’s revised budget, students would receive tax deductions on loans and tuition.

G

ov. Mark Dayton and the state Legislature have taken extraordinary steps in reinvesting and recommitting to higher education in Minnesota over the past year. In May, Dayton signed a budget that included appropriations for an undergraduate tuition freeze and additional investments in research at the University of Minnesota.

Though the Legislature continues to discuss details of the 2014 bonding bill, we are confident that lawmakers will again provide sufficient funding for the University. University President Eric Kaler praised House Capital Investment Chair Alice Hausman’s bonding proposal last Friday. It provides $224.2 million to the University and fully funds five projects, including the St. Paul campus’s aquatic invasive species and bee laboratories and renovations to the Tate Laboratory of Physics.

Recently, Dayton has tried to quickly pass a bill through the Legislature that would give tax breaks to Minnesotans. In Dayton’s revised budget, students would be among the list of people who would receive a tax break. Minnesota Public Radio reported March 6 that, according to details released from the governor’s office, Dayton’s budget would provide 285,000 recent graduates with up to $190 per year by deducting their student loan interest, and 40,000 current students and parents would receive a tuition deduction of $140 per year, on average.

Dayton’s proposed tax cut on student loans is a sign that his commitment to helping students and promoting higher education will extend beyond the two-year tuition freeze.

We urge the Legislature to include these tax deductions in the final budget. The deductions would greatly benefit all college students and their families in Minnesota, not just those of us who attend a public university.

LETTERS AND GUEST COLUMNS Minnesota residents and taxpayers should count themselves lucky that the University has escaped the fate of other private and public universities around the country. Partially because of their own neglect, these schools have found themselves in the center of a slum, which forced them to spend millions, including on improvements of physical conditions.

Kaler and the University regents have a better foundation on which to build.

Many of us living in the neighborhoods around the University eagerly await the presentation of Kaler’s plan to the Board of Regents in June and look forward to working with university experts in a variety of fields.

Arvonne Fraser University alumnus

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www.mndaily.com/opinion

Opinions GREEK LIFE

A pledge against greek hazing Hazing remains a fundamental problem for greek letter organizations nationwide.

BRIAN REINKEN columnist

I

n a move to reduce hazing, the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon announced a national ban on pledging this month.

Pledging is the period during which prospective fraternity or sorority members familiarize themselves with their organization’s traditions and histor y. Horrific hazing rituals infamously plague this period, and sadly, this has been slow to change.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon is one of the deadliest fraternities in America, with 10 deaths related to alcohol, drugs or hazing since 2006. Unfortunately, it is not the only Greek letter organization whose members mistreat their pledges.

One hardly needs to recount the hazing stories that commonly make headlines nationwide. Each seems more horrific than the last. Last year, in one particularly gruesome incident, fraternity brothers in Wilmington College’s Gamma Phi Gamma so viciously towel-whipped their pledges that doctors were forced to surgically remove one victim’s testicle.

Violence, however, is only one of hazing’s three strains, according to the University of Minnesota’s student conduct code. Another type is harassment hazing, in which victims must endure undue amounts of stress or discomfort. For example, perpetrators may deprive their victims of sleep or force them to wear humiliating clothing. The third strain is subtle hazing, which can include namecalling, discipline or social isolation.

Violent hazing’s lurid nature frequently places it under media scrutiny. Fraternities are often the focal point of hazing stories, such as The Atlantic’s cover story this month, but sororities are equally guilty.

While sorority hazing may include gratuitous violence, members often mistreat pledges in a different way. Victims have reported physical humiliation, such as body shaming or members classifying them by their breast size. Sometimes hazing will involve forcing young women to have sex with a fraternity member before the organization will accept them.

Perhaps because sorority hazing is not always as theatrical or violent as that of fraternities, the media seems to give it less attention. The implication is disturbing: Un-

less hazing results in surgery or death, it’s tacitly acceptable behavior, and it doesn’t constitute news. Hazing has become engrained in American culture.

This reality may jeopardize Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s efforts to end hazing merely by banning the pledge period. Most schools, including the University of Minnesota, already enforce strict anti-hazing rules, and yet the problem persists. Perpetrators merely find new and more secretive ways of seeing out their crimes.

The dif ficulty with hazing is that its victims are not random. Rather, they seek inclusion in a particular community, and they understand that initiation may include hazing. Their desire to belong discourages them from reporting their negative experiences. In time, moreover, hazing’s victims often become its perpetrators; those who successfully endure hazing become part of the system that perpetuates it. Universities, parents and/or the media may view this internal cycle with dismay, but it’s difficult to disrupt from outside.

From this viewpoint, hazing seems to be a fundamental flaw of the greek system’s structure, rather than something that arises from individual members’ misbehavior. Certainly, individuals should face punishment for barbaric behavior — and the greek industry is notorious for shifting the blame of hazing lawsuits to students, thus ensuring that they are — but something is enabling their violence in the first place.

Many greek letter organizations are more than 100 years old. Before admission, pledges must memorize their organization’s history and traditions. However, college life and American culture have significantly changed over the past centuries, and not every tradition should survive.

Anti-bullying and social inclusion campaigns are perhaps more prominent now than ever before. Education, moreover, is no longer a privilege of fortunate white men.

Why, then, should an archaic and elitist institution — especially one we can so often associate with violence and debauchery — remain so close to the core of college life?

Professional, cultural and LGBT fraternities and sororities are valuable alternatives to traditional social greek letter organizations. Because these societies’ prospective members already share a common interest, cause or identity, their loyalty to the organization is unquestionable from the beginning. This stands in stark contrast to traditional social organizations, whose members may apply because of family traditions, vague notions of future financial success or simply a desire to fit in with a crowd.

Of course, hazing is not just a problem of greek letter organizations, and it’s extremely doubtful that ever y organization includes hazing as an initiation ritual. However, many of these organizations do have an undeniable connection to hazing.

Thus, while Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s ban on pledging may not end hazing, it will hopefully foster discussion about how to rethink the traditional greek letter system.

Brutality is inimical to higher education.

We should not permit it to reside within college culture.

Brian Reinken welcomes comments at breinken@mndaily.com.

Monday, March 24, 2014

STUDENT LIFE

Fall breakers: Should we have an autumn respite?

Stressed students and faculty could use a holiday-like spring break in the fall to balance out the two semesters.

CHRIS IVERSON columnist

W

ell, time to go back to reality, I suppose. As we all rest from our spring break hangover and get readjusted to the continually thawing University of Minnesota campus, at least we can partake in a reverie.

For some of us, our week off was a simple retreat back home to decompress from class. For others, it was more like the plot from “Spring Breakers,” filled with parties and borderline illegal activities. Nonetheless, I am sure the student body majority is thankful they were able to turn their minds, hearts and emotions away from lectures, discussions and late-night study sessions for a full week.

Spring break timing is usually perfect, too. The weeklong vacation occurs exactly halfway into the semester, at the point when Minnesota and much of the country is just starting to warm up, but exotic vacation locations still sound salivating. Popular tourist destinations like the notorious Panama City Beach rely on college students and other travelers for continued revenue.

Some motels, restaurants and businesses in PCB said they only sur vive due to the spring break stampede.

The break happens directly after midterms, giving students a well-deserved rest from pulling out their hair from studying and test-taking. In another light, spring break gives normally par t-time student workers a chance to make some extra cash and work full time.

Ever y reason to have a spring break, whether for business or for pleasure, also justifies a fall break sometime in the first semester of school.

In fact, it’s almost baf fling that there isn’t a fall break at the University. With our large student body and constantly bussing campus, both semesters are essentially identical in academia. Aside from the two-day break on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the semester calendars are identical, and both spring and fall semesters are equally stressful. Spring and fall should both deser ve a quick dash away from schoolwork, and currently at the University, only the latter has a seasonal respite.

The benefits to a fall break in the calendar year would be similar, if not even better, compared to spring break. First

of f, the autumn season in Minnesota tends to contain the year’s most beautiful and attractive weather. Instead of college students dashing to Florida or Cancun to dispose the tundra for a week, there could be a push to stay and spend locally, pumping tourism and travel into the upper-Midwestern economy. Popular local destinations like Duluth and the Nor th Shore of Lake Superior could become goto fall break destinations for University students in early to mid-October. If there were a fall break this academic year, it could have landed on the week of Oct. 21, when daily temperature highs usually linger around the 40s and 50s.

If the University timed it appropriately, the school could also build some athletic pride by allowing students extra time to travel to away Big Ten football games or other events. Similar to spring break, students could also simply get away from school for a while or make extra money at their jobs to spend during winter break.

Of course, challenges always arise over schedule changes, and adding a fall break would be no exception. Instigating this October break would be especially difficult in Minnesota. State law states that all primary and secondary schools, with a few exceptions, are not allowed to commence a school year prior to Labor Day. This law has been in place on and off since 1985, and currently, only two other states — Wisconsin and North Carolina — have laws restricting school starts to after Labor Day weekend.

In order for University students to have a week off in the fall, state lawmakers would likely have to modify the law.

However, a large section of the summer economy is in favor of the restricting statute and would be against this change.

Popular summertime employers have testified in favor of the statute, stating that the school star t restrictions allow many to hold their summer jobs for a longer period of time. Comparatively, a recent 2012 study from the University of Minnesota Tourism Center revealed that a postLabor Day school star t time increased the likelihood that families take at least one trip away from home in late August or September by 50 percent. This truth alone would turn the fight to repeal the statute into a bitter one.

To create a legitimate fall break, we would all have some compromises. Placing a weeklong break without changing the Labor Day law would be tricky, as finals currently push right up against winter holidays. Instead, a shorter fall break covering two or three days could be realistic. Other schools in the area, such as St. Cloud State University and Hamline University, have a short midterm break in October. The University could replicate this by giving students Monday through Wednesday of f sometime in October.

To make up for the time, the University could consolidate some Welcome Week activities.

As a student, I certainly enjoyed relaxing over spring break and getting away from the cold for a while. However, I would love the opportunity to relax in the fall in a similar fashion while the Minnesota weather is still bearable. Providing students a short break would suffice.

Chris Iverson welcomes comments at civerson@mndaily.com.

SOCIAL ISSUES

What can we learn from the death of Fred Phelps?

We shouldn’t celebrate Phelps’ death, but we should heed his and his group’s example.

TRENT M. KAYS columnist

F

red Phelps is dead, and I’m not happy.

The 84-year-old former Westboro Baptist Church figurehead died of natural causes last Wednesday. I don’t know if it was peaceful or not, but the fire and brimstone pastor is no longer part of this world. It would be a challenge to find anyone in the United States who hasn’t heard of Phelps’ tactics of hate. His organization — or cult — has picketed and interrupted everything from funerals to concerts to memorials.

To suggest that Phelps’ group is anything less than deluded wouldn’t go far enough.

The purpose of the Westboro Baptist Church was steadfast and fiery: hate. While the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled them a hate group, there’s nothing particularly special about Westboro or Phelps’

tactics. It’s easy to hate; it’s much harder to love. Yet, as I reflect on the degradation of what the Westboro represents, I notice too many celebrating its founder’s death. This is part of the reason I’m not happy.

What exactly is there to celebrate? Certainly, I understand hate. I’ve experienced it intimately. However, there is nothing to celebrate with Phelps’ death. I suppose the only thing that I can consider a semblance of applause is that he will no longer cause emotional harm. Still, that’s only something to mildly celebrate — if at all.

There are a lot of people in this world deserving of scorn. Phelps was one of those people, but now he is gone. He will no longer cause pain, though I’m confident his progeny will continue doing so. Regardless, Phelps still deserves compassion. I don’t know what was in his heart or what made him behave the way he did. His behavior was inexcusable, but by celebrating his death, we also honor the impact of his message.

Phelps’ message was so vile that it doesn’t deserve honor. It deserves nothing but to be a blip in our cultural history. Most people hate in order to fill something empty inside them. If this is true, Phelps and his ilk must be some of the emptiest creatures to have ever existed.

Despite his character, we can still learn from Phelps’ hate. It’s clear that his message wasn’t successful, because his “church” didn’t grow. It’s fundamentally remained the same since its founding, with a primary membership of Phelps’ own family. He was an abusive father and a petulant familial demagogue who vented his anger

and hate through his primitive and horrendous interpretation of the Bible.

Phelps’ most notable intonation, “God Hates Fags,” must have been tattooed somewhere on his body. Or he repeated his hateful mantra as he knelt in prayer. It doesn’t really matter; all that matters is he will be remembered for “God Hates Fags.”

But does God actually hate fags? I mean, how could Phelps know? If in his understanding of religion, he believed he knew and, by extension, his cult knew, then he must have considered himself god-like.

If you’ve read the Bible, you know that’s a problem.

I’m not Christian. In fact, I don’t believe in any Judeo-Christian religion; however, I understand such religions. Indeed, a severe cognitive dissonance always occurred for me when Phelps preached one thing but compassionate Christians preached another. I always try to imagine what Jesus would say to such things. Unfortunately, I can only envision Phelps and his sort spitting on their own savior simply because he or she wouldn’t condemn LGBT people. It is all these things combined that should teach us that we should not care about their message.

Don’t misinterpret me: Their message is a disgusting use of rhetorical techniques meant to elicit responses. But we should not give in, we should not look down on them and we should not justify their existence by recognizing their choices. Indeed, we should only meet them with love and compassion.

Despite Phelps’ hate and decades of vile bigotry, he was human. His family is human.

His congregation is human. Whether we

like it or not, he was, and they are part of us.

True, they are a part we may wish removed.

As the Zen master Dogen once remarked, “A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.”

So, Phelps’ brand of fanaticism shouldn’t surprise us, but we should still try to meet it with undeniable and unrelenting compassion.

It’s hard to stare into the face of extreme hate and only smile back. Even I’ve wanted to lash out. I’ve wanted to grab the Westboro signs and destroy them in a fiery fashion. But those wants fueled only my own damaging hate, and that is no way to live.

Perhaps that’s the ultimate lesson we can learn from Phelps and his hate group: They are what happens when hate rules your life.

So, while Phelps should only be a minor cultural blip in the history books, the lesson of his life should span centuries. If Phelps has taught us anything, it’s that, in the words of the 15th century Zen poet Ikkyu, “The vagaries of this life, though painful, teach us not to cling to this fleeting world.”

In all the worlds that have surely existed, hate has never conquered hate. The world is what we make of it, and while I’m not elated that Phelps has moved on to the next world, I’m grateful that he existed in this world.

This may seem a paradox, given his life.

But it’s not. He’s shown us what we should not become, what we should not do and what we should not be remembered for.

I hope we all heed that message.

Trent M. Kays welcomes comments at tkays@mndaily.com.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Sports

7

@MNDAILYSPORTS

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Gophers miss three-peat with loss to Clarkson in NCAA final Hockey u from Page 1

were so successful this year.”

A win would have been Minnesota’s sixth title in program histor y and its third in as many years.

“Obviously ever yone wants to win that last game, so it stings a little, but I think we can be proud of what we’ve done this entire season,” senior for ward Kelly Terr y said.

“We can’t be distracted by the fact that we lost this one, because we’ve had a great year.”

The Gophers were the No. 1 team in the countr y for the entire season, but they fell just short in their final game of the season.

“I think it could have [gone] either way.” Brausen said. “And that’s exactly the kind of game you want to finish with.”

Minnesota was forced to play catch-up for most of the game against Clarkson — rare ter ritor y for the team.

G o p h e r s s e n i o r for ward Sarah Davis gave Minnesota its only lead of the game at the 9:40 mark in the first period.

Minnesota played a markedly better first period Sunday than it did Friday in the Frozen Four semifinal against Wisconsin.

Frost said it took a few minutes for his team to get adjusted to Clarkson’s forecheck, but he felt the Gophers carried the play for a majority of the period.

The Golden Knights scored twice near the end of the first period and again at the beginning of the second period to bring the lead to 3-1.

“We normally start periods well and finish periods well, and this weekend, that obviously didn’t happen,” Frost said.

The Gophers made a r un, though, as sophomore for ward Mar yanne Menefee and junior forward Rachael Bona scored within minutes of each other in the second period to erase the deficit.

“In any game, it’s going

WOMEN’S HOCKEY RESULTS

WITH SAM GORDON

SUNDAY Clarkson Minnesota

1 2 1

2 1 2

3 2 1

FINAL 5 4

3 0 3

FINAL 3 5

I

FRIDAY Wisconsin Minnesota

1 1 0

2 2 2

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

to have ebbs and flows like that,” Brausen said. “We were on the downside of that three or four times tonight.”

Clarkson broke through again 11:32 into the third period with a goal from Vanessa Plante, and it widened the lead a few minutes later with a breakaway goal from Shannon MacAulay.

Minnesota wouldn’t go away, though.

The Gophers got a late goal from senior defenseman Baylee Gillanders with less than four minutes left in the game to keep hope alive.

Minnesota pulled sophomore goaltender Amanda Leveille in the final minutes of the game but it wasn’t able to net a goal and complete the comeback.

This is just the Gophers’ second loss in the last two years, but Clarkson didn’t let that past success faze it.

“Minnesota’s won it two years in a row, but that didn’t mean anything to us,” MacAulay said.

“We knew we were going to give them a game, and that’s what we did.”

Clarkson’s victor y was the first NCAA women’s hockey title for any nonWCHA team.

“You can’t say we’re a better team than them or they’re better than us,” Clarkson co-head coach Matt Desrosiers said. “We happened to come out with the upper hand tonight.

Maybe we play them 10 times and lose nine.”

But Sunday was Clarkson’s moment.

“Tonight, the big scoreboard said that we lost,” Frost said. “I would tell you that we won all year.

“This was an incredible team.”

BETSY HELFAND, DAILY

Minnesota head coach Brad Frost stands on the ice after the Gophers women’s hockey team’s 5-4 loss to Clarkson in the NCAA final Sunday at TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden, Conn.

MEN’S HOCKEY

Minnesota bows out at Big Tens The Gophers fell to Ohio State in semis of the Big Ten tournament.

BY MEGAN RYAN mryan@mndaily.com

The Gophers men’s hockey team endured an upset loss in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament Friday, but it’s hard to feel too bad for the No. 1 team in the nation and the Big Ten regular-season champs.

The Gophers didn’t need this win. Ohio State did.

The Buckeyes kept hopes of a postseason ber th alive with a 3-1 win over the Gophers at the Xcel Energy Center but eventually fell in the championship to Wisconsin 5-4 in overtime.

Ohio State junior forward Ryan Dzingel scored the game-winner against the Gophers and said desperation gave his team extra motivation.

“You play a little bit dif-

ferently,” he said. “That feeling you get when you look at those four seniors in our locker room.

They’re done if we lose.

That feeling is a lot different.”

Ohio State might have had the “one-and-done” attitude, but the Gophers had the luxur y of treating this tour nament as the “last oppor tunity as a learning experience,” head coach Don Lucia said.

“I was really hoping we could get to tomorrow for the added experience,” Lucia said Friday after the loss. “[We have] six freshman for wards out there [who need] to experience playoff hockey, but it wasn’t to be tonight.”

Though his team didn’t have the pressure of a loss ending its season, Lucia said a lack of motivation wasn’t to blame for the loss. At this point in the season, he said, ever y team wants to win, and his just couldn’t score.

Gophers junior for ward Kyle Rau said his team failed to come out strong in the first period against the

CHELSEA GORTMAKER, DAILY

Minnesota forward Gabe Guertler skates against Ohio State at the Big Ten men’s hockey tournament Friday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Buckeyes. That showed as Ohio State scored first with a power-play goal from Nick Schilkey.

Rau tied it up on the power play about five minutes into the second period, and even though the Gophers looked stronger in the final period and outshot the Buckeyes 3125 in the game, it wasn’t enough.

Dzingel gave his team the lead about nine minutes into the third period befor e Anthony Gr eco scored an empty-netter

with about 30 seconds until the buzzer.

“We’ve just got to learn that we’ve got to play like we did in the third period, come out ready to go,” Rau said. “We’ve got to do whatever it takes.”

The loss didn’t hurt the Gophers’ postseason seeding.

Minnesota is the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament and will face fourth-seeded Robert Morris (19-17-5) of the Atlantic Hockey Association at the Xcel Energy Center on

MEN’S HOCKEY RESULTS SATURDAY Minnesota Ohio State

1 0 1

2 1 0

3 0 2

FINAL 1 3

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

Saturday afternoon in the West Regional.

No. 2-seeded Notre Dame and No. 3-seeded St. Cloud State play Saturday night before the championship Sunday evening for a trip to the Frozen Four.

h ad to do a doubletake when I read the final score of the Gophers women’s hockey team ’s n ati o n al ti tl e game over the weekend.

Clarkson 5. Minnesota 4.

What?

Clarkson 5. Minnesota 4.

In an attempt at a three-peat, Minnesota lost — something that at times seemed impossible over the last three years.

We a l l k n e w t h i s r un had to come to an end, but I didn’t think it would be this year. The loss marks the end of an era for the Gophers.

And it seemed like some of the Minnesota players knew it as the final buzzer sounded and Clarkson players littered the ice with equipment in celebration.

It was clear this one hurt — bad.

Still, what shouldn’t be lost in the disappointment is that this threeyear run has been truly special, tr uly amazing and truly unprecedented.

We may never see a run like this again. In the last 36 months or so, the Gophers have garnered three national title game appearances, two national championships and one per fect season. All in all, Minnesota went 113-7-3 and lost just one postseason game.

Yo u c a n ’ t a s k f o r much more than that.

The Gophers often jumped out to big leads early and destroyed opponents late during that stretch. It was an extraordinar y run of dominance from a team that has also, in that span, steadily put women’s hockey more firmly on the map.

This wasn’t just a hockey team, though. It was a well-oiled hockey machine masterfully assembled by head coach Brad Frost.

It’s a given that every machine malfunctions from time to time, and that happened Sunday.

Clarkson, to its credit, didn’t back down from the No. 1 team in the nation. It used timely scoring, coupled with stellar play from star forward Jamie Lee Rattray, to stun the women’s college hockey world.

Though the Gophers may never reach the level of dominance we saw over the last three seasons, I have no doubts that this team will be back next year.

And they could be back better than ever.

Olympians Amanda Kessel and Lee Stecklein will rejoin a relatively young roster next year, and Frost, per usual, has added another elite recruiting class to the fold.

Yes, it’s still unbelievable they lost this year.

Yes, we may never see a run like this again.

Yes, this one is going to sting the players for a while.

In the end, though, the Gophers will be back. This program doesn’t rebuild. It reloads.

Ya feel me?

Sam Gordon welcomes comments at sgordon@mndaily.com or on Twitter.

@SamuelEGordon

8

Monday, March 24, 2014

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Gophers still alive in NIT after slow start Minnesota fell behind 14-0 in the game but fought back for the win.

BY JACE FREDERICK jfrederick@mndaily.com

The Gophers looked poised to lethargically step aside and bow out of the National Invitation Tournament on Sunday afternoon.

Minnesota fell behind 140 to St. Mary’s in the second round of the NIT at Williams Arena and showed no sign of resurgence.

No one could really blame the Gophers for bowing out. They had come close to reaching their ultimate goal — the NCAA tournament — before being snubbed last Sunday. They had already won their first-round game against High Point. There wasn’t a lot of shame of losing in a second round.

But the Gophers flipped the script and made sure their season and the collegiate careers of their three seniors didn’t end Sunday.

Minnesota roared back for a 63-55 win over the Gaels to set up an NIT Elite Eight matchup with Southern Miss on Tuesday night.

“If we didn’t want it to end, we had to keep fighting,” junior guard DeAndre Mathieu said. “Coach [Richard Pitino] lit a fire under us to keep fighting, if not for us, for our seniors.”

Minnesota did that, especially on the defensive end. Though shots weren’t falling, the defensive effort stayed true.

Minnesota held St. Mary’s to 38 percent shooting in what senior guard Maverick Ahanmisi called one of the team’s best defensive performances of the season.

That clampdown effort was anchored down low by

junior center Elliott Eliason, who tied a career high with seven blocked shots.

“He was huge,” Pitino said. “It’s good to see [Eliason and Ahanmisi] step up and make big plays.”

A bulk of the offensive presence came from the hot hand of sophomore forward Joey King. The Drake transfer scored 18 points on 5-for-8 shooting from the field.

“I’m playing with a lot of confidence,” King said. “It feels good. Shots are dropping, [and] the ball’s feeling good coming out of my hand.

I’m just playing well.”

Pitino admitted it’s tough for ever yone to stay motivated for the NIT, especially when players see and hear about the NCAA tournament constantly.

Still, with each win, Pitino said it gets a little easier for his team. The Gophers are one win away from a trip to the Big Apple for the NIT semifinals.

Tuesday’s opponent offers some additional motivation for the Gophers. Southern Miss is led by coach Donnie Tyndall, who coached Mathieu at Morehead State for one year before Mathieu left after Tyndall did not offer him a scholarship.

It also marks the return of Chip Armelin to the Barn.

Armelin played at Minnesota for a little more than one season before transferring to play for the Golden Eagles.

If the Gophers can top Tyndall and Armelin, it would earn them a trip to Madison Square Garden, which Pitino dubbed the mecca of college basketball.

“I’m really excited,” said Mathieu, who’s never been to New York City. “Madison Square Garden — they said it’s just amazing, just the facilities and everything.

“I’m really excited [for the chance] to get there.”

BRIDGET BENNETT, DAILY

Above: Gophers men’s basketball players celebrate a shot that gave Minnesota the lead Sunday afternoon against St. Mary’s at Williams Arena. Minnesota won 63-50 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament.

Below: Minnesota forward Joey King looks for a player to pass to Sunday afternoon against St. Mary’s at Williams Arena.

MINNESOTA 63, SAINT MARY’S 55 Saint Mary’s Minnesota

26 29 — 55 22 41 — 63

SAINT MARY’S Player Jackson Waldow Holt Walker Carter Levesque Mccoy Hodgson Petrulis Total

FG FT Reb Min M-A M-A O-T Ast PF Pts 27 1-3 0-2 2-4 1 4 3 19 1-7 1-2 1-2 0 2 3 40 6-15 9-11 2-2 3 4 24 37 2-3 4-8 0-4 2 1 9 32 15 2-2 0-8 2 5 5 12 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 11 1-1 0-0 1-2 0 1 2 21 -5 0-0 0-3 1 4 6 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 200 16-42 16-25 9-30 9 24 55

MINNESOTA FG FT Player Min M-A M-A King 35 5-8 6-7 Eliason 27 0-0 5-5 Hollins, Au. 35 2-6 5-6 Hollins, An. 22 1-7 2-2 Mathieu 29 4-8 4-4 Ahanmisi 24 2-3 2-4 Walker 13 2-7 0-0 McNeil 10 1-1 0-0 Buggs 5 0-0 0-0 Total 200 17-40 21-28

Reb O-T Ast PF 0-1 0 2 3-8 1 2 0-5 5 2 0-2 1 5 0-2 1 4 0-0 2 2 2-6 0 3 0-1 0 2 0-0 0 1 7-29 10 23

Pts 18 2 10 5 14 7 4 3 0 63

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

WRESTLING

Banham falls, Minnesota moves on

Nelson, Ness can’t overcome Penn St.

BY JARED CHRISTENSEN jchristensen@mndaily.com

CHELSEA GORTMAKER, DAILY

The Gophers’ Rachel Banham lies on the ground after being injured at the Women’s National Invitation Tournament game against SMU.

The Gophers moved to the Sweet 16 of the WNIT with a victory over SMU.

BY JACK SATZINGER jsatzinger@mndaily.com

W illiams Arena was stunned into silence as Rachel Banham lay on the hardwood, scrunching her face in pain. After a few tense minutes, team trainers helped the Big Ten’s leading scorer, favoring her right leg, to the locker room.

Banham later emerged with a boot on her right foot and was relegated to watching as her teammates eked out a 77-70 win over Southern Methodist in the second round of the WNIT. “There are three people around a loose ball in a pretty tight space, and I think she got her foot wedged in between Sari [Noga] and the other player,” head coach Pam Borton said.

Borton didn’t know the exact status of Banham’s injury after the game and said

Banham would get it looked at Sunday night. Banham’s injury adds to the slew of health issues the Gophers (22-12) have faced this season.

Minnesota started the season with just 10 players after not adding walk-ons. Then Shayne Mullaney and Jackie Johnson went down with season-ending injuries. Stabresa McDaniel also didn’t play Sunday, due to concussionlike symptoms.

Aside from the injuries, star center Amanda Zahui B. found herself on the bench for much of the game because of foul trouble.

So with nearly half of her team down, Noga took charge.

“I’m a senior, I’m a leader, and I had to step up,” she said. “We knew that once Rachel went down we had to win for her, because she does so much for our team.”

Noga scored a career-high 22 points. Minnesota jumped out to a 14-2 lead early and stretched it to 46-29 by the end of the first half.

“We had a great lead,” Borton said. “I thought we played spectacular in the first half.”

But with Banham — who finished with 11 points — benched, the lead dwindled.

Southern Methodist (1814) trailed 74-70 with 1:05 left in the game, but a trio of free throws from Mikayla Bailey sealed the win. Bailey was instrumental in holding off the Mustangs’ late charge and finished with 11 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. She also checked Southern Methodist star guard Keena Mays at times during the game.

Mays still managed 34 points on 40 percent shooting from the floor.

“I knew I had to step up and try not to foul and just keep that kid in front,” Bailey said. “She hit some big shots, but Sari did an amazing job on her as well.”

Banham spent much of the offseason strengthening her lower body to avoid the chronic knee pain that held her back last year. Still, this season has shown that freak plays can derail preparation.

In a Dec. 5 game against Miami, Banham injured her right knee just before halftime. Williams Arena was just as silent then as it was Sunday

MINNESOTA 77, SMU 70 SMU Minnesota

29 41 — 70 46 31 — 77

SMU Player Simpson Singleton Perry Wilkins Johnson Baker Mays Short Hardy Total

Min 22 28 33 28 6 32 37 7 7 200

FG FT Reb M-A M-A O-T Ast 2-10 1-2 4-6 1 2-4 2-2 1-4 0 6-13 0-0 3-6 1 2-9 0-0 0-5 2 0-0 0-2 0-1 0 2-8 0-0 0-1 6 10-25 9-11 1-9 2 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 1-1 0-0 1-1 0 25-70 12-17 13-40 12

PF 4 1 3 1 0 3 3 0 1 16

Pts 5 7 13 4 0 5 34 0 2 70

PF 2 4 0 4 3 2 0 15

Pts 12 10 11 22 11 6 5 77

MINNESOTA Player Hirt Zahui B. Banham Noga Bailey Riche Hedstrom Total

Min 38 22 25 40 32 20 23 200

FG M-A 6-11 5-10 5-14 9-16 3-6 2-3 1-6 31-66

FT M-A 0-2 0-1 0-0 0-0 3-6 2-2 2-2 7-13

Reb O-T Ast 0-2 4 6-12 0 0-3 4 0-3 4 1-11 5 0-3 1 2-6 3 12-47 21

when Banham went down.

She missed Minnesota’s next game, a 46-44 win over North Dakota.

Banham’s status for the Gophers’ contest at South Dakota State on March 27 is unclear, but she doesn’t seem content with watching her team play an elimination game with six players.

“She already told us she’ll be playing in the next game,” Noga said.

A wild weekend for the Gophers wrestling team featured upsets, disappointments and avenged losses at the NCAA tournament.

Minnesota placed second when it was all said and done, racking up 104 team points and falling shy of Penn State’s 109.5 points.

The Gophers looked poised to win the competition, holding the team-score lead heading into the final round with two wrestlers competing for individual titles.

Still, neither two-time defending heavyweight champion Tony Nelson nor 157-pounder Dylan Ness was able to come away with a title.

That allowed Penn State to claw its way back and eventually edge out the Gophers for its fourth consecutive national title.

Minnesota head assistant coach Brandon Eggum said he was proud of the fight his wrestlers put up throughout the tournament.

“I think our intensity was higher than any other team out there this weekend,” he said. “They wrestled with a lot of heart, and we couldn’t be more proud of that.”

Seven of the Gophers nine qualifying wrestlers earned All-America honors, with Ness and Nelson highlighting the bunch with second-place finishes.

Logan Storley and Scott Schiller each placed third, while Kevin Steinhaus and David Thorn finished fifth.

Danny Zilverberg finished the tournament in seventh despite coming in as the No. 15 seed at 165 pounds.

On his way to the finals, Ness upset No. 1-seed James Green of Nebraska with a second-round pin in one of the tournament’s most exciting matches. Ness pinned his first three opponents during his miracle run to the title match.

Ness’ loss came to Alex Dieringer of Oklahoma State, but the 157-pounder had nothing but respect for his opponent. “[Dieringer]’s a tough competitor and a great wrestler, and he’s had a great year

WRESTLING RESULTS

TEAM

SCORE

1. Penn State 2. Minnesota 3. Oklahoma State 4. Iowa 5. Edinboro 6. Ohio State 7. Cornell 8. Virginia Tech 9. Northwestern 10. Oklahoma

109.5 104 96.5 78.5 62 57 53 49 46 45

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

this year,” Ness said in a release.

While he didn’t make a run to the finals, Zilverberg’s All-America finish was an underdog story in itself. The 165-pounder entered the tournament as a No. 15 seed following his third-place finish at the Big Ten tournament earlier this month.

While Ness and Zilverberg outper formed their seeds, it wasn’t all good news for Minnesota.

In one of the tournament’s biggest upsets, No. 2-seeded Nick Dardanes lost his firstround match to unseeded Matthew Frisch to lose his shot at a title at 149 pounds.

Dardanes then lost again in the consolation round and didn’t place in the tournament.

His brother Chris Dardanes was also eliminated from the tournament after just three matches despite entering as the No. 6 seed at 141 pounds.

Gophers head coach J Robinson said in a release that those losses had a special sting to them.

“We lost a couple of heartbreakers with the Dardanes boys,” Robinson said in a release.

The Gophers’ secondplace finish is their third topthree placement in as many years.

Eggum said he’s excited to build on this year’s finish and keep working toward a national championship.

“These guys came to the University of Minnesota to wrestle for a championship,” he said. “We’re proud of their heart and energy this year, but we’ll be back for a title a year from now.”

Monday, March 24, 2014

9

SWIMMING & DIVING

Minnesota places 10th to close season

The Gophers had a group of 10 athletes swim or dive at the NCAA meet.

BY DAVID NELSON dnelson@mndaily.com

The Gophers women’s swimming and diving team set a goal this weekend: place in the top eight at the 2014 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships — a feat Minnesota has never accomplished.

The team fell shor t, placing 10th.

“I’m really proud of the team’s ef for ts and really proud to be a top-10 team at NCAAs,” head coach Kelly Kremer said. “That’s a heck of an accomplishment, but we’re not satisfied.”

A group of 10 athletes represented the Gophers at the NCAAs, which featured more than 300 swimmers and divers.

Minnesota star ted out str ong Thursday, placing in the top 15 in ever y event.

Kremer said Friday was a bit tougher for Minnesota, but the team gained some momentum with a sixth-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay.

“That momentum carried right into [Saturday] mor ning,” Kremer said.

“And people like Kiera [Janzen] just wouldn’t let that momentum fade.

They came in ready to roll, and it showed.”

Georgia claimed the top spot for the second year in a row with 528 total points.

Stanford placed second with 402.5 points, and California rounded out the top three with 386 points.

California, led by four-

time Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin, represented one of the many talented programs the Gophers faced at the NCAA meet.

Franklin, a freshman, finished her first NCAA meet with a victor y in the 200-yard freestyle.

“I lear ned so much more, and I became a lot tougher than I thought I could be,” she said. “It’s been an incredible experience.”

Gophers sophomor e Kier ra Smith said she thought her team did well against the teams from other conferences.

Smith, who won both br eaststr oke events at the Big Ten meet, finished sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke.

“I had high goals coming into the meet,” she said. “It didn’t come together the way I exactly planned, but I’m proud of the work I did.”

Janzen put in strong ef for ts in four dif ferent events, including a seventh-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle and a sixth-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay.

Though she placed high in those other two events, her best perfor mance of the weekend came with a seventh-place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle.

She beat her personalbest time by about nine seconds.

“I was happy with that race,” she said.

Minnesota’s junior class also produced over the weekend.

Kremer said the entire junior class has steadily improved throughout the season and because of that, he feels comfor table

GYMNASTICS

Minnesota places third at Big Tens Cierra Tomson went down during warm-ups, but her team picked her up.

BY DAVID NELSON dnelson@mndaily.com

The Gophers women’s gymnastics team faced some adversity to start the Big Ten championships, as junior Cier ra Tomson went down with an injur y.

Tomson, who’s competed in all four events in all but one meet this season, tweaked her upper back while warming up for vault.

“I know all of our hear ts kind of stopped for a second when the little mishap happened on vault,” sophomore Lindsay Mable said.

Minnesota overcame the loss as best as it could and finished third at the Big Ten meet for the second consecutive year.

“When someone goes down, it af fects the team in more ways than just not having that competitor there,” head coach Meg Stephenson said. “I thought they really held their composure.”

It’s not the first time this season the Gophers have had to make lineup changes.

Minnesota was already without sophomore beam specialist Hanna Nordquist during the competition.

Still, Stephenson said the injuries aren’t a major concern as the season winds to a close.

Minnesota tur ned to two fr eshmen in Tomson’s absence, and the two made the most of their opportunity.

Kaitlin Rahon filled in for Tomson on uneven bars and stepped up with a score of 9.55.

Then Bailie Holst, only scheduled to compete on uneven bars, scored 9.825 or higher in all three

WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS RESULTS

TEAMS 1. Michigan 2. Nebraska 3. Minnesota 4. Illinois 5. Penn State 6. Ohio State 7. Iowa 8. Michigan State

SCORE 197.550 196.950 196.675 196.625 196.475 196.400 195.375 194.500

MINNESOTA LEADERS Floor Vault Uneven bars

SCORE Slechta, 9.900 Mable, 10.000 Mable, 9.900 Holst, 9.900 Mable, 9.900 Mable, 39.650

Balance beam All-around

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

events she competed in at the Big Ten meet.

Her per formance earned her a spot on the All-Championship team.

She said she wasn’t necessarily surprised with her performance, but said she wasn’t expecting to compete in as many events as she did.

“I wasn’t actually planning on competing floor or vault,” Holst said. “I go in with the mentality of ‘whatever happens happens,’ because I know hard work pays off.”

Mable joined Holst on the All-Championship team after her r ecor dbreaking performances on vault and in the all-around competition.

Mable became just the third person in Minnesota women’s gymnastics histor y to hit a per fect 10 on vault.

“That was unreal,” Mable said. “I cried and jumped on half the team. It will probably be one of my favorite memories.”

Mable’s four impressive event scores culminated in her all-around title with a program-record score of 39.65.

“It’s absolutely crazy,” Mable said. “We had a few unforeseen events happen, so to see all the people step up … helped me keep the momentum going.”

PATRICIA GROVER, DAILY

Minnesota junior Jessica Plant swims in the 800-yard freestyle relay during the NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships Friday at the Aquatic Center.

shooting for the same goal next season.

“I’m sure these guys are already thinking about next year,” he said. “I am, too. I can’t wait to get it started.”

On the boards Minnesota senior Maggie Keefer and sophomore Jessica Ramberg both competed for the Gophers this weekend in the diving well.

Keefer took four th, ninth and 12th in the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform events, respectively.

Ramberg didn’t qualify for the A or B finals after

preliminaries.

Still, Kremer acknowledged the impor tance of an athlete’s first NCAA meet.

“That experience benefits you the second year,” Kremer said. “I’m really happy Jess was here to experience NCAAs. She’ll come back with a vengeance, I’m sure.”

For Keefer, this represented her final dives for the Gophers.

“We’re sure going to miss her,” Kremer said.

“She’s one of the most decorated divers in our program’s histor y — male or female.”

SWIMMING AND DIVING RESULTS

TEAM STANDINGS: 10TH EVENT 500-yard freestyle 1,650-yard freestyle 1-meter diving 3-meter diving Platform diving 200-yard freestyle 200-yard breaststroke 100-yard butterfly 50-yard freestyle 200-yard individual medley *200-yard free relay *400-yard medley relay *800-yard freestyle relay *400-yard freestyle relay 500-yard freestyle

Janzen Keefer Plant Smith Weiland Simenec *More than one swimmer Harding

PLACE 7th 7th 4th 9th 12th 15th 6th 14th 13th 15th 13th 15th 6th 12th 12th

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

TENNIS

Gophers men, women blow past Nebraska

BY DANE MIZUTANI dmizutani@mndaily.com

The Gophers men’s tennis team hadn’t played a home match in nearly a month. It was a clear Sunday afternoon, and the team was happy to be home.

Minnesota, back at the Baseline Tennis Center for the first time in three weeks, used an impressive performance on the doubles side and a few quick wins in singles to top Nebraska 5-2.

“I think the guys were playing aggressive, and we’re doing a pretty good job at keeping up good energy,” head coach Geof f Young said. “It was all around a good match for us.”

The Gophers now have two conference wins under their belt after losing their Big Ten opener to Iowa. Minnesota players know the importance of conference wins — which are especially important later in the season.

“Those wins are really big for a possible NCAA bid for us at the end of the year,” junior Leandro Toledo said. “We had a rough start, but we bounced back.”

The Gophers have won four of their last six matches after the loss to the Hawkeyes.

That success has seemed to hinge on the team’s success at doubles. Minnesota has won all four matches in which it’s taken the doubles point to start the match.

“It’s good going into singles knowing we only have to win three matches,” Young said. “We always play to win all matches, though, because if we take our foot off the gas, we know what can happen.”

The Gophers didn’t take their foot off the gas one bit in the win over the Cornhuskers.

They got out to an early advantage after they earned the doubles point, and they didn’t look back.

Minnesota left no doubt and put the match away with wins at No. 3 singles, No. 4 singles and No. 2 singles, respectively.

The Gophers got two wins from the bottom half of their lineup, a contrast to the start of the season when the team couldn’t buy a win in those spots.

“It’s been good as of late,

LISA PERSSON, DAILY

Jack Hamburg competes in a doubles match against Nebraska on Sunday at the Baseline Tennis Center.

but we know those guys can get better,” Young said, “and they’re going to need to be better for us down the stretch.”

Gophers senior Juan Pablo Ramirez won his first match of the season with a 7-6, 6-3 victory at No. 5 singles.

“I was getting a little frustrated with myself,” he said, “so it was really nice to get this first victory under my belt. I’ve been working hard for it.”

Toledo, who lost his match at No. 1 singles, said it was good to see Ramirez get his first win of the season.

Still, he said the team can’t be satisfied at this point in the season.

“We know we’re not perfect,” he said. “We need to get more mental toughness.

That’s going to be important

WOMEN’S TENNIS RESULTS

MEN’S TENNIS RESULTS

MINNESOTA 4, NEBRASKA 2 Singles L 7-6 (0), 7-6 (3) Brichacova W 6-2, 6-3 Pintusava W 7-6 (6), 7-5 Mozia W 6-2, 6-1 Courter 3-6, 6-3, 2-0 Lambert L 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2 Otero

MINNESOTA 5, NEBRASKA 2 Singles L 6-7 (2), 6-3, 1-0 (4) Toledo W 6-1, 7-5 Weber W 7-5, 6-1 Hamburg W 6-2, 6-4 Froment W 7-6 (2), 6-3 Ramirez L 7-6 (7), 6-4 Frueh

Doubles Brichacova/Mozia Pintusava/Courter Lambert/Otero

Doubles Froment/Hamburg Toledo/Frueh Sydow/Ramirez

L 8-4 W 8-5 W 8-7 (6)

W 8-7 (6) W 8-2 unfinished

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

toward the end of the season when we are in some big matches.”

a 4-2 win over Nebraska in Lincoln, Neb., over the weekend.

The Gophers took the doubles point and tacked on three singles wins to come out on top.

Minnesota improved to 133 this season and moved to 3-0 in the Big Ten with the win.

Women also top Nebraska

Minnesota’s women’s tennis team followed in the footsteps of the men’s squad with

10

Monday, March 24, 2014

BASEBALL

Gophers take 2 of 3 against N’western

Minnesota also won four games in California over spring break.

BY BETSY HELFAND bhelfand@mndaily.com

Minnesota won four of five games in California over spring break before trekking back to the Midwest for a Big Ten series with Northwestern.

The Gophers scored 34 runs in their four victories in the Golden State and followed that success with a big series victor y over the Wildcats in their first Big Ten series of the season.

Minnesota took two of three games against Northwestern to kick off its conference season on a high note.

While the Gophers returned to the Midwest after a trip to sunny California, they didn’t play in the area they expected. The series with Nor thwester n was moved to St. Charles, Mo., because of weather conditions in Evanston, Ill. That slight change in plans didn’t seem to faze the Gophers over the weekend.

Minnesota split a Saturday doubleheader, winning the first game 5-1 before losing 4-3 in the second game.

The Gophers used stellar pitching to win the rubber match 2-1 Sunday afternoon.

Minnesota had strong pitching per for mances throughout the weekend, par ticularly from senior star ter Alec Crawford on Friday and junior star ter Ben Meyer on Sunday.

Crawford gave up only one run in seven innings of work in the series opener, and Meyer gave up one run

in a complete game in the finale.

Minnesota, which isn’t known as a power-hitting team, scored four of its five runs in the first game with one swing of the bat from junior shor tstop Michael Handel . Handel hit a grand slam for the Gophers in the first inning, which was more than enough for Crawford.

In Saturday’s second

game, starter Jordan Jess gave up three earned runs in 3.2 innings.

Gophers freshman pitcher Toby Anderson came on in relief and didn’t allow a run in 4.1 innings. It wasn’t enough, as his team still fell.

Meyer’s per formance Sunday assured that the Gophers opened the Big Ten slate on a good note.

Meyer got some help

on the offensive end from junior third baseman Tony Skjefte. Skjefte blasted a two-run double in the sixth inning to provide all the offense the team needed.

That completes the seemingly endless road trip to start the season for the Gophers. Minnesota will play its first home game of the season at Siebert Field this week — weather permitting, of course.

SOFTBALL

Minnesota wins in Big Ten opener The Gophers took two of three games against Nebraska over the weekend.

BY JARED CHRISTENSEN jchristensen@mndaily.com

The Gophers’ softball team opened Big Ten play in Lincoln, Neb., over the weekend, defeating No. 15 Nebraska in two of three games.

With the pair of wins, No. 19 Minnesota improved its record to 24-4 and continued what has been one of the best seasons in program history.

Gophers junior infielder Tyler Walker used her hot bat to carr y the torch offensively for her team. She went 8-for-10 with seven runs batted in during the three-game series.

Minnesota senior pitcher Sara Moulton picked up the win in Friday night’s game after giving up just one earned run in 5.2 innings pitched.

Walker said the key to

BRIDGET BENNETT, DAILY FILE PHOTO

Minnesota’s Ben Meyer pitches against Western Illinois on March 9, 2013, at the Metrodome.

breaking out this weekend was patience in the batter’s box.

“This week was all about waiting for our pitch and swinging at strikes,” she said. “That’s what went right for me this weekend — getting good pitches and putting a good swing on them.”

In the first game Sunday, the Gophers had already posted three runs in the seventh inning before freshman Sara Groenewegen came to the plate with the bases loaded.

Groenewegen blasted a grand slam, driving four runs across the plate and a railroad tie into Nebraska’s coffin. She also picked up the win in the game, improving her record to 6-0.

Groenewegen said she was happy to get that big home run to help her out of a small slump.

“I’ve been struggling a little lately, so it was nice to get a big hit like that,” she said.

Minnesota couldn’t keep the momentum rolling into the second game

Brenny u from Page 1

her to fill.” He also found that University athletics depar tment administrators tur ned a blind eye to Har ris’ treatment of Brenny.

“These adverse actions

by Har ris as the University’s director of golf were intentional and motivated by his discriminator y animus toward Brenny because of her sexual orientation,” Sipkins wrote.

His ruling comes more than thr ee years after Brenny originally sued the University’s Board of Regents and Harris and four months after closing arguments.

“I’m ver y grateful for the judge’s ability to discer n the tr uth,” Brenny said in an email statement. “This is a win for me, but it’s become much more than that — it’s a victor y for ever yone who believes in equality.”

BASEBALL RESULTS

1

2

3

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5

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R

H

E

Minnesota Northwestern

4

0

0

0

0

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0

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1

5

9

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0

0

0

0

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1

0

0

1

11

1

Minnesota Northwestern

0

0

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2

1

0

0

0

0

3

6

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1

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1

0

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X

4

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2

Minnesota Northwestern

0

0

0

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2

3

0

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0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

6

0

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

ROWING

Gophers open season

BY JACK SATZINGER jsatzinger@mndaily.com

SOFTBALL RESULTS

of Sunday’s doubleheader.

It managed just two runs on nine hits and committed four errors. And after giving up three r uns in four innings, Moulton was handed her third loss of the year.

Moulton said the loss gives the team plenty of things to improve moving forward.

“It’s the little things,” she said. “We got runners on base but we have to move them around. … We have to execute our bunts and all of our pitches.”

Gophers head coach Jessica Allister said she knew this series was important for

her team’s confidence. She said she was satisfied with winning two games in the series.

“They are a great team every year,” she said, “and we knew we had to come out ready to play for a win.”

Minnesota will play its first home game of the season next weekend. Moulton said she’s excited to get back on the home field for the first time this season and work toward a Big Ten title.

“We are just very excited for our first home series this weekend,” she said. “And now we are going to win a Big Ten championship.”

The Gophers rowing team spent spring break in Tennessee enjoying warmer spring weather, but the trip wasn’t a break. Minnesota competed multiple times and practiced on its days off.

“They cer tainly improved,” head coach Wendy Davis said.

The Gophers first competed at the Oak Ridge Invitational on March 15-16. They opened with a morning loss to a highly touted Virginia squad but followed that with victories over West Virginia and Dayton in the afternoon session.

Minnesota looked like a much-improved team a day later, sweeping Alabama.

The Gophers were hankering for the chance to get in a real boat after training indoors over the last few months.

“It’s just great to actually be outside and moving a boat instead of sitting on an erg,” junior Lynn Hodnett said.

Minnesota had another regatta Friday at the University

University spokesman Chuck Tombarge said the University is disappointed with the decision and “will closely review the findings, conclusions and order, and at that time … determine the appropriate next steps.”

Harris’ demeanor toward her had changed. Harris did not allow Brenny to travel with the team and “began a concer ted ef for t to make Brenny’s ‘job’ and her life miserable,” Sipkins found. Harris told Brenny she had nothing to talk with the players about and could only email the team once a day. He later told her that she could only talk to the team about “boys, life and school.”

On Sept. 17, 2010, Harris presented Brenny with a revised job description, removing her core coaching duties and adding administrative duties, Brenny alleged. Brenny said she met with Maturi in October 2010, and he told her to comply with Har ris’ demands or quit.

Brenny returned to Maturi on Oct. 20 after conditions worsened, and at that time, Maturi of fered her a severance package. She said former assistant athletics director David Crum

told her that if she didn’t accept the severance, the University would reassign her to TCF Bank Stadium to sell tickets.

Brenny resigned in late October 2010 “because she felt conditions were intolerable and she had no chance for fair treatment

by Harris or the University’s athletic depar tment,” Sipkins wrote.

A former player on the women’s team, Michele Edlin, told Brenny that she believed Har ris had prevented Brenny from per forming her coaching duties because he learned Br enny is gay. Br enny then rescinded her separation agreement during the 15-day legal grace period to do so and requested that she be able to perform her original job duties.

The University said it would reassign her to the sales position if she returned to her job, prompting the lawsuit.

Brenny sued in Januar y 2011, charging the

Minnesota Nebraska Minnesota Nebraska Minnesota Nebraska

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E

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2

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7

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7

13

8

1

0

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4

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9

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0

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1

1

0

X

3

5

3

SOURCE: GOPHERSPORTS.COM

Years of litigation Former athletics director Joel Maturi hired Harris as director of golf in July 2010.

Unaware of her sexual orientation, Harris recruited Brenny for the associate women’s head coach position that same month.

Brenny had played four years of Division I golf at Wake Forest University and had been playing professionally when Har ris contacted her.

Harris also hired Ernie Rose, his son-in-law, as director of instr uction and John Carlson as the associate men’s head coach that summer.

Brenny testified that when she star ted at the University in August 2010,

of Tennessee, but it used the days between competitions to focus on training. The Gophers held two practices per day, partaking in competitive “seat races” in the morning.

Hodnett said the races are a way to figure out which combinations of rowers are faster than others.

The Gophers made a change to one of their first boats after the seat races, bumping Nicolette Marquardt up a spot. She had never been in the first group before, but she excelled in a more technical role at the bow of the boat.

After the morning seat races, the Gophers spent the second practice of the day focusing on specific things each rower can improve upon.

“It’s tiring having two practices every day, and we battled through it really well,” Hodnett said.

The improvement that resulted from the twice-a-day practices was on display in the Gophers’ final race at Tennessee on Friday. Minnesota swept the Volunteers across the board to cap a productive road trip.

University with discrimination, harassment and retaliation based on sexual orientation. A four th charge alleged that Har ris individually inter fered with Brenny’s contract.

In May 2012, the Minnesota Cour t of Appeals ruled that Brenny couldn’t sue Har ris individually because his actions fell within his duties as a University employee. A judge threw out Brenny’s claims of harassment and retaliation in December 2012, leaving only the discrimination charge intact.

In the meantime, Harris resigned as director of golf in June 2011, and Rose also left the program.

Har ris has played sparingly on the Champions Tour during the past three years.

Brenny, 33, now works for The First Tee of Metropolitan New York, a youthdevelopment organization that introduces young people to golf.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Classifieds

11

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HELPFUL SERVICES Help w/ writing discertations and papers.

Retired professor, phone Peter 612-623-4773

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CLASSIC CITY APARTMENTS In Dinkytown/Stadium Village Now Accepting Applications for 2014 Rooms, Studios 1 BR, 2 BR, 3BR Units

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Events

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UPCOMING EVENTS WHAT: Free public lecture and book signing by scholar Robert Fuller WHO: Author of Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday WHERE: Cowles Auditorium, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 301 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis PRICE: Free Robert Fuller is an international authority on rankism — abusive behavior toward people who have less power due to their lower rank in a particular hierarchy.

WHAT: Control Your Stress!

WHO: Dr. Patricia Frazier WHEN: 4-5 p.m. Thursday WHERE: 402 Walter Library, 117 Pleasant St. SE, Minneapolis PRICE: Free This talk will provide an overview of Dr. Frazier’s translational program of research on the role of perceived control in coping with stressful life events — from initial theoretical work to the recent development of an online intervention to increase perceived control.

Much of the talk will focus on the online intervention, which has now been tested with more than 1,000 students and found to be effective in reducing perceived stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety.

WHAT: FIRST Robotics Regionals WHO: FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) WHEN: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday WHERE: Mariucci Arena, 1901 Fourth St. SE, Minneapolis PRICE: Free The Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional and Minnesota North Star Regional will hold the FIRST Robotics competition. The 2014 game, AERIAL ASSIST, is played by two Alliances of three teams each. Alliances compete by trying to score as many balls in goals as possible during a two-minute and 30-second match. Additional points are earned by robots working together to score goals and by throwing and catching balls over a truss suspended just over 5 feet above the floor as they move the ball down the field.

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12

Monday, March 24, 2014

BACKTALK

horoscopes

Today’s Birthday (3/24): Talk about what you love this year. Keep building communication skills; greatest personal and professional gains come from expressing passion.

sudoku 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.

3/24/2014

March 13 solution © 2013 Michael Mepham. Distributed by Tribune Media Services.

All rights reserved.

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

Written By Linda C. Black

Aries (3/21 - 4/19): Today is a 7 — A group decision provides an opportunity. Consider it, without taking action yet. Look at all options. A rise in status or pay is possible.

Libra (9/23 - 10/22): Today is a 7 — Don’t show unfinished work to a critic. Irritations and breakdowns at home could throw you off your stride. Schedule carefully.

Taurus (4/20 - 5/20): Today is a 7 — Plan your next trip, but don’t go yet. Handle responsibilities, make preparations, pay bills and repair equipment.

Scorpio (10/23 - 11/21): Today is a 6 — Adapt to changes with flexibility and optimism.

Reassure a loved one with your wry sense of humor.

Gemini (5/21 - 6/21): Today is a 6 — Resist the temptation to deplete shared resources.

Follow an expert’s plans. Work closely with your partner.

Sagittarius (11/22 - 12/21): Today is an 8 — Give yourself permission to dream about money. How much would you like to make?

Check out an interesting suggestion.

Cancer (6/22 - 7/22): Today is a 7 — Aim high and rely on partners, especially to navigate breakdowns smoothly. Delegate more this week. Streamline a work routine.

Capricorn (12/22 - 1/19): Today is an 8 — Determine priorities to fulfill a personal dream.

Use more imagination than money. Act from wisdom, not impulse.

Leo (7/23 - 8/22): Today is an 8 — You don’t have to pay for everything. Streamline a routine. You’re a lucky winner. Wait to see what develops. Don’t make outrageous promises.

Aquarius (1/20 - 2/18): Today is a 7 — Get your team moving. Schedule carefully to fit it all in. Stop worrying. Meditate or go for a walk for some peace. Others ask your advice.

Virgo (8/23 - 9/22): Today is a 7 — The tide shifts in an unexpected direction today. Get family to help. Give everyone a chance to voice their opinion.

Pisces (2/19 - 3/20): Today is a 6 — Keep increasing your understanding, or you can just rely on faith to pull you through.

Monday, March 24, 2014

crossword

from the archive

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

BACKTALK

11

FOR RELEASE MARCH 24, 2014

DAILY CROSSWORD Los

From UsedGummer

Hey Network. What the NUTT is wrong with the world today? Net: OK, deep breath: The state, capital, racism, sexism, homophobia, war, poverty, hatred, environmental destruction, lack of critical thinking skills and no “Family Guy” on broadcast TV. I can’t believe so many people are in support of writing discrimination into our laws. For you feeble-minded conservatives, I’m talking about gay marriage. Your only arguments for this bill are “It’s tradition,” and “We have to protect the sanctity of marriage.” You can’t argue tradition because there have been homosexuals for thousands of years. Net: Aha! That’s just what they want you to think! In fact, homosexuality was created in April of 1997 by Ellen DeGeneres in order to bolster her flagging career. Tradition also fails because a society has to change with the times. It was tradition to haze in frats. It was tradition to not allow interracial marriages. It was tradition to own slaves. Net: As Nat Hentoff never gets tired of reminding us, there are still slaves (although he only feels bad for the Sudanese ones).

One down, one to go. As for protecting the sanctity of marriage, shouldn’t you be consistent with your fight for this. Where was the fight when the U.S. has one of the highest divorce rates in the world?!

Where was the fight when Fox put on shows like “Who Wants To Marry a Millionaire?” and “The Littlest Groom?” Besides, how is it going to affect you if some gays get married? Thousands of gays have already gotten married and I haven’t seen any sign of the apocalypse (well, excluding Bush is still in office). So quit with your bigoted movement and evolve. Net: Ha! “Evolve!” Get it? ‘Cause they’re creationists? Get it? Peace. I’m outta here.

From Melkor

Gahhh. In response to Crack, I take high offence of HEY! SEND YOUR ENTRY, NAME & PHONE TO:

your shenanigans, My Mother my lie, but at least she has enough decency to take into consideration the lives of others, and of course small fuzzy animals. She also makes me cookies and buys me pretzels, which by the way are one of my new favorite foods after the 2001-2002 football season. Although I do admit, the chalk messages are more annoying then being trapped outside in a downpour of acid rain while a carnivorous earwig digs though your brain, while Cumbawumba is played over and over at a decibel level past that of a 747 jet that’s 2 meters away. Net: It’s Chumbawamba! All other spellings are spurious. And the people who write such messages are no better then those who try to implement their religious ways into politics. You know of whom I speak: a lidless eye, wreathed in flame! Net: We won’t stand for you libeling Danny Bonaduce that way!

From Hoosier Daddy

I just looked on the back page of my Daily and saw that the Greeks are sponsoring a free hot dog giveaway. How original ... who would have guessed that the U of M Greeks would organize a sausagefest? Net: Maybe they’re sponsored by Hormel.

By the way, where is the house for that “Athens” frat that is supposed to host the Olympics this summer? I can’t find the place anywhere. Net: Don’t try to follow the scent of burning cheese.

That will only land you in Chicago. I hope some Greeks write in to the papers to protest all the unfair media coverage they’re getting. I’ve read story after story about “Greek prostitutes”. I figure these stories have to be inaccurate — they don’t ever refer to which individual sororities they’re talking about. Net: Sorority sisters: Are you gonna let him talk about you like that? Bring out the Lee Press-On Claws.

NETWORK@MNDAILY.COM

Minnesota Daily Volume 105, Issue 115 March 24, 2004

1 5 9 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 23 24 25 27 28 33 35 36 37 39 41 44 45 49 53 54 55 56 58 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 1 2 3

Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

ACROSS Hill crest Medieval toiler ACROSS Out of kilter Stanton film, 1 Injury reminder "__ Man" 5 Pet adoption gp.

Spoken Vacation vessel 10 Environs Latin & others Laertes or 14 Nobel Peace Ophelia, e.g.

Prize winner Mongolian Wiesel range Union mutinies 15 U.S.-Canada U.S. retirement act defense letters Sleeve card 16 Having a hard Divested Stimpy's pal time deciding Mineral ore of 17 Hard to find, to uranium Belgian battle Caesar site 18 __ Gay: WWII Nat. with Seoul Desert stops bomber Barbara or Sir 19 Thom __ shoes Anthony Greek letters20 Original Ice Teatime treat Follies slapstick __-jongg 4 Chalkduo hills Labels skating along the Payload's one darn Humber heaviness 23 “Just 5 Soft drink Packed-house minute!”

6 Part of Q.E.D. letters 24 Amazed 7 Pillage Shift dirt 8 Chase movie TV add-on reactions 9 Jai __ Like some 27 Three inproduct a deck 10 Dairy kitchens 11 Practical Fancy dress28 Retaliatory trainees event equivalent 12 City near Fort Religious Ord principle 32 Found really 13 __ Lanka Alone 21 Price ceiling Digestive juice groovy 22 CSA soldier Disney's 34 Bud 26 Some French mermaid 29 Choler Press 35 Challenge Mined products 30 Heavy weight ofcard WWII 31 Old game Harebrained36 Part 32 "__ ofheartbeat Eden" Mach-2 39 Happy 34 Las Vegas rival 46 breakers sound 47 38 Lawn moisture Hardy lass 39 Old cloth 42 Like veggies on 40 LBJ's VP DOWN a41 veggie platter 48 Universal Beer plant meas. landing50 Goes to bed43 Expected 42 Barth novel Like a hrs.

43 Naturally grown 51 translucent 44 Reflects gemstone 45 Prohibition

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

3/24/14 March 13 Puzzle DOWN Saturday’s Puzzle Solved Solved 1 Feudal farmers 2 Red wine from Bordeaux 3 Hat" Better 52 Driving spot "Top star ventilated 57 Superior Car4front Got through to of a monastery decorations 5aLend __: 59 listen Search for Like family of 60 4 times per yr. girls 6 14-line verse 61 Scads Morgantown 7 Cattle poker 62 Puts on sch.

63 Game of Successful 8 Ranch newborn marbles transplantation 9 Purim month 46 Opposite of post- 10 Use of one 48 Knickknacky requires a PIN stuff 11 Groupie’s idol 51 Bible bk. with a 12 Significant period sea crossing 13 Raggedy doll 54 Trite 21 Make excited 55 Opie Taylor’s 22 Gone by caretaker 25 Prefix with legal 58 Small, irregular (c)2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 26 Ladled-out meal 3/24/14 amounts 29 Bucky Beaver’s 62 List-ending abbr. toothpaste brand 41 Sales manager’s 53 Ledger entries 56 8-Down’s milk concern 64 11th-century 30 Pub spigot source 44 Like the “A” in a Spanish hero 31 Envelope part Hawthorne classic 57 Cosmetician 65 Give off 33 Bee Gees family 47 At the outer Lauder 66 Low-cal name 59 Spanish kiss edges of the 67 It divides the 36 “Dragnet” star 60 Iditarod normal curve Left and Right Jack transport 49 “Sting like a bee” Banks 37 Gillette razor 61 Battery fluid boxer 68 Pal at the barbie brand 62 Good name for 50 Bloodhound or 69 Run into 38 Bad weather a tree-lined boxer 70 More quirky contingency street 52 White House 63 Dead heat family 71 Being, to Ovid 40 Paving goo

By Marti DuGuay-Carpenter

dr. date Dr. Date,

I was recently told that my ex-GF was seen going crazy making out with some guy at a party. It has been more than a year since we dated, and I’m in a great relationship that has been going on for a little more than six months. However, I felt irked by hearing that about my ex, and I can’t figure out why, so I need a diagnosis! Is it because part of me is sucked into thinking “the grass is greener on the other side” with the Tinder/hookup culture that we live in? Maybe it’s because I was intimate with this girl, and it’s weird to see that she is not a part of my life? Both?

—Irked

Want U Back,

I mean, it sounds like you’ve got some solid leads on the meaning of your jealousy. Since I’m not chillin’ with you in your brain space, I can’t really say. What I can do is share my own experiences with this issue and hope something resonates.

When it comes to past relationships, we tend to use selective memory. Instead of recalling the downfall of our former relationships, we’re more inclined to focus on the good times. After a certain period of time, our old lovers become tempting again because we’ve had enough space away from them to forget about the screaming matches and insults and dirty underwear on your PS3 console.

Also, your body retains some of that sexual memory. Maybe she wasn’t the best girlfriend, but there was a reason you dated her, and I’m guessing she still has some of those qualities.

When I run into exes, the feelings always bubble to the surface again, at least for a few minutes. A few times, I acted on impulse and slept with them again. If you need to learn your lesson the hard way, try it. The irritation and hurt and insanity that ended your relationship in the first place will return faster than ever before.

If you want to avoid potential pain, just take my word for it. She’s still the same girl she was when you broke up with her, at least in the context of your relationship.

—Dr. Date

Dr. Date,

I’ve been in a relationship for 10 months, and it’s going really great.

Recently, my roommate told me he’s going to leave Minnesota for a job. I’ve tried to find another roommate, and I eventually had to post on Craigslist and have gotten some responses. At the moment, the top choice is a girl who seemed really excited about the apartment. She is a student, seems normal, etc. She toured and loved it. I told my girlfriend that she can meet this girl before anything is signed. My girlfriend seems OK with the possibility; she has said, “I’m honestly fine with it,” but maybe there’s more she’s not saying.

Would it be a bad idea to have this girl sign the lease even if my girlfriend says it’s OK? I’ve asked a lot of friends who say it should not be a big deal as we are older (grad students). What is your opinion?

—Sticky Situation

Strictly Platonic,

Eh, it depends on who you are. I don’t think I could ever move into an apartment with someone of the opposite sex and stay grounded about it, but I’m kind of a wild card.

When you met your potential roommate, did you feel any sort of attraction toward her? You’ll probably spend a lot of one-on-one time together, and your intimate moments could lead to attraction, whether you like it or not.

I’m not trying to be a sexist douchebag or anything. I’m sure it’s possible for a man and women to move in together and remain completely platonic, but that’s never been my experience.

If I was you, I’d first have a long conversation with your girlfriend about her true feelings on the situation. If she’s uncomfortable, are you willing to keep looking? Do you completely trust yourself?

Craigslist is full of weird people who need housing, and I’m guessing you’ve just brushed the surface. I’d keep looking to avoid potential awkwardness.

—Dr. Date

Need relationship advice? Email Dr. Date at drdate@mndaily.com.

13

14

Monday, March 24, 2014

Student farmers fill local hop demand Beer

ACARA CHALLENGE WINNERS

u from Page 1

harsh winters and hot summers.

“It’s not as per fect as, like, Oregon or Washington, but it does just fine,” Boo said. “We’re picking plants that’ll do well in Minnesota.”

Boo said a huge par t of their plan is to farm the hops organically, meaning they wouldn’t use any pesticides or fungicides to manage the crops, which he said has become common practice in hops farming.

“There’s absolutely no question for the demand [for hops] being there,” said Niko Tonks, head brewer for Fair State Brewing Cooperative. “It’s next to impossible for brewers to get hops that are grown in Minnesota.”

Star ting last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture required organically certified beers to use only organic hops, which Tonks said makes finding organic hops par ticularly dif ficult right now. He said the fact that he’ll now be able to buy hops that are both local and organic excites him.

Mighty Axe grew 25 hop plants as a trial run last summer, which successfully yielded roughly 7 ounces

GOLD WINNERS $1,000 Sabujawalla: This venture will help tackle environmental problems in India by employing waste pickers to collect and sort waste from homes and sell the material to recycling plants.

Skivvies: This program will help girls in Haiti attend school. For every piece of underwear they sell, they’ll donate a pair to a young girl in Haiti as a way to discreetely manage their periods and allow them to attend school.

Mighty Axe Hops: This Minnesota farm will provide a local source of organic hops for craft brewers.

SILVER WINNERS $750 Tech Share: This start-up will help teach rural Ugandan students how to use computers.

Women for Water: This organization recruits women from low-income families in India and provides them with an opportunity to promote and sell water treatment technologies.

BRIDGET BENNETT, DAILY

Ben Boo, left, and Eric Sannerud demonstrate how hops will grow on ropes of twine at the Sannerud family farm in Ham Lake, Minn., on March 16.

of hops, Sannerud said.

They donated the hops to Fairstate Brewing Cooperative, which brewed them into six barrels of India Pale Ale. That batch sold out in just four hours, Sannerud said.

“It was a complete zoo,” he said. “There was a line out the door.”

By the end of this August, he said, Mighty Axe hopes to be able to produce 20 pounds of hops.

This early success was one reason the team took

first place at the Acara Challenge this year, said Institute on the Environment assistant director Brian Bell. The institute holds the venture competition ever y year with the aim of supporting start-ups that provide sustainable solutions to environmental issues.

Bell said Mighty Axe won $1,000 to help fund a project’s initial costs.

Mighty Axe is also eligible to receive an additional $5,000 at the end of March.

Mighty Axe CFO Brian Krohn said the company plans to put all its money into its first crop for now, so it can yield as much as possible and establish permanent par tnerships with smaller local b r e w e r i e s . E v e n t u a l l y, Mighty Axe hopes to develop agreements with larger, more-established breweries like Fulton, he said.

Sannerud said their goal is to produce 6,000 pounds of hops a year on four acres

Top Ukraine commander abducted

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KIEV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian air force commander is being held after his base in Crimea was stormed by pro-Russian forces, and the acting president called for his release Sunday.

Col. Yuliy Mamchur is the commander of the Belbek Air Force base near Sevastopol, which was taken over Saturday by forces who sent armored personnel carriers smashing through the base’s walls and fired shots and stun grenades. One Ukrainian ser viceman was repor ted wounded in the clash.

It was unclear if the forces, who didn’t bear insignia, were Russian military or local pro-Russia militia.

Ukraine President Oleksandr Turchynov, in a statement, said Mamchur was “abducted” by the forces. He didn’t specify where Mam-

chur is believed to be held.

However, pr ominent politician Vitali Klitschko said Sunday that Mamchur is being held by the Russian military in a jail in Sevastopol, the Crimean city that is the base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Klitschko was one of the leaders of the three months of protests in Ukraine that culminated in late February with President Viktor Yanukovych fleeing the country and interim authorities taking power before a May 25 presidential election. The protests were triggered by Yanukovych’s decision to reject a deal for closer ties with the European Union and tur n to Moscow instead.

Yanukovych’s ouster was denounced by Russia and much of Ukraine’s ethnic Russian population as a coup. Soon thereafter, Russian forces took control of Crimea and the region held

a referendum to break off from Ukraine and join Russia.

Russia for mally annexed Crimea last week, a move that Western countries say is illegitimate. The U.S. and the EU have imposed sanctions on Russia in the dispute, but Moscow appears unmoved.

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministr y said the Russian flag was now flying over 189 militar y facilities in Crimea. It didn’t specify whether any Ukrainian militar y operations there remained under Ukrainian control.

At a Ukrainian marines base in Feodosia, troops were negotiating with Russian forces on handing over the base, Lt. Anatoly Mozgovoi told The Associated Press. The marines were loading 50-caliber machine guns into armored personnel carriers to take them to the base armor y,

but Mozgovoi said they hope to hold on to heavy weapons such as rocketpropelled grenades and cannon.

“I think from my personal opinion, the Russian Federation has enough weapons,” he said.

In Donetsk, one of the major cities in easter n Ukraine, about 5,000 people demonstrated in favor of holding a referendum on secession and absorption into Russia.

Eastern Ukraine is the countr y’s industrial heartland and was Yanukovych’s support base. Donetsk authorities on Friday formed a working group to hold a referendum, but no date for it has been set.

Russia has deployed thousands of troops in its regions near the Ukrainian border and concerns are high that it could use unrest in the east as a pretext for crossing the border.

College Credit: This venture will partner with colleges to deliver online financial literacy courses to students.

BRONZE WINNERS $500 Help Desk: This organization makes furniture using sustainably sourced East African hardwoods and puts the profits toward classroom improvements in Ugandan schools.

SunFarms: This venture will establish small centers in rural communities in India to purchase dry local fruits and vegetables to try to decrease food spoilage.

Veterans Capital Partners: This start-up creates networking and capital resources to help veterans who wish to be entrepreneurs.

SOURCE: INSTITUTE ON THE ENVIRONMENT

of land by 2016 — only a fraction of the total acreage at the farm. But Boo said keeping their operation small has its benefits because they’ll be able to better manage their crops

without having to spray pesticides.

“Because we’re on a small scale, it’s easier to be more in tune with the land,” he said. “You can hands-on take care of problems.”

World leaders gather for Hague nuclear summit

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Nuclear terrorism is officially the main topic for world leaders at a twoday summit in the Netherlands starting Monday. In practice, the Ukraine crisis will likely overshadow those talks.

The Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague will form the backdrop for an emergency meeting of Group of Seven leaders on Russia’s annexation of Crimea. It’s a confrontation between Russia and the West reminiscent of the Cold War. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending, instead sending Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is expected to hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the event’s timing means world leaders can discuss Ukraine and Russia face to face.

“I think these multilateral summits are an excellent opportunity for world leaders to discuss bilaterally and also amongst smaller groups of countries various issues which are high on their minds,” Rutte told The Associated Press.

But exper ts say frantic diplomacy focused on Ukraine shouldn’t diver t from the goal of better security of nuclear material.

“International attention can turn in a moment,” said Deepti Choubey, a senior director at the non-government Nuclear Threat Initiative. “The attentions of terrorists do not.”

Delegations from 53 countries, including the leaders of the U.S., China and Japan, have started to arrive in the Hague. They will meet to negotiate on reducing and securing supplies, and keeping them out of terrorists’ hands. The G-7 includes the U.S., Britain, Germany, Japan, France, Italy and Canada.

Notable absentees from the summit are North Korea and Iran, excluded by mutual consent.

The summit is the third since U.S. President Barack Obama launched the series in 2009 shortly after taking office, saying that reducing the risk of a terrorist attack with either a nuclear weapon or a “dir ty bomb” was one of his most important international policy goals.

Rutte agreed, saying that while progress has been made, “it’s not nearly enough.”

He told reporters in The Hague that 146 nuclear

“incidents” were reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency last year alone. Although they mainly were about material that temporarily went missing, “the possibility of a serious incident continues to hang over us.”

Because countries usually regard protecting nuclear weapons and facilities as a confidential sovereign matter, the summits center on individual commitments by participants and conclude with a non-binding accord.

Still, they already have reached tangible results.

The number of countries that possess enough highly enriched uranium or plutonium to make a bomb has fallen steadily, from 39 before the first conference in Washington in 2010 to 25 at the start of the Hague summit.

Piet de Klerk, the Dutch diplomat who chaired negotiations before the summit, says a further large drop in numbers is unlikely.

But he says The Hague closing accord will likely include a new commitment to reduce plutonium stores.

That is particularly relevant for Japan, which owns a large plutonium stockpile even as it reevaluates its use of nuclear power in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Additionally, the Netherlands, with help from the U.S. and South Korea, is weaving together all existing nuclear arms treaties, agreements and voluntar y guidelines for militar y, industry and civilian use into a single package of “best practices” for nuclear security. The three host nations and an unknown number of others will vow to adhere to this package as much as possible.

Kenneth Luongo, of the Partnership for Global Security, said that the willingness of countries to commit to “essentially what’s already on the books” will act as a litmus test to show which countries are taking security seriously.

“I would hope that by 2016 ever ybody would be on board,” he said.

What’s likely to be left for a final summit back in Washington in 2016 is a mechanism for countries to request a confidential independent review of their security practices, presumably conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

While Ukraine is likely to dominate diplomacy behind the scenes in The Hague, it already is a nuclear success story.