July 24, 2019

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COOL OFF WITH A&E’S GUIDE TO ICE CREAM P 5 WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2019

SUMMER EDITION

ADMINISTRATION

Gabel talks U as a ‘research powerhouse’

SHOPS NEAR CAMPUS ARE SERVING UNIQUE SCOOPS

MNDAILY.COM

BUSINESS

Featuring black businesses

Regents and Presdent Gabel discussed research goals for UMN at a retreat this month. BY DYLAN ANDERSON danderson@mndaily.com

At the regents retreat earlier this month, members of the Board of Regents and President Joan Gabel discussed the University of Minnesota’s research goals as a pillar that will ultimately go into the next system-wide strategic plan. Gabel kicked off the research roundtable with a basic question: “What kind of research powerhouse do we want to be?” Schools of thought vary when chasing down research dollars, Gabel said. The philosophy could be pursuing funding en masse, or it could be incentivizing faculty research catering to fields uniquely relevant for the University and the state. She emphasized that there could be trade-offs to either position, and prioritizing locally focused research could lead to less total grant money. “This is arguably one of our most opportunistic places to leverage distinction and to create signatures around who we are as compared to anyone down the street from us,” Gabel said at the meeting. The University ranked ninth among U.S. u See RESEARCH Page 3

STATE LEG.

State grants get boost, but offset by U tuition rise Minnesota grant funding rose 35% since 2008, but some still struggle with college costs. BY J.D. DUGGAN jduggan@mndaily.com

The Minnesota State Grant program continues to grow, but for many students it is not enough to offset rising tuition costs. Lawmakers are increasingly looking toward state grants to alleviate the burden of college costs. As tuition continues to increase, some students still struggle to make ends meet, even with the help of these funds. In the past 20 years, Minnesota State Grants have increased by more than $100 million, reaching about $194 million in 2018, according to the Office of Higher Education. The State Grant Program is a need-based fund that can go toward college costs for Minnesota residents from families generally earning up to $80,000 in annual income. “It’s always been designed to help students, it’s not designed to help the system,” said Rep. Bud Nornes, R-Fergus

MINNESOTA STATE GRANTS

$100 million INCREASE IN MINNESOTA STATE GRANTS IN THE PAST 20 YEARS

$194 million ALLOCATED BY THE MN LEGISLATURE FOR GRANTS IN 2018

SOURCE: MINNESOTA OFFICE OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH

u See GRANTS Page 3

JASMIN KEMP, DAILY

Mary Taris, left, publisher and CEO of Strive Publishing, poses for a photo on Sunday, July 21. Taris is striving to get more culturally relevant books into the hands of children. Bill English, right, Northside Job Creation Team Consulting Project Director, poses for a photo on Saturday, July 20. English helps support black business promotion by identifying and supporting African American-owned businesses in Minnesota.

The inaugural 9-day event is highlighting black-owned businesses in Minneapolis. BY J.D. DUGGAN jduggan@mndaily.com

For the first time, city of Minneapolis officials are dedicating a week to highlight black businesses. The city’s inaugural Minneapolis Black Business Week is a 9-day event that aims to celebrate and promote blackowned businesses. Various nonprofits and advocacy organizations are partnering to host the event, which kicked off festivities Friday at Mama Sheila’s Soulfood Kitchen in South Minneapolis. The University of Minnesota’s Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center is among the partners, specifically through its Northside Job Creation Team, which seeks to bring sustainable-wage jobs to North Minneapolis. Bill English, NJCT consulting project director, said the event helps to promote black-owned businesses, which can support the community by stimulating the economy in North Minneapolis. “Black entrepreneurs, they tend to hire black people, they tend to carry black people and they inspire their children to become entrepreneurs,” English said. He said this type of outreach is especially important in Minnesota, which

has some of the greatest disparities in the country between white and black individuals. “It’s about lifting up the remarkable black-owned businesses that we have here,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who announced Black Business Week on behalf of the city alongside City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins. Frey said one of the week’s goals is to make resources available to businesses and help black entrepreneurs navigate city processes so they “can quickly get up and running and then scale.” Black Business Week includes a business expo, a career fair and an online city directory of participating black-owned businesses in various industries. While the event is taking place in Minneapolis, businesses in St. Paul and surrounding suburbs have been included in the directory and may be involved in the events. Among those businesses is Strive Publishing, a Twin Cities-based company that publishes black authors of children’s and young adult literature centered around African American culture. Mary Taris, publisher and CEO of Strive, said she connected with Black Business Week to raise awareness about the presence of black publishers in the Twin Cities. A reader since childhood, she said she felt a lack of black representation in literature. “When I was a little girl, I always used books as an escape,” Taris said. “But then as an adult, I realized that I could have done much more with my life if I had books that

Minneapolis Black Business Week Upcoming Events Wednesday

Black Women Makers & Innovators Networking Event Gold Room Restaurant & Lounge 5:00pm - 8:00pm Thursday

House of Talents Open House Reception Gaviidae Common Thursday 3:30pm - Friday 6:30pm

Flow: Northside Arts Crawl 2019 Self-guided tour Thursday to Saturday SOURCE: MINNEAPOLIS BLACK BUSINESS WEEK

validated who I am and inspired me to be all I can be instead of, like, you know, pretending to be someone else from a book.” Taris founded the company in August 2018. Later this summer, Taris will host a dinner celebrating African American children’s books and featuring more than 200 local African American authors, educators and publishers. “My mission is to get more books by and about African Americans into the hands of all children, basically,” Taris said. “The main thing I learned is that we can’t work in silos. We have to work together.”

FOOTBALL

Alex Reigelsperger talks injury and life after early retirement The redshirt freshman decided to retire from football after a hit during practice this spring. BY JOHN MILLER jmiller@mndaily.com

While playing football, Gophers redshirt freshman defensive end Alex Reigelsperger always knew there was a possibility that athletes can be seriously injured. He just never thought it could happen to him. It was the first full-contact practice of the spring when it happened. “It was just me and one of our running

backs, and it was a play where our safety came on a blitz off the edge,” Reigelsperger said. “I kind of stood the running back up and was bringing him down, and our safety happened to just hit the side of my head.” After he was down ALEX REIGELon the ground for some SPERGER time, an ambulance PHOTO COURTESY OF rushed him off the field. GOPHER SPORTS Reigelsperger had cracked the C4 vertebrae in his neck and suffered a serious concussion.

“The first 24 hours I couldn’t feel anything or really move,” he said. After some analysis, doctors told him that he must have cracked his C4 vertebrae while he was in high school and he was lucky he wasn’t paralyzed from the most recent hit he took. Initially, Reigelsperger was made aware that he could likely play football again, it just wouldn’t be for this upcoming season. As he began to be inch closer to recovery and was almost out of his multiple-day stay at the hospital, he received some news that altered his life forever. u See REIGELSPERGER Page 4

RESEARCH

Kidney research at UMN propelled by a recent Trump executive order President Trump signed the order this month to strengthen kidney research nationwide. BY KATRINA PROSS kpross@mndaily.com

CHRIS MCNAMARA, DAILY

Dr. Mark Rosenberg poses for a portrait on Monday, July 22 in his office in the Mayo Building where he conducts research on kidney and chronic kidney disease.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to advance kidney health in America — endorsing work being carried out at the University of Minnesota. The University is known for its kidney transplants and research, and Dr. Mark Rosenberg, the vice dean for education and academic affairs at the Medical School, is leading some of its efforts. Rosenberg, who is also the president of the American Society of Nephrology, went to the White House to witness the signing of the order

and met with the Department of Health and Human Services secretary. The executive order aims to create more awareness and prevent kidney disease, increase home dialysis and kidney transplants and support new upcoming inventions like an artificial kidney. “This was a huge moment, it’s recognition that kidney disease is a major health problem and an area that’s in need of transformation. The order is a bold vision that has unveiled how the executive branch is going to change the approach to kidney disease,” Rosenberg said. The University has one of the oldest and largest kidney transplant programs in the world. It also helped establish kidney transplants in children and diabetics, and has performed more than 9,000 kidney transplants u See KIDNEYS Page 3

VOLUME 119 ISSUE 66


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July 24, 2019 by The Minnesota Daily - Issuu