October 3, 2019

UMN-DEVELOPED LEUKEMIA TREATMENT TO BE TESTED ON HUMANS PAGE 4

LATE WEEK THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019

ADMINISTRATION

Renaming talks to resurface at regents meeting The conversation will be the first geared toward creating guidelines for how to rename buildings.

BY DYLAN ANDERSON danderson@mndaily.com

Last April, the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents voted against renaming four buildings on campus, ending a campaign endorsed by then-President Eric Kaler to visibly reckon with the University’s history.

“I want you to know, that this board is not just going to put this issue on the shelf,” said former Regent Dean Johnson, who acted as board chair for that meeting.

“There is much dialogue and many meetings left to be held over this issue.”

Though Johnson did not return to the board this year, the renaming conversation is scheduled to resurface at next week’s meeting.

Regents will not focus on the renaming of any particular building, but will explore the first of what will likely be several discussions about creating procedures to guide any future renaming effort. Still, some regents feel the task force’s work should be reviewed before President Joan Gabel can fulfill a charge to address the University’s history in other ways.

“We don’t have any policies, especially for renaming, and we knew that before, but for some reason we got off on this thing where it was like a race to rename these buildings,” said Regent Michael Hsu, vice chair of the Governance and Policy Committee, where the discussion will take place.

During efforts to rename buildings last year, several regents raised issue with the lack of distinct policy laying out how to approach renaming a building.

“We committed to an open discussion forum on how that kind of research gets done, and how that history is created,” said Board Chair Ken Powell.

Regent Darrin Rosha said the board is obligated to establish a procedure for how issues of the University’s history will be addressed, and it “was very unfortunate the task force was not given that clarity.”

Rosha said the board needs to create standards and processes to assess what kinds of evidence are appropriate when making judgements about former administrators’ actions.

Regents may look to Stanford University, which created policy to facilitate the potential renaming of buildings or various features, such as streets and monuments, on its campus. Sanford’s guidelines u See RENAMING Page 3

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SERVING THE UMN COMMUNITY SINCE 1900

OUTREACH

‘Manoomin’ brings together UMN researchers and Indigenous tribes The groups are collaborating to preserve wild rice and traditions.

BY NATALIE RADEMACHER nrademacher@mndaily.com

For the past two years, River Spry has ventured out in his canoe to harvest wild rice. Spry, a forestry technician for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in northern Minnesota, said harvesting the tall, green stalks of wild rice is an intimate process.

“Just being out there, you are so connected to the plant and the Earth. It is a beautiful thing,” Spry said. “It changed my life. The rest of my life I will be a ricer.”

Spry, along with other tribal members, harvests wild rice for food but also to honor tribal culture and tradition around the grain. While Native American tribes have harvested wild rice, called manoomin in Ojibwe, for generations, about one-third of the wild rice in Minnesota has disappeared over the past century.

Because of the decline, University of Minnesota researchers are working with tribes through the Grand Challenges Initiative. Since last year, they have been examin-

SARAH MAI, DAILY

ing why wild rice is disappearing and seeking ways to preserve its habitat while honoring sacred traditions surrounding the grain.

“We make sure the research is driven by our tribal partners and not the University,” said Michael Dockry, an assistant professor in the Department of Forest Resources who is involved with the work. “Our project is pretty unique and important, because it gives an example of how to work

with tribes while protecting tribal sovereignty.”

Wild rice, which grows in water, has been declining because of environmental factors caused by human activity, said Thomas Howes, natural resources manager for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Part of the reason for the decline can be attributed to issues such as industrial pollution and poor water quality.

According to Howes, the Great Lakes region is the only place in the world wild rice grows.

“We have to do our best to take care of it,” he said.

While the Fond du Lac tribe has been able to revitalize their wild rice habitats, there continues to be a decline in the plant outside the reservation.

The grain is significant to u See WILD RICE Page 4

NEIGHBORHOODS

Slow 911 response times in Southeast Como prompt concern A letter to City Council members advocates for more police resources in the UMN neighborhood.

BY EMMA DILL edill@mndaily.com Amid citywide concerns about delayed 911 response times, Southeast Como community members and officials have called on the city to increase police resources in the area.

Over the past six months, residents have alerted the Southeast Como Improvement Association to three incidents in which 911 callers say they waited between 30 minutes and an hour for police to respond. The concerns come as the City of Minneapolis is considering adding officers to the Minneapolis Police Department and examining its current 911 procedures.

Some SECIA board members

feel that the city has not kept up with the neighborhood’s increasing development and growing population, said Cody Hoerning, a SECIA board member.

“We feel that we’ve seen substantial growth [in Southeast Como] and not a proportional response from the City’s resources,” he said.

In response, SECIA members wrote a letter last month addressed to the area’s Minneapolis City Council representatives, detailing the three incidents and asking them to support increasing the size of MPD’s force.

According to the letter, a woman called police in July after a man exposed himself to her while she was walking in the neighborhood.

When officers arrived 30 minutes later they could not find the suspect. Several days later the man was identified and arrested.

In June, a woman reportedly returned to her Southeast Como

MEDICAL SCHOOL

Daily file photo (Jack Rodgers / Minnesota Daily)

home and found the door kicked in. She waited for 45 minutes before officers responded, the letter says.

During another incident in late April detailed in the letter, an elderly woman fell inside her house

and was unable to unlock the door for first responders. In order to force entry into a home, first responders are required to call the police. u See POLICE Page 3

STUDENT LIFE

UMN health students aim to heal the world Health Students for a Healthy Climate aims to withstand the health effects of climate change.

BY JASMINE SNOW jsnow@mndaily.com

A statue depicting a member of the Shriner fraternal group carrying a child stands in the lawn at the Shriners Healthcare for Children’s East River Parkway building on Tuesday, Oct. 1. (Kamaan Richards / Minnesota Daily)

UMN eyes Shriners Hospital, bolsters Fairview partnership Recent announcements indicate the U’s focus on reclaiming their place as a top 20 medical school.

BY J.D. DUGGAN jduggan@mndaily.com The University of Minnesota is aiming to be a top 20 medical school once again, and recent announcements that could reinforce collaboration may bring the school closer to realizing that goal.

The M Health Fairview brand and logo were first launched Tuesday, symbolizing further progress in the University and Fairview Health Services partnership. The University is also contemplating the purchase of Shriners Hospital to eventually house a new institute for specialized pediatric care. Both announcements center around an approach to healthcare that integrates academic research, u See SHRINERS Page 3

As a group of University of Minnesota health science students head into the field, they are preparing to face the health issues brought on by climate change.

Health Students for a Healthy Climate is a group comprised of University students from across the health sciences who aim to address and spread awareness of the health implications of climate change. Members say future healthcare professionals will need to adjust their practices to be more environmentally conscious.

Hyun Kim, assistant professor at the School of Public Health’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences, said the group is long overdue. Kim said climate change can lead to a multitude of public health issues like mental health problems, mass migration, disease and death.

“Understanding what the climate change impact to us is and then preparing ourselves to adapt.

It’s not something we can find and then remove … We need more attention on this,” Kim said.

HSHC co-chairs, from left, Jack Ingrid, Niamh Hart, Emma Butzer, Nikki Russell, Zoe Kondes, and Marie Gilbertson pose for a portrait on East Bank on Sunday, Sept. 29. (Kamaan Richards / Minnesota Daily)

“Especially from the younger generations because it will be ... their world.”

HSHC was founded about 3 years ago by four nursing students to inform those in the field about the intersection of health and climate change.

“Really, the mission has kind of evolved over time,” said Jack Inglis, a medical student and HSHC cochair. “Trying to figure out what students who are busy can reasonably accomplish in a student group and trying to figure out what we could do to get the student body en-

gaged and informed on this issue.”

The group settled on monthly “climate convos” where a member will do research on a specific topic or issue relating to climate and health. Then the member does a small presentation of what they have found and the group has a more in-depth discussion about it.

While HSHC is primarily a discussion group, they also use their leverage as a student organization to advocate for similar causes and attend events whenever they u See CLIMATE Page 3 VOLUME 120 ISSUE 10

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Counseling services works with ISSS Let’s Talk expands services and space to work with ISSS this fall semester.

BY GWIWON JASON NAM gnam@mndaily.com

An informal counseling service at the University of Minnesota extended its space to the International Student and Scholar Services this fall semester in an effort to be more inclusive.

This new space will provide international students, along with other University students, with a friendly environment and increase accessibility for West Bank students.

“We recognize there is some stigma among some international students and they might be hesitant to access mental health counseling,” said Nina Hernandez Beithon, coordinator of the Let’s Talk program at Student Counseling Services. “We wanted to be able to bring a program to ISSS, which is a place that they

might already be connected to in order to ease some of that ability to access support.”

The Let’s Talk program is a support service that has provided informal drop-in consultations at various locations around campus since January 2018.

“The hope of it is that we’re able to provide increased access to mental health support for folks that might be hesitant to access counseling services for a variety of reasons,” Hernandez Beithon said.

In total, 148 students visited Let’s Talk spaces across campus during the last academic year, and approximately 11 of them identified as international students, according to Hernandez Beithon. She said she believed Let’s Talk saw more than that because people have the option to fill out the self-identifying paperwork.

Alisa Eland, an ISSS associate director and head of counseling and advising, explained the benefits of

having such a space at ISSS. “One is to make international students more aware of the service and the fact that it’s here. This is a place where international students come. So that’ll help make them more aware,” Eland said.

Chia-Chen Tu, a staff psychologist at Student Counseling Services, speaks Mandarin. She joined Let’s Talk this fall.

“Chinese-speaking students are our largest group of international students and so this means that Chinese-speaking students who meet with her can choose to speak English or Chinese,” Eland said.

Eland said it’s an added benefit that she speaks Chinese and some students may feel more comfortable seeking support when they can speak their native language. The program plans to hire another Chinesespeaking counselor later this fall.

Students are able to choose the location and counselor of their choice,

BY DYLAN ANDERSON danderson@mndaily.com

The second of four candidates to be the next University of Minnesota provost was released Tuesday, the result of a monthslong search process to find the next chief academic officer for the system.

T h e p ro c e s s , s p e a r headed by a committee of faculty, staff and students, winnowed a field of roughly 60 candidates down to the four currently making their cases as to why they should be the next executive vice president and provost.

With the assistance of the search firm Korn Ferry, the committee helped outline what they were looking for in an ideal candidate by crafting a position profile, evaluating candidates and then interviewing 12 of them. Following those interviews, they landed on

four finalists. Whomever President Joan Gabel taps to fill the second-highest position in the system will take on a wide range of responsibilities, such as directing strategic initiatives to advance the academic, research and outreach missions across the system.

“The top four that we have invited to come in, there really wasn’t much disagreement,” said Amy Pittenger, co-chair of the provost search committee.

Pittenger also served on the Presidential Search Advisory Committee that eventually landed Gabel as the sole public finalist last December and currently serves as chair of the Faculty Consultative Committee.

“Being the FCC chair comes with unexpected responsibilities,” Pittenger said. “A provost search is a really important hire for faculty.”

The committee balanced the value of including as many voices from across the University system at various levels as possible, while keeping in mind that there are drawbacks as a

committee gets larger.

“We wanted a representative group, while trying not to make the committee too big,” Pittenger said.

James Farnsworth, an undergraduate student on the committee and communications director for the Minnesota Student Association, said the committee went through implicit bias training designed for search committees. Gabel cited this type of training as a way to ensure the University can “overcome anything we inadvertently do” in an interview with the Minnesota Daily last month.

“It was really important that we talked about what people’s individual biases are, how those can actually play out during search committee deliberations and then how to have really intentional conversations that avoid personal bias,” Farnsworth said.

Farnsworth said he focused on how often candidates brought up students in interviews but also considered other members of the University community, aiming to evaluate candidates from multiple perspectives.

Alisa Eland poses for a portrait in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs Sept. 30. (Jasmin Kemp / Minnesota Daily)

as the counselors’ background information is on the Let’s Talk website. Hernandez Beithon said this makes students feel more comfortable.

“That’s been a really big draw for students, especially students of color who’ve been able to choose exactly who they want to meet with and what types of experiences their counselor will have,” Hernandez Beithon said.

Tu emphasized the Let’s

Talk program is open to all students, not just international students.

Hernandez Beithon said they also know that some students may feel more comfortable going somewhere where they would not see any other students that they would likely know.

“The program is completely anonymous. It can be really good for confidentiality reasons that way,” she said.

Last spring, the University held a series of listening sessions around the system inviting various stakeholders to weigh in on what they wanted to see in the next provost. Pittenger said they used the responses from these sessions to craft the position profile which was used when advertising the position.

The search firm helped the committee recruit a diverse pool of candidates and served as an intermediary between applicants and the committee.

The committee then gathered to shrink the field of about 60 candidates down to 12 who would come to the University for confidential interviews, a tall order Pittenger said was a “happy problem to have.”

In these interviews, each candidate was asked the same series of questions in the same order in an attempt to keep the playing field as level as possible.

“If anybody had any pressing follow-up questions ... everyone was welcome to just go, ‘could you clarify on that?’” said Andrew Durkot, a professional student on

the committee and vice president of Professional Student Government.

Durkot said he was primarily looking for a candidate that would keep professional students in mind, citing distinct differences between professional students and other types of students at the University.

Upon completion of the interviews, committee members anonymously submitted their preferred candidates to the search firm. At the committee’s last meeting, they decided which of the candidates would be finalists.

Pittenger said there was a “remarkable” amount of agreement among committee members about who should be the four finalists.

Gabel was largely removed from the process, though it will ultimately be her decision who will be hired as the next provost.

“She was very explicit in that she was going to be hands-off,” Durkot said.

“President Gabel said, ‘Don’t worry about me, worry about the University and pick someone that is best for the University.’”

U-developed protein is ready to be tested on humans Clinical trials have opened to test new protein that fights against tumors.

BY JOE KELLY jkelly@mndaily.com

Human clinical trials are now open for a protein that University of Minnesota researchers developed to fight a type of leukemia.

T h e p ro t e i n , c a l l e d tri-specific natural killer engagers, or TriKE, specifically targets the blood disorders acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome and systemic mastocytosis. Patients are currently being screened for eligibility to participate in clinical trials of the protein.

The clinical trial is specifically for patients who have already been through standard therapies and are physically strong enough for testing the TriKE protein, said Erica Warlick, a Un ive r s it y a s s o c ia te

professor of medicine who is in charge of the clinical trials.

Some people are being screened for the trial, but some need more chemotherapy or other treatments before testing the protein, Warlick said. Although no one has been tested yet, the researchers are hoping someone will meet the qualifications for the trial within the next several weeks.

Previously, researchers tested the protein on mice, but this will be the first time they test it on humans, said Martin Felices, a University assistant professor of medicine who helped develop the protein.

“Nobody has tested these types of molecules before, so there’s a lot of excitement,” he said.

The TriKE protein was developed by Jeffrey Miller, a University professor and deputy director of the Masonic Cancer Center, Felices and University professor and researcher

Daniel Vallera. TriKE is designed to activate the body’s natural killer cells, or NK cells, to target tumor cells.

“Essentially what natural killer cells do is they patrol the body and look for cells that have changed … through mutation to eventually become tumors, and they tend to kill those cells,” Felices said. “One of the tricky things about natural killer cells, even though they can kill certain cells during their patrol, they are not antigen specific, which means that they can’t find very specific tumor antigens.”

TriKE does two things: it forms a bridge between NK and tumor cells so that the NK cells can target and kill the tumor, and it tells NK cells to replicate, Felices said.

“The more natural killer cells you have, the better you’re going to kill the tumor, particularly when you give them this bridge,”

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Felices said.

Despite opening clinical trials for TriKE, the team is still working on improving the protein.

Felices said the researchers hope to have the protein target other tumors as well.

“The neat thing about these molecules … we can change out the arm that attaches to [leukemia] and put in an arm that attaches to something that targets lung cancer or prostate cancer or breast cancer,” Felices said. “That’s our hope, that’s the big hope.”

Miller and his colleagues have been researching NK cells for two decades and started development of TriKE five years ago.

Miller said it was a collaborative effort among the researchers to get the protein approved for clinical trials.

“It’s what we’re calling in this day and age … team science,” Miller said.

“There’s just lots of moving pieces … It’s a really really big effort to get something from the laboratory idea to translate completely into patient care.”

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Thursday, October 3, 2019

Wild rice u from Page 1

many tribal communities. According to the migration story of the Anishinaabe, or Ojibwe people, the Creator instructed tribes to find the “food which grows upon the water.” Wild rice, or manoomin, was discovered in the Great Lakes region, and that is why people settled there.

Not only are University researchers doing this work to study and preserve the sacred grain, but also to repair the University’s relationship with local tribes – which has been rocky in the past.

Renaming u from Page 1

underscore the importance of procedures, as improvised methods are likely to provoke controversy and reduce efficiency of the overall process.

Last spring’s effort to rename buildings at the University of Minnesota proved this true, as the process was muddled from the start. The faculty task force report on the history of the administrators decisions was delayed three times. Soon after its release, several regents questioned the report’s findings at a contentious March meeting.

The debate came to a head at a special April meeting, where despite protests from faculty and student attending the meeting, the board ultimately rejected renaming.

Members of the task force have repeatedly stood by the integrity of their work. The Star Tribune

Response times u from Page 1 Neighbors called police and reportedly waited an hour for officers to arrive.

Concerns about police response times in Southeast Como are not new but have gotten worse in past months, said SECIA President Karl Smith. The problem is not unique to the neighborhood, he said.

“It’s not only a concern here, but I think citywide,” Smith said.

Because the city does not have a “clear policy” to determine MPD officer placement within the city, properly staffing the 2nd Precinct, which encompasses Southeast Como, Marcy-Holmes and Prospect Park, can be challenging, said Ward 2 City Council member Cam Gordon.

“Part of the case that I sometimes make is that

HSHC u from Page 1

can. Recently, HSHC was a part of the MN Youth Climate Strike at the State Capitol.

For some members, interest in environmental issues came long before joining the group.

“I think it started when I was younger,” said HSHC Co-Chair Nicolette Russell, a fourth-year dental student.

“We would have these per-

Shriners u from Page 1

education and clinical care.

“I think it’s absolutely a number one goal, imperative of our University mission, to restore the University Medical School ranking to a top 20 where we ought to be,” said Board of Regent Vice Chair Steve Sviggum.

The University is currently number 43 for medical research and number 10 for primary care in the latest rankings by U.S. News and World Report.

The Medical School slipped from the top 15 in National Institute of Health funding, a common metric for research excellence, in the 1980s and currently sits at number 30.

Board of Regents Chair Ken Powell said becoming a top medical school is cur-

“Our projects goal is to … really make sure we are researching wild rice collaboratively and making sure we understand what wild rice means to them,” said Crystal Ng, head researcher for the project.

Almost two decades ago, University researchers tried to develop a genetically engineered form of wild rice without input from tribes, which made tribal communities unhappy.

They feared creating new forms of wild rice would contaminate the ecosystem for traditional wild rice, Howes said.

In a 2009 letter written

by Anishinaabe tribal members and the University, the

University acknowledged wrongdoing. “...virtually all wild rice research emerging from the University has reflected the goals and desires of non-Indians with little regard for native concerns, perspectives or the considerable store of traditional kno w le dge ,” t h e le t t e r read.

The letter was written to propose the University and Anishnaabe nations in Minnesota work to build a relationship built on mutual respect and reciprocity.

“The University messed this up royally previously,” Karen Driver, former chairwoman of the Fond Du Lac tribe, said re-

garding previous University work around wild rice.

“It left a bad taste in tribal peoples’ mouths.”

Driver, who is an adviser for the Grand Challenge project, said researchers for this project are taking the time to establish good relationships and establish mutual respect.

Tribal members can add value to the research being done by sharing their knowledge accumulated from generations of being good stewards of wild rice, Driver said.

“Because of this respect, both sides can learn from each other.”

While it has not been easy to rebuild relation-

ships and regain trust, Ng said the University researchers keeping their word and working collaboratively with tribes has helped the partnership.

“We are working together and really trying to heal a lot of what has happened in the past from us not working together,” Ng said.

Last month, tribal partners were invited to the University as part of President Joan Gabel’s inauguration week, to honor the research and relationship between tribal communities and the University.

Gabel said bringing community members together and doing work like

reported over the summer that internal emails show no indication they conspired to make up facts.

The lone supporting regent, Abdul Omari, is no longer on the board. Since this meeting boiled over, there are four new regents, a new University president and new student leaders.

Rosha was one of three regents who did not support a resolution passed by the board in April commending the task force for its work. Hsu, who voted alongside Rosha, said he wants the task force’s work to go through a scholarly peerreview.

Still, Hsu said he wants to review the task force’s work before Gabel can complete a charge passed by the board in April to devise ways to reckon with the University’s history short of stripping names off buildings.

“How are you going to figure out how to educate people when you don’t even know what the truth is?”

HAILEE SCHIEVELVEIN, DAILY

the 2nd Precinct should just have more officers, let’s move them from somewhere else,” Gordon said.

“We maybe have enough citywide but do we really have enough to meet the needs there in Dinkytown and Southeast Como and even Prospect Park?”

Mayor Jacob Frey’s proposed budget would add 14 MPD officers next year, including eight neighborhood outreach officers, three investigators and three traffic unit officers.

Gordon said he supports this increase even though it is uncertain which precincts would receive the additional officers.

Frey’s proposal follows MPD Chief Medaria Arradondo’s request for increasing staffing by 400 officers by 2025 to address slow response times.

The city also formed

a “MPD/911 workgroup” which is reviewing how the city responds to 911 calls.

Gordon said areas around the University have a range of resources, including the University of Minnesota Police Department, University security officers and local businesses, in addition to MPD officers that could help address the community’s safety concerns.

“There’s a whole network there that could maybe be coordinated better because of the uniqueness of the district and their needs, but also because of the University,” Gordon said.

formers come to my school and they would talk about recycling and stuff. Then, in high school, I became more kind of conscious of recycling things and reducing waste.”

HSHC co-chair Marie Gilbertson is a Ph.D. student at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

“I grew up living close to a city park and spent my childhood running around in the woods, playing outside and being devastated any time a tree was cut down,” Gilbert-

son said.

For others, like nursing student and Co-Chair Zoe Kondes, involvement in the environmental movement was more of a conscious effort.

“I always talked about advocacy,” Kondes said. “I was talking the talk, but I wasn’t walking the walk and so when I got to the U I told myself that I was going to be better about advancing environmental initiatives and not just talking about them.”

rently the number one priority for the board and has been an emphasis for several years.

“Healthcare and the Medical School and medical research are just so core to what the University does, they’re so core to our mission, and they’re so important to the people of Minnesota,” Powell said.

is in line with similar partnerships across the country, according to a Medical School spokesperson.

“It’s not simply the classic forms of the organization coming together, but really creating an environment that allows us to innovate and focus on our customers, our patients,” said James Hereford, Fairview president and CEO. About 70 percent of Minnesota’s physicians were trained at the University of Minnesota Medical School, and Hereford said the integration provided by the partnership offers a greater platform for further teaching opportunities.

Healthcare is the fastest growing industry in Minnesota, with an estimated employment increase of nearly 11 percent from 2016 to 2026, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Galvanizing the partnership M Health Fairview connects Fairview’s wide network of hospitals and primary care clinics to the University’s academic health research.

The partnership was approved by regents a year ago, following years of discussion.

The agreement states Fairview would pay the University Medical School $35 million in 2018, with annual payments increasing up to $50 million by 2022. This type of support

this allows them to share both indigenous wisdom and scientific discovery.

While funding for the Grand Challenge project only goes through January 2020, researchers are looking to other funding sources to continue their work.

The long-term goal for researchers involved with the project is for the University to go beyond wild rice research and someday be a center of excellence for supporting tribal resource management.

One of Spry’s favorite parts of harvesting wild rice is that he feels personally connected to the food.

“We need to protect that.”

“It’s not only a concern here, but I think citywide.”

KARL SMITH SECIA President

Second UMN provost candidate takes the stage at Northrop Auditorium The dean of the UC Irvine engineering school spoke at a forum this week.

BY HANA IKRAMUDDIN hikramuddin@mndaily.com Gregory Washington, the second candidate for the University of Minnesota’s provost position, shared his thoughts and plans for the University at the public forum Wednesday, Oct. 2.

Washington is currently the dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of CaliforniaIrvine and holds degrees from North Carolina State University. At the forum, Washington highlighted the importance of handling the global challenges facing the University, the future of education and the current job market.

Washington referenced global connections he has formed, as well as his ability to produce resources for the students and faculty under his leadership.

“The real question here is are we educating our students to be globally competitive,” Washington said of the challenges students will face in the global market. “They’re competing against students from Tokyo University, from Shang-

“We are always looking for a better way,” said Jakub Tolar, dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School and vice president for Academic Clinical Affairs. “How to treat, how to cure … how to bring the discoveries quickly and efficiently to the patients and how to improve the health of Minnesotans.”

Shriners Hospital and the Institute for Child and Adolescent Brain Health The University’s Board of Regents is examining a $22.5 million purchase of Shriners Hospital, which would house a proposed specialty pediatric clinic.

Tolar and the dean of the College of Education and Human Development presented the proposal to create the Institute for Child and Adolescent Brain Health to the regents.

Shriners Hospital would offer a new setting to con-

hai University and the like, and they need to be globally competitive,” he said at the forum.

One audience member said that foreign countries should be seen as partners that students can collaborate with.

While discussing hiring and retention of diverse faculty, Washington emphasized his achievements in recruiting large amounts of diverse individuals in his current position at Irvine.

Washington said he believes in investing in retaining faculty that are considering leaving through strengthening interpersonal connections, as well as a long-term investment into the careers. His focus on the future of education was a key part of the public forum.

“We’re educating students currently for jobs that won’t quite get exist when they graduate,” he said. Washington discussed working with the local Fortune 500 companies to engage in internships and experience, paid or unpaid, with students at the University. “Experiences are far better than pay.”

Amanda Sames, a Ph.D. student who was at the forum, said “If we’re putting a lot of our funding eggs in a corporate basket ... I think

I’m saying we need to be really wary of doing that and intentional about not only prioritizing the types of research and partnerships that bring in money.”

Washington also emphasized the projected shrinking of the college population in the next decade.

“There will be significant future competition for students,” he said, pointing out that universities from across the country might try to lure students from other states to fill their quotas through scholarship offers.

“This is a challenge that is going to affect whatever leadership team is here,” Washington said.

As for the University’s current leadership, Washington pointed out the priority to focus on student mental health, online courses, as well as the liberal education redesign as positives to build off on as a future provost.

Unlike the first forum last Tuesday which encountered a technical difficulty, this forum was livestreamed on the provost site. Antonio Tillis was announced as the first provost candidate last week, and the final two candidates will be announced on Oct. 6 and participate in public forums the following day.

nect physicians and researchers to patients. The facility was initially constructed by the Shriners in 1991 to serve orthopedic needs of children and families.

The institute would focus on healthy brain development in children and adolescents, addressing various concerns such as epilepsy, depression and learning disabilities.

University leadership estimates around $30 million in renovations to prepare the site for the envisioned institute. Although no purchase agreement has been signed, the sale was presented to the Board of Regents last month and will be discussed again this month.

The University intends to fundraise for the costs of purchasing and renovating the property. The annual building and operating costs are estimated at $3 million, which would

be paid for by units within the facility.

“It really allows the University to bring together a bunch of very strong capabilities that we have in one place, and that will be able to serve patients in a very comprehensive way,” said Board Chair Powell.

The more than 100,000 square foot facility sits on 10 acres of land about a mile from East Bank campus. Dean Tolar said at the meeting it is a “quiet” place with high accessibility for children and their families.

Shriners Hospital offers two operating rooms, 19 inpatient rooms, 19 clinic exam rooms, indoor and outdoor recreational spaces, a pool and a hotel.

“This building came at a perfect time,” Tolar said at the meeting. “If you wanted to design this, you would probably design some thing like this. So it is an opportunity that comes once a decade.”

4

Sports

MNDAILY.COM

MN DAILY

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019

FOOTBALL

U defense much improved under Rossi Former defensive coordinator was fired following loss to Illinois last year.

BY NICK JUNGHEIM njungheim@mndaily.com

After a 55-31 defeat to Illinois on Nov. 3, 2018, it was clear that Minnesota needed a change on defense.

Through their first six conference games that season, Gophers’ opponents were totaling over 507 yards and over 43 points per game on average. As a result, head coach P.J. Fleck replaced defensive coordinator Robb Smith with then-defensive line coach Joe Rossi.

“He did a great job,” Fleck told reporters of Rossi after the change. “He’s accepted the responsibility. He knows what he has to do.”

The decision to install Rossi proved to be a turning point in the season. With him calling plays for a suddenly resurgent defense, the Gophers won three of their final four games, allowing only 59 points total over that stretch. This came after Minnesota gave up more than 50 points in two of their three games.

Rather than change schematics for the final four games of the season, Rossi challenged his defense to practice harder and focus on the fundamentals. Linebacker Thomas Barber credits Rossi’s emphasis on details with helping turn around the season.

“It had to be a line in the sand,” Barber said. “There’s nothing that we changed, we still had the same defense. It was just our details went way up and then just how we practiced. How we practiced during defense changed, being kind of mean guys, the scout team was tackling harder, being more physical.”

Although Rossi says the team doesn’t go with live tackling in scout team drills, he’s still been pleased with the effort his players have put forth in practice.

“That’s been ratcheted up,” Rossi said. “And it’s been embraced by the guys even to the point that we’ve had to pull them back a little bit. But you always like to pull them back rather than get them to go.”

Following the strong finish to 2018, Rossi was promoted to the full time defensive coordinator

Defensive Coordinator Joseph Rossi oversees a drill at the Athlete’s Village practice field on Monday, Aug. 20, 2018. (Jack Rodgers / Minnesota Daily)

position. Under his guidance, the Gophers rank No. 40 in the Football Bowl Subdivision in total defense this season, holding opponents to 331 yards per game. With the team’s 4-0 start, Minnesota is 7-1 since Rossi took over his current title.

One area in which the defense has improved noticeably is against the run.

In 2018, the Gophers allowed 5.2 yards per rush, including three games in which they conceded over 300 yards on the ground.

Thus far this season, no team has ran for more than 174 yards against Minnesota which is now allowing 3.8 yards per rush on average.

While Rossi has maintained a similar system to

the one the Gophers ran last year, he did use the offseason to install some new wrinkles. In an effort to put more pass rushing speed on the field for third downs, he implemented a new formation that features four defensive ends on the field.

“We can do a lot of things with it,” Rossi said. “We can put people in different spots,

we can have tackles drop, we can have ends drop, we can run twists and all that good stuff. It just gives us a lot of variety and different options. It gets a lot of speed on the field.”

Now, 11 months after his promotion to the defensive coordinator position, Rossi and the Gophers defense is preparing once again for Illinois, especially senior running back Reggie Corbin. Corbin torched Minnesota for 213 yards on 13 attempts last year, including touchdown runs of 72 and 77 yards.

“They have legit [running] backs,” Rossi said of Illinois’ offense. “And not only like, ‘hey, we’re going to get three, four [yards], but like 50, 60, 70,’ so that’s the thing that is most concerning.”

For this year’s Gophers team, last season’s result is completely in the past.

Fleck says the team is looking squarely forward, and their only focus is going 1-0 against Illinois in 2019.

“I don’t talk about last year with our team,” Fleck said. “We don’t talk about words like, ‘revenge’ or things like that, those things do not exist in our program.”

CROSS COUNTRY

Quick turnaround presents challenge for Gophers The UMN cross country teams have quick turnarounds in between races.

BY BRENDAN O’BRIEN bobrien@mndaily.com

After competing at the Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 28, Minnesota’s cross country teams have only a few days until they compete again this upcoming weekend.

Coming off of a thirdplace finish at last weekend’s meet, the women’s team travels down to Indiana Friday to compete in the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational. Head coach Sarah Hopkins said after the Griak Invitational that rest and recovery will be important in determining how successful the team is at Notre Dame.

“We have a six-day t u r n a ro u n d f o r N o t r e Dame so it’s really important that this minute we’re starting recovery,” Hopkins said after Saturday’s meet. “We’ve got to rest up and recover, we’ve got to come back from it and everybody did a really good job of staying within themselves today so I think we are going to

Redshirt Junior Maria Eastman sprints for the finish line during the 2019 Roy Griak Invitational at the Les Bolstad Golf Course on Saturday, Sept. 28. The Minnesota women’s team placed third in the Division 1 race. (Kamaan Richards / Minnesota Daily)

be able to recover from it really well.”

Hopkins also thinks this upcoming meet will be a big national test for her runners. Nine of the top 25

ranked teams in the country will be racing at Notre Dame, including Colorado, currently the top-ranked team in the country. The Gopher women are cur-

rently ranked 29th in the nation.

The women’s team will face other challenges while competing at Notre Dame. Redshirt Anastasia

Korzenowski knows it will be important for everyone to be mentally prepared for the team’s first meet of the season away from Minnesota. Hopkins said

Burke Golf Course, the location of the meet, is also quite different than Minnesota’s Les Bolstad Golf Course in that it is a much flatter course without winding hills.

Despite the women’s team competing with its top runners last Saturday, men’s head coach Steve Plasencia chose to take a different approach at the Griak Invitational. Several of the men’s top runners including Alec Basten and Evan Ferlic were held from competing in the meet to ensure they were rested for this Saturday due to the quick turnaround between meets.

Doing well in the Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh could be a very important steppingstone for the men’s team at this point in the season. Currently, the men’s team did not receive any votes to be ranked in the top 30 in the country and has not made the NCAA Championship meet since 2015.

“Our expectations are to run well and we have to see how the field ends up,” Plasencia said. “But we do believe that we have some teams where we can catch some NCAA points from.

That’s kind of the goal.”

FOOTBALL

Following a season ending in injury, Smith has regained his form The running back had 22 carries for 115 yards against Purdue last week.

BY JOHN MILLER jmiller@mndaily.com

It feels like Rodney Smith has been a Gopher forever.

The now sixth-year senior running back began his Gopher career in 2014, where he used a redshirt his first season under head coach Jerry Kill. He was granted a medical redshirt after tearing his ACL in the 2018 season. Since returning, he’s provided stability among the running back group.

“I felt like in the Georgia Southern game that Rodney turned the corner,” offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca said. “I liked how decisive he was in that game and I thought okay we’re moving forward now with him.

We’re really shaking that rust off.”

Running back Rodney Smith carries the ball at Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 28. The Gophers earned a 38-31 victory over Purdue. (Jasmin Kemp / Minnesota Daily)

With more injuries coming into the Purdue game, the Gophers needed Smith to step up. Fellow running back Mohamed Ibrahim was out with an

injury, and Shannon Brooks is slowly integrating himself back into the offense.

Due to that, Minnesota relied on their veteran back to lead the rushing attack.

“It was fun to get in a groove running the ball,” Smith said. “It was exciting to get in there and provide for the team. Whatever they needed, tried to do my

role and make plays when they presented themselves.”

Smith finished the game averaging 5.2 yards on 22 carries for 115 yards and a touchdown. For the first time all year, Smith was the only running back that had double digit touches.

“What he did against Purdue didn’t surprise me at all,” Ciarrocca said. “He’s a great player. He’s proven that over time. He has a really high standard for himself.”

Smith has had quite the career with the maroon and gold. Heading into this week’s matchup, he has run for 3,287 yards, fourthmost in Gophers history.

He passed Gophers great Marion Barber III earlier this season and is currently 523 yards behind Thomas Hamner for third-most.

The Minnesota offense dominated the Boilermakers in the game, as quarterback Tanner Morgan had a historic day passing. The performance opened up running lanes for Smith.

“We got guys out wide and at the tight end position that go out and help us out and that takes a little pressure off of us,” Smith said.

“We know we have to be more explosive when we get those opportunities.”

The running backs know that they’ve been off to a stagnant start so far this year. They have not had a game where they have collectively averaged at least four yards per carry.

“We have to have more explosive runs,” Smith said.

“We’re getting better, but definitely a lot more room for improvement for the running back room.”

Despite the injuries that the position has suffered throughout the season and the general lack of success running the ball, Smith has high praise for the way every running back who has received playing time.

“We’re mature ... from top to bottom, anybody can go out there and do their job,” Smith said.

5

MNDAILY.COM

MN DAILY

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019

ART

Jenny Zander uses the body as a canvas and lets her artwork breathe

COURTESY OF JENNY ZANDER

Zander highlights the beauty of human connection through body art.

BY KSENIA GORINSHTEYN kgorinshteyn@mndaily.com

Jenny Zander is not a painter in the same way that most painters would describe themselves. She’s a body artist and photographer, or simply put, “I paint people and I document it.”

In one of her photos, a person stands in the woods with bright blue paint that reaches their chest.

The paint circles around their neck, eyes and arms.

The model’s fingers look as though they’ve been dipped in red.

“I don’t want to engulf a person in paint, I want to accent their body,” Zander said. “I want the work of art to be my brush strokes and their skin, their body in the environment that holds all these elements in relationship with one another.”

Zander began body painting in high school.

Her dad is an artist and

Zander draws most of her inspiration from him.

“He has a style called allowing the painting to breathe,” Zander said. “In that way, you’re allowing natural colors to be your air or whatever it is.”

Allowing the painting to breathe means letting the color of the paper, or in Zander’s case, the body, come through in places where it’s needed. This creates a “breathing” effect that makes the piece of art appear more relaxed and natural.

To mix the paint, Zander uses different colored mineral powders to keep the paint glossy and malleable so it moves with the model’s body.

She meets with each of her models to discuss how much skin they’re comfortable with showing, where they want to shoot the photos and any other preferences they have.

Zander uses bright, synthetic colors that aren’t often seen in nature. She’s been honing this skill since her first piece in high school.

COURTESY OF JENNY ZANDER

COURTESY OF JENNY ZANDER

“Over the past especially [her work] has just become way more fluid and

consistent, which she’s been working extremely hard on,” said Elena Bagne, an

artist and Zander’s childhood friend.

Each of Zander’s works are centered on creative resistance for social change.

One project serves as a reminder of the murdered and missing indigenous women and how that violence follows generations. “In honor of all our lost sisters,” Zander wrote in her portfolio.

“I love art that makes you uncomfortable, but I also like art that pulls you in. That’s what I want to do with my work,” Zander said. “I often center my work around women because there’s a strong connection between the violence inflicted on those who identify as female, and the violence inflicted on the planet.”

The bodies and stories represented in Zander’s art lend themselves to a broader narrative about intimacy and trust, too.

“She has honored herself as an artist,” said Gayatri Narayanan, Zander’s friend and a plant and microbial biology major at the University of Minnesota. “I don’t think she has changed her core just to make a

statement. Her work is not this thing that she, as a white artist, is trying to do outside of herself. It’s very much including her, and I think that’s very beautiful.”

Zander hopes to make her art more intergenerational and representative of other people and body types in her future work. For now, she’ll continue to emphasize the beauty of bodies and their intricate relationship to the natural world.

“Some of these bodies aren’t always seen as beautiful,” Zander said. “But that’s all part of loving your environment and loving your landscape. You can’t love what’s around you unless you first start with yourself, and that idea will radiate.”

“I love art that makes you uncomfortable, but I also like art that pulls you in.”

JENNY ZANDER artist

ENTERTAINMENT

Kendama competition comes to Minneapolis The North American Kendama Open kicks into action Thursday.

BY NORAH KLEVEN nkleven@mndaily.com

On Tuesday, kendama lovers gathered in preparation for the sport’s largest c om p et it ion in the Western Hemisphere.

Kendama is a Japanese skill toy which consists of a spike affixed to three cups and a ball on a string.

The goal is to land the ball on the spike, in one of the cups, or even the reverse: landing the cup on or in the ball.

The seventh annual North American Kendama Open (NAKO) begins Thursday, Oct. 3.

Formerly known as the Minnesota Kendama Open, the event rebranded itself before this year’s competition. The tournament is hosted by locally operated kendama retailer Sweets Kendamas and the Kendama Institute.

A sport that originated overseas, kendama has been growing in popularity in the United States over the past ten years, said Cody Griswold, event coordinator for Sweets Kendamas.

“It’s like a skateboard that fits in your pocket,” Griswold said. “It’s the same rush of landing a trick without the risk of injury or the crazy expense

that goes with a lot of sports.”

Sweets was founded by Matt “Sweets” Jorgenson in 2010 when he identified a lack of access to quality kendamas in the Twin Cities.

Today, Sweets has become a leading manufacturer of kendamas.

Since its conception, the company has collaborated with an impressive array

of individuals and brands, including Vans, Spikeball, extreme sport athletes, artists and musicians.

P a rk e r J o h n s o n , a University of Minnesota student and Sweetssponsored kendama athlete, said he loves kendama for the people, though he admits he thought the concept was silly at his first exposure to the sport.

Now, five years later,

Johnson is set to compete for his fourth year in open division, the highest tier of competition at the NAKO. But kendama is more than just a game. The community surrounding the niche sport is a commonly cited reason that players love the game.

For University student Justin Greenberg, the sport opened international doors.

“Through my kendama

Instagram [page] … I met a bunch of people from all around Europe and was able to link up with them in various parts of the city,” he said. “They would just show me their lives, and I would really get a nice, authentic, local experience.”

With four levels of competition, the event is open to competitors of all ages. Griswold said competitors span anywhere

from eight to 80 years old.

Competition format varies between the professional and lower division, but the premise is the same: competitors face off to land tricks the quickest or the most times.

The tournament will span the course of three days, starting on Thursday. Events will be held at locations across the Cities, including the Sweets headquarters in Como, the Northeast Minneapolis Delta Hotel and the Varsity Theater.

North American Kendama Open

Thursday, Oct. 3 through Sunday, Oct. 6 Events will be held at Sweets Kendamas Shop, Delta Hotels by Marriott Minneapolis Northeast, and Varsity Theater $25 for a 3-day pass or $10 per day at the door All ages

“It’s like a skateboard that fits in your pocket. It’s the same rush of landing a trick without the risk of injury or the crazy expense that goes with a lot of sports.”

Joe Spitzenberger custom paints a kendama at the Sweets Kendamas warehouse on Friday, Sept. 27.

(Nur Adam / Minnesota Daily)

CODY GRISWOLD Sweets Kendamas event coordinator

6 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019

MN DAILY

MNDAILY.COM

Editorials & Opinions

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Reproductive justice is at the core of a healthy Minnesota

W

e are a group of future physicians that believe reproductive justice is at the core of a healthy Minnesota. The three components of reproductive justice are 1) the right to have children, 2) the right to not have children and 3) the right to raise children in safe communities. One critical component of this

intersectional vision is access to abortion as part of basic health care.

In response to the Sept. 18 article entitled “While we weren’t watching”, we wanted to emphasize some key points where our views both align and diverge from those of the author.

We share the same core beliefs with the author and agree on many of her points.

First, we agree abortion restrictions limit more than pregnancy options for our future patients — these regulations limit their future health and opportunities to thrive over the course of their lives. We also agree that anti-abortion extremists in our state leadership have a tight grasp around basic health care delivery, and that these insidious and persistent efforts to limit delivery of basic health care are a genuine threat to the health of all Minnesotans.

When a person decides to have an abortion, it should be safe, affordable, available

in their community and free from punishment or judgement. Abortion is pregnancy care. Pregnancy care is health care. Health care is a fundamental human right.

Still, framing opinions on pregnancy care by using phrases like “minors have no business being pregnant” and “ending a pregnancy is one of the hardest feats a person can go through” transforms a well-intended argument — perhaps inadvertently — into a judgement. This language implies that pregnancy is a monolithic and universally desired experience. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

As medical trainees, we are sensitive to the power of words and how they convey our underlying assumptions. While some patients struggle with the decision to seek an abortion, some do not. While some patients receiving abortion care come from poor communities, some do not. While some patients who get abortions identify as women,

some do not.

As soon as we start stratifying a hierarchy of “good” and “bad” reasons to seek medical care, we jeopardize our role as your trusted educators, respected counsel and future physicians.

Written by Rachael Gotlieb and Sara Lederman, MPH (M.D. candidates, class of 2022) Co-signed with support from members of the UMN-Twin Cities Medical School chapter of Medical Students for Choice: Katherine Beck-Esmay; Kristin Chu; Annika Deitermann; Cecelia Di Caprio; Baila Elkin; Samantha Gibson; Brooke Hendricks; Kristine Nachbor; Malina Peterson; Jessica Sukharan; Julia Weston; Taylor Wicklund; Riley Shearer; Corinne Praska; Anna Dovre; Jade Cohen; Ruthie Baker.

This letter to the editor has been lightly edited for style and clarity.

COLUMN

California reminded Uber that they have drivers Uber’s not sure.

T

Uma Venkata columnist

he California State Senate approved Senate Bill AB5 that would require gig workers in the state to be classified as employees, not independent contractors earlier this September. A week later, Gov. Gavin

Newsom signed it. Uber had a public canary.

People who work for gig companies, like TaskRabbit, Uber, Lyft, GrubHub and Doordash are classified as “independent contractors.” Their non-employee status loses them the benefits that should be understood with the terms of modern work, like paid sick and vacation time, minimum wage and health insurance. The argument of the bill that passed in California was that this is unacceptable, and that companies that employ people, even if they employ them through phone screens only, should still be accountable employers.

This bill was directed primarily to ridehailing companies. Currently, Uber holds 65 percent or more of the ride-hailing market share. The median hourly rate for Uber and Lyft drivers in the US can get to $8.55, which is a very low wage. Low wages plus skipping basic benefits is a recipe for putting drivers into a cycle of working more hours to make the money they need, without the guarantee that they will have work — and they are forced just to sit and wait for the next hail. At the same time, they’re paying the opportunity cost of finding a less volatile job or building the experience to get one. There is no opportunity

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

for professional growth as an Uber or Lyft driver. In terms of raises, the driver’s wage could spike based on some accrual of good ratings, but the increased price reduces demand, and it all comes out in the wash. But no one is becoming a manager in Uber driving. It is not a career, it is a gig to pick up extra cash. But, the cycle that we just mentioned can make it a trap — and it’s not impossible that the next thing you know, your career is years behind.

Uber and all of their fellow app-based employers who claim not to be employers at all when it’s convenient to them will suddenly be held accountable as payroll-operating companies in California once the bill goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2021. This is the right direction for California to move in and Minnesota should follow suit.

Uber is against California’s bill because they claim that drivers are not central to their business model. On the other hand, I have no idea who would drive people around on Uber rides, or in whose car — maybe Uber himself can just do it, because corporations are people too?

Uber’s argument against SB AB5 is that by regulating their gig drivers, California

is threatening a future where “independent work” could be improved in “quality, security and dignity,” according to Uber’s Chief Legal Officer Tony West. But I don’t fully buy that there is any inherent security in the ridehailing industry, other than that provided by a physical, benefits-delivering taxi company.

The very nature of ride-hailing is unreliable.

And in the very few Lyft rides I’ve taken, what I was most taken aback by was the Orwellian control the driver submits to from his phone. This is not a wonderful work environment.

Yes, drivers and other gig workers can set their own hours. But they are often underpaid and ill-compensated. Ride-hailing drivers are performing labor. They should be fairly paid for their work. But with the professional stagnation, low wages and the absence of proper benefits, gig-working is the subsistence-farming of careers. There are already enough stressors on the American middle class. I applaud California for taking this one step to combat it.

Uma Venkata welcomes comments at uvenkata@mndaily.com.

CARTOON BY ROBERT MCGRADY

The Teal Ordeal — Walking on with a Chronic Neurological Disorder In coordination with the facial pain center at the U of M, we yearn for a cure.

S

he was in her car, I was sitting in the back, my mother in the front talking to her. At first, we didn’t understand what she was saying because it was … a surreal blend, and we couldn’t grasp it well. I don’t think anyone can. She was still laughing, driving as if everything was normal, then why this? Her smile was never concealed behind her face, yet something else was. She was being depicted by a Mona Lisa and Edward Munch’s “The Scream,” if that is an adequate definition in the fine arts basis.

When she has this “sharp pain,” that she described, her smile and her pain concealed behind her face, in front of everyone, even in front of herself, fights a perpetual war.

For she had trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and if she let it take over her life, she would not have one. TN is a chronic pain disorder affecting the largest cranial (brain) nerve, and according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons it is considered “one of the most excruciating pain[s] known to humanity.” This is the devil behind our family friend’s face who is always involved in volunteering and community work. More so, it has no known cure for its atypical type, less common that it’s typical type. It is a rare chronic disorder and affects usually women older than 50. Like in a slap in the face, our neighbor Lakshmi Subramanian aged 36 — isn’t even 50. Oh! Talking about that slap in the face she just received, could’ve triggered her episodes of excruciating pain. Oh no, even a touch to her face, a cool breeze, a hot coffee, cold water, even brushing her teeth would have triggered it as well. It was hard for her to tell, and yet she drove the car, and was on her way to help organize another

non-profit.

Her altruistic nature gave her the idea of a walk, to let the people known about this capricious pain and TN. Thus, with support from VTSeva (a nonprofit organization), Mrs. Lakshmi, my mother and I gathered a team of volunteers, organized and brought chief guests, making sure to spread awareness to as much as people possible. This work was for a TN Awareness Walk on August 18th, which brought together around 70 people to learn about TN and how they can help.

This was made possible by the efforts of several people and our two honored chief guests, Dr. Andrew Grande (a neurosurgeon), and Dr. Donald Nixdorf (a dentist, division of orofacial pain) who is involved in the, “...non-surgical management of trigeminal neuralgia.”

Both are big advocates for TN and from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Grande mentions that, “over the last eight years we’ve developed a facial pain center at the U of M, that has enabled us to connect with the community.” Dr. Nixdorf agrees and states that there is “some stigma associated with chronic pain, where people can’t feel it, they can’t understand it, but now I think society is changing.” Indeed, in this walk we stressed that, kindness, awareness and knowledge matter, while talking and walking around Lake Normandale, Bloomington, MN. This walk is also to make sure that “...the sufferers need our empathy not our sympathy,” says my mother Amutha Muthusamy. With our small teal ribbons stuck on to us as the symbol for TN and wearing teal caps, we walked a successful one, that is with Dr. Andrew Grande and Dr. Donald Nixdorf giving very knowledgeable and beneficial words, in pursuit for awareness. We are hoping to do this again next year with more support, more people, “...more awareness, to spread the kindness,” says Mrs. Lakshmi, who also expresses that, “it is ironic for saying, ‘it doesn’t hurt to smile.’” We cannot do much but rather show consideration towards an ordeal masking the true identity of a human with TN. In coordination with the facial pain center at the U of M, we yearn for a cure, and these doctors are striving toward it, until then we support the people who suffice with this erratic chronic pain disorder — known as trigeminal neuralgia.

This letter to the editor has been lightly edited for style and clarity.

Aneesh Swaminathan is a freshman at Wayzata High School, Plymouth, MN.

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

Written by Nancy Black

Aries (3/21 - 4/19): Today is an 8 — Go explore. Make financial plans with your partner with Mercury in Scorpio. Advance professionally with Pluto direct in Capricorn. Take new territory.

Libra (9/23 - 10/22): Today is a 9 — Get creative. Profit from communications with Mercury in Scorpio. Epiphanies catalyze and revitalize.

Realize domestic goals with Pluto direct.

Taurus (4/20 - 5/20): Today is a 7 — Collaborate in a partnership. Communicate and coordinate efforts with Mercury in Scorpio. Discover cultures and views with Capricorn Pluto direct.

Scorpio (10/23 - 11/21): Today is a 9 — Personal decisions come easier with Mercury in your sign. Reinvent and share your vision.

Long-term dreams reappear with Pluto direct.

Gemini (5/21 - 6/21): Today is an 8 — Work together. Streamline procedures with Scorpio Mercury for three weeks. A path to a financial goal appears with Pluto direct in Capricorn.

Sagittarius (11/22 - 12/21): Today is an 8 — Complete old projects over three weeks with Mercury in Scorpio. Release limitations around money and income with Pluto direct.

Cancer (6/22 - 7/22): Today is a 9 — Creativity and romance call with Mercury in Scorpio over three weeks. Invent long-term possibilities with Pluto direct. Let someone see the real you.

Capricorn (12/22 - 1/19): Today is a 7 — Team communication flowers with Mercury in Scorpio. You can see your own limiting monologues with Pluto direct in your sign.

Leo (7/23 - 8/22): Today is a 7 — Discuss home renovations with Mercury in Scorpio. Your physical performance improves with Pluto direct.

Abandon old habits to let a new identity emerge.

Aquarius (1/20 - 2/18): Today is an 8 — Plan career moves now that Mercury is in Scorpio.

Explore possibilities. Contemplate spiritual questions with Pluto direct in Capricorn.

Virgo (8/23 - 9/22): Today is an 8 — For three weeks with Scorpio Mercury, you’re especially brilliant. Envision a romantic future with Pluto Capricorn direct. Release old negative patterns.

Pisces (2/19 - 3/20): Today is a 9 — For three weeks with Mercury in Scorpio, travel and discovery beckons. Team efforts come together with Pluto direct. Give up power struggles.

DR. DATE Dr. Date,

I haven’t been having much luck with Tinder lately. I’m newly single and am dipping my toes into the dating pool, but I’m really inexperienced. So last week, I asked a friend of mine to help me refine my profile, and the first thing she said was “Do you have a dog?”

Apparently, it’s “scientifically proven” (according to her) that men who have an animal in their profile pictures get laid more than those who don’t. I wasn’t going to argue with that statistic, so I let her take some pics of me with her golden retriever and use them as my main photos. I could instantly see the results — I got three times the matches I used to get!

Problem is, almost all of the conversations revolve around the dog.

Yeah, he’s cute, but what about me?!

Every girl’s intro is “omg I wanna meet your dog” and I don’t know what to do.

I set up a date with a girl who hadn’t mentioned him, but she messaged me yesterday asking if “my puppy” will be with me.

I don’t want to cancel my date, but I’m not trying to mislead women right off the bat. What do I do?

–Not Trying to Dogfish

Dear Not Trying to Dogfish,

Honesty is the best policy. Just kidding — time for a scam. First date, tell her the dog is at the vet. Establish that baseline of your dog being sick and get those sympathy points right away. Yeah, she’ll be disappointed, but she can’t really be mad. By the third date when she’s really wondering, break down in tears and tell her your dog really isn’t doing well. Cancel your fourth date, saying your dog died, then reschedule for the next day. Bam, truth avoided!

If you want to establish the relationship on a basis of trust, actually tell her that it’s your friend’s dog. I guarantee it’s not the weirdest thing she’s seen on Tinder. And next time, add a “not my dog” in the profile — you can’t keep killing fake dogs forever.

Dr. Date,

I met this guy in my class a few weeks ago and we instantly hit it off. We were finishing each other’s sentences, had the same taste in music and visited all the same vegan juice shops. After a week of flirting in between lectures, he finally asked me out on a date! We had a great time together and he even walked me to my door. The whole time I was wondering how to ask him upstairs, or at least how to get him to kiss me. Unfortunately, he said ‘let’s do this again sometime’ and walked away.

Surprisingly, that wasn’t him blowing me off. We’ve been going out for almost two months now and I even referred to him as my boyfriend yesterday. Problem is, he still hasn’t kissed me! I’m a big believer in guys making the first move, so I don’t know what to do. How many hints can a girl drop?

I really like him, but I’m seriously wondering if he’s right for me. I’ve given him so many great opportunities and he hasn’t taken any of them! How do I get him to kiss me? Is he that oblivious or is there more to it?

–Clueless and Kissless

Dear Clueless and Kissless,

There are a few different reasons why he may not be taking the hint. Maybe he’s got a chronic case of mono. Maybe he’s never done it before and he’s nervous. Or maybe, and most likely, he really is even more clueless than you. Some guys won’t get the message until it’s literally on their face. So go for it and see what happens!

–Dr. Date

–Dr. Date

Want advice from the love doctor? Email Dr. Date at drdate@mndaily.com

SUDOKU CROSSWORD

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

10/3/19

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

Last issue’s solution

© 2019 Michael Mepham. Distributed

by Tribune Media Services.

All rights reserved.

8

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Bike improvements could affect MarcyHolmes businesses and neighborhood Officials say the benefits outweigh the costs of diverting traffic on Hennepin.

BY CAITLIN ANDERSON canderson@mndaily.com Bike and pedestrian improvements bordering Marcy-Holmes could affect businesses and traffic through the neighborhood.

The President’s Bike Boulevard project, a joint partnership between the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, attempts to fill a gap on East Hennepin Avenue and 5th Street Southeast in an existing bike network.

These improvements could increase the traffic moving through the neighborhood and impact the businesses near the intersection, community members say.

“The project is to organize a space at this intersection that is catered to pedestrians, cyclists, cars and trucks,” said Trey Joiner, associate transportation planner for the city, during a presentation given to Marcy-Holmes and neighboring Beltrami residents on Sept. 30. “What we’re proposing here is not something that’s willy-nilly … it’s something that’s tested.”

The project’s goal is to help create a safer intersection by reducing the number of traffic lanes on East Hennepin Avenue from four to three to make room for protected bike lanes. These changes will disallow left turns from East Hennepin Avenue onto 5th Street Southeast

between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays.

Reduced lanes could also help reduce car speeds, said Jordan Kocak, pedestrian and bicycle coordinator for Hennepin County.

A major concern for residents at the meeting was how restricting this intersection, a main truck route for area businesses, could affect traffic elsewhere in the neighborhood — specifically by diverting cars and trucks onto 8th Street Southeast, which cuts through the MarcyHolmes neighborhood.

David O’Neill, co-founder of the Minneapolis Cider Co., shares these concerns.

He said this project could impact the cidery’s ability to carry out business as usual.

“As we grow, I would be more concerned about the truck traffic … I just want to make sure they are thinking long-term,” O’Neill said.

But Joiner said the benefits of improved bike infrastructure outweigh the increased truck traffic through the neighborhood.

Instead of a left turn restriction, residents and business owners like O’Neill said a traffic light w o u l d i m p ro v e s a f e t y without affecting traffic on 8th Street Southeast.

“These things come into play when you start tinkering and inevitably every time you fix a problem, you potentially create another one,” said Chris Lautenschlager, executive director of the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association. “You’re

The intersection of East Hennepin Avenue and 8th Street as on Monday, Sept. 30. (Sydni Rose / Minnesota Daily)

driving semi-trucks into the neighborhood now, which is … not great.”

Officials said traffic in the area does not warrant a traffic light and is not within the project’s budget.

A recent study from the city and county observed the traffic of a normal day

at the intersections. It saw four trucks turn left at the intersection between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. This is compared with 30 bikes, 11 pedestrians and 64 cars during that same time frame.

But officials need to take into account the increased traffic future

developments underway in the area will bring, said Jen Holmberg, a Beltrami resident who uses the intersection frequently.

The city and county plan to bring the project to the Minneapolis City Council in November. If approved, the project would

be completed by fall 2020.

“We have spoken with many people who are very excited about an improvement for people who are walking and biking here,” Kocak said.

“We have done other outreach around this project and we have received positive feedback from residents.”

UMN startup Farm Visions develops technology to help farmers map crops UMN Startup Farm Vision Technologies was awarded nearly $750,000 last month.

BY NATALIE CIERZAN ncierzan@mndaily.com A University of Minnesota startup, Farm Vision Technologies, was awarded a nearly $750,000 grant last month to fund their fruit mapping technology for farmers.

The technology aims to improve the accuracy of counting fruit in an orchard.

If the company can do this, then farmers will more easily manage labor costs, marketing and shipping out their fruit, employees said.

“The primary benefit is being able to manage the crop better so that you can produce a more valuable yield,” said Patrick Plonski, CEO and co-founder of Farm Vision.

This grant, which was awarded by the National Science Foundation, will help them improve their research and development of fruit mapping technology, he said.

Plonski’s interest in agriculture began because his father was a pig farmer, he said.

“I see a lot of people graduating with fancy computer science degrees, and then they go work at Google, making more money for Google,” Plonski said. “I think helping out farmers feels like a tangible problem with real-world benefit, because everyone’s got to eat, and farming’s not easy.”

The agriculture industry loses significant profit due to inaccurate counts of their crop, he said. A mature, profitable orchard can make about $2,000 per acre in profit, he said.

“We’ve been talking to a lot of growers, and they estimate that the industry loses about $1,500 per acre because of inaccuracy in the year estimates,” Plonski said.

The technology consists of a scanner operated by the user, who takes it up and down the rows of the orchard,

SARAH MAI, DAILY

he said. The scanner takes the data, like the count of the crop, and transfers it to a cloud service program which processes it.

The company charges only for the area farmers use the scanner on. Right now, they have pilot projects going on with this method in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington and Florida.

“We plan to give them the hardware for very cheap and then charge them for use of the cloud service,” Plonski said. “The customers we’ve talked to have appreciated this model because it means there’s very low risk to trying it out.”

Farmers and growers are especially appreciative

because they have tried other similar but less effective technologies before, Plonski said.

“The growers are kind of skeptical that [the technology] will actually work,” he said. “They haven’t been impressed with the results they’ve gotten.”

Part of the reason for this skepticism is some people underestimate the difficulty of making fruit mapping systems that are low-cost and work well in orchards, Plonski said.

This technology speeds up the counting process for farmers, said Jim Luby, the horticultural and agronomic adviser for the company.

“We could get a count if

we spent enough time doing it,” he said.

The sensors can do the same thing in a fraction of the time.

“It’s really a whole new area of a type of product,” he said. “It certainly could have been conceptualized before, but it would have been way too expensive or impractical to try to market.”

Brian Dawn, the company’s chief technology officer, writes and maintains the code for the technology.

“The earlier that they can get these metrics, the better they can estimate and optimize all of their costs,” he said, which is what Farm Vision technology can do.

Farm Vision became

commercial due to years of University and company research, Plonski said. The company will formally launch during the next growing season.

The company began as a research question in the University’s Robotic Sensor Networks Lab in 2014, co-founder Volkan Isler said in an email to the Minnesota Daily.

What began as a plan to build a robotic inspection system for apple packing lines turned into proof that farmers needed automotive systems for their harvests.

That’s when they turned to mapping, he said in the email.

“As we developed the

core science and technology, it became clear that the yield mapping component of this project is something farmers can benefit from immediately,” Isler said in the email.

Dawn said farmers are some of the hardest-working people he knows. Using this technology can help almost every aspect of their business, he said.

“I believe that one of the biggest issues facing humanity right now is the environment, and agriculture contributes to a large amount of CO2 emissions,” Dawn said. “The way I see it is that any way that we can improve efficiency for farmers will help fix the environment, hopefully.”