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Addressing appropriation on Halloween

‘Bug Girl’ brings gore, artistry Florence Brammer lays for a living embalming session in the Southern Theater on Saturday, Oct. 26.

(Nur B. Adam / Minnesota Daily)

A campaign aims to educate campus about the impact of cultural clothing as costumes.

BY FARRAH MINA fmina@mndaily.com

Part of the Halloween season for University of Minnesota student Meenakshi Mattson – and for many people of color – is seeing her culture appropriated.

Mattson said she has seen saris, dubbed as “Bollywood dancer costumes,” sold on Amazon and at Party City.

“It’s very otherizing,” said Mattson, a fourth-year psychology student. For Mattson, as a transgender person, saris have a deep cultural significance because they’re connected to how she expresses her femininity.

“To see it whittled down to something that’s just a luxury costume or just like this little tacky piece that you can wear once a year for Halloween, that’s not OK for me.”

For six years, the University’s American Indian Student Cultural Center has been addressing cultural appropriation with its annual “Our Culture is Not Your Costume” campaign in the weeks leading up to Halloween.

“It’s raising awareness for the lack of understanding of cultural identity and what it means to people,” AISCC board members said.

The AISCC board asked to be referred to as one entity in order to provide a more representative perspective of the indigenous community.

The AISCC creates and distributes posters of University students holding examples of culturally insensitive costumes in addition to quotes from students about how these representations impact them.

By showing this perspective, the board said it hopes to help people make educated decisions about their costumes while being respectful.

Many offensive Halloween costumes sexualize Native women by portraying them in revealing clothing, the board said. “You’re endangering Native women in that sense ...one in three Native women can face sexual assault and rape in their lifetimes because it’s seen as a conquer thing. How much of that is perpetuated by Western culture?”

Other examples of offensive costumes reflect a lack of cultural understanding.

“A guy walking around with a headdress made of chicken feathers really takes away from the importance of a real headdress as earned, and only a few people will ever have the opportunity to wear it in their lifetime,” the board members said.

This year the board is working with the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence to help distribute the posters both online and around campus.

Second-year student Sorena Yang also grew up seeing parts of Asian culture worn as Halloween u See COSTUMES Page 3

The Twin Cities Horror Festival will put on 13 shows.

BY KSENIA GORINSHTEYN kgorinshteyn@mndaily.com If you’ve ever wondered what it would feel like to get embalmed, the Twin Cities Horror Festival can help you out.

You can experience a 15-minute embalming session — what they call an “ASMR sensory spa morgue makeover.”

The Twin Cities Horror Festival has grown from its beginnings as an experimental juried show to a non-profit organization that explores how horror can be staged

instead of filmed.

Each year, the festival brings several productions to life. They commission artists to push creative limits in a genre that’s typically on-screen rather than live.

This year the festival has 13 shows playing at the Southern Theater on West Bank for two weekends.

“Theatre has some elements that film doesn’t, where you can use all of your senses,” said Debra Berger, the horror festival’s marketing director. “You can walk into a space and smell something really repulsive or have the feeling that someone’s behind you. It can be even more immersive than film, which is really exciting.”

The first Twin Cities Horror u See HORROR Page 5

CAMPUS

Proposed gender identity policy nears implementation The three-year-old policy is currently wrapping up its 30-day period for public discussion.

BY NIAMH COOMEY ncoomey@mndaily.com

The University of Minnesota’s proposed gender expression and identity policy, which has been three years in the making, is nearing implementation in November.

University community members attended a panel hosted by Student Legal Service Tuesday, which aimed to explain the history of the draft policy, as well as discuss how it will be implemented. The panel is a part of a series of SLS events called “Conversations on Student Life and the Law.” The policy, which made its way through University Senate last spring, is currently in its

30-day comment period. Barring any last minute tweaks to the draft language or concerns that arise in public comments, it is slated to go into effect in the next several weeks.

The policy asks that University community members use the name and gender pronouns preferred by individuals. It also requires that the University be transparent with how data on gender identity is used, and that individuals can participate in activities and use facilities consistent with their gender identity.

The event hosted a panel of three leaders who have worked to develop the policy.

Saby Labor, the director of the Gender and Sexuality Center for Queer and Trans Life, presented several upcoming goals related to implementation of the policy, one being expanding resources and education for

STUDENT GOVT.

ILLUSTRATION BY HAILEE SCHIEVELBEIN, DAILY

faculty and students on the topic of gender expression and identity.

Tina Marisam, the University’s director of the Office of Equal

Opportunity and Affirmative Action, and Jay Wilson, a co-chair for u See CAMPUS Page 3

COMMUNITY

Tension within undergraduate student govt. causes concern

Stonewall riots at the center of city, University of Minnesota project The project highlights the trans and nonbinary community, and will be housed at the University.

The conflict follows the resignation of six high ranking MSA members since July of this year.

BY MOHAMED IBRAHIM mibrahim@mndaily.com

BY SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON shendrickson@mndaily.com

The Minnesota Student Association, which represents more than 30,000 undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota, is currently in discussion over what some call a lack of direction, leadership and accomplished advocacy inside the organization.

Since the summer, some members say MSA leadership has been inadequate, leading to increased internal conflict throughout the organization. This tension has brought the undergraduate student government to a standstill, lessening the time the group has to advocate for student issues.

Instruments used as part of living embalming sessions sit on a table in the Southern Theater on Saturday, Oct. 26. (Nur B. Adam / Minnesota Daily)

Student Senators and Representatives vote to move the forum to a closed session in Fraser Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 22. (Kamaan Richards / Minnesota Daily)

At a forum on Oct. 22, MSA members motioned for a closed session. Some members said they did this in order to have a “transparent conversation” about these concerns and allow voting members to voice their opinions about internal conflict freely, especially direct conflict with MSA leadership.

A bill drafted earlier this month called for MSA President Mina Kian to answer several questions regarding MSA’s priorities.

“[T]he President of the Minnesota Student Association has denied repeated and sustained requests to have a meaningful and respectful conversation around organizational culture and organizational portfolio,” the bill states. It also states that “the President’s behavior is largely responsible for the creation of a difficult work environment.”

The session, which excluded staff and leadership, follows the u See MSA Page 3

Local government officials are partnering with University of Minnesota libraries to help preserve and display the history the Stonewall riots’ impact in the Twin Cities’ transgender and nonbinary community.

The Minneapolis City Council approved an agreement Friday to transfer materials from a city oral history project to University Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies for preservation. The materials are part of the city’s Stonewall Oral History Project, which highlights how the riots impacted transgender and nonbinary people of color in the Twin Cities.

The city’s Division of Race and Equity commissioned the Stonewall Oral History Project this past

summer to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City.

The project, which consists of three videos and nearly a dozen interviews, aims to reflect on the legacy of the riots and its influence on the visibility of local transgender and nonbinary people of color.

Mariah Cannon, currently an intern in the city’s Division of Race and Equity office, worked on the project as an urban scholar as part of the office’s summer cohort.

The project allows for interviewees and other trans and nonbinary people of color to reflect on Stonewall’s legacy and the community’s role in the uprising, which has often gone unrecognized, they said.

“They don’t move through society in the same way as someone who has privilege that is a white trans person,” they said. “When you allow the space for someone to tell their authentic narrative, have the power over their stories and really be able to share that with people, then it can be a u See STONEWALL Page 3 VOLUME 120 ISSUE 18

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New group for campus veterans The first veteran group will provide resources, space, and a network.

BY GWIWON JASON NAMG gnamg@mndaily.com The first veteran and military group for staff, faculty and graduate students launched at the University of Minnesota this month, providing members with resources, networking opportunities and a space to share experiences.

The Veteran and Military Affinity Group aims to layout an inclusive and accessible forum for University employees and graduate students who have served or are

currently serving in the military.

“It’s such a wonderful thing to bring people together who are veterans, who can talk about the challenges of what it means to find a job or to be a veteran coming back from combat,” said Vic Massaglia, the group’s co-founder.

About 1,000 employees across campus are military veterans, according the the Office of Human Resources.

The group believes there are approximately the same number of students veterans, according to Meagan Pierluissi, co-chair of the group. Currently, the group has about 30 members.

“This is part of a larger effort here at the

University to tell that veteran story more,” Pierluissi said. “We would like to see those stories shared more predominantly within our own community ... to show that we are a core piece of the University, and we have a shared identity as veterans.”

T h e g ro u p h a d i t s first meeting last week to get to know one another.

All members come from different parts of the University, according to Jabra Kawas, co-chair of the group and an assistant director for One Stop & University Veteran Services.

Group members talked about their own military “language,” including acronyms. They also discussed

some of the things they saw during their time serving in the military.

“That’s just something that is core to military people, and it was really nice to kind of get in the same room and feel relaxed and talking in that way,” Pierluissi said.

At the meeting, members discussed which food vendors and retail stores had the best veteran discounts, which is important to the University veteran community, she said.

“We eventually want to have a mentoring network where employees who are veterans potentially may be mentoring students who are veterans on campus,” Kawas said.

In the proposed group, any employees who are part

of the affinity group could potentially mentor student veterans, according to Kawas.

University Veterans Services will host a veterans’ appreciation event Nov. 13 and the affinity group is one of the sponsors. The event will celebrate veterans on campus and recognize their contributions.

The Veteran and Military Affinity Group also plans to launch a veteran identity campaign.

“Veterans are participating in this campaign, showing their identities as social and personal identities that they bring to campus … and sort of dispelling any misconceptions people may have of who is a veteran,” Pierluissi said.

Regents look to update their conduct policy Potential changes are being drafted, and would keep policy current.

BY DYLAN ANDERSON danderson@mndaily.com

University of Minnesota regents are looking to refresh board policies governing themselves.

In a robust conversation at the October meeting, regents discussed what changes, if any, they feel are appropriate, potentially editing policies about running for office, removing a member and speaking with the media.

Potential changes are being drafted for further discussion in December with hopes of adopting updated policy next year, Board of Regents Chair Ken Powell said.

“You just need to constantly look at these things to make sure they are still working for you,” Powell said.

“You just need to make sure that they’re still current, fresh and relevant.”

Running for partisan office Several regents indicated current policy requiring resignation upon

announcing candidacy for a political office is too extreme.

Policy could still require resignation if elected, but some felt drawing a line across all partisan offices is overly broad.

“I don’t know that a partisan office necessarily should disqualify someone, other than if they are elected to the state legislature, that would be the one carve-out I would insist on,” Regent Richard Beeson said in the meeting.

In the past, regents have served in offices such as a school board director or county commissioner without resigning. A change could require regents to disclose the candidacy to the board through conflict of interest procedures.

Regent Mike Kenyanya noted their code of ethics restricts regents from using the prestige of the office for political gain.

“You open the door for someone campaigning to really lean and use their regent title and experience to prop it up,” Kenyanya said at the meeting.

Removing a regent Also at issue is language requiring a regent to resign. There is no policy for

removing a regent, and state law does not address it either.

In 2012, Regent Steve Sviggum resigned after he took a job as communications director for the state Senate Republican caucus, causing some regents to see it as a conflict.

“I decided it might be best, rather than allow something to fester … maybe it would be better to resign,” Sviggum said.

Without a procedure in place it is unclear how the board would handle a situation where a regent was asked to resign but did not oblige.

“I think we have to grapple with that,” Powell said.

Who can speak to the media Current policy states the board chair alone can speak for the entire board, but regents are parsing how they should speak to the press about their opinions on issues.

“Every regent ought to have the right to speak for her or his self regarding issues of policy or issues of the budget or whatever the issue may be before the board,” Sviggum said.

“But I think it’s important that we clarify that we are speaking for ourselves and

BY JASMINE SNOW jsnow@mndaily.com

Awareness surrounding sexual assault reporting and resources has increased among University of Minnesota students, according to recent survey data.

Earlier this month, the Association of American Universities released its second comprehensive report of sexual assault data from 33 colleges and universities across the U.S. The University was one of several Big Ten institutions to take part.

About 29 percent of degree-seeking students — almost 13,000 students — participated this year, nearly double the rate of participation in the first survey in 2015.

While school officials said some data in the survey is troubling, trends relating to student attitudes of sexual assault are a positive sign.

“We need to recognize and maintain appropriate boundaries in the classroom and lab, in office spaces and co-curricular activities,”

said Karen Hanson, University executive vice president and provost in a statement.

“Both academic success and personal well-being are threatened by sexual harassment, so we have a special responsibility to see to it that our University is free from this sort of behavior.”

Between undergraduate and graduate and professional students, 63.7 percent said they believed it was “very or extremely likely” that campus officials would take a report of sexual assault or misconduct seriously. But students reporting this trust were more likely to be men, with undergraduate males reporting this response at 74.1 percent compared to 50.6 percent of their female peers.

Graduate students also gave differing responses to this question, with 62 percent of women reporting “very or extremely likely” compared to 78 percent of men.

About half of all respondents said that “it is very or extremely likely” that an investigation into these allegations would be “fair.”

Of the almost 14 percent of students who reported witnessing an event that could lead to sexual assault, more than 75 percent said they took action.

Of the approximately 23 percent of respondents who reported noticing a situation where someone was acting in a way that made other feel “uncomfortable or offended,” more than 65 percent said they took some type of action.

More than 18 percent of University students have experienced harassment since enrolling, or behavior or comments that negatively impacted the respondent’s daily functioning. More than 38 percent have experienced “harassing behavior,” or behavior that did not disrupt the respondent’s daily life.

Statistics in these areas consistently differ for members of the LGBTQ community, with more than 48 percent percent of LGBTQ students reporting harassment. Forty percent reported that it is “very or extremely likely” that campus officials would take their reports of sexual assault or misconduct seriously.

“The national research does say that disproportionately student folks with marginalized social identities such as sexual orientation, racial identity or disability are d i s p ro p o r t i o n a t e l y i m pacted by sexual violence than their counterparts

EDITORIAL STAFF Max Chao Managing Editor mchao@mndaily.com Desmond Kamas Managing Production Editor dkamas@mndaily.com Michelle Griffith Campus Activities Editor mgriffith@mndaily.com Katrina Pross Campus Administration Editor kpross@mndaily.com Madeline Deninger City Editor mdeninger@mndaily.com Audrey Kennedy Features & Freelance Editor akennedy@mndaily.com Paul Hodowanic Sports Editor phodowanic@mndaily.com Nick Jungheim Assistant Sports Editor njungheim@mndaily.com Liv Martin A&E Editor lmartin@mndaily.com Jack Rodgers Multimedia Editor jrodgers@mndaily.com Emily Martens Copy Desk Chief emartens@mndaily.com Cate Tynjala Assistant Copy Desk Chief ctynjala@mndaily.com Creston Halstead Chief Page Designer chalstead@mndaily.com Morgan La Casse Visuals Editor mlacasse@mndaily.com =

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Regent David McMillan listens in at the McNamara Alumni Center on Thursday, Oct. 10. (Nur B. Adam / Minnesota Daily)

not for the board.”

Most other Big Ten schools do not have a policy specifically addressing communicating with the media. Pennsylvania State University policy emphasizes the University as a “free marketplace of competing ideas,” but reminds members to always act in the schools best interest.

“Using the media to effectuate or attempt to effectuate a governance outcome that didn’t happen in this room is what ... conduct we are trying to get at and make sure it doesn’t happen,” Regent David McMillan said at the meeting.

But Regent Michael Hsu pushed back, saying he

doesn’t believe a policy is necessary and the press has a role in informing the public about what happens at board meetings.

“There are very few people … going back on YouTube and watching the meetings and trying to figure out what we say,” Hsu said.

Both the current and proposed language of the policy says regents should be open about their opinions at board meetings and supportive of decisions when they are made.

“We need to operate as a team in the best interest of the University, and that doesn’t mean I’m always going to get my way,” Sviggum said.

Sexual assault report points to increased awareness UMN is one of the Big Ten schools to participate in the updated survey.

OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER Cleo Krejci Editor-in-Chief ckrejci@mndaily.com (612)-227-5914 Kyle Stumpf Business Operations Officer kstumpf@mndaily.com (612)-435-5772 Charlie Weaver General Manager gm@mndaily.com (612)-435-5657

with privilege,” said Katie Eichele, director at the Aurora Center for Advocacy and Education. “That’s something I want to tease out, especially if we’re trying to address campus climate issues and address a sense of warming and inclusiveness on campus.”

While sexual assault and misconduct remain prevalent on campuses across the U.S., students everywhere are more aware of the issue than they were in 2015, according the report.

This remains true at the University campus too.

According to the survey, around 88 percent of incoming students said they had completed some sort of training regarding sexual misconduct, a substantial increase from 2015.

Across the Big Ten The University is one of several Big Ten schools to gather its information this way, along with the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, Ohio State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

According to University of Minnesota spokesperson Caitlin Hurley, the University takes part in the AAU survey in an effort to promote long-term culture change.

“The Twin Cities campus takes part in the survey because it assists in informing the University’s efforts to prevent and respond to sexual assault and other misconduct,” Hurley said.

The other Big Ten schools either use their own surveys or some other third party in order to suit their individual needs.

The University of Iowa uses the Administrator-Researcher Campus Climate Collaborative survey, a thirdparty survey developed in February 2015.

“The University’s campus climate survey on sexual misconduct committee felt the ARC3 [survey] was the most comprehensive survey available,” said Anne Bassett, a University of Iowa spokesperson in a statement.

Michigan State University is one Big Ten school that uses its own survey, which includes responses from both faculty and students.

Michigan State University’s press office said in a statement that the school believes this approach allows for more comprehensive data.

“We wanted to go beyond the information AAU collects,” the statement read.

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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.

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Thursday, October 31, 2019 PHOTOS COURTESY OF AMERICAN INDIAN STUDENT CULTURAL CENTER

Campus u from Page 1

Costumes u from Page 1

costumes. She remembers seeing people around her dressed as kung fu fighters or wearing kimonos on Halloween.

Wearing cultural and traditional clothing as Halloween costumes is disrespectful,

Yang said.

“It’s just a costume you put on for a day, and it’s like nothing,” she said. “You’re just wearing it to wear it. It’s affecting us. You’re not representing us. You don’t support minorities or those that are marginalized at all. They’re just wearing it because they can.”

The representations take

away from the significance of a culture or tradition by turning it into a consumable product, Mattson said. “They don’t really think of [non-European cultures] as true cultures or human beings. They think of it as something that’s just very performative.”

The AISCC board said by giving people the possibility to be intentional about

Halloween ahead of time, they hope people will reconsider wearing cultural clothing as a costume.

“There are peoples that actually do subscribe to this culture, and it’s disrespectful [to appropriate it] and leads to more negative stereotypes and judgements against that community,” the board said.

UMN research prompts discussion on opioid crisis The program aims to collect 10,000 more survey responses throughout the state.

ILLUSTRATION BY SARAH MAI, DAILY

BY NATALIE CIERZAN ncierzan@mndaily.com

A University of Minnesota research program is looking to increase discussion about the opioid epidemic in underrepresented communities throughout Minnesota.

The program aims to reduce stigma around the opioid crisis, especially in communities of color, according to the research report.

After communities participated in opioid surveys, researchers then presented their data back to the communities. Now they’re aiming to collect 10,000 more survey responses from additional communities in Minnesota.

“We’re doing [this] because we think that it’s degrading to have stigma around opioids and that further disadvantages people in communities of color who are hoping to address and overcome the challenges of opioids,” said Karen Monsen, a researcher and professor at the University’s School of Nursing.

Researchers want to instead focus on the strengths in these communities, she said.

The program began with outreach to 13 different communities around Minnesota to try to get a sense of what was happening, Monsen said.

From presentations to focus groups, they found a common theme — adverse feelings toward opioid use.

Communities have seen the dangers of opioids, and they’re looking for alternative solutions, Monsen said.

Different communities heard about the program and wanted to be involved, said Robin Austin, a researcher and assistant professor in the University’s

MSA School of Nursing.

“A lot of times we were there just to listen,” she said.

Community partners from Hue-MAN Partnership, Parents in Community Action, the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council and Minnesota Head Start Association connected communities to the research program.

“Knowing the history of how other epidemics have been described for our communities, we decided we needed to have our own narrative,” said Clarence Jones, the community engagement liaison for Hue-MAN. For many communities of color, opioid issues are often considered normal, he said. They don’t realize they’re apart of the epidemic.

“In our community we don’t talk about opioids, we talk about heroin and OxyContin,” Jones said.

The MyStrengths MyHealth application involved in this program was created to keep the terminology simple and accessible to the general public, Monsen said.

“This was prevalent on both sides. The medical field didn’t describe it for us, and we didn’t describe it

like that,” Jones said.

Many people are impacted by the epidemic and they don’t even know, he said.

“People go to the doctor, they get these pills and pretty soon they become addicted,” Jones said. “...So when they can’t get those pills, then they go to other drugs.”

Another problem they’re trying to change is the history of distrust between the University and communities of color, he said.

University researchers were good partners on this project and involved communities in every aspect of it like they should, Jones said.

“What we realized is that the conversation about opioids wasn’t being had in our community because we weren’t being included in the conversation,” said Samuel Simmons, a member of Hue-MAN. “How do you have a conversation with a community that hasn’t been included?”

Communities of color often remembered the mistreatment and lack of compassion they received during the crack epidemic, he said.

“There were times

ILLUSTRATION BY SARAH MAI, DAILY

where professionals would say, ‘Why do they keep bringing that up?’” Simmons said. “Because it still has an effect on the community to this day.”

However, these surveys are helping start conversations, he said.

“We can talk about disparities, which we often do, but sometimes that disparity is actually even made larger for the lack of conversation. A lack of being a part of the conversation.

And a lack of effort on the part of the individuals who have the information,” Simmons said.

Communities are learning what to look for, he said.

“Building on a relationship we already had with the University made it easier,” Simmons said.

“Knowing the history of how other epidemics have been described for our communities, we decided we needed to have our own narrative,” CLARENCE JONES Liaison for Hue-MAN

BY BROOKE SHEEHY bsheehy@mndaily.com

u from Page 1

stimulant for change.”

The City presented the project in September at the sixth annual Trans Equity Summit in Minneapolis.

To preserve the project’s materials, city officials also reached out to the University’s Tretter Collection, the largest archive of LGBTQspecific historical materials in the Midwest. Discussions led to an agreement between the city and the University to house and preserve the project while making it available to researchers and the public.

Tretter Collection curator Rachel Mattson said transgender and nonbinary stories

in the past were often told by individuals who aren’t part of that community, and in some cases in exploitative and dehumanizing ways. Oral histories like the Stonewall project attempt to remedy that and emphasize the importance of transgender and nonbinary stories being told in their own voices, she said.

“We’ve really only gotten a very narrow view on that history, and I think there’s so much more work to be done in that area,” Mattson said.

“We’re really excited to be able to help preserve those stories and make those stories, or a few of them at least, available to the wider public.”

The Stonewall project joins the Tretter’s own Transgender Oral History Project,

which is currently in its second phase. Ward 8 City Council member and City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins conducted almost 200 interviews for the first phase of the project between 2015 and 2018.

Jenkins, the first black transgender woman to be elected to public office in the U.S., said providing the public with more resources to learn about the transgender and nonbinary community amplifies its voice.

“The more we can bring attention to these issues, and awareness and compassion and empathy to this community, the more likely it is that people can live healthy and fruitful and successful lives,” Jenkins said.

u from Page 1

resignation of six high-ranking MSA members since July 2019. Some members discussed the possibility of student body president Mina Kian’s resignation.

“MSA is meant to be a check and balance in favor of students … so that if they have ideas on how to make the campus around them better, they have space to go to. When MSA is not functioning, it’s a disservice to students because they can’t enact their vision for our campus,” said former MSA representative Austin Berger, who resigned Oct. 22. Berger called for Kian’s resignation during the closed session.

“People are afraid of retaliation. There is a culture of a fear to speak up,” Berger said at the session. “I think we need someone to just say it like it is.”

Kian declined to comment for this story.

“Organizational culture is extremely important and I am more than open to hearing feedback and collaboratively finding solutions that provide better support for student leaders and stronger pathways to advocacy,” Vice President Jael Kerandi said in a statement.

When voting to have the closed session, some

members of the forum proposed an action to remove the Minnesota Daily from the meeting. It did not pass.

The general direction of MSA’s current advocacy priorities is a common concern among some who have resigned.

“MSA obviously isn’t the real government, but we still have the ability to effect change on campus. We have relationships with administrators, our voice matters, we were elected to do this,” former Ranking At-Large Representative Andrew Knuppel said.

Some student groups are unwilling to work with MSA on advocacy project because of MSA’s internal culture, said former MSA Communications Director James Farnsworth.

Addison Scufsa, current MSA student group representative for UMN College Republicans, said most conservative groups aren’t interested in having representatives in a student government, and that this year’s leadership has not addressed issues the groups have been having.

“At the end of the day, when there is organizational conflict, [it] really impedes the ability of the officers of the organization, or any member of the organization, to do the work that needs to be done on behalf of students,” Farnsworth said.

LIV TRU Nutrition opens in Stadium Village The smoothie shop’s owner hopes it will draw in students looking to study.

Stonewall

the Trans Advisory and Action Team, also presented.

Karmen McQuitty, a senior staff attorney in SLS, organized the event and spoke on the panel as well. During the panel, McQuitty addressed legal questions that had come up during the process of drafting the policy.

As the policy was being drafted, there was a concern that it would infringe on First Amendment rights to require the use of preferred names or pronouns. This is not the case, McQuitty said, and much of the University community has been supportive of the policy.

“I think the U community is very supportive, it’s kind of outside media who might not really know, but I don’t think there’s been a lot of backlash in general,” she said.

The part of the policy that included punishment for discrimination was removed after it raised concerns during the consultation process.

Noelle Noonan, chair of the Professional and Administrative Senate, echoed a sentiment that was emphasized in the panel, that the University is a leader when it comes to this specific policy.

“We want to be supportive of … being on the front edge of this, so that we can, if we take this step and take it well, we can encourage other universi-

ties, other systems across the country to do the same,” Noonan said.

Rita Richardson, an academic adviser in the College of Education and Human Development, said she went to the event to learn more about policies at the University.

“As a new employee, I feel it’s really important to be more involved in some of this policy work. I’m very intrigued and this is a hugely important topic to me,” Richardson said.

Tasia Tigue, associate director of advising and degree progress in CEHD, said she values being educated about policies on campus so that she can better help to prepare students.

“I do think it’s important that we understand policies that are on campus,” she said. “As advisers we are interacting with students on a regular basis so the more we know the better armed we can be to prepare them for any difficult conversations they might have on or off campus.”

Tigue said she is pleased to see the work that has been done to be inclusive when it comes to gender expression and identity at the University. “[I’m] proud to hear that we’re trying to be leaders with this specific policy, but also, you know, I’m proud that it’s becoming part of our regular professional practice here to share pronouns and to be inclusive with our facilities and our buildings and our events,” Tigue said.

A new nutrition company recently opened in Stadium Village where Mesa Pizza’s second location previously stood.

Mesa Pizza closed its Stadium Village location in November 2017. After almost two years of vacancy, Olivia Wolbert signed the lease last month and opened her first “healthy smoothie shop,” LIV TRU Nutrition, for business on Oct. 14.

Wolbert said while the space did not require major renovations, she added amenities like more tables and seating to make the area more welcoming for students to study.

LIV TRU markets a three system nutritional meal made up of an aloe shot to support healthy digestion, cold or hot energized tea to boost metabolic function and a fully certified meal replacement protein smoothie, Wolbert said.

“There are over 40 different flavors to choose from,”

Wolbert said. “Each smoothie has 24 grams of protein, and there are options to customize your smoothie to fit your nutritional needs.”

Wolbert said she thinks college students are her “target market” because students need an energy source from healthy foods to be productive and study well.

“A lot of college students go to coffee shops, go out to eat, and chat with friends or want to study,” Wolbert said. “We got good tunes, good vibes. It’s all about creating [LIV TRU] as a healthy hang out with a fun and healthy atmosphere.”

University student Lauryn Collins heard about LIV TRU when one of her friends posted about it on Instagram.

“I thought it looked super cute, and I have been waiting for a smoothie place like this to open in the area for a long time,” Collins said. “I would come here and study, and it’s also a quick grab-and-go on my way to class which is super convenient.”

Wolbert’s business also allows customers to make their smoothies at home.

She stocks the products used at the store for retail sale, an option she said

college students will appreciate because it is more cost-effective.

University student Haley Oster has been to LIV TRU many times since it first opened almost three weeks ago.

“It’s nice and quiet. It’s more low-key. There are busy times, but it calms down unlike other coffee shops. It’s healthy. I mean it’s a little expensive, but it’s justifiable,” Oster said.

After the business’ first 90 days, Wolbert said she will begin to hire more nutritional coaches and expand business hours. LIV TRU is currently only open 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday with occasional additional hours during Gopher football games.

“We got good tunes, good vibes.

It’s all about creating [LIV TRU] as a healthy hang out with a fun and healthy atmosphere.”

OLIVIA WOLBERT Owner of LIV TRU Nutrition

4

Sports

MNDAILY.COM

MN DAILY

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Gophers ready for championship test Minnesota lost in to Wisconsin 2-0 in last year’s NCAA championship.

BY MATTHEW KENNEDY mkennedy@mndaily.com On Saturday, the Gophers will take the ice against their top rivals, the Wisconsin Badgers. Not only does the matchup feature border rivals, it pits the top two teams in the country against each other and is a rematch of the NCAA national championship game, which the Badgers won 2-0.

“It’s super exciting. I think right on Sunday there was a text sent in our player group message saying, ‘Border Battle this week guys let’s get ready!’” senior forward Alex Woken said. “So, it’s always an exciting weekend and it’s a series we look forward to every year.”

The Badgers also defeated the Gophers 3-1 in the 2019 WCHA championship, which still stings for the returning Gophers players.

“It sucks to lose and when we bring that chip on our shoulders into this weekend [it] will be huge. Like coach said yesterday in practice, we are preparing the same way that we always have this whole year, and will always remember to most importantly have fun and not get

The Gophers women’s hockey team plays St. Cloud State Huskies at Ridder Arena on Saturday, Oct. 19. (Sydni Rose / Minnesota Daily)

frustrated and stay positive,” Woken said.

No. 1Wisconsin enters the weekend with an undefeated 10-0 record. One of the main reasons for their success has been the return of one of the top goalies in the nation, redshirt senior Kristen Campbell. Campbell was

named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2019 NCAA Women’s Hockey Championship and has a .944 save percentage this season.

“She is very good and I’m really confident in our goaltending as well,” head coach Brad Frost said. “One thing Wisconsin does well

is that their skaters make it hard for others to get to their net, just like it’s hard to get to ours. So we’re gonna have to take her eyes away a little bit and get to those dirty areas and try to bang a few things home.”

The Badgers also return prolific scoring forwards

senior Abby Roque and sophomore Sophie Shirley, who have powered Wisconsin to outscore opponents 60-9.

Newcomer Daryl Watts, who transferred from Boston College, has scored nine goals in ten games with the Badgers.

While Minnesota dropped

a game to Ohio State in their latest series, they remain a strong championship contender behind the best scoring defensive squad in the nation including juniors Emily Brown (four goals) and Olivia Knowles (three goals).

The Gophers also feature one of the best goalies in the nation, senior Sydney Scobee, who has earned two shutout wins this year while allowing 1.5 goals per game.

Another asset for the Gophers has been Grace Zumwinkle, who is off to a red-hot start. Coming off of a four-goal series against Ohio State, she was named WCHA Forward of the Week.

This won’t be the last time this season that the Gophers and the Badgers meet, with another series coming on Jan, 24-25 in Madison, and possibly for a seventh meeting in the national championship.

These two schools have been undoubtedly the top teams in women’s hockey to watch in recent memory, with Minnesota and Wisconsin combining for 11 national titles since 2001, when the first women’s national title commenced.

The series begins Saturday, Nov. 2 at 2:07 p.m. at Ridder Arena.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Key departures leave U looking for new identity

Gabe Kalscheur and Daniel Oturu are the team’s only returning starters.

BY NICK JUNGHEIM njungheim@mndaily.com Last season was a successful one for Minnesota men’s basketball: a 22-14 overall record, an appearance in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament and a victory in the NCAA Tournament — the program’s first since 2013.

However, heading into 2019-20, the Gophers’ roster features many changes.

Three of last year’s regular starters have departed, including forward Jordan Murphy, who graduated as Minnesota’s all-time leading rebounder and second leading scorer.

Guard Amir Coffey, the team’s leader in points scored a season ago, declared for the NBA Draft with a year of eligibility remaining. Richard Pitino has some big shoes to fill in his seventh season as head coach. He believes this year’s group needs to find its own unique identity.

“The word I wrote on

the board was, ‘Identity,’” Pitino said. “Every good team has an identity. Our last two teams had an identity: physical, tough, rebound the ball, get fouled.

I don’t know what this team’s identity is going to be.”

R edshirt sophomo r e Marcus Carr and redshirt junior Payton Willis, who both sat out last season due to NCAA rules after transferring from Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt respectively, will be key contributors this year. Though the duo has yet to make their debut in a regular season game together, they already feel comfortable playing in tandem.

“We’ve definitely developed some chemistry,” Willis said. “Playing on the scout team last year and playing in Italy, it’s just natural now.”

Sophomores Daniel Oturu and Gabe Kalscheur will return after promising freshman seasons.

Kalscheur led the team in made 3-point shots in 2018-19, hitting 77 on 188 attempts. Both Oturu and Kalschuer averaged over 10 points per game in their freshmen seasons and

Oturu was second in rebounding behind Murphy, averaging 7.0 per game.

Oturu will be called upon to play an even bigger role in the front court this season since redshirt junior Eric Curry will miss the season with a torn ACL. It’s the latest in a series of unfortunate injuries for Curry, who has played in just 15 games over the last two seasons.

“He still is a very valuable asset to our team,” senior Michael Hurt said of Curry. “A lot of guys who go through injuries could just sit on the side line and not say anything during practice or not come to practices. But, he’s there every day and is leading a lot of our younger guys who need it.”

In Curry’s absence, Alihan Demir, a graduate transfer from Drexel, figures to start at power forward. Sophomore Jarvis Omersa and Hurt are also expected to get increased minutes.

Minnesota’s incoming freshman class consists of guards Bryan Greenlee and Tre’ Williams and forwards Sam Freeman and Isaiah Ihnen, a four-star recruit

Guard Marcus Carr shoots the ball during the Gophers’ exhibition game against Southwest Minnesota State at Williams Arena on Monday, Oct 28. (Sydni Rose / Minnesota Daily)

from Germany. At 6-foot-9, Ihnen’s combination of length and athleticism has impressed coaches and could make him an asset in an offense that will emphasize spacing the court and outside shooting.

Despite having many newcomers, the Gophers have had plenty of opportunities to get to know one another. In August, they

took a trip to Italy, playing three exhibition games which helped team bonding on and off the court.

“We got good chemistry during that trip,” Kalscheur said. “I feel like it was a great experience.

We had a lot of fun and we got better.”

Looking ahead, Minnesota will face plenty of early tests. The

non-conference schedule features road trips to Butler and Utah, neutral site games against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and a home meeting with Clemson. Before that, t h e Go ph e rs will h o st Cleveland State on Nov. 5 to open the regular season.

“We better be ready,” Pitino said. “I think there’s a sense of urgency to it all.”

WRESTLING

Minnesota set to start new season with star wrestler suspended

Redshirt junior Devin Skatzka, competing at 174, approaches his opponent from South Dakota State on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018 at Maturi Pavilion. (Elle Moulin / Minnesota Daily)

Minnesota opens its season Friday, Nov. 1 against CSU Bakersfield.

BY NOLAN O’HARA nohara@mndaily.com The Gophers’ wrestling team have their eyes set on the start of the new season.

For Minnesota, the

season begins Friday, Nov. 1 when they take on Cal State Bakersfield. Last season, Minnesota finished 14-3 (7-2 Big Ten) and took fourth place in the Big Ten championships. The topfour finish was a first for the Gophers since 2015.

New faces and a new year mean new opportunities for the Gophers, and the team is ready for the full swing

of the 2019 season.

“Personally, I’m feeling really good, and team-wise, I think we’re going in the right direction,” redshirt senior Carson Brolsma said.

“I think everyone’s feeling really good. I think more importantly, everyone’s kind of anxious and excited to start competing and get the season underway.”

The roster looks very different from a year ago as the Gophers will be without several wrestlers who were part of the starting lineup, including Steve Bleise, Ethan Lizak and Sean Russell. Yet, the team still has a strong returning core featuring Mitch McKee and Devin Skatzka.

However, the team’s most important returner, Gable Steveson, remains suspended from all team activity, according to a team statement, due to an ongoing Hennepin County investigation after Steveson and teammate Dylan Martinez were arrested on suspicion

of criminal sexual conduct. They have yet to be charged.

Friday also marks the return of former Gophers wrestler Manny Rivera, head coach of Cal State Bakersfield, to Maturi Pavilion. Rivera was a starter on the Gophers’ 2007 national championship team and spent time on the Minnesota coaching staff as a graduate and administrative assistant. Rivera is in his fourth season with Cal State Bakersfield, and the Gophers are expecting tough competition from his squad.

“We’re excited to see him,” Gophers head coach Brandon Eggum said. “He’s a great guy and he’ll have these guys ready. When he wrestled for us, he was a very intense wrestler, wrestled at a high pace, so I think that’s one thing he can bring to his program.

The mentality, ‘This is how we wrestle, we wrestle like a Big Ten school but we have the ability to be

scrappy and stay on the mat.’”

While the Gophers expect difficult competition from Rivera’s squad, they feel up to the challenge.

Eggum is pleased with the Gophers’ progress thus far in practice and is ready to see how they’ll stack up in competition. While the Gophers return some veteran experience, there are also a lot of new, younger faces in the lineup who will need to be ready for the grueling Big Ten conference. The upcoming match will be an opportunity for the younger wrestlers to get their feet wet.

“I’m excited to watch all 10 of them, I know every guy is as important as the next. That’s the fact of the matter, especially in duals, each guy has the opportunity to go out and score points,” Eggum said. “That’ll be something we’ll be keying on this weekend, ‘How do we finish the match?’ We want to start fast and we want to finish hard too.”

With the season a p p ro a c h i n g , i t ’ s a r eminder that Minneapolis will be the final stomping grounds of collegiate wrestling. The 2019 NCAA Championships will be held at U.S. Bank Stadium, the first time the event has ever been held at a football stadium. For Brolsma, a Minnesota native, that will come with added significance and will be a perfect way to close out his collegiate career.

“It’s going to be awesome. I’m excited to see how it’s going to lay out and I already have tons of family and friends that have bought tickets,” he said. “It’s going to be [a] really unique experience for us homegrown Minnesota boys, especially since I’m a senior, [Mitch] McKee’s a senior and there’s a couple other seniors that are from Minnesota. To end our season and our careers in our hometown, we’re really excited for it.”

5

MNDAILY.COM

EVENTS

MN DAILY

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019

HALLOWEEN

Haunted hotspots with Dangerous Linda Photos taken from living embalming sessions sit on the table in front of the mock morgue in the Southern Theater on Saturday, Oct. 26. (Nur B. Adam / Minnesota Daily)

Horror

Twin Cities Horror Festival

u from Page 1

was held in 2012 by a group of people at Four Humors Theater. They had the idea to produce a horror show for the season, so they reached out to some producers and eventually decided to turn it into a two-weekend-long festival.

“Audiences really love it and they keep coming,” Berger said. “We keep filling the house and it’s like an ‘If you build it, they will come,’ kind of thing.”

One of the shows featured in this year’s horror festival has been two years in the making. “Bug Girl,” a horror shadow puppet show created by artist and puppeteer Liz Howls, follows a young girl after she swallows a bug and has the sudden urge to eat brains.

“Bug Girl” happens from behind three screens, so all that’s seen are silhouettes of the characters, which are puppets made of materials like paper.

“If I make the plot a little darker, I try to counteract the aesthetic that my hand brings out, which is a little bit more sweeter looking,” Howls said. “So my main character will be this young girl and it’ll be very sweet, but what can I do that could make it much darker?”

“Bug Girl” started as a small five-minute production that Howls performed with a friend on a dock on the Hudson River.

“I think shadow lends itself well to horror,” Howls said. “So, after investigating the idea more, I wanted to commit to a larger version of [‘Bug Girl’].”

Howls applied for the show to be in the 2018 Twin Cities Horror Festival, and according to Berger, she was one of the top applications they had. But Howls realized she didn’t quite have the budget she wanted for the production.

Oct. 24 - Nov. 3 The Southern Theater, 1420 S. Washington Ave., Minneapolis $15 per show

She secured a grant from the Jim Henson Foundation and gave herself two years to create the visual story she was hoping it would become.

“I started looking at comic book artists and how stories were told through visual storytelling in a comic-book style,” Howls said.

She created her puppets with rougher and cruder lines instead of working on them delicately. She uses several screens to imitate the comic book effect, while different colored lights give the scenes a little more definition.

“It takes so much to make one puppet show,” Howls said. “And that’s a lesson that I learn every time I make a puppet show. But I would like to keep pushing this storyline further.”

Howls wants to go on tour with “Bug Girl” eventually, creating multiple episodes that would make it feel like a comic book. And despite the gore, it has a message that almost all audiences can relate to, which is completing the natural cycle that we all seem to be on.

The festival will be closing its doors on Nov. 3 with the show “Geminae,” but it’ll be back next year, with even more spookiness and gore.

“Honestly, between [the producers’] elation and the excitement of audiences after seeing a show, I can’t decide which one I love more,” said Ryan Lear, the festival’s executive director. “Creating [a] community, paying artists and continuing to build a strong platform for producing new, original, theatrical works [is] really what makes this festival so worth doing year after year.”

HAILEE SCHIEVELBEIN / MINNESOTA DAILY

A guide to the supernatural spots in the Twin Cities

BY NORAH KLEVEN nkleven@mndaily.com

On a dark October evening at The Saint Paul Hotel, Linda Lee, better known as Dangerous Linda to the supernatural community, told the stories of the Twin Cities’ most prolific paranormal hotspots.

Dangerous Linda is a “ghost host” for the American Ghost Walks, which organizes ghost tours in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Stillwater. She crafts her tours through historical research and a keen ability to sniff out paranormal experiences.

The job is filled with little synchronicities, which at first seem like coincidences, Dangerous Linda said.

“But then you pick up that thread and follow it, and then another one happens. And then you pick up that thread and you follow it, and then another one happens,” she said.

“And then before you know it, you’re starting to see a whole picture form right in front of your eyes.”

Dangerous Linda said hauntings happen when a spirit is earthbound. Some spirits that experience tumult before their death are prevented from crossing over to the other side. Below are some of Dangerous Linda’s favorite local haunted locations.

The Saint Paul Hotel Built in 1910, the hotel has a stately presence. During the era of mobsters and prohibition, Leon Gleckman, the “Al Capone of St. Paul,” ran his bootlegging and prostitution operations out of the hotel.

Eventually, he was arrested by the FBI for tax evasion. After model behavior in prison, he was released early, only to be arrested again.

This time, Dangerous Linda said, he refused to go back.

He became inebriated, eventually crashing his vehicle into a bridge.

Today, his spirit lingers at the Saint Paul Hotel. Disembodied footsteps and cold spots are the most common paranormal experiences had by visitors of the hotel.

The Fitzgerald Theater Just a few blocks away in St. Paul’s oldest theater dwells a mischievous spirit named Ben. Ben was a worker at the theater before he died of alcohol poisoning in a stairwell of the theater one cold winter night decades ago.

In 1985, as the theater was undergoing renovations, construction crews narrowly avoided a piece of plaster crashing from the ceiling, Dangerous Linda said.

When crews investigated, they only saw a man’s shadow on the catwalk. Crews later noticed there was no material missing from the ceiling and that plaster had not been present on the ceiling since the original theater

was built.

“Construction seems to stir up a lot more than dust,” said Dangerous Linda. “It stirs up ghosts and ghostly activity.”

Visitors of the theater have reported disembodied footsteps and workers doing renovations allegedly saw tools move on their own accord.

Cedar Street and Fifth Street SE, St. Paul In the same area of downtown St. Paul lives the ghost of Ann Bilansky. Convicted of poisoning her husband, Bilanksy was executed in the gallows at the corner of Cedar Street and Fifth Street SE in 1863.

“This was the crime of the century at the time,” Dangerous Linda said. “This would’ve been the O.J. Simpson trial of the late 1800s. It was so sensational.”

As the story goes, Bilansky’s last words before her execution were a threat — if she was wrongly executed for the crime, she would haunt those who sentenced her to death. The threat didn’t make a difference for Bilanksy’s fate. Her ghost presents itself in the form of a grim reaper, Dangerous Linda said.

The Foshay Tower The Foshay Tower is another Minneapolis location that is said to be haunted by its builder, Wilbur Foshay.

“A lot of people compare him to the Great Gatsby

Minneapolis Ghost Walk

7:30 - 9 p.m., Friday, Nov. 1 Mill Ruins Park, 102 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis $20 All ages dangerouslinda.com or call (833)-446-7813

character — he was young, rich [and] super famous of course,” Linda said.

In 1929, the tower was completed and Foshay threw a grand party in its honor.

But only a few short weeks after, the stock market crashed and Foshay lost everything. He was convicted of running a Ponzi scheme and served time in jail before being pardoned by the president.

Urban legend says that after he was released from jail, he went to the top of the tower and took his own life.

Dangerous Linda said her ghost tour explores Foshay’s story more in-depth.

Today, guests to the tower report strange electrical fluctuations and elevators stopping at random floors.

One visitor to the hotel who went with her friends saw a man wearing a gangster outfit in the elevator. When she and her friends exited the elevator, she asked them if they noticed his strange attire. To her surprise, they said there wasn’t a man in the elevator at all.

ARTS

This year’s BareBones Puppets Extravaganza illuminates climate crisis The 26th annual event examines our relationship with nature.

26th BareBones Puppets Halloween Extravaganza

7 p.m., Oct. 25-26 and 31 and Nov. 1-2 Hidden Falls Regional Park North Gate, 1305 S. Mississippi Blvd., St Paul Free, but $10-20 suggested donation

BY KSENIA GORINSHTEYN kgorinshteyn@mndaily.com

Walking into Hidden Falls Regional Park during the final weekend of October meant finding yourself faceto-face with formally dressed ghouls.

They greeted you at the gates, guided you through the park and got you to the stage. And suddenly, you were met with fire, giant papier-mâché owls and ghostly butterflies on stilts.

The annual BareBones Puppets Halloween Extravaganza has brought thousands of people and hundreds of volunteers into the woods for 26 years to experience the spookiness of the season and remember loved ones who have passed.

“There’s just a kind of magic to it,” said staff artist Andrew Young. “The spectacle of it and vulnerability around it really stood out to me when I first saw it.”

The shows are completely original and extravaganza creators start from scratch

The annual BareBones Halloween Puppet Extravaganza, which brings art to the community via movement and puppetry, performed on Saturday, Oct. 26. (Jasmin Kemp / Minnesota Daily)

each year. There’s no script or basis for how it’ll begin, so they leave it up to community members to decide.

“Sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh my God, how are we going to do this?’ But as we start to get into it, it kind of revitalizes a lot of people — especially the new people that come in,” said Peter Schulze, a member of BareBones’ board of directors.

BareBones holds public meetings in which they ask

questions to determine the direction of the show. This year, they asked questions like, “What nourishes you?” or “How do we hold one another up?”

“There are a lot of challenges that so many people are facing internally and externally,” said Rah Diavola, co-director of the show.

“We’re questioning ‘How do we keep up the struggle and hold one another up as

people living on this planet in the midst of total ecological collapse?’”

Through the meetings, they decided that this year’s show, “And the fires will burn…,” will explore the relationships humans have with nature, focusing on dandelions as the featured symbol.

“We talked a lot about having the audience empathize with some aspect of nature that wasn’t an animal,”

said co-director Angie Courchaine.

The dandelion was their symbol of resilience, and it stood strong in the show as the fires that represented destruction danced around it.

“When you blow the dandelion seeds to make a wish, the seeds are carried across the world,” Diavola said. “The winds and waters are carrying those wishes of hope for people.”

After settling on this storyline, the puppet-making process began. BareBones worked with puppeteers from Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop to construct the dozens of puppets in the show.

“I took inspiration from artists who were part of BareBones of previous years,” said Ty Chapman, one of the puppeteers in the show. “There’s

quite a few people in this community who have been around for years, and we’re getting guidance from them to create this year’s puppets.”

The puppets are made of bamboo, paper and other materials that are purchased at hardware stores, according to Chapman. Some of the puppets took months, like the ghost owl that appears in the middle of the show.

“Especially in this communal building space, I think there’s a lot more opportunity for hands on creating and playing with the puppets to see how they work,” said Chapman.

“And the fires will burn…” is almost devoid of dialogue to let the audience interpret it personally. Some of the scenes include a haunted tunnel, ghouls called “the fates” and a moment in which audience members call the names of those they’ve lost, all of which is in an effort to celebrate everything that has been and everything that will come.

“It’s absolutely an honor to work with so many dedicated artists and performers that do this, not because it’s their job, but because it’s their inspiration and their passion,” Diavola said.

6 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019

MN DAILY

MNDAILY.COM

Editorials & Opinions

COLUMN

Califumigation: Wildfires are a more permanent flair in a dramatic state

T

o a grid-oriented, common-sensebuyer Midwesterner like me, California is a topsy-turvy place.

The state’s GDP has overtaken that of Great Britain as the fifth-largest economy worldwide, and Silicon Valley is a pretty significant governor of American lives and legislation.

California has the largest billionaire population in the U.S., but San Francisco also has a homeless population that plenty of us had thought we’d eradicated along with Hoovervilles. California is the most populous state in the nation, and 98% of the state is in a drought, 44% of which is at the “exceptional” level, the m o s t c a t a s t ro p h i c level. California is the fifth-largest food supplier in the U.S., yet farmers can sell water for more than the acreage equivalent to crop output. California might be a real-live

opposite land. These directly feed into the other California feature: the annual wildfire debacle going on right now.

The Kincade Fire in northern California and the Getty Fire in southern California are ongoing, in addition to Saddle Ridge, Tick and Burris fires. These last three are mostly contained, and the Getty Fire is technically not a “Cal Fire” incident as of Oct. 28, but it’s still plain to see that these fires and their predecessors in recent years are indicative of a larger trend.

California is a convergence point for a lot of climate karma.

First, the U.S. has had a Uma Venkata h a b i t o f columnist artificially

suppressing fires. Smokey Bear spent a few decades saying that “only you can prevent forest fires.” Unfortunately, this resulted in suspending all the small, natural fires, and so much vegetation that should have naturally been burned in forests across the country has instead compounded into fodder for a massive, sometimes uncontainable fire. Multiple small fires are smaller than one all-consuming one, but we have backed ourselves into the corner of the latter.

Then there are the rest of the cascading reasons for California fires. California is dry and hot, and it will only become drier and hotter. California has demonstrated two fire seasons: June-September and October-April. These affect different parts of California. The former is in high-elevation, inland, forested areas, and the latter is in more populated, urban areas — but you are correct in thinking that there are no leftover months. Next, 40 million people live there. Again, it is the most populous state, and with every human, there is a greater statistical chance of an accidental man-made spark. And finally, there are the Santa Ana winds. As anyone with any culture remembers from Randy Newman, “Santa Ana winds blowing hot from the north/We was born to ride.”

They’re strong, dry, warm and travel southward into Southern California and Baja California—all of these characteristics literally fan the flames.

That people should just move out of an annually combustible state seems facile to someone in a pitch meeting in Minnesota.

But nothing is ever that simple. If someone started rolling a five-ton concrete ball at you, you could try to stop it with your body and you would die. Or you could just get out of the way and let it keep rolling, and it is possible that it will just keep rolling forever and no one will get hurt. We know that’s not true, but stopping the ball - or restructuring the state of California - is so unrealistically herculean, that you know what? We’ll move there for a job anyway.

Uma Venkata welcomes comments at uvenkata@mndaily.com.

CARTOON BY ROBERT MCGRADY

COLUMN

T

The NCAA’s step is not enough

his week, the NCAA Board of Governors did something reasonable. It voted to start allowing compensation for athletes for the use of their name, likeness and image. This means that athletes can get paid for ads featuring them or for the jerseys that they sell.

In the context of some past reforms, like allowing undrafted NBA players to come back and cost of attendance stipends, it feels like a gust of fresh air.

“We must embrace change,” Michael Drake, chair of the board and president of Ohio State University, told the Wall Street Journal after the decision. Drake took over for former University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler, who also presided over some notable NCAA reforms.

It is change, but it doesn’t fundamentally change the NCAA. Instead, it preserves the NCAA’s suspect model of amateurism. These reforms are

just a cop out for bringing the real changes that the NCAA needs.

This is revealed by the way these new reforms came about.

Usually, when the NCAA gets mad and cannot ruin the education or career of a young student, it writes letters. Most of these letters don’t really do much. Besides the narrow confines of actual collegiate athletics, the NCAA doesn’t have much power. It isn’t a government entity, but it very much wants to be.

So, it was funny seeing the NCAA try to tussle with the State of California. Last month, the California Assembly passed a bill allowing college athletes many of the same rights that the new NCAA decision creates, but clearly articulated and more expansive.

There was no gray area about athletes’ rights, like the new NCAA decision.

The law was obviously fair and sensible. But, the NCAA isn’t. It is a vampire squid, sucking the profit out of players whose labor fills stadiums and sells jerseys. The NCAA sent an angry letter to the Assembly. It urged California Governor Gavin Newsom to reject Jonathan Ababiy the bill, noting that it columnist might violate federal

law and that the letter was “…not intended to be a threat at all.”

California really didn’t care that the NCAA mentioned a possible lawsuit. Governor Newsom signed the bill into law, with a delay period until 2023, when it will take effect. This got other states interested, too. Now, New York and Pennsylvania are looking into it.

That’s why the NCAA Board of Governors acted this week to begin exploring an alternate form of compensation. It saw that it was outplayed and tried to stop the bleeding. It’s unclear how this kind of lighter compensation fits in NCAA’s broader ideology of amateurism, but the NCAA had to do something, before a bigger wave of legislation took a more meaningful swing at amateurism.

What’s important now is to make sure that this initial wave is not just that. The NCAA’s piecemeal-style reform is meant to nickel and dime us out of doing the right thing for college athletes: paying them.

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

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

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

THE EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS DEPARTMENT IS INDEPENDENT OF THE NEWSROOM Jonathan Ababiy welcomes comments at jababiy@mndaily.com.

7

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019

MN DAILY

HOROSCOPES

Today’s Birthday (10/31): Your profitable ventures flower this year. Provide dedicated and reliable communication to maximize benefits. A creative breakthrough this winter motivates a change of destination. Adapt to a financial challenge next summer before your exploration reveals amazing treasures. Accept stewardship of your bountiful garden.

MNDAILY.COM

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 — Talk about an educational adventure that you’re planning. Get tickets in advance to save. Consider your budget and plan carefully for the best experience.

Libra (9/23 - 10/22): Today is an 8 — Monitor cash flow closely. Allow extra time for travel, invoices and collections with Mercury retrograde for three weeks. Double-check numbers.

Taurus (4/20 - 5/20): Today is an 8 — Grow shared accounts. Miscommunications between partners with Mercury retrograde can interrupt and frustrate. Guard patience over the next three weeks.

Scorpio (10/23 - 11/21): Today is a 7 — Upgrade your brand. Consider consequences before speaking with Mercury retrograde in your sign. Figure out what works and what doesn’t. Reaffirm commitments.

Gemini (5/21 - 6/21): Today is a 7 — Keep equipment in working order. Delays, misunderstandings or mistakes could frustrate your work and health over the next three weeks with Mercury retrograde.

Sagittarius (11/22 - 12/21): Today is an 8 — Revise and refine your message. Avoid misunderstandings with Mercury retrograde. Delays or breakdowns could affect mechanical equipment.

Cancer (6/22 - 7/22): Today is a 9 — Keep practicing your physical routines. Romantic overtures could backfire over the next three weeks with Mercury retrograde. Clarify misunderstandings immediately.

Capricorn (12/22 - 1/19): Today is a 6 — Consider transitions, past and future. Nurture old friends over the next three weeks with Mercury retrograde. Have patience and humor with communication snafus.

Leo (7/23 - 8/22): Today is a 7 — Clean, sort and organize at home with Mercury retrograde. Review old papers, photos and possessions. Make repairs before things break. Revise household infrastructure.

Aquarius (1/20 - 2/18): Today is an 8 — Team misunderstandings could cause delays. Review professional data closely with Mercury retrograde.

Guard against communication breakdowns.

Virgo (8/23 - 9/22): Today is a 7 — Take extra care with communications with Mercury retrograde. Clear up misunderstandings as soon as possible. Launch creative projects after three weeks. Plan and prepare.

Pisces (2/19 - 3/20): Today is an 8 — Make educational plans and itineraries for later exploration with Mercury retrograde. Reduce travel and shipping over three weeks. Communicate thoughtfully.

DR. DATE Dr. Date,

My boyfriend and I have always had that “rich older man dating the hot young college student” relationship, except my boyfriend is like 25 while I’m 19. One of the best things about him is that he has a real-world job and has always made a point to pay for my expenses when we’re together: dates, big gifts, groceries, etc.

I’m broke all the time and he wants to do fancier things than I can afford, so we think it’s fair. Plus, the dude makes like $200k a year, so he could pay my tuition if he wanted to!

However, there are a few problems. For one thing, I checked his email only to see he’s apparently on Seeking Arrangement, a site to find (or be) a sugar baby. I got suspicious, so I grabbed his phone while he was in the shower to see that he’s been sending thousands of dollars to random girls! Needless to say, I was pissed, so I confronted him about it. I was expecting him to yell — instead, he offered to cover more and more of my expenses, including my rent!

Dr. Date, I’m lost. I really like him (and his money), but I feel a little weird about him sending me checks randomly.

I feel like he’s just in it for the sex and company... Is it worth the cash?

–Seeking a Daddy?

Dear Seeking a Daddy,

Look, I’m not going to kink-shame, so if your thing is being spoiled by an older man, go for it. (We can’t all be hit by a University bus to pay tuition, right?)

But, it is a problem that he didn’t tell you about it. It weirds me out that you guys appeared to be in a relationship but he only seems to treat you like a sugar baby. Make sure you DTR and decide if it’s a deal breaker for him to be spoiling other women — do what you want in your relationship, but make sure you’re both agreeing on it. Don’t be afraid to stand your ground on this, even if it does mean a financial hit. The thought of every expense being covered sounds amazing, but do you really want to be in a relationship with a guy who doesn’t want the same things as you AND is openly cheating on you with multiple women?

–Dr. Date

Dr. Date,

Look, when your ex breaks up with you because “other girls are pretty hot too,” you start looking for revenge. We were together for six months and he had just met my family before deciding to play the field for the rest of college, so yeah, I’m bitter.

I blocked him on everything and reeeeally didn’t want to see him, so I arranged a time with his roommate for me to pick up my stuff. And when I got there... well, I couldn’t help but take some extra items too. Nothing big enough for him to notice — instead, I grabbed some things that would definitely make his life more annoying. All of the chargers for his electronics, the screws from his TV stand so it has to sit on the floor, every piece of silverware I could find, but most importantly: his key ring.

See, if there’s one thing he loves more than sleeping with other women, it’s his moped. Not only does he need the key to get it started, he has it locked to a pole outside his apartment through some fancy device. I figured it would just be a pain for him to find a new way to unlock it. Instead, it apparently rendered his moped useless.

I still wouldn’t care that much but his roommate slipped up and told him I took it. He’s been showing up to my classes, harassing me on Instagram and banging on my apartment door for the past week telling me to give it back! As much as I love to spite him, I kind of feel like an ass. What should I do?

–Not That Evil (Maybe)

Dear Not That Evil (Maybe),

Oof. I would get it if he was texting you incessantly, but hanging around your apartment? Showing up to your classes?!

He’s super pissed and kind of creepy, apparently.

You should probably return them. It sounds like you already know that what you did was wrong, and from the looks of it his behavior won’t stop. If you really don’t want to see him again, mail the keys to his place or have a friend drop them off. (But no one said anything about the chargers…)

–Dr. Date

Dr. Date is a satirical advice column dissecting real-world situations. 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.

10/31/19

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 31, 2019

New program to give Cedar-Riverside children with autism a space to play The program is the only one in CedarRiverside designed for kids with autism.

BY EMMA DILL edill@mndaily.com Children with autism and their families have a space to play thanks to a growing Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Department program in Cedar-Riverside.

The program, which began in July, is becoming more established as a space for autistic children to play and interact with other kids.

The program is the only one in the neighborhood designed for kids with autism, said Brian Coyle Center Director Amano Dube.

Cedar-Riverside resident Zeinab Mohamed’s middle child, 9-year-old Ismael, has autism. The disorder s ometimes makes it difficult for him to play with other kids and he is sometimes overwhelmed by crowds, she said.

“Even though we have a park in front of my building, sometimes it’s so crowded in the summertime,” she said.

“He would like to play, but he gets overwhelmed and that’s an issue, so we don’t go often to the park.”

Several mothers of special needs children, including Mohamed, wanted to establish a program designed for children with autism, so they met with Sarah Thorsen, the therapeutic recreation and inclusion coordinator at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Department.

“At first we just sort of threw it together and then it really picked up momentum,” Thorsen said. “It’s been really exciting to watch it grow.”

Last Sunday afternoon, about 10 children attended the program held in the Brian Coyle Center gym.

While some ran, jumproped or played basketball, others sat in one corner, handling an array of sensory

items like scented markers, noise-cancelling headphones, sound amplifiers and noisemaking objects.

“They’re all meant to either soothe or stimulate your senses, and it’s really the individual’s decision of what they need in that moment,” Thorsen said about the objects.

The set up allows attendees to “get energy out” by playing and then use the sensory objects to calm down if they start feeling overwhelmed, she said.

The program’s structure is still evolving and aims to meet the needs of the kids and their parents.

“We want it to be a time where kids can be kids and moms can chat with one another and just have their own time,” Thorsen said.

Mohamed said misunderstandings about autism persist in the Somali community.

When Ismael wants attention or gets overwhelmed, some say he is “spoiled,” she said.

“Our community doesn’t understand special needs,” Mohamed said. “They usually say that he’s spoiled and that he needs to be disciplined, but the child doesn’t understand.”

Dube said that in addition to misunderstandings, some community members believe autism is caused by immunizations.

“There are those narratives out there so the families are concerned about immunizing their kids. There are some families who try to avoid [immunizations] because of that stigma,” he said.

The program gives kids with autism a space to play like other kids in the neighborhood, Mohamed said.

“There are a lot of programs in the neighborhood for kids in our community. They have basketball, they have soccer programs but there’s nothing for special needs,” she said. “To have some activity for special needs kids is very important because they are also human and they need to be active and to have some fun.”

Top, Yonis colors in a sensory area in the gymnasium at the Brian Coyle Neighborhood Center in Cedar-Riverside on Sunday, Oct 27. Yonis and other kids participate in an adaptive program on Sundays for children with autism. Left, Isra Mohamed plays with sensory items in the gymnasium at the Brian Coyle Neighborhood Center on Sunday, Oct 27. Mohamed and other kids participate in an adaptive program on Sundays for children with autism.

(Sydni Rose / Minnesota Daily)

“We want it to be a time where kids can be kids and moms can chat with one another and just have their own time.”

SARAH THORSEN therapeutic recreation and inclusion director at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Department