Boys say goodbye to WCHA regular season, B1
THE STATESMAN
WWW.UMDSTATESMAN.COM
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA DULUTH
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013
UMD students and staff create iPad app that’s first of its kind BY SHANNON KINLEY kinle005@d.umn.edu
About a week ago, one of the very first iPad applications to be created by UMD students and faculty was launched. The German Grammar Guide app has been in the works since fall 2011, and is now available for free in the iTunes app store. The app was produced and designed by students and faculty members from three different collegiate units: the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), School of Fine Arts (SFA) and Swenson College of Science and Engineering (SCSE). “The app is a lot more portable and usable than the large-print tables it replaced,” said computer science and math double major Sean Breid , one of the students who worked on the app. Dan Nolan, associate professor from the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department, was the person who came up with the original idea of making a German grammar app. He said he came up with the idea after he and other faculty members in the department noticed there were no apps for their iPads that did exactly what they wanted them to do. “I have always been interested in programming and have taken some German classes, so when Peter sent out the email I decided to look into
it,” Breid said. “I just kind of got into it and kept going.” He thinks the hardest part about creating the app was communicating. “It was hard to work with three different colleges and to coordinate times to all meet up when we all had opposite schedules,” Breid said. He also said trying to balance the creation of the app with school was a challenge. “If we had 40 hours a week to work on the app it would be done quickly, but being a student and doing it in our free time, it moves pretty slowly,” Breid said. “I don’t get to put in as much time as I would like.” Breid recently had an interview with an employer and said that they were very eager and interested to talk about the app he had helped create. “It makes you stand out, because it is something different,” he said. “Not a lot of people know how to make them.” The German Grammar Guide app is designed for both beginner and advanced German language learners. “The old print version had a table and it was big, complicated, and it scared students,” Nolan said, referencing a printed grammar guide students could use. “This app tries to give that much information, but do it in a way that is appropriate for the student that is learning that particu-
lar piece of German grammar.” The app includes a quick view for advanced students who wish to look up something and get an answer quickly, and a guided view that will give users a step-by-step explanation about a particular piece of German grammar. Nolan agrees with Breid in that the hardest part about making the app was communicating with people from different fields. “When talking with people from different fields, it involves different languages and different words; explaining what you need involves a lot of translation,” Nolan said. Nolan said that they could have paid a company to develop an app and it would’ve been a much quicker process, but the collaboration among different fields offers a richer learning environment. “This collaboration amongst three collegiate units—CLA, SFA and SCSE—is not very common, if at all in precedent,” said instructor from the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department, Michael Mullins. “I believe our working model might be groundbreaking.” He went on to say: “I personally find the joint collaboration, and the resultant iPad app development and placing it on the iTunes Store, is a very good use of taxpayer dollars.” see GERMAN APP, A3
Dining Center changes meal options for next semester
ALEX LEONE/STATESMAN
Student and creator Sean Breid demonstrates how the German Grammar App works on an iPad.
Student grants and loans are possible targets for sequester cuts BY MICHAEL SCOTT scot0459@d.umn.edu
of their 150 anytime meals anyways. They’re just paying for wasted food. I had about 80 of my meals left at the end of the semester because I was too busy to use them. I used to walk into the theatre and say ‘Who wants free DC?’ and then take five to ten people into the DC with me.” Though the 10 per week plan might sound like it leaves students with less food, according to Cardoso, it will actually give them ten more meals each semester for the same price. “It is of a higher value with the same total cost,” he said. “The good news for students is that it will carry them through the semester.”
With Democrats and Republicans unable to reach a compromise, mandatory across-the-board spending cuts came into effect on March 1. The sequester, as the cuts are being called, will be split 50/50 between defense and domestic spending. The sequester will cut $85 billion this year from that spending and a total of $1.2 trillion from 2013 to 2021. Student programs are among the programs targeted for cuts. The work-study programs will feel the squeeze of the sequester—they are expected to lose 8.2 percent of their budget. According to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, the Supplementary Educational Opportunity Grants will receive similar reductions as well. “Federal Work-Study would be cut by $49 million, eliminating 33,000 students from participation,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. That means those 33,000 students will lose their chance at a work-study job. For Minnesota alone, the White House estimates that 500 fewer students qualify for work-study positions. For these students, the cuts will only come into effect in September. Matt Hodson, a University of Minnesota spokesperson, told the Minnesota Daily that the school is fully funded at the moment, but the future remains unclear. “We really won’t know the full extent of how many of these positions may be lost and how we might be able to go forward,” Hodson said. Furthermore, other programs helping low-income students will need to cut back. “Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants would be cut by $37 million, with a resultant reduction of 71,000 recipients,” Arne said. These grants are meant to help low-income undergraduate students. Specifically exempt, Pell Grants were not marked for any cut. The program will remain fully funded for the moment. According to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, there are about 5.4 million students who receive Pell Grants nationally.
see DINING MEALS, A3
see SEQUESTER CUTS, A3
ALEX LEONE/STATESMAN
Students pack the Dining Center to chow down lunch on March 11. The Dining Center currently allows students the option to buy 150 meals per semester, but is changing that policy. BY MAEGGIE LLICHT licht096@d.umn.edu
It happens all the time: one freshman says, “Hey, wanna go to the DC? I have a ton of meals left.” Or, they don’t use all 150 meals and the next semester they’re gone. To keep this from continuing, the 150 plan will be a thing of the past next year. A plan that includes 10 meals per week will replace it. “We had students who would run out of meals,” said Dining Services Director Lino Cardoso. “The 150 meal plan was designed to give students the maximum amount of freedom. As a result, they thought of it as 150 meals, and invited friends and all their neighbors. Then the meals INDEX:
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are gone.” The problem with giving students their “maximum amount of freedom” kicked in when UMD Dining Services could no longer calculate an accurate estimate of how many hungry people would be waiting in line to eat at the Dining Center (DC). “We actually have to project how many students we’re going to feed,” he said. “With the 150 plan, we didn’t know how many. Estimates could be off by 100 or 500. Sometimes, we’d run out of food or have too much.” Some students, like UMD senior Denise Brophy, welcome the change. She had the 150 plan as a freshman and ended up with leftover meals. “I think this is a great idea,” she said. “Most people don’t even use all
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