Emma  09:55:32

Welcome back to the news podcast. I’m Emma and today we will talk about the Feb. 6 ASUU debate hosted by the Chronicle. The Associated Students of the University of Utah, also known as ASUU, is our campus student government, and the elections for new administration are coming up fast. The Chronicle hosts a debate each year between candidates to discuss relevant topics that will inform the student body about the values and goals of potential candidates. ASUU works hard to connect students with essential resources and services, sponsor activities and programs and speak up for students when communicating with university officials. To watch and listen to the debate, head over to the Chronicle’s Instagram @thechrony. News writer Alison Stuart has joined us today to discuss the debate. She recently wrote a story for the Chronicle about the debate, which is posted online, so be sure to check it out. Nice to meet you Alison, thank you for joining us today.

Allison  09:56:34

Hello. Yes. Thanks for having me as well.

Emma  09:56:36

Alison, can you tell us about how many tickets there are and what a ticket is?

Allison  09:56:41

Yeah. So this year for the ASUU elections there are three tickets. What a ticket is it’s composed of three students who are running for the presidency. That includes a presidential candidate, a VP of university relations candidate, and then a VP of student relations candidate.

Emma  09:56:58

Can you tell us a little bit about each ticket? Let’s start with the Karabegovic ticket.

Allison  09:57:03

Yeah, so this ticket is composed of presidential candidate Sven Karabegovic.

Sven  09:57:08

Hello, everybody. My name is Sven Karabegovic, and we are obviously from the Karabegovic ticket.

Allison  09:57:15

And Alicia Baker as the vice president of student relations.

Alicia Baker  09:57:18

And then I am Alicia Baker.

Allison 09:57:20

And then Abukar Hassan as the vice president of university relations.

Abukar Hassan  09:57:25

Yeah, my name is Abukar Hassan. I’m a junior here at the University of Utah.

Allison  09:57:28

And what this ticket is kind of like running on, they really want to empower student voices. This ticket also is focusing a lot on environmental issues. And they really want to work on things on campus, such as campus safety, sustainability, community and then again, making the student voices heard.

Emma  09:57:45

Awesome. And what about the VKW ticket?

Allison  09:57:50

Yeah, for sure. Um, this ticket is composed of three first-generation students and that is something that’s really big in their campaign, really making their unique experiences a part of how they plan to change ASUU. So this is composed of Muskan Walia for president.

Muskan Walia  09:58:06

Hi, guys. I am Muskan. And I use she/her pronouns.

Allison  09:58:09

Yovanni Valdez, who is running as vice president of student relations.

Yovanni Valdez  09:58:13

Hello, hello, everyone. My name is Yovanni Valdez.

Allison  09:58:16

And then Ravi Kaur as the VP of university relations.

Ravi Kaur  09:58:19

Hi, I’m Ravi Kaur.

Allison  09:58:21

And for their campaign, they really want to make sure ASUU is more accessible to students in the future. At the debate, they really mentioned like students maybe not knowing about ASUU or like how they can serve them. And then again, like I said, using those unique identities such as first-gen students to serve the student body.

Emma  09:58:41

That’s great. And lastly, the O’Leary ticket.

Allison  09:58:45

Yeah, for sure. So the O’Leary ticket is our third and final ticket for this year. It’s composed of Jack O’Leary as the presidential candidate.

Jack O’Leary  09:58:53

Cool, can everyone hear me? Awesome. Hi, I’m Jack O’Leary. I use the he/him pronouns.

Allison  09:58:58

Vice president for student relations is Parker Madsen.

Parker Madsen  09:59:01

Hey guys. I’m Parker Madsen.

Allison  09:59:03

Then VP of university relations is Chloe Shewell.

Chloe Shewell  09:59:07

Hi, everyone. My name is Chloe Shewell.

Allison  09:59:09

And what they’re kind of looking at is three pillars: acceptance, affordability and accessibility. They’re kind of looking to reform tuition on campus, really making sure students get all the like scholarship money that ASUU sets aside and they are looking to build a multicultural center on campus.

Emma  09:59:29

Okay. So I know that campus safety was a pretty big topic that was brought up at the debate. Can you tell us a bit about what each ticket said surrounding that specific topic?

Allison  09:59:39

Yeah, for sure. Um, the first thing that comes to mind for me is Chloe Shewell, who is running under the O’Leary ticket, and she is a student athlete on the track team here at the U. And I know that she mentioned that having early morning classes and late at night classes presents a lot of safety issues for her. She really wants to advocate for increased lighting on campus.

Chloe Shewell  09:59:58

So, safety is a number one priority for me, especially being a student athlete. Having a majority of my time in the day taken up by athletics, I have most of my classes really early in the morning or really late at night, which has me walking around campus, like at all hours of darkness. So, I would like to advocate for increased lighting here on campus, especially in the really dark areas.

Allison  10:00:19

As far as VKW ticket goes Ravi Kaur said that the base kind of issue with safety on campus stems from hate.

Ravi Kaur  10:00:26

So, VKW is very focused around progressing safety across campus. And when we look at what is happening on campus, we’re seeing that students aren’t worried about getting robbed in the dark. Lighting is not the primary problem. The Cleary Report confirms this. The biggest problem on campus is centered around the systemic issues of racism, misogyny and, frankly, hate.

Allison  10:00:50

And some issues she wants to work on for her ticket is bringing forth mandated wellness checks, having more accessibility to bus routes and working with the Campus Safety Office closely. And then in terms of like the Karabegovic ticket, they are looking to implement like a three digit safety number on campus, similar to like 911. And that’s one of the goals they want to achieve in terms of safety.

Emma  10:01:12

And let’s talk about the multicultural center that the O’Leary ticket is running on. What is their proposal?

Allison  10:01:18

Yeah, so the proposal, specifically outlined by Parker Madsen was that there would be a multicultural student center built on campus. They’re aiming for it to be built somewhere in central campus. And I know there’s been talk of the Student Union Building being rebuilt, and one of their goals is to have it implemented in there. Rather than having it be somewhere on like the sides of campus where it’s not as accessible to students who attend here. Basically, their goal is to create a space where students who are a part of like certain cultural identities can go and learn about each other. And even students who aren’t in any of those cultural identities can go and hang out and learn, be with other students of other backgrounds.

Emma  10:02:01

How did the other tickets respond?

Allison  10:02:03

Yeah, so, um, Alicia Baker really had a response to that, she said that as a Black woman, she did not agree with the building of a multicultural center on campus.

Alicia Baker  10:02:15

I think it’s just — I think it’s hard hearing that as a person of color, feeling that, like, oh, like, an all white ticket is like going to create a space for me, like, where all minorities can, like, hang out and like learn.

Allison  10:02:31

Something she mentioned is that she felt like this proposal and this idea would kind of take away from existing centers on campus that have been working really hard for the last couple of years to really be that space for students of those identities.

Alicia Baker  10:02:44

I think it sort of takes away from places like the Black Cultural Center and the Indigenous American Center and the Asian Resource Center that’s trying to get built. These communities are trying to create spaces for themselves with the help of the university. And it’s sort of dismissing their wants, when clearly they’re saying what they want. And then additionally, CESB is here for a reason. We should sort of be uplifting CESB rather than like creating something new when they’re already struggling, to be honest.

Emma  10:03:17

All right. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Allison  10:03:21

Yes, in terms of this election, this is different than, for example, last year’s, because there are three tickets this time around, as compared to last year where there was just one ticket running unopposed. So this year, there is more of an opportunity to really make your voice heard. And I would encourage any student listening to this, or who reads my story, to vote when it comes time, because it’s a great way to get involved on campus and hopefully, see some change that we want to see through our new ASUU presidency. And one more thing on that voting is open on Feb. 21, and then runs through the 24th.

Emma  10:04:02

All right, thank you so much, Allison, for joining us today.

Allison  10:04:04

Yay, thanks for having me.

Emma  10:04:07

All right, students can vote through the University of Utah student homepage under the ASUU tab. Voting will take place Feb. 21-24. Election results will be announced on Feb. 25. Thank you so much for tuning in to this week’s episode of the news podcast. Make sure to listen in next week.

e.ratkovic@dailyutahchronicle.com

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For years, ODU’s nursing program has stood on its own as “the largest of [ODU’s] five professional schools in the College of Health Sciences.” The school’s use of online and “distance learning” programs is characteristic of ODU’s reputation as a commuter school and has brought them prestige. 

U.S. News and World Report has frequently ranked them in the top 25% of online nursing programs. But with ODU’s upcoming merger with EVMS, the nursing school has received a much needed upgrade. With increased funding and support, it will branch off from the College of Health Sciences to become its own College of Nursing. 

With a new college comes new leadership, and Dr. Suzanne Wright has been promoted to Interim Dean. Dr. Wright first came to ODU in 2021 to become Chair of the nursing department after previously working as a full-time professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

In addition to receiving her Ph.D at VCU, she spent much of her career in Richmond, working as a full-time VCU nursing professor for almost twenty years. During her time as Chair of ODU Nursing, she served as a member of a few administrative committees; namely the EVMS/ODU Integration Clinical Affairs Committee.

Commenting on her promotion, Dr. Wright said that she plans to make “measurable progress” on increasing the nursing school’s prestige by “promoting faculty and staff, serving all students, respecting our industry partners for their role in our success, and establishing an outreach plan to connect with alumni.” 

Austin Agho, Provost and ODU’s Vice President of Academic Affairs, stated that “as its own entity and with Dr. Wright at the helm, the School of Nursing will be well-positioned to deliver an exceptional workforce to meet the increasing demand.”

A demand for a nursing school is noticeable, with ODU having “1,013 declared and intended undergraduate nursing majors.” For the 2021-2022 school year, “ODU awarded 222 undergraduate [nursing] degrees.”

ODU and EVMS are expected to experience “full integration” by January 1, 2024, with a $10 million budget awarded by Governor Glenn Youngkin’s administration. A formal opening date for the College of Nursing has yet to be announced.

With the NFL season coming to a close the league’s top two teams, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, had the opportunity to face off in Super Bowl 57 at State Farm Stadium in Arizona on Sunday. The Chiefs, who had been to the Super Bowl only two years prior, returned to the big game on the back of an MVP award season from quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The 27-year-old shot-caller was instrumental in leading Kansas City’s group back to the last game of the NFL season, this time facing off against the Philadelphia Eagles. Third-year quarterback Jalen Hurts has only improved every year since coming into the league as the number 53 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, most recently winning the Bert Bell Award as the league’s best player. 

From the opening kick, it was evident that the contest was to be a high-scoring affair. Though the Chiefs won the coin toss, they decided to defer and kick off to start the game in order to receive the ball at halftime. Hurts trotted out to lead the Eagle offense under the jurisdiction of offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, and after an 11-play drive was able to find the endzone by sneaking it in himself from the 1-yard line. This was rumored to be Steichen’s last game as coordinator, with reports linking him to the vacant head coaching position in Indianapolis with the Colts. 

Mahomes made light work of the Eagles’ defense when he was given his first shot though, orchestrating a drive to the endzone in less than four minutes. He was able to connect with his favorite target, tight end Travis Kelce, to tie it up at seven. The score remained that way through the end of the first quarter, though Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker sent a 42-yard field goal off of the left upright, failing to give his side the advantage. Only eight seconds into the following quarter the Eagles roared to life, making the most of the gift-wrapped miss.  

Burning Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie, former Titans wide receiver AJ Brown got into empty space in the endzone and hauled in a 45-yard touchdown catch. The first of his six catches on the night put the score at 14-7 and helped an already-rolling Eagles squad gather even more momentum less than a minute into the second quarter. That direction of play came to an unexpected and screeching halt on the Eagles’ next offensive possession at the hands of Hurts himself, though. 

On a third-down scramble, Hurts had the ball knocked from his hands before it was scooped up and ran in by Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton. The fumble six was a morale killer and knotted the score back up at 14 just when it seemed like Philadelphia was ready to run away with the game. Head coach Nick Sirianni’s Eagles didn’t roll over though and charged downfield before Hurts could scramble in for a 4-yard score on the ensuing drive, his second of the night. Kicker Jake Elliott was able to tack on a 35-yard field goal as time expired to end the first half, giving the Eagles their biggest lead of the night at 24-14. 

Rihanna did one of the many things she does best with her halftime performance, bringing the house down while she was raised and lowered over the field across various platforms, all the while performing her most notable hits. RiRi’s white-clad dancers practically morphed into red-and-white-clad Chiefs players once the show concluded, with Kansas City receiving the second-half kickoff. 

As Chiefs head coach Andy Reid had been doing all game, the former Eagles man gave the keys back to Mahomes, allowing the league’s best player to shine. In a five-and-a-half minute drive capped off by an Isaiah Pacheco touchdown, the Chiefs continued to show resilience after an anxious 10-play sequence that tracked 75 yards, closing the score to within a field goal at 24-21.

Elliott managed to convert another field goal, this time from 33 yards out with just under two minutes to play in the third quarter. The Birds carried a 27-21 lead into the fourth quarter and needed to come up big on defense in order to preserve their Super Bowl dreams. Unfortunately for the Eagles, Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney decided to turn the game upside-down. 

The formerly disgraced New York Giants wide receiver was traded to the Chiefs midseason in a head-scratching move that saw the Giants only earn back a third and sixth-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Toney has been a revelation since arriving in KC, carving out a role as a complement to Travis Kelce’s catching abilities at tight end and accompanying JuJu Smith-Schuster and Skyy Moore along the slot. 

In under five minutes after Elliott’s field goal, the Chiefs drove down the field and were able to set Mahomes and the rest of the offense up on the 9-yard line. Toney, who was lined up facing Philadelphia corner Darius Slay, faked as if he were running across the field before the ball was snapped and completely fooled Slay. The move allowed Toney to breach the endzone untouched, and haul in a go-ahead score with 12 minutes to go.

The Chiefs were able to force a three-and-out on the Eagles’ next offensive possession, setting up Toney for yet another highlight moment. Having received the punt at his own 30-yard line, Toney danced his way to the sideline before sprinting 65 yards to the Eagles’ 5-yard line, rejuvenating Kansas City during a crucial sequence. The monumental return was the longest in Super Bowl history, and absolutely felt that way on film. 

Only needing three plays from scrimmage, Mahomes found Moore in the back corner of the endzone to extend his side’s lead to 35-27 following Butker’s extra point. 

Philadelphia still had some fight left though, fighting downfield on another clinical 8-play drive with Hurts running in his third touchdown of the night, tying legendary Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis’ league record in the 1998 Super Bowl. Hurts also managed to pass Tennessee Titans icon Steve McNair’s record of 64 rushing yards by a QB in a Super Bowl by posting 70, which he succeeded in doing on only the play beforehand. 

Needing a two-point conversion to tie the game at 35, Hurts took over the game and trucked his way across the goal line to ensure the Eagles had a fighting chance, and tied the score up with just over five minutes to play in regulation. The Eagles defended fervently, exhausting all possible avenues to try and halt the Chiefs from reaching a distance from which they could run the clock out. With the ball on the Eagles’ 16-yard line and the Chiefs facing a third-and-eight situation, all the Eagles needed was a stop. If successful, they’d have the ball back following the most likely outcome which was a Chiefs field goal from in close, and a minute and a half to play with. 

Mahomes dropped back and threw a ball out of bounds in the corner of the endzone, but a slight grab from Eagles cornerback James Bradberry along Smith-Schuster’s ribs was enough for a penalty and a reset of downs. With the Eagles having only one timeout, the Chiefs were able to comfortably drain the clock down to eleven seconds to play. Butker stepped up and was able to remedy his earlier blunder, as he perfectly split the uprights and delivered KC a go-ahead field goal. 

The Eagles did have one final chance on a Hail Mary toss by Hurts, but the prayer came up woefully short. With that, the Kansas City Chiefs managed to win their second Super Bowl in franchise history 38-35. Fighting through a severe high-ankle sprain throughout a majority of the second half of the playoffs, Patrick Mahomes’ heroics were more than enough to award him the Super Bowl MVP award to pair with his regular-season prize as well.

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At the University of Minnesota Board of Regents February meetings on Thursday and Friday, board members discussed returning land to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and voted on expanded public engagement opportunities with regents.

The regents also announced a review of the conflict management plan for University senior administrators, discussed University data practices policies and addressed the Fairview-Sanford merger.  

Plans to return land to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

University President Joan Gabel announced the University’s intent to return the land the Cloquet Forestry Center (CFC) currently occupies to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The CFC sits on 3,391 acres of land that were seized after federal and state governments gave the University access to land on the Fond Du Lac reservation in 1909. 

“This is a historic moment and an important moment,” Gabel said at the meeting on Thursday. “It represents a deep and meaningful step in our commitment through the strategic plans to build strong relationships with all of our Tribal nations and Indigenous communities and partners.”

The 1862 Morrill Act allowed states to establish public colleges and universities on areas obtained through public land grants. Through this process, states took 10 million acres of Tribal land, according to the National Archives and Records Administration. For years, leaders of the Fond du Lac Band have been asking the University to return the land. 

The University is currently mapping out the land return process and has no specific plan moving forward yet. 

Gabel said the University has been working with state agencies to navigate the legal processes for land return and will hold a series of public engagement opportunities along the way. The University hopes to maintain forestry training on the land in partnership with the Fond du Lac Band, according to Gabel. 

“A lot of the tribes we’ve talked to, I think all 11 tribes, have concern about this matter, and I think we are moving in a very good direction,” Regent Tadd Johnson, the University’s first Native American regent, said. “I know we’ve got a long way to go.” 

A new avenue for public engagement, but still no in-person comments 

The regents voted unanimously on Friday to approve a pilot plan for increased public engagement with the board. The Office of the Board of Regents will construct a platform for the public to submit comments to the board and will launch it for a trial period of five months in September. 

Over the past few months, the regents have discussed what engagement may look like after Regent James Farnsworth brought a resolution forward in June 2022 that requested the board develop a new framework for receiving public comments. 

Currently, the board only accepts public comments through requests the board chair approves or during a one-hour slot at the annual budget forum in May.

“I am supportive of this today, I think it is moving us in the right direction,” Farnsworth said at the meeting. “I hope to explore additional and expanded ways to increase our public engagement as a board.”

Regent Darrin Rosha proposed an amendment that would add quarterly opportunities for public comment in front of the board. The amendment failed 3-9. 

“I think we should fundamentally have that opportunity for live presentation…it’s very valuable for the public to have that,” Rosha said at the meeting. 

Many of the regents who passed on the amendment argued the board needed more time to consider how these in-person engagement opportunities would work.  

“One of the principals when you are proposing something new is to be able to evaluate changes in isolation to see what is working and what is not working,” Regent Kodi Verhalen said at the meeting. “I would ask that instead of doing any amendment right now, that we move forward with the pilot program as it has been proposed.”  

Reviewing the conflict of interest management plan following Securian

Powell requested the board’s Governance and Policy Committee take up review of the University’s institutional conflict management for senior leaders at the institution at Friday’s meeting.  

This request comes two months after criticism of the conflict management plan the board approved in December for Gabel spread. The plan the board approved would have allowed Gabel to accept a position on Securian Financial’s board of directors, however, critics raised continued concerns over possible conflicts of interest because the University contracts with Securian. Gabel resigned in January from Securian’s board. 

“Any potential policy changes will emerge from a collaborative and consultative process,” Powell said at the meeting. “The goal here is to ensure that our policies align with best practices.” 

Data fees discussion is referred to the next committee meeting

Farnsworth introduced new business to the board on Friday related to fees associated with the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (DPA). The Minnesota Department of Education guide for members of the public requesting data information states Minnesota statutes authorize charging people for copies of requested government data. 

Farnsworth issued an amendment to exempt the Minnesota state Legislature from being charged for public data requests by the University. 

“I don’t think we should be subjecting entities that have oversight and funding relationships with us to this administrative procedure,” Farnsworth said. 

The purpose of the charges is in part to reflect the University’s investment in its staff, so every request could receive “top-notch professional support,” Gabel said.  

Administration would prefer to schedule a discussion for a future board meeting to review the implications of exempting one group versus not exempting other groups from public data request charges, Gabel said. 

Regent Janie Mayeron moved to refer the matter to the board’s Governance and Policy Committee. 

“I think it needs the proper study and response by the administration,” Mayeron said. “There’s just lots of unanswered questions before we make this change in policy.” 

Regent Steve Sviggum voiced his support for the motion. He said it is unfair that one group can be exempt from charges and others subject to them. 

“I can guarantee you that I’m the only bad person in this room who voted for the DPA and exempted myself when I did it,” Sviggum, who served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1979 to 2007, said 

Rosha said people were not charged for data requests before the DPA. 

“[Someone’s] ability to pay determines whether they can afford to get information about their land-grant state University,” Rosha said. 

Rosha said the University should stop charging anyone who makes public data requests, especially the Legislature, which helps fund the University. 

Sviggum said he was “appalled” and “dismayed” by Rosha’s comment, to which Rosha responded, “I’m fine with that.” 

The board voted to refer the matter of public data request charges to the Governance and Policy Committee, which is scheduled to meet next in June. 

Rosha moved that all charges for data requests by legislatures and other state constitutional officers be suspended until the Governance and Policy Committee can review the matter.  The motion was passed. 

Fairview-Sanford merger stands in UMN’s way to reacquire facilities 

During the Friday meeting, board Chair Kendall Powell referred to his remarks about the Fairview-Sanford merger from the December board meeting.  

“The future of the medical school and its role of service to patients and public health to Minnesota is on the line with this proposed merger,” Powell said. “Minnesota should know that its medical school is a crown jewel and essential public good.”

The medical school trains 70% of the doctors in Minnesota and is number two in the country for primary care training. The medical school is on track to become one of top 20 programs in the nation, a status it has not held since 1990. 

“Fairview’s CEO recently characterized the University as an ivory tower,” Powell said. “The University faculty are on the front lines of health care doing everything humanly possible to save lives and treat human illness — that is no ivory tower.” 

Powell called upon Sanford Health and Fairview to publicly endorse the University’s five-point plan to reacquire medical facilities and build a campus hospital. Powell also asked Fairview to retract its March 31 deadline to complete the merger. Later that day, Fairview and Sanford Health announced they would delay the merger completion deadline to May 31. 

“They are not business demands, they are a public call for an insurance of good faith and a commitment to put the public first,” Powell said. 

University of Utah graduate students are facing limited options due to rental price hikes as the U continues its phased approach in demolishing old student apartments to make way for new and improved ones. 

In October, graduate students living in Medical Plaza and West Village were notified their buildings would be closed by August 2023 and left with three options: move into older East and West Village apartments, the new Sunnyside Apartments or off campus.

Rent Increases

Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Services Jennifer Reed said there is some discontent among students because of the rent increase. “The rates for the new apartment … are much higher than the rates that we’ve had historically in the Medical Plaza and in the East and West Villages,” she said.

In the last couple of years, Salt Lake City rental prices have skyrocketed, and currently, the average asking rental price in Salt Lake County is $1,531.

Mayor of University Student Apartments Blake Billings said prices for Sunnyside Apartments, on-campus housing for graduate students and families that will open in August 2023, are more competitive with Salt Lake rental prices. “The graduate students who are here trying to live off the stipends that are received from the departments, that’s completely out of their price range,” Billings, who is also a graduate student, said. 

Reed says the U is still looking at the impact of increased rental rates at Sunnyside Apartments. “We haven’t come up with a decision yet on whether or not we can … potentially offer a discounted rate for students that have already started their education under one assumption and one rate and now are being asked to pay something else and move because of the closures,” she said. 

The Impact on Students

Ellie Safaei and her husband are international students in the chemical engineering department. Safaei said they currently pay $1100 per month for a two-bedroom apartment in the North Medical Tower, but if they were to move into the new apartments, they would have to pay $1500 for a one-bedroom apartment.

Safaei said they had no idea the U planned to demolish these old buildings. “We moved here two years ago … and they said that they had the option to give us a room in the Medical Towers and they didn’t mention anything about their plan … to demolish this building,” she said. 

 For Safaei, living on campus is important because she has easy access to her classes and it’s safer as opposed to living off campus.

Safaei and her husband both have F-1 student visas that allow them to work jobs outside of the university under certain circumstances, however, only some international students have that luxury. 

Some international students with families rely on their stipends to pay their way through school because their dependents have an F-2 dependent visa, which only allows them temporary status to join their family at an accredited institution. F-2 visa holders do not have legal permission to work, so making extra money to pay for increased rent outside of stipend payments is not an option. 

Addressing the Situation

According to Reed, the process of meeting with students has been collaborative. “There’s been a good dialogue of the students communicating very clearly and professionally, what they’re requesting, what they need, and what their problems are with some of the decisions that we’ve made,” she said. 

Reed said there had been several meetings with students since October to assess what can be done, and while some solutions are still up in the air, University President Taylor Randall is assigning a task force to look at graduate student compensation. 

“That’s probably the most important thing and the most long-term solution … that has come out of the students’ request, is that task force from the President,” Reed added.

One decision that has not been finalized is rental reductions for students who were already living on campus. “What we’re specifically looking at, is a way to potentially grandfather in some sort of rent reduction for students,” Reed said. 

Reed is also a student and says she understands that college and housing affordability is a huge stressor for students. “My hope is that by giving students nine months’ notice, they had ample time to make a decision about what’s best for them to be doing and where they’re going to be living Fall semester 2023,” she said. 

@v.hudson@dailyutahchronicle.com

@vanessachrony

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Recycling has been taught to not only be helpful to the planet but morally correct. However, recycling might not be changing the world as much as people believe.

Many factors affect the outcome of whether an item is recycled, where the material goes, if it is affecting climate change as well as recycling’s effects on the economy.

Some may do their part by recycling a plastic bottle here and there, recycling material throughout their day or they might take the zero-waste approach. 

Whether one chooses to recycle or not, the impact of those efforts is important to know.

According to the EPA 2018 Fact Sheet, roughly 69 million tons of waste were recycled out of 292 million tons, accounting for 23.6 percent of total municipal solid waste.

The Environmental Protection Agency reports recycling and reuse activities accounted for hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in tax revenues and wages. 

With these numbers, the impact of recycling seems positive. However, it is important to note the downsides.

Recycling can be costly because of the lack of demand for certain recycled products which can affect costs and can determine whether the materials end up incinerated or recycled. 

The cost of the different components of recycling from collection to the facility should not be overlooked either and can unfortunately cost more than incineration. 

The current recycling system is somewhat counterintuitive. If some communities find themselves having to pay more, or are losing money to recycle, it debatably isn’t financially sustainable for some. 

Recycling used to be a reliable way to give back to the environment, yet knowing that materials might not be recycled and might cost more money in the end is disheartening to say the least. 

For other means of disposal, like incineration, it can contribute to health concerns for those in nearby areas due to its dangerous byproducts. This also does not take into account the effects it might have on the environment. 

There are numerous problems affecting the U.S. recycling efforts with their own significant impacts. Recycling now seems more exhausting, yet it might be too soon to become discouraged.

Recycling and composting has increased since the 1960’s to around 32.1 percent in the year 2018, yet a large portion of waste is not recycled and ends up in landfills accounting for 50 percent of the roughly 292 million tons. 

However, the EPA reports in 2018, 193 million metric tons of carbon dioxide was spared from entering the atmosphere because of recycling and composting efforts. 

To push for recycling efforts, there should be a national campaign. It should be a public service announcement for companies, local municipalities and people to take into consideration the growing climate crisis and understand the value of recycling and recyclable materials. 

The numbers can be overwhelming, and it’s difficult at times to determine how effective recycling actually is. 

Interestingly, what one can recycle is quite shocking and can be an array of household items. 

The question of whether one should recycle is complicated. The short answer is yes because it does appear that the benefits outweigh the negatives. 

Additionally, checking one’s local recycling programs and becoming well-versed in the process will hopefully be more successful in recycling efforts.

Katherine Graves is a junior strategic communications major who can be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

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“Recycling processes should be improved” was originally posted on The Cougar

STELLA MEHLHOFF: Hey all! Welcome back to In the Know. This podcast is dedicated to all things University of Minnesota. Today, we’re diving into something I’m especially excited to talk about — the convergence of art and science, right here at our very own Bell Museum.

The Bell Museum is a natural history museum located on the St. Paul campus. The Bell has a lot of the things you might expect to find — dioramas of Minnesota wildlife and a planetarium for exploring the cosmos — but they are also home to a whole lot of art.

This takes a lot of different forms: prints, sculptures, film clips and an artist residency program. As of 2023, the Bell Museum has four artists, all working in different mediums and on different subjects. Each artist uses the Bell Museum as inspiration for their artistic projects. According to the Bell’s website, the artist residency program “invites dynamic candidates from all disciplines to investigate artistic practice as a lens for scientific discovery.” 

Usually artists work at the Bell for three to four months, but that can vary depending on the project. To learn more, I spoke with one of this year’s artists in residence, Felicia Cooper. She tells me of her art.

COOPER: I tend to make puppet shows for children, with a very loose definition of both puppets and children. 

MEHLHOFF: For her residency at the Bell, Cooper chose to base this puppet show on Minnesota’s native mussels. 

COOPER: Yeah, people thought I would change my mind I think — there may be sexier things to make puppet shows about, certainly the mammals. But I still can’t get over it, what mussels do for our environment.

MEHLHOFF: According to the Minnesota Department of natural resources mussels do play an important role in aquatic environments because they are like “ecosystem engineers, making their habitat more suitable for themselves and other organisms.” I understand that as mussels work like filters in the water. But Cooper’s puppets could explain it better than me. As part of their residency, the artists are encouraged to interact with the Bell’s collections and are shown exhibits by the staff.

COOPER: They give you a tour of the drawers and the shelves and all of these beautiful things. And I’m always really struck by the sense of like, anything is possible when I open this drawer. 

It could be a passenger pigeon. It could be, uh, the most disgusting looking fish you’ve ever seen in a jar. 

MEHLHOFF: But it was the Bell’s mussels that Cooper was most invested in. 

COOPER: And you’re going through all of these boxes and it’s kind of just this like exercise in subtlety of different shades of gray and brown and sometimes yellow, and then one of them, out of nowhere, was like this bright fuchsia. And I was like, what? How is this bright fuchsia? And I was like asking everyone around. I was like, ‘look at this.’ Can you imagine? Like, why is this the way that it is, did someone dye this? What happened? And they were like “oh, probably someone polished it. It’s pink, very cool.”

All of the art that I make is based on asking questions together and having an opportunity to share space for those questions. I think it’s really important, especially in an age of information where I can Google pretty much anything that I want to, that we hold that time together to be curious.

MEHLHOFF: But Google can only get Cooper so far. For her, the internet doesn’t carry the same “magic” that a physical museum does. 

COOPER: Am I allowed to say I’m a *censored* for museums? I think they’re amazing. They’re tremendous places. Um, as a cultural institution, I think museums offer us the opportunity to learn without expectation, you know, like, I can go into a museum and wander around for an hour. I can spend a whole day at a museum. I can spend all day in my head. I can go in with a specific question. I think they are places that are educational without a clear outcome. 

MEHLHOFF: She says of the Bell Museum in particular.

COOPER: It is a place that is curated and crafted with a very clear voice of wonder, it’s not a boring quiet, and it’s not like the kind of quiet that feels, um, limited or inhibiting. It’s the kind of silence that feels, uh, thoughtful and reverent. Also though, when I was a kid, I grew up in a really small town in Pennsylvania of like 1,300 people. So going to a museum was maybe once a year, if that? My field trips were to coal mines. I would just be thrilled to read a plaque on the side of the road. Now that I can go to a museum whenever I want, I’m having the best time!

MEHLHOFF: With Cooper’s words on my mind, I visit the Bell Museum on Feb. 4. It’s busy the day I go, and rarely quiet, but the sense of wonder she mentioned is all around me. I spend several hours wandering the exhibits and never feel bored.

I love the way that every room I enter has a combination of natural and human elements. There is this 7-foot tall moose right next to prints by nature artist Francis Lee Jaques. There are taxidermied shorebirds in front of a painting of a beach, like the one they might have walked on if alive. Even the sounds mingle, recorded bird song mixing with children’s voices. I stop at a display of mussels and, after hearing about Cooper’s enthusiasm, find that I feel a kind of affection towards them.

After my visit, I spoke with the Bell’s Emily Dzieweczynski, a communications associate, to learn more about the benefits of the art/science relationship.

DZIEWECZYNSKI: I think it’s just more modes of understanding. Different learning styles, people respond to different things. Um, so I think being able to offer an artistic perspective is really helpful in terms of like entry points into science, because science can be really daunting. 

MEHLHOFF: Jenny Stampe, associate director of public engagement and science learning, adds on. 

STAMPE: That idea that, you know, you’re an art person or a science person I think has been detrimental to a lot of folks, and understanding the really close interrelation between art and science and the ways they can inform one another is just a much richer way to understand things.

EMILY: I really do think that it, you need collaborations like that to consider new ways of thinking, and it happens back-and-forth. Like just as much as artists inspire scientists, scientists inspire artists. Like I think either discipline, there’s a risk of getting stuck in a rut. Um, so imagination comes from both, both places. 

MEHLHOFF: While walking through the Bell Museum’s exhibits, I found a quote from American astronomer Maria Mitchell. She says, “I think we especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but also it is somewhat beauty and poetry.” 

COOPER: When I want to tell people about whales or mussels, murmurations of birds, what I really want them to think about is like wonder and hope and um, the feeling that you get when you’ve been walking in the woods for like an hour or two. Um, and to share that these things exist, right? The woods exist even when we’re not walking in them; the mussels are cleaning the water even when we’re not thinking about them.

MEHLHOFF: You can visit the Bell Museum for free using your student ID Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information on the upcoming resident artists visit the Bell Museum’s website, linked in this episode’s transcript. According to Stampe, Cooper will be performing her puppet show on mussels on April 8. Cooper also has a residency this summer at Lake Pepin, working further with mussels and native biodiversities. 

This episode was written by me, Stella Mehlhoff, and produced by Alberto Gomez, Hana Ikramuddin and Abby Matchtig. As always, we really appreciate you listening in! As we experiment with style and format, your feedback is super useful to us. Feel free to email us at podcasting@mndaily.com with comments or questions. I’m Stella Mehlhoff and this is In the Know. 

In the first few minutes of HBO’s newest prestige television craze “The Last of Us,” the adaptation of the beloved video game quickly establishes the driving force of the show and the inevitable downfall of human civilization, while smartly delivering exposition.

On the topic of viral pandemics, an epidemiologist (John Hannah) says that they’re old news, something humanity always prevails over. The bigger threat? Fungi and its unsettling capabilities. This statement renders laughter from the audience as if what he is saying is a joke, but he follows up by saying, “Fungi seem harmless enough. Many species know otherwise because there are some fungi who seek not to kill, but to control”. 

He offers a simple example of the cordyceps virus, a real-life example that overtakes the brains of ants like puppets — but thankfully not the brains of humans… yet.

The audience in the show, perhaps like the audience watching at home, laugh in response to his proposition. The epidemiologist continues to ask another question: What if the earth were to get increasingly but ever so slightly warmer? Well, as we find out in the unfurling rest of the episode, that simple increase of temperature would grant passage to a mycological undead apocalypse. 

An Uncannily Faithful Adaptation, Not Just a Recreation 

The first episode faithfully adapts the source material, particularly the heart-rending beginning, with unmatched detail and precision. The main beloved duo is played by internet favorite Pedro Pascal in yet another father figure role as Joel, while the rapscallion-esque Ellie is played by gender-fluid actor Bella Ramsey. The first episode especially highlights the impeccable acting talent of Nico Parker, my pick for this series’ sleeper-hit actor who plays Joel’s daughter Sarah. While faithfully following the amount of time she exists in the game, it’s a shame we don’t get more of her.

Creative liberties are thoughtfully taken and translated to the screen while still staying faithful to the source material. In fact, there is an extended scene that is almost a shot-for-shot of a portion of the game where the characters are trying to find a way out of the quickly collapsing city that is being closed in by the government to contain the potential cordyceps infection. Everything in this sequence, from the camera movement to the individual shots of roads, houses and passersby seen from the perspective of Sarah, shows the strategy behind the show that seems to already be catapulting it to all-time status among fans and newcomers alike. Other elements, like the spores in the game, are changed for the show to be tendrils that come out of the mouth of the infected, a more realistic and logistically possible way of passing on the cordyceps fungus according to the show’s creators.

All of this is to say, this show is seemingly succeeding in treading a very fine line of pleasing devoted and already established fans of the game while also creating a version of the story from the game that can stand on its own — something that can occasionally bring it down a very slight notch as some scenes seem too close to the point of feeling a bit formulaic. But perhaps that is just coming from someone who has played the first game more than the average viewer and knows many of the plot points by heart. 

Diversity, Queerness and Toxic Fandom Culture 

One expected but exceedingly annoying external aspect of the show comes from a loud minority of fans online complaining about the more diverse cast. This trolling sentiment seems to have carried on from the second game, “The Last of Us Part II,” and has thankfully been drowned out by the show’s deafening praise. One of the biggest complaints comes from trolls online grumbling that Ellie doesn’t resemble the version from the game close enough, completely ignoring the fact that the video game version was played by an adult woman (Ashley Johnson). But as long as Ramsey embodies the character as a teenager while keeping key aspects of what made the original great, nothing else should matter. Other complaints come from the fact that Sarah is played by a Black actor whereas the character was white with blonde hair in the game, another shallow take on behalf of supposed fans.

Ellie is also confirmed as queer in the first game’s DLC “Left Behind” in her relationship with the short-lived character Riley (Storm Reid). Other characters Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) are expanded upon, making Frank more than just a mention in an in-game letter but a fully fleshed-out character spotlighting not one but two prominent queer relationships in the show. Another casting choice of note is that of the character Sam, who in the show is played by young, deaf actor (Keivonn Woodard), which could change his backstory when he appears.

None of these changes drastically change or deviate from the source material, but add to a different, more expanded version of the original story. Instead of focusing on the same old toxic monotony, we should embrace these changes. If the recent uproar of support is any indication, none of these shallow complaints matter. 

Treading the Weeks Ahead

“The Last of Us” has already been hailed by critics and fans alike as the best video game adaptation of all time. Perhaps this is in part due to the co-creator Neil Druckmann being brought on in addition to “Chernobyl” television show creator Craig Mazin to maintain what really made the original game so special. Perhaps it’s due to fans’ elation with its high-quality set design, an above-average script and fully embodied casting in a prestige television show coming in spiritual succession to the hit television show “The Walking Dead“, Cormac McCarthy’s novel “The Road” or even hints of the film “Children of Men.”

Is it that the bar for video game adaptations has been so low in the past with successful, albeit mediocre or just plain bad adaptations such as the “Resident Evil” films, “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu” or “Sonic the Hedgehog“? Or is a large part of the hype purely hyperbolic?

Seeing as the general public has only seen four out of nine episodes in the first season so far, after seeing the whole series in the coming weeks, I remain hopeful of this show’s potential. 

a.marler@dailyutahchronicle.com

@arlo_marler