By: Tyler Gieseke

While University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler pointed to the recent restructuring of the University Libraries as an example of how administrative costs can be minimized, the reorganization resulted in no budgetary reduction.

Amid criticism for administrative bloat, state legislators called for a review of the University’s administrative structure in January.

“Right now we are in the midst of analyzing our organizational structure to learn if and how we can be more efficient,” Kaler said in his Feb. 28 State of the University address. “The Libraries have already completed a similar analysis with tremendous impact.”

A preliminary report of four administrative units by Sibson Consulting found the University had few areas to improve.

Although the Libraries reduced the number of supervisory positions by 22 percent through the restructuring process — which occurred largely in fiscal years 2011 and 2012 — its budget will remain the same. No positions were added or removed, and no employees took pay cuts or raises.

Rather than lowering budgetary costs, the goal of spans-and-layers reorganizations is to “ensure that we have put our resources — as much of our resources as we can — toward our mission-specific work,” said Kathy Brown, vice president for human resources.

If the Libraries received any money through the restructure, like if a previously open position wasn’t filled, that money was reallocated, said Wendy Lougee, University librarian.

“[The reorganization] wasn’t done at all for budgetary reasons,” she said.

The Libraries had already accommodated budget cuts of more than $3 million from prior years, she said. The reorganization dealt with the cuts and with positions that were open due to retirement incentive programs.

The restructure resulted in several reductions in spans of control, or the number of employees that report to supervisors.

For example, the number of supervisors with fewer than five individuals reporting to them decreased by 43 percent as a result of the analysis, according to Libraries data.

Also, the number of supervisors with five or more employees increased by 16 percent, from 25 supervisors to 29.

Although Kaler used the Libraries’ reorganization as an example of how administration can be streamlined, the organization’s analysis wasn’t motivated by concerns about spans and layers, Lougee said. Rather, the review aimed to increase efficiency and address the fact that libraries are shifting toward holding more digital items.

By: Megan Ryan

Rugby is one of the most violent sports in the world, but Nate Augspurger didn’t pick up his first major injury until February.

The former University of Minnesota club player got into the sport at age 12. Now as a 23-year-old on the U.S. Men’s Sevens team, Augspurger is recovering from a broken fibula and ligament damage that required a plate and six screws to heal.

Augspurger injured himself while playing for a U.S. developmental team after an opponent tackled him and landed on Augspurger’s ankle.

“Not an ideal rugby tackle, let’s put it that way,” Augspurger said. “It wasn’t cheap or anything like that. Just … that’s how tackles happen sometimes.”

The bone took six weeks to heal, and now Augspurger is facing eight to 10 weeks of recovery.

But Augspurger said he is channeling Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who dominated the NFL a season after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament. Augspurger is aiming for a six- to eight-week recovery in hopes of making the U.S. Rugby World Cup team at the end of June in Moscow. He also has his sights set on the 2016 Olympics.

While his goals may seem lofty, Augspurger’s former coaches and teammates said he’ll come back from this injury stronger.

“He had the talent, but there’s a lot of kids who have the talent,” University men’s club rugby coach Loren Lemke said. “The thing that breaks Nate from everyone else is his work ethic.

“I think for me as a coach, Nate’s probably a player I’ll be lucky enough to see once every 10 years.”

Drive to thrive

Augspurger doesn’t look like a typical rugby player at 5 feet 8 inches and 165 pounds. But his size has never held him back.

“It’s definitely inspirational,” former University teammate and current senior co-captain Peter Makredes said. “I worked out with Nate for over a year. … I’m 185 [pounds], and he can beat me in the weight room every day.”

Augspurger started his career playing on the wing, but his former youth coach and mentor Sam Robinson — who played professional rugby in his native Samoa and in Australia — helped him transition to his current playmaking position, the scrum-half.

“He was a little tiny kid on the wing,” Robinson said. “He just reminds me of myself because I played high-level rugby back in Australia and stuff, and I was the smallest guy on the field.

“And when I saw him I knew he was small, but I knew he was something special.”

U.S. national team coach Alex Magleby said most scrum-half players shy away from contact, but Augspurger excels at defense and tackling.

“He’ll tackle anyone,” Lemke said. “He’ll tackle the biggest guy on the field.”

Senior Dominic McQuerry, a former University club teammate of Augspurger’s and current co-captain, played against Augspurger in high school before they joined forces in college.

“They ended up just destroying us, and he was a big reason for that,” McQuerry said. “He’s the best player I’ve ever played with or seen play with my own eyes.”

Augspurger went to nationals twice with the University club team and was a Midwest Collegiate All-Star in 2010 and 2011 for rugby union, the more traditional form of the sport.

Each team in rugby union fields 15 players during two 40-minute halves. But Augspurger is more interested in rugby sevens, a form in which each team fields seven players in two seven-minute halves.

Augspurger played men’s sevens for a Minneapolis club in the summers and earned honors such as Midwest Men’s All-Star in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and Collegiate All-American in 2012.

These awards put him on USA Rugby’s radar and earned him an invitation to try out for the national team last September.

Augspurger knew by his freshman year of college that he wanted to pursue rugby as a career, but he decided to finish his sociology degree last spring before making the professional jump.

“In addition to him being an extraordinary athlete, his work ethic is just amazing,” Makredes said. “He didn’t have to finish college in order to get to where he was, but he did it, and he did it with flying colors.”

Road to Rio

Augspurger moved to San Diego, Calif., for a month in September to try out for the team with no guarantee he would make the roster.

But Augspurger impressed coaches enough to earn a contract through the USA Men’s Sevens Residency Program. He is one of the younger players on the 18-man roster, but Magleby said Augspurger’s talent isn’t going unnoticed.

“He’s a grinder type of a player,” Magleby said. “So [he] works very hard in training and in the match.”

Magleby said there are five scrum-half players on the national team competing for one starting position, making it the most competitive position. But Augspurger made the top 12 on the team for two tournaments before his injury.

Augspurger said his first tournament in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in late November didn’t make him a breakout star, but it provided the experience he needed to gain confidence and playing time.

“It definitely made me fall in love with it,” Augspurger said. “To go on an international trip and be on the international scene — I know I can compete at that level now.”

Even before he went to his second tournament in South Africa last December, his dad, Andy Augspurger, realized his son had made it.

Andy Augspurger started playing rugby when Nate and his older brother were toddlers. He introduced his son to the sport that Nate is now making a career.

“When he was in Dubai … his mom and I were watching him on the computer streaming, and he’s starting, and we’re like, ‘Oh my God, there’s our little boy out there,’” Andy Augspurger said. “You know what? He looked like he belonged. And in my book, that’s all that mattered.”

While Nate Augspurger is just starting his national team career, his goal is to make the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Rugby sevens will make its first appearance at the upcoming Summer Olympics after the International Olympic Committee adopted it in 2009.

Rugby isn’t as popular in the U.S. as in other countries, but Magleby said USA Rugby is preparing the national team for a quick rise to the top of the world rankings, with goals to be top 12 this year, top eight next year and top four in 2015.

“Our goal is to win the gold in 2016,” Magleby said, “and there’s no doubt we can do it.”

The team’s high hopes come with intense competition for spots on the Olympic roster.

“[Nate] has competition, which is good,” Magleby said. “I think that’s how he would want it.”

But Augspurger said he doesn’t just want to make the Olympic team — he wants to be the centerpiece of it.

Along the way, he’s hoping to gain national team experience for rugby union. That would help him play professionally overseas after the Olympics in places like France, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa.

“To me, rugby never gets old. It’s always different,” Augspurger said. “Part of it is that I love it, but part of it I’m trying to improve so I never feel stagnant.

“It’s so much fun.”

Now that Augspurger has put in the work, he said he can finally chase his dreams.

“I’ve got one foot in the door,” Augspurger said. “I’ve just got to keep going.”

By: Samuel Gordon

John Anderson fought back tears as he stood before Gophers players, alumni, faculty and donors at the new Siebert Field on Tuesday.

These people helped make Anderson’s dream — a baseball stadium on the University of Minnesota campus — a reality.

“This is my 37th year connected with the Golden Gopher baseball family,” Anderson said, “and this may be the proudest day in my 37-year history.”

Anderson, the head Gophers baseball coach since 1981, had been campaigning for a new Siebert Field for more than a decade.

Anderson, with assistance from University President Eric Kaler, Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Paul Molitor and several others, officially unveiled the new facility to the public Tuesday.

Siebert Field will host its first games this weekend when the Gophers play Ohio State in a three-game series.

Dozens of supporters, including Minnesota Twins owner Jim Pohlad and several former Gophers players, braved freezing temperatures to take part in a roughly 45-minute grand opening event.

The new field cost approximately $7.5 million, and $2 million was donated by the Pohlad family.

Longtime baseball public address announcer Dick Jonckowski emceed the proceedings and said afterward that the facility is “like a dream come true” for Anderson.

“It’s something he always wanted,” Jonckowski said.

Anderson and Molitor, a former Gophers player, were at the center of fundraising efforts for a new facility, which broke ground last June.

Minnesota played just a handful of games at the old, decrepit field in recent years, when the Metrodome served as its primary facility.

The Gophers said goodbye to the old Siebert Field last May with a 9-2 victory over St. Thomas.

The new stadium was completed in time for fall practice, and Gophers outfielder Andy Henkemeyer said the team practiced there about 20 times.

The team’s Tuesday practice, the first of the spring at Siebert Field, was open to the public.

Anderson and Molitor both spoke at the ceremony, thanking donors, former players and coaches for helping bring baseball back to campus.

“Any time people have a vision of something that needs to be done, and then you go through the process … and finally having a day where ‘here it is.’ It’s special,” said Molitor, the honorary chair of the Siebert Field Legacy Campaign.

“The Metrodome served its purpose,” Molitor added. “It helped this club, but I’m really, really glad the University baseball team has a place to call its own.”

The entire playing surface, sans the batter’s boxes and the pitcher’s mound, is made of synthetic turf.

“So far it’s been nice. It played a little slow in the fall, but I think the snow will help pack it down a little bit,” Henkemeyer said.

Anderson said the decision to install turf was partially influenced by Minnesota’s cold-winter climate.

“If we had natural grass, there’d still be frost on the ground,” he said. “We knew we’d be able to get on it earlier and have a better playing surface.”

The ballpark will seat 1,400, and other amenities include an underground drainage system, a revamped concession stand and a $500,000 video scoreboard that sits above the right-field fence.

But the facility is far from complete.

Anderson and Molitor both said the field, as it currently stands, is finished with “phase one” of its completion.

There are plans for a “phase two” expansion that will include lights and a hitting and pitching area outside the stadium.

The groundwork is already complete for the lights, Anderson said, and they’ll go up when there’s money for them.

Future expansions are slated to include a clubhouse, suites and additional concession stands.

“I just showed [the blueprints] to a donor recently, and it was pretty exciting,” Anderson said. “They were amazed as to what it’s going to look like when it’s all done.”

By: Nickalas Tabbert

Robert Bell struggled to find his confidence and his golf swing last fall.

Now he has it back.

The senior on the Gophers men’s golf team has mostly returned to form halfway through the spring season.

Bell has the second-best scoring average for the Gophers and has played in all three tournaments this spring.

“It’s kind of satisfying to finally see results starting to show,” he said, “and doing things on the golf course that I know I can do.”

Last fall was a different story. Bell played in just two of the Gophers’ five tournaments and had the worst score for the team in both of them. His average score per round was nearly six strokes worse than it is this spring.

Bell said he had to focus on his golf swing heading into the winter months. He spent nearly four months working with coaches John Carlson and Tyler Stith to improve his ball-striking ability.

Stith said the coaches changed Bell’s setup and adjusted where he positioned his club before following through.

After numerous repetitions, Bell emerged with a new swing that produces a straighter ball flight. His draw has been reduced, and he has become more consistent off the tee, which has allowed him to hit more fairways.

The putter has always been Bell’s “forte,” but he said he has also improved his iron shots and his course management skills.

“I think all of those things have reflected on a successful spring thus far,” Bell said.

His improvements showed last weekend at the U.S Intercollegiate. Bell shot under par in two of the three rounds and tied for 26th, his best finish as a member of the lineup this season.

Stith walked with Bell the last two rounds and said the senior was comfortable and in control during those 36 holes.

Carlson said it was just as important to restore Bell’s lost confidence as it was his swing.

Bell’s confidence skyrocketed in February after a tournament in Arizona. He was excluded from the lineup after losing a qualifying round against freshman Charlie Braniff, but he played as an individual and tied for sixth with teammate Jon Trasamar to lead Minnesota.

“After that, it’s just been a renewed focus for him,” Carlson said. “Now he has some better fundamentals. He can go out there every single day, and he can bring the same game to the golf course.”

Carlson said Bell is as big of a boost to the lineup as he’s ever coached and brings a lot of talent — especially in putting.

“He has the ultimate weapon that a lot of people don’t have in their game, and that’s a good putter,” Carlson said.

But Bell said he wants to work on becoming a more consistent all-around player.

“I can’t take a leap from where I am now to the PGA Tour or the Web.com [developmental tour],” he said. “It doesn’t happen like that. It happens with taking baby steps and improving each part of your game individually.”

The Big Ten championships take place April 26-28 in French Lick, Ind. If Minnesota is going to challenge for the title, it will likely need Bell in the lineup.

By: Drew Claussen

Nate Schmidt was one of the few undrafted players on this year’s Gophers squad. On Tuesday, he also became the first underclassman to declare he won’t be wearing maroon and gold next season.

The junior defenseman has signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the Washington Capitals, the NHL team announced Tuesday.

Schmidt’s signing with the Capitals could be the first of many departures from the Gophers this offseason.

Seth Helgeson is the only player that will graduate, but juniors Nick Bjugstad, Erik Haula, Zach Budish, Nate Condon and others could follow Schmidt’s path.

Haula hinted Tuesday on Twitter that Budish and Schmidt had left the Gophers, posting: “Congrats to two of the bigger beauties I know @Burdish24

@nateschmidt29 #roomies #goodluck.”

The tweet was later removed but sparked controversy about whether Budish has signed with the Nashville Predators, the NHL team that owns his rights.

Schmidt said he hadn’t given much thought to his future after last Friday’s NCAA tournament loss to Yale.

Four days later, his collegiate career is over.

“This wasn’t an easy decision to make,” Schmidt said in a release, “but it is the right decision.”

The St. Cloud, Minn., native played in 96 career games for the Gophers and had 12 goals and 62 assists. His turnaround from one point his freshman season to 41 points his sophomore campaign helped Minnesota surprise many with its run to the NCAA Frozen Four last season.

This season, Schmidt was fifth on the team in points with nine goals and 23 assists.

“He had two tremendous years and felt he was ready to take his game to the next level,” Gophers head coach Don Lucia said in the release.

Schmidt was Minnesota’s most reliable defenseman and the pilot of the team’s first power-play unit. He was the Gophers’ lone representative on the All-WCHA First Team this season.

While Schmidt was one of the team’s best players, he was also one of the few who hadn’t been selected in the NHL draft. That freed him to sign with any NHL team.

Schmidt’s signing likely didn’t surprise the Gophers’ coaching staff. Associate head coach Mike Guentzel told the Minnesota Daily in December that he believed Schmidt would be a “quality free agent candidate.”

Schmidt’s signing is the only one that has been confirmed as of Tuesday.

By: James Castle

Traditional gender ideology demands that straight couples function in complementary and dichotomous ways. Straight men are expected to be dominant and strong, while straight women are expected to be submissive and soft, among other things. This ideological structure is also reflected in straight couples’ sexual activities, where men penetrate women’s bodies — though men are capable of being penetrated by women as well.

Over time, gay men have adopted these dominant and submissive roles, particularly with respect to sexual activity. Men who penetrate other men are “tops,” while men who get penetrated by other men are “bottoms.” Gay men grow up in heterosexual worlds and are taught in school and from friends about straight sex. They are socialized to believe that, in a two-person sexual encounter, one person should play the dominant-penetrating (male) role, while another person should play the submissive-receptive (female) role. But a problem exists when these men are stigmatized, as well as permanently and exclusively branded as one role or the other.

In a recent YouTube video gone viral, “Boy Is A Bottom,” a trio of drag queens parody an Alicia Keys song while calling out some young gay men on their perceived preference to be sexually receptive. Although the video is intended to be funny — albeit incredibly juvenile — it is nonetheless reflective of the problems that stem from the top-bottom binary in gay male culture.

First, the video is centered on humiliating gay men who enjoy being sexually receptive. The implication is that identifying as a bottom is something of which to be ashamed: that a gay man is somehow less of a man for engaging or desiring to engage in sexual activity that places him in a submissive and, thus, feminine role.

Second, the stigma associated with identifying as a “bottom” incentivizes many gay men to identify as “top” or “versatile,” regardless of whether they actually desire those roles. To be a top is to be more masculine because a gay man who tops is assuming the role analogous to that of a straight man, and, in our society straight men have a higher status than straight women.

Third, stigmatizing a bottom identity also is offensive to straight women. Women are not somehow lesser than their male partners for being sexually receptive. In shaming gay men who bottom, however, the suggestion is that straight women are also lesser than the men who penetrate their bodies. Indeed, gay men who bottom and straight women are often referred to as “bitches” and other like terms. To be a bottom is to play “the woman” in the relationship, and being the woman is a bad thing apparently.

Lastly, stigma aside, just because a gay man identifies as “top” or “bottom” at one point or engages in one act or the other at one point or from time to time does not mean the  identity or behavior is somehow static and can’t change. As the “Boy Is A Bottom” clip illustrates, when one is identified as one position, that man is forever a “bottom” or “top.” This simplistic and restrictive thinking limits gay men’s sexualities, which are complex and fluid. Just because a man desires to receive or penetrate at a given time with a given person in a given place does not mean  that same man is incapable of performing the other in the same place or in a different place with a different person(s) at a different time.

One source of this top-bottom problem is the way masculinity is constructed in our culture. We expect men to act masculine, to be strong, dominant, confident, rational, etc. Identifying as gay, however, is an inherently feminine act because gay men like other men, just like straight women do. In order to compensate for this feminine act and continue the effort to meet culturally dominant expectations for masculinity, there is an incentive for gay men to identify as “tops” because that is the more masculine role. The idea is that, while one has feminized himself by identifying as gay, he still maintains his masculinity by identifying as a top because a top performs the same sexual role that a straight male does when having straight sex. Furthermore, when a gay man identifies as a top, the assumption is often that he also possesses many of the other characteristics that straight men possess. The converse is true for assumptions about men who identify as bottoms.

The reality is that there’s nothing wrong with bottoming. There is nothing to be ashamed of about desiring to be sexually receptive; it’s just a sex role. It doesn’t make one less of a man, and it doesn’t make one less desirable. Indeed, one could even use ideas about traditional masculinity to argue that being sexually receptive in a gay male sexual encounter is in fact more masculine because receiving can often be less comfortable than penetrating, and capacity to deal with discomfort or pain is a traditionally masculine characteristic.

Gay male culture should work to purge the stigma associated with a bottom identity and to deconstruct the restrictive top-bottom binary. The same social and cultural forces that compel us to stigmatize bottoming are the same forces that compel homophobia. These forces demand men behave a certain way, and any man who doesn’t meet those expectations deserves to be shamed. Gay men have a responsibility to fight this stigma and these restrictions and to define for themselves what it means to be masculine, what it means to be a man.

By: Bronwyn Miller

This year, I’m applying spring cleaning to more than just my overflowing closet. As the slush melts away and beauty is restored in nature, I hope to similarly renew my appreciation for the beauty I’ve lost sight of in my own life. In conjunction with the transition between seasons, I too am on an endeavor for change: new beginnings, new aspirations and a new sense of clarity.

If your life has gone anything like mine has this year, winter was rough. With the perpetual forecast of freezing and gray, my motivation for pursuing excitement — in other words, leaving the warm cocoon of my couch — dwindled, and I slipped into a monotonous routine. To add insult to injury, I faced an unusually long list of responsibilities and an ever-increasing level of senior year stress and anxiety. Somewhere along the way, my priorities became skewed, and taking care of myself physically and mentally fell by the wayside.

A particularly climactic series of events a few weeks ago served as my wakeup call, and I realized I needed an outlook overhaul to return to my happiest and healthiest. In my experience, one of the best ways to cause a revolution of the mind and spirit can be a focus on the body. Feeling strong on the outside can serve as an excellent shortcut to feeling strong on the inside, so my primary reaction to a stress-fest often includes a health makeover.

In the past, I’ve guided this lifestyle alteration with a pursuit of the latest and greatest tips and tricks to drop weight, believing triumph lied in a smaller number on a scale. Low caloric intake was inherently equivalent to progress, and feeling skinnier was how I could feel healthier and, thus, better.

It never quite worked as planned. Making stringent rules about how much I was allowed to consume and when was exhausting, and I quickly tired of the system of deprival that inevitably led only to self-disappointment. Though I may have momentarily felt better when I put on my looser-fitting jeans, it was not sustainable. I was not empowering myself nor pursuing a more balanced way of life. I was not taking control of my happiness or, for that matter, of anything; on the contrary, I was giving it away. I granted numbers, often founded on unrealistic expectations, the power to dictate my mood.

Back then, I was obsessed with discovering every diet secret, every list of “eat this not that,” every miracle workout — any and every piece of advice I could seize to feel confident that I was “healthy.” But the search for tips was overpowering; I was so inundated with information that it actually hindered my progress. I felt  comfort in feeling like I was omniscient in the realm of health advice, but I was overwhelmed into inaction. I was aiming for a materialistic type of health, not considering how to actually make my body feel good.

It’s not just me who has been led astray by what “healthy” means. The pervasive messages of the weight loss industry, worth about $60 billion in the U.S. and growing , relentlessly attempt to influence our self-images. Marketers play to our vulnerabilities while simultaneously promising the miracles we’ve been praying for. And in a perfect storm of false hope, insecurity and desperation, we buy into it. We flock to the low-fat, low-carb, fortified this and organic that without actually thinking about what we’re consuming, confident we can have our cake and eat it too (as long as it’s gluten-free).

In many ways, the colloquial concept of being healthy has become a punishment, with loss — more specifically, weight loss — inherent in its ideals. But it’s not getting us anywhere. Although the recently released results of two federal studies show that Americans are eating fewer calories than we did a decade ago, obesity rates are not tapering.  Clearly, there is more to the story than quantity; it’s the quality we must examine.

Moreover, we need a new outlook on health and nutrition that does not place weight loss as the sole marker of success. As the 2010 experiment of a human nutrition  professor at Kansas State University revealed, it is not unheard of to eat predominantly junk food and see weight loss as a short-term consequence. Mark Haub lost 27 pounds in two months on what he referred to as the “convenience store diet,” a steady intake of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks.  While it’s easier to focus on numbers on a scale than consider what we cannot measure — like long-term health — we’re not doing ourselves any real favors. The greater picture of what we are putting in our bodies, like the consequences of ingesting the chemicals, synthetics, preservatives and other additives in processed foods, must supersede our one-dimensional weight loss-driven view of health.

This time around, my idea of a “health makeover” is drastically different from my past approaches. I’m not counting calories and placing limits. For me, an important component of clarity and happiness is the sense of inner peace, achieved by a mind free of toxic thoughts. To wholeheartedly accomplish this goal, I want to take a holistic approach. What’s become most important is the knowledge that the food I put in my body, just like the thoughts I put in my head, is as free of toxins as possible.

Therefore, my mission is simply “back to basics.” I’m practicing clean eating and spending at least an hour each day being active in the fresh air. I’m not interested in a quantifiable, time-specific end result, like a goal weight. Instead, I’m changing my relationship with food, embarking on a journey with no end point. There are no all-or-nothing policies, but I’ve noticed that the longer I supply my body with only whole foods, the less it craves their processed counterparts, recognizing them as poison. So rather than polluting my mind and body with the latest diet fads and products, I’m going with grassroots — literally.

By: Trent M Kays

The dominant narrative in higher education reform is the disruption of current practices. The idea of reforming higher education is not novel. As long as there’s been  higher education, there have been calls to reform it. Yet, the uptake of uniquely business jargon to describe the catalyst of change is unfortunate and ill conceived.

Higher education does need reform. There’s too much overtly wrong to just let it limp along. However, the reform of higher education is being unfairly corrupted by capitalist market-driven ideology. This should not come as a surprise. The U.S. is a nation wholly consumed by the end product and not the process. But when “disruption” becomes the go-to word to describe how to change higher education, there is a huge problem.

This language does more to complicate than simplify. The problem arises out of the social contract and mandate of higher education. Contemporary higher education must work to uplift and enlighten society. However, finding disruption as the terminology of enlightenment is unacceptable.

Disruption is more at home in the wood paneled halls of a corporation than in the classroom. Indeed, this type of corporate ethos fulfills a certain neoliberal fetish, where higher education becomes beholden to the free market rather than an obligation to society.

The most notable example would be massive open online courses, or MOOCs. These courses are often touted as disrupting higher education. They shake things up, and they change the outlook and access to institutions. But, there’s very little that is disruptive about MOOCs. More often than not, MOOCs are simply the reincarnation of previous — failed or successful — online teaching ventures. They aren’t new nor are they innovative.

Perhaps more damning than seeing incongruity and disruption, reform zealots also see higher education as something to be packaged and delivered. The experience is secondary. By “disruptive,” these evangelists mean to make higher education subservient to market-driven forces, where shareholders are placed above students and educators.

No matter what ridiculous title you want to give these people — disruptors, thought leaders or change agents — one thing is for certain: They want to disrupt only insomuch as it benefits them. The idea and promise of the social contract is lost upon them.

It’s become obvious how little our society truly values education given the budget cuts and rising tuition. If our society valued it, education wouldn’t suffer budgetary cuts at all. The funding allotted to education by government entities is insignificant compared to other allotted programs. Budget slashing is old news and unsurprising. However, it seems that because of these cuts, we have given rise to our own demise.

The disruptors and thought leaders are flourishing because we have given them a bountiful canvas on which to thrive. Our society has failed to live up to its part of the social contract. Instead of securing an equitable higher education system, our society has all but gutted it. Our instant gratification culture — spurred on by capitalistic thinking — has found higher education wanting.

Higher education is not an instant gratification venture; it is a venture of patience and determination. So, as the disruptors work to “shake up” education, it becomes imperative that they answer an exigency, a situation calling for them: the financial gutting of higher education. Many of these so-called thought leaders’ messages are tempting; they will deliver us from the struggling system into the supportive arms of a strong free market utopia.

With rich politicians, professional administrators and venture capitalists creating their vision of higher education, we will be left with nothing more than universities reminiscent of production lines. Students will pay tuition, they will enter, they will be fed information and then they will receive diplomas. This is the terrible future of higher education, and it is a future we have brought upon ourselves.

It’s easy to not think about education when one is not in the midst of it. It’s easy to shave a little money off a budget one isn’t intimately involved with. It’s easy to blame teachers instead of those who control budgets. All of these things are easy to do because they require minimal thought and responsibility.

The rise of state-sponsored MOOCs, for-profit education ventures and shrinking budgets all reinforce one thing: the shirking of state responsibility to educate its citizenry. We are expendable, but the financial driven bottom line is not. Our priorities are most certainly not what they once were.

These business ventures do more to cloud the issue of reform than aid it. Throwing hollow language like “disruption” around doesn’t create a solution. It doesn’t really do anything. Higher education reform is a serious issue and requires serious thought. We need to address the budget cuts and demand reinvigorated state support. We need to work to make education equitable and accessible again.

Finally, we need to show the general public that state-sponsored higher education is imperative to our society and our lives. The value of higher education is defined by lifetimes — not by years. We shouldn’t let such definitions be stolen by those more concerned with profit than with education. It’s time to take back what is rightfully ours.

By: Mistilina Sato — associate professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction

The Minnesota Daily editorial board wrote on March 27 that the University of Minnesota should strive to play a role in producing the country’s finest teachers in math and science. Their interest was to promote a program called UTeach — a reputable program of study for future teachers begun at the University of Texas at Austin that now has a lot of federal funding attached to it.

Had the editors called us to talk about the teachers we license at the University, we would have shared with them information about the excellent teacher preparation programs — that are grounded in both rigorous theory and field-based experiences and are contextually and technologically current — that we currently offer. Potential science and mathematics teachers (there is no science, technology, engineering and mathematics license in Minnesota yet) enter our licensure programs offered through the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education and Human Development after they have already earned their bachelor’s degree in mathematics or a scientific discipline. This means that graduates of our teacher education programs have stronger content preparation than would the typical UTeach graduate.

Additionally, through our post-baccalaureate or “post-bac” teacher licensure program, future teachers also learn how to teach effectively in diverse classrooms, support students whose native language is not English, differentiate instruction for students with special needs and integrate technology into the learning experiences they design for their classrooms.

Our teacher licensure programs are designed to ensure that graduates exit with both solid content knowledge and the skills necessary to teach in contexts of diversity in an era marked by rapid technological innovation and globalization.

Unlike our curriculum, the UTeach curriculum does not focus on such skills.

And these are skills that are at the top of Minnesota’s school priorities for improving the educational experience for all students and closing the substantial achievement gap among students from different backgrounds. The teachers we prepare are highly rated by their school employers on our annual employer survey, with more than 90 percent agreement that our teachers know how to support the learning of culturally and ethnically diverse student populations.

Furthermore, for potential teachers who may wish to seek an alternative pathway into teaching after a few years in a STEM career, our programs provide an avenue.

And if the editors had asked us, we would have also told them that high-performing mathematics and science undergraduates at the University need only to apply to our DirecTrack to a teaching program to earn and keep a spot in our post-baccalaureate programs. In this program, the students earn their bachelor’s degree in their field while fulfilling early teaching pre-requisites. Students also complete 100 hours of service learning in schools as part of their course requirements. These students are in our urban centers tutoring and teaching as undergrads before they begin their professional preparation as teachers. We know through our ongoing program evaluations that they love this part of their career exploration before committing to one of the toughest professions in the nation.

Finally, we want to note that our science licensure program has been nationally recognized through the Promising Practices award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities for the ongoing support our post-baccalaureate graduates receive from us after they graduate and begin their teaching careers. Students in both DirecTrack and the post-baccalaureate licensure program also have opportunities to apply for competitive scholarships through a grant we have from the National Science Foundation with lead faculty in both CEHD and the College of Science and Engineering.

Given that our mathematics and science programs have more than 95 percent job-placement rates for our graduates and knowing that their employers value the skills they bring into Minnesota schools, we know that we are already  producing the finest teachers in math and science in the nation.

By: Paul Barta — University student

In an incredible showing, support for same-sex marriage has increased by approximately 23 points between 1996 and 2013, according to Gallup and American statistician Nate Silver. Every generation polled by the Pew Research Center, with one exception, has seen an increase in support by at least six points each, including those  between the ages of 67 and 84, who have seen an increase of 10 points.

Those red equal signs you saw as many Facebook users’ profile pictures aren’t statistical anomalies; they are a true example of what is actually happening to the support of same-sex marriage in the U.S. right now.

As a generation, I don’t believe we’ve seen that kind of uptick in support for anything along those lines. Heated issues such as abortion have been at a relative standstill, and presidential and congressional support tends to move with greater positive and negative fluctuation, but this is different. This is an unprecedented increase at unprecedented speed.

Save for another Great Awakening involving America diving headfirst into fundamentalist policy, supporting the idea of same-sex marriage is the “new normal” and will soon become the “normal normal.” Silver, as noted in the past two presidential elections, is a man whose numbers you should never doubt. Silver projects that by 2020, only one state will be somewhat opposed to same-sex marriage if it is placed on a ballot initiative, in comparison to 21 such states in 2008.

Opponents of same-sex marriage, whose views I respect, albeit in disagreement, have all but lost in the public eye. Every small victory that could be given to these opponents will be slammed down with a harder defeat.

Even if, hypothetically speaking, the Supreme Court allows the Defense of Marriage Act to retain its constitutionality, it will still probably be thrown aside by the American public within the next few decades. In other words, the train isn’t coming. It has already passed.