By: Kia Farhang

The Minneapolis City Council called for greater diversity on its boards and commissions last month.

Though the focus is on racial and economic diversity, city officials also said they want to see greater representation of renters and students — two large groups who traditionally aren’t as active in their communities as older homeowners.

“I think there’s an acknowledgement by most council members that if we truly want diversity, something has to change,” said Ward 6 City Councilman Robert Lilligren.

More than 500 Minneapolis residents serve on several dozen city boards and commissions, according to a diversity report prepared by the city.

“Nearly all of our boards and commission members own their home,” the report said, pointing out that about half of all properties in the city are rentals.

Boards and commission members, Lilligren said, also tend to have higher incomes and are more educated than the average city resident.

“I don’t want to get into an area where I’m presuming that someone who fits that demographic can’t represent other perspectives or viewpoints,” he said. “But the idea of participation, I think, is what we value as a city and as an organization.”

Full representation

Only 14 percent of boards and commission members are non-white, according to the survey. This compares to 36 percent of non-white Minneapolis residents, according to Census data.

Howard Blin, community engagement manager for the city’s Neighborhood and Community Relations Department, said the Council wants to change this.

“The makeup of many of the boards and commissions does not fully represent the city as a whole,” he said.

Getting young representatives from around the University of Minnesota to engage with the community is a challenge, Blin added.

“Most people in their 20s are busy with a lot of things,” he said. “Those renters tend to [spend] a short duration in those units.”

Pick up Wednesday's Daily for more on the push for more student engagement in city and neighborhood associations. 

By: Kia Farhang

University of Minnesota police booked a man for disorderly conduct at Keller Hall on Tuesday, according to a police report.

The man, who is not affiliated with the University according to the report, was allegedly shouting obscenities at Facilities Management workers from the second floor.

Owens may have gotten into Keller Hall through doors that FM propped open for cleaning, the report said.

When an FM supervisor asked if there was a problem, the man allegedly challenged him to a fight. UMPD booked him at Hennepin County jail.

Bike theft

Toby Deptula, a University of Minnesota Morris graduate, had his bike stolen sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Deptula said he left his bike chained to a tree in front of his apartment on 5th Street Southeast, a few blocks away from the Stone Arch Bridge. When Deptula went to use his bike on Tuesday morning, it was gone.

“I have a feeling somebody was riding along with their crappy bike and busted mine off,” Deptula said. He found an old bike on the ground near where he had left his.

The best way to prevent bike theft is to use a strong lock, Palmer said.

“If somebody has unlimited time and resources, they’re going to get that lock,” said Minneapolis police Sgt. William Palmer, but a good lock ― like a U-shaped lock ― is harder to cut off.

By: Elizabeth Ryan

Engineering and design may seem like an unlikely partnership, but for a group working to redesign lab space for student groups, it’s the coolest part of their project.

University of Minnesota students from the College of Science and Engineering and the College of Design have been working on a project to redesign and renovate three rooms in Keller Hall for student groups’ use. Renovations should start this summer and be finished before fall semester starts.

Between professors working on research, a multitude of student group meetings and engineering courses, it’s difficult for students to find space to work on their own projects on campus. Redesigning the rooms in Keller Hall will allow students 24-hour lab access.

Kyle Dukart, an academic advisor for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said the college will foot the $20,000 bill, which is still being finalized and approved by CSE administration.

Students first presented the idea to CSE administration last spring but “got serious” in the fall, Dukart said. The student groups Tesla Works, Innovative Engineers and Eta Kappa Nu currently use the lab space.

Overall, more than 25 students are working on the project, including several who responded to an email asking for students with a background in design who wanted to help design a new layout for the rooms.

Sarah Wolf, architecture senior, contributed her design skills to the project, finding different configurations for the spaces to be more user friendly and drawing blueprints for the labs. The group told her to “aim high” and plan for “whatever” she thought was the best for the project.

“We’re excited to get more kids in the room and hopefully more people will join student groups,” said Alex Miller, vice president of Innovative Engineers. “Less of, Innovative Engineers is giving up their space, and more that kids are getting involved with student groups.”

Miller said the biggest challenge is scheduling. Ideally, no one wants to give up time in the space.

“We’re looking at finding the best way to manage it,” Miller said. “I think if managed well, it will just be a little hurdle.”

Enter FIDO, a Tesla Works project aiming to solve this problem.

FIDO would be a centralized computer service comparable to J.A.R.V.I.S from Iron Man, said Tesla Works vice president Hunter Dunbar. The program, once completed, would control access to the labs and help with safety concerns.

“It will only turn on a power tool if you are able to use it and have the training to use it,” Dunbar said.

FIDO has been in development this past semester and should have a prototype by the end of the fall, Dunbar said.

It’s projects like this that Dukart and the students heading the redesign project hope the space will be used to showcase. Prospective students visiting the University can tour Keller Hall and see a hands-on workspace for engineering students outside of class.

Miller said she hopes tour groups come by the newly renovated labs in the fall often.

“I would hope the inner nerd in them comes out a little bit and think, ‘Oh my gosh, this is really cool!’”

By: Kia Farhang

A few years ago, Ardes Johnson was walking to campus on 15th Avenue Southeast when a skateboarder passed her, turned around, and asked if she wanted a ride.

“That’s why I live here,” Ardes said.  “I love Dinkytown. I’m very sad to leave.”

Johnson, a University of Minnesota alumna, decided to sell her townhouse to CPM Property Management, making way for a new apartment complex across from the University’s Gibson-Nagurski Football Practice Facility.

“It was hard to say, ‘Okay, for the right price, I’ll give in,’” Johnson said. “That’s what it amounted to.”

CPM president Daniel Oberpriller presented plans for the complex to the Minneapolis City Planning Commission committee and the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association’s board of directors this week. Construction is slated to begin this summer.

Psychology senior Max Zimbel said one of his roommates got a call May 8 letting her know they had 60 days to vacate their house so construction could begin on the apartment.

“They only spoke to her,” Zimbel said, and the other tenants didn’t receive letters or phone calls. He is currently working with University Legal Services to negotiate an end to his lease with his landlord.

The complex is one of many new, high-density developments that have sprung up in recent years, replacing smaller, traditional housing in the area around the University campus. It will be six stories tall, with 202 units, taking up most of the block.

“Higher density makes sense,” Oberpriller said, “but it has to be treated in a specific way.”

This type of development fits in with the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association’s 15th Avenue Southeast Urban Design Plan, which aims to improve the area as an entrance to the neighborhood.

“New, higher density housing along the edge of the neighborhood,” the plan says, “can help stabilize the core.”

Johnson said the east side of Marcy-Holmes is “pretty much a monoculture” in terms of housing — most complexes are designed for undergraduate students.

“It’s so sad,” she said. “We need more diversity in the population in this area.”

For more on this development and its impact on students, pick up Wednesday’s Daily.

By: Roy Aker

The main goal of University of Minnesota student group Students for a Democratic Society this fall semester will be trying to enact the three points of its proposed referendum.

The referendum, which included a 10 percent pay cut to any administrator making more than $200,000, passed with 85.5 percent of the few thousand students who voted.

In his response to SDS’s referendum, President Eric Kaler said in an April letter to the editor that cutting “salaries and benefits while retaining or attracting capable people to manage a $3 billion organization is unrealistic.”

SDS officer Nick Brambilla disagrees.

“Governor [Mark] Dayton’s salary is less than $200,000 a year; we don’t believe the president of a public institution should be making so much money,” he said.

Kaler’s salary, including bonuses, in fiscal year 2012 was $610,000, according to University data.

The University is “one of the worst in the country for administrative bloat,” Brambilla said, referencing a December Wall Street Journal article about the University’s administrative bloat.

Brambilla said he and another SDS officer sat down with Kaler in April to talk about the referendum.

In the referendum, SDS calls for University administration to “fully disclose the budget in April, prior to any decisions to raise tuition or fees.”

In his letter, Kaler said the budget is already transparent.

The budget he presents to the Board of Regents, he said, is publicly available online, and is usually expected before the end of June. 

SDS member Christopher Getowicz said in an April letter to the editor that Kaler is “wrong in his assumption that transparency means a public budget presented before the Board of Regents.”

In the letter, Getowicz said he’d like to see students share in the process of review and critique before final decisions are made.

Because SDS’s referendum holds no actual law-making power, Brambilla said enacting the points of the referendum will be difficult.

“These referendums aren’t binding by the Board of Regents or the administration,” he said.

Brambilla said SDS plans on bringing together other groups, like the Minnesota Student Association, on what he said is a “unifying issue” this fall.

“Hopefully we can start a bigger student movement,” he said, “to try to make our University a good example for the rest of the country.”

For more on administrative reactions to the referendum, pick up Wednesday’s Daily.

By: Meghan Holden

Plans for a new apartment complex in Dinkytown have been moving quickly, but some businesses say the proposed building will disrupt the area’s urban environment.

Opus Group plans to build a 140-unit apartment complex where House of Hanson, Book House, Duffy’s Dinkytown Pizza and Casablanca Hair Design currently operate. But the Minneapolis City Council needs to rezone the area before Opus can begin construction.

Business owners and the group Save Dinkytown were originally supposed to have a public hearing at Monday’s City Planning Commission meeting, but didn’t have to since they had more than 100 people sign their petition for an environmental review of the project.

This environmental review will take place, and the Planning Commission will review it and Opus Group’s applications before the full City Council can approve the project.

Save Dinkytown’s petition stated Opus Group’s project could negatively impact the “unique history, aesthetic character and identity of Dinkytown.”

Minnesota’s environmental policy says the state has a responsibility to “preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our national heritage.”

The Opus Group’s project would require a rezoning of the current neighborhood commercial district to a community activity center district, which allows more mixed use residential and commercial development.

In its preliminary plans, the apartment would have 9,500 sq. ft. of commercial space available on the ground floor. Opponents of the project said in the petition the cost of this new space would “push [the] traditional small business base out.”

Book House owner Kristin Eide-Tollefson said any delay to the project is good.

“We’re relieved that there’s a little more time,” Eide-Tollefson said.

Pick up Wed. May 28's Minnesota Daily for more on community and business reactions. 

By: Cody Nelson

An undergraduate tuition freeze and the DREAM Act may soon become realities at the University of Minnesota.

The state Senate and House both passed the higher education omnibus bill on Friday, which allocated $42.6 million to the University for the tuition freeze and funding to give undocumented students in-state benefits.

The bill also includes funding for a new University research initiative, MnDRIVE, with an appropriation of $35.65 million. A signature from Gov. Mark Dayton, which is due by Monday when the current legislative session ends, is the bill's last step before taking effect.

The bill's main goal is “to fill the jobs of tomorrow,” said  Sen. Terri Bonoff, DFL-Minnetonka, who is the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee  chair.

The DREAM Act, officially called the Prosperity Act, was unanimously adopted by committee and will take effect July 1. Proponents say it will help address Minnesota's achievement gap and workforce needs.

In an emotional testimony, Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, gave her support for the program at Wednesday's committee meeting.

“This has been so very important to so many young people and this is what we are about in higher ed is providing education to young people,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where they were born; they come to the United States.”

The DREAM Act will cost $100,000 in a one-time appropriation from the Office of Higher Education general fund.

Some, including Sen. Torrey Westrom, R-Elbow Lake, had issues with the act's inclusion in the omnibus bill at the Senate hearing Friday.

Westrom said he voted against the bill because the DREAM Act allows undocumented students to accumulate student debt but they can’t work to pay it back after graduation because of their immigration status.

“We all know how hard it is to pay college debt off,” he said. “Without employment, that becomes nearly an impossible task.”

Westrom and other lawmakers have said the issues tackled in the DREAM Act need to be handled at a federal level.

Though the state House didn't pass the DREAM Act, legislative rules state it could be included in the bill's final version because the Senate passed it, Bonoff said.

MnDRIVE, a University research initiative, was given more than $35 million in funding, just short of the full Senate’s proposed amount.

To receive the full funding, the University will have to complete three of five performance goals, like decreasing administrative spending by $15 million. The other goals include improving graduation rates, increasing undergraduate degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, and filing more invention disclosures.

By: Emma Nelson

Nicholson Hall on the University of Minnesota's East Bank was evacuated around 11 a.m. Friday after a bomb threat was discovered earlier in the day. University police called the all-clear a little after noon.

At 10:25 a.m., University police received a tip from a staff member that a handwritten threat was on the wall of a stall in the first floor men's bathroom. University Police first did a visual walk-through of the building and then evacuated the premises to search with bomb-sniffing dogs, according to University spokesman Steve Henneberry.

Anoka and Hennepin county police also were on site with their dogs. No bomb was found.

Tim Busse, University Services spokesman, said the dogs were an extra safety precaution.

“We had enough officers on hand to do a quick visual search,” Busse said. “We decided to run the dogs through just to be sure.”

The last two bomb threats were in spring of 2011, according to University police Deputy Chief Chuck Miner, and happen "pretty sporadically."

"It's not always the same procedure every time," he said. "It depends on the circumstances."

Ellen Day, a political science and art history junior, arrived at Nicholson for an appointment after the evacuation.

“I was surprised to see all those police cars,” Day said. “I’m glad it was just a threat.”

Classes have resumed as normal.

–Kia Farhang and Jake Stark contributed to this report.