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Gopher student athletes, coaches, and fans rallied in front of Morrill Hall April 10 to save nonrevenue sports before an expected announcement that men’s gymnastics and men’s and women’s golf would be dropped. John Roethlisberger, a former gymnast and U.S. Olympian, emceed the program, introducing current and former athletes, parents, and coaches who spoke about the value of the nonrevenue sports programs at the University. Photo by Gina Kennedy

Budget Woes Prompt Athletics Changes
The University of Minnesota will merge its men’s and women’s athletics departments and could eliminate men’s gymnastics and men’s and women’s golf as varsity sports, University Vice President and Chief of Staff Tonya Moten Brown announced on April 11.

The measures are the most visible efforts to close an athletics deficit expected to reach $21 million over the next five years. The University already provides $10.8 million to cover the annual difference between expenses and revenue. "This plan is an important step toward ensuring that intercollegiate athletics lives within its means," University President Mark Yudof said. "I believe that the actions we take today will strengthen intercollegiate athletics at the University of Minnesota, and our student athletes will enjoy even greater levels of competitive and academic success."

Yudof emphasized that the University remains committed to gender equity and that women’s sports will not receive less emphasis in a merged department. The contracts of women’s athletics director Chris Voelz and men’s athletics director Tom Moe expire June 30 and will not be renewed. Moe, who came out of retirement to take the position, will retire, and Voelz will stay on for another year as an assistant to Yudof during the transition.

The golf and men’s gymnastics teams originally were to be eliminated effective June 30, but Yudof and Moten Brown decided to postpone that action until June 2003 after hearing from athletes, coaches, lawmakers, and potential athletics donors. They set two deadlines for supporters to raise funds that would save the teams for at least two more years.

The Board of Regents voted unanimously to support the plan and will decide in June what the overall level of support for athletics should be, making the long-term budget situation clearer. The short-term recommendations would cover less than half the projected deficit. The new athletics director, expected to be hired over the summer, will also have a role in finding long-term solutions. For updates on athletics news, visit UMAA Web site.

What People Are Saying
"We require colleges, departments, and administrative units to live within their budgets and prohibit deficit spending. . . . Intercollegiate athletics, for all its contributions, for all the joy and strong sense of community it brings to the University, should not be treated differently than the College of Liberal Arts or the Institute of Technology or the many fine academic programs we have at the University."
—University of Minnesota President Mark Yudof
"In our judgment, separate departments have fostered competition and rivalry, which has undermined collaboration and contributed to the financial challenge we face today."
—Vice president and chief of staff Tonya Moten Brown on consolidating departments, a move expected to save $4.4 million over five years
"We’re trying to meet politics with politics. There are a lot of people pushing us to keep going—not just gymnastics people, but some real movers and shakers. . . . I’m telling my guys that I think we’ll have at least another year. None of them have asked for a release [from their scholarship]."
—Men’s gymnastics coach Fred Roethlisberger, after the recommendation to cut his program. Administrators later decided to give his team at least one more year.
"My preference still is for separate departments, but I was well reassured by what the president had to say at his Thursday press conference. . . . If what they described does indeed come to pass, the women will be OK. Mary Jo Kane [who is leading the search for a new athletics director] is first-rate."
—John Cowles, Women’s Athletics Advisory Council member and major donor (Jane Sage Cowles Softball Stadium)
"This is an escalating problem happening all over the country and unless college

IMAGE COURTESY OF WAR POSTERS DATABASE, MANUSCRIPTS DIVISION, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA LIBRARIES

presidents and the NCAA can [enact some spending controls], within 10 years you’re going to see six or seven men’s and women’s sports at the most."
—Women’s track and field and cross-country coach Gary Wilson (Minnesota currently has 11 men’s and 12 women’s programs)
"Any time you set precedent that cutting sports is OK, you have to be concerned. . . . We’d just like the opportunity to try to find [budget savings] and new revenue streams that can give us a permanent solution. [I don’t] accept the fact that we have to cut to solve our problems. To eliminate opportunities for student athletes, in my opinion, should be the last resort."
—Baseball coach John Anderson

War Posters on the Web
They cajoled, they exhorted, they warned, and they inspired. Posters were an important medium for moving civilians to action during World Wars I and II, and their slogans and vivid images give a glimpse into the political and social atmosphere as captured by artists.

An effort to preserve and put on-line some 6,000 of these war posters is under way at the University of Minnesota. The War Posters Project draws from two significant poster collections, one at the University and one owned by the Minneapolis Public Library. The project began in February with major funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, as well as contributions from the University and Minneapolis libraries. Most of the posters measure more than four feet high and require a high-resolution digital camera that can shoot them in a format acceptable for long-term storage. Staff members then catalogue and upload the images.

The database will take until late 2003 to complete, but as of March about 185 images were available on-line here. Individuals may purchase reproductions once the entire collection is on the Internet. Until then, images such as the U.S. World War I posters shown here may be viewed on-line.

U Research, Patents, and Spin-offs
A recent survey by the Association of University Technology Managers showed that University of Minnesota research ranked fourth nationally in creating start-up companies in the 2000 fiscal year. Only the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California system (with its 10 campuses and three national laboratories), and the California Institute of Technology generated more start-ups from their research.

Some national and University numbers from the report:
o Nationwide university royalties from patent licenses: $1 billion
o Nationwide patent filings: 8,534
o Nationwide start-up companies created: 368
o U of M royalties from patent licenses: $16.8 million*
o U of M patent filings: 73*
o U of M–related start-up companies created: 11
*Fiscal Year 2001 figures from Discovering Our Pride 2001, published by the Office of the Vice President for Research

100 Years of Ears, Noses, and Throats In 1902, most medical specialties were merely a glimmer in some physician’s eye, but the University’s ophthalmology and otolaryngology program was already turning heads and draining sinuses in a department separate from general surgery. The University of Minnesota was only the fourth school in the country offering such specialized training and care.

Dr. Frank Todd, appalled by the incompetence of the "six-week eye, ear, nose, and throat man," in 1912 suggested a two-year graduate course for physicians in the specialty. Prior to this graduate concept, doctors either learned their trade on unfortunate patients or went to Europe for a two- or three-month "medical quick lunch counter, returning in triumph with a certificate and beer breath," Todd said.

Todd planned for the construction of a hospital devoted entirely to the treatment of eye, ear, nose, and throat diseases, but died before realizing his dream. His estate, however, helped fund the

In 1930, the University’s training of ear, nose, and throat specialists was unusually rigorous. The Department of Otolaryngology celebrates 100 years in June. Photo courtesy of University Archives

Todd Memorial Clinic, opened in 1925 as a wing added to Elliot Hospital. The Todd Amphitheater still exists as part of the Mayo Memorial Building.

In more recent years, the now separate otolaryngology department has pioneered research and treatment for otitis media, or middle-ear infection, the most common reason children see physicians today. Current work is being done on head and neck cancers and stem-cell generation of auditory hairs.
—Sarah Barker

A two-day centennial celebration for the Department of Otolaryngology takes place June 6 and 7 and features an address by Minnesota attorney general Mike Hatch, a medical seminar, and the graduation of current residents. For information or to register for the Friday morning seminar, call Megan Andrew at 612-625-5602.

Wrestling with History
One week after graduating from the University of Minnesota, Verne Gagne (’48) was getting kicked in the mouth in the pro wrestling ring. The two-time NCAA wrestling champ and Gopher football letter-winner told a class of University students in April that the early years of wrestling were as colorful in their way as the current World Wrestling Federation. Gagne had long planned to go into pro wrestling, and his first pro match was in Minneapolis against well-known bad guy "King Kong" Kashey. The referee stopped the match when Kashey managed to untie Gagne’s shoe, but as Gagne bent down to tie it, he got the kick in the face and landed outside the ring, where Kashey jumped on him. Several friends in the front row, including former Minnesota Vikings coach Bud Grant (’50) and former Green Bay Packer Clayton Tonnemaker (’50), leaped to Gagne’s aid but were sent fleeing by a snarl from Kashey. Gagne somehow survived, thus beginning a 32-year career in which he went on to become one of pro wrestling’s first television stars and one of its top promoters.

Gagne talked about his life with students in Kinesiology 3131, a writing-intensive course called History and Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education, taught by Jim Larson. Earlier this semester, Larson hosted Women’s International Bowling Congress Hall of Fame member Jean Havlish, who also played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the early 1950s. In earlier semesters Larson’s students heard from such historic sports figures as NBA Hall of Famer George Mikan and Gopher Rose Bowl star Sandy Stephens, who has since died.

"I came to the conclusion that our students don’t know as much about the past Minnesota athletes as they should," Larson says. "One of the themes I like to bring is we’re all standing on someone’s shoulders."

Before posing for pictures with students, Gagne shared his thoughts on the current state of pro wrestling. "There are only four or five of those guys who can actually wrestle," he said. "The rest are just show biz. That’s why there’s so much talking now and a lot less wrestling."

Study Abroad Interest Up
The Global Campus–Study Abroad office reports a 65 percent increase in the number of students inquiring about study abroad compared to last year.

In-Person Inquiries (through week 6):
Spring 2001 663
Spring 2002 1,071

Phone Inquiries (through week 6):
Spring 2001 711
Spring 2002 1,104

Overheard on Campus
"It was a mob mentality. . . . At a couple of different points, they were burning tires, couches, Dumpsters, anything they could find."
—Minneapolis Police Department inspector Rich Stanek quoted in the Star Tribune after up to 600 people rioted in the streets near Dinkytown following the Gopher men’s hockey victory in the NCAA Frozen Four

"This is totally unnecessary. Nobody’s been out of control this evening. All the hysteria that’s been started has been started by the riot police."
—University senior Scott Utne on how he believed events escalated after the hockey game, as quoted in the Minnesota Daily