| U of M Alumni Association | U of M Twin Cities |
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1/14/2004
For more than two years, Professor F. Abel Ponce de Leon, head of the Department of Animal Science, has gazed out his office window in Haecker Hall and seen bulls. Giant bronze bulls—two installed in fall 2001, another a year later—adorn the lawn across the street. "It is a peaceful thing to see out my window, an interesting thing to see," Ponce de Leon said during a recent snowstorm. "They constantly change. Right now they make an interesting piece of art, almost like a Picasso painting with the angles and contrast." Ponce de Leon enjoys watching people touching or climbing on the bulls, created by sculptor Peter Woytuk, located in a quiet corner of the St. Paul campus mall. But at least twice in 2003 he has arrived at his office and found a surprising scene: The 1,400-pound bulls had moved during the night. In spring, one had traveled about 100 yards; a few days later, it was turned to face the opposite direction. Early in the fall semester, all three bulls were tipped on their sides; it took six University workers and a forklift to right them. While a few in his department were upset about the bulls' nighttime wanderings, most took it in good humor, Ponce de Leon reports. "The public is bonding with the art," he says. "The public owns the art. The bulls are so important to them that they get moved around. We knew they were touchable; now we see they are movable too." Shelly Willis, the U's public art coordinator, while disconcerted by the cost of moving the bulls back into place and by the potential for damage, also finds the moving and tumbling interesting. "The personality of the sculptures and surroundings changed as they were moved," exactly as public art is intended to do, she says. Besides, she adds, "they looked so funny from different angles. Someone told me it was like they were rolling over to get their bellies scratched." While rearranging the bulls seems to have been good-natured pranks, albeit ones that took a dozen or so very strong people to pull off, Willis doesn't want to take chances. She is currently finding money to affix the bulls to the ground. (She won't give details so as not to tip off potential pranksters.) Willis encourages people to interact with the bulls, providing they leave them where they are. When the bulls were given their fall cleaning and waxing in October, she says, "you could see shiny spots where they were worn from people climbing on them. That's a lovely part of the sculpture, that people feel compelled to interact with it." - Chris Coughlan-Smith Overheard on Campus "[Campaign finance reform] intrudes deeply into the political life of the nation. . . . Expenditures are at the core of freedom of speech." —Kenneth Starr, in the U's annual Silha Lecture in November. Starr, best known as special prosecutor in the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky investigations against President Bill Clinton, now represents U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) in his constitutional challenge of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. "We don't want to be overwhelmed by our mistakes, but we don't want to just concentrate on the happy facts, either. In the Pledge of Allegiance, it says 'liberty and justice for all.' But unless we have the liberty to express the fact that not everything is just—and the liberty to pursue justice—then we can't move forward." —Michael Huerth (B.A. '73, B.S. '75), principal of Anishinabe Academy in Minneapolis, in the Star Tribune on the state's proposed educational history standards that omit any mention of the way American Indians were mistreated in Minnesota and throughout America. "Our whole social construct of a lifetime was built 50 years ago. Why do we retire at 65? Well, that's when most people died." —Dennis Ahlburg, labor economist and senior associate dean at the Carlson School of Management, on an expected worker shortage as baby boomers begin retiring without enough younger workers to replace them. "If you can look at all of the evidence and not conclude that there was a conspiracy, you're either a disinformation agent with the CIA or mentally deficient." —James Fetzer, philosophy professor at the University of Minnesota and leader of the "maximalist wing" of conspiracy theorists, contending that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in a plot involving gunmen in at least four buildings and that the Zapruder film and much of the autopsy evidence were forged in a cover-up. Ten on the Tenth The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum celebrated its 10th anniversary in November. In honor of the University's primary art museum, Minnesota presents 10 facts about the place sometimes called "The WAM" or "The Fred." 1 - The Weisman has more than 17,000 works in its permanent collection, although only a fraction are on display at any given moment. Items are also frequently on the road at exhibits throughout the region. 2 - The Weisman is known for its collection of works by early 20th-century Americans, as well as various ceramics and Korean furniture. 3 - A University art museum was first established in 1934 in unused rooms on the third and fourth floors of Northrop Auditorium. The Weisman continues the original mission of educating students about art and making the visual arts an important part of their everyday experience. 4 - Admission to the museum and most of its special events and exhibits is free and open to the general public. An estimated 95,000 visitors come each year. 5 - The museum is named for Frederick R. Weisman, who donated $3 million of the $13 million construction budget, as well as numerous works of
6 -0 The Weisman was designed by Frank Gehry, who was already one of the world's top architects when commissioned in 1990. He has since become world-famous for other steel-clad buildings: the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, (1997) and the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003). 7 - The Weisman's exterior features panels of brushed steel, as well as brick surfaces. 8 - Gehry's most famous quote on the Weisman was, "They told me not to build another brick lump." He later said his inspiration for the billowing west façade was sailing—specifically the "luff," the slight fluttering of a sail as it turns into the wind. 9 - While building the Weisman, construction workers gave nicknames to different parts of the steel exterior, including the nose, the potato chip, and the upper and lower bellies. 10 - Often lost in descriptions of the exterior is the well-planned interior. Airy and filled with natural light, the 11,000 square feet of gallery space has strategically placed pieces by artist like Georgia O'Keeffe and Andy Warhol. A 16-foot-tall Roy Lichtenstein painting greets visitors at the front desk. For more information, visit the Weisman Museum of Art online. Discoveries: U Research Findings Remedy for Herbs Ingredients and dosage recommendations vary so widely in over-the-counter herbal products that consumers may not be getting what they think they are and doctors might have a difficult time giving their patients proper advice. Researchers at the University of Minnesota's schools of public health and pharmacy surveyed 880 products containing the 10 most popular herbs (from echinacea to valerian). In comparing labels with the latest textbook on herbs and herbal research, 37 percent of the products either varied widely from the book's recommended dosages or had labels that were indecipherable to a trained pharmacist. The federal Food and Drug Administration, at the direction of Congress, has been careful not to overregulate herbal products and limit their availability. However, the U researchers urged the FDA to consider tightening label standards to protect consumers. The research was printed in the October 27, 2003, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Racial Profiling Report Drivers in some minority groups are stopped and searched by local law enforcement at greater rates than whites, yet searches of white drivers typically yield more contraband items, according to research conducted by the University of Minnesota Law School's Institute on Race and Poverty for the nonprofit Council on Crime and Justice. According to a survey of one year's worth of traffic stops in 65 Minnesota jurisdictions, police and sheriff's officers stopped black and Latino drivers at much greater rates than whites when compared with the total driving population. (American Indians and Asian Americans were stopped slightly less frequently). Participating officers reported, however, that in about 90 percent of stops they could not tell the race of the driver until the vehicle was already stopped. All the minority groups except Asian Americans were subject to discretionary searches more frequently as well. But officers found drugs, weapons, or other illegal items in the vehicles of white drivers in 24 percent of searches, compared with 11 percent for blacks and 9 percent for Latinos. The research was conducted under a 2001 Minnesota law mandating a statewide racial profiling study. The full report, released September 24, 2003, is available on-line. Arts and Economies A recent University of Minnesota study of 10 metropolitan areas finds that a thriving arts community contributes significantly to a strong regional economy, rather than being the consequence of an already strong economy. In addition to the economic impact of large arts events and large arts organizations, researchers at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs found that individual artists contribute by exporting their work or performing in touring shows, hiring assistants and support workers, purchasing supplies and studio space, influencing design and marketing, teaching, and in other ways. Artists also contribute to an area's quality of life, something many potential new residents and even businesses consider in relocating. Although the study could not firmly quantify the economic impact, the authors use census data to argue that the "artistic dividend" is larger and more stable than the impact asserted for a professional sports team. The Artistic Dividend: The Arts' Hidden Contributions to Regional Development is available as an online PDF. Food Fighters Another cancer-fighting food has been uncovered by University of Minnesota researchers. A substance called 6-gingerol, which gives ginger its flavor, inhibited the growth of colorectal cancer cells in mice with suppressed immune systems, reported Ann Bode, a researcher at the U's Hormel Institute in Austin, Minnesota. Ginger is a traditional Chinese remedy for stomach upset and has been studied for its apparent cholesterol-lowering and antioxidant properties. Bode presented the research before a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Phoenix in October. Minnesota also recently reported on the cancer-fighting properties of green and black tea and aspirin. U researchers are widely credited with discovering the cancer-fighting properties of broccoli and other vegetables in the 1960s. | |||||||||||||||||
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