 | ||||||||
| Alumni Association Home > The Latest News > Alumni Update | ||||||||
| ||||||||
5/15/2008
 |
It's all about the budgets right now: Minnesota's and the University's. With the state facing a large budget shortfall, the U will have to take a cut. But the size of the cut could have sweeping implications. At the May 8-9 Regents' meetings, Richard Pfutzenreuter, a university vice president and chief financial officer, told regents that if the $27 million cut proposed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty goes through, the U will have to increase tution by 9.5 percent, instead of the already proposed 7.5 percent. In either case, tuition on the Twin Cities campus would rise above $10,000 for the first time. See the StarTribune story here.
Budget Forum May 21
Given those figures, and with the Legislative session required to end Monday, May 18, there will be some special urgency to the Board of Regents' public forum on the University
 |
| Centaurus, the U of M's next-generation solar car. Photograph by Patrick O'Leary |
Solar Centaurus Unveield
In sunnier news, the newest generation of the U's solar vehicle, dubbed Centaurus, made its public debut May 8. Centaurus features some departures from past designs, maihnly due to rules changes in the North American Solar Challenge, a rally from Dallas, Texas to Clagary, Alberta, in July.
Click here for a UMNews feature on the car and the student team that built it.
Click here for a video release.
Research: Cancer's Starting Points
Separate U of M cancer studies have zeroed in on where two types of cancer start, and both have broad implications for future research. 
Do
Exit Exams Pass the Test? 
A self-illuminating wall is part of the Techno Textiles exhibit at the Goldstein Museum of Design. Image courtesy of Goldstein Museum.
High school exit exams do nothing for student acheivement, for post-high school employment and for taxpayers who pay to administer the tests. So argue sociology professors John Robert Warren of the University of Minnesota and Eric Grodsky at the University of California, Davis. The exams do very little except reduce high school graduation rates, they argue. But they don't, in turn, raise the acheivement of other students. Read more here.
Mr. Clean Jeans?
In one of the more bizarre reseach findings, U nanotechnology experts have found a way to coat fabrics with an enzyme similar to that found in detergents. The implication is that, someday, self-cleaning clothing may be possible. A stain would be "digested" by the enzyme as soon as it appears. ‘good bye to washing clothes?”
Click
 |
More Techno Trousers
Techno Textiles: No, it isn't a remake of the Wallace and Grommit's The Wrong Trousers. It's an exhibit opening tomorrow at the Goldstein Museum of Design. Techno Textiles: Inner Space to Outer Space examines innovative materials and how they are being used in protective clothing, intelligent buildings that respond to the environment, luminous wall interiors and more. Click here for information.
The Stadium Rises
It seemed like a good idea back in July: When TCF Bank Stadium began rising from the former commuter parking lots northeast of the McNamara Allumni Center, Alumni Association staff began shooting photos out the window of the University of Minnesota Foundation's fifth-floor conference room. Check out the progress so far in a time-lapse
 |
| Click to see a time-lapse movie of TCF Bank Stadium construction to date. |
Literature in the Ivory Tower
The 2008 edition of Ivory Tower, the U's undergraduate literary magazine, is now avialable. printed copies are here and there around campus, but the issue is also online at: http://www.ivorytower.umn.edu/
2008 McKnight Professors Named
Seventeen of hte U's top professors have been honored with McKnight professorships. McKnight Land-Grant Professors are junior faculty singled out for their promise and Distinguished McKnight University Professors are mid-career faculty honored for accomplishments of great distinction and influence.
Click here for the names of the 13 McKnight Land-Grant Professors, junior faculty singled out for their promise.
Click
 |
Click here for a UMNews feature on two of the honorees.
U Student Earns Prestigious Internship
Hannah Lussier, a student in the 
Click above to open a panoramic image of construction on the I-35W bridge. Photo courtesy of MN DOT.
U Student, U Alumna Honored for Heroism in I-35W Collapse
A husband-and-wife team, he a dental student and she a nursing graduate, were honored for rushing to the scene of the I-35W bridge collapse in August and aiding the injured. Click here for more on the awards given to Nate and Christine Lund.
A Bridge Reborn
Speaking of the 35W bridge, construction is ahead of schedule. The freeway that spans the Mississippi River along the west edge of the
 |
| National Geographic photographer Annie Griffiths Belt offers a photo essay in the new issue of MINNESOTA magazine. Cover photograph by Mark Luinenburg |
Minnesota Focuses on Photos
National Geographic photographer and U alumna Annie Griffiths Belt offers Minnesota readers a glimpse into the lives of children around the world. Other articles now online include a look at the paradox of diet soda making consumer gain weight, a historical look at a critical moment in U history; a Gopher two-sport star; a First-Person essay; campus, research, sports and alumni news; arts and books; letters and much more. Click here to go to the May-June 2008 issue.
Upcoming Events: Authors, Education, Darwin and the Alumni Association Annual Celebration
Best-selling author and humorist David Sedaris will discuss his new book When You Are Engulfed in Flames on Friday, June 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the
 |
| David Sedaris will discuss his new book June 23. Priority seating is now available. |
Augusten Burroughs, author of the memoirs Running with Scissors and Dry, will discuss his new memoir A Wolf at the Table on Friday, May 16 at 7:00 p.m. at the Coffman Memorial Union Theater. Click here for details.
The U of M Continuing Education Fair is set for May 17 at the Ridgedale Public Library in Minnetonka. Click here for details.
Cafe Scientifique shifts its focus from whether evolution makes you selfish to "Can
 |
| Doris Taylor. Photograph by Patrick O'Leary |
But the main event of May, as you all know, is the University of