EXCLUSIVELY FOR MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

SUMMER 2014

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE? PLENTY.

Seven University researchers share their action agendas Bohemian Flats Come to Life

Rappin’ with Tall Paul

Gophers Working M.A.G.I.C.

PAGE 32

PAGE 12

PAGE 34

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Volume 113 • Number 4 / Summer 2014

page 34

Cover Story

4 Editor’s Note 6 Letters 8 About Campus

18 Taking on Climate Change

Not black and white, the early bird catches the germ, and the score on women head coaches

12 Alumni Profiles

Rappin’ with Tall Paul, from Hamlet to Hans, and Gophers forever

It’s possible—and imperative—to adapt our way of life to the realities of climate change. Seven U experts share their action agendas. BY JONATHAN FOLEY, MARK SEELEY, LEE FRELICH, HARI OSOFSKY, MASSOUD AMIN, THOMAS FISHER, KENNY BLUMENFELD, ERIN PETERSON, AND GREG BREINING

16 First Person

“Lessons From the Other Side” by Thomas B. Jones

32 Off the Shelf The Bohemian Flats by Mary Relindes Ellis

34 Gopher Sports

Power Play: It’s hard to tell who’s helping whom in the M.A.G.I.C. program

page 12

36 The Gopher Crossword

37 Alumni Travel Guide Destinations to delight in 2015

43 Gopher Connections A memorable annual celebration and more

48 Campus Seen

Our photo finish

PHOTOS: Climate change (cover and above) by Kurt Moses / Un Petit Monde;

Tall Paul (left) by Mark Luinenburg; M.A.G.I.C. (top) by Sher Stoneman. Top photo, from left: Kelsey Cline, Maighdlin Shaughnessy, Chloe Portela, Sonia Dunkelbarger, Catherine Ahrens, Nate Roese, Bryan Bjerk, Owen Salzwedel

w w w. M i n n e s o t a A l u m n i .o r g

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair Susan Adams Loyd, ’81 Chair-elect Jim du Bois, ’87 Vice Chair Alison Page, ’96

Now Showing:

3 New Exhibits of University History Enjoy three different looks at the University of Minnesota’s achievements throughout its 161 year history in one rewarding visit. The Heritage Gallery in the McNamara Alumni Center now presents three separate historical timelines; each based on one of the three founding principles of the University…. Education, Research and Service. Each timeline is distinctive and packed with information, photographs, graphics and historical objects to reward the casual visitor or the in-depth reviewer. Make plans to visit the Heritage Gallery’s newest exhibit…then stay for lunch at D’Amico & Sons!

Secretary/Treasurer Dan McDonald, ’82, ’85 Past Chair Kent Horsager, ’84 President and CEO Lisa Lewis

Judy Beniak, ’82, ’10 Henry Blissenbach, ’70, ’74 Natasha Freimark, ’95 Gayle Hallin, ’70, ’77 Randy Handel Linda Hofflander, ’83 Bernadine Joselyn, ’78, ’01 Kevin Lang, ’06 Janice Linster, ’83 Becky Malkerson, ’76 Alexander Oftelie, ’03, ’06 Amy Phenix, ’08 Clint Schaff, ’00 Mike Schmit David Walstad, ’88, ’91 Sandra Ulsaker Wiese, ’81 Todd Williams, ’91 Jean Wyman UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA GOVERNANCE President

Eric Kaler, ’82 Board of Regents

Richard Beeson, ’76, chair Dean Johnson, vice chair Clyde Allen Laura Brod, ’93 Linda Cohen, ’85, ’86 Tom Devine ’79 John Frobenius, ’69 David Larson, ’66 Peggy Lucas, ’64, ’76 David McMillan, ’83, ’87 Abdul Omari, ’08, ’10 Patricia Simmons Contact the Alumni Association

To join or renew, change your address, or obtain benefit information, go to www.MinnesotaAlumni.org or contact us at McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. SE, Suite 200, Minneapolis, MN 55455-2040; 800-UM-ALUMS (862-5867), 612-624-2323; or [email protected]

The Heritage Gallery is open most Mondays thru Saturdays. Please call ahead at 612-624-9831 for daily viewing hours. 2

S u m m e r 2 0 1 4 M I N N E S O TA

The University of Minnesota Alumni Association is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, national origin, handicap, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation.

Editor’s Note

MINNESOTA PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION SINCE 1901

Feeling Small?

I

was pouring coffee into a foam cup when I first heard of what was then called “the greenhouse gas effect.” It was in the early 1980s and a colleague was explaining how emissions from vehicles, factories, and other sources were trapping heat and warming the earth. Looking at my cup, she chastised me for making a choice that contributed to the problem. I felt defensive and embarrassed, decided she was out in left field, and poured another cup of coffee. Greenhouse gas effect, indeed. Live and learn. During production of this issue of the magazine, the federal government released the Third National Climate Assessment, which confirmed what numerous other reports have documented: climate change—the greenhouse gas effect—is having an impact on economies, public health, agriculture, and in numerous other arenas now. My former colleague, it turns out, was not out in left field— she was ahead of her time. It’s an enormous problem we have on our hands. I sometimes wonder if part of the reason climate change has become so freighted politically and emotionally is that we feel so small in the face of it. It’s much easier to argue than to face directly the vast Cynthia Scott and—who is scope of the problem. that guy? (See page 22) This issue of the magazine is an invitation to face climate change together. The invitation comes from a source familiar to alumni: University educators and researchers who fearlessly and relentlessly learn, teach, and strive to make a positive impact in the world. Beginning on page 18, seven U researchers who are recognized leaders in their fields offer their action agendas for responding to climate change. Their essays are likely to do what good classroom teachers always do: clarify, startle, provoke, perhaps offend, stimulate, and, I hope, inspire. Alongside their essays we also profile three alumni whose careers in public health, biosystems engineering, and forest ecology have taken them to the front lines of communities’ struggles to adapt. They too have a great deal to teach us. This issue is not an exhaustive treatment of the problem of climate change. But we take seriously the words of President Eric Kaler (Ph.D. ’82) in his 2014 State of the University address, when he listed climate change as one of the world’s most serious and intractable problems on which the University must provide leadership. Few institutions, he said, have the historic mission or are allowed the intellectual freedom and curiosity to attack such problems from every angle. That’s a bold and refreshing vision. It might help us keep from feeling so small as we take up this challenge together. Q Cynthia Scott (M.A. ’89) is the editor of Minnesota. She can be reached at scott325@ umn.edu.

4

S u m m e r 2 0 1 4 M I N N E S O TA

President and CEO

Lisa Lewis Vice President of Communications

Daniel Gore Editor

Cynthia Scott Editor (on leave)

Shelly Fling Copy Editor

Susan Maas Contributing Editor

Meleah Maynard Contributing Writers

Massoud Amin, George Barany, Jennifer Benson, Kenny Blumenfeld, Greg Breining, Thomas Fisher, Jonathan Foley, Lee Frelich, Joe Hart, B. Thomas Jones, Shannon Juen, Susan Maas, Hari Osofsky, Erin Peterson, Mark Seeley, Laura Silver, Andy Steiner Art Director

Kristi Anderson, Two Spruce Design Advertising Rates and Information

Ketti Histon 612-280-5144, [email protected] Minnesota (ISSN 0164-9450) is published four times a year (Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer) by the University of Minnesota Alumni Association for its members. Copyright ©2014 by the University of Minnesota Alumni Association McNamara Alumni Center 200 Oak Street SE, Suite 200 Minneapolis, MN 55455-2040 612-624-2323, 800-UM-ALUMS (862-5867) fax 612-626-8167 www.MinnesotaAlumni.org To update your address, call 612-624-2323 or e-mail [email protected] Periodicals postage paid at St. Paul, Minnesota, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to: McNamara Alumni Center 200 Oak St. SE, Suite 200 Minneapolis, MN 55455-2040

660 Mayhew Lake Road NE St Cloud, Minnesota 56304

Letters FALL 2013

UNIVERSITY

OF M I N N E SOTA

C I AT ION A L U M N I A S SO

e New the Inside th ES VICES MEDICAL DEVIC CENTER r Football Gophe AN HAGEM RA’SHEDE U N I V E R S I T Y OF M I N N E SOTA A Banned:L U M N I A S SO C I AT ION EXTREME AND NG INDECENT DANCI

EXCLUSIVELY XCLUSIVELY FOR MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY RSITY OF MINNESOTA ALUMNI ALUMN LUMNI ASSOCIATION TIO

WINTER 2014

Unbrid dled Hop pe e SPRING 2014

E HE H THE

SA TH new Northrop M The takes center stage

Alumna CeCe Terlouw helps ERS HOPE TO STOP abused girls A ARCH SEA RESE DYING their lives FROMrebuild N ESOTA ICON IN A MINN KIDS TEACH U RESEARCH (HERE’S YOUR BACKSTAGE PASS) ERS ABOUT RESILIENCE

THE BIRTH OF CHILD WELFARE STUDIES AT THE U IN 1925

PLUS COURT TIME WITH COACH PITINO • THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BORGIAS S

these youth concerts. He was our Dionysian god, conducting with his whole body. Much later, when I was in graduate school, came Arnold J. Toynbee with his panoramic view of history. And Frank Lloyd Wright. Before his lecture, Wright looked around with ill-disguised contempt. Everyone knowingly laughed. T.S. Eliot was relegated to Williams Arena, where, as he said, he had assembled the largest audience ever to hear a lecture on literary criticism. D. Stanley Moore (M.A. ’56) Park Forest, Illinois

Welcome Home. See what’s new in Bloomington during your stroll down memory lane. Stay at one of Bloomington’s 38 hotels for the University of Minnesota’s 100 year Homecoming celebration.

The restored proscenium, ceiling, and new upper balcony in the revitalized Northrop

HAIL NORTHROP!

Thank you for the extensive piece on the Northrop reopening [Spring 2014]. Its iconic structure has supported a legacy and cultural impact that is far broader than most of us can realize or quantify. I was particularly interested in your descriptive inclusion of improvements to the acoustic character of the auditorium. During the residency of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (Minnesota Orchestra) at Northrop, conductor Antal Doráti is said to have stated that the only thing that could improve Northrop’s acoustics was dynamite. It appears that the redesign has aggressively addressed Dorati’s disappointment. As for me, it is the library and Arts Quarter events that have continued to draw me to the University campus this past year. My view of the University has always embraced a vision of study including the performing arts. For this reason, I am particularly excited about the revitalization and preservation of the historic Northrop. Ski-U-Mah! Richard Hahn (M.A. ’79) Forest Lake, Minnesota

Visit BloomingtonMN.org or 800-346-4289

6

S u m m e r 2 0 1 4 M I N N E S O TA

Congratulations to the U for Northrop’s restoration and for your article. As a grade-schooler in the ’30s I remember Northrop filled to the brim with pupils from all over Minneapolis and St. Paul in awe of Dmitri Metropolous conducting the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra without score or baton. He encouraged

It was wonderful to learn about the new Northrop. As a student leader, I met Martin Luther King Jr. there before he lectured. I had the amazing good luck to subscribe to the Minneapolis symphony at a student rate of $1 per concert in the highest rafters of the auditorium. That experience, together with a wonderful freshman class on classical music, created a lifelong passion that has led me into great music halls across the world and to always do my writing in a world illuminated by great music. Gary Orfield (B.A. ’63) Los Angeles

Northrop has been part of my life since my 4th birthday when my father, Ralph Berdie, took me to my first ballet. From that time on through the ’60s I saw every ballet that was performed at Northrop. I danced with the Andahazy Ballet Borealis several seasons. My first live opera was The Gypsy Baron and I still remember the squealing piglet. A highlight for many years was the arrival of the Metropolitan Opera. I also remember my graduation in 1966. It was a rainy day, so the ceremony took place in Northrop. My father sat onstage as a member of the faculty. I received my B.S. in elementary education. I look forward to many more years of exciting events at Northrop! Phyllis Porter (B.A. ’66) Eden Prairie, Minnesota

Your article on Northrop was nostalgic for me. As a freshman I walked past Northrop every day to class from Sanford

Hall for women. My fiancé had the only photograph (back alleys of Innsbruck, Austria) in a student art show there. When the Metropolitan Opera came for a week in May, we attended. The first two rows were the cheap seats; later we sat in the top balcony. On December 21, 1950, we graduated from that stage. I was employed at Murphy Hall in journalism research, and that December, carrying the School of Liberal Arts banner and wearing a floppy gold satin beret, I led the class on stage there. For years we held Artist Course tickets and attended events at Northrop until the 240-mile drive and overnight stay became too much. I am now a second-time widow and in my 80’s, so although I travel a lot, I may not get to see the new Northrop. But it will give others happy memories. Elizabeth Boughton Hanson (B.A. ’50) Bemidji, Minnesota

SPORTS ARE IMPORTANT

A letter writer writes that sports on college campuses are meaningless and should be dropped [Spring 2014]. I disagree. Varsity sports have been played at the vast majority of colleges for well over a hundred years. Programs include those at the academically highest-ranking schools such as Northwestern and Michigan in the Big Ten and Stanford and Duke on the coasts. I propose that if the University of Minnesota wishes to make a statement by dropping varsity athletics, it be done by first polling students, staff, and all alumni. Then, if that is the wish of the majority, the decision will have the authority of representing most of the Gopher nation. James Riehle (B.S. ’66) Hayden Lake, Idaho

What Makes the U Home? The University of Minnesota will celebrate 100 years of Homecoming the week of October 12 through 18. Home is where the heart is—so we invite alumni to tell us what makes the University “home:” A particular building or residence hall? Friendships? The feel of the grass on Northrop Mall in spring? The sound of the Marching Band? We’ll publish selected submissions in our fall issue. No submission is too short, but please limit your words to 200. Send your submissions to editor Cynthia Scott at [email protected].

Access Minnesota … Issues that Matter to You. On the radio, television and online — Access Minnesota draws upon the expertise of the U of M faculty for deeper insight into today’s pivotal issues.

w w w. a c c e s s m i n n e s o t a o n l i n e . c o m for stations and broadcast times

w w w. M i n n e s o t a A l u m n i .o r g

S u m m e r 2 0 1 4 M I N N E S O TA

7

About Campus

Naomi Ko, third from right, in a scene from Dear White People

Not Black and White How does actor Naomi Ko (B.A. ’11), know that Dear White People—in which she plays a close friend of the film’s main character—is striking a nerve? The hate mail, for starters, mainly from people who haven’t actually seen the film but denounce it based on its title alone. “I’ve gotten a lot of very angry emails calling the film racist,” the Rosemount, Minnesota, native says. Audiences, however, have responded enthusiastically to the critically heralded satire, which takes place at a fictional Ivy League school called Winchester University and was filmed in part on the University of Minnesota campus. Directed by Justin Simien and also starring Dennis Haysbert, the film sold out instantly when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and was subsequently acquired by Lionsgate Films.

8

S u m m e r 2 0 1 4 M I N N E S O TA

Ko, who double-majored in English and art history, plays Sungmi, the best friend of Samantha “Sam” White (Tessa Thompson), the film’s protagonist and host of a provocative radio show called Dear White People. The film follows the two of them, and several other students, as they confront stereotypes and racial tensions at the predominantly white school. Ko describes her character, Sungmi, as “a free spirit. She’s not the Asian American stereotype—she’s not a math major, she’s an art student with a lip ring. She speaks out, she gets angry. She doesn’t mess around.” The fact that Ko and Sungmi have art history in common was coincidental. But while she characterizes her time at the U as positive, she says that some of the challenges experienced by students of color in Dear White People felt achingly familiar. Sometimes in class, she recalls, “people would ask me where I was from. And I’d say, Rosemount . . . my entire K-12 education was in Rosemount. And they’d say, ‘no, no, where are you from?’ And I’d say,

‘well, I was born at the United Methodist hospital in Minneapolis.’ People were shocked that I could be a Minnesotan. I didn’t feel like I fully belonged.” Still, her connection to the U remains strong. Ko credits English professor Josephine Lee with reigniting her interest in performing arts, which she’d abandoned after high school. In addition to acting on stage and in films, Ko recently wrote a screenplay and is producing a web series. She hopes Dear White People will resonate with, and promote greater understanding in, audience members of all colors. “What I love is that everyone in the film is human. It’s not one-sided.” As the Sundance description puts it, “Nothing is black and white in this playful portrait of race in contemporary America.” Viewers feel compassion even for the film’s most entitled and badly behaved character, Ko says. “This film makes you think, why are these things happening? It’s an exploration of the why.” —Susan Maas

John Hammergren

John Stumpf

Two at the Top With two CEOs leading companies that together earn $213.7 billion in annual revenue, the University of Minnesota is No. 25 on BestCollege. com’s list of 38 schools with the highest number of graduates who are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. John Hammergren (B.S.B. ’81) leads McKesson, a health care services corporation, and John Stumpf (M.B.A. ’80) is head of Wells Fargo. Other schools on the list with two CEOs include Duke University, Georgetown, Tufts, Boston College, University of California-Berkeley, and Brown. Harvard leads the list with 25.

The Early Bird Catches the Germ STUMPF: PAUL CHINN/SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE • HAMMERGREN: GEORGE NIKITIN/AP

High school students are healthier and get better grades when their start time is later, according to a three-year study led by Kyla Wahlstrom (B.S. ’71, Ph.D. ’90), director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement. Using data from more than 9,000 students attending eight high schools in Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming, the study found that switching to later start times improves attendance, standardized test scores, and academic performance in math, English, science, and social studies. In addition, tardiness, substance abuse, symptoms of depression, and consumption of caffeinated drinks decreased. Perhaps most dramatically, the study found a 70 percent drop in the number of car crashes involving teen drivers at Jackson Hole High School in Wyoming, which shifted to a start of time of 8:55 a.m., the latest of the eight schools.

w w w. M i n n e s o t a A l u m n i .o r g

S u m m e r 2 0 1 4 M I N N E S O TA

9

About Campus The Score on Women Head Coaches

A R E P O R T O N S E L E CT N C A A DIVISION-I FBS INSTITUTIONS 2013-2014

New Coach for Women Gophers Marlene Stollings is the new head coach of the Gopher women’s basketball team. She succeeds Pam Borton, who was fired at the end of March following a 12-year Gopher career. Stollings was previously head coach at Virginia Commonwealth University for two years. Prior to her tenure at VCU, Stollings was head coach at Winthrop University, where she took the Eagles to a record of 18-13, only the school’s third winning season ever. For that she was named Big South Coach of the Year. A native of Ohio, Stollings played two years for Ohio State before transferring to, and playing for, Ohio University.

Second Thoughts The University of Minnesota will become the first institution in the world to install the FEI Tecnai ultrafast electron microscope (UEM), which has the ability to watch matter change and evolve in real time—real fast. How fast? In femtoseconds, or one millionth of a billionth of a second. David Flannigan, assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the U, says that never before has an instrument provided access to forming images in that amount of time. And you thought a nanosecond—one billionth of a second— was fast. “Nanoseconds are pretty slow for us,” says Flannigan.

Heads Up: Butts Down! The University of Minnesota Twin Cities and Rochester campuses will be smoke- and tobacco-free as of July 1. All students, staff, faculty, and visitors will be prohibited from using, selling, distributing, and advertising tobacco products and electronic cigarettes in all facilities and on all University property.

10

S u m m e r 2 0 1 4 M I N N E S O TA

SECONDS: CHAD GERAN; STOLLINGS: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ATHLETICS

Head Coaches of Women's Collegiate Teams

Since the landmark legislation Title IX was enacted more than 40 years ago, women’s participation in intercollegiate sports has increased significantly, with nearly half of all current collegiate student athletes women. The same can’t be said of their head coaches. “Head Coaches of Women’s Collegiate Teams,” a new report by the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, documents women’s underrepresentation in head coaching positions for women’s teams at select NCAA Division 1 institutions. The Tucker Center released the report in observance of its 20th anniversary. It follows an earlier report that documented the number of collegiate women coaches overall. Tucker Center associate director and alumna Nicole LaVoi (M.A ’95, Ph.D. ’02) and her team of researchers analyzed 76 institutions, including the University of Minnesota, and graded each university. The University of Cincinnati received an A grade and ranked highest, with 80 percent of women’s teams coached by women. Oklahoma State University ranked lowest, with 12.5 percent. The University of Minnesota, with 53 percent, received a C, the 12th-best ranking overall. Penn State was the highest–ranking Big Ten school, receiving a B with 60 percent. LaVoi says it is important for young women to have close contact with female role models. For female student athletes, coaches often fill that role. “We’re not saying that having a coaching staff that’s 100 percent female is the goal,” LaVoi says, “but we certainly want more than what we’re currently at.” To see the report, go to www.MinnesotaAlumni.org/tuckercenter. — Andy Steiner

Another Startup at the U Zepto Life Technology is the University of Minnesota’s newest startup company. Launched in March, the St. Paul-based business uses giantmagnetoresistance (GMR) biosensors to provide highly sensitive detection and diagnosis of health conditions. Its vision is to lead the world in monitoring and diagnosing health imperfections to help improve quality of life. Zepto’s chief scientist is Jian-Ping Wang, professor of electrical and computing engineering at the U. Thus far in 2014 the U has launched seven startup companies, with nine more currently in the final stage of the five-stage pre-launch pipeline. Seven of those have markets of $100 million to $1 billion, and two have markets of $1 billion or more. Since 2006 the U has launched 59 startups, 80 percent of them still active.

W were looking We for a needle in a haystack, but instead we found a crowbar.”

Clem Pryke standing in front of a cosmic microwave background telescope at the South Pole

University of Minnesota experimental cosmologist Clem Pryke describing the discovery, made in March, of unexpectedly large ripples put forth nearly 14 billion years ago during the Big Bang, when the universe burst into existence. Pryke, along with colleagues from Harvard, Stanford, and Caltech, made the discovery using the BICEP2 telescope at the National Science Foundation’s South Pole station.

Support students now and your gift will go further, faster. Typically, an endowment fund starts small and grows over four years. Fast Start 4 Impact changes that. It awards U of M students right away.