Journalism at UMD

Here are the links to prototypes for magazines and newspapers designed by the UMD Fall 2008 Editing Class. Note: These pages are for classroom exercises and educational purposes. They are not intended for distribution or sale.

Scuba North
by Abel Gustafson

Camping Times
by David Buckner

NASA Historian
by Ryan Carney

Back Nine Bulletin
by Kendra Richards

Twins Tribune
by Amanda Daniels

Northland Weddings
by Brittney Silewsky

Fashion Weekly
by Jami Reinhart

Relay for Reason
by Liz Enke

News to Rock Duluth
by Jordan Hanson

Canal Park Courier
by Cory Claeson

Gamer Weekly
by Travis Dill

Indulge
by Hannah Alley

Minnesota Tennis Daily
by Sara Jochems

Marathon Times
by Kristen Krebs

Minnesota Mountain Bike
by Alex Mehlin

Golden Closets
by Allie Kopp

Frigid Tunes Times
by Jeremy Pieper

The Daily Apple
by Dayna Landgrebe

Trout N About
by Ryan Swanson

Twins Territory
by Jared Jacobson

Tailgaiting Times
by Zach Olson

Posted by John Hatcher at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sarah Doty

For UMD sophomore Sina Richert the expense of college today is a reality.

But tuition prices aren’t the only thing causing Richert to expect that she will graduate $40,000-$50,000 in debt. Add her monthly bills of rent, utilities, groceries and gas to the tally and it’s easy to see how it all adds up.

However, this scenario hasn’t always been the case for college students.

“My grandpa and I were just talking [the other day] and he only spent $300 for a whole year of college,�? said UMD sophomore Sina Richert. “That gets you one credit now, maybe not even a credit … It’s depressing talking to grandparents, even my dad, he didn’t pay anything near what we have to pay now.�?

What Richert is referring to is the drastic increase in tuition through the years. At UMD a Minnesota resident for the 2006-2007 school year paid $8,580 for tuition alone. This is more than double the $4,017 students paid ten years ago, and nearly 30 times as much as the $294 students were paying during the 1966-1967 school year.

This seems to be the trend all around, with the cost, during the last five decades, of housing, groceries, movie tickets, gas prices and even minimum wage also increasing.

However, the smallest increase during those decades has been that of minimum wage; which currently is only four times the amount it was in 1967, increasing from $1.40 to $5.85 in 2007.

This might explain the increase in stress for students today, according to associate professor Ken Gilbertson, a 1978 UMD graduate, and the director of the center for environmental education.

“Students are so stressed out because they are fatigued from working so much to pay for school,�? said Gilbertson.

That wasn’t the case when he was a student.

“I remember not having a lot of money, but I don’t remember suffering,�? said Gilbertson. “I don’t ever remember being severely stressed out over paying for school. I don’t have any recollection of the pressures it seems [college kids today] get, and no one was working those crazy, crazy hours.�?

John Brostrom the senior administrative director at UMD’s auxiliary services and a 1970 graduate of UMD agrees.

“Most of my pals could pay for everything with working one job,�? said Brostrom. “[That was working] less than 10 hours a week … with a summer job as well. [We] didn’t make as much [then], but the costs of education hadn’t reached the high rates that they are at today.�?

Junior Kayla Jendro has a different story.

Jendro works two jobs through most of the year at Best Buy and Ridgeview Country Club. During the school year she does cut down her hours, only working about 20-32 per week.

Working two jobs is not uncommon for students her age, but in the late 1970s it was rare.

“Occasionally there would be someone working two jobs and we would say stop being so greedy and chasing the almighty dollar,�? Gilbertson said. "But now it isn’t about greed. It is about survival.�?

Assistant professor Steven Berry, a 1997 UMD graduate, also only worked one job at a time.

“During my first year I worked at Hardee’s down on London Road,�? Berry said. “I worked 20 hours a week; two eight-hour shifts on the weekend and some afternoon shifts during the week.�?

At the time that was normal.

“A lot of friends did the same thing I did,�? he said. “Lots of food service and working in the summer. One job was normal, but I did have one friend that would work two jobs in the summer.�?

Associate professor John Swenson, a 1993 UMD graduate also worked just one job.

“I worked year round as a mechanic or on the shipping docks for minimum wage,�? Swenson said. “I worked 20 hours a week during the school year, working harder on weekends than during the week. Most of my friends worked comparable hours to mine.�?

With that work Swenson didn’t have to worry about loans. He lived at home through college and could get by without loans and just a little bit of help from his parents. His friends had similar situations.

“Friends took out loans, not huge amounts, but some,�? Swenson said.

However, Richert is having a slightly different experience.

“I pay [for college] through scholarships and grants and a few loans,�? she said. But even with the scholarships and grants, it isn’t enough.

“It’s depressing,�? she said.

Brostrom, who has worked at UMD since the year that he graduated, has noticed the change in prices.

“I remember paying $98 per quarter in the fall of ’65,�? said Brostrom. “Now we have bigger bills going to Grandmas for a night of eating and drinking. [Students today] they have to either work a lot or incur huge debt. The cost of tuition has gone up much higher than the cost of inflation.�?

Gilbertson agrees.

“We have students in class falling asleep,�? he said. “When I ask them what is going on, they say, ‘well I had to work until 2 a.m.’�?

This isn’t the answer according to Swenson.

“Working and studying while in school is contradicting,�? he said. “[College should be] a selfish time in your life, and has to be.�?

Gilbertson explained.

“For every hour of class, students are expected to study 3 hours,�? he said. “That is 60 hours of [school] work a week and [students] are fitting in 60 hours of work a week. How do you pull that off? We are asking a whole lot out of your generation.�?

However, it doesn’t end at with only an increase in work. As described earlier the cost for housing is also much greater than before.

Gilbertson remembered the cost of his housing ranging between $100-$120 each month. Now, he sees his nephew who is currently in college thinking that $300-$400 a month is a fair price.

“I think wowza,�? he said. “My house payments aren’t much more than that.�?

According to Gilbertson this isn’t okay. He is worried that today’s generation is teaching itself into the grave with working such hours, and teaching itself not to enjoy life.

“I am curious in 20 years what [today’s students] will look back and see," he said. "I hope [they] can remember what [they] learned and the fun [they] had and not the bags under your eyes from working so much.�?

Posted by Chris at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Chris Olwell

Nobody has smoked in the Kozy since last year, but the SmokeEater above the bar still serves a useful purpose: it’s the bar’s memory.

To the front of the machine are scotch-taped a plastic flower, a haggard old cigarette, several tattered and worn American flags, and about half-a-dozen obituary clippings and funeral prayer cards—all memories of residents of the Kozy apartments who’ve died there.

Eric Ringsred took over the Kozy in April of 2006, and within three months three of his tenants had died of consumption or health problems related to chronic alcoholism. By the end of 2006, the total was six.

A laborer with advanced cirrhosis of the liver died of hepatitis at 34. A vet passed out drunk “with his head flexed against the bed�? and suffocated.

One death in particular sticks with Ringsred. The death of Jeffrey Schug is an example just how hard it can be, for many reasons, to get help to a population for whom addiction is the norm and mental illness is common, and whose very survival depends sometimes on public assistance.

Schug was a 36-year-old musician in a local band with a small following. He had lived at the Kozy for less than a week when died. The autopsy determined the probable cause of death to be acute hypernatremic dehydration and kidney failure.

He’d stopped taking his medications for his mental illness and was running naked through the halls of the apartment, “trashing the place,�? according to Ringsred.

“His friend called the police,�? Ringsred said. “We called social services. We called the police. Nothing was ever done.�?

The police did show up that day, but there wasn’t much they could do.

According to the incident report: Police responded to reports of a “drunk/methhead naked male running the halls�? at 1:29 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2006. When officers arrived Schug was in his apartment and didn’t want to talk with them or his friend, a transient who’d been staying at the CHUM shelter.

The report said Schug “did not look injured and did not look like he was going to harm himself or others.�? It is not clear if officers learned this firsthand or in talking with Schug’s friend.

“We have tenants in here that need help,�? said Leonard Holland, assistant manager at the Kozy but since they refuse help….�?

Schug’s obituary in the Duluth News Tribune was brief: “Jeffrey Peter ‘Jeff’ Schug, 36, of Duluth died Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006 in his residence.

“PRIVATE FAMILY SERVICE: will be held at a later date. Services entrusted to the Cremation Society of America, 218-624-5200.�?

“This is the problem: there’s a lot of people here who have nobody. They don’t have families…particularly people that are mentally ill,�? Ringsred said. “Anyway, there are a lot of people that have nobody.�?

Posted by umdjour at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sarah Hasselquist

Click here to see the story in PDF.

Posted by umdjour at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by David Buckner

As the spring semester winds to a close, construction on the new Labovitz School of Business and Economics building is finishing as well. But this new addition to UMD isn’t your average box of brick and concrete.

The LSBE building has used construction methods that will have a positive effect on the environment, and will also help to save UMD money.

The total price tag of the building is $19 million, according to John Rashid, manager for construction and operations at UMD. The State of Minnesota funded $11 million for the project, while the Labovitz family donated another $5 million. The rest of the bill was paid for by UMD.

A small portion of that money went towards a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. It is part of UMD’s effort to be more environmentally friendly.

“We are the first school in the University of Minnesota system to be LEED certified,�? says Rashid.

According to Rashid, LEED certified buildings use environmentally friendly materials, and they are more water and energy efficient.

LEED buildings also cost more in construction. According to Rashid, the new LSBE will cost $3 more per square foot. That adds about $200 thousand in construction costs for the 65 thousand square foot building. However, the energy efficiency of a LEED certified building will save money in the long run.

“I’d be willing to guess that the new building will save about $30 thousand to $40 thousand per year in energy costs alone,�? says Rashid.

Those savings will pay for the extra construction costs in about five or six years.

There are several green features in the new LSBE that help to save energy. According to Rashid, the building insulation is thicker which will reduce summer cooling and winter heating costs. There are also water efficient plumbing fixtures, and motion and daylight sensors for lighting control. The highly recyclable materials used throughout the building further the energy efficiency.

Energy savings isn’t the only advantage to the building. Kjell Knudsen is the Dean of the LSBE. He says that building will give the staff and students a little more breathing room.

“We ran out of space,�? Knudsen says. “Not only classroom space, but we ran out of space for the faculty and staff also.�?

Knudsen and the rest of the staff for the LSBE have walked through the new building. Knudsen is impressed with what he has seen so far.

“It’s not only a beautiful building, it’s a functional building,�? he says. “The teaching spaces are outstanding, and the space is also to the advantage of the students.�?

Adam Bartels, a junior accounting and finance major, hopes that the added space will make it easier to get into classes.

“There is a big bottleneck trying to get into business classes because of the class sizes,�? says Bartels. “The new building will be able to accommodate for that.�?

Bartels is also excited for the new office that is designated for VITA, a student run program that helps other UMD students file taxes. In the current LSBE building, there is no space for VITA.

“For the majority of the tax season we were just in the corner of the accounting office,�? says Bartels.

Professor Randy Skalberg teaches tax accounting and business law at UMD. He too is happy with the space provided in the new building. He says it allows the LSBE to have smaller class sizes compared to other big universities, yet the space is fully functional and practical. He is also happy about the added comfort that LEED certification will bring. As part of the energy efficient design, the new building will stay much cooler during summer classes.

“It’s an important update,�? says Skalberg. “The classrooms get very hot. The temperature control shouldn’t be an issue in the new building.�?

The new LSBE will be open for this year’s summer session.

Posted by umdjour at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Kendra Richards

Should I live on campus or off campus?

This is a question that comes up for probably all freshman when coming into college, and even many upperclassmen when they advance from year to year. Many consider convenience, where their friends are living, and price. However, choosing where to live should be considered on more serious grounds: research shows that students who live on campus are more successful in school.

Living on campus has its obvious benefits, especially for freshman. It allows new students to fully engulf themselves into the environment so they can make new connections and get used to this huge change in lifestyle.

“Students [that live on campus] easily connect to the university by living, eating, and studying on campus,�? said Jeni Eltink, First Year Experience program director. “They form relationships readily, and create friendships that last a lifetime.�?

UMD Sophomore Anessa Kemna lives has lived on campus both of her college years, and she agrees with this concept.

“If I didn't have the support of my friends and professors, there is no way I would be passing right now,�? said Kemna. “And it would have been harder to make those connections if I wasn't right with them on campus.�?

John Weiske, Director of Housing at UMD, also agrees.

“Research shows that within the first six weeks of college, it is important to make connections—be that within your living arrangement, organizations, or faculty. [Students] need to have that sense of belonging, and if this doesn't happen there is less tendency to stay in school.�?

Many people are aware of this, for the majority of freshman do live on campus their first year. Weiske said that about 87 percent of UMD Freshman live on campus each year.

Also, the majority of the total living on campus are freshman. Of all of the students that live on campus this year, 67 percent of those are freshman, said Weiske.

However, many students aren't staying on campus after their first year. According to Weiske, of that 87 percent of freshman who live on campus each year, only 40-45 percent of those students will live on campus the next year.

And, said Weiske, that just gets lower as students advance each year:

2007-2008 academic year
Beds available: over 3,000
Beds occupied by Freshman: 2175
Beds occupied by Sophomores: 560
Beds occupied by Juniors: 194
Beds occupied by Seniors: 130

Students seem to think that it is necessary to live on campus the first year so that connections can be made in this strange new world. This is true and important for a student's first year, but living on campus offers so much more than that to students, even in their upperclassmen years.

A random sample of 462 students living on and off campus, conducted by Richard Liu, campus director of the UMD Academic Administration, showed that where you live can affect the most important aspect of school: grades. According to Liu, the average GPA of UMD students living on campus is 2.93, and that's compared to 2.40 for those off campus.

Kemna said she thinks that convenience and close proximity are a big factor in helping boost grades.

“I have accidentally slept in until 10 minutes before class so many times,�? said Kemna. “I would have never made it if I lived off campus, and the more class you miss the harder it is to catch up and keep your grades up.�?

There is also a Higher Education study that shows living on campus has long been associated with persistence and student success—and it supports Kemna's theory of close proximity.

The report says that living on campus has the greatest total effect on learning outcomes of any institutional characteristic, and goes on to say that this may be caused by the fact that students who live on campus are surrounded by other academic figures.

“Students who live on campus generally interact more with faculty and peers and are more satisfied with their undergraduate experience,�? said the Higher Education report.

The report uses the term “propinquity principle�? to describe this, which says that students who live on campus are put in close physical proximity to others who have views and backgrounds different and similar their own, and cannot avoid being confronted with them on an almost daily basis.

These confrontations, as Kemna has attested to, can help nurture students' studies, and simply be an available outlet of supportive communication.

Eltink agreed with this as well, suggesting that these people and resources also serve as a simple reminder to stay focused.

“The educational environment expands beyond the classroom,�? said Eltink. “They live
where they study, and so there is a consistent educational reminder—whether it's the
resources available or class conversations in the lounges.�?

Sue Darge, campus director of UMD student affairs and participant in the Higher Education study, said that the College Learning classes required by UMD help a lot, too, for these reasons.

“Students who take these classes have significantly higher GPAs than those who do not,�? said Darge. “It is a class where students living in the same proximity can come together and discuss issues that they share.�?

Darge says that UMD uses these Higher Education reports to help improve student performance, and that is why they require these classes.

Darge said that the study also ties in graduation rates.

“The study shows that students who live on campus are proven to be more successful in school, and that they in turn have a better chance of graduating,�? said Darge.

Darge also suggested that students who live on campus can take more classes because they have more time—they don't need to fit in time for driving—and this can also cause them to graduate early, or simply prevent them from staying in school longer.

Sophomore Rachel Johnson lived on campus her freshman year, and decided to move 10 minutes off campus her second year. She has both sides, and tells us that the research has some truth to it.

“I moved off campus because I wanted to get away from the restrictions and rules of the university—I wanted to be able to have pets and parties without getting in trouble,�? said Johnson. “But, this year has been noticeably more difficult because of it.�?

Johnson said that she cannot take as many credits because she has to leave time for driving, and it is a lot harder to schedule appointments with professors and study meetings with friends.

“It's weird not having my friends randomly stop by to work on homework,�? said Johnson. “I find myself doing a lot more work on my own, and asking for help less because it would be too much work to drive all the way to campus.�?

Posted by umdjour at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Jami Reinhart

Readership trends have not remained the same for all newspaper publications, and deciphering between publication size and circulation trends fills in some of the unanswered gaps as to which newspapers are just surviving compared to those that appear to be almost thriving.

"The small town paper is where the residents can read about what is happening with their city council, schools, friends, neighbors, crime. As for advertising, they want to see the ads for their community or neighboring areas," said Barbara Trebisovsky, Assistant Executive Director, Minnesota Newspaper Association.

The Internet, long past the days of the paperboy riding by on his bicycle to toss the daily newspaper on your front step. As the trend of news online increases, newspaper circulation remains stable for some publications, while others are thriving, and yet some have been experiencing a decrease in readership over the past few years.

As a small town weekly newspaper based in Clinton, Minn., the Northern Star circulates to about 1,800 people in three communities each week. Despite not having an online option for their paper, the circulation of The Northern Star has remained fairly stable for the past ten years.

“We have held our own pretty well,�? said Denise Gustafson, ad manager for the Northern Star. “Being a small town, we have enough former residents and alumni who keep up with back home. We have loyal people.�?

Stella Jacobson has lived in Clinton and raised her family there for decades, just likes the idea of a local newspaper.

"I have lived here all my life, and it's just more interesting to read about what is going on here," said Jacobson.

Lacking an online version of the Northern Star, it would appear that newspapers should be able to thrive on their own, but what happens when a small town newspaper offers an online version as well?

With an average circulation of 4,000 per week, Timberjay newspapers serve readers in northern Minnesota from Tower, Ely and Cook/Orr.

"We have been regularly stable," said Jodi Summit, general manager and Tower editor for Timberjay. "We have been more aggressive with making sure people are paying for subscriptions and not giving out as many free papers; our subscription revenue has been slowly growing."

With an option to view stories on its Web site, Timberjay posts about 20 stories online each week, in addition to offering online subscriptions.

"The subscriptions online have been pretty slow, we are getting about six to ten a month," said Summit. "We struggle to decide what to put up for free, and we do not have enough money to have someone keep track of the online stories."

According to Summit, one of the main reasons their circulation continues to remain stable is the fact that readers cannot get the news that is printed in their paper anywhere else.

As much larger publications compared to the Northern Star and Timberjay, the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press offer stories and news feeds covering a wider audience. Despite online options and breaking news availability, according to Trebisovsky, both the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press are down in terms of circulation.

Though Trebisovsky acknowledges that the public generally hears about layoffs at larger companies, she says that newspapers are doing other things aside from layoffs to cut costs, including changing their web width to save on paper cost.

"It is not as much related to circulation," said Trebisovsky. "The industry is in a state of transition, but there are always going to be the people who like their paper."

Another factor newspapers look at when distinguishing trends in circulation is readership. According to Trebisovsky, in their most recent statewide readership survey in 2005, daily newspapers in Minnesota averaged 1.8 readers per copy, and weekly newspapers averaged 1.7 readers per copy. That number was 2.2 readers in 1994.

In addition to the fluctuation in readers per copy, Trebisovsky noted that since 1994, the total combined circulation for all weeklies in Minnesota has increased 2 percent, while the total combined circulation for all Minnesota dailies has decreased 14.5 percent.

Yet another factor affecting newspaper circulation is the economy. The better businesses are doing, the more revenue they have to contribute to the papers to advertise for them. Which means the worse a business is doing financially, the fewer ads a newspaper may be publishing for them, which in turn means less ad revenue for that particular newspaper.

"Subscriptions are important, but ads are the big support," said Trebisovsky. "If there's an area that's down or not doing so well, advertisers are going down."

So what is it that keeps the smaller town publications going, while some of the bigger ones are facing some hardship?

"The smaller papers are doing fine because they are local community newspapers and the main source of news in their communities," said Trebisovsky. "Your local paper is the one entity that actually has news gatherers; people who go out to seek stories and news on a daily basis."

Posted by Chris at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Emily Eshelman

Smile and say cheese, a blinding flash and a short later, your U Card prints in seconds. Nearly 6,000 U Cards are printed each year. New, lost, or broken cards are made in the U Card office every day. With more than 11,000 students enrolled and 1,500 faculty and staff, the university wants to make sure everyone has an identification card.

To open up space in students’ wallets and have one less thing to be responsible for, UMD encourages students to put money on their U Cards, but the question that arises, what is happening to all that money left on student U Cards?

Enrolled students get one complementary U Card.

“U Cards are not a requirement but we think you’ll find in order to function well on campus, you’ll need to have a U Card,�? explained Shawn Evenson, UMD’s U Card administrator.

Some students like the convenience.

“I would feel lost and confined if I ever lost my U-card,�? said Trisha Viau, a 5-year UMD student.

According to the the supervisor at the campus Dining Center, Tanya Levy, students are not allowed to even enter the dinning center without a U Card. In previous years students were able to use a driver’s license for identification, but beginning Spring Semester 2008, the policies have changed. Students will not be admitted into the dining center without their student ID. The dining center is not the only place where students need to show university identification. U Cards are slid for UMD store charges, food court payments, DTA bus pass, library checkout access, and entering recreational sports facilities. U Cards also show identification to receive any type of student discount at any local business.

Another function of the student U Card is “Campus Cash,�? a program which allows up to a $50 maximum amount to be used at any copy machine or parking pay lots equipped with a card reader. It is a program which allows you to put money on your U Card for the dining center in which food bought in the Kirby Plaza is tax free. One fact that students typically are not aware of is if you do not use your campus cash, you lose your campus cash.

“I usually lose a couple dollars a year, because in lab I have to pay for lost or broken equipment. It is the only way to make a payment,�? UMD biology Major, Robert Ship explained. “Let’s say you owe 6.39 for a broken beaker, but you only have 10 dollars with you, so you put the 10 dollars on your account and you are stuck with an extra $3.61 on your account you will never use.�?

After reviewing the U Card Campus Key pamphlet distributed to new students at orientation, information about the U Card funds being non-cash refundable is not mentioned in the pamphlet until the last page in significantly smaller print.

If you put money onto your account at the beginning of fall semester, it will transfer to spring semester. At the end of an academic school year all the money left on student U Cards belongs to the University. After reviewing the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Value Strip Account Summary from June 2006 until June 2008, the University reported more than $93,000 left on student U Cards. But where does all this money go?

According to Greg Sather, the Fiscal Officer in charge of UMD’s Accounting Records, the money goes directly to the service area in which it was originally was designated to. If you have dining dollars left on your student U Card, the money goes directly to Food Services. The records also show that last year the area that received the most money was ITSS with charges left from printing. The total was more than $6,000.

This is only taking into account the money left on U Cards, not the money it takes to replace lost, stolen, or damaged U Cards. Evenson also stated that to replace a student U card it costs $15. Student U Cards also have the life expectancy of four years if they are cared for properly.

“We give free protective cover slips to students whenever they replace or purchase a new card and students are able to stop buy to pick up replacement covers if needed free of charge.�?

U Cards should be stored in a warm dry area, away from any magnetic battery, including cell phones and MP3 players.

To learn more, stop in to the U Card office, located next to the TCF bank on the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Campus, 127 Kirby Plaza and they are more than happy to answer any of your questions, or call 218-726-8814.

Posted by Chris at 6:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Abel Gustafson

Once a day, Mark Stodghill crosses the street and descends a flight of stairs to the front desk of the Duluth Police Department. He pages through a hefty clipboard full of the summaries of all the recent arrests they have made. Stodghill asks for copies of the arrests that he deems newsworthy, and he returns to his desk at the Duluth News Tribune to write crime news for the next morning’s paper.

My classmates and I in the Journalism program at the University of Minnesota Duluth have been studying the Minnesota Data Practices Act, which mandates that specific data from every arrest made by a Minnesota law enforcement agency must be open to any member of the public and be “available at all times�? at that agency.

This public arrest data is what is on the clipboard at the Duluth Police Department front desk.
Out of curiosity, our class journalism class set out to determine just how accessible this same information is at other agencies, optimistic that we would find convenience and accessibility like that of the Duluth Police Department. We couldn't have been more wrong.

Students went in small groups to law enforcement agencies, ranging from Eagan to International Falls, asking to see the public arrest data from the arrests made in the previous few days. Local agencies included the State Patrol, the St. Louis County Sheriff, the UMD Police, and the police departments in Hermantown, Proctor, Superior, and Duluth.

Across the board, they were met with confusion, miscommunication, and everything else short of chaos.

A few students had to educate the desk clerks about the very existence of the law, and many were compelled to resort to writing formal Freedom of Information letters. One group had to wait two weeks for the information, and one student had to pay a copying charge of five dollars for a single printed page.
From the twisting jungle of responses we encountered, one reason for the difficulties stands clear: no one ever asks to see who has been arrested at these other agencies.

Albeit often improperly sensationalized, "watchdog journalism" grows out of the foundational American principle of checks and balances.

The reason we have laws that protect public information is to preserve our basic rights and liberties. These laws ensure that our country’s law enforcement agencies do not make arrests without revealing who they arrested and why.

The students purposefully asked to personally see a whole list of arrests so that they could look through all the arrests and be able to select an interesting arrest at their own discretion. The whole idea of freedom of public information is deflated if the agency chooses which arrests the media gets to see.

Granted, cover-up scandals worthy of Hollywood are nigh non-existent. But what about simple local crime news? Who decides whether or not to notify the local newspaper with a press release if a city official is arrested?

Mark Stodghill said "A lot of (reporters) rely on getting emails from the agencies when something happens. But I feel like we still got to make that check anyway. It only takes five minutes to swing by and look."

At the Duluth Police Department, they expect Mark Stodghill to come every day, so they know that this public information will be requested of them.

Wade Petrich, editor of the Hermantown Star weekly paper, said "If you develop a personal relationship, (the agencies) are much more inclined to help you."

At the Duluth division of the State Patrol, no one checks on the arrests they have made. Capt. Steve Stromback said "I have never had this request before."

But the task of relaying crime stories to the public becomes cumbersome when the organization of the data does not allow convenient access.

Unlike the Duluth Police Department, most agencies have the information stored on a computer in a way that allows for convenient access to data for any one specific arrest, but not to a list of the arrests.
According to Capt. Stromback, another roadblock is that producing such a list of the arrests “is a matter of going through our computer and paper records to separate public and private data.�?

Ironically, having public arrest data on a simple clipboard of pen-and-paper forms makes it more accessible than using cutting edge technology.

Future requests for information may be serviced with more convenience. Some agencies expressed a desire to better accommodate these types of public information requests from journalists and the public.

Capt. Stromback said: "I welcome inquiries from the media. If that is what they want to do, we will work in a timely fashion to facilitate their request."

Changes are in the works at the Hermantown Police Department, too, according to the department's Jessica Trevanius.

"We're going to make some things a little more streamlined," she said.

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by Kathleen Grigg

When looking at Mars through a telescope, the first thing you notice is the red shade of dust covering the surface. Beneath the dust, a span of water ice may contain clues about the planet’s past. The Phoenix Mission may be able to dig up that story.

Phoenix is scheduled to land May 25 in Mars’s northern polar region. Back on Earth, scientists will spend several days preparing its onboard instruments, which include an 8-foot robotic arm, ovens, wet chemistry labs, cameras and a weather station.

Unlike the rovers, Phoenix is a lander and cannot move around on the Martian surface. It will use its robotic arm to scoop up samples of soil and ice. The samples will then be analyzed onboard for composition, pH and other properties.

Phoenix public affairs manager Sara Hammond works out of the University of Arizona Tucson, where the mission is based. She emphasized that while Phoenix is not necessarily searching for life, it is searching for aspects that make a planet habitable, like organic matter and water.

“We expect to be the first to touch water on Mars – water being in the form of ice,�? Hammond said. “Really what we are going to do is to try to study the water and understand its history. Has it ever been liquid? If so, how did it change the properties of the soil?�?

Phoenix’s principle investigator Peter Smith said that because similar ground ice is associated with 25 percent of the Martian surface, it is as if Phoenix will be investigating a quarter of the surface instead of just the robotic arm’s radius. Therefore, if the mission finds organic materials, it’s likely that they will be found elsewhere on the planet too.

“If we find it habitable then it’s really worth sending another mission to do the search for life,�? he said.

One way to determine properties of soil is to heat it up. The onboard Thermal Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) will heat samples to 1800 degrees, maintaining a steady rate of temperature change. Smith said that this helps to determine if something in the sample is changing states – for example, liquid to solid.

“The way we do it is to monitor the power that we’re putting in to it as we’re heating it at a constant temperature ramp,�? Smith said. “Power should have a constant rise, but if you have something that changes states, then you get to a temperature and you figure out it isn’t so easy to heat anymore.�?

TEGA also has a mass spectrometer to analyze which gases are released at those phase changes.

“We do two things,�? Smith said. “We heat up slowly looking at the power profile to see where we’re having trouble heating. We look at gasses that come off when they hit those phase changes.�?

Another onboard instrument, the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA), works like a wet chemistry lab. Soil samples are placed in water to determine properties such as mineral abundance, pH and the presence of dissolved gasses. MECA’s microscope will help determine the origins of the soil and its mineralogy.

Phoenix’s meteorological station will track weather on Mars, sending back a daily report. Smith said that studying the Martian atmosphere can help scientists understand the ground, too.

“You can’t study the surface in isolation from the atmosphere,�? he said.

On Earth, surface pressure and temperature conditions allow water to exist in all three states – solid, liquid and gas. On Mars, the pressures and temperatures are so low that water can only exist as ice or vapor – meaning polar caps, ground ice, clouds, haze and fog.

Robert Burnham, press liaison for the Mars mission THEMIS, said people need to remember that the same rules apply for Earth and Mars alike.

“Physics and chemistry are the same the universe-over,�? Burnham said.

While in graduate school, Cal Poly professor John Keller worked on the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) that was able to detect the water. GRS was on board the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission, which orbited around Mars and collected signals from certain elements, such as the hydrogen (H) in water (H2O). GRS can collect data up to one meter beneath the surface.

Keller said that the Phoenix Mission was motivated by that discovery of water ice.

“It’s been there ever since we started pointing a telescope at Mars,�? he said. “It’s only in the last seven years that we’ve had this new detection technique to see through the dust and recognize that there’s a hydrogen signal coming from deeper than that.�?

Phoenix may also be able to determine how the water ice ended up where it is – by precipitation from the atmosphere, or from groundwater.

“Climate modelers for both Mars climate models and Earth climate models want to have a better understanding ... and the thing you need for that is data. You need to know where the ice came from,�? Keller said.

Hammond believes that missions like Phoenix speak to human nature’s desire to explore.

“Humans by nature are just kind of explorers and wonderers – whether it’s been the United States from east to west, or looking at stars through telescopes, wondering what’s out there. This is kind of helping answer that question. What’s out there?�? Hammond said “We’re using our technological expertise to go far beyond where we’ve ever gone before.�?

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