16th Undergraduate Research Conference scheduled Dec. 1 at SMSU

The 16th annual Undergraduate Research Conference will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 1 from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. at Southwest Minnesota State University.

SMSU students from 17 academic areas will be featured, said event organizer Dr. Alyssa Anderson, associate professor of biology.

Tracy Rosenberg, a grassland restorationist from South Dakota, will give the keynote address. She is a past winner of South Dakota Citizens Wildlife Award for her stewardship efforts in prairie restoration and habitat management of the former Blue Cloud Abbey grasslands, now Abbey Grasslands of the Prairie Coteau, which she purchased in 2013.

The Undergraduate Research Conference returns to an in-person event this year, following a virtual event last year due to COVID-19.

Academic areas represented include history, accounting, communication studies, theater, English, music, philosophy, psychology, political science, computer science, sociology, biology, environmental science, agribusiness management, hospitality management, exercise science and computer science.

Student presentations will include either oral presentations or poster presentations.

“We’ll have 57 poster presentations, and 37 oral presentations. There will also be five students presenting a recital,” said Anderson.

Oral presentations consist of PowerPoints about the students’ research topic followed by a short Q&A session.

The conference will take place at several locations across campus — the upper and lower levels of the Conference Center, Charter Hall 201, the Student Center, and SMSU Theatre.

The conference is open to the public. For more information about the event, and to view abstracts of each of the presentations, go to: https://www.smsu.edu/urc/index.html.

Tribal liaison dives into Minnesota ski area expansion talks

DULUTH (AP) — The Superior National Forest’s first full-time tribal liaison says he wants to work with the federal government on proposed expansion of the Lutsen Mountains Ski Area.

Juan Martinez started his new role in January, but he didn’t move to Minnesota until July. He coordinates communication between the national forest and the three Ojibwe bands in northeastern Minnesota.

The Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa occupied the nearly 4 million acres that now make up the Superior National Forest long before the federal government acquired it. They maintain rights to hunt, fish, gather and practice their spiritual traditions on the land as part of an 1854 treaty signed with the federal government.

Lutsen officials want to expand onto 494 acres of adjacent Forest Service land to build new ski runs, chairlifts and other amenities they say are needed to compete against big ski resorts. The Grand Portage Band has argued the project compromises its treaty rights, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.

Both Martinez and Forest Service officials say all sides should be involved in the discussion.

Up to 30 people conduct robbery at Best Buy in Burnsville

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A group of 20 to 30 people grabbed numerous electronic items at a Best Buy store in Burnsville and quickly fled before police could arrive.

No weapons were seen in the caper Friday night and no one was reported injured, Burnsville police Capt. Don Stenger said. The Star Tribune reports no one had been arrested as of Saturday morning.

“We don’t know exactly what was taken or the dollar value,” Stenger said.

The robbery occurred shortly after 8 p.m. on Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year following the Thanksgiving holiday.

The incidents resemble a number of mass robberies recently reported across the United States, where groups of people swarm a store, clear the shelves of goods and then flee.