Latest news with #UofM
Winnipeg Free Press
6 days ago
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
U of M pool closing adds to training headaches for athletes, swim clubs
The University of Manitoba has permanently closed its pool and must replace it, creating a ripple effect that swimmers say will further limit the number of spaces to train. Joyce Fromson Pool was closed in April because of a leak. Repairs were attempted but were ultimately unsuccessful and the university has made the decision to replace the facility, U of M chief risk officer Raman Dhaliwal said. 'The last time we had a new pool was 60 years ago,' she said. 'Obviously, shutting it down was an inconvenience, but we'll provide regular updates about what the plan is for the pool.' The new pool is slated to open in spring 2026. Dhaliwal didn't say how much the project will cost, but said it'll only replace the existing pool, not any other infrastructure, including the change rooms. The university's swim team will still look for other pools to practice in, Dhaliwal said, but she didn't give details about which facilities. Former Canadian Olympian Kelsey Wog's dream to become an elite-level swimmer started at the pool, named for the director of sport in 2002, a year after her death. Wog started swimming there when she was seven years old. Now 26, she's since retired, after competing in Women's Breaststroke during the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games, to focus on her master's degree at U of M. 'It wasn't a massive aquatic centre, and it wasn't really a place you would think a high-performance athlete would come out of,' Wog told the Free Press. 'I made it special and good for me.' Wog said she's glad the pool is being replaced because it's 'definitely needed,' but she said it'll make training difficult for the university's athletes who will have to leave campus to train at different pools while balancing classes. 'You need stability to be able to know your routine and put forth your best effort every day,' she said. The St. James Seals Swim Club was sharing its space with U of M's team since the April pool closure, said team vice-president Melissa Grenkow. But the more than 60-person team is now also without a pool after its home at St. James Civic Centre shut down Friday for year-long renovations. The team will now train at St. James Assiniboia Centennial Pool and Pan Am Pool, Grenkow said. Bonivital Pool, on Archibald Street, also closed for renovations in May and is expected to reopen in late summer or fall this year, according to the city's website. 'As more pools close and we have to fight for space, we won't be able to have as many kids, and they will miss out on the opportunity to learn to be part of such a great sport,' Grenkow said Monday. The scramble to find temporary spaces for their kids' swimming has left many parents frustrated, she said. Pan Am Pool is already the main training space for the Manitoba Marlins Swim Club and Manta Swim Club. With many teams swimming out of the same space, proper training can't happen because not everyone is at similar skill levels while practising and it can create frustrating traffic jams in the water, Grenkow said. She said it's an oversight for the city to close multiple pools at the same time, and it will eventually impact how competitive Manitoba will be for producing top-quality athletes. Weekday Mornings A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day. 'They (the city) would never close this many hockey arenas at the same time. That just wouldn't happen,' she said. Meanwhile the RM of Springfield is building its first indoor community pool with the help of $150,000 in funding from three Manitoba Co-ops — Red River, Beausejour and Pembina — as part of the chain's Community Spaces program. The facility in Dugald, 23 kilometres east of Winnipeg, is being built as part of a new assisted-living space in the town, and is expected to open in fall 2026. Wog said the U of M construction could provide an opportunity to increase the pool size in line with competition-ready facilities, such as Pan Am Pool. Olympic-sized pools are 50 metres long with 10 lanes, while U of M's is just 25 metres with six lanes. 'There's no room for growth,' she said. 'If we can do that, I think it'll open up a lot of opportunity for the pool in terms of competitions and inviting other clubs to compete and train. That would be really special.'
Winnipeg Free Press
14-06-2025
- Science
- Winnipeg Free Press
Promising alternatives highlighted in U of M study of cropping systems
Opinion The 2021 drought was one of the worst in Prairies history, but it was serendipitous in one way. It coincided with University of Manitoba research designed to better understand how different cropping systems perform under warmer and drier conditions, which many scientists predict will be our future. A dry 2020 growing season, followed by winter precipitation that was one-third of normal set the stage for the yield-crippling event of 2021. Manitoba crop yields plummeted by a range of 22 to 37 per cent and by as much as 70 per cent in some municipalities, according to a provincial government report. JEFF MACINTOSH / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES The U of M research suggests the crops and farming practices of today will become less profitable under such scenarios. But it also found some promising alternatives. While farmers look to the amount of rain and the available soil moisture as key determinants of yields, researchers are increasingly focused on the role of atmospheric dryness, which is the air's ability to soak up more moisture as temperatures rise. Research I cited last week cited blames 'atmospheric evaporative demand' for increasing the intensity of drought globally by more than 40 per cent over the past four decades. The Manitoba study considered a similar metric: 'vapour pressure deficit,' which is also proving to be an important indicator of drought stress. That deficit during this two-year study was well above the long-term average. 'The main objective of this study was to compare cropping systems that incorporated … diversity, intercropping, cover cropping and heat tolerance with a 'business-as-usual' rotation,' the research team consisting of S.K. Curtis, M.H. Entz, K.A. Stanley, D.J. Cattani and K.D. Schneider reports in the Canadian Journal of Plant Science. The research team tested a range of cropping systems, including one typical for this region: wheat-canola-wheat-soybean. They also looked at a warm-season blend of crops, which some believe will expand in acreage under a rising temperature scenario. That included corn-sunflowers-dry beans-canola. Another system focused on increasing biodiversity by growing nine crops in a combination that included intercropping (growing two annual crops in the same field), cover crops (crops sown after the annual crops are harvested) and a green-fallow crop to provide nutrients. This system increased the breadth of crops grown and the length of growing time as well as producing much of its own nitrogen, which reduces cost and risk. There was also a trial featuring Kernza, a type of perennial wheat that can be harvested annually for grain, and an organic rotation. The business-as-usual cropping system yielded 71 per cent of the biodiverse plots and only 59 per cent of the warm-season system. Economically, the net returns from the business-as-usual and the biodiverse scenarios were about the same, except the biodiverse system used 50 per cent less nitrogen fertilizer, one of the greenhouse gas emissions culprits. The warm-season blend of crops performed the best economically, but its production was less stable than the biodiverse rotation due to herbicide-resistant weeds. In addition to yield and economics, the researchers measured water use efficiency, yield stability and the number of days the soil contained 'living roots,' which is a measure of soil health. 'The biodiverse rotation represents an agroecological approach to crop production with the highest levels of diversity and stability,' the paper says. But even though that system gave equivalent returns economically, it's harder to do, requiring more time, equipment and knowledge. Those barriers are hard to overcome. Surveys show farm planting decisions are driven by the potential for yield and economic returns, more than a focus on stability. There's a reason why they call farming a gamble. Wednesdays A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom. That implies the go-to adaptation strategy for many will be to incorporate more warm-season crops into farming systems, even though there could be higher degrees of yield variability. So why should consumers care? Thinking back to the 2021 drought, although farmers suffered significant yield losses, the economic pain was muted by higher commodity prices for the crop they harvested and government compensation. However, those production shortfalls were a contributing factor to food price inflation of more than 10 per cent in the years that followed. Laura Rance is executive editor, production content lead for Glacier FarmMedia. She can be reached at lrance@ Laura RanceColumnist Laura Rance is editorial director at Farm Business Communications. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Michigan House backs off major cuts to university funding while passing education budget bills
The Michigan House of Representatives worked late into the evening to pass an overhauled university funding budget that reduced its massive cuts to operational funding but still penalized Michigan State University and the University of Michigan | Screenshot Michigan House Republicans passed their last few education budget bills late into the evening on Thursday, using an all-night session to make major changes to the university funding budget in order to garner support. The House had initially planned to slash operational funding for each institution across the board in House Bill 4580, sponsored by state Rep. Greg Markkanen (R-Hancock). That would have resulted in a $828.1 million decrease in overall operational funding. Meanwhile, the House also planned to cut state funding to Michigan State University and University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to penalize them for not producing enough Michigan-based graduates. The House noted that operational cuts to those universities were due in part to their large endowments, cutting 50% of funding from MSU and up to 75% of funding from U of M. Another big factor in the House Appropriations Committee-produced university budget bill, which was sent to the floor on Wednesday, was its boilerplate language indicating the different ways it would penalize universities for 'woke' policies. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The House planned to withhold funding if universities allowed transgender women to play women's sports, created common area spaces or held gatherings that separated people by sex or race, or continued to push diversity, equity and inclusion-based programming or initiatives. What passed the entire chamber – albeit along party lines – was a much different funding model. The $828.1 million operational funding cut was out and replaced with a $51.6 million decrease, meanwhile still cutting the same amount of general fund dollars from university operational funding at $1.2 billion. That softened the blow a bit for other universities but MSU and U of M still took a hit in the House-passed version. Instead of taking a percentage of state funding away from those flagship state universities, the House made a $291 million reduction in operational funding across the board just for those two universities. MSU's state funding was to be reduced by $56.6 million, or an 18% reduction, and U of M's state funding was to be reduced by $234.4 million, a 65% reduction. The House-passed plan redistributes that to the other 13 state universities, with $22 million of those general fund dollars going to the state's tuition grant program, $13.3 million for Native American tuition waiver payments and a $13 million payment to the seven universities that participate in the Michigan Public School Employee Retirement System. The DEI and women's sports boilerplate language remained, however, as did the House's plan to shift a significant portion of school aid fund dollars for public schools to higher education. Also passing late Thursday evening was the community college budget, House Bill 4579, which the chamber moved unchanged from its committee reported version. Community colleges in the House budget would receive $456.6 million with zero general fund dollars, resulting in a decrease of $5.56 million, or 1.2%. The House on Wednesday passed House Bill 4576, funding the Department of Education, public schools, and House Bill 4577, funding Michigan's K-12 public schools, and House Bill 4578, funding the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement and Potential. The K-12 budget passed Wednesday was also rife with boilerplate language that would target DEI programs and initiatives and wrapped school meals and other vital student success programs into per-pupil funding. Democrats argue costs for those services – like funding for at-risk students – would come out of classroom dollars that students and teachers need. The road ahead at the bargaining table between the Democratic-controlled state Senate and Gov. Grecthen Whitmer could be difficult to predict, considering the dynamics in play with divided government and the fact that Whitmer and state House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) have been talking about budget items and road funding for the last several months, said Andrea Bitely, founder of Bitely Communications. Bitley in an interview with Michigan Advance said that both Hall and Whitmer hold each other's political fates in the palm of their hands. 'Hall holds Whitmer's fate when it comes to what her final success story is,' Bitley said. 'She started off with a really bumpy ride. Her numbers for the first few years were not great, and the pandemic shifted that. Now she's one of America's most well-known and popular governors. But she wants to end on a high note.' Whatever her next moves, Hall and House Appropriations Chair Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton) are coming to the negotiating table this year with a wholly different way to fund public schools, a reduced university funding model and with several political pressure points in the culture war-tinted boilerplate language. 'He's coming to the table with something that's not ideal for her, or a lot of the interest groups that she works closely with that are her prime supporters,' Bitely said. 'There are a lot of stakeholders that are mad [about the House education budgets].' What the differing plans offer between the Senate, the House and the executive office recommendations is a chance to have a true negotiation, Bitely added. 'This is honestly giving everybody the opportunity to come to the negotiating table and work this out,' she said. 'There are going to be true negotiations because everyone wants something in this budget. Whitmer wants more roads money, she wants education money. Hall also wants roads money, but wants it in a different way than she does. But he also wants education money.' Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) was much harder to predict. 'She's been the outlier in everything over the past 100 days or so,' Bitley said. 'She's kind of the wild card because Whitmer and Hall have obviously been working together for a multitude of reasons. They are the ultimate frenemies. And we know that Matt Hall right now is working better with Whitmer and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan than Winnie Brinks or [Democratic minority House leader and state Rep. Ranjeev Puri of Canton]. That's where we're at in Michigan's political world.'
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Barriers being installed along U of M's Washington Ave Bridge
The Brief On November 9, 2023, former U of M student Kayla Gaebel took her life on the Washington Avenue Bridge. Her mother, MJ Blair, started an effort to get suicide prevention barriers built on the pedestrian bridge on the University of Minnesota campus. State lawmakers approved $8 million for the barriers as part of a transportation bill on Monday. MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Suicide-prevention advocates say the Washington Avenue Bridge has been a place of heartbreak, trauma and tragedy for too many people. What we know It's been 19 months since MJ Blair's daughter Kayla Gaebel died by suicide on the Washington Avenue Bridge. But now Blair is optimistic other families won't have to go through the pain that her family has endured. "Overwhelmingly excited that we have gotten it this far and that the bill did pass. The entire goal was to save lives," said Blair. The backstory On Monday, state lawmakers passed a transporation bill that includes $8 million dollars to build suicide prevention barriers on that structure. Suicide prevention advocates say the bridge has been a problem spot for 50 years, with three to five people taking their lives there every year. "It's a known location that this issue should have been addressed decades ago," said Erich Mische, CEO of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education. Last fall, the University of Minnesota installed temporary fencing to address the issue, but now it is in the process of designing higher railings to be permanent barriers, as well as adding lighting upgrades and other safety improvements. "We know that the most significant factor in reducing suicide on a tall public structure is a physical barrier," said Mische. What they're saying Blair created a foundation named Kayla's Hope with her daughter's favorite flower, the sunflower, as its symbol. She hopes putting more suicide-prevention barriers on tall public structures will be a bridge to a brighter future. "I am more than happy that we've got these barriers going up, but I think of all the people, my daughter included, that it won't bring them back. It's bittersweet," said Blair.
CTV News
09-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
Bike Week Winnipeg kicks off with Reconciliation Ride
The Bike Week Winnipeg launch ride ended at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the U of M on June 8, 2025. (Zachary Kitchen/CTV News Winnipeg) Bike Week has officially launched in Winnipeg, with members of the public and organizers partaking in a special ride Sunday to mark the occasion. Termed Reconciliation Ride, cyclists gathered at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and peddled to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba. Bike Week Winnipeg grew out of Bike to Work Day Winnipeg, first held in 2007, and is described as a 'weeklong celebration of the bicycle and everyone that rides,' according to their website. The week-long celebration from June 8 to June 14 aims to helps change the culture of riding bikes and make it more accepted as a form of transportation. Bike to Work Day will be held on June 10. Adrian Alphonso, ride leader, said the week-long event has been the 'best way' to engage with the Winnipeg cycling community, providing different educational experiences and opportunities to learn more about cycling in the city. Alphonso said the group was able to make the roughly 10-kilometre journey entirely on infrastructure dedicated to cyclists. For more information, including the events and activities offered during Bike Week Winnipeg, visit their website.
