University of Minnesota makes the Chronicle

"pattern of noncooperation"

"arrogance and pettiness"

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

State legislators are sending a firm message to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities: Make room for a light rail line through the campus or the state will make that room through eminent domain.

According to the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, city and state officials say that the university's "pattern of noncooperation" and "arrogance and pettiness" could delay and drive up the costs of a nearly $1-billion project to extend the Twin Cities' relatively new light-rail system. Under the plan that system, which now runs from downtown to the airport, would get a new line that runs from downtown Minneapolis, through the university campus, to Saint Paul.

A lobbyist for the university said that administrators feared that vibrations and electromagnetic radiation would interfere with work in laboratories along the proposed line.

The Met Council and the university will start court-ordered mediation this week, with the hopes of working out a deal.

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