View Southeast from Washington Avenue Bridge

Bridge at sunset

Why You Should Avoid US Federal Credit Union

I'm a customer of US Federal Credit Union. Today, I opened a letter from them dated January 6 (I've been out of town for a couple of weeks), explaining that:

Effective Wednesday, January 27, 2010, the US Federal Credit Union ATM located in the McNamara Alumni Center ... will no longer be in service.

This seems to be the final chapter in the demise of credit union service for the University of Minnesota community. Let me tell you a story.

I came to the U in late 2001. I chose to bank with the University of Minnesota Federal Credit Union. They rocked. Why? First, they treated me like a human being. Second, they gave me a very nice auto loan when TCF laughed in my face (and rolled their eyes vigorously when I told them why TCF turned me down). Third, they were located extremely conveniently right in the middle of campus in Stadium Village. I was happy.

Fast-forward to early 2007. The UMFCU membership was asked to vote on merging with US Federal. I voted no, but the measure passed. On April 1, UMFCU disappeared and everything was re-branded US Federal. Aside from the now-rather-corporate look and feel, so far so good.

Then, US Federal torpedoed the Stadium Village branch. (I don't recall the exact date, but I believe this was sometime in 2009.) WTF? The "closest" branch was now in South Minneapolis, near Lake & Hiawatha. Note that I don't ever bring a car to campus (and this is very common among the University community). The Minneapolis branch is a moderate detour when I'm biking to work, but it's not in a neighborhood where I like to lock my bike outside, and when I'm bussing it would burn an hour to stop in. This wouldn't be so horrible because there was still an ATM on campus, except it didn't take deposits. Banking went from extremely convenient to a major chore.

Now, they are removing the ATM too. The closest alternatives appear to be somewhere in Prospect Park ("just blocks" from the existing ATM according to the letter, but it's actually a full mile) and at Bullwinkle's at Seven Corners on the west bank. Neither takes deposits.

The bottom line is, US Federal Credit Union either doesn't want business from University of Minnesota people or is so utterly clueless about the University community that it appears so. I encourage you to immediately close your accounts and take your business elsewhere. If you wish to make your displeasure known, write to:

Bill Raker, President/CEO
US Federal Credit Union
1400 Riverwood Drive
Burnsville, MN 55337
bill.raker@usfed.org

(As an aside, I also discovered that back when the merger happened, savings accounts were silently converted to a type carrying life insurance, for a fee of course. This garbage was "disclosed" in the fine print - clearly designed to discourage people from realizing they are paying for a service they don't need and thus opting out. Again, more customer-hostile behavior.)

I find this situation particularly amusing in light of US Federal's "Statement of Commitment to Members", which reads in part: "We will uphold our fundamental responsibility to actively serve the many communities within our field of membership. We will treat all members with respect and dignity.... [W]e will continuously improve and communicate our services in a meaningful way.... The credit union ideal is to extend service to all who need and can use it."

Sadly, I do not have any suggestions on alternatives. Certainly, you don't want to deal with TCF, the monster bank that the U is in cahoots with. Any such suggestions would be most welcome in the comments.

Northrop Auditorium

Grad Student Review

Every year, the CS department does a performance review for each of its Ph.D. students. Here's mine.

We are very pleased with the quality of your work and with the pace of your progress. We want to congratulate you and encourage you to continue doing such an excellent job. We especially note the unusual and significant achievement of having originated and led the development of Cyclopath, a system that has (a) earned significant real-world usage, (b) resulted in deep collaborations with local government and non-profits, including a sizable grant from the Metropolitan Council, as well as (c) serving as a platform for carrying out excellent research. We also note the unusual and significant leadership role you have taken on the Cyclopath project, engaging in extensive informal and formal mentoring of less experienced students as well as doing large amounts of software project management. We understand that this work certainly has taken away from the amount of "pure" / narrowly construed research you could have done -- that is, you probably could have published more papers if you had not done this. However, you *still* have published a good number of very high quality papers, and the amount and type of effort you have put in have led to accomplishments are much more substantial and longer lasting than just a few (more) research papers.

We congratulate you an reaching an advanced stage in your degree program. At this point, we think you should be ready to finish and defend your thesis within the next year. Please consult closely with your advisor to develop a detailed timetable and verify that your examining committee is appropriate. You also should be seeking career guidance from your advisor if you have not done so already.

Sincerely,

Loren Terveen
Director of Graduate Studies
on behalf of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering
The University of Minnesota

The tone is interesting to me, as Loren is my advisor in addition to being the DGS.

More Night Images from UMN

Lights on Campus at UMN

Third Roll of Film

My third roll of film came back last weekend. I'm really pleased with the results. Enjoy!

University of Minnesota Cyclists Get Screwed, Again

I wrote a letter to the editor of the Minnesota Daily about the above situation, and they ran it, yay! I'm reprinting it here too:

With the closure of the Kolthoff Hall sidewalk and the walk-only restrictions on the western silver bridge, it is once again impossible to safely get from the Washington Ave bridge to north of Washington on a bicycle. I find it hard to believe that the University consulted with any cyclists on closing the silver bridge, as it is unnecessary and focuses cycle traffic into the Washington/Church intersection, thus creating a dangerous concentration of bicycle, pedestrian, and motor vehicle traffic on the southwest corner of the intersection.

I submit two alternative approaches:

1. Replace the "Bicycles Dismount" signs on the silver bridge with a 5MPH speed limit. There is plenty of room for cyclists and pedestrians to coexist on that bridge in light summer traffic, and a 5MPH speed limit would allow ticketing of reckless cyclists (who are the real motivation for the closing, I would assume).

2. Close the west silver bridge to pedestrians and leave it for cyclists - the east silver bridge is a short distance away and unsuitable for cyclists anyway due to the stairs.

I realize that construction is disruptive, and we need to share the burden. But forcing major disruption on cyclists while while other modes are largely unaffected is not sharing.

Another UMN Fail

This is a rendering of the godawful new Science Classroom Building. I oppose "architecture" in general, because it's expensive and dumb (let's prioritize effective use of the buildings, perhaps?), but the University is suffering massive financial problems at the moment. Stupid architecture is the last thing we should be spending money on.

Sod

Every spring, the University re-sods this stretch of grass, and every winter, they kill it again with salt from the sidewalk.

It's things like this -- and also resolving the University's budget problems by taking educational opportunities away from the lowest-paid workers while continuing to pay the basketball coach over a million dollars per year -- that make me extremely disinclined to ever donate to the U as an alum.

New Stadium, Yecccch

Here is the new stadium which we are paying godawful sums of money for and which is not needed. U of M sports, bite me. And stop sending spam hawking tickets.

I am told that for a few days the giant grey sign read "TCF Band Stadium".

Bus to St. Paul Campus

There's a dedicated busway from the Minneapolis campus to the St. Paul campus. It was opened to bicyclists too a few years ago. Here's one.

Eckles Avenue

Giant Crane

The construction people at the science classroom building have a giant crane for lifting stuff.

UMN East Bank

Coffman Union, Moos Tower, and other buildings on a dreary day.

Should have tried a polarizer.

Project 100, #73.