The first day of the University of Minnesota fall semester, Sept. 7, will coincide with Rosh Hashana, a two-day celebration of the Jewish new year.

Rosh Hashana, which typically begins in early September, will start on the evening of Sept. 6 and end on the evening of Sept. 8. It is considered one of Judaism’s holiest holidays as it commemorates the creation of the world and marks the beginning of the Days of Awe, a 10-day period of introspection and repentance that culminates in the Yom Kippur holiday. Individuals observing Rosh Hashana often gather together for a meal, a prayer reading from the Torah and a blowing of the shofar, the horn of a ram, to announce the new year.

Typically, the University has a required attendance policy where students may lose their spot in the course if they are not present on the first day of classes. However, to accommodate for Jewish students observing the holiday, the University is allowing students to send a note to a provided email address and a staff member will inform the instructor of the excused absence on their behalf, according to a statement from Rachel Croson, the University’s executive vice president and provost.

“Due to the constraints around the calendar this fall — the requirement of starting classes after the Minnesota State Fair, the need to meet instructional day requirements for accreditation, the need to hold six days of final examinations — it was not possible to set an alternative calendar that would move the first day of classes outside of Rosh Hashanah and also satisfy all academic requirements,” Croson said in her statement.

Incoming student president of Minnesota Hillel, Sophie Shapiro, said she will likely either split her time between her faith and education or reach out to her professors prior to the first day.

“Many students are still trying to decide what makes the most sense for them as choosing between faith and education is a difficult decision,” Shapiro said.

Benjie Kaplan, director of Hillel, anticipated the intersection of the first day of the semester and Rosh Hashana three years ago. Along with his staff, Kaplan said he alerted the University of the impending conflict in 2018. However, he later learned that the University begins the process of determining its academic calendar five years in advance.

“At this point we are still in the process of working with the University on accommodations and how we can make sure students, faculty and staff are all aware of them,” Kaplan said in an email to the Minnesota Daily.

According to Croson’s statement, the University said it will remind professors of the Jewish holiday and ask that accommodations be made to students. The University will also delay the deadline for a 100% tuition refund to Sept. 14 at 11:59 p.m., to ensure that all students can attend class before making a decision about withdrawal.

Other schools in Minnesota have adjusted their start dates to accommodate students who observe Rosh Hashana. The St. Paul School Board voted to move their start date to Sept. 9 to account for both days of Rosh Hashana. The Orono, Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan and Bloomington districts pushed back their start date to Sept. 8, according to the Star Tribune.

Any adjustments to the University’s academic calendar must consider factors like the minimum number of days of instruction for some accredited programs and the effects of eliminating one day of the semester, according to Philippe Buhlmann, the chair of the Faculty Consultative Committee.

For example, Buhlmann said eliminating a Tuesday means that classes that are only taught on Tuesday are delayed by a week. For classes with multiple sections, eliminating one day can create an imbalance between the sections. Any attempts to fix the imbalance would also cause a week’s delay.

“Even though this is not a Christian institute and the rhythm of the school year is Christian, we start the semester so that we end it in time for Christmas and we don’t get off on anybody else’s holidays,” said Natan Paradise, the associate director of the Center for Jewish Studies. “And we just have to get better at that, even if we’re not going to change the calendar.”

Paradise said he believes a lot of Jewish students choose not to be observant of Jewish holidays because of the schedule conflicts with their coursework.

“It’s a struggle every year,” Paradise said. “Because every year the Jewish holidays fall during fall semester, and some years you’ve got two days of Rosh Hashana, one day of Yom Kippur, and then multiple days of Sukkot so students who are religiously observant can be missing five days or more.”

The Minnesota Student Association is calling for the University Police Department Chief Matthew Clark to resign due to his alleged refusal to “reform” UMPD and communicate with student leaders in addressing issues of policing on campus.

In a letter addressed to President Joan Gabel and Senior Vice President Myron Frans, MSA demands that Clark immediately resign and an interim chief who is “committed to diversity and inclusion, community control of policing [and the] demilitarization of UMPD” replace Clark during the hiring process.

The letter also noted Clark’s lack of response to an incident of racial profiling of a Black student that occurred at Hanson Hall.

“In his five and half years as Chief of Police at the University of Minnesota, Matt Clark has repeatedly and unequivocally disregarded student demands, failed to increase campus wellness and safety for students of color and has allowed the utilization of UMPD as a physical arm of the oppressive state to subjugate and silence community members both on and off campus,” the letter reads.

This move comes after UMPD officers were found assisting Brooklyn Center police with crowd control tactics during protests that followed the police killing of Daunte Wright. President Gabel confirmed that UMPD is a part of the West Command Task Force, an alliance of police chiefs that allows officers from other departments to assist one another.

Current and upcoming MSA leaders released a statement earlier this month demanding that the University cease its participation in the West Command Task Force after protesters were met with “excessive violence from police forces and the National Guard.”

Police and state patrol officers were seen firing pepper balls, flashbangs and tear gas into the crowds during protests on April 12.

Authors of the statement, Jack Flom and Rebecca Jacobson, said they were arrested in Brooklyn Center and detained for 48 hours after attempting to drive some protestors home.

“We were informed that Chief Clark was in charge of approving UMPD going to join other forces in Brooklyn Center on Sunday night and allowing UMPD to be utilized in that way to traumatize people,” Jacobson said. “So that, compounded with all of the other issues with Matt Clark and UMPD over the last year or more, is kind of what spurred taking action now.”

The MSA letter said that they expect a response from the University in one to two business days. If demands are not met, the letter says, they will plan “direct actions to not only ensure the resignation of Matt Clark but the transformation of UMPD.”

Student groups, such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), have taken to the streets to protest the killing of Daunte Wright and UMPD’s involvement in Brooklyn Center.

“Now that the trial is over, we cannot become complacent,” SDS said in an Instagram post. “There is so much work to do, and so much to win from our administration.”

Editor’s note: This article discusses sexual assault. If you or anyone you know has experienced sexual assault, the Aurora Center’s 24-hour helpline can be reached at (612) 626-9111.

University of Minnesota students, along with surrounding community members, are calling for change in response to the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a felony sexual assault conviction in a case involving a woman who was sexually assaulted.

A jury found Francios Momolu Khalil guilty of a third-degree criminal sexual conduct charge for raping a woman. The Minnesota Supreme Court overturned the charge on March 24, ruling that because the woman was “voluntarily intoxicated,” she did not meet the state’s definition of “mental incapacitation” to pursue the charge.

In May 2017, a woman attempted to enter a Dinkytown bar with her friend, but they were turned away for being too intoxicated, according to court documents. Afterward, a group of men invited them to a “party,” though there was none. Instead, the men drove them to a house in north Minneapolis. After the woman blacked out on a couch in the living room, she woke up to Khalil raping her.

The decision sent shock waves across the state as many responded with outrage and disappointment.

In response, the University’s Minnesota Student Association created a resolution to voice support for the passage of a bill that would expand the definition of “mental incapacitation” to include “voluntarily inebriated” victims. The proposed law would state that even those who have voluntarily consumed drugs or alcohol would be unable to consent to sex.

The MSA resolution received over 1,000 co-sponsors spanning faculty, students, student groups and alumni.

“I know many of us, particularly in this advocacy sphere, were very upset and disheartened by what happened …” Margaux Granath, a resolution co-author and MSA’s Campus Life Committee director, said at a MSA forum meeting on March 30. “But knowing that there is hope — and it is to change this policy — and that we have the means to do that is really powerful.”

MSA has previously advocated for the expansion of a medical amnesty bill that would extend protections from underage alcohol consumptions to victims and reporters of sexual assault.

“I think part of this larger idea is that there are so many structural barriers in our culture about people who are assaulted coming forward and reporting their assault and finding justice …” said Sam Parmekar, co-author of the resolution and the state government coordinator at MSA. “Reversing the [Minnesota] Supreme Court decision is also a part of creating that climate where we believe survivors.”

According to data from the University’s 2018 College Student Health Survey report, 11% of women at the University reported being sexually assaulted within that year. The survey did not report data for gender-nonconforming individuals. Almost 26% of undergraduate women have experienced non-consensual sexual contact since entering the University, according to a 2019 report from the Association of American Universities.

In a March 18 email to the University community, President Joan Gabel announced the launch of an online education module that all employees and student workers must complete by May 27 as a part of the President’s Initiative to Prevent Sexual Misconduct.

The Aurora Center for Advocacy and Education, a campus resource that supports survivors of abuse, stalking and harassment, is seeing students navigate feelings of shock, anger and disappointment as they process the court’s decision.

The Aurora Center has observed an increase in activism as students are becoming more involved in protesting and learning about lawmaking processes, Katie Eichele, the center’s director, said. The role of social media has allowed for victims to share their personal stories and to increase public scrutiny on lawmakers. This ruling follows the momentum of movements like #MeToo, which combat gender-based violence.

Madisyn Priestley, a second-year University student and a survivor of sexual assault, organized a women’s rights protest at the Capitol on March 29 in response to the court ruling. Starting with the creation of a flyer and sharing it via Snapchat, she was able to organize a protest with a couple of hundred demonstrators in attendance.

“I think the more we talk about it and the more pressure we put on the more incentives [lawmakers] have especially for change,” Priestley said. “So I am hopeful, and I hope [survivors] are hopeful as well, because losing hope kind of means losing indefinitely.”

The protest served as a safe space for sexual assault survivors to share their stories, Priestley said. Many found solidarity, not only in the feelings of hurt and anger towards the court ruling but also in their shared hope for change.

While there may be fear of reporting sexual assault on campus, Eichele said she has hope that there will be revisions to the language of the law.

“Our hope is that very soon the language of the statute will change rather quickly because there is public awareness of it and there is bipartisan support …” Eichele said. “The statute should not deter a victim-survivor who’s experienced violence from reporting the crime.”

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of the Francios Momolu Khalil. 

After officers from the University of Minnesota Police Department were deployed during protests over the police killing of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, student leaders are demanding that UMPD withdraw from agreements to participate in “riot” control.

UMPD is a part of the West Command Task Force, a group composed of 35 police departments from across Hennepin County. The Task Force formed after the police killing of George Floyd to assist member police departments “in the event of an emergency that exceeds their own capacity,” according to a campus-wide email from President Joan Gabel.

Gabel said all 35 police departments responded to the protests in Brooklyn Center Sunday night. All departments pledge 10% of their force to assist one another when needed.
“UMPD participates in and is committed to this collaborative group to assist these other jurisdictions in need of immediate police support and with the understanding that this group will assist the University when needed,” Gabel said.
Undergraduate student body president Amy Ma and vice president Sophronia Cheung, along with incoming president Abdulaziz Mohamed and vice president Samiat Ajibola, authored a letter released Monday and started an email campaign to collect signatures demanding UMPD’s withdrawal from the West Command Task Force.

“In response to Wright’s death, protesters emerged on the streets of Brooklyn Center and were confronted with excessive violence from police forces and the National Guard,” the letter reads. “As members of the University of Minnesota community, our rage is heightened by the fact that twelve University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) officers were present at the scene in full riot gear. UMPD’s actions are unacceptable.”

Protesters fighting for justice for Daunte Wright were met with excessive violence from police forces, with twelve UMPD officers present.

UMPD is funded by our tuition dollars and needs to be accountable to our community. Take action at https://t.co/B3o3YkjNU9 pic.twitter.com/udVvu6TItf

— UMN Student Body President (@UMN_SBP) April 13, 2021

The letter was released as protesters gathered in defiance of the 7 p.m. curfew to protest police brutality Monday night. Law enforcement declared an unlawful assembly and attempted to disperse the crowd with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash grenades, according to the Star Tribune.

The task force asked for assistance again Monday night during the multi-county curfew, Gabel said.

In May, UMPD broke off some collaborations with the Minneapolis Police Department in response to the killing of Floyd and a letter from then-undergraduate president Jael Kerandi. Gabel announced that the University would no longer contract with MPD for law enforcement support during large events or for specialized services.

Student groups, such as Students for a Democratic Society, have taken to social media calling for justice and action from the University to establish police accountability.

“It is unacceptable and deeply disturbing that time and time again, we see our campus police in full riot gear, ready to suppress protests across the Twin Cities,” read a statement on the student group’s Instagram page.

One person was confirmed dead and one person was injured and hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries following a shooting in Dinkytown late Monday night, according to a Minneapolis Police Department spokesperson.

Law enforcement, which included MPD and UMPD officers, responded to reports of gunfire on the 400 block of 13th Avenue Southeast shortly after 11 p.m. Monday night, according to MPD spokesperson John Elder. Both victims were males. Neither are a University student, staff or faculty member, per a SAFE-U alert.

Police officers retrieved three guns outside of Kollege Klub, a popular Dinkytown bar. There is no active threat, and MPD is not looking for additional suspects, Elder said.

Portions of 13th Avenue Southeast, near popular student apartments and hangouts like Burrito Loco and Frank From Philly and Andrea Pizza, were blocked off with police tape as of 11:45 p.m. The shooting took place outside.

I’m in Dinkytown on 13th Ave SE where there has been a report of a shooting. Updates pending. Police have blocked off the Kollege Klub and Burrito Loco. @mndailynews pic.twitter.com/IPQGvJUC1D

— Tiffany Bui (@tiffanybu1) March 30, 2021

An all-campus safety alert notified students of the shooting shortly after midnight on Tuesday, with an updated alert sent out the following morning.

One witness near the scene, a female who lives in the area, said she saw a black car pull up near the Kollege Klub. A male hopped in the vehicle before the car sped off, she said.

MPD is investigating the shooting, and both UMPD and MPD will assign increased patrol to the area.

This is a breaking news report. More information may be added as it becomes available.

The University of Minnesota Student Senate passed a tuition reimbursement resolution Thursday asking the University to reimburse 3.3% of student tuition for fall 2020 due semester to its one-third online modality.

The tuition reimbursement resolution originally passed in a Minnesota Student Association forum meeting in November. The proportion of tuition reimbursement equates to a 10% reimbursement of the portion of the semester that was exclusively online in the fall. This reflects one-third of the semester, including the delay of in-person instruction at the start of the fall semester and exclusive online instruction during the weeks following Thanksgiving break.

According to Jack Flom, the author of the resolution, bringing the bill to the Student Senate continues to push administrators to reimburse students.

In response to the MSA resolution last fall, President Joan Gabel said in December the University would not recommend a tuition reimbursement.

“We will also continue to welcome and carefully consider your input and advocacy, as we lean into the expertise and guidance available to us, and adapt and adjust as appropriate,” Gabel said in a response letter to MSA, adding that the University had frozen tuition for the 2020-21 academic year.

Compared to the previous draft, the resolution presented to the Student Senate includes reimbursement for all University campuses, as legislation presented to the Senate must pertain to all campuses.

According to a survey from the Morris Campus Student Association, about 85% of students surveyed agreed that if modality is fully online, part of tuition should be reimbursed. About 91% of students surveyed disagreed with paying the same tuition for online courses at the Twin Cities campus, and about 97% of Duluth students surveyed said that tuition should be reimbursed.

Although the resolution asks to reimburse tuition for all students, many graduate and professional students whose departments cover their tuitions would not need a refund, said Richard Gonigam, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology and member of the Council of Graduate Students.

“I think it makes the Senate look bad if we send them a resolution demanding specific action, but then the specific action can’t be applied or isn’t relevant,” Gonigam said. “I don’t pay the University anything. I don’t pay tuition. I don’t pay fees. In fact, they pay me $33,000 a year to go here and work for them. What’s there to refund?”

In response to the question of applicability to graduate students, Flom said that refunds could go to the departments, allocating more resources and services to students.

“I can only imagine that that departmental surplus that would be experienced through that refund would only go to benefiting students more, whether that’s having better access to advising or better access to supplies,” said College of Liberal Arts senator Rebecca Jacobson at the Senate meeting.

According to University spokesperson Jake Ricker, the University administration is aware of the Student Senate’s resolution and will respond in the coming days.

The Minnesota Hillel is asking University of Minnesota students to vote for a definition of antisemitism during the annual all-campus election referendum.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which consists of delegates from 34 countries, established the working definition of antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” Hillel’s usage of the IHRA working definition, particularly portions which classify some critiques of Israel as antisemitic, has drawn backlash from University community members who are concerned with free speech suppression.

A number of other colleges and universities, such as Arizona State University and the University of Georgia, have adopted the IHRA definition in the 2020-21 school year.

After garnering 850 student signatures last week, Hillel was able to successfully bring the question of defining antisemitism to the University’s all-campus elections ballot. The signature benchmark to get a question on the referendum is 800.

Students can vote on the definition, along with several candidates for student government, in the all-campus election from March 22 to March 26. If adopted, the definition would reflect the student body’s opinion rather than be legally binding.

A series of antisemitic incidents have taken place at the University over the past few years, where fliers with swastikas could be seen plastered around campus. In 2017, the University of Minnesota Police Department arrested an 18-year-old University student for allegedly vandalizing a desk in the 17th Avenue Residence Hall with a swastika.

Hillel student president Kelsey Bailey said her friends have experienced Holocaust jokes from University professors. According to Bailey, the University should be doing more to address antisemitism on campus.

“I’m hoping that there’d be some form of action from the administration, whether that’s education for student government or professors or students on antisemitism and like what it actually is and how it happens on college campuses,” Bailey said.

A 2020 survey from the American Jewish Committee found that only 53% of adults over the age of 18 are familiar with the term “antisemitism.”

“The IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition is currently the most widely accepted definition, providing an educational tool for various governments, organizations, and universities around the world,” said Hillel assistant director Mackenzie Litt in an email to the Minnesota Daily. “Adopting this definition would provide the U with a compass.”

The definition has drawn criticism from some University students and faculty, as well as national organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union. An open letter to the Minnesota Daily, authored by pro-Palestinian Jewish students and signed by over 180 University community members, stated that “the IHRA definition does not lessen the threat of antisemitism, and concerningly, has been used to conflate legitimate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, obstructing political and academic freedom.”

According to the IHRA, a manifestation of antisemitism includes targeting the state of Israel. An example of an antisemitic act could be “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” However, the IHRA states that criticisms of Israel that could be applied to other countries are not antisemitic.

The authors of the letter expressed concern that the definition could suppress free speech, especially the voices of Palestinians, to criticize Israel. The letter also argued that a shortcoming of the proposed definition is that it does not focus on white supremacy.

“By making criticisms of Israel a focal point instead, it does not effectively protect the safety of Jews or our allies. After the events of January 6 at the Capitol and the recent upswing in anti-Asian violence, it is more important than ever to address antisemitism in a way that clearly connects with all other forms of racism, oppression and discrimination,” the letter reads.

When asked whether Hillel considers criticism of Israel an antisemitic action, Litt said “the students are interested in adopting the working definition [of antisemitism], not the examples. Those are just examples.”

Secretary of Students for Justice in Palestine, Kenza El Abdallaoui, an author of the letter, said associating antisemitism with critiquing the Israeli government dilutes real antisemitism.

“It puts Palestinians and it puts their allies in a position where they either have to choose between their human rights or being labeled an antisemite, and that is not a position that anybody should be in,” El Abdallaoui said.

During the late 1940s to early 1950s, Jews fleeing persecution in Europe — some survivors of the Holocaust — migrated in mass numbers to Palestine, effectively doubling the Jewish population there. Prior to when the modern state of Israel was established in 1948, the country then was majority Palestinian Arabs and controlled by Britain.

As Jews migrated to Palestine, Arabs viewed the influx as part of European efforts to colonize their land and opposed it. Clashes between Israeli and Palestinian forces led to the displacement of over 700,000 Palestinian refugees. At the end of the war, Israel controlled most of the territory, and Palestinians were without a state.

The West Bank, east of Israel, is home to up to 3 million Palestinians and is under Israeli occupation. The United Nations and many Palestinians consider the West Bank illegally occupied land by the Israeli military. Some academics and activists define Israel’s occupation of Palestine as settler colonialism. Settler colonialism, a type of colonialism, is the process where settlers arrive seeking to replace the indigenous people of the land.

“If you say ‘the state of Israel is a racist endeavor, then you’re being antisemitic,’ then that’s going to affect how people view Palestinian activists and people who are fighting for the Palestinian cause,” said a Palestinian student activist, who asked not to be identified due to concerns about potential harassment.

Kenneth Stern, the author of the IHRA definition, spoke out in 2019 against the “weaponizing” of the definition, after then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating that antisemitism violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though the executive order does not define antisemitism, it requires federal agencies to “consider” the IHRA working definition.

“It was never intended to be a campus hate speech code but that’s what Donald Trump’s executive order accomplished this week… This order is an attack on academic freedom and free speech, and will harm not only pro-Palestinian advocates, but also Jewish students and faculty, and the academy itself,” Stern stated in a Guardian opinion piece.

To voice support for the referendum, members of Hillel and other student groups submitted their own OpEd to the Minnesota Daily, discussing the rising tide of hate crimes against minorities, including Jews. According to the letter, accepting the IHRA definition would “signal to Jewish students — and other minority groups — that the University of Minnesota will not stand idly by in the face of rising hate and discrimination.”

“Over and over again, we have witnessed the dangerous intersection of white supremacy and hatred of minorities,” the letter stated. “For many of these hateful individuals, anti-Jewish animus, constructed on wild conspiracy theories, forms the foundation of their hatred.”

Hillel hosted a public forum on Friday to answer questions about the referendum question. El Abdallaoui said the IHRA definition of antisemitism is not inclusive to Jews like herself, who do not feel Israel is connected with their identity.

In response, Bailey, the Hillel student president, said the main focus of the definition was not Israel, but to help University community members understand what antisemitism can look like.

“This referendum is about antisemitism. … The definition of this is dealing with antisemitic acts on campus, it’s rhetorical and physical manifestations for the Jewish and non-Jewish community,” Bailey said. “This definition, with this example that relates to Israel — it’s intended to distinguish between legitimate, valid criticism of Israel and what might be otherwise thinly-veiled forms of antisemitism. So, [for example] accusing Jews of dual-loyalty, comparing Israeli politicians to Nazis and collectively holding all Jewish people responsible for the actions of Israel.”

Anna Casey, Hillel’s vice president of campus affairs, said the reason why Hillel chose to use the IHRA definition over others was that more than 30 countries, including the United States government, have accepted the definition.

In response to the letter, Casey said that the antisemitism definition they are trying to adopt is not meant to suppress pro-Palestine voices.

“We’re not a pro-Israel organization first, we are a Jewish organization for Jewish students on campus,” Casey said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated since publication to anonymize a source due to their concerns about potential harassment.

Clarification: A sentence of this story has been updated to more accurately reflect the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

The Minnesota State Senate is considering adding University of Minnesota campuses to the revised “Hunger Free Campus” designation after a Senate Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee hearing last Tuesday.

Originally passed in 2019, the bill provides a designation recognizing Minnesota community and technical colleges for reducing student hunger and food insecurity. State senators revised the bill’s language last year to include four-year colleges and universities in addition to financial benefits.

To be designated a “hunger-free campus,” a college has to meet several criteria, including establishing an emergency assistance grant; providing regular, on-campus food distributions; and providing information to students about programs that reduce food insecurity.

According to the author of the bill, Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud, the bill asked that the State Office of Higher Education allocate $100,000 for use in a grant program at universities and colleges. Awards range from $2,000 to $3,000 per action a college or university takes to reduce student hunger and food insecurity.

“If a school wanted to establish a food bank, for example, they could apply for some grants to help do that. The school itself would have to come up with 25% matching funds,” Putnam said.

The two types of grant funding discussed would be incubating grants to help universities start delivering resources and sustaining grants for universities with resources already. According to the revised bill, priority will go to campuses with the highest number of enrolled students eligible for the Pell grant and initial grant applications.

Rebecca Leighton, founder of the Nutritious U Food Pantry, was consulted in the process of revising the bill. Leighton said the funding could help universities that do not have the resources to address food insecurity and assist universities that have initiatives in place.

“I think that funding would just be helpful for both groups to help them get started or to help fill in gaps that some schools have within their current programs,” Leighton said. “And I think overall, the bill and that kind of funding is really just hopefully seen as a first step.”

California, which has invested roughly $54 million toward food insecurity, and New Jersey, which invested $3 million, passed the Hunger Free Campus act. Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, Illinois, Massachusetts and North Carolina also introduced the bill.

Gabe Hafemann, a member of the Minnesota Student Association’s Government and Legislative Affairs team, testified at the bill’s hearing on March 2. As a former restaurant and grocery store worker, they said food insecurity is a personal issue.

“Life costs more, especially for students from low socioeconomic standing. I’m one of them,” Hafemann said. “My parents told me early and often that I would be paying for college myself.”

Two Minnesota law enforcement agencies requested on Tuesday that a University of Minnesota student apologize for posting “false statements and fabrications” after alleging racial profiling by the University of Minnesota Police Department, as initially reported by the Star Tribune.

The requests, made by Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association (MPPOA) and Law Enforcement Labor Services, came after UMPD released dashcam footage of a Feb. 1 incident that showed officers stopping a student who appeared to match the description of a suspect in a robbery that occurred earlier in the night.

According to the student, at least two officers approached him with their “hands on their guns,” questioned him and made him feel uncomfortable and concerned for his safety. The student, who is a person of color, said he thought officers approached him because of his race. He does not wish to be identified due to fear of harassment.

“The only thing I could think of was: what did I do wrong other than the fact I was a brown man,” the student wrote on Instagram.

Following the student’s initial posts and accusations, UMPD released the dashcam footage. It is the first video that publicly appears on the University’s Department of Public Safety YouTube account, which was created on Feb. 3.

The UMPD footage indicates that two officers approached the student, who in turn offered to show them his student identification. The officers explained to the student that a robbery occurred in the area before reentering the car, apologizing and leaving the scene.

After coming forward, the student has since been the target of intense public criticism and backlash — including some threats — over mischaracterization of his interactions with the police.

On Feb. 7, the student publicly apologized on Instagram saying that although he described feeling genuine fear, he recognized the impact his story had on undermining experiences of police brutality in Black and Latinx communities.

The MPPOA and LELS, the two largest labor associations in the state to represent public safety officials and law enforcement personnel respectively, also asked that the student discontinue an email campaign to the Board of Regents and President Joan Gabel that recounted his experience and included a list of demands.

“No amount of training, community engagement or empty reforms will ever allow for students to feel safe while the UMPD patrols our campus,” the email reads.

Release of the video footage has prompted discussions among campus activists, as well. After a social media campaign, the University’s Students for a Democratic Society chapter later apologized for falsely comparing the student’s experience to the “police terror and brutality that is systemically inflicted on Black communities.”

“It is imperative that we believe individuals who come forward in the future, despite how the situation unfolded,” SDS stated on Instagram.

This is a breaking news report. More information may be added as it becomes available.

University of Minnesota alum Nimo Yusuf delivers nutrition lessons to Somali participants in the University Extension’s SNAP Education using WhatsApp, a popular application among many U.S. immigrant communities.

SNAP Education offers nutrition courses and works with other organizations to reach communities that are eligible for SNAP benefits. SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is a government program that provides financial assistance to families in need to purchase food.

Yusuf teaches program participants how to make healthier ingredient choices when planning meals and cooking recipes, such as using whole grain instead of white flour when making an East African bread dish called injera. Her other lessons include reading the different fat percentages in milk and how to save money when comparing prices across store outlets.

Instead of teaching her students how to use Zoom, Yusuf uses WhatsApp to formulate her lesson plans into bite-sized voice memos accompanied with pictures. WhatsApp allows users to send audio recordings, participate in group conversations with up to 256 people and host video calls in different countries.

For Yusuf, who has been using WhatsApp since 2010, the app is the most effective way to teach her classes virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I knew a lot of the Somali participants that I work with, including myself, are very familiar [with] WhatsApp,” Yusuf said. “When we switched from in-person, it was one of the platforms that I knew they were very familiar with, and it wouldn’t take a whole lot of time to train them or to know how to use.”

While she said she misses seeing her students’ faces in person, Yusuf’s adapted curriculum has received positive feedback.

“The feedback has been that they have learned a lot through WhatsApp and the curriculum that we have been providing. So far, it’s been very, very well received,” Yusuf said.
Janice Rasmussen, regional SNAP-Ed coordinator and Yusuf’s supervisor, said Yusuf’s work is vital during COVID-19 when communities of color, including immigrant communities, are disproportionately impacted by the virus.

“COVID has just heightened [health disparities]. … If you look at the public health numbers, like, African American and folks of African descent are dying way more often from COVID,” Rasmussen said. “I think some of it relates to just the stress that people live under and the discrimination they face every day and the poverty that they’re living with.”

Hibaq Dualeh, another SNAP educator, said COVID-19 has revealed persistent systemic health and social inequities. To Dualeh, it is an opportunity to learn and create resources and programs that can benefit communities of color.

“COVID has made it incredibly difficult for us to engage communities in person,” Dualeh said in an email to the Minnesota Daily. “As a result, we have free time that can be devoted to other areas. In the past year, we’ve had ample time to identify gaps and opportunities in the resources we provide to the communities we work with.”

Yusuf plans to resume teaching her lessons via WhatsApp in February with about 40 participants.

“We just want to make a difference in the community, and [the] kindness of the community … makes my day, and that makes me feel rewarded, even when you know the challenges are very real and there are a lot of barriers,” Yusuf said. “I’m glad to be a bridge that helps to bring … the University resources to the Somali community, to the communities that I work with.”