Second-year student Riley Hetland and third-year student Ethan Fiegel will be the University of Minnesota Undergraduate Student Government President and Vice President for the 2025-26 academic year, according to campus elections results announced Friday. 

Hetland and Fiegel ran against candidates Samia Abdulle and Jack Drouin. Hetland currently serves as the USG director of Civic Engagement and Fiegel serves as the vice chair of Campus Safety specialized committee. 

In a statement to the Minnesota Daily, Hetland and Fiegel said they are honored to be elected. They said they were beyond grateful for the support they received throughout their campaign. 

“We will work tirelessly throughout our term to ensure that all student voices are heard and acted upon,” Hetland and Fiegel said in the statement. “To (Abdulle) and (Drouin), thank you for pushing us to be our best–your strong campaign ensured that the most students possible were engaged in this election. We want to ensure that all students know that your voices are the ones that drive us. We are excited to lead.” 

Abdulle and Drouin said in a statement to the Daily they wish Hetland and Fiegel the best with their time in office. 

“They will be great leaders, and we hope to collaborate and work together to help students in every way possible,” Abdulle and Drouin said in the statement.

Current USG President Rahma Ali and Vice President Clara Jünemann said they were incredibly proud of both campaigns for leading a strong and successful all-campus election season. 

“One of our goals as President and Vice President this year was to have a contested election — one that encouraged participation, conversation and choice — and we were proud to see that in this year’s election,” Ali and Jünemann said.

The University of Minnesota’s Multiracial Student Union kicked off its month of Recognizing Our Origins and Transracial Stories, or ROOTS, with its career question-and-answer workshop on Friday. 

ROOTS is an event series to explore the multifaceted impact of racial identity on academics, community and personal life, according to MRSU President Gabrielle Denniston. 

ROOTS also focuses on the multiracial, multiethnic and transracial adoptee experiences for students. A transracial adoptee is a person who has been adopted by parents of a different race or ethnicity than their own. 

The series’ goal is to support students with intersectional identities to foster a sense of community and cultural collaboration, according to Denniston.

The series includes two more events for the month. MRSU x Bridges to Belonging discussion on April 11, an event telling the stories of multiracial students and transracial adoptees and the GrassROOTS event on April 18, an event to embrace cultural pride with activities and games. 

Alexander Hines, Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for the University’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Program, was a guest speaker and panelist for the event. Other panelists included Dr. Aerial Ashlee, PhD student Nicole Quintus, graduate student Ross Armant and dancer and pre-physician assistant Nailah Abdullah. Another panel featured MRSU members.

Denniston said her vision for MRSU is to provide a space for transracial adoptees and multi-ethnic students to be able to collaborate and show that there is space for different cultures to coexist within a large university. 

“We want to be able to show that there are beautiful cultural similarities between different groups because collabs already do happen and it’s amazing to see that they are happening,” Denniston said. 

Although not a transracial adoptee herself, Denniston said she knows transracial adoptees do not always have a chance to grow up directly with their own cultures, which can cause cultural division later in their lives. 

For Denniston, having roots not only means learning about her own origins, but also learning about where other people come from. 

“Whether it is freshly grounded or hundreds of years where they’ve been in contact with their own cultures, it’s beautiful to see the diversity that’s within each of those spheres,” Denniston said. 

Hines, who is a transracial adoptee, said being a transracial adoptee comes with trauma, emphasizing the importance of providing students with the information to become leaders. 

According to Hines, teaching students about various leadership styles can help them understand group dynamics, form coalitions and build movements among peers of different races, ethnicities, cultures and perspectives. 

MRSU Vice President Elliot Breazile, who uses they/them pronouns, said ROOTS shows students that their journey through college has been a lot more than school. Breazile added they are establishing themself within a community where they can help other multiracial people find who they are in a professional sense. 

According to Breazile, the goal of the workshop event was to help people get connected more with research to show them the world is bigger than just school, and everyone deserves a chance to reach for opportunities at the University.

Breazile said they believe that ROOTS is not represented enough on campus and that multiracial students are used as diversity markers for the campus to say they have diverse students on campus. 

“We’re more than just our ethnicities and where we come from, we’re our careers, the paths that we’re making for ourselves, the connections we make with one another,” Breazile said. “We’re so much more than that.”

The University of Minnesota’s Arab Band showcases the unique complexity of Arabic music and is looking to continue performing at events on and off campus. 

The Arab Band implements Arabic music by teaching and performing the Arabic music theory, a primarily melodic and modal music system focusing on the movement of single-note melodies rather than harmonic structures. 

According to its mission statement, the band aims to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where people of all backgrounds can come together to share their passion for Arab musical traditions.

The group was created in March 2024 by third-year students Jordan Sarkis and Kermina Gendi, who both serve as co-presidents. 

The band has performed at nine events on and off campus since its creation, most recently performing at an event for the Saudi Student Association.

Performances pop up out of nowhere, according to Sarkis, but the band’s next confirmed performance is at the Arab Student Association Gala May 3 and the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Associations Art-A-Whirl May 16-18. 

Sarkis said he wanted to found the band because of the lack of Arab music on campus and in the greater community. Sarkis grew up in a musical environment with his father being a composer and his brother a guitarist and pianist. 

Sarkis, who grew up in Jordan and came to the U.S. two and a half years ago, said he wanted to continue to pursue music like his father and brother. Sarkis said he could not find a community interested in Arab music on campus when he first started school, inspiring him to form the band. 

The band first got together and performed at an Arab Student Association event during Ramadan last year, Sarkis said, thinking the performance would only be a one time thing.

“They didn’t see that anywhere before and we were like, if we are the only ones that are able to provide this and we are showing a lot of people who may have been in my position, not knowing that these kind of people exist, you know those people share this kind of interest, then we can build a community, and we can make a name for ourselves,” Sarkis said.

Sarkis said he feels very proud of what the band has been able to do.

“It is a big responsibility, because you kind of want to deliver something that people used to see back home, and as someone who is doing that for the first time, it is a big responsibility, but it also makes me feel very proud of what I do,” Sarkis said. 

Sarkis plays the ney and is a percussionist as well, playing instruments like the clarinet and the oud. The ney is an ancient 5,000-year-old Middle Eastern flute made from reed, a type of tall, slender grass that grows in wetlands and riverbanks. 

The oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument that has been used in Middle Eastern music for centuries. 

Sarkis said he wants people to know that Arabic music is very unique and interesting. Arabic music has a lot of interesting and unique styles that you don’t see anywhere else in the world.

“I invite anyone Arab or not Arab to kind of join our community, whether you want to try to perform with us, whether you just want to get to know us, or watch us perform, because it’s such a unique experience to learn Arabic music, I would say much more than any other kind of music in the world,” Sarkis said. 

Pianist Robert Lehmann said performing Arabic music is a new challenge, and he feels good to be a part of something special. 

Lehmann, who is of Filipino descent, said he has made friends with many people of middle eastern descent due to his role in the band. 

“I think music has a way of transporting people in a really powerful way,” Lehmann said. “I think especially right now, it’s just like for students who are away from centers of home, it’s just having that way of providing music and providing that glimpse of like, ‘Ooh yeah,. this feels right,’ you know, even if it’s only for a few minutes, is really powerful.” 

Sarkis said he would like for people to appreciate that Arabic music is one of the most beautiful kinds of music to ever exist. 

“It’s for me, the most beautiful,” Sarkis said. “I might be biased, but I’ve also studied the theory behind it, so I know it’s the most unique one and what I want from people is to just keep getting involved with all the Arab communities on campus.”

College students seeking mental health support face delays in care due to licensing barriers that prevent out-of-state therapists from providing services in another state, limiting access to critical resources.

Mental health therapists are traditionally licensed on a state-by-state basis, which prevents them from providing services across state lines, potentially disrupting the continuity of care for students and others who move between states. 

University of Minnesota students ages 20-24 reported the highest rates of depression diagnosis within their lifetime, and students ages 18-19 reported the highest rates of depression within the past 12 months, according to the University’s 2024 College Student Health Survey Report. 

89% of therapists said they wanted to see reforms in cross-state licensure, and nearly 70% of surveyed therapists reported they experienced losing a client due to a client moving to another state, according to research conducted by Alma, a platform that aims to simplify access to mental health care. 

Undergraduate Student Government Director of Federal Affairs Salma Abdi said USG held discussions with legislators on expanding interstate licensure for mental health professionals during Big Ten on the Hill, an intercollegiate conference where Big Ten student governments meet with congressional legislators. 

Abdi said Minnesota legislators across parties expressed interest in reforming cross-state licensing, given the growing concern about mental health on a national scale.  

Although students have free access to mental health professionals, Abdi said issues arise when University-sponsored mental health resources like Boynton Counseling or Student Counseling Services have long wait lists and limited appointments.

“In Minnesota, there is this growing concern and growing need for mental health care access,” Abdi said. “So, Minnesota is not able to meet the needs of every single college student. Minnesota is not able to have mental health care professionals meet and represent the experiences and needs of all the entire population in Minnesota that requires or needs access to mental health care.”

Abdi said USG will keep pushing to advocate for expanded mental health resources by continuing talks with students and administration. 

Abdi hopes to have a law passed including feasible, broad requirements for mental health care. This includes the ability for mental health care professionals to practice in different states or practice in one state while treating a patient in another state.

“The reason why people should know about this is because it doesn’t require throwing a bunch of money out,” Abdi said. “It doesn’t require investing in infrastructure. It doesn’t require this investing in healthcare professionals, but rather creating a space where more people are able to have access to more healthcare professionals and more mental healthcare professionals.” 

University law student Madeleine Rossi said cross-state licensing impacts students specifically because a lot of students leave their home state of residence for college. She added that this often leads to students breaking the continuity of care with a therapist unless that therapist is willing to get licensed in their new state.

Rossi is the writer of “Breaking Barriers: Cross-State Licensing Reform for Licensed Professional Counselors,” a student note and entry in the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology.

Rossi said she wrote the piece because of her personal experience with the effects of cross-state licensing as a person who receives therapy. Rossi lives in Minnesota during the school year and has lived in Washington the past few summers, which affects her access to her therapist. 

“I know what the Minnesota regulation is and what the Washington regulation is and I know that, like when I move, I won’t be able to continue that relationship for very long,” Rossi said. “There’s basically, like a temporary practice exception, but that only lasts for so long.”

​In Minnesota, the Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy offers a temporary license for out-of-state mental health professionals seeking to practice within the state. This temporary license allows individuals to provide therapy services while completing Minnesota-specific licensure requirements.

Rossi said cross-state licensing has also affected her friends who formed established relationships with therapists. 

“Some of my friends have found ways to continue those relationships and some of my friends have stopped doing therapy because it just takes so long and so much time to set up a new relationship with a new provider,” Rossi said. “It definitely creates a barrier for young people when they’re moving around and wanting to keep their therapy going, but they can’t continue with the same provider.” 

Rossi said cross-state licensing is inconvenient, often forcing mental health professionals out of the profession because they do not want to spend the time or money to apply for a license in a different state. 

In another Alma study, researchers found 54% of therapists with a second license spent between $250 and $500 on getting licensed in another state, while 13% spent between $501 and $1,000.

Rossi said the best thing that can happen right now would be for states to amend their individual licensing schemes by modifying regulations, requirements or criteria for obtaining and maintaining professional licensure. Amendments can include establishing new licenses and reforming reciprocity requirements.

Reciprocity in professional licensing allows workers to use their existing credentials to practice in another state without meeting all new licensing requirements.

During COVID-19, some states temporarily eased reciprocity requirements, allowing out-of-state licensed counselors to provide services without undergoing the full local licensing process, according to Rossi’s piece. However, these measures were often short-lived and highlighted the need for more permanent solutions.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz issued an executive order on April 6, 2020, allowing licensed out-of-state mental health providers to offer telehealth services to Minnesota residents during the pandemic. To qualify, providers had to be in good standing in their home state and register with the appropriate Minnesota licensing board.

Rossi said students should be made aware of cross-state licensing because it affects a large number of working Americans.

Recent data from August 2024 shows the U.S. is in a mental health crisis and mental health struggles are experienced by people of all ages, according to the Centers for Disease Control. 

“I think that we should all be concerned about lack of access to mental health care, especially for our youth,” Rossi said. “And this, although it’s only one piece of the puzzle, does impact access to mental health care and just the accessibility of it.”

Voting for the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) all campus elections opens Monday, including those for presidential and vice presidential candidates.

There are two sets of presidential and vice presidential candidates running for USG’s highest leadership, all currently part of USG. Candidate pairs Samia Abdulle/Jack Drouin and Riley Hetland/Ethan Fiegel sat down with the Minnesota Daily to talk about goals and priorities for their respective campaigns and the next academic year.

Why are you running? 

Abdulle: “I’m running for USG president because I have been in USG for the past two years, I cared really deeply about the organization and I’ve had a chance to hold a leadership position for the past two years. I’ve noticed a lot of things that can be improved with the way that USG operates, both internally and externally. I think that USG, considering that they’re supposed to be representative of the entire undergraduate student body, there are some ways that can be benefited as well. I want to make this school better, and I think that the ways that I want to make this university better are unique to me and unique to my own experiences.”

Drouin: “I’m running for vice president for a lot of the same reasons. It’s to me, honestly, I’ve also been in USG for two years now. I’m also a committee director. But I think I have another perspective that is also very beneficial to students. As an outsider of the state, I wasn’t very familiar with the campus while growing up. I came here, I lived in a dorm, and I have a lot of different experiences from my first year that I really like to share and emphasize. And then as being in my second year, I think I also have a lot of different perspectives and different ideas of doing things in USG that I think would be beneficial. And I’ve also led a team and I would love to continue leading other teams while serving as vice president.” 

Hetland: “I want students’ voices to be heard and acted upon. I think the biggest reason that I’m running is because I want to make sure that students feel like they have a direct line to those who represent them, and so I’m running because I want to make sure that every student has someone committed to making sure that we have effective outreach events for all campuses. I currently have majors or minors housed in all Twin Cities campuses, St. Paul, Minneapolis and West Bank. So I feel I have a good standing to be able to adequately communicate and give people a chance to talk to us and access and access us. So the reason I’m running is to make sure that every student on each campus has a voice and feels like their voice is being acted upon. I just think I’m the best person for outreach because my role currently as the Director of Civic Engagement throughout the Row the Vote initiative, which I led in the fall semester, I had a team of 20 staff and then about 200 additional volunteers. Together, we were able to interact with over 12,000 students and adequately assess their needs and their motivations and voting in the presidential election. So through that, I was able to understand student needs and talk to students. And because of that, I feel I have a great foundation of what needs students have and what issues they’re facing.”

Fiegel: “I think it’s very important that students have a presidential team that’s accessible to them and a team that they know values their voices, their concerns, and that their opinions can be heard on top of that. I’ve been involved in student government all three years that I’ve been at the U so far. And during that time, we’ve had three different university presidential administrations, whether that was the Gabel administration, Interim President Ettinger last year and President Cunningham this year. So with the amount of change that’s been going on in the University and change from things that are outside of our control, like at the federal level, I think it’s important to have a leader that’s experienced working with different groups of people and knows kind of the ins and outs of how the University works and how to navigate that.” 

What are your main goals if elected? 

Abdulle: “We are running on three presidential pillars. Transparency, transformative partnerships and tangible actions are all three of these pillars. They cover different areas of USG as a whole. Our first one is about financial transparency, specifically as students ourselves, we understand just how expensive life on campus has been. We understand just how it’s very hard to prioritize being a student first and foremost. And with tuition increases, cost of living going up, it’s just very hard to be a student right now, and to mitigate those changes, we’re proposing the creation of a financial ad hoc committee, and this committee basically is going to work on understanding where students’ tuition money goes. As the larger stakeholders, it’s really important that our voices are being considered and that we are, you know, we’re taken into account. By the end of this committee, they’re going to be able to produce a very comprehensive report about where your tuition money is going and make sure that every cent is going back to bettering the lives of students on campus.”

Drouin:  “So our second T is transformative partnerships, and this a lot comes from partnerships between USG and other student groups. So this means that we’ve looked at USG’s partnerships from this year and from past years, and have noticed that the partnerships between it and other student groups have really been lacking. And don’t get me wrong, there are some events like the global Gala, where other partnerships do come into play, but we would like to host more events with other student groups to be able to have them more represented in USG. Another part of this is having more student student group representatives in USG, because student groups can also have a representative in USG, and not everyone knows about that. So having or ensuring that student groups have their representation and have their voice heard in USG is really essential to us.” 

Abdulle: “One other thing that I want to add to that is just how increasing or making sure that we are all really well connected within USG, and the greater student population is a great way for us to make sure that we’re getting diverse perspectives and making sure that USG is representative of the population that we serve. So our last presidential pillar is tangible actions. Some people might already know this, but both Minneapolis and the greater state of Minnesota have something called sanctuary state status, and that basically means that local and state officials are not allowed to work with federal immigration officers or ICE. It means that they cannot be involved in that at all. They can’t help them. They need to stay out of it all together. And the University of Minnesota has been kind of in the gray area for that. You know, you’re not really sure if they’re really going to comply with that if they’re really going to work towards that in any capacity, or even if sanctuary state even covers the greater or the University of Minnesota. We believe that as students, this University is, first and foremost, a place of education. It’s a place for education, a place of growth, and nobody, especially people from mixed document households, should have to worry about having to deal with ICE officers or just any sort of federal immigration officers coming onto campus and making their learning experiences not so great.”

Hetland: “The reason I was running was to make sure we have monthly outreach events, not just on the Minneapolis campuses, but in St. Paul. If elected, I’d be the first student body president on St. Paul campus. And I think that’s something that needs to be seen throughout my presidency and my presidential administration is making sure that we’re accessible to students that are also in St. Paul. So monthly outreach events where students just have complete freedom to tell us what’s bothering them and what they want us to be working on. That’s my first goal. Then we also do have sub-goals or policy goals. I can talk about a couple. Our first goal is student health and well-being. It’s probably the most important thing that our students feel supported in all aspects of their life. So we’re committed to making sure that mental health resources are accessible. Currently, the system for accessing mental health care is extremely confusing, so we’re going to be increasing the accessibility of this, working to get more staff to make sure that their people are actually able to get the care that they need. We’re going to expand peer support systems, strengthen outreach efforts to make sure people are aware of the things that are already in place to help them and understand what health and well-being is. Also improving access to reproductive care, making sure that every person on our campus has the care that they need, because needs look different across all students, and making sure that we have resources available for every student on this campus. And then additionally, under student health and well-being, is combating food insecurity. We’re committed to expanding our Nutritious U food pantry and working to get a grocery store on campus. I think that’s something that is so needed. It’s awful that we don’t have affordable food options on campus, and it’s simply unacceptable. We also have a really strong college affordability goal. We are facing a tuition increase, and we will for the next few years, so that rollout is going to be awful for students that, coupled with the grant deficit, is just making students’ lives unaffordable, and no one should be priced out of a college education. Also under college affordability, making sure that we have housing that’s affordable for students that we have on-campus job opportunities for students that we’re promoting.  With financial aid transparency, making sure that all aspects of student life are affordable and accessible, because again, no student should be priced out of a college degree.  

Also, I am an environmental science major and sustainability in environmental policy is something that’s near and dear to my heart. So looking at environmental injustices and making sure that we can prevent those environmental injustices from happening on our campus is really important. To do this, we’re going to push the University to expand their solar energy on campus. Universities made tons of commitments to climate goals. They’ve declared that they’re going to be carbon neutral by 2050 and they have sub-goals set for solar energy and several other aspects of renewable energy, but they’re not releasing plans on how they’re getting there, and they’re not acting upon it. So we’re going to call for the University to increase their investments in solar and all new building structures, and we’re going to make sure that the University does follow through on their goals. 

Then additionally, we’re going to work on decreasing waste on campus. The University is currently developing a Zero Waste Plan, but there’s been no known student consultation in that plan. So it’s really really difficult to make a plan that works for students when you’re not consulting students. So making sure we’re amplifying student voices in that and we’re going to push them to make a firm plan with a firm deadline, to make sure that we are actually moving towards zero waste on campus. We’re also going to push for a shift to electric vehicles on campus. The University says our emissions from our University fleet is going to be down 70% by 2033. We’ve not seen any action taken to get there. So pushing them to make sure that they do meet their emissions goals is extremely important.” 

Fiegel: “The fourth of our policy pillars is campus safety. I am currently USG’s Campus Safety Committee Vice Chair, so I’ve got some experience in this area. And the first of our goals is actually a project that I’ve been working on this year, increasing mass threat preparedness on campus. We’re lucky enough to have not had an actual mass threat situation, but it’s something that obviously has been part of our lives, and unfortunately, we’ve seen mass threats and mass violence happen at peer institutions, such as the shooting at Michigan State a couple years ago, and we think that the University needs to be taking a proactive instead of a reactive role, because we don’t want to have to make these changes after something bad happens here. We want to make sure that that isn’t going to happen. So there’s a three-prong plan that we’re currently working on. The first of those prongs is to make sure that all classrooms have interior locking mechanisms. It seems like it’s common sense, but a lot of our old buildings don’t have that. Our next goal is to create and require active threat training for all new students. Currently, it’s an optional Canvas module that people can take, but we think that’s something that everybody should be exposed to so they know what to do if they’re ever in that situation. And then finally, we want to work with the University to attach building safety plans to all course syllabi, so that way students know how to evacuate or get out of the building that they’re in if there ever is an emergency. 

Our next goal related to campus safety is promoting Clery Act compliance. The Clery Act is a federal law that requires the University to report crimes in a timely manner when they happen around campus. I think most of us can acknowledge that the safety alerts that we receive are oftentimes not detailed or timely. So we want to work with UMPD to make sure the reports that are being sent out are both detailed and timely, and that there’s follow-up when necessary as well. And in part of doing that, what we want to make sure is that there’s an active conversation between students and administration and UMPD. This goes back to our original goal of student outreach and making sure every student’s voice is heard, because we fear that too often conversations related to campus safety leave out student voices. As students, we are the most prominent stakeholder in this, so it’s important to make sure student consultation is included. 

And finally, we want to make sure that the neighborhoods around campus remain safe or can be made safer. Recently, the expanded patrols in Dinkytown and Como have started more actively this year, and the University is looking at renewing them. We will advocate for them to do that because we have seen statistically, a drop in both petty crime and violent crime as a result of these extended patrols. But as part of that, we want to make sure there’s more communication, again, between students and UMPD, so students know why there’s more police presence and that it’s a good thing for safety, not that there’s more crime happening.” 

What changes are you looking to implement? 

Abdulle: “I guess the first one would probably be the creation of the financial ad hoc committee. That is something that has never existed within USG, but it does exist at other BigTen schools. So we know that it can be a very smooth transition to have that here. Then also just some reporting structure changes, more like internal changes, we want to make sure that USG is a place of professionalism and growth, and that everybody that comes into USG, regardless of your position, you feel comfortable here and you feel like you can be a good student leader.” 

Drouin: “Another change is just including more student groups in USG and having just more voting members in our general body as a whole to make sure that we do get those perspectives from every area of the campus.”

Hetland: “I think the main changes have to happen at a higher level making sure we are implementing more outreach. Currently this year at USG, we only had two outreach events, neither of which were on St Paul. So I think our overarching thing that we are going to actively change is that commitment to outreach and making sure that we are accessible to students and that students have a direct pipeline to those that are representing them. So we have an unwavering commitment to making sure students’ voices are heard, and especially right now, what that looks like is making sure that people feel safe and seen on campus. That works in with our DEI goals as making sure that all students feel safe and valued and protected on this campus.”

Fiegel: “Just outreach as an overarching theme is we want to make sure that the University, not just our administration, but the University presidential administration also value student voices.  With climate policy, there’s been next to no consultation there, there isn’t good communication between UMPD and students and if you look at search committees that there’s been recently, there was next to no student representation on the presidential search committee that selected the finalists for the University President. There’s only two students represented on the current Provost search committee as well. And we just want to make sure that important decisions made at a University level involve student perspectives.”

What are your main concerns for next semester? 

Drouin: “I think a lot of our main concerns fall around students not being able to focus the most on academics, and this comes both with sanctuary state status as well as mental health and other related things. Students have so many things that they’re dealing with, like hiked-up rent prices and lack of a grocery store nearby campus. There are a lot of things that take away the focus from academics. And I’d say our main thing is to try to bring it back to academics and make sure students can really thrive.”

Abdulle: “Not just academics, but just making sure that this University is a place where you can grow without all these other inhibitors in place. You know, you don’t have you shouldn’t have to worry too much. You should be able to worry more about, like your biology exam, for example, than like, paying rent, you know, and that shouldn’t be such a heavy subject for a lot of students.” 

Hetland: “Frankly, the University is pricing students out of accessing college degrees, so pushing back on that back as hard as we can is going to be an uphill battle, and we’re taking it on utilizing our best resources. I’ve had conversations with our state legislatures several times about this tuition increase, and I’ve also surveyed students and seen student responses and listened to students when they’re expressing how these tuition changes are affecting them. Making sure that we’re able to make change in that realm after decisions have already been made without consulting students, is just so important because there’s no way we can continue pricing students out of college. Just that overarching theme of the University not taking small voices seriously or into consideration at all is a really big problem. There’s just so many different areas where students are not being heard in decisions by the University. So I think that’s our biggest battle to fight, and it’s the one we’re most motivated to fight for, whether it’s advocating for the pigs and sheep on St. Paul campus or students’ ability to access a college education. We are very steadfast in pushing against the University to listen to students.”

Fiegel: “Another challenge anybody in higher education would deal with this coming year, and we’ve already seen now, is the uncertainty coming from a federal level when it comes to a lot of things related to educational policy. There’s so much that’s up in the air right now, whether that’s been cuts to research funding and University funding, attacks on international students or attacks on diversity equity and inclusion efforts. There’s been so many challenges to the way that things have normally been done on a University level, and we want to make sure that Undergraduate Student Government and the University of Minnesota remain a place that is deeply committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as a space where students are free to express their opinions, where free speech is supported and protected. We care deeply about making sure student voices are represented and students are free to say what they want, whether that’s positive or negative, about the University.”

The University of Minnesota’s National Alliance of Mental Health (NAMI) on campus will host its First-Episode Psychosis education event on Tuesday. 

With speakers talking about their experiences with psychosis, the event’s main purpose is to raise awareness about first-episode psychosis by educating students about first-episode psychosis, early treatment and challenging misconceptions. The event will be in the Whole in Coffman Union from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and is free to all attendees

First-episode psychosis is a term used to describe when someone shows early signs of beginning to lose contact with reality, most commonly affecting those in their mid to late 20s. Psychosis is a collection of symptoms that affect the mind. 

The goal of the event is to educate the campus community about early warning signs, treatment options, resources, reducing stigma and promoting empathy and support through experts from M Health Fairview’s NAVIGATE program. Experts include NAVIGATE IRT and Co-Director Kayla James, NAVIGATE Program Director Kayla Laturnus, NAVIGATE Supported Employment and Education Specialist Stephanie Simons and NAVIGATE Family Peer Specialist Nancy Howe. 

M Health Fairview’s NAVIGATE program was developed by the National Institute of Mental Health and provides early intervention and support for young adults experiencing first-episode psychosis.

The event will also feature personal testimonies from community members who have lived and experienced first-episode psychosis or supported someone going through it, along with a Q&A session with community members and experts from the NAVIGATE program.  

NAMI Minnesota is a non-profit organization that supports mental health advocacy, education and resources. 

UMN NAMI President Mitchell Mueller said the main purpose of the event is to raise awareness about first-episode psychosis because it is often misunderstood and stigmatized. 

Mueller said attendees will gain a better understanding of what psychosis is beyond misconceptions. He hopes attendees will gain practical knowledge about how to support peers who are dealing with and experiencing symptoms of first-episode psychosis. 

“We want people to leave feeling hopeful that psychosis is treatable, recovery is possible with the right support,” Mueller said.

Mueller said UMN NAMI wanted to organize the event because first-episode psychosis affects a lot of young adults, specifically college-aged students. 

“Early intervention is really crucial for better outcomes with first-episode psychosis, but the issue with that is many people don’t really recognize the early signs or know where to seek help,” Mueller said.

Early intervention aims to get treatment quickly to manage symptoms and often prevents the need for long hospitalization.

Mueller said UMN NAMI is committed to breaking down stigmas about mental health conditions with psychosis being an area where education can make a pretty significant impact.

The NAVIGATE program has been a “very awesome and supporting group,” Mueller said, in sharing resources and information about first-episode psychosis with UMN NAMI. 

Mueller said students should come to the event because although they may not be experiencing first-episode psychosis, somebody they know may experience it in the future.

“I want to ensure that no student feels alone in their mental health journey and everyone has access to the support that they need,” Mueller said.

UMN NAMI Secretary Maveric Kalenberg said the event’s primary goal is to make sure people are comfortable being able to express themselves. 

“Psychosis is pretty misunderstood and pretty stigmatized and right now at our age in the college years, that’s when first aid psychosis really actually happens and is most prominent,” Kalenberg said.

At the end of February, the University of Minnesota Undergraduate Student Government (USG) announced its Tuition Freeze petition, aiming to pressure the University to halt tuition increases for the 2025-26 academic year. 

The campaign was announced in an Instagram post Feb. 21, one day after the University released its budget overview and state funding for the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years. 

A tuition freeze is a policy restricting educational institutions from increasing tuition fees for students. 

The University’s goal is to raise $267 million for the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years. It proposes to garner 45% of this from the state, leaving 55% to be funded from within the University, according to the UMN Budget Overview and State Funding presentation. 

USG State Coordinator William Luther said the remaining 55% will likely come from tuition increases. 

The University’s Board of Regents voted to increase tuition by 4.5% for in-state students and 5.5% for out-of-state students in June 2024 and increased tuition by 3.5% in June 2023. 

In a Higher Education Senate meeting held at the State Capitol on Jan. 30 where USG representatives presented to state legislators Sen. Zach Duckworth, (R-Lakeville), said the University has historically increased tuition after telling state legislators it would freeze tuition. 

“Something that I think everybody up here shares in common with (USG) is the frustration at seeing the increase to tuition,” Duckworth said in the meeting.

Luther said USG wants to put pressure on the University to stop tuition increases. 

Tuition is a main factor in how the University makes revenue, Luther said, given that state funding is getting smaller, leading to tuition increasing in recent years.

In 2025, the University depends on state funding for 16% of its revenue and tuition for 23% of its revenue, according to the UMN budget overview and state funding presentation. 

Luther said USG had 1,400 signatures for the tuition freeze petition in the first week. 

“It’s something that you know the University needs to realize, like you can’t keep looking at students as the main source of your funding, you got to look elsewhere,” Luther said. “You got to look at the legislature, you got to look at other places.”

Luther said students should advocate for a tuition freeze because tuition increases affect all students.

“Not everyone may be food insecure, not everybody may be housing insecure, but everyone pays tuition,” Luther said. 

USG Director of Civic Engagement Riley Hetland said the campaign is a way to make student voices heard. 

The petition asks students if they support calling for a tuition freeze and if they would be interested in testifying for or helping the campaign, Hetland said. 

“It is hurting students especially because this is coming at the same time as the state grant deficit,” Hetland said. “It’s going to have a really bad implication on the amount of people who do come to the University and just access a college education in general, so it’s just so disheartening. It’s awful.”

The Minnesota State Grant program, Minnesota’s largest federal aid program for students, is currently facing a significant budget shortfall. State officials project a $211 million deficit for the two year period from 2026-2027.

Hetland said the state grant deficits paired with the continuous tuition increases are a way of pricing people out of college. She added USG aims to achieve its goal by working to directly engage with students, gauging how many students are concerned about rising tuition costs. 

“The University can raise tuition and if no one makes a sound, they’re going to keep doing it,” Hetland said. “So we need to be the loudest voice to make sure that they do listen to us and they do take student needs into account when they are making decisions about our tuition, so making sure that the most amount of students possible are heard is crucial to that.”

Editor’s Note: A source in this story has been granted anonymity for reasons of personal safety and the ability to travel to Palestine.

The University of Minnesota’s Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) said new obstacles from the federal government will not stop them from continuing to protest but will change how they protect their international students and themselves. 

In a Jan. 29 executive order, President Donald Trump outlined governmental efforts to curb antisemitism in the U.S., particularly on college campuses. Trump said he would cancel the visas of foreign student “Hamas sympathizers.”

In an emailed statement to the Minnesota Daily, University spokesperson Jake Ricker said federal laws governing freedom of expression have not changed, and the University has not changed any related policies. 

“The University remains fully committed to freedom of individual expression,” Ricker said in the statement. 

SDS and SJP said they will continue to protest despite the obstacles. They said the lack of protests in the last few months has been due to the cold weather, as it can result in reduced turnout. 

SDS member Sasmit Rahman said future SDS campaigning and protests will shift to focus more primarily on opposing Trump’s policies, specifically protecting the University’s immigrant and international students, promoting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and academic freedoms.

“I think it’s in times like these where people need to be protesting the most — when it’s the most important for our voices to be heard,” Rahman said. “In my personal opinion, to stop protesting now that there’s the slightest bit more risk would be very unfair.”

Rahman said in a progressive city like Minneapolis, it is SDS’s responsibility to keep protesting in the face of adversity. 

Rahman said there was and still is a fear of international students being deported due to their participation in protests. She added that this fear is highest for Palestinian students. 

“I’ve spoken to Palestinian students who, even last year, were afraid to be at protests without covering up their face because they are afraid of getting deported or like losing their status as a student,” Rahman said. 

Going forward, Rahman said SDS aims for University administration to make commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion programs and state the University campus will be a sanctuary for its students.

An SJP executive, who will remain anonymous due to safety concerns, said SJP will have to be more alert when it comes to protesting and how they go about it due to ongoing investigations from the Department of Education and the Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. 

The Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced Friday it will be investigating nine universities, including the University of Minnesota, on allegations that they may have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty members from unlawful discrimination, according to a press release from the Office of Public Affairs. 

There will be a big emphasis on protecting protestors by covering their identity in the forms of masks and Keffiyehs, the SJP executive said. Keffiyehs are traditional scarves worn around many parts of the Middle East. 

The executive said SJP does not advise international students to come to pro-Palestinian protests as it risks deportation more now than previously.  

“If you’re a student that came from thousands and thousands of miles away, just to be sent back for using the First Amendment right, which is enshrined in the law, it’s really frightening to see the power that this administration is willing to go and the lengths that they’re willing to go just to squash the pro-Palestine movement,” the SJP executive said. 

The SJP executive said there is no current specific plan or set schedule for protests, though there will likely be more as the weather continues to warm.

Minnesota legislators introduced a bill Feb. 19 to ban rent-fixing algorithms to prevent landlords from artificially using shared data to inflate rent prices.

Rent price algorithms have increased rent prices in the Twin Cities Metro Area by an average of $27 per month, dominating the rental market in student housing areas like Dinkytown, Seven Corners, Stadium Village and Prospect Park, according to the Minnesota Legislature. 

Rent price algorithms use automatic data analysis to determine what rental prices will make a profit for landlords and property owners, and may use artificial intelligence. 

The U.S. Department of Justice and Attorneys General throughout the country, including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and RealPage Inc., are suing a rent algorithm website. The suit, filed in August, alleges the company’s algorithmic pricing scheme violates antitrust laws and harms renters by inflating apartment prices.

RealPage holds various information on rent pricing and occupancy of 26 student housing buildings on and near the University of Minnesota campus. RealPage is used in 15% of multifamily rental properties in the Metro Area, according to the Minnesota Legislature. 

A RealPage executive told a landlord that analyzing competitor data could help reveal opportunities for landlords to raise rent by $50 per day instead of $10, according to Ellison’s office.

Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Local Affairs Director Siya Shelar said the algorithm is another obstacle making accessible living harder for students. Shelar said it was disheartening to see people who pay their own rent being exploited. 

“You don’t know what you’re consenting to and what you’re allowing, like what information you’re allowing these landlords to have access to, and they don’t care about you,” Shelar said.  

Shelar said students should know about the rent algorithms and participate in local advocacy by supporting legislators fighting for the bill. Legislators want to hear about people’s personal stories regarding rent increases and students paying their rent, she added.

“They want to see the faces of people experiencing these issues, and I think students should absolutely know and absolutely get involved, even if it’s something you’re selfishly doing for yourself,” Shelar said. “That’s the whole point of advocacy is what issues are impacting you, and how you can stand up for them.” 

Edward Goetz, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs and Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, said the existence of the rent algorithms is problematic for students and renters. 

Goetz said one of the main problems resulting from the algorithm’s use is its contribution to the housing affordability crisis for students and low-income individuals. With increased algorithm use, the market becomes more difficult for students to the point where they cannot spend money on necessities besides rent, namely food and clothing. 

“I just think that housing affordability should be our priority for so many different reasons,” Goetz said. “That’s why I think the legislature is probably going to be acting on this.”

Goetz said rent algorithms are illegal collusion in the marketplace and that he has seen companies promote the algorithms as a way for landlords to increase their rental income. Goetz added it means increasing rents as much as possible compared to what the rest of the market is doing. 

Goetz said he encourages students to contact their local legislators and make it very clear how it is affecting their lives, including all of the things making it difficult to keep housing and the effects of the high rent. 

Third-year student Andrew Palik said he was not surprised landlords were using the algorithm to “screw people over even more.”

“We’re already milked dry paying for school,” Palik said. “I think most people aren’t even able to afford to pay for college all the way and that’s just college, so combined with rent and just cost of living somewhere, it’s messed up.”

Palik said he wants more transparency when it comes to sharing information through the algorithms and hopes it’ll come to an end. 

“I don’t think there’s any problem with using algorithms to make pricing, but how they’re doing it, where they’re getting it, and they’re working with other companies to make it, I don’t like that,” Palik said. “I think I would really like apartment places and companies to say our prices are used with algorithmic pricing.”

The University of Minnesota Emergency Medical Services (UMEMS) is offering more free CPR, AED and bleeding control courses on campus to enhance and ensure safety and well-being among the University community.

Regularly scheduled free CPR classes will be held on the fourth Tuesday of each month in 2025, though no classes will be offered in December. The full schedule for 2025 can be found on the UMEMS website. 

The Stop the Bleed program is a nationwide public health campaign that teaches people how to stop traumatic bleeding. The first UMEMS Stop the Bleed-sponsored course will be held April 22.

UMEMS received grant funding in fall 2024 and will work with other campuses in the University system to provide them with AEDs and Stop the Bleed kits as well as setting up larger Stop the Bleed stations, according to Robert Ball, UMEMS team manager.

Ball said the grants allow UMEMS to expand AED and hands-only CPR, a form of CPR done without mouth-to-mouth breaths, which will help people do something other than be scared and stand still. 

“It will give them some idea of what to do to help their neighbors because all of these things involve us all taking care of each other,” Ball said. “You can call 911 and they’re going to come, but sometimes both Stop the Bleed and hands-only CPR, those are really important before the professional help arrives.”

Ball said the ultimate goal is to have 10% of the student population trained in life-saving skills within the next year. 

The idea is not to get people certified in basic life support to get a job, Ball said. Rather, he hopes to remind people how to do basic CPR and use AEDs so they can know what to do if someone unexpectedly collapses. 

Ball said the use of hands-only CPR or a defibrillator in an emergency increases the chance of a collapsed person surviving from 10% to 50%.

There has been a growing interest nationwide in bleeding control training, Ball said. This includes programs like the Stop the Bleed campaign and the University’s Health Emergency Response Office (HERO), which has been running Stop the Bleed classes since 2019. 

The UMEMS website has an interactive AED map showing where defibrillators and Stop the Bleed kits are on campus. Stop the Bleed kits include an explanatory card, rescue blanket, AED and a tourniquet, a device that checks bleeding or blood flow by compressing blood vessels.

Before the courses became scheduled on the fourth Tuesday of every month, Ball said the hands-only CPR classes were a word-of-mouth demand where they would have anyone interested in the course email and request UMEMS to train them. Ball or anyone available on his staff would go to a location and train whichever program or person requested it.

Ball said offering the regularly scheduled course takes the pressure off his team and makes it easier for them to manage rather than packing up things and driving around campus. 

“By trying to make this more regularly scheduled and more structured, our hope is to get more outreach, and by having a chance to talk with people and say, ‘Hey, these things exist,’” Ball said. 

Thomas Hoffman, a UMEMS field training coordinator, said the biggest benefit of spreading CPR courses is educating people. 

“So many people have some ideas of what first aid is, what emergency medicine is, and that comes from maybe things like TV shows and movies, but in real life, it’s a lot different,” Hoffman said.

CPR and bleeding control skills help people know how to react in a critical situation, and students should take these courses because they could save someone’s life, Hoffman said. 

“You take precautions in your life not because you’re expecting something to happen, but because you know that it can happen and you want to be prepared when it does,” Hoffman said. “And it’s the same thing with this.”