Author Archives | by Ainsley Brown

UMN graduate students vote to unionize

University of Minnesota graduate student workers voted in favor of forming the Graduate Labor Union-United Electrical (GLU-UE). 

Student workers voted 2,487-70 to unionize, according to a statement from GLU-UE. About 61% of eligible graduate student workers voted.

The election started on Tuesday and ended Thursday. Voting was open to graduate student workers at both the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses.

“The energy among grad workers this week was palpable,” Yusra Murad, a graduate worker in health policy and management, said in a statement Friday. “This victory is a testament to the workers who have taken the time to imagine what is possible and how much stronger we are together.”

The vote came after GLU-UE publicly launched their unionization efforts with a card signing campaign on Feb. 20. More than 1,700 graduate students signed cards within the first 12 hours of the campaign. The union submitted the cards to the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services on March 18 after receiving signatures from about 65% of graduate student workers. 

There have been multiple previous failed attempts to unionize, with the most recent in 2012 when about 62% of graduate student workers voted against unionizing.

GLU-UE aims to address issues brought forward by graduate students, including improved pay, benefits, working conditions, grievance procedures and support for international students.

“Only by addressing these issues will we be able to fully fulfill the educational mission of the University,” GLU-UE said in a statement Friday. 

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UMN’s “smaller” libraries have lots to offer

The University of Minnesota is home to a dozen libraries across the Twin Cities campuses. The largest libraries on campus are Wilson Library on West Bank, Walter Library on East Bank and Magrath Library on the St. Paul campus.

Among these larger spaces are smaller libraries throughout the campus, specializing in collections related to certain subjects or departments. All of the operating libraries on campus are open to the public.

“I think this sharing and open access is a big thing,” said Mark Engebretson, the director of advancement for University Libraries. “It’s not just for students and faculty.”

While anyone from the surrounding community can use the library spaces and computers, only students and faculty can check out books. Additionally, people not enrolled in the University have a limit of two hours of computer use per day.

However, the Friends of the Library program allows people outside the University community to check out books and have greater access to computer use for an annual fee of $80.

“If you’re not a member of the Friends, you have to go through InterLibrary Loan, which works slick too,” Engebreston said.

InterLibrary Loan is a program where libraries across the country send books to other libraries for their patrons to use and check out. People who are not students or faculty members at the University may request the book they want from the University through their local public library, Engebretson said.

The Borchert Map Library: a “pseudo-special collection”

The John R. Borchert Map Library is located in the sub-basement of Wilson Library on West Bank. The library contains atlases, maps and aerial photographs.

Additionally, the library has an agreement with the Minneapolis Archives to preserve old urban planning maps of Minneapolis, Ryan Mattke, the map and geospatial information librarian, said.

“We’re working through stuff that’s just been rolled and kind of stuffed in cubby holes in the clock tower for 100 years,” Mattke said. “A lot of them are hand-annotated maps from the early 20th century from the city planning department.”

The collection at the library is a unique mix of manuscript materials and published documents, Mattke said.

“We’re like a pseudo-special collection,” Mattke said. “We kind of straddle that line between regular and special collections.”

The library is also home to about 365,000 aerial photographs of Minnesota, Mattke said. About 125,000 of these photographs have been digitized and uploaded online through the Minnesota Historical Aerial Photographs Online (MHAPO), which anyone can access, according to Mattke.

Beyond his work in the library, Mattke is the program lead of the Big Ten Academic Alliance Geospatial Information Network, which coordinates with 14 other libraries to create a geo-space portal. He is also the co-founder and co-director of the Mapping Prejudice Project, which works to identify and map racial housing covenants.

Mattke said the library is useful for people beyond geography majors.

“I would say those students maybe are not the majority of students we have coming in because maps show space and lots of different places use space,” Mattke said.

Landscape architecture, history and English students have all utilized the map library’s resources, Mattke said. Local high school AP Geography classes also visit the library as well as people in the greater Twin Cities community.

Mattke said his favorite part about working in the library is the variety of questions he gets to help answer for students and other patrons.

“I don’t know where everything is, but I know how to find the information,” Mattke said. “I’m trained in how to search my own collection for things I don’t even know are there.”

The music library: more than just Mozart, Bach and Beethoven

Home to a collection of music scores, writings about music and composers, and more than 30,000 CDs available for checkout, the music library on West Bank has a wide collection of materials.

The library, located in Ferguson Hall, has a large media collection of CDs, LPs and VHS tapes, Jessica Abbazio, the music librarian, said.

“That’s not like anything else you can find on campus,” Abbazio said. “You would probably not see that many VHS tapes anywhere outside a Blockbuster.”

As the librarian, Abbazio curates the collection available at the music library.

“I have been working really hard to kind of represent a broader range of perspectives and identities in our collection,” Abbazio said. “There’s other things out there besides Mozart, Bach and Beethoven.”

Since Abbazio became the music librarian in 2018, she has worked to expand music collections from Latin American and East Asian composers and is currently working on expanding the library’s materials from Caribbean composers.

“I think it’s important that the library’s collections represent that broader perspective,” Abbazio said.

Along with curation responsibilities, Abbazio answers reference questions and helps students and other patrons with their research.

“I also get to work with students and faculty from other institutions if they’re interested in something we have at our library,” Abbazio said.

Abbazio said answering reference questions is her favorite part about working at the library, saying she “learns something new every time.” She said she also speaks at classes about research methods and ways to utilize library materials.

“I will also create digital guides to help students at 3 a.m. when they’re writing their paper,” Abbazio said.

This summer, she will be working with Hennepin County Libraries to curate music for MNspin, their worldwide free music streaming service that specializes in Minnesotan musicians, Abbazio said.

The music library serves more than just music majors, Abbazio said, as students of any major are welcome at the library.

“We have such a vibrant community and performing arts community in the Twin Cities, so I work a lot with community members as well,” Abbazio said.

More information about the University libraries can be found on their website.

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UMN students see potential for SAFE-U alerts improvements

Many students at the University of Minnesota find SAFE-U alerts to be helpful but think the alert system can be improved.

The University sends out alerts as soon as they know the basic information of the event or crime, meaning the time when an incident is reported can impact when SAFE-U alerts go out.

SAFE-U alerts from the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) aim to inform students, faculty and staff of incidents and emergencies on campus. SAFE-U alerts are monitored by UMPD Chief Matt Clark.

There are outside ways students can learn about crime on campus, including the Citizen app and twitter accounts such as Crime Watch Minneapolis.

On March 21, there was an incident at the Washington Avenue bridge in the afternoon. No SAFE-U was sent out regarding the situation. The UMPD crime log labeled the incident as a “water emergency” on the daily crime log.

People became aware of the situation when the twitter account Crime Watch Minneapolis and the Citizen app reported there was a body found in the river.

SAFE-U notifications are released when there is a serious or ongoing threat on campus to anyone with a University email address, according to the University’s Safe Campus website. Sometimes a notification will be sent out regarding a situation off campus if it directly impacts the campus, but the notifications must abide by the Clery Act.

The Clery Act requires universities to report crime on campus and make that information available.

“I think the most important thing to note is that these notifications are required by federal law,” University Public Relations Director Jake Ricker said in an email statement. “The U of M and every other major university in the country has a notification system of some kind to comply with the Cleary Act.”

Students say the required alerts can be beneficial but also improved

Some students said it seemed like they had gotten more SAFE-U alerts this semester than last semester. As of April 24, there have been a total of 10 alerts sent out since the spring 2023 semester began on Jan.1 7. There were a total of 14 alerts sent out in the fall 2022 semester.

Seven of the nine SAFE-U alerts sent out this semester occurred after spring break, with the last five sent out in April.

At the public safety forum the University held in March, President Joan Gabel said crime rates have been trending down on and around campus.

Fourth-year student Hannah Rademacher said it is nice to know if there is a potentially dangerous or serious situation on campus.

“I have a little sister who’s a freshman and she lives on campus, and I live off campus,” Rademacher said. “So I like them because every time I get one, I text her and I’m like ‘Are you in this area? What’s going on?’”

Other students, like second-year student Ethan Barber, agreed with Rademacher and said they like to know what’s going on around campus.

“It works pretty well,” Barber said. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘this doesn’t seem relevant,’ but most of the time I’m glad I know rather than don’t.”

However, some students, such as second-year Aidan Cook, think the SAFE-U alert system is not as effective as it could be.

“I feel like they don’t do much,” Cook said. “They just kind of scare everyone and they just kind of go away right after that. I don’t think they accomplish anything.”

Second-year student Sam Burkholder agreed they are helpful but can be made more effective to help students avoid potentially dangerous areas.

“Obviously texts and emails are nice, but why not do an app that has a map so you can pinpoint if there’s a hotspot?” Burkholder asked.

First-year student Maddie Slininger said she wants SAFE-U notifications to be sent out faster, adding she usually hears about what’s going on before UMPD sends them out.

“Even if the University isn’t notified about the incident until days later, federal law requires a notice to be sent,” Ricker said. “There are instances where the University isn’t immediately aware of a given incident. Once the University is made aware of an incident or, when responding to a report, can confirm an incident, a SAFE-U notification is sent.”

Slininger said the alerts sometimes do not have enough information for her to understand exactly what is happening.

“Living in the dorms, it’s a little nerve-racking when alerts come out so late and you have no information,” Slininger said.

On April 14, a SAFE-U alert was sent out notifying students that a person had shot someone with a BB gun outside of Pioneer Hall. Slininger said she and her friends were near Pioneer Hall at the time and thought the SAFE-U did not help them.

“Because it was all nice out, we were all sitting outside and we’re like, ‘Oh my god, should we go in? What do we do?’” Slininger said.

According to the University’s Safe Campus website, SAFE-U alerts only give out the general information of a crime, and the information the alert provides is supposed to help people make decisions as to how to best protect themselves.

More information on SAFE-U alerts, including frequently asked questions, can be found at the University’s Safe Campus website. Past SAFE-U alerts can be found on the University Department of Public Safety website.

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Student Co-op 2023 reopening, Met Council installs flammable substance meters

Over summer 2022, the University of Minnesota campus faced numerous safety concerns, including a fire and explosion along University Avenue, evacuations due to a petroleum leak and a shooting and other disturbances at the Students’ Cooperative house on University Avenue.

The University has requested $10 million to address campus safety from the Minnesota Legislature in its supplemental budget request. On March 30, the House of Representatives Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee approved a bill including the University’s $10 million ask, split evenly between fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The bill still has to be passed by the House.

Outside of the Legislature, the University has taken steps over to address campus safety issues, including improving infrastructure, working with the city of Minneapolis and holding public safety forums.

The University held its latest safety forum on March 2 with President Joan Gabel, University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) Chief Matt Clark, Minneapolis Police Department Chief Brian O’Hara and Minneapolis City Council members Michael Rainville (Ward 3) and Robin Wonsley (Ward 2) as panelists.

UMN updates the community

At the safety forum, Gabel discussed what the University has done to improve safety conditions on campus. These changes include increasing security staff in parking facilities, adding security locks to buildings and bathrooms on campus that did not previously have them and improving the lighting in Dinkytown.

Gabel also announced the University recently hired eight new UMPD officers and ramped up the safety department’s communications team. The University is still hiring for more UMPD officers.

“Crime is trending down on campus and in our surrounding off-campus community,” Gabel said at the forum.

Gabel also highlighted Operation Gopher Guardian, a pilot program that launched in fall 2022 with the aim of increasing police presence during busy times in Dinkytown.

Toward the end of the forum, Myron Frans, the University’s senior vice president for finance and operations, provided new campus safety updates regarding the Students’ Co-op and the August gas leak.

The University is continuing to monitor the Students’ Co-op on University Avenue to ensure no further incidents take place on the property, he said at the forum.

“We’ve been working with Council Member Wonsley’s office, and we will make sure that as they seek a license to reopen, they adhere to all the safety requirements and regulations in the city of Minneapolis,” Frans said.

Frans also provided updates regarding the gas leak from over the summer. The Metropolitan Council discovered the source of the leak after investigating, Frans said, saying it was “miles away from the University.”

The University plans on continuing to work with the Metropolitan Council to respond to any unsafe gas incidents quickly and effectively, Frans said.

The Students’ Co-op remains unsettled

The owners of the Students’ Co-op, which was the site of a shooting in June 2022 and other disturbances in summer 2022, have continued efforts to repair the property and maintain the goal to open for students in fall 2023, CEO of the Co-op, Ellery Wealot, said.

“Anybody who’s been by the building the last month or two will probably have noticed that we started work in February,” Wealot said.

The many planned improvements to the property include acquiring a proper management company, maintaining 75% of residents are students, increasing the length of leases and increasing overall accountability.

“Obviously, what happened over the last two years at the Students’ Co-op was pretty bad and pretty traumatic for a lot of people, and so we’re really trying to make changes to the organization and to the structure,” Wealot said.

According to Wealot and Maria Anderson, a representative on the co-op board, the co-op wants to build a positive relationship with the University but said it has been difficult.

In 2022, after the shooting, the University announced intention to take over the property, which interrupted and stalled efforts to improve the co-op, Wealot said.

“They have more or less only impeded our progress at every step of the way,” Wealot said. “They did recently reach out to us again a few weeks ago and seemed like they were interested in moving forward in a more positive direction.”

With the new repairs to keep the co-op up to code and the application process kicking off for potential residents, the co-op is looking forward to the future, Anderson said.

“We could talk a lot about the goals, but actually just letting us live it out and make our behavior become what defines us is a better way,” Anderson said.

A deeper look into the fire and petroleum leak

After the fire and explosion in June 2022, the Metropolitan Council began investigating the cause. They found the incident was due to an excess of flammable liquid in the sewer system.

The Metropolitan Council worked with city officials, state agencies and the University to investigate the cause of the explosion and prevent similar events from happening in the future, according to a statement sent to the Minnesota Daily from Bonnie Kollodge, senior public relations manager for the Metropolitan Council.

“We’ve installed meters on campus that will alert safety officials if the concentration of a
flammable substance reaches a certain level,” Kollodge said.

The Metropolitan Council also worked to address the petroleum leak later that summer, which led to the evacuation of multiple sports complexes on campus.

“The Council and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency worked with the University on inspections, finding no evidence that the source or sources originated on campus,” Kollodge said.

The Metropolitan Council worked with Hennepin County to identify companies that could possibly be the source or sources of these leaks, Kollodge said.

“The investigation was thorough and rigorous,” Kollodge said. “We remain on the job.”

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Fairview, Sanford Health delay merger, again

Fairview Health Services and Sanford Health announced on Monday they are extending the delay of their planned merger through the summer. 

Fairview and Sanford already extended the process once, when they announced in February they would delay until May 31

Fairview and Sanford originally announced their intent to merge in November 2022 and planned to close the deal by March 31. 

Ellison did not request the second delay, according to the Star Tribune

Ellison’s office did request to be given a 90-day notice in advance of closing the merger to ensure his office had enough time to complete their investigation of the merger, which has been ongoing since November 2022. If the merger goes through, Sanford would become one of the largest health systems in the Upper Midwest, so Ellison’s office is investigating potential antitrust violations.  

Many University medical students have vocally opposed the merger, citing concerns about the future availability of reproductive health care, including abortions, since Sanford is a South Dakota-based company. South Dakota has restricted abortion care following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. 

In March, the University stated it was opposed to the merger due to concerns about Sanford being an out-of-state company, as the health facilities on campus are currently owned by Fairview.

Additionally, the University announced in January a plan to reacquire the health facilities on campus as part of their MPact Healthcare Innovation Plan. 

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Parts of Biological Sciences Center closed due to water damage

Portions of the Biological Sciences Center building on the University of Minnesota St. Paul campus have been closed off to students and faculty throughout the spring semester due to initial concerns of asbestos and water damage.

A pipe burst on the building’s fifth floor earlier this semester, causing “noticeable water damage,” according to an email statement to the Minnesota Daily from Jake Ricker, director of public relations at the University. The Hazardous Materials team did a precautionary testing of the site to determine if there were any possible asbestos exposures.

According to Ricker, the Hazardous Materials team found “no elevated levels of airborne asbestos” in the Biological Sciences Center, but the areas they were testing had to be closed off until testing was complete.

At least one hallway in the building’s basement and the third-floor lounge remain closed due to the water damage, according to Ricker. The University is replacing the floor tiles in the basement and the carpet in the lounge, but he said neither closure is asbestos related.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring, fibrous-looking mineral. The most common type has been used in building construction and can be found in materials like building insulation and drywall. Asbestos exposure has been linked to various illnesses, including lung cancer and mesothelioma, according to the University’s Facilities Management website.

Thousands of products in the U.S. contain asbestos, such as ceiling tiles, floor tiles and piping insulation, Ricker said.

“With over 25 million square feet of buildings on the Twin Cities campus alone, we know products that contain asbestos are present,” Ricker said.

Because of this, the Hazardous Materials team at the University is prepared to analyze samples quickly and remove asbestos when necessary, according to Ricker.

While the pipe burst originated from the fifth floor, most of the building seemed to be affected, according to Makenna Tosi, a plant and microbial biology student at the University.

“I tried going into the basement, and I was trying to go into the study room that is down there, but that was blocked,” Tosi said. “It was all taped off, and then part of the hallway was also blocked off.”

The closures interrupted the ability for classes to meet in the building, according to Jordan Sivigny, a teaching assistant for a course taught in the building, Foundations of Biology for Biological Science Majors.

“It screwed with our class a lot the first two days because we had to close the actual teaching lab where the students work,” Sivigny said.

Despite these closures, both Sivigny and Tosi said they did not receive updates from the University in regard to the asbestos testing in the building.

“I assumed we’d get an email, but we didn’t get anything,” Tosi said. “I haven’t heard from anyone, other than word-of-mouth from other students and what I’ve seen for myself.”

More information on the Hazardous Materials Program can be found on their website. More health information regarding asbestos can be found on the Facilities Management website.

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UMN Law School’s theater group to perform ‘TORTanic’ musical

The Theater of the Relatively Talentless (TORT), a theater group made up of students from the University of Minnesota Law School, is performing their show “TORTanic” on Friday and Saturday.

“TORTantic” is the group’s 20th-anniversary show and will take place at the Ted Mann Concert Hall on West Bank at 6:30 p.m.

TORT presents a parody musical every year to provide law students with a creative outlet, and “TORTanic” follows the stories of law students who encounter budget cuts while attending a semester-at-sea program on the Mississippi River. Past shows have included spoofs on “The Wizard of Oz” and “Top Gun.”

“I am excitedly nervous,” said Wills Layton, co-head producer “TORTantic.” “This is the biggest theater we’ve been in in a few years since COVID-19, so we definitely are trying to make it the best show ever.”

Layton joined TORT in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In spring 2021, the musical was recorded and shown as a drive-in-style movie streaming on Zoom.

“Last year was our year back to having a live audience and we were still at the St. Paul Student Center, so it was still small and we were all kind of packed on the stage,” Layton said.

Justin Oakland, the show’s director, said there have been several changes since he joined TORT during the pandemic.

“We lost a lot of institutional knowledge in the pandemic,” Oakland said. “My first year we had about 20 people, now we have 75-80 people in the cast and pit.”

Law students put on the entire show, Oakland said. From the actors to the dancers to the pit musicians, “every part of this show has only been touched by law students.”

The production process starts each year in May, according to Dom Detwiler, the show’s music director. The group picks a base story and writes the script throughout the summer, with auditions for roles held in October.

“It’s definitely come one, come all,” Detwiler said. “Everybody who auditions is welcome to be in the show.”

Regular rehearsals for the show begin in January after winter break and are held twice a week, Detwiler said.

Jacque Randolph, who plays the show’s lead, said there was an initial learning curve when it came to balancing classes and rehearsals, but it got better over time.

“It was a little weird to juggle at first, but it’s just so nice to have a creative outlet when you’re doing all this heavy academic work all the time,” Randolph said.

Randolph said it was exciting to discover a theater group in the law school and to have the chance to be involved within the group.

“I had gotten a minor in theater and I thought I was never gonna go back to doing anything on stage,” Randolph said.

Other members, like Hannah McDonald, the show’s choreographer and featured dancer, said she felt similarly about joining TORT. McDonald is finishing up her final year in the law school and said she is looking forward to her final production with TORT.

“It’s one of those special melancholy moments,” McDonald said. “I don’t know if it will be my last show ever.”

TORT has some notoriety within the Minnesota law community, according to Oakland. Attorneys throughout the Twin Cities come to see the show each year.

“We have a Wikipedia page,” Oakland said. “You can go back and look at all the stupid shows we’ve done in the past.”

TORT has been a large source of community for those involved and is a way to relieve the stress of law school, Oakland said.

“It’s a source of community, a little bit of chaos,” Oakland said. “ It definitely keeps me sane.”

Layton said TORT is a place where law students can reconnect with a fun activity they may have done when they were younger.

“It’s this place where you can come together and kind of drop the law student facade and just be who you want to be,” Layton said.

Members of TORT, including Detwiler, Oakland and Layton, said they are looking forward to this year’s show.

“It’s a good show and it’s also incredibly silly,” Detwiler said. “It’s just a really great group of people who care about each other and care about the art that we make together.”

Tickets for TORTanic are $12-22 and are available for purchase online. More information on TORT can be found on their website.

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UMN medical students speak out against Sanford-Fairview merger

Some University of Minnesota Medical School students have expressed concerns regarding the Sanford and Fairview Health merger planned for later this year.

Sanford and Fairview Health publicly announced the intent to merge in November 2022. The original date for the merger completion was set for March 31, however, the health care companies have voluntarily delayed the merger by two months, according to Aimee Jordan, a spokesperson for Fairview Health.

Students respond to the proposed merger

Some students have expressed uncertainty regarding the University’s response to the merger, according to Jovany Betancourt, a medical student at the University and student senator for the Medical School.

“Before January, the University actually didn’t tell us anything,” Betancourt said.

In January, medical student Savannah Maynard wrote a letter addressed to Medical School Dean Jakob Tolar and University President Joan Gabel regarding student concerns about the merger. The letter was signed as a petition by more than 270 medical students.

The two largest concerns outlined in the letter were Sanford Health’s ties to South Dakota’s anti-abortion laws and the company’s lack of commitment to funding academic research.

Betancourt said it is important the University remains committed to protecting and providing reproductive health care.

“They are about to take over a health system that is a beacon of support in the midwest for access to those kinds of health services,” Betancourt said.

Sanford Health has stated Fairview’s existing reproductive health care services will not change when the companies merge. However, medical students, including Maynard and Betancourt, remain concerned about the potential for that to change.

“Given the repeated pattern of limiting access to gender-affirming care and abortion services by South Dakota lawmakers, we are concerned that Sanford will not maintain the current resources offered in Minnesota,” Maynard wrote in the letter to University administration.

Some students are also concerned about Sanford’s support of medical research, Betancourt said, since it is a “core strength” of the University’s Medical School.

According to Betancourt, this raises further concerns for research and hospital funding, as well as the potential to affect the Medical School’s ranking.

“Fairview Health is the primary donor to the University’s Medical School,” Betancourt said.

Medical students have taken on further efforts to oppose the merger, including a protest on Feb. 3. Medical students were joined by physicians and Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley to speak out against the merger.

Minnesota attorney general gets involved

At the end of January, Attorney General Keith Ellison asked Fairview and Sanford to delay their merger until May.

“We continue to work cooperatively with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to ensure he has the information necessary for his review,” Jordan said in a statement to the Minnesota Daily.

Betancourt said he thinks the attorney general’s office has done a “good job” so far regarding the merger, saying they have been collecting public comments and opinions through town halls and online input forms.

“It seems like they’re really trying to find ways of combating the merger from a legal standpoint,” Betancourt said.

Betancourt said the most the attorney general’s office can do at the moment is stall the merger until the office can find a viable legal defense or for an alternative option to occur.

“From my understanding, Fairview is deeply in debt and losing lots of money, so there is very little alternative for Fairview,” Betancourt said. “I don’t have an answer to that and no one I’ve spoken to has an answer for that.”

The University has its own plan

Since the merger was announced, the University announced in January its MPact Health Care Innovation plan, which involves purchasing its on-campus hospitals.

The current agreement between Fairview Health and the University lasts until 2026, according to Jordan.

“We continue to be very interested in a clinical partnership with the University of Minnesota and are optimistic about our current and ongoing discussions,” Jordan said.

The MPact Health Care Innovation plan would allow the University to remain in control of the University of Minnesota Medical Center and their research after the merger goes through.

Betancourt said he is not optimistic about the prospects of stopping the merger from moving forward.

“My personal opinion is that the merger will go through because health care systems are big and powerful, and they have money and time on their hands,” Betancourt said.

Betancourt went to the State Capitol in St. Paul as a medical student representative for the Minnesota Medical Association (MMA) and brought up the issue of the merger with Minnesota representatives. The MMA’s official position is that it supports a competitive health care market and that there are potential advantages and disadvantages to the proposed merger, which is why the organization supports the Attorney General’s investigation.

“It was surprising to hear that they also know nothing about this merger,” Betancourt said. “It seems like this came out of left field for a lot of people.”

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UMN students discuss concerns about winter accessibility

Some University of Minnesota students are expressing concerns about the accessibility of navigating campus and the surrounding areas during the winter months.

The condition and management of sidewalks on and around campus in the winter can “vary greatly,” according to fourth-year student and President of the Disabled Student Cultural Center Brooklyn Lamers.

“Even for people who don’t have a physical disability, people fall all the time, and the risk of injury is so high,” Lamers said.

Third-year student Andrea Beltran-Moore said even though she does not have a mobile disability, she notices the difficulty of getting around campus more due to the ice and snow.

“I can’t imagine if you had a wheelchair — that would make it really hard to make it around campus,” Beltran-Moore said.

The University offers accommodations

The University provides accommodations for students with mobile disabilities who need to get around campus, Ross Allanson, director of Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) at the University, said in an email to the Minnesota Daily.

“PTS offers transit services that are accessible and provide the same services and options regardless of time of year,” Allanson said.

The University Paratransit Service, which PTS runs, is dedicated to picking up and dropping off students with permanent or temporary mobile disabilities from more than 200 different stops on campus, Allanson said.

According to Lamers, the Paratransit Service is an example of an appropriate accommodation from the University.

“What I appreciate about that too is there’s no burden of proof to use it, as long as you know about the resource,” Lamers said. “Which I think makes it accessible.”

However, the service is not without its limitations and drawbacks, Lamers said.

“It takes pre-planning of your exact route, which isn’t always possible as a student,” Lamers said.

Additionally, the Paratransit Service or bus service may be interrupted for situations like icy road conditions, Allanson said.

“Driver staff shortages and weather conditions have also impacted Paratransit Service in the past,” Allanson said.

In cases when these services are not available, students can pay to use private services outside of the University like Lyft/Uber or Metro Mobility, a public transportation service by the Metropolitan Council, Allanson said.

Transportation can be “treacherous”

Campus and city buses are also accessible, Allanson said. In the winter months, PTS works with campus partners to make bus and transit stops across campus clear of ice and snow.

Despite their efforts, Lamers said the sidewalks surrounding these bus stops are sometimes still covered in ice and snow, making them “treacherous” for commuting students.

“The sidewalks are so poorly managed,” Lamers said.

The issue of accessibility goes beyond University-operated services, Lamers said. In fall 2021, Lamers was using a temporary mobility aid and had to regularly take the lightrail, which is operated by Metro Transit, to her class on West Bank. The West Bank light rail stop sits below Cedar Avenue, and commuters must use either the stairs or elevator to get up to street level.

“I kept finding that at the stop on West Bank, all the elevators were broken for weeks and weeks,” Lamers said.

This made it difficult for Lamers to regularly get to class because she would have to find an alternative way to get there.

“The added route of trying to get back on to campus, to try to get up to where I needed to be was such a struggle that I wouldn’t go to classes very often,” Lamers said.

Lamers said it was unclear if there was someone from Metro Transit to contact about the issue.

“That was really frustrating,” Lamers said. “I felt like I was lost and I didn’t know where to go to get help.”

Student hopes for a better system to provide feedback

According to Lamers, there is not an obvious or accessible way she knows of to provide feedback to the University regarding the campus’ accommodations and accessibility.

“If there was a better way to track and understand what areas students were most impacted by, they could better prioritize where they’re clearing snow, where they’re salting frequently,” Lamers said.

Students may submit feedback to the PTS at parking@umn.edu, according to Allanson.

Lamers said an accessible space to provide feedback is only one of the reasons why these issues regarding accommodations do not get addressed.

“A lot of experiences with injury, disability or accommodation needs can feel really isolating,” Lamers said. “That’s part of the reason why these issues don’t get addressed.”

These issues with accessibility impact everyone, not just those with disabilities, Lamers, who has a physical disability that impacts her balance, said.

“I’ve got a lifelong disability, but anybody at any moment can have struggles or injuries that make it tough, and this is a big campus,” Lamers said.

Building support for disabled individuals through community engagement is one of the ways students can get involved in improving accommodations for all students, Lamers said.

“I hope the University develops a tool to help report things better,” Lamers said. “But I’d also say, if people have these issues and want to talk about it, come to the Disabled Student Cultural Center.”

For more information regarding University-provided accommodations, students may contact the Disability Resource Center.

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UMN community speaks on benefits, drawbacks of breaks from class

The University of Minnesota scheduled spring break for March 6-10 for its students this year, which is the only scheduled break in classes throughout the spring semester.

Many students, like third-year student Sora Kobayashi, use these breaks to catch up on sleep and relax.

“I can have a rest and no work,” Kobayashi said.

Other students, like third-year student Miral Yahia, said in addition to extra sleep, students have the opportunity to finish up incomplete school work.

Breaks allow students the freedom to catch up on sleep, get ahead on coursework or reunite with their families, according to Rhea Owens, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

However, there is little research Owens knows of that breaks down the effects of breaks “systematically.”

“Given the limited research on this topic, this appears to be a fruitful area to study,” Owens said in a statement to the Minnesota Daily.

How beneficial are breaks?

The research available on this topic has found mixed results on the effectiveness of breaks on students, Owen said.

“A qualitative study conducted in Canada with university students found students reported a fall break to be helpful to recharge, recover from illness and catch up on sleep,” Owens said.

A different study found students reported experiencing more overall stress after fall break, despite reporting less stressors overall, according to Owens. However, students still support the idea of having a fall break.
Breaks give students the opportunity to do activities that bring them joy, as well as see family, which are both forms of mental health support, Owens said.

Some students, like first-year Miranda Piehl, said they think breaks from school can help students manage burnout while also allowing them to be at home with family.

“It gives us a chance to go home and see family, which is really nice,” Piehl said. “I haven’t personally been home, so it’s really cool to just be able to relax at home.”

According to Owens, the length of time it would take for a student to avoid burnout probably depends on the person, but the longer students are under stress, the more likely they are to experience burnout.

“It may be worthwhile for faculty and instructors to consider when they are scheduling assignments and due dates around breaks,” Owens said.

Owens said she wonders how having more frequent shorter breaks, like three-day weekends, in addition to one longer break could benefit students.

“Longer breaks likely make traveling and seeing family and friends more likely, which can be beneficial,” Owens said. “Shorter breaks offered more frequently might be helpful to allow students time to rest more often.”

The timing of spring breaks can differ

Not all colleges and universities across the country hold spring break at the same time. The University has held spring break on the first full week of March for at least the last two years.

Both Piehl and Kobayashi said they enjoy having spring break at this time since it marks the halfway mark of the semester.

Piehl said the University’s timing allows for easier trip planning for those who like to travel over break because not as many people are on break.

“It’s easier for planning trips. I know in the past, the later [break] is, then the more common the week is, and it’s really hard to book things,” Piehl said.

Other students like Yahia said they would not mind if the break was moved to be later in the month.

“I wish it were a little later, so we could hang with family, if you’ve got family with spring break at the same time,” Yahia said.

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