The House Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee heard a proposed bill to amend the nomination process of the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents on March 22. The bill received tentative bipartisan support from members on the committee.

This session, legislators across chambers and parties have shared their thoughts on how the current Board is not adequately listening to students or other stakeholders. Rep. Jennifer Schultz, the author of the bill, said she tried to amend the Regent selection process in past sessions but was never able to get bipartisan support. Schultz said during the hearing she is willing to amend the bill to ensure its passage after comments from the Republican lead Rep. Marion O’Neill.

The bill would require one faculty member, one representative from “a University employee organization” and one enrolled member of a federally recognized Native American tribe to sit on the board. In addition, the bill limits Regents to two six-year terms.

The proposal would also change the structure of the Regent Candidate Advisory Council (RCAC) — the legislative body that recommends Regents to the full legislature. It would include five people appointed by speaker of the House, five appointed by a Senate subcommittee, the five campus’ Student Body Presidents and one faculty member from each campus. Additionally, the bill calls for a designee from five different councils — the Indian Affairs Council, the Council for Minnesotans on African Heritage and the Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans, among others.

Finally, the bill would also bar legislators from nominating Regents on the floor, meaning only Regents recommended by RCAC are eligible for nomination.

Typically, the legislature convenes the RCAC council every two years to replace or re-elect Regents to the Board. RCAC is currently comprised of 12 members from the House and 12 from the Senate that work together to put forth recommendations to the whole legislature.

Once RCAC announces their nominees, the House and the Senate meet in a joint session to vote on the nominees. Sometimes legislators outside RCAC have nominated individuals like sitting Regent James Farnsworth to serve on the Board.

Legislators and students react

“We actually have a shot at doing this,” Schultz said in an interview with the Minnesota Daily. “The students will be in a much better position to keep moving forward,” she said, citing student additions to RCAC and faculty members on the Board.

O’Neill said during the hearing she had reservations about limiting the legislature’s power on the RCAC committee.

“The legislature has only two levers when it comes to the University of Minnesota. One is the purse string,” said O’Neill in an interview with the Minnesota Daily. “The other level we have is the election of Regents. Unfortunately, what changing RCAC does is it guts the power of the legislature. I find that incredibly problematic.”

However, O’Neill said that the representation of students and faculty on RCAC is a step in the right direction considering how little she feels the Regents have been listening, citing President Gabel’s new contract. She said she would consider altering the balance to include 50% legislators on the council.

“If [Regents] are supposed to be chosen by the legislature, it should be chosen by the legislature,” said O’Neill.

In addition to Gurtaran Johal — the Minnesota Student Association’s (MSA) Board of Regents Representative and who testified in committee in support of the bill — MSA also sent a letter affirming their support for the bill while expressing concern that there is not enough student representation on the Board.

“One [Regent at-large seat] should be for a permanent Twin Cities campus student and then the other seat should be a greater Minnesota system campus’ seat,” said Mitra Kian in an interview with the Minnesota Daily. Kian is the MSA State Government and Legislative Affairs coordinator and a co-signer on the letter.

The University declined to comment on the bill, citing its general practice to not comment on matters of Regent selection.

This bill has added urgency for legislators, as four seats on the Board will be up for nomination next year. Schultz said during the hearing that the bill was altered right up to the first legislative deadline and that there can still be more negotiations between herself and O’Neill.

“I think that the Board of Regents has been very disconnected and disengaged from the campus community,” said Kian. “I believe that’s a result of a lack of student input and community input going into that process of their decision making.”

The Minnesota House passed the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act, which bans discrimination based on natural hair, on Feb. 28 in a bipartisan fashion by a 104-26 vote.

The CROWN Act has been passed in 10 other states and is going to be reintroduced at the national level by Rep. Ilhan Omar, and others. In Minnesota, the same bill passed the House in 2020 but never received a hearing in the Senate, which meant the full chamber did not vote on it and it had to be reintroduced.

The current version of the bill must still be voted on by the full Senate and be signed by Gov. Tim Walz before it becomes law. If the CROWN Act is signed this session it would be implemented July 1 this year, MDHR said.

The Minnesota bill furthers the definition of race discrimination by including “hair texture and hair styles such as braids, locks and twists” to the Minnesota Human Rights Act list of protected traits, according to the bill text. The CROWN Act coalition’s website states that Black women are 1.5 times more likely to be sent home from work because of their hair.

Sen. Bobby Joe Champion said he wants this to be a single issue bill to ease its passage.

Champion will carry the bill in the Senate, where the bill faced challenges last year. He is more hopeful about getting a hearing this session, mentioning increased support from Repulican party leaders and from Sen. Andrew Mathews, chair of the Civil Law and Data Practices Policy Committee.

“As an individual, I’ve also felt the pressure to conform to beauty standards. I straightened my hair up until the middle of law school,” said Rep. Esther Agbaje, lead author of the bill, in an interview with the Minnesota Daily. “Even then, I was sort of apprehensive about it. On my government job, I usually wore my hair straight.”

In 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found that race-based discrimination made up about 38.2% of all discrimination cases in Minnesota.

“While some discrimination cases contain shockingly overt statements and conduct, most discrimination cases involve circumstantial evidence of discrimination,” said professor Laurie Vasichek, an adjunct professor of employee discrimination at the University of Minnesota Law School.

This bill will fill in gaps in federal court decisions which have allowed for hair to be an enforceable action by an employer by including certain styles of hair as natural hair. The Act will remove ambiguities for judges when interpreting laws, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) said in an emailed statement.

Many courts say “hairstyles are not immutable characteristics since they can be changed,” according to Vasichek, a former EEOC trial attorney.

Champion said the bill will not protect dyed hair and hair length, in workplaces where the latter is a concern. Workplaces, like construction or other industrial jobs, often restrict hairstyles or hair length because of specific safety concerns.

“People who work in a factory or something, they can’t really have long hair,” Agbaje said. “That’s because it’s a specific safety concern. That moves forward first.”

Dyed hair, on the other hand, greatly includes the choice of the individual and will likely be not protected.

“I believe solely in the fact that people should not be judged based on their race and hair, but on their skills and qualifications,” Champion said. “If there’s anything that’s prohibiting individuals from being able to be a part of a welcoming environment and being a part of what I think is good about humanity, then it requires all of our attention.”

University of Minnesota athletes testified in front of the Senate Higher Education Committee on Feb. 15 about the three men’s teams that were cut in 2020. Legislators expressed concerns about the University’s supplemental budget request as well as the Regents communication with stakeholders.

In fall 2020, the Board of Regents voted to cut the men’s gymnastics, men’s tennis and men’s indoor track and field teams because of finances and Title IX requirements, according to a statement from the University.

Since the decision, student athletes and alumni have been pushing for the board to reinstate the programs through letters and conversations with Athletics Director Mark Coyle, according to the testimony. They have also been independently raising money to continue involvement in their sport.

Testifiers said they were dissatisfied about the way the regents made the decision, saying the decision to cut three teams instead of four shortly before the meeting did not include input from athletes. They mentioned several times they did not feel like they had an adequate opportunity to be heard.

Legislators also shared their concerns about how the regents made the decision to cut sports, and publicly alluded that the lack of transparency could affect the University’s $936 million budget request.

During the House presentation, Rep. Marion O’Neill mentioned her concerns about the size of the request, especially because of the University’s decision to cut these teams for financial reasons.

“That was a bold, and may I say arrogant, ask when they are operating the way that they are with the lack of transparency, with the lack of answers back to the legislature,” O’Neill said in an interview with the Minnesota Daily.

Senators also said this was a valid concern, especially given the overall size of the University’s request coupled with their perceived lack of transparency.

“What this hearing brought out, and coupled with the [budget request] hearing and in regards to giving President Gabel her raise, it just seems like the Board of Regents and the administration is working in a vacuum,” Sen. Jason Rarick, co-chair of the Higher Education committee, said. “They’re not listening. They’re not taking outside input from students, from employees and from the people of Minnesota in general.”

At the hearing, Sen. Greg Clausen said based on his role in the regent selection process, that he hopes “they did a good job in thinking that [decision] through.” He said later in an interview with the Minnesota Daily that a takeaway from the hearing was the regents’ overall lack of communication.

University officials did not attend the hearing, saying in a statement the current lawsuit intending to reinstate the programs brought by a current student prevented them from commenting publicly on the matter. Senators confirmed this is typical practice when there is a pending lawsuit against certain parties.

Mike Linnemann, past Gopher track and field letterwinner and current alumni organizer, said the next steps lie with the legislature to create a state special commission to look into how the decision was made and how to improve college sports across the state.

Rarick said the legislature does not have the authority to tell the University what to do. Since the University has constitutional autonomy from the state, the state can give the University funds but cannot direct them to initiate any specific policies. Rarick said he is going to ask the regents to create the commission versus the legislature.

“I’m working right now on a letter asking the Board of Regents to put the commission together that look at not only these three programs, but of what the athletics department could be, and truly take a look at how we can change things and create more opportunities for a student athletes,” Rarick said.

Despite the lack of University support, University of Minnesota students are still participating in gymnastics, indoor track and field and tennis and say they will do so for a while.

“We’re going to continue to keep doing gymnastics,” said Ben Hays, a male gymnast and first-year student who attended the hearing. “Whether the University tells us we can be D1 or not, we’re still going to fight it until the very bitter end.”

Rep. Athena Hollins introduced a bill in the legislature to restrict no-knock warrants under certain circumstances; the bill was voted through its first committee on Feb. 17.

The Monday following Amir Locke’s killing by Minneapolis police officer Mark Hanneman, legislators and members of Locke’s family formally announced a legislative proposal for stricter requirements on no-knock warrants.

After Locke’s death, there has been a renewed push to restrict no-knock warrants. Locke’s cousin and aunt said at the conference they wanted this bill to be passed as a stand-alone issue to ease its passage, while recognizing there is still more to be done for criminal justice reform.

“I’m hoping that we will effectively ban no-knock warrants, except in the most extreme of circumstances,” bill author Hollins said in an interview.

The bill would not completely get rid of no-knock warrants, as it allows for no-knock warrants to be issued if there is an “articulable and imminent risk of death or great bodily harm to an individual” within a property.

Hollins said the bill was built around urgent exceptions that the United States Supreme Court found are exempt from warrants, such as active shooter situations.

No-knock warrants are a judicial and law enforcement practice that started in the 1970s and impact Black Minnesotans at a higher rate than other races. A review by MinnPost found that of the 94 no-knock warrants approved in Minnesota since September 2021, 66 were aimed at Black residents.

The bill is likely to pass the House, where the DFL retains a majority, but faces a more uncertain future in the Senate which is controlled by Republicans, Hollins said. Heavyweight former Republican party leaders and candidates for governor Paul Gazelka and Michelle Benson have both supported warrant reform efforts.

However, Chair of the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee, Sen. Warren Limmer, has said he will not hold a hearing on the matter.

“We do have some Republican interest in the bill in the Senate, and potentially a Republican Senate author, which would be really great for moving it forward,” Hollins said. “It’s difficult to predict how people will behave and how they will vote, but I think if we can keep the momentum going, there is that potential.”

History of no-knock warrants in the United States

Warrants in the United States are established by the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees the right “against unreasonable searches and seizures.”

University of Minnesota Professor Perry Moriearty said the government has to prove probable cause to a court to use a warrant.

“They can enter if they get a search warrant that is independently reviewed by a judge to determine whether it’s reasonable,” Moriearty said. “From that emerges something known as the knock-and-announce rule.”

During the war on drugs, a political movement that resulted in the incarceration of Black people at much higher rates than other races, there was a divergence of warrant types and the beginning of no-knock warrants. No-knock warrants were codified across the states in an effort to preserve evidence.

President Richard Nixon started the war on drugs in 1971 to combat drug usage in the United States. The programs initially focused on rehabilitation and prevention for drug users, but later turned more toward law enforcement and incarceration. After Nixon, President Ronald Reagan continued the emphasis on law enforcement — instead of rehabilitation — by raising the length of mandatory minimum sentences, among other policies.

The rationale for no-knock warrents was that the desire to preserve evidence is necessary, and announcing a police presence would allow criminals the opportunity to destroy the evidence.

Another popular reason for passing these statutes was officer safety: if officers would be entering a home for someone they believed to be dangerous — like in a murder case — announcing a police presence could allow a potentially harmful suspect the opportunity to arm themselves.

Academics are still unsure of the motive, whether race or concern of a drug epidemic, but nearly all agree the programs have had a long-lasting impact on Black Americans. Sentencing practices, like mandatory minimums, placed a larger number of Black people in prison and for longer periods of time.

In recent years, there has been a push to ban no-knock warrants, especially after the police killing of Breonna Taylor in March 2020. Police used a no-knock warrant to enter Taylor’s apartment for an investigation related to her ex-boyfriend, and an officer shot and killed her.

A year later, in April 2021: Kentucky, where Taylor lived, limited the instances where these types of warrants can be used. To date, only Oregon, Florida and Virginia have fully banned no-knock warrants.

“I do think no-knock warrants are fundamentally incompatible with the reasonable expectation of privacy that people should have in their homes,” Moriearty said.

Correction: A previous version misstated why the police used a no-knock warrant and entered Taylor’s apartment. The police used a no-knock warrant and entered Taylor’s apartment for an investigation that involved her ex-boyfriend. 

University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel and other administration officials presented a $936 billion budget proposal on Feb. 8 to the Minnesota House and Senate Higher Education committees, leaving GOP representatives feeling “concerned” about the size of the proposal.

Senators did not openly support any specific parts of the plans. They inquired about the intention behind the budget and asked why there was not more funding in certain areas, such as public safety. University officials said the budget is not only an investment in the institution but also in the communities they serve.

The University did not ask for anything outside of the initial budget approved in December. This is the first time that University officials presented the 2022 budget request to legislators.

Legislators question how funds will be spent

Republican Sen. Jason Rarick and Rep. Marion O’Neill both brought up Gabel’s new raise as a point of curiosity in future deliberations. O’Neill said she had a hard time with a “quite near a billion-dollar” ask from the state when Gabel would be making $1.2 million a year by 2026, in addition to the athletic director possibly receiving a raise. Since that meeting, University Board of Regents approved a contract extension for athletic director Mark Coyle on Friday, which includes annual salary increases.

“It is a competitive marketplace for talent at every level,” Gabel said at the Senate hearing. “We strive as an institution and as an employee of that institution to put our employees on average in the center of the market, and that’s something that we’re continuously doing.”

The proposal includes $185 million for public safety. Rarick asked specifically about the size of the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) as well as the cooperation between the University and the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) after the University “backed away” from MPD. He later asked about hiring and retention rates.

Gabel said that UMPD and MPD had a “partnership all along” concerning neighborhoods around campus, such as Marcy-Holmes.

“What was lost in a lot of the intensity [in spring of 2020] for our community was that we very specifically also said that MPD was our partner around patrols around shared investigations, and around the areas that are their jurisdiction,” Gabel said at the meeting. “And that’s never changed.”

She said that UMPD’s staffing has grown beyond historic levels by an extra three officers, meaning that there is more coverage per shift.

“It’s a matrixed set of decisions to work on safety, especially when it crosses in and out of your jurisdiction, but feels like one community and shared safety is our top priority,” Gabel said.

Nearly half of the University’s budget proposal is for physical infrastructure, with $400 million for Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement building requests and a combined $73.6 million to remodel STEM buildings on the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses. Sen. Michael Goggin asked if the University would include cost-saving ideas to keep intact structures instead of constructing new buildings.

Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations Myron Frans said its plan would be logistically dependent; he wants to strike “a balance” of keeping historic structures whenever possible, but being realistic if a new building is structurally inept and must be rebuilt.

The legal complexities between the legislature and the University are complicated by the constitutional autonomy the University has from the state.

“My understanding is that we have no authority over the U’s budget at all. We just give them the money and say, ‘Please do good stuff with it,’” Sen. Aric Putnam. Once the University has the money, he said, “We can’t tell you what to do with it.”

The Minnesota House Higher Education Committee convened five student groups from across the state, including the Minnesota Student Association (MSA), to talk about the upcoming session and what students want to see from legislators.

MSA Director of Government and Legislative Affairs Grace Johnson and Ranking Voting Member Carter Yost spoke on behalf of the group at the Feb. 2 meeting. Johnson and Yost highlighted increasing student minimum wage and public safety while also bringing up housing reform, expansion of telehealth services and amending the Board of Regents selection process.

The live reaction from legislators was relatively silent, with one of the 19 committee members asking Johnson and Yost questions after their testimony. Afterward, Yost said he heard from lawmakers.

“I received a few folks sending messages thanking me for being there and congratulating us on the advocacy,” Yost said. “It seems to me that there’s a general sense of elected officials really wanting to find that student input.”

MSA shares their goals
One issue the student group brought up was the legally complicated topic of raising the student minimum wage. The University’s student minimum wage is $10.33 an hour compared to Minneapolis’ $14.25 per hour wage for large employers.

The University is a land-grant institution and predates the state of Minnesota, meaning the legislature is limited on how it can tell the University system to spend its funds. The University has constitutional autonomy as a separate legal entity, exempting it from Minneapolis’ minimum wage laws and allowing the University to set its own wage for workers.

Johnson and her team say they are aware of the challenges but are still determined to attempt to make a change.

“We know the University had the money to give [President] Joan Gabel a pay raise and we know the state has this money here,” Johnson said.

“Let’s have a negotiation. This is a new kind of perfect storm of circumstances that might make this something possible to accomplish by the end of the year,” she said, referring to the $7.7 billion state surplus.

Yost spent most of his time at the hearing talking about the need for better public safety initiatives on campus, particularly in the off-campus neighborhoods like Dinkytown and Marcy Holmes. He said later in an interview that off-campus lighting, upgrading to adequate surveillance cameras and achieving the “feeling of safety” are going to be big focuses between MSA and the legislature.

MSA’s fall survey found 2,243 participants favored expanded campus lighting and 1,759 favored installing more security towers.

According to Johnson, moving forward with the legislature will require one-on-one meetings with legislators as well as continually making more connections with other organizations.

“Hopefully there are some eager beavers up there that do want to testify,” said Rep. Shelly Christensen, vice chair of the committee, of getting student voices involved. “[Testimony] reaches so many more people in that way. That’s important to me as a legislator.”

Johnson said MSA will be watching for any new issues that pop up during the semester. The issues they testified on are not limiting them in issues that come up during the session.

“It’s smart to choose three or four main areas you want to work on so that it’s not too expansive or too time-consuming at the beginning,” Johnson said. “There will inevitably be something that pops up mid-year.”

First Lady Jill Biden traveled to the University of Minnesota’s Child Development Laboratory School Wednesday to showcase the funding childcare and early education institutions received from the American Rescue Plan.

The roundtable event included Biden, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, Gov. Tim Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Rep. Ilhan Omar and childcare leaders from across the state. Biden started the event by highlighting the plight of working mothers during the pandemic, saying that COVID-19 has provided unique challenges to parents of young children.

“She needed that job, but she needed to take care of her children more,” Biden said of working moms at the event. “There was no choice, so she walked away from the labor force.”

The event was held in a classroom at the Child Development Laboratory School in Southeast Como. Signs saying “American Rescue Plan,” as well as the “ARP” abbreviation, adorned many open spaces in the room, including a children’s chalkboard. Biden said she chose the University because of Walz’s continued investment in the state’s early education program.

Attendees said funding from the American Rescue Plan helped them by giving their children the necessary education tools before kindergarten. Parents also talked about the need to pass President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act, which is currently stalled in the United States Senate. 

Dr. Elizabeth Davis, who participated in the event, said Build Back Better would provide early education for low-income children and would provide different types of funding to help families enroll their kids in these services.

“The Build Back Better Act is a historic investment in early childhood, education and childcare. It is only going to get us part of the way there because it’s set to end in six years,” Davis said at the event.

Minnesota received $537 million in child care funding from the American Rescue Plan. Walz’s proposed budget for the upcoming legislative session includes nearly $1.8 billion for mixed delivery child care and early education, particularly aimed at low-income families.

“When we talk about these numbers, they matter,” Walz said at the event. “This [budget] is a critical document. It’s also a moral reflection to really care about. These aren’t dollars, they’re children, here to take care of families.”

At the discussion was Shawnice Walls, a single parent with two kids in daycare. She talked about going to school, working, juggling parenting alone, as well as closing childcare centers.

“I’ve mostly put my kids first. The sacrifices, they’re hard to make,” Walls said at the event. “But I have to put them first. I had to put everything on hold.”

Davis said stories like Walls are representative of what is happening across the country.

“The specifics — they vary, but in general, families have struggled with childcare closing, even if it’s closing temporarily,” Davis said. “Suddenly, if you have to go to work or if you’re going if you’re home, it’s just much harder to do that work.”

Gov. Tim Walz proposed a $2.7 billion budget proposal on Jan. 18, which includes roughly $214 million for the University of Minnesota.

The $214 million proposed for the University includes $142 million for University’s Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement (HEAPR) fund and $72 million for a new undergraduate teaching laboratory on the Twin Cities campus. Walz’s budget is a reaction to the $7.7 billion surplus the legislature will put to use after the start of their session on Jan. 31.

In December, the Board of Regents requested $936 million from the state’s expected surplus. This proposal was one of many Walz considered when designing the budget proposal. Walz’s current plan would give the University just over 20% of what Regents requested.

In this legislative session, the governor and caucuses in both chambers will look at how to spend the expected surplus. Party leaders have detailed their partisan priorities, but no bill has been introduced since the start of the session on Monday.

Walz’s nearly $3 billion budget proposal is aimed at helping the residents of Minnesota. By supporting higher education, the state will help support the life-long needs of Minnesotans, Walz said.

“The budget is to serve people and serve communities,” Walz said on Jan. 20 during an event at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

The U could see building upgrades in the next couple of years

Of the requests the University made, Walz suggested appropriations for renovations to Fraser Hall and money for the HEAPR fund.

If the budget is approved, obsolete portions of Fraser Hall will be demolished while the historical parts of the building will be renovated. The renovations will make room for a new undergraduate teaching laboratory.

The undergraduate chemistry program is intended to be held in Fraser, but is currently operating in Smith Hall, putting both graduate and undergraduate programs in the same space. Dr. Philippe Buhlmann, a chemistry professor, said having the extra space will be different, but welcomed.

Buhlman said undergraduate students, in a usual week, typically have group work and currently have to “sit in the hallway along the walls because there’s no chairs” to do group work.

The new space will have a collaborative space that puts students close to the labs they will be working in, according to the University. Buhlmann said the new communication and collaboration aspect of the building will prepare students for work after college.

Walz also proposed $142 million for the HEAPR project fund, which is a general reserve set aside for upgrading existing buildings.

Brian Swanson, assistant vice president of finance and systems, said the University’s annual HEAPR request helps to keep the current buildings intact and well-functioning. Swanson said they planned to put in elevators, redo a roof and complete other projects.

“They aren’t glamorous improvements, but they’re essential to keeping the University working,” Swanson said.

According to Swanson, the University has a formula to distribute the total funding across all five campuses and estimated the Twin Cities campus would receive roughly 80% of the total HEAPR funding approved. The University currently has roughly 240 projects underway using HEAPR money.

Swanson said in the past, 90% of the funds appropriated are put towards a project within two years.

Shashank Murali, the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) infrastructure committee director, said he was pleased with the proposal but felt there could be more areas — such as transportation and public safety — that could have been funded in the proposal.

MSA wants to see more money set aside specifically for green transportation, Murali said. The group is working to get better lighting on campus and in the University neighborhoods, as more street lighting can be a successful crime prevention measure.

“We like [that] the University’s investing more into the buildings that our everyday students use a lot, but we feel like there are a lot of other investments that can be made to our campus infrastructure that is much more needed right now,” Murali said.

On Feb. 1, Minnesota political parties will hold their precinct caucuses statewide at 7:00 p.m., starting the voting process for the 2022 midterm elections.

The Minneapolis DFL opted for a “contactless” option and the District 5 GOP will hold an in-person caucus at DeLaSalle High School on Nicollet Island.

Caucuses are a way for voters to help choose candidates to be selected at the state conventions, select important messages for political platforms and choose delegates to represent local values at the state conventions later in the year.

“It’s a really great opportunity for young people to really voice and live their values and move the party and politics and policies forward that align with their interests and their values,” said Carter Yost, president of the College Democrats of Minnesota.

Kathryn Pearson, a political professor at the University of Minnesota said caucuses are for individuals who only identify with a particular party. Caucuses, she continued, are where “party decisions are made.” This includes endorsing candidates for the state conventions or specific parts of a party platform.

All political parties will hold state conventions and primaries later in the year for local, state and national races to solidify candidates and issues with the help of delegates chosen during the caucus.

How to participate

DFL voters can fill out an online or physical form; the physical form needs to be printed and dropped off at a pre-designated space. There will be two places on the University campus: the Law School and Coffman Union.

“This year’s caucuses are simple: attendees just fill out an online form, [then] submit. That’s it,” said Doron Clark, Secretary of Senate District 60, who is helping to organize the DFL’s local caucus. “There’s a little bit more if they want to be a delegate to the Senate District Convention, county convention, the City Convention or be on any of our organizing committees. [Voters] just check a box.”

Clark predicted it would take seven to ten days to count all of the results from the drop-off boxes around District 60 and the online results.

In 2021, the DFL utilized a contactless caucus for local races, such as Minneapolis’s mayor. However, this year will be the first time it is used for local, statewide and national offices.

The Fifth Congressional District GOP will run a more traditional caucus at DeLaSalle High School.

“It’s going to be normal, except that DeLaSalle and the city of Minneapolis have some COVID protocols in place,” said Alec Beck, Chair of the Republican Fifth District Organization. “We’re going to observe those and so it won’t be quite normal, but our people feel comfortable in that context.”

According to the Secretary of State’s website, in order to participate, a voter needs to ensure they are registered to vote in the upcoming election and attend their specific precinct for their current address.

Caucuses are a way for students to get involved and help put their ideas out onto the party platform. But typically speaking, Pearson said, students and younger voices are underrepresented because they do not show up to participate in caucuses.

“People 18 to 25 are less likely to turn out to vote than older Americans, and that difference in turnout is even greater at the caucus level,” Pearson said. “So you’re even less likely to see young people populate the convention floor as delegates.”

In addition to voicing political values and helping to set an agenda for the state parties, caucuses are a way to meet people with similar ideas around the neighborhood.

Sam Law, District 60 Board Director, said caucusing is a time where meeting neighbors and discussing politics is a welcomed experience and will miss the camaraderie this year.

“The grassroots groups of people tends to be as social as much as anything else,” Beck said. “Senate District 60 meets once a month and we meet in a bar, and it’s just fun.”

Check out the Secretary of State’s caucus finder to find more information on local caucuses.

Beginning Jan. 31, the Minnesota state legislature will convene with plans to focus on a record-breaking projected $7.7 billion surplus, a $936 million budget request for the University of Minnesota, and improving economics and housing.

The surplus is going to be the main issue facing legislators this session, as it is the largest surplus the state has ever seen, with the second-largest as $4 billion in 1999, without adjusting for inflation. Many legislators are looking for ways the excess budget can help all Minnesotans, including students.

“There is a once in a generation opportunity to make investments in our state,” Rep. Connie Bernardy said. “The projected funds that we’re having come into gives us the opportunity to look at, ‘What can we do to really make a difference and invest in the state?’”

In early December 2021, before the spread of the Omicron variant, Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) anticipated the surplus to reach $7.7 billion by the end of the 2022 session. MMB said Omicron will likely affect the overall estimate but the organization will have a firm number after tax collection in April.

Board of Regents asks for nearly $1 billion

The Board of Regents approved a budget proposal on Dec. 17, asking for an additional $936 million to aid with building requests on top of its regular budget. To contrast, the Board asked for $46.5 million from the legislature in 2021 and for $87 million in 2019.

The University typically submits budget requests in odd years, but because of the surplus, regents are asking for more one-time-only funds this year. This year the legislature will work on a bonding bill designed to address physical infrastructure upgrades or repairs, including its supplemental budget.

The proposal includes building renovations for basic maintenance across the University system, a new chemistry building on the Twin Cities campus and security upgrades across the University’s five campuses.

Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Myron Frans said that of the $100 million allocated for security, $90 million would be for one-time upgrades, such as building access, security cameras and the University’s IT infrastructure safety.

Frans said it would take about three years to fully implement security and safety changes if the full proposal is funded.

“If there was ever a time to be bold, it is now,” said Steve Sviggum, vice chair of the Board of Regents. “These requests are all much needed for the University to fulfill our mission for Minnesota.”

The Board is also asking for $65 million as a yearly investment to increase aid for the Promise Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships for Minnesota residents attending one of the five University of Minnesota campuses.

“You need to look at what out-of-pocket expense is for each individual student and through the grants and scholarships,” said Sen. Jason Rarick, vice chair of the Senate Committee on Higher Education. “We’re trying to help the students [who] can least afford college to lower that out-of-pocket expense as much as we can.”

Looking at other issues impacting state legislature

Sen. Kari Dziedzic, whose district includes the University area, said the economic recovery is the most important issue to her this session.

“When we have this budget discussion, what we need to do is to literally target to help those who the pandemic has really hit hard,” Dziedzic said. “When you look at data, it is people of color and Indigenous and low-income families.”

Dziedzic said she supports housing vouchers for nearly 550,000 Minnesotans and intends to build momentum for a bill she introduced last session to achieve the same goal.

Sen. Greg Clausen said while the budget process will undoubtedly play roles in deliberations this year, especially in education, to remember that there are other issues, like the 2022 elections, on legislators’ minds.

“During election years, there’s not a lot of big issues that get moved forward, quite honestly,” Clausen said.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the location of the chemistry building listed in the proposal. The chemistry building is located on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus.