Acts of Kindness at the University of Minnesota (AoK), a student organization launched this semester, aims to promote a stronger community on campus through events focused on acts of kindness.

The founder of AoK, third-year student Stormy Pierce, created the club after being inspired by a video created by Oregon-based organization Wildly Kind, which also focuses on doing acts of kindness. 

“I wanted to try and find something that helps challenge my mental health, and I find it easier to do things for other people than it is to do for myself,” Pierce said. 

After deciding to start AoK, Pierce said she contacted Wildly Kind about her idea and potential involvement within the organization. After back-and-forth conversations with Wildly Kind, who were unable to help due to their location, Pierce created the AoK Discord server and promoted it on social media. 

Fourth-year student Lydia Prueher, who is the secretary of AoK, joined the server after seeing promotions about it on a University-based group Snapchat story. 

“I was sitting at the break table at my summer pizza job just scrolling through my phone and I was like ‘You know, this looks really cute,’” Prueher said. “I wanted to be involved in some way because it was such a moving idea, something as simple as doing nice things for other people.” 

Ten members currently comprise the AoK board, including Pierce and Prueher, who became board members after joining the server and began planning out logistics for the club. 

Summer break made planning difficult, as the board members were only able to meet online and the organization did not have much support, such as funding or an established bank account, according to Pierce.

“I’ve never been president of anything before, so there’s been some learning curves with communication, scheduling and funding,” Pierce said. “It’s a pretty great process with the people I have.” 

This semester, the organization hosted their Petals and Positivity event, where people received free flowers with positive messages attached to them. They also host online game nights on their Discord server and weekly in-person hangouts. 

One of their events coming up is a bake sale on Tuesday, where they plan to sell desserts and stickers. More information about upcoming events can be found on the group’s Instagram page.

Ell Sidla, a second-year global studies student, is a general body member for AoK. Sidla said she joined AoK after visiting their booth at a club fair earlier this semester and loved their mission of spreading kindness. 

“It felt like it would be a good place to meet people who are also looking to spread kindness,” Sidla said. “It feels good knowing that it’s a group that’s specifically aimed at promoting kindness and wellbeing.” 

Sidla added interacting with other general body members makes her experience in AoK fun, especially during their game nights. 

“I’ve been really enjoying their virtual game nights, and it’s a good opportunity to meet people,” Sidla said. 

After their Petals and Positivity event, Pierce said she was touched by people who wrote kind messages on a blackboard at the event. 

“It was so heartwarming to see the amount of people who also want to engage with being kind and intentionally taking time out of their day to do it,” Pierce said. “I got so happy that I came home and cried. I was so happy that people were really invested in supporting this and wanting to experience kindness.” 

Pierce said students face a lot of anxiety and isolation in a post-COVID-19 environment, but having this event was a great way for people to create interactions with others. 

AoK set up their event in front of Coffman Union and Prueher said people approached their table with curiosity and surprise as they realized they were able to take flowers without paying. 

“People would walk up to the table with their arms crossed and looking around wondering ‘Hey, what do you have going on here?’ And we explained that we’re a club focused on spreading kindness,” Prueher said. 

For Prueher, kindness is a way of showing respect to others and to show others that people do care about one another. 

“I had a teacher in high school who hated the golden rule, and he’d always say ‘No, treat others the way they want to be treated [instead of how you want to be treated],” Prueher said. 

Meanwhile, Pierce believes kindness is a way to validate other people’s experiences and tell others that they are not alone. 

“Even when the world makes it hard to believe that, there’s so many good experiences to be had,” Pierce said. 

The University of Minnesota’s Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) provides semester-long parking contracts for students and staff to purchase online.

Students are able to purchase parking contracts in lots, ramps and garages across all three campuses at the beginning of the semester, which are charged to a student’s University account.

In the fall 2023 semester, PTS sold 4,772 student parking contracts, which is up from 4,239 student contacts in fall 2022 and 3,913 contracts in spring 2023, according to Lonetta Hanson, assistant director and chief of staff at PTS.

“We do have a set number of parking contracts that we sell,” Hanson said. “It best serves the community that if they want to come park here, they know where they’re going to park ahead of time.”

George Manyange, a fourth-year journalism student, commutes to campus from Brooklyn Park daily and has a parking contract on the St. Paul campus. Manyange said he has classes on the Minneapolis campus, so he takes the Campus Connector bus daily, which causes a delay in getting to class.

“I’d prefer to drive to Minneapolis, but the problem is, I didn’t find any spot in Minneapolis,” Manyange said. “The only spot I found was in West Bank, which is where most of the employees park their cars. There’s no bus, so you either have to take a scooter or bike to get to East Bank.”

Manyange said he originally purchased a parking contract on West Bank but canceled it after having to walk 20 minutes from his contracted lot to Blegen Hall to catch the bus, which made him late to class.

“I think this semester they sold more contracts compared to last semester, so there’s no ramp in Minneapolis,” Manyange said. “Either you park on the street or park on the ramp, and they charge you $3 an hour, so that’s $17 for the entire day.”

Hanson said PTS does oversell parking, but they implemented a strategy to ensure contract holders are able to have a place to park, including the possibility of selling public parking.

“If we have a facility that has 1,000 spaces, we might sell 900 contracts, because we know that on every given day some of those contract holders aren’t actually going to come here and park,” Hanson said.

Parking issues occurred in the beginning of the semester due to construction and equipment software issues, which caused some parking facilities to have no available spaces. These issues have been resolved, according to Hanson.

“Anyone that has a contract will get a space on campus to park and we do our best to make sure it’s their home location where their contract is,” Hanson said. “But if there’s ever an error or problem, we’ll give you an alternative location and don’t have to double pay.”

Half-closures occur at some parking lots toward the end of the week, where half of a parking lot is closed for use. This causes some students to move their cars to different locations during the day.

Josh Rowan, a fourth-year marketing and international relations student, said the half-closures are inconvenient and he does not know why these closures happen.

“I didn’t have to find a new parking spot because most people have already left, so there’s still some parking spots open in the area, but it was a little annoying,” Rowan said.

Rowan has a parking contract at the University’s Victory Lot located near Huntington Bank Stadium and has classes at the Carlson School of Management. He said he signed up for a contract late, so he was not able to get a contract on a ramp near Carlson.

“It can be a little frustrating, especially if I’m running late in the morning,” Rowan said. “I’ll see the bus coming and I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s no way I’m going to park in time for the bus, so I’ll have to wait for the next one.”

If Rowan has to move his car, he returns to the Victory Lot after classes to move his car to the Washington Avenue ramp located near the University Recreation and Wellness Center.

“If I have to move from the Victory Lot, I try to do it after 3 p.m., because that changes the price from $3 an hour to $1 an hour,” Rowan said. “If I’m feeling a bit tired or don’t want to walk all the way there, I might move my car to the parking lot or ramp in the central area of campus or even at Carlson.”

Hanson said PTS works with current supply and demand for parking contracts to ensure a proper balance between contract parking and public parking by adjusting the amount of spaces available, which changes daily.

“There may still be an increase of people seeing the parking [spot] go into the reserve status, but contract holders can still go in when that message is showing,” Hanson said. “It just means that the public who doesn’t have a reservation or contract can’t get into the facility.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Tuesday the emergency authorization of a new COVID-19 vaccine to curb the spread of EG.5, the new dominant COVID-19 variant in the United States. 

The vaccine approved for emergency authorization is manufactured by pharmaceutical company Novavax, with updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna available for use. 

Unlike previous vaccines, the updated COVID-19 vaccines are monovalent, which means the vaccines only provide protection against the most recent strain of COVID-19.

Rebecca Wurtz, health policy professor at the University of Minnesota, said vaccine manufacturers may evaluate the modification of vaccines targeting the most current COVID-19 variant. 

“It’s not bivalent, which is the way that the vaccine has been since early 2022 until now,” Wurtz said. “It’s modified to be more active against the most recent strains.”

President Joe Biden announced the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11. In the United States, the average number of daily COVID-19 hospital admissions this year is above 4,500, with an average of 36 daily hospital admissions in Minnesota. 

The updated COVID-19 vaccine comes at a time when people will be getting their annual flu shot. Wurtz said COVID-19 will be treated as a disease similar to the flu, in which the disease will become part of ordinary life but does not limit itself as a seasonal illness like the flu.

“The flu vaccine is different every year because the flu changes every year. COVID changes every year, but it is not a seasonal infection,” Wurtz said. “We’re most likely going to have to get a COVID shot every six months or so, because that’s about how long immunity to the infection lasts.” 

Michelle Trumpy, director of public health at Boynton Health, said people can get the flu and updated COVID-19 vaccines simultaneously. 

“Vaccination remains the best protection against serious illness,” Trumpy said. “They’re a really important thing people can do for themselves and their community.” 

Boynton Health recommends all students and staff follow CDC guidelines surrounding the flu and COVID-19. The updated COVID-19 vaccine will be available at Boynton Health in mid-October, but students who wish to get it sooner can go to a nearby clinic. To check vaccine availability in clinics, students can visit vaccines.gov. 

“Once we have it in stock, we will update our website, sending an email to students and having a tile on MyU about it,” Trumpy said. 

James Lin, a third-year management information systems student, said he is not too concerned about the new COVID-19 variant and might not get the updated vaccine unless his friends get it. 

“Last time I heard about COVID, it was downgraded to a flu-level threat,” Lin said. “It really depends on the individual and how they view the flu, and I imagine that how they view COVID should be a reflection of that.” 

Lin said the decision of whether to get the updated vaccine depends on conversations with his friends. 

“If no one else is getting the vaccine, then I don’t see a need to get it. If I talk to my friends and they say, ‘James, are you on the vaccine yet,’ then I’m going to get the vaccine,” Lin said. “Most of my peers and friends have a decreased awareness of COVID than last year or the year before.” 

Wurtz said the best way for students to protect themselves against serious illnesses is to receive updated flu and COVID-19 vaccines, wash hands before entering big crowds and be thoughtful about protecting others, especially older adults. 

If students have symptoms of a respiratory illness such as COVID-19 or the flu, Wurtz recommends staying at home for up to 10 days after exposure. 

“We may not know if it’s COVID, the flu, RSV or something else. Wearing a mask yourself, especially just a surgical mask, doesn’t necessarily protect the people around you,” Wurtz said. “It’s better to stay home for 5-10 days after and to avoid giving your infection to somebody else.” 

Boynton Health continues to provide COVID-19 and flu testing at their Gopher Quick Clinic and take-home tests are available for purchase at its pharmacy. Students can also get eight free COVID-19 tests from the Minnesota Department of Health and at front desks at University-owned housing. 

“People are absolutely getting their flu vaccine,” Trumpy said. “We’ve had several large vaccination clinics and we’ve already vaccinated a thousand people against the flu this season.”

United States Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett will be featured at the University of Minnesota Law School’s annual Robert A. Stein Lecture, the school announced Sept. 6. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a student-led grassroots organization, plans to host a protest against Barrett’s appearance. 

The lecture is moderated by Robert A. Stein, a former law school dean and executive director for the American Bar Association, and has highlighted Supreme Court justices every year since its inception in 2013. 

Barrett joined the majority in Dobbs v. Jackson in 2022, a ruling that eliminated the constitutional protections for abortion that were established in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.  Barrett also voted to end affirmative action programs in June, which meant universities could no longer use race as a factor in their admissions processes. 

The decision to feature Barrett for the lecture on Oct.16 at Northrop Auditorium came with strong opinions from students and the community.

Gillian Rath, a member of SDS, said it is important for students to be able to express their opinions. 

“As soon as the lecture information became public, we had several student groups and community organizations in Minneapolis reach out to us,” Rath said. “We have to use our voice and do what we do best to make sure that not only the University, but Barrett knows that that kind of forces are not welcome here.” 

Rath added the protest is designed for students to express their opinions and to gain the attention of University officials. 

“People feel so strongly about this issue and it makes me think that the University does not listen to us,” Rath said. “They don’t care about our thoughts and feelings and they really don’t care about our rights.” 

Interim Dean of the Law School, William McGeveran, heard student concerns through a meeting held on Sept. 25 with the Law Council, the law school’s student government. He said some students were excited about the opportunity to hear a different political perspective while others were unhappy with the decision. 

“My role and the law school’s role is to support our faculty and students when they want to exercise speech rights,” McGeveran said. “Whether that’s bringing speakers, responding to speakers or engaging in non-disruptive protests, we want to see lots of different perspectives.” 

One student who hopes the SDS protest does not interfere with Barrett’s appearance is Olivia Oldenburg, a third-year aerospace engineering student. She said she is a fan of Barrett and plans to attend the lecture, wanting to enjoy the event without any interruptions. 

“You can’t agree with everybody, and if you’re going to have a political discussion with somebody, you’re going to have to respect their views and they’re going to have to respect mine,” Oldenburg said. 

Oldenburg acknowledges the emotional toll some of Barrett’s decisions have had on people. She said she heard about the upcoming protest and was afraid it would affect her safety at the event. 

“I feel like coming up and screaming at [Barrett] is not going to help,” Oldenburg said. “The decisions have already been made and there’s no way she can overturn them.” 

McGeveran said he spoke with the University of Minnesota Police Department and Northrop Auditorium security to ensure that attendees are safe inside and outside the building. 

“They are going to have plans in place for any potential disruptions and particularly any disruptions that would cause physical harm to anybody,” McGeveran said. 

Young Democratic Socialists of America at the University of Minnesota (YDSA), a student group on campus, created a petition to educate students about Barrett’s stances on previous court cases such as Roe v. Wade. 

Sahra Jilaow, communications director for YDSA, said the decision to bring Barrett to campus goes against the University’s commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion.

“[Barrett] has harmed every single marginalized community in some way with her policies, and her continuing that rhetoric on campus creates more of a divide,” Jilaow said. 

Jilaow added she wants to educate students about political issues, as students may not be informed about the significance of Supreme Court cases such as Roe v. Wade, which was a case Jilaow said she has heard lots of students have questions about. 

“I think it is important for people to have an understanding of what she has done and what she continues to do in the Supreme Court. I know a lot of people on campus would be against her beliefs,” Jilaow said. “It’s important for college students to realize who is coming onto their campus and what they have been representing.” 

Paul Batastini Dell’Ovo, a fourth-year sociology student who hopes to go to law school, plans to attend the SDS protest in hopes of being heard by University officials. 

“The students are doing their best to share their voice,” Dell’Ovo said. “Everyone I know shares similar ideas about their disappointment in the University, but nothing really happens at an administrative level.” 

The University of Minnesota’s Office of Academic Clinical Affairs (OACA) hosted their bi-yearly “Mini Medical School” webinar on April 12, focusing on the health of aging.

Joseph Gaugler, director of the University’s Center of Healthy Aging and Innovation, moderated the recent webinar. He discussed aging in rural and international communities, inviting experts to present their knowledge to the general public.

“Many of us have questions as we get older about ‘what I should be doing in terms of my activity, what should I be looking for in a health system or health care provider that actually promotes healthy aging,’” Gaugler said. “These are our community members from Minnesota and worldwide asking these questions.”

The Mini Medical School webinars are open for members of the general public who are interested in learning about various health topics, such as planetary and environmental health. Recordings are posted online after a webinar concludes.

Mini Medical School was created by Greg Vercellotti, professor of medicine at the University’s Medical School, in 1999, after he realized the University community did not know about the medical school or the Academic Health Center, which hosted the events before it dissolved in 2009.

“It was at a time where we had significant cuts and funding at the University, and we had several proposals before the Legislature for funding,” Vercellotti said. “It was also at a time where Fairview bought the hospital, and we realized that we were not always transparent about what we do.”

Prior to the Mini Medical School, Vercellotti hosted a show on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which ran 30 episodes a year and focused on health problems in the community, such as heart disease and breast cancer.

He worked with former University president Mark Yudof and state legislators to create the Mini Medical School after learning about similar programs done by the National Institutes of Health and the city of Denver, which invited the community to learn about health topics of their choosing.

“What we really wanted was to have people from the community come in and see what the medical school does, this is what being a medical student is like,” Vercellotti said.

For Gaugler, the Mini Medical School is meant to provide useful information for attendees about a topic of choice with the ability to talk to experts about how a health issue affects them.

“These are a mixture of older people and family members and health care professionals who really want to learn more about healthy aging and what they can do about it both for themselves and their loved ones,” Gaugler said.

Vercellotti held Mini Medical School talks in Moos Tower, where he brought experts from the University and the state to talk about bioterrorism and anatomy.

“People could actually see what a knee looks like or what a heart or brain looks like,” Vercellotti said. “It was so great to have the president [Yudof] a part of this.”

Vercellotti was glad the Mini Medical School is continuing to provide valuable health information to the public.

“We explore issues around the nation and the world, so it’s a mix between timeliness and what’s happening in public health or otherwise,” Gao Vang, OACA senior communications specialist, said. “For example, cancer, which has affected many people, who want to learn more about resources and any opportunities they can engage in and learn more from experts on that topic.”

Since switching to a webinar format in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mini Medical School has had more than 5,000 attendees attend their webinars, according to Vang.

“I think it’s a way to emphasize how we share University knowledge with the public,” Vang said. “It’s not just for the University community. It’s for communities in Minnesota and around the world, so I think that’s really where the value is.”

American Service, a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis, aims to help Ukrainian refugees integrate into the community through mentorship and guidance, while providing an opportunity to help others.

The organization was founded by Aswar Rahman, a University of Minnesota alum and content strategist who ran a business creating content for political campaigns, following the start of the more than year-long Russia-Ukraine war.

Rahman traveled to the Ukraine-Poland border to offer humanitarian assistance to people trying to escape from the war, where he was able to apply his business skills to help others.

“Around that time, there was an inkling of the U.S. announcing this ‘Uniting for Ukraine’ program, and this doesn’t happen [often],” Rahman said. “This expansion of humanitarian parole we’ve seen under the Biden administration came out of thin air.”

Uniting for Ukraine was announced in April 2022 and offers Ukrainian citizens to stay in the U.S. for a two-year humanitarian parole period. They must have a supporter in the U.S who will provide them with the necessary financial support during the two years.

As of Feb. 16, more than 133,000 people had come to the U.S. through the Uniting for Ukraine program.

Because of this, organizations were not ready for the influx of refugees coming to the United States. Rahman purchased a house in Dinkytown to house some of the refugees who came to Minnesota.

“American Service helped me when I arrived and they showed me how to fill out paperwork,” Taras Zhmurko, who fled the war in Ukraine and came to Minnesota, said.

After American Service was founded, the U.S. government announced in November certain Ukrainian refugees would be granted automatic work authorization, which meant they would be eligible for work as soon as they arrived in the United States.

Rahman said he wanted to help the refugees find immediate employment without needing a social security number. Some of the refugees currently work at Home Depot, where they also help one another with translating English to Ukrainian.

“My organization, in December, really pivoted hard into employment,” Rahman said. “We found really good jobs at Home Depot, especially in the warehouse side of things.”

Relating to a community impacted by tragedy

The organization partnered with local groups in Mississippi on March 7 to send seven refugees to Rolling Fork, Mississippi, to provide aid to individuals who lost their homes after a deadly tornado hit the area.

For Sofiia Rudenko, the Minnesota director of American Service, the trip provided an opportunity for the refugees to connect with the Rolling Fork community.

“We do understand how it is when you lose your home, and when you don’t have people to support you,” Rudenko said. “We know that support is really important, so if we can go and help, we will go and help.”

The refugees gave water to a local distribution center, since large amounts of debris cut off water supply in the area.

Rudenko said they also “gave their hearts to the community.”

“We met a lot of amazing people and they said their story,” Rudenko said. “It was heartbreaking for us, and we were happy to be able to help them and show them that we do understand what it’s like.”

Rahman said he wanted the refugees to go to Mississippi because he believed philanthropic work could help them feel like they belong in America.

“This is their country now — this is where they will live in the foreseeable future,” Rahman said. “Most of them want to build their lives here, and we felt it in our core that this was a way to say that we belong and that we are here to help.”

American Service provides outlet for Ukrainians to help their own people

For Zhmurko, being part of American Service means he gets to help others get a job in America through the knowledge he gained during his time with the organization.

“I can help people with housing and help people with some paperwork,” Zhmurko said. “It’s cool for me.”

Helping the Ukrainian community get settled in America was the main reason Rudenko chose to come to America after hearing about the opportunity to help in another country.

“I never imagined myself living anywhere else,” Rudenko said. “I’m really happy to build a community where people can help and support and be motivated and brave in doing such things.”

Fourth-year University of Minnesota art history student Tony Miller traveled to various art museums in the country this past summer as a recipient of the Janet G. McCloud Travel Scholarship in American Painting.

The $5,000 scholarship is awarded to an undergraduate or graduate student studying art history who has a passion for object study, which is the act of observing a piece of physical artwork, such as paintings or sculptures. The scholarship covers both the cost of travel and hotel fees.

The scholarship application closed after March 31, with recipients embarking on a month-long trip over the summer to explore different art museums of their choosing located in the United States.

“I’ve never gotten an opportunity to travel much,” Miller said. “Before the scholarship, I’d only been in less than a handful of places outside of Minnesota. It’s just a great opportunity to see the country that I’ve lived in my whole life.”

An ‘eye-opening’ experience

Miller first heard about the scholarship through his advisor and former professor, Jenn Marshall, who helped him work through the application and prepare for the trip.

“It was very eye-opening,” Miller said. “Most of my experience with art museums has been at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.”

Some of the art museums he visited were the Philadelphia Museum of Art, New York City’s Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Miller said each museum was memorable for their distinct art displays, such as cube-shaped gallery spaces and intricate architecture.

It also gave him an opportunity to talk to museum curators about museum operations and artwork. Marshall, who is also chair of the art history department, helped connect Miller to museum curators and worked with him to create a trip itinerary.

“It was quite humbling because they know so much more than I do,” Miller said. “I also got to meet with an artist in New York to get an artists’ perspective, especially in a city like New York.”

Since scholarship recipients travel over the summer, they do not have to work on an active research project for a class or faculty member.

“It’s kind of unusual to have a scholarship that’s really devoted to exposure and travel that doesn’t necessarily require an outcome at the end,” Marshall said. “It is designed to really help you think about what art you want to see.”

Marshall said the scholarship is an opportunity for students to network with professionals in the art history field. Some professionals current art history students connected with were alumni of the University.

“It does take some mentorship and planning and conversations around how to look at art and the patience sometimes it takes to let everything go and be in an art gallery for a long time,” Marshall said.

Miller previously had no interest in American art, which was the primary focus of his study on the trip. He said his interest has grown since returning from the month-long trip and found ways to apply his knowledge as he was making observations.

“In all the museums I went to, I tried to guess if the piece was American or not, and I actually got pretty good at it,” Miller said.

2023 scholarship recipient announced

The art history department recently announced this year’s recipient for the scholarship, second-year student Julia Knudten, who said this scholarship is a “neat” opportunity to expand her newfound interest in art history.

She applied for the scholarship to follow a similar path of art exploration as one of her role models, artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who shares her hometown of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

“Being a shy artsy kid, I never knew where I could fit in,” Knudten said in an email to the Minnesota Daily. “She inspired me to be more embracing of my creativity. After her husband’s death, Georgia traveled the world, further experimenting and looking for artistic inspiration.”

Knudten said getting the opportunity to visit different art museums would help expand her knowledge on museum exhibition operations because she is currently working with a Weisman Art Museum research team to learn about how exhibitions are created.

She plans to visit the New York City’s Museum of Modern Art’s exhibit on O’Keefe and then travel to New Mexico to visit the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

“I’m really looking forward to further educating myself about my childhood icon,” Knudten said. “I hope to learn more about museum structures, what art history can look like, and what my future will hopefully look like.”

According to an email sent to University of Minnesota Honors students on Feb. 16, a total of four advisers left the University’s Honors Program (UHP) this semester, disrupting advising assignments and services and leaving some students feeling frustrated.

Second-year student Rhea Joshi said the changes made declaring her chemical engineering major difficult because she was not able to communicate with the same adviser during the declaration process.

“One adviser would give me different advice than the other one would, and part of that was due to the fact that they didn’t really know me,” Joshi said. “I had spent my time with one counselor for a year and a half, and then suddenly, there’s another one.”

UHP announced its advising services will take a supplemental advising model as part of their efforts to restructure the program, meaning students would have access to college-specific advising along with supplementary honors advising. This was intended to allow students to choose where they asked questions related to the UHP program requirements.

“Because advisers are trained to serve specific colleges, and because UHP has to manage adviser caseloads to keep them somewhat equitable, a change caused by one adviser leaving often has a ripple effect on advising assignments across our staff,” Director of the Honors Program Matthew Bribitzer-Stull and Associate Director of Honors Advising Practice Rebecca Aylesworth said in the Feb. 16 email.

Honors students are required to meet with their adviser once a semester but were not required during the fall 2022 semester due to the changes, according to Joshi. She said she had three different advisers over the course of the school year and, having no one else to ask about academics, still scheduled meetings with them.

“Last semester, I had to meet with a different adviser that I wasn’t even familiar with because mine didn’t have any openings,” Joshi said.

Maxwell Reed, a second-year student, also changed advisers during the year. Since he did not utilize his new advisers much, he said the switches did not have a large effect on him.

“My first adviser left at the end of last semester, and I was assigned a new one who I never met with because I haven’t needed help with anything,” Reed said.

Reed used his original adviser for help with course requirements and looking over his schedule but has not met with his new adviser this semester because he did not need outside help creating a schedule.

“The Honors Department seems to be downsizing advisers when they already have too few,” Reed said. “I know of a few people who have struggled to schedule appointments because their advisers’ schedules are full.”

Joshi said the process of scheduling an appointment with her adviser became more difficult because she had to make a phone call to the Honors Department to schedule an appointment instead of using the typical online scheduling portal.

“I’ve had a lot of questions, and I’ve been trying to find more specifics about the degree I’m in and what more I could do, and it’s been hard to get that information with the resources I was provided,” Joshi said. “I don’t think that it’s fair to students to make it that difficult to get information.”

However, Joshi said her current adviser has been in constant communication with her and has been helpful in providing information to her. She said she has no problem with the advisers themselves, but instead with how UHP is restructuring its advising program.

“The advisers were very passionate about helping students, so I don’t want to say that it’s the advisers’ fault [for the changes],” Joshi said. “They did what they needed to do, and they were there for students when they needed them.”

The UHP statement said these changes, despite the numerous disruptions, are in the best interests of students and staff in the program.

“By fall, we expect to have reached somewhat of a steady state as we move to our new advising model starting with Orientation in the summer,” Bribitzer-Stull and Aylesworth said.

University of Minnesota students are balancing schoolwork and other responsibilities this month while observing Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.

Muslims who observe Ramadan abstain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset for 30 days and increase praying and community worship. Muslims begin their fast by eating a pre-dawn meal, known as suhoor, and end their fast with a meal known as iftar.

Ramadan, which changes each year with the lunar calendar, can fall during the school year while students are still attending classes. This year, the first day of Ramadan was March 23, and it ends April 20, about two weeks before finals start. For some students, this means they have to balance fasting along with their other commitments.

“There’s an added challenge during Ramadan where some students have classes that are far apart, and they only have 15 minutes to get from one to another,” Andar Farhan, a third-year student, said. “You definitely have to be quick, and it definitely drains my energy out.”

Some students had to make some adjustments to their everyday routines to get their assignments done while still tending to their religious obligations during the month. Since the suhoor meal occurs before dawn, some students only get a couple hours of sleep each night.

“I have 8 a.m. [classes] everyday, and I have been getting to those a little bit later, but my professors have been fairly understanding about it,” Ibrahim Ismail-Adebiyi, a third-year student, said.

For Farhan, Ramadan is a time to focus on religious obligations, so homework is not his top priority. He said his professors give him extensions on assignments and fewer penalties for submitting assignments late.

Some students, like third-year student Abdullahi Nor, said not having to worry about eating allows them to get more tasks done during the day.

“Majority of the time, I feel energized and can focus more on my studies,” Nor said. “When the breaking of the fast is near, I don’t have to worry about school because I’ve spent the majority of the day doing work and studying for my exams.”

Nor said he maintains his normal sleep schedule and tries to not stay up past midnight, but if he has time to catch up on sleep, he will take a 30-minute nap during the day.

“I make sure that when I’m sleeping, I have my homework done,” Nor said. “If I have no homework, I like to relax and make sure my mind is set so I can finish the day strong.”

Nothing stops Nor from fasting during Ramadan, even assignments that require more energy to complete. He reached out to his professors about Ramadan and what he would like them to do to make studying easier, such as providing extensions on assignments.

“There should be a balance between doing acts of worship and school, and I think people are very supportive of that,” Nor said.

Ramadan creates an empowered community

Students often go to community events to spend time with other Muslims and worship as a group. One space students go to is the Al-Madinah Cultural Center (AMCC), a student organization that serves the Muslim student population and has their own room in Coffman Union.

During Ramadan, the organization hosts iftars and prayers every weekday along with community bonding events, which aim to bring the University Muslim student population together. Nor said being with the Muslim community during Ramadan shows how supportive it is.

“Knowing that another brother and sister is doing it with me is a sense of empowerment, that we’re all in this together,” Nor said. “The Muslim student population is increasing every year, and it makes me happy to break the fast and the room’s packed with people.”

Ismail-Adebiyi said living in Yudof Hall has been very convenient during Ramadan because he can cook iftar in the kitchen and not have to worry about going to a dining hall to get food before it closes. He also said Yudof’s thick walls make it easier for him to sleep undisturbed during different parts of the day.

“I get home around 10 p.m., and that’s when I’m going to cook dinner,” Ismail-Adebiyi said. “Especially since we’re allowed to have air fryers, it’s very convenient. This morning I tossed a fish in the air fryer and then called it a day.”

Community is an important part of observing Ramadan, and observing it with friends makes it fun, according to Nor.

“I’ve gotten to know more people this Ramadan than any other Ramadan, because I would go home for previous Ramadans or go to a local mosque to break my fast,” Nor said. “I’ve gotten to know people who are just like me and they’re my age, so it’s pretty fun.”

Eleven students from the “AHS 3004: Health in the Andes” course traveled to Ecuador over spring break as part of their health-centered curriculum to learn about how health issues, such as poverty and clinical health care, affect different cultures.

The course is an embedded course, a type of study abroad program where students meet on campus for seven weeks to learn class content, then travel to the country of study for a week to implement what they learned. When they return to campus, they have the opportunity to process their experience and work on final projects.

Embedded course model provides unique way to study abroad

The Learning Abroad Center on campus provides a variety of embedded programs for students of all majors.

“We work with a local travel agent and build a group flight so everyone can travel together with their professor,” Lindsey Lahr, assistant director of the Learning Abroad Center, said.

Students in these programs have to pay a program fee to cover the costs of going abroad. Tuition is billed the same way as a typical on-campus degree program, with the expectation of students taking a full-time courseload over a semester, according to Lahr.

Students receive credit for these courses for the semester, as in a typical on-campus degree program, Lahr said.

The embedded course model provided opportunities for students who could not commit to a semester-long or extended program to study abroad. Lahr said some students are unable to commit to a semester-long or extended program due to their jobs or family commitments.

“Students can still get that study abroad experience while also working toward their degree or making money or family commitments,” Lahr said. “This embedded model is becoming more popular because pedagogically, it is nice for students to have the class time and the abroad component.”

The Learning Abroad Center works with different organizations in different countries, helping students and professors once they arrive in a country. Fundación CIMAS de Ecuador is the Ecuador-based organization that hosted the AHS class and helped the class visit various clinics in the country.

“We met with the staff and physicians and other health care professionals to learn about how they integrate Indigenous health practices alongside modern clinical care,” Laura Fyfe, co-instructor of AHS 3004, said.

Instructors and students reflect on the experience

Rahma Ali, a second-year biology, society and environment major, is a student in the class. She said going to Ecuador made her feel like she was back in her home country of Somalia because of the country’s strong emphasis on community.

“They are very welcoming, they welcome you to their environments, their homes, their restaurants, and even though a majority of us didn’t speak Spanish really well, we were still able to understand and communicate,” Ali said.

Ali said learning about Ecuador and its health care system before the trip allowed the class to quickly make observations about their learning without having to ask too many basic questions.

“We went to a lot of different hospitals and we needed to understand everything we heard so we could bring back that information for our class and for our final project,” Ali said.

Students were separated into groups and tasked with making observations that fit with a cross-cultural sustainable development goal, such as hunger or poverty in Ecuador compared to Minnesota, according to Fyfe.

“We’re all at different stages in our ability to relate with different cultures and to understand our own culture,” Dana Lovold, co-instructor of the class, said. “We try to facilitate that process while we’re abroad because we find that it’s really critical to getting a lot of meaning from the experience.”

Emphasizing the importance of learning about other cultures

Lovold wanted students to make connections between their own life experiences and their learning in the class from a health and cultural perspective.

“By throwing culture into the mix, we can start to understand how that is essential to addressing some of these complex and emergent health issues that were faced not only in Minnesota but globally,” Lovold said.

For Ali, the biggest takeaway from participating in the embedded course model is being flexible with scheduling and not having expectations about what the cultural experience should look like.

“When the instructors shared that it’s important to go in with an open perspective, I really took that seriously because this is a country I haven’t been to and a culture I haven’t learned much about,” Ali said. “With expectations [of what the experience would look like], I don’t think I would’ve had the same experience.”