Over spring break, several University of Minnesota students worked on different projects with Minnesota nonprofit Fraser as part of the Get Ready program through the College of Liberal Arts (CLA).

The Get Ready program helps students gain work experience and explore various career paths without being tied to an internship or paid job. Paid jobs and internships can be difficult for students to access because of high competition and low pay, according to Char Myers, CLA’s Coordinator of Experiential Learning.

“We wanted to work with employers and students to create shorter-term opportunities as a way to expose them to different industries, so they can figure out [what they want to do],” Myers said.

‘Get Ready’ for a career

The Get Ready program started in 2022 and is still in its pilot stage, with 175 students enrolled in the program, heading into their last session in May.

The program is funded by CLA and provides a $600 scholarship for every student who participates in the program.

“The goal of the funding was to support students who experience the most barriers to finding internships, such as having limited income or being a first-generation student,” Myers said.

Myers said these short-term projects allow students to learn about a certain industry while working and learning more about companies that serve the industry. Some industries that are available to students participating in the May session include data analysis, logistics, sales and social media strategy.

Fraser, which provides specialty health care and mental health services for individuals with disabilities, is one of the organizations CLA works with as part of the Get Ready program’s spring break session. During the week-long program, students were asked to develop a marketing plan for Fraser targeting a Gen Z audience.

“Students did a lot of research on our current marketing efforts by analyzing our job postings, social media efforts and recruitment strategies,” Jody Paulson, assistant director of talent acquisition at Fraser, said in an email to the Minnesota Daily.

Brihan Dressel, a second-year global studies student who worked with Fraser as part of the Get Ready program, had prior experience in marketing as a social media manager and wanted to continue building on her marketing skills while serving the community.

“I’d been looking for a program where I get to collaborate with another organization in Minneapolis, so it was a good opportunity to apply a lot of the marketing experience that I had gained in the three years that I’ve been in the industry,” Dressel said.

Students who applied for the Get Ready program’s spring break session had the option to select three organizations they wanted to work with, and Dressel picked Fraser because it provided marketing experience.

“I really wanted to learn about a mental health organization such as Fraser that offers so much care for those with disabilities and people in the community who want a more diverse opportunity when it comes to education and the clinical care that they provide,” Dressel said.

Students build connections

Paulson said she was impressed with the work students did at the end of the week and said this experience was valuable for students because of the opportunity to learn about Fraser, expand their network and build skills in business and marketing.

“The students are provided the opportunity to hone their project management, communication, and presentation skills with the assistance and coaching of Get Ready Program consultant Ana Eliason, who was amazing to work with,” Paulson said.

Manisha Asrani, a first-year human physiology student who also worked with Fraser, said the opportunity increased her awareness of other people’s struggles.
“I was able to experience being around a group of people [kids] that learn and grow differently from myself,” Asrani said. “I know I want to work in health care in a setting like this in the future, so it was cool to see what the life of behavioral therapists and their work was like.”

Fraser was Asrani’s first internship opportunity, and she said she gained many valuable skills that would help her in the future, such as communication and networking.

“I learned about [the Get Ready program] through emails from CLA. I chose to apply because I felt like Fraser fit in with what I might want to do in the future,” Asrani said.

The work students did for Fraser did not end after a week, according to Dressel, as she still communicates with Fraser to check in on the project.

“I hope college students understand that they have a lot to offer, especially when it comes to attracting organizations and companies after graduation or during school,” she said.

The Nice Ride bike share program in Minneapolis will be discontinued this spring, following the program’s sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield, announcing it would no longer provide funding.

Nice Ride officially closed for the season on Nov. 13. Lyft, which secured the city contract to manage and operate Nice Ride in 2018, plans to remove all Nice Ride stations when the weather is warmer, according to reporting from Racket.

“We have worked tirelessly to find a new sponsor but have not been successful,” a Lyft spokesperson said in an email to the Minnesota Daily. “We will continue to work with our local partners to look for opportunities to provide service again in the future.”

The Nice Ride program had bikes and scooters available for rent throughout Minneapolis and Lyft confirmed both bikes and scooters would no longer be available.

Blue Cross Blue Shield did not respond to the Minnesota Daily’s requests for comment prior to publication.

The Nice Ride service launched in Minneapolis in 2010 as a way to help cities prioritize shared mobility over personal vehicle usage.

The City of Minneapolis said in a statement to Racket that there are other entities interested in providing shared bikes for the city.

“The City is disappointed that Lyft could not find a new private sponsor to support their operation of the Nice Ride system. Regardless of the outcome, the City has other licensees in the Shared Bike and Scooter program interested in providing shared bikes, ensuring that the city will have bikes in the program this upcoming season,” according to the statement.

The service experienced a 54% increase in ridership in 2022, in part due to equity programs such as Nice Ride for All and an increase in University students signing up for the program, which provided an average of 500,000 rides each year.

Students say the bikes were convenient, affordable and safe

The Nice Ride program had several stations located on the University campus, which students utilized for transportation around campus. Some students were shocked to hear the news of the program’s discontinuation, including second-year Eva Gomez.

“I’m pretty sure they have my email in their database, so they could have sent something out [about the program being discontinued],” Gomez said. “I had my membership for four or five months before it got cold, and I used them once a week.”

Gomez said the bikes were useful to get around campus, especially with the convenience of having two stations located near her apartment in Dinkytown.

“The furthest I’ve used the bikes was to get to the Molecular and Cellular Biology building, and I would put them at the stations in Coffman Union and it would be a two-minute walk from there,” Gomez said. “It really cut my time in half, and without a bike, it would’ve been a 25-minute walk.”

Ryan Fauglid, a second-year student, was an “avid user” of the bike share program and was upset to hear about the program’s discontinuation. Fauglid said he enjoyed how convenient the service was for transportation across campus and the affordable discounts the service offered for students.

“I think it is an easy form of transportation that is quicker than walking and public transportation but cheaper than taking Lyfts and Ubers,” Fauglid said, referring to the vehicle transportation service offered by Lyft.

He said he plans on utilizing the Evie and Hour Car car-sharing programs more to get around campus but is hoping the program returns because it provides more security. He said since only people who have the app are able to access the bikes, there are generally more bikes available to use.

“I suppose I could bring my own bike on campus, but it is not as convenient,” Fauglid said. “I am worried about protection for my bike, as I know many people whose bikes or tires have been stolen.”

Gomez said using the bike share service was helpful because the process of renting a bike was simple and stations were easy to access, making it easy for students to find transportation around campus.

“I didn’t have to worry about parking or getting a ride or taking too long to walk,” Gomez said. “I also liked being active and going outside.”

Gomez said using the bike share service made her feel safe traveling through campus at night because the bikes enabled her to move quickly without dealing with much traffic.
“It can be intimidating walking around campus, especially when it’s dark out,” Gomez said. “So to have a bike available is useful.”

The Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence (MCAE) hosted recreational fitness classes on Feb. 6 and Thursday for students of color.

The fitness classes, held at the Recreation and Wellness Center (RecWell), provided students of color with access to the gym to help them be mindful of their physical health. MCAE Director Fernando Rodriguez said he wanted students to see the resources RecWell offers, such as personal dietitians and rooms for cardio and weightlifting.

“It’s hard for students who are first-generation students of color who are already feeling isolated to go into the big rec center and then ask for help,” Rodriguez said.

When he was studying at the University of Minnesota, he said his fitness group gave him a sense of community he did not get from his classes and professors, so he wanted to provide a similar community with other students.

“I wanted to be really intentional about creating opportunities for the students that we serve to connect to the RecWell and their group fitness program,” Rodriguez said.

Terra Brister, interim assistant director of holistic student support, said the classes are an important way for students of color to take up space in places historically known to be predominantly white, such as the gym.

“I hope by offering these classes that students of color will feel more comfortable exploring different forms of wellness and working out,” Brister said.

RecWell’s mission is to provide spaces for students to feel they belong, according to an email statement from RecWell to the Minnesota Daily.

“RecWell is proud to be able to accommodate inclusive co-curricular programs, such as the MCAE LLP gym classes,” the statement said.
Brister said the classes provide a level of comfort where students can have a good time and work out together.

“There is a level of comfort and understanding that we don’t have to excel, we can be silly and learn at the same time,” Brister said.

However, Rodriguez said he also wants to normalize the discomfort that may come with attending a group fitness class at RecWell. Since fitness spaces are typically predominantly white, some students of color fear judgment for acknowledging these spaces are also for them.

“Everyone feels like ‘yeah, we own this,’” Rodriguez said. “Our goal is that we are exposing students to that discomfort so that they can make meaning about that discomfort for themselves.”

MCAE hosted group fitness classes in 2020, but they were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Rodriguez. Now, with enough resources and staff available to execute these classes, Rodriguez said MCAE was able to host an open house in the fall for all students to familiarize themselves with RecWell and group fitness.

“It takes a lot to get students to the gym,” Rodriguez said. “It’s scary for a lot of reasons, and even more from a representation aspect and being comfortable and seen in the community.”

Rodriguez said he hopes MCAE is able to provide more group fitness opportunities in the future.

Rodriguez said he also hopes by offering group fitness classes for students of color, students will see themselves represented in group fitness and will feel more comfortable and experienced to participate in and teach classes in the future.

Rodriguez was a group fitness instructor at RecWell when he was a graduate student at the University, and he said there were only a handful of instructors of color at the time.

“Nothing has changed from the time I was a group fitness instructor until now in terms of who attends these classes,” Rodriguez said. “I want to see our communities claiming space in these group fitness classes and working out and overcoming some of the barriers that it takes to get there.”

The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) and Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) announced the addition of QR codes on select Gopher Way signs Feb. 22.

The change comes as a result of USG’s Infrastructure Committee seeking to improve navigation in the Gopher Way tunnel system at the beginning of the school year, according to Daniel Tobias, president of USG’s Infrastructure Committee.

“We heard from a lot of students that had some general concerns about navigation,” Tobias said. “Some signs felt confusing because of their placement or they didn’t tell you to go up or down a level, and sometimes there was a lack of signage in some areas.”

When students scan the QR codes added to some signs in the Gopher Way using their mobile devices, they will be redirected to a map showing a student’s current location with letters as markings.

“The idea is that [the codes] are dispersed all around campus using a target point,” Tobias said. “We do have a few [target points] on West Bank and a few on East Bank.”

Navigating tunnels can be difficult, students say

The Infrastructure Committee partnered with PTS, which oversees all aspects of campus transportation, including providing digital maps to the University community. PTS meets with USG monthly to discuss transportation issues, service changes and projects.

“When the students identified portions of the Gopher Way that are difficult to navigate, we felt it was important to see what improvements could be made,” PTS Director Ross Allanson said in an email to the Minnesota Daily.

PTS originally piloted the QR code system in 2020 to replace a printed walking guide to make navigation easier for students and staff.

Tobias said he has personally felt navigation through the tunnels is difficult at times, especially in the Gopher Way’s longer pathways.

“The signs tell you pretty well how to get from building to building, but if you want to go further than an adjacent building, it’s a little more difficult to travel those longer distances,” Tobias said.

Yebin Lee, a second-year student and member of the infrastructure committee, said when she first came to the University, she felt there were no resources for navigating the Gopher Way tunnels.

“I know for a fact that a lot of my friends would love to stay inside because it’s so cold out, but they just didn’t know how to do that,” Lee said.

Lee said she noticed many people were not utilizing the tunnels despite the recent cold conditions, which she attributed to a lack of navigation services, saying the tunnels are a unique way of getting around campus she wanted other students to use.

“It really is helpful because we can’t always post physical maps everywhere, and they run out quickly,” Lee said.

QR codes could lead to interactive map development

The student demand for an interactive map of the Gopher Way tunnel system was high, according to Tobias. An interactive map would allow students to get directions to and from certain locations, and Tobias said the QR codes are a first step toward making interactive maps available.

“It would make it extremely easy, but going through the process, you definitely see how something as simple as this takes a lot of planning and technology,” Tobias said.

The Infrastructure Committee hopes to assess the effectiveness of the QR codes by April and determine whether more QR codes are needed or if they are unnecessary after all. The committee plans on sending out a survey to students and using data from the survey as part of their analysis.

“Most of it is going to be seeing what locations are most utilized in terms of how often students scan the QR codes just to see where there is demand for that and if students are using them at all,” Tobias said. “We can hopefully move forward with something that will improve navigation, and I don’t know what that looks like, but this is definitely a good first step.”

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6, hitting close to home for University of Minnesota students and faculty from the affected areas.

The earthquake left 1.5 million people displaced from their homes, with the death toll exceeding 50,000. The epicenter was in the Kahramanmaras region in southeastern Turkey, located near the Syrian border.

“I can’t stop thinking about the people there”

Sabina Isayeva, a second-year international student from Istanbul, Turkey, said she was studying when she got a call from her mom, who was visiting relatives in Greece at the time and broke the news of the earthquake.

“I didn’t expect it, and she goes, ‘There’s been an earthquake,’” Isayeva said. “I didn’t even know how bad it was until I saw the videos, news and photos.”

Isayeva has friends living in Hatay, Turkey, which was one of the affected cities. However, her friends were on spring break at the time of the earthquake and were not in the city.

Despite not having lost anyone in the earthquake, the grief and pain still lingers.

Puren Oncel, a Ph.D. student from Turkey, found out about the earthquake from her cousin, who lives in the Kahramanmaras region.

Oncel said she has been feeling anxious since the earthquake happened, which has prevented her from attending classes. For a week, she looked on YouTube first thing in the morning for updates following the earthquake.

“I cannot stop thinking about the people there and their future,” Oncel said in an email to the Minnesota Daily. “I kept wondering about what I could do if something like this happened to my family.”

Isayeva said she often thought about the earthquake while studying at the library and cried after watching videos online. She said she has been relying on other Turkish students for support.

One of Isayeva’s teaching assistants, who is from Turkey, reached out to her about her family’s well-being. Isayeva said her friend also attended a meeting held by the University’s Turkish American Student Association on Feb. 12, where she and other Turkish students gathered to talk about the earthquake.

“I think talking about it made it less painful to me because I think it’s not being talked about as much in America,” Isayeva said.

UMN’s Turkish community organizes support

Pinar Karaca Mandic, a finance professor from Ankara, Turkey, said she appreciates the support she has received from students in the classes she teaches.

“Lots of students wrote personal messages saying, ‘We’re thinking of you, don’t worry about grading our assignments, just take care,’” Mandic said.

Mandic is working with organizations such as the Turkish American Student Association in fundraising efforts to donate essentials, such as clothing and diapers, to earthquake victims. She also invited Turkish students to her home for a dinner to help support one another.

“Every Turkish student I’ve talked to had a feeling of ‘We feel ashamed because we are in our warm homes; we feel ashamed to eat because tens of thousands of people are in this situation,’” Mandic said.

Despite her hometown not being affected by the earthquake, Isayeva said she is worried it will be hit with an earthquake similar to the Kahramanmaras earthquake after hearing about recent reports from seismologists who correctly predicted the Kahramanmaras earthquake.

Assistant professor Max Bezada, who specializes in seismology, said another earthquake could hit Turkey due to its proximity to two fault lines, which are fractures in the earth’s surface where movement takes place.

“You can’t really predict when an earthquake will happen,” Bezada said. “What makes earthquakes particularly deadly is not the earthquake itself, but what kind of structures are built, and the structures in Turkey were not built to withstand this kind of earthquake.”

Mandic said support of any kind, from a kind word to a donation, can be helpful to those affected.

“It is the most difficult when you are a scholar who doesn’t have immediate family with you,” Mandic said. “Regardless of the extent that your family is affected, any word of support goes a long way.”

On Thursday, the Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) gathered at Coffman Union to write letters to Ukrainian refugees in Europe following the one-year anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war.

RUF is a student-led Christian ministry group that hosts service events and weekly Bible study groups. They partnered with Letters of Love, a Minnesota-based nonprofit, which typically sends notes of encouragement to children battling cancer and other illnesses but committed to deliver letters to Ukrainian refugees living in Europe.

RUF often engages in service-based events, such as cleaning up trash around campus, and their letter-writing event is a way for members to showcase their creativity while fostering empathy for victims of the ongoing war, according to group members.

“There’s something so beautiful about a handwritten note that will bring a lot of peace to the refugees, especially those who are dealing with a lot of hardship right now,” RUF President Madison Holman said.
After the letters are written, RUF will send them to Letters of Love’s Colorado site, who will then review all letters before mailing them to Ukrainian refugees with the help of their partners, including a Chicago Rotary Club, according to their website.

An avenue for caring and education

Clara Kilgas, a third-year student who oversees event planning for RUF, said it feels difficult for people to make an impact on a community that is dealing with so much violence and trauma, but letter-writing is one way for people to show they care.

“If refugees open up an individualized card that is positive or inspirational, hopefully they’ll know that people are thinking about them and that people care for them,” Kilgas said. “Even though we can’t begin to understand what they’re going through, they can open this card and feel loved.”

The event also serves as a way for students to learn about and be aware of the ongoing situation in Ukraine.

“There’s a lot in the news of what’s going on,” Holman said. “Hopefully there will be an education aspect to this by saying ‘Hey, this is what is happening in Ukraine, this is what’s happening with the refugees.’”

Mae Jaeger, a student who attended the letter-writing event, said it is important to show support to Ukrainian refugees despite fluctuation in news coverage of the situation.

“Even if there’s not something I can do physically or be present with them in person, I hope it’s comforting to know that we’re not forgetting them,” Jaeger said.

Jaeger said she is inspired by college students who actively help their community and raise awareness about global issues.

“It’s an age where you are starting to go into an active role within our jobs and community, and I think there’s a certain responsibility that comes with that by getting involved in political change in a more active role,” Jaeger said.

Second-year student McKenna Lewis said she hopes her letters will bring a smile to the refugees’ faces.

“Some people might be around the same age [as us], so knowing that there are people around their age or older caring for them can bring a lot of hope,” Lewis said.

The letter-writing event was the first of its kind for RUF, and Holman said they hope to host similar events in the future.

“If people really enjoy this project, I would guess that we would plan more events like this or maybe partner with Letters of Love again and tap into the creative aspect of it again,” Holman said.

The Reality Television at the University of Minnesota student organization began filming the second season of “Survivor: Twin Cities” this semester, with challenges occurring across many locations on campus.

“Survivor: Twin Cities” is based on the hit reality series “Survivor,” and students from all backgrounds and abilities can sign up to participate in a localized version of the show.

Reality TV at UMN President Eidan Silver said he was inspired to start the club and film “Survivor: Twin Cities” by other schools that also create adaptations of the show.

“Some of my friends thought it would be interesting to have a club about reality TV,” Silver said. “We decided to do ‘Survivor’ because we like reality TV and ‘Survivor’ is one of the best reality TV [shows] out there.”

The club recruits 14 players to participate in a semester-long, low-budget production of the show. The production is inclusive for all participants by having a combination of physical and mental challenges.

“The game’s designed in a way that anybody can play, anybody can win,” Tyler Karle, a first-year economics major, said. Karle was a contestant in “Survivor: Twin Cities” during the fall 2022 semester and returned in the spring as a crew member.

The organization films the competition, but clips are only published in a Google Drive shared with the cast and crew, Silver said. The organization’s goal is to eventually edit the entire show and publish it online.

Anna Sullivan, a first-year acting and elementary education major, said she decided to participate as a contestant in the fall after seeing Reality TV at UMN promoting the show at a student club fair.

“Once a week, we would meet up and do the challenge and vote somebody out,” Sullivan said. “It was a lot of fun, and now I’m in the crew. I’m still involved, and I made a lot of friends.”

Karle said being a contestant was a fun experience for him, especially in his first semester of college.

“It kind of surprised me how much I was thinking about the game outside of the game,” Karle said. “It was like it was constantly going on, you were constantly running scenarios in your mind.”

For Vijaya Gopalan, a third-year student studying animal science, being a contestant on “Survivor: Twin Cities” was a test of her own physical and mental abilities.

“I really wanted to challenge myself and see how far I could go with it,” Gopalan said. “It was nice having that to do during college because you have school and other stuff going on, so it makes you look forward to something every week.”

Origins in a residential hall

Before the club was formed, Silver started a game of “Survivor” with residents of Middlebrook Hall, according to Gaby Gutenkauf, who graduated from the University last semester and is one of Silver’s roommates and a contestant of “Survivor: Twin Cities.”

“[Silver] was asking our roommates if anyone was interested, and I said I’d do it,” Gutenkauf said. “I don’t have a lot of time commitments, and it was something fun to do and to get me outside.”

Silver said an important aspect of the group is its ability to build community. The challenges contestants face relate to the college experience, such as a scavenger hunt that allows contestants to explore different areas of campus.

“It’s fun to look for idols hidden on campus. Especially as a freshman, it was definitely harder because I don’t know campus as well,” Sullivan said.

For Gutenkauf, gaining new friendships was an important part of joining the “‘Survivor: Twin Cities” cast because participants work in teams to solve challenges such as solving color pattern puzzles blindfolded or holding a lime on top of a spoon using their mouths.

“These are all people who applied from every corner; no one’s in a specific major or something like that,” Gutenkauf said. “It’s all people I wouldn’t have met otherwise, and they get to come out with a good group of new friends at the end of it.”

Food assistance programs at the University of Minnesota plan to launch new initiatives this semester to help students struggling with food insecurity.

These initiatives will increase the availability of the food assistance programs on campus as well as provide students with different ways to get food.

Swipe Out Hunger to launch dining dollars program

Swipe Out Hunger, a national nonprofit organization that helps address food insecurity in college and has a chapter at the University, plans to launch a new dining dollars program that allows students with meal plans to donate unused dining dollars to students in need.

Abigail Beddow, a second-year student and co-president of Swipe Out Hunger, said the organization has plans to launch their dining dollars drive within the next few weeks and continue their weekly meal distributions throughout the semester.

“[The dining dollars drive] is a new thing because the University switched dining providers, so we had to figure out what to do,” Beddow said. “We hope to start that this semester and have a spring event of some kind.”

Swipe Out Hunger currently provides meals to students every Thursday in Coffman Union to help combat food insecurity on campus.

They have also prepared for the winter months by making sure they can give students access to the resources they provide, such as distributing warm meals and Grubhub gift cards.

“It’s our job to figure out how to distribute those things in the best way,” Alara Reed, who was Swipe Out Hunger’s co-president during the fall 2022 semester, said. “I don’t think people realize that there are five of us in the whole group, we’re doing the best we can, we want to help everyone.”

With religious observances such as Ramadan approaching, Swipe Out Hunger has a plan in place to accommodate for potential shifts in demand.

“When we notice that we’re running out of meals early or have a lot of meals remaining, we can request that we either get more meals within the following weeks or not as much,” Beddow said.

Beddow said the organization also has meals that accommodate students’ dietary needs, such as a vegetarian meal option.

Swipe Out Hunger partnered with the University’s Campus Club and Kitchen Coalition to distribute food to students who go to their weekly events. Kitchen Coalition donates food to Campus Club, whose chefs prepare the meals.

According to Reed, approximately one in five students at the University is experiencing food insecurity. Their food distribution program, along with their dining dollars program, primarily targets students.

Reed said the goal for Swipe Out Hunger is to provide emergency aid to students struggling with food insecurity.

“Our hope is that eventually there will be no need [for Swipe Out Hunger],” Reed said. “We’re hoping that there will be other things in place.”

USG and The Food Group hope to expand Mobile Market availability

The Twin Cities Mobile Market, which is managed by The Food Group, makes stops in Twin Cities neighborhoods. The Undergraduate Student Government’s (USG) Basic Needs Task Force worked with the Food Group in 2021 to include a stop at the University.

“Many students have stated before [that] the U of M is known as a food desert, especially when it comes to grocery items,” Emily Zhi, task force chair for the USG, said. A food desert is a term used to describe how difficult it is for students to access food.

The Twin Cities Mobile Market accepts SNAP benefits, and students are able to enroll in a SNAP assistance program through Boynton Health, according to Zhi.

Minnesota’s pandemic SNAP benefits currently run until March. Families will still receive pre-pandemic monthly payments once the current benefits end.

According to Zhi, students have expressed interest in a central grocery store on campus to have food readily available to them, and the Mobile Market would be a step toward that.

USG hopes to extend the Mobile Market’s availability by April, as the Mobile Market added another food truck. They have been working with the Food Group to increase the Market’s availability by having it come to Coffman Union every week and adding stops on the West Bank and St. Paul campuses, according to Zhi.

“This way, students don’t have to come looking for these resources and try and figure out where meals will be distributed,” Reed said. “It’s stressful for students to have to figure out where all these resources are.”

The University of Minnesota’s United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) chapter restarted its program this semester after a 3-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNICEF is an organization started by the United Nations General Assembly, advocating for “the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential,” according to its mission statement.

The University’s chapter is a UNITE club, which means students “work hand in hand with UNICEF USA to advance the global mission of UNICEF by rallying the American public to support the world’s most vulnerable children through advocacy, building awareness, speaking out to their communities and fundraising,” according to the chapter’s president and second-year student, Sofia Fix.

The chapter recently launched a bingo fundraiser to support people affected by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. The group also plans on hosting events to spread awareness about lack of nutrition access in parts of the world, along with speaker events and tie blanket making.

“We’re planning a lot of events right now to inform many students about children’s rights and to also directly help those who are suffering from any sort of calamity right now,” Aysa Tarana, first-year student and the chapter’s co-events coordinator and marketing director, said.

Board members said they want to focus on regaining their presence on campus by hosting more events like these and eventually opening up applications for students to join the chapter by next fall.

“I feel like that’s our disadvantage coming back is that a lot of people believe that the group is dead,” Sadia Khyber, a second-year student and vice president of UNICEF at UMN, said. “We need the help of our community and this campus and students here to be able to fundraise, so it’s important that they know about it and the issues that UNICEF focuses on.”

A difficult, but welcome, road back

Fix and Khyber said they wanted to restart the chapter in 2022, but their busy schedules did not allow them to plan for its return.

“I knew it was going to be a lot of work to recreate it, but I knew that what they did was really important,” Fix said. “I think it was really important that UNICEF pursues a more equitable world for every child, and they make sure every child is healthy, educated, protected and respected.”

Khyber said it was difficult to restart the chapter because people had forgotten about its presence on campus. The chapter took a break from hosting events during the pandemic, allowing the previous board some space to process the stresses the pandemic brought to everyone’s lives.

Fix said it took the entire fall 2022 semester to get the chapter restarted because the previous board was not responsive to attempts at communication, making it difficult to get the passwords for the group’s email and Instagram account.

The chapter’s restart came at the perfect time for co-treasurer Dawoon Jeong, a fourth-year exchange student from Korea, because she became interested in giving children their rights to an education worldwide.

“Education is not a luxury but basic human rights that demand that every child in the world has the right to get a quality education regardless of their financial and social circumstances,” Jeong said.

Tarana said this year was a good time to revive the group.

“I think it was a good time to bring the club back [in] full force and introduce it to everybody and spread the word about our message and helping as many people as we can,” Tarana said.

A diverse board combines diverse experiences into a tight-knit community

Like the previous board, women of color color up the majority of the current board, which they said allows them to feel empowered in their work and develop a tight-knit community with one another.

“We can utilize our diverse experiences to better the club and have empathy with those going through their struggles,” Tarana said. “It shows that we can do anything we set our minds to such as reviving a club from the ground up.”

Jeong said she wanted to be able to share her passion for children’s education from a diverse perspective. Being from Korea, she said it was important to showcase her country’s culture.

For Khyber, it was important to be surrounded by people who are passionate about the same issues as her and to have a space to comfortably talk about each other’s ideas for the chapter.

“Even though we are all students and we’ve got so many things going on, we’re willing to take time out of our day and focus on this space,” Khyber said.

For more information about the University’s chapter of UNICEF and to learn about future events, visit their Instagram.

Several University of Minnesota student organizations faced log-in issues with their groups’ Google accounts at the beginning of the semester as a result of their accounts being deactivated.

Students managing their organization’s account reported issues with accessing their accounts despite using their appropriate log-in credentials, causing disruptions to their usual operations. While deactivations are a common IT problem, some students claimed they failed to receive reminders from the University about renewing their accounts.

Clara Smith, website manager for Minnesota Quidditch, which participates in intramural competitions with other schools, said the organization was in the middle of selling tickets for an upcoming event when they experienced log-in issues with their Google account.

Smith thought the issues were caused by someone changing the password, but she noticed the organization’s profile picture was missing when she was logging into their website host.

“Not being able to log in to our website to see our orders was really scary,” Smith said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what if we lose our sales, what if we can’t get into our website, we won’t be able to see who ordered our stuff.’”

Smith, who studies information technology infrastructure, believed there was more to the situation than just a simple password issue because their website host, which is a program that creates website domains and layouts, was showing their account did not exist.

“I am more comfortable with technology than the average person and was able to pick up on that,” Smith said. “If you’re not as familiar with technology, you might not have noticed such a tiny little detail.”

After the issue lasted for several days, Smith did some research online and went to the IT office in Coffman Union, where the account was restored in 10 minutes. According to Smith, the student worker who assisted her while she was there told her the organization’s account was deactivated, a routine issue for UMN IT.

“All student organization University emails must be renewed annually,” according to Assistant Director of Student Activities Marissa Suiter in an email to the Minnesota Daily. “Office of Information Technology (OIT) sends a notification email to the student organization email account and the designated key contact one month prior to the renewal date, and then weekly reminders.”

OIT enacted this renewal policy in 2021 to improve information security and was communicated to all student groups, according to Suiter. Suiter also said reminders about the renewal process are included in the Student Union and Activities student group newsletter.

According to Suiter, checking emails regularly and renewing their password as soon as they get the notice to renew email a month before the renewal deadline will help avoid deactivations.

Alexus Nguyen, secretary for VERA, a multicultural sorority interest group, said she did not receive any notifications to renew the group’s account.

Nguyen was glad the issue was resolved by the beginning of the semester because they were worried about losing their important documents and way of communicating through the account.

“We had a really important presentation we had to do for our org, and our main form of communication was through email with the people we had to do the presentation with,” Nguyen said. “It was really frustrating, me and Angelin [the president] would be texting each other and were super stressed and nervous.”

Baqir Noor, the president of the Co-Interest Group in Neurology (Co-SIGN), which brings professionals from the medical field and undergraduate students together for networking opportunities, said he did receive an email from OIT and had reset the password as instructed, so he was surprised the account was deactivated.

“I was very confused. I thought there may have been some sort of mistake with our password reset, and I was trying all the old passwords and nothing would work,” Noor said.

Since the issues were resolved, organizations have experienced no additional issues.

“We logged in, and all of the orders that had happened during that time were there,” Smith said. “Luckily, it didn’t delete our website, and we were still able to do our fundraiser [with] no problem.”