Cedar-Riverside community members said they were left with mixed feelings on the neighborhood’s current state of safety and funding for the youth following a January shooting between two rival gangs.

Feysal Ali, 19, and Bilal Farah, 18, were charged on Feb. 6 in connection with a Jan. 27 shooting in the back parking lot of the West Bank Diner, according to Hennepin County District Court documents. While multiple community members said they were not aware of the shooting, they said it is not surprising to hear about it. 

Ali is facing up to 20 years in prison and a bail up to $35,000 after being charged for possessing a firearm after a previous conviction, as well as possessing and operating a machine gun, according to court records. 

Farah was charged with assault and is facing seven years in prison with a bail up to $14,000. 

The 1627 Boyz, of which Ali is associated, is a gang originating from and occupying the Cedar-Riverside community, according to the court documents. Farah is an associate of the Muddy gang, a younger generation of the Somali Outlaws that occupies the Karmel Mall near Uptown. 

The motivation for the shooting is unclear other than the two are associates of the rival gangs, according to court records.

Minneapolis police spokesperson Sgt. Garrett Parten did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails for comment. 

Subeyda Jama, daughter of the owner of Sagal Cafe next door to the West Bank Diner, said many teens in the community slip into gangs because it is what their peers are doing. 

“It’s the idea of feeling stronger than someone or proving a point,” Jama said. “Morals kinda get lost in that environment and logic gets thrown out the window.”

Jama, 21, who grew up in the Cedar-Riverside community spending time at her mother’s business, said gang violence was at its worst around 2016 when substance abuse came into the picture. 

Fartune Robla, a mother who has lived in Cedar-Riverside for 22 years, said violence has gone down in the community compared to the start of the pandemic, but she still sees room for improvement, especially during the nights.  

Today, Jama said gang violence is minimizing, but drug abuse is still prevalent. Jama added she sees more community elders being informed about substance abuse, specifically through the Cedar-Riverside Community Council’s safety outreach program. 

Halima Ainte, a Cedar-Riverside resident and neighborhood ambassador through the safety outreach program, said the community meets to find solutions to reduce drug abuse and inform families on administering naloxone, which is used to reverse an opioid overdose.  

“This world is not easy, you have to advocate for people,” Ainte said. “People, children dying in the middle of the road.”

Jennifer Weber, youth director for athletics and enrichment at the Brian Coyle Community Center, said gang violence and substance abuse became more prevalent once funding for the center was cut in 2016.

“When that funding got lost, that’s what we’re seeing out on the street,” Weber said. “That lack of programming, that lack of hope, that lack of joy.” 

The Minnesota Legislature appropriated $330,000 in 2014 for designing an expansion of the Coyle Center, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. 

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, which owns the Coyle Center and the land it sits on, and Pillsbury United Communities, a nonprofit community development organization that leases the building, failed to negotiate, stalling the expansion for eleven years, according to Weber.  

Weber also leads Ground WORK, a youth employment program that creates landscaping learning opportunities through beautifying the neighborhood. Through this program, teens, primarily boys, are taught to have stamina for jobs and a sense of accomplishment.

“Instead of blaming the youth, we got to see them repair the neighborhood,” Weber said. 

Although they are finding success in Ground WORK, without organized programming and steady funding, Weber said continuing programs at the Coyle Center will be difficult. 

“There just needs to be more programs because our young people will have less likelihood of going in the (wrong) direction,” Weber said.

After starting hormonal birth control, I had no idea the extent of sadness I was bound to experience. 

My day-to-day lifestyle changed drastically. Any task, no matter how simple, feels too heavy of a burden and my desire to put energy into anything is lost. I consistently spiral out about surface-level problems and immediately feel weak for doing so. 

It only gets worse when my period comes every month. 

I constantly miss out on events or purposefully exclude myself from talking to people fearful that I would only bring the energy down. I can’t even pretend to be happy or enthusiastic. I’m mentally exhausted all the time. 

At this point, I had to question what was wrong with me and if I was the problem to begin with.

I began birth control after my doctor told me it would help regulate the pain that came from my periods. After being on the pill for eight months and feeling so incredibly low, I realized the mental pain I was experiencing was just as bad as — if not worse than — the physical pain I experienced before. 

I figured I could either get off hormonal birth control completely and deal with the monthly physical pain or stay on the pill and deal with the mental turmoil that overtook me every day. 

Either way, I would be hurting.

More than half of people who are on the pill, or even other forms of hormonal birth control rely on it for matters other than pregnancy prevention. It’s used to regulate the menstrual cycle, reduce acne, alleviate endometriosis, relieve period pain and much more. This is the case for a majority of women in my life who are on birth control.

However, when the extent of the symptoms that come from being on birth control begin to surpass its initial purpose, is staying on it even worth it anymore? 

Ella Shaw, a third-year student at the University of Minnesota, started the pill at 14 to help with acne after it was suggested by her doctor. Over the next few years, Shaw switched to many other forms of hormonal contraception including the arm implant, the monthly shot and the copper IUD.

“With all forms of birth control that I tried, it was horrible for my mood, for my mental health,” Shaw said. “I was not in touch with my natural cycle at all, and since we’re so hormonal as teenagers anyway, I truly believe that it created more problems for my mood, to a point where it wasn’t even worth it to help out the acne.” 

Shaw said she also experienced an imbalanced menstrual cycle, noting the arm implant caused her to not have a period for months to then having her period almost every day. 

“They don’t really fully explain to you how your mood can be impacted by these things,” Shaw said. “So when that happens, someone’s first thought might not be, ‘Oh, maybe this is my hormones.’ Instead, we think to ourselves, ‘What is wrong with me? Something’s really wrong with me,’ and that can be super scary.”

According to a study, up to 90% of women experience some level of period pain. This can range from noticing pain, yet not affecting your daily activities, to severe pain to which you cannot focus on anything else. I found myself going through the latter every month. 

It felt like the only way to feel better was to pump my body with pain relievers and try every remedy out there just to get through the day. I considered it a win if I was able to attend just half of a day of school. 

Lynniah Weddington, a third-year student at the University, said she began the pill at age 13 after dealing with painful, heavy and irregular periods, and has been on it ever since. 

“When I first started, my hormones were so irregular, and now I got to the point where I balanced out,” Weddington said. “I actually just started on a lower hormone birth control because the hormone I was just on was probably too high and I started to miss periods.”

For Weddington, the pill has significantly reduced cramps and regulated her cycle. She said switching to a lower hormonal dosage helped with the hormonal acne caused by her periods. However, Weddington does question whether her mood swings at the time were due to birth control or simply being a teenager in middle school. 

Madison Banken, a second-year student, began the pill at age 14 to also control painful and irregular periods, as well as reduce acne but switched to the monthly shot after feeling emotional and experiencing consistent headaches. 

“I did depo (shot) for six months, and then I stopped that because that was just awful,” Banken said. “It made me insanely moody, and it didn’t regulate my period. It actually made it worse. And then I did patches for about four months after that, and then I’ve had the IUD since.”

For me, being on the pill has made navigating my period pain so much easier. I can actually function with the rest of society. 

Kelsey Felling, a third-year student, said she went to the doctor in the hope of treating her irregularly long cycles, causing her to develop anxiety about it but was upset when the only advice they offered her was to go on the pill. 

“If I go to the doctor and say, ‘Hey, I think something’s wrong,’ shouldn’t they trust me and go in and see if there’s something wrong?” Felling said. 

After being on the pill for a couple of months, Felling said she began to experience severe back pain to the point where she could not get out of bed and generally did not feel like herself. 

“It felt like I was in a shell of myself, and like I was just like an emotionless being,” Felling said. “Numb. It felt numb. The emotions affected my relationships because my friends were like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know.’”

It feels like the easiest and quickest way for most doctors to help women with physical pain is to immediately prescribe birth control. 

This method is downright lucrative and short-sighted. 

When will those in medicine come up with long-term solutions to the physical pain the female body seems to constantly endure, instead of the quick fix that is birth control? When will there be more emphasis on women’s health? 

I am tired of being in physical pain all of the time. And if not physical, then mental. 

Nevertheless, that is not to say birth control should be completely ruled out. 

Gabriela Oconitrillo, a first-year student, has been on the pill for about a year now and said she wished she started it sooner to help with her period pain.

“I would always hear a lot of negative things about birth control,” Oconitrillo said. “I had always wanted to go on it for my period symptoms, but on the internet, I heard a lot of negative stuff about how it didn’t help, or it made you gain a lot of weight or just a lot of negative things about it that made me scared to go on it that I haven’t experienced while taking it.” 

Don’t get me wrong, birth control has definitely helped me in many ways. While I do have really bad days, I do my best to push through. Since realizing my sadness, I’ve spoken to my doctor about going on a lower dosage — something I did not know was possible prior. 

Every woman I spoke to for this article mentioned how important it is to do research on the symptoms of hormonal birth control, as well as the different forms that are offered. 

Birth control is not a “one size fits all” situation. One form may work wonders for one person but be a living hell for another. Trying out different dosages of hormones as well as different methods is a very normal process in finding the right one for you. 

Discussion on these symptoms should not feel taboo to the public. The importance of speaking openly about birth control, as well as women’s health, can offer incredible insight to many who may not have been educated on it.

For as long as I have been a student, tests have always been my adversary. 

Whether it was unproductively spending my time fixating on how well other students in the room were performing, the time I had left, or the anxiety and frustration that filled my mind when I could not answer the first few questions, exams were always an obstacle for me. 

It only went downhill once I began college. 

Sitting in a giant lecture room filled with almost 100 students at 8 a.m. on a Saturday as you make your way through a 45-question exam in two hours is the most daunting way to demonstrate your knowledge of a subject. 

I have never been able to thrive in such an environment, and many other students can relate. Significant aspects of exam culture tend to hold students back from presenting their full understanding of a subject.

A near-universal experience for all types of students is test anxiety. 

Luke Aliga, a third-year technical writing major at the University of Minnesota, said test anxiety causes feelings of doubt. 

“I definitely do get nervous during an exam, especially if there’s a time limit. There’s not much room to really ponder over things and you just have to put it out onto the page,” Aliga said. “Just that feeling of being rushed is a restraint in itself.” 

Hannah Ahimou, a first-year student, said the results of an exam are what causes the most anxiety.

“Usually it’s four choices, so it’s like, ‘Okay I have a one out of four chance to get this right,’” Ahimou said. “It’s frustrating when you get your exams back and being so close to the answer.” 

In-class exams do not empathize with the personal or academic challenges students face to equitably demonstrate their knowledge. 

On top of that, there is a lack of opportunity for students to creatively apply their knowledge, which is an element that drives many students to succeed. 

Miles Kao, a first-year kinesiology student, prefers writing papers to exams. 

“I think that exams do have their place when it comes to showing retention of information, but I feel like papers give students actual time to show that real-world application,” Kao said. 

Writing papers allows students to dive deeper into the material and uncover ideas that were not initially at the forefront of their minds. Papers also give students the ability to share the ways they individually interpret the information. 

“You can express your creativity and add a little bit more of your own personal character to it,” Aliga said. “Whereas an exam is like rote memorization. You don’t really have a lot of room to just be free with your learning and refer back to the information to remember, ‘Oh, what did I learn for this?’” 

Sylvia Berka, a third-year aerospace engineering student, said she prefers other forms of assessment such as take-home exams or projects. 

“We had a group project for the final, and I’m not gonna say it was easy, but it was just much less anxiety-ridden of a class,” Berka said. “It felt like an adequate amount of work to get the right grade, whereas in exam classes, I feel like it’s so much work to get a grade that you’re happy with.”

Another aspect of exam culture is how students study for exams. Most students tend to memorize a semester’s worth of knowledge as quickly as they can before the day of the exam. 

“It’s testing just your memory, ” Aliga said. “How is that really showing how much you’ve learned? Because after you’ve memorized it, then you have to go to the next exam and then memorize other information.”

Many students have more priorities than just one exam and will resort to cramming, ultimately not gaining a deeper and long-term understanding of the material. 

“When you use your resources to answer the question, I think that’s more applicable to real-world situations because most people are just gonna either look something up or ask someone for the answer rather than just trying to use recall,” Aliga said.

Exams usually also make up a big portion of a student’s grade in class, inducing pressure for students to pass.  

“They [professors] post the exam averages afterwards, and you have to place yourself in a ranking of where you placed in regards to your other classmates,” Berka said. “Am I above the mean? Or below it? You have to kind of find a balance of not having horrible mental self-talk after you do worse than the class on an exam.” 

When it comes to evaluating a student’s knowledge, exams and the culture around them do not do many students justice. 

Education is not one size fits all. It is in the best interest of educators to acknowledge the different ways students retain and apply information. If students can choose, there will be less pressure and anxiety around having one’s knowledge assessed.

All my life, I have never been in a relationship. I am only 20, but I have still never experienced the bittersweetness that is teenage love. 

Of course, I’ve gone on dates and had flings, but there was never a point in my life where I exclusively gave my time and energy to another person.

While I’ve always thought this aspect of my life was upsetting, I’m quite relieved to have never gotten into a committed relationship, especially as a teenager. I learned so much about myself that didn’t just include surface-level details. 

By living through experiences on my own, I dug deep into the core of my being without even realizing it. 

Sometimes I wonder how differently those experiences would have turned out if I had officially been with somebody, how different this current version of myself would be.

To Yasmine Laaraj, a third-year student at the University of Minnesota, capturing identity before beginning a relationship is important, especially in our 20s. 

“You’re in such a transitional phase in your life,” Laaraj said. “At least there needs to be a period when you’re single just because it’s really important for self-discovery and growth and coming into your own.” 

The world seems like such a complex place when we’re in our 20s. While we make our best attempts at solving its intricacies, we have yet to solve all the intricacies that make us who we are. 

What moves you? What excites you? What stops you? 

While we may have gotten closer to answering these questions in our teenage years, life seems to constantly shift and our answers adjust with it. We must answer these questions completely on our own without the influence of and dependence on another person. 

Lauren Allen, a recently divorced woman in her 30s, said being single in her 20s would have been crucial to her growth. 

“[With] the millennial generation as well as Gen Z, there’s been so many great strides of understanding mental health, and I feel, had I been able to explore that more and explore myself more, it would have just been a lot more beneficial,” Allen said.

Allen and her ex-husband got engaged when she was 23 and married when she was 25. 

“I was in a relationship with the same person throughout my entire 20s,” Allen said. “That was my first serious relationship.” 

Our 20s are such a pivotal era of our lives. Not only is the world around us significantly shifting, but it is shifting as our brains are fully developing. The experiences we have considerably affect the decisions we make. 

Establishing the state of your well-being will foster healthier relationships later on. When we are completely aware of how our individual brains function, we allow only what we find good to enter our lives. 

Although we must unravel the knots of our minds and hearts on our own, it doesn’t mean we can’t have some support to guide us. 

“Focus on your relationships with your family and your friends and learn what’s important to you in those relationships,” Allen said. “Then they can hopefully translate to your future partner one day when you’re ready for that.

Building and curating strong and valuable friendships and bonds in our 20s is extremely helpful for discovering what we want in a relationship. 

Genuine friends show us how we deserve to be treated and cared for. They help us understand the boundaries or standards we require from a romantic partner. 

“You cannot have a relationship where that is the only relationship in your life,” Laaraj said. “You need to have friendships. You need to have things beyond the person you’re with.” 

Being single does not have to be discouraging. If anything, it has made me find contentment in my solitude, which is something that can benefit us all. 

A partner, or any relationship for that matter, should not be the root of your happiness but instead, the one to enhance it. 

“It’s just a matter of thinking of your own self-discovery and personal growth,” Allen said. “Who are you? What do you want from the future? How’s your self-esteem? Don’t settle for something just because you feel like it’s the right way to do something.”

Our 20s are the years to try on different versions of ourselves. While there is no problem with being in a relationship, having someone glued to the hip may discourage you from taking on new experiences. 

That being said, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Go on dates, meet new people and form new bonds. Find what your deal breakers are and the qualities you most admire in a person. 

No matter what age you are or wherever you may be in life, we are all still learning and will continue to learn about ourselves with each day that comes. 

Granting significant time solely to yourself will allow you to seek out important virtues within yourself as well as in a partner.

Before moving into college, I – along with many other naive first-years – subconsciously constructed expectations of how my dorm experience would play out: a somewhat spacious room, a nice dining hall with plenty of healthy choices and clean, comfortable spaces to study or chill out in. 

But I never expected I would have to share a shower with cockroaches. 

Along with all those other hopeful first-years, I was considerably let down after hardly a semester living in Middlebrook Hall, when dining hall food portions became scarce throughout the day, a heating outage fell upon us during the cold winter and SAFE-U alerts regarding intruders and shower peepers kept popping up. 

College dorms will typically have their fair share of quirks. What else can you expect when you place 700 18-year-olds in one building?

But, at what point do these “quirks” become neglect of the well-being of students by the University of Minnesota? 

It feels like low-quality dorm experiences in the U.S. have been consistently swept under the rug and chalked up to be the typical college experience. While living in such a way does humble one’s character, are all of the issues worth the amount of money students are handing over to the University?

While living in Territorial Hall, Nicki Carter, a first-year student, said her already low expectations were not met. 

“It’s very dirty and stinky,” Carter said. “The floors are always filled with substances and they lack being updated.” 

The floors of Territorial Hall (and many other dorms) are made up of carpet and rapidly absorb liquids, according to Carter. Because of this, the floors end up holding and exhausting unwelcoming odors. 

Just like Carter, the lack of cleanliness was one of the main concerns of multiple students residing in dorms. 

For Josie Daly, a first-year student who also lives in Territorial Hall, the shower drains are constantly clogged and rarely cleaned out. 

“You can’t shower without water going up to your ankles,” Daly said. 

Daly said Territorial had a bug infestation at the beginning of the year and she had to submit multiple “Fix It” requests before the University resolved the issue. 

First-year Jana Johnson said the stairwell next to her dorm room is rarely cleaned, containing dirt, hair and cockroaches. 

Along with cleanliness, students mentioned issues regarding food services. 

Sarah Anderson, a second-year student who lived in Middlebrook Hall, said there were various times chicken and other meats served to students were “clearly raw.” 

“There were several instances where there wasn’t really stuff I was interested in eating,” Anderson said. “Sometimes the only options for protein were fried.” 

Nathan Okey, a second-year student who lived in Pioneer Hall, had a similar experience.

“There were some days you’d find bugs living in your salads, the meat was undercooked, the sheer variety of food was miserable,” Okey said. “Toward the end of the school year, it was like the same four or five things every day for dinner.” 

But perhaps one of the biggest concerns among many students is the presence of mold in the dorms. 

After hearing about several incidents of mold in her building, Shelby Zheng, a first-year student living at Comstock Hall, and her roommate filed a “Fix It” request for a room inspection. Zheng and her roommate were told to pack up and relocate to Centennial Hall that same night without an explanation.

“In the end, we found out we did have mold, but we were kept in the dark the entire weekend,” Zheng said. “It was a horrible experience because there was no communication whatsoever from the staff in charge.” 

Zheng is not the first to experience such an issue. Last year, many students living at 17th Avenue Hall temporarily relocated due to the discovery of mold in many rooms. 

According to Carter, residents at Territorial Hall also have faced problems regarding mold. Each resident, however, is given a dehumidifier to prevent humidity and is told to keep it on at all times.

After many years of relying on dehumidifiers, Territorial Hall is expected to replace their current HVAC system this summer. This will allow for improvements in humidity levels and air quality. 

According to Susan Stubblefield, the interim director of Housing and Residential Life, there are standards set regarding the frequency of how much the bathrooms, hallways and common spaces are cleaned. 

“When students are noticing something that they feel is out of sorts, we really do want to hear from them,” Stubblefield said. 

Some ways students can relay their concerns are through the information desk, filling out “Fix It” requests online and speaking to community advisers (CAs), according to Stubblefield. 

However, many students are not aware of how to voice these complaints or do not find their issues necessary enough to do so. 

“I don’t know that it’s super well publicized,” Anderson said. “I don’t know who I would have contacted if I were to report things other than going to the front desk.” 

Stubblefield acknowledged the shortened staff last year but said student satisfaction toward dining has increased since then. 

“There’s a registered dietitian [who] has been available as students have questions during the year about specific dietary needs,” Stubblefield said. “They can really work closely with students to address those needs.”

Security enhancements have also been implemented this year, such as turnstiles at Pioneer (which are anticipated to be placed at 17th Avenue Hall and Middlebrook Hall next fall) and live-feed video monitors, according to Stubblefield. 

There have been many concerns addressed by the University since last year, but there is always room for improvement. 

Many students have called for better communication with higher-ups when issues within the dorm buildings arise. One way can be through CAs. Through monthly check-ins with CAs, students can communicate their concerns more frequently and personally, instead of digitally. 

Having more ways to communicate, as well as making these ways clearly known, will offer more students the opportunity to address issues, thus creating significant change for current or future students. 

Dorms will always be somewhat questionable. After all, that’s where we learn how to live on our own for the first time, so there will always be trial and error by students. 

Even so, students should feel like the amount they are paying to live on campus equates to the quality they are receiving. 

Eyes across the nation were naturally pulled into the University of Minnesota dance team’s impressive and passionate performance of “Dream On” at this year’s Universal Dance Association (UDA) college nationals. Not soon after, the routine began to quickly gain traction on social media, even capturing the attention of rock band Aerosmith itself. 

While competitive dancing is still not considered a sport by the NCAA, the virality of the two-minute routine brought to light exactly how much time and effort these athletes invest — reopening the debate on whether collegiate dance should be considered an NCAA sport.

The University’s dance team holds a legacy as one of the most successful teams in the country as well as one of the most decorated, claiming 22 national titles for both jazz and pom. 

With such a respected reputation, you would think these dancers are acknowledged by the University and given the proper support to continue this winning streak, but you would be wrong. 

Because competitive dance does not fall under the guidelines of what the NCAA or the University deems to be a sport, dancers do not receive the same benefits as other collegiate athletes, according to Matthew Greco, a University dance team dancer.

“I’m an athlete, but I don’t get access to the athlete dining hall, massages with athletic trainers, a facility that’s set for me,” Greco said. “I don’t get access to a scholarship.” 

According to Greco, the dance team’s rehearsal settings and available practice times are not consistent, switching between five to six different facilities — going off a schedule created in conjunction with the facilities management. 

According to head coach Amanda Gaines, the team also receives minimal funding from the University, leading them to fundraise for competitive efforts that make up for the expenses of traveling and competing. 

The NCAA defines a sport as “an institutionalized activity involving physical exertion with the primary purpose being competition versus other teams or individuals within a collegiate competition structure.” 

According to this definition, competitive dance is a sport. Then why is it still up for debate? 

“If I’m on a college dance team, or even a high school dance team, and I’m competing against other teams, I am being judged by a set of qualified judges and having scores given out,” Gaines said. “That is a sport.”

Some argue that dance is more of an art than a sport and dancers are primarily artists rather than athletes. Why can they not be both?

“Yes, dance does have artistry involved in it, the same way that gymnastics also has artistry or synchronized swimming,” Gaines said. “Those are still considered a sport.”

Competitive dance complies with all the terms of a collegiate competition structure except attending a minimum of five competitions per year. This, however, can be attributed to the lack of funding given to dance teams. Because of this, the dance team can only afford state and national attendance every year. 

Nonetheless, even though dance technically matches the definition of what a sport is, the NCAA as well as the Office for Civil Rights view dance primarily as a support to other sports, blocking its recognition and benefits to the dancers. 

Dance has always fallen under the spirit squad umbrella in which boosting morale for fans and players alike has always been the goal. Ever since competitive dancing began to pick up in the 70s, dance teams have had two separate lives: one on the field and one on the floor. 

“People see us on the sidelines at games,” Gaines said. “General Gopher fans aren’t always aware of what we actually do for competition. They may be like, ‘Oh, they won nationals,’ but they don’t necessarily have visibility to what our routines looked like or what that training looked like to get to that point.”

One of the biggest implications of dance becoming an NCAA-sanctioned sport is Title IX regulations. 

Title IX protects people in the United States from “discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.”

Due to this, universities must comply by treating men’s and women’s sports teams with equity in terms of providing equipment, practice times, game scheduling, medical and training facilities, housing and dining, and facilities for practice and competition. 

There also needs to be an even proportion of men’s and women’s teams and players in co-ed sports. 

Because the dance team is a co-ed sport, there would need to be an increase in male dancers to meet these regulations, which should not be difficult. Men are not completely scarce in dance, but achieving an equal number of men and women dancers may take some time as more women audition. 

As of today, dance and cheer are not under Title IX protection, leaving them without proper support for possible injuries, mental illness or even harassment. 

Whether or not dance eventually captures the NCAA’s heart in the future, the University should not overlook them in the present. 

These dancers proudly perform with the Minnesota “M” on their chests, pulling in eyes from the multiple corners of not just the state, but the nation as well. The lack of benefits and opportunities by the University is unfair and the recognition for their hard work is long overdue. 

“I mean we are back-to-back pom national champions now, took home a double last year. So I mean, we’re thriving, and we make the most of what we have,” Greco said. “It would be nice to see that kind of shift and get appreciated and get the things that other sports do have access to.” 

Dance may function differently from other sports, but that should not stand in the way of equal opportunities.