The University of Minnesota Disability Resource Center’s (DRC) team of seven full-time captionists are still asking the DRC for the reasoning behind the decision to terminate their positions earlier this summer.

The captionists are full-time University workers who provide transcription services for students, staff and faculty who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Many people use captioning services because they are not proficient in sign language, according to Sina Hanson, a captionist whose position was terminated.

The DRC stated the decision is a “cost-saving measure” and has decided to utilize their outside vendors full time starting Aug. 15, which the University believes will provide an enhanced service to caption users, according to the University’s Director of Public Relations Jake Ricker. The DRC has used these vendors for 16 years, and it currently provides 70% of captioning services.

Captionists and some caption-users have expressed fear that the decision may create more barriers to equitable education at the University. A petition to save the University’s captionistists has over 450 signatures to date, with professors, alumni, students and community members voicing opposition to the termination of the captionists.

Captionists Hanson and KeriAnn Hollerud said they attended a meeting with DRC and the Interpreting/Captioning Unit management on May 31, expecting management would announce the three captionist positions that had been vacant since the 2020-21 fiscal year would not be refilled.

“We had continually said we are stretched to the max and we can’t cover as much as is being asked,” Hanson said. “Instead, they told us that they were going to lay off our whole entire team.”

Tina Marisam, associate vice president of the Office for Equity & Diversity, said her office and the DRC decided to transition to full use of real-time vendor captioning services.

“While this is a very difficult decision, it was based on a determination that the transition will result in highly accurate captioning services and in cost savings that will enable the reallocation of resources to programs that proactively promote accessibility,” Marisam said in an email to The Minnesota Daily.

Captionists’ union questions the layoffs and requests data

AFSCME Local 3937, the union that represents University captionists, has filed a class action grievance against the DRC for refusing to provide AFSCME with data used to justify the layoffs for the full-time captionists. Mary Austin, president of AFSCME 3937, said AFSCME is advocating for the captionists to be reinstated with full wages and benefits.

On June 3, AFSCME requested data from the DRC that would prove the decision to terminate the captionists’ positions would result in cost savings and to explain why they were being laid off, according to Hanson and Hollerud.

While DRC management is contractually obligated to share data regarding layoffs with AFSCME, according to Austin, the DRC has yet to provide the union with the data without requesting a fee, a move that Austin said the union believes is a violation of Article 25 and Appendix D in the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the University and AFSCME locals 3937 and 3801.

“We are left in the dark and there is not much to talk about,” Austin said. “They are frustrating the process.”

In an email to The Minnesota Daily, Scott Marshall, the DRC’s interim director, said the seven captionists “are being afforded rights required by the labor agreement between the University and their union.”

The DRC directed AFSCME to file a public records request through the University’s Data Request Center to obtain data regarding the layoffs. Marshall said when a public records request is filed, the request center decides what information to release; the DRC does not decide what information to make available. The University did offer to give the data to AFSCME for a $200 fee, which the union did not pay, according to Ricker.

AFSCME is also claiming the layoff of the captionists is not a real layoff because there are no alternate positions at the University available for captionists.

“When you are laid off, you have rights to other positions at the University, but only in the job class that you were in,” Austin said. “The only captioners [at the University] are pretty much at the DRC … and then the vendor that [the DRC] is trying to privatize with does a different type of captioning, so they can’t necessarily even go and be hired by that vendor.”

As University community members, Hanson and Hollerud said they believe the captionists have a greater advantage to provide quality captioning services because they are familiar with the school, school acronyms and events happening around the Twin Cities.

The outside agency would primarily provide remote services, a move that captionists said they believe will cause issues for in-person learning. Hollerud said remote captionists often do not have access to classroom materials like slideshows or presentations.

Hollerud said an important part of the captionists’ work is through a tactic called meaning captioning, where they use context clues around class discussions and lectures to formulate better captions for users.

The contracted agency will now only offer CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) verbatim captioning, directly translating audio. Hollerud said she believes without context clues around class discussions and lectures, captioning-users will lose out on accurate captions, which could create educational barriers. Hollerud also shared concerns that computer microphones may not pick up everything.

Marshall said students requesting real-time captioning generally express a preference for the verbatim captioning that vendors can provide. He said captioning providers must complete two years of specialized training to use the “highly accurate captioning method” vendor-captioning services provide. The vendor-provided captioning services also have a 97-98% accuracy rate.

“In recent years, the availability of highly accurate vendor captioning services has increased substantially, and the cost has dropped,” Marshall said. “This transition will result in significant cost savings that can be reallocated toward proactively supporting, inclusive teaching, accessible classrooms and workplaces, digital accessibility and other high impact strategies to promote inclusive access.”

Marshall did not state how much money the DRC will save through this decision.

University professors and faculty speak out

Some University professors and faculty members have spoken out against the DRC’s decision to terminate the captionist positions.

“This decision is deeply concerning to me. As a disabled scholar and educator, quality real-time captioning is an essential access measure for me,” Jessica Horvath Williams, a postdoctoral fellow in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the University, said in a statement posted in the Minnesota Transform Weekly Digest. “By outsourcing this vital work to vendors who are not connected to our University, or trained in the specificity of academic discourse, we risk drastically compromising our academic integrity, rigor and standards. The fact that such a sweeping decision was made without community input is appalling.”

English professor James Cihlar said through his experience working with captionists in the classroom, he has found their work is essential to providing equitable education.

“It’s a lot more than just transcribing. They need to know what we’re talking about,” Cihlar said. “They need to be flexible, skilled and educated themselves. It helps a lot for them to be boots on the ground in the room … so that they are part of the community.”

Overall, captionists and professors said they believe the quality of captioning will change drastically. With remote captionists not necessarily providing service from the same time zone, or even the same country, they said they fear engagement with lessons may decrease.

“This is a disenfranchisement of an already marginalized community under the guise of cost saving,” Hanson said.

Hanson said the DRC has not released a public statement on the change in captioning services as far as she knows. She said captioning users were not aware or consulted on this decision and the captionists announced the news to students and faculty.

Cihlar said as the fall semester approaches, the lack of captionists in the classroom will be felt throughout the University community.

“I think it’s a decreased experience,” Cihlar said. “It’s going to be a little less supportive and a little less humane.”

Cihlar also emphasized the importance of ensuring that the captionists are treated fairly.

“These are skilled, trained professionals. It’s hard work … I don’t think I could do it,” Cihlar said. “They deserve job security. They deserve benefits. They deserve a decent salary. They deserve respect.”

Despite everything, Hanson said she hopes she is able to return to the University.

“If the DRC asked me to come back, I will absolutely come back,” Hanson said. “I love this job. I love my team. I will caption until I retire if I can, and I will do it at the University of Minnesota, which is kind of my home university. I am from here, I went here, I love this university.”

Clarification: The University offered AFSCME data for a $200 fee. AFSCME did not pay that fee because they said they think the info should be available to them for free through their interpretation of the wording of Article 25 and Appendix D of their Collective Bargaining Agreement with the University. The University is allowed through Minnesota law and University policy to charge for public record requests. The University’s explanation for the layoffs is that they are a significant cost savings measure that the University said will provide an enhanced service. The union is requesting data to justify the rationale behind the decision. The caption-users referred to in this article are professors who use captioning services and have students in their classes who use captioning services. 

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated how many vendors the DRC contracts. The DRC works with several vendors for captioning services. 

Correction: A previous version of this article misstate the acronym for CART. It stands for Communication Access RealTime Translation. 

A rare disease research study at the University of Minnesota is making leaps and bounds studying the progression of Friedreich ataxia and holds global promise in the search for a cure.

The study, called TRACK-FA, “is a natural history study that investigates brain and spinal cord changes in individuals with Friedreich ataxia,” a rare genetic disease that causes progressive nervous system damage and movement issues.

The rare neuromuscular disease affects about 4,000 people in the United States and 15,000 people worldwide. Currently, there is no approved treatment. Professor Pierre Gilles-Henry and Professor Christophe Lenglet, both associate professors in the Department of Radiology, said they are hoping their research may change that.

“I have a Ph.D. in neuroscience, but my background is electrical engineering,” Gilles-Henry said. “So I worked at the border between technical development and the application side. I’ve always been interested in medicine, and I wanted to do something that makes a difference in the life of patients.”

There are seven sites around the world that are a part of the TRACK-FA study. The team at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Magnetic Resonance Research is in charge of coordinating the neuroimaging part of the study. They capture images of the brain and spinal cord using MRI technology to better understand disease progression.

“[MRI] is a very versatile technique and can do a lot of different things,” Gilles-Henry said. “We can look at the anatomy, which is what we mostly see when we think of MRI, but we can also look at the microstructure of tissue.”

Their team has discovered the spinal cord gets smaller over time for patients with Friedreich ataxia, decreasing approximately 2.5% each year, according to Gilles-Henry. He said they also learned the chemical composition of the spinal cord changes over time.

“This study will help characterize the disease, identify robust markers of disease progression and enable us to be clinical trial ready,” research associate Isaac Adanyeguh, whose role is to check the quality of imaging data and extract quantitative information from the data, said in an email to the Minnesota Daily.

Gilles-Henry said they hope their research will help discover biomarkers for the disease, an objective indication of a patient’s medical state that can track the progression or effect of a treatment. These biomarkers would be able to tell doctors if a treatment is effective.

“Clinical trials must prove that symptoms improve,” Gilles-Henry said. “But the ability to see what’s happening in the brain sooner can be very helpful.”

Gilles-Henry said the TRACK-FA study is different from other studies on Friedreich ataxia because they use a longitudinal study to measure the disease. In these types of studies, researchers repeatedly examine the same individuals to detect any changes that might occur over a period of time.

“Most of us in the past have just compared patients and controllers but have not looked at what happens over time,” Gilles-Henry said. “This is one of the first studies to look at longitudinal data.”

So far, 75 people with Friedreich ataxia have participated in the TRACK-FA neuroimaging study. Participants range from 5 to 40 years old and there are three study visits that are approximately 12 months apart, according to Gilles-Henry.

During every visit, each patient has a clinical exam, completes a mood questionnaire and cognitive test, has their blood drawn and receives an MRI scan of their brain and spinal cord, Gilles-Henry said.

At the end of the day, the team hopes their research will help doctors find a cure for the rare neurodegenerative disease.

Diane Hutter, the nurse coordinator for the TRACK-FA study, said in an email to the Minnesota Daily that she has had the opportunity to communicate with and meet many individuals with Friedreich ataxia along with their families from all over the country. As the nurse coordinator, Hutter is the first point of contact between patients and the research study.

“Many times, individuals will have just learned about their diagnosis when it is very early in the disease … it is not uncommon for me to share with them what ataxia is,” Hutter said, whose job includes determining a patient’s eligibility and managing study data in addition to arranging and scheduling study visits.

Hutter said throughout the study, she has grown close to many patients and their families. The search for a cure has become close to her heart, she said.

“Over the years I have come to recognize them as friends, not necessarily as research participants,” Hutter said. “I always look forward to seeing them come for an annual visit, to a fundraising event or at conferences.”

Throughout the study, researchers have been able to use their skills to help patients in the search for a cure to a currently incurable disease and make a difference in the lives of Friedreich ataxia patients.

“I decided to join this study because it gave me the opportunity to put my skills to use to help individuals that are suffering from neurodegenerative disorders such as Friedreich ataxia,” Adanyeguh said.

The parents of 20-year-old Andrew Tekle Sundberg said they are still waiting for a detailed account from the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) of what transpired Thursday morning leading up to the moment MPD officers shot and killed Sundberg after a six-hour standoff.

Comments left by donors on a GoFundMe page started by Sundberg family friends described him as witty, kind and vivacious.

“[Tekle was] a brother, uncle, son, friend, talented artist, hilarious, energetic human. His life was taken too soon by the Minneapolis Police Department,” family friends wrote in the fundraiser description. “Tekle was killed on the morning of his mother’s birthday. He leaves behind many loving family members and friends.”

Thursday morning marked the second time MPD has shot and killed someone this year. Police officer Mark Hanneman shot and killed Amir Locke in his apartment while entering the apartment on a no-knock warrant on Feb. 2.

The details currently available to the public are from two search warrant affidavits filed Friday by an agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). The City of Minneapolis released on Thursday a heavily redacted incident report, with only three of the 28 pages unredacted.

The BCA is currently leading an investigation into the shooting.

The incident report revealed MPD officers Aaron Pearson and Zachary Seraphine both shot their weapons, but it is not yet known which specific officers, or officer, shot Sundberg. According to KSTP, BCA records revealed both Pearson and Seraphine were at Bolero Flats Apartment on the day Amir Locke was killed as well.

According to reporting by the Sahan Journal, “Minneapolis police officer Garrett Parten, the department’s spokesperson, could not be immediately reached late Friday afternoon to respond to the search warrants. Earlier in the day, he told Sahan Journal that the department would not be commenting beyond its initial public statements because of the ongoing investigation.”

The search warrants reported Sundberg was in an apartment building in the 900 block of 21st Ave. S when two snipers from Minneapolis police’s SWAT team fired at him from a rooftop across the street. Sundberg died at Hennepin Healthcare.

Police originally arrived at the scene at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday after a woman in a neighboring apartment called and reported that her building was being fired upon. According to the search warrants, police later called in the SWAT team as they were evacuating people from the building. 

According to a police report, authorities at the scene activated their body cameras, but the footage has not been released.

Mark and Cindy Sundberg, who were called to the scene during the standoff in attempts to help de-escalate the situation, said family and friends are “beyond shocked and grieving” by the news of their son’s death.

“Like millions in America and worldwide, Tekle struggled with his mental health,” the Sundbergs said in a statement. “We send our deepest sympathies to anyone in his building impacted by his crisis, and we thank the community members who have come forward in loving memory of Tekle.”

Police spokesperson Howie Padilla said the police “took many steps in order to peacefully resolve the situation” and worked with Sundberg’s parents to send him messages and phone calls during the standoff. According to a statement issued Friday by attorneys Ben Crump and Jeff Storm, who also represented George Floyd’s family and are now representing Sundberg’s family, Sundberg’s parents were “highly restricted” in how they could communicate with their son.

The attorneys also rejected the narrative that the police department’s efforts were done in collaboration with relatives.

“[Mark and Cindy Sundberg were] highly restricted in terms of their ability to interact with Tekle and were not allowed to do everything they could to save their son’s life,” the statement said. “No information has been provided as to why Tekle, who officers had isolated for hours, suddenly needed to be executed. We call on the Minneapolis Police Department to immediately provide the family with the video evidence and other information necessary to answer this question.”

Crump tweeted a video on Saturday of Sundberg’s mother speaking about the murder of her son and the role race played in the shooting.

Minneapolis Police Department officers gave their PROMISE to Tekle Sundberg's parents that their son's mental health crisis would NOT end in a shooting… Still, the officers denied Tekle's dad's pleas to talk to him during the hours-long standoff & ultimately fatally shot Tekle. pic.twitter.com/RdZMv1zOOb

— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) July 16, 2022

“The mayor is portraying it and the police are portraying it like we collaborated and police were all kind and loving to our family as they tried to help Tekle. That is a lie.They were not,” Cindy Sundberg said. “Everyone knows if it would have been a white person in that building, they [police] would have talked them out. They would have waited.”

Sundberg’s parents also released a statement describing how he was artistic, courageous and sensitive. His parents wrote they want the world to know that Tekle was “deeply loved.”

“Tekle was a son, brother, grandson, uncle, nephew and friend,” they said. “He had the strength and courage to challenge bullies and stand up for the most vulnerable, but also had the innate sensitivity to be capable of loving everyone and everything from plants to his beloved cat, Cali.”

The GoFundMe campaign for the Sundberg family’s funeral expenses now has more than 300 donors and has already raised more than $16,000 of its $20,000 goal.

“I remember Tekle as a vivacious (and rambunctious) 7th/8th grader who I could always rely on to see history from a different angle. All of my love to the Sundberg family,” a donor wrote.

On Thursday night, family and friends gathered for a vigil outside of the apartment where the police shot Sundberg. 

“Never.”

This was Amanda Savage’s response, an associate political science professor at Loyola University Chicago and a former University of Minnesota undergraduate and graduate student, when asked if she thought she would see Roe v. Wade overturned in her lifetime.

As a constitutional law professor, Savage said she had always told students the Supreme Court would never overturn Roe v. Wade.

“I thought that they were scared enough of their own legitimacy that they would never do it,” Savage said. “I’m as shocked as anybody and have gotten a dozen or so emails from students being like, ‘but wait, you promised’.”

The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and its impacts on the political climate in the United States is causing many professors within the law school and the political science department to change the way they teach students about constitutional law and the Supreme Court.

Jill Hasday, a law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School whose expertise includes constitutional law and legal history, said the Supreme Court’s decision was “striking,” but not necessarily surprising.

“Many people in very powerful positions…have explicitly said for years that they were looking to appoint justices who would overturn Roe,” Hasday said. “It was still a shock because overturning Roe v. Wade in one fell swoop is a tremendous expenditure of institutional capital by the Supreme Court.”

The Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the decision of abortion legality to the states, holds that abortion regulation is subjected to rational basis review, according to Hasday. This means if a state legislature is going to pass a law that might violate somebody’s freedom, the government would need to have a rational reason for doing so.

With the Dobbs decision, the Court said a desire to protect fetal life counts as a rational reason, Timothy Johnson, a political science professor at the University, said.

“You don’t need a higher standard…you just need to have a really good reason,” Johnson said. “And protecting life is clearly rational according to the Court.”

Johnson and Savage, one of his former graduate students, have been working together to change their lectures in their judicial process courses at the University and Loyola.

“[Savage] and I are fundamentally changing our lectures on precedent because it’s unclear how powerful precedent will be from here on out,” Johnson said. “That is something students need to learn.”

Savage said in constitutional law classes, the first lesson is often on the notion that precedent is a rule or norm that the Supreme Court follows most of the time. Savage has taught her students that it is rare for justices to deviate from precedent.

“With new cases that have been being decided, I’ve noticed students raising their hands and going, ‘but wait, they didn’t follow this rule at all,’” Savage said.

Now that those judges are deviating from their own ideas of precedent, Savage has had to rework how she teaches her classes due to the increase in political polarization within the current Court.

“We’re asking the wrong question, because we’re treating precedent like this rule that justices are violating when it doesn’t seem so much like that anymore,” she said. “It seems like precedent is a strategic tool that they use when it is to an ideological advantage.”

Hasday said the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will change the way she teaches her classes, “without question.” She is currently deciding where she wants to put the Dobbs v. Jackson decision within her syllabus.

“My current thought is to put it toward the end because I think that this decision overturning Roe may be a harbinger of what’s coming,” Hasday said. “Students might be in a better position to understand this position, having read the previous precedents that now look more unsettled than they did two weeks ago.”

Many professors agreed that Dobbs v. Jackson’s decision would shift attention to state legislatures to protect civil rights.

“If you have an issue, you go to the Supreme Court to fight for your rights,” Savage said. “[Now], maybe instead you think, the Supreme Court can’t help me, that’s a political institution. Maybe I’ll go fight in the state legislatures. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, I think relying on the Court less to sort out political issues is good.”

Andrew Karch, a political science professor at the University, said he will use the trends that came from the Dobbs decision to demonstrate the contemporary relevance of issues of power at the state level in his classes on federalism, a system of government in which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government.

“I think a lot of what’s happened this term reinforces one of the themes of that course – federalism, in many ways, is used instrumentally,” Karch said. “If a group or political party has power at the national level, they favor national solutions, if they don’t have power at the national level, they favor state-level solutions.”

Overall, trust in government is declining, and has been for a while, which does not bode well for the political atmosphere within the United States, Karch said.

“It isn’t a very healthy trend for American democracy,” Karch said. “There could be some serious trouble on the horizon.”

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday aimed at protecting abortion rights in response to the June 24 Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, stripping women of their constitutional right to an abortion.

At least nine states have banned abortion so far – Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin – while about a dozen more are expected to increase abortion restrictions in following weeks, NPR reported.

While he cannot restore the nationwide right to an abortion, Biden and his administration can take executive action to ensure access to abortion remains safe. The order includes instructions to the Justice Department to ensure women will be able to travel out of state to receive an abortion.

Biden said at the White House that he is asking the Justice Department, “much like they did in the Civil Rights era, to do something, to do everything in their power to protect these women seeking to invoke their rights.”

The executive order pledges to ensure patients’ and providers’ safety by setting up mobile clinics near state lines to help people who have to travel out of state for an abortion. The Attorney General and the White House Counsel will also convene private pro bono lawyers and other forms of aid to provide legal representation to people seeking out-of-state medical care.

Biden said he will also provide leave for federal workers traveling for medical care. Companies like Amazon and Starbucks already announced they will expand their health benefits to cover their employees’ travel fees if abortion services are not available locally.

In the executive order, Biden orders the Department of Health and Human Services to take additional action to protect and expand access to medication abortion, emergency contraception and IUDS.

The order also requests that the Federal Trade Commission consider protecting the privacy of people looking for information about reproductive health care services.

According to ABC, this order was signed as Democrats and voters have been putting pressure on Biden to take further steps to protect abortion rights. At the White House, Biden said it is ultimately up to Congress to codify Roe into law, but any efforts by Democrats to make access to abortions protected by federal law would likely fail in the Republican-controlled Senate.

At a press conference held in Madrid on Thursday, Biden said he would support making an exception to the filibuster – the 60-vote threshold the Senate requires to pass most legislation – to codify abortion protections and privacy rights. The President has previously been reluctant to change the filibuster rules to pass his agenda, according to CNN.

“I believe we have to codify Roe v. Wade in the law, and the way to do that is to make sure that congress votes to do that,” Biden said in the news conference. “And if the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like voting rights, it should be we provide an exception to the filibuster for this action.”

Before signing the executive order, Biden said the fastest way to restore abortion rights is for citizens to vote for congressional candidates who will support protecting abortion access through federal legislation during November’s midterm elections.

“We cannot allow an out-of-control Supreme Court working in conjunction with extremist elements in the Republican Party to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy,” Biden said.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced in a federal civil rights case Thursday to 21 years in prison for depriving George Floyd of his civil rights in May 2020. 

Chauvin is already serving a 22 ½ year sentence after he was found guilty of second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter, in April 2021 in the state’s case against him.

As part of a federal plea agreement, Chauvin will serve both his state and federal sentences concurrently in federal prison, with the time he has already served deducted from the sentence. The New York Times reported this is on the lower end of the standard 20 to 25 years prescribed by sentencing guidelines.

“I really don’t know why you did what you did,” U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson told Chauvin before announcing the sentence. “But to put your knee on another person’s neck until they’re deceased is wrong. And for that, you must be substantially punished.”

Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in May 2020 after he kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. Floyd’s murder sparked national outrage and unrest as people called for mass police reform and racial equity.

Chauvin’s federal plea deal, reached last year, also admits his guilt in a 2017 incident where he repeatedly struck 14-year-old John Pope and kneeled on his neck and upper back for about 15 minutes. Pope sued the city of Minneapolis in May.

Before his sentencing, Chauvin gave a brief statement to both Floyd’s and Pope’s families. He did not apologize to either family for his actions.

“To the Pope family, Mr. Pope: I hope you have a good relationship with your mother and also your sister, and I hope that you have the ability to get the best education possible to lead a productive and rewarding life,” Chauvin said to Pope in his statement.

And to Floyd’s children: “I just want to say that I wish them all the best in their life and have excellent guidance in becoming great adults.”

Prosecutors in the case asked Justice Magnuson to sentence Chauvin to 25 years in prison, as they believed a higher sentence would send a clear message to police officers around the country that their role in the criminal justice system is limited and does not involve imposing punishment

Magnuson said he blames Chauvin alone for Floyd’s murder as Chauvin was the senior officer at the scene and ignored questions from one of the other officers about Chauvin’s use of force.

“You absolutely destroyed the lives of three young officers by taking command of the scene,” said Magnuson.

Former officer Thomas Lane pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in state court in May and is scheduled for sentencing in September. Former officers Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng’s trial on state charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter is scheduled for October.

Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, asked the court last month to sentence Chauvin to no more than 20 years in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release, citing “thousands” of letters from across the country he said Chauvin received that, “speaks to his character and qualities as a human being.”

Courteney Ross, Floyd’s girlfriend, wrote the victim impact statement that was read to the court during Thursday’s sentencing hearing. 

“I don’t hate you, Mr. Chauvin,” the statement said. “I’m working on forgiving you because that’s what George Floyd would want me to do.”

Eight people were wounded in a shooting at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis Monday night during an unofficial Fourth of July gathering, according to Minneapolis Park Police.

Some of the victims were in critical condition Tuesday morning, according to the Minneapolis Park Board.

Minneapolis Park Police, along with the Minneapolis Police Department, responded to a report of an unidentified person firing shots into the crowd at 11:30 p.m. on Monday. When they arrived at the scene, much of the crowd had already dispersed.

A witness at the scene told WCCO they heard what sounded like several gunshots.

“We were just watching fireworks and we heard a whole bunch of shots,” said Kaayla Laanaee. “I just heard them going over my head to the trees. I was just ducking by the lake.”

According to a summary on Citizen, radio transmissions from the scene indicated that police located two gunshot wound victims at the scene.

“After shots were fired, the large group that had gathered in the park dispersed, many leaving prior to police arriving,” the Park Board said in a news release. “A majority of the shooting victims later arrived at local hospitals on their own.”

A Park Board spokesperson said there was not a formal Fourth of July event or fireworks at the park, but people had gathered to celebrate the holiday.

Police have not released details about the victims and no arrests have been made. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call 612-230-6550.

The University of Minnesota announced YOU@UMN at the June Board of Regents meeting, a new platform launched at the beginning of the Fall 2021 semester that aims to help students care for their wellbeing and take preventative action to ensure mental health.

The platform, created by Grit Digital Health, is part of the next phase of the University’s President’s Initiative on Student Mental Health (PRISMH) plan that the University launched last summer. Through this program, the University has made new investments in mental health resources and technologies.

YOU@UMN helps students explore the intersectionality of mental health and overall well being. The platform contains tools, dynamic content and resources where students can choose personal wellness goals and find steps for success.The platform is meant to navigate students to programs, people and other support resources available to them.

The announcement of the new platform comes at a time when mental health is disproportionately worsening among young adults, according to Maggie Towle, PRISMH co-chair and senior associate vice president for the office of student affairs. Towle presented YOU@UMN to the Board of Regents in June.

President Joan Gabel cited a study by Healthy Minds Network at the Board meeting, which found that the mental health of college students nationally has steadily declined over the last 8 years, with a 135% increase in depression and a 110% increase in anxiety.

“We can’t mental-health-clinician our way out of this,” said Gabel. “We need to get at underlying causes and go upstream so we can figure out why the demand keeps growing or we’ll never catch up.”

YOU@UMN aims to do just that, according to Lisa Stephenson, an associate department director at University Recreation and Wellness.

Stephenson said the University currently has an array of “great mental health resources” when it comes to addressing mental health crises, but lacks in preventative mental health measures. YOU@UMN aims to fill this gap and consolidate all resources in one place, she said.

“The sooner that students can build awareness in themselves, whether it be triggers associated with stress or behaviors that they know can create anxiety, the more they can identify coping mechanisms that will help manage those behaviors,” Stephenson said.

The Office for Student Affairs met with the Student Mental Health Advisory Committee to find an appropriate platform that would house all of the mental health and wellbeing resources in one place. Student trials of the platform began in the 2021 Spring semester. Towle said students have been involved in every phase of the process, from choosing what resources would be available in the app all the way to vendor selection.

“Students have been asking for a centralized place to find all the mental health services and resources for the past several years,” Towle said.

Stephenson said it is important that students can find all these resources in one place.

“When we did listening sessions with students, the distance between knowing that there were great resources available and finding and connecting with those resources was huge,” Stephenson said.

Towle said an important group her team has worked closely with is the Faculty Consultative Committee to train professors on YOU@UMN. Ideally, she said, every faculty member would hold up their cell phones in the classroom and show students how to access the platform themselves.

“We wanted to make sure we had faculty buy in and support as they are concerned about student mental health and want to have resources to share with students,” Towle said. “We need faculty to have an easy ‘one stop’ place to access all mental health resources for their students.”

Stephenson and Towle said they hope the platform can be a tool that will overall help guide students to leading healthier, well-rounded lives.

“We don’t want students to just survive or get by,” Stephenson said. “We want them to be connected to resources, to opportunities, to needs and interests that allow them to thrive.”