In his last weeks as Interim President of the University of Minnesota, Jeff Ettinger withdrew a job offer for director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies on June 10, prompting debate about the role of administrators in hiring practices and infringements on academic freedom.

College of Liberal Arts (CLA) Interim Dean Ann Waltner extended an offer to Israeli historian and genocide expert, Raz Segal, on June 5 before it was withdrawn in reaction to an outpouring of negative community feedback regarding Segal’s ability to lead the center given his views of Israeli action in Gaza. Expressing strong dissent in Ettinger’s decision, the Faculty Senate passed a no-confidence vote on June 24. 

Faculty Senator and CLA Assembly Vice-Chair Michael Gallope said the pressure campaign was an attempt to stifle debate about a controversial war and goes against basic principles of free speech.

In an October 2023 article, Segal criticized Israeli action in Gaza, calling it “a textbook case of genocide.” 

Gallope said withdrawing Segal’s offer based on community opinion regarding his views violates several University values related to academic freedom and faculty autonomy over educational decisions, as stipulated in CLA’s constitution.

Ettinger announced the search pause for the Center’s director at the Board of Regents meeting on June 14. 

At the Minnesota Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety hearing June 25, Ettinger said the decision to pause was “unusual,” though he determined it necessary given the community-facing role the Center’s director holds.

“My conclusion was that the Center’s leader needs to be able to bring people together around this critically important and sensitive work,” Ettinger said at the hearing.

In a special meeting of the Faculty Senate on June 26, Gallope said he is gravely concerned about the precedent this sets for the University’s future. 

“No individual at the University, whether student, staff or faculty should feel as though they could be punished for expressing their views,” Gallope said in the special meeting.

Gallope said the University should be a space where controversial issues can be openly debated without the risk of retaliation, like interference with established hiring practices and publicly retracting job offers. He said such actions can damage a scholar’s reputation.

“We can’t function as a University unless the Center can be a place where precisely this question of whether or not Israel is committing genocide is able to be discussed in a public forum,” Gallope said. “That’s exactly the work that the Center should be doing.”

Segal’s offer included both an administrative appointment as the Center’s director and a faculty appointment in the University’s History Department, according to Ettinger. 

In both the Board meeting and Faculty Assembly meeting, Ettinger differentiated between the administrative and faculty appointments. He said the president should not be involved in the appointment of faculty but may intervene in administrative appointments when they feel the appointment could interfere with the University’s mission.

In the special meeting on June 26, Ettinger said directorships are akin to those of deans, provosts and chancellors, where the Board confirms the administrative aspect of a position and faculty confirms the academic aspect.

Interim Center Director Joe Eggers said the directorship is multifaceted. It involves supporting communities and educators external to the University and cultivating the campus’ scholarly community.

The Board of Regents policy on Academic Freedom and Responsibility states faculty and staff have the freedom “to speak or write on matters of public concern as well as on matters related to professional duties and the functioning of the University.”

During the question portion of the special meeting June 26, when asked whether the work done as director of a research center like the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies would be protected by academic freedom, Provost Rachel Croson said, “I would assume if it were academic work it would be protected by academic freedom.”

In the special meeting, Ettinger said his decision to withdraw Segal’s offer and pause the search was made partly because the search proceeded without a community member on the search committee.

Ettinger also said Segal’s appointment was likely to disengage certain community groups. He added this could have significantly endangered the University’s mission, given the center’s director typically engages in conversations and involvement with the broader University community. 

Ettinger said other centers at the University, whose director search committees did not include a community member, do not have the same connection to the community as the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Therefore, he said the Center needs to consult the community in its search. 

Two faculty members of the Center’s Advisory Board voiced opposition to Segal’s hiring and resigned in protest. Those board members were University professors Karen Painter and Bruno Chaouat.

Painter said Segal’s viewpoint was extreme and made him the wrong candidate for a directorship where he would work with Holocaust survivors and their families. 

“You need somebody who is sensitive,” Painter said. “Who is a good listener.”

The final five candidates were announced via the Center’s email list of more than 5,000 individuals, including more than 3,000 with non-University emails, according to Gallope. These candidates then visited campus to give public talks and meet privately for discussions and interviews with the search committee and the Center’s advisory board. 

Advisory board members were able to give feedback on candidates via a Google form after smaller meetings between a given candidate, the search committee and the advisory board, Painter said.

Painter said she alerted search committee chair Evelyn Davidheiser early on in the process that Segal may be a “disastrous choice” for the broader community.

Painter said she believes her feedback was ignored and thought it would have been beneficial for the search committee to get additional feedback from the advisory board and community members.

In an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, Davidheiser said Segal presented a “clear set of strengths,” and advisory board members who supported his hiring admired that he wanted to do more for the Center than just invite speakers.

Davidheiser said that while the committee thought Segal’s views could be a barrier to building relationships, given his experience working with the community in his current position at Stockton University, they thought he would still have been an effective director.

In the special meeting, Ettinger said issues in the Middle East have been “the issue” on campuses nationwide this year. Given recent student protests and an investigation into antisemitism at the University, he said campus politics provided context for the decision. 

Gallope said it was inappropriate for Ettinger to consider political circumstances regarding this appointment. 

“Caving to pressure campaigns sends the message that the institutional leadership is weak and twists in the wind of political debates,” Gallope said. “We need the central administration to stand strong in the face of political pressure and defend academic freedom when it comes to controversial topics like genocide.”

Eggers said while the goal of his work is to raise the Center’s profile, it is unfortunate that these circumstances have generated attention to it. 

“We’re instead talking about a process that I think distracts from the overall work and the continued, really exciting work that the Center is doing,” Eggers said.

Gallope said Ettinger “shredded faculty trust in the administration,” and he hopes President Rebecca Cunningham will undo the damage of this decision. 

In an email sent to University faculty and staff July 15, Cunningham said she charged Croson with appointing a diverse faculty committee to create a shared understanding of the intersection of hiring policies and academic freedom. She also asked Croson to partner with faculty to discuss academic freedom and shared governance.

“I am optimistic these two forward-looking actions will help guide a path toward a stronger University ecosystem,” Cunningham said in the email.

A team of engineers from the University of Minnesota sent the new Minnesota state flag into space on July 17.

The experiment tested how certain fabricated materials, which engineers foresee being used in next-generation spacecraft and satellites, interact with outer space, according to lead engineer Ognjen Ilic. 

The new state flag was sent along with the University and United States flags. However, researchers are more interested in what is on the other side of the flag, according to University Department Head of Mechanical Engineering Chris Hogan. 

The other side of the flags hold nanoscaled fabricated material — a material whose chemistry and surface properties have been textured at the nanometer scale, Hogan said. A nanometer is a unit of measurement worth one billionth of a meter.

Hogan said by tailoring the material in this way, researchers can control how it interacts with electromagnetic radiation, or how it absorbs, scatters and transmits light of different wavelengths, which affects its power to propel a spacecraft.

Normally for propulsion in space, an energy system is needed on board the spacecraft, such as an engine, Hogan said. The fabricated nanomaterial would function like a sail by catching solar radiation and pushing the spacecraft along without needing an energy system on board.

Ilic said the team’s data will measure how nanofabricated material behaves in conditions of much higher radiation and stronger sunlight than can be tested in any lab, specifically looking at the material’s endurance.

“How would they resist the environment while being very lightweight and very very strong?” Ilic said.

Ilic and his team created the fabricated nanomaterial at the University’s Minnesota Nano Center. The center is a research facility offering equipment that can create patterns at the scale of a nanometer and make complex structures at the nanoscale, according to the center’s Director Steven Koester. 

Koester said the facility is open to researchers both from the University and those outside it. However, people who want to use the Center must be qualified and have completed training to ensure they know how to use the equipment.

Ilic said this flight into space is the culmination of a bigger process that includes designing the material, running simulations, lab work, actual fabrication of the material, assembly and the final launch.

“There’s always challenges along the way,” Ilic said. “But we were very happy with the data that we got.”

Ilic said he and his team are in the process of writing a paper about this research, which he hopes to publish within the next six months.

Hogan said he hopes and assumes this is not the only time the University Department of Mechanical Engineering conducts this work.

“This is something that we can pull off, that students at all levels can get involved in,” Hogan said.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota are hosting the inaugural meeting of the Disturbance and Recovery Across Grasslands Network (DRAGNet) from July 28 to Aug. 2.

The Network, which is made up of more than one hundred researchers from 60 sites in 18 countries around the world, will meet in person for the first time to discuss their findings on global change, according to Co-lead Researchers Elizabeth Borer and Eric Seabloom. 

Global change studies how the Earth’s system changes based on interactions between the environment, living things and human activities.

Though DRAGNet held a virtual meeting in March, Borer said this will be the first time participating researchers meet in person to present and analyze their data. 

“This is so exciting,” Borer said. “We’re going to start to address some of the hypotheses that we set out to test with these experiments.”

Global change is often equated with climate change, Borer said. However, measuring global change accounts for additional variables like tilling, seed fertilization, animal harvesting and fossil fuel emission.

Though Seabloom estimates more than a hundred individuals are involved in DRAGNet, he said it is unknown how many scientists have taken part, given the manpower required to execute this research.

This kind of global-scale research is incredibly important in creating opportunities for new ideas and approaches to inform critical scientific work, said College of Biological Sciences Dean Saara DeWalt in an email statement to the Minnesota Daily. She said the University’s strong reputation in fields of ecological research is due to “ambitious, paradigm-shifting” work, like DRAGNet.

Borer and Seabloom conduct their research at the University’s Cedar Creek Research Site in East Bethel, Minnesota. 

Seabloom said DRAGNet’s research is unique because they will take the results from experiments at the Cedar Creek site and discern whether these results are applicable to the rest of the world. 

Borer said research is typically conducted at a single site because it is logistically complicated to perform an experiment in more than one place. She said this left her and Seabloom with an important question — what would happen if they did the same experiment at a different location? 

“We can gain lots of great insights from single-site studies,” Borer said. “But it does leave open that concern that we might not be capturing all of the possible responses that would happen on Earth.”

Now, Borer and Seabloom’s experiments are being replicated at research sites worldwide. 

According to Borer, the idea is to capture a range of environmental characteristics, such as evolutionary history, soil type, geology and climate.

DRAGNet is an extension of the Nutrient Network (NutNet), a similar grassroots network that began in 2007 where experiments are replicated at 171 sites around the world, according to Seabloom. 

“That’s really changed how people do science,” Seabloom said. “There’s a lot of other people who are using our approaches to study evolutionary questions, species invasions, lots of different questions.”

Borer said she and Seabloom first pitched the idea of DRAGNet to the scientific community in late 2019, intending to open the Network for research in 2020. This plan was stifled by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though every site had challenges with the pandemic, it particularly influenced DRAGNet’s implementation because the Network relied on the collaboration of researchers from different countries, Borer said. Nonetheless, Borer and Seabloom persisted; four years later, they are reaping the benefits.

“We figured out a way to make it happen,” Borer said. “We felt confident that this would work. We just started to kind of feel our way through how to make it work, and it’s just meant that we’ve had a little bit longer startup period than we expected but we’re rolling. I mean, 60 sites, that’s amazing.”

Borer said a primary goal of the Network’s meeting is building community. 

Borer and Seabloom advertised membership to the Network via social media and their networks. There is no material incentive to join, so those who contribute data do so in the interest of science, Borer added. 

“There are people in the world who recognize what they’re going to learn from working with this global community vastly exceeds what they can do on their own,” Borer said. “This is a group of collaborative people who want to join together to build something bigger, and I think that’s really what drives it.”

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) released a comprehensive roadmap that will allow for prompt and efficient responses to outbreaks of the Nipah virus, a highly fatal disease. 

The roadmap outlined strategies to lessen the impact of the Nipah virus by prioritizing research, improving virus surveillance and strengthening preparedness for future outbreaks.

CIDRAP Director Dr. Michael Osterholm said work on the roadmap began in 2015 following breakouts of infectious diseases like Ebola. He said CIDRAP realized there were few comprehensive strategies to address infectious disease outbreaks.

“Lewis Carroll once said, ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, anywhere will get you there,’” Osterholm said. “That was part of the problem. How can you get these vaccines, diagnostics and drugs if you don’t know what you need, what might work or not work?”

The Nipah virus can be transmitted from animals to humans, human to human or through contaminated food, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Infection causes a range of symptoms from none to acute respiratory infection and inflammation of the brain.

The Nipah virus has fatality rates varying between 40% and 100% in documented outbreaks, according to a research paper about the roadmap. Currently, no treatments or licensed vaccines are available to prevent and manage the Nipah virus.

Dr. Kristine Moore, the research paper’s lead author, said the initial goal in 2015 was to develop roadmaps for high-priority pathogens with epidemic potential. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused a shift in priority, with work on the Nipah roadmap being postponed until the paper’s task force reconvened a year and a half ago.

Moore said the task force, made up of individuals from around the world, extensively revised the roadmap draft they began before 2020 based upon new information and accomplishments within the previous five years.

The roadmap provides a six-year framework, beginning in 2024, and outlines significant gaps in research. It stresses the need for increased understanding of the virus, how it is transmitted and the needed development of new therapies and vaccines.

This roadmap provides an update to a similar advanced draft of a research and development roadmap, published by the WHO in January 2019. The update is based primarily on scientific literature published in the last five years and the consensus opinion of experts on the subject, according to the research paper.

“You really have to find every single little piece of information that is in the scientific or public domains that address this issue, and then factor into, ‘What does that mean? What does it take to get a vaccine that’s highly effective? What are the roadblocks? What is it we don’t know?’” Osterholm said.

According to the roadmap, strengthening global and local monitoring of the virus will be crucial to establishing and executing effective responses to future outbreaks. The roadmap also calls for improved preventative measures, such as increased public health education to curb transmission, especially in high-risk areas.

The roadmap says to achieve these objectives, it is crucial to enhance funding and foster international collaboration to support research, manage outbreak responses and implement effective prevention and control measures.

The 2019 WHO roadmap aimed to accelerate the development of medical countermeasures like diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines to improve responses to outbreaks of Nipah, according to the research paper. 

Osterholm said the Wellcome Trust funded the development of this roadmap and others like it following worldwide infections of viruses like Ebola, Lassa Fever and Nipah.

Dr. Beth Thielen, an assistant professor in the University’s Pediatric Infectious Diseases Division, said roadmaps are beneficial because they raise awareness of the dangers of infectious diseases, particularly in the United States. 

“With travel and changing climate factors and migration, all of these things, these diseases that maybe some folks might think are very geographically restricted can end up having global impacts,” Thielen said.

Thielen, also a practicing infectious diseases physician, said patients come to her not knowing exactly what they have. She said it is helpful for physicians to have roadmaps that may outline certain disease symptoms, allowing them to treat infectious diseases before an outbreak occurs.

According to Osterholm, CIDRAP worked with more than 100 global experts to develop detailed plans for what it would take to get better vaccines, diagnostics and drugs. This roadmap, as well as a similar roadmap on Lassa Fever, is the culmination of that work.

Though the roadmap was informed using scientific literature, it is the result of many sources, Osterholm said. 

Moore said the success of research like this requires the input of experts. She added that another strength of developed roadmaps is they provide a time-bound framework that future researchers can look back to for reference.

“If the roadmap is used, people can use it to benchmark their work against and also to decide what are the priorities going forward?” Moore said.

Since 2021, seven of the 17 colleges at the University of Minnesota have been led by interim deans, underscoring the lengthy and complex process of hiring permanent deans. 

The University has experienced greater administrative turnover in the last five to 10 years, according to Provost Rachel Croson. She said there is a certain amount of routine turnover, with deans leaving their positions periodically for different reasons. For example, a dean may leave their position to become a provost or president at another university. 

In April 2023, John Coleman, former dean of the University’s College of Liberal Arts, left his position to become executive vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Similarly, in March 2023, Garry Jenkins, former dean of the University’s Law School, left his position to become president of Bates College in Maine.

Croson said deans may also leave due to retirement. In January 2022, John Finnegan retired after serving as dean of the University’s School of Public Health for 17 years.

However, Croson said turnover has gotten a lot more “frothy” in the last five to 10 years, with the average length of tenure for leadership positions shortening.

Croson said this is a national trend the University is not immune to.

Timothy Beebe, who served as interim dean for the School of Public Health after Finnegan’s retirement, said given what is required of a dean as an internal leader and a voice for the college, it is a very difficult position to hold.

Croson said the full national search process for a permanent dean takes about a year, during which time an interim dean is named. 

Interim deans are typically internal hires, Croson said. Interim deans may be interested in the permanent position, want to help the college or use it as a capstone to the conclusion of their careers.

Beebe said he chose to volunteer as interim dean out of love for the University and the School of Public Health. He said he was one of the few leaders within the school with extensive leadership experience who did not want the permanent position, making him a natural candidate.

“If you’re an interim and you want to become dean, while you’re the interim, you kind of feel like you’re interviewing the whole time, so you don’t want to piss anybody off,” Beebe said. “When I went into it, I said, ‘I’m not moving into the house. I’m flipping it.’”

Croson said different colleges have different philosophies about whether an interim dean should be considered for the permanent job. While some colleges may not want an interim dean in the pool of candidates for the permanent position, other colleges may see the interim position as a trial period.

“There’s kind of specific disciplinary differences about that,” Croson said.

Croson said she does not have strong preferences for internal or external hires in searching for a permanent dean, and she does not go into the search process with either in mind. 

“There’s kind of a truism in this business that different units need different leaders at different times,” Croson said. “So sometimes you really need an internal candidate, right? You’ve had a lot of change, a lot of innovation and people just need to take a breath, and having someone who is familiar can be really good.”

Croson said when hiring someone in a permanent dean role, she looks for how they will work with their college, the president and provost, other deans and the community.

“I need people who are able to take off their ‘advocacy for my unit hat’ and put on their ‘University citizen’ hat and say, ‘Even though I know this might not be good for my particular college, this is the right thing for the University to do,’” Croson said.

Croson said many oncoming deans have experience in academia, but there are some disciplines for which non-academic practitioners are perfectly suitable. Whether a practitioner is appropriate for a given dean position is reliant upon feedback gathered during the search process.

Alternatively, candidates outside the University are hired because a given college could use a level shift, Croson said.

Beebe said the initial search for a permanent successor to Finnegan ultimately failed, which negatively impacted the School of Public Health. In the wake of this and a decline in rankings following the COVID-19 pandemic, the school wanted to hire a high-profile, world-class dean, so it turned to external hires. 

Following a second search, Dean Melinda Pettigrew became Finnegan’s replacement in December 2023, bringing her leadership experience from the Yale School of Public Health, according to the School of Public Health website.

The search process

The search process to find a permanent dean begins with the formation of a search committee, with individuals nominated to the committee and selected by Croson and her staff. 

Croson said these committees should be representative of the college, including faculty, staff, and students representing diverse socioeconomic, racial and gender backgrounds. This committee is usually chaired by another dean who will work closely with the permanent candidate.

The University often uses search consultants, professionals who conduct leadership searches for universities, Croson said. These consultants likely have greater accessibility to networks or contacts for more candidates than the University would on its own.

Together, Croson, her staff, the search committee and the search consultant create a position description using feedback gathered from a series of listening sessions where University community members can give input on what qualities they want in a leader.

“That position description is really important because it tells the potential candidates what they are going to be asked to do,” Croson said. “It also serves as a rubric for the committee in evaluating the candidate.”

The University then publishes the position description in various avenues, including field journals and social media to ensure a diverse pool of candidates, Croson said.

From there, the search enters its “quiet phase,” Croson said, in which those involved begin forming a list of candidates. This phase is usually six to eight weeks and is strictly confidential, ending with interviews between the search committee and 10 to 15 top candidates.

From those interviews, the search committee narrows the search down to its final candidates. Those candidates are invited to campus to give a public talk, meet with groups of students and faculty, tour the area and undergo a final interview process. Croson said this is a delicate phase because it requires finalists who might be holding jobs or are up for jobs at other institutions to go public with their decision.

Depending upon student and faculty feedback via survey, Croson said an offer to be permanent dean is then extended. Dean appointments need to go to the Board of Regents for approval following the candidate’s acceptance of the position. 

GerShun Avilez was named dean of the College of Liberal Arts on July 19. Avilez was previously an English professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Arts & Humanities at the University of Maryland, College Park. Ann Waltner served as interim dean for the college from July 2023 until the final decision. 

“He will provide collaborative leadership to implement the strategic direction for CLA, with responsibility for advancing its mission and operations with an articulated vision for the future of liberal arts for the 21st-century public research institution through personnel and management decisions, retention and enhancement of faculty and staff talent,” Croson said in an email announcement to the University.

With the fall semester approaching, the University of Minnesota’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) is laying the foundation for advocacy and policy work to be implemented during the academic year.

During the summer months, USG focused efforts on hiring, restructuring and preparing for a summer conference with other University student governments. At the start of the academic year, USG will refocus its work on Welcome Week activities, voting campaigns and partnerships with University administration.

Hiring processes and restructuring

President Rahma Ali said USG leadership spent the summer in transition — going through staff applications, interviews and onboarding for its executive director and director positions. 

“It just allows a lot more of new perspectives to come into the organization so we can better serve our student body,” Ali said.

The executive director and director positions signal a structural change in how USG leadership has historically been organized, according to USG Vice President Clara Junemann. 

Previously, directors oversaw their teams and interns were assigned in the spring semester. Rather than working, interns would spend the fall semester learning about USG.

Mariam Hassan, the chief of staff to the USG president, said in the past, interns held general roles and focused on learning about USG as an organization. This year, USG plans to involve interns more within the organization.

Junemann said bringing on executive directors and directors can create clearer positions for USG interns, who previously did not have specific roles. 

This change will give interns the opportunity to work one-on-one with USG staff members to build skills, Junemann said. It will also make it easier for interns to attain higher-ranking USG positions in the future.

Junemann said intern applications and other voting roles will open at the beginning of August.

Welcome Week, voting advocacy and President Cunningham

Ali, who said her favorite part of September is Welcome Week, said USG will have an open-house event to meet with and educate new students about the organization and its advocacy.

“Being able to see students again is my number one excitement for now,” Ali said.

With the United States presidential election approaching, Junemann said USG’s Government and Legislative Affairs team will oversee the planning of an official campaign to encourage students to vote, similar to its 2022 Row the Vote campaign. 

Junemann said USG will have tabling events to help students register to vote and give voter information during Welcome Week. Because USG is nonpartisan, its main effort is ensuring students know where and how to vote, particularly incoming first-year students.

“We’re all very excited for voting,” Junemann said. “I think having student voices when we vote is incredibly important. The University of Minnesota has always been pretty strong in voter outreach and we’ve done very well in the past.”

Ali said USG leadership met with President Rebecca Cunningham earlier this month to share their goals and priorities with her and her team going into Cunningham’s first academic year as president.

Open and continued communication between USG and University administration is integral to promoting student issues, Ali said. Ali and Junemann have advocated for increased lines of communication between students and administration since they were elected in March.

Association of Big Ten Students summer conference

In mid-August, members of USG will travel to Michigan State University to participate in the Association of Big Ten Students (ABTS) summer conference, according to Ali. 

ABTS is an association of all 14 Big Ten University student governments aiming to increase communication and networking.

Ali said six members of USG will represent the University at the conference, including her, Junemann and Hassan, along with other members of USG’s presidential team and the Forum Board.

The conference provides a chance for USG leadership to talk with other student governments about what legislation they are working on or passing on their campuses, which is where Ali said USG gets some of its ideas.

“We’re pretty excited to go out and talk to students from across the nation, and just talk about our goals and what we’ve worked on previously,” Ali said.

Beginning this fall, the University of Minnesota will offer a new course teaching students how to start a biotech company. 

Called “What do you need to start a biotech company?” the course will be taught by lead Instructor Perry Hackett, a professor in the College of Biological Sciences (CBS) Genetics, Cell Biology and Development department and co-founder of three biotech companies. The course is a special topics seminar that teaches students about the business side of science and pathways to finance companies around new scientific discoveries.

Hackett has more than 50 years of academic and biotech experience in molecular genetics, genome engineering and human gene therapy, according to the course announcement. 

Hackett also received the University’s Impact Award in 2017 for his invention and development of the Sleeping Beauty Transposon System, a basis for cancer-fighting immunotherapies sold to a major pharmaceutical company for $1 billion.

“I know what I’m talking about because I’ve walked the walk,” Hackett said. “I’m not teaching something that I’ve read about. I teach what I have done.”

Hackett will co-direct the course with Mary MacCarthy and Anne Cohen. According to the announcement, MacCarthy launched two start-ups of her own and Cohen, a recent retiree from the University’s Carlson School of Management, taught courses on strategy, leadership and entrepreneurship.

Though all three instructors have very different experiences, MacCarthy said their skill sets are complementary and will help students understand what it takes to launch a biotech startup.

The purpose of the course is to introduce students to fundamental aspects of starting a new biotech company (NewCo), Hackett said. He added he hopes his students will learn by giving business pitches and building plans for a NewCo in teams over the semester.

While the University has many students who are or may be interested in biotech careers, Hackett said it lacked an introductory course.

“The reason why businesses fail is that business is every bit as complicated as science is,” Hackett said.

Classes early in the semester will focus on teaching the basic aspects of starting a successful business, according to the announcement. From there, the material expands to more detailed aspects of building a successful NewCo while teams work together outside of class. At the end of the semester, teams present their work for discussion and evaluation.

MacCarthy said the class will host guest speakers throughout the semester who are entrepreneurs, CFOs, market researchers and experts in various fields.

The ultimate goal of the course is to prepare students to present their NewCos for funding from the National Science Foundation, the Innovation, Collaboration and Entrepreneurship grant program through CBS and Walleye Tank, Minnesota’s life science pitch competition.

“The way these things get started is grad students or postdocs are working on a project, and it turns out with a little bit of research and development, you might actually have a product,” Hackett said.

Though the course is primarily designed for graduate and postdoc students, it is open to undergraduates upon approval, which Hackett said will be automatic.

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Laurie Parker said as a topics course, the class is similar to a pilot, meaning it is not a permanent course yet. CBS will gauge student input from the fall 2024 semester to further develop the course and hopefully implement it permanently.

If permanently implemented, the course will be included as an elective option for CBS’ biotechnology minor, Parker said.

“I wish I was still a student so I could take it,” Parker said. 

MacCarthy said she hopes with the information from this course, students will be excited about scientific opportunities outside of academia, particularly as the biotech industry continues to grow in Minnesota.

“You can make a lot of money,” MacCarthy said. “You can have a fulfilling career. You can develop solutions for enormous problems in healthcare and the environment and all the other places where biotech can be applied.”

As the fall semester approaches, the University of Minnesota offers several counseling services for students struggling with their mental health.

Boynton Health and Student Counseling Services (SCS) at the University each provide counseling options uniquely tailored to students. This allows students to receive the kind of care they need through the University, so long as they are willing to undergo the process.

Though there are differences between Boynton Mental Health and SCS, they operate under the same “mental health umbrella,” according to the Office for Student Affairs.

Psychotherapist and Associate Director of Boynton Clinic Cecelia Bloomquist said the first step for students seeking counseling services at Boynton is to set up a mental health consultation. She said this is usually a 30-minute appointment where the student can speak with a mental health professional, express concerns and explain what kind of service they are looking for.

“It’s kind of our point of entry,” Bloomquist said.

The goal of this appointment is to gain a high-level understanding of what is happening with the student so the mental health professional can find the right service for them, Bloomquist said. These appointments can be scheduled over the phone or through Boynton’s online portal, launched last year to improve accessibility to mental health resources.

Bloomquist said people can typically get in for a consultation at Boynton within two weeks, with better availability during the summer. Following the consultation, students make one-on-one appointments to see a professional.

According to Bloomquist, the busiest times of year for Boynton counseling coincide with midterms and final exams in both spring and fall semesters. She said these are the times in which stress levels are higher, causing an increase in demand for service and possibly longer wait times.

Boynton has struggled with technology issues on its website in the past, Bloomquist said, which has prevented students from seeing all open appointments online. Though she said Boynton is working diligently to resolve these issues, for now, it can lead to miscommunication on accessibility.

SCS Staff Psychologist and Outreach Coordinator Jake Loeffler said SCS has similar peak times. He added the student’s availability impacts how quickly they will match with an SCS mental health professional.

If a student has a higher or more urgent need for counseling, Boynton offers an urgent counseling service where students can walk into the clinic and get help. Bloomquist said this option works similarly to urgent care for physical ailments.

“You go in and then you get a triage,” Bloomquist said. “They see what your concerns are, and then they will try to help you in the moment with that.”

Loeffler said SCS has a similar intake process for one-on-one counseling. Students seeking care have an initial consultation with an SCS counselor, where they talk about goals and the counselor offers resources. 

Loeffler said SCS offers short-term counseling that aims to confront a specific goal in a semester. The center may refer students seeking long-term counseling to community providers.

“A longer-term setting might be, ‘I want to get to know myself better,’” Loeffler said. “And that’s a more broad question. It’s a more broad agenda item.”

Loeffler said short-term counseling is more strategic — identifying a problem and implementing skills to confront it.

Unlike SCS, Boynton Counseling does not have a limited number of sessions, according to Loeffler. While a student may visit Boynton for counseling as long as they are a student at the University, SCS limits students to 25 lifetime sessions in the interest of helping as many students as possible. 

“We really focus on quality care, and so when somebody gets in with us, we’re going to make sure that we provide them quality care,” Loeffler said. “But trying to balance having the right amount of counselors for the demand is tricky.”

During the academic year, Boynton can serve people in the urgent mental health clinic within one to two hours, according to Bloomquist. Last academic year, the waiting period for the initial brief consultation appointment did not extend beyond two weeks, and for urgent counseling, students were able to be seen by a mental health provider on the same day, she added.

Boynton does not typically have a waiting list for either the consultation or an initial counseling appointment, Bloomquist said.

Because care is uniquely tailored to each student’s wants and needs, Bloomquist said the period between the consultation and initial appointment varies based on the student seeking care. 

For example, Bloomquist is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy, a mental health treatment technique involving specific eye movement while one processes traumatic memories. If a student was looking to be treated with this specific therapy technique, they would have to wait for Bloomquist to be available, which may be a longer wait.

For those who seek one-on-one counseling, there are alternative options. For example, Bloomquist said Boynton will offer group counseling through a program called Skillful U, in which a group of students can meet to talk about day-to-day concerns and brainstorm skills to confront those concerns. 

Bloomquist said Boynton also offers specifically tailored counseling for students struggling with a specific issue, like group therapy for students with ADHD or social anxiety.

Another alternative to one-on-one counseling is Let’s Talk, a program through SCS offering virtual and in-person drop-in consultations during the academic year in East Bank, West Bank and St. Paul locations, according to its website. Though it is not a substitute for formal counseling, it is a valuable resource for students struggling with their mental health.

Loeffler said students may come into Let’s Talk to speak with a mental health professional for the first time, get answers to questions about therapy or discuss with an objective third party.

Bloomquist said the main difference between Boynton counseling and traditional off-campus counseling is the campus connection between Boynton and students.

“We only see students,” Bloomquist said. “So we understand the reality of a student. We are inside the University. We understand the calendar year. We understand what’s happening on campus.”

Mental health counseling can be important for many reasons, said Liza Meredith, a University psychology professor. While some may benefit from counseling by implementing strategies to manage their emotions, others may appreciate getting a third-party perspective on their issues.

“If you’re having problems with your friend and your friend is the person that you normally talk to about your problem, then you’re kind of stuck,” Meredith said. “And so having a neutral third party perspective, someone that’s not involved in your life and who is a confidential resource can be really helpful.”

Counseling is not necessarily a one-size-fits-all approach, Meredith said. Practices such as journaling, meditation, exercise or prayer may also be good options for those struggling.

Meredith said there may be added benefits for college students, particularly incoming students and outgoing graduates.

“Pretty much every aspect of their life is changing,” Meredith said. “And so I think there’s an additional benefit of sort of having someone that you can talk to while you’re making a major change in your life.”

Researchers at the University of Minnesota reached a breakthrough in research on the corn tar spot pathogen, a disease that threatens corn production.

The researchers recently developed and reported processes to infect corn plants with the pathogen, making it possible for them to conduct research in the field. A research study summarizing these findings was published in the international journal “Plant Disease” in May.

The pathogen, also known as tar spot, is a plant disease resulting in the appearance of spots on leaves, stalks and husks that resemble spots of tar, according to an article by Purdue University.

Lead Author José Solórzano is a doctoral candidate in plant pathology at the University of Minnesota working to understand the disease cycle of tar spot. He said this involves understanding how the pathogen, corn and environment interact for the disease to be caused. 

The research was funded by the University’s Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center (MITPPC). 

University professor and the center’s Director Robert Venette said tar spot research has been difficult up until now because corn plants have to show physical signs of the disease in order to conduct research. This means researchers have been reliant on natural infections, which are unpredictable. 

Venette said the research team found a way to reliably immunize corn with the tar spot pathogen, allowing them to conduct research. Further trials may help explain things like whether certain lines of corn are resistant, for example. 

Solórzano said tar spot can reduce corn production, which may pose a significant economic threat in Minnesota, the third-largest producer of corn in the United States, according to the Minnesota Corn Growers Association.

In an emailed statement to the Minnesota Daily, Annie Harvieux, communications coordinator for UMN Plant Pathology, said this research is a stellar example of the influence plant pathologists can have. She said the research will empower the development of disease management practices and help corn farmers.

Solórzano said his research involves developing methods to recreate or induce the disease in greenhouses and growth chambers as well as in the field.

Researchers are also working to understand the diversity of the pathogen causing tar spot, among other things, Solórzano added. 

According to Solórzano, the biggest highlights of the research study published in May included the following discoveries:

• A single implantation of tar spot can lead to the establishment and development of the disease and this establishment can lead to the spread of the disease.
• The fungus can remain viable at minus 20 degrees Celsius for at least 11 months.
• Tar spots can appear and spread in previously thought-to-be unfavorable environmental circumstances, such as those that are drier and less humid.

Solórzano, who grew up on a farm in Honduras, said he has long been familiar with the disease.

“I wanted to do this research because I wanted to understand the stuff that I knew when I was a child,” Solórzano said.

Tar spot has been a major plant disease in several Latin American countries since the early 20th century, according to a research study in “Plant Disease.” It was first documented in the U.S. in 2015.

The MITPPC, founded in 2015, provides funding for research on the prevention, detection and control of terrestrial invasive species in Minnesota, according to its website. It is the only research center of its kind in the country that is focused on terrestrial invasive species.

Venette said the MITPPC decides what research to fund by prioritizing threatening invasive species. Using community input, the center came up with 17 factors determining what traits make a species a threat. 

According to Venette, the center determined the research of Solórzano and his team to be scientifically novel and to have great potential to improve the management of the tar spot pathogen.

​​”There’s a really strong community of individuals who care about this research and want to be able to use the results right away,” Venette said.

Venette said the center meets with the research team every six months to see how the research is progressing. He said Solórzano and co-author Dean Malvick’s work has been very impressive. 

“They have just been a dynamic duo,” Venette said. “Just making incredible progress all the way through this project. So we’ve been very impressed with their work.”

The University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents unanimously approved a recommendation to retain the Eastcliff Mansion as the University’s presidential residence and redirect funds currently spent on its maintenance at a special meeting July 22.

The Board’s vote followed the final report and recommendation by the Eastcliff Property Task Force at the Board’s meeting on July 10 to redirect most University financial resources to better align with University goals. Operating costs are planned to be covered with an endowment fund, created by philanthropic support.

The Brooks family donated the mansion to the University in 1958. Since then, the residence has hosted University presidents, world leaders, celebrities and most recently, Gov. Tim Walz and his family. 

Regent Mary Davenport, the chair of the Eastcliff Property Task Force, brought a final report and recommendation concerning the residence at the July 10 meeting.

In that meeting, Davenport said the task force, formed in September 2022, was asked to review Eastcliff as part of a broader review of the University’s strategic property planning. The task force then delivered an initial report in December 2022 and returned with the final report and recommendation in July.

The Task Force’s four-part recommendation is as follows:

1. Retain Eastcliff as the University’s presidential residence and a significant event venue.
2. Raise, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota Foundation (UMF), sufficient philanthropic support over the next five years to create an endowed fund to provide direct ongoing operating expenses as well as one-time funding for capital expenses included in the 10-year Capital Plan.
3. Redirect most of the University’s financial resources currently spent on Eastcliff to high-priority system-wide strategic goals.
4. Streamline governance oversight of the facility.

UMF conducted a study to see if there was sufficient philanthropic support and determined there was, according to Davenport. 

“It’s just got such history and meaning to people,” Davenport said in an interview with the Minnesota Daily. “That’s why donors who connect with it in a meaningful way were interested in us keeping it and maintaining it for a presidential home.”

University presidents are required to live at Eastcliff per their contracts, Davenport said. While the residence is on the home’s second level, the first floor has been used as a gathering space for presidents for 66 years. 

In the interview, Davenport, who was Interim Dean of Rochester Community and Technical College and whose husband Richard Davenport was President of Minnesota State University, Mankato from 2002-2021, drew from her experience living in a presidential residence to speak of the importance Eastcliff has on the University community. 

“Every week, we had one or more events at our house,” Davenport said. “People come up to me and they say, ‘I was a student scholar and I remember being at your house.’ It’s meaningful. And so you multiply that over the years that Eastcliff has existed, so many events and so many people there. It’s a pretty significant number.”

Andrea Burke, who works with Minneapolis Community Planning and Economic Development, said historical buildings give a powerful sense of place which helps community members connect with the area. 

“I feel that a lot of people feel a strong connection to a sense of place and it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people,” Burke said. “But there tends to be a strong sense of it and it connects people and they feel very close to it and protective of it and a lot of good feelings and thoughts come from it.”

Upon the Board’s approval at the July 22 meeting, Davenport said the UMF will raise $4.5 million over the next five years to establish an operating endowment fund, covering the majority of operating costs for the residence. 

Davenport said the endowment fund will be supplemented by University support equivalent to a presidential housing allowance and salaries of those maintaining Eastcliff’s operations.

In the July 10 meeting, Davenport said the University will supply the capital financing up front and be reimbursed through philanthropic contributions as they are made. The timing of fundraising and pledges is consistent with how other capital projects are handled at the University, she said.

If sufficient funds are not able to be raised in five years, the Board may revisit if continuing to retain Eastcliff is in the best interest of the University at that point, Davenport said.