As summer approaches, University of Minnesota students shared their thoughts on safety programs implemented over the school year and what is to come this summer.

The University faced an uptick in crime near campus last summer, including incidents of shootings and assaults on the 1700 block of University Avenue. This led to the University taking action and implementing pilot programs throughout the summer and 2022-2023 school year.

At the end of July 2022, the University partnered with Minneapolis for its Dinkytown Pedestrian Access Pilot. This program turned two zones into pedestrian-access-only areas from Thursday evenings through Sunday mornings during a three-week period

Jake Ricker, Public Relations Director for the University, said in an email statement to the Minnesota Daily, data collected showed that person crimes decreased 25% and property crimes decreased 40%.

Another major change was in the relationship between the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) and other police departments. On Aug. 24, 2022, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) began patrolling on and off campus in partnership with UMPD.

Following the firework assaults over Halloween weekend, the University ran Operation Gopher Guardian, which targeted law enforcement presence in Dinkytown and Marcy-Holmes. The initiative was a collaboration between the MPD, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department, Minnesota State Patrol and UMPD.

This initiative ran the weekends of Nov. 4-5, 2022, and Nov. 11-22, 2022. Ricker said in his statement the first weekend was “very quiet on the public safety front,” and the second weekend had two carjackings.

The University also started the Dinkytown Alerts program in 2022, and plans to continue this initiative, according to Ricker.

In addition to all of the programs, the University also installed new infrastructure, including seven emergency kiosks and temporary light fixtures.

“When we look back on the past year, we’ve seen progress in many areas when it comes to preventing crime when possible and responding effectively to the feedback we’re hearing and the trends we’re seeing,” Ricker said in his statement. “We believe the public safety strategies we continue to put in place have shown promise and will be beneficial in the long term.”

Students say the initiatives show the University priotizes students safety

David Nunn, a second-year student at the University, said he thinks everything the University has done is a step in the right direction. He said he has noticed better communication from the University about safety procedures this year.

“I think it is a great start,” Will Necklen, a second-year student at the University, said. “I think what the University has done so far proves that safety is on the forefront of their agenda, which is much appreciated by students.”

Nunn and Necklen said they hope the University is able to increase the police presence on campus since they think it prevents people from committing crimes. They also agreed they hope the response time after a 911 call is made goes down.

“It’s good to see an overall ramp-up in the police force and presence they have on campus because as a student, it shows that they care about us,” Necklen said.

Nunn said one thing he would like to see is more communication about safety concerns. He suggested a code system to alert students if there is a threat in their residence halls or on campus, so students are not left in the dark like they were with the Middlebrook Hall incident, when students thought a shooter was in their residence hall.

“I think more of a presence working with students would be the most accurate way,” Nunn said.

Nunn suggested a survey to ask students which safety measures they would most appreciate and use.

Students and parents are concerned about safety over the summer

“It’s a little nerve racking,” Nunn said, referring to living near campus over the summer for the first time.

Nunn said he hopes the pedestrian access pilot is implemented again because it would make him feel safer when he is driving in the area and when he walks home. Nunn and Necklen said more police patrols in Dinkytown would also make them feel safer.

“It’s not the thing I have thought about most for living here over the summer, but it’s definitely been in the back of my mind,” Necklen said.

Brian Peck, president of the Campus Safety Coalition nonprofit and a parent of a University student, said the UMPD will have additional community service officers over the summer. Peck said these officers are not sworn in but uniformed, and they will be survailing in unmarked vehicles for extra safety. Peck said, currently, there are six, and they are working to fill four more positions.

“That is a great addition,” Peck said. “Being proactive and having that presence to step in and prevent crimes from happening in the first place.”

Peck said the coalition is asking the University to be more upfront and communicative about criminal activity on and near campus.

Ricker said the University will be using mobile lighting trailers in areas near campus and will continue using Dinkytown Safety Guides and Dinkytown alerts this summer. Ricker added this is in addition to the recruitment of unarmed community service officers by UMPD.

“We are also excited that our advocacy — along with the voices of students, faculty, staff and others — helped earn the support of Minneapolis city leaders to fund new and increased lighting in neighborhoods near campus,” Ricker said. “We know this and other public safety infrastructure being added in these neighborhoods, like additional blue light emergency kiosks and mobile security cameras, will further strengthen safety in these neighborhoods.”

Ricker said students can expect to see “many of the initiatives launched in recent years in action” this summer. He said depending on the outcome of current legislation, the University is hoping to receive additional funding to “modernize” security infrastructure, replace aging equipment and vehicles and add a new K-9 unit.

Peck said his concern for the summer is mostly centered on juveniles. Peck said many of them are repeat offenders because many of the rehabilitation centers juveniles would be sent to have been closed.

“The system is broken,” Peck said. “We’ve got Hennepin County officials that say rehab vs. incarcerate, yet Hennepin County doesn’t have any rehabilitation facilities.”

Peck said the coalition learned about repeat juvenile offenders from studying police reports.

He said they are trying to meet with the Hennepin County Administrator and Gov. Tim Walz to address the problem and find a solution.

Some students, parents and employees at the University of Minnesota say they wish Housing and Residential Life (HRL) were more proactive and transparent about crime and security in University residence halls.

There have been a number of break-ins and incidents of inappropriate conduct in University residence halls since fall 2021, some of which were reported to students while others were not, causing some students to feel less safe in their residence halls.

Between Oct. 13 and Oct. 21, 2021, there were three reported incidents of inappropriate conduct in Frontier and Comstock hall, two in Frontier and one in Comstock. The University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) released a person of interest description and surveillance photos on Oct. 26, 2022.

A suspect was identified in the Frontier Hall Oct. 13, 2021 incident and charged with a peeping gross misdemeanor on Feb. 15, 2022. There is currently an active warrant out for the suspect’s arrest because he failed to show up to a court hearing on March 7, 2022. Since the initial incident alert, there have been updates sent out to students.

Similarly, there were two reported incidents of indecent conduct in September 2022, one in Smith Hall, which is not a residence hall, and the other in Middlebrook Hall. The Middlebrook incident involved the suspect looking at the victim while the victim was in the shower. Another indecent conduct incident occurred at Middlebrook on Oct. 29, 2022, and again, the suspect was looking at the victim while the victim was in the shower.

More recently, there was a SAFE-U alert for an incident of indecent conduct in Pioneer Hall on March 29 from an individual in a stairwell making inappropriate comments to students.

HRL installed more bathroom locks in most residence halls

“In general, I don’t think enough is being done,” Brian Peck, a parent and president of the Campus Safety Coalition nonprofit said. “The dorms should be the safest place on a college campus.”

Peck’s son, Jack Peck, is a first-year student living in Territorial Hall. Brian said as a parent, his son living on campus when security is so “lax” makes him anxious.

In May 2022, HRL announced bathroom locks would be installed that summer in Frontier, Centennial, Territorial, Pioneer, Comstock and 17th Avenue residence halls.

“Bathroom locks are installed and operational in all Twin Cities residence halls, except for Frontier Hall,” Susan Stubblefield, HRL interim director, said in an email statement to the Minnesota Daily. “The Frontier Hall project requires the installation of new bathroom entrance doors and frames, which will occur during summer 2023.”

However, Aysa Tarana, a first-year student who lives in Middlebrook Hall, said she has not noticed any additional bathroom locks in her residence hall on the community bathroom doors. Middlebrook Hall dorm rooms already have semi-private bathrooms with locks that are typically shared between four residents.

Luke Schneider, a first-year student who lives in Territorial Hall, said he noticed bathroom locks were installed in his hall in late September.

Erin Vos, a second-year student who has been the Undergraduate Student Government’s (USG) campus life committee director for two years, said for the past year, USG has been working on implementing full length doors in residence hall bathrooms.

“Lack of communication has been the biggest downfall, and improper allocation of money,” Vos said.”They [HRL] have yet to allocate the funds from the University to get those full length bathroom doors.”

Residents and staff wonder why not all incidents are communicated to students

On Feb. 5 2021, Stubblefield sent an email to all residence hall staff informing them there had been several break-ins in residence halls, mostly in the four Super Block halls.

The email infomed staff the intruder was tailgating behind students, breaking into unlocked dorm rooms and stealing personal belongings. There was a poster with the intruder’s photo and a description attached to the email.

Following these break-ins, there were no SAFE-U alerts sent to students. Sam, who chose to use a pseudonym due to their current position at the University, said they were a Community Advisor (CA) at the time the email was sent to staff. They said HRL told staff not to share with their residents that the break-ins were occurring and not to hang the poster from the email in their residence halls.

HRL did not answer the Daily’s inquiry confirming whether staff were told not to share this information with students at the time.

“I immediately told the residents that were in my group,” Sam said. “They [the emails] did imply to me that it was pretty widespread, like there have been more than two or just three occurrences of this.”

On Feb. 12, 2022, HRL sent an email to Super Block residents informing them UMPD was called six days prior to investigate an individual who had entered Territorial Hall and was in the women’s bathroom. University Security increased building rounds in Territorial Hall, according to the email. There was no SAFE-U alert for this incident.

Tarana said her biggest concern as a student in the dorms was in the beginning of April, when Middlebrook residents heard there was a shooter in their residence hall.

Tarana said there was a lot of confusion about the incident and all the residents were hearing different things from someone’s Snapchat story. Some heard it was an active shooter, while others heard it was just police doing a wellness check. Some residents heard a resident was threatening to harm themselves.

She said at the time, Middlebrook went on lockdown and CAs informed residents they could not leave their dorms.

“I wouldn’t have known that there was a threat present had my roommate not called me and let me know,” Tarana said. “We had to go on lockdown for a little bit and that was scary.”

At 11:50 pm, the University Department of Public Safety tweeted that UMPD was on a “Check the Welfare call” and there was no immediate threat to the public in Middlebrook Hall.

Tarana said eventually, the CAs told residents it was safe to leave the residence halls, but the University never told them what happened. She said she thinks she has a right to know what is happening where she lives.

“SAFE-U notifications are only sent when there is confirmation of a dangerous situation or emergency that poses an immediate or serious, ongoing threat to the campus community,” Stubblefield said in her statement.

Students have mixed feelings about overall dorm safety procedures

Jack Peck, Ryan Carew and Schneider, all first-year students in Territorial Hall, said they have never felt particularly unsafe in their residence hall. However, all three said they wish there was more of a police presence in the area to better ensure safety.

Not all students felt as safe as Jack Peck, Carew and Schneider though.

Due to the recent shooting misinformation incident on top of the bathroom break-ins, Tarana said she has not always felt safe in her residence hall.

“Safety wise, it has been pretty rocky,” Tarana said. “We live on West Bank [campus], and I didn’t realize how scary it would be.”

Tarana said she wishes the University would provide secondary locks for dorm doors, increase security officers and find a way to ensure students are not bringing weapons into the dorms.

“It just shocked me that there could be literally somebody with a gun in their dorm, and there’s no way of knowing that they have their weapons in any way,” Tarana said.

Tarana and Sam said they wished the University would screen residents before admitting them into the dorms.

“You would also think that HRL would screen their residents a little bit before accepting them into the dorms,” Sam said. “But I can absolutely confirm that they do not.”

Part of the University’s housing application includes a statement requiring students to report whether they have been convicted of a criminal offense or if they have a pending charge against them, according to an email statement from Stubblefield.

If a student answers yes to either of these situations, they must provide further information about their conviction or charges. Stubblefield said this information is used to consider whether to admit the student to University housing.

HRL also works with the Office of Admissions to confirm students have been admitted to the University, Stubblefield said. When students sign their housing contracts, they must agree to abide by Community Behavioral Standards.

Students want more communication

All students agreed they want the University to be more communicative about safety and send updates more often when intruders are caught.

“I would definitely say it would add an extra level of comfort,” Schneider said.

Stubblefield said in her email statement that HRL has increased security at exterior doors and been working with University security to increase security within residence halls to prevent future incidents.

“We know that the single most effective way to prevent unwanted trespassers is to make sure that nobody else follows residents into a locked building or to keep secured entrances closed, as opposed to propping open exterior doors,” Stubblefield said. “We ask for every student’s help in making sure they don’t let anyone in behind them, either intentionally or unintentionally, and to never prop open any exterior doors.”

Tarana expressed frustration about the reminders to not let people tailgate because she said it is difficult to know who is a student and who is not, and “no one in the dorms cares about tailgating.”

“It puts the responsibility on us,” Tarana said.

Stubblefield also said in her statement security advisors actively cover HRL facilities every day from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Jack Peck said he has noticed security late at night on weekends by the front door, but not as much during the week.

Tarana, who said she usually does not get back to her dorm until midnight, has never noticed security when arriving home.

Future policy efforts are on the horizon

Vos said administration often does not respond to emails, making it more difficult to get resolutions passed.

Right now, USG is working on passing a Consistent Dorm Security Resolution, which would entail the Minneapolis Police Department and dorm directors having a set amount of security present in the residence halls. The resolution also calls for said security guards to be the same personnel and to wear name tags so students can get to know them, Vos said.

Vos said USG has been working on passing this since March, but progress has been slow due to lack of response from HRL. Vos said they have student group support and student support, so once they can connect with HRL, it should pass.

“I think that’s important because a lot of people don’t feel safe with cops,” Vos said. “We can never take away security, so why not try to develop a better fostering of connections between students and security?”

Dining hall employees at the University of Minnesota said the University is going back on its agreement to offer them summer work.

In October, Teamster Local 320 negotiated a three-year contract with the University. During negotiations, the University agreed to form a work group made up of union and University representatives to increase job postings during the summer in other University departments and provide 30 hours of work per week to as many 12-month employees as possible.

“While our goal is to provide as much work as possible during these summer months, this reduced demand for services decreases the hours of work needed to meet demand,” Jake Ricker, director of public relations for the University, said in an email statement to the Minnesota Daily. “We have continued to actively look for opportunities to provide meaningful summer work to our 12-month positions.”

Some union members said they do not think the University is offering enough opportunities for summer work.

“That is not what is happening,” Jackson Kerr, a Teamsters Local 320 union organizer, said. “Now they are claiming that they just don’t have the jobs and that it’s not gonna work.”

Kerr said the University is currently offering 107 positions, but there are 130 employees eligible and more than 250 dining employees total. When dining staff are hired, they are brought on as either 12-month employees or nine-month employees. However, Kerr said they are often not told the length of their contract when hired.

Ricker said in his email statement to the Daily the length of an employee’s appointment is listed in their offer letter when hired.

Kerr said dining employees are unable to collect unemployment over the summer due to a Minnesota unemployment law. This statute prevents any employee from an academic institution from collecting unemployment over the summer.

Kerr said there is a bill working its way through the House that would change the statute, and Teamsters has been pushing for it to be passed.

The contract also states hours and positions are based on seniority, and being a 12-month employee does not guarantee 12 months of work. Employees will enter a bidding process for shifts.

“The biggest problem was gonna be with newer people because they’re at the bottom of that seniority list,” Kerr said. “They’re not likely to get either a position at all, or at least a position that works for their calendar or their personal situation.”

Dante Smith, who has worked in dining for a year, is considered a newer employee and said he is not likely to get a summer position. He said not having summer work will affect his childcare, transportation, rent and medical payments.

“I feel like the University has a lack of understanding that we are all a part of the same team,” Smith said. “It makes me feel like they have a disconnect.”

Smith said he will be returning to the University in the fall because of his medical situation, but he said if he felt he had another option, he would not be coming back.

Kerr said a potential downside of not providing more summer work for the University is that employees not offered positions may quit and seek other employment. He said if this happens, dining halls could be understaffed next fall like they were in fall 2022.

“I have no doubt that the U is setting itself up for that situation to take place again,” Mick Kelly, a dining hall cook for more than 20 years, said.

Kelly said this will mean long lines, reduced selection of food and reduced hours.

“The University does not value dining hall employees, the University treats us very poorly,” Kelly said.

Kerr said Teamsters has been combating the summer work issue through methods such as asking employees to call the president’s office and file grievances, organizing a protest on March 22 and a press conference, and talking to the Board of Regents.

Kelly said after the press conference, the University’s Human Resources department launched an investigation to determine if dining employees had the right to speak at the conference.

“What they are doing is simply trying to intimidate people,” Kelly said. “We have the right to come together, discuss our problems and improve conditions.”

Smith said Human Resources pulled him aside while he was working to ask him questions about if he was clocked out during the press conference.

Smith said he wishes the University would either provide more summer positions or help support the bill that would.

“The U is basically misunderstanding our expectations,” Smith said. “Keep your word in some way, shape or form, that’s all we are asking.”

A new study by University of Minnesota researchers published in the academic journal Healthcare Feb. 11 found work overcommitment, high levels of stress, loneliness and being male as leading causes for suicide ideation in lawyers.

Justin Anker, associate professor in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Psychiatry and the study’s lead researcher, said the study is one of the first of its kind to find the predictors of suicidality, or suidice ideation, in lawyers. In the study, suicide ideation is defined as having thoughts to end one’s own life.

The study had approximately 2,000 randomly selected participants from the California Lawyer Association and the District of Columbia Bar and examined the relationship between contemplating suicide and outside factors. These factors include stress, loneliness, work overcommitment, family conflict, alcohol use and prior mental health diagnosis.

The key finding is that lawyers with perceived high stress are 22% more likely to contemplate suicide than those who have low stress. Additionally, male lawyers, lawyers who experience loneliness and lawyers who overcommit to work are twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts.

“This is a population that’s really underserved in terms of [mental health] treatment,” Anker said.

Anker said he noticed the legal profession tends to ignore mental health, and understanding the problems lawyers face as well as the extent of their mental health motivated him to conduct the study.

Researchers looked into the impacts of pre-existing mental illness, depression related to COVID-19 and outside stress, but Anker said the work overcommitment and loneliness findings surprised him.

“You don’t really think about loneliness as being a predictor of suicidality or that the legal profession is a lonely profession,” Anker said.

UMN law school promotes wellbeing practices for students

Jay Wong, assistant dean of students at the University’s Law School, said the school has been working on combating stress, loneliness and overcommitment with its students in the past year.

“The purpose of Law School is to prepare our students for the professional world,” Wong said. “That in part is academic, but then also the non-academic piece.”

In December 2020, the Institute for Well-Being in Law evolved from the American Bar Association’s (ABA) National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being. The institute’s goal is to “lead a culture shift in law to establish well-being as a core centerpiece of professional success,” according to the website.

Wong said in February 2022, the ABA updated its standards for educators and put a focus on well-being practices, which led to law schools across the country starting more well-being initiatives within the last year.

Prior to the new standards, Wong said the Law School had wellness programs in place, such as a Law School specific Let’s Talk counselor, which is through the University counseling program and allows students to connect with counselors on an informal basis. The school also has a wellness room with natural light, yoga mats and couches for students to take breaks.

Wong said the Law School is in the process of hiring a wellness coordinator, a new position within the school.

The responsibilities for this role will include advising student organizations to help create a community alongside programing, advising the Law School on its wellness practices and looking at the schedules the school sets for students. Wong said they are currently interviewing candidates and will have a person hired by next school year.

“Students feel like they have to do everything in order to set themselves up to be in the best position for employment,” Wong said. “Ultimately, that just pushes people into a space where they are overcommitted because there’s just not enough time to decompress.”

Wong said the challenge in adding well-being initiatives is being careful to not add additional tasks to students’ already large workload.

“Trying to figure out what the balance is to giving law students the tools they need in their toolkit to create practices now that establish a more balanced lifestyle [when they enter the legal field],” Wong said.

“The ingredients are rotten”

Anker said risk factors for suicide ideation are systemic, starting with a lawyer’s training, which is when high expectations of what it takes to be successful are placed on students.

During orientation, the Law School refers students to Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, a free outside organization students can connect with for mental health help, Wong said. He said the school talks through mental health, substance abuse and suicide ideation during orientation as well.

Mica Standing Soldier, a third-year student at the Law School, said she has noticed the school creating spaces for students to talk about mental health.

Standing Soldier said law school is competitive in nature, but she feels lucky because her graduating class has been helpful and supportive of each other. She said she has friends in other years and from other schools who do not feel the same connection and struggle with the career’s competitiveness.

“I think there’s this interesting dichotomy between what law school can do and what the system of law is doing,” Standing Soldier said. “There’s only so much icing they can put on the cake if the ingredients are rotten.”

Standing Soldier said she would like to see the Law School add initiatives to address how being a student of color affects mental health within law training.

“A lot of law schools’, not just the U’s, main priority is to retain more students of color,” Standing Soldier said. “Really showing up for students in that way is, I think, how they’re best going to grow that goal.”

Standing Soldier said she thinks the current generation of law students is more open to discussing mental health and acknowledging issues like being overworked, high stress and loneliness. She said she appreciates the Law School holding panels about how to deal with stress in the professional world.

“They are definitely taking steps and I definitely see that,” Standing Soldier said. “But there is also a larger issue at play, which kind of works to counteract the work that they’re doing.”

Some student groups at the University of Minnesota said they are frustrated after discovering the Department of Public Safety (DPS) has been monitoring details surrounding their protests and rallies since at least 2020.

Cal Mergendahl, a first-year graduate student at the University, said they put in a public records request at the end of December 2022 because they were curious if DPS was monitoring student group events.

“I had, like, sort of an inkling that there might be something here,” Mergendahl said.

Mergendahl said they filed a request to see if DPS was monitoring events held by the student organizations Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) and Students for Climate Justice. They asked for records dating back to November 2020.

According to University records, DPS has been monitoring details of at least these three student organizations’ rallies and protests. These details include where the event will occur, the route participants will take if marching, who is involved and what the purpose of the protest or rally is.

Jake Ricker, the University’s public relations director, said in an email statement to the Minnesota Daily that DPS tracks details surrounding large campus events, including major athletic events, campus celebrations like Spring Jam, political events, speaking events and concerts. He said this is a common practice in civic management and public safety.

“The department tracks details surrounding events that have the possibility to disrupt normal University operations, which include publicly advertised demonstrations or protests,” Ricker said.

Ricker said DPS does not selectively monitor student group events, but bases its monitoring on a case-by-case basis, depending on if the event has the potential to bring more visitors to campus, affect building access and if it could impact pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

“Freedom of expression is at the core of instruction and discovery and essential to the University of Minnesota mission,” Ricker said. “It’s our commitment and constitutional obligation as a public institution to invite new ideas, different worldviews and open dialogues that challenge all of us: students, faculty and staff.”

Haley Bergren, secretary of the YDSA at the University, said she was frustrated when she found out about DPS monitoring the group’s protests and public demonstrations.

Bergren expressed frustration over student group protests potentially falling under the category of possibly disrupting day-to-day operations at the University. She said in her experience, all protests YDSA and other organizations have done have been peaceful.

“I just find it so disappointing that the University is so opposed to students having their own opinions and voices,” Bergren said. “I think it creates unnecessary tension between the University and the students.”

Gracelyn McClure, a member of Students for Climate Justice, said knowing DPS has been monitoring some of their events does not change how they operate because they assumed beforehand they were being watched.

McClure said they have noticed University of Minnesota Police Department officers present at some of their protests.

“I feel like if the University would actually communicate [with student groups], they would understand our intentions better and understand this surveillance isn’t necessary,” McClure said.

McClure said they think this shows a lack of trust and transparency between the University and students.

“I find it interesting that students are exercising their rights, but the University administration feels they have to take precautions around that,” said Siobham Moore, a student at Minneapolis Community and Technical College who is also a member of SDS. “I think that’s frankly a little telling of how the admin sees their relationship with the student body.”

Moore, McClure and Bergren all said discovering this information did not surprise them but did disappoint them.

There have been 67 mass shootings in the U.S. since the start of the new year, according to Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit that tracks gun violence incidents. The most recent mass shooting happened Monday evening on campus at Michigan State University, and as of Monday night, officials reported three people dead and five others injured.

In the wake of increasing gun violence, a new clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School kicked off in January as the first law clinic in the nation to fully focus on gun violence prevention through litigation.

Megan Walsh, director of the clinic and visiting assistant clinical professor of law, said she came up with the idea of a gun violence prevention clinic and presented it to the Law School in early 2022. Walsh said she has spent the past three years putting the clinic together.

The clinic will be partnering with the Minnesota Attorney General’s office on cases and students will work pro-bono with clients, according to Walsh. Clients will range from people who have survived gun violence to those that have been harmed by gun sales, practices or manufacturing.

“Ideally, we’re going to be making relationships with people in communities that are disproportionately affected by gun violence and trying to find out what will help them,” Walsh said.

Walsh said she has been working in litigation for a number of years. She noticed there are not enough lawyers working in gun violence prevention or enough law schools teaching students about the Second Amendment.

“This was my dream,” Walsh said. “I’m hoping not just to bring litigation, but just to bring more attention to this issue.”

Walsh said she wanted this clinic to start in Minnesota because there is not a lot of gun violence litigation work occurring in the Midwest.

“The law is changing very rapidly around the Second Amendment, around what government regulation can do related to firearms,” Walsh said. “There just aren’t enough people kind of thinking creatively about how litigation can be used to advance the gun violence prevention movement’s goals.”

Students in the clinic say they are excited to get started on cases
The current generation of law students look at gun violence through a different lens because many grew up with and experienced gun violence in their schools and communities, according to Walsh

“They want to be working on these issues,” she said. “They want to be learning about these issues, and law schools are not providing that enough.”

Chad Nowlan, a second-year law student at the University, said he wanted to join the clinic after he completed an internship for the Brady Center for Gun Violence Prevention last semester. He said he enjoyed his work on a national level at Brady but likes that the clinic focused on more local situations.

Nowlan said after personally experiencing gun violence in his community when he was in high school, he is excited to connect with clients to create resolutions to combat the issue.

“No amount of money or anything like that can ever replace harm or undue trauma that people experience,” Nowlan said. “My hope is that what this can lead to is policy changes and changes in regulations.”

Nowlan said he wants to put an emphasis on firearm regulation because handguns can be used for suicide, homicide and domestic violence. Nowlan said he believes the media does not talk about this type of violence as often as they do mass shootings.

“Mass shootings, understandably, are extreme tragedies that warrant all the attention they get,” Nowlan said. “But I think sometimes what’s left out of that narrative is just the prevalence of firearms and the problems with such free accessibility to them.”

Alex Barkley, a second-year law student, said this clinic caught their eye because they wanted to learn more about the Second Amendment.

Barkley said they are benefiting from learning about Walsh’s experience as a litigator and how to navigate the field.

“It’s been really nice to see her as a professional model of how you can take the topics that you care about and figure out how to scaffold your professional life around them,” Barkley said.

Students received their case assignments last week and will be working in pairs on them, Barkley said, and they are excited to get started.

University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel announced Matt Kramer’s resignation on Monday. Kramer is the University’s vice president of University Relations and interim vice president for University Services.

Gabel said in her announcement that Kramer accepted a new position as CEO of Vision Loss Resources, a nonprofit based in Little Canada that provides training, classes and social activities for people with vision loss. His last day at the University will be March 3, and he will remain an active member in Gabel’s cabinet until then. 

University Relations includes the University’s marketing, public relations, internal communications and government and community relations teams. University Services is the sector that maintains the University’s physical environment and service culture, including food service on campus and renovating facilities. 

Chuck Tombarge from public relations and Ann Aronson from marketing will jointly fill Kramer’s role in University Relations upon his departure until Gabel finds a permanent replacement, according to the announcement. 

Government relations will report to Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Myron Frans, and University Services will be assigned to Assistant Vice President Janelle Broesch, both on interim bases, according to Gabel’s announcement.

Gabel added the University is already engaged in a national search for a new vice president of University Services, since Kramer was in an interim role, and interviews will take place in March. 

“Since 2017, Vice President Kramer has elevated the University’s voice,” Gabel said in her announcement. “He has been an invaluable partner to me, and I, like many across the University System, will miss his expertise and roll up your sleeves mentality, as well as his quick wit and commitment to teamwork.”

The University of Minnesota Law School is partnering with global law firm Jones Day on the new Jones Day Diversity Fellowship, with hopes of increasing diversity in the legal profession.

The fellowship will kick off in fall 2023 with its inaugural student selected from the next class of incoming law students.

The recipient of the fellowship will receive a full-tuition scholarship for all three years of law school, a position as a paid summer associate at Jones Day during the first two years of law school, mentorship from Jones Day attorneys and consideration for a full-time position after graduation. The firm has arranged for the fellowship to continue for the next five years, with hopes of renewing it.

Yvette McGee Brown, a global partner in charge of diversity, inclusion and advancement at Jones Day, said funding for the full-time scholarships will be coming directly from the firm.

“It’s coming from [the firm’s] partners’ pockets,” Brown said. “We are paying tuition for the students; it’s just a commitment we have made.”

Jones Day partners noticed lack of diversity in the legal profession

Brown said since graduating from law school in 1985, she noticed the legal profession is one of the least diverse professions.

“We just can’t seem to get over that hurdle,” Brown said. “We’ve got to stop talking about diversity and start doing something about it.”

In 2022, people of color only accounted for roughly 11% of all legal partners, and women accounted for about 27%, according to a report from the National Association for Law Placement. The report stated that the legal industry is making gains in its diverse representation but has failed to break down the “systemic barriers” that are preventing people from becoming partners.

Brown said Jones Day wanted to become part of the solution. She said while hiring diverse lawyers is important, she wanted to look into how to get more diverse lawyers into the field in the first place.

Dotun Obadina, a partner and diversity chair at the Minneapolis Jones Day office, worked with Brown to develop the fellowship.

“We’ll be looking at it from the lens of adding diversity to this existing community,” Obadina said.

Obadina and Brown created the fellowship proposal and presented it to their fellow partners. Jones Day wanted the fellowship to start at the University Law School because Minneapolis has become “the epicenter” for diversity efforts since the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, Brown said.

“It seemed like a perfect place to start,” Brown said.

Brown said they began discussing the idea with the University Law School in early summer of 2022 and announced the fellowship in December.

“The fellowship is really born out of the idea that we can contribute meaningfully to diversity in the Twin Cities,” Obadina said. “Then through the partnership with Jones Day, retain eye-level, diverse candidates into the law school and into our legal community.”

Applicants will receive an invite to apply for the fellowship

Robin Ingli, admissions director for the University Law School, said after being admitted to the University, top scholarship recipients will be sent an invite to apply for the fellowship. The priority deadline for applications is Feb. 15, and the cut-off deadline is March 1.

Once the application pool has been narrowed down, Jones Day will collaborate with the University to set up interviews and meet with candidates, according to Brown.

Brown and Obadina said while they are looking for students who show high academic performance, they are also looking for strong leadership qualities.

“Yes, having A’s is great and it’s important, but there is also another indica[tion] of success,” Brown said. “To be a lawyer, you’ve gotta have some grit, you’ve gotta have some tenacity; so what we’re hoping is to identify people who want to be lawyers, who really have the drive and rigor to see it through to the end.”

Ingli added that in addition to tuition benefits and job opportunities, the fellowship is different from a traditional internship because students will receive mentorship. A team of lawyers will check in on the student, invite them to events and get coffee or meals with them.

“Law school can be kind of lonely,” Obadina said. “Having something that’s built-in where you will have a set group of people who you will see again and again and again over the course of your law school experience, I think that’s pretty powerful.”

Nurses from numerous Twin Cities and Duluth hospitals reached a tentative agreement Tuesday morning to avoid the three week strike they announced Thursday.

An agreement was reached with St. Luke’s nurses in Duluth Monday evening. Deals, including an 18% wage increase over three years, were announced Tuesday morning in the Twin Cities by spokespeople for Children’s Minnesota, Allina Health, North Memorial Health, Methodist Hospital and M Health Fairview’s Southdale Hospital and University of Minnesota Medical Center according to reporting from the StarTribune.

Last week the nurses announced a three-week strike that would begin Dec. 11 if they could not come to an agreement on pay, workplace violence prevention and staffing levels. Around 15,000 nurses would have striked. The frustration among nurses was due to issues with understaffing and an overwhelming number of patients during this year’s flu season, the StarTribune reports.

Twin Cities nurses held a three-day strike in September after disagreements over staffing levels, pay and whether nurses should have more say in staffing.

Nurses now must vote on the deal reached by their union and hospital negotiators. If they vote to approve it, they will cancel their strike from Dec.11-31.

New this semester, the University of Minnesota Law School’s Racial Equity and Justice (REJ) Milestone Program offers context on the relationship between racial injustice and the American legal system.

Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the school Ra’Shya Ghee said the first three modules of the self-paced, 10-module online program became required for law students entering the school this fall.

Ghee said the REJ has been in the works for about two years with the hope of giving students the opportunity to better understand different racial identities and backgrounds and explore topics regarding race and the law that professors may not have covered in the classroom.

“The [REJ] tries to cover a scope of identities in terms of thinking about what has been the role of the law in the formation of these various identities,” Ghee said.

Ghee said the modules involve engaging with reading materials and videos and participating in “experiential learning,” which includes hosting or attending events at the law school, with flexibility for students to advocate for other experiences as well.

Ghee said the REJ will also help students with employment because employers in the legal field want to hire graduates with knowledge about race and how it connects to the law.

REJ required for all incoming students

The American Bar Association recently announced that beginning in January, law schools will be required to provide students with educational opportunities around cultural competency, bias and racism. These must be introduced at the start of a law school program and at least once again before a student’s graduation.

Ghee said the REJ milestone was in development before this rule was announced, but starting this fall, they began requiring first-year law students to complete the first three modules of the milestone to meet the new standard.

Mica Standing Soldier, a third-year University law student who is vice president of the University’s Native American Law Student Association, said she supports REJ as a requirement because there is no point where race and law do not intersect.

“It can make everyone a better lawyer,” Standing Soldier said. “It can make students so much more aware of what is going on around them, about the history of the laws that they’re studying, of the ways it impacts certain people.”

As someone who plans to work in advocacy after graduation, Standing Soldier said the modules keep her up to date with current events and ask difficult questions that she will have to reflect on in her field.

Ghee said she wants the REJ, which students have until their third year to complete, to meet students where they are at. Each module is broken down into three sections: must engage, should engage and consider engaging. Ghee said this allows students to spend more time on modules that interest them and less time on ones that do not.

“We’re creating a response to students and the broader law school community,” Ghee said. “We wanted that space to be accessible to everyone.”

Law students requested the milestone and diversity dean, citing a lack of racial education

Nubia Esparza, senior coordinator of diversity and student programs at the University law school, said a past student came to her with the idea for the REJ milestone in 2021, which she brought forward to the dean of students.

Ghee, who was working as a consultant for the University at the time, helped put together materials for the milestone. She has continued that work this semester as the school’s first dean of diversity, equity and inclusion, a role that students also pushed for creating, Esparaza said.

“It’s really a testament to the way that our advocacy, and the way the University is willing to work with us, has shown itself,” Standing Soldier said. “Now we have wonderful Dean Ghee who has created this racial equity and justice milestone.”

Standing Soldier said she thinks the creation of Ghee’s position and the REJ indicate that administration is listening to the needs and wants of the students.

“[The REJ] has deepened the trust between students and admin,” Standing Soldier said. “It reinforces that administration was listening and that they also want to help and they want this to be something future students will have access to. I think that was really helpful to see.”

Milestone takes burden off students of color

Ghee said prior to accepting her role as the school’s assistant dean of diversity, equity and inclusion, she taught a Race and American Law course at the University as an adjunct professor. She said she noticed students were interested in discussions revolving around important moments in legal history that helped shape the current understanding of race in America.

“Most people from all walks of life and all kinds of backgrounds lack any meaningful exposure to an engagement with our society’s racial history,” Ghee said. “Missing that historical social context is really impactful in terms of understanding the ways in which the law participates in spaces of marginalization.”

Ghee said traditionally, people of color are tasked with educating their peers about how being part of a minority group has affected them.

“What the law school was hoping to do is kind of take on some of that burden so that those discussions are more fruitful and more productive, in ways that are likely to produce better lawyers after law school,” Ghee said.

Julian Roby, a student instructor in the Race-Informed Study Experience program (RISE), which is a student-led program aimed at creating a safe space for students of color to share their experiences pursuing law, said he thinks the REJ is a great way for students to learn more about race.

Roby said since starting law school, he has felt race has been overlooked in many of his classes and has enjoyed working through the REJ modules.

“You have more context to these [legal] cases and different things that you are studying in the law,” Roby said. “There is also the context behind why that [court] decision is actually being made, and we do ourselves a disservice if we don’t include that additional context.”