Every spring semester, a University of Minnesota course called Science Court is taught by Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics professor Dr. Ellad Tadmor with the goal being for students to collect data and build a case for both sides of a controversial topic through a scientific perspective.

The topic Science Court is debating this semester is S/N grading and if it should be allowed for every class at the University of Minnesota, according to Tadmor. This is the first semester that the course’s research and arguments will be brought to the University Student Senate to be used in decision-making for possible approval.

If approved, the University Student Senate will present it to the University administration. During the 2020-21 academic year and the spring of 2020, the University allowed students an extended period of time to change the grading basis of classes and allowed S/N grades to count towards graduation requirements.

Dr. Tadmor created the course and he leads the course alongside three people who are in charge of teams. The three teams include the media team led by Director of Graphics & Data Visuals at the Star Tribune C.J. Sinner, the science team led by third-year PhD student Kiley Gilbert and the legal team led by lawyer Bill McGinnis.

“It’s something that the students can get a little bit fired up about, which is exciting for us and for them, to see their emotional reaction,” Sinner said. “They live and die by their grades a little bit, so it makes for an interesting class.”

“Professor Tadmor brings an interesting perspective to these problems by looking at them with a scientific backing instead of arguing and being fueled by emotion,” first-year Ellie Schwartzman said.

In a study by the University of Michigan, out of 600 first-year students, more than 80% of them base their self worth on their grades.

“Having the topic be something that matters to students this year is really interesting because it is going to have an impact on me and my peers,” Schwartzmann said. “While they have done cases that — while they will have an impact — they’re not as personally motivated.”

Second-year student Keegan Wulf talked about why the topic picked this year was important to him and his fellow classmates in Science Court.

“[Grades] are much more relevant, and I can do more with this than something like gun policies or immigration, the broader things,” Wulf said.

In last week’s Science Court, a guest speaker brought up the argument that grades do not matter and it is more important to know that something was learned. Students in the class argued this point, most of them saying that grades are valuable to them and their future.

“[Grades] do matter. If you’re getting scholarships, or you’re in the Honors program, or you’re an athlete, or you want to go to grad school, [grades] matter to them,” Sinner said.

The overall goal of Science Court is simple: the people involved in the class want the University community to care.

According to Tadmor, the students in Science Court want to raise more awareness so the people in the University community care and understand the impact of grades. He said that students in the Science Court course want to expose information about S/N grading to the world, since it is stuck inside “our little ivory castle” most of the time.

“Whatever happens, I’m hoping we can get some sort of talk with the administration going,” Wulf said. “It’s the idea that people could be listening and could be taking into account what we’re saying.”

Sansan Kong, a third-year student at the University of Minnesota studying family psychology, passed away last year on Dec. 11 due to diabetic ketoacidosis caused by influenza complications.

Sansan was involved in Black Motivated Women, Black Campus Ministries, Sudanese Student Union and the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence on campus.

According to Sansan’s older sister, Nyamouch Kong Gai, Sansan loved reading, doing makeup and making jokes to make those around her laugh.

“She was the funniest person in our family. She always wanted to have fun and never took anything too seriously,” Kong Gai said.

Family friend Kuchceang Mangok said Sansan was passionate about achieving her dreams to be an advocate for Black, and specifically Sudanese, people.

“She was destined for greatness and every day she was striving to achieve her dreams, goals and aspirations,” Mangok said.

Sansan and her family are from South Sudan and immigrated to America as refugees because of the war, according to Sansan’s sister, Kong Gai.

Sansan wanted to advocate for other refugees that faced similar situations to their own family who were attempting to escape the war in South Sudan as well. This is why she became the secretary for the Sudanese Student Union, Kong Gai said.

Sansan was a role model to many people, including her younger sister Nyarueni Kong.

“She was someone I looked up to and someone I really wanted to be like,” Kong said. “She was everything I wanted to be like.”

Both of Sansan’s sisters said she wanted to help people, which was why she was going into family psychology.

“She wanted to help people with mental illness and we plan on keeping her mission alive by helping others as well,” Kong said.

According to the GoFundMe fundraiser set up by a family friend of the Kong family, over $12,000 has been raised in honor of Sansan.

“We used the funds to pay for Sansan’s funeral,” Kong Gai said. “The support from everyone has been heartwarming and my family is so happy that so many people loved her.”

In the comments of the GoFundMe page, people overwhelmingly expressed their love for Sansan.

Comments ranged from “rest easy” to “you will always be in my heart” to “she was a beacon of joy, she will be missed.”

Sansan’s Instagram and other social media accounts have been flooded with comments by friends and family with words of support.

“I want to say thank you to her friends and everyone who has supported her and loved her as much as we do,” Kong Gai said.

“Sansan was adored, appreciated, admired, valued and most importantly, loved by so many,” Mangok said.

Sansan’s family and friends said they all agreed to keep her memory alive and remember the lessons Sansan taught them in life.

“She always reminded me to keep smiling,” said Kong. “She said to always do what you want to do and to live life to the fullest.”

Sansan Kong, a third-year student at the University of Minnesota studying family psychology, passed away last year on Dec. 11 due to diabetic ketoacidosis caused by influenza complications.

Sansan was involved in Black Motivated Women, Black Campus Ministries, Sudanese Student Union and the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence on campus.

According to Sansan’s older sister, Nyamouch Kong Gai, Sansan loved reading, doing makeup and making jokes to make those around her laugh.

“She was the funniest person in our family. She always wanted to have fun and never took anything too seriously,” Kong Gai said.

Family friend Kuchceang Mangok said Sansan was passionate about achieving her dreams to be an advocate for Black, and specifically Sudanese, people.

“She was destined for greatness and every day she was striving to achieve her dreams, goals and aspirations,” Mangok said.

Sansan and her family are from South Sudan and immigrated to America as refugees because of the war, according to Sansan’s sister, Kong Gai.

Sansan wanted to advocate for other refugees that faced similar situations to their own family who were attempting to escape the war in South Sudan as well. This is why she became the secretary for the Sudanese Student Union, Kong Gai said.

Sansan was a role model to many people, including her younger sister Nyarueni Kong.

“She was someone I looked up to and someone I really wanted to be like,” Kong said. “She was everything I wanted to be like.”

Both of Sansan’s sisters said she wanted to help people, which was why she was going into family psychology.

“She wanted to help people with mental illness and we plan on keeping her mission alive by helping others as well,” Kong said.

According to the GoFundMe fundraiser set up by a family friend of the Kong family, over $12,000 has been raised in honor of Sansan.

“We used the funds to pay for Sansan’s funeral,” Kong Gai said. “The support from everyone has been heartwarming and my family is so happy that so many people loved her.”

In the comments of the GoFundMe page, people overwhelmingly expressed their love for Sansan.

Comments ranged from “rest easy” to “you will always be in my heart” to “she was a beacon of joy, she will be missed.”

Sansan’s Instagram and other social media accounts have been flooded with comments by friends and family with words of support.

“I want to say thank you to her friends and everyone who has supported her and loved her as much as we do,” Kong Gai said.

“Sansan was adored, appreciated, admired, valued and most importantly, loved by so many,” Mangok said.

Sansan’s family and friends said they all agreed to keep her memory alive and remember the lessons Sansan taught them in life.

“She always reminded me to keep smiling,” said Kong. “She said to always do what you want to do and to live life to the fullest.”

The Minnesota Student Association (MSA) at the University of Minnesota has been working on creating a new COVID-19 resolution to send to administration, asking for more proactive steps toward a safer, healthier campus.

Author of the resolution, second-year student Carter Yost, wrote the resolution to shed light on and confront the current issues facing the University faculty and students in regards to COVID-19.

“The sentiment shared amongst the communities seemed to be a sense of frustration with a dissonance between the state of COVID and public health in the Twin Cities and on campus, and the state of support systems available to students, faculty and community members designed to address issues,” Yost said.

Yost wrote this resolution with the help of third-year student Nick Wallenhorst, third-year Zeke Jackson and second-year Amanda Ichel.

The resolution includes a list of solutions, including more COVID-19 testing options on campus, higher quality face masks, integrating S/N grading, requiring the booster shot and more.

“[Carter] approached me, Nick Wallenhorst and a couple other people out of concern that the University was not doing enough to address COVID and COVID concerns,” Ichel said.

Ichel said the resolution focuses on reinstating the policies the University put into place back in 2020 when the pandemic started as well as adding some new policies of their own.

According to Ichel, the old policies MSA wants to reinstate include “an increase in the number of free mental health appointments you can get at Boynton, the change in S/N grading later in the semester, which were measures put in place to help students through these uncertain times.”

On Feb. 22, MSA will vote if they are going to pass the resolution through Forum. If the resolution gets approved, it will get sent to administration almost immediately, according to Yost.

“We’re anticipating admin’s response, so we’re waiting to send the resolution to administration,” Yost said. “We’re going to change some language things, getting rid of some of the policies that seem unnecessary and adding other things that we think are important.”

Yost thinks the key to this resolution is spreading awareness of the physical and mental resources that students need to ensure they have immediate access to them, as well as the academic accommodations.

“Expansion to S/N grading options or changes to attendance policies, bringing in more grace with those systems, are a key piece to students having that support system,” Yost added.

After talking to many undergraduate students, MSA wrote the resolution through the perspective of students and advocating for them, according to Ichel and the other authors of the resolution.

“As students, we see first hand how these policies are working and how it affects the student body, so we are voicing our concerns,” Ichel said. “Our [resolution] is less of a single demand and more of a compilation of all these different issues and bringing them to the attention of the University.”

According to the four authors of this resolution, the overall goal is to keep students safe and make sure they succeed. Ichel added that she believes success begins with the foundation of safety.

“Making sure that everybody who goes to school here, or works, or teaches here knows that the University and the community has their back and makes sure that they’re safe, healthy and in a place to succeed is really crucial,” Yost said.

Wallenhorst said some other students that have been consulted on the resolution have also said that the University’s administration should be doing more in regard to protecting and helping students navigate their way through the pandemic.

“It is telling that across the board, regardless of perspective, so many people agree that there’s work that has yet to be done on strengthening that core support system,” Yost said. “This is reassuring for the purpose of the resolution but is disappointing as someone who is a member of this community at the University.”

The Minnesota Daily sat down with the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) President Abdulaziz Mohamed and Vice President Samiat Ajibola to discuss their achievements during the past semester and their plans for the upcoming spring.

What did MSA accomplish this past semester?

Mohamed: “There’s been a lot of wins for students, such as the rollout of a monthly grocery store with low cost and affordable groceries for students, University divestments in the fossil fuel industry, building on MSA’s long existing civic engagement efforts with high student voter turnout in the 2021 local election and the passage of numerous legislations in Forum. All of this could not have been accomplished without the amazing advocates that we have within the organization.

What were some of the goals MSA had at the start of the fall semester?

Ajibola: “We were super optimistic coming in. We wanted to get all these things done as soon as possible, but we learned that the University is so big and has so many moving parts, that we can’t get everything we want to get done on our own timeline. We have to work a lot with other people, like legislation, administration and other student groups.”

What are MSA’s plans for the spring semester?

Mohamed: “We will be continuing our push for universal transit passes to provide ample transportation for students. We will be holding the Board of Regents accountable for the proposed dining and renaming policy. We’ll be working with the new Campus Safety Ad-Hoc Committee to achieve an equitable campus safety infrastructure. We will make sure that we are continuing our work to lead the health and wellness of students by helping them navigate the complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

What are MSA’s strategies to accomplish these goals and see progress?

Ajibola: “I think our strategies are using the gifts and talents of our team. MSA is the biggest organization in the student body and we have so many bright and beautiful minds that think so differently from Abdul and me. We have to use and hone in on those talents. How can we connect our teams to students at-large and make sure they’re involved? How can we incorporate their skills and connections to push things forward? Just utilizing the way MSA is structured and using every single different arena to work together towards a common goal. We have to work together as one unified body to get things done.”

Mohamed: “MSA prides itself on a multifaceted advocacy approach, so it is making sure we live up to the promises we made at the beginning of our campaign and the work that we’re doing within MSA as a whole. Our expectations heading into the school year versus now are much different and I think that we’re better for it. We have noticed that student advocacy isn’t a sprint, it’s more of a marathon.”

For you personally, what are you most proud of with MSA?

Mohamed: “I am super happy with the work our Basic Needs Task Force has done, especially as it relates to moving out the Mobile Market. We wanted to establish a student-run food co-op right here during the fall semester. While that wasn’t something that necessarily happened, we were able to build up to [where we want to be]. Having that mobile grocery store is the first step.”

Ajibola: “Coming into MSA, I always thought, and what a lot of other students think, is that MSA is super high up, super elitist, and I don’t fit in here. MSA doesn’t represent me. I think this year, MSA has done a really good job of changing that narrative. A lot of the work we’re now doing is student at-large focused. We’re doing a lot more engagement. We’ve done so many things, where each and every centralized group of MSA has reached out to the students and created lasting relationships.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

On Dec. 17, the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents voted to raise the pay for President Joan Gabel, prompting reactions from students across the University.

According to the new contract formed by the Board of Regents, Gabel will earn over $1.1 million with salary increases, bonuses and supplementary retirement funds by the end of her employment. The Minnesota Student Association (MSA) released a statement on Dec. 16, stating that they were going to advocate for student wages to be raised and were opposed to President Gabel’s pay raise.

Fourth-year student and MSA Board of Regents student representative Gurtaran Johal said in an email to the Minnesota Daily that “student leaders have been advocating for change in student wages for over half a decade. Yet, student wages continue to remain at a mere $10.33.”

First-year student Aubrey Strittmater works at the front desk at Centennial Hall. As a student worker, she said she makes $10.25 an hour.

“As a freshman in college, I feel like there are not many jobs I can get,” Strittmater said. “I have a job because I’m scared to be in debt.”

There were efforts to increase the minimum wage for students in the past, including a 2018 effort to raise it to $15 an hour.

“We must seek action rather than empty promises that receive no response,” Johal said. “We must pressure the Board [of Regents] into understanding the student experience and the rising financial constraints many face.”

The Board raised Gabel’s wages to match the average of other presidents’ salaries at Big Ten universities, according to the meeting notes.

In September 2020, the University of Minnesota cut three sports programs: men’s tennis, men’s gymnastics and men’s indoor/outdoor track and field.

Fourth-year student and MSA Vice President Samiat Ajibola said it was frustrating to see the University form the new contract with the president because it signals a lack of support for student issues, like sports funding or mental health resource funding.

“Students are a big, if not the biggest, stakeholders at this university,” second-year student Flora Yang said in an email to the Minnesota Daily. “I really think that the quality of life of our students should be the top priority, and that this is what we should be focusing on for the time being.”

Yang said that some students find Gabel’s pay raise an issue because the University only considered a pay raise for the president, not for faculty, staff or student workers.

No other president at the University of Minnesota has earned over a million dollars by the end of their career, making Gabel the first in University history, according to the University’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors press release.

The question now, according to Yang and other MSA members, is where the money for Gabel’s raise is coming from — there is currently no confirmed answer to this question.

“I’m paying all this money to be here and get an education, I’m working for them,” Strittmater said. “The least they could do is help me with my debt.”

In November, the Environmental Accountability Committee of the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) wrote and sent a letter to the members of the Council on Liberal Education in an effort to change the environmental liberal education requirement to the environmental justice requirement.

The authors of this letter include fourth-year Madeline Miller, fourth-year Sterling Homard, third-year Madeline Brandt and several other members of the Environmental Accountability Committee.

“We’re hoping that they change the environment theme to environmental justice and not only undergo a name change, but also change the classes that qualify for the theme to incorporate more environmental justice elements,” said Homard.

In 2019, there was a MSA resolution to increase ideas of environmental justice within the University curriculum. After getting passed through MSA, no further action was taken to make environmental justice a requirement, said Brandt in an interview with the Minnesota Daily.

Later, this resolution was mentioned in the letter sent to the Council. The letter read, “by not having a commitment to environmental justice, the University of Minnesota is being surpassed by five institutions within the BIG10 conference, and countless others nationwide.”

While many courses already qualify for this new theme, there would need to be modifications by professors. These courses would need to be evaluated to meet certain requirements to fulfill the environmental justice theme.

According to the letter, certain requirements for a course to meet the environment justice theme would be to “raise environmental issues of major significance” and “introduce the underlying scientific principles behind the environmental issues presented.”

Some students said they are worried this change would add to their course load, but Brandt said it would not. The only change for students is some professors would have to modify the structure of their courses to meet the new criteria.

There are many student organizations that stand behind this letter, such as the United Nations Student Association, the College of Liberal Arts Student Board, the Students For Climate Justice and several others.

In regards to how the Council of Liberal Education addressed the possible change in the environment liberal education requirement, Associate Professor Kathryn Pearson responded to an email sent by the Minnesota Daily.

“CLE has not been involved in these conversations,” Pearson said, “the Provost is planning to redesign Liberal Education requirements soon and it could be considered in the redesign process.”

According to the fall survey sent out by MSA earlier this semester, 70% of students said they would be interested in taking an environmental justice course.

“It will give [students] a better perspective on the world they’re going to be entering after college, and give them that base of what they can do after college, giving them that knowledge,” Brandt said.

The authors said the main objective of the letter is to encourage students to learn more about the world around them and how their environment impacts them on a daily basis. The purpose of the environmental justice liberal education requirement is to help students become diverse leaders in society after their graduation.

According to a report by NASA, there will be a rise in temperature from 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century. This increase in temperature can cause droughts, dying crops and numerous other critical issues for our world.

“It’s unrealistic to think that the future of our society isn’t contingent upon our environment,” Homard said. “It is going to prepare students for the next step and prepare them for the fight for climate justice.”

Overall, the Environmental Accountability Committee members said they want to see one core response from the University and its students: to get excited about the environmental justice movement.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the University to move ahead in terms of being prepared for the future, making a statement towards other universities,” Miller said.

If the Council of Liberal Education agrees to make the change of the environment liberal education requirement, it would take effect next fall.

From fresh produce to different kinds of meats, the Mobile Market allows for low-cost grocery options for college students.

Last December, the Basic Needs Task Force of the University of Minnesota’s Minnesota Student Association (MSA) established an initiative towards food security on campus. In an effort to achieve this, the taskforce partnered with The Food Group, a local food nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis, to bring affordable food options.

The first test of the Mobile Market was last month. The market is a city bus transformed into a grocery store. There are items like fresh fruits and vegetables, meat products, dairy products and other foods. Students can stop by between classes and get whatever they need, ranging from one banana to three bags filled with groceries.

“The Mobile Market is great because it comes to campus,” said Emma Mentz, third-year student and one of the MSA members in charge of the Mobile Market. “You can find groceries from places like Cub at a discounted rate, so it’s really affordable and brings food right to campus.”

The prices of the Mobile Market are more affordable compared to the Dinkytown Target. For example, a pound of ground beef at the Dinkytown Target is $6.79, whereas at the Mobile Market it is $3.79. A dozen eggs at Dinkytown Target is $1.29, whereas at the Mobile Market it is $0.99, according to the Minnesota Daily’s comparison.

“It’s a good inbetween for students who don’t quite qualify for resources like the Food Pantry,” said Mentz. “[Students] want to pay, but they might not be able to pay the full price, so Mobile Market is a good option.”

Some students said raising awareness for the Mobile Market is a top priority for this initiative, as many do not realize how much of an impact food insecurity has on others. Providing a resource for students who struggle with food insecurity has been crucial for MSA and the University.

“One in five students at the University do face food insecurity at some level, which is thousands and thousands of students,” said third-year student Trey Feuerhelm, another MSA member in charge of the Mobile Market. “Most people aren’t aware of the resources they have or how common it is.”

Mentz said the process of getting the Mobile Market up and running was not easy. She added that the Mobile Market team went through at least twelve different administrative teams in order to get complete approval for this initiative. Mentz also said the University understood that having sustainable food options for students was important.

Administration “wants what’s best for the students. They still want to do good,” Feuerhelm said.

Lisa Sabourin has worked for the retail program for The Food Group for eight years. She is in charge of the Mobile Market at the University and enjoyed seeing the impact the Mobile Market has had on the University so far.

“Students have a lot of expenses and are short on time and money, but we are hopeful that we can uplift some students that might really benefit from getting more with the money they do have,” Sabourin said.

The goal of the Mobile Market is to provide students with the chance to afford food in a sustainable way. Overall, the feedback is overwhelmingly positive from students on campus.

Mentz said multiple students have shown up both times the Mobile Market was on campus. She added that one student even asked her if they were going to be there again the following week.

“We know we’ve made an impact, and that makes it all worth it,” Feuerhelm said.

The Mobile Market will return to campus in February of next year.

In early November, the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) informed student representatives that a new Campus Safety Committee was created.

A written statement prepared by Nicholas Wallenhorst, a third-year student and co-chair of the MSA Campus Safety Committee, read “the purpose of this committee is to work with administration and external agencies to propose campus safety solutions and pressure the university to adopt these initiatives.”

Some of these initiatives include adding more lighting around campus, specifically Dinkytown, and adding more Blue Light emergency call boxes. In addition, other initiatives will promote the Rave Guardian app and define the jurisdictions of the University of Minnesota Police Department and the Minneapolis Police Department.

The current priority initiative is to get SAFE-U alerts released quicker.

“If MPD and UMPD don’t have a fast line of communication, then MPD deals with these situations, and that’s why we’re seeing these delays when it comes to getting these SAFE-U [alerts] out,” Wallenhorst said. “We want to fasttrack this as well.”

In past years, many different University groups have worked toward changes to improve campus safety. To work together and tackle similar issues around campus safety, MSA created the Campus Safety Committee.

“It was difficult to understand who’s doing what and where, so this committee allows everybody who’s involved in campus safety or who wants to be involved in campus safety, to come together and share information and work on all of the similar projects that we have in mind,” said second-year student Shashank Murali, another co-chair of the MSA Campus Safety Committee.

According to Wallenhorst, the MSA Campus Safety Committee includes members of the University’s M Safe initiative, UMPD, MPD, local businesses, University’s Off-Campus Living, city council members and student groups with additional consideration of marginalized groups.

“Let’s figure it out as a team, and let’s join in together and really push it forward. We’re hoping by bringing everyone together that we can bring some more concrete solutions,” Wallenhorst said.

According to the written statement by Wallenhorst, the committee focuses their goals based on the opinions and perspectives of current students at the University. The three members of the committee are at-large voting members of MSA’s forum body and elected by the forum body. Two members are student cultural group representatives.

Murali said that having different perspectives from students is important because every student has a unique experience with campus safety. He added that this approach helps the committee in decision-making because campus safety affects thousands of students.

First-year student Niko Vasilopoulos, one of the at-large representatives of the Campus Safety Committee, said in an email interview with the Minnesota Daily that the overall goal of the MSA Campus Safety Committee is to see progress in the initiatives previously stated.

“It is important to be realistic in understanding that we will not be able to quickly change everything, but I am optimistic about our ability to take positive steps in the right direction,” Vasilopoulos said.