A surgeon at the University of Minnesota partnered with graduate students and faculty to develop an affordable, reusable and environmentally sustainable surgical tool for repairing pelvic floor prolapses in low-income countries. 

Dr. Rahel Nardos, the director for Global Women’s Health within the Center of Global Health and Social Responsibility, said there was no reusable, affordable and easy-to-use device to treat late-stage pelvic organ prolapse in low- and middle-income countries. 

Growing up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nardos said it was difficult to access good health care. She said she wanted to create a new pelvic floor device to help women in low-income countries receive quality health care. 

“I can do a little to contribute within my power,” Nardos said. “We all have the power to do something and challenge the system.” 

Nardos, an associate professor in the Division of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Care at the University, said pelvic organ prolapse is common among women, especially after childbirth. 

12% of women undergo a surgical correction for pelvic floor prolapse, according to a study published by the National Library of Medicine. 

Pelvic floor prolapse is the descent and protrusion of pelvic organs, which causes discomfort and function difficulty. The treatment for a pelvic floor prolapse is a sacrospinous ligament fixation procedure. 

The procedure requires a disposable surgical device to apply specialized sutures to the ligaments deep within the pelvis, Nardos said. Surgeons can use the device to apply the sutures safely without having to visualize the ligaments inside the pelvis, which prevents any risks that might occur like bleeding. 

The new device differs from the current tools available in the U.S. because it is made of metal instead of plastic, which can be easily reused when properly sanitized, according to Nardos. The device also uses regular sutures that are readily available in low- to middle-income countries, instead of specialized sutures. 

Disposable medical devices make a lot of money for companies, but they increase health care costs and produce waste, Nardos added. Current devices are out of reach. 

Nardos said she pitched the idea to the director of the Institute of Engineering and Medicine in 2021, who referred her to the new product and business development course. The idea was approved and Nardos was assigned six students and a faculty member to help develop the prototype. 

Tinen Iles, an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, learned about the project while teaching the new product and business development course and asked to be a part of the research. 

Iles said she helped conduct voice-of-customer interviews, submit a patent, complete the final design and manage the six students involved in the project. 

Voice-of-customer interviews are part of the design process, Iles said. Researchers interview potential customers about the product and use the feedback to make any necessary changes to the prototype. 

For the pelvic floor tool, Iles said they interviewed five to six surgeons in Ethiopia. Iles and her team asked the surgeons questions about what they liked about the product, what they would want to change and if the device was easy to use. 

“The students gave energy to the whole process by seeing their excitement for making a difference,” Iles said.

Josh Augustine, a business graduate who was in the new product and business development course, helped develop the business model. 

When developing the business model, Augustine said they had to consider the humanitarian aspect of the product and how much fundraising is needed to get the product into physicians’ hands. 

“I love this project because we are genuinely helping people and equipping physicians with this tool,” Augustine said. 

Augustine said he stayed on after the course ended to help bring the product to market. He has acted as a liaison for undergraduate students in a senior engineering class, who refined the features of the prototype in the second year of its development. He was also the student representative for Nardos when she was applying for grants and attending events.

The tools currently being used in Africa to treat pelvic floor prolapse are hard to use and old, Augustine said. 

“It’s arguably unethical. These people wouldn’t be getting this device without Nardos and the program,” Augustine said. 

The device currently has a provisional patent, Nardos said. Within the next year, she said she hopes they will have finished the alpha prototype and begun cadaver testing. 

“We are doing one step at a time,” Nardos said. 

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents discussed updates on lower tuition pricing strategies for the 2024-25 school year, MPact 2025 efforts and the President’s Initiative for Student Mental Health (PRISMH) on Thursday and Friday’s monthly meetings. 

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) members protested against budget cuts at the Board meeting.

Regents review tuition pricing strategies

The Minnesota Senate sent a bill to Governor Tim Walz on May 10 which will provide free tuition across all public state colleges and universities to families that make $80,000 or less annually. 

The University offers several promise programs which provide need-based aid to students that make tuition affordable and education accessible, according to Provost Rachel Croson at the meeting. 

The University is focused on keeping student debt below the national average by at least $2,500, Croson said. 

Three pilot programs are being implemented on the Crookston, Duluth and Morris campuses to curb low enrollment rates by making tuition more affordable. 

“What we are proposing is a model that is dynamic, open and flexible,” Croson said. 

At the Crookston campus, administration aims to explore new tuition models for online degrees for the 2023-24 academic year which will provide flexibility to decouple tuition levels. 

Most online students are part-time, which leaves them limited opportunities for financial aid, Mary Holz-Clause, Crookston’s chancellor, said. 

“Only one-fifth of our online students qualify for federal and state scholarship assistance,” Holz-Clause said. 

Duluth will provide full in-state tuition to Midwest states that left the Midwest Exchange Student Program (MESP) beginning Fall 2023. MESP offers discounted tuition rates for students at colleges and universities across the Midwest.

Summer scholarships will be provided at the Morris campus to support enrollment, retention and promote participation in three-year degree options starting summer 2024. 

According to Morris’s chancellor, Janet Schrunk Ericksen, 91% of first-year students who earn at least 30 credits or before the start of their second year will return, while only 46% of students who earn fewer than 30 credits in the same time span do. 

These pilots will be run for two to three years, then the success of these programs will be evaluated. They will be incorporated into the tuition component of the budget review process for fiscal year 2024 and 2025.

AFSCME protests ethnic and gender studies budget cuts

Staff and students represented by AFSCME protested on Thursday the $2 million budget cuts and the appointment of Jeff Ettinger as interim president.

They called for the pause of the Position for Excellence, Alignment and Knowledge (PEAK) initiative which will restructure staff positions in ways that will lower the quality of services and result in staff layoffs, according to Cherrene Horazuk, the President of AFSCME. 

According to Ken Hortsman, the vice president for human resources, PEAK aims to decentralize the administration process for human resources and operations, create equitable and inclusive career development opportunities and leverage resources for the greater good while delivering services in a timely, accurate and compliant manner. 

 “The administration has not provided any details about the PEAK’s implementation, which does not inspire much confidence from those who will be affected by it,” Horazuk said.

Students, staff and faculty also demanded the University fully fund the College of Liberal Arts, upset about recent controversy regarding the ethnic and gender studies programs’ finances. The cuts came as a part of a broader $2 million cut for CLA’s teaching assistants and other unassigned teaching resources — like independent study advisers and workshops — across all the whole college.

Protesters criticized the Board for appointing Jeff Ettinger as the University’s interim president, expressing their concern for Ettinger’s lack of experience in academics and saying it could cause departments and programs to remain underfunded, while administrators continue receiving raises. 

The groups who organized the rally are calling on the University to cut administrative costs. Cal Mergendahl of the graduate labor union (GLU) said, “This isn’t a budget crisis, it’s a distribution crisis.” 

After the rally, students interrupted the Board meeting to voice their concerns about the University’s financial operations. 

One student said they don’t want to pay $14,000 at a school where they can’t even pay her teachers. They said it was morally corrupt to cut funding for already underfunded programs and to have service workers fight administration for liveable wages. 

Another student called out President Joan Gabel for sitting on her phone while they were speaking to the Board. 

The protest was removed from the livestream and replaced with the Board of Regents symbol. These students were threatened with arrest by a police officer in the building for disrupting the meeting. 

After the students left the boardroom, Co-Vice Chair Regent Douglas Huebsch continued the meeting discussing current docket items without addressing the protest. 

“I was pretty alarmed,” Regent Robyn Gulley said. “We should not be threatening to arrest them when they walk in to have a conversation with us.”

MPact 2025 updates on sustainability

Under MPact 2025, the University is collaborating with partners and researching new ways to create a sustainable future. MPact 2025 is a system-wide strategic plan to strengthen the University’s commitment to research, teaching and service.

Since 2008, emissions have decreased by 50%, from 600,000 metric tons to 300,000 metric tons, at the University, Shane Stennes, the chief sustainability officer, said. 

The University is integrating sustainability into learning experiences, research opportunities and addressing inequality in communities vulnerable to climate change and fostering critical partnerships. 

“We are the hub that connects the private sector … and civil society,” Stennes said.  

A next-generation systemwide Climate Action Plan has been established, identifying how the University can respond to the climate crisis with available resources, Stennes said. 

Dr. Heidi Roop, director of University climate adaptation partnership, said 80% of Minnesotans think higher education institutions are responsible for developing and researching solutions. 

The global temperature has warmed by two degrees Fahrenheit. Minnesota is warming at a rate of three degrees per year, Roop said. 

According to Roop, the number of days per year over 90 degrees have increased, the growing season has extended by two weeks and a 13% increase in heavy rainfall has caused severe disruptions and flood risks. 

Minnesota is transitioning from wet to dry extremes more quickly and more frequently, Roop said.

Roop said the fiscal risk of climate change is immense, reducing the United States’ GDP from three to 10% by the end of the century.

Climate risk management requires two things: prevention and preparation, Roop said. Investments and action in adaptations and mitigation will mitigate severe impacts of climate change, according to Roop. 

“Any further day in … action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future,” Roop said.  

PRISMH services and communications projects and proposals 

The regents also discussed PRISMH, a task force addressing and supporting student mental health and aims to create a community of care. 

The task force key areas of focus are prevention, research, services and treatment and communications. 

Through a partnership with Masonic Institute for the Developing Board, two studies were selected to research root causes and intervention for student mental health. Dr. Ip’s Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study focuses on the role of structural racism in adolescent mental health and Dr. Cullen’s Imagination Studio concentrates on reducing symptoms of depression in college students. 

PRISMH has launched training and strategic collaborations to transform the learning environment for student mental health, most notably through the Quality Initiative Proposal approved by the Higher Learning Commission. 

“The proposal,” Tabitha Grier-Reed, PRISMH’s co-chair said, “really helps to institutionalize the work of PRISMH in ways that will extend beyond our three-year sunset.”

The University provides many quick access, on-demand services to students, Maggie Towle, senior vice president for student affairs, said. 

Boynton provides psychiatric care and medication management alongside student counseling services. Embedded counseling in departments is being expanded each year, Towle said. 

PRISMH plans to expand communications by creating a centralized mental health portal that has all mental health and well-being resources available and accessible for students, Towle said. 

Additionally, PRISMH is looking to expand services and treatment through a system wide Tele-Mental Health network of therapists and psychiatric nurses and the launch of the Mental Health Advocates Initiative at the Morris campus. 

Next year, PRISMH will transition to the Office for Student Affairs, Towle said.

“Every conversation about student mental health seems to be buttressed by ‘What about faculty and staff mental health?’” Greer-Reed said. “That is, I think, a next chapter.”

Clarification: An original version of the article was unclear on the nature of CLA’s cuts. This version clarifies precisely what was cut, as well as what groups and individuals were protesting. 

Correction: This article’s original version misspelled two individuals’ names. They have been corrected.

The University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) has faced recent staffing challenges and was authorized to hire 16 more police officers last year to combat crime near campus.

There are currently 55 UMPD officers.

The most visible effect of staffing limitations is the number of UMPD officers available to conduct regular patrols on campus, Jake Ricker, University public relations director, said in an email to the Minnesota Daily.

“For a campus the size of our Twin Citie campus, both in terms of area and population, UMPD would prefer to have more officers available for scheduled patrols,” Ricker said.

As of 2021, the University had the highest ratio of students to officers compared to any other Big Ten school, according to the January 2021 policing final report.

UMPD staffing shortages

To counteract staffing shortages, UMPD has added incentives for new hires and retention bonuses for existing UMPD officers starting 2022.

“We are actively recruiting for these sworn officer positions, while also adding community services officers, University Security staff and others to support our collective public safety efforts,” Ricker said.

Minimum qualifications for UMPD officers are a two- or four-year degree from an education program certified by the Minnesota Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board and a valid U.S. driver’s license with a good driving record. They must be eligible for or licensed as a peace officer by the Minnesota POST Board, according to the University Department of Public Safety (DPS) website.

UMPD officers undergo a pre-employment background investigation, psychological exam and fitness for duty exam.

Starting pay for a University police officer is $67,433 each year plus a hiring bonus of $5,000 installed over 12 months, according to DPS’ website. After three years of service, officers receive $96,449 annually.

UMPD has jurisdiction on the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses in addition to a few surrounding areas. The University’s clery boundary provides a good approximation of where UMPD has authority; city police departments cover areas outside UMPD’s jurisdiction, Ricker said.

The number of calls officers respond to varies day-to-day, but UMPD receives on average of 20,000 calls for service every year, according to Ricker. For most reports received by UMPD, arresting someone is not a needed or appropriate resolution, he said.

The rate of crime has decreased

Brian Peck, who started the Campus Safety Coalition, a nonprofit organization, said crime decreased by 13 percentage points this year compared to last year.

Peck said he sits on the University Strategic Safety Advisory Committee, started by President Joan Gabel last summer, and has been “very involved with putting pressure on the University to make [campus] safer.”

Though crime is down from last year, it is still up from the University’s 2019 baseline, according to Peck. At the University and surrounding neighborhoods, 140 crimes were reported per month in 2023, compared to 106 reported crimes in 2019.

The most common crimes were motor vehicle theft, representing 24% of crimes, property destruction and vandalism at 12%, theft from mother vehicles at 10%, theft of motor vehicle parts at 10% and burglary at 7%.

These crimes make up about 63% of all total crime at the University and its surrounding areas.

“Culture of safety” is a long-term solution to crime

A number of things have led to a decrease in crime, according to University officials.

The University created a systemwide position focused on equitable and inclusive practices in addition to hiring a social worker and a mental health officer this year. The University has also staffed 10 community service officers and 50 University security staff.

Peck said the rhetoric around police officers and policing has changed.

“We will never disagree that bad police officers need to be handled accordingly — we are trying to make people realize you can’t use generalizations,” Peck said.

Edgar Arriaga, the chair for the Campus Safety Committee, said a long-term solution to crime on campus is developing a “culture of safety” and changing how people look and perceive crime.

The committee will provide a statement to University administration in fall 2023 on the priorities to maintain a culture of safety, which will be divided into four parts including attitudes and opinions, infrastructure, values and behavior.

It’s not enough to say we have a police department walking around — people can take action themselves to feel safe, Arriaga said.

The University is utilizing a layered approach that invests in many different areas of safety to provide effective long-term solutions to reducing crime and responding effectively when it happens, Ricker said.

“No one initiative will fully deter crime,” Ricker said. “Building and maintaining sufficient staffing levels for all varieties of public safety personnel, including UMPD sworn officers, is a necessary component to any successful strategy for reducing crime.”

At the Faculty Consultative Committee (FCC) meeting on April 16, the University of Minnesota’s public health experts discussed ending the University’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement.

The proposal to end the mandate is in the middle of the consultation process, after which the President Policy Committee (PPC) will receive all of the comments and recommend a decision to the president, Provost Rachel Croson said at the FCC meeting on Thursday.

If the proposal reaches the PPC by mid-June, current president Joan Gabel will decide if the mandate will be removed, Croson said.

Public health expert recommends mandate termination

Jill DeBoer, director of public health practice at the University, said the mandate is the last issue on the menu of public health strategies for COVID-19 as the University moves away from its emergency response.

DeBoer said the COVID-19 vaccine mandate is an outdated University policy. She said she believes the requirement made sense when it was instituted in 2021, but now “we understand doses wane over time.”

According to DeBoer, the COVID-19 vaccine is effective as a personal health choice since it can lessen the severity of symptoms and the risk of hospitalization and death, but it has not been successful in reducing cases.

“Combined with treatments, we are in a different place now than when we started,” DeBoer said.

DeBoer said it is difficult to monitor and require vaccinations at an individual level and the vast majority of University students intended to be vaccinated anyway.

“We did a [campus] survey before we had the mandate in place with intent to be vaccinated; 95% intended to be vaccinated, 5% would apply for an exemption,” DeBoer said.

DeBoer said viral loads — how much of the virus an individual carries — are the same between those who are vaccinated and those who are not.

“We, probably for public health, overstated how beneficial the vaccine is,” DeBoer said.

The University Public Health System plans to add the vaccine to existing programs, so sustainable COVID-19 testing and vaccines will continue to be available without barriers, DeBoer said. Information will be provided and incoming students will be taught the importance of vaccines and how to access it, she said.

COVID-19 testing and vaccines are now available at Boynton Health with no appointment necessary, DeBoer said.

Concerns over mandate lift

Jennifer Goodnough, an associate professor for University of Minnesota-Morris, questioned the lack of resistance toward the potential mandate lift displayed at Thursday’s FCC meeting.

“I’m wondering if we are not hearing some of the concerns,” Goodnough said.

Croson said in conversations with the student senate, students expressed a range of opinions about lifting the mandate.

“We heard from one student that [we] should keep the [COVID-19] vaccine mandate to the residence halls, others said no,” Croson said.

FCC Chair Colleen Flaherty Manchester said most people view the current 93% vaccination rate as successful.

DeBoer recommends getting the COVID-19 vaccine and boosters to those who are 65 and older and immunocompromised.

“I’m concerned that people will get the impression the vaccine isn’t important,” DeBoer said. “We no longer feel a mandate is needed.”

Starting this summer, the Minnesota Daily will have a change in leadership with Alex Steil as the editor-in-chief and Maddie Roth as managing editor. 

The Daily’s Board of Directors selected Steil as the next editor-in-chief (EIC) on April 3 to replace 2022-23 EIC Maia Irvin. Steil will be responsible for overseeing and organizing all staff in the newsroom in addition to ensuring proper training and quality of news.

Brady Gervais, major gifts officer at Children’s Minnesota and Daily Board Chair, said Steil’s extensive experience in journalism and his various roles at the Daily made him stand out in the selection process. 

“I’m excited about Alex and the newsroom … for his commitment to culture, his plans for how the Daily leverages social media, for storytelling and breaking news and for the Daily newsletter,” Gervais said. 

The managing editor is responsible for supervising and managing operations in the newsroom. They work alongside the EIC to manage staffing, hiring and scheduling in addition to developing training programs and serving as a motivator to staff.

Steil and Roth will start their positions at the end of May and will serve until the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

Editor-in-Chief

Steil is a second-year student at the University of Minnesota studying journalism and music with a minor in political science. Steil joined the Daily as a copy editor in September 2021 and became a reporter in January 2022. 

Steil said he joined the Daily because he wanted to pursue journalism professionally in high school and the Daily was the “next logical step.”

As EIC, Steil plans to focus on community building within the Daily by asking staff to work in person more often and fostering open communication across the organization.  

Steil said he does not want staff to be afraid to ask questions. 

“Whether you are reaching out to a source or need to ask your boss a question, reach out,” Steil said. “We feel good answering questions, especially if we know we can help.”

Steil said he plans to reorient the Daily’s internal offices, such as the Content Diversity Board, to be more proactive in reaching out to the community and hosting reading roundtables. 

“I’m excited to have the Daily be a part of the University as more than a news source,” Steil said. “Sometimes people forget that we are also students — we want to listen to people and have them reach out to us if they want a story to be written.” 

Managing Editor

Roth, a second-year student, will be working alongside Steil as managing editor. 

Roth is studying journalism and sociology with a double minor in English and psychology at the University. She joined the Daily as a reporter covering student issues and activism in fall 2021. Roth became the Daily’s campus activities editor in January. 

She said she decided to attend the University because of the Daily and has worked there for the last two years. 

“I think if anything, the Daily has taught me no matter how big or small, every story counts,” Roth said.  

Roth said she is excited to connect with everyone at the Daily this next year. 

“I don’t want to sit back,” Roth said. “I want to have people feel that they can come to me and talk to me.”  

Roth said she plans to do in-person meetings to answer questions, send out bi-weekly emails to staff and work with Steil to write the Daily newsletters together. 

She said she wants young reporters at the Daily to feel comfortable reaching out for help. 

“I want them to know that all we want to do is see people succeed,” Roth said. “The Daily can be stressful at the beginning — Alex and I are here for everyone.” 

Steil said he is excited to work with Maddie because she is a great reporter, editor and has a good news-sense. 

Roth said she is excited to work with Steil as well. 

“He’s an incredible writer and my best friend,” Roth said. 

The University of Minnesota’s Women’s Faculty Cabinet (WFC) will discuss the development of a gender equity report card to better understand gender-related issues on campus at their first in-person retreat post-COVID-19 on May 18.

The WFC was created in 2006 to improve and enrich the academic and professional environment for women faculty at the University.

The initiative to develop and advocate for a gender equity report card started last fall and was introduced at the Faculty Consultative Committee meeting on March 30, WFC Co-Chair Catherine McCarty said. The report card will collect data that can be compared over time to other universities and the University’s progress itself.

“We are at the beginning,” WFC Co-Chair Gayle Golden said. “But we have identified most of what we want to try and ask.”

The WFC is currently focusing on outreach and feedback, and members plan to implement the report card next year, McCarty said.

The primary goal of the report card is to collect data on gender equity issues. Eventually, the WFC wants to have a quantitative survey every other year, followed by a qualitative survey on the off years, McCarty said.

The WFC has developed six areas members want to tackle, including equity in University roles, equity in opportunities for promotion and equity in compensation and benefits. Additionally, it will focus on equity in service loads, equity in teaching and equity in the departmental climate.
McCarty said some data is difficult to capture and might require help from department chairs if the information is not available through human resources or WORKS, a web-based tool used for reporting and updating professional activities.

“Carefully designed and implemented, a gender and equity report card has the potential to provide important information on how the [University] is advancing our mission, our institution, and our community, and to identify areas for future growth,” Provost Rachel Croson said in an email to the Minnesota Daily.

Once the WFC has the results, they want to advocate for actionable items that the University can implement to address gender equity issues that will be included in the report card.

Golden said the WFC doesn’t know the full scope of what the report card will look like yet, but they hope it will be “easy, baked-in and enduring.”

“For me, it is very important to understand the snapshot of where gender equity is at in this institution,” Golden said. “We won’t know how to address gender equity issues unless we know where things stand.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated from its original version to reflect recent related USG advocacy efforts. 

The University of Minnesota saw an increase in rape cases reported on and near campus prior to the 2022-23 academic year.

There were 22 rape cases reported on the University campus that occurred in 2019, which slightly decreased to 20 in 2020. In 2021, cases more than doubled, reaching 42, according to public records the Minnesota Daily requested from the University.

Rape is included under the umbrella of sexual assault. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), sexual assault also includes attempted rape, fondling or unwanted sexual touching, and forcing an individual to perform sexual acts.

According to RAINN, most sexual assault cases, including rape, are not reported. RAINN estimates only about 20% of female college students specifically report sexual assault.

Sexual assault statistics at UMN from 2019-2021

Nearly 55% of the reported rapes from 2019 through 2021 happened at University residence halls. These incidents increased to 63% when apartments, specifically Radius and Yudof, were included.

Of the nine undergraduate residence halls, Comstock was the only one with no reported rapes from 2019-2021.

Centennial Hall had the most reported rapes of University residence halls during those three years, representing about one-fifth of all cases that took place in University housing. Pioneer Hall increased from one case in 2019 to six cases in 2021.

St. Paul’s residence hall, Bailey, and Middlebrook on West Bank each had two instances of reported rape during the three-year period.

Ten cases of reported rape are not assigned to a specific hall but are generally classified as a Minneapolis residence hall. Including these 10 cases, there were a total of 53 cases in University housing from 2019-2021.

From 2019-2021, nearly 12% of reported rapes occurred at fraternities. Six of the ten reported rapes that happened at a fraternity took place in 2021, four of which were generally classified as “Minneapolis Fraternity for the location.”

There were three cases of reported rapes at parking ramps or lots on and near campus and three cases of reported rapes in sporting complexes on campus from 2019-2021.

UMN has several sexual assault resources on campus 

Housing and Residential Life (HRL) Interim Director Susan Stubblefied said in an email to the Minnesota Daily that HRL is one piece of the much larger, University-wide work to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct.

HRL sponsors two Safety Weeks each year to increase student awareness about safety issues, including sexual assault, Stubblefield said. Students engage in activities, like quizzes, that direct them to resources on campus.

“In the past, we’ve collaborated with the Aurora Center to offer Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) events in April,” Stubblefield said.

Recently, HRL staff members met with the Aurora Center to discuss a new prevention model and how it could be used within various campus spaces, Stubblefield said.

The Aurora Center was founded in 1986 to serve all victims of sexual assault and violence at the University. The Center accepts walk-in clients and has a 24-hour helpline that volunteer advocates answer, according to the center’s website.

For SAAM this year, the Aurora Center is holding a button-making event to raise awareness about sexual assault prevention at Coffman Union on Friday.

Over the three-year period the Daily analyzed, 83% of the reported rape cases were reported to the Aurora Center, nearly 12% were reported to the University of Minnesota Police Department and less than 5% were reported to the Minneapolis Police Department or another entity.

The state requires all Aurora Center advocates to complete 40 hours of sexual assault crisis counselor training, the Associate Director for the Aurora Center Chloe Vraney said in an email to the Daily.

“Additionally, we hold meetings six times a year with our volunteers for ongoing training, including workshop facilitation practice for our prevention educators,” Vraney said.

The Aurora Center, per requests, provided 52 workshops to 1,552 total participants from July 1, 2021, to June 20, 2022, according to Vraney. Workshops provided by the Aurora Center are open to anyone by request and cover a range of topics, such as toxic masculinity, intersectionalities between race, rape culture and gender and sexual assault.

An HRL staff member also serves on the President’s Initiative to Prevent Sexual Misconduct’s (PIPSM) Student Engagement subcommittee.

In an email to the Minnesota Daily, University Public Relations Director Jake Ricker said PIPSM was launched in 2017 to prevent sexual misconduct on campus.

PIPSM has developed partnerships with stakeholders to coordinate prevention efforts, conducted climate campus surveys and organized and expanded data collection of sexual misconduct reports.

President Joan Gabel’s office announced in March that PIPSM will be transitioning into the Sexual Misconduct Prevention Program within the Office of Equity and Diversity. The University is currently hiring a director for the program.

The Sexual Misconduct Prevention Program will build on the PIPSM’s foundational work to provide evidence-based prevention initiatives and activities systemwide, Ricker said.

“Awareness, education, outreach and enhanced security are all critical to creating a community of ... common action,” Ricker said.

Students aim to amplify victim-survivors’ voices

Sameen Faisal, chair of the Sexual Assault Task Force (SATF) for Undergraduate Student Government (USG), has worked with several organizations on campus, including the Aurora Center.

SATF was established in 2017 to amplify voices of victim-survivors of sexual assault, build a campus with zero tolerance and serve as a contact between students and administrations. USG now has a page on its website where students can find resources on and off campus for sexual assault and mental health, Faisal said.

SATF worked with PIPSM earlier this year and passed a resolution on April 11 to create a centralized University website for sexual misconduct and mental health resources.

During SAAM this year, SATF is hosting a self-defense workshop on Tuesday at Recwell. In 2022, for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, which is April, SATF set up drives to collect new bedsheets and other materials that are common triggers for victims of sexual assault.

Within the task force, there is a team dedicated to evaluating sexual assault rates in Greek life and other Big Ten schools.

Faisal said it can be difficult to collect data on sexual assault cases due to the inaccessibility of this information. Faisal said this is why USG recently created a Data Transparency Resolution advocating for the University to be more transparent about the data it keeps because this would help advance USG's advocacy initiatives.

“When it comes to things like [sexual assault prevention], there is always more work to be done,” Faisal said.

Maia Irvin contributed to this report.

On Thursday, the state House of Representatives Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee passed the omnibus higher education and finance bill. The bill includes a 14% increase in funding, or nearly $1.6 billion, for the University of Minnesota over the next two fiscal years.

The bill was referred to the Way and Means Committee, where if approved, it will go to a vote in the House.

The committee approved an amendment to costs of some programs listed in the bill. The University was allocated about $194 million more than the about $726 million granted in the initial version of the bill.

The University received almost 20% more than their $302.5 million ask. The Minnesota State system received an even bigger increase in funding for the coming biennium with a total of $1.9 billion.

About $1.4 billion of the funding would be allocated to the University’s operations and maintenance. The bill specifies where about $65 million of this should go toward, including funding for the Medical School’s research, health training restoration and campus safety.

Specifically, $5 million would be dedicated annually to fund systemwide safety and security, which would decrease to a base of $2 million starting fiscal year 2026.

The bill also allocated about $18 million to the University’s Health Sciences over the two fiscal years, which will help fund programs aiming to improve rural health care in Minnesota.

Additionally, the bill established the American Indian Scholars program, which would provide tuition and fee free undergraduate education to eligible Minnesota American Indian students at a University of Minnesota campus or Minnesota State college or university.

The program was allocated a total of $17 million over the two fiscal years, $8 million of which the University would receive.

Eligible students for the program would include Minnesota residents who are enrolled members or citizens of a federally recognized American Indian Tribe or Canadian First Nation. Nonresidents would also be eligible if they enrolled members or citizens of a Minnesota Tribal Nation.

Rep. Kristen Robbins (R-Maple Grove) said the American Indian Scholars Program is “duplicative of something we already do at Morris” and certain programs outlined in the bill should be consolidated.

In response to the presentation of the omnibus bill in a committee meeting March 28, the University’s Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Myron Frans said “collectively, we appreciate your support and your understanding of the issues and challenges that we face.”

Dennis Olson, the commissioner for the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, testified during the March 28 meeting that he appreciates the bill’s support of financial aid modifications, which he said will help more low-income students attend college.

“The proposed investments in this bill address student needs and will help campus leaders and faculty provide students a world class education,” Olson said.

In 2020, the University of Minnesota purchased about $20,000 worth of furniture from MINNCOR, an industry program that uses prison labor to create furniture and other home goods.

MINNCOR is a program created by the Minnesota Department of Corrections to provide offenders job skills to support positive behavior and successful transition into the community at no cost to taxpayers, according to the program’s website.

To generate revenue to support operations, MINNCOR sells manufactured goods to government entities, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and private sector companies throughout Minnesota.

“Over the years, the industry program has provided financial support to educational programs and reentry initiatives,” MINNCOR Chief Executive Officer Jeff Lonsky said in an email to the Minnesota Daily.

Lonsky said the University’s purchases have been low in volume and 2020 was the last year MINNCOR fulfilled an order for the University.

MINNCOR-produced furniture has accounted for roughly 0.1% of the University’s total furniture spending systemwide over the past seven fiscal years, according to University Public Relations Director Jake Ricker. Ricker said he was unsure at the time of the statement why the University has not purchased furniture from MINNCOR since 2020.

The University’s most recent purchase from MINNCOR was wardrobes, chair reupholstery and new mesh chairs, according to a public records request through the University.

The program provides safe working conditions and compensation to individuals participating in the program, Lonsky said.

All wages earned by inmates are subject to mandatory reductions, including federal and state taxes, cost of confinement, financial assistance to dependents, restitution and other expenses.

According to a 2022 state statute, convicted individuals must pay for room, board, clothing, medical, dental and other correctional services during their confinement.

According to Zeke Caligiuri, a former offender, 50% of any wages earned from prison jobs are removed to pay for stay and other expenses. Twenty percent of money sent to inmates and 10% sent by an inmate is taken out to go toward those expenses.

Depending on the job, offenders can make between 25 cents to two dollars an hour in Minnesota. MINNCOR pays three dollars an hour.

Every two weeks, an offender receives about half of their paycheck after deductions, Caligiuri said.

An inmate’s time outside of the cell is determined by their job performance, Caligiuri said. If an offender doesn’t work, they are given limited time outside their cells.

“No work, no play is [the warden’s] justification,” Caligiuri said.

Joshua Page, an associate sociology professor at the University, said people in the prison system have limited opportunities because they don’t have access to the same freedoms as those outside of the prison system.

Industrial prison labor began in the 1870s and became widespread during the progressive era to replace union strikers. In the 1970s, private businesses started to use prison labor, Page said.

He said jobs provide useful skills for employment, a small income and a way to pass the time.

“They want to work, but be paid to do meaningful work,” Page said.

Currently, Caligiuri said he is involved in community outreach pertaining to issues such as re-entry, voting rights and financial exploitation.

“I wanted to make a deliberate effort to be a better person,” Caligiuri said.

The University of Minnesota Medical School is working on an ongoing partnership with CentraCare, a Minnesota-based health care system, to develop a new rural health residency program.

University Medical School Dean Jakub Tolar and CentraCare Chief Executive Officer Ken Holmen presented the Rural Health Academic Partnership at the February Board of Regents meeting.

CentraCare, formed in 1995, is one of the largest health systems in Minnesota. Currently, they have nine hospitals, more than 30 medical clinics, 10 senior housing facilities and seven long-term care facilities.

At the regents meeting, Tolar said the Rural Health Academic Partnership is an implementable plan that will directly help rural communities and fits into the larger scope and vision for the health and well-being of Minnesota.

CentraCare will be funding the University’s Medical School Rural Health program with the purpose of the partnership being to deliver and educate health care professionals, Holmen said.

The University Medical School plans to implement rural health training programs at two new medical sites in Wilmar and St. Cloud, Minnesota, Shailey Prasad, associate vice president for global and rural health and vice chair for family health, said.

In St. Cloud, CentraCare will repurpose an administrative building adjacent to its Ambulatory Facility. The new Medical Education Center will house the medical school, simulation centers and other educational initiatives.

The Medical Education Center is estimated to cost CentraCare and the University a combined $18 million.

The training program will include teaching, research and clinical services in rural health.

“If you want to have rural physicians, you train them in rural Minnesota,” Tolar said.

Prasad said they need to get health care workers excited about working in rural communities so more physicians will follow the rural health pathway.

Many rural areas do not have access to proper health care and professionals, which negatively impacts residents’ health.

“Rural health outcomes are not what they should be,” Holmen said.

Flora Yang, the Undergraduate Student Government president, grew up in rural China where the nearest postal service drop-off was two hours. Yang said witnessing rural health care issues motivated her to join the rural health pathway at the Medical School.

“My family didn’t have a lot,” Yang said. “I remember people walking to school would have no shoes.”

Prasad said creating more accessibility to health care and health care professionals in rural communities is vital.

“Around the world, there is a huge problem with health care providers not being accessible in rural communities,” Prasad said “This issue will get worse unless [it is] addressed.”

Yang said she wants to understand how the global and rural health pathways interact to have a better understanding of what rural health, access to health and health disparities look like in each country.

“I want a better understanding of how things interplay,” Yang said.

Yang said she also wants to be a part of the conversation on how the next generation can play a part with health experts to mitigate rural health issues.

The Rural Health Academic Partnership still needs approval, accreditation and proper staffing before the program can be launched in fall 2025.

“We want to make sure the structures are in place to make sure they will continue to grow and function,” Prasad said.