An alum of the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management is helping to distribute cash vouchers, groceries and medicine as part of humanitarian relief efforts to support people impacted by the war in Ukraine.

Dorota Serafin is the executive director of Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH), or Polska Akcja Humanitarna, based in Warsaw, Poland. Its mission is to help people impacted by armed conflicts or natural disasters by providing access to food, water, shelter and education, according to their website. 

The organization supports people outside of Poland and they are also providing aid to refugees entering the country from Ukraine. Serafin said their focus is on supporting “the most vulnerable people,” like children and the elderly, who may not be able to sustain themselves. 

PAH also supported regions of Ukraine before the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. “So we would help with groceries, medicine and also provide care for those stricken by the presence of war in their area,” Serafin said. “We will support local centers that organize different types of activities for these people.”

The organization also offers support at border crossings that connect Ukraine and Poland. Resources and food are available at refugee reception centers in towns and cities located along the border, Serafin said. 

“This is also where we provide information for people crossing over, sometimes their first hot meal after several days, the place to rest, gather your thoughts before you go anywhere into Poland,” Serafin said. 

PAH also runs a multi-purpose cash assistance program for people displaced by the war, Serafin said.  

“We hand out pre-charge cards for people so that they can decide what’s the most need they have, and they can just buy whatever they want with it,” Serafin said. ”Our goal initially is to hand these cards to 20,000 people, we’ll see where we go from there”.

Serafin became more aware of nonprofit organizations through her Master of Business Administration program at the Carlson School before graduating in 2006. Originally from Warsaw, Poland, she said she considers Minnesota to be a second home. 

PAH has been supporting people in Ukraine since 2014, mainly in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. 

PAH has offices in Ukrainian cities Lviv, Kyiv and Kramatorsk, the latter of which was hit by a Russian missile attack on April 8. Although there were casualties reported, Serafin said no one from her team was injured.

The PAH organization has offered social and legal services for people in the area since fighting in Ukraine began in 2014. Serafin said she thought this steady fighting has been forgotten by much of the world, especially since Russia executed a larger invasion of Ukraine in February.  

Serafin said she thinks the general public’s concern and enthusiasm to help support people impacted by the war will wear out or that it will be a forgotten war, like those ongoing in Yemen or Somalia.

Serafin said she is concerned the number of volunteers from humanitarian organizations may decrease in the future. 

“We will play our role, but we cannot replace the [Polish] state in it,” Serafin said. “My worry is that this will become a forgotten conflict and forgotten problem.”

Correction: A previous version of this story contained multiple errors, most of which were in regards to the Polish Humanitarian Action’s functions and missions. These errors have since been corrected.

The previous version misstated who the PAH works to support and when. The PAH mostly supports people from outside Poland. The PAH also supports people in Ukraine, mainly in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The PAH helped local centers in Ukraine with groceries, medicine and other activities before Feb. 24. The PAH also has a Pajacyk program that focuses on nutrition and support for children. 

Additionally, the previous version misstated the organization’s locations in Ukraine. The PAH has offices in three Ukrainian cities: Lviv, Kyiv and Kramatorsk.

A previous version also misstated Serafin’s background in nonprofit organizations. Serafin became interested in nonprofit organizations while at the University’s Carlson School.

Development of the East Gateway Project, a real estate development plan impacting parts of the University of Minnesota campus, is continuing to move forward, with construction on some projects slated to begin in 2023.
The East Gateway Project encompasses 3 million square feet of space in Stadium Village that will be redeveloped for a variety of uses, including small-business incubators and office, residential and greenspace. The land slated for redevelopment in Stadium Village includes the Days Hotel and Tea House Restaurant.

The project is managed by the University of Minnesota Foundation Real Estate Advisors. Managing Director Patrick Mascia said the Foundation will control the “ground floor” of the project and then determine what businesses and spaces should occupy this part of campus.
“We can then curate the tenancies that we want from that ground floor space to make sure they fit the campus game day experience and all that sort of stuff,” Mascia said. “Entertainment, nightclubs, bars, restaurants are a big part of that.”
Mascia said development and execution of the project will be executed in several stages. The first phase involves the area located between University and Washington avenues, he said.
Environmental review process
Before construction can begin, an Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) of the geographic area must be completed. This process is required by Minnesota state law and is expected to be complete in November, Mascia said.
The AUAR will analyze how development scenarios will affect the physical surroundings and local community of campus. An additional environmental review will look at potential environmental impacts of the project and identify ways to avoid or minimize them, according to the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board.
“That opens the door for us to apply to the city for approvals to build our first building,” Mascia said.

The University Foundation will also coordinate with Minneapolis officials, outside businesses, and parking and transportation services to ensure people can navigate campus during construction, according to Leslie Krueger, assistant vice president for planning, space and real estate for the University.
“We have a great team of people, both within our capital project management folks, working with the city, working with the private sector and our parking and transportation folks to coordinate really detailed work to make sure we were still able to get around and people were still able to function in that area, despite major construction,” Krueger said.
After these reports are finalized, developers will focus on securing funding to finance the project. Funding will likely come from private and public funds, including the recently passed Build Back Better Act, Mascia said.
A center for research
Part of the development plans for campus also include the formation of an “innovation corridor,” which will focus on growing bio-based manufacturing and healthcare industries, creating startup companies and employment opportunities.
Michael Oakes, interim vice president for research, said this development will also enhance the University’s role as a research institution.
“This puts the University on a footing similar to other universities and their expansion into the realm of being part of a network of innovation hubs around the country.” Oakes said.
Oakes said the goal of the innovation corridor is to have better technology opportunities for graduate students in the bio-industrial sector and to have physical places where people in the industry can meet and work together.
”We have this sort of mash up where people can exchange ideas, exchange technologies and be part of the University’s science, technology and cultural ecosystem to drive research growth, ultimately, to have a more positive impact on the state of Minnesota,” Oakes said.
Coordinating with Minneapolis
Project leaders said they are also considering how the City of Minneapolis’ 2040 Comprehensive Plan will impact the construction and layout of campus in the future.
The project will specifically be impacted by the City of Minneapolis’ Transit 30 zoning ordinance, Mascia said. Under this ordinance, buildings need to be at least 10 stories in height around high frequency transit routes in order to best take advantage of the access to transit, jobs and goods and services provided by the Transit 30 district.
Even with the various considerations involved in the East Gateway Project, Mascia said the main focus is to create “a creative community” rather than a “collection of buildings.”

Dmytro Tertytskyi and Kataryna Topuz are concerned.
Both of their parents are still residing in Ukraine and Russia, respectively — struggling with the realities of living near warzones. Tertytskyi and Topuz, current and future University of Minnesota students, have been hoping their parents and family stay safe since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started Feb. 24.
Tertytski, a dental student at the University, said one way of coping has been to stay in communication as much as possible with their families through encrypted messaging apps. His parents are currently living in Poltava, Ukraine, located between Kyiv and Kharkiv, two cities heavily targeted by Russia. Although, constant communication has weighed heavily on his mental health, he said.
“Russian troops are not advancing and my parents are safe, it makes my mood better [but] I see when they are advancing in Kharkiv, it is almost fully destroyed, it makes my day worse,” he said.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Tertytskyi said his mom has worked as a war doctor and his father, a retired policeman, has volunteered to defend their city if violence impacts the area.

In translated text messages sent to the Minnesota Daily from Tertytskyi’s parents, they said they “wish only victory for Ukraine.” Tertytskyi’s parents chose not to share their names due to personal safety concerns during the war.
The distance between the United States and Ukraine — between him and his family — has been difficult, Tertytskyi said. Tertytskyi said he has been calling his parents every day through the Viber app, and his emotions and feelings on the war change on a daily basis.
“My friends, my parents, they are all in Ukraine,” he said. “But we felt these airplanes that have been bombarding in those airstrikes. Still, I don’t feel that they are safe. I mean, they’re safer than people that are in Kyiv or Kharkiv, but still.”
Topuz’s parents, who moved to Russia from Ukraine in 2014 to find work in the medical field, said the collapse of the Russian economy due to sanctions placed on the country has been difficult. Topuz intends to study dentistry at the University.
Topuz said she copes in a different way, by compartmentalizing her emotions.

“When I talk to my parents, I’m generally quite upset. But then when I need to focus on my studies … I do that, because it’s easier that way,” she said.
Topuz’s parents said they are thinking of leaving Russia, but are limited by Russian restrictions on the amount of cash citizens can withdraw from banks during the war, in text messages sent to the Minnesota Daily. Routing money through Armenia or using cryptocurrency are two options they are considering for securing funds at the moment, they said.
Topuz’s parents also did not share their names due to personal safety concerns.
“It is not safe there and there is a poor quality of life and no perspective there,” Topuz’s mother said in a translated text message.
Coming to the University of Minnesota
Before coming to the University to further their studies, Tertytskyi and Topuz met in Ukraine as dental students and got married two days after graduation.
Three years later, in 2019, Tertytskyi moved to the United States to pursue dentistry after securing a green card through the lottery system.
Tertytskyi said he was always intent on going to the United States because “the country is on the forefront of everything.”
Tertytskyi is studying at the School of Dentistry, as part of a Ukrainian-U.S. partnership on inclusive education that began in 2017.
“Starting from the next semester, I will blend with the regular American dental students,” Tertytskyi said. “This program is solely dedicated to international dentists and foreign-trained dentists.”
Topuz arrived in the United States after Tertytskyi and said she is hoping to start school next winter. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her graduation was delayed and her visa status lapsed.
To keep in touch while apart, the couple video called every night. Tertytskyi said he would call his wife at 6 a.m. to account for the time difference in Ukraine.

Tertytskyi said the current war is different from his perspective due to the presence of social media and the ease of communication. With social media and encrypted apps, people no longer believe all the information that appears on state-sponsored television and want to “see the full picture,” he said.

Topuz echoed Tertytskyi’s thoughts and pointed to the uncertainty of the future.

“I think what’s lacking to a lot of people in Russia and Ukraine is a sense of security and confidence in their future because you never know what will happen,” Topuz said. “War on the war, you never know.”

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine beginning on Feb. 24 and the violence that has followed in the region, University of Minnesota students are concerned about the conflict in the region.
The conflict, according to University political science professor Kathleen Collins, has roots going back to 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed, which meant that Ukraine achieved independence from Russia. Independence movements in Ukraine go back further than 1991.
Students on campus have been engaged in discussions regarding U.S. involvement in the Russian invasion and to express grief over loved ones and family members. Collins, who has a focus on Russia and Central Asia, said the Russian invasion is focused on whether or not Ukraine deserves to be an independent state.
Katie Kramarcuk, has been rallying in support of Ukraine and at anti-war protests, is a graduate student at the University whose grandparents came to the United States from Ukraine.
In the late 1940s, her grandparents — who fled the country during World War 2 — founded Kramarczuk’s Sausage Company on East Hennepin Avenue. Her family has supported Ukrainians in Minneapolis ever since then Kramarcuk said.
“They fled with the German army, and they were fleeing the Soviet Army, which is just kind of crazy because it seems, if they were still alive, they probably kind of see history repeating itself,” Kramarcuk said. “But my grandma when she was 16, she used to tell us she would run grenades for the Resistance Army. So kind of like what we’re seeing now as well, you know, a lot of civilians are stepping up to fight.”
Meggie Pruidze, a University student studying political science, fled Georgia amid the Russo-Georgian War when she was six years old. She said she knows the fear that war brings and can still remember the tension she felt during that time.
“I was living in Georgia with my grandparents, my parents were here in the U.S. working,” Pruidze said. “I was at our family’s cabin, when they bombed about a mile away from us and I remember, there were like military personnel all around our cabin. A lot of tanks and things like that. And we had to just pile up in the car and drive to Armenia.”
Both Kramarcuk and Pruidze expressed a concern for the people of Ukraine. They say they want to encourage other students to attend rallies or discussion roundtables if they are interested in making their voices heard.
Collins said she encourages students to attend protests and events, or support humanitarian agencies as ways of showing solidarity with the Ukrainian-American community.
“If [students] are so inclined, writing to their Congress, Congressman, certainly, urging them to support Ukraine would be another way of staying well informed I think is incredibly important,” Collins said.
Some University students gathered to protest, not just the war in Ukraine, but all war efforts.
Mira Altobell-Resendez and Annie Russell-Pribnow, two students from the University’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society in attendance at the Feb. 24 protest expressed their opposition to the U.S. involvement in the conflict.
Pruidze also said she was concerned about U.S. involvement and having troops on the ground in Ukraine.

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents voted Dec. 16 to implement a new dining vendor for the Twin Cities campus starting July 2022.
Chartwells, the new dining vendor, will replace Aramark, which has supplied food and dining services to the University since 1998. Students have repeatedly raised concerns over Aramark not aligning with University principles and the company’s business model. Other student concerns have included dining hall accessibility and the availability of food to accommodate different cultures and diets.
These student concerns have persisted through contract renewals with the dining vendor. Over this time period, M Dining has held conversations with students and University administration has aimed to consult with students before making decisions, according to an October 2021 press release.
Trey Feuerhelm, the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) Basic Needs Task Force chair, voiced his concerns on the new contract and desire for further consultation with MSA.
“I think the [regents and consulting firm] did a pretty solid job in trying to hear what students wanted in the new dining contract, and what changes they wanted made,” Feuerhelm said.“But that was all done on their side, their marketing to host their own roundtables, host their own discussions, and create their own surveys and things like that.”
1998
Dining services on the Twin Cities campuses became contracted with Aramark for the first time in 1998. Prior to this time, the University’s food services were self-operated, similar to other Big Ten schools.
2008
Through a contract approved by the Board of Regents, the University renewed the contract with Aramark for 12 years. This contract also included the possibility for renewal, if Aramark continued to meet performance measures, according to a 2008 report from the Office of General Counsel.
The contract also stated Aramark must commit themselves to supporting businesses owned by women, minorities and people with disabilities, and have corporate responsibility regarding sustainability and recycling, according to the contract. Regents at the time considered returning to a self-operating model, but ultimately determined the transition would be difficult.
2019
In October 2019, regents began to review Aramark as they considered a contract extension with the company. Administration asked for a two-year extension to conduct focus groups with student advisory and management committees. During this two-year period, the board said they would also consider hiring a new vendor or returning to a self-operated model, according to October 2019 docket materials from the Finance and Operations Committee.
Students who opposed the contract extension said “the company did not offer healthy, vegetarian and vegan options and foods for students with allergies and religious dietary restrictions,” according to the Star Tribune.
2020
Due to the impacts of the pandemic, an additional contract extension with Aramark was approved in September 2020.
During the fall semester, administration contracted with an outside foodservice consulting firm to assist in determining whether the University could go back to a self-contracted operation or find another food service vendor.
This consultation did not meet students’ expectations of involvement in dining decisions and most of the same concerns lingered, according to Feuerhelm. Despite desiring more consultation, Feuerhelm said he was excited about new language in the contract that signaled local food co-ops and distributors could be introduced to campus dining in the future.
In November, the University began drafting a Request for Proposal, a document that allowed several outside companies to make bids for a dining contract with the University. This officially signaled the University’s plan to move away from Aramark.
2021
Responses from outside vendors looking to secure the contract with the University were collected in May and June. Starting in September 2021, administration consulted with campus stakeholders, according to docket materials from the October meeting.
At the December board meeting, Compass Group USA, Inc. through its Chartwells Division became the University’s new food service vendor on the Twin Cities Campus. The contract spans from July 2022 to June 2032.
2022
In January, the transition to the new contract with Chartwells began. In addition to a change in vendor, dining hall hours and operations are also shifting.
Amy Keran, the University’s director of contract administration within auxiliary services, said their goal is to open dining halls by 7 a.m. and have expanded evening hours, so students can treat it more like their kitchen.
“So if they wanted to stop in and get a cup of coffee before they went out for a morning run, they could do that,” Kernan said. “And then after that, they could come back and have breakfast. We really wanted to feel more like a place where they could just walk in and grab something and feel at home.”
Both Feuerhelm and Eli Wurster, MSA’s Campus Life Committee Director, said that while MSA helped administration consult with students, they desired more involvement in the process of selecting a new vendor.
“So they’ve been doing maybe one, maybe two years of campus surveying and campus roundtables trying to get all the student input, not necessarily involving student government or MSA, particularly as far as I’m aware,” Feuerhelm said.

As the recent Council of Graduate Students (COGS) meeting on Oct. 14 got underway, there was some tension regarding the speed of University of Minnesota’s leadership to address parking issues, which graduate students say has impacted their work at the University.

COGS representatives discussed issues related to parking that they heard from graduate students and experienced themselves at the meeting. These issues include graduate students seeing a significant reduction of parking spaces, a rise of costs to parking and an increase of time to travel between campuses.

The COGS advocacy group already has an initiative to reestablish graduate and professional student occasional use parking and advocate for free or subsidized on-campus parking for graduate students.

At the July 19 Student Senate meeting with University leadership, COGS speaker Richard Gonigam said he asked about parking irregularities in the graduate program to Myron Franz, who is the University’s senior vice president for finance and operations and member of the Board of Regents.

Gonigam relayed to COGS members that during the meeting Franz was not aware that this was an issue and he had no further comment on the matter.

According to an emailed statement from University’s Parking & Transportation Services (PTS) on July 19, the University collaborated with campus governance leaders, including COGS, to make changes to the parking program for the new year. As a result, the collaboration led to ending the occasional-use program and establishing the Part-time Parking Program (PPP).

”Concerns raised by COGS representatives attending that meeting were addressed, wherever possible, with refinements to the program prior to its launch,” the statement read.

However, COGS members expressed mixed feelings contrasting with the University’s PTS statement.

Gonigam was present at the July meeting and said in an email, “My impression was that this was a case in which the University and administrators had already made significant decisions about the changes to parking without consultation, and that the meeting served more to inform than actually consult.”

Gonigam referred to the changes to parking such as ending the occasional use program, establishing the new PPP and parking rate increases.

The PPP is a program that offers parking passes every year to graduate students on an occasional basis. Another option students can use to secure parking on campus is by entering a lottery each semester, but it is not guaranteed for every student.

Though these options are available, COGS members point out that problems and questions still persist.

Graduate students voice concerns about parking

Katrina Jackson, a COGS member, was the most vocal opponent of University leadership’s non-action to this matter. She said there was visible agreement that the parking issue needs more teeth for the leadership to take this more seriously.

Last month, Jackson sent a survey to graduate students to generate interest and collect stories that would help move the issue along. She added that the survey results show parking is not an issue about convenience for a certain group, and the parking issue could affect non-graduate students as well.

Jackson is also a fifth year doctoral student in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the graduate program of microbiology, immunology and cancer biology (MICaB).

As the COGS representative of MICaB, she spoke with some of her constituents within the graduate program and asked them for some details of their experiences with parking.

One of the stories collected in the survey was from Marissa Oram, a Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative & Molecular Biosciences, describing her experience about how fraught it is for PTS to make changes in such a broad manner.

Oram’s emailed comment said during the pandemic, her department provided a free parking pass to the Washington Avenue Ramp located near her graduate department, which helped.

“This made getting to work very convenient and was especially appreciated because I was in my third trimester of pregnancy. Post-pandemic, this free parking pass was taken away [because the pandemic-related free parking program ended], so I went back to my old methods of transportation,” she said in an email.

This fall semester, Oram said in an email she only had two choices. “I would either walk to the Stadium Village Station, then take the light rail into the East Bank stop (not preferred since the light rail can be packed at certain times on the campus stops – I have an unvaccinated infant at home so [I’m] trying to limit exposure to the general public).”

“On the other hand, I could walk ~15 min to MCB, or put my bike on the back of my car and bike the rest of the way in (much faster than walking). Parking farther away adds about 15 minutes to my morning commute and is rather expensive considering our low stipend/pay as graduate students (who are also employees),” Oram said in the email.

She mentioned that she entered the lottery but did not get selected, and this made matters worse as she now had an infant that would need daycare.

“To make a long story short, I emailed parking and transportation about how that is ridiculous considering graduate students are not just students, they are employees that work full-time (unlike undergraduates), so we should be offered a parking contract so we can get to work,” Oram said. “They basically just folded and gave me a parking spot in Ski-U-Mah.”

Jackson reiterated what Oram said regarding the role of graduate students and the need for an equitable parking policy.

“My job at this point [is] to graduate [and] for me to come to campus and do research in my lab. And if I can’t get to campus, I can’t do my work and I can’t research and I can’t graduate,” Jackson said. “Also with the way my experiments work, [I work] on every single weekend as well, so I would be paying not just weekday rates, but also weekend rates. And that money adds up if you don’t have a contract.”

Jackson added that respondents to her survey said a lack of consistency and flexibility are additional barriers to parking.

“My entire income is my stipend because I signed a contract with the University saying I will not get a side job. This is all I have. So if I’m paying, like right now, it’d be $120 a month just to park. And that’s my grocery budget for the month,” Jackson said. “So I’m paying my grocery budget, just to park on campus.”

Parking & Transportation Services responds

Many graduate students said this is an issue, and a complicated one that involves many entities on campus. PTS said they have addressed the graduate students’ needs as much as they could during this last period.

“Many students, undergraduate and graduate, have student employment that serves the mission of the University and we work to meet the needs of them all within the larger campus community capacity,” a follow-up email with PTS stated.

Currently, some access preferences do exist. Once graduate students have a parking contract for fall semester, they may renew it for spring and summer without going through the lottery process. Additionally, they have access to the PPP, which is not available to undergraduate students.

A follow-up email to the Daily said the contract system verifies whether a student is a graduate student or undergraduate student, and confirms housing status to determine if the student is a commuter or not. The system does not have the ability to determine the student’s role as a teaching assistant or research assistant.

“The University employs over 30,000 faculty, staff and students and seeks to provide a comprehensive program of transit and parking options to broadly meet the needs of the community. Though we are unable to meet the preferences of every individual, we believe that the overall program does provide choices for individuals,” the follow-up email from PTS read.

Correction: A previous version of this story misrepresented the relationship between the occasional-use parking program and the pandemic-related free parking; these are two separate programs. The pandemic-related free parking ended on Aug. 31.