In a report released in April, the David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC) named the “Top Ten Jew-Hating Academic Departments,” which reside at leading universities across the nation. 

The University of Minnesota’s Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies (GWSS), is ranked 5th on the report because of a statement they released Oct. 13.

The report calls on the presidents and administrators of each named university to launch an immediate investigation to determine whether these departments have violated the Title VI rights of Jewish students.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Title VI “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.”

Sara Dogan, who compiled the report, said the DHFC looked into the extent to which these departments were violating the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s 2016 working definition of antisemitism.

Dogan said the DHFC also looked into the extent to which academic departments downplayed the actions of Hamas in creating this conflict and how they treated Israeli civilians. 

“The GWSS described the massacre as Hamas fighters who ‘took down border fences,’ and that they stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, scholars and organizers,” Dogan said. 

Dogan added academic departments should not be issuing political statements or taking sides on political issues. 

Dogan said she conducted some of her research through the AMCHA Initiative, which tracks antisemitism on campuses throughout the country.

The DHFC has launched a network of projects giving anti-Muslim voices and radical ideologies a platform to project hate and misinformation, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). 

The SPLC said the DHFC targets students, professors and administrators by compiling lists of those with dissenting views. 

In an emailed statement to the Minnesota Daily, GWSS said, “Since Oct. 7, accusations of antisemitism have become an easy way to isolate politically active spaces for learning.”

According to the GWSS statement, the DHFC’s attempts to ban gender and ethnic studies are part of a larger effort to ban books about Black history, ban abortion and marginalize queer and trans people. 

The GWSS added the departments in the report “teach about the real history of the United States and its role as a global power and the history of attempts to suppress dissent.”

Richard Painter, a law professor who requested the U.S. Department of Education investigate concerns about antisemitism at the University, said DHFC Founder David Horowitz aligns himself with conservatives.

“A lot of Democrats are running scared of this issue,” Painter said. “So, the right wing of the Republican party is running with this.”

Painter said it is reasonable to criticize Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government, but that should not excuse antisemitic speech. 

“If you read that statement, which was issued shortly after Oct. 7, the GWSS did not once mention the fact the attack was the rape and murder of women and girls, and they sought to blame the attack on Israel,” Painter said. 

Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel left more than 1,100 dead, most of whom were civilians.

The statement was posted on a website funded by the University, according to Painter.

“If I wanted to talk to a faculty member, I would go to GWSS’s website and look under faculty,” Painter said. “That statement is on one of those same web pages, and I think that is a clear violation of Title VI.” 

Fae Hodges, an incoming third-year student and member of Students for a Democratic Society, disagrees with the DHFC’s assessment of the GWSS.

“I think the perspective shared in that letter is really focusing on the history of the situation and how this is an ongoing conflict that has escalated into an even more extreme and dangerous situation,” Hodges said.

Hodges added the report by the DHFC misunderstood the statement by GWSS.

“The faculty and students within the department have continued to share with me their view of Palestinian liberation as a future we’re fighting for where there is liberation, free movement and equal citizenship for all people, rather than the status quo where Palestinians are treated very differently and dehumanized,” Hodges said.

Hodges said it is clear to her that the GWSS’s goal is to eliminate human suffering and to uphold the right of Palestinians to live in their homeland and to have the right to self-determination.

“I think it’s really dangerous rhetoric to portray all pro-Palestinian people or calls for an end to violence in Palestine as antisemitic or exclusionary to anyone,” Hodges said. “It contributes to the narrative that Palestinian people or people who support Palestinian people are inherently violent.” 

According to Dogan, the DHFC’s primary goal with this report is to encourage administrators to crack down on antisemitism coming from the universities themselves.

“The bottom line is you cannot make statements discriminating against Jewish students or that take sides on controversial political issues on an official website of the University of Minnesota that’s paid for by Minnesota taxpayers,” Dogan said.

The University of Minnesota’s App Developer’s Club (ADC) is creating an app to help people navigate the Gopher Way’s tunnels, which are a popular method of navigating the East Bank, West Bank and St. Paul campuses.

By working on the app, ADC aims to allow students to learn about different ways of developing software, networking with other students and exploring projects.

According to Tobias Fimpel, a geographic information system developer at the University, the tunnels cover approximately 88 buildings across the Twin Cities campus. 

John Mark Lucas, the transportation programs manager for the University’s Parking and Transportation Services (PTS), said the tunnels’ purpose is navigation assisting for weather and distance purposes.

“It’s helpful to stay out of the weather when it’s too cold or even when it’s too hot outside,” Lucas said. 

Victor Hofstetter, an ADC member and a second-year international student from Brazil, said he came up with the idea for the app because he wanted to use the tunnels while avoiding the Minnesota winter weather.

“I was always using Google Maps to figure out where to go, but Google Maps doesn’t support the tunnels,” Hofstetter said. “So, I figured, ‘What if we made a Google Maps that does support the tunnels?’” 

Hofstetter added there are a lot of unknowns regarding the tunnels in terms of navigation and where they are located.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t know about the tunnels, and the hope is that Gopher Tunnels will make that a little easier,” Hofstteter said.

Matt Moskalik, a third-year student, said the tunnels are easy to get lost in.

“I don’t think the resources the University provided are very helpful,” Moskalik said. “There are signs, but they’re still confusing.” 

According to Lucas, there are different elements working together to help students find their way around the tunnels.

“There are different iterations of a walking guide where it gives you a printed map and an online map that you can search via the PTS website,” Lucas said.

According to a statement from Capital Project Management, the University Services Staff has spent this academic year focusing on improving navigation in the tunnel system.

“Since Fall 2023, the University Services staff have conducted an inventory of the current Gopher Way system, revised online maps to support navigation and defined a potential for change among multiple different locations within the system,” the statement said.

The statement added the goal of this work is to make system wayfinding more effective using interior features, such as paint, sign markers and digital and physical maps. 

Gideon Tan, ADC president, said the app will have a similar format to Google Maps, where you can search for a destination and the app will tell you the best path while considering the amount of time spent outside.

“People know about the tunnels, but they are put off by how complicated and confusing they can be,” Tan said. 

According to Tan, ADC is focusing on how the app can help people spend as little time outside as possible to get to their destination. 

“The primary use would be the winters when it is absurdly cold, and you just want to stay inside,” Tan said.

Users will be able to customize their routes depending on the speed and time spent in the tunnels, according to Hofstetter.

“You can also save your routes,” Hofstetter said. “If there is a really popular route you like taking, you can save it and then you can ask the app to always have that route up every time you open it.” 

Hofstetter said the app will provide pictures of the tunnel entrances to help locate them. 

Tan said the whole club is working on the app together by splitting different tasks.

“We want to build something that people who have never programmed in their life can come in, get some exposure and learn stuff without being way too overwhelmed,” Tan said.

According to Tan, ADC plans to have a final product toward the end of the semester or the end of May.

“This is primarily to help learn, teach and help people get involved in a project that they’re passionate about,” Tan said. 

Nuclear weapons and their impact have been at the forefront of popular culture, especially after the release of “Oppenheimer” last summer. 

The Politics of Nuclear Weapons, a course taught within the College of Liberal Arts’ Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, encourages students to think about nuclear weapons both historically and theoretically.

The course engages students in discussion about topics such as how nuclear weapons affect international politics, how likely a nuclear war is and how dangerous nuclear proliferation can be, according to course professor Mark Bell.

Bell added that nuclear weapons have operated in the background of international politics for a long time.

“They are not used that often, and a lot of the history around nuclear weapons is ambiguous or it’s complicated,” Bell said. “A lot of the course is getting students to wrestle with that ambiguity.”

According to Bell, the course includes a simulation where students try to figure out what makes these weapons useful in international politics versus what does not. 

“We have 14 teams, each representing a different country, so all the nuclear-armed states but then some other non-nuclear-armed states as well,” Bell said.

Students discuss internally within their teams what they want to achieve before they engage in negotiations with other teams, Bell added.

Payton Benoit, a third-year student in the class, said her team represented North Korea and came up with specific goals that Bell later approved. 

Benoit added the course has helped her gain more background knowledge into the implications that nuclear systems have in current events going on around the world. 

“It helps to be able to contextualize things and make sense of it because a lot of the news that comes out mentioning nuclear weapons can be alarmist,” Benoit said. 

Bell said nuclear weapons have become more prominent in the news and in conversations around the globe, especially after the release of “Oppenheimer” in July 2023.

“With the ‘Oppenheimer’ movie, nuclear weapons are back in popular culture,” Bell said. “The movie and its success, I think, has paralleled the increased prominence of nuclear issues in the world.”

Mikhail Troitskiy teaches a similar course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison covering topics like the origin of nuclear weapons, the strategies developed for their use and the consequences of their development. He said it is important for students to learn about international security.

“Any student of international politics should get to know about this very important factor of international security that manifests itself in so many cases and regions,” Troitskiy said.

Kelso Anderson, a former student of Bell’s class, said he worked on a project with Bell and another former student that was published in an international affairs magazine.

According to Anderson, the group determined the basis of nonproliferation policy that aims to limit the production and spread of nuclear weapons.

They gathered information about what variables make nonproliferation work and gathered empirical data on each variable to determine if it is becoming stronger or weaker. 

“Our argument is that it is becoming increasingly unsustainable for the United States to pursue nonproliferation policy,” Anderson said.

Anderson added working with a faculty member on a scholarly project and going through the process of getting it published was a “great experience to have.” 

“The idea for this article came out of a discussion we had in class when we were talking about North Korea,” Anderson said. “The conversations in the course were actually the basis for the article to begin with.”

According to Bell, a number of students who take the course have gone on to work with nuclear weapons in government and have obtained fellowships to further study these issues.

“Nuclear weapons are not just abstract things that exist in the background of international politics, these are weapons that do things,” Bell said. “When you’re threatening to use nuclear weapons for a particular purpose, we should be honest and open about what that actually means.”

The University of Minnesota’s Students for Reproductive Freedom club (SFRF) mobilizes advocates for reproductive freedom by fighting to ensure equal access to health care.

SFRF is a part of Planned Parenthood’s Generation Action Network, a network of young activists nationwide who organize events on their campuses. The network’s goal is to raise public awareness about reproductive health and rights in their communities. 

SFRF President Mia Tranowski said the club has recently worked on sending emails to legislators about a health education bill they are trying to get passed.

Tranowski said the bill aims to ensure Minnesota’s Department of Education creates standards for health education curriculum. This includes making sure students are getting an adequate overview of everything health care-related, including more information about consent.

Tranowski added that grade schools across Minnesota are only teaching the very basics, which do not give young students an adequate overview of everything health care-related.

SFRF hosts various events on campus related to reproductive freedom and education, according to Tranowski. 

Ella England, a member of SFRF, said the club hosted an event where they made care kits in collaboration with Planned Parenthood for patients who receive an abortion.

“We made the kits to make sure they had food and heating pads to help the body regulate and feel better,” England said. 

Kylie Pha, a youth organizing manager at Planned Parenthood, said SFRF brings in Planned Parenthood organizers to club meetings to teach about advocacy, support members financially and give resources to distribute on campus.

“Our main mission when it comes to youth organizing is making sure students are advocating for themselves and have access to simple things that everyone should have access to like condoms and emergency contraceptives,” Pha said.

Pha added Planned Parenthood’s partnership with SFRF has generated a sense of community and empowerment. 

“When Roe was overturned, there was that sense of powerlessness that was there,” Pha said. “This collaboration really brings out such passion, energy and a hopeful light for folks where they can channel their energy in one place and fight for reproductive rights.” 

Timothy Johnson, a University professor of political science and law, said the state legislature made a law following the overturn of Roe which provides absolute protection for a woman’s right to choose at any point in a pregnancy. 

“That is probably where the biggest debate surrounds,” Johnson said. “The pro-life movement in Minnesota says this means there could be a lot of late-term abortions right in the third trimester, or even the days leading up to the potential birth of a child or fetus.” 

Johnson added that every state surrounding Minnesota has some kind of abortion ban, whether at some point during pregnancy or a strict ban.

“This leads to more people who are pregnant coming to Minnesota to get care, not just for abortions, but to get the care they need when it comes to dealing with the pregnancy,” Johnson said.

Tranowski said SFRF wants to continue being more involved on campus, putting out its message of supporting reproductive health and finding equal access to it.

“We want to find more ways we can support students and really spread our message out there,” Tranowski said.

The Minnesota Forensics Team, a co-curricular program sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and the Department of Communication Studies, was born after the University of Minnesota consolidated its speech and debate programs.

Team members represent the University at nationwide speech and debate events, have classroom and campus-wide discussions on current issues and can also earn course credit. 

David Cram Helwich, director of the forensics team, said once students are on the team, they usually pursue either speech or debate.

“There are some students who cross back and forth,” Cram Helwich said. “Because there is a separate debate competition circuit that’s different from the speech competition circuit, it’s pretty hard for students to do both in the same year.”

Cram Helwich added that students who love research tend to gravitate toward debate, while students interested in more traditional public advocacy gravitate toward speech.

To join the team, students must enroll in a class within the Department of Communication Studies called “Communications 3614,” which is open to any undergraduate student at the University, according to Cram Helwich.

“We get a mix of students,” Cram Helwich said. “There are a ton of students at the U that have speech and debate experience in high school, and Minnesota has one of the strongest speech and debate circuits in the country, if not the strongest.”

DJ Jacobson, a fourth-year University student, said they did speech in high school and decided to join the team to meet new people.

“Coming to college during the pandemic, I did not make any friends my entire first year, so I decided to join the team to try to make some friends, which I’m very happy to say, I have definitely done,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson added they choose the speeches they work on by thinking about what they are interested in and what other people should know, and the speeches have been a safe space to talk about personal topics.

Jacobson said they have gone through gender changes since joining the team, and it has been a safe space for them to explore their gender journey.

“That has been the subject of a lot of my speeches,” Jacobson said. “Just doing something that lets me explore a side of myself that I hadn’t felt safe to do yet.”

According to Jacobson, they have competed in various tournaments throughout their time on the team.

“Specifically last year, I made it to finals at six different national tournaments, which of course, I am very honored to have that chance,” Jacobson said.

Kacee Wells, a first-year University student on the debate team, said they have had the opportunity to do policy debate with three different partners.

“I’ve gone to every tournament I could because I’ve been having a really fun time on the team,” Wells said. 

Gursimrat Dahry, a second-year University student on the speech team, said last year was the first time in team history they ranked in the top 10 at nationals, so the University’s speech is now a top-ten program. 

“This was achieved through the talent and hard work of students and coaches,” Dahry said. 

According to Cram Helwich, team members have the option of whether they compete in tournaments.

“We actually have some students who just do the preparation work,” Cram Helwich said. “They practice debates, research, practice speeches and they never go to a tournament, but they get a lot out of that.”

Cram Helwich added the work people are asked to do in the class is comparable to what you would expect of a 3000-level class.

“If students want to do more than that, and some of them do, they do as much work as a varsity athlete,” Cram Helwich said. 

According to Dahry, the class puts a great emphasis on the process of practicing.

“We have different assigned coaches, and they’ll all listen to our speakers one by one and then give feedback,” Dahry said. “I think we’ve really gotten that down as a system.”

Dahry added that speech can be a “mentally exhaustive activity” because of its element of competition, but she always feels like she can go to her coaches for support if she is feeling stressed, even outside of speech.

“They will go to the ends of the earth to help you solve that problem,” Dahry said. “Even if that means delivering a cookie to your apartment when you’re sad or having conversations with you for hours on end.”

Gopher Chauffeur, a student-staffed safe-ride-home program for all University of Minnesota students, promotes campus safety by providing free rides. 

Students looking for a ride can call a Gopher Chauffeur both on and near campus through the Transloc mobile app. 

Val Lopez, a second-year student at the University, said she vividly remembers why she wanted to become a driver for Gopher Chauffeur.

As a freshman, Lopez said she came to the University from out of state and felt lonely. She wanted to become a part of something bigger on campus to have the opportunity to make friends.

“I remember it was freshman year at Welcome Week, they were tabling, and they were like, ‘Apply for Gopher Chauffeur if you want to make friends,’” Lopez said.

Lopez added she loves people and enjoys driving, so she saw Gopher Chauffeur as a great opportunity and took it. 

“I think it is really fun to just interact with the people we pick up and also with my partner,” Lopez said. “It’s fun when we play party music, and everyone is having a good time.” 

Tristan Cady, another student driver and team lead, said a typical night for drivers starts at Boynton Health, where drivers get to know each other, do some icebreakers and talk about what to expect for the night. 

“From there, we just go down to the parking ramp where we pick up our vans, and then we start picking people up,” Cady said. “When we are finished, we finish all the rides before we actually head home.”

Cady said a driver’s main priority is to pick people up, drop them off and make sure they get from wherever they start to wherever they are going safely.

“If there’s any sort of incident where they might be heavily intoxicated to the point where they can’t walk, we make sure to navigate that and make sure they are safe,” Cady said. 

Cady added there is no set end point for when drivers go home, but drivers stop accepting rides around 12:30 a.m. on most weeknights and 1:30 a.m. on Saturdays. 

“Typically, there are two people in the car, so we switch off about halfway through our shifts so the driver does not get too tired and the passenger can take over,” Cady said.

Cady added that his favorite part of the job is meeting different people, interacting with them and hearing the different stories they share.

“People talk a lot, they’re friendly, and that’s the thing I enjoy most is when I’m talking to passengers, just getting to know and interact with them,” Cady said. 

Lopez said one of her favorite parts of the job is playing music with the passengers.

“One time, we picked up some girls, and they were like, ‘Can you play Taylor Swift, “Picture to Burn,”’ and I was like, ‘Absolutely,’” Lopez said. “And we just played ‘Picture to Burn’ all the way to their location, full blast, and it was so fun.” 

Noah DeVlaminck, another student driver, said the job can take a toll on academics, so he has to find a balance.

“Throughout the week, I work quite often,” DeVlaminck said. “I usually take a lot of naps after and between classes.”

DeVlaminck added he uses Google Calendar to space out his time and mark out when he has availability. 

“It’s just a really, really fun job, and for me, it’s pretty easy when you’re just driving around, ” DeVlaminck said. “It’s fun to just listen to music with the passengers.”

Lopez said the drivers are constantly working behind the scenes and helping people get home. She added it makes her happy to make sure everyone is getting to their destination safely.

“I like to call us the unsung heroes,” Lopez said. 

The University of Minnesota Alumni Market, founded in 2017 with 14 businesses, has expanded to a massive coalition of over 170 alumni businesses and services both online and in-store at the McNamara Alumni Center. 

The Alumni Market features everything from apparel and travel items to services like career coaching.

Lisa Lewis, president and CEO of the University’s Alumni Association (UMAA), said the market connects alumni businesses and allows them to build a community of support while showcasing new products and services. The UMAA is the only organization with this type of market in the country. 

“We are building this extraordinary, loyal and large alumni community that is going to hold this university in a good place for the rest of their lives,” Lewis said. 

Lisa Huber, the vice president of marketing and business development at the Alumni Association, said the market is not just limited to the Twin Cities campus. Other University campuses, like Morris and Duluth, have alumni entrepreneurs featured as well.

The market carries actual products available both in-store and online.

“The store became brick-and-mortar a year ago when we realized that people just really wanted to touch and see, and online wasn’t serving their curiosity anymore,” Huber said. 

Lewis said the website recently added a directory listing where all of the businesses are included alongside alumni who provide services, such as lawyers and consultants. 

Lewis added the Alumni Association holds various events where entrepreneurs from the market can meet and build relationships with one another, like the Annual Celebration. 

According to Lewis, students can sometimes have trouble passing from a student entrepreneurial ecosystem, with all of the resources the University provides, to an alumni entrepreneurial system.

Lewis said the market allows alumni to make this transition in a smooth way where alumni can stay connected. She highlighted the market hones in on the trend of supporting small businesses.

Lewis added spreading the word about the market and helping people understand how it is special helps support the market and its mission. 

“It’s about the people and all the ways that you can see the humans behind these businesses,” Huber said. 

Alumni entrepreneurs share the benefits of the market

Umut Kaplan, an alumni entrepreneur, has his business, Coccinella, featured in the market and expressed his gratitude for the market’s networking events.

“You get to interact with people to share about your business, and that has been wonderful,” Kaplan said.

Coccinella is a business sharing the traditions of the Mediterranean with the United States. They sell products like olive oil, textiles and handcrafted soaps.

Junita Flowers, an alumni entrepreneur who founded Junita’s Jar, a mission-driven cookie company, emphasized the importance of networking in her career. 

“Networking is so vitally important to building your business,” Flowers said. “If you don’t have relationships, then you have just a transactional business that doesn’t go deeper, and you don’t get to serve the mission that your business was set up to serve.”

Kaplan highlighted the market’s impact on building business relationships.

“The alumni market opens up all those channels to use where we can get to build those relationships,” Kaplan said. “It is a direct impact for success, like the growth of our business.” 

According to Flowers, being part of the market has opened doors that have allowed her to build relationships and do business beyond the market itself. Many outlets, including Target, carry Junita’s Jar. 

Natalie Koelln, the alumni founder of Made in Minn, an embroidery company, said the market played a key role in helping pivot her career from the corporate to the entrepreneurial world, adding they have become one of the business’ top wholesale clients.

“I saw them and reached out, and I think they responded right away,” Koelln said.

Koelln said the market provides her with unique promotional opportunities other distribution channels have not, including emails highlighting her products and promotion in the Minnesota Alumni Magazine last September. 

Paul Dixon, the alumni publisher and co-owner of Papa Lemon Books, a third-grade-reading-level historical fiction series, said the market has allowed his business to be differentiated from other book companies in a competitive industry. 

“It is a way of being differentiated versus just being on a Barnes and Noble or an Amazon site,” Dixon said. 

According to Dixon, there is something both “magical” and “mystical” about staying connected with the University and other former alumni through the market. 

“The more you stay connected with people, you never know how you’ll be able to help them or they’ll be able to help you one day, and I just find it fascinating how all those things can play themselves out,” Dixon said. 

Laura Coates, CNN’s chief legal analyst and anchor of the channel’s show “Laura Coates Live,” was selected to serve as grand marshal for the University of Minnesota’s 2023 homecoming parade on Friday by the University of Minnesota Alumni Association (UMAA). 

Coates is a St. Paul native and 2005 graduate of the University’s Law School. Prior to her work at CNN, Coates served as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice during the Bush and Obama administrations.

Marissa Smith, UMAA’s vice president of engagement, said the association has the privilege of recognizing one alum each year as homecoming’s grand marshal.

The grand marshal serves as a role model for students, and their achievements and contributions are celebrated throughout the homecoming festivities. Some of these festivities include leading the homecoming parade and being recognized on the football field as part of the halftime show during the game, Smith said. 

According to Smith, all grand marshals must be graduates of the Twin Cities campus, be recognized for excellence in their personal industries and should represent the diversity of the alumni body. 

“We like to tie the grand marshal recognition to what’s happening in our world, somebody who’s addressing and leading on a timely issue,” Smith said. 

Coates is a leading figure in the media and represents an aspirational role model for students, according to Smith, adding she “seemed like a natural selection.”

According to Smith, the grand marshal has a full week itinerary. On Thursday night, Coates was recognized and participated in the Alumni Awards Affair, an event hosted by the UMAA that honors 15 alumni from around the world with the Alumni Service Award and a series of other awards. 

Some other festivities on Coates’ itinerary included attending Ski U Mania , the official homecoming pregame party of the UMAA, and the Black Alumni Network tailgate, Smith said. 

Coates said she is a part of the Law School’s Board of Advisors, and she attended some of those meetings as well.

Primarily raised in Minnesota, Coates said she grew up going to the University for different sporting events. 

“My time at the U really prepared me for both a traditional and non-traditional career path,” Coates said. “Traditional in the sense that I always felt extremely capable at a law firm, but I also felt extremely capable being able to pivot with the skill set that was honed in at the University of Minnesota’s Law School.”

Coates said one of her favorite activities at the University was “moot court.” Moot courts at the University give training and oral advocacy by providing students with mock problems involving current real-world issues. Students then argue the cases to appellate courts using the processes of real lawyers. 

“There are moments when I’m on air, and I’m recalling the arguments I made in moot and feeling like I know this is right because I remember moot court,” Coates said. 

Coates emphasized how honorable it was to be selected for the position of grand marshal at a school that meant so much to her career.

“I want people to think about the University of Minnesota as a place where they can get a first-rate education, where the community is as invested in the success of its students as the students feel invested in the community,” Coates said.

Coates hopes to continue on the legacy of those who are civil rights-minded in practicing law and recognize there is a lot of work yet to be done. 

“I am a really big advocate that people should feel that it is encouraged to pivot toward their dreams, and I hope that’s the legacy of the University of Minnesota’s Law School and the University of Minnesota,” Coates said. 

Kevin Washburn, one of Coates’ former professors at the University’s Law School, said Coates was “the picture of absolute composure,” even as a law student in her twenties. 

Washburn is now the dean of the University of Iowa College of Law. 

“I think there are a lot of great lawyers out there, but there are a comparatively small number that can make the career transition she has made,” Washburn said. “She did that herself, and that takes a real kind of entrepreneurial spirit.” 

Washburn added Coates was very engaged within the Law School and had good values. 

“She was a leader and a role model,” Washburn said. “People liked her, and she was effective.”

As a message for students, Coates advises to determine and define success in each individual’s own terms.

“Embrace the things you’re passionate about and success will be inevitable,” Coates said.

With a forward-thinking vision and a commitment to enhancing student engagement, the University of Minnesota’s Office of Orientation & Transition Experiences (OTE) is reshaping the new student experience. 

By providing a dynamic and inclusive platform for incoming students to thrive, OTE provides many resources for students throughout their four years at the University. 

Lizette Rebolledo, the director of OTE, described their mission as an effort to support every student in their journey from entering the University to successfully completing their degree. 

She said the department provides engaging experiences, fostering a sense of community and encouraging students to take charge of their personal growth while making the most of campus resources.

According to Rebolledo, a “New Student Checklist” is launched at the end of March for first-year students and April for transfers after they have confirmed their attendance. Within the checklist, a “Tell Us About Yourself” survey is required for all incoming students to fill out. 

“It is a survey that we’ve been administering for over 15 years that asks our students a variety of questions about their high school experience, what they’re thinking college is going to be like and what they’re most excited about and how we can best support them,” Rebolledo said.

The data is then used to help OTE think about how they are putting together content for orientation and is shared with academic advisors to look at before primary advising appointments take place. 

Another important resource all new students receive prior to beginning school is the “Gold Book.” According to Rebolledo, the book is revised every year and includes over 100 pages, including 30 pages on-campus resources. The book is also available online for public access.

“When I first came here, [the Gold Book] was useful just to see what to expect at the school,” said Sariya Banday, a first-year student at the University.

Banday is a student in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) and said the Gold Book was also “extremely” helpful in terms of learning about all the different classes and the actual University itself. 

Dhruva Pingale, another first-year student at the University, said it is nice to always have the Gold Book available because it helps him to not forget about available resources. 

Upon arriving on campus, students often undergo significant lifestyle shifts, adapting to newfound independence, diverse social interactions and a completely new academic environment.

“Setting time aside for myself, in terms of maintaining a good diet, getting enough sleep or getting enough exercise, have all fallen to the wayside … I only have so many hours in the day, and also, I have homework,” Pingale said. 

According to Rebolledo, in an effort to continue supporting students after the welcoming programs, OTE has implemented a division called Student Transition Experiences (STE). STE offers programs, experiences and communications for first-year students, transfer students and second-year students. 

“We’ve had a couple study table events that we’re hosting for students. Just last week, we did a ‘paint your own tote’ event where we had over 100 students come and just paint a tote bag,” Rebolledo said. 

When describing a couple of the STE events she attended, Banday said they helped give her a lot of information on what to expect as a new student on campus. The events made her feel more comfortable, she added. 

STE tries to implement both lighthearted and community-building focused events to help students transition to campus life. They also host events to showcase specific campus resources, according to Rebolledo.

Rebolledo added OTE sends out different newsletters to first-year, second-year and transfer students monthly to make sure students are provided with information about the resources they have on campus. 

The goal of the OTE department is to make sure students are always thinking about preventive health versus reactive health, Rebolledo said. 

OTE encourages students to be proactive and to think about using the resources available prior to a situation which would require them to do so, she added. 

According to Banday, some students are not interested in using resources and feel they have it all figured out. 

Students might also be overwhelmed by the size of the University’s campus, which requires them to take a moment to pause and prioritize what they need, according to Rebolledo, since college comes with a huge “time management spider web” that becomes complex. 

“If they do need a resource immediately, and they don’t know where to start, we want them to feel comfortable coming to us and for us to direct them where to go,” Rebolledo said. 

Banday said coming to campus can be really overwhelming, which is why it is important to reach out to people and remember there are a bunch of easily accessible resources. Pingale emphasized the importance of new students looking into all the resources available to them.

“Even if it’s a quick glance, there’s so much available here,” Pingale said. “There are chances that you’ll find stuff that’s not entirely useful … but then you’ll come across something that’s actually really important to you.”