“I quit Snapchat as soon as he started sending me pictures of his balls.” 

—Dinkytown

Professor: “I was exposed to a lot of second-hand pot smoke last night at the Bob Dylan concert, and I swear it was like living inside a bong.”

 —Burton Hall

Guy 1: (While punching the chest of Guy 2) Dude, why the [expletive] would you do that to me?!

Guy 2: (Stomping a foot on the ground) I didn’t do [expletive] nothing to you! All I did was get myself [expletive] arrested!

—Dinkytown CVS

Guy 1: “I met a 17 year old, she was pretty cute  … it felt weird”

Guy 2: “… You should probably stop talking now.”

—Dinkytown

“She was pro-death penalty … everything you look for in a woman.”

—Bierman Field Athletic Building

“I’m going to put beef jerky in your bed!”

—Unknown

Guy: “I’m not gonna show him my little titties!”

—Comstock Hall

By: Janice Bitters

Colleges and universities around the country have begun adopting new ways to use technology in education, and the University of Minnesota is no exception.

Part of that shift is the implementation of flipped classrooms — courses that reverse the traditional lecture model with the use of pre-recorded lectures and online student forums.

Many University professors are experimenting with the flipped classroom model, and in the coming year, even more courses are set to be flipped.

“There has really been a dramatic uptick on the part of faculty that is almost a renaissance of thinking about how to teach better, and how to use new tools, that is more aggressive than it was before,” said chemistry professor Chris Cramer, who served as the faculty liaison for the University’s Office of eLearning and taught a flipped course last year.

In flipped classrooms, professors record and post lectures online for students to view outside of class. During normal class time, students generally participate in group work, hands-on activities and class discussions.

The flipped classrooms are in line with goals that Karen Hanson, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, laid out in February for the University’s eLearning initiatives, which include redesigning programs to integrate online components into courses.

As part of that initiative, the Office of eLearning has been working with several other University offices to help professors looking to flip a class, said Bob Rubinyi, director of the office of eLearning.

The Center for Teaching and Learning, the Office of Information Technology and the University Libraries have been collaborating with professors and administrators to provide support for faculty members who want to integrate new technology into the classroom.

“We’ve all been trying to work together over the last six months to create more wraparound support for faculty that want support in eLearning,” Rubinyi said, “so they don’t have to go to many different places for help.”

Flipped classes at the University

Though faculty members aren’t required to take up the eLearning initiative, many professors, including Cramer, have elected to. 

After teaching a flipped course last year, Cramer was also one of five professors to offer the University’s first massive open online courses, or MOOCs, this summer, an experience that he said prepared him to flip his second course this fall.

“[The MOOC] was more work than I expected, but it was pretty rewarding,” he said. “The student feedback was phenomenal, and it really helped me learn the subject better.”

Now, Cramer can take some of the content he created for the MOOC, like recorded lectures, and use it for a flipped class at the University, he said.

But professors can face drawbacks when creating flipped classes. When associate professor Michelle Driessen flipped one of her chemistry classes, she had to figure out how to engage with the large number of students who enrolled.

“I was assigned to teach 350 students,” she said. “But the largest active learning classroom holds [fewer] students.”

Her solution was to split the class into three sections that each met once a week for 50 minutes in a Science Teaching and Student Services active learning classroom. Because students only attended class for one session a week, she said, it was important they stay engaged during class time and listened to lectures at home.

“I think once students start to get used to the idea of maybe learning a little bit differently … they enjoy the flipped classroom,” she said. “But I don’t know if a lot of the freshmen I teach are prepared for that.”

Like Driessen, Cramer said he’s received mixed reviews for his flipped class.

“You get baked by at least a few students that say they want you to lecture more,” he said.

Jessica Wyatt, a chemistry freshman, said it’s unrealistic for professors to expect students to learn from videos at home.

“Flipped classrooms at the [University] are really obnoxious,” she said, “because you don’t get the lecture-style learning that you’re looking forward to when you go to college.”

On the other side of the spectrum, graduate student Kelsey Brown said a flipped classroom format would be attractive to her.

“[Flipped classes] would give students a lot more time to ask questions and already get familiar with the material so they can delve deeper into the [subject],” she said.

Though Driessen said creating flipped classes takes more work than preparing for a traditional lecture course, she still plans to flip a more advanced chemistry class in the spring because of positive feedback she got from students in her current flipped course.

“I feel like I’m here to put students in the best situation possible for them to learn and for me to teach,” she said. “So if it is more work for me, I guess that’s my job.”

By: Kia Farhang

University of Minnesota police banned a man from all West Bank buildings because of suspected sexual behavior in a bathroom stall in Anderson Hall last week.

Deputy Chief Chuck Miner said University police have received complaints about sexual behavior and invasion of privacy on the West Bank for more than a decade.

“It’s an ongoing problem,” he said.

In March, the department’s Coordinated Response Team used plain-clothes officers to arrest five people for “inappropriate activities” in an Anderson Hall bathroom.

“Generally, the folks we’re dealing with, as is the case here, are not affiliated with the University,” Miner said. “They come here for this specific purpose.”

Anderson Hall gets the most complaints, he said, but police also hear about incidents in Blegen and Willey halls.

As part of an effort to combat the complaints, an officer was setting up a camera outside the men’s bathroom July 10 to track when people entered and left, according to the police report. He saw a man, 51, enter the bathroom and waited about 20 minutes before following him inside.

The man started tapping his foot on the ground when the officer sat in the stall next to him. The officer tapped his foot, and they continued going back and forth for a few minutes.

The officer then heard “loud skin on skin rubbing noises” coming from the man’s stall, the police report said. The man started rubbing the officer’s foot with his shoe.

A few minutes later, the officer unlocked his stall door. The man did the same.

The officer then left his stall and identified himself as a police officer. The man said he was “just going to the bathroom,” the report said.

Police issued the man a trespassing warning and have banned him from all University buildings on the West Bank for a year.

In situations like this, Miner said, police most often issue citations for indecent exposure or disorderly conduct.

“Here, there was no exposing going on,” he said. “There’s going to be no further prosecution of this case.”

By: Branden Largent

Four University of Minnesota graduate students sealed themselves in their downtown Cairo apartment for four days while Egypt’s second revolution in two and a half years was happening right outside their window.

With enough food to last them a week, they rarely left the two-bedroom apartment, a 10-minute walk from Tahrir Square, the epicenter for millions of protesters nationwide.

“We were just right there,” said Edwin Dorbor, one of the graduate students. “It strengthened our relationship. We got to learn more about ourselves and each other.”

The Humphrey School of Public Affairs students — who are all pursuing master’s degrees in international development practice — left Egypt on July 3, the day President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the nation’s military. Now, all University students wishing to study in Egypt must get approval from the school.

Amid escalating unrest, the U.S. Department of State issued a travel warning for Egypt on June 28. The students agreed to stay inside their apartment so the University would let them stay in the country. By July 3 — hours after they decided to return to the U.S. — the government issued a stricter travel warning that would have required them to come home.

The departure was more than two weeks earlier than the students initially planned.

There and back again

The students flew to Egypt on May 19 to work with a nongovernmental organization that prepares youth for the competitive job market.

The work was part of a field experience required for their graduate degrees, said Ragui Assaad, a public affairs professor who was in Egypt advising the students.

From the moment they arrived, Assaad said, all anyone could talk about was the approaching protests against Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president.

As the end of June approached, people started crowding in Tahrir Square to protest either for or against Morsi, Dorbor said. 

“But everything was peaceful,” he said. “People were just expressing their frustrations. But the numbers continued to grow.”

When the protests escalated and millions called for Morsi’s resignation on June 30, the graduate students couldn’t go to the NGO’s office because nearly all of its students and staff members were participating in the protests.

Dorbor said all the protests they witnessed were peaceful, but it was hard to tell if they would escalate to violence — or if it already had in places they couldn’t see.

It became difficult for the students to concentrate on anything besides news of the growing protests and the chanting and marching heard from the streets outside their windows.

They learned to sleep through fireworks and other demonstration noises that continued throughout the night.

But sitting in the apartment resulted in a mixture of boredom, fear and unpredictability.

“We were not sure what was going to happen,” Dorbor said. “We were not sure if we could find our way out if things [got] bad.”

Like all University students traveling abroad, the graduate students had insurance that covered an emergency return. They were in constant contact with the insurance company, the University, Assad and their own families.

“We explained we are safe,” Dorbor said, “but it’s always difficult for families to believe you when people are marching in Tahrir Square.”

He said families became very concerned after 21-year-old American student Andrew Pochter died at a protest in Alexandria, Egypt.

After Morsi was ousted, the students decided they wouldn’t be able to complete their work in Cairo and told the insurance company they wanted to leave.

Within 10 minutes, the insurance company arranged a return flight for the students. 

Because the State Department issued a stricter travel warning for the country on July 3, the students would’ve been required to leave anyway, said Stacey Tsantir, director of University international health, safety and compliance.

“It went really well,” Tsantir said. “It was a very impressive way that [the students] were able to manage such a stressful situation.”

Riding to the airport in a van provided by the insurance company, Dorbor said, they stopped constantly because streets and sidewalks were crowded with civilians, military and police as far as they could see.

Hoping to return

Although the graduate students left earlier than expected, Dorbor said they completed most of their fieldwork and are continuing where they left off from home.

Assaad and the graduate students will keep working with the NGO in Egypt and hope to return within a year to finish the work, which is part of their capstone project.

With the current travel warning for Egypt, Tsantir said students, including the four graduate students, will have to appeal to the University’s International Travel Risk Assessment and Advisory Committee if they want to travel to Egypt.

After witnessing a revolution, Dorbor said, he now feels a connection with Egypt and many of its people. He still worries about people he met in Cairo and wonders if they’re still OK.

“I always want to know what’s happening in Egypt right now,” Dorbor said.

Violence in Egypt has escalated in recent days, including an open fire by the Egyptian military on the Muslim Brotherhood, which Morsi is a part of, that left more than 50 dead. 

An emotional family reunion

Satta Dorbor, Edwin Dorbor’s wife, said it was “heartbreaking” watching the news and worrying if her husband was safe.

She emailed him up to seven times a day, but the minutes and hours between each reply were always filled with concern.

Satta Dorbor kept her children in the dark about the severity of her husband’s situation because she didn’t want to worry them.

“I knew it would be traumatic, so I tried to keep them out of it,” she said.

When he finally arrived at the terminal in Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Satta Dorbor brought along their three children and told them they were picking up a friend of hers.

When they instead saw their father for the first time in nearly two months, they screamed and ran to him.

Their youngest boy screamed, yelling “Dad” and jumping into Edwin Dorbor’s arms.

“It was so emotional,” Satta Dorbor said. “We really missed him. Really, really missed him.” 

By: Willard Shapira, University alumnus

University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler and athletics director Norwood Teague are totally distorting the mission of our beloved university with their wrong-headed plan to raise millions from the private sector to expand the facilities of the Department of Athletics.

Athletics have absolutely no connection to the purpose of the University (education) and would take away from private donations to vital education projects.

I also refuse to believe our sell-out governor will not, at some point, find a way to get state money involved, just as he did for a Vikings stadium.

What difference does it make to anyone whether the University not only wins or loses but even competes at any level in intercollegiate athletics except those whose careers depend on sports?

Our teams not only lose more than they win but have brought scandal and shame upon the University by the misbehavior of our “student athletes.”

I suggest students, faculty and others who back education over big-time sports publicly condemn this plan, call for Kaler and Teague to withdraw it, urge prospective donors to sports expansion to rethink their plans and to publicly call upon Gov. Mark Dayton and the Legislature to stop this plan in its tracks.

By: Kevin Dorn, CEHD and Teach For America alumnus

As an alumnus of both the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development and Teach For America, I find the recent petition from 10 graduate students in CEHD against a potential partnership with TFA troublesome. As a native Minnesotan and a proud graduate and current Ph.D. student of the University, I’m compelled to share why collaboration between TFA and CEHD is a logical choice for our state.

Many in our state pride themselves on our excellent K-12 education system.

While Minnesota is home to some of the highest performing schools in the nation, the unfortunate reality is that our current system is failing many of our children. Teacher preparation programs are in a position of great power to change the status quo and ensure more dedicated professionals are ready and committed to teach in our highest-need schools.

TFA and CEHD share a common goal — to provide all students with the best education possible. As the state’s flagship institution of learning, we should be seeking partnerships with community organizations like TFA to find ways to learn from each other — not isolating ourselves from approaches or ideas that may be different from our own. CEHD should not perceive collaboration with TFA as a threat to our school of education. A partnership would only strengthen our already strong learning environment by infusing our student body with diverse teachers from across the country passionate about fighting for educational equality.

We should lean on our University’s core values to share knowledge, understanding and creativity by providing a broad range of educational programs in a strong and diverse community of learners and teachers. Our campus’ community should not perpetuate false divides in education and learning, such as traditionally versus alternatively prepared teachers. This type of dialogue only distracts us from making sure all of Minnesota’s children are reaching their full potential.

As an institution of academic research, CEHD should be interested in trying innovative alternative methods in teacher preparation to fuel continuous learning. A partnership between TFA and CEHD can be one part of the solution as we collectively work to strengthen the educational opportunities we’re providing all of our children.

By: Bronwyn Miller

Growing up, my friends and I found it entertaining to search lists of unusual laws and laugh at the absurdity of certain mandates. Dominoes cannot be played on Sunday in Alabama. It is illegal to take a lion to the theater in Baltimore, Md. And you can’t sell doughnut holes in Lehigh, Neb.

While equally ridiculous, the Food and Drug Administration directive that forbids men who have sex with men from donating blood is anything but laughable. The ban began in 1983 and was retained in 2000 and 2006 during FDA reviews of the issue.When the ban was first implemented, tests to screen for HIV-positive blood did not exist, and the nation was in a state of panic over HIV and AIDS. Scientists knew that gay men were affected disproportionately; the ban was a well-intended — albeit imperfect — effort of containing the crisis and preventing infection of the nation’s blood supply.

However, with today’s sophisticated testing tools, a blanket policy on account of sexual orientation reeks of discrimination. As the rules stand now, a heterosexual person who has had sex with a prostitute can donate as long as the encounter was more than a year ago. Yet men are permanently eliminated from the donor pool if they answer affirmatively to having had sex with a man at any point, “even once,” since 1977. Women, too, are disqualified if they have had sex with a man who has had sex with another man since 1977, but only if that interaction occurred in the last 12 months.

The American Red Cross estimates that someone in the U.S. needs blood every two seconds. The necessity of an ample blood supply is indisputable yet unmet by our current donor pool. In June, with donations down by 10 percent nationwide, the Red Cross received 50,000 fewer donations than expected. An emergency request for blood and platelet donations was put out last week.

Last week’s “National Gay Blood Drive,” an event that had 52 participating cities in Minnesota alone, illustrated the willingness of MSM to help combat the blood shortage. In protest, participants took HIV tests that will be sent to the FDA to prove their eligibility as donors.

Our judgment of blood quality should be determined by individual behavior, not sexual orientation. The FDA must step up and eliminate its prejudiced policy. 

By: Daily Editorial Board

The University is not alone in this lengthy process. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an application for a general education requirement must be approved by department, college and divisional executive committees before general education eligibility can be granted.

While a higher level of scrutiny may be appropriate for institutions with so many course options, the process should not inherently afflict cross-collaboration between departments. If a course incorporating different departments or colleges must go through endless committee approvals for every department involved, students will be less likely to benefit from a potentially unique and innovative class. By consolidating departmental committee approvals, through joint or mixed department meetings, perhaps faculty will be more encouraged to develop these valuable learning experiences, and students will be able to fulfill requirements in a more creative manner.

By: Daily Editorial Board

Teague said that he hopes to finance the entire project privately. He added that the plan shows what the athletics department is currently lacking and that the new facilities and upgrades are needs, not wants.

In the world of big-time college sports, Teague’s assessment is correct. The University is severely lacking in practice and training facilities, and that certainly has an impact on its ability to recruit talented college athletes. The University and Northwestern University are the only two programs in the Big Ten without a dedicated basketball practice facility.

However, while the new facilities are undoubtedly necessary if the Gophers want to compete, the University’s ability to raise all $190 million privately is far from a sure thing. Nothing in this project will bring in game day revenue, and getting donors interested in practice facilities is presumably harder than selling them a full-time sports venue, such as TCF Bank Stadium. The willingness of boosters to donate depends largely on how well the Gophers perform in the upcoming seasons, which is a gamble. 

Before going any further with the plan, Teague and others in the athletic department should come up with a more detailed finance plan. The department is not known for its fiscal restraint and in the past has had to rely on outside funds to balance its budget. Questions about how realistic the fundraising goal is, and what happens if it falls through, need to be answered. An ambitious goal requires thorough planning.