By: Anne Millerbernd

This year's Spring Jam will be the largest to date, with officials planning to book a more well-known artist and add a concert, according to a news release.

The festival's main headliner concert will also be ticketed, unlike past years, and take place in Mariucci Arena, the release said.

read more

By: Kaitlyn Walek

The Minnesota Student Association will hold its first forum of spring semester Tuesday night.

At the meeting, MSA will hold elections for multiple positions and give updates on its lobbying initiatives. It will also vote on three position statements, including one that supports fossil fuel divestment at the University of Minnesota.

Another position statement, if passed, would support state and federal legislation requiring smartphone manufacturers to install a “kill switch” on their products to disable the phone if it gets stolen.

read more

By: Kyle Stowe

Come July 1, the University of Minnesota’s Council of Graduate Students will sever formal affiliation with the Graduate and Professional Student Association.

COGS voted 32-1 with four abstentions on Monday to apply for its own student services fees funding beginning with this spring’s cycle. COGS will also stop accepting pass-through funding from GAPSA and discontinue sending COGS representatives to the assembly beginning next school year.

read more

By: Cody Nelson

A University of Minnesota employee committed suicide in Nils Hasselmo Hall on Monday morning, University police said.

University police Deputy Chief Chuck Miner said the 37-year-old man was a part-time University employee. The man jumped from the building's upper level and landed on the concrete floor of the building's atrium, Miner said.

University staffers and others on the scene unsuccessfully tried to help the man, Miner said.  Miner said counseling services were brought in for those who witnessed the jump.

read more

By: Alexi Gusso

A man was hospitalized after climbing a utility pole in Dinkytown early Wednesday morning.

Xcel Energy officials received notice that there was “public contact” with an electrical pole just south of 14th Avenue Southeast and 7th Street Southeast around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, Xcel spokesman Tom Hoen said.

read more

BY ALEX BITTER

The University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing is receiving the largest gift in the program’s history.

A $10 million donation from the Bentson Foundation announced Wednesday will provide scholarships to train up to 500 new nurses over the next decade in the University's three-year Doctor of Nursing program, according to a press release.

read more

By: Cody Nelson

University of Minnesota police recovered a body from the Mississippi River after authorities received a report of a man jumping off the Washington Avenue Bridge around 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to a press release from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office.

The body was that of a Twin Cities metro area man in his 50s, the release said. His name hasn't yet been released.

University police Deputy Chief Chuck Miner said in a voicemail that the jump was a suicide.

read more

By: Melissa Berman

When Alpha Kappa Alpha members saw the statistics for HIV and AIDS in the African American community, they knew they had to do something.

To increase awareness of the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the African American community, the sorority, which was founded by African American women, hosted a gala Thursday night as part of its philanthropic efforts.

read more

By: Kyle Stowe

A new mental health clinic on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus opened Monday.

The clinic, located in Coffey Hall, is the latest in a joint initiative among University departments and student groups to increase mental health services to students on campus.

The clinic should help decrease wait times for students seeking mental health assistance, said Dave Golden, director of public health for Boynton Health Service.

“We had waiting lists again last year, which we really don’t like to see,” Golden said. “We needed more resources.”

Two new mental health clinical staff members, funded by the Student Services Fees Committee last spring, will work at the clinic.

The new location makes mental health care more accessible to students in St. Paul, said Glenn Hirsch, director of University Counseling and Consulting Services.

UCCS employs one full-time staff member for mental health services in St. Paul, but they don’t have the ability to treat severe mental health disorders or prescribe medication, Hirsch said. But with the new clinic, these services will be available on the St. Paul campus.

“I think the St. Paul campus hasn’t always got the resources that the Minneapolis campus has,” Hirsch said. “I think this is a nice way to balance that out.”

Minnesota Student Association President Mike Schmit is working with Boynton and other University resources to increase mental health care options to students on campus. He said it’s important to eliminate barriers for students who need help.

“Just traveling from St. Paul to Minneapolis is a huge barrier in and of itself,” he said. “I think the additional clinic in St. Paul will make mental health support more convenient to students out there."

By: Hailey Colwell

When he came to the University of Minnesota from Egypt in 2009 to get his Ph.D., computer science student Abdeltawab Hendawi had no idea that many of his good friends would be killed for peacefully protesting before he got back.

Though he planned to return to his home in Egypt after finishing school, Hendawi said he’s unsure of what to do now.  

Hendawi and other University students gathered in front of the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis on Friday to raise awareness about ongoing violence in Egypt that escalated in early July after a coup ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi from office.

“We want to spread the word to Minnesotans and to Americans,” said Tamer Sharafeldin, a University veterinary medicine doctoral student and member of the nonprofit Egyptian-Americans for Democracy and Human Rights, which helped organize the rally. “We just want to let them know what’s going [on] in Egypt.”

The group formed in early July as a response to Morsi’s removal from office and has organized events over the past two months to show support for peaceful protest and democracy in Egypt, Sharafeldin said.

Similar rallies took place around the world on Friday in support of nonviolent protest, he said.

Sharafeldin said he’s explained to his University advisers and students he teaches why people are protesting the coup in his homeland. 

 “They are looking to have a life in democracy,” he said, “a better life for themselves and for their kids in the future.”