Dr. Job Ubbink has traveled around the world to places such as Switzerland, Brazil, Russia, the United Kingdom and across the United States to study food science.

His experience as a traveler and his passion for how food connects people sparked his vision for a new course called “Food Customs & Culture” at the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

The course is open for undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines. The goal of the course is to strengthen a student’s understanding of their own culture and the culture of others, as well as their worldview in relation to food.

Students complete assignments about their food consumption and write a research project that either examines the evolution of a selected food or analyzes a food custom and culture of a specific group around the world.

Ubbink, a University professor and head of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, said he was inspired by what he learned during his travels across the world.

“I’ve been fortunate to be part of various communities for either private reasons or professionally,” Ubbink said. “And really realizing that there are multiple ways to do something and how to interact and how to exchange information, that’s a fascinating process and I wanted to share that with the students.”

The new course started this spring with more than 60 enrolled students. Ubbink, University lecturer Dr. Francine Overcash and associate professor Dr. Craig Hassel worked together to develop and teach the course.

“These professors, I cannot say enough good things about them,” said Grace Atchison, a second-year student who is taking the course. “They are so clearly interested in what they’re teaching, but they’re also extremely interested in what we have to say, and so it always makes classes really fun.”

Throughout the course, students and professors share experiences with one another about their own cultures in connection with food. Students are assigned to interview someone with a different cultural background to learn about changes to their food habits over time.

Growing up in the Midwest, third-year student Nathan Seim said his grandparents wanted to assimilate after immigrating to the United States from Norway and Sweden. His grandparents read recipes from the back of their soup cans or newspapers to adopt new dietary practices.

Seim said that during the pandemic, it can be difficult to meet or interact with students from different backgrounds and cultures. The course has helped Seim gain that experience in a virtual setting.

“I absolutely love this course. I think it is my favorite course I’ve ever taken if I’m being completely honest,” Atchinson said. “Regardless of what you are doing, I think it is essential to be able to communicate with people who are different than you [and] to have more of a global perspective on the world.”

Kevin Welshons, a second-year student who is taking the course, said one of the most important lessons he learned is to be aware of where credit is due for the mass-produced food that is in grocery stores across the United States.

“I think as we get further away from how our food is grown, then I think we lose touch with that spiritual value. And that day in and day out, that it is hard work to grow anything,” Welshons said.

The professors plan to teach the course in-person on the East Bank campus in the fall and on the St. Paul campus in the spring.

“As an instructor in certain classes that I teach, you don’t get to hear much about the students’ family background [or] cultural background,” Overcash said. “That’s what I’ve gotten out of [the course] as an instructor and learning about the students more on a personal level.”

In the fall of 2019, Noro Andriamanalina said she started conversations at the University of Minnesota’s Graduate School to identify the gaps in support services for first-generation students in graduate programs and facilitate community building.
More than two years later, Andriamanalina’s efforts as the director of academic and professional development at the Graduate School have propelled the launch of an initiative called First-Gen Connect. The initiative aims to develop programming for first-generation students in graduate programs based on feedback from focus groups and combined efforts of Graduate School staff and faculty.

First-generation students in graduate programs are students who have parents who did not earn a four-year degree and attend a graduate program.

As part of the initiative, “First-Gen Listserv” launched in February to share information in an email list about resources and opportunities for first-generation students, as well as gather new insights and build community. Currently, more than 700 students subscribe to the Listserv.

Because there is no complete list of first-generation students, students can fill out a form to add themselves to the Listserv, said Rhiannon Williams, the program facilitator at the Graduate School.
Although there are programs at the Graduate School, like the Community of Scholars Program, which provides support for Indigenous students and domestic students of color in academia, First-Gen Connect strives to serve all first-generation students in graduate programs.

“We need to have a way to support all first-generation college students who are in graduate programs and build that community and build resources specifically for those students,” Andriamanalina said.

Research on first-generation college students in graduate programs

Dr. Rashné Jehangir, an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development, partnered with the First-Gen Connect team to conduct focus groups. Her research background includes studying the retention and graduation of low-income and first-generation students.

“Students who are first gen are more likely to be low-income. Students who are first gen are often [Black, Indigenous and people of color] or immigrants or refugees, [but] not always,” Jehangir said. “But there’s this intersectional experience. In some ways those multiple identities bring with them certain strengths, but they also kind of feed into other systemic barriers that the institution has at various levels.”

First-Gen Connect’s research started last March. Jehangir worked alongside Graduate School staff to conduct three focus groups with first-generation students from various backgrounds and disciplines.

“The focus of the study was to think about and understand how students navigated their journey to and through graduate school and also how they were making meaning of their first-gen identity in that space,” Jehangir said. “And what recommendations they had for administrators [and] faculty that could make the path more smooth.”

One of her findings shows that academia presents barriers for first-generation students whose families and communities did not have the social or economic capital to gain access compared to other students, she added.

“A lot of students talked about how they negotiated not knowing things [and] how they engage in self-reliance and hustle and resourcefulness to [try] to fill these gaps that they really weren’t told about,” Jehangir said. “I think that’s one of the big strengths of students who have already negotiated complex systems before they get to the academy.”

On April 1, the University’s First-Generation Institute conference will highlight more research on first-generation students, including facilitating a space to explore practices and empower participants.

Experiences from focus group participants

One of the focus group participants, Nathan Stenberg, is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate at the University’s Department of Theatre Arts & Dance. Stenberg is from Howard Lake, Minnesota, a small town with fewer than 2,000 people.

In the focus group, he said that he wanted to contribute his past experiences living in a rural area and growing up with a disability in a single-parent family from a low-income background.
“Especially as a white, straight guy, I need to check those things first and acknowledge that’s predominantly what people will see and think of me,” Stenberg said. “But there’s also all of these other layers to these conversations and experiences. … For that to come out, I have to listen, and I have to be vulnerable.”

He added that it was also important for him to be persistent in the focus group.

“I have learned that I do need to be persistent about that because disability impacts every single group and impacts so many things in our society,” Stenberg said.

Another focus group participant, Max Fraser, is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. He was born and raised in a working-class family in Owatonna, Minnesota.

Fraser said he is the first doctoral student in his family. But sometimes at family gatherings, family members still question why he is continuing to go to school.

“Those [questions] always cut deep, but I’ve also had a lot of support from my immediate family as well as some of my uncles [and aunts], who were farmers,” Fraser said. “They might not know the academic process, but they understand the professional side of it. And so I really gravitated towards those relationships.”

Fraser said for the past eight years, he has been lucky to have a positive relationship with his adviser, who is supportive and has provided guidance since his undergraduate years.
He said not all first-generation college students in graduate programs experience that, despite the responsibility placed on advisers and students’ shoulders to advance in graduate programs.

In February, the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH) released a draft plan for diversity, equity and inclusion to students, staff, alumni and faculty members to provide feedback.

The draft plan, “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategic Plan,” will guide efforts and define action steps in the next five years. In January 2020, the strategic planning committee began work to create the draft plan. The committee will compile the feedback and present it at the next strategic planning committee meeting on March 17 to inform the next steps.

In the draft plan, the goal areas focus on students, leadership, staff, alumni and faculty members to establish change throughout SPH. For example, one of the action steps is to create a strong infrastructure for current students to connect with alumni, said Heidi Mastrud, SPH director of alumni relations.

“We have an alumni database, but we don’t know who has what skills. We don’t know who is connected to what communities,” Mastrud said. “So building that infrastructure is essential because then we can better partner with alumni so that the wisdom that they have can be utilized by many at the school.”

Lauren Eldridge, coordinator of diversity, equity and inclusion at SPH, started her role in 2017.

“When I came into the school, there were no other [diversity, equity and inclusion] folks working at SPH, so it felt like people across the school were doing a lot of disjointed programming and initiatives,” Eldridge said. “By 2019, I recognized that we needed to have a more coordinated plan for our resources, our energy and our people.”

After the police killing of George Floyd, there was an urgency for SPH to act by establishing three commitments in diversity, equity and inclusion, Eldridge added.

These commitments include increasing diversity in talent, driving change and accountability through antiracist and sustainable organizational structures, increasing representation and developing a core curriculum in health equity.

“The strategic plan, when it launches, will supersede the commitments so everything that is in the commitments will be either completed or reflected in the strategic plan,” Eldridge said.

Susana Carlos is a second-year master’s student at SPH and a member of the strategic planning committee. She said she primarily worked on the student goal area in the draft plan. In her role, she wanted to ensure the draft plan included better communication for students to reach resources and talk about their experiences, she added.

One action step in the student goal area is to create a network that will include trained staff, faculty and student leaders who can advocate for students.

Last fall, Dr. SooJin Pate, consultant and trainer at Strategic Diversity Initiatives, developed a climate survey and conducted interviews and focus groups with SPH staff, alumni, students and faculty members. The results provided insights to the draft plan.

Strategic Diversity Initiatives is an LGBTQ- and woman-owned consulting firm providing education and consultation on diversity, equity and inclusion to support organizations.

“We wanted a plan that addressed head-on the challenges of racism and racial inequity in higher education and in public health; so we wanted a plan that was actively antiracist,” read an email from Dr. Anne Phibbs, founder and president of Strategic Diversity Initiatives. “We also wanted a plan that was doable, and we wanted a plan that would position SPH as a [diversity, equity and inclusion] leader within the University of Minnesota as well as nationally and internationally.”

According to the survey results, 71% of white respondents agreed that they felt comfortable voicing a contrary opinion, but only 55% of Black, Indigenous and other respondents of color agreed.

In addition, about 25% of survey respondents shared experiencing or witnessing microaggressions, bullying, discrimination or bias, with most incidents coming from white faculty, staff and students.

The draft plan has an action step to implement a pilot system for bias reporting and clear procedures for what happens after the complaint is filed.

The strategic planning committee aims to finalize the draft plan in the next couple of months and launch it during the summer. In 2022 and 2024, goal accountability checks will be conducted to check progress and areas of improvement, Eldridge said.

“It’s hard to prioritize what’s next when these are very big, complex social issues that require systemic changes, and so I’m excited that this is in place,” Carlos said.

Authorities gave the all-clear after a gas order was reported inside and near Folwell Hall on Monday afternoon, according to a SAFE-U alert.

The Minneapolis Fire Department and the University of Minnesota Police Department conducted an investigation inside the building.

People are now safe to return to the building and the surrounding area.

This story was updated on March 8, 2021 at 1:44 p.m.

This is a breaking news report. More information may be added as it becomes available.

A University of Minnesota committee is undertaking more than double its usual workload in an effort to review every University administrative policy through an equity lens.

Last May, University President Joan Gabel requested that all remaining administrative policies undergo an equity lens review by the end of June 2021 to identify potential negative impacts for marginalized communities and underrepresented individuals.

The University has 200 administrative policies spanning topics such as final exams, conflicts of interest and access to University buildings.

Administrative policies must be comprehensively reviewed every four years unless a longer extension is requested. Because the Equity Lens Policy Review Committee was added to the comprehensive review in May 2018, not all policies have undergone the process yet.

To meet Gabel’s June deadline, committee members are seeing an increased workload to complete the necessary equity reviews at a faster pace. Out of the 200 administrative policies, there are fewer than 70 left to review.

“I see this as one of the most high stakes and broadly impactful things I do … because administrative policies affect everyone at the University,” said Holley Locher, a member of the Equity Lens Policy Review Committee and chief of staff of the psychology department. “If I and our committee can make that more equitable for everyone, then it’s worth any increased workload or any increased time on my part.”

Before Gabel’s request, committee members reviewed three to five policies a month. Now, committee members review 10 to 15 policies monthly.

The committee provides feedback in two categories: general comments and equity-related comments. Not all the feedback is implemented by the policy owners, however, said Joy Wise Davis, committee member and the human resources director at the College of Science and Engineering.

A policy owner is the person responsible for the administrative policy, including its procedures and processes. Depending on the policy, there may be more than one policy owner.

“I know we’re doing good work … I know that people appreciate it. Sometimes they take our advice. Sometimes they don’t,” Davis said. “But at least we can say that we reviewed it and we gave feedback.”

The committee is composed of nine staff members and one faculty member. In the committee’s review process, members consider the impact of the policy on underrepresented groups, including people of color.

The committee members also look into questions that address gaps in policies, such as gender-neutral language and accessibility.

Michele Gross, policy program director, said the majority of policy owners strive to meet the four-year requirement of comprehensive policy review. But sometimes, individual policy owners miss the requirement for various reasons such as major policy changes or lack of staff, she added.

“Policies just become so ingrained,” said Susan Rafferty, co-chair of the committee and chief of staff at the University’s School of Public Health. ”We all need to step back and challenge why things are and why things are worded.”

Committee members usually have a week to review the policy and provide feedback to the policy owners. But sometimes larger-scale policies can take longer, said Dr. Amelious Whyte, co-chair of the committee and director of public engagement in the College of Liberal Arts.

“It’s a big load, and it really depends on the availability of those [committee] members,” Gross said. “I have no doubt … that [the committee] will meet that deadline.”

Starting next fall, the University of Minnesota’s TRIO Student Support Services (TRIO SSS) will transition from a two-year to a four-year program to continue supporting students from low-income, first-generation and disadvantaged backgrounds throughout their undergraduate college careers.

Last August, TRIO SSS received a grant to make the change possible. TRIO SSS is a program within the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) that offers advising, financial aid counseling, academic support and more.

Before the new grant, students had to leave the TRIO SSS program after reaching the end of their second year. However, the now-four years will help advisers build deeper relationships with their students and continue helping them navigate the University.

Ruth Cardenas, a TRIO SSS adviser, said TRIO SSS was a two-year program because it was a part of the University’s General College, which served students underprepared for post-secondary education in subjects like English, writing and math. But when the Board of Regents voted to close the General College in 2005, CEHD adopted the TRIO SSS program, and it remained a two-year program, she said.

“In order to serve our students more robustly, we need to transition to be a four-year program. So then we can also provide services for our third- and fourth-[year] and on students,” Cardenas said. “So we stay with them, and we can better serve them throughout their whole time at the University of Minnesota.”

Second-year business, marketing and education student Fatima Altaf said in an email to the Minnesota Daily that she will be staying in the TRIO program throughout her four years.

“When I found out that the TRIO program at the U is transitioning to a four year program I was so happy and excited because I didn’t want to leave my TRIO SSS advisor [Ah Vang-Lo] who has been so supportive and helpful throughout my journey. I would never want to leave that support system nor do I plan [to],” she said in the email.

In March, three advisers for TRIO SSS — Cardenas, Vang-Lo and Ryan Hanson — will be honored with the 2021 Ski-U-Mah Collaboration Award from the University’s Academic Advising Network for their work transitioning the TRIO introduction course to an online format, learning new technology and implementing engaging educational experiences for first-year students.

TRIO SSS advisers work one-on-one with students, teach the TRIO introduction course and lead different initiatives within the program.

“Many of us [come] from that similar background,” Vang-Lo said. “So that gives it a more relatable touch because we know what it is that they are going through and not just within theory.”

Lemlem Jeldo, a fourth-year student, was a TRIO SSS participant during her first two years. Currently, she is a TRIO SSS front desk assistant and a 2019 TRIO McNair Scholar. She said TRIO SSS student workers were involved in the decision-making for new advisers by reviewing their application materials.

“[TRIO SSS] is like a home for me,” Jeldo said. “I never left because … it’s a very great experience having the same similar background with students and getting different resources that can help me succeed in my education.”

Every year, TRIO SSS serves between 270 to 290 students. TRIO SSS students have access to two-credit integrated learning courses that provide smaller class sizes for challenging courses such as biology and psychology. TRIO SSS advisers are also trained to work with students specifically on financial aid.

“Our advising is a little bit more intense than other advising on campus,” Hanson said. “I think we’re the only advisers on campus who have access to financial aid stuff. [Some] advisers are just like, ‘Go talk to One Stop [Student Services].’ [But] we jump in there and dig through it.”

Besides TRIO SSS, there are two other TRIO programs at the University: TRIO Ronald E. McNair Program for graduate students and TRIO Upward Bound for high school students.

“TRIO has helped me shape into a very confident and determined person. It has helped me to be a better version of myself and made me more aware of who I am as a person and what I believe in,” Altaf said in her email. “TRIO has shown me that I am capable of a lot and made me feel confident about being a first generation college student.”

Last month, the University of Minnesota’s International Student Advisory Board (ISAB) started with new members who are dedicated to focusing on mental health and career preparation catered to international students.

Established in 2016, the board has provided insight and feedback to University departments on how to improve their services to support international students. Each year, the board selects themes to address throughout its term.

“Because as international students, most of our friends, they are international students as well, so sometimes we’re serving as a bridge between the international student groups and U to bring more information to them,” Yining Wang, ISAB member and second-year graduate student, said.

When the pandemic hit, the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) and the Office of Student Affairs had to pause recruitment for new board members, which usually occurs in the fall. Instead, the new board was selected in the spring and has since met in virtual meetings.

Some board members are parents, undergraduate students and graduate students and range from different cultural backgrounds. After voting, the board determined that career preparedness and mental health were some of the most pressing issues facing international students.

Fourth-year graduate student and ISAB member Peng Ge said before the pandemic, some international students experienced isolation because of the language barrier or cultural differences. The pandemic has worsened feelings of isolation, she added.

“[International students] mentioned that it is really hard to make friends through the screen because you don’t really see them in person and the feelings are different,” Ge said.

Across the University, many international students are facing added challenges due to the pandemic, such as conflicting time differences.

When Ge moved to the U.S. for the first time to attend her graduate program, she said she experienced a culture shock. To adjust, Ge found it helpful to audio record her professors’ lectures and repeatedly listen to them to stay on track for her classes.

“I would like to address the problem of cultural shock and isolation for international students, which I personally experienced when I firstly entered the U,” Ge said.

Barbara Kappler, assistant dean of ISSS, said over the years, she has seen significant improvements in language on websites to be “effective, engaging and clear” to international students. Kappler also said board members’ feedback and insight have been utilized by many departments at the University, including Boynton Health and campus safety initiatives.

ISSS is working to update its website to include biographies of each board member and their contact information so they are more accessible to international students.

“As an individual international student, it is not easy to make my voice heard to the University,” Jungyeol Park, University graduate student and ISAB co-facilitator, said. “But I think within this context of ISAB, … we can make them hear or listen to what international students need.”

Through a grant from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), a theater project is collaborating with Southeast Asian communities from the northwest suburbs in Minnesota to showcase stories in street theater performances.

When the pandemic hit, the artist team on the project, which is titled SEA Echoes Through Rivers, had to transition online, putting a delay in the early stages of the theater project. In February, the artist team held the first storytelling workshop with participants who will write, act and produce a series of street theater performances that will happen in late spring or summer.

The theater project is in collaboration with the Southeast Asian Diaspora Project and is led by two Southeast Asian artists, Kaysone Syonesa and Sunny Thao.

Syonesa, who is also a University alum, said that in 2006 she led a small-theater project that she was then inspired to develop on a larger scale, leading to the SEA Echoes Through Rivers theater project.

“In the end, I think I was in tears because it was just the love that the community that we built doing art — not necessarily just the play itself — was amazing,” Syonesa said. “So, when this project came about, I was like ‘I want to do it on a bigger scale with our broader community.’”

Thao and Syonesa, who live in the northwest suburbs, said the project’s goal is to uplift the voices and raise awareness of the issues facing Southeast Asian communities outside of the Twin Cities by making them visible through street theater performances.

According to data from the Coalition of Asian American Leaders, outside of St. Paul and Rochester, some of the largest proportions of Asian populations in the state are located in northwest suburbs, such as Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park.

“I think this project is important because it’s not like the voices that are being told, are unheard, but I think they’re just unnoticed,” Thao said.

Last April, the artist team received a small grant from CURA’s Artist Neighborhood Partnership Initiative that provides funding for artists of color and Indigenous artists working in the Twin Cities and surrounding neighborhoods.

Participants in SEA Echoes Through Rivers will interview community members to contribute their stories in the theater production and attend workshops to develop writing and performance skills. Currently, all workshops are virtual, but after the script is complete, along with the artist team, participants will meet in-person while following COVID-19 health guidelines.

Seng Xiong is a participant in the theater project and said they grew up in a working middle-class family in Brooklyn Park. Xiong said navigating their upbringing as a queer child and being surrounded by diversity taught them to see the beauty in differences.

“Having a creative outlet to really delve into those explorations of who I am and what these facets of my childhood mean to me as an adult now is a wonderful canvas to really play with,” Xiong said.

Xiong said they are also collaborating with their mother to showcase her stories of Hmong folklore and experiences from Laos.

Xiongpao “Xp” Lee is a participant in the theater project and lived in Brooklyn Park for the last five years. Lee said in light of the recent rise of violent discrimination against Asian Americans during the pandemic, he hopes the theater project elevates Southeast Asian experiences to larger conversations about racial justice.

“I think this is an awesome project to be able to really hopefully showcase a lot of insight and conversation and beauty of Southeast Asian cultures,” Lee said. “Because I think that will help everyone to know their neighbors better, to be more exposed to diversity and to hopefully gain more education about Southeast Asian experiences.”

Third-year University of Minnesota Ph.D. student Kiara Padilla spent eight hours at the University’s Elmer L. Andersen Library combing through boxes of historical documents to share with artists in an exhibition for the 50th anniversary of the University’s Department of Chicano and Latino Studies.

The historical documents will be used for inspiration for the artists to create artwork to showcase in the exhibition.

Padilla said she joined when she heard about the opportunity to be part of a team to fulfill a student’s vision and project for creating an exhibit inspired by the department’s history.

By the end of the fall semester, she was the only student with access to the University’s archives because other students had left campus. For two days, Padilla said she went through four or five boxes of thick folders to scan the documents that artists were interested in with her iPhone from 8 a.m. to noon.

The first event for the 50th anniversary is an exhibition called “¡Presente!: 50 Years of Chicano & Latino Studies,” honoring the history of the department and celebrating scholarship and community involvement. The exhibition is in collaboration with Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio (CLUES) in St. Paul and the University’s Heritage Studies and Public History program.

Following the exhibition, the department will host more events throughout the spring and upcoming fall semester. Other events include an alumni event, a lecture series with Ramona Arreguin de Rosales and an event with La Raza Latinx Student Cultural Center.

“I think that the exhibit itself is really a collaboration between all these different voices and what they really envision [the] Chicano Latino studies to be and have been,” Padilla said. “But I think, also where we see Chicano Latino studies going. I think that’s really important.”

The vision of the exhibition formed when Ernesto Moreno, a recent University graduate, was an intern at the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies. Moreno said in his internship he cataloged historical documents collected by faculty and staff over the years as part of his capstone course at the University’s Heritage Studies and Public History program. He added that his capstone thesis centered on making archives more accessible and engaging.

During his internship, he also attended a Chicanx art class, sparking his vision for artists using the historical material to inspire their art, he said.

“It came from the whole idea being a way to show that the [Latinx] community in the Twin Cities is not something that was in the past and it’s not something that is nonexistent,” Moreno said. “It was a way to show that not only is there a community there but that it’s one that’s creative, … that has a history, at the same time.”

The exhibition is located at CLUES and will be open to the public by online appointment until May 16. The art is created by Chicano and Latino artists, featuring historical documents, a film with dance and poetry, an art installation, portraits and more.

“I feel like there’s this whole conception that an archive is something that is meant to be in a basement somewhere, just collecting dust, and we have to preserve history for the sake of preserving,” Moreno said. “And it’s like, well, there’s no point in having an archive if no one’s ever going to read it.”

The “¡Presente!: 50 Years of Chicano & Latino Studies” exhibition

CLUES is the largest Latino-led nonprofit organization to advance social and economic support for Latinos in Minnesota. The organization partnered with the department by providing gallery space to feature the artwork of six commissioned artists and two artist teams.

“I was really excited that I got in and I knew that the people that would see this art would be people that understand me and understand underrepresented artists in communities,” Alondra Garza, one of the artists in the exhibit, said. She added that she rarely finds paid opportunities for her artwork to be kept in a collection and align so closely with her heritage.

Luisa Armendariz and Margaret Ogas collaborated to create a short film for the exhibition, called “Rise y Resiste: 50 Years of Movimiento,” that they said highlights a poem that they felt reflects current and past movements of struggle.

“We wanted to highlight how things feel very much the same in many ways but modernize them in the movements that are happening in 2020,” Armendariz said. “Also, just the intersection of both Black and brown communities because it was important for us to show that our struggles are intertwined in so many ways.”

Overall, it took three years to plan and develop the exhibit with a team of students as well as staff members. In a partnership with the University’s Liberal Arts Technologies and Innovation Services, the exhibition will be virtual and available online in May.

“What I tried to do with the exhibition [is] illuminate the history of the department through the arts because I knew that students were absolutely critical in getting the department started. It wasn’t [administrators]; it was students,” said Karen Mary Davalos, the Chicano and Latino Studies department chair. “Their interest and work with the community are what moved us to new arrangements every single time there was change.”

Honoring the history

A sculpture of Ramona Arreguin de Rosales, created by artist Flor Soto, sits in the exhibition, facing the visitors as they enter. Rosales formed the Latin Liberation Front, a University student group, in 1969, and she served as president. In 1971, the group led a takeover of Morrill Hall, demanding that the University create a Chicano studies department within 72 hours.

The pressure and activism by the student group were inspired by student leaders who led to the establishment of the African American Studies department and the American Indian Studies department in 1969.

“It’s those moments of activism that are so valuable for us to remember,” said Jessica Lopez Lyman, Chicano and Latino Studies assistant professor. “Because not only do they set historic precedence but also guide future students on how to shape the University to make it a more just place.”

After a two-hour meeting with University officials, students said that if there was no concrete evidence for the establishment of a Chicano studies department within 72 hours, they would take a vote to strike against the University.

As a result, the University agreed to establish a Chicano studies department, and the department held classes in the fall semester that followed. The Department of Chicano Studies eventually changed its name to represent the increase of students from South and Central America, according to the Minnesota Historical Society.

Early in Rosales’ college career, she could identify 30 Chicano and Latino students on campus. But when she graduated, she remembers that there were around 300 Chicano and Latino students, she said.

“I felt the personal responsibility that I was committed to enlightening the University of Minnesota of their responsibility to the Chicano Latino-x community,” Rosales said.

When she graduated from the University, Rosales went on to support Chicano and Latino communities in Minnesota. She was the director of the Hispanic Pre-College Project, an outreach program at the University of St. Thomas. In response to the success of the program, families and community members requested a school to focus on Latino culture, cover educational needs and best practices of Latino communities.

In 2000, she founded the Academia Cesar Chavez School located in St. Paul. Currently, she is retired from her role as executive director but continues being a leader, activist and educator for Latino communities.

“I celebrate the success; I celebrate those people that came after me that have continued to stay committed to [the cause] for the department,” Rosales said.

Moving forward

As the first of its kind in the Upper Midwest, the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies has contributed to the community through collaborations and engagement during its 50 years. The department’s staff, faculty, alumni and students are advancing academic Chicano and Latino studies.

Yet, the department has only five faculty and just three are completely appointed in the department; the other two are joint appointments split with different departments. Davalos said her vision is to create an infrastructure to strengthen the foundation of the department that should have already been in place.

“This is not a critique of my colleagues who had struggled up into this point. It’s a reality. It’s an infrastructural disadvantage that the University of Minnesota created and continues to create,” Davalos said. “I’m the single full professor in the department, which is ridiculous for an interdisciplinary field.”

As one of the smallest departments at the University of Minnesota, faculty members carry added responsibilities that weigh on their capacity to devote to teaching and research, Lopez Lyman said.

“Our department was not given adequate resources from the beginning. We were never established to reach our potential as a discipline,” Lopez Lyman said. “But I’m very hopeful that the four of us as faculty, as well as potentially getting more faculty, will be able to meet the expectations of our field and also now align with other departments.”

Lisa Sass Zaragoza is the outreach coordinator and an instructor for the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies. She has been a staff member since 2005.

“I put my hand over my heart because while what we do in the department is, in my perspective, academic and intellectual, it is also intensely interpersonal and almost spiritual,” Sass Zaragoza said in an email. “It is head and heart.”

Every year during middle school, Dr. Bonnie Jenkins made sure she was on the honor roll.

As a reward for making the honor roll at Jenkins’ middle school, students traveled to Washington, D.C. Those trips sparked Jenkins’ interest in working for the federal government.

Now, Jenkins is a senior fellow in global policy at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, where she hosts virtual seminars on topics like national security and arms control. Between earning several degrees — including a law degree, two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in international relations — Jenkins has served in city, state and federal government as well as the military.

Last month, President Joe Biden nominated Jenkins to be undersecretary for arms control and international security affairs in his administration. She awaits to hear confirmation from the Senate.

“I grew up … in the south Bronx, and I didn’t come from lots of money or anything, but I was very fortunate to get assistance from scholarships to go to different schools starting in high school,” Jenkins said. “I just love to learn; I still love to learn. And I like the academic environment, so it’s been quite a ride from where I started to where I am now.”

She pursued roles in city and state government before working in the federal government in Washington in 1990. Jenkins said her federal role exposed her to international security issues, particularly in arms control, that paved a new path for her journey.

“I like new things; I like challenges, and so I seek out challenges all the time,” Jenkins said

In January, Jenkins was selected as the 2020 Arms Control Person of the Year through an online poll, with participants spanning over 65 countries, which recognized her work in diversifying foreign policy and national security and taking action steps to target institutional racism.

Jenkins is the founder and executive director of Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS), a nonprofit aiming “to advance leadership and professional development for women of color in the fields of international peace, security and conflict transformation.” She launched the organization in 2017 after serving eight years in the Obama administration as the coordinator for the Department of State’s threat reduction programs.

For many years, Jenkins was often the only person of color in the room to discuss topics including weapons of mass destruction and international security.

“I didn’t see people coming up behind me. I didn’t see a generation of people who look like me coming up in this field,” Jenkins said.

WCAPS has a mentorship program, projects, working groups and a pipeline to direct organizations to seek women of color for opportunities. WCAPS also has chapters worldwide and is working to develop a chapter at the University’s Humphrey School.

“Starting my organization was something new. I never ran [a nongovernmental organization] before, so it was still taking a chance and a leap of faith,” Jenkins said. “But you have to believe in yourself, and you have to work hard at it.”

Will Stewart, customer relationship management consultant for WCAPS, said he found out about Jenkins’ nomination for President Biden’s administration through Twitter.

“She was so gracious and humble about it,” Stewart said. “That’s her personality: She didn’t make anything too big, and I know she’s going to be great in this position.”

“Bonnie is brilliant to a point where it is almost impossible. She is constantly doing six more things than you know she is because that is how much she can manage,” Maher Akremi, WCAPS project assistant, said. “But at the same time, at no point will she ever make you feel small just because she is incredible.”

Sylvia Mishra, co-chair for one of the WCAPS working groups, reached out to Jenkins over email almost four years ago and said she was surprised how quickly Jenkins replied to set up a time for coffee.

“Her inspirational story is matched with the goodness of her heart,” Mishra said. “Her championing underrepresented communities and voices is something that stands out brightly about her.”

Editor’s note: Because of an editor error, this article was published before the piece was finalized. It has since been updated and republished.