Dr. Date,

I’ve had a date planned with this girl for about three weeks. She’s canceled and rescheduled twice. The first time, I was disappointed, but I let it go. The second time, I was annoyed. How do I know she’s not going to cancel again?

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By: Kristoffer Tigue

Basem Al-Shayeb isn’t a typical undergraduate transfer student. He started his own student group, won third place in an international science competition and is now researching Parkinson’s disease. He credits a lot of it to new research opportunities being offered in his department.

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By: Haley Hansen

While top University of Minnesota administrators tend to their work in Appleby Hall, Amelious Whyte has a “party” in his office, where he blasts house music and checks student emails.

As the Assistant Dean of Students and Chief of Staff of the Office for Student Affairs, Whyte, 45, spends his workdays clipping around campus, chatting with faculty members and representing the student voice in key University administrative offices.

“The joke is, I can’t really go anywhere on campus without someone knowing me,” Whyte said.

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By: Mitchell Yurkowitz

House of Representatives committee members support a proposal that aims to combat the use and distribution of synthetic drugs in Minnesota.

The bill’s author, Rep. Erik Simonson, DFL-Duluth, said at a House committee meeting Wednesday that he hopes to decrease the distribution of synthetic drugs and streamline the prosecution processes associated with offenses.

“It is very prevalent still in Minnesota, especially among student populations, high school, college and young adults,” he told the Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee.

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By: Kristoffer Tigue

Even in the harshest conditions, life finds a way to thrive.

More than 2,300 feet underground in the lowest recess of an old iron mine in northern Minnesota, researchers have found mysterious life in pools of water that they believe might be touching oxygen for the first time in more than 2.4 billion years.

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By: Jack Satzinger

Ra’Shede Hageman and Brock Vereen turned heads with their physical attributes at last month’s NFL Combine. And at the Gophers’ Pro Day on Monday morning, they showcased their football skills to 19 NFL teams.

“They always say, ‘You could run as fast as you can, you can bench 500 times, but if you can’t carry it over to the football field, it doesn’t mean anything,’” Vereen said.

Vereen led all safeties in the bench press at the NFL Combine with 25 reps. He also flashed his speed with a 4.47-second time in the 40-yard dash.

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By: Meghan Holden

The University of Minnesota is fighting to keep the Duluth campus afloat after sinking enrollment numbers and decreased state funding caused a nearly $10 million budget shortfall this budget cycle.

UMD will cut and reorganize faculty and staff, evaluate administrative spending and look at combining departments while strengthening its partnership with the Twin Cities campus to offset the budget woes.

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By: Vanessa Nyarko

The University of Minnesota’s Engineers Without Borders program is gearing up to spend spring break in Guatemala.

Students will build improvements for irrigation systems in a small agricultural village, Agua Caliente, which will help its citizens grow an important cash crop — blackberries.

The berries grow on top of the mountains in that region, so the students designed new valves that will improve the way pumps propel water up the mountain for the crops.

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By: Nicholas Studenski

Two University of Minnesota students were the victims of a burglary at University Commons on Thursday.

Minnesota English Language Program student Fahad Al-Sawafi returned home at about 9:45 p.m. to find that his apartment had been burglarized.

Sawafi said the lost property had about a $2,000 value and included two laptops, two cellphones, an iPad, a jacket, a wallet and his roommate’s passport.

“The thief took nearly everything,” he said.

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By: Callie Sacarelos

On the first night of shooting his fifth feature film, John Ervin and his entire cast and crew walked out to the Red Dragon parking lot after nine hours of work to find that all of their cars had been towed.

The group was shooting “The Tiki War” overnight at the Minneapolis restaurant long after real customers and workers went home to bed. The restaurant owner forgot to notify the towing service that their cars would be parked in his lot outside of business hours.

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