By: Roy Aker

With new support from law enforcement, the Minnesota Legislature is one step closer to legalizing medical marijuana — but access and usage could be far more limited than originally intended.

New amendments to this session’s medical marijuana bill remove the option for patients to smoke the drug and require clinical trials to test the drug’s effectiveness — research the University of Minnesota could potentially host.

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By: Blair Emerson

Two University of Minnesota student groups won’t get a funding boost after appealing this year’s student services fees recommendations, but the whole process is getting another look.

Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow and the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly brought their cases to Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Danita Brown Young last month. Brown Young upheld prior funding recommendations but pledged to further investigate GAPSA and reassess the entire

process.

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By: Haley Hansen

University of Minnesota students could face disciplinary action for chanting and holding signs at a campus ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this semester.

Members of the Whose Diversity? student group protested renovations to the second floor of Coffman Union at a March 12 event, saying the changes were made without enough student input.

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By: Jared Christensen

No. 14 Minnesota beat Purdue twice over the weekend to finish its regular season with single-digit losses for the first time since 1979.

It wasn’t all good news for the Gophers, though, as they were shut out for the first time all year in the series opener. Minnesota rebounded after the loss to take the final two games of the three-game set.

Gophers head coach Jessica Allister said she was satisfied with her team’s resiliency against the Boilermakers.

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By: Roy Aker

The future of the University of Minnesota’s regenerative medicine research program is looking brighter than ever.

State and federal leaders in the past have denied funding for the University’s Office of Regenerative Medicine, which includes the Stem Cell Institute, because some had ethical disagreements with stem cell research.

But this legislative session, with a DFL majority and an overall shift in public opinion, researchers and legislators are confident funding will come through this year.

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By: Anne Millerbernd

Independent student collective Whose Diversity? released a list of diversity-rooted demands to University of Minnesota policymakers Wednesday.

Group members formally presented their broad set of demands on the steps of Morrill Hall on Wednesday morning, ranging from curriculum changes to minority student recruitment.

The list was prompted by a number of things, but Whose Diversity? member Joanna Núñez emphasized the lack of action from University leadership following feedback about the institution’s diversity.

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By: Roy Aker

The Legislature targeted tuition prices in its most recent legislation aimed at curbing college costs, but Gov. Mark Dayton said in his annual State of the State Address on Wednesday that there’s more the state can do.

“We have started to make progress, but we have quite a ways to go,” Dayton said to the crowd of about 500 packed into the House Chamber.

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By: Teri Caraway, associate professor of political science, and David Pellow, professor of sociology

Less than a week after Condoleezza Rice’s lecture, several student groups organized a forum that brought people together to discuss some of the controversies, questions and opportunities arising from her invitation to speak on campus. One of the speakers at the forum observed that we would not have had such an event unless the University of Minnesota had invited Rice.

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By: Luis Ruuska

The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld Michigan’s ban on affirmative action. In a 6-2 decision, the court did not dispute the constitutionality of affirmative action but rather upheld the right of voters to have a say in whether states can consider race in public college admissions.

From the time that I learned what affirmative action is, I’ve had a troubled relationship with it. Growing up, I had the privilege of belonging to a middle-class family and of living in predominantly white suburban neighborhoods.

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