Author Archives | Matthew Voigt

Gabel discusses food insecurity concerns on campus and COVID-19 vaccination rates

In an interview with the Minnesota Daily Friday, University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel discussed how the University is addressing food insecurity concerns for students on campus and reflected on the administration’s decision to eliminate three men’s sports programs more than a year ago.

Gabel also gave an update on University COVID-19 vaccination rates among students, faculty and staff. Student responses were due Oct. 8 and faculty responses were due Sept. 17.

Now that COVID-19 vaccination deadlines have passed for both faculty and staff, what are the final percentages of students and faculty that have met their respective requirements?

As of Oct. 14, 99.04% of [faculty and staff] have completed their attestation and of those who responded, 94.82% attested being fully vaccinated. Those who did not attest to being fully vaccinated have signed off agreeing to [be tested for COVID-19].

Amongst students, 91.61% have responded to the vaccination form. Of those, 95.94% report being fully vaccinated. 3.7% submitted religious exemption and 0.3% submitted a medical exemption. These are system wide [statistics].

As more students become eligible for COVID-19 booster shots, will the University provide support to help students get these shots?

We are dependent on receiving the vaccines from [the state of Minnesota]. But assuming that the supply remains sufficient, we are delighted to serve everyone who would like to receive their booster shot and we strongly encourage you to get one as soon as you’re eligible. I should point out that Boynton pharmacy is now providing boosters for those who qualify.

Last year, the Board of Regents approved the removal of three sports programs in order to offset financial impacts of COVID-19 and comply with Title IX mandates. While many support this decision, many administrators, student athletes, coaches and other stakeholders did not. Do you still stand by the decision to cut these sports programs given the strong reaction and the relatively small cost savings it has generated so far?

I 100% still stand by that decision, although I absolutely acknowledge that it was a painful and heartbreaking decision. The savings are a long term, recurring savings year over year over year and the Title IX compliance is a requirement. So these two intersected in a way that made me and the athletic director and the majority of the [Board of Regents] feel as if this was what was best for the athletic department and therefore the University as whole.

How is implementation progressing on the Promise Plus program?

The Promise program was a program addressing the range of needs for families that make $120,000 a year or less. The Promise Plus program guarantees free tuition for families whose student makes $50,000 or less. We welcomed our first eligible cohort this fall and it covers students for four years.

This is a part of a very broad, robust portfolio of aid that [the University] provides to families with financial need. It’s not as if families that make $50,001 don’t receive any support. This is just guaranteed. At that level, many students whose families make more than that also receive significant financial aid in different ways. This is a component that creates a certainty for our families that are most at the highest financial risk.

The University’s campus is a food desert, as stated in an KARE 11 interview with Minnesota Student Association president Abdulaziz Mohamed and also by data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There are not many grocery stores on campus or within campus neighborhoods, like Marcy-Holmes/Dinkytown, Prospect Park, Como and Cedar-Riverside, and many of the grocery stores that do exist are not accessible to many students. What has the University done to address concerns from students about the lack of grocery stores in and around campus?

We have a variety of initiatives underway around food insecurity and around the fact that access to even acquiring goods can be limited. We have the food pantry which is run through Boynton and is a part of Students Affairs and under Dr. Calvin Phillips, our new Vice President of Student Affairs.”

This is fresh and healthy food any student can access and doesn’t have to demonstrate need. Over 800 students were at the September event. We have this Swipe Out hunger effort where students can use pickup box lunches so, if they can’t go to the grocery store, they can get food from dining.We know that MSA is working with the state to achieve a designation around what it would mean to partner more formally and we’ve been supporting that fully.

This interview has been edited for length, grammar and clarity.

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UMN undertakes new initiative to prevent bird strikes on campus

A new initiative at the University of Minnesota is tracking bird collisions with campus buildings in an effort to address ongoing concerns about bird safety.

The Stop the Thud initiative asks University community members to report when and where they see bird strikes on campus, as well as a description of the bird through an online form. In the future, researchers plan to analyze this data to uncover patterns about bird behavior and better mitigate bird strikes.

The location of the University in the Mississippi Flyway, an important route for many migratory birds during the fall and spring, can make campus buildings especially dangerous. Buildings with glassy facades such as modern skyscrapers, can confuse many birds according to Andrew Hallberg, a University graduate student in the conservation sciences program, who helped develop the Stop the Thud initiative in collaboration with the University’s Office of Sustainability.

“Birds are breeding in the north and then when they’re flying south, [the young birds] are making the migration for the first time,” Hallberg said. “They just don’t know how to navigate urban landscapes as well as adults. A couple of years ago a report came out … that said that we’ve lost three billion birds since the 1970s in the United States, which is a staggering number.”

Many year-round birds, like cardinals or crows, have adapted to the urban environment and are able to navigate it better. Most birds that collide with buildings are songbirds, like warblers or sparrows, that migrate south for the winter.

Hallberg said this initiative is imagined in two parts, with the first part already underway. Currently, Hallberg is focused on gathering data on bird collisions in order to develop mitigation measures in the future.

“The first [phase] that we’re working on now is just figuring out where the birds are hitting buildings on campus and what surfaces are the most problematic for birds to navigate,” Hallberg said. “The second phase is figuring out what we can do and looking at what sort of mitigation options there are.”

According to Sustainability Coordinator Carley Rice, the Office of Sustainability is helping to support the initiative by providing online resources and promoting the reporting form.

“We’re working on the commercial side of things and making sure that folks on campus — the students, staff and custodial staff make sure that they’re aware of this initiative and if they do see a bird on campus [they] know what to do,” Rice said.

While the University has taken steps to mitigate the number of bird collisions on campus, like using fritted glass and reflective tape on buildings, bird collisions have not been tracked in this way before.

In addition to the Stop the Thud initiative, the Office of Sustainability is also promoting Light Outs, which asks people to turn off interior lights in University buildings at night to prevent bird collisions and save energy.

“I know that there’s been several groups before me that have done research on [bird collisions], but I think recently there has been more of a push from student groups to make spaces more safe for birds.” Hallberg said.

While the fall migratory season is mostly over, the reporting form will continue to collect data year-round and the Office of Sustainability will ramp up outreach efforts at the start of the spring migration, Hallberg said.

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Meet the new regent on the board: Bo Thao-Urabe

The newest member of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents took part in her first full meeting as a board member on Oct. 7-8, bringing years of her experience in leadership roles at philanthropic organizations around the Twin Cities to the position.

An alumna of the University, Regent Bo Thao-Urabe is also an active member of the Asian American community in the area, having served in leadership roles across a multitude of organizations. Thao-Urabe, appointed by Gov. Tim Walz in August, fills the seat on the board previously occupied by Regent Ilean Her, who passed away earlier this year.

In a speech to the board after being sworn in, Thao-Urabe spoke of the mixed emotions of her appointment. Typically, regents are not appointed by the Governor, but elected by the Minnesota Legislature. Thao-Urabe will carry out the rest of Regent Her’s term through 2025.

“My appointment today is bittersweet because it’s at [Her’s] loss; it’s trailblazers like Regent Her who make this possible,” Thao-Urabe said at the September meeting. “I’m privileged and honored to serve in this capacity at my alma mater, as a refugee child who became a first generation college student. Getting my education here at the University allowed me to change the trajectory of my future.”

Thao-Urabe graduated from the University in what is now the College of Education and Human Development with a degree in Family Social Science. Thao-Urabe and her family came to the United States after conflicts in Southeast Asia during the mid-20th century.

She is also the founder and executive director of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL). CAAL’s mission is to bring leaders of different backgrounds across the Asian American community together and provide a network for connections, education and collaboration.

Thao-Urabe’s experience of being a refugee and her education at the University have inspired her to play an active role in the Twin Cities Asian American community.

“[My experiences] set me up for being able to do a lot of different things for the community that I am a part of,” Thao-Urabe said. “[These experiences helped] to shape the ways in which our state and our country can continue to make sure that all its people have opportunities and are able to thrive here.”

Following the death of Her, Thao-Urabe was asked to consider becoming a regent. She said she felt she should continue Her’s legacy because of their similar stories and paths to the University. Her immigrated to the United States in 1976 as a refugee from Laos.

“[I] felt like it was an opportunity to … continue to both support the institution, but continue to help make sure that the future of the institution is accessible, is supportive, and help all students who wish to get an education here do so successfully,” Thao-Urabe said.

Bilal Alkatout, who serves as chair of the board of directors at CAAL and as senior program officer for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, said Thao-Urabe continues to be a mentor and inspiration in his current position.

“It’s super humbling and inspiring to see someone who is a leader in the Asian community with the ability to bring people along to find solutions to issues and advocate for those issues selected as a regent,” Alkatout said. “She’s always thinking about systems, systemic racism and structural changes that can [be made] to create equity.”

According to Alkatout, Thao-Urabe has a unique ability to think about the collective Asian American community, which has many identities and nationalities, and social movements both in and out of the community.

“Working across all identity groups that exist in the Asian American community takes a lot of cross-cultural understanding and trust building,” Alkatout said. “Bo’s ability to bring people along across all the cultural groups and languages takes a unique set of skills. It’ll be really amazing to see what happens.”

During her tenure as regent, Thao-Urabe said she hopes to not only contribute her experiences to the role, but also provide guidance and continue the University’s mission to be affordable to students.

“I personally care about costs, accessibility and care about the research and where it can take us in the future,“ Thao-Urabe said. “I know that I will have done my job if I’m able to bring perspective and help to also guide the future of the institution.”

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Gabel talks University’s continued pandemic response and public safety

In an interview with the Minnesota Daily, University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel sat down to discuss the University’s COVID-19 response and concerns.

Gabel also talked about the public safety initiatives the University undertook over the summer in response to recent crime increases on and around the campus area.

This summer saw several occurrences of violent crime in and around campus, much of which was centered in Dinkytown. The University said efforts to improve public safety will include increased police presence throughout the fall semester. For University community members who may be worried and wary about the increase, what is your reassurance that an increased police presence will be effective and not harmful?

“There is a very legitimate concern. Most of those patrols are being handled by our own UMPD officers with whom we work very closely on our values and who we insist align with our values. We do also rely on local law enforcement primarily because Dinkytown and Marcy-Holmes and other neighbor[hoods] are outside of our jurisdiction. We’re also engaging community ambassadors, Gopher Chauffeur, the Rave app, increased lighting; lots of things that have either a deterrent or preventative effect.”

“We are very cognizant of the need for safety to reflect the unique life experience of everyone in our community. We are concurrently working on the MSafe process, which is the process that came out of Dr Cedric Alexander’s recommendations immediately after last May. My expectation is that we can be continuously improving [the] campus police department, while also addressing crime. Those are not mutually exclusive endeavors. In fact, they must coexist in order for us to reap the benefits of having this amazing campus environment in the middle of a metro.”

Recently, Edison High School in North East Minneapolis went virtual because of an increase in COVID-19 cases. What would cause the University to return to a virtual model of the classroom? Is there a specific threshold of case numbers for example, or another benchmark, as infection rates and hospitalization rates currently are very similar to what they were at the start of the pandemic?

“There is no one number that dictates our course modality or our campus closure. It is an intersection of transmission rates in the community, transmission rates specifically on campus and the capacity to provide health care. We are watching very closely what’s happening with the community and hospitalizations, but on campus our numbers are low. At the time of this interview, [there is] no indication of any need to shift campus operations.”

What is your thought process when making and implementing COVID-19 mandates for the University?

“[The] COVID-19 decision making process this whole time isn’t altogether different from any of our major decisions where we lean into shared governance … we gather information from different perspectives and different voices. This includes students, faculty, staff, but it also includes community members, [alumni], the Board of Regents and sometimes, [the Minnesota State] legislature, and can vary depending on the nature of the decision.”

“In the case of COVID, it includes subject matter experts, who are epidemiologists or medical doctors. The administration will generally look at [the] feedback and what we’re trying to do and come up with a set of possible next steps. Then we route that through the shared governance process again.”

Many students have said that they are wary about the spread of COVID-19 in close quarters of the classrooms and other University spaces. What is your statement about those concerns?

“In terms of social distancing, it was one of the factors that led to the way in which we created the mask mandate. By having everyone in the class masked, we were able to change the capacity of the classrooms and have people still be within six feet of each other, all guided with our public health experts and our medical experts and our experts on how we do classroom capacity.”

“Now we have the vaccine, an attestation or mandate, depending on whether you’re a student or whether you’re a faculty or staff, both of which have resulted in the high 90s as a percentage of our overall population being vaccinated, which also gives us a very high degree of confidence in the safety of our interior spaces. Several weeks into the semester and our cases are not zero, but our cases do not reflect the kind of uptick that would make us think that our current practices are insufficient.”

According to University communications, about 20% of University classrooms on campus need additional ventilation to meet airflow guidelines recommended by public health experts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some faculty have said these additional filters can be disruptive to the class environment. What is your response to this feedback from faculty and can you explain the process of how you came to the additional filtration?

“With full transparency, I am not an HVAC expert. We have to acknowledge the technical expertise required to fully answer a question from a leadership point of view. There are a combination of factors. Some are that the building is historic and the ability to change … affects their registration [on historical registrars]. To do that work takes longer and would take all of those classes offline, when there were other solutions that allowed for a similar level of safety. As we’ve said all along, safety first. So whether it’s portable, realigning the class or changing the capacity of the class other tools were used in those classrooms in order to ensure the same level of safety.”

“A lot of this, frankly, is annoying. The portable devices can make noise or configuring the class differently can be less than ideal. Everything that could be changed within the window of time described was.”

Do you think the University will start offering more online classes than it has previously?

“I would say, one silver lining, and you have to squint to see it, was that we really had our appetite for online learning … expanded during the pandemic. We leveraged technologies that we wouldn’t have leveraged. I’ve had more than one faculty member tell me they thought of new ways that were actually very inspiring to deliver content. I’ve had students tell me that they found flexibility in their schedule that allowed them to pursue things that they might not have been able to pursue. We want to learn the best of those lessons and keep them as we go forward. But one of the biggest lessons we also learned was that people really wanted to be on campus. There’s so much more to the experience that is specific to being together.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length, grammar and clarity.

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A summer time of administrative change: New UMN deans discuss their positions

After starting their positions in June, the new deans at both the College of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at the University of Minnesota discussed potential challenges and future goals for their colleges.

Laura Molgaard, the new dean of the veterinary school, and Michael C. Rodriguez, the new dean of CEHD, both became deans this summer after holding interim positions for more than a year. Although the search for new deans was complicated due to hiring pauses and restrictions during the pandemic, now that they’ve started their new positions, Molgaard and Rodriguez said they have many goals that they are pursuing.

For Molgaard, some of her initiatives include strategic planning and partnerships within and outside the veterinary school, with much of the strategic planning hopefully done within her first year as dean.

“[Strategic planning] is important to align our goals and align our work,” Molgaard said. “Growing partnerships that unlock resources and support our mission is a strong tradition and I want to sustain and grow those partnerships.”

In addition to strategic planning and partnerships, Molgaard also said investing in infrastructure, sustainable budgeting and supporting a culture of helping people thrive are all a part of her goals as dean.

For Rodriguez, one of his goals is to increase access for those who typically may not have the opportunity to attend CEHD by increasing support networks and community outreach.

“Part of this means increasing student support (financial and social) and communicating with communities that haven’t had as much access traditionally, including partnership with tribal colleges and communities in the region,” Rodriguez said in an email to the Minnesota Daily.

Rodriguez also said one of difficulties this year will be recruiting diverse faculty and staff after a year of reduced hiring. As many colleges and universities are also hiring, it creates a level of competition for faculty that hasn’t been seen before, he said.

Molgaard and Rodriguez both said the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has played a huge role in their transitions and time as deans.

“Then of course the record scratch happened and we had to transition everyone,” Molgaard said. “We have a Veterinary Medical Center and a Veterinary Diagnostic Lab and most of that work must happen on campus and cannot happen virtually.”

Molgaard also said she dramatically increased the number of communications she sent out, and planning for pandemic protocols and procedures happened almost constantly.

“So we began immediately on Zoom around the clock, those early days, seven days a week, helping navigate that transition and increasing communication to the college,” Molgaard said. “I increased my email communications dramatically to focus not only on operational changes that everyone needed to understand, but also to keep other strategic priorities at the forefront.”

Rodriguez stated that the uncertainty can make it difficult to plan. However, the department chairs and management have made the work much more rewarding, he said.

“The amazing and committed senior management team and awesome department chairs — the academic leadership team; having great partners and colleagues makes the work so much more rewarding and motivating,” Rodriguez said in the email.

Cathy Carlson, a professor and chair in the department of Veterinary Clinical Science said Molgaard is a great communicator and listener.

“She has the ability to communicate effectively with all different types of people,” Carlson said. “There are some areas that she isn’t as knowledgeable in because no dean is an expert in all areas, but she makes up for that by being a great listener and learner.”

According to Carlson, even while serving as the interim dean, Molgaard wasn’t afraid to solve the multitude of problems facing the veterinary school during the pandemic.

“She tackled problems large and small very effectively,” Carlson said. “I’ve been in many meetings working closely with her, she is a go-to person for advice.”

When it comes to the future and next steps, Molgaard and Rodriguez said they are hoping to capture the best of working remotely and in person.

“However, we also know that more members of the college community and our community partners have been able to participate in online meetings — access has improved greatly through Zoom and other online platforms,” Rodriguez said in the email. “As we move into flex schedules, I hope we can capture the best of both worlds.”

Molgaard’s sentiments were similar about the future of work and education at the University.

“The future of work is both about flexibility on location of where some of us work, but also about other aspects of how we do our work,” Molgaard said. “We can [use] this unplanned experiment of COVID to harvest the lessons [learned].”

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Regents approve tuition increase, budget at special meeting; students weigh in

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents approved a new $4 billion budget, which includes a 1.5% increase in tuition and compensation for staff and faculty, at a special meeting Tuesday.

The increases, which are a part of the operating budget for the 2021-22 academic year, raise undergraduate resident tuition by $202 and undergraduate nonresident tuition by $480 for students on the Twin Cities campus. All University campuses were subject to the 1.5% increase in undergraduate tuition.

The board also voted to change the name of the University’s football stadium from TCF Bank stadium to Huntington Bank stadium at the special meeting.

Students respond to the tuition increase

The board accepted public comments on the budget proposal prior to the special meeting. Many students asked the board not to increase tuition, with many citing the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic uncertainty that has arisen in the last year.

“Raising tuition in the aftermath of the pandemic is a short-sighted decision that will only further burden the lives of current students and graduates,” wrote University student and Minnesota Student Association representative Jack Flom in docket materials. “The University should not rely on the students to prop itself up, it should rely on the State.”

University student Naima Osman shared a similar response to the tuition increase.

“For the past 18 months we have felt unsupported and excluded from the University,” Osman wrote. “We have paid full tuition for not a full education, we have had limited to no access to services but we still paid for them. Now the University wants to turn around and take more money for us?”

Regents, faculty and staff weigh-in

Regent Darrin Rosha also opposed the tuition increase and pointed out the difference in tuition between the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which is less than the University’s rates. He encouraged administrators to consider the need to remain competitive with peer institutions.

While Regent Janie Mayeron voted in support of the tuition increase, she said the University should prioritize long-term planning for the budget rather than short-term fixes to solve current financial uncertainties.

“We all want to freeze tuition, reduce tuition, but I think [the conversation] needs to be about all the levers that drive tuition,” Mayeron said at the meeting. “I think it has to be done in the overall context of what we are doing for tuition and pricing, which takes into account what our competitors are doing.”

Many faculty and staff members said that while they supported the 1.5% increase in compensation, these rates are often below typical market wages. Over the past year, the University has introduced extended pay cuts, furloughs and hiring freezes that have also impacted faculty and staff.

“The lack of funds for market salary adjustments for civil service employees has remained stagnant for over a decade,” wrote members of the Civil Service Consultative Committee in a statement. “However, it has been made explicitly clear that civil service employee morale is very low, and has been for several years.”

State funding and fee changes

The board discussed the amount of funding the University received from the Minnesota State Legislature. According to Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Myron Frans, the University did not receive the full amount of funding they requested, but instead received $38 million to be used over the next two years.

“We had originally asked for $46.5 million from the state of Minnesota,” Frans said. “We will have to make some adjustments in 2023, but the important thing right now is that we did get the amount requested for 2022 coming up.”

University administrators also eliminated the additional fees students were required to pay for online education. The fee will now automatically be incorporated into the cost of attendance.
“This goal really was to streamline the tuition charge into one tuition charge, whether the course is online [or in-person],” Frans said. “So, it’s really designed to make it fair for everybody so no one has to make that choice and pay any differential for the online versus in-person class.”

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Regents amend records policy, limit public access to student contact information

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents voted at their June 11 meeting to amend the Student Education Records policy to limit public access to certain student information.

The new amendments, which go into effect Aug. 1, change what directory information is available to those outside of the University, as well as what is accessible through public records requests. Prior to the policy change, all student information, such as addresses, phone numbers, major and academic adviser were all available in the public student directory unless suppressed by the student.

With the amendments, pieces of student information are now classified as either directory information or limited directory information.

Directory information, which is available to the public and subject to public records requests, will now only include enrollment statuses and information, academic programs, advisers, degrees and credentials awarded.

Limited directory information, which will only be available to internal University actors includes addresses, phone numbers and University ID photos. Previously this information was all in the public directory except for University ID photos; University ID photos were not a part of the directory previous to the amendments.

Even with the policy changes, students are still able to suppress the information available in the student directory through OneStop.

Select people within the University, like administrators or those involved in student groups, will still have access to the student information that helps them recruit and get in contact with students, according to the Interim Associate Vice Provost of Academic Support Resources, Stacey Tidball.

“Someone that works for the University that has some sort of official role, maybe they’re part of a student organization, they could still get students’ contact information because presumably they’re more likely to have a need for it,” Tidball said. “I think it’s important for students to know that, but they’ll still be able to make that stuff private.”

Some student groups, such as the Interfraternity Council, were concerned they would no longer have the ability to recruit students under the new policy, as it limits access to student emails prior to the start of an academic term.

However, the University’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life arranged to “send out summer mailings to incoming students” on behalf of the Council as part of the policy, according to a statement from Interfraternity Council President Jackson Deal that was read at the meeting.

The Minnesota Student Association originally advocated for a change to this policy in 2018.

“Since the policy was last amended in 2011, student awareness and advocacy about information privacy has increased. As part of this, students have requested specific changes to the policy,” reads docket materials from the meeting.

In addition to the directory changes, the amendment aims to clarify language and solve some administrative problems the University has had in the past, Tidball said.

Previously there was not a clear definition of what constituted a University student. The policy will now define a student as “any person that is currently or has ever registered for and attended any University for-credit class.” According to Tidball, this will help administrators solve records problems they have had in the past.

Tidball said these amendments line up not only with other Big Ten schools, but also with the Minnesota State System, which is also subject to the same public records laws as the University.

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Regents approve TCF Bank Stadium name change

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents voted Tuesday to approve branding and the name change of TCF Bank Stadium to Huntington Bank Stadium.

TCF Bank and Huntington Bank finalized their merger on June 9, according to a Huntington Bank Press release. Approval of the name and branding changes at the stadium occurred at the board’s June 29 special meeting, where branding aspects were contested in a 9-2 vote.

Regents Darrin Rosha and James Farnsworth brought up concerns about the color of the Huntington Bank logo and branding. 

“The Huntington logo is green and white which, placed on our stadium, is more compatible with our rivals at Michigan State University and the University of North Dakota,” said Rosha, reading from a response he had given in February to the Office of General Counsel. “TCF’s logo was complimentary to the University’s school colors.”

Vice President of Finance and Operations Myron Frans and Vice President of University Relations Matt Kramer assured regents that the Huntington Branding will be consistent with the way TCF branding was done, with logos on the scoreboard and field and brushed aluminum signage.

In addition to the branding discussion, regents also raised questions about the costs of rebranding the stadium and whether it would further the budget constraint issues within the athletic departments, which was a part of the discussion earlier in the meeting. 

Both General Counsel Doug Peterson and Director of Athletics Mark Coyle said that Huntington Bank will cover the costs of the rebranding, including the labor of changing signage.

“We just transitioned from approving the extraordinary and hopefully rare and one-time use of Commercial Paper … to support the precarious financial situation of this athletic department,” said Regent David McMillan. “We need this. We need this revenue.”

According to Kramer, Huntington Bank hopes to have the changes mostly completed before the Sept. 2 football game against Ohio State.

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Regents consider 1.5% tuition increase as part of proposed budget; University community weighs in during public forum

A 1.5% tuition increase for students at the University of Minnesota was proposed as part of the administration’s 2022 operating budget during the June Board of Regents meeting held Thursday and Friday.

The tuition increase would raise fees by approximately $200 for Minnesota residents and over $450 for nonresidents on the Twin Cities campus. Although some of the regents questioned the idea of increasing tuition, most regents agreed that decreasing tuition or holding it flat was not sustainable due to financial constraints.

University President Joan Gabel said the $4 billion budget proposal, which includes the proposed tuition increase, reflects the “spirit, resiliency and shared sacrifice” of the last year, while also reflecting the $172 million budget deficit resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The board will vote on the budget proposal at a special meeting scheduled for June 29.

Regents weigh in on the tuition increase proposal

“I don’t like it, but I can get there,” Regent Dave McMillan said in response to the proposed tuition increase at the meeting. McMillan chairs the Finance and Operations Committee, which oversees discussion of the budget proposal.

The 1.5% tuition increase is below the current rate of inflation, which ranges from 2-5%, according to Julie Tonneson, associate vice president and budget director.

Regent Darrin Rosha voiced his concern over the proposed tuition increase at the meeting and discussed the need for the University to stay competitive with the prices of peer institutions.

“When I think about quality public education, that’s also affordable,” he said at the meeting.

Moving forward from the pandemic

Tonneson said the budget will focus on moving forward from the pandemic.

“As opposed to last year, which was kind of a standstill budget due to uncertainties around the pandemic, the budget we are proposing to you… allows for movement forward,” Tonneson said at the meeting.

Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Myron Frans said the University should take the opportunity to move strategically as the administration develops the budget proposal.

“Big events require big responses,” Frans said at the meeting. “I’m really excited about the opportunity coming out of this really tough year… to making some strategic decisions to put us on the right path for a long time, not just a few years.”

The University also has $15.5 million dollars in proposed state funding built into the budget, although this funding is yet to be passed by the State legislature.

The budget also proposed a 1.5% increase in compensation for staff and faculty. This is below the current rate of inflation and comes after a freeze on merit raises and salary cuts throughout the last financial year.

Feedback from the University community

The board held a public forum Friday to allow members of the University community to give feedback on the budget proposal. Many of the speakers were current staff and faculty at the University.

Mostafa Kaveh, dean of the College of Science and Engineering, said the proposed 1.5% salary increase for faculty and staff is just a starting point.

“A 1.5% modest compensation increase, when we’re in a highly competitive environment for talent, is a step in the right direction, but it’s just a start,” Kaveh said at the meeting.

Phil Buhlmann, a chemistry professor at the University and outgoing chair of the Faculty Consultative Committee also supported the salary increase at the public forum.

“Please remember that half of the employees at the University of Minnesota earn less than $60,000,” Buhlmann said. “Please remember that the faculty were team players [during the pandemic].”

The regents are accepting written feedback from the public on the proposed budget on their website until June 23.

Abbey Machtig contributed to this report

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The University of Minnesota will not require COVID-19 vaccinations for students for the fall semester

University President Joan Gabel announced Monday the University of Minnesota will not require COVID-19 vaccinations for students, staff or faculty prior to the start of the fall semester.

This announcement comes as many universities and colleges, like Cornell and Duke University, have required students to be vaccinated before the start of fall semester. In a systemwide email, Gabel stated that vaccinations are a “complex and personal issue” and addressing individual circumstances is challenging in any university-wide approach.

The announcement also stated that the University “will respect individual choices” towards vaccinations and continue to support students, staff and faculty.

According to the email, 65% of all Minnesotans 16 and over have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. A recent survey of UMN students, staff and faculty found that 96% of respondents were at least partially vaccinated, Gabel said in the email.

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

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on The University of Minnesota will not require COVID-19 vaccinations for students for the fall semester