In today’s society, the idea of having kids has become an increasingly complex decision, especially for Generation Z. The societal pressures toward starting a family and pursuing the so-called “standard” path of living have become less of a concern. Instead, personal goals are now at the forefront of many minds. 

These progressive attitudes from Gen Z have sparked confusion for many members of older generations. Although most members of our cohort could not care less what the older generation has to say, the deviation from the “traditional” way of living still raises an interesting question: Why doesn’t the majority of Gen Z want kids? 

One of the biggest concerns that is leading Gen Z to choose this lifestyle is financial insecurity. Of nearly 2,000 Gen Zers asked in a Business Insider survey what they saw as an important goal to achieve within the next five years, 72% said financial security and 27% said starting a family. 

I don’t blame them for choosing to prioritize a solid financial standing rather than becoming a parent. Just look at the statistics.

The median household income has been steadily decreasing since 2019, whereas the cost of living continues to inflate. The price of raising a child from before they are born to when they turn 18, and sometimes longer, is incredibly expensive: ranging from $200,000 to $300,000. Of course our generation feels uncertain about raising a child when these are the conditions we live in.

As a result of the uncertain financial securities of the future, more couples today are choosing to live the DINK lifestyle, or double income with no kids, according to Tai Mendenhall, a professor for the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota. 

“The freedom that you have, financially, to do what you want with your life computes very differently when you have or when you do not have children,” Mendenhall said. “People are increasingly gravitating to the freedom and to the financial benefits of just being a couple and not having kids.”

The survey also reported that 59% of Gen Zers said improving their health was an important goal to achieve within the next five years. This checks out when cases of anxiety, depression and overall stress have risen a great deal compared to other generations. Establishing and keeping relationships have already taken a blow due to this concern, why would raising kids be any different?

The way Gen Z differs from older generations is in their capacity to be self-aware about their mental health issues. The ability to take care of another human being while the majority of us can barely take care of ourselves plays a big part in the decision not to have a child. Most find it unfair to bring life into a world where they themselves are not mentally anchored.

Gen Z also takes into consideration their own parents’ relationship, as well as the relationship they have with their parents, according to an informal survey I conducted on Snapchat. Growing up in a precarious environment can be discouraging. When the only frame of reference you have for being a parent or sustaining a healthy marriage is unstable, it seems only fair to question whether you want to go down a similar road or completely avoid it. 

“I think a generation ago, you were just socialized to grow up, meet somebody, get married and be a parent,” Mendenhall said. “And now, I think people feel a sense of agency to do with their lives what they want to instead of what they’ve been socialized to do.”

As Bob Dylan sang: the old road paved by the previous generations is “rapidly agin’.” 

As the most progressive and diverse group, Gen Z has shifted away from the path of what was formerly deemed “the norm” in society. This is especially true for women. According to a Ruby Home survey, it was reported that most women enjoyed the flexibility of not having kids, which is reasonable. The percentage of women in the workforce grew rapidly within the last 50 years, resulting in a change in values among women — many finding satisfaction in just focusing on their careers. 

This new-fashioned life for women is a big stray from our parents’ and grandparents’ typical societal structure. To Yashasvi Singh, a second-year political science student at the University, this may be attributed to social media. 

“Seeing on social media single women being happy and successful without having kids is changing perspectives,” Singh said. “As long as more women are getting educated and the overarching patriarchal mindset of focusing on family is going away, I think this trend will continue.”

As our generation continues to confront the complexities of the world around us, in front of us and inside of us, becoming a parent is a decision many are placing on the back burner for now. 

Does this make us selfish? 

Absolutely not. Taking into account your own well-being first, mentally or financially, is the most considerate thing you can do before deciding to bring life into this world. 

We may be diverging onto a different path than our elders, but it doesn’t mean it is the wrong path. There is no correct way to live life, so it’s important to live it in a way that feels best for you.

Students taking the digital marketing course at the Carlson School of Management get hands-on experience in digital marketing by participating in an organization called Imagine We Could, which focuses on projects related to a theme of their choice. 

Students in the course develop the organization’s website and manage their social media pages while creating and posting paid advertisements related to that year’s chosen theme, which is about promoting reading this year.

The class, along with the University of Minnesota Libraries, hosted the Carlson Book Bash on Wednesday, their first event of the semester. 

The book bash’s goal was to emphasize reducing technology usage and spending more time reading books for pleasure through making bookmarks, book exchanges and recommendations. 

Allison Murn, the professor of the course, said that while the goal is to promote a message through various marketing tactics, she also hopes their message resonates with other students. 

“People are spending way too much time online when they should be spending more time being creative,” Murn said. “Reading a physical book is a great way to do that.” 

Murn said most people want to start reading more but have not found time to do so. She said the book bash is meant to help spark motivation and by partnering with the University Libraries, students will be informed about the variety of resources they offer. 

“Even though my students are juniors or seniors, they’ve never even touched the library resources or seen them before,” Murn said. “These tools that the U of M libraries offer are so important for research and for projects.” 

Kate Peterson, an undergraduate services librarian for the University Libraries, said the book bash was a great way to promote the non-educational books available through the libraries.

“We see this as an opportunity to reach students who might not visit Wilson or Walter Library, but instead connect with them over something like fun reading,” Peterson said. 

Students can walk into the libraries and find a selection of bestseller books, streaming documentaries and music, Peterson added. 

Students can also find the libraries’ selection of bestseller books online through the Libby app, which gives access to e-books for free through public libraries, using their University login credentials.

“We always look forward to having a conversation with somebody like, ‘Tell us what you’re interested in and we can tell you about something that you might not even know we have,’” Peterson said. 

According to Peterson, the class approached the libraries with the idea to collaborate on the book bash. 

“The class had done a lot of planning for this event and done all the imagining for it,” Peterson said. “They had a lot of great ideas of how the libraries could be involved.”

Zach South, a fourth-year marketing student taking the class, said he felt “amazing” about the event’s high turnout, which was held at the Carlson School Atrium and was open to all students, staff and faculty. 

“Not many people go to events at the Carlson Atrium, so you think, ‘Oh no, what if my event doesn’t reach a bunch of people?’” South said. “The fact that we had crowds forming right before we opened put me at ease. It was like, ‘Okay, all of this work we put in is going to pay off.’” 

South said the purpose behind Imagine We Could is to empower students and young people, and to provide them the tools needed to live a successful life.

“What I really enjoy with marketing is the actual interaction with not just consumers, but with the outside world and how they interact with the brand and the product,” South said. 

The class is separated into A and B terms, meaning students in the A term meet for seven weeks before the B term section of the class begins with a new batch of students, according to Murn. 

Murn said she is impressed with the impact her students can make through their online engagement efforts to promote Imagine We Could by getting interactions from influencers and running ads that reach thousands of consumers. 

“It’s been amazing to see what the students are capable of, particularly when they’re passionate about something,” Murn said. 

For South, taking the class is not just learning about how to market a brand to people. It’s about passing the “imagine we could” mentality onto students. 

“It’s letting them believe that they can do these projects and put things into action and show that they’re capable for and ready for the real world,” South said. 

After re-opening last week, Annie’s Parlour is welcoming customers for the first time in nearly four years from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. with a stripped-down menu.

The menu has just burgers, fries and malted milkshakes. Annie’s Parlour is easing its way back into serving food for Dinkytown residents and University of Minnesota students.

After walking up the tall black staircase you will reach Annie’s main dining room, a table service-based business unlike the fast-food/fast-casual dining that dominates much of Dinkytown. The vibe of the interior is slightly rustic but also hip, as light bulbs dangling from the ceiling give it the feeling of an art museum.

The malts are what Annie’s Parlour is most famous for and of the three main selections from their current menu, they are definitely the highlight. 

The chocolate malt has a strong malty taste that compliments the flavor of the chocolate and the ice cream very well. Additionally, the malt is not so thick that you can’t drink it through a straw — you can’t go wrong with using either a straw or a spoon to devour a malt from Annie’s.

With a lack of quality options for ice cream products on campus, Annie’s Parlour is fulfilling a demand that has existed since the pandemic. The only real downside to the malts is their price: one malt costs $9.95. It is worth noting, however, that if you sit down and order a malt, there is more than enough for two people, as they give you enough malted milkshake to fill at least two of their glasses.

In addition to their well-known flagship dessert, Annie’s has some good burgers as well. It is not an outstanding burger by any means, but their cheeseburger is notably well-seasoned and juicy. It is an overall satisfactory entree.

The last option on Annie’s current limited menu is their fries, available in a half or full order. Like the burger, the fries are nothing outstanding but are well-seasoned. They work on their own or dipped into a malt, if you’re into that.

The return of Annie’s Parlour is sure to satisfy longtime customers and University students alike. With a remarkably good selection of malted milkshakes, it might just be the best place to grab dessert in Dinkytown.

The Weisman Art Museum screened the 1989 documentary “James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket” from Feb. 21-28 in their Target Studio Gallery. 

The film is a celebration of Baldwin, despite his public perception up until 1989 and in congruence with his contemporary legacy. In its broader efforts to challenge those narratives in American history, the Weisman recently hosted a series of events on the preeminent Black activist and author.

Megan Finch, assistant professor in the University of Minnesota English department, hosted an interactive talk on Wednesday evening about the documentary and Baldwin’s life and work. Both events are in conjunction with the Weisman’s exhibition “More Various, More Beautiful, & More Terrible,” a curation of the museum’s permanent collection based on Baldwin’s 1963 essay “A Talk to Teachers.” It has been on view in the Woodhouse Family Gallery since November 2022 and will be there until May 24, 2026.

According to Finch, director Karen Thorsen met Baldwin once shortly before his death to pitch the documentary as a cinéma vérité film, a type of filmmaking that seeks to avoid artificiality and present a truthful image of the subjects. One way this is done is through omitting a voice-over narrator, which is the case here.

The film is made up of interviews with Baldwin and his friends and colleagues and other archival footage of him, guiding the audience through the various eras of his life. It opens with evocative footage of Baldwin’s funeral at St. John the Divine in New York City, an imposing, grandiose Catholic ceremony backed with hastening African drums. The story of Baldwin’s life begins with his death, foreshadowing how his reputation would evolve in the following years.

The film was shown on a loop at the Weisman, so the viewer would be taking a gamble at what aspect of Baldwin’s life they would bear witness to, but an engaging story would meet them wherever they picked up. 

However, at one point on Wednesday, the footage abruptly paused in the middle of the discussion of Baldwin’s 1964 play “Blues for Mister Charlie.” This interruption contradicts the purpose of the documentary as a full, complex picture of the writer.

Madeeha Lamoreaux, who attended Finch’s talk, said the documentary was hard to grasp when she watched it on her own. She said it was hard to understand the director’s artistic perspective through the film, but Finch’s commentary made it easier.

“Dr. Finch facilitated a conversation outside of a classroom space in a way that felt very similar to a classroom environment in the sense that it felt safe to come to that space without preconceptions, expertise or knowledge,” Lamoreaux said. 

Attendees of the talk included Weisman staff like Lamoreaux, University students and community members. 

One of those community members was Herman Milligan, a consultant and part-time manager of the Givens Foundation for African American Literature, as well as a University alumnus — the first Black person to receive a doctorate in sociology from the University, he said. He first read Baldwin for required reading as an undergraduate and continued following Baldwin’s works, saying he now owns 10 of his books.

“It wasn’t that the literary world was [Baldwin’s] best friend, but he managed to do well despite the fact that there were obstacles put in his place,” Milligan said.

According to Milligan, Finch’s talk showed how important it is for people to understand the complexity of Baldwin’s life. 

Finch and “The Price of the Ticket” both addressed the tension between Baldwin the novelist and Baldwin the activist — one had a responsibility to his craft and creativity, the other to the world and the people around him, and his influence resides in the synthesis of the two.

“Any truly creative person wants to make meaningful change,” Milligan said.

Finch described herself to her audience as “a scholar who thinks about novels,” not usually the lives of novelists, nor Baldwin’s in particular. Her interest in the documentary and starting a conversation around it comes from her own interest in how the function of novels evolved with Baldwin’s legacy. After all, she said, his 1956 novel “Giovanni’s Room” underlines Baldwin’s contemporary influence as a Black queer voice.

Leading the conversation, Finch encouraged all thoughts and questions and gave thoughtful responses to each one. Like Lamoreaux said, the result was a safe, intimate and accessible learning space. As the Weisman continues to pursue challenging dominant white, Western narratives in museum spaces, providing platforms so communal conversations can take place is key.

Finch closed the talk by saying to the audience, “It was a pleasure to think with you.”

“James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket” is available for streaming on pbs.org with a donation. 

The University of Minnesota’s Esports at UMN club looks to be a part of Big Ten athletics as numbers continue to grow with no space to call their own. 

Since its start in 2017, Esports at UMN has grown exponentially with about 500 current members. Around 50 to 100 of them are actively competing in one of the seven teams within the club. 

Under the umbrella of the club, there are seven different games with their own competitive teams, said Nate Singer, president of Esports at UMN. 

Different game communities within the club include Counter-Strike, Fortnite, League of Legends, Overwatch, Rainbow Six, Rocket League and Valorant, according to Singer.

Singer, a third-year student, said the club has grown a lot since he joined in 2021. 

“We’ve learned how to be an organization instead of just a bunch of separate games,” Singer said. “We want to continue growing. We want to continue legitimizing esports as a real thing not to be laughed at.” 

According to Singer, the COVID-19 pandemic is when people started playing esports more, taking to it as a community. 

“We are people who play these games, and we get it, it’s weird at first to understand and explain,” Singer said. “Playing video games competitively is a weird thing, but we just want people to know that esports is not a trend, it’s a decades-long tradition of competition and community that began with people playing in arcades.”

With numbers on the rise, Singer said the club is hoping to gain more recognition to get a facility on campus and be supported by the Big Ten. 

Currently, the club hosts open houses and some events at Left Click Lounge in Dinkytown, but the group is hoping for a space of their own to hold events and allow people to practice, said Singer. 

“We don’t expect to be just given the status as an official branch of UMN athletics just because we say we want to be,” Singer said. “We truly believe that we deserve it and we want to prove that to the U by showing that we have an organized club and a structure in place that makes this a sustainable branch of the organization.” 

Doug Goon, the director of information technology for Intercollegiate Athletics, is working with Esports at UMN to help them become organized. 

According to Goon, other colleges have the esports program under the RecWell umbrella, the student unions or the technology office, with very few having it in athletics. 

Goon added that last year, they approached the Big Ten conference asking if they would sanction esports, but they were too late. Instead, Goon said the Big Ten universities decided to do it anyway and the Big Esports Conference (BEC) was started. 

“It’s important for us for this program to be supported campus-wide so that we can get buy-in from all constituents,” Goon said. “In order for us to kind of achieve the esports ecosystem that we’re aiming to build, we need buy-in across the board.” 

Singer said it is important to show the University and Big Ten what the club can already do without outside support. 

“Look what we can do without any of the school supporting us or having to scrape together the funding,” Singer said. “Imagine what we can do if we had more official support.” 

Goon said scholastic sports add an educational component tied to learning and structured game time where the positive things about esports get overshadowed by some of the few negatives. 

“That’s a very attractive piece, especially to parents who feel like this is a negative thing, and it’s just kids wasting their lives on video games,” Goon said. “If you just take some time to be open to it and understand and see that when these kids compete at the highest level against other colleges, it doesn’t look very much different than any traditional sport.” 

According to Goon, there was a previous professor at the University who worked with him to try to create an esports certificate program as a pathway to an esports minor. However, after the professor left, Goon said he was back to square one. 

In an effort to bring esports to the forefront of the University, Goon said he was able to get the National Association of Esports Coaches and Directors national convention to be held in Huntington Bank Stadium on June 19, with 150 to 250 esports directors and coaches flying in from all over the country. 

Goon added the BEC is also “scraping together” what funding they have to fly esports teams to Columbus, Ohio for an in-person competition, hoping to show the Big Ten the opportunities it is missing out on.

“All the concerns that we have as an athletic department about the coming generation choosing esports over traditional sports, Big Ten, maybe you should consider trying to fill the gap before it becomes a real problem for you,” Goon said. 

Another initiative Goon said he has been working towards is an esports lab space on campus, a place where students can play together. 

“The kids just need a home right now,” Goon said. “Minnesota is way behind in terms of, is there a space where the gamers can casually play when they’re in between classes or practice or compete hardcore or just have a watch party.” 

Rakesh Plantz, a fourth-year student and game lead for Fortnite, said the idea of having a space is enticing because other schools that support their esports teams have their own rooms for players to game in. 

When Plantz joined the esports club four years ago, he said there was no team for Fortnite, so he created one. 

Since then, the Esports at UMN Fortnite team has grown, winning first place nationally and being nominated for the top collegiate esports Fortnite team. 

Plantz said the esports community is very welcoming to those who do not have a lot of experience playing. He said it is also important for people to realize Esports at UMN exists and is really competitive.

“There’s a ton of competition within the esports space throughout all colleges and it’s just another way of expressing yourself, expressing your talent,” Plantz said. “We’re always welcome to have more people join.” 

Singer said it is not important to know what games the club plays. 

“You don’t need to know what esports are or what games we play,” Singer said. “You can, and that’s great, but it’s more about the fact that there are hundreds of students at this school who love and cherish the ability to play games with their friends.” 

Gophers softball put together a complete performance in game five of the North Texas Invitational after losing the first four games.

In the first two games, the Gophers only led in one inning throughout the two contests, losing to Texas Tech in game one by a score of 2-1 and North Texas in the following game 7-5.

On the second day, Minnesota jumped over Texas Tech, scoring six unanswered runs in the first six innings. The Red Raiders responded with a rally of their own, scoring six runs in the sixth and walking it off on an error in the seventh inning in a 7-6 loss for Minnesota.

Sophomore right fielder Addison Leschber said Texas Tech’s offense got hot and it was hard to slow them down.

 “I don’t think necessarily it was all our fault,” Leschber said. “Their bats started going and they started making those adjustments really fast and hitting those gap shots.”

Junior third baseman Kayla Chavez said that after Texas Tech took the momentum, Minnesota was not able to regain control.

The Gophers also dropped a game to Stephen F. Austin, 1-0. Minnesota struggled to string together hits and were no-hit throughout the first 3.1 innings.

Bri Enter had an excellent day in the circle, posting a career-high eight strikeouts. Enter pitched seven innings of one-run ball, but the Gophers could not muster enough offensive production to reward her efforts.

Chavez said Enter pitched great to start the season, attributing it to her confidence and an increase in spin on her pitches.

Rounding out the weekend, the Gophers rebounded from their losses with a 10-1 offensive explosion against New Mexico. Minnesota saw four players finish the game with multi-hit performances.

Leschber, a Texas native, said she had many family members at the games this past weekend. Leschber added that her family barbecue after the second game Saturday was a factor in the Gophers’ strong performance against the Aggies.

“I think that helped contribute to our success on Sunday,” Leschber said. “It brought us together as a team.”

Minnesota was able to finish on a high note but left Texas with four more losses on their overall record.

The Gophers have struggled this season with defensive errors leading to unearned runs. On the year, 16 of Minnesota’s 58 runs allowed were unearned. 

Gophers head coach Piper Ritter said winning games is tough enough and giving up extra bases to teams further exacerbates the problem.

“When you give up extra freebies, whether they take an extra base on you or you walk someone, it’s really hard,” Ritter said. “You want to make them earn every 60 feet they go.”

No matter how big the troubles for the Gophers get, one constant always remains: sophomore shortstop Jess Oakland destroying the softball.

Oakland this season is 19 for 41 (.463) at the plate, good for third in the Big Ten. The sophomore is leading the team in home runs (2), RBIs (10) and on-base percentage (.532).

Oakland is getting more volume in the field compared to her freshman season and is working to clean up some early miscues on defense. Oakland currently leads the team with five errors on 49 opportunities.

Ritter said Oakland is doing a phenomenal job, and while she may have mishandled some defensive plays, she has seen 20 more groundball chances this season than last year during this point of the season.

Minnesota will look to build on their recent win as they head into back-to-back tournaments in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Specializing in hand rolls, rice balls and teriyaki bowls, new business Rollicious: Nori and Rice opened in Dinkytown on Feb. 12 underneath the Book House and neighboring Shuang Cheng.

Rollicious joins the fluctuating nature of Dinkytown’s businesses alongside its long-standing counterparts Tony’s Diner and Al’s Breakfast. As new students come and go for breaks, businesses must constantly adapt to change. 

Soi Ho, owner of Rollicious, said he opened the restaurant in Minneapolis because of the times he visited during family vacations while he worked for his sister’s sushi bar in North Dakota.

“Every time I came down, the place just grew on me,” Ho said. “Then I just decided, ‘Yeah, I want to be here.’”

Ho said he opened Rollicious for new opportunities and came to Dinkytown specifically to grow his business and meet people. He said he is excited for his life in Minneapolis where he can spend time with his family and explore the city. 

Dinkytown is a competitive market for restaurants as the streets are full of a variety of places for students to eat, but it also provides opportunities for new businesses. Several businesses such as Tony’s Diner and Al’s Breakfast have operated for over 22 years while others, like CrunCheese and $1.99 Americano, opened within the last few years. 

Ho said he believes the food appeals to younger generations and will be easy for students to get when they are in a hurry. 

“It’s grab and go,” Ho said. “They don’t have to wait a long time just for the food.”

Tony Nicklow, owner of Tony’s Diner, said he originally planned to open a Chinese noodle and dumpling restaurant after he had lived in China, but the landlord did not want it to compete with a similar business he owned. 

Nicklow said his father, who was in the restaurant business and started in Dinkytown in the ‘60s, suggested serving burgers and steaks instead. Nicklow opened Tony’s Diner in August 2002 and added breakfast options a few years later. 

Nicklow said he loves being in Dinkytown because being in a University neighborhood is dynamic and there is never a dull moment. 

“Dinkytown is an awesome place,” Nicklow said. “I kind of grew up here, like I said my dad started here, and I got to watch a lot of things change.” 

Ho said he chose to open Rollicious in Dinkytown to be open for students as one of the only restaurants in Dinkytown that primarily serves sushi. Nicklow said having a niche helps set you apart from other businesses in the area.

Al’s Breakfast opened in 1950 by Al Bergstrom and it is now owned and operated by Alison Kirwin, who has worked there since 1996.

Kirwin said Al’s differs from other restaurants in Dinkytown because it does not rely only on the student population but instead a loyal group of regulars. She said the regulars pass on the tradition of going to Al’s to new students attending the University and others they want to share the experience with. 

“We have regulars who have been coming in for 40 or more years,” Kirwin said. “The fact that people care enough to pass it on to the next generation is really cool.”

Maintaining a business in Dinkytown can be challenging when students go away for breaks. Nicklow said he relies on catering for the Gopher athletics teams to carry the diner through the summer, but some people will return on the weekends.

Kirwin said with new students coming to the University every year, they get new people coming into Al’s that tend to continue to come after they discover it.

“We tend to do a pretty good job of keeping people around while they are at school,” Kirwin said. “We get a lot of students who become short-term regulars.” 

It is not easy to stay in Dinkytown long-term. Kirwin said only a few businesses have survived for decades like Al’s, Wally’s and Tony’s Diner.

“There is definitely a community aspect of people who are constant around there,” Kirwin said. “But then it’s fun when new people come in with new ideas and become a part of the landscape of Dinkytown too.”

When Al’s and Tony’s first opened, they did not need to rely on social media to promote their businesses, but now new businesses should try to be active on social media and put themselves out there.

Kirwin said it is important for new businesses to consider the variety of places that already exist in Dinkytown and find something different that could benefit the area and be visible on the street for people to see them.

It is easy to walk past businesses without looking at what it is, especially as a student on their way to class, Kirwin said.

Nicklow said spreading the word when first opening is difficult but having good proportions for a good price is key.

“My old man told me when he was here, he said ‘You gotta put the value on the plate,’” Nicklow said. “If the food is good, if the price is right, it works.”

Although Rollicious is hard to find, Kirwin said the corridor is a hidden gem due to its architecture and old-world feeling.

“You walk back into this cobblestone hallway,” Kirwin said. “Once they get people back there, they are really going to like it.”

Between the sold-out crowd, the line to get in and the applause, one would think there was a parade in Minneapolis on Wednesday. It was just Caitlin Clark.

Fans stood outside in 17-degree weather for nearly two hours before the game started to watch Clark. Many made the four-and-a-half-hour trek from Iowa City, Iowa to Williams just to watch her play.

Clark didn’t take long to show Minneapolis why she is the leading NCAA women’s basketball scorer. Each time she shot the ball, a sea of fans wearing Gopher maroon and Hawkeye gold jumped to their feet in awe.

“It’s cool just to see the impact we’ve had across the country,” Clark said.

The excitement for Clark seemed to wear off later in the game until she made history again by breaking Lynette Woodward’s women’s college basketball scoring record on a 3-point shot late in the fourth quarter.

Clark’s record-breaking night came just 13 days after she broke Kelsey Plum’s women’s NCAA all-time scoring record.

“The NCAA didn’t want to recognize women and what they did back in the 1980s,” Clark said. “I wouldn’t have the opportunity to be able to do what I’m doing every single night if it wasn’t for people like her.” 

The Gophers were no strangers to Clark’s abilities from beyond the arc. Several Gophers defenders guarded her at once, leaving Clark no choice but to dish out a cross-court pass to her teammates down to the corners of the arc.

A sigh of relief came for the Gophers when Clark checked out after reaching her third foul. 

Even without Clark, Iowa was still dominant as exemplified by Hawkeye guard Gabbie Marshall’s quickness on the court which led to a 16-point performance.

Head coach for the Gophers Dawn Plitzuweit said her goal for the team coming into the game was to have all of her players walk away saying they competed at a “high level.”

“I don’t think we really did that,” Plitzuweit said.

The Gophers put up shots short of the rim in the first half, addressed the issue at halftime, and then rushed shots in the second half.

Stopping the Hawkeyes was a critical yet seemingly impossible task for the Gophers throughout the game. 

Battle was among several Gophers players who routinely dove to the ground fighting for control of the ball as if they would never see another possession.

“It was pretty tough,” Battle said. 

Clark’s 33 points contributed to a dominating 108-60 win over the Gophers. After breaking Woodward’s record, she is just 17 points away from breaking Pete Maravich’s 54-year-old scoring record of 3,667 career points.

Lately, Clark has been in a scoring slump from her typical above-30-point nights, averaging 27 through her last three matches.

Head coach for Iowa Lisa Bluder said Clark’s achievements throughout the season are hopefully a wake-up call to the NCAA.

“Why would you not recognize the women that played in the 70s and 80s,” Bluder said. “It makes no sense, but maybe, maybe the NCAA will realize that now.”

Clark’s next match is against Ohio State on Sunday. She’s played 29 games this season and scored 909 points.

While Clark has yet to make any decision on whether she will return for a fifth year, fans made clear what they want from her after the game, chanting “one more year.”

This story has been updated.

The University of Minnesota Undergraduate Student Government’s (USG) newly founded Food Insecurity Ad-Hoc Committee aims to combat food insecurity issues on and around campus.

Though a long-held USG priority, the Committee was founded this semester with its ultimate goal of getting a question on the ballot in the March 11 campus elections. The question would ask students whether they want President-Designate Rebecca Cunningham to make tackling food insecurity a priority.

Committee Director Amara Omar said getting a question on the March 11 ballot would prove food insecurity is a legitimate issue students face on campus, particularly as Cunningham prepares to begin her term in July.

“It’s the first step of legitimacy,” Omar said. “That means admin knows about it. They see it.”

Looking to the future, the Committee’s long-term goals include getting the NutritiousU Food Pantry a permanent place on campus and opening a break-even, on-campus grocery store, according to Omar. 

The store plans to follow a break-even model in which the store makes only enough money to cover the cost of operations and labor required to run it, said USG President Shashank Murali.

The Pantry currently operates out of the first floor of Coffman Union on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Lines to access the Pantry are usually very long and volunteers are stretched thin, Omar added. 

“It’s just not sustainable,” Omar said. 

Omar said the Pantry’s high demand is evidence of the prevailing food insecurity issue on campus and she hopes the Committee will be able to get it a permanent space and increased funding. 

The Committee’s first few meetings have gone well, according to Omar, adding that the Committee also boasts a diverse membership.

“We have food sciences majors, business majors, sociology majors, political science majors — students of all scopes,” Omar said. “Students who also live on campus, live in dorms and students who live off-campus.” 

In its meetings thus far, Omar said the Committee has worked to develop outreach strategies, speaking to individual student groups to garner support and conduct digital outreach. 

Omar said much of the student feedback given to the Committee reflects the student body’s desire to have a break-even, on-campus grocery store. 

“If you walk up to people and say, ‘Hey, let’s get a grocery store on campus,’ they’d be like, ‘Yes, totally, we’re sick of Target,’” Omar said. 

Murali said the idea for an accessible grocery store is based on making something to benefit students long-term, not-for-profit effort by the University.

Currently, the only available grocery options near campus are Target in Dinkytown and Fresh Thyme in Prospect Park, according to Kent Kramp, president of the Dinkytown Business Alliance.

Murali said the hope is to work with a provider to introduce a grocery store to campus with high-quality, low-cost grocery options, unlike Target and Fresh Thyme. 

Kramp said the opening of an on-campus grocery store would be a great benefit to the University community with little effect on Dinkytown businesses.

“The people that want to cook their own food and not eat at a restaurant are already doing that,” Kramp said. “I think [an on-campus grocery store] would just make it more convenient.

Though there was a community push to put a grocery store in the development below the Identity apartments in Dinkytown, Kramp said he thinks a grocery store has not opened yet because it is a difficult business to operate near a college campus. 

Given the necessity for a large enough space to sustain a full grocery store, an urban center like Minneapolis also creates a difficult environment for a grocery store.

Murali added that the Committee is also working to find a permanent place for the Twin Cities Mobile Market, a USG initiative introduced in November 2021 to provide low-cost grocery options for students. 

Though the Mobile Market is separate from the on-campus grocery store, Murali said USG is continuing efforts to expand food security on campus such as expanding the food pantry, continuing the Farmer’s Market on campus and bringing back the mobile market.

“We don’t know when we’re going to get a break-even grocery store,” Murali said. “That doesn’t mean we leave behind all these other vital resources that are currently helping students.”

Like most university students, leaving for college came with many goodbyes. Besides bidding farewell to my childhood memories, in a leap of faith, I abandoned my iPhone.

Tired of obsessively checking my email, aimlessly looking at the Weather app and navigating drama from social media, I sought to end the toxic relationship with my smartphone. 

A few weeks before leaving for the University of Minnesota, I popped the SD card out of my iPhone 13 and slid it into a device called the Light Phone II. This phone would enable me to call and text without the distractions of email, a web browser or third-party apps. It looked alien with  a small, gray rectangle with a black-and-white e-ink display. 

“It looks like you put a Kindle through the dryer,” my father said.

It was love at first sight and nearly two years later, I have no regrets.

Joe Hollier co-founded the company Light, which sells the Light Phone II, with product designer Kaiwei Tang after Hollier became disillusioned with his work at a Google-funded design school called 30 Weeks. The program sought to create new smartphone apps that maximized profits from data collection and advertisements, which he felt failed to reflect the actual needs or wants of consumers. 

He calls the experience of using his company’s pared-down technology “going light” — reducing our reliance on attention-seeking, time-sucking devices.

“I just kind of felt like everyone I was talking to was feeling habitually overwhelmed and craving an escape,” Hollier said. “That’s sort of where this idea of ‘going light’ came from and trying to remember there was a time before we were constantly online.”

Switching to the Light Phone II was a learning curve. Texting on the tiny keyboard proved difficult, and the phone made a strange buzzing noise when I tapped each letter. After scrolling through the music player, contacts list and notes app a few times, I ran out of ways to entertain myself. But my frustration turned to satisfaction as I realized feeling bored was the whole point.

I tried using the phone’s navigation system, but I found it clunky and impractical. As a result, I don’t always know when the bus or train is coming, and I have to rely on written directions when driving. While I’ve learned to lean into the uncertainty and improved my navigation skills as a result, I won’t deny the stress that comes with having no immediate way of knowing where I need to go. 

“There is inconvenience in using the Light Phone, but if getting back those hours of your time and that attention span is worth it, I think they outweigh some of that friction,” Hollier said.

During my past two years at the University, I’ve started to think less about what the Light Phone lacks and more about the relief it provides me. No checking Canvas notifications when I’m out with friends, no procrastinating assignments scrolling through an Instagram feed and no sitting on the toilet for twenty minutes lost in a Google search spiral. 

I’ve become more focused and present in every aspect of my life. If that means having to look up the address of a house party before I leave my apartment, so be it. 

The biggest downside of using my phone isn’t the device itself.

It’s the disappointment of sitting eagerly at a table of classmates with faces buried in their phones. It’s the frustration of watching a sunset from the bus in a sea of glowing rectangles, wishing everyone else would pay attention to the fading sky instead of watching 30-second video clips. It’s the terrifying realization that smartphones have dramatically inhibited our ability to interact with our physical surroundings, and there is no conclusive evidence about their long-term effects on our brains or society.

Maybe I sound melodramatic — after all, smartphones have significantly increased connection on a local and global scale. They’ve provided new job opportunities, access to important safety resources and are a reliable source of entertainment, but are these devices worth their deleterious effects on our well-being?

Rates of depression among teenagers have skyrocketed since the release of the iPhone in 2007, with levels of loneliness rising by nearly 50%, according to a survey from Monitoring the Future, an FDA-sponsored research program that has surveyed eighth, 10th and 12th-grade students across the United States since 1991. Adolescents are spending less time with friends, less time on dates and having less sex. 

Patrick Smith is the principal of Maple Grove Middle School, which recently instituted a school-wide ban on smartphones. Students can bring their phones into the building but will face consequences if they take them out at any point during the school day.

Smith said the culture of the school quickly changed. 

“They’re standing at their lockers and socializing with each other face to face,” Smith said. “At lunchtime, they’re talking to each other across the table.” 

Smith added that students were more engaged in the classroom and completed a higher number of assignments. 

Procrastination and low productivity are not habits confined to middle schoolers. We all know how fast 10 minutes on social media can quickly turn into an hour of mindless scrolling. And yet, when people see my phone, usually their first question is, “How do you live like this?” 

I often want to ask them the same thing.

The Light Phone II might not be for everyone, but carrying a supercomputer in your pocket is not a requirement for survival. After all, our human ancestors made it 200,000 years without them. 

The world may seem to revolve around QR codes and apps, but eighteen months after ditching my iPhone 13, I feel more connected to life than ever before. 

Even in times of stress, the sun still rises every morning. If you looked up from your phone, you’d see it too.