Perhaps you have seen the memes of young guys standing in the corner of a party pulling up the weather app while joking about their inability to approach women at the bar.

Or if you have spent time on dating apps, perhaps you have engaged in conversations where the other person has no idea how to reciprocate interest, or, even worse, ghosted you entirely. 

Maybe you feel as if communicating face-to-face and participating in real-time conversations feels like a chess match, and instead of playing, you would much rather retreat to the confined safety net of your phone or not even bother with social interaction.

Welcome to the reality of communication amongst young Gen Z adults, where shyness, awkward body language and social risk aversion define an unfortunately large amount of our everyday conversations (or lack thereof). 

Whether we know it or not, many of us disregard the value of face-to-face interactions and real-time conversations. By simply clicking a few buttons, we can easily craft and edit online personas and messages, giving us a sense of control that does not exist in real-time interactions. 

Instead of trying to cultivate rewarding conversations, meet new people or put in effort to develop our social acumen, we often choose instant gratification from our technological safety nets.

These choices are damaging our development. 

Recent data published from six research studies conducted between 1999 and 2020 by Sage Journals revealed individuals from Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) tend to be shyer than millennials. This was true even though the study assessed participants at roughly the same age. 

The study further cited a correlation between shyness and extremely damaging mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation — all of which are increasing at scarily high rates for Gen Z. 

Beyond typical social interaction, these behaviors hurt Gen Z in the workplace. 

Of 800 managers, directors and executives polled in an Intelligent.com survey, 38% of respondents said they were more likely to hire an older candidate due to Gen Z’s behavior. Respondents often highlighted typical soft skill issues such as lack of eye contact and body language. One in five respondents even referred to their recent college graduate candidates as “unprepared.”

Jackson Lee, an Investment Banking Analyst, said there was concerning behavior from company interns, including blatant refusal to complete assigned tasks or acknowledge superior advice and repeated ignorance of the dress code.

“I think there’s a level of respect that may be missing nowadays,” Lee said. 

Like smartphones and social media, experiencing major life milestones amid a global pandemic played a pivotal role in our underdeveloped social acumen and generational shyness.

But simply blaming this for our shortcomings and refusing to adapt from it does nothing for the growth of our soft skills. 

Our generation has a heightened awareness of mental health and a unique understanding of how it relates to our social interactions. When someone is grappling with feelings of shyness or social anxiety, there can be a societal inclination to safeguard their emotional stability. 

Is this mindset hurting their development? Perhaps our culture — in an effort to remain considerate of everyone’s mental health — is not doing a good enough job of ensuring that young adults develop their social skills through challenging experiences. 

Adib Birkland, senior lecturer at the Carlson School of Management, said he had conversations with international students who observed a vastly different approach to how their American counterparts balance mental health with adversity in social interactions and the classroom. 

“If it’s not universal, that means it’s not a human thing,” Birkland said. “Perhaps there are unnatural elements of our American culture that are contributing to this anxiousness.” 

These unnatural elements may unintentionally reinforce our generation’s feeling that other people must accommodate us at every turn, especially in the workplace. 

Issues like work-from-home have raised questions about whether Gen Z not coming into the office hurts the interpersonal fabric of their relationships with superiors and coworkers. 

A recent survey of 2,000 graduates younger than 24 in the U.S. and U.K. found that ambiguous workplace relationships increased the stress of nearly 30% of respondents.

What is more concerning, though, is that 90% of respondents said they avoid in-person events due to social anxiety, and a quarter highlighted feeling uncomfortable when speaking up in meetings and sharing ideas.

In a cultural context, it is hard to advocate for having less consideration for mental health and how it relates to our everyday interactions. But when it comes to soft skills, everyone should try to improve their ability to communicate in real-time conversations. 

Sometimes, this requires stepping out of the social bubble wrap you have put around yourself. 

Expecting to improve your social and face-to-face communication skills without gradually exposing yourself to more social settings is pointless. Active listening, eye contact and proper body language do not matter when talking to someone on a phone. 

As someone who has gone through the majority of my life with a shy, introverted approach, I can attest to missing out on numerous social experiences, connections, longstanding memories and even career opportunities only because I was too scared to talk to people.

I hope we can recognize the value and necessity of these experiences and the everyday skills we accumulate from them, even if it means being uncomfortable. 

Metro Green Line trains continue to experience delays as rails break from a sudden change in weather and have left residents with delays of up to 20 minutes. 

Many students and faculty rely on the Green Line to get to class and work. These delays cause them to either be late or to have to wake up early to make the transit. 

Delays should be expected for the foreseeable future and the poor condition of rail tracks is forcing trains to drive slower, Metro Transit spokesperson Laura Baenen said in a statement to The Minnesota Daily. 

“We had several rail breaks when it got really cold recently and until permanent fixes can be made in consistently warm weather, trains need to travel at reduced speeds over them,” Baenen said. 

The Green Line train tracks are embedded, Baenen said, meaning the concrete around the tracks has to be ripped out and filled back in to fix the issue.

Any effort to fix these repairs would have to happen once the weather is warmer and lead to Green Line services shutting down for a weekend, but no concrete plan has been made to fix the tracks, according to Baenen. 

Similar repairs were made to Metro Blue Line trains in January 2024 as cold weather created tensions on the tracks.

First-year student Allie Gilbert said delays to the light rail significantly impacted her ability to get to class and visit friends.

“It’s just kind of irritating,” Gilbert said. 

More trains have been put on the tracks to compensate for delays, Baenen said. 

“In the meantime, we do our best to maintain the schedule by inserting extra trains as needed. We’re also making software improvements so these extra trains are observable through real-time transit information tools like Show My Train,” Baenen said. 

First-year student Alma Garcia said she saw gaps between train rides of up to 25 minutes, even with added trains. These gaps led Garcia to be late to multiple classes, frustrating both Garcia and her professors.

“It’ll be like, ‘Oh, one train comes in at 9:10 and then the next train comes in 20, 25 minutes,’” Garcia said. “I feel like the teachers probably don’t know about the metro delay, so I feel like it kind of gives them that view, like, ‘Oh, she’s just late because she wants to be, not because of the actual metro problems.’”

Besides track damages and slower train speeds, Baenen said passenger behaviors such as holding the doors are leading to delays. 

“Right now the students here, they’re getting to class late or people that work in the Twin Cities areas, they’re getting to work late,” Garcia said. 

University of Minnesota’s dance students had an outstanding performance at their spring concert, “Rising,” at the Barbara Barker Center for Dance from Friday to Sunday.

The show included five dances, four choreographed by students and a final piece by guest artist Eva Mohn. While each dance covered a variety of topics and had completely different feels, the concert still felt like a cohesive piece of art celebrating the work of University student dancers.

“4 Spilled Beans,” choreographed by fourth-year student Claire Wilcox, was an incredibly strong opener for the performance. The dance featured four dancers as they “play with duration and relationality,” according to the concert program. 

The props and lighting design of this piece were highlights. The dancers played with a single lamp and scraps of crocheted yarn throughout the piece. The props allowed for unique item work and creativity with the dancers’ movements, like knocking over the lamp and jumping over the cord. 

The lamp also created opportunities for interesting lighting effects by having the actual stage lights change with the flick of the lamp’s switch or turning the studio lights off completely when the lamp fell over. These lighting changes also worked hand-in-hand with shifts in the atmosphere throughout the dance, going from gentle tones to more playful ones.

The second dance, “Always an Actress,” was a standout solo piece that was choreographed and performed by second-year Meghan Morgan. 

“Always an Actress” focused on societal expectations and pressures that are placed on women. It featured excerpts of paparazzi camera flashes, interviews of Marilyn Monroe and her famed performance of “Happy Birthday Mr. President” in 1962 to former President John F. Kennedy.

The moving piece was a powerhouse performance in both dancing and acting. Morgan frantically danced around the stage and came into the audience at times in her character’s desperate attempt to keep up the facade she was confined to. 

Morgan ran through the crowd, jumped up on seats and talked to and encouraged the audience to clap and sing along with Monroe’s performance of “Happy Birthday Mr. President.” Her engagement with the crowd was a major contributor as to why her dance was a particularly high point in the show.

At the end of the piece, the nearly sold-out crowd was completely silent as the lights went black on Morgan standing in character with a plastered smile on her face. In all honesty, if the $10 ticket only included her dance, it still would have been more than worth the price.

The next piece, “Flamingos in Wisconsin,” was a stark change of pace from “Always an Actress.” The dance, choreographed by third-year student Camille Staats, follows the true story of flamingos who were taken by storm in Florida, ended up by Lake Michigan and had to get back home.

The four dancers, clad in bright pink, did an impressive amount of lifts, rolls and acrobatics to bring their flamingo characters to life. The performers embodied curious yet nervous flamingos trying to find their way back to Florida, which worked perfectly with the entertaining choreography by Staats.

By the end of this piece, the audience was filled with smiles and laughter at these flamingo’s peculiar predicament.

Another high point of the concert was “Assimilation,” a piece choreographed by third-year student Nakeema King in collaboration with cast artists. Another tonal shift from the piece that preceded it, the dance highlighted the reality of residential schools, which were boarding schools funded by governments to isolate Indigenous children from their traditions and assimilate them into the dominant Eurocentric culture.

At the end of the piece, all of the performers lay next to each other on the floor dead as King carried another dancer off the stage and poetry about the horrors of residential schools echoed around them.

Along with the movement, the acting is where the piece shined. Every dancer involved disappeared into their characters, pulled the audience into their world and would not let up until the lights faded to black.

Similar to Morgan’s dance, “Assimilation” left audience members breathless as King took her final steps offstage.

“Radio Wirl,” choreographed by guest artist Eva Mohn, was an innovative way to end the show. The piece had one dancer pretending she was the host of a radio show and playing four vastly different songs on a record player on the side of the stage while the remaining seven performers danced on the actual stage.

All four sections of this performance saw the dancers embody completely different moods to match the music, an impressive feat in itself. But, the highlight from “Radio Wirl” was in the middle of the piece as the performers jumped and danced on trampolines to M.I.A.’s song “Finally.” A contrast from the rest of the slower, stunningly choreographed piece, this section was a fun boost of energy at the end of the concert which highlighted the dancer’s impressive stamina.

All in all, “Rising” was a gorgeous showcase of University dance students’ artistry, which left audiences with feelings of sadness, hope and joy.

As the University of Minnesota’s PEAK (Positioned for Excellence, Alignment and Knowledge) Initiative finishes phase one, some employees are still unsure about whether they will have a job once the initiative is finished.

The PEAK Initiative began its assessment phase in 2021 and is working towards improving the efficiency of services across the University system, according to its website. 

The changes PEAK is seeking involve the consolidation and changing of roles within the offices of finance, human resources, information technology, and marketing and communications.

Whitney Taha Frakes is the chair of the Academic Professionals and Administrative (P&A) Consultative Committee, a group of professional and administrative University system employees. 

Academic professionals are employees who specialize in a particular field or academic discipline and engage in different functions across the campus, according to the Board of Regents’ definitions of employee groups. Administrative employees are responsible for policy development and execution as well as supervising and coordinating University activities.

Frakes said PEAK has compounded the uncertainty among employees lingering from the COVID-19 pandemic. One concern Frakes said she hears often is whether staff will have their jobs by the end of PEAK because of how their workloads may change.

Frakes added that PEAK has no plans to eliminate anyone’s job and, so far, has added jobs. Since PEAK is only closing the first of its four phases, many employees are still unsure of how their work will change moving forward.

“That’s where it gets a little challenging, and a little bit more anxiety-provoking for individuals,” Frakes said.

According to its website, PEAK is organized into four phases of implementation, each affecting a different area of the University system.

Kit Breshears, chair-elect of the P&A Consultative Committee, said employees across all University’s campuses are uncomfortable with not knowing what PEAK entails for their future.

Communication between the PEAK office and University employees was minimal when PEAK first began, leading to a lot of uncertainty among employees, according to Breshears. He added that communication has improved since, but the feeling is still there.

“If nobody is being told really explicitly that nobody is going to lose their jobs, then of course they’re going to panic,” Breshears said. “This is something that the PEAK Office is going to have to really build a lot of bridges with.”

Elizabeth Davis, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance and Planning, said the University does not want to drive employees out.

“Part of the problem is that we have been losing staff generally,” Davis said. “A lot of people are overworked and under-resourced, but we don’t want to make that any worse.”

According to Davis, the reasons for staff leaving the University has been the shrinking labor market and lingering effects of COVID-19.

“With PEAK happening at the same time, it’s kind of easy to blame PEAK,” Davis said. “It’s hard to know that that’s really the cause.”

Davis said the University opened up new PEAK jobs in offices, like HR or finance, which are offered to employees. Some have moved voluntarily into these new positions and others have chosen to stay in their current roles even though they might be moved.

“Given how short-staffed everyone is, I don’t think there’s going to be any shortage of work,” Davis said. “For the person, they might feel worried that their position will be eliminated. But that’s not the goal.”Phase 1 of PEAK runs through the 2023-2024 fiscal year and includes the other system campuses, according to the PEAK webpage. Phase 2 begins the next fiscal year and will affect the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences as well as a number of other offices.

The Gopher’s men’s basketball team hit a wall on Sunday after two confidence-building Big Ten wins.

Morale was high for the Gophers going into their match against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. However, with his team trailing by eight at halftime, Gophers head coach Ben Johnson said their physicality was nowhere close to matching the Cornhuskers’.

Johnson said the Gophers struggled to finish under the hoop and forced too many jump shots, and he credited a lot of his team’s mistakes to the Cornhuskers’ execution.

“That’s what a possessed team looks like and feels like,” Johnson said.

The Gophers’ struggle to execute with intensity for two halves has haunted them in critical game situations throughout the season.

The Gophers shot 9% from beyond the 3-point line and 28% from the field in the first half. These numbers are a sharp contrast to their second half, scoring 35% from the field and 42% in 3-point field goals.

Freshman Cam Christie was the team’s leading scorer on Sunday and gathered all his 14 points in the second half.

Minnesota saw another collapse in a single half on Feb. 18 against Rutgers. Their 17-point lead quickly fell to six late in the game. The terrors subsided when the Gophers went nine for 10 in free throws while limiting the Scarlet Knights offense.

“I feel like defense is the name of the game, and if we can play defense we have a high chance of winning,” sophomore Pharrel Payne said.

Junior Elijah Hawkins complemented Payne’s career-high night after the game, speaking to the versatility of the team and Payne’s performance.

“It’s anybody’s night, any day,” Hawkins said. “Today, it was Pharrel’s.”

Three days later, it was Hawkins’ night.

The transfer from Howard University put up a career-high 24 points for the Gophers against Ohio State.

The Gophers fell to Ohio State in their Big Ten opener while former Gopher Jamison Battle taunted the Gophers bench throughout the game. His return to Williams Arena on Thursday was met with fans booing him whenever he touched the ball.

Battle’s former teammate, Dawson Garcia, said getting a win over Battle and the Buckeyes was “nothing personal” but instead was “handling business as usual.”

The Gophers currently sit at No. 78 in the NET rankings after their loss to Nebraska. The team has a single Quadrant 1 victory on the season, against Michigan State, slimming their chances of receiving an NCAA tournament bid.

The NCAA defines a Quadrant 1 win as a home win against a team with a NET ranking of 1-30, a win against a 1-50 ranked team at a neutral location and a win against a 1-75 ranked team on the road. 

The Gophers can build their Quadrant 1 resume on Wednesday when they play Illinois on the road. 

For the Gophers to qualify for the NCAA tournament, the team needs to either win the Big Ten Tournament or get selected by the tournament selection committee. If the season ended on Tuesday, Minnesota would compete as the seventh seed against No. 10 Maryland in the second round of the Big Ten tournament.

According to the NCAA website, the committee “uses a multitude of stats and rankings” to determine which teams receive a bid but adds “there is no set formula that determines whether a team receives an at-large bid.” 

The challenge begins in less than a month at the Target Center, just four miles from the Gophers home court. 

Johnson said his team knows the schedule and what the future consists of, but they cannot change the outcome of what is ahead.

“The worst thing you want to do is worry so much about that that you forget about the only thing you can control, which is the right now,” Johnson said.

About three weeks ago, University of Minnesota art students and friends Nora Hitchcock and Rebecca Pirko sat down to talk about their class and future goals when they both realized they wanted to make their own tarot deck. 

From the conversation, Artists Collected was born and is now a student group displaying artwork from University students.

“We realized that we both, in our long-term goals, we want to make our own tarot deck,” Hitchcock said. “So we were like, let’s just make one together and divide up the cards. It just kept snowballing, I guess – let’s involve more people, let’s make it a student organization.” 

Hitchcock said the group is an “artist hub for projects led by artists for artists.” 

While this semester’s focus for the group is to create a tarot deck, Hitchcock said it is just the start, with new projects happening each semester. 

Along with designing tarot cards, Artists Collected will also host weekly “art jams” where artists can come together and collaborate, share supplies and give each other feedback. 

At their first meeting on Friday, students interested in joining introduced themselves and got the chance to learn more about the group. 

Marie Ronnander, a third-year student designing two cards for the tarot deck, said when she first came to campus, she wanted to join an art group but never found one. 

“This looked like something that was really easy to be a part of, and the way that Nora has organized it makes it easy to actually participate in it, which is really nice,” Ronnander said. 

Lily Dodge is a second-year student working as the advertising lead for Artists Collected. She said she has always been interested in tarot and thought the group sounded like a cool way to be artistic. 

“I’m not [an artist],” Dodge said. “I’m a neuroscience major, but I used to do a lot more art when I was in high school and stuff so I was like it would be so fun to have like a little thing to have fun with on the side.” 

Dodge added she is looking forward to meeting new people, and “so far, the vibe is so cute.”

“It’s a space for all levels of art, which I think is really cool,” Dodge said. “You can come to what makes sense to you, what fits. Regardless of your major, what your talents are, you have a place here.” 

Jimena Jimenez, a third-year engineering student, said she missed the creativity that art provides. 

“Going into engineering is such a technical field, I don’t get to use all the creativity and I really missed it,” Jimenez said. “I heard about the opportunity and I said, ‘Let’s get back onto it.’”

Jimenez added she is excited to connect with a lot of different people and to explore her creativity. She said college can be a busy time, and art can help with academics. 

“With these things, it can help you break out of that academic tunnel vision,” Jimenez said. “Full send it. If you have a curiosity, then go for it.” 

Emilio Escobedo is a third-year art student who is interested in joining Artists Collected for the community. 

“Artists kind of can become the ‘single genius,’” Escobedo said. “That’s a lie. Everyone around here is going to end up helping each other, I guarantee you that’ll happen.” 

Escobedo added he is hoping to add something “neat and cool looking” to his portfolio.

“I would say this is a good group and this is a group that I guarantee is going to flourish and cause you to flourish the more time you spend around it,” Escobedo said. 

Hitchcock said the biggest challenge so far has been the student organization process and figuring out grants and funding. 

“We want to give artists a profit, so we’re trying to do that without making the University upset,” Hitchcock said. 

Hitchcock added she is most excited to meet new people, as it is hard to make friends in classes where people hyperfocus on their work and do not talk to anyone. 

According to Hitchcock, 30 people have filled out a Google-interest form for the group and they gain more Instagram followers by the day. 

“The group is how you make it,” Hitchcock said. “You can design cards, be an executive member, be at every single fundraiser and all that, or you can just come to one or two art jams and make one card.” 

Land acknowledgments have become a common method of denouncing the colonial legacy the United States was founded on. Appearing before events such as county meetings and performances, these statements have grown in popularity as a means of accepting accountability from institutions. At least 150 have been written by various local groups and governments in Minnesota.

The University of Minnesota is among their numbers. Its land acknowledgment appears across various University webpages and is often read aloud before public events. 

“We in the Office of Admissions acknowledge that the University of Minnesota Twin Cities is built within the traditional homelands of the Dakota people. It is important to acknowledge the peoples on whose land we live, learn, and work as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with our tribal nations,” the acknowledgment reads.

These statements juxtapose public scrutiny following the publication of a 554-page Indigenous-led TRUTH Project Report criticizing the legacy of land grabs and forced removal by the University. 

The report explores the harmful colonial history of genocide, removal, land expropriation, wealth transfer, revisionist history and Indigenous erasure used to secure property by the University. It also recommends actions to improve the University’s policies through repatriation of land and reparations. 

Land acknowledgments have received mixed opinions from Indigenous activists and leaders. Criticism stems from the belief that these statements are often performative and fail to incur meaningful action or policy change. 

“There’s something about a land acknowledgment that’s kind of past-looking,” said Senior Advisor to the President for Native American Affairs at the University Karen Diver. “Tribes are saying, ‘Let’s look forward to see what we need as employers, as communities, to uplift our own people.’” 

Even Indigenous experts who support land acknowledgments agree that they must be followed by more action. One thing is abundantly clear — acknowledgment is not enough.

The University currently has one major project dedicated to Indigenous land and its ownership. Collaboration with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has been centered around the Cloquet Forestry Center, including a potential land transfer and collaborative research opportunities between the tribe and the University. 

The Cloquet Forestry Center is a 3,400-acre property located within the Fond du Lac reservation used by the University to provide research and educational opportunities to students studying forest ecosystem communities. It is also open for public recreation. 

The process of a land transfer would involve the school, the state of Minnesota and its legislature, according to Senior Director of Public Relations at the University Jake Ricker. Discussions are ongoing regarding how this process will move forward. 

“We’re worried about clean water, climate change, the impact of Minnesota’s changing climate on our way of life,” Ricker said. “We’re worried about things like chronic wasting disease on our deer population, the preservation of our natural resources. We’re hearing from tribal communities and our tribal nations. Those are priorities for them as well.” 

This project is the only one focused on tangible reparation and repatriation. After all, 3,400 acres is a good first step, but the University received 94,631 acres of land through 316 Indigenous land parcels. This sizable sum is what earned the institution the title of a “land grab university” by tribes in the first place.

This name stems from the 1862 Morrill Act, which allowed states to establish colleges funded by the development and sale of federal land grants. The land acquired by the University under this act was seized from the Dakota people following the Treaty of 1851 and the Chippewa after the Treaty of 1847. 

The compensation given to these tribes was far from equitable. The Dakota tribe was paid a mere $0.02 per acre while the University sold the land for 251 times that amount. 

While projects like the repatriation of the Cloquet Forestry Center are important, the University must continue to heed Indigenous calls for reform. With the violent history of colonialism requiring acknowledgment, 11 tribes continue to advocate for reparations. 

While these tribes have yet to determine what amount would suffice for reparations, meeting their demands with support is necessary to uphold the promises made by the University’s land acknowledgment. 

These statements are merely the beginning. Just like the statement claims, words are not enough. The University must prioritize the perspective of Indigenous people as they aim to repair their destructive legacy. 

The University of Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) will give its spring public safety update at the next Board of Regents meeting on March 8.

At the meeting, DPS will provide updates on crime statistics on and around campus.

UMPD spokesperson Jake Ricker said Dinkytown has been a focus for DPS in recent years. While the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) has jurisdiction over the area, the partnership between MPD and the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) will be reflected in the presentation. UMPD is a unit within DPS.

Ricker added that the statistics DPS will present are valuable in providing context about what factors contribute to crime trends year-to-year and the University’s approach to public safety is described as “multilayered,” meaning there is no single factor driving crime trends.

According to Ricker, UMPD had 58 officers in 2018. By 2022, UMPD had fewer than 50. Due to active recruiting, the number has grown to 54. The Board of Regents budgets for 71 UMPD officers. 

Ricker said although staffing will likely not be part of the presentation, DPS is likely to discuss it since they are going to see criminal and response statistics. 

Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Campus Safety Task Force Chair Keegan Wulf said that although most calls UMPD responds to are unrelated to crime, it is an ongoing issue since rates increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While crimes like robbery are decreasing, carjacking and car theft are on the rise, according to Wulf. 

“People still have a lot of concerns, especially walking around at night,” Wulf said. “But it does seem to be something that people are generally starting to feel better about.”

The University is experiencing three consecutive months of more crimes reported compared to the same months in the previous year, according to Campus Safety Coalition Board Member Brian Peck.

Reported crimes were lower over the summer and the previous year but have since picked up, according to Peck. While it is not uncommon for crime to spike during the Spring, the numbers show an alarming trend.

Peck said increased police presence on campus would deter crime.

University leaders made statements saying they anticipate increasing staff in a variety of public safety roles, Ricker said. This increase includes additional staffing for positions as unarmed community officers, University Security staff for programs like 624-WALK and after-hours University building patrol, UMPD social workers and sworn UMPD officers.

“A sufficient mix and number of public safety staff for the size of our campus is necessary to be well-positioned to manage whatever safety risks arise for our community,” Ricker said in a follow-up email to The Minnesota Daily.

From the beginning of 2023, UMPD has expanded its team with five community service officers and established a systemwide role emphasizing equitable practices. UMPD is working to hire a social worker and a mental health officer, according to Ricker. University Security increased its personnel, totaling 26 full-time uniformed staff members enhancing public safety initiatives.

Ricker said that although the staffing challenges facing police departments in the Twin Cities are pronounced, UMPD added incentives for new hires and retention bonuses for UMPD officers.

“There have been some really great hires in those areas in recent months,” Ricker said. “But the effort continues.”

The Board of Regents held a special meeting on Feb. 26 to appoint the 18th president of the University of Minnesota.

During the meeting, the regents conducted a public interview with each of the three finalists before naming the next president later in the afternoon.

The candidates, Laura Bloomberg, Rebecca Cunningham and James Holloway, were all publicly interviewed on each of the University campuses from Feb. 12 to Feb. 21.

At the Monday meeting, each candidate was asked 11 total questions. Nine of those questions were asked to all three candidates, and the other two were tailored to each individual candidate.

Interim President Jeff Ettinger will remain in his current position until the end of June. The chosen candidate will fully assume the role of president on July 1.

Interview One: Laura Bloomberg

Regent Penny Wheeler asked the first question of the meeting: “What do you want us to know about you that should get us especially excited about you serving as our next president?”

Laura Bloomberg said although she’d spent years working at the University, she was aware that just her love of the place and love of the institution wasn’t a good enough answer.

Bloomberg said her experiences as a K-12 principal, Dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and her current position as the President of Cleveland State University (CSU) has taught her how to think when overseeing a system campus.

“From the very beginning, a leader needs to understand there are very few things of consequence or import that a leader does alone,” Bloomberg said. “In many ways, leadership is a team sport.”

Regent Mike Kenyanya asked Bloomberg for her definition of student success, and how she promoted it in her current role.

Bloomberg said to promote student success, an institution needs to focus on the whole student. She said by helping students grow as people, as well as academically, they can graduate as fully-developed students and continue on a journey of lifelong learning.

CSU recently created a division of Student Belonging and Success, according to Bloomberg. This division was built around the students and provided mental health outreach opportunities for individuals on top of standard academic assistance.

“When you belong, we believe you bring your full self,” Bloomberg said. “Not your perfect self, but your full self.”

The first of two individualized questions was asked to Bloomberg by Regent Bo Thao-Urabe. She asked Bloomberg how she collaborated with a team to set and reach a goal.

Bloomberg told a story about how she hosted a 14-person team at her house for lunch to work toward some of CSU’s strategic goals, like correcting declining enrollment and working through a budget deficit.

Bloomberg said she had team members put their name next to action items they knew they would have to take the lead on, and again for people they would want to collaborate with. She said it would hold them accountable in completing as many goals as possible.

“It was a really important exercise in making sure every member of the team had a voice and a say,” Bloomberg said. “But it was also very intentionally sharing accountability for getting done the things we said we’re gonna get done.”

Interview Two: Rebecca Cunningham

One of the largest and most immediate things the new president will need to take action on is developing a new systemwide strategic plan past MPact 2025, said Regent Doug Huebsch.

Rebecca Cunningham said the University of Michigan (U-M) has been working on developing a strategic plan that would culminate in 2034, and she’d want to see something similar for the University’s next one.

Cunningham said her experience with working at U-M, another school with multiple campuses like the University, helped her realize a university is greater than the sum of its parts. She said she would want the next strategic plan to have all five campuses working together toward a common goal.

“We’re not just advancing individual pet projects here and there,” Cunningham said. “We’re actually transforming a vision that’s collective and bigger than the sum of our parts.”

Regent Ruth Johnson asked how Cunningham’s experience and background in healthcare would prepare her to lead the University’s medical system.

Cunningham, who has 25 years of healthcare experience in her various faculty roles at U-M, said her training both on the ground and in administration work would help her educate the people in those roles at the University.

“I want to be clear: you’re not hiring me to run either the medical system or the health system,” Cunningham said. “You have great leaders in that space.”

Cunningham said the letter of intent the University addressed to Fairview is a great opportunity for the University to continue to strengthen its healthcare system for at least the next decade. She said she’d be able to step in right away and help support the University during such a pivotal year for their healthcare programs.

The final question was posed by regent Kodi Verhalen, who asked Cunningham how she encourages and challenges team members to set ambitious goals for themselves.

Cunningham said that like in her vision for a strategic plan, she encourages people to think bigger than themselves, and how the goals they set will also impact the system as a whole.

During the process of creating U-M’s 2034 strategic plan, Cunningham said her team had only three months to conduct a full analysis of the system’s research portfolio. She said she inspired the tiny team to get what felt like a vast amount of work done in such a short time by reminding them of the value their work had to the university as a whole.

“Whatever the initiative is, we’re working toward rallying everybody around why we’re doing it,” Cunningham said. “No one likes to work without a ‘why.’”

Interview Three: James Holloway

Regent Tadd Johnson asked for examples of how James Holloway, the provost and executive vice president of the University of New Mexico (UNM), would lead tribal relations and foster a sense of community in a diverse state like Minnesota.

Holloway said New Mexico is also incredibly diverse, with 23 federally-recognized Indigenous tribes and a large Vietnamese and African American population. He said UNM tries to mirror the population in its students and faculty and he would want to keep up that practice at the University.

When UNM’s budget was reduced in the middle of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Holloway said one of his main focuses was to divert funding to keep ethnic student centers open because of their impact on the UNM campus.

“When we think about working across diversity, it has to hit every aspect of our mission,” Holloway said.

Regent Mary Turner gave Holloway a multi-part question, asking him how he would build relationships with key University stakeholders like students, faculty, staff, elected leaders, donors and local government officials.

Holloway said when working with any stakeholder group, understanding their needs and interests is the best way to build a strong relationship. He said he meets regularly with UNM student groups and answers their questions so he can learn more about what they want from him.

Holloway said he also stays in constant communication with faculty groups on campus. He said even though he is only required to update them on important campus information once a year, he does it monthly just so they’re aware of the goings-on around campus.

Elected leaders and their staff often provide solutions to problems facing a university, Holloway said. He said issues plaguing UNM, like low faculty compensation, were solved through the help of the state legislature.

“It’s not really their job to solve the problems of the university, but it is their job and their interest to solve the problems of the state,” Holloway said.

One of Holloway’s personalized questions came again from regent Verhalen, who asked how he established structure in a team setting. Holloway said he’d done it four times: once in establishing a research center, once as an associate dean, once as a vice provost and again in his current role as provost.

One of the key things Holloway said helped him was finding a “local guide,” who knows the area or the topic and can help a team leader through it. He said it helps hold the team accountable and let them know if they’re doing something wrong.

“Cohesion is partially professional, but it’s also partially social,” Holloway said.

This piece was last updated at 2:45 p.m.

Congresswoman for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, Ilhan Omar, sat down with The Minnesota Daily to explain her past and current priorities for the upcoming election.

The congresswoman answered questions about her previous work in Congress, concerns about law enforcement, affordable housing and drug addiction. Omar also discussed her past work for students’ rights and concerns and how she plans to continue to prioritize education in her leadership. 

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) will have a caucus on Tuesday where constituents can meet and hear candidates’ plans for Congress. The candidates will run for DFL party endorsement at the primary elections on Aug. 13 before the general election on Nov. 5. 

Omar grew up in Cedar-Riverside after emigrating from Somalia in the late ‘90s. Omar was raised by her father and grandfather who stressed the importance of democracy and later taught at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. 

Minnesota Daily: Why are you re-running? 

Omar: “I know that in this particular moment in our nation’s history, we are facing threats to our democracy. We’re facing threats to reproductive rights. We are facing threats to America being seen as a beacon of hope in regard to our immigration policy. We are seeing a drawback in investments in things like Medicare and Social Security. People actually giving care and concern to our veterans, whether it’s in addressing homeless people. Or homelessness for them or healthcare. Or mental health access. We’re dealing with a ridiculous amount of crises in regard to public safety, and trust within our public safety institutions. The opioid crisis that has taken so many people who have been dear to me and my children. I am excited to go back and continue to do that work in fighting for all of those things that my constituents care about.”

Daily: How have you voiced student’s concerns in Congress before? What do you plan to do in the future for students? 

Omar: “It’s actually the reason I first decided to run for office, right? Because I still have student debt. And my daughter, my stump speech, I used to say, in four years, my daughter is going to college. I was like, deathly afraid of what that looked like because I knew so many other people were. At the time, we had a 44-year incumbent who was not really listening to university students. My House district included the University of Minnesota and I actually grew up in the neighborhood where the University of Minnesota and Augsburg is. So canceling student debt and making college affordable and accessible was one of my number one priorities. I think the way that I’ve approached the issue is to bring the voices of young people to say ‘Here’s your cause, help us fight and mobilize for it.’ One of the first few pieces of legislation I introduced when I got to Congress was the Student Debt Cancellation and College for All Legislation. Even though we haven’t been successful in passing that, we’ve utilized the progressive caucus, which I serve as the B.D. chair in pushing the Biden administration to cancel as much as possible. And trying to increase Pell Grants, trying to do everything that we can to create, to decrease the barriers that college students are experiencing. Then when I was in the Minnesota House, I served on the higher education committee. I did the student bill of rights legislation. I introduced legislation and was successful in passing to make sure that predatory landlords weren’t taking advantage of young people on college campuses.” 

Daily: How will you support LGBTQA+ students and their concerns?

Omar: “I was on the board of Stonewall, the DFL Stonewall Caucus, which is why I carried the conversion, getting rid of the conversion therapy, because a lot of my friends were impacted as young people by those policies. Now I am part of the equality caucus in Congress. We passed the Equality Act a couple of years ago. We’ll reintroduce it and pass it once we get back into the majority. But it’s about listening, peering about the challenges and trying to find unique ways to address that.”

Daily: Are there any specific issues or policies you want to continue to advocate for in Congress? 

Omar: “Our priorities have always been addressing the climate crisis because we know that environmental justice and sustaining our planet is really important to Minnesota’s 5th. We know that we are dealing with the housing crisis. That’s another area that I prioritize. Peace and diplomacy are really important to our constituents and that’s a priority of mine. As an immigrant who has grown up in a city that has welcomed so many people who are immigrants, working on immigration policy and fixing our broken immigration system is important. And I always tell people, I was raised by a father and a grandfather who really loved American democracy. It is a joy to work in not just sustaining but advancing our democracy and making sure that it’s preserved for generations to come. And as a former educator and someone who has four children, our education system is an important advocacy work that I engage in.”

Daily: What will you do to create more opportunities for affordable housing in Minnesota? 

Omar: “A couple of years ago we started a housing task force. The two chairs were representatives Mike Howard, who represents Richfield, and Aisha Gomez, who represents a district in Minneapolis. The goal of that task force was to have people who are working on housing advocacy agencies that are in charge of building and having those resources. Then those of us who are legislators that have the power of the purse to try to have a collaborative effort in saying, if we have majorities down the line, like what are we going to do? The billion dollars that have been invested in affordable housing was something that we brainstormed out of that task force. The tenants’ rights, the comprehensive one I was just talking about is something that comes out of that. But in Congress, I also carried the Homes for All legislation to invest a trillion dollars in creating more affordable housing. But it also gets rid of this technical thing that was put in the ‘90s to stop public housing from being built. So we continue to find new ways, not just collaboratively to do that work, but to also just introduce innovative legislation that we could use as a stand bearer to try to get people to see that this is possible.”

Daily: How do you plan to address concerns with law enforcement and accountability? 

Omar: “I think for me what has been valuable is to try to broaden the conversation. I think getting a lot of people to look at the different pieces that we need that will eventually lead to all of us being safe. What does it mean for somebody to respond to a mental health crisis? How do we respond differently to people who are experiencing a crisis in regard to chemical dependency? What are we looking at when we’re talking about domestic violence situations? How do we avoid it from being deadly, like the one that we just witnessed? How do we deal with truancy? How do we stop the school-to-prison pipeline? How do we utilize the limited amounts of resources that we have within municipalities to try to actually provide that care? What does prevention look like? So a lot of my work in Congress because we only deal with money mostly in allocating a lot of those resources. I was instrumental in the bipartisan gun violence prevention legislation in trying to make sure that we had a lot of violence prevention programs. The North Star program that Minneapolis has is in collaboration with different hospitals. We got them resources so that they can address trauma because we know that people who are hurting, hurt people. We know that especially in gang culture, retaliation is a thing.

I think when we think about particular police departments, because I have people who just think I represent Minneapolis. I represent Minneapolis and 13 other municipalities and their needs and challenges are drastically different. There are some like Hilltop that don’t have a police department. They have a contract with Columbia Heights. That’s another layer of challenge that those constituents of mine have. We represent Spring Lake Park and we realize that in order for one police officer to be trained, it’s tens of thousands of dollars. If we wanted them to be trained in sensitive domestic violence responses, handling great cases, all the training that we all push for as citizens because we want the people who are sworn to serve and protect us, to have the necessary tools to do that. We realize that a municipality like Spring Lake Park where they only have maybe 10 police officers, they don’t have that much money to onboard or to even provide new training for their police officers. So we help to negotiate these three pieces of legislation that would provide extra resources to smaller municipalities with a partnership with those smaller municipalities, listening to them, learning what some of their challenges are and then saying, ‘So you say if we want you to do these things, this is what you need. If we got you this, would it help for you to be there?’”

Daily: How will you combat widespread drug misuse, especially fentanyl-related misuse?

Omar: “We look at our work not as like, ‘I know what is best for you and here’s a bill,’ but sit down, have a conversation and you tell me what you’re seeing, what your needs are, and do you need legislation? Do you see funding problems? What is the challenge? We have worked with the Somali community and Cedar-Riverside, and we’ve convened multi-round tables, and these round tables included young people who are in recovery. It included parents and community members who were just shocked, and this is a thing, and then healthcare providers, and so a lot of that convening happened at the People’s Center. What we learned was that community-oriented solutions were the best way to go forward. We can do all kinds of legislation to stop the trafficking, all of that stuff, but once it’s here, how does the community respond? What kind of solutions are out there? Just creating the connectivity, because a lot of community members wanted help, who wanted to address this issue, didn’t know where to go, and how to do that. My focus and our staff’s focus has been how do we provide the tools and the connection within our communities so that they are dealing with what is in front of them today so that we have the space to deal with what could come tomorrow.”

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