Minnesota men’s basketball beat Ohio State 88-79 at the Williams Arena, also known as the Barn, on Thursday, splitting the season series.

The Gophers were coming off a win against Rutgers and a career-high game scoring game from sophomore forward Pharrel Payne (21 points). Ohio State played their first game since beating No. 2 ranked Purdue in Columbus.

Ohio State forward Jamison Battle made his first return to the Barn since he was a member of the Gophers. Battle’s season-high of 25 points came against the Gophers in a December matchup at Ohio State. 

The Buckeyes fired their head coach Chris Holtmann after almost seven years with the team. Associate head coach Jake Diebler is the interim head coach for the rest of the season. 

First half

Junior forward Dawson Garcia opened the game for the Gophers with a mid-range jump shot. The Gophers started the game on an 8-0 run before Ohio State guard Bruce Thorton got a floater to fall.

The Gopher fans were loud to start the game, booing at Battle every time he touched the ball. 

Minnesota started the game on a 21-9 run in the first six minutes, 10 of those points coming from Garcia.

Ohio State guard Scotty Middleton hit back-to-back threes to cut the lead to 22-17, before a tough finish from junior guard Elijah Hawkins to get the lead back to seven. 

Battle scored his eighth point on a stepback three to cut the Gopher lead to just three points with a little less than eight minutes remaining in the first half. 

Payne had a put-back dunk over multiple Ohio State players about a minute later that gave the Gophers a 30-25 lead before Diebler called a timeout. 

Battle tied the game at 30 after hitting his third three of the half with about five minutes left. 

Payne scored eight out of 10 Gopher points in just under three minutes. 

After Ohio State tied the game 32-32, the Gophers ended the half on a 12-2 run in a little over three minutes.

The Gophers led 42-34 at the half. Garcia (12) and Payne (10) were the top scorers for the Gophers, while Battle fought through the boos and chants to finish the half with 13 points to lead all scorers. 

The Gophers doubled the Buckeyes in the rebounds category 18 to nine in the first half. Sophomore forward Joshua Ola-Joseph didn’t see the floor during the first half, despite being a starter in 19 of the 25 total games this season. 

Second half

Payne started the half for the Gophers, going three for four from the free-throw line. 

Battle hit another three, but Hawkins responded with back-to-back threes of his own to make the score 53-41 with just under 16 minutes remaining. 

The Buckeyes came out aggressive, sending a full-court press against the Gophers to slow their offense.

The tactic worked as a layup from Thorton cut the Gopher lead to just nine with 14 minutes remaining. 

Garcia finished a tough layup for his 16th point just before the 10-minute mark, now with the Gophers at 57-48. Hawkins hit his fourth three of the night and moved the lead to double digits just a possession later.

Payne threw down a dunk with a little less than eight minutes left to give the Gophers a 67-51 lead. Two possessions later, Senior forward Parker Fox scored his ninth point and then forced a turnover in the low post on the other side.

A three-point play from Sophomore guard Braedon Carrington pushed the Gopher lead to 17 with a little over five minutes remaining. The Gophers entered the double bonus with over four minutes remaining.

Ohio State tried to foul their way back into the game, but Hawkins and freshman Cam Christie each hit their free throws toward the end of the game. 

The Gophers never trailed throughout the game and Hawkins was able to tally a career-high 24 points.

Hawkins kept it professional in his post-game interview when asked how he felt about his career-high game. 

“Just playing to win,” Hawkins said. 

The Gophers’ 88 points were the most the team scored in a Big Ten game this year. 

Garcia finished the game with 22 points and nine rebounds. Hawkins added seven assists and Payne finished with 15. 

Garcia, who played with Battle last season, did not consider the game to be any more serious because Battle was coming back.

“It’s nothing personal, it’s just business at the end of the day,” Garcia said. “They were just another team that was unfortunately in the way.”

Ohio State’s scoring on Thursday was led by Thorton and Battle with 25 and 21 points, respectively.

Head coach Ben Johnson mentioned Payne’s growth during the post-game press conference. 

“Super proud of his approach,” Johnson said. “Today at the free throw line, five of seven, and [his shot] looks confident, it looks clean… Now it’s not a million fakes, he’s going to his one or two moves and he’s at the rim.”

As the Minneapolis Animal Care and Control (MACC) shelter reaches capacity, the city is investing more than $600,000 to alleviate strains on the shelter’s animals and employees.

The investment comes as a boost to the funding MACC already receives from the city each year. $365,000 of the investment is intended for hiring animal care technicians, a customer service representative and purchasing food and supplies for the animals, according to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. The other $250,000 will go toward facility renovations.

MACC has also waived its adoption fees and reduced the licensing, puppy and kitten fees for Minneapolis residents to encourage adoptions.

Frey said he sees this investment benefitting the productivity of the MACC shelter and the animals, hoping the shelter stay and adoption cycle becomes an ever-shorter process.

“We want all of these animals to get adopted by loving families and so long-term, we are quickly cycling animals through MACC and finding forever homes long-term,” Frey said.

MACC took in 25% more cats and dogs in the first half of 2023 than in the first half of 2022 and 78% more than in 2021, according to reporting by Axios.

Enrique Velazquez, the executive director of Regulatory Services for the city who oversees MACC functions, said the shelter is under pressure from not only an increase in animals but also the severity of the animals’ conditions and care needs.

“We’re seeing a lot more nuisance, a lot more neglect, a lot more maltreatment or even malnourishment cases and it’s those specific types of situations that, aside from the pure number of animals, it’s the level of care we have to provide in these very severe cases that takes up our capacity,” Velazquez said.

Full-capacity shelters are not isolated events, but rather the result of a trifecta of issues: an influx of out-of-state animals brought into Minnesota, the surrenders of adoptions made during the COVID-19 pandemic and the affordable housing crisis, according to Kerry D’Amato, the executive director of Pet Haven, Minnesota’s first foster-based animal rescue.

Nationally, more than 23 million households adopted a pet during the pandemic, according to data from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Frey said full-capacity shelters can be attributed to many people realizing the pet they adopted during the pandemic is unfit for their home in post-pandemic life.

“For a bit of camaraderie and friendship, a whole lot of people went out and got a dog or a cat,” Frey said. “It worked while they were hanging out at home but it didn’t necessarily work once the world opened up again.”

D’Amato said considering these factors, she and others working in pet adoption and sheltering are seeing surrendered and abandoned pets “on an epidemic level.”

“We are seeing abandonment at a rate that we have not seen in a decade, we’re seeing stray pets outside at a rate that we haven’t seen in a decade, we are seeing puppies in plastic tote bins left on the side of the road,” D’Amato said. “That’s not something we’ve seen since the eighties, really, and that is a direct result of a lack of services.”

Dulce Garcia, a recent University of Minnesota graduate, and her roommates have been foster pet parents through Pet Haven since the fall of 2023. 

Garcia said she and her roommates decided to start fostering with Pet Haven because it would alleviate some of the financial burdens of pet ownership without losing the pet.

“We decided to foster instead of just adopt because being a college student, having a pet can be really expensive with vet bills, buying their food,” Garcia said. “It was definitely a more affordable alternative and still being able to have the cat.”

Velazquez said that for many victims of the affordable housing crisis, choosing between a home and their pet becomes an unavoidable decision.

“We see instances where people are making that decision between sheltered and not sheltered and in order to move themselves into a shelter or move themselves into a home they have to surrender their animals as well,” Velazquez said.

General Manager Elissa Alfahed of The Cafe Meow, a cat adoption facilitator and cafe in Roseville, said the issue of at-capacity shelters impacts the work of The Cafe Meow.

 “We do have quite a few calls from people that are like, ‘Hey, this shelter is at its maximum capacity, they’re gonna shut down. Do you have any space for them?’ Alfahed said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, we’re just a cafe, we can’t take cats but we can give you our resources, of all of our rescues that we work with.’”

D’Amato said that while municipal shelters like MACC do life-saving work for animals, they remain at the mercy of city budgets and resources, making it difficult to productively handle max-capacity issues alone.

“The municipal shelters don’t have the time, they don’t have the resources and they don’t have the environment to effectively rehabilitate a pet that needs more care. They just don’t,” D’Amato said. “They have limited capacity, and that’s where the support of foster-based rescue groups is so key.” 

Both Alfahed and Garcia are glad the city’s investment in MACC will provide necessary resources to help aid in animal care, but they maintain concerns about removing financial barriers to adoption and the cycle of adoptions and potential abandons.

“I hope it doesn’t have another negative [impact] where we have a bunch of people adopting a bunch of cats and then abandoning them again,” Alfahed said. “There’s just so many more resources for them to adopt cats that weren’t there before because of all of this money that’s getting put into it.” 

Garcia said the zero-dollar adoption fee might come at a risk. 

“I don’t think I completely agree with making the adoption fee $0. That kind of lets anyone get a pet and you don’t necessarily know how they’re going to end up treating the pet,” Garcia said. “If it’s an adoption fee that’s stopping you, then how is that going to end up?” 

Garcia added that rather than clearing shelters, she hopes future funding will be put into public, free care options for pet owners with difficulties caring for their pets and to help them maintain ownership.

“In Minneapolis too, I know that it’s just a struggle too because there’s also people struggling, living on the streets who also have pets with them,” Garcia said. “I feel like there needs to just be better care for animals available, like free care [so] everyone who has a pet is able to consistently take care of them.” 

D’Amato said creating more affordable care and affordable housing are two sides of the same coin when it comes to absolving the pet sheltering and adoption systems of overwhelming occupancy.

“This pet has a loving, caring home and it can’t stay because people can’t find affordable housing. Those pets should never, ever, ever be entering into the system,” D’Amato said. “Then there’s the people who can’t afford veterinary care and have to give up their pet because of something like that, and those two pieces, affordable care and affordable housing, we have to, as a community, as a nation, we have to figure this out.”

While at-capacity shelters remain entangled in other ongoing social dilemmas, Velazquez is confident the mayoral investment will positively impact MACC on both a short- and long-term basis.

“We’re hopeful that with the robust foster program, with all these different changes to make it easier and more efficient for people to come in and adopt animals, that we will continuously have capacity on an ongoing basis without these different types of ‘hurry up’ events,” Velazquez said.

Growing up in the United States, young students are told by nearly every adult they interact with that postsecondary learning comes in one form: traditional four-year college programs. 

While many feel this is a safe way to guarantee a stable future with plenty of career opportunities and flexibility, this is not the only way that one can live a happy and fulfilling adult life outside of high school.

Kevin Xiong, a college readiness coordinator for the College Readiness Consortium, said he often helps underrepresented students (low-income students, students with disabilities and first-generation students) gain access and information to the resources that may have felt out of reach to them before graduating high school.

Xiong said postsecondary learning doesn’t necessarily mean that students are enrolling in traditional college programs. Education may look like anything from trade schools to community colleges and more at a variety of ages.

“I’m a first-generation college student and so I didn’t really know much when I was applying to college,” Xiong said. “I wanted to go back and help out those who are a little bit undecided about what their plans are for after high school and I wanted to give them some tips and tricks on what to consider when they’re thinking about postsecondary education.”

The Office of Undergraduate Education at the University of Minnesota strongly encourages those at a crossroads about their postsecondary path to consider pursuing some form of education following graduation, as it tends to act as a safety net for job security.

Rachel Rosenthal, a third-year student, said she doesn’t regret pursuing an untraditional education path upon graduating from high school. 

Rosenthal, 29, started her postsecondary life by enrolling in a transition program for a year, which allowed her to complete her missing high school credits. Additionally, this program allows for students to do postsecondary enrollment options (PSEO) and life skills classes.

While there are many different types of transition programs mentioned online, Rosenthal said the transition program she was involved in specifically aimed to help students with disabilities transition to life outside of high school by offering various courses to help prepare them for different areas of life.

Don’t get me wrong, going to college can be very beneficial for a lot of people, but traditional college environments are not set up to support a diverse student body.

“For me, I have Bloom Syndrome, which impacts me physically, but then I also have anxiety and depression,” Rosenthal said. “So that [transition program] then was a way to help learn some life skills and things like that and prepare me for college.”

On top of that, 18- to 22-year-olds barely know what they’re going to eat for dinner, let alone how to select a major that they feel confident enough in to make a full-time career out of.

Changing majors and utilizing campus resources is always an option for people who decide they don’t mesh well with their major or chosen career path, but this could delay a student’s graduation date, leading to financial and housing concerns.

This is why I think taking a gap year and pursuing a college degree at a later time in life may not be a bad idea.

Rosenthal said that while she sometimes feels insecure about telling other students her age, she mostly is unphased by the age gap and knows that pursuing a degree later in her 20s was the right choice for her. 

“I think … waiting and really taking care of myself and learning what I wanted to go into has helped me know which classes to take. I have better study skills, I haven’t had to take tons of extra classes or switch majors as often as maybe other people might have,” Rosenthal said. 

Xiong said that his brother took a similar education path and recently got his associate’s degree at the age of 30.

Lifelong learning exists in many forms and there is no shame in taking a nontraditional path towards higher education. 

“It’s never too late to explore education,” Xiong said.

The City of Minneapolis hired the nonprofit Effective Law Enforcement For All on Feb. 2 to monitor the Minneapolis police as an independent evaluator to ensure the department is meeting the requirements of its two court-enforceable consent decrees. 

Effective Law Enforcement For All (ELE4A) aims to help reform law enforcement around the United States by partnering with public leaders and police departments. ELE4A previously worked with the New Orleans Police Department and helped navigate their consent decree process. 

The City and Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) chose ELE4A as a part of the state and federal court-enforceable agreements, also known as consent decree agreements. 

The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is under a court-enforceable agreement with MDHR requiring MPD to reshape their operations, such as police training and de-escalation techniques. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) also entered a consent decree with the department and outlined 28 remedial measures for MPD’s compliance with federal and constitutional law. 

Both consent decrees came after separate investigations by the DOJ and MDHR in 2023. The investigations detailed unlawful racial discrimination and unnecessary use of excessive force by MPD. 

David Douglass, leader of ELE4A and deputy monitor for the New Orleans Police Department, said ELE4A’s role is to oversee MPD’s progress toward implementing the decrees’s requirements and provide technical assistance. The group plans to lend its expertise with practices such as police training, policies and use of force techniques. 

“We have deep experience with the substantive elements of law enforcement, as well as expertise working with communities and facilitating partnerships between police departments and communities,” Douglass said. 

According to Douglass, maintaining accountability to the public and transparency to the agreements are critical in ELE4A’s role to ensure systematic change in MPD and a relationship with the community. 

“I see our role as a coach,” Douglass said. “It’s not just to monitor the police department, but to help it succeed. That’s why our expertise is so valuable.”

In a statement to The Minnesota Daily, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said selecting an independent evaluator is a necessary step to make a positive change in MPD. O’Hara added that although the monitor’s staff is small, they are dedicated and committed to this process. 

“We will go beyond any court-ordered reforms so that we truly make change real for all people in all of our communities,” O’Hara said. “We will rebuild the Minneapolis Police Department to be the finest police service in America.”

President of Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB) Michelle Gross said the most important thing ELE4A could do is engage with the community and decipher what they want to see happen. Gross added there needs to be more transparency to build a relationship between MPD and the community. 

“The community needs to remain at the head of the table while this goes on,” Gross said. 

Marquita Stephens, president of Urban League, said MPD’s internal process needs to create clear pathways to holding people responsible for their malpractice. Stephens added that transparency and accountability go hand in hand, and MPD needs to be transparent about its actions and future reforms so the community and ELE4A can hold them accountable. 

“We want to have confidence in our police,” Stephens said. “To the extent they violate that confidence with action, which means essentially that they’re violating their oath of office, then there needs to be an accountability system in place that addresses that.”

Douglass said besides ELE4A’s expertise, an important aspect of their work is fostering a connected community and ensuring their voices are heard during this process. Douglass added that the group has already met with community members and groups and is impressed with their routine engagement. 

“Minneapolis really has experienced unique trauma,” Douglass said. “But what has so impressed us, despite that, is how much energy there is to all segments of the community and the police department to move to a new chapter.” 

According to Gross, CUAPB has previously held community meetings to help educate and discuss the two consent degrees on MPD. CUAPB then asked the attendees to share their experiences with MPD, and those reports were shared with the DOJ and MDHR to help inform their consent decrees. 

“The most important thing they have to do is, again, figure out what the community wants, what’s important to the community, and make sure that those things actually happen,” Gross said. 

Stephens said Urban League did a series of meetings with the community and interviews with the DOJ investigators to help inform the DOJ consent decree. Stephens added she hopes the monitor will seek community engagement similarly but also consider how expansive the Minneapolis community is. 

“They have to be concerned not just with the residents of Minneapolis,” Stephens said. “Minneapolis is a destination city, so people come here to live, work, and play. You have to widen your net in terms of getting input from people about their experience here.”

Gross said she expects this process to take at least a decade and expects the monitor agreement to be renewed multiple times. Gross added that not only should the monitor expect to stay for the long run but so should the community. 

“Everybody needs to be involved. This isn’t like, don’t sit back and wait for it,” Gross said. “This isn’t something that requires people to have expertise. They just have to know what they want their community to look like.” 

As the combined price of all major streaming services now eclipses that of cable TV, it has made some feel nostalgic for a media-viewing experience that wasn’t defined by decision paralysis. 

In hindsight, there was something simple and special about cable TV’s limitation of choice. Even so, studies show that the majority of young adults in the U.S. mainly use streaming services to watch TV.

Jerry Kuhlman, a 27-year-old undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota, agrees that finding things to watch on streaming can feel daunting. 

“Generally, finding something new that you might enjoy is awkward and kind of difficult,” Kuhlmann said. 

As many have stopped watching cable, other platforms online fill the void that cable once filled. 

“The only thing that really made me stop is that I have other things to watch. Nowadays I can just watch whatever, whenever on YouTube,” Kuhlmann said.

Eric Patton, president of Studio U, agrees that YouTube helps fill the role of casual viewing. 

“When it comes to having things on, like in the background, usually when it comes to that I don’t turn to a streaming service, I turn to YouTube,” Patton said. “I put on, like, a video essay. Oftentimes that’s when it solves my decision paralysis, is when I need something that I know I’m not going to pay attention to.”

Dilan Parekh, director of inventory at Studio U, feels decision paralysis when deciding what to watch with family but not as much alone. 

“I think when it comes to watching stuff with my family, I definitely find ourselves scrolling through different services finding what movie to watch,” Parekh said. “For me personally, it’s more of like, I know what I want to watch, and I have to figure out if that’s on a streaming service I own.”

A new problematic side of the streaming era has flared up in recent years, with services removing original shows that have not been released in any other format, forcing internet archivists to be the sole protector of these works.

Patton takes issue with this practice. 

“From the perspective of someone who likes making videos and films, that would be the worst. The amount of time and effort you put into creating shows is just unbelievable,” Patton said. “From a viewer perspective, when it’s removed, it’s just kind of a sense of like, ‘Why? Why are you doing this to us?’”

While the convenience of streaming services has given the consumer the benefit of choice, that change has come at the cost of long-standing practices within the media industry. Nowadays, for TV companies, it is essentially streaming or nothing. Odds are your favorite Netflix original show will not see a release on physical media and at any moment it could disappear from the streaming service, almost as if it had never existed.

As streaming continues to dominate and new streaming services are created, streaming companies should keep in mind there is much room for improvement in the world of streaming on the consumer end.

The University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) implemented a program called “Pup Professors” in fall 2022, which brings in volunteer dogs who play the role of patients for first- and second-year students to examine. 

The dogs are typically pets of CVM faculty, staff and students, who can have their dog qualify to participate in the program.

The Pup Professors Program provides students with practice on live dogs under the guidance of professors, residents and interns, according to second-year CVM student Hailey Fink. 

Dr. Susan Spence, an assistant professor at CVM, said the goals of the student’s examinations of the dogs vary by the year they are in.

“For the first-years, it is really about looking at what is normal in the dogs and for the second-years, you start to look at what is abnormal and how to describe it,” Spence said.

The dogs who participate in the program must be well-socialized and comfortable with being examined, according to Spence. 

Sophie Ramirez, a first-year student in CVM, said she did “nose-to-tail” physical exams of the dogs to check on their wellbeing.

Ramirez added that students look at respiration rates, temperature, pulse and the overall health of the dogs to see if there are any abnormal findings. 

“The main point of ‘Pup Professors’ last semester was to practice those physical exam skills we learned in our clinical skills class,” Ramirez said. 

There are also independent learning modules students completed prior to participating in the lab, Spence added. 

Melissa Wolfe, a teaching technician who runs the program, said that over the past two years, there have been numerous opportunities for students to practice with the “pup professors.”

Wolfe added there is a lot of variability in the dogs selected for participation in the program.

“Now that we have 70-plus dogs, students will see different dogs on different days and different times,” Spence said. “This is just what we are trying to get at: the variability.”

According to Ramirez, taking the skills she has learned in class and applying them in this program has been valuable, especially since the first-year curriculum is mostly based on lectures and learning anatomy and physiology. 

“It’s pretty low stakes because you have your peers and a professor with you the whole time you are doing the exam,” Ramirez said. “I felt like I really got to take my time to practice the skills I learned.” 

Ramirez added that students are corrected on the spot by instructors if they miss something or mess anything up. 

Fink said she has had the opportunity to bring her dog Grizzly into the lab for the program. 

“I love bringing him in because he really likes being around people, and he’s a very social dog,” Fink said.

Fink added she has enjoyed seeing Grizzly grow as a dog from participating in the program.

“I’ve noticed that since we’ve been doing the program, he is a lot more comfortable kind of just being poked and prodded all over by random people,” Fink said. “That makes actual vet visits significantly easier.” 

Ramirez said the hands-on aspect of the program has been crucial to her learning of what it would actually look and feel like examining an animal as opposed to reading and watching videos for class. 

“The more you practice, the more you know,” Ramirez said. “The more animals you can see, the more you can realize when something abnormal comes up, so I feel a lot more confident now than I did at the beginning of the semester.” 

The back corner of the Coffman Memorial Union’s third floor is, to the outside observer, an unassuming conference room surrounded by lounges and other meeting spaces. 

However on Sunday afternoons, dozens of students gather, phone cameras in hand and donning bandanas (called “buffs”), to participate in Survivor Twin Cities. The goal? To make a fully student-produced season of the cult-classic reality television show “Survivor.”

The student-run competition, now in its fourth season, had humble beginnings when Eidan Silver, a now-graduate of the University of Minnesota and the founder of Survivor Twin Cities, wanted to make friends and texted his entire dorm floor in Middlebrook Hall.

“I was like, ‘Hey, do you want to figure out how to play a game of ‘Survivor?’’ That was Survivor Twin Cities season zero, because we didn’t film it,” Silver said. “Now I’ve met a lot of my closest friends through that process.”

Later, in 2022, Silver decided to turn this idea into a full-fledged University club. In the future, he hopes to expand Survivor Twin Cities’ reach beyond the college campus. 

Each season of Survivor Twin Cities lasts the entire semester and starts with 16 players, who slowly get voted off as the weeks go on. Each player is placed on one of two tribes, the Zorro Tribe and Adelaar Tribe, and compete in physical and mental challenges. Through these challenges, each team tries to earn immunity, which prevents them from getting voted off for that week, according to Tyler Karle, a second-year student and president of the group.

Challenges in the competition range from relay races to Connect 4 to endurance challenges. This week, however, they had a multi-day challenge where competitors had to complete more tasks, each worth varying amounts of points, than the opposing team. Lower-point tasks include navigating the Gopher Way tunnels and skipping across the Washington Avenue Bridge, while higher-point tasks include getting a Survivor Twin Cities tattoo and shaving one’s head bald.

Survivor Twin Cities is filmed completely by the crew and competitors. At the end of the season, all of the videos are used to create a series of episodes that are posted to their YouTube channel, Karle said. 

In total, it takes about a year to produce and post the entire project, according to Karle.

“[Competitors] film any in-person interactions or virtual interactions they have,” Karle said. “They film themselves hunting for immunity idols, and eventually they will post those into their Google Drive folders and we take that footage and edit it together into a full show for YouTube.”

The majority of the crew has little filming and editing experience, but they try to keep the final product as close to “Survivor” as possible by incorporating confessionals and suspense during the show, Karle added.

Similar to the show, the players tend to take different approaches to competing in Survivor Twin Cities, which further contributes to its reality television-esque appearance, Karle said.

“Everyone takes a different approach to the game because it’s a social game first and foremost,” Karle said. “Everyone kind of takes their own approach to it and a lot of different strategies have worked in the past and so some people will play crazy characters every week and some people will be a little more chill.”

Tyris Lee, a second-year student and member of the Zorro Tribe, tends to take a more laid-back approach to the show in comparison to his fellow competitors. He said he is competing mainly to take part in a fun extracurricular amid a busy 20-credit semester. 

Lee appreciates the community aspect of Survivor Twin Cities and likes having a place he can go on campus that isn’t strictly related to academics.

“I think it’s important to have communities like this on campus because it kind of shows the other side of academics where it’s not just focused on readings and physical academics but a bit more the social side of it,” Lee said.

Stories like Lee’s are a major reason why Silver started the club in the first place and continues to stay involved despite having graduated last spring. 

Seeing the growth of Survivor Twin Cities has been incredibly gratifying for Silver. He said college can be an isolating time in students’ lives, and clubs like Survivor Twin Cities help people step outside of their comfort zone, make friends and create a community for themselves.

“When you get down to what actually makes people happy, having friends can’t be secondary,” Silver said. “These clubs, I think, force it to the top of people’s minds, especially in a format like ‘Survivor.’”

The three finalists for the 18th presidency of the University of Minnesota visited each campus for public interviews beginning Feb. 12 and ending Wednesday.

All three candidates visited each of the five campuses for a total of 15 interviews. The candidates will be interviewed again by the Board of Regents on Monday. The University’s next president will be announced the same afternoon.

The interviews were conducted by Dean of the College of Human Education and Development (CEHD) Michael Rodriguez. During their interview, Rodriguez asked each candidate the same two questions.

The questions asked by Rodriguez were: “What is the role of higher education institutions in the protection of academic freedom and free speech during times of global conflict?” and “The value proposition of a higher education degree is in question by many. How can the University position itself as a value worth pursuing?”

Afterward, Rodriguez asked questions submitted by the audience members attending the forum in person and over Zoom.

Holloway’s Twin Cities Visit

James Holloway, the current provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico (UNM), began his interview by saying he wanted to create a shared vision for the University.

Holloway said he felt drawn to the position because he saw the immense value the University holds to the state of Minnesota as a whole. If chosen for the position, he said he wants to show the state legislature the value the University has to the state.

“The thing about the University of Minnesota that’s critically important is that it is very clearly created to support and serve the state,” Holloway said.

Funding for faculty salaries at the University is relatively low compared to peer institutions, Holloway said. If a worker chooses to go to another institution that can pay them slightly more, it’s a loss for both the University and the state.

Holloway added he would want to build better relationships with state legislators. He cited his own experience deepening connections with New Mexico lawmakers and said forming those relationships led to greater benefits for UNM.

Holloway, who has extensive experience working with Indigenous communities in his current role as executive vice president and provost at UNM, said another goal he has would be to highlight scholarship opportunities for Indigenous students.

“One of the opportunities we have is to really think about enrollment across the system, and think about how we can ensure that we give students the options to go to the parts of the system that work for them,” Holloway said.

Bloomberg’s Twin Cities Visit

Laura Bloomberg, who served on the search committee that selected Joan Gabel as the former president, said she understands the responsibility of selecting a university president. Now, after spending time as the President of Cleveland State University (CSU), she said she understands the responsibility of serving as one.

Bloomberg said the choice to leave her current position as president of CSU would be a hard one if she were selected, but the opportunity would be “almost impossible” to pass up.

Bloomberg added she hopes the Board selects the best candidate for the position, even if they do not think it is her. She said even making it this far into the process felt like a “pinch-me moment.”

“I think about giving you my full self. I don’t know how to be something other than my full self,” Bloomberg said. “I am honest, I am direct — I am who I am. As my kids would say, ‘You’re not a very fancy president.’”

During her interview with Rodriguez, Bloomberg emphasized the importance of listening to the student voice and including it fully in University conversations.

“What a university is at its finest is a petri dish of ideas,” Bloomberg said. “Ideas at their best often come at the friction points where we are talking to each other where we may or may not agree.”

CSU had recently been experiencing issues with tension on social media regarding the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, according to Bloomberg. Instead of sending out a presidential statement, Bloomberg said she reached out to student leaders directly to talk. 

Bloomberg said she gave an hour and a half’s notice, and only expected four or five people to show up, but was surprised when she walked into the meeting room to see 20 student leaders ready to talk.

There was no agenda set for the meeting beforehand, but Bloomberg said it lasted two hours. After the meeting, she said the heat on campus felt like it had been turned down.

There was less tension on social media and more student gatherings being held, Bloomberg said. It felt like the leaders were addressing issues in the community as humans, face-to-face.

“As a president now, a good day is a day when I get to hang with students,” Bloomberg said.

Near the end of the forum, Bloomberg’s interview process was interrupted by pro-Palestine student protestors. They stood from their seats and asked Bloomberg, “Do you condemn the genocide in Palestine?”

“I do not condone genocide,” Bloomberg said in response to the protestors. “I do not condone genocide. I do not condone genocide.”

After a few more minutes, the student protestors marched out of the auditorium to chants of “Free, free Palestine.” After the forum had ended, Bloomberg met with the students outside of the forum to hold a smaller, more direct conversation with them about their concerns.

Cunningham’s Twin Cities Visit

Rebecca Cunningham said she was first introduced to the world of higher education at seven years old when her single mother, who worked two jobs, took her along to night school while earning her degree.

Cunningham said she graduated from high school at the same time her mother graduated from university. She then enrolled in university herself using financial aid opportunities, like the Pell Grant.

“The education I was afforded was because of that funding, and the investment in me by a university,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said her own life experiences made her sympathize with students in the same position she was in. She told Rodriguez how she wanted to create greater affordability and access to higher education and foster a sense of belonging across all five campuses.

“It’s difficult to have student success when one is trying to figure out how they’re going to buy food,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham’s father-in-law worked at the University for 40 years in environmental studies, and her family frequently vacations in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. She said her many ties to Minnesota make this job feel like a natural fit.

Currently, Cunningham serves as the vice president for research and innovation at the University of Michigan (U-M), a peer school to the University.

When asked about the letter to Fairview stating the Board’s intent to buy back the University’s teaching hospital, Cunningham said she saw a great opportunity for the University to buy back its own facilities and pursue its healthcare mission.

Cunningham said that as president she could bring about change to healthcare in Minnesota, especially in such a pivotal year for the University. She said her 25 years of experience in healthcare as a faculty member at U-M taught her how to balance service, academic and medical missions.

“In that way, I’m sort of bilingual — I speak a native tongue of health,” Cunningham said.

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents made history in 2023 with their first-ever female majority in the University’s history. Eight of the 12 seats are currently held by women and four by people of color.

The Board of Regents is the University governing body providing guidance in carrying out policy. Administrative policies must be in compliance with the goals set by the Board.

According to the University of Minnesota Charter, the legislative document granting legal authority to the University, the regents have specific powers to enact laws, regulate academics, give degrees and diplomas, regulate tuition and fees, and manage University lands.

Historical representation of women and people of color on the Board has been low. Although race or ethnicity for specific regents is considered personally identifiable information under the Data Practices Act and is not available under state law, public biographical data, organizational affiliation, and University records indicate there have been five Black regents, six Asian American regents and one Hispanic regent.

Current Regent Tadd Johnson is the first Native American regent.

The number of elected women has been historically low, with about 15% of 141 regents elected to seats between 1900 and 2000 being female. 

That gender rate has more than doubled since 2000, with 38% of 55 elected regents being women. Since 2019, 64% of the 14 appointments have been women.

Former regent and Board chair Linda Cohen said, when Maureen Ramirez and Venora Hung were elected to the Board, first-generation students and students of different backgrounds were prioritized.

“There was emphasis on the diversity of the student body,” Cohen said.

Cohen said people want the Board to reflect the composition of Minnesota, and change is crucial.

“The Board of Regents has a majority of women, and the diversity is great,” Cohen said. “We want the Board of Regents to reflect that.”

History

The first female regent at the University, Alice R. Warren, was elected in 1922, two years after universal suffrage was ratified in the Constitution. In the following 50 years, only six female regents were elected out of 96 regent appointments.

Warren was a University alum, a member of the Board of Directors of the University General Alumni Association and the president of the Minneapolis College Women's Club. 

1972 marked the first year more women than men were elected to available seats, with the only two elected regents being Loanne Thrane and Josie Johnson, the first Black regent.

Johnson wrote in her memoir, “Hope in the Struggle,” she was elected to the University Board of Regents in 1971 after the creation of the Afro-American and African Studies department. She was a candidate for one of three at-large positions.

“A lot of politicking took place in the committees during the selection process,” Johnson wrote.

According to Johnson’s memoir, her appointment as regent by Minnesota Gov. Wendell Anderson was managed by Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) affiliated representative Martin Olav Sabo. She wrote that longstanding work with DFL leadership along with her history of political participation, civil rights leadership and campus activism made her a desirable candidate for regent.

Johnson wrote that, as the only African American candidate on the Board, her suggestions and observations were not immediately acknowledged.

“If a white male member repeated what I had said, the words were heard,” Johnson wrote. “I was interested in agriculture and all other fields of study, but the members seemed to only ask and listen when I talked about diversity issues.

Other schools

The University Board of Regents is the only state school governing body in the Midwest that is majority female. The other Midwestern schools — Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, Kansas, Wisconsin and more — have a current average female representation of 35%.

The Universities of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Ohio are tied for second at 44% female representation, or four of nine voting board members. The University of Arkansas has the least with only one female voting member out of 10 on its governing board.

The University of Minnesota is unique in that its regents are directly nominated and elected by the state legislature. Regents in other states, such as in the University of Wisconsin system, are appointed by the governor.

Nebraska is another state system that directly elects its regents. In 2012, 97% of previously elected Nebraska regents were men.

How regents are selected

Regents are elected by the Minnesota Legislature to staggered six-year terms, and one third of the Board is elected each odd-numbered year. In 2023, Ken Powell, Steve Sviggum, Darrin Rosha and Tadd Johnson’s seats were up for election.

At least one regent has to reside in each of Minnesota’s eight congressional districts according to state law. The four remaining regents are elected from the state at large, and one of those must be a University student at the time of the election.

The process of becoming a regent begins with the Regent Candidate Advisory Council (RCAC), a bipartisan group of 24 members elected by the Legislature. Twelve are elected by the Minnesota speaker of the house and 12 are elected by the majority leader of the Senate.

The RCAC will recruit and interview candidates from voting districts and recommend between two and four candidates they consider per seat to the legislature, up to 16 candidates. In front of a legislative session of all 201 members of the House and Senate, voting will eliminate candidates to the final four positions available.

No more than two-thirds of the RCAC members may belong to the same political party, and no more than one-third can be current or former legislators. Geographical representation must be taken into consideration when making appointments. 

However, application through the RCAC is not necessary to become a candidate and a legislator can nominate a candidate from the floor during the joint election session.

Regent Bo Thao-Urabe said the RCAC stakeholders from different legislative districts understand representation should reflect the diversity of Minnesota.

“There are at-large seats, but other regents represent particular geographic areas,” Thao-Urabe said. “The body of legislators who are also from those areas give some thought as to what representation might need to look like.”

Thao-Urabe said by nature of the position of regent, the Board is inherently inaccessible. She said she has talked to people who have been dissuaded from running just from how complicated the process is.

“It's a significant chunk of time for somebody to be dedicated to serving on the Board, and just the process itself so it requires some knowledge,” Thao-Urabe said. “It's not every day that people feel comfortable going to a body of legislators and trying to really engage them.”

Politics and elections

Minnesota state Senator Sandy Pappas (DFL) said in a 2023 speech to the University of Minnesota Retiree Association that regent nomination can be a political process, and both Democrats and Republicans can nominate people because of personal relationships or political similarities.

“We need to get our legislative colleagues to kind of think beyond that and think about what the University needs in terms of a good governing board,” Pappas said.

Except for brief periods between 2011-2013 and 2017-2023, the majority leader has been a DFL member since 1973. The DFL Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman has been in office since 2019.

Regent James Farnsworth said the changing composition of the Board is due to the DFL having a majority in both caucuses.

“Wherever a majority is in charge, relationships you have, those are all things that are at play,” Farnsworth said. “Some candidates running may have a political background, but it’s about supporting the University at the end of the day.”

Farnsworth said regents are often selected by what a specific person can offer to the University.

Diversity became an explicit part of the regent selection criteria in 2005 through an amendment to a Minnesota statute, including geography, gender, race, occupation and experience to not include the number of previous terms served.

Legislative analyst Nathan Hopkins said in an email to The Minnesota Daily the diversity provision originated in an amendment sponsored by Pappas and was adopted into the House’s education bill that was being voted on.

Moving forward

Johnson said the Indian Tribes of Minnesota have their two senators, their two congressmen, their attorney general and their state representatives on speed dial. Before former University President Joan Gabel began meeting with the 11 tribal nations regularly, the University and tribal nations had minimal relations.

“Now they are being brought into the process, and a lot of their issues are being brought to the forefront,” Johnson said.

Johnson said having a Hmong person, a Native American person and a Black person at the table makes a difference.

“Everyone looks at life from a different window, and we all bring something to the table,” Johnson said. “Our main charge is to make good decisions for the University of Minnesota and all people.”

Johnson said the new group on the Board looks a little bit more like people in Minnesota.

“We have a nurse, Mary Turner, who will frequently have worked an all-night shift and will come to a regent meeting,” Johnson said. “I think starting off in the 19th century the blue bloods of Minnesota would be on the Board, but more and more working people have been coming on.”

Johnson said it is a great honor to work with the Board in its current state.

“There are discussions that we have that are potentially different than any other group that came before us,” Johnson said.

USA Hockey approved a rule requiring youth hockey players to wear neck protection in practices and games beginning Aug. 1, according to a January statement.

This ruling applies to programs in the Minnesota Hockey organization, an affiliate of USA Hockey and the governing body of youth hockey in Minnesota.

The rule will not be enforced on adults but will be enforced at the youth, girls and junior age classifications.

Griffin Streed, a USA Hockey referee and a third-year student at the University of Minnesota, said the enforcement varies by district within the state.

“Mouth guards and neck guards are mandated on a district level, so it’s within USA Hockey but district-to-district,” Streed said. 

In District 6 of Minnesota Hockey, which includes Eden Prairie, Edina and Minnetonka, neck protection was required at most youth levels prior to USA Hockey’s rule change.

“I think it was a good thing because starting from a young age, I just got used to it,” Streed said. 

Streed said he stopped wearing a neck guard as a high school player as it was no longer required at that level. 

Minnesota Class AA and A high school hockey do not follow Minnesota Hockey rules as they play under the Minnesota State High School League. 

Streed said since hockey player Adam Johnson died during a professional game in England, he started wearing a neck guard in hockey in intramurals.

“It’s not worth risking,” Streed said.

Streed said for players, there might be resistance to wearing neckguards because they may look unappealing or are uncomfortable. He added opposing players in intramurals have made fun of him for wearing a neck guard and that he does not see a lot of players wearing them in intramural hockey.

“Would you rather have your neck cut open or look cool?” Streed said.

Jon Zywiec, a hockey parent and former coach from Hastings, Minnesota, has a 12-year-old son who started playing hockey four years ago. Zywiec said his son has been wearing a neck guard — along with some of his teammates — during practices.

Zywiec compared the new neck guard rule to when seat belts were first introduced in cars. He said players may find neckguards to be uncomfortable at first but will adjust to them over time.

“These kids never have an issue wearing seatbelts because they grew up wearing a seatbelt the whole time,” Zywiec said.

Zywiec added USA hockey should have mandated neck protection sooner. 

“They had [neck guards], they’ve been making them, I think they should be wearing them,” Zywiec said.

In addition to neck guards, Zywiec is an advocate for other protective equipment. He said USA Hockey should also require youth hockey players to wear kevlar, cut-resistant socks to prevent players from being cut on the back of their legs. 

Tyson Schmidtke, a resident of Edina, has two children who play competitive hockey. He said he noticed the impact on his local hockey community after Johnson’s death as players immediately started to wear neck guards.

“All the referees are trained — you need to have a mouth guard, you need to have a neck guard — or you can’t play,” Schmidtke said.

Schmidtke said the risk of playing hockey is no different from playing other sports like basketball, football or soccer. He added when he played basketball and football, he suffered numerous injuries, and his children were also injured playing sports.

“The reason I have my kids play sports is [because] of the life lesson it teaches them,” Schmidtke said. “There’s risks in everything that you do in life.”

Schmidtke said the younger generations of hockey players will never have the option to play without a neck guard, so it will be easier for them to accept the change.

“Wearing a neck guard is just going to be another piece of equipment that they need to wear every day,” Schmidtke said.