The University of Minnesota’s theatre department will present “The Mother,” a rock musical fully devised by director Luverne Seifert, other theatre faculty and students, on Saturday and Sunday in the Rarig Center’s Nolte Xperimental Theatre.

“The Mother” is based on two source materials: the 1906 novel “Mother” by Maxim Gorky and the subsequent stage adaptation called “The Mother” by Bertolt Brecht. Seifert and students developed and wrote this play based on the two source materials after a class he led last spring explored stories of U.S. union workers.

The University-produced musical follows a working-class mother during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia who, despite her initial hesitancy, slowly becomes the leader of the workers’ uprising against wealthy factory owners.

Twenty-eight students, 22 of whom are performers, are involved in the production, which features an original script, music and dance.

After Seifert’s spring class did extensive research on the Bolshevik Revolution in particular, they started developing the story for the show, which, to Seifert, is applicable to current society.

“The one thing when, during our research time last spring semester, that we discovered is that there’s a story like this every day in the newspaper and there’s a union striking or a story of workers being placed in horrific conditions,” Seifert said.

The music in the show is composed and performed by Annie Enneking, a stage combat instructor at the University. While there are a few ballads in the show, Enneking said the music has a driven rock feel that leans more punk at times to further reflect the characters’ situations.

Ei Malachite Carlson, a transfer student who is the set designer and props master for the show, said the music and sound element is one of the most critical parts of the production.

“The songs are both a motivation and a comfort for the characters themselves, and they can act as such for the audience as well,” Carlson said. “A lot of musical thought has gone into the show, a lot of sound thought has gone in, so it’s a very unique experience.”

The musical aspect of “The Mother” was, like other elements of the show, a collaborative endeavor.

When composing the score, Enneking said she would come to rehearsals with a fleshed-out idea, but would tailor parts of the songs based on feedback she would receive from the cast. It is this collaborative element of the production that Enneking finds incredibly joyous and rewarding.

“I find everyone’s openness really invigorating. I’m open too, so I just think collaboration is the foundation of my practice,” Enneking said. “I feel like it’s a real luxury and privilege to be able to be in a room with all of them and making something together.”

Dominique Drake, a fourth-year student who plays Pavel, the son of the titular mother, said the level of collaboration needed to pull off this type of show has caused the cast and crew to grow together in their artistry. While Drake finds this collaborative atmosphere fulfilling, he initially auditioned because he wanted to explore the themes surrounding the musical.

“What really drove me to delve deeper into the project was the ideas behind it, the fact that it was Brechtian theater and based around socialism and a workers’ revolution,” Drake said, referring to a type of drama that makes the audience aware they are watching a performance.

Brechtian theater also makes the audience think critically about issues happening both onstage and in society.

Carlson said the Brechtian theater shown in “The Mother” is an opportunity to not only entertain the audience but also educate. This sentiment extends to the sets and props, like their protest signs, books and wooden dowels.

The sets in the musical are not extensive as the show is mostly set in a Russian household. Carlson said the sets, along with the props, are an integral part of the story the cast and crew is trying to tell.

“A lot of our sets, they still will tell some of the story but they’re not meant to be the main subject of the story, it’s supposed to be the actors and such,” Carlson said. “[The sets are] more subtle, but they do still have a little voice of their own.”

The cast hopes the audience leaves the theater with a newfound understanding of workers’ rights and how that affects modern society. Drake, specifically, believes the theater is an optimal place to tackle these types of topics.

“There’s a constant struggle of the working class against the, we call it the ruling class very often, but really the workers against the systems that are in place, here and now and have been [here] since a lot of the start of civilization,” Drake said. “At every level, I think, especially in theater, it’s important to keep an eye on that to track our progress of how far we’ve come.”

“The Mother” runs Saturday and Sunday in the Rarig Center’s Nolte Xperimental Theatre. At the time of writing, all showings are sold out.

Over the years Sleater-Kinney has been aptly praised by news outlets as “the best American punk band ever” going as far as “the best band in the world.” They return to Minnesota for a performance on March 23 at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul.

Carrie Brownstein, who sings and plays guitar alongside Corin Tucker, is a founding member of Sleater-Kinney. Brownstein gained notoriety outside of her music career while the band was on hiatus from 2005 to 2014 by starring in the IFC comedy series “Portlandia.”

After officially reuniting in 2014, Sleater-Kinney has released four new albums, the latest of which, their eleventh studio album “Little Rope,” released in January. At the end of February, they will begin to tour North America in support of the new release.

The Minnesota Daily spoke with Brownstein over Zoom ahead of Sleater-Kinney’s North American tour.

The Minnesota Daily: The “Little Rope” tour starts in just under a few weeks. I assume you guys are in the middle of rehearsals for that right now?

Carrie Brownstein: “Yes. Not in full production rehearsals, which means with our lighting director and monitor person, but we are rehearsing as a band on our own, prepping.”

Daily: Do you guys have a setlist for the tour figured out yet?

Brownstein: “We have a master list of songs. We generally know what we will be starting and ending the main set with. But we try to change things up every night and not get locked into one setlist. We’ve actually never done that as a band, so I think it helps us go along with the spirit of spontaneity and the live show.

But for the most part, there’s a list of about 40 songs and we’ll have all those rehearsed and be able to play 25 to 30 of those a night.”

Daily: I wanted to talk about the musical direction of “Little Rope.” In 2019 with your guys’ ninth album, “The Center Won’t Hold,” it felt like there was a big shift musically from “No Cities to Love.” Then in 2021, with the album “Path of Wellness,” it felt like a shift back to the “No Cities to Love” sound. With “Little Rope,” it feels like you guys are picking up where “The Center Won’t Hold” left off musically. What was the creative process behind that like?

Brownstein: “I think ‘Little Rope’ conjures a lot of what is both foundational and fundamental about Sleater-Kinney but also is an expression of the experimentation that we’re interested in. We don’t really have a purist mindset about the band in terms of instrumentation, but I think ‘Little Rope’ is a fairly guitar-driven album, probably more so than ‘Center Won’t Hold.’

To me, ‘Center Won’t Hold,’ I think it sounded like more of a deviation to other people than it did to me. Like when I go back and listen to our earlier records, which I do a lot when we’re prepping for tour, I can hear us trying to do things that we have done more recently, but we didn’t have the producer or we didn’t have the instrumentation or we didn’t allow ourselves the freedom to transpose a guitar line onto a synthesizer. I hear in ‘All Hands on the Bad One’ a lot of pop music, and even on ‘Dig Me Out,’ a song like ‘Little Babies’ has a very catchy chorus ––  I sort of hear these earlier iterations of that.

To me, ‘Little Rope’ just kind of encompasses all of those efforts, but also, I think, has some more dynamic songwriting and certainly I think Corin is doing something with her voice that she wasn’t able to do necessarily on the older records. She has so much control now, she can go to the really high, dramatic notes but she can also hold back. I think that restraint is what was introduced on ‘Center Won’t Hold’ to be honest.” 

Daily: The big thing that stuck in my mind comparing “Center Won’t Hold” and the new album is the use of distortion and synths. I see those elements coming back in on this record and I think that’s really cool.

Brownstein: “Yeah it’s interesting, you’re one of the first people to bring that up, which is good because it’s good to have to think of something in a different way for a second. I do see a throughline between John Congleton, who obviously produced St. Vincent, and then St. Vincent produced ‘Center Won’t Hold,’ and I think they share a little bit of a lexicon musically. They love to run things directly into the board and sort of blow things out with the on board gear as opposed to using an amplifier and micing an amp. I think you get that really close-up guitar sound, which can be very jarring and corrosive in a way that micing an amp doesn’t have, so I think there probably is a shared sonic language between St. Vincent and Congleton. Corin and I are, of course, not averse to growly, disgusting guitar sounds either.”

Daily: I wanted to touch on the title of “Little Rope,” which is from a lyric on the song “Small Finds.” Tell me how you guys settled on that name for the record and what it means within that context.Brownstein: “I think so much of this record deals with oppositional forces and dualities and themes and motifs that conjure the in-between and the liminal. I think we wanted something that could be perceived both as darkness and despair but also hopeful at the same time. 

To me ‘Little Rope’ could mean a dark dire moment that feels like you want to end it all, but it could also be what’s handed to you as a means of escape or safety or getting out of that treacherous situation. I think we just wanted a title that could hold those multiple meanings.”

Daily: For Sleater-Kinney album covers, this one stands out to me because you’re floating on it. It feels like there’s an element of fantasy that’s not present on the other album covers. I was wondering what the intention behind the album cover was?Brownstein: “We worked with the art directors and photographer Sophia Nahli Allison. We were drawn to her work because of the way she places bodies in interiors and in space. They often are defying gravity or pushing against the expectation of what a body is capable of. Often through the physicality it is conveying something more emotional or speaking to the discomfort, I think, of the ways that bodies move through spaces or speaking to an interior discomfort by putting people in kind of awkward positions. We liked that, we liked the other-worldly, you’re using the word magical, I think of it a little more other-worldy but I get it, I think magical is fine as well. The ability to both transcend but also to be stuck and I think, again, playing with the two sides of something. So we were interested in the doorway, the archway, as the idea of an ‘out,’ the idea of in between. I think because the album is dealing with a lot of uncertainty, thematically, we wanted something that felt like it was on a precipice, between two worlds, between two emotional states, between a before and an after I guess.

So yeah, I am stuck on that wall. I actually don’t mind that I’ve seen comments that are like, ‘What is this Matrix thing?’ or ‘What We Do in the Shadows,’ that’s okay for me. It can get into that weird magical realism zone that is rare for Sleater-Kinney but I don’t mind.”

Daily: Earlier you mentioned the album “All Hands on the Bad One” and how it delved into pop. How much of a priority were hooky-ness and pop elements in songs on the new album?

Brownstein: “I think my trajectory as a fan involved dipping into punk, including hardcore and avant-garde and post-punk and things that eschew melody. But I grew up in the ‘80s which was just drenched in pop music, it was one of the peak eras of pop, you know, Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, some of the best there ever were at making pop music. I can’t deny that influence on me and then, of course, punk came and was a wrecking ball and all that. But I realize that what has stuck with me from punk and new wave is catchiness. 

So most of what is indelible to me and what lives on is a sense of melody. Melody to me is what I return to, but it’s not the only thing. I love dissonance, I like moments that are sour and bittersweet and even aggressive or ugly, but I like contrasting that with something that is melodic and mellifluous. So I think it’s in the DNA of this band but I think that we have more control over that now. Like we were talking about earlier, I can listen to our early records and hear the catchiness, I think that’s part of the reason Sleater-Kinney has fans, we have songs that are catchy, they’re not just punk with nothing to sing along to –– like you’ve always been able to sing along to Sleater-Kinney.”

Daily: How do you feel about the debut Sleater-Kinney album now almost 30 years later?

Brownstein: “I give credit to our fans for helping me reassess the first Sleater-Kinney album. Because what’s great about the modern era of music is that it is such a conflation of time. There is really nothing to differentiate a new and an old song except when it was placed onto the internet. And in some cases old music is placed onto the internet after, like we’ve done away with chronology and I think what that fosters is a revaluation and reassessment both for an audience and as the maker of that music.

So for a long time I always thought of our first album as something that is kind of inchoate or just had this partial up-start quality to it. And, sure, if you measure it against ‘The Woods’ or ‘No Cities to Love’ or ‘Little Rope,’ it probably does, there’s something rudimentary about it. But I think I now appreciate what we were trying to do, and I also appreciate the interplay of the guitars, I think I have just learned to sort of value it. There’s a sweetness there, there’s a real heart-on-sleeve honesty in those songs. When we’ve posted things on Instagram and asked for comments and people suggest the first album as songs to play, we went back and re-learned some of those early songs to play on tour.

I think I am less likely to distance myself from that than I would have been a decade ago. I think it’s that appreciation that contemporary audiences, particularly young audiences, have for the totality of a band but also not seeing it in sequence. It’s randomized, and they’ll listen to something called ‘Slow Song’ off the first record and they’ll listen to ‘Say it Like You Mean It’ and I love that. I think that’s, to me, why I just would never malign the new fans, in fact, I am grateful for the new and young fans because I think I am able to see us through their eyes in a way that is very encouraging and inspiring.”

Sleater-Kinney plays at the Palace Theatre on March 23 with supporting act Black Eagle Scout.

This interview has been edited for clarity, grammar and length

Our Streets Minneapolis is starting to organize a block party for September after the city announced on Jan. 25 they would not be selected for the city’s Open Streets events. 

The block party, to be held on Sept. 8, is being organized by Our Streets in collaboration with the West Bank Business Association (WBBA).

Our Streets Minneapolis was organizing Open Streets events as an unpaid vendor hosting events with festivals of games, food and music on closed streets until last year when their budget request led the city to end their contract, according to Our Streets Executive Director José Antonio Zayas Cabán.

Zayas Cabán said part of the reason they sought funding was to elevate marginalized and underserved communities.

Our Streets’ new Imagine series is block parties focusing on empowering communities and helping them connect to street redesign processes. The series will take place at Glenwood, Cedar-Riverside and Eat Street.

This event is focused on producing the community’s vision for the neighborhoods and creating a positive platform to celebrate the collaborative process, according to Zayas Cabán. 

K.J. Starr, executive director at the WBBA, said a big priority for the WBBA was to promote local businesses. Last year there were three stages that featured Red Sea, KFAI Radio, Tamu Grill, Palmer’s Bar and Cedar Cultural Center. 

“One of the main goals from our perspective was to provide a great party for people who are West Bankers, residents, businesses and people who already come here, but also just show how much fun this neighborhood is to people who are new,” Starr said. “That’s why it was really important for us to continue this event in 2024.”

The neighborhood has long been a center for arts, culture and new immigrant businesses, so they are excited to get to help and support a celebration of that, said Ember Rasmussen, community development and events senior manager at Our Streets Minneapolis.

“Whether you’re an immigrant or you’re a punk rocker or whatever your alternative to the mainstream is, West Bank has always been a home for so many different people,” Starr said.

According to Rasmussen, the goal of the Imagine series is to spark the imagination of communities about how they want to continue to grow together and how to create physical space to be welcoming and connected to one another. 

Rasmussen said streets and highway infrastructure impacts the way people experience communities and Cedar-Riverside is a great example of how it has been cut off from other parts of the city.

“We need to be intentional about hosting events in places like Cedar-Riverside or north Minneapolis and hopefully in the future in St. Paul so that we could both highlight the cultural diversity and the richness from these communities, but do it in a way where there is no financial burden on these communities,” Zayas Cabán said.

Last year, the event featured a mobile history museum showcasing the history of Cedar-Riverside and retelling the story of the neighborhood, Starr said. 

Rasmussen said it is important for people to re-engage with the history of these places to recognize there were choices made to set things up the way they are now and they do not have to stay that way.

Other activities at last year’s event included local restaurants, beer gardens, live music, a dunk tank, a camel, Southside Battletrain’s human-powered train and a weiner dog race. 

“It was just like so West Bank,” Starr said. “Everybody of every kind of person all mixed together and happy to party together in the streets.”

Our Streets has the resources and expertise to do the event logistics and coordination, but their goal is for the community to determine the actual experience, Rasmussen said. 

“It’s a really exciting opportunity for folks all along the I-94 corridor to share their thoughts and ideas about what they want the future of that space to look like,” Rasmussen said. 

Zayas Cabán said improvements might be made from a point of view of infrastructure, but the same communities pay the price. They want to make a commitment to making sure these voices are heard, but also that there are actual outcomes and the communities benefit from them rather than being harmed or displaced. 

“If we want to be in a place where we’re not making the same mistakes and causing the same harms that were caused by these projects 60 years ago, then being able to revisit history and look how it happened in the first place is essential,” Rasmussen said. 

Rasmussen said they are excited to work with the people at Cedar-Riverside and for students from the University of Minnesota to join the party as members of the community. 

“The thing that I’m looking forward to is just walking down the street and seeing folks smiling and listening to music, and maybe finding a restaurant or a business that they didn’t know was there and just being connected to one another,” Rasmussen said. “I think that’s the most beautiful thing about the Imagine series and Open Streets events.”

During my first year at the University of Minnesota, I could count the number of other gay men I knew on a single hand. 

Maybe it was just bad luck. 

But even as I began to befriend other queer people, no matter how hard I tried, I could find no reliable way to meet gay men. Exploring my sexuality without selling myself to a dating app felt near impossible. So for my first semester of college, my romantic life was limited to the sideways glances I gave and received on the Campus Connector. 

With little sense of what I needed or how to find it, my isolation grew to the point where I considered transferring schools. Luckily I pulled through, relying on support from other queer people I met in my dorm building. 

Being gay in the U.S. may be easier than ever before, but gay men and all members of the LGBTQ+ community still face plenty of hardship. While finding community among queer people might seem less essential in an era of RuPaul’s Drag Race and Lil Nas X, it has helped me to gain confidence and pride in my sexuality — and it can help you too. 

Rick Hoops, the program coordinator for the Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC), works with the GSC and provides resources and programs for queer students at the University.

“Not everybody grows up with information about queerness and what the grand myriad options are for how you can express the way that you feel about yourself,” Hoops said. “I think queer spaces in a college setting are really important for folks to come into themselves a little bit more with the support of others around them.”

The GSC, located in Appleby Hall, makes a strong effort to support trans, non-binary and BIPOC students, as well as provide resources such as vaccine clinics, legal name change clinics and programs that seek to provide fun and celebratory experiences. 

Mycall Riley, director of the GSC, noted the wide variety of needs and wants among the students he and the center try to support.

“There’s a lot of queer folks who love going out and dancing,” Riley said. “There’s other queer people who really like crocheting. There’s other queer people who like to go on nature hikes.” 

With such a broad diversity of identities and interests, no one space can adequately serve the entire queer community. Although the GSC provides plenty of opportunities and resources for queer students, I’ve found my community elsewhere, particularly in off-campus environments. 

On a recent Thursday night, I ventured out with a couple of friends to The Saloon, a gay bar in downtown Minneapolis. Wearing no expectations and a bright-orange pair of jeans, I flashed the bouncer my U Card and driver’s license, earning me a free cover and a black “x” drawn in Sharpie on each hand.

The Saloon is open seven days a week and hosts drag shows, dance shows and live music. The bar has college nights on Thursdays at 10 p.m., providing college students 18 years and older free access to a night of dancing. 

“I think it’s important for us to reach out to a younger generation to show we’re here and this is not something that is necessarily foreign or alien,” said Bobby Palmer, general manager of The Saloon. 

The diversity at The Saloon was striking in terms of race, age and gender expression. Absent were the hordes of muscled, topless young white men who have historically dominated gay bars. Here instead was a community that seemed to represent all colors of the rainbow. 

Palmer said The Saloon is working on catering to a broader section of the queer community by supporting local drag queens and artists as well as bringing in dancers with non-traditional body types. 

“I feel like it’s a place where you can be different and no one is going to bat an eye. No one’s going to even think twice,” Palmer said. 

We’ve all faced prejudice, disenfranchisement and isolation in some capacity during our lives, so what could be more liberating than dancing alongside people who have experienced similar struggles? While not for everyone, I’ve found partying in queer spaces uplifting. 

If there’s one thing we as a community are skilled at doing, it’s making space for ourselves in the world. Even places as historically oppressive as frat parties can become moments to rejoice with other queer people. 

The Twin Cities may not boast as many options as other metropolitan areas, but there are plenty of opportunities to experience queer life, from nightclubs to drag brunches to bookshops. We now have the luxury of existing in the “straight” world, but that doesn’t mean we should deny ourselves the vibrancy and support our community offers.

As college students, many of us are still struggling to understand and come to terms with our identities. I cherish my straight friendships, but I recognize I also need to surround myself with people who genuinely understand my sexuality. 

If you are queer, a community exists for you if you know where to look. We just need to help each other find it. 

Minnesota Quadball (MNQ), the University of Minnesota’s official quadball team, is hosting its annual Winter Formal fundraiser this Saturday from 6 to 9:30 p.m. in the Coffman Memorial Union Great Hall.

MNQ’s Winter Formal, previously known as Yule Ball, serves as the group’s primary fundraiser for traveling to the national quadball competition in Round Rock, Texas in April, according to Meredith McDowell, a third-year student and the vice president of MNQ.

Quadball, formerly known as quidditch, was a sport made popular by the “Harry Potter” book series. However, parent organizations Major League Quadball and U.S. Quadball rebranded in 2022 to distance themselves from author J.K. Rowling, who came under scrutiny for transphobic remarks. 

“We’re trying to disassociate from [Rowling] and disassociate from the [Harry Potter books] a little bit,” said third-year student and MNQ event coordinator Anna Nelson. “Where the sport has evolved to such a different level of competitiveness than was originally when it started out.”

This year, the Winter Formal is Alice in Wonderland themed and will have dancing, themed food, two student bands, The Gentlebrass and Rhino Shrine, and a silent auction, according to Nelson. Other activities include Mad Hatter-themed musical chairs, four corners with Alice in Wonderland characters and time trial relay races.

MNQ is aiming to sell about 250 tickets this year with all profits from Winter Formal going to the players’ travel funds for nationals. Last year, the organization was able to fund $200 of each member’s plane tickets, but McDowell said the ultimate goal is to provide full reimbursement.

“Anything that we can make as a profit from this dance, we try to reimburse players, especially for those plane tickets, as much as we possibly can to make the financial burden of participating in the sport a little bit easier for college students,” McDowell said.

Nelson added that the level of support from other quadball teams and players for their organization has been outstanding. She said MNQ and surrounding quadball teams have formed a close-knit community because it is such a unique sport.

“There’s a lot of community connections that are coming in,” Nelson said. “There’s people from teams in Chicago and people from teams in Missouri and a lot of other people who are expressing interest in wanting to donate to help fund our stuff.”

Linnea Johnston, a third-year student, is not a member of MNQ but attended last year’s ball because their roommate was heavily involved with the organization.

Johnston said they appreciated the dance because they hadn’t gotten the opportunity to attend a formal event since their high school prom. Since they aren’t a member of Greek Life or related organizations, Johnston said this was one of the only chances they had to participate in an event like Winter Formal.

“I think it’s very important for being able to have these spaces for people to just have fun and be with like-minded people that’s not super related to academics,” Johnston said.

While the primary purpose of Winter Formal is to raise money for members to attend nationals, McDowell noted the importance of the event’s ability to bring in members of the general University community. The dance is open to everyone, no quadball experience required.

“This is just a really cool way for us as a community to get together and have fun with our friends as well as open it up to the broader community,” McDowell said. “This event is open to anybody, 18 plus, you don’t even have to be a University member to participate. It’s just a really cool way for us to engage the broader community with our own little community.”

Tickets for MNQ’s Winter Formal can be bought on their website.

After efforts to enact a minimum wage for Minneapolis rideshare drivers failed last year, Minneapolis City Council members continue to push for minimum- wage-equivalent pay for Uber and Lyft drivers.

Largely an immigrant and non-white community, Minneapolis’ rideshare drivers have worked to increase their wages since 2022, when a group of drivers approached Councilmember Jamal Osman (Ward 6) about their struggles with fair pay, according to Osman.

Councilmembers Osman, Robin Wonsley (Ward 2) and Jason Chavez (Ward 9) have spearheaded the movement to enact minimum wage legislation for rideshare drivers.

Eid Ali, the president and founder of the Minnesota Uber and Lyft Drivers Association (MULDA), said it was important to take this issue to the city council because rideshare drivers are a crucial part of the economy who need financial security.

“Every one of us has skin in the game, has some responsibility to contribute,” Ali said. “I want to make sure that our representatives have to pay attention and take this issue very, very seriously and come up [with] at least some sort of a standard of living for those drivers who are doing a marvelous job and work so hard to at least earn for their families.”

Rideshare drivers make less than half of what they did 10 years ago, according to Ali.

Osman said the issue is important to him because many members of Ward 6 are non-white immigrants who often face financial insecurity.

“The East African community or Latino American community and Mexican American community that are here already have so many barriers when it comes to being in a new country and having all those challenges and for them to feel like they’re being robbed, it’s something that I’m obligated to speak out [on],” Osman said.

A presentation given Tuesday by Andrew Hawkins from the City Auditor’s Office of Policy and Research at a city council meeting outlined the history, research methods and potential models for compensating rideshare drivers in the city.

Legislation at both the city and state levels was vetoed by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, respectively. Governor Walz vetoed a bill guaranteeing per mile and per minute wage rates for rideshare drivers on May 25, 2023.

Mayor Frey vetoed a policy approved by the city council guaranteeing rideshare drivers $15 per hour with $1.40 per mile and $0.51 per minute rates in late August 2023. Supporters on the city council did not have enough votes to override Mayor Frey’s veto.

Osman, Wonsley and Chavez said in a joint statement Friday that failing to properly compensate rideshare drivers is unacceptable in a city with a $15 minimum wage law.

“This is an unacceptable reality that Minneapolis workers face because multi-billion dollar corporations don’t want to play by the same rules as our local small business owners do,” the councilmembers said in their joint statement.

Since Frey’s veto, Hawkins and the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department worked with city council to collect rideshare company data, surveys from rideshare drivers and similar legislation passed in Seattle and New York to formulate three potential rideshare driver compensation wage models.

The models account for three stages of a driver’s status while working —: logged into a rideshare app but not transporting or on the way to pick up a customer, on the way to pick up a customer and actively transporting a customer — roughly 50% of a driver’s time.

The compensation models, – models A, B and C,– each vary in the rate amount and the stage of driving accounted for. Both Model A and B have set rates per mile and per minute of a driver’s time. Model C does not account for a mileage rate.

Hawkins said in Tuesday’s meeting that a primary focus of the compensation models ensures that even after enacted, they are flexible to economic and legislative changes.

“We’ve seen this across the board at the state and local levels where they’ve adopted some kind of a model,” Hawkins said in Tuesday’s presentation. “That model’s been continuously monitored and adapted to make sure that it’s meeting the needs and its intended purpose.”

Ali said that while whatever legislation is passed may not fully resolve every issue facing rideshare drivers, he is confident progress will be made to help drivers.

“We know that we are not going and expecting to get everything 100%, but we are thinking that what we’re doing is a very good start,” Ali said. “Very strong representation was already laid out in front of those city council members and great city council members were paying attention to this issue.”

Osman, Wonsley and Chavez supported Model A in their press release.

“The mayor’s proposal, Model B, falls far short of the minimum wage because it fails to account for vehicle and fuel costs, which is out of alignment of national standards. The examples in the report reveal that drivers earn over 30% less per ride in Model B or Model C than in Model A,” the councilmembers said in their joint statement.

Among questions posed by council members at the Tuesday presentation, Councilmember Katie Cashman (Ward 7) asked how establishing a compensation rate for drivers would impact the cost of a rideshare trip for customers.

Hawkins said they do not have data on the impact on prices, but it “is definitely something that needs to be monitored.”

Osman said the concern of increased prices for Uber or Lyft rides is nonsense, distracting from the real issue of rideshare drivers’ financial well-being.

“It’s scare tactics,” Osman said. “We understand how huge a multi-million dollar company is, and when it comes to national and state, they have the lobbies on their side, but here locally, we can make it hard for them. We can stand for the drivers and we will stand for riders too.”

Osman, Wonsley and Chavez promised to pass protections for rideshare drivers and riders in their press release.

“Both drivers and riders in our city deserve protection and we look forward to delivering on both,” the press release said.

Ali said a successful wage compensation policy would be more than a bonus, it would provide long-term financial security for rideshare drivers.

“It’s going to make them support their families and take care of their financial responsibilities. It will give them a sense of ownership, that they know that they are part of the community and they are getting paid fairly,” Ali said. “They’re not asking more than that, they’re asking for fairness.”

The award granted to a University of Minnesota research team by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) on Jan. 29 aims to address water pollution in the Great Lakes region. 

The team from Great Lakes ReNEW is focused on creating an engine that can help remove waste from the Great Lakes region to decrease the impact of pollution on Minnesota waterways. 

Tianhong Cui, a co-lead of the University of Minnesota team, said the group initially proposed two projects to compete for the funding. The first project was a penny-sized, low-cost sensor that can be put in water to detect pollutants, like mercury and arsenic. 

Jeffrey Peterson, the director of the Water Resources Center at the University and co-lead, said the second project was made to extract nutrients, like phosphorus and nitrogen, in wastewater and create fertilizer.

The project has a 10-year horizon with a two-year startup period, Peterson said. At the end of two years, the NSF is going to evaluate the engine process to determine if the funding will continue to funnel for another eight years.

“We are very happy to get the funding because it is very competitive,” Cui said. “It is the largest single project that the United States has ever funded.” 

There are 10 teams involved in the process, each creating their own engine to be evaluated based on criteria by the NSF, according to Peterson.

“The process of creating these technologies and the innovation that we’re going to do will itself create innovation that leads to new job opportunities,” Peterson said. “It can lead to a lot of strong economic development in the Great Lakes Region.”

Water is vital to the Great Lakes region but several lakes and rivers are heavily polluted, Cui said. The problem is there are no low-cost sensors on the market to help. The goal of the project is to make sensors commercialized so everyone can access them and help detect pollution, according to Cui. 

Over time lakes can become filled with algae that makes the water less clear due to fertilizers being used on nearby grasses, Cui said. Working on new technologies is vital in developing a product that can detect and remediate, even when it comes to drinking water, Cui added.

Terrence Simon, a member of the University team focusing on heat and mass transfer, said what makes this project so special is the team’s history together. 

“We had a track record of papers, patents and devices … we were able to show that we have worked together and can work together and can get things done,” Simon said.

Each year more than 22 million pounds of plastic end up in the Great Lakes, according to the Alliance for the Great Lakes webpage.

“Being able to monitor the water and identify regions that need to have treatment done is important for a state like Minnesota which has over 10,000 lakes,” Simon said. “We are kind of geeks when it comes to being able to develop new devices.” 

The main challenge in this new project is for each member involved, the model is completely new, Peterson said. The team leading the efforts is Chicago-based, so putting ideas together and combining them in the right way was a challenge. 

It is the 60th anniversary of the Water Resources Research Act, which gave a charge from Congress to create centers to address water issues, Peterson said. Creating this engine enables future engagement to continue making change. 

“We live here and our families live here,” Simon said. “We want to do all we can to improve the environment. That’s one of our core passions in this all.”

Across the nation, colleges are progressively relying more on adjunct instructors as a cost-effective alternative to tenured and tenure-track positions. In the fall of 2021, 68% of U.S. faculty were in these positions, a sharp increase from 47% in 1987. This change can largely be attributed to the steady rise of college enrollment, forcing colleges to trim their expenses.

The University of Minnesota is no exception. 28% of the current staff falls under the label of a part-time, non-faculty worker or non-tenure track faculty. While that percentage is far less than the national average, adverse effects of this practice are still felt by students and faculty. 

Because adjunct professors often teach part-time or are only present on a contractual semester basis, students find difficulty in maintaining strong relationships with them. Failure to develop these relationships can harm students’ educational growth.

The consistent presence of a professor makes it easier to develop a stronger bond with them, according to Samantha Neinas, a second-year University student. That relationship creates a level of comfort to ask questions and attend office hours. With short-term professors, that connection is often harder to come by, creating the possibility students are discouraged from asking for help.

“You don’t get as many opportunities for office hours or get as many opportunities to ask questions in class,” Neinas said. 

Adjunct instructors are often expected to demonstrate the commitment a tenured instructor would but with far less time. In a survey of 500 contingent faculty members across multiple universities, 17% reported they had less than two weeks to prepare for their class from the day they were hired. The resources they can provide suffer as a result. 

Due to only teaching one class and not having an individual office space, Hubbard School of Journalism adjunct instructor Micah Emmel-Duke said he isn’t often on campus. 

Emmel-Duke said office hours can be difficult to provide for students because of this. They primarily take place online and prevent students from connecting with their instructor in person.

Building a strong relationship with professors has historically led to an improvement in educational outcomes. Studies have shown that students are more likely to attend class, get higher grades and graduate if they make an effort to connect with their instructors. Without this important resource, it becomes more difficult for students to ask questions when they need to. 

Educators shouldn’t be blamed for the resources they can’t provide. Short-term educators are overburdened and undersupported. The adjunct system is simultaneously necessary for providing education yet harmful to students’ academic growth. 

However, the adjunct system doesn’t only harm students. Adjunct faculty bear the impact as well. Because of the temporary nature of their positions, instructors lack the job security needed in their roles. Among instructors who had been terminated for non-performance-related reasons, nearly 41% received less than a week’s notice. 

It is impossible to ignore the impact educators — adjunct or otherwise — have on their students. The lessons students learn will stay with them long after they leave the classroom, but adjunct instructors continue to struggle. 

In a survey of over 1,000 adjunct faculty members across several universities, more than one out of five reported having skipped filling a prescription and more than two out of every three have put off dental care due to healthcare costs. The instability of the adjunct system places a large burden on the shoulders of instructors and provides them with little financial compensation in return.

The adjunct system is in dire need of revision. Our educators deserve to feel appreciated just as much as students deserve to feel heard. Overall, it is clear significant changes must be made to ensure both of those needs are met. That starts by giving educators more support in the classroom so they can in turn support their students. Additional time, space and funding for adjunct faculty will have positive ripple effects on the education system as a whole. 

These calls for help from faculty and students alike must finally be heard. Educators are the backbone of our society. It’s time we started treating them like it. 

Minnesota’s Bierman Athletic Center is the epicenter of Gophers athletes’ nutrition. 

Year-round, student-athletes can visit the cafeteria for their lunches and dinners. It offers a wide range of food, including chicken options, salads and make-your-own smoothies.

University of Minnesota’s head nutritionist Tommy Jensen offered some insight on how athletes at Minnesota are fueled. 

“I think it’s incredibly important,” Jensen said. “It is only growing in importance and the understanding of it — I mean the fact that we’re sitting in a facility that provides great nutrition to our athletes speaks to that.”

Every athlete is different and Jensen attributes a lot of that to their early development. Jensen said eating plans are decided by the athlete and their relationship with certain foods.

Jensen added that every athlete needs the three macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein and fats. Healthline defines macronutrients as the nutrients your body needs in large amounts to function because the body cannot make enough by itself.

The key difference in an athlete’s eating habits is the amount. Jensen gave the example of a 180-pound running back needing to eat a lower amount of macronutrients than a 350-pound offensive lineman.

Players also take into account the timing of meals and the end goal of their diet plan. Additionally, they are tasked to switch from offseason to in-season plans, or vice versa, to accommodate their energy output, Jensen said.

During the season, Jensen tries to keep things similar. A pregame meal is something familiar that is “easy to digest,” while a post-game meal focuses on calories and is made to taste well so the athlete wants to eat it.

Minneapolis/St. Paul-based athletic chef Ryan Hoffman spoke about what an athlete’s meal before and after workouts may look like.

“Oatmeal with some nuts and some berries,” Hoffman said. “Afterwards, they might have a protein shake and then roasted sweet potatoes and a chicken dish or a grilled steak with a salad on the side.”

Men’s basketball head coach Ben Johnson said nutrition is important and helps keep his players ready and energized throughout the season.

“We have a nutritionist that helps with that,” Johnson said. “I have been trying to be as diligent as possible from the summer to the minute they get here with making sure guys have a plan … I try to make it a part of our program like we do with academics, like we do with strength and conditioning.”

Johnson added that as his players’ energy outputs increase in the weight room and on the court, the last thing he wants is for his players to “taper off or lose weight or lose strength.” 

Athletic programs also have a space to practice their cooking skills at Bierman through Schwan’s Teaching Kitchen. Athletes spend their time in the kitchen bonding with teammates while prepping team meals together, according to Jensen.

“We did ceviche with the women’s basketball team, which was a fun thing to make for them, and interviewed some of the athletes about something they haven’t had before,” Jensen said.

Jensen added that the role sleep plays is significant to an athlete’s nutrition. 

Without a good sleep schedule, an athlete’s nutrition plan may be much less effective. Even though every athlete has a different body, macronutrients and good sleep are vital for an athlete to stay fueled throughout the whole season, Jensen said. 

“If you’re not doing those things you can spend all your time and money on specific supplements and a specific diet,” Jensen said. “At the end of the day, it’s not going to do the most because you’re not sleeping the 8-10 hours you should get as an athlete.”

Gophers men’s hockey swept the Penn State Nittany Lions at 3M Arena at Mariucci without allowing a goal in both of their games last weekend.

Minnesota claimed both wins with a score of 3-0, scoring six goals on 60 shots. They average approximately 34 shots on goal per game, which ranks fifth out of the seven teams in the Big Ten conference.

Penn State leads the entire NCAA in shots on goal and averages over 39 shots per game but scores on 8.5% of their shots, ranking 53rd out of 64 teams.

Before the Penn State series, Gophers assistant coach Ben Gordon said shots on goal can be a misleading statistic but can also depict a team’s performance accurately. He used Penn State as an example, explaining how their frequent shooting can make their performance seem better.

“It could be an even game, but they’re a high-volume shot team,” Gordon said.

Shooting efficiency, known as shooting percentage, measures a team’s ability to convert shots into goals. Shooting percentage is calculated by dividing a team’s goals scored by shots on goal.

Minnesota’s recent series against the Nittany Lions showcased their smallest difference in shooting efficiency between both games of a series (2.02%) since their late October matchups against Wisconsin (1.88%).

Minnesota had their greatest difference in shooting efficiency between series games, a near 16% difference, when they visited Ohio State in December. The Gophers scored on 20% of their shots in a 5-4 win on Dec. 8 but made 4% of their goals in the next game in a shootout loss.

Since that series, Minnesota has not had a difference in shooting efficiency greater than 8% between their first and second games of a series and has averaged a 4.5% difference so far in 2024. Across their nine series in 2023, the Gophers’ average scoring difference between games in a series was 8%.

The Gophers had their first series against Penn State in early December, winning the first game but losing the second.

Head coach Bob Motzko said in December the offense was one of the team’s issues in the first month of the season, but it had been quietly improving. He said the team has been more consistent since the start of November.

After their most recent series against Penn State, Motzko said the team’s struggle with injuries prevented them from establishing traction in their game.

“Our guys fought through it,” Motzko said. “It was kind of amazing, the more healthy we got, the more continuity we got and then also we had guys that stepped into bigger roles.”

The Gophers head into their final regular season away series against Notre Dame this weekend. In their November series against Notre Dame, Minnesota lost the first game but won the second game. 

Differences between shooting percentages in both games in a series are trending downward. Minnesota’s average shooting percentage difference in 2024 (4.53%) is lower than that of 2023 (8.03%), meaning they are having more consistent shooting between games on a series-to-series basis.

In their four series in November, the Gophers won one game in each series and averaged a 9% shooting efficiency between the two games in each series. Notre Dame was the only team to defeat Minnesota during that span as Minnesota Duluth, Michigan and Michigan State all claimed one game in a shootout.

Sophomore forward Jimmy Snuggerud had 40 shots on goal through eight games in November and scored three goals.

Gordon called Snuggerud a “shot-first guy.” Snuggerud leads the team in shots on goal with 150 and averages five shots on goal per game.

“His shot is his best attribute,” Gordon said.

While Snuggerud leads the team in goals and shoots at a high volume, he does not have the highest shooting percentage on the team. Sophomore forward Brody Lamb leads the team, scoring 22.4% of his 49 shots on goal.

Lamb said he likes looking for open lanes to avoid having his shots blocked and even looking to shoot through a defending player’s sticks. 

“I like coming downhill on my forehand side the best,” Lamb said. “I feel the most comfortable releasing it that way.”

Lamb did not score in the Penn State series, but he had an assist on Aaron Huglen’s first goal and five shots on goal over the weekend.

Huglen said he is continually developing a more consistent offense after the Penn State series.

“I think that’s a big step that I needed to take as a player,” Huglen said.