INTRO MUSIC PLAYS 

ANNA LANDIS: Hello and welcome back to the Weekly Rundown from the Minnesota Daily. I am your host Anna Landis, our sports editor here with episode number 42 with AJ Condon, the other half of our baseball reporting duo. Hi, AJ.

AJ CONDON: Hi Anna, how are you doing?

LANDIS: I’m good. How are you?

CONDON: Doing good. I just finished my last class of college actually this morning, so. 

LANDIS: Wow.

CONDON: It doesn’t feel real yet because I still have some assignments left but I’m kind of done with in person. So it’s feels good, bittersweet though.

LANDIS: Yeah, congrats. 

CONDON: Thank you. 

LANDIS: That’s a big accomplishment. Well, we are here today to talk about the baseball team who have been having a pretty rough year, especially in-conference. Obviously, they have played a lot of games this year, they have a pretty packed schedule, but could you just give us a brief recap of their season and sort of where they are right now?

CONDON: Yeah. So I’ll start with their just out-of-conference play which they started down in Florida. Didn’t really have the best start there. Picked up a win in their opening game of the season, and then went on a little rough patch. That mostly came from the pitching a lot of the relievers were struggling, giving up a lot of multi-inning- er, multi-run innings, which obviously is not helpful. And then when they finally moved back home, they were playing at U.S. Bank  stadium, obviously, when the weather wasn’t the best. 

And they had two pretty good games, which kind of gave hope as a little turnaround to the season they’ve faced two top 25 teams in West Virginia and Notre Dame and played them both very well. The first game against West Virginia, they actually had a lead most of the game. Sam Ireland had a great start. That was just the beginning to a great start from Ireland. And they lost that game by one and another reliever came in and just those late-inning runs added up and they lost that by one 4-5. Two days later they faced number 12, er, then number 12 Notre Dame, and lost that game 1-3 and that was kind of, Aidan Maldonado got the, not start because there was an opener in that game, but he pitched six really good innings. And again, it was just the offense couldn’t put enough runs up and they lost that game 3-1. So those two games, though they lost, kind of showed some hope into what was potentially the turning point in the season. 

However, that didn’t fully pan out and they struggled for the rest of the non conference schedule. Then they finally moved into their Big 10 conference play. Like you said they haven’t had the best start to that they are one and eight in conference play. And it’s kind of just been a struggle all around offensively and defensively, pitching so that has been kind of like the recap of the season. Their one win did come against Maryland but overall, it has not been Coach Anderson’s best season.

LANDIS: So what exactly like, is there any one issue to point to that sort of started off their struggles, like did they lose any important players or like are they struggling to replace people now? With COVID and stuff? Or has that changed college baseball at all? Or are they just kind of having some bad luck?

CONDON: Yeah, so I covered the team last year and one of the biggest issues that they ran into was their pitching. And over the offseason, they brought in five transfers, Aidan Maldonado being one of those transfers, so they tried to address that pitching staff and make things better, and they haven’t done it the best. But Maldonado is the one I do want to touch on because he has kind of taken that next step. He had a rough start to the season. But he’s really been performing well as a number three starter. 

He got off to an iffy start, but he’s really only had two bad starts this season: six earned runs and seven earned runs. Every other start, he’s not letting up more than two earned runs. And he’s been really impressive down the stretch against Western Illinois, he went five IP and zero earned runs against Maryland in our one conference win, he went six innings and allowed one and a run and then in his last start against Iowa he went 5.1 and zero earned runs so he has really improved a lot over the season. And that just boils down to him finding his place, he’s from, he’s from Minnesota, a transfer from Illinois, and his stats would be better in that win loss column but it goes back to this offense who has really been struggling a lot throughout the whole season. 

Chase Stanke, the catcher had a really great start to the season, he was leading the, at least the Big 10, if not the NCAA, for a little bit in home runs. And he had a very rough patch in the past 20 games. I think he has two home runs. He recently just hit one but not having that power in the lineup has really hurt the Gophers and then Easton Bertrand got off to a really hot start. He was one of our top hitters, and he got injured and hasn’t played in now 20 games I think, so the offense looking just down the lineup, they only have one batter who was above 300 that’s been from Jack Kelly, who has been the most consistent player on this Gopher team. 

LANDIS: Yeah.

CONDON: He’s been very impressive and he has been trying to jumpstart this offense, but for some reason they just, they aren’t scoring runs and that’s really been hurting their pitching staff that has improved down the stretch. I would say they still have their games where they’re letting up nine, 10, 11 runs but in these games when the Gopher pitching staff is able to hold their opponent to under six runs those are games that Minnesota offense needs to step up in, because those are games that are winnable and when the offense isn’t showing up, it really makes it tough on the pitching staff.

LANDIS: Yeah, for sure. Like you look throughout the season, it’s either you know they have these wins or losses that are really close like 5-4, 4-5 but then there’s other instances where they lose like by more than double of runs like they lost 6-15 against Air Force about a month ago, 7-14 against Creighton, 2-11 against Rutgers and then 3-9 against Iowa this weekend. So yeah, it does seem that they’re, they are sort of struggling offensively and and you know, with injuries and stuff. Is there anyone maybe like a freshman or someone who’s like, who could potentially get them out of that or or what is that looking like in terms of fixing that?

CONDON: Yeah, it seems like Minnesota has kind of kept the same lineup throughout the whole season. And I think it’s just because that they have these experienced guys who have shown potential in the past and even at the beginning of the season. And I think it’s just that they have had a tough conference schedule so far. They faced Rutgers and Maryland, who are two of the top three teams in the Big Ten.  

LANDIS: Yeah.

CONDON: And Rutgers were actually just on one of the hottest streaks in college baseball so they have had some tough opponents and even looking at the Hawkeyes are number four. So they have played three of the four hardest teams in the Big 10 and I think that does kind of show in the scores and in these double digit losses they’ve had. So it’s going to take time and it’s going to take maybe playing a lesser opponent to be able to kind of get back into the groove and have the offense start clicking again. Because they were able to put balls in play and get on base back in the, back when they were playing the U.S. Bank Stadium. And it’s funny because I remember talking to Sam Ireland and they were so ready to get out of the stadium. 

LANDIS: Yeah.

CONDON: It’s such a cool place to play no doubt, but over time, the luxury and the, how fun it is to play in that stadium. They want to get back to their like home ground and actually play outside. 

LANDIS: Yeah, that’s a big difference.

CONDON: Yeah. So I think that once the weather starts getting nicer, and it’s never easy to play outside in 40 degree weather. So I think something they’re really gonna benefit for is days like today that we have when it’s 54 degrees.

LANDIS: Yeah, 

CONDON: Sunny, I think once the weather starts heating up, might be a little easier for these guys to kind of loosen up and be able to put more balls in play and find their way on base.

LANDIS: Yeah, and you know, you mentioned playing a lesser opponent to get their groove back and we are going to talk about their most recent loss to St. Thomas because St. Thomas honestly is probably someone that they should be beating every single time, St. Thomas just very recently transitioned from division three to division one, baseball and athletics overall. In March, March 1, they beat them 12-0, which you know, is probably a very good offensive win and you know, they get this new rival in from just down the road and they beat them and you know, you start to build this rivalry, but then on April 12, we beat them by just 2-1 and then fast forward to Tuesday, they lost 0-6. Let’s kind of discuss that and like what happened in particular in Tuesday’s game, because that is a game that they should probably be winning, especially in between playing Iowa and Penn State to lose that game probably does not feel super great.

CONDON: Yeah, like you said, this is a team that Minnesota should be, I mean, we’re kind of like their bigger brother this is a team that Minnesota should be able to in these midweek games kind of come back from a series sweep, and they did that in that 12-0 win and that was a big win. And they come back and a 2-1 win, and still had a really good game. There was a pitcher’s duel and those are going to happen.

This past game on Tuesday, their starter Gartner, went nine innings and allowed three hits. And that just is kind of the whole story of this Gopher team it’s that offense is struggling and in those games, like I said that their pitchers are allowed five, six runs, they have to be able to put up those same amount,  

LANDIS: Yeah.

CONDON: Of runs and be able to give themselves a chance but when you’re getting three hits, and over the last five innings, you’re sending 16 people to the plate, which is one more than 1, 2, 3 every inning would be, it’s just unacceptable and it’s not going to set your team up for success in the long run. And that’s a hard thing to do after getting swept by a conference rival. Iowa won, what was it, 9-3, 2 to 1, 9-3 And you come back, have a Tuesday game before another conference weekend. And you get shut out to a team that, like you said, they should be beating. It honestly was kind of tough to watch. It was a fun game to watch, in the sense that I like seeing good pitching. 

LANDIS: Yeah.

CONDON: Usually when it’s from the Gophers, but it just, they got off to an early lead. They got two runs in the second, third and fourth. And then Minnesota was finally, their pitchers were finally able to settle in but at that point it was too late. And Gartner had just found his groove and Minnesota wasn’t able to put guys in scoring position they didn’t have a guy in scoring position past the fifth inning and without that you need a long ball to be able to score runs,

LANDIS: Yeah.

CONDON: Which Minnesota hasn’t been getting the most of recently. So that was a tough game between two conference weekends.

LANDIS: Obviously offensively a struggle but, does it seem to be like that there’s like defensive issues among the team, maybe just in terms of like, communication between outfielders or like missing outs or just not communicating well on the field outside of pitching or, like what does that look like? 

CONDON: Yeah, so something that I think that Minnesota struggled with a lot last year was making plays in the field and I feel like they had a lot more errors at this point into the season, but it seems like Minnesota doesn’t hurt themselves too much in the field. And when they do, it obviously shows and those are the games that teams are putting up double digit runs. So I don’t think it’s entirely the fielding, especially in this game against St. Thomas. But when it is the problem, that is when you see these bigger scoring games, so I think Minnesota has cut down and has done a pretty good job in the field and being, and helping their pitchers out, the most that they can. So I don’t think that’s the biggest issue. Whether, I mean, turning errors regardless is always a bad thing. Looking at stats they’ve turned 44 as a team, compared to the opponents who have only turned 35, or committed 35 I should say, so they aren’t committing too many errors, but any error is too many.

LANDIS: Right. Looking ahead to this weekend, we are recording this on a Thursday. So there is a game tomorrow but what are you expecting just from this three game series against Penn State overall? In terms of like a scouting report and what are you expecting from the Gophers or what do they need to do to be successful this weekend? 

CONDON: Yeah so, Penn State is going to be the easiest in-conference opponent that the Gophers have seen so far. They have a five and seven record coming into the series in conference play in Minnesota still looking for that second conference win they’re wanting to come in at home like I mentioned earlier, so they have that going for them. What I was talking about with that nicer weather, we are going to see a warmer weekend hopefully the rain can hold off because Minnesota has fallen into some of those postponements and then go into doubleheaders, which is never easy, but I’m really looking forward to the three starting pitchers for Minnesota being able to put their foot down and be dominant and give the Gopher offense a chance to stay in the game. 

Something that Minnesota has done all too often is giving up those early runs, which I think is going to be key to be able to get off on the right foot and giving these pitchers the lead is very important. And when they do that, the pitchers need to use that to their advantage and be aggressive and not give these Penn State hitters any walks. Sam Ireland needs to be back to what he was at the beginning of the season. He has struggled a lot recently and looking at the stats in the first four starts of his season, he went 2 and 0, it could have been 4 and 0, he put his team in a winning position each time. He gave up four earned runs in those four starts. Since then he’s given up 18 in his past five. 

So he’s the ace of this Gopher team and he’s going to be a guy that needs to set the tone on Friday in the series opener, and I think he just needs it for his confidence. I think he needs to see a good outing again and be able to get on there on the right page. Looking at Massey and Maldonado. Those two have been very dominant as of late and if all three of them are going to be able to be consistent throughout the season, it’ll be very helpful for this Minnesota team. To be able to have a one, two, three rotation and guys to be able to step up and make plays on offense then. So I think it’s gonna be really important in this next series for the starting pitching to be able to go deep into games and not rely on the bullpen early in the series because if you’re relying on them Friday and Saturday, come Sunday, you’re not gonna have the most arms and you’re gonna have to go to the lower guys in the bullpen. That’s where we see games get out of hand.

LANDIS: Hi this is Anna just checking in just to give an update on these games. Since our initial recording of this podcast Minnesota has faced Penn State, losing the weekend overall after a hot start on Friday with a 7-3 win. Saturday and Sunday the Gophers struggled in later innings, losing 1-5 on Saturday and 5-6 on Sunday. They also played South Dakota State on Tuesday April 26th, losing that game 6-12. Check out our full coverage of all of these games on mndaily.com. 

LANDIS: Alright, well, and to keep up with all of your reporting, like I’ve said in past episodes, following all of our sports reporters on Twitter is going to be the best way to keep up with their reporting. They do a lot of live tweeting directly through our Twitter pages. You get a lot of the deets. So AJ, what is your Twitter handle?

CONDON: Yeah, my Twitter handle is pretty simple. Just @ajcondon_. Condon is c o n d o n then underscore following that and my profile picture is hard to miss. It’s our favorite Antoine Winfield giving the peace sign to Tyreek Hill.

LANDIS: Very nice and I would especially with baseball, they will be continuing their regular season past our spring publishing date. We are done publishing for the spring semester here at the Daily on May 2, Monday, May 2, but the baseball team will continue to play through that. So definitely follow AJ to keep up with the latest on baseball. Alright well, AJ, thank you for being here. And I look forward to seeing the rest of your coverage. 

CONDON: Yeah. Thanks for having me Anna. 

LANDIS: And that has been our 42nd episode of the Weekly Rundown from the Minnesota Daily, I am your host Anna Landis. Thank you for listening and stay tuned. 

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INTRO MUSIC

SEAN ERICSON: Hi, everyone. My name is Sean Ericson and you’re listening to In The Know, a podcast by the Minnesota Daily. Together, we’ll be exploring the University of Minnesota’s students and communities with each episode.

In this episode, we’ll be discussing short-staffing in campus dining halls. We’ll be hearing from people who work in the dining halls, as well as patrons and economic experts. Short staffing affects many of the dining halls on campus. A tight labor market and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have made finding employees more difficult.

According to Amy Keran, the U’s Director of Contract Administration, the turnover rate for M Dining employees this year is 41.5%. Keran stated in an email to the Daily that this is up by about two people from this time last year. According to Keran, from February 2020 to February 2021, 81 employees left their jobs. From February 2021 to February 2022, 83 left.

The Daily also spoke with Bi Xiong, the food service director at Pioneer Hall since October 2021. When asked whether her dining hall is short-staffed, she said yes. According to Xiong, many employers are struggling with staffing right now, not just M Dining. She said one of the biggest causes is COVID.

Xiong said that employees who have been working longer have been less likely to quit. Xiong estimated that for every ten employees hired, only half would stay. This matches up with the 41.5% turnover rate that Keran gave. 

Xiong also said that these staffing issues have affected Pioneer dining hall’s operations. M Dining has had to compensate for the lack of staff by changing how the dining hall is run. This includes closing some stations and changing menus.

Olivia Yanna works in the Sanford Dining hall. She normally stays about a half hour after her shift is scheduled to end.

OLIVIA YANNA: Just because we don’t have enough workers to do, like, the cleanup that we have to do at the end of the night.

ERICSON: Yanna also said that her workload has increased due to staffing problems. Yanna now finds herself juggling multiple positions at Sanford.

YANNA: Oh, like keep an eye on tables and staff this part and cook pizzas and do this and do this. And it just feels like I’m being pulled in like 100 different directions. I can do it, because I’ve had practice with it. But it’s not enjoyable. 

ERICSON: Yanna said that student workers are more likely to quit.

YANNA: Most of the student workers don’t last that long. Like a bunch of the people that I worked with last semester just aren’t even here this semester, so. 

ERICSON: Yanna told the Daily that she thinks some student workers never gain the trust of management and feel stuck in less enjoyable tasks within the dining hall.

YANNA: The managers don’t trust everyone. If you’ve somehow shown that like you have a good work ethic, or anything like that, like, they’re more likely to give you jobs, or at least jobs that are more interesting to do. Which is the level that I’ve gotten to, I don’t really know how I’m just doing what I do. But I know a lot of other people that I did work with, they never got that level of trust for some reason.

ALBERTO GOMEZ: Although the Minnesota Daily asked two Pioneer dining hall managers for comment, both denied to speak. 

ERICSON: Ella Kuntsman works as a cashier at the French Meadow bakery in the University Recreation and Wellness Center. Although Kuntsman works at French Meadow Bakery, M Dining transferred her to the Pioneer Dining hall due to staff shortages. 

ELLA KUNTSMAN: We relocated there for about three weeks until they were able to hire enough workers or just reorganize, and then we were able to return just recently.

ERICSON: Kuntsman said that she thinks the biggest problem facing M Dining services is the current labor shortage. 

KUNTSMAN: There are a lot of times that we don’t have enough people on staff. And it gets really busy. And I wouldn’t say that that’s a fault of the management or my like personal managers at all. They’re certainly trying their best to get people to work.

ERICSON: Kuntsman also talked about some COVID precautions. Kuntsman said managers have been understanding when employees need time off when they’re sick.

KUNTSMAN: I think they’re doing the best with at least the management that I’ve seen, they’re doing the best they can with what they’re provided. My managers have been really good about COVID, about people needing to take off when they have symptoms and such. So I’ve been really appreciative of that. I think enforcement of masks could definitely, there could be more, but from what I’ve seen with my managers, it’s been really great.

ERICSON: The Daily sat down with Amy Keran and Mike Berthelsen to get their perspective on staffing in the dining halls. Berthelsen, the Vice President for University Services, oversees the physical operation of the campus. Keran, the Director of Contract Administration, oversees food service and vending contracts.

ERICSON: Keran told the Daily that since the pandemic began, many frontline workers have decided to leave the food service industry.

AMY KERAN: The hospitality industry has been hit immensely hard through COVID, just due to so many people that count on that job on a day to day basis. And a lot of people have decided not to return back to the hospitality or restaurant industry. And so we’re just challenged to find the right talent that we need here at the University of Minnesota.

ERICSON: According to Berthelsen, amid staffing challenges, staff like Kuntsman shift from one location to another, with priority given to residential dining halls, like Pioneer. Berthelsen told the Daily that the seasonality of dining jobs contributes to high turnover.

MIKE BERTHELSEN: Because some of those jobs have a seasonality to it, some of those, some of the jobs are year round, and some are nine months. And people look for next opportunities and many of those from many of these jobs are entry level jobs and people look for the next opportunity and place for growth in their career.

ERICSON: Berthelsen told the Daily the University plans hiring with high turnover in mind.

BERTHELSEN: We know that that’s the case. And we always are very proactive in hiring over the summer to prepare for each fall.

ERICSON: According to Berthelsen and Keran, the current level of short-staffing is unusual. Keran told the Daily that Dining has been challenged this year by the COVID pandemic. And due to the current staffing challenges, Berthelsen told the Daily, the University has started posting their job openings in more places.

BERTHELSEN: We’ve been sort of extended the areas of places that we post our jobs, we’ve been very proactive in looking at, where we, where we post them, where we advertise them, looking for job fairs and try to be more creative in how we seek out to find other folks to do that.

ERICSON: As Pioneer food service director Bi Xiong told the Daily, the COVID pandemic has been an important driver of short staffing. Keran also told the Daily about what Dining has been doing to keep people safe during the pandemic.

KERAN: Every day, we just do our best that we can to service the needs of the students based on the recommendations that are coming from the CDC, MDH and also our HERO office to make sure that we’re providing the safest and best environment for the students as we can.

ERICSON: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy gained more than 600,000 jobs in February. Unemployment dropped to 3.8 percent. According to a CNBC survey, half of workers in the U.S. say their workplace is understaffed. The Daily talked to professors at the U, to get their expertise on this unusual labor market.

Avner Ben-Ner is a professor in the Department of Work and Organizations at the Carlson School. He said that staffing issues are widespread, but they’re hitting service industries the hardest.

AVNER BEN-NER: It’s a broad phenomenon across different labor markets, different regions, different occupations. It’s most palpable in the area in which we interact with workers like fast food or dining or, or other areas.

ERICSON: He explained that waves of quitting began among workers who had some savings they could fall back on. But as those jobs cleared up, people who were qualified filled those jobs, which freed up other jobs, and so on.

BEN-NER: And it starts with, with more mature workers who have some fallback funds, but it reverberates through the entire economy, because those who have skills to fill the jobs that are of higher pay, do that. And that vacates lower pay jobs. 

ERICSON: The large number of open jobs, Professor Ben-Ner said, has a couple of different effects on other workers. People who come into new jobs could be paid higher than the people who’ve been there for a while.

But this doesn’t necessarily apply to people who’ve stayed in the same job. Ben-Ner said seeing new coworkers start out with higher wages could breed resentment among long-time employees.

According to Ben-Ner, closing early, like M Dining has done sometimes, is common. If restaurants don’t have enough waitstaff, they might have to cut back on their hours.

BEN-NER: You know, they’re not enough waiters and waitstaff to get it to tables. So they close early or close on certain days. That’s a phenomenon that’s widespread, you can see everywhere. 

ERICSON: Professor Ben-Ner said that there are clear steps employers can take to attract workers, such as raising wages and improving working conditions. These solutions might not be possible, or they could lead to other problems down the road.

BEN-NER: Higher wages are not always feasible from the standpoint of a business. And they try to convert the higher costs into higher prices. But that reduces demand. So there is no simple way of getting around shortages.

ERICSON: Alan Benson is an associate professor in the Department of Work and Organizations at the Carlson School. According to Benson, one issue is that people might have had to stop working, either temporarily or permanently, during the pandemic.

ALAN BENSON: One of the things that’s going on is, is, of course, people might have had an interruption with their jobs over the course of the pandemic.

ERICSON: Other challenges could have come up in people’s lives as well, interfering with their ability and desire to work. People might have trouble with childcare, or they may decide they want to switch careers.

BENSON: Some people might have been furloughed, and as they’re called back to work, some of them are of course assessing what they want to do in the next stage of their lives.

ERICSON: Benson said that many of these issues are more likely to affect the non-student employees in dining halls. According to Benson, by affecting the broader labor market, these factors will affect the off-campus jobs students might be looking for.

BENSON: You know, if you think about like undergraduate student workers, though, they might be less directly affected by, for example, childcare issues, or they might be less concerned with, with the risk of COVID versus other demographics that might be more vulnerable.

ERICSON: According to Benson, the broader job market does affect student workers, because many are deciding between on-campus and off-campus work.

BENSON: But at the same time, you know, again, these labor markets don’t exist in a vacuum, the University still needs to compete with off-campus jobs.

ERICSON: And in the current market, Benson said, competition for workers is high. Employers are competing to attract scarce workers, which means that they may offer higher pay than before.

BENSON: One way that it could affect them, at a high level, of course, could be greater competition for their work. And so you might see larger raises, you could see employers offering signing bonuses, retention bonuses.

ERICSON: According to Benson, if these benefits aren’t extended to long-time workers, it could hurt morale. Long-term employees may feel resentful that new hires are getting a better deal.

Kuntsman told The Daily that staff shortages are about more than dollars and cents. 

KUNTSMAN: I guess just overall, adding staff is like a huge part of student mental health. Like I just see so many of my coworkers just extremely stressed out just from these like long hours with very few workers. So I think adding to that it’s if the University were to focus on that it’s them focusing on the mental health and well-being of student workers.

ERICSON: The Daily would like to thank all our listeners for tuning in. Special thanks to Maria Bengtson for her assistance in reporting this story. We’ll see you next time.

I’m Sean Ericson and this is In The Know.

After a 14-16 regular season campaign, the Gophers were knocked out of the Big Ten Tournament in the second round against Northwestern. Now their season has been extended after accepting an invite to the postseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament
(WNIT).

The Postseason WNIT is a 64-team tournament field comprised of the best teams in college basketball that were not invited to the NCAA National Tournament field. Minnesota was one of 34 teams to accept an at-large bid.

The Gophers will face (19-7) Green Bay in their first-round matchup on Thursday, March 17 at 7:00 p.m, hosted by the Phoenix, in Wisconsin, Green Bay.

If the Gophers advance, they will face the winner of a matchup between South Dakota State and Ohio in the second round.

The entire first round will take place March 16-18, followed by the second round on March 19-22, and the third round on March 23-26. The tournament will continue with the quarter-finals on March 26-28, semifinals on March 30-31 and finally the championship game on Saturday, April 2.

Over the past two years, the Twin Cities have witnessed a series of high-profile police killings of Black men: George Floyd, Dolal Idd, Daunte Wright, Winston Smith, and now most recently, Amir Locke, a 22 year old who was fatally shot during a no-knock warrant search in downtown Minneapolis. The campus community has participated in protests for justice and accountability in the wake of these killings. Students have turned out in high numbers to citywide demonstrations and protests on their own campus. Yet, the University of Minnesota that they attend has not mirrored such sympathies for justice and change. 

Initially, during the first days of the uprising, University President Joan Gabel promised to limit the University’s relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), ending their contract for policing campus sporting events. However, she announced in June 2021 that there would be renewed collaboration between MPD and the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD). Instead of listening to the explicit demands of students to decrease funding for campus police and establish more transparent methods of accountability, Gabel has prioritized more visible police presence.

UMPD has also played a notable role in the suppression of protests during this time. Beyond initial confrontations with students during the uprising, where UMPD was deployed, the department was present on the night of Nov. 4, 2020, when over 600 protesters were arrested en masse on I-94. UMPD also participates in the West Command Task Force, a grouping of metro police departments created to respond to large protests. University Officers were present in the detainment of protesters in Brooklyn Center after the murder of Daunte Wright, protests which were heavily attended by University of Minnesota students. University administration could easily divest from this task force and end the collaboration of UMPD with other metro departments, as students have demanded at multiple campus protests, but they refuse to do so. As it stands, the campus community has no power to influence decisions about the police force that patrols their own campus and engages in arresting protesters in their city.

Given this lack of accountability, University community members should have the power to decide how they are policed, not just make recommendations to a University president and Board of Regents they didn’t elect.

This idea is not a new one. “Community control of the police” was a concept proposed by Black liberation groups during the 1960s. The Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party developed it further by creating an outline for a council of elected representatives who would be able approve or veto police department policies and take action after police misconduct.

Today, organizations across the country are continuing to fight for community control of the police. Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J) is currently attempting to pass a charter amendment that would create a Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC), a board much like what the Black Panthers proposed. In 2021, a coalition of groups in Chicago were able to pass similar legislation creating a council of mayor-selected representatives with the power to draft and approve Chicago Police Department policy and nominate candidates for positions like superintendent.

The University should also implement a CPAC consisting of University community members who are policed by the UMPD. Members elected to the council would include students, staff, and faculty, as well as residents from nearby neighborhoods like Cedar-Riverside that the UMPD patrols. This council would have the decision-making power to investigate police misconduct, take disciplinary action, change UMPD policy, decide the UMPD’s budget, and approve or veto UMPD job applicants. A CPAC would give University community members full decision making power over campus policing, creating a true democratic process for police accountability that would set a precedent for other campuses.

When asked about CPAC in a recent interview, Joan Gabel responded by saying that only one small group of students resonates with this demand, and that in order to serve the whole campus community, administration must uphold shared governance. In saying this, she contradicts herself. Right now, there is no shared governance when it comes to policing. Administration has sole decision-making power. The only option available to the University community is to make recommendations which the president and Board of Regents may easily dismiss. Even the MSafe Implementation Team is ultimately advisory to the University president. If Joan Gabel truly wanted to uphold shared governance, she would give the University community the ability to directly elect their own police accountability council.

Students for a Democratic Society is collecting petition signatures for a referendum on CPAC to appear on the Spring 2022 All Campus Elections Ballot. Current University of Minnesota students can sign this petition at: z.umn.edu/cpac

This OpEd essay was submitted by Olivia Crull and Midori Van Alstine, members of the University of Minnesota’s Students for a Democratic Society.

This OpEd essay has been lightly edited for style and clarity.

After an early pounce from Penn State that saw Minnesota trailing 3-0 after the first period, the Gophers men’s hockey team hunkered down en route to complete a comeback and defeat the Nittany Lions 6-4 Saturday night.

The No. 5/6 Gophers overcame an early three-goal deficit against Penn State in the last road game of their 2021-22 campaign to sweep their third-consecutive series and extend their longest winning streak this season to six games. They sit at second place in the Big Ten standings with 49 points, trailing Michigan by two points.

“We just had a bad start. Then we played like we can play the last two periods. We needed a couple of goals to get our juice going,” Gophers head coach Bob Motzko said. “We had contributions from a lot of guys in our lineup.”

In the return of junior co-captain Ben Meyers and sophomore Brock Faber after they missed five games due to the Olympics, Minnesota (21-11) continues to show down the stretch that they really do have all that they need.

By 10:47 of the first period, the Gophers conceded three goals. Penn State’s Danny Dzhaniyev opened the scoring, burying the game’s first shot on goal 2:01 into the first period. Then Ryan Kirwan and Tyler Paquette extended the Nittany Lions’ lead to 3-0 just over the halfway point as they scored their goals just 14 seconds apart.
But the Gophers did not quit and came out flying in the second period, where they outscored Penn State 3-1 to cut the Nittany Lions’ lead to 4-3.

Sophomore Mike Koster started the Minnesota comeback 4:39 into the middle frame. He showed off his patience en route to tucking the puck home inside the left goalpost to beat Penn State’s goaltender Oskar Autio. Then senior Blake McLaughlin brought the Gophers within one with 7:33 remaining after burying his 12th goal, which ties senior co-captain Sammy Walker for the team-high this season.

Then Penn State and the Gophers exchanged punches. With Minnesota fighting back, the Nittany Lions had a response of their own 2:26 after McLaughlin’s goal as Xander Lamppa extended their lead to 4-2. Quickly, senior Grant Cruikshank brought the Maroon and Gold back to a one-goal deficit with 2:33 remaining in the middle frame after burying a back-door feed from sophomore Mike Koster.

As the Gophers went into the final frame, they carried their momentum from their three-goal second period by adding three more in the third period.

Minnesota earned their first power-play opportunity of the evening, 3:22 into the third period, and capitalized on the man advantage. Freshman Aaron Huglen fired a shot from the left circle past Autio to score his first collegiate power-play goal and equalize the game at 4-4 with 15:19 remaining in the game.

Before the halfway point of the final period, Penn State’s Christian Berger slashed Walker. Then the Gophers capitalized on the delayed penalty as junior Jackson LaCombe buried his second goal this season 8:27 into the third period. As he recorded an assist on Huglen’s tying goal, LaCombe matched his career-high point total in a single season at 21.

With Penn State attempting to mount a comeback, senior Grant Cruikshank cemented Minnesota’s comeback win after burying his second goal of the evening on an empty net. His two-goal night marked his first multi-goal game in a Gophers’ uniform.

Six Minnesota players recorded multi-point performances. Ten players tallied at least one point. Meyers recorded three assists as he and McLaughlin now lead the team in points at 29. Senior Ben Brinkman had two assists to earn career-highs in assists (7) and points (8) for a single season.

Freshman Matthew Knies did not play after returning from the Olympics with Meyers and Faber as his freshman counterpart Chaz Lucius and junior Jaxon Nelson remain sidelined with injuries.

The Gophers, who are 11-3 in the second half of the season, will look to finish their second half strong as they close out their 2021-22 regular season when they host Wisconsin on Friday, Feb. 25, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Since 2017, antisemitic attacks in the U.S. have reached mind boggling numbers, including the well-known murders in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Poway, California and the hostage-taking just a few weeks ago in Colleyville, Texas. Jewish community members’ social media platforms endlessly report on swastikas, white supremacist flyers found on campuses and criticism of Israel that crosses a line into something more sinister. Yet, at the University of Minnesota, the school paper is void of reports on any of this.

The message? Either Minnesota Daily decision makers don’t care, don’t think students will care, or subscribe to bigoted stereotypes that Jews are privileged, free from oppression and thus not worthy of their coverage.

It’s not that the Daily leadership doesn’t care about the targeting of minorities. They covered racist attacks against the Asian community in Atlanta, the Black community after the murder of George Floyd and the Muslim community after the New Zealand mosque shooting. But aside from one article about a swastika on a dorm room door in 2017, the Jewish community has been left hung out to dry by our campus paper.

Jews make up just 2% of the population but are on the receiving end of 60% of all religious-based hate crimes. By ignoring this problem, it often feels that the Daily is silently sanctioning it. The deteriorating climate for Jewish students has received little attention despite national data showing that 50% of American Jews say antisemitism on college campuses is getting worse. Sadly, 39% of Jewish respondents reported changing their daily behaviors (attire, event attendance, social media posting) out of fear for their safety.

Here on our campus, according to data collected for official use by the University, “the percentage of [Jewish] University of Minnesota students who said that the Jewish community is respected on campus” ranged from as low as 15.4% in 2017 to as high as 42.3% in 2019. This is significantly lower than the percentages reported by other minority groups on campus. One can draw the conclusion that the Daily’s lack of coverage contributes to these findings, as it erases and disrespects one group more than any other.

Instead of reporting on the attacks the Jewish community has endured in recent years, or even antisemitic incidents at their own University, the Minnesota Daily mentions Jews mostly in the context of their staff’s seeming obsession with demonizing Israel and those who support the only Jewish nation. The mix of non-coverage and demonization from a journalistic source is unacceptable.

Because ignoring hatred bolsters hatred.

If we give the Daily the benefit of the doubt and assume their lack of coverage is not related to a lack of care for Jewish students/issues, then what else could explain this phenomenon?

This fall, when a student group ran a campaign urging the University to cut ties with a study abroad program that included the Technion in Israel, one of the top science and engineering universities in the world, Minnesota Hillel and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Minnesota and the Dakotas submitted a letter to the editor sharing the Jewish community’s perspective. The paper did not run the letter, and four months later, have yet to respond. But just two weeks after submission, the paper ran a counter piece advocating for the boycott.

And last month, just days after a terrorist held a group of Jews hostage at a synagogue in Colleyville, that same student group held a program with a speaker known for using antisemitic rhetoric. Instead of covering the attack on the Jewish community, the Daily used their platform to run an op-ed praising the campus program and taking jabs at a pro-Israel group for calling out the issues this program could cause.

These are just two of multiple examples of how the Daily has marginalized Jews. Could it be that the Daily’s bias surrounding Israel has blinded it to the ways in which they marginalize Jewish students? We live in a time when clicks and algorithms tell young people what is newsworthy. The Daily has given little space for the experiences of Jewish students to be seen and heard. And their staff has made clear their bias around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This environment makes it very difficult for Jewish or Israeli students to feel safe or welcome in their surroundings.

Minnesota Hillel, the Jewish student center on campus, has spent the last 82 years supporting students and giving them both outlets for joyful Jewish connections and the tools to fight back against antisemitism and hatred. Yet, after so many decades working to drive change, the Daily runs pieces opposing Jewish efforts to create a safer campus climate.

While University President Joan Gabel has stood against antisemitism and other forms of hate on campus, and former University President Eric Kaler stood against efforts to demonize the only Jewish state, the Jewish community can no longer wait for these words to be followed by action. Following Colleyville, we can no longer pretend that coverage like the Daily’s won’t eventually permit the transition of anti-Jewish sentiment and words into anti-Jewish action.

This letter to the editor was submitted by Sophie Shapiro, Brooklyn Armstrong, Jessica Werner and Josh Berkowitz, all of whom are members of Minnesota Hillel Student Board.

This letter has been lightly edited for style and clarity.

I think I almost always mention this, but I love watching people interact with each other. There is something fascinating about how people get along and laugh with each other, even if they are strangers. You think that the world is beautiful as you watch people interact and watch children run around playing tag. We find ourselves smiling involuntarily and our hearts become filled with hope and happiness. So I thought, why can’t we maintain these kinds of relationships with those close to us?

Life is filled with fluctuating emotions in our different states of being. We find ourselves happy one moment, sad another, angry the next and so on. Similarly, in our interactions with each other, our emotional states change frequently. These interactions are what we need to survive. Interacting with others is what we do to make sense of our lives. It is what we do to help form connections and bonds with each other.

But we are also a species whose instincts are to protect ourselves from pain and harm. We see this happening during a fallout with a person we consider close to us. During a fallout with someone, which is an inevitable part of life, we get overwhelmed with disappointment and sadness. Our instant reaction is to defend ourselves and not let the other person hurt us any longer.

In order to have the upper hand, we use every tool at our disposal, including revealing deep secrets a loved one entrusted to us. We get loud and very angry at the person. Now that we feel that we have the upper hand, we also become conceited and pretentious just to make ourselves feel better. It is like we are sending a message to everyone not to mess with us.

But what we don’t realize is that what we are doing doesn’t only hurt the person, but also turns us into a vengeful being. What happened to being kind to each other in times of heightened emotions and difficulties?

There is something called the rule of six. It is a strategy used to not take whatever comes our way personally. The rule of six tells us to make six excuses as to why an event happened. Why it happened in the way it did and how this event is the result of the interactions we had with others. I am trying to say that life with the COVID-19 pandemic is already hard, and falling out with our loved ones makes our life even harder than it should be.

Keep in mind that we will never be in one state of being, be it happiness or anger. Revealing our loved ones’ secrets and exposing their insecurities just to make ourselves feel like we won is a feeling that won’t last, so why not hold onto the beautiful people that come into our lives? Why not say kind words to each other and keep the secrets people share with us? Why not have the decency to keep their secrets even if life happens and you drift apart or have serious fallouts?

The pandemic has taught me that nothing is more important than people in our lives. When we take them for granted and play mind games when things go wrong, it does more harm than good. Learning to find beauty and joy in small moments and appreciating those around us is paramount in a time like this. Life is made of many beautifully mundane moments and it takes a good heart to see and acknowledge them as blessings. Let’s be kind to one another and not make life even harder than it is.

Dear Dr. Date,

Ever since the trailer for season two of the HBO drama Euphoria dropped, my girlfriend has been acting weird. Her LED lights are always purple, she won’t stop playing “Still Don’t Know My Name” by Labrinth and pretends Advil is molly. I started getting really concerned when she told me that she would not be wearing her puffy winter coat anymore, as it would ruin her “Maddy Perez-esque” outfits – no matter how cold it gets on campus next semester. She also said that she’s not going to carry a backpack anymore, opting for a small purse covered in glitter instead. 

Things have only gotten worse since the new episode came out. I love my girlfriend dearly, but I want her to know that I love her for who she is, and that she’s the main character of my story, not an HBO show. 

How can I make my girlfriend realize that she’s not a character in “Euphoria?”

Signed,

Confused and Concerned

<hr />

Dear Confused and Concerned,

Given Euphoria’s delayed release, it is understandable that your girlfriend would be eager to immerse herself in the show she’s been anticipating for so long. However, it is also understandable that you are concerned about her behavior, especially if it’s extremely out of character. Sit down with your girlfriend and have a conversation about why you’re worried, while also showing her support. 

At the same time, it couldn’t hurt to get involved in the hype yourself. Have you considered watching the next episode to understand her obsession with Euphoria? It could be a great way to bond and affirm your support for her and her hobbies. It is likely that as the season progresses and the hype dies down, she will return to her old self, so don’t worry about this too much.

Signed, 

Dr. Date

Are you romantically bewildered? Are you sexually consternated, and is your relationship status a little too complicated? Want advice from the Minnesota Daily’s in-house love doctor? Email Dr. Date at drdate@mndaily.com.

As we ring in the third calendar year of the pandemic, our collective exhaustion is palpable.

It seems easier to resign ourselves than to press on: “What’s the point of wearing a mask, or social distancing? Everyone’s gonna get it.”

And with that, masks slip down, enter pockets or are left at home. Gatherings get larger. We’re less tentative about hugs and handshakes.

But the pandemic is far from over. Omicron, the COVID-19 strain that recently replaced delta as the dominant variant, appears more transmissible than previous strains, due in part to its ability to evade the body’s immune system — including those in vaccinated and boosted individuals.

For some, omicron manifests much like a head cold. This isn’t the case for everyone, however, and the immunocompromised and elderly are among those at greatest risk of serious infection. When we use the phrase “everyone’s gonna get it” as justification to pull our masks down, we’re ignoring the fact that some of us are less equipped to fight off infection than others.

“It’s a little annoying,” said Danielle Lundtvedt, a second-year biomedical engineering major. “People are choosing their own comfort over others’ lives.”

Lundtvedt has an autoimmune disease and heart condition that puts her at higher risk of serious COVID infection. To stay safe, she’s vaccinated and boosted. She also puts distance between herself and others when she can: she avoids unvaccinated family members, and she will sit in the very back of the classroom to maintain distance from her classmates, often at the expense of her focus.

On top of putting our immunocompromised community members at risk, simply resigning ourselves to getting COVID would strain our healthcare system even further. This could result in deaths that would otherwise be prevented by timely access to medical care, said Jill Foster, a professor in the medical school’s Department of Pediatrics.

“We’re not at a point of saying ‘whatever’ and just getting it over with,” said Foster.

We’re at a point where we have to make a choice. Do we choose our own comfort, as Lundtvedt puts it, or the health and safety of those around us?

I hate wearing a mask. I really do. But that minor discomfort seems inconsequential compared to the alternative: potentially ending someone’s life by passing on a preventable illness.

Those of us who are less inclined to take COVID seriously might take this moment to throw around statistics, reminding me that “only” 1.3% of COVID cases in the U.S. have resulted in death. Even if we were, as a population, callous enough to simply treat that 1.3% as disposable, there is another component missing from the conversation: long COVID.

The effects of long COVID can vary, and there’s much we still don’t know, including how likely omicron is to result in long-haul symptoms. These symptoms, which can include brain fog, trouble sleeping and shortness of breath, can happen to anyone who has had COVID-19, even if their case was mild or asymptomatic.

“I had COVID at the very beginning of the pandemic and it wasn’t severe and mostly like the flu,” said Foster. “But I still can’t smell or taste normally.”

For those with severe long-haul symptoms, long COVID can be considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

We all want this to end, to return to business as usual. Creating a false sense of normalcy, however, will only make things worse. We cannot simply ignore our collective responsibility for each other’s safety.

Lundtvedt said she just wants all this to be over.

“Before COVID I never really thought about myself as immunocompromised,” she said. “It’s felt a little isolating knowing I am a little different from everyone else. I want things to get to a place where I don’t feel so different.”

As the new year rolls in, we often find ourselves setting goals to be our “best selves.” For many people, that means going to the gym, eating healthier, picking up a new hobby or spending more time with their loved ones. We all tend to have big hopes for the new year. My New Year’s resolution was to cancel my DoorDash membership and stop ordering delivery. Most of us, myself included, are notorious for not fulfilling our goals, though some manage to stick it out and make positive changes in their lives.

However, this year, I reflected on the idea of New Year’s resolutions, and it has made me wonder why we wait for the new year to make a change in our lives? What is stopping us from living in the now and consistently making goals to “improve” ourselves as we see fit? We don’t have forever, so why do we continue to feed into the new year’s tradition of beginning our new journey on Jan. 1 of the next year? Has this tradition convinced us that each passing year gives us a fresh start to be a better version of ourselves?

We need to start being the best version of ourselves every day. Truthfully, it is not hard to make small, constructive changes to our lives. So, why do we wait until the new year?

We do not need to wait for the new year to allow ourselves self-love and care. We do not need to wait for the new year to reach out to the people we love. Most importantly, we do not need to wait for Jan. 1 to treat each other and the world with compassion and respect.

It is possible for us to become people every single day, but we often choose to wait until the new year to make artificial, surface-level goals for ourselves that in reality, most will not maintain nor fulfill.

Personally, New Year’s resolutions leave me questioning: why do we not make new goals for ourselves every day that give us instant gratification? Is it because we try to give ourselves something to look forward to each year? Why do we not make goals to help improve the overall quality of life for everyone around us? Does the current tradition give us the short-term fulfillment we need for the couple of months that we stick to our goals before we revert to our “normal” selves and “normal” habits?

It is not hard to become a better version of ourselves, even if the changes we make are small. However, this tradition of waiting until the new year to make that change has, in a sense, given us an excuse to prolong our behaviors. If we were to devote our resolutions to improving the lives of those around us, and improve the state of our world, together we could see positive change.

I challenge anyone reading this, and myself, to devote ourselves to real, positive change this year and not focus on some stereotypical, potentially unfulfilling goals. We need to be the change that we wish to see. So, what is stopping us? We don’t have time to wait until the new year. We need to be our best selves today.