Students, City of North St. Paul partner for sustainability and development projects
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University of Minnesota students and faculty members are partnering with North St. Paul for a variety of sustainability projects this year.
COMMUNITY VOICES | Monarchs reign over Lake Nokomis celebration
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Hundreds of children and dozens of Monarch butterflies fluttered through the late summer haze at the Lake Nokomis Naturescape during the fifth annual Minneapolis Monarch Festival, sponsored by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, and the Nokomis East Neighborhood Association.The festival, a celebration of American and Mexican cultures, brought attention to the annual migration of Monarch butterflies from North America to overwintering areas in Mexico. Loss of fragile butterfly habitat on both sides of the border has made the journey more perilous for Monarch butterflies.The University of Minnesota’s Monarch Lab in conjunction with Monarch Waystation Program, located on the edge of Lake Nokomis, tagged and released recently hatched Monarchs with tiny polypropylene stickers (the tags attach to a butterfly’s wings with a special 3M© adhesive).Conservation groups, food vendors, musicians and art organizations entertained and educated over 9,000 participants in support of mutual friendship and awareness of butterfly habitat preservation.Additional information on this critical work can be obtained at the Minneapolis Monarch Festival website or http://www.monarchwatch.org.
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Light rail free fare debate continues, focus on cost of no fare zone between University of Minnesota’s East and West banks
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When the Central Corridor light rail begins running next year, it could be free for riders between certain parts of the University of Minnesota campus.Officials from the University and Metro Transit are discussing the cost of a free-fare zone for light rail riders between West Bank and Stadium Village — an idea that started last fall.Mike Schmit, president of the Minnesota Student Association, said the free-fare zone is still in the interest of the student government.“The free-fare zone [issue] is in the same place as it was six months ago,” he said.Metro Transit wants the University to compensate for the free zone, said David Busacker, who handles University transit issues as a member of MSA.The University’s free-fare zone would start at the station between 19th and Cedar Avenues and end at the station on the northeast corner of University Avenue and 23rd Avenue Southeast, said the University’s Parking and Transportation spokeswoman Jacqueline Brudlos.There is currently a free-fare zone between terminals at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on the Hiawatha light-rail line.Construction for the light-rail is expected to be completed before mid-July next year, said spokeswoman Laura Baenen. Continue Reading
Lessons in higher education accountability, from Minnesota to El Salvador
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Minnesotans take openness in government and public records for granted. This has been a key principle of our state’s democratic process since statehood in 1858, and often improved upon, and greatly expanded under “sunshine laws” in the 1970s. Continue Reading
University of Minnesota takes on state’s school achievement gap: Goals include more teachers of color, more ‘partnering’
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Last week, we spoke with the leadership of the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) initiative to reduce Minnesota’s achievement gap. However, we cannot discuss students and their families without focusing on schoolteachers.Left: Jean Quam (Photo courtesy of U of M)According to CEHD’s Dean Jean Quam, there are currently 31 percent students of color in the U of M teacher preparation programs. She is hopeful that a new partnership with Teach for America (TFA), which is currently being discussed, will change that number.“They have 38 percent students of color in their teacher corps. We want to work with them to increase that number and improve their teacher preparation program,” she said. That plan includes lengthening and strengthening (TFA’s) five-week intensive training model.Misty Sato, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, and her team are creating incubators for this work in partnership with the Bush Foundation through the TERI (Teacher Education Redesign Initiative) program. The main priority is to diversify teacher-candidate pools.Left: Kim Nelson (Photo courtesy of General Mills)“The kind of program that we are running is working well for a particular population. Continue Reading
Somali woman researches health risks of skin-lightening practices
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For some Somali women, having lighter skin tone is the ultimate beauty goal and they use skin products containing dangerous chemicals to reach that goal, according to a new University of Minnesota study.
AFSCME members protest proposed health care hike at University of Minnesota
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About three dozen AFSCME members who work at the University of Minnesota marched into two university administrative offices August 5 to deliver copies of more than 1,300 e-mails protesting a proposed increase in health care costs for university employees. “We will fight to preserve affordable health care costs for all university employees and their families,” said Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME Local 3800, which represents U of M clerical employees. “This is a straight-up effort to take $1.8 million from employees annually,” she said. “This is not a small change… People are already cutting back on health care because the cost is prohibitive.”
University of Minnesota takes on school achievement gap — Community organizations collaborate on Northside research
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Last spring’s edition of Connect, a quarterly newsletter of the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), announced a major initiative to reduce the Black-White achievement gap in Minnesota. Since it was not apparent in the story what role African Americans were playing in this effort, we decided to inquire further. Our question: Given that African American children are least proficient in reading and math (grades 3-12), where are African Americans involved in the U of M’s efforts to close one of the worst achievement gaps between Blacks and Whites in the United States?This is the first of a two-part story.We began our look into the U of M’s response to the achievement gap with a leadership profile. Professors Michael Rodriguez, associate professor of educational psychology, Campbell Leadership Chair in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) and Misty Sato, associate professor of curriculum and instruction and Carmen Starkson Campbell Endowed Chair for Innovation in Teacher Development, were featured prominently in the Connect story as initiative leaders.We found African Americans involved indirectly in partnership rather than in the leadership of the initiative. Perhaps the job of the newly appointed vice president for equity and diversity, Dr. Katrice Albert, will change the landscape a bit. Continue Reading
University of Minnesota researcher asks, “Can pennycress saves the world?”
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If you’re a farmer in Minnesota, you have to think about what you can do to keep your soil from washing and blowing away during the long winter. Environmentalists also have legitimate concerns about soil runoff polluting waterways. And anyone who eats has an interest in nutrients staying in the ground and not being washed down to the Gulf of Mexico. University of Minnesota Plant Biology Graduate Student Kevin Dorn has been thinking about these issues too, and that has led him to spend his time decoding the genome for a weed called pennycress. The Morning Blends Terry Carter spoke with Kevin and asked what is pennycress? [Audio below]
Dr. Seaquist vs. Diabetes: University of Minnesota researcher on the ‘Decade of Discovery’
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Minnesota is recognized as a leader in many medical fields, and one of them is diabetes research. Three years ago, the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic launched a partnership to figure out how best to fight the diabetes epidemic, and, most optimistically, to find a cure. The U of M’s Dr. Elizabeth Seaquist is a leader in this “Decade of Discovery,” and she’s also in line to be the next president of the American Diabetes Association. She stopped by KFAI’s Morning Blend to talk with host Paul Brohaugh. [Audio below]