Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/tag/university-of-minnesota/page/9/)
University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler unveiled a plan at the White House last week to improve first-year retention rates of low-income University students.
On January 9, 25 North Minneapolis Hmong family members met with Minneapolis Hmong outreach police officer Kou Vang. They met at University of Minnesota UROC on Plymouth Ave. N. The meeting focused on reducing crime and making their neighborhoods safer.Councilmember Blong Yang and Minneapolis Outreach Police Officer Kou VangThe Hmong families also got a surprise visit from newly elected councilmember Blong Yang.Much of the conversation focused on two problems: bike stealing, and staying out of fights at school.The Hmong students said that at school they can be the targets of hitting and bullying and racist comments by other students. And they said the zero-tolerance policies of some school systems can end up punishing the victims of bullying.The Hmong students asked how they can get help to avoid fights without risking suspensions or expulsions.In one example, a Hmong girl was jumped by four other girls after gym. The other girls knocked her down, got on her back, and pulled her hair and punched and kicked her. No adults were around. When the Hmong girl attempted to defend herself, the school suspended her and told her if she did it again she would be expelled.In another example, some other boys walked up to some Hmong students, called them racial slurs, and started a pushing match. The Hmong boys were afraid there could be a full scale fight behind the buses the next day, and went to the vice principal to ask his help to prevent the fight. The vice principal responded by suspending the Hmong students for pushing. Officer Vang suggested that the Hmong students talk with a trusted teacher about what was happening, in detail and right at the beginning of problems before they get really serious. The teacher is not going to suspend the students, and if necessary can talk to the administrators to head off fights without using student’s names and putting them at risk of suspension.Many north Minneapolis Hmong youth also complained that they they often get their bikes stolen, sometimes out of their garages and porches, and sometimes by other kids pushing the Hmong kids off their bikes and riding off. Hmong students reported that sometimes they see other families with their bikes, and often when they go to the families and/or the police to get the bike back, the other families will simply repaint the bikes and claim it was always theirs.Officer Vang told the Hmong kids that when they get bikes, they should always take pictures of the bikes and write down the serial numbers, so even if the bike is repainted the Hmong kids can prove the bike was originally theirs. The Hmong kids can also take the seat off, write their names on a piece of paper and stick it in the hollow of the steel tube, and put the seat back on. Officer Vang also said that when the Hmong kids play and ride bikes outside they should go in groups, that usually Hmong kids get knocked off their bikes when riding alone.Officer Vang also said that the Minneapolis police department was getting a lot of calls from northside residents speaking Hmong.Hmong families thank Councilmember Don Samuels (photo by Don Samuels) While the Hmong families were having their meeting with officer Vang, A celebration for outgoing councilmember Don Samuels was going on in the next room. The Hmong families went over to the celebration and thanked Don for working hard to get a Hmong outreach police officer. The Hmong families had campaigned with Don samuels for three years to get the Hmong police officer.During the meeting everybody enjoyed pizza and pop.Flaming Hot Cheetos – the officially endorsed snack of Hmong soccer players Continue Reading
The historic business district of Dinkytown has been a staple point in the cultural fabric of the University of Minnesota for decades. One could easily spend a day (or week!) exploring the vast variety of shopping and delicious cuisine Dinkytown has to offer. Today many of the old businesses are being replaced with large apartment complexes and bigger business. Dinkytown is changing, but as the buildings get built higher, the people remain grounded. Watch this short film and discover why Dinkytown, Minnesota is indeed “where the love is found.”Directed By Spencer KnottOriginal Song: “Talkin’ Dinkytown” Written & Performed By Kevin NoonanProduced By Spencer Knott & Kevin Noonan Continue Reading
Tuesday marked University of Minnesota alumnus Shezanne Cassim’s 247th day in foreign custody. He’s sitting in a maximum security prison, and his future remains unclear.
As the University of Minnesota Extension restructures a program that educates low-income families about nutrition, many union jobs will be lost.
Technical, clerical and health care workers’ unions at the University of Minnesota have approved contracts accepting cost increases to the employee health insurance program after more than four months of vocal opposition to the hikes.
Responding to successive cuts in federal funding, University of Minnesota Extension announced Monday it will scale back a program that helps low-income families make healthy, cost-effective food choices.
After years of miscommunication born from land ownership issues, a University of Minnesota research center and neighboring Native American tribe are working to find common ground.
Some Prospect Park residents are worried the University of Minnesota is planning to seize their homes in order to complete future projects.The University is planning to build a $182.5 million Ambulatory Care Center just east of Frontier Hall, and some are worried about what could come next should the University decide it wants to expand on the property around the center.“There are people who own homes in that neighborhood, and they are unsure as to whether the University is going to buy them out,” said Prospect Park East River Road Improvement Association master planning chair Tamara Johnson. “There’s a larger looming issue of uncertainty that hasn’t been resolved.”The 2009 Twin Cities Campus Master Plan highlights portions of Prospect Park for future growth.University Capital Planning and Project Management departmental director Monique MacKenzie said the University is aware of community concerns and has applied community feedback to the project’s design.The University is building the center with Fairview Health Services to provide a much-needed expansion that will allow clinics to move out of the outdated Phillips Wangensteen Building.MacKenzie said the project has been in the works for about a decade, but the University will make up for lost time with an “aggressive” construction schedule. The project is scheduled to break ground in January 2014, with the doors opening in early 2016.MacKenzie said she’s heard the University may have circulated a letter to residents in the past implying the school could use eminent domain to seize private land from property owners unwilling to sell. But she said the school has changed its policy since then.“The approach we’ve been taking is people have to be willing to sell for there to be a transaction,” she said.She said the University doesn’t intend to implement its land-grant right to procure private property anywhere — now or in the future.“I can’t fault people for [their concern],” MacKenzie said. “If it would happen once, why wouldn’t it happen again?”The University has sent purchase offers to residences around the site of the new center, but no money has changed hands so far, she said.Johnson said PPERIA will be watching closely. Continue Reading
The Bell Museum of Natural History’s renovation was not included in the University of Minnesota’s 2014 capital budget request, but a state legislator still plans to advocate for state money for the project.The University Board of Regents approved the 2014 request last week, which asks for about $233 million in state funding for construction projects. Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, said she will exceed that request when authoring this year’s bonding bill.In addition to the six construction projects listed on the University’s request, Hausman said she will add the Bell Museum to the House’s bonding bill. It’s a request she’s been trying to fund since 2004.If passed, funding for the museum would be used to build a larger, more advanced facility and a planetarium on the University’s St. Paul campus.Hausman, who has a history of advocating for construction projects around the University, said this upcoming legislative session is the “last chance” for the project’s renovation to obtain state funding.She said because it’s her last year as chairwoman of the House Capital Investment Committee, and because the University has not shown recent interest in asking for funding for the project, this is the museum’s final shot.“At a certain point you say, ‘If it doesn’t happen this year, this is never going to happen,’” Hausman said.In the capital budget request, which will be presented to legislators in February, the University prioritized construction projects like renovating the Tate Laboratory of Physics, which calls for $56.7 million in state funding.The 2013 bonding bill, which Hausman sponsored, included $47.5 million to create a new Bell Museum on the University of Minnesota’s St. Continue Reading