May 3, 2021

MONDAY, MAY 3, 2021

MNDAILY.COM

MSA

JUSTICE

Minneapolis reacts to Chauvin’s guilty verdict

MSA calls for UMPD Chief’s resignation MSA’s letter alleged Clark failed to ensure safety for students of color.

By Ava Thompson athompson@mndaily.com The Minnesota Student Association is calling for the University Police Department Chief Matthew Clark to resign due to his alleged refusal to “reform” UMPD and communicate with student leaders in addressing issues of policing on campus.

In a letter addressed to President Joan Gabel and Senior Vice President Myron Frans, MSA demands that Clark immediately resign and an interim chief who is “committed to diversity and inclusion, community control of policing [and the] demilitarization of UMPD” replace Clark during the hiring process.

The letter also noted Clark’s lack of response to an incident of racial profiling of a Black student that occurred at Hanson Hall.

“In his five and half years as Chief of Police at the University of Minnesota, Matt Clark has repeatedly and unequivocally disregarded student demands, failed to increase campus wellness and safety for students of color and has allowed the utilization of UMPD as a physical arm of the oppressive state to subjugate and silence community members both on and off campus,” the letter reads.

This move comes after UMPD officers were found assisting Brooklyn Center police with crowd control tactics during protests that followed the police killing of Daunte Wright.

President Gabel confirmed that UMPD is a part of the West Command Task Force, an alliance of police chiefs that allows officers from other departments to assist one another.

Current and upcoming MSA leaders released a statement earlier this month demanding that the University cease its participation in the West Command Task Force after protesters were met with “excessive violence from police forces and the National Guard.”

Police and state patrol officers were seen firing pepper balls, flashbangs and tear gas into the crowds during protests on April 12.

Authors of the statement, Jack Flom and Rebecca Jacobson, said they were arrested in Brooklyn Center and detained See MSA Page 2

Photo by Parker Johnson

Thousands in the city gathered in response to the Chauvin verdict.

By Minnesota Daily News Staff From outside the Hennepin County Government Center to George Floyd Square at 38th and Chicago, the crowds of people cheered after the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin was announced: Guilty, on all three counts.

George Floyd’s girlfriend, Courtney Ross, addressed the crowd

gathered near the Hennepin County Government Center.

“God is good. He proved that today,” Ross said. “Minneapolis needed it. I can’t thank you enough. Floyd can’t thank you enough. His spirit is here.”

Nearby cars honked in support of the guilty verdicts. “The people united will never be defeated,” chanted the crowd outside of the government building.

Twenty-five-year-old Adonis Rodriguez said there was a lot of energy around the Hennepin County Government Center following the verdict.

“I really enjoy the fact that we’re

See JUSTICE Page 2

New task force will address abusive faculty The task force will consist of students, faculty and administrators.

By Nathanael Ashton-Piper nashtonpiper@mndaily.com The University of Minnesota will form a new task force to address abusive faculty after the Council of Graduate Students (COGS) created a petition to address what it calls a long-standing problem in graduate higher education.

The petition calls for the formation of a University body composed of graduate students, faculty, staff and administrators to address the “pedestrian, every day harassment that has characterized much of graduate education for decades, if not centuries.”

Abusive faculty behavior can include expecting students to work

Morrill Hall as seen on Saturday, Oct. 12. (Parker Johnson / Minnesota Daily) unpaid hours, asking students for der federal civil rights law, instances personal favors, leaning on students of abusive faculty behavior can fall for emotional support, commenting outside of existing frameworks. on a student’s physical appearance The COGS speaker, president and threatening or exploiting a stu- and vice president submitted the dent’s position as an advisee. petition to University Executive Vice Unlike sex- and gender-based President and Provost Rachel Crodiscrimination, which triggers a son on April 14 with signatures from mandatory Title IX investigation un- over 290 graduate students.

The petition also includes the anonymous personal experiences of 13 University graduate students with instances of abusive faculty.

“It is actually helpful to have a petition like this,” said Scott Lanyon, the vice provost and dean of graduate education at the University. “While we have been working on this in the Graduate School, addressing this issue really requires interaction from multiple offices and an institutional commitment to a solution. It helps to have students who say that this is a priority, and students will definitely be on that task force.”

Power dynamics of graduate advising The student-adviser relationship for graduate students differs from that of undergraduate students. “[Advisers] are the gatekeeper,” said Mattea Allert, the speaker of See COGS Page 2

FALL SEMESTER

Less lethal projectiles used by police proven dangerous

Start of fall semester at the U will coincide with Rosh Hashana The two-day Jewish holiday lands on the start date of the fall semester, Sept. 7.

A UMN study showed projectiles can violate United Nations guidelines.

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions of police brutality.

University of Minnesota researchers found that police use of less-lethal projectiles against protesters following the murder of George Floyd caused lasting damage and left long-term injuries.

Following the police killing of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old

Photo by Liam Armstrong

GRADUATE STUDENTS

WEAPONS

By Ethan Fine efine@mndaily.com

all coming together,” Rodriguez said. “It shows that there is equality, there’s a chance for change. There’s a chance that we can all make history together.”

Justin Ellis, who grew up in South Minneapolis, is working on a book about George Floyd and the injustices that Black families face.

The guilty verdict was a release, Ellis said.

“It felt like catharsis or something, you know. I started crying, I feel like everybody started crying and hugging and chanting. It was amazing,” Ellis said.

National Guard and law enforcement officers form a perimeter around the Minnesota State Capitol on May 31, 2020. (Andy Kosier / Minnesota Daily) Black man in Brooklyn Center, protesters have taken to the streets to express their discontent with law enforcement once again. As a means of crowd control and dispersion, law enforcement fired less-lethal projectiles such as rubber bullets, tear gas and tear gas canisters toward the crowd.

The state of Minnesota defines less-lethal munitions as

“projectiles which are designed to stun, temporarily incapacitate, or cause temporary discomfort to a person.”

The study’s findings, which the New England Journal of Medicine published in late February, indicate that police officers’ use of these weapons may have violated the United Nations’ guide See WEAPONS Page 2

By Ava Thompson athompson@mndaily.com The first day of the University of Minnesota fall semester, Sept. 7, will coincide with Rosh Hashana, a two-day celebration of the Jewish new year.

Rosh Hashana, which typically begins in early September, will start on the evening of Sept. 6 and end on the evening of Sept. 8. It is considered one of Judaism’s holiest holidays as it commemorates the creation of the world and marks the beginning of the Days of Awe, a 10-day period of introspection and repentance that culminates in the Yom Kippur holiday. Individuals observing Rosh Hashana often gather together for a meal, a prayer reading from the Torah and a blowing

of the shofar, the horn of a ram, to announce the new year.

Typically, the University has a required attendance policy where students may lose their spot in the course if they are not present on the first day of classes. However, to accommodate for Jewish students observing the holiday, the University is allowing students to send a note to a provided email address and a staff member will inform the instructor of the excused absence on their behalf, according to a statement from Rachel Croson, the University’s executive vice president and provost.

“Due to the constraints around the calendar this fall — the requirement of starting classes after the Minnesota State Fair, the need to meet instructional day requirements for accreditation, the need to hold six days of final examinations — it was not possible to set an alternative calendar that would move the first day of classes outside See FALL SEMESTER Page 2 Volume 121 Issue 13

2 Monday, May 3, 2021

Justice page 1 Debora Desouza, a 13-year-old who attends Robbinsdale Middle School said that although she felt happy when the verdict was released, the results will not bring back George Floyd.

“This is just the beginning, there’s still more to come,” Desouza said. “It’s just nice to see everybody coming together and getting the justice that we deserve.”

At George Floyd Square, a sense of happy disbelief filled the gathering of around 400 people.

“It’s justice, it’s Black joy. I wasn’t hopeful last week and I have no hope in the system. But today we’re a step closer, and prayers work,” said Sarah Washington, who lives around the corner from George Floyd Square.

Before the verdict was announced, she said “I was nervous, but now I can go celebrate. But is it really over?”

While she felt relieved about the guilty verdicts, Washington had other victims of police brutality on her mind. She said that other police who have killed Black people in high-profile incidents, like Philando Castile and Breonna Taylor, have not been convicted of murder.

Kim Potter, who killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center last week, is facing charges of seconddegree manslaughter.

“Rest in peace Daunte Wright, we still got to get the [other officers],” Washington said.

Some family members of Naajikhan Powell, a man who apparently died by suicide at the Hennepin County jail in September, were at George Floyd Square. Powell’s mother filed a lawsuit against the county and Hennepin Healthcare, stating that they ignored signs of his mental illness and that the jail failed to properly put him under suicide watch.

“It’s crazy to think he’s not here. He should be here and could be here,” said Aleauh Daggs, Powell’s cousin.

Daggs, and her mother and Powell’s aunt Amber Daggs, are not convinced that Powell died by suicide. And to them, Chauvin’s guilty verdict

COGS page 1 COGS. “They hold a potential ticket to your next job.

If you are in graduate school, they can hold the ticket to your next step in graduate school or your next postdoctoral opportunity.”

Even if a graduate student is paying their own tuition, the adviser is still a pivotal part of the student’s ability to advance in their degree, said Richard Gonigam, a COGS executive committee member.

A student’s ability to secure funding for their program of study can be solely in the hands of their adviser.

“If you are in a situation that ends in a severed relationship with a faculty member, there is no guarantee that you will get another adviser and be able to finish your program,” Gonigam said.

The power dynamics of such a relationship have the potential to create difficult situations for students, Lanyon said.

“The adviser has a lot of influence, usually for good, over their student,” Lanyon said. “But there is the potential for that influence to get out of control, and that is why it is a real concern. Students are really dependent on their adviser, and if that relationship goes south, it can be pretty bad.”

The Graduate Student Experience in the Research University (gradSERU) is an annual survey of graduate and professional students conducted by the University.

A department at Washington State University hosts the optional survey to ensure that the University of Minnesota cannot access identifiable response data.

“GradSERU shows us that the majority of our students are actually really happy with their advisers,” Lanyon said.

does not mean the end to the fight against police brutality and other injustices.

“Feels like a sense of relief, because there’s justice being made. But at the same time, it doesn’t feel like you can trust the justice system. Because I feel like we just got lucky by a few jurors. There was nothing that was actually changed today,” Aleauh Daggs said.

Amber said that when she watched the video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, it seemed like murdering Floyd was something Chauvin was trained to do.

“Where do you go when you need help? When you know that [the police are] gonna kill you?” Amber Daggs said.

Third-year University of Minnesota student Sami Maldonado and friends initially came to the square for the vigil of Daunte Wright. After the verdict was announced, it was important for them to “be with community” rather than staying in their apartment, where it was not likely they would get any schoolwork done anyways, Maldonado said.

“I feel like the Derek Chauvin trial has impacted everyone of every walk of life, of every background in Minneapolis,” Maldonado said.

“And it’s historic, and it’s important to be here and show up for the community.”

At approximately 5:45 p.m., hundreds outside of the Government Center began to march down the streets of downtown.

Throughout the evening, while Twin Cities’ residents celebrated or reflected, state and local officials hosted press conferences or release statements.

University President Joan Gabel released a statement via email regarding the verdict.

“We hope that the jury’s verdict represents a measure of accountability and comfort for George Floyd’s family, his loved ones and the communities that have been impacted by his tragic death — and perhaps a welcome departure from instances where there has been no accountability at all,” read the email.

The University announced it will move to reduced

operations starting at 5 p.m.

At a press conference in the lobby of the Hennepin County Government Center following the reading of the verdicts, lawyers for the state’s prosecution, including Keith Ellison and Mike Freeman, addressed reporters.

Ellison urged the public to respond and celebrate peacefully. He also listed the names of other victims of police violence and said he hoped the verdict could serve “as an inflection point” to bring about greater police accountability.

“I would not call today’s verdict justice, however, because justice implies true restoration. But it is accountability, which is the first step toward justice,” Ellison said.

At a joint press conference with St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, Gov. Tim Walz applauded the jurors, witnesses and prosecutors and also emphasized the need for systemic change to prevent further police murders. “[The verdict is] an important step toward justice in Minnesota, but we know our work just begins. This is the floor, not the ceiling of where we need to get to,” he said.

“It’s long past time the Senate moves forward and passes police reform to hold officers accountable for misconduct, increase transparency in policing practices, and improve police conduct and training, including banning chokeholds. This is the urgent task before us — not for tomorrow, not us for next year, but for now.”

At a separate press conference in Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey said that while Minneapolis has been characterized as “on edge,” he saw it more as a precipice or an opportunity for change.

“What will make our community strong and what will ultimately inform our ability to honor Goerge Floyd’s life in both word and deed will be our collective willingness to have that active participation in shaping our future,” Frey said.

Samantha Hendrickson, Lydia Morrell, J.D. Duggan, Samantha Woodward, Emalyn Muzzy, Megan Palmer, Niamh Coomey, Hana Ikramuddin, Dylan Miettinen and Tiffany Bui contributed to this report.

“But it has long been true in graduate education that there are relatively rare graduate faculty who are really not good at being advisers or are actively abusive.”

Results from the 2019 gradSERU show that 97% of graduate students “agree” or “strongly agree” that their advisers respect them as individuals, and 83% said they would “probably” or “definitely” choose the same adviser again.

Thirteen percent of graduate students said that to either a “moderate,” “large” or “very large” extent, a poor relationship with their adviser was an obstacle to their degree process.

instances of misconduct, Gonigam said.

Existing frameworks allow students to use the Student Conflict Resolution Center and file formal grievances when problems arise. However, many students may see these resources as last resorts and only utilize them in dire situations, Lanyon said.

He added that the University must build trust with students to encourage them to report misconduct early on and without fear of retaliation.

“Raising concerns early on in a grievance would prevent things from getting really out of hand,” Lanyon said. “There has to be confidence that [a student] will not face retaliation for coming forward. We need to find a way to ensure that we define what retaliation is and articulate all the ways in which retaliation is unacceptable.”

Lanyon also said that as more people are aware of and educated about all types of abusive behavior, he would not be surprised to see reports of such behavior increase.

“What I want to see are reporting percentage increases from people who witness or experience this type of behavior,” Lanyon said. “If that happens, that means we have done more to establish that students feel more confident that something will happen as a result of reporting such behavior.”

Now that Croson has received the petition and agreed to form a task force, Allert said she hopes the University will make notable strides for graduate students.

She said, “Our hope is that the University is able to acknowledge the experiences of graduate students and then that the University is able to actually get something done, and that must include input from graduate students.”

A decentralized approach Although some institutions put decision-making controls in the hands of the dean’s office, the University opts for a decentralized approach and gives power to individual colleges or programs.

COGS President Scott Petty said that the University’s decentralized approach, coupled with the University’s size, can make students feel that accountability is lacking.

Lanyon said that the University’s decentralized nature makes systemic change more difficult, but he added that the COGS petition and proposed task force would be an advantage.

“I think a variety of central offices assisting colleges will lead to more systemic change,” Lanyon said. “Multiple central offices will provide guidance and support to the academic colleges where the work will happen.”

Empowering students to report misconduct The power imbalance between graduate students and their advisers can make students less likely to report

MSA page 1 for 48 hours after attempting to drive some protestors home.

“We were informed that Chief Clark was in charge of approving UMPD going to join other forces in Brooklyn Center on Sunday night and allowing UMPD to be utilized in that way to traumatize people,” Jacobson said. “So that,

Fall semester page 1 of Rosh Hashanah and also satisfy all academic requirements,” Croson said in her statement.

Incoming student president of Minnesota Hillel, Sophie Shapiro, said she will likely either split her time between her faith and education or reach out to her professors prior to the first day.

“Many students are still trying to decide what makes the most sense for them as choosing between faith and education is a difficult decision,” Shapiro said.

Benjie Kaplan, director of Hillel, anticipated the intersection of the first day of the semester and Rosh Hashana three years ago. Along with his staff, Kaplan said he alerted the University of the impending conflict in 2018.

However, he later learned that the University begins the process of determining its academic calendar five years in advance.

“At this point we are still in the process of working with the University on accommodations and how we can make sure students, faculty and staff are all aware of them,” Kaplan said in an

Weapons page 1 lines for the safe use of less-lethal projectiles.

Law enforcement’s response to people protesting the police killing of Daunte Wright is a “public health and safety concern,” said Erika Kaske, a medical student at the University who contributed to the study.

“There are news reports of head injuries from the weapons used during the protests in Minnesota this week,” Kaske said in an email to the Minnesota Daily. “This is why we say that these weapons are not appropriate for crowd control.”

Kaske and the other researchers presented the study to a Minneapolis City Council committee on March 4.

The research spanned the duration of the protests following Floyd’s murder.

“During that time, we noticed a lot of head injuries that were coming in,” Kaske said. “That prompted a systematic review of these injuries.”

After examining over 6,000 medical records, researchers found 89 people who sought a medical evaluation from injuries that stemmed from either lesslethal projectiles, tear gas or both.

Of those 89 patients, more than half of them had injuries from projectiles. Of the projectile injuries, 40% were from hits to the head, neck or face.

“We were really surprised to see the frequency and severity of some of the injuries, particularly the facial injuries,” said Dr. Sam Cramer, a University neurosurgery resident.

Cramer described some of these injuries, including skull fractures that required surgery and the removal of several patients’ eyes.

“When looking at these injuries, we wanted to understand if [projectiles] were used correctly,” Kaske said. “We looked at the United Nations guidelines and they say that hits to the head, neck and face

compounded with all of the other issues with Matt Clark and UMPD over the last year or more, is kind of what spurred taking action now.”

The MSA letter said that they expect a response from the University in one to two business days.

If demands are not met, the letter says, they will plan “direct actions to not only ensure the resignation of Matt Clark but the

transformation of UMPD.” Student groups, such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), have taken to the streets to protest the killing of Daunte Wright and UMPD’s involvement in Brooklyn Center.

“Now that the trial is over, we cannot become complacent,” SDS said in an Instagram post. “There is so much work to do, and so much to win from our administration.”

email to the Minnesota Daily.

According to Croson’s statement, the University said it will remind professors of the Jewish holiday and ask that accommodations be made to students. The University will also delay the deadline for a 100% tuition refund to Sept. 14 at 11:59 p.m., to ensure that all students can attend class before making a decision about withdrawal.

Other schools in Minnesota have adjusted their start dates to accommodate students who observe Rosh Hashana. The St. Paul School Board voted to move their start date to Sept. 9 to account for both days of Rosh Hashana. The Orono, Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan and Bloomington districts pushed back their start date to Sept. 8, according to the Star Tribune.

Any adjustments to the University’s academic calendar must consider factors like the minimum number of days of instruction for some accredited programs and the effects of eliminating one day of the semester, according to Philippe Buhlmann, the chair of the Faculty Consultative Committee.

For example, Buhlmann said eliminating a Tuesday

means that classes that are only taught on Tuesday are delayed by a week. For classes with multiple sections, eliminating one day can create an imbalance between the sections. Any attempts to fix the imbalance would also cause a week’s delay.

“Even though this is not a Christian institute and the rhythm of the school year is Christian, we start the semester so that we end it in time for Christmas and we don’t get off on anybody else’s holidays,” said Natan Paradise, the associate director of the Center for Jewish Studies.

“And we just have to get better at that, even if we’re not going to change the calendar.”

Paradise said he believes a lot of Jewish students choose not to be observant of Jewish holidays because of the schedule conflicts with their coursework.

“It’s a struggle every year,” Paradise said. “Because every year the Jewish holidays fall during fall semester, and some years you’ve got two days of Rosh Hashana, one day of Yom Kippur, and then multiple days of Sukkot so students who are religiously observant can be missing five days or more.”

are potentially unlawful.”

While the UN recommends limiting hits to these areas, it is ultimately up to the state and local governments to determine what is generally allowed.

Rather than target the head, neck and face, the UN suggests aiming these projectiles directly at extremities to reduce serious injuries.

According to Minneapolis Police Department’s policy and procedure manual, officers are encouraged to consider all possible alternatives and assess the potential risks before firing a less-lethal projectile.

Additionally, the manual instructs officers to aim for large muscle groups in the lower extremities, such as the thighs and knees, and avoid the head and neck.

Sean Lim, a fourth-year student at the University, has had several experiences with less-lethal projectiles, beginning in the summer of 2020.

“My first encounter with all of these instruments of terrorism was this past summer during the Minneapolis uprising,” Lim said. “I would bring jugs of water and a firstaid kit or two to the police precinct. I witnessed teenagers younger than me with their legs crossed, sitting down, holding their cardboard signs up in the air and police would indiscriminately fire rubber bullets at their heads.”

Lim recalls losing his hearing for 20 minutes after law enforcement detonated a flash-bang near him. He also witnessed protesters losing vision from rubber bullets.

Since the police killing of Wright, Lim said he has seen even more use of lesslethal projectiles.

One of Lim’s friends had attempted to shield other protesters in Brooklyn Center from rubber bullets with an umbrella.

“There was a gap in the wall of umbrellas, and she went to close it,” Lim said. “Before she could, a stray rubber bullet went through the hole and smashed into the side of her hand and completely

blew up her hand. She lost bone. She has since gone into emergency surgery. That is years, if not decades, of time that she will not be able to use her hand.”

Less-lethal projectiles may violate the Geneva Conventions of 1977, depending on whether or not they cause “unnecessary suffering.”

“Police don’t care,” Lim said. “We should not have police deploying these weapons on civilians who are simply protesting and exercising their First Amendment right.”

Although the use of less-lethal projectiles is legal in the United States, many question the ethics of using them.

“You don’t want to use force that’s disproportionate to the harm,” Joel Wu, a clinical ethics adjunct professor of the University’s Center for Bioethics, said.

“If it’s a relatively lowharm thing, you don’t want to use a lot of violence to prevent that low-harm thing from happening.”

The report concluded that “under current practices, projectiles are not appropriate for crowd control.” Between 15 and 26 million people participated in protests about Floyd’s murder between May and July 2020, per the New York Times.

“Our main goal was to quantify the impacts of these weapons on our community,” Kaske said. “This can be helpful for medical providers and policymakers. It’ll be up to them as far as what they decide to do with this information.”

Following the City Council presentation, the researchers say they hope to see continued monitoring of injuries resulting from less-lethal projectiles.

“The hope is to be able to create a broader enterprise to track these kinds of injuries,” Wu said. “The more precise we are, the more data and evidence we have, the more we can actually design, inform and implement changes, so it doesn’t keep happening.”

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3 Monday, May 3, 2021

AJ Awed announces run for Minneapolis mayor Awed said he would be able to better represent communities.

By Lydia Morrell lmorrell@mndaily.com Cedar-Riverside leader A.J. Awed announced his bid to run for Minneapolis mayor earlier this month.

Awed will run on a platform of housing for all and increasing alternate strategies for public safety.

He said he is running in response to how Mayor Jacob Frey “failed the city.”

The mayoral election comes on the heels of the police killing of George Floyd and the ensuing fallout, which has included widespread unrest and a citywide reckoning of policing and racial justice.

Awed said his campaign is centered around “the bridge that I can build between communities and being able to bring marginalized communities into the fold.”

Awed — who is running as a Democratic-FarmerLabor (DFL) candidate — said his platform aligns with community members’ values, in contrast to the current leadership who he said

“doesn’t listen enough” to Minneapolis residents.

When it comes to public safety, Awed said he wants to work for restorative justice and developing alternative responses to petty crimes.

He added that he did not want to get rid of the police department altogether, rather some responsibilities such as traffic enforcement should be handled by other crime response departments. The City Council voted Friday to start the process toward finding an alternative to police responding to traffic stops.

“I’m in favor of a model where police isn’t the first answer, but it’s the final resort,” Awed said. “I’m a firm believer that the community should ultimately drive this issue, so I’m willing to listen to what shape that takes.”

Frey originally ran for mayor in 2017 on a platform of affordable housing and improving police relationships with the community.

Frey’s reelection website lists that he supports “a both-and approach” to policing: Find alternatives to traditional policing while working

with the Minneapolis Police Department to improve.

Rent control is another of Awed’s key issues, and he said he supports a proposed rent control policy that would limit on how much landlords can increase rent within a year if voters approve the initiative.

Frey opposes a rent control policy, saying this will not solve the housing crisis and that it will open the floodgates for poorly written policies, the Star Tribune reported.

In 2020, Awed ran for the Ward 6 City Council seat but lost to Jamal Osman. Osman received 2,795 votes, besting Awed by about 500 votes.

“This time, we are really going to be stringent on the message of stronger together,” said Ayan Mohamed, volunteer coordinator for Awed’s campaign and University of Minnesota pharmacy student.

Mohamed worked on Awed’s Ward 6 campaign last year and said she is involved because she likes Awed’s focus on community and his platform of housing for all.

Awed’s young family consists of his wife and two toddlers. He is currently the co-executive director of

Minneapolis Mayoral Candidate A.J. Awed poses on Sunday, April 18. (Shannon Doyle / Minnesota Daily) Cedar-Riverside Community Council, where he recently worked to increase vaccination accessibility at the Brian Coyle Center.

Abdi Abdulle, an East African community leader from the Longfellow neighborhood, said he is part of an informal group of community leaders who plan to advise Awed throughout his campaign, making sure he is connected

to what the community wants for Minneapolis.

Abdulle said the group is “just making sure there’s representation in the city, someone who understands the issues that immigrants, the people from low income neighborhoods are going through because this is where the killing [of George Floyd] happened.

And this is where most of the problems happened.”

Minneapolis approves a parking requirement change that will impact future developments around the University Minneapolis hopes to make the city more walkable.

By Emalyn Muzzy emuzzy@mndaily.com Minneapolis approved an ordinance last week that would get rid of parking minimums for new developments beginning in late May as an attempt to make the city less cardependent.

Under the Minneapolis 2040 plan, the city wants to find ways to create a more environmentally friendly city. The ordinance also reduces the maximum number of parking spaces and adds bedroom limits, which gained mixed responses from Southeast Como homeowners.

“We’d like to give incentive for folks to get out of single-occupancy cars and out walking, biking, taking transit in an effort to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions,” city planner Joe Bernard said. “We know from research that reducing

the amount of parking in residential developments reduces housing costs.

Having fewer parking spaces removes that incentive to use automobiles.”

Before the Planning Commission passed this ordinance, Minneapolis required one parking space for every two bedrooms.

The ordinance includes a bedroom limit that restricts single-family homes, duplexes and triplexes to nine bedrooms at maximum. Bernard said this is to prevent dorm-style housing from popping up in residential neighborhoods.

Before the ordinance, the city used the parking requirements to control one- to three-unit housing to make sure developers were not building excessively large developments, Bernard said.

This has been a worry for many Southeast Como residents, most recently with the redevelopment of 1203 Talmage Ave. The developer originally planned the building to be a triplex with 15 bedrooms, but developers proposed a reduction to

nine bedrooms.

Getting rid of parking minimums does not mean that developers will build apartments without parking spaces. Renters value parking, and while the number of spaces may go down, there will still be options, Bernard said.

“There’s a general sentiment that people need cars right now, and because of that there’s a fear that when you take away regulations, the streets will get choked up with street parking,” said Ben Brummel, president of Southeast Como Improvement Association.

While there are many benefits to shifting to greener modes of transportation, Southeast Como residents do not know if neighborhoods around the University of Minnesota are ready to fully eliminate parking minimums.

“The feedback that I was getting, from myself and others, was that we’re not quite ready in Como to go without parking restrictions,” Brummel said.

“That’s coming from a few different reasons, one being

The intersection of SE 13th Ave. and SE Como Ave. on Thursday, July 23. (Audrey Rauth / Minnesota Daily) food sources.”

The closest grocery stores to the neighborhood are the Dinkytown Target and the Quarry Cub Foods. Due to the smaller selection of groceries at Target, it can be difficult to shop there, and there is no direct bus route from Southeast Como to the Quarry shopping center.

Ward 3 City Council member Steve Fletcher said that the city is working on the E Line, a bus route that would run throughout the city. Fletcher said the E

Line would directly connect Marcy-Holmes to Lunds and Byerlys, Whole Foods and Target.

Linking the area around campus to more grocery stores would make sure “everybody has access to fresh food,” he said.

Fletcher added that developer CA Ventures is looking into putting a grocery store in the Dinkytown development at 4th Street and 15th Avenue, where the old McDonald’s sits.

Controversial Minnesota Supreme Court ruling fuels legislative change to protect sexual assault survivors The Legislature works to close the intoxication loophole.

just be worrying about a hangover.”

By Samantha Woodward swoodward@mndaily.com Editor’s note: This article discusses sexual assault. If you or anyone you know has experienced sexual assault, the Aurora Center’s 24-hour helpline can be reached at (612) 626-9111.

For many, a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling on March 24 that said sexual assault victims who are voluntarily intoxicated are not considered “mentally incapacitated” was a shocking announcement — but Abby Honold was not surprised.

The sexual assault advocate and University of Minnesota alum said

The Minnesota State Capitol on Nov. 18, 2018. (Tony Saunders / Minnesota Daily) this ruling comes from an outdated statute that misunderstands the true circumstances of sexual assault. Lawmakers and community members are working to change that as a bill has been working its way through the Legislature since the beginning of the session.

Minnesota law defines “mentally incapacitated”

in sexual assault cases as a person who has come under the influence of a substance without their consent. It notes that the persn lacks the judgment to give consent to sex.

The Supreme Court’s ruling solidified this definition, which dates back to the 1880s, when women were considered property.

This statute, often referred to as the “intoxication loophole,” has closed doors for victim-survivors who were intoxicated at the time of their assault and stopped some from getting justice, Honold said.

“You should be able to drink and not have to worry about sexual assault,” Honold said. “You should

State of Minnesota v.

Francios Momolu Khalil After the court of appeals ruled that Francios Momolu Khalil was guilty of thirddegree criminal sexual conduct for sexual assault against an intoxicated woman, the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed that decision.

The court interpreted the statute as saying that a person is only mentally incapacitated if someone administered the substance involuntarily; it does not apply if they gave the substance to themselves. The victimsurvivor was voluntarily under the influence before meeting Khalil.

Judge Paul Thissen wrote that although this decision See COURT Page 4

Daily Review

4 Monday, May 3, 2021

Court page 3

may not be fair to the victim, it is not the court’s job to change the law but rather interpret it.

In his decision, Thissen wrote, “legislative bodies are institutionally better positioned than courts to sort out conflicting interests and information surrounding complex public policy issues … we apply that meaning and not what we may wish the law was or what we think the law should be.”

A bill, HF 707, was already moving its way through the legislature when Thissen issued the opinion.

After the ruling, state lawmakers launched a massive bipartisan effort to address the language.

Legislators packed bills with so many signatures that they had to create clone bills to fit more names.

“I’m so appreciative of those survivors who can

keep sharing their traumatic experiences,” said Rep. Kelly Moller, DFL-Shoreview, chief author of the bill. “They know that it can’t make a difference in their cases, but they do it because they don’t want the same thing to happen to somebody else.”

Closing the intoxication loophole When Moller heard about the Supreme Court’s decision, she, like Honold, said she was disappointed — but not surprised.

Moller said she has been working since the start of her career at the Legislature in 2018 to protect more victim-survivors from loopholes like this.

Moller and her colleague, Rep. Marion O’Neill, R-Maple Lake, created a working group in 2019 that includes organizations like the University’s Aurora Center for Advocacy and Education. The group recommended three major changes for sexual

assault victims in Minnesota: protections for 13-yearolds typically exempt from child protections, creating a new crime called “sexual extortion” and closing the intoxication loophole.

Most child protections are only extended up to 12-yearold victims, Moller said. The group wants to increase that age limit by a year.

The bill also seeks to create a new crime entitled “sexual extortion.”

The workgroup found situations where renters or employees were asked for sexual acts in exchange for rent or work alleviation. The law would make this illegal.

Katie Eichele, director of the Aurora Center, said the swell of public attention to the state Supreme Court case is an “anomaly.” For every 1,000 sexual assaults, fewer than 1% of perpetrators are convicted, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

The center has been working with nonprofit organizations over the past several years to highlight the flaws in the current sexual misconduct statute.

“It’s just that we now have an actual case to bring attention to the issue on how flawed it is,” Eichele said.

“We have the attention of the Legislature and the public to be able to have momentum to move it forward.”

Moller added that there are other means for victim-survivors to bring charges against their rapist, such as instances of force, perversion and use of a weapon.

“If anybody’s ... thinking, ‘I don’t want to come forward, because I was at a party and I was drunk, and this happened to me,’ they still should think about reporting it,” Moller said.

“I think there is sort of this mistaken assumption that no voluntarily intoxicated victims can ever get justice.”

If the bill passes, it would come into effect on Aug. 1 and only apply to cases that happened after that date.

Fixing the system that failed her Honold was assaulted during her first year as a student at the University.

She was intoxicated at the time of her assault.

Since coming forward to the public in 2016 about her experience, Honold has devoted her time to advocacy work to push for more protections for victims and create a support network for victim-survivors.

“There’s a lot of pain that I had to go through to get my case charged,” Honold said. “I remember what it was like to go through that, basically alone, and I don’t ever want anybody else to have to deal with that.”

Although the intoxication loophole

did not impact Honold’s case, she said she believes the statute represents an overarching issue of victimblaming culture.

“I worry that it will prevent survivors from coming forward and reporting, that it will make them think that there is no route forward,” Honold said. “I don’t want people to feel hopeless. I want people to feel inspired to help fight to change this law because we’re really so close.”

Honold said that although the court’s ruling in favor of Khalil can be triggering to hear in the news, the outcome was not the court’s fault.

“They basically were pointing out an issue that already exists,” Honold said. “They could have ignored the case, they could have dismissed it and chose not to hear it, but they chose to make a really strong statement.”

Surly to reopen after failed union effort The beer hall has been mired in criticism since last year.

By Lydia Morrell lmorrell@mndaily.com Surly Brewing Co.’s beer hall and beer garden will tentatively reopen June 1 after a November closure that came amid lockdown challenges and a failed unionization attempt from its workers.

For ex-Surly workers who lost their jobs in November, the news is less than welcome. Multiple restaurant employees said that management had not contacted them for their jobs back, but they would not go back even if asked.

“For me, there’s just better beer in town with employers that treat their employees better. So that’s where I would go,” said Megan Caswell, a bartender who worked at Surly for five years and helped lead unionization efforts.

Surly’s Instagram announcement said it would reopen “thanks to the remarkable progress

Megan Cawell, former Surly bartender, poses for a portrait at Sheridan Memorial Park on Saturday, April 17. Surly will reopen on June 1. (Audrey Rauth / Minnesota Daily) being made on the many workers and customers Though Surly’s was going vaccination front in MN.” called a union-busting tactic. to close no matter what, The Prospect Park The vote to unionize workers could have had more mainstay closed in then took place in October, influence in negotiating their November, citing an 82% a month after management prioritization for rehiring if decline in on-site food announced the impending they had a union. and beer sales during the closure. It failed by one vote.

Surly’s Senior Marketing pandemic, reported the “After everybody lost Director Holly Manthei Star Tribune. Management their jobs, it was really said the company is going announced the impending hard for them to have any to start by hiring key closure two days after interest in the [union] leadership positions, like an workers declared their intent election anymore,” executive chef and general to unionize in August, in what Caswell said. manager. In an email to the

Minnesota Daily, she said that “all qualified candidates and former employees are encouraged to apply to any open positions.”

Manthei declined to answer questions about whether the company would offer jobs first to former employees. She also declined to answer questions about the unionization effort or its impact on the Surly image and business model.

The timeline for reopening may be adjusted due to pandemic restrictions, Manthei said.

Surly beer production has continued throughout the last few months, even as the beer hall and restaurant were closed.

Katherine Huska, a former food runner at Surly, said workers started the union efforts because “we really just cared about each other’s safety and wanted each other to have a better job and to be heard.”

Employees’ discontent began once Surly reopened with limited capacity last June, Caswell said. She said management changed the business model, service model and employee wages.

“I technically got a wage increase because my hourly pay went up, … but they effectively took our tips away,” Caswell said. Caswell said her daily wages plummeted without tips.

The new service model stopped table service and instead encouraged customers to line up at the bar to order, said ex-server Jacob Ruff, adding that it seemed wrong to have all of the customers in one place during a pandemic.

Dozens of customers commented on Surly’s social media posts asking management to recognize the union before returning.

Longtime customer Scotty Imberg said he loved spending time at Surly’s in past years because of the good food, beer and friendly staff.

He said in an Instagram message to the Minnesota Daily that he “would like to see the owners take accountability for their actions against their loyal workers, and offer jobs back to any employee who wants their old job back” before he returns.

Virtual teach-in panel discusses race, policing and the criminal justice system The teach-in focused on race, policing and related topics.

By Katelyn Vue kvue@mndaily.com

The University of Minnesota is hosting three virtual teach-in events to bring activists, scholars and students together to discuss race, policing and the criminal justice system in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin.

On Monday, the first teach-in, “Criminal (in) Justice, Race, and Policing: Derek Chauvin, Mohamed Noor, and Beyond,” featured four panelists: associate professors Keith Mayes and Michelle Phelps; Sam Martinez, an activist with Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar; and University law graduate Ian Taylor. Race, Indigeneity, Gender and Sexuality Studies Initiative and the Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop host the teach-ins.

The day after the first teach-in, the jury in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin found him guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and seconddegree manslaughter.

Panelists at the teachin discussed the potential outcome of a guilty verdict,

including other topics such as reparations, social movements and police reform. More than 350 people attended the teach-in.

“If Derek Chauvin is convicted in any of the charges, he’ll likely appeal to the Court of Appeals,” Taylor said. “If that’s affirmed there, then he’ll appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. … When it’s affirmed at that level, then what happens is that it establishes state precedent.”

As a result, judges trying similar cases in the future will need to abide by the established precedent set by equal or higher courts, Taylor added.

Former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor’s case is up for appeal in June. Jurors convicted him of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in 2019 for the killing of Justine Ruszczyk.

Noor’s appeal, if successful, could impact Chauvin’s case and sentencing.

In the discussion, panelists responded to a question about the differences between Noor’s case and the upcoming trial of former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter, including race and gender disparities in the criminal legal system.

“I think this question touches on obviously something really important, which is how perceptions of how

racialized men or Black men move through spaces versus how white women move through spaces and how we interpret those actions. And I think those disparities are met at almost every sector of our society,” Taylor said.

Potter is facing a seconddegree manslaughter charge after firing the shot that killed Daunte Wright. Taylor said the main difference, in the legal sense, between Potter and Noor is the charges they face.

The defendant’s mental state is a key factor that influences the charges from the prosecutors. Taylor said prosecutors need to evaluate whether the defendant acted

with a “depraved mind,” meaning that the defendant acted in reckless disregard of life or unreasonable risk.

Phelps said the Chauvin murder trial has prompted public conversations about the use of force, expectations from law enforcement and more.

“There’s all of these ways that the trial has inadvertently put policing on trial, even as the prosecution attempts to distance itself,” Phelps said.

“If we do get a conviction, I think that sends a message, right? That police don’t have this blank slip for police violence, and I think that’s an important message for the trial to send.”

Illustration by Motasem Kadadah Amber Joy Powell, the — the work is not over. moderator and a University During the last half of the Ph.D. candidate in sociology, teach-in, panelists answered asked the panelists if a submitted questions. One conviction of Chauvin is a attendee asked about the victory and a sign of justice. vision of reparations after the “The most basic answer murder of George Floyd. is no. Nothing is going to “We have to do a long cost bring back George Floyd. accounting of all the ways Nothing is going to bring that Black and brown people back Jamar [Clark],” Martinez have been discriminated said. “Nothing is going to against and done wrong,” stop these families from the Mayes said. “You’re going mental and emotional harm to have to add it up from that’s happened or that we’ll areas of housing, education, have to deal with for so many forced labor, unpaid labor, years down the road.” violent deaths — you can just After the announcement name it, on and on and on. of the jury’s verdict, crowds I don’t think there’s enough cheered and nearby cars money in the U.S. treasury if honked in support. Still, it’s going to be monetary to many people echoed the pay Black folks back, but we same sentiment as Martinez have to start.”

5 Monday, May 3, 2021

ARTS

Get to know local artists Come check out nine local artists to keep on your radar.

By Nina Raemont

nraemont@mndaily.com

We’re lucky to live in a city with so much art, but how do we keep track of it all? Well, for starters, here’s a list of a few notable local artists.

Heather Friedli: Heather Friedli is a St. Paul-based contemporary impressionist, painting the beauty of Minnesota and beyond with a dazzling color palette inspired by her land and heritage as an Odawa, Xicana, American woman. The oil painter and professional sculptor grew up finding solace in the flowers that grew through the pavement cracks in Los Angeles. So when she spent six and a half months hiking the Appalachian Trail, wonderstruck by what she saw and itching to paint it all, she knew that she’d make a career out of painting nature.

Support Friedli’s art on Patreon and Etsy.

Jill Kittock: If you ask Northeast Minneapolisbased illustrator Jill Kittock what themes underlie her work, her response will be “humans doing things.” Old photographs of people going about their day, food and lowbrow culture inspire her colorful, digitally-painted works. You can find her most recent work on Summit Brewing’s limited edition commemorative screen print poster, that celebrates the 88th anniversary of Repeal Day. Check out Jill’s other works at jillkittock.com.

Gabriela Sierra Bedon: Recent University of Minnesota alum Gabriela Sierra Bedon uses a palette of pastel and bright colors to create her work that centers representation, beauty and connection. Her first solo show, Belonging, Together, on exhibition at BanfillLocke Center for the Arts, holds space for women of color. The exhibition features 15 different portraits and “responds to their historical lack of representation in Minnesota both culturally and in the art world.” Check out more of Bedon’s work on her website, and listen to her podcast on Spotify.

Leeya Rose Jackson:

Top left, Artist Heather Friedli poses for a portrait with two of her dogs on Sunday, April 25. Friedli creates “land and heritage inspired” paintings in addition to being a snow sculptor. (Emily Urfer / Minnesota Daily) Middle left, Mixed media artist Barret Lee poses for a portrait. (Photo Courtesy of Barret Lee) Bottom left, Artist Maggie Thomspon works on a textile project. (Courtesy of Jaida Grey Eagle) Top right, In an illustration by Jill Kittock titled “Tiny Kitchen,” a woman works in a small, packed kitchen. (Photo Courtesy of Jill Kittock) Middle right, Artist Lizzie Christian poses for a portrait with one of her prints on Monday, April 26. Christian is the block print artist behind “Rare Press.” (Emily Urfer / Minnesota Daily) Bottom right, Philipo Dyauli poses in front of his artwork (Photo Courtesy of Philipo Dyauli) The art director, multidisciplinary artist and creative founder of Noisemakers Design, Leeya Rose Jackson goes by @leeyamakesnoise on

Instagram for a reason.

Currently living in South Minneapolis, Jackson describes her own art as loud — full of patterns, color and culture. As a queer Black

woman, Jackson’s inspiration comes from representing the “beauty and joy of the general BIPOC community and LBTQIA+ community,” she said. Jackson has tons

of projects underway, but her Youtube, website and Society6 page are a few you should check out.

Barret Lee: Mixed media artist Barret Lee takes

his inspiration from 90’s animation — think “Aaahh!!!

Real Monsters” and “Doug” — and comics to create art that blends illustrative characters with narrative driven worlds.

Lee’s working on his art for his own solo showing at Gamut Gallery in the fall, but until then support his art at barretpaints.com.

Maggie Thompson of Makwa Studios: Maggie Thompson’s artistic journey began in fourth grade when she learned how to knit. Many years later, the textile artist switched from her studies in architecture to textiles, drawn to creating something immediate with her hands.

Thompson’s work explores identity, culture, authenticity, grief and loss in relation to the psychology of the body.

You can find Thompson’s “Family Portrait,” on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Support her art at makwastudio.com.

Lizzie Christian: The words of affirmation printmaker Lizzie Christian writes on her print pieces — “just existing is plenty for today” or “open your mind and then commit to real change” — are words of wisdom she has given herself once or twice. Christian, a University of Minnesota alum and daughter of Allen Christian from West Bank’s House of Balls, also teaches occasional workshops at Rock, Paper, Scissors in the Whittier neighborhood.

Support her art at the Rare Press website.

Philipo Dyauli: Raised in Tanzania, Philipo Dyauli creates work that centers his experience of life in the U.S. and East Africa, taking inspiration from African music, films and nature.

Dyauli isn’t just a self-taught illustrator and painter; he also gives back to his Minneapolis community through his work at the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association, his fulltime work at Partners in Quality Care and his efforts to raise awareness of police brutality. Check out his art at philipodyaulo.com.

Maggie Cole: New Brighton-based illustrator Maggie Cole draws imaginary portraits of people — mainly women — from her mind.

You can find her whimsical work, rarely without a pop of bright red, on her Instagram, or check out her brand, Super Exclusive Stuff. Check out her art at maggiecole.shop.

FASHION

Fashion Week MN is bigger than fashion this spring Fashion Week MN’s team is ready to set a new precedent.

By Grace Davis

gdavis@mndaily.com

Spring is officially here.

The birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and Fashion Week MN is back!

The event is organized

by Fashion Week MN (FWMN), a volunteer-run, community-oriented, notfor-profit organization.

Fashion Week MN is typically a biannual event of runway shows, presentations and panels used to highlight the recent collections of Minnesotabased designers, brands and retailers.

Just like everything this year, Fashion Week MN will look a little different.

The lineup will span four days, April 28 – May 1, and consist of a limited number of events that include a mixture of virtual and smaller, socially distanced in-person events.

The FWMN team is making the statement

this year that the Twin Cities fashion scene is just as strong as traditional fashion meccas like New York or Paris.

FWMN’s core concept centers around the diverse local talents the Twin Cities fashion scene has to offer, according to Sarah Edwards, FWMN’s cofounder and CEO. “When you think of the fact that we have these incredible assets like the music scene, food scene, theater, art, design and Fortune 100 companies, there’s a lot of cool stuff happening in the Twin Cities,” she said. “Fashion was happening, but it needed a centralized hub.

When we started putting together the idea we were asking ourselves, ‘Ok what can it look like and how can it serve people?’”

Chandler Weir, marketing and creative director for FWMN, commented on the importance of embracing and uplifting local creatives.

“We’re working to create and amplify a creative community here

that can thrive and live sustainably,” she said. “I know a lot of designers who have to work another job in order to support themselves. We talk a lot on our team about how we can enable folks to make their passion their paycheck.”

This passion for supporting local extends to the other themes FWMN is embodying this season, including sustainability, ethical practices and thrift/vintage.

All these themes and centralized ideas around the fashion community have really transcended into something bigger than Fashion Week cliches like fancy dresses, prestigious venues and elitist gatherings. FWMN is setting a precedent for a new wave of fashion that’s accessible for everyone.

Diversity and inclusion was a must for all designers this year. As designers applied to be a part of FWMN, they had to sign a statement of inclusivity before even submitting an application.

The statement basically

said that they have to include diversity within their models.

“Fashion Week Minnesota is evolving into something much bigger than just clothes and I am so thankful to be a part of it,” said University of Minnesota second-year student and FWMN intern, Grace Giblin.

Inclusion is a big part of FWMN this year.

Weir encourages anyone interested in getting involved in local fashion to check out this year’s lineup and find their fit.

“Everybody kind of recognizes that fashion feels intimidating, so I think everyone’s hyperaware of avoiding that. It really comes back to people who have a passion to get involved in the community, and there’s always a place for that,” Weir said.

Most shows that are in-person are sold out already, but more information on virtual showings and events this spring season can be found on their Instagram and website.

A model walks the runway as apparel design student Spencer Versteeg presented his first collection at the Envision Fashion Show as part of Fashion Week MN on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016 at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. (Chelsea Gortmaker / Minnesota Daily)

6 Monday, May 3, 2021

MUSIC

Local band Distant Edge releases long-awaited debut “Redlight” After years together, Distant Edge dropped an 11-song LP.

By Frankie Carlson fcarlson@mndaily.com Having played their first gig in middle school, local alternative pop-rock band Distant Edge has been making music for nearly seven years.

Growing up near the Chaska/ Chanhassen area, the group made up of childhood friends has continued to follow their passion into their college years.

Their debut album “Redlight,” which has been over two years in the making, released April 23 and is punchy, energetic and fresh.

The band’s sound stands out with hard hitting drums, colorful synths and pristine vocals. The production on

“Redlight” is clean and tight, as each instrument and part is given its own room to breathe and shine.

The album tells the story of greed, glorification and learning to recognize what’s truly important in a selfinterested world. Lead singer and University second-year Nolan Litschewski writes the majority of the band’s lyrics and details the band’s experience trying to come up with a connected concept for the album without going full rock opera.

“What we were kind of going for is telling an overarching story with songs that aren’t particularly about the same exact thing, but fit into the narrative that we’re trying to tell,” Litschewski said. “Then, musically, we were free to try these things out and not worry.”

This album was a first for the group in terms of

challenging themselves to create something unique that could hopefully speak to listeners. “Redlight” is the band’s first release since their 2018 self-titled EP. Keyboard/ synth player and secondyear Sam Swanson described the band’s progression not only musically, but conceptually between their two projects.

“That first EP in 2018 was just sort of pure alt-rock — lots of guitars and bass and just organic sounding. I think that record was more about proving to ourselves that we can write a song … and make music,” Swanson said. “Going forth from there, we said we really wanted to take some time to develop what we are, who we are, what is our sound and why is it unique.”

The album was selfrecorded but professionally produced.

The group recorded the tracks on

Members of the local band Distant Edge pose for a portrait outside the Guthrie Theatre on Tuesday, April 27 in Minneapolis, Minnesota From left to right, Sam Swanson on the keys, Nate Erickson on guitar, Nolan Litschewski as lead singer, Aaron Eiden on bass guitar and Jahmal Fischer on drums. “This feels like a really momentous occasion for us, it’s very complete and cohesive and I’m really proud of it,” said Swanson on the release of their debut album. (Audrey Rauth / Minnesota Daily) their own in the comfort of Sam’s basement, eventually sending the files over to Jack

Vondrachek of Tangerine Studios who handled mixing and mastering.

With the new collaboration of Vondrachek, Litschewski said, “Now we’re able to kind of develop these songs over time and as we’re recording them.”

The group is beyond excited to have the album out, something tangible to show for their years of work together. Drummer Jahmal Fisher expressed the group’s eagerness to get back out and start playing shows again, once COVID-19 restrictions permit.

“Something about being up on stage and playing our songs and having a crowd is probably the best feeling in the world,” Fisher said.

“I know that we can go out and play a show and show all these people this new album, I have never been more excited in my life. It feels like such a big step forward.”

BOOKS

Q&A: Jamie Schumacher talks the West Bank with her newest book

Schumacher chatted about “Butterflies and Tall Bikes.”

By Nina Raemont nraemont@mndaily.com

Jamie Schumacher, the former executive director of the West Bank Business Association and University alum, spent the past year writing “Butterflies and Tall Bikes,” a love letter to the West Bank, with stories from West Bank residents, business owners and creatives themselves. Her book comes out May 18, so A&E spoke with Schumacher about her writing process, the West Bank and the impetus behind “Butterflies and Tall Bikes.”

What was the writing process like for “Butterflies and Tall Bikes?”

When you write something, you’re innately centered in your experience, but with this one, I really wanted to be more

intentional and actually just interview people and have their voices and stories in there. I shared all the interviews back with folks and let them make edits to make sure I captured what they said correctly. What I wanted to do with this book is really lift up, especially for the residents, what they want. Cedar-Riverside can get neglected sometimes in positive news or even in just city policy, it can get overlooked. And so a lot of my job and my passion and my history has been just advocating for what the neighborhood wants, and this book was an opportunity to lift up some of those voices.

Your book features stories from everybody in the West Bank/CedarRiverside neighborhood, from residents to business owners. How did you choose which stories would be highlighted in the book?

One way of putting it would be diversity from every angle. We have residents, we

Jamie Schumacher poses for a portrait outside of Keefer court in Cedar Riverside with her new book on Tuesday, April 27. The book will be released on May 18 and details different stories and conversations with local business owners, residents and creatives who make the West Bank and Cedar-Riverside neighborhood a special place. (Parker Johnson / Minnesota Daily) have businesses, we have folks that currently live in the neighborhood, we have folks that used to live in the neighborhood. It’s just a mix of people that as we kind of created this timestamp and wrote this love letter to the neighborhood, it really was like a 360 view.

One of the things I noticed while I was reading was how

I feel like your book really does provide this portrait of a neighborhood, even when we can’t necessarily spend so much time in that neighborhood because of COVID-19 and closures and everything. Through your stories and conversations, the reader is meeting these people and almost having that exchange that you would have if you met

these people in person on the West Bank, and that’s something I really liked.

That makes me really happy because as I wrote it, I wanted to make sure that it was sensory. When you go to a new place, your senses overwhelm you and that’s part of the beauty of travel — and even just explicitly experiencing a neighborhood.

Our senses are still muted — literally and figuratively — because we’re online, and then when we’re out and about, we’re wearing masks, and so I really tried to be deliberate about having a creative piece that captures the sensory experience.

Speaking of senses, I did not know before reading that the Southern Theater was haunted. When I read “Ghosts and Muses,” I didn’t realize there were haunted buildings on the West Bank.

Oh, there’s many. When I started chatting with other folks from other theater companies that I hadn’t met before, they were like,

“Oh my gosh, the Southern is totally haunted.” One time I was there doing the lighting rigging and there’s kids laughing upstairs; and I’ve talked to other people who don’t know each other, who have been in the Southern for separate things, and that’s what they say every time.

What would you like readers to take away from “Butterflies and Tall Bikes?”

I know that Merrie [Benasutti] talks about this a little bit in her interview where she’ll work with students who have sometimes a perception of Cedar-Riverside that is like the West Bank is unsafe, but that’s just fundamentally untrue.The West Bank is such a safe neighborhood.

And there’s great restaurants and there’s great people and there’s amazing art. I think if people can read this book and feel a little bit like a regular and come to the West Bank and support the businesses and break that barrier a little bit, that’s great.

MAGAZINES

All that glitters is Golden Mag There is a new fashion hub in town: Golden Magazine.

By Nina Raemont nraemont@mndaily.com Before spring break, Golden Magazine posted a TikTok spotlighting some University of Minnesota students’ outfits during a pop-up event. Some were sporting House of Sunny pistachio cardigans, and others were stunting a classic Doc Marten shoe.

Plaid pants, bucket hats, violet corsets, oh my!

Golden Mag’s comment section blew up. “I live here why do I never see people like this WHERE ARE YOU HIDING,” one user commented. Another user said, “this is not the same umn…”

But the thing is, it is. The eclectic and hip fashion scene is what Golden Mag is trying to show its University of Minnesota audience;

the Twin Cities fashion scene is burgeoning, and all it needed was a proper platform.

With an up and running blog, haute social channels and the first publication coming out in May, Golden gives a platform to fashion, pop culture and lifestyle magazine lovers.

“When I was 13, I was flipping through Teen Vogue just living vicariously through the pages in my bedroom,” Audrey Ekman said. Now she’s the co-editor in chief with her cousin Ava Ekman, directing and designing the pages of Golden Magazine herself.

The duo spent their summer quarantining together, sifting through the pages of fashion magazines and scouting out different university fashion and lifestyle publications across the country — FIT’s Blush, Iowa State’s Trend and FSU’s Strike, to name a few.

“Why doesn’t this exist at the U?” Audrey asked herself.

Immediately

Audrey and Ava rallied their closest friends to create a fashion, lifestyle and beauty publication themselves to fill the gap. “[Ava] randomly texted me one night and was like, ‘Hey do you want to start a magazine?’ and I was like, ‘What the hell is this girl talking about?’ but sure,” Lauren Armani, administrative director for Golden Mag, said.

The magazine offers students in and out of the journalism school an opportunity to get involved in a creative publication.

Many of the magazine’s student leaders aren’t even pursuing a degree in journalism themselves. Ava, who is a communications major, felt stuck with her options for professional experience at the University.

“I was having a crisis … like I had to turn my life around or something — the mid-COVID crisis, kind of — and we just felt like we wanted to do something like a creative career path, and I

at least kind of felt stuck with the options here at the U for how I could gain experience or join a community that could benefit me,” she said.

Golden’s first issue is slated to come out May 7 on Issuu.com with a debut theme of “community.” The team intends to publish one issue each semester. In the community issue, you will be able to read about the Femme Fatale skate community, dating during a pandemic and finding common ground between the societal push toward minimalism and capitalistic material maximalism.

“It takes a village to produce this magazine,” Audrey said. “In a time of everyone feeling really disconnected because of the pandemic and remote classes, a lot of people were just searching for this kind of creative outlet and community of like-minded students.”

Unlike other publications at the University, Golden focuses heavily on

From left to right, Stella Forteir, Ava Eckman, Audrey Eckman, and Lauren Armani pose for portraits outside Northrop Auditorium on Saturday, April 17. They are the creators of the lifestyle magazine Golden Magazine.

(Parker Johnson / Minnesota Daily) image-based content. The team has brought on a league of photographers, stylists and creative directors to make the photography and media strategy pop.

The digital media strategy takes notes from the likes of Vogue and other national publications, Audrey said.

“It’s like a media channel in its own right,” she said.

Golden Mag’s head stylist Jorgie Rassi said that the experience she’s gained with Golden is similar to her time freelancing for Vogue

Magazine. According to Rassi, Golden offers students an opportunity to dive deeper into their interests in fashion, beauty and pop culture and gain real-life experience while doing so.

“A lot of people, I think, don’t consider the U as a big creative capital or like a destination for fashion.

But we’ve got amazing students — super talented — and really good programs too,” Audrey said. “It’s not something that has to be so inaccessible.”

Editorials & Opinions

7 Monday, May 3, 2021

COLUMN

Virtual graduation — for some If I had known this four years ago, I might be graduating with a different degree.

H

e y, r e m e m Emily Eaton ber the class columnist of 2020? Two months of online school and the prospects of virtual graduation sent nearly the entire country into a spiral of altruism and empathy. News organizations like Minneapolis’ Kare 11 had special shoutouts for graduating students. When the Minnesota Department of Health released guidelines for 2020 commencement ceremonies, they acknowledged “how much the class of 2020 has sacrificed.” Former President Barack Obama even gave a commencement speech honoring the (high school) class of 2020.

As a member of the class of 2021, my graduation will take place on my laptop screen. John Coleman, dean of the

College of Liberal Arts, did not even issue this year’s seniors an apology when he announced our commencement ceremony would occur virtually. I was upset — but I understood. We are living through a global pandemic, and not having graduation is just another sacrifice to add to the long list we have been cultivating over the last year.

Then, I learned that the Carlson School of Management would have an in-person ceremony (with guests!). The College of Design is going hybrid, with a virtual ceremony and an in-person chance to hear your name read and walk across the stage. The same goes for the College of Biological Sciences.

The College of Science and Engineering is having in-person events for each department. The College of Education and Human Development will be virtual, but there is an opportunity for an inperson diploma cover pick-up and photos. The College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences will have separate virtual ceremonies for graduate and undergraduate students. The College of Continuing Studies is hosting an in-person ceremony without guests.

Sounds equitable.

Last year, when virtual graduation occurred for all students across University of Minnesota colleges, Minnesota experienced roughly between 400 and 600 new cases a day. In April of 2021, as some students look forward to in-person ceremonies and celebrations, Minnesota is experiencing between 1 to 2,000 new cases each day.

According to the New York Times, the

University of Minnesota was connected with the state’s largest COVID-19 outbreak cluster. Not to mention, we now have two new variants to deal with — one of which, the B.1.351 or the South African variant, renders antibodies and vaccines significantly less effective at preventing illness.

So, we have more cases on our hands. We also have two variants to deal with, one that could not care less about whether or not you have been vaccinated. And, we are on a college campus.

I can tell you for certain that there are quite a few students for whom social distancing is what happens when they see their ex at one of the campus bars, not a COVID-19 precaution.

I’ll be straight with you: as a liberal arts student, I am bitter. Not only did I pay full tuition for a year of online school, I get to top it off by staring at my computer some more. My blue light glasses do not really go with traditional commencement regalia. Walking across the stage to accept my diploma in front of my peers seems like a right of passage into adulthood, a crucial piece of the transition to life beyond college.

With CSE and Carlson being the two more popular undergraduate colleges with in-person events, I cannot help but feel as though we are playing into the rhetoric that liberal arts are less important. Carlson kids can bring guests to their graduation, but CLA students do not even get to pick up their diploma cover in person. Some liberal arts majors may choose to put on in-person events, but it is not universal across the

college. Coupled with the University’s decision to temporarily end admission to certain Ph.D. programs in the liberal arts to save money, CLA’s decision seems a lot less like a COVID-conscious choice and more like an opportunity to cheat graduating students and save a bit of cash. Ironically enough, the University of Minnesota has more alumni who have made a name for themselves in law and politics (i.e., the humanities) than those who have risen to prominence in science and medicine. What you chose to major in should not dictate whether or not you are honored for your accomplishments.

If some form of in-person commencement happens for some students, it should be an opportunity for all. The College of Biological Science and College of Design show that it is not all or nothing; colleges can give students the opportunity to hear their name and walk across a stage without incurring major health risks or going to an entirely virtual platform. Zoom fatigue may have many of us in a fog, but it is still clear that the current state of graduation on our campus simply does not make sense. The very least the administration can do is issue a legitimate apology to students who are not given the opportunity to partake in any in-person component of graduation.

Emily Eaton welcomes comments at eeaton@mndaily.com

COLUMN

This is just the beginning of long overdue justice served The world breathed a sigh of relief after the “guilty” verdict.

Will it last?

F

Luul Boru ormer Minneapolis police officer columnist Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd incited mass protests not only in Minneapolis but all around the world. Almost a year after his death, justice was served in his name. On April 20, 2021, the world waited for a verdict, hoping that justice would be served, finally. People held their breath up until the moment that the verdict of guilty on all three counts was read. Celebratory hugs, tears and relief were seen across the

nation. It is about time and it is long overdue.

Now what? That is the lingering question. Are there going to be police reforms? What about changes in the criminal justice system? Will the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, be passed in the U.S. Senate and implemented? Convicting Chauvin was just the tip of the iceberg and the beginning of a much needed change. Police brutality in America is a disease rooted deeply in our system. But we can not heal a sick plant unless we change its soil. A major reform in our criminal justice system and the reeducation and adequate training of police officers will be necessary for a change.

How many more Black people have to be subjected to violence from the same entity that promises to provide them with protection and safety? How many more Black Lives Matter protests have to be held to call attention to the abuse of Black and brown people at the hands of law enforcement? Safety is promised to Americans as a constitutional right, yet the promise is broken when Black and brown people are murdered using excessive force. Excessive force by a law enforcement officer is any force used which exceeds what is necessary to gain

compliance or control. George Floyd’s “I can’t breathe” echoed Eric Garner’s “I can’t breathe,” as a New York Police Department officer wrestled Garner to the ground in an illegal chokehold. There have been countless victims of police brutality, yet little to no police accountability or change has occurred. This has stripped normal childhoods away from Black children, replacing them with a constant fear of law enforcement.

It is heartbreaking that Black children have to grow up so early and have to learn the harsh reality of where they stand in society. As soon as they start to understand their surroundings, parents have to have “the talk” with them. Kenya Young, the executive producer of NPR’s Morning Edition, said “the talk” with her three boys went something like this: “Don’t wear your hood. Don’t put your hands in your pocket. If you get stopped, don’t run.

Put your hands up. Don’t make a lot of moves.” Imagine having to tell your children this over and over again. It cultivates a lack of hope in the government that is of the people, by the people, for the people.

Democracy becomes a mirage.

The tension, fear and hatred of police by minorities, Black people especially, will be everlasting as long as Black and brown people are subjected to racial

discrimination, incarceration, implicit and explicit bias, and all other forms of discrimination. If our federal, state and local governments are truthful about police reform, then major criminal justice reform and police reeducation and bias training can serve to alleviate tension, reduce the number of police shootings and decrease racial profiling when police are involved in communities. Bias training will do no good if it is not practiced in the field, where police and civilians are allowed to sit together for uncomfortable conversations.

Change has to happen within our criminal justice system, and police have to be held accountable for taking lives. I cannot help but think that police are trained to “shoot to kill” if they pull over a Black or brown person, so long as a slight movement is made to justify it. It is as if police are told that civilians are the enemy, as if they are in a war zone.

We are not the enemy. We are the people you serve. We are the community.

We are people. We matter. Black Lives Matter!

Luul Boru welcomes comments at lboru@mndaily.com

COLUMN

My take on the pandemic — and what we’ve learned from it We need to do more to ensure that the truth prevails.

I

Zach Courtney

have yet to write columnist a column devoted to my thoughts on the pandemic.

Judging by the opinion sections at the newspapers I regularly read, I am in the minority. For all I know, The Associated Press Stylebook has a rule mandating columnists to write at least one column on the issue. In a clear example of peer pressure (sure, let’s call writers at the Washington Post my peers), I succumbed to the pressure, and decided to give my not-so-hot take on the pandemic.

Let’s face it: Vaccines and masks are both highly controversial and, sadly, politicized. Based on my anecdotal evidence, most people here in the great city of Minneapolis seem to be great at

wearing masks and getting the vaccine.

Their counterparts in greater Minnesota — where I am from — are not as good at following COVID-19 recommendations. One might even use the word bad.

I have already gotten the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. I always wear my mask when I go to public indoor places.

I have been pretty careful as to whom I interact with. I do not go to large parties but now have more freedom to see my vaccinated friends in small groups.

Many — dare I say everyone — I regularly interact with at the University are on the same page as I am as far as following COVID-19 rules.

That being said, this column is not supposed to be about me patting myself on the back. I do not see myself as better than others for following COVID-19 protocols. Though I do not say it to their faces, when someone I know rants about people that go to large parties, do not wear masks, or will not get the vaccine, I cringe a little. I have never had much of an appetite for people putting themselves on a pedestal, especially not for simply doing the right thing.

“It’s just those dumb Trumpers,” they say. “We’d be over the virus if not for the Republicans,” they say.

Admittedly, I was pretty pissed off that people were recklessly partying over winter break. As we all know, cases and deaths skyrocketed during the holiday season. We even saw a period when more than 3,000 Americans were dying every day due to COVID-19. If you think

it is tone-deaf to party in that environment, I would say you are right. Here is the problem: Condescending language is mostly unproductive and only tears our nation further apart.

In general, when people see something as being wrong, I am a fan of fixing problems, not just whining about them. That applies in this situation.

Let me be very clear: People who think masks do not work, or have been recklessly partying throughout the pandemic, are in the wrong. To my fellow mask-wearers and COVID-19 rule-followers: Instead of just criticizing and being condescending towards these people, I challenge you to criticize the systems that allowed for anti-science ideas to thrive.

Here is what I say: Are you gonna whine, or are you going to do something to fix the problem? If my house was burning down, I would not be happy if the firefighters were outside complaining about the fire. Put it out! The same can be said for COVID-19 protocols. Instead of just criticizing people who do not follow COVID-19 protocol, let’s do something to ensure these problems do not continue to occur. We need truth to prevail.

Tucker Carlson may be entertaining, have a good collection of ties, and even raise my blood pressure. That is good if you are simply looking for ratings, but the news is not — or should not, anyway — be about ratings. Journalists have a responsibility to report the truth. Their

words are too powerful to do anything less.

As large media corporations have increasingly blurred the line between fact and fiction, local news seems to be on the verge of extinction. This makes it more difficult for the general public to find high-quality, reliable information.

As I come from a teacher’s family, I always bring it back to education.

We are not doing a good enough job in middle and high schools of teaching students how to distinguish between good and bad news sources. Schools do a good job of teaching students how to critically read fiction but they need to do a better job of teaching students how to critically read journalism, fact check, research and draw well-educated conclusions. I do not think I am being hyperbolic when I say this: If our education and journalism systems were doing a better job as a whole, I believe that fewer Americans would have died due to COVID-19.

So, that is all for my stance on the pandemic. Wear your mask. Get the vaccine. But before you are too critical of anti-maskers or anti-vaxxers, take a look at our systems and ask: Are we doing enough to ensure that truth prevails?

Zach Courtney welcomes comments at zcourtney@mndaily.com.

Editorials & Opinions

8 Monday, May 3, 2021

COLUMN

We’re just getting started.

The jury made the right decision with Derek Chauvin, but justice isn’t that simple.

G

Henry Kueppers

lued to my laptop, columnist when I heard the word “guilty” read three times in a row, a lot went through my mind. “Hell yes” was my first thought. “Screw you, Derek” was probably my second. Then, I began to think more broadly: Does this mean we are actually starting to see change in our justice system?

What will come next for reform in the policing system? Will the police loot Target in response to the verdict? I could not fully come up with all the answers at the moment, but after sleeping on it, I decided it was finally time for me to collect my thoughts and reflect on the historic moment that transpired yesterday in Minnesota.

Let me start by making one thing clear: I 100% am happy, relieved and excited that Derek Chauvin was found guilty on every charge made against him, which included second-degree unintentional murder, thirddegree murder and second-degree manslaughter. It was the right — nay, practically indisputable — choice. I want to say all this as a preface to my next statement because it will sound incredibly contradictory to my explanation. Because you see, while I agree with what the jury decided, what we saw yesterday

was not justice. It was accountability.

We (mostly white people) need to understand that the jury’s delivery of a guilty verdict to Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd showed accountability. In my opinion, that was not justice. Justice would be having George Floyd alive today and his family living without trauma and grief. Justice would be having a world where Black citizens do not have to put their hands on their dashboard and hit record on their phones every time they get pulled over in traffic. Justice is having a nation where we do not have a young man named Daunte Wright killed little more than a week before a jury delivered a guilty verdict for Chauvin — yet another innocent Black man. What we saw when Chauvin was sashayed away in handcuffs was accountability. In my opinion, accountability means that we are holding people like Chauvin responsible for committing murder and seeing that he faces due processes of the law instead of being let go without consequences because he was a part of an established, powerful and systemically corrupt institution like the police system. And we needed to see accountability.

It was most definitely a right first step in addressing the police brutality and racism that are so prevalent in our country. But the fight is not over, so do not mistake Tuesday for justice.

And listen, I’m not telling you not to celebrate. Black people in this country especially have been burned so often by the justice system that they deserve a win. In cases like Philando Castile’s, Breonna Taylor’s and so many more, we should have seen more accountability and punishment laid out for officers who ended up walking away scot-free.

So, I hope people were able to find some solace and jubilation following yesterday’s court proceedings. Or, I hope they were able to react the way they wanted to. Whatever people in the Black community were feeling, it was justified, and I hope my community members take care of themselves. But for people who think this verdict solved everything and that it is complete and swift justice, you are as ignorant as someone who thinks it is a good

idea to become a cop in 2021.

Convicting a despicable and delusional former police officer for murdering in broad daylight, a murder filmed on multiple cell phones, does not mean we have fixed our nation’s policing system. Scrolling through Twitter last night, I read a tweet that said, “The work and trauma that went into getting justice for just one man still means this system is broken,” and honestly, I think that sums up the situation pretty well. Derek Chauvin being found guilty was not a solution to systemic racism, which is the bedrock upon which our damning and destructive policing system was built upon. The United States still devalues Black lives daily. This trial was a crucial stepping stone in moving our country in the right direction, but it was not a be-all and endall solution. So, how do I suggest we move forward? There seems to be only one clear solution: It is time to dismantle the policing system.

What do I mean when I say, ‘dismantle the system?’ Easy. The end goal of dismantling the United States police system is to restructure and reimagine policing, an establishment in our nation with far too much power and systemic problems — you know, like killing innocent members of our Black, Indigenous and people of color communities.

You start with steps like defunding or allocating most funds we use for the police to other community needs or programs. For example, there are talks in Minneapolis of funding local community mediators or traffic patrol officers to take the place of responsibilities usually held by the police. I think this makes complete sense because why on earth should someone be armed with a gun and various other lethal weapons when they are pulling someone over for a broken taillight?

Speaking of alternatives like community mediators leads me to the next part of dismantling, which is disbanding the police and reimagining the system. We need to take apart the policing structure after we have substantially weakened it (defunding) and essentially start from scratch. We build new rules, like banning the use of chokeholds.

We develop new standards, like having only unarmed traffic officers respond to traffic needs, and create specialized departments for varying needs and situations in our communities so police are not the ones who go to every scenario from armed robbery to a cat stuck up in a tree. Finally, we start new training to build a “policing” system that will actually benefit and serve the entire community and not result in the deaths of more innocent Black people. I mean, for crying out loud, even the Justice Department is coming to visit Minnesota to investigate our policing practices. Is that not a red flag to anyone else that we have clearly let the police run rampant and destroy our communities for too long now?

There are many obstacles to dismantling the police, such as conservative policymakers, police unions and lots of other bureaucratic bullshit, but I do not really want to talk about that. I don’t want to dedicate any time in my column to the people who think we should not dismantle a corrupt institution. I only want to talk about what we can do moving forward to make things right in our country. To me, this means continuing to fight the status quo and systemic structures in our society that continue to oppress minority groups. It means continuing to protest and question common practices. It means continuing to educate ourselves and listen to one another to innovate new ways to change our policing system.

It may not mean much, considering they are probably just trying to find peace and solace after a terrible and traumatic year of life, but with the last few words of my article, I would like to express my love to the family of George Floyd: He deserved better. You deserved better.

Henry Kueppers welcomes comments at hkueppers@mndaily.com.

CARTOON BY NATALIA POTERYAKHIN

Lydia does not get paid overtime. Stop buying spinach... for her sake.

Sports

9 Monday, May 3, 2021

FOOTBALL

Bateman goes No. 27 to the Baltimore Ravens in NFL draft

Bateman saw his NFL dreams come true Thursday night.

By Brendan O’Brien bobrien@mndaily.com

Gophers star receiver Rashod Bateman heard his name called Thursday night in the first round of the 2020 NFL draft, being selected 27th overall by the Baltimore Ravens.

After a successful 2019 campaign, Bateman was projected to be a surefire first-round draft choice. He finished his sophomore year with 60 receptions for 1,219 yards and 11 touchdowns and added memorable and explosive plays throughout the season against South Dakota State University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Wisconsin.

But because of an unusual and less productive 2020 season along with questions about Bateman’s speed, draft evaluators and

experts were no longer certain the 2019 Big Ten Receiver of the Year was worthy of a first-round grade. Bateman started the 2020 season by opting out due to health concerns amid the pandemic. Once the Big Ten made plans to restart the season in October with more protocols in place, he decided to come back for his junior season.

In the shortened season, Bateman only played in five of the team’s seven games and decided to end his Minnesota career once the Gophers had COVID-19 spread through the program.

Once the draft evaluation process heated up, experts wondered about Bateman’s speed until he ran a 4.39 at the Gophers Pro Day in March. Ultimately, his 2019 performance proved more important than 2020, and Bateman landed in a spot desperate for a receiver.

Missing out on wide receivers in free agency, Baltimore had been listed as a team that needed to

Gophers Wide Receiver Rashod Bateman carries the ball at the 2020 Outback Bowl on Wednesday, Jan. 1. The Gophers went on to take the game 31-24 over the Auburn Tigers. (Kamaan Richards / Minnesota Daily) add playmakers at the position through the draft. Bateman will now be expected to be one of the top options for 2019-

20 league MVP Lamar Jackson.

Bateman is the first Gopher to be drafted in the first round since 2006

when the New England Patriots selected running back Laurence Maroney.

Following in the steps of Eric Decker and his friend

and former teammate Tyler Johnson, Bateman is the third Gophers’ receiver to be drafted since 2010.

FOOTBALL

Benjamin St-Juste selected in third round

Former Gophers’ defensive back was drafted by the Washington Football Team 74th overall.

By Brendan O’Brien bobrien@mndaily.com

Gophers Defensiveback Benjamin St-Juste leaps for an Auburn pass at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on Wednesday, Jan. 1. Minnesota took the bowl game with a 31-24 win over the Auburn Tigers. (Kamaan Richards / Minnesota Daily)

Former Gophers’ defensive back Benjamin St-Juste is headed to the NFL after being selected 74th overall by the Washington Football Team.

St-Juste became the second Gopher taken in the 2021 draft, as Rashod Bateman was selected late in the first round by the Baltimore Ravens. He follows in the footsteps of former teammates Antoine Winfield, Jr. and Chris Williamson as Gophers defensive backs to be selected recently in the draft. This is the second consecutive year the Gophers’ program has had multiple players drafted

in one draft and the third consecutive year at least one Gopher was drafted.

Listed as 6-foot-3, 205 lbs during his time at Minnesota, St-Juste has good size at defensive back, which could bode in his favor. In the pre-draft process, draft experts and evaluators thought StJuste could play multiple positions in the secondary for whichever team selected him.

St-Juste finished 2019 with 45 tackles, 36 of them being solo, and tied for the team lead with 10 pass breakups. Like Bateman, 2020 was less productive, as he missed the Iowa and Purdue games and finished with only 14 tackles and three pass breakups.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Old faces leave, new faces come in and familiar faces return Ben Johnson has started to fill out his roster for next season.

By AJ Condon acondon@mndaily.com Seven Gophers men’s basketball team players have entered the transfer portal since the team parted ways with former coach Richard Pitino in March.

Though Pitino’s firing and the ensuing turnover didn’t come as any surprise, it left new head coach Ben Johnson with a sparse roster that needed some putting together. Johnson has already started to fill many of those voids.

Who left and where are they now?

Starting with Minnesota’s top dog from last season, redshirt junior Marcus Carr entered the portal in the middle of March. The standout guard had a career year, averaging 19.4 points per game last season.

Carr has entered his name into the NBA draft for the second year in a row, but he’s listed as the No. 1 player in the transfer portal, according to CBS. Another key component to the team’s success last season — before the downfall — was junior Liam Robbins. Robbins was in his first season with the Gophers after transferring from Drake to join his uncle, associate head coach Ed Conroy, and cousin, senior Hunt Conroy.

Robbins averaged 11.7 points per game along with 6.6 boards and 2.7 blocks, which led the Big Ten. Following the departure of Pitino, Robbins also entered the transfer portal.

Robbins quickly found a new home with Vanderbilt, where Ed Conroy signed on as an assistant coach.

Freshman Jamal Mashburn Jr. was an upcoming star for Minnesota and was the second Gopher to depart from the team following Pitino’s dismissal. The

6-foot-2 guard saw an uptick in playing time following injuries to other members of the team and made the most of it. He finished the season scoring in doubledigit figures in eight of the final nine games.

Mashburn was brought to the University by Pitino, and it came as no surprise he followed him for next season. Pitino and Mashburn will be reunited next season at the University of New Mexico.

Sophomore Tre’ Williams decided he wanted a new home for next season after an upand-down career with Minnesota. The 6-foot-5 guard never really found his footing with the Gophers but definitely helped them down the stretch last season.

Similarly to Mashburn, Williams saw an increase in playing time following injuries, and he eclipsed double-digits in his final four games for the Maroon and Gold, including a career-high 17 against Penn State. Saturday, Williams

commited to play for Oregon State next season.

The final headliner to depart from the team was junior Gabe Kalscheur, who ended his time with Minnesota on the bench with a hand injury. It wasn’t an April fools joke when Kalscheur entered the portal on April 1.

Kalscheur had been struggling the last two years after a stellar freshman season. Though he was the team’s best defender, as Pitino would always allude to, he couldn’t seem to find his stroke on the offensive end. He didn’t spend much time in the portal, and he will travel just south of Minnesota to join Iowa State.

Freshman Martice Mitchell and sophomore Sam Freeman are the two latest transfers. The two big men didn’t get much playing time this past season and decided to test the waters to see what other options they have. Ihnen remains in the portal, while Mitchell committed to Northern Illinois for the

2021 season.

New faces for the Maroon and Gold There were a lot of open spots that needed to be filled ahead of the 202122 season for Minnesota.

Upon being hired, Johnson quickly began his work to bring in new talent.

Johnson has brought in five new transfers along with two assistant coaches to help transition these players into the Big Ten. Former DeLaSalle High School graduate Jamison Battle marked Johnson’s first hit on the transfer portal. Battle averaged 17.3 points per game while shooting 47.5% from the field. Not long after, Wisconsin native Luke Loewe came to Minnesota along with a reliable shooter in E.J. Stephens.

Both players transferred to Minnesota on April 2 and were the first two guards Johnson landed.

Mahtomedi High School alum Parker Fox marked Johnson’s second Minnesota-native hit in the transfer portal after

three seasons at Northern State University. The 6-foot8 forward averaged 22.3 points this past season while shooting 62% from the field.

Guard Payton Willis will have his homecoming in 2021 after transferring away from Minnesota following the 2019-20 season. Willis averaged a career-best 13.4 points per game while shooting 46% from the field and 40% from deep for the Charleston Cougars.

Alongside the five new players, Johnson brought in two reliable assistant coaches.

Johnson has reunited with familiar faces in Dave Thorson, who Johnson goes way back with, dating back to his high school days at DeLaSalle, and Jason Kemp.

There is sure to be more pieces moving around in the coming months before the Gophers get next season kicked off. But as of now, Johnson has gotten off to a great start in his Gophers tenure.

Sports

10 Monday, May 3, 2021

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Assistant coach Danielle O’Banion set to become head coach at Loyola Maryland

Danielle O’Banion accepts head coach position.

By Tony Liebert tliebert@mndaily.com

Danielle O’Banion, an assistant coach on the Gophers women’s basketball team, was named the head coach of Loyola Maryland’s program, the school announced Friday.

O’Banion has been part of the Gophers’ coaching staff since Lindsay Whalen arrived for the 2017-18 season; she was also on staff during the team’s best run in program history from 200203 to 2006-07.

O ’ B a n i o n ’ s responsibilities with

the Gophers included contributing to the team’s defensive schemes, coaching post players and putting together scouting reports and game strategies. Off of the court, she was integral in the team’s recruiting and game scheduling.

“Coach Danny brought 20 years of coaching experience to our staff at the University of Minnesota,” Whalen said of O’Banion in a statement.

“During her time here, Danny brought a passion for the game that was second to none. Her wealth of knowledge of the game will be a tremendous asset to Loyola University Maryland as she leads its women’s basketball program.”

She will be taking over a Loyola Maryland program that finished the 2020-21

campaign 0-13. Leading the Greyhounds in the Patriot League will be her second head coaching opportunity, as she previously led the Kent State women’s basketball program from 2008-12.

Associate head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis and assistant coach Kelly Curry remain on the Gophers’ staff as the only two assistant coaches. There is no word on if the team will look to add a third.

The Gophers 2021-22 schedule has yet to be finalized, although they are scheduled to compete in the first-ever Women’s Battle 4 Atlantis. The earlyseason tournament will take place on Nov. 20-22 with some of the top programs in the country.

Williams Arena as seen on Monday, June 17, 2019. (Tony Saunders / Minnesota Daily)

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Ben Johnson tabs two assistants for men’s basketball Ben Johnson added two assistants to his coaching staff.

By AJ Condon acondon@mndaily.com Dave Thorson and Jason Kemp are the most recent additions to the Gophers’ men’s basketball team ahead of the 2021-22 season. Head coach Ben Johnson has been making quick work to fill out his team that now consists of several new transfers and two new assistant coaches.

“You wanna put together the best staff you can, and I know that’s what we were able to do here,” Johnson said. “I was able to target guys on the first round and actually be able to hit on the guys I wanted.”

Thorson, a name familiar in the state of Minnesota, returns to Minneapolis. Thorson has ties all across the state and specifically to the Maroon and Gold. Thorson comes back to the Gophers as an assistant coach for the second time.

After his first tenure

Men’s head basketball coach Ben Johnson. Courtesy of Gophers Athletics as an assistant coach with South Dakota, Thorson joined the Gophers from 1990-94. Thorson had two other stints at the collegiate level as an assistant coach.

He spent one season at Drake and three seasons with Colorado State.

Following his time with the Gophers, Thorson moved down a level and coached at DeLaSalle High School for 23 years.

Throughout his tenure,

Thorson won nine state championships with six consecutive titles. Both accomplishments set state records.

Johnson attended and played for DeLaSalle during Thorson’s time there, winning two state titles in the process. Now, Thorson will join Johnson once again as his assistant.

“It’s great to get him back. He’s obviously a big piece of what we’re going

to do here; [he] was a huge get for me, personally.

Obviously, he knows the state, and the state knows him,” Johnson said. “He’ll do a great job just being that face that we know we all need here.”

The two have known each other for a long time, so much so that Johnson said he’s known Thorson for half his life.

In fact, their ties go even further back.

“I can remember watching Ben, frankly, as a seventh grader when I first went to DeLaSalle. It’s an incredible relationship that he and I have, going from coach-player to friend, one of my closest friends,” Thorson said.

“He’s the right leader for Minnesota at this time.”

Kemp doesn’t quite have the long-standing relationship with Johnson that Thorson has, but their paths have crossed before, which set the stage for a relationship unlike others and made way for what’s to come.

“There’s been a mutual respect for a long time.

We’ve known each other since I was a young assistant at North Dakota State,” Kemp said. “As we’ve both worked our way up the ranks, we’ve been fairly close … and done a good job staying connected.”

Kemp, similarly to Thorson, is returning to the state of Minnesota, but uniquely it is where Kemp started his coaching career. It all began at Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he spent

the 2004-05 season.

Since then, he has accumulated nearly 15 years of Division I experience.

He started at North Dakota State, where he spent eight seasons, six of them as an assistant coach.

He helped the Bison to a 108-77 record in his six years as an assistant before moving on. The next stop was Toledo, where he coached just one season before going to Ohio for five seasons.

His most recent position was an assistant at William & Mary, coaching the likes of new Gophers’ guard Luke Loewe.

Johnson knows what he is getting with Kemp joining the staff. The two have had rivalries in the past but now come together to help lead Minnesota.

“Jason knows how to teach the game. He’s one of the best teachers in the country, especially the way we’re gonna play. He has a high basketball IQ; he’s not just an assistant coach that can’t coach on the floor.

He can really teach the game and develop guys,” Johnson said.

BASEBALL

Jack Wassel leads Gophers baseball through slow start in 2021 Wassel finds baseball presents new challenges.

By Tony Liebert tliebert@mndaily.com Gophers third baseman Jack Wassel was in the middle of his best season as a college baseball player, slashing a career-high .364 at the plate with 24 hits and 16 RBIs in only 18 games in his redshirt junior season.

Unfortunately, everything suddenly came to an abrupt halt as COVID-19 began to impact everyone’s lives.

Wassel was later named the Big Ten’s Breakout Player and Breakout Hitter for the 2020 season by D1Baseball. His standout campaign created a belief among many that he would have a chance to be selected in the 2020 MLB draft between rounds 1520.

Unfortunately, the bad news struck again, as the MLB then decided to reduce its draft by 80% — going from the normal 40 rounds to only five.

The league also decided that $20,000 would be the maximum signing bonus for draft-eligible players

Gophers infielder Jack Wassel watches the ball after a hit at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. The Gophers fell to Duke 3-7.(Jasmin Kemp / Minnesota Daily) not selected. The league’s decision reduced Wassel’s chances of getting drafted and played a large role in his decision to return for a fifth season donning the Maroon and Gold.

“Emotionally, it was a lot to handle. With COVID happening, I was kinda taken aback a little bit and had to reevaluate where I was as a player and where

I was in my career,” Wassel said. “Going into the summer and the offseason, I had to make a decision, and I thought it was best for me to come back, and I am glad I made that decision.”

The Geneva, Illinois, native came back to Dinkytown with serious expectations. The Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation named Wassel to the 2021

Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award Watch List, an award given to the top college hitter in the nation based on performance at the plate, academics and personal integrity.

He was also tabbed as the sixth-best third baseman in the country according to D1Baseball, making him the highest-ranked player at his position within the

Big Ten Conference. The accolades meant a lot to Wassel, but he has stayed motivated to keep getting better.

“With baseball, you can never be done with getting better at it. There are always new challenges,” Wassel said. “Focusing on that and not letting external factors motivate me, and more internal factors drive me to improve and become a better player every day.”

To begin his redshirt senior season in 2021, Wassel has been one of the most productive hitters on the Gophers roster. He has slashed .274 with two home runs and nine RBIs while starting in 21 of 22 games this season from the hot corner. As one of the team’s most consistent options at the plate, he is still looking for any area in which he can improve his game.

“It is just the mental side throughout my whole career: being able to slow the game down and understand how pitchers are trying to attack me and understanding where I should be positioned within the field,” Wassel said. “That’s been the most challenging part for me, getting to a mental headspace where I can

reach my potential.”

Outside of Wassel and junior standout Zack Raabe, the Gophers have struggled to find a consistent rhythm, dropping nine of their last 10 games, and are 4-20 overall.

Most recently, Iowa and Michigan swept Minnesota in a pair of three-game series. At the end of the day, baseball is a team game, and Wassel knows the Gophers will need everyone to consistently find themselves in the win column.

“When things aren’t going well, it’s really hard to kind of step back and realize what I can be doing to help the team,” he said.

“You kind of don’t want to separate your success or your failure from how the team’s doing.”

Wassel knows the Gophers will need all hands on deck to get back on track as a team. The Gophers will look to get back in the win column when they take on Indiana this weekend.

“As a team, we need to find a way to trust the guy next to us, that he is going to do his best to succeed,” Wassel said. “If he is going to do that, I can trust that I will be able to do that.”

11 Monday, May 3, 2021

Debunking COVID-19 vaccine myths: A Q&A with a UMN doctor Dr. Schleiss answered students’ questions.

By Samantha Woodward swoodward@mndaily.com The Minnesota Daily emailed questions to Dr. Mark R. Schleiss, faculty member of the University’s Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology, who answered some of your questions and concerns about getting vaccinated.

Q: Do you have a certain recommendation for which vaccine to get? How should Americans decide, if they have a choice, on which one is best for them?

A: My advice is to get the vaccine that you can get fastest! In terms of protection, I do not believe there are meaningful or practical differences in their ability to protect against COVID disease. We will see a short pause for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the days ahead, but I fully expect this vaccine to become available again very soon … The saddest, most poignant stories I read in the news are the accounts of people who acquired, and sometimes died of, COVID while they were

hesitating in making a decision about vaccination.

Q: What are the main reasons for halting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine distribution? Why might the U.S. decide to take this measure and what do you think would make them approve it again?

A: It is an appropriate and reasonable action to take.

Now, having said that, it is urgently important to look at the data carefully and make sure we understand what is going on. A very small number of women (six to date) have developed blood clots after the [Johnson & Johnson] vaccine. To put it in perspective, this is out of over six million doses administered, so it is literally a one-in-amillion risk.

It is likely that we will see a recommendation to resume immunization, but with some cautionary information provided about the blood clot risk, in particular information about how to manage these blood clots should they be identified by clinicians.

Q: How long until we know the true long-term effects of the vaccine? So far, what are major concerns?

A: There have been millions of doses of vaccines administered globally for many

months, and so far, there are no discernable long-term adverse side effects.

Now, with respect to shortterm side effects, we need to continue to be mindful of these and counsel patients appropriately.

Headache, low-grade fever, arm soreness and, less commonly, tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, and nausea can occur.

Q: What is the difference between a vaccine’s efficacy rate and its effectiveness?

A: What it means for a vaccine to have “efficacy” is that the vaccine demonstrates a defined percentage of reduction of disease in a vaccinated group of people compared to an unvaccinated group.

The important point here is that a higher “efficacy number” does not mean that it is a “better vaccine.” This is a common misperception.

What it means for a vaccine to be “effective” is gauged by what epidemiologists refer to as “observational studies” monitoring disease in a community. Unlike an efficacy trial, it is a “real world” observation because people in their everyday lives are not randomly assigned to a treatment versus a placebo group.

Monitoring the community for infection and disease is a big part of this. If a vaccine is effective, the cases are more

likely to be the unvaccinated individuals.

Vaccines do not always need to have an exceptionally high effectiveness to save lives. With respect to the flu question, in a typical year the influenza vaccine is 40-60% effective but we know it saves thousands of lives every year.

One of the greatest frustrations physicians, epidemiologists and scientists have is when the general public looks at an effectiveness number of 40-60% and concludes that the annual flu vaccine is not worth getting.

That decision — to refuse the annual influenza vaccine — typically results in lost lives, which is unfortunate.

Q: What do you have to say for Americans that are still skeptical about getting vaccinated?

A: I think that adults certainly have the right to refuse vaccines. I cannot imagine a nation where they would be forced to be immunized. But, vaccine refusers must accept as a fundamental component of their vaccine refusal that this “right” does not extend to a right to put others at risk.

Q: There are rumors of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine having effects on women’s fertility, can you explain the

science behind the creation of this vaccine in comparison to Pfizer and Moderna?

A: There is no plausibility to this. It is best characterized as a prevarication [a lie], put forth in many cases not even by people but by weaponized communications arising on social media sites. We should not have to even say that these vaccines do not cause infertility — it is preposterous.

Q: What is the likelihood of “vaccine travel passports” going to be once most Americans are vaccinated? Will these be required for travel?

A: In my professional opinion, I do not think we will see “travel passports” issued or enforced. I think it is just a logistical nightmare and will be hard to enforce … I think health care workers should have to provide proof of vaccination before seeing patients in the workplace …

I think students will have to provide proof of vaccination before being allowed to go to school, of course following age-specific guidelines (college students now, earlier grade levels in the future).

Q: What does it mean for a virus to mutate? How have we seen mutations affect COVID-19? How do we adapt vaccines to counter

these variants?

A: I prefer the word “evolve” over “mutate.” “Mutate” has pejorative, nefarious connotations. … It is an RNA virus so it changes all the time! It is just a part of its nature. And yes, we see variants. I prefer to call them variants, not mutants.

Q: What does it mean for a community to have herd immunity? How long do you think it will be before we reach it? What does that mean for those that are vaccinated and for those that are not?

A: I am not sure we will ever see herd immunity to COVID because it changes so rapidly. We do not see herd immunity to influenza, after all. I think we will need annual boosters for many years as the virus changes. Politicians who argue that we already have herd immunity do us a real disservice.

For those who have the vaccine, it means that they are doing what they can to protect their lives and the lives of their families, loved ones and communities. For those without the vaccine, it means that they are putting themselves and others at risk.

This interview has been edited for length, grammar and clarity.

New CFANS course connects food and culture The course aims to bolster intercultural awareness.

By Katelyn Vue kvue@mndaily.com

Dr. Job Ubbink has traveled around the world to places such as Switzerland, Brazil, Russia, the United Kingdom and across the United States to study food science.

His experience as a traveler and his passion for how food connects people sparked his vision for a new course called “Food Customs & Culture” at the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

The course is open for undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines. The goal of the course is to strengthen a student’s understanding of their

own culture and the culture of others, as well as their worldview in relation to food.

Students complete assignments about their food consumption and write a research project that either examines the evolution of a selected food or analyzes a food custom and culture of a specific group around the world.

Ubbink, a University professor and head of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, said he was inspired by what he learned during his travels across the world.

“I’ve been fortunate to be part of various communities for either private reasons or professionally,” Ubbink said. “And really realizing that there are multiple ways to do something and how to interact and how to exchange information, that’s a fascinating process and I wanted to share that with the students.”

CFANS professor Job Ubbink poses for a portrait on the St. Paul campus on Thursday, April 22. (Emily Pofahl / Minnesota Daily) The new course started this spring with more than 60 enrolled students.

Ubbink, University lecturer Dr. Francine Overcash and associate professor Dr. Craig Hassel worked together to develop and teach the course.

“These professors, I cannot say enough good things about them,” said Grace Atchison, a secondyear student who is taking the course. “They are so clearly interested in what they’re teaching,

but they’re also extremely interested in what we have to say, and so it always makes classes really fun.”

Throughout the course, students and professors share experiences with one another about their own cultures in connection with food.

Students are assigned to interview someone with a different cultural background to learn about changes to their food habits over time.

Growing up in the

Midwest, third-year student Nathan Seim said his grandparents wanted to assimilate after immigrating to the United States from Norway and Sweden. His grandparents read recipes from the back of their soup cans or newspapers to adopt new dietary practices.

Seim said that during the pandemic, it can be difficult to meet or interact with students from different backgrounds and cultures. The course has helped Seim gain that experience in a virtual setting.

“I absolutely love this course. I think it is my favorite course I’ve ever taken if I’m being completely honest,” Atchinson said.

“Regardless of what you are doing, I think it is essential to be able to communicate with people who are different than you [and] to have more of a global perspective on the world.”

Kevin Welshons, a second-year student who is taking the course, said one of the most important lessons he learned is to be aware of where credit is due for the mass-produced food that is in grocery stores across the United States.

“I think as we get further away from how our food is grown, then I think we lose touch with that spiritual value. And that day in and day out, that it is hard work to grow anything,” Welshons said.

The professors plan to teach the course in-person on the East Bank campus in the fall and on the St. Paul campus in the spring.

“As an instructor in certain classes that I teach, you don’t get to hear much about the students’ family background [or] cultural background,” Overcash said. “That’s what I’ve gotten out of [the course] as an instructor and learning about the students more on a personal level.”

High school senior advocates for better resources for PSEO students Safiya Anwar hopes to expand Boynton accessability.

By Sonja Kleven skleven@mndaily.com After circulating a survey to the Post-Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) student population, Safiya Anwar and her team asked Boynton Health to include fulltime PSEO students in its mental health clinic.

Because PSEO students are not required to have insurance or pay student services fees, they do not have access to the mental health clinic at Boynton.

Anwar, the president of the PSEO Student Association and a member of the Minnesota Student Association’s Health and Wellness Committee, started an initiative to increase PSEO student access to mental health resources at the University.

High school students can enroll in the PSEO program, which enables

them to take courses at local universities to earn college credit.

PSEO students can access short-term mental health groups and resources, such as “Let’s Talk,” a virtual drop-in consultation, and Student Counseling Services.

However, they are not able to access therapy sessions through Boynton.

“Those really aren’t suitable for the long term,” Anwar said. “So, I wanted to explore our options and see if we could get access to a more longterm support resource.”

Anwar and her small team have been working on the mental health initiative since last fall.

Anwar began by meeting with stakeholders, including the nonprofit group “People for PSEO” and Scott Coenen, the director of pre-college programs.

In the fall, Anwar set out to learn more about obstacles to mental health care for PSEO students, such as students’ status as minors, which could lead to privacy concerns.

She also worked to recruit more individuals for

the project.

To better understand what actions the PSEO office could take to support PSEO student mental health, Anwar and her team circulated a small survey this spring. The survey received responses from just under 16% of the PSEO student body at the University.

Sixty percent of respondents said that they were not aware of available mental health resources, while others said that the resources felt “out of reach” or “not substantial enough” to help.

Students also mentioned technical concerns and feeling guilty about accessing resources on the survey.

“Despite full course loads, [students] felt guilty or not important enough to access them,” Anwar said. “And that was mainly because they felt like they weren’t a ‘real’ college student, even though they were taking a full course load.”

Beckett Crain, a former PSEO student, said that it is easy to feel isolated as a PSEO student.

“I mean it’s kind of othering. You feel like you’re sort of an undercover agent,” Crain said.

An overwhelming number of students indicated that Boynton’s therapy sessions would be beneficial, according to Anwar.

Roo Case, a first-year PSEO student at the University, said that the University’s help with transitioning from high school to college life is minimal.

He said that while he is personally comfortable with minimal direction, he could understand how it would be challenging for some students.

“I think there is a little bit more of a, ‘Plop, here you go, have fun,’” Case said. “There isn’t a good kind of slope into, ‘This is how college works, get used to it, and, you know, if you need help, let us know.’ … I wouldn’t be surprised if people have gone, ‘Boy, I’m having issues and I don’t know who to ask.’”

As a result of the survey, the PSEO office is planning to implement strategies to build aware-

Photo courtesy of Safiya Anwar. ness about existing mental health resources, such as emphasizing at orientation that advisers are a resource for those struggling academically.

An adviser will begin checking on PSEO students outside of advising appointments at least twice a semester, Coenen said. The PSEO office is also considering hosting a “burnout roundtable” with representatives from Student Counseling Services, current students and Boynton to talk about stress.

The PSEO office will be working to reduce the stigma about asking for mental health help.

Coenen said there is work to do.

“I think that’s another byproduct of the survey, and [Anwar’s] work is, I think just making sure we continue to hammer home awareness, and then really reduce stigma and shame around support,” Coenen said. “I think it’s hard to imagine when you’re struggling what the resource can really do for you.”

12 Monday, May 3, 2021

Meet UMN’s COVID-19 vaccine team UMN health units implement vaccine clinics on campus.

By Abbey Machtig amachtig@mndaily.com As COVID-19 vaccines become more widely available around the country, public health experts, workers and administrators are coming together to operate vaccine clinics at the University of Minnesota.

Several public health units at the University have been collaborating to plan and implement vaccine distribution processes, including Boynton Health, the University’s Health Emergency Response Office (HERO) and the Medical Reserve Corps. Although these units typically operate relatively independently, the pandemic has brought them together as the University coordinates its response efforts.

In recent days, the University’s vaccination site has expanded its offerings to allow students to make appointments. Nurses and administrators said the increased vaccine availability in the state, which supplies the University, has made them feel optimistic about the future of the pandemic.

“In the last couple weeks,

with registration and signups [for appointments], it’s just been taking a little bit longer for our clinics to be filled up.

So it just feels like people are getting vaccinated and like things are leveling out,” said Lesley Gray, a public health nursing supervisor at Boynton.

As a nursing supervisor, Gray works to coordinate the operations of the Boynton clinic, from organizing people to administer the vaccines and monitor patients to helping staff and volunteers run the check-in desk and direct patients in the right direction.

The University has also hired and trained additional nurses and student workers to help with testing and vaccine efforts, said Emma Butzer, a public health lead nurse at Boynton.

While Boynton oversees the distribution of vaccines to the University community, HERO focuses more on coordinating with state and federal governments on guidance around vaccinations, said Jill DeBoer, director of HERO. Additionally, HERO oversees the University’s Medical Reserve Corps, a group of volunteer healthcare workers that may help run vaccine clinics or perform testing when needed.

While some workers have

met in person to set up and run clinics, much of the coordination and planning for vaccine distribution has occurred virtually. The demand has also forced many members of the vaccine team to step away from other aspects of their jobs.

“Our focus has completely changed from other public health programs on campus that we had down to a tee and do the same way every year to do something brand new,” Butzer said. “The biggest differences went from a job where you can basically clock out at the end of the day to a 24/7 responsibility.”

The University’s public health offices have prepared to handle emergency responses through different drills and simulations in the past, “but there’s nothing really that can truly prepare you for a pandemic of this scope,” said Kathy Berlin, deputy director of HERO and Medical Reserve Corps coordinator.

The demands of the COVID-19 virus, like the need to socially distance and wear masks, posed new challenges for response planners, said Catherine Harrison, a public health clinical response planner with HERO. The shifting guidance from the federal and state governments surrounding the vaccine was

another aspect to consider, she said.

Throughout the pandemic, the Minnesota Department of Health has been advising the University on public health guidelines and, more recently, supplying the University with allocations of vaccines. As the University is not directly in charge of vaccinations, it is often unclear the quantities and types of vaccines the University will receive from the state, making it more difficult to communicate with students, faculty and staff, Butzer said.

The increased attention on public health workers at the University has also resulted in additional criticism at times, DeBoer said, as many people pushed the University to make the vaccine available to students, faculty and staff earlier on in the pandemic.

“It’s really easy for people to say, ‘Why aren’t you doing more?’ and really criticize what they see as the work when they don’t understand the real work that’s happening. We have thick skins, but it’s hard sometimes to hear the criticism,” DeBoer said.

Harrison, an emergency response planner with HERO, also said that working in healthcare throughout the pandemic impacted her perception of the virus

Dave Golden, Director of Public Health and Communications at Boynton Health, poses for a portrait.

Photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota.

Jill DeBoer, Deputy Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, poses for a portrait.

Photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota.

and gave her a greater understanding of its impact.

“The big takeaway is just how under capacity [public health] is to deal with these types of situations. We can prepare through practice and drills, but at the end of the day, there wasn’t enough money or reserves or staff that we needed,” Harrison said.

Even with the challenges of the pandemic, the University’s public health team hopes to continue processes they created, such as closer collaboration between workers from Boynton and HERO, said Dave Golden, director of public health and

communications at Boynton.

Berlin, who works in HERO and coordinates the Medical Reserve Corps, also emphasized the benefit of working in a larger vaccine team during the pandemic.

“We won’t be talking as much when this all settles down, but I do appreciate the camaraderie that we all have. We’re all nurses — we text each other; we make each other laugh,” Berlin said. “We’ve all had different experiences, but when I look at the work that this team has been doing, to have a group of trusted colleagues and nurses just has been the saving grace.”

Student-led Earth Day march highlights climate crisis Students rally in Northrop Plaza against Line 3 pipeline.

By Samantha Woodward swoodward@mndaily.com Nearly 100 students gathered in front of Northrop Auditorium Thursday to celebrate Earth Day and bring attention to environmental racism in Minnesota and the Line 3 pipeline controversy.

UMN Students for Climate Justice and the Disabled Student Cultural Center, along with four other student groups, marched from Northrop to University Avenue Southeast and back. Speakers talked about their experiences with law enforcement during protests over the police killing of

Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center and their objection to the Line 3 pipeline.

Line 3 is a crude oil pipeline that the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has approved to run across northern Minnesota. Since its proposal, many University community members have strongly opposed it.

Environmentalists and Indigenous communities have voiced concerns about the possibility of oil spills that would cause adverse health effects for tribal reservations above or near the pipeline.

The company building the pipeline, Enbridge, was responsible for one million gallons of oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River in 2010, making it the largest inland oil spill in the country.

Students marched and chanted, “We can’t drink oil!”

Students participate in a protest organized by the Environmental Student Association outside of Northrop Auditorium on Thursday, April 22. The protest demanded environmental, racial, and disability justice. (Alexa Lewis / Minnesota Daily) Emma Hjelle, a secondyear student and organizer for UMN Students for Climate Justice, said that people with disabilities and people of color are typically left out of Earth Day events due to ignorance surrounding the intersection of environmentalism, race

and class.

“For poor and underserved communities, it isn’t an option to consume these more expensive, more sustainable products,” she said. “And that’s not actually going to stop climate change as we know it.”

Jane Newby, a first-year

student who spoke to the crowd, said environmental racism has played a key role in further oppressing communities of color.

Newby said industrial plants are often located in urban areas with high populations of people of color, creating negative health impacts and disparities between neighborhoods.

Black Minnesotans are six times more likely to test positive for asthma than white Minnesotans, according to Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.

Maddie Miller, a thirdyear student studying political science, geography and environmental science, is the director of the Minnesota Student Association’s Environmental

Accountability Committee and actively organizes against Line 3.

“It will destroy the environment, it harms Minnesota’s Indigenous communities, it exacerbates the epidemic,” Miller said.

Hjelle, the Students for Climate Justice organizer, said the responsibility to make a more sustainable world falls to large institutions like fossil fuel companies and organizations that support them, like the University of Minnesota.

“In a lot of ways, I think that Earth Day is a holiday that has been capitalized on and environmentalism and sustainability in general.

There’s a lot of pressure on people to buy certain products and do certain things,” Hjelle said. “It’s so much greater than that.”

Theater class links pharmacy studies with Greek tragedies Students create art from studying medical industry.

ByNathanael Ashton-Piper and Kyra Barbot nashtonpiper@mndaily.com, kbarbot@mndaily.com A new University of Minnesota theater class examines current issues in the healthcare industry by combining Greek tragedies and pharmacy.

The class combines components of the theater arts Performance and Social Change course and Topics in Theatre course to explore how pharmaceutical substances have been used to enhance or damage the idea of a healthy body and how to convey these ideas theatrically.

The course is a collaboration between theater professors on the University’s Twin Cities campus and a College of Pharmacy professor on the University’s Duluth campus.

The professors based the class on the Greek word “pharmakon,” which has three meanings in English: remedy, poison and scapegoat.

“There is this really interesting connection between pharmacy and theater through the

terminology and ideas of the pharmakon,” said Dr. Sonja Kuftinec, one of two theater professors leading the class.

“What we are interested in is exploring that duality of anything that is extractive as both being potentially healing and potentially poisoning.”

Luverne Seifert is the second theater professor leading the course. In addition to partnering on course development with Kuftinec, Seifert serves as the acting and character development coach for the students in the final weeks of the class.

The theater department teaches courses in creative collaboration that are generally based on a research topic, Seifert said. From that research, classes will build four original plays each year.

This year, students will use what they have learned about pharmacy and Greek tragedies to put together a final performance on May 7.

A basis in pharmacy Part of the class is devoted to learning about the University’s Native American Medicine Gardens in St. Paul. This unit tasks students with rethinking humans’ contemporary relationship to plants as extractive and reimagining a coexisting environment.

The unit also examines Native Americans’ view of health to include traditional

substances and medications coming from the earth, said Dr. Paul Ranelli, a professor in the College of Pharmacy on the Duluth campus and a guest instructor in the class.

“They were the early pharmacists,” Ranelli said. “We focused on the Indigenous connection to plants because of our location and their connection to the earth. The Indigenous connection finds it important to keep those plants in our soil so that plants can be of value to us.”

With a background in social pharmacy, Ranelli helped the class to understand how the modern industrialization of pharmaceuticals has affected both pharmacists and patients.

“Before the mass production of pharmaceuticals, the pharmacist was a purveyor and a maker of medicine,” Ranelli said. “Most medicines are now being made by a manufacturer, so the pharmacists are losing the connection to the making of the product.”

Included in that process are opioids, Ranelli added, which saw a large increase in use in the United States beginning in the late 1990s.

A product of the opium poppy plant, opiates have been a traditional medicine for numerous cultures across time as a remedy for pain

relief.

But when placed in the context of a capitalist system, opioids — which include all opiates and synthetic compounds like fentanyl — can become something else, Kuftinec said.

“When opioids are placed into a healthcare system where health is commodified in a larger capitalist frame, they can become something that is quite toxic,” Kuftinec said. “Both to the individuals that may be caught in a cycle of addiction and to the larger public.”

Included in the students’ final creative performance will be a telling of the modern interaction between patients, medication and the healthcare system.

From 2015 to 2018, nearly 50% of Americans used prescription drugs within 30 days of when they were surveyed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ranelli said he believes that theater is a useful storytelling outlet for the frequent experience of taking medication.

“There have been a number of plays about what it is like to be a survivor of cancer, for example, and as someone in social pharmacy, I felt that the medication part of this whole story needed a focus,” Ranelli said. “I just want those stories of our experiences with medication to be told.”

Performance and Social Change and Topics in Theatre holding in person class.

Courtesy of Kyra Rahn.

Student experience Seifert said he appreciates how the class allows students to reflect upon their own relationships with medication.

“It is very vulnerable but exciting in terms of how we will be able to translate those relationships into our final performances,” he said.

One assignment asked students to draw on their own experiences to create a two-minute piece about their journeys and relationships with prescription drugs.

Emily Vaillancourt, a second-year student, focused on birth control and the hoops that she said many women have to jump through to access it. Firstyear student Regan Carter did her assignment on the same topic.

“As someone who has had relatively pleasant experiences with medicine, it is different to hear other people’s experiences trying to get the prescription that they need and all of those hurdles,” Carter said. “But

understanding and taking on a perspective that is not mine, that is what theater is all about.”

Bridging performing arts and pharmacy proves the unique storytelling ability that theater offers, Vaillancourt said.

“Theater can be about anything. It does not just have to be a written, entertaining play. Theater can be experimental, informative and so different,” Vaillancourt said.

Carter added that for theater arts majors like Vaillancourt and herself, the technical background research on pharmacy would improve their abilities as performers.

“There is no such thing as wasted knowledge in theater,” Carter said.

“Having this understanding of medicine and the medical industry really helps inform my future approaches to how medicine interacts with characters, other systems and the rest of society.”