MN Daily Magazine | Vol. 1 - Issue 1 | November 2023 by The Minnesota Daily

SERVING THE UMN COMMUNITY SINCE 1900 | VOL. 1, ISSUE 1 | NOVEMBER, 15, 2023

STUDENTS' EXPERIENCE WITH BIOL 1003 WHAT "U" NEED

TO KNOW ABOUT HEAPR

THE

ROWING

TEAM

BEHIND THE SCENES BY ALEX KARWOWSKI

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA WOMEN’S ROWING TEAM HONES THEIR ROWING TECHNIQUE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. P H OTO & C OVE R P H OTO BY DAYE STAG E R

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Hello all, My name is Alex Steil and I am the Editor-in-Chief of The Minnesota Daily. I hope you’re having a great return to campus, or a great first semester! I know for me, it’s already been a whirlwind: I’m working on a final project for my major, switched out of another major and have spent time starting to apply for graduate programs. But, that’s enough of me. After all, this is about the news — not me. This edition is the first Minnesota Daily’s Magazine — well, at least the first since 1900. The stories for this magazine were chosen in with the hope that it could be read over a long period of time. In comparison with our online newsletter, which we intend to have of immediate reading, this pulls stories that were were supposed to last a longer time — and, as a result, be more meaningful for you to as the reader. Our focus was mainly on the “strict” news, but we do have some highlights in the lighter news category for you. We have a long form feature piece about the Gopher’s rowing team, written by a reporter who got to go out in a boat with them on one of their practices. We have more news surrounding the University of Minnesota’s budget — like its HEAPR/building funding requests, a story about the (in) famous BIOL 1003 and so much else. From the whole of the Daily, we hope that you enjoy the first edition of our magazine. It was created with you in mind. Wishing you the best for the end of your semester,

A LE X STEIL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EIC@MNDAILY.COM

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IDENTITY ANNOUNCED ITS APARTMENTS WILL NOT BE FINISHED BY THE EXPECTED FALL MOVE-IN DATE FOR STUDENTS IN THE DINKYTOWN NEIGHBORHOOD OF MINNEAPOLIS. P H OTO BY J U STI N E VA N C E

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‘IDENTITY’ CRISIS

STUDENTS NAVIGATE COMMUTING, COST AND SOCIAL ISSUES WHILE WAITING TO MOVE INTO THE NEW DINKYTOWN APARTMENT COMPLEX BY G RAC E H E N R I E University of Minnesota students have faced roadblocks and experienced stress while waiting to move into Identity Dinkytown. Identity Dinkytown apartment complex managers told tenants they would be able to move in at the end of August. However, a month after the original move-in day, the building is still not ready. Students were given the option to find their own housing or have Identity provide housing for them. Annika Attiah, in her last semester at the University, is living with her boyfriend in a house in Como while she waits to move into Identity. “I still feel like an imposition because it’s not like I signed the lease and they were planning on living with me,” Attiah said. She shares a car with her brother that she uses to get to class, work and the University Recreation and Wellness Center. Each day is different for her: she has class two days a week but also works a full-time job. When Attiah has class on West Bank, she drives from her boyfriend’s house and has to find a place on campus to park. On average, she said parking on campus costs her $6 to $10. If she was living at Identity, she would have been able to take the bus which would save her time and money. Attiah goes to the gym every day and was excited to have a gym at Iden-

ANNIKA ATTIAH

ELLYSE FERLAUTO

tity, but since it’s not ready and being a part-time student, Attiah paid for a RecWell membership. “I understand it’s their policy, but I wouldn’t have had to pay for that if the two-story, 24-hour gym that was promised at Identity would have been open,” Attiah said. Attiah said she loves going out with her friends but not having housing in Dinkytown has prevented her from fully enjoying nights out. Without her apartment, Attiah has had to sleep on her friends’ couches, pay for Ubers and limit her number of drinks when she knows she will drive herself back to the house. Attiah added all the anxiety she has been experiencing comes from her not feeling settled and not trusting Identity or having communication from them. “It’s been tough feeling this way because I like to feel in control of situa-

tions and right now it’s in the hands of Identity who has been pretty sketchy so far,” Attiah said. Ellyse Ferlauto is a fourth-year at the University who is going to be living with Attiah in Identity. Ferlauto commutes to campus from her family’s home in Eden Prairie and nannies part-time for a family who lives in Marcy Holmes, she said. Ferlauto said her nannying shift starts at 7:45 a.m., which is in the middle of rush-hour traffic, so she leaves her house at 6:45 a.m. Every day, she packs her lunch, snacks, gym clothes and whatever else she will need throughout the day. “I have to plan everything to a T,” Ferlauto said. Ferlauto drives 30 minutes to and from school almost everyday. Living at home has also made studying more difficult for Ferlauto. “Dad’s watching the football game,

mom’s in the kitchen and the dog is barking, which makes it hard to focus,” Ferlauto said. Sen. Lindsey Port, chair of the Housing and Homelessness Prevention Committee, said she lived in Dinkytown when she was a student and sympathizes with students who showed up to their first week of campus with an unsure living situation. “I know how stressful college is and to put that on these students and to expect them to be able to respond to this obviously powerful company felt really unfair,” Port said. Port said hearing the students’ testimonies on Sept. 13 highlighted the imbalance of power between tenants and landlords. Hearing about the amount of students who had tried to break their leases with Identity shocked her, she said. Port added she is grateful to the students who told their story and brought the issues to the attention of the state. “We don’t get to move in on things like this without people who are willing to share their stories,” Port said. “That is a huge part of how legislation actually gets passed.” Attiah and Ferlauto are set to move into Identity on Sept. 29. Attiah said she has hope everything will work out and she will finally be able to move in. “For us, we just want to live together, we want to live on campus and we want to be able to celebrate homecoming and all those other events together,” Attiah said. MNDAILY.CO M

WHAT “U” NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HEAPR REPAIRS ON CAMPUS BY A LE X L AS S IT E R The University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents requested $200 million for building repairs from the state and received in turn $43.4 million during the 2023 legislative session. Now, the board is planning to request $500 million for 2024. The funding came from a statewide program called Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement (HEAPR) and is designated toward older University buildings in need of smaller repairs or large-scale renovations. HEAPR funding covers building repairs across all University campuses, except Rochester since they rent their buildings. Mondale Hall on the West Bank and Nils Hasselmo Hall on the East Bank are receiving roof replacements through this year’s funding. Buildings, like the Phillips Wangensteen Building and the Weisman Art Museum, have HEAPR funds put toward modernizing elevators. Others, like the Field House, are receiving accessibility upgrades to their restrooms. 8

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In Duluth, heating and ventilation systems will be replaced in two buildings, Crookston will renovate the exterior of Owen Hall and Morris will replace the roof of its Humanities Fine Arts building. If the Board’s $500 million request is approved in full, their focus on the Twin Cities campus will be on infrastructure and other internal repairs that had been neglected for “too long,” Vice President of University Services Alice Roberts-Davis said. “The University has some beautiful facilities,” Roberts-Davis said. “We also have some labs that look like 1975, and those are the ones that we want to focus on.” Next year, HEAPR funding will tackle bigger restoration projects across the other University campuses, like fixing Crookston’s heating plant, Roberts-Davis said. The Morris campus will be updating its multi-ethnic center, which currently has no elevators or Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) access. Assistant Vice President of Finance and Systems at the University, Brian Swanson,

said HEAPR items are placed on a waitlist once a building that needs repair is reported. They are then prioritized in order of importance and cost per project. Swanson said that even if there are high-priority projects on the list, they may be pushed back due to a lack of HEAPR funding for that year. The proposed renovations to the Morris campus’s multi-ethnic center were originally included in the $200 million proposal for 2023 but had to be pushed back because the University only received $43.4 million. “There just wasn’t enough money in their share of the appropriation to tackle that project,” Swanson said. “The campus then looks at what are the next set of high-priority projects that they can accomplish within the amount of money they can get.” According to Swanson, the same will happen to projects in the 2024 HEAPR request if the full amount is not provided.Another one of the University’s main priorities is to renovate Eddy Hall, the oldest building on campus. Eddy Hall, which sits on the edge of

the East Bank campus in The Knoll, is unused by students and staff. The renovated Eddy Hall would host classes for the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) and provide a space to support first-generation students at the University, said Michael Rodriguez, dean of CEHD. Another function Eddy Hall would provide is serving as the center for the TRIO program, according to Rodriguez. TRIO is a support program for students from underrepresented backgrounds working toward a college degree. “We envision this space as student-centered and student-facing,” Rodriguez said during a tour of Eddy Hall. The University will be moving classes for the CEHD into Eddy Hall once it is renovated. Their next step, according to Roberts-Davis, will be to demolish Peik Hall, another building near The Knoll, and other buildings they think do not need to be reinvested in. Unlike Eddy Hall, Peik Hall is still used as a teaching space for undergraduate classes. According to Roberts-Davis, the University is trying

to consolidate square footage by getting rid of unnecessary buildings, like Peik Hall, and moving more classes into newly renovated spaces. After Peik’s demolition, Roberts-Davis said, there are no immediate plans on how the space would be used. The budgeting, design and construction for Eddy Hall could see the space being open and accessible to students by late 2026 or early 2027, according to Roberts-Davis. Peik Hall’s demolition would likely begin after Eddy Hall reopens. Fraser Hall’s construction is not being covered by HEAPR funding, despite how similar the renovation process is to HEAPR repairs. According to Swanson, HEAPR funding is primarily meant to be a “catch-all” for campus projects. The Fraser Hall renovations are not only bigger but will also change the function of the building, which means the funds had to be requested separately. “These are not glamorous kinds of projects, but they are really essential to keeping the campus running,” Swanson said.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA’S BOARD OF REGENTS REQUESTED $200 MILLION FOR BUILDING REPAIRS FROM THE STATE AND RECEIVED IN TURN $43.4 MILLION DURING THE 2023 LEGISLATIVE SESSION. NOW, THE BOARD IS PLANNING TO REQUEST $500 MILLION FOR 2024. P H OTO BY A LE X L AS S ITE R

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BIOL 1003, THE EVOLUTION AND BIOLOGY OF SEX COURSE AT UMN, CONSISTENTLY DRAWS A LARGE STUDENT FOLLOWING, CAPTIVATING STUDENTS WITH ITS UNCONVENTIONAL CONTENT AND ON ITS PROMISE TO ENGAGE AND CULTIVATE CURIOSITY. I M AG E BY AVA W E I N R E I S

THE PHENOMENON AND IMPACT OF BIOL 1003 AT UMN BY G EO R G I A J E N S E N The University of Minnesota’s BIOL 1003 course, the Evolution and Biology of Sex, has attracted students in overwhelming numbers since its conception 10 years ago. The course, taught by Dr. Katherine Furniss and Dr. Sarah Hammarlund, intrigues students for its shocking subject matter, but follows through on its relevance in students’ lives and fostering curiosity. “The word sex in the title is doing a lot of work,” Hammarlund said. “Then I think the class ends up being a lot of foundational important science and biology that happens to be in the context of sex, and the context of sex really enhances a lot because it’s fascinating and really important

for our lives.” Much of the course’s popularity comes from word-ofmouth, Furniss and Hammarlund said. “The class follows through and delivers on engaging students and meeting that curiosity in a way that then leads them to tell their friends, ‘Hey, this class was really interesting; I did enjoy it and learn things,’” Furniss said. The course facilitates learning mainly through lab activities and student-to-student collaboration in lectures. “It’s always been an active learning course in which students aren’t just sitting there and listening to science professors drone on about science,” Furniss said. “Rather they get to talk to each other and use their own brains to think and apply what you know.”

Elaina Hughes, a University student taking BIOL 1003 this semester, initially enrolled in the class after hearing positive feedback from friends but said the course proved to be more relevant and informative than she originally expected. Hughes added this was most prevalent in a recent lab where students tested the strength of condoms using weights. “We were able to test out theories that people have made about condoms and how reliable they are, and they are really reliable,” Hughes said. “It’s also helpful for students having sex to know that they are trustworthy.” Carter Sharp, another University student who took BIOL 1003 last spring, said he agrees lab activities were particularly memorable. The nature of these lab activities

facilitated learning in an individualized way, according to Sharp. “The labs were pretty open-ended,” Sharp said. “It sort of felt like making your own experiment was the goal.” Despite the course’s often unconventional lecture topics and lab activities, BIOL 1003 allows students to learn about important topics regarding animal and human biology in a safe and welcoming space. “The professors make it a really comfortable environment to talk about sex and everything that comes with it,” Hughes said. The course’s easygoing setting provides a unique learning environment, tailored to non-Biology majors looking to fill their biological science requirements. “It was a more relaxed way

to learn biology than a typical science class, particularly for someone not in biology,” Sharp said. Furniss and Hammarlund said the course’s unconventional subject matter is directly related to the fact that BIOL 1003 is geared toward students outside of the biology major. This concept is what shapes their approach to teaching the course. “We’re both very mindful that this is a non-majors group,” Furniss said. “This is most likely the last biology class they will ever take in their entire life, so I ask myself, ‘What do I want them to remember? Or be able to understand in five years and in 10 years, when they are making medical decisions for themselves or if they choose to have children or dependents?’” MNDAILY.CO M

ROWIN

COLLEGE ROWING REQUIRES AN STRENGTH THAT OFTEN GOES O

THE MIGHTY MISS AND PYB ROW

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NG THE BOAT

N INTENSE AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL AND MENTAL OVERLOOKED; IT’S NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.

W BOATS FACE OFF ON THE MISSISSIPPI AS THE UMN ROWING TEAM PRACTICES. P H O T O B Y D AY E S TA G E R

BY ALEX KARWOWSKI

At 7 a.m., most college students are sound asleep catching up on Z’s they did not get after the previous evening’s studying. But, for the Gophers rowing team, practice is about to start. Being a college student is hard enough, but being a college student on the rowing team is another challenge entirely. The varsity rowing team arrives at the Irene Claudia Kroll Boathouse for their two-hour practice on the water before the start of their classes. Rowing at the collegiate level is much more than spending mornings on the water. Head coach Alicea Strodel said athletes must be in prime physical condition to move all the mass that comes with rowing. “There is just some raw power that is necessary due to the boat having drag and the actual weight of the boat,” Strodel said. The team maintains an intense training schedule involving both easy and hard days on the water, challenging not only their physical condition but also their mentality. “Our hard days are hard. Our women will say they’re like an eight to nine out of 10,” Strodel said. “The easy days

are not as physically challenging, but can be mentally challenging if we’re working on skilled work.” When out on the water, the athletes are heavily concentrated on working together to synchronize each stroke and move the boat as one unit. With 40 athletes on the varsity team, developing a team dynamic is critical for the athletes to perform well together in the boat. Senior Grace Loescher said it can be frustrating to see a boat pass ahead, but at the end of the day, the team shares the common goal of becoming better rowers. “We’re all rooting for each other rather than getting too focused on personal experience,” Loescher said. The team runs together, carries out boats together and packs them away together. Loescher said the team will also change up who is in the boats so athletes can get an idea of what it’s like to row with different people. Even though rowing is a seasonal sport that happens in the fall and spring, like many other DI programs, practice is not limited by the season. When it gets too cold to be out on the water, athletes will CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

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“We get to come in with this energy and grittiness that [competitors] don’t really have to have defined being in like maybe a nicer climate.” — GRAC E LO E S C HE R, S E N IO R

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 train indoors in a tank. The tank has seats that move as if you’re in a boat, which sit in a pool that acts like an infinity pool. It allows athletes to hold an oar and gives them the feeling as if they’re rowing a real boat. Aside from that, Strodel said the team utilizes rowing machines, bikes and their weight room in the Bierman Athletic Building. In addition to the more standard offseason training one would see with weights, graduate student Meg Messer said the team sometimes runs stairs at 3M Arena at Mariucci, which allows the team to connect. “The winter sucks, but it’s a lot of fun as a team to be able to push each other,” Messer said. The University of Minnesota has access to the Mississippi River right in the backyard of its boathouse. Views of sandstone caves, man-made art and Pennywise the Clown are scattered along the route. Loescher said the team has dealt with snow, rain and heat during practices. She added learning to battle these conditions well gives them an edge over their competitors. “We get to come in with this energy and grittiness that [competitors] don’t really have to have defined being in like maybe a nicer climate,” Loescher said. Last season, the Gophers finished seventh out of eight at the Big Ten championships. Messer said the team is hoping to capitalize on their performance last season and finish in the top half of the

conference. “We’d love to get a medal, but we really want to improve on last year,” Messer said. “Getting all boats across the line. Top half would be great.” Strodel said the team had spent the early parts of the fall focusing on certain parts of their rowing strokes. Wednesday and Friday practices are the team’s hard days and involve recording data that is used to create intrasquad competition. “We’ll send multiple boats out, we’ll switch people around, we’ll see what changes, who’s making it go faster and what that looks like,” Strodel said. All of the data collection for setting lineups begins upstairs in the boathouse on the rowing machine. “We use that a lot just for power output and understanding somebody’s physical capacity,” Strodel said. Athletes will then go out on the water where Strodel figures out the technical component. “We want to have the most fit, aggressive, people in the boats,” Strodel said. One of the biggest challenges for freshman Emily Franke is adjusting to the rowing style. She said she used to row with only one or two people in the boat, so eight was a big transition. “I’m not used to having to follow anyone really,” Franke said. “It’s a lot of different moving parts.” The Gophers will take to the water in their first tournament of the season on a river very familiar to them at the 43rd Annual Head of the Mississippi Regatta on Oct. 7.

LEFT: THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA WOMEN’S ROWING TEAM HONES THEIR ROWING TECHNIQUE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. ABOVE: THE MIGHTY MISS AND PYB ROW BOATS FACE OFF ON THE MISSISSIPPI DURING UMN ROWING PRACTICE. BELOW: HEAD COACH ALICEA STRODEL INTERVIEWS WITH MINNESOTA DAILY REPORTER ALEX KARWOWSKI AS HER TEAM RUNS WARM-UPS FOR MORNING ROWING PRACTICE. P H OTO S BY DAYE STAG E R

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TOP TEN LIQUORS

DEBUTS IN DINKYTOWN

BY ALEXANDRA DEYOE

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After two years without a liquor store in Dinkytown, Top Ten Liquors recently opened for business in the neighborhood. Top Ten sits at the corner of Fifth Street and 15th Avenue in the heart of Dinkytown. Inside the warehouse-style store, shelves held a variety of drinks to offer customers, from Fireball to Rosé, to Pink Whitney and different kinds of THC seltzers and boxed wines. Top Ten Liquor’s assistant manager Kylon Winbush said being in such a good location and having reasonable prices means they can effectively cater to local students. “In a safe manner, we want to provide for the college campus and be here for the community,” Winbush said. Winbush stressed the importance of having a liquor store in Dinkytown, especially considering the neighborhood had been missing one since 2021. According to Winbush, Top Ten’s main goal is growing and learning with the community to better serve their customers, such as offering discounts on different products. University of Minnesota student and Dinkytown resident Julia Waller said before Top Ten’s opening, finding alcohol in the neighborhood was difficult. “It’s convenient,” Waller said. “I live, like, three blocks away, so I can just walk down here.” University students and first-time Top Ten shoppers Maeve Erin and Emma Reid said their first impressions were positive. Both Erin and Reid said Top Ten’s lower prices compared to other more expensive stores makes Top Ten a go-to place for liquor. “We would usually go off-campus somewhere because all the other ones on-campus are way too expensive,” Reid said. Former owner of Dinkytown Wine & Spirits Irv Hershkovitz said Top Ten

is in a great area because University students living in Dinkytown will not have to go elsewhere for alcohol. Hershkovitz’s business was a staple on campus for 30 years until its closing in Jan. 2021. Hershkovitz added he helped Top Ten liquors sign a lease with CA Ventures, a real estate investment management company. “They will do well down there,” Hershkovitz said. “Students had to go somewhere much farther away for two-and-a-half years after we closed.” “They wanted me to stay in the new building, which I didn’t want to,” Hershkovitz said. “I obviously wanted to retire.” The most significant issue for local liquor stores is fake IDs, which have become more prevalent in recent years, according to Hershkovitz. Dinkytown Wine & Spirits trained employees to spot fake IDs along with ID scanners, both of which Top Ten has, Hershkovitz said. “Once you get that reputation, everyone [underage] hears that and knows: don’t go there,” Hershkovitz said, referring to checking IDs. Hershkovitz was a great business and community partner, according to President of the Dinkytown Business Alliance and Dinkytown Raising Cane’s owner Kent Kramp. Kramp said he hopes Top Ten will continue the trend Hershkovitz started by connecting with students near campus and being involved in the community. Kramp stressed the importance of having new businesses in the area not only to fill vacant spaces, but to provide desired services in the community and maintain good business practices like checking IDs and inventory control. “It’s a local corporation that should do a really good job there and make sure that [the business] lasts,” Kramp said. “I have a lot of faith that they’re going to be really good partners in the community.”

a podcast by the MNDAILY.CO M

UMN STUDENTS FACE MANY EMOTIONS AND CHALLENGES BUT STILL LOOK TO ADVOCATE AMID THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT.

ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT BRINGS FEAR, STRESS AND PERSEVERANCE TO UMN STUDENTS BY G RAC E H E N R I E The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has affected University of Minnesota students’ mental well-being as some students have said they feel scared because thousands of people have been killed or wounded in the violence. Nevertheless, many students said they remain com18

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mitted to raising awareness about the conflict in Israel. Shir Alon, assistant professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University, said there is currently widespread mourning, anger and deep-seated distrust of the Israeli government. Gaza has experienced relentless bombings and Israel stopped supplying food, fuel, electricity and wa-

ter to the area. Israel ordered over a million northern residents to relocate to the south, causing mass displacement, according to Alon. The conflict escalated with Israel declaring war on Hamas following an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian militant group. Israel announced on Monday a “total blockade” of the Gaza Strip,

which stopped the supply of essential commodities like food and fuel to the millions of civilians in Gaza, as reported by Al Jazeera. Interim President Jeff Ettinger said in a University-wide email there is “no justification for acts of terrorism” regardless of what position an individual has on the conflict. “We join many others in

condemning the abhorrent acts committed by Hamas,” Ettinger said. “We lament for the countless innocent civilians who have lost their lives, been injured or are being held captive.” Ettinger said in his email the University community is there “to support” Israeli and Palestinian communities. Adam Ahmed, a third-year

Palestinian-American student and member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), said Ettinger’s email on the conflict angered both Palestinians and non-Palestinians and exposed bias by calling Hamas’ attack an act of terrorism. “The email sent out by the University interim president was extremely disrespectful to Palestinians and the situation in Gaza,” Ahmed said. “He didn’t even mention the Palestinians, which is highly offensive to us. He expressed his personal opinion and made it very clear that he doesn’t support us.” Palestinians on campus are protesting and mobilizing to demonstrate their disagreement with Ettinger’s email, according to Ahmed. Ahmed added it has been difficult for him to see images of children and families in Gaza and has been reaching out to people in Gaza and checking on their well-being. Ahmed said he uses his Instagram platform to inform people about the situation in Gaza because he believes most media coverage has leaned toward supporting Israel. “The least I can do is just show the world what’s happening,” Ahmed said. “It’s good that it’s not just Palestinians on campus who are fighting but other people on campus as well.” According to Ahmed, education is crucial in understanding the situation, adding it is important to distinguish between Zionists and Jewish people: anti-Zionism is not equivalent to anti-Semitism. “We have an issue with the Zionists who support the state of Israel and believe it was founded on moral grounds,” he said. “We support Jews and we ally with Jews.” Mackenzie Peters, assistant director of Minnesota Hillel,

said in an email to the Minnesota Daily Hillel is the Jewish Student Center on campus with resources for Jewish students to offer support and guidance. “From the Jewish community’s perspective, what is going on in Israel is tragic as the Jewish people have just suffered the deadliest day in history since the Holocaust,” Peters said. Peters added Hillel is committed to supporting Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. “We provide opportunities for students to explore and build a personal relationship with Israel while helping them understand how current events of today impact Israel’s relationship with the people, surrounding nations and the world,” Peters said. Drew Brinker, a fourthyear student and Jewish leader at Hillel, said he has been disturbed by the lack of humanity expressed surrounding the conflict. The language surrounding the conflict has been incredibly inflammatory because it involves Jewish people, he said. “I don’t see it as a black-andwhite issue, it’s just one color. It’s so obvious, everything that is happening is so tragic,” Brinker said. “All of the lives lost, the families broken and that goes for both Israelis and Palestinians.” Brinker said he has no doubt Israel has made questionable decisions and is not a perfect government, but people are missing context and ignoring history. After the Holocaust, Jewish people had nowhere to go, so they decided to return to their religious homeland, according to Brinker. “I think a lot of this rhetoric, almost like ‘They were asking for it,’ is disheartening because I don’t believe Israel is a colonial state,” Brink-

er said. “It’s the only home Jews have had in thousands of years where they can govern themselves and defend themselves.” Brinker added people in his community are feeling scared, and he often encountered anti-Semitism on campus by people yelling slurs at him. “During freshman and sophomore year, I stopped wearing a kippah because I felt like it was a target on my head,” Brinker said. “On my friend’s door freshman year, she had the Star of David and someone drew a swastika on it.” Brinker said he has seen videos of Hamas leaders calling for people to storm Israel and chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to Jews.” “It’s not like ‘Free Palestine’ or ‘Go Palestine,’ it’s ‘Gas the Jews,’” Brinker said. “It becomes so much more than just what is happening.” People should check on their Palestinian and Jewish friends, Brinker said, adding it is important for everyone to seek allyship. “I am just trying to get through this week,” Brinker said. “I’m doing my best to move forward because I feel like I owe that to my community.” Sana Wazwaz, a fourthyear at Augsburg University and organizer with Americans Muslims for Palestine Minnesota, worked with SJP to have a bake sale in support of Palestine on campus. She said it is important for people to understand this issue did not arise just in this past month. “All Palestinian actions are merely a response to seven decades of occupation, and the response can never be equated to the violence that prompted it,” Wazwaz said. “This is an issue of occupier versus occupied, there are no equal sides.”

Wazwaz added this conflict has negatively impacted Palestinians, especially student organizers and said she has been losing sleep and not able to focus on classes because she feels like it is her responsibility to create graphics, organize protests, write statements and speak on behalf of Palestinians. “Palestinian students have a unique burden and feeling that they are ambassadors because that is imposed upon them because mainstream U.S. media is depicting the situation in such a skewed and distorted way,” Wazwaz said. “Palestinians have a pressure to almost have to represent the entire cause for their student communities.” A third-year Arab student at the University, who said she wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of being attacked or her information being released to the Israeli government, said the lack of news coverage of what the Israeli government is doing to Palestinians discourages her. “All news media coverage, they’re creating their own narrative,” she said. “It’s been super frustrating because no one is advocating for us.” She added she has been faced with ignorance on campus, especially after wearing a sweatshirt with Arabic written on it and getting dirty looks from her classmates. “Just seeing how we’re viewed in this community is hard,” she said. “We’re being called terrorists left and right.” Ethan Silverman, a fourthyear student at the University, said he grew up Jewish and Judaism has been a significant part of his life. He said he knows people who died in Israel and feels heartbroken by all the deaths from all sides. “I’m bringing this up from a humanitarian perspective

rather than a political standpoint,” Silverman said. “You never want to see people die, no matter who they are, whether they’re our people, your enemies, your family, or your friends.” Silverman added he has observed a rise in anti-Semitism and has stopped wearing the Star of David around his neck. He saw “Support Jewish Lives” written on a bathroom stall door in Coffman Union with an X and a swastika drawn through it, which he said demonstrated the difficulty people have in separating support for Jewish lives from support for the Israeli government. “People will swipe up on my Instagram story and say that I’m supporting a colonizing state, when in reality, I’m just supporting the Jewish lives that have been taken,” Silverman said. He added it is important to be educated before taking a stance on this issue. “You can be Jewish without supporting the Israeli government,” he said. “And I think people have a hard time understanding that.” At this time, Silverman said he appreciates a pillar of the Jewish faith that emphasizes good deeds and embodies a call to community. He reached out to people and his rabbi to see how he could support people in his Jewish community and also did his best to support Palestinians by donating money to the SJP bake sale. Silverman said he desires a solution at the University that supports both Jewish and Palestinian students. “We can separate ourselves from the politics and simply care about each other,” Silverman said. “I think it’s important for the University of Minnesota to support both sides.”

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LATE-NIGHT FOOD OPTIONS NEAR CAMPUS

IT’S MIDNIGHT, AND YOU ARE DOING SOME LAST-MINUTE CRAMMING BEFORE AN EXAM OR MAYBE YOU ARE JUST HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS IN YOUR DORM, AND YOU COULD REALLY USE A LATE-NIGHT SNACK. AS EXPECTED, DINKYTOWN TAKES THE CAKE WHEN IT COMES TO THE SHEER AMOUNT OF SATISFYING LATE-NIGHT OPTIONS IN A SINGLE NEIGHBORHOOD. HERE ARE THE TOP FIVE PLACES ON CAMPUS WHERE YOU CAN GRAB SOME LATE-NIGHT GRUB (OPEN PAST 10 P.M.).

5 .I N S O M N I A CO O K IE S

4 . R AIS IN G C AN E’S

3. MESA PI ZZA

2. FRANK & AN D R E A

1 . H AR D T I ME S C AFE

While on the pricier side for the number of cookies you get (a single chocolate chip cookie will run you $2.85, and a six pack of regular-priced cookies costs $15.25), Insomnia Cookies are a delicious option for the greater campus area. While located in Dinkytown, they offer their own delivery service for online ordering — a service that makes sense for those in the dorms without a readily accessible oven. While their options are limited to cookies, ice cream and milk, the cookies are tasty on a late night of studying.

If you’re looking for a hefty fast food meal after dark, the two Raising Cane’s locations on campus are noteworthy because of their obvious accessibility, one right by Dinkytown and one in Stadium Village, providing chicken fingers to the bulk of University students and surrounding residents. For $11 you can take home The Box Combo, which contains four chicken fingers, along with servings of fries, Texas toast, coleslaw and a fountain drink. Totaling around 1,100 calories, you get your money’s worth if you are looking to load up on some fried food while on campus.

A cornerstone of Dinkytown, Mesa Pizza has served scrumptious pizza by the slice to University students since 2006. Whether you are looking for a plain cheese slice, a meat-lover’s or the elusive macaroni and cheese pizza, Mesa Pizza is a good option for those who do not feel like paying extra for a pizza delivery service. Slices cost $5.50 while 12inch pizzas range from $20$23, 16-inch pizzas range from $25-$30 and 18-inch pizzas range from $29-$35.

A step above Mesa Pizza in several regards: lower prices, a larger seating area, larger options for pizzas and a variety of cheesesteak sandwiches. Although the pizza is of comparable quality to Mesa, these characteristics set Frank & Andrea apart just a bit, even though both are convenient options. With most of Frank & Andrea’s 12-inch pizzas costing $16, you get more for your money as well.

The Hard Times Cafe has an exclusively vegetarian menu and is open until midnight seven days a week. Located on the West Bank, it is a classic cafe-style option for those looking for breakfast and also a late-night bite to eat. Their coffee is served for $1.50 for a medium cup (roughly half of what a medium cup of black coffee would cost at Caribou or Starbucks), with additional refills for a dollar each. For $4.50 you can get one of their “short orders,” which include buttermilk pancakes, eggs/tofu, toast and a bagel with cream cheese. With a chill, home-y interior, it is a nice option to do some late-night studying and a cheap but quality meal. Do note that Hard Times Cafe only takes cash.

MNDAILY.COM

THE UMN CAMPUS AREA SHOULD HAVE MORE RESTAURANTS OPEN LATE ON CAMPUS, BUT SOME GREAT SPOTS FOR STUDENTS STILL STAND OUT. P H OTO BY E TH A N F I N E

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CAMPUS CAUCUS: THE STATE OF CAMPUS SAFETY. WE ASKED, YOU ANSWERED.

WHAT DOES THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY THINK ABOUT CAMPUS SAFETY? BY SPENCER WHI T E

ew topics are more contentious than safety and security at the University of Minnesota. In the heart of a city that is only a few years removed from the murder of George Floyd and videos of violence in Dinkytown always being a favorite topic of our mothers at the dinner table, the ire of suburbanites is drawn to the city known colloquially as “Murderapolis.” With that in mind: what do the people who actually live here think? In a reader survey, 34 subscribers to the Minnesota Daily newsletter ranked their satisfaction with the University’s approach to campus safety on a scale from zero to four. Results indicated 5.9% of respondents (two) ranked the University’s approach a zero, while 23.5% (8), 26.5% (9), 26.5% (9) and 17.7% (6) ranked the University’s approach a 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. The mean score from the respondents was 2.5, implying the average respondent felt lukewarm about safety at the University. We witnessed some disparity between the responses of students and staff with the average response of students being 2.05 and the av22

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erage response of staff being 2.57. In fact, the two lowest scores (zero) were both from students. While both staff and student averages come in above the mean (two), why do staff feel significantly more satisfied with campus safety than students? Among the students who ranked the University the lowest, the primary factor listed was a dissonance between the aims of campus safety and the actual actions taken. “The U of M’s approach to ‘campus safety’ seems to be more about dishing out parking tickets in Dinkytown than protecting people,” said graduate student Emma Worthley. Another criticism was whether the University was approaching campus safety from the perspective of serving students and staff or the parents paying tuition. “Wasting money on turnstiles(pio) and more University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) isn’t really changing,” said Joey VanDeurzen, a fourth-year computer science major, referring to Pioneer Hal. “They need actual community engagement, not just biannual free donuts/coffee, so they can come up with a

plan that engages the people that live, study and work on campus. Pleasing Facebook parents and suburban/rural legislators isn’t getting us anywhere.” University Finance Operations Associate Kristie Mandel disagreed with this sentiment, citing “really quick response times and active threat training” as two functions of campus safety that go under-appreciated. There is no question some parents out there harbor fears about sending their children off to scary Minneapolis schools. I have personally heard Dinkytown specifically referred to as a “lawless cesspool” many times from people after I tell them about my college of choice. Well, maybe not that specific, but they would have agreed with the sentiment at the very least. But if the University is just so dangerous, why wasn’t the average score far lower? Surely a lawless, cesspool-esque hellscape such as ours would warrant far greater anger from its occupants, right? First of all, I should admit that everyone who ranked the University anything below a 3 — roughly 56% of respondents — were either

neutral to or directly critical of campus safety, a majority of whom represented the latter. This is to say: it certainly isn’t all sunshine and rainbows here. Some students, of course, do view campus safety in a very positive light. Civil engineering fourth-year student Ian Mcphee gave the University the highest possible rating, his only note being that he wished “the portable lights in Dinkytown were powered by solar instead of gas generators.” But, considering a majority of respondents were at least somewhat wary of campus safety, is the answer increasing police presence? Shannon Lee, a thirdyear communications major seems to think so, advocating for UMPD to more consistently have officers patrolling “24/7.” Tammy Hendrickson, an administrative consultant at the University, agreed, who said she was unaware of any answer other than to “increase security and enforcement.” Obviously, others disagree. “10,000 cops don’t make me feel safer,” said Pearl Elliott, a fourth-year environmental sciences, policy and management major. “In-

stead, it feels like there is a constant threat.” The interesting thing about the question of increasing police presence on campus is that people who rank the University very low in terms of satisfaction had wildly different answers to this question. Elliott made it clear she did not believe that an increase in policing was the answer, arguing instead for “prevention through community building.” On the other hand, graduate student Katelyn Stevens believes we should “support our officers and hire more officers.” You may be thinking this issue has become muddy and unclear about what the right move for the University is going forward, and there seems to be a lot of dissonance even just among the 34 people surveyed. And you would be half right. I propose a simple solution: make everyone a police officer. That way we have community-based policing, but we also have an increased police presence. Some may argue that if we are all cops, then no one is. This is the only way to both increase and decrease police presence, so why not? Everybody, I solved crime!

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