In 2024, WalletHub named Minneapolis and St. Paul two of the top five cities for disabled people. Enjie Hall, the director of the University of Minnesota's Disability Resource Center (DRC), called the Twin Cities the "Mecca for disabled individuals," citing buses with wheelchair lifts, and the accessibility of the residence halls on campus. David Fenley, the Legislative Coordinator at the Minnesota State Council on Disability, agreed that Minneapolis is better than other cities, but also noted to The Minnesota Daily that "there is still open discrimination in the city."
One student with low vision told The Minnesota Daily that the accommodations process at UMN can be confusing, and DRC's strict diagnostic and documentation requirements might deter students from seeking supports. The same student also criticized the lack of thought demonstrated for Blind and low vision students by the architects who designed the campus, which can be difficult to navigate for either disabled or nondisabled students, especially in winter when the campus is covered in snow and ice.
DRC recently partnered with Access to Information, Remote Access (AIRA), a visual interpreting and navigation service available to community members for free, according to The Minnesota Daily. Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) also offers paratransit, which is available to anyone in the community with a valid University of Minnesota Internet ID. However, students report having to schedule rides days and weeks in advance, which can severely impact their campus life experience.
University of Minnesota was the first college campus in the world to establish a Disability Cultural Center (in 1992). A UMN student from Saudi Arabia, who now serves on the board of the DSCC as director of advocacy, spoke of the importance of finding community. "One advantage of having a designated space for students with disabilities is the opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences. Even when their disabilities differ, a solution that benefits one student may also prove helpful to others," said the student to The Minnesota Daily.
All eyes were on Minneapolis in 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). That year, University of Minnesota president, Joan Gabel, appeared to be listening to the student community when she announced that UMN would be cutting ties with the MPD. However, in 2022, UMN abruptly reneged on that promise and began reestablishing ties. Not only did UMN betray its students, but it missed an important opportunity to show leadership in how to invest in real community safety.
According to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News in 2020, "employees associated with the campus police department had used Clearview [facial recognition technology]" despite prior avowals from the University of Minnesota that it would never use facial recognition on its campus.
University of Minnesota is ranked 54th among national universities by U.S. News. This is a slight drop from the 53rd spot last year.
Fourth-year student Minzi Sahn registered with the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at the University of Minnesota for the first time a year ago, after her classes had started for the semester. She did not expect to be able to leverage the timed testing accommodations she received in her Business Economics class because of the short notice.
“We usually require students to submit their DRC letter at least three business days before the exam as we are extremely busy getting ready for the exam. You really need to thank Professor Ho-Kim’s kindness for allowing this exception for you,” the economics test center administrator wrote in an email to Sahn.
Professors, students and the DRC work together to compromise on accommodations to address barriers in classes. Faculty, like Professor Thu-Mai Ho-Kim, are under no obligation to grant a request if it is not made in a timely manner or compromises essential requirements of a course or job.
When Sahn sought an extension under her assignment flexibility accommodation for two assignments due later that month, she emailed that her need for an extension was due to hardships she had been experiencing that week relating to her disability.
The test center administrator replied that, while her accommodation letter was not intended to modify due dates or deadlines essential to the outcomes of the course, Professor Ho-Kim was again willing to accommodate the request. The class in question had a strict policy prohibiting deadline and redo modifications, as two homework scores were dropped at the end of the semester.
“These email exchanges when I attempted to use my DRC accommodations last year honestly rubbed me the wrong way,” Sahn said. “It made me feel as if I was burdening them.”
Source:Link
The University of Minnesota confirmed on Thursday that a 2021 breach of a university database may have compromised personal information of students and staff dating back to 1989.
On July 21, 2023, the U of M learned of an individual claiming to have posted sensitive admissions data on the internet. After an extensive investigation into the claim's credibility, the university confirmed that a breach of its database occurred in 2021. According to a press release, this incident has not affected university operations.
The U of M has since confirmed that the incident has potentially affected individuals who submitted personal and sensitive information as a prospective student, attended the university as a student, worked at the university as an employee, or participated in university programs between 1989 and 2021.
Some of the information the individual has potentially gained access to includes full names, addresses, telephone numbers, Social Security numbers, driver's license or passport information, university I.D. numbers, birthdates and demographic information.
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"I trusted the university with my personal information and didn't protect it. And that's really frustrating," Kauffman said. "When I saw social security as one of the data points taken from me potentially, I was like, 'holy crap this is really serious.'"
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The University of Minnesota’s Queer Student Cultural Center (QSCC) faces an uncertain future after some board members went on strike to protest allegations of racism and misconduct and the majority of the QSCC’s leadership resigned.
Eight members of the Board of Governors (BOG) went on strike starting April 2 due to a disagreement with the way the QSCC administration was handling allegations of racial microaggressions, according to former BOG member Lynn Dinh.
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Sara Lam, the QSCC’s former treasurer, resigned in February due to feeling disrespected by other QSCC leaders. Lam said leadership repeatedly talked over people of color, including her and Dinh, in a way that felt discriminatory.
Both Lam and Dinh said when they tried to bring up unequal treatment and microaggressions, leadership did not fully address their concerns.
Lam and Dinh said members used their queer identity or disability as a shield to claim they could not have done anything racist. This caused their concerns to be pushed aside, they said.
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While the nature of her disability allows her some privilege as a visibly able-bodied person, she said she’s often seen as lazy or faking it.
“People will give me really dirty looks when I take disability seating, to the point where I will pass out before I ask someone to give up their seat for me,” she said. “I hate having people question my disability just because they can’t see it.”
But while her professors give her accommodations because she’s registered with the Disability Resource Center, she says her classmates don’t always understand the reality of her disability. She’s been docked in peer evaluations for not showing up to group work despite informing her classmates she physically can’t get there.
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