EARLY WEEK TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2020
MNDAILY.COM
SERVING THE UMN COMMUNITY SINCE 1900
CURRENT EVENTS
Recent events have left many in the Iranian community on campus shaken.
at the memorial. Recent events reverberate among those in Minnesota from nearly 7,000 miles away. With high political tensions and dozens of lost lives, many in the Iranian community are filled with emotion. To express solidarity with Iranian students, ISSS reached out to members of the University’s Iranian community via email last week to offer condolences and offer support to impacted students.
Speaker Mohamad Noori addresses the congregation at a memorial for Ukraine flight 752 in John T. Tate Hall on Wednesday, Jan. 15. (Kamaan Richards / Minnesota Daily)
BY JIANG LI AND FARRAH MINA jli2@mndaily.com, fmina@mndaily.com
The University of Minnesota Iranian community gathered Wednesday at John T. Tate Hall to mourn the 176 passengers who died after a plane was mistakenly shot down by Iranian missiles on Jan. 8. Dozens of Iranian community members gathered expressing their condolences and mourning with one another. An Iranian community member sang a Persian song, and multiple videos were shown in honor of the lost passengers. “Certainly, loss is personal, loss is private, it’s shared, it’s communal, and I wish for each of us here that this event supports you in all the ways that you are impacted by this tragedy,” said Barbara Kappler, director and assistant dean for International Student and Scholars Services, at the memorial. University Ph. D. student Arash Mahnan planned the memorial in collaboration with the Global Programs & Strategy Alliance, an umbrella unit over ISSS. “I’d like to take this opportunity to honor all the victims of this tragedy, and our deepest condolences go out to the families and friends of all these people who have lost their lives,” Mahnan said
Iranian community at U copes with rising tensions
u See IRAN Page 3
STATE GOVT.
Proposal to pay for U renovations Gov. Tim Walz’s higher ed. funding package would allocate $224.2 million to the U in 2020. BY MOHAMED IBRAHIM mibrahim@mndaily.com
As the upcoming session approaches, state lawmakers are weighing how to balance the University of Minnesota’s infrastructure needs with those of stakeholders statewide. In his first capital bonding proposal, Gov. Tim Walz recommended $224.2 million to the University. As lawmakers prepare to begin the bonding process next month, University officials say the governor’s proposal is promising. Walz’s higher education package, the third of a four-part rollout of his capital investment proposal on Jan. 13, would allocate about 70 percent of the University’s $317.2 million 2020 capital request. The University’s 2019 request went unfunded after a bonding bill stalled in the Senate late last session. Bonding bills are typically passed in even-number years, although smaller bills can be considered in odd-years. Without the complete fulfillment of the University’s past capital requests, University President Joan Gabel said campus infrastructure will continue to deteriorate. “We’re very committed and have learned to allot with what we have, and we’re very committed to make the most of the resources that are made available to us,” Gabel said at a press conference earlier this month. “But it’s not sustainable, and it will get harder and harder to maintain quality under existing conditions.” Following the lack of a bonding bill last session, the state has received more than $5 billion in requests from stakeholders statewide. Rep. Connie Bernardy, DFL-New Brighton, chair of the House higher education committee, said a lack of funding for projects statewide can create a backlog in requests and increase competition for state funding. Bernardy said Walz’s proposal reflects the feedback from u See WALZ Page 3
Increased tensions, increased anxiety The email comes amid increased tensions with Iran, after top military commander Qassem Soleimani was assassinated on Jan. 2 by the United States. Regardless of the tensions between the two countries, the University will remain committed to providing support for this community, said Marissa Hill-Dongre, the director of the Immigration Response Team. “I’ve been hearing from some members of the community that they’re feeling sad ... lonely and far away from home,” Hill-Dongre said. University student Maryam Zahedi is fearful of the prospects of another war or a revolution in the wake of recent hostility between Iran and the U.S. It will only lead to more chaos and suffering, she said. “We don’t want another war. We’re just tired. We are hopeless and tired.” The decision to kill Soleimani puts Iranians inside and outside of the country at risk, Zahedi said. Iranian citizens – “just normal
POLICY
Faculty and staff training to implement new gender policy The training, focused on gender identity and pronouns, will take place in early February. BY ERIN ROSE BAKER AND NIAMH COOMEY ebaker@mndaily.com, ncoomey@mndaily.com
University of Minnesota staff and faculty are training to facilitate the recently passed gender equity and access policy. The policy asks that faculty use students’ specified names and gender pronouns, among other rules intended to make the University more inclusive of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. The Gender and Sexuality Center for Queer and Trans Life is now accepting applications for the spring cohort of faculty and staff training. The first cohort took place before the policy passed in December. Saby Labor, GSC director, said the program aims to spread education to different areas of the University by assigning staff who are
familiar with their unit’s culture. “The staff who are now facilitators, they are deeply embedded in the context of their unit, department, college or center,” Labor explained. Once trained, the facilitators are tasked with working to educate their colleagues, helping them work through questions and mistakes. Noelle Noonan, director of student affairs and registrar in the Law School, applied for the spring cohort of the training program. She emphasized the importance of living out the policy and modeling behavior for others. “I think this is a good opportunity for individuals who are passionate and are interested and want to dedicate that time and energy to sort of be champions of that policy,” she said. Facilitator Erin Keyes, who is also the assistant dean of students in the Law School, said in an email to the Minnesota Daily that a training session took place earlier this week for Law School employees. “The Facilitator Training Program for Gender Equity Access allows the Law School to better recognize and honor gender diversity
ENVIRONMENT
ILLUSTRATION BY HAILEE SCHIEVELBEIN, DAILY
in our community, knowing that it is an essential piece of who we are,” she said in the email. Noonan, who has also been involved with learning opportunities for faculty in the Law School, said difficult questions have been and will continue to be raised during the learning process. “That’s part of the process, is to have dialogue, to have open
conversation and to also start to have an improved vocabulary within these conversations and a shared vocabulary in these conversations,” she said. One challenge for the University community will be overcoming social structures that have been deeply ingrained for generations, Labor said. u See GENDER Page 3
STUDENT GOVT.
After years of complaints, UMN student elections group dissolved Administrators called for the replacement of the All Campus Elections Commission last month. BY SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON shendrickson@mndaily.com University of Minnesota Assistant Professor of Medicine Vishnu Laalitha Surapaneni, MD speaks at a “Teach-In” staged by Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate at the Minnesota State Capitol Building on Wednesday, Jan. 15. (Kamaan Richards / Minnesota Daily)
Community members gather at Capitol, fight proposed oil pipeline Researchers, physicians and students gathered Wednesday morning in opposition to the pipeline. BY BECCA MOST bmost@mndaily.com
Braving the cold Wednesday morning, more than 20 health professionals, students and climate advocates around Minnesota held a teach-in at the Minnesota State Capitol, educating senior staffers u See PIPELINE Page 3
After several years of complaints and last spring’s controversial student government elections, the University of Minnesota is taking a larger role this year in the election process, which used to be primarily controlled by students. The University student government elections for the Minnesota Student Association, the Council of Graduate Students and Professional Student Government were previously overseen by the All Campus Elections Commission student group, with help from administration. Last month, the University dissolved the ACEC with little
student input. Now, elections will be conducted by a representative from Student Unions and Activities, and a three-student advisory committee, each of whom will be independent from the various student governments to avoid conflict of interest. With its new model, SUA said it hopes to “increase efficiency” and find a “better way to run [student government] elections.” The student government elections process will begin in February. For the last couple of years, ACEC has come under fire for issues such as not following their own bylaws, unfair promotion of particular candidates and a lack of voter turnout. ACEC was also accused of “antidemocratic” voting policies, such as excluding professional students from the voting process during a controversial referendum calling u See ACEC Page 3 VOLUME 120 ISSUE 31