Education Notebook

U of M offers financial analysis course to Rochester students through TV

The U of M's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs will offer a financial analysis course to Rochester students through the campus's high-tech TV classrooms. More info is below, with release after the jump:

Here come the University of Minnesota-Rochester Admiral Ackbars

Here's hoping no one in Rochester paid attention to University of Mississippi students earlier this year.

The University of Minnesota-Rochester is asking the community to decide the campus mascot. The school won't have collegiate sports and it's still unclear if they are going to change colors. I would assume not, simply because that leaves a lot of space to be repainted in a year.

But like the University's other campuses in Minneapolis/St, Paul, Duluth, Crookston and Morris, Rochester will get it's own mascot. At any rate, it should be much less contentious that recent naming battles at the University of Mississippi (the administration wanted to get rid of Ol' Reb) and the University of North Dakota.

Personally, I'm partial to naming the mascot, "The Scrubs." What else do you see walking around downtown Rochester? Not much. You can't even get away from it on the basketball court -- our city league team played against a team of guys wearing actual scrubs for jerseys. Granted, that name sucks. Really, it does and I'm afraid that most medically themed names do, also. (The Stethoscopes? The X-Rays? The Baseline Preventative Care Check-Ups That Can Limit the Risk of Prostate Cancer? Try fitting that into a rallying cry.)

In all honesty, whatever they decide, they should name it after a type of dog so that the school can have an actual mascot like Uga at the University of Georgia.

Either that or "The Tornadoes." If you've been following your Mayo Clinic history, that one might make some sense.

Text your ideas for UMR's Mascot to 82942 or e-mail mascot@umn.edu. Entries are due May 31.

ARTICLE: U of M-Rochester, YMCA enter pact for future collaboration

A year into a partnership that allows University of Minnesota-Rochester students to use the Rochester Area Family Y facilities, the two groups agreed to a deal Wednesday that aims at creating future connections.

Rochester Area Family Y Executive Director Steve Courts and U of M Chancellor Stephen Lehmkuhle shook hands and signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday morning, which calls  for both organizations to regularly explore how they might work together in the future.

During the past year, U of M-Rochester used student activity fees to pay for memberships at the local YMCA, allowing the students to use athletic facilities that the University otherwise couldn't access.
This agreement isn't significant in allowing those to continue, Lehmkuhle said, but more so for "the stuff we haven't thought about."

"This says we're going to purposely, routinely get together to think about the future," Lehmkuhle said.

That could mean that decades into the future, the groups utilize joint classrooms or shared facilities.
Courts said the partnership allows the YMCA to provide an academic atmosphere for their children and teenage clients, an atmosphere they otherwise would be hard pressed to create.

The partnership isn't rare by YMCA standards; Courts said several branches nationally have links to higher education. The local groups particularly used the guidance of a partnership between a downtown Phoenix, Ariz., YMCA and the University of Arizona, Courts said.

The move signals the latest private-public partnership for UMR. Instead of building dorms, University officials last year reserved rooms at Broadway Residence and Suites and the Residences of Old Town Hall. Since, they have entered into a 10-year, multi-million dollar lease with GH Holdings, a developer that plans to construct a mixed-use facility at 320 First Ave. S.W.

That lease allows the local campus to provide 178 beds of student housing in 84 apartments, in addition to office, classroom, laboratory and student life space. 

University of Minnesota Regent Steven Hunter said the U of M system will likely need to pursue more of these public-private opportunities in the future. Other coordinate campuses in Morris, Minn., and Duluth, Minn., have already entered agreements with their local municipalities for particular athletic complexes.

The City of Rochester previously collected $11.3 million of sales tax to be used for higher education, much of which has been used to create the current UMR system. The relationship between UMR and the City of Rochester, Hunter said, is a model for other campuses.

"It's very advantageous for both the University and the City of Rochester," he said.

ARTICLE: Local libraries donate 1,000 books to Cambodia school started by Cambodian native with Rochester ties

Rochester resident Kim Sin closes his eyes and daydreams. He remembers seeing the children in his native Cambodia, sifting through trash looking for a meal. But he envisions a place where those children can make a decent living and learn English, doing so with books donated by people in southeastern Minnesota.

The dream isn't too far from the mark.

Sin, 33, and several friends have created a school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, that teaches English to about 200 people, from young children to 20-year-olds. He sends $800 a month to the school, as do others. The school has been in operation for about four years and recently received a donation for furniture and bookcases from University of Minnesota-Rochester staff.

But when Sin, who works in the UMR information technology department, showed his co-workers pictures of the school, they saw that more work needs to be done.

"When he showed us a picture of the library, the bookshelf was empty," UMR librarian Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran said.

Minnesota Energy Building to be razed, possibly to make room for new UMR campus?

(Alright, that headline is a bit overplaying this.)

A nondescript building on the southern edge of downtown Rochester has been cleared for demolition, in order to make way for new development, according to this story from the P-B's Matt Russell.

Connecting dots from other development in the area, it could be for future University of Minnesota-Rochester campus space. But it also could just be used for an updated "urban village." Russell has some of the details in the story below.

The city owns the property, located on the 500 block of First Avenue Southwest, and also the spot across the way, known as the former KTTC building. City documents have said that the KTTC spot was purchased for redevelopment, including for UMR campus space.

LINK: Minnesota Energy building to be demolished

Article: U of M Rochester to buy first piece of land

The University of Minnesota-Rochester received approval to purchase its first plot of land Friday morning, after the University of Minnesota Board of Regents endorsed the purchase price of $1 million for a spot on South Broadway.

The plot of land that UMR officials agreed to buy is the former site of the China Dynasty restaurant, located at 701 S. Broadway. The land is currently owned by Golden Eagle, LLC, but the U of M Director of Real Estate Susan Carlson Weinberg expects a sale to close by the end of March. The purchase was approved for a total of $1.025 million.

Below is the rest of the article, as well as some links to the official documents presented to the U of M Board of Regents.

University of Minnesota-Rochester gains Student Senate seat

In what will be a historic move for the University of Minnesota-Rochester campus, the University of Minnesota Student Senate has awarded Rochester a senate seat for next fall.

U of M Student Senators will travel here to inform students about how to create a student government, according to a report from the Minnesota Daily. The Daily is the student-run newspaper of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

The U of M students are set to visit Rochester on March 25. They can't force students to create a government; the students here will have to create it themselves.

We'll obviously deliver more on this as it materializes.

LINK: U of M awards Rochester a student senate seat

International college officials tour UMR

University of Minnesota-Rochester freshman Alex Engelbrecht provides tours for prospective students usually from the upper Midwest, a group that typically doesn't include university presidents from Japan.

Wednesday was different — Engelbrecht showed four officials from Kansai University of International Studies around UMR.

The group from Kansai University of International Studies, a college in Japan, toured the college here on Tuesday and Wednesday in learning about Rochester's unique health sciences curriculum.

Kansai University of International Studies President Atsushi Hamana said he visited the campus to learn more about how the curriculum is intertwined across different classes.

University of Minnesota-Rochester launched a bachelor's degree in health sciences last fall, aiming for a program that links different subjects across the theme of medical science. About 50 students are enrolled in a program that boasts high technology, but also high student supervision.

For example, UMR Student Success Coach Parry Telander fills the void of a typical student advisor, except he attends classes and often hangs around the visible commons area to help out students. If a student isn't performing well after one test, the idea is that Telander can talk with the student and find a solution, rather than waiting several weeks until midterm grades are released.

Hamana called the UMR structure ambitious and attractive in offering a different way for students to learn.
A student in Japan will enroll in 10, 11 or 12 subjects at the same time," Hamana said. "It's too many."
He said it is usually difficult to link subjects and faculty members together, but the UMR program has set out to do just that. Hamana said he hopes to return to the Rochester campus in two years to see how the program has evolved, and how the now freshmen students have performed.

During this tour the officials met with university staff and toured the different classrooms, University of Minnesota-Rochester Chancellor Stephen Lehmkuhle said.

Lehmkuhle has talked about the desire to develop a national and international reputation for both
He said UMR officials want to put a research focus on student learning similar to the way campuses research cancer treatment or computer science.

Officials from Brigham Young University toured UMR earlier this year, Lehmkuhle said. The hope is that similar tours will eventually allow for the creation of other partnerships and fellowships in the long-term future, he said.

UMR: Looking back at the tug-o-war over Soldiers Field

With my return from vacation I figured I'd post this item from our "Focus on History" section. With people worried that the University of Minnesota-Rochester will encroach on Soldiers Field, here's some context to how those discussions have gone over the past few years.

(It should be noted that UMR officials have voiced interest in space near that site, but for what it's worth have come out and said that they don't want to encroach on the park itself.) Here's the article:

Rumors of Soldiers Memorial Field, established in 1926 by William T. McCoy American Legion Post and now part of Rochester's park system, as a site for a University of Minnesota Rochester campus are deja-vu all over again. In 1953, Rochester High School could no longer accommodate its growing enrollment, and plans for a new school began. The city council and school board favored a Soldiers Field location, but were unsure the city could sell a portion of the park to the school board. The state attorney general ruled it could, and things started heating up.

In March 1954, the Legion Post voted unanimously to oppose the location. In April, the city council declared a portion of Soldiers Field no longer needed for park purposes. Mayor Claude H. "Boney" McQuillan, a former pro boxer and Green Bay Packers player, opposed the location and vetoed the resolution. The council overrode the veto only to be countered by the mayor's refusal to sign a deed to transfer the land title. The argument went to court, where District Judge Arnold Hatfield ruled the veto was in order. John Marshall High School in northwest Rochester emerged from this turbulent beginning.

In 1965, the city council again cast its eye on Soldiers Field. The city had outgrown Mayo Civic Auditorium and needed a new civic arena. Soldiers Field and Mayo Field, now the Honkers' home field, were both considered since the city already owned the land. Ultimately, the arena was built near the auditorium. The decision might have been influenced by a Jan. 29,1966, Post-Bulletin "Editor's Notebook" by Charles Withers, which read, "Maybe from a 'cents' standpoint, Soldiers Field might be initially cheaper. But if that green park and recreational land were sacrificed for blacktopped parking lots and a new arena, we're certain that in years to come, our children and grandchildren will label this generation one which knew the price of everything and the value of nothing."

LINK: Focus on History (link)

University of Minnesota-Rochester not planning to sustain failed mexican restaurant, burned out Chinese eatery

The University of Minnesota-Rochester is set to make offers of $1 million for two chunks of land along Broadway Street on the southern end of downtown here.

Here is a look at how the offers shake out, from fellow ink-stained wretch Matt Russell. From the report:

The former restaurant buildings at 617 S. Broadway and 701 S. Broadway will both be demolished if their sales go through, and the sites will be used as surface parking lots before they are built on, according to the regents document. Closing is set to occur on March 31 for both properties, according to the document.