Taconite –
Edward Wilson Davis
Edward Wilson Davis (May 8, 1888 – December 3, 1973) was an American engineer and inventor famous for pioneering early research into taconite. As a researcher at the University of Minnesota, Davis developed an engineering process to economically ...
developed an engineering process to economically extract iron ore from hard taconite rocks, making taconite valuable as iron ore for the iron and steel industries.
*
Cosmic rays
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our ow ...
–
Phyllis S. Freier discovered the presence of heavy nuclei in cosmic rays, proving the similarity between our solar system and the rest of the galaxy.
*U.S. aviation –
Robert Rowe Gilruth led the development of flying qualities for airplanes, the use of rockets to achieve data at supersonic speeds, and the establishment of many of the nation's leading flight research and human space flight operations facilities.
*
Bone marrow transplant
Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood in order to replicate inside of a patient and to produce ...
–
Robert A. Good in 1968 performed the first successful human bone marrow transplant between persons who were not identical twins and is regarded as a founder of modern immunology. In 2018 Minnesota Gov.
Mark Dayton
Mark Brandt Dayton (born January 26, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Minnesota from 2011 to 2019. He was a United States Senator for Minnesota from 2001 to 2007, and the Minnesota State Auditor from 1991 to ...
proclaimed August 24 as University of Minnesota Blood and Marrow Transplant Day.
*
Gore-Tex
Gore-Tex is a waterproof, breathable fabric membrane and registered trademark of W. L. Gore & Associates. Invented in 1969, Gore-Tex can repel liquid water while allowing water vapor to pass through and is designed to be a lightweight, waterpr ...
–
Robert Gore invented Gore-Tex materials in 1969.
*
Disk drive
Disk storage (also sometimes called drive storage) is a general category of storage mechanisms where data is recorded by various electronic, magnetic, optical, or mechanical changes to a surface layer of one or more rotating disks. A disk drive is ...
–
Reynold B. Johnson invented a method and machinery to score tests electronically.
*
K-rations
The K-ration was an individual daily combat food ration which was introduced by the United States Army during World War II. It was originally intended as an individually packaged daily ration for issue to airborne troops, tank crews, motorcycle co ...
–
Ancel Keys
Ancel Benjamin Keys (January 26, 1904 – November 20, 2004) was an American physiologist who studied the influence of diet on health. In particular, he hypothesized that replacing dietary saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat reduces card ...
developed the rations for the U.S. military and also conducted dietary studies: the Minnesota Starvation Study and the Seven Countries Study.
*
Synthetic rubber –
Izaak Kolthoff developed the "cold process" for producing synthetic rubber, which he undertook under the U.S. synthetic rubber program during World War II.
*
Cyclotron
A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest O. Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. Lawrence, Ernest O. ''Method and apparatus for the acceleration of ions'', filed: Jan ...
–
Ernest Lawrence
Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an American nuclear physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron. He is known for his work on uranium-isotope separation fo ...
won the Nobel Prize for Physics 1939 for inventing and developing the cyclotron.
*''
Drosophila melanogaster
''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (the taxonomic order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the " vinegar fly" or "pomace fly". Starting with ...
'' –
Edward Lewis won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995 for his work on the ''Drosophila'' bithorax complex of homeotic genes.
*
Cardiac surgery
Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, with coronary artery bypass grafting); to co ...
–
C. Walton Lillehei pioneered open-heart surgery, as well as numerous techniques, equipment, and prostheses for cardiothoracic surgery.
*
POPmail –
Mark P. McCahill led the development of the Gopher protocol, the effective predecessor of the World Wide Web; was involved in creating and codifying the standard for Uniform Resource Locators (URLs); and led the development of POPmail, one of the first e-mail clients, which had a foundational influence on later e-mail clients and the popularization of graphical user interfaces in Internet technologies more broadly.
*
MMPI –
Starke R. Hathaway and
J. C. McKinley created the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), which was first published in 1943.
*
Zatocoding –
Calvin Mooers
Calvin Northrup Mooers (October 24, 1919 – December 1, 1994), was an American computer scientist known for his work in information retrieval and for the programming language TRAC.
Early life
Mooers was a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, atte ...
developed a mechanical system using superimposed codes of descriptors for information retrieval called Zatocoding, 1948.
*
Atomic bomb –
Edward P. Ney discovered cosmic ray heavy nuclei and solar proton events. After early work involving separating isotopes from uranium, he worked on the Manhattan Project.
*
Atomic bomb –
Alfred O. C. Nier devised a method to isolate the isotopes of uranium, a critical discovery in the atomic age. Nier worked with
Kellex Corporation
The Kellex Corporation was a wholly owned subsidiary of M. W. Kellogg Company. Kellex was formed in 1942 so that Kellogg's operations relating to the Manhattan Project could be kept separate and secret. "Kell" stood for "Kellogg" and "X" for sec ...
in New York City on the design and development of efficient and effective mass spectrographs for use in the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb in World War II. He designed most of the spectrographs used for monitoring uranium separations during the war.
*
Atomic bomb –
Frank Oppenheimer worked on uranium isotope separation in 1945 and joined the Manhattan Project.
*
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...
–
Ronald L. Phillips was the first to generate whole corn plants from cells grown in culture, which laid the foundation for, and sparked, a new industry using cell-culture methods to genetically modify corn plants and other cereals. The corn cell line most widely used for genetic modification of corn has greatly accelerated the improvement of corn as food, feed, and fuel.
*
Renewable energy –
Lanny D. Schmidt
Lanny D. Schmidt (May 6, 1938 – March 27, 2020) was an American chemist, inventor, author, and Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. He is well known for his extensive work in surfac ...
designed a reactor to extract hydrogen from ethanol, offering the first real hope hydrogen could be a source of inexpensive and renewable energy.
*
Biomimetics –
Otto Schmitt
Otto Herbert Schmitt (April 6, 1913 – January 6, 1998) was an American inventor, engineer, and biophysicist known for his scientific contributions to biophysics and for establishing the field of biomedical engineering. Schmitt also coined ...
invented the Schmitt trigger, the cathode follower, the differential amplifier, and the chopper-stabilized amplifier.
*
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
–
Deke Slayton
Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton (March 1, 1924 – June 13, 1993) was a United States Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, and test pilot who was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts. He went on to become NASA's fir ...
was one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts and became NASA's first chief of the Astronaut Office. He served as NASA's director of flight crew operations, making him responsible for crew assignments at NASA, from November 1963 until March 1972. At that time, he was granted medical clearance to fly and was assigned as the docking module pilot of the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, at age 51 becoming the oldest person to fly in space at the time.
*
Bathythermograph –
Athelstan Spilhaus
Athelstan Frederick Spilhaus (November 25, 1911 – March 30, 1998) was a South African-American geophysicist and oceanographer. Among other accomplishments, Spilhaus is credited with proposing the establishment of Sea Grant Colleges at a meeting ...
fully developed the bathythermograph (BT) in 1938, an instrument he perfected that was of vital importance in World War II against the German U-boat. During the war, the BT became standard equipment on all U.S. Navy subs and vessels involved in antisubmarine warfare.
*
CDC 6600
The CDC 6600 was the flagship of the 6000 series of mainframe computer systems manufactured by Control Data Corporation. Generally considered to be the first successful supercomputer, it outperformed the industry's prior recordholder, the IBM ...
–
James Thornton developed the CDC 6600, the world's first supercomputer, designed with Seymour Cray.
*
Ziagen
Abacavir, sold under the brand name Ziagen among others, is a medication used to treat HIV/AIDS. Similar to other nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), abacavir is used together with other HIV medications, and is not rec ...
–
Robert Vince
Robert Vince (born April 1, 1962) is a Canadian director, producer, writer and screenwriter. He has been involved in movie production since the late 1980s and has been directing movies since 2000, such as '' MVP: Most Valuable Primate'', the ''A ...
worked on antiviral drug candidates at UMN, where he went on to develop carbocyclic nucleosides termed 'carbovirs.' This class of medicinal agents included the drug abacavir. Abacavir was commercialized by GlaxoSmithKline as Ziagen for the treatment of AIDS.
US3DGraham Candlerpioneered the future of
hypersonics research with the development of the US3D
CFD code which builds off of NASA's DPLR code, but uses
unstructured grids and has many advanced numerical capabilities and physical models for multi-physics, highly coupled problems.
Campuses
Demographics: Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) campus
''Note: The flagship University of Minnesota campus is the Twin Cities campus, which comprises grounds in St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latter divided into areas on both the east and west banks of the Mississippi River. Administratively, these are all one campus, but for purposes of simplicity, this article will apply "campus" to its component parts where necessary to avoid confusion with the names of cities.''
As the largest of five campuses across the University of Minnesota system, the Twin Cities campus has more than 50,000 students; this makes it the ninth-largest campus student body in the United States overall. It also has more than 300 research, education, and outreach centers and institutes, on everything from the life sciences to public policy and technology.
The university (system-wide) offers 154 undergraduate degree programs, 24 undergraduate certificates, 307 graduate degree programs, and 79 graduate certificates. The university offers the majority of these programs and certificates at its Twin Cities campus. The university has all three branches of the
Reserve Officer Training Corps
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces.
Overview
While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...
(ROTC). The Twin Cities campus, as well as the campuses at
Crookston,
Duluth
, settlement_type = City
, nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City
, motto =
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...
,
Morris
Morris may refer to:
Places
Australia
*St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia
Canada
* Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry
* Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba
** Morris, Manitob ...
, and
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
, are accredited by the
Higher Learning Commission
The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...
(HLC).
The racial/ethnic breakdown of the student population is: 65.3% White, 12.7% International Students (that are undesignated race/ethnicity), 9.2% Asian, 4.3% Black, 3.1% Hispanic/Latino, 1.2% American/Native American Indian, and 4.2% Unknown. Among matriculants to the university, 63% are considered Minnesota residents and 37% are considered out-of-state residents. According to the University Office of Institutional Research, as of fall 2019 there were 31,367 undergraduates at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. Of that number, 6,278 were first-time, degree-seeking freshmen. There were 12,100 graduate students.
Minneapolis campus
The original Minneapolis campus overlooked the
Saint Anthony Falls
Saint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony ( dak, italics=no, Owámniyomni, ) located at the northeastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River. Throughout the mid-to-late 1 ...
on the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
, but it was later moved about a mile (1.6 km) downstream to its current location. The original site is now marked by a small park known as Chute Square at the intersection of and Central Avenues. The school shut down following a financial crisis during the American Civil War, but reopened in 1867 with considerable financial help from
John S. Pillsbury. It was upgraded from a
preparatory school to a college in 1869. Today, the university's Minneapolis campus is divided by the Mississippi River into an East and West Bank. The East Bank, the main portion of the campus, covers . The West Bank is home to the
University of Minnesota Law School
The University of Minnesota Law School is the law school of the University of Minnesota, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school confers four law degrees: a Juris Doctor (J.D.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of Science in Patent L ...
, the
Humphrey School of Public Affairs
The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs is a public policy and planning school at the University of Minnesota, a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is named after Hubert ...
, the
Carlson School of Management
The Curtis L. Carlson School of Management is the business school of the University of Minnesota, a public research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Carlson School offers undergraduate and graduat ...
, various social science buildings, and the performing arts center.
The Minneapolis campus has several residence halls: 17th Avenue Hall, Centennial Hall, Frontier Hall, Territorial Hall, Pioneer Hall, Sanford Hall, Wilkins Hall, Middlebrook Hall, Yudof Hall, and Comstock Hall.
East Bank
To help ease navigation of the large campus, the university has divided the East Bank into several areas: the Knoll area, the Mall area, the Health area, the Athletic area, and the Gateway area.
The Knoll area, the oldest extant part of the university, is in the northwestern corner of the campus. Many buildings in this area are well over 100 years old, such as some of the 13 in the
Old Campus Historic District. Today, most
disciplines in this area relate to the
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
. Burton Hall is home to the
College of Education and Human Development
The College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) is one of seventeen colleges and professional schools at the University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the ...
. Folwell Hall and Jones Hall are primarily used by the language departments. A residence hall, Sanford Hall, and a student-apartment complex, Roy Wilkins Hall, are in this area. This area is just south of the Dinkytown neighborhood and business area.
Northrop Mall, or the Mall area, is arguably the center of the Minneapolis campus. The plan for the Mall was based on a design by
Cass Gilbert
Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934) was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas and ...
, although his scheme was too extravagant to be fully implemented. Several of the campus's primary buildings surround the Mall area.
Northrop Auditorium
Cyrus Northrop Memorial Auditorium (commonly known as Northrop Auditorium or simply Northrop) is a performing arts venue at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is named in honor of Cyrus Northrop, the university's second presi ...
provides a northern anchor, with
Coffman Memorial Union
Coffman Memorial Union (commonly known as Coffman Union or simply Coffman) is a student union on the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Situated near the Mississippi River, Coffman anchors the south end of Northrop Mal ...
(CMU) to the south. Four of the larger buildings to the sides of the Mall are the primary
mathematics,
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
, and
chemistry buildings (Vincent Hall, Tate Laboratory and Smith Hall, respectively) and
Walter Library
Walter Library is an academic library located on the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It currently houses the College of Science and Engineering Library and Dean's Office, the Digital Technology and Digita ...
. The Mall area is home to the
College of Liberal Arts, which is Minnesota's largest public or private college, and the
College of Science and Engineering. Behind CMU is another residence hall, Comstock Hall, and another student-apartment complex, Yudof Hall. The Northrop Mall Historic District was formally listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in January 2018.
The Health area is to the southeast of the Mall area and focuses on undergraduate buildings for
biological science
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...
students, as well as the homes of the College of
Pharmacy, the School of
Nursing
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...
, the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, School of Dentistry, the University of Minnesota Medical School, Medical School, the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, School of Public Health, and M Health Fairview Hospitals and Clinics. This complex of buildings forms what is known as the University of Minnesota Medical Center. Part of the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences, College of Biological Sciences is housed in this area.
Across the street from the University of Minnesota Medical Center Fairview is an area known as the "Superblock", a four-city-block space comprising four residence halls (Pioneer, Frontier, Centennial and Territorial Halls). The Superblock is one of the most popular locations for on-campus housing because it has the largest concentration of students living on campus and has a multitude of social activities between the residence halls.
The Athletic area is directly north of the Superblock and includes four recreation/athletic facilities: the University Recreation Center, Cooke Hall, the University Fieldhouse, and the Memorial Stadium (University of Minnesota)#University Aquatic center, University Aquatic Center. These facilities are all connected by tunnels and skyways, allowing students to use one locker room facility. North of this complex is the Huntington Bank Stadium, Williams Arena, Mariucci Arena, Ridder Arena, and the Baseline Tennis Center.
The Gateway area, the easternmost section of campus, is primarily composed of office buildings instead of classrooms and lecture halls. The most prominent building is McNamara Alumni Center. The university is also heavily invested in a biomedical, biomedical research initiative and has built five biomedical research buildings that form a biomedical complex directly north of Huntington Bank Stadium.
=Notable architecture
=
University of Minnesota Armory, The Armory, northeast of the Mall area, is built like a Norman architecture, Norman castle. It features a sally port, sally-port entrance facing Church Street and a tower that was originally intended to be the professor of military science's residence. Since it originally held the athletics department, the Armory also features a gymnasium. Today it is home to military science classes and the university's Reserve Officers' Training Corps.
Several buildings in the
Old Campus Historic District were designed by early Minnesota architect Leroy Buffington, LeRoy Buffington. One of the most notable is University of Minnesota Old Campus Historic District#Pillsbury Hall, 1889, Pillsbury Hall, designed by Buffington and Harvey Ellis in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Pillsbury Hall's polychromatic facade incorporates several sandstone varieties that were available in Minnesota during the time of construction. Buffington also designed the exterior of University of Minnesota Old Campus Historic District#Burton Hall, 1894, Burton Hall, considered one of the strongest specimens of Greek Revival architecture in Minnesota.
Many of the buildings on the East Bank were designed by the prolific Minnesota architect Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., Clarence H. Johnston, including the Jacobean architecture, Jacobean Folwell Hall and the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts edifices of
Northrop Auditorium
Cyrus Northrop Memorial Auditorium (commonly known as Northrop Auditorium or simply Northrop) is a performing arts venue at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is named in honor of Cyrus Northrop, the university's second presi ...
and
Walter Library
Walter Library is an academic library located on the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It currently houses the College of Science and Engineering Library and Dean's Office, the Digital Technology and Digita ...
, which he considered the heart of the university. Johnston's son, Clarence Johnston Jr, was also an architect and designed the original Bell Museum of Natural History, Bell Museum building and
Coffman Memorial Union
Coffman Memorial Union (commonly known as Coffman Union or simply Coffman) is a student union on the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Situated near the Mississippi River, Coffman anchors the south end of Northrop Mal ...
in the 1930s.
The Malcolm Moos Health Sciences Tower, which is the tallest building on the Twin Cities campus, is a noted example of brutalist architecture.
In more recent years, Frank Gehry designed the Weisman Art Museum, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum. Completed in 1993, the Weisman Art Museum is a typical example of his work with curving metallic structures. The abstract structure is considered highly significant because it was built prior to the widespread use of computer-aided design in architecture. It also ushered in a new era of architecture at the university, which continued with the completion of the McNamara Alumni Center in 2000 and Bruininks Hall (formerly STSS) in 2010.
Another notable structure is the addition to the Architecture building, designed by Steven Holl and completed in 2002. It won an American Institute of Architects award for its innovative design. The Architecture building was then renamed Rapson Hall after the local modernist architecture, modernist architect and School of Architecture Dean Ralph Rapson.
The university also has a "Greek row" of historic fraternities and sororities located north of campus on University Avenue SE.
West Bank
The West Bank covers . The West Bank Arts Quarter includes:
*Rarig Center (Theatre Arts & Dance)
*The Barbara Barker Center for Dance
*Ferguson Hall (School of Music)
*Ted Mann Concert Hall
*Regis Center for Art
The Quarter is home to several annual interdisciplinary arts festivals.
The Social Sciences are also on the West Bank and include the
Carlson School of Management
The Curtis L. Carlson School of Management is the business school of the University of Minnesota, a public research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Carlson School offers undergraduate and graduat ...
, the University of Minnesota Law School, Law School, and the
Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs
The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs is a public policy and planning school at the University of Minnesota, a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is named after Hubert ...
.
Wilson Library, the largest library in the university system, is also on the West Bank, as is Middlebrook Hall, the largest residence hall on campus. Approximately 900 students reside in the building named in honor of William T. Middlebrook.
Getting around
The Washington Avenue Bridge (Minneapolis), Washington Avenue Bridge crossing the Mississippi River provides access between the East and West Banks, on foot and via designated bike lanes and a free shuttle service. The bridge has two separate deck (bridge), decks: the lower deck for vehicles and the newly constructed light rail, and the upper deck for pedestrian and bicycle traffic. An unheated enclosed walkway runs the length of the bridge and shelters pedestrians from the weather. Walking and riding bicycles are the most common modes of transportation among students. University Police occasionally cite individuals for jaywalking or riding bicycles on restricted sidewalks in areas surrounding the university, resulting in fines as high as $250. This is often done at the beginning of a school year or after pedestrians interfere with traffic.
Several pedestrian tunnels ease the passage from building to building during harsh weather; they are marked with signs reading "The Gopher Way".
The Minneapolis campus is near Interstate Highway System, Interstates Interstate 94, 94 and Interstate 35, 35W and is bordered by the Minneapolis neighborhoods of Dinkytown (on the north), Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis, Cedar-Riverside (on the west), Stadium Village (on the southeast), and Prospect Park, Minneapolis, Prospect Park (on the east).
Three Light rail in Minnesota, light-rail stations serve the university along the Green Line (Minnesota), Green Line: Stadium Village (Metro Transit station), Stadium Village, East Bank (Metro Transit station), East Bank, and West Bank (Metro Transit station), West Bank. The university partnered with Metro (Minnesota), Metro to offer students, staff, and faculty members a Go-To card#Campus Zone Pass, Campus Zone Pass that enables free travel on the three stations that pass through campus, as well as a discounted unlimited pass for students.
St. Paul campus
The St. Paul campus is in the city of
Falcon Heights, about from the Minneapolis campus. The default place name for the ZIP code serving the campus is "St. Paul", but "Falcon Heights" is also recognized for use in the street addresses of all campus buildings. The University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, including the University of Minnesota Food Industry Center and many other disciplines from social sciences to vocational education, are on this campus. It also includes the College of Continuing and Professional Studies, College of Veterinary Medicine, and College of Biological Sciences. The extensive lawns, flowers, trees, and surrounding University research farm plots create a greener and quieter campus. It has a grassy mall of its own and can be a bit of a retreat from the more urban Minneapolis campus. Prominent on this campus is Bailey Hall, the St. Paul campus' only residence hall. Campus Connector buses run every 5 minutes on weekdays when school is in session, and every 20 minutes on weekends, allowing students easy access to both campuses.
The Continuing Education and Conference Center, which serves over 20,000 conference attendees per year, is also on the St. Paul campus.
The St. Paul campus is home to the College of Design's Department of Design, Housing, and Apparel (DHA). Located in McNeal Hall, DHA includes the departmental disciplines of apparel design, graphic design, housing studies, interior design, and retail merchandising.
The St. Paul campus is known to University students and staff for the Meat and Dairy Salesroom, which sells animal food products (such as ice cream, cheese, and meat) produced in the university's state-certified pilot plant by students, faculty and staff.
The St. Paul campus borders the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, which hosts the largest state fair in the United States by daily attendance. The fair lasts 12 days, from late August through Labor Day. The grounds also serve a variety of functions during the rest of the year.
Although the Falcon Heights North American Numbering Plan, area code is 651, the university telephone system trunk lines use Minneapolis Telephone exchange, exchanges and its 612 area code.
Commuting between Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses
On regular weekdays during the school year, the Campus Connectors operate with schedule-less service as often as every five minutes during the busiest parts of the school day (between 7 am and 5:30 pm), slowing to once every 15 or 20 minutes during earlier or later hours. The estimated commute time between St. Paul and the East Bank is 15 minutes. In 2008, the system carried 3.55 million riders. Although the shuttle service is free, it is comparatively inexpensive to operate; with an operating cost of $4.55 million in 2008, the operating subsidy was only $1.28 per passenger. Even Metro Transit (Minnesota), Metro Transit's busy Metro (Minnesota), Metro Blue Line (Minnesota), Blue Line light rail required a subsidy of $1.44 that year, and that was with many riders paying $1.75 or more for a ride.
Campus safety
The Step Up campaign is a program that helps students prevent excessive drinking, as well as sexual assault and other crimes, by teaching them how to intervene and prevent in a positive way.
This is done, in part, by explaining the bystander effect. The U of M also has a TXT-U emergency notification text messaging system that sends out a notification to all faculty, staff, and students in case of emergency.
Other resources help students get home safely. Calling 624-WALK secures an escort for walks to adjacent campuses and neighborhoods, and Gopher Chauffeur, a van service, offers rides near and on campus. Both are free and open to all students, staff, and faculty.
In addition, the campus has nearly 200 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and 200 yellow phones for emergency-only calls. The University Police Station has 20 Code Blue phones around campus that immediately connect people to their office. There are also over 2,000 security cameras being monitored 24 hours a day.
Sexual assaults
Minnesota Gophers football player Dominic Jones was convicted of sexual assault in 2008. In July 2009, an appeals court upheld Jones' conviction, but reduced his four-year prison sentence to one year.
More than 1,000 sexual assaults on campus were reported between 2010 and 2015.
No prosecutions for rape occurred, according to Katie Eichele of the Aurora Center,
[ until the conviction of 2014 University of Minnesota rape case, Daniel Drill-Mellum in 2016, for the rapes of two fellow students.] Drill-Mellum received a six-year prison sentence.
It has been alleged that few sexual assaults on campus are reported to University police. Six resulted in arrest from 2010 to 2015; one was determined to be unfounded.[ In a study by campus police, in the years between 2005 and 2015, sexual assaults at the university remained the same or increased despite six sexual assault resources and many anti-crime programs on campus. In August 2020, the University of Minnesota agreed to pay $500,000 to a woman who in the fall of 2016, accused several Gophers football players of sexually assaulting her. In February 2017, a University of Minnesota panel cleared four of the 10 Gopher football players the woman accused, expelled four and suspended the other two for a year.
]
Student life and traditions
Greek life, professional and honor societies
The University of Minnesota has numerous fraternities and sororities. Including defunct branches, the Greek System numbers more than 200 organizations, approximately half of which operate today. The university's Greek societies include the residential Fraternities and sororities in North America, Academic and Social chapters, including non-residential multicultural groups. The Greek System includes some but not all Professional fraternities and sororities, Professional Fraternities, Honor society, Honor Societies, Religious and Service fraternities and sororities, Service Fraternities. Fraternities and sororities have built several historically significant "Fraternity Row" homes along University Ave. SE, 10th Ave. SE, 4th Street SE, and 5th Street SE, all in Minneapolis, or along Cleveland Ave. near the St. Paul campus.
As of June 2018, approximately 3,900 system members made up about 11% of the campus population. Minnesota hosts 38 academic fraternities, 20 academic sororities, 56 honors societies, 31 professional societies, and two service-focused chapters.[The University of Minnesota / Office for Fraternity and Sorority Life annual report](_blank)
, accessed September 9, 2018
Media
Print
''Minnesota Daily, The Minnesota Daily'' has been published twice a week during the normal school season since the fall semester 2016. It is printed weekly during the summer. The ''Daily'' is operated by an autonomous organization run entirely by students. It was first published on May 1, 1900. Besides everyday news coverage, the paper has also published special issues, such as the Grapevine Awards, Ski-U-Mah, the Bar & Beer Guide, Sex-U-Mah, and others.
A long-defunct humor magazine, ''Ski-U-Mah (magazine), Ski-U-Mah'', was published from about 1930 to 1950. It launched the career of novelist and scriptwriter Max Shulman.
A relative newcomer to the university's print media community is ''The Wake Student Magazine'', a weekly that covers UMN-related stories and provides a forum for student expression. It was founded in November 2001 in an effort to diversify campus media and achieved student group status in February 2002. Students from many disciplines do all of the reporting, writing, editing, illustration, photography, layout, and business management for the publication. The magazine was founded by James DeLong and Chris Ruen. ''The Wake'' was named the nation's best campus publication (2006) by the Independent Press Association.
Additionally, the ''Wake'' publishes ''Liminal'', a literary journal begun in 2005. ''Liminal'' was created in the absence of an undergraduate literary journal and continues to bring poetry and prose to the university community.
''The Wake'' has faced a number of challenges during its existence, due in part to the reliance on student fees funding. In April 2004, after the Student Services Fees Committee had initially declined to fund it, the needed $60,000 in funding was restored, allowing the magazine to continue publishing. It faced further challenges in 2005, when its request for additional funding to publish weekly was denied and then partially restored.
In 2005 conservatives on campus began formulating a new monthly magazine named ''The'' ''Minnesota Republic''. The first issue was released in February 2006, and funding by student service fees started in September 2006.
Radio
The campus radio station, KUOM "Radio K", broadcasts an eclectic variety of independent music during the day on 770 kHz AM radio, AM. Its 5,000-watt signal has a range of , but shuts down at dusk because of Federal Communications Commission regulations. In 2003, the station added a low-power (8-watt) signal on 106.5 MHz FM radio, FM overnight and on weekends. In 2005, a 10-watt translator began broadcasting from Falcon Heights on 100.7 FM at all times. Radio K also Internet radio, streams its content at www.radiok.org. With roots in experimental transmissions that began before World War I, the station received the first AM broadcast license in the state on January 13, 1922, and began broadcasting as Radio K, WLB, changing to the KUOM radio call sign, call sign about two decades later. The station had an educational format until 1993, when it merged with a smaller campus-only music station to become what is now known as Radio K. A small group of full-time employees are joined by over 20 part-time student employees who oversee the station. Most of the on-air talent consists of student volunteers.
Television
Some television programs made on campus have been broadcast on local Public Broadcasting Service, PBS station KTCI channel 17. Several episodes of ''Great Conversations'' have been made since 2002, featuring one-on-one discussions between University faculty and experts brought in from around the world. ''Tech Talk'' was a show meant to help people who feel intimidated by modern technology, including cellular phones and computers.
Minnesota Student Association
The Minnesota Student Association (MSA) is the undergraduate student government at the University of Minnesota. It advocates for student interests on local, state, and federal levels, and focuses on efforts that directly benefit the student population.
"Gopher Chauffeur", originally titled the MSA Express, is a student-operated late-night ride service. Piloted by MSA, the 2007–2008 administration of Emma Olson and Ross Skattum began the process of transitioning the service to the university's Boynton Health Services. This was done to ensure its longevity. Student response was overwhelmingly positive, and the program was expanded in recent years due to campus safety concerns.
MSA was instrumental in passing legislation in the 2013 Minnesota Legislature for medical amnesty, and has focused more heavily on legislative advocacy in recent years.
Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA) was responsible for graduate and professional student governance at the University of Minnesota. It is the largest and most comprehensive graduate/professional student governance organization in the United States. GAPSA serves students in the Carlson School of Management
The Curtis L. Carlson School of Management is the business school of the University of Minnesota, a public research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Carlson School offers undergraduate and graduat ...
, the Dental School, the Graduate School, the University of Minnesota Law School, Law School, the University of Minnesota Medical School, Medical School, the School of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, the School of Public Health, the College of Veterinary Medicine, and the College of Education and Human Development. GAPSA is also a member of the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students.
The University of Minnesota has the second-largest number of graduate and professional students in the United States at over 16,000. All registered graduate student, graduate and professional students at UMN are members of GAPSA. It was established in 1990 as a nonprofit (IRS 501 (c)(3)) confederation of independent college councils representing all graduate and professional students at the University of Minnesota to the Board of Regents, the president of the university, the University Senate, UMN at large and the wider community. GAPSA served as a resource for member councils, as the primary contact point for administrative units, as a graduate and professional student policy-making and policy-influencing body, and as a center of intercollegiate and intracollegiate interaction among students.
In 2014, GAPSA split into two organizations and ceased to exist as such due to an increasing separation between the needs of graduate and professional students. COGS (the Council of Graduate Students) broke off from the larger body, which then renamed to PSG (Professional Student Governance). Both units continue to fulfill the former functions of GAPSA for the respective student bodies each represents.
Student activism
Student activism has played an important role at the university, including campaigns to desegregate campus housing in the 1930s and 1940s, Black students' take over of Morrill Hall in 1969, which led to the creation of the Department of Afro-American Studies, now known as the Department of African-American and African Studies, the 1970 student strike against war, campaigns to keep the General College Truth Movement, General College open in the 2000s, campaigns against racism in 2014-2015 known as Whose Diversity?, and many graduate student unionization efforts. For example, recent labor coalition efforts in the 2021-2022 academic year have highlighted poor wage, poor stipend conditions, and administrative disrespect for graduate student workers.
Athletics
Minnesota's Twin Cities campus athletics teams are called the Minnesota Golden Gophers
The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...
and are members of the Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As of 2019, they have won 19 NCAA championships and claim nine national football championships.
Since the 2013–14 school year, the only Minnesota team that does not compete in the Big Ten is the Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey, women's ice hockey team, which competes in the WCHA. The Gophers Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey, men's ice hockey team was a longtime WCHA member, but left when the Big Ten began operating a Big Ten Conference (ice hockey), men's ice hockey league with six inaugural members. The current athletic director is Mark Coyle.
The Golden Gophers' most notable rivalry is the annual college football game against the Wisconsin Badgers (University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin) for Paul Bunyan's Axe. The two universities also compete in the Border Battle, a year-long athletic competition in which each sport season is worth 40 points divided by the number of times the teams play each other (i.e. football is worth 40 points because they play each other only once, while women's ice hockey is worth 10 points per game because they play four times a year). Conference and postseason playoffs do not count in the point standings.
Goldy Gopher is the mascot for the Twin Cities campus and the associated sports teams. The gopher (animal), gopher mascot is a tradition as old as the state, which was tabbed the "Gopher State" in 1857 after a political cartoon ridiculing the $5 million railroad loan that helped open up the West. The cartoon portrayed shifty railroad barons as striped gophers pulling a railroad car carrying the Territorial Legislature. Later, the university picked up the nickname with the first university yearbook, bearing the name "Gopher Annual", appearing in 1887.
The Minnesota Rouser is university's fight song. It is commonly played and sung by the 320-member University of Minnesota Marching Band, Minnesota Marching Band at events such as Graduation, commencement, convocation, and athletic games. Other songs associated with the university include the Minnesota March, which was composed for the university by John Philip Sousa, and Hail! Minnesota, the university's Alma mater (song), alma mater and state song of Minnesota.
Football
The Minnesota Golden Gophers are one of the oldest programs in college football history. They have won seven national championships and 18 List of Big Ten National Championships, Big Ten Conference Championships. The Golden Gophers played their first game on September 29, 1882, a 4–0 victory over Hamline University, St. Paul. In 1887, the Golden Gophers played host to the Wisconsin Badgers in a 63–0 victory. With the exception of 1906, the Golden Gophers and the Badgers have played each other every year since. The 128 games played against each other make this the most played rivalry in NCAA Division I FBS college football.
In 1981, the Golden Gophers played their last game in Memorial Stadium (University of Minnesota), Memorial Stadium. Between 1982 and 2008, the school played their home games in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. They moved back to campus on September 12, 2009, when their new home, TCF Bank Stadium, opened with a game against the 2009 Air Force Falcons football team, Air Force Falcons of the United States Air Force Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy. Often referred to as The Bank, the stadium was renamed Huntington Bank Stadium in June 2021 to reflect the acquisition of TCF Bank by Huntington Bank.
Basketball
The Golden Gophers men's basketball team has won two Helms Athletic Foundation#National titles, National Championships, two National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Championships, and eight Big Ten Regular Season Championships. They also have six NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, NCAA Tournament appearances, including a Final Four appearance in 1997 and three NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, Sweet 16 appearances. However, because of University of Minnesota basketball scandal, NCAA sanctions for academic fraud, all postseason appearances from 1994 to 1998—in the NCAA Tournament in 1994, 1995, and 1997 and NIT in 1996 and 1998—were vacated. Most recently, in April 2014 the Golden Gophers defeated SMU to win the NIT championship at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The Golden Gophers women's basketball team has enjoyed success in recent years under Pam Borton, including a Final Four appearance in 2004. Overall, they have six NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, NCAA Tournament appearances and three NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, Sweet 16 appearances.
Men's hockey
The Golden Gophers men's hockey program has won 5 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship#NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Championship, Division I National Championships, and 24 conference championships (including 13 Western Collegiate Hockey Association men's champions, WCHA and 4 Big Ten men's ice hockey champions, Big Ten Hockey season championships. They have won 14 Western Collegiate Hockey Association men's champions, WCHA Tournament Championships and have 20 NCAA Frozen Four appearances. A former Golden Gophers hockey tradition was to fill a majority of the team roster with Minnesota natives. Home games are played at Mariucci Arena. The Golden Gophers' big rivals are the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of North Dakota.
Women's hockey
The Golden Gophers women's hockey team has won six NCAA National Championships, most recently in 2016, and nine WCHA Regular Season Championships. They have also won seven WCHA Tournament Championships and have eleven NCAA Frozen Four appearances. They play their home games in Ridder Arena. They were the first collegiate women's hockey team to play in an arena dedicated solely to women's ice hockey. In the 2012–2013 season they finished undefeated at 41–0, and are the first and only NCAA women's hockey team to do so. After winning the NCAA tournament their winning streak stood at 49 games, dating back to February 17, 2012, when they lost to North Dakota.
Women's rugby
The first Division I collegiate women's rugby club in the state, the Golden Gophers women's rugby club team won the Midwest conference championship in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Women's gymnastics
The Golden Gophers Women's Gymnastics team competes in the Maturi Pavilion. The team has won six Big Ten titles, the most recent in 2016, when they won the regular season championship with a 9–0 record.
Cross Country and Track and Field
The Cross Country and Track and Field programs have produced several professional runners, including Ben Blankenship and Gabriele Grunewald, Gabriele Grunwald. They also host the Roy Griak meet, a large collegiate cross country meet.
Notable people
File:Norman Borlaug.jpg, Norman Borlaug
Norman Ernest Borlaug (; March 25, 1914September 12, 2009) was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded multiple ...
(B.S, Forestry, 1937; M.S. (1939) and Ph.D. (1942), Plant Pathology), 1970 Nobel Prize in Peace
File:Herb Brooks 1983.JPG, Herb Brooks (B.A., 1962), Ice hockey at the Winter Olympics, Olympic ice hockey coach
File:Nick Clegg by the 2009 budget cropped.jpg, Nick Clegg (Fellow, 1989–90) Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
File:Bob Dylan - Azkena Rock Festival 2010 2.jpg, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
(Literature & Arts, 1959–1960) 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature
File:Hubert Humphrey crop.jpg, Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
(B.A., 1939) List of Vice Presidents of the United States, 38th Vice President of the United States
File:GKpress.jpg, Garrison Keillor (B.S, English, 1966), author
File:Walter Mondale 1977 vice presidential portrait.jpg, Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928 – April 19, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesota ...
(B.A., Political Science, 1951), List of Vice Presidents of the United States, 42nd Vice President of the United States
File:Slayton.jpg, Deke Slayton
Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton (March 1, 1924 – June 13, 1993) was a United States Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, and test pilot who was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts. He went on to become NASA's fir ...
(B.S., Aeronautical Engineering, 1949), Mercury Seven astronaut
File:Sen William L Armstrong.jpg, William L. Armstrong, American Businessman and United States Senator from Colorado
See also
* List of colleges and universities in Minnesota
Notes
References
External links
*
University of Minnesota Athletics website
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Minnesota Twin Cities, University Of
University of Minnesota,
Educational institutions established in 1851
Flagship universities in the United States
Forestry education
Land-grant universities and colleges
Minneapolis–Saint Paul
Universities and colleges in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Public universities and colleges in Minnesota, University of Minnesota
Universities and colleges in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Minnesota populated places on the Mississippi River
1851 establishments in Minnesota Territory