
Longing for Football
Although the delta variant could conceivably alter fall activities, the U of M hopes fans will once again be able to fill stands to see the Golden Gophers take the field.
This has been a long time coming.
Although the coronavirus and its evolving variants remain a
serious concern throughout the world, vaccinations, vigilance, and a carefully
prepared game plan have begun to restore some normalcy in Minnesota.
After a year
and a half of remote learning, remote work, and socially distanced lives, the U
of M campus is once again open. The lines have returned to Coffman. Students
are napping in the fall sun on Northrop Mall. Even the Campus Connector is
operating again.
After 18 months of being essentially mothballed—except for a
valiant skeleton crew who kept the University’s research labs functioning and
the buildings in good shape—the Twin Cities campus has now welcomed 7,500
incoming freshmen, an all-time high, and a 14 percent increase over the fall of
2020—as well as returning students who spent last year learning online.
And as
students return, many U of M attractions, museums, and art centers are also
reopening in person on varied schedules, while maintaining some of the distance
learning innovations that proved helpful during the worst of the pandemic.
—Elizabeth Foy Larsen
Fall Sports
Athletes who spent the past 18 months contending with
quarantines, testing protocols, and cancelled games—not to mention cardboard
cheering sections and canned soundtracks—are eager to once again have real live
fans in the stands.
“[The pandemic months were] difficult because we were
practicing, but we didn’t know if we were going to get to play,” says
volleyball setter Melani Shaffmaster (above right). Shaffmaster decided to
attend the U of M in eighth grade, only to have Covid-19 derail her freshman year. When 2020
volleyball was cancelled, she was deeply disappointed.
Shaffmaster says the
return of fans this month to Maturi Pavillion would be a literal game-changer.
“Seeing how invested all the fans are, just in each play, watching you every
single second—it’s really cool how Minnesota supports the volleyball program,”
she says. “I know the first game, I’ll be really, really nervous, but I think
it’ll be more from being excited.”
Women’s volleyball home games plan to kick
off September 1. Besides volleyball, other fall sports hoping to welcome back
fans include swimming, diving, and soccer. Learn more at
umnalumni.org/gopherfans.
And of course, for many fans, fall means football! Circumstances willing, the Homecoming Parade will make its way down University Avenue on Friday, September 24 at 6:30 p.m., followed by a live concert at Coffman Front Plaza. Then it’s on to the big game against Bowling Green at Huntington Bank Stadium on Saturday, September 25. Other events include a Bob Ross paint night September 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the St. Paul Student Center, and Drag Bingo at Coffman on September 22. Learn more at umnalumni.org/Homecoming. And for discounts on fall sports tickets, visit umnalumni.org/gopherfans. Ski-U-Mah!
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
When it reopened for car tours only on May 1, 2020, the
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum became a much-needed
respite from the pandemic. Now this beloved gem is open and welcoming visitors
back to its 1,200 acres of trails that wind through professional gardens and
protected natural areas. The Arboretum staff discovered during the pandemic
that reservations help ease parking and traffic congestion and will keep using
them to make the experience more pleasant for every visitor. Make your
reservations at arb.umn.edu.
Fall highlights include the Arb Glass Pumpkin
Patch, featuring eight award-winning, professional
glass artists from the Midwest and California displaying and selling over 2,000
glass pumpkins in all shapes, sizes, and colors. There will also be glass-blowing
demonstrations and classes. Proceeds support both the artisans and the
Arboretum. Public viewing is available from noon to 4 p.m. September 9 (note
that there are sales during the public viewing). You can also visit the patch
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. September 10 and 11, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 12.
There’s also the popular Autumn Yoga Retreat at the Arboretum, which takes
place on September 18. Participants can sample classes and enjoy walks and
quiet contemplation in the Arboretum gardens. (Other yoga classes are widely
available all through the fall.)
Need something more aerobic? The Fall Color
Run goes from October 9-17 and gives runners and joggers an opportunity to pick
a course and take in the fall colors while getting a workout.
If your tastes run more to indoor pursuits, “A Reflection on Being” is an exhibit of local artist Teo Nguyen’s large-scale photo-realistic paintings, some of which are taken directly from the Arboretum landscape. The show runs from September 9 to November 29 in the Reedy Gallery.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)
The galleries may have been closed to the public during the
pandemic, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t important developments taking
place behind the scenes at this award-winning museum on the Mississippi. With
support from a CARES Act Grant for Museums and Libraries, the staff used this
time to develop new tools to facilitate a more meaningful experience for
visitors who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or low vision.
“Before Covid-19,
we were not a super digital-savvy museum staff,” says Jamee Yung (M.Ed. ’03),
the museum’s director of education. “We didn’t really have digital
programming.”
Creating online content—including audio descriptions of art for
people who are sight-impaired—proved that there’s a hunger for museum experiences
not just for people who have been isolated by the pandemic, but for those who
weren’t previously able to enjoy a traditional museum experience. “The
University is difficult to navigate, the museum is hard to get into,” says
Yung. “We learned we can utilize this digital world as a way to eliminate some
of those barriers.”
The Weisman will also expand its new offerings into other
areas in the future, including online tours for people in memory care facilities.
Other changes include having American Sign Language interpreters at
museum-sponsored programs, and 3-D printed objects that will mimic the original
artwork and be available for visitors to touch.
“A prop that might be designed
to help a blind person understand an art piece better might also help a sighted
person understand the art piece better,” explains Louie McGee, a junior student
worker who is blind. “We’re one big community.”
That’s just the start of a more
expansive re-envisioning of the museum that also includes rethinking the kinds
of exhibitions and artists that are showcased. The Weisman staff believes these
changes will improve the museum experience for all visitors.
“The fact that
[the Weisman] has hired a blind student is already an indicator of change,”
says McGee. “There’s a whole advisory committee of people involved, in the
blind community and the deaf community, that is bringing in the voices that are
being impacted by this change.”
Audio tours for the public art col - lection
and the permanent collection are available on the CloudGuide app, which you can
download for free from the app store or Google Play.
The Weisman will also be leading in-person guided tours of the public art on campus for individuals who are interested. Information on requesting an in-person tour is available at wam.umn.edu.
Hello, You
Navigating a Return to an In-person World
During the lockdown and the work from home mandate, did you
ever turn off the video function on a Zoom call so your coworkers didn’t see
you folding laundry during a meeting? Does the idea of needing to share an
elevator with others leave you feeling anxious?
If you’re like most people who
were asked to work from home at the start of the pandemic, you may have
developed a few habits that need readjustment as we start to head back into public.
Whatever form it takes, returning will not be a return to “normal,” says
Catherine Squires, an associate dean at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Squires is part of a group of U of M staff, faculty, students, and alumni who
have worked together to thoughtfully address bringing people back to campus who
may be still processing a public health crisis and a racial reckoning after the
murder of George Floyd. “Return is going to be in negotiation,” she said in
mid-June at a Zoom seminar entitled Social Somatics: The Alchemy of Returning
to Embodied Campus Co-existence. “Return is going to be an experiment.”
Drawing
on both somatic (which means related to the body, especially as distinct from
the mind) and anti-racist research on health, work, and well-being, Squires
recommends that workplaces and employees make an effort to thoughtfully and
gently reengage with the in-person world, emphasizing flexible work schedules
and a more empathetic awareness of how traumatic events may impact colleagues.
With some forethought, she suggests, we can provide space and time to practice
being together after spending so much time apart —especially if we see this not
as the “end” of the pandemic, but as the next stage.
“If every outing that you’ve been on in the last year has mostly been to the grocery store with a mask on, being on a campus with a ton of people . . . is going to feel weird,” she says. “[These] are things that are going to keep happening, small and large interactions that will be triggering or be uncomfortable. So we need to prepare for it.”