Star Tribune
Tough college classes weed out students, but a Mankato program helps more succeed
MANKATO — The first anatomy exam of the semester was just days away when students gathered in the library at Minnesota State University, Mankato for a study session filled with games.
Want to mark your spot on a tic-tac-toe board? You need to name three types of protein in the cytoskeleton. Want to win at trivia? You need to know the cranial cavity houses the brain.
Overseeing the exam prep was Amal Sharafkhodjaeva, a junior who remembers vividly how hard it was to pass one of the university’s toughest courses. Now she’s working as a MavPASS leader, one of dozens of student employees running study sessions aimed at helping scholars thrive in the most difficult subjects and helping the university chip away at racial disparities.
“I think I passed the course just because of MavPASS,” said Sharafkhodjaeva, who took the class last year. “The content is really hard to understand.”
Minnesota frequently ranks among the states with the highest college completion rates, but glaring racial disparities persist. While roughly 60% of Asian and white adults in the state obtain a college degree, closer to 30% of Black and Hispanic adults earn one, according to data from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.
College leaders face increased pressure to reduce disparities in higher education in part because their pool of prospective applicants is becoming more diverse. By 2036, about 40% of Minnesota public high school graduates will be people of color, according to projections by the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, a nonprofit that works with colleges and universities.
So four years ago, Minnesota State Mankato began experimenting with a new program called MavPASS, short for Maverick Peer-facilitated Academic Support System. The university hires students who have passed some of the university’s most difficult classes — chemistry, calculus and anthropology, among others — and asks them to run study sessions for students who are taking the courses now. Sometimes, they help students prepare for upcoming tests. Sometimes they review difficult new topics that were covered in a lecture or a lab.
“I loved the fact that it was peer facilitated,” said Laura Jacobi, a communication professor and faculty liaison for the MavPASS program, noting students are sometimes intimidated by professors and feel more comfortable with fellow students. “Oftentimes, students don’t want to show when they don’t know something.”
The university’s data showed the program benefitted all types of students and narrowed racial achievement gaps. When students of color attended 10 or more MavPASS sessions, 94% of them continued on to the next semester; without those extra sessions, just 81% continued their studies. When white students attended those MavPASS sessions, 95% continued their studies, compared to 85% of those without the extra help.
Minnesota State Trustee Jim Grabowska said in a meeting earlier this month that the program represents a shift from an older “academic culture” that had a history of offering “wash-out classes, where they were intentionally designed or taught in order to separate those who get it from those who don’t.”
Student leaders understand tough topics
Students who have been through the program said it encourages them to get comfortable asking for help. Haley Nelson, a student who runs some of the study sessions for an accounting class, said she can see the change in students’ confidence as the semester progresses.
MavPASS leaders undergo training to help them learn how to run study sessions and how to help students learn for themselves. Nelson frequently tells students, “Share what you think. Learn from it, even if it’s not the correct answer.”
Student leader Sam Christenson guided pupils in an introductory accounting course through a “big new concept” of balancing accounts and reconciling them in journals. A slide projected on a screen listed a series of transactions for a fictional communications company and students had to decide whether they should be listed as credits or debits and match them with the correct account.
When students ran into trouble, Christenson asked them, “So what is happening with the money?” and “What viewpoint are we coming from?” Students worked their way through the answers, one by one.
The MavPASS program has expanded over the years and now covers 25 courses.
In Sharafkhodjaeva’s anatomy review session, she asked students to describe different types of glands that are found in the body and what function each serves.
What do sebaceous glands secrete? Sebum. Where can you find that? In the hair and the skin. And how did Sharafkhodjaeva tell the students she remembered that? Because if you don’t wash your hair for a few days, it gets oily.
Heading into the first exam of the semester, students are nervous, Sharafkhodjaeva said: “They are worried. They are trying to predict questions.”
Sharafkhodjaeva tries to pass along some of the mnemonic devices and other tips that helped her pass the class.
“I know what my struggle was,” she said. “I can understand.”
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
ST. CLOUD – On Tuesday, St. Cloud voters will be asked to make decisions on a new fire station and moving city elections to odd years, and — for those who live in Stearns County — how to fund a new county jail.
Here’s a look at the three referendum questions that are on St. Cloud-area ballots this year.
Ballot question: “Shall Stearns County be authorized to impose a sales tax & use tax of three-eighths of one percent to finance up to $325 million, plus associated bonding costs, for the construction of a justice center facility, consisting of law enforcement, judicial center and jail? The sales tax would be used solely to finance construction, upgrades and financing costs for the justice center and remain in effect for 30 years or until the project is paid for, whichever comes first. These services and facilities are mandated by the state of Minnesota to be provided by counties.”
Stearns County officials are planning to build a new $325 million justice center complex that includes a 270-bed jail, a judicial center with courtrooms, and a law enforcement center that houses the Sheriff’s Office. In the summer, Stearns County board members voted to move those facilities out of downtown and to a new location with more space. That site has yet to be determined.
The question before voters is how to fund that center.
County Administrator Mike Williams said a common misconception he’s heard at recent town halls is residents think voting “yes” gives permission to the county to build the facility, and if they vote “no,” the county won’t spend the money to build it.
“People [think they] are voting on the project — and they’re not. They’re voting on how we are going to fund it,” Williams said.
If voters approve the ballot question, the county will impose a sales tax to fund the project. If they vote it down, the county can instead pay for the project with property taxes.
That children like Charlotte — their very existence — are up for debate is a painful affront to couples who fought desperately to become parents.
“Our daughter doesn’t exist in a world without science,” Snyder said. “Through our film, you get to see our journey together, husband and wife, in the operating room. Seeing the [embryo] transfers, the highs and the lows, the loss we experienced to then find our greatest joy. That doesn’t happen without access to IVF.”
Jay Snyder holds baby Charlotte, who points to her mom, Paralympic swimming champion Mallory Weggemann. (Provided)
Several weeks ago, I shared with you the story of other men who became fathers only through the help of assisted reproduction. No matter what you think of Gov. Tim Walz’s politics, know this: His outspokenness around his and his wife’s infertility journey has helped other men yearning to be dads feel less alone.
We have a lot of work to do to reduce the stigma and shame of male-factor infertility in particular. When people heard that Weggemann and Snyder couldn’t have a baby, many assumed the condition stemmed from Weggemann. That could be because of longstanding notions about disability and motherhood. Weggemann was paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 18 after a botched epidural to treat back pain.
”There’s a lot of unconscious bias that the disability community is not sexually active,” Weggemann said. “Therefore, how could we have children?”
Another misconception, of course, is that infertility is simply a woman’s problem. That’s despite the fact that men and women contribute about equally toward the condition.