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.”
Twin Cities, get ready to potentially spot an ex on the Minneapolis season of Love Is Blind, which was officially announced Wednesday night.
The anticipated reunion episode that closed out season 7, set in Washington, D.C., included the surprise announcement. The eighth season will launch on Valentine’s Day.
“This Valentine’s Day 2025 will mark the five-year anniversary of the premiere of Love Is Blind, and it is going to be the launch of season 8, which takes place in Minneapolis,” host Vanessa Lachey said in a moment also posted to social media.
Three of the incoming Minneapolis singles were introduced in the reunion episode. When asked about the challenges of the dating scene in Minneapolis, one contestant shared a sentiment many Minnesotans will be familiar with.
“It’s such a small community, it’s not like a major city but it’s also not a small town. So you kind of see the same people over and over, and it’s a small bar scene,” he said.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
