Campus

The University of Minnesota’s new vice provost for student affairs and dean of students was announced Friday, following a five-month search.

Danita Brown, who has worked as Purdue University’s dean of students since March 2011, will assume her new post July 31, pending Board of Regents approval.

A bill to protect underage drinkers seeking emergency help is one step closer to becoming law in Minnesota.

Thursday, the state House passed medical amnesty legislation, which would provide legal immunity from the possession or consumption of alcohol for underage drinkers if they seek help for themselves or others.

“We want to encourage responsible choice,” said Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, the bill's author.

University of Minnesota police Lt. Troy Buhta rarely sees action as the internal affairs investigator of his department.

Buhta is responsible for looking into complaints filed against University police officers by civilians, but none have been filed since he took the job more than a year ago. There have been a total of 17 complaints since 2008.

Buhta is not disappointed by the inactivity.

“I think it means we’ve got some very responsible police officers,” he said.

The University of Minnesota’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance is forming a task force to deal with diversity issues students have raised.

“We want it to be a student-driven organization,” said department chair Carl Flink.

The department held two listening sessions with students and faculty members last month.

Flink said the task force will continue the dialogue next fall and start considering concrete actions.

Sandra Buchholz has had difficulty landing a job because she’s deaf.

Some employers wouldn’t hire her because her deafness would make it hard to communicate, said Buchholz, who works as an American Sign Language instructor at the University of Minnesota.

“I would say that there are a lot of deaf people out there who have a tough time getting a job because of their disability,” she said through an interpreter.

Researchers from the universities of Wisconsin and Washington reportedly falsified data.

A social psychologist in the Netherlands fabricated more than 50 scientific articles over the course of his career.

While reports of research misconduct at other universities have had an uptick this year, University of Minnesota officials tout the institution’s ethics program as an example for other schools.

Proactive measures

Most University research oversight exists to prevent research misconduct from occurring in the first place.

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents will meet Thursday and Friday for its final meeting of the academic year.

The regents will take action on a proposal to create a single, shared governance structure for the University of Minnesota, Fairview Health Services and University of Minnesota Physicians.

The board will also approve an agreement to allow the Minnesota Vikings to play in TCF Bank Stadium for two years while a new stadium is built in downtown Minneapolis.