Hot dish 06.26.24

By Josie Albertson-Grove

Good morning and happy Wednesday.

July probably can’t come soon enough for interim University of Minnesota President Jeff Ettinger, since he will hands off the reins of the U at the end of this month. In his final week, Ettinger is facing a possible vote of no confidence from the faculty Senate today over his hiring and subsequent un-hiring of an Israeli scholar to lead the U’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies because said scholar called Israel’s war in Gaza a “textbook case for genocide.”

And yesterday Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, hauled Ettinger before a Minnesota Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee meeting to speak not about mayhem in Dinkytown, but about reports of antisemitism on campus since the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, and during protests of Israel’s war in Gaza following the attacks.

For about 45 minutes, Navratil wrote, Ettinger fielded questions from lawmakers who wanted to know why faculty members had posted statements about the war on U websites, how the U responded to graffiti they found offensive or antisemitic and whether Ettinger had encouraged pro-Palestinian protesters by negotiating a deal with them to end an encampment.

“To me, that’s just not a good look,” said Sen. Michael Kreun, R-Blaine. “It’s not a responsible way of doing that, of being a competent responsible administrator.”

Committee Vice Chair Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, was not present at the summer hearing, nor was Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul. Worth noting neither of them signed a statement last fall condemning Latz for his statements about Palestinian children.

Benjie Kaplan, executive director of Hillel, a Jewish student organization, said he has seen “a level of toxicity that jeopardizes the physical safety of our Jewish students.”

Kaplan said he knew of at least one student who was so alarmed by a roommate’s anti-Israel rhetoric that the student requested a room change. He said others have felt alienated in classes. Earlier this month, someone fired BB pellets into the organization’s windows, both U and Hillel leaders said.

Members of another organization, Jewish Voices for Peace, told lawmakers that didn’t match their experiences on campus and they had, on some occasions, joined pro-Palestinian protests. Some of them said they feared that people were inappropriately conflating legitimate criticism of Israel’s actions with antisemitism, inflaming tensions.

Zach Fisher of Jewish Voices for Peace said he did not believe pro-Palestinian protesters hated him because he is Jewish.

“It’s fundamentally the most ridiculous statement I’ve heard in a long time, respectfully,” Fisher said.

“We have been very clear that our mission is to organize locally important, including and especially around constitutional rights and freedoms, which is why it’s important for us to promote the freedom of speech and the right to protest, even when as individual humans – as individual Jews – that are members of our organization and staff members that takes wildly diverse personal positions on international affairs,” Gendler said, per Goldsmith.

FLOOD: Rising water is wreaking havoc on southern Minnesota and beyond, even closing some parts of Valleyfair in the southwest metro.

Gov. Tim Walz has said he is open to the possibility of a special session to get funding to deal with flood damage, the extent of which is not yet known.

Walz said his administration is on track to submit a federal disaster declaration, and many farmers have already started keeping receipts, Christopher Vondracek reported. Farmers were also encouraged to report losses to the federal agriculture agencies in their county.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, also on site Tuesday, said a federal disaster declaration is triggered at $10.5 million in damages. She said the totality of the losses continues to pile in.

Seventeen open pit manure lagoons are overflowing into nearby fields, Greg Stanley reports, with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency watching closely to see if any of the manure starts to leak into rivers and streams where it could do more damage.

Jp Lawrence spoke with the family who lost the little white house that was perched at the edge of the water when the water overflowed the Rapidan Dam.

“We know we’re losing the house,” said Jenny Barnes, who grew up in the house.

HOUSING: A six-year lawsuit that had repeatedly interrupted Minneapolis’ pro-density 2040 Plan is “functionally” dead, said DFL Rep. Mike Howard, Housing Committee chair, during a presser about legislation to end the suit with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey yesterday, Susan Du reported.

The plan made Minneapolis the first city in the nation to end single-family zoning and Howard hopes the zoning changes — with similar changes since enacted in Howard’s home city of Richfield, St. Paul, Roseville and Bloomington — will help alleviate the cost of housing by building more small apartment buildings, townhouses and small houses.

Reporter Kelly Smith also took a look at how last year’s spending on affordable housing subsidies is turning into a surge of affordable apartments starting construction, despite the challenges of high interest rates and construction costs.

CORRECTION: Yesterday’s Dish should have said Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren was headed to south Minneapolis for the Biden campaign event, not southern Minnesota.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Emma Greenman of Minneapolis also spoke at the small rally that seemed to be more or less invitation-only for DFL activists.

WHERE’S WALZ:

Gov. Tim Walz has no public events on his schedule.

Keep us posted at hotdish@startribune.com.