From the op-ed:
So why Minnesota? Our cooler climate makes it easier and cheaper to keep servers from overheating. We sit on a strong regional power grid with growing wind and solar capacity. We have available land near transmission lines and highways. Communities across the state also see data centers as a way to grow their tax base and attract well-paid, high-skill jobs without relying on heavy industry. When you add the fact that companies want geographic diversity for reliability, Minnesota has become a strategic node in the national AI and cloud computing map.

Artificial intelligence is the accelerator pedal behind this surge. We already needed data centers for search, streaming and cloud services, and that demand has been climbing steadily for years. What changed is the explosion of large AI models that require specialized chips and enormous clusters of machines to train and operate. Each new AI application is far more resource intensive than a traditional web application, turning a steady trend into a sprint. Companies are building and leasing capacity faster than they otherwise would, and Minnesota is squarely in their sights.

From the article:
Enterprises are going all in on agentic AI, accelerating initiatives even as they outpace the controls required to govern them.

The gap between agentic AI ambition and readiness is growing wider as organizations move from experimentation to production. The key issue is no longer whether AI agents can automate work, but whether the necessary data governance, observability and identity foundations are in place to handle these autonomous systems at scale. ...

Siloed data stores and static data warehouse models won’t support secure, governable and resilient agents, said Pablo Ballarin, co-founder and virtual chief information security officer at cybersecurity services firm Balusian S.L. and a member of the Emerging Trends Working Group at ISACA, an association for governance professionals.

Ballarin said that’s why it’s essential that organizations move to dynamic, entity-centric and governed data fabric architectures.

That’s the strategy at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. Jena Zangs, the university’s chief data and AI officer, said it uses a centralized data lakehouse, data mesh architecture and metadata tagging to support agentic AI use.

“That gives us governability,” she said. “And it keeps data and business close to create a data product, so when we talk about agentic AI, we can keep agents to a specific domain and they don’t have to have access to the entire database.”

The certificate's curriculum emphasizes personal attention to the values, practices and needs that arise from diverse religious traditions, spiritualities and worldviews. Students will build knowledge about several major religions and the differences within them, while also recognizing that no health provider can ever know all the varieties of religious traditions or spiritual approaches that exist.

Dr. Susan Myers, an associate professor of theology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is the program's director.

"The importance of educating healthcare providers about religious difference became strikingly apparent to me when I had a Jewish rabbi scheduled to speak to nursing students in one of my courses," Myers said. "The rabbi had spent nearly a year in the hospital after being diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. She spoke of the kindness of nurses and doctors and of their sensitivity to her situation, but also of her need to advocate for herself."

As the rabbi shared her experience, Myers was struck by the way small gestures remain with a person who is dealing with a life-threatening illness — the doctor who delivered the diagnosis and prognosis, not by standing over the bed of the patient, but by sitting at her level; the nurse who held her hand as she struggled with the reality of what she was facing.

For one day each week, she did not receive testing or test results. She kept Shabbat as a slice of the world to come and a time when she did not need to be working or productive but could simply be who she is, a precious human.

The rabbi recounted that many of the hospital staff were unfamiliar with Judaism and how it sometimes affected the care they provided. A chaplain visited her room in mid-December in a Santa hat, offering a cheery “Merry Christmas!” When the rabbi pointed out that she was Jewish, the chaplain changed the greeting to “Happy Holidays!” although Hanukkah had begun in November that year and had ended several weeks earlier.

But there was also the nurse who approached the sick rabbi to say that she was unfamiliar with Judaism but wanted to learn how best to serve her patient.

"I think I learned at least as much from this rabbi as my students did," said Myers. "I realized how important it is to see each patient as an individual, with distinct values and beliefs and lived experiences, and not simply as an illness. I realized that even well-intentioned people might need to learn about different religious traditions. And I realized how important it is not to assume, but to be able to ask questions and to acknowledge areas in which one needs to learn more."

For Myers, this experience instilled a desire to learn more about the relationship between religious traditions and healthcare, as well as the conviction that she wanted to share this knowledge with her students.

"There is evidence that the vast majority of seriously ill patients want to talk about their spiritual or religious needs while in the hospital," Myers said. "Unfortunately, this element is regularly ranked as most in need of quality improvement. The Graduate Certificate in Interfaith Literacy for Health Providers was created to help change that reality and to encourage car providers to serve all patients and clients with knowledge and respect."

From the article:
The St. Cloud Diocese, which stretches across 16 counties in central Minnesota, is planning the closures in response to steady declines in both the number of priests and parishioners, as well as trends of people becoming less religious, though there has been an uptick in devotion among young men in recent years. ...

Jacob Hornecker, who teaches theology at the University of St. Thomas, attributes the decline in priests to cultural changes around the importance of faith and the growing demands on priests as they take on more parishes. 

Hornecker, who grew up in Minnesota, spent two years in Rome training to become a priest but left after seeing the increasing demands on priests, which include holding marriage classes, overseeing church finances and being on call for emergencies in the parish – in addition to the weekend Mass schedule. Hornecker, 29, thinks his personal experience is similar to many considering the priesthood. 

“I love the mission. I wanted to stick with it,” he said. “And, it turns out, in education, I get to talk about God just as much, if not more, than a priest.”

From the conversation:
Deborah Becker: Today, On Point, we’re talking about this battle over the judiciary and what it means for checks and balances and for our democracy. I want to start the conversation by talking with Virgil Wiebe, a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Virgil, we just heard a little bit about the order earlier this year from Chief Judge Schiltz.

I wonder what was your impression there of that order?

Wiebe: I, along with other immigration attorneys here in the Twin Cities rejoiced. I’m on a listserv with other immigration attorneys and there must have been two dozen congratulatory emails to Graham and his colleague Morgan about that case.

One attorney said this is a Whitman sampler of contempt.

Becker: But I wonder what really, were you so excited that a judge was standing up to the administration? What was the main reason for the rejoicing?

Wiebe: The rejoicing was at the time, as you recalled it was the heart of Metro Surge.

In hindsight, we know that it went on for another three or four weeks.

Becker: And so we should say this was when the federal government put thousands of agents or sent thousands of agents to Minneapolis, and that was what Metro Surge was at that time.

Wiebe: That’s right. And they were unlawfully detaining hundreds of people, hundreds and hundreds of people.

And because the Supreme Court in its wisdom had done away with universal injunctions. And because class actions are difficult when you’re trying to do habeas petitions. So that was the way to fight back, was the local bar really came together and began filing individual habeas corpus petitions on behalf of people being detained.

And so that was the method of fighting back in that context.

Becker: And so Schiltz issues this ruling, saying, I want the head of ICE to come in here and tell me why the government’s not following my orders. And that was something that was eventually resolved when ICE released the man in custody.

But do you think it had a long-standing message here?

Wiebe: It took a while for the message to sink in. The response of the government. So as part of his January order there, Judge Schiltz had his clerks review other court orders in the District of Minnesota, and he found that something like 96 violations of court orders in over 70 cases.

And in response to that, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota responded that he had his numbers wrong and his clerks had looked at the numbers and they weren’t anything like that. Judge Schiltz is not one to take kindly to essentially being called either incompetent or dishonest. And he went back and he said, yeah, we made a few mistakes.

But then he found over 113 violations of court order. And then he said the government would be brought into line one way or another. We’ll start issuing contempt orders and we’ll consider criminal contempt which can lead to jail time for government attorneys or government officials.

So he was very frustrated. There wasn’t quick response to his concerns. And this has bled over into other parts of the government. ...

From the conversation:
Smith: I would encourage everyone who’s thinking about college to know that they can succeed in college. Usually the difference between succeeding in college or not is stepping out or persisting. Usually it is not a reflection of one’s intellect, one’s gifts and talents. Sometimes it is structural barriers, and so I would encourage everyone who has that burning desire and passion to pursue education. And maybe their K-12 experience wasn’t as positive as they would have liked, that they should not give up on that dream, but I think they should think about, could there be a college that has the infrastructure that would specifically address structural barriers? And I think that is what Dougherty Family College does. ...

Robert Pilot: Well, that is beautiful, and that, to me, is kind of what education is all about. It’s really investing in our future. And Dougherty Family College is doing exactly that. I love what I hear every time you’re on, Buffy. Isaac, talk a little bit more about your experience, because it sounds like you know you’ll be able to go back and do mentorship yourself someday, or even soon, or even now.

Issac Garcia: I would absolutely love to. I already am very helpful toward the freshmen. I know all of our sophomores are. We all are dedicated to them, helping the people behind us to succeed, as we have. Many of my classmates are also tutors who dedicate their time to making sure people succeed in the future. I would love to be back here and to help out, as in any way I can, even if it’s not academically, if it’s meant for like a club. I help run the chess club currently, and we encourage anybody who either has experience or doesn’t to try out, because it’s not a time to just play chess. It’s a time to meet each other, get to know each other and create connections.

From the article:
In the fall, Ashley Mooneyham was at a professional standstill.

She was about to get $2 million in federal funding for a big clinical trial of her award-winning invention, Momease, a heated nursing bra that marketing pros were convinced would help other new moms and disrupt the $2 billion breast-pump product category.

Then the funding was put on hold – twice – before she could even get Momease to market. ...

On April 13, the Small Business Innovation Research program was restarted with Trump’s signature, ending a seven-month funding lapse. 

But Mooneyham isn’t waiting around to see whether the funding will be restored. PetalSoft is capturing her time and attention, and she thinks her new business has a shot.

Deeds, who trains entrepreneurs on how to successfully start a business, said Momease offers a “great case study” on the nimbleness required of startups.

“The only advantage an entrepreneur and entrepreneurial venture have is that they can adapt and move faster than big companies,” he said. “What you are watching is somebody do a good job of entrepreneurship. She hit new obstacles and barriers, but she’s been able to pivot.”

“It’s about this thick,” he said, demonstrating with his fingers set apart. “Five sections. Pictures are great, the headlines are great, the story selection is amazing. And you look around the newsroom… and you say to yourself, we made this. Yesterday we made this thing.”

That sense of collective purpose, and the responsibility that came with it, has stayed with him across a career that has taken him from local reporting to the center of national politics as chief Washington correspondent for CBS News and host of “The Takeout.”

It also shaped the way he spoke about journalism during a full room at a recent visit to the University of St. Thomas, where he joined St. Thomas President Rob Vischer for a Finding Forward conversation.

The event, the final Finding Forward of the 2025-26 academic year, was part of the inaugural Whalen Media Ethics Summit, which was sponsored by the Department of Emerging Media at St. Thomas’ College of Arts & Sciences.

Garrett, who has covered multiple presidential administrations and the evolving relationship between government, media and the public, did not romanticize the industry. When Vischer asked him what it is like to cover Washington today, Garrett described a profession under strain, where economic pressures, political hostility and the pace of digital news have fundamentally altered how journalism works. But he repeatedly returned to the foundation of traditional journalism.

“If I’ve done my career’s work the way I’ve tried to do it, you don’t know what I believe,” he said. “You shouldn’t. It’s not my job.”

But Garrett did express his views on artificial intelligence: He doesn’t use it.

“I don’t use AI at all because I’m a writer,” he said. “It’s kind of emotional for me because it’s all I ever wanted to be. So, I’m not interested in anything that someone else created that will write for me, that would essentially carve out my very being.”

Writing, he said, is the foundation of how journalists think, report and communicate.

“Understand what it means to be a writer. Understand what words mean,” he said, invoking Mark Twain. “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between a bolt of lightning and a lightning bug.”

For Garrett, that precision cannot be outsourced. And neither can the work that comes before it.

“Go out and find facts. Use those facts as the armor for your writing and be a journalist,” he said. “An AI can process what other journalists have already done, but no AI ever invented will be a journalist. Ever.”

Today, he acknowledged, audiences are more fragmented than they were before. The lines between reporting and opinion are often blurred, and journalists are evaluated as individuals as much as representatives of a newsroom. Still, Garrett described his role in terms that have not shifted.

“My job is to tell you what I’ve learned, explain it as clearly as I possibly can, and then let you decide what to do with it,” he said. “I don’t have a cause. I don’t have a crusade. I’m not trying to change the world. I’m trying to witness the world. We will always need witnesses.”

Unfortunately, he noted, there are fewer of those witnesses today as declining revenues have shrunk newsroom staffs – especially at local newsrooms. The result is not just fewer stories, but fewer points of connection between institutions and the public.

“When there’s nobody there, what do you trust?”

In a media environment filled with competing voices, Garrett drew a distinction between journalism and other forms of content creation.

“An influencer profits by the methodology of the witnessing,” he said. Journalists, he argued, operate differently. “A journalist witnesses, chronicles, writes it down and produces it. Their profit is not tied to the way they witness something. An influencer has to witness a certain way because there is a market expectation. A journalist does not.”

Despite the disruption facing the industry, Garrett expressed confidence in the role journalism continues to play.

“The thing you’re Googling didn’t spring out of the ground by itself,” he said. “Somebody was someplace with a pad and a pen and a camera and recorded it, witnessed it, chronicled it and produced it.”

For Garrett, that act of witnessing remains essential, regardless of how news is delivered or consumed.

“We will always need witnesses. We will always need chroniclers.”

The Center for Irish Studies, with generous support from the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Family Foundation, hosted a number of events throughout Ireland during the week of April 13 to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the prestigious award. These events included a reading with previous awardees and the presentation of the award in Regent House at Trinity College in Dublin where President Catherine Connolly presented the award and provided comments.

"The award is the only one like it in the world in which one institution, or indeed nation, directly recognizes a citizen and artist of one other country," said Dr. David Gardiner, director of the Center for Irish Studies. "The center and the award both emphasize St. Thomas’ place as a global origin of Irish Studies. We've offered courses in the discipline since 1964 and established the now 30,000 piece Celtic Special Collections in 1917."

Like his father, Lawrence O’Shaughnessy was a renowned supporter of and visionary for St. Thomas. Among his many gifts were an endowment that established the Center for Irish Studies in 1996. A centerpiece of this gift was the establishment of the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Poetry Award. Since the original gift, the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Family Foundation has generously contributed to its continuance.

A resident of Dublin, Enda Wyley is a poet, children’s author, teacher and co-host of the popular podcast Books for Breakfast. Her six poetry collections include The Painter on his Bike (2019), To Wake to This (2009), Sudden Light (2025) and her debut, Eating Baby Jesus (1993); she has also published Borrowed Space: New and Selected Poems (2014), all from Dedalus Press. Among her previous awards are the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize, Melbourne University, and a Reading Association of Ireland Award. Her work has been widely anthologized, translated, and frequently broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1. She is a member of Aosdána.

From the conversation:
Kent Erdahl: Erica Diehn is a professor of management at the University of St. Thomas, Opus College of Business. She says many companies seem to put off that transition after all the uncertainty following the COVID pandemic, but many, especially in retail, are now realizing they can’t wait anymore.

Diehn: The pace of change has been so accelerated and AI, of course, has magnified that times a million. Many leaders are in what we’d call a chaos fatigue, right? They’re constantly adapting, and there’s something new around the corner, and we have to be constantly learning. And so we’re moving from that expert CEO to that agility of learning.

Erdahl: Everything seems to be fraught with challenge. Brian Campbell is a leader at the Conference Board, a business-orientated think tank which has tracked the rise in so called CEO churn, but says companies like Target, Best Buy and even Apple, which also just announced a CEO transition plan, are betting on a slow succession over a big splash in the stock market. ...