Talk:University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota is a system university

The University of Minnesota (UMN) is a system university with five different campuses i.e. UMN Crookston, UMN Duluth, UMN Morris, UMN Twin Cities, and UMN Rochester. It is misleading to say that UMN is formally UMN Twin Cities. 2607:EA00:401:0:80E8:B40:C4E3:147F (talk) 19:47, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

We usually follow the lead of reliable sources when naming articles. In this case, we have this article about the primary campus which is what most sources mean when they write "University of Minnesota" and University of Minnesota system for the system. ElKevbo (talk) 02:58, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

I agree that local news usually refers to the Twin Cities campus as the University of Minnesota; however, I agree with the first commenter that the current name is confusing. Since the article is about the Twin Cities campus, it ought to be titled University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. That is the full and correct name for the university. Miel001 (talk) 14:44, 17 September 2023 (UTC)

The Twin Cities campus is so dominant as the flagship school of the system, that to burden the article with a longer name would be pedantic. Common usage is "I attend the University of Minnesota" versus "I attend Minnesota Duluth" --The modifier always is appended to the other schools of the system. In the same way, there are a couple of other cities called "Minneapolis", sure, but it is Minneapolis, Minnesota that has earned that article name, versus Minneapolis, Minnesota, the naming style common for most cities. Jax MN (talk) 16:34, 17 September 2023 (UTC)

Proposed Updates

Hello, I am a student at the University of Minnesota and I have to edit a Wikipedia article for a class. I was thinking about fleshing out the history section and overall just updating the article. Does anyone have any thoughts? Kadida (talk) 21:45, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

Be Bold and go for it! If you have more questions about getting started, the Teahouse is a great resource. TheSavageNorwegian 23:04, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

Kadida, beware of editing articles on topics you are closely related to, as you may have a bias, or you may have private knowledge or experience about the topic, which is great, but which is inadmissible at Wikipedia if it hasn't been published in a reliable source. If you decide to go ahead with it, be sure to maintain a strictly neutral point of view, and to avoid using any of your private knowledge or experience, and stick to the published sources. If you can do that, you should be okay. Sources are king; a good place to start your modifications is with a list of the sources you have assembled. You are welcome to add your sources to a new, § Further reading section, which you can add after References and before External links, even in the absence of any changes to the article. Good luck! Mathglot (talk) 11:53, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Please add something about nearby attractions VerseVoyager8 (talk) 15:56, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Also about study spaces VerseVoyager8 (talk) 15:57, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Upcoming changes and updates to this page

Hello all! I just wanted to post here the changes my group(Tyantes3, Kqasim, Sushi19k, and I) will be making in the next few days for our Wikipedia editing assignment. Please let us know any and all feedback you have about these changes as we make them over the next couple of days

Improvements:

• Expand the history section.
• Update demographic statistics.
• Update the Campus Safety section. This section highlights the safety features on the campus but doesn’t explain why they are needed. Dinkytown isn’t the safest area.
• Add more information about The Minnesota Daily under the Media Print section as it is the current media being produced by the students at the U of M.
• Add information about the gophers 3 peating as national champions from 1934-1936 in Football. This is tied with Georgia as the most consecutive national championships in NCAA history.

Kadida (talk) 20:27, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

Hi everyone, I just made the updates to the Athletics. I was originally going to just update the Football section but after further research I realized that almost all of the sections were out of date so I used the Gopher Sports page to update the rest of those sections. Please give any feedback you have! Tyantes3 (talk) 03:54, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

Would be nice if someone can talk about its architecture VerseVoyager8 (talk) 15:55, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 18 October 2024

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. There is no consensus to move. The unbolded !votes seems to oppose on basis of U of M Twin Cities not meeting the criteria to be considered a common name. Best, (closed by non-admin page mover) Reading Beans, Duke of Rivia 10:02, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

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University of Minnesota → University of Minnesota Twin CitiesUniversity of Minnesota Twin Cities –
1. The current title, "University of Minnesota", is ambiguous because it can refer to the entire university system or any of the individual campuses within it. Moving the page to "University of Minnesota Twin Cities" will better reflect that this page is specifically about the Twin Cities campus, the flagship campus in the University of Minnesota system.
2. The official name of the Twin Cities campus is "University of Minnesota Twin Cities", as confirmed by the system's list of campuses, the systemwide University of Minnesota System Identity document, and the Twin Cities campus website.
3. This move ensures consistency with other campuses. Other campuses within the University of Minnesota system, such as "University of Minnesota Duluth" and "University of Minnesota Morris", already include the location in their titles. Aligning the Twin Cities campus with this convention ensures consistency across all pages.
These moves will provide clear distinctions between the system and its campuses, making it easier for readers to find the specific information they are looking for. Cfls (talk) 22:54, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

I sympathize with the confusion between the university and the system but it may be a confusion that we simply have to deal with because it reflects WP:COMMONNAME. We do that in other similar situations such as University of Tennessee and University of Maine. So I think we need to focus less on the name used by the institution and its parent organization and more on the name used by everyone else. ElKevbo (talk) 23:35, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

WP:COMMONNAME can be subjective in this case. Other first campuses that use their full names as article titles include University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of California, Berkeley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. I suggest sticking to the name used in official communications by the historically first campus and the system it belongs to. Cfls (talk) 15:07, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

"I suggest sticking to the name used in official communications by the historically first campus and the system it belongs to" does not seem to align with WP:COMMONNAME. That is certainly one important piece of evidence but it's not the only thing we should be examining. ElKevbo (talk) 11:44, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

The New York Times (1, 2, 3), The Wall Street Journal (1, 2, 3). Cfls (talk) 23:57, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

It also does not align with WP:OFFICIAL. I have not investigated this in detail, so my !vote is open, but show me the data that demonstrates that University of Minnesota Twin Cities is used more often in reliable sources not associated with U of M, and I will vote in favor. Otherwise against. Mathglot (talk) 13:21, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Against. U of M Twin Cities is not in common use.Sandcherry (talk) 11:34, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Bds activism

im noticing that there's no talk of the recent bds activism on campus and the response of organization. Is that a choice or has no one gotten around to it? SprinklerLover12 (talk) 04:06, 1 June 2025 (UTC)

Campus location city names and location references

The University of Minnesota campus is formally a "special district" in Minnesota. This means its land is not in any given city; it is its own governing area and entity. The University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Minneapolis campus is not legally or technically in Minneapolis city limits. Likewise, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities St. Paul campus is not legally or technically in St. Paul or Falcon Heights city limits.

For simplicity and geographical reference, and keeping with how the University names its Twin Cities campus locations and the address and zip codes used for each by the University and USPS, we should label both the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses in a consistent manner: As located in, respectively, Minneapolis and St. Paul. The same holds true for Duluth, Crookston, and the other campuses. The city name the University uses should be listed as the location reference for that campus.

Referring to the “St. Paul” campus as in Falcon Heights is formally inaccurate and confusing, as well as contradicting where the University says the campus is located, so I edited those references.

This is similar to Washington D.C. being a special federal district that is not in any state. It looks like it might be in Virginia or Maryland, but it is isn’t.

There are hundreds of special districts in Minnesota, including public school districts, some airports, etc. Referring to their location by the geographic label the special district itself uses should be standard practice. Genwicky (talk) 20:17, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

Requested move 9 June 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Per WP:COMMONNAME (non-admin closure) Fortek67 (talk) 21:14, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

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University of Minnesota → University of Minnesota Twin CitiesUniversity of Minnesota Twin Cities – This is the full name of this founding campus of the public university system. The current title "University of Minnesota" can be ambiguous and it is not precise. Moreover, we have so many precedents for such campuses, including but not limited to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of California, Berkeley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Cfls (talk) 00:14, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose Why are you requesting the same move you requested in 2024? The result of your previous request (see above) was not to move the article. Sandcherry (talk) 02:49, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

not much engagement in that one. -- Aunva6^{talk - contribs} 21:05, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

That is your opinion. I would like to hear Cfls's reasoning for requesting the move again. Sandcherry (talk) 20:18, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

• support the lead sentence even says "University of Minnesota Twin Cities". the university even distinguishes between the overall system and the campus in the metro. WP:PRECISE. anecdotally, as a local, we may refer to it as the University of Minnesota, but only when context is such that confusion with other campuses or the overall system. We do disambiguate when we're including other campuses in what we are talking about. (yes, i know this is basically OR, make of it what you will).

looking at sources, a quick google search shows that non-local sources specifically referring to the campus usually refer to it by University of Minnesota - Twin cities, particularly where a reader wouldn't be expected to understand in context which campus they are referring to... just like Wikipedia. -- Aunva6^{talk - contribs} 21:03, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose. It's been called the University of Minnesota for most of its existence and is still commonly referred to as the University of Minnesota, including frequently on its own website. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:51, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

  but does tha specifically refer to the Twin Cities campus, as the article does, or to the whole system? -- Aunva6^{talk - contribs} 14:25, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

  Specifically the Twin Cities campus. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:22, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose per WP:COMMONNAME. --IShowSammy (discussion | contributions) 03:08, 12 June 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose I don't know that anything has changed since we last had this discussion in 2024. ElKevbo (talk) 04:23, 12 June 2026 (UTC)

  I would suggest that confusion between the two subjects (the university of Minnesota system, and the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities campus... would indicate that's it's 'a' common name, but MOS:PRECISE would seem to indicate that natural disambiguation would be in order, especially considering that a search for University of Minnesota... will also bring up this page under the proposed title. -- Aunva6^{talk - contribs} 05:06, 12 June 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose per WP:COMMONNAME. As far as WP:CONSISTENT goes, University of Missouri's official name is University of Missouri - Columbia, University of Alabama's official name is University of Alabama Tuscaloosa. It appears that the universities in the nomination have the geographical disambiguation in their official names because their parent institution/state system is "University of State", while Minnesota, Alabama, Missouri, etc. use "University of State" system. ESB5415 14:01, 12 June 2026 (UTC)

The difference between the two naming conventions may simply be based on the original article title. As you point out, there are many universities with satellite campuses that do not include the main campus location in the article title. Obtaining consensus to use one naming convention for the sake of WP:CONSISTENT seems unnecessary and likely contrary to WP:COMMONNAME. Sandcherry (talk) 02:42, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.