The Community Journalism Practicum is where students target and cover an under-represented community on campus and organize that coverage on a website called AccessU. Each class is a student-run newsroom and creates its own AccessU site.
The class, which has run since 2017, has covered the communities of disability, recovery, rurality, nontraditional enrollees, Black identities, mental health diagnoses and LGBTQ+ students. This year, the class is covering first generation students.
These are the AccessU sites produced in Jour 4175 each spring.
A protester holds a sign outside of Coffman Memorial Union, April 9, 2025. PHOTO BY CLAUDIA STAUT
Reporting on local immigrants shows both struggle and concern, leadership and unity
Reporting on local immigrants shows both struggle and concern, leadership and unity
As the threat of deportations brought new fears to students with immigrant parents, Hubbard students reported on this community's spirit and its concerns about safety and free expression at the university.
Co-editors Amelia Roessler and Jack O’Connor worked with the class to create a semester-long project, AccessU: Born to Immigrants.
One in four undergraduates at the University of Minnesota is a first-generation college student — someone whose parents do not have four-year college degrees.
The purpose of this AccessU project is to bring the voices of first-generation students to the forefront of these conversations about the accessibility of higher education in the immediate years to come.
— Jessy Rehmann, editor of AccessU
Professor Rashné Jehangir has become a fierce advocate for the first generation students she believes bring many assets — not deficits.
Page updated
Report abuse