The Minnesota Daily ranks ninth in the nation

The Minnesota Daily was ranked ninth in the nation this year by the Princeton Review’s book, “The 357 Best Colleges.”

The Minnesota Daily was the top-ranked newspaper last year.

Erik Olson, the senior editor of “357 Best Colleges,” said the drop in ranking could be because University students ranked it lower, or because other colleges ranked their newspapers higher.

The Princeton Review surveyed more than 110,000 students on its Web site to calculate the results, Olson said.

“The college students are the real college experts,” he said.

The University also ranked 11th in the number of teaching assistants who teach upper-level classes.

-Chad Hamblin

U, Mayo partnership on hold

The University’s partnership with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester might be on hold because of the deadlock at the state legislative session.

Three floors of laboratory space for the project were scheduled to be built by next summer in Rochester. The construction is now on hold because the Legislature did not allot money to state building projects before the session’s close.

“In order for the partnership to be successful, we need the state support and we need the facilities to do the research in,” said Ashley Burt, an Academic Health Center spokeswoman.

She said the University and the Mayo clinic are currently working on four research projects, which are funded by $2 million Gov. Tim Pawlenty allotted to start the partnership.

Burt said without money for the facility, Minnesota will have difficulty competing with other states, and the University will not be able to conduct important medical research.

-Amy Horst