University of Minnesota community members say they have felt concern surrounding threats received by faculty and student groups on campus. 

Third-year Bella Arco said she has seen a spike in violence recently on campus, and had her class move online due to a faculty member receiving threats. 

“I would say that people are on edge a little bit, just considering the Charlie Kirk shooting and just increased violence on campuses,” Arco said. “There’s kind of a different vibe on campus where I think people are just more cautious right now.” 

Arco said she hopes to see more transparency from the University administration, as they did not send out any alerts regarding the threat made against the faculty member. 

“I think there needs to be more openness about stuff like this,” Arco said. “I never received anything directly from the U saying there was a threat made against anyone.” 

The Turning Point USA Professors Watchlist is a list of non-conservative professors, including eight University professors. According to NBC, the professors on the watchlist are labeled as members of extreme leftist groups. 

“The list, easily available online, now has more than 300 professor names, listed under categories like ‘Terror Supporter,’ ‘LGBTQ,’ ‘Antifa’ and ‘Socialism,’” reported NBC. 

Timothy Brennan, a professor in the cultural studies and comparative literature department, said the University has not taken action to the threats on campus and has not commented on the matter. 

“The University has done nothing proactively to protect them or to say that, ‘Yes, we understand that there’s a special threat against these constituencies in our community and we’re going to make sure to defend you,’” Brennan said. “Nothing like this, no public statements, no particular actions were taken and so on.” 

Brennan urged the University administration to condemn the violence on campus within the University community. 

“The administration needs to come forth and say, we are going to defend not only the intellectual inquiry and freedom of our faculty and students,” Brennan said. “But we are going to bodily defend them against the dangers that they face in a culture of violence, and that means everyone.”  

Nathaniel Mills, English department chair at the University, said he felt the University administration has not been disclosing information about threats to the community. 

“I think there’s just not a lot of communication from the University when it comes to these kinds of threats that are being made, whether directed against a general group of people or individuals,” Mills said. “I think that contributes to a kind of uncertainty and fear around when these threats do happen.” 

Mills said he feels the University administration is not prioritizing faculty members’ safety on campus. 

“It’s not a really strong interest of the administration taking faculty concerns about their safety seriously,” Mills said.