Graduate Student Handbook

Beginnings - The Twin Cities - Information and Educational Resources - Campus Activities - Money and Jobs - Housing, Health, and Family Needs - Transportation - Registration and Regulations - Further Resources and Services - How to Get Here

Housing, Health, and Family Needs

Housing Options

Although the Twin Cities campus is generally considered a commuter campus, only about half of its students live far enough away to be bona fide commuters. The other half live on or near campus, within easy walking or biking distance. Many commuting students live on express bus lines, which offer direct access to campus (see Transportation). Housing & Residential Life (612-624-2994, fax 612-624-6987, housing@umn.edu, www.umn.edu/housing/), located in Comstock Hall-East on the Minneapolis campus and in Coffey Hall on the St. Paul campus, provides information about on-campus and off-campus housing and about leases and other housing issues. Also check listings in the Minnesota Daily and other local newspapers. You might also check with your department.

The University guarantees housing to freshmen who apply before May 1. Thirty-seven housing spaces are reserved for graduate and professional students in the fall semester. There are seventeen single rooms on one floor in Centennial Hall and twenty spaces in four-bedroom apartments in University Village. Additional spaces are usually available during spring semester. Application for residence hall housing is separate from application for admission to the University. Applications are available from Housing & Residential Life in October. Apply early.

Family/Partnered Housing

For students who are married or same-sex partnered or who have children, there are two cooperative housing communities. Como Student Community, 1024 27th Avenue S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55414 (612-378-2434, e-mail cscc@umn.edu), is between the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses and is on a bus line; Commonwealth Terrace Cooperative, Inc., 1250 Fifield Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108 (651-646-7526, e-mail ctc@umn.edu), is adjacent to the St. Paul campus. Both have day care centers. All units are unfurnished. For more information, see www.umn.edu/housing or contact the cooperatives.

Off-Campus Listing Service

Housing & Residential Life, located in Comstock Hall-East (612-624-2994; www.umn.edu/housing/offcampus.htm ), has listings for rooms, apartments, duplexes, houses, cooperatives, and mobile home parks. Information is available about shared units, subsidized housing, temporary housing, sublets, work opportunities related to housing, bus routes, nursery schools, and day care centers. Because the turnover rate is rapid, listings are changed daily and are not sent by mail.

The best time to begin looking is at least two months before you want to move. For fall term, begin looking by late July. In most cases, rentals begin on the first of the month.

The office provides a mediation service to help students in resolving landlord/tenant disputes. A station computer is available in Coffey Hall on the St. Paul campus.

Health and Family Needs

Minnesota has traditionally been, and continues to be, a progressive leader in health care. The University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinic, for example, was responsible for the first open heart surgery in 1954 and is recognized as the organ transplant center of the world. In general, Minnesota citizens choose to commit a variety of public resources to the improvement of health, education, and public services for family needs.

Health Service

Most services at Boynton Health Service are provided on the East Bank at 410 Church Street S.E. (612-625-8400); you can also see a physician at the St. Paul clinic in 109 Coffey Hall (612-624-7700). Both clinics are open Monday–Friday and closed weekends and holidays. The St. Paul clinic is closed during term breaks and summer sessions.

Students who register for at least six credits each semester are automatically charged the student services fee. Students who pay the fee and have health insurance receive most health care services at Boynton Health Service at no additional cost. For example, urgent care visits, annual eye exams, nutrition appointments, and women’s clinic visits have no additional charges. For a full list of services covered under the student services fee, see www.bhs.umn.edu. Click on “fees/insurance information.”

Health Insurance

Students taking at least six credits are required to carry hospitalization insurance. Graduate students can obtain health and dental care benefits by purchasing the University-sponsored Health Benefit Plan, or, if employed as graduate assistants (GAs) with at least a 25 percent appointment, by enrolling in the health care coverage available to them. For more information see http://www.bhs.umn.edu/insurance/graduate/index.htm .

GAs eligible for coverage must enroll in the GA Health Care Plan to obtain coverage. Enrollment forms can be obtained from the payroll officer in your department or at the GA Insurance Office in N323 Boynton Health Service.

University-Sponsored Health Insurance. If you don’t qualify for the Graduate Assistant Health Care Plan and don’t have your own insurance, you may purchase the University-Sponsored Health Benefit Plan. If you register for for at least six credits and don’t have hospitalization insurance, you will automatically be enrolled in the Health Benefit Plan when you register. If you already have insurance through your parents, employer, or spouse, bring the name of your insurance company or HMO and your policy number and you won’t be charged for the Health Benefit Plan. For more information, call 612-624-0627.

Child Care

Start planning for child care early (especially for infant care), and make a thorough search of your options. The Twin Cities area has a variety of programs with different levels of care.

Child care facilities at the University are limited.

The University of Minnesota Child Care Center, 1600 Rollins Avenue S.E. (612-627-4014), provides full-time and extremely limited part-time care for children from three months to five years of age. The waiting period can be more than one year. Cost depends on parents’ income and the age of the child.

The Shirley G. Moore Laboratory School of the Institute of Child Development (612-624-5593) enrolls children two to five years old for two to five mornings or afternoons a week.

Student-organized community child care centers are located in the Como (612-331-8340) and Commonwealth (651-645-8958) housing cooperatives.

For listings of licensed child care facilities in Minneapolis, call the Greater Minneapolis Day Care Association at 612-341-1177. GMDCA is a child care resource and referral agency located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that helps families find child care and eligible parents pay for child care. 

Campus Safety

Affirmed as one of the safest in the Big Ten, the Twin Cities campus has its own full-fledged police department on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. An on-campus evening escort service (612-624-WALK or http://www1.umn.edu/police/escort.html  is staffed by student employees.

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