News

Shielding immigrants and foreign students

View the video presentation by R. Linus Chan, Professor of Clinical Law, Andy Whitman, Carlson School’s Partners, and Scott Whitman, Immigration Attorney. More...

Call for UMRA board and officer nominations

The 2026 Nominating Committee is looking for your suggestions for candidates for UMRA board and officer positions. If you know of someone who might be willing to step up to an UMRA leadership role—and that someone could be you!—please contact Julie Sweitzer, Nominating Committee chair. 

Campus Conversations

How would you like to participate in one or more informal afternoon group conversations at the Campus Club with University leaders—deans, center directors, department heads, for example—regarding their current situations and thoughts about the future? 

Volunteer Center office is moving to Morrill Hall

The University Retirees Volunteer Center greets 2026 with some exciting news: its office is moving to Morrill Hall, which houses the University’s administrative offices on the Twin Cities campus. The space is being provided by the office of Chris Gade, the vice president for communications, who oversees University Marketing Communications. 

HELLO, my name is Pat Tollefson

Meet UMRA member Pat Tollefson, founder of the UMRA Book Club (in 2011) and shining example of how volunteering and engaging in a variety of other activities can lead to a full life in retirement. 

Cyber tips & tricks—making payments in the member portal and accessing UMRA discounts

Here’s how to make payments for UMRA events easily in the UMRA member portal, and how to use your UMRA membership card for on-campus parking and other discounts, including University Bookstores. 

Marilyn Erickson

Marilyn Erickson has an interesting set of three family history stories that she wrote “to check out the verbal family stories and connect them to documentation and photos.”

James Tracy

Drawing on his training as a historian, his patience and more than a little serendipity, Jim Tracy put together an account of his family history.  “This account is for our family, if not now, perhaps later, I hope it may also be of interest for others looking into the history of their families.” 

Book Notes | ‘An Unfinished Love Story’

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin turns personal in this illuminating memoir of the unparalleled 1960s and the life she shared with her husband of 42 years, Richard “Dick” Goodwin, speech writer and confidant of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Robert F. Kennedy. More...

Culture, history, and geology—along the Rhine

Cathy Lee Gierke presented photos about her cruise on the Rhine river, Italian Switzerland, and Lake Como -- and the history, culture and geology along the way. More...

An overt attack on academic freedom

Academic freedom and freedom of speech are being challenged by the current federal administration in ways that are upending norms and directly affecting institutions of higher education across the country. More...

Craig Swan

Then there are the unexpected things that happen…

… like a box of family history from a cousin that was completely unexpected.  Perhaps it is like an unexpected DNA match.

The bigamist and the optimist

After my grandmother gave birth to her ninth child, my grandfather ran off with another woman. They were caught living together in a small town 250 miles away. This presentation will describe the three main characters and what happened next. More...

‘Advancing Brain Health through Science, Technology, and Collaboratories’

Damien Fair, PhD, offered a terrific presentation at the University of Minnesota Retirees Association luncheon forum on October 28. The audience of nearly 110 members and friends of UMRA paid close attention as he outlined an optimizing career path that led to his current research and program development at the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain. More...

Optimism and social connections are essential to wellbeing

Wellbeing has six dimensions that range from health and relationships to community and purpose. It is not the absence of stress, but dealing with it through mindfulness. More...