The fall 2025 semester not only welcomes thousands of new and returning students to campus but also begins with the addition of several new majors and minors across the University of Minnesota.

Tackling addiction and social justice

Two new minors in the Division of the Social Sciences at the Morris campus—addiction studies and social justice—are giving students more opportunities to learn how to create just and equitable communities.

Sparked in part by student interest and the need for more licensed alcohol and drug counselors in rural and Native communities, the addiction studies minor equips students with the tools to address substance abuse not only from a mental health perspective, but from other perspectives as well.

“We wanted to open this area of study up to all different types of programs like pre-medicine, pre-occupational therapy, pre-nursing, political science, criminal justice, public health and many more because rates of addiction have gone up since the pandemic,” says Heather Peters, chair of the Division of the Social Sciences and a professor of psychology at Morris.

The social justice minor, which can also be paired with any major, provides students with an understanding of how to create societies or institutions based on the principles of equity and solidarity, the value of human rights and the importance of recognizing that every human being deserves dignity.

Calling the shots

Crookston students can take advantage of the new major and minor in sport media and communication, an area of study growing in demand.

“There are a lot of prospective or current students who have a passion for sports regardless of their athletic abilities,” says Megan Bell, interim associate vice chancellor of the Business, Arts, and Education division and an associate professor of communication on the Crookston campus. “If you have a passion, the major and minor allow you to be involved in sports in a different way.”

The program is designed to strengthen and develop interviewing skills, storytelling, editing, and audio and multimedia production, along with using public relations tactics to analyze and present data.

"The Office of Distributed Learning on the Twin Cities campus was an excellent partner in providing data around the need and demand for such a major," says Bell.

The major and minor are offered on campus and online, expanding the University’s ability to accommodate students regardless of their location.

Moving beyond conjecture

At Duluth, a new social science data analytics minor will help students move past conjecture in their observations about social, political and economic processes to ways that empirically test their suppositions.

“Across the social sciences, people have ideas about human behavior, so the minor can help students look at how we use data to solve real-world problems, which can inform policy decisions,” says Kathryn Haglin, an associate professor of political science in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Another benefit of the minor is its relationship with the rest of the colleges across campus.

“A minor in social science data analytics consists of courses from every college so you can get in the door from anywhere,” says Haglin.

The courses incorporate methods including survey design, econometrics, statistics, game theory, text analysis, GIS, experimental methods and qualitative approaches to data, which help students think creatively about data, develop and test hypotheses, and problem solve complex data analysis challenges.

Designing and creating human-centered experiences

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Design just launched Minnesota’s first Bachelor of Science degree in User Experience (UX) Design, only the second program of its kind among the 18 schools in the Big Ten.

The campus also offers several new programs, including an esports management minor, medical Spanish minor, Ph.D. in American Indian and Indigenous studies, Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, Master of Science in Robotics, Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital Rural Family Medicine Residency Program, AI for business post-baccalaureate certificate and Master Professional Studies in Long Term Care Leadership.