What is going on?
Tucked away in a wooded chunk of land in Rosemount, Minnesota and directly adjacent to the Dakota County Technical College lies UMore Park. The nearly 5,000 acre property has served for almost 80 years as a place for the UofM to tuck away all its dirty secrets and backroom dealings far away from its ivory towers and state-of-the-art facilities. Prior to the 1947 sale of the land to the University, UMore park was home to the Gopher Ordnance Works (GOW), a smokeless gun powder factory. Gross mismanagement and environmental neglect led to massive pollution of lead, arsenic, PAHs, PCBs, and asbestos. This trend of neglect for the land was carried on by the UofM who carried out chemical dumping on the grounds and operated a burn pit that resulted in local groundwater contamination with chloroform.
Now, the University of Minnesota has taken a renewed financial interest in the land. They have begun leasing the land off to high-value buyers such as Meta, who recently purchased 280 acres of land in UMore Park, where ongoing construction of a 75MW datacenter is occurring.
On Thursday, May 8th of 2025, a $8,099,090 land sale transaction was brought before the University of Minnesota Board of Regents Finance and Operations Committee. 60 acres of land on UMore Park was to be sold to the hypersonics testing and development company North Wind. They, in conjunction with the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) proposed the parcel be used for the construction of the Minnesota Aerospace Complex. The facility, to be constructed on a $100 Million dollar grant to North Wind by the U.S. Department of Defense is planned to serve as a regional hub for the development and testing of hypersonic missile technology. These tools of mass destruction are planned to be developed with the aid of students of CSE, with the college being granted its own facility at the site, also funded by DoD money.
On Thursday, May 8th of 2025, the Board of Regents approved the development of the Minnesota Aerospace Complex. Construction of the site is was originally planned to start Summer 2025, and planned out for five years. As of Fall 2025 no progress has been made.
As if the hypersonics facility was not enough, UMN SDS also received and verified information about the presence of an active gun range used by the University of Minnesota Police Department on UMore Park. Even more damning is the fact that they contracted this facility out to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement for training almost 50 times. At the Parcel just North of the gun range, SDS also identified an active facility used by the Minneapolis Police Department and the Saint Paul Police Department located on UofM land. The purpose of the facility is unknown, however its existence directly flies in the face of the very public PR break the University made with MPD following the murder of George Floyd.
Our demands
End involvement with the Minnesota Aerospace Complex: Stop the Build on UMore
Park!
Halt the sale of UMN land to Cerberus-North Wind and any other weapons
manufacturers. Halt any building progress of the missile research facilities at
UMore Park.
No war profiteering!
- Divest University of Minnesota money, land, and intellectual resources from weapons manufacturers, Israeli companies, and anyone who makes a living profiting off of war. We do not consent to our tuition being used for genocide, occupation, or apartheid.
- End the University’s own war-profiteering. End College of Science and Engineering contracts, and all other contracts, with weapons manufacturers and developers that thrive during high tensions with global powers.
End the Contract with ICE!
- End the usage of the UMore Park Firearms Range. The University of Minnesota has no business training any police officers, including by the UMPD who uses force to detain protestors, city police officers who repeatedly kill our community members, or ICE agents who detain our students and community members.
- End relationship with ICE to use the UMore Park Firearms range. The University of Minnesota has no business training ICE agents who detain our students and community members. No human is illegal!
Transparent Remediation of UMore Park
- Create a plan, and follow through with said plan, to restore the land of UMore Park. This includes the excessive amount of lead, chloroform, and other chemicals found in the ground of UMore Park as well as any other damage to plants and wildlife who inhabit UMore Park.
- Exercise full transparency throughout the creation and execution of said plan, including information on soil levels and the individuals performing these tests.
Endorsed by:
