Authorities say investigation is ongoing following an explosion report at the University of Minnesota today Thursday June 30th, 2022. According to reports, the Minneapolis Fire Department responded to an explosion and fire report near the University Avenue and Seventeenth Avenue southeast. According to the department all the areas on University between Fifteenth and Nineteenth Avenue are being evacuated at the moment. The department is also currently advising all residents in the Seventeenth Avenue residential hall should evacuate. Law enforcement agencies say the the evacuation is due to a possible gas leakage and nearby residential fire. The incident was reported at approximately 3:20 p.m.
**A brief history of the University of Minnesota**
In the Minnesota Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, there is a public land-grant research institution known as the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMN, the U of M, or Minnesota). The Twin Cities campus is spread across two locations, roughly 3 miles (4.8 km) apart between Minneapolis and Falcon Heights, a St. Paul suburb. With 52,376 students enrolled at the start of the 2021–22 academic year, the Twin Cities campus, the oldest and largest in the University of Minnesota system, has the ninth-largest main campus student body in the US. The University of Minnesota System’s flagship institution is divided into 19 colleges, schools, and other significant academic units.
Seven years before Minnesota became a state, in 1851, the Minnesota Territory Legislature created a charter for the University of Minnesota as a territorial university. The institution is now categorized as one of the “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity” institutions. With $1.04 billion spent on R&D in the fiscal year 2020, Minnesota, a member of the Association of American Universities, is rated 20th in terms of research activity. The University of Minnesota was listed among Public Ivy universities in 2001, a group of publicly funded colleges and universities that are regarded to offer education of a caliber equivalent to that of the Ivy League- Wikipedia.
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