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The Minneapolis Police Department has navigated a turbulent stretch under the guidance of a Finlandia University graduate. Chief Medaria Arradondo has a criminal justice degree from what was then Suomi College in the late 1980’s. Arradondo explained how that came to be in an interview with Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine.
I was sitting in my senior history class, and I was talking to a buddy, and there was a guy seated between us, asleep. So my buddy asks what I’m going to do. And I was telling him I didn’t really know what to pursue yet.
And the other guy rose from his slumber and said, “You know, I’ve got an uncle who teaches at this school up in Michigan; I can bring you some information.”
His uncle was the dean of the criminal justice program at Suomi College and was the chief of police. So, I called his uncle, and by the fall of 1985, this Minneapolis kid was in the Upper Peninsula.
Keweenaw Report asked the President’s Office for an interview on Arradondo while the George Floyd trial was still ongoing. It was declined. Associate Professor Richard Gee did agree to talk about the criminal justice program today.
It is a well-rounded curriculum that pulls the best of policing practices from multiple sources. In addition to interaction with local police departments and instruction from Houghton Chief John Donnelly, students go overseas.
Gee says that enrollment in his program remains strong even as retirements from police departments soar. That provides great opportunities. The Chicago Police Department is currently offering over $70,000 base salary after as little as 18 months of service time.
