The Center for Rural Policy and Development at Minnesota State University, Mankato has announced a grant award to the Rural-Urban Connections Project. Lynnette Mullins, assistant professor of speech at the University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC), is leading the project in partnership with Marcie McLaughlin, executive director of Minnesota Rural Partners.

The project will analyze the communication that took place during the series of radio conversations involving citizens at UMC and Lucille’s Kitchen in North Minneapolis. The conversation began June 11, 1998 on the subject of welfare and poverty. The last conversation was April 20 on the subject of K-12 education.

There is little research done on rural-urban connections in Minnesota, and there are many reasons to be paying attention to this relationship. The growing diversity of rural communities is one reason. Another reason for the study is to test whether rural communities and inner-city neighborhoods have issues they share in common.