Central Minnesota is just a couple-thousand dollars away from being able to fund a Human Rights Office for the entire region. In the wake of the offensive anti-Muslim cartoons that were posted around the city of St. Cloud in December, there has been a plea by many community members asking the city to hire a Human Rights Director. But the city of St. Cloud says its current hiring freeze makes it impossible to hire any new city employees.

But according to St. Cloud State President Earl Potter, it appears that grant funding may be used to hire a regional Human Rights Officer. This means that only one other city would need to commit $2,500 dollars in order to make this happen.

The cities of St. Joseph and Waite Park are currently discussing the matter to decide whether they can and should contribute funding to this matter.