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| Will our campus be abuzz for fall? |
It is unpleasant to wonder how our community of Morris will fare if UMM's activities are substantially scaled back. Or scrubbed? Who wants to talk about that? No doubt there is talk occurring behind closed doors, just to consider the contingencies.
I have sought to "feel out" my UMM-oriented acquaintances. I have basically heard nothing. This is a very serious matter. The pandemic has afflicted all our institutions. Morris has already gotten a taste of UMM being idle. Graduation would normally have been such a big weekend. We got the lazy, hazy days of summer instead. If you like quiet, you may well relish the months lying ahead.
Hoping for something better is admirable. Miracles can happen? Maybe, but those contingencies must be weighed. The health scare is the most obvious factor. But a side effect of this is finances, the mother's milk of our hallowed institutions. The slowing economy means less revenue for state governments to spend on higher education.
Don't forget that U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentuckian, has mentioned the possibility of "punishing the blue states." Minnesota has a Democratic governor. We have the unusual situation of a divided legislature. Burgeoning local property taxes might make people less enamored of public education.
The romance about ivy-covered institutions will wane. We already know that all those leafy campuses of the "Minnesota State" system represent bloat now - it's undisputed, and that was the verdict before the pandemic.
Our UMM? It's the "jewel in the crown" of the esteemed University of Minnesota, a cut above surely. But to what extent can we assume stability? Yours truly might be expected to shed tears because my focus is music, an endeavor highly threatened due to the nature of making music. Wear masks? Oh no. No point in crying, ever. We confront reality.
Our intuition tells us that "remote learning" via one's Internet device isn't even close to duplicating those leafy campuses. Kids can pick a college because "I like the campus." Surely our UMM has attributes in that regard, quiet and safe to be sure. It's a historic campus with renovated old buildings from a long history. Ahem, let's put aside the science auditorium, no doubt a product of a spell of avant garde thinking. Who needs 90-degree angles?
Students frolicked at our campus even when amenities were minimal. Makes me wonder about the incessant lure to build bigger-better. College administrators strive to get those "new toys" in sort of an arms race. Might that race be completely over now? Was it ever really prudent or justified? UMM students thrived even through the considerable period of nothing on campus approximating a student center. Wow! And really, what does a student center have to do with quality of education?
I have often wondered if the model of a "utilitarian" campus might come back. Nothing fancy, no glittering new stadiums for sports exhibitions etc. St. Cloud State once had the quite satisfactory Selke Field. Then, up went a new football stadium in 2004. And now, SCSU has cut football! Lordy.
Can't blame the public for keeping an eye on the pricetag for higher education. Man, I can remember when UMM football was at "P.E. Miller Field." I watched some football from the upper floor of the then-music building, now the multi-cultural place.
Will we see college long-term go back to just the core purpose and eliminate a lot of the "experiential" stuff? Good question, I'd say. And with "remote learning" as an ever more likely option, we're not talking experiences anyway. So, college might just fulfill its assigned function? No more "climbing walls?" Actually that's one thing I think UMM does not have.
We must confront the germane question: Will our students and their families pay for the "virtual" college experience, same as if the leafy campuses were fully functioning? I think I know what way our intuition will lean for that.
UMM may be one of those colleges that opens its doors cautiously. It's done with the idea that a reversal could be quickly called for. The virus could well dance around more.
I'd suggest that colleges are profoundly worried that remote learning will bring evolution toward learning without having a paid instructor holding your hand. The nature of the Internet is that it enables you to learn about anything. Such an obvious blessing, but one which casts clouds over our legacy education models, and hey this includes K-12 too. The professionals are trying to hold on to what they have.
Toward that end, I have learned from a good source that in the recent shutdown with K-12 kids learning "remotely," 80 percent of the kids are completing assignments, 20 percent are not, and all kids are getting passed through. The education establishment is trying to cling to what it has. Let's call it their monopoly, certainly for K-12 education. And whither colleges and UMM? It's mid-June so we can buy some time before dealing with the possible ugly reality.
This is tough for yours truly as I root for UMM and have put money where my mouth is. The institution has meant everything for my family. But as a personal philosophical matter, partly because of the lumps I took in school myself, I root for the Internet-based model. To be more specific, I root for the model that is not reliant on the pros, those people with tenure who frankly can be arrogant. I don't want to get into unions.
Except I love the music department: that's a sore spot because how on earth can any music department function now? Will it all be put in mothballs, the cellos and pianos and such? Lordy.
What will be our mood in mid-August? The rubber will have to hit the road sometime, n'est-ce pas? Perhaps our morale could all rev up if we listened to the "UMM Hymn."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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