Schools and $
The community of Morris sometimes does not set a good example with basic competence. I'm trying to pin down patterns of behavior with the right characterizations. So is it really Morris, a town whose leaders find excuses to leave so often, or more of a societal thing or a generational thing? Maybe older people always speak of the younger folks with a condescending smirk. "We were more responsible" or something in that vein.
Maybe the lapses are related to this point in time, this epoch. Post-covid. That a factor? The disorientation we might feel from the profound disruption?
I happen to be fortunate enough to have some financial resources. Enough that they might perhaps do some good. No one can predict the future. I often think we'll get a sudden shocking bulletin about the U of M-Morris. Might the place close for an indefinite time? Be closed while the institution is re-purposed in some dramatic way?
Might the institution re-start with a clean slate and suddenly treat all of its charges/students equally? In other words, with no special eye for "who they are?" Maybe just admit them based on their potential for doing well in school and later in life. No "branding" of kids based on whatever - race, sexual orientation, you know what I mean.
The new attitude would be associated with the once-standard ideal of the U.S. "melting pot." Academic people decided in the end they didn't like that. I would suggest it was because the concept is too simple. Didn't give them much to dissect and lecture us about.
I'd even like to see Native Americans treated like everyone else. The status quo isn't based on a "treaty," is it? If it is, it is probably etched in stone. There's a big difference if it is not. If it is not, then I would suggest that the Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action, wiping it out, would absolutely render the policy unacceptable. But academia is most often like a dark and foreboding forest. Like from a Grimm Fairy Tale. So who knows?
But in all likelihood, some interesting back room discussions may be in the works. Not necessarily here but most likely in the Twin Cities. The latter is where the "big boys" meet.
Last December I walked out to the UMM campus - I don't have a parking permit - and entered the Welcome Center. If nothing else you should get a warm welcome there. I had the impression that a "kid" was at the front desk. Where was Carolyn Peterson? Oh, the kid wasn't rude or anything like that. He didn't go the extra mile.
I won't elaborate on my purpose for being there, except to say I had written out a 4-figure check. As a "community person" rather than UMM, I had failed to adequately weigh how the place slows down between semesters.
I told the desk attendant I had something else to do and that I'd be back later. I walked downtown. I came back. I inquired again about seeing a particular individual. The individual at the time of my first visit was "on the phone." You know how that can go. I remember Jim Morrison telling me he was frustrated when Cullen's was in town: people were "always on the phone," he said.
I made my second trip back to campus and this time got another little runaround. The individual who might have helped me was tied up again. No one else from that person's department was "in." It was "slow time." I might note that mid-December is when many people make decisions on charitable giving. I departed from the "Welcome Center" having struck out.
My usual contact person there later contacted me. She coordinated what it was I wanted to do. I like (or have liked in the past) to help UMM as a means of keeping the memory of my late parents alive. This certainly is not for the sake of my own reputation. I have never felt comfortable around most members of this town's "intelligentsia" which is led by UMM. Although, the situation with that is better today than in past epochs of time. Much better, really.
My December story is not done. My main contact tried arranging for a subsequent email to be sent to me. A receipt. She then tried to confirm that I got it. I had not gotten it. Ah, the gods who float around the U of M like at Mt. Olympus. Can be inscrutable. Eventually my main contact pushed the process to completion. Like pulling teeth. Zeus must have implored the god of bureaucracy.
I'm not done with storytelling here.
Morris Area School Foundation
Am I really writing about the Morris Area School Foundation here, or am I writing about West Central Initiative (WCI)? Try dealing with one of these entities and you might be confounded. I tried submitting the tax ID number for the Foundation to a Morris bank and was told the number was for WCI. So I chose to assume one was as good as the other. A shrug, maybe. Make it a hail Mary.
Just assume they are one and the same? I wish this could be spelled out better.
Last December I contributed a check to the School Foundation and found I should write the check out to WCI. That's what I did. It was essential to include a note specifying that my aim was to help the Morris Area School Foundation. My receipt later did confirm that. Nice to see a basic trace of competence at some point.
Now, when you seek to contribute $ for the benefit of the public school, you'll have a particular school program in mind, i.e. a priority. I really can't imagine contributing any other way. So I'm thinking music. I know MAHS music is aiming for a spring trip. I was told that I could in fact choose such a priority for my next $ gesture. Unfortunately it's not so simple.
A sense of logic tells me the Foundation exists for the express purpose of accepting citizens' donations. I am now informed that if you really want to target things as with music, there is an alternative procedure. I just feel all this needs to be spelled out better for the innocent public.
On Wednesday a very nice individual from the School Foundation, whose name I won't type here because of the generally negative tenor of my comments, drove out to my place to return a 4-figure check I had written. I got scissors and cut it up into little pieces. I had written it out to WCI. At first I was given the go-ahead to do it that way, then a meeting of some kind was held for elucidation, and a reversal was called for.
Jeannie Maanum works in the district business office. She takes care of all the finances for the district. She mentioned that she takes donations frequently for teachers and she is able to issue a letter and receipt to the donor, so that the donor can receive the tax exemption.
I would love to see the MAHS music department make its hoped-for trip to New Orleans in the spring. But now, "Mongo" (my alter ego) is in position to start all over. Imagine having a 4-figure check intended to benefit the school simply returned to you. We might be incredulous. But this is how life can be now. Not always the proper "follow-through" as Tim Conway Jr. would suggest.
We tread water too often. We won't go the extra mile to consummate.
However, the School Foundation person did go the extra mile to stop at my residence - credit where credit is due. I am still nowhere with my personal aspirations on this. And with UMM, I have various issues outside of simple incompetence or lethargy at the Welcome Center. Who would want to go in there again?
I miss Carolyn. I talked to her when she was on a "TV screen" there once - just like on "Star Trek."
I can't believe that a 4-year college that offers a music major can't have a band and/or choir at graduation. Am I just too old to appreciate these matters? And the UMM Homecoming concert this year included no current students. The concert used to be a big deal. Not only that, I seem to remember it was free. A friend told me there was a ten-dollar admission charge this year. I'm glad I didn't even go out there because I might have flown off the handle.
You know, UMM wants everyone to just give more and more money. Here's the problem: In order to do that, you have to have a product.
So, Homecoming was scheduled early for a particular reason? Did it have something to do with the football schedule? Well forget about football. Have a Homecoming soccer or volleyball match. Seriously. Football's stock is sinking all the time. St. Cloud State and Ridgewater-Willmar do not even have football anymore. Sheesh.
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| The UMM campus |
I have theorized through the years that the campus would always need a music department, regardless of how else it functions. Now I'm wondering. A friend of mine accurately describes the HFA building as an "albatross" based on its design. My what an array of issues/problems are presented. And the "real" enrollment sans the online students and PSEO "kids" may be only about 500?
Wash my hands here
Based on my problems in dealing with UMM and the public school foundation, maybe I ought to give money out of state to some institution where nobody knows me or has any opinions about me. How about the University of Idaho? U of Idaho has a music department named for Lionel Hampton. The late Jim Carlson would jump up and click his heels over that! So, that's good enough for me.
I'm reluctant to give my money to an institution that chooses to give a paycheck to Sue Dieter, who in my opinion occupies a position best described as bureaucratic.
Idaho? Wouldn't know a soul there. My kind of place. I bet they'd mail me a real nice T-shirt!
Closing out, let me just say "Mongo just pawn in game of life." An inconsequential grain of sand on the beach.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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