How can the U of M fare in the fall?

Joan Gabel, U of M president

Well it's a beautiful summer day anyway, June of 2020. I say "anyway" in light of the turbulence we're all confronting. First it was the virus. Not that that has gone away, but we now see the turbulent protests all over the place.
Such wide-scale universal unrest would not be expected in response to just a single incident, in this case the death (alleged murder) of George Floyd. So there must have been lots of discontent simmering all over, now brought to a head with the catalyst being Floyd's tragic death.
An obvious response is that our U.S. president could have behaved as a healer, from the get-go, admitting there were problems, or as they say "systemic" problems. The president has not been inclined that way. He also did not marshal the overwhelming resources of the federal government to immediately deal with and attack the virus at its outset. He pathetically tried putting the responsibility on the shoulders of governors who do not have those resources, and who cannot act in a truly coordinated way.
It's June so we're looking at the chances of college starting in some sort of reliable way come fall. That's a real poser. There are a bevy of questions and issues.
We look to Joan Gabel with the University of Minnesota. I remember when she came for her first visit to UMM. She was under consideration for U president then. The cold of winter was sharp as I rode bike out to campus. I had not gotten any heads-up on parking permits being waived, but surely they must have been.
I did a little homework re. Gabel's background in case I had the chance to meet her. I did! This was at the Turtle Mountain Cafe. I had fallen in with a group of three for the gathering, joined by two others with a long background with the institution, thus we knew each other well. Name-dropping: Sandy Olson-Loy and Warrenn Anderson. I'm getting older and not as likely to know many of the current important people.
Being out of the corporate media for several years has also isolated me some. It's nice to break bread with people with whom you have shared memories. I was present for the first-ever UMM commencement in 1964.
Having done a modicum of research re. Gabel, I pointed out to her that coming here to Minnesota from South Carolina would relieve her of dealing with hurricanes! I also found fodder in Gabel's background as a philosophy major. That's a unique crowd, one quite in the mainstream with UMM's historic thrust.
We can be philosophical right now about Mr. Trump, can't we? A comment like that is still good for a chuckle here and there - the scary thing is when it ceases being funny, a prospect which may be bearing down on us. Are we there now? Is there really any line he can't cross? Maybe not here in the Seventh Congressional District.
We have Republican state lawmakers too. Those guys love UMM for the economic asset it represents in their district. I doubt either of them loves UMM's historic liberal arts focus - too enmeshed with liberal politics. They might say otherwise but I demur.
Gabel got the job to lead the august U of M. She visited our fair community a second time for a pleasant little gathering at the LaFave House. It's nice to be at the LaFave House when it isn't crowded. I'd like to have a nickel for every time I've heard someone say "excuse me" in there.
A group of President's Club members joined Ms. Gabel.
It would seem the announcement of the Williams Fund at UMM was not timed well, so soon before the cloud of doubt began hovering with the pandemic. This past academic year got chopped off as we'd be going into the home stretch of spectacular music events on campus. The choir almost "made it" for their planned Peru trip, and the odds were supposedly 50-50 on the morning after the send-off concert directed by Brad Miller. I heard the 50-50 estimate and personally felt skeptical, knowing as I do how these things can go. Unfortunately I was right.
And then we were all deprived of the slate of climatic music events that would have been presented in the concluding months.
And on top of that: graduation! Lordy Lordy.
 
No music maestro please?
Music is what the Ralph and Martha Williams Fund at UMM is all about. The cloud or specter that hovers over the U in light of the unpredictable virus, is worse for music than for anything else, it would seem.
Maybe some enterprising minds can overcome that. I don't see how, though. Music ensembles have students sitting or standing shoulder-to-shoulder and emitting moisture particles. If you think that's an exaggeration, allow me to speak as a former brass player and remind you that we let "spit" out of our horns. There's a little button that allows you to do that. Maybe you don't wish to know this elucidation.
College administrators are trying real hard to make something approximating standard college practicable for fall. Can't blame them for trying. Optimism is an admirable trait. I wish Gabel and others well. We want to see the wheels turning at our UMM. But it won't be in the fully standard way. Can it work out at all? Sadly I do not expect a resounding "yes" to that question.
Could things get as bad as to see all campus activity scrubbed? Well, we can't rule something out just because it's unpleasant. We must be ready for anything.
The U might even have to deal with the economic fallout from our nation grappling with the pandemic - the ripples in so many directions. I doubt that state and local government can expect much relief from the federal level, not with two-thirds of the federal level controlled by the Republican Party. The Republicans have even floated the possibility of "punishing" the blue states, and we in Minnesota have a Democratic governor.
Republicans rule the Senate which means we have to take the likes of Tom Cotton seriously. Yes, "send in the troops" for dealing with mass protests. I'm reminded of when the late author Tom Clancy was on a talk show, possibly Larry King, and threw cold water on the idea of U.S. troops at the border with Mexico. Clancy reminded that soldiers are not trained in law enforcement. That's a different bag. More graphically he noted: "Soldiers don't arrest people, soldiers kill people."
Cotton is from Arkansas. We are letting people from the Southern states have too much power these days. Remember that the South lost.
 
We're not out of the woods
My skepticism regarding normality for college is supported by the strong chance of a "second wave" for the virus.
Right now there's so much talk of an expanded re-opening, albeit not a 100 percent re-opening. We'll be giddy as this starts to happen. I'm scared to think about the reaction if a complete shutdown happens again due to the second wave of the virus. We won't even have the summer weather to make us feel better. How could we possibly have football? Lordy.
Everyone's favorite national doctor, that Fauci fellow, who had to stand beside Trump for the surreal daily updates - drink Clorox maybe? - said in April that "we will have coronavirus in the fall - I am convinced of that." Dr. Fauci was among "many leading voices," according to "Marketwatch," to predict an inevitable second wave in the fall or winter which - emphasis here - "could be even worse than the first."
Poor Dr. Fauci is forced to operate in a politically-tinged, I would say toxic environment, as toxic as drinking Clorox. Fauci tried modifying his original statement earlier this month, to add that the second wave might not be seen as "inevitable."
The "Marketwatch" article noted the contradictory nature of Fauci's statements, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist or brain surgeon to suggest that the doctor got his head placed in a vise, metaphorically speaking, and had to manufacture some optimism. After all, the powers-that-be would say that's good for the stock market. Which is: the most important objective, right? More important than God and Jesus? I would say certain churches in our Morris area consider Trump's fortunes to be more important than God and Jesus. Ah, the "Russian witch hunt" and "fake news."
People seemed more intelligent when I was younger. Maybe I've stepped into a "Twilight Zone" episode. Maybe I'm the only normal person around, and you wouldn't want to insult me for saying that - because, the Williams family is a UMM benefactor. Eat your heart out.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

The late Ralph E. Williams directs the UMM men's chorus at the New York World's Fair, 1964.