Hopeful that UMM can cling to its DEI

There is no reason why I shouldn't sit here and feel 100 percent affection for UMN-Morris. It is the entirely logical mindset. It is also the self-interested mindset. 

I was delighted to have a meeting with UMM's chancellor on Monday at her office in Behmler. I might say the rarefied air of Behmler: third floor. Also present was a very nice representative of UMM's giving department. That individual keeps an eye on me as I make my way through the rarefied air of campus. It is truly and unapologetically a DEI campus. 

Is there any way I could be wrong in my concern about that? 

I follow the news maybe to an excessive degree. So what about all this hand-wringing over DEI? The pitched battles that appear to have broken out? And these involve the ultimate in rarefied air: Harvard! 

As of right now it looks as if Harvard just isn't going to take it any more. A major Republican-oriented newspaper has a headline saying Harvard "refuses to fight anti-Semitism." My critics berate me when they think I'm wrong. Not only am I told I'm wrong, it's insinuated that I lack intelligence. There's fun-poking. So I'd likely be derided if I said "anti-Semitism is not the question." 

Very obviously a most progressive institution like Harvard is not going to be into "anti-Semitism." The question here is over the pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel cause. And most Americans are not aware of just how much disagreement exists in Israel itself over a range of things. 

Our conservative media like, well, Mike Huckabee would think it's one big homogeneous cause and we need to treat this Netanyahu thug as the hero. I demur. Because our Morris MN is such an overwhelmingly "red" place, I'd likely be thrown on the defensive again. I have been in the minority so often like even with local issues. I can just see the look in the eyes of my detractors. 

 

Massaging "DEI"

UMM's chancellor made a very good argument for how UMM could present its DEI in a way that would allow us all to survive. I fervently hope that she is right. I don't know but I can just see the long knives brandished by the Stephen Millers. It would be nice if it was mainly "talk" or bluster. We can easily see our elected people posture. 

But look what is going on between Harvard and the top government people. Harvard has now decided to take great risk. The government has made serious threats with teeth to other institutions such as Brown University and Princeton. Elections surely have consequences. We're talking Federal research grant money with staggering $ figures. 

If institutions like Harvard are willing to take risks in the face of such dollar amounts, it's concerning. And the thing with our UMM is: I'm not sure our little school would really be able to re-purpose itself, in effect to start from scratch with a new purpose. Actually I think we are fortunate that UMM has found this DEI purpose as a way of giving it distinction. 

Who cares if it might seem unfair to the traditional white or "white bread" students. We're so small, so what? What's so hard about learning to like "diversity?" We really are a rainbow country. 

I don't miss at all the days when UMM sold itself as a place for kids of vastly superior intelligence. And it's not like the kids themselves were allowed to bask in their own intelligence, because I'm sure many of them feared: 1) long reading lists of books, 2) tough (of course) grading standards, and 3) final exams that caused them to consume pots of coffee as they "crammed." 

So in many ways I'm sure it could be depressing. But the kids were aware of the image they were supposed to project. And frankly I saw Provost Jack Imholte go right along with that image of superiority, of superior intelligence. 

I'm not the only one who formed this impression. You may remember the recently-deceased Donnie Eich of Morris. Saint of a guy. And he was actually quite loyal to UMM athletics. I think of him primarily sitting in the top row of bleachers, often by himself, for UMM women's events when the women's teams were still climbing to total legitimacy along with the men. Sometimes I'd take my photographs and then go sit by Donnie a while. A real class act and also capable of independent thought. I mean, independent of certain prevailing cliques in Morris. 

But I don't mean to drag y'all back to the 1980s here. I'm sure he was thankful for UMM's existence. But he said to me once: "All that a UMM education proves is that you're good at reading some books and then answering questions about them." 

At age 70 I have to remind myself that I can remember past things about Morris that are not so well remembered or remembered at all by younger folks. UMM's own employees appear to not be well-versed on much of this. So, what prompts this comment is that I remember times when I'd get greatly annoyed by the "UMM crowd" being disrespectful toward visiting athletes and fans. 

Imholte, despite his own embrace of the arrogance sometimes, put a plea in the campus newspaper once about how the kids basically needed to shape up for an upcoming football game. It was getting that bad. And all this over intercollegiate sports? 

I heard back from a current UMM person once after I had alluded to this history in a blog post. This person was incredulous. She then asked about just what kind of behavior I found objectionable. She wondered if I was talking about fans on one side of the gym "making noise" when an opposing player was at the freethrow line. Well of course I wouldn't get upset about such a thing, and I kind of resented the assertion. 

I responded to her that I was simply referring to "rat pack behavior of long ago." 

There is good news here: If the people today are clueless about the past behavior, that means the past behavior must be gone. And even though I do not attend Cougar games at present, I am 100 percent certain that the students of today - yes in these "DEI" days - are more calm, civilized and considerate, even if they want to cheer lustily. No chants based on the alleged inferior "GPA" of the visiting kids. I heard about that offhand one day at the Morris newspaper office. 

So cute: a chant about "GPA." Well hell, I would lump in the whole "GPA" thing with UMM's old way of thinking about academics and intelligence. So much anxiety in past times over "grades." Even in our public schools there used to be too much intimidation of kids with the "grades" they might get. They might not drink pots of coffee because they were too young for that. 

I think a lot of them found "escape" with rebellious behavior. Even destructive or self-destructive behavior as with drugs. And for what? To try to prove somehow that they could pass muster with their "intelligence?" And if they couldn't, then what? Many were not interested in reading a bunch of books and then answering questions about it. 

Why did our whole education system fall in that direction? 

Two theories: one is the Cold War which begat the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about. The Cold War begat the Vietnam war. 2) The "meritocracy" principle in higher education which David Brooks of the New York Times has written about in such an attention-getting way recently. 

To distill, the meritocracy was borne of a raw egalitarian ideal, the dismissing of "bloodlines" as the basis for kids getting into top schools. Well we don't like that, right? But to be replaced with what? Well, GRADES, you knaves: We'll judge our young people according to a rigorous grading system that will be this "meritocracy." 

Everyone needed to take a cold shower. Maybe by now we have done that, so the UMM of today I doubt very much assigns piles of books and gives exams that instill raw fear. Besides, kids of today can walk away from the raw fear and find other options that open the door for a perfectly happy adult life. 

UMN-Morris has its niche now with DEI and I'm quite content with it. The storm clouds are coming from Washington D.C. Our UMM campus strives to be optimistic in the face. We have to be totally supportive at this time.

Janet Schrunk Ericksen, UMN-Morris chancellor

 

Addendum: I checked Morris newspaper in library a short time ago, noticed the banner headline article about someone giving $1000 to Morris Women of Today. Well, I gave twice that amount to the high school band program two years ago and did not get a mention in the fishwrap. Of course the reward is in knowing what I did for the band program. 

I did not see Anne at the library just now. I decided it would be inappropriate to ask library workers about her status. I think a lot of us are floundering trying to figure out what's going on. And we really are curious for good reason. Did the City of Morris hire an outside attorney on this matter? If so, then I'm sure the matter involves more than a $15 discrepancy. I sure hope the local media comes through to tell us about final resolution. I hope we are not "left hanging." But I wouldn't rule out the latter. 

I'm old enough that I remember covering the Women of Today for the Morris newspaper back when they were called the "Jaycee Women!" 

I remember the Women of Today's "Baby Olympics" at East Side Park which was the early-bird event for the old Prairie Pioneer Days! And now there's a movement to "preserve" East Side Park. Can we get a movement going to get more use out of the Killoran stage there?

  

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com