 |
| This institution works to eradicate old image |
Minnesota State might be feeling an impulse to fight back vs. the logic. Upon reading the Star Tribune's Feb. 4 editorial, I wondered if some lobbying had been done of the paper's editorial writers. It seemed a naked advocacy piece for Minnesota State.
I have a hard time using "Minnesota State" as the terminology. To me it's still MnSCU (or MIN-skew phonetically I guess), though this term seemed unwieldy. "Minnesota State" was a fictional school in a TV sitcom. Remember Jerry Van Dyke in that entertainment? Still well-remembered. Did you know that Van Dyke was the first choice to play "Gilligan" in that famous show? Van Dyke thought there might be more potential in "My Mother the Car." Just shows how difficult it is to read the audience.
"Gilligan's Island" has been put forward as the epitome of one size fits all "fluff" from the TV era characterized by Newton Minow as "vast wasteland." Remember the Jam Nabors Variety Hour? Surely I digress here. No longer do I have an editor steering me along.
Building up the U of M too
Our august University of Minnesota has a marketing mission. That's a no-brainer, you might say. Yours truly may even be called on soon to make some worthy pronouncements re. the fund set up in my parents' names. Surely this is a noble task. Thing is, Minnesota State is set up the same way, to try to engage in the same kind of marketing, a no-brainer for them.
What troubles me some is that these two expansive systems butt heads.
The alternative might be to have one coordinated state system for higher education. Haven't you all wondered why this is not reality? No one has ever sat me down to truly share why we have both the U of M and the State Universities, and why we should countenance at all any overlap in their missions. I recall when the Strib ran a series of columns in which their own writers took off on a pet subject, and one of them said "we all know" there is overlap, as if it was something we all just had to live with.
Waste and largesse are never to be taken lightly.
We develop emotional attachment to our schools overseen by the state. They have alumni with warm feelings.
For years we put up with St. Cloud State, a huge institution in the middle of Minnesota, having a reputation of frivolity, certainly not consistent with being ranked high in anything. Without a doubt, St. Cloud State has had its strong suits. So if you're associated, don't lecture me on how the reputation should be presented. Let's emphasize that the popular reputation, the one joked about so often, is in connection with drinking alcohol, partying and the like.
As if on cue. . .
We had an official "poet laureate" as guest speaker at our UMM commencement a few years back. As I recall she shared an anecdote connected to St. Cloud State and as soon as I heard the reference, I thought to myself "uh-oh, we're going to get a party reference." And sure enough it happened just as if scripted. Holy Frivolous image, Batman. And yet, the immediate reaction among the public is to smile with amusement, maybe not in a putdown way but in a "well, that's reality" way.
All of us remember frivolous aspects of our youth and not with total shame. But an institution of higher education, smack-dab in the middle of Minnesota, should not accept such an image. Today I can be happy to report that the image has certainly been addressed there. St. Cloud State had its first Homecoming in a long time last fall, after a hiatus necessitated by the reputational problems coming about due to full-fledged "riots." Even UMM has had some issues with Homecoming. It prompts one to think the ritual might not be necessary.
A tradition developed in St. Cloud, of the media collecting "police blotter" information immediately after Homecoming weekend and then reporting with a smirk about all the foolishness that went on. Society is turning away from such things now. I'm greatly relieved.
Logical proposal sprouts
So, we face the grim reality of the MnSCU system being "overbuilt." And just a few days ago a letter writer in the Star Tribune stole my thunder. Starting some time back, I tossed out the idea of something like a "base closing commission" to deal with the bloat in Minnesota higher education. It would follow the principle and model of military base closings, which are too much of a hot potato for elected representatives and their parochial interests to handle.
Would state government be brave enough to do this? I'm not holding my breath. I find it strange in our current reality that Rochester would have a new and developing U campus in a time when retreat seems necessary. Strange. Did Rochester just get that as a political plumb? Let's not be Pollyannish. How does this U of M campus really differ from a Minnesota State campus?
Why the two entities, which by necessity must now compete?
I suppose someone could lecture me on how the U of M is simply "superior." I get tired of words like "superior" and "excellence" in connection with schools. All schools strive for these qualities. It just starts coming across as sheep dip, a sales job.
If Minnesota State truly needs to be trimmed, serious pols ought to roll up their sleeves now and get it started. Do we need higher ed. campuses in Rochester and Winona, the latter having a Jerry Van Dyke school?
"Woof, woof?"
State University campuses get derided sometimes by people who make "mongrel" assertions about them, implying it's such a step down from the U. There's nothing wrong with saying the U of M is tremendous as I'm sure it is. But why drag the state-run campuses into this dichotomy where the two sides square off as if in combat?
Are my words too strong? Well, if we get to the point where serious downsizing is undertaken, via a base closing mechanism or whatever, you will sense a fighting posture in the Minnesota communities that are affected. And, I find this extent of conflict to be disheartening.
My goodness, the February 4 editorial in the Star Tribune, that puff piece for Minnesota State, describes that system as "undervalued." How can it be undervalued if it has too many campuses?
Ridgewater College in Willmar gave us a lesson last fall when it aborted its football schedule and canceled the program permanently. Congratulations.
 |
| The institution we love here in Morris MN! |
Oh, but we read that "enrollment has been dropping at a number of campuses." Well, my generation of the boomers is long gone from the campus picture, gone from the days when we flooded campuses like St. Cloud State. There are far fewer kids today. This is the factor that probably needs prime attention. Another factor is the overwhelming cost of an education which tempts young people to seek an end run around the tired old bricks and mortar model. Needless to say, the opportunity to learn through electronic media is increasingly tempting.
The Strib quoted the Minnesota State chancellor saying "we're the best value in town." Why quote such a "stock" statement from a person charged with selling the system? As I read down to the bottom, I wondered if the whole thing was produced by a marketing department.
I'm helping the University of Minnesota try to accomplish the same in connection with our family's fund, the Ralph and Martha Williams Fund. But in the back of my mind, I wonder why the two state systems have to butt heads so much. We need some real leadership to wriggle out of this.
Yes, St. Cloud State has a storied and checkered history with Homecoming. But UMM has its 2005 goalpost incident in its background, as bad as anything else you want to cite. So sad that an innocent event like Homecoming should take on such a dark side. You may read my personal reflections on UMM's disaster by clicking the link below, a post I wrote in 2010. - BW
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment