 |
| (photo by your blog host) |
Maybe Randy considers me to have been rather like a mentor. He used to stop in and visit when I had my Sun Tribune office. Randy is quite attuned and interested about UMM. People so programmed would legitimately have concerns about the institution these days. So if we sound "negative" you might consider it like "tough love" (like what TV's "Judge Mathis" metes out).
Here are the sage words from Mr. Olson, early on this day after UMM graduation 2023. His email was titled "Are you absolutely kidding me?"
No paper programs at UMM's commencement?
I am sitting here slack jawed and dumbfounded. What on earth?
I can see steering people to their smartphones, but you still need to offer a few paper programs. A token amount at least. Good gravy.
I can't wrap my head around so many things these days.
All things UMM
This morning I shot off an email to my fellow UMM advocate Warrenn Anderson. I think he understands my odd trait of writing emails that have real length, multiple paragraphs. The choir director at UMM has told me my emails are like "letters." Well it comes naturally for yours truly, an old-fashioned long-form journalist.
I share further about UMM matters in my email to Mr. Anderson. I saw the Andersons Friday night at Don's Cafe. Between my meal there and the Saturday brunch buffet at UMM, I wouldn't really have to eat for the next couple days.
Well Warrenn, big weekend for UMM commencement. I wonder how many people even care about the image that was projected or how all the details were handled. I have to be careful because a lot of people seem apathetic about everything. "Who cares?" Maybe that will be the reaction when UMM closes its doors.
I went to the brunch at the dining hall yesterday. The poster for graduation did not say anything about a charge for the event. I thought it would be a continental breakfast type of thing and would be free for everyone who took the trouble to be present for commencement. I then asked if there was a senior price. No. So I paid $12 and did so happily because there's no point in not being happy. The attendant smiled back at me, so fine and dandy. The food was in fact good and I enjoyed being there. Doug Reed recognized me and so that surprised me. Talked to Bryan Herrmann too. I remember being so proud that I could remember putting two n's at the end of his last name, but then I realized that I had only used one "r". This explains why I can't work for the Morris paper any more.
So I returned to campus for the graduation. I wanted a paper program to take home as a souvenir because I lay these on my late mother's bed - a ritual. It was interrupted for covid.
I got thrown a curve: no paper programs this year. I was told I could use my "smartphone." I'm not into that.
And then, no band to play "Pomp and Circumstance." It was a recording. Sheesh, Hancock High has a nice band play for graduation. Nice to see there are some classy institutions still around.
Are we supposed to accept this new norm?
I know the excuse I'm likely to hear: not enough of the music kids are around. Are "around." What the heck does that mean, because in past eras of UMM history, there most certainly was a robust band and chorus to perform. They would even perform feature numbers during the program. I remember when the band did "Volga Boatman" and I thought that was an odd choice for graduation. I would have been happy hearing an "odd choice" this year. Good grief, now we have nothing. I left early yesterday but I did not see risers set up for a chorus to perform. Remember all the years Ken Hodgson directed this?
Were you there the year Al Franken spoke? He was forced to resign from the Senate because of improper touch or whatever. Now Trump has actually been nailed in a courtroom for sexual assault, and he does a town hall where the audience laughs about it and applauds him continually. I don't get it.
Maybe we'll remember the Franken appearance here as the peak of the University of Minnesota-Morris.
You told me the interim U of M president will not be eligible for the permanent position. But wouldn't this dampen his incentive to do a slam-bang job? If you know you can't get the job ongoing? What incentive does he have now, other than a short-term nice paycheck? Bureaucratic "rules," sigh. Leave it to the U.
I still think it's strange that the U administration allowed the Crookston person to be officially "executive chancellor at the University of Minnesota-Morris." That threw me for a while. It made me think she might have some deep agenda affecting Morris that had to be engineered from the outside. Can you really blame me for thinking that? An anonymous person put a comment with one of my blog posts that my perception was totally overblown and that her appointment meant really zero for here. Well then why was she given the title?
 |
| Easy to love this place |
This new U interim president looks like the kind of guy who has his heart in Minnesota, given his background. We just had a president who came here because she just sent her resume here, apparently. Came here from South Carolina of the Deep South states. And then she looked for outside work (Securian). And then she left because she kept sending her resume around. I will never again attend a reception for some puffed-up U administrator who comes to Morris. Besides, I don't have a permit to park at UMM. I'm getting too old to ride bike a lot. I'll have you know I rode bike to campus for the brunch yesterday. Boomer generation members do not readily acknowledge the advancement of age.
Oh, the "softball complex" still looks to be a disaster. Only one small section of aluminum bleachers directly behind home plate at Holmberg Field is decent for viewing. Everyone else gets shafted. People sit out by the outfield fence because they lack alternatives, and nearly everyone must carry their own chair to the place. Sitting outside of third base sucks.
Fans who come here for sub-section should be advised in advance to bring their own chairs. We paid for this "improvement?" Affects our property taxes I'm sure, and when the proposed county jail was on the drawing board, people got up in arms bigly. Seems there's "crickets" with the softball complex. The place is muddy too. Parking is still an issue. The new field where the old UMM field was, did not even have to be constructed. Nothing but waste. Keep an eye on that, because I think the players will complain they're looking into the sun too much when they're batting, especially as we get toward mid-summer for late afternoon and early evening games. I'd be surprised if this does not happen. Is it possible that no one thought of this? And I did?
The underbelly?
A different friend has shared some "dark" quotes about UMM in an email from a few days ago. This individual I'm sure would prefer his name not be here. But these are honest thoughts directly from the heart. It is most constructive to read thoughts like these, not the syrupy "happy talk" one gleans from the Morris newspaper all the time. "See no evil" or whatever. Anything not to offend people.
Here's what my friend shared a couple days ago. What if he is right?
As far as Janet (Schrunk Ericksen) and a “strategy for lifting enrollment”, there is a “steering committee” (some faculty and admin.) at UMM engaged in studying that matter. But methinks it’s a lost cause, as essentially every 4-year college in Minnesota is suffering from declining enrollment. That’s why I’m not concerned about a “DFL politician” being the interim president of the U. The whole U system has become irrelevant. People are discovering that community colleges and tech schools are emerging as being far more practical for HS graduates looking for professional training than a lot of 4-year institutions, especially those that consider themselves engaged in the “liberal arts.”
 |
| Craig Peterson |
The image at right is from Wahpeton Daily News.
I am advised that our former notorious MAHS principal Craig Peterson has been removed from the Breckenridge school administration. I never met him. Perhaps he is an outstanding school administrator. But I always felt that based on the known facts about his behavior on the night when you-know-what happened, he should have been terminated. Nothing personal, just based on the facts.
I suspected that our school board had an attorney who was scared of his own shadow. Scared of a lawsuit of course. I would have recommended just plunging forward anyway, have the principal try to explain away his behavior that night. I would have been safely in bed, and I'm not paid to set an example for the kids. Would anyone acknowledge that my brainpan can be effective sometimes? Here's a current news update about Mr. Peterson from Valley News Live (4/28/23):
Tensions ran high early Friday morning in a Minnesota school board meeting.
Despite hundreds of pleas to board members, the Breckenridge District will be cutting its own leadership. Nearly 200 students, and some staff, walked out of the school Friday in support of a principal who is now without a job.
“Many students, staff and citizens of the community think the security and integrity of the school will be compromised if there is no full-time, authoritative principal,” said a Breckenridge High School junior.
In a 6-0 vote, board members moved to let High School Principal Craig Peterson go and put the current elementary school principal in charge of the entire district, K-12.
“We deserve to know what your plan is for the next year, three years, five years, 10 years,” said one Breckenridge teacher. “We need to know this.”
More than 100 parents, staff and students voiced concerns. They called for a full-time school resource officer, and they questioned how one person could oversee more than 600 students and how this will impact already burnt out teachers.
“Does cutting a full-time principal save that much money if you then have to hire a full-time dean and possibly a resource officer?” asked one community member.
The answer to that, school leaders say, is yes. The district is not getting enough funding from the state and with COVID funding going away, they need to make hard cuts.
“We’ve known that we need to make some cuts,” said a board member. “We know that in order to make an administrative change, we’ve got strict timelines we need to adhere to.”
Peterson took the job in 2017 and between the two principals, he’s the least tenured.
“This isn’t a personal, ‘Let’s get Mr. Peterson,’” said a school board member.
Bottom line, school leaders say their backs are against a wall and an administrative position must go. Last year, the district saw a more than $170,000 deficit.
School leaders are proposing moving the superintendent’s office back into the high school for more supervision. Peterson’s cut will save the district $50,000.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minneosta - bwilly73@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment