Bruininks was here for sunny graduation

Our surroundings have sure been "wet" lately. Well, moisture promotes life, right? And surely things will dry out some as temperatures make their eventual creep upward for this time of year. It's the time of year when we can focus on graduations. I think it would be good for everyone's morale if we could have an outdoor UMM graduation. Weather has been a hindrance in too many years. 

We have been blessed in some years like when Bob Bruininks came here to speak. I remember that one especially well. Ah Bruininks whose last name required some acclimation for typing properly! It was easy after just a few times, at least for me. I did suggest the alternative phonetic spelling of "Brunix." 

Bob Bruininks of the U

You might remember Bruininks as the U president with the background of really loving our UMM Jazz Festival. The Festival equates with memories of the late Jim Carlson. Jacqueline Johnson spoke about how all college programs and the colleges themselves have built-in permanence and when someone exits, someone else simply steps in. She said the principle applied to herself obviously. She shared her remarks at the time Jim exited UMM. 

I know Carlson did not feel good about all the circumstances surrounding him at the time of his leaving. Many of us have to adjust to such things even if we have a hard time understanding them. Even if we see very little logic to it. Sometimes the world just changes too. There has been a drop-off in the number of college-age kids. We could once count on a flood of such kids to arrive on campuses in the fall. 

We could count on kids partying like crazy for Homecoming at a place like St. Cloud State. At present I feel the college and its community have succeeded in slaying the dragon of that image. I really do. So today if you mention "St. Cloud State" you are not guaranteed to arouse a smile based on the old image. And of course there were many students whose conduct was not consistent with that image anyway. 

I hear that the UMM Jazz Festival this year was quite fine. It may no longer follow the mold that Jim set up, but hey, there was a time when the institution had to end its "UMM men's chorus." Ahem, that just happened to be the ensemble that was closely associated with my late father. I cannot tell you in what year it ended. And I don't know for a fact that it ended because of the political issues with having such a gender-specific group. Would it have been OK if there was a female-only equivalent? 

Gender acknowledgment seemed essential back then. So, I remember the term "mixed chorus." Mixed with boys and girls of course. It's understood that my father wanted to establish the men's group, as one of his biggest claims to fame was having conducted the Apollo Male Chorus of Minneapolis. Back to the '50s! 

UMM has gone through changes like all higher ed institutions. Part of that, though far from being the only part, is the diminished number of college-age kids out there. Just as significant are the changes to our whole culture in the digital age of communications. We must hope UMM can adjust. I have opened my big mouth too much saying that UMM might have to adjust its fundamental mission, that fundamental mission having always been "liberal arts." Unfortunately, I guess, I expressed this viewpoint some even back in the pre-digital days. 

Of course we all endorse what the liberal arts basically represent. The question is whether such formal institutions need to be devoted to them, institutions with their instructors who can spin things in ways we sometimes find objectionable. And in the Internet age we have direct access to all the knowledge we might find useful in understanding our world. 

 

Illness report

We got sad news this week, as a UMM music event at our Morris Public Library had to be canceled. I saw the poster at the library with the handwritten "canceled due to illness" on it. So I inquired. Our friendly librarian Anne informed me: the illness was of the director Simon Tillier. I later heard he had to go to the hospital and was then sent to St. Cloud. 

Simon Tillier

It's Thursday afternoon as I write this, dearly hope that everything is panning out for director Tillier, he of the British sound to his voice. Mom and I might have started talking that way ourselves. You may be even more familiar with another trait of Simon's. Being all over on his bicycle! And this seems to cover every month of the year. A real intrepid soul. 

Simon is master of the clarinet. I hear this is the instrument of specialty for our high school band director too, Wanda Dagen. Wanda has some important concerts coming up. Check these out, put them on your calendar. 

The public library is where I check out the newspapers: Morris and Minneapolis. Anne told me "I never see kids with the newspapers." Ah, a signal for where society is headed with the media! Who could have predicted that Litchfield and Hutchinson would be literally losing their newspapers? Apparently no new buyers could be found. 

So what's up with the future of our newspaper here? It has been through substantial downsizing since the days I worked there. Sue Dieter reportedly told the staff how much better things would be with me gone. It sure didn't turn out that way. Signs of downsizing in various ways began cropping up not long after I left. UMM has chosen to have Dieter on its payroll. I view it as a bureaucratic position. Why didn't she stay with the paper? Was she given the option to stay? I mean, when the new ownership took over? 

I find it hard to root for Reed, sorry, because of his repeated points where he seems to imply the government ought to help newspapers. Or facilitate them or whatever. A partnering of government with newspapers is just folly IMHO. I think as inflation gets worse, as it almost surely will, more people will cut out the local newspaper from their expenses. 

Don't you think it's strange that the paper has this nice "sports" link on its website and this is almost 100 percent UMM Cougar news? That has baffled me for some time. I like seeing local sports news when it's fresh.

 

I observed this week's Stevens County Times at library, then sent this email to a friend:

 

WHAT GIVES? I looked at photo at bottom-left of front page. Take a look yourself. Four individuals in photo. Looks like Mr. K at right. Are these individuals identified in caption? As in "left to right," so we know who the heck the honored kids are? The paper has committed this type of oversight repeatedly. I would be called dumb in all sorts of creative ways if I did it. Dumb and lazy and whatever. I'd risk being shouted at.

Why can't the paper straighten this out?

Just went to Casey's for a snack, I came right out and told them right away I'm not in their rewards program.

- BW

 

I shared further with my friend about the paper's error and other things:

 

It pains me to realize how routine it was for me to "make my rounds" and take photos and jot down notes so everything was clear for a photo caption. It doesn't even take any special training. I would never have committed an oversight like you see in the new paper, and if I had, my God the insults I'd have to take from all over.

I am quite certain that life in Litchfield and Hutchinson will proceed quite fine when they have no paper. The fact that the papers are closing means that no new owners could be found. I don't like seeing Reed's opinion pieces about how the government needs to help newspapers. I can't think of a worse idea. But of course everyone wants government money.

The thing about covering local schools that about drives you nuts, is that they never can get enough money and the teachers can never get enough money. And the Morris teachers look so upset now, we all have to fear it will affect their performance and enthusiasm just like it did in the 1980s. The football coach is one of the leading complainers.

Harold LeVander

Minnesota had a governor once, Harold LeVander, Republican, who couldn't believe that the education establishment was never satisfied. He thought the state had done some good things for education. But no.

The newspaper will run a "correction" by simply running a thorough caption on their WEBSITE. Neat trick, they've done it several times. Maybe one of the people in the photo will write the caption for the paper, since the paper has trouble doing it.

- BW

 

My learned friend responded with this observation: 

Levander backwards is "Rednavel."

 

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