Fresh news might bring panic for UMN-Morris

A blessing for so long: UMN-Morris

Cost of food bothering you? It's starting to get to me. The accumulated costs make me wonder how families are dealing with the cost of higher education for their children. Will more of us start to question higher education itself, at least in many of its standard forms? Will people start to accept "lower education" as being sufficient as the starting point to adult life? 

Certain professions of course require rigorous preparation. Outside of that I have to wonder. 

How does our UMM of Morris fit into the picture? We have to ask this in a concerned way now. I mean, just based on the news of this past week. 

I recently had a meeting with our top UMM person who projected optimism which I'm sure is a given for someone in her position. And I'm not knocking that. She thinks that UNM can package its "DEI" priority in such a way as to be accepted. 

And we all most sincerely wish Ms. Schrunk Ericksen well. I sit here scratching my head though. 

I'm no dummy, contrary to the popular notions about me that go back 30-40 years. I can read. So the news reports about DEI being a whipping boy in this "higher education" should prompt concern. 

Sometimes with political people it's "just talk." We so often assume that elected leaders will drift some to the political center after a campaign of heated rhetoric. "Heated rhetoric" with DJT? Well of course. You have to accept that. And it's done so often with a lack of basic civility and decency. 

Like it or not, Western Minnesota is on board with all this. Look at how our congressperson speaks, although I'd suggest you keep an eye on her releases to constituents. I'm on that list because I once presented a question to her office. I get all her missives now, quite unsubtle in glorifying DJT and hammering away at the other party. See if she starts mentioning Trump less if Trump's stock falls.

 

Torch was passed

Prior to Ms. Fischbach we had a long-serving Democrat as congressperson. He had his tail between his legs at the end, as he tried to campaign as if he was ashamed to be a Democrat. But how did this congressional district choose to send a Democrat to D.C. for so long? We are now ruby red in our disposition out here where we can hear the coyotes howl at night just beyond the town. 

But we're still home to the U of M-Morris. And yes this institution has chosen to present its "DEI" as if that's our actual brand. I have joked that Morris seems such a small and insignificant place, our existence may not even be known to the Stephen Millers of Washington D.C. It's not just Trump himself wielding power, it's his subordinates. 

 

Talent for demagoguery

An innate thing

Do I have to tell you that part of human nature is to want to be close to power? So as DJT uses his demagogic skills to seal his grip on power - two election wins in eight years - look how people like Pam Bondi come along to do his bidding. 

Bondi is now directly threatening judges. DJT blows off judicial rulings on sending people to foreign prisons. 

The circle of people around the president will tighten their grip as long as they sense they can. 

Government gets its authority from the will of the people. We people out here in western Minnesota want the kind of policy goals put forth by the MAGA element. So, what was in the news last week that should make us furrow our brows out here in Morris? It is a renewed and determined attack on DEI. 

I am not choosing here to make a big point about DEI itself. I know a lot of people are sour on it. Me? I think it has its positive attributes like for classes of people who may struggle with the traditional way of dispensing college studies - arduous, often unpleasant. And I know because I experienced those reactions myself. 

 

Once the norm

I'm 70 and my generation was told we just had to go to college. Just had to, in order to feel respectable. Those were different times, way pre-Internet. Knowledge was scarce. College courses seemed set up in many ways to scare the young people. 

A major consequence of the digital age is this: We no longer need to depend on colleges merely for the dispensing of knowledge. Because change happens slowly in society, we may not be aware of this sea change. Think if the Internet did not exist. Just think of how essential our libraries would still be. The great sociologist Charles Murray was saying 15 years ago that "we don't need college libraries anymore." And the reaction? Well oh my, how could anyone say something like that? Such hubris from academia. (I won't use the term "rarefied air" because I over-use it.) 

We have gone 180 degrees from when knowledge was scarce. Kids want to learn but they don't want to take "Sociology 101." You should laugh at that comment. If you have a common everyday problem today, go to YouTube and there will be multiple posts helping you out. The help is so direct, getting from point 'A' to point 'B' in the most direct way. That's the nature of the Internet. 

Whereas, college education has always been filled with pretense, sorry. The educators must inject a degree of difficulty in learning because as a professional requirement, they must give a range of "grades." Oh, those cotton pickin' grades. My generation struggled up through the age of 21 assuming we'd have to cope with a grading system that unfortunately suggested it was a barometer for our self-worth. 

 

A direct route

Today? Kids can identify their passion and possible career direction and find avenues to get there without having to take "Sociology 101." Or, to cave to the social expectation, once prevalent, of partying, alcohol consumption and other such impulses while a student. For God's sake, get with the program and try to enter adult life. Forget about this college "rite of passage" unless you are sure it offers things you need. Find a church to attend on Sunday - a mainstream community church - instead of having your head buried in a pillow while you suffer with a hangover headache. 

So in place of all the foolishness that my generation gravitated to, and generations immediately following, maybe just accept the  "DEI" mission of UMM. 

You can't convince Trump of this, but DEI lifts up segments of the population that historically have been held back. That's fine by me. 

 

Shoals ahead

Janet Schrunk Ericksen

I really truly wish Ms. Schrunk Ericksen well as she guides UMM now. But seriously I think she'll have to guide the institution through some shoals. And why am I so convinced of that now at 4 a.m. on this Saturday morning, spring of 2025? I follow the news. You can read all about it in a variety of places: this undeterred push by the Trump crowd to destroy DEI. It's a push that I think is just part of a larger push to kneecap higher education, or let's say the spending of public dollars for education. 

Destroy the Federal Department of Education? That's the goal. Looks like we're already feeling the effects of that in Morris with substantial cuts to our Morris Area public school staff. 

Make up for that with state spending? Oh, Republicans will recommend that. But states cannot operate on a deficit! File that away. 

Trump and his people are coming at DEI with hammer and tongs now. Fresh headlines this past week. College administrators who fight this could have their careers ruined. 

 

Directive from on high

"Donald Trump signed executive orders on Wednesday targeting universities as his administration seeks to reshape higher education institutions and continues to crack down on diversity and inclusion efforts." That's from "The Guardian." 

It will be the U of M administration in the Twin Cities who would have to make any difficult announcements about the fate of UMM. What choice would they have? Significant Federal grant money would be at stake. This is what happens with autocratic rule: people have to capitulate in order to take care of themselves. General Patton thought the large majority of Germans went along with the autocracy of the mid-20th Century because they had no choice. 

I don't think Trump should even be allowed to attend the Pope's funeral today (Saturday). We should respect standards of integrity. Let's see, what was the outcome in the E. Jean Carroll case?

  

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