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Menards Hall collapses at North Dakota State University.

Definition of “Creeping Meatballism” The idea of thinking individually has become a big joke. Old Thomas J. Watson of I.B.M. came up with the idea for a sign which just said: “Think”. And today, it’s a gag! This is the result of “Creeping Meatballism”.

On the first of December, Dr. Richard Hanson became the interim president of NDSU. I recall thinking at the time that he might becoming president of an institution on the verge of collapse.  I had no idea that it might happen literally.  I’m referring, of course, the collapse of the north side of that grand old structure Minard Hall.

For those unfamiliar with the NDSU campus, Minard Hall is the four floor yellow brick building with maroon trim across Albrecht Blvd from the NDSU Library, sandwiched between Askanase Hall(the Little County Theatre), the heating plant and Festival Hall.  It was built in three stages, the first being in 1901. It houses the College of Arts, Humanities and social Sciences, as well s the Mathematics and Psychology Departments of the College of Science and Mathematics.

For those not involved in higher education at a research university, this is a catastrophe of indescribable proportion.  To me, it is symbolic of the neglect  a state with a billion dollar surplus and its population treats its higher education system.  I don’t expect to make any friends by saying this, but for me, this is the straw that broke the camel’s back.  I no longer care whether the youth of North Dakota get quality education or not.  Much as I love my students, the state just doesn’t deserve the effort.

So let’s return to Minard Hall, clearly one of the most important buildings on campus.  Currently it is closed to everyone.  There is hope to get the offices and classrooms not affected by the collapse ready for the start of spring semester.  There will supposedly be a window of opportunity for faculty with offices in the safe part of the building to return to their offices to retrieve important materials, such as books and papers, before the building is closed again.  I find that many don’t understand that NDSU is a research university, meaning that just because classes are not in session does not mean the faculty don’t need to use their offices.  I think the NDSU administration, in particular provost/academic vice president Craig Schnell, and, for that matter, some of the students, of publicizing the fact that many of the lost books and papers are irreplaceable.  I can only imagine how much research has been lost.

Bruce Frantz, who is in charge of the physical buildings on campus, would have us believe that this was an unforeseeable accident, and there were no mistakes made by his office or the contractor.  Snort.  This is an engineering school with a strong construction engineering program and excellent construction engineering faculty.  They just didn’t pay attention, in my view.  Franz is probably right to say the collapse happened at one of the few times no one would get hurt.  I’m glad, of course, that no-one did, but if someone had, I would have enjoyed the embarrassing national publicity that might have followed.

Franz would also have us believe that the damage can be fixed(for half a million.  The loss to the affected faculty, of course, can’t.  Even if it could, it turns out that NDSU carries no liability insurance).  I question whether Minard Hall should be repaired.  The building has been an expensive disaster for decades.  My office is in Minard Hall, but not in the affected area.  But my library and research papers and very probably my health has suffered much over the years.

Sometime in my first few years at NDSU the roof above(by a floor or two) sprang a leak and much of my library, carefully and costfully assembled while I was a graduate student and new faculty member, was drenched, rendering many of the books unusable, as the pages are all stuck together. This has happened so many times since that during a rain storm there is apparently a stand-by crew available  that can go rushing into faculty offices and cover everything with plastic if the roof leaks.  I read something about this once, but since I’ve observed it happening a few times, there’s no need to cite it.

Air quality has also been an issue in Minard Hall, due to its proximity to the heating plant.  In fact, the state health department once declared my office as uninhabitable.  My department and college administration was unable to find another office for me, but fortunately I was able to generate two invitations from departments in other buildings to reside there.  Yes, that is a dig at the problem solving abilities of the NDSU administration.

So, what we have here is an historic building that houses many important departments and in which many classes are taught that is virtually collapsing.  We didn’t have enough space for our 14,000 students before this happened.  And all of this at the end of an eleven year term of a president, Forum’s man of the year, that could raise millions for athletics, but couldn’t keep a major building safe in a state with a billion dollar surplus.

There’s many more problems Chapman left us with, but that could be the topic of another essay.

On Saturday, December 19, NDSU held the first commencement since the “retirement” of Forum Man of the Year Joseph chapman.  Presiding over the ceremonies was interim president Dr. Richard Hanson.

Anyone that has not been to a major(well, in this case, maybe semi-major) college graduation shuold go, at leatt once.  They are colorful, precise and a true ceremonial tribute to the students, faculty and institution.  It is much more interesting if you know someone that is being awarded a degree.  Also, NDSU is almost unique in institutions of higher learning in that there are no outside speakers.  A couple of hours ofn watching people walk across a stage is boredom enough, I guess.  Not all universities award all the degrees individually.  When I got my PhD at the University of Minnesota, the university had about 60,000 students, and the spring commencement awarded about 10,00 degrees.  so individual awards were not possible, except for the PhD’s(but not the MD’s).

The proceedings start with the processional, first of the faculty.  I sometimes wish I didn’t have to watch this part from the inside, as each faculty member wears a PhD gown with a large hood with the colors of blue(for philosophy) and the colors of the institution were the PhD was rewarded, in my case, maroon and gold.  Oh, yes, they march by seniority, which means not how long at NDSU, but how long at NDSU with their present rank.  Some universities have thieir own gowns with other colors than black, and the same for the cap.  It is wuite a colorful sight.

Thjen comes the “stage party,” consisting of the president, academic vice president, the deans of the several colleges along with the Distinguished Professors, in this case a member of the State Board of Higher Education, some people that read names, all lead by the Presiding Officer of the University Senate, carrying the mace that is the symbol of authority of the university, symbolizing that the ral autority of the university lies with the University Senate.  Then, of course the students, who march be degree and college.

President Hanson made a few opening remarks.  He commented that this exercise was the most important day of the fall semester, and that this day would be the most important in the careers of the degree recipients thus far.  Of course, he congratulated everyone on their work ethic, perseverance, etc.  Greetings were also presented by Sue Andrews of the State Board of Higher Education.  Finally, before the awarding of degrees, there were remarks by a representative of the graduating class, Patricia Romaine.  I’m not sure when this tradition got started, but I think it an excellent one.

The degrees were then awarded, with the highest(PhD’s) first and moving down, if I can use that word here: I don’t think of any of these degrees as down, to the Bachelors degrees. Most institutions do it the other way around.  In the spring, there are actually two different ceremony’s, one for advanced degrees and one for the undergraduate degrees.  There’s a reason for this, which I’ll explain in a bit.

Then there is applause, the playing and singing of the “school song,,” The Yellow and the Green.  Then the recessional, of course, followed by a reception in the concourse of the Dome.

I always feel good for a couple of days aftr attending one of these events, possibly because I take my own advice and don’t go unless someone close to me is graduating, in this a very special student of mine that actually got two degrees(BS and MS) degrees, and this was no exception.  I also was gladdened byu the fact that no one from the Athletic Department was present, threw was no mention of athletics, except for the last line of the description in the program of Dr. Hanson’s credentials, where it was mentioned that he had played for the Bison and the New York Giants.

I promised I would explain the inverted order of the awarding of degrees.  I hate to bring this up in such a positive, but to me it is symbolic of what appears to me(and many of my colleagues) is the total lack of understanding and therefore respect the population of North Dakota has for higher education.

NDSU used to use the more popular of lowest to highest, but by the time the graduate degrees were awarded, most of the parents and the like had left their seats and were milling around the stage talking and laughing, taking pictures and the like, creating such a ruckus that the announcer could not be heard over the din.  Contrast that with the ceremony in Minneapolis when my PhD was conferred.  There was complete silence until it was over, at which point we got a standing ovation.  From everybody.

Even in this ceremony, when each degree was awarded, there would be four or five people in the audience that felt they had to yell and shout.  Most of my colleagues in my neighborhood did not appreciate this, and neither did I.  Usually, there is announcement to hold the applause until the end, but there wasn’t this time.  In my experience, it doesn’t matter.  In case I did not make the point clear, this is supposed to be a solemn, formal occasion.  Shouts in the middle are not called for nor appreciated.

These events are always learning experiences for me; a chance to join in the congratulation of the graduates, renew acquaintances among my colleagues and administrators, and in my case, to visit with former students that are now faculty.  I definitely recommend attendance at a commencement if someone close to you is graduating.

How long has it been now since Joseph Chapman has made the front page of the Forum or been the topic of a Television News Feature about his alleged accomplishments?  I’m not sure, but he sure seems to have dropped off the radar all of a sudden.  Wonder why  that is.  I can only speculate, but I think we don’t know very much of the story.  His sudden and unexpected resignation(regardless of what he says after the fact) and the speed with which the State Board of Higher Education accepted his resignation certainly makes one wonder.  It has been amusing, however, to watch the news media display their ignorance of the Chapman presidency and how a research university functions.

I recall the huge issue of the forum with the front page headlines of “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” together with several other articles with color photos of Chapman and his missus.  I have often wondered what NDSU president’s wives have to do with the situation: it is not their credentials that are examined, they are not the ones to give an address, as is customary, to the entire university community, so why do the presidents always refer to their spouses when announcing news about their actions on belhalf of the University?  In this case, Chapman’s wife was paid approximately the salary of a beginning assistant professor, supposedly to represent the University.  How could she do that, when she is not a University administrator, faculty member or staff member?  Of course she was not paid with apporpriated funds, and to focus on such minor apparent abuses is, I think, to miss the point.

There was supposed to be a huge rally in support of Chapman during the middle part of the class day featuring the Gold Star Band, speakers and throng of students.  Channel 11 hyped the event for approximately a week. promising full coverage.  I watched their coverage, and tried to figure out where the event was held.  There were remarks by Chapman and his wife, some members of the Gold Star Band performing on a stage, interviews with a couple of students(what does two interviews out of 14,000 students tell us about anything?) and some shots of some students sitting in an auditorium.  I noted there were a lot of empty seats.  Channel 11 did remark that the event was smaller and more subdued that the previous Chapman rally.
Later, I found out that the event was held in the Memorial Union’s Century theater and was attended by about 150 students.  If true,e I find even 150 a bit high, since that’s about all Century theater holds.  At that time of day, I could get 150 students to watch people flipping coins in the union.

I’m not sure what happened during the first rally to cause such a large and enthusiastic turnout, but I suspect it had something to do with athletics and a large dose of propaganda from the president’s office.  The turnout this time is not surprising: students really have almost zero contact with the president or his office, academic policy is not made by the president, so in general most don’t know or care who the president is.  Anything they learn about him will come from the media, which apparently gets its information directly from the president’s office.

So, now we come to the interim president, selected rather quickly by Chancellor Goetz.  Before the appointment of Dick Hanson as imterim president, the Forum again amused me with their picks.  One was Allan Fischer, who was interim president once before, and the mdia has indicated was “The student’s Choice.”  This last is pure balderdash: just because a fes students held a vigil outside the president’s office while Fischer occupied it does not make him the student’s choice.  As a metter of fact, the vigilantes were, as it turned out, all members of the Campus Crusade for Christ, an organization of which Fischer was the Faculty Advisor.  In fact, Fisher was previously Dean of the college of Science and Mathematics.  He neglected to have the faculty perform their mandatory evaluation of him, so Vice President Schnell stepped in and had the faculty evaluate Fischer.  Most people on the evaluation committee were shocked as to how unpopular he was with his own faculty.  Now, it is important that Dean does not mean “Boss.”   His unpopularity among his faculty did not come from poor administrative decisions, but rather from poor administrative style.  In fact, under current University policy, his style of administration would now be illegal.  But I won’t go into detail.

Despite an attempt by an end run by some local luminaries, Fischer was not appointed without submitting to the usual search process.  I asked one of the search committee members about his candidacy, and was told he was not a serious candidate.  During televised interviews he was often not able to respond in a complete sentence.    I was tempted to attend his address to the University community just so I could ask enough questions so that he would embarrass himself, but was told by the same member of the search committee that would be unnecessary, since he would do a perfectly good job of doing that himself.  Apparently, that’s what happened.  So, not a good choice for interim ;president now, I don’t think.

That brings us to another Forum choice, Provost/Academic Vice President Schnell.  Craig Shcnell is the closest thing to leader the University has.  He is far, far too valuable to the University and its academic programs, both teaching and research, to spend his time on funding and the like, in my opinion.  Also, he has a direct and honest style which I find refreshing and is unusual in a university administrator, which makes him all the more effective as provost and Vice President, but I don’t think it would help much in the Legislature or in fund raising.  Of course, that’s just my opinion.  I could be wrong, on all counts, but I  dont’ thiink the Forum consider any of these issues in deciding who they think should be NDSU’s president, either permanent or interim.

That brings us to Chancellor Goetz’s pice, Dick Hanson, whom the Forum apparently supports.  I knew Dick rather well when he was Sharon Wallace’s Associate Vice President for academic affairs, and admired him as the only man in the uppr administration with any brains(remember, Sharon Wallace, the Academic Vice President and Jim Ozbun, the president at the time were essentially run out of town on a rail).  I suspect that the Forum supports Hanson because he is an ex Bison football player, and so will continue to support higher profile athletics.  If so, I think they are mistaken: I think Dick’s football days are in his past.

But let’s look at the rest of the story.  Hanson, as reported in the Forum, was indeed a faculty member at NDSU for a few years, but I believe his PhD is in Home Economics are a similar field.  NDSU is the state university of agriculture and applied science.  Even though he had some success in the past. I don’t think Dck’s credentials qualifies him to seek funding for such a university.

When Dick left NDSU, it was to become academic vice president at Augustana College.  He apparently has had several other positions since then, most recently as president oi Waldorf College in Iowa, a 440 student liberal arts college.  The similarity between such an institution and NDSU is non-existent.  One main difference is that Waldorf wouldn’t be doing any researchm, while NDSU gets approximately 1/3 of its budget from overhead money for its research programs.  Dick is an advocate of high teaching standards for the faculty, and who can disagree with that, but he , at least used, to have some what are to me funny ideas.  For example, he doesn’t agree with those of us that think active researchers use that activity to make them better teachers.  Well, just think about it.  Would you rather learn a subject from someone active in the field or someone that just studies it?  He thinks, or used to, that high student evaluations were synonymous with good teaching.  sometimes, maybe, but when I was a department chair I used to be suspect of abnormally high student evaluations, and investigation proved me right on many occasions.  Besides, we are have a large College of Engineering: in taking their beginning science and mathematics courses, it is far more important that the students learn the material that if the like how its taught.  But all of this may be moot, the president doesn’t have much control over these things, and Dick may have changed some.  I always found him intelligent and open to new ideas.

But I cannot emphasize enough the difference between a school like Waldorf and NDSU.  Of course I’m biased, but to my way of thinking and experience, education at state land-grant schools is a real bargain.  Small liberal arts colleges pride themselves in academic excellence, but they are very limited in what they can offer.  In some departments at NDSU, the best students in their graduate courses are their own undergraduates.  I currently know of one student that in 3 1/2 years will have completed a double major in the sciences and earned a master’s degree in addition.  The type of institutions Hanson has been associated with would have noting to offer such students.

So, I hope whoever makes the decision of the composition of the search committee and ultimately the president will take into account the actual make up and structure of the University, and I hope everyone ignores the Forum.