As I was about to write another essay on what I see as the crisis at NDSU my editor called my attention to the response to my Minard Hall ssay. Since it raises precisely the issues I wish to address, I will respond to these remarks.

Tom Isern is presumably  For the record, I have been at NDSU quite a bit more than twice Isern’s tenure(I believe he came to NDSU in the early 90’s as dean of what is now the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, a post he did not hold for long).  As for “bold words … published anonymously,” it is FargoPhantom staffs) policy to write using pen names(mine is assigned by the   The Phantom knows my identity in the case of legal issues. I’ve used much bolder words on the floor of the University Senate.  As to my commitment to my students and the state, I don’t think Isern has enough experience to have the commitment I have and have had to my students nor to develop the disappointment I have for the state.

I can see why Izern wants to talk about consolidating gains, since the only gains I see are expansion in his college, more departments and more degree programs.  Since I am in favor of NDSU eventually becoming a respectable university, I am pleased about this expansion.  However, NDSU is the North Dakota State University and Apoplied Science, and regardless of what the President’s office has been feeding the press, I see no gains there to consolidate.  In fact, I think that we are in a crisis when it comes continuing quality teaching and research.

In the last few years, we have dramatically increased our student numbers wthout a corresponding increase in faculty or infrastructure spending.   In fact, I  do not think there has not been an increase in departmental operating budgets, at least in the College of Science and Mathematics since the late eighties.  Department Heads and Chairs are under pressure from the upper administration to increase class sizes, open more sections and hire less qualified short timer staff to teach them.  This has been going on for decades and is, I believe, in crisis mode.  Infrastructure for reserch is also under pressure, and retention of quality reserch is a problem, as is retention of faculty in general.  In fact, the Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering resigned effective January 1st, whiom I cosider one of the best scholars I’ve ever met, over similar issues.  Research faculty as well as students need a good library for their work.  But departmental book budgets(the amount of library money departments can ask the library to spend on books in their disciplines) has declined to the point that for at least many departments, one can count on one hand that amount of books they can add to their collection in a given academic year.  Scholarly journal collections decrease at least bi-annualy.  This decline has been going on for well over thirty years, and I see it as a crisis.

The University has admitted for a number of years that faculty retention is a serious problem.  I believe it is beyond crisis.   There are 13 associate professors in the College of Science and Mathematics out of a faculty of about 80.  For those that aren’t familiar with academia, a new faculty member will typically be hired as an asssistant professor is reviewed after three years and is considered for tenure in his/her sixth year.  If awarded tenure, he/she is promoted to associate professor.  Full Professors are those that should have achieved an international reputation for their scholarly activity, as well as demonstrated excellence in teaching.  So, at least in the College of Science and Mathematics, the overwhelming number of faculty are either relatively young or senior.  And I can say without counting that the overwhelming number are assistant professors.  In fact, when a department needs a new chair or head, some departments find it difficult to find someone qualified.  Hiring outside heads/chairs seems to be difficult but not impossible.  My experience in serving on search committees both for chair and dean is that most qualified candidates turn down their offers, not necessarily  because their salary would be so low, but because they see the university as being desperately underfunded.  The only evidence I have for this is, of course, my own observation and experience, which is considerable.

As to faculty, our assistant professors have competitive salaries with our peer institutuions, the associate professors lag by 15% and professors by 35%.  More senior people can lag their peers by as much as 50%.  In my experience many if not most assistant professors do not even see their tenure question adressed.  After a couple of years and they’ve had an opportunity to look around, they leave, if they can.  I do not believe that the main reason for this is their individual salaries, but the awareness of the general underfunding of the University as well as the general lack of respect the University has in the state’s population.   In fact, a young PnD that stayed one year told me he was leaving because “the state of North Dakota does not want what we’re selling.”

I will point out again, as I remark that North Dakota ranks 50th in higher education salaries, that we have a billion dollar surplus.  I think the lack either of respect or knowledge is reflected in the make up of the search committee for the a new president.  The committee of 13, appointed by the State Board of Higher Education, contains one faculty member and one student.  Most of the rest are area businessmen.  I do not thnk this a good make up of a search committee for the president of a land grant university.  For that matter, I thiink the same of the State Board.  Before Isern came here, then Chancellor Treadway exhorted us all to become big Valley City States.  Nothing against VCSU, but their forte is elementary education.  NDSU is the State University of Agriculture and Applied Science.  Why is this relevant?  Because this is the situation we’re in, put there by a disrespecting or unaware public.  And I think the media is part of the problem.  According to WDAY, the decision to move to division one athletics was the “most important decision in the school’s history.”  Frankly, I think that, for example, the decision to hire Tom Isern more important.  When Interim President Hanson’s credentials are discussed, it is always mentioned that he is an ex Bison and Giant.  His other credentials are seldom mentioned, even though they are considerable.  When the MSUM enrollment crisis is mentioned, hockey is discussed as well as the effectivness of some of their billboards.  The idea of improving academic quality is never mentioned.  Do I believe that no one at MSUM has considered that?  Of course not, but it has been ignored by the athletics loving media.  I’ve spent years at other institutions, and this not the situation at those schools.  The public and media treat their academics with much more respect.

The above might seem off the subject, and maybe it is, but if the public is going to respect us enough to spend some of our billion dollar surplus to make higher education reasonable, we’re going to have to do something other than return to business as usual, or soon we won’t have a business to return to.

I would like to say that I remain committed to my students, like the people of North Dakota.  When I came to NDSU, we had 5,000 students and were still refereed to as “the AC” even though we weren’t.  I’ve seen many chnages and like to think I’ve been a positive force in some of those changes.  But I have also watched the support from the state erode, even in the environment of a huge surplus.  And when I saw the pictures of my beloved Minard Hall’s collapse, it’s as though a considerable piece of my insides died.   I fervently hope it wakes up again, a good reason.

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.

“there are no institutions of higher learning that have as part of their mission statements “entertain the local population by having athletic teams.”

By:The Norwegian Explorer

A recent local topic of discussion is the consideration of the North Dakota Legislature somehow requiring the football teams of NDSU and UND to play each other on an annual basis.  Even though I don’t care if the two institutions ever play each other again in anything, or for that matter even have football teams, or even athletic programs, I think that if the legislature considers such an act it would be right up there with when the Tennessee legislature decreed that the irrational number pi is, in fact 3.

First, according to ESPN, there are no institutions of higher learning that have as part of their mission statements “entertain the local population by having athletic teams.”  What would be the content of such legislation if one or both of the institutions decided to drop football a la Western Washington, or follow the lead of some of the finest research universities, e.g. University of Chicago, University of Rochester, Carnegie Mellon to name a few, and eliminate athletics altogether?

This, of course, is not likely to happen. But let’s suppose such legislation does become law.  In that case, we would have the situation where the legislature has interfered in the internal affairs of it’s flagship institutions, a clear violation of the academic freedom of both institutions and one or more of their academic departments(yes, the Athletic Department is an academic department).  This could besmirch the academic reputations of the schools to the level of affecting their ability to attract outside funding for their research.

OK, so you don’t care if the schools are any good or not.  Fine.  But when NDSU went to Division 1 athletics the case was made by President Chapman when speaking to the NDSU University Senate that the funding was coming entirely from outside donations, and was therefore none of the Senate’s business.  Well, if the football teams are funded primarily by private donations, what business is it of the legislature’s whom or if they play?  And some say the smoking ban violates their individual rights.

In summary, I have no dog in the fight of whether NDSU and UND play each other in anything.  But I think that if the legislature meddles in the situation, it would serve no-one and possibly harm all parties.