Tom Isern, NDSU

Named for that pillar of the liberal arts at NDAC, author of our splendid alma mater, "The Yellow and the Green," and respected college dean, Archibald E. Minard, Minard Hall at NDSU is in need of serious rehabilitation due to long-deferred maintenance as well as just wrong-headed remodeling in the past. It is a good thing that the work on Minard is in the governor's budget and appears fated for legislative approval. Likely work will commence later this year. Architectural drawings are circulating.

As I say, this is, overall, a good thing, a fine thing, and far be it from me to throw a wrench into the process. (Actually, I'm a little short on wrenches, since someone stole my truckbed toolbox.) The way the plans have developed, however, prompts some reflections about the liberal arts and the state of the university.

People in my area of the university, the liberal arts, centered in the College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences, have a tendency to be--well, I'll just say it outright--whingers. They believe they are in a situation of institutional disadvantage, that the university is under the dominance of science and technology, so that ideas and letters are not respected. This is, on the face of it, odd. NDSU has the official mission, duly enacted by the legislature, to be the land grant university of North Dakota. Land grant universities are dedicated, as their founder, Justin Morrill, said, to "liberal and practical education." There are only three areas of study specifically required by the land grant mission: agriculture, military training, and the liberal arts. Arguably, NDSU is the only university in North Dakota with a specific mission mandate in the liberal arts.

Unfortunately, practitioners of the liberal arts at NDSU have historical reasons to consider themselves at disadvantage. This begins with the historic colonial dependency of the northern plains and of NDSU as an institution of the region. When other western land grants made the move in the 1950s and 1960s to pursue the full, modern land grant mission, elevating their programs in all fields of learning, states like North Dakota and South Dakota held back. They were in the grip of the false prophets of declensionism, such as historian Elwyn Robinson of the University of North Dakota, who insisted, in a classic case of self-fulfilling prophecy, that self-determination was not possible on the northern plains. Thus institutions like NDSU and SDSU did not become full research universities, they did not elevate their programs in the liberal arts, and they fell behind such former peers as Washington State or Kansas State. NDSU, SDSU, and Montana State University came to be referred to as "the baby land grants," although I think I would use the term "adolescent" rather than "baby." And of course, whinging is a symptom of adolescence.

Over the past few years, NDSU has largely grown out of its adolescence. The stars aligned themselves nicely: Joseph Chapman assumed the presidency and resolved to transform NDSU into a "full land grant university"; John Hoeven was elected governor with a commitment to economic renewal of the state; legislative leadership in both houses underwent transition in a progressive direction; United States Senator Byron Dorgan preached a vision of development of the I29 corridor on the basis of knowledge and technology (and delivered the bucks to fulfill the vision); and back on campus, scores of ambitious faculty who long had chafed under colonial constraint seized the day. Hence our increasing enrollments, our expanding budgets, our successful capital campaigns, our efflorescence of research & development, our never-ending construction, our general institutional growth and maturation.

General, but not comprehensive. There are enterprises and facilities that have not developed, and now are drags on institutional aspirations. We'll probably get a basketball arena (and Lord knows, we need one) before we get a university library, but in terms of infrastructure, every partisan of the full land grant mission knows that our greatest need is for a library worthy of a modern land grant university. It's easy to absolve ourselves of responsibility for our failure to redress this deficiency. Blame the administration, blame the Development Foundation, blame the legislature, but the fact is, we have hundreds of tenured faculty who know our library is a disgrace but are too self-indulgently wrapped up in their personal affairs to press the issue through to resolution. The new library should have come forward in this legislative session, when resources are relatively abundant. The blame for the fact that it did not lies with all of us.

Which is to say, where we have lacunae in our story of development, the cause lies with the people in the middle. In the area of the liberal arts, the resources and mandate are at our disposal. Some individuals and some programs have, indeed, seized the day. In general, the departments in the liberal arts, the faculty in the liberal arts, and college of the liberal arts (CAHSS) have failed to do so. There are resources available, but we have not brought forward ideas and rationales to share equitably in university development. Why is this?

One reason is, as with all historically colonial dependencies, there are pockets of people who are vested in the old order. I have a colleague, for instance, who insists on using the word "backwater" in reference to Fargo, North Dakota, and NDSU. A backwater can be a comfortable place. It is quiet water. You don't have to swim, you don't even have to tread water, you can just float on your back. The problem is, it also is stagnant water, redolent of cronyism, mediocrity, and atrophy. We do indeed have faculty who have not bought into the university mission. They are, as the great Australian historian Manning Clark, with his biblical bent, said, "mockers." They mocked the move to D1 athletics; they mocked the aspirations of NDSU as a research university; they mocked the projections of enrollment growth. Any institution has its share of mockers, I am sure.

The area of the liberal arts at NDSU has more than its share of mockers, but they constitute only a plurality of the whingers. The others are just people who have bought into the old conception--true at one time, but no longer true--that the liberal arts are somehow disadvantaged. Here is the fact of the matter, as I have observed and experienced it: during the current decade, every good idea (along with a few bad ones) that has come forward from the liberal arts to central administration has received approval and support. The problem is not any failure of institutional support or resources. The problem is that ideas have not come forward. Sometimes picayune lower or mid-level administrators have torpedoed, delayed, or just mucked up good ideas. The more general problem is that we of the liberal arts have not brought forward the ideas and rationales whereby we might share fully in the institutional mission.

This, finally, brings me back to the plans for Minard. Clearly, we of the liberal arts have not stated our needs and aspirations, have not articulated our mission, adequately. The plans for the liberal arts departments do not depict research units. They look a lot like rabbit warrens. Nor do they have room for growth and development. The plans are designed to accommodate static departments with no research mission. The plans are suited to the old, colonial state of the liberal arts as experienced way back in the last century. Sooner rather than later, Minard, as depicted in the architectural drawings, will have to be reconfigured again, because we designed the building for the past rather than for the future.

Recently I found my old high school letter jacket in the closet and tried it on. You can imagine how it fit. That's what Minard will be like in five years.

Nobody would believe this, except Kate will vouch for me. Yesterday morning I came into the office and called the final result for the game against Oakland coming up that night: "Bison by 10," I said.

The colloquia of the Department of History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies are flourishing as never before! Presentations and discussions are stimulating, attendance is high (note the full house in the photo at right), collegiality is evident, and people are having a great time. The most recent colloquium was last Friday, January 23, and featured Ann Braaten, of the Department of Apparel, Design, & Hospitality Studies. Under the title, "Gaining Historical Insight through Material Culture Studies," Ann not only offered an introduction to material culture studies as an intellectual discipline but also gave highlights from her research on the woolen shawls of German-Russian women. An outstanding presentation--we owe great thanks to Ann, and also to Dennis Cooley, coordinator of colloquia. Listen to the Ann Braaten presentation at the Colloquium Archives.