Tom Isern, NDSU

Sabbatical over - back teaching full time this spring. Looking forward to it, actually.

Universities, of all institutions, should be learning organizations. If we learn nothing else from our experiences of the past year, we must learn this: buildings are too important to trust to architects and contractors. If you see something going on that looks stupid, and if other reasonable people think so, too, then there's a good chance it is.

Day after tomorrow is commencement, which this time holds especial significance both for me personally and for the History program in corporate. Two PhD recipients will be hooded - the first two PhDs in the history of the History program at NDSU. David Mills completed and defended his dissertation and graduates as of this December; Yolanda Arauza has successfully defended her dissertation and aims for spring term deadlines for official completion. Congratulations to each of them, fine scholars and teachers both - and employed in college teaching, I might add. They are a credit to the program and to the university, but more than that, they have accomplished what they set out to do. Outstanding. I had the privilege of directing Mills's dissertation - well done, Dave.

This is occasion for me to remark, too, on the transformative effect of the institution of a PhD program in our department. It is a game-changer. PhD students bring a level of activity and energy and inquiry that is lacking in departments without PhD programs. This is an internal effect; PhD students make a difference in the expectations we have of one another, and they raise the level of everyday scholarly discourse. This is good for everyone.

Externally, it is the graduate students who do most to represent us and distinguish us abroad. After Christmas Neall Pogue will be off to San Diego to present at the meeting of Phi Alpha Theta. Across town, Jessica Clark will be participating in a poster session at the American Historical Association. Over the past year the PhD and master's students have presented in forums ranging from the Northern Great Plains History Conference to the Organization of American Historians. They have articles in print, in press, and in the pipeline. Miles Lewis earned the Morrill Award for graduate scholarship. Both Mills and Arauza earned distinguished awards and fellowships to further their research and writing. Several of our PhD students are distinguishing themselves, too, as college teachers. I know that Mills, at Minnesota West, and Clark, at North Dakota Science, have earned enviable reputations as teachers, and at the secondary level, Bill Cummings embodies the scholar-teacher. In the area of professional service, Andrea Mott is district graduate representative to the OAH, and Suzzanne Kelley is both a section coordinator for the Western Social Science Association and a member of the program committee of the Western History Association.

So, the PhD students are great for the department; they embody the very mission of the land grant university, and specifically that of NDSU; and they are doing exceedingly well, and well for themselves. Credit to them. Just open a door of opportunity, and they rush through.

Now two of them are exiting this program, and we will miss them. Other dear students and colleagues soon will follow them into successful careers and lives. It's time to recruit new ones, and then tell them tales of the great deeds (and foibles) of their pioneering predecessors. Dave, your portrait is going up in my office, so that I can point to it now and then. You'll have company there soon.

Due to the unreliability of campus mail delivery at NDSU (the university having resorted to some sort of private provider that habitually loses mail), I caution anyone off campus from attempting to mail anything to me at my office. Instead, mail to my home address:

3803 Willow Road
West Fargo ND 58078

Well, the university is getting some bad press lately, and it's likely to go on for a while. I'm not talking about the Bison defense, either; that's another subject, one I don't want to talk about anymore. If someone raises the subject of football, then I quickly divert to volleyball.

Which gets me back to my original purpose in writing, which is to observe how we--meaning we, the faculty and staff of the university--respond to the public airing of university problems. I suggest there are two general approaches.

The first is the one I see in comments given to the press and voiced in other venues, such as Facebook (which some people seem to think is a private forum, but it is not; if you're university staff talking about university affairs, open records law most certainly applies). Not that I have football on my mind, gosh no, I've forgotten all about it, but I call this type of response "piling on." Some faculty and staff seem to think it's a good idea to pick at their leaders in public. The way I see it, though, for those who wish to chastise university administrators, there are ways and means to do that. Seek election to the university senate, and go at it. Send the president an email. Use the forms of department and college governance. Now, the people who prefer to gripe in other media will say, oh no, we can't do that, we will suffer retaliation. So, we're supposed to believe that if they were to speak up in the senate, they would be punished, but if they mouth off in the media, they will not be? The logic escapes me. No, the truth is, the mouthy ones are just small people who do not have the interests of the university, or even their own enlightened self-interests, at heart. They have been watching the game, waiting for someone else to make the tackle, so they can pile on. (OK, it's not football that is the strange attractor here, it is metaphor.)

Now for the other type of response. Among the people who matter at the university, conversations turn toward how to avert damage to the university mission and get out the word that, despite some bad publicity and perhaps some instances of bad judgment, the university is sound, and there are lots of good things going on. Teaching and learning goes on apace; students get better and better, challenging faculty to keep pace with not only their numbers but also their talent; the reputation of the university as a research institution gets better every day; physical facilities, although they cannot, at a public university, get ahead of needs, nevertheless exhibit spectacular improvements.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am no Pollyanna. We make mistakes, and the university has faults and deficiencies. Have I mentioned the library lately? Oh, I guess I have, but get used to it, because I will continue to do so. And that brings me to my central point. If you're going to grouse, grouse about something that matters. Let's build a library worthy of a modern land-grant university! Grouse about that! And let's build a university culture that behaves like an institution of stature, instead of the colonial institution we used to be.

A final word to the pilers-on. It is by such behavior that we, as individual scholars, are measured. Character counts. If we wish to be treated by peers as people who matter, then we have to act like people who matter. People who matter use their influence to build a greater university.

Members of the Gold Star Band greeted attendees at the Barry Hall dedication downtown this afternoon. The place was packed, people were enthusiastic. Lots of suits, of course, including Governor Hoeven, Senator Dorgan, Congressman Pomeroy, Mayor Walaker, the university brass, of course, lots of people from the business community, lots of people from the development foundation, major donors, the Barry clan. A full auditorium. Afterward people explored the great facilities, ate the munchies, gabbed, and did a lot of people-watching. This is a major step forward for the College of Business Administration, and therefore for the university.

OK, that was a feel-good event. Well done. Now can we talk about a library?

The department has made a rather congenial home on the garden level of Putnam Hall. One bit of evidence of a good spirit in the place is the development of a Friday noon routine known as Dr. Helgeland's Dog Days--grilling for all comers on the little patio out back. Although this week, judging by the NWS forecast, we'll be retreating indoors and relying on the George Foreman grill. John is having a dandy time playing host, and the general spirit is relaxed and conducive to constructive work.

On an unrelated note, there is a problem with rabbits and squirrels launching misguided assaults on their own reflections in the ground level windows. From the outside, I mean.