Dakota Beacon

UND PRESIDENT ROBERT KELLEY resigned, effective next January. The UND Alumni Association distributed an obligatory letter listing achievements on Kelley’s watch. Kelley came to UND from Wyoming in 2008, since then UND has made significant strides in fund raising and expansion of campus programs and buildings. That’s about the end of the good news -- just prior to his resignation, the results of a faculty survey were released indicating nearly half the faculty does not have confidence in Kelley. The faculty survey followed the threat of a “no confidence” vote by the Student Senate.

UND PROVOST THOMAS DILORENZO was viewed as a possible successor to Kelley. His ratings in the faculty survey were more dismal than Kelley's -- three out of four faculty members have a negative view of Dilorenzo. Faculty allege that Kelley withdrew in recent years leaving Dilorenzo at the helm.

PRAISED AND LOATHED Kelley will be most strongly remembered for his part in the loss of the Fighting Sioux nickname. A nickname committee has winnowed suggestions down to 15 names. The list is not inspiring, unless you like names such as Spirit, Blaze and all kinds of hawks. Nodaks, North Dakota and Roughriders look like finalists.

NEVER THE TWO SHALL MEET There is little general agreement about the cause of problems in minority communities. Last week, columnist Lloyd Omdahl attributed the high rate of suspensions of minority students to family structure and culture. Omdahl knew his comments would not be considered politically correct. A letter from an anthropologist at the Turtle Mt. Reservation accused Omdahl of defending institutional racism and creating negative stereotypes of families that depart from the ideal American family structure. In short, the letter writer said the cause of the suspensions was racism and Omdahl was its defender.

ONE LESS PRAIRIE CHURCH “Minutes for meetings of St. Olaf Church from 1886 until 1937 were recorded in Norwegian.” -- Quote from a GF Herald article about the closure of the St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Reynolds, ND, part of a pattern of closure and merger of prairie churches. After 129 years, the large church is in pristine condition -- a Grand Forks architect designed the imposing church to resemble churches in the homeland of its Norwegian founders. The church will be sold.

DRUG PIPELINE TO ND “Luger confirmed the Red Lake and White Earth reservations were a specific target of the intended heroin distribution, which also reached reservations in North Dakota.” -- U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Andrew Luger. He said the reservations are also targeted for human trafficking. Luger said, "People traveling to the oil fields in North Dakota, the (human) pipeline from Chicago, and we find ourselves with a large amount of trafficking cases."

NO REMORSE “Dressed in a green jumpsuit, Mohamed Abdihamid Farah turned toward a group of fellow teenagers who raised their hands in solidarity.” -- A StarTribune report on the court appearance of the last of six young men charged with plotting to leave the country to fight for ISIL. Farah was returned from San Diego where he planned to reach Syria through Mexico.

CALL TO ACTION “Somali professionals and imams need to take action. If they leave the responsibility for these young men to single uneducated mothers with six children, they are crazy.” -- The executive director of a Somali American Parent Association in the Twin Cities responding to an announcement by law enforcement officials that at least 40 Twin Cities residents have joined or attempted to join ISIL. Minnesota is believed to be targeted by ISIL because it has by far the largest Somali population in the nation. Washington state and Ohio are a distant second and third.

RIVERSIDE PLAZA in Minneapolis is a highrise apartment complex in Minneapolis considered a classic example of midcentury modern design and visited by groups around the nation interested in preserving such buildings. Ironically, the complex, built in the early 1970s, is today the center of the Somali ghetto and most of the complex's 1,300 units are subsidized for low income residents. The complex received early fame as the home of TV character Mary Richards in the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

EUPHEMISMS When the Fargo Forum reports incidents involving racial groups, policy seems to prevent clear statements about what is happening. A series of large fights in a park, vandalism and assault, and a home invasion were attributed to “groups of new Americans” from Africa. Police started on the cases by arresting Isaac Nyemah and Luke Goodridge.

NOT WHAT YOU THINK You may think of Fargo as a quintessential example of American home ownership. Not so -- 58 percent of the residences in Fargo are renter occupied. The highest percentage in Fargo history and well above the national average. No single factor explains the phenomenon, although many apartments are new and young residents are not inclined toward home ownership.

DAKTOIDS: ND soccer fans had a rare opportunity to attend the FIFA Women’s World Cup which held early matches in Winnipeg. Waits at the Canadian border crossing in Pembina lasted more than an hour . . .Trinity Health in Minot announced that it intends to become part of Billings (MT) Clinic RegionalCare, a decision that will help bring about a new medical campus in Minot . . . Highly publicized pictures (including National Geographic) of natural gas flares in the Bakken taken from space turn out to be fakes -- the EERC at UND has determined the pictures were “highly processed,” “manipulated” and inaccurate.”