SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - NOVEMBER 23, 2015
SQUAWK, SQUAWK! IT’S A HAWK! So went a Fargo Forum editorial belittling the new UND nickname. The Forum said it was no surprise given the way the byzantine nickname vote was mishandled.
DIEHARDS “Many of the 5,050 in the National Hockey Center were dressed in green and white. They belted out several ‘Let's go Sioux chants.’" -- GF Herald article about UND’s first game as the Fighting Hawks. Patrick Reusse, a columnist for the Minneapolis StarTribune, wrote “North Dakota came here on Friday night for a showdown with St. Cloud State, the other 4-0 team in the nation’s best hockey league, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. North Dakota still crazy about hockey but not new nickname.” UND won 4-3.
DEJA VU? The author of “The Science of Sports Obsession” believes UND’s transition to “Fighting Hawks” will be like many that have gone before. He sees a predictable pattern of resistance to change that wears down with time. Is he right? Is there anything unique about the Fighting Sioux controversy or is it merely one more parochial squabble?
IT MAY BE DIFFERENT The NCAA imposed the nickname change on UND. Without the NCAA, efforts to change the name would have gone nowhere. Many feel the name is more than a sports name and logo -- that it has statewide support and reflects the state’s pride. UND author and historian Elwyn Robinson said ND has a long “sense of grievance” about being “exploited by outside interests” -- the NCAA action could be seen in that category. The grievance was aggravated by Berkeley-educated UND President Robert Kelley who never defended the nickname and is thought by some to have purposely helped bring it down. The topper was a handful of Standing Rock leaders who blocked a vote on the reservation that could have saved the nickname.
UNAUTHORIZED DOCUMENTARY Kelley’s administration declined to meet with Matt Fern, a young filmmaker, who is making a documentary about the history of the Fighting Sioux controversy. He has conducted 40 interviews and has 50 hours of film. Fern is using Kickstart (online crowd funding) to raise funds to complete the film.
WHO IS THE BOSS? “If the authority of Hagerott is going to be preserved, he and the board will have to assert some leadership by telling Bresciani – and every other college president – to get with the concept of a university system or get lost.” -- Columnist Lloyd Omdahl believes trouble is still brewing in ND higher education. He said, “Before Chancellor Mark Hagerott was on the scene, North Dakota State University President Dean Bresciani and UND President Robert Kelley voiced their concern that a strong chancellor would limit their access to the board. The truth is that they didn’t want to answer to a chancellor.”
GOOD JOB AND NO COLLEGE DEBT “So why not at least look at a two-year school and a career in the trades?” -- Forum columnist Mike McFeely. There is a shortage of tradesmen in Fargo-Moorhead which needs electricians, plumbers and construction workers. A F-M college placement director said, “There is a once-in-a-generation opportunity right now” because of the retirement of men trained in the 1970s. McFeely suggested many young people are not cut out for a four-year school and there are good paying jobs in the trades.
DIEHARDS “Many of the 5,050 in the National Hockey Center were dressed in green and white. They belted out several ‘Let's go Sioux chants.’" -- GF Herald article about UND’s first game as the Fighting Hawks. Patrick Reusse, a columnist for the Minneapolis StarTribune, wrote “North Dakota came here on Friday night for a showdown with St. Cloud State, the other 4-0 team in the nation’s best hockey league, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. North Dakota still crazy about hockey but not new nickname.” UND won 4-3.
DEJA VU? The author of “The Science of Sports Obsession” believes UND’s transition to “Fighting Hawks” will be like many that have gone before. He sees a predictable pattern of resistance to change that wears down with time. Is he right? Is there anything unique about the Fighting Sioux controversy or is it merely one more parochial squabble?
IT MAY BE DIFFERENT The NCAA imposed the nickname change on UND. Without the NCAA, efforts to change the name would have gone nowhere. Many feel the name is more than a sports name and logo -- that it has statewide support and reflects the state’s pride. UND author and historian Elwyn Robinson said ND has a long “sense of grievance” about being “exploited by outside interests” -- the NCAA action could be seen in that category. The grievance was aggravated by Berkeley-educated UND President Robert Kelley who never defended the nickname and is thought by some to have purposely helped bring it down. The topper was a handful of Standing Rock leaders who blocked a vote on the reservation that could have saved the nickname.
UNAUTHORIZED DOCUMENTARY Kelley’s administration declined to meet with Matt Fern, a young filmmaker, who is making a documentary about the history of the Fighting Sioux controversy. He has conducted 40 interviews and has 50 hours of film. Fern is using Kickstart (online crowd funding) to raise funds to complete the film.
WHO IS THE BOSS? “If the authority of Hagerott is going to be preserved, he and the board will have to assert some leadership by telling Bresciani – and every other college president – to get with the concept of a university system or get lost.” -- Columnist Lloyd Omdahl believes trouble is still brewing in ND higher education. He said, “Before Chancellor Mark Hagerott was on the scene, North Dakota State University President Dean Bresciani and UND President Robert Kelley voiced their concern that a strong chancellor would limit their access to the board. The truth is that they didn’t want to answer to a chancellor.”
GOOD JOB AND NO COLLEGE DEBT “So why not at least look at a two-year school and a career in the trades?” -- Forum columnist Mike McFeely. There is a shortage of tradesmen in Fargo-Moorhead which needs electricians, plumbers and construction workers. A F-M college placement director said, “There is a once-in-a-generation opportunity right now” because of the retirement of men trained in the 1970s. McFeely suggested many young people are not cut out for a four-year school and there are good paying jobs in the trades.
WOLF AT THE DOOR "Missoula follows it University of Montana Griz, Bozeman tracks the Montana state Cats, Eastern Montana watches crude." -- Bozeman Gazette. The same can be said about Western ND where months of low oil prices have thinned out oil producing and service companies. The prolonged downturn is now affecting business in the outer rings of the oil industry. A Wall Street Journal article pictures partially constructed apartments sitting in Williston where apartments and hotels are half empty. Western ND retailers are scaling back employment hoping to ride out low oil prices.
MDU RESOURCES brought its Dakota Prairie Refinery near Dickinson online in May 2015. When the plant was conceived and during construction crude oil prices ranged from $80 to $120 barrel. Prices fell by half at the time of opening and the refinery is operating at a loss. MDU shelved plans for a second refinery in Minot. Plans by other investors for a refinery in Devils Lake to produce off-road diesel have also been postponed because of market conditions.
NO COMMENT “Officials with the BIA were unavailable for comment.” -- Quote from a Forum News Service article about a Bureau of Indian Affairs police car found by the Highway Patrol half-submerged in Devils Lake. An unidentified BIA officer lost control of the vehicle.
SELLER’S MARKET “The Twin Cities alone had 92,700 online job openings in October, according to the Conference Board, nearly three times as many as Milwaukee and more than Kansas City and St. Louis combined.” -- Minneapolis StarTribune article about the shortage of skilled labor across Minnesota.
A LONG HISTORY “The department has never had a black chief. The City Council’s only black member is from the Somali community — not the North Side. And although diversity in hiring has picked up in recent years, less than a quarter of Minneapolis officers are racial minorities.” -- StarTribune. The city’s North Side residents have a strained relationship with the police force, part of the background of continuing protests by black residents over the death of a black man shot to death by Minneapolis police and a related shooting of five black demonstrators.
DAKTOIDS: NDSU is seeded #3 in the national FCS playoffs. UND ended its football season with a surprising 7-4 record, but missed the playoffs . . . Last year, taxpayers paid Devils Lake a subsidy of $629 for each airline passenger making a round trip to Denver -- the eighth highest subsidy per passenger in the nation
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