A Home Where The Bison Roam

About a year ago, after a trip to the mountain west region of America, I mentioned I'd been to all but two U.S. states -- North Dakota and Alaska.  The North Dakota deal is a little crazy really, since I grew up only about a half-day drive from its southern border.  But I never got closer than northern South Dakota.  (Is everyone keeping up directionally here??)

So now an update...I've only Alaska left to visit, after taking a side trip earlier this summer from Minneapolis to Fargo, North Dakota.  What did I miss from a life having never seen North Dakota?

It turns out, not a lot.  Typical upper midwestern landscape of farmland and prairie grass.  Also: Flat.

I did find the city of Fargo to be quite pleasant.  I was there on a Sunday, and the downtown area was modern and vibrant.  It even looked like one establishment was setting up for an early-evening outdoor concert.

Fargo is also the home of North Dakota State University, which I'm sure is a great economic engine for the city.  Lots of school colors (green and gold) and school mascots (bison) to be seen.  And don't forget the Fargo Dome, which predictably had lots of hotels and restaurants around it.

Remember now, this was summertime.  I can only imagine, and hope never to see, what the city looks like when it's a snow-covered, below zero temperature climate.  I guessing no one would describe the downtown area as 'vibrant' then.

Be that as it may, I'm glad I visited, and glad to have only one more state to go.  Alaska seems like a great place for a retirement cruise sometime in the not-too-distant future.....

Terrorists Still > VEISHEA

The past  week / weekend should have been a fun time on the campus of Iowa State University.  It should have been the 90-something-th edition of VEISHEA.  But that was postponed last year, indirectly due to a riot, but directly due to an out-of touch university president.

Last summer that president, Steven Leath, put a permanent end to VEISHEA   Of course, he did this after getting that recommendation from his hand-picked task force.  An absolute joke.

What was this task force going to do, make a recommendation contrary to what the president and his cronies wanted?  Leath had already played judge and jury to cancel last year's VEISHEA shortly after the riot, but well before enough time had passed to collect the facts about what happened.

He acted impulsively and dictatorially, claiming student safety was at risk, and ruining work and plans that were many months in the making.  He isn't going to admit now that he was wrong about his actions.

But in truth, those actions haven't made Iowa State students, or Ames, Iowa, a safer place.  Suppressing the organized fun and freedom of people doesn't engender trust and safety -- it makes those people bitter and angry, and makes them dislike you.  Worst case scenario, it manifests into something chaotic and violent.

Fortunately for ISU / Ames, that manifestation didn't happen this year, and maybe it won't ever.  Unfortunately for Leath, the same can't be said for how much he's disliked on campus.

Terrorists > VEISHEA, Part Two

ISU President Stephen Leath announced in a press conference August 7, 2014 that VEISHEA will be discontinued and the name will be retired.

"I'm not going to continue to put students at risk so we can observe what to many has become a week-long party," he said.

Leath, you are a politically-correct puppet for a few Republican cronies on the Iowa Board of Regents, and everything I said about you last Spring is as true now as it was then.  Only a close-minded fool thinks they have the means to control what they have no power over, such as the off-campus antics of mostly non-students.

Jerk.

Terrorists > VEISHEA

For the uninitiated, VEISHEA is an annual week-long celebration held each spring on the campus of Iowa State University.  VEISHEA is an acronym for the original 5 colleges of the university:  Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, Agriculture.  It's presumably the largest student run festival in the nation,

VEISHEA has been marred in the past two decades by off-campus, late night, alcohol-induced, party-goer rioting on the last weekend, causing mostly minor but some significant damage and injuries.  The last time it had happened was 2004, and the university president at the time canceled VEISHEA for the following year.  Another riot happened again this week (this time early in the week), and in response the new university president, Steven Leath, suspended the rest of -- which is to say most of -- VEISHEA for the year.

Lots of losers in this, but hands down the biggest losers in all of it are.....the ISU university presidents.

While there is no defending the instigators or participants in these, neither is there a rational defense of canceling VEISHEA in response.  By all accounts, it wasn't so much a riot as a social-media inspired mob scene with a few drunken idiots.  To make matters worse, Leath acts as if his action has the full support of the university leadership.

Let's drop the public posturing and consider the facts that Leath is ignoring, and would like others to ignore:

1) He says he's thinking of the institution and safety in making his decision to cancel, but what exactly does he mean by institution?  The administration?  The faculty?  Because the university institution doesn't exist without the students, and the vast majority of them want VEISHEA to go on.  So do the surrounding campus businesses.

2) Speaking of the administration and faculty, while they made be around for dozens of VEISHEA festivals (thank you, tenure!), the students are only there for a few.  Many of them volunteer and put many hours of work into it.  Now Leath has taken away the fruits of their labor, because of a few folks who might not even be students.  It's bad enough that the majority are made to suffer for the few in elementary school or high school, but this is college.  C'mon, man.

3) By canceling VEISHEA, Leath has unquestionably increased the probability of more trouble.  Now there will be no alcohol-free alternative activities, and more students are likely to attended the off-campus parties, which have always been a source of mob-like behavior.  This probability has already become reality, as police have stated that in the following two days after the 'riot' there have been about twice the usual off-campus incidents reported than in past years.  (Note: This year's riot was in part a result of police closing down an off-campus party. Is it really that hard for Leath and his institutional cronies to put 2 and 2 together?)

4) Leath could easily allow VEISHEA to commence while law enforcement reviews the volumes of video evidence (something other riots didn't have), and both they and he can ultimately take action against the few who deserve it.  Instead, he chose to rush to judgement, and punish the many who don't deserve it.  When are educational institutions, at any level, going to accept that they effectively govern behavior that goes on beyond their physical territory?

This continues a pattern of questionable, socially-conservative decisions from Leath.  He was the pansy for the conservatives on the state board of regents a year ago in stopping the Harkin Institute at Iowa State, and by not allowing freedom in their research, valuable senatorial papers will now go to Drake University instead. And no one has any idea why he's single-handedly prohibited a player from participating on the men's basketball team this year, even though said previously-suspended player has been cleared by the legal system.

How much longer before the contributing alumni just suspend their donations in the same way Leath seems to arbitrarily suspend things?  Maybe they should -- then I'm guessing he'll suddenly find ways to make things work, instead of thinking of reasons for things to not work.  I noticed one alumnus already commenting that if there was a student uprising at a sporting event, the president wouldn't cancel the rest of the athletic season. But apparently, canceling VEISHEA is OK, because it only hurts students and not the big donor fans.

By canceling VEISHEA and threatening its future, Leath and his predecessor have simply allowed the terrorists to win at the expense of the students.  At Iowa State, this is called leadership, but it's really just retreat.

A List

Ever since the USA Today newspaper made bits of information popular, and David Letterman made top ten lists popular, everybody tries to present news in the form of a list.  "Everybody" includes not only media outlets, but other organizations who are paid to create the list (either directly or indirectly through advertising) by the very entities they are listing.

As an example, last week something called the American Institute for Economic Research came out with a list of the best college towns in America.  Who knows what this institute actually does or why it exists - I looked at their web site and still couldn't figure it out.  But I know it creates lists.  It made news here because both Ames (Iowa State University) and Iowa City (University of Iowa) were on the list at number 2 and number 4, respectively.

So I've decided I don't want to be left out.  From time to time I'm going to blog some of my own lists.  Nobody asked me nor paid me for them, but since they are lists, they must have some meaning.

Here's my first one.....

Top Ten U.S. Places I've Never Been To But I Think Would Be Interesting To Visit:
10.  Tucson
9.  Hilton Head
8.  Lake Tahoe
7.  Yellowstone National Park
6.  Anchorage
5.  Augusta (Maine or Georgia)
4.  Portland (Maine or Oregon)
3.  Any city in Hawaii not named Honolulu
2.  New Orleans
1.  Key West

Another Nonprofit Lie - Follow Up

A quick follow-up: The Des Moines Register did publish my letter to the editor mentioned in the last post, without edits. The on-line version allows for comments, of which there were only a few, and they all completely missed the point about how non-profits, especially taxpayer-funded ones, are poorly managed.

Those responses actually fit my profile of someone who would comment on-line to such letters - they must sit around a computer all day with nothing to do, thinking up new conspiracy theories and swatting away imaginary bugs.

Another Nonprofit Lie

Below is the text of a Letter to the Editor I sent today to The Des Moines Register:

By increasing room and board fees at state universities by 3-5% (April 29 article, "Regents OK Room, Board Increases for Fall"), the Board of Regents cited inflation as the main reason. A similar excuse was used only a month ago to justify tuition hikes for next year.

Yet using our country's most recent core measure of inflation, the March 2011 Consumer Price Index, inflation has actually risen less than 3% in the past twelve months. And excluding food and energy costs, the CPI has risen only 1.2% since March 2010.

The fact is, inflation doesn't justify increasing fees by as much as 5%. No for-profit services organization would be able to survive in this economy by raising prices like that, so why should it be OK for a non-profit, taxpayer-subsidized organization to do so?

If we want to keep higher education affordable in Iowa, we need more intellectual honesty - not to mention budget accountability - from our state academic institutions and their governing body.