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125th Anniversary Timeline

Moorhead State Through the Decades

The Moorhead Normal School opened in the fall of 1888 and the first graduating class of eight students received their degrees in 1890. In 1921, the need for high school teachers led the state legislature to authorize to award bachelor’s degrees, renaming the school Moorhead State Teachers College. During the Depression, on February 9, 1930, Old Main Hall building burned. By 1932 a new administration building opened named in honor of President Ray MacLean. From the ashes arose the "birth of the greater Moorhead State Teachers College," and a new symbol for the campus, the fire-breathing Dragon. During March 1943 to June 1944, 1,650 aircrew men did aviation training at MSTC.

Baby Dragons: The Story of Moorhead's Campus School 1888-1972

MSUM memories 1888-2013: Reflections of the College and the University

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1960s

August, 1957

Spring, 1958

Controversy over use of student-collected funds for a student union leads to a short "protest" when an old church bell tower burns one night in the center of campus.

Controversy over Funds for a Student Union

Harlan Shuck was all set to graduate from Moorhead State College in the spring of 1958. He was looking forward to getting out of school, partly because he was a few years older than most of the others seniors that year, and partly because he was looking forward to the job he had been offered. Joining the Army right out of high school, Shuck had spent a year in Korean conflict, which was nothing he liked to remember, but was part of the service that had helped him pay for college. Shuck did well in school, excelling in his classes and showing promise as a teacher after he graduated.

But during his last year Shuck ran afoul of the college's president, Arthur Knoblauch, when the latter man wanted to build a bell tower on campus. "In 1957, Knoblauch decided that he could take the money that students had been putting aside for a student union and use it for something else," Shuck recalled fifty years later. "Knoblauch wanted to build a bell tower" (see image below). Most MSC students did not support the idea, preferring that the money be used for a union. So Shuck, who admitted he did not like Knoblauch's tendency to act like an autocrat, decided to join a few friends and 'demonstrated' their displeasure. "One night a group went out to where an old church or school was torn down, and grabbed the little bell tower. We threw in into the truck and brought it back late at night and put it in the center of campus. It was like saying 'there's your bell tower Mr. President.' It sat there for a day or so, while Knoblauch looked for the culprits, and then someone, not me, burned it, again in the middle of the night. I don't know who did that."

Who did burn the tower? Fifty-five years later, that question remains unanswered. But some possibilities have been offered. Two students who worked at the Mistic in 1957 later presented their own theory as to how the bell tower burned that night: "The Way We Saw It," (1975), written by by Marvel Froemming (on left) and Janet Paulsen (on right)

"There was student activism in the fifties. There were administrative decisions with which we did not agree. The primary difference between then and now is that now there are only a few student activists. Back then, contrary to popular mythology about the apathetic fifties, there were so many activist groups that no one ever knew which group was responsible for which part of the action. The infamous bell tower incident comes immediately to mind. Our imaginative administration decided that the campus needed a “symbol of unity.” Their idea was to mount a major fund raising drive, which included a quarterly student assessment, to pay for the construction of a modernistic design -- a campanile. This igloo-shaped structure was to be placed in the center of the mall where it would be surrounded by those other outstanding examples of futuristic architecture—Weld Hall, MacLean Hall, Lommen Hall, and the Wheeler-Comstock-Ballard Hall dormitory complex. Our tough-minded Student Commission rubber stamped the idea without a word to the rest of the student body. But then the administration made a fatal mistake. They gave the architect’s drawing to the editor of the Dragon with orders to feature the sketch in the next yearbook. And one group of activists “hung out” in the Dragon-MiSTiC office.

"Within hours, everyone knew! Late the next night a group of students brought the steeple bell tower from an old country school house to the campus and placed it in the center of the circle. During the next few days sororities placed artificial flowers around the bell tower, faculty members posed for pictures beside it, and appropriate music was played to pay homage to the structure. The entire concept of a bell tower was the laughing stock of the campus. The only people who weren’t laughing were administrators. But then another group of students decided to get a piece of the action. These students (was it the Owls?) set fire to the bell tower. It was an occasion to remember. As flames lit up the sky, “bell tower music” emanated from Wheeler Hall, cheering students hung from their dorm windows, and the screaming sirens of the Moorhead Fire Department pierced the still evening air. Serious thought of a bell tower rising over the campus diminished with the growth of ashes.

"Yet a different group of students knew that the administration would not give up so easily and decided that a confrontation was necessary. On May Day a massive body of students congregated in the center of the circle ringing bells, calling student to a convocation pitting a student panel against the President’s administrative assistant. The special edition of the MiSTiC publicizing this convocation had been censored by the administration the night before the rally, but the quick thinking print shop staff saved a few copies of the non-censored edition. By convocation time nearly every student had read both versions and copies of the paper were in the mail to members of the Legislature. The students prevailed. The bell tower was not built but the concept of self-imposed student assessment was accepted by the Legislature. Rather than a decorative symbol in the center of the campus, the students proposed development of a student union. This would be more than a symbol. It would be a structure that would provide a gathering spot for future generations of students. For many years students assessed themselves and worked diligently to plan the construction of a student union that they themselves would never use. From the ashes of the bell tower rose Comstock Memorial Union."

Knoblauch had suspicions, but no proof, that Shuck was involved in the 'bell tower incident.' Now, as the Spring 1958 commencement drew near, Shuck was in a mood to celebrate. One afternoon, while talking to some of the co-eds in the lounge of Ballard Hall, Shuck and his pal Dick Wicklund each drank a can of beer, leaving the empties on a window sill. It was, he later admitted, a silly act; “we were showing off for the girls.”

It was also an expensive act of bravado. For when President Knoblauch, learned of it, he notified Wicklund and Shuck that they were suspended and would not be awarded their diplomas for another year. The suspended degree cost Shuck a job offer to teach English and literature classes at Crookston High School. Having received excellent grades he soon found another place to teach and went on teaching for another four decades before retiring. Knoblauch meanwhile left MSC for another position in Illinois. But looking back in 2010 on the events of 1958, Shuck remembers Knoblauch as a “petty man" who suspended him in revenge for Shuck’s having openly criticized Knoblauch’s plan to build the bell carillon. In the end, Shuck recalled, “Knoblauch did not get his carillon, or his bells, while I got my degree, so justice was served."

So ended the 'shocking' student protest of the 1950s -- it foreshadowed a new era. Harlan Shuck taught at many schools before retiring in the 1990s. Marvel Froemming and Janet Paulsen went on to teach at Moorhead State, also retiring after long careers in education.

Arthur Knoblauch later voiced some regrets over the whole controversy. In 1968, on a return visit to the MSC campus, Knoblauch said to Yvonne Condell: “I made a lot of mistakes when I came to Moorhead (in 1955). It was my first experience as a college president and I did some things wrong.”

As for the fire, exactly how it came about remains a mystery...

Classes begin; Joe Bernick takes position as the editor of the Mistic. Roland Dille admonishes the newspaper for quoting obscenities used by student protestors and police at the Chicago Democratic Party convention.

Project E-Quality begins when 50 minority students enroll for classes.

Project E-Quality: 1968-74

In the 1950s, as the civil rights movement grew exponentially in the American South, it was considered a remote concern in places like Fargo-Moorhead, where a minority population barely existed. Still, the idea of true equality for all peoples was evolving in the country’s more progressive institutions, including colleges and universities. The idea geminated at Moorhead State College in early 1968, when, out of a total population of 4,200 students, only seven African Americans, sixteen Native Americans, five Mexican Americans, and forty foreign students were in the school’s classrooms.

The mainspring of the plan to enroll more minorities was driven by President John Neumaier, whose strong desire to combat prejudice and promote universal equality was born in his memories of being a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. With a group of advisors drawn from the administration, faculty and a few community leaders, Neumaier drew a recruitment plan that was called “Project E-Quality,” a program designed not only to enroll minority students but provide financial and emotional support to them during their time at MSC.

The initial reception to the program was not necessarily popular; several business leaders in Moorhead voiced concern that this would not help the school or the community. But Neumaier took the issue very seriously, insisting that “we can no longer afford to insulate ourselves and our students from what will very likely be a dominating challenge to moral and social leadership in America for the rest of our lives.” Moreover, he regarded the project as beneficial not only to the minority students recruited, but to traditional students (and faculty), who could learn about inequality.

Project E-Quality (nicknamed E-Q) enrolled several students with small scholarships in the Fall 1968 semester. Funding for the scholarships was raised by donations from faculty members and administrators (including Neumaier and Roland Dille), the Student Senate, the Alumni Association, local churches, the local American Legion, and various citizens in Moorhead and Fargo. By March 1969, a total of $17,600 had been raised for the program.

Project director Lois C. Selberg stated that the initial goals for the semester were to provide opportunity to those whose “poverty, class, environment, and color” had made a college education nearly impossible to attain; to provide an opportunity for white students who lacked understanding of minority groups to interact with minorities on a face-to-face basis; and to stimulate education on race relations within a community.

Gregory Reed, one of the first fifty Project E-Q students, Fall, 1968

Fifty students were initially admitted to the program: 35 African Americans, eight Native Americans, and seven Mexican Americans. Some faculty volunteered time to provide tutoring to help students excel in classes. Seminars and discussion panels were created in an effort to educate people about minority groups. A Cultural Exchange Center was established as a social site.

But while Project E-Q was succeeding in the classroom, it sparked controversy in the larger community – with some complaining that the funding and extra tutoring constituted “discrimination against the local students who received no such attention.” As more minority students came to the campus, some white students expressed fear for their safety. One student complained that had he been “born colored living in a Minneapolis ghetto” he could have received his education for free. A group of community leaders complained to the Student Senate president about the group’s support of E-Q, and the Fargo Forum denounced the “importation of 150 Negro freshmen.”

Tensions grew into an ugly confrontation on April 17, 1969 in the lobby of Snarr Hall, when a disagreement over a pizza delivery resulted in six black students and about twenty white students nearly came to blows. One of the black students produced a pistol and fired a blank cartridge toward the floor to clear the room. The confrontation was over, but the following day, three of the black students were arrested and charged with aggravated assault; they were initially sentenced to jail terms but, because the pistol had contained no live ammunition, the sentences were suspended.

A second incident occurred soon after when a black student was shot at four times while driving in the community after a date with a white female. He was not injured, but the incidents raised the issue of safety for the minority students. At a subsequent meeting with administrators they discussed multiple incidents in which they felt threatened by other students. Fortunately, tensions cooled after the second incident.

In the end, the possible violence was surpassed by the success of the program. Twenty-two of the original fifty E-Q students graduated in 1972 (MSC’s overall student graduation rate after four years was 50% at the time), and an additional fifteen left after their first two years for jobs or other schools. Roland Dille, by then the president of MSC, could rightfully say that these brave students had endured adversity to obtain the college education that would have eluded them without the program. In 1974, Project E-Quality was absorbed into the Office of Student Activities; by then it was no longer needed -- it had laid the groundwork for greater diversity, not only at Moorhead State, but in the F-M community. It was the combined effort of the students as well as the effectiveness of the various Project E-Quality programs that led to its success. “Given a chance to confront human beings on human terms,” remarked one student after attending a Project E-Quality seminar, “color ends, people begin.”

School year ends amidst controversies: an incident between white students and black students threatens Project E-Quality (see September 1968 to read more about Project E-Q); Mistic publication is suspended over censorship; and "Zip to Zap" makes national news.

Zip to Zap
by Corinne Edgerton

The music festival at Woodstock would captivate the nation in August of 1969. But before Woodstock, there was “Zip to Zap,” the only time that the state of North Dakota used National Guard troops to “quell a riot.” During a time of war, and racial, political, and social upheaval, college students across the United States, students rebelled and demonstrated against authority, and traditional norms of society. North Dakota's residents, remote from the big cities of the east and west coasts, saw themselves as living in a safe haven, free from such foolishness as protests. That perception changed, when the “Grand Festival of Light and Love” began as a hastily planned music and beer festival in May, 1969 in Zap, North Dakota.

The Zap festival idea originated when Chick Stroup, 1969 NDSU Student Body President, complained that few NDSU students could afford a “spring break” in Florida. The NDSU student newspaper, the Spectrum, edited by Kevin Carvell responded with an half-joking article that suggested a “Zip to Zap.” It commented on Zap’s central location in the valley of Knife River and its eager welcome of students from all over the Midwest. Carvell claimed Zap could become the “Lauderdale of the North.” The Spectrum printed classified ads for the festival that stated: “We’ll find it in Zap” (February 13, 1969), “Drink the Bars dry in Zap, May 10” (March 20, 1969), and “Glorious Festival of Life and Love (translation: Big Orgy) will be Celebrated May 10 in Zap!” (April 3, 1969). Not only did the campus newspaper promote the Zip to Zap festival, but so did the businessmen town of Zap, who hastened to turn the concept into profits. Located in rural Mercer County, Zap had a small population of about 350. According to city Mayor Norman Fuchs, “We thought, well, we’ll put ourselves on the map here.” Therefore, the town bars began to stock up on beer and the local grills hyped “zapburgers.”

Students, responding to the ads, began pouring in Zap on Friday night, May 9. Eager to began their festivities, they were disappointed to find no live music and only a handful of amenities. Zap had two bars and one local café and could not sustain the desires of some 2,000 students. Fights ensued when one bar owner decided to double the price of beer. Poor organization and no prior attention to crowd control led to a rowdy beer bash, several brawls, and a call for help to “suppress a riot.” As the sun fell and temperatures dropped below freezing, students built a bonfire on Main Street with lumber from an abandoned building. The town now had to deal with drunken students wandering the streets, urinating in public, and collapsing in odd corners to sleep it off. The mayor soon called Governor Bill Guy who in turn sent 500 National Guard troops to clear the town. The troop’s commander wisely ordered his men to use minimum force. Forewarned of the troop movement, many students left town quickly and by the time the guard arrived no more than 200 students could be found out on the streets. The next day was spent in getting the exhausted, hung over youth on the road.

"Zip to Zap" quickly became a story for national TV, but after Kent State and Woodstock, it was a blip on the news radar, and made no political statement of any kind. Its aim had been to give students an affordable, good time and the local Zap merchants a boost in profits. Zip to Zap went down in North Dakota history as the only time the National Guard was used to settle a “riot” – but to those who were there it is mostly remembered as a silly lark.

Quotes above, from Richard Shafer, “Spinning the Zip to Zap: Student Journalist Responsibility and Vulnerability in the Late 1960s.” in the The North Dakota Journal of Speech & Theatre, vol. 13 (2000).

September-October, 1969

December, 1969

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January-February, 1975

Campus wrestles with how the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act should be enforced in classrooms, dorms, etc.

Advocate profiles Diane Hitterdal, first female officer in the Moorhead Police Department; editor asks, why are there no female security personnel at University? See essay on women at MSU during the 1970s below.

Women in the 1970s: Steps Toward Liberation

“In almost every professional field, in business and in the arts and sciences, women are still treated as second-class citizens. It would be a great service to tell girls who plan to work in society to expect this subtle, uncomfortable discrimination--tell them not to be quiet, and hope it will go away, but fight it. A girl should not expect special privileges because of her sex, but neither should she adjust to prejudice and discrimination” When Betty Friedan wrote these words in the early 1960s, the women taking classes at Moorhead State College made up just over half of the student body. And it was taken as given that at least a third of them would quit school before graduating, because they would marry one of their classmates and soon become stay-at-home mothers. When Friedan published her seminal book, The Feminist Mystique, in 1963, most of the women who did graduate at Moorhead State had majored in either elementary education, or in English, music or another humanities-related field. Very few majored in one of the hard sciences or mathematics; almost none planned to seek post-graduate work in medicine (as doctors), law, engineering or business.

The women who came to the campus in 1963, were formally considered as “children,” because the tradition of in loco parentis was enshrined in decades of detailed regulations that “protected and sheltered” the “girls” in rigidly segregated dormitories -- a curfew set at 10:00 PM mandated that the women were locked in; male students were under no restrictions in such matters. Not until 1967 did the college administration concede to allow female students 21 or older unrestricted hours. It was not until several years later that college swimming classes were integrated to permit both men and women into the pool at the same time.

Did this pattern of subordination grate on the women? Certainly; scores of Moorhead State alumnae have attested how much they resented such restrictions – and how frequently they found ways to evade them. The formal rules changed only slowly, but the pressure from women to change them was persistent. In 1968, after a number of the female students threatened to transfer to another college, the college agreed that a women who was turning 20 could have unrestricted hours as long as her parents gave approval to the Dean of Women. This proved an unsatisfactory concession, and a year later the universal policy became that all non-freshmen, or freshmen older than 19, had unrestricted hours, and freshmen were exempt from restrictions with parental permission.

In 1970 when the MSC campus, concerned about its recruitment (in light of the forthcoming changes in the military draft that would eliminate student deferments) introduced a far-more provocative change -- co-ed dorms. A new “under the same roof ” policy was announced, which meant that, in selected dorms, men and women could live either on the same floor in alternating rooms or in separate wings of the same dormitory.

1970 was also the year that a campus Women’s Liberation student organization was formed. The group held weekly meetings in the Student Senate Conference Room, raised funds with which to distribute information on birth control, and organized a protest against the Queen of Hearts contest, which had been held each year for Valentine’s Day. To mark International Women’s Day that year, women on campus held workshops concerning the inequity of wages for American women and called for efforts “to gain civil rights for ourselves.”

The reaction of the college toward this new activism was mixed. Many male students either ignored the issues raised in these efforts or made fun of them. The administration supported the women’s right to speak out, but also shied away from being involved in what was becoming the single most controversial issue – abortion. The right of women to choose to have children was by the 70s a priority issue in the women’s rights movement. In February 1971, the Student Senate sent a telegram to Minnesota Governor Wendell Anderson and the state legislature. The telegram voiced support for a pending legislative bill, the Minnesota Abortion Neutrality Act, which would make termination of a pregnancy a confidential decision made between a woman and her doctor. State law in 1971 made abortion legal only when it was, in a physician’s opinion, “necessary” to save the woman’s life. After considerable debate the Abortion Neutrality bill was voted down.

But across the state, women still supported the right to choose. At MSC, abortion rights, as well as birth control, venereal disease, and breast cancer, were discussed at workshops held at the college Health Center. The Health Center provided free pap tests by early 1972. Tests for uterine cancer, syphilis and gonorrhea tests, and prescriptions for birth control pills came later. In 1973, when the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade made abortion a legal right, the Health Center began offering abortion counseling.

A major landmark for women students was the development of the women's studies classes at the college, in 1971. After a women's studies class was offered by the Humanities Department, in response to student demand, two members of the faculty, Mildred Treumann and Sylvia Kruger, developed the program as a minor. The Women's Studies minor at Moorhead State was the first such program in the Upper Midwest.

Political equality proved harder to attain than sexual equality or educationally equality. Prior to the 70s, women had held virtually no major offices in student government. In September 1971, the Student Senate did appoint two women, Darby Arntson and Renee Wald, to the vacant posts for the arts departments and the representative at-large. Then in February 1973, after a strenuous campaign, Deborah Zitzow was elected as the first women president of the Student Senate.

Women also gained ground in print journalism, with more positions as writers for the Moorhead Independent News and then the Advocate. But it took longer for broadcast positions – the argument that women had “poor broadcasting voices” had held sway for many years, until May of 1973. KMSC manager, David Friend, accepted five women as announcers for spring programming. Cathi Legueri opened one of her first Saturday morning shows by saying, “I’m just like one of the boys at the station!”

By the mid-70s, more women were majoring in mathematics and the hard sciences. When Diane Polman graduated in 1976 as the first woman from MSU with a major in manual arts therapy, she offered a remark that spoke for all those who had dared to enter a male dominated program, saying that by taking industrial education classes, she had “scared” male students because they “didn’t want to be out-done.” 78 women's volleyball.

The battles for equity in women’s athletics were just beginning in the 1970s. In 1972, the Minn-Kota Women’s Conference became officially recognized by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. Moorhead State College, Bemidji State, Concordia, North Dakota State University, University of North Dakota, Valley City State, Mayville State, and the University of Minnesota-Morris composed the new conference schools. The sports available to women at that time were field hockey, volleyball, basketball, gymnastics, badminton, tennis, golf, and track and field. It would take years before women’s sports received anything like equal attention in the newspapers of these colleges.

In March 1974, MSC hosted the important North Central Intramural and Recreation Association Convention. Dr. Ellen Gerber, the keynote speaker, called for “sports for all,” that schools must provide not only sports but facilities, leadership, budget, and money for women. Dr. Gerber noted that thanks to the Federal Educational Amendment Act in 1972, women’s athletics finally had the law on its side. But it was not until 1975 that the Minnesota Legislature put some real money on the table, bowing to the regulations of the Federal law (popularly known as Title IX). When the legislators voted special funding for the Women’s athletic departments of the Minnesota colleges and universities, Moorhead State received some $45,000 from these funds. The amount served to lay the groundwork for serious recognition of women’s athletics.

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Classes begin will 6475 students, about 500 fewer than the previous year and 2300 fewer than 1991. The semester system is now in operation, reducing the number of individual classes a student will take. The Vice-president of Student Affairs advises that the MSU budget has "no reserve, no cushion for unexpected costs."

Layoffs and resignations have reduced the faculty and staff. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System (MNSCU) now coordinates a merged organization of 7 State Universities, 21 Community Colleges and 34 Technical Schools. Tuition, with fees (including a new computer - use fee), now stand at about $74 a credit for residents, a "shocking" level in the words of the Registrar. Many challenges lie ahead Student Debt Crisis.

A Trillion Dollars and Counting

The students at Moorhead State were hardly the only one who had growing difficulty paying for their college education. This was national problem. As a national study compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, noted:

"The 1990s brought college tuition and fee increases that outpaced both inflation and growth in the median family income. At the same time, federal, state, and institutional financial aid to students expanded, and important changes were made in the structure of the financial aid system. At the federal level, the 1992 Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act expanded students’ eligibility for need-based aid, raised student loan limits, and introduced unsubsidized loans for students regardless of their need. The resulting increase in borrowing has been one of the most dramatic changes in financial aid in the decade. Also during the 1990s, the federal government began to use tax credits to ease the burden of paying for college. States and institutions increased their grant programs, as well as the amounts awarded based on merit or a combination of merit and financial need, rather than need alone. As a result of these trends and events, the overall picture of what and how students pay for college has changed substantially since the early 1990s.”

Despite the Federal and state efforts, tuition continued to go up faster than inflation. By the late 1990s, when MSU's administration compiled results of exit interviews with graduating seniors, students were reporting that they owed an average of $16000 in student loans when they graduated. Similarly, freshman and sophomore students who were interviewed when they withdrew from classes gave "the high cost" of tuition as one of the primary reasons for dropping out. "It just takes a little crisis -- a medical bill, or a big bill for fixing the car -- and you just can't go on," said one student who had to leave campus.

The switch in classes from a quarter system to semesters was quickly welcomed by most students when it became apparent that the earlier end of Spring term allowed them to look for a summer job sooner than they could in the quarter system. "We needed that chance to make more money," a student explained to one of his professors in about 1996.

But the debt loads on most students continued to grow, and by the end of the 1990s, a new problem was becoming apparent -- forced to worked more and more hours while taking classes, more and more students were taking fewer classes per term; they simply did not have the time to work, study, and rest like normal persons. At that point MSU began to consider altering its courses (reducing 4-credt classes to 3-credits, changing class times, increasing night classes and on-line classes, even changing liberal arts requirements). The Moorhead State Alumni Association and the MSU Foundation began to make student scholarship funding the focus of their fundraising efforts. "A $500 grant can make the difference between a Dean's-list student and a drop-out," a Foundation memo noted. The efforts brought in more donations, but expenses continued to grow. Energy costs only added to the challenge. As fuel oil and gasoline prices steadily rose, the increased burden to the students was matched by the expenses that MSU paid to heat buildings.

By 2001, the average debt load on MSU students (upon graduation) exceeded $20,000. In the decade since, it has continued to increase by some 30 percent (see chart below).

Note: Student loan statistics chart is compiled from the 2012 findings of the Federal Reserve Bank, New York Branch. For the quote concerning rising tuition in the 1990s, see Paying for College -- Changes Between 1990 and 2000 for Full-Time Dependent Undergraduates (US Department of Education 2004).

Tuition Trends

Since the 1970s, college tuition has risen higher than the costs of food, gasoline, housing, and medical care. Student college debt in 2012 averages about $25,000 per student. Of the 37 million Americans with outstanding student loan debt in 2012:

Almost 40% of these borrowers are under the age of 30.
Nearly 42% are between the ages of 30 and 50.
17% are older than 50.
Borrowers of age 30-39 carry $307 billion in student loans, followed by those under 30 at $292 billion, $154 billion in the 40-49 age group, 50-59 at $106 billion and the over 60 category carrying $43 billion, for a total outstanding debt of $902 billion.

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The venerable Owls fraternity marks its 100th anniversary with a three day celebration in Moorhead. The celebration invitation is classic Owls: "A sun-flavored Friday afternoon; mid-May. Pick a year. While we are cruising the back roads somewhere between Audubon and Detroit Lakes, humanities, history, chemistry, and English classes are collectively being cut. Converting beers to years, 99 is how many have passed since the Owl Fraternity was founded. And come this July-when 99 turns 100-the Owls will celebrate their centennial reunion in grandiose fashion." Read more memories about the Owls.

Owls

Wayne Ingersoll Ingersoll was unwavering. “I’ve been a member of the Clay County Commission for a while now and I really love the job. It allows me to serve the people of this area, where I grew up, see what I can do to make their lives better. But you know, if someone said to me, ‘Wayne, if you had to do it all over again and have to choose -- grow up, go to Moorhead State for college and join the Owls fraternity, then get elected – or grow up, go to Moorhead State and still get elected a commissioner, but never having joined the Owls – which would you pick, the Owls or the Commission?’ If someone said I had to make that choice, I’d pick the Owls, hands down. From them I learned confidence and above all camaraderie.”

Dean Mollerud, now an instructor of Education at MSUM, feels much the same way. A year younger than Ingersoll when he joined the Owls in the 1960s, Mollerud notes that “when I came to school I felt kind of lost. It was a smaller college then, but it was big to me. When I joined the Owls, I belonged in a group of guys who became best friends and I knew I could count on them, and they knew they could count on me. I was somebody. I had confidence. That’s stayed with me since, in my teaching and everything else.”

The Owls were born in 1901, when James D. Mason, a student in his thirties, agreed to a kind of “mystic society” in which the male students – far outnumbered by the women at the teachers college in those days – could have their own getaway men’s club. Mason aimed to create something similar to the ‘skull and bones’-type fraternity that was a feature of ivy league schools. “I organized an initiation, some rituals with ‘mystical numbers,’ and we met at the old Kurtz mansion,” Mason later recalled. The “mansion” was the Victorian home of the late Thomas Kurtz, Moorhead’s first banker and Moorhead Normal School’s first resident director. The attic of the large, empty house was inhabited by night owls, and there were always rumors of Kurtz’s ghost walking the grounds. So the building became the perfect place for the early “secret ceremonies of this, the first fraternal organization of the school. Edwin Reed, the college’s head of English, helped to create the Owls’ rituals, and wrote many of the sings featured in the fraternity’s 50th Anniversary commemoration book. Reed, Mason recalled, had been part of a couple of societies and knew the kinds of ceremonies that they held.

The Owls grew slowly until by the 1930s they were the largest fraternity on campus. “We were approached many times to merge our group with a large national organization like TKS or Sigma Alpha Epsilon,” a 1940s Owl remembered, “but we were happy to stay the local group closely tied to Moorhead State and the town. With the post-World War II boom in higher education, all the on campus fraternities and sororities grew larger; by the mid ‘50s, there were forty or more Owls each year.

Both Ingersoll and Mollerud were members in the 1960s. “We certainly had our share of parties and beer busts,” Ingersoll notes. Each spring we would schedule our own event to coincide with the annual “Governor’s Ball and Music Festival. The location was kept a secret while the officers planned it, but it would slowly get around so by the time of the party, almost all the students knew where it would be.” Mollerud well remembers those parties. “Most of the time it was at a gravel pit or a farmer’s field. Moorhead State alums who were Owls would happily let us use a place they owned and they always came too. I think in about 1968 we must have had three hundred people at a sandpit near Downer – they just brought in a truck filled with beer.” Karen Kivi, long-serving Moorhead State librarian who lived next door to the House where many Owls rented rooms, recalled watching the Owls make floats for homecoming. “They’d be clutching beers while stuffing tissue paper into a chicken-wire frame, tying on ribbons where needed. By early morning most were gone, but a pretty good looking float would be there on the lawn.”

Ma Jackson

Every homecoming, the Owls paired up with Gamma Phi Mu sorority to work on the weekend dance. “Our homecoming queen and our own “Owls queen” was almost always a Gamma Phi.” But the real, full-time queen of the Owls after the 1950s was “Ma Jackson,” (photo, left) the woman who rented rooms in her house to many Owls. Mollerud thinks of her as family -- “Ma was half-mother, half-drill sergeant to all of us. If we had a problem, she’d help solve it. We were like her own sons. But, on Friday nights, when we’d play cards with her, heaven help you if you thought you could drink more than her!”

The Owls had a serious side too. “We had a meeting room in MacLean’s basement,” Ingersoll noted. “We’d plan a fund-raiser for a charity, collect money for a scholarship. I learned a lot about planning that way and got some leadership skills that have served me well since.”

By the 1990s, higher costs of college, and the need to work more hours off-campus, were cutting into memberships of all the Greek societies at Moorhead State. The Owls were no exception. Membership declined until in the mid-2000s the fraternity ceased to exist. “We held a full dress reunion in 2001,” Ingersoll states wistfully, “and it was a great turnout. Soc Glasrud, probably our oldest living member came and shared stories. Others came from all points of the compass, and Moorhead put out the red carpet and welcomed us all back. But sadly it didn’t get the group going again. The students now have new social media in their phones and computers and mostly they’re just too busy trying to pay the bills.”

But the memory of the Owls lives on. “Some of us still get together each year,” says Mollerud. “It made us who we are,” says Ingersoll. “To me,” a member said, “Owldom is the definitive word for brotherhood. Each member takes pride in the organization, but it is a pride earned, not borrowed.” Some fraternities and sororities – mostly professional, a few social – are still at MSUM.

Road Trip: The OWLS' 100th Anniversary (from Alumnews, Spring 2001)
By Jeff Burrill

Centennial Reunion A sun-flavored Friday afternoon; mid-May. Pick a year.

While cruising the back roads somewhere between Audubon and Detroit Lakes, humanities, history, chemistry, and English classes are collectively being cut.

Farmland has thawed, reclaiming its texture. Ephemeral lavender blossoms decorate lilac bushes shading the west side of two-story white houses. Robins bare their brick-red breasts.

Disconcertingly off key, four frat brothers vocalize with lung power usually reserved for shower arias: "A hundred bottles of beer on the wall! A hundred bottles of beer! If one of those bottles should happen to fall there'll be 99 bottles of beer on the wall!"

Converting beers to years, 99 is how many have passed since the Owl Fraternity was founded. And come this July-when 99 turns 100-the Owls will celebrate their centennial reunion in grandiose fashion.

Events begin at 5 p.m. Thursday, July 5, with registration and a social gathering at Fargo's Ramada Plaza Suites.

Friday, July 6, there will be tours of the Minnesota State University Moorhead campus. In planning stages is a golf tournament at the Moorhead Country Club. Concluding the day's events will be a social gathering, featuring a chuck wagon buffet held from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Ramada.

Scheduled for Saturday, July 7, is a program, banquet, and dance at the Ramada running from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. The program will include short speeches and a video history of the Owl Fraternity.

In addition, commemorative booklets, videos of the Owls' history, and centennial T-shirts are available for purchase (in advance) via the registration form.

Speaking of which, registration forms have been sent to Owls and Owl Sweethearts. Those who have not received one-or have questions or comments about the 100th anniversary reunion-please contact Wayne Ingersoll at 1324 5th Ave. So. Moorhead, MN 56560. Or e-mail Jeff Burrill at jmpb@prodigy.net. (Registration deadline is May 1, 2001.)

Members of the Owl Centennial Reunion Committee are Mark Boche, Jeff Burrill, Wayne Ingersoll, Dave Miller, and the late, very great Larry "Drone" Peterson. Ted duCharme has also joined the committee and is overseeing the golf event.

Over the past five years, the following Owls have generously donated seed money and indicated they will be attending the Old Order of Owls 100th Anniversary celebration:
Dave Alto, Jerry Amundson, Donald N. Anderson, Erik Anderson, John Anderson, Dr. Lee Antell, Blair Archer, Bill Auten, Karl Dan Bakkum, Terry Bartness, Bruce Bausman, Brant Beeson, Craig Beeson, Larry Beeson, Jim Berg, Al Berglund, Charles Bertness, Darrell Bertness, John Bertrand, Doug Bertsch, Donald Betzen, Bob Billberg, Ken Bjorkman, Mark Boche, Bob Bowlsby, Ted Brill, Chris Bungert, Col. Dr. Julien Burkness, Jeff Burrill, Adam Callow, Ralph Carlson, Rick Cochran, Don Conn, John Conzemius, Charles Cook, Rev. Tim Cook, William Corcoran, Ralph Crews, Mac Dahl, Aaron Davis, Bill Devine, Steve DiBrito, Marshall Doran, Mike Dorsey, Craig Driscoll, Ted duCharme, Donovan Dulski, Shawn Dye, Steve Ehlers, Eugene Eininger, Keith (Skip) Enger, Tim Erholtz, Walt Erickson, Wade Ewing, Lyle Fair, Norm Felde, Vic Fergen, Elvin Foss, Dr. Freeman Fountain, Darcy Frischoltz, Jim Galvin, Joe Gehlen, Russ Gerdin, Dr. Clarence Glasrud, Dr. David Gosslee, Gray Richard, Donn Groth, Roger Haire, Jim Hanson, Gordon Harstad, Tim Hart, John Haugo, Mark Haugo, Mark Hellerud, Erling Herman, Jeff Herman, Dareld Hirschey, Richard Holzer, Bob Hopek, Paul Hopman, John Hough, Jim Howland, Steve Huseman, Dieter Humbert, Wayne Ingersoll, Don Iverson, Richard Jackson, Clifton Jacobson, Jerome (Jerry) Jacobson, William Jacobson, Allen Jensen, Kenneth Jensen, Dennis Johnson, Ronald L. Johnson, Tom W. Johnson, Charlie Jose, Ray Kavanaugh, John Kjera, Mike Kloeckner, John Klug, Rob Knutson, Jeffrey Koehn, Ray Kotchian, Richard Krabbenhoft, Marv Krafve, Herman Krajeck, Jerry Kranz, Gerald Kriesel, Ray (Kirby) Kuklenski, DeWayne Kurpius, Sidney Kurtz, Lowell Kutches, Brian Lachermeier, Bob Lambert, Josh Lamont, Dan LaRock, Brian D. Lauhermeier, Frank Leidenfrost, James Lein, Dale Lestina, Howie Lomsdal, Dave Lund, Charles Luna, Jim McCabe, Larry MacLeod, Bernard McGuire, Dave Mack, Jim Mader, Britton Mattson, Robert Melchior, Dr. Richard Menzel, Richard Mickelson, Jerome Miksche, C. David Miller, Donald Miller, Jerome (Jerry) Miller, Rodney Miller, Ronald Miller, Sherman Moe, Frank Mollner, Russell Monson, Orville Moran, Josh Morgan, Wayne Mosey, Stan Motschenbacher, Larry Murray, John Mytinger, Gordon Nelson, Scott Nelson, David Nibbe, Doug Nick, Jim Nigg, Erik Nilsen, Dr. Orlow Nokken, Tim Norsten, Henry Nubson, Kris Oas, Karl Oelker, Mark Olivieri, David Olness, Keith Olson, Lee Overmoen, John Palacio, Dr. Robert Pawlowski, Roger Pearson, Bill Peschel, Donald Peterson, Greg Peterson, Tom Plant, Leland Pommrehn, Norm Przybilla, Bob Purcell, Bob Quam, Kevin Quinn, Shannon Reck, Kevin Reitz, Victor Robertson, Virgil Robinson, Tom Rockne, Charles Scheel, Wally Scheer, Robert Schmidt, Mark Schmitz, Richard Schmitz, Vern Schnathorst, John Schuster, Larry Scott, Andrew Shellito, Harris Shellito, Jim Shoemaker, Marv Skaar, Dale Skallerud, Dean Skallerud, Gary Smith, Dr. T. Edison Smith, John South, Paul Spafford, Thad Stafford, Fred Stalley, Don Stetson, Harvey Stewart, Earl Stottler, Chuck Strand, David Strand, Bradley Sturn, Mike Sullivan, Bob (Rube) Sullivan, Neil Sussenguth, Alvin Swanson, Dave Sweet, Ryland Syverson, Ronald Thompson, Don Tirk, Dave Torson, Robert Utke, James Van Tassel, James Varichak, Leonard Varriano, Gary Vitali, Von Vold, David Waldon, Jim Wanshura, Charles Warner, Bob Waters, James Weiler, David C. Weitnauer, Scott Wensman, Warren (Max) West, Jack Wilcox, Bobby Williams, Bob Winter, and last but not least, Bernie Zinda.

September, 2008-March, 2009

National economic crisis, triggered by mortgage woes and bank panics, hits colleges; many non-government funders curtail loans for colleges, causing severe retention problems nationwide. Although layoffs are averted, MSUM is no exception to the 2008-12 money troubles.

Financial Challenges

How has the 2008-12 financial crisis affected higher education? That is a question that educators continue to ask one another. In America, the crisis that began with the collapse of some major mortgage insurers and banks in 2008 swiftly expanded to envelope all facets of the national economy -- thousands of families lost homes, unemployment rose above ten percent, state and local governments had their finances plunge into deficits. No part of education could remain immune to this, and schools nationwide soon felt the pinch of smaller budgets, layoffs and, for colleges and universities, falling enrollments.

2000-2012-financial-challenges-trends-in-student-aid.jpg

In a recent article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, its author cited a study by the American Council on Education that found that "50 percent of American chief academic officers said insufficient funds were a source of frustration." Colleges and universities, the writer continued, are, of necessity, "becoming more efficient and productive, developing new business models, adjusting their strategic ambitions and their organizational shape."

What effect are these changes having in the medium and long-term? At MSUM, the years 2008 to 2010 were devoted to careful budget management, using a hiring freeze in 2009 to prevent layoffs, and creating a new structure to oversee spending. Beginning in 2011, the president initiated another review of graduation requirements (see the new Liberal Arts and Sciences Curriculum) and established new guidelines for course development and approval. In addition, after a review of the traditional college-department structure, a new organizational shape has emerged through a realignment of departments into new colleges. The ultimate object of the new structure is to manage the University's budget efficiently without sacrificing the quality that students at MSUM have always received in the classrooms.

But it remains a taxing struggle, because for every house lost in the 2008 collapse, every overdrawn credit account closed, every job lost, there was inevitably someone -- often several some ones -- who had to forsake his or her dream of college. Over the past four years, most colleges have seen promising students leave after a semester or two because they simply could not pay for the education they wanted. MSUM's own retention rate, which was at a record high in mid-2008, just before the recession, remains a serious concern.

Which is why the realignment was implemented, and why steps were taken to maintain a reserve fund for the coming years. In the words of President Szymanski at the opening of the Fall 2012 semester, "each student who leaves without a degree costs the university in loss of both tuition revenue and reputation. This is in addition to students’ debt and other losses. But if you were to weigh our challenges against our assets – in particular an exceptional faculty and clear focus on individual student success – the scales tip immediately and clearly in our favor. Yes we have challenges, but being candid about these challenges allows us to overcome these matters. As leaders of this institution, we find assurance by continually remembering and referring to our great grads and excellent faculty and staff. We are truly an excellent university!"

Quotes above on the general state of education are taken from Ellen Hazelkorn, "What Effect Is the Economic Crisis Really Having on Higher Education?" Chronicle of Higher Education (online) June 5, 2012. President Szymanski's remarks from her MSUM Town Hall Handout, September 20, 2012.

October, 2008

April-May, 2009

July, 2009

September-November, 2009