Alumni Association Home > Past Issues > 2001 > September-October 2001	Print View

You’ve heard the saying "The more things change, the more they stay the same." In this publication’s 100 years—and in the life of this university—change and constancy have been abiding truths.

Along with University triumphs in the early 1900s, founding editor E.B. Johnson, class of 1888, reported on recruiting violations, low faculty salaries, negative local press, and governmental efforts to control the U. Sound familiar?

In the 1920s, editor Leland F. Leland (B.A. ’23) noted that the future of the Medical School was a critical issue for all Minnesotans. In those days, before statutory authority was given to the Minnesota legislature, the governor selected University regents. Now, eight decades later, a governor again appointed regents, when legislators came to a stalemate on candidates. One hopes that all concerned remember Leland’s advice that regents should never allow "the University to be used as a political football."

In this issue you will again find stories worthy of what one of my predecessors called "the best beat in the Twin Cities." Actually, because so many of our graduates go on to change the world, our news beat is a somewhat wider stage.

This issue of Minnesota consists of nearly 100 pages. In 1901 the alumni publication began as a 16-page newspaper. Even though Minnesota has had eight names and been a weekly, a monthly, and currently a bimonthly magazine, one thing has never changed. It’s our commitment to bring you what former editor Richard D. Haines (M.A. ’76) called "the best writing, the best photography and graphics, and the best editorial selection." (Since the mid-1980s designer Barbara Koster has worked tirelessly to provide Minnesota its award-winning design.)

When Haines gave Minnesota its current name in 1978 he declared that your alumni magazine should be something more than just a vehicle of communication between alma mater and alumni. We have a responsibility to raise important and often difficult issues. Indeed, over these 100 years the alumni publication has covered controversies, such as academic freedom in the teaching of evolution and in the midst of the McCarthy-era hunt for communists. More recently, we’ve published stories about faculty tenure issues, regent selection, recruiting and retaining faculty of color, and more. We’ve shared alumni concerns on topics ranging from football stadiums to political correctness.

Through it all, there is the recognition that today’s editors stand on the shoulders of those who have come before. We are moving in new directions too. Following this issue, Shelly Fling will take over this space. When she was hired as editor of Minnesota in 1998, my one instruction was to find the most interesting stories possible, or—put another way—to never let us be boring. She continues to do a marvelous job planning and editing each issue, and readers will enjoy her insights. I’m moving my occasional commentary over to your new alumni association Web site at www.umaa.umn.edu.

While Minnesota’s most important contribution over the years is as the alumni journal of record, we know graduates and friends recognize—as alumnus Eric Sevareid (B.A. ’35) said in a 1976 speech to the National Association of Broadcasters—that truth emerges not from any one publication or reporter, but from the process of our free exchange and discussion of ideas. May it always be so.