I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
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Nov. 11, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
Bemidji State University graduate assistant Chris Ismil reported to work today, but he did it begrudgingly.
Ismil, a veteran who served four years in the U.S. Army, says that BSU holding classes on Veterans' Day is disrespectful, it teaches university students not to respect veterans and he's hoping he can raise enough awareness to prevent it in the future.
BSU officials, however, say that scheduling classes on Veterans' Day isn't meant to slight veterans, it is just necessary to fit the correct number of teaching days into the fall semester.
Unlike other state offices which are closed today in observance of Veterans' Day, Bemidji State University and the other state universities in Minnesota are holding classes.
The decision, left to each individual Minnesota State College and University system campus, was made two years ago during a complex process in which a number of university unions compromised to build an academic calendar.
Ismil, who is pursuing a master's degree in English, said Wednesday that being the schools are state entities, they too should be closed.
"People just don't care. I think it's a terrible thing that it's a national holiday, and BSU doesn't recognize (Veterans' Day)," Ismil said. "There's a negative atmosphere about the military at the university."
Even more confusing, Ismil said, is that BSU's administration and support personnel -- including maintenance, custodial and clerical personnel -- have the day off, but teachers and students have to report.
BSU officials said Wednesday this is the first time anyone has complained about classes being held on Veterans' Day, even though this year's academic schedule was set two years ago.
Professor Johannas Asmussen, president of BSU's Inter-Faculty Organization, or the professors' union, said trying to schedule enough teaching days for fall semester is tough. Between vacation days for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, she said, few other days off are possible.
"The calendar is a very complex thing. Different groups have to give up different things," she said. "It's not that we don't think (Veterans' Day) is important. We had to get enough teaching days in. It wasn't any more or any less than that. It wasn't any type of negative attitude toward Veterans' Day."
And, as for the rest of BSU employees getting the day as a holiday, Asmussen said the professors' contracts are negotiated differently. The other employee unions -- including management, clerical, custodial, maintenance, professional and program directors -- negotiate on a calendar year. So they have more flexibility to work in the holiday.
The IFO negotiates on a shorter, academic calendar and it's harder to manage the necessary number of teaching days, Asmussen said. So, taking specific holidays off isn't guaranteed.
Asmussen said, however, that most professors would be open to students missing class to observe Veterans' Day, and the IFO is even on the record supporting the other BSU unions not working on Veterans' Day.
Finally, she said, although faculty members are required to teach on Veterans' Day, they still can observe the day.
"For instance," she said, "I can imagine a music instructor playing Taps at a ceremony. I don't know of anyone doing that, but I could see them doing it."
BSU Vice President for University Advancement Dave Tiffany said he was surprised someone is upset about holding classes today.
"The schedule was set two years ago. I believe the schedule was published early last spring," he said. "I've been here 12 years. This is the first time I've had anybody raise the issue of classes on Veterans' Day. It's kind of surprising to me that someone has raised this issue."
Tiffany added that Ismil should have understood teaching on Veterans' Day was part of the agreement when he accepted his graduate assistantship.
Ismil isn't alone in how he feels, however.
Shem Daugherty, the student director at BSU's Veterans' Services Office, said he agrees that classes shouldn't be held on Veterans' Day.
Daugherty, who served four years in the U.S. Marines, with some of that time in the Persian Gulf War, says it makes him angry.
"It definitely bothers me. It bothers me, and it bothers other veterans I've talked to," he said. "I think it's an important day, but I could be prejudiced because I am a veteran."
Daugherty added that between 120 to 160 veterans attend school at BSU, and it would be a significant show of support to them for BSU to observe the holiday.
"In the future, I would like to see this day taken off for Veterans' Day," he said. "I would hope that the student council, which is supposed to be representing us veterans, would look into this. I would hope the faculty themselves would agree to observe the day."
Ismil said he planned to teach his morning college writing class today, but he wouldn't be attending classes later today. He said he has received permission from his instructors to do an interview about the Veterans' Day issue with a television station in Alexandria.
He said he had thought about not teaching his class as well, but he realized that being the military is paying for his education, that too would be disrespectful.
"If it was immediately after World War I and World War II, people would have taken Veterans' Day off," he said, "but not since the 1960s and the Vietnam War. People's attitudes have changed."
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