安慰的大学

作者:David Danbom

从一开始，这段婚姻就不是天作之合. NDSU和法戈市的关系，也就是.

在法戈, the agricultural college was a consolation prize awarded by the constitutional convention when it parceled out the state institutions in 1889. 塞缪尔·罗伯茨, one of Fargo's delegates to the convention remembered it; the city wanted "something big,“比如监狱或疯人院. But when the time came to pass out the plums, Bismarck got the prison and Jamestown got the asylum. 可怜的法戈只好用大学来安慰自己.

进农学院总比什么都没有强, 但它至少有三个问题. 一是这个城市已经有了法戈学院, founded by the Congregationalists in 1887 in what turned out to be a hopeless effort to turn Norwegians into Yankees. 第二点是, while everybody agreed that the new state would generate numerous criminals and lunatics, 农业专业的学生都是假设性的. 最后一个问题是, 作为该州的主要城市, cosmopolitan Fargo viewed an ag school as distinctly downscale. Wouldn't it attract hicks to town, and give the city a yokelish flavor? 该死的詹姆斯敦占领了疯人院!

The fledgling ag school wasn't 太 crazy about this arrangement, either. 一方面, 它被困在这个州的东部边缘, in a region whose climate and soil type were different from what prevailed over most of North Dakota. 还有一个问题, 不管法戈喜不喜欢, the college was associated with the city in the minds of many North Dakotans. That was a problem in a state in which folks made the sign of the cross when they heard the word "Fargo,，并认为“皇家卡斯”是一个词. The answer for the AC was to locate itself out in the countryside, a good mile north of Fargo. It didn't help much in any practical way, but it symbolized the desire to maintain distance.

这两个人就这样度过了许多年, partners matched by economic interest and political compromise, 但肯定不是因为爱. NDAC努力维持它的小社区, separate spiritually from Fargo even after the city's growth engulfed it. The job of the AC was to serve the farmers of the state and to educate their sons and daughters in agriculture, 工程与家政学. Too close association with Fargo would only complicate that mission.

就其本身而言, 法戈通常会忽略NDAC，除了返校舞会, 这给了商家一个销售的借口, 或者是有很大争议的时候, as in 1937 when Governor Bill Langer tried to purge the school. Nobody downtown thought about doing much for the NDAC or even recognizing it, 真的, 就算有人这么做了，他也没走多远. 在30年代, 例如, someone on the City Commission suggested changing the name of 12th Avenue North to "Bison Boulevard,但被附近愤怒的纽约大学校友们大声制止了. Small wonder the Fargo delegation to the legislature held the NDAC in low regard, 通常将其资金排名在筹资之间 the gopher bounty and designating a state beverage on the priority list.

但有趣的事情发生在这两个不情愿的伙伴身上. 就像无爱婚姻中的配偶有时会做的那样, they began to substitute mutual respect and regard for affection. 他们没有坠入爱河, 完全, 但他们彼此都习惯了, 他们彼此依赖.

随着NDAC扩展到农业基础之外, 最终成为一个多元化的, 提供全面服务的大学, 它与城市的关系发生了变化. It became more attractive to students from Fargo and other regional cities. 部分原因就在于此, its student body became less insular and less suspicious of the city in which it was located. 越来越多的人, 越来越多样化, and better-educated faculty and staff appreciated what Fargo had to offer, 在经济上, 社会和文化. And the urban amenities of the city in turn served as a recruiting 太l for new faculty and staff.

法戈也开始看到大学的更多价值. NDSU was a major employer -- the second largest in the city by the end of the twentieth century -- but its economic impact was not confined to staff paychecks and student consumption. The university turned out well-educated, hard-working graduates, many of whom wanted to stay in town. Fargo economic development authorities began to use NDSU to market the city to employers looking for pools of educated -- and relatively underpaid -- labor. 然后, 太, the university was home to a faculty with expertise -- sometimes world-class expertise -- in such areas of crucial importance to the modern economy as computer science, 电气工程, 生物技术, 聚合物和涂料, 纳米科学等等. Suddenly the vision of a Silicon Valley with block heaters began dancing in economic development officials' heads, NDSU是这一愿景的中心.

Fargoans also began to see that the university could enrich their lives as well as their wallets. They recognized the contribution NDSU faculty and staff offered to the athletic scene, 美术, 还有这座城市的知性气息. They came to appreciate the value of the recreational and entertainment diversions offered on campus. They came also to value the expertise that NDSU offered to government agencies, 市政委员会. Universities make life better and richer for their communities. 如果你对此表示怀疑，那就去问一个来自缺乏智能手机的城市的人吧.

几乎没有意识到, 当然也没有承认, Fargo and NDSU had evolved from a distant -- sometimes adversarial -- relationship, 到一个共生的地方. They needed one another, fed off one another's energy, and prospered and grew together. They even got involved in cooperative endeavors such as the Fargodome and Newman Outdoor Field. It remained for President Joseph Chapman to proclaim NDSU a "metropolitan land-grand university." What had been a contradiction in terms in 1900 had become a reality a century later.

因此，NDSU市区开业了, 多亏了Doug Burgum的慷慨解囊, 这所大学众多优秀校友之一, 它的象征意义和教育意义一样重要吗. 1890年，NDAC试图与这座城市保持距离. 2004年，NDSU接受了它. Could the city fathers who had wanted a penitentiary or asylum or the early professors who wished to be somewhere -- anywhere -- else have imagined it? I don't think so, but it just goes to show you how funny marriage is. Sometimes the most unpromising unions turn out to be beautiful relationships.

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