Librarians protect our right to choose what we read
“My neighbor shouldn’t be making decisions about what I can read.”
Remember the magical rhymes of Dr. Suess, and the enchantment of Charlotte’s Web? The Chicago Public Library recently removed six Dr. Suess books from its shelves, citing racism. Charlotte’s Web has been banned elsewhere because it features talking animals. And in lower Michigan, a small public library is closing after residents twice voted to defund it because the library refused to remove LGBTQ books from its collection.
Librarians are facing a crisis few of them dreamed of when they chose their career: calls for book banning from a small but vocal minority that is gaining political power across the country.
Intellectual Freedom vs. Censorship
“There is a coordinated national attack on the ideals we hold most dear, which is access for all, to all,” says Kristin Fontichiaro, who teaches library science at the University of Michigan’s School of Information. “It’s important to realize that loud voices are not always majority voices. Surveys have shown that the majority of Americans do not want books banned.”
Director of the Portage Lake District Library, Katrina Linde-Moriarty, amid the books at the library, reading to children. Photo by Jennifer Donovan.
Katrina Linde-Moriarty, director of the Portage Lake District Library in Houghton, agrees.
“At the heart of librarianship has always been equitable, free and confidential access to information,” Linde-Moriarty, who prefers they/them pronouns, said. “Librarians stand up against censorship or efforts by others to control what books and other materials can be in the library. A librarian’s role is defending intellectual freedom and providing equitable access to information and resources.”
A challenge has already arisen locally, where a group of parents protested the Hancock School Library’s posting of a display of LGBTQ books during Pride Month. The Hancock library is operated under a contract between the Portage Lake District Library and the Hancock Public Schools.
Linde-Moriarty believes that library patrons can choose for themselves what books and other materials they want to engage with. So does Fontichiaro.
“Libraries have always been pro-family,” she said. “We let families decide what’s right for them. We don’t determine what every family reads, and we don’t want a vocal minority to determine that either.”
The book-banning movement has also created a new threat to librarians themselves.
“It’s heartbreaking to me to say to an LGBTQ student or a student of color, ‘You may not be safe working in a library,’” says Fontichiaro. “Nobody became a librarian because they like death threats. We just want to help people.”
“My neighbor shouldn’t be making decisions about what I can read.”
Debbie Mikula, director of the Michigan Library Association, has even heard about a prosecutor who is considering bringing criminal charges against a librarian who has refused to remove certain books.
“A library’s responsibility is to provide free access to all expressions of opinion,” she says. “No one should take that choice away from readers. We’re witnessing something that is unprecedented. My neighbor shouldn’t be making decisions about what I can read.”
The American Library Association (ALA) states: “The foundation of modern librarianship rests on an essential set of core values that define, inform, and guide our professional practice.” These values include access and intellectual freedom.
MI Right to Read is a grassroots coalition of concerned Michigan residents organized by the Michigan Library Association to fight censorship in libraries. The coalition opposes any attempts to ban books from Michigan libraries based on content subjectively deemed inappropriate. Its purpose is to educate the public and oppose any legislation that infringes upon First Amendment rights and intellectual freedom.
“Selecting materials for a public library using a professional process involving objective criteria is very different from removing material because the remover dislikes or is made uncomfortable by the content,” the organization says. “One is collection development; the other is censorship.”
MI Right to Read offers toolkits on its website to help fight censorship.
Community Resources
Librarians work in a wide variety of settings. There are public libraries like Portage Lake District Library, school libraries, university libraries, archival libraries and specialty libraries for law, medicine and various businesses.
In addition to providing books, videos, music and online resources, public libraries serve three vital community functions. They preserve the history and cultural heritage of their area, act as community centers for residents, and provide resources one would not normally expect from a library.
For example, Linde-Moriarty says that people have come to the library seeking help when their water has been turned off, they have lost a job or are facing homelessness. The library staff help them connect with community resources to address their problems.
“Emergency rooms triage for medical emergencies,” Linde-Moriarty said. “We triage for everything else. We have to have a robust skill set and knowledge across all staff members. The library is a hub of humanity. A librarian’s role is to help people make connections. We have our foot in a lot of different doors, work with a lot of partners. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes in a library.”
Preserving History and Cultural Heritage
Preserving cultural heritage is an important if little-known activity of librarians, Linde-Moriarty says.
“We are working to capture local history and personal narrative through recordings, videos, and podcasts. That’s very exciting. Capturing more than written narratives creates vibrant archives.”
The American Library Association notes that libraries help ensure an authentic record of knowledge created and accumulated by past generations.
“Libraries are rich repositories of historically and culturally significant collections, many of which are not available anywhere else in the world,” the ALA says on its website. “In a world without libraries, it would be difficult to advance research and human knowledge or preserve the world’s cumulative knowledge and heritage for future generations.”
Diversity is another issue facing librarians today.
“Diversity has fractured communities,” Linde-Moriarty observes. “The library is a community hub, welcoming and inclusive, a central gathering place for the community.”
But librarians are predominantly white women, Linde-Moriarty noted. So is most of the library staff.
“Who’s missing from the equation?,” Linde-Moriarty says. “We need to be broadening our perspective, not only in our stacks, but on our staff.”
Despite all the challenges, Linde-Moriarty would not have chosen any other career. Their dedication to battling censorship, to preserving our cultural heritage and to making the library an accessible, attractive, welcoming center of the community holds them right where they are, and they love it that way.
Superior Maker Fest empowers youth to create
Makers, vendors, and attendees filled Houghton High School on March 18 to work with wood, plastic, metal, circuits, and fabric. People of all ages were encouraged to interact with creation stations that ranged from assembling a computer to sculpting clay on a pottery wheel.
Despite heavy snow, Fab Lab’s inaugural Superior Maker Fest opened to overwhelming support.
Makers, vendors, and attendees filled Houghton High School on March 18 to work with wood, plastic, metal, circuits, and fabric. People of all ages were encouraged to interact with creation stations that ranged from assembling a computer to sculpting clay on a pottery wheel.
High school volunteer Yamato Tajiri watched over the First Robotics station, where children controlled the cup-grabbing-creations used in a previous robotics competition.
“I like this event because lots of people come together to do something they couldn’t do themselves,” said Tajiri.
Throughout the event, makers of all types gave words of wisdom to those beginning a hobby.
Ben Keppers, event volunteer, helps two interested kids assemble a computer. Photo by Henry Snapp
Ben Keppers, Ben Boelnes, and Brandon Finley ran a station that helped attendees disassemble and reassemble working computers.
“Putting computers together is just like putting Legos together,” Keppers explained.
“Don’t get intimidated, it’s way easier than it looks,” Boelnes added.
Kris Southerland, event team manager and owner of the Copper Island Forge, sold a variety of hooks, horseshoes, and hangars at his booth. He gave this advice on beginning blacksmithing.
“Be patient. Don’t expect perfect results. There are no mistakes in blacksmithing, just roll the metal out and try again,” he said.
Kirstin Hensley, event team manager and artist, sold laser cut wood works at her booth. She said beginning woodworking isn’t about being perfect.
“Prepare to make lots of mistakes. Mistakes are good.”
Shane Oberloier, event team manager, attributes the success of the event to early advertising, clear communication, and an ounce of charisma.
“63 people signed up for competitions, the vendors sold out, and it’s full,” Oberloier said.
Oberloier says to look forward to more Maker Fests in the future, possibly in a new location to accommodate larger crowds.
If you are interested in connecting with makers in the Copper Country area, Jason Mack, event team manager, suggests joining the Superior Fab Lab Discord server, where makers in the area can help you find the materials, tools, and knowledge needed to start making.
Teaching STEM by osmosis
Students and parents alike had a chance to experience the fun side of STEM at a special event at Michigan Technological University.
Ann (left) and Amanda proudly displaying their project results. They tested what change soaking gummy bears in different liquids would cause on their size. Photo by Joshua Vissers
Students and parents alike had a chance to experience the fun side of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) at a special event on Thursday afternoon. Older students from local high schools and Michigan Technological University gathered to demonstrate projects and STEM concepts to students from kindergarten up to 8th grade at a STEM Festival on the ground floor of MTU’s Memorial Union Building.
In turn, local 4th-8th graders showed off their STEM chops with science and engineering projects in the upstairs ballroom.
“We thought of this because we really like gummy bears,” said 4th grader Amanda. “And so we wondered, can we make them larger? And do they taste good?”
Amanda and her project partner, Ann, are both 4th graders from Houghton Elementary School. The pair tested soaking gummy bears for 72 hours in sugar water, salt water and pure water against their control group, an unsoaked gummy bear.
The growth results were quite clear and measurable, with pure water causing the gummy bear to roughly double in size. The taste results were more subjective.
“They did not taste good,” Ann said.
“The water one is fine,” replied Amanda.
The pair said they had a lot of fun, and already plan on participating again next year.
Even though it can be fun, the Western U.P. STEM Fair & Festival has high educational value, too.
“These are students that have been preparing their project for weeks now,” said Emily Gochis, Western UP MiSTEM director. “This is hard work for these students.”
The Houghton High School Robotics teams had several of their robots there for demonstrations and even test drives. Video by Joshua Vissers
From doing initial research and forming a hypothesis, designing and conducting an experiment, and finally analyzing and presenting results, the projects give the students a chance to work through the entire scientific process. Rather than a short daily school assignment, the activity models a long-term, in-depth project.
“Which is what we do in the real world,” Gochis said.
A panel of judges made of professors and industry leaders scored each of the projects. Any project that got at least 80 of 100 points has been placed in a bronze, silver, or gold ribbon category.
Click here to check out the 2023 results.
Kinley Lyons is a 4th-year chemical engineering student at MTU now, but she participated in the STEM Fair years ago as a grade schooler. Lyons and her partner constructed a hovercraft as their project, using an old street sign, a tarp, and a leaf blower.
“It didn’t work that well, but it did work,” she said with a laugh. “It is one of the things that got me into engineering, and here I am now.”
It was also the first time Lyons remembers coming to a university campus.
“It really gave me a perspective on Michigan Tech’s campus,” Lyons said.
The STEM Fair and Festival, a partnership between MTU and the Copper Country Intermediate School District’s MiSTEM program, returned to an in-person event this year after COVID-19 forced them to shift to an online format.
Laura Rowe, a 5th-grade teacher at Lake Linden for the last 28 years, said because of the COVID-19 break, this was the first time at the STEM festival for many of the students.
“The kids were so excited to come here,” Rowe said.
The attendance was down a little from previous years, but Rowe thinks it will grow more as people learn what it is again after the pandemic break.
“I think the kids’ favorite part of it is actually doing the experiment itself,” Rowe said.
The Festival was host to several fun demonstrations. The bananas on the table are touch-sensitive and play musical notes through the laptop. Photo by Joshua Vissers
The festival featured demonstrations of a variety of STEM subjects. A thermal camera was available to play with the concept of seeing heat instead of light. A group explained basic circuits using LEDs, 9v batteries, and different colored Play-Doh, which is conductive largely due to the high salt content. The Copper Country Recycling Initiative was explaining the mechanical sorting process and the different makeup of recyclable products. All the demonstrations had an interactive element and invited students to get involved with the concepts being presented.
Gochis said the event was started about 25 years ago as a science fair, but over that time has grown into a STEM fair and festival. This year they added an engineering category to the fair for the first time.
“The age groups of grades 4-8, students tend to be really, really interested in these areas, and that’s not just boys,” Tom Oliver, director of the Michigan Tech Center for Science and Environmental Outreach, said.
After 8th grade, interest in STEM fields drops off among young women, which has led to these fields being dominated by men.
“We’re trying to open up opportunities that will provide those young women the opportunity to stay interested and find things that are engaging,” Oliver said.
Oliver encourages anyone interested in forming a partnership with MTU’s Center for Science and Environmental Outreach to contact him.
Women Get Less: the gender pay gap
Women have always been paid less than men, and the gender pay gap continues to be a prominent issue today. When comparing full-time, year-round workers in 2021, women would have needed to work an extra 49.5 days to make up for the pay gap.
Women have always been paid less than men, and the gender pay gap continues to be a prominent issue today. When comparing full-time, year-round workers in 2021, women would have needed to work an extra 49.5 days (using a typical 40-hour work week) to make up for the pay gap, with women taking home 84 cents per 1 dollar of what men were paid. Equal Pay Day is held every year on the day when women would have finally closed the pay gap from the male pay from the previous year. This year, it was held on March 14, 74 days after Dec. 31. The local chapter of the League of Women Voters brought attention to this issue armed with informational brochures handed out at Michigan Tech on March 14. .
Faith Morrison is a member of the local chapter of the League of Women Voters who taught chemical engineering at Michigan Tech for 32 years before retiring. She acknowledges that it’s true that there are pay differences between occupations that are monopolized by one gender, using the example that engineers make more money than many other fields of work.
Faith Morrison on Michigan Technological University’s campus on March 14. Photo by Sidney Wilmot.
She said, “because there are more male engineers than female engineers than let’s say nurses, there are more female nurses than male nurses, you could expect that would cause a pay gap.”
However, according to author Cathrine Hill, once relevant factors (college major, occupation, economic sector, age, marital status, etc.) have been considered, the pay gap was still 7% just one year after graduating from college and widened to 12% ten years after graduating. The League of Women Voters calculated that if a man makes $100,000, the woman then makes $93,000. Assuming both parties receive a 2.5% yearly raise, the man saves the “pay gap” money, and earns a 5% interest, in 25 years he’s over $400,000 ahead of the woman.
“Even within a discipline we don’t want to see a gap in pay between men and women, because we don’t think that comes from any merit. We think that many women, on average, [in] the same discipline and same background, should make the same,” Morrison said.
So why does this still happen? Morrison highlighted a book by Virginia Valian, called “Why So Slow?: The Advancement of Women,” which talks of nonconscious bias. The book included results of experiments and examples of integrated stereotypes and assumptions in our minds and society that apply to gender differences. An example from the book Morrison cited was where an identical resume was submitted for review, but changed the obviously male name to a female name. The resume with the female name got a lower ranking than the one with the male name. Morrison explained that this experiment has been done with names that denote racial differences, which also ended up considered a lower ranking.
To fight against this inequality, Morrison says that “what we’re doing here is to educate [people] about [nonconscious bias]. Let people know this happens… if you can spot it happening, ask yourself ‘well why did I think that’…if you can catch yourself, you can make a change… we’re not trying to break anything, we’re trying to make something better.”
She continued to explain that it was often thought that women’s income were simply supplemental to the household income, and not a necessity. The societal role and pressure on women to attend the house and raise children meant that their jobs were done in their free time, and they were financially dependent on men.
“When I started here at Michigan Tech, I was the first woman they ever hired in the Department of Chemical Engineering. … My husband joined the faculty at the same time,” Morrison said. “We had the experience where he had a higher raise than I did. Frankly, there was a good argument to me that it should’ve gone the other way. We confronted the department chair, and he admitted that he had done that on purpose because he didn’t want my husband to feel bad that his wife was going to get a higher salary than he was.”
Morrison’s husband supported her, wondering why he wouldn’t want his household income to be higher.
Morrison also recalls how she went to a program in Washington, DC for the advancement of women in chemical sciences in the early 90s. She remembers a presentation by an MIT professor of biochemistry, Nancy Hopkins, in which Hopkins felt ashamed that she was the target of gender bias.
Morrison agreed that she shared that shame about being the target of gender bias in her successful career.
She said, “It feels terrible, to have to say that you feel someone is discriminating against you, even though it's true.”
When encompassing all workers such as seasonal or part-time, however, the pay gap increased. Women were taking home only 77 cents per 1 dollar made by their male counterpart, meaning they would need to work a shocking 77.6 more days per year (also using a typical 40-hour work week) to make up for the pay gap. The pay gap is increased even further for women of color.
There are sources to fight to close the pay gap. This includes supporting state laws that prevent pay discrimination, advocating for your colleagues and employees, and supporting the Paycheck Fairness Act. If you want more information, visit the American Association of University Women, here.
Saving the “historical gateway to the entire Keweenaw” – the Ford Alberta Sawmill
Henry Ford once had a rich empire of logging in the UP, and much of it has been lost due to modernization. Yet, a dusty gem shoved into the village of Alberta, just outside L’Anse, Mich. was preserved perfectly. The Ford Alberta sawmill, currently owned by Michigan Tech, is in danger of being destroyed. However, the once-quiet history of the area was dusted off by residents of L’Anse and Alberta, and efforts by the Social Sciences Department at MTU to preserve the area are in action.
Henry Ford once had a rich empire of logging in the UP, and much of it has been lost due to modernization. Yet, a dusty gem shoved into the village of Alberta, just outside L’Anse, Mich. was preserved perfectly. The Ford Alberta sawmill, currently owned by Michigan Tech, is in danger of being destroyed. However, the once-quiet history of the area was dusted off by residents of L’Anse and Alberta, and efforts by the Social Sciences Department at MTU to preserve the area are in action.
In May of 2022, plans were announced to tear down the currently closed Ford Alberta sawmill. Residents of L’Anse and Alberta rallied together to save the doorway to the rich, innovative Ford history in the Keweenaw, forming the Baraga County Historical Society Inc. Subcommittee Saving the Ford Alberta Sawmill.
“This [sawmill] is the historical gateway to the entire Keewenaw, sitting right here on U.S. 41,” said board member Wayne Abba.
The first step for the subcommittee was to save the pump house, which would’ve been demolished this summer if members of the society hadn’t heard of MTU’s plans, according to Michael DesRochers, chairman of the subcommittee.
Dave Stimac, the last Head Sawyer employed by the Ford Alberta sawmill, explaining the steps in processing logs. Photo by Sydney Wilmot.
Dave Stimac, who worked as the last sawyer in the mill said, “From Tech’s side of it too, it just sits and sits, and what are you going to do with the building? But at least it’s salvageable now… if you wait too much longer, it won’t be.”
The subcommittee agrees that after the pump house, they are likely to redo the siding and paint on the outside of the sawmill and ensure safety measures are in place.
“This was given to Tech in [1954] by Ford to be used for educational purposes,” said DesRochers.
Abba continued, “When they say that it’s unique, it’s not only the buildings in the village, but it’s the original 1,700 acres that were donated, plus about 2,300 [acres] that have been added, so there’s about 4,000 acres here of forest, the entire village… it’s a national icon.”
This huge area is rich in the history of the Keweenaw with Canyon Falls nearby, a popular local attraction.
Professors Steve Walton and Mark Rhodes in MTU’s Social Sciences Department are now working with history students to put the sawmill on the National Register of Historic Places. In their expert opinion, they say that Alberta “is a very, very rare survival of an intact example of a showplace industrial village, built by an industrial magnate as a reaction to twentieth-century industrialization and urbanization.”
Rhodes and Walton are using Alberta as a space to learn about and study the “industry, community and heritage in our own backyard,” stating that, “The Industrial Heritage and Archaeology program in the Dept. of Social Sciences recognizes the village of Alberta as a nearly unique and little-altered surviving example of a model industrial village from the early twentieth century.”
The pump house in Alberta, which was nearly demolished. Photo by Sydney Wilmot.
Rhodes used Alberta as the central case study in his graduate course Industrial Communities. He and his students have also updated the draft nomination form for the 2017 National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), expanding it to include the whole 1,700 acres that was donated to Tech along with the village and sawmill. Walton is planning on “documenting the sawmill operations, machinery, and process flow with graduate and undergraduate students” in the 2023-2024 academic year.
Walton recognizes that while most of the historical focus has been on copper and iron mining, logging has been a crucial part of the UP since the nineteenth century, and continues to be a major export today.
He said, “From the point of view of the history of technology the sawmill is exciting as it was never modernized to any great extent, other than the replacement of some electrical systems with hydraulic ones in, we believe, the 1970’s or 80’s.”
He said he was very interested in documenting the techniques and technologies of the 1930’s and 1950’s.
Quiet history is easily lost, but local residents have not yet forgotten how much this sawmill means to the history of both the Keweenaw and the United States.
Rhodes and Walton agree that heritage sites are being lost all the time and unique ones like Alberta are both an inherent asset to the memory of a place but also key elements in historical tourism for the UP.
Abba explained, “I think there was a bit of a realization that it was more than just a sawmill… So what we’ve done is get Tech to realize that it’s a whole lot more than that. The historic significance is international because of who Henry Ford was.”
The idea of a self-sustaining town that brought Alberta to life was never fully realized, but it did inform Ford’s ideas of other company communities, particularly in Brazil, where he farmed rubber for tires.
The head saw, with a mannequin standing in as head sawyer, inside the Ford Alberta sawmill. Photo by Sydney Wilmot.
The sawmill was closed as a working mill in 1956, was converted to a museum in 1996, and closed to the public in 2017. The museum illustrates clearly how impressive the sawmill truly was for the time. A “dust-free” environment, heat, and a roof were all luxuries the sawmill offered. Every scrap of wood was utilized – scraps were distributed to the community for firewood, and the sawdust was burned to heat the building.
Stimac recalled that as far as he knows, the mill never burned down, or had any major accidents. This was incredibly rare during the time it operated, as many saw and paper mills burned down and were rebuilt in the years they operated. The dust flying through the air was easily ignited with a simple spark, but with the dustless system and cleaning routine put in place at the Ford Alberta sawmill, this didn’t happen.
With the increased communication between the sawmill subcommittee and the Social Sciences Department at Michigan Tech, there is a ray of hope to preserve the story of Henry Ford and the rich history of the Keweenaw.
Eventually, the committee hopes to open the sawmill as a museum to the public.
Environmental safety of Keweenaw Waters Resort questioned by MDHHS
The acreage allotted for the project lies on stamp sands, which are crushed rocks leftover from the Keweenaw Peninsula’s copper mining period, often containing heavy metals like copper or arsenic.
The sign for Keweenaw Waters Resort along Houghton Canal Road. Photo by Joshua Vissers
The Keweenaw Waters Resort development has already begun, a project that will build 24 cabins, 79 hook-up campsites, a boat dock, and a camp store along the Portage Canal in Houghton. The project’s intentions are to provide tourists with a nature-based experience of camping and outdoor recreation, but with the convenience of nearby restaurants and shopping centers of downtown Houghton. The project already received unanimous support from the City of Houghton Council.
However, the acreage allotted for the project lies on stamp sands, which are crushed rocks leftover from the Keweenaw Peninsula’s copper mining period, often containing heavy metals like copper or arsenic.
Some residents are concerned that the Keweenaw Waters Resort development will disturb the stamp sands and cause toxic heavy metals to leach into the Portage Canal, a popular destination for outdoor recreation, as well as host to native fish species and other wildlife.
MICHIGAN SMELTER TAILINGS: PART OF SUPERFUND SITE OU3
A site is determined a Superfund site by the EPA when the federal government grants the EPA with the costs and authority to clean up a contaminated site that has been deemed as hazardous to human health. Because of the area’s historical mining background, there are several Superfund sites throughout the Keweenaw Peninsula.
According to a statement from the EPA, the Keweenaw Waters Resort is located along Portage Lake on stamp sands that are part of the Michigan Smelter area of Operational Unit 3 (OU3) of the Torch Lake Superfund site.
“During cleanup, a Superfund site can be divided into a number of distinct areas, called Operable Units (OUs), depending on the complexity of the problems associated with the site,” explains Denise Fortin, EPA representative. “The Michigan Smelter tailings are a part of Operable Unit 3 (OU3) of the larger Torch Lake Superfund Site.”
In 2012, both the Michigan Smelter and Michigan Smelter tailings were partially deleted from the EPA’s National Priorities List with the condition that a 6-inch vegetative cap be maintained to cover the stamp sands. Because hazardous wastes still remain in the area, the EPA conducts periodic reviews at the sites, with the next review scheduled for March 2023.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT HAZARD
However, in September 2022, the Michigan Department of Health collected six samples from the proposed campground property. They concluded, in a 40-page report, that recreational use of the shoreline of the property can be a public health hazard, citing hazardous levels of arsenic, hexavalent chromium, and copper, and subsequent elevated estimated risks of cancer, particularly in children, via skin exposure or accidental ingestion of the sediments.
Keweenaw Waters Resort developer Derek Bradway maintains that the stamp sands are non-hazardous but plans to cover the area with 30 inches of sand to placate concerns.
“This is where I live, where I raise my family. We don’t take any chances,” Bradway said. “We are going to further bury it, not that there is a problem.”
Bradway argues that the basis for studies used by the Michigan Health Department were flawed, one reason being as they were based on a scenario where campers stayed at the Resort for 21 days a year over several years, and further comments that “the possibility of unearthing and eating the stuff buried multiple feet below our cover for years is crazy.”
The report contains information on several exposure levels and durations.
The Keweenaw Waters Resort, which already has five cabins built, with more underway. Photo by Joshua Vissers
While Bradway proposes to implement more soil cover on the property, the Michigan Health Department points out there has been no discussion about how the cover will be maintained after construction activities end. The Health Department recommends a long-term plan to cover exposed sediments, as well as signage warning recreators of the risks, and other harm-reduction tactics.
The EPA is in the process of reviewing the MDHHS public health evaluation of the proposed Keweenaw Waters Resort.
PUBLIC NOTICE
The US Army Corps of Engineers published a public notice (below) regarding the Keweenaw Waters Resort in order to open up the floor for public comments, both positive and negative, on proposed work along the shoreline. Requests should be e-mailed to Kristi.M.DeFoe@usace.army.mil, but must include a name and mailing address.
Requests can also be submitted in writing to:
Kerrie E. Kuhne
Chief, Western Section
Regulatory Branch
Corps of Engineers, Detroit District
477 Michigan Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48226-2550
The public commentary period ends March 7, 2023.
After paying conservative speaker, questions linger, answers are sparse
A week after Michigan Tech’s University Administration overruled a decision of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) students are still asking questions, but answers from decision-makers are sparse.
Even University faculty and staff who agree that the decision had to be overruled have criticized the ‘punitive’ nature of USG’s ‘emergency meeting’ and dispute its ‘educational’ merit.
Following up on “Admin at MTU subverts student self-governance”
A week after Michigan Tech’s University Administration overruled a decision of the Undergraduate Student Government(USG), students are still asking questions, but answers from university decision-makers are sparse. Even university faculty and staff who agree that the decision had to be overruled have criticized the ‘punitive’ nature of USG’s ‘emergency meeting’ and dispute its educational merit.
Friday before last (Feb. 17), Michigan Tech administration issued a memorandum forcing the USG to immediately disburse funding to pay conservative speaker Brandon Tatum after the funding request failed to reach the two-thirds threshold a second time.
Campus has been quieter this past week compared to the frenzy of social media, petitions, and public comments the week prior, but student groups have continued working to make their voices heard.
Keweenaw Youth for Climate Action (KYCA), a ‘primarily student-based’ organization registered with the University, released a “Statement on the recent USG meetings and institutional failure” on their instagram account shortly after USG’s ‘emergency meeting’.
It is apparent that the administration themselves did not want to take responsibility of the situation. Instead they attempted to ‘teach’ Michigan Tech students that they should lay down both their morals and principles out of fear of being sued by a highly controversial organization. [...] The result was opening a public rift amongst members and constituents of USG, causing members of USG to lose faith in the institution and opening MTU’s marginalized community to the possibility of more bigotry.
Keweenaw Pride (KP), the University’s LGBTQIA+ and Straight Ally organization, delivered a letter to the USG Friday afternoon thanking representatives and staff for their “tremendous courage” in voting no on funding “a speaker with a history of transphobia, homophobia, and bigotry.”
The letter went on to state that “This vote has been a major success for our community at this university, despite being overturned by administration. We again thank you all for your actions and your willingness to listen to our stories and concerns, despite the emotional toll it may have placed on each of you.”
President of Michigan Tech’s TPUSA chapter Caleb Glenn did not respond to a request for comment at time of publication.
TPUSA at MTU posted on their Twitter account Monday evening (Feb. 20).
After the student government refused to fund our event, we fought back. The money will now be allocated by admin @michigantech Thank you @theofficertatum @charliekirk11 and everyone who helped us! Hope to see you at BE BRAVE with Brandon Tatum on March 21st 7pm Fisher 135 MTU 🇺🇸
Michigan Tech’s University Marketing and Communications (UMC) department provided the following comment in regard to whether or not the USG was obligated to fund all speakers hosted on campus.
Because USG is allocating fees charged to all students at a public institution of higher education, they cannot do so in contravention of the First Amendment. They can make many other decisions, though. For example, they could decide not to fund any speakers in the future or they could decide to cap spending on speakers at a set amount per group each year. The boundary conditions on their actions are those listed in Board Policy 7.6 from which their authority originates.
All attempts to arrange interviews with university employees and representatives were referred to UMC.
Copper Beacon talked to several concerned students involved with minority-centered organizations. Parts of their identities have been withheld out of consideration for their safety.
Andrew, a second year student, had this to say about the decision to override the USG.
“I understand that they don’t want to get hit with a lawsuit, however I feel there are things that are more important [...] like showing to your trans[gender] students that you care about their safety.”
A student who requested to be identified only as a first year, when asked if the university ‘considers student safety’ in making decisions stated, “They don’t particularly prioritize that, they more seem to prioritize not only the amount of students [...] but also the funding they get for the university.”
A student, who requested to be identified as a queer second year, when asked if in their experience Michigan Tech had been one of an inclusive campus emphatically stated, “They certainly pretend to be. [...] I feel like administration could definitely do a much better job at making sure that queer students are not harassed on campus.”
The student also offered an anecdote of earlier grievances they’d tried to rectify with the university. In the past, when messages from a student organization’s chat room leaked, they were shown to have hate speech directed at their friends.
“And I reported it to the university and there was nothing to be done besides like ‘it’s free speech, can’t do anything about it’,” they said.
Student voices were not alone in expressing concerns regarding the decision of University Administration.
Lindsey Wells, chair of the University Senate Committee for Promoting and Facilitating Equity and Understanding, offered an excerpt of a message sent to some faculty members.
We believe the forced emergency meeting to be punitive, not educational. It should have been obvious to all involved that the vote would not change, and we don’t agree with making students share their stories again, when it would have ultimately no impact on the result.
Copper Beacon secured a brief interview with Wallace Southerland, the Dean of Students, Wednesday evening as he was delivering pizza to USG’s weekly meeting.
Wallace Southerland, Michigan Tech’s Dean of Students. Photo by JuxtaPrax Sprague.
Speaking to the determination by the administration that USG had made a decision based on the “content” of the speaker, Southerland said, “I didn’t hear anything that would lead me to believe that an objective set of criteria was used.”
When asked what attempts were made to verify student claims made about Brandon Tatum, Southerland responded,
“I did a very brief, cursory search of the internet that night to see what I could find, because I wanted to be informed. I wanted to make sure that there wasn’t a clear record out there where the speaker incited violence, and from the very few clips that I looked at, I didn’t see anything that caused me to fear for student safety.”
In regard to a hypothetical scenario where a speaker advocated for violence against members of Michigan Tech’s campus, Southerland stated,
“We will always protect our student’s safety and if a speaker has done anything that results in students being harmed, there will be an investigation into that. We will refer to our campus police, we will refer to legal counsel, we will refer to state laws to find out if the speaker or the organization violated any laws or policies.”
The first meeting of Michigan Tech’s Board of Trustees (BOT) occurred Feb. 24. There was no mention of the incident with USG. After the meeting, Copper Beacon unsuccessfully attempted to solicit comment from two members of the Board of Trustees.
A New Way to Bridge the Child Care Gap
If you’re a working parent of a kiddo age 0 to 5, what do you do for child care? There aren’t many options in Houghton County. And what if the child care center you are using shuts down?
Whitney Brey and some of the other 15 parents left in the lurch when Right Start Kids Academy closed last summer decided to take the bull by the horns and establish their own child care center.
Photo courtesy of Whitney Brey.
If you’re a working parent of a kiddo age 0 to 5, what do you do for child care? There aren’t many options in Houghton County. And what if the child care center you are using shuts down?
Whitney Brey and some of the other 15 parents left in the lurch when Right Start Kids Academy closed last summer decided to take the bull by the horns and establish their own child care center.
“There are major gaps in child care,” says Brey, a physician’s assistant at Upper Great Lakes Family Health Center in Calumet. “I’ve had to bring my children to the clinic with me in order to work.”
Their new center, a nonprofit called Bridging Gaps Child Care, opened for applications on Feb. 20 and plans to have children start attending on March 6.
Keweenaw Family Resource Center Documents Need
The Keweenaw Family Resource Center (KFRC) confirms that the need is enormous. KFRC collected data during a Copper Country Great Start Collaborative rural child care innovation study conducted last summer with Children’s First Finance, a national nonprofit whose mission is “to grow the supply and business sustainability of excellent child care.”
The study looked at child care needs, surveyed parents, employers and child care providers, and took a deep dive into licensing issues.
“We found a significant gap in child care for infants to five-year-olds,” says Iola Brubaker, director of the KFRC. “We found 1,302 families with all parents working who needed child care for their infants and toddlers and only 300 child care slots that operated on a 12-month calendar.”
That leaves up to 1,002 families who can’t find child care. There are probably another 350–500 slots that operate only during the school year, Brubaker notes.
Many of the child care centers in the county have income or other requirements that eliminate them as options for middle-income working parents.
BHK focuses on low-income families and high-risk children; Michigan Tech’s Little Huskies caters to children of university employees or students and is open shorter hours, and Saints Peter & Paul doesn’t take infants, Brey points out.
“BHK is a wonderful, effective program, but it can take only a few families over the poverty level, and they have to have other risk factors,” Brubaker says.
Child Care Affects the Economy
Child care is important for more than the parents of preschool children. Its availability affects businesses seeking to hire working parents and the economic development of the whole community.
“Access to quality child care and early education is vital to individual productivity and regional economic growth,” says Brubaker.
“There is a direct connection between child care and the local economy,” she said. “Without adequate supply of good quality child care, local employees and employers alike lose out.”
There are only nine licensed home-based child care providers and five group child care providers in Houghton County, Brubaker says. The availability of child care even impacts parents’ decision to have a child, she points out.
“We planned our pregnancy based on an infant opening,” says one local parent.
Another had to leave her profession entirely because she could not find quality child care.
A Complicated Process
That’s the problem that Brey and her fellow parents wanted to address. It hasn’t been an easy path. First, they had to find a site for their center. Luckily, they discovered that Glad Tidings Church in Hancock had the perfect space, one that the church formerly used for homeschooling.
Then there were the licensing requirements, so many of them: fire inspection, electrical inspection, health inspection, mechanical inspection and finally, a state licensing inspection. They made it through all those inspections and are about to get a six-month license. After six months, the center will have to undergo another inspection, followed—hopefully—by a two-year license.
The new child care center is licensed for 32 children ages 0-5 including slots for eight infants from six weeks to 30 months old. Infant care is especially problematic in Houghton County. Almost no child care centers take infants, Brey explains.
Bridging Gaps Child Care has hired a director—Alexi Geshel—and two lead teachers. They need two more lead teachers and two assistants before they can operate at full capacity, Brey says.
Editor’s Note: Alexi Geshel is the sister of Copper Beacon board secretary Dillon Geshel.
"We really, really have a lack of child care centers in our area,” says Geshel. “There aren't a lot of options, especially for parents with infants or parents who make too much to qualify for BHK.”
Waiting lists for existing centers are very long, she adds
Geshel worked as a teacher at BHK Great Start for seven years and then at Right Start Kids Academy for five years, until it shut down. Since she worked at Right Start, she knows the parents and their kids.
“I have a great relationship with the current board at Bridging Gaps,” she says.
Bridging Gaps Child Care Center, at Glad Tidings Church in Hancock.
Photo courtesy of Whitney Brey.
Geshel is looking forward to heading the new child care center.
“It’s larger than any child care centers I have worked for before,” she explains. “I’m excited to work with more kids and more staff.”
Bridging Gaps will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., to provide care for children whose parents work early or late.
Funding Challenges
A child care business is expensive to start, and the first year may not—or the center may never—have a positive cash flow, Brubaker explains. Bridging Gaps Child Care got a $10,000 pre-licensing grant from the state. Another state grant will be available once they are in operation.
“You can’t get most grants until you are open, and you can’t open until you get grants,” Brey notes.
Most organizations that offer funding want preferential acceptance for their employees’ children.
“We can’t do that because we are a nonprofit,” Brey says.
Brey has opened businesses in the past.
“I saw this as a challenge, but nothing that couldn’t be accomplished,” she says. “We have board members who are experts in many different fields: a professor, a pharmacist, a physician’s assistant, a businesswoman. But none of us had ever opened a day care center. We have very intelligent people on our board, but the hoops we had to jump through were just incredible. Such a learning curve.”
Bridging Gaps Child Care will charge $265 a week for infants and $250 a week for toddlers. Brey knows they may not break even for some time. Meanwhile, the center will depend on grants and other funding sources.
Last week, they participated as the designated charity for a “chuck a puck” fundraiser at a hockey game between the Calumet Wolverines and the Portage Lake Pioneers. Bridging Gaps Child Care received 50 percent of the proceeds.
“We may not have made much, but it was great to be chosen as the designated charity, and it helped get the word out in the community,” Brey says.
Travels and Experiences in the Army Air Force
“The dangers involved were not stressed, or understood, and we were confident that we could handle whatever situations confronted us.”
Wesley Loosemore enlisted in the Army Air Force Cadets with the intention of getting his college degree before joining the fight in World War II as a pilot. He was already taking classes at Michigan Technological University in February 1943, when a meeting was called at the school and the reservists were told they’d be called to active duty by the end of the month.
The Majestic Hotel as seen in 2012. You can click here to see a postcard showing an illustration of how it looked in the 1940s. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
“I only had one term in at college,” Loosemore told me during our interview.
Loosemore and five others from Michigan Tech took a cramped train trip all the way to Miami Beach, Florida. When they arrived, he was assigned a room at the Majestic Hotel. The army used many of the local hotels to house the thousands of soldiers training in the area.
While in Miami Beach, Loosemore started through basic training.
“We learned how to march, drill, sing, shoot, perform guard duty and K.P.,” he writes in his memoir. “…lectures on hygiene, security, military courtesy, concealment, gas warfare, first aid, etc.”
As a Yooper, suddenly transplanted to Florida in March, Loosemore couldn’t avoid burning in the sun when drilling outdoors. The sunburns were so bad at times he struggled to lie down or dress himself.
“This and the sore arms and headaches from shots and vaccinations made the first few weeks torture,” he writes.
That April, Loosemore traveled to Greenville, South Carolina, as part of a College Training Detachment (CTD) to Furman University. There he took classes on math and English, and learned about subjects like the theory of flight, navigation, and civil air regulations.
Piper L-4H Cub ‘330372’. Built 1943 for the US military with the serial 43-30372. Seen arriving as a visitor at the 2017 Flying Legends Airshow, Duxford Airfield, Cambridgeshire, UK. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Also in Greenville, Loosemore got his first flight training, in a Piper Cub. He worked out regularly, and had the chance to see several movies, something he enjoyed regularly throughout his service.
During his time in Greenville, Loosemore took note of “the intense intolerance and hatred between the blacks and whites” in his memoir.
Loosemore and other soldiers left Greenville late in May, via troop train, for San Antonio, Texas. During the three-day trip, rumor spread on the train that the pilot training schools were all full, and everyone would be reassigned to different technical schools.
They arrived at the San Antonio Classification Center disappointed and glum. They were put through a myriad of tests, gauging their physical and mental acuity, and in between tests spent time cleaning around the base.
“…raking stones, cleaning barracks, KP, pickup cigarette butts, and we even picked the weeds out of the lawn and nipped the longer grass with our fingers,” Loosemore writes.
Choosing radio operator as his preference of the available technical schools, Loosemore once again shipped out, this time to Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls, Texas. They started going through tests, classes and physical training again.
The June and July heat in Texas stands out in Loosemore’s memory. He remembers almost every day being over 90 degrees, and men regularly passing out from the heat. They often drilled with full gear, including gas masks.
Portrait of Loosemore taken in Sioux Falls. Courtesy of Wesley Loosemore.
On July 23, 1943, Loosemore arrived with other soldiers at the radio school in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He earned his Radio Gunner classification and attended school on the night rotation, starting late in the afternoon and getting to bed at about 2 a.m., after his classes finished. He graduated on Dec. 14, 1943, with “very good grades”.
“I was always anxious to learn,” Loosemore said. “I figured I could use that information after I got out, so I buckled down, and I learned.”
There was a USO club near the base that Loosemore and the other GIs took advantage of, but as winter set in, the cold and sicknesses were difficult to manage.
“We were issued extra blankets and still had to keep all three coal stoves in the barracks going to keep warm,” he writes. “There were lots of colds and flu going around and at times it seemed that half the barracks was on sick call or in the hospital.”
Loosemore was happy when, after his graduation, he was sent to the Yuma AAF Flexible Gunnery School in Arizona.
“It was hotter than heck,” Loosemore said.
They lived in tents on this base, and when it was windy, all of their belongings would get covered in dust. They learned to be careful to check their shoes and clothes in the morning for snakes and scorpions. The nights got cool, but the days were warm.
Here, Loosemore learned about guns, from the M1 carbine to the .50 caliber machine guns. They learned how to shoot them, maintain them and repair them. They learned to disassemble and assemble them blindfolded.
“There was a theater on the base, but we didn’t have much free time to take in the shows,” Loosemore wrote. “I think I only saw one movie here – “The Gang’s All Here”, with Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda and the Benny Goodman Orchestra.”
Carmen Miranda in “The Gang’s All Here”. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
In February, after graduating gunnery school, Loosemore was transferred to the base in Salt Lake City. It took a couple of weeks before he was placed on a B-17 crew, #3915, and sent to the Army Air Field in Pyote, Texas.
B-17 crew # 3915, Wesley Loosemore stands top center-left. Photo courtesy of Wesley Loosemore.
“Our crew was comprised of Harry F. Jenkins, pilot; Samuel B. Blanchard, co-pilot; Gordon B. Nute, navigator; John W. Protzman, bombardier; Norton A. Gillespie, Flt. Engineer; Charles G. Allen and Robert Francis, waist gunners; John J. Fydrychowski, ball turret gunner; John M. Cregan, tail gunner; and myself, radio operator,” Loosemore writes.
Take a virtual tour of a B-17G Flying Fortress at the Air Mobility Command Museum.
This is when their training began to get more intense. Rising at 4:30 a.m. for many of their flights, they practiced bombing runs, shooting at targets towed by other planes, practice take-offs and landings, and more.
“My flight record shows that I got 128 hours of flying time on 30 separate days during March, April and May,” Loosemore wrote.
Loosemore shared his trick for keeping his signal strong when tuning for long distance broadcasts with the trailing wire antennae from the B-17. He calculated the ideal length of the antennae for the frequency they were using that day and matched the trailing wire to that length.
At the end of May, the crew shipped out by train for Kearney, Nebraska. The base at Kearney was for staging, so excitement began to build as they knew they would likely be assigned overseas soon.
“The dangers involved were not stressed, or understood, and we were confident that we could handle whatever situations confronted us,” Loosemore writes.
At Kearney, they were assigned a plane, a new B-17G, which they flew from there to Bangor, Maine. On the way, they ran into a thunderstorm.
“Our pilot, Jenkins, called our attention to the prop tips which were trailing St. Elmo’s fire and it looked like four rings of fire,” Loosemore writes.
They left Bangor for Gander Field, Newfoundland, and from there made the nearly 12-hour flight to Nutt’s Corner, Northern Ireland.
“I heard reports of the D-Day landings on my radio on the way over, first I had heard the news,” Loosemore writes in his manuscript.
Aerial photograph of Molesworth airfield looking east, (the main runway runs north-south), 9 May 1944. Photograph taken by 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group, sortie number US/7GR/LOC334. English Heritage (USAAF Photography). Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
From Nutt’s Corner, they traveled by boat and train to Stone, England for their orientation before being assigned to their operational base. The B-17G they had ferried over would be reassigned to a different crew.
Effective June 27, 1944, their crew was assigned to the 359 Bomb Squadron, 303 Bomb Group at Molesworth airfield. Shortly after their arriveal, they were assigned barracks in a Nissen hut.
On July 4 of that year, Loosemore watched a “fireworks” display. It was put on by airmen firing off flares into the sky.
“Every time an appeal to stop came over the PA system, another volley of 50 or more flares went up,” Loosemore writes.
Each airman was required to fly 35 combat missions. Loosemore flew his first combat mission two days after Independence Day, on July 6. Their target was launching sites for V-1 flying bombs in France.
“The mission was a real milk run,” Loosemore wrote. “But it served to introduce us to the procedures to be followed.”
Loosemore’s crew continued flying missions, bombing targets in Germany and France. Targets included airfields, factories, and infrastructure. They flew ten missions between July 6 and July 20. On July 21, they got a 48-hour pass off base. Some of the crew, including Loosemore, went to nearby Nottingham.
“It was nice to sleep between sheets at the hotel, but it was hard to find good food in town,” Loosemore writes.
The war had so depleted England that there was better food available to the soldiers on base.
“They’d been through hell with the bombing and all that,” Loosemore said.
Food on base was comparatively flush with selection, as it was shipped from the United States. Restaurants off base couldn’t get meat other than mutton or fish.
“You couldn’t get beef,” Loosemore said. “Beef was out of sight for civilians.”
On their next two missions, Loosemore and the rest of his crew took part in the bombing runs supporting Operation Cobra, considered a decisive victory in the Normandy campaign. Unfortunately, two friendly fire incidents marred the Air Force attempts to support ground forces. Loosemore’s crew was uninvolved in either.
Wesley Loosemore, front and center, with his B-17 crew, taken July 16, 1944. Photo courtesy of John Loosemore.
As radio operator, Loosemore was also responsible for dispensing chaff during bombing runs. When lining up for a run, the aircraft couldn’t take evasive maneuvers, which made them an easy target for anti-aircraft guns. Chaff confused radar equipment and made it more difficult for anti-aircraft fire to be accurate.
“Everybody was afraid,” Loosemore said. “It seemed like our clothes would get this stink, from fear.”
With anti-aircraft flak exploding around them, enemy fighters stayed clear. The B-17 gunners had nothing to focus on. All they could do was “sweat it out” until the run was over.
“You’re watching these planes get hit,” Loosemore said. “You see the explosion and the plane goes down, nobody gets out. The ones that do get out, it’s still a worry.”
Loosemore’s crew kept flying missions, bombing targets from shoe and boot factories to the Experimental V-Rocket Station at Peenemünde, Germany. From Aug. 17 to 26 they had ten days off, but it was rainy, and they didn’t find much to do on base.
Their August 27 mission, however, was far from boring. After cloud cover spoiled their opportunity to bomb targets in Germany, the general in charge of the mission chose to attack a target of opportunity in Denmark. Accurate anti-aircraft fire over the airfield they bombed damaged or shot down several planes. It knocked out two of the engines on the plane Loosemore’s crew was in that day, ‘The 8 Ball Mk. III’.
“The Air/Sea Rescue was in constant touch with our base, telling them what was happening to us,” Loosemore said. “He said my signal was so strong it well about blown them off their seat.”
They managed to get ‘The 8 Ball’ back to Molesworth, only about an hour behind the rest of the group. Emergency vehicles were waiting at the air strip in case of a fire or injuries upon their landing. Another group of people cheered them in to a safe landing. The pilot managed to set it down smoothly on a flat tire.
The 303rd Bomb Group's control tower at Molesworth, Huntingdonshire, England (Station 107) on September 28, 1944. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
After a warm reception from the ground crew, they took stock of the damage. They found over 90 flak holes in the fuselage, and discovered that a third engine had an oil leak and likely would have seized within ten minutes. The following day, the count of flak holes was revised to 120.
After a few more missions, the crew got a seven-day furlough, starting Sept. 13. They visited Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland. There, they took in some movies, visited the university, and saw some Scottish dancers, wearing kilts.
“… it looked like two days’ work to get through one number,” Loosemore wrote.
They also went ice skating in nearby Paisley. They tried attaching the removable skates to their GI boots.
“They didn’t stick very well,” Loosemore said with a laugh. “So we were always stumbling around the rink.”
Some of the local women helped them figure things out, and the crew returned to the rink several times.
At the end of their furlough, they took the train back to Molesworth, a 12-hour ride. But when they got back, they took a B-17 for something of a joyride.
Loosemore said it was a shakedown flight to test repairs made to the aircraft. They were gone for more than four hours. They flew north, over the castle in Edinburgh, the Red Cross where they stayed in Glasgow, and the ice rink in Paisley.
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Wesley Loosemore, who still lives in Houghton and turns 100 years old this October. Photo by Joshua Vissers.
Loosemore flew his final, 35th combat mission on Oct. 22, 1943. The target was a tank assembly plant in Brunswick, Germany. Since some of his regular crew had already completed their 35 flights, Loosemore flew with an unfamiliar group.
“It was kind of nerve wracking,” Loosmore said.
They flew in ‘The 8 Ball’ again. The run was uneventful, and some of his regular crewmates were waiting to celebrate with him when he landed.
They’d made it through.
“During the time I flew combat missions, I participated in the Battle of Normandy, the Battle of Northern France, and the Battle of the Rhineland, for which I am entitled to wear the ribbons,” Loosemore wrote. “I also earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters.”
Loosemore shipped home on Nov. 11, but his military service continued. Among his post-combat duties, he helped train other airmen, drove as a military chauffeur, and as the war came to an end he helped prepare airplanes for long-term storage at the Garden City Army Airfield in Kansas.
He was discharged on Oct. 29, 1945, and returned to his studies at Michigan Tech the following January. In June 1946 he married his wife, Helmi, and after graduation worked as a civilian contractor for the military. He still lives, retired, in Houghton today.
Wesley’s manuscript, interview, and photos have been submitted to the Veteran’s History Project at the U.S. Library of Congress.
Admin at MTU subverts student self-governance
On Friday, a special meeting was convened at the request of University Administration to overturn the Undergraduate Student Government’s (USG) decision to deny a funding request of $3,500 to partially cover a $10,000 conservative speaker’s fee.
Michigan Tech Administration overrules student body decision, says not funding conservative speaker is a violation of free speech
On Friday, a special meeting was convened at the request of University Administration to overturn the Undergraduate Student Government’s (USG) decision to deny a funding request of $3,500 to partially cover a $10,000 conservative speaker’s fee.
USG had previously voted down the request at their Wednesday meeting, citing high student opposition to funding the speaker as well as safety concerns for minority students who were the target of bigoted rhetoric espoused by the speaker. University administration offered an ultimatum to USG to either change their decision or be overruled. USG, in blatant defiance of administration, voted down the funding request a second time.
The Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students issued a Memorandum directing USG to transfer the $3,500 immediately to the student organization hosting the speaker. The University Administration justified their actions, stating that USG had violated the speaker's first amendment rights in making their decision to not fund the event.
Leading up to this outcome was a week bustling with student activism, social media pressure, procedural controversy, and appeals to precedent across the University.
The week began relatively quietly, with students circulating a petition Monday afternoon on social media to “Tell USG @ MTU to vote no on funding TPUSA event”.
Information on Turning Point USA (TPUSA) from Influence Watch.
Students assembled in the audience on Wednesday for the Undergraduate Student Government meeting. Photo by Juxta Sprague.
The petition argued “TPUSA and its leaders have a history of spreading hate, disinformation, and dubious rhetoric at college campuses across the country.” and that “This money should be used to help other organizations on campus that do not have the same national funding as TPUSA.”
The petition encouraged students to contact their representatives and to show up to USG’s Wednesday meeting to voice their opposition to providing funding, and ultimately garnered 283 signatures.
Early Tuesday morning, a counter petition was circulated by the president of Michigan Tech’s student chapter for TPUSA, the host for conservative speaker Brandon Tatum set to visit the University in late March. The petition “BE BRAVE with Brandon Tatum Opportunity Fund Request Support” stated that they were hosting a “NON-PARTISAN event for freedom of speech where ALL STUDENTS on campus are welcome”.
The petition listed the anticipated breakdown in funding for the $10,000 event including grants from their parent organization, TPUSA (40%), student funding from USG (35%), and grants from The Leadership Institute (20%). The remaining 5% was to be covered by “funds from local business owners” (2%) and “fundraising via grassroots (can drive etc)” (3%).
The petition also stated that “There is a current push by a small group of people that do not want us to receive the funding in order to fulfill our contractual obligations to Brandon Tatum and his team.” implying that members of the student chapter had signed a legally binding document with the speaker prior to securing funding.
Late Tuesday evening, Brandon Tatum tweeted “The Crazy Leftist Diversity Inclusion Crowd at Michigan Technological Institute is trying to BLOCK a black man from speaking and I need your help!” before sharing the counter petition to his nearly 690,000 followers.
In a video Tatum published Wednesday morning titled “What They WON’T TELL YOU About the Michigan State Shooting”, he replaced his usual sales pitch for his merchandise store with a plea to his 2.2 million subscribers to sign the counter petition.
“We need more than 2,000 signatures to show that we ain’t putting up with that BS! Let’s come together, let’s fight back! I want to go to Michigan and show these leftists that there’s another perspective to this game and we ain’t playing with them.”
Within 36 hours, the counter petition had garnered well over 6,000 signatures. At time of publishing, the counter petition is still live and is nearing 9,000 signatures.
Michigan Tech’s website states that there are currently 7,009 undergraduate and graduate students attending the university.
Late Wednesday evening, Michigan Tech's USG gathered for their weekly meeting. The audience gallery was packed with over two-dozen students, in stark contrast to their typically quiet meetings. Eleven students delivered prepared public comments, one in support, and ten in opposition to the funding request.
Caleb Glenn, president of Michigan Tech’s TPUSA chapter, spoke first, “We are hosting a non-partisan event regarding free speech for all. All students are welcome to attend. […] We think that having Brandon Tatum on campus is going to elevate the level of free speech on campus, and we're going to get a lot of discourse, which is always good.”
The ten other speakers identified themselves largely as members of the queer community, environmentalists, or proxy spokespersons/representatives for other students who could not attend or wished to remain anonymous.
One student who identified himself as a trans man explained his experience on campus.
“I’ve been called homophobic slurs by my fellow students, and I’ve felt threatened at times,” he said.
In reference to one of Brandon Tatum’s videos, he said that “[Brandon Tatum] states that trans girls using locker rooms are creepy, weird, and stupid. […] and also suggested that gay athletes should keep quiet about their sexuality so that they don’t make their teammates uncomfortable.”
Kieran Rowan, co-president of Keweenaw Pride the LGBTQIA+ and Straight Ally student organization of Michigan Tech, began by citing the University’s diversity and inclusion statement to USG before contrasting it with comments made by Brandon Tatum.
“Brandon Tatum has repeatedly made remarks in the past that invalidate the identities of LGBTQIA individuals including that we are ‘abnormal’ and ‘on the wrong side of Christ.’ These types of comments are incredibly hurtful and directly opposed to that idea of a ‘mutual and respectful’ conversation. [...] We want to feel supported by the university and for that we don’t want to feel like our rights are opinions. We want to feel like our rights are human rights.”
Several staff members of the university also weighed in during the discussion.
Laura Putwen, Director of the office of Community Conduct, delivered a summary of a conversation that she had with Michigan Tech general counsel.
“While you all were discussing, I was on the phone with our general counsel. Funding a speaker is funding a speaker. The University as a public institution is not going to say ‘No, you can not come to this institution’ in terms of using our space. Now we might say you can’t be in a certain space, ‘you can go to this space but not this space’ so there are guidelines and limits we can do, but there are laws that we have to follow.”
Danielle Meirow, Assistant Director of Leadership and Involvement as well as an advisor to USG, delivered an official statement to the USG prepared by MTU Marketing and Communications. All attempts to contact staff at the University were redirected to a written copy of the same statement.
One of the most important and exciting things about being on a University campus is the opportunity to experience situations that encourage growth and stretch us out of our comfort zone. Speakers and events that express opinions and ideologies different from our own are an opportunity to learn, to seek understanding, and further develop our own views.
As an institution, Michigan Tech fully supports free speech, which includes protecting the ability of speakers to express what may be considered unpopular views on campus, as well as ensuring others are welcome to criticize and contest those views. However, those criticizing speech cannot interfere with the speaker's ability to share their ideas. Undergraduate Student Government through the SAF [Student Activity Fee] has precedent for funding speakers with a variety of views and has an obligation to follow that precedent. Not passing this opportunity fund request purely based on the expected content from the speaker would be hindering free speech on campus.
I am proud of everyone for being here to participate in a democratic process. I hope you continue doing so as we move through the rest of the semester. Student Leadership and Involvement is available and willing to assist with any conversations regarding additional events on campus.
Dean of Students and advisor to USG, Dr. Wallace Southerland, offered no comment during the vote proceedings.
After more than 50 minutes of discussion, the funding request failed, falling just short of the two-thirds majority requirement.
Despite the successful efforts of many students to lobby their representatives to vote against the funding request, the university quickly found itself mired in controversy. USG was forced to convene a special meeting by administrators Friday afternoon to “align [their] vote with state law, board policy, and university values.”
The meeting was publicly announced less than five hours beforehand and stated “no public comment will take place, though the public may attend if they wish to.”
The general counsel of Michigan Tech, Sarah Schulte, explained that USG could either change their vote to fully fund the $3,500 request or that the administration would overrule and provide the funding without their consent. Schulte stated that USG had made a decision “due to the viewpoint of the speaker” and as such was in “direct contravention to the first amendment.”
Many representatives expressed grave concerns about the secretive and undemocratic nature of the meeting, which disregarded the voices of the student body. Others advocated that it was USG’s duty to uphold precedent and approve the funding request as demanded by administration.
Ben Conlin delivers his remarks at Friday’s meeting. Sitting behind and to the right is Sarah Schulte, university general council. Photo by Juxta Sprague.
College of Computing representative Ben Conlin, a recent addition to the body, offered his comment to explain his vote.
“I’m brand new to USG, this is my [second] meeting so I kinda want to tell a little bit of my story and why I voted the way I did. [...] I’m a member of the Political Affairs committee and my current project is planning the candlelight vigil to honor the lives [lost in] the MSU shooting. I grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the site of the recent Club Q shooting. [...] I held my best friend in my arms as they sobbed fearing the world that hunted people like them. I had a friend commit suicide because they were forced by family, church, and advisors to hide who they were, choosing death over the world they had been born into. [...] It feels like we have been told we cannot vote no, and I fear that I cannot vote yes, because my heart hurts too deeply for the community that is marginalized and threatened.”
Fourth year student representative Griffin Abbott, stated that, “At Wednesday’s meeting we had students, including representatives from the body of LGBTQIA at this university crying and begging us to consider their safety in this matter. [...] If we are to stay entirely content-neutral in all matters, how far does that go? We have seen students pointing out the lack of consideration for the humanity of trans and gay students. What other protected classes are we willing to allow speakers to come and spew their hatred about on this campus?”
Emily Ruf, treasurer of USG, who made the initial funding recommendation of $3,500 delivered a prepared statement explaining why she was changing her vote from yes to no.
“Forcing the USG body to overturn this decision goes against the will of this body and the desires of our constituents who are paying customers of this university. The primary argument for my vote on this matter is procedural consistency. [...] Administrators asking USG to revote on a decision essentially in secret, without public comment, against the will of their constituents is not consistent with our normal procedure. [...] Many student members of this community shared deeply personal stories in front of a nerve-wrackingly large group of people in hopes of swaying this body. They should not have had to undergo that highly stressful situation for it to mean absolutely nothing to that outcome. I am voting no on this motion because I believe the decision at last Wednesday’s meeting was final. I am urging members of this body to vote no on this motion.”
The vote to approve the funding request failed a second time. The Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students issued a Memorandum directing USG to transfer the $3,500 immediately to the TPUSA student organization for them to pay Brandon Tatum.