Members of the University Alumni Association receive Minnesota six times a year.
The inside story/M, winter 2008
From M, winter 2008
The November-December 2007 issue of Minnesota magazine features an interview with Donna Gabaccia, a professor of history at the University of Minnesota and director of the U's Immigration History Research Center, about immigration in the United States and around the world. Below is an excerpt from the interview:
Is it accurate to call the United States "a nation of
immigrants"?
"First of all, it is not true that the United States has always
called itself a nation of immigrants. The phrase was not used until
the 1880s and it came into popular usage only 60 years ago, when
the numbers and proportions of immigrants had reached their lowest
point in U.S. history. "The problem with the phrase is that many
Americans don't think of themselves as descendents of immigrants.
[Many] African Americans don't because their ancestors did not
choose to come here. Native Americans clearly do not think of
themselves as immigrants. Many Hispanics of the Southwest don't
think of themselves as immigrants, because the United States
conquered that territory. They didn't cross the border; the border
crossed them. Many of the Americans descended from the English who
arrived in the 1600s and 1700s don't think of their forefathers as
immigrants either. "So, calling the United States a nation of
immigrants is a very recent development. We have to be aware of who
is included and who is excluded if we use this phrase. Look at
groups who don't identify with the term and you'll see that most of
them are peoples of color who were excluded from the nation and
from citizenship and its rights because they were slaves or
conquered peoples. Whether or not the phrase "nation of immigrants"
is flexible enough to accept the growing racial diversity among
today's immigrants will be the question of the 21st century."
The same issue of Minnesota also contains a fascinating
story on the history of smoking on campus. Here is an excerpt of
that story: "Future New York Times editor and Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist Harrison Salisbury was editor of The
Minnesota Daily in January 1930 when University President
Lotus Coffman, responding to complaints about smoking in the
University Library, issued a ruling that banned the activity.
Editorial comments in the Daily suggested that Coffman had
little authority to make his declaration, speculating: 'What can
the University do about it?' "Salisbury, who years later would
describe himself as 'a person who [tended] to be against the
conventional way,' decided to challenge the administration in as
direct a way as possible. Just a few days later, he lit up a
cigarette in the library. Two campus employees, designated by
Coffman to keep an eye out for smokers, fingered Salisbury, and a
couple of days later, Harold Nicholson, the dean of students,
acted. The editor of the Daily was suspended for a full
school year. The dean, defending his drastic punishment, said it
was due to the 'deliberateness and publicity of the defiance.'
"Praise for Nicholson's actions came from alumni, editorial
writers, and public officials from around the state. The Waseca
Herald, the Minneapolis Journal, and the Willmar
Daily Tribune all gave the dean their blessings, as did--in
letters to Nicholson--a pastor from Austin, Minnesota; the St.
Anthony Falls Study Club; and the Women's Christian Temperance
Union, among others. The fact that the expulsion was reported in
both the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune
suggests that the problem of insolent smokers on campus was not
unique to Minnesota." To read both articles in their entirety, go
the Minnesota Web
site. Members of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association
receive Minnesota six times a year. To receive a sample
copy or to join the UMAA, call 612-624-2323 or 800-862-5867 or
visit www.alumni.
umn.edu