For several weeks, we’ve been looking at Ned Morrison, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse (UWL). We’ve seen Ned pass out in the classroom, an attempted rape on campus and an actual rape just off campus, a fraternity guy about ready to jump off the Mississippi River bridge, EMTs helping out people, the Lacrosse team at UWL, a possible romance between Ned and Mavis, the Dean of Business, and more.
*****
Ned and Mavis had dinner at the Freighthouse Restaurant in downtown LaCrosse. It was a casual dinner. Ned got a chicken and wild rice special and Mavis had salmon on a cedar plank.
Ned didn’t know much about wine, so he ordered an amber and honey beer from Pearl Brewery, a local microbrewery beer. Mavis ordered a chardonnay wine from Door County.
They sat next to each other during the meal. They mostly had small talk about campus but did talk about Brian Schulz and the campus rapist. As they were finishing, Mavis grabbed and held Ned’s hand. Yes, he was just a little rusty in this dating game. They walked out hand-in-hand, and they kissed at the door since they each had driven separately to the restaurant. Ned flashed his best shy smile as they parted.
*****
The Deans’ Council met on Tuesdays at 8:00 in the college President’s suite. It was a weekly “State of the Campus” meeting - generally for an hour. Mavis also thought that they could have gotten by with an email or Zoom meeting.
But, not this week.
The Academic Vice President Cecelia Hayes had a lot on the agenda. As Mavis grabbed her coffee and apple fritter and took a seat at the conference table, the agenda looked a bit ominous. Rape, cheating ring, upcoming promotions and tenure processes, suicide, mental health, Dean of Student’s report, and more items. She didn’t have anything in her office until 10:00 - but she hoped it wouldn’t take the whole two hours.
The campus rape activity started the meeting. Cecelia had a report from the campus police department and the LaCrosse police department. There had been an attempted rape a week ago and that was broken up by a student who was also an EMT before anything happened. Then over the weekend, a rape just off campus by Howie’s Bar where the attacker did rape a student from the other college in town.
Seemingly it was the same perpetrator, black clothes, a black ski mask, a black Sigma Tau Gamma sweatshirt, and black shoes with no visible logos. The assailant wore black gloves so they really couldn’t tell if he was a white student or a black student or really almost anyone. Cecelia had a photo blown up from the Wisconsin Department of Forensics lab in Madison from a security camera. The forensics lab had analyzed the person as probably 85% male, about 5 feet 10 inches tall. The black jeans had a tear on the right leg at the knee but couldn’t tell the skin tone from the image.
From the rape over the weekend, the assailant did manage to deposit semen in the student’s body and the hospital was able to get some DNA analysis that was being analyzed at the state forensics lab.
“Doc” Miller, the longtime Dean of Science, asked about the sweatshirt. “Could it be a member of that fraternity?”
Cecelia said that in contacting that campus organization, one of the members lost his black sweatshirt at the laundromat at the Student Union. There wasn’t definite proof that that was the sweatshirt that the assailant wore or even that it was from UWL, but the general assumption was that it probably was the sweatshirt that was lost from the Sigma Tau Gamma student.
Cecelia added a vague comment that they would talk more about this later in the meeting.
Since it was mid-semester, there was an increase in cheating reports. The campus academic integrity committee was having hearings into various cheating allegations. In particular, there were more cheating incidents reported from the College of Sciences. Doc Miller opined that many freshmen and sophomore students were trying to get good grades to be admitted to the nursing, pre-med, and other science majors.
Mavis knew that there were two reported incidences of cheating in the Business School that were going through the hearing process.
The item about promotion and tenure drew some discussion. The formal requirements for promotion were excellent teaching and excellence in either service or scholarship. All faculty requesting promotion from assistant professor to associate professor needed at least five years as an assistant professor and at least five refereed publications in academic conferences or journals.
Linda Toperler, from the School of Education, commented that some faculty had publications in journals where the faculty had to pay for publication in for-profit journals. That was considered inappropriate
Mavis thought that the five faculty that were up for promotion and the three faculty that were up for tenure were good in their teaching, service, and scholarship so didn’t pay particular attention to the lengthy discussion.
Cecelia brought up student mental health issues. A report from the Dean of Students indicated that several students had been in to their counseling offices for stress, mental issues, and even suicide counseling. She mentioned that one student had been stopped on Saturday evening while seemingly getting ready to jump off the Mississippi River bridge between LaCrosse and La Crescent Minnesota.
She then mentioned that the student that was on the bridge was now in the mental ward at Gunderson Hospital. She added that the student was a member of Sigma Tau Gamma and had lost his sweatshirt at the campus laundromat that may or may not be used by the rapist.
That woke up Mavis. Ned had told her about Brian Schulz and that he had visited him at the hospital on Sunday evening. Brian had told Ned that his mother had recently died of cancer, that his father was a deadbeat, and that he might have to drop out of school. And, that Brian was the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity brother who had lost his black sweatshirt.
Might Ned or some of the Sigma Tau Gamma brothers know something about the person who took the sweatshirt - or had a rip in his black pants?
Mavis commented about the student in the mental ward at the hospital. She said, “I know a little about this student. Seemingly there are some family issues and financial issues. It might be such that the student needs to drop out for the rest of the semester as he probably is not keeping up with his studies. Could he get a withdrawal from classes and a refund on his tuition?”
Cecelia commented. “Normally a student can’t get a tuition refund after the fourth week of classes, and then only a partial refund, but in extenuating circumstances, we might be able to work something out.”
Mavis nodded.
The meeting went on with various announcements. There was an athletics report that the football team might make the conference playoffs, the Lacrosse team would make the playoffs, and the volleyball team would also make the playoffs. The fine arts department had a report on upcoming concerts, the fall play, and student work in the art gallery. Linda Toperler commented that applications for student teaching were due in one week. Doc Miller commented on the success of some of the science majors.
The meeting adjourned at about 9:10 a.m. There would be time for Mavis to relax a little before the rest of her busy day. She was sure this was an office hour for Ned and she wanted to talk to him about Brian Schutz.
*****
As she left the President’s conference room, she stopped to text Ned. “Hey, I’m out of my meeting early. How about a cup of coffee in the Union?”
Immediately she got a text back from Ned. “Black coffee, no cream, no sugar. See you in five minutes”.
*****
Being closer, Mavis did order the two coffees - black for Ned, and with a little cream for herself. She found a booth towards the back of the union that at 9:20 a.m. wasn’t all that crowded.
Ned approached and Mavis said, “Hey handsome”.
Ned blushed, but recovered quickly enough to say “You’re looking good, Mavis. What’s up”.
Mavis went through the two items from the Deans’ council that he might be interested in.
She said, “The campus rape case got a lot of attention. The rapist wearing a Sigma Tau Gamma black sweatshirt got some interest. That overlapped a little with Brian Schulz's mental health issue. Seemingly, Brian lost his sweatshirt at the laundromat in the union, and then the rapist picked it up. And, by wearing it, he deflects interest in the fraternity.
“I raised the question that a student who tries to commit suicide could get tuition reimbursement. That didn’t get answered, but I sense there was some support.”
Ned replied. “You know I visited Brian Schulz in the mental ward at Gunderson Hospital on Sunday night. Seemingly his father divorced his mother, she had cancer and died, and the dad didn’t financially support her or him. He is despondent about losing his mother, maybe being kicked out of school for financial reasons, and about how his dad is a deadbeat. Poor kid, I don’t blame him for wanting to end his life.”
“I’m planning on revisiting him tomorrow night (at their visitation again), and I’ll ask about the sweatshirt. If he confirms that he left it in the laundromat at the union, we might be able to review footage of who took it. I’m guessing the laundry room has cameras, almost every place does these days”
They enjoyed their coffee and their time together before walking back to Centennial Hall. They kissed outside Mavis’ office before Ned went to his own office.
*****
The rapist was enjoying reading “The Racquet Press”, the campus newspaper for the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse. The story of the attempted rape and actual rape were on page five of the eight-page newspaper. There weren’t many facts, other than two women were attacked, one on campus and one in the neighborhood. The article asked if anybody had more information they should contact the campus police at (608) 789-9001.
He thought he could call in and throw some misleading information. He could punch *67 in first and then make the call and supposedly he would be anonymous. But, somehow he figured the campus police still could get his phone number and identify him. Maybe he could get one of those burner phones and make a call. He could use one of those apps that distorted his voice. He could try to sound like a woman who had been attacked previously. All kinds of things went through his mind. He felt a thrill going through his body. He needed another attack soon.
*****
Max Winthrop also had read the article about the campus rapes in “The Racquet Press”. In the back of his brain, he just had a feeling about the guy he watched at Howie’s Bar last weekend. The guy was all in black and had a tear in his black jeans. He sat at the back of the bar and seemed to stare at all the women that came in. He even seemed to follow one of the women as she made her way to the restroom. Was he stalking potential victims?
Was that a good enough reason to call the campus police?
Max was also worried about his Lacrosse teammate Brian Schulz. Brian wasn’t much of a friend, but he was a teammate that was in trouble. It had shocked Max and the team to hear that Brian was contemplating suicide. He heard that it was possible to visit Brian in the mental health section at Gunderson Hospital. Maybe he could go and say ‘hi’ to Brian.
*****
Ned sent a text to Frank Hayes, the President of Sigma Tau Gamma this year. He wanted to assure Frank and the brothers that the campus wasn’t buying that a Sigma Tau Gamma brother was involved in the rapes on campus.
Ned wondered if one of the guys might know when Brian did his laundry and left his black sweatshirt at the campus laundromat. Maybe if somebody could isolate the time, the campus police could watch videos of the laundry room.
Ned was also planning on going to visit Brian tomorrow night. He could ask Brian about the laundry as well.
He continued to pray for Brian. He couldn’t do much more. He could worry about the young man or he could ask God to help him. Ned, although imperfect in his own life, did think about his students a lot. Lots of things could go right for the traditional college student as they fought the maze of academia and starting their own lives, and lots of things could go wrong.
*****
Lori Rohn and Amanda Zilinsk were in Murphy Library. Dr. Ned Morrison assigned a two-person paper on the economic impact of <something>. Lori and Amanda had become good friends after Lori broke up the attempted rape of the campus rapist and Amanda at Prairie Springs Science Center.
Lori, with her background as an emergency medical tech (EMT), was trying to talk Amanda into the topic of the ‘economic impact of mental health on communities’. She was thinking of the last two weeks with the campus rapist still at large and how that was affecting the campus and community and of the suicide attempt of the college student on the Mississippi River bridge last Sunday. Her thoughts were to show that communities without good mental wellness programs had more hospitalization and mental health expenses in the long run than communities with good mental health programs.
She thought that they could find statistics that would show that if mental health facilities would have worked for the recent Uvalde Texas school shooting, and for Sandy Hook Connecticut there would not have been the shootings and the negative impact on so many lives.
Amanda was agreeable. Getting to a topic was just the first paper of writing the paper. They would have to have sources and statistics that might be hard to find. Of course, Google searches were going to help out.
*****
End of today’s episode.
Will they find the rapist soon? Will Brian get help? Will Ned and Mavis’s relationship grow?
