Monthly Archives: April 2009

Dear woman who rudely cut me off in the student center parking lot because “I have to go to work:”

Posted on April 8, 2009 by | 11 Comments

I hope you got my note.

I was the guy pulling into a spot in the EMU Student Center parking lot this afternoon, fair and square, when you cut me off by going the wrong way and took it. My jaw appropriately dropped onto the steering wheel, I pulled up next to you, rolled down the window, and asked “are you serious?!” To which you got out of your car and announced “I have to go to work.”

Hey, we all have our bad days. Lord knows I have mine, and maybe you were having one of yours. I followed you in to see where you were working, but I’ll leave out what door I saw you go into. But I believe you were going to work. I understand. I too was going to work and I too was on a tight schedule, which is why I was parking in the guest lot. I was at the Student Center to meet some of my students and to go to the annual first year writing program’s “celebration of student writing.” But I don’t know, maybe it was more important for you to take the spot I was pulling into for some reason.

I thought what you did was super rude, but I don’t really care that much that you were rude to me. Like I said, I work here too, so being rude to me is not really that big of a deal– well, other than the fact that it’s not a good thing for co-workers to be rude to each other.

No, what I really care about is who you could have been rude to. See, this was in the guest parking lot at the EMU Student Center. I’m pretty sure that most (at least many) of the people who park in the Student Center guest parking lot are guests at EMU, and being rude to guests is never cool.

I mean, what if you had pulled this stunt with someone visiting EMU who was thinking about coming here in the Fall? What if it was a parent? What if it was an alum coming back to visit the new Student Center? What if it was one of the hundreds of people who had come to the ballroom for today’s “celebration of student writing?” Heck, what if it was someone who was interested in donating money to EMU? That wouldn’t be, good would it?

Anyway. No harm this time, but could you do me a favor and think a little more about this sort of thing next time? We’ve got enough image problems at EMU without trying to cut off potential guests to the school just in the name of a parking spot. Thanks for thinking and thanks for reading,

–Steve (aka, sitedad)

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Posted in Administrator Life, Buildings and Grounds, EMU Branding, EMU Events, EMU Fund Raising, EMU Images, Parking, Staff Life, Student Life

Congratulations to Honolulu Blue, the EMUTalk.org NCAA pool winner!

Posted on April 7, 2009 by | Leave a comment

There’s your prize, Honolulu “Rob” Blue, your name up in lights on EMUTalk.org!

HB managed to pick three out of the four in the final four, and he picked the outcome of the MSU-UNC game, too. Fine work, and we’ll see you next year!

Here’s a link to the group, though I’m not sure if folks who aren’t signed onto it can actually see it….

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Posted in College Fun, Sports

After-party stick-ups near and on campus

Posted on April 5, 2009 by | 15 Comments

There were a couple of hold-ups last night after a party, one on Leforge and one near the Putnam meters, which I guess is on the extreme northwest part of campus (?). All the info after the “read more” part.
Continue reading →

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Posted in Security and Safety, Student Life

“University to student: Endorse being ‘gay’ or leave”

Posted on April 5, 2009 by | 50 Comments

An alert EMUTalk reader sent me this notice from something called the WorldNetDaily: University to student: Endorse being ‘gay’ or leave: Lawsuit says educators stepped ‘over the legal line.’

A lawsuit has been filed against Eastern Michigan University, accusing the school of tossing a student out of a graduate counseling program because she refused to endorse homosexuality as morally good.

Julea Ward filed suit after she was dismissed from the school’s counseling training for not affirming homosexuality and then refusing to recant her beliefs in “disciplinary proceedings,” according to the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom.

WND called president Susan W. Martin’s office for comment and was referred to a media relations office, where officials did not respond.

First off, the WorldNetDaily seems to be kind of a crazy right-wing organization. Some of the related stories to this one were “‘Hetero’ gal benched ‘for not being lesbian’;” “Universities trash 1st Amendment;” “Prof put on leave for using student in political agenda;” and “Student’s ‘Star Chamber’ inquisition prompts lawsuit.” So, put in that context, this might not actually be particularly true.

Second, my guess is that what is really going on here is that the student is being taught what is pretty much the standard line in counseling and psychology nowadays, which is that homosexuality is not deviant. This is probably at odds with the students’ beliefs, and thus the conflict. But that’s just a guess.

By the way, congrats to my Iowa homeland for striking down a law against gay marriage. Let’s see what happens there next.

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Posted in In the media..., Student Life

April madness at EMUTalk.org

Posted on April 4, 2009 by | Leave a comment

April madness just doesn’t sound quite the same, does it?

Anyway, the EMUTalk.org tourney pool is still probably too close call, though it kind of looks like it’s going to come down to this evening’s game between Michigan State and UConn: if Michigan State wins, then I think Honolulu Blue wins; if not, I think it will go to James Bond 2nd Bracket.

By the way, the sitedad’s parents have tickets to the games and are visiting this weekend. And, I am pleased to say, I get the pair for the finals on Monday night. Alas, that’s not part of the prize; instead, I’ll be taking my son. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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Posted in College Fun, EMUtalk.org News

“Jury says professor wrongly fired”

Posted on April 3, 2009 by | Leave a comment

In today’s New York Times: “Jury Says Professor Was Wrongly Fired.” The professor in question was Ward Churchill; here are the opening paragraphs:

A jury found on Thursday that the University of Colorado had wrongfully dismissed a professor who drew national attention for an essay in which he called some victims of the Sept. 11 attacks “little Eichmanns.”

But the jury, which deliberated for a day and a half, awarded only $1 in damages to the former professor, Ward L. Churchill, a tenured faculty member at the university’s campus in Boulder since 1991 who was chairman of the ethnic studies department.

The jurors found that Mr. Churchill’s political views had been a “substantial or motivating” factor in his dismissal, and that the university had not shown that he would have been dismissed anyway.

“This is a great victory for the First Amendment, and for academic freedom,” said his lawyer, David A. Lane.

The Churchill case has been one of those things that has many many nuances, chapters, twists, turns, etc., and it is also one of those things that gets boiled downed and simplified in the popular press. So I am glad that the first amendment issues prevailed, though there are some other things out there with Churchill that makes me kind of lukewarm about the particulars here.

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Posted in Academics, Faculty Life, In the media...

Does mail.emich.edu work?

Posted on April 2, 2009 by | 1 Comment

Not right now….

Update:
Oh wait– now it does.

It’s kind of interesting because I can’t think of the last time the new email system hung up/didn’t work like that. Zimbra has turned out to be pretty robust, I would say.

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Posted in EMU Technology

Kudos to the Eastern Echo on April Fools Day

Posted on April 1, 2009 by | 2 Comments

Lots of good stuff in the April 1 issue of the Eastern Echo today. A few of my favorites:
Propping up the Tower “Ypsi water tower going soft.” To quote:

At an emergency meeting on Monday, the Ypsilanti City Council revealed the beloved Ypsilanti Water Tower was losing structural integrity and was in danger of sagging and possibly collapsing.

Engineers from the University of Michigan recently discovered the tower had begun to sag under its own weight and built up water pressure. Though currently unnoticeable, they predict within 5 years the tower will have a decided curve to it and within 10 years it will continue on its diminishing trajectory.

Well, that one is a visual joke.

Then there’s “EMU senior: We have a library?” Some quotes:

According to a recent study, which received a B- in an undergrad psychology course, 15 percent of Eastern Michigan undergraduate students are “totally unaware we have a library.”

The study, conducted an hour before the assignment was due last Thursday, asked seven Buell Hall residents for their opinion about EMU’s facilities and faculty.

and…

“Dude, I totally did not know we had a library,” [EMU Senior Brian] Morris said in a follow-up interview. Morris, also a psychology major, has been described as being “a total douche” and an “all right guy” by fellow residents.

“Brian is the biggest pothead,” said friend and roommate Eubanks Anderson. “Last semester he only left the dorm once. He has all online classes, and spends most of his time playing WoW.”

The survey also revealed that 86 percent of the student body thinks the university does not have enough Sbarro’s, 71 percent of students without cars feel that the campus has sufficient parking space and roughly half of all EMU students actually attend another university.

Funny because it’s kinda true….

I also like the article “‘Unemployment Management’ program at EMU,” because it is another one of those kinda funny because it’s kind of true.

Anyway, funny stuff. But a tip from me to the EMU Echo folks: go all April Fools or not at all. Mixing in the “real articles” gets confusing.

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Posted in College Fun, In the media...

“State lawmakers from Washtenaw County push free college tuition funded by income tax increase”

Posted on April 1, 2009 by | 1 Comment

In the not an April Fool’s day joke department….

From the AANews yesterday (and I also heard it on the radio this morning) comes this, “State lawmakers from Washtenaw County push free college tuition funded by income tax increase.” From the article:

State Reps. Alma Wheeler Smith, D-Salem Township, and Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, are proposing a state tax credit that would repay families for tuition costs at any of Michigan’s public universities. They also want to make preschool programs for 4-year-olds universal throughout the state.

The programs would be funded by increasing the state income tax to 5.5 percent, up from the current 4.35 percent.

Smith and Warren were scheduled to announce this morning in Lansing more details of the MI FUTURE proposal that they will file as a package of bills in the coming days.

I am of course all for this, but I also know this does not have a snowball’s chance in heck of becoming law. Keep pushing though….

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Posted in Faculty Life, In the media..., Student Life