Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The end of another semester
While my last final was last night, the end of the 2007 spring semester officially ended today. It completes another page in the history of UW-Green Bay--it's been a strange year.
I've already given my comments on the year in review of the UWGB Student Government Association, so I won't need to do that here. However, a lot of things happened this year that makes you proud to be a Phoenix, and others that makes you cringe.
UWGB women advances to NCAA second round, give Huskies a run for their money
It shouldn't have be a surprise that the UWGB Lady Phoenix were perfect in Horizon League play, was undefeated against Big Ten teams, and routinely beat opponents by 20 or more. The surprise was how much ease they did it. Head coach Kevin Borseth could go deep into his bench regularly to keep the starting five fresh. However, after leading at halftime against No. 1 seeded UConn, the Phoenix ran out of gas in the second round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. Even with the loss, it caps an amazing season for UWGB and kept us on the national women's basketball map.
With the loss of only two starting seniors, UWGB could be poised to do it all again. However, it may be difficult due to the loss of Borseth. He left UWGB to take a dream job at Michigan, where he will rebuild a program that has been abysmal in recent years. The Phoenix will have their own issues to deal with. The first being new head coach Matt Bolland who has never coached at the NCAA level. While I displayed my displeasure over his hire, it is clear that he will have big shoes to fill--just like Borseth did when he replaced Carole Hammerle.
Mid-term elections heat up campus debate
I'll admit it, I am not a fan of students voting. They typically vote for liberals and liberal causes. I believe they are ignorant at best and insane at worse. If you look at the demographics of UWGB, you will find that we are a predominately a regional campus. Our region is very socially conservative. However, these students took the bait given to them by Fair Wisconsin hook, line and sinker.
Fair Wisconsin, as well as the Democratic Party, portrays Republicans and conservatives as uncompassionate, cruel people that only care about our money, our guns and our religion of hate--a.k.a. Christianity. It is shocking that if you sit down and talk with Joe Student at UWGB, you would find out that s/he would typically align themselves with the Republican Party.
However, if you try to sell tax cuts, eliminiating social programs and lessining the burden that is governemnt, it directly conflicts with the B.S. you get in your typical feel-good general education humanities class. So who are you going to believe? The professor or the college kid that is rallying outside of a congressional debate.
And speaking of debates, the debate between John Gard and Dr. Millioniare Steve Kagen was priceless. Even with the biased questions, the audience full of the Fair Wisconsin and left-wing nut type, John clearly stood his grown and didn't stumble over the questions like Dr. Millionaire did. And even after that debate, John clearly knew what he was talking about when he was getting question after question by the hate-America first crowd after that debate.
As an activist, debates are fun. You get to sit in the back with your Palm Treo in hand and take notes of all the idiotic things that are said, and then you go to a bar after a suck a beer down with good company, cracking jokes at some of the stupidity.
It is some of the best experiences of the campaign.
University Union gets worked on, makes navigating campus a whole lot more difficult
It only took five years of planning, but work on the University Union begun this past semester. Today, walking through it, there is only one section of it operable, the rest is all closed off. Now, there is no reason to ever step foot in the Union--at least until the fall when something should be open.
For $6 million, students are getting hosed on this project. Instead of tearing the old one down and rebuilding for the same price, we are getting a rather small addition to a building that needs to be burned down. Anyone who has stepped foot in it knows. It is impossible to walk around it and not get lost. Now, architects are going to make it worse.
The best thing about our campus is that all of the academic buildings are connected. This means on a rainy day, you don't have to walk outside and get wet going to class. Since the beginning of this project, they have thrown this concept out of the window as the Union no longer connects to any of the buildings. So when I park in the studio arts parking lot, I enter in Studio Arts, cut through the Union and get to Mary Ann Cofrin Hall for my classes. I can't do that anymore and I'm pissed.
That leads to another similar discussion about the Union--naming rights. UWGB must not have any clout with the state Legislature because we have to sell naming rights to our rooms. The Nicolet Room is now the Cloud Commons named after big-time donor Leona Cloud. She already has the Cloud Lounge in Mary Ann Cofrin Hall. I still want the Jon Hayden Memorial Men's Lavatory. When I have a lot of money some day, maybe I will make that contribution. Maybe my wife and I would purchase the naming rights for the women's one next to it.
Chancellor, Vice Chancellor look for jobs elsewhere
Both UWGB Chancellor Bruce Shepard and Vice Chancellor and Provost Sue Hammersmith were looking for new gigs this year. Both decided to stay at UWGB, much to the dismay of level-headed students everywhere.
Shepard was a finalist for presidency at Western Michigan University. He backed out on April 9 to remain at UWGB. Hammersmith tried to become Eastern Illinois next president, but was passed over in favor of Texas A&M's William Perry. She also applied to become the chancellor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and president at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. She didn't get either job, so we are stuck with her.
Having Shepard leave could be disasterous for our campus in the community. He is a well-liked guy who knew how to work people for money. Having Hammersmith leave would be a godsend as, just maybe, we can see some general education reform and actually have a decent academic program for once...and actually have some critical thinking.
Thank yous...for putting up with this madman
It's been one of those strange years, and I couldn't have survived it without some people. The guys from Liebl 109--Tyler, Zach, Brendan, and Chad. Without our debates and discussion, I wouldn't have stayed sharp and on target with my arguements. I'd like to thank the Gard Team for allowing me to be part of a special family and have the greatest two months of my campaign life. And finally, the last person I would like to thank is Melissa. This is a girl who had to deal with me with class projects for much of the last academic year. I don't know how she did it, but we both got a lesson in working with people from across the aisle.
It's been a fun school year. I can't wait for my final semester this fall. Stay tuned, its going to be a wild ride.
