Back from vacation and ready for my next one. Sorry for the lag between posts, end of the school year got quite hectic, but I’m back! Rest assured you can stay tuned for volunteer opportunities, political news and events on campus, and humor that only I think is funny.
In the meantime, enjoy this cartoon that fuses two things I love: sci-fi and politics!
Let me guess, the reason you couldn’t turn in your research paper has something to do with swine flu, right?
Get ready folks, because the newest “fear du jour” has arrived. Replacing Mad-Cow, Anthrax, the Hanta Virus, the Plague, Alien Invasion, and Accidental Snuggies Suffocation (more commonly known as A.S.S.) is … SWINE FLU!!!
A few tips to survive what will surely be a media panic of epic proportions:
1) Buy a mask. I don’t care what kind. The more extreme the better. Here are some examples:
Or how about this one …
2) Panic. I know you’ve been told to stay calm in an emergency, but has that ever worked in the past? So let’s go crazy. Sell your stocks. Move to Canada.
3) Read Patient Zero. Trust me, Swine Flu is better than a Zombie pandemic.
Hello world indeed! Well, off we go into the wonderful world of blogging, and for my first blog, a few observations. It is truly strange to walk around this campus with no students. At the beginning of the week between spring and summer term, I wandered around marveling at the peace and quiet that existed on Chemeketa’s campus without the masses of students who call this college home doing their daily activities. No hacky-sack by Building 1, no smokers by building 3, no gamers by the theater, no screaming in the student center, no roll around back packs dragging across the sidewalks. It seemed like heaven (or at least some strange version of heaven where there is no cafeteria and lots of empty classrooms). Then something strange happened…
On Wednesday I saw one of my former students who came in to my office to discuss her grade from Spring term. At first I thought, “How could she have the audacity to break the wonderful Zen-like silence that existed in my office (or corner with a desk, not really an office)?” Then we started talking and a weird thing happened, I realized that after only three days, I missed the students. This short talk reminded me that our greatest resource here at Chemeketa is our students. Whether they be old, young, male, female, black, white, or purple, our students are what make this campus great.
I have taught at other institutions and attended even more as a student, but something about Chemeketa is different, and I struggle at times to figure out what it is. I do know this: there are not many other colleges or universities where students come to an instructor’s office during the vacation week between graduation and the beginning of summer term. While this student could have been at the movies, rafting down a river, or sitting on her couch staring at Drew Carey’s version of “The Price is Right” (by the way, he is far from Bob Barker, who is also coincidentally my childhood idol), instead here she was in my office, discussing her performance last term and preparing for her summer course work.
So on this last day before summer term I eagerly anticipate the return of the hacky-sackers, the smokers, the gamers, the roll around backpacks, and all of the other students who make this campus what it is: the best school I have ever had the privilege of being a part of.
Future blogs will get more political (trust me), but for now, enjoy your summer, and enjoy your weekend!
2 days until Summer term
137 days until Election Day
-Peter Starr
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