Whatever you do, don't throw a kiss to your mother...

VALOIS, New York, USSA - While everyone in the U.S. has been so concerned about swine flu, up in a metropolis called Standish, Maine, a different kind of illness has taken over school authorities: adultus ridiculosos.

There is some evidence that this maturity induced dementia is related to a more serious malady, seen largely in authoritarian societies.

But that discussion can wait for another day.

Here is the story, filed by the Associated Press:

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Maine student who blew kiss to mom denied diploma

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

(06-16) 21:26 PDT Portland, Maine (AP) --

A Maine high school senior says he was denied his diploma because he bowed during graduation and blew a kiss to his mother.

Justin Denney was about to receive his Bonny Eagle High School diploma Friday when he pointed at friends and relatives.

Schools Superintendent Suzanne Lukas ordered him back to his seat. She tells the Portland Press Herald newspaper she was enforcing behavior rules.

Justin's mother, Mary Denney, says her son's showboating didn't break any rules. She tells WMTW-TV "a kiss to your mom is not misbehavior." She wants an apology — and a diploma for her son.

The commencement at the Cumberland County Civic Center also was disrupted when a giant inflatable rubber duck and beach balls were thrown. One student was ejected.

Some parents want a review of commencement policies.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/06/16/national/a212114D06.DTL

Justin Denney

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Without putting too fine a point on it, What the hell?

I suppose that it is important for school authorities to control these about-to-be adults. After all, that's what all those years of loud bells, arbitrary time periods for study (called classes), whistles (and rules) were all about, right? Had this graduating class been at a Catholic high school, one click from a clacker wielded by a 4-foot-tall nun would have dropped that kiss in its tracks.

I've attended more graduations than I like to even think about. And yes, there is a modicum of rowdy behavior, a few beach balls, and a lot of shouting. A lot of shouting. But it's joyous activity, activity that comes after years of study and effort and following those damned loud bells and arbitrary time periods for study, whistles and rules.

In Standish, Maine, school authorities might take a lesson from their students on this one and lighten up.

Whether they do or not, these same school officials are definitely getting a lesson on what it feels like to look ridiculous in a national spotlight. The joke writers for Letterman and O'Brien and a huge cadre of comedians are busy at work, making Standish, Maine the new punchboard for humor.

Plus, what a great advertisement for home-school advocates. A few kisses tossed in the direction of moms there is normal behavior.

For another take on what happened in Standish, here is a longer story, with a second link to a video. The video of the actual incident, is revealing.

Diploma denied for a kiss

Video of grad incident

One of the good guys passes away - Bill Kearney

HEWLETT, New York, USA - My brother-in-law Bill Kearney died Monday, after a valiant battle with cancer. I'm not sure I would have the courage to handle all the treatments, procedures, chemicals and various indignities that went along with that fight.

When I saw Bill last summer, he was still in good spirits, despite pain, and was fun to be with in a short visit. At a restaurant, while perusing the healthy side of the menu, he finally opted for a seafood dish that would make a cardiologist weak in the knees.

"I'm a cancer patient," he said. "I think I get to eat what I want."


Bill Kearney, summer 2008

There are brother-in-laws and there are brother-in-laws, but Bill was the best. When I was in college at Villanova in the mid-60s, he put up with my unannounced, drop-in visits to visit with he and my sister Anne (and escape my dorm room). It was during one of those visits that he offered up a nugget about education that set me on a course I stayed with, the course that made my life what it is.

I was on the verge of dropping out of Villanova University and while he understood why I wanted to leave, he told me - as only a older brother-in-law can do - that whatever I did, I had to get a four-year college degree. Where it was from, what major I took were irrelevant.

"Get the degree. It's what you need to open the door for a job."

And five or six years later, when I was in California, married with one child and struggling to get my four-year college degree, out of the blue he and Anne sent me a check for $100 for books. At the time, $100 was more than I could make in two weeks of working part time at the Napa Register newspaper. It kept our fragile home economy going - and gave an incredible boost to my resolve to finish up at Sonoma State University.


With Anne and Bill last summer

The memories of all the years - all the visits - are like a flood today.

Just last week, I was telling my amigo Chon (in Arroyo Seco Mexico), about Bill. Chon was marveling at how tightly I was able to pack my bodega (garage) with surfboards, stoves, tools, and everything else. I relayed to Chon (as best I could in Spanish) that my brother-in-law Bill had taught me how to pack 40 years ago, when I arrived in his driveway in a old VW van, a wife, baby and black cat, all stuffed in. We were headed for California and barely had room to sit in the van.

By the time Bill got done, we could sleep inside comfortably.

So many memories. But only one regret comes to mind this morning, thought doubtless others are likely to surface.

I have always loved to go to the ocean, and as a young teen, whenever I visited in the summer, it frequently fell to Bill to be my chauffeur and companion to head to Rockaway Beach or one of the other spots near Hewlett. On one visit, Bill had made some arrangements to go out fishing on a tour boat, but he said I had my choice: we could go fishing or swimming at the beach.

Like any indulged young teenage child, I chose the beach and to this day, I can remember that I knew Bill really wanted to go fishing and that the crowds and sand and salt were a distant second choice, for him.

But he did not let on at all that he was disappointed. Instead, we had a rollicking day in the surf. I remember the sunburn from that day, too.

Bill died with much of his family around him and I think will be remembered fondly by all who ever knew him.

And there's no doubt he zipped straight to heaven, where with any luck there is great fishing, golf, and he can watch major league baseball and NY Giants football, while eating all the seafood he wants, without concern.

RIP Bill Kearney, you are missed already.

Chico State colleague Richard Ek dies

CHICO, Calif., USA - I received word today that a colleague of mine from my teaching days at Chico State, Richard Ek, died of a gunshot wound yesterday. The story was published in the Chico Enterprise-Record and is a little sketchy (read: incomplete). Perhaps more details will be forthcoming.

Story from Chico Enterprise Record

Richard Ek

I taught with Dick Ek for four years at Chico State in the 1980s, where he was a senior professor and I was as junior a professor as a junior could be. We both came from strong journalism practitioner backgrounds and so had a lot in common.

We were never really close, Dick was too much of a curmudgeon for me. And I was too busy advising the campus newspaper, The Orion, and trying to figure out university politics enough to get a tenured professor's slot.

But Dick was a big help at those times when The Orion, would put its foot into it - which it did with amazing frequency. He once came into my office after the newspaper had skewered then-university president Robin Wilson for, oh, probably the fourth or fifth week in a row. He offered that if the newspaper kept giving Wilson hell, that I would not be much of a candidate for tenure - or even getting a position leading to tenure.

I still remember the look on his face when I told him that after my 10 years in the newspaper business - where tenure is basically two-weeks-severance pay and a kick in the ass - the rumblings of university presidents really didn't scare me.

Dick played a lot of tennis and stayed in good physical shape most of his life. I heard from a friend that his health was slipping and that might have been a contributing factor to what happened.

Whatever the case, thousands of journalism students across the U.S. owe Richard Ek a debt of gratitude for holding their feet to the fire in various journalism classes.

And I'll lift a glass to him tonight, wishing him Godspeed to some tennis match in heaven. With luck, he's already there, beating the snot out of former Chico State unversity president Robin Wilson with drives to the baseline.

California's public universities go to the deep pocket

SACRAMENTO, Calif. USA - That California's two major university systems have voted in recent weeks to raise student tuition for next year at all of their campuses should not be a surprise to the public or students or university faculty. Especially university faculty.

While both systems have been dealing with declining revenues from the state year after year, neither has made any secret that they would be looking to the students to keep the funds flowing, and budgets nicely topped off.

In the CSU, its trustees have adopted long term plans to raise fees - and also raise administrative salaries so as to be competitive. Those plans started back in the mid 1990s with former Chancellor Barry Munitz, who in 1997 went on to fame with the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.


Barry Munitz

It might be more accurate to refer to Munitz's time with the Getty as infamous, as the link below explains.

What happened, Barry?

I won't bother to revisit all the baloney thrown out by both university systems about the need to hike administrative salaries so they systems can be competitive. I'm not sure even the CSU Trustees or the UC Regents really believe that hogwash.

But students ! Ah, the students are ideal onto which to push the burden. They are not organized politically. They have relatively short time at each institution. And for the most part they are busy doing what they went to college for - racking up units to get a degree.

And those few students who do decide to ask questions and get vocal either find themselves in hot water (politically) on their campuses - or get co-opted by their respective administrations. Watch most student government meetings and you get the eerie sense that the students have been coached - and not by a faculty member.

But non-university critics of the two systems, who routinely argue that the universities are profligate in their spending, miss one major point.

The systems do spend waaaaaay too much on administration. (And also love to create new administrative positions to fill with overpaid staff.) But as a percentage of their total budgets, it's not as startling as it might seem on the surface. Much more important is that the two systems are slowly killing their academic programs through starvation.

And the regents and trustees don't really care.

It much more fun to encourage the universities to divert funds to things like marketing and public relations (and maybe sports). Finding funds for more classes for students is infinitely less amusing.

The major objective of CSU Trustees - and UC Regents - would seem to be to ensure well-paid administrations and to be obnoxiously supportive of their campus presidents, chancellors and top staff.

"Students? Who are students?" they might ask, if ever pressed.

When CSU Sacramento faculty held a vote of no-confidence in the leadership abilities of CSU, Sacramento President Alexander Gonzalez several years ago (which was a landslide against him) the CSU Trustees went out of their way to ignore all the fiscal issues raised.


Alexander Gonzalez

But the trustees have continued to keep raising students fees at about 10 percent per year- and will continue to do so.

How else will they have the money to keep their 23-campus administrations happy?

Oops! I meant to say competitive.