SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER

"But Moose!" I hear you exclaim, "It's only April."

Well, genius, my school is out for summer. I finished my last final exam this afternoon. You better believe I am blasting celebratory hard rock like nobody's business.

On a different note, though, something pretty shocking happened on our campus last night, around 1am. The following is from a letter from President Eisenhardt on the incident (my commentary is in brackets and/or bolded):

Early this morning, just before 1 a.m., an incident of vandalism occurred on the Cal Maritime campus. An explosive, which we believe to have been a fireworks device, was used to damage the Golden Bear statue KEEMA on the campus quadrangle. [Everything I've heard indicates that it was, in fact, a small stick of dynamite.]

The statue, a 1967 gift to the campus from the Academy Alumni Association, has been removed and we will be reviewing whether and when the damage can be repaired and if this important symbol can be restored to its place at the heart of The California Maritime Academy campus. [I was told that there would be no restoration, and that since 'the students obviously don't care about the institution' it was unlikely to be replaced. I also heard that someone was going to ask the Alumni Association where they got it, and maybe get another. Fat chance - anyone with a knowledge of school history would tell you that Keema was once a Kodiak Bear at a miniature golf course, which was, at the time, closing down and an Alum picked it up as a gift.]

It is easy to dismiss the events overnight as a youthful prank as we complete final examinations and prepare for graduation on Saturday. I do not agree. There is a difference between “pranks” and outright vandalism, and if the vandal was a student, this is especially distressing for an institution which stresses leadership, maturity, discipline, teamwork and respect for others as part of the educational process. To say that I am dismayed by this incident is an understatement. It is a slap in the face to the vast majority of those students, alumni and employees for whom this institution is a source of deep pride, and especially to the class of 2007, coming as it does, right on the eve of their graduation. This act of destruction is truly deplorable.

For once, I actually agree with the president on this one. He and I don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things about this school, and since he is NOT an alum of this school (he's an US Naval Academy Alum, as well as former provost of Maine Maritime), he sometimes doesn't quite 'get' the differences in tradition, and he can be very hands-off and elitist when it comes to his relations with cadets (although he is a totally nice guy. Seriously - very polite!). But in this case, he spoke with four or five of us this morning just after Keema was removed from the quad, and we all expressed a lot of frustration with the fact that such a thing happened on our campus, and the complete lack of personal discipline or responsibility displayed by the parties involved. We were also reminded that blanket parties were not allowable, and that when they found out who had done it, that person was going to be, at the very least, dismissed from the Academy.

Anywho, i had a camera on hand, and managed to take a picture or two: