In a post-Virginia Tech world, it’s understandable that colleges and universities would want to watch “at-risk” students. But as NPR notes, more often these days the schools are sacrificing the student to limit their liability.

I’ve become more vocal in the last year about mental health issues, mostly because I’ve owned up to mine and sought treatment. The stigma of mental health issues is, quite frankly, right up there with sexually transmitted diseases. The difference, of course, is that STDs come from promiscuity and non- or mis-use of contraceptives, but I can’t find a single case where anyone actively causes themselves to have a mental health issue.

You might think I’m overstating the case a bit, but think about how people generally discuss mental health issues—hushed tones, furtive glances, closed-off body language. Heck, I’m pretty open about my struggles with chronic major depression, and yet I still fall into these behaviors myself. It’s just hard.

I understand that universities are worried about their students’ well-being. But I assure you that there are a lot more depressed students on your campus who need treatment, care, and concern than there are Seung-Hui Chos who will snap and kill their students. My depression extends back into my college days, including times when I certainly was ideating. I vividly remember considering killing myself in my apartment bathroom at one point in my college career, considering how I could shoot myself in the head without hurting my roommates or anyone else. Now, I was too damn stubborn and stupid to seek help then, but if I had been ready to do so and was then faced with the prospect of being put on involuntary leave from school because I needed a break from school—and I can name at least two semesters in college where I should have withdrawn and come back later—and also risk losing scholarships and my very spot in the school, I would not have sought treatment. And that, folks, is simply a tragedy.

When we played Colorado College to start our season, Scott Owens, CC’s radio voice and a former member of the Michigan State organization, called our coach, Danton Cole, to talk about the Alabama-Huntsville team. Cole is an MSU alum, and so the conversation was free and easy.

And then Owens asked about recruiting. And then … then I got to remixing.

That was a fun ninety minutes last night … and now I have to mix it down to 30 and 60-second loops before tonight’s game.

Well, today is Mother’s Day, so it means that UAH will be having commencement. [They've been doing this for more than the decade I've been associated with the school.] And so I realized this after I cleared out the cobwebs: five years ago yesterday, I graduated from college. I’ve now been out of post-secondary education as long as I was in it. [Ignoring, of course, two brief turns through graduate school.] Even goofier, five years ago today, I in-processed as a full-time, salaried employee. Today, I’ll go in to the office to build charts for a program management review with our customer; tomorrow, I fly to Houston to represent the company.

Seems like it’s all moving a bit fast, but … this is how my life goes most of the time.

My friend Norm—and most anyone who went to UAH from, say, 1993-2003 knows Norm—spent ten years working on his degree; amusingly, he now works for the university. But he has nothing on Johnny Lechner, who’s spent twelve years at Wisconsin-Whitewater. I love the closing comment:

Michelle Eigenberger, an editor at The Royal Purple, said Lechner may have achieved celebrity status, but most students are tired of it.

“It’s getting old,” she said. “For the sanity of the rest of the campus, we want him to get out of here.”

It’s just how the UAH SGA folks felt about me!

My friend Chris Brown wrote in with the following:

UAH president announces plan to retire in 2007
Dr. Frank Franz, president of the University of Alabama in Huntsville since 1991, made a surprise announcement at todays UA trustees meeting here: He plans to retire at the end of the 2007 spring semester.

Franz told trustees, who were meeting in Huntsville, that hes approaching 70 years old and, as trustees often transition off the board when they hit 70, he felt a university president should also.

The announcement took the entire board and UAH staff by surprise. Dr. Malcolm Portera, chancellor of the UA system, said the system would begin formulating a search process to replace Franz once he retires.

Frank, I raise a glass to you. You’ve been a wise mentor and friend, a steady hand on UAH’s rudder. You have your critics, and they have their points, but I have appreciated your efforts over the years. I’m surprised that you’ve stayed this long, but I’m glad you have. I wish you all the best.

Dammit, UAH Admissions should still be paying me. I’m helping them get one of my co-workers’ kids away from the clutches of Auburn.

I was asked by someone last night—I won’t say who, to protect the innocent—if I was going to run for President of the UAH SGA next year. I tried not to laugh at the person’s suggestion, but it is pretty laughable. Why? Look, I was Executive Vice-President. I had a President who almost got thrown out on his keister. Some people considered me the de facto President that year. You know what? That job sucks. You couldn’t pay me to do it, and they sure wouldn’t pay me enough to do it.

Not only do I not have the time, but I do not have the inclination, at least not right now. I am far more enjoying being at the bottom of the organization—getting people riled up and getting them to think about what we’re doing and how we can do it better—than I ever enjoyed being EVP. A well-motivated member of the Assembly can do far, far more to effect change than the SGA President has, purely because the Assembly has the power of the pen and the power of the purse.

The only reason I’d ever consider doing the SGA President thing is in terms of a study in leadership and management. [And yes, studying leadership and management is why I'm back in graduate school, and I consider this second SGA experience to be a part of that process.] But not right now.

My voice is still for war.
Gods! can a Roman senate long debate
Which of the two to choose, slavery or death?

– Joseph Addison, Cato, II, i

UAH has some serious network issues, and we’ve been arguing around the edges of the problem. It’s time to argue write through the center of the problem—get all the parties together, address all the grievances, find the roots of the problems, and mete out solutions.

It starts Monday. It should have started three or four years ago when we talked in back rooms and in hallways about a technology fee … but it never happened.

Now, it will.

With a day’s worth of feverish study … I’m ready. Now, for a nice night’s rest, then brief refreshers during breaks tomorrow … and I’m ready to do my dead level best to knock it out of the park and make up for some of the flubbing-up I did on the case study. :sigh:

… I’m just busy. Mid-term tomorrow in my Engineering Managment Theory course. In taking some of these metrics, I’m surprised in how my answers show—which makes me wonder if my sense of self-perception is way off, or if I’m subconsciously gaming the exam. :sigh:

Back to watching the lectures.

So, the UAH College Democrats came to us asking to help block HR 609. So, I decided I’d do some digging…

• HR 609 on Thomas.LOC.gov. Typical, it’s hard to discern anything from the actual text [since it's modifying existing laws, which you'd have to find.
• Congressional Budget Office analysis of HR 609.
• American Federation of Teachers memorandum to Rep. McKeon. They do bring up some concerns, specifically the academic freedoms bit and the static cap on Pell grants.
• National Association of College and Universities Business Officers report on HR 609. NACUBO notes that spiraling costs are an issue and that institutions whose costs are spiraling out of control will be audited, which is a great thing.
• States' Public Interests Research Groups concerns re: HR 609.

The CBO linkage tells me that the student loans stuff is unchanged---the law does make amendments, but they're to the status quo. Consolidated loans are taken from interest rates that are the weighted average of the loans consolidated and takes it to the same kind of tied-to-T-Bills rate that normal student loans see. Lender insurance is decreased, but defaulted loans are the responsibility of the lenders, not the borrowers. Loan limits increase. Honestly, it looks like moderate market solutions being done with interest rates, which is fine ... if interest rates spike, lenders may simply choose not to lend to students.

The ATF folks make some points, especially with respect to Pell grants. Pell grants go to the poorest students, who are less likely to be able to re-pay upon graduation. [Why? They're probably trying to support their families with the jobs they get out of education, families without medical insurance or steady work. It's easy to underestimate this burden.]

I’m personally of the opinion that this is a political matter into which our SGA shouldn’t step. Some will disagree, though.

Truly, I have an overdeveloped martyr complex and an overinflated sense of self-importance.

However, they’re both buttressed by situations like last night’s SGA meeting, where, while bored by the head of the UAH College Democrats talking about decrying legislation to increase the maximum interest rates of Federally-subsidized loans and caps placed on the amount of individual financial aid as “a bipartisan issue” but then saying that “these cuts shouldn’t come in response to a desire to give wealthy fat-cats a tax cut”—come on, man; be above it or not, but don’t be a hack and say you’re not—when I noticed, suddenly, that the SGA Assembly had never seen a budget for FY06.

See, when your birthday is 1 October, you’re keenly aware of things like fiscal years, especially when it comes to government.

So, I mentioned it, and … the reaction was a bit brusque. That set off my hackles, and in thinking about it all on the way home, I was awful self-congratulatory. “Who else but you would have noticed?!” :sigh:

It’s not just Taylor that we study; in all, we’ll get a top-level view of six different schools of management. [Yes, I am aware of the amusement value of The Indiana Jones School of Management actually discussing ... management.] After reading Taylor babble on about lugging pig iron and shoveling coal and ore—and dear Frederick, how about learning to write directly, brother?—we move on to Dr. Abraham Maslow and his hierarchy of human needs.

[I figure that it's worth pecking short entries as jumping-off points for anyone interested in what it is I'm studying these days. Why? Well, for one, Dad will enjoy it, because he holds a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering from Mississippi State University and, undoubtedly, is familiar with most of these folks, even if he did sell his soul to the Deming and became a quality engineer. Also, I know that these things tend to interest others; after all, I badgered Susan into starting her Becoming a Doctor for Dummies series. So ... yeah.]

As we dive into the study of engineering management theory, we start with one of the guys who started it all: Frederick Winslow Taylor. You know you’re in graduate school when you get to slog through primary source material … and you like it.

Well, I’m admitted into graduate school. Since ETS still hasn’t filed my GRE scores yet with UAH, I’ve enrolled as a non-degree student; I’ll re-enroll as a degree-seeking student sometime later in the fall. [It was the fastest way to get me in.] Doing the non-degree route required someone from the department to sign off on my classes, and when I went to go to Dr. Utley’s office, there was a fun exchange:

Dr. Utley [not recognizing me]: “Can I help you?”

“Yes, I’m Geof Morris. The Dean’s office called …”

“Oh, yes.” [pause] “Wait, don’t I know you? You were in Bob [Frederick]’s class, weren’t you?”

[sly smile] “Yes, ma’am.”

“Okay. Let me look at this.” [quick scan] “You don’t want to take those two classes together. I think you should just take one class this term.”

[Stifles urge to invoke the name of Dr. Benfield, who said, "Oh, please. You can kill those two classes together in your sleep."] “Oh, okay. Which should I take?”

“Either one will be fine. 660 is what we start most students with.”

“Fine by me.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend that anyone take 690 with anything else.”

I started to interject, but the words out of my mouth would have been, “Oh, c’mon, Dr. Utley. It’s Dr. Gholston. I had him for 390″—the undergraduate counterpart to this course—”and even though I only attended half of the lectures, I aced the class.” I decided that, since she was doing me the favor, I should just shut up. Instead, I said, “I’ll definitely take your advice on that score.”

So yes, Ant-Dawg … Geofro and Opie will be re-united. Hehheheeheheheheh. [Hey, wait ... we never did take the same class as undergraduates, did we? How the hell did we manage to do that? We were both undergraduates for half of forever. It's amazing ... we went to the same school and worked at the same company [for a little while, anyway], and … we never saw each other in either place in an official capacity.]