February - not so boring after all

February is usually a pretty boring month but last week was kind of a big deal on campus.

1). Men's Basketball players were involved in an alcohol-related car accident, followed by some more poor decisions. For all that I understand what a tough, pressure-cooker life that student athletes lead, I find it hard to excuse that kind of behaviour. And let's be realistic - underage students drink and drive often. And I don't give "regular" underage students any more (or less) mental slack than I would the basketball players because their impaired presence on the road is endangering my life just as much as a drunken underage athlete (or drunken middle-aged couch potato). I just suspect that there's a sense of entitlement among some student athletes, a sense that they can behave as they wish and not get reprimanded too severely because they're stars on campus and, hey, they've earned a little R&R. Perhaps they might feel they are *owed* a little R&R. I generally chafe at the thought of entitlement in most forms. The world owes you nothing, but I digress. Back to student athletes. This whole incident reminds me of an article I read in the Chronicle of Higher Education: Morality Play: A U of Idaho professor says college athletes are ethically impaired, but can be taught to think differently.

2). The University was shut down to all but essential personnel on 2/13 and 2/14 because of blizzard conditions. The official word was that plows were not able to clear sidewalks, forcing students to walk in the streets and the powers-that-be decided that was an untenable situation. Needless to say, I was non-essential, so I holed up in my bat cave since I couldn't even get out the front door on Tuesday. I used the time to come up with a recipe for lemon-ginger sorbet.

3) The whole Chief thing. See previous post. I try so hard to not get involved in arguments. That would include arguments about the Chief but I finally felt compelled to explain my reasons for my position to my mom. I think she understood.