Category: San Luis Obispo

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Virginia Tech & those preying amongst us

Okay, we are all reading about Virginia Tech… some folks like to rekindle various debates. These issues are distractions from some of the real challenges in colleges today.

The problem is that we have opened our colleges in the name of diversity, and this includes the mentally ill, the criminal and the dangerous.

The violent Virginia Tech student was a wacko ( sorry, am I being ‘judgmental? ). What is worse is that he was a ‘known’ wacko. ….. However, even known wack jobs have rights and thanks to the   “ADA“   his right and the rights of other mentally ill folks to go to college has been ensured and protected? You’ll never see a public list of rapists or fellons in your community… yep.. they have ‘rights’… but … I wonder … should they have more rights than your right to be safe or to know?

Here’s the problem facing schools today: colleges are ‘not allowed’ to discriminate against the known wackos who apply. This is no small problem. There is a wonderful story about a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo that couldn’t change out of his dorm room even though his roommate became ‘unstable and scary’…. when he forgot to take his ‘meds.’ Don’t complain to the university because they did not want to acknowledge the problem and the student was forced to continue to pay for his dorm room and live with friends off campus. Not a great solution.

Don’t worry, rumors have it that Cal Poly has a ‘plan’ should something like this ever happen there. The police are to immediately surround and protect the administration building. ok, but what about everyone else?

So, let’s say you are a professor at Cal Poly, you will not know if all of the ‘mentally ill’ in your class have taken their ‘meds’ … or if the ‘meds’ are doing the student any good? Could you imagine if a professor opening their class by asking: “do we have any violent offenders in class today?, rapists?, muggers?” Or…”anyone forget taking their meds?” The professor would probably get fired, tenured or not.

Part of the failure of Virginia Tech’s administration was letting this wacko into school and then letting him continue after incidents. Another part of the problem — in my humble opinion — was the campus police ‘cowardice’ in waiting for the swat team… and no small part of the problem is the teaching of our children to be ‘compliant’ and ‘cooperate’ even in the face of true evil. Teaching ‘courage’ now-a-days is a forgotten virtue.

There was one bright spot of honor and courage … the professor who stood up to the intruder by blockading his classroom door in order to give his students a chance to escape … he knew true evil when he saw it… afterall, he was a survivor of the holocaust and he has already seen that face before. He saved a lot of students that day even at the cost of his own life. I can only hope the students he saved can fully appreciated the gift he gave them and the cost he paid.

Courage is not in holding vigils and lighting candles… but in recognizing the ‘wackos’ in our world and taking actions to keep them subdued….. there are many lessons here…

Roger Freberg

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CSU’s “SOVIET-style” Negotiation Style

Cal State University Systems Grand Mullah Charles B. ReedIf you have ever studied the art of negotiation or have read Herb Cohen, you’ll know exactly what it means to be ‘sovieted.’

However, allow me to fill you in, should this cold war term leave you wondering.

The Soviets employed a tactic in their negotiations that I’ll simplify by stating some of the more memorable strategies: 1) the object is to make the other guy move no matter how long it takes… and never move even after he ‘gives a little’, 2) Introduce competition into the negotiation ( increase the number of part-time employees not covered by the existing agreement) ,3) stall… then stall some more… he has a ‘deadline’ but you never do, 4) make an agreement that looks good on the surface , announce to the world how wonderful it is with terms like ‘merit pay’… but in reality it is nothing of the sort, 5) ignore outside recommendations unless they agree with you ( as they probably will with the latest impartial analysis).

Well, an impartial analysis has been undertaken and it seems to agree with the faculty’s position… let’s see what happens.

Roger Freberg
Ps. By the way, this is no way like negotiations in the private sector… where the market place has a profound influence on salaries and performance… this is the public sector arena and a battle between bureaucrats and faculty.

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LATEST NEWS: Is College for Learning or Indoctrination?

give the man a bananaI
t’s no secret what goes on in college campuses today… who gets hired… who is tenured and promoted… and whether or not you can speak freely on campus is always a question. Evan Maloney has put together a film that discusses what is really going happening today… it’s called “Indoctrinate U.”  After you watch their trailer… check out their site… then think carefully before you write that check or donate to the university of your choice.Roger Freberg  

 

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Your Mother is soooo Wrong…

old nasty and bitta muthas

Once apon a time there was a mother, who was saddened by all the death happening in Vietnam, so with the help of her friends she formed a group to show her displeasure.

When the war ended, with nothing to do, she decided to focus her energy combating something she clearly did not understand and feared… science and technology. Nuclear power is soo bad, all the mullahs tell us. Today, we are dependent on the great oil satans from the middle east… thanks to folks like these… in my humble opinion. Also, I do wonder about groups that don’t have their pictures on their web site.

So , this brings up the question in my mind: ‘was mother always right?’

I am not saying that men… or fathers … are always right, but I am saying that it takes two committed people to raise children. Each parent brings a different perspective, often as a product of our biology rather than just our environment. Men make a difference.

For example, in an article entitled “Your Mom was wrong — Horse play is  an important part of development”, they site a study:

“In an article published in the April issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, Sergio and Vivian Pellis of the University of Lethbridge reviewed multiple studies involving animals, and found a link between rough and tumble play and social competence.”

Interestingly enough, this brings into question some of the current practices in our schools that label the normal rough and tumble play of boys as deviant , when it is really ‘normal.’ I guess when women look at girls sitting with their hands folded as ‘acceptable’ then anything resembling ‘boyish’ behavior would be shocking and in need of medication. Schools are dominated and run largely by women in K-12. It’s no surprise that folks are looking for alternatives to public schools.

So, Moms, Mothers, Muthas and Mullahs can be wrong… but then, we all really knew that anyway.

Roger Freberg

PS… yep… MFP is a 1″ Weenie Award Winner