Category: Cal Poly

Cal Poly and their foibles

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‘Mason Weaver Day’ at Cal Poly!

Mason Weaver and his booksYears ago, Mason Weaver came to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to speak…. and there begins a tale.

Mason’s talk was exactly the same as the title of his book…” It’s ok to leave the plantation.” His appearance at Cal Poly resulted in the threatened expulsion of a young college student Steven Hinkle, national media discussion on the value of ‘free speech’ and finally the vilification of Cal Poly and much taxpayer money given to Steven Hinkle.

Mason describes his book “It’s ok to leave the plantation”:

“Wisdom does not come from surviving but from thriving. This book discusses some of the family and environmental contributions that led to my change from liberal to conservative. It also discusses how Black Americans came from slavery to freedom.” “It’s OK To Leave The Plantation examines the ‘Plantation mentality’ that still plagues us today. The Plantation Mentality is a system that discourages independence and character and encourages reliance on masters or appointed tribal chiefs in our community.”

Mason may not change your views… but he may give you a new way to look on what really is ‘help’ and what really ‘works’ in our society.

Mason returned to Cal Poly last night after a number of years in what could be called his ‘triumphal return.’ It was ‘Mason Weaver Day at Cal Poly’… an annual event.

Roger Freberg

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Cal Poly… athletes as property

 Kaylene Wagner was refused a release from Cal Poly San Luis obispo... and sat out a year at Kansas State

I wasn’t too surprised when I gave my first ‘Weenie Award’ for 2007 to Cal Poly State University at San Luis Obispo. They have been the recipient of many such awards in the past… including the infamous U.S. News Report ‘Sheldon Award’ given each year to the worst president.

Sometimes athletes find themselves at universities that are a poor match  socially, athletically or academically and they end up wanting to transfer somewhere else. “Regular’ students transfer… so it seems reasonable that athletes may wish to do the same.

The process of transfering for an athlete is a bit more involved than it is for a regular student. The athlete must first obtain a ‘release’ from their present school before they can begin to talk to anyone else. Actually, I think this is a good idea… coaches and teams deserve to be notified if one of their athletes is unhappy enough to desire a transfer. However, obtaining a ‘release’ should be automatic… but as we will see… it isn’t.

Kaylene Wagner jumped for Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo for two seasons. We noticed she transfered to Kansas State and sat out last year… I discovered asking around that Kaylene did not recieve a release from Cal Poly! Why would any school be so…. nasty & vengeful, and self serving ?

Well, here are some of the reasons I have heard that athletes are not granted waivers: 1) we trained and developed their talent 2) the big programs don’t give waivers to their top talent 3) we don’t want to be treated like a junior college where they ‘move on.’ Hmmmm…

When you have powerful athletic programs like Southern California & Florida & Arkansas providing releases… It’s hard to understand small schools with token athletic programs like Cal Poly not having an athlete’s best interest at heart…

The underlying problem here is some athletic programs view athletes like ‘property’. If this issue emerges in the NCAA… it will be because of schools like Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Now, IF I were an athlete deciding on a school… I would look at how athletes are treated when they want to leave… if they are treated poorly… I would drop them from my list.

 

Roger Freberg

Presented to Cal Poly the first

CAL POLY San Luis Obispo
“Big Weenie Awardee”

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Going through College…. fat, drunk and stupid

fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son... are you holding up your GRE score or your IQ?

Hey I don’t blame these boys from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo ( allegedly students there) from pouring one down from time to time…. but , dudes, aren’t you missing something? I am kinda old fashioned, but… aren’t parties more fun with women? By the way, if you don’t like your picture on my blog… don’t post it on the internet.

Oh, here I go being ‘judgemental’ and ‘offering unwanted advice” again.

dah Big WEeeEEeEeeeenie Award!However, I thought that there had ‘to be a prize for playing this game”… like graduating and earning a ‘dah-ploma’ and a good job? They do graduate — on the average at Cal Poly — in roughly 6 1/2 years. Did you hear that Momsy?

I guess they’ll have to settle for the coveted “Big weenie Award”… along with the approximately 10,000 Cal poly students that never finished their senior projects.

 I can’t blame them too much… I mean, there’s nothing to do in San Luis Obispo…. it’s kinda like ‘God’s waiting room.’ Hey, even their university President has his own packed cellar…. I’ve seen it… burp!

Anyway, I recieved this email this morning from their student newspaper…… well… read it for yourself: My worst party Nightmare.

I had thought about linking blogs about college students and their drunk nightmares from Technorati … but it was amazing… bad enough to survive this stuff… but now it will live forever on the internet. It’s like getting a tatoo with your first girlfriend’s name on it… it is just embarassing later on. So, I had mercy… no links and no capes.

Roger Freberg

 

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WHO beat San Diego State? er… ah… Cal Poly?

Cal Poly Over San Diedo State! ... WHO beat San Diego State??? And to think that Bear Bryant’s widow moved to San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) to escape college football!

Who would have thought?

First, I have to tell you that I am NOT a big fan of Cal Poly on many levels… however, I am impressed that sandlot kids from C.P. playing in their street clothes could whoop San Diego State!

The local paper did a fine job covering the unusual event… with some of the expected hyperbola:

“Saturday’s victory not only ensured a fourth straight winning season for Cal Poly but cemented its place in the top 10 and keeps the Mustangs’ playoff plans in order.”

Gosh, I just wish they wouldn’t write about playoffs or National Championships… someone outside of SLO might actually read this! However, the ‘talk’ is bound to leak out as their sports writer is now a blogger.  On his blog he has a few links to how others view the debacle…

The Cal Poly Coach — who I defended in the local paper for getting a modest salary increase  might have been reading too much of his own press when he was quoted:

“In assessing the talent gap between his team and Division I-A schools last week, Cal Poly coach Rich Ellerson said he believed the Mustangs had reached a point where they could be competitive against middle-of-the-pack programs from the Mountain West and Western Athletic conferences.”

Ya think? Hmmm….  well, I did read the Cal Poly Athletic web site… and it looks like a good site… if you compare it to any univesity circa 1996. I can’t understand why their athletic site is sooooo cheap… it’s not like the better schools can buy more electrons. In any event, they tell of the rivalry between the two school that has recently been reenacted in this great duel… but that was different times and long long ago.

Today — I hear — that a so-called ‘full-scholarship football player’ at Cal Poly recieves a 1 shirt and 1 pair of shorts for free… but he must buy anything else he needs. As you can imagine, the other ‘sports’ get less. Oh, if you ‘letter’… you are awarded a Cal Poly T-shirt… just like the ones you can buy in their student store. whoo-hoo!

Maybe yuo guys could lend Cal Poly some of your nice clothes... facilities, shoes... and a ride home.So, San Diego State, nothing good came out of this meeting for you. To be humiliated by guys who have to buy their own shoes has got to hurt.

Cal Poly is a funny place where the President of the College actually makes three or more times as much as the football coach.

In my opinion, Cal Poly’s program died 20 years ago thanks to a President who has tried to turn Cal Poly into a quaint college… the kind you see dotted in the North East of our country. However, there are those individuals and a few teams from time to time that hang in there… hoping to make it something more.

Congrats to Cal Poly’s Football team… that won in spite of it all.

Roger Freberg

 

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Speak Freely…. unless you’re in college

 

freedom of speech is our right

 

It may sound strange that we have the ability to speak freely everywhere in America…. except on many college campuses. I remember during my college days of the necessity of writing a ‘perfect marxist essay’ in order to pass a class.

Today, universities are not so easily fooled and many have enacted ‘speech codes’ and other restrictions to curtail opinions that they have interpreted to be ‘offensive.’

There is– fortunately– an organization that represents Americans attending or working in our colleges and universities against the intrusions of the ‘thought control police’.

Thanks to thefire.org — ‘defenders of individual rights in education’ — college life is becoming better for those who want to think for themselves. Here are a few of the latest subjects that you can explore on their site:

FIRE Warns Department of Health and Human Services Against Supporting Political Litmus Tests on Campus

FIRE in ‘The New York Times’ on Free Speech at Columbia

Marquette Bans Dave Barry Quote from Office Door

FIRE’s Challenge to Ideological Litmus Tests at Columbia’s Teachers College in the ‘New York Post’ and ‘Sun’

FIRE’s Challenge to Ideological Litmus Tests at Columbia’s Teachers College in the ‘New York Post’ and ‘Sun’

Speech Code of the Month: University of Mississippi

Anyway… step by step, the rights that we value in our great country are being reinstated…. even on college campuses…. check out their site… you can help!

 Roger Freberg