Toyah

Here's a new twist on the old favorite.


On the 12th day of Christmas The Highlands gave to me...

Twelve Degrees in Winter

Eleven Laps by Dallas

Ten Bands of Brothers

Nine-Ball with Jimbo

Eight Laughs from Jeremy

Seven Drafty Windows

Six Red Alert-ers

Five Moos from Phil...

Four Hours of Sleep

Three Tecmo Playoffs

Two Stupid Landlords

And a birthday dance from Toolie


Merry Christmas, everybody! My apologies to the A-Train for leaving him off the list. He must have been naughty this year.

i have joined the ranks of the engaged. jennifer and i have been dating for a little over a year. yesterday i asked, and she said yes.

unless there is news that i haven't heard, jim and jeremy will have to hold down the single fort.

we haven't decided on (or even discussed) a date. when i do know more i will let you all know, so that calendars can be cleared, and you can drop everything to come see me.

My wife and I had a conversation the other day about the relative worth of college education, stemming from an episode of Jeopardy! in which I knew the answers to obscure questions having to do with Beowolf, the Illiad, the Oddyssey, and the Aeneid. I told her I knew those answers because of the Great Books classes I took at Hillsdale College.

This led into further discussion of whether my education at Hillsdale was really worth it. I have no doubt that I receieved a higher-value education there than I would have at many other colleges: certainly I (and most of my classmates) am well-rounded and well-informed citizens.

There is also no doubt that I paid a lot more for this education. If I don't pay extra (which I am), I will pay off my college loans in 2014. From an economic standpoint, the question is: is attending an upper-echelon college worth the money?

One answer might be that a better education leads to a better job, but the job I have now, in information technology, is one that I could have gotten without a Hillsdale College degree. A degree from any decent college would have sufficed. Of my friends in college, most of them, with one or two exceptions, could say the same.

So why should someone bother with a high-value college education? Are the intangible benefits of understanding the Illiad and knowing the tangled history of 18th century Europe really worth it? Or is there another side that I'm missing here?

Dear Team MSU:

Since its passage by a majority of Michigan voters in early November,
Proposal 2--which bans the use of affirmative action programs that give
preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of
race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin--has been a continuing
topic of conversation, deliberation, and debate within the university
community, among Michigan's citizens, and on the national
scene. Today, the topic will again attract attention and generate
dialog as Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and
Wayne State University jointly file a motion in federal court seeking
a short-term delay in the implementation of Proposal 2 with respect to
admissions and financial aid.

I have explained Michigan State's reasons for entering into this
action in the "From the President's Desk" space on my web page. There
is also information available on a new informational web site
( http://www.president.msu.edu/prop2response) designed to keep the
university community and others updated on how we are pursuing our
commitment to diversity and inclusion at Michigan State after Proposal
2. If this is a topic you care about, please plan to check this site
regularly.

Sincerely,

Lou Anna K. Simon, Ph.D.
President

Work has been steadily progressing. The latest pictures are now up: they go in reverse order, so you'll want to start here.

A bit of old news...

Last Thursday, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo was scheduled to speak at the Law School at MSU. Prior to the event a fire alarm was pulled in the building. Later, when Tancredo had arrived and had begun to speak, another fire-alarm was pulled. Protestors stormed to the front of the room and interrupted the speech. Among their claims were that Tancredo was a racist and that it was their right to impede the congressman from speaking. Police were called and the protestors were removed, which allowed Tancredo to finish his speech.

Anyone who watched FOX Friday night would have seen the interviews on The O'Reilly Factor (the chairmen of the MSU Young Americans for Freedom and College Republicans give their account to Bill) and Hannity & Colmes (who interviewed the congressman).

Almost all response to the incident has been in opposition to the protestors (including letters from the president, the law students, and the uber-left State News Editorial Board, though the latter did of course mention that they agreed with the protestor's position).

In a related story, the chairman of the YAF at MSU, Kyle Bristow, was recently removed from ASMSU, the student government, via a recall election. The removal is highly insignificant in terms of the function of the University (imagine getting recalled from your student council in high school...this is a half-notch up on the ladder) but it shows that tolerance of others values is an ideal that is held rather selectively by the left of the country.