I’m saddened and dismayed to hear that Jim Vick, VP of Student Affairs at Eastern Michigan University (my alma mater), was fired today along with the President and the Department of Public Safety’s Chief.
I first met Jim Vick through my fraternity, Sigma Tau Gamma. He had served as the faculty advisor before being promoted to VP of Student Affairs and continued to maintain close ties with the fraternity. I even had the distinct pleasure of initiating him as an honorary brother while serving as my fraternity’s President.
In my last year at college I served as IFC President and, along with that, came a seat on the Student Leader Group, which reported directly to Jim Vick. For the entire year I had weekly meetings with him. Depending on what was going on I’d see him 2 or 3 times a week and it was always a pleasure.
Throughout my years at EMU Jim Vick was a friend and a confidant. Someone I looked up to and respected. After spending somewhere on the order of three decades he was fired in what many see as a classic case of a fall guy for some bad PR.
Let’s not gloss over the facts; the university knew about this poor girls rape and murder and didn’t tell anyone. What Jim’s role in that was is hard to say, but I find it exceptionally hard to believe he played a key role. I’ll be interested to see where this goes and I wish him the best.
A sad day indeed.
I was going to post a Year in Review, but I awoke today to find out that one of my newest fraternity brothers died early this morning. He wasn’t even 20.
At my alma matter, Eastern Michigan University, this weekend is Homecoming. Being Greek I’ve been paying attention to the new regulations that have been passed down by the University concerning tailgating for Greeks. My brothers are up in arms over the new regulation that states you can only bring a “six pack” of canned beer to the festivities. A six pack should be enough right? Well, most of my brothers are livers larger than Rhode Island and as such wish to consume more than six beers in a six hour period.
Luckily one of my brothers has found a loop hole. I’m calling it “Schenkel’s Law of Efficiency” and it works as follows.
1.) 6 x 22 oz of Steel Reserve = 132 oz of Beer
2.) 132 oz * 11% = 14.52 oz of total alcohol
In comparison to ...
1.) 12 x 24 oz of Bud Light = 288 oz of Beer
2.) 288 * 4.2% = 12.1 oz of total alcohol
By a.) buying 22 oz. cans of beer and b.) buying a beer with a very high alcohol content you easily usurp the “six pack” stipulation. Of course, if you’re used to drinking a 12 pack or an entire case you might want to pay close attention to the rate at which you consume the beer.
So there you have it, frat boys do pay attention to the classes that help them.
This last Friday my fraternity threw a “Graffitti” party. For those who don’t know what one is, it’s a party where the guests wear white tshirts and run around in black light writing on each other with highlighters. A ton of people showed up and everyone was wearing tshirts, which made the night fun.
I haven’t posted in a while mainly because I really haven’t had anything interesting to say and I’ve been really busy doing fraternity stuff. I’ve been traveling a little here and there as well (mostly Wisconsin for conferences). Some good news is that our chapter won Most Improved Chapter in the Great Lakes Region. At any rate I guess I owed you guys an explanation …
Things in Ypsi are boring as usual. My fraternity had it’s semiformal last night – not quite the party I was hoping for, but those who did show up had a good time I think. Also, I got AIM working on my palm – handle is mobilemiester. You can AIM me when I’m on – also to email my Palm just send an email to palm@joestump.net.
Saturday I played paintball for the first time. It was my fraternity versus the Arm of Honor (a local fraternity). Out of 4 games of capture the flag we won 3 – two of which I captured the flag. I’m covered in bruises, but it was worth the fun!
This year’s hay ride was the first for the Sig Taus since I rushed. About 15 or so couples took a short bus ride out to Grass Lake for a fire, a quick hay ride, and a little bit of drinking. All in all it was a great time – coulda been a little warmer though.
Homecoming 2001 was great. Our second annual Smash-A-Thon raised a ton of money for the relief effort in NYC. I’ll be putting up pics soon (probably about the same time I put the Martis Gras pics up.
Another Sig Tau Martis Gras party has come and gone. What an enormous turnout! We had well over 200 people packed into the house with tons of beads flying all over the place. I’ll have pics up later tonight.
