Hide the women and children on Saturday, March 8
Last year UMass made a monumental error not being proactive about the childish Blarney Blowout. They failed to send out stern warnings to students and parents because they were afraid it would only add to the allure of the Blarney Blowout while providing it tons of free publicity.
Obviously the small minority of college aged youth who were going to engage in rowdy behavior that day were already well aware of the event, and perhaps took the absence of official notice from UMass as being a sign the University didn't really care.
Amherst town officials were infuriated, leading to some of the more terse exchanges in recent history. But everybody put aside their differences, and Amherst and UMass are now working closely together via the Town Gown Steering Committee to help navigate a calmer course for the two superpowers over the next few decades.
UMass also learned from last year's mistake. Enku Galaye sent out the following email to staff, students and parents. The UMass employee who just forwarded it to me said he "can't recall ever getting a letter like this before."
Blarney Blowout Letter by larry_kelley_1
Maybe we can get UNH to issue a warning to their students!
Favorite this if you're going to Blarney Blowout at #zoomass this weekend. We all need to meet and represent! #WildcatNation
— UNH_Confessions (@UNH_Confessions) March 5, 2014
24 comments:
Now that is a well written letter. To the point. Lots of details. Maybe she could give Maria some lessons.
No student can say they were not warned or did not know. They should send that out about 4 times a year to drive the point home.
Exactly!
Ginger Geryk might want to join the blowout considering how sophomoric her decisions and leadership are. She can't even write a concise letter or is that have someone write it for her.
..and you, anon 610, can't even write a good insult.
Larry, just as observation I've noticed for years now, it's quite creepy to post pictures of young girls, particularly ones who are scantily dressed, on your site. It's clear you look for these girls on the internet and check out their pics. While I'm sure you just do this as part of your posts and research, you come across as creepy and stalkerish.
Just an observation, and an FYI so you know.
Actually I went to Google images and punched in "Blarney Blowout," then did a screen grab of the thumbnails.
But thanks for reading all these years now.
Keep those pictures coming Larry. Anyone that doesn't like young girls, particularly ones who are scantily dressed is creepy.
6:59, you clearly have no idea how girls dress at Umass. Thats overdressed!
Hey Anon 6:59 pm
Buddy, if you've been coming to this website over the years to see pictures of scantily clad women, you need to find yourself a new search engine.
i keep saying that the middle shall cease to hold. It will not be long before Enku's letters have no more effect than Obama's to Putin.
Sooner or later -- and this may be the year -- there will be a repeat of Kent State and that will be the end of UMass.
Showing the picture of that young woman is completely inappropriate, as there is no evidence that it's from the Blarney Blowout. Just because it comes up on your search engine search is ridiculous, as these searches bring up all kinds of unrelated photos. No reputable news source would use it. Please tell me you have some level of ethical standards.
I don't think any news organization could live up to your almighty standards.
"there will be a repeat of Kent State and that will be the end of UMass"
Yup, last I checked on Google Earth, the site of (the former) Kent State University was nothing but a smoking crater.
I also spotted some Ed-like creatures standing at the rim and staring down into it, rubbing their hands together and cackling with glee. Apparently they've been standing there for more than 40 years. Nothing better to do, I guess.
As to how UMass students being fatally shot by police officers would destroy UMass in a way that the Kent State incident did not destroy Kent State University, consider three things.
First, the economics of higher education were different in 1970 -- there were too many potential students and too few college seats, as opposed to the other way around today.
What was then a "seller's market" has now become a "buyer's market" -- the college degree is no longer even the guarantee of a good job the way it was back then. Does anyone remember IHEs having "marketing" departments and running the advertising/recruiting campaigns they now do? Furthermore, 1970 is when the "Baby Boomers" were entering higher education -- today their children (Baby Boomlet) have exited and there is a national shortage of not only 18-year-olds but ones able to afford the much-higher expense of a public ICE.
Hence "four dead" in Amherst would have a devastating impact on subsequent admission yield and you really don't have much of a university without students attending it...
Second, things in general were also quite different -- compare what happened at Ma Lai (in 1958) to what happened a decade ago at Abu Ghraib.
As much as many of you detest our armed forces, as much as almost anyone detests what was done at Abu Ghraib (which was tactically stupid), it isn't anywhere near the dimension of what happened at Ma Lai. (347-504 unarmed civilians mass-murdered, women gang raped, and stopped when a heroic helicopter pilot threatened to start shooting Calley's troops if they didn't.)
As I understand it, there was a great deal of public support for Calley upon his conviction -- I don't think that would happen today. I think that a lot of attitudes have changed, that the country has changed.
After all, Barack Hussain Obama and not Richard Milhause Nixon is President today...
And third, one of the issues in the aftermath of Kent State was that the Guardsmen had loaded weapons -- they had been patrolling a trucker's strike (where loaded rifles were apparently necessary) and the order to unload their weapons was apparently not given.
By contrast, police officers are presumed to be carrying loaded weapons -- and have both training and protocols in when said weaponry may be used. There is a universe of difference in issues of training and preparation and everything else -- the local police departments will be held to a much higher standard than the Guard was.
Hate me as much as you wish, but I really do know something about the economics of higher education and am suggesting that if the current situation escalates to one in which students are sent home to their parents in body bags -- which is where I fear this is heading -- it will lead to a rather visceral reaction on the part of the parents of potential college students.
The misinformed representation of UMass students you've created is appalling. They are some of the best and brightest and are being pressured and forced to stop acting the age that they are.
Did any of you go to college? If you did I'm sure you made many mistakes. It's a time of learning and having fun. Amherst is becoming a police state which is forcing students to act out. People act out when being forced to "hold your hand" at a time it isn't needed. You all need to stop being so bitter towards something you all probably did at one point in your life
And I still would like someone to explain to me exactly how all of the competing business in (any) particular industry meeting together and agreeing to collectively restrain trade (in any manner) is not a violation of prohibitions against "collusion" and "restraint of trade" and the rest.
The bars are supposed to be in competition with each other -- they are allowed to set their own prices and whatnot on the principle that if they are in competition with each other, the market will regulate things far better than any bureaucrat ever could -- that's what the "free market" economic system is all about.
It's one thing for a restaurant to close for a private function -- something else entirely for it to only agree to do so if all its competitors also agree to do so.
Of course, one big point I'm making in my book is that UMass is a place where the "rule of law" has become largely meaningless, and what people tend to forget is that once that starts happening, it tends to lead to a breakdown of the social order in general.
You guys need to calm down about Blarney Blowout. Let kids have their fun, Jesus Christ.
Anon: I'm not going to publish that. So knock it off.
Notice how Enku's email doesn't say anything about why students might not want to participate in the "blowout" -- how she only makes threats as to the bad things that will happen to them if they do.
Notice how UMass no longer even makes a pretense of saying that there are things that kids might have more fun doing, let alone conceding that there inevitably will be parties and asking students to drink responsibly.
All she's saying is "don't you dare do this" -- not "why not do that instead" -- let alone trying to provide a "that" which is more fun for the students.
The student affairs profession likes to argue that a college student "learns more outside the classroom than in it" -- people like Enku have jobs to facilitate that and it's quite clear that aspect of her job has been abandoned.
My point: there are some very real social and developmental needs which are being met by this "blowout" -- which could be (and should be) met in other ways. Her job is to do that, and she isn't....
Ed,
I can't wait to read your book. Oh, wait a minute, yes I can. I just read your same old tired blog post instead. Yes, UMass is going to collapse, usually due to one of your violent fantasies. Why not just predict a volcano or a meteorite, and get it over with.
You live an incredibly depressing life, Larry.
Larry,
As a journalist, you must be aware that you are, in most cases, violating copyright law when you grab an image off the internet and republish it on your blog.
"In most cases," but certainly not all.
Why not just predict a volcano or a meteorite, and get it over with.
Would an earthquake suffice?
You do know that the Connecticut River is a bigger/deeper fault than the San Andreas, it just happens to be filled with water -- "flood stage" in Northampton is over 18 fathom, water deeper than we set lobster traps (during the summer)-- in the *ocean.*
You do know that the 1750 earthquake off Cape Ann was so strong that it (a) took down most/all the chimneys in Boston and (b) John Adams thought it was the foretelling of the Second Coming.
And I trust you remember that little one down DC way a couple years back, don't you?
And exactly how much of UMass do you honestly believe would still be standing after a moderate quake? T-6 (Washington Tower) is leaning to the West by either 3 or 6 degrees (I forget which).
Unlike California, the MA Bulding Code, last I checked, had no earthquake provisions. Just thought I'd add that...
Larry -- have you ever been to Quebec City for their version of Mardi Gras -- "Winter Carnival"?
If you haven't, you should go some time, and take your girls, it is a family affair. LOTS of public drinking -- they literally bring out the snow plows afterwards to clean up the empty bottles -- but no violence.
And the only rule they appear to have is that you can't open the beer in the store you bought it in -- you can walk anywhere else with open containers and walk into the store with one but can't open the one you bought there in there. Or something.
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