The Independent Collegian

I'm a junky. Well, at least I was. I'm quitting cold turkey, and now that I'm realizing that now that my name hasn't been at the top of this page for a week, withdrawals are beginning. The world doesn't really make sense anymore. You're probably sick of reading these weepy goodbye pieces from The Independent Collegian's graduating seniors, but give me a break.

The night before I left for college, I had a sleepover with three of my closest friends from high school. We made a fort using the kitchen table and some blankets. We crawled into our fort and wondered what life would look like away from each other, away from our parents, away from the town we had been raised in.

An apology is in order. But not the kind you're thinking. As I write my last column I feel compelled to offer an account of my work for The Independent Collegian. Even more than an autobiography, a "farewell column" is a pretentious thing to write. Its composition assumes 1) that people care and 2) that such a piece is warranted or necessary (as if someone actually had read one's random musings over the past two academic years).

aWe all get mad when we have to fill up our gas tank these days, unless we work for ExxonMobile or Chevron. Who wouldn't be mad? Look at gas prices: $3 is suddenly cheap! It's flat-out ridiculous when oil companies are making 40 billion-dollar-a-year profits, and we're paying 200 percent more for gas than we did 10 years ago.

Today's soldiers know history. They know that abandoning their allies is deadly for those left behind. Two weeks ago, I joined more than 10 other Michigan Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to attend the Vets For Freedom, Vets on the Hill event in Washington.

The past few months have been turbulent ones for the University of Toledo, capable of wrenching the institution from its foundations and inspiring ruinous upheaval. Many faculty members feel disenfranchised as of late at UT, cut out from the decision-making process that so intimately affects their careers and livelihoods.

In the wake of the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech University last year and Northern Illinois University earlier this year, campus safety has begun to seem like something of a contradiction in terms. Here at UT, we have adopted the RED ALERT warning system and have created instructional videos on how to respond in the unthinkable event that a deranged gunman would appear on this campus.

The picture featured in the March 20 edition of The Independent Collegian of a MacKinnon Hall chair being thrust to the pavement of Area 14 on the surface seems to fit a story about renovation. For me, however, as the former assistant director of residence life for operations from 1981 to 1999, the picture evoked a question - Who's in charge? The chair being tossed is a $110, two-position PlyLok chair with basswood laminated construction made by Sauder Manufacturing of Archbold, Ohio.

My feet move rhythmically over old pinkish-orange linoleum floors down a hallway inside the Center for Performing Arts building which houses my department within the College of Arts and Sciences. Light is falling in cheerful patterns across the faded texture of my path.