Well, I finally did it. On Sunday afternoon, I finally and officially graduated from UW-Milwaukee. It was a nice day, there were tons and tons of students graduating, and it was all worth it.

Some of the highlights from the event:

• Getting to skip to the front of the 530+ business students in line, thanks to a friend in the AMA who let about seven of us in.
• U.S. Congresswoman Gweneth Moore’s gaffe. She read her notes, “committed suicide,” instead of “committed students.” Everybody’s jaw dropped.
• Some of the text messages sent to me by Tracy and JG that were just about the funniest things that I have read in ages. JG’s cousin, Michael, should be a comedian.
• The fact that they actually read, “Fuzz Martin,” as I walked.
• Walking.

I’m just happy to be done. I initially planned on attending UW-Whitewater to get my MBA, but now I think I may just return to UW-Milwaukee. It’s about $10,000 less to do the UWM program on campus than it is to do the UWW program on the internet. Plus, UWM is more widely recognized than UW-Whitewater, so it’s probably in my best interest… I’m just sick of driving.

Thank you, sincerely, to all of you who have put up with me through my BBA program and who have congratulated me on finally graduating! It was a lot of hard work, but it was a great experience and a hell of a lot of fun.

As Claude referenced in the previous post, I have finally finished my bachelors degree. Yesterday, I took my last two final exams as a college undergraduate! So, aside from walking up to the stage and picking up my diploma, I am done with UWM!

At times it was a long, hard road, but I feel like I finally accomplished something great. It is like a gigantic rock has been lifted off of my shoulders.

Congrats to everyone who is graduating and best of luck with your careers.

1. Finish Marketing “Internship” paper.
2. Finish Marketing Management paper.
3. Finish Business Ethics Paper
4. Give Marketing Management presentation
5. Take Business Ethics exam.
6. Take Management Analysis Exam.
7. GRADUATE!!!!!

At least Senioritis hasn’t affected all of my grades (actually, it hasn’t affected any).

I got this in the mail yesterday.

In my past few years at UWM, I have used UPark and have even had my own UPass. It wasn’t until I read Boots and Sabers this morning that I even would have even read UPass as Up Ass. Haha… juvenile but fun! Click through Owen’s link to see some other poorly formed URLs.

…just ordered my cap and gown. Sweeeeeeet. May 18th can’t come fast enough!

In UWM’s Lubar Hall (the Business School), there are separate study rooms for those who would like to quietly study for their classes. Unfortunately, the asshats that are in here now didn’t get the memo. I could quite seriously go in the hallway right now and enjoy a lower level of noise than the drunk-ass accounting students are emitting.

Man, I’m getting old.

From my UWM email:

Campus Safety Alert: Suspect in custody after armed robberies

One suspect is in custody and another suspect has been identified
following three armed robberies south of campus between 8 and 9 p.m. on
Monday evening, March 24. The suspect in custody, arrested less than an
hour after the first armed robbery, has confessed to being involved in
the robberies, according to UWM Police Chief Pam Hodermann.

UWM Police assisted in the case by identifying a stolen car and chasing
suspects on foot.

Additional details are online at:

http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/police/crimealerts.htm

Anyone with additional information about these incidents should call the
Milwaukee Police Department Criminal Investigation Bureau, (414) 935-7302.

UWM Police and University Relations offer information on remaining safe
at the Campus Safety Web site:

http://www4.uwm.edu/safety/

Also at the site are directions of how to sign up for the university’s
S.A.F.E. Alerts text-messaging system.

On of my “business” professors was late to class today because he was busy watching the Brett Favre retirement press conference. Pretty damn professional. We’re now five minutes into when class was supposed to start and we still haven’t gotten down to business. Sheesh!

These are a few things that I see differently now than I did when I first went to college at age 17:

(more…)

Yesterday, we all got word that registered sex offender, Eugene Nelson, is out of prison after 20 years, and now he’s attending school at UWM. The problem with the whole situation is that he, uhm, used to sexually assault college women.

Rather than tell him that he’s not allowed to attend college, taxpayers/tuition payers are paying for, well, I’ll let the news spell it out for you:

Nelson is not allowed to wander around and a police officer is with him at all times.

That’s right. Instead of saying, “no, you can’t go here. Go to an online school if you want an education.” He is getting a tax-funded police officer as an escort.

Does the ridiculousness ever cease? I’ll be contacting the school with my disgust, shortly.

Photo courtesy of a great site: FamilyWatchdog.us.

UPDATE:

From the UWM Chief of Police:

Dear students, faculty, staff and other members of the UWM campus community:

Eugene Nelson, a registered sex offender, is no longer attending classes on the UWM campus.

This afternoon, I applied for graduation from UWM! I thought the day would never come! I can’t wait for May to get here!!!

Two weeks from tomorrow, I start my final semester as an undergrad! I’m pretty excited to get this isht done ! As you can tell, I’ve been kinda laying low here in my off time. Lately, I’ve been working on my photography portfolio basically any moment that I am not at the radio station or on location. I’m trying to supplement my income with extra income from my photography portfolio. It’s not going too badly, but it could definitely be better. You get back what you put in, for the most part.

My grades are in from UWM. This semester I got one A and three B+’s. That equates to a 3.498… but perfectionist me doesn’t like that so much. Of course, the semester before I received a 3.333 (1 A, 2 B+’s, and a B-)… so this is better than that, right?

One more semester to go for my BBA and then I’ll start working on my MBA.  Wish me luck! Ack… screw it… wish me patience.

This is my last week of school. I can’t wait to be done. I promise I won’t neglect you all after Wednesday. Until then, things may be a tad sporadic around here. Talk amongst yourself.

I have my second of four finals today. I scored a 96% on the first one that I took last Wednesday. That was my easiest class, though. The next three should be a tad tougher. International Financial Management will be the death of me. It is sad that I have scored a 72% and a 68% on my two respective tests in that class, and my score was well above the class average!!! Somebody needs to learn some people and teaching skills. I’m not going to point any fingers, but it rhymes with “my professor.”

UWM had taken down a banner advertising a visit by former terrorist, Walid Shoebat. Amidst the controversy, the officials had said that the banner needed to come down because they didn’t have a signed contract (not because the Muslim Student Association wanted it taken down). Well, I forgot to post this on Wednesday, but the school administration did, in fact, allow the banner to be put back up.

And here’s the crappy cell-phone pic to prove it:

I’m impressed. From an e-mail:

Nov. 29, 2007

Statement from UW-Milwaukee Administration:

UWM Union Modifies Policy
on Speaker Security Charges

From the beginning of our planning for the Dec. 4 appearance of Walid Shoebat at the UW-Milwaukee Union, campus officials have been most concerned with the safety of students and the others who will be coming to our university to attend the event. A safety plan for the event was created by the Division of Student Affairs after reviewing the experiences of other universities where Mr. Shoebat appeared. The cost for the required additional security services was based on a fee-recovery program developed by UWM Union officials over the summer.

It has become clear, however, that the additional security expenses have been perceived by some as a means to discourage speakers from visiting the UWM campus. Simply stated, that is not the case. UWM is committed to its long-standing practice of welcoming and encouraging discussion and debate of all issues no matter how controversial.

To ensure that the UWM Union remains a place where ideas are freely exchanged, the Union will explore other methods to recover such expenses. As a result of this policy change, the Union is cancelling the additional security charges that were to have been applied to next Tuesday’s Shoebat speech sponsored by the Conservative Union and to a forum on the same day sponsored by the Muslim Student Association.

Throughout its history, UWM has kept its doors open to people expressing a myriad of perspectives. A particularly significant example was the Nov. 23, 1965, appearance of Martin Luther King, Jr. at UWM, which required extraordinary safety measures. In the following years, the university has welcomed numerous speakers who represented many perspectives. We will continue to do so in order to preserve and protect the right to free speech and, when necessary, we will take precautions to ensure the safety of all involved.

My school, UW-Milwaukee, is hosting former terrorist, Walid Shoebat, as he explains why terrorism is bad and why Muslims shouldn’t hate Jews. The Muslim Student Association is protesting the event stating, “if the UWM council doesn’t cancel the event, we will protest.” (source: 620 WTMJ) 

I’ll just say it… I actually feel threatened by the MSA’s remarks. It’s a sad state of affairs for an entire population when one hears “muslims” and “protests” and immediately thinks, “bombs.” The MSA isn’t doing anything to deminish those fears by protesting an event stating why people shouldn’t engage in terrorism.

Luckily for us, UWM will probably cave and not host the event.

…would that mean that the terrorists win?