Friday, May 1, 2009

Ye old College tribe

It's May first, which among other things is College Decision Day. As you know, it's been a long road for us. But it's official now, it looks like we are going to be an Aztec family!

You know, working in higher education makes school loyalty a very difficult business, and I have a variety of logo clothing items to prove it. There's my undergraduate university, and my graduate university, plus the various institutions where I have worked as postdoc and professor. BP has different loyalties from her family and her own alma mater. Now there's a new addition, The Boy's new university. So I have relationships with lots of schools.

To complicate matters further, some of of these have antagonistic sporting relations with the others. (BP and I have found ourselves on opposite sides of a sporting event once so far. I regret to say that her team won. Though I have to say, she gloated less than I would have.) My family are all stalwart supporters of one school, but I am inevitably divided, which means I end up on the outside a lot, on the periphery. Which seems to be my usual place in life.

Meantime, today, along with parents of almost 5000 other freshman, it's all about one thing: GO AZTECS!

9 comments:

Ann said...

What did boy decide?

IT said...

Sorry! It's SDSU. San Diego State's teams are known as the Aztecs.

California has two parallel public university systems. SDSU is one of the 23 campuses of the California State University (CSU, or CalState) system, which (under California's master education plan) has a strong focus on bachelor's and master's level degrees with relatively few doctoral programs. It includes creative and research activities but a big part of its focus is education.

This contrasts with the University of California (UC) system (10 campuses) which is the research heavy, doctoral level university system that also hosts the major professional schools (e.g., medicine, law). This system includes schools like Berkeley and UCLA.

Erp said...

Congrats. I don't think San Diego is too top heavy on the conservative Christians, but, of course I could be wrong.

Frank Remkiewicz aka “Tree” said...

IT,
Here is my run down:
Rio Hondo CC 1st yr undergrad
Whittier College 2-4 graduate
Canada College 24 units acctg/bus admin
San Jose State MPA
Virginia Tech (1 year MPA under SJSU)
Cal State Fullerton Certificate in School Business Admin (24 units)
St. Mary's College Admin Credential and Edd (almost, ABD)
Then add to that I taught at West Valley CC, Cal State Hayward and Cal.

I cheer for EVERYONE!

Cany said...

That's funny Fred!

I went to a lot of different colleges, as well. Ironically, the schools I cheer for are USC and Big Blue (Michigan). Why? I choose teams by their uniform color... LOL.

JCF said...

Does anyone else factor their parents' schools into the mix? (in terms of team loyalty)

It's relatively easy for me to keep loyalties in terms of one-per-conference (e.g., Cal in the Pac10, my mom's alma mater). But look out for interconference or (esp) bowl games! [Paradigmatically, the Rose Bowl. Cal would come #1, of course . . . but since Cal hasn't been to the Rose Bowl my ENTIRE LIFE, it's not an issue. >:-( In the typical Pac10 vs. Big10 game, I root for the Pac10 . . . unless it's Michigan, where my dad got his master's---and also where I live now! Michigan vs. Oregon is tough, because I lived in Oregon for 4 years, and it's just about my favorite place on Earth. Oh, I think I may have rooted for Penn State over USC once, when I lived in PA, and because USC is my least fave Pac10 team. Ah, decisions, decisions... ;-/]

Congrats to The Boy, IT---go Aztecs! Now, if SDSU plays my alma mater UCD, however... ;-p

Ann said...

My mother did not go to college - only boys got support in her day and there was no $$. My father when to OSU when it was Oregon Agricultural College!
We like the west coast teams - Oregon first tho. And of course the Tennessee Lady Vols!

PseudoPiskie said...

I spent a year and a half at the U of Arizona. While working afternoon turn and being bored I attended Thiel College where I never finished my thesis in Philosophy. The next college adventure was with Indiana U of Pennsylvania where I was 12 credits short of a degree in Vocational Education. In 1994 I finally earned a BMus from Westminster Choir College. I must have accumulated somewhere around 300 undergrad credits. Haven't taken a class since - longest time in my life I haven't been in school somewhere.

JCF said...

Perhaps Dahveed will tell us what he thinks about his ancestors be expropriated for a Statesonian football (non-futbol) team? ;-/

[Heh: the word verification is "scotsm". In point of fact, I have seen MY ancestors so appropriated, as well! (e.g., the North Highlands "Highlanders", whom my high school team---the Matadors (!)---sometimes played)]