I know, right?! 
I’ve spent the past couple of days dragging him around Ikea and Target and spending ridiculous amounts of money to furnish his “furnished” apartment (I swear Miami Commons provided us with basic kitchen stuff like dishes back in the day…or maybe I’m ready for the Knolls, too 
).
I will simply quote something I wrote about this time of year in 2013 when DC#1 started college:
The foothills contain approximately the gross national product of Tahiti’s worth of sundry plastic items purchased from local big box retailers along with bedding, laundry supplies, and an iron that I expect to still be in its box next May. Scaling toward the tree line, we can see a goodly number of electronic items as well as actual school supplies, enough batteries to power a Tesla, and some hand tools I’m pretty sure my kid does not know how to use. There also may be a Sherpa trapped under the debris. Or perhaps the dog. It’s hard to tell.
After a quick hit from the oxygen tank and the ascent to the summit, we reach the top and see what appears to be the entire Nordstrom’s menswear department.
All this, I’m told, will fit in the car. If it does, I shall return quoting one of my favorite philosophers, Bugs Bunny: “I know this defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never studied law.”
Godspeed, parents, and happy packing.
Signing off,
[DG]
Meanwhile I’ve got a 4th grader, 1st grader, and kindergartener this fall, and I had no idea it was possible to purchase that many boxes of Kleenex for classroom use
#35
LinkedIn top colleges for long-term career success
My personal favorite featuring a mime
My wife and I went to Red Rocks for a concert a few weeks ago. We had never been to Denver or the surrounding area, and spent one afternoon in Golden.
My God what a place that would be to go to college…
Huh, I didn’t realize BUGS was one of the pricier public colleges in Ohio.
I’ve been following this enrollment cliff for the MI and OH MAC schools for the past couple of years. Not to turn this into an ad for BUGS, but I have been shocked at what they’ve been doing and the results they’ve been consistently getting. Enrollment is up, retention is sky high, they’re getting higher fees, they have cash to invest in buildings and programs that kids want to be a part of. It’s even more impressive when you consider their campus sucks and their location sucks even more. They saw this whole thing coming years ago and seem to have gotten ahead of it.
Western’s enrollment seems to have finally stabilized after a nearly decade-long slide. Central Michigan is close to being on life support - their enrollment has dropped 50% and they’ve closed something like 3 dorms. Toledo and Akron aren’t too far behind. I find it interesting that there’s this talk about Toledo going to some other conference when their enrollment is down 10k students from it’s high point 6-8 years ago. More local Toledo kids who used to go to UT are leaving to go to BUGS, OU and Miami. Sucks to be them, I guess.
Back to lurking.
Just read an article on MASSLive about the enrollment cliff and the impact it’s having on small religiously based Massachusetts colleges. The cliff, cost, and increasing disinterest in a religious denomination-based education are cited as the causes.
Several have closed in the past five years and several more are on life support. Eastern Nazarene is the latest to close. The cliff is having an impact on other Massachusetts colleges as well. Bard College at Simon’s Rock has closed. Even Clark University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute are alleged to be in some trouble.
There isn’t a wind break from Bowling Green U. To Denver.
Actually, I think that BG breaks wind all the way to Denver!
OMG is College of the Slippery Rock ok???
Slippery Rock is public. The entire Pennsylvania system has been under stress with some campus consolidations, but I haven’t heard any noise about Dave Diles’s favorite scoreboard update.
Simon’s Rock was always a weird institution. It was an “early college” for kids who skipped their last two years of high school to start early. It was tempting when I got the mailings back in the day. As you might expect, it has a decent number of alums who are creative types (like the Coen brothers). But it was basically a niche institution in the middle of nowhere without a lot of endowment money to keep it going.
Man, that’s the truth. Went all the way across from Quad Cities to Denver and it took real effort to keep it above 90 mph in Nebraska.
Simon’s Rock was just outside the pretty town of Great Barrington, and close to Berkshire School in Sheffield and Stockbridge, home of the Red Lion Inn and the Norman Rockwell Museum. Just up the mountain is Ski Butternut.
Nice area in the southern Berkshires!