Yes, Yes, Yes!

The scooter which I have been zooming on from class to class for the past week is owned by me, not one of my children or borrowed from a teenage neighbor.

It’s mine ? and it gets me from Mendocino Hall to the University Union and back in a third of the time it takes walking. A few brave (and un-selfconscious) faculty have even borrowed it to joyride in the quad, I think mostly to hear the comments of their students who seem amazed that at our advanced ages, professors can still balance on one foot.

I read the recent report about injuries and how I should dress like an NFL lineman before even considering climbing aboard, but unlike my attempt at using in-line skates for on-campus transportation several years ago, the scooter seems safer. And unlike the skates, I can step off and walk on crowded walkways any time it seems more reasonable than weaving in and out of the pack.

It’s certainly fun ? which is why it probably won’t be long before some designated adult (other than me, obviously) will suggest a ban on scooters on campus, the same way bicycles were banned many years ago.

If that happens, perhaps Campus Police will follow their current practice when it comes to bicycles. They simply look the other way unless the person riding the bicycle is doing something dangerous. (Do you think they would consider a wheelie on a scooter dangerous?)

? Although the students sitting on the Associated Students Board of Directors aren’t scooting around the University Union, they are facing something dangerous ? possible student wrath ? as they attempt today to grapple with an inherited deficit of more than $350,000, a legacy of overspending last year.

To their credit, directors have already decided upon a 25 percent cut in their own board budget (which includes conference travel) but face very hard choices about the Children’s Center, Community Gardens and the SAC site in the Library.

How they ran a deficit makes for interesting reading elsewhere in the State Hornet (See, ASI, page 1, or check StateHornet.com) but one question being discussed quietly is whether University President Donald R. Gerth will step in to bail out ASI, particularly those programs he has supported in the past. In recent years, Intercollegiate Athletics, the Women?s Center and the Multicultural Center have been helped out with their fiscal woes, but whether the Children?s Center, the Community Gardens or Services to Students with Disabilities carries the same clout is not a bet most people would take.

? Also in the area of gambling, for those faculty with significant money in the decade-old betting pool on when the President will retire, here’s some late-breaking news. The President reportedly promised a group of incoming freshmen recently that he will be present in four years to shake their hands when they graduate. (Of course, he didn’t say he would still be President, but it’s safe to say he wouldn’t be that coy, even with freshmen.)

It was heartening to hear ? even if second hand ? that the President believes this group of freshman will defy all odds and actually obtain their baccaluareates in eight semesters. Perhaps he has a secret plan to use Year Round Operation ? or more Web classes ? to cut down the 12-semester average it takes our undergraduates to complete their coursework. Whatever, let’s hope the President keeps his promises.

Michael J. Fitzgerald is a professor of Journalism and a member of the Faculty Senate. He can be reached by phone at 278-7896, by mail C/O The State Hornet, 6000 J St., Sacramento, CA, 95819 or by e-mail at [email protected].