Just when it seemed like the tension and anger directed at the administration for the past few years was starting to dissipate, last week brought on some of the biggest scandals in recent memory.

A natural history museum on campus fell through due to shoddy planning, a group that can hardly spell vandalized Mendocino Hall while President Alexander Gonzalez and the 28 California State University Board of Trustee members accepted pay increases.

When did life at Sacramento State turn into a poorly written soap opera?

It appears that my wishes to attend a college that carries itself like the educational institution it pretends to be (and charges good money for) have gone unfulfilled for yet another week.

According to a report by the Sacramento Bee last week, Gonzalez signed letters and attached a “wish list” that enabled Paul and Renee Snider to hunt for animals in Tanzania. Hunting in Tanzania is legal with the proper documents but the couple needed the letters from Gonzalez to bag certain species not covered by the standard Tanzanian hunting license.

The day the Bee’s story dropped, a group dubbed the Boston Tea Party took it upon itself to redecorate the exterior of Mendocino Hall. The graffiti has been painted over but anyone with a decent pair of eyes can still clearly read the request for Gonzalez’s resignation.

It remains to be seen if the vandalism of signs around Sacramento Hall is related to the BTP.

What was the problem with having a room full of stuffed animal carcasses on campus?

Three; yes that’s right, three, of the 84 animals that Gonzalez requested are on the World Conservation Union’s “red list.” Two more of the species initially desired in the letters were recently added to the list.

Many have attacked Gonzalez for trying to secure the exotic collection but the only thing he really did wrong was not pay closer attention to what animals he was requesting.

The proposed natural history museum would have housed scores of animals most of us would not see in our lifetimes unless we were watching the Animal Planet or shuffling past them in some crummy, disease-ridden zoo.

Despite objections from faculty, alumni and melodramatic bed-wetting liberals, a natural history museum on campus would have been greatly beneficial to the biology department and to the campus itself.

I am not suggesting that the museum would be the answer to all of Sac State’s woes but now the plan for the museum is dead. The Sniders were offering the financial backbone of the museum so it made no sense for Sac State to not press forward and build the museum.

Go ahead and get your bucket of red paint ready.

To add to the cheeriness of the past week, the California Faculty Association, a group that flies into a rabid, profanity-laced hysteria upon the mere mention of Gonzalez’s name, leaked a press release to the State Hornet which stated that the CSU Board of Trustees raise increases the Sac State President’s salary to a healthy $295,000 a year.

Let’s all take a second to think how we would spend that money if we were pulling that much annually.

It is not wild speculation on my part to say that at least half of the campus does not believe that Gonzalez has earned this raise. However, there are plenty of other executives at thriving campuses around the CSU system that have earned the raise. Should they be punished for Gonzalez’s ineptitude?

Gonzalez does not deserve to be crucified for everything that happened this past week; it is just incredibly unfortunate for him that all of it happened so close together. Don’t begrudge the man for taking a pay raise. Associated Students Inc. just did so as well.

Can anyone of us say that we would grant ourselves a raise if given the ability? The reason many of us go to college is to land a high-paying job.

There is also a rumor floating around campus that Sac State will not meet its projected enrollment this year, again. The numbers will not be released for two to three weeks and associate vice president of Public Affairs Frank Whitlatch said that no prediction was available due to the way this year’s enrollment deadlines were structured.

Whitlatch, who has spent the last 11 years at Sac State, recently accepted a similar position at Humboldt State, so that means that Gonzalez will lose one of his best spin-doctors. Whitlatch said that the decision to leave Sac State was “difficult” but he added that his family loves the Humboldt area and he looks forward to working there.

What a week to be a Hornet.

Jordan Guinn can be reached at [email protected]