Oh No, Guadalajara Won't Do

[phantom power]

I spent five semesters (two years and a summer) at Santa Monica College. I paid $105 a credit. California residents paid $5 a credit. It was a nominal fee. The real cost was books. That's obviously changed:

Santa Monica College, a public community college in California, has been so strained by cuts to state education funding that it has had to turn away students, increase tuition, and charge higher fees for classes. The school recently announced a plan to raise prices on its most popular courses, creating an unequal, two-track cost system and raising problems for cash-strapped students who are already struggling to keep up with rising tuition rates.

Santa Monica students attempted to attend a Board of Trustees meeting yesterday but were largely denied, with only a limited number of students allowed in and requests to move to a larger venue rejected. When more students attempted to enter the meeting, about 30 were pepper sprayed by police, the Associated Press reports

People shouldn't be surprised that there's a 99% movement. School used to be basically free. Now it costs 10,000 bucks a year. And what else changed? What did people get in return?

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/4/4/2076/20887

[Newsjock]

1. K&R

For most awesome thread title of the hour.

[Danmel]

2. well i.did not think the girl could be so cruel

And i'm never going back to my old school.

[Cleita]

3. I went to SMC for two semesters in 1958/59 until I transfered to another college.

Back then it was known as SMCC or Santa Monica City College. It cost me $7.50 a semester for student union fees and the cost of my books and supplies. That was it. Both really poor kids and rich kids from Beverly Hills could attend for the same price. I have some really happy memories from that college and what is happening now, a result from the Prop. 13 fall out that makes me cry.

We had such good classes and teachers back then, because the curriculum was modeled on the undergraduate curriculum at UCLA and many of our teachers were from there.

Sorry, I have to cry.

[gateley]

4. I wish I could be outraged, but My Old School -- one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE

songs!!!! -- is going through my head and I just can't get a frown on!

William and Mary won't do, now.

[pinboy3niner]

6. W&M students/alums love it, though the reference actually is to Bard College in NY

Some of the comments at a website on song meanings ( http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/103344/ ) provide the background:

PrimoBabe
01-29-2007

This song isn't referring at all to the venerable College of William and Mary in Virginia.

Bard College, located in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, is sometimes nicknamed "the William and Mary of the north". The Wolverine is a passenger train that once ran from Boston-New York-Detroit-Chicago and stopped close to Bard College.

The song's about a marijuana drug bust. The drug references are subtle: "smoking with the boys" and oleander (a plant that doesn't grow in New York's climate unless under an ultraviolet growth light).

The bitter narrator had an equally culpable female accomplice who turned state's witness in return for leniency.

mandalex
05-12-2007

from wiki....

In its March 24, 2006 edition, Entertainment Weekly details a return trip to Bard College by Donald Fagen, in which he describes a raid by sheriff's deputies.[1] Fagen, his girlfriend, Steely Dan bandmate Walter Becker, and some 50 other students were arrested. Charges were dropped, but the harassment was the origin of the grudge alluded to in "My Old School". Fagen was reportedly so upset with the school being complicit with the arrests that he refused to attend graduation. The same article speculates that a Bard professor's wife, Rikki Ducornet, was the inspiration for "Rikki Don't Lose That Number".

Because of the reference to (the College of) William & Mary in the lyrics, although the song is about Bard College, "My Old School" has long been a favorite of W&M students and alumni.

Outlander
12-21-2007

Rated 0 1) Donald Fagen's girlfriend, Dorothy White, sends him off to school at Bard College in Annandale, NY on a commuter train called "The Wolverine" in the song. This probably was not the actual name of the train. He receives oral sex (35 sweet goodbyes)

2) Dorothy White is arrested for drug posession, set up by dealers "Chino and Daddy Gee". Her father has to bail her out from the county jail, a place mostly populated by hookers (working girls)

3) Dorothy sells out the drug users at Bard College, including Fagen, in exchange for a more lenient sentence. Fagen is arrested in a restroom smoking dope in May 1969 at 5am. The college cooperates with sherrif's deputies. Dorothy is on campus and is arrested in the sweep. Donald can't believe the "girl could be so cruel" as to sell him, Becker and their friends out.

4) Fagen denounces the school - "William and Mary won't do" - a reference to Bard as "the William and Mary of the north" for its cooperation with authorities.

5)Fagen is frustrated with his girlfriend's freewheeling lifestyle, but still loves her and offers to move with her to Mexico to avoid the drug charges. She refuses. He "hears the whistle" of court and possible jail time.

6) Fagen again denounces Bard, saying that California will fall into the sea before he returns there and does not attend his graduation.

7) Fagen says that he knew all along the dealers were no good, but Dorothy does not respond to his messages.

*The drug charges are dropped due to bad evidence, but Fagen does not return to Bard until 16 years later, to accept an honorary doctorate after apologies. He does not hear from White again, and eventually marries Bard alumnus Libby Titus.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1174152,00.html

[gateley]

7. Interesting stuff! Thanks!! nt

[kenwg]

8. Um, no...

Outlander, much of the stuff you posted is just flat wrong. Don't take my word for it; that's according to Fagen himself.

His girlfriend didn't sell out anyone. The girl who was "so cruel" was the school, Bard College. And that's who he's referring to in the line 'living like a gypsy queen...", with it's gothic architecture, and his anger at the way they allowed the feds on campus, and then didn't act to get him and his girlfriend out of jail because they weren't students (he wasn't enrolled at the time); that's actually the biggest reason for him never wanting to go back....

[GP6971]

9. Welcome to DU.

You won't get an answer. pinboy3niner passed away a number of years ago.

[mercuryblues]

10. When you can't even win an arguement

against a dead guy.

I miss Pinboy,

[GP6971]

11. LOL!

Pinboy was a hoot.

[mercuryblues]

12. IKR

He would have us in stitches over this.

[Rhiannon12866]

13. I miss him, too...

[denbot]

5. I've taken a couple of classes there.

Santa Monica is one of the top transfer schools for UCLA, USC, and the UC system in general. California's community college system became a safety valve against the high tuition of the UC and state college systems. Even top students would take lower division classes in the CC system to save money before they transferred to the UC or State system.

Thankfully we aren't taxing chevron or moblie for the oil and gas they are taking on and off California's shores. They need the money more the our kids need the education