Message from Gage E. Paine,
Vice President for Student Affairs
Over the years I have learned many things in my career
and what I have learned has come to me in many ways and from many people.
From Ron Brown, former VPSA at UT-Austin, I learned
the following:
- no matter how bad your job is, someone else
wants it
- the number of people watching you is in direct
proportion to the stupidity of your action
- if something
goes wrong with a student's file, no matter how hard you try, it will keep getting worse
- the bigger they
are, the harder they hit.
I've learned from classes, workshops and colleagues, but mostly I've
learned from students.
After a student was stopped at DFW airport with
phony travel papers, a university ID, 2 changes of clothes and 75
UT-Austin Library books, he was deported. We put a Judicial
Affairs bar on his return
just as a matter of course - we hadn't handled the theft yet. From him
I learned to keep good records - no matter how unlikely it seems at the
time, students come back.
While investigating an accusation that a student had someone take a
math placement test for him, we became suspicious about the
correspondence course he was taking. Sure enough he sent the
non-student in to take
the final test at the testing center. I learned never
to underestimate the audacity of a student whose parents already have
plane tickets for graduation weekend.
From all the students who were perpetrators or victims, and in all of
the hazing cases I've investigated, I've learned the power of
the amazing need to belong.
Over the years I have worked with faculty to figure out ways for a blind
student to take Russian, have seen a deaf student teach a mainstream art
class, and have watched a student with severe cerebral palsy complete law
school. From these students and many more I learned
you don't
have to be able to see to understand, to be able to speak to be a good
communicator, or to hear to be able to teach.
I've learned how fragile human life is:
- how little alcohol is needed for one to die of alcohol
poisoning
- how a small miscalculation can result in death and
destruction
- how little it takes to bring joy to someone's life
- how important support from others is.
This is the heart of a presentation I gave to the SMU Lions Club in
September 1997. I had been scheduled to give a light-hearted
after-dinner speech. But that day, a little more than ten years
ago, I had spent the day responding to the suicide of a freshman student
in an SMU residence hall. Then I knew, as now, that we would never
know the reasons for our student's action. It's not for us to
know: it is only for us to do the best we can for our community in
the aftermath.
So last week reminds me to reiterate the lessons
we all have learned:
- take time to appreciate all you have
- take time to appreciate those around you
- ask for help when you need it
- give help when you can.
Thank you for all the care you share with the entire UTSA community.
Gage
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