Thumbs down to the violence that occurs in Carbondale on what seems to be a nightly basis.

I experienced this firsthand Thursday when I was on the receiving end of a right-cross thrown by some tough guy looking to pick a fight with anyone who walked by.

Unfortunately, that person was me. Here I was minding my own business, walking back home from a night on the Strip, and I got blind-sided by some

‘I’m-small-yet-feel-I-can-fight-anyone’ type. My assailant, who didn’t look old enough to buy a lottery ticket or own a razor, fled the scene (which I would like to think was because of my heated intellectual conversation where I addressed my assailant’s intelligence level and general purpose in life, or it was just plain fear, but I highly doubt both of those reasons). I suppose I will never be able to thank the young man for the beautiful shiner I came home with that night. Personally, I never realized that second-year graduate students such as myself were so intimidating, but apparently we are a lot scarier then we look.

Thumbs up to the plan for SIUC to offer nursing for fall 2009 through a joint venture with SIUE. Even though the degree at the end will say SIU-Edwardsville and not Carbondale, all the classes will be taught in Carbondale. I guess as long as our little sister Edwardsville is in the SIU family, we might as well work together before she decides to grow up, live on her own and maybe even take on a new name (Metro East U or Edwardsville State perhaps?). Until that day comes, I guess we’ll have to continue to work together and the plan to offer nursing in Carbondale is certainly a good start.

Thumbs down to the announcement that enrollment is down again. Sometimes I feel like announcements such as this are on a broken record at SIUC because they happen semester in and semester out. At least most of the losses were upperclassmen who either graduated or those who left because they couldn’t hack the rigors of college life. Either way, most who did leave probably did their part in bringing the university’s cumulative student grade point average to a measly 2.69. Even though it would be nice to have their tuition money, I’m sure the university is probably better off with most of them not coming back.

Thumbs up to the fact that pitchers and catchers report for spring training in less than three weeks. I don’t know how much longer I can stand not having baseball to watch or listen to on the radio. Look for my official baseball preview in the coming weeks that will detail how to survive the baseball season in Cardinal Country (or heaven, as some would say) if you don’t root for the Redbirds and are, say, a Sox, Little Bears or the random bandwagon Yankees or Red Sox fans roaming around town.

Thumbs up to the memory of North Carolina State women’s basketball coach, Kay Yow, who lost her struggle with breast cancer Saturday. An inspiration to many, Yow won 737 games during more than 40 years of coaching, most of which were spent at NC State. Yow battled cancer three times and saw it take her mother, as well as NC State men’s coach Jim Valvano. Throughout his struggle, Valvano often repeated the phrase, ‘Don’t ever give up, don’t ever give up.’ Yow was an inspiration to many cancer survivors and people living with cancer.

For more information on the life of coach Yow and her foundation she set up to fight cancer, visit http://www.wbca.org.

Fruth is a graduate student in

curriculum and instruction.