As the Tennessee budget crisis looms over our university like a dark rain cloud all of us have found something to gripe about. We have organized protests and written articles and letters to the editor that vehemently pose our opinions to the public.
While it is important to protest and make our opinions known about what is wrong with ETSU, it is equally important to highlight what is right with our university.
I am not known for my praises of ETSU. In fact I am one of it’s worst critics. But, I still attend this college and underneath it all I am proud to be a student of ETSU.
For starters, we have a beautiful campus. Concrete is minimal and the trees bloom right outside our classroom windows to enhance those middle-of-class daydreams.
We have wonderful people who attend this university. Walking down the sidewalks or halls you may be greeted with more than a few smiles from passerbys whom, to you, are perfect strangers.
One of the best things, hands down, about ETSU is the faculty. In all honesty, ETSU would be nothing without the professors who tirelessly guide us on our quest for higher knowledge.
Professors like Lise Cutshaw make sure we all have snacks in our 4 p.m. class and has called me more than once to see how I was holding up. She is just one of them.
Another great professor is Robert Houk who colors his lectures with entertaining political stories of his past journalistic endeavors.
Martha Milner is the faculty advisor for the East Tennessean and she constantly warns me of the wrath of the student body toward my columns, but pushes me to greater achievement.
Pat Cronin and Bobby Funk of the theatre department are also entertaining and have fun but educational classes.
And last but, not least, adjunct philosophy professor Paul Tudico.
I didn’t even like Tudico the first time I enrolled in his practical reasoning class. To tell you the truth, I have no idea why I enrolled in the class in the first place. I figured I was practical and I could reason but boy was I wrong. I couldn’t have felt more stupid.
It was the first time a professor had put me in my place in front of everyone and made me feel like I really did hold views that were irrational.
Some say I am glutton for punishment, but I enjoyed the class so much I have taken a class Tudico teaches every semester since.
Tudico and I have a love-hate relationship. I love him and hate him all at the same time but I guess that’s what happens when someone challenges your whole outlook on life. He became the topic of many late-night drunken talks about life, god and religion. As a matter of fact some of my friends were so intrigued they signed up for one of his classes the very next semester.
Now as I journey into the world those three things you don’t talk to friends about (religion, sex, politics) have an added flavor, for I find myself always thinking of Paul Tudico and just what he would say about a topic.
Tudico has turned out to be my very favorite professor. I would recommend that every student at ETSU take one of his philosophy classes before they graduate. You have no idea how much your life will change if you just let him chew you up and spit you out twice a week.
Tudico has changed my life although I would never tell him that to his face. I am too proud to admit he was right about me.
I think harder and more carefully now before I answer questions. Life’s mysteries, although no less mysterious, are becoming clearer everyday.
Thank you, Tudico, for kicking my ass and making me look like an idiot. I know I was not a great, or even good, philosophy student but you can rest assured I have learned something from Tudico. I might be a boisterous loud- mouth liberal pluralist feminist people-beater but I know how to argue my point and argue it well with the information and ideas he has given me.
Tudico challenged every part of my make-up and I had no idea just how much I needed it.
Thank you to all the great professors here at ETSU. My mind has been hungry for knowledge and you have appeased my appetite and stretched my imagination so far sometimes I almost broke. Keep up the good work.
Maybe when all this budget mess is over, the students will get together and protest for an increase in your salary.
For those of you who will say I am only brown-nosing you obviously don’t know me at all. My finals are finished (except for Tudico’s paper, wink, wink) and there is no way my grades can get better now. I just had to turn from my cynical ways and find the good things about my beloved ETSU. Sometimes when things get rough it is the things that are working right that will help you fix the things that are wrong.

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