Flight 93

From my first semester to the last, I was a member of the Academic Review Committee at my school of the university. The committee handled student complaints about grades among other issues.

A member of the committee was the associate dean. I considered the guy at the time a friend. We got along well. He stood with me on some cases. But there were exceptions.

The first was the case of the student who lost all of her thesis in a hurricane at the Jersey shore long before Sandy. She had not met her deadline, and in those days most students did not have computers or access to any. I thought she should have been allowed time to recoup. He disagreed. I was shocked.

The next time I disagreed with him was post 9/11. A student had flunked out — of all of his courses — for not having dropped his classes by the deadline. I will not post his name, but his initials were JG, the same as his brother’s.

His argument for not receiving a full report of Fs was that he was too distraught after the loss of his brother in Shankesville, PA to get up the gumption to withdraw without failing from his classes.

God almighty! If ever there was an excuse, this was it! I voted to expunge his Fs. Give this kid a break! His brother helped drive a plane into the soil in PA to save the US Capitol. My colleague voted no as did the majority of the committee. Perhaps for political reasons. (Inside the university politics.)

My respect for my colleague took a nosedive that day. You cannot dictate nor decide how people other than you will respond in grief.

I don’t know what happened to that student. I hope he transferred and went on to become a teacher as he had planned. His sister-in-law is one of the Jersey Girls.

I don’t know what happened to Flight 93. I just hope my stupid Academic Review Committee did not crash his dreams after his brother crashed in a field in PA trying to save the US Capitol.